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The Daily Beans
This Ain’t It
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Tuesday, February 11th, 2025 Today, the Trump defendants win a ruling in the Arizona fraudulent elector scheme; California approves $50M to protect immigrants; the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employees have been ordered to halt operations and work from home because Russel Vaught is closing headquarters; the Trump DoJ has filed to end the court order blocking access to the Treasury payment system (will cover on cleanup); Trump’s blockade of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is devastating US farmers; Judge Beryl Howell has ruled that the FBI has no more excuses for failing to hand over Trump Classified documents case material in a FOIA lawsuit; Steve Bannon is set to plead guilty to avoid jail in the We Build The Wall case; a federal judge ruled that Trump is violating the court order on the federal spending freeze; Trump has illegally fired the special counsel; Pete Hegseth has just revoked hormone therapy and gender affirming care for trans active duty service members; and...
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- [00:00]
Alison Gill
MSW Media. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Tuesday, February 11, 2025. Today, the Trump defendants win a ruling in the Arizona fraudulent elector scheme. California has approved $50 million to protect immigrants. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employees have been ordered to halt operations and work from home because Russell Vaught is closing headquarters. The Trump DOJ has filed to end the court order blocking access to the treasury payment system. Trump's blockade of Biden's inflation reduction act is devastating US Farmers. Judge Beryl Howell has ruled that the FBI has no more excuses for failing to hand over Trump classified documents. Case material in a FOIA lawsuit brought by Jason Leopold. Steve Bannon is set to plead guilty, apparently to avoid jail time in the We Build the Wall case, though that's coming from his lawyer and it appears that they were just discussions. A federal judge ruled that Trump is violating the court order on the federal spending freeze. Trump has illegally fired the special counsel. And Pete Hegseth has just revoked hormone therapy and gender affirming care for trans active duty service members. I'm Alison Gill.
- [01:29]
Dana Goldberg
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
- [01:34]
Alison Gill
Hey, Dana. It is a really, really busy news day. I had a really hard time keeping up, so I hope everybody sort of understands that we might be a little bit all over the place, but we're going to try to bring all this to you in a thoughtful way. How. How are you today so far?
- [01:51]
Dana Goldberg
So far, good. I'm done arguing with people who didn't understand the message behind the halftime show. At the super bowl yesterday, so many people were like, worst halftime show I've ever seen. I hated it. And I'm like, yeah, but a lot of those people, I think, missed. It's okay if you don't like Kendrick Lamar's music. I get it. I'll be honest with you. I knew like two or three songs before the halftime show, and I think there was one that they played that I knew and that was like, they're not like us. But there was so many symbolic things in the halftime show. Just resistance, because the other side doesn't like when brave black athletes peacefully protest by kneeling. So you know what? Kendrick Lamar did it without getting censored in the most beautiful way.
- [02:34]
Alison Gill
Yeah.
- [02:35]
Dana Goldberg
Really, it was a beautiful thing. So I do hope if you're like, I, I didn't like the halftime show. But you didn't get all of the messages under. Go to YouTube and just Google it because there are so many videos right now. They're telling you all the significance of almost every single choreographed from the halftime show. So that's all I'll say about that. Also, condolences to the Chiefs fans. Holy shit balls. And Go Birds. Well done.
- [02:58]
Alison Gill
Yeah. And Harrison Butker. Is that his name? Didn't even get to kick a ball. Yeah. I think somebody said, Serena Williams got more field time than Harrison.
- [03:12]
Dana Goldberg
You know, this is the thing. I, I, I don't dislike the Chiefs. Like, I'm not, I don't have any. I don't have a horse in the race. I wanted a closer game, but I do. Man, that was a blowout. It was a blowout.
- [03:22]
Alison Gill
It was a blowout. And somebody said, well, now Harrison Bucker can go back home and make a sandwich for his wife.
- [03:27]
Dana Goldberg
There you go.
- [03:29]
Alison Gill
So congrats. But Ker. But yeah, Go Birds. Great, great job for them, from what I understand. I wasn't really watching it, but I hear that some of there were some really incredible feminist ads out from Nike.
- [03:41]
Dana Goldberg
And, oh, the sports ads, the female sports ads were brilliant.
- [03:46]
Alison Gill
Just some really great stuff. All right, so we have so much to talk about today. We're going to just kind of do a little bit of a summ on a couple of headlines that we'll probably go into more depth on on other podcasts. I'll tell you about that in the quick hits. And to make a long story short.
- [04:00]
Dana Goldberg
Too late.
