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The Daily Beans
The Epstein-Day War (feat. Project Salt Box)
01:07:52
Monday, March 2nd, 2026 Today, Donald Trump and Bibi Netanyahu have initiated a war with Iran; Democratic lawmakers call for Congress to return to DC to vote on a War Powers Resolution; a federal judge says the Trump administration is intentionally violating immigration law; the Pentagon has shot down one of our own drones; artificial intelligence giant Anthropic has told the Department of Defense it refuses to surveil Americans or build fully autonomous weapons for the government; Democrats say they have the votes to subpoena Lutnick over his Epstein Files appearances; the Justice Department exposed cooperating witnesses in the Epstein files; and Allison and Dana read your Good News.
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- [00:00]
Martin Sheen
You can always count on Sunday to be the best day of the week. You can sleep in, go off your diet, spend the day in your pajamas and go on, have that second croissant. You know what else you can count on every Sunday? The Martin Sheen Podcast. Join me, your host, Martin Sheen for beautifully crafted 20 minute programs filled with never before heard stories of my life along with personal reflections and poetry that inspires. And season two beginning begins Sunday, February 1st. The Martin Sheen Podcast is the perfect Sunday relaxing companion. A chance to put your feet up, take a deep breath and enjoy some stress free listening time from the comfort of your favorite easy chair and that second croissant that stays between us. There's no judgment here. So make my podcast your weekly moment of calm as we explore faith, hope, love and and what it means to be human. And rest assured, this journey is ever unfolding as I invite you to see what's next with me, Martin Sheen. So let's keep Sunday the best day of the week together and thank you for listening.
- [01:17]
Allison Gill
MSW Media.
- [01:25]
Mike Wriston
News.
- [01:26]
Desiree McFarlane
We're swearing
- [01:30]
Mike Wriston
daily beans.
- [01:31]
Dana Goldberg
Daily beans.
- [01:40]
Allison Gill
Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Monday, March 2, 2026. Today, Donald Trump and Bibi Netanyahu have initiated a war with Iran. Democratic lawmakers call for Congress to return to D.C. immediately to vote on a war powers resolution. A federal judge says the Trump administration is intentionally violating immigration law. The Pentagon has shot down one of our own drones. Artificial intelligence giant Anthropic has told the Department of Defense it refuses to surveil Americans or build fully autonomous lethal weapons for the government. Democrats say they have the votes to subpoena Howard Lutnick over his Epstein files appearances. And the Justice Department exposed cooperating witnesses in the Epstein files. I'm Alison Gill.
- [02:24]
Dana Goldberg
And I'm Dana Goldberg. Hey, guess who's back. Allison is back. Guess who's back. Welcome back, my friend. I missed you. Everybody missed you.
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Allison Gill
Thank you. I missed you so very much. And I apologize. I feel like because I went on vacation, that's why we are in a war.
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Dana Goldberg
Yeah. That you say this might be your fault.
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Allison Gill
Actually, I think it might be my fault. Actually. It's probably Donald Trump's and BB Net.
- [02:55]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, yeah. Okay.
- [02:56]
Allison Gill
Yeah, I just. There's just so much going on with that and we're going to cover a little bit of it today. But for a more in depth peek, everybody check out Beans Talk. Today I'm actually going to drop the Beans Talk audio into the Daily Beans feed. Even though Beans Talk has its own audio feed. I'm going to Drop it here into the daily beans feed so you have easy access to it today so you can listen to that. You can also watch it on YouTube because we've got a lot of clips and we were throwing up a lot of tweets, especially those. There's always a tweet. 2012-2011-2019-2024. Yep, there's always a tweet. Hey, later in the show, I know that there's a lot going on globally right now, but DHS is still shut down right now because the Democrats refuse to fund dhs because the Republicans will not make any changes to ICE and Customs and Border Protection, which are fully funded and shut down from the big beautiful bill. But that is still happening. And later in the show, I'm going to be talking with two of the co founders of Project Saltbox, which is just an amazing group of everyday citizens who have special skills that can, you know, read public documents and find out about what's going on with ice, particularly a lot of these concentration camp warehouses they're trying to build that many citizens are rejecting. So stick around for that Project Saltbox interview. It is the interview I conducted substack live on Sunday. So if you've seen it, you can fast forward to the good news. But I'm going to talk to them later in the show. All right, If I'm a little rusty, I apologize. I'm going to do my best.
- [04:30]
Dana Goldberg
You're going to. Your best is better than most. So we can knock off some dust.
- [04:34]
Desiree McFarlane
Oh, my God.
- [04:34]
Allison Gill
Get this, though. I brought my microphone, my phone stand, my, my spare phone, my camera, my everything. I brought it all and it just sat in a bag and I never even cracked it. So it's been a minute. It's been a minute. But we have a lot to get to today. So let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up from the Times, the Iranian government said Sunday that U.S. israeli attacks on Iran had killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that's the nation's supreme leader for decades and an enemy of Israel and the United States and the UAE and Saudi Arabia and Qatar. That might make a little bit of sense when you start to think about who's benefiting. Who's benefiting. Exactly. President Trump had announced the supreme leader's death hours earlier and called on Iranians to take control of their government. Iranian officials initially dismissed claims of Ayatollah Khamenei's death as bravado or psychological warfare. But Sunday morning in Tehran, as the war entered A second day with another wave of attacks on the country. The Iranian state news agency confirmed his death. Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel had both made clear that a regime change is the goal of huge waves of strikes on Iran that began around 1am local time Saturday. Quote, when we're finished, take over your government. That's what Trump told the Iranian people in a video statement. It will be yours to take. Really?
- [05:58]
Desiree McFarlane
You think?
- [05:59]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah.
- [06:00]
Mike Wriston
No.
- [06:00]
Allison Gill
Have you thought about that? You have a plan for how that looks? You might want to turn the Internet on so maybe they can talk to each other about. No, you didn't know. Okay.
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Dana Goldberg
You're. No kidding.
- [06:10]
Allison Gill
It is not clear whether removing Ayatollah Khamenei, who was 86, by the way, would result in significant changes to the system he led. Many people in authority owed their positions to him. And the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a powerful institution that answers to the supreme leader, recently demonstrated its grip on the country by brutally crushing mass protests, killing thousands, thousands of people. Remember, his death is a potentially seismic political shift in Tehran that raises the prospect of broader conflict across the region. Iran's leadership oversees extensive military abilities and a network of regional proxy forces that could help sustain a resistance. Many world leaders urged restraint after the strike on Saturday, although Canada and Australia backed the American action, which I was a little surprised about. But the bombing continued early Sunday. That's according to Iranians reporting. Also now, as we're recording this Sunday evening, there is another wave hitting Tehran. Mr. Trump warned that US strikes will continue throughout the week or as long as necessary to achieve our objective of peace. Okay.
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Dana Goldberg
Nothing says peace like bombs. Am I right?
