Morning Message from MeidasTouch

Hey everyone, it’s Ben Meiselas, co-founder of the MeidasTouch Network, with our morning message.

Here we are in the home stretch before the midterm election.

It’s been almost two years since that dark day we’d all rather not remember.

But every day since then, fighting alongside you, has been a day I cherish and a day I’m proud of: growing this community, growing independent media, and growing the MeidasTouch Network.

It’s been a team effort, and I believe this movement is stronger than ever.

The polling for the House and the Senate looks very promising, and Donald Trump’s approval is plummeting.

But now is not the time to be complacent.

Now is the time to work harder than ever to fortify this movement and the guiding principles that will bring generational change.

As I’ve been saying a lot, winning shouldn’t be about one team beating another team. It should be about the fighting for the values and principles we cherish as Americans.

We the people should make politicians answer to us, not chase egos and personalities.

Our focus should be on making sure politicians are actually responsive to us.

We all have a part to play in this fight.

Since our founding, and especially since that dark day two years ago, the MeidasTouch Network’s role has been building independent media.

We watched corporate news fail and fall, and we anticipated the kind of oligarch-driven corporate consolidation that now exists.

When I look at the latest Podscribe and YouTube numbers, the MeidasTouch Network continues to be the most-watched news programming, and the most-watched programming across all genres, in audio and YouTube podcasts.

I’m not saying that to spike the football.

What those numbers mean is that we’re getting the news out to so many people every single day.

With all the YouTube channels in the MeidasTouch Network and all the independent journalists across this sprawling network, that matters for the broader fight.

But we need other institutions too.

As a former practicing lawyer, I’ve been advocating for a pro-democracy, pro-law-and-order answer to the Federalist Society, which has become an evil force.

We need our own version to fight back and to guide lawyers from high school to undergrad to law school, to clerkships and judgeships, to top law firms, community advocacy, and public policy.

That’s a major part of what still needs to be built.

I’m proud of the work Legal AF is doing in giving a microphone to so many leaders in the legal community.

I’m honored to work with people like Katie Phang, Scott MacFarlane, Aaron Parnas, and so many others. It’s too long a list to name here, although I give them all a shout-out in the book that’s coming out: WTF America.

Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it as I’m typing this. The publication date is October 20th. It’s right around the corner. The first page is dedicated to the Meidas Mighty, and much of the book is about this community as the way out of this hell. It’s available as a hardcover, an ebook, and an audiobook.

In the book I lay out something I talk about all the time: the importance of an international democracy alliance.

Authoritarianism is an international wave. The Orbáns, the Putins, the Javier Mileis, the Bolsonaros all use the same playbook, and they coordinate.

When we only fight them in the 30 or 60 days before an election, it’s like bringing a butter knife to a nuclear fight.

So while I certainly expect a massive blue wave, bigger than I think people realize, we also have to plan for the long term.

That means generational planning, not just election cycles, and asserting enduring values and principles. It also means building independent media across countries. That’s a big focus for us.

Shout-out to MeidasCanada, and we’re working on MeidasTouch branches around the world. That’s going to be the big story of 2027. Building Meidas out accross the world.

Reporting the facts when others won’t is a big part of this work.

Take the Strait of Hormuz.

For a long time, we kept hearing that the battle there was over and that as much oil as before the war, or more, was getting out. We rebutted that in real time. I showed you satellite footage of the tankers leaving, and it was nowhere near prewar volume. Every time Iran struck a tanker, we reported it. This wasn’t being covered anywhere in corporate news, which is wild to me, because it’s critical.

Now some of that reporting is catching up to what we were saying here.

Here are the facts. The volume is far lower. But even if it were the same, it costs about $1.5 million a day for a tanker to carry crude out of the Strait of Hormuz. Captains are being paid $100,000 a month because it’s so dangerous. That adds roughly $33 a barrel in travel costs alone. The risk premium is enormous. Meanwhile, the U.S. is devoting somewhere around 30% of its deployed forces to getting ships out through the southern route near Oman. That is unsustainable, and it’s not how our military is supposed to be used.

First there’s the malice of getting into this catastrophic, unlawful war in the first place. Then there’s the incompetence of its execution. Trump doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing. There’s no tactical anything, and they fired the top generals and admirals.

I’ve been saying that even if everything resolved tomorrow, which it won’t, we wouldn’t be out of this oil crisis until 2029 or 2030. The CEO of Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, said we’ve lost 3 billion barrels of oil since the war began. The CEO of Vitol, the world’s largest independent energy trading company, says he wouldn’t be surprised by $200-a-barrel oil. That’s the head of the top independent energy trader saying $200 a barrel.

If you study what’s happening, the world is running out of tankers. The ship-to-ship transfers and the southern route through the Strait of Hormuz are not a sustainable model.

And the Ponzi-scheme fraud that is Trump makes it worse every single day.

The Energy Information Administration predicts Brent crude will average $105 a barrel in Q4.

People in Maine are waking up to heating oil costs of about $1,500 to fill their tanks, 80% more than last year. We’re seeing that all over the country.

Speaking of Maine, shout-out to Troy Jackson. What a debate he had against Susan Collins. The man can debate. Very impressive.

We have to go through the facts.

Boom, boom, boom. Fact, fact, fact.

That’s what we’re doing at the MeidasTouch Network.

You may not like every fact I report, but I’m reporting accurately what’s happening.

When we talk about the advances of Ansarallah, the Houthis, in Yemen, I’m telling you what’s happening on the map. When I tell you Saudi Arabia is getting hit, or that U.S. military bases in the region are being hit and are basically destroyed, I’m giving you the facts. I’m not trying to say anything more than “here’s what’s happening.”

I think our coverage has been very accurate because we rely on experts and bring you the best insight we can.

That’s why Justin Wolfers joined the MeidasTouch Network as chief economist.

That’s why we bring you legal analysis from Michael Popok and Harry Litman.

We want the top people giving you the information.

I had a lot on my mind this morning. I’m going to make some videos now.

I was excited to wake up and share what’s on my mind, and to let you know how proud I am to be in this movement with you.

Subscribe to this Substack, and become a paid subscriber if you can.

And get a copy of WTF America, the book I wrote with my brothers, in hardcover, ebook, or audiobook. Pre-order it today.

Thanks, everybody.

—Ben