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The Daily Beans
A Coequal Branch(feat. Rep. Mike Levin)
00:49:50
Thursday, May 8th, 2025 Today, Republican Jefferson Griffin has conceded the North Carolina Supreme Court race to Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs; a second US Navy jet has been lost at sea under the watchful eye of Pete Kegstand; the Trump administration has ordered the intelligence community to amp up spying on Greenland; Salt Lake City and Boise have adopted official pride flags in response to state laws banning them; a US appeals court allows Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk to be transferred to Vermont to challenge her immigration detention; lawyers have asked for a restraining order to stop the removal of migrants to Libya; the Abrego Garcia case is delayed again - this time because Trump is invoking privilege over discovery; a woman says a rent a cop at a hotel in Boston confronted her in the bathroom and demanded she prove her gender; and Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
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- [00:00]
Allison Gill
MSW Media. Hello, and welcome to the Daily beans for Thursday, May 8, 2020. 25. Today, Republican Jefferson Griffin has conceded the North Carolina Supreme Court race to Democratic incumbent Alison Riggs. A second US Navy jet has been lost at sea under the watchful eye of Pete Keg stand. The Trump administration has ordered the intelligence community to amp up its spying on Greenland. Salt Lake City and Boise have adopted official pride flags in response to state laws banning them. A U.S. court of Appeals has allowed Tufts University student Rumesa Ozturk to be transferred to Vermont to challenge her immigration detention. Lawyers have asked for a restraining order to stop the removal of migrants to Libya. The Abrego Garcia case is delayed again, this time because Trump is invoking privilege over discovery. And a woman says a rent. A cop at a hotel in Boston confronted her in the bathroom and demanded she prove her gender. I'm Allison Gill.
- [01:17]
Dana Goldberg
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
- [01:23]
Allison Gill
Cops breaking into bathrooms, making you prove.
- [01:25]
Dana Goldberg
Your job and not surprising. We'll talk about this. Yep, we will talk about this. And I've said this over and over. My dear friends who are trans have said this over and over. Cis people are going to be attacked in numbers way higher because people just assume if you don't conform to society's definition of femininity or masculinity, they're going to start questioning your sex. So gross is not going to end here. And I'm a lot of love for this lesbian couple that went through this very traumatic experience.
- [01:55]
Allison Gill
I know, so traumatic. And it's just. I mean, you know, you and I could do a whole hour on that shit.
- [02:01]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, yeah.
- [02:02]
Allison Gill
And later in the show, Dana, I'm going to be talking to Congressman Mike levin from California. 49th. Yeah. He's fantastic. So we're going to have a great conversation. It's a relatively good news day.
- [02:13]
Dana Goldberg
I know we got over the taint, and we're like, all right, we're moving forward, not back.
- [02:17]
Allison Gill
Yes, yes. But not toward the perineum. No, not toward the. You know what? Never mind. We're just not going to skip that.
- [02:24]
Dana Goldberg
Keep on moving.
- [02:25]
Allison Gill
We're not going to get into anatomy today. Black smoke, no pope so far. Coming from the conclave, which started May 7 on Wednesday.
- [02:34]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, my God. I had my gig in Dallas last weekend for diffa, which is design and fashion fighting aids. Raised a ton of money. But the first time I sold a live auction item and I said sold, I didn't know all of these, like, smoke machines were in the room, and they all blew out white smoke and I was like, holy shit, we have a new pie. Half of the room lost it. The other half is probably Jewish, but, yeah, lost it.
- [03:01]
Allison Gill
That's incredible. Yeah, good joke.
- [03:03]
Dana Goldberg
Thank you.
- [03:04]
Allison Gill
I listened to the Bozberg hearing today. We're going to go over this on the Unjustified podcast. This is one of the Alien Enemies act cases. The plaintiffs are trying to certify a Class A Seacoat class. Like people who need due process that are already at Seacoat because all the other habeas petitions being filed right now are about people who are detained in the United States trying to prevent them from being sent to El Salvador. These are the folks that were sent there by a virtue of completely defying a court order from Judge Boasberg to turn the planes around. Also, check this out. A couple of people. Did you hear that, you know, Trump's first appearance at the Kennedy center was going to be to go watch Les Mis?
- [03:42]
Dana Goldberg
No.
- [03:43]
Allison Gill
Okay. So first of all, it's not lost on me, the irony there, nor, nor, nor me, but some of the cast members of Les Mis are boycotting.
- [03:52]
Dana Goldberg
They're amazing.
- [03:53]
Allison Gill
They're not going to turn up and we're going to cover that more in depth tomorrow.
- [03:56]
Dana Goldberg
But historically, artists just don't like fascists. I don't know if you all.
- [04:00]
Allison Gill
Weird.
- [04:00]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, right.
- [04:02]
Allison Gill
I mean, all of the people who, who have been boycotting Kennedy center since he took over the board. But hats off to these members of the Les Mis cast.
- [04:09]
Dana Goldberg
Definitely.
- [04:10]
Allison Gill
All right, we have a lot of news to get to today. And again, it's mostly good, but there is some terrible news. But it's mostly, I mean, mostly about these, this poor couple.
- [04:19]
Dana Goldberg
This is mostly dead.
