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Full And Unconditional
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Monday, December 2nd, 2024 Today, journalists are now flocking to Bluesky from Twitter because of the toxic environment on Elon Musk’s social media platform; federal judges appointed by Democrats are rescinding their bid for senior status; the Republican Ohio attorney general is appealing a ruling that struck down the state’s abortion ban; Pete Hegseth’s mother doesn’t like him; Syrian rebels have taken the city of Aleppo; a Missouri judge has struck down four provisions of a voter suppression bill; Justin Trudeau traveled down to Mar a Lago to address the threat of tariffs; Trump eyes a swift rollback of Biden’s student debt forgiveness; how a recent Supreme Court ruling may help Democrats; Voyager 1 has found its voice again after NASA restores communications; and Allison delivers your Good News.
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Allison Gill
MSW Media Big Shout out today to Helix Sleep. Helix is offering 25% off site wide plus two free dream pillows with any mattress purchase or a free bedding bundle which is two dream pillows, a sheet set and a mattress protector with any luxe or elite mattress. Order when you go to helix sleep.com dailybeans and thanks to Smalls for supporting the Daily Beans. Smalls Cat food is made with protein packed recipes made with ingredients you'd find in your fridge and it's delivered right to your door. Get 50% off your first order plus free shipping. Go to smalls.com dailybeans and use promo code dailybeans at checkout. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Monday, December 2, 2024 Today, journalists are now flocking to Blue sky from Twitter because of the toxic environment on Elon Musk's social media platform. Federal judges appointed by Democrats are rescinding their bid for senior status. The Republican Ohio Attorney General is appealing a ruling that struck down the state's abortion ban. Pete Hegseth's mother doesn't like him. Syrian rebels have taken the city of Aleppo. A Missouri judge has struck down four provisions of a voter suppression bill. Justin Trudeau traveled down to Mar a Lago to address the threat of tariffs. Trump eyes a swift rollback of Biden's student debt forgiveness program. How a recent Supreme Court ruling may help Democrats and Voyager 1 has found its voice again after NASA restores communications. I'm your host Allison Gill. Breaking news, Breaking news. This has just come across my desk in the last few minutes. I just finished recording this hour long super mega episode and as soon as hit the stop record button, this news comes across my desk. Joe Biden has pardoned Hunter Biden. He's given him a full pardon. To all whom this concerns, be it known that this day, I, Joseph R. Biden Jr. President of the United States, pursuant to my powers under Article 2, Section 2, Clause 1 of the Constitution, have granted unto Robert Hunter Biden a full and unconditional pardon. And this is not just for the things he was charged with. It's for anything he's ever done from 2014 through today. It says for all those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the time period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024, including but not limited to, all offenses charged or prosecuted, including any that have resulted in convictions by Special Counsel David C. Weiss in these two docket numbers in the United States District Court of Delaware and the United States District Court in the Central District of California. That's a gun charges and the tax charges. In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name and caused the pardon to be recorded with the Department of Justice done at the city of Washington this first day of December in the year of our Lord 2024. Incredible. I'm so glad he fucking did this. Oh my gosh. I had to break in and give you this breaking news. And now you know. Please continue to listen to the rest of this show. This has been a breaking news alert from the Daily Beans. Hoo boy, that's a lot of news. We're going to have kind of a long show, so buckle in. Dana's traveling. My co host, she's out there doing her good work. So I'm here solo. Thanks for hanging in with me and thanks for listening. Thanks to all of our new listeners. Thanks for unplugging from corporate news and coming to get your news here with a little bit of swearing. There's also a new episode of the Jack podcast out today where Andy McCabe and I discussed the real possibility that Merrick Garland fucks us all and fails to release a report written by Jack Smith. I hope that doesn't happen, but I'm a little concerned. And we talk about that and we also answer some listener questions and talk about the dismissed federal cases against Donald Trump. And, you know, send him a note. Send Merrick Garland a note by going to the Department of Justice website, clicking on Contact and selecting from the dropdown menu messages to the attorney General and let him know that you want him to release the report with only the necessary redactions, the ones that are required under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedures procedure, like people's names who aren't charged, personal identifying information like addresses and phone numbers and of course, grand jury material, Merrick Garland and Jack Smith cannot unilaterally just release grand jury evidence or grand jury deliberation material because only a judge can do that and only in certain circumstances. So a lot of that is going to be redacted. We saw all of those redactions when Jack Smith submitted his immunity brief in two parts. The first part was 165 pages, most of which was not redacted. And we read that on the Jack podcast. So you can listen to that immunity briefing. It describes and summarizes all the evidence against Donald Trump. But then there were 2,000 pages, most of which was redacted, of the underlying evidence from the grand jury. And so even if some journalists, which they likely will make FOIA requests to unseal that evidence, they'll probably get rejected. Although, you know, we do have the full unredacted Mueller report. But that's because Bill Barr made inappropriate redactions to it to kind of minimize the breadth and depth of Russian interference in the 2016 election. And we've had that mostly unredacted Mueller report since 2020 because Buzzfeed sued in a FOIA request lawsuit. All right, so check out the Jack podcast that's out. We have tons of news today, so we're going to start with some quick hits. And to make a long story short, too late. First up from Reuters, for the second time since Republican President elect Donald Trump's election, a federal judge has revoked his decision to take senior status after it was clear that Democratic President Joe Biden