
Wednesday, April 30th, 2025Another mystery filing under seal from the government in the Abrego Garcia case hits the docket; Trump signs a new executive order ramping up the police state; Amazon was going to add tariff tax costs to their products until the White House talked Bezos out of it; DHS ran 1.3M foreign student names through a database to track criminal charges in order to target their visas; an Oklahoma city family is traumatized after an ICE raid on the wrong home; the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is suing the Trump regime after unlawful board firings; more dirt on former North Dakota senator Ray Holmberg - this time call logs showing conversations between him and the former state attorney general; and Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
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Dana Goldberg
I'm Brian Caram, and I've spent decades covering politics. Now I'm taking you behind the scenes, one interview at a time.
Allison Gill
Join us as each week, Brian confronts the issues that matter, posing the questions you wish you could ask. No filter, no agenda, just the truth.
Dana Goldberg
We're not here for sound bites. We're here for substance. Join me, Brian Caram, every week as we cut through the noise and get straight to it. This is Just Ask the Question where curiosity will lead us to the facts. Subscribe now on your favorite podcast platform
Allison Gill
and remember, when you want answers, all you have to do is just ask the question. MSW Media. Hey, everybody, it's Ag. And welcome to Refried Beans, where we play an episode of the Daily Beans podcast from the same week either one, two, or three years ago, so we can see how far we've come. So please enjoy this episode from days gone by and note the date in the intro.
Dana Goldberg
Refried beans. I like refried beans. That's why I want to try fried
Allison Gill
beans, because maybe they're just as good
Dana Goldberg
and we're wasting time.
Allison Gill
Jelly beans.
Dana Goldberg
Jelly beans. Jelly beans. Jelly beans.
Allison Gill
Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Wednesday, April 30, 2025. Today, another mystery filing under seal from the government in the Abrego Garcia case hits the docket. Congratulations to Canada, where the Liberal Party wins the election. Trump signs a new executive order ramping up the police state. Amazon was going to add tariff tax costs to their products online until the White House talked Bezos out of it. The Department of Homeland Security ran 1.3 million foreign student names through a database to track criminal charges in order to target their visas. An Oklahoma City family is traumatized after an ICE raid on the wrong home. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is suing the Trump regime after unlawful board firings. And more dirt from former North Dakota Senator Ray Holman. This time, call logs showing conversations between him and the former late state attorney general. I'm Allison Gill.
Dana Goldberg
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
Jess Piper
Hey, hey, hey.
Allison Gill
It's the taint of the week. Welcome, everyone.
Dana Goldberg
And a good taint to you, my dear, as I tip my hat.
Allison Gill
A good taint to you.
Dana Goldberg
A good taint to you.
Allison Gill
Tip the fedora, my dear lady.
Dana Goldberg
Right?
Allison Gill
Speaking of ladies, we are going to be joined later by the amazing, wonderful Jess Piper from Missouri.
Dana Goldberg
Nice.
Allison Gill
She does the substack, the view from rural Missouri. And you know she's everywhere. If you haven't seen her, you will now get to know her and you will love her as I love her. So this is the first time because what happened, Dana? We were at the happy hour. You know, Harry Dunn and I, we were at the cleanup and beans patron happy hour cocktail mocktail bonanza extravaganza. And one of our luguminati was like, hey, you should really talk to Jess Piper. And I was like, you know what? How have I already not done that? So nice. I reached out and she's joining us today. So thanks to that wonderful listener. If you want to become a patron, by the way, and join us on those pretty crazy cocktail mocktail happy hours, you can do that by going to patreon.com muller she wrote. We really could use your help right now. These tariffs are just destroying supply chains, you know, and a lot of folks are like, well, how does that impact the podcasting industry? It's like all of our advertising revenue, a lot of it comes from products that are no longer going to be around or able to, you know, be sold. And a lot of these companies, these small businesses and the other businesses we work with have to like get rid of their marketing budgets and advertising budgets because they, you know, they have to pre order a bunch of stuff before they get hit with tariffs. It's awful.
Dana Goldberg
Yeah. And I do have to say before we jump into all of this, Canada, Canada, Canada. Thank you so fucking much. That's it. We're going to cover it more later. But thank you so much. Much for getting out and voting.
Allison Gill
Yeah, Right. I wish we could have snap elections.
Dana Goldberg
Jesus.
Allison Gill
Right? And I wish our election cycle only lasted 51 days.
Dana Goldberg
Seriously.
Allison Gill
Jelly Canada, we love you.
Dana Goldberg
Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Allison Gill
Yes. And if you are Canadian, you want to write in, send us good news about, you know, your amazing day, you can send it to us dailybeanspod.com click on Contact. We could all here in the United States use an emotional support Canadian right about now. So. All right, we got a lot of news to get to. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up, remember yesterday, I feel like almost every show starts with remember the other day?
Dana Goldberg
Remember that one time?
Allison Gill
Remember that? That was awesome. Remember when I said today was going to be the expiration date for the pause on discovery, the two week discovery period in the Abrego Garcia case?
Dana Goldberg
Yes.
Allison Gill
Yeah. Well, on Tuesday morning, the government filed another document under seal with Judge Sinis as of the recording of this show. I'm going to check. I'm going to. You're going to hear me check live right now. Refresh. Refresh my pacer. Nope. There's still nothing as of this recording. That is the latest information that we have on this particular secret filing. There hasn't been any indication of what this is about. If they're asking for more time to do whatever it is they ask time for last week, we'll know soon because their time is up today at 5pm Eastern. And if the judge is going to extend the discovery delay, she's going to have to issue some kind of order. And if she's going to not grant any further delay, she's going to have to say discovery is back on. We're going to see something from her probably today. So I will keep you posted.
Dana Goldberg
All right, sounds good. This one is from CNBC President Donald Trump. Person, personally, I thought it was the same personality, which also would track personally called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Tuesday to complain about a report that the online retail giant was considering displaying US Tariff costs on its product listing. A source familiar with the matter told NBC News. Yep, this is when the leopards eat your face there, Jeff. Within hours of the call, Amazon publicly downplayed the scope of its plan and then announced that it had been scrapped entirely. Because you are not gonna say that word because that's actually a strong thing and takes a beating. The pressure campaign on Bezos by Trump and the White House came after Punchbowl News reported earlier Tuesday that Amazon will soon show consumers how much of an item's cost comes from tariffs.
Allison Gill
Brilliant idea, by the way.
Dana Goldberg
It's such a brilliant idea.
Allison Gill
Temu is doing it right? Temu. Temu, Temu.
Dana Goldberg
I think that's what it's called. Hey, if you're gonna put calories next to a McDonald's hamburger, I'd also like to see some tariffs next to my fucking Amazon purchases. If I was purchasing from Amazon, the amount added as a result of tariffs will be displayed right next to each product's total listed price. And this is from a person familiar that plan. That's what they told this news outlet. Now, White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt responded to the report by torching Amazon over what she called, quote, a hostile and political act. Fuck off.