- [04:21]
Allison Gill
That's only mostly dead. To blave, to bluff. So he probably owes you money. You've lost in poker. We could do the whole movie probably between two of us. Yeah. But that, you know, is a brief story, but it's, it's horrifying. But there is some really good news today, so let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up from CNN, another FA18 Super Hornet fighter jet from the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier has been lost at sea. Fell into the drink, into the Red Sea. This is the second jet lost from the carrier in just over a week, according to five people familiar. It's not entirely clear what happened yet as the investigation is ongoing, but two of the people said there some kind of arrestment failure as the jet was trying to land on the carrier and the pilot and the weapons system officer had to eject. So Nobody was in the plane when it went overboard. They were recovered by a rescue helicopter. They're both alive but suffered minor injuries. The jet crashed into the sea and has not been recovered, according to two of the people familiar with the incident. Separately, the Iran backed Houthi rebel group took a shot at the USS Truman on Tuesday, according to four people. Despite Trump announcing a couple hours earlier that there was a ceasefire with the group, it's not clear whether the two incidents are related. A fucking clown show. Just top to bottom. We must look so fucking dumb, Trump. We beat the Houthis. We beat them using our signal chat powers. What was that? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my fucking God. I can't. I'm so sad for my Navy.
- [05:56]
Dana Goldberg
I know we make jokes, but also our country and our military is in danger. I mean, we know. This next story is what we touched upon earlier. This is from CBS News. The woman says security guard at Liberty Hotel in Boston confronted her in the bathroom, asking her to prove her gender. Okay, so a couple, it was a lesbian couple, said that they were embarrassed and offended after they were ordered to leave a high end hotel in Boston over the weekend. The women said a security guard at the Liberty Hotel challenged their use of a bathroom. Remember, this is in Massachusetts, by the way.
- [06:29]
Allison Gill
Boston.
- [06:30]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah. Ansley Baker and her girlfriend Liz Victor went to a Kentucky Derby party at the hotel on Saturday. The couple, who are both CIS women, said their afternoon ended when the hotel security searched the women's rescue, banged on the door, by the way, and allegedly asked them to show their identification to prove their sex. And this is what Baker said. It's just humiliating. Overall, the couple said that they were in the women's lobby bathroom when a male security guard came in and started banging on the stall door. Baker said that she was in one of the stalls while Victor waited for her near the sinks. Now, and I quote, all of a sudden there was banging on the door. That's what Baker said. I pulled my shorts up. I hadn't even tied them. One of the security guards was there telling me to get out of the bathroom, that I was a man in the woman's bathroom. I said, I'm a woman now. On Tuesday morning, the Liberty Hotel said it has finished an investigation into the incident and, quote, the security officer is being suspended from their position. It said all staff are being retrained on inclusive practices and guest interact protocols. The hotel, by the way, is also making a donation to a local LGBTQ plus organization. I, I, yeah, it's not enough. It's not enough. Suspended yeah, fire. How about fired? How about fired?
- [07:49]
Allison Gill
And don't throw money at the community if you're not going to fire that person. Like, I don't know, it's just insulting all around. Dude should be fired. Next up in what the. This is from the Wall Street Journal. The US Is stepping up its intelligence gathering efforts in Greenland.
- [08:06]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, boy.
- [08:07]
Allison Gill
Drawing America's spying apparatus into Trump's campaign to take over the island. According to two people familiar. Several high ranking officials under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard issued a quote collection emphasis message to intelligence agency heads last week. They were directed to learn more about Greenland's independence movement and attitudes on American resource extraction on the island. The classified message asked agencies whose tools include surveillance, satellites, communications intercept and spies on the ground to identify people in Greenland and Denmark who support US Objectives for the island. This is our national security priority right now. This, this with India and Pakistan going at it, losing jets off the sides of boats, signal chats, Houthis firing at U. S. Ships, Gaza, Ukraine, and we're diverting resources to spy on Greenland. This is the stupidest. I think Trump heard walruses have giant schlongs and he's mad about it and he wants Rick Grinnell to get to the bottom of it.
- [09:08]
Dana Goldberg
Well, I don't know if Rick Cornell is actually a top, so there might be a problem there. Pretty sure Rick Canel is also a bottom. This is some good news from the Times. A federal judge on Monday ordered the North Carolina Board of Elections to certify the elections of a contentious state supreme court race. Remember this? They were trying to throw out 60,000.
- [09:28]
Allison Gill
Votes, military votes included. Yep.
- [09:30]
Dana Goldberg
They rejected their efforts from the Republican challenger to throw out all of those 60,000 votes. The ruling in them is the most significant legal victory yet for the Democratic incumbent, Justice Allison Riggs, as the case has ping ponged through state and federal courts and tested the boundaries of post election litigation. Two recounts confirmed that she won in November by 734 votes. Please don't think your vote doesn't matter. 734 votes. But the Republican candidate, that's Judge Jefferson Griffin. Jefferson Griffin has for months sought to reverse his loss by calling into question the eligibility of thousands of voters. And on Wednesday, Judge Griffin, well, he finally conceded the race to Allison Riggs, conceded ending the litigation over the only remaining uncontested race of the 2024 election cycle. Six months. It took six months. So congratulations, Justice Riggs and North Carolina, you got a good one down there. So this is wonderful.
