← The Daily Beans
The Daily Beans
Tax on. Tax Off. (feat. Miles Taylor)
00:54:04
Thursday, June 5th, 2025 Today, Judge Xinis grants a motion to unseal Abrego Garcia documents and grants his lawyers their motion to file for sanctions against Trump’s stonewalling; economists are raising questions about the validity of US inflation data; the President has enacted 50% steel tariffs and then quickly TACOed them for the UK; a federal judge has tossed the Democratic Party lawsuit challenging Trump’s FEC order; the Tennessee assistant district attorney has been charged with assaulting woman multiple times; a federal appeals court refuses to lift the block on mass layoffs at the Department of Education; young Democrat Kieshan Scott trounces his Republican opponent winning a South Carolina state house seat; South Korea’s liberal party candidate won the snap election Tuesday; the Trump administration rescinds the Biden era policy requiring hospitals to provide reproductive emergency health care; Kennedy center subscription sales fall 36% since Trump took over; and Alliso...
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- [00:00]
Allison Gill
MSW Media. Today's show is brought to you by Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit created and run by whistleblowers who are the bulwark for the truth tellers who step forward to save the republic. Support their work by visiting whistlebloweraid.org beans.
- [00:28]
Dana Goldberg
Daily beans.
- [00:31]
Miles Taylor
Daily Beans.
- [00:38]
Allison Gill
Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Thursday, June 5, 2025. Today, Judge Sinis has granted a motion to unseal Abrego Garcia documents and grants his lawyers their motion to file for sanctions against the government. Economists are raising questions about the validity of U.S. inflation data. The president has enacted 50% steel tariffs and then quickly tacoed them for the U.K. a federal judge has tossed the Democratic Party lawsuit challenging Trump's FEC order. The Tennessee assistant district attorney has been charged with assaulting women multiple times. A federal appeals court refuses to lift the block on mass layoffs at the Department of Education. Young Democrat Keshan Scott trounces his Republican opponent, winning a South Carolina state House seat. South Korea's Liberal Party candidate won the snap elections Tuesday. The Trump administration rescinds the Biden era policy requiring hospitals to provide reproductive emergency health care. And the Kennedy center subscription sales has fallen 36% since Trump took over. I'm Allison Gill.
- [01:37]
Miles Taylor
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
- [01:43]
Allison Gill
Hey, Dana, welcome back.
- [01:44]
Miles Taylor
Thank you so much. Like I said, going to be a little bit in and out this week and I know y' all like a little bit in and out sometimes, but I am back. I'm back and then tomorrow I'm going to be gone. So I'm going to be doing the gay lord's work and raising money for Lambda Legal tomorrow night as we honor Elizabeth Prologuer.
- [02:02]
Allison Gill
Ah, she's so great. Yeah. That's going to be a great gala. I can't wait to see how much you're able to raise because you always do such an incredible job at those fundraisers and galas. So thank you for doing that work.
- [02:13]
Miles Taylor
My pleasure.
- [02:14]
Allison Gill
Let's see, Miles Taylor is going to be on the show later because he has written a letter. Remember Donald Trump put out an executive order naming him specifically.
- [02:22]
Miles Taylor
Yes. Yep.
- [02:23]
Allison Gill
Yeah. So he's written a letter to the couple inspectors general like, hey, wtf? And we're going to talk to him about that. Also tomorrow we're going to have representative for Texas 32, Congresswoman Julie Johnson on the show.
- [02:35]
Miles Taylor
Oh, Julie's amazing. I've known her way before she was ever a congresswoman and she's fantastic. She was the first out elected lesbian in the South. In the South Yep, Yep.
- [02:47]
Allison Gill
I love her to death. She's going to be here, and she's like, I want to come back. I want to give you updates. I want to be your eyes and ears in, like, on the floor of the House. So we're gonna get the. The skinny. We talk about the bailout bill, which people are now calling the We're All Gonna die Bill. And, like, you know, Elon just in the last 24 or 48 hours, has, like, really blown up Twitter about how much he hates this thing, and he wants everyone who voted for it to be fired. And so we have all these. We have all these people jumping ship that voted for it in the House.
- [03:19]
Miles Taylor
I love it.
- [03:20]
Allison Gill
So.
- [03:20]
Miles Taylor
Oh, I didn't know that. I didn't read the bill. I didn't know that's what it said about AI. That's your job. That's actually your job, Martha Taylor Green, is to read a bill or have someone read it for you.
- [03:28]
Allison Gill
That's.
- [03:29]
Miles Taylor
That's what you have staffers for. But someone needs to read the fucking bill.
- [03:32]
Allison Gill
There were meetings where they had to decide, like, do I come out and say I didn't read the bill so I can be on Elon's side, or do I. You know, they had meetings to decide what's the best way to do this? Uh, and that, Marjorie Taylor Greene's example is what they came up with. Dana, who's the gay of the day today? Oh.
- [03:49]
Miles Taylor
First of all, I want to thank the beans for showing up, man. When I said follow me on Instagram, you did it. And if for some of you are hearing this for the first time, it's DG comedy. When I said follow me on Instagram, you followed me. You shared the gay of the day. The series has been awesome. People are really appreciating it, and a lot of our allies are getting educated on people that they did not realize in history had done so much for us. So the gay of the day, as you're listening to this on Thursday, is Audre Lorde. So I'm very excited for that to launch. As you hear this, if you're getting this, the night before with no commercials, today was Bayard Rustin. Like, I'm really happy about this. And then what I decided to do is do an ally Friday. So I'm gonna make sure that we highlight an ally, because without allies, our LGBTQ movement would be moving nearly as fast as it is.
- [04:34]
Allison Gill
So this is. I love these videos, too. They're just so well done, and I. I love watching them. I love Sharing them.
- [04:41]
Miles Taylor
So I really appreciate what you've done. Yes. Thank you for sharing them and thank you to everyone else who is sharing them on their social medias. You all rock.
- [04:48]
Allison Gill
Yeah. Thank you so much, everybody. DG comedy pretty much everywhere. You can see these videos.
