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DOGE Fall Girl
00:40:43
Wednesday, February 26th, 2025 Today, the VA has laid off another 1400 workers and over 6,000 veterans have been laid off government wide; a federal judge has given the Trump administration 36 hours to make foreign aid contract payments; the Trump regime has announced that the administration and not the WHCA will decide what media outlets are in the press pool; a federal judge has blocked Trump’s pause of the refugee admissions program, DOGE is working on software that automates the firing of federal employees; a White House official says that someone named Amy Gleason is the acting DOGE administrator; the prosecutor in Coeur d'Alene has dropped the charges against Teresa Borrenpohl in the interest of justice; DOGE staffers resign en masse to protest Elon Musk; DOGE quietly deletes five of its receipts from its website; the controversy surrounding Cory Mills becomes even more serious; and Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
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- [00:00]
Alison Gill
MSW Media. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Wednesday, February 26, 2025. Today, the Department of Veterans affairs has laid off another 1400 workers. And over 6000 veterans have been laid off government wide. A federal judge has given the Trump administration 36 hours to make foreign aid contract payments. The Trump regime has announced that the administration and not the White House Correspondents association will decide what media outlets are present. In the press room, a federal judge has blocked Trump's pause of the refugee admissions program. Doge is working on software that automates the firing of federal employees. A White House official says that someone named Amy Gleason Beeson is the acting Doge administrator. The prosecutor and Coeur d'alene has dropped the charges against Dr. Teresa Borenpohl. In the interest of justice. Doge staffers resign en masse to protest Elon Musk. Doge quietly deletes 5 of its receipts from its website. And the controversy surrounding Corey Mills becomes even more serious. I'm Alison Gill.
- [01:22]
Dana Goldberg
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
- [01:27]
Alison Gill
Dana, we made it to Wednesday.
- [01:29]
Dana Goldberg
We did. It is the taint of the week. We made it to Wednesday. I'm Blue sky. I was like, does anyone else feel like they've been fighting something off, like under the weather for like 10 or 15 years? Because I feel like I've been under the weather, just low key. Under the weather for about 15 years.
- [01:44]
Alison Gill
Yeah. I've been having a hard time sleeping again. I need to fix that. So he had just been, like, staying up watching murder shows because it's way more chill than what's happening in the government. And we had an awful thing happen MSNBC over the last 24 hours. They're completely whitewashing the network. Maddow called it out. She said what's happening with non white anchors at MSNBC is, quote, a bad mistake, unnerving. Worse than bad, indefensible. And she calls the dozens of producer layoffs not the right way to treat people inefficient and unnecessary. So so far, the casualties are Joy Reid, Nicole Wallace, Alex Wagner, Lester Holt, Katie Fang, Jonathan Capehart, Amon Mojadeen, like, just absolutely awful what's happening at that network. And I'm glad that Maddow called it out on, too.
- [02:36]
Dana Goldberg
What's fascinating to me, though, is what kind of game are they playing to allow. And I say allow. But they could have pulled the feed to allow Maddow to throw MSNBC under the bus and call them out on national television. What kind of game is going on? Is it because her ratings are so good is because they know that she's one of the most beloved anchor. Like, I don't understand that part, obviously, the fuckery. It just looks incredibly racist and like you said, whitewashing. But it's just fascinating to me that they would let her say that about the company on national television. That's where my disconnect comes in. And I'm not sure the answer. Just a feeling I have.
- [03:12]
Alison Gill
I have some guesses. First of all, I think they need her more than she needs them.
- [03:16]
Dana Goldberg
That's probably true.
- [03:18]
Alison Gill
Also, she's probably under contract. Yeah, right. Like, she signed something that says, I'll be here for 100 days and then on Mondays after that. And so, you know, it is interesting. I'd like to know more, but I am glad she called it out.
- [03:33]
Dana Goldberg
Me too. I'm also glad. Was it Dawn Lemon that gave her props on his social media channels just being like she's a badass. Like, we need more people like Rachel right now. That is for sure.
- [03:46]
Alison Gill
Yeah. And I also want to thank Joy for, please, first of all, all of her work. She's been calling out this fashy for a while now. But also she showed our. You know, I did a blog post at muellershirerote.com at the substack there about, you know, I reached out to federal workers and I said, if you could tell Musk to his face the five things that you did last week, what would you say? And we got a lot of really great responses. And I posted that. And. And Joy Reid talked about it on her final show. She said, you know, that's one of the perfect ways to fight fascism, ridicule. And she. She shared some of those posts that, you know, some of the things that federal workers were saying that they would like to say to Elon Musk. So I thought that was really awesome. And I just want to thank her. And she's going to be dearly missed, as are all of these anchors at.