had run out of time to fill his seat. U.S. district Judge Max Cogburn, an appointee of Obama in Asheville, North Carolina, announced in 2022 he planned to take senior status, a form of semi retirement, upon the confirmation of a successor. But Biden never nominated anyone to fill the seat, and this week Cogburn's name disappeared from the federal judiciary's official list opens a new tab of justices who plan to vacate their seats at future dates. James Ishida, the circuit executive for Richmond, Virginia based 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, told Reuters late Wednesday that Cogburn had decided to remain in active service and sent the White House a letter to that effect. Since you're you can't replace me anymore, I'm going to stick it out. That's what the Democratic appointed judge said. Cogburn's reversal came after another judge, U.S. district Judge Algernon Marbley in Columbus, Ohio, withdrew his plans to take senior status just days after Trump emerged as a Victor in the Nov. 5 election. Marbley is an appointee of Bill Clinton now. Cogburn's reversal was disclosed the same day the Judiciary said one of his fellow jurists in the Western District of North Carolina, US District Judge Frank Whitney, had elected to take senior status effective Sunday. Whitney is an appointee of G.W. bush and one of the first judges since Trump's election to announce plans to take senior status so that when Trump gets in there, he can replace him. Cogburn joined the federal bench in 2011. His notable decisions include a 2014 ruling striking down North Carolina's gay marriage ban. Any nominee Biden might have picked to fill Cogburn seat would have needed the blessing of North Carolina's two Republican senators, including Senator Tom Tillis a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Thanks to the US Senate's blue slip custom, Tillis has been critical of how the White House went about selecting a nominee to fill North Carolina seat on the 4th Circuit, Ryan park, whose nomination is no longer expected to receive a floor vote following a bipartisan lame duck deal. This is one of the four judicial nominations that Schumer agreed to not fill last week. Biden's inability to fill Cogburn's seat resulted in a missed opportunity for the Democratic president to extend his efforts to diversify the federal bench to the Western District of North Carolina, which has never had a woman or a person of color serve as a life tenured judge before. Next up from the BBC Russia carried out a series of airstrikes in Syria on Sunday as rebels advanced after seizing aleppo. According to UK based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. That's the SOHR 12 people were killed in an airstrike on a hospital in Aleppo, while a strike inside the northwestern city of Idlib killed eight civilians and wounded more than 50. Warplanes also struck rural parts of Idlib and Hamas, where the group leading the rebel offensive has taken control. The Syrian government, meanwhile, lost control of Aleppo for the first time since the country's civil war began. And the surprise offensive by opposition forces, which began Wednesday, marks the most significant fighting in Syria's civil war in recent years. It has been led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahir al Sham, or hts, as well as allied factions backed by Turkey. Opposition fighters seized nearly all of the city from the government on Sunday, except for the neighborhoods controlled by Kurdish forces. Syria's military withdrew from the city to prepare for a counteroffensive. And from ABC Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Donald Trump last Friday at Mar? A Lago. Speaking to reporters outside his hotel on Saturday morning, Trudeau said his conversation with Trump was excellent, but didn't respond to any additional questions. And the meeting, of course, came after Trump threatened sweeping 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada until both countries stop what he claims is a flow of drugs and illegal immigrants into the United States. And next from Politico, President elect Donald Trump is poised to pull the plug on President Joe Biden's years long push to cancel student debt for tens of millions of people. As Republicans sweep into power in the coming months, Trump transition advisors and outside allies have been discussing ways to quickly unwind the various Biden era initiatives that offered new or easier paths to loan forgiveness for borrowers. Now this move would be the culmination of nearly four years of attacks by Republican lawmakers and attorneys general on Biden's student debt relief policies. On the campaign trail, Trump slammed the loan forgiveness efforts, which totaled hundreds of billions of dollars, as vile and illegal. Yet his team faces a daunting challenge. A series of recent court decisions has left the federal government's $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio in disarray, with millions of borrowers stuck in limbo. All right, so those are the quick hits. We got through those. We still have our major stories to cover in the Hot Notes. And then I have another story I want to talk to you about regarding the Chevron deference decision and how it might help Democrats and a couple of good news pieces of stories. And then we have the listener submitted good news. It's a big show today, but thanks for hanging in everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back. Hey everybody. 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But actually I was sleeping on a mattress for someone else. And that's when I decided to give Helix a try. And from the very first night, I felt the difference. I slept soundly. I woke up refreshed and finally said goodbye to those nagging aches and pains in the morning. After years of use, my Helix mattress feels as good as new, offering the same level of support and comfort as the first night. So head over to helixleep.com DailyBeans take their sleep quiz and you'll get matched to your perfect mattress. It's designed just for you, shipped right to your door. You'll get 25% off site wide as well. And so you know, imagine just tossing, turning, waking up drenched in sweat, dealing with relentless lower back pain. That was nightly struggle for me and my old mattress was doing me no favors. So I switched to Helix. Everything's changed and now I sleep cool, undisturbed and the back pain completely gone. Even my Apple watch agrees. My sleep data has never looked better. 