Allison Gill
So she didn't deny that tariffs cost us, Right?
Dana Goldberg
She just. How dare you tell people the truth.
Allison Gill
I am Caroline Levitt. My job is to not tell people the truth. So I am very offended when you want to tell people the truth. I mean, my God. Yeah. And so they were gonna do this, and then Trump called Bezos and said, don't you dare. And he was like, okay, just caved again. Yeah, Mr. Washington Post all right, everybody, next up, by the way, you know, I mean, the economy, you know, everyone's talking about the first hundred days in office. I don't give a fuck. That's a random number, sure. But the s and P500 has had its worst first hundred days of any president since Nixon. Yeah, Just really bad. And it's going to get worse now that, you know, Seattle Times is reporting they have no container ships coming in to dock. They're actually all taking a left turn and going up to Canada with all their goods from China. And so we're going to have empty shelves again. We're going to see shit like we saw in May of 2020. And although this one is a self inflicted issue, not, not to say that the pandemic wasn't also self inflicted because of the gross mismanagement of the Trump administration.
Dana Goldberg
Absolutely, yeah.
Allison Gill
You catch my drift?
Dana Goldberg
I do.
Allison Gill
All right, next up, let's talk immigration from Kyle Cheney, the Department of Homeland Security. My friend, my bestie and I were hanging out yesterday trying to figure out like, how they're getting so targeted. Like, how did the administration like find Mahmoud Khalil, how do they find Abrego Garcia? How did they find Ozturk, you know, the woman who wrote the op ed? And here's a little bit of an answer. The DHS tells the court in a filing that the agency diverted 10 to 20 employees to run 1.3 million names of foreign students through a database that tracks criminal charges. Took about two to three weeks.
Dana Goldberg
Wow.
Allison Gill
There were about 6,400 hits. But thousands were for charges that never led to convictions or were dropped or expunged. This is, this is a group whose F1 status was revoked by ICE, many of whom also had their State Department visas revoked. Okay. Now ICE in the Department of Justice says the State Department is who recommended that ICE terminate the students records in the system. So that's what's happening with these students. We still don't know like if they also like, ran a search for Trend Aragua to find all the people they were going to deport under the Alien Enemies act or whatever. But yeah, that's what it's looking like. Also, flight records Monday indicated that the New England Patriots team plane made a trip to and from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the US Military base that's now being used as a detention center for deportees and some other immigrants the Trump administration shuttled out of the country and to a notorious Salvadoran prison. The Patriots Plains Guantanamo trip was flagged Monday by users on social media. Bluesky hey, Yay. Including the automated account gitmowatch and the user JJ in DC Full disclosure, that's who I reposted. And JJ in DC is a member of the Leguminati, also a patron. The Boston based community news website Universal Hub also flagged these flights. Robert Kraft, whose Kraft Group LLC was a one time one million dollar donor to Donald Trump's 2017 inaugural committee and who also got caught getting happy endings at a massage parlor in Jupiter, Florida, said last October he was very upset by the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and that he hasn't spoken to Trump ever since. But now he's on the off season chartering his Patriots plane to fly people to Guantanamo. And it's. It says, really? It's got the whole Patriots logo on the side of the fucking plane.
Dana Goldberg
Ridiculous. All right, everyone. This one is from KFOR in Oklahoma, and there's a content warning. It's just. It's a very disturbing story. A woman says her family's fresh start in Oklahoma, it turned into a nightmare after federal immigration agents raided their home, taking their phones, laptops, and life savings, even though they were not the suspects the agents were even looking for. The agents had a search warrant for the home, but the suspects listed on the warrant, they didn't live there. The woman who actually lives in the house had just moved to Oklahoma City from Maryland with her family. About two weeks earlier, the woman, who News 4 will refer to as Marissa and her three daughters, came to Oklahoma looking for a slower, more affordable pace of life. They rented a house in a seemingly safe northwest Oklahoma City neighborhood. Now, her husband stayed back in Maryland. This is a couple extra, just for a couple extra weeks. He planned to join them this weekend. And a quote, I was like, okay, Oklahoma's my home now. That's what Marissa said. I'm sure I would say the same thing if all of a sudden I had to relocate there. Okay, I guess this is home now. Now, any comfort that this family had disappeared Thursday morning when 20 men, about 20 men armed with guns busted through the door, not knocked and showed them a warrant busted through the door. And I quote, I keep asking them, who are you and what are you doing here? What's happening? She said. And they said, we have a warrant for the house, a search warrant. She said they ordered her and her daughters outside into the rain before they could even put on clothes. And I quote, they wanted me to change in front of them. In between all of them. She said, my husband has not even seen my daughter in her undergarments her own dad. Because it's disrespectful. You have her out there, a minor in her underwear. Now, Marissa said the names of the search warrant on the search warrant were not hers or anyone in her family. Quote, we just moved here from Maryland. She said. We're citizens. That's what I keep saying. We're citizens. She said the agents didn't care and went on to say they were very dismissive, very rough, very careless. I kept pleading. I kept telling them we weren't criminals. They were treating us like criminals. We were here by ourselves. We didn't do anything. Marissa said the agents tore apart every inch of the house and what few belongings they had, seizing their phones, laptops, and their life savings in cash as, quote, unquote, evidence. Marissa told News 4 the agents wouldn't even leave her a business card. She said she has no idea who to contact to get her things back. The story is horrifying, man.
Allison Gill
It's like that. Have you seen that video of the guy smashing in the car window as
Dana Goldberg
the guy was waiting for his lawyer? Yes, I have. Yeah.
Allison Gill
And it wasn't at the right person. It wasn't even the right person.
Dana Goldberg
And who should be surprised that this is a fucking debacle just like everything else this administration does. No one should be surprised they're taking the wrong people.
Allison Gill
This is terrifying. This is terrifying. Also from the North Dakota Monitor and content warning for this one, too, because it's an update on Ray Holmberg, the former state senator who pled guilty to child rape. Newly released call logs show that the late Attorney General Wayne Stenaham and I. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that properly or not. Let me know right in to DailyBeansPod.com click on Contact. Wayne Stenhem communicated. Communicated with former senator Ray Holmberg as the lawmaker was being investigated for sex crimes, including calls the day Stenahem sat for a law enforcement interview. Yet Stenahem only told law enforcement about one phone conversation with Holmberg. That's according to the attorney general, Drew Wrigley, who succeeded stenham after his January 2022 death. And here's a quote, that's a pretty troubling log. That's what Wrigley said late Friday after his office made the call logs public. Quote, the attorney general was asked about contacts with Ray Holmberg, and he said he's spoken to him once, and that wasn't accurate. There's also evidence that Stenahem and the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation knew years earlier about a sexual assault allegation against Holmberg, but no criminal charges resulted from that report. Jesus Holmberg was sentenced late last month to 10 years in federal prison for traveling out of the country with the intent to pay for sex with underage boys. We call that rape. The conviction largely resulted from a federal investigation that began in 2021. But a man who spoke at the March 26 sentencing hearing came forward to the FBI years earlier to report sexual exploitation by Ray Holmberg. Handwritten notes in a former Grand Forks prosecutor's file obtained by the North Dakota Monitor indicate stenhem knew in 2015 about that report of sexual abuse 10 years ago. He knew. So we'll stay on this story for updates.
