C (2:56)

Yeah. That's gonna be a very fun night. By the way, Clayton Weimers from Reporters Without Borders about the existential threats to the press in the United States. That's who we have today. You're gonna wanna listen to this. Alison had a great interview with Clayton. So just having them on the show is awesome. And all the information we can get is education.

B (3:15)

Yeah. And it's really interesting because, you know, Clayton was at the White House Correspondents Dinner, and I know a lot of us were like, why did anybody go to this? But it's a really interesting story about how a news outlet actually to give up their seats to their table and invite Free Press Advocate nonprofits.

C (3:34)

Interesting.

B (3:35)

To come in. And that's why Clayton from Reporters Without Borders was there. And I thought that was a very good use of White House correspondence dinner tickets. And we talk about that, but we also talk about, like you said, the threats to the fourth estate.

C (3:48)

So I love that. I wish people had done that with the Met Gala tickets. Like, I don't know if they're transferable in that sort of way, but they did a, you know, the Met Galas tonight in New York, and it's sponsored by Bezos and. But the workers, the workers from some of the Amazon companies did their own fashion show. I believe it was in Brooklyn. It looked like it was in Brooklyn. Just sort of to be like, this is really who should be honored here. Because without us, he wouldn't have these billions of dollars and all these zeros behind his name to be able to sponsor something like the Met Gala.

B (4:18)

Excellent. Yeah. And I mean, there's just story after story about how Amazon workers are getting hurt, sick and even dying in these warehouses, and the work just continues on, like, over their bodies. It's real horrific, dystopian, late stage capitalism. So, yeah, thank you for bringing that up as well. We have tons of news to get to today. As a matter of fact, we have more stories than normal, so we better get to it. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up from Politico, the Supreme Court has temporarily restored online and mail order access to the abortion drug mifepristone after a federal appeals court curtailed access to the medication. On Friday. In a brief order Monday, Justice Samuel Alito put on hold A decision by the fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that limited how patients could obtain the pills. Alito's order is in effect through May 11, giving all nine justices time to consider requests from the drug manufacturers to keep the appeals court ruling on ice while the Supreme Court considers whether to take up the issue. So this is a temporary administrative stay for a week while the Supreme Court thinks about a more permanent stay during the pendency of the case.

C (5:31)

Got it.

B (5:32)

There's a lot of steps that go into these kinds of things. The Trump administration, which has asked the lower courts to hold off on a ruling until the FDA completes an internal review of the drug's safety. The administration has yet to react to the 5th Circuit decision. The pharmaceutical companies argue that the Supreme Court must intervene in order to prevent regulatory chaos, saying the 5th Circuit's decision was deeply unsettling to drug sponsors, healthcare providers, patients, and the public, all of whom rely on FDA's exercise of scientific judgment and orderly administration of the nation's complex system of drug regulation. Now, of course, the FDA now isn't as scientific as it used to be,

C (6:11)

which fucking is scary because mifepristone has been proven to be safer than Advil.

B (6:16)

Yeah.

C (6:17)

Yeah.

B (6:18)

And now the high court's move returns two doctors in states with protections for the procedure. For now, the ability prescribe by telehealth, a drug used in more than two thirds of abortions by telehealth and to send it by mail across state lines. That has become one of the most common ways for patients to circumvent state bans on the procedure, a practice Louisiana argued in court threatens its sovereignty and the safety of its residents. Planned Parenthood was one of the many abortion providers and advocacy groups to both celebrate the ruling and warn that the legal back and forth is sowing mass fear and confusion. I think Alito wants to slow walk this until the FDA comes out with their ruling and that the FDA's ruling that I think they might slow walk it until after the midterm elections or at least if they do decide that miferpristone is unsafe at the fda, to throw it back to the court in any way, in any case, to have this decided after the midterm elections.

C (7:17)

You're probably right. Yeah, you're probably right. They're already in enough trouble. All right. This one's also from Politico. A federal magistrate judge tore into to officials from the Washington, D.C. jail on Monday for their treatment of the man who allegedly attempted to assassinate Donald Trump at the White House correspondence dinner. This is a little bit what we talked about. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruki said Cole Allen's placement in severe lockdown, including a temporary suicide watch that required 24 hour a day placement in a padded lighted cell without access to phone calls, books, religious material or recreation time, appeared to be unfairly punitive and not based on any known medical assessment. Now, Faruki, who played a role, by the way, in hundreds of cases stemming from January 6 attack on the Capitol, said Allen was being treated more harshly than those defendants despite similar allegations of political violence aimed at members of Congress and government leaders. Uh huh. Those defendants, they were housed in a less restrictive wing of the jail known as the Central Treatment Facility. This is what he noted and were given significant accommodations during their detention. Now, Faruki emphasized that despite grave charges against Allen, the court and jail are still supposed to presume his innocence, particularly because he has no criminal history. He apologized to Allen, saying it was partly the court's role to ensure that someone detained while awaiting trial was subjected to fair and dignified conditions. Farwicki ordered D.C. jail officials to update him by Tuesday morning on when and whether Allen would be moved into less restrictive conditions. Farouki's comparison to January 6th defendant it dredges up a fraught aspect of the four year prosecution of people charged and convicted of breaching the Capitol that day. The nationwide manhunt. It began during the height of the COVID era with severe housing restrictions for all inmates in the D.C. jail. January 6th defendants routinely lamented their conditions in the jail, noting that they were subjected to similarly severe lockdowns, limits on their access to lawyers, challenges in reviewing evidence of their criminal cases, and concerns about access to medical care. Faruki, however, said Allen appeared to be facing restrictions that no January 6th defendant ever did. And this is a quote, he can be both kept safe and treated with dignity. Right now it's not working. I think it's legally deficient. And ultimately, if the DOC can't do it, I'll speak to the U.S. attorney's office. I know they have other facilities that they can contract with. If you all cannot handle it, we're going to have to reassess that with the marshals and the Department of Justice. Prosecutors said little during the hearing except to note that Allen had informed FBI agents the night of the alleged assassination attempt that he hadn't expected to survive, a detail that the jail might have relied upon to consider him a suicide risk. But Faruki underscored that the medical professionals disagreed and said he interpreted Allen's purported remark to be an indication he expected to get shot. Not that he was seeking to end his life, of course. That's what he meant.

