What is Happening?! A Conversation with Dr. Allison Gill

Summary

The PoliticsGirl Podcast
Episode: What is Happening?! A Conversation with Dr. Allison Gill
Release Date: February 4, 2025

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Introduction

In this intense and timely episode of The PoliticsGirl Podcast, host Lee McGowan welcomes Dr. Allison Gill, a media visionary, military veteran, and founder of MSW Media. Together, they delve into the alarming events unfolding in the United States, highlighting the erosion of democratic institutions and the rise of authoritarian tactics under the current administration. The conversation is charged with urgency, aiming to inform and inspire listeners to take action in defense of American democracy.

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Hijacking of Government Departments

Lee McGowan begins by addressing the sudden and chaotic takeover of critical government departments by Elon Musk and his associates. Dr. Allison Gill corroborates these events, emphasizing the unprecedented nature of these actions.

• Elon Musk's Infiltration:
  At [09:17], McGowan reveals that Elon Musk and his team accessed and began downloading sensitive information from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Treasury Department, and General Services Administration. This breach exposed highly confidential data, including Social Security numbers, bank accounts, and performance appraisals of millions of government employees.

• Forced Resignations:
  The head of the Treasury was coerced into resigning after resisting Musk's attempts to access personal data ([10:52]). This resignation granted Musk unprecedented control over systems handling over $6 trillion annually, posing severe national security risks.

• Security Breaches:
  Dr. Gill discusses the alarming ease with which Musk's team accessed and manipulated government databases, noting incidents like the mass redaction of OPM's subdomains within hours of initial access ([11:30]).

Notable Quote:
"This is our tax dollars, our Social Security payments, the money we use for everything... This is not something we should be like, oh well this just happens in government."
— Lee McGowan [12:30]

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Destruction of Federal Institutions

The conversation shifts to the systematic dismantling of federal watchdogs and law enforcement agencies.

• Firing of Inspector Generals:
  McGowan highlights the administration's purge of inspector generals, essential for overseeing government operations and preventing corruption ([06:07]). Dr. Gill adds that this is part of a broader strategy to eliminate oversight and accountability.

• Hostile Takeover of the FBI and DOJ:
  At [16:25], Dr. Gill explains the extensive firings within the FBI and Department of Justice, including senior executives and federal prosecutors involved in the January 6 investigations. This action represents a direct attack on non-political, career law enforcement officials dedicated to upholding the law.

• Dismantling Law Enforcement Agencies:
  McGowan and Gill discuss the alarming shift of FBI agents towards deportation efforts and the repurposing of federal law enforcement resources away from critical national security tasks ([31:59]).

Notable Quote:
"This president who ran on lowering costs of everything from groceries to gas is going to immediately make everything ludicrously more expensive and alienate our closest neighbors and allies."
— Lee McGowan [39:03]

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Trade Wars and Economic Turmoil

The episode addresses the president’s aggressive trade policies and the resultant economic instability.

• Tariff Imposition:
  McGowan outlines the president's imposition of steep tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China, designed to disrupt the economies of key allies and trade partners ([35:57]). These tariffs threaten to decimate the U.S. economy by increasing costs and straining international relationships.

• Global Repercussions:
  The threat of retaliatory tariffs from affected countries has already led to significant stock market declines, reflecting global fears of an escalating trade war ([40:47]).

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Erosion of the Free Press

The administration's efforts to control and manipulate media outlets are critically examined.

• Press Corps Replacement:
  McGowan highlights the expulsion of major news organizations like The New York Times, NBC News, NPR, and Politico from Pentagon press briefings, replacing them with pro-administration outlets such as Breitbart and One America News ([32:11]).

• Censorship and Propaganda:
  This move signifies a deliberate attempt to control the narrative and suppress dissenting voices, undermining the free press's role as a pillar of democracy.

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Calls to Action and Resilience

As the discussion unfolds, both hosts emphasize the importance of sustained resistance and community organization to combat these authoritarian measures.

• Focused Resistance:
  Dr. Gill advocates for concentrated efforts on specific issues, encouraging listeners to support legal challenges and grassroots movements that protect democratic institutions ([54:56]).

• Building Community:
  McGowan and Gill stress the necessity of forming communities with shared goals, supporting one another, and maintaining personal well-being amidst the chaos ([57:17]).