- [10:30]
Allison Gill
Yeah, the good old incumbent. And I call that uncontested, because it is uncontested. It's just it was being contested by. By Jefferson Griffin, Griffin the Third. He finally conceded. My God, I know. That's such good news. More good news from the Post. A Tufts graduate student who has spent the last six weeks in a detention center in Louisiana for writing an op ed in a student newspaper has to be returned to Vermont for future hearings in her case. That's according to a federal appeals court ruling. On Wednesday, Remesa Ozturk, a Turkish citizen, was grabbed by masked federal agents. We've all seen this video outside her home in Massachusetts in late March. The agents drove her to Vermont and then flew her to Louisiana. Ozturk's lawyer was not informed of her location until almost 24 hours after she disappeared. On Wednesday, a panel of judges, the U.S. court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, ordered Ozturk return to Vermont by May 14, denying the government's bid to appeal the lower court ruling that had initiated the transfer. And in another case, by the way, a judge called out Trump's forum shopping Judge Giles or Giles, I can't. I always get it wrong. He concluded that ICE's decision to transfer Badar Khansouri out of Virginia to Texas was actually intended, quote, to make it difficult for the petitioner's counsel to file the habeas petition and to transfer him to the government's chosen forum, the good old fifth Circuit. And that's where Ozturk was in Louisiana. And she's now being ordered back. She's supposed to be back by May 14th. We'll see if the government complies.
- [12:01]
Dana Goldberg
All right, sounds good. And have some more good news. And this one also with the LGBTQ community. I love this woman. This is fantastic. This comes from the times now, the capitals of Utah and Idaho, they adopted this new official city flags on Tuesday in response to state laws barring the display of any non official flags at schools and government buildings. So this is the best workaround. The state measures were seen by civil rights groups as efforts to prevent the display of flags supporting LGBTQ people. The City council in Salt Lake City, they approved three new flags. One with the rainbow colors of the pride flag, a second with the pink and blue of the transgender pride flag. And I love this. A third with a simple end date referring to Juneteenth holiday that commemorates the end of slavery. Now, each flag also includes the seagull lily and that is the city symbol in Boise. Go to Boise. The city Council designated the rainbow Pride flag, a flag promoting Oregon donation as official city flags. I know, and I quote, the city of Boise will continue to fly the flags on city Hall Plaza that represent our community and speak to our values of caring for people and welcoming all. That's Lauren McLean. She's Boise's mayor. She said in the statement before the resolution was adopted, the Utah legislature passed a law in March, and it banned the display of flags that are not explicitly approved at public schools and government buildings. And those are flags allowed under the state law, include, by the way, American flag, the state flag, city flags, flags of other countries or states, and college and military flags.
- [13:37]
Allison Gill
So you could say only city flags and other flags can be flown. So the city said, all right, we have three new flags.
- [13:44]
Mike Levin
Yep.
- [13:45]
Dana Goldberg
I love it. Governor Spencer Cox of Utah, who happens to be Republican, allowed the measure to become law. You guys. Without his signature, saying that he was concerned it was too sweeping, but that he recognized a veto would be overridden. Now, the law did not explicitly mention LGBTQ or pride flags, but sponsors of the bill indicated that barring such flags, it was a major part of their motivation.
- [14:09]
Allison Gill
Totes.
- [14:09]
Dana Goldberg
Earlier this year, Idaho also banned displaying unofficial flags at government buildings. So they are finding a little work around here, which is awesome.
- [14:17]
Allison Gill
This is a great workaround. Blue dot cities in red states, pay attention. Have some new city flags because city flags are allowed to be flown now. They will have to come out and say, no, specifically, we ban these flags. And. And that. They don't want to do that.
- [14:32]
Dana Goldberg
No, they do not.
- [14:33]
Allison Gill
All right, everybody, it's time for a little good trouble. What are you guys doing? All right, so good trouble. Protests are being planned to counter U. S. President Donald Trump's military birthday parade on June 14th. Okay, this is the no kings group. They're organizing nationwide demonstrations. There's over a hundred now. I imagine there'll be more as June 14th approaches to protest, you know, against Trump's policies. These events coincide with the U.S. army's 250th anniversary parade. Over 100 no Kings events are registered across the U.S. like I said, the group aims to reject authoritarianism. I think this is great. I hope that there are more protests that will be organized and planned for 14th. And I hope a bunch of people turn out to D.C. to protest this stupid hundred million dollar parade for a draft dodger.
- [15:23]
Dana Goldberg
I just saw the numbers. Jasmine Crockett covered it. 100 million for that. We have already spent $34 million for him golfing. They're saying the projection by the end of his term could be over a billion dollars of tax money for him golfing. So just miss me with this Doge bullshit that they're trying to find. I just can't.
- [15:42]
Allison Gill
I know, I know. I mean, the cost to simply repair the green after he drives his golf cart across it.
- [15:50]
Dana Goldberg
Are you kidding? The golf cart? Have you seen the divots he takes out? I'm not worried about the green because he never gets his ball onto it. So I've seen this guy golf, man. Oh, boy, the videos of it.
- [16:03]
Allison Gill
It's terrible. It's terrible. All right, everybody, we're going to take a quick break, and after the break, you're going to hear my interview with Mike Levin, who's our congressman for California's Fort 49th district. And then we'll have the good news. So stick around. We'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back. This episode is brought to you by IQ Bar. IQ Mix is a zero sugar drink mix from IQ Bar that hydrates, boosts your mood and promotes mental clarity. Staying hydrated used to feel like a chore, but IQ Mix made it something I look forward to. It's not just about quenching your thirst. It's about fueling both your body and your brain. IQ Mix delivers three times the electrolytes, three times the electrolytes of typical sports drinks. And it's packed with ingredients like lion's mane and magnesium l threonate that help support focus and energy. The flavors are very delicious. Passion fruit pina colada. Those are some of my go to's, especially when I want something light and refreshing without any of the artificial junk. It's sugar free, gluten free, vegan, non gmo. It's awesome. It makes it easy to feel good about drinking it every day. IQ Bar's whole lineup has earned over 20,000 five star reviews and for good reason. Whether it's their hydration mixes, brain boosting bars, which are delicious, or mushroom coffee, they are creating products that actually help people feel better and stay sharp. I use IQmix in the morning to jumpstart my day and again in the afternoon when I need to refocus without reaching for more coffee. It's clean hydration that does more than just hydrate. It keeps me mentally dialed in and physically ready to go. So if you want a smarter way to fuel your routine, this is it. And right now, IQ Bar is offering our special podcast listeners 25% off all IQ Bar products. Plus you get free shipping. To get our 20% off, text the word daily beans all one word to 64,000. That's daily beans to 64,000. Again, text the word daily beans to 64,000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. Hey, everybody. Welcome back. We're going to keep it blue. I'm honored to be joined today by a member of the co equal legislative branch of government in the House of representatives for California's 49th congressional district. Please welcome Mike Levin. Hi, Congressman, how are you?