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The law banning most abortions once cardiac activity is detected, which is as nearly like early as six weeks into pregnancy before most women know they're pregnant had been paused pending the challenge. Republican Attorney General Dave Yost on Friday filed a notice of appeal with the court because of course he did, his office said. There are provisions in the law that aren't addressed in the constitutional amendment. You dude quote, it's up to the courts to determine how conflicts between these two documents are resolved, said Bethany McCorkle, a spokesperson for Yoast. Now Yoast had acknowledged in earlier court filings that the amendment rendered the Ohio ban unconstitutional, but sought to maintain other elements of the law, including certain notification and reporting provisions, back to their same old tricks. Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Kristen Jenkis said in his ruling that retaining those provisions would have subjected doctors who perform abortions to felony criminal charges, fines, license suspensions or revocations and civil claims of wrongful death, and required patients to make two in person visits to their provider, wait 24 hours for the procedure and have their abortion recorded and reported. So why don't we do this with guns? Why don't we have one place in your state that sells guns? You have to travel, you have to make two in person visits, you have to be lectured on the, you know, issues of gun violence. Then you got to wait 24 hours to come and get your gun and then all of your purchase and serial number and fingerprints have to be recorded and reported. Why don't we do this for that Is privacy and bodily autonomy not as important a right as gun ownership? It fucking blows me away every time. Next up from the New York Times. And by the way, this is an article that was gifted to me because I had canceled that subscription. The mother of Pete Hegseth, that's Trump's pick for Secretary of Defense, wrote him an email in 2018 saying he had routinely mistreated women for years and displayed a lack of character. Quote on behalf of all women and I know it's many you have abused in some way, I say get some help and take an honest look at yourself. Unquote. That's Penelope Hegseth. That's what she wrote, but said she still loved him. She also said I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man and have been for years and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth. Now Mrs. Hegseth, in a phone interview with the Times on Friday, said she immediately sent a follow up email apologizing for what she had just written. She said she had fired off the original email in anger with emotion at a time when he and his wife were going through a very difficult divorce. In the interview she defended her son and disavowed the sentiments she had expressed in the initial email about his character and treatment of women. It's not true. It's never been true, she said. That was true the day before. Ms. Hegseth, she added, I know my son. He's a good father, husband. She said that publishing the contents of her first email was disgusting. No, okay, not as disgusting as what you accused him of, but whatever. Lady. Questions about Mr. Hegseth's treatment of women have emerged in the weeks since Trump chose him, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, to lead the Pentagon. The issue is expected to be a subject of scrutiny during Senate confirmation hearings. Reports on his infidelity have focused attention on his character and leadership, particularly for a civilian overseeing the military, where active duty service members can be subject to prosecution for adultery under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. And that's what gets me. When I tried to report my rape in the military, I was told first of all that I shouldn't have been there, I shouldn't have been drinking, what was I wearing, et cetera, but that if I did this, I could be charged with adultery because my rapist was married. Not me, my rapist. And they were going to court martial me under the Uniform Code of Military justice for adultery. And here is this huge philanderer and adulterer who is set to lead lead the military and an alleged rapist. We can get that and get to that in a second. Another issue is how senators will view a rape complaint against Mr. Hegseth. Filed two police on October 2017 after an incident at a political conference in Monterey, California. No charges were brought and the complainant has not come forward publicly. Well, yeah. Did you see what happened to Christine Blase Ford? I mean, fuck now. Mrs. Heth emailed her son April 30, 2018. During a turbulent period in his life, he was in the middle of a contentious divorce from his second wife, Samantha, the mother of his three children. Samantha Heth filed for divorce after her husband impregnated a co worker, part of a pattern of adultery that dated back to his first marriage. Heg says mother wrote in the email that she was upset about the treatment of Samantha. Writing for you to try to label her as unstable for your own advantage is despicable and abusive. Is there any sense of decency left in you? I mean, wow, quote, she didn't ask for or deserve any of what has come to her by your hand. Neither did meredith. That's what Mrs. Hegseth added, referring to Hegseth's first wife, Mrs. Hegseth, forwarded a copy of her email to Samantha the same night she sent it to her son, according to documents reviewed by the Times. The Times obtained a copy of the email from another person with ties to the Hegseth family. The email does not describe in detail the circumstances that prompted Hegseth. Mrs. Hegseth to write it. Mrs. Hegseth said on Friday that she would consider providing the Times with her apologetic follow up email, but didn't immediately do so. So she said, oh, I immediately wrote an email saying, oh, I'm sorry, I was angry. None of that's right. I was just mad. Mad at what? What made you mad? If he wasn't abusive, an abusive adulterer asshole. Were you mad at did he forget the Cranberries at Thanksgiving? And you just. And now the Times is like, well, show us that follow up email. No. Steven Chung, the spokesman for Trump, said in an email the Times was despicable for publishing an out of context snippet of Mrs. Hegseth's exchange with her son, adding that Mrs. Hegseth had expressed regret for her emotional message and apologized for her emotional message. Wow, that's. That doesn't say everything right there. Now, several key Republican senators have said the sexual assault allegation in Monterey is not an obstacle to his nomination because it was never proven. But Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican of Iowa who has said she was sexually harassed while in the military, told Politico, quote, anytime there are allegations, you want to make sure they're properly vetted. So we'll have that discussion. They won't be properly vetted again. Ask Christine Blase Ford. 4,500 fucking tips sent to the FBI and the White House just wiped its ass with it and threw it in the trash. Mr. Hegseth has repeatedly said he's a Christian who adheres to conservative family values. In a short lived bid for the Republican nomination for a Minnesota seat in the US Senate in 2012, he credited his parents for instilling those values in him, saying, I didn't learn conservatism out of a book. In an essay that same year, he acknowledged that he had erred by fathering a child out of wedlock with Samantha, who had been his co worker at a nonprofit group called Vets for Freedom after his first marriage ended, quote, had I been raised in a family where faith, fidelity and fatherhood were not valued, my choices could have led to my family breakdown. That's what he wrote in a publication about fragmented families at the center for the American Experiment, which is a nonprofit group. By late 2016, Heth, a Fox News contributor and aspiring anchor, was having an affair with Jennifer Rauscher. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that properly. And executive producer at Fox News having an affair with her. He was named as the weekend anchor on Fox and friends in early 2017, a post he held until earlier this month when Trump announced he was, you know, going to be nominated for the secretary of defense. Ms. Rausche, who has three other children, delivered a baby girl in August of 2017, one month before Samantha Hegseth filed for divorce. Mr. Hegseth married Ms. Rausche in 2019 at a ceremony at the Trump National Golf Club, Colts Neck in New Jersey. The acrimonious divorce From Samantha took 10 months to finalize and led to the appointment of a parenting consultant to help negotiate disputes over dividing time with the children. Hag says mom, who was a longtime executive business coach, wrote her email three months before the divorce decree it began. Son, I have tried to keep quiet about your character and behavior, but after listening to the way you made Samantha feel today, I cannot stay silent. Sam is a good mother and a good person, adding that she thought that her son thought that, quote, we had taken her side. That was bunk, she said. We're on the side of good and that is not you. The email did not say who we referred to beyond herself. Quote, it's time for someone, I wish it was a strong man to stand up to your abusive behavior and call it out, especially against women. We still love you, but we're broken by your behavior and lack of character. If the email damages our relationship further, so be it, she said. She described his abusive behavior over the years as dishonesty, sleeping around, betrayal, debasing and belittling women. She told him not to bother to reply because, quote, you twist and abuse everything I say anyway. Boy, does that sound familiar. In the years that have followed, Pete and Samantha Hegseth continued to fight over the care of the children in year for years, according to documents in their divorce record. In 2020, after Mr. Hegseth sent a text to his ex wife calling her pathetic and selfish, the court appointed consultant said she wanted to see, quote, an action plan from Pete regarding cessation of his hostile and degrading communications to and about Samantha. In an affidavit filed with the court, Mr. Hegseth said that he slipped up, regretted the text and had not always been as respectful as he could have been. He said, I'm committed to learning from my mistakes and communicating with Sam in a positive manner. Sam just sounds like another malignant narcissist, alleged rapist, which is it's really a qualification for being nominated to this trumpet second Trump administration. The first one. I mean, hell, this is who he surrounds himself with. Next up from Democracy docket. Support them if you're not already A Missouri judge permanently struck down four provisions of the state's sweeping voter suppression law, House Bill 1878, that criminalized civic engagement activities like voter registration and the distribution of absentee ballot applications. In a 75 page ruling issued last Wednesday, Missouri Judge John E. Bedum determined that HB 1878's restrictions on voter engagement are overly vague and violate the fundamental rights to free speech, expression, association and due process under the state constitution. Four big things there. The decision came as part of a 2022 lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters in Missouri and Missouri State Conference of the naacp, and it went on trial this summer. Among the now invalidated provisions of HB 1878 were a prohibition on compensating individuals who solicit voter registration applications and a requirement that uncompensated individuals who solicit more than 10 voter registration applications must register with the Secretary of State. Additionally, the law mandated that all voter registration solicitors be registered to vote in Missouri, precluding high schoolers and out of state individuals from conducting voter registration, and it banned individuals or groups from asking voters if they wanted to fill out an absentee ballot application at all. Under the state's omnibus election statute, organizations and individuals who violated the challenged provisions would be subject to harsh criminal, misdemeanor and felony penalties, including fines, jail time and loss of the right to vote for life. For the better part of the litigation, the provisions remain temporarily blocked due to a November 2022 injunction secured by the plaintiffs, which enabled voter engagement groups to carry out their work during the 2024 election cycle. So it's not too late this was blocked during this past election. All of these voter suppression provisions, Judge Bedum concluded in Wednesday's decision that HB 1878's direct restraint on pure speech and core political speech, like encouraging political participation in particular, are antithetical to the core tenets of freedom of speech. His ruling also focused on how the vague nature of the challenge provisions created confusion and forced the plaintiffs to curtail their voter engagement activities out of fear of criminal prosecution. Although the State of Missouri has an interest in preventing voter fraud and promoting election integrity, the provisions at issue failed to address that concern. That's what the judge wrote. According to the ruling, state officials provided no evidence, zero evidence at trial demonstrating how the law promotes voter confidence or protects against purported fraud. All right, next up from Kate Tenbarge at NBC When Ashton Pittman, an award winning news editor and reporter, first joined up at Blue sky, he said he was the only Mississippi journalist he knew to be using it. Until about five weeks ago, he said that was the case. But now, Pittman said there are at least 15 Mississippi journalists on Blue sky as it becomes a preferred platform for reporters, writers, activists and other groups who have become increasingly alienated by Twitter. Pittman's