• Legal and Organizational Efforts:
  Dr. Gill introduces her initiative, fedoath.org, a nonprofit aimed at funding legal pushback against the wrongful termination of federal workers and supporting the fight to restore institutional integrity ([53:15]).

Notable Quote:
"Our focus right now, our sustained focus, is going to be our resistance."
— Lee McGowan [54:53]

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Conclusion

The episode concludes with a powerful reminder of the necessity to remain vigilant and proactive in defending democracy. Lee McGowan and Dr. Allison Gill underscore that despite the overwhelming challenges, individual and collective actions can make a significant difference in restoring and preserving American democratic values.

Final Quote:
"This is our joy that reminds us what we're fighting for."
— Lee McGowan [60:54]

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Key Takeaways

1. Immediate Threats to Democracy:
   The current administration, led by figures like Elon Musk and President Trump, is actively dismantling federal institutions, threatening national security and democratic oversight.

2. Data Security and National Safety:
   Unauthorized access to sensitive government data by private individuals poses severe risks, including potential exploitation by foreign entities and internal corruption.

3. Economic Instability:
   Aggressive trade policies are destabilizing the economy, increasing costs for consumers, and damaging relationships with key allies.

4. Media Control:
   Efforts to replace independent media with pro-administration outlets undermine the free press, essential for transparency and accountability.

5. Need for Organized Resistance:
   Focused community action, legal challenges, and support for independent media are crucial in combating authoritarian tactics and restoring democratic institutions.

6. Personal Resilience:
   Maintaining personal well-being, building supportive communities, and staying informed through reliable sources are vital for sustained resistance.

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Further Engagement

• Follow Dr. Allison Gill:
  To support ongoing efforts to defend democracy and stay informed about legal initiatives, follow Dr. Gill on social media and visit fedoath.org once available.

• Support the Podcast:
  Consider becoming a premium member of The PoliticsGirl Podcast to access ad-free content, exclusive rants, and bonus materials that keep you informed with accurate and synthesized information.

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Stay informed, stay engaged, and remember that your actions matter in the fight to preserve American democracy.

Transcript

[Dr. Allison Gill]

I put out a post after he hijacked the treasury and I said, look, I will never just stop podcasting without telling you ahead of time. So if I stop podcasting, it's not because I decided to, it's because somebody stopped me from doing it. And somebody, everyone's like, that's a cryptic, scary post. And I'm like, it's kind of a cryptic, scary time.

[Lee McGowan]

Hello and welcome to the Politics Girl podcast. I'm your host, Lee McGowan. Let's get into it. Well, I had a completely different podcast recorded for this week and then this weekend happened. So my guest and dear friend, Dr.

[Unknown]

Allison Gill agreed to come back and.

[Lee McGowan]

Join me again to discuss what the hell is going on in America and how completely intolerable it is to live under the whims of a wannabe dictator, his yes men, and the ketamine adult.

[Unknown]

Tech bro he's given full access to our lives.

[Lee McGowan]

So we're going to go through what has been happening over the past couple of days and try and make some sense of this mess for you. I will say none of this is good, but you can't shut down because of that, because that's exactly what these terrible people want you to do. If you don't know Dr. Allison Gill.

[Unknown]

She is the founder and CEO of.

[Lee McGowan]

MSW Media, a podcast network focused on news, politics and justice. Allison, or A.G. as she's known, is a military veteran who worked at the U.S. department of Veteran affairs, but lost her job after she was targeted by Trump for being a confidential contributor and host of the Mueller She Wrote podcast. Allison went on to create the Daily Beans, a political and social justice podcast that gives the news with swearing five days a week and is a woman who really knows what's going on. So without further ado, please welcome my guest, new media visionary, military veteran and warrior still willing to fight for this nation. Dr. Allison Gill. Welcome back. Ag.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Good morning again.

[Lee McGowan]

Good morning again. Thank you for coming back. As I was saying in the intro, we had this whole conversation about the chaos we're living through on Friday morning, but by Saturday night, you and I were talking. We were like, is that conversation already out of date? I mean, the amount of criminal activity, criminally adjacent behavior, unconstitutional oversteps, and quite frankly just piss poor leadership that happened over the weekend is astonishing. And I really appreciate you taking the time to do it all over again with me, especially since I might end up just talking at you half the time.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Oh, it's totally fine. I was actually sitting here trying to remember what we Talked about Friday morning. What was huge news on Friday morning. And it's escaping me.