Dana Goldberg
And like I said, I hope every person involved in this, every person who covered this up, every person that had knowledge gets indicted. Same awful, awful, awful. All right, this one is from the Post. Now, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, that's a nonprofit organization created by Congress, remember that, that provides funding to public broadcasters such as NPR and pbs. Well, they sued the Trump administration Tuesday after the president attempted to fire three of its board members. In its complaint filed in federal District Court in D.C. the CPB and the three board members, that's Laura Ross, Thomas Rothman and Diane Kaplan, they said the president does not have the authority to fire these board members because it's not a government agency subject to decisions of the executive branch. That's a very clear reason why they can't. And I quote, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is not a government entity and its board members are not government officers because CPB is not a federal agency subject to the president's authority, but rather a private corporation. We have filed a lawsuit to block these firings. This is from CPB spokesperson Tracy Briggs. Now, it went on to say CPB's board members are essential to the governance of CPB, which supports more than 1,500 independent, locally owned and operated public television and radio stations that provide universal access to free, high quality content that educates, informs and enlightens and tells the truth.
Allison Gill
Yeah, this is not a government agency. We'll see if you know that other agency that the US Institute for Peace. But because they did FOIA requests, the judge determined that they were an executive branch agency. This is not. So we'll see what happens in court. Next up from Rolling Stone. And this is fashy as fuck, okay? On Monday, as he prepared to celebrate his hundredth day back at the White House, President Trump signed an executive order ramping up his efforts to embolden law enforcement across the country and shield them from accountability. The president instructed his administration to, quote, unleash high impact local police forces, protect and defend law enforcement officers wrongly accused and abused by state or local officials, and surge resources to officers in need. And this is just going to pit local law enforcement against local government. Trump directed Pam Bondi to launch a program providing free legal resources to police officers accused of wrongdoing. All that pro bono shit that they're getting from these law firms that bent the knee, I think that's what he's promising. He also ordered his administration to increase the supply of excess military and national security assets to local law enforcement. So all that work we've been trying to do to demilitarize local police departments, he's ramping that up. In one paragraph of the order, the Attorney General and associated agencies are instructed to, quote, maximize the use of federal resources to support state and local law enforcement training, increased pay for officers, enhanced sentences for crimes against law enforcement, and investment in the security and capacity of prisons. The signed order also encourages the prosecution of state and local officials for, quote, unlawfully prohibiting law enforcement officers from carrying out duties. And, and it calls on the Justice Department to prosecute state and local officials who promote diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that supposedly restrict law enforcement activity or endanger citizens on the grounds that diversity related measures constitute discrimination or civil rights violations against white people. So he's trying to white ify the police forces, giving them military assets and giving them free legal representation from all these law firms that bent the knee. The directive was issued alongside a separate executive order calling on the attorney general to identify and punish so called sanctuary cities that obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws. Now, I'm just going to throw out my favorite quote from Battlestar Galactica Commander William Adama. He said, there's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.
Dana Goldberg
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I did say we were going to get to some good news. And like I said, we're going up north.
Allison Gill
Yeah. We have to leave the country to
Dana Goldberg
get some good news.
Allison Gill
We have to leave the country for
Dana Goldberg
some good news, everyone. So hang with us. This one's from the Associated Press. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals celebrated election victory in a stunning turn of fortune. They did fell short Tuesday of winning an outright majority in the parliament and the party will have to seek help from another smaller party.
Allison Gill
But they came close Though, man, they came close.
Dana Goldberg
Yep. Now Carney's rival, the populist Conservative leader Pierre. Is it Polevoliev?
Allison Gill
Poliev.
Dana Goldberg
Poliev was in the lead, by the way, until US President Donald Trump took aim at Canada with a trade war and threats to annex the country as the 51st state. Way to go, Donald. Now, Poliev. Did you say polio?
Allison Gill
Polly of Polyureth.
Dana Goldberg
Polio. If you're from Canada, let us know if it's Polyel.
Allison Gill
I'm not good. And this is. I'm not mocking anything. I suck at French. I'm really bad at my pronunciation in French.
Dana Goldberg
Let's go with polio. Not only lost his bid for prime minister Monday, but was voted out of the parliament seat that he held for 20 years.
Allison Gill
Not only Polly have lost his seat.
Dana Goldberg
Y' all care well yet where you go, but you have to get the hell out of here. Last call. In a victory speech, Carney stressed unity in the face of Washington's threats. He said the mutually beneficial relationship Canada and the U.S. had shared since World War II was gone. That is. Yeah, that's a little bit startling, but it's true. And I quote, we are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons. He said, as I've been warning for months, America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country. This is what Carney added. These are not idle threats. President Trump is trying to break us so America can own us. That will never, ever happen. But we also must recognize the reality that our world has fundamentally changed. Very true. Now, Trump's truculence has infuriated Canadians, most people I know, leading many to cancel US Vacations, refuse to buy American goods, and possibly even to vote early. Yeah. A record 7.3 million Canadians cast ballots before election day.
Allison Gill
Good job, Trump.
Dana Goldberg
Oh, my God. I just have. Before we get to trouble, I have to read you this batshit crazy tweet from Lindsey Graham. I don't know if anyone else has seen this just because it came in. Lindsey Graham literally tweeted a picture of Trump saying, I was excited to hear that President Trump is open to the idea of being the next Pope. This would truly be a dark horse candidate that I would ask the Papal Conclave and Catholic faithful to keep an open mind about this possibility. The first Pope, US President combination has many upsides. Watching for white smoke Trump. And then there's a bunch of Roman numerals. Now, a lot of you may think I'm reading a meme that was made up. I'm reading a fucking tweet from Lindsey Graham's Twitter feed.
Allison Gill
No.
Dana Goldberg
Swear to God, Alison. I'm looking right now.
Allison Gill
Just so you know, Trump endorsement means the world to me. I was excited to hear Trump is open to the idea of being the next pope.
Jess Piper
Yep.
Dana Goldberg
Lindsey Graham. I don't know what he's got on that man, but.
Allison Gill
What?
Dana Goldberg
Good boy.
Allison Gill
What? This is real?