outlet, the Mississippi Free Press, already has more followers on bluesky than it ever did on Twitter. The platform formerly well, it's X, we know that. And Pittman said the audience engagement on Blue sky is booming. Quote we have posts that are exactly the same on Twitter and BlueSky, and with those identical posts, Blue sky is getting 20 times the engagement or more than Twitter. Seeing a social media platform that doesn't throttle links really makes it clear how badly we were being limited. Since Elon Musk bought Twitter has turned he's turned the platform into an increasingly difficult place for journalists, and many had come to suspect the platform had begun to suppress the reach of posts that include links to external websites. On Sunday, Musk admitted it. On the platform, he deprioritized posts including links, which was how journalists and other creators historically share their work. But four journalists told NBC News that after millions of users migrated to Blue sky, an alternative that resembles a pared back version of Twitter after the election, they're rebuilding their audiences there too. Quote my average post that isn't a hot button issue or isn't trending might not perform as well on Twitter as it does on Bluesky. That's Phil Lewis, senior front page editor at HuffPost, who has over 400,000 followers on Twitter and close to 300,000 on Bluesky. Judging by retweets, likes and comments. It's a world of difference, he said. Platform and audience editors at the Guardian and the Boston Globe have publicly noted higher traffic to their news websites from Blues, then from competitors, including Threads. That's Meta's Twitter alternative. Rose Wang, Blue Sky's chief operating officer, quoted the Guardian's statistics writing, quote, we want Blue sky to be a great home for journalists, publishers and creators. Unlike other platforms, we don't de promote your links, post all the links you want. Blue sky is a lobby to the open web now. Some of Its earliest users included black, trans and politically progressive people Journalists who belong to and cover issues affecting marginalized populations have been found on Blue sky to be much more welcoming. I quote, I think that Blue Sky's demographic is literally just anybody who can't stand the sort of toxic environment that Twitter has become and that spans a large range of people. That's what Erin Reed said. She's an independent journalist covering trans rights issues on Substack. You should definitely subscribe to her newsletter. Journalists don't like toxicity and toxic comments. We want to have conversations with people and we don't want everything to devolve into slurs being hurled back and forth. Numerous studies and analyses have found that after Musk took over Twitter, use of hate speech increased. It was like exponential. Over time the platform became a bastion of the right wing Internet. Reid also said traffic to her Substack articles has doubled since she began posting exclusively on Blue Sky. She and Talia Lavin, a journalist and author who covers the far right, said Twitter had become overrun with anti trans speech as well as other forms of bigotry and harassment. Lavin said she noticed an uptick of anti Semitism and pro Nazi accounts on Twitter, as did Pittman. In April, NBC News found that on Twitter at least 150 Pro Nazi accounts were able to purchase verification on the app, get that little blue checkmark and boost pro Nazi content that was viewed millions of times. Quote if I'm not able to drive any consistent views to my newsletter from Twitter, why am I here? That's what Lavin said about her discussion to move to Blue Sky. All the replies were AI bots and Nazis and none of the earnestly engaged readers are seeing my content. So what's the point of subjecting myself to psychic damage? Quote Having any sort of space where I can say here's my newsletter, here's my book, and you can at least be exposed to the work I'm writing. That feels good. As opposed to a billionaire who actively hates the press, being in charge and not wanting anyone to see your work. That's again Lavin who went on to say, I don't know if it signifies some brand new hope for journalism, but it's nice to have a platform where you're not actively being stifled. Quote People always say the news is too negative. Well, why don't people click on and retweet and share our more positive stories? I think the answer at Bluesky is giving us is that it was the algorithms. This is Pittman now. On Twitter you would see 2 likes on a positive story that on Blue sky is getting dozens of likes and shares. All right, I have one more story, everybody, about how a really bad SCOTUS ruling could actually come in handy for Democrats over the next four years. But we have to take another quick break, so stick around. We'll be right back. Hey everybody, welcome back. All right, this comes from Paul Blumenthal at HuffPost. As public health advocates and politicians who support vaccines and other longstanding public health interventions face the possibility of conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Leading the department of Health and Human Services, they may find an unlikely source of assistance to block some of Kennedy's most unsupported ideas. The Supreme Court as We know, in mid-2024, the Supreme Court's conservative supermajority overturned its 40 year old finding in Chevron v. Natural Resource Defense Council, a precedent that had largely given specific government agencies and the experts and scientists working for them the authority to interpret rules and laws and regulations and guidance they were charged with implementing. In doing so, the court shifted the power to approve or deny changes in the regulatory landscape away from the agencies, ones like the fda, the Federal Trade Commission, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and shifted that away from the agencies and the experts and the scientists toward the court. Now that may make it harder for Kennedy to easily change how the many sub agencies and regulatory bodies within HHS treat vaccines, prescription drugs and scientific research. Quote, the end of Chevron deference does offer an opportunity to challenge bad regulations. That's Dr. Reshma Ramachandran. She's a physician and associate professor at the Yale School of Medicine. And she's referring to this legal precedent saying, and we expect there's a high likelihood in the incoming administration that there's going to be regulations that are very concerning and antithetical to public health. They can't just rely on the fact that they'll be able to interpret the statutes. However, they, like Kennedy has suggested that there's no vaccine that's safe and effective. HIV may not be the cause of aids. Chemicals in the environment could be causing gender dysphoria in children. Antidepressants may be