← The Daily Beans
The Daily Beans
You Dirty Rat (feat. Rep. Sara Jacobs)
00:46:55
Thursday, January 23rd, 2025 Today, Trump asks health agencies to stop communicating with the public as he rolls back a civil rights era LBJ order; the administration is giving federal agencies until the end of this week to deliver lists of all their employees who are still within their probationary periods; Donald has pardoned the Silk Road guy Ross Ulbricht; new information surfaces about Tulsi Gabbard; The Pentagon has begun standing up the NORTHCOM plan to send our military to the border; and Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
Loading summary
Transcript99 lines
- [00:00]
Allison Gill
MSW Media. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Thursday, January 23, 2025. Today, Trump has asked health agencies to stop communicating with the public. As he rolls back a civil rights era LBJ order. The administration is giving federal agencies until the end of the week to deliver lists of all their employees who are still within their probationary periods. Donald has pardoned the Silk Road guy, Ross Ulbricht. New information surfaces about Tulsi Gabbard. And the Pentagon has begun standing up the Northcom plan to send our military to the border. Allison. I'm Allison Gill.
- [00:58]
Dana Goldberg
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
- [01:02]
Allison Gill
Hey, Dana. It's Thursday.
- [01:05]
Dana Goldberg
That's really all we have to say, people. We made it one more day through this nightmare, and I know it's just begun. I wish the news was better. Allison wishes the news was better. But we're going to continue to bring it to you regardless because we need to stay informed and have the facts. So that's what we're going to do.
- [01:23]
Allison Gill
Yeah, it's really important that we know what's going on. And I just had a listener send that email that was sent out to all federal workers at all agencies. There was one, first of all, that was recalling all telework employees back to the office by March 1st. And then there was another one that told employees that they had to rat out their colleagues. Like, if anybody changed the name of their position or the name of their department to take the letters DEI out or diversity or anything like that, they want to know, know about it. So we're going to talk about that, too. And apparently you'll get in trouble if, you know, somebody changed their title or the agency or the unit name to. To hide from. To hide from this. It's frightening to asking federal workers to inform on their colleagues. So we'll talk about that. Flying under the radar, though, after Trump pardoned all the insurrectionists like Stuart Rhodes, who's meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, by the way. What the. Like, why would a congressperson mean. You know what I mean? It's.
- [02:26]
Dana Goldberg
There's so. It's gonna be so much fuckery. So just that. Why would that happen? It's bullshit. So, like, I think one of the things we have to be really conscious of over the next four years is not to respond to every ridiculous, illegal, unconstitutional thing that comes out of his mouth. Like, even these executive orders are wish lists. Not all of them can even be implemented. Some of them ever. Most of them right away. The pardons, obviously, is something different. That's not an executive Order, pardon. He can do that. But like our friend at under the Desk News said, yes, let's say there were 1700 pardons. 1100 of them had already served their time or a thousand of them had served their time. They were already back on the streets. But there's still those 600 that had not been, they were serving their time or waiting sentencing. You're allowed to be upset about those and all of the pardons you're allowed to be upset about. But sometimes the house on fire that's happening is there's still a fire, but it's still secluded to one part of the house. So the entire house isn't on fire quite yet. No need to evacuate quite yet, but definitely be on alert.
- [03:31]
Allison Gill
Yeah. And you know, I think that, you know, I worked in the government and I worked for, you know, I worked for the va. I worked for a federal agency. This is terrifying.
- [03:42]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah.
- [03:43]
Allison Gill
And people need to know where to go for resources. You know, speak to your eeo, your EO counselors, for example, or I mean if you're on probation, if you're in a probationary period, there's really nothing that you can do. There have been tons of people on Reddit who were given offer jobs at the, at the, at a federal agency and have been told not to report for work. You're you, nevermind. And have had their job offers rescinded. It's going to be really bad for.
- [04:10]
Dana Goldberg
All of that is real. All of that is absolutely real.
- [04:13]
Allison Gill
Yeah. And so we're here. If you receive an email, if you get a letter or if you hear something, feel free to let us know. You can send us an email hello.com or send. You use the contact form@dailybeanspod.com and we're definitely going to be needing to create our own good news because there's going to be a lot of bad news. So send us your good news@dailybeanspot.com as well. Oh, I forgot to finish. So after the, you know, pardoning of the insurrectionists.
- [04:41]
Dana Goldberg
Oh right, right.
- [04:42]
Allison Gill
He pardoned that Silk Road guy, Ross Ulbricht, the guy that was selling heroin on the Internet.
- [04:48]
Dana Goldberg
Basically telling. Selling drugs everywhere on the Internet.
- [04:51]
Allison Gill
That's him. Apparently he made a promise to libertarians saying he pardon, he would pardon him because libertarians think I guess you should be able to sell heroin on the Internet.
- [05:03]
Dana Goldberg
You know, it's also could be where he's getting his Adderall.
- [05:08]
Allison Gill
It's Junior's dealer.