- [04:53]
Miles Taylor
Yeah. And by the way, incredible victory in the South Carolina. In South Carolina for the state House. Yes. With Catian Scott. Now, when I said Catian crushed his Republican opponent, I mean crush pushed in a district Kamala Harris won by one point. One point. Scott won by 41 points. He is now the youngest member of the South Carolina's House, which is still unfortunately dominated by Republicans. But this is Lindsey Graham country. This incredible human being. A 40 point.
- [05:25]
Allison Gill
I was gonna say it was that he's right in Lindsey Graham's backyard, but I don't want to talk about that. Yeah, no, no, no, no. But 40. Yeah, it was like 71 to 29. Like, he trounced to this guy.
- [05:38]
Miles Taylor
Incredible.
- [05:39]
Allison Gill
In a generally, like, toss up 5149 district. I'm so proud of this kid.
- [05:45]
Miles Taylor
Yeah. There was, I'm sure, some pearl clutching. There was some pearl clutching in South Carolina.
- [05:50]
Allison Gill
How do you. Yeah. How do you not concede when you get 29? Right. Like, I'd like a recount.
- [05:57]
Miles Taylor
Would you? Do you.
- [05:58]
Allison Gill
Yeah, it was just a landslide. Also, this is good news. In the Abrego Garcia case, Judge Sinis has granted two huge motions. First, a motion by a press coalition to unseal a bunch of shit that Trump would not like us to see. And she granted a motion for Abrego Garcia's lawyers to file sanctions against the Trump administration for failing to hand shit over in discovery.
- [06:19]
Miles Taylor
Awesome.
- [06:19]
Allison Gill
So now whether they comply. Yeah, we'll see. But it's another thing you can hold people in contempt for. Sanctions are. There could be some really bad sanctions here. Andy McCabe and I are going to go over it all in detail on this weekend's Unjustified. So looking forward to that. All right, my friend, we have a lot of news to get to. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up, from the Wall Street Journal. Remember how I keep saying that, yes, I'm worried about Trump policies, but even more worried that we won't get accurate data about how Trump policies are impacting us?
- [06:51]
Miles Taylor
Yep.
- [06:52]
Allison Gill
Well, some. This is the Wall Street Journal. Some economists are beginning to question the accuracy of recent US Inflation data after the federal government said staffing shortages hampered its ability to conduct a massive monthly survey.
- [07:04]
Miles Taylor
Sure.
- [07:04]
Allison Gill
You just don't want people to know that inflation is going up. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the office of publishes the inflation rate, told outside economists this week that the hiring freeze was forcing the survey to cut back on a number of businesses where it checks prices. In last month's inflation report, which examined prices in April, government statisticians had to use less precise methods for guessing price changes more extensively than they have in the past. Economists say the staffing shortage raises questions about the quality of recent and coming inflation reports. There's no sign of an intentional effort to publish false or misleading statistics. Sure, but if you go to a neighborhood and there's a Costco and a Target and a Walmart and the prices are cheapest at Costco and you don't have the staff to go check out the Walmart next door, I have questions. But any problems with the data could have major implications for the economy. To calculate the inflation rate, hundreds and hundreds of government workers called enumerators fan out across cities each month to check how much businesses are charging for products like blue jeans or services like accounting. Often by visiting brick and mortar stores, statisticians roll these figures together into the Consumer Price Index. That's a data stream that shows how the cost of living is changing for typical Americans. If the government's enumerators can't track down a specific price in a given city, they try to make an educated guess based on a close substitute, like cargo pants instead of slacks. But in April, with fewer workers on hand to check prices, statisticians had to base their guesses on less comparable products or other regions of the country, a process called different cell imputation much more often than usual. So now we can't even really trust the Consumer Price Index.
- [08:51]
Miles Taylor
Oh, boy.
- [08:52]
Allison Gill
So when Trump says gas is 1.99 again, eggs are 5 cents, he you know, like, that's a lie.
- [09:01]
Miles Taylor
Yeah, that isn't true. Okay. What is true is. From the BBC. The UK has been temporarily spared from US President Donald Trump's executive order doubling steel and aluminum tariffs from 25% to 50 because taco, taco, taco. The order raises import taxes for U. S. Based firms buying the metals from other countries from Wednesday, but the Levy remains at 25% from the U.K. however, the U.K. could end up facing the higher rate if its deal signed with the Trump administration last month, which would see steel and aluminum tariffs axed, does not come into force. Imports of UK Steel into America are currently subject to to tariffs, but the UK Government said it wanted to implement the agreement to remove them, quote, as soon as possible. Yeah, I know Trump said in order that the UK needed, quote, different treatment because of the US UK economic prosperity deal, the EPD, which was signed on May 8th of 2025.
- [10:02]
Allison Gill
Less than a month ago.
- [10:03]
Miles Taylor
Less than a month ago.
- [10:04]
Allison Gill
So he put tariffs, okay. And then he said no tariffs for you because we signed that deal. I don't have. I seen the deal. Okay, whatever.
- [10:14]
Miles Taylor
Taco, Taco.
- [10:16]
Allison Gill
Next up from the post. The Trump administration has rescinded Biden era guidance requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions when necessary to stabilize a patient's health, even in states that ban the procedure. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced the change Tuesday, saying the now defunct guidance did not reflect the policy of this administration. The Biden administration issued the guidance in July of 2022, just weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe, ending the national right to abortion. And they did it to clarify that a federal law guaranteeing emergency care for patients in peril took precedence over state abortion bans. It later sued Idaho in federal court to enforce penalties against hospitals that disregarded the federal policy to adhere to the state's strict abortion ban. The Trump administration's decision isn't unexpected, but it will probably make healthcare providers feel uneasy, especially if they practice in states with severe abortion bans. That's what Kelly Gillespie said. She's the director of the center for Health Law Studies at Saint Louis University. The Biden era guidance was intended not only to protect pregnant patients, but also to provide clarity to healthcare providers in states with strict abortion laws. So that's been rescinded.