- [07:18]
Allison Gill
Yeah. The bombing will continue until peace improves. And as my bumper sticker sat on my car, fighting for peace is like for virginity. But okay. It goes on to say in the New York Times, let's be clear here, this war was not authorized by Congress. Now, I want to say Schumer and other Democratic lawmakers have called for Congress to return immediately to D.C. to vote on a War Powers Resolution. This was not done because Iran was an imminent threat. It was not. Which it makes an attack against international law and wartime law as well. Iran doesn't have ICBMs that can reach the United States. There was no credible threat to US Troops in the region. Region? They aren't close to developing a nuclear bomb. They aren't even close to enriching uranium. This. This is about Qatar, uae, the Saudis, and Israel sending Trump and his family billions of dollars to do this. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, by the way, will almost certainly send oil prices upward. There's already some futures of increasing $7 a barrel, so your gas prices are going to go up. By the way, March 28th is the next no Kings March. So we'll see you there.
- [08:25]
Dana Goldberg
Yes, we will. All right, Allison, thank you so much. This one's from the Associated Press. The U.S. military used a laser Thursday to shoot down a seemingly threatening drone. Seemingly threatening everybody. Drone flying near the US Mexico border. It turned out the drone belongs to Customs and Border Protection. Sorry. The case of mistaken identity prompting the Federal Aviation Administration to close additional airspace around Fort Hancock, about 50 miles southeast of El Paso. The military is required to formally notify the FAA when it takes any counter drone action inside US Airspace. It wasn't the second time in two weeks that a laser was fired in the area. Remember that? They thought they shot down a kid's balloon or some shit. Now the last time it was CBP that used the weapon and nothing was hit. Oh, that. Apparently there's three incidents where they fucked up. That incident occurred near Fort Bliss and prompted the FAA to shut down air traffic at El Paso Airport and the surrounding area. This time the closure was smaller and commercial flights were not affected. Washington U.S. rep. Rick Larson and two other top Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure and Homeland Security committees said that they were stunned that they were officially notified. They said, our heads are exploding over the news. This is what they said in a joint statement. They criticized the Trump administration for sidestepping a bipartisan bill to train drone operators and improve communication among the Pentagon, FAA and Department of Homeland Security, which includes the cbp. And I quote, now we're seeing the result of its incompetence. The faa, CBP, and the Pentagon used a joint statement late Thursday that acknowledged the military employed Counter Unmanned Aircraft system authorities to mitigate a seemingly threatening unmanned aerial system operating within military airspace. This is the second time these lasers shut down El Paso airspace this month. El Paso shut down two weeks ago, as I said, but only a few hours as it raised alarm and led to a number of flight cancellations that were nearly 700,000 people affected.
- [10:39]
Allison Gill
Geez.
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Dana Goldberg
Yeah. In that case, any anti drone laser was deployed by CBP when they shot down, as I said, a party balloon.
- [10:51]
Allison Gill
So now we're shooting down our own probably really expensive drones with really expensive lasers. And you gotta wonder if they used anthropic AI to do that, because here's our next story from the New York Times. Open AI, the maker of Chat GPT said Friday that it reached an agreement with the Pentagon to provide its artificial intelligence technologies for classified systems. That was just hours after Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using using AI technology made by OpenAI's rival, Anthropic. Now, Anthropic, which competes with OpenAI, had battled the Pentagon in recent weeks over how AI can be used in negotiations over a $200 million contract. The Pentagon had demanded it be able to use Anthropic's AI system like lawfully, but without any restrictions, or it would cut the company off from government business. So anthropic had a $200 million contract on the line here. Anthropic said it needed the terms that would ensure that its AI technology would not be used for domestic surveillance of Americans or for autonomous lethal weapons. The Pentagon in turn, said a private contractor can't tell us how to use tools for national security. And their disagreement erupted into public view this month and escalated as both dug in their heels. Anthropic and the Pentagon failed to agree on terms by 5pm on Friday, which was the deadline set. Defense Secretary Kegseth then designated Anthropic a, quote, supply chain risk to national security, a label that cuts the AI company off from business with the US Government as a whole. Trump also weighed in, calling the startup a radical left AI company because they don't want to make lethal government AI weapons and surveil Americans. Now, Sam Altman and Dario Amadei, the chief executive of Anthropic, have long been bitter rivals. Altman is the OpenAI guy now, Dr. Amadei and several other founders of Anthropic previously worked at OpenAI, but they left in 2021 after disagreements with Altman and others over how AI should be funded, built and released. Now, the Trump administration on Friday ordered all US agencies to stop using Anthropic's artificial intelligence technology. And I want you to note that day Friday, that was before we bombed Iran. Yeah, quote, no amount of intimidation or punishment from the Department of War will change our position on mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weap, the company said we will challenge any supply chain risk designation in court. So they'll probably sue to get rid of that designation. Guess what? Guess what, Dana. Trump used Claude Anthropic AI to attack Iran just hours after he called them to never be used again by the government and calling them a supply chain risk. The left wing rag, the liberal rag by Rupert Murdoch known as the Wall Street Journal, had this exclusive reporting within hours of declaring the federal government end its use of artificial intelligence tools made by tech company Anthropic. Trump launched a major air attack in Iran with the help of Anthropic commands around the world, including U.S. cENTCOM, that Central Command in the Middle east, and they all used Anthropic's Claude AI tool, according to people familiar with the matter.
- [14:02]
Dana Goldberg
Thank you so much, Allison. This one is from the Times. A federal judge on Thursday said that the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey had lost its credibility and was intentionally violating immigration related orders, the latest rebuke from a judiciary that has grown increasingly frustrated with the Trump administration. The judge, Zahid N. Qureshi, added that if Trump administration continued to make immigration arrests under a rationale that had already been found legally unacceptable, otherwise known as illegal, those arrests would most likely have to be justified through sworn testimony by administration officials. Oh, you're going to have to come into my court. That strict standard would reflect an extraordinary lack of faith in the government and would place an additional burden on it every time it made an arrest of that nature. And I quote, efforts by the court in this district to protect detainees rights have been largely frustrated by the government. And I quote, efforts by the court in this district to protect detainees rights have been largely frustrated by the government. And that's what the judge wrote, saying that officials from the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey had admitted to violating more than 70 orders from judges there. He added that he would, and I quote, not stand idly by and allow this intentional misconduct to go on. It ends today.
- [15:20]
Allison Gill
I love this. I was talking about this with Joyce Vance a while back when that first contempt fine came in for not releasing that guy. We were like, that's going to open the floodgates to other judges doing that. And they've started to do that. We've, we're starting to see more civil contempt.
- [15:36]
Dana Goldberg
Fantastic.
- [15:37]
Allison Gill
One judge wants to do criminal contempt, but they're charging these lawyers personally if they're not following the orders properly. So that'll hopefully get shit done. Next up from the Times, the phrase buried among millions of pages of documents tied to Jeffrey Epstein would not mean much to most people, but it could have deadly consequences. The simple phrase is proffer at 500. And that amounted to a sign that seven of the defendants listed on two 2019 documents released in the files were either cooperating with federal prosecutors or seeking to do so. That's what profer means. And in fact, several of the men whose names appeared with that phrase on the internal documents did cooperate after talking to prosecutors in what are known as proffer sessions at 500 Pearl Street. That's what proffer at 500 means. That's the address of the Federal District Courthouse in Manhattan. Dana. So by failing to redact the names of those seven people who were being held at the Manhattan jail where Mr. Epstein was awaiting trial, the government may have put them in harm's way. Basically listing the names of people who were willing to give proffer at 500 in the Epstein case. The disclosure of the names could also send a chilling message to anyone else considering whether to cooperate with the authorities. Don't tell me this was an accident.
