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The Daily Beans
Loud In Opposition
00:50:47
Tuesday, January 28th, 2025 Today, our good trouble about spamming OPM’s DEIA snitch email address seems to be working; Trump’s plan to dismantle our institutions by targeting the federal workforce is taking shape; the US Air Force reinstates teaching about the Tuskegee Airmen after an initial ban; flights for Afghans approved for special US visas are being blocked; Colombia caves to Trump’s tariff threats and begins taking deportees; Trump resumes sending 2000 pound bombs to Israel and says he wants to clear out Gaza; a pardoned January 6th rioter has been shot dead by police for resisting arrest; and Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
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- [00:00]
Allison Gill
MSW Media. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Tuesday, January 28, 2025. Today, our good trouble about spamming OPM's DEIA Truth Snitch email address seems to be working. Trump's plan to dismantle our institutions by targeting the federal workforce is taking shape. The US Air Force has reinstated teaching about the Tuskegee Airmen after an initial ban. Flights for Afghans approved for special US Visas are being blocked. Colombia caves to Trump's tariff threats and begins taking deportees. Trump resumes sending 2,000 pound bombs to Israel and says he wants to clean out Gaza. And a pardoned January 6th rioter has been shot dead by police for resisting arrest. I'm Allison Gill.
- [01:06]
Dana Goldberg
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
- [01:11]
Allison Gill
Dana, welcome back, my friend.
- [01:13]
Dana Goldberg
Thank you and thanks for always covering me. Sometimes I'm able to schedule my flights when we don't record and sometimes I can't avoid it. So yesterday was a can't avoid it issue. And I always miss you when I'm not here. So again, always, thanks for having my back.
- [01:25]
Allison Gill
Always. And I missed you, too. Because yesterday we went over all of the major corporations that have decided to withdraw from participation in the Human Rights Campaign's LGBTQ survey as an indicator that they're backing out of their DEI programs. And because, you know, all the work you do for hrc, I was, you know, thinking about you.
- [01:47]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, it is definitely unfortunate. I think that there's going to feel some backlash from our community. We have a massive spending power for the LGBTQ community. And the other thing is that there's going to be other companies that, that start to show up that haven't in the past, and we're going to make sure that we bring business to them. But I'll have it in the show notes. I'm going to talk about it a little bit more tomorrow. Podcast. There's going to be a town hall that the Human Rights Campaign is doing on Wednesday night and you can sign up and listen to what these executive orders mean, what they're doing to fight them. So we're going to make sure that we have a link in the show notes and just sort of listen to Kelly Robinson, the president, talk about what's happening right now and what the future is going to look like for this. So continue to support the organization. Unfortunately, a lot of organizations are going to be affected by this, not just the Human Rights Campaign, other nonprofits that fight for LGBTQ people.
- [02:43]
Allison Gill
Yeah, and hats off to Costco and their shareholders for keeping it intact. Also, speaking of Facebook I'm still working with our web developer on that new social media platform. So we can all get off a meta, get away from the fascists if we, if we so choose. You know, Dana, sometimes I like, wake up and I'm like, you know what? I'm going to start a social media platform. That should be easy. It's not quite as easy as I thought it would be. But we, it's up. We're putting the finishing touches on it. We'll roll it out in the private Facebook group for, for patrons. And if you want to join that community, join the Leguminati and become a contributing member. You can do that@patreon.com Mullershiro A couple quick updates. So there was a tariff war with Colombia. Colombia refused to take flights, planes full of deportees back to.
- [03:35]
Dana Goldberg
Is that because the president of the United States didn't know how to spell Colombia or whoever wrote the memo or for other reasons?
- [03:41]
Allison Gill
Well, at first Columbia University responded saying, we're not sure what you're talking about. So the, the things, you know, Trump was like 25 tariffs. And then he said 25% increased to 50% tariffs. And then the Colombian president was like, really? We're going to do 50% tariffs and make a cup of coffee cost 1800 dollars for you in the United States? And they went back and forth for a minute and then finally they got on the phone, I guess, and settled and there's not going to be any tariffs and Colombia has agreed to take the planeloads of deportees.
- [04:14]
Dana Goldberg
Now, listen, Colombia did take plane loads of deportees during the Biden administration, but there wasn't a tariff war threat that got it to happen. They did it because that's just what happened during that time. So this isn't a new thing. We don't want to make anything sound like this is just the Trump administration, but it is the Trump administration threatening to damage other countries if they don't do this, especially when they're not really doing it legally or constitutionally because sometimes warrants aren't even happening. And so, yeah, a lot of civil rights violations happening.
- [04:49]
Allison Gill
Yeah. And that's why when people are, oh, he's not going to get Greenland, he's not going to get the Panama Canal. And everyone's worried about like a military invasion. I'm like, he's just going to go into a tariff war and threaten to completely monetarily destroy these countries if they don't play ball with him. So we'll see how he uses and leverages These tariffs, which are a tax on us, not that's a consumer tax.
- [05:11]
Dana Goldberg
Get too many tariffs, you weaken the.
- [05:12]
Allison Gill
Dollar on the people. But we'll see what he does going forward. Also, new executive orders from the military today. They have reinstated the ban on transgender service members. And I am just sending out virtual hugs.
- [05:26]
Dana Goldberg
Awful.
