Raccoon With A Blowtorch (feat. John Fugelsang)

Summary

The Daily Beans – Episode Summary: "Raccoon With A Blowtorch (feat. John Fugelsang)"

Release Date: April 11, 2025
Host/Author: MSW Media
Guests: John Fugelsang

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1. Supreme Court Ruling on Abrego Garcia

Timestamp: [00:00]

The episode opens with major headlines, including the Supreme Court’s decision mandating the U.S. government to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia from El Salvador. Garcia, a Maryland father, was mistakenly detained in a torture-prone prison environment. The ruling now obligates the government to ensure his safe return, raising questions about the practical implementation of this directive.

Alison Gill:
"The Supreme Court has ruled that the courts can order the government to facilitate the return of people in Sicote, and we'll see how that impacts the nearly 200 Venezuelans sent there under Trump's Alien Enemies act proclamation." [02:08]

2. House Passes Trump Budget

Timestamp: [10:32]

The House narrowly approved a Republican budget plan championed by President Trump, focusing on significant tax cuts for the wealthy while slashing funding for Medicaid and SNAP programs. This move underscores the administration's priorities, despite fierce opposition and internal Republican dissent.

Dana Goldberg:
"It allows them to move forward with crafting major legislation to enact a huge tax cut financed with deep reductions in spending on federal programs." [10:32]

3. Trump Administration’s Migrant Policy

Timestamp: [22:34]

A controversial policy from the Trump administration involves canceling Social Security numbers for migrants, effectively placing them on the Social Security death list. This tactic aims to cut off migrants from essential financial services, including credit cards and bank accounts.

Alison Gill:
"The goal is to cut these people off from using crucial financial services like bank accounts, credit cards, along with their access to any government benefits." [22:15]

4. DOJ Seeks Release of Alexander Smirnoff

Timestamp: [04:14]

The Department of Justice is petitioning for the early release of Alexander Smirnoff, who pled guilty to making false statements to the FBI. Initially sentenced to six years in prison, the DOJ now wants to reduce his sentence during his appeal process.

Alison Gill:
"Federal prosecutors... want Smirnoff... released from his six-year prison sentence while he appeals his case." [04:53]

5. Immigrant Registration Requirement

Timestamp: [17:47]

A federal judge has upheld the Trump administration's requirement that all undocumented immigrants must register with the federal government. This sweeping policy could have extensive implications, potentially criminalizing undocumented residents merely for their immigration status.

Dana Goldberg:
"It's a full-on attack on constitutional rights, civil rights." [19:35]

6. US Aid Team in Myanmar Earthquake

Timestamp: [14:25]

A three-person USAID team dispatched to respond to a devastating earthquake in Myanmar faces termination notices after just one night in the country. Despite the looming end of their assignments, these aid workers continue to provide essential life-saving services amidst uncertain job security.

Dana Goldberg:
"It's a disgrace that these people are being treated the way they are." [15:46]

7. Social Security Administration Reverses Phone Service Cuts

Timestamp: [24:33]

After significant backlash, the Social Security Administration has reversed its plan to eliminate phone support for retirees and beneficiaries. Originally aimed at reducing identity fraud, the decision to maintain phone services addresses the concerns of millions who rely on telephone access for essential services.

Alison Gill:
"Pushback works. These things matter. And now they are walking that back, and hopefully we'll Keep the phone lines open." [25:18]

8. Stock Market Volatility Related to Tariffs

Timestamp: [05:56]

The episode delves into recent stock market fluctuations triggered by President Trump’s inconsistent tariff policies. Following a temporary pause on tariffs, markets experienced significant volatility, reflecting investor uncertainty about future economic strategies.

Alison Gill:
"As Donald Trump paused, many of his tariffs started to dissipate. We'll get into that in the Hot notes." [02:20]

Dana Goldberg:
"If you do the numbers, I'm so tired of the other side being it dropped 25% and then it went up 25%." [07:39]

9. Guest Segment: John Fugelsang on Tariffs and Trump’s Policies

Timestamp: [27:19] – [40:01]

John Fugelsang joins the podcast to critique President Trump’s handling of tariffs and economic policies. He likens Trump’s strategies to reckless actions, describing them as “arson” rather than thoughtful economic management. Fugelsang emphasizes the detrimental impact on everyday Americans, particularly those relying on retirement funds and entitlements.

John Fugelsang:
"This is arson. This is Manchild lights the match and blames the wind." [31:12]

Alison Gill:
"It's like you don't get credit for pausing a crisis you started." [36:28]

The discussion also touches on the internal conflicts within the Republican Party and the broader implications for American democracy and economic stability.

10. Good News Section

Timestamp: [40:01] – [54:04]

The episode transitions to the uplifting "Good News" segment, featuring listener submissions celebrating community activism, personal achievements, and positive political changes. Highlights include:

• Lisa Pronoun:
  "Thousands showed up... it was so heartwarming to see the masses united for justice." [43:09]

• Jim Pronouns:
  "Our Indivisible organization in Ithaca worked on 'Hands off ABCs' signs, covering causes from Abortion rights to Zero emissions." [45:05]

• Jenny (She/Her):
  "Local city council elections in rural Missouri resulted in the ousting of three oppressive officials, renewing hope in a heavy MAGA region." [49:54]

• Tom:
  "Reading 'Undocumented Americans' by Carla Cornejo Villavicencio moved me to tears, highlighting the inhumane treatment of undocumented immigrants." [51:06]

These stories underscore the resilience and activism within communities fighting for social justice and equitable policies.

Call to Action

Timestamp: [26:18] – [55:23]

The hosts encourage listeners to support MSW Media’s lawsuit against the Department of Justice by sending polite emails requesting enhanced FOIA request processes. Additionally, listeners are invited to become patrons on Patreon to help sustain the podcast amidst declining advertising revenues caused by tariff impacts.

Alison Gill:
"If you can, please do patreon.com/muellershirote... It would really help us out." [55:22]

Dana Goldberg:
"Check out my show in Los Angeles and support community-driven comedy events." [55:27]

Concluding Remarks

Timestamp: [55:27] – [56:12]

The episode wraps up with heartfelt thanks to contributors and listeners, emphasizing the importance of community support and activism. The hosts remind listeners to take care of themselves, each other, and the planet, reaffirming their commitment to progressive values and social justice.

Alison Gill:
"Take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health." [56:08]

---

Notable Quotes:

• Alison Gill:
  "Pushback works. These things matter." [25:18]

• Dana Goldberg:
  "It's a disgrace that these people are being treated the way they are." [15:50]

• John Fugelsang:
  "This is arson. This is Manchild lights the match and blames the wind." [31:12]

---

This episode of The Daily Beans offers a comprehensive overview of pressing political and social issues, blending hard-hitting news analysis with moments of levity and community engagement. Featuring insightful discussions with guest John Fugelsang, the hosts provide listeners with a balanced perspective on current events, encouraging proactive activism and support for progressive causes.