- [11:23]
Miles Taylor
All right, thank you, Allison, on that one. This one's from Politico. A federal judge has dismissed a Democratic Party lawsuit claiming an executive order issued by President Trump was intruding on the independence of the Federal Election Commission. I don't love this story. In a ruling Tuesday night, U.S. district Judge Amir Ali said the Democratic Party's group's case was simply too speculative to justify emergency intervention from the court. The FEC had pledged to remain independent, had received no directive from the White House to change his practices, and vowed to abide by the law. I can't. It's hard to keep a serious face that the White House vowed to abide by the law without evidence undermining those premises. Ali said he was compelled to dismiss the suit. The Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee filed the suit in February after Trump issued an executive order that sought to assert greater control over executive branch agencies that have traditionally operated with considerable independence from the White House. Yep. Ali's decision. It's a setback for Democrats as they guard against efforts by Trump to dramatically shift the nation's election infrastructure structure and voting systems in ways that are say are geared towards suppressing their voters turnout and justifying the president's long discredited claims of election fraud. Long discredited. While Lee dismisses the case, he emphasized that he was not precluding authorizing relief in the future if there was evidence that the administration was leaning on the FEC or about to do so. Okay. And I quote, this court's doors are open to the parties if changed circumstances show concrete action or impact on the FECS or its commissioner's independence. That's what the judge wrote. So chances are that's good they're going to trip and lean real hard on this. I have a feeling.
- [13:15]
Allison Gill
Yeah. So this Biden appointee, right. This judge was like, look you until you are harmed by the fec, but when you are, come back and talk to me. So that's a good at least. Next up from Fox 17 in Nashville, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, known as the tbi. Those agents have arrested and charged an assistant district attorney from Rutherford county accused of assaulting women multiple times.
- [13:39]
Miles Taylor
Geez.
- [13:40]
Allison Gill
Yeah. So content warning for assault. On Tuesday, TBI agents began investigating allegations of domestic and aggravated domestic assault from Rutherford County. During the investigation, agents determined that Quinn Rodriguez, an assistant district attorney in the 16th district, had assaulted a woman. The TBI report claims that Rodriguez waved a gun around as a threat to kill the victim and then hit her with it. Tuesday afternoon, TBI agents arrested him and charged him with two counts of domestic assault and two counts of aggravated assault. He was booked into the Rutherford County Jail on a ten thousand dollar bond. So yikes.
- [14:16]
Miles Taylor
Yeah, we got to mix in the good with the bad every day. And this one is from cnn. A federal appeals court declined on Wednesday to lift a judge's ruling that blocked the Trump administration from effectively shutting down the Department of Education. Yep. The unanimous decision from the 1st U.S. circuit Court of Appeals is another significant legal setback for Trump, thank goodness. Whose efforts to rapidly shrink the federal government, including through dismantling entire agencies, have been tied up in numerous court challenges because they are unconstitutional. First Circuit Chief Judge David Barron, he wrote for the panel that the administration has not, and I quote, shown that the public's interest lies in permitting a major federal department to be unlawfully disabled from performing its statutorily assigned functions.
- [15:06]
Allison Gill
Nice.
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Miles Taylor
Yeah, good. I like, I like when the judges follow the law.
- [15:10]
Allison Gill
Yeah. It's always My preference. Next up from Reuters. This is cool. South Korea's Liberal Party candidate Lee Jae Meng was elected president in Tuesday's snap election, six months to the day after he evaded military cordons to vote against a shock martial law decree imposed by his ousted predecessor. Remember, he scaled the walls to do this. Now Lee's victory stands to usher in a political sea change in Asia's fourth largest economy after the backlash against the martial law. That backlash brought down Yoon Suk Yul. That's the conservative outsider who narrowly beat lee in the 2022 election. So I'm super jealous of South Korea, man.
- [15:52]
Miles Taylor
Yeah, I want to.
- [15:53]
Allison Gill
I want to take a look at their constitution and see if we can make some changes to ours.
- [15:56]
Miles Taylor
Seriously. My good.
- [15:57]
Allison Gill
That was fast. They. They got that guy called martial law. They impeached him, they arrested him. This guy called a snap election, scaled the walls and. And he won. Congratulations.
- [16:10]
Miles Taylor
Well done. All right, last in this segment. It's from the Post. And this is the find out part. By the way, sales of subscriptions for the coming season of programming at the Kennedy center for the Performing Arts, they are down by almost $1.6 million, or roughly 36% compared with last year. I think nobody wants to see Kid.
- [16:29]
Allison Gill
Rock at the Kennedy Center.
- [16:30]
Miles Taylor
I know. I think 36% is right about Trump's approval rating, too. This sales data was collected and shared by former Kennedy center employees and confirmed by a current staff member. Yep, it's true. They all spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution. Why would you think there'd be retribution from Trump? Because there always is. The subscription data offers window into the center's overall finances, but is just one source of revenue in addition to donations, individual ticket sales, government funding and other sources. Its operating budget in 2024 was 268 million. Of that, roughly 125 million came from earned revenue such as ticket sales. That's just close to 50%. And I quote, we understand providing information like this can be seen in a bad light, the current staffer said in a message. But we feel that it's necessary to show that mismanage by the new leadership is becoming a real problem for the health of the organization, the employee said. Because the new leaders have overlooked staff opinions and fired some who disagreed, quote, we feel that we no longer have a choice but to force complete transparency with the public.
- [17:41]
Allison Gill
Well done. Staff statement.
- [17:45]
Miles Taylor
Seriously.
- [17:46]
Allison Gill
Well, you know, this might look bad, but we think it's important that y' all know.
- [17:50]
Miles Taylor
Yep.
- [17:51]
Allison Gill
That everything's in the toilet here at the Kennedy center because of new management.
- [17:55]
Miles Taylor
I love that they call it new management, new leadership. It's awesome.
- [17:59]
Allison Gill
I feel so bad for everybody who was scheduled to perform there and all the people who work there and support the amazing work that the Kennedy Center's always done.
- [18:07]
Miles Taylor
Agreed.
- [18:07]
Allison Gill
It's just tragic and heartbreaking to have the center of, you know, the arts in the nation's capital just be completely torn asunder like that. It's frustrating.
- [18:17]
Miles Taylor
Yeah.