- [04:40]
Dana Goldberg
Absolutely.
- [04:41]
Alison Gill
All right. We have a lot of news to get to. So much, in fact, so much taint of the week news that we have to do some quick hits. And to make a long story short. All right, first up, this is personal to. The Department of Veterans affairs fired 1400 more employees Monday, bringing the total number of dismissals in the department to roughly 2,400 under the Trump administration's effort to slash the size of the federal workforce. I wouldn't say that that's what his effort is. I would say his effort is to absolutely crush the United States government. But the workers, more than 3.3% of the department's probationary employees were union members considered to have non mission critical positions, according to VA news releases on Monday evening. The move follows the firings of nearly 1,000 probationary employees on Valentine's Day, some of which were walked back later when they were determined to be essential employees. Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee estimate that nearly 6,000 veterans may have already been fired from their federal jobs government wide as part of the DOGE initiative run by mega billionaire Elon Musk, with a lot more veteran layoffs possible. Veterans make up a big portion of the federal workforce, roughly 30%. The total number of federal employees was 2.3 million before any layoffs began.
- [05:52]
Dana Goldberg
Thanks so much, Alison. I'm sorry you have to keep reporting on that shit. This one's from Politico. A federal judge expressed frustration Tuesday that the Trump administration appears to be ignoring his two week old order to unfreeze billions of dollars for foreign assistance grants and contracts, prompting him to set a short deadline for the State Department to begin paying out funds and to explain its recalcitrants. The judge ordered the State Department to pay all aid contractors completed work before his order by midnight Wednesday. He also demanded that the government file with the court, quote, any directive or guidance issued about his order or about the suspension or termination of aid agreements. And I quote, I want those documents by noon tomorrow. That's from the judge.
- [06:39]
Alison Gill
Yeah. Judges don't like it so much when you ignore their orders.
- [06:42]
Dana Goldberg
No, they don't.
- [06:44]
Alison Gill
So that, you know, this is all going to come to a head on some of these things where, you know, he's already been found in violation of restraining orders on unfreezing other payments and government, you know, treasury payments. And so we're going to see if this administration is going to follow court orders. I have a feeling they are not. We'll see. The Trump administration said Tuesday it would start hand picking which media outlets are allowed to participate in the presidential press pool, the small rotating group of reporters who relay the president's day to day activities to the public. The change obviously breaks decades of precedent. It allows the White House to assert more control over which journalists can witness his activities up close and ask him questions. A spokesman spokesperson for the White House Correspondents association said in a response, quote, in a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps.
- [07:32]
Dana Goldberg
Oh man, there's just more all of the time. Last week, Elon Musk's government cost slashing initiative dubbed the department, as we know of government Efficiency posted an online wall of receipts celebrating how much it had saved by canceling federal contracts. Well, now the organization, which is also known as the US DOGE Service, it's deleted all five of the biggest quote unquote savings on that original list after the New York Times and other media outlets pointed out that they were riddled with errors. The last of the original top five disappeared from the site in early hours of Tuesday, even as the group claimed in its latest update that its savings to date had increased to $65 billion. Everyone. The website offered no explanation for why it removes some items or how it arrived at the higher total. Neither the US Doge Service nor the White House responded to questions Tuesday morning.
- [08:25]
Alison Gill
Yeah, and that's fascinating to me because I didn't expect them to blink on this. Yeah, I thought they'd be like, no f you. That's what I'm, you know, we're keeping it up. That's the, here's the lie. I'm surprised actually. But speaking of Doge from the Independent, after government lawyers were dragged in court for failing to identify who's leading the so called US Doge service, while Elon Musk and his team got federal agencies and after White House officials refused to publicly provide a name, the White House finally revealed the agency's acting administrator, Amy Gleason has been tapped to lead the US DOGE Service. This is according to the Independent, and it's unclear when she was tapped for the role. She was reportedly in Mexico at the time of the announcement. Now I've looked her up. She doesn't seem MAGA to me, so it's going to be interesting. She hasn't released a statement so far as I can tell. As far as the recording of this podcast, she just sounds like the fall person. The fall, you know, the, the fall guy in this. They're just like I randomly picked someone and said it's her. I, I don't, I, I, I can't confirm that but it's wild. She's a electronic health record expert that was working at USDS when it became Doge. And you know, even as earlier as just an hour before this happened, Caroline Levitt in the press briefing room was like asked who the administrator of DOGE.