- [18:06]
Mike Levin
I'm doing just fine. Things are crazy around here, but I'm hanging in. How about you?
- [18:11]
Allison Gill
I have the exact same answer. Same answer. I'm doing just fine. Things are crazy around here. But we're getting through it and we're getting through it together. And you know, I've been supporting you for years now. I know that back in the old Mueller she wrote days, the whole podcast crew got together, took a trip up to Orange county behind the Orange Curtain, and boy, we flipped a lot of seats.
- [18:33]
Mike Levin
We flipped all of them that year. All of them.
- [18:36]
Allison Gill
We certainly did. And of course, it took a while to get all those votes counted. We like to take our time here. We're pretty chill in California. We also want to make sure we count every vote, which is something that we do a little bit differently than some states. But I wanted to talk to you a little bit about your platform running again. We got to keep this district this time around and we need, what, just three more seats to flip the house and get back one leverage of our government. And let's talk a little bit about your platform. And I want to start with veterans. I'm a veteran. You're the grandson of a World War II veteran. I get my health care at VA, VA Healthcare San Diego, VA Loma Linda. I worked at the VA Los Angeles Health System, both all incredible healthcare systems. And now we have an administration who wants to fire 80,000 veterans. They want to take Vesp away and put 90,000 veterans at risk of losing their homes and their home loans and be in foreclosure they're going after next as outlined in Project 2025, Veterans Benefits. They're packing 1520 telemedicine, mental health people in one small room, stripping us of our privacy rights. Talk a little bit. Your district has Camp Pendleton in it, one of the biggest installations, military installations in the country. Talk a little bit about your platform for veterans, veterans jobs, veterans housing.
- [19:53]
Mike Levin
Well, first of all, thank you for your service to the country. I'm incredibly honored to get to represent our Marines and SA at Camp Pendleton and then all of our Veterans all throughout our community. And I did not know when I got to Congress that the work that we would do for veterans would be the most rewarding work for me. At my background, I was involved in energy and environmental law for a long time and the clean energy industry and climate change, environmental protection, that sort of thing. And when I first got to Congress, I was so excited that I got on the Veterans Affairs Committee and on the Natural Resources Committee. And as the grandson of a World War II veteran and with a lot of wonderful service members in my neighborhood, growing up, and among my friends and extended family, it was just really important to me that we do everything possible to try to serve those that served us and do what we could to try to improve things, whether it was around mental health or around the opportunity to go get a good job after you're done with your military service. My experience, both as the chair and the ranking member of the committee that oversees the employment of veterans and the transition, the workforce development, along with programs for housing and homelessness, is that veterans just want to continue their service in the civilian world just the way they have served the country. And they're just trying to find that right opportunity, whether it's with a business or a nonprofit organization or the government, federal government. Part of the tragedy of all this is that about a third of those in the federal government workforce are veterans themselves. And so when you let go of what I think will wind up being hundreds of thousands of people, every meeting that I have around the federal workforce, there literally hundreds or thousands of people that have been fired or have quit because of the poor work environment from literally every federal agency. So I hope people realize that that has real world consequences for our veterans and for their mental health and for their economic well being. We have had a policy in the United States since post World War II that we preferentially give hiring preference to our veterans in the federal workforce. And I think that's a damn good policy. And I think to turn our back on veterans now so that Elon Musk and his band of 20 somethings can go agency to agency and start these so called. I called doge, I called Department, not Department of Government Efficiency, but destruction of government by Elon. And it's disgraceful. So all that to say, what do we need to do? Well, we need to modernize the va. We need to continue to make improvements to it. We have a tremendous amount of facilities upgrades that need to occur. Something like $80 billion with a B of facilities upgrades that need to occur throughout our VA hospitals. But not privatize and sell off for spare parts. And that's what the Republicans want to do. They want to privatize the va. They want to make their insurance company buddies a lot of money, and they couldn't give a damn about the consequences that it might have. And that's disgraceful. And it needs to be called out every single day when we have the chance. So this Congress, I moved on to the Appropriations Committee. There are three exclusive committees in the Congress. Appropriation, Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce. And I'm an appropriator now, but I'm on the VA Subcommittee of House Appropriations. So now I get to help oversee the funding. And this is the last thing I'll say on this. We are a co equal branch of government. The funding happens in the Congress. It happens when we authorize the programs, when we appropriate the funds. Donald Trump or Pete Hagseth or Doug Collins, who's the Secretary of va, who by the way, never served in the Veterans Affairs Committee, never served in the Appropriations Committee either. But they do not have the authority. They do not have the jurisdiction. And what they are doing is illegal. And eventually the Supreme Court will say so, in my view, because the Impoundment control Act of 1974 is a thing. And it was upheld by a 7 to 2 decision back in the Nixon era, and it'll be upheld again by this Supreme Court, mark my words. But from here to there, it's going to be a bumpy ride. We're going to get through it and we got to, we got to stand up for our bets, we got to stand up for everything else, and we got to stand up for our co equal branch of government again.
