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The Daily Beans
Citizen Saboteurs (feat. John Fugelsang)
01:04:23
Friday, January 31st, 2025 Today, an American Airlines flight and a Black Hawk helicopter collided midair near Reagan National Airport leaving no survivors; the Office of Personnel Management has issued yet another fascist memo - this time about gender ideology; a declassified CIA memo about sabotaging fascism is going viral; Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard among others sat for their confirmation hearings; probationary federal employees have been targeted for a mass purge; 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 Friday, January 31, 2025. Today, an American Airlines flight in a Black Hawk helicopter collided mid air near Reagan National Airport, leaving no survivors. The Office of Personnel Management has issued yet another fascist memo, this time about gender ideology. A declassified CIA memo about sabotaging fascism is going viral. Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard, among others, sat for their confirmation hearings. And probationary federal employees have been targeted for a mass purge. I'm Allison Gill.
- [00:55]
Dana Goldberg
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
- [01:00]
Allison Gill
Happy Friday, my friend. How are you holding up?
- [01:05]
Dana Goldberg
That's all I could muster. Literally, we're recording. Literally we're recording this right after I had therapy, which will be part of my final thoughts for today. At the end of the episode, just passing on some things I've learned. I am doing the best any of us can, I guess. I'm angry. This whole thing. We're going to talk more about it. I don't know if the executive order is in the news, but from this plane crash, he just signed an executive order blaming Biden and dei. And there's. Everyone else is writing this for him behind the scenes, you know, these racist bigots. Whether it's Stephen Miller or the Heritage foundation guys or Peter Thiel or J.D. vance, someone's writing this stuff for him, going, this is the message. Get it out right now. Sign it. And then let's just pretend that all of this is true. It's just infuriating.
- [01:53]
Allison Gill
Yeah, it's really gross. And. And there was a lot more of that today in. In the Senate in these committee hearing rooms. We had, man, Kash Patel was just a smug. Had that Pam Bondi energy, just that, you know, that kind of. I don't know, just smug, I guess. Yeah, it's really the only way I can put it. Adam Schiff pointed out he's the probably the only FBI director nominee that's pled the fifth. Mm in the past.
- [02:23]
Dana Goldberg
And it was that powerful moment that you. You were talking about, like, him. Adam literally said, turn around. There are Capitol police officers behind you. Turn around and look at them in the eye. I'm looking at. You're talking to me. I'm looking at you right now. Turn around and look at them in the eye. And he's a fucking coward.
- [02:41]
Allison Gill
Yeah, he couldn't do it. He wouldn't do it. But, yeah, that. That just was all over the Senate today. And of course, we'll talk about these. Some of these questions and answers in more detail on clean up on L45. And, and the new Unjustified podcast where we're going to go over the Kash Patel hearing and in more detail. And then over on cleanup, we're going to talk about pro. Definitely that moment, even though we're going to cover it on a Justified. But I definitely want to get Harry's reaction, Harry Dunn's reaction to that and as well as what's going on with Tulsi Gabbard. I mean, these are just abysmal nominees. Like, can there has to be. Isn't there. Is there a candidate. There has to be a candidate that's not an alleged rapist.
- [03:24]
Dana Goldberg
Nope. I mean, there may be a candidate that's not an alleged rapist, but there's definitely not a candidate that is not a horribly unqualified person who bought their way into this position.
- [03:33]
Allison Gill
Well, not now, but they're certainly. Those people exist.
- [03:37]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, they have to. Even on the, even on the R side. They have to. Meaning big our side. They had. There's got to be some Republicans out there that didn't sexually assault somebody. Right, right, right.
- [03:47]
Allison Gill
Or I, you know, somebody who doesn't get drunk all day or somebody who like making these excuses. Like, I felt this with Kavanaugh and his confirmation hearings. Like, can't you find a judge that doesn't have this background? Just, yeah, there's got to be somebody, some other fascist out there that's at least not a rapist. Like, I, I don't know. I, I'm just stunned by these.
- [04:12]
Dana Goldberg
I think I figured it out. It's that you can't have someone like that that isn't completely unscrupulous because you have over their head so that they serve you.
- [04:20]
Allison Gill
Yeah.
- [04:20]
Dana Goldberg
So it has to be the worst of the people so that Trump can blackmail them into doing anything he wants them to do.
- [04:25]
Allison Gill
Yep. That's what it is.
- [04:27]
Dana Goldberg
The bottom of the barrel.
- [04:28]
Allison Gill
Exactly. Right.
- [04:29]
Dana Goldberg
The barrel is six feet underground.
- [04:31]
Allison Gill
Yeah, exactly. And we're going to talk about that barrel a little bit later in the show with our good friend John Fugal Sang because it's Fugal Sang Fridays here on the Daily Beans. And Everybody check out mullerote.com I did this interview with a system security expert that I met through the law firm that is handling the case for the two OPM employees who believed that their privacy was in danger. And it truly was. And we, we have the receipts. And, and so you can check that out. Melisserote.com and it was all caused by Elon Musk. I mean, literally, Elon sent his buddies in there, attached a box to the OPM servers, uploaded them to a cloud, and then just started creating like these email servers and and around with shit and circumventing the, the secur, the opm and then exposed it all to the public on DNS servers. Like just absolutely insane what they did. So all right, we have a lot of news to get to today, so let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, from Alyssa Moylein @devex the U.S. government is taking steps to, quote, defend women, that is, by requiring agencies to, quote, take prompt actions to end anything related to gender ideology across the government, including at the U.S. agency for International Development. On Wednesday, Charles Ael, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, sent a memorandum across the federal government, which means it was probably actually Elon Musk titling it Initial Guidance regarding President Trump's Executive Order defending women by 5pm on Friday, January 31, government agencies are required to review all agency programs, contracts and grants and terminate any that promote gender ideology and similarly evaluate all agency positions. Everyone who works on gender issues in terms defined above, unquote, will be placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately. In the meantime, agencies must close or end all initiatives, offices and programs that inculcate or promote gender ideology, take down all outward facing media on the topic, and withdraw any final or pending documents related to gender work. Any training or employee resource groups on gender must be canceled within the same timeline. Agencies must also review agency email systems such as Microsoft Outlook to turn off any features that prompt users for their pronouns. The guidelines also mandate a review of all forms that require an individual's sex and ensure the only two options listed are male and female, and they are requiring a slash of the word gender across all applicable policies and documents, swapping the word with sex instead. By February 7th at 12pm, the guidance says all agencies must report back to OPM with a complete list of actions to codify the guidance, along with any agency plans to fully do so. And by Thursday, pages had been eliminated from across USAID's website, including its gender equality and Women's Empowerment policy, its program page on gender equality, and its program information on gender inclusivity and a gender inclusive democracy, among others. I also heard from some folks at the VA all sexual harassment training has been pulled from tms, the training system at the va. All gender inclusivity training has been pulled. These are annual trainings that were taken by all government employees through the online training management system, tms, and they've all been pulled down.