- [16:57]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, no. This is intimidation.
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Allison Gill
People are going to see that, and they're going to go, well, are my names. If I go in and tell them what Jeffrey Epstein did or any crime at all, is the DOJ going to release my name to the public?
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Dana Goldberg
Yeah.
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Allison Gill
Now, when initially informed that the names had been included in the Epstein files, the Justice Department did not redact the documents further or remove them from the online database. A spokeswoman said the word proffer doesn't necessarily mean cooperator. But after the New York Times confirmed that at least three of the seven people had, in fact cooperated with the government. I added the fucking. And then informed the department. Agency officials took down the files, and then they restored them with the names and notations redacted. So they didn't even bother to check when. When they said at first, hey, that says proffer at 500. Redact those names. That's not what it means. Yes, it is. These three people cooperated, okay? Now, even if the people in question had not cooperated, the phrase could still indicate that they had attempted to do so, which would still have put them in harm's way by signaling to co defendants and criminal associates that they're willing to provide information to prosecutors. They're the rat, right? You dirty rat.
- [18:06]
Dana Goldberg
Nope.
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Allison Gill
They're just printing their names for all to see. And like I said, if you think that was an accident, I have a men's hockey gold medal to sell you. I don't know. I don't know what to tell you.
- [18:18]
Dana Goldberg
All right, thank you so much, Alison. This last one's from Politico. This is sort of a big deal. Democrats in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, they have the votes to force Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. I only had lunch on the island for an hour. To testify before their panel about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. This is from Rep. Ro Khanna. As we know, the Democrat from California toured reporters on Friday, and I quote, I believe we have the votes to subpoena him. This is what Khanna said outside of Performing Arts center in Chappaqua, New York, where oversight members were poised to begin their deposition of former President Bill Clinton. Rep. A horrible person. Nancy Mace also said Friday that she would ask for Lutnick's appearance before the panel as part of its Epstein investigation after materials released by the Justice Department revealed the extent of the former Cantor Fitzgerald CEO's relationship with the rapist. I'm just gonna say it.
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Allison Gill
Disgraced financier.
- [19:19]
Dana Goldberg
What are you gonna do, sue me, Epstein? No, you're not. Ludnick recently acknowledged that he took a trip to Epstein's island in 2012, like I said, with his family, after he claimed that the relationship had ended after Epstein had been convicted of soliciting a prostitute.
- [19:33]
Allison Gill
But I left with all my children.
- [19:35]
Dana Goldberg
He said he went with his children and the nannies, but he left with all his children. And a quote from the story. We're gonna continue to, you know, ask questions of everyone that shows up in photos and island and things like that. This is from House Oversight Chair James Comer.
- [19:51]
Desiree McFarlane
He's so eloquent.
- [19:52]
Dana Goldberg
He's, you know, he's also full of it. That's what he told reporters Friday and Chappaqua. Now, the Kentucky Republican also suggested the public would be curious to hear what Hillary Clinton said about Lutnick. And I quote, I think it's interesting what Hillary Clinton said about Howard Lutnick, Comer said before Mace interjected, and how she said it. Democrats are pushing for the unedited film footage of Thursday's deposition with Hillary Clinton to be released quickly. Comer said he expected the video to be made public as soon as feasible.
- [20:24]
Allison Gill
Film footage instead of video? It makes it sound like there's a stunt double or something. Yeah, I know the film footage. All right. Okay. Oh, Nutlik. Howard Netlik.
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Desiree McFarlane
And did you see also, there was
- [20:37]
Allison Gill
another photo that was in the. After that was taken down, but yeah. Yeah.
- [20:42]
Dana Goldberg
And it was just five guys in that photo. Didn't see his kids anywhere around. So if he did bring his kids to the island for lunch for an hour, he sure abandoned them for a short period of time for a photo shoot with four other men.
- [20:54]
Allison Gill
Well, you know, left him with the nannies.
- [20:56]
Dana Goldberg
That's right.
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Allison Gill
And his wife, one of whom was interested. Jeffrey Epstein was interested in working. Okay, gross. They all just need to go.
- [21:04]
Dana Goldberg
I also think this Z Ron thing has to do. I mean, the blackmail to have Trump attack Israel is so wrapped up in the Epstein files, and Jeffrey Epstein has so much contact with Netanyahu.
- [21:16]
Allison Gill
It's all the Epstein class.
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Dana Goldberg
Yeah. It's all, all of this. It's blackmail, especially surrounding how much evidence has come out against Trump. It's blackmail. You bomb Iran. I'll put my tinfoil hat on. I think it's all connected.
- [21:29]
Allison Gill
It's all related. A friend of mine was like, yeah, but do you think that maybe because of what Trump did, somebody might release the files that they have on him, the, you know, the, the dirt that they have on Trump?
- [21:40]
Desiree McFarlane
And I'm like, the people who have
- [21:41]
Allison Gill
it are all the ones who bribed him to kill the Ayatollah.
- [21:44]
Desiree McFarlane
The uae, mbs, Right.
- [21:46]
Allison Gill
The Saudis, Qatar. Putin's apparently upset. But I think this deal was made with Putin ahead of time that it was okay as long as he didn't interfere in, you know, Ukraine, what he was trying to do in Ukraine.
- [21:58]
Dana Goldberg
Right.
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Allison Gill
It's all the Epstein class. It's all the Epstein class, us, for real. And you should see how, how many times Iran is mentioned in the Epstein files. Give it a. Yep. Give it a search. All right, everybody, we're going to be back with it's. It's a fairly long interview with Project Salt Box. It's about a 30 minute interview. It's really in depth. It's really incredible. I really encourage you to listen to it. It's also up on my substack@meloucherote.com and then we'll have the good news after that. Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back.
- [22:29]
Desiree McFarlane
Hey, everybody.
- [22:30]
Allison Gill
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- [24:08]
Amanda Sturgill
it's no surprise that newsmakers try to manipulate the audience. They want you to believe that they are the one holding the line and they'll use any trick they can to get you there. But don't let them fool you. Get Unspun I'm Amanda Sturgill. I I've been a reporter and today I teach future reporters to cut the spin and think critically about what newsmakers say. My podcast, Unspun shows you how to know when you're being manipulated by the news, learn to spot the tricks and how to make up your own mind about what's true. So if you're tired of being fooled by the news, subscribe to Unspun today. Unspun because you deserve the truth.
- [24:47]
Desiree McFarlane
Hey everybody, welcome to the Breakdown. Welcome to substack melissiret.com really appreciate you being here. Today we are talking with a couple of co founders of an amazing group of folks, regular Americans, who are using public documents to find out, you know, the canaries in the coal mine to lead us to clues about opening giant concentration camp warehouses or fleet movements or immigrant movements from place to place. And it's a really, really awes group of folks called Project Saltbox. Anybody who's listening to this but I'm sure by now has heard of Project Saltbox. You can also follow and subscribe to Project Saltbox here on Substack. It's totally free to subscribe and so today joining me are two co founders of Project Saltbox, Mike Wriston and Em. So welcome Mike and Em. How are you?
- [25:43]
Mike Wriston
Hey Allison, thanks. Thanks for having us.
- [25:45]
Em (Co-founder of Project Saltbox)
Thank You.
