Strange Things Afoot (feat. John Fugelsang)

Summary

Summary of The Daily Beans – Episode "Strange Things Afoot (feat. John Fugelsang)"

Release Date: July 18, 2025

In this episode of The Daily Beans, hosted by Allison Gill and Dana Goldberg of MSW Media, the conversation navigates through a series of unsettling political and social developments in the United States. Featuring insights from comedian and activist John Fugelsang, the episode delves into contentious Senate Judiciary actions, high-stakes investigations into Jeffrey Epstein's financial dealings, troubling reports on the National Guard's deployment in Los Angeles, and unexpected revelations about former President Donald Trump's health. The hosts blend progressive news with their characteristic snark, providing listeners with a comprehensive analysis of current events.

1. Senate Judiciary Committee Turmoil ([00:00 - 08:56])

The episode opens with alarming news from the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Democrats walked out in protest after Republicans advanced Emil Bovey's nomination without adhering to established debate rules.

Allison Gill [00:00]: "Senate Judiciary Democrats walked out of the room after Republicans violated the rules and pushed Emil Bovey's confirmation forward without debate."

This action raises concerns about the fairness of the confirmation process for Bovey, Trump's personal defense lawyer, and Jeanine Pirro, nominated as U.S. Attorney for D.C. The Democratic strategy involves appealing to the Senate parliamentarian to potentially void the vote, while Republicans maintain that the nominations can proceed.

Allison Gill [08:56]: "Politico, Bloomberg, Raw Story, NPR. But not a peep from the New York Times or the Washington Post."

The hosts express skepticism about major outlets' silence on the issue, highlighting potential biases and the challenges in getting comprehensive coverage.

2. Iranian Nuclear Site Assessment ([08:56 - 10:13])

Shifting focus to international affairs, the discussion covers a recent U.S. assessment indicating that only one of the three targeted Iranian nuclear enrichment sites was largely destroyed.

Allison Gill [08:52]: "We should keep you up to date on what's going on with that."

This partial success suggests that Iran may recover its nuclear capabilities more swiftly than anticipated, raising concerns about regional security and the effectiveness of U.S. military actions.

3. DOJ's Lenient Recommendation in Breonna Taylor Case ([10:13 - 15:04])

A particularly contentious topic is the Department of Justice's recommendation for a mere one-day prison sentence for Brett Hankison, the officer convicted of violating Breonna Taylor's civil rights.

Dana Goldberg [11:03]: "Recommending just one day in prison sends the unmistakable message that white officers can violate the civil rights of black Americans with near total impunity."

The hosts vehemently criticize the DOJ's decision, emphasizing its implications for racial justice and police accountability.

4. National Guard Deployment in Los Angeles ([15:04 - 30:07])

Concerns escalate as reports emerge about low morale and internal conflicts within the California National Guard deployed in Los Angeles. Soldiers express dissatisfaction with the mission's purpose, particularly regarding immigration crackdowns, and report poor conditions leading to disruptive behaviors.

National Guard Official [15:04]: "The morale injuries of this operation I think will be enduring."

Alison Gill underscores the significant financial expenditure juxtaposed with the reported inefficacies and negative impact on troop wellbeing.

Allison Gill [15:11]: "140 something million dollars for them to play video games and be away from their families."

5. Senator Ron Wyden's Investigation into Epstein's Financial Network ([16:18 - 20:37])

Highlighting a major investigative breakthrough, Senator Ron Wyden reveals over $1.5 billion in suspicious transactions linked to Jeffrey Epstein. These funds flowed through major banks, suggesting a complex web of financial malpractice potentially connected to Epstein's sex trafficking operations.

Dana Goldberg [18:46]: "What a little bit of good Trouble."

The investigation exposes transactions involving esteemed banking institutions like JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, and Bank of America, raising questions about regulatory failures and complicity.

6. Wall Street Journal's Revelatory Article on Trump and Epstein ([20:37 - 26:08])

A bombshell revelation comes from the Wall Street Journal, which uncovers Donald Trump's connections to Jeffrey Epstein. The article includes a 2003 birthday album prepared by Ghislaine Maxwell, featuring letters and memorabilia from notable figures, including Trump.

Alison Gill [22:22]: "The letter concludes, 'happy birthday and may every day be another wonderful secret.'"

Trump vehemently denies authorship of the incriminating letter and threatens legal action against the publication.

Donald Trump [22:23]: "I never wrote a picture in my life. It's not me. It's a fake thing."

This revelation intensifies scrutiny over Trump's past associations and possible involvement in Epstein's illicit activities.

7. Trump's Health Disclosure ([28:56 - 31:18])

In an unprecedented move, the White House discloses that Donald Trump has been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), a condition affecting blood flow from the legs to the heart.

Dana Goldberg [30:07]: "And you have to kind of understand that all of the distractions in the past 48 hours... are still part of the story of the Epstein files."

The admission is met with skepticism regarding its timing and implications, leading to speculations about underlying health issues previously concealed from the public.

Allison Gill [28:54]: "So it's not like they're making up a medical concern. Right. This is an actual medical thing that's been happening to him for a long time."

8. Fugal Saying Friday with John Fugelsang ([35:17 - 54:01])

Comedian and activist John Fugelsang joins the conversation to discuss the overwhelming focus on Epstein-related stories in the media. He draws parallels to the media saturation during the O.J. Simpson case, emphasizing the repetitive nature of news cycles that may detract from other significant issues.

John Fugelsang [35:27]: "This is the Jeffrey Epstein Story is that band we used to go see in college, and now suddenly they're mainstream."

Fugelsang criticizes the administration's handling of scandals, suggesting that Trump's distractions are a tactic to divert attention from more severe allegations.

John Fugelsang [50:25]: "The real villain here is the Republican Party. All but one voted to shield those patterns."

He advocates for sustained political pressure and media vigilance to ensure accountability and transparency.

9. Good News Segment: Listener Highlights ([55:37 - 66:33])

To conclude on a positive note, Alison Gill and Dana Goldberg present heartwarming stories submitted by listeners. Highlights include:

• Julie's Story [57:47]: Celebrating her mother's 100th birthday, reflecting on resilience through decades of adversity.

  Julie [57:47]: "If she can endure all of that, we can endure all of this."

• Dana's Rescue Dogs: Showcasing her adorable brindle dogs, Ubu and Ranger, symbolizing hope and companionship.

  Dana Goldberg [59:05]: "Both brindles with complementary color palettes."

• Kipster's Comics Place [62:35]: Praising a local comic book store as a community hub that supported customers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  Kipster [62:36]: "The Comics Place has become a welcoming and supportive community to all who enter."

These stories serve as a reminder of the resilience and positivity thriving amidst challenging times.

---

Notable Quotes:

• Allison Gill [00:00]: "Senate Judiciary Democrats walked out of the room after Republicans violated the rules and pushed Emil Bovey's confirmation forward without debate."

• Dana Goldberg [11:03]: "Recommending just one day in prison sends the unmistakable message that white officers can violate the civil rights of black Americans with near total impunity."

• John Fugelsang [35:27]: "This is the Jeffrey Epstein Story is that band we used to go see in college, and now suddenly they're mainstream."

• Allison Gill [22:22]: "The letter concludes, 'happy birthday and may every day be another wonderful secret.'"

• Allison Gill [28:54]: "So it's not like they're making up a medical concern. Right. This is an actual medical thing that's been happening to him for a long time."

This episode of The Daily Beans offers a critical examination of significant national issues, blending investigative reporting with engaging dialogue and community-focused positivity.

Transcript

[Alison Gill]

MSW Media. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Friday, July 18, 2025. Today, something is going on. I'm not quite sure yet what it is, but we'll figure it out, I'm assuming in the next couple of days. But today, Senate Judiciary Democrats walked out of the room after Republicans violated the rules and pushed Emil Bovey's confirmation forward without debate. Judge Crenshaw has set a January 2026 trial date for Kilmar Abrego, provided he's not detained and disappeared to a third country. First National Guard troops are questioning their deployment to Los Angeles as morale plummets. Trump's Justice Department is recommending a one day prison sentence for the officer that murdered Breonna Taylor. Senator Ron Wyden has uncovered over $1.5 billion in bank transactions from clients to Jeffrey Epstein. A new assessment shows Trump only destroyed one of the three Iranian nuclear sites. And Trump has been diagnosed with cvi. I'm Alison Gill.

