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- [00:00]
A
Hello, Martin Sheen here. And it seems to me that no day of the week is without its endless barrage of bad news. Even on Sunday. For God's sake, let's change that. What do you say? Together, let's make Sunday immune to bad news. Available now every Sunday, Season three of the Martin Sheen Podcast with yours truly, Martin Sheen has begun. Yeah, 10 brand new episodes are already underway. So join me, Martin sheen, for a 20 minute journey as I share my personal stories, a bit of poetry, and insightful reflections that will encourage you to take a deep breath and enjoy a relaxing moment. Of course, it's important to know and understand what's happening in the world. But I also believe there's nothing wrong with taking a step back to find strength and clarity. And Lord knows we need that now more than ever. A moment of thoughtfulness and calm may be rare these days, but it doesn't have to be. So what do you say? Say you want to take back your Sundays? So do I. And guess what? I've already done it. With the Martin Sheen Podcast, season three, available now. Don't mess with my Sunday. And thank you for listening.
- [01:13]
B
Hey, Everybody. It's Monday, May 4, 2026. I'm Allison Gill.
- [01:17]
C
And I'm Dana Goldberg, and this is Beans Talk.
- [01:24]
B
Hey, hey, hey. May the Fourth be with you, my friend.
- [01:29]
C
And also with you. I just want to take a moment. For those of you who have been watching Beans Talk for a little while, absolutely. I think you just told someone to steal second base, but I don't know what you just did. Listen, I got Invisalign last week, as many of you know. I'm sure some of you have noticed. You've been so kind not say anything. I saw a video of me doing Beans Talk the other day, and as often as I can, I'm going to try not to wear them. I. I don't know if they're distracting for anybody, but there'll be times where I can't avoid it. Today I. I have them out. I. I hope I'm a little more clear in my speech and less fidgety. I'm just being honest with you. We're friends now, so. Anyway, just want to let you know that's what's going on with all of this. The longer I wear them during the day, the shorter period of time I have to wear them over the years. So just bear with me. As I said, we'll get through this part. But I appreciate you.
- [02:17]
B
Well, you know, what if I get an Invisalign, and then we'll Both be.
- [02:20]
C
Exactly. I'll love you regardless. I'll love you through it. I love you through it. I think we. I think we should both get invisaligned at the same time. And they'll be like, what happened to the podcast?
- [02:29]
B
And you know what? I noticed nobody caught this, and I'm so glad. But. But last time when we ended, I said something like, we're just gonna do it. It's gonna be seashells or something. And then I said Excalibur, and I meant to say excelsior, because that's the actual phrase. Excelsior.
- [02:49]
C
Oh, my God. I have a scary, scary story. Bug story. We just get it out. So last night, I was doing the gala in Atlanta for the Human Rights Campaign. It was extraordinary. I got to meet Ebony K. Williams, who, if you've seen the viral clip while she's doing her. Her show, her court show, just talking to this. I want to talk about this actually more in a different episode, but talking to this young boy who was caught up in conversion therapy and took himself out of it and then got sued by his father.
- [03:14]
B
Yes.
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C
For the cost of conversion therapy. Anyway, Ebony was incredible. So I met her. I go back to my hotel room. I will not say what hotel this is. There was a fucking scorpion in my bathroom. A scorpion.
- [03:26]
B
In Atlanta.
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C
In Atlanta, on the 21st floor of my hotel. So needless to say, I did not get any sleep last night. Someone had to come and get it out, and I had to move rooms. And so there. Things happen. They happen. I'm not a bug person. I'd never seen a. I grew up in New Mexico, and I've never seen a scorpion in real life until I was in a hotel in Atlanta.
- [03:45]
B
I grew up in Arizona. We saw a lot of them. Sometimes they just run around the kitchen. I remember one time, you remember how your kid and you would, like, jump up and smack the ceiling on your way down the hallway or whatever. Yeah. Here. So I jumped up, hit the ceiling. There's an air conditioning vent there. The vent popped off, and, like, 20 scorpions just ran out.
- [04:03]
C
No, no. I'm wondering. I think that's where it came from, maybe.
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B
And I was just like, oh, my God, that's nightmare fuel. That's just nightmare fuel.
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C
We should have done a contest, but we should have. Sorry, everybody.
- [04:16]
B
Yeah. Anyway, also, happy MCA Day. Ye one out for my friend. Mca. Not friend. In real. He doesn't have any idea who I am. Yeah, he's my. He was my imaginary brother, but he didn't know that so it's, you know, that's a whole long thing.
- [04:32]
C
Beastie Boys, Beastie Boys.
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B
So good. All right. As I hinted on the Daily Beans, I have a plan.