- [25:46]
Desiree McFarlane
I'm really excited to talk to you guys because I think what you're doing is pretty incredible. Sleuthing public documents to get information. It reminds me of how we were looking for Covid outbreaks by looking at the amount of COVID in the water supply, for example. So talk a little bit about Project Saltbox, how you guys all got together and what it is Project Saltbox does.
- [26:10]
Mike Wriston
Yeah, so I guess the long and short of it is we're just a bunch of like, regular, normal, average, everyday people. I say that in all seriousness. Four or five months ago, we were just, you know, a bunch of people living in Baltimore that were looking at Reddit one night, like, looking at our community Reddit page, and somebody had posted on there that they were looking@sam.gov, which is this sort of like, if you were to think about it as like Craigslist for the government. It's this place where people, where the government goes on and they list the things that they're looking to buy or contract. And so they had posted on there that they were interested in having some folks from the community that might have had some knowledge on government contracting take a look at some things that they had found because they were concerned that they had maybe read some contracts that indicated that a surge might be coming to Baltimore. So this was September, late September, early October last year. And, you know, I'm an Air Force veteran. I did a lot of work looking at federal procurement records and, and obviously looking at these websites. And so I said, sure, send me the documents. This was, I think, like a Friday night. And so they sent over 20, 30 PDFs of different solicitations that they had found. And I went into it very skeptically. You know, I honestly didn't think that the breadcrumbs would necessarily be that public and that easy to find. I thought maybe this was just going to be, you know, a panic. But then, you know, 48 hours later, it was Monday morning, and I'm supposed to be getting my kids ready for school. And I'm, you know, I've got the corkboard up on behind me with the red string going from one contract to another. Because there were, I think, very clear indicators that ICE was planning. Not just a scale up here in Baltimore, where we're based, but really across the United States. It was probably the first real indicator of how they were going to be spending their $45 billion, one big, beautiful bill, act appropriation. So, yeah, that group of, like, three of us has grown into a couple more than that we come from a bunch of different backgrounds. But for me, my background is in, you know, I was an intelligence analyst in the Air Force. And so, you know, looking at a lot of the technologies that they were buying, I can kind of speak to that a little bit. And then, yeah, em, if you want to talk about what you've been doing with us.
- [28:33]
Em (Co-founder of Project Saltbox)
Yeah. So my background is in immigrant advocacy. I've worked in this field for the past eight years, both here in the US and abroad. And what really drew me, me into working with these folks was that when they first started posting about the contracts on Reddit and I started looking at them myself, I really hadn't ever realized that this was like publicly available information that you could go and look for. Obviously I've seen like firsthand in real life, day to day, the way that the equipment and like technology that they are procuring is impacting people and the way that they use it for immigrants and people seeking status in this country. But I didn't realize that there were ways to actually find out where that technology and where that equipment was coming from that you could look that up online and that you could see the place of performance. And I started learning so much about federal contracts, so just kind of came on and started giving some background and contextualizing the information that we were finding. Like for example, there was one about an alternative to detention program called the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program. And a lot of people that I work supporting have been drastically impacted and put into this program. And that lines up with the contracts that we were seeing. And so I was like, wow, yeah, this is legit. And yeah, it's kind of how I got here and stayed.
- [30:13]
Allison Gill
Yeah.
- [30:13]
Desiree McFarlane
And this is truly incredible stuff.
- [30:15]
Allison Gill
Like, I'm.
- [30:15]
Desiree McFarlane
I know some of the flight tracker folks, and after Tom Homan sort of replaced Bovino in, in Minneapolis, they were noticing fewer detainees on flights out to Texas and Louisiana. One day it got down to zero, and then it started going the other way, where people were coming back from Texas and Louisiana and to Minneapolis, presumably for their due process because of the court orders that DHS continues to ignore mostly. But those kinds of little clues sort of give us insight into what's happening. I know that you guys had seen like 48,000 or something ready to eat meals that were being shipped to a location. And taking those things, contextualizing them with the talents that each of you have, I think has a profound impact on our understanding and also gives us time. It's like an early warning system on how to perhaps go to Public hearings and present public comment, for example, on some of these warehouses that are opening. One of your recent posts on the substack for Project Saltbox talks about seeing plans or revealing plans for a detention warehouse in a, in a suburb in Arizona, for example. We know that one in Georgia, Social Circle, I think, had some canaries in the coal mine about it coming online and people were able to go in mass numbers to that public hearing and try to prevent it. So talk a little bit about some of these indicators that you're seeing for these giant warehouses for this mass, this for profit, mass deportation thing that's, that's going on. We can talk about Arizona, Tennessee for example.
- [32:09]
Mike Wriston
Yeah, so Arizona was an interesting one. Arizona, the facility that they were looking at there in Marana, which is a suburb outside of Tucson, was previously owned and operated by the state and then it was sold to a company called mtc. MTC is a basically a for profit prison operator, the same as Corecivic or Geo Group. They have a pretty big facility down there in Marana. And so looking at this history, the people in that city have kind of long suspected that that facility was going to be turned back on in some capacity as a detention center. The question was always when and for how much? And, and the town council down there, that's their backyard, that's their bread and butter. The prison industry in that particular town funnels a lot of money in from federal grants and funding and all the other fun things. And so they weren't necessarily giving indications to the people that it was going to come back online. They were telling the citizens down there, we don't know. There's nothing formal. We can't say. You're worrying over nothing. And by watching SAM.gov you know, I think the last time that the public had gotten a statement from their town council was in November of last year that they were going to potentially look into something and then came back and told the folks there, nope, you have nothing to worry about. This is just a defunct prison. It's never going to be used for anything else. And then we went online and looked@sam.gov and found that there was a single source contract from the Department of Homeland Security for that specific detention center to mtc, basically saying, we intend to use this as a detention warehouse to hold upwards of 700 hundred people. And so the very next thing that we did with that, right, we write an article. The articles that we're writing are not necessarily written to be like a New York Times or a Washington Post or, you know, a journalistic type accounting of the story. It's more of a flash alert and an intelligence alert that basically says, here's the contract, here's the information that we've pulled out of it. And then, you know, we put it on the Internet as kind of a data point that folks can go and take and run with. And so, so we publish an article, we attach the contract to it. Again, it's publicly available. Anyone can download it. It is not like we sleuthed our way into their database and broke things out of the computer. It's just right there on SAM.gov so we pulled it off and archived it and shared it with folks. And then the next thing we do is we turn around and we talk to two folks. We talk to journalists that are on the ground in those communities that understand the context and understand what that story means for the people living there. So in this case it was Arizona Public Radio or Arizona Public Media. We reached out to them and sent the story along. And then we turn around to the folks that are on the ground that are doing the organizing and we provide it to them and we put the data in their hands. And the idea is that if they're going to go stand in front of a city council or a county council, or if they're going to pull in their congresspeople, then instead of saying, I am opposed to a detention center in my community, which I think is a sound enough argument on its own merits, but understanding that the audience that they're talking to, it matters a lot to be able to go in and say, I oppose a detention center in my neighborhood. Because this particular detention center is going to hold 700 people. It's not zoned for it, it doesn't have the resources for it. It's going to cost, you know, $250 million of taxpayer funding to get it online. And then once the people are inside of it, there's no water, there's no electricity, there's no X, Y, Z. And those very compelling arguments make it difficult, not, not always impossible, depending on the, you know, the, the moral integrity of the person you. But it makes it more difficult for those city council members or those county council members to push you away and ignore what you're saying when you back it up with facts. And so we are very much towards action driven data, data that drives action. And so that's what we did in Marana. And it was very funny because I reached out to the town council there for comment and they said, we don't know what you're talking about. And then I sent them a copy of the contract and their public affairs specialist came back and said, said, we still don't know what you're talking about. No one consulted with us. So it shows that even in friendly territory, right on ground that ICE is friendly with, they're still not communicating with the people that run those cities as much as they're not communicating with the communities there. So yeah, you find out a lot by pulling threads and asking questions.
