Transcript of Thursday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben - 7/9/2026 New

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Dies ist eine bezahlte Anzeige von gofundme. Welcome to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis and this is your breaking news, the breaking news from last Tuesday while we were live, while the first day of the NATO summit was taking place. Donald Trump attacks Iran, escalation of the war ensues. The memorandum of understanding, which was already tenuous at best, was ripped to shreds. Trump strikes Iran. Iran responds against US air bases in Bahrain and Kuwait. The same thing happens on Wednesday. Trump pretty much waits until the markets close, launches the strikes. Iran responds. And here we are today on Thursday. What I've been consistently trying to warn about and discuss This is the worst possible time for Donald Trump to be doing these war games. And to me, there's never a good time to be doing it. Let me be clear, his war on Iran is unlawful and catastrophic. And Trump and genocidal maniac Netanyahu doing this together is abhorrent and unforgivable. Let's just start off with that. And so there's never a good time to escalate. Let me be very clear about the morality and ethics of it all, as it's always very important to us at the Midas Touch Network.

What I mean to also suggest is America is in a very dire economic situation right now, which you all know the global economy is, and the strategic reserves in the United States in an area called Cushing, Oklahoma, which pretty much holds those strategic reserves. Those reserves have been depleted, depleted significantly, and there's basically 19 million barrels left. From the estimated minimum operating levels, where very soon there will no longer be any safety buffer to protect the world from further losses out of the Strait of Hormuz. There is an effort to manipulate the crude market, which is different than the refinery market. That difference is called a crack split. To get more technical, it's called a 3-2-1 crack split because of the 3 barrels of crude. You have 2 that go to gasoline, 1 is diesel or jet fuel distillation as well, hence 3-2-1, 3 and then a 2-1. And that gap right now is about $65 per barrel, which is not just a historic high, but very, very, very, it's, it's exceeds all possible expectations. So the refinery market, to make this simple, is very different than the crude market. That's a crack split, as it's called.

And a big concern is that these strategic reserves are being depleted right now. And also what China's able to do if it activates what it refers to sometimes as its teapot refineries if it starts gobbling up also a lot of supply, then those strategic reserves that are sold in the US or out of the US, they go on the world market. And so one of the issues is that simply running out, simply running out. And it seems that Donald Trump is too emotional It's too unstable. That's an understatement. And there's no— there's a lot to criticize him for. He's an evil, horrible, despicable human being. He's a sexual predator, right? He was found liable separately in a criminal case for felonies. He was found civilly liable for sexual assault, which E. Jean Carroll's finally getting her money now after Donald Trump continues to appeal. Even after losing in the Supreme Court. He files appeals after losing in the Supreme Court. But, but also, set aside the fact that I just said all those things about him, which is hard to set aside, there's just also no thinking at an intelligence level. This isn't Democrat-Republican thing.

There's no real strategy taking place here because it should be obvious right now, if bombing Iran was going to make them submit They haven't submitted when you engaged in a bombing campaign that was 10 times what the bombing campaign looked like when the U.S. invaded Iraq under George W. Bush. Iran's not submitting. They're not, they're not going to give up. You know, you bombing them on their coastal cities, although the most recent bombings took place a little bit deeper inside Iran as well. One was at an airport, one was kind of in Bushehr near a nuclear power plant, although the power plant itself wasn't hit. The— all you've done is unite Iranians around the regime more than they were before. I mean, we're showing you scenes over here, and not just Iranians, the Shiite community in Iraq This image right here is Iraq today. And the past 2 days, that's Mashhad, Iran. That's actually Mashhad, Iran. That's not Iraq. That's Mashhad, Iran. There was also, um, Iraq the past 2 days. This is, I guess, the final resting place for the Ayatollah. Prior 2 days, Iraq. Prior 2 days, Iran. Tehran, Qom, than two different cities in Iraq that have big Shiite now back in Iran.

So I, I don't want to— you know, there are still these same people out there in the Trump regime, Trump sycophants, Netanyahu bootlickers and sycophants who are out there like, uh, this is Iranian propaganda and those people are astroturfed and they're just being paid to be out there. Let's just go through basic logic. You said that Iran has no money, they're bankrupt, they're broke. So now they're paying 10 to 20 million people— say it's even less, 5 million people— to show all these people are paid with the no money that they have? What you're saying doesn't make any sense at all. What's clear is— let's just use an undisputed fact— there is a massive amount of people— not to say the majority, I don't know, But there certainly is a— because I want to say what I know and what I don't know. I don't know if it's the majority of people in Iran who support the Ayatollah. My speculation is that's not the case, but it's irrelevant. What's relevant is there are millions of people, perhaps tens of millions of people, in a 90 million population country that clearly are willing to show up and support the regime and depose the United States and Netanyahu very forcefully and martyr themselves or sacrifice their lives in a battle against the United States and Netanyahu, whether that's because they support the Iranian regime or in solidarity with Arab nations, Palestinians, Lebanese, in opposition to the genocide in Gaza and Lebanon Whatever the reason, it's obvious that there is a massive population there, tens of millions of Iranians, who will give their lives in a battle to protect their civilization against the United States.