- [24:36]
Allison Gill
Yeah. And I hope you're right about this particular Supreme Court. I remember back in the first Trump administration, Russ Vaught, who is now working for this administration too, halted the appropriated money by Congress for Ukraine and did that illegally in violation of the Impoundment Control Act. And so I think you're right. Like you said, Nixon, Supreme Court upheld it. So maybe we have a good chance of the Supreme Court doing the same. Let's talk a little bit about Congress itself, too, because you're working on trying to prevent members of Congress from using the information they get in their closed committees to trade stock. We've seen Marjorie Taylor Greene dump a bunch of stock and pick up a bunch of stock as soon as these tariff deals are off and then back on again. Even Peter Doocy from Fox asked Caroline Levitt if anybody was shorting the Dow at the White House. It seems pretty obvious to the rest of us, at least anyone who's seen the movie Trading Places, what's going on. Talk about your work on that, because I think it's critical.
- [25:39]
Mike Levin
So ever since I started running for Congress, my wife and I decided to sell all individual shares of stock that we held and to invest that money in mutual funds. And that's what we've done ever since. I think it's really important that members of Congress do not buy and sell individual shares of stock, particularly using material non public information that they gain as a result of their service. And often, fairly frequently, we get access to sensitive and classified information. And there has been a history of members of Congress certainly getting things that are confidential, whether it be at the early stages of the pandemic. I'll never forget sitting in a room at the very, very beginning of the pandemic learning just how severe the government really felt this was going to be. And there were colleagues of mine who went and sold cruise line stock or bought big Pharma stock on the basis that a vaccine would need to be developed. Those are documented things that happened at that time. The Stock act, which is the law of the land right now, is not anywhere near as strong as it needs to be. All it says is that within 30 days you need to disclose a range of what you bought or sold and you have up to 45 days. But really 30 days is the target. The problem with that is we have no way of knowing if anybody used non public information in making these decisions. And it's actually something very unusual that Hakeem Jeffries now fully supports. But guess what? So does Donald Trump himself, which is kind of crazy cuz he's got all sorts of other conflicts of interest. But nonetheless, I'll take what I can get. A broken clock is right twice a day. We need the President. If we move it in the House and the Senate, if Mike Johnson actually allows the vote, then we need President Trump to sign it. And I think he will, based on everything that I've heard. And at the end of the day, there's no way that members of Congress should be trading stock. It should just not happen. It should not happen. And it's one of those very rare things where you've got 80 plus percent of the country that agrees, Republicans, Democrats. And look, at the end of the day, the last thing we need are members of Congress who are using the role that they're elected to to line their own pocket as opposed to trying to serve their constituents. So we have Republicans on this effort. It ranges from people like Chip Roy, believe it or not, who's on one side to a guy named Brian Fitzpatrick who tends to be more reasonable guy. And then on our side, you've got everybody, you've got AOC all the way through to the other end of the ideological spectrum. So I think it's really, really ripe for action. And now we've just got to push Mike Johnson to just show a shred of backbone, just this once, a shred and allow a vote and it'll pass and it'll become law of the land. It'll be a good thing.
- [28:35]
Allison Gill
Yeah. And that's, you know, what you, what everybody in Congress swore an oath to do is to represent their constituents, not a single man or any ideology. And, you know, I concur with my whole chest that that is lining your own pockets at the expense of your constituents.
- [28:50]
Mike Levin
Now, I do want to say one thing about the last couple months because you brought up one of my colleagues in the context of some of the recent economic announcements that Trump made. And I am watching very closely. I don't know exactly when this is going to air, but April 8 and 9 are dates that are very important in terms of what members of Congress may have done. So let me put it in context. April 8 and 9 is really the operative date that begins that clock running. So on April 8th in the evening, Trump meets with a whole host of House Republicans. And then on April 9th at 9:37 in the morning is when Trump posts on Truth Social. Today is a great time to buy. And then at 1:18pm that day on April 9 is when he announces a 90 day pause on most of the terrorists, not China, but most of the others paused for 90 days. Now, now I think that 9:37am Post may have been to cover whatever he told those members of Congress that night before. That's speculative on my part. I only have circumstantial evidence. But I want to see more evidence which is to be learned around May 8 and 9 to your point, or maybe a little later. If it takes them 45 days, they can get extended to 45 days. We will know between May 8 and roughly the certainly by the end of May what members of Congress traded on the eighth on the ninth. And that's super important. If we see a trend or a pattern, I think that if, look, if Republicans were there and it was a Democratic administration, they would be flipping out. And if this Department of Justice actually cared about doing real oversight and about policing their own, then I think they would not only Investigate, but they would find fire where there's smoke.
- [30:44]
Allison Gill
Yeah, I agree. The last thing I want to do is I want to combine two things you talked about. You talked about the fact that the Congress has the purse strings and you have this amazing experience on climate action. And I want to combine those two things in one, because this is one of the reasons it's so important that we flip the House, hold your seat, for example, and flip the House, win those three other seats, is because right now this administration is clawing back or preventing monies appropriated by Congress, say, in the Inflation Reduction act on climate action. And we need a House that will make sure that these funds are appropriated properly to help combat climate change. Talk about your district specifically, and climate and then nationally, how a flipped house can help make sure that the funds that are appropriated are being spent.