- [36:33]
Desiree McFarlane
And em, let me ask you, we reported this a little bit on the Daily Beans a few weeks back that these detention centers are really, really unpopular, even in red rural areas. And a lot of it has to do with the infrastructure or the lack of infrastructure. And like, like I said, we had one listener of the podcast who wrote in, who's a insurance floodplain expert and was like, people who live near these facilities really should be going to their city council, their town council, and saying, have you done this environmental study? Have you done the floodplain study? Is this going to impact my homeowner's insurance? Like stuff that can really muck up the works. Can you talk a little bit about like, I, I remember the social circle one is like a town of 5,000 people or something, which is like a tenth of how many people they want to house in this warehouse that they're trying to open. So em, can you talk a little bit about the infrastructure that Mike briefly touched on and how it doesn't support a lot of these giant, huge mass deportation facilities?
- [37:40]
Em (Co-founder of Project Saltbox)
Yeah, I mean, I think I'll start by saying that it's been really interesting after working in this space for so long, seeing what resonates with people and what part of this people, they kind of find their niche and turn it into this argument that fits into their own individual beliefs. So I think there's a lot of people, like you were saying, that are against these warehouses, people who don't necessarily share our political views or they have differing views on immigration in general. And I think trying to like, frame the data and the information in a way that is going to resonate with a wider array of people. So I think that that's been really interesting. I think for the warehouses in particular. I think it's. It's also interesting because these detention facilities are known already. Like I. Detention facilities that they've operated for years are known for having gross human rights violations, for just being horrific and having people in squalor. And I think that these are kind of. Really. It's really resonating with people because it's just so obvious that these buildings are not meant to hold people. Whereas I think there was kind of this like separation of thinking. Oh, detention facilities, you know, like that, that was made for. To hold people that are being detained even if it didn't have good infrastructure either than the warehouses. It's just like no, we actually, it's very clear that their plan is to treat human beings as commodities. And I think that that is something that has just really caught onto a lot of people and people are like wow, no, like this isn't okay. And housing that many people is going to affect every aspect of like our local economy, of our neighbors, of like the, the jobs that it's going to supposedly create. The pro. The, the promises that are made of like the, when, when they try to first like convince local council people that that detention facilities are beneficial. That is an argument that they have tried to make, you know, that it brings jobs and that it's, it will just like stimulate the economy in certain ways. And I think it's also interesting that they haven't tried to do that with these warehouses and they've tried to hide it because they know that this is something that is just not unpalatable. It's just completely. Yeah. Unprecedented.
- [40:24]
Desiree McFarlane
I was actually surprised to learn that most of the folks in these rural areas, I figured like oh, you know, go after their NIMBY nature or their we don't want immigrants on our neighborhood nature or it's going to cost us too much money nature. But most people are actually just against the idea of warehousing human beings and that. Actually I was very like, I hate to say pleasantly surprised by that, but you know what I mean, like I thought we would have to appeal to a different part of human nature in order to get folks to be against these warehouses. But most are just against warehousing human beings at this massive level and then add onto it pile onto it the environmental impact or the impact to the neighborhood, the impact to the economy. There's just like you said, nothing beneficial about having one of these warehouses in your area.
- [41:18]
Allison Gill
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- [43:06]
Brian Caram
I'm Brian Caram and I've spent decades covering politics. Now I'm taking you behind the scenes, one interview at a time. Join us as each week Brian confronts the issues that matter, posing the questions you wish you could ask. No filter, no agenda, just the truth. We're not here for sound bites. We're here for substance. Join me, Brian Caram every week as we cut through the noise and get straight to it. This is just Ask the Question for curiosity will lead us to the facts. Subscribe now on your favorite podcast platform and remember, when you want answers, all you have to do is just ask the question.
- [43:51]
Mike Wriston
I'll frame it this way too, because Em was talking about, you know, the financial impacts to communities and it made me think about Merrimack, New Hampshire in particular you know, as you're looking at all of these different warehouses from an infrastructure perspective, you know, an industrial shell, you know, for shipping goods is generally only outfitted for like the plumbing of the people that work there. So like four toilets, two sinks and a shower is generally what they put in there. And so the plumbing, the sewage, all of that water throughput and output reflects in what pipes they put into that facility. And then when you add 1500 to 10,000 people on top of that, you're talk about having to completely gut that facility to rerun the plumbing, connect it not to a federal sewer, because that doesn't exist. They'd have to connect it to municipal sewers. They'd have to connect it to, you know, in some states, when they did the initial plans for these buildings, they capped it to 11,000 gallons per day. The math that you have to do to arrive to how much water a human being uses is you say one human being generally in a detention setting between laundry, cooking, you know, drinking water, using the restroom, taking showers, it's like 130 gallons per day based on reverse engineering ICE's math. So 131 gallons per day times 10,000 people is how much, is how much water you're extracting from local reservoirs. That's how much water you're extracting out of places that are in droughts in the case of Western Maryland. And a lot of councils have been pushing back on that. They're saying we don't have the funding, we don't have the ability to upgrade our water purification centers. And what, what ICE immediately did is they came back and said, no, we'll fund you. You're going to have so much income from property taxes. Well, in doing that, they told a lie because these facilities are federal facilities and they're not taxed at the state level because of the supremacy Clause. So they're not receiving. The states are losing in some cases like $700,000 a year in tax stream revenue. And then when the states pushed back on that and some said, hey, you're lying to, to us and this has no financial impact. My favorite thing that I've seen so far, and by favorite I mean I actually like laughed out loud when I saw this is ICE solicited an emergency urgent bid for technology called implan, which is economic modeling software that they needed to buy because they then had to turn around and forecast to the states what kind of economic benefits were going to come from this. So within a week of them buying this very expensive $169,000 a year software, they be spitting out more concrete numbers. Oh, this is going to bring $250 million worth of jobs to your communities over the course of three years as we fit this out. But then when you start pulling it apart, what you realize is in the case of New Hampshire, the document that they gave to Governor Ayotte had sales tax and income tax, which are both taxes that New Hampshire does not have. So even in creating the modeling, they're doing it wrong. They're not experienced in how to use it. They're just throwing money at a problem and hoping that they can convince people that this is a good thing.
- [47:04]
Desiree McFarlane
Well, they've got tons of money. But it's funny that you say, oh, well, you just tax us with our thing.
- [47:12]
Allison Gill
We don't.
- [47:12]
Desiree McFarlane
No, that's not how the world works. Yeah, the incompetence and the cruelty mixed together are pretty astounding. Em, talk to me a little bit before we get out of here about the Minneapolis Fleet. Ice Fleet moving to Williamsburg. You guys picked this up and wrote about it on Project Saltbox here on Substack.