- [04:01]
Alison Gill
All right, so first up, apparently, and I, you know, I touched on this a little bit in the headline, Steve Bannon, his lawyer says, I think. And it might even be an anonymous source. And we'll cover this more in depth on cleanup on aisle 45. But apparently he's been in discussions with the Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, for a plea deal that would keep him out of prison for his We Build the Wall scheme. I'm not sure I believe what his lawyer is putting down. Maybe they went and asked for no jail time, but I can't believe that somebody who was facing years in prison would just be able to plead guilty and not go to jail.
- [04:36]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, that is really hard to believe.
- [04:38]
Alison Gill
So we'll see what at least, you know, with Alvin Bragg, with the, with Trump's doj. Sure. But with Alvin Bragg. No. Trump's Department of Justice moved to drop the charges against Eric Adams. Something else we'll talk about on cleanup. So.
- [04:53]
Dana Goldberg
Interesting. I'm not sure I love that as a Democrat, to be honest with you.
- [04:57]
Alison Gill
Yeah. No, it's terrible. Eric Adams is corrupt. I wonder what he gave Trump. But, you know, remember when they, we didn't discuss the case when I went to Mar A Lago. Yeah.
- [05:05]
Dana Goldberg
Sure, sure, sure.
- [05:07]
Alison Gill
Totally did. So the defendants in the Arizona fraudulent elector scheme seem to have won something they were looking to get, which was anti SL lap considerations. And again, we're going to talk about this on cleanup on aisle 45, but it's a setback for Chris Mays for the attorney general there. And she is going to appeal. And I'm not sure where that's going to end up. And hopefully we'll have a little more clarification for you by the time we record clean up on a 45 for Wednesday. TRUMP has fired the special counsel from the Office of Special Counsel. Now, this isn't like Jack Smith's special counsel or Durham special counsel or her special counsel. This is actually a permanent position in the government called the Office of Special Counsel and that they get five year terms. They cannot be fired unless it's for cause. Right. Some sort of wrongdoing. But Trump has fired this guy because he provides oversight for the government. Same thing happened to Ellen Weintraub, if you'll remember, at the fec, the Federal Elections Commission. And she also sued. And so did this special counsel guy saying, sorry, they both said, you can't fire us from our positions without cause. So we'll see what a judge says on those.
- [06:19]
Dana Goldberg
I love Weintraub was like, there is a way to fire this position. This ain't it.
- [06:24]
Alison Gill
This isn't it. Yeah. And don't with Weintraub.
- [06:27]
Dana Goldberg
She oh, no.
- [06:30]
Alison Gill
Also, Judge Barrel Howell has told, has told the FBI, hey, you can't stop refusing to hand over materials from the classified documents case against Trump anymore because they used to say, hey, this is an ongoing case. It could prejudice Donald Trump. Well, now Donald Trump, thanks. The Supreme Court has immunity and the case has been dismissed. So she said, sorry, Charlie and Jason Leopold, you know, who's the king of the Freedom of Information act requests, she, she granted him the ability to, to get these documents. And we're going to talk about that on the Jack podcast. Well, now it's called unjustified, but that's fascinating to me.
- [07:17]
Dana Goldberg
It looks like a third judge has blocked Trump's repeal of birthright citizenship. So this is going to continue on and on because it's literally afforded in the Constitution. You can't just make these things go away. So there's a whole process for this. So third judge blocked Trump's repeal of birthright citizenship. And this next one I'm stoked about because science, we like talking about science. On the podcast, it seems astronomers have identified the closest ever Einstein ring Which now I have to look up. But it's a rare phenomenon where light from a further off galaxy is bent by the gravity of a galaxy closer to Earth. The ring was previously thought to be one galaxy and was identified more than 100 years ago. So galactic lenses like this one, which is the closest astronomers have ever found, were predicted by Albert Einstein. And this is in 1936 from this theory, his theory of general relativity, which most of us know at the time, he thought such an effect would be impossible to observe. In fact, he would have been able to see one if he had just had a powerful enough telescope. But of course, back then, they don't have what we have now. And this is a quote. It was there all along. We had no idea. This is from Thomas Collett at the University of Portsmouth, uk. I actually performed in Portsmouth once, so that's fucking cool. Because I love that we're finding out more things about this universe that we live in. In fact, the other ones as well, but galaxies far, far away.
- [08:48]
Alison Gill
It's fascinating, right?
- [08:50]
Dana Goldberg
It is. I love science.
- [08:52]
Alison Gill
Try to. Try to have a discussion about this with your MAGA relatives. See, See how that goes? See what they say, hey, we found an Einstein ring. Just. Just leave it at that. See what happens. Yeah.
- [09:04]
Dana Goldberg
And then be like, so if you find an Einstein ring and let's say we found another planet, is it so fucking hard to make the. Connect the dots of, maybe there's another gender. Just take a jump and then watch their face change?