[Lee McGowan]

I know it's. That's exactly it. It's like we're, what, 14 days into this presidency and taking in information is exactly what you said. It's like trying to drink from a fire hose. It is overwhelming. It hurts. It shouldn't have to be done, but that' kind of the point, right? That's what they're doing to us.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Yeah, that's exactly what they're doing to us. Which is why I appreciate so much what you do. You help. Like, this is kind of what I tell people when they, you know, when they listen to the daily beans, is like, I'm here to try to filter this fire hose for you a little bit so it doesn't hit you straight on. I'm kind of standing in between you and the fire hose and also here to make you feel not so alone and that to. To assure you that you. Even if you're. They're trying to isolate you, that you aren't crazy for thinking this way and feeling this way, that you're not alone. And those are some of the most important things I think that you do here on the Politics Girl podcast. So thank you for having me on.

[Lee McGowan]

Oh, no, thank you. And honestly, I think that's true. We need people who aggregate information, who take the hits, who go and look for the stuff and then say, what is it that people really need to know? What are the takeaways here? Because otherwise, it's too much. There's too much out there, right? I mean, we were talking about this fire hose situation. I mean, this is a tactic. It's an actual way of doing things. Steve Bannon calls it flooding the zone. Naomi Klein, who's an author, calls it the shock doctrine. Stephen Miller is calling it shock and awe. But to be clear, it's the same thing. It's a deliberate strategy to get just a ridiculous amount of stuff, from completely dismantling our government institutions to looting our agencies, to just basically use chaos and crisis to push through these giant, radical changes so people are just too disoriented to notice. They can't effectively resist. And we have to be really clear to people that none of this is politics as usual. It is a strategic exploitation of our limits.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

No, 100%. And just trying to think back to last week, I think one of the main things that you and I were talking about was this sort of slow dismantling of our institutions, but also that in the middle of the night, he tried to Seize the power of the purse. He tried to seize Congress as, like, one main thing that they do, appropriations. And since then, we've had a restraining order go out against. We had to get a restraining order against the President. Yeah, For. For seizing our Congress's powers, for overstepping his constitutional bounds.

[Lee McGowan]

We had to get a restraining order against our felon, adjudicated, rapist, criminal president. That seems kind of actually in line with what we elected.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Like, I listen, a lot of us have restraining orders. Our exes, you know, you gotta laugh.

[Lee McGowan]

So you don't cry. I was saying to you this morning that my voice was, like, really raspy, and I was like, I've become a revolutionary. Here's where I am now, Alison. Like, this is what's happening now. Like when we chatted on Friday, just to trigger your mind, the big story was exactly what you're saying. This OPM memo, which was essentially Trump signing an executive order to freeze trillions of dollars of congressionally approved funding so he could kind of personally decide he thought those people or those agencies deserved it, which he absolutely had no authority to do. And it was a big deal. Like an impeachment level big deal.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

We impeached him for it before when he stopped aid going to Ukraine, and that was just, what, $468 million. And one thing. This is the government entire and trillions of dollars. Six trillion, three trillion. A lot. A lot of money. That money. I can't even wrap my head around how much money it is.

[Lee McGowan]