[Dana Goldberg]

And I'm Dana Goldberg.

[Alison Gill]

Hey, it's a very odd Thursday. What's up, Dana?

[Dana Goldberg]

It is a very odd Thursday. Like there's something afoot.

[Alison Gill]

Something is afoot.

[Dana Goldberg]

And I'm not just talking about his swollen feet. I'm there is something afoot. I love also that they were like, the president has minor swelling in his ankles. And I'm like, how big were they to start if that's minor swelling?

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. And I, I realize it's Thursday as we record this. I keep forgetting that everybody's probably listening to this on Friday. But yes, yes, strange things are afoot at the Circle K, as they say in Bill and Ted's excellent adventure. And we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about Senate Judiciary Democrats walking out of the room. Emil Bovey's confirmation probably doesn't hang in the balance, but it might be delayed a little bit because I think that the Democrats are going to go talk to the Senate parliamentarian about Chuck Grassley breaking the rules.

[Dana Goldberg]

Good.

[Alison Gill]

Or his staffer, at least. It's Fugal saying Friday. So I'll be talking to John Fugal saying later. Looking forward to that. Also, Judge Crenshaw in Tennessee has set a trial date of January 27th of next year for Kilmar Abrego in his criminal case. Again, that's provided that he hasn't been disappeared to a third country between now and then. So we're currently awaiting orders from two judges, including Crenshaw and Sinis on whether he can be released pending trial and whether he'll get due process or even adequate notice before he's removed from the United States. So that's what's kind of going on there. But there's also. And we're going to talk about a couple of specific stories, but there's weird things going on with the Epstein files and Trump's health, and I'm not sure if they're connected, but, you know, I've read some things that you've posted, Dana. I've read something that our good friend Charlotte Clymer posted. And it's just weird that, I mean, in the history of Donald Trump, never once has he or anybody around him admitted that he is not the specimen.

[Dana Goldberg]

Of perfect human health.

[Alison Gill]

Yes, exactly. And so when that first came out that the press secretary said he's got cvi, you know, it was kind of gobsmacking. Not that he was diagnosed with anything, but that they admitted it. And at this weird time when apparently the Wall Street Journal's holding onto a story and Donald Trump is trying to keep it from being published, and Ron Wyden is looking into Epstein stuff, and everybody's calling for the release of the files, it just all seems very like something's. We're on the precipice of something happening.

[Dana Goldberg]

We are. And I don't. And I know everyone's like, it's a distraction from the Epstein files. It's not these, this. All of the speculation about Trump's health was running in tandem with all of the drama from the Epstein files. It wasn't taking away attention. So to admit that he has any sort of ailment would actually take that out of the news cycle. They're trying to get rid of the speculation. There's something seriously wrong with him. There's not something seriously wrong. He has a circulation issue. Let's put it to rest. It's not going. There was nothing to do. You know what I mean? This wasn't a distraction from the Epstein files because they were running parallel to each other. So I actually think, you know, if you follow Charlotte Clymer online, we don't want to go down conspiracy theories, but if they wanted to get rid of Trump, if they were done with him, he served his purpose, his health would be a perfect reason for him to step down. I just, you know, it should be really interesting, but something is up. And it's not just a distraction from Epstein files, because this is not going away.

[Alison Gill]

Right. And you have to kind of understand that all of the distractions in the past 48 hours, and I put distractions and air quotes, distractions from the Epstein files are still part of the story of the Epstein files. Right.

[Dana Goldberg]

Do you know what I mean?

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. So, I mean, you know, and again, it's, it's weird for us because, Dana, you and I have been doing this show since 2020, and we have long reported on investigations into Epstein and the Epstein files and all the things going on right back going back to the Mueller She Wrote days. You know, we reported heavily on this when it was happening. And the MAGA folks wouldn't listen. Right. They didn't believe it or they thought it was all Democrats. And, you know, it's kind of the basis for their cult. And so, I mean, it's, it's, a lot of this isn't new, but it's getting oxygen again.

[Dana Goldberg]

It is. And now that we've got news stories we're going to cover about money trails, like, this is getting bigger. It's not getting smaller.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. So if you're listening to this as a listener from the Mueller She Wrote days or for listening to us for four years now, you might be saying you've already told us this. AG and dg we already know. Yes. But it is now anew.

[Dana Goldberg]

Now they know. Now they know too.

[Alison Gill]

Right. And so all of these stories are going to start coming out again. And so while we may already kind of know it, it's going to be sounding to a lot of people like that's the first time they've heard it. So bear with us as we, as we move through this. But yeah, something, something's weird. We're at the tippy top of the roller coaster. I'm not quite sure what it is. We should find out soon. I keep refreshing my feed to see if this Wall Street Journal thing comes out. But anyway, I just wanted to kind of give everybody a heads up there. All right, we have a lot of news to get to everybody. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up from NBC. Democrats walked out of a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Thursday that advanced senior Justice Department official Emil Bovey's nomination for a federal judgeship, alleging Republicans had broken the rules, improperly rushed the process. A spokesperson for the top Democrat on the panel, Dick Durbin of Illinois, said that as a result, it's an open question whether the nominations of Bovey, who was Trump's personal defense lawyer, and Jeanine Pirro, Judge Box of Wine, whom the president has picked for U.S. attorney of D.C. are moving forward. It's up in the air. According to Dick Durbin, one of the most conservative dudes Democrats in the Senate, right? Yeah. We're always like, Dick Durbin, do something. And he's saying this. So that's actually saying something. A spokesperson said the Republican majority broke several rules with its actions and Democrats would make their case. They're going to make their case to the Senate parliamentarian that the vote should be voided. Now, spokesperson for the committee's chairman Chuck Grassley said there's no dispute and both Bovey's nomination to The Philadelphia based 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals and Pirro's nomination can move ahead to the full Senate. Now. What I noticed, Dana, was how this was reported. I had to dig for this when it was first coming out. MSNBC and NBC were the first to report it. Hats off. Then it was followed by multiple smaller outlets. Politico, Bloomberg, Raw Story, npr. But not a peep from the New York Times or the Washington Post.

[Dana Goldberg]

Interesting.

[Alison Gill]

I think that's really interesting. Kind of a. You could see my like real time reporting about this on Blue sky in a thread like, oh, here, now they're on board. This news outlet's on board. This news outlet's on board. Still nothing. I don't think as we sit here, there's still anything from the Washington Post, although a friend of mine did get a notification from the Washington Post on, on his phone and thought, oh good, here's the story finally. It actually turned out to be a recommendation of great sandwich shops you could visit in the D. D.C area. So that's what's going on with the old Democracy Dies in Darkness publication. But you know, Professor Aaron Reichland Melnick made a good point. He's like, bezos doesn't care. The whole entire publication of the Washington Post is like a 20 bill to him.

[Dana Goldberg]

Right?

[Alison Gill]

Nothing. So anyway, here we are.

[Dana Goldberg]

We shall see. But we are moving on. This one is from NBC and this seems like ages ago now, but it wasn't even a month ago. One of the three nuclear enrichment sites in Iran struck by the United States last month was mostly, mostly dead. He's only mostly, mostly dead. It was only mostly destroyed, setting work there back significantly. But the two other ones, they were not as badly damaged and they may have been degraded only to a point where nuclear enrichment could resume in the next several months if Iran wanted it to. That's according to recent U.S. assessment of the destruction caused by the military operation. Five current and former U.S. officials familiar with the assessment. That's what they told NBC. The assessment, which is part of the Trump administration's ongoing efforts to determine the status of Iran's nuclear program since the facilities were struck. It was briefed to some of US Lawmakers, the Defense Department officials and allied countries in recent days. So we'll keep you posted on what's going on with that. But we knew that. We knew that. We also, you know, we reported that they had had warning and moved a lot of the things in those facilities. So we'll keep you up to date.

[Alison Gill]

Morning from Donald Trump, by the way, on his own social media platform. Yeah, just saber rattling.

[Dana Goldberg]

And I'm like, oh, we should strike these. So there you go.

