Provide For The Common Defense (feat. Naveed Shah)

Summary

The Daily Beans — "Provide For The Common Defense"

Podcast: The Daily Beans
Date: August 28, 2025
Hosts: Allison Gill (AG), Dana Goldberg (DG)
Guest: Naveed Shah (Political Director, Common Defense)

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Episode Overview

This episode addresses a tumultuous week in U.S. news, balancing tragedy, government missteps, and some glimmers of hope from the world of politics. The central theme is the politicization and deployment of the National Guard and military forces domestically, with guest Naveed Shah delving into the damaging effect on morale, recruitment, and civil-military relations. Other news highlights include mass shootings, data security failures, highly restricted COVID vaccine approvals, and Democratic victories in special elections.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Top News Stories (00:00–17:40)

• Catastrophic Events:

  • Mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis—two children dead, 14 injured (04:20).
    • AG: "Don't say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying."
  • Data Breach: Millions of Americans’ Social Security numbers put at risk due to a government server vulnerability (05:00).
    • AG: "John Roberts let big balls have your Social Security number…all of the information, personally identifiable information."

• Government & Agency Accountability:

  • FEMA staff placed on administrative leave after signing dissent letters (03:10).
  • EPA employees face similar disciplinary actions.

• Vaccines and Public Health:

  • FDA approved a highly restricted updated COVID booster—most under 65 without risk factors left unprotected (06:24).
    • AG, discovering she's ineligible: “As it turns out, I am not eligible for the vaccine anymore. Mexico is a 20-minute drive…”

• Election and Civil Rights Wins:

  • Utah judge orders new congressional maps to address illegal gerrymandering (09:26).
  • Democrats win a key Iowa special election, breaking a Republican supermajority (14:15).

• Police Surveillance & Privacy:

  • License plate camera company Flock Safety halts federal agency cooperation over concern about government motives (10:32).

• Public Dissent:

  • Senator Susan Collins heckled by constituents at a ribbon-cutting after years of dodged town halls (11:49, 12:31).
    • Collins, exasperated [13:35]: "I have a suggestion. Would you listen to the suggestion?"
    • Protester: "Vote Graham Platner!"

• Immigration Justice:

  • Kilmar Abrego’s asylum eligibility clock reset due to government error, underlining incompetency in deportation proceedings (07:27).

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2. Main Interview: Provide For The Common Defense — Naveed Shah of Common Defense (21:30–34:13)

Background

Naveed Shah, political director of Common Defense and an Iraq War veteran, discusses the alarm caused by the deployment of National Guard and military units for domestic political aims.

Key Points

• Military as Political Pawn

  • Shah [22:11]: "What Trump is doing is…using the military as a political pawn. Veterans know that we took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution…and the military's purpose is not to occupy our own cities, our own capital, and police our own people."
  • These deployments to D.C. and Los Angeles were not emergency/disaster response but an intimidation tactic—what Shah sees as "manufactured crisis" for power grabs and autocratic creep.

• Morale & Recruitment Harm

  • Shah [24:19]: "This is not why they should be away from their families, away from their jobs…it's really hurting morale among the troops."
  • Debasing orders (picking up trash) diminish respect and willingness to serve; Shah notes this severely hurts recruitment and retention, vital for disaster response when FEMA is weakened.

• National Security Risks

  • Shah warns [26:20] that misusing the Guard reduces readiness for actual crises.
  • Reports of the Pentagon "padding" recruitment numbers with future enlistees suggest internal panic as morale and interest drop.

• Lawful vs. Unlawful Orders

  • Troops report they will not obey unconstitutional orders, but picking up trash isn't unlawful, just wasteful and humiliating (28:08–30:00).
  • Shah: "We know that Trump will pardon himself and his cronies, but there's probably not gonna be pardons coming down for regular Joes…They're the ones right now being given weapons as they do patrols in American cities."

• D.C. as an Occupied City

  • Shah [31:14]: "It definitely feels like an occupying force. Walking out of Union Station and seeing MRAPs and troops, armed troops there, it definitely feels like an occupying force."

• Call to Action

  • Common Defense mobilizes veterans and civilians to speak out, especially in red districts.
  • Shah [31:49]: "It's really important…Call your elected officials, call your representatives…That's one of the only levers we still have and we have to exercise our strength that way right now."

Memorable Quotes

• AG [24:18]: “Have you heard from any of your friends who are still active duty about their dislike or distrust of what the administration is doing or about these orders that they've been given?”
• Shah [25:36]: “He calls the troops suckers and losers but then wants to pose for photos with them, even though he dodged the draft himself. It’s just the ultimate disrespect.”
• Shah [33:41]: “Having folks who speak out...can be really challenging, it can be scary. But there is help available and you should reach out…”

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3. Listener Good News and Community Section (36:10–47:13)

• Listeners share personal victories, thoughts on language and grammar, and responses to podcast jokes and pop culture references.
• Numerous shout-outs for democratic wins, local activism, and community resilience.
• Heartwarming pet photos and touching stories (e.g., listener’s mother as a WASP pilot who evolved politically, [43:52]).

Notable Listener Section Quotes

• Listener, on the Iowa special election: “As a resident of the state my entire life, it's at least one step towards not being as fascist a hellscape as it was before.” [40:28]
• Linda, on grammar and immigrants: "I volunteer with immigrants who are learning English and let me tell you, they know more about English grammar than most monolingual English speakers." [43:33]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Intro & Headlines: 00:00–07:27
• Rapid-fire news & analysis: 07:27–17:40
• Good Trouble mission (supporting FEMA staff): 17:42
• Main Interview with Naveed Shah: 21:31–34:13
• Listener Good News: 36:10–47:13

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Notable Episode Quotes

• On Political Abuse of Military:
  Shah [22:11]: “Veterans know that we took an oath...the military's purpose is not to occupy our own cities, our own capital, and police our own people.”
• On Grassroots Action:
  Shah [31:49]: “It's really important that people get together...call your elected officials, call your representatives, especially those in red states or red cities.”
• On Morale:
  Shah [24:19]: “It's really hurting morale amongst the troops.”
• On Public Protest:
  Collins vs. Protesters [13:18]:
  • Collins: “Could you please just listen? Just one—”
  • Protester: “We want you to listen!”