B (10:27)

That's interesting. I'm glad that this judge is comparing it to the January Sixers who got like vegan meals. And I think the judge actually ended up saying, if January Sixers can get vegan meals, certainly Alan can get a Bible. Like, seriously? Yeah, so we'll keep an eye on that for you because it sounds like sometime early today on Tuesday is when the DOJ has to respond that the conditions have been returned off of suicide watch and precautions. Now this next story is from the Guardian. Donald Trump has threatened that Iran will be blown off the face of the earth if it attacks US Vessels trying to reopen a route through the Strait of Hormuz. The US Launched an operation Monday to help hundreds of ships trapped with their crews in the Gulf, dragging the region back to the brink of full scale war. Tehran sought to reassert its blockade on the strait, which is a vital waterway in global trade, while the US Military claimed to have destroyed six Iranian small boats and intercepted both Iranian cruise missiles and drones. This all was denied by Iran. Over 800 ships and roughly 20,000, 20,000 crew members remain stranded in the region. Trump's threats against Iran echoed remarks he made last April when he warned that the whole civilization will die tonight if Tehran failed to comply with his demands over the Strait of Hormuz. Comments that drew, you know, obviously and well deserved widespread domestic and international backlash. So we're back on the bullshit?

C (11:51)

Yes, we are. I'm not surprised.

B (11:53)

Nice ceasefire you got there.

C (11:54)

Yeah, yeah, no kidding. All right, this is from Aaron Reed, who we love from Aaron in the morning on April 30, the DOJ Civil Rights Division, led by anti trans activist and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, launched investigations into 36 Illinois public school districts over LGBTQ plus and transgender issues. The investigations targeted whether transgender students are allowed to use bathrooms and play sports, and whether students learn that LGBTQ LGBTQ people exist in their education and curriculum. Dylan cited Mahmoud vs. Taylor, which is a narrow Supreme Court ruling, by the way, about religious opt outs from storybooks that says nothing about banning LGBTQ plus content from schools, as well as a novel interpretation of Title 9 that claims the law requires discrimination against transgender students requires the investigations carry the implicit threat of federal funding losses and other punitive action. Notably, the Trump administration has tried the same playbook with school districts across the country and has failed repeatedly. School districts in Virginia, Denver, Chicago, New York City all refused to comply with similar demands and a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking the administration's restrictions on behalf of the 16 state coalition and I quote, today the Justice Department Civil Rights Division launched investigations into 36 Illinois public school districts to determine whether they have included sexual orientation and gender identity, what they're calling S O I content in other class or for grades Pre K through 12. That's what the DOJ's announcement read. It said if they are teaching, we're going to call it SOI because I'm, I'm assuming that's what they're calling it sogi. Related CONTENT the investigations will examine whether the schools have notified parents of their right to opt their children out of such instruction. The investigation will also assess whether the Illinois school districts limit access to single sex intimate spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms and girls sports teams based on biological sex. It continues making it clear that the investigations go far beyond parental opt outs and extend to basic inclusive policies toward transgender students, including whether schools allow them to use the bathroom. Political leaders in Illinois have rejected the investigation's basis wholesale and I quote, the Trump administration continues to punish states the President does not like. And this is yet another sham investigation carried out by an office with no regard for the rule of law or the well being of the American people. This is from JB Pritzker said the Civil Rights Division used to investigate actual discrimination concerns to ensure all individuals are treated equally under the law, but they've now focused on belittling the rights and humanity of LGBTQ communities. US Senator Dick Durbin was equally blunt and I quote, I can save the DOJ some time. Their Investigation will find 36 Illinois school districts dedicated to providing their students with a good, well rounded education. If the Trump administration truly cared about supporting Illinois students in their education, it would reverse the decision to dismantle the Department of Education, finally support Head Start programs and stop attacking Title 1 funding and the rights for LGBTQ students. Instead, the President is once again weaponizing the DOJ to carry out a sham investigation against a state that did not vote for him in the 2020 election. As always, you can read more at Aaron in the Morning on Substack.

B (15:31)

Yeah, and Aaron also went through the trouble of listing all 36 Illinois school districts.