[Alison Gill]

We should move our stuff. All right. Yeah, yeah. And like I first read that story, I'm like, this isn't breaking the Iran strikes were years ago. No, this was today. Go right. Next up from abc, the Department of Justice recommended that former the former officer who was found guilty of violating Brianna Taylor's civil rights during a botched Kentucky raid should receive one day of imprisonment. In a sentencing memorandum filed Wednesday, Brett Hankison was found guilty of one count of violating Taylor's civil rights when the former Louisville police officer blindly shot into her apartment 10 times in March of 2020, Hankison's bullets didn't hit anyone. The Justice Department filing, which also recommended three years of supervised release, was signed by department officials and none of the line prosecutors. I want to make that clear. This is coming directly from Harmeet Dhillon.

[Dana Goldberg]

Okay.

[Alison Gill]

Who is the head of the Civil Rights for White People division at the Department of Justice, which is what I'm calling it now. Now here's a quote from Taylor's family's attorney. This sets a dangerous precedent. When a police officer is found guilty of violating someone's constitutional rights, there must be real accountability and justice. Recommending just one day in prison sends the unmistakable message that white officers can violate the civil rights of black Americans with near total impunity. And again, this is just Trump's justice. It's just cruel. One day. Yeah, it's the department signaling that murdering black people is okay. Awful. It's horrible. And Breonna Taylor deserves justice, not this.

[Dana Goldberg]

Absolutely. She does. Absolutely. Thank you, Alison. This one is from the Times. Six members of the Guard, including infantrymen, officers and two official in leadership roles. They spoke of low morale and deep concern that the deployment may have hurt recruitment for the state based military force for years to come. Those who were interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity, of course, because military orders bar guard personnel from publicly discussing the federal deployment and they feared retribution for talking to the media. All but one of the six expressed reservations about the deployment. Several said that they had raised objections themselves or knew someone who did object, either because they didn't want to be involved in immigration crackdowns or they felt the Trump administration had put them on the streets for what they described as, quote, a fake mission. The New York Times reached out to a broad pool of soldiers seeking interviews about the deployment, while a small sample those six soldiers comments aligned with other signs of poor morale. At least 105 members of the deployment sought counseling from behavior health officers, and at least one company commander and one battalion commander who objected to the mission were reassigned to work unrelated to mobilization. This is what the Guard officer said. Some troops became so disgruntled that there were several reports of soldiers defecating on Humvees and showers at the Southern California base where the troops are stationed, prompting tightening bathroom security. And I quote, the morale injuries of this operation I think will be enduring. This is from one of two Guard officials. They went on to say, this is not what the military of our country was designed to do at all. The sick soldiers said that even though they are receiving higher pay and more benefits on a federal mission than they would under a state activation, they're eager to go home. The National Guard is ordinarily a primetime commitment, and many members have been on almost continuous duty since Mr. Newsom summoned them after the fires to assist local authorities, which is what they should have been summoned for. We needed them. Now. The new mission has put them at odds with communities and families. Several soldiers said this and Mr. Trump's immigration crackdown has spread fear and panic in Hispanic immigration communities in Los Angeles region. A majority of the California National Guard's 18,000 members, they're based in Southern California and roughly 40% of them are of Hispanic heritage. Could you imagine in one incident that several soldier soldiers. I'm not sure why my tongue's getting tied on soldiers but said occurred earlier in the deployment. 60 troops 60 troops were awaiting transport to planned immigration raids in Ventura county when a Latino soldier approached officers in charge of the mission. He told them that he strongly objected and he offered to be arrested rather than take part in the operation. Eventually, they said, he was reassigned to administrative tasks. Officials at the military's Northern Command declined to comment about that incident. On the base, soldiers said they received riot training, reviewed battlefield maneuvers and drilled to leap from their cots and gear up at a moment's notice. Now, mostly, they said, they lounged in a warehouse sized tents, listening to music and playing games on their cell phones. Only about 400 of the 3,882 deployed Guard members had actually even been sent on assignments away from the base. Just a waste of so much money.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. 140 something million dollars for them to play video games and be away from their families.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

As part of their part time service in the National Guard. No wonder morale is low.

[Dana Goldberg]

No kidding.

[Alison Gill]

I didn't know that about defecating on vehicles and.

[C]

Wow.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah, they seem mad. And that was apparent at least. You know, moving from the National Guard to the army in that stupid parade. Yeah. You know, like they just seemed like we would rather not be here. We would rather not be marching in front of a Crypto.com sneaker watch ad or whatever the fuck.

[Dana Goldberg]

Seriously.

[Alison Gill]

All right, Dana, The Wall Street Journal article that we were anticipating has just dropped. So I'm going to get into that in a second. But first, we have some reporting from the Times about Senator Ron Wyden, top Democrat on the powerful Senate Finance Committee. He's been digging into Epstein's financial network for the last three years. You and I have been reporting on this. Some members of his staff have viewed confidential files that shed light on the immense sums of money that they say Mr. Epstein moved through the banking system to fuel his vast sex trafficking network. In particular, filings by four big banks flagged more than. Get this, Dana. $1.5 billion in transactions.

[C]

Wow.

[Alison Gill]

Including thousands of wire transfers for the purchase and sale of artwork for rich friends, fees paid to Epstein by wealthy individuals, and payments to numerous women. That's according to Wyden's office. The filings came after Mr. Epstein was arrested in 2019 on those federal sex trafficking charges. Large money transfers to individuals, foreign countries, or obscure companies are the kind of things that banks are supposed to be examining as potentially suspicious. That's by law. Some of the Epstein money transfers disclosed in the report from JPMorgan Chase involved accounts at two Russian banks before those institutions were subject to sanctions. A few transactions red flagged were for as much as $100 million in a single transaction. The bank records reviewed by Mr. Wyden's staff, these are. These records are called Suspicious Activity Reports or sars. They are meant to be an early warning system for law enforcement about signs of illegal activity and money laundering as dictated by federal law. Those reports are so confidential that banks can't even acknowledge that they filed them. And people who have seen them are under great constraint as to what they can say about them. Members of Mr. Wyden's staff provided an overview of these reports to the New York Times. Based on their review of the filings, and they probably weren't supposed to do that. To some degree, Mr. Wyden is hamstrung by these rules, which is why he wants the Trump administration to make the reports available to Congress so that members can review them and possibly issue subpoenas to the banks for more information. The banks that filed the reports reviewed by Mr. Wyden's team, JP Morgan, bank of America, bank of New York Mellon, which all declined to comment, and of course, Deutsche bank, which did comment, saying, we regret our historical connection with Jeffrey Epstein, I'm sure. And Mr. Wyden began his investigation about three years ago, like I said, with a particular focus on the $158 million in payments that Leon Black made to Mr. Epstein. You and I talked about him a lot, Dana. Back in the day, this was for tax and real estate planning services. $158 million for tax advice. My accountant makes just a little bit less than that. Now I feel like just under underpaying her. Mr. Black, who socialized with Epstein, was a co founder of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management. By the way, if that sounds familiar, that is the Global Management Group that bailed out Kushner's 666 Fifth Avenue building with the help of Cutter.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh, boy.

[Alison Gill]

And met with him at the White House early on in the first Trump administration. Anyway, I digress. In early 2021, Leon Black stepped down from all of his leadership posts after those payments and his close ties to Epstein became public. Black's legal team said that Mr. Epstein's work saved Mr. Black some $2 billion in taxes and that he did nothing wrong. So he paid him 150 million to save him $2 billion in taxes. Okay. Early last year, his investigators, along with several Republican committee staffers, were permitted by treasury officials to look at those secret filings, those SARs from the four banks. Single largest suspicious activity report reviewed by them was filed in 2019 by J.P. morgan for $1.1 billion. The report covered 4,700 transactions dating back to 2003, including payments to women from Belarus, Russia, and Turkmenistan. Many of Mr. Epstein's victims included young women from Eastern European countries. Melania, the next largest was by Deutsche Bank, $400 million, followed by bank of New York Mellon, 378 million. And then bank of America, which filed reports on Mr. Black's payments to Epstein. 2023, JP Morgan paid $290 million to Epstein's victims and Deutsche Bank 75 million to settle lawsuits that claimed the banks ignored red flags about sex trafficking. And we may know the reason. Trump has been distracting everyone from the Epstein files over the last 48 hours. Oliver Darcy pointed out earlier today on Thursday that anticipation is rippling through political and media circles as insiders await a potentially explosive Wall Street Journal story examining Trump's ties with Jeffrey Epstein. The article, said to have been in the works for days, has still not appeared as of Thursday afternoon, raising eyebrows and fueling speculation across Washington and New York. But it just dropped. Dana. So let me tell you what's in this.