- [05:27]
Allison Gill
All of our transgender friends who signed up to risk their lives for protecting American democracy and then being ripped out of those jobs. They reinstated those who refused to take Covid vaccines, which is weird because they were kind of already reinstated. They're gutting DEI programs, which is what, you know, that's the federal government across the board from the Office of Personnel Management, and they've implemented a missile defense system for America. They want the Iron Dome for the United States, which is a short range missile defense system, because, you know, all of those rockets and bombs that are coming in from Canada and Mexico are a threat to the United States. So big, huge waste of taxpayer money to create an Iron Dome, which a lot of people I know are calling the Iron Dome. So that's what's happening.
- [06:20]
Dana Goldberg
It's almost as funny as them calling Tesla swastikars.
- [06:24]
Allison Gill
Yes, swastikars. And did you see the gear shift? It's in the shape of a swastika.
- [06:28]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah. I mean, it's horrible. And it hurts my chest whenever I see a swastika or any sort of an allusion to the Holocaust and that sort of thing and Hitler. But the fact that they're calling them swastikars makes me giggle a little bit.
- [06:41]
Allison Gill
Yeah. And his portrait, I think, was taken down in the Deutsches Museum in Berlin.
- [06:45]
Dana Goldberg
Absolutely.
- [06:47]
Allison Gill
For his Sieg Heils. The dual Sieg Heils at the inauguration, which we didn't cover and I didn't watch, but I'll be damned if we didn't see a ton of clips of that happening.
- [06:59]
Dana Goldberg
Maybe multiple Sig Heils are called a musk. Maybe that's what we should start calling multiple sig heils.
- [07:05]
Allison Gill
Musk of heils. Right. It's the collective noun for Nazi salutes. I approve that message.
- [07:11]
Dana Goldberg
That's a musk.
- [07:12]
Allison Gill
I have to laugh or I'll cry, I swear to God.
- [07:14]
Dana Goldberg
Yep, that's it. That's all we're trying to do, people. Just trying to get through this. Hope that no one's offended by the humor we're trying to bring to the situation. Because really, it's been a lot.
- [07:23]
Allison Gill
It has. It's a lot to deal with. All right, everybody, we have a lot of news to get to. Let's Hit the hot notes. Hot notes. First up, from Emma Graham Harrison at the Guardian. Donald Trump's proposal that large numbers of Palestinians should leave Gaza to, quote, just clean out the whole strip has been rejected by US Allies in the region and attacked as dangerous, illegal and unworkable by lawyers and activists. The US President said he would like hundreds of thousands of people to move to neighboring countries, either temporarily or long term. Destinations could include Jordan, which already hosts more than 2.7 million Palestinian refugees, and Egypt. He added, quote, I'd rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change. That's what Trump told reporters on Air Force One. Quote, he talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out the whole thing and say, you know, it's over. Gaza's population before the war was 2.3 million. Jordan and Egypt have both made clear they will not take refugees from Gaza. And on Sunday, Jordanian Foreign Minister Eamon Sefati said his country's rejection of any displacement of Palestinians was firm and unwavering. Inside Gaza, there's little sign that people who have endured over 15 months of fighting want to leave permanently in large numbers. If the current ceasefire holds, forced displacement of residents would be a war crime. On Sunday, thousands surged to Israeli military checkpoints, hoping to return to their homes in the north under the terms of the temporary ceasefire deal. Israel refused to let them pass, accusing Hamas of violating terms of the agreement. Quote, to clean Gaza immediately after the war would, in fact be a continuation of the war through the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. That's Hassan Jabarin, the director of Palestinian rights group Adala. Trump's comments were welcomed by far right Israeli politicians. The finance minister, Basalel Smotryk, described the relocation of Palestinians as a, quote, great idea and said he would work with the prime minister and the cabinet to create an operational plan for implementation as soon as possible. Despite the stance of Smatrick and his allies, Trump's suggestion went beyond current Israeli government policy, with the military poised to allow Gaza residents to return to homes in the north. That's Professor Barack Medina, the Chair in Human Rights Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It would also likely break international law. Quote, if the plan is to permanently relocate people, and especially if it's done by force, this is not acceptable, he said. It will be clearly illegal, but also impractical. None of the neighboring countries would be willing to accept people that are expelled from their homeland. It also contradicts the stated policy of the Israeli government. Before Trump took office, an official from his transition team said the administration was discussing relocating 2 million Palestinians during reconstruction if the current tentative ceasefire held in apparent tacit recognition of regional resistance to taking in more refugees, the official said. One possible destination under consideration was Indonesia. Jakarta said it was not aware of any such plan. Trump also said he would raise the prospect of Egypt as a destination for Palestinians from Gaza in a call scheduled with President Abdel Fattah al Sisi. However, since the start of the war in 2023, Cairo has warned repeatedly against forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and reinforced its border. Sisi has said any move to push Palestinians into Sinai would jeopardize relations with Israel, including the 1979 peace treaty between the two countries. Trump has not laid out any vision for post war governance in Gaza. While signing executive orders after his inauguration, he had discussed the territory as a real estate prospect, praising its seaside location and weather. Quote, I looked at a picture of Gaza, it's like a massive demolition site, he said on Tuesday, adding it's got to be rebuilt in a different way. Qatari officials who mediated the pause in fighting in Gaza described any plan that would end with relocation and reoccupation as a red line. Trump's new administration has promised unwavering support for Israel as key positions have been taken by hardline supporters of its expansion as ambassador to the UN Said in confirmation hearing she would consider Israel having a biblical right to the west bank, which Israel occupied in 1967. But most of the world recognizes that as the heart of a future Palestinian state. On Saturday, Trump said he had ordered the resumption of shipments of some of the largest bombs to Israel, a widely expected move. Biden had paused delivery of the 2000 pound bombs owing to concerns about civilian casualties in Gaza caused by these powerful weapons which can rip through thick concrete and metal over a large area. So Trump has removed the the block against the 2,000 pound bombs to Israel.