Transcript

[Alison Gill]

MSW Media. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Friday, April 11, 2025. Today, the Supreme Court has ruled that the government must facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia from El Salvador to the United States. The House has passed the massive Trump budget that cuts taxes for the wealthy and cuts Medicaid and SNAP for the rest of us. The Trump administration will be placing migrants on the Social Security death list to cut off their access to credit cards, bank accounts and other financial services by canceling their Social Security numbers. Trump's Department of Justice wants to let Alexander Smirnoff out of prison. A judge has ruled that the Trump administration can require immigrants to register with the federal government. Pressed for evidence against Mahmoud Khalil, the government cites its power to deport people for ideas. The three person US Aid team responding to the earthquake in Myanmar was fired after their first night in country. The Social Security Administration is walking back its plan to cut phone services. And the House voted to pass the SAVE act, but it will likely die in the Senate. I'm Alison Gill.

[Dana Goldberg]

And I'm Dana Goldberg.

[Alison Gill]

Hey, Dana. Happy Friday.

[Dana Goldberg]

Happy Friday. We made it through another week. I gotta. I'm turning another. Another year older tomorrow on Saturday the 12th. And this is my last year of my 40s. And so I'm gonna. I'm gonna make it epic. That's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna make it fucking epic.

[Alison Gill]

Fucking epic. Welcome to your 50s. I'm 51. It's fantastic. I love my 50s.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh, no, I'm 49. 40. 49's not the big one. I got one more year, but.

[Alison Gill]

Oh. Oh, you still have another year in your 40s.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yes, this is my last year of my 40s. So let's. I'm gonna make it big.

[Alison Gill]

Yes. That's gonna be. That's gonna be epic. And I. And I can't wait to see photos.

[Dana Goldberg]

Of the whole year. Nothing exciting's happening on my birthday. It's the year after that some shit's gonna go down.

[Alison Gill]

I know. It was my friend's birthday yesterday, and I was like, did you do anything? He's like, I stayed home. And I was like, I also stayed home for your birthday.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah, that's it. I'm gonna have brunch with friends.

[Alison Gill]

Am I lady Good. And we look forward to singing Happy birthday to you Monday also. You know, hopefully we'll have better news to celebrate in the stock market, although I don't think so. They snag again after the markets realized there really wasn't a pause on Tariffs. We'll get into that in the Hot notes. It's also Fugal Sang Fridays. John will be with us, and Steve Vladeck is going to join Andy McCabe and me on the Unjustified podcast this coming Sunday to discuss the Supreme Court Alien Enem Enemies act ruling and the Abrego Garcia case. And speaking of the Abrego Garcia case, breaking news just now on Thursday afternoon, the Supreme Court has said. Has ruled that the courts can order the government to do what is within its power to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia. That's the Maryland father mistakenly sent to a torture prison in El Salvador. And they gotta facilitate bringing them back to the U.S. of course, now the problem becomes how hard will the government try? It's been handed to the lower court to decide what. What it means to facilitate. But, like, they could just call up and say, hey, Bukele, can we have Garcia back? And if he says no, then the government might throw up its hand and say, hey, we did everything we could.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

So the overarching news here, though, is that the courts can ask the government to facilitate the return of people in Sicote, and we'll see how that impacts the nearly 200 Venezuelans sent there under Trump's Alien Enemies act proclamation. I think we were. You know how the ACLU went and filed up for their five defendants in New York and Texas? I think they were waiting to file for what to do with the rest of the protected class in El Salvador until the Abrego Garcia ruling came back. So we'll see pretty soon, I'm sure. And something else weird. Dana, do you remember Alexander Smirnoff?

[Dana Goldberg]

Of course.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah, the lion guy.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

That Trump people paid $600,000 to lie to the FBI about Biden and Burisma and how David Weiss, the guy that Trump appointed to indict Hunter Biden, actually also indicted Alexander Smirnoff. Well, now the DOJ is asking for him to be released from his six year prison sentence. His. His guilty plea. Six year prison sentence?

[Dana Goldberg]

No.

[Alison Gill]

Boy, during the pendency of his appeal, I didn't know you could appeal a guilty plea. Maybe he didn't plead guilty. I'm gonna have to look into that.

[Dana Goldberg]

Okay.

[Alison Gill]

Because that would seem like, as I'm talking it out, that seems really odd to me, like how I could have sworn he pled guilty.

[Dana Goldberg]

Now, listeners, if you're still with us, we're gonna find out in live time as Allison Ghouls. Did Alexander Smirnoff plead guilty, or was he just convicted of A crime. Just stay with us. We got a few more seconds. And Allison, what did you find?

[Alison Gill]

Let's see, let's see. Smirnoff pleaded guilty. I'm just gonna Google it here. I've got a lot of people saying that he did, but I wanna. Yeah, he pled guilty to lying about phony bribery schemes involving the Bidens.

[Dana Goldberg]

Well, also, isn't pleading guilty the only way you can actually get a presidential pardon?

[Alison Gill]

I don't think so.

[Dana Goldberg]

No, it's just conviction. I thought you had to plead guilty to actually get pardoned if you pled, not gu. And still got convicted. But no, because a bunch of these guys pled not guilty and went to jail for January 6th and they got pardoned. So just ignore all of that. People don't write in. I'm clear on it now.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah, so they want him out of prison. Federal prosecutors, this from Tom Winter, say they want Smirnoff, who pled guilty to making false statements to the FBI while acting as a confidential human source, released from his six year prison sentence while he appeals his case. Again, he pled guilty. Anyway, we'll stay on this story for you. It's just, I mean, I, I remember when, like three months ago when he was sentenced to six years and I'm like, let's see if Trump pardons him. They're not, we aren't quite there yet. It's not a pardon. They just want him released from prison. The DOJ is asking, so. All right, we have a lot of news to get to. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up from NPR, U.S. stocks slumped on Thursday, giving up a chunk of the spectacular gains seen in the previous session. As some of the relief. After President Trump paused, many of his tariffs started to dissipate. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up down 2.5% after surging close to 8% on Wednesday. S&P 500 fell more than 3%. Nasdaq lost just over 4% after each index had also soared a day earlier. The declines on Thursday underlie how much uncertainty still remains about what Trump will do about tariffs. And given that he left others in place, including a 10% tariff on pretty much everybody, including penguins. And he also ratcheted up his tariffs on China to 145% so far in this term when including all that he has already imposed. So, eh, everybody was like, like the whole, like we talked about this yesterday, right? Like we're still left with this volatility. It's the volatility. I think I said Yesterday, that's the problem, 100%.

[Dana Goldberg]

And if you do the numbers, I'm so tired of the other side being it dropped 25% and then it went up 25%. Let's do the math, shall we? Let's go to the board. If it drops 25% from, let's say 100 down to 75 and then it goes up 25% from 75. 25% of 75 is not the same of 25% of 100.

[Alison Gill]

No. Liberals are so dumb. 90 plus 10 is 100.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yep. No, because 10% of 90 is 9.

[Alison Gill]

That and it lost like 18% and came back 9.

[Dana Goldberg]

Exactly. And that's, that's what I was saying on Stephanie Miller this morning. You got all these people that's like, look at the upswing. Well, all these people made billions of dollars. You're still down 6%. That money is not there.