- [04:43]
C
E L A N plan. Give it to me.
- [04:49]
B
That's right. I have a plan, an opposition plan on how to get a true representative multi racial democracy government that's not constantly being threatened by this Supreme Court. Okay? So right now the Supreme Court is like, have you seen that Abbott Costello bit? Who's on first? And they're always like, they always like, who's the first? I don't know what's on second base. I don't know, third base. And they always end up on third base. Third bas. That's what the Supreme Court is. Anytime anyone's like, oh, I want to pass a voting rights law. Third base, it's got to go through the Supreme Court. Oh, I would like to press charges against Donald Trump. Third base. Got to go through immunity, interlocutory appeal to the Supreme Court. Everything has to go. Want to ban conversion therapy, Supreme Court, third base. Everything has to go to them. So no good law. Somebody had written in and said we really need to pass, for example, the John Lewis Voting Rights act, but no good law we pass is going to make it pass. The billionaire owned and operated Supreme Court, they gutted the Voting Rights act so they would gut that. Right? So that's where we have to start. So here's my plan. I have an eight step plan. This is my project 2028, I guess, for Democrats to follow. It starts now though, and it lasts for the next few years at least. And I think we should go over it. So the first step is that this year we have to flip the Senate.
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C
I think we can.
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B
Yeah, we have.
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C
I absolutely think we can.
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B
And I. And it's, it's within reach, right?
- [06:31]
C
Oh, 100. And I think the gutting of the Voting Rights act is making it more in reach. I think people are enraged. People who actually care about voting rights and a lot of people in the minorities, literally the people that are being discriminated against the most, they're in a position now where they're, you know, districts may be gerrymandered, out of reach, they're statewide races or not. And I hope that people are so fired up right now, Independents that are sick of this bullshit and want some semblance of balance, you know, Democrats, Republicans that have had enough of this because they don't believe in all of this Talian bullshit that's going on, right? Totalitarian bullshit. I think they're going to be surprised. I think our.
- [07:10]
B
Our.
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C
Our track to the Senate is better than it's ever been right now in the last two years. Like, where we're at right now, our path to the Senate, I think it's been opened up and partially because of the continued gutting of the Voting Rights Act.
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B
Yeah, exactly, exactly. And so that leads to the next step, right?
- [07:28]
C
Okay. Yeah. Step two is to block all Republican Supreme Court nominations until we get the White House back, okay? Just block them. We have to have a majority in the Senate to do that. So step one, get the Senate back. Step two, block all nominations for the Supreme Court. Now, back in 2017, Senate Republicans invoked what they called the nuclear option, and that was to gut the filibuster. Y' all remember this for the Supreme Court nominees, okay? So we can block their nominees with a simple majority, 60 votes, no longer needed. If we do this now, a year ago, this didn't seem possible, okay? But now, with the lowest polling numbers this president has ever seen, we might actually able to get 51 seats.
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B
That's all.
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C
We need, 51 seats. We don't want to do 50 because. Vance. We need 51 seats, which might. That's not true. We might need 52 to get past Fetterman because, Jesus H. He could switch parties at any time or vote with Republicans on the Supreme Court nominee. So that's the second step. But I just want you to check out this polling before we move on. Look at this. 62% disprove of his job as president as Trump. 62% disapprove. 76% disapprove of the cost of living. You know who they're going to blame for that? The senators that aren't doing shit. And they're voting in step block with the president. 72% disapprove of inflation. 66% disapprove of the situation in Iran. 66%. 65% disapprove of relations with U.S. allies, and 65% disapprove of the economy. 61% disapprove on taxes, and 59% disapprove on immigration. Almost 60% they ran on this. People wanted comprehensive immigration reform. Not like this, though. And so if this is their way of doing it, you've got almost 60% of the country saying, we don't like what you're doing. There could be a bloodbath in the Senate, even in the midterms. There is a path. There's a path.
- [09:33]
B
Yeah. And that 59% disapproving on immigration that's actually an improvement From I think 66 or 65.
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C
Oh really?
- [09:41]
B
Right after the killings of Alex Preddy, the murderer, the murders of Alex Preddy and Renee Good, the shooting of Cesar Solis, like all of that stuff that was going on in Minneapolis and Operation Midway Blitz, Metro surge, et cetera, all of that stuff will happen in Los Angeles. And since Homans come in and gnomes out and everything seems to be quiet, even though ICE is still in Minneapolis doing horrible, unimaginable things and around the country doing horrible and unimagina imaginable things, the numbers have gotten a little bit better. But now because the Democrats won on DHS funding and refused to fund ICE and Customs and Border Protection, Republicans are going to have to do that on their own. And I think that's going to drag their numbers back down again. But yeah, you're right, the numbers are horrible. And I think you're right, it does open up a better path to the Senate than I've seen in the, you know, since we've known that this was going to be the Senate map. And it's always been really, really difficult, but it just got a lot easier.