C (15:37)

So she's amazing.

B (15:38)

Yeah, she is. So you can go and find out more information. Again, Aaron in the Morning on substack. Next up from the Post, Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was hospitalized with pneumonia and remains in critical but stable condition. That's what his spokesman said in a statement Monday, Giuliani, who's 81, initially was placed on a ventilator. He was ventilated to maintain adequate oxygen and stabilize his condition. That's what Ted Goodman said in a statement. That's his spokesman. As of late Monday morning, Goodman said the former mayor and longtime ally of Trump has been taken off the ventilator and is breathing on his own. Quote, Mayor Giuliani is the ultimate fighter and he has demonstrated throughout his life and he's winning this battle. That's what Goodman sent at a statement. He did not provide details on when Giuliani went into the hospital or identify where he was admitted. Now, Goodman attributed the severity of Giuliani's condition to the mayor having been near the World Trade center in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. So Giuliani is a member of a party who stopped health benefits for first responders to 911 and now he is apparently in the hospital with a lung based pneumonia situation because of his exposure to toxic chemicals on 9 11, who they also by the way, blocked veterans from receiving health care benefits who were exposed to toxic burn pits in the previous Republican forever wars in the Middle East. So.

C (17:05)

All right, I'm, I'm going to keep my comments to myself on this. One last story from the Democratic Mayors Association. Democrat Quinton Wilts won the mayoral election in Peerland, Texas. This is a Republican stronghold that has consistently gone for Donald Trump for the past decade. Mayor Elect Wilt's victory is the latest in a streak of wins for Democrats in deep red areas, including last month's win in Waukesha, Wisconsin and Boca Raton, last year in Miami, Florida and Omaha, Nebraska. Now the Democratic backed candidate has won a closely contested mayoral race in Pearland, Texas. And as we said, this is a Republican leaning suburb of Houston, specifically in Brazoria County. I hope I'm saying that right. That has consistently voted for Trump since 2016. Now the winning candidate, Quentin Wills, shared the results of the contest on his Instagram account on Saturday, writing, I am deeply humbled, incredibly grateful and honored by the trust you have placed in me. Democratic backed candidates flipped three seats in mayoral and city council elections in Whittier, California. And at the center of these elections were issues being discussed nationwide like the impact of federal immigration enforcement as well as the economy. Brazoria County Democratic Party told Newsweek the impact of Wilkes's victory cannot be overstated as Perlin voters elected a black Democrat, a black Democrat to be mayor in a red county and a red state.

B (18:35)

Congratulations Mayor Wilts and the Democratic Mayors Association. Is that what it's called? Yeah. Cool. Impressive. These winds in deep red areas are. I don't know. It's a nice shot in the arm.

C (18:50)

Yeah, it really is. I'm telling you, they should be scared as that that Texas is about to go purple and hopefully blue. They really should be.

B (19:00)

I agree. All right, everybody, before we get to the good news, I'm going to have a discussion with Clayton Weimers from Reporters Without Borders. And that's going to be right after this break. Stick around. We'll be right back. Every so often I look in my closet and realize I have somehow built a wardrobe entirely out of just yoga pants and black tank tops. And that's usually the moment I remember. I do, in fact, want to look like a person with style sometimes. So thanks to DailyLook, the number one premium personal styling service for women, for sponsoring us. You've got to check this out. For 50% off your first order, head to DailyLook.com and use code DailyBeans now. One thing Daily look does great is that it keeps the helpful part of shopping and cuts the exhausting part. You start with a style quiz where you share your budget, your lifestyle preferences, body shape, and then the same real personal stylist sends up to 12 hand selected pieces right to your home. It's not some random algorithm making weird guesses. So you try everything on where you actually live. Keep what works, return what doesn't, and shipping is free both ways. That makes a huge difference for me because I'm very picky, but I'm also very busy. I want clothes that feel like me, not a full day of dressing room to spare. And one of my favorite daily look finds was a pair of wide leg pants at instantly made me feel more put together, high waisted. So good it snatched everything. The quality felt great, the fit was amazing. The whole experience made having style feel a lot like, you know, a lot less like work for me, which is a big deal. Now it's time to get your own personal stylist with DailyLook. Head to DailyLook.com to take your style quiz and use code DailyBeans for 50% off your first order. Once again, that's DailyLook.com for 50% off. And make sure you use our promo code DailyBeanz so they know we sent you one last time. DailyLook.com, promo code DailyBean. I am not organized enough to be one of those people who spends half their Sunday doing meal prep for the week. That version of Me just doesn't exist. What does exist is a version of me who's very grateful for Home Chef because it takes a lot of that pressure off. The weekly delivery keeps my fridge stocked. Dinner planning stops becoming a problem, and the meals are easy enough that I can actually make them without stressing out. I really love their garlic shrimp risotto with peas and parmesan. Oh, is it peas? It's so good. I loved how tender the shrimp was and the sauce was phenomenal. And it only took 15 minutes, so it was quick, easy, and indulgent. Every week, I find a new favorite. One thing that really stands out is how straightforward Home Chef makes everything. You get fresh ingredients delivered, the recipes are simple to follow, the meals taste genuinely amazing. So it also helps that the cleanup is easier than what I would create if I were left to my own devices. And that alone is worth something. So I also like that Home Chef works with real life schedules. They have more than 30 meal options every week, so it doesn't feel repetitive. And there's choices for different tastes and dietary needs too. And on top of all that, you can choose how much effort you want to put in that day, whether that means a quicker meal, an oven ready option, or something even easier. It has saved me time, it's helped me eat better, and it made dinner feel a lot less like a moving target. And people really love it. Home Chef is rated number one by users of other meal kits for quality, convenience, value, taste, and recipe ease. So for a limited time, Home Chef is offering you 50% off and free shipping on your first box, plus free dessert for life. Just go to homechef.com dailybeans that's homechef.com dailybeans for 50% off your first box and free dessert. Homechef.com dailybeans must be an active subscriber to receive free dessert. Hi, I'm Frances Collier.

