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The Daily Beans
Murder Is Murder
00:37:52
Tuesday, December 9th, 2025 Today, Alina Habba has surrendered from her position as the interim US Attorney in New Jersey; rumor has it that Donald will fire Kristi Noem this January and replace her with Glenn Youngkin; the boat at the center of the double tap strike was not headed to the United States; Hegseth told Admiral Bradly the passengers were on a kill list; Marjorie Taylor Greene told 60 Minutes that Republicans privately hate Trump but refuses to name names; Donald blasts Congressman Henry Cuellar for not switching parties after he pardoned him; the Supreme Court heard arguments on the President’s authority to fire people from multi-member boards like the MSPB and NLRB; a federal judge has blocked the government’s access to the Comey emails at the core of their now dismissed indictment; and Allison and Dana deliver and your Good News.
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- [00:00]
A
Msw media.
- [00:24]
Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Tuesday, December 9, 2025. Today, Alina Haba has surrendered from her position as the interim U.S. attorney in New Jersey. She wasn't there lawfully. Anyway. Rumor has it that Donald Trump is going to fire Kristi Noem this January and maybe replace her with Glenn Youngkin. The boat at the center of the double tap strike was not headed to the United States. Hegseth told Admiral Bradley the passengers were on a kill list. Marjorie Taylor Greene told 60 Minutes that Republicans privately hate Trump, but she refuses to name names. Per usual, Donald has blasted Congressman Henry Cuellar for not switching parties after he pardoned him. The Supreme Court heard arguments on the president's authority to fire people from multi member boards like the Merit Systems Protection Board and National Labor Relations Board. And a federal judge has blocked the government's access to the Comey emails at the core of their now dismissed indictment. I'm Allison Gill.
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B
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
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A
Hey, Dana. Happy Tuesday.
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B
Happy Tuesday to you. You are on the east coast with me, my friend.
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A
I am. And I am very not sure what time it is or what day it is.
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B
Welcome to my world.
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A
Whenever I fly more than four hours, I get completely lost on what day and time it is. Even more than I am normally. Yeah.
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B
But we are in New York tonight. We are going to the Brick Awards. This is the Stonewall Inn Initiatives, and Allison and I are going to be there together. And we had talked about in the podcast that Allison had, is donating a large amount of money to nonprofits and organizations that represent underrepresented minorities as well as people that need help with their bail money, their money for if they've been detained by ice. And tonight we're going to be donating. Allison's going to join me on stage and we're going to donate a little chunk of money to the Stonewall Inn initiative so they can create more safe spaces around the world for LGBTQ people. So I'm excited to bring my co host to work day.
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A
Oh, that's right. It's bring your co host to work day. Everybody gets to meet your work wife. I'm excited.
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B
There you go.
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A
It's going to be a lot of fun. Incredible award ceremony. You're honoring so many people.
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B
Yeah, it'll be fun. And yeah, you'll get to see me do that part. You've seen me do my comedy and now you'll get to see me raise the money.
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A
Yeah, I did. I got. I got a little taste of it at a Lambda Legal, smaller fundraiser.
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B
Oh, that's right. Yes, yes, yes.
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A
And again, smaller fundraiser. She still raises like a million dollars or whatever, but, you know, I'm all, oh, at one of the tiny ones. But yeah, I always love watching you work, my friend, and I'm glad I get to do it again tonight. So, yeah, we'll tell everybody about it tomorrow. Also, looks like she didn't kill enough puppies. Kristi Gnome is on the chopping block. They're putting her in the gravel pit with Cricket and they're going to get rid of her. I think this is at least in January. And this is a stronger rumor than the one about firing Kash Patel, because no one's denying it.
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B
Oh, interesting. Yeah.
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A
So.
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B
And the.
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A
The rumor of who's going to reparently. Stephen Miller says she's not building enough concentration camps with our tax money fast enough.
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B
That sounds like something Stephen Miller would say.
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A
Yeah. And so they're going to get rid of her and put in Glenn Youngkin.
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B
Oh, dear. I don't want to say disgraced. I guess he's not yet, but the old governor from Virginia.