So when I, you know, I was very angry in the last episode that I did, you know, and I sometimes reflect on it because I know you also count on me to be level-headed and calm in the reporting, but sometimes I'm just like you. And especially when there's breaking news while I'm live. We're the same, you know, we're all, we're all in this together. Or of course I'm like you, you're like me, we're all, we're all in this. I'm not some, you know, corporate news reporter. I'm not some— I'm not pretending to be anything I'm not. I was really upset because it's so obvious, this escalation trap that this Trump regime falls into. And I care deeply about you, I care deeply about people across the world I care deeply about the people in Iran and in Iraq and in Lebanon and in Gaza. I care deeply about the people in Africa and in Europe. I care deeply about people all across this world and here in America, of course I do. And so when I see these tyrants, when I see the Trumps and the Netanyahus play this game of thrones and you know, engage in this behavior with the consequences of, of death.

And then I see corporate news so numb to it, and I can't be numb to it sometimes because it hurts me. I experience the pain with you. And so I was so sad as I was reporting. I'm like, why are we doing this? And now we're back into the March script of this stupid dystopian reality show that we're all non-consensual participants in. You've got Trump— this is how, this is how the United States is talking about this: we're going to slap them a bit in Iran so they understand we're not fucking around. This is what they're telling their personal stenographer Barack Revida over at Axios. He's a reporter over there. He's the guy they leak everything to in the Trump regime. We're going to slap them around. Slap the fuck out of them. That's how the United States of America is speaking. The, the vulgarity, the grotesqueness of that. And it's, you know, it's, it's— this is the worst example because it downplays it so much. But you ever remember, like, in middle school when you were, like, on a group project and then someone in your group just, like, was supposed to be prepared and they just screwed it up for you.

And they went up, they're like, did you read the book? Did you, did you study for this? Like, why, you know, we try to do everything to help you. Why, why, why, you know, you just made us all look dumb. This is obviously completely different than that, but I, I, I'm still on the U.S. team. I want our economy to do well, right? I mean, I, I don't, I don't— just because he's Trump, I don't wake up and go, let me root against the guy. I root against the guy because he roots against the country, and he fights against the country, and he fights against you. So I have to fight against that. But it's not some like, oh, I'm on this side, so I hate that side. No, I hate the side who hates me and hates you, and in a very vindictive way goes after you and goes after the world. And so I have to use whatever skills I've had over these years to try to fight it. But I want the economy to do great. I want the stock market to do great. I want you to be able to afford homes.

I want your 401k to be great. I want you to have affordability. I want you to have healthcare. If that means Trump gets credit for it, okay, okay. I once got a question from someone, I forget who it was, recently when I was doing a debate on, on the, on the channel, and they said, if Trump cured cancer, would would you be against that? No, I would applaud him for curing cancer. The problem is he defunded pediatric cancer research. So, so it's not a good example.

He's—

he, he—

you want to talk about health? He's led to more cancer outcomes. They've supported glyphosate. They did the pro-glyphosate executive order when they pretended to be against it. So I— they cut USAID and killed hundreds of thousands of people, and perhaps millions of people across the world who have starved to death or have AIDS or have other serious ailments and illnesses that they've died of because of the Trump regime. Heck, I'm not sure if you all watched the video I did this morning on a town hall in— I think it was Mike Flood's district. Did you see that? In Mike Flood's red state, in Mike Flood's district. And the people there were saying, I know people who have died because their healthcare was ripped away. That's what they were telling Mike Flood. And they couldn't go to the doctor, and so they didn't get— they didn't get the checkups that they needed. And as a result— yeah, Mike Flood's Nebraska's 1st Congressional District. Yeah, he's Nebraska's 1st Congressional District. Um, and as a result, I couldn't get the healthcare that I needed, or my friend couldn't get the healthcare that they needed, and they died as a result.

And so this is real stuff. And what, what pains me is the numbing, the numbing like Novocaine. Remember, do y'all remember last year when I had, um, like, I don't remember, I don't know if I shared it with you, but when I had like the root canals and I had to get like all the wisdom teeth pulled because I never got them as a kid. But I don't know if I told— when, when they, when they numb you, and I would constantly go to the dentist and they would do all the numbing. But in many ways, what this regime, what this Trump regime has done in the weapon of mass destruction and the news cycle has done is it's like, it's numbed. And that's the nice way of putting it because there's a lot of people who are complicit, but it's numbed where, where, where life, humanity, empathy is, is, is something that's just so not discussed. And so at all of them, all of the points, the most important things that are going on in the country and in the world are actually not being covered and are being ignored. And death just becomes, yeah, yeah, when in reality should be the biggest deal, right?

I mean, the fact that we don't talk about enough how many people are dying as a result of Trump and MAGA Republicans getting rid of their health care and getting rid of their Medicaid and saying recipients of the healthcare services are the ones committing fraud, when they're— when that's not the case at all. That's not where the fraud is coming from. Fraud in the past has been prosecuted regardless. If it's coming from anywhere, it's from the right-wing oligarchs who, who own the administrative services, who double bill and report fake patients. It's not coming from the people. Who get the Medicaid service because they have to get a medical treatment to get the treatment. It's not like they're getting paid millions of dollars that go into their bank account. They're getting treatment that they have to show, and that's not an easy fraud to come up with at an— at a scale that a human being can do. The issue is when the service providers are, are, are doing it. Anyway, I'm going on a tangent here. The point that I'm trying to make is that I think we've all become numb to some of the biggest and most important issues out there.