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Tone & Takeaways

The episode combines sharp-edged snark and compassionate concern, characteristic of The Daily Beans. AG and DG highlight the relentless pace of distressing news but ground it in community, self-care, and tenacious activism. Shah’s segment is grave, urgent, and clear-eyed about the erosion of democratic norms and military professionalism under Trump’s misuse of national security authority.

The show closes (as always) by inviting listeners to both take care of themselves and re-dedicate to progressive action—and by celebrating even the smallest wins for democracy, empathy, and justice.

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For full Common Defense resources and to join the effort: commondefense.us.

Transcript

[A]

MSW Media. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. Today, two children have died and 14 other people have been injured in a shoot at a Catholic school in Minneapolis. Some FEMA staff have been placed on administrative leave after pending a letter of dissent. The FDA has approved the COVID booster, but with huge restrictions. Big balls and Doge put your Social Security number on a non secure server in June. A Utah judge has ordered new congressional maps for 2026. In a victory for voting rights. Senator Susan Collins is heckled during a ribbon cutting ceremony. A license plate camera company has halted cooperation with federal agencies amid concerns about the government's motives. Democrats celebrate a special election victory in Iowa. The government inadvertently reset the asylum eligibility clock for Kilmar Abrego, who has now filed a petition to seek asylum in the United States. And prosecutors failed to obtain an indictment for sandwich guy from a federal grand jury. I'm Allison Gill.

[B]

And I'm Dana Goldberg.

[A]

Hey, Dana. It's a lot of ups and downs today in the news.

[B]

Yeah, it is a lot. We have a lot of news today. AG And I were just talking again. We're both just tired. Friends are tired. There may be something in the weather. It could be fascism, we don't know. But make sure you're taking care of yourself. You know, take those times that you need to just tap out for a while, read a book, touch some grass, breathe in some fresh air, look at a flower. Just go do it.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. And that, you brought that up when we had that really great panel with Heather Cox, Richardson and, and Jojo and, and Politics girl yesterday. And that was deeply felt in, down in the cockles of my heart. Everybody needs to definitely take care of themselves. And we, we have a wide range of really, really bad news and really, really good news today. So it's kind of, kind of be a roller coaster. So I just want to prepare everybody for that. But later in the show, we're going to be joined by Navid Shah. He's the political director of Common Defense. We're going to talk about the feelings and thoughts from National Guardsmen and women, people in the National Guard and others, active duty service members and veterans, about the occupation of the District of Columbia and some things that we can do to combat it. Couple of quick bits of news. Trump's approval rating is down to 37% according to a new Quinnipiac poll. He's 48 points underwater on his handling of the Epstein files. And 56% of voters oppose his decision to send national guard troops to D.C. 61% of independents oppose that effort. That's a really bad number for him.

[B]

It sure is.

[A]

Yeah. The polling is really underwater on his administration right now. So that's some important stuff to keep in mind.

[B]

Yeah, absolutely. And yesterday we had told you about the Katrina declaration signed by 180 FEMA employees. Well, some of them were put on administrative leave Tuesday evening, according to documents reviewed by the Associated Press. Employees at other agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and Environmental Protection Agency, they've issued similar statements. About 140 EPA staff members were placed on administrative leave for signing an opposition letter. An opposition letter.

[A]

And of the 180 FEMA folks who signed that letter, 30, I think 35 or 31 or something like that use their actual names. And now I believe at least two of them have been put on administrative leave as retribution for signing that letter, for participating in protected First Amendment speech. So I hope they sue. And we have yet another mass shooting in America. An 8 year old and a 10 year old were killed when a shooter fired shots through the windows of a church at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis Wednesday morning. Seventeen others, including 14 children, were injured in the shooting during a mass that marked the first week of school. The shooter was found dead of a self inflicted gunshot wound. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at a press conference. And don't say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church. Yeah. So this is devastating for the community. And this is. I mean, when's enough enough? I mean, how many times this happens? Like almost on a near daily basis now?

[B]

Yeah, it does. I think they said, including this entire year, there's been 52 shootings in K through 12 schools for just this school year alone, which started in the last week. Yeah. The Department of Government Efficiency put the personal data of millions of Americans. We touched on this in the beginning of the show. Including Social Security numbers on vulnerable server in June, according to new whistleblower complaint filed by the chief data Officer, Social Security Administration. That's Charles Borges. Now, the files contained identifying information of more than 300 million Americans. That's insane. Doge staffers were given improper and excessive access to multiple databases with sensitive information in March. This is what the complaint says. And a federal judge blocked them from assessing SSA data, Social Security Administration data that month. But the Supreme Court overturned that ruling in June.

[A]

Yeah. So John Roberts, let big balls have your Social Security number and all of the information, personally identifiable information, and Private information used to get that Social Security number. And, you know, I did a. I think it was a substack interview with a cybersecurity expert about this back in February. I think how he saw that what Doge was doing was attaching boxes to servers and uploading all of our data to the cloud.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And that's been confirmed now by this whistleblower. And so if you haven't locked down your three credit reporting agency things, you should lock those down now.

[B]

Yeah, I need to do that.