- [05:11]
Dana Goldberg
Junior's dealer. Of course he got pardoned.
- [05:14]
Allison Gill
Oh man.
- [05:15]
Dana Goldberg
Alleged Alleged people.
- [05:16]
Allison Gill
Alleged, all alleged. Later on the show, I'm going to be talking with a representative here from California's 51st, Sarah Jacobs. I'm looking forward to talking to the congresswoman about her oversight, especially since we're backed out of the World Health Organization. And you know, I'm going to ask her. She serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee, which has a subcommittee about global health. And I also want to ask her about our health agencies like the CDC not being able to speak and post on social media. That's frightening. So we have a lot of news to get to. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right. First up, from Ashley Roque at Breaking defense. Fresh into the White House, President Donald Trump has told the Pentagon to reassess its stance on homeland defense and reorient the U.S. north Command Northern Command called NORTHCOM to, quote, seal America's borders, quote, I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country, he said during his inaugural address on Monday, which I didn't watch. Hours after being sworn in, Trump began signing a flurry of executive orders and actions, including one presidential action declaring a national emergency at the southern border and then an executive action calling on the Pentagon to clarify the military's role in protecting the territorial integrity of the United States. In that second one, he gave the secretary of defense 10 days to deliver a unified command plan tasking us Northcom with the border mission. And following the delivery of that plan, US NORTHCOM head General Gregory Guyot, I believe it's pronounced, will have an additional 30 days to craft a commander's estimate of just what it will take to seal the border and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of the United States by repelling forms of invasion, including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking and other criminal activities. Now, historically, northcom, along with norad, has been responsible for air and missile defense in case of an attack on the United States. But Department of Homeland Security is normally in charge of border security. Now. The directive comes as the Pentagon is temporarily under the leadership of Robert Solesis, formerly a relatively low level official in an acting secretary of defense role. As Fox News host Pete Hegseth's congressional confirmation proceeds. The Pentagon previously told reporters this is it is fully committed to carrying out Trump's orders. This specific executive order could potentially lead to an influx of troops along the southern border, adding to those already there. As part of Texas National Guard's Operation Lone Star and the approximate 2,500 soldiers supporting the U.S. customs and Border Protection mission And, and that's according to a military official. Trump's executive order calls on the Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to provide within 90 days a report detailing the conditions at the southern border of the United States and any recommendations regarding additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act. And that's a direct quote that said there are likely to be legal challenges to the president's order which may complicate any deployment. And we will cover those probably over on cleanup on aisle 45.
- [08:30]
Dana Goldberg
All right, thanks, Alison. This one's from Edith Olmsted at the New Republic. Tulsi Gabbard's team, they have scrambled to minimize the appearance of her 2017 meeting with former Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. Now, Donald Trump's pick for the Director of National Intelligence has repeatedly come under fire for her defense of violent authoritarians, including Assad. And he's the brutal dictator who fled Syria for Russia after opposition forces overtook Damascus in December. Gabbard's two meetings with Assad during her three day trip to Syria in January of 2017 were not originally on her itinerary delivered to the Ethics Committee. In fact, her schedule included no meetings with any Syrian politician or official. So apparently Gabbard's team was also kept in the dark about her meeting. That's according to correspondence and files reviewed by the Post. Four staffers involved in discussions about the meeting told the Post that they were surprised to learn that Gabbard met with the Syrian president at all. One of the staffers who opposed the meeting said that they had a difficult time getting Gabard to provide answers about the details of her schedule. Gabard has claimed that while her meeting with Assad was not originally planned, she couldn't pass up the opportunity once it arose you could. One of her meetings with Assad that was January 6th of 2017. It was scheduled to begin at 12:15pm her next appointment with Assad's wife at 3:00pm this is according to a timeline reviewed by the Post. This differs from the report delivered to Congress, which detailed that her meeting with Assad had lasted only 90 minutes and her facetime with Assad's wife began at 2pm once her staff learned about her meeting, they knew it had looked bad. Gabbard's deputy chief of staff warned that her meeting with the dictator seemed rather long and urged that formalities be skipped. To, quote, cut down on the time that it appears you two sat and talked. Gabbard's press secretary pitched grouping her meetings with others, so it could appear more like one of many protocol meetings. One of Gabbard's former staffers recalled that the ex representative's first meeting with Assad was listed as, quote, somewhere around three hours. I remember thinking that's insane, the staffer told the Post. What do you talk about for three hours in a supposed unplanned meeting? Gabbard's confirmation hearing is still forthcoming, but this report draws into sharp relief the efforts of nearly 100 former U.S. diplomats and intelligence and national security officials who urged Senate leadership to review the government's files on Gabbard behind closed doors. And I sure the fuck hope they do this because that is one of the appointments I am actually most worried about.