And when I was very upset on the last episode of falling into this escalation trap, it's so obvious to me what's happening with our strategic reserves. It's obvious to me that— so you all understand the difference though, just to be clear. There is— when you hear about the price of oil, the price of oil They're— that's talking about the crude price, right? Crude, which is Brent or WTI, and that's what right now is trading at, you know, it was $80 the other day, it went down the other day to $69. But like, remember, it was like $100 a barrel, $120 a barrel, right? That's talking about crude. Crude. Crude has to be refined. Before it becomes gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel, right, to actually be used. So the separate price is like the refining process, the refineries, right, that get the crude, they have to refine it. What's the price that the refineries are then charging for the gas products, the diesel products, and the jet fuels? The difference between that and crude is the crack splits, and that's what's $65 per barrel as a 3:2:1 crack split. And when you look at what's happening with the crude market, you can see the market manipulation taking place, especially in the early hours where you see heavy, heavy shorts heavy, heavy short bets that you can literally see happen.

That as the— so we have a graph right here. Um, not to say I agree with this guy Dario on a lot of things, but the graph doesn't— the graph doesn't really lie about what's actually happening. The prices are trying to go up to actually match the lack of supply, and when that's happening with the instability in the region, all of a sudden you get these massive shorts coming in to try to pull it down. And so you have the— and it feels artificial. And just to give you an example, in 2023 and 2024 under Biden, the kind of average of crude was far higher, $84, $85. Because the so-called market believed that that time was more unstable for the crude than it is right now. That makes no sense. You don't— it's, it's not a pro-Biden statement to say that. Just the reality of it is that's not what it was. It's obvious that what happened there was that there was gouging. That's when the real gouging took place. And in my view, the real collusion took place. I handled collusion cases as a litigator. To me, that's when the collusion was taking place.

And so Russia's invasion of Ukraine certainly created instability at the time, but it should be far more now, right? That's not even a factor right now, apparently, when you see certainly escalation of Russia attacking Kyiv and Zelensky more effectively targeting in Russia with the FP-1 long-range drones and the FP-5 Flamingos. So if anything, if that was a factor under Biden, with all of the refineries being destroyed, you would expect that to be an extra factor right now. But that's what was being used as a pretext for crude prices and those traders to inflate the price at the time. And to me, I was saying that clearly seems to be market manipulation. Then when Biden wanted to have tax policies that would more— I don't want to say that— would more fairly, uh, deal with corporations and the amount of money that they made. So they, they built in a cushion for their cushion. They built in a cushion to deal with the taxes that— by, by gouging consumers. That's what I believe was taking place. I mean, you're telling me that 2023, 2024, the oil market was that much more unstable than now? Come on, that's ridiculous.

That's ridiculous. And I mean, I think, so when someone says, well, what's a good thing about Trump? Nothing, nothing, to be honest. But it does allow us to reflect on things that maybe we weren't able to see because it's so overt and so obvious. And he goes about this in such a flagrant way that we go, oh, got it, that's how they did it. Got it, that's how they did it. Got it, that's how I did it. When a lot of it was going on you know, before, just allows us to see it better. I'll share this with you as well. This was Donald Trump aboard Air Force One, and this is the cycle that we're in. He goes to Barack— this was the exact same— like, we're in March, right? Yes, we're in July, but we're back in March. He says something horrific. I'm gonna blow the fuck out of them, or whatever. Who speaks like that?

Who speak—

who says these words? That's the United— remember what they said back then?

Remember the Hegseth?

We loiter over them and then we rain down death on their civilization. Remember, remember what Hegseth would say? I'd be like, ugh, why, why are you saying that? That's horrible. Don't— why are you doing it?

More than—

more importantly than saying it, I'm just like, why, why, why do we sound like the way, as I grew up, the terrorists used to sound? And this is like the existential feeling that I feel. And I'm gonna go, why do the Iranians sound like the way I remember, at least growing up? And I could have been living in a fantasy propagandized world, but it's something that I experienced as an adult. Why do they sound like the way I thought we once sounded? The way we once sounded. And why do we sound like at least the stereotype that I had? Of how I thought that they sounded. And again, it's perhaps based on the level of propaganda that hit, you know, that, that, that, that hit me and all of us a lot, you know. But, you know, they're out there saying and sounding and doing things that I can objectively look at, and I can say, well, this is at least the logical plan, and here's what they're saying over here, and here's the movements that they made. Here's what Trump is saying. Here's what Hegseth is saying. Here's what Rubio is saying. Um, and I could, I could assess the situation.

And, and so Trump goes from, we're gonna blow the F out of them, we're gonna slap them— what, I mean, again, who speaks like that? That, that's coming from a place of weakness and desperation. And to me, it speaks of somebody Who is losing? Doesn't speak to me what a winner is, right? Walk soft, talk soft, carry a big stick. Why? Because that's actual strength. What, what are you, what are you doing with, you know? And then, and then we go back to the cycle where then he goes, oh, they want to make a deal so badly. Iran called me. Iran called me a little bit. Hey Donald, Donald, it's Iran. It's Iran calling you, Donald. Um, and also when I go— when I talked about the numbness that we experience, like, how, how do we normalize that? We think Iran called him. What does that even mean? Iran? Yeah, Iran.

Iran.

Hey Donald, it's Mr. Iran. And that's how he talks. It's, you know, Mr. Japan, Mr. Whatever. Yeah, we, we want to do a deal, Donald, please. What does that even mean? You did a deal. It's called the MOU. The MOU was the deal. That was it. And it was a surrender document for the US because the US lost the war. It had most of the terms of Iran because the US lost. That's what that— and, and by the way, okay, you lose. Let's, you know, focus on making maybe things affordable and, you know, and deal with, deal with the deal with America. You shouldn't have done it. That's an understatement. You know, now deal with the American people. You know, have no one— no, no Americans don't want to be in this war. I mean, I know Mark Levin, Mark Levin, and you know, we need regime change. Jeremy, do we have the video of this MAGA guy? He was on, uh, Fox this morning. Let Let me find what he was saying. The MAGA guy. Let me find this guy. Um, yeah, here he is. MAGA Republican Congress member Rick Crawford. AstroTurf. Yeah, let's play that one.