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A
I thought for sure Bavino would be gunning for that job, but he maybe wants to stay, like, head of the, you know, deportation operations, like on the ground so he can play with his tanks and his guns and look way taller than he is, probably.
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B
He's tiny. No offense to short kings. Hey, you can be one as long as you don't think you are one.
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A
Right. As long as you don't, you know, do cruel and inhumane things to people.
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B
Exactly.
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A
I watched recently the movie, the new one with Leonardo DiCaprio. It's going to be nominated for all the Oscars ever. I can't think of the name of it off the top of my head, but Sean Penn is in it and he plays one of those small guy cops, like, trying to be. And he plays like, basically Gregory Bevino, like, in charge of customs and border protection. The whole movie takes place in like this post apocalyptic. ICE has taken over. I mean, it's actually kind of what's going on right now, but more in the future after they solidify everything and. Ugh, it's horrible, but it's the same kind of thing. And he does such an exceptional job at it. I have to remember the name of the movie before we finish with.
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B
It'll pop into your head.
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A
I'm sure of it with this show. But it's. It's really good. It's a long one. That's like three hours. Anyway, this Comey shit delights me to no end. And I again, not a fan of Jim Comey, but I am a fan of watching this Department of Justice suffer and lose and step on its own dick. U.S. district Judge Colleen Caller caudaly granted a temporary restraining order sought by Daniel Richmond. That's the guy who Comey was emailing back and forth requiring that the evidence be sequestered. So all of the evidence's emails that were subject to a warrant in 2017, 2019, 2020, all of that stuff, he said, you went through it again for Comey and you didn't get a warrant. And that's a violation of my Fourth amendment rights. And the judge is like, yep, yep, sure does seem like it. So Department of Justice put it all in a box, lock it away, you can't touch it, you can't look at it, and then tell me by tomorrow that you've done so.
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That's just, just really, really embarrassing for this Department of Justice, which I love.
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B
Oh, me too. Now a little bit of news on Marjorie Taylor Greene. Who. Listen, I am not. She's, she's not giving her benefit of the doubt, but she was on 60 Minutes and this is a quote, she said, I watched many of my colleagues go from making fun of him. And she's talking about Donald, by the way, making fun of how he talks, making fun of me constantly for supporting him to when he won the primary in 2024. They all started, excuse my language, Leslie, kissing his ass. Of course, she's not mentioning any names, but the fact that she's even doing this on live television is sort of beautiful.
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A
I like how she's like, pardon my language, Leslie. I know.
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B
You know, she said way more when.
- [06:23]
A
That, when she'll stand up in Congress and go, fuck you, pussy face. You know, like, I don't understand her.
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B
Well, I guess she is trying to rebrand, dear.
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A
Yeah, she wants to. And this is the. What we talked about, Dana, and what I've talked about with John Fugelsang and Wajahara Ali. We've all talked about this. That they're trying to break from Donald Trump and create a new cult. Basically, they want to get the cult members from MAGA over to them. So they're changing it because she says MAGA is no longer America first because of Venezuela, because of Ukraine and, and to move it away and say we're just going to call it America first now. So they're just going with the full on Nazi KKK phrase.
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Yeah. So gross.
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B
How gross.
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A
But they don't Name names that I hate. Like, if you're going to come out on TV and say, oh, all these congressmen are saying privately, you tell me who, you tell me what they said, you tell me when they said it.
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B
Absolutely. Otherwise, stop. Just stop.
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A
Or, yeah, stop your weird dance. Do it. Say it. All right, we have more news to get to. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes.
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I always feel like it's Sam Kinison. Say it, say it, say it.