No, absolutely. And he also fired. Last week, we were talking about how he fired a bunch of inspector generals whose entire job it is to make sure there's no government corruption or mismanagement. And the inspector generals were suing because they can't actually get fired that way. They need 30 days notice. They need a real reason that the president wants to fire them. But the bottom line is it's very clear that Donald Trump doesn't want anyone watching what he does. He doesn't want anyone, you know, noticing he's lying or cheating or stealing. And he's trying to get rid of the watchdogs. Right. And those two things alone, the inspector general's and the memo freezing trillions of dollars of money. Those things alone were five alarm fires that you and I were discussing on Friday. And I'm not even mentioning, like, the mass immigrant roundups or the first commercial airline crash in 16 years that happened in D.C. or the plane crash in a residential Philadelphia neighborhood the next day, or Trump gutting the aviation industry and putting some Yahoo in charge of our military or allowing Elon to force the head of the FAA to resign. That was also what we discussed on Friday. And we got to the point after all of those things where we were like, yeah, we gotta move on. Like, that's the problem with this president. He's doing so much at once that you're like, that is all horrible and impeachable and, like, illegal, and yet we have to talk about other things.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Right. Which is why we had to reconvene. And, you know, back in his first term, like I said, he had that one impound against Ukraine. We impeached him for it. He also fired five inspectors general during his first term. And everybody was like, what? And now it's 20 every. It's. It's all of them, except for Horowitz, who wrote a report against Comey. Right. And Cuffari, who should have been fired from his position by Joe Biden, but probably would have been brought back by Trump anyway. He was the. The DHS inspector general, the one that withheld the information from Congress that all of the text messages from January 6th secret agents had been missing and, and, and lied about that. But that, you know, Raskin and everybody was like, asking, begging Joe Biden to fire that guy. So, yeah, now we've got 20 of those, and we've got the dismantling of people, you know, people watching him, which kind of leads us to why we had to. To come back and talk about this, because just hours after we spoke, not only has he filed all fired, all the inspectors general, but he's dismantling the federal law enforcement in our country, the FBI and the Department of Justice. Completely purging it.

[Lee McGowan]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I want to get to that, because that's astounding, but for me, it's not the lead story, Alison. It's not the lead story. I'm going to talk first is what I think is the lead story is Friday night.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Is it the treasury thing?

[Lee McGowan]

Yes. I can't take it. I mean, I just. Listen, Friday night. If those of you who don't know, Friday night came and we found out that Elon Musk and his staff had been caught plugging in their hard drives inside the Office of Personal Management, which is basically the government's HR Department, the Treasury Department, which is literally where all of our money, all of our Social Security, all of our bank accounts are stored, and the General Services Administration. So after the head of the treasury stood in Elon's way of accessing all of our personal information, he was forced to resign. Which gave Elon access to the systems managing the flow of more than $6 trillion annually. And he and his honest to God teenage acolyte. These people are 12 years old and they're all Elon stands. Started downloading them onto their own servers. This. This is information, like, for programs for Social Security and Medicare. At the opm, they were accessing systems including the Enterprise Human Resources Integration System, which is like a huge national database that contains sensitive information for millions of government employees, like their dates of birth and their Social Security numbers and their performance appraisals and home addresses and pay grades and length of service. All this stuff that they no business getting. And then when government employees at. At that office started speaking out and saying like, yo, what's he doing? He's not allowed to do this. Musk's aides locked them out of their own computer systems and their offices and started rooting around in their stuff. They had, like, sofa beds against the door and they were stopping them from even coming into the rooms.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Oh, yeah, it's absolutely frightening. I know. I did an interview with somebody who had looked up the public facing DNS server subd domains for opm.gov and got like, I did this all in my substack. I interviewed this guy and wrote it all up, but got like. This was like early on sleuthing just in the middle of last week. I mean, this is how fast all of this is going. And saw like 700 subdomains and then came back 12 hours later, and about 400 of them had been redacted. So they found out that somebody was looking. But for that whole night, those subdomains were available for public view because they had been uploaded to the cloud and started being manipulated, including that HROPM.gov email address where everybody got an email with a warning that says, do not open do not click on links. This comes from outside the agency, from outside the government. It's just. It's absolutely horrifying and frightening. And then to see that develop into. They did the same thing at treasury. And now everybody knows you get one of those checks with the little pink and green and the Statue of Liberty and it says United States treasury on it. You're getting a tax refund or you're getting a stimulus check, or you're getting paid by the government, or you work for. You're in the military and you're getting paid, or you're getting your disability check.

[Lee McGowan]

Or you're a veteran. Right?

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Right. I've gotten so many treasury checks from either being paid for being in the military, being paid, for working at the va, getting all my tax returns that they now have all of. If you've ever gotten a treasury check, they now have all of your information.