- [31:32]
Mike Levin
Well, it's funny, Alison, we just got done this morning on the Appropriations Committee with Chris Wright, who's the Energy Secretary. He came before the committee and he was asked about this and he denied it. He just completely denied it. He said, I haven't frozen anything. What are you talking about? So he totally, totally denied it. So we're gonna have to follow up and we're gonna have to continue to press him. Members of Congress need to press him on both. I think on both sides of the aisle. There ought to be some Republicans who care about this stuff, too. We're gonna keep at it.
- [32:02]
Allison Gill
Or who at least care about their power as Congresspeople.
- [32:05]
Mike Levin
Oh, I've never seen anything like this. To see the Congress of the United States completely roll over and play dead for the President. We never did it when Biden was there, when Obama was there, to my knowledge, before that. And really, I've never seen anything like it. The Republicans did not do it this way during the first Trump administration, not to this degree. So in terms of my district, we've got big challenges in my district that require federal support. We've got beaches that are eroding, bluffs that are collapsing. It's not theoretical. For us, the impacts of climate change are real and they are felt. As of this recording with you, the rail line connecting San Diego and la, which is the second busiest in the country, is closed for maintenance in part north of Camp Pendleton because of erosion, because of the landslides and the beach erosion every year. This is a challenge and it requires an all hands on deck effort. And it is directly related to climate change. We know that climate change has made it far worse. There's been independent studies by, you know, science. Amazing, right? You know, trust the science. It's pretty incredible. But I guess the way the Trump administration is trying to combat climate science is just defunded, right? We have the national climate assessment that comes out. It's supposed to come out. So they'll just fire all the scientists that are supposed to write it. It they don't like the way that NOAA is finding patterns of weather that may be indicative of a broader trend towards climate change. They just, you know, gut noaa, just fire all the people there, make their lives miserable. So they quit. That seems to be their M.O. and at the same time, to push fossil fuel, that's what the Energy Secretary wants to do. So I grew up in Southern California. We used to have the smog alerts all the time. I remember when you'd run around the track at my high school, after a couple laps, your lungs would burn from running because of all the stuff in the air. California got very smart and cleaned up its air, and I'm proud of that. And now you can run around the track without your lungs burning quite so bad. And if it were up to Trump and these guys, they would make pollution great again. They'd try to bring back the smog. That's what they want to do. For what? To do the bidding of the fossil fuel industry. It's pathetic.
- [34:27]
Allison Gill
Yeah, it is. It's more than pathetic. It's dangerous. I mean, it's awful. You're 100% right. And I remember those smog alerts, and I'm happy that I now live in a. In a state or the southern part of the state where we have fixed that. And, you know, we're now, I think, the fourth largest economy in the world. We set the stage, we have a lot of buying power here. They want to take away the Energy Star appliances, and can you believe that?
- [34:51]
Mike Levin
How ridiculous.
- [34:52]
Allison Gill
Then hopefully California will be like, well, then we're not going to buy them, but force them to do. I mean, we did it with car emissions because we're like the top purchasers of cars in the country and we set that standard, even whether it's federal or not. So hopefully our buying power can do that. Is there any last things that you want to make sure everybody knows before I tell everyone that they need to come up and support you because it's fun and it's effective and your team is just fantastic to work with. So, any final thoughts?
- [35:22]
Mike Levin
I appreciate you, and I would just say we've got to fight back with everything we have, and we can't give up. It's Too important. And for the same reasons that so many serve this country by putting on a uniform. We all have a role to play in service of the greater good right now and to do something greater than ourselves. And that's to make sure that we stand up and fight for our values and for our country. And you can pick any single issue, all of them are important. At the end of the day, we have to make sure people understand the economy. What's happening with the economy that's so important. And the fact that the president's underwater right now on the economy is a really big deal. President also ran on immigration and we have to make sure that people know we're for border security too. We just don't want to see cruelty. We want to see people treated with respect and decency and dignity. So I really think that if we lean in on the economy and if we lean in on trying to get things done and working in a common sense way, and you know, we love our country as much as anybody, we're not going to cede one inch of patriotism in this country. But that also means that we treat everybody as we want to be treated with dignity, respect, decency. That's how I was raised. You know, integrity and honesty still ought to mean something. My wife and I have two kids. They're 12 and 11. By the way, my 11 year old is really pissed off that Trump says she only gets two dolls now instead of not that she had 30 dolls to begin with, but she said, wait a minute, is he gonna come take my dolls? And I said no, but the new ones might cost more. So I think Trump is barking up the wrong tree if he's gonna start pissing off 11 year old girls. It's not a good idea.
- [37:03]
Allison Gill
It's a really bad idea. I can vouch for that. Thank you so much for your time today. Please tell everyone how they can find you. Help campaign canvas knock doors, postcard text bank. Where can I get all that information?
- [37:16]
Mike Levin
Well, we're here in an official friendly confines of my capitol office. So I will just say I encourage everybody to follow us on our official social media epmikelevin and to go on our website if you want to learn more about me levin.house.gov and I'm tremendously honored to get to serve our community back in California in south Orange County, Northern San Diego County. Great people, great community, a lot of challenges and we just need common sense and results.