[Alison Gill]

No. And look at what he said in the cabinet meeting today at a bunch of rich dudes around him. He's like, that guy right there made $2.5 million yesterday. This fellow over here made $6 million. All our rich friends got rich yesterday. He said that. And he called him.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh, he named him. He named him. He goes, you see that guy right there? Charles Schwab. It's not just a company, it's actually a man. And he made blah, blah, blah. I mean, he named him in the White House.

[Alison Gill]

Oh, yeah.

[Dana Goldberg]

It drives me crazy. So I also, all of these people are like, I bought during the dip. Like, don't tout that. Because a lot of people lost a lot of money and it's their retirement. They don't have money to invest right now. They've got everything in where they're doing in their 401ks. So how about maybe we don't talk about the fact that you actually took advantage of this corruption. Would you, would you mind?

[Alison Gill]

And it wasn't your fucking idea. Donald Trump told you to buy three hours in the dip. That was a good time to buy djt, which is his stock ticker.

[Dana Goldberg]

Like, yeah, I actually saw a little article that was someone, some one person right before he was about to say that, I'm going to put a 90 day hold, invested $100,000 as a bet about whether or not the tariffs would go back up. The guy made or the girl, $24 million off of that. And you can see the line of the stock jump right next to where the stock jumped. You can see this green line from this person who actually put the bet down. It's just gross. It is gross. So I'm glad AOC is saying, you know, hey, we're going to do investigations, so you might want to say what stocks you bought and sold, because we're going to find out.

[Alison Gill]

Yep. And Schiff and somebody else wrote a letter saying, hey, could we look into this? See who. See who bought and sold right before this. That'd be great.

[Dana Goldberg]

Don't be negative and say, yeah, but there's no one to do anything about it. If the general public can see that there's corruption, it is a win. So just let us have that. If they can do it.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. And at least they're not not calling for an investigation. We've been poking at them to do something, and so this is what they can do. It's not much because we don't have a majority, but they are doing something, so we thank them for that. We always have to rework the good behavior.

[Dana Goldberg]

We do, indeed. This one's from the Times. The House on Thursday narrowly narrowly adopted a Republican budget blueprint for slashing taxes and government spending after hardline conservatives concern that it would balloon the nation's debt ended a revolt that had threatened to derail President Trump's domestic agenda. Approval of the plan, which was in doubt until nearly the very end, was a victory for Republican leaders. And Mr. Trump, as they call him.

[Alison Gill]

Donald, as I do, and rich people.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yep. It allows them to move forward with crafting major legislation to enact a huge tax cut financed with deep reductions in spending on federal programs and pushing it through Congress over Democratic opposition. But approval came only after a mutiny on the House floor on Tuesday night that underscored the deep divisions Republicans still have to bridge in order to push through what Donald has called, quote, his big, beautiful bill. It forced Mr. Johnson. I like that. They keep calling them Mr. Trump and Mr. Johnson, like they're not the speaker of the House and the president, which I'm sort of digging.

[Alison Gill]

I hope one day they just get to Donald and Mike. Mike, yeah.

[Dana Goldberg]

That's forced Donald and Mike. Yep. To delay a planned vote on the measure after he spent more than an hour Wednesday night huddled with the holdouts, trying without success, by the way, to persuade them to support it.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah, well, huge, massive tax cuts for the wealthy. The rest of us have to pay a bunch of tariffs.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

And we're going to get everything cut. All of our, you know, entitlements, things that we've spent, you know, bought into, and then other stuff like snap, you know, them kids, Right.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yep.

[Alison Gill]

And Medicaid Just heinous. Just heinous. But, you know, this is the budget reconciliation stuff that we had Bobby Kogan on talking about earlier in the week. So that is what we have to look forward to. Next up from NBC. The House passed a bill Thursday that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. Is the SAVE act right? In an effort to codify one of Trump's executive actions from his second term, lawmakers approved the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility act. In a 220 to 208 vote, four Democrats voted for this bullshit.

[Dana Goldberg]

I am so mad about that bullshit.

[Alison Gill]

By the way, it's let's name and shame. Ready? Ed Case of Hawaii, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jared golden of Maine, and Marie Glusenkamp Perez of Washington State, which is really interesting because her name on her birth certificate is not Glsen Camp Perez.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh. Which means she's going to have a hard time voting if this passes the Senate, even though it's not going to.

[Alison Gill]

Well, we'll see, Right? The legislation sponsored by Chip Roy would amend the National Voter Registration act, so that states would be required to obtain proof of citizenship in person from people who are registering to vote. Now, Schumer has put out a statement saying that the Democrats are all in agreement in the Senate that they will stop this bill from passing, but he didn't specify whether they were going to vote against cloture because you remember the cute little fucking game they played with the continuing resolution. We're against this.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

And they voted no on it. But they allowed a vote to happen, right, by, you know, breaking the filibust, not filibustering it, basically by. By having 10 Democrats vote to. For cloture, which means once you vote for cloture, then you only need a simple majority to pass the bill. That's what the filibuster is. And so he was cute about it. He's like, I voted no on the bill. Come on. I voted no on the bill. It's like, yeah, but you and you got 10 people together to let it go to a simple majority vote after years of wagging your finger at us, telling us not to get rid of the filibuster because we might need it someday. So I swear to God, Chuck, if you allow, if you vote for cloture on this and then vote no on the actual SAVE act and say, we voted against it, I'm fucking. There's going to be problems.

[Dana Goldberg]

This is too dangerous. Just hold your damn line.

[Alison Gill]

Yes.

[Dana Goldberg]

All right. This one's from NBC. The three person team from the U.S. agency of International Development, that is that they were sent to respond to that devastating earthquake in Myanmar. They woke up to a termination notices after spending their first night in the country sleeping outside. This is so fucked up. This is from two sources directly familiar with their situation. That's what they told NBC News. The three staffers that are based in the United States, Thailand and the Philippines, they're still on the ground in the city of Mandalay near the epicenter of that earthquake, working to provide life saving aid despite their looming July 1 end date of their jobs. They arrived in a war ravaged Southeast Asian nation last week, days after rescuers arrived from China, Russia, India and many other places. While USAID staffers who have received determination notices have to option to take the leave, those in the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, they're still working, although they feel exploited and they should and quote, taken advantage of because our work is life saving and we don't do it, people are going to suffer. They literally have gotten their papers that say your job is ending and July 1st and they're out there saving lives still.

[Alison Gill]

Oh, you can take leave, but they're there saving people's lives.