- [08:04]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, thank you. Just a couple notes on this, Allison, just for the people listening, and I know that I'm preaching to the choir. Sex and gender are not interchangeable when it comes to definitions or science. And the other thing I want people to remember when they're like, oh, you're overreacting. Years ago, years ago, before World War II, there were doctors that were doing trans surgeries in a good way to people that wanted them, felt like they were in the wrong bodies. And it was supported through science. And there was a lot of journals written and articles written and they were published and they were put in a library. You know, it was one of the first fucking libraries burned by Nazis. The library that was holding all of this research that scientifically validated gender change, gender ideology, gender expansion, sexual orientation. This is not a coincidence. They are following a playbook. Please pay attention. Please pay attention.
- [08:59]
Allison Gill
Thanks for that, Dana.
- [09:00]
Dana Goldberg
Yes. This next one is from David Dayen at Prospect. The malign force is trying to break the federal workforce. They have hit on another idea targeting, quote, probationary employees. Allison and I actually just met one of these. We friended one of them that was working for the federal government, and I do wonder what's going on with her job. These are employees with one year or less of service in the federal government, and in some cases, employees with up to two years of service. There are more than 220,000 of them, according to one estimate, and they have weaker civil service protections than their colleagues. President Trump's allies want to exploit that with a mass firing. An email was received by employees of the Environmental Protection Agency. As we know, the epa, which was sent to people who, quote, have been identified as an employee likely on a probationary trial period. It's been reported that agencies were asked to assemble lists of these newly hired employees. It says to reply if you believe you have one year or more of previous civil service or if you're a veteran. So that's saying, tell us if you are, because that makes the other people.
- [10:05]
Allison Gill
Not right if they're admitting that, that if you have a year of prior civil service, we're going to have a problem firing you. Legally.
- [10:13]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, that's exactly what it is. Then, by the way, this says, quote, as a probationary trial period employee, the agency has a right to immediately terminate you pursuant to 5 CFR section 315.804. Now, your right to appeal to Merit Systems Protection Board will depend on whether you meet the definition of, quote, an employee. As a probationary employee, the agency has a right to terminate you immediately. And that is not correct reading of the Federal Code. By the way, the provision in question specifically refers to termination, quote, for unsatisfactory performance or conduct, not just on a whim, not just because some orange tyrant wants to do this. The employee must be notified in writing of the reason why they are being terminated and quote, the information in the notice as to why the employee is being terminated shall as a minimum, consist of the agency's conclusions as to inadequacies or his performance or conduct. Now nevertheless, any probationary employee who received an email like this would probably get the impression that they are on the way out of their employer. The email does mention an appeals process though, through the Merit Systems Protection Board. And that's an agency that adjudicates disputes among the federal workforce. Now, MSPB didn't have a quorum to hear cases for the entire first term of the Trump administration. It finally reached a quorum under President Biden in 2022 and has one now in present day. But Trump has been firing other members of the commissions and boards, including the National Labor Relations Board, so MSPB would be a place to watch. But the email adds this as a catch. Okay, email adds that catch that those who do not meet the definition of quote, employee under the law are not eligible for an appeal. Earlier, a memo sent to agency heads of the Office of Personnel Management asserted that probationary employees can be fired, quote, without triggering merit system protections boards or the appeal rights. And it does appear that their appeal options are more limited than their senior employees, end quote. Now, the government's currently under a federal hiring freeze, so no probationary employees who are terminated could be replaced until that's lifted. About 6.5% of probationary employees. That's according to March of 2024 survey by FedScope. They were at the Internal Revenue Service, now the greatest number of probationary employees, more than 25%. The Veterans Health Administration, the target on probationary employees comes on the heels of the offer for deferred resignation. As we talked about before, don't fucking take it made yesterday, giving employees an exemption from return to office rules and possibly a lighter or non exempt resistant workload without a guarantee in exchange for resignation at the end of September. Along with other firings and purges, it reflects an effort to remake the federal workforce in the image of the orange guy with an emphasis on loyalty to him. This reverses the building of the professionalized civil service that took hold in America in the late 19th century and it threatens to return the country to the spoils system of politicized bureaucracy. The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents unionized EPA officials. They sent an email to staffers urging them to, quote, please do what you need to, to protect all of your information regarding your federal employment. You need to download, print out all pertinent employment information, such as your entire eopf. Do this as soon as possible. Allison, what is an eopf?
- [13:44]
Allison Gill
That's your employee file.
- [13:45]
Dana Goldberg
Thank you very.
- [13:46]
Allison Gill
Personnel file. That's just electronic personnel file.
- [13:51]
Dana Goldberg
And okay, that makes sense.
- [13:53]
Allison Gill
It's really, really, really important that if you're a federal worker right now, if you still have access to your Systems, get your SF50s, right? Preferably just your latest SF50 would be good. Your federal resume, make sure it's updated and downloaded. Send it all to your private email at home. And yeah, all of that paperwork, veterans preference paperwork, your electronic employee file, your performance evaluations, any email communication that you have about your position, make sure you send that to yourself. And just document everything, journal everything, take contemporaneous notes. Those matter in court. Take my word for it. And yeah, get all that stuff now.
- [14:39]
Dana Goldberg
And do it, do it now. Because the new administrator of the epa, that's Lee Zedlin. Excuse me, Zeldin. Sometimes I flip the letters. Lee Zeldin was just confirmed by the Senate on Wednesday afternoon. So heed Allison's warning if you're a federal worker. She has been amazing at giving free advice to people who don't know what's about to happen to their jobs or how to protect themselves. She's been in this position. Trust her. She knows what she's talking about.
- [15:02]
Allison Gill
Thank you. And currently there's a call out for any employee that's been put on paid administrative leave in the federal government due to having worked for or been adjacent to a DEIA program. We want to hear from you. You can send an email to us, Edoath, and we look forward to seeing if we can offer any help. I'm in the process right now of standing up a 501C3 with some friends and lawyers. Dana. We've got whistleblower aid with Mark Zaid willing and standing by with us and partnering with us, Kel McClanahan and the Security National Security Counselors@nationalsecuritylaw.org willing to take cases. And so basically what I'm setting up as a 501C3 that it takes in information and sees if we have a case and refers them out to lawyers. And we'll be fundraising for that pretty soon, too. So, anyway, if you are on a paid administrative leave because of the DEI memo, reach out to us and I've put that information up on military road.com all right. This next story is really tragic. A passenger jet and a Blackhawk helicopter collided midair Wednesday and crashed into the Potomac river near Reagan national airport near D.C. president Trump confirmed Thursday there were no survivors. Many of the victims have yet to be publicly identified. The plane, an American Eagle flight number 5342, a regional jetliner, was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members on a flight from Wichita, Kansas. There were three soldiers aboard the US Army's Sikorsky H60, which is the Defense Department official, told that to CBS News. Three soldiers on board. District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Chief John Donnelly told reporters in a news briefing Thursday that 27 bodies had recovered so far from the plane and one from the helicopter. He said that the efforts at the scene have switched from a rescue operation to a recovery operation. American Eagle flight number 5342, which was operated by PSA Airlines, collided midair with the helicopter around 9pm Wednesday while approaching a Runway at Reagan National Airport. The plane had taken off from Witchita. The helicopter involved in the collision was on a training flight and had belonged to B Company, 12th Aviation Battalion out of Fort Belvoir in Virginia. Joint Task Force National Capital Region Media Chief Heather Cheres said that to CBS News and D.C. fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly told reporters in a news briefing. He said, we don't believe there are any survivors. Trump, of course, blamed Biden, Obama and DEI for the crash, even though he just implemented the federal hiring freeze, dismissed the heads of the Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard and dismantled a crucial aviation safety advisory committee. Just Hours before the D.C. crash, Thomas Schaller, a political science professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore county, issued a warning about the federal hiring freeze. On Twitter, he said this hours before the crash. Quote, an FAA employee I know confirms that the agency already lacks sufficient air traffic controllers. The so called buyouts and other attacks on federal employees won't help. Remember that fact when flight delays and crashes commence and Trumpers start falsely blaming DEI or Joe Biden. Wow, right? Called it. Trump even signed, like you said, signed a presidential memo blaming the crash on Biden and DEI and Obama. And according to a report from the faa, there was actually only one air traffic controller on duty when there should have been two. I for one would like to know if the hiring freeze or the federal purge is what caused that seat to be empty and caused those 67 people to die.