Let's play that. If we see these AstroTurf crowds supporting the regime in Tehran, but I don't believe that propaganda. I think the Iranian people are supportive of, of the United States coming in and helping them to achieve liberty. And I think that's the direction we need to go.

Oh, for sure.

The Iranian people are thanking President Trump. It's all over social media. The hell are you talking about? I mean, that's what I mean. Like, you know, when I— what do you—

what do you—

what does he even mean? It's all over social media. I mean, this is what I mean, that it's the biggest idiocracy. And then that leads to real consequences. They're not thanking him. No one's thanking him for that. What are you talking about? It's not astroturf. Just stop it. We could— we should—

we—

I just want people to be smart. And again, that, that isn't me saying, oh, the Democrats need to do this. No, the Democrats need to freaking fight. And where the hell have they been in the past 24 to 48 hours? Where the hell have— I mean, even longer than that. But like, where are you? You know, go to DC, demand the War Powers Resolution, you know, do something. Duce, where the hell are they? I mean, this is— I'm not even— this isn't a political position that I'm saying. I go, what the hell is that? That's not accurate. Stop saying that they want us there. Stop. That's like— that's the mentality of a predator. They want me, they want me, they want me to— they want me to genocide them. They don't want you. Stop it. Again, I just— I don't understand how these people are just such sick human beings to say these All right, I'm going to get worked up again and angry. So let's take our first— let's take our first quick break of the show. Subscribe to the Midas Touch audio podcast. Let's take a quick break.

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DAS.

Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis. This is your breaking news. I saw someone comment, come on, Ben, do you expect the Democrats to have to respond to every time Donald Trump says something? Are they supposed to respond to every single thing? I just say, who's, who's the leader right now? I mean, who's out there and who's the leader? And I can tell you that people— we, you— were motivated and want accountability for this regime. I think you saw it in the video that I showed of Nebraska, of the people at Mike Flood's town hall. But I also know we're getting close to 100 days out to the midterms, right? And so I ask you, the person who said that— I respect that because I want to bring accountability to Trump, frankly, in a nonpartisan— I mean, I, I want— I want justice. I think he's a criminal. I think this is a criminal fascist regime. That's what I want to see happen. But let me ask you, I mean, I, I mean this sincerely, and I say this not to taunt or to mock or anything. I mean, I mean it constructively.

What is the message going into the midterms that Democrats in a unified way are saying? What's the message and how is that being communicated? Maybe I don't see it because my focus is so much on the war and international affairs and, um, you know, the day-to-day happenings of, of, of the corruption in the Trump regime. And maybe I, maybe I have a blind spot. I mean, obviously affordability, it's a major point, right? Affordability. Um, but is there, is there in a unified way this kind of message being communicated every single day? It doesn't have to be chasing Trump. It could be going on the offense, right? It could be going on, but you know, but, but every day should be some sort of unified— doesn't have to be a press conference, but some unified message going out every day with kind of defined, okay, here's the leadership and here's what the, what the message is, you know. And, and, and to me, it's two A's. It's affordability and accountability. It's affordability and accountability. It's affordability and accountability. It's affordability and accountability. Why do I keep on repeating that? Because you have to do stuff like that.

And, and I say this again as someone who is observing— I don't come from a political background. I interned on the Hill. I gave Capitol Hill tours. I could tell you about the apotheosis of George Washington when I gave Capitol tours in 2000. For 2007. So, so, you know, I don't plan on ever running for office. I don't want to be a politician. But I think what you have to do is you have to say affordability, accountability, affordability, accountability. That's what this is about. You want things to be affordable. You want this regime to be held accountable. Affordability and accountability. And then you could broaden them from there. I, I just— I'm not suggesting that Trump says something crazy. There needs to be a response to everything he says. I think that— I don't, I don't see why that's a bad thing. Sometimes I think you got to go on the offense though, and you've got to frame the discussions, and you've got to say affordability, accountability, and, and you have to really mean it. And you have to really mean it. And you have to look at the American people and you have to say to them I care about you.

And if you don't actually care about them, then don't do it. Don't, don't, don't have these positions. But you have to look at people and empathize with what they're experiencing and not try to push them 2 points to this side or 2 points to that, or move them this way or move them that way. You know, I don't think a lot of people think of themselves and go, you know what, I like a more center-left or like left-leaning. I think most people are like, I hate this criminal regime. I have progressive values. I support humanity and equality and civil rights, and I want to help marginalized communities and not punch down. I love humanity. I want peace. I don't want genocide. I think that's where most people— I want health. I want health for, for not just me, for my family, for my neighbors, for my community, for my city, state, country, world. And, and I think you have to speak to people at a very personal level. Con artists, frauds like Donald Trump, are able to see the vulnerabilities in people because they prey on it. They're predators. They prey on it. And I just tend to think that one of the issues with the opposition right now is—

I don't—

is I just think that— I think it's So focused on a political battle when this is a fight for humanity and a fight for peace and a fight against genocide and a fight, uh, for equal rights and a fight for loving our fellow human beings and protecting immigrant rights and being against fascism. When I, when I speak to people, that's where overwhelmingly I think that's an 80/20 issue. And I think that that needs to be communicated and harnessed by anyone. And you have to do it. You can't just say it. And again, what I said there, I don't think I, I even reflected, oh, this is, uh, you know, political this, political that.