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All right. First, we have a story from Politico. Billionaires are about to shatter more checks on the federal government. The Supreme Court heard arguments today about whether to finally finish off a teetering 90 year old precedent that limited the president's power over many federal agencies. It's called the separation of powers, and it basically quashes all of Congress's power. But lurking in the wings is a far more radical bid by the Trump administration to remake the federal government from top to bottom by ending the concept of the civil service. Indeed, some legal experts say that is a practical matter. The administration, emboldened by the justices, has already managed to eliminate job protections that have been on the books for nearly 150 years. President Trump's drive to replace agency leaders and his mass firings across the federal government are all based on the same basic legal concept, the unitary executive theory. It holds that every employee of the executive branch is answerable to and fireable at will by the president. The most extreme version of the unitary executive theory holds that the central premise of the civil service, which is the rank and file government employees, shouldn't be hired or fired for political reasons or simply on the president's whim. They say unitary executive theorists say that's unconstitutional because it tramples on the president's power to control the federal government. Quote, it's the logical endpoint to unitary executive theory. That's Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at University of Michigan. I'm Michigan. I'm not sure why I said it that way. Their desired goal would be to arrive at a completely at will workforce. I think the administration is going to push the unitary executive idea as far as it can. And all of the signals it has been getting from the Supreme Court is to push further and push faster. While it's unclear whether the Trump administration will ask the current court to dismantle the federal civil service system, some experts say the justice's deference to Trump in firing related cases is, is kind of egging them on. Quote, this is the real world implication of the path the Supreme Court is On it's not an academic exercise. That's Max Steyer, the Partnership for Public Service. One hopes that they recognize that whatever interest they've had in theory, in practice, they're unleashing an autocracy. And further down that road, the further down the road they go, the worse it will be. It's bad already. Now, this involves Trump's attempt in March to fire Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Slaughter. That's this case. Trump tapped Slaughter in 2018 to fill a Democratic seat on the FTC. Biden renominated her in 2023 to an additional seven year term. Federal law has long dictated that the FTC commissioners can be fired only for inefficiency, neglect of duty or a malfeasance in office. It's a provision that the supreme court upheld in 1935 in a case challenging Roosevelt's firing of FTC member William Humphrey, hence Humphrey's executor. The ruling, which came to be known as Humphrey's executor, led to similar for cause protections for leaders of independent agencies across the federal and for some of the other posts over the past two decades. The Supreme Court, though, has pared back Humphreys by declaring various sorts of posts to be beyond its reach. These moves have generally tracked with the increasing focus among legal conservatives on the unitary executive theory and on arguments that the Constitution requires that the President have sweeping authority over executive branch personnel. The Court's conservative majority could use this Slaughter case to overrule Humphreys or it could opt for a narrower ruling that the FTC of today has significantly much more regulatory power than it did in 1935. So the precedent simply is no longer applicable. So much for textualists, right? But many believe Humphreys is already all but dead. I'm included in that, Dana. Without issuing definitive rulings, the Justices have let stand almost every Trump firing that has reached them. They've allowed only two fired officials to remain in their jobs. Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook and the Register of Copyrights, Sherra Perlmutter. Now, I think my personal opinion here, Dana, is that the Supreme Court will allow this, you know, any president to fire these members of multi member boards, including Slaughter here at the ftc, including Wilcox and Harris at the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board. But I don't think they're going to let him fire members of the Federal Reserve Board. I think they're going to carve that out.
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B
Yeah, we'll see. But I actually agree with you. We talked to yesterday, we said we'd give you more details about the drug boat at the center of that second strike scandal. It wasn't even headed to the United States. Everyone, this is from CNN. The alleged drug traffickers killed by the U.S. military in a strike on September 2nd. They were headed to link up with another larger vessel that was bound for Suriname. Suriname, and that, by the way, is a small South American country east of Venezuela. This is, by the way, the admiral who oversaw the operation. That's what he told lawmakers on Thursday, according to two sources with direct knowledge of his remarks. That puts this in a whole different light and looks even fucking worse, by the way.
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A
Yeah, yeah. Well, especially since that was one of their. That was what Trump was like. They're headed to the US to murder us with their drug weapons.
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B
Yeah. Yep, yep, yep. Now, according to intelligence collected by US Forces, the struck boat planned to rendezvous with the second vessel and transfer drugs to it. Admiral Franklin Bradley. That's what he said during the briefings. But the military was unable to locate the second vessel. Oh, oh, we couldn't find the other boat you're talking about. Bradley argued that there was still a possibility the drug shipment could have ultimately made its way from suriname to the U.S. telling lawmakers that justified striking the smaller boat, even if it wasn't directly heading to the US Shores at the time it was hit. Are you fucking kidding me?