C (22:22)

And I'm Angela V. Shelton.

B (22:24)

And we're Frangela. You know what you need in your life? The Final Word podcast. Yes, you do.

C (22:30)

That's right.

B (22:31)

It is the final word on all things political and pop cultural, where we

C (22:34)

make real news, real funny, where we

B (22:37)

inspire you so you can hashtag resist, subscribe, and click get a new episode of the Final Word podcast each week.

C (22:43)

It's the news we think you need to hear. That's right. We think you need to hear it.

B (22:48)

Okay. Yeah. It's what we say. So that's right. And because all we do is give. Every Thursday, you can listen to our hysterical podcast, Idiot of The week we round up the stupid. Because you know what? Somebody has to.

C (23:00)

Okay?

B (23:01)

All we do is give. Hey, everybody. Welcome back. I'm excited today to be joined by the executive director of RSF usa, that's Reporters Without Borders. Please welcome Clayton Weimers. Hi, Clayton. How are you?

D (23:16)

I'm great. Thanks for having me.

B (23:18)

I'm really grateful to be able to talk to you today for several different reasons. First of all, I want to talk about what Reporters Without Borders does. And then I also want to talk a little bit about why it's so important in this particular moment in time. It's always been important, but like, seems like specifically now there might be a lot of, like, extra importance attached to the work that RSF USA does. So tell us a little bit about RSF usa.

D (23:43)

So RSF USA is the North American outpost of Reporters Without Borders. We are an international NGO dedicated to freedom of the press and access to reliable information. Because for us, press freedom is a two way street. It's not just about protecting journalists and their rights. It's also, in fact even more so about protecting all of our access to information. And sometimes I think that gets lost in the press freedom conversation is that at the end of the day, this is all of our rights. It's our right to have information, to make informed decisions in our lives about our government, about the economy that we inhabit. And so there is no freedom without press freedom. All of the other freedoms are predicated on whether or not we are informed. And so we have offices in 15 countries around the world and a network of correspondence in 150 other countries. We really try to be everywhere where it is physically possible for us to be. I run one of those 15 offices out of Washington D.C. our remit is to monitor the ink of English speaking Americas. And to be honest, in 2026, that's an awful lot of the United States because of, well, quite a lot of stuff that's going on here in the world of press freedom.

B (24:55)

Yeah, there is a lot going on with press freedom. And speaking of that, let's talk a little bit about your participation in the White House Correspondents association dinner, which, as we know, happened on Saturday. There was an incident outside the ballroom that everybody's kind of been talking about. There'd been charges have been brought, but you were there. Talk a little bit about how and why RSF USA was there and what you experienced.

D (25:20)

I was there and I was a little unsure of whether I would be going this year now that we knew that President Trump would be there. There's Some controversy there. At the end of the day, I was invited by a media organization that came to us and said, look, we had this table before we knew the president was coming, and we're gonna keep it, but we're gonna give all the seats at the table to press freedom advocates. And I thought, you know what? That's a good way to do it. Attend purpose and with intention. And so I went in that spirit. I also did a bit of agitating. We printed up 500 bingo cards where every square was a different insult that the president has lobbed at the media over the years with a couple of blank squares for what he might say at the dinner. The idea being we want people to just start yelling out bingo anytime they get it, because we know journalists are not going to heckle him, they're not going to walk out. They don't want to become the story themselves. And so it doesn't leave a whole lot of options. We wanted to have something that we could at least start a conversation with in the room. And I will say the bingo cards were extremely well received until a certain incident. And that kind of shoved that idea to the side. And suddenly we're not talking about fun and games anymore. We're talking about something much more serious. And it's remarkable because I was telling my table mates about a new program that we just released in the United States called Press Fund, which buys protective gear like vests and helmets and respirator masks for US Based journalists. We just did that a couple weeks ago. And by the way, journalists, if you're listening, you can go apply right now and get a grant to buy this stuff. But I was telling them about this program, how it's inspired by the work we do in Ukraine and Lebanon and the Democratic Republic of Congo. And now we have to do it in the United States because we've seen such an increase and escalation in the threats, especially from law enforcement, which is new to an extent. I was telling them about that, and about a minute and a half, two minutes later, we were all under the table. And it just goes to show that risk is everywhere. And especially when it's in your job description to run towards the story, even if that story is chaos and potentially dangerous. You need to be prepared and you need to be trained. You need situational awareness and you need gear to keep you safe. Now, I don't think anyone goes to a black tie gala expecting that, but like I said, goes to show risk is everywhere.