- [18:18]
Allison Gill
All right, everybody, it's time for some good trouble. What are you guys doing? All right, everybody, some good trouble today. If you're ready to stand up to extremists causing chaos at school board meetings and you want to defeat book bans and stand up against policies that negatively impact our schools and our students and our libraries, you can join Red Wine and Blue to learn how to effectively build local support in your community and the tactics you can use to be successful. There'll be a link in the show notes to a video outlining the steps you can take in your community to push back on book bans and MAGA school boards. So thanks to Red Wine and Blue for putting this together and being good troublemakers. I found this on the Internet and I was like, everybody needs to see this. It's a really, really great blueprint for how to do this and to protect free speech and education and all that good stuff. All right, everybody, we're going to be right back with a good friend of mine to talk about the executive order put out against him from Donald Trump ordering the Department of Justice to investigate him. So you're going to want to hear this interview. It's Miles Taylor, and we'll have it right after this quick break. Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back. This podcast is sponsored by Peak. Peak's Radiant Skin Duo combines Sun Goddess Matcha and BT Fountain electrolytes for the ultimate in beauty and wellness. This powerful duo supports glowing, hydrated skin while boosting energy, gut health and Overall Vitality. Get 20% off the Radiant Skin Duo plus a free starter kit at peaklife.com dailybeans now. I used to rely on caffeine alone to get me through the day. And no matter how much I spent on skin care, my skin still looked dull and tired. And that changed when I put it all together and found the Radiant Skin Duo from Peak. I'm completely hooked on the Sun Goddess Matcha and BT Fountain combo. It is my daily go to for glowing skin energy and hydration. The Matcha gives me a calm, sustained focus without the crash. It's packed with EGCG antioxidants that help firm and brighten my skin. And it supports digestion, which has made my skin noticeably clearer too. BT Fountain Equally powerful, it's a deeply hydrating electrolyte formula with ceramides in it that smooth fine lines and soothe redness. My skin feels softer and more balanced than ever. So best part? It's all vegan, no added sugar, no weird ingredients, and the duo works from within at the cellular level. Instead of masking skin issues. It supports your skin way down deep. And I love how easy it is to stay consistent too. You just stir the sachets into water and go. The Matcha tastes smooth and earthy. The BT Fountain is light and refreshing. Now, most creams and serums only work on the surface, but real glow starts from within. So if you want that lit from within, glow. The Radiant Skin Duo is where it starts. So if you're ready to transform your routine right now, you can get 20% off the radiant Skin Duo plus a free starter kit which includes a rechargeable frother and a glass beaker. With my exclusive link, it's peaklife.com dailybeans that's Peak Life P I Q U E peaklife.com dailybeans don't miss out. Go naturally into 2025 while supplies last. Hey everybody, welcome back. As you know, Miles Taylor, once the chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, warned in an interview with the Associated Press recently of a far reaching Trump April 9th memorandum and the implications of it, quote, addressing risks associated with an egregious leaker and disseminator of falsehoods when it comes to suppressing criticism of the president. And that memo accused Miles Taylor of concocting stories to sell his book and directed the secretary of Homeland Security and other government agencies to look into Taylor and strip him of all his security clearances. So Miles Taylor sent a letter via email to the inspectors general at Department of Justice and Homeland Security this past week on Tuesday to investigate, asking them to investigate whether anyone at DOJ or DHS had acted unlawfully in response to Trump's April 9th order. So joining us to discuss his letter and what's going on, what it's like to be named by name in a presidential order from the Trump regime is former DHS chief of staff, author of Anonymous and Blowback. Please welcome Miles Taylor.
- [22:22]
Dana Goldberg
Alison, thank you for having me.
- [22:24]
Allison Gill
I appreciate it, my friend. It is good to see you again in getting ready to see and talk to you again. I went back and I watched our interview on C Span Book TV about blowback and I was just blown away by all the things you were talking about about like mocking up what a Trump administration would cabinet would look like and, and how, how right on you were about this. So I'm very glad you have a little bit of time to talk to us today. I know you're super busy.
- [22:54]
Dana Goldberg
Well, I have a lot of time now because, you know, not to have you or anyone play the violin for me, but you know, in the wake of this executive order, these things, these things can nuke your life. And I had to leave the job that I was in and I am now a full time stay at home dad, you know, because of that order. And that's actually one of the reasons why I wanted to start to speak out about this is because, you know, folks see these things come out of the White House and they think, ah, it's like a mean press release and it doesn't have any impact. You know, in this case, me and my former colleague who, you know, Chris Krebs, both got named in what legal scholars tell us are the first executive orders in American history that direct federal investigations into critics of a President by name. That's never happened in 249 years here in the United States. And they've now opened up, in addition to suspending our security clearances, they've opened up federal probes into me and Chris Krebs. Why? For what crime? The crime, as far as we know, is that we both spoke out against the President of the United States and we told the truth about him. And now he's weaponizing the powers of his office to get revenge. And unfortunately that works. It does have impacts on people's lives. And it's one of the reasons we want to sound the alarm is because there is nothing right now stopping the President of the United States other than his hand getting tired from signing executive orders from him, launching investigations into anyone, into Allison, into the head of PBS News, into the CEO of Google, whoever he wants to go after. And that is a deeply insidious thing. And that's why we want to start to take legal steps to get this struck down.
- [24:37]
Allison Gill
Yeah. And it wasn't too long ago in this country when the idea of a president ordering the Department of Justice to investigate a political enemy or anybody was absolutely unheard of. I remember then Senator Kamala Harris questioning Bill Barr about whether the President had asked or suggested that Bill Barr open an investigation into someone And Bill Barr was. Well, I don't. I don't know what you mean by suggest. I'm not sure. I mean, it was, you know, completely dodged the question because it is so egregious and unheard of, and now it's just commonplace. Everyone's like, yawn. He asks the IRS to look into people. He asks the DOJ to investigate people. And EDMID got Ed Martin right there with him, who couldn't cut it, as, you know, D.C. u.S. Attorney. So he elevated him to Department of Justice, the position I call wackadagpa, which is Weaponization Czar, Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Pardon Attorney.
- [25:41]
Dana Goldberg
So are there T shirts for it yet? Because if there are, I. I want one.