- [12:08]
Dana Goldberg
And don't listen to anything this used car salesman says there's no temporary relocation of Palestinians from the str. There's just not it is permanent. He's not going to let people just this whole thing is a mess and I'm frustrated with the people who thought that Trump would somehow be better for Gaza in this situation. Yeah, thanks Alison. This is from cnn. Refugees who were slated to travel to the United States after a years long and often cumbersome process. They have had their flights canceled. That's according to a State Department memo to resettlement partners obtained by CNN the memo comes on the heels of President Trump's executive order suspending refugee admissions marks another example of the swift impact his actions are already having. The move stands to affect thousands of refugees who had flights already scheduled. Quote, all previously scheduled travel of refugees to the United States is being canceled. No new travel bookings will be made. No rscs should not request travel for any additional refugee cases at this time. This is from the memo citing the President's executive order. Approximately 10,000 refugees had travel already booked, which is now canceled. That's according to a source familiar with the data. A breakdown by country was not immediately available, but refugees generally come from a range of countries, including Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Venezuela, Syria, Burma. The cancellations could be particularly troubling for refugees whose medical exams or security checks, for example, are on the cusp of expiring. The memo also states that case processing is suspended, effectively as shuttering the program, because that was immediate and quote, additionally, all refugee case processing and pre departure activities are also suspended. RSCs and IOM, they should not move refugees to transit centers in anticipation of travel and should halt all pre departure activities for refugee cases. Any referrals should be made in the usrap. Again, this is all from the memo. Special Immigrant visa holders, which includes those who worked for the US Abroad, are exempt at this. They can travel to the United States. According to the memo, those refugees who are already in the United States can also continue to receive services. The cancellation of flights and paws on cases puts potentially tens of thousands of Afghan refugees, including those who aided the US during the war but have not received SIV status around the world, at risk. That's according to Afghan Evac, and that's a coalition of organizations advocating for bringing Afghans to safety since the end of the war in Afghanistan in 2021. The move, quote, endangers thousands who risk their lives for US Missions in Afghanistan. Afghan evac. That's what they said on Wednesday, including families of US Troops, Afghan partner forces and women pilots who trained and fought alongside us. Troo. It's just so disgusting. Trump's executive order, which he signed Monday, stated that the United States was unable to absorb the influx of migrants over the recent years. In addition to refugees giving way to the administration suspending the US Refugee admissions program, quote, until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States. That's super vague. The suspension is going to take effect on January 27th. That's according to the order. The memo implies that it takes effect immediately.
- [15:39]
Allison Gill
All right, thanks for that reporting. It's just despicable that these Afghans who helped us, who helped us troops are in some cases family members of United States citizens can't get their refugee status. They've been working on that for so long. Next up from a local Fox affiliate in Jasper County. An Indiana man recently pardoned by President Trump for storming The Capitol on January 6, 2021, is dead after being shot by a sheriff's deputy while allegedly resisting arrest. Matthew Huddle, who's 42 of Hobart, was shot and killed during a traffic stop near the Jasper Pulaski county lines on Sunday afternoon. A deputy with the Jasper County Sheriff's Department pulled Huddle's vehicle over on State Road 14 at about 4:15pm Indiana State Police said the traffic stop led to the deputy attempting to arrest Huddle, but Huddle allegedly resisted and struggled with the officer. This, quote, altercation led to the deputy firing his gun and killing him. According to state police, Huddle was in possession of a firearm during the traffic stop. No additional details have been provided, however, about the altercation between Huddle and the deputy and what Huddle was being arrested for. Federal Sources confirmed with Fox59, CBS4 that Huddle was recently pardoned by Trump. Huddle and his uncle Dale Huddle of Crown Point were arrested for taking part in in the January 6th Capitol riots. Matthew Huddle ended up being tracked down and arrested in Boise, and the FBI said Huddle was inside the capitol for roughly 10 minutes but remained on the Capitol grounds for several hours. Quote, I have no regrets. I will not say I'm sorry. That's what Dale Huddle said about him and his nephew Matthew taking part. In January 6, both huddles were sentenced for storming the Capitol. Matthew Huddle was sentenced to six months in federal prison, followed by 12 months unsupervised release. His prison term ended July 17, 2024. But both huddles were spared from the full consequences of their sentences after Trump issued a pardon to all January 6th rioters. US Senator Lindsey Graham, a key ally of the president, a lawmaker from South Carolina, spoke out against the pardons, as did many on both sides of the aisle. Quote, I have always said that I think when you pardon people who attack police officers, you're sending the wrong signal to the public at large, said Graham. Matthew Huddle isn't the first Capitol rioter to quickly face trouble after his pardon. Last week, a Florida man who took part in a January 6th was arrested on federal gun charges one day after being pardoned and we covered that here on the beans.