[A]

Yeah. Next up from The Associated Press. U.S. regulators approved an updated COVID 19 vaccine Wednesday, but limited their use for many Americans and removed one of the two vaccines available for children people under 65. You can't get it unless you have a health risk factor. And no child under 5 can get this one. Parents will still be able to seek out shots from rival drug maker Moderna, the other maker of MRNA vaccines, which has full FDA approval for children as young as 6 months. But the company's Spikevax vaccine is only approved for children that have at least one serious health problem. So when I went to the VA last week and they said, we're out of the COVID vaccine, we. We should be getting new vaccine soon, as soon as the FDA approves it. As it turns out, I am not eligible for the vaccine anymore.

[B]

What?

[A]

Yeah. So Mexico is a 20 minute drive.

[B]

Seriously?

[A]

You know, it's terrible.

[B]

All right, well. Well, that's all of the, I guess, quick hits, as we call them, even though it wasn't an official one. But, man, we have so much news to get to.

[A]

We do. We do. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up, kind of a bright spot in a terrible story. Kilmar Abrego has filed to reopen his deportation proceedings by petitioning to seek asylum in the United States. Now, the reason he became deportable back in 2019, when the judge said you can deport him anywhere but El Salvador, is because he had been in the US for over a year. And you're not allowed to seek asylum unless you've been here less than a year.

[B]

But.

[A]

But because the government fucked up and sent him to El Salvador, their dumb asses reset the asylum clock, which now allows Mr. Abrego to file to seek asylum again.

[B]

Fantastic.

[A]

Now, it's unclear whether an immigration judge, those immigration judges work for the Department of Justice, not the judicial branch, will grant the asylum request, but it will keep him here a bit longer as his other cases wind their way through the courts. The Supreme Court ruling forbids the Department of Homeland Security from detaining someone for more than six months pending immigration proceedings. So if he doesn't get out of prison on unconstitutional detention grounds, the government may be forced to release him after six months being here now, his trial for the trumped up charges that is set for January. And I honestly think that the government doesn't want to go to trial because they'll lose or at least, or at least be really embarrassed because they thought they could just bring him back here with bullshit charges, threaten him with deportation to Uganda if he didn't plead guilty and get him out of the country before they had to try to take this BS to trial. But now Judge Senis has ordered he must stay in the US Pending the due process proceedings in her court and can't even be moved outside a 200 mile radius of where he is now in Virginia so as not to interfere with his right to prepare for his court proceedings. But the government resetting the asylum clock on their own mistake is illustrative of this administration's incompetence and inability to think even one step ahead of itself. So we'll be keeping an eye on this case here on the beans.

[B]

Thanks so much, Alison. Do have some better news right now. And we touched on this briefly during the Good News segment yesterday from a submission and this is from NBC. A Utah district judge has ruled that the state must redraw its congressional districts because the state's Republican controlled legislature erred when it overruled a ballot measure passed by voters that sought to reign in partisan gerrymandering. They said we don't want this. At issue in Utah is a long running court battle over the 20002018 ballot proposition that created an independent redistricting commission to recommend congressional maps. And it's unclear whether that fight will be resolved and whether Utah will have new maps for the midterms. The Salt Lake Tribune reported Monday that the legislature's attorneys have said that they could appeal a ruling to the state's courts or even all the way up to the U.S. supreme Court. And you know, they're going to fight this, but it is a win right now.

[A]

Yeah. Because what they did was they took Salt Lake City and had like the whole rest of the state like draw tiny little lines into Salt Lake City to break up Salt Lake City.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Which is illegal. So they have to redraw the maps. Hopefully they'll be done by the midterms. More good news from abc, one of the nation's leading operators of automated license plate reading Systems announced Monday it's paused operations with federal agencies because of confusion and concern, including in Illinois, about the purpose of the federal agency investigations. Flock Safety, whose cameras are mounted in more than 4,000 communities nationwide. That's creepy. Put a hold last week on pilot programs with the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection and its law enforcement arm hsi Homeland Security Investigations. And that's according to a statement by the founder and CEO, Garrett Langley. In addition to halting the pilot programs, Flock Safety has tweaked its system so that federal inquiries are clearly identified as such.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

Can't hide it. And federal agencies will no longer be able to make blanket or national or even statewide searches. They can only do one on one searches with particular police agencies. So good for this company. First of all, you shouldn't be creating a license plate, national license plate camera company. But I'm glad that you're not partnering with ice, DHS and HSI because of your concerns of what they're looking for. So I guess good job.

[B]

Yep, there you go. I do have more good news. I get some of the good news stories. This one's from NBC Senator Susan Collins, the one that gets very, you know, I'm going to write a strong email. Never send it was heckled. She was heckled in drown out at times by demonstrators at a ribbon cutting ceremony in her home state Tuesday. But this is the latest in a series of confrontations between protesters and members of Congress.

[A]

This is the thing, Dana, because these Republicans are too chicken shit to do town halls.

[B]

Yeah. People have to show up at this kind of stuff.

[A]

Go and find them at ribbon cuttings and memorial ceremonies. Remember we talked about that one a couple weeks ago. Like they go seek them out to find them because they are desperate to be able to talk to their representatives.

[B]

Yeah. Protesters were literally yelling shame, shame, shame at Collins as she tried to cut this ribbon to mark the completion of a long running Route 1 construction project in Sears Port. The demonstrators were yelling, by the way, about cuts to Medicare, Israeli attacks on Gaza and Trump's nominees on the Supreme Court. This is all in the videos, by the way. That's what it showed. And a quote. Could you please just listen? Just one. Collins said at one point before she again was interrupted. We'd like you to listen. One of the demonstrators yelled while another chastised Collins for not holding any town halls with constituents. At another point Collins said, I have a suggestion. Would you listen to the suggestion? Vote Graham Platner, one of the protesters offered. Is that the oyster guy?

[A]

I Think so.