B (27:55)

Yeah, for sure. And especially for journalists. Question about the media outlet who gave up their seats for, you know, press freedom organizations? Did they do that after they found out Donald Trump was going to be there? Can you tell us what the outlet was or no?

D (28:12)

I am not going to say because I didn't get. I just didn't ask them if they were comfortable with me talking about that. And I'm sure they would be, but because I didn't ask, I'd rather not say.

B (28:23)

I just want to give them an attaboy for, you know. Yeah.

D (28:26)

And I kind of want to, too. So I have mixed feelings here. But to be on the safe side, I don't want to blow them up. But, you know, they, our table was a few of their reporters, their lawyer, and a few representatives from other press freedom organizations and other journalists who have themselves been targeted by the administration. I thought that was a good use of a table at an event that is meant, or at least on paper meant to celebrate the First Amendment.

B (28:58)

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And let's talk a little bit about some of these global threats to journalists. First of all, I think it's telling that we now have the ability to apply for grants to buy gear to keep journalists safe, but I think that speaks to the larger threat. Talk a little bit about this particular administration and their threats to journalism on the whole.

D (29:22)

Definitely. So you alluded to it at the top. We released our 2026 World Press Freedom Index just a few hours ago. We do this every year where we rank every country according to its press freedom. And the United States has fallen to a new all time low at 64th out of 180 countries. That is a reflection of what I've been calling Trump's war on the press ever since he came back into the White House. And, and to an extent, it's not that new. Since he started his political career coming down that golden escalator all those years ago, he has been attacking the press. But what's really different between Trump 1.0 and Trump 2.0 is he's moved past just insults and rhetoric and into concrete actions that have potentially very long lasting repercussions for freedom of the press. I'm talking about things like defunding NPR and PBS, as well as international public broadcasters like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. I'm talking about banning the AP from the White House because they refused to call the Gulf of Mexico what it is. I'm talking about canceling Department of Justice guidelines that dictate to law enforcement how to respect press freedom when they're out in the field. And this is an administration that has also followed that up by targeting journalists themselves. The Department of Justice has been weaponized against journalists. They went after Washington Post reporter Hannah Natenson, took her devices and justified it by saying they thought she might have violated the Espionage Act. That is totally new. The last time we were talking about the Espionage act was in the heady days of Julian Assange camping out in the Ecuadorian Embassy and then getting shuffled over to Belmarsh prison in England. It's never been used straight up against a journalist in that way. And that's really alarming. We have to be on guard against that. We're also seeing an FCC that's been weaponized against the media. Just this week the FCC said it is looking into ABC's licenses because the President can't take a joke, a joke that wasn't even about him and what happened at the White House Correspondents Dinner, but that they're taking out of context and blowing up out of proportion just like they did last time. Jimmy Kimmel became the target. And Jimmy Kimmel's not a journalist, but what they're doing to him they could do to a journalist next. It's a slippery slope. And by the way, it's a threat against the entire media company that is ABC and Disney. And so these are the things that we need to be fighting against. I'm really pleased in this instance, Disney has signaled that they're going to fight back. That's what we need. We need the major multi billion dollar companies that own large media institutions to decide we can't capitulate to the bully anymore. It's not working because they can't just leave all the fighting to the smaller independent media. And to be fair, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and Gannett are also fighting back in their respective cases. So I don't mean the paint abrupt, but we need everyone to be defending the First Amendment at a time when it's very vulnerable.

B (32:27)

Yeah, agreed. And the thing I was writing down as you were speaking there, number one, Hannah Natenson, because I was going to bring that up. Number two, the FBI apparently was trying to investigate the New York Times for a story one of their reporters did on Kash Patel's girlfriend, trying to say that they were stalking, like just through the natural, you know, order of reporting on things and doing, you know, journalistic investigation. And then they claim there wasn't enough investigation done when a story does come out, but saying that that was some sort of stalking. And then of course, we have the arrest of the journalists at the church in Minneapolis, Don Lemon, Georgia Fort who were arrested and indicted for doing journalism. So, yeah, there's so many examples, and I think that's why it's so important. I want to go back to a minute ago, you had mentioned the 2026 World Press Freedom Index and that we were number 64 on that list. Can you put that in a little bit of context? What are some of the other countries that rank right around that spot?

D (33:32)

Yeah. So there's a lot to unpack in the context here. Obviously, I think people tend to, over or under appreciate how bad things have gotten in this country for us to have slid so far down to a category of countries that includes what I would call some quasi democracies or some weak or developing democracies. I'm not trying to throw stones at any other countries. Obviously, we have our problems here, but where we want to be is clearly at the top. And you dig into the data and it becomes clear why we're not there. The reason we're not there is you look at all our indicators, those sub scores that make up the master score for the country. We're deteriorating across the board. And we've spent a lot of time talking about Trump so far. And I have to say it's tempting to think of this as a Trump problem. It's not just a Trump problem. Trump is definitely pouring gasoline on the fire. But we were already at 57th last year. And that was data from before the Trump administration. The country has been experiencing a steady decline for the better part of a decade that spans multiple presidential administrations, Congress changing hands back and forth a few times. And what that tells me is we don't have a single politician problem. We have structural deficiencies that bad actors can take advantage of and make worse. And we've had a failure in this country to correct for some of those deficiencies or to adjust for the modern problems facing journalism. And that is true across those five indicators I mentioned. I'll just give an example. Example. On the legislative front, in the closing days of the Biden administration, we were trying to pass this bill called the Press act, which would have codified federal protections for journalist sources and basically closed the loophole that allows federal law enforcement to eavesdrop on conversations between journalists and their sources. Pretty common sense stuff. It passed the house unanimously in 2024. What passes the House unanimously?