- [25:46]
Allison Gill
Oh, Ah, yes. The. The. The very well known. And everyone will understand what you're talking about. Wackadagpa shirts that will be not as popular as Widowed. The Widowed Movement by Anna Bauer, for who is the administrator of doge. But talk a little bit about how, I mean, we already know through blowback and through Anonymous, but mostly through blowback, how this impacted your life personally with Donald Trump going after you. But to be named in this, you know, you talk about losing your job. What else has it been like in the, in the, the aftermath of this executive order?
- [26:21]
Dana Goldberg
Well, the, the last thing I want, Allison, is to be like a civic sob story. But, you know, I, I think it's really important for people to understand what really happens after these things. And most folks who are on the receiving end of Trump's retribution are really hesitant to talk about the personal nature of it, because it can be embarrassing. I mean, if you lose your job because the president wants to go ruin your life, you almost don't want to admit that. You don't want to admit that it's had those impacts. But, but financially, to us, it's been devastating in terms of our security footprint. You know, we had just started to get out of the craziness of a couple of years ago with just, you know, and, you know, Allison, just the. We had dozens and dozens and dozens of wacky people make threats against us. And some, you know, were not real, others were deemed credible, and you just don't know. So when that comes back out of the woodwork, I mean, I have a young baby. This is very serious. I mean, if someone makes a threat against my household, I have a human life in addition to my wife that I need to be thinking about protecting. But then there's another layer that I've just started to talk about, and I want folks to Understand? And it's social isolation, which sounds like, oh, boo hoo, you lost friends. But I mention those words because students of history and international affairs see this very commonly. When you read about autocracies or countries that are backsliding from democracy, you read about dissidents and, you know, people who have been the victim of human rights abuses. And one of the first things you read about when you read about someone like a navalny is, and I'm not comparing myself to him, but you realize that these folks early, when they're being targeted, they go through social isolation, which is part of the autocrats playbook, is if you can isolate whistleblowers and dissidents from each other, it's less likely that their infection will spread. Right. And that infection is truth telling. And that's what an autocrat doesn't want to happen. And so you have to rapidly socially isolate those people. And I'll tell you why that's happening to us. And that executive order against me and the one against Chris Krebs, it doesn't just say, we'll take away Miles's security clearance. It says, and any associates of Miles Taylor. Well, they know that I came up in the national security community. They know that most of my core friend group are people that worked at places like the CIA and the FBI and the State Department whose lives are dependent on their careers, are dependent on these security clearances. That's a very fast way to start to shut down Miles's access to a network of support. And has it happened? It has now. You know, some folks have been, A lot of folks have been fantastic and stood with us, Allison. But there have been very close friends, very close friends who've said to me and my wife, hey, we need to step back until this blows over. That is devastating not to have just that core support network. There's even been family members who this has been too heavy for them to deal with. That is the thing I didn't expect. That's the level of social fear I didn't think we'd entered into in this country, but we're there now.
- [29:31]
Allison Gill
Yeah, I didn't think about that. The, and the associates part really does propel the isolation that, that he's looking for. And I mean, he does this with all sorts of things with the going after big law firms, anybody you associate with, or any contracts you have, or being able to go into a federal building or your security clearance at. He did it with diversity equity inclusion, saying, not only can we not have diversity equity inclusion in the government, but if you're a private business that has a contract with the government, if you're Joe Blow, who makes blankets for the Navy in Terre Haute, Indiana, and you have a diversity, equity and inclusion program, we're canceling your contract. So it's all this by association, these rules that really work to separate people. Not only, like you said, so that they can't spread the truth, like infect others with the truth, but also it's an easy way to gaslight someone. That's what abusers do. They isolate people from their friends and family and their support systems so that they don't have anybody to be there next to them to say, you're not crazy, this is actually really bad. And that makes for very difficult personal relationships as well. And as you spelled out in Blowback.
- [30:44]
Dana Goldberg
Well, I'll give you a recent example of it, and I won't name the folks because they're well intentioned and I understand where they're coming from. But we're doing a fundraiser in a few weeks in a, in a specific US City, and it's for our legal defense fund because Hannah and I can't afford, we can't afford this. We can't afford the lawyers. We don't have the resources, and we're really lucky. An organization called Whistleblower Aid, fantastic group, has launched something called endpresidentialrevenge.org, end presidential revenge. And it's a legal defense fund for us to be able to do this. And, and we're so grateful. And we're doing events at a handful of cities around the country and there was a caterer that was going to do the food and drink at this event. They were going to be paid to do food and drink at the event. And I just found out that the caterer backed out and I said, oh no, did they find out it was me? And are they trumpy and they don't support. And they said, the person who called me said, no. They're so supportive of what you're doing, but they are terrified that if they cater this event, employees who are here on visas as immigrants might be targeted and deported. That to me, that was unexpected to me that the level of fear is getting so high in this country that a business owner doesn't want to get paid to cater an event because they're worried that the association with someone targeted by the president could cause their employees to be deported. That is, that is autocratic stuff. And you know that word gets thrown around a lot and it's hyperbolic. But we're in it now. I mean, that is a high level of social fear. And I worry about what that means for just the general health of free speech in this country. I mean, Alison, we've, you know, we're celebrating our 250th birthday as a country next year. And for 249 of those years, we were a nation of the rule of law and we were a paragon of protected speech and free speech. And I'm not sure we'll make it to 250 years and be able to say that credibly. If again, a president can just take one of these and scribble it on a piece of paper and silence a dissenter and their associates. That's so blatantly unconstitutional. And yet folks like me and Chris Krebs and others have to scramble to figure out, well, this has never happened before, so how do you even begin to challenge it in the courts? There's no precedent for the lawyers to look at, but as you and I both know, fortunately, there are people that are starting to push back. The courts are starting to strike down some of these orders. And so we're hopeful that things like this in relatively short order will be disposed of by the, by the judicial system.
- [33:28]
Allison Gill
Yeah. Have you also filed suit?