- [09:47]
Dana Goldberg
Is will not say that name from this podium.
- [09:49]
Alison Gill
Ex transparency White House. I know she also said of like, you know, the White House deciding who's going to be in the press pool that they're going to a for the people approach. But that's not for the people anyway.
- [10:05]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, it's for the white people approach. More DOGE news this is from Excellent reporting, by the way, from Wired engineers for Elon Musk, so called Department of Government Efficiency, or as we call it, many different things, are working on new software that could assist mass firings of federal workers across government. This is what the sources told Wired. The software called autoriff, which stands for Automated Reduction in Force, was first developed by Department of Defense more than two decades ago. Since then, it's been updated several times and used by a variety of agencies to expedite reductions in workforce. Screenshots of internal databases reviewed by Wired show that DOGE operatives have accessed Autorif and appear to be editing its code. That's the part that should alarm people. There's a repository in the Office of Personnel Management, the OPM that Enterprise GitHub Systems titled Autorif in a Space created specifically for the director's office where Musk's associates have been basically taking charge soon after Trump took office. Now changes are made as recently as this weekend. So, yeah, you know, think they're going to use something that's okay. Well, you know, some Republicans are going to be like they've been using this for two decades, Democrats and Republicans alike. But not if you're rewriting code. That's the problem.
- [11:26]
Alison Gill
That's frightening. It's all a disaster. It's a fire hose. And again, hearts go out to everyone impacted by all of these changes, which we're going to try to take a deeper dive into in the Hot Notes. But first we have to take a quick break, so stick around. We'll be right back. Everybody, welcome back. It's time for HOT notes. Hot notes. All right. First up, from a local NBC affiliate, we have an date on what happened in Cordelane. The woman dragged out of K County Republican Central Committee's town hall will not face charges and the security team that removed her from the event has lost its license to operate in the city.
- [12:07]
Dana Goldberg
And this is a deep maga county, everyone. I just want to remind people that this is deep red now.
- [12:14]
Alison Gill
Kootenay County Republicans held a town hall Sunday where police said Teresa Boren Pole, who ran for Idaho's House of Representatives in 2024 as a Democrat, was asked to leave after, quote, speaking out of turn at a town hall. A public town hall video obtained by Nonstop Local showed Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris repeatedly asking Boren Pole to leave. And after she refused, men detained her and dragged her out. Coeur d'alene police identified the men as employees of Lear Asset Management, a private security firm which police said had been hired by the organizers of the town hall. KCRCC Chair Brent Reagan said Lear Asset Management employees weren't hired but rather volunteered for the event.
- [12:53]
Dana Goldberg
I'm sure.
- [12:55]
Alison Gill
Police said the firm's license was revoked for violating Coeur d'Alene City Code 5.32, which regulates security agencies. They didn't specify which element of that code that Lira Asset Management violated, but we did speculate a little bit in the story yesterday that they didn't have security and 1 inch letters on the front and 4 inch letters on the back. That could be it. The code also specifies a process by which the firm can appeal the decision. So Born Poel allegedly tried to bite one of the security guards, initially prompting police to issue her a citation for battery. But police said on Monday that the city Attorney's office decided to drop that citation, quote, in the interest of justice. So this is a good step. I hope the next step is to sue this Lear Asset Management and the sheriff into oblivion.