- [18:01]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, yeah. The recidivism rate is going to be high with his group. Oh, boy. All right, last in the section, a little bit of good news, if I may. A bit of good news from Texas Public Radio. The US Air Force, they're going to resume teaching about the nation's first black pilots and the women pilots of World War II. The Air Force actually paused that part of its basic training curriculum last week pending a review of its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, their DEI policies. Now, on his first day in office, as we know, Trump issued executive orders prohibiting DEI in federal government agencies and the military. Newly confirmed. I was going to call him something terrible. Newly confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth promised to make that a top priority by the end of the week. The San Antonio Express News first reported that videos about the Tuskegee Airmen and the women Air Force service pilots, or what they call wasp, were not being taught in basic training at joint based San Antonio Laund. Now, the news led to an uproar across the country, as it should have, including some Republicans, Republican Senator Katie Boyd Britt in Alabama, who called it malicious compliance within the DEI review. After a weekend of protest on social media, the Air Force announced on Sunday that it's resuming that part of the curriculum. In a statement, Lt. Gen. Brian Robinson said that one group of trainees did miss this part of the curriculum due to the review, but no trainees will miss this block of instruction. For years, conservatives have attacked DEI policies as being reverse discrimination. Historians point to the legacies of the Tuskegee Airmen and the WASP as examples of how diversity has made the US Military and the country stronger. Getting loud in opposition works, everyone. So thank you to everyone who spoke out and spoke up about this.
- [19:51]
Allison Gill
Yeah, including our, you know, fellow resister and an awesome person, Christopher Webb, who had a family member and photos of his family member serving with the Tuskegee Airmen. So excellent job, everybody. With the pushback, with the speaking out, speaking truth to power. That's how we do it. That is how we do it. And speaking of this, dei, it's time for some good trouble. Yes. All right. Today's good trouble is our first good trouble. Follow up. Last week, we encouraged everyone to flood the DEIA truthpm.govemail address with spam. This update comes from the Bulwark. The email account set up by the Trump White House to encourage government employees to snitch on their DEI promoting colleagues appears to be the target of a mass spamming campaign designed to overwhelm those administering it. The day after the inauguration, Trump's Office of Personnel Management, opm, issued a memo to government agencies tasking them with rooting out diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The memo told recipients that if they were aware of a change in any contract description or personnel position description to obscure the connection between the contract and DEIA or similar ideologies, they were to quote, report all facts and circumstances to D e I a truth pm.gov within 10 days.
- [21:14]
Dana Goldberg
Now a number of prominent non governmental groups they've told Bulwark that in the days that followed they began seeing that email address that D e I a truth pm.gov appearing on signup lists to receive their emails. Several officials were initially concerned that Trump White House officials were attempting to monitor their external communications in an effort to police whether or not the groups were promoting DEI initiatives or something approximating it. But the consensus quickly changed when it became evident that the email address was being signed up for not just the NGO newsletters, but for a massive swath of listservs in what appears to be an attempt to make the email addresses inbox basically unnavigable. Which is beautiful. One Democratic operative said they discovered that the email had been added randomly to several Democratic Party fundraising email lists after the people operating one such list got a bounce back reply suggesting that the account no longer worked.
- [22:13]
Allison Gill
The Trump White House did not return a request for comment, but there's a fair bit of data to provide clues as to what type of material is being sent to the DEIA. Truth@opm.gov account People have suggested emailing the account. Scientology emails porn the script of the B movie, and warnings that unqualified mediocre white people are being hired to head up important government agencies. This type of tactic has been employed before. When the Trump administration unveiled an immigration tip line in 2018, operators were flooded with prank calls. The state of Texas set up an inbox to track requests to change gender markers on driver's licenses, and people responded by again sending the script of the B movie. And when Trump's 2020 campaign set up a voter fraud hotline after the election had ended, it was reportedly inundated with people making fart noises. So I just want to say I love it. Thank you to everyone who, because that was a good trouble homework assignment last week was to flood this inbox with and especially when they say the what was it people be oh that there are mediocre white people unqualified that are being h up important government agencies. That's y'all and I love you for it and so well done. Keep it going. That's the good trouble today. Keep emailing this stupid email address. D e I a truth pm.gov because them.
- [23:44]
Dana Goldberg
I know, man, we gotta. We gotta have some humor during this. I just, I saw a tweet or a blue sky. I can't remember where it was, but this guy said his name's Kendrick Tom. That's his handle. And he said, I just got a call. Fired. I was the DEI coordinator at the National Endowment of the Arts. I was in charge of making sure at least a few of the artists were heterosexual. You gotta have these moments. This is all scary, but we gotta have those moments to point out the absurdity. On a serious note, a serious quote comes from our dear Francis Collier, from Frangela, because there's that letter. I don't know if you saw that. It was an email going around from that Texas couple, Trump supporters. And he's like, my wife just wanted to be a nurse to veterans and they're white. And Francis said, how does it feel to shoot yourself in the face when you're aiming for black folk?
- [24:37]
Allison Gill
Oh, God, I love her.
- [24:40]
Dana Goldberg
I love her so much. That sentence hit me in the chest. How does it feel to shoot yourself in the face when you're aiming for black folk? DEI programs benefit veterans and women at a high rate. A high rate. And they don't even know that. And they're finding out. They're finding out.