[Dana Goldberg]

Are you serious?

[Alison Gill]

Yeah, it's here. We just got it.

[Dana Goldberg]

Wow.

[Alison Gill]

All right, here we go. And this is unplanned. So sorry if this. Sorry if this goes a little bit long, but it was Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday. Ghislaine Maxwell was preparing a special gift, and she turned to Epstein's family and friends. One of them was Donald Trump. Maxwell collected letters from Trump and dozens of Epstein's other associates for a 2003 birthday album. That's according to documents reviewed by the Journal. Pages from the leather bound album, which might have been in those boxes of files that were found at Mar a Lago, Remember, there was a leather bound album there, assembled before Epstein was arrested in 2006, are among the documents examined by Justice Department officials who investigated Epstein and Maxwell years ago. And that's according to people who have reviewed the pages now. The President's past relationship. It's in a sensitive moment. Justice Department documents the Epstein files, or who or what is in them, is at the center of a story storm consuming the administration, et cetera, et cetera. Trump has been lashing out, saying, let it go. The letter bearing Trump's name, which was reviewed by the Journal, is body like others in the album. It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman's breast. And the future president's signature is the squiggly Donald below her waist, mimicking pubic hair. Gross. The letter concludes, happy birthday and may every day be another wonderful secret, unquote. In an interview with the Journal Tuesday, Trump denied writing the letter or drawing the picture. It's not me. It's fake. It's fake thing. That's what he said. I never wrote a picture in my life. I never. That's a quote. I never wrote a picture in my life.

[Dana Goldberg]

I see that being a quote.

[Alison Gill]

I don't draw pictures of women. It's not my language. It's not my Words. Pictures are not his words, okay? He told the Journal he was preparing to file a lawsuit if the Wall Street Journal published this article. I'm going to sue you like I sued everyone else, he said. Allegations that Epstein had been sexually abusing girls became public in 2006. We remember that he goes over the sweetheart deal. Among those who submitted letters, Leslie Wexner and Alan Dershowitz. Leslie Wexner was the model Victoria's Secret person. Alan Dershowitz. We know him. Captain Underpants.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah.

[Alison Gill]

The album also contained a letter from now deceased Harvard economist one of Epstein's report cards from Mark Twain Junior High School in Brooklyn, and a note from a former assistant that included an acrostic. What's an arc. What's an acrostic? An acrostic with Epstein's name. Jeffrey. O. Jeffrey, everyone loves you. Fun in the sun. Fun just for fun. Remember, don't forget me soon. Epstein, you rock. You are the best. This sounds like a weird, disgusting yearbook. All right. Epstein was Wexner's money manager at the time, longtime leader of Victoria's Secrets. Wrote a short message. I wanted to get you what you want. So here it is. Unquote. All right, I'm looking for other things. Dershowitz's letter included a mock up of a Vanity unfair magazine cover with mock headlines such as, who was Jack the Ripper? Was it Jeffrey Epstein? And he joked he had convinced the magazine to change the focus of the article from Epstein to Bill Clinton. Whoa. All right. Dershowitz, who represented Epstein in his first arrest, he's also the one who got that sweetheart deal, who wrote it up for Acosta. It's been a long time, and I don't recall the content of what I may have written. That's what he said. The book was put together by a New York City bookbinder, Herbert Weitz. According to people who involved. Weitz, who died in 2020, listed Epstein as a client on his website in 2003. It's not clear how the letter with Trump's signature was prepared. Inside the outline of the naked woman is a typewritten note styled as an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein, written in the third person. There must be more to life than having everything it says. Donald. Yes, there is. But I won't tell you what it is. Jeffrey. Nor will I, since I also know what it is. Donald. We have certain things in common. Jeffrey. Jeffrey. Yes, we do. Come to think of it, Donald, enigmas never age. Have you noticed that? Jeffrey? As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last Time I saw you, Trump. A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy birthday. And may every day be another wonderful secret.

[Dana Goldberg]

I'm so disgusted that a man who is clearly involved, involved in some way, and I think we all know, in a sex trafficking ring of underage girls, raping, taking advantage, sexually assaulting, has been the President of the United States twice now. I'm so disgusted right now. Like, enraged disgusted. I'm gonna throw up.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. Yeah. And when you think about the timing, right, when the Wall Street Journal reporters contacted Trump, that was, you know, and he threatened to sue if they published it two days ago. That was the same time that he went out and claimed on Truth Social that Obama and Biden made up the Epstein files.

[Dana Goldberg]

Right.

[Alison Gill]

Wow. All right. I have posted a gift link to this Wall Street Journal article. There's more in here, but a lot of it is backstory. But it's on my Blue sky account, and that is Ohlershirote, so thank you for letting me get that in there, Dana. I know we're probably running a little behind today, but that just came out, and I just wanted to share it with everybody.

[Dana Goldberg]

No worries. I appreciate you. You know, it's. It's funny, when you said Melania, I don't understand why more people aren't talking about. She's in almost every fucking picture standing next to him at these parties. She knows everything. And the other person that I was just thinking about, Michael Cohen, also has to know about this stuff.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah.

[Dana Goldberg]

And I know he came forward with the other case and he really did what he needed to do in that moment, but he was his lawyer the entire fucking time.

[Alison Gill]

And the other thing I was thinking of was, do you remember that when Justice Kennedy retired and there was a video of him and Trump walking away, and Trump says something, and Justice Kennedy gets mad and wags his finger at Trump, and everyone's like, what did they say? What did they say? And now I have to wonder, because we know Justice Kennedy's nephew or son, excuse me, worked at Deutsche bank. And I thought it would just had to do with all of the shady loans through Russia.

[Dana Goldberg]

I thought so, too. And now it definitely seems that it was. He could have possibly been funneling money to Epstein from that bank to pay for this stuff.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. So Justice Kennedy. Somebody should ask him again.

[Dana Goldberg]

Shit balls. This has been going on for so long.

[Alison Gill]

I know. I know.

[Dana Goldberg]

All right, we're going to move on from this just for the moment, but this one's from the Post. The White House on Thursday said that Donald Trump has been diagnosed with a mild but chronic illness related to his age. A rare admission from one of the nation's oldest presidents, who has long sought to protect vigor and little transparency. So Trump has chronic venous insufficiency. This is what the White House physician said in a memorandum, a condition in which the legs have trouble delivering blood back to the heart, which I think is sort of ironic. In an afternoon press briefing, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levett described the diagnosis as a benign and common condition, particularly in individuals over the age of 70. She introduced the issue after images circulating online this week of Trump with swollen legs at the FIFA World cup and a bruised hand baked in makeup, prompting swarms of Internet users to speculate that his administration was covering up a health crisis. And this has been going on for years, by the way. It's one after the other now. Leave it. Told reporters during the press briefing that the president noticed, and I quote, mild swelling in his lower legs and received an exam by the White House medical unit. She said the bruising on the back of his hands is consistent with minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin, which is taking as part of standard cardiovascular prevention regimen. But we've seen these videos of him dragging one of his legs, and I have. It all has to be connected, but there's zero chance, zero chance that this is what this is about. I would put money on it.

[Alison Gill]

And, you know, let's just say here, like, this is stage three of this cvi. Right. So that it's been going on for a while.

[Dana Goldberg]

Right.

[Alison Gill]

And we know that recently and like during the. When and President Biden was diagnosed with cancer and Trump made a thing about it, it was stage nine, which is wrong. It's not what it is. But trying to insinuate that Biden knew about his cancer diagnosis prior to the election, which is just not true. But with every accusation being a confession, I'm imagining that this was a diagnosis that he's had for a while and he kept it from everybody prior to the election. Number two, this has been going on for a while, but, you know, so it's not like they're making up a medical concern. Right. This is an actual medical thing that's been happening to him for a long time. But again, they've never admitted that he's less than Superman.

[Dana Goldberg]

Right.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah.

[Dana Goldberg]

I'm telling you, six, two. There's a whole lot.

[Alison Gill]

234 pounds. Yeah.

[Dana Goldberg]

There's a whole lot of little storms brewing around.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. So. And.

[Dana Goldberg]

And nor would they ever admit that, that there was something wrong with his heart. This is sass cardiovascular has something to do with his heart and his circulation not working well, I don't know. We'll see what's going on.

[Alison Gill]

The doctors examined him and found that he has no heart. And that is why he can't get the blood back from his.