- [09:17]
Alison Gill
Also a judge in Massachusetts, this is Judge Kelly, a Biden appointee has blocked Trump's cut of NIH funding that we talked about yesterday. So that's very good. That happened very fast. And that one that you talked about, the repeal of birthright citizenship the third time, that was Judge LaPlante, a G.W. bush appointee. And I have to wonder, like, how many times do. Do courts block stuff? Like, do they ever just go, it's already blocked. Let's consolidate all these. We're all federal judges, or. No, they all. I guess they all do it. Do it separately in their own districts. And then if there's any conflicts between the districts or the appellate courts, then the Supreme Court has to hash that out. But it's been blocked three times now. I mean, I think they might go for four. We'll see. But you just brought up genders. I wanted to talk about this new memoir from Pete Hegseth. This breaks my heart.
- [10:09]
Dana Goldberg
He's a son of a.
- [10:11]
Alison Gill
He's a. He's a accused rapist. And here's what this memo says. Memo for Senior Pentagon Leadership Prioritizing military excellence and readiness. The DoD's mission requires service members to abide by strict mental and physical standards. The lethality, readiness, and war fighting capability of our force depends on service members meeting those standards. The Department must ensure it's building a one force thing without subgroups defined by anything other than their ability or mission adherence. Efforts to split our troops along lines of identity weaken our force and make us vulnerable. Such efforts must not be tolerated or accommodated. As the President clearly stated in Executive Order 14183, Prioritizing Military Excellence and readiness. Expressing a false gender identity divergent from an individual's sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service. Unquote.
- [11:07]
Dana Goldberg
That's a big fuck you.
- [11:10]
Alison Gill
So Hegseth says, effective immediately, all new accessions for individuals with a history of gender dysphoria are paused, meaning we aren't going to accept any transgender people from going forward into the military. But then he says, all unscheduled, scheduled or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating gender transition for service members are paused. And there's a footnote here. It says, for the purposes of this guidance, these procedures include unscheduled, scheduled or planned genital reconstruction surgery associated with gender transition. So other, I guess genital reconstruction surgery is fine, but any general reconstruction surgery that's associated with gender transition, gender affirming surgery, sex reassignment surgery, or newly initiated gender affirming hormone therapy. So they won't provide hormone therapy anymore. That's. They're awful terrifying to me. This memo ends with, Individuals with gender dysphoria have volunteered to serve our country and will be treated with dignity and respect. The Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness has authorized and delegated the authority to provide additional policy and implementation guidance outside of the normal DoD issuance process, including guidance regarding the service by service members with a current diagnosis or history of gender dysphoria to implement this direction. So it really pisses me off that he would say, you will be treated with dignity and respect while simultaneously saying you don't meet the standards necessary to exist in this military to do your job.
- [12:49]
Dana Goldberg
He's an awful man. And most of the people he is talking about right now has served longer than he ever did and are more qualified than he's ever been.
- [12:59]
Alison Gill
I know, I know. So I wanted to share that memo with y'all. As far as the, the, the gender affirming hormone therapy, it is newly initiated gender affirming hormone therapy. However, he has given the service chiefs the ability to kind of interpret this however they want. Yeah, all right. Sorry about that. Huge bummer up front. But we, you know, we see you and we love you and we're here for you. Again, my secure contact information is in my bio on a blue sky. And if you just want to reach out and just talk or vent, I am a shoulder. I will listen. And I'm here. All right, everybody, we have to take a quick break before we get to the hot notes, so stick around. We'll be right back after these messages.
- [13:49]
Dana Goldberg
We'll be right back.