- [24:58]
Allison Gill
There are even programs within healthcare, government, healthcare agencies that are designed to find out where there are gaps in helping veterans. For example, maybe because they're rural or they live in black communities or they live on tribal lands. And so there were groups of people trying to figure out where these gaps were and making sure that they did adequate outreach to. To get health care and the veterans benefits to these folks. They were considered dei. They were all put on administrative leave and their computers were shut down.
- [25:30]
Dana Goldberg
Just disgusting.
- [25:31]
Allison Gill
It's. It's horrifying. And wow. That. Yeah, I just got chills. The little hairs in the back of my neck when. When you read that quote from our good friend. Man. Thank you for sharing that. All right, we're going to be right back. I'm going to go over an update on what I'm finding out from federal workers, plus this smear campaign from the Trump administration against the general workforce. And then after that, we'll read the good news. Everybody stick around. We'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back. Hey, everybody, it's ag. And for 2025, I've decided to focus on making manageable, lasting changes to my routine. I like to call them intentions instead of resolutions. And that's why AG1 is one of the most important parts of my mornings. It's one habit I can commit to every day. Simple to pick up helps me feel energized, supported, and ready to take on my goals without added stress. AG1 is perfect for those of us who get overwhelmed by complicated health routines. 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It's helped me prioritize what matters most, cutting through the noise of overwhelming options. I even shared AG1 with a close friend, turning healthy habits into a shared journey. So Together, we're tackling 2025, feeling our best, one scoop at a time. AG1 has truly shown me how small, consistent steps can make a big difference in my life and my health and my confidence. This new year, try AG1 for yourself. It's a perfect time to start a new, healthy habit. And that's why I've been partnering with AG1 for so long. And AG1 is offering new subscribers a free $76 gift. When you sign up, you'll get a welcome kit, a bottle of D3K2, and five free travel packs in your first box. So make sure you check out drinkag1.com Daily Beans to get this offer. That's drinkag1.com Dailybeans to start your new year on a healthier note. Note. You'll be glad you did. Hey everybody. Welcome back. I wanted to give you a quick update on what I'm observing in the federal workforce. As you know, I've opened up my DMs and I've set up now a protonmail Fed Oathm me so that people can send in their stories and screenshots of the emails they're getting and the memos and links and things like that. And I just wanted to give a brief update about this and to talk a little bit about something insidious that's going on in the Trump administration and that's the smear campaign against the federal workforce. In order to get people behind find him in firing all these incredible people, he has to make sure that nobody likes them and thinks that they're terrible. So I'm going to just read to you from the article that I posted in my substack, which is free to subscribe. You can do it by going to Muller she wrote dot com. It takes you right to my substack and I write for the past week, hundreds and hundreds of federal workers have reached out to me to share their stories about what's happening within their federal agencies. And as patterns emerge, the bigger picture of Trump's Project 2025 is starting to become clear. I want to share with you what I've seen so far and where I believe this is going. Federal workers usually enjoy a great deal of job security through civil service protection law, union contracts and merit board due process protections. During Trump's first administration, he ran into trouble trying to rid our federal agencies of those he deemed disloyal. He is prepared this time, but still seems to be running afoul of laws and policy. This time, however, he doesn't care. He's learned through years of avoiding accountability that his quote what are you going to do about it? Attitude has proven successful, especially with the corrupt Supreme Court in his pocket. His acolytes are also more prepared. And it's not like we didn't know this was coming. It was all laid out in Project 2025. And despite Trump trying to distance himself because of the project's wild unpopularity, the federal workforce is deep in the thick of the promises made by the Heritage foundation and Project 2025 authors. On day one, the Office of Personnel Management, OPM, began sending out a series of memoranda attacking the low hanging fruit in the federal workforce, beginning with OPM itself. The administration installed a low level yes man by the name of Chuck Azell. According to a post on social media from a self described OPM employee, quote Let me say this in no uncertain terms, OPM has been compromised and taken over the very backbone of American government, the HR of all HR in the US Government has been taken over by outside political in just five days they managed to push aside dozens of non political career civil servants who were there specifically to prevent the civil service from becoming the President's henchmen. Once the administration had their yes man in place, OPM went after three distinct groups of federal workers. First, agencies were required to provide a list of probationary employees. This classification of employees doesn't enjoy the protections of the Merit Board and can be fired at will for basically any reason. The usual probationary period is one year, but in some cases it can be two years. The administration has instructed department heads to review these employees and remove those that are not necessary. They have not instructed the agencies to blanket fire these workers yet. Second, OPM sent out a memo ordering all DEIA programs and their employees to be put on paid administrative leave. The multitude of workers that reached out to me described scenarios in which they were given only hours to access their important documents such as SF 50s federal resumes, performance evaluations and employee actions before they were summarily locked out of their systems. Some agencies changed the language of the DEIA memo, taking out the political rhetoric about DEIA programs dividing Americans. That is what likely prompted the OPM to start testing a government wide email address they could use to reach frontline employees. Instead of relying on agency heads to disseminate their orders, they effectively cut out the mid level folks that might be trying to protect their employees. The DEI memo also threatened frontline workers that they could face punishment if they didn't rat out their colleagues who