- [47:34]
Em (Co-founder of Project Saltbox)
Yeah, that came from some communications that we were able to get our hands on pretty early on. Again, people are realizing that they can actually speak up and use their particular skills and like, their proximity to certain things in as like, part of resistance and like, for us to be able to like, arm our communities with this knowledge and immediately start getting organized. We've been tracking that for. Or like, the cars specifically that they're using for, like, the past. Well, I guess a while. Michael. I don't remember when we first, like, noticed.
- [48:14]
Mike Wriston
At least the last month we've been watching cars moving in and out of Baltimore and counting them.
- [48:19]
Em (Co-founder of Project Saltbox)
Yeah.
- [48:20]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah.
- [48:20]
Em (Co-founder of Project Saltbox)
And I think this is probably the most. Most. I mean, it's all very alarming, but like an actual, like, material, like, physical sign of an impending operation here that is similar to things that we've seen in other cities. And I guess just trying to figure out what that would even look like here. Because Maryland, the landscape here is just so different from Minneapolis, from Chicago. And I think just having. Having that knowledge and making sure that other people know about it is. Yeah, it's just trying to help.
- [49:01]
Desiree McFarlane
So helpful just to, like Mike said, we, you know, it's not just about getting the information. It's about giving it to activist groups and local governments and state governments. And to be like. Just wanted to let you know this
- [49:12]
Allison Gill
is happening, you know, right near you.
- [49:16]
Em (Co-founder of Project Saltbox)
I also would say that a big part of this has been kind of making. Helping people realize that these things are a little bit like, smaller than they might appear. There is always kind of somebody behind the curtain like, yes, these federal contracts are these big things. I have heard of the GEO Group and of course Core Civic for a long time operating and profiting off the incarceration of people for many, many years, but didn't really understand the kind of like, tiers of contracting and how it goes all the way down to the local level where people can actually start public pressure campaigns. And it's people that like, are in the community or that live nearby and own their own businesses. And they don't necessarily want, you know, like that kind of negative image or they don't want people to know. Know what the business that they're doing and finding ways to resist just by like, knowing exactly who is behind the curtain and like making these decisions and that you can actually do something about it.
- [50:22]
Mike Wriston
Yeah, EM raises such a good point there that the people that are behind this, you know, the people that are profiting obviously are the big ones, but it's little people that are profiting off this too. And it's little people that are driving, driving change. It's everyday people, it's parking garage attendance, it's actors at your local improv group. It's folks that see things and know things and have insight, that are willing to speak up and share what they know. That's undoing a lot of the terror that's inevitably coming to our communities. But those are the kind of people that we need right now. And so I'll just tack that onto what M said, everything. Plus raise one up for the little guys because there's so many of them out there that are making this possible.
- [51:07]
Desiree McFarlane
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Like blanket contractors and laundry contractors and food. You know, I mean, there's just so many people that have to be involved in an operation of a warehouse that houses 10,000 people that that's kind of where you can find some pressure points. And that's where it's awesome that people
- [51:23]
Allison Gill
are standing up and helping out.
- [51:24]
Desiree McFarlane
And speaking of that, tell everybody how they can help you out rather than. Than. I mean, I'm sure there's a better way than just to have 10,000 people send you information because it takes so long to sort through. Is there a. First of all, I just want to recommend everybody for free subscribe to Project Saltbox here on Substack and get their updates, because through comments and through messages, if you have any additional information, like that floodplain guy who wrote into Us, you know, you can do it that way. I think we lost Microsoft Connection, but we'll keep running here for the last minute. Talk about what people, everybody listening here can do to help Project Saltbox, which, by the way, are the little boxes on the side of the road in Baltimore that melt ice.
- [52:09]
Allison Gill
Just.
- [52:09]
Desiree McFarlane
I thought that was very clever. So tell everybody what they can do to get involved.
- [52:13]
Mike Wriston
Yeah, a couple things. The first one is obviously, start thinking hyper locally. So I think right now the notion is, let's think about what we can do at a national level level. And I would challenge folks to rethink that and start thinking what you can do at a neighborhood level, at a block level, or even at the city level before you go any bigger than that. Because there's so much talent already in cities and communities all over the United States that can band together and either mirror what we are doing or run with what we're doing and do it in their own neighborhoods. And I'll say this, something like in the state of Maryland, 25,000 federal employees lost their jobs in the first year of the Trump administration. That's a lot of people with a lot of really strong talent, like filing petitions against local, state, and federal governments for things like national Environmental Protection act violations or, you know, procedural act violations. And that's the kind of work that we def. We desperately need people doing. So if you have, you know, my call to everyone out there is, I'm going to use a woman we know in Hagerstown that's doing this. She's got years of experiencing, years of experience filing petitions against the government, and she has been filing them left, right and center against DHS for violating national epa. And it's working. It's slowing them down because they didn't do due diligence. So if you've got those skills, think about how you can use them in your state, in your county, to slow down what's happening and shine a light on the gross failure that's happening at a procedural level to make the wheels turn. And then get to know your neighbors and know what skills that they have and talk about what's right for your community. Because what's right for Baltimore is definitely not going to be right for Marana. It's definitely not going to be right for social circle. But what we can provide you is data. And what you can do with that data is organized around it, and figure out how that works for your particular town or your particular region and run with it. Because you're the experts. We have data, but you out there listening. Those of you that are working in data visualization or property, real estate or floodplain insurance, you're the folks that are going to slow this down. You are the heroes of this story. Don't wait for federal elected representatives or anyone else to come swoop in and save you. You're the heroes in this story. What you do with the data and what you do with the information matters at your local level. And that's where you stop these things.
- [54:26]
Dana Goldberg
I love that.
- [54:27]
Desiree McFarlane
My dream is that you guys put together a little packet on how to open up your own project salt box chapter in the town where you live. And we got all these little salt boxes popping up all over the country, even though we don't need road salt in San Diego. I think it would be fantastic. Anyway, just my little dream. Just my little dream. I appreciate you coming on today. Thank you for doing all you're doing. Thanks to Mat Shadow for having you guys on. I know you guys blew up after that and I'm really excited that folks can now subscribe to your substack at absolutely $0 to get continually get this information. But I echo your call. Do this locally where you live, put together a group of experts who can do the same thing where you live. And let's keep this going because hyperlocality is, I think, the key because community is. So I appreciate you coming on today.
- [55:19]
Mike Wriston
Yeah, thanks ag. Appreciate it.
- [55:21]
Desiree McFarlane
All right, everybody, stick around. We'll be right back with the good news.
- [55:24]
Allison Gill
Bye Bye, guys. Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news, everyone.
- [55:30]
Dana Goldberg
Then.
- [55:30]
Mike Wriston
Good news, everyone.