- [18:39]
Dana Goldberg
I would like to too, and I hope there's some recourse if they find out that it was. Okay, everyone, we're going on a new story and like we said, we apologize. This is also heavy. But all of this is, you know, it's, it's chaos right now. Hopefully the chaos will, will calm down, but just strap in. This one's from Jason Kobler at 404media. A declassified World War II era government guide to Quote Simple Sabotage is currently one of the most popular open source books on the Internet. The book called Simple Sabotage Field Manual was declassified in 2008 by the CIA and quote, describes ways to train normal people to be purposefully annoying telephone operators, dysfunctional train conductors, befuddling middle managers, blundering factory workers, unruly movie theater patrons, and so on. In other words, teaching people to do their jobs badly. Over the last week, the guide has surged to become the fifth most accessed book on Project Gutenberg, and that's an open source repository of free and public domain ebooks. It's also the fifth most popular ebook on the site over the last 30 days, having been accessed nearly 60,000 times over the last month, just behind Romeo and Juliet, which is very interesting. Maybe someone's planning to do some things. Quote sabotage. I wonder if Melania is on that Romeo and Juliet list. And this is a quote Sabotage varies from highly technical couple Demesne acts should require detailed planning and the use of specially trained operatives. Two innumerable simple acts which the ordinary individual citizen saboteur can perform. That's how the guide begins. Goes on to say simple sabotage does not require specially prepared tools or equipment. I hope everyone's listening to the story because this is kind of a little good trouble before the good trouble. Okay? Simple sabotage does not require specifically prepared tools or equipment. It's executed by an ordinary citizen who may or may not act individually or without the necessity for active connection with an organized group. And it's carried out in such a way as to involve a minimum danger of injury, detection or reprisal. Now, the guide's intro was written by William Wild Bill Donovan, that's his name, and he was the head of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, which later inspired the creation of the CIA. The motivating factor for writing the Guide, according to a passage within it, is that citizen saboteurs were highly effective at resisting the Nazis during World War II. 60,000 people. Everyone have checked this out and the Office of Strategic Services wanted to detail other ways that sabotage could be done. And here's a quote. Acts of simple sabotage are occurring throughout Europe, an effort should be made to add their efficiency, lessen their detectability, and increase their number. This is again from the Guide, and it goes on to say widespread practice of the simple sabotage will harass and demoralize enemy administrators and police, adding the citizens often undertake acts of sabotage not for their own immediate personal gain, but to resist particularly obnoxious decrees. I don't know, or executive orders. Now, people, it was written during active wartime. Okay. The book includes various suggestions for causing physical violence and destruction, such as starting fires, please don't. Flooding warehouses, breaking tools, etc. But it also includes many suggestions for how to just generally be annoying with the bureaucracy of office setting. Like simple sabotage ideas, they include Insist on doing everything through channels. Never permit shortcuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions. You can make speeches, talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your points by long antidotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate patriotic comments. You could bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible. Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions, and obviously this is written back in the time that there's. You know. I'm sure there's a place where minutes and resolutions are still being done. Misunderstand orders. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't. I didn't know what you meant by snitching on someone that has a DEI title. Ask endless questions or engage in long correspondence about those orders. What is. Wait, what does DEI stand for? Quibble over them whenever possible and making work assignments. Always sign out the unimportant jobs first. See that the important jobs are assigned to inefficient workers or poor machines to lure morale within it. Production. Be pleasant to inefficient workers. Give them undeserved promotions. Discriminate against efficient workers. Complain unjustly about their work. Hold conferences when there is more critical work to be done. I know. Multiply paperwork in plausible ways. Make mistakes in quantities of material when you are copying orders. Confuse similar names. Use wrong addresses. Work slowly. Think out ways to increase the number of movements necessary on your job. Pretend that instructions are hard I just don't understand and ask to have them repeated multiple times. Or pretend that you're particularly anxious to do the work and pester the foreman with unnecessary questions. Snarl up administration in every possible way. Fill out forms and allegedly so that they have to be done over. Make mistakes or omit requested information in forms. The Guide also suggests general devices for lowering morale and creating confusion, which include report imaginary spies or danger to the Gestapo or the police. Just act stupid is one of them. Be as irritable or irritable. Irritable, that should be a new word, I think. So irritable as possible. Be it as irritable as possible and quarrelsome as possible without getting yourself into trouble. Stop all conversation. When Access nationals are quizlings, enter a cafe. I like that one because obviously that's not for present day but. But you can go ahead and translate that. Cry and sob hysterically at every occasion, especially when confronted by government clerks. I think all of us should be doing that. Okay. It is impossible to say why this book is currently going viral, by the way. At this moment in time, I think people are reaching for whatever they can and why it may feel particularly relevant to a workforce of millions of people who have suddenly been asked to agree to, quote, be loyal and work under the quasi leadership of the world's richest man. I mean it could be that. And they have been asked to take a buyout that may or may not exist or have their jobs repeatedly denigrated and threatened. Or maybe they've had suddenly been required to return to office. They've been prevented from spending money, have had a turn of critical functions that help people. I don't know. Maybe they've been asked to destroy years worth of work and to rid their workplaces of DEI programs. I don't fucking know. Maybe it's worth wondering why the most popular post in a subreddit for federal workers is titled quote to my fellow feds, especially veterans were at war. There are people researching how to fight back. Be one of them.
- [25:38]
Allison Gill
Yes, I agree and. And honestly that's your good trouble today is to go and look at this. We'll have a link to it in the show notes for you. It's called let's see. Let me scroll up and get the title for you. You can just grab it off the Internet. It's the declassified World War II era government guide to simple sabotage called Simple Sabotage Field manual. Declassified in 2008 written by Wild Bill.