- [11:12]
Allison Gill
Yeah, I agree, I agree. All right, next up from Drew Friedman at the Federal News Network the Trump administration is giving federal agencies until the end of this week to deliver lists of all their employees who are still within their probationary periods, while also reminding agency leaders that newly hired members of the workforce are the easiest to fire. In a memo sent to agency heads Wednesday evening regarding critical potential personnel actions, OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell reminded agencies that newly hired federal employees can be terminated without triggering the Merit Systems Protection Board appeal rights. OPM is giving agencies until Friday to submit a report to OPM that includes a list of all employees currently in their probationary period. Quote Agencies should promptly determine whether those employees should be retained at the agency. That's what Azell wrote in the memo. Under federal statute, federal employees with a competitive service appointment are considered to be in a probationary period during their first year of service. For employees with an accepted service appointment, the probationary period can last for up to two years. The probationary period is meant to give agencies some flexibility in deciding if a new hire is the right fit for the federal job. If an agency determines that an employee has not demonstrated fitness for a federal position, the agency can swiftly terminate federal employees during their probationary period. That's according to OPM's website, most new hired federal employees have limited ability to appeal a termination to the MSPB during that time, the memo could pave the way for agencies to potentially remove some newly hired workers while skirting the civil service protections that most career federal employees have once they pass that probationary period. Kevin Owen, a partner with Gilbert Employment Law, which specializes in federal employment law, said OPM's memo appears to be a series of reminders to agencies about existing legal flexibilities or federal workforce changes. Quote but what strikes me as interesting is that they're bringing it up at all, and whether or not this is a signal that they're going to be significant layoffs or terminations of probationary employees as the first step in reducing the size of the federal workforce. That's what Owen said in an interview. And Owen, if you're listening, yes, this is how they're going to fire all the probationary people and cut the workforce significantly. Since the Trump administration also ordered a federal hiring freeze, most agencies would not be able to replace any potentially terminated employees. The exact number of employees who may be impacted by OPM's new memo is unclear. In March 2024, the most recent data currently available in FedScope, more than 220,000 federal employees were within their first year their probationary period. That number may indicate generally how many newly hired employees there are in the federal workforce at any given time, According to the March 2024 data, about 56,000 more than 25% of the new federal employees work at the Department of Veterans affairs, the Veterans Health administration. More than 14,000 employees, about 6 1/2 percent, were new hires at the IRS. Monday's memo also told agencies to consider using paid administrative leave for employees working in any components that are being eliminated or restructured or in cases where an employee's role changes as a result of workforce alignment. At the end of the Biden Administration, OPM issued final regulations to cap paid administrative leave to 10 days per year, particularly for feds who are under investigation or awaiting a decision on adverse personnel action. But the Trump administration's OPM pointed to the deadline for agencies to be in compliance with this final rule 270 days after its publication. Quote OPM thus believes agencies are not required to comply with the Administrative leave rule and new regulations until September 13, 2025, the deadline for agencies to issue their own implementing regulations. That's what Azell wrote, and OPM requests that agencies not issue any agency specific rules until such rules have been reviewed and approved by opm. In the memo, OPM said agency heads should have broad discretion to temporarily transfer federal employees or put them on detail for up to 120 days, noting that an employee can be temporarily assigned to unclassified duties, quote Such details may provide additional flexibilities to agencies during the transition period and as agencies undertake reorganization efforts and close offices. Owen pointed to a separate OPM memo also published Monday, which he said may work in tandem with the reminders of administrative leave and details and transfers. The separate memo temporarily gives agencies unlimited use of temporary Transition Schedule C appointments and from Reuters Dana. The administration of Donald Trump has instructed federal health agencies to pause all external communications like Health advisory.
- [16:08]
Dana Goldberg
This is insane.
- [16:09]
Allison Gill
Weekly scientific reports, updates to websites, and social media posts. I mean, that's bonkers to me. The instructions were delivered on Tuesday to staff at agencies inside the Department of Health and Human Services, including officials at the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Institutes of Health. The agencies had no immediate comment.