[Dana Goldberg]

There's nowhere for the blood to go back to. We have no idea the path of where the blood just stays in the feet because it has no other purpose.

[Alison Gill]

And this is a very common diagnosis. I've read a bunch of stuff about this. A very common. It happens with age. It's not anything that anybody should be mocking or making fun of. It's just very interesting timing. And they never ever admit that there's anything wrong with them. And that is, and the fact that it's been going on for a while makes me wonder if he knew before the election and didn't share that information with people. But it is a very minor diagnosis. It rarely leads to surgery or other complications. But it's just odd right now that they would be admitting for the first time that there's something medically wrong with us.

[Dana Goldberg]

Agreed. Because this isn't a new condition. And listen, I, when I fly, I've got my little cankles. I don't know where they come from. I have little chicken legs normally, but when the heat, when I fly, a lot of people have stuff like this that, you know, you get swelling in the feet and the ankles because the circulation can't get back to your heart in time. And it. So like you said, this isn't an uncommon thing. It is uncommon for this president to admit that he's not perfect, especially now.

[Alison Gill]

And because like, if it were you or me and we were running for president, we'd be like, oh, yeah, by the way, I have chronic cvi. I, I, I can't fly without compression socks or whatever the hell it is. Everybody know everything about my medical condition. Anyway, thank you for that story. And before we get to John Fugal saying we do have a little bit of good Trouble. What are you guys doing? All right, everybody. A listener sent me an amazing ref resource for Good Trouble and they sent it on Thursday, National Good Trouble Day in remembrance of the amazing late John Lewis. And it's called beautiful trouble.org it's a book, a strategy card deck, online toolbox and creative campaign incubator. An international network of artist activist trainers helping grassroots movements become more creative and effective. What they do is they equip social movements with an ever growing suite of strategic tools and training to help grassroots movements be more creative, effective and irresistible. They believe in people power. Me too. And the game changing role that creativity, humor, joy and mischief can play in the struggle for a better world. So we practice over there. They practice shared leadership, modified consensus based decision making, anti oppression politics and international and intersectional solidarity. So again, in honor of Good Trouble, John Lewis day of action July 17th. I know you're listening to this on the 18th. We're recording it on Thursday. Check out beautifultrouble.org I love those four things Dana. Creativity, humor, joy and mischief.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yep, me too. I love all of them.

[Alison Gill]

I love it, I love it, I love it.

[Dana Goldberg]

I love them together.

[Alison Gill]

Check it out. Beautifultrouble.org that's your good trouble today everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back with John Fugal saying after these messages.

[C]

We'll be right back.

[Alison Gill]

Hey everybody. This episode is brought to you by IQ Bar. The better for you. Plant protein based snacks made with brain boosting nutrients to refuel, nourish and satisfy hunger without a sugar crash. And right now, IQ Bar is offering our podcast listeners an exclusive deal. 20% off all IQ Bar products plus you get free shipping. Just text the word daily beans to 64,000. The first time I tried IQ Bar, I was just looking for a decent snack. But what I found was something I didn't even know I needed. These bars taste amazing, sure, but it's how they made me feel that keeps me coming back. I feel clearer, calmer, not jittery, not crashing after these snacks. Each IQ Bar is made with plant based protein and brain boosting ingredients to support mental performance and physical energy. They're also totally free of gluten, dairy, soy GMOs and artificial sweeteners. Just real food, doing what real food is supposed to do. There are nine fantastic flavors. They have peanut butter chip, toasted coconut chip, mint chocolate chip, chocolate sea salt. So whether you're into bold or subtle, sweet or nutty, there's something for every snack mood. IQ Bar is more than just a snack bar. With over 20,000 five star reviews, it's clear that people are loving the brain and body focused approach. They've also added hydration mixes and mushroom coffee blends to their lineup and that rounds out the stuff beautifully. Now you have to give IQ Bar a shot. They're clean, satisfying, they help you feel your best throughout the day. I don't leave the house without one. So right now IQ Bar is offering our special podcast listeners 20% off all IQ Bar products plus free shipping. To get your 20 off, just text Daily Beans all one word to 64,000. Text Daily Beans to 64,000. One more time. Text the word Daily Beans to 64,000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. Hey, everybody. Welcome back. It is Friday on the Daily Beans podcast, which means it's Fugal Saying Friday. So please welcome my good friend, host of Tell Me Everything, which you can catch on Sirius XM progress channel 127 weeknights at 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific. If you don't have that, you can always check out the John Fugal saying Show podcast. If you're not into that, you can always check out the John Fugelsang sub stack. And if you're not into that, you can always buy John Fugal Saying's new book. It's called the Separation of Church and Hate, and it is coming out, but I think in September now. So, John Fegelsong, how are you?

[C]

Oh, I'm great, man. But I'm worried about our MAGA friends, Allison. I'm worried about our MAGA pals. The cult is. I think the cult's blinking. And I wasn't ready for this.

[Alison Gill]

No, me neither. I also wasn't ready for all of the people flooding my inbox with information about Jeffrey Epstein, as though we didn't report on it, you know, in 2019-2020-2022-2023.

[C]

Oh, it just exploded. There's one story with many faces, and all the faces are distractions. But yeah, it's. This is it. It's just this.

[Alison Gill]

It's like. Like I was the girl who asked a bunch of people out to prom, and they all turned me down. And then I got better looking as years went by. And they are all now all coming to me, asking me if I'll go to prom with them.

[C]

This is the Jeffrey Epstein Story is that band we used to go see in college, and now suddenly they're mainstream. And all you, the douchebag that lives next door to me likes it, is listening. I mean, now it's. Now it's everywhere. I was into this before. It was trendy, guys.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah, so let's talk about that, because it is talk about it. It has now. Every single introductory section of the headlines for Daily Beans has included something about it has to the Epstein files or the blocking thereof or the firing of the prosecutor. I mean, who. Who at the DOJ is like, you know what would really keep everybody quiet and calm this Jeffrey Epstein thing down? If we fired the head, the lead.

[C]

Prosecutor wouldn't that be good. That'll be subtle. That'll throw us.

[Alison Gill]

That would be a good way to keep everyone from talking about this. So tell me what you think about this. Just. It's flooding the zone.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, on SiriusXM every night I come into work and I'm like, I don't, you know, I open every show with a long rant and I don't like to repeat the same topic. Two nights in a row, I was all set to talk about the Supreme Court gutting the Department of Education. Boy, I was ready to have some fun with that. That a lot of comic gold there. But this is the only story last night in primetime, both on CNN and MSNBC by the half hour mark. In primetime, this was still the only story covered. Like, I'm not saying it's the lead story. It's kind of the whole story for the better part of the 44 minutes that make up the average cable news broadcast. And it makes me think back to the over saturation of the O.J. simpson coverage in a way, because there came to be a point where I just had to admit, no, this, this O.J. case is historic. It's the most famous person to ever go on trial for murder in history. And as trashy and tawdry and degrading as the circumstances of the story are, it's newsworthy and it's important. And this is important for so many reasons, not the least of which is the amount of distractions that I want to talk about with you that this guy's throwing up. Sometimes three or four a day. There have been some massive ones in just the last 48 hours that for any other president would be humiliating. On top of this, we're watching our MAGA friends melting down. And it's sad. Alex Jones is crying in his car. Alison, they're burning red hats like they're bras. In the 60s, we got these hack comedians are starting to apologizing. Marjorie Taylor Greene is foaming at the mouth. That's every day. I'm sorry. Every day. Every day Marge is foaming at the mouth. That one. That's normal. But the rest of it, you know, I really think I've decided I like it when dead rapists destroy still living rapists. And it's not that Mag is going to care that Como Bert Caligula's been using them and enraging them just to help enrich the 1%, because at the end of the day, he's just another member of the fucking Bush family. But Mag is going to realize that he really is stupid. Oh, my God. And he really thinks we're stupid, that it's been nine years of this, but we finally found the crack. We finally found the thing that would do it. We are, I want to say, when we saw in Congress this week the Republicans vote to block the Epstein list from being released, which doesn't exist, by the way. It doesn't exist and we're going to block it from ever being released.

[Alison Gill]

But I thought it existed. But Obama wrote it.