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A
So it was going to meet up with Suriname, A boat that was going to go to Suriname, you couldn't find the other boat. And then if it did do that, it was going to go to Europe. So the way that it would make it to the United States States is if Don Jr was in London and bought a bunch of coke and brought it back to the United States.
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B
That's exactly it. U.S. drug enforcement officials say that trafficking routes via surname are primarily destined for European markets. US Bound drug trafficking routes have been concentrated on the Pacific Ocean in recent years. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told traveling press in Florida shortly after the strike that the alleged drug boat targeted was, and I quote, probably headed to Trinidad or some other country in the Caribbean. However, Donald Trump said in a post announcing the strike on September 2nd that and I quote, the strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in international waters transporting illegal narcotics headed to the United States. Whoops. And by the way, in a related story, this one's from NBC. Kegseth ordered the U.S. military on September 2nd to kill all 11 people on a suspected drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea because they were on an internal list of narco Terrorists who U.S. intelligence and military officials determined could be lethally targeted. The commander overseeing the operation. That's what they told lawmakers in briefings this past week. And that's according to two people, and they happen to be U.S. officials. One person familiar with congressional briefings. Now, such a list includes individuals who are eligible for being targeted, including with lethal action, if given the opportunity. The commander who oversaw the September 2nd strikes. This is, as we said. Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley told lawmakers that U.S. intelligence officials had confirmed the identities of the 11 people on the boat and validated them as legitimate targets. All that sounds fishy as hell. Then the military launched airstrikes as part of President Donald Trump's military campaign against alleged drug smuggling vessels. The US Officials and persons familiar with the congressional briefings. That's what they said. The detail that the 11 people in the boat were on an internal US military target list has not previously been made public. You would think they would lead with that.
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A
Yeah. Sometimes they like to bury the lead, my friend. Yeah. So here's what I think is going to happen. These are all clearly illegal, extrajudicial killings. It's murder. We're not at war. We're not in an international conflict. We're not in an armed conflict. We're not in a non international armed conflict. Like Donald Trump has said, none of that's true. I'm going to go over why in a second, but I think what's going to happen is, is that Admiral Bradley, much like the torture memos, they're going to say, look, the Attorney General said this was legal, and the Office of Legal Counsel for the Department of Justice said this was legal. And that's the ultimate quote unquote authority on what is legal. And I think that that is what they're going to use to try to get everybody off the hook, just like they got everybody for the stellar wind torture memos back in the day. Off the hook, yeah. Unfortunately, I disagree with that vehemently. This is murder and somebody should be held accountable. But I think the only way we're going to do that is congressional investigations to get the truth out to the public. And I want to take a minute to go over why all these boat strikes are illegal. Just security has put an excellent explainer out there. It was sent to me by Steve Vladek. You know, whenever I have a question in my head about whether something's legal or not and why, I always ask folks like Barb McQuaid, Joyce Vance, Steve Vladek, all these experts, you know, who know better than me. And I wanted to let you know what this Just Security article says. So the first question Is it legal to use lethal force to target suspected drug trafficking boats on the high seas or kill those on board? The answer is no. The United States is not in an armed conflict with any cartel or criminal gang. That means the law of armed conflict, L O A C, also known as International Humanitarian Law, IHL, does not apply to the military operations that began September 2. Domestic criminal law and international human rights law both prohibit these kinds of lethal strikes. Outside of armed conflict, such killings are known as murder and extrajudicial killings, respectively. All 21 strikes against suspected drug trafficking boats killing 83 people to date have been unlawful.
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B
Wow.