- [16:33]
Dana Goldberg
Thank you, Alison. And last in this section. This is from Axios. It seems President Trump issued a sweeping executive order revoking decades of diversity affirmative action practices in the federal government. Now, this takes current pushback on diversity, equity inclusion into the next stratosphere, abolishing decades of government standards on diversity equal opportunity and seeking to crack down on the same in the private sector. Trump's order revokes one that President Johnson signed back in September 24th of 1965. That was more than two years after Martin Luther King, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Gave his I have a Dream speech at the Lincoln Memorial. LBJ's order gave the Secretary of Labor the authority to ensure equal opportunity for people of color and women in federal contractors. Recruitment, hiring, training, and other employment practices. It requires federal contractors to refrain from employment discrimination and take affirmative action to ensure equal opportunity based on race, color, religion, and national origin. Now, obviously, I hope that you all listening are putting these two stories together. Yep. The order came more than a year after Johnson signed the Civil Rights act of 1964 and just months after he signed the Voting Rights act following violent attacks on voting rights advocates in Selma, Alabama. The intrigue, the reversal comes after five GOP presidents, including Trump, by the way, in his first term, kept the Johnson executive order in place, while others expanded it through amendments. Segregationists during Johnson's time opposed the executive order. Conservatives have since voiced opposition to it over claims it forced federal contractors to adopt, quote, a quota system for employees. It also comes just as Chuck Robbins, the CEO of Cisco and head of the influential Business Roundtable, defended the value of DEI Corporate America in an Axios interview in Davos. Now, civil rights advocates were anticipating this move. Reverend William Barber of the Repairers of the Breach told Axios beforehand that Johnson's executive order, it was needed to fight discrimination of that era and is still needed today. Quote, it would significantly erode a civil rights enforcement tool that has been essential and particularly for women's progress. This is from Jocelyn Fry. She's the president of the advocacy group National Partnership for Women and Families. That's what she told Axios before Trump's order was even issued, quote, it sends a message and gives a green light to contractors that nobody is watching. Trump's order directs all, quote, executive departments and agencies to terminate all discriminatory and illegal preferences, mandates, policies, programs, activities, guidance, regulations, enforcement, actions, consent, orders and requirements. So when we talk about them laying off or at least, you know, putting almost 200,000 federal employees on watch, and then you've got this thing saying, when those people go, we get to hire as many straight white men as we want that are going to carry out or any. Anyone that's going to carry out our vision. These two things go together.
- [19:36]
Allison Gill
And eliminating all DEI programs and employees as well.
- [19:40]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah.
- [19:41]
Allison Gill
So that's all underway today.
- [19:45]
Dana Goldberg
But you're going to give us something that's going to help or give us an action plan?
- [19:50]
Allison Gill
I do. I have a plan. It's time for some good trouble. Hey, we're getting trouble. Yes. All right, everybody. I've received a copy from a listener of an email sent to federal workers today asking them to rat out their colleagues. Dana. Disgusting email reads. It's fucked up. The email reads in part. Dear agency employees, we're taking steps to close all agency DEIA offices and end all DEIA related contracts in accordance with Trump's executive orders titled Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing and Initial Rescissions of Harmful executive orders and Actions. These programs divided America by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination. We are aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language. If you are aware of any change in any contract description or or personnel Position description since November 5th to obscure the connection between the contract and DEIA or similar ideologies, please report all facts to DEIA truthpm.gov within 10 days. There will be no adverse consequences for timely reporting on this information. However, failure to report this information within 10 days will result in adverse consequences. Thank you for your attention to this important matter. So, folks, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to flood that email inbox and render it useless. Perhaps one of our brilliant listeners knows how to write code to send millions of emails of pictures of dog shit or a message that says, hey, I don't know any DEI stuff, but did you know a Nazi was getting office space in the White House? Something like that. But that email address again is D E I a truth pm.gov so thank you. That's your good trouble and your mission should you choose to accept it. All right, everybody, we'll be right back with the congresswoman from California's 51st district, Sarah Jacobs. Stay with us after these messages.
- [21:55]
Dana Goldberg
Will be right back.
- [21:58]
Allison Gill
So sometimes deciding what to make for dinner feels easier than choosing wine. And that's why I love Naked Wines. They connect you directly to talented, independent winemakers around the globe, delivering exceptional bottles to your doorstep at unbeatable prices. No more staring at shelves and shelves, just great wine made easy. Naked Wines makes discovering exceptional wine a breeze. They connect you directly to independent winemakers, cutting out retail middlemen to offer incredible bottles at up to 60% off with no commitments or membership fees. You get premium wines delivered straight to your door whenever you're ready. Over the past 15 years, they've supported 90 plus winemakers worldwide, ensuring every bottle has a story worth savoring. The rabbit and spaghetti icon Reserve Shiraz was a standout from my recent box. It's deep, it's layered. It's got flavors of ripe berries mixed with a touch of spice, little earthiness. It made it very memorable addition to my dinner. And what I appreciate most is how Naked Wine pairs convenience with quality while supporting winemakers who pour their heart into every bottle. This Shiraz is proof that great wine doesn't need to be complicated or overpriced, just delicious and meaningful. So now's the time to join the naked Wines community. Head to nakedwines.com dailybeans click enter voucher and put in code Daily beans all one word for both the code and the password and you'll get six bottles of wine, just $39.99 with shipping included. That's a discount of over $100 on your first six bottles. Again, that's nakedwines.com dailybeans and use the code and password. Daily beans for six bottles of wine for $39.99. Hey everybody. Welcome back. I am super excited. Today we get to talk to our congresswoman from California's 51st district, which includes portions of eastern San Diego, El Cajon, La Mesa, Spring Valley, Lemon Groves, and also Miramar, where the Marine Corps Air Station is. Please welcome Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs. Hi, Sarah. Hello.
- [23:46]
Sarah Jacobs
It's great to be with you.
- [23:47]
Allison Gill
It's so fancy to meet. Well, used to be my representative. Not so much anymore, but like only by a mile. So I still have you in my heart.