might be working for units that once used DEIA language but amended it after the election. Trump sees these folks as deep state disloyal people who are trying to hide from him. Third, OPM recalled all telework and remote work employees and ordered agencies to recall all work from home employees that live within 50 miles of an office to report to that duty station. This is nothing more than an effort to get people to quit so they don't have to fire them. There are some exemptions to this directive, including those with reasonable accommodations or medical telework, that is Those who work from home because they are disabled in some way. Fourth, the administration initiated a hiring freeze and rescinded all job offers to those who hadn't yet started work or didn't yet have a start date. There must have been a lot of pushback on this, especially at the Department of Veterans affairs, which made up about 25% of the new hires and were mostly essential clinical jobs such as nurses and other health providers Shortly after the job offers were rescinded, OPM exempted those jobs and have been reissuing the offer letters. This was just round one. Round two came this morning with the issuance of a memo regarding the new Schedule F executive Order. It reads in part, schedule F creates a new schedule policy career in the accepted service for positions that are confidential, policy determining, policy making, or policy advocating, meaning policy influencing positions and filled by individuals not normally subject to replacement or change. As a result of a presidential transition, such career positions will be rescheduled into scheduled policy career, that's Schedule F, and thereby exempted from the adverse action procedures set forth in Chapter 75 of Title V of the United States Code. Okay, so one might think, oh good, my job isn't confidential policy influencing policymaking or policy advocating, so I should be okay. But then comes this instruction. The terms confidential policy determining, policymaking and policy advocating in the Executive order are drawn from five US Code section 7511 and five US Code section 2302 A2BI. Neither the US Code nor the judicial precedents precisely define these terms in the context of their statutory usage. So in other words, these are squishy terms subject to the whims of the President and opm. And even if you think you have a good argument that your job still doesn't fit these descriptions, OPM throws in this nugget quote duties that the Director of the Office of Personnel Management otherwise indicates may be appropriate for inclusion in Schedule F. So basically, Trump and the OPM will decide what's appropriate to include in Schedule F. OPM gave agency heads 90 days to submit all the positions they think fall into schedule fold and an additional 120 days to add any positions they may have forgotten. After that, agency heads are directed to submit positions on a rolling basis. And then I have a link to the Schedule F memo. Once these workers are moved to Schedule F, they can be fired at will for any reason without due process. There are several statutes and Biden executive orders that go against this policy and I imagine there will be lawsuits to try to stop Schedule F from taking effect. This is actually addressed in the OPM Schedule F memo. It says that during Biden's term, OPM issued policy under presidential authority that the phrases confidential policy determining, policy making or policy advocating, and confidential or policy determining to refer to only non career political appointees and have no application to career positions. But Trump says he is now using his presidential authority to nullify that regulation. I imagine the lawyers that penned the Biden Executive Order will fight this in court. I will keep you posted, but I imagine the Supreme Court will back Trump on this one. The administration has also taken several steps to prevent agencies from fighting back. He's co opted whistleblower offices with yes men. He's fired independent inspectors general illegally and as I touched on before, he's testing OPM direct email to employees government wide to circumvent agency heads and mid level management. He's also shuttered EEO offices and revoked access to HR in many cases leaving workers in the dark about their due process rights. Those due process rights however, could be rendered meaningless by Schedule F. In addition to all this, the Trump administration has begun a nasty smear campaign against federal workers so that people will support gutting our agencies. The right wing noise machine has begun attacking federal workers as lazy, overpaid hangers on. Let me be very clear about something. Nothing could be further from the truth. We need to push back on this rhetoric and forcefully. Federal employees are there because they want to be of service to others. They're the helpers Mr. Rogers taught us about. Taking a job in the federal government means you work for pittance compared to what you could earn in the private sector and usually you work longer hours for that lower pay. Further, the data shows unequivocally that remote and telework employees are as productive and in some cases more productive than their in office counterparts. That's not to mention the millions of dollars taxpayers save by not having to lease office space for these employees. Nearly every single person who's reached out to me is frightened and angry and frankly disgusted at these mischaracterizations. By and large, federal workers are the hardest working service jobs out there. In all my time working for the federal government, I only ran across two people who weren't working their asses off in a thankless job for low pay because they wanted to help others. Two out of hundreds and thousands that either worked directly for me or or worked for folks that I worked with closely. And that was such an anomaly that I could name those two people for you, but I won't. I remember them as outliers because the overwhelming majority of federal workers are dedicated and talented experts who take the pay cut to do a job that feeds their souls. Truly salt of the earth. And this administration is trying to get people to believe that these folks are somehow the bad guys. Call that lie out every time you hear it. Those who work for the government or know someone who does can attest to the incredible dedication and reverence to the oath that they have. It's no wonder that someone like Trump, who is transactional in nature and desecrates his oath would denigrate those who embody the antithesis of his lack of empathy and understanding of what it means to be of service to others. I have some thoughts about where this is all headed. I envision after testing the OPM government wide email and moving as many people as he can to schedule fast, Trump will start asking the frontline employees directly to report disloyal non MAGA