B (35:44)

Nothing.

D (35:45)

And then it went over to the Senate Senate, and nothing happened. And we kept saying to Senate Democratic leadership at the time, you say that press freedom is really important to you. You Say that the Republican candidate for president wants to be a dictator. Here's a way you could actually shore up our press freedom before that happened. Put your money where your mouth is. For whatever reason, they never brought it to a vote. And I am confident, because we did the work here, I am confident it was going to pass. And not just pass, but, but pass easily. But they didn't bring it to a vote. It wasn't a priority, and they had all year to do it. So that's just one example of we had an opportunity to strengthen legal protections for journalism and we didn't take it. And I can point to so many more examples like that, not just in the legal space or in the political space of ways that we've just taken our eye off the ball. And we really, we need to stop thinking that one election might change everything about this country. At the end of the day, these are big structural problems that Trump is able to take advantage of. He couldn't just do this by himself. And that's especially true of press freedom. We need to have a national conversation about why are we failing on press freedom, how can we do better? And I think RSF has some of the solutions there and we hope to be part of that conversation going forward.

B (37:11)

Yeah, and I imagine a lot of it has to do with the decades long corporate conglomerate merging and the getting rid of local newspapers and the Sinclair takeovers of affiliates. And it's just sort of that, you know, fewer and fewer people in charge of more and more information. But I think, you know, that's so weird that they didn't even bring it to a vote. There should be some sort of mechanism where if Congress fails to bring a bill to a vote, they have to write up a declination reason. Like they have to tell you why they didn't do it. They did this with the Military Justice Improvement act. It had like 67 co sponsors in the Senate. It was gonna pass easily with flying colors, and it never made it to the floor to the vote. I'm like, these are pretty easy wins that you can, you know, put a notch in your belt for, for a good easy win. And you know what that bill would have done would be to take the decision to prosecute military sexual trauma out of the chain of command. Right. Like a no brainer. And it had enough co sponsors that it never passed. So there's so many things where I really want an answer from our elected lawmakers about why something doesn't even get a vote and we never know and they don't have to tell us. And I think they, I feel like they should have to.

D (38:24)

Here's the secret. I think sometimes there's no good reason. They just don't do it. They're doing other things and I get it, there's competing priorities. You know, they have a lot to do, but they're not passing a lot of legislation these days, let's be honest. Yeah, especially these days fixing, fixing Congress. That's a little bit above my pay grade.

B (38:42)

Sure.

D (38:43)

I'll just focus on what I actually know about.

B (38:45)

Yeah, absolutely. And speaking about focusing on what you're an expert at, tell everyone where they can find more information about Reporters Without Borders, support the organization, maybe get more information on this new report that you just released, World press Freedom Index 2026. I think a lot of listeners would be really interested to get more information on what maybe what they can do as individual citizens to support a free press.

D (39:11)

Absolutely. You can go to rsf.org at least for the next week or two, the index report is going to be all over that homepage, different pieces of it. And we've really mostly talked about the United States here, but, but this is a report that covers 180 countries. It looks at global, regional, national trends all over the place. My colleagues all around the world have been working and we here in the US have been working super hard on this to deliver the most comprehensive report we possibly can. So hope you all check it out. It's really interesting stuff, but also we publish all year round. We're always doing things all around the world. You can also follow us on social media. We're on all of the usual channels except TikTok Talk, which we have not joined yet for various reasons that we don't get into today. But yeah, definitely follow us along.

B (40:00)

Awesome. Thank you so much. Clayton Weimers, Executive Director of RSF usa. I appreciate your time today. Thank you so much everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back with the good news. Hey everybody, it's Ag. As you know, I've had my Helix mattress for years and it's one of those things that quickly improved my life in a very real way. Before I switched, I was getting no hours of sleep. I mean it felt like, like none. I was tossing and turning all night. I'd wake up sweaty, my back was sore. It was the kind of sleep that just didn't make you feel restored. I, I thought maybe it was the orange guy was in the White House. But as it turns out I was sleeping on a mattress built for somebody else, not me. And Helix changed all that. I started sleeping more comfortably, waking up less aggravated, feeling like the sleep I was getting was actually doing its job. A deeper sleep, longer sleep cycles. Even my Apple watch started reflecting the better deep sleep numbers which made me trust what I was already feeling. So that's one reason I keep recommending Helix year after year after year. A study found that 82% of participants saw an increase in their deep sleep cycles while sleeping on a Helix mattress. And when I hear that, it makes sense to me because that's exactly what happened. A right mattress can really change how deeply and comfortably you sleep. I also appreciate how straightforward the process is. The sleep quiz matches you with the right mattress for your needs. They deliver it straight to your door with free shipping in the United States. They also have 120 night sleep trial and a limited lifetime warranty which makes the purchase feel a lot less risky. There's like no risk here. There's like double, triple, no risk. And Helix has earned strong reputations with reviews and awards from places like Forbes and wired. Go to helixsleep.com dailybeans for 27 off site wide that's a memorial Day sale. Best of Web this is an exclusive for listeners of our show. That's helixsleep.com dailybeans for 27 off site wide once again, helixleep.com dailybeans history is messy. It's weird, wild and anything but boring. Rainy Day Rabbit Holes is a history podcast about unhinged stories that make you stop and ask, wait, is this real life?