- [23:55]
Sarah Jacobs
Still, still you're representative in my heart.
- [23:57]
Allison Gill
Thank you. Thank you. I wanted to talk to you today. First of all, you sit on a lot of really powerful committees and subcommittees, but I wanted to. This is in the House, by the way, not the Senate So you don't get to provide advice and consent on some of these Cabinet picks. But I still want to get your insights on what the feeling is on the Hill about these Cabinet picks. They feel like almost like ridiculous loyalty tests.
- [24:21]
Sarah Jacobs
You know, I think there's a lot of concern. You know, I sit on the Armed Services Committee. Obviously the military is a huge part of San Diego. I know you served. And I am very concerned about Secretary Designate Hegseth and the things he said around women serving in the military, not to mention his own personal record of activities that we have heard about through the course of these hearings. You know, we know with a Republican president, there are going to be nominees that we don't agree with. But there's a difference between having policy disagreements and having these kinds of wholly unqualified people who just have kind of crazy ideas about the way their departments should be run.
- [25:09]
Allison Gill
Yeah, I mean, you know, speaking of departments, we have Department of Justice, for example, long standing policy. I remember the Republicans going like apeshit over the fact that Clinton, who wasn't president at the time, sat and talked to Loretta lynch, the Attorney General, on a tarmac for a couple of minutes. But now we have literally the President of the United States ordering the Department of Justice and U.S. attorney's Offices to go after local law enforcement. How is that going to impact San Diego? But, you know, I mean, we can talk more broadly also about these sweeping immigration executive orders which are going to be challenged in court. Birthright citizenship, for example, I think has a hearing this morning in Seattle. And I'm very grateful for all of the organizations that have sued to stop that from going into effect. But talk a bit about your district and what that looks like for the Department of Justice to be ordered to go after local law enforcement on immigration policy.
- [26:12]
Sarah Jacobs
I mean, it's truly wild to see how they're trying to weaponize the federal government and the Department of Justice. You know, we heard Pam Bondi and some of the things she said. Kash Patel obviously has talked openly about wanting to use the FBI to target political opponents. My background is actually working in international conflict resolution. So these are the kinds of things that we actually look for in other countries when we're worried about Democratic backsliding. And that's exactly what we're seeing here. And it's really scary. And it is going to impact us in San Diego a lot for, you know, a few key reasons. One, obviously, we're a border community in San Diego and we're the largest military community in the country. And, you know, that means we're going to be right sort of in the center of all of these things, and especially of Trump trying to deploy the military to the southern border, of, you know, these executive orders about designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and what that means for the kind of military first approach he's going to try and take to this issue, which I think we in San Diego, again, proud military community, know better than most that the military first approach just doesn't work for these kinds of issues. It didn't work in Iraq, it didn't work in Afghanistan. And the last thing we need is to do that in a country right to our south, where we need to have a lot of cooperation to be able to address the issues that. That matter to us in San Diego and all across the country. And. And the thing that's most frustrating, I think, to me as a representative of San Diego, again, a border community, is that it's clear that Donald Trump and the people he's putting in these positions don't understand the border at all. Like, I don't know what border Christy Noem was dealing with as governor of South Dakota, but it certainly wasn't the one with Mexico. I don't know if she's worried about North Dakota. I don't know. But it is really frustrating because I visit the border regularly. I talk with cbp, with Border Patrol. I take my oversight job as a representative of a border community very seriously. And what you hear from these folks who are the ones on the ground is that, for instance, getting rid of the CBP1 app is only going to make the process more chaotic when what we all want is a more orderly process. And that what we really need is more legal pathways, because that's how we make sure we have these orderly approaches so we don't have this kind of chaos that impacts our border communities.
- [28:31]
Allison Gill
Yeah. And I imagine we're going to see a lot of privatization of the building of internment camps, because these folks have to go somewhere before they're deported or attempted to be deported. And when you're talking about U.S. citizens or people who know no other country but here, when we're talking about dreamers, for example, where do you send them? It's. It's going to be a horrible, awful mess. It's gonna. It's going to look like what Texas was illegally doing, you know, by putting the razor wire and in the Rio Grande and all that stuff. And I'm very concerned about our community here in San Diego because I feel like, you know, we know what we're doing, sir. We don't need you to come in and tell us how we need to handle things. But when President Biden was in and we were trying to stop Texas from going rogue, we relied heavily on the fact that the federal government does control immigration policy. So we're going to see a lot of litigation battles, I think.
- [29:36]
Sarah Jacobs
Yeah. And I think one of the things that's key here is that that it's actually legal to seek asylum in both domestic and international law. And so what we're talking about is people fleeing the countries that they are from because they're afraid for their lives and they're fleeing persecution. Right. So the whole idea that we would send them back when they're seeking a legal right, it's so inhumane. I can't even, like, I just don't even understand the rationale behind it, honestly.