[Dana Goldberg]

It's just so fucked up. It's just, it's a disgrace. That's all I can say. It's a disgrace that these people are being treated the way they are. To the federal workers out there that are every day wondering if their jobs are going to be there or not, we have a lot of listeners that either husbands or wives or partners have worked for the federal government for 20 years and they're still unsure whether they're going to have a job from day to day. I'm so sorry you were living this way.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah, it's got to be so stressful and I hope that you're taking time for yourself and oh, I'm just so, so sorry this is all happening. And that is just despicable. They really need our help in so next up from the Associated Press. Facing a deadline from an immigration judge to turn over evidence for its attempted deportation of Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, the federal government has instead submitted a brief memo signed by Marco Rubio saying the Trump administration's authority to expel noncitizens whose presence in the country damages U.S. foreign policy interests. And the two page memo, which was obtained by the Associated Press, does not allege any criminal conduct by Khalil, a legal permanent U.S. resident and graduate student who served as a spokesperson for campus activists last year during large demonstrations against Israel's treatment of Palestinians and the war in Gaza. Instead, Rubio wrote that Khalil could be expelled for his beliefs. The submission was filed Wednesday after Judge Jamie Comins. We talked about this yesterday. Ordered the government to produce at Put up or shut ups. Show us your evidence against Khalil ahead of the hearing. That is going to happen today, on Friday on whether it can continue detaining him during immigration proceedings. What they turned in is thin. It's paper thin. I'm imagining that Judge Jamie Comins today and we'll talk about this on Monday, but I'm imagining today on Friday that the judge will, she, you know, remember when she said, I'm going to drop this case?

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

If you don't have evidence. I think that might be the eventuality. This is so. Oh, well, he's got bad ideas.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah. You're allowed to disagree with the government, by the way. It's a First Amendment right. You're allowed to do that. All right, we're just going to move on to the next story. This one's from the Associated Press. A federal judge is allowing the Trump administration to move forward with a requirement that everyone in the US Illegally must register with the federal government in a move that could have far reaching repercussions for immigrants across the country. In a ruling Thursday, judge Trevor Neil McFadden sided with the administration, which had argued that they were simply enforcing an already existing requirement for everyone in the country who wasn't an American citizen to register with the government. The requirement that goes into effect on Friday. The Department of Homeland Security announced Feb. 25 that it was mandating that all people in the United States illegally register with the federal government and said those who didn't self report could face fines or prosecution also. How do you find them, by the way?

[Alison Gill]

Yeah, yeah. Using the irs, Social Security. Okay. So there Judge Trevor, who. Okay, yesterday, he let the Associated Press back in the White House pool.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

Judge Trevor says, oh, there's already an existing requirement for everyone in the country who isn't an American citizen. I thought what, what they were saying is, oh, this is an old law. It just, you know, maybe Joe Biden didn't enforce it. No, the existing requirement was a fucking executive order on February 25th.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh, yep.

[Alison Gill]

Wow.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah. By. And, and by the way, failure to register is going to be considered a crime.

[Alison Gill]

How? It's not a law.

[Dana Goldberg]

I know people who will be required to carry registration papers. You have to carry your papers. Does that sound familiar to anyone? They're requ. Carry registration documents with them or risk prison time and Fines or. And I'm going to tell you the profiling on this, anyone that has a darker pigment than white in this country, it is not going to be good. Especially when they're trying to find reasons to legally deport U. S. Citizens like this is such.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. Imagine being at a protest, being a citizen or having a green card and being brown and being asked for your papers and you don't have any because, you know you were born here and then being just, well, we can take you, we can take you.

[Dana Goldberg]

It's a disgrace.

[Alison Gill]

It's frightening. Oh, we don't like your ideas. Yeah, no ideas. Bad ideas. That's against the law. And this break, violating an executive. Anyway, you know what, preaching to the choir. This is just disgusting. Full on attack on constitutional rights, civil rights. And so now you have to register with the federal government. Not if you have a firearm. Nope, Just if, you know, you're a student. All right, from the times. Since taking office, the Trump administration has moved aggressively to revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were allowed in the country under Joe biden. Now the administration is taking drastic steps to pressure some of those immigrants and others who had legal status to self deport by effectively canceling their Social Security numbers that they had lawfully obtained. Lawfully obtained? That's according to documents reviewed by the times and interviews with six people familiar. The goal is to cut these people off from using crucial financial services like bank accounts, credit cards, along with their access to any government benefits. The effort hinges on a surprising new tactic, repurposing Social Security's death master file, which for years has been used to track dead people who should no longer receive benefits to include the names of living people who the government believes should be treated as if they are dead As a result of being added to the death database, they would be blacklisted from a coveted form of identity that allows them to make and spend money their financial lives. This, by the way, this is a quote from Social Security administration's acting commissioner Leland dudic who was like a fucking, I don't know, sock salesman at the gift shop in, in Social Security administration.

[Dana Goldberg]

I don't think there's anything wrong with sock salesman's at the gift shop.

[Alison Gill]

No, but you don't become the fucking head of the Social Security administration from that low kind of low level position. You know, like, like keg stand. Yeah, big keg stand. Right. We like stars on your shoulder if you're going to be in charge of the pentagon. Yeah, it's just a thing Anyway, not.

[Dana Goldberg]

Just a tattoo, Pete.

[Alison Gill]

Oh, right. That's a big giant. Yeah, White power tattoo on his chest. Anyway, Dudek says their financial lives would be terminated. That's the language that he used.

[Dana Goldberg]

It's just. Okay. I want people to know that Good trouble matters. Pushback works everyone. With less than a week to go before a deadline that the Social Security Administration set to end phone support for certain customer service needs, the agency braked and hit reverse. Not just stopped it, they walked back. The controversial plan to crack down on customer service for anyone applying for new benefits or checking benefits was set to start on April 14th. Ending phone service support for retirees and survivors applying for benefits or for beneficiaries making direct deposit changes, which causes a huge problem for people that aren't just able to get to an office now. The clampdown on telephone access was ostensibly aimed at curbing identity fraud. In which scammers call. I know. In which scammers call the agency impersonating a beneficiary and have benefits redirected to their own bank account. The new rule required anyone applying for new benefits or checking benefits to first verify their identity online or make an appointment at one of the agency's field offices. The changes, those set off alarm bells among seniors, disabled people, advocates, and some lawmakers for creating roadblocks, especially to those in rural areas without reliable Internet service or lack of computer skills. Yep. An internal Social Security memo says eliminating phone service would require 75,000 to 85,000 more people per week to visit an office. Over 4 million people annually. The CBPP estimates that some 6 million seniors live at least 45 miles from the nearest Social Security office.

[Alison Gill]

And that would also mean, by the.

[Dana Goldberg]

Way, that there is stealing. What's that?

[Alison Gill]

Yeah, and that, by the way, also would mean that, like, if you have an aging parent and you have power of attorney because they are disabled or unable to, you know, do their own banking. If I needed to get my mom's Social Security into my bank account so that I could be, you know, her power of attorney and take care of her and. And her husband, I would need to. To physically go, drive, get my mom, somehow get to a Social Security office. She's five hours away. So that. That's how it would impact, you know, not just people on Social Security, but the people who are taking care of their aging parents who are on Social Security.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

So they walked it back. So that's. You make an excellent point. Pushback works. These things matter. And so now they are walking that back, and hopefully we'll Keep the phone lines open. All right. And speaking of pushing back, let's get into some good trouble. What are you guys doing? Okay, I have a pretty specific good trouble assignment today. It has to do with my lawsuit, MSW Media's lawsuit against Doge for failing to respond to my multiple FOIA requests. It would help me out tremendously if you could send a short, polite email to the following email address. It's National FOIA F O I A Portal sdoj.gov and say, please make it possible to submit electronic FOIA requests to the US DOGE service through FOIA.gov. again, just a short one sentence email. Don't tell them to go fuck themselves or anything.