Dana Goldberg
Yep.
Allison Gill
Okay, hold on. Screen grab. I'm posting this on Blue sky right now. This is from an hour ago. This is real, everyone. I was like, that's funny. Somebody's pulling your leg. Nope. No, I am just looking at it now. It is real.
Dana Goldberg
I mean, I think if we're trying to get sexual abuse out of the Catholic Church, putting a rapist in is probably not the best idea.
Allison Gill
Oh, my God.
Dana Goldberg
Yep. I know I have you flabbergasted. You didn't know I was going to do that, but. Yep. I saw someone. I think Brian had posted it, and I was like, I'm going to go see, because he was on Instagram. So it was a screen grab. And I was like, nah, I'm going to go see if this is real. Sure is. Wow.
Allison Gill
Is he kidding? I can't.
Jess Piper
He doesn't seem to be.
Dana Goldberg
I know. He doesn't seem to be kidding, which is absolutely bonkers. I think he's just trying to get people riled up. That's what they do. And I think that when someone says to Lindsey Graham, you better jump whatever they've got on him, he says, how high?
Allison Gill
Oh, my God. Okay, well, thank you for that. You just kind of blew my mind, my friend.
Dana Goldberg
Yep.
Allison Gill
All right. Speaking of that. Let's. No, speaking of everything that's anti. That. Yeah, that. Let's. Let's do. Let's, you know, let's get into some good trouble.
Jess Piper
What are you guys doing Getting into trouble?
Allison Gill
All right, so Speaker Johnson is asking you, what issues do you think President Trump should tackle next? Here's a full press release. Friends. Today marks 100 days of President Trump back in the White House as our Commander in chief after 77 million Americans delivered him a landslide victory in November. That's not true. President Trump promised the American people that he would usher in a new golden age of America, and he has delivered. Border crossings are at an all time low. No, they're not criminal. Illegal aliens are being deported. That's true. But many aren't criminals and many aren't aliens and many aren't illegal. And that language is disgusting. More than 7 trillion in private investment has entered our country has it. Is it memecoin?
Dana Goldberg
Yeah.
Allison Gill
Okay.
Dana Goldberg
That's what they're going by.
Allison Gill
American is becoming energy dominant again. So there's a misspelling here in his release. And common sense has one word has been restored in our nation's capital. And he also spelled capital wrong. And that list barely scratches the surface of President Trump's accomplishments so far. This is only the beginning. As House Republicans work with President Trump to reignite the American economy. It was ignited. You destroyed it. That's why you have to reignite it and restore American greatness. We want to know what you think, says Speaker Johnson. What issue do you think President Trump should tackle next? And there's a list of issues followed by a comment box that you can put your own comments in. There's a handy survey available for this. We will have a link for you in the show notes. It's at mikejohnson.house.gov Forms FormID 23, I think is the full URL. But you can actually just click on the link in the show notes and fill out this survey. It asks for an email address. Might I suggest that you use a VPN and a proton email address to keep your anonymity? Indeed, that's the good trouble, should you choose to accept it. And we'll be right back with Jess Piper. I'm really excited to talk to her. Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages.
Dana Goldberg
We'll derive and.
Allison Gill
Hey, everybody, welcome back. I'm excited today because during our last zoom call for patrons. And by the way, if you want to become a patron of the beans, you can do that@patreon.com Muller she wrote, We have these great monthly zoom calls, like these happy hours where people can ask questions. And somebody said, hey, when's Jess Piper going to come on your show? And I was like, you know what? Hasn't she been? I feel like we're old friends because we see each other at so many events on social media. So much so I reached out and sure enough, please welcome former high school literature teacher for 16 years, the author of the View from Rural Missouri. It's one of the best substacks in the universe. You have to subscribe to it now. Please welcome Jess Piper.
Jess Piper
Oh, thank you, friend. It's so good to be with you. I feel like we've run into each other all over the place, too.
Allison Gill
I feel. I feel like we're old friends because, like, before we start, before we hit record, you and I were having this discussion because about what we're going to talk about today. We might as well just save it for the conversation. But in your latest substack post, again, it's called the View from Rural Missouri. You're talking about child brides and the baby bonus. And when I first saw this that the Trump regime wants to pay women $5,000 to have babies, at first I was like, my, you know, my first thought was like a weird eugenics people. This whole Peter Thiel, Elon Musk Trump thing, the whole January 6th debacle was kind of based on the great replacement theory. Like people in purple, mostly from purple areas, worried about, you know, the, the great replacement of, of CIS white Christian men. And, and I was like, now they're going to pay people $5,000 to have babies. I remember when I was of baby making age, the Republicans, the pro life Republicans were accusing women of having babies just to get government money. And, and now they're paying women, by the way, $5,000. I don't know what you're gonna do with $5,000, but buy a couple diapers, you pay your Amazon bill this month. You know. So anyway, talk a little bit about this because it, it kind of, there's this intersectionality between this payoff and their weird child bride thing. And they are wanting kids to work in factories. Like it's all, it all kind of comes together.
Jess Piper
It always does. You know, we don't need tinfoil hats to see what's going on. But yeah, when we were a baby making age, they would say, if you can't afford them, don't have them. Okay. And now all of a sudden, if you can't afford them, here's $5,000 that'll pay for a couple of diapers. I'm really concerned about someone who would use that as an incentive because they're going to be, you know, rethinking that really quickly. But yeah, you were talking about this intersection of all of these weird ideas coming together, this pronatalism thing. In Missouri, we are trying to ban child marriage and it's proving very difficult.
Allison Gill
That's weird that it's difficult.
Jess Piper
It is weird. And it's really strange that with their full chest they will go out on the Senate floor and talk about the fact there's this guy named Mike Moon and you probably read it in my substack, but if you, if you don't, if you haven't read it, he's quite the character. In 2018, we passed an abortion ban and he felt so, so, you know, he felt a certain way about it. So he Went out, he's on a farm. He grabs his overalls and then grabs a chicken and beheads a chicken and dismembers it on Facebook live to talk about the fact that he's against abortion, that he's pro life. And I was like, I, I'm from Missouri. And that even confused me.
Allison Gill
Isn't, wasn't there a big tipper? Gore even was in on it. But it was mostly the Republicans who were like, that kind of behavior in Alice Cooper rock and roll shows undermines our decency. Like that seems like, that seems like something that we would see at a Gwar concert. Yeah.
Jess Piper
Ozzy Osbourne, right. Like, I mean, I was great. How's it going? Southern Baptist. And we were scared to death of this stuff. And now our Republicans are just doing it on Facebook lives. But he did that. And then a couple years ago we were trying to raise the limit from 15 to get married to 16 and he was against it. And he told a story of people he knew that were still married and they got married, I don't know when they were 13 or 14, but the child in question was pregnant at 11 by a 12 year old. And he says, you know what, why would we ban this if, if children can't get married when they're pregnant, they're going to have an abortion. So banning child marriage is actually creating a vehicle for children to have an abortion. Oh, literally what he said.