- [10:37]
C
Yeah.
- [10:38]
B
All right, so those are the first two steps. Step three, hold the Senate in 2028, hold that majority and elect a Democrat for President. Now it seems like a no brainer, right? Obviously.
- [10:52]
C
Right.
- [10:52]
B
We need the Senate to pass bills and we need a Dem president to sign them. And then step four, this is important, we got to kill the filibuster. That way we can pass these bills with a simple majority and not need 60 votes. And a lot of folks are worried that if we kill the filibuster and Republicans get the Senate and the White House back, they'll pass all kinds of horrible stuff. Right. But there's a way to prevent that
- [11:21]
C
from happening and this is it. Because that brings in step five, everyone to pass HR1, which is the we the People Act. That law was written back in 2021 and expands access to voting. It bans gerrymandering. Huge. It adds campaign finance laws to keep dark money out of politics. And once the Dem president signs it into law, we'll have free and fair elections. Won't have to worry about it. And honestly, with the way this country is, if we had free and fair elections, I don't think Republicans would ever win another election. I don't. I really believe that we. They just can't win. And they can't win if they can't cheat. I mean, that's the bottom line. But like you said, Allison, the Supreme Court would gut anything close to that. So just like they gutted the Voting Rights Act.
- [12:08]
B
Yeah. And that's why step six is necessary. Ready for step six?
- [12:13]
C
I mean, give it to me.
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B
Use your killed filibuster simple majority to pass a law that adds term limits and senior status to the Supreme Court. This is an idea I got.
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C
I like the senior status part, by the way.
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B
This is an idea I got from Ellie Mystal, because everyone always want. Wants to add Supreme Court justices. They'll call it packing the court or expanding the court or whatever way that you want to say that. And I do eventually think that we should do that so that we can have 13 justices on the Supreme Court, one for each circuit. Right. But I think that's a further down the road thing. This is a break the glass emergency. And this is why I like Ellie Mostall's idea of term limits and senior status. Because expanding the court is actually extremely unpopular among Republicans and independents. But term limits are not okay. And the Constitution says that judges and justices are appointed for life, which sounds like you can't have a term limit. Right. But there's something called senior status. And what that means is after 18 years, and there's a reason Elie Mistahl picked that number. And we can go over that on a different show. It's a very long explanation. But let's say after 18 years, you are put into senior status. The Constitution says all you get is a robe and a paycheck. It doesn't say anything about actually getting a vote. And so you can do this without a constitutional amendment and you can do this by simply passing a law. But you'd have to. You'd have to get rid of the filibuster and you would need a Democratic president to sign it. And that way, in 2029, if you applied the 18 year term limit to senior status retirement to this bench, five of the current justices.
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C
Wow.
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B
Would be moved to senior status, allowing the Democratic president to nominate five new justices.
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C
And that brings in step seven. Yeah, but that's five new justices.
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B
Yes, but that's why. That's why we need to hold the Senate in 2028 to get them confirmed. Because after that, after you get rid of those five, you will have a six to three liberal court without expanding the court, without having the Republicans saying they're going to pack the court without any of that. There's 57% of Republicans are for term limits. Like term limits is just way easier to get done now. Right.
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C
I love that step seven, appoint five new justices. And that, of course, leads us to step eight, have nice things. This is when we can have nice things, everybody. Once all this shit is done, we get to have nice things. And there's so many nice things we can have. Alison, name a couple of those nice things.
- [14:56]
B
Well, first of all, the new Supreme Court could revisit old Supreme Court decisions that are outside the law for, I don't know, immunity, absolute immunity for presidents overturning Roe v. Wade, Chevron doctrine, Citizens United, Citizens United States, the mifeprestone bullshit, the Voting Rights act, all of that can be overturned.
- [15:19]
C
When you have conversion therapy.
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B
Fuck you, all the conversion therapy, First Amendment to be able to hurt people in the medical field, all of those can be revisited. And then any law that we pass, like a new voting protection, voting rights, John Lewis, Voting Rights Act, HR1, anything like that codifying Roe v. Wade does, isn't under immediate threat from this Supreme Court that we have right now. So anything that you can imagine, as long as the people support it enough to for have to have the representatives in Congress vote on it, sign a bill and have the vote on it pass a bill and have the President sign it, we can have it. The majority can have what it wants.
- [16:01]
C
Right. Question, though, Devil's advocate not to throw a wrench in there. What happens if this Supreme Court throws out the term limit senior status idea and they call it unconstitutional?