- [26:06]
Dana Goldberg
So good.
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Allison Gill
I love it. I. I feel like this is an opportunity to make art. You know what I mean?
- [26:14]
Dana Goldberg
I do.
- [26:16]
Allison Gill
Anyway, we got a great interview with John Fugelsang coming up and that'll be followed by the Good news. The listener submitted good news. So stick around, we'll be right. Hey everybody, welcome back. It's Friday on the Daily Beans, which means it's fugal saying Fridays. So please welcome my friend, host of Tell Me Everything on Sirius XM progress channel. 127 weeknights at 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific. Or you can grab the John Fugelsang show podcast, preferably not by, you know, don't grab it by just, just listen. Just listen to it. Yeah. So I'm a little off kilter today because of everything that's going on.
- [26:55]
John Fugelsang
But you're, but you're handling it so well. You're being strong for everybody else. And, and thank you for all the ledges you have silently talked me off of in the last couple of weeks.
- [27:04]
Allison Gill
But please welcome John Fugle saying hi. Hi. How are you, my friend?
- [27:10]
John Fugelsang
Oh, I'm doing great, thank you. Having a, having a better week than Donald Trump and Bob Menendez like everybody else. So I'm doing all right. How are you?
- [27:17]
Allison Gill
Yeah, I was also not sentenced to 11 years in prison this week.
- [27:21]
Dana Goldberg
Something.
- [27:21]
John Fugelsang
And that's something because Democrats eject them and MAGA reelects him. That's how it works with the criminals.
- [27:28]
Allison Gill
Nice. Nice. So I wanted to talk to you a little bit today. There's so much going on. Obviously, the reason that there's a lot going on is because of the fire hose. Right. Which is designed to exhaust us. And I've got a lot of energy. My brain is kind of a little bit foggy. But I'm still here. I'm still doing it. And I know you are, too, and I appreciate that. So let's talk a little bit about the resistance because it seems to be working in some cases.
- [27:56]
John Fugelsang
I think in some cases it is. I know that a lot of people are still checked out, but I've said for a long time that Donald Trump is going to have a great first year under a Joe Biden economy to scare the living crap out of every decent person with an IQ above room temperature who can spell the word your correctly. The amount of mess ups and errors that they have committed, has it started to get shocking? I mean, you know, they paused these federal grants for trillions of dollars of programs and this shows these are bullies. And when you punch a bully back in the face very often, you'll watch him back down really quick. Now, any unilateral funding freeze by a president is illegal. Presidents don't have the power to withhold funds that Congress has appropriated. We went through this the last time Trump was president and he tried to withhold aid to Ukraine that led to an impeachment. But you know, Allison, if Donald Trump, if Trump liked learning things, he would not have paid other kids to take his test at Wharton. So they tried this again. And they got shut down. And then when his press secretary tried to lie, because it's easiest to lie when you're hiding behind a gigantic gold Jesus bling, the press secretary tried to lie. The funding freeze was still in effect so a federal judge had to smack them down. And we should be used to this. Whenever they lose, they're going to lie and say they won. They don't want to admit that they had to rescind the order because the President doesn't have the power. But this is why we have to remember there are still checks and balances and separations of power. And the same with this ridiculous buyout. I mean, holding up birthright citizenship that's also federally illegal. This guy's an oath breaker. Democrats impeach him right now. My whole thing is we used to make fun of our teabagger friends when they would have different repeal Obamacare measures every single week. Week. Remember the good old days, Allison, how we laughed at them for all these Obamacare appeals? But what were they doing? They were messaging. They had no power, but they were still consolidating their own base and doing it. And they were showing the most die hard racist that they were willing to do something. I think Democrats need to introduce a different article of impeachment every week. Let's keep on doing it. Keep it in the news. Let them laugh, but get them on the record. Let's try to impeach him right now. Every week, week a new article. Because no president gets to govern with absolute power. And we saw a backlash this week because of Democrats and people on social media who came together and said this is illegal, it's unconstitutional and they backed down. Look at Mike Zimmer in Iowa. He flipped the Senate district by 27 points. Trump won this district 21 points. So Donald Trump's not a dictator. He's proven it. He backs down the public pressure. There are still checks and balances and there is no God damn mandate. The real enemy here is the media that keeps pushing that gaslighting on all of us.
- [30:47]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah.
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Allison Gill
And I was talking yesterday actually on the show to our friend Leigh McGowan, politics girl, love her. That they need to start doing more of this. You know, whether it's speaking out, bringing in. We talked about. Look, if the corporate media isn't going to blast your message out over and over again, bring in those 250 or so content creators that you brought to the DNC, bring them in and have them help get your message out. We'd be totally happy to do that. But Alexandria Ocasio Cortez posted something that there is sort of this kind of feeling in the Democratic Party that digital and social media is kind of of not the same. I don't know. That isn't as good as corporate or legacy media. And they have kind of an aversion to it.
- [31:40]
John Fugelsang
That's because it's rigged. I mean, that's so. That's such a. Such a dumb mentality and fear. It was 10 years ago. The Democrats were crowing at how good they were with this fancy Internet stuff. And look at these Republicans and John McCain. Give me a break. Come on now. Now, young people are online. Young people don't like Republican policies. This Caroline Levitt. I Gotta be honest, Dr. Gill. We're gonna really have a lot of good quality comedy time with her in the months to come. But she came out there and she said a lie. In her very first speech, her first day, she said, I will never lie to you. And then she said, I don't have to because the President's policies are so insanely popular with the American people. That was a lie. Wildly popular. He's like in her first sentence saying, she won't lie. It's easy to speak truth from this podium when you have a president implementing policies that are wildly popular. Okay, Reuters. This week, 59% are against ending birthright citizenship. 59% are against ending DEI. 62% oppose Donald Trump's pardons, 54% oppose Trump's tariffs. His policies aren't popular, and they're really not popular with young people. So Democrats giving up on social media is like Democrats giving up on Christianity or patriotism.
- [33:00]
Allison Gill
Yeah, as she said, because Chris Hayes, you know, MSNBC host, had posted that he said something that I think we can all agree on is that the current generation of Democratic leadership is simply not optimized for the attention age. Not really their fault. And honestly, they may be there, maybe they may be better people for it, but it's a pretty pressing political problem. And that's when AOC responded. There is a general culture within the party, in part due to your point, that discounts or strongly penalizes attention, digital performance and messaging. So there's a strong disincentive and risk for members to perform well in this capacity if they want to ascend. And by ascend, I assume she means get positions on committees that, you know, she was looked over.