[C]

Well, I'll get to that. I mean, can you imagine? He came out and said that Obama wrote it and Comey wrote it, and then he came out yesterday and said that Joe Biden hired Jerome Powell at the Fed. Now, if Biden had done any of these things, Jake Tapper would have sold three books by now, Right? Instead with Trump, oh, he's just covering up for child rape. And it's Wednesday. This is where this is. This is the timeline we're in right now. I don't think we're ever going to see this list. And again, this guy killed himself in prison. So there was a case and the case was never prosecuted. So there's a lot of evidence sitting somewhere that's waiting to come out. And I don't think we're going to see it, not because of celebrity names, but because of political donor class names. But people have to realize, and we have to tell our maggot friends who are outraged right now there's only one political party that's fighting to get this information released. And I have never seen a cult leader start kicking people out of his cult before this week.

[Alison Gill]

Right. And let's talk about the difference in the files. Right, because we already have the flight manifest, the logs, stuff that we've had for years. What we're talking about here specifically are things that were batestamp numbered as evidence in the Epstein case that are under seal and have never been released. For example, Ron Wyden actually spilled a little tea today talking about how back a couple of years ago, or about a year ago, maybe two, they got the suspicious activity reports from the treasury showing $1.5 billion flowing to Epstein through Deutsche bank and JP Morgan Chase from this rich client list and many multiple gifts. Now, all of that evidence he can't technically release because it's under a protective order for discovery. And then also we have, we have to remember that Acosta, who then became Trump's Labor Secretary and now just in March, was given a cushy job over at Newsmax on the board.

[C]

Why Is he famous? Why is he famous? Again? Where do I know his name from?

[Alison Gill]

Because he and Alan Dershowitz put together a sweetheart deal that immunized all of Jeffrey Epstein's co conspirators except for Ghislaine Maxwell, which the DOJ and Pam Bondi just now told the Supreme Court they supported. So we are in this odd position of. There are files that have never been released. And the reason that Democrats haven't released them is because they follow the rules on not releasing things. And I'm talking about, like, not just 6E rules and, and court rules, but constitutional rules. You can't release criminal information about somebody who was not indicted. It violates their constitutional rights. So that's kind of where we are. We're with this group of Democrats who are like, well, we can't violate the Constitution in order to expose a party who does nothing but violates the Constitution daily.

[C]

Oh, Russia, if you're listening, I mean, it'd be really great if you could release these files now. The amount of freakouts that are happening in public right now. And I just want to take a moment because I'm not a complete monster, okay? I'm worried about Donald Trump. Have you seen him lately? Alison, he's not a healthy man, okay? He does not look well. The doctor checks his cholesterol with a dipstick. Do you understand? He's not well. Have you see, have you seen his ankles lately? This man's arteries are clogged like the toilets at Mar A Lago. Do you understand? But he's not a healthy man. His blood type is ranch. Okay? I'm just worried about him. Having said that, the freakout that's happening right now. He handed out the Kool Aid to the cult and now he's mad they drank it. He built this, this MAGA built this, this, this golden toilet of a presidency, and now he's mad that they're asking, where does the plumbing actually go? I don't want your support anymore. Has any president ever said those words in the history of this country? So what does he do? Distraction, distraction, distraction, Right? Don't worry about the billionaire pedophile ring. I'm covering up. I just fixed Coca Cola yesterday. The Coke story, like, like, like, like MAGA wants justice and this guy's giving him corn syrup reform, okay?

[Alison Gill]

Like, I think what happened is that his son told him that he should pass a law where all the Coke is just pure, and he misinterpreted that as Coca Cola using cane sugar.

[C]

I think Mexican Coke is the really Pure stuff, Walt. Now to gets him down in Florida at Mar a Lago. Same, same, same joke. But like he made it all up. Coca Cola has denied the story, right? Like, like he made it up. Like he's a kid saying his dad works at a Nintendo factory. He just made it up. And two days ago, the same administration put tariffs on sugar imports. So if this is true, we're blocking sugar and demanding corporations switch to the same sugar we just made more expensive. And it covered the news. It dominated the news for about four hours. And before that was the Jerome Powell little cosplay where he was holding up the draft letter, you know, like waving around this letter like, like, like it's the macaroni art camp waving around this letter firing Jerome Powell in a room full of Republicans. And then he lied that Biden had appointed Powell. I mean, can you imagine if Biden had done something so stupid? And so now he's like, don't look at the COVID up, look at the Fed chair. I might fire him. I might fire. And the Coke and the Fed chair. And like this is all happening because the guy at the central bank won't let Trump raise interest rates to hide the fact that, that the tariffs are driving up prices. So this is a distraction from two different scandals that are both blowing up in his face the same week. You saw the Consumer Price Index, prices are now going up across the board, 2 to 5% on so many goods. So this guy's saying he's going to fire Powell. It's like saying you're going to fire your Uber driver because he won't let you drive. And this is right after Rosie o' Donnell where he's saying he can take away her citizenship and called her a threat to humanity. The guy who's like gutting FEMA and letting Texas drown and trying to kill the 14th Amendment. And he can't do that to Rosie. He can't take her citizenship away. But he's testing how far they can punish dissent. And to me, it just shows how terrified they are. And again, if the Democrats can't fight for health care and education and the middle class values, they have to fight for and fight for this as well. If they're too pure for this, then they're saying that we're not gonna fight him on child rape, we're not gonna stand up for child rape. And it's so thrilling to see the Democrats standing up on this. I have Bonnie Watson Coleman on my show tonight. Raskin has been awesome. If the Democrats can't body blow this guy on blocking the release of child rape intel, then he knows they're not gonna fight him on anything. And the real villain here is the Republican Party. All but one voted to shield those patterns. I mean, Massey like was like AWOL from nom, but only one voted against releasing it. Alison. They just handed the Democrats the first midterm ad of 2026. They voted to protect pedophiles. Boom.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. And a very recent from July 11 to July 14, YouGov poll that just came out.67%. This is because I think of the coverage that's happening on this. 67% of Americans believe Trump and the government are covering up the Epstein evidence, including 59% of MAGA. That's massive.

[C]

Massive. I mean, it's unreal. And he's underwater on immigration as well.

[Alison Gill]

Immigration. And these are the same kind of polling numbers on the, on the big billionaire bailout bill. These are the three things that, that we've got our marching orders.

[C]

Yeah, I mean, and the tariffs, the, the prices are starting to go up right now. And Donald Trump is doing what? I mean, he's blaming the Epstein files on Comey and Obama. It's what I call slobbering goober mad libs at this point and just throw words together. And by the way, in the middle of all of this, there's so much real evil going on. They're so terrified now. And here's a real piece of evil. But it shows how scared they are that they know how this is going to go in the House. They know the polling numbers, they know the prices are going up. And that's how Trump gets on a call this week and casually orders Texas Republicans to just jerry rig five new congressional seats because, you know, they don't like it when voters get to pick the politicians. They think the politicians should pick the voters. So they're gerrymandering five new districts in Texas. First off, it's not going to happen, not in a year and a half. But secondly, look how terrified they are that this is what they're going to try to do.

[Alison Gill]

Right? A mid decade unconstitutional census to try to, to keep the House. And you know, I was thinking of you today because there's two stories we're covering also today in the Daily Beans. One of them is that American strikes only destroyed one of the nuclear sites in Iran.

[C]

And we know this because of leaks. We know it because of leaks.

[Alison Gill]

And the other is that Mayor Eric Adams ran a criminal enterprise and he's now being sued by the nypd. And my first Thought is the Iran strikes. Eric Adams. How many. What the fucks ago was that exactly?

[C]

Ancient history.

[Alison Gill]

It seems like years ago. And it.

[C]

Yeah, I mean, it's still new. Eric Adams is still a candidate for mayor. Eric Adams is still the mayor who's pardoned by Donald Trump while all of his criminal companions are still under indictment for the crimes. It's like, oh, he's in it. Like, oh, Ghislaine Maxwell's in jail, but the files are a fraud. Eric Adams is innocent, but all of his. All of his confederates are under lockup.

[Alison Gill]

So assuming Epstein did die by suicide, it's because there was nothing.