I, I—

let's be human beings and let's care about each other. And let's fight for each other. Because I think there are so many people who just distrust this whole system, and rightfully so, that continues to harm them and put them in precarious situations. So speak to them, fight for them. I'll stop preaching. Going back to Air Force One, here's where we were at, where Donald Trump is like— oh, by the way, he was on the old Air Force One and then he moved to the Qatari Air Force One. And the White House lied, like, oh, we did it because we wanted to show all of our troops at the Royal Air Base. They were like, please, sir, please, sir, we really want to see the Qatari Air Force One, sir. Can we see it, Donald? So we had to show it to them first. That's why when we were in Turkey, we brought in the old Air Force One. The issue is, is that the old Air Force One is equipped with all of the defensive systems that the new one doesn't have. The new one has some of the installations, but it doesn't have what's needed.

It's obvious that Secret Service and others told Trump, you're right there by the border of Iran, okay? You're right there. You gotta fly in the— especially if you're— while you're launching military strikes against Iran, you gotta take the old Air Force One. And the Trump regime lies about that too. Like, why lie about that? Why?

Why?

Every—

everything is a lie. Everything is like— by the way, did you see, you know, Donald Trump refilled some of these other fountains? And do you see that they're brown now? You got the green reflecting pool, and then you've got the brown, like, fountain and the brown fountains. I think Aaron Parnas from the Midas Touch Network and from his own Parnas Media company was the first to post that, get that video out there. Well, um, so here was Donald Trump talking about— they're calling, they want to make a deal so badly, they're begging me, please, sir, make a deal, make a deal. Here, play this clip.

We have many ways we can win, but we've already won militarily. They have very little, they have very little left, and they want to make a deal so badly. They called a little while ago, they want to make a deal so badly. I just don't know if they're worthy of making it. I don't know that they're going to honor honored the deal. That's the problem.

And of course, it's always projection. He's never honored a deal in his life. By the way, if you read The Art of the Deal, which I don't think you should read, you'll see that he says he doesn't believe a deal is ever final. He always believes it is a way to basically take advantage of the other side's good faith and push for more once you do a deal, because most people view deals you keep your word. Trump's never felt that way his whole life. He's always been breaching agreements, not doing deals. It's why all of his things are always like frameworks or oral arrangements. He doesn't do deals. Then when he does do it, he rips it apart. He rips it apart. He can't keep a deal. So he's talking about himself there. Uh, we beat him militarily. We beat him. No, we didn't.

We didn't.

We didn't beat him militarily.

Stop?

Like, we could be objective and say we certainly hit a lot of their military targets, we certainly hit a lot of their infrastructure. The Trump regime committed a lot of war crimes, slaughtered 168 little girls in Manama and frankly thousands of other innocent people in Iran. And they also targeted IRGC. Yes, there were naval ships that were hit also, unarmed naval ships. We've We shouldn't forget early on when a United States submarine killed all of the Iranian Navy people who were marching in India. Remember that? And as part of their arrival in India, they had to put down their weapons. So the Iranian naval ship was unarmed, and then the submarine from the United States just killed all of those people and then let the people drown. And I think it was like a rescue ship from like Bangladesh had to come in and, and, and save them or something. And that's— it didn't really say many, but like the US just like watched as everybody drowned, which again is a war crime. All these war crimes, uh, that are, that are being committed. But obviously Iran still has lots of ballistic missiles. It still has its fast boats, which it utilizes to control the Strait of Hormuz.

Um, they certainly are able to mobilize a lot of people. And we, we didn't militarily defeat him. It just, it just, these, these lies are just— it also, I guess, for our propaganda media here, they could play that soundbite, you know. And you saw on Fox, Maria Bartiromo, they really care. Yeah, the Iranians love us. They love us.

Wow.

Yeah, they love us. I mean, you know, I guess the brain rot of Fox viewers you know, they like that. I don't, I don't know. But Iran knows that's not true. So how are you— like, what's your strategy here with them? There is none. What do you— like, I always try to think about the problems. Like, what are you trying to achieve here? What— when, when you sit in the Situation Room, how do you assess the situation and what are you trying to solve for? Like, the lesson that you've gleaned out of all of this is that by bombing Iranian coastal cities, they're going to say, please, Donald and Bibi, come in here and take us over. Please, we submit, we give up. What would you like? Oh, would you like to control the Strait of Hormuz? You think that's the— like, from all of this, that's your lesson on July 7th, 8th, and 9th, is that, oh, that's what's really working? Right? And, and to me, that's fundamentally some of the most disturbing stuff right here, that you have the least qualified, most incompetent, idiotic people who are making the biggest decisions that impact all of our lives in this situation.

Because there's— that, that— how could— I don't have to be an intelligence officer with 40 years of experience to make the assessment that that that's not the right answer to all of this. The, the, the right answer with all of the issues is actually to follow the Memorandum of Understanding, and it is to allow Iran to have some form of symbolic victory over the Strait of Hormuz because the U.S. lost the war. To work with Oman to try to keep the Iran victory symbolic so it doesn't really cause huge financial issues for ships that want to leave the Strait of Hormuz. Maybe a nominal optional fee that gets paid à la some other straits that we see. But try to keep it as symbolic so that, you know, lean on international law and say, well, we understand that you're claiming this is kind of your area given its proximity to your land, so you're saying it's not international waters. All right, but let's come up with some rational compromise over there. You, you lean on the other Arab nations to get involved with Iran. In order— which is what the MOU says also, um, to try to provide for a safe passage.