[B]

I hope so. Vote Graham Platner, one of the protesters offered, referring yes to a Democrat running against Collins seat. Now, Collins tried reasons. She tried reasoning with the crowd, asking them to let her, and I quote, get through the brief ceremony before being interrupted again.

[A]

Collins, I have a suggestion. Would you listen to a suggestion? Yeah. Vote Graham Platner.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

Could you please just listen for one sec? We want you to listen. I mean, this is just fantastic. Well done, Mainers.

[B]

Maine is main as.

[A]

Good job. Good job. There's some more great news from abc. National Democrats are celebrating the results of a special election for the Iowa State Senate after Democrat Caitlyn Dre won in a district that Trump carried by 11 points in 2024 to break a Republican super majority for the chamber. So not only did she kick ass, she stole the Republican supermajority from the state Senate.

[B]

So good.

[A]

Republicans argue that the low turnout race, it won't reflect the voters who come out to support the party in the midterms. Your people aren't coming to the midterms because Trump isn't on the ticket. Okay. And the results must be influenced by the DNC's efforts to inject national money and volunteers into the race. Oh, God forbid we put volunteers on the ground in an election. Geez. But the results are a potential warning sign for Republicans and suggest Democratic voters may be more engaged heading into next year's elections where control of Congress is at stake. Get this. Dre won with 55% of the vote to Republican Christopher Prosch's 44%.

[B]

That's a massive swing.

[A]

11 points in an 11 point Trump district. That's a 22 point swing. That's according to preliminary results in the Woodbury County Auditor's Office. Quote, for the fourth special election in a row, Iowa voted for change. That's what Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said after Dre's victory. Rita Hart is doing the work.

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

This is the second time this year the Democrats have won a special election in Iowa. In January, they flipped the Iowa state Senate seat in the GOP area that Trump won by 21 points last November. Remember that? That was fun.

[B]

I do. You know, those polls, Remember the presidential polls, that Iowa was all shooken up and then somehow it didn't happen? I don't know. This is more indicative of those numbers.

[A]

It is.

[B]

You're right. Last story. This is from NBC. You could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. That's how the saying goes. But in Washington, a federal jury just Declined to indict a man throwing a salami sub. That's our sandwich guy. The grand jury did not return an indictment against a former Justice Department employee who was seen on camera throwing a hoagie at the chest of one of the federal officers President Trump had deployed in the nation's capital. This is according to two people familiar with the matter. The Times says the grand jury's rejection of the felony charge was a remarkable failure by the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, and the second time in recent days that a majority of grand jurors refused to vote to indict a person accused of felony assault on a federal agent. The thing is, is this should not have been a felony assault charge. There was no bodily damage, unless you are somehow gluten intolerant and the bread hit your face.

[A]

I'm allergic to mayonnaise.

[B]

It also amounted to a sharp rebuke by a panel of ordinary citizens against the prosecutors assigned to bring charges against people arrested after Trump's deployment of National Guard troops and federal agents to fight crime and patrol the city streets.

[A]

Oh, wonderful.

[B]

I. I looked back again at this video. The guy is in tennis shoes, khaki shorts, a pink polo. I'm not saying he's on my team. He might be family, he might not be family, but, man, he outran them.

[A]

He did.

[B]

And the throw.

[A]

Mm, he just. It was stood out.

[B]

And he did. He looked like he was gonna run away, and he went, no. And then he threw right in his chest.

[A]

Oh, that's so fantastic. I've told you, I said it. They're not gonna be able to get an indictment. I'm sure they're gonna keep trying. They have 14 days left out of their 30 days. And, you know, with Sidney Reed, the other woman, they went to three federal grand juries and got three federal grand juries to say, no, we're not going to indict her for felony assault of a federal officer with bodily harm.

[B]

No.

[A]

Three different grand juries.

[B]

I know.

[A]

So now they've had to. They've been forced to reduce that to a misdemeanor, and I'm sure they will be forced to do the same here. So good job, sandwich guy. We're with you. All right, everybody, it's time for some Good Trouble. What are you guys doing? All right, everybody, your Good Trouble mission today, should you choose to accept it, is to sign the statement in solidarity in support of the FEMA Katrina declaration. That's the letter that got two people put on administrative leave. We have a link to that letter that you can sign on to with the Stand up for Science in the show notes. So that is your good trouble today. Now everybody stick around. We're going to be right back with Naveed Shah. He's from Common Defense. We're going to talk about the deployment to D.C. and Los Angeles and how the, you know, folks in the National Guard and the active duty service members and veterans and their families feel about this. And it's not positive. And then after that, we'll have the good news. Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back. You know what doesn't belong in your epic summer plans? A sky high wireless bill. While you're enjoying barbecues, beach days and long weekends, your phone bill should be the last thing holding you back. And I want to thank Mint Mobile for supporting this episode. Get the new customer offer and your three month unlimited wireless plan for just $15 a month at mintmobile.com dailybeans Mint Mobile is the best way to stay connected this season. And for a limited time, mint is offering three months of unlimited premium wireless service for just $15 a month. That includes high speed data plus unlimited talk and text on the nation's largest 5G network. There's no hidden fees or contracts. You can even use your current phone and keep your number and contacts the same. It's flexible, it's simple, and it's refreshingly affordable. One of our producers gave it a try because he was tired of giving his phone number out on websites and then getting spam calls. He had an old unlocked Android phone sitting in a drawer. So he signed up and his new SIM card arrived just a couple days later. And he said setup was effortless and easy. And for the first time, he now has a second phone number. So that's awesome. He's using it more safely to sign up for right wing apps, right? He's even planning to run a little experiment on his mom to see if she'll give personal info to a fake number. All for just $15 a month. So say goodbye to overpriced plans and hello to a wireless service that actually makes sense. So if you're ready to stop sweating over overages and surprise charges every month, Mint Mobile is exactly what you're looking for. So this year, skip breaking a sweat and breaking the bank. Get this new customer offer and your three month unlimited wireless plan for just $15 a month at mintmobile.com dailybeans that's mint mobile.com dailybeans Upfront payment of $45 required equivalent to $15 a month, limited time. New customer offer for three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. Hey, everybody. Welcome back. So you may have seen some video going around on social media of our national guard troops in D.C. they're standing around or some, in some cases, picking up trash. And this really kind of hit me hard because I know a lot of the folks in the National Guard didn't really sign up for that. And then we've got other groups from other states of national guard sent into D.C. as a show of force. We have what happened in Los Angeles. And it's all, I think, in service of trying to either incite issues and problems in order to create a pretext for maybe grabbing more emergency power, you know, and, or just autocratic creep in general. But joining me today is the political director of Common Defense, which is a really incredible organization, largest grassroots membership organization of progressive veterans that stand up for communities against the rising tide of racism and hate and violence. He was also in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He did a 12 month tour in Iraq. He's a U.S. army veteran. Please welcome Naveed Shah. Hi, Naveed. How are you?