Allison Gill
Oh, okay. That's kind of, that's like Warren Jeff's level of stuff, right? That is, I don't understand, I just, I just don't understand now. You know, like I said, you and I were talking a little bit earlier. I'm a 50 year old woman. My uterus doesn't, you know, we had a going out of business sale a while ago and so now I am useless to this administration, to this, to this regime. And you had mentioned a TikTok that's been going around that I absolutely love.
Jess Piper
It was, yeah, there's a woman our age and she says, what is it called when you're not a lesbian but you also don't like men? And a woman stitches in and she says menopause. And I was like, hell, yeah, exactly. That's exactly what it is.
Allison Gill
Yeah, I've built it here. I have built that here. Like I, I have two houses back in front. My best friend and her wife live in the front house, I live in the back house. We call it the Caftan compound. We're like a bunch of Mrs. Ropers, right? Like just kind of looking out the window at our Airbnb neighbors, because that's where. That's where we're at right now, because every single house around us was snatched up by corporate landlords and turned into Airbnbs.
Jess Piper
And can I tell you something? You know, a lot of people, when we. They talk about red states, and they're always like, you know, why even bother? And I'm like, well, if we could flood places like mine with voters like you, I paid. This is gonna. In 2017, I paid $29,000 for my farmhouse and six acres. My farmhouse and six acres. $29,000. And so when people are like, why would I move to Missouri? Well, friend, there's a house across the street from me for 40 grand. Like, if you. And an acre of land, enough for chickens and a vegetable garden. So I think if you ever get tired of the beautiful weather and lovely politics, I mean, come on out to Missouri and bring your. Bring your everything to register to vote, because, you know, we can't vote anymore either. So there's that.
Allison Gill
Well, that's what I'm really worried about is they're chasing people out of red states with these draconian laws, purposely leaving on purpose, right? So that they can hold on to these majorities in these red states so that, for example, we won't ever be able to get another amendment added to the Constitution without the red states. We've got the Republican Governors association constantly suing and winning, like, to block things like student debt forgiveness and things like that. So that always seemed like it was on purpose to me. And I'm always thinking of all the amazing people living in red states, particularly rural areas where folks are like, well, I just want to live on my farm, and I want to raise my chickens and cows and goats, and I want to be left alone. And out here in California, like, well, yeah, we just want to live in our little duplex in our caftan compound and have our polyamorous whatever, and invite our trans friends over. And can't you just leave us alone while we get high? Like it's. It. There's. There's not. Even though we're very different, there's not a lot of daylight between what people in rural America and people in urban America want, which is to just kind of be left alone.
Jess Piper
There's not a lot of daylight between my Republican neighbors and myself. I moved out here because I'm not going to have an hoa Tell me what color I can paint my door. If I need to burn something in my backyard. I do. I'VE got my donkeys and chickens. Most of the rule Democrats I know are gun owners. There. There's not a lot in between us. When I knocked on doors and would talk to people who were Republicans, they would say, oh, my gosh, you know, I, I am totally in agreement. And then they'd say the question, are you a Republican or Democrat? And when I would say, I'm a Democrat, this is what they said over and over again, I can't vote for you because I'm a Christian. Over and over again.
Allison Gill
Okay, so I was going to ask you with the messaging going forward because, you know, I recently. We recently watched JB Pritzker give a great speech.
Jess Piper
Yes.
Allison Gill
And whether he is the kind of party leader you want or whether it's AOC or Maxwell Frost or Jasmine Crockett or whoever it is, whoever the, the message bearer is going to be for what I can, would. Would call a reformed Democratic Party, because we're going to have to make some, some pretty significant changes going forward. That's going to be the message, right? Like, stop being timid. Stop being, you know, stop throwing our, our black and trans and immigrant friends under the bus. You know, we have to all kind of stand up and fight. And we're all sort of grouping around this class structure now instead of being divided by party. So how do we get over that hump of, well, I'm Christian, I can't vote for a Democrat. How do we overcome that? Because I know a lot of people who won't vote for Democrats because they're Christian people who won't vote for Democrats because of the elites in the Democratic Party kind of look down their noses at people in rural areas? How do we close that gap? Like, what is your argument when. Not argument, but your discussion that you have with somebody who says, well, I'm Christian, I can't vote for a Democrat.
Jess Piper
We absolutely have to have someone on every single ballot. We have to have local candidates knocking local doors. I know when I was knocking in 2018 for Claire McCaskill, who lost to Josh Hawley, by the way, they sent out some kids from St. Louis, which was nice and handy to have extra hands. But I was knocking on one that was, I live in a town of 480 people, she was knocking on a door not far from me, and I let her go. And she said, hello, my name is so and so. Would you like to talk about politics? And I was like, girl, oh my God. Like, so. I was like, hey, my name is Jess. I live in Roger Lyons old place. Up the road. You know, I taught at Maryville for 16 years and then they listen. So you have to have someone that they're going to open the door for in the first place. And you have to know this about rural people. Everybody will shove our nose in it and say, well, you vote against your self interest. Well, friend, who would I have to vote for? In this last election in August, I couldn't vote for one county office because there was not one Democrat running. I couldn't run for. I couldn't vote for state rep, not state senate, not sheriff, not anything because there was no Democrat running. So beyond not having candidates, we've got people that are indoctrinated. There's four churches in my town. Two of them preach politics from the pulpit. So you've got people who honestly and with all of their heart think that women are killing babies when they have an abortion. They truly think that. And then you've also got gerrymandering. And so all that mix of those three things makes it really difficult. But when you have a local candidate that people know, that helps bridge that divide. I talk to people. I would knock doors. And we haven't had a candidate out here in forever. We haven't elected a Democrat in 32 years and never a woman in the district that I ran for. But when I would talk to people, they'd always say, you don't look like a Democrat, you don't sound like a Democrat. And I'm like, I'm your neighbor. I'm the same as you. We, we grew up the same. And that's why Republicans have a really hard time with rural Democrats. And that's why I want more of us showing up because we are what they pretend to be. There's, there's people in Missouri that are living in, you know, right outside of, of St. Louis and gated communities and walking around with a cowboy hat on and boots and trying to, you know, be the cosplay cowboy with their guns and all that. No, that's who I am, friend. You, you live in the city, act like it's, there's no shame in being from the city, but you're not me. And every Republican has tried to take on that Persona. So when you have people that are rural people running in rural areas, we represent the area. We just don't have enough candidates.