- [33:46]
John Fugelsang
It sounds like a really strong argument for booking Democratic lawmakers on every goddamn podcast and Sirius XM progress show, just like Republicans do. If you're a white Douche with a microphone, JD Vance will show up in your basement to be on your goddamn shitty racist podcast. And Democrats. And you know this. You know this. Booking these almighty Democrats to come on and do shows like this, it's birthing a calf. I mean, they're great once you get them warmed up, but half the time they're not socialized to do it. And it's got change. They got to get their hands dirty in more ways than one. Because we have to know the Joe Rogans of the world are going to rig it. The Joe Rogans of the world aren't going to be fair. These media guys, they're going to tilt it towards authoritarianism and male douchebaggery any chance they get. So, Democrats, I hate to be the guy saying, get out of your ivory tower, but come on, God damn it, get on some obscure. Because when you're a prominent Democrat and you go on an obscure podcast, you've helped that. That little broadcaster increases audience exponentially. And that's going to help you in the long run, start building this great progressive infrastructure y'all talk about. Instead of waiting for Mike Bloomberg and Rob Reiner to call a couple of billion dollars and buy Fox News. We're never going to get Current TV 2.0 there. The billionaires are not going to fund a media infrastructure that says billionaires should be taxed more. Okay? It's never going to happen. Happen. That's why all the progressive terrestrial talk stations went away after 2012, except for a few like CPT in Chicago. So we don't have this online media empire that the right has. And it's up to Democrats and celebrities to start feeding it, nurturing it, and letting it grow like a quality minor league baseball team.
- [35:26]
Allison Gill
Ah, very well put, my friend. You. You mentioned J.D. vance.
- [35:30]
John Fugelsang
What a guy. What a guy. Oh, such a. He's so Christian, isn't he? Boy, boy, when you. When you get past the fact that he hates everything Jesus talks about in that book, he's so Christian. Much more than Jesus and much more than the Catholic bishops, don't you think? I mean, he's been a. He's been a Catholic for five years already. Allison. These bishops have only been bishops since before he was born. The. Do they know? I never thought. As someone who was raised Catholic, I never thought. Thought. With what we've seen in the past two decades with this Catholic Church, I never thought we'd see the day when a politician could make people feel sorry for the Catholic bishops, But God damn, J.D. vance has made the Catholic bishops sympathetic figures in our lifetime.
- [36:15]
Allison Gill
Tell everybody what you're talking about.
- [36:17]
John Fugelsang
Well, so as you all know, last week we saw the bishop, the Episcopalian archbishop of the National Cathedral, Bishop Buddy enrage Christians for the crime of quoting Jesus directly. They can't stand Jesus. And this is why you'll notice these fake Christians that the Democrats refuse to call out for their blasphemy. They will never try to put a Jesus quote on any school. They'll never try to put a quote of Jesus on any public building, okay? They call themselves Christians because that's their camouflage. So Bishop Buddy comes out and talks about mercy for the marginalized because that's Jesus's entire thing. Thing. Talking about helping the lowest of the low. That's like at Jesus's live gigs. That was like his Layla, okay? That was his free bird. That was his thing. So these people really don't want that. And they need to believe the poor is lazy. Poor are lazy so they can sleep at night. Falwell taught them how to do this. So Bishop Buddy comes out there and actually points out that Jesus commands empathy for trans people and migrants. And by the way, Jesus sides with the illegal immigrants much more then he sides with rich people consistently. So they flip out over this. And then they're continuing with their crackdown on migration. Again, both testaments of the Bible command you to welcome the stranger. And none of them mean it because none of these politicians want to do a thing about the employers. I say this every week. And I'm sorry, but there's a giant help waterside at our border. That's why they cross. These Republicans don't want to do a goddamn thing that would jeopardize a marginalized, exploited workforce. Off the book books. They will never do that to those job creators. So they have just enough racism to make the voters back at home feel like something's being done, right? So the Catholic bishops come out and say, this goes against everything that's in our catechism. You can't do this. And so then Babyman and his little eyeliner go on a Meet the Press. I believe it might be Face the Nation. I'm sorry, I'm not sure. And he says that.
- [38:13]
Allison Gill
Face the Press, Meet the Nation.
- [38:14]
John Fugelsang
Meet the Meet the Nation. Face the Face the Nation press that the Conference of Catholic Bishops has not been a good partner in Common Sense immigration enforcement. Now this is a guy, J.D. vance, who got this job by deliberately spreading a racist lie about legal migrants from Haiti. Racist lies about legal migrants. He'd be Catholic for five years. But he thinks he can preach on the faith better than priests and bishops who've done this longer than he's been alive. Catholic teaching always calls for pursuit of the common good. What does that mean? These are white guys making the rules. But Jesus and the Beatitude Sermon on the Mount, Blessed are the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers. You can't get elected as a Republican on that message. And their economic priorities are tax cuts for the wealthy, fuck the poor. So this guy, this vice president, managed to insult the entire Catholic hierarchy and Pope Francis and Catholic relief organizations and Catholic charities. And remember, the bishop's Migration and Refugee services helps resettle around 18% of the refugees who arrive in our country every year. And if you're standing on American soil, you're legally allowed to claim asylum. Legally. So there's no illegal part to any of this. Where Dr. Gill. The hell are the Democrats calling this out and talking about what the Bible actually says? Are they so afraid of alienating racists that they can't come out there and say, look, man, we're all in favor of comprehensive reform and you have to have safeguards. We're not for open borders. But JD Vance is a racist liar and most Americans aren't this mean and shitty. The end. I want to hear it. They're not doing it.
- [39:50]
Allison Gill
Well, they might be saying it, but they might be saying it to, you know, corporate media reporters in the rotunda who aren't putting it out. You're right again. We need to, like you said, army of Democrats on the hill, go on all of the podcasts every day that you can. You will help increase their audiences, they will help build your audience and your message will get out.
- [40:14]
John Fugelsang
And legacy media can't do it.
- [40:15]
Allison Gill
This is the simplest thing.
- [40:16]
John Fugelsang
Yeah, legacy media can't do it. Listen, there's great journalists in corporate media, but journalists and media are not the same thing. Journalists have a responsibility to the truth and challenging those in power. Corporate media has a responsibility to profits and clicks and eyeballs and ratings and shareholders. So we're never going to get you. Look what happened this week. Week when he lied Trump that he ordered the military into California, right?
- [40:41]
Allison Gill
To turn on the water faucet.
- [40:42]
John Fugelsang
U.S. military entered the great state of California under emergency powers, turned on the water flowing abundantly from the Pacific Northwest. The days of putting a fake environmental argument over the people are over. Enjoy the there's six lies in that one post. And California Department of Water Resources said the military did not enter California. The government restarted federal pumps after they Were offline for maintenance for three days. We have plenty of water. And FOX checked with the Pentagon and they were like, they said they sent no troops to turn on the water in California. I mean, this level of lies. If Joe Biden had lied like this, they would have 25th amendmented him for just being out of it by the next morning. So maybe Trump really is this stupid, or maybe he's just lying for sheer propaganda. But either way, he thinks everybody is this stupid. He thinks everybody is stupid as the flunkies. He surrounds himself with, the wives who keep their mouth shuts to stay comfortable and the moron racists who show up at his rallies. He thinks the rest of us are this stupid that he can lie about the military entering California to turn on the water. Alison, dude is messy. He's messy and he's not good at this.