linked to mass shootings. And COVID 19 could be ethnically targeted to attack Caucasians and black people while largely sparing people who are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese. There's no evidence to back up any of these claims. How these views inform actions he might take at HHS is yet unknown. But if he successfully confirmed by the Senate, Kennedy could direct the agency to issue new rules and regulations and guidance governing everything from vaccines and regulatory standards to authorizations for prescription drugs and medical devices. That is, unless the recent Supreme Court ruling on Chevron deference throws a wrench in the works. The President had previously created a two step process by which courts judged the appropriateness of government agencies interpretations of their statutory authority to issue regulations. It did not provide a universal deference, but a limited deference to those agency interpretations of often vague or ambiguous legislative grants of authority. So the agencies had a lot of leeway in issuing regulations and what they were allowed to do. But the courts were allowed to double check that those interpretations were backed up by laws passed in Congress, basically not by the science or the evidence, just that they comported with the laws. But with the case Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Supreme Court's six conservatives reversed that, overruling Chevron deference and stating the courts would now exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority. As courts had the special competence to provide answers on statutory ambiguities, agency interpretations may now persuade courts, but courts no longer owe them any kind of deference. In short, the courts have more power to approve or reject regulatory decisions made by agencies when the law is ambiguous about an agency's regulatory authority. And while this may be a hindrance to science based public health rules, it could also act as a brake on any attempt by Kennedy to change how Health and Human Services treats vaccines, prescription drugs or other public health measures on vaccines. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, for Kennedy to revoke an authorization for a vaccine. He has said he won't do that, but if he did, it would trigger a fierce fight within HHS and litigation in the courts. He could alternatively try to issue new regulations or guidance related to vaccines, whether for future vaccine approval, coverage of vaccines under Medicare and Medicaid, labeling related to alleged vaccine harms, or guidance for medical professionals on vaccine distribution. Quote, he could say we're going to revise these regulations now and go through the whole rulemaking process to do that. Now the same goes for regulatory approvals for drugs, including those that Kennedy has said were suppressed by the government, like hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin and psychedelics. He could change what uses these drugs are approved for, or grant approval for drugs like the psychedelic mdma, which was just rejected by the FDA in August. But all these things would face bigger hurdles in the courts with the end of Chevron deference. This is particularly true for long established regulatory actions like vaccine approvals or standard guidance that have significant agency and court precedents backing them. Up now. Lawsuits over these changes could come from any number of sources vaccine makers, hospitals, doctors, public health advocates. But the end of Chevron deference places the power in the hands of the judges who hear the cases, stoking fears that partisan or ideological opinions may outweigh scientific ones. Quote People who still have faith in an ideal functioning judiciary will hope that a judge discerning the text and the purpose of the statute that governs HHS can independently evaluate whether an action taken by RFK Jr really is in line with what the statute says. That's Andrew Twinimitsico, a director for center for Public Health Policy and the law at that's at the O'Neill Institute in Washington. Increasingly ideological or partisan opinions from Trump appointed judges, particularly concentrated in regional areas like the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, may undermine that faith that we could use this for example, a decision by Judge Kaczmarek removing both new and longstanding approvals for the use of mifepristone to perform abortions, ignored actual scientific research and instead relied on a blog run by an anti abortion organization as evidence. The Supreme Court rejected Kasmarek's decision when it found that the anti abortion groups bringing the case they were dentists. Most of them did not have legal standing. Three Republican led states, however, are now pursuing similar lawsuits in the lower courts. This case brought the public's attention to the issue of judge shopping and the machinations carried out by litigants seeking a particular outcome to make sure their case ends up in front of Judge Kaczmarek. Quote, when you have a decision on RFK has made that you might not like, you might not want to go to the 5th Circuit. That's what TwinMitsico said. And while it may be true for public health advocates and companies with an interest in protecting science based vaccine rules and regulations, other interests may find the fifth Circuit a good venue for post Chevron regulatory challenges for some of Kennedy's positions that align with public health. Kennedy isn't a conservative. He's a former Democrat, apparently with diagonal views running across a plane of ideologies from liberal to libertarian to pure conspiratorial. His thoughts on chemical pollution, synthetic food ingredients and corporate influence over the FDA regulators align with those of liberals. But any efforts to regulate food additives like synthetic dyes would almost certainly face legal challenges from the food, agriculture and chemical industries under post Chevron rules. Stopping vast changes to the regulatory landscape is what the Supreme Court's conservatives actually had in mind when they ended the deference that the Chevron ruling provided agencies in the past during arguments in lope or Bright Justice, Brett Kavanaugh said the Chevron deference, quote, ushers in shocks to the system every four or eight years when a new administration comes in. Ending agency deference was meant to prevent such significant changes. That's Kavanaugh. That could very well trip up Kennedy's plans for vast changes, you know, big systemic changes to the entire regulatory framework for public health policy. And it will not take four years, but barely a year for this shock to the system to begin playing out. So thanks to Blumenthal over at HuffPost for that piece. And I do have a little bit of Good news from Space.com before we