- [13:42]
Dana Goldberg
Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you, Alison. This is from Steve Bennon, who manages, by the way, the Maddow blog. House Republican leaders really didn't need another controversy surrounding one of their members. But late last week, guess what? They got one. NBC News reported that the local police department in Washington, D.C. had begun an investigation into Republican Rep. Corey Mills of Florida. Washington police were called to an apartment building last week over a report of an alleged assault. The alleged victim told NBC News in a text that she, quote, reached out to law enforcement to address a personal matter. A police spokesperson confirmed to NBC News that Mills is the subject of the investigation, but added that he had not been arrested nor had any charges been filed. This week, the allegations took a more serious turn. This is all according to NBC News. The Metropolitan Police department in Washington, D.C. sent an arrest warrant to Rep. Cory Mills of Florida, as we said, because he's the Florida man in this story, to interim U.S. attorney Ed Martin's office on Friday. This is a spokesperson for MPD and that's what they told NBC News. But the warrant has not been signed by the federal prosecutor. The case could essentially die at this point. This is from the spokesperson, meaning it may never result in criminal charges. The status of the warrant was first reported by NBC Washington. Without more information on the nature of the underlying allegations, it's difficult to assess the details of Mills's controversy. That said, it's fair to say that the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington does not often write up arrest warrants against sitting members of Congress, complicating Matters even more is that interim U.S. attorney Ed Martin's office, for reasons that are not clear at this point, apparently chose not to act on their arrest warrant. Again, we're working with a limited set of available facts, and this is from the story. It's possible, for example, that the federal prosecutors in Martin's office concluded that the case against Mills was thin and that the evidence didn't warrant additional action. It's also possible that Martin, a very controversial partisan activist who has expressed confusion about the nature of his responsibility abilities, decided to go easy on a Republican member of Congress as part of a broader political agenda. That one sounds like it might hold weights.
- [15:55]
Alison Gill
Ding, ding.
- [15:56]
Dana Goldberg
Yep, we have a winner. While we wait for additional details to come into focus, however, it's difficult to give the Trump administration the benefit of the doubt. Yeah, indeed, the story comes on the heels of the controversy surrounding New York City Mayor Eric Adams, which came on the heels of a federal prosecutor's abandoning a criminal case against former Rep. Jefferson Fortenberry. And Fortenberry is a Nebraskan Republican who had already been found guilty of corruption by a jury, mind you, which came on the hills of yet another thing, and that's Trump's Justice Department taking steps to abandon a criminal investigation against Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee. So a lot of this has been a domino effect. NBC News's report added that there's an internal police investigation underway into how the situation was even handled in the first place. So. So we're going to keep you posted on this story. It's obviously ongoing, but, yeah, it is. It's pretty rare that they would actually issue an arrest warrant for a member of Congress.
- [16:54]
Alison Gill
So, yeah, and so the internal police investigation will be interesting because I believe MPD is also federal, as most things are in the capital region. All right, next up from the Associated press, more than 20 civil service employees resigned Tuesday from Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, so called, saying they are refusing to use their technical expertise to dismantle critical public services. Quote, we swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution. Across presidential administrations. This is what the 21 staffers wrote in a joint resignation letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Associated Press. It continues, however, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments. The employees also warned that many of those enlisted by Musk to help him slash the size of the federal government under Trump's administration were political ideologues who did not have the necessary skills or experience for the task ahead of them. The Mass resignation of engineers, data scientists, designers and product managers is a temporary setback for Musk and the Republican president's tech driven purge of the federal workforce. It comes amid a flurry of court challenges that have sought to stall, stop or unwind their efforts to fire or coerce thousands of government workers out of jobs. In a statement, White House press Secretary Caroline Levitt was dismissive of the mass resignation. Anyone who thinks protests, lawsuits and lawfare will deter President Trump must have been sleeping under a rock for the past several years. President Trump will not be deterred from delivering the promises he made to make our federal government more efficient and more accountable to the hard working American taxpayers. So I guess she's admitting there that he did promise to he was behind Project 2025 because that's what this is. Absolutely Musk posted on Twitter that the story was fake news and suggested that the staffers were Dem political holdovers who would have been fired had they not resigned. The staffers who resigned had worked for the United States Digital Service, but said their duties were being integrated into doge, their former office. The USDS was established under President Barack Obama after the botched rollout of healthcare.gov, the web portal that millions of Americans use to sign up for insurance plans through the Democrats signature health care law. All previously held senior roles at such tech companies as Google and Amazon and wrote in their resignation letter that they joined the government out of a sense of duty to public service. Trump's empowerment of Musk upended that. The day after Trump's inauguration, the staffers wrote they were called into a series of interviews that foreshadowed the secretive and disruptive work of Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, according to the staffers. People wearing White House visitors badges, some of whom would not provide their names, grilled the nonpartisan employees about their qualifications and their politics. Some made statements that indicated they had a limited technical understanding. Many were young and seemed guided by ideology and fandom of Eon Elon Musk. Sounds about right, not improving government technology Quote Several of these interviewers refused to identify themselves, asked questions about political loyalty, attempted to pit colleagues against each other, and demonstrated limited technical ability. That's what the staffers wrote in their letter. This process created significant security risks. Earlier this month, about 40 staffers in the office were laid off. The firings dealt a devastating blow to the government's ability to administer and safeguard its own technological footprint. Quote these highly skilled civil servants were working to modernize Social Security, veterans services, tax filing, health care, disaster relief, student aid, and other critical services. That's what their letter says. They go on to say their removal endangers millions of Americans who rely on these services every day. The sudden loss of their technology expertise makes critical systems and Americans data less safe. Roughly 1/3 of the 65 staffers who remained at USDS quit on Tuesday rather than take on new duties under Doge. Quote, we will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans sensitive data or dismantle critical public services. They said we will not lend our expertise to carry out or legitimize Doge's actions.