- [13:52]
Alison Gill
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So if you're ready to impress your friends with incred wine, give Naked Wines a try. Now's the time to join Naked Wines and the Naked Wines community. Head to nakedwines.com dailybeans click enter voucher and then you enter the code Daily Beans. All one word for both the code and the password and you'll get six bottles of wine for just 39.99 with shipping included. That is a discount of a hundred dollars off your first six bottles. So go to nakedwines.com dailybeans with the code and password daily beans for six bottles of wine for 39.99. All right, everybody, it's time for the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up, from Kyle Chaney at Politico. A federal judge says the Trump administration has been violating his order to resume federal funding grants that the White House attempted to block with a blanket spending freeze last month. Now, I know there's a million lawsuits going on, but this was the one where he took control of the congressional purse strings and decided to block all appropriated spending. U.S. district Judge John McConnell ordered the administration to immediately restore frozen funding while his order remains in effect, including the National Institutes of Health and to fulfill the Biden Era Inflation Reduction act and Infrastructure Improvement act and Jobs Act. Now, the order follows a claim by the group of Democratic state attorneys general that the Trump administration had continued to block spending that Judge McConnell's order was intended to release. We've talked about this, Dana. Like the judge is like, you have to unfreeze the spending, turn on the spigot like you did in Calif. And we were like, I was getting troves of messages from people inside the government saying our spending is still frozen and it was really leading to a lot of damage around this country. So let me read this order from the judge. He's an Obama appointee. Thanks, Obama. He says the plaintiff states motion for enforcement of the temporary restraining order is granted. It is a basic proposition that all orders and judgments of courts must be complied with promptly. Persons who make private determinations of the law and refuse to obey a court order generally risk criminal contempt even if the order is ultimately ruled incorrect. The orderly and expeditious administration of justice by the courts requires that an order issued by a court with jurisdiction over the subject matter and person must be obeyed by the parties until it is reversed by orderly and proper proceedings. Basically, he's saying, if you don't fucking like it, you have to appeal. You can't just not do it. The defendants issued a broad, categorical, all encompassing directive freezing federal funding. The plain language of the restraining order entered in this case prohibits all categorical pauses or freezes in obligations or disbursements based on the Office of Management and Budget directive or based on the president's 2025 executive orders. Plural. You can't stop this from being stopped. Like, he's. Like. Let me be clear. He's. He's very, very angry. The defendants received notice of the restraining order. Trump administration. The order is clear and unambiguous, and there are no impediments to the defendant's compliance with the order. No one's stopping you from turning the spigot back on. And there's a footnote here that says the defendants acknowledged that they understood what the restraining order required. Federal agencies cannot pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel or terminate any awards or obligations on the basis of the OMB memo or on the basis of the President's recently issued executive orders. The states have presented evidence in this motion that the defendants, in some cases, have continued to improperly freeze federal funds and refused to resume disbursement of appropriated federal funds. See exhibits A through C of the state's motion. That motion, by the way, led by Tish James Nice. The defendants now claim they are just trying to root out fraud. But the freezes in effect now were a result of the broad categorical order, not a specific finding of possible fraud. The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the court found likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country. These pauses in funding violate the plain text of the restraining order. That's right. There a judge is like Trump, you are in violation of this restraining order. In response to the defendant's arguments, they can request targeted relief from the restraining order from this court when and where they can show a specific instance where they are acting in compliance with this order, but otherwise withholding funds due to specific authority. Therefore, Consistent with the U.S. constitution, United States statutes, United States Supreme Court precedent, and the restraining order, the defendants are hereby further ordered as follows. One, you must immediately restore frozen funding during the pendency of the temporary restraining order until the court hears and decides the preliminary injunction request. Two, the defendants must immediately end any federal funding pause during the pendency of the restraining order. Three, the defendants must immediately take every step necessary to effectuate the restraining order, including clearing any administrative, operational or technical hurdles to implementation. Four, the defendants must comply with the plain text of the restraining order not to pause any funds based on pronouncements. Pausing federal and corp. Funding incorporated into the OMB directive, like Section 7A of the Unleashing executive order and the OMB unleashing Guidance. The restraining order requirements include any pause or freeze included in the unleashing guidance. 5. The defendants must immediately restore withheld funds, including those federal funds appropriated in the Inflation Reduction act and the Infrastructure Improvement and Jobs Act. The directives in OMB M2511 are included in the restraining order number six. The defendants must resume the funding of institutes and other agencies of the defendants, for example, the National Institute for Health, that are included in the scope of our restraining order. I recommend everybody by the way, read Steve Vladic's newsletter in his 1 1st blog about the one and only time the Supreme Court held someone in contempt. It was the ship case in 1906 and I learned a lot from reading that article. So that order 17 different ways of saying turn the money back on, turn it back on. You are in violation of my restraining order and you are in danger of criminal contempt. We'll see what happens.
