Sunday Coffee with Ben Meiselas Ben Meiselas and MeidasTouch Network Dec 29 Written by Ben Meiselas Good Morning, Meidas Mighty. It’s my favorite time of the week—Sunday coffee. For those new to this Substack, this is when we have some coffee together and discuss the news. You never know what’s going to happen in a Sunday coffee adventure together. Will I spill some coffee on my white sweatshirt and cause a stain? Will my dogs bark and wake up my three-month-old baby girl? Will I get a stomachache from drinking coffee on an empty stomach? The possibilities are truly endless here, folks. So buckle up. Here we go. I’m leaving my house now to go to the coffee shop in my neighborhood. It’s about 0.4 miles from my house. Last year at this time, I wasn’t a coffee drinker. I was a tea drinker. It was always the same tea. My go-to was a large hot English Breakfast tea. Occasionally, I’d squeeze a little lemon in it. About three months before the election, I switched over to coffee, and I’ve been hooked ever since. Perhaps I should switch back to tea? I don’t know. Anyway, you probably didn’t come here to listen to me ponder the great philosophical questions in life like coffee or tea. Stick to the news! Ok…ok… How about that MAGA civil war? Have you heard how Rome burned as its Emperor Nero fiddled? Well, MAGA is burning as Donald Trump is playing golf. Donald Trump hasn’t even taken office yet, and his MAGA base is turning against him. He is viewed by many in MAGA this weekend as a sellout. They believe he has sold out MAGA to the “tech bros” led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who run a fake agency called “DOGE.” Musk and Vivek stated they need more immigration from India under the H-1B Visa program to fill engineering jobs for big tech companies. Meanwhile, Trump’s original MAGA base saw this as a betrayal based on Trump’s anti-immigrant stance. They wanted these jobs filled by Americans. Musk, Vivek, and tech-bro MAGA essentially responded by calling the white MAGA base a bunch of stupid idiots who are innately too dumb to do these jobs or even learn to do them. Vivek said they come from a “culture of mediocrity.” On Saturday, Trump sided with Musk and Vivek and said he “loves H-1B Visas” and uses them all the time at his properties. In truth, Trump uses other types of visas for his properties, like H-2B and J-1 visas, although he previously used H-1B visas for his now-shuttered “modeling agency.” So now, the hardcore anti-immigrant Trump voters all feel they were lied to and betrayed by Donald. MeidasTouch Editor-in-Chief Ron Filipkowski has been leading the national coverage on this issue. Great work, Ron! Ok, I should have mentioned that I arrived at the coffee shop before and am now drinking the coffee. I got a medium-sized coffee today. I always get a hot coffee, and I occasionally ask them to put two ice cubes in it so it isn’t too burning hot when I drink it. The coffee is at a good temperature now. Some of the cars on my residential street seemed to be going too fast during my walk here. I googled it, and the speed limit is 25 mph, but that feels too fast for this street. Is it worth it to go to the City Council? Chill, you have enough on your plate. Intrusive thoughts. Sorry… Back to the news… Earlier this week, we got the Gaetz House Ethics Report. The bipartisan committee found by substantial evidence that Gaetz engaged in statutory rape of a junior high school girl, engaged in illicit drug use, took improper gifts, and obstructed the congressional investigation. I don’t care what political party you’re in; this is vile, disgusting, and depraved behavior. It’s despicable that he was initially picked by Donald Trump to be Attorney General. In my opinion, Gaetz should have been charged with many crimes at the state and federal level. Also, in my opinion, Democrats need to be more vocal that most Republicans in the House and Senate supported covering up for Gaetz’s conduct. Repeat after me: The GOP is the party that supports statutory rape. In other news, MAGA Mike Johnson seems like he may lose his Speakership. Turns out, in the least shocking news ever, that the party that can’t govern…get this…can’t govern. Multiple Republican Congress Members have made statements indicating they may not support Johnson as Speaker when they are set to vote on leadership on January 3. It will be interesting what happens if there is no Speaker on January 6, and this somehow delays the counting of the electoral votes. Could you imagine if Republicans end up obstructing the certification of their own guy by not picking a Speaker in time to call Congress into session? I wouldn’t put it past them with some of these people. In personal news, my baby girl is very cute. I gotta send you some new pictures soon. I gotta get the OK from my wife to send some new ones. Also, I start teaching at USC Law next semester. I took off in the fall to be with my baby girl and wife. I love teaching. This upcoming semester, I’m teaching an undergraduate course at the law school with 100 students. Teaching always keeps me on my feet, and I learn so much from my students. Also, since I don’t practice law anymore, it’s important to me to stay connected to the legal community, and teaching lets me do that. I’ve got so much updated paperwork and training to do before the semester starts. Stop procrastinating and just do the training already. By the way, I’m walking back to the house now, and I’m about 2/3 done with the coffee. 2/3 is a pretty specific number when talking about coffee. OK, focus, Ben…THE NEWS!! Yes, yes, the news… Trump made more dumb, threatening statements, calling Canada the 51st state and talking about conquering Greenland and Panama as part of his Christmas message, which he signed off with “go to hell.” Lovely behavior from a bloviating, bumbling idiot who looks to be so deeply sick and unwell in the head. I had Canadian MP Charlie Angus as a guest on my show this week, and he tore into Trump. The President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, tore into Trump for threatening the territorial sovereignty of Panama. World leaders are accelerating their solidarity against Trump. Trump, meanwhile, boasted that Putin was open to “potentially meeting” with him after the inauguration. Wait a minute…didn’t Trump promise he would end Russia’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine the moment after the election ended? That didn’t happen… And finally, Trump completely flip-flopped on TikTok. His personal lawyer, John Sauer (future DOJ Solicitor General), filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court asking it to delay the TikTok ban set to take place on January 19 based on a bipartisan law. Why is Trump changing his position? One of his top donors, billionaire Jeffrey Yass, is a major investor in ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company. Anyway, I’m back at my house now. Time to spend some time with my daughter and wife. I’ve really enjoyed spending this time with you, having some coffee and talking about the news. Thanks for joining me, Meidas Mighty. For those who aren’t paid subscribers yet, please consider becoming one now if you can, and only if you can. Since we don’t have outside investors, increasing our paid subscriptions here on this Substack is one of the main ways we grow. So please become a paid subscriber now if you can. Thanks as always.