- [21:11]
Dana Goldberg
That statement right there should really tell Congress what exactly is being asked of them with absolutely no clarity needed.
- [21:23]
Alison Gill
Yeah, agree.
- [21:24]
Dana Goldberg
It is incredibly frustrating. All right, last in this segment. This was from Cheney and Gerstein at Politico, who we love. A federal judge on Tuesday blocked Trump's executive order implementing an indefinite pause on refugee admissions to the United States, saying the directive appeared to amount to a nullification of federal law. Trump's order, which instructed the Department of Homeland Security to immediately stop processing refugee admissions, quote, has crossed the line from permissible discretionary action to effective nullification of congressional will. This is from US District Judge Jamal Whitehead and that is a Seattle based appointee from Joe Biden. And I quote, to be sure the president has substantial discretion to suspend refugee admissions, but that authority is not limitless. This is from Whitehead and this is what he continued to say. I cannot ignore Congress detailed framework for refugee admissions and the limits it placed on the president's ability to suspend the same or our systems of separated powers demands, no less.
- [22:24]
Alison Gill
Hmm. Well said.
- [22:26]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah. Whitehead's injunction blocks key components of one of Trump's day one executive orders, which refugee resettlement groups said caused some would be immigrants to be stranded overseas after selling their belongings before their scheduled travel to the United States was abruptly canceled. Whitehead's decision is yet another nationwide block by a federal judge on some of Trump's central early term priorities. Courts have blocked his administration's freeze of nearly all federal grant spending and foreign assistance, though aid recipients say the administration has been sluggish to comply or outright defiant. And judges have also blocked Trump's effort to grant Elon Musk's allies in the Doge Department access to some of the government's most sensitive databases, which house data on trillions of dollars in transactions and private information of millions Americans. Now, Whitehead issued his ruling from the bench Tuesday following a hearing on a suit brought by individual refugees, their family members and groups that have contracts to Resettle, refug in the U.S. whitehead said the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Health and Human Services had taken steps that exceeded Trump's order without proper deliberation. Shocking. The defendants agency's implementation of the order likely violates bedrock principles of administrative law by vastly expanding the scope of the order with no reasoned explanation and no advance notice. Again, this is from the judge, the Justice Department attorney, August Flench. Do you know this last name, Flint?
- [23:57]
Alison Gill
I haven't heard of this person.
- [23:59]
Dana Goldberg
For everyone listening, it's F, L, E, N, T, J, E. So I'm going to go with Flinch. Asked the judge to pause his order while the administration considers an appeal. Whitehead said he would decide on that question when he issues his formal written order. So judges are fighting back. They are winning. We are winning in courts. And as we know, though, this was an intentional flood of the zone because they already broken down all the systems and they knew all the shit they were doing was unconstitutional on these executive orders. So we're fighting them, but a lot of damage has already been done.
- [24:30]
Alison Gill
Yeah. And the giant fascist turd bucket, half asleep in the Oval Office today was taking some questions and announced that he is going to start selling visas for $5 million because he's a man of the people. So what? Yeah. He wants to invite very rich immigrants to come to the United States and he's going to be selling visas. Green cards. Excuse me? Green cards for $5 million a month.
- [24:59]
Dana Goldberg
That seems.
- [25:01]
Alison Gill
Yeah. So that's probably going to come up in this suit, too. All right, everybody want to fight back? Time for some good trouble. All right, everybody. Your mission today, should you choose to accept it. There are three upcoming special elections for the US House of Representatives. Florida 1, Florida 6, and New York 21. These are Ruby red districts, but keep in mind, Democrats in January won an Iowa state seat in a plus 21. Trump county, district, county or district by five points. That was a 26 point flip.