- [33:30]
Dana Goldberg
We've not yet. And maybe this is, maybe this is naive of me, but our feeling was in normal times, these structures like the inspectors general and departments and agencies, they exist to do this. They exist to look into waste, fraud and abuse in government, and they exist to look into unconstitutional use of resources and agencies. And so we felt like an appropriate first step was to go to those watchdogs and say, hi, I think my constitutional rights are being flagrantly violated because they're launching an investigation without any predicate of a crime. Can you go verify that and, and let us know? I don't know if the inspector generals will take the case. I don't know if they've been co opted by the administration and we'll do the opposite and maybe we'll just turn and investigate me on Trump's behalf. I don't know where that's going to land, but to me, it was at least worth taking those initial steps that you would normally take to see if those guardrails still exist. And if they don't, we are obviously considering all the other legal levers, but we want to see if that one still exists for ordinary Americans.
- [34:42]
Allison Gill
Also a good way to exhaust due process so that you can't get a judge coming back at you at a later time and say, yeah, but did you try this? I don't see that you tried this. Like when I filed my wrongful termination suit, I went through the, the Merit Systems Protection Board first and then the administrative law judge and then, you know, finally went to federal court with it. So I can, I, I think it's amazing that first of all, testing those guardrails. And I think DOJ inspector general is still the same guy, right. Michael Horowitz, but not so much with the DHS Inspector General.
- [35:16]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, there's, I mean, look, the, the administration has early on showed that they wanted to exert a lot more control over these supposedly independent watchdogs and they fired a range of different IGs. And, and I think what remains to be seen is whether the inspectors general that weren't fired or the ones that have acting career civil servants in place will be able to or willing to stand up to the administration. It's so clear from the dozens of federal judges who've now struck down unconstitutional orders from this administration that they are engaged in unlawful activity. But are those inspectors general doing what they're supposed to and looking over the shoulder of those agencies and saying, you can't carry out that order? That's against the law? We'll see. And I think it's really important for the Congress and Americans to know whether that is the case because if we no longer have those watchdogs inside of government, then we're totally dependent on hearsay and leaks and reporting to tell us what's happening inside these agencies. I mean, that's why they exist. Congress, Republicans, Democrats of both parties want those watchdogs to be there so that regardless of who's president, we don't have to worry about abuse and weaponization of taxpayer dollars in our departments and agencies. I'm not so sure that's the case anymore and hopefully we're going to find out soon. Maybe this will be one more data point to tell us if the is still on life support.
- [36:50]
Allison Gill
Well, I'm so glad you're working with whistleblower aid. We recently had Mark Zaid on the podcast and you know, we've had interviews with Alex Vindman and you previously and all sorts of other whistleblowers that are supported by their really good pro bono work. And I'm very, very happy that we're actually partnering with them. We have our own URL, actually for listeners of this podcast to help you and whistleblowers like you through whistleblower aid. And it's whistlebloweraid.org beans so if anybody's interested in supporting. I mean, I did a whole speech on Whistleblower Day. I was featured by the National Whistleblowers association saying we need to make whistleblowing great again in this country because there's. Particularly in an autocratic regime like this, because it's those frontline workers, those people who see the things that are going on with their own eyes and that they have protections by lawyers who are very former whistleblowers themselves and very skilled at this. So. And doing this work pro bono, I really hats off to whistleblower aid and hats off to you for all you're doing.
- [37:57]
Dana Goldberg
Well, it's. I've got to say, it's so heartening to have an organization like that have your back. And the result is you actually can tell people that there's something they really concretely can do to help. I mean, Whistleblower eight, of course, is doing this pro bono. But we have lawyers that we have to pay on the team to do all of these things. And that defense fund helps pay for it. And so, you know, I mean, right now, as we speak, I mean, me and my wife, my family, we're being defended by people we've never met in our lives. People are crowdfunding our legal support, and I would love to have been independently wealthy and able to do that myself. We're not. But that's also. There's just a remarkable optimism that comes out of realizing, you know, someone in Iowa and California and New Hampshire are donating to help you protect not just you and your life, but these rights that we all have. That has been literally the highlight of my week. This week has been hell. It's been an absolute hell. We didn't want to go do this. We didn't want to be in this situation.
- [39:06]
Allison Gill
But how many times have you found yourself faced with not wanting to be in that situation and then going out and doing it?
- [39:13]
Dana Goldberg
I mean, I don't know, Allison, I think you need to have a sit down with me, because I'm just, you know, I keep doing the things that suck. I would like to.
- [39:22]
Allison Gill
I remember on Mueller, she wrote one of the Anonymous article came out, and we were like, who is it who says that? Who says lodestar? Oh, is it? Who could it possibly. Where I'll try to sit there, dissect everything, to try to figure out who Anonymous was.
- [39:35]
Dana Goldberg
And the answer was a guy who's about to just blow up his life, and he just, you know, he keeps doing it, but damn if, you know, if we're going to be in a country where we keep having a president break the law so much and attack people, then, you know, then folks are going to have to keep blowing up their lives to go after it. And. But I will just say, like, it's been, it has been so inspiring, it's been so heartening to just have folks out there be supportive. And, you know, this wouldn't. You wouldn't have been able to do that 10 or 15 years ago is have people be able to give you a legal defense you wouldn't otherwise have. So I'm just, I'm incredibly grateful for all the folks out there who I've never met and may never meet that are helping to. Helping to defend us in this moment.
- [40:15]
Allison Gill
Well, it's very brave what you're doing. A wise man once wrote a book, and I read something about how when the price of dissent is high, we have to increase the supply. And so by doing this, you wrote that, by the way. And by doing this, I don't know if he's wise.
- [40:33]
Dana Goldberg
We'll see. I mean, history will tell us, but.
- [40:36]
Allison Gill
It creates a permission structure, you know, and I think that that's incredibly brave. And, and we appreciate you.
- [40:42]
Dana Goldberg
Well, thank you, Allison. I appreciate you having me, as always. And, you know, I would, I would just say to folks, I mean, there is, we are early in this administration. There's a lot more that's going to happen, and I don't want to be negative or cynical about it, but it's going to get harder before it gets easier and, you know, before you have to be called on to step up, just do it. It'll be a lot easier. And there's a lot of different ways to do it right now. And folks that are listeners of your programs, Allison, are. Are some pretty damn brave people. So, you know, I just want to thank your listeners out there because they've been very active in sounding the alarm as well.
- [41:18]
Allison Gill
Thank you so much, Miles. We appreciate your time. And come back again soon and let us know, give us an update.
- [41:24]
Dana Goldberg
Great.