- [37:44]
Allison Gill
I appreciate that, Congressman. Thank you for spending a little time with me today. Thank you for all the work that you're doing the service to the country. Thank you. I know you take your oath seriously and we all really appreciate it. So thank you so very much. Thank you, everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back with the good news, everybody. Welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news? Everyone. Then good news, everyone. And if you have any good news confessions corrections, especially pronunciation corrections. You want to play any animal guessing game like what the mutt, Find the cat opine on the bovine. What the hecwine? What the hell's in that shell? What's the model of your axolotl? Any animal guessing game, all you got to do do is pay your pod pet tariff and we will guess the breed or type of animal if you, you know, ask us to. Otherwise we'll just probably go, ooh, a lot. That is the brown speckled otter of Oregon. You know, we'll just make stuff up if there's no game to play. Also, if you have a shout out to yourself or a loved one or a small business in your area or your small business or a government program that's helped you or a loved one, we love that too. And if you don't have a pet tariff to pay, you can send an adoptable pet in your area. If you don't have any of that, you can also send baby photos. And we're also doing bird watching, which means a photo of an actual bird or you and your family and friends flipping the bird to Trump and Musk Properties. So send it all to us dailybeanspot.com click on contact. First up from Craig Pronouns, he and him. Love your show. That I found because of the jackpot that I followed religiously. I just wanted to thank Big Joe, whom we all miss for the inflation reduction act that triggered me into putting solar panels atop my postage stamp sized roof. Even so, I'm getting three fourths of my electricity from the sun. Thank you Joe for making this happen. This engineer is so very grateful to be getting fusion power from a safe source for my pet tariff. I'm sharing a pic of my two pups in the wind. They are related though they are different colors and yes, they are spoiled rotten. Progressive mania to all. Look at these babies.
- [40:00]
Dana Goldberg
They're so cute.
- [40:02]
Allison Gill
I love them both. I want to pet these babies. Oh my goodness. I love this and I love Craig that you're doing. So I put solar up. So all of the daily beans podcasts are 100 powered by solar energy.
- [40:18]
Dana Goldberg
I love that. I love that. All right, this is from Heidi pronouns she and her hello Beans Queens I live in the super red northeast corner of North Carolina. Not only did my corner of the state go for Trump, they went for Robinson and Michelle Morrow too. It thankfully the rest of our state got us Stein and Mo Green instead. Despite how deeply red we are, each National Day of Action has seen and protest in Nags Head, which often includes vacationers too. In April, I waved signs with folks from Seattle to Maryland and many places in between, but the protest I'm most excited about was Mayday. We had the protest in Nags Head, but two more in Elizabeth City with about 70 people and Har and Hartford with 13 people. Now. Showing up where most folks think like you is great, but showing up where most folks don't is spectacular. Also, that prick Griffin finally conceded. Though to be honest, I keep waiting for him to take it back from my pod pet tics I've included three photos. One is of Resistance Rocks My kids. That's hashtag Resistance Rocks My kids and I have made and spread around our community. One is my youngest human child when they were a strawberry blonde baby and the last is my baby Cinnamon Saurus Rat Rex.
- [41:33]
Allison Gill
Oh Cinnamon Source Rex is adorable.
- [41:36]
Dana Goldberg
Yes indeed.
- [41:38]
Allison Gill
The baby though, oh my gosh.
- [41:41]
Dana Goldberg
I I love art on rocks. I don't know why.
- [41:43]
Allison Gill
It's just resistance.
- [41:45]
Dana Goldberg
Oh the baby.
- [41:47]
Allison Gill
I love these. And you just paint them and then leave them around.
- [41:50]
Dana Goldberg
That's right.
- [41:51]
Allison Gill
So great. Thank you so much for that. Thank you for the photos. Next up from Ruth Pronoun she and they hi Allison and Dana. My cat Charlie and I have been daily listeners to the Beans for many years. He loves to wake up to Allison's hello. Thanks for covering the news of the government asking to drop the abortion drug case. Your instinct is probably right that it's not necessarily good news and it's probably a trap. They didn't ask it to be dropped on its merits. No doubt the Republicans will come back with a more effective way to ban this life saving medication used by half a million people a year for safe, effective abortion care. I urge you and your listeners to read the newsletter Abortion Every Day by Jessica Valenti. She follows abortion news carefully and has a lot of great insights. She can see through their schemes. Again, thank you both for keeping me and Charlie informed and entertained. Charlie is a handsome boy indeed.
- [42:42]
Dana Goldberg
Ruth, thank you.
- [42:43]
Allison Gill
Yeah, I'm thinking like maybe they're like oh, this isn't the right vehicle to ban abortion pills and they want to wait for a better one. Maybe, but we'll see. So yeah. Check out Abortion Every Day by Jessica Valenti. We'll have a link in the show notes and also you can follow Feminist Buzz Kills and Abortion af Right with Liz Winstead and her book.
- [43:02]
Dana Goldberg
Definitely. Dear friend of mine is actually head of gynecology at Cornell University, and she's one of the people that went to congress and said mifepress stone is 100% safe.
- [43:11]
Allison Gill
You have the coolest friends.
- [43:13]
Dana Goldberg
I do have some very cool friends. All right, this is Jeff. Pronouns, he and him. Just wanted to thank you for the daily beans. I was sadly not political before the bad gu. I was elected, but have since been overwhelmed trying to balance staying informed and protecting my mental health. Welcome to the family, Jeff. Your podcast is exactly what I need. A clear summary of what's happening, an explanation of what it means and what we can do to make good trouble, and with a few good laughs thrown in the middle. I also get a big smile as you sign off every day. My dad passed away in 2017, and though his initials were DJ, his family nicknamed him DG so it's like a little shout out to him every day. My bod pet tacks are my rescue babies. Lima, who was rescued from the street in Peru, and her little brother from another mother monkey rescued from being euthanized at a shelter at just five weeks old. Look at how much they love each other.