- [21:46]
Dana Goldberg
Absolutely. And ag speaking of those funding freezes, this story is from Matthew Chapman at Raw Story. President Donald Trump I hate saying President Donald Trump across the board. Suspension of federal payments that's now hitting farmers directly in the pocketbook. That is not going to go well. This is from the Washington Post. It's what they reported on Monday. The key problem is programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Rural Energy for America program, initiatives managed by the U.S. department of Agriculture and funded by former President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act. They're all connected. And this is a quote, farmers who signed contracts with the Agriculture Department under those programs, paid up front to build, fencing, plant new crops and install renewable energy systems with guarantees that the federal government would issue grants and loans guarantees to cover at least part of their costs. The farmers are putting the money up front now with Trump's freeze in place, the report continued, these farmers are basically on the hook. When Trump enacted the freeze on federal spending, his associates like Stephen Miller had promised that no program that actually dispenses money directly to people would be affected, a promise that immediately fell by the wayside as other such programs like housing vouchers in urban areas. They were all impacted as well. Laura Beth Resnick, a flower farmer in Maryland, told the Post that she paid $73,000 for a solar panel installation with the understanding that these USDA programs would cover half of it and now faces financial oblivion. She said, I really don't know what we would do. It's just, it just feels like I can't even really think about it. That's a lot of money. That is a lot of money. Now, House Democrats have sounded the alarm on this, stating in a letter to the Department of Agriculture, quote, pulling the rug out from these recipients runs counter to the mission of USDA and will quickly and significantly cripple economic development in rural America. Last week, a federal district judge blocked Trump's freeze in distributing payments, prompting the administration to publicly rescind the policy. But for the time being, many programs, funds still appear to be in the state of limbo, like we talked about, quote. Over the weekend, farmers reported that their funding remained frozen. Another blow to farmers who are also facing threats of tariffs and freezes to foreign aid spending that involved food purchased from American producers. This is all in the report?
- [24:13]
Alison Gill
Yeah, they're just with everybody. So, you know, he lies and says he comes in and, you know, sends the military into California to turn the water on, and then he actually orders the water to flow from dams and it like floods. And that was all the water that was supposed to water our crops in the summer, and all those farmers. And then this happens and he freezes the funding and people, you know, are on the hook for all these expenses that we're supposed to get paid back out of the Biden Inflation Reduction Act. So, yeah, it's. I, I want Dems to connect those things. You know, all that money that Biden gave you and sent you and was sending you, Trump just turned it off. That's the message. And he's ignoring a court order to turn it back on. He is in violation of a restraining.
- [25:00]
Dana Goldberg
Order, telling you they need to start tagging Republicans. In all of these areas that are being hurt were red constituents. They're red voters. You know what I mean? And those, some of these rural areas that may have voted for Trump and these Republican legislators, tag them. Your people are hurting. Do something.
- [25:15]
Alison Gill
Yeah, 100%. All right, now go out and talk to these farmers. Go out and talk to them. Make sure they understand why they're not getting their $37,000 back. That's important. Next up from Matt Egan at CNN. Employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, that's the CFPB, that's Elizabeth Warren's brainchild. They were abruptly informed Sunday afternoon that the agency's Washington, D.C. headquarters was going to be closed this week. In an email obtained by CNN, Adam Martinez, the CFPB's chief operating officer, instructed all employees and contractors in Washington to, quote, work remotely unless instructed otherwise from our acting director or his designee. But isn't that kind of in conflict with his executive order that there's no more remote work.
- [25:58]
Dana Goldberg
You think so?
- [25:59]
Alison Gill
Okay. No reason was stated for this closure. The CFPB didn't respond to CNN's request for comment. Quote, The D.C. headquarters building will be closed this week. That's what the email said. The move comes days after Elon Musk tweeted out CFPB RIP with a tombstone emoji. That's the Again, it's the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. That is the that is the place that has saved us, the consumers, $21 billion in bullshit. And and there he's a oh, rest in peace. Officials from Musk Department of Government efficiency deleted the CFPB's Twitter account Friday night, according to a person familiar with the matter after Russ Vaught, who leads the Office of Management and Budget, took over as acting director. Do G or Doggy or Doge Bag officials have been granted administrative access to CFPB systems, including content management systems, back end systems for the bureau's website and the active directory of personnel, according to a source. On Sunday night, the employees union at the Treasury Department filed two lawsuits against Rus Vaught, adding to a pile of challenges against Musk and his Doge bags and the Trump recent administration's decision to shut down parts of the federal bureaucracy. That thing we were talking about before new lawsuits every day, all of these which seek to save the agency and protect employees data from Doge, were filed in the U.S. district Court in D.C. many of the fresh court cases have moved very fast, and judges have initially blocked some of the changes being made within agencies, especially when the cases have dealt with data privacy concerns. Several of the court challenges also test the power of the executive branch when funding decisions were already made by Congress. Now Vought sent an email Saturday night ordering all employees at the Consumer Watchdog to stop work. Stop virtually all work, including fighting financial