[C]

And by the way, this should be something that the right and left can come together on. You know, I'm really happy to discuss how plausible it would be that a lot of people would be out there wanting Epstein to be dead. Very plausible. And I don't understand why Ghislaine Maxwell is in jail right now. The amount of crap that lady knows. I mean, what. What on earth? Like, why is she in prison? But Pam Bondi is telling us, nope, there was nothing. No compromise, no, no, no bribery. None of that. It was just. They were just two happy pedophiles, Ghislaine and this guy. And Mag is rightly furious for this because this was their cult juice. This is what they've been drinking for years. How many times have we been called groomers and pedos by these people? Because that's. Because of this slur of the decade. Yes, Trump cultivated this. So it's sort of like the wife who starts connecting all the dots finally. And again, it's still going to be a cult, but it's going to be really interesting for the next two months, watching who's obedient, watching the Laura Ingrams and Charlie Kirks decide that child rape's not a deal breaker.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. I was going to ask you where you think this will end up, because I know Jess Piper is like, the cult will forget about it in a month and we'll be back on the Trump train.

[C]

It's up to the Democrats. It's up to the Democrats. I think that he should be bleeding from this and the entire party should bleed from this. And I think the Democrats need to do what the Republicans did when they were voting to repeal Obamacare every other week and have another motion to release the Epstein files every week for the rest of the year and make the Republicans protect the names of child rapists every week for the rest of the year.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. And I think Ro Khanna and maybe even Senator Gallego have been like, I'm going to keep introducing this as an amendment to every single bill that comes up on the floor.

[C]

Like, live stream it, make it a thing every week, get the kids to watch C Span. I mean, come on, this is what it's about. And again, this is the Democrats great peril as well, because it's not the celebrity names, it's the lesser known wealthy donor class names and that's people who own members of both parties. So, you know, I know the peril the Democrats are facing with doing this, but the fact is there's only one political party that wants this information to come out.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. And Wyden's been on it. I mean, he's been investigating for the last three years. Leon Black, for example, who's got ties to Putin, Calamari, Trump, Bannon. I mean, like, like it's all in there. He's got the. But, but the thing is, is that either it's a combination of either it's not been getting out and going viral, which it has a chance to now, which is why I'm glad he's talking about the bank, you know, the Treasury SAR's Suspicious Activity Reports finally. But it's also whether or not the media covers it. And so that's why folks like you and I are here, is to, to keep it in the news.

[C]

I think so. I think it has to stay there. Of course, we'll, we'll see. There'll be millions of outrages coming up. But, but look, already with Trump, with Rosie, with Coke and with Powell, three complete pieces of paper mache he threw in the air. And again, I've always said this guy's mouth is like a tennis ball launching machine and it vomits out yellow ball after yellow ball. And the media is a dog that is genetically disposed to chasing down every single yellow ball. We don't have to. We can mock him and mock him. When the Rosie thing happened, my nephew was visiting from down south and I was taking him shopping in Nike stores in Harlem all day. And I was just looking at my phone, watching the news and I'm like, oh, look at this thing. I'm choosing not to get upset about because I know man baby is terrified and that's why he's threatening to deport a woman who bloody moved out of the country two months ago. They're so bad at this, Dr. Dill. They're so bad.

[Alison Gill]

They are. They are. Well, my friend, we look forward to continuing ongoing coverage of this. Everybody, you can check out, tell me everything. On SiriusXM progress channel 127, weeknights, 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific. You can also check out the John Fugal Saying show podcast or the John Fugal Saying substack. And you can also pre order the separation of church and hate book from John Fugle Saying. So thank you.

[C]

I'm already getting in trouble. Washington examiner ran the first attack article on me just yesterday by someone who hasn't read my book. I'm, like, so thrilled. It's like a Emmy nomination. Thank you.

[Alison Gill]

Congratulations.

[C]

I had a big fight with Scott Jennings on CNN the other night.

[Alison Gill]

I saw it.

[C]

It's like, I'm going to the gym, baby. I'm getting ready for this. I saw it, but thank you. Oh, and for listeners to my show or podcast, Nick Offerman is in a terrific new movie called Sovereign, about toxic masculinity and how these guys are radicalized online and become violent lunatics. His character is not a white supremacist. He's into the sovereign citizen, the government has no power over you movement. It's a fascinating, gripping drama. And he's on my show. We just taped an interview lair Friday night. Be on the podcast on Saturday. But it's also a terrific film about how these men are becoming radicalized and becoming lunatics. So check that out. Thanks, Alex.

[Alison Gill]

A lot of the January Sixers were sovereign citizens.

[C]

Exactly. It's a fascinating subculture of this movement. And most of this stuff is just like the Flat Earth Society. It's how white supremacists recruit. They don't necessarily believe this stuff, but they go to the chat rooms to find people they can groom 100%.

[Alison Gill]

Thank you so much for that.

[C]

Love it.

[Alison Gill]

Nick Offerman is a gem. He's a mensch. He's fantastic. And I will check out Sovereign, so thank you so much.

[C]

I just want to remind Maga, Trump partied with Epstein and praised Epstein and wished Ghislaine Maxwell well. And now he's telling you the real enemy is high fructose corn syrup. Okay, Maga, that's where you're at.

[Alison Gill]

Thank you. Thank you for wrapping it up like that. We appreciate you, John Fugal saying. And we'll see you next Friday, everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back with the good news. Hey, everybody. I used to take fish oil every day because I thought that is what, you know, you're just supposed to do for your joints. It was supposed to help with blood pressure, too, and cholesterol, but after months of taking it, I didn't see any real change. And I Started wondering, is it me or is it, you know, what's going on? But as it turns out, a Harvard study shows that fish oil doesn't have a proven positive effect on health. So that sent me looking for a better option. And I found it in Native Path Antarctic Krill oil. This isn't just a replacement for fish oil, it's an upgrade. It delivers more omega 3s and antioxidants and it's far better absorbed by the body than fish oil. That's the deal. My joints feel more flexible and the swelling I used to get after a long day is gone. I feel sharper and more comfortable in my own body, which is something I didn't expect from a supplement, especially at 51. Another thing I appreciate about Native Path is their 365 day feel good guarantee. That level of confidence makes it easy to trust them. So if you're still relying on fish oil and wondering why you don't feel different, Native Path Curl oil might be what you're missing. It worked for me and I genuinely feel better every day because of it. So why wait? This is a simple, smart way to take care of yourself. Now, as a daily Beans listener, go to nativekrill.com dailybeans to get up to 66% off free shipping and a 365 day money back feel good guarantee. But this is special offer. It's only available to [e-mail] DailyBeans that's nativekrill.com DailyBeans and thanks to Native Path Krill Oil for sponsoring this episode. Hey everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news?

[C]

Everyone? Then good news everyone.

[Alison Gill]

Good news.

[Dana Goldberg]

Good news.

[Alison Gill]

It is Friday's good news dump. Please everyone, send all your good news to us. No matter how small you think it is. We have to microdose hope. And we love reading your good news stories. Whether you have a just a shout out to a loved one or yourself or a small business in your area. Your small business let us know what you're making and creating, how you're, you know, what you're doing to, to kind of get through this to to, you know, practice a little bit of self care, anything like that. Maybe a shout out to a government program that's helped you or a loved one. Pronunciation corrections we could use those all day.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh yeah, me mostly me more than Allison.

[Alison Gill]

I don't know if I have my days too, my friend, but we would love to hear about our the way we pronounce things badly. And you know what people do is they send in their pronunciation corrections couched in posts that have a million words that are difficult to pronoun pronounce. So, you know, if you're feeling like that, go for it.

[Dana Goldberg]

It's true.

[Alison Gill]

It is, it's true. And we love y'. All. Send it to us. And all you got to do to get your good news story read on the air, by the way, is submit your POD pet tariff, which is a photo of your pet. And if you want us to guess the breeds in your shelter pup, we can try, but we're very bad at it. And if you don't have a pet, you can send an adoptable pet in your area and we can see if we can find him a home. If you don't have that, really, just grab any random photo of any animal off the Internet. We especially love baby animals. And speaking of babies, send your baby pictures, send your family photos, send your photos of your happy place, send bird watching photos which can be birds, or you and your friends flipping the bird to Trump and Musk Properties. Send it all to us, please DailyBeansPod.com and click Uncontact. All right, first up from Julie Pronoun. She thank you for the hard work and your staff, I presume, and everything you do to put together the daily beans. I start my morning with a walk and a listen. I wanted to share some familial good news. At the end of June, my mother turned 100 years old.

[Dana Goldberg]

Wow.