- [44:05]
Allison Gill
Oh, they're cuddling.
- [44:07]
Dana Goldberg
Yes.
- [44:08]
Allison Gill
Oh, cuddling kitties are the bestest. Jeff, thank you. Thank you so much for that and your kind words. I appreciate it. Appreciate all of it. That's. That's the goal here. Keeping everybody informed while also making sure nobody goes off the deep end. All right, next up, from David. I know right from David. Pronouns he and him. Hi, AG and dg. I've waited a while to send this, but after months of work, my girlfriend and I have finally signed a lease on a house for us and her kids. We're just renting, but this is the first big step in the rest of our lives together. For my pod pet tariff, I submit my cat, her highness, Madame Fritz, risk queen of all she surveys. Yes, she is. She looks very sassy. David, congratulations on. On this new chapter. I love this.
- [44:53]
Dana Goldberg
Wonderful. All right, this is from Ali. Pronouns she and her. Hello, beans, queens, and your amazing staff. Thank you so much to both of you, Andy, Harry, Pete, everyone else associated with your network for keeping me sane, informed, and amused. My friends always look to me first when big news breaks, and I always tell them and everyone else about this amazing network. I think I've turned A few other Bucks County Pennsylvan residents onto it. My good news is this. I was laid off suddenly from my job as a physical therapist. The clinic was closed four days into my new job and I started this week at a new job. Today I was going through online trainings and a four part mandatory cultural competence training was part of it. It stressed the importance of cultural sensitivity and respect across cultures, races, religions, gender identity, socioeconomic groups, ages, disabilities and so much more. It discussed implicit bias microaggressions and emphasized using preferred names pronouns and not assuming gender orientation or ethnic background. In this climate of DEI being villainized in respect for everyone being dismissed, I am so excited to be a part of a company who values and encourages respect. So NovaCare, you're doing something right. That's nice to hear. Potpet tariff My three rescues. Pepper is the border collie lab with her favorite ball. Lola is a shepherd. Chow chow. We would have gotten that.
- [46:16]
Allison Gill
Yep, we would have gotten the chat.
- [46:17]
Dana Goldberg
Our golden baby with the big grin and tala boxer pit. My ride or die shadow. Also, I added an adoptable dog. This is Frida. She's been waiting for two years for her forever home. She's in a foster home now with a cat and does well with cats. She is through strong paws rescue. Thank you again and just know that your network makes such a difference in so many lives. It looks like like Frida is in Yonkers, New York and Frida is adorbs.
- [46:47]
Allison Gill
Look at that scarf.
- [46:49]
Dana Goldberg
Little pit bull terrier mix.
- [46:51]
Allison Gill
Adorable. Yep, there's the. I see the chow already.
- [46:54]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah. Oh, these are great photos.
- [46:58]
Allison Gill
These are wonderful. Good camera work, Ally. Well done.
- [47:01]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, those are good.
- [47:03]
Allison Gill
Thank you so much and thanks to everybody for your good news. We have a big show tomorrow, obviously it's Fugal sang Friday. So we're going to need a lot of good news. So please send it to us@dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. Do you have any final thoughts today, my friend?
- [47:17]
Dana Goldberg
I do actually and I'm going to keep this as anonymous as possible for now. But everyone, if you're traveling outside the United States or if you're a Canadian or you happen to live in Mexico coming into the United States, do me a favor. If immigration anyone asked you, hey, what do you think about the president in the United States and you think they're kidding thing, don't be flippant. Just say I'm not very political because what happened was I know someone who has some friends that were coming in because they have property in a state in the United States, but they're Canadian citizens and they were asked, what do you think about the president? And they said, not a big fan. They got banned for five years. They are put on a list if you're coming into the United States, whether you're a citizen or not, and someone says, what do you think about the president, United States? You just say, you know what?
- [48:04]
Mike Levin
Know what?
- [48:05]
Dana Goldberg
I'm not very political. I don't follow politics.
- [48:08]
Allison Gill
Yeah, something else. When you're traveling, make sure to turn off your bio passwords for your. For your phone and your devices, like your thumbprint, if it has one, or your facial recognition.
- [48:18]
Dana Goldberg
Very smart.
- [48:19]
Allison Gill
Turn that off and only have a passcode that you have to enter because.
- [48:24]
Dana Goldberg
They'Re not allowed to ask you for your passcode currently.
- [48:28]
Allison Gill
Yeah, that is a known thing that they can't make you say, but they can force you to open your phone with your face or your fingerprint. So make sure your phone's locked with a password. And if they ask if you like Trump, just say, oh, I don't even know who that is. Yeah, it just reminds me of Ghostbusters. Ray. If someone asks you if you're a God, you say yes.
- [48:53]
Dana Goldberg
That's it.
- [48:56]
Allison Gill
That's just.
- [48:57]
Dana Goldberg
Be safe, everyone, please.
- [48:58]
Allison Gill
Scary. I'm so sorry that happened to your friend. And you know, when you told me that story, I've contacted like everybody I know who's thinking about traveling to the United States and telling them. So yeah, do the same for your family and friends, everybody. We're gonna be back, like I said, in your ears tomorrow. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health and take care of your family. I've been ag, I've been dg, and them's the beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Alison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they Might Be Giants and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information, please visit mswmedia.com msw media.