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A
So the question becomes, what US Law applies to the lethal strikes against these boats and the people on board? Normal peacetime laws apply, including federal law prohibiting murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Under US Domestic criminal law, the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought is murder, including when committed on the high seas. Note that law also applies during armed conflict, but with that, we don't have that here, so you can't say we're at an armed conflict, so it doesn't count. It still does. Article 118 of the Uniform Code of Military justice also criminalizes murder, both when military personnel intend to kill and when they engage in an act which is inherently dangerous to another and evinces a wanton disregard for human life. So the provision applies overseas as well as during armed conflict, when the death is not lawful under the law of armed conflict. So these laws apply, depending on their role, to the individuals involved in ordering and carrying out the strikes. Is this situation a non international armed conflict as claimed by President Trump? No. Non international armed conflicts are between a state and an organized armed group. There are two requirements for the existence of an niac, which is a non international armed conflict. First, the non state group must both be armed and organized. While cartels are typically well organized, they're not per se armed in the sense of a law of armed conflict. Armed denotes engaging in violence against the state in an organized fashion. That the group may possess weapons used for other criminal activity doesn't suffice. Right. A second requirement is that armed violence between the state and the group must be protracted and intense. Sporadic violence, including death, is not intense enough to make that standard. So even if the intensity criterion could be satisfied at some point by virtue of the US strikes continuing, that remains contested. By the way, the fact that the US Strikes are not directed at an organized armed group precludes characterization as a non international Armed conflict. So it's not. What about killing shipwreck survivors of strikes at sea? Killing shipwreck survivors is clearly illegal and as unlawful as targeting those individuals with lethal force in the first place. If the United States were in an armed conflict. It is not. But if it were, it would be illegal to target shipwrecked survivors at sea. The Department of Defense's Law of War Manual uses exactly this rule as a paradigmatic example of a clearly illegal order. I've brought this up. 18321, clearly illegal orders to commit law of war violations. The requirement to refuse to comply with orders to commit law of war violations applies to orders to perform conduct that is clearly illegal or orders that the subordinate knows in fact are illegal. For example, orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal.
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If an order was given to leave no survivors, known as denial of quarter, that would also have been a clearly unlawful order, and anyone receiving that order has a duty not to follow it. So, Dana, in your story where you said they were told to kill all 11 people on board and leave no survivors, that's also illegal. Was it a war crime? No. But that's because war crimes are committed only during an armed conflict. And the United States was not and is not today in an armed conflict with the reportedly targeted group Trende Aragua.
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B
That's what I've been saying.
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A
Killing the two shipwreck survivors should be considered an extrajudicial killing under international heat human rights law or murder in under the United States domestic law, in order to kill them would be an unlawful order in armed conflict, whether there was an armed conflict or not. Do military personnel have an obligation to refuse to obey clearly illegal orders or orders to the personnel orders that they know are Illegal? Yes. The DoD Law of War Manual explains the requirements to refuse to comply with orders to commit law of war violations applies to orders to perform conduct that is clearly illegal or orders that the subordinate knows are in fact illegal. For example, orders to fire upon the shipwreck. We go through that thing again. Importantly, the duty to refuse an unlawful order is triggered only when the order is manifestly unlawful. If military personnel refuse to obey an order they believe to be unlawful and the order is not unlawful, they could be punished for failing to follow it. So that's what we're at here with Admiral Bradley. If the doj, Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice lawyers who were all wrong tell him it's legal and he disobeys the order. Yeah, it would be his fault. Yeah. If it were found by, I don't know, the Supreme Court to have been a lawful order. The last one here is, was there a duty to try to rescue the survivors? Yes, if feasible under long standing international law during peacetime and armed conflict. So in either scenario, there is an obligation to take practical measures to rescue individuals who've been shipwrecked. This is a longstanding law and was clearly violated. There's a lot more questions and answers. Just Google, just security expert Q and a on the US boat strikes. There's like 10 more questions in there that all get answered really, really well.
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B
Thanks so much, Alison. And this one is from the Times. It seems President Trump on Sunday berated Representative Henry Queller, that's that Democrat from Texas, for not switching parties in his reelection bid after Trump pardoned him and his wife on robbery charges last week, saying Mr. Cuhler's decision displayed a lack of loyalty. He was really trying to get him to switch sides. Mr. Qualer was indicted by a federal grand jury last year on charges that he and his wife had accepted roughly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani oil company and a Mexican bank in exchange for promises that he would use his position in ways that would benefit Azerbaijan and the bank. As one of the few Democrats in Congress who openly criticized former President Biden for not imposing tougher immigration policies, Mr. Koala received public support and a pardon from Mr. Trump, who wrote on social media this week that the former president had gone, and I quote, after the congressman and even the congressman's wonderful wife Imelda, simply for speaking the truth. He's racist like I am. Oh, but oh, shit. He's still not a Republican. But by Sunday, Mr. Trump appeared to have sourced soured. Mr. Trump is mad at Mr. Queller for running for reelection in Texas as a Democrat. In a lengthy social media post, Mr. Trump accused Democrats of looking to, and I quote, Destroy Mr. Queller and blasted him for not switching parties after receiving the pardon. Next time, no more Mr. Nice Guy. Now, I understand this is a sitting congressman that got pardoned and he expected to come out and be like, I'm a Republican now and I'm gonna vote with you. And that did not happen.