abuse, he said, quote, effective immediately, unless expressly approved by the acting director or required by law, all employees, contractors and other personnel of the Bureau shall cease all supervision and examination activity. That's what he said. That's a CNN saw that email. Now, in practice, this means the nation's top consumer financial watchdog has effectively been pulled off the street, prevented from providing oversight over big banks, payday lenders and other financial institutions that could be hurting consumers. Quote, this means that Nobody's actually overseeing $18 trillion in consumer debt right now to make sure millions of Americans aren't getting ripped off. That's what one former CFPB official said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to cnn. Vought posted on Twitter Saturday night, he, quote, notified the Federal Reserve that CFPB will not be taking its next draw of unappropriated funding because it is not, quote, reasonably necessary to carry out its duties and that the CFPB has an excessive balance of $711 million. This order from Vought goes a step further than the one sent by Treasury Secretary Scott Besant on February 3rd that ordered CFPB staff to stop issuing rules, suspending rules that have not yet been issued or published, not to issue public communications, and to stop making court filings other than to seek a pause. Now. Vought on Saturday reiterated the task that Besant ordered employees to stop adding supervision to the freeze. Vought said in his email President Trump designated him acting director on Friday. As acting director, I'm committed to implementing the president's policies consistent with the law and acting as a faithful steward of the bureau's resources. He wrote A letter signed by dozens of House Democrats on Saturday called on him to rescind what appears to be an illegal stop work order. So another strongly worded letter from the Democrats, quote, this administration cares more about billionaires than working people. That's what New York Attorney General Letitia James posted Sunday afternoon on Twitter. The CFPB has done crucial work to protect Americans from fraud, end junk fees and combat another subprime mortgage crisis. We will never stop fighting to protect consumers. Democracy Forward, a nonprofit watchdog legal group that successfully blocked the OMB grant freeze, issued a statement Sunday about efforts to revoke CFPB's authority. They said today's attack on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a concerted effort to dismantle protections for American consumers against predatory financial practices. It puts all consumers at risk. That's Sky Perryman, Democracy Forward president and CEO. Our priority, she said, must be protecting American working families rather than powerful special interests, and a strong CFPB is vital to that goal. We will swiftly pursue all legal options to defend the CFPB and protect the American people from financial harm. And Bloomberg actually reported that last Thursday, four young staffers working for the Doge Bag showed up at CFPB's Washington headquarters. @ first, they had what was described as read only access to a limited array of documents, including the agency's internal personnel files, procurement records and budgeting and financial data. That's according to an email shared among CFPB officials. And then late Friday night, the dodgy staffers were granted access to all the CFPB's data systems, including sensitive banking, examination and enforcement records. That's according to five people familiar now the people asked not to be identified, obviously citing concerns over retribution. And by Sunday, the agency was a skeleton with its funding limited and activities suspended.
- [31:13]
Dana Goldberg
All right, thanks, Allison. And this one is from the Associated Press. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed laws Friday setting aside $50 million to help the state protect its policies from challenges by the Trump administration in def defend immigrants amid the president's mass deportation plans. One of laws allocates $25 million for the state Department of Justice to fight legal battles against the federal government, and another sets aside 25 million in part for legal groups to defend immigrants facing possible deportation. During his first presidency, Trump sparred with California over climate laws, water policy, immigrants rights and more. And the state filed or joined more than a hundred legal actions against the administration. The same fights are re emerging in the early days of Trump's second term. Quote, californians are being treated by an out of control administration that doesn't care about the Constitution and thinks that there are no limits to its power. This is from Democratic Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas in a statement earlier this week. And Robert went on to say, that is why we are delivering legislation that will allocate resources to defend Californians from this urgent threat. The move comes a day after the Democratic governor returned from Washington, where he met with Trump and members of Congress to try to secure federal disaster aid for the devastating Los Angeles area wildfires that ripped through neighborhoods in January, killing more than two dozen people. Newsom signed $2.5 billion package for fire relief into law last month to help fund the state's disaster response, including evacuation, sheltering survivors, and removing household hazardous waste. His administration has said that they expect the federal government to reimburse the state. I only pause because they expect the federal government to do that. Republican lawmakers have criticized the funding for lawsuits, saying the focus on Trump is distracting as Los Angeles area recovers from the fires. Critics have also said the legislation doesn't ensure that funding wouldn't be used to defend immigrants without legal status who have been convicted of serious felonies. After signing the funding into law, Newsom said the money wasn't intended to be used for that purpose, and he encouraged lawmakers to pass subsequent legislation to clarify that if needed. He said in a statement that the funding will assist legal groups in, quote, safeguarding the civil rights of California's most vulnerable residents. Newsom announced the plan to safeguard the state's policies days after Trump's election in November. He convened the legislature in a special session to pass the bill.