- [55:46]
Allison Gill
All right, everyone. I've been gone for a week. I need all of your good news. If you've been thinking at all, if you've been on the fence the tiniest little bit about writing in and telling us anything at all. Tiny, huge, yesterday, 20 years ago piece of good news. We need to hear it. We need to microdose your hope. So send it to us. Anything that'll bring a smile to us. Send your favorite joke, send your favorite street joke, send your favorite comedian and your favorite joke by them. Let us know your favorite movie quotes from comedy movies like Monty Python Thought or the Jerk or Anchorman or whatever what you think the most quotable comedy movie is. Airplane. I would love to hear from you about that. We would. We would love that. You can send us shout outs, like shout outs to a spouse, a loved one, a government program, a small business in your area that could use a boost, that's doing cool things, some great community organizing, a Non profit that you love. Anything at all. You can send it to us dailymeanspod.com click on Contact. Contact. We were having some fun on social media the other day talking about stuff we didn't realize until we were older that we should have realized much younger. Those are always fun. Send those to us. Song lyrics. And then of course, to get your submission right on the air, all you have to do is is just attach a photo of anything really. It can used to just be your pod pet and we would try to guess the breeds in your shelter pup. It can be an adoptable pet in your area. If you don't have a pet, can be a random animal on the Internet. We love baby animals. It can be your baby humans, your baby, baby photos, anything that's cool. Like that. Signs at a rally. We've got another no Kings coming up, so send your favorite signs to give people ideas for what signs to make for March 28th for no kings. And of course, panda bears, secretary birds, bird watching photos of you flipping the bird to Trump properties. Seriously, any picture, send it to us daily beanspod.com click on Contact. First up is your good trouble. All right, Good Trouble today. Call your reps to oppose the war in Iran and support Rep. Khanna and Massey's War Powers Resolution. And while you're at it, call Rep. Massie and tell him to switch parties. Now look, I know he's got a shitty voting record and he's still a Republican, but I would take an empty paper towel roll right now.
- [58:00]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, no kidding.
- [58:01]
Allison Gill
Switch parties just to get the majority. Just to get AOC in charge of a committee. Just to get to some subpoena power. Just to get that gavel back. And frankly, I don't give a shit right at this moment who has the gavel in the midterms. Yeah, that's. That's different. But just to get that majority back, we could impeach. We could defund ice. We could actually roll back that Better Business Bureau slush fund. Not Better Business Bureau, Allison.
- [58:25]
Desiree McFarlane
Big beautiful bill, the bbb.
- [58:27]
Allison Gill
We could roll back that slush fund given by the Better Business Bureau. That's awesome. We could defund ice. There's so much. That majority would just be so great. Massey's going to vote how Massey votes. And we should probably try to replace him with an actual Democrat in the midterms. But. But man, if we just had that majority and then we can maybe get Gonzalez out of there. Did you hear about this guy Gonzalez who had was dating the aide and sending awful nude photos to the very young staffer who then lit herself on fire.
- [58:55]
Dana Goldberg
The one who, quote unquote, lit herself on fire. I have questions about that one too, but just.
- [59:01]
Allison Gill
Yeah, horrible.
- [59:04]
Dana Goldberg
Horrible.
- [59:04]
Allison Gill
Won't res. And here we've got Al Franken pretending to grab boobs on a comedy to tour. And we, we asked him. Okay, I think he should run for his old seat, by the way, since Amy Klobuchar is running for governor. But that's just me.
- [59:18]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah.
- [59:19]
Allison Gill
All right, everybody, that is your good trouble. We're going to have a link in the show notes too, for a script that you can tell people to return and vote on that war powers resolution.
- [59:29]
Dana Goldberg
All right, thanks so much, Allison. This next one's from Morgan. Pronouns he and him. I just started listening recently and I'm kicking myself in the ass for not starting soon. I appreciate the unfiltered directness of your show. If something is bullshit, you call it bullshit. We need more of this. It reminded me of the only time I ever heard my son swear note heard he was three at the time and we were at a minor league baseball game. He saw the mascot on the field and simply stated, what the hell is that Appropriate as it was a six foot tall raccoon. Thanks for keeping the news real for my pot pet tariff, legal or not, here's a picture of my dog Sully with his back best friend Stuart. They love visiting each other and raising hell. And they're so cute.
- [60:15]
Allison Gill
Are these schnauzers?
- [60:17]
Dana Goldberg
I think they're terriers. Aren't they Scotties or Scotties.
- [60:21]
Allison Gill
I always get those. They're amazing. Morgan, they're so cute.
- [60:25]
Dana Goldberg
Welcome, welcome.
- [60:27]
Allison Gill
Welcome to the. To the beans. Thank you for listening. Tell everybody. Don't kick yourself in the ass for not starting sooner. That should be our new slogan. Next up, pro. Anonymous. Pronouns he and him. Ladies, I wanted to write and give DG a shout out for her solo week now.
- [60:42]
Dana Goldberg
Anonymous. Thank you.
- [60:44]
Allison Gill
I'm a newly regular listener. I would catch it here or there where I could, but my current job allows me to be desk bound on Friday. So I pop in my earbuds, usually listen to the full week of shows of both the beans and the beans talk while I crunch away. So today I settled in and I must say it was epic. I'm also extremely namely for a fugal saying threesome. Okay, dad, don't want to know.
- [61:05]
Dana Goldberg
I'll explain that.
- [61:06]
Allison Gill
That would be a hilarious time. My tax is my dog's butt. I got a new phone, so this was the only pick that I had.
- [61:14]
Dana Goldberg
That's awesome.
- [61:15]
Mike Wriston
Oh, my God.
- [61:16]
Dana Goldberg
Cute little dog. But when I signed on with Figo saying, I don't know if he knew you're on vacation, it was just me, I said, I know you were hoping for your first threesome with me and Allison, but it's not happening. So I think a lot of. I think a lot of people would love a fugal saying threesome. It would be an epic it.
- [61:31]
Allison Gill
I got it now.
- [61:32]
Desiree McFarlane
Oh, there's a. There's a.
- [61:34]
Allison Gill
A blacked out box here.
- [61:36]
Dana Goldberg
This looks like a cocker spaniel. Australian shepherd mix.
- [61:42]
Allison Gill
A Dalmatian but smudged.
- [61:46]
Dana Goldberg
It's a shepherd doodle.
- [61:48]
Allison Gill
Let's see a shepherd doodle. Oh, my goodness. That's cute. I love it.
- [61:54]
Dana Goldberg
I thought it was a cocker because it looked like it had a little nubbed tail, but.
- [61:57]
Allison Gill
Yeah, yeah, yeah, true. Anyway, thanks for that.
- [62:02]
Mike Wriston
All right.
- [62:02]
Dana Goldberg
It's from Anonymous. The end. No pronouns given. I shouldn't say it's from Anonymous. It's just from the end. Hey, leguminous ladies. My good news is that Kat. Oh, goodness.
- [62:13]
Allison Gill
Oh, Abu Ghazayla.
- [62:14]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, thank you, Abu Ghazayla. That's a fun one to say. Is fighting her ass off in Illinois. Abiguazela. I'm in Texas and I wish I could vote for her. She's an absolute power journalist, activist, congressional candidate running in Illinois's 9th district. So heads up, everybody. Now.
- [62:30]
Allison Gill
The end. She's been on the beans. Go. Listen.
- [62:32]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah. I've never seen anyone running for office by back like she does. I would love to see one of you interview her. Apparently that has happened and you can find the. In the episode, she was literally thrown more than once by DHS staff. One time landing on her ass and bouncing while protesting outside the Broadview detention facility. Facility as pet tariff, I give you our mutts, Liz, who is the black one, and bode. Liz is 6 years old with the energy of a pup and the experience of. We've seen some shit. Absolute tug champion. Bode's coming up on 2 years old. He's never met a toy he didn't like. He plays constantly and is always up to box or play tug or ball. Both are very active, healthy, happy, and deeply loved.