- [41:24]
Allison Gill
Thank you, everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back with the good news. Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news? Everyone? Then good news, everyone. All right, everybody, please send all your good news into us. Also, if you have any good trouble suggestions, we'd love to hear about it. If you have any confessions or pronunciation corrections, we'd love that, too. Misheard song lyrics or some good street joke you've heard recently, we would love to hear that. If you have a shout out to a loved one or yourself or a small business in your area or a great government program that's helped you out like the Affordable Care act subsidies or SNAP. Section 8. Head Start is a really good one. WIC anything at all. And even down to like municipal and city programs that have helped you or a loved one. Of course. Great. VA Healthcare is good. We love those stories. And student debt relief too. Send it all to us dailybeanspod.com click on contact Fact to get your submission read on the air. Just pay your POD pet tariff, which means attach a photo of your pet and we are happy to play breed guessing games. If you want us to guess the breeds in your shelter, we're sort of okay at that. We are so good. We are not good okay, but we'll we're happy to play anyway. And then if you don't have a pet, you can send an adoptable pet in your area. But if you don't have that, any animal off the Internet, any photo will do. Send that to us if you don't have that bird watching photos, which can be an actual bird or you and your family and friends flipping the bird to Trump and Musk Properties or Trump and Musk themselves if you happen to run into them. And if you don't have any of that baby pictures, we would like all your baby pictures. Any baby pictures? Send in your baby pictures. Yes please send it to dailybeanspod.com click on contact first up from anonymous Pronoun she and her hi Beans Queens pronunciation corrections here for Chetta is an Italian word for fork. It's pronounced with a hard K for ketta. Oh, I've been eating there for like a decade and I didn't know that. Buona forchetta. Clearly those 2300 straight days of studying Italian on Duolingo haven't been a waste of my time. Ah, see, it's all worth it. For pet tariff, here is moo My beautiful girl. She walked into my house and my heart 12 years ago. Oh thank you AG&DG for keeping me sane. That's the cat distribution system at work, right? Have you seen the group? Social media group? Like this is not my cat.
- [43:56]
Miles Taylor
No.
- [43:57]
Allison Gill
People put up a picture of a cat on their bed and like this is not my cat.
- [44:02]
Miles Taylor
Oh my God, that's so funny.
- [44:04]
Allison Gill
It's so good. Beautiful kitty. Thank you so much.
- [44:07]
Miles Taylor
Anonymous all right, this is from Dave. No pronouns given. Apropos of albino squirrels Story is that some escaped in 1949 from a traveling circus south of Asheville, North Carolina and have since managed to become part of the local squirrel population. This picture is from last fall outside Candler, North Carolina, near my home. I thank you for all your work. Albino scrolls are so cool, by the way.
- [44:31]
Allison Gill
They are. Someone sent IN1 from D.C. yesterday on the National Mall. We have roving gangs of parrots here in San Diego. This has been going on since the 60s, when a couple of parrots escaped from a house and then just started humping. And then now there's herds, Flocks. Flocks of parrots all over.
- [44:52]
Miles Taylor
Herds of flocks of parrots.
- [44:53]
Allison Gill
Whatever. I think it's flocks. Thank you for that. Love these. Next up, Glenn in Beaverton. Pronouns he and him. Hi, Alison and Dana. I wish I had good news, but here's some news about what fragile, cruel, homophobic assholes Von Schutzen pants and Kegseth are. They timed this shit move for Pride Month?
- [45:13]
Miles Taylor
Yes, they did.
- [45:14]
Allison Gill
Hard to understand how these fuckers have time to be so petty while destroying the country. Wishing them both painful, humiliating, inoperable stage four dick cancer. I think it's stage nine. Stage nine? Yeah.
- [45:30]
Miles Taylor
I don't know how you kept that under wraps for so long. People were protecting him.
- [45:34]
Allison Gill
What Glenn's talking about is what we talked about yesterday on the show that they're taking. Gonna rename the Harvey Milk.
- [45:40]
Miles Taylor
Yeah.
- [45:41]
Allison Gill
Just assholes.
- [45:43]
Miles Taylor
Yeah.
- [45:43]
Allison Gill
For bird tariff. Here's a picture of a big, fluffy great horned owl fledgling that we saw last weekend in the barn at Cottonwood Canyon State park in Oregon. Love you both for all you do. Keep up the great work. That's a cool spot.
- [45:55]
Miles Taylor
Wow. Yeah.
- [45:57]
Allison Gill
I want to go to the Cottonwood Canyon State park in Oregon and see the barn.
- [46:02]
Miles Taylor
What a cool owl goodness.
- [46:04]
Allison Gill
I love that. Wishing them both painful, humiliating, inoperable, stage four dick cancer.
- [46:11]
Miles Taylor
This next one is from six hours of muzak later. No pronouns given. I spent six hours and 23 minutes on the 1-800-line waiting to talk to a Social Security representative just to make an appointment to apply for Survivor benefit benefits. Once I started talking to her, the conversation only took 15 minutes. The good news is that the SSA.gov has a live wait time, which is accurate to one minute. By the way, this is what Doge Cuts have done. My God, six hours of music. I'm so sorry I giggled. I just like the subject.
- [46:43]
Allison Gill
But this is six and a half hours on hold. And then look at that other one. Current callback. Wait time, 7 hours and 47 minutes.
- [46:51]
Miles Taylor
Yeah.
- [46:51]
Allison Gill
Nope. Jesus. Sorry you had to sit on the phone. For that long just to for a 15 minute call to make an appointment. Yeah, it's Doge. Next up, Kent pronouns he and him. This dog is amazing. Hello, beans Queens. I have an unusual shout out. It's a Facebook group called Pot Smoking Atheists who Love Dogs. This group is so very welcoming to all. Full of positivity, support and humor and lots of dog pics. It's by far the best group I've interacted with on Facebook. Oh yeah, Kent, we'll wait until I start my group. Wishing them both painful, humiliating, inoperable, stage four dick cancer on Facebook, we already have three members. We do. Well, very few MAGA types would check all three boxes. The members are moderate members of moderators do a fantastic job of blocking those who do make it in. There are at present 31,000 members. I'd love to see how airing one of my favorite podcasts airing on my favorite podcast might increase that number. Here's a photo of Max attached for tax. He was featured on a Good News a couple years ago. He's sadly no longer with us. He was a quirky, lovable hot mess whose bad hips finally got the best of him. Thank you for all you do and keep up the good fight. This dog is so fucking great with the underbite and the one eye and the other eye. Oh. So everybody go check out Pot Smoking Atheists who Love Dogs. They're currently at 31,000 members. Let's see what what we can do.