And then that's it. I mean, you then unfreeze the sanctions that you said you were going to unfreeze for Iran, because that's in the MOU. The $300 billion that you promised them is a difficult one. That's a lot of money. And you can— there's no time limit as I see it on that. So you can basically say, ah, well will help work to over time create investments with these Arab nations if, if that's normalized. And that's the path, you know, that's the path that, that will— to me, that's the best option. I think that another option, which I'm— let me be very clear, I am very against I think it would be— I'm not suggesting that this should take place. I'm just saying that it's obvious that the airstrikes don't work as a tool of submission. So if you were going to escalate in a way to try to achieve a different result, you would have to do a different thing, and you would have to do a ground invasion, and you would have to commit hundreds of thousands of Amer— I don't want this to happen, okay? I don't want this to happen, but you would have to commit hundreds of thousands of American troops for a ground invasion, and it would likely result in kind of what we see in Russia invading Ukraine.

You'd probably have about 35,000 Americans dying each month. You'll probably have 50,000 to 75,000, maybe more Iranians dying each month. It'll probably remain a stalemate for many years, and when you look back at it, you'll probably have about a million. Look at the Iran-Iraq War. How many deaths were in the Iran-Iraq War, by the way, where the U.S. moved a tanker into the Strait of Hormuz and then blew up Iranian Flight 655, and we killed 290 people on a commercial plane and then didn't take accountability for it. But Jeremy, find out the amount of people who were killed in the Iran-Iraq War alone. I, I remember just from past studying, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a huge number. But you would have a million casualties But if you are saying they're an existential threat and they're about to strike with a nuclear weapon, and that's what you say, you should talk to the American man. I don't want that to happen at all. Yeah, it's about a million people in the Iran-Iraq War. So that's right around where I thought, you know, this, this would, this would be. I think this would be a horrible solution.

I don't, do not want that. But it's obvious an air campaign isn't going to do it.

The—

a ground invasion would lead to mass casualties, um, should never happen. The deal is the only solution now.

So—

and we should never— let me be also clear, we should never have been involved in this catastrophic war at all, period, full stop, with genocidal maniac Netanyahu. We should never have been involved at all. But doing the coastal cities bombing and thinking that the outcome is Iran's going to go, Donald, you know what, we're going to reconsider our position. MB Golabaf here, Donald. I mean, dude, MB Golabaf, PhD, he fought with the IRGC before rising up the ranks as the top civilian politician right now in Iran. Dude's had his He's been— he's had buildings on multiple occasions blown up when he was inside. This guy has gotten pulled out of rubble unconscious, okay? And he's— he fought in the Iran-Iraq War, okay? This guy is not, you know, Donald. You know what, after we saw those little teeny tiny crowds for the Ayatollah, and now you're bombing all those AstroTurf crowds. I'm being sarcastic. And now you're bombing Sirik and Keshem again. You know what, Donald? We're going to reconsider, and we're going to do— you want the Strait? What do you want? You want to run us? You want to rule us? Okay, Donald, we'll reconsider.

No, no. And go back to what I said at the beginning.

This is—

they know in Iran that the U.S. strategic reserves are being depleted right now. Iran's lookout is, we control the Strait of Hormuz, we will knock out ships that try to use the U.S. southern route near Oman, we'll keep on doing that, the U.S. won't be able to replenish the strategic reserves, the U.S. is slow walking or fast walking itself into catastrophe. And it's so obvious that that's what's happening. They see what's happening. All right, Jeremy, do we have one more break of the show that we got to take right now? Because if we do, let's take our last quick break of the show. We'll be right back. A lot more to discuss. Take our last break.

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Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis, and this is your breaking news Someone in the comments wrote to me, Ben, checking in with you. Make sure that you are taking care of your emotional health. You seem like you are healthy. The information you are dealing with is heavy. Take care. No, I'm doing great. And I got to spend a lot of time with my daughter last night, which I think is what's also kind of calmed me and put a lot in, you know, put a lot in perspective. But, you know, I don't, I don't, I guess this is my job now, right? I quit being a litigator, so, and I'm no longer a— no longer I'm a lawyer, like a day-to-day lawyer. I teach at USC in the spring, so I guess this is a job technically, but I don't view it as a job at all. I don't go like, what do you do? This is my job, you know. I view this as like a— like life. It's like, this is what I gotta do, you know? I view it like, you know, eating, breathing, sleeping, being with my family, going on here and talking with you and spending this time with you more than like, oh, it's like my job.

Oh, it's not a game. This isn't a game. I mean, this stuff hits and it is kind of deep. And that's why I was, you know, on Tuesday when it's like we got back into this thing, You know, it reminded me of the start of how Midas Touch was founded. Even when I think about, like, right when back in 2020 in COVID, when Trump said, like, a miracle, it's all going to go away, the curve is going to be bent, it's not going to come here, maybe 3 cases max, we're good, we're good. And it's like, to me, how— if that's not a disqualifying thing that you said like a miracle it's going to go away and the cases, there may be 2 or 3 cases max, right? I mean, that, that just, that just is like when Donald Trump said at the beginning of this catastrophic war, he literally said, right, it's just going to be a day or two, it's going to be a few days, they're going to submit like a miracle, it's going to be great, they, they want it, they want this, they're going to want me to run them and it's going to, and it's all going to it's all going to be fine, and they want to make a deal, and it's amazing.