- [33:46]
Alison Gill
Bills, yeah, suck at Republicans if you want to Be dicks then, you know, get a majority and win elections. Sorry. In our state, I should say, because they did do that nationwide and we're seeing the effects and the impacts. All right, everybody, it's time for some good trouble. Hey, trouble. Yes. All right, all right. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to sign up for the Wisconsin Supreme Court justice election postcard party. This is an in person party. It's at a vineyard and winery, which I love. It's in Delwood, Minnesota, right there on the border, about 25 minutes from St. Paul and Minneapolis, the Twin cities there. It's an indivisible sponsored event. So if you're anywhere in the area, you should come on out. It's Thursday, March 6th at 4:30 to 6:30 local time. Again, that's Seven Vines Vineyard and Winery. It's at 101 County County Highway 96 in Delwood, Minnesota. So you just bring a red pen, a black pen, a yellow highlighter if you have them. If not, they'll be supplied. They're going to supply the postcards. They do ask for a little bit of a donation to help with stamps. But I think it's going to be fun. So I hope you guys make it out. And we really got to hold that Wisconsin Supreme Court.
- [35:03]
Dana Goldberg
So definitely, I wish I was closer, I would join you. That sounds fantastic.
- [35:07]
Alison Gill
I know, it sounds like so much fun. All right, everybody, we got to take one more quick break. We'll be back with the good news. Stick around, everybody. Welcome back. It's time for the good news, everyone. Good news, good news. And if you have any good news confessions, corrections, you want to give a shout out to somebody that you love, like a significant other or a kid or a parent or a self shout out or a shout out to a small business in your area that could use a boost or your small business or a government program that's helped you or a loved one, whether it's the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid, Section 8, Head Start, WIC, SNAP, anything like that. Some great VA health care you've received or student debt forgiveness, we want to know about that too. And in order to get your good news in, all you got to do is pay your pod pet tax, right? Pay your fair share, pay your pod pet tax, which means to attach a photo of your pet, your pod pet. And if you want us to guess the breeds of your shelter pup, we'll try to do that too. If you don't have a pet, you can send an adoptable pet in your area. We'll see if we can help find them a forever home by giving them a shout out. If you don't have that any animal photo will do if you don't have that any baby picture will do. Your yourself as a baby your babies, strangers babies any babies babies babies babies 24 hour babies sending your baby photos and also we love bird watching photos. Whether it's an actual bird with feathers. If it's a bird, that's great. If if not you can send in a photo of you and your family and friends flipping Hoff Trump properties. So send it all to us@dailybeanspod.com and clicking on contact. All right, first up from Anonymous Pronoun she and her As a queer dyke most of my life I didn't fit in with any group and going to an all girls Catholic high school, it was hard. Fast forward to my early 40s when I finally found the courage to come out and I met my amazing wife. She's loving and kind and most importantly encouraged me to be myself. I'd spent so many years trying to conform that this was a gift like no other. Fast forward almost 20 years and we're living a life filled with love and light. Even in these dark ass times of the fucking Orange idiot. We are still finding our joy in our life and our community. Thank you for your pod. I haven't listened to Legacy Media since 2016 and finding your show really has saved me. I commute two hours a day so you ride along the PA turnpike with me and all the dumb driving Teslas in the left lane. Not going the actual speed limit. You two rock. I'm sending a picture of us on our way to Ireland and our sweet boy Archie who's a Cairn Schnauzer rescue. Oh, first of all, beautiful couple, lovely photo and both of your glasses frames are fantastic.
- [38:06]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, they are.
- [38:07]
Alison Gill
This dog however.
- [38:09]
Dana Goldberg
Oh my gosh, don't ever leave him alone with me.
- [38:12]
Alison Gill
Oh, I know. Hi Joe. Dog, hide your wife. This day is coming.
- [38:18]
Dana Goldberg
I mean, you might be able to leave your wife alone with me. You are safer leaving your wife alone with me than you are leaving a dog. That's that cute.
- [38:26]
Alison Gill
Yeah, 100% for sure. Thank you so much for these.
- [38:29]
Dana Goldberg
H your wife. H your kids.
- [38:31]
Alison Gill
H your wife. And thank you for the kind words. Seriously, thank you so, so much. Yeah, Catholic school can be tough. So yeah. Oh goodness.
- [38:42]
Dana Goldberg
All right. This is from Anne Marie Pronoun. She and her hello Illuminati.
- [38:45]
Alison Gill
Hello.
- [38:45]
Dana Goldberg
During August of 2024 I was given the opportunity to recertify My emergency medical technician certification, my EMT. The last time I took an EMT course was in 2010 when I was in the Air Force Reserve. This past Saturday, I passed the skills portion of the exam. To my surprise, I was not the oldest person in the class. However, I am happy to see the presence of younger people in the class. They are people who are choosing to help others and it does give me some hope for the future. I'm sharing a bird watching photo and a picture of my dog on my mother's chair with two toys in his mouth. He was one of the few good things that came into my life during 2020. This is adorable dog. I know.
- [39:26]
Alison Gill
Look at the little ear hairs.