[C]

I'm doing well, Allison. Thanks for having me.

[A]

It's really great to meet you. I know we've done a lot of work together in the past with myself and Common Defense, so it's really great to put a face to the name. So thanks for joining us today.

[C]

Yeah, I'm really excited to be here, so.

[A]

I am too. I'm really excited you're here, but I'm not excited about why. I wish we had better stuff to talk about. I wish we had better news to talk about. And I would just like to get sort of your top line thoughts on the ongoing weaponization of the military against US Citizens and against Americans for political ends. I mean, I feel like our Guardsmen and the Marines in Los Angeles, for example, are being used as political pawns. What are your thoughts?

[C]

Yeah, 100% right. It doesn't seem like it is a fact that what Trump is doing is using the military as a political pawn. Veterans know that we took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution in the military's purpose is not to occupy our own cities, our own capital, and police our own people. That's not what the military is trained to do. What Trump is doing is, you know, citing this fake crime emergency. It's a manufactured crisis to activate the police, the National Guard, and what he's really trying to do is seize power and intimidate any sort of dissent that he would have in the country. Dictators throughout history have done this. They've used public safety as a cover for military crackdowns of dissent.

[A]

Yeah, there's a long history of it and a very well written history of it. I know we're trying to ignore history here in the United States on several fronts, but I've also heard a lot of members, active duty service members, veterans, members of the Guard, members of the Reserves, reservists, speaking out against this. I had heard from someone in D.C. right now, one of the top enlisted over a group of National Guardsmen saying that they don't want to be there, that this is not the mission that they signed up for. And so far, the orders, like picking up trash, which I think are Donald Trump debasing our troops. If I'm being wholly honest here, he doesn't like the military, he doesn't like members of the military, but they seem to be against this and say this is not our mission. And, you know, we have families, we have jobs a lot. You know, I don't, I don't know if people are familiar with how the National Guard works, but it's a kind of a part time weekend gig and you have another full time job. And now they're away from their families, they're away from their jobs, possibly not putting food on the table for their families back at home because this isn't an emergency. And so have you heard from any of your friends who are still active duty about their dislike or distrust of what the administration is doing or about these orders that they've been given?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

You know, Common Defense has members all over the country who, many of them are veterans, many of them are military family members. You know, some are in the Guard or Reserve or are even on active duty. And what we've seen and heard is that the Guard is used for emergency response. Right. Disaster response. They join to serve their country and their communities. The Guard going in after a hurricane and helping with cleanup is vastly different than hanging out in D.C. with nothing to do but pick up trash and, you know, stand around and pick their nose. Like that's, that's what the Guard is doing right now. And this is way outside the scope of their mission. This is not why they should be away from their families, away from their jobs right now. And it's really hurting morale amongst the troops. It's creating a situation where, you know, Trump is, again, we know for a fact that he hates the troops, but he loves the Military. He loves using the military as a prop to rape himself in the flag. Meanwhile, he's stripping away freedoms. And really all the Guard is doing right now is serving the vanity of this wannabe dictator. You know, he calls the troops suckers and losers, but then wants to pose for photos with them, even though he dodged the draft himself. It's just the ultimate disrespect. And it's just over and over again he continues to do this. It's really disgusting.

[A]

Yeah, I agree. And let's talk about potential impacts on national security. As you said, morale is really low. And that's what polling has shown among active duty service members and veterans alike and the families of active duty service members. But also this is going to, I think, really negatively impact recruitment for people to join the National Guard and be deployed to help in disaster situations where, because FEMA is gutted now, we need those people, we need the people in the National Guard to respond to the fires in California, the floods in Texas, the hurricanes in South Carolina that are, that are going to be coming. So with that low morale and probably negative impact on recruitment, what does that do to our national security?

[C]

It's really worrisome. What the military has already been doing earlier this year said we've already met our recruiting goals for 2025 because they're counting every recruit who has potentially signed up to enlist next year after they graduate high school or whatever, which we've never done. They've never made included them in the count, you know, for this, for the previous year before. They're doing that because they're trying to boast of these numbers that are falling. Why would someone, you know, a young high schooler, want to join the military if they know they're going to get deployed to go patrol a different American city, something that they don't want to do, they've never been trained to do. They don't have the skill set for that. And it just goes against everything that our military really stands for. And not only that, it creates a situation, like you said, where our military is now distracted by these domestic deployments. Would they be ready if something were to happen and they need to go overseas? Over the past 20, 25 years of the global war on terror, we relied on the National Guard and the Reserve a lot more than we expected to, many of them doing multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere during that time. And if they. That's what we expect of them, you know, having them patrol D.C. or Chicago, if that's next, or who knows where else is just not the right way to utilize our military. And it's just downright wrong. You know, aside from all of that too.