And, you know, and, and you see him doing— you know, it's, it's different, but it's a version of when he was like, inject yourself with bleach. Remember, he's like, I know more about this than anybody, inject yourself with bleach. You know, we're dealing with issues of war and peace, and perhaps not global pandemics, but the parallels, you know, are so close that it's, you know, it's, it's, it's him doing everything you shouldn't do. And then it's so obvious to me that we shouldn't be doing these things. And again, not as, not as a partisan political person, just as a, like, as someone who studies this and who can see and who's been in the room with people like this, as you know, you know, in, in my past life as a litigator, you know, and just seeing, you know, and saying like, what Why are you doing— like, come on, man. And again, you then get into these kind of, uh, pretzel moral thoughts because it's like, I'm not rooting for— I don't want to root for him. I want to root for America. I want July 4th to be great. I want the fireworks show to be amazing.

I want the reflecting pool to look good. Although if I had a list of priorities, reflecting pool looking good probably doesn't make the top 1 million. Although I'd like to see it look good, I don't want to mock the ref— I don't want it to look stupid. I don't want us to look dumb on an international stage. I, I, you know, despite me despising Trump, I would like for any President of the United States to look the way Prime Minister Carney does of Canada, right? I, you know, if, if you went on the international stage and you behaved with dignity and competence, and you did great work. And then you came back, and then you did the right thing. And, you know, when you signed the housing affordability bill that was done on a bipartisan basis, right, by Democrats and Republicans. And we, you know, I mean, I mean, in, you know, even when you think about these so-called Trump accounts he made it weird. And, and it, by the way, it could have been something that potentially was a, was a good thing, but he also then had a— he had to make it like a weird corrupt grifty thing that didn't have to be.

And I guess, say it again, I'm not a— I'm not an apologist, but just think about it. It could have been an, a potential investment account for children like a 401k that wouldn't be called Trump. It could be nonpartisan. I heard some Democrats talking about a plan you know, like that, you know, like that before. Um, perhaps it could have been articulated to the public in a transparent way what types of stocks are held, you know, in, in these, in these accounts. Um, but what ultimately kind of happened is he called it the Trump account, then he brought over the right-wing oligarchs, he made it so that they could take deductions by putting money into them, and then they would show up to the White House and he would pump up their stock, and their stocks would go up. And then it's like they buy these ETFs, these exchange-traded funds of certain types of companies, and doesn't really have transparency over why those companies versus, you know, maybe, you know, more American companies that have been around for a long time. I, you know, like, to me, there's, there's there, there's ways to try to figure out bipartisan solutions to things.

And, you know, when, when, um, when, when, when Melania Trump is out there, you know, talking about, uh, you know, for, for helping foster children, we all— that's a, that's a noble cause, but her focus is on the Trump accounts. With foster children, but there are kind of deeper, more systemic issues about our foster care system that probably need to be addressed. And Republicans are defunding huge amounts of money that could be going to actually addressing the system. And so where I say, you know, you, you look at all of these things as a reporter, and I'm going back to to Time T-Money's, to Time T-Money's questions, is when you have a fascist regime in power that makes the worst decisions, both in terms of its maliciousness and in its incompetence combined, it's lethal and it's deadly. And hence the opposition is to the threat that it poses to all of us It doesn't make it so you're like, come on, man, just don't do that. Just follow the MOU. Let's help the American people. Sign the affordability bill. Truly try to reduce healthcare prices. Stop, stop claiming that you reduced them 800%. You didn't really.

If, you know, let's, let's have— people are really suffering right now. Stop. Let's figure out solutions to help people. And then every day to see some psychopath there in the Oval Office who's literally a psychotic human who, who constantly inflicts pain on all of you and on this country and the world. That's awesome time, you know. But that's why we fight together. That's why we unite together. That's why we stand up together, you know. Then I saw somebody in the comments also post, uh, something as well. That's crazy how friendly Iran and Iraq are now after killing half a million of each other's people, was another comment that I got in one of the chats. Well, that's why, you know, this kind of deep historical knowledge is important, and it's important to know. And Trump doesn't understand the difference between Shiites and Sunnis and the dynamic that exists, and Kurds and the Christian communities that live in these countries. And it is important that we are well-versed and understand what's— like, knowledge is really important. When we talk about, you know, while we're having energy crises, while Donald Trump's out there destroying wind and solar and renewables, while China's cleaning our clock by investing in these things which are good for jobs and business and important for energy crisis to deal with as well.

And then, you know, Trump, oh, we need coal, beautiful, beautiful coal, right? It's the beautiful, beautiful coal, paint the reflecting pool blue. Oh, they in Iran, they're begging for us to come back, they're begging for a deal. It's all part of this perverted ignorance, maliciousness turd all in one. And, and, and that's, that's just— we're so much better than that. I said we— I hope we are as a country, that we're so much— why have we reduced ourselves to that turd and to that shit? When there's so much greatness that could be achieved if we cared about science and each other and love and humanity and compassion. And so, yeah, it's important to know the, the Sunni-Shiite dynamic and how the U.S. propped up Saddam Hussein, propped up Iraq, and then invaded Iraq after propping it up.