get to listener submitted good news. NASA has confirmed that one of its greatest ever missions, Voyager 1, is back in business with communications restored following an incident in October that led to the veteran spacefarer losing its voice. Now 47 years old, I am older than Voyager 1. Voyager 1 is 15.4 billion miles from Earth, a distance that grows greater with every passing second. With the power supply from its decaying plutonium dwindling, only 4 of its instruments remain operational, and surprisingly so, given that they're now all working at temperatures lower than they were originally designed for. That's amazing. It's not the first time Voyager 1 has experienced communications problems. The spacecraft had certainly been showing its age. In 2022 and 2023, for example, Voyager 1 began returning garbled telemetry, the latter issue taking until the summer of 2024 to resolve. And in 2023, its twin, Voyager 2 experienced a period of communications difficulties as well. This latest problem just exemplifies how fragile the spacecraft are, and their subsystems are also very fragile. And of course, this should not come as a surprise. Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are quite elderly now, and it doesn't help that they are the farthest spacecraft from home, traversing a cold, dark environment like you might worry about an elderly relative. Every slight stumble that Voyager probes make is alarming to NASA. And yet the two Voyager spacecraft seem to be outlasting predictions that they would have succumbed to lower power levels by now, their remaining instruments keep operating as they explore the depths of the outermost solar system beyond the Kuiper belt. Although Voyager 2 was forced to switch off its plasma science instrument in September, the first instrument on either spacecraft to have been switched off in 16 years, having launched mere weeks apart in 1977, they have explored the outer solar system, discovered a wealth of detail about Jupiter and Saturn's moons, including the Intricacies of IO's volcanoes visited some planets for the first and still the only time Uranus and Neptune passed clean through the Kuiper Belt and exited the Sun's heliosphere, entering interstellar space. Yet when they do eventually succumb to the night, the Voyagers won't stop. They'll continue plowing their lone furrows as they begin long orbits around the galaxy. Their story is just beginning. So Anyway, very cool. Voyager 1 back online. I want to go watch Star Trek now. But first before I do that, we have listeners submitted good news, but we have to take a break. So stick around. We'll be right back. Everybody. Welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news? Everyone? Then good news everyone. Good news, good news. And if you have any good news confessions, corrections, any good news you want to send us at all, just submit it by going to DailyBeansPod.com and clicking on Contact. And you can pay your pod pet tax to get your good news submitted by attaching a photo of your pet. And if you want us to get guess your shelter pups breeds, we got five for five the other day and we were going to have hang up the whole show and just pack it in and go home. But you could have us, you know, guess the guest the breeds of your shelter pup. That's fine. If you don't have a pod pet, you can send an adoptable pet in your area or just any animal photo really that you want to send in. We love them. And of course if you don't have any pet photos or animal photos, you can send a baby photo you you as a baby or any babies you know, or just like a random baby on the Internet. We just love baby photos. And then of course we love shout outs. If you have a shout out to a loved one, whether it's a spouse or a kid or a parent or a friend who's doing some great work, maybe some community organizer doing really great activism in your community, maybe a small business in your in your community that needs a shout out or your small business. If you want to shout out your small business, let us know self shout outs are the best. Let us know, you know, if you've got any good news of the stuff that you're doing and any great things that have happened to you recently. We definitely want to hear about that. And of course shout outs to government programs that have helped you or a loved one, whether it's Social Security or Medicare, Medicaid, Affordable Care Act, Chips and Science act, unions has A union helped you or a loved one. I mean, there's a million different, you know, WIC, Section 8, Head Start, SNAP. Anything at all. Good. Great VA healthcare you've received. We'd love to hear about it. And of course, student debt forgiveness. Send it to us dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. All right, first up from Dr. Larry. Love you, Allison, and your taste in music. You and I definitely would have been friends back in the day. I do not remember hearing that someone corrected this, but I thought I would come in and show my alternative cred. Correction, Allison. It was Bob Mould of Husker Do Fame who wrote and performed the Daily show theme song first. It was they Might Be Giants who performed it when Jon Stewart became the host. And as Spinal Tap would say, that's the. That's the twist. It's a fine line. Okay, all right, fair enough. You're right, Husker Do. No need to turn in your punk rock card yet, as you've already proven your competency. Thank you, Dr. Larry. Included is a picture of the most awesome service dog in the world showing his unconditional love for me soon after we met. Hawk is no longer with me. He left for the Rainbow Bridge in 2004, but he seems to find me practically every day, one way or another. What a Beautiful baby. Thanks, Dr. Larry. And yeah, I mean, I know Larry here, and he is the go to source on this kind of music trivia, so thank you for that. Next up, Lee. No pronouns. I listen to your show every morning. You've kept me sane throughout the nation's political insanity. Thank you for the work you do with all your podcasts. You are great at clearly explaining the events of the day. I was listening to your Black Friday episode, and I think you mispronounced Phyllis Shafley's name. It's. And so it's hard here not to make a joke, but I digress. Sh. Laughly. I think you missed the middle L. Schleifely. Schlafly. Oh, it's not Schafly, it's Schlafly. Or is it a short A or a long A? It's like Schleifely beer. Oh. Because I know what that is. Lee. Her nephew started the Schlafly Brewery in St. Louis, and although I think his politics differ from hers, I've never been able to bring myself to drink it. But I hear it's very good. Love your show. Please keep doing the good work. Pod Pet Tax is Einstein the fuzzy one, and Jack the big Galoot. Einstein is an Aussie doodle and therefore should be highly intelligent. But every time we call him