- [25:35]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah.
- [25:36]
Alison Gill
From the November election that just months earlier. Not. I'm not talking about like 2020 or 2016.
- [25:43]
Dana Goldberg
That's why my little hackles go up on my neck. But keep going.
- [25:48]
Alison Gill
So I know, I know. Samesies. Yeah. Those little hairs on the back of your neck that talk about voting.
- [25:55]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah. You're like, someone's not right. Yeah. But we're not gonna talk about it on air because we want people to accept blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
- [26:03]
Alison Gill
But we have a really, really golden opportunity here to tie or even flip the House. And it's. It's about more than just having a majority and passing laws through the House. It's about setting up committees and setting up investigations and being in charge of the committees again and electing a speaker and perhaps blocking this budget resolution bill that's trying to go through right now where they cut Medicaid and give a tax break to the wealthiest Americans and raise the debt ceiling. That kind of thing. Very important. So if you wouldn't mind, maybe head to mobilize us or find an event or some postcard writing that you can do for these three races. We got to put everything into these and see how close we can get if not outright flipping any of these seats. Again, that's Florida 1, Florida 6, and New York 21. So let's. Let's get on that. I think we can probably right now, like I said, we got to strike while the iron is hot. Everybody's really mad right now. Nobody likes Elon Musk.
- [27:05]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, nobody.
- [27:06]
Alison Gill
If we ever, ever in a million years had a chance to flip these seats and a chance to flip the House, this is it, right? I mean, you know, going forward, the people will probably be angrier and we will have more chances in the future. But please do what you can. And that is today's good trouble. So thank you very much, everybody. We're gonna come right back in a second with the good news. Stick around. We'll be right back. Everybody. Welcome back. It's time for the good news, everyone. Then good news, everyone. And if you have any good news, confessions, corrections or shout outs, whether it's a shout out to a loved one or a small business in your area that could use a boost, your small business, a self shout out or a shout out to a government program like Medicare, which is on the chopping block from Republicans right now, or, or Medicaid, excuse me, Social Security, unemployment, maybe section 8 WIC, SNAP app, any kind of assistance that you've received from the great va, Health care, maybe, or student debt forgiveness, you can send all those good news stories to us by going to DailyBeansPod.com and clicking on Contact and. And the only thing you have to do to get your submission in and have us read it on the air is submit your POD pet tax. That means to pay your tax by including a photo of your pets. We love pets. If you want us to guess what kind of breeds are in your shelter pets, we can try to do that. And if you don't have a pet, you can send us an adoptable pet in your area and we'll see if we can find him a forever home. If you don't have that, any animal photo will do. We're also taking bird watching submissions right now, which means like actual photos of birds or you and your loved ones flipping off Trump and Musk properties. So send that to us. And if you don't have any of those, of course, we absolutely love your baby photos. Please keep sending those in. They bring giant smiles to our faces. All right, first up from Elizabeth, pronouns she and her. Hi, ladies of the Laguminati. Your show is a must. Listen. As a transplant from Idaho, I submit a pronunciation correction. Kootenay. Kootenay. Oh, it's Kootenay. Kootenay is a tricky one. And this is but a gentle correction for Dana, who is so willing to try all location names.
- [29:22]
Dana Goldberg
All location names. I'm gonna say them all the different ways and I'm gonna say all the location names. All right, thank you so much for the gentle love. This is from Kirsten in Bucks county, pronoun shade.
- [29:32]
Alison Gill
Hello, Bucks County.
- [29:33]
Dana Goldberg
Uh huh. Hi, Leguminati. I'd like to submit for your consideration, my friend, fellow invisible Bu county leader and Puerto Rican activist Karen Rodriguez. As a gold star contributor to your bird watching segment, she hasn't just flipped Trump properties the bird, she has managed to flip the bird to the Orange Menace in person. Twice.
- [29:54]
Alison Gill
Dude, I'm jelly.
- [29:56]
Dana Goldberg
Fuck yeah, me too. Attached to find a picture of her flipping the bird at the White house while then 45, was in the resident back in 2018. You will also find an image of her flipping off his limo in 2024 when he was doing a fundraising stop in our community. We were planning a democracy action that day. We had a billboard truck cruise in the area of this event, followed by about 35 carloads of people in a democracy caravan. But Karen, ever the champion bird flipper, waited until the highway closed, the police escort passed by, and they managed to deploy the double bird just as the limo passed by. Chef's kiss. Keep up the great work, ladies.