Allison Gill
Yeah, it's the lack of candidates. And we talk about that a lot on the daily beans. For a long time I've said politics needs to be like economics, trickle down politics doesn't work. It has to be like Joe Biden said, bottom up and middle out. Right. We, we have to get local people running for local office and build up to the federal level, not put our people in at the federal level and hope that that trickles down because it never works that way. It's just like with economics.
Jess Piper
Yeah. And if you want to see the plan that worked, that that's what the Republicans did. They started after fdr. They have been angry since the New Deal and they have slowly but surely taken over. And now they've got it all. They've captured scotus, they have the presidency, they have the House, they have the Senate, and they've got a bunch of red states. And the only way for Democrats to come back is to put money into races that are going to lose that, you know, you can't win for at least a cycle or two and be willing to do it. And that's how we, we build benches and that's how we come back.
Allison Gill
Yeah. And we've been pretty successful. When we talk about water boards, school boards.
Jess Piper
Yes.
Allison Gill
We've had a lot of really great, like, recalls at school boards where the moms, what's it, Moms of Liberty. Been kicked out and recalled because they, you know, they don't people. And I've noticed this even in places like Montana and in Missouri where people are like, look, we know they're not putting litter boxes in our local schools because people want to be furries. Will you just stop? It's just ridiculous. And let us live our lives. And the best way to do that, like you said, is at the local level. So before I let you go, talk a little bit, first of all, tell everyone where they can find you. And then what we can do, either locally or to help other localities, you know, find our candidates to put in at our city council, school boards, legislatures, assemblies, you know, up to the state level and beyond.
Jess Piper
Well, the first thing I want to do is give people hope. I speak across the heartland probably two or three times a week. I'm in Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri, even Ohio. And people, there are cracks in the facade. Trump flags are coming down. People who were very loud are very quiet now. I live around, you know, I live in Trumpland and I see what's going on and there are cracks in the facade. And that's why we need to, to work now at getting people out and funding them. You can find me at the View from rural Missouri. You can go to Blue Sky Piper for Missouri on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, all the places And I'm also the executive director of Blue Missouri. And what we do is raise money for down ballot candidates. And we gave away $230,000 from grassroots donors last year to people that had. To candidates who had $500 or $600, we were able to give them. There's not. This is what happened. There's not one candidate in Missouri that was running that had less than $6,000, and that was because of us. So someone who had 500 all of a sudden had 6,000. So they were able to buy gas and buy literature and buy signs and knock the doors. And by the way, in spaces like mine, a lot of people will say, you know, don't. Don't invest in signs. Signs don't vote. They don't. But by God, the people who drive by my farm and see that it's okay to vote for Joe Biden or Kamala Harris or your local Democratic candidate, they see it, they feel safe, and they know. So it's worth it. Every one of these, you know, down ballot candidates are worth it. And I hope people are investing in people like that.
Allison Gill
Yeah, it's a little more pricey, a little more gas to knock doors in rural America.
Jess Piper
We don't. It's funny, because I'd have people from Kansas City offer to knock doors, and I was like, well, we don't have sidewalks, friends. You have to walk down the middle of the. The highway, because I can hit 100
Allison Gill
houses in half a mile. You know, here in my neighborhood, that's not going to happen.
Jess Piper
No, we have 480 in the whole town, so.
Allison Gill
Yeah, but it's miles and miles and miles. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah, so get some good shoes and. And get some gas and. And I, you know, I really appreciate you coming on. It's great to finally get to talk to you, and I hope that we can have more conversations in the future.
Jess Piper
Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
Allison Gill
Thanks, Jess. And thanks to our listener. Thanks to our patron who said, you gotta get Jess Piper on the show. I was like, you are so right. How have I not done it? How have we not done that yet? So I really do appreciate your time. Everybody, subscribe to the View from Rural Missouri, and we will be right back with your good news. Stick around, 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 some great community activism in your area. Maybe somebody's running for something and you want to tell us about it. Maybe a shout out to a local business that could use a small boost or your business. We want to hear about your business, what you're making and creating. Self shout outs are always welcome. We love those shout outs to government programs that have helped you or a loved one. Whether it's Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, the Affordable Care act and the subsidies that we get through those Student debt relief is always great. We love to hear student debt relief stories. Maybe great VA healthcare you've received and then you know, WIC, SNAP, Section 8 anything. Send it to us@dailybeanspod.com Click on Contact all you got to do to get your submission read on the air is pay your POD pet tariffs, which means attach a photo of your pet and if you don't have a pet, you can attach a photo of an adoptable pet in your area. We're pretty good at finding forever homes here on the beans. If you don't have that, you can send any animal photo. Really just find an animal photo. We love otters, frogs, pandas, red and black and white. Send those to us. And if you don't have any of that, baby pictures always work. We're also accepting bird watching photos for the foreseeable future, which is either photos of actual birds or you and your family and friends flipping the bird to Trump and Musk Properties. Send it to us dailybeanspot.com click on contact all right, first up from Cynthia. Pronouns she and her beans Queens. I made the shout out to Berea College. I think AG pronounced it Berea. It should be Berea. Thank you Cynthia. Also, if you pronounce it Appalachia, I'll throw an apple at you. Teasing. Or am I? Q Ominous music Seriously though, you guys are awesome. We were told our sweet kitty is a mackerel tabby. We had no idea tabby cats had subclasses, did you? If so, can you name them? I cannot name them, but thank you for teaching me what a mackerel tabby looks like.
Dana Goldberg
Cutie cutie pie. Thank you so much. AG this is from gb. Pronouns he and him Hello AG and DG from gb. I write today with some good news from Kansas. Earlier this year, the state legislature was attempting to terminate the state's Affordable Housing Tax Credit Program that gives incentives to developers to rapidly build affordable housing offered at below market rates. Since it was implemented in 2022, nearly 6,500 new units are scheduled to be available in the coming years. The House of Representatives passed a bill that would eliminate this incentive program entirely.
Allison Gill
I hate Republicans.
Dana Goldberg
Yep, however, with the help of over 40 organization individuals offering testimony to Senate, an amended bill to save the program was passed and signed by the governor. It's 70% reduction in funding, but the 30% will still help create more new units over the next three years that otherwise wouldn't exist. It's a small win, but a win nonetheless. With the passage of the amended bill, people will soon have a roof over their head at an affordable rate and a place to call their home. Advocacy works for my pod pet tariff. I present to you my pupper. You can guess the breed, although it's fairly obvious. And if you guess a poodle, I'm unsubscribing. Our favorite game is dad gets drunk and plays connect the dots. Oh, my God, it's a beautiful Dalmatian.
Allison Gill
Look at that.
Dana Goldberg
We're gonna put a link in the show notes to that tax credit program if you happen to live in Kansas, just so you know, so you have it.