- [24:14]
A
Yeah, he's an anti abortion Democrat in Texas. Right. And that's one of the reasons he was able to win his seat. He's running again and he did not switch parties and Trump is piast. And when, when. Mr. I think it's Cuellar. I'm not sure if it Queller or Qu. I haven't heard his name pronounced But I think he appeared on Ms. Now and was asked or CNN and was asked like, well, the President's really mad at you for not switching parties. What are you going to do? And he's like, I'm going to pray for the President. It was just like, dang. That's like a bless your heart, but from Texas, you know, big time. Anyway, thank you so much for that reporting, everybody. We've got a lot of good news to get to, but we have to take a quick break. Stick around. We'll be right back.
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Hey everybody. As the temperatures outside drop, I spend more time indoors and I spend a lot of time in my bedroom. I pile up the blankets, I keep the lights low. I relax in my fantastic mattress from Helix Sleep. You know, I've been a loyal Helix customer. I've had it for years and it's easy to see why. Before Helix, I dealt with back pain and anxiety, stress, struggling, tossing, turning, night sweats. I would overheat even on cool nights and I woke up feeling sore and cranky. It would, it would really impact my daily life. But. But Helix changed all that. It's a constant and trustworthy source of rest, especially during flu and cold season when you need your immunity up and you need that good sleep to keep your immunity up. Plus, holiday hosting adds long days and late nights. And I want to enjoy the calendar, not limp through it. And Helix ensures I'm ready for whatever my season brings. So I always keep a Helix in the guest room too. And visitors notice the difference. After only one night, Helix is just that good. So if you're considering an upgrade, here's what sets Helix apart for me. Take the Helix Sleep Quiz. It matches you to the perfect mattress based on your personal preferences and how you sleep. And you know your mattress is going to be awesome. So Helix is the most awarded mattress brand and it's been reviewed by experts at outlets like Forbes and Wired. Shipping is free always in the US and setup is quick. Plus their happy with Helix guarantee covers seamless exchanges and returns. And there's 120 night in home sleep trial so there's no risk here. You also get a limited lifetime warranty. So if you're out there this holiday season shopping for everyone else, don't forget to gift yourself a better night's sleep with a brand new mattress from Helix Sleep. So go to helixsleep.com dailybeans for 27% off site wide. This is exclusive for Daily Beans listeners. Helixsleep.com DailyBeans for 27% off site wide Make Sure. You enter our show name in the post purchase survey so they know we sent you. That's helixsleep.com dailybeans you'll be glad you did. Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news? Everyone. Then good news.
- [27:01]
And if you have any good news at all, whether it's something small or big that happened yesterday or 20 years ago, please send it to us. Any you know when you're sitting around with friends and you're having conversations and you tell a story from your past, we would love to hear these, these happy stories. We all need to kind of microdose the hope and the happiness a little bit. Send us your favorite joke. Send us a shout out to loved one or a small business in your area or a nonprofit you want to shine a light on. Maybe a self shout out. We absolutely love self shout outs and shout outs to government programs too. And all you got to do to get your good news right on the air is submit your pod pet tariff, which means attach a photo of your pet. We can try to guess the breeds in your shelter pup, but we we're not very good at it, but we like to try anyway. And then if you don't have a pet, you can send an adoptable pet in your area. If you don't have that, just grab a random photo of an animal on the Internet, including birds. Bird photos, which can be a bird or you flipping the bird to Trump buildings. Send it all to us daily beanspod.com click on contact. Good trouble today comes from Jess Craven over at Chop Wood. Carry water on substack. And Jess says Donald Trump and his ballroom architect have parted ways. And Trump has hired a new firm, Shalom Baranis Associates, to do the project. Their email address is inquiries b a R-A-N-E-S.com we'll have a link in the show notes. And we have also a link to Jess Craven's sample letter that she wrote to this particular architecture firm.