And we could have—

we should learn the history about how the United States blew up Iran's Flight, um, 655 and killed 290 Iranians aboard a commercial jet and never apologized, never did anything, never accepted responsibility. He gave the guy who blew him up an award, an award for heroism in combat. He blew up a commercial plane and we gave the guy an award for, you know, for it. And then you wonder why Iran feels certain ways about about this country. We need to learn our history and the dynamics of why it is significant that the Ayatollah's funeral in Iraq was so big. Because one of the things that Iran also wants to be able to show— and this is an important thing that, that, that, that Trump needs to understand, that anybody needs to understand, is that any regime change plan in Iran, which should never even be considered, you're also dealing with Iraq because the Ayatollah is the equivalent of their Pope for the Shiite community, not just in Iran but in Iraq. So when you see all those millions of people not just on the streets in Iran But in Iraq, any actual effort of so-called regime change necessarily means the entire Shiite community in the region.

It means the Houthis in Yemen. It means the Shiite community and all the surrounding Arab nations as well, who would be united in that fight for their way of life and for their leadership and for their civil— that is. And then you can go back to World War II and before with redrawing of maps and all of these things that, that led to a, a lot of, a lot of these issues, um, and horrific issues. But it's important that we remain knowledgeable and focused on what's going on. And so You know, when I see Donald Trump's behavior at NATO, when I see him, you know, sitting next to Zelensky and calling him President Putin— and it's not just that, it's this, it's this ignorant, psychotic, malicious monster over there who's representing us. So sometimes I personally, I get angry, you know. I mean, I'm like Why? Why? How is anybody— how does anybody think that this is a good way to represent us? Here, play this clip. Uh, and he doesn't, he doesn't, of course. But this—

you—

but it's humiliating as, as a proud patriot, patriotic person. It is humiliating. Here, play him talking about President Putin while pointing to Zelensky. Let's play it.

You have a question for President Putin? Do you have a question for President Putin? Not so much.

Oh, then he said that I would be the greatest communist like Lenin. Like Lenin. I'd be the great communist like Lenin. Here, play this clip. Do we got that clip or no?

I would be the greatest communist in history. I'd be right up there with Lenin. I'd be, I'd be as good as anybody. You've got free rent.

By the way, that is how you ran your campaign. Electricity bills will be cut in half. This will be this, this. I'll give you this, I'll give you that, I'll give you that, I'll give you that, I'll give you that, I'll give you that. Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie. Then Trump says, uh, All right, ask a question to Putin.

Huh?

Ask a question to Putin. Okay, he's not there. Pretend I'm Putin. I'll answer as if I'm Putin. You're at NATO pretending to be Putin because you called Zelensky Putin, so now you need to cover that up by your way to deal with that situation where you called Zelensky Putin. Is to now pretend that that's what you intended to do. So now you want to roleplay as Putin, as though that now makes it a bit— oh, he was roleplaying, guys, guys. I see what he did there. He was doing some improv at NATO, and he said, scene, I'm Putin, everybody. Ask me questions. And scene. Because that's normal.

That's what he does.

Here, play this clip of him. Last year you called Russia a paper tiger, referring that they're not doing—

who did I call?

I'm from Telegraph UA, Ukrainian media.

Uh, no, give us a question, not for Zelensky. Give us a question for Putin. Why is it a good hard question?

When will he end this war?

That's a good question. I don't think I've ever answered that question. I've been asking that question.

Mr.

President, what's the status of a drug deal between the United States and Ukraine?

What's the status?

By the way, I will tell you, though, he's going to tell you that he wants it ended as soon as he can end it. He wants it ended. He wants to end it soon. And I ask him, and we talk about it. I talk to him a lot. I talk to him a little bit less, but the relationship is very good. But I talk to President Putin a lot. He wants to end the war. Mr. President, a lot of people don't believe that.

Doesn't he want the status quo? What are President Putin's conditions for ending the war? Do you know what they are?

Well, they were certain conditions that were a little bit different. I think they're changing. I think they're probably getting a little bit better toward some of the things that you'd like.

Yeah, I mean, as I said, you can't normalize that. It's not just enough to say, oh well, he was pretending he was Putin. Oh, Donald Trump, he's crazy, he's a crazy guy. I, I It's really, it's really deeper. It's really existential, and it's really about our dignity. It's about our dignity, about the, the, the walking vomit that it, you know, that struts around these this country and internet and, and, and just makes all of us look horrible. I don't know how anybody can see that. You know, I, you know, I often see these, you know, CEOs and da da da da da who talk about this like, like, like this is, like this is normal. I, I just, you know, I just don't get it. My dogs don't get it, but they didn't bark for most of this episode, so That's good, that's good. All right, look, I have the show with the brothers tonight. Everybody gonna watch the show with me and my brothers at 5 Pacific, 8 Eastern. Obviously a focus on different things there, um, and you'll get the take of me and my brother. So I hope I see you tonight there.

Um, I just, I just did a— I, I was very, very angry on Tuesday, right? I'm still angry today at everything this regime is, is, is doing, but I think for my blood pressure, keep it at this level today. USA, USA. And, and we'll keep on fighting every day. In all seriousness though, I appreciate you. I appreciate your love. I love this community. We're gonna keep, uh, fighting together every day. We're gonna get through this together, uh, and the key word is together. Keep on fighting. Stay in there. I love you. I appreciate you. I'm grateful for you, and I'll see you next time. And subscribe to the Midas Touch audio podcast as well. Have a good one, everybody. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

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