C (41:55)

From crazy disasters and tasty scandals to enlightening and surprising heartwarming tales, we explore the moments where people behave badly and sometimes beautifully.

B (42:05)

We've got naughty politicians, cult cultural chaos and a deep love for the Pacific Northwest, including Bigfoot. It's thoughtful, irreverent, occasionally serious, and always entertaining.

C (42:16)

Let's fall down the rabbit hole.

B (42:19)

MSW Media. Everybody. Welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news?

D (42:32)

Everyone?

C (42:33)

Then good news everyone.

B (42:49)

And we need your good news and your good trouble suggestions. It can be anything little big. It can be from last week or 25 years ago, 40 years ago. Whenever it happened, we want to know about it. If it brings a smile to our face, we want to microdose in that hope. So please send it to us. You can give a shout out to a loved one as well. If you want to do that. Tell us how. How come your partner is amazing or a small business in your area is awesome, or maybe a local community activism group is doing some incredible things a non profit. You want us to know about a government program that's helped you or a loved one. We also love self shout outs. Tell us why you're awesome because you are. And you can send it all to us@dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. You just gotta submit a picture to get your stuff read on the air. And that picture can be be anything. It can be your pod pet and we can try to guess the breeds in your shelter pup. It can be an adoptable pet in your area, random animal on the Internet, family pictures, baby photos, your baby photo pictures of what you're making or creating. We love that we have so many makers and creators in this space and we would love to see what you're doing. Maybe you got some goats. We love goats. Goats, goats, goats, goats, chickens, any. Seriously anything will do. Send it to us dailybean spot.com click on contact first up as you're good trouble good trouble. Today children's rights posted on Blue Sky. We're going to have a link to that post Deliver Mother's Day to the Moms of DILLEY now through May 10th, you can help deliver 1200 plus messages to the moms in Dilley Detention center for Mother's Day. This year the mothers detained at the Dilley ICE facility with their children will not be able to celebrate the way they deserve. They are moms who were taken while attending immigration appointments on the way to Disney World at the laundromat on the way to school. Most of them have built a life and raised their children here. So upload a photo or scan a letter, card, poem, lyric, anything to drawing a few words of hope, whatever feels right. And our attorneys will make sure your words reach the moms inside. So we'll have a link to Deliver Mother's Day to the moms of dilly childrensrights.org i4moms we'll have that link in the show notes and you can get more information at Children's Rights

C (45:00)

Awesome. Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is from Sue Pronoun. She and her hello purveyors of the Morning Beans Fix. I think the plan should be called. As we were talking about yesterday on Beans Talk, I think the plan should be called the Plan for Allison's New Democratic Action or Panda. Panda.

B (45:17)

So good.

C (45:19)

This is so good for short. I know you love pandas. Great work. I have thought for a while that we needed an actual plan but have been unable to come up with a simple one to show share. Well done. Here's my Best shot of my hell hounds, Kira and Ace. No clue what they are as I got them at the local shelter, but they are both the bestest beasts. Thanks, ladies.

B (45:42)

Look at them laying in the sun. That looks like a comfy couch, by the way. That looks like a couch you could like, really stretch out on and take a nap on. I love it. Plan for Allison's new democratic action. Panda for short. Although I can't take credit for this, you know, Ellie Mustall and others have been yelling about Supreme Court reform for. For years now. So I think I just put it in with a bunch of other stuff that has to happen before and the things that could happen after. So thanks for that. Next up, Tara Pronoun. She and her. Okay, AG and dg. I really loved your eight step plan from the beans talk this morning. If we all keep the momentum going and continue to fight these fascists, I believe your plan has a real chance of coming to fruition. You were looking for a name and already referred to it as the P L A N, even jokingly calling it the P A L N. So here's my submission. Prioritize law above narcissists. Okay, I added an extra N for now for prioritized law above narcissism now. But honestly, with this country being in our wild wild west era of law and justice, who the fuck cares?

C (46:45)

I agree.

B (46:46)

And then the POD Pet tariff is a photo of one of my favorite. Is it a palindrome Amana plan? A Canal Panama.

C (46:54)

Love it.

B (46:54)

Love it. Thank you.

C (46:58)

All right, this is from Dominic F. No pronouns given regarding the plan. Federal Reformation of Equitable Economic Economic Development or the Freed Act.

B (47:08)

Oh, I like it.

C (47:10)

I don't hate it.

B (47:11)

Me too.