- [30:06]
Allison Gill
Yeah. And what are we doing to prepare for the economic ramifications? Because, you know, we think so much about Southern California relying on a lot of this labor and tax revenue. You know, a lot of people don't understand that our immigrant community pays taxes. They get no benefit from paying taxes. They are literally being taxed without representation, and it's a huge boost to our economy. I'm wondering if there are plans underway on how to deal with the economic backlash of what could happen here.
- [30:40]
Sarah Jacobs
Yeah. Not to mention, we obviously have a housing crisis in San Diego. Who do you think is most of the construction workers? It's often immigrants. It's going to cost billions of dollars to divert the military resources to do this kind of border enforcement that is arguably not even allowed in their jurisdiction. And I think what's very clear by all of this is that Donald Trump is trying to deflect and distract us from the fact that he doesn't have an economic plan. He doesn't have an economic plan to bring costs down. He doesn't have an economic plan to address the economic fallout from these mass deportations. And in many cases, the things he's doing is actually going to make costs rise. The cost of housing, the cost of groceries, all these things. And so, you know, to me, it's like, okay, you think you have a mandate? The mandate, in so much as it exists, is to bring down the cost of living. And you're doing the opposite.
- [31:30]
Allison Gill
Yeah. I'm just worried that his cult members will not notice or be told that the costs are going down when they're quite literally going up. Like to be told to ignore math, and they'll just be really excited about all the misogynist, racist, bigoted xenophobia that's happening and, and cheering that on. Meanwhile, their bank accounts are being drained. I mean, that's how, that's how a con works. But something else I wanted to ask you about is, you know, back during COVID I remember Donald Trump saying, stop testing, don't report the deaths. Don't put out the. Like he was trying to cover up how bad it was.
- [32:08]
Sarah Jacobs
By the way, a very good impression. I'm impressed.
- [32:11]
Allison Gill
Thank you. Been doing, I've been working on it for eight years. But, you know, frighteningly, I, you know, I was like, oh, God, they're going to put RFK Jr. In at health and Human Services. But my biggest worry is that we won't know how bad it is because we won't get the reporting. He has recently instructed all of the health agencies to stop communicating. Posting on social media, releasing reports, releasing numbers, stop communicating to the public. That's terrifying considering what the CDC is charged with. But, you know, I wanted to ask you because you're part of a Global health subcommittee on the Committee for Foreign affairs, and he's now withdrawing from the World Health Organization. What kind of oversight is your committee going to provide based just so we can get the, the actual numbers of what's happening?
- [32:58]
Sarah Jacobs
Yeah. So I'm really concerned about him pulling out of the World Health Organization. I mean, we all, we all literally just lived through this. We know that we need to have pandemic preparedness and response because what happens in one part of the world direct directly impacts us. And 1 million Americans died from COVID And that started somewhere else in the world. And without the who, without US investments in global pandemic preparedness, it would have been even worse. And the next one will be. And so it's, it's really concerning. And it's really concerning, as you said about the data, we're going to try and do what we can. I mean, the other thing that's really frustrating is that my colleagues always like to say that they're, we're competing with China. We want to compete with China. Okay, well, if you want to compete with China, you've got to show up. But pulling us out of the World Health Organization just means that they get more of a say in how it's run. It's completely counter what they say they want to do. And it's going to create this power vacuum that of course the PRC is going to step into. So I think it's really concerning. We already have seen in California what, you know, can happen with mumps and measles outbreaks in school districts when you have vaccination rates starting to dip lower. You know, luckily the states do still have some ability to, to make some of these rules. But we're entering a really scary time when sort of expertise is not believed. And to me, that almost mocked ramifications. Yes, mocked. Yeah, it's, it's crazy.
- [34:31]
Allison Gill
It's frightening. And I really want to say to anyone who's working in a federal agency, a federal health agency, if you happen to be one of the ones that survive the cull or the purge, if you've never posted anything on social media about any politics, if you're still there, take advantage of whistleblower protections. I'm assuming those will also be gutted. But reach out to your oversight members of Congress like Sarah Jacobs and talk about what you're seeing, what you're hearing, what you're told not to report, what you're told to be quiet about. Get that line of communication open. Because, you know, I'm so grateful that you are on some of these oversight committees that will help bring whistleblowers in under your wing and let everybody know what's going on inside these agencies.
- [35:25]
Sarah Jacobs
Yeah, we're going to do everything we can. I'm going to show up every day, continue to make sure that I do my number one job, which is to protect people in our community.
- [35:34]
Allison Gill
Well, I appreciate it and I thank you. Would you tell everyone where they can find, follow, support you, etc, or where whistleblowers can reach out, for example?
- [35:41]
Sarah Jacobs
Yes. All of the information on that is on our website, sarahjacobs.house.gov or you can follow me on any of the social medias. I'm on all of them at Rep. Sarah Jacobs. And there's no H in Sarah, no.
- [35:55]
Allison Gill
Agent Sarah, thank you so much. Representing California's 51st just next door. Thank you so much. Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs.