[Lee McGowan]

Yeah, it's a full breach of government. And as I said on my Sunday night rant, the richest man in the world is stealing from you. Right? Like show me another foreign national with deep ties to China and Russia who supports the neo Nazi party in Germany who could just waltz into these government departments, lock government workers out of their own computers and buildings and download our most personal information, right? Just willy nilly. Like he would be arrested in minutes. Any other person would be arrested in the minutes. The fact that this man is able to rob us blind of our information and God knows what he's going to do with it. And he's just allowed to do that? No, he's not allowed to do that. In fact, a private individual with access to our Social Security information alone violates the data privacy laws in every state in this nation. And in fact all 50 AGs should be filing criminal charges immediately because this should never have been allowed. I really want, want to acknowledge, and I think it's important to acknowledge that Americans data has been compromised. Right? Like you're talking about. If you are any government worker, if you have ever received a stimulus check, if you have ever received a check from the government, they have your information. This is all of our information. I mean we were concerned about, oh TikTok might know your email address. It's like this is our Social Security numbers, our banking information, our income tax returns, our tax ID numbers. We've been robbed and our own president opened the door to the thief. Right? Like this is not something we should be like oh well this just happens in government. It does not happen. What we have is an unelected billionaire now with the potential ability to have complete control over our nation's money. And that is our tax dollars, our Social Security payments, the money we use for everything, right? From building highways and bridges to making sure we're safe in planes, make sure our banks are safe, right? This is the money that funds medical research and universities and stops terrorist attacks and prosecutes criminals. The authoritari expert Ruth Ben Guy called what Musk was doing a national emergency. So we can't pretend that this isn't a big deal. We can't. We couldn't even put up the pod we'd recorded. We were like we have to talk about this right now so people understand what's going on.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Yeah, No, I agree 100%. And I know we're going to talk in a minute about walking out our federal law enforcement, the people be holding him accountable for this. But, but here's where I've got a little kind of sliver of hope. None of us kind of expect the new Department of Justice or the FBI to do anything. But what he's doing to the FBI and the Department of Justice is really upsetting a lot of people who might have voted for this regime is the only way I can think to put it. So it'll be interesting. We have a lot of people digging in, Driscoll and Dennehy in New York. FBI, like the what's left of the top FBI people really upset about what's going on at their agency.

[Lee McGowan]

Okay, well, let's talk about that because you know these people well. Okay, so like what Allison is talking about is over the weekend, Trump also did a huge purge of the FBI and the Justice Department. Both organizations, to be clear, are set up to be non political. Right. These are career law enforcement officers, all of whom have worked under multiple administrations, Republican and Democrat. These are not political appointees. Right. And yet the administration has forced out all six of the FBI's most senior executives, multiple heads of various FBI field offices across the country, including the high profile leader of the Washington D.C. field office that was involved in the prosecutions of President Donald Trump. They fired at least two dozen federal prosecutors who conducted the criminal investigations of the January 6 rioters, which, to be clear, was their job. Right. So, so would you call this a hostile takeover of federal law enforcement?

[Dr. Allison Gill]

It absolutely is. And I think anybody who kind of really understands what's happening, it's not just a dismantling and a firing of agents or prosecutors or lawyers. It's completely shutting down our premier federal law enforcement agency. It's meant to. You know, we had. You and I have talked about this a lot, about the slow pace of the January 6 investigation, and a lot of that was caused by FBI people. Right. And holdovers at the FBI from the Trump administration and how a lot of people in the FBI were really kind of gun shy about in going investigating Donald Trump and investigating people in power because of what happened during the Mueller investigation. If you remember, a lot of FBI agents who worked on the Mueller investigation, Pete Strzok, Andy McCabe, you know, all of Jim Comey, Jim Baker, they all got retaliated against. And so the whole of FBI was like, we don't want to do a no knock raid on Mar A Lago. Can we do a subpoena instead. And can we let's not break down that locked door. And maybe we don't wear our FBI jackets and we should call them ahead of time. And maybe we shouldn't subpoena the Willard for the war room stuff. Like they were very trepidatious. But now picture it now. And that was just from what the Mueller report did and the Mueller investigation did. Picture it now after the January 6 investigation and especially after walking all of these agents out of the Department of Justice and the FBI. We're talking a half to a third of the entire FBI because it wasn't just about who investigated Trump. It was anyone now who had anything to do with any January 6th case. You are not only firing a bunch of agents that maybe could be replaced later, but you are telling the FBI and the Department of Justice for the next 50 years, don't ever investigate anyone in this administration or in any kind in any related administration. But I'm holding out hope that they are so mad now at the FBI and the Department of Justice, like maybe they'll show up at that OPM office where the couches are blocking the door and arrest Elon Musk. He's not. He doesn't work for the government.