Allison Gill
So Republicans were gonna get rid of it entirely and thanks to advocacy, they saved 30% of it. That's wonderful. Thank you, GB. Next up from Brian. He him you mentioned capybara swimming yesterday and you weren't sure if you were correct. You were? Yes. This is actually one of the reasons they do not make good pets. They want to live in very wet areas, which is pretty hard to do at home. Their skin will dry out quickly if they do not have somewhere wet. They're also huge, huge, eat a lot, several pounds per day. And really want to live with a number of other capybaras. Oh, fine.
Dana Goldberg
So you're saying I need to get several capybaras.
Allison Gill
Yes, I think that's what they're saying here. A pool, you need several caterpillars and a bathtub.
Dana Goldberg
It's.
Allison Gill
It's too bad, though. They're very cute, social, and cuddly. Yes, Brian, thank you so much. I appreciate that. Because, you know, when I go and see them at the zoo, they're either in their little water.
Dana Goldberg
Yeah.
Allison Gill
Pool thing or they're rolling around in the dust to dry off.
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, they look like. You remember what the good luck dragon looks like going through the falkor. Yeah, Falkor looks like going through the sky. That's what kappa bears look like in the water. All right, this is from Wendy Pronoun. She and her. Hey, hey, beans queens. I discovered your wonderful pod after hearing AG on JoJo from JERS pod. Now, back when I was on Twitter, I was a fan of Mueller. She wrote, thank you for your daily insights. I Want to give indivisible California 40, especially Amy, a shout out. Who are working diligently to remove young Kim in the midterms as my triple pod tariff, I offer my rescue coon hound, Larry.
Allison Gill
Larry.
Dana Goldberg
He's a refugee from Kentucky. They end up in. Oh, they end up in high kill shelters if they don't hunt. Oh, wow, that makes sense. He is well loved. I'm also sharing my Mexican redhead, Amazon mango, and Maxine the hummingbird sitting on her nest. She adopted my wind chime for her nest. Thank you for all the good work. Look at Larry.
Allison Gill
Awesome. He's given. He looks very. He's like. He's. He doubts everything that I say.
Dana Goldberg
That's so funny.
Allison Gill
Beautiful Burbank. That's absolutely fantastic. Thank you so much, Wendy. What a great submission. Next up, a quietly subversive fed. Ooh, I love this pronoun. She her. Hello, beans queens. From a fellow fed. Shout out to all the federal civil servants who are doing their best to serve the public despite the chaos and existential dread accompanying every new email and meeting. Stay strong, spiteful, and petty against the regime that's trying to make us walk away as potbet tax. Here are pics of my three kiddies. Seraph. I hope I'm saying that right. Watson, great name. And bear. Can you guess who is the oldest? Who's the COVID baby and their breeds? Oh, there's many guessing games. Thank you for making my work days a bit more bearable and reminding me why I continue to be subversive, spiteful, and petty. Thank you. Quietly subversive federal worker, we salute you. If you want to help provide support for federal workers, we have kicked off a. A nonprofit called Fed Oath. And there's a patreon for it. Patreon.com Fed Oath. So that money goes toward legal fees for federal workers. All right, who's the oldest?
Dana Goldberg
I think that the first one is the COVID kitty.
Allison Gill
Okay, so you.
Dana Goldberg
But you know cats better than I. There was a little. Actually, there's a little gray on her.
Allison Gill
On her. On her.
Dana Goldberg
On her mouth.
Allison Gill
So you think that the.
Dana Goldberg
I think the first one's the oldest.
Allison Gill
Okay, I think the middle one's the oldest. The big gray floof. Yeah, the big gray blue floof.
Dana Goldberg
And I do think the youngest is the black one with the belly up.
Allison Gill
I think so, too. All right, let's see what we got. The COVID baby is my void kitty. Okay, so the black kitty is the COVID baby. Seraph, the smallest of the three, is the oldest. And Only girl Watson is my suspicious, fuzzy, chonky middle boy. Okay, so I had every single one of them wrong.
Dana Goldberg
Same. Which is impressive that neither of us got one of these right.
Allison Gill
Well, you at first thought the first one was the oldest.
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, that's true.
Allison Gill
You were right.
Dana Goldberg
Oh, yeah, I got one right.
Allison Gill
Okay, you did. I got zero. So I suck at cats. All right, anyway, thank you so much for that submission. I love it.
Dana Goldberg
All right, this is from Scott, pronounced he and him. Oh, my God. Thank you AG for your rendition of Yakko's country song. I immediately knew what you were referring to and was laughing hysterically the entire time. Unfortunately, I was at the off leash dog park and got some good looks from some of the humans, but fuck it, I absolutely love Animaniacs. Animaniacs.
Allison Gill
Yeah, you got it.
Dana Goldberg
Yeah. Animaniacs. Do you recall the who's on stage bit? Incredible. Now, for my ppt, here's a pic of my BFF Sagan for Carl, who had a good fortune of meeting even made him some tea.
Allison Gill
Oh, wow.
Dana Goldberg
Sagan's a rescue from Northern California and seems to like it when I sing John Prines, you're my everything to him. Oh, that. Babe, look at this face. This is him soaking up the sun on the sunny day at our woodland retreat. Also, my good Trouble, I left many messages with the anti Christian hotline.
Allison Gill
Hell yeah, Scott, that's wonderful. Yeah, I love the Animaniacs. I was in high school when they came out and they were just fan fucking tastic.
Dana Goldberg
So good.
Allison Gill
So I appreciate that. Carl Sagan is great. I had a cat named the Face and he used to speak to his imaginary friend in the toilet, who I later decided was the ghost of Carl Sagan.
Dana Goldberg
Okay.
Allison Gill
He would put his head in the toilet and say, carl. Carl. No, Carl. And then he would flush the toilet and then run away. The cat would flush the toilet. So anyway, spoiler, Nothing certain, but I go with Chocolate lab and short hair pointer. That comes from our producer. That's awesome.
Dana Goldberg
Awesome.
Allison Gill
Beautiful dog, Scott.
Dana Goldberg
Thanks to you.
Allison Gill
Thanks to everybody who sent in your good news. Please pile on the good news. Send it in in droves. Pretend like it's Good Trouble. Pretend like it's the anti Christian hotline. Only way more fun. And. And send in all of your good news to DailyBeansPod.com and click on contact. And thanks to Jess Piper for joining us today. She's awesome. Do you have any final thoughts, my good friend? No.
Dana Goldberg
No final thoughts for today.
Allison Gill
All right, so do you think the rest of the week is going to head to the back or to the front, now that we're at the taint.
Dana Goldberg
Oh, I'm hoping we head to the front. Yeah.
Allison Gill
All right. Unless we run into a scrote, which we might do tomorrow.
Dana Goldberg
Why does it have to be a boy taint? Don't women have tains, too?
Allison Gill
Okay, so you want to head forward on a woman taint when you say it like that? Well, because last week we ran into a scrote, remember?