- [41:55]
Allison Gill
No, and I agree. And I don't think the answer is to sit idly by while he's destroys things so that people don't vote for Republicans in two years.
- [42:06]
John Fugelsang
Apathy is fascism's lube.
- [42:09]
Allison Gill
And, and you know, I, I am, I am a big proponent of let Trump talk. Right, that whole idea of let him fuck up. But we're at a point where this impacts the lives of Americans and families and children and our LGBTQIA plus brothers and sisters and people and our neighbors and our refugees and our asylum seekers, which, by the way, don't come from insane asylums, as I think Trump is still convinced, which is why he brings up Hannibal Lecter.
- [42:43]
John Fugelsang
Deeply stupid man. Deeply stupid man.
- [42:45]
Allison Gill
Deeply stupid.
- [42:46]
John Fugelsang
And it's not that he's stupid, it's that millions of amoral Caucasians can't see that he's stupid. That's the real disturbing part about his dumbness. We just saw this week in Milwaukee, a toddler, his mother and his grandmother, all American citizens, were detained in the airport and taken to an immigration center by US officials in Milwaukee because they were speaking Spanish in an airport in Wisconsin. They're from Puerto Rico. They're U.S. citizens. They were detained and pulled out of an airport for speaking Spanish. This is really happening. And just because it's not happening to anyone you directly know yet, that doesn't mean it's not evil and doesn't mean it can't hurt all of us.
- [43:25]
Allison Gill
Agreed. And to build that 30,000 bed concentration camp in Guantanamo, which, by the way.
- [43:31]
John Fugelsang
He doesn't mean like.
- [43:32]
Allison Gill
And where's he getting that money? What, what, what programs is he pulling that money from?
- [43:36]
John Fugelsang
Here's the thing. And you're brilliant. You know, you call it the fire hose, I call it the tennis ball launcher. He launches these things out of his mouth, and the media, like dogs chase down every yellow, bouncy tennis ball wherever it goes. He's never going to move 30,000 migrants to Gitmo. That was what he does. Well, to get the media to change the narrative off the fact that a judge had just smacked down his illegal, unconstitutional funding scheme. That's all it was. You'll never hear it again. He just says it to get liberals angry and get people excited. And by the way, this deferred resignation offer, because Elon Musk thinks that our government as a private corporation, you can just do a buyout on, I mean, instructing employees to respond with resign. And the subject line like that's legally binding. Nothing of this is legal. And Trump has no access to pay federal workers for any of this money without congressional approval. This was, this email was sent to more than 2 million federal employees. Alison, now, now they've offered 2 million workers eight months of pay. I'm not very good at math. I went to those public schools. I went through this. Average salary for a Federal employee is 106,000 a year. Eight months of that is $70,974. Times 2 million is $141.9 billion. Where is this money? Where has it been appropriated from?
- [44:59]
Allison Gill
Well, it's not like he's asking him to resign now and he's going to give him eight months of pay. They're going to still be on the payroll. That's the kick.
- [45:08]
John Fugelsang
But conceivably, this is the offer on the table. We could drop you anytime.
- [45:12]
Allison Gill
Yes, yes.
- [45:13]
John Fugelsang
And they'll be working with no pay. I mean that, I mean, they won't be working. Many of them won't be working. They've already said they're into cleaning out offices and having the government slow down and not function.
- [45:23]
Allison Gill
Yeah, but they could call you back, they could give you tasks, they could make you train your next person. They're very ambiguous about the entire thing.
- [45:30]
John Fugelsang
But again, there's no money for, there's no money for it, it, no, of course not.
- [45:34]
Allison Gill
But I just, you know, to, to have people not work. Yeah. If you're spending that money on a federal workforce, you're getting work.
- [45:45]
John Fugelsang
Yeah, brilliant.
- [45:46]
Allison Gill
I know. It's, it's math.
- [45:48]
John Fugelsang
And by the way, can I just, can I just also say we're now two weeks since Donald Trump promised to wrap up the Ukraine invasion in 24 hours. I, I, I, I'm now calling Ending the Ukraine war and Trump's infrastructure and Trump's healthcare plan. Alison. Trump's three wives, and I call them Trump's three wives because none of them are ever gonna come under Donald Trump. Thank you, folks. Thank you so much for coming out tonight. It's so good to see you guys. Take care of your waitress. They're working hard.
- [46:15]
Allison Gill
Tip. The waitstaff took the waitstaff. I'll be here all week. Second show. That's why I don't do two shows a night anymore. I do want to tell you, you should check out. I did an interview and it's my first audio podcast on Substack. It doesn't really have a name, it was just a post, but it, you know, Elon Musk went in, installed a box, uploaded all of the OPM server data to the cloud and started fucking with it. All of their subdomains were publicly visible for a couple of days until somebody realized that they were being pinged and then redacted. About half of them, including that hr, opm.gov email address where you're supposed to resign. Of course they had load sharing devices in there that, that became redacted because that you were aren't actually replying to HR opm.gov, it's like HR 0 through HR 19, which they did because their d e I a truthpm.gov email address got bombed with B movie scripts and spam. And so, you know, this interview, it's, it's, it's fascinating that he's found some of these certificates and some of this activity that's happening. People from outside the agency exposing every single federal government employee's private information to the world and that some of these admin user portals seem to be in another country as well. So it's very fascinating. Mullershire.com you can listen to that interview. It's really techy, but we break it down so people like myself can understand it. People who can't even merge two email boxes together on my Gmail account. So. So I hope everybody checks that out and give it a listen. And if you want to talk about it further, let me know. But I appreciate you coming on today, everybody. You can listen to Fugal saying it's called Tell me everything. And it. He literally does tell you everything, by the way.
- [48:09]
John Fugelsang
No, my guests. My guests tell me everything. And I just sit there and drool on the clicker. That's pretty much it.
- [48:13]
Allison Gill
No, I've been on your show. It's fantastic. You could catch Sirius XM progress channel 127 weeknights, 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific, or the John Fuglesang show podcast, my friend. It's always good to see you. Thanks for coming on today.
- [48:25]
John Fugelsang
I want to tell everybody if they missed the big Sexy Liberal inauguration special, you can see that as a pay per view@Sexy Liberal.com and I'm playing at the Phillipstown Depot Theater in New York, Saturday, February 8th. The Church of Satire in Pennsylvania, February 23rd. And my book comes out this summer. Thank you, Alison.