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B
Fantastic.
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A
There you go.
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B
Good trouble. Get on with it. All right. This is from John. Pronouns, he and him. Good morning, Leguminous Majesties. I confess I don't have time every day to listen. Oh, leguminous Majesties. Majesties.
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We can leave that one in for you. Majesties.
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A
I was like, majesties.
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B
I was like, I'm like, I think it's peanut Allison.
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A
P N U T M O oh penut like the Egyptian God. Got it.
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B
Whenever Allison starts giggling, I'm always like, what'd I Say what'd I say? And then I have to remember what I said. Let me try that. You get to have all of that for free. Everyone. Good morning, leguminous Majesties. I confess that I don't have time every day to listen. So I binge listen. That's why I don't know what day this happened. A person relayed how her child in elementary school was disciplined for correcting a teacher who said, a dolphin is a fish. Well, there is a fish formerly called a dolphin fish, but post flipper, it doesn't sit well on a restaurant menu. So now it's called mahi mahi. Teachers are wrong sometimes. This one might have been. Or the student might have misunderstood my potter.
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A
No, I think it's pretty. Like in general, dolphins are not fish.
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B
Yeah, my pot pet tariff is a picture of the fish. I also sent my dear departed Natasha. We lost her to kidney failure a little more than a year ago. Oh, Natasha, you. Look at you, a sweet baby.
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A
Oh, I'm so sorry for your loss. What a sweetheart. But yes, there are always exceptions to every rule. Thank you, John. Pronouns he and him. Next up we have. Oh, the missing dog breeds from yesterday.
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B
Oh, good.
- [30:21]
A
Okay, left to right, Fracita and moose. So moose. Well, it says on left to right, fracita and Moose. So moose is on the right. So what do you think moose is? We thought what, like a husky? Weimaraner. Yeah, something. All right, let's see. I don't know, 50, 50 great Dane Husky.
- [30:40]
B
Oh, okay, I can see that.
- [30:42]
A
So cute. Fressy is a husky, right? Yes, Frassie is a husky. You are very husky. What's at the bottom? Oh, nothing. It's something I can't look at.
- [30:53]
B
Okay, there we go. All right, this one's from Claire. Pronoun. She and her. Hi all. I live in Austin, Texas, but my area of the city was gerrymandered into a very red district that reaches out to Odessa. If you're unfamiliar with Texas geography, let me assure you that this is a batshit bonkers. The current U.S. congressional representative for District 11 is a Republican who has run unopposed in the last two elections. Can you believe it? Unopposed for US Congress. Well, I decided that was unacceptable and on December 6th I filed to run as a Democrat. Clear. This is fucking awesome. Good for you. The only other election I run in was the PTA president of my kids elementary school. And I was unopposed for that because nobody else wanted the job. As my brother pointed out, that means I have a perfect record. Anyway, my goal is to win. But failing that, I want to make sure that every immigrant, gay person, trans person, person of color and progressive person in District 11 knows that they are seen and heard and that I will bust my butt for them. Thank you for everything that you do. Claire Reynolds and we've got a blank, a link to Blue sky and she's getting her campaign side up and running as we speak. So you know we're going to have an opportunity to support her in her congressional run.
- [32:06]
A
Yes, kiss and weird Claire. I love it. Yes, run for something. Especially if unopposed Republicans running. I don't care if it's a 30 point, 40 point Republican district. Get in there. Their gerrymander may be diluting some redness of certain areas, especially if it was.
- [32:24]
B
An unopposed seat that they figured were safe. They may have diluted it so badly that a Democrat could pull the win if people are unhappy enough there.