[Alison Gill]

Although her memory slips regularly, she's maintained her sense of humor. I consider it my role to keep her laughing and not be concerned that she may not know which exact daughter with whom she is speaking. The family gathered for a celebration and she is happily sitting in front of a very tall chocolate birthday cake on a stand. That was probably a wedding gift. The cake stand was probably a wedding gift in 1946. My mom has lived through the Depression, the Dust bowl, World War II, polio contracted by her oldest son, the death of her second son, and eventually the death of her husband almost 10 years ago. Dad trained as a naval aviator during World War II and was in the reserves up to Vietnam. I can't imagine the level of worry she tamped down every time he left for training as she raised eight children. Eight children with him off and away due to his service and his work. She was and is resilient. If she can endure all of that, we can endure all of this.

[Dana Goldberg]

Wow.

[Alison Gill]

As my pod pet tariff, I give you a 2024 picture of our two rescue dogs. We adopted them From Rocky Mountain Puppy Rescue in 2021 and 2024, respectively. Ubu Haha is on the left. Member, sit. Ubu, sit.

[Dana Goldberg]

Good.

[Alison Gill]

And Ranger is on the right. Both brindles with complementary color palettes. We were at the dog park in the tiny town of Silvercliffe, Colorado, with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the background. I hope I'm saying that right. Probably not. Thank you again for all you do. Look at this chocolate cake.

[Dana Goldberg]

Holy God, it looks amazing.

[Alison Gill]

And that case stand does look like it was a gift from 1946. It's a beautiful, like Waterford crystal. It's gorgeous.

[Dana Goldberg]

That is amazing.

[Alison Gill]

Now, I want thank you for that.

[Dana Goldberg]

I know. Me too. I always want cake. This is from Amy Pronoun. She and her I just heard about the listening knitting in public. Well, July is Tour de France, and during the bike race, hand spinners from around the world participate in the Tour de Fleece. People spin by themselves in groups or as part of online teams. I'm a stash dasher this year, trying to get through the pile of fluff in my closet. I've included some of the spins I'm working on during this tour that have brought me joy as far as getting esc, which is emotional support chicken. If I know the fiber community, there may be some flocking your way. Do what brings you joy and cluck the orange menace.

[Alison Gill]

Cluck the orange menace. Look at this. Penguins. Oh, look at. That's beautiful yarn that you've spun.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh, my God. There's another short one. Should I just take this and tell you there's good news? Allison, this is from Anne. No pronouns given. Hey, I found emotional support chickens on both Amazon and Etsy, but I'm not buying from either site there for reasons. But here's a picture of one on Etsy. Love y', all. Ann.

[Alison Gill]

Oh, look at that.

[Dana Goldberg]

Okay, marginal support chickens are really freaking cute.

[Alison Gill]

I need so many of these. I need many. Yeah, and I love the idea that there's a Tour de fleece. Amy, thank you for that.

[Dana Goldberg]

That is good.

[Alison Gill]

Next up from Shannon. She her. Hello, Queens of the beans. Kitchen table listener here. Ooh, going back to the old days. So, Shannon, you are very familiar with the Epstein files. So grateful for your insights to the news of the day. I need to know. I would like to shout out my Republican husband. He hates politics, but I'd like to think I've been a good influence on him. We've been together for 14 years, and he did vote for Kamala this time. He's not. He's not a Republican. He also now thinks Trump is an super smart so he would have come around eventually. I love him so much. From a pod Pet tariff I give you Diva and Herpal. Diva comes to us I think as a semi feral kitty who's been he's given into semi domestication. Purple is a quote unquote rescue from a litter that turned on her. Huh. Don't know why but she's the best baby ever. Oh and I saw the most ridiculous thing you'll ever see. A stupid Swastikar with crystal encrusted 4547 on the side.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh my God.

[Alison Gill]

Oh look at the pupper. And look at this kitten.

[Dana Goldberg]

The pupper's cute.

[Alison Gill]

I want to pet the belly. Yes.

[Dana Goldberg]

All right. This is from Kipster. No pronouns given. Shout out to my son Jeff and his business partner Django, the co owners of Comics Place in Bellingham, Washington. For a decade, Jeff in his perfect place to share his lifelong passion for all things comics creators and illustrators. The Comics Place has become a welcoming and supportive community to all who enter the diverse group of customers know that they receive experts presented with genuine care and compassion in this safe environment. During COVID Jeff and Django drove throughout the county delivering the newly released comics each week.

[Alison Gill]

Oh wow.

[Dana Goldberg]

There's a book club for anyone interested in a weekly podcast where all the newly released comics of the week are discussed. They will sponsor their first convention in Bellingham in the fall. My pod pet tax is a picture of Jeff over 30 years ago with his first three kittens. Today he and his wife love their two cats and you can see that those kittens love love each other.

[Alison Gill]

Oh my goodness. Look at this child.

[Dana Goldberg]

Oh my God. I love kittens.

[Alison Gill]

Oh that's precious. Thank you so much Kipster. Shout Out Shout out to Comics Place in Bellingham, Washington. Next up, Amy, she and her hi there. I'm Amy. Not a longtime listener, but my brother Joshua is an avid follower and tells me on a regular basis that you lot really make his day. I'd like to give him a huge shout out as I don't live close enough to him to give the daily hugs he deserves for his amazing work. There is a ton I could say, but I'll keep this short and say I'm so proud of him. First of all, just for being himself. Also, he's the founder of Made welcome, which helps organize accessibility for workplaces and events. He really knows his stuff and he helps make the world more beautiful, more accessible, and thus more equitable space for all sorts of people. No job is too big or too small and he really thinks of everything from organizing translators for deaf people to webinars about park accessibility for wheelchair users. He really sees the big picture and he's never afraid to share his expertise with others. He works nationwide and has even been asked to share his work outside of the country, which I think is absolutely amazing. He works so hard and somehow manages to make time to go to city hearings to protect the trees of San Francisco, sing with his band, the Clip Tones, K L I P P Clip Tones, and even go out to the mountain and take care of acres and acres of wildlands, all to make the world a more beautiful place. Life has been extremely difficult for him since the last election, but he keeps on keeping on and I really just want him to know that I think of him all the time and I love him and I'm so very proud of him just the way he is. So please give him a shout out. It's the least I can do. Sorry I don't have any pets, but I do have a hubby and isn't he just adorbs? I also send a picture of a typical Dutch wild cow, often found in the nature of the country and a baby crowd baby crow. Reminds me of the time a baby crow got stuck in my backyard and the crow community took turns in pairs to watch over the baby until he could fly. Every time we entered our yard, crows would swoop overhead so we wouldn't even consider harming that baby. That was a huge community effort. That was just mind blowing. Thanks for your show. I'm new to your podcast, but I hope to continue taking in your news on a more regular basis. Hang in there and keep up the good energy. Cow husband. He is adorbs, by the way. And Burb, look at that baby crow.

[Dana Goldberg]

So beautiful.

[Alison Gill]

I don't think I've ever seen a baby crow.

[Dana Goldberg]

It's really cute. It's much more cute now than they are when they get older.

[Alison Gill]

You look angry when they're but look how I want. I would pet him. And so that's why they come.

[Dana Goldberg]

That's why they grow up.

[Alison Gill]

Yeah. To keep me away. Specifically.

[Dana Goldberg]

Indeed.

[Alison Gill]

Thank you everybody for your good news. Thank you for all your good news this week. If you think of anything that you want to send to us, please do so. Love the good news. We need the good news. Send it to [e-mail] and click on contact. Dana's coming to San Diego.

[Dana Goldberg]

I am. And the tickets did go on sale last night. So I hope you were listening to me. Went to my website@dana goldberg.com. it's August 15th. Hit my appearances page. Go to the second show that you see there. Go to tickets. Don't just rsvp, go get some tickets. It's a small theater. It's only 100 seats. I want it to be a very intimate show. Like you're in my living room. That's what it's gonna feel like. Like I'm doing comedy with you in my living room. Go get em San Diego. Or if you're in driving distance, come see me. I'd love to meet as many beans as I can.

[Alison Gill]

Indeed. I love the diversionary theater so fuckin much.

[Dana Goldberg]

Yeah, it's a great historic LGBTQ run theater and it's just, it's been a community staple for a long time.

[Alison Gill]

Indeed. Indeed. All right, thank you so much everybody for everything that you've sent in this week. We really appreciate it. Keep sending in that good news and we'll be back in your ears on 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. I've been dg and them's the Beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they Might Be Giants and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information Please visit msw media.com msw media.