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B
Yep, yep. That is definitely a thing that could happen. And I think the way Ellie Mistahl put it was like, so try it. Anyway.
- [16:21]
C
The issue is, absolutely.
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B
The issue is, is then you've got the filibuster, but I think the filibuster is unconstitutional anyway. I don't like the filibuster, but, you know, you do run the risk of, of having Republicans come in and pass voter suppression laws and having the Supreme Court do it. But, but the, the alternative is the same, is the status quo, which they're already doing. They're already gutting voting rights. They're already building concentration camps. They're already like, they already won't let us have Medicare for All. They're all. They're already blocking all of this.
- [17:02]
C
So if the alternative is the possibility that we might not have to have all of this, I say we go with the alternative.
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B
I do too. I do too.
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C
Yeah. It's a great plan, my friend.
- [17:12]
B
Thank you.
- [17:13]
C
I like it.
- [17:13]
B
Thank you. I'm gonna write it up over on my sub stack at some point when I have an hour to spare, but I think people should be running on this. I think this is a good, solid plan. It's a bold plan. Kamala Harris just said in an event, we need to be ruthless. Now after the Voting Rights act was gutted, she's like, we need to be ruthless. And this is a feasible, break the glass, emergency, ruthless, bold plan. And the only way you're going to get some of the Democrats in leadership, not all, but some of the more reticent Democrats who don't like to rock the boat or whatever to do this kind of stuff, is to get loud about it, call them about it, write about it, make it a thing, make it a movement. And we need to start now because it takes that kind of time to get that stuff in their ears. You know what I mean?
- [18:08]
C
It does. Oh, yeah, it does. Trust me that Republicans didn't do 2025 overnight. I promise you that.
- [18:14]
B
Yeah, and John Roberts didn't get the Voting Rights act overnight either. He's been working on that fucking thing for decades.
- [18:20]
C
Oh yeah, one of them happened, right? It was like think the night before marriage equality was passed. I just saw an Instagram about this. When we got full marriage equality, when they overturned, I believe it was DOMA have been the Obergefell case. The day before, the Supreme Court had quietly gutted part of the Voting Rights act. And so they destroyed part of the civil rights in this country and then covered it looking like they were do something really good when they came through and gave us marriage equality. It's it, the whole, it's, it's, it's pretty impressive in a, in a horrifying way. How long they have been building this, this plan.
- [18:54]
B
Yeah. And they're gerrymandering goes back decades. And that's, you know, why we are where we are. But we have a chance to stop all that. And this is really the best chance you have to start with the Supreme Court. And I know people are like, supreme Court is like number 80 on people's lists of concerns.
- [19:10]
C
It should not be.
- [19:11]
B
But any concern that you have before then will just be gutted by the Supreme Court. Third base, right. It just always goes back to them. So we really have to concentrate on that now. I need a name for this plan. We need a name for this plan. So if you have suggestions for a name for this plan, submit it as a good news submission on the Daily Beans podcast by going to DailyBeansPod.com and clicking on Contact. Because I don't want to call it Project Whatever because that's Project 2025 was its own evil thing. And I sort of want to leave that in a box where it is. But, you know, if you've got an argument to the contrary, let us know. Let us hear about it again. Dailybeanspot.com, click on Contact. But that's my idea. And that's the plan. The. Paul. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing you guys tomorrow. Dana, you're out tomorrow?
- [20:07]
C
Yeah, yeah, I'm out tomorrow. Allison's gonna cover me.
- [20:09]
B
I'll be here. Thank you so much. We'll see you then. And I'm Allison Gill.
- [20:14]
C
I'm Dana Goldberg. And again, that was Beans Talk.
- [20:36]
A
Hello, Martin Sheen here. And it seems to me that no day of the week is without its endless barrage of bad news. Even on Sunday. For God's sake, let's change that. What do you say? Together, let's make Sunday immune to bad news. Available now every Sunday, Season three of the Martin Sheen Podcast with yours truly, Martin Sheen has begun. Yeah. 10 brand new episodes are already underway. So join me, Martin sheen, for a 20 minute journey as I share my personal stories, a bit of poetry, and insightful reflections that will encourage you to take a deep breath and enjoy a relaxing moment. Of course, it's important to know and understand what's happening in the world, but I also believe there's nothing wrong with taking a step back to find strength and clarity. And Lord knows we need that now more than ever. A moment of thoughtfulness and calm may be rare these days, but it doesn't have to be. So what do you say? You want to take back your Sundays? So do I. And guess what? I've already done it. With the Martin Sheen Podcast, season three, available now. Don't mess with my Sunday, and thank you for listening.