- [36:02]
Sarah Jacobs
Thanks so much for having me.
- [36:03]
Allison Gill
You're welcome. Thanks for being here, everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back with the good news, everybody. Welcome back. It's time for the good news, everyone. Then good news, everyone. Good news. Oh, boy, do we need the good news today.
- [36:30]
Dana Goldberg
Yes, indeedy.
- [36:32]
Allison Gill
So if you have any good news, corrections, confessions, you want to play any animal guessing game. You can just pay your pod pet tax or send an adoptable pet in your area or a photo of any animal, really. We'll take any animal and baby photos. We love those bird watching you and your friends and loved ones flipping off Trump properties. We would love to see your bird watching photos. Grab those for us. And you can give shout outs too. If you don't have a good news story. You can give a shout out to a loved one, somebody you care about yourself a self shout out a small business that could use a boost your small business. Some great activists in your area doing community organizing or a government program that's helped you or a loved one like Great VA Healthcare or Social Security or SNAP, WIC, Section 8, Affordable Care act, the Medicare negotiating drug prices which I think is probably about to go away. But I know a lot of folks have saved a lot of money on their medications through that program from the Biden Harris administration and of course student debt relief. Again, send it all to us dailybeanspod.com click on contact first up from anonymous pronouns she and her AG and Dana. You two are leading all of us with so much strength right now. I wish I could make you both a delicious home cooked meal and tuck you in front of a fireplace with a mug of something soothing.
- [37:46]
Dana Goldberg
This sounds lovely. Anonymous.
- [37:48]
Allison Gill
I do. I love this idea. I will have a hot toddy.
- [37:52]
Dana Goldberg
I will have one as well. Thank you very much.
- [37:54]
Allison Gill
Energetically. That is what I wish you every day as your sign off I used to work for the American Library association, which only reinforced my belief that librarians are secretly among the bravest, smartest helpers we have. The Internet's library@arxiv.org is run by some of the best librarians, and as a web designer I often use it to find older versions of websites when a new client comes to me because their site is hacked. The archive has something called the Wayback Machine, which keeps records of thousands of websites, kind of like a snapshot in time of what the website looked like on any given day. I just realized that reproductive rights.gov, the website about reproductive rights that Trump the administration took down on Day one, is archived on the website. So you can go to web.archive.org and type reproductive rights.gov in the search box and it'll show you a bunch of dates on which they took a snapshot of the site. The most recent one was taken January 15th. That means technically this content is still available. We'll have a link to that. For my podcast, I'm sharing a pic of my bird colleagues. Oh, a pic of one of my bird colleagues. She visited my window bird feeder every day, but this pic is of her looking at me as if to say, bitch, please bird. I get it. The whole administration is cray.
- [39:11]
Dana Goldberg
This is a really beautiful I'm assuming Robin. Although this might be a new game for us.
- [39:16]
Allison Gill
That's a cardinal. And.
- [39:18]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, Cardinal. Thank you.
- [39:19]
Allison Gill
I have to tell you, there's nothing more lovely than a cardinal in the snow. I really. I gotta say, growing up, I missed that in. In Akron.
- [39:27]
Dana Goldberg
Sweet Robin. Dana, come on. All right, this one's from Molly Pronoun. She and her. I know this is a few days late, but I wanted to share with you how I coped with the events of Monday. My birthday's on the 19th, so I feel your pain, Allison. It's customary with two of my oldest friends to have lunch on each of our birthdays and exchange gifts. I'm sharing a picture of one of the gifts I received and how it was put to use the next day on January 20th. So I guess this is a version of bird watching as well as just mood. I've also got my pet tax, Elliot. He's an eight year old shelter mutt that we've had for seven years now. So take your guesses, but I have no idea. Other than the obvious one. He's very good boy. And I love this finger on fire giving you the football.
- [40:11]
Allison Gill
It's a bird candle. That's amazing. Oh, look at this little poodle mix.
- [40:16]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, no.
- [40:17]
Allison Gill
I love the sweater.
- [40:18]
Dana Goldberg
So cute.
- [40:19]
Allison Gill
It's very fancy. It's like a Where's Waldo sweater. Oh, thank you for that. Next up from Rondi Pronoun, she and her hello Coffee Berry news crew. Some good trouble afoot. This morning. I contributed to the Bishop's appeal for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington in honor of retired Reverend. Oh, wait, it's right. Reverend Marianne Buddy's direct appeal to Trump on behalf of those who are scared. The program sustains feeding programs in hungry communities. Just a little food for thought for our beans community. Thanks to the right Reverend for having the strongest spine in the country and to feed the hungry at the same time. And that's e-ow.org give my shit I heard wrong. Submission is pod pet tax. Oh boy. Which I. I thought were photos of the pets with whom we listen to the daily beans pod every.
- [41:07]
Dana Goldberg
That's fair.