C (47:13)

Next up, Anonymous pronouncing him. I have a suggestion for the plan to have nice things Again, the People's Project as the name because ultimately that's who benefits. The people. Thanks for keeping us all sane. For my pet tax, I've attached a photo of my grandson and his dog Anna. Babies and dogs. P s. My daughter caught the picture. Not me. Me. Oh my God, the picture's so good.

B (47:37)

It doesn't even look real.

C (47:39)

No, this looks like AI it's amazing.

B (47:43)

Anonymous the only problem with the People's Project is that the. Is that the acronym is PP Yeah. So we could. I mean, there's a whole one of my favorite old Animaniacs episodes. One with Pablo Picasso. And Pablo Picasso has his initials on his smock and Wacko Warner says you've got pee pee on your smock and I just thought that that was fun. All right, next up from Linda. Pronouns Sh she Her Morning Beans Queens Here's a cool caterpillar I spotted in Caramel Highlands or Carmel Highlands. I'm not sure how you pronounce it where you're at. I took a scenic drive on Spindrift, a short road where several movies were filmed. Play Misty for Me and Basic Instinct. I learned this on the Monterey movie tour bus. Kim Novak owns a home on Spindrift. She did, at least until recently. Recently Beans talk. Sign off suggestion. It's been nice stalking with you. I don't know if we want to talk about stalking people, but I love it. There are more of us and we own the moral high ground. Yes we do. Look at this caterpillar photo.

C (48:50)

It is very cool. I still never want to see one crawling in my vicinity.

B (48:57)

My vicinity.

C (48:58)

My vicinity.

B (48:59)

Oh, look at that.

C (49:00)

Although if near one, it could be their vicinity that I have encroached upon.

B (49:04)

Look at that beautiful photo. I'm assuming from Spindrift.

C (49:09)

Yeah, it's gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. I miss the ocean.

B (49:12)

Yeah, it looks lovely. Thank you for that.

C (49:15)

All right, from Dorian. Pronouns she her in New York City Dear lovely human beings first, thank you for all you do to keep us sane and focused during these darkest before dawn times. I would like to give a great big shout out to the non profit I work for. Barrier Free Living based in New York City is one of only a very few organizations worldwide that addresses the needs of survivors of gender based violence, including domestic and sexual violence who also have a disability. There are organizations who do great work serving domestic violence survivors and great ones who serve folks with disabilities, but we serve the people who experience both of these conditions and their needs can be pretty complicated. Most folks don't realize that people with disabilities experience higher rates of domestic violence and sexual assault than non disabled people. 70% of those with disabilities experience some form of abuse. 70% of those with a disability, that number is heartbreaking. Yeah, Experience some form of abuse and are three times more likely to be sexually assaulted. Jesus Christ. Barrier Free Living owns a domestic violence shelter with 106 beds for victims and their family members with a disability who need to flee. We also have permanent supportive housing in the Bronx opened a brand new supportive housing building called Freedom Village on the Lower east side last year that also includes apartments for elderly unhoused New Yorkers and non residential program called Secret Garden through which we offer services and counseling. I give a shout out of encouragement to the approximately 100 employees of Barrier Free Living who trust me work themselves to the bone and fight the good fight every day to make sure DV victims disabilities have a place to go where they can live a dignified life free from abuse and bias. The website everyone is bfl nyc.org bfl nyc.org and I know you are running to look this up because I know I will be. For my Pod pit tariff I present my new best friends who just turned 12 weeks old. Raven is the black kitty and she loves watching the birds and squirrels dreaming of murder and mayhem which I of course will never allow her to perpetrate. Trait her sister with the white face and the tabby hat is Artemis, named for the Artemis 2 launch and all she wants out of life is cuddles chicken and to wake mommy up by licking her nose at 3am Little scratchy tongue. Thank you AG&DG for being the only way I can stomach the Daily News. Complete with much appreciated and justified swearing. Keep on swinging. For all of us, for America and for as long as it takes. Look at these sweet babies this organization found. Seems extraordinary. We'll have a link in the show notes for anyone who wants to go support.

B (52:07)

Yeah, I'm with you. Those are devastating statistics.

C (52:10)

Just devastating.

B (52:12)

Thank you so much for that. And thank you to to you all for all of your submissions and your your plan, your P A L N names that you that you sent. So good, keep sending them in. And we're actually, we're gonna go record Beans Talk right now and we've got some really exciting updates on Supreme Court reform that happened all in one day. The universe is coming together. I can feel it. Everything's clicking into place. So thanks for your good news. Send it to us dailybeanspod.com click on contact. We'll see you over on Beans Talk and we'll be back in your ears tomorrow here. Till 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 aggressive. I've been dg mems 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 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.

A (53:23)

It's no surprise that newsmakers try to manipulate the audience. They want you to believe that they are the one holding the line, and they'll use any trick they can to get you there.

B (53:31)

But don't let them fool you.

A (53:33)

Get Unspun I'm Amanda Sturgill. I've been a reporter, and today I teach future reporters to cut the spin and think critically about what newsmakers say. My podcast, Unspun, shows you how to know when you're being manipulated by the news, learn to spot the tricks, and how to make up your own mind about what's true. So if you're tired of being fooled by the news, subscribe to UNSPUN today. Unspun because you deserve the truth.