- [32:32]
A
Yeah, and we'll see. I think this one pulled more red in this particular one, but who knows, man, anything goes this year. That is why I'm so glad you're running. Next up, Anonymous pronoun She and her I finally got access to my library's copy of Separation of Church and Hate. Holy crap. It's amazing. I've been waiting in line for this book since September. I had it to set to notify me as soon as it was available. When I got the notification that it was, I dropped everything to put it on hold. Even though I was super quick to get in line for the book like two minutes after the notification, I still ended up being 53rd in line. Now there are over 350 people waiting in line behind me. I'm wrapping it up as fast as I can so others can hear it. I'd like to listen to it again because it's so packed full of insight, but I'm feeling guilty making the others wait. Libby is an amazing resource to access books and audiobooks for those who don't know. And it's free with your library card. I'm a gal with a tight budget, but I may have to buy this audiobook book. It's hard to press pause oh wow, that's so cool. I will let John know. Anonymous Absolutely.
- [33:40]
B
All right, we've got an anonymous person here. Pronouns she and her Dear Illuminati I want to shout out to my wonderful husband of 36 years. He is the best person I know and he spoils me rotten. I work day shift as a nurse and I have to get up at 5:30 in the morning. Spoiler alert. I'm not a morning person. He gets up and puts my lunch together and he brings me breakfast bar and bed before going back to sleep. Also, he listens to me when I talk. I took up crochet about two years ago and I'm really into it. He encourages me to buy yarn even if I don't have a project in mind for it. I was on one of my Facebook crochet groups and the poster said her husband bought her an ergonomic hook for her string sport. I laughed about this with my hubby and for our anniversary he got me a personalized hoodie for our anniversary that says Extreme String Sports Fanatic. I love it. For podpet tax I'm sending pictures of some projects I've finished. The guy in the sweater is my hubby, wearing the sweater I made for him for our anniversary and another project I finished for my granddaughter. Thanks for all you do. Beans Queens Anonymous this is so awesome. And I love a partner that supports people like this. Like, even if they think it's silly, like they're not, they don't know they're listening. And then all of a sudden a gift like this shows up like that is amazing.
- [34:58]
A
So, so cool. Beautiful sweater, fantastic hubby. And then this shawl with the little owl. The little owl embellishment on it is so adorable. All right, thank you so much. Next up, Anani Moose. Hello Alison and Dana. True Confessions These are my sins. Number one, I'm a first time writer despite just missing the kitchen table days. I started with you soon after. It was love at first. Listen. I have been a close to Daily Listener ever since. I cannot shake the gut feeling that Putin views the Big Trump as his own personal project. I truly believe there's some way or multiple ways that Putin is getting his messages to Trump routinely. What triggered me to write this today is your conversation with John Fugelsang, the brilliant John Fugal saying, somehow I believe Trump's pardons emanate from Putin. I could cite unlimited examples, but I'll cite one. Henry Cuellar. I believe the pardons are somewhere on Putin's chessboard. I believe he's planning his moves infinitely further. Any of us can imagine. I believe that Putin somehow helps Trump figure out his next distraction. I believe distractions are to destabilize, which works in Putin's favor. My last confession is an apology for not writing sooner to thank you. Your hard work and your brilliant casts and podcast people are a daily vitamin for my soul. And then look at this great picture.
- [36:16]
B
It's extraordinary. This is my dream look at that whale's mouth wide open. You can see the teeth.
- [36:22]
A
That's incredible. Swimming with whales. Thank you. Anonymous Love it, love it, love it.
- [36:29]
B
This last one is from someone who actually, I don't know if it's the last one, but it's from someone who cares. Birdwatching pics. Sending a pic of a cedar waxwing and a pic of Townsend's warbler who were eating persimmons on my trees last week. Enjoy and thank you so much for everything you are doing. This is a beautiful bird, both of these.
- [36:48]
A
Yeah, they both are so cute.
- [36:50]
B
They really are.
- [36:52]
A
Oh, great. Gets on that one. Anonymous Birder who cares? Thank you all so very much for your good news. We're going to have a great time tonight honoring some really incredible people in the LGBTQ community. I look forward to it. I look forward to seeing you, my friend. And we'll talk all about it on tomorrow's Beans. Do you have any final thoughts?
- [37:11]
B
No, I do not.
- [37:12]
A
All right, until tomorrow, everybody, 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. I've been dg and them's the beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they Might Be Giants and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information Please visit msw media.com msw media.