- [63:17]
Allison Gill
Look at the babies.
- [63:18]
Dana Goldberg
Is that a pug man mix?
- [63:20]
Allison Gill
It looks like a pug or a chin or like, or like even like a Pekinese Chihuahua. What would you call that? A pewawa?
- [63:27]
Dana Goldberg
A pikawa.
- [63:29]
Allison Gill
And then the other one looks like a, like kind of a Doberman mixed with a shepherd pit.
- [63:36]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah. What do we have here?
- [63:38]
Allison Gill
Let's see a lab Malinois. I got the Malinois.
- [63:42]
Dana Goldberg
Nice. Oh, that's it. Aussie Frenchie. That's the face.
- [63:46]
Allison Gill
Frenchie. It's a Frenchie face. Oh, so adorable.
- [63:50]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, we're gonna have a link to the cat interview everyone, so you'll be able to hear that the end. The person who wrote in. We have a link in the show notes to the interview that you have already requested. We did it with a time machine.
- [64:03]
Allison Gill
We did. Look at that. We got a time machine.
- [64:07]
Dana Goldberg
Done and done.
- [64:07]
Allison Gill
Anyway, awesome. Next up, little blue dot in Georgia. Hi. I've been thinking of making shirts that just have a blue dot on them.
- [64:14]
Dana Goldberg
I think that's actually very cool.
- [64:17]
Allison Gill
Yeah, let's think about. Put that. Do you hear me? Producers, are you listening? If you're listening, producers, if you're listening, I would like a shirt with a blue dot in our merch shop. All right. Little blue dot in Georgia. No pronouns. Hello, ladies of the lagoon. Sadly, I have some good trouble for your listeners. I'm furious over the Scouting America decision. Yeah, we're going to cover that tomorrow. To obey in advance. I've been a Cub Scout parent for five years and a DUN leader for three. I wrote an email that others can use as a template if they'd like. Thank you so much, little blue dot in Georgia for this. Here's the letter. Dear Scouting America Leadership, I'm writing as a dedicated Scouting America volunteer and parent. I've proudly served in Scouting America for five years and have been a DUN leader for the past three. I've always believed in Scouting America's mission to build character, courageous leadership and community service in our youth. Unfortunately, I'm writing to express my profound disappointment and anger with your recent decision to alter organizational policies in response to influence from the Department of Defense under Secretary Pete Hegseth. I and many others in our community are deeply unsettled. That Scouting America would prioritize compliance with the Pentagon's demands over standing firm for inclusive volunteer based youth development. The reported shift to discontinue your citizenship and society merit badge, eliminate DEI initiatives and alter membership policies at the urging of external military pressure is unacceptable. These changes, effectively bending the political and ideological demands, undermine the very values that Scouting America claim to uphold and moves the organization dangerously close to authoritarian influence. Scouting America has always been strong because it teaches independence, integrity and moral courage, not obedience to coercive political influence. This is so well written. Our youth deserve an organization that stands for inclusion, respect, fairness, and the freedom to grow as capable, independent leaders, not one that capitulates to external power plays. While I intend to fulfill my current commitment and finish this year with my kids, I will not be re registering myself or my child next year unless Scouting America reverses this decision and recommits to its core mission without yielding to political pressure. I know I'm not alone in this. Many families and volunteers have already expressed that this decision will lead to dwindling enrollment and loss of trust in the organization. Our kids should not be taught that bending to authoritarian demands is acceptable. That is the opposite opposite of leadership. I implore Scouting America leadership to reconsider and reaffirm Scouting America's independence, core values of inclusivity, and commitment to teaching young people to stand strong in their principles. Sincerely, Scouting America, Volunteer and Parent we are going to have a link to that letter in the episode notes.
- [67:00]
Dana Goldberg
Fantastic.
- [67:03]
Allison Gill
So this submission goes on to say when will this end to end on a positive note. Attached is a pupper from my local Humane Society that needs a home. Meet Holland, a five year good boy who has been boarding over two years. Learn more about him at jasperco humanesociety.org adopt. There's a link in the show notes. Thanks for all you do AG and dg. Look at this baby.
- [67:27]
Dana Goldberg
Oh so sweet.
- [67:30]
Allison Gill
Two years boarding two years. What a wonderful letter. Little blue dot in Georgia. Thank you for writing it and I hope it encourages more people to do so. At first I was like what the does Pete Kegset have to do with with Scouts?
- [67:43]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, no kidding.
- [67:43]
Allison Gill
But as it turned out, there's a pipeline, right? There's a lot of influence and work. It used to be a lot of working together with like Junior rotc, rotc, the military with with Scouting. And I know a bunch of people actually contacted me and said that they were now immediately having all of their Scouts finish that Citizenship and Society merit badge so that they could get it before it goes away away.
- [68:08]
Mike Wriston
Wow.
- [68:09]
Dana Goldberg
Wow wow wow. All right, next up is from Kelly Pronoun. She and her Just a quickie to say great job last week Dana and welcome back Allison. Also, this is an excuse to send two more pics of goats and diapers in the kitchen from my birthday weekend back in January. The all white one is named Bun because my friends had to keep putting her in the oven to keep her alive at two days old. Love you ladies. Lots. Look at Bun. Oh my God. Look at this goat in a diaper.
- [68:39]
Allison Gill
Oh my God. I love this. Yeah. Great job Dana. Welcome back Allison. We'll see how much Listener drop off. We have. Now that I've come back, you might want to.
- [68:47]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, shut up. Shut your mouth.
- [68:53]
Allison Gill
I missed you. I missed you, my friend. I'm glad to be back.
- [68:55]
Dana Goldberg
I miss you, too. I'm sorry I just yelled at you right now, but you're ridiculous. Us.
- [69:00]
Allison Gill
Hey, come on. You gotta let me do a little. A little.
- [69:03]
Desiree McFarlane
It's the old community in you.
- [69:05]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah. Everyone. Everyone write in and tell Allison how much you miss her.
- [69:09]
Allison Gill
No, do not do that.
- [69:10]
Dana Goldberg
Don't do that. Don't do that.
- [69:12]
Allison Gill
Do not do that. Send in. Send in.
- [69:16]
Dana Goldberg
Actually, don't, because I know all of you think it's going to be funny now to do it. Don't do that. It's it. She doesn't want it.
- [69:21]
Allison Gill
Do write it.
- [69:22]
Desiree McFarlane
Tell me.
- [69:22]
Allison Gill
Tell us. Tell us why you love the person you love the most in your life. Tell us that.
- [69:26]
Dana Goldberg
Yes, I love that.
- [69:28]
Allison Gill
I love. Love. All right, everybody, that's it. I suggest you go listen to Beans Talk if you have a moment. Like I said, we're going to drop the audio into the Daily Beans audio feed. So you'll. It'll pop up. You'll be like, what the hell's that doing there? That's why I'm doing it on purpose. And it's not to annoy you, I swear. But make sure you subscribe to. To the Beans Talk feed if you want to get it on audio. So anyway, thank you all so much. We'll be back in your ears tomorrow when you. Any final thoughts?
- [69:54]
Dana Goldberg
No final thoughts for today.
- [69:56]
Allison Gill
All right, see you then. 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.