workers to OPM as he did with the DEIA snitch email. I fear there will be loyalty interviews like the ones Doge conducted at the National Security Council. He'll fire anyone that could be seen as disloyal. They will empty out our institutions until the only people that left are bigoted maga yes, men willing to help destroy the very institutions they swore an oath to protect. Attacked. Why? Well, to me the answer is obvious. He intends to sow chaos and break the agencies so he can privatize them, lining the pockets of his rich pals with the tax revenue savings through tax cuts for the wealthy and driving the business of government into the arms of the CEOs and oligarchs. Private schools, private police, private prisons, private veterans, health care, private post office, private Social Security. The list goes on and on. An effective resistance is a focused resistance. Choose an institution and defend it with all of your might. Institutions don't defend themselves, they fall one after the other unless each is defended from the beginning. That's from Timothy Snyder from his book on tyranny. Thanks for listening again. You can sign up for my newsletter for free by going to mullershererote.com and subscribing everybody, stick around. We'll be right back with the good news. Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news? Everyone. Then good news everyone. And boy, do we need your good news now more than ever. If you've ever been on the fence about sending in a good news story or just given a shout out to somebody, whether it's a loved one or family member or a small business in your area or yourself or a government program that's helped you or a family, whether anything from the packed act to SNAP, WIC, Head Start, Section 8, Affordable Care Act, $35 insulin, student debt relief, and of course, any other good news stories, please send them to us. And all you got to do to get your submission in is pay your POD pet tax. Which means attach a photo of your pet and if you don't have a pet. You can send an adoptable pet in your area and if you don't have that, that photo of any animal is fine counts. And of course you can also send your baby pictures. That also gets your good news submission into the door. And of course if you don't have any of that, but you do have a bird watching photo, whether it's an actual bird or it's you and your family and friends flipping off Trump properties, we would like to see that too. That counts as pod pet tax. Send it all to us dailybeanspod.com and click on Contact. Our first submission is from Anonymous Pronouns he and Him I am a current transgender military service member and to avoid risking identifying myself by mistake in my very narrow job, I will leave it there. I served through the last trans ban and was able to hit the timing right to be grandfathered into remaining on active duty. I was scared then, and even though I'm in a objectively better position to land on my feet if I'm involuntarily separated at this time, I would be lying to say I'm not more scared now in these dark times, I'm trying to take the glimmers of hope that I can One bright spot is that a collection of stories I contributed to has been released digitally, with the physical edition coming soon. It's called Valor and the Next Chapter of Transgender Military Service. It chronicles many stories of trans people living through the roller coaster that has shaped the last decade of being trans in uniform. While there are much larger communities under threat in this new administration, I hope that mine is not forgotten. Trans people have and continue to serve at a much higher rate than our CIS counterparts, and I for one would be a waste of more than a million dollars in training if I were kicked out now when I'm committed to serve past the end of this decade. Even by their own purported logic, it's a waste, and by any outside logic, it's cruel. For my pod pet tax, I'm sharing a picture of Loki black and white with the lap cattiest lap cat to ever lap cat and Hermes black. Or is it Hermes? I can't tell if it's the scarves or if it's the God, a skittish kitty who is a snuggle muffin if you catch him in the right mood. Anonymous I'm so sorry.
- [42:28]
Dana Goldberg
Me too. And I just. I want to thank you for your service, especially this is the second time around that you've gone through this, and I hope people understand that our trans military are serving a country to afford us the rights in the Constitution that our country is not affording them and they're still fucking doing it. The respect I have for our trans service members is so high. So thank you Anonymous, and I'm I'm just terribly sorry that you are facing this again. Like we're doing everything we can. I promise I'm doing everything I can.
- [43:05]
Allison Gill
So it's called Valor Invisibility, the next chapter of Transgender Military Service. And Anonymous, let us know know. We'll see if we can get a link in the show notes to where you can get the digital version, but let us know when that physical edition comes out. And thank you.
- [43:18]
Dana Goldberg
Yes, this one's from Jesse Pronouns she and her I sent my eldest off to her semester abroad in Montpierre, France. I hope I said that right. We are super proud of her and excited that her host mom is so kind in helping her adjust. I'm so glad she's away from the USA for a bit. That's good news to me. Here's a pic of our Polo who is wearing a wolf pack bandana for my son. Yes, his ears have stayed the same as he has grown. We think he's a Carolina Dog mutt, which I guess is normal for North Carolina. Thanks again for starting my days off right.
- [43:51]
Allison Gill
Okay, so in in Vermont, I think we call it Montpelier, but I'm sure it's different in France. Look at the dog's ears. Look at the ears on this guy.
- [44:04]
Dana Goldberg
Those are good.
- [44:05]
Allison Gill
He could fly to Montpelier, France. Oh my God. Adorable. Thank you for that. We needed that good news. Next up from Meow Goodness. Pronouns he and him. Bonjour le Reine de la Goom. Hello Queens of the Beans. I'm probably saying that very, very wrong. I confess that I was the elderly gentleman who encountered Tony the flag bearer at Franklin park for the People's March on Saturday, January 18th. I was in D.C. for the March in the Morning and Stephanie Miller's Sexy Liberal show in the evening. All of which was truly awesome. I regret that I didn't manage to get any pictures of the morning's activities, but I did manage a few with some people at the Sexy Liberal Show. Got a nice pic with Stephanie Miller that night for Podpet Tax. I'm including recent picture of my boys dude two the Orange Tuxedo Baby and his minion Persist awesome name and Meow Goodness. It's good to see you. I see you at all of our gala events. And look at these Great. Look at this great photo with Stephen it's awesome. And look at the kitties. Hi.