- [39:28]
Dana Goldberg
Oh my God. This bird watching photo. This house is ridiculous.
- [39:33]
Alison Gill
Oh my God.
- [39:37]
Dana Goldberg
I mean, come on. Your neighbors hate you.
- [39:40]
Alison Gill
Brenda, calm down. What the. I'm sorry that you gotta drive past that Anne Marie. Jesus. This dog is great though. All the toys. All the toys are mine in my mouth. They are mine.
- [39:56]
Dana Goldberg
So good.
- [39:56]
Alison Gill
All right, next up from Sage Pronoun. She and her oh, Sage. I am a white millennial dog trainer with a background in ethics and science policy. Important context to my good news. A small part of the dog training community is having a broader conversation about abolition, white supremacy, and the harms of living in a society that primarily relies on punishment to change behavior. Oh, this is going to be fascinating. Training dog training as a profession and field may feel extremely removed from these issues, but I'm seeing an increasing number of people in the field use their behavior expertise to talk about the harms of what it does to a person to live in a society that is structured around punishment as a behavior change strategy. I'm seeing dog breeders and shelter professionals talk about the inherent white supremacy in the history and current culture of purebred dogs. I'm seeing clients grapple with the harms of their learning experience through punishment and do the radical work of trying to change the way they interact with the dogs and people in their lives so they aren't relying on punishment to diminish behavior. This change has been building since I've been in the profession, but it has made me happy to see conversations move from a special interest. I had to seek out a broader cultural discussion that's happening in so many of my communities. The pictures are of Chaos, a dog who makes the rules and thinks anything named Doge would be improved if she made their rules too. Jed, whose primary political stance is we need to protect public land so he can keep on going on hikes in the forest And Fig, who gives her most threatening side eye to racists and her winning a smile to these podcasts. Podcast hosts. Oh, what's up with the snow on your face?
- [41:41]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, my God, all three of these pups are so cute.
- [41:45]
Alison Gill
So adorable. That smile at the end with the side eye is adorable. And thanks for that, sage, because, yeah, every time I, you know, accompany friends or take dogs to dog training courses, it's very about positive reinforcement and not about negative reinforcement and how much better it works.
- [42:00]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah.
- [42:00]
Alison Gill
And so that's interesting that they're looking at that politically as well.
- [42:04]
Dana Goldberg
Love it. This one's from Chris. Pronouns, he and him. Good morning, beans Queens. My pronouns are he, him. I'm a gay man, raised Mormon in Salt Lake City, Utah. I just listened to the submission by Anonymous, a trans friend of the podcast who has decided to keep living because of their wife and child. I was brought to tears at my workbench where I assembled medical equipment. By their strength and courage. I need everyone to know that there are many, many people out here who love and see you and truly want you to keep going, keep fighting with us. We need your voice. I desperately want your life to get easier, and I acknowledge how heavy your footsteps must be right now. I believe we can make changes together. Anonymous, I salute your struggle. I'm here to stand beside you as tax. I submit a photo of my two goodest girls who are best friends, Lola and Eve.
- [42:56]
Alison Gill
Chris, thank you so much for that submission.
- [42:59]
Dana Goldberg
This is so sweet. And I'll be honest, I don't know which one's Lola and which one's Eve, but I thought the Chihuahua was a dog toy to the larger dog when I first saw it, which could be the case. I mean, actually still could be the case.
- [43:12]
Alison Gill
Let's guess, Chris, you'll have to tell us. You'll have to write in again and tell us. I think Lola is the old English sheepdog and that Eve is the Chihuahua. What do you think?
- [43:25]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, I'm going the opposite.
- [43:26]
Alison Gill
You're going opposite?
- [43:27]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah.
- [43:27]
Alison Gill
You think Lola's in the polka dot red dress?
- [43:29]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, I do. And I think Eve looks like a doodle mixed with a Saint Bernard. I mean, this dog is adorable. Must have been the cutest damn puppy on the planet, too.
- [43:40]
Alison Gill
Yeah, I think she. Maybe she's. Maybe she's an old English. I don't know. Let us know, Chris. But thank you for that beautiful submission. Yeah, that submission from Anonymous was truly incredible. And when you say that you acknowledge how heavy their footsteps must be right now. That's just incredible. Thank you for your kindness and thanks to everybody. Thanks to everybody for submitting your good news. You can send it into us@dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. We're gonna get through this, you guys. We're gonna get through it together.
- [44:15]
Dana Goldberg
We sure are. I love you all. And I love you, my co host. Those are my final thoughts.
- [44:19]
Alison Gill
I love you too. And I love you all as well. We'll be back in your ears tomorrow. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, and take care of your family. I've been AG and I've been DG and 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.