- [48:40]
Allison Gill
Ah, I'm so, so excited about this book book Separation of Church and Hate. Can't wait to read it. All right, 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. Good news. And we really, really, really, really, really need your good news. So everybody send in your good news stories. Even if it's just something small, simple, short. A shout out to a loved one or a small business in your area. A shout out to a government program that's really helped you or a family member out. A shout out to yourself. We love self shout outs. If you want to tell us about a wubby or a blankie or a stuffed animal that's been in your family for generations, we want to hear about that. If you have a correction that you want to send to us, especially pronunciation correction, we want too student debt relief stories. And all you got to do to submit your good news or your shout out is to attach your pod pet photo. So just attach a picture of your pet. If it's a, a wonder mutt. We'll try to guess the breeds in there if you want us to. If you, if you tell us the answers. If you don't know the answers, that means we're right. We love that. We love being right. If you don't have a pet, you can send us an adoptable pet in your area. You don't have that. Any animal photo will do. If you don't have any animal photos. We love baby photos. Your baby photos, your family's baby photos, your, your kids baby photos, random baby photos off the Internet. Send them to us. Love them. And then of course we also accept bird watching photos which can be an actual bird or you and your friends and loved ones flipping off trump properties. Yeah. So send them to us. We'd love to see it. And also anything you're making or creating. God. With so many incredible like knitters and quilters and artists and musicians and poets and like making things and we want to see what you're doing to to pass the time to take your mind off what' going on?
- [50:43]
Dana Goldberg
Absolutely.
- [50:43]
Allison Gill
All right, first up from Cam. Pronouns he and him hello. A Canadians Beans. Canadian beans. Listener here love the show and very much appreciate the filter you apply to the news. I like filter. The good news is that although Canada is facing the prospect of electing Trump Light next cycle, it's not too late. On a personal note, I've taken many lessons from your critical analysis of politics and applied them to my own situation. My political rants are far more informed and persuasive, sounding smart and reasoned with a sprinkle of pissed off. Thank you for the daily dose of Team Beans.
- [51:18]
Dana Goldberg
I love that.
- [51:19]
Allison Gill
Here is my pet tax Kermode or kermody AKA Ode Odie Bear. I don't know if it's ode or Odie. I'm so sorry cam bear, Bubba, Mr. Fluffy Pants. I have a fluffy pants in my house. Cam. He has a Pyrenees lab cross and a happy dude.
- [51:35]
Dana Goldberg
Oh my God, he's so freaking cute.
- [51:37]
Allison Gill
Oh, he's adorable. He's got a Cookie Monster shirt and a rainbow bandana tie dye. I love it.
- [51:45]
Dana Goldberg
Me.
- [51:45]
Allison Gill
Thank you for that.
- [51:46]
Dana Goldberg
All right, this next one is from anonymous Pronoun she and her hello my sapiosexual dream goddesses of the beans. Thank you both in the behind the bean scenes, folks for making this pod happen. I'd like to tell you about my younger, not so little sister. I'm incredibly proud of the woman she's become. She's the first in our family to have earned a postgraduate degree, has been serving our country working at the FBI for 10 years now. Now she's a badass and I love her to the moon and back. I do worry about her, especially now that giant blob of orange feces is making an even more difficult work environment than the last time they were given a directive to help HSI and ICE with quote, removals. My hurt hurts for her because we are the children of immigrants and I know damn well a lot of people being rounded up aren't criminals and aren't even undocumented. They just look a certain way. This isn't her job anyway. Infinite love and gratitude to her and all of our public servants who have to deal with this shit. This wouldn't be happening if MBP Harris had been elected, though I'm not entirely sure she wasn't. The math ain't mathing, in my opinion, but that's a whole different submission. By the way. I agree with you. Take care Ladies. Sending you both a big hug and my gratitude. Here's a picture of me when I was two and a cat that has been taken residence in my mom's patio. Now, I know that this is probably Craziness Anonymous. I'm sure we don't know each other, but I feel like I know this child. Like I've seen this baby picture before somehow or I know your face, I don't know. But you are adorable. Your sister sounds like a fucking badass. Please tell her to stay safe. And thank you so much for the submission. I am so sorry she's in this position. I cannot even imagine.
- [53:26]
Allison Gill
Yeah, this is a truly beautiful picture though. Look at. Did you see the. The ponytail holders? That one with the two PL balls on it that kill you.
- [53:35]
Dana Goldberg
Knuckles Every single pop you right in the face if you don't do it right.
- [53:38]
Allison Gill
Yep, yep, yep. Danger. Those were dangerous and I didn't understand them. They didn't like.
- [53:45]
Dana Goldberg
They were so complicated.
- [53:47]
Allison Gill
Yeah, they didn't make it. They didn't. You're like, don't leave me.
- [53:49]
Dana Goldberg
I did have pigtails at one point, though. I think I have a picture of it. But my mom stopped doing that when she realized, no me gusta.
- [53:57]
Allison Gill
Look at the pretty kitty too. Hi, kitty. Pretty kitty. He was a pretty kitty. Oh, thanks for the submission. All right, next up from Vicky T. Hey, girls, thanks for all you do to keep us sane. Er, a job more difficult with each passing day. I'm afraid I'm responding to last night's pod with the woman who was looking for the guy with the cats on social media. I too followed him when I was a member of the Bad Space. His name Patrick Skinner and you can see him at SkinnerPM and he's also on Blue sky at PM. Skinner dot. Not only did he feed neighborhood cats in Savannah, Georgia, he would trap, neuter, return them. I found him via a New Yorker article where he explained the difficulty with law enforcement mindset of fighting a war, drugs, immigration, etc. It's a fabulous article. It's called the Spy who Came Home and we'll link to it here in the show notes. Well worth the read. My pod pet pick is my granddaughter, Rosco, who apparently had been chasing our son's truck for two miles when he decided stopping at Papa's house for a drink seemed like a good idea. He's a farm dog. Enough said.
- [55:05]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, boy.
- [55:08]
Allison Gill
Thanks, Vicki, for that. So, yeah, somebody wrote in yesterday and said, what was the guy who fed the birds? So it's Patrick Skinner.
- [55:15]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, so sweet. Love it all right, this one's from Rachel. Pronounce she and her hello lovely legumi queens. I'm a 20 plus year federal employee who has been struggling a lot the past 10 days. I've been oscillating between anxiety, fear, extreme rage and it's been fucking exhausting. But I just found out that my newish position is actually bargaining unit eligible. Yeah, and I had no idea. So as of 15 minutes ago, I became a dues paying member of the American Federation of Government Employees. That's right. I'm a union girl now. I feel like a cloud has been lifted and I can breathe again. Not only do I feel more secure in my job, but it gives me the opportunity to fight back against all this bullshit from the inside. I know all of my fellow federal beans aren't in this fortunate position. So I want you all to know that there's at least one more person out there standing up for all of us. I'll do all I can to fight the fascists trying to destroy everything right now, no matter what. For my POD pet tax, I'm submitting pics of my kitties, Rosie, AKA Rosario, Possum and Dexter, AKA Fatty. These two keep me smiling in the dark times. I hope they'll do the same for you. Keep fighting the good fight ladies, and thank you for all you do. By the way, Rachel, I met Rosario Dawson at the dnc. She could not have fucking been nicer.
- [56:38]
Allison Gill
Yeah, I love. She was there.
- [56:40]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah.
- [56:41]
Allison Gill
Rosario Pawson. So good. Rachel, I'm glad you were able to join a union. If, if you ever, if you're a federal worker worker, you might be bargaining unit eligible. Find out, pay your dues, join the union. It'll put that extra layer of protection between you and the baddies.