[Dana Goldberg]

In your inside voice you can. Inside voices only.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. Scream inside your heart. But, you know, write the following. Just say, please make it possible to submit electronic FOIA requests to the US Doge Service through FOIA.gov, and we'll have that email address for you in the show notes. Again, it's national.foiaportal sdoj.gov and I appreciate your help. And it seriously just takes two seconds. It'll make a huge difference in my case. Thank you for helping me out. All right, everybody, it's time for some Fugal saying Friday. Stick around, we'll be right back. Hey, everybody, welcome back. It's Friday on the Daily Beans, which means it's Fugal saying Fridays. Please welcome my good friend, host of Tell me everything on SiriusXM progress channel, 127 weeknights, 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific. And if you don't have SiriusXM, you can always check out his podcast, the John Fugelsang show, free, wherever you get your pods. Please welcome John Fugelsang. Hello.

[John Fugelsang]

Hi, Alison. Great to see you. Hello, everyone.

[Alison Gill]

Good to see you, too. It's good to see you too, my friend.

[John Fugelsang]

We're all still here. We're all doing okay after the great pension stunt of Vaught 25. We're all okay.

[Alison Gill]

Ah, yes, the stock market manipulation roller coaster that we're all, you know, people with 401ks are riding out. But, you know, a lot of people are like, well, 49% of the people don't have 401 s, so it doesn't impact us.

[John Fugelsang]

Oh, listen, yeah, no, he's Trump. Trump is polling really well with racists who also hate their own pensions. I mean, like, liberals need to beware of this. He's doing great.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. But check it out. We're also being devalued. The dollar is being devalued. Your money is going to go a lot less further and things are going to get a lot more expensive. So if you think you are not subject to what's going on in the markets right now, nobody listening to this is. But you know, tell, tell your, tell your Uncle Frank. Yeah. That they're about to be taxed. While the billionaires who are shorting the market and making the single biggest amount of money in a day in trading in history are running away with all the dollars, they're also going to give themselves $5.3 trillion in tax cuts on the back of Medicaid recipients and snap. And our taxes and costs are going to go up 5, 6, $7,000 a year and they're paying no taxes. And so that's a second.

[John Fugelsang]

Are you telling me President $100 million Military Birthday Parade for myself is not serious about government waste? Is that what you're suggesting, doctor? All right, that is your name. I want to unpack everything you just said because this has been a long week of me having to agree with Rand Paul and Larry Summers and that.

[Alison Gill]

Don't make me do that. Don't make me do that.

[John Fugelsang]

Oh, what, what do I always say? That, that this, this. He just keeps proving that America is a mob restaurant being burned down for the insurance money. And what a week. I just want to remind everybody, I said on your show, I said last November on your wonderful show that by Valentine's Day, the Democratic Party civil war would start to end. And I said by Easter, he would have united the majority of the world against him. And I just want to take a victory lap because I think that's really true. This has been the art of fuck around and find out. And I think we've learned the real villain here is the Republicans in Congress. I think that we are not blaming them enough for all of this. And just like Bush and Cheney took all the blame for Iraq and their terrible policies and the Republicans got off scot free, all the Republicans in Trump's first term avoided blame. They're going to try to blame all this on Donald Trump again. Listen, I don't blame the raccoon with a blowtorch. I blame the people who gave a blowtorch to a raccoon. And that is what this is. The Republican philosophy is just trust the raccoon with the blowtorch. First off, the pause, the 90 day pause, Alison, on tariffs like it's a Netflix show. He's too tired to finish. I wanna stop wrecking your retirement funds, but temporarily, like this delusional mall Santa, who thinks he ended poverty by stopping a crisis he started and peacocking around. He disrupted global supply chains, he sent American businesses into full blown panic. He tanked the markets so hard, alienated all of our allies, triggered retaliatory tariffs. And then he pauses to declare himself a genius. This is a raccoon with a blowtorch lighting the house on fire and wanting a Nobel Peace Prize for peeing on it. This is not Trump becoming rational all of a sudden. I mean, if tariffs really are as good as he says, as good as he's been saying for years, why did he flip this week? This is Wall street calling grandpa about the bond market and threatening to cut off his Adderall. I don't blame the raccoon with the blowtorch. I blame the raccoon.

[Alison Gill]

Is that why he put a tariff on pharmaceuticals?

[John Fugelsang]

I mean, right? And GPT write them. How dumb do you have to be? The tank of the world economy using the same tool teenagers use to fake their book reports like and then China to 125%. Have the Walmart shoppers realized what this means yet, Alison? I mean it's so thick. This is like an economic drive by. Except the shooter is also driving the car and he's also the guy live streaming the entire thing. But. But you nailed it in your introduction when, when there's. They know in advance that you can have a temporary self inflicted wound and you can make a lot of money off a temporary self inflicted wound. So two hours before he flips, he goes on social media says that's a great time to buy. He signs a djt, which is his goddamn name on the stock ticker. And then we see the stock market jumps and he declares victory. Does it feel familiar, Alison?

[Alison Gill]

Does it remind me of February and March?

[John Fugelsang]

The first week of February and the first week of March. Here are the first 10 days of April. This is the formula. Ready? Step one, you tank the market and you horrify the non millionaires. Step two, you let the aristocrats have a feeding frenzy. Step three, you flip but declare you're winning. Step four, you pretend none of this ever happened and you get your media dregs to do the same thing. This is not the art of the deal. This is insider trading with a bad comb over. This is rinse, enrich, repeat. And this was like. I mean, it's the Trump stakes of Wall street rallies.

[Alison Gill]

It's all fraud stakes. S T E A K. Stakeholders are. Yeah, yeah.

[John Fugelsang]

I mean, and it's not.

[Dana Goldberg]

But Dow.

[John Fugelsang]

And the Dow's going down like his eyelids during a boring policy meeting. This guy caused 10 during a trial. 10 trillions in the market to be wiped away. Goldman Sachs went up to a 45, possibility of a recession. This is not a market dip. This is arson. This is Manchild lights the match and blames the wind. And you know that, like, his buddies were all loading up on stock before he randomly made that announcement. Don jr's on E Trade in between bumps. You know what they're doing. And this whole thing was like, they broke up with their girlfriend without realizing their girlfriend's the one who pays the rent. Hello, China. I don't understand it anymore. I was on CNN the other night, and I saw Richard Quest in the makeup room, and I'm like, you tell me what's more feasible, that somehow he is under the control of hostile foreign actors or this is the result of decades of untreated syphilis? Because it's got to be one. Right?

[Alison Gill]

Third stage. Third stage. Now, you. You. You briefly brought up Congress, and we're talking about how they could have possibly known this was coming in February and March and April. I just want to point out that there was a House rule that was attached to the continuing resolution, the one that Schumer allowed cloture for in the Senate. But this, this wasn't part of the continuing resolution. It was a House rules package passed in tandem in the House, which forbids any single member of the House from stopping the. The tariffs from happening.