- [30:37]
Alison Gill
Epic bird watching. Kirsten and Karen Rodriguez, thank you so much. And I gotta say, Bucks county, their indivisible group, their Democrats, are thriving there. It's an absolutely wonderful community. So thank you for these. These are fantastic. Next up from Gina B. I would like to shout out a group of mostly women, but there are some good men too, who have been working in the Chicago suburbs of the Fox Valley. We found common ground when Orange Menace was first elected. Since then, we've been active in educating and bringing what was once an all red area. There were no blue candidates to now a very purple area. Most of us are in a senior age group, but we do have many that are younger and I'm so happy to be a member of We Can Lead Change because this is what we want. We work with other groups too, making everyone's work go further. My Pet Tax here is my 17 year old cat Sugar who is such a sweet girl. She's now showing her age these days so I'm enjoying every day with her. Her sis is Spice and both names are quite fitting. Sugar and Spice. We're going to have a link Gina B. To the We Can Lead Change website in our show notes. Look at this beautiful baby. Hi Sugar. Hi Sugar. Thank you Gina B.
- [31:58]
Dana Goldberg
Seriously. All right. I love the name Danny by the way. This is from Danny Pronouns they them Greetings to you most Luminous Leguminous. Hold on Luminous Leguminous ladies. Thank you for all you do. The daily beans keeps me company every morning and makes me feel a little less overwhelmed. Your mention of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster reminded me of another surprising organization I've been supporting and their fight against Christian nationalism, the Satanic Temple, which is a non theist and uses Satan as a symbol to represent rebellion against arbitrary authority. They have regularly challenged efforts by legislators to install Christian symbols in public spaces or as required bibles in the public schools. This notably included crowdfunding the construction of an 8 1/2 tall Baphomet Baphomet. Thank you Baphomet statue. I learned so much on this show. Baphomet statue and su to have it installed alongside a Ten Commandments monument in Oklahoma. Of course, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ultimately ruled the Ten Commandments Monument unconstitutional, but the statue has seen uses elsewhere. They currently have a reproductive rights campaign which is funding two abortion clinics, including the Samuel Alito's Mom Satanic Abortion Clinic which was featured on John Oliver, and they sell some excellent merchandise to support their efforts on their online store, including some fantastic mugs, one of which I use daily. My pod pet tax is Bernie, a formerly stray cat who appeared when my spouse and I moved into our home a couple years ago. Once a feral male who showed up to eat on our front porch with bites through his ear. He is now a cuddly house cat who sits in the my lap while I work and enjoys belly rubs and cozy blankets.
- [33:45]
Alison Gill
Samuel Alito's Mom's Satanic Abortion so good. Best. Aww, look at this sweet baby kitty.
- [33:53]
Dana Goldberg
Seriously, look at that paw.
- [33:55]
Alison Gill
Oh amazing. Look at those murder mittens. But yeah, thanks for bringing that up. The. The Satanic temple is really doing some great work out there, Dani. Thank you. All right, next up from sage, pronouns, they and them. I'm a very new listener, but I have been catching up quickly on all your episodes. I want to share a fun fact I thought about while I was listening to your episode from today, kissing the feet. You were discussing forming a new religion and I wanted to share the work of the Satanic temple. Awesome. We'll have a link in the show notes. It sounds crazy, but they promote human rights and especially reproductive rights through advocacy, humor, and some damn good legal thinking. Please check out their work keeping abortion clinics open and challenging the crazy Christian indoctrination attempts this ass backward country is forcing upon us. Keep up the good work work and the good fight. My pod pet tax is a pick of three of my five axolotls. Since I just heard the axolotls. Part of the.
- [34:53]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, my gosh.
- [34:54]
Alison Gill
Left to right are Daisy, Starlight, and Phoenix.
- [34:58]
Dana Goldberg
These look like different models, if not.
- [35:01]
Alison Gill
Pictured are marshmallow and pearl. Okay, so sage, if you're a very new listener, we used to have the game was just originally called what the mutt? Right. Where you send in your shelter pup and we try to guess the breeds and then people added to it, like, how about name this turtle? And that was called what the hell is in that shell? And then people would send in cows and horses, opine on the bovine and what the heck wine. And then we had a surge of axolotl photos sent into us. There are a lot of axolotl pets in the Leguminati community. And Dana came up with the game, what's the model of your axolotl?