- [57:00]
Dana Goldberg
Absolutely.
- [57:00]
Allison Gill
All right, next up, Foxen's mom pronouns she and her hello. This is a combo shout out and good trouble for an absolutely wonderful website, Gutenberg.org which has a gazillion free downloadable books in various forms you can just read on the site. Oh, hey, look it. In particular, I would direct your collective attention to the wicked title World War II era volume called the Simple Sabotage Field Guide, where you and your friends can learn how to fully constipate the inner workings of any fascist movement you choose. This Midwestern granny will be spending the whole benighted administration studying up on how I can be just a giant throbbing pustule on the arse of the creature, which is my name for the shambling pile of doo doo currently fouling our Oval Office. I encourage you and my fellow listeners to do the same for pop that tax. I give you a very dorky little me aged maybe seven, with one of my puppets foreshadowing my current summer volunteer job as a cost costumed puppeteer. Also ukulele player at an outdoor history venue. Yeah. Scampers arthritically away.
- [58:05]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, look at that. Got that puppet. Oh, puppet.
- [58:08]
Allison Gill
Adorable. Is that the puppet from Mr. Rogers neighborhood? The little Daniel the tiger?
- [58:14]
Dana Goldberg
Sure looks like it.
- [58:15]
Allison Gill
It's got the same nose, but adorable. That's really cool. You Foxen's mom. You and I had the same idea. I was like, we got to talk about the simple sabotage field manual to today. And there you are. So thanks for sending that in, everybody. Send us your good news dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. I really, really appreciate it. We'll be back in your ear Sunday, Andy McCabe and I, for the second episode of Unjustified where we talk about what's going on at the doj, at Trump's doj. And we'll be back in your ears on Monday. So we appreciate you. Do you have any. You said you had some final thoughts today.
- [58:49]
Dana Goldberg
I do. I do. Everyone I know, a lot of us I'm going to speak for, a lot of us are really trying to figure out what we can do and how we can help without burning out and we're losing sleep at night. I had a really good therapy session today. I have a great therapist. Thank God we're on the same side politically. She used some very choice words which make me feel validated and you know how much work I do for the communities and trying to get justice. And I feel helpless right now. Feel a bit helpless that all the work that I've done over the last 15 years feels like it's just slipping away and we can continue to get on stage. I'm going to continue to fight. But I have this need and this need for the people that voted for him to see their ways, to feel pain in some ways to apologize to us, to realize that they fucked everyone and not just themselves. Like, I have this need. It's also a need I have in personal relationship that doesn't always come to fruition. And so she was saying she has given herself a tool of be realistic in what you can do. Think about it. Set a goal for yourself. What can I do today? Even if it's one of our good trouble incentives, what can I do today so that at the end of the night I can look in the mirror and say I did everything I could today.
- [60:02]
Allison Gill
Even if it's just waking up and existing.
- [60:05]
Dana Goldberg
Exactly. We can't get him out of office right now. We know that you can't do that by yourself right now. There's a lot of things we cannot do. So think about what you can do. That's what you're in charge of. It will save your mental health, it will save your immune system. And literally, even if it's like, you know what? I got out of bed this morning because, trust me, I've been having a really hard time getting out of bed. I don't know if it's because it's winter or because I have low level depression about what's going on or whatever it is. Set a realistic goal for yourself to know that at the end of the day, you can really look at yourself and go, you know what? I did everything I could today and now I'm going to rest.
- [60:38]
Allison Gill
Oh, I love that. And I'm so with you. I have this thing, this justice thing.
- [60:43]
Dana Goldberg
Yep.
- [60:43]
Allison Gill
Where if somebody doesn't understand what I'm talking about or recognize that they've done some shit wrong and doesn't apologize to me, it's, it seems so. It's mind bogglingly unfair and it really, really is a, a thorn in my side, you know, for a really long time. It's why I think for the whole Mueller investigation, on the whole Garland investigation, I was like, just, everybody just lower your expectations a little bit. Just lower your expectations on justice a little bit. Because it doesn't always turn out the way that we think it's going to.
- [61:16]
Dana Goldberg
And when you live in that space where you need the other person to take accountability, the only person that's exhausted fasting is you.
- [61:23]
Allison Gill
That's so, so true. Thank you for that.
- [61:26]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah.
- [61:26]
Allison Gill
That's such important advice. Thank you. Thank you so much.
- [61:30]
Dana Goldberg
Thank my therapist, y'all. Yeah, you can donate. Thanks for my. My Venmo is DG comedy.
- [61:35]
Allison Gill
Yeah.
- [61:35]
Dana Goldberg
By the hour.
- [61:38]
Allison Gill
Thanks for paying for therapy for us today. Yeah, you betcha. Anyway, follow, follow Dana everywhere on social media. It's DG comedy. It's, it's, it's important to laugh. And yeah, my friend, you make me laugh. You keep me laughing.
- [61:53]
Dana Goldberg
Same, same, same. Thank you.
- [61:55]
Allison Gill
So, everybody, we'll see you Monday. Today, my brain has just been such a giant pile of mush.
- [62:03]
Dana Goldberg
One thing we can say after you end this day, because you're listening to it on the last day, January of 2025 is finally fucking over.
- [62:15]
Allison Gill
Like, I had that conversation with that system security specialist about DNS servers, DKIM stuff and SSSR certificates and all like. And I had to Prep for an. Two hours before I talked to this guy for 25 minutes. And I. And it was one of those conversations or if you've. Have you ever taken like a really hard class where you actually have to apply your brain constantly for a long time and it's exhausting. And I went, I finished the way.
- [62:45]
Dana Goldberg
Every time I talk to you, Alice.
- [62:47]
Allison Gill
Oh no, no.
- [62:48]
Dana Goldberg
It's just because you're so smart. Oh no.
- [62:53]
Allison Gill
Oh no. I'm trying. I want to be the easygoing, fun person.
- [63:00]
Dana Goldberg
I'm kidding. I'm joking.
- [63:02]
Allison Gill
So then I slept for eight hours after that conversation. And after all that prep and I was still. I was exhausted. I was like a brain hungover this morning.
- [63:10]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah.
- [63:11]
Allison Gill
From that.
- [63:11]
Dana Goldberg
How I feel after a show, man, we put everything on the stage. It's the same thing when you have to, you know, have a conversation with someone where you're like, okay, I'm not the smartest person in the room right now. What can I learn from them?
- [63:21]
Allison Gill
Uhhuh. Yeah. Oh man. Anyway, yeah, I. I got brain hangover from. From concentrating too much. Anyway, again, we'll see you all Monday. Thank you so much for listening. Please send your good news to us. If you aren't a patron yet, consider becoming one. We have tons more listeners and the costs of keeping the lights on is going up. So you can do that@patreon.com Muller she wrote, and we'll see you soon. 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.
- [63:49]
Dana Goldberg
I've been AG and I've been dg.
- [63:51]
Allison Gill
And them's the beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison 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 Studio 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 MSW media. Com. MSW Media.