- [45:06]
Dana Goldberg
Looks beautiful in that shot too.
- [45:08]
Allison Gill
She really does.
- [45:10]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah. That's my girl. Look at the kitties. All right. Thank you so much for that. I'm so glad you had those. Those. Those memories. Good. Gotta find joy. Community. That's what we're doing now. This one's from Melanie. Pronouns she and her.
- [45:22]
Allison Gill
That's what we're doing now, everybody.
- [45:24]
Dana Goldberg
That's what we're doing now. That's right. Ready? Break. All right. Melanie pronouns she, her. Hello, AG and dg. I started listening to your podcast a little over a year ago. After the election, I decided to limit my news intake. Only your podcast, primarily because I need to preserve my mental health. And I'm severely disappointed in my other news sources, the New York Times and the Washington Post. For obvious reasons, I've never written into any type of publication. However, in the last week, I felt compelled to tell you about my 10 year old son, who I will leave nameless as to not embarrass him.
- [45:55]
Allison Gill
That's very kind of you. My mom would not leave my name out. She could do embarrass me.
- [46:01]
Dana Goldberg
At a time in our country when white men feel so threatened that they are lashing out at women, minorities, and abolishing dei, we're trying to focus on how to raise an empathetic, kind and inclusive white male. While he's only 10 years old and obviously still growing and changing, I find hope and inspiration in some of his observations and insights. When he started kindergarten, which was fall of 2020, his teacher asked the class to write what was on their mind. My son wrote one line which read, donald Trump is an asshole. Trump, as in C H R u m p is an asshole. To which the teacher responded, a persuasive text needs support for your argument. When he brought the assignment home, my husband and I were initially embarrassed for his language on a school paper. But our friends quickly saved a photo of his assignment for their personal pleasure and and assured us how proud of him they were. That was five years ago, and he's continued to make us proud and laugh every day. Prior to the inauguration, he asked us why it would be held on MLK Day, since Trump obviously doesn't care about black people, end quote. And he asked, what's next? Is Trump going to get rid of Mother's Day? Seeing that we clearly didn't understand the connection, he went on to explain that since Trump obviously hates women, he probably also hates his mother. So he has to use. So he has no use for mother's day. One of our son's closest friends is transgender and our son loves him just as much as any other child in the class and frequently comes to his aid and defense anytime he perceives a threat. Last year we traveled to Baltimore for my father in law's funeral and we decided to have lunch in Lexington Market where our son observed that we were the minority as two of only a handful of white people in the market. He noticed that while it made him feel strange because he had never been in a situation like that before, it led to a discussion of how many children in our country probably feel that way every day and everywhere.
- [47:55]
Allison Gill
My God.
- [47:56]
Dana Goldberg
I know I have many examples, but fear that I've already gone too far into the overload. Prideful parent, you have not. I just wanted to give him a shout out which he would hate if he knew about and also may give others some hope for the white men of our future. We were in Chicago last summer before dropping our son off at camp and flipped off Trump Tower many times while we were there, but we didn't take a photo. But I do have a photo of my son eating a pizza at Italy shortly after the bird watching event that I will share. I'm also sending you a photograph of the kindergarten assignment he wrote that I referenced above and a bird watching photo that my 71 year old mother took while she was in New York in September of 2021. Your family rocks. Can I say that? Thank you for both sharing with us what we need to know, giving us good news where we can find it, and for the very important addition of your new section, Good Trouble. We so appreciate everything you're doing. Keep up the great work.
- [48:53]
Allison Gill
A persuasive text needs support for your argument, Ms. Mara.
- [48:58]
Dana Goldberg
I love it.
- [49:01]
Allison Gill
And then the bird watching. And then that pizza looks delicious. And the boys.
- [49:04]
Dana Goldberg
Oh my God that kid is cute.
- [49:07]
Allison Gill
Adorable.
- [49:08]
Dana Goldberg
You are raising a good child, my dear. And thank you Melanie for I mean your mom's obviously fucking awesome too. Your whole family generationally seems to be pretty pretty on point.
- [49:19]
Allison Gill
You want to brag about your kids or send photos of your mom flipping off Trump properties, this is the place to do it. So send it all to us dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. Thank you all for subscribing to the substack@mullershiread.com thank you for listening to the new Unjustified podcast with me and Andy McKay. We set a record in January with our downloads for for that show.
- [49:40]
Dana Goldberg
Nice.
- [49:40]
Allison Gill
So thank you for that. And always just a giant hug to Harry Dunn, who co hosts cleanup on all four day five with me, because it's really always fun to hug a 6 foot 7 guy like that.
- [49:52]
Dana Goldberg
He's a great hugger. He's a lovable guy.
- [49:54]
Allison Gill
He is. Giant teddy bear.
- [49:56]
Dana Goldberg
A gentle giant.
- [49:57]
Allison Gill
Love him to death. All right, everybody, that is our show. My good friend, do you have any final thoughts before we get out of here for the day?
- [50:04]
Dana Goldberg
I do not. I will add some tomorrow.
- [50:05]
Allison Gill
Tomorrow. All right, Wonderful, everybody. 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.
- [50:13]
Dana Goldberg
I've been AG and I've been dg.
- [50:15]
Allison Gill
And them's the Beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by 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 News Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information Please visit msw media.com msw media.