[A]

Yeah. Now let me ask you, did you just say that the Pentagon padded their recruitment numbers for 2025 by adding people that signed up to join in 2026? Did I hear you correctly?

[C]

Yeah. And I could be misremembering the exact numbers. It might have been even 2024, 2025, but I'll have to go back and look. But yeah, that's what they were doing.

[A]

Oh my goodness. I know they like to pad their numbers, but. Because I remember they were saying recruitment's going to be amazing now that I'm in charge and we have a war fighter ethos and, and you know, you got RFK Jr. And Pete Keg stand doing push up competitions and pull up competitions. And I'm like, that's not gonna, I don't think that's gonna help recruitment. But certainly seeing videos of National Guardsmen and women picking up trash on the side of the road in D.C. is definitely not going to. And then when you think about, like you said, the constitutional obligation, the oath to the Constitution that is taken if you're gonna deploy against US citizens. For example, the guy in LA who was detained on his way to the Department of Veterans affairs, who also happened to be a man of color to pick up some paperwork, was detained. That can't be good for recruitment and morale. So it's not a surprise that they have to pad their numbers by adding people who've signed up to join in future years. And so, I mean, this is just bizarre. And I'm kind of waiting for when, when they are given an unlawful order. Picking up trash is awful and debasing and stupid and a waste of resources, but it's not an unlawful order. So I'm waiting for that unlawful order, which then will have to be litigated all the way up to the Supreme Court to determine whether or not it's an unlawful order. And what happens at that point when we have that confrontation of turning our military against our US citizens, which is obvious autocratic behavior, and a court order saying that that's an unlawful order. What are you hearing from the troops and your colleagues about the idea of unlawful orders versus lawful orders? Because someone I talked to who is in D.C. right now picking up trash is saying, well, so far I haven't been given an unlawful order, but if I am, I will not follow it.

[C]

Yeah, it's really tough. I mean, it puts the troops in a really precarious situation because we know that Trump will pardon himself and his cronies, but there's probably not gonna be pardons coming down for regular Joes, and they're the ones who are. Who are right now being given weapons to, as they do patrols in American cities. This. It's the scariest situation you could imagine. I mean, this. When I walked out of Union Station the other day and I saw two MRAPs parked out front, I was, like, taken all the way back to Iraq, you know, which is over 10 years ago, seeing those vehicles. We don't have the military like this in America. That's not what we do here. And it just plays to Trump's. You know, he's making a. A play, really. You know, he's acting like a strong man because that's what he wants to be, but he's just grabbing himself in the flag and the troops and trying to make it seem like he is running things. But in reality, all he's doing is creating a situation that is really dangerous for the people of D.C. and other cities, that these troops are going to be deployed and. And for the troops themselves.

[A]

Yeah. And would you categorize this as an occupying force, or how is that different?

[C]

It definitely feels like an occupying force. I mean, walking out of the Union station and seeing MRAPs and troops, armed troops there, it definitely feels like an occupying force. And D.C. businesses would tell you that restaurant attendance is down. People aren't out in the parks, in the streets like they would be at this time of year when the weather is beautiful. It's just the city is quiet and people are worried, and rightfully so.

[A]

Yeah. So now what can veterans do? What can people. What can civilians do? What. What are our responsibilities in this scenario that we're seeing unfold?

[C]

So Common Defense has been organizing our veterans, our military family members, and our civilian supporters across the country to speak up loudly about what they're seeing and what they're hearing and why they are not in favor of what Trump is doing. We know that even veterans, even Republican veterans, are against what he's doing by a pretty wide margin. They didn't believe in the military parade that he did back in June for himself on his birthday, and they don't believe in what he's doing right now. I think it's really important that people get together. If you want to go to commondefense us and join us, you can also get together with your own community members. We have strength in numbers, too, and it's really important for us to get Together peacefully. Call your elected officials, call your representatives, especially, especially for those of you who are in red states or red cities to reach out and make it known that you are not in favor of what he's doing. Because that's one of the only levers we still have and we have to exercise our strength that way right now.

[A]

Awesome. Commondefense us. And if there's any active duty service members or guardsmen or women listening right now and you want to tell your story or have your voice heard, but remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, you can always reach out to me. I have my signal and my proton mail in my bio. Don't use your government phone and don't use your government computer, but I will always keep you anonymous. And I always make sure that I have the person who's talking to me read what I'm going to put out and post before I do it so that they can make sure that there's nothing in there that might identify them. I'm always happy to do that and be a sounding board for people. And that's what Common Defense does too. So make sure to check out commondefense us because there's so much I think that we can do here and have everybody's voices heard and push back against this, what I think seems to me like an occupation.

[C]

Yeah, it really is, Alison, and I'm really glad that you mentioned that too, that, you know, having folks who speak out is. We know it can be really challenging, it can be scary. But there is help available and you should reach out if, you know, you feel compelled to.

[A]

Cool. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for your service not just in the military, not just in Operation Iraqi Freedom, but also thank you for your service with Common Defense and your continued service to our active duty service members, veterans and their families. I really appreciate it.

[C]

Great talking to you, Allison. Thank you.