by name, we sound sarcastic. And Jack is a Malamute husky who sings opera. Of course. A Malamute husky that sings opera. I love it. Those beautiful dogs. Thank you for that, Schlafly. Thank you, Lee. All right, next up from Abby G. Pronoun. She and her I took your advice to start a new project, a furry new addition to our family. Our very first pet, a Balinese kitten named Sky. My daughter and I have been wanting a cat for a long time. I knew the time was right to help us not be so sad over the next few years. This is also a shout out to my husband, who is the most supportive husband, great dad and loyal fan of MSW and the beans. My son is also amazing. Last school year he won the citizenship award at his school. We will keep doing what we can to make our neighborhood and world a better place. Thank you for the news, education and love. Abby G. Thank you and a great shout out to your husband and your son and citizenship at school. But the thing that stands out to me here is we're gonna do what we can to make our neighborhood and the world a better place. Right? I've always said, just like, you know, Biden says, economics shouldn't be top down, it should be bottom up and middle out. So should our politics. It should start in our neighborhoods. Thanks for that. Abby G. Oh, look at this beautiful kitten. Oh, Balinese. Oh, you guys are going to have so much fun. Abby, thank you. All right, next up from Terry. She her. Allison, Dana, I'd like you to meet Mousey. Oh, this is a Whoopi story. Mousey is roughly 57 years old and he's the best friend any child could have. He's had multiple eye, nose and tail surgeries that clearly didn't take and now he lives a quiet life in the keep it forever bin in the basement. Thanks for all you do. Oh, look how wonderful. Love it. And is that like a ring tailed lemur? Stuffy next to mousy. Amazing. All right. For Meg Pronoun. She and her hello ladies. I'm a brand new listener and if you'll allow me to be so bold, I'd like to give three shout outs today. First shout out goes to the folks at Americans of Conscience Checklist aoc. This is put out by Jennifer Hoffman and the AOC team. I've been subscribed to this checklist since the first Trump presidency presidencies in quotes and has a lot of great ideas about how to hashtag resist like you, this checklist has good news to go along with the very ugly stuff going on in the country. This podcast was mentioned in one of those newsletters and I'm very thankful to find your no nonsense reporting. I'd also like to give a shout out to the folks at Resist Bottom who make writing to your representatives across various bits of government quite easy. You can find information on resistbot on their website and on various social media platforms. Finally, a shout out to you too. Thanks for making this podcast. I'm personally using my energy to write daily letters to my members of Congress via Resist Bot to prevent myself from dipping into hopelessness. The only thing I'd request is a place that I can look things up to do about the things that you bring up during each episode. I know that just add adds work to your plate, but that would help me and other listeners to do all the things to hashtag resist the coming Shitshow for my payment of POD pet tax, may I offer pictures of my partner and I's two rescues, Odin the cat and Ranger the dog? Are you guys D and D enthusiasts? Because I love these names. They get along for the most part, but Ranger likes to put his butt into his brother's face and steal the cat's spot. Of course Ranger is our mutt. We were told he's a wiener min pin terrier mix. And Odin is just a punk who has a thing about knocking paper products off countertops. I have a cat that does this too. Anyways, keep up the good work and the good fight. And thanks for doing what you do, Meg. Thank you so much. And thanks for the shout out to AOC and Jennifer Hoffman and Resist Bot. Appreciate it. Look at these babies. Oh so cute. The cat. And look at that little yeah, definitely looks like there's some Min pin in there for sure. All right, next up from Alice and this is our final submission today. Pronoun she and her I hope you found some joy over the holiday. You've more than earned it. Since we're all hunting for humor these days, I thought I'd share a couple of non Covid confessions. First, I'm embarrassed to admit it took me a couple of months to realize that the tinkly music I was hearing was not in fact the ice cream truck at 9am on a spring morning. It was the beans fade out music. I still crave ice cream when I hear it. The second is a doggy origin story. When my partner and I were newly together, she called from work one day to tell me she was bringing home a blue eyed redhead. She was a social worker and did a lot of work with kids. I didn't know much about social work and assumed she had a client who was in a jam and needed a place to stay. So I set another place at the table, made up the spare bed, and she came in with a beautiful red and cream Siberian husky. One of her clients volunteered at a shelter and told her about the dog. We named her Wolf. She brought us many years of love and fluff. She was a bit of a fashionista. She once ranted in Husky for 10 blocks after we drove past a lady on the sidewalk. I swear I heard her saying, girl, those shoes don't go with that bag. And who taught you to color coordinate? She seemed quite offended and I told her not everyone has their own fur coat and eye makeup done by the goddess, but husky princess privilege, I guess. Thanks for being the newsy swearing when I'm hanging over the cliff edge by my fingertips. It gives me the boost I need to keep going. Allison, seriously, thank you so much for those kind words. And this dog is absolutely gorgeous. And I love that you set a place at the table and got the guest room ready for the for the blue eyed redhead. And then here comes this amazing dog. Anyway, thank you so much everybody for your good news submissions. We need tons of these. Thanks for hanging in. This was a long show today. We had a lot to go through. I appreciate you sticking with me and I'll be back in your ears tomorrow. And also, please check out that new episode of the Jack podcast. You can listen to Andy McCabe and I talk about the dismissed cases, what comes next, the likelihood that they'll be brought up again in 2029. And I gotta tell you, it's a really low likelihood. We gave you a list of all the things that have to happen for that to happen, you know, for that to come to fruition. But we also answer listener questions and I appreciate it. All right, everybody, see you 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 them's the beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Alison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joel Reeder 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.