- [48:23]
Miles Taylor
Oh my God, that underbite. All right, this is from Anonymous pronoun She, Allison and Dana. As our country is gasping under the weight of 47's madness again, I'm keeping hold of the sanity my writing by writing and sharing my political poetry with fellow elders. And once at a public reading, I wanted to share my most recent robber Barron. For those ears sensitive to cussing, I replaced fuck with a Is that called a grawlix?
- [48:51]
Allison Gill
I guess I didn't know until right now. I was today years old when I learned that that is called a grawlix. When you put like a dollar sign percent ampersand exclamation point.
- [49:01]
Miles Taylor
I'm going to say the word fuck because I can't. Yeah, okay. Fuck the new age robber barons who flaunt their racism in unholy alliances with Jesus. Absent Christian nationalists and pedophiles, misogynist rapists campus with pardoned criminal insurrectionists and fraudsters peddling unproven cures and pseudo scientists with popular podcasts who broadcast screed at the masses in Mass. These new age robber barons who gleefully gather in our White House sullied by a draft dodging white collar criminal who revels in gold decor to compensate for lack of style, lack of soul and absence of heart. Who promote the oxymoron of reverse racism. Claiming the mediocrity while.
- [49:43]
Dana Goldberg
While.
- [49:44]
Miles Taylor
Excuse me. While. Proving cast cacistocracy.
- [49:48]
Allison Gill
Yeah, you got it. Claiming meritocracy while proving castocracy.
- [49:51]
Miles Taylor
Thank you. Appointing soulless.
- [49:53]
Allison Gill
Mouthful.
- [49:53]
Miles Taylor
I know. Appointing soulless corrupt figureheads at our once globally revered institutions. These new age robber barons who've been silver spoon fed, trust funded, tax freed individual income to purchase yachts and mansions and private jets, college pedigrees and private membership, 5 million gold immigration cards, designer clothes and designer drugs only to rage in plastic faces at their temporarily temporality. Fuck the new age robber barons of, for and by the people we make our stand whether but steadfast in shared history through the course of human events, we still seek a more perfect union and hereby reject 2025's unlawful project. Cognizant of our diversity, we wholeheartedly refrain from E pluberis unum.
- [50:42]
Allison Gill
Nice.
- [50:43]
Miles Taylor
Yeah. Pet tax is a drawing I did. Wow. This person's insanely poetry art. I know. This is a Podpacks is a drawing I did for my rescue Reba, who love keeps me. Whose love keeps me alive. No kidding. I listen to you on my daily walks that inspire me to keep fighting fascists in any way I'm able. I'm 68 by the way. You have seen some stuff and this is is awesome.
- [51:08]
Allison Gill
It's a badass.
- [51:10]
Miles Taylor
Also, your vocabulary is quite impressive. I know, I know.
- [51:15]
Allison Gill
Thank you so much for that. I love that. Oh, well done. Next up from Jennifer Pronoun she and they. Oh, this dog. My name is Jennifer she, they and yes, you can use my name. I'm a little blueberry in a steaming hot bowl of tomato soup here in Alabama. I would love to shout out my cousin Deanna for tipping me off to your wonderful pod. Thanks Deanna. I have only just started listening but your pod has shifted my mental state around the news. I am no longer. I no longer dread listening to what's happening because of the orange chicken turd in office. Anyway, I just wanted to say a huge thank you for all you do as my pet tariff. I'm providing a pic of my sweet pups, both rescues and an adoptable pup at gbhs. Snow the tan white mix and Brenya the solid black pup are my two babies enjoying playing. Enjoy playing what the mud. But the adoptable puppers is Valentina. Look at these beautiful dogs.
- [52:07]
Miles Taylor
So sweet.
- [52:08]
Allison Gill
I don't know. We got. That looks like a lab.
- [52:11]
Miles Taylor
A lab, but with very long legs.
- [52:14]
Allison Gill
I know, like mixed with like a.
- [52:15]
Miles Taylor
Weimaraner or whipping right.
- [52:18]
Allison Gill
And then what's it.
- [52:19]
Miles Taylor
Oh, look at this pity mix with something with big old ears.
- [52:22]
Allison Gill
The pity mix. All right, let's see. Oh, GBH lists her as a retriever lab.
- [52:29]
Miles Taylor
Okay.
- [52:30]
Allison Gill
59 pounds. About a year. About one year, seven months and two weeks old.
- [52:36]
Miles Taylor
Oh, my God. Snow is a husky pit mix.
- [52:39]
Allison Gill
A husky pit. And bran is a black lab Heinz 57.
- [52:44]
Miles Taylor
Oh, my God. Those are husky ears.
- [52:47]
Allison Gill
I know. The husky pitty. And then look at the little lab mix. Oh, so cute.
- [52:52]
Miles Taylor
Seriously.
- [52:53]
Allison Gill
Thank you so much for that, Jennifer. Thanks, welcome. Welcome to the pod. Thanks. Thanks to Deanna for pointing us out. And thanks to everybody for all of your amazing submissions. Really appreciate you, especially the stage 4 dick cancer commenter.
- [53:07]
Miles Taylor
My God. So good.
- [53:09]
Allison Gill
Made me laugh so hard. I appreciate that. I needed that. I'll be back in yours tomorrow, everybody. I really appreciate you. And do you have any final thoughts, my friend?
- [53:18]
Miles Taylor
No, just wishing you all a really great weekend. Ag's got me tomorrow while I go to work, but I'll be back in your ears Monday morning.
- [53:25]
Allison Gill
Awesome. Until then, everybody, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, and take care of your family. I've been ag, I've been dg. And them's the beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they Might Be Giants and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcast dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information Please visit msw media.com msw media.