Dana Goldberg
I wouldn't put that in my Tinder profile, but yeah,
Allison Gill
that should be your title.
Dana Goldberg
That should be.
Allison Gill
Oh, my God. Weird and gross. And that's fine. Apologies to everyone if we.
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, sorry about that. That should have been a trigger warning.
Allison Gill
We'll be back tomorrow, see which direction we're going. 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 that's the beans.
Dana Goldberg
Refried beans.
Allison Gill
I like refried beans.
Episode Date: April 30, 2025 (Aired May 2, 2026)
Hosts: Allison Gill (AG), Dana Goldberg (DG)
Featured Guest: Jess Piper (“The View from Rural Missouri”)
This episode of The Daily Beans delivers a signature mix of political analysis, progressive snark, and grassroots organizing insights. The episode’s main focus is a lively discussion with Missouri organizer and writer Jess Piper, who talks about the intersection of rural politics, the state of American democracy, and the importance of local activism in red states. Alongside the Piper segment, the hosts cover a rapid-fire roundup of US and international news—including a controversial Trump executive order, a shocking ICE raid, a mystery Abrego Garcia court filing, and Canada’s recent snap election. The episode closes with “good news” listener submissions to raise the spirits of the Beans audience.
Mystery Government Filing in Abrego Garcia Case (05:09):
The hosts update listeners about a sealed government filing regarding the high-profile Abrego Garcia legal case. As of recording, the nature of the filing is unknown but expected to result in a judge’s decision on extending or ending discovery delays.
Trump’s Police State Executive Order (17:22):
AG dissects President Trump’s new executive order that ramps up militarization of local police, offers legal immunity and resources to officers, and targets sanctuary cities—drawing a chilling comparison to the breakdown of civilian-military separation:
“There’s a reason you separate military and the police...When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.” — Allison Gill quoting Battlestar Galactica (19:40)
Amazon Tariff Transparency & White House Pressure (05:59):
Trump pressured Jeff Bezos to drop Amazon’s plan to display tariff costs on product pages. The hosts mock White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt’s attempt to frame truth-telling as a “hostile and political act.”
ICE Raid on the Wrong Home (11:08):
Dana Goldberg recounts a harrowing story from Oklahoma City where an immigrant family’s home was raided in error, resulting in their property being seized and personal trauma—even though the family did not match the warrant.
North Dakota Senator Sex Abuse Cover-up (14:03):
A grim segment details newly released call logs showing North Dakota’s former AG communicated with a state senator during a sex crime investigation, despite denying knowledge—exposing an apparent long-term cover-up.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting Sues Trump Administration (15:58):
CPB files suit after Trump attempts to unlawfully dismiss its board members, challenging federal overreach.
Canadian Snap Election — Liberal Victory (20:19):
Much-needed international good news: Mark Carney’s Liberal Party wins the Canadian snap election, ousting far-right candidate Pierre Poilievre, whose prospects tanked after Trump threatened a trade war and annexation rhetoric.
“A record 7.3 million Canadians cast ballots before election day.” — Dana Goldberg (22:30)
“We could all here in the United States use an emotional support Canadian right about now.” — Allison Gill (04:32)
Lindsey Graham’s Unhinged Tweet (22:34):
Dana reads out a bizarre, apparently real tweet from Lindsey Graham feigning excitement for Trump as Pope, prompting exasperated laughter and banter.
“If we’re trying to get sexual abuse out of the Catholic church, putting a rapist in is probably not the best idea.” — Dana Goldberg (23:48)
Pronatalism, Child Marriage, and the GOP’s Baby Bonus (28:05):
Jess explains how recent Republican efforts to pay women to have children ($5,000 bonus) align with attempts to block bans on child marriage—creating “intersectionality” between anti-abortion, pronatalist, and regressive child labor efforts.
“We don’t need tinfoil hats to see what’s going on.” — Jess Piper (29:40)
Bizarre Missouri Politicians: Jess relays the story of MO State Senator Mike Moon, who once butchered a chicken live on Facebook to protest abortion—highlighting GOP normalization of extremist rhetoric and behavior in rural states.
Red State Exodus & Rural-Urban Parallels (33:27):
Discussion on how repressive laws drive progressives out of red states, impeding constitutional change. Jess notes similarities between rural and urban Americans’ priorities:
“There’s not a lot of daylight between my Republican neighbors and myself...Most of the rural Democrats I know are gun owners.” — Jess Piper (35:28)
Religion & Democratic Messaging in Rural Areas (36:10):
The role of church-driven political indoctrination means voters often refuse to support Democrats purely on Christianity grounds:
“I can’t vote for you because I’m a Christian.” — Jess Piper (36:10)
Organizing Strategy: Local Faces, Building Benches (37:23):
Jess outlines what it takes to win locally: known community members on the ballot, persistent door-knocking, and long-term investment—even in unwinnable races:
“You have to have someone that they’re going to open the door for in the first place.” — Jess Piper (37:37) “The only way for Democrats to come back is to put money into races that are going to lose...for at least a cycle or two and be willing to do it.” — Jess Piper (40:29)
Grassroots Hope:
Jess highlights momentum: Trump flags coming down, local Democrats gaining visibility, and the impact of her organization (Blue Missouri), which provides micro-grants to rural campaigns.
“There are cracks in the facade. Trump flags are coming down. People who were very loud are very quiet now.” — Jess Piper (42:02) “Every one of these, you know, down-ballot candidates are worth it. And I hope people are investing in people like that.” — Jess Piper (43:41)
On the rise of the police state (19:40):
“There’s a reason you separate military and the police...When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.” — AG
On religious influence in rural voting (36:10):
“I can’t vote for you because I’m a Christian.” — Jess Piper, recounting conversations at rural doors
On running and supporting local Dems (40:29):
“The only way for Democrats to come back is to put money into races that are going to lose...for at least a cycle or two and be willing to do it.” — Jess Piper
On unity between rural and urban dwellers (35:28):
“There’s not a lot of daylight between my Republican neighbors and myself...Most of the rural Democrats I know are gun owners.” — Jess Piper
On current hope for rural organizing (42:02):
“There are cracks in the facade. Trump flags are coming down. People who were very loud are very quiet now.” — Jess Piper
The episode blends urgent political concern with humor and hope, highlighting both the real dangers facing US democracy (executive overreach, police militarization, attacks on immigrant families) and the resilience of grassroots efforts, especially in rural, red-state America. Jess Piper’s segment is both sobering and optimistic—emphasizing the necessity, possibility, and impact of bottom-up organizing. The closing listener segment and pet pictures allow the community to share joy and solidarity in tough times.
For listeners who missed the episode:
This is a quintessential Daily Beans episode—informative, irreverent, hopeful, and determinedly focused on the power of local action and the importance of not giving up, no matter how bleak the headlines get.