[Unknown]

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[Lee McGowan]

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[Dr. Allison Gill]

Like, maybe they'll show up at that OPM office where the couches are blocking the door and arrest Elon Musk. He's not. He doesn't work for the government.

[Lee McGowan]

It's just such a blatant abuse of power. Like to use the presidential office, to use the executive branch of the government like this. It feels like it's just going completely unchecked. You know, as someone wrote online, it's a disgrace that Americans have been promised a country with checks and balances. We've been told this our whole life, that there are constitutional powers, there are checks and balances. And what we're watching is the complete dismantling of that in front of our eyes. There was one FBI agent who said, this is a massacre meant to chill our efforts to fight crime without fear or favor. And Jamie Raskin, who's a Democratic representative in Congress, said Trump's outrageous attack on the DOJ and FBI is a clear and present danger to public safety and a wrecking ball swinging at the rule of law itself. And I think that's what we really need to acknowledge.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Yeah, no, 100%. This isn't just, you know, people don't. And, you know, I was kind of recording the Unjustified podcast with Andy McCabe when I got the text message from somebody inside the FBI that says 88 agents were just walked out of the Washington field office. And to see Andy McCabe, first of all, react to all of this and this massive purge in real time was. It was really something else.

[Lee McGowan]

People who don't know who Andy McCabe might tell them why he would react that way, why this matters to him.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Andy McCabe started as a field agent and then worked in New York and worked his way up to D.C. and became head of the Washington field office and then became deputy director of the FBI. And then when Comey was fired by Donald Trump, Andrew McCabe became the acting director of the FBI.

[Lee McGowan]

So him witnessing them, like, walking a bunch of. If you picture a bunch of FBI agents holding, you know, brown boxes with their stuff in it and being like, walked out of the FBI because they've all lost their jobs, because they had the audacity to do their jobs is shocking, especially to someone who, who knows this business so well, who has run this business.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

I mean, he's like, if you think of like the kid who's 17 and joins the army as a private nobody, like no job, and then eventually becomes, you know, a four star general, that's what Andy McCabe was of the FBI, and he was heartbroken to. To see and to be continuing to see what. What is happening at that agency. Here's what Andy kind of reminded us of. This is the point that I was getting at. These agents don't raise their hand and say, I want to work on the Donald Trump case. Put me on the documents case. I want to work on the January 6th riot case. They're assigned these cases. And this is actually, despite what Donald Trump says, a very conservative agency. So there were probably more Republicans than not.

[Lee McGowan]

Yeah. No, we need to be clear that as far as I understand, a Democrat has never run the FBI in America's history. FBI has always been run by someone that would be considered a conservative Republican.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Yeah. And so I don't know if Andy McCabe. I don't even know what his politics are. I mean, that's how down the line lawman he is. Right. He just happens to be on the side. That's not, you know, the Nazi takeover, which. Which most Republicans that I know that used to be Republicans are as well. Bob Mueller, super Republican, uber Republican. Right. But investigating Trump, you know, regardless, they don't pick these assignments. And so my last little shred of hope is that there's somebody FBI, somebody DOJ, that's like, what Elon Musk is doing is 100% illegal, and he should be immediately arrested. And I'm hoping somebody at the FBI has the intestinal fortitude, as they call it, to get that done, to do that. But what Donald Trump has done with the FBI is to try to ensure that nobody is willing to stick their neck out like that.

[Lee McGowan]

Yeah. I mean, listen, it's just so astounding. We were talking on Friday about them trying to freeze our money.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Money.

[Lee McGowan]

And they had no right to do that. No constitutional right to do that. No authority to do that. But they were stopped. So then they went right to the source. They went to the US treasury, which is essentially the country's bank account. It's how we pay for things. Right. So instead of freezing the money, they went to the money. And when the person in charge said, you can't be here, like, you have no access here. You have no business being here. He was forced to resign the same way the head of the FAA was forced to resign. Right. Because Elon didn't like him. And then how many planes have gone down in a week? Right. Like six. So I think the bottom line is access to our federal payment systems have historically been closed and closely held by a very Few people. Because it includes such sensitive personnel, information about