[John Fugelsang]

Right.

[Alison Gill]

So if you're wondering if they saw this coming in Congress in advance or why Marjorie Taylor Greene had purchased a shitload of stuff right before the announcement was. If you're wondering how they could have possibly known or if they possibly knew, this was anticipated, and it's in writing in a rules package that was attached to the continuing resolution that passed March 15th, I believe, almost a month ago. March 14th. That's right. It was PI Day. It was Friday. I remember. So how do I remember that? But I, you know, I don't know what I did yesterday. I don't understand how my, My brain works. You know what?

[John Fugelsang]

Because it's what the. It's what? The fatigue, Allison, Brains are filled with what? The fatigue. I keep telling you, this is a disease.

[Alison Gill]

Yes, but there you go. In writing, they knew that this was coming, and they knew it was coming again in a much bigger fashion. I think February and March were trial balloons. And then there was another quick trial balloon when the rumor got out.

[John Fugelsang]

About a 90 day pause came out two days before. Yep. And you saw the markets shoot up like they were on meth for five minutes until the White House corrected it. Till the White House. This whole thing, it's exactly what they did. Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

He basically came up, said, no, not yet. I mean. I mean, no. Yeah.

[John Fugelsang]

So this is like Donald Trump's menstrual cycle. It's the first week of every month, and he's going to be a crazy bitch. I'm sorry. This is how it's going to be. And what was he doing while the economy imploded? What was he doing? Was he negotiating with China? Was he reassuring investors? Was he reading a briefing book? He was golfing for pay for the Saudis in the worst economic freefall. He's out there measuring sand traps with a bone saw. This whole thing is a Ponzi scheme with golf carts and fascist merch.

[Alison Gill]

No, no, no. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme.

[John Fugelsang]

I'm telling you. It's a raccoon with a blowtorch. I mean, and then they come out and say, oh, he meant to do that. This is the art of the deal. This is not a deal. This is like expired Chuck E. Cheese tokens. It's not. It's. It's like you don't get credit for pausing a crisis you started.

[Alison Gill]

You know, it's a world Star Fights video is what we're watching.

[John Fugelsang]

I burned down my ex girlfriend's house, but it's okay because I'm also the hero who called the fire department. Department. That's what he's selling us. And these obedient men who line up to be delighted. And again, he didn't even write. He didn't even write Art of the Deal. Tony Schwartz wrote that while Trump walked around in a bathrobe screaming about revenge and stakes.

[Alison Gill]

Yes. S T E A K S My friend, it is always good to see you. It is always good to talk to you and tell everybody. What do you. What do you got coming up? What? I know you have like 900 things in the works. Talk about that before.

[John Fugelsang]

Yeah, we're going to be doing a special I can announce next week that's going to be competing with the White House Correspondence center since they fired the comedian from it. We're putting together a pay per view that's going to have a lot of comedians airing at the same time. I can't announce it yet, but my book is called Separation of Church and Hate. And that is a Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock Fleecing Frauds. That's coming out this summer, on sale now, and I'm on SiriusXM progress five nights a week. Our podcast is free five days a week. And it's great to have a chance to come here and suck up to your deeply attractive audience.

[Alison Gill]

As always, you remind me of Larry Miller and Pretty Woman, not me.

[John Fugelsang]

Oh, I just want to point out Trump is still out there playing golf with people who would sell his kids for copper wiring. Like. Like people who are willfully ignoring it at this point. Allison. You know, there's conservatives he's never getting back. My friend's a very right wing cop. I grew up without on Long island, and his best friend wrote me DM me from Florida to say he has canceled on all of this. He actually voted for Kamala last time and he can't believe how crazy his fellow racists have gone. He. He lost people this week. He's never getting back. And when the members of Congress, when the Republicans who gave the raccoon the blowtorch are more afraid of their voters than they are of Trump, you're going to see some real change.

[Alison Gill]

But that's the reckoning.

[John Fugelsang]

Gonna be a while. Getting there.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yep.

[Alison Gill]

All right, my friend. Thank you so much, everybody. As he said, check out Tell Me Everything on Sirius XM progress channel 127, weeknights, 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific, and the John Fuglesang show podcast test. Five days a week and it's free. Ooh, free. Free is always good. We're bad capitalists.

[John Fugelsang]

Yeah, that's true.

[Alison Gill]

Me and Wajad Ali were talking about that like, we're really bad capitalists.

[John Fugelsang]

No, we're capitalists with empathy. Come on now, that tests better than democratic socialists. Capitalists with empathy, folks.

[Alison Gill]

No, what was the. What was the. The. Somebody posted a picture. I reposted it on Blue sky yesterday. Or actually, I think it was a couple of days ago, but somebody had a sticker on their bike that said I'm looking for it. I'm looking for starts with, you're not a capitalist. You're a worker with Munchausen syndrome. Is that it? Hold on, let me get it. No, you are not a. You are not a capitalist. You're an exploited worker with Stockholm syndrome.

[John Fugelsang]

That's what. Look, Fox News is for feudal lords and the serfs that love them because the feudal lords are the job creators. Now clean up your slop. We should be happy for this job.

[Alison Gill]

I feel like you need to put out a pamphlet. I mean, yeah, feudal lords in the serfs.

[John Fugelsang]

The whole party is just telling the guy at the loading dock, America first. And then giving a tax cut to the guy who fires the guy at the loading dock. That's the entire scheme. And I. They're not going to get away with it. Trump's grandchildren will change their last names during our lifetime, but it's going to be very messy getting there, there. Thank you so much for having me.

[Alison Gill]

All right, everybody, thanks, John. We'll see you. We'll see you next week, everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back with the good news, everybody. Welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news? Everyone. Then good news, everyone. And if you have any good news confessions, corrections, you want to give a shout out to yourself, a loved one, a small business in your area, anyone at all, anyone doing some great activism in your community or a great government program that's helped you and a loved one, especially stuff that's on the chopping block right now, like SNAP or Medicaid and, you know, people's student loans going up. So if you've had any student debt forgiveness, we want to hear about that. It's still happening here and there, right? There's still some holdovers in the Biden from the Biden administration. And somebody actually put out, like, hey, last person to turn out the lights at the Department of Education. It'd be cool if you could just erase the entire student debt database, be a legend.

[Dana Goldberg]

It would be amazing.

[Alison Gill]

It would be amazing if anybody knows who might be the person to be the last out the door at the Department of Education. Did you see, by the way, fucking Linda McMahon on stage talking about the Department of what's going to be left of the Department of Education and how she's really excited about. She was trying to say AI, but she kept calling it A1.

[Dana Goldberg]

A1. Yes. Oh, I'm actually surprised they haven't made, like a dummy suit and. And put the Department of Education on the dummy suit and had Linda McMahon body slam it on stage? Because I feel like that would be totally up. I mean, from the top rope, the Department of Education, I was producing that. If they weren't Sajiva people, it would be such a funny thing to do.