- [41:08]
Allison Gill
It made total sense in my divergent brain since my puppy Ralph recognizes the theme song and knows exactly what time it is as soon as I pick up my phone in the morning and punch the YouTube icon. He has heard it every weekday morning for all of his for his 14 months. And honestly, he could pick Allison out of a crowd just by her saying hello as payment. Here he is playing in his first snowfall two Weeks ago. And then wondering why he was banished to the melting room on the 1940s linoleum floor of my 1901 farmhouse renovation. No need to guess the breed. He's 80 pounds of 100% airhead air bear Airedale terrier. Thanks for inspiring us to get in good trouble. Look at the baby.
- [41:51]
Dana Goldberg
He is cute.
- [41:53]
Allison Gill
He's big.
- [41:55]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah. What a beautiful dog.
- [41:58]
Allison Gill
He seems like he means business, right? You know what I mean?
- [42:01]
Dana Goldberg
I do these adorbs. All right, this is from Jess. Pronouns she and her. Back in January of 09, I gave birth to surprise boy, girl, twins. I already had a nine year old son and a six year old daughter. I'm disabled and my husband is an RV factory worker. So programs like wic, which supported me as a new nursing mom of twins. Also, after the twins quit nursing, Wick helped with formula, cereal, fresh fruits and veggies, etc. Some weeks it was the only groceries we had in the House. Republicans want women to have all these babies, yet cut crucial programs like this. It's despicable. I'm sharing pictures of my doggos. Fiona is a Belgian Malinois German shepherd mix, we think. And Ricky is a beagle mix. And what else? We're not sure.
- [42:49]
Allison Gill
Ricky looks like he's got a little chihuahua in there.
- [42:51]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, my God, they're both so cute.
- [42:53]
Allison Gill
No, no. Yeah. No, not Ricky. The Belgian Malinois German shepherd mix looks like you've got a little, like a tiny. Just a little hint of Chihuahua. I don't know why.
- [43:03]
Dana Goldberg
I'm sure somewhere down the line.
- [43:05]
Allison Gill
Oh, my God. This hound dog is adorable.
- [43:07]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, my God.
- [43:09]
Allison Gill
Oh, thank you for that little head and a big body and the cowboy hat is fantastic.
- [43:14]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah.
- [43:14]
Allison Gill
Chess. Thank you. All right, next up from Anonymous, they he good news or at least a way to hold on to hope. On Monday, I participated in a national day of action standing for women's, LGBT plus and immigrants rights in over 80 cities across the country. The positive energy and overall reaction from passersby was incredible. I hope people remember the power of gathering in person to organize for the shit we need as pot bet tax. I offer Shiloh, who found a food box I forgot to throw away.
- [43:46]
Dana Goldberg
Shiloh's really beautiful. And you know, I'm not necessarily a cat person or a dog person, but Shiloh's very pretty.
- [43:52]
Allison Gill
It's a pretty kitty. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. I'm waiting for the pics to come in of Tony, our flag man, and where he was on the. On the national day of service. I know he was out there somewhere. He said he was going to go, so.
- [44:07]
Dana Goldberg
Yep, I love to see those.
- [44:09]
Allison Gill
Look forward to those. All right, everybody, we need good news. Send, like, flood our inbox. Flood that D E I a truth.opmopm.gov box, but also flood our inbox with good news stories. We need them. You can send them to us@dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. Do you have any final thoughts for today, my friend?
- [44:27]
Dana Goldberg
I'm afraid to give it because I feel like someone's going to correct me, but this whole executive order where they're like, there's two genders, male and female. Well, when you look at the executive order, it says that it's from conception, that female or male from conception. And my friend Alexander Billings, who's this incredible trans woman and anyone in science who wants to correct me if this is wrong, scientifically, upon conception, all babies are female, right? Upon conception, yeah. Until that changes. And so his executive order basically states that there's no men at all.
- [45:03]
Allison Gill
If we're going that we actually start out as female buttholes. Well.
- [45:06]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, okay. We went even further on that. But so you're. You're all right. We're fine. We're all female.
- [45:12]
Allison Gill
But that's not conceptual. That's later. I think we. But, like, the first thing that happens is a butthole.
- [45:17]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah. So basically, it literally says from conception. So scientifically, if all fetuses feed eye, it's probably fetuses are female at conception. Then by this, there's only one gender and it's just women. It's just female. So it's just really interesting.
- [45:34]
Allison Gill
Not necessarily they're trying to throw that in there because they want to do personhood.
- [45:39]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, absolutely. And also, let's. Let's acknowledge the fact that it erases intersex people. And we know that there's over 200,000 born every year in this country alone. So all of this is a bunch of mishigas. But unfortunately, it's scary and we're going to do our best to keep you a little less scared over the next four years and a little more sane. So thank you for continuing to listen.
- [46:01]
Allison Gill
Thank you. Excellent. Final thought. Yeah. We just want to. We just want to keep you up on everything that's going on. It's not going to get easier, but I think it's extremely important, and that's why we need your good news. So send it to us. All right, everybody, we'll be back on 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.