[A]

Thanks. Navid Shah, everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back with the good news. Hey everybody. Time to tell you about my favorite subscription service. Have you ever walked into the store, you stare at a wall of wine and you walk out more confused when you walked in. That was me. But now when I host friends, I keep it simple with Naked Wines. Naked Wines is a service that directly connects you to the world's finest independent winemaker so you can get award winning wine delivered straight to your door. Please join us in thanking Naked Wines for supporting our show by going to nakedwines.com dailybeans and use our code. Dailybeans for the code and the Password and you'll get their incredible deal of six bottles for just 39 dol. One of the last bottles I served was Arabella Reserve Chardonnay 2022. Wonderful taste. Citrus richness from oak was a good oaky one. My guests loved it. It paired perfectly with the appetizers. And honestly, the compliments kept flowing as much as the wine did. So Naked Wines makes this easy. Instead of wandering the aisles and not knowing what to pick, I get incredible bottles delivered straight to my door. The variety is impressive. It's like it's catered just to my tastes. The quality never disappoints. Guests always ask where I found the wine. I love telling them it came directly from independent winemakers supported by Naked wines. For over 15 years, Naked Wines has made premium wine accessible at prices that make sense up to 60% off retail because they cut out the middleman. Plus, I can rate the bottles afterwards, so every shipment, again, is tailored to my crowd. Right. It's, it's. It's awesome. It's an incredible service, and there's no commitments or anything. You can pause at any time. So now hosting parties is more fun with Naked Wines. So now's the time to join the Naked Wines community. Head to nakedwines.com dailybeans click enter voucher and put in my code. Dailybeans all one word for the code and the password. And for six bottles of wine for just $39.99 with shipping included, that's $100 off your first six bottles at nakedwines.com Daily beans and use code and password. Daily beans for six bottles of wine for $39.99. You'll be glad you did. Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news?

[C]

Everyone.

[A]

Then, good news, good news. And if you have any good news, any little bit of good news, anything that's good that's happened to you in the last since you've been on the earth, send it to us, please. It can be a shout out. Maybe if. If you can't think of anything amazing that happened to you, maybe you can shout out somebody else who's amazing. A spouse, maybe a small business in your area that could use a boost, or maybe a nonprofit organization you work for or that you know of you want to shine a light on. We would love to hear about that. We would love to hear if you get my pop culture references. Sometimes they're pretty straightforward and sometimes they're really obscure. We would love to hear if you have a shout out to a government program that's helped you or a loved one. And it can be anything from a federal program like the Affordable Care act and WIC and SNAP to maybe something local, maybe some section 8 or something like that. We would love to hear about that as well. And all you got to do to get your news read on the air is pay your POD pet tariff, which means attach a. Really attach a photo of anything. Let's be honest, it can be your pet and we can try to guess the breeds in your shelter pup. If not that, you can send an adoptable pet in your area. Otherwise, just grab a random photo off of an animal off the Internet. We love them. And you can also use family photos. Maybe have awkward family photos or baby pictures or. Or maybe a photo of your happy place or a sunset. Or you went to a great rally recently and saw some great signs. We would love to see that. Maybe a photo of you and your friends in your neighborhood writing postcards in and off your election. Anything like that. Send it to [e-mail] and click on Contact. We can use all the hope we can get. All right, first up from Mike from Jersey pronouns he and him. Hi, Ag and dg. I feel like I should do this in a Jersey accent, but I. I'm not sure that Mike actually has one. I love me some daily beans every day. I heard AG's explanation of the origin of the secretary bird's name and appreciated it is a good example of a story being more interesting and memorable than the truth.

[B]

Thanks.

[A]

That's a kind way of saying AG was full of shit. But that was a cute story. That was a cute story, but you're wrong. According to Wikipedia, the name comes from an 18th century Dutch naturalist who suggested that the species was called Sagittarius by the Dutch settlers because its gait was thought to resemble an archer. Do archers walk differently?

[B]

Maybe we're getting towards the answer. Don't know.

[A]

Okay. He also mentioned that it was known as the Secretarius by settlers who had domesticated the bird to combat pests around their homesteads. That's cool. And proposed the word secretarius might be a corruption of Sagittarius. The genus and family of the secretary bird are both derived from the word Sagittarius, so there's that too. But the ladies with the feathers and their hair are easy to remember. You guys are the best I've been listening to since Ag was an anonymous government employee. Here's a oh, those were the days. Here's a picture of my family dog Indy. Oh. Who passed away a few years ago. We named their dog Indy Indiana. Okay, he's doing his best impersonation of a Chessy kitten. One of my favorite old timey corporate logos.

[B]

Oh, this is a drawing. Ag. I'm not sure if you realize that that is a drawing of a kitten in bed.

[A]

Yes, that's the Chessy kitten.

[B]

It is so cute.

[A]

It is. And that is the Indiana looks like doing the impersonation of the Chessy Terrier. Totally a terrier. Let's see. Yep. Certified 100% Border Terrier.

[B]

There you go.

[A]

Adorable.

[B]

All right, this is from Oompa Loompa. Doomed thanks to whichever God you chose to believe and the people of Iowa that their special election flipped a seat. As a resident of the state my entire life, it's at least one step towards not being as fascist a hellscape as it was before me and my vicious guard dog terrier, Copper J. Fox will not have to sell and move. Thank you both for all you do for pet tags. Here is Copper pouting about being stuck wearing his cone of shame. I told him not to chew on his tail, but why would he listen to Daddy, right?

[A]

Aw, look it. Who's the other one there?

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

Adorable.

[B]

Soup's cute.

[A]

Thanks, Oompa Loompa. Doomed. Next up, Anonymous. No pronouns. Dear Allison, I found Daily Beans about two years ago and your podcast is the first in my ear holes each day. Thank you for being smart, funny and informative. Aw, shucks. Given recent reporting by the Post and others that the DOJ wants hospitals to turn over sensitive information related to medical care for young transgender patients, including billing documents, communication with drug manufacturers, patient dates of birth, Social Security numbers and addresses. I snail mailed a letter to my federal representatives about this, hoping protection of all patients, especially trans kids, is not lost because this current administration is hell bent on retaliation against any and all who oppose it. My letter was signed only concerned constituent. Your podcast is good at calling attention to the anti trans threats and the awful choices faced by parents of trans kids. Our healthcare system is in chaos. There has been reporting of parents choosing to leave the United States to seek safety elsewhere in the world. Anyways, thanks for the consideration. Pick is Grand Dog last Halloween. Bat Dog. Anonymous thank you for sending those letters. And look at this beautiful pup.

[B]

So cute.

[A]

He looks like he's very suspicious of me though. Oh yeah, but he's adorable. Thanks for that.

[B]

Anonymous if I had the pronunciation wrong on this next one, jump in. This is from catpatmac. Catpat Mac no pronouns I would go with okay, perfect. This past weekend was my 65th birthday. Happy 65 Cat Pat Mac and to celebrate, my partner Dave planned a weekend with our adult children and his four grandsons at the Grand Hotel at Mackinac island in Michigan. His family went there every summer while growing up and it was a real treat to include my brood who did not grow up going to the island every summer. I did my best to take in all the good and put my anxiety about our government away for the weekend. It did me so much good and I had all the fun. I'm including a picture of the hotel I took early one morning from our balcony overlooking the hotel grounds. I am fortunate indeed and I am incredibly grateful. Thank you for all you do to resist and educate us every day. I appreciate you very much.

[A]

Aw, look at beautiful photos. Yeah, is that like an actual horse drawn carriage? It sure looks like it with amazing on the water and giant blue sky with clouds. Yeah it is.

[B]

Beautiful pictures.

[A]

So wonderful. I'm so glad you got some time off there and got to refuel. All right, next up from Linda. Pronouns she and her good morning has been and have been are in the present perfect tense. We use present perfect to talk about actions that start in the past and continue into the present. Therefore, this has been been. Hahaha. This has been is perfectly okay. I volunteer with immigrants who are learning English and let me tell you, they know more about English grammar than many, if not most monolingual English speakers.

[B]

I bet.

[A]

Totally believe that. Love your show. Submitting a picture of my mom. She was a wasp. Oh my God. Women's Air Force Service pilot and a bunch of other non traditional things. She was also a Republican who left the dark side when Baby Bush was president and became a staunch and enthusiastic Obama supporter.

[B]

Love it.

[A]

This is how she felt about the dark side as she learned more about the manipulators. Look, this is great. Ah Linda. Thank her for her service.

[B]

Yes please.

[A]

Wonderful. Thank you so much for that.

[B]

All right, this is from Lynette Pronoun. She and her Ladies of the Legume. First of all, thank you for all you do. I know I couldn't stay informed without your gloriously profane takes on the fuckery we live in. I started listening a year and a half ago after my amazing friend and US Vet Chris recommended you. I don't know how I survived without the beans. So shout out to Chris and both of you. Thank you. My good news is a super fun coincidence that brought me great. I could not believe the Timing of today's beans episode Too Slow Chicken Moringo. Now, I had never even heard of the British comedy show Red Dwarf until last week when my spouse found it on a streaming service and completely geeked out. He's been watching the show while I work from home and I've been popping in and seeing bits and pieces. It looks funny as hell. Last night I saw young Craig Ferguson as the photo tease for the next episode, Series one, Episode five. So I had to immediately watch it as my first full episode. The show features Cat, who is the walking, talking ancestor of the main character's Cat, who evolved while the main character was in deep freeze for 3,000 years because, well, of course he did. Cat seemed to be the space cat embodied of Morris Day again, because of course he is. From what I have gathered, Cat is obsessed with food, and in this episode he gets a snack, Chicken Moringo, and proceeds to play with it at the table. When the chicken flies off the plate and Cat catches it, he says, too slow, Chicken Morengo. Amazing timing, Ag. I have to keep watching. It's ridiculous and hilarious. So thanks, Ag. I feel like this coincidence set me up for a magical day. Thank you for my pod pet tags. Please find a couple bird watching photos. The first is my spouse and me saluting Chicago's Trump Tower during a recent downtown Chicago visit. The second, a dance recital photo of me from many years ago. I don't remember this, but my mother tells me that the photographer kept trying to get me to smile and I simply refused. Finally I said to him with all the condescension a 6 year old ish person could muster, birds don't smile. Like duh, dude. Thanks for all you do.

[A]

Great bird watching and I love birds don't smile.

[B]

Oh my God, this picture. That is such a great response.

[A]

Oh, wonderful. And yeah, I'm gonna eat you, little chicky. Too Slow Chicken Morango. You got it, Lynette. You're by the way, the only one to get the reference beside, besides my friends who I told outside of the show who don't listen to this podcast.

[B]

Well done.

[A]

Yes. Red Dwarf. If you haven't seen it, it is a fantastic show. And I don't think I had a. I don't think I made a pop culture reference this show. So I don't think there's an Easter egg today. No, but I'm sure there will be tomorrow. But thank you for that. And that is quite a coincidence that you just so happen to see the Chicken Moringo episode. Wonderful, Annette, thank you so much. And your spouse. High five for getting into Red Dwarf. You're gonna love it. All right, everybody, that is the news for today. Do you have any final thoughts, my friend?

[B]

I do not. I'm. I'm in flight tomorrow. AG is gonna either run solo or, you know, she always finds someone wonderful. But I'll be back in your ears on Friday morning.

[A]

All right, that's great.

[B]

Actually, no, I'll be back in your ears Monday.

[A]

Time travel is hard.

[B]

Yeah, math is hard. All right, everyone, have a great weekend on my end, and I'll talk to you Monday.

[A]

Yep. And I'll be back in your ears tomorrow. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, and take care of your family. I've been A.G. i'm a DG and I'm Zabin. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they Might Be Giants, and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information, please visit mswmedia.com msw media.