[Alison Gill]

Oh, my God, what a pain in the ass. Anyway, back to the good news. Send us your good news. Dailybeanspod.com click on contact. All you got to do to get your submission right on the air is to pay your pod pet tax, which means you can attach a photo of your pet. If you don't have that, an adoptable pet in your area. If you don't have that, any animal from the Internet randomly will be great. If you want to attach a bird watching photo, whether it's actual birds or you and your family and friends flipping the bird to Trump and Musk Properties, those are bird watching photos in our book. And of course, if you don't have any of that baby photos. We love baby photos. You should just always include your baby photo anyway. And that's how you pay your podbet tax or your pod baby tax. Pod baby tax. So anyway, send it all dailybeanspod.com click on Contact. We're also right now accepting photos of your favorite signs from any rallies and demonstrations and protests you're attending. First up, from Lisa Pronoun she and her oh, here we go. Here's a sign. Hello Dear Allison, Dana and all the beans behind the Scenes. I love that Lisa. Thanks for shouting out our amazing team behind the scenes. These days. Your podcast seems to be the only one I can handle. Without wanting to cry, I wanted to share a few photos from the protest in Akron that my husband and I attended last week. Yes, we must hang our heads for having produced the likes of Jim Jordan, JD Vance, and Bernie Moreno replacing Sherrod Brown. Seriously, I love Sherrod.

[John Fugelsang]

I know.

[Alison Gill]

Me too. But Lisa says it was so heartwarming to see the thousands who showed up here as well as all over the state. Thank you so much for what you do. And the sign here, they're eating the checks. They're eating the balances. I love that. And I'm a better Christian than any Trump supporter. And I'm an atheist.

[Dana Goldberg]

That's a great shirt.

[Alison Gill]

And Lisa, I don't know if you knew this. I don't know how new you are to the Daily Beans, but I was born at Akron Regional in 1974. My friend lived in Talmage, went to Monroe at Willow Springs Estates on Whittlesea Drive. I don't live there anymore, so that's why I'm able to say all those things.

[Dana Goldberg]

There you go. All right. This is from Jim Pronouns, he and him Leguminous lights of news. Oh, I love that I'm sharing the signs that the arts team in our indivisible organization in Ithaca, New York worked on for our own April 5th protest. They worked together to create a set of quote Hands off ABCs signs. Since we could find multiple causes in each letter of the Alphabet that need saving, I put together a montage of signs plus a photo of volunteers holding the signs at the front of the stage at the beginning of the protest. We had over a thousand people show up. And this was before the news this week that our main employer in the county, Cornell University, was informed of a $1 billion funding freeze imposed by the wannabe fascists bent on destroying our country. We will keep fighting for our own town in our country. Since you've seen our kitties, I'm submitting a podpet tax image of a PI. A pilated.

[Alison Gill]

I don't know, P. Pileated.

[Dana Goldberg]

Pilated or pileated. Pilated wood. I'm gonna go with pilated.

[Alison Gill]

Okay.

[Dana Goldberg]

A pilated woodpecker that visited our bird feeder the other day. My brother actually graduated from Cornell. This is really a shame that somehow they are being punished by a billion dollar funding freeze.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah, it is. Oh, and apparently a pileated or a pilated woodpecker is a woody Woodpecker. Woodpecker. Which was what you should just say, because that's what it is. All right? So hands off ABCs. Abortion rights, birthright, citizenship, Constitution, democracy, education, free speech, Gaza, Greenland, healthcare, immigrants, judges, LGBTQ plus, museums, noaa, oceans, queer people, research, Social Security, trans rights, unions, usaid, veterans. What is the word? Women. Is that what it says? I think so. Expression. The X is for expression. Yeah, because what are you gonna do? X rays, youth and zero emissions. Indivisible toxins.

[Dana Goldberg]

This is amazing. A through Z. Well done.

[Alison Gill]

Fantastic. Look at that. Look at that gathering. Hell yeah.

[Dana Goldberg]

Look at that woodpecker.

[Alison Gill]

That's the woody woodpecker. Thank you so much for that. That submission, Jim. That's just amazing. Next up, Denny pronoun. She and her. Hi. I discovered a wonderful podcast in February of this year, and it has been such a comfort over these hellish years. Oh, it's only been days of this administration. I listen to you every morning when I get into work. This past Tuesday, I was lucky enough to see Tim Walls speak in Lorain County, Ohio. You went to that? Oh, my God. Denny was amazing. I watched the whole thing. When I got there, the line was stretched around the massive high school. I waited and almost made it to the doors before they told us to move on over to the overflow room, which is the gym. I sat on the bleachers with probably 4 to 500amazingly enthusiastic and empathetic humans to watch Tim Walls via live stream. He answered the town hall questions because the Republican representative was too much of a baby to show up and defend the show. After it was over, people told us to stay where we were, and Governor Walls came to the gym and talked to us for another 45 minutes. It was so moving and amazing that when it was done, I had to sit in my car and cry for 10 minutes before I was able to drive. If he comes to any listeners, Towns, you have to go. I think there were 2,000 people there the night before he drew 3,000 in Youngstown. These two counties are very, very, very red. Anyway, I want to send a picture of my baby Beans, who left us this past November. Obviously, I started listening to your podcast because of the name and an even better treat. The theme, Love They Might Be Giants, makes me so happy. I find myself singing Baby Beans, Baby Beans throughout the day. So here's a picture of my sweeth baby Beans take a. Take a shot at her breed. No one knows. I miss her so much. I'm also sending a pic of her sister Ida, who is in heaven in rainy weather because mud is her favorite thing besides tennis balls. And finally, I wish I was in New York City a couple weekends ago and saluted. Oh, I was in New York City a couple weekends ago and saluted a Trump building. Okay, so this looks like.

[Dana Goldberg]

I'd say husky German shepherd, but there's a tiny dog mixed in here because look at those little ears.

[Alison Gill]

Oh, my gosh. I think. Which one are we supposed to guess?

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh, I was guessing the first one with the rainbow.

[Alison Gill]

Oh, because the tennis ball. Yes. So the first one maybe, like some sort of cattle dog with a. With an Aussie. With a. With a German shepherd. Nobody knows. So I'm gonna say Chihuahua Chow Chow.

[Dana Goldberg]

Okay, that sounds completely wrong.

[Alison Gill]

Yes.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah. What a beautiful. It almost looks like there's a husky mix with this Australian shepherd, though, because look at those eyes.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. Gorgeous.

[Dana Goldberg]

Gorgeous.

[Alison Gill]

By the way, somebody who was from Ithaca. Was it Jim?

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. I have a shirt that says Ithaca is gorgeous.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh, that's cute.

[Alison Gill]

I love that shirt. Yeah, Got it at a thrift store a while ago.

[Dana Goldberg]

Nice bird photo as well.

[Alison Gill]

Here.

[Dana Goldberg]

Thank you so much for all of that.

[Alison Gill]

Oh, and, Denny, you didn't tell us what breed, so you'll have to write in and let us know if we were right.

[Dana Goldberg]

Well, they really said very capital letters. Nobody knows.

[Alison Gill]

Oh, I thought. I thought that was a We know, but nobody can guess it.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh, God.