- [35:41]
Dana Goldberg
And everyone's like, maybe there's just one model. I see three. Unless they're just different colors. These look like three different models of axolotls.
- [35:49]
Alison Gill
They do. And the cool thing, Sage, is it can be mottle M o D E L or mottle M o T T L E. What's the model of your axolotl? So we have a very long history with axolotls on this product.
- [36:01]
Dana Goldberg
These are so pretty.
- [36:03]
Alison Gill
It is kismet that you have found us, Sage. So thank you to Sage. And these are beautiful axolotls.
- [36:10]
Dana Goldberg
They are. All right. This is Kay from California. No pronouns given. Hi, Ag, and Dana. I've been wanting to share this piece of good news ever since the election, but I honestly got too choked up when I think of it to put it into the right words. Last election day, I had the privilege of being in New Orleans with my sister and son, knowing that whatever the outcome, it was probably going to be a stressful day. We planned a lovely morning, starting with coffee and beignets. Oh, my God, please don't even let me get that on the air, but do it anyway. Beignets at Cafe Dumont and ending with a late lunch at Duky Chase's before catching our flight home to California. For those who haven't visited New Orleans, it's a beautiful blue dot in a red state that bootlicker Mike Johnson calls home. Harris wall signs were hanging everywhere, even being flown from the backs of pickup trucks. It was a reminder of the resiliency and kindness that you find throughout that community. And if you haven't visited Dookie Chase' do yourself a favor and look up the history of that amazing restaurant and its contributions to both food, culture and civil rights movements. Being one of the last tables seated before the end of the service day, we were honored to be visited by the founder's daughter, Stella Reese Chase. As she made her rounds, we pointed to our cocktails and let her know that they were lubricating our nerves in anticipation of the night's news. We said that we were hoping that the, quote, right thing would happen. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. She looked at the three of us and with the sound of resignation in her voice, said, well, if the right thing doesn't happen, then that just means it's time for good people to come together. Yes, it is. As I flew home that night, the seat in front of me was playing Fox News, and a cloud of darkness started forming in my head. With every graphic flashing the state's results coming in, I felt like I was in some sort of limbo and I was going to be landing in a parallel universe of sadness and defeat. But since then, I keep reminding myself of Stella's simple response. And it inspires me to try to take one small action every day to fight the fascist regime. I know that the good people in our countries outnumber the bad. I agree with that, by the way. And I hope that we find a way to come together to make the right things happen. In addition to my pod pet tax of my family's beloved bearded lady, Kaylee, the mini schnauzer, I've sent a couple of pictures from Dookies that I frequently look back at, remind myself that people like the Chases have been doing the good work for decades.
- [38:35]
Alison Gill
Amazing. All right, so we have a sign, a yard sign that says vote. Voting stirs the pot A beautiful painting from Inside Chases.
- [38:47]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah.
- [38:48]
Alison Gill
And look at this dog. What an adorable puppy.
- [38:53]
Dana Goldberg
It's a cute schnauzer face you got there.
- [38:56]
Alison Gill
The beautiful bearded lady. The ears are incredible, by the way. That's a very interesting fold on those ears. Thank you so much. And thank you to all of you for sending in your good news. Please send us your good news submission today. Again, you can do it@dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. We're gonna need it. Look for the helpers, as they say. And that's all y'all. So we appreciate you. We love you. We made it through the taint of the week. Dana, do you have any final tainty thoughts?
- [39:24]
Dana Goldberg
I have no tainty thoughts. I never do.
- [39:27]
Alison Gill
Okay. I'm really. I'm really. So now that we had. We named named our episode yesterday. Kissing the feet. And every time I see it, I'm.
- [39:35]
Dana Goldberg
Like, every time that video comes up, me too.
- [39:39]
Alison Gill
Hey, anyway, we'll be back in your ears tomorrow, everybody. Also, check out the latest episode. It's just out today. Of cleanup on aisle 45 with Harry Dunn and myself. He walks us through what happened this weekend with Enrique Tarrio and the bomb threats at the principal's first summit. He was there with Mike Fanon, Sergeant Gannell, and Danny Hodges. So you don't want to miss that episode. And we'll be back in your ears for the beans tomorrow. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, and take care of your family. I've been AG and I've been dg 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 mswmedia.com msw media.