[Alison Gill]

All right, got it. So we're right then.

[Dana Goldberg]

Literally nobody knows. All right, this is Sandy in Orinda, California. Greetings and thank you so much for sharing. Voice actor Andrew Merrill doing his incredible character Brack. Yay. Yeah, that completely made my week. It totally threw me back to being pregnant and having insomnia, watching Space Ghost in the wee hours and trying not to laugh and wake anyone up. Love everything you guys do.

[Alison Gill]

I'm driving down Highway 40 in my big old pickup TR. Yeah, and by the way, if you haven't see I love Beans by Bra. You must watch it. So it's a. It's a one. It's one of the friendships I treasure the most is Andrew Merrill. Thank you, Sandy. All right, I'll take this one. Jenny. She her didn't list you wanted. That was kind of short.

[Dana Goldberg]

No, I'm good. Keep on moving.

[Alison Gill]

Jenny.

[Dana Goldberg]

She her.

[Alison Gill]

Hello, I'm an OB GYN from rural Mo that wrote in a few weeks ago about the city council trying to pass abortion bans that ultimately failed. Yes, I remember some other nefarious shenanigans they attempted the past year included proposing banning books with LGBTQ references at the local library, banning local drag show events, and anti science stuff like removing fluoride from the local water supply. Well, we just had our local city council election. All three of those hateful assholes running for reelection were ousted by progressive candidates in rural mo. Oh my gosh. While the total voter turnout is low for these elections, it was the highest it's been in recent years. These margins were also some of the largest wins ever for any candidate. This has renewed my hope, at least temporarily, in my local town. I feel less alone in a heavy MAGA region. I think it's important for people nationally to see results like this. Hopefully a sign of fight for freedom to continue. Thanks so much for your daily dose of sanity and swearing, including another shot of pups, Frankie and Freddy for pet tariffs. Jenny, thank you. Congrats on getting those three assholes ousted. Oh, look at the baby.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh, sweet, comfy babies.

[Alison Gill]

Oh, I want to. Can I just be a dog or a cat?

[Dana Goldberg]

I would be such a good dog.

[Alison Gill]

I would be a lovely cat.

[Dana Goldberg]

That's true.

[Alison Gill]

All right.

[Dana Goldberg]

This is from Tom. No pronouns given. What's happening AG dg. I just finished reading the Undocumented Americans by Carla Cornejo Villavicencio and we'll have a link to that in the show notes. I wanted to share it with you and everyone in the beans community. The very last sentence in this book made me fucking cry. Literally wiping tears from my eyes while I'm sitting in a parking lot at church as wait for my daughter at youth group. I read this book out of spite and pure rebellion because of the awful things that are happening in the undocumented immigrants in our country right now. And it really pisses me off how inhumanely they are being treated just because they don't have a magical document that deems their humanity as, quote, legal. And even then, apparently, that doesn't matter anymore. I highly recommend the book if you haven't read it yet, for tags purposes, Here is a picture of my dog, Boomer sleeping with his taco cat. Taco cat. Why can't I say the word taco? Why can't I say the word taco normally?

[Alison Gill]

Cat, you up?

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh, my God. Yeah. I was like, tack a cat. It's attack. It's attack a cat. The taco cat. His taco cat stuffy. Chinga la migra.

[Alison Gill]

Oh, look at the taco cat. Stuffy with the beagle.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh, my God.

[Alison Gill]

I'm assuming that's a beagle.

[Dana Goldberg]

Do you ever see a word like that that, you know is a word but they've mix. It was something else in your life.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. Panute is a good example.

[Dana Goldberg]

That was a good one. I'm like, I think that says peanut.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. For those, for. For those of you who are new listeners, we had one of my favorite.

[Dana Goldberg]

Moments on the podcast.

[Alison Gill]

We had a submission where somebody had a pet and it was spelled P N U T. And I'm all, is the peace island? Is it newt? Is it Panute? Like, I'm. I just had read a bunch of Egyptology and I'm thinking of newt, right?

[Dana Goldberg]

And I was like, excuse me, Allison. I hate that peanut.

[Alison Gill]

And. And I just melted. Like, oh, yeah.

[Dana Goldberg]

We had a good laugh that day, everyone.

[Alison Gill]

You're like, intellectual nerd brain is like, it could be p. Like, it's. It reminds me of an anchorman. Well, he's like, it's jogging or yoging. Could be a soft J. Yogging. That's precisely the idiocy that was me that day. So, yeah, I am familiar with that feeling. Taco cat at.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

Oh, thank you, everybody, for your good news. Really, like, wait around out the week. These were excellent submissions. If you. If you want to send in your good news, please do. If you've been thinking about it only takes a few minutes, send it to us daily beanspod.com click on Contact. And we aren't super strict about the picture rules. If you don't. Could you just write us if you.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah, just send us. Send it. Write us.

[Alison Gill]

If you haven't figured out by now we're not. We're not super strict about anything. The rules around here or my healthy diet or anything.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

So please send it to us again. Dailybeanspod.com. click on Contact. There will be A new episode of unjustified with Andy McCabe and me and our guest Steve Vladek on Sunday. You don't want to miss that. And then of course, if you are a patron of the beans, if you're a contributor, all these podcasts are free. But if you, if you contribute, if you become like a, a pledging member of the Daily Beans, you get the episodes ad free, you get them early, you get to come to our Q and A zoom calls where you can ask us anything, VIP pre sale tickets to live events, stuff like that, our galas, invitations to our galas that we have a couple times a year. And we could really use your help right now. These tariffs are really screwing up our advertising revenue. And so in order to help keep us on the air, it would really help us out. If you can. Only if you can, because the tariffs are fucking with everybody. I know, I feel it. But if you've been thinking about it and you're able, please do patreon.com muellershirote really appreciate it. And if you are a patron, you get the weekly wrap up, the weekly totally unedited bonus week in review that I do every Saturday because, gosh, I guess I just can't take days off.

[Dana Goldberg]

No.

[Alison Gill]

So we hope to see you over there on Patreon. Do you have any final thoughts today, my friend?

[Dana Goldberg]

Just if someone missed it yesterday, I got a show in Los Angeles opening for Jeanne ashore on April 19th at the Regent Theater. You can get tickets on my website, danagoldberg.com just go to my appearances. It's a first one on there. There's still tickets available, but they are going fast. My dear friend Gina, you might know her from Bob Hart's Abishola or Star Trek, but she was one of the people who lost her house in the Altadena fire. So it's a good way to give back to her, support me, get a good laugh and be with community. So I hope to see you there.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah, and we were talking about that with Paula Poundstone. Right? How, just how much, how good it is for the soul to get out and do some live stuff, especially comedy. So check it out if you're in la. And happy birthday to you this weekend, my friend.

[Dana Goldberg]

Thank you, Dar. I'm gonna relax and hopefully just have a good brunch.

[Alison Gill]

Good. I hope so too. And sending all the love to you and also to our listeners, everybody. We'll see you Monday. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health. And take care of your family. I've been AG and I've been DG and I'm Sabines. 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 Reeder with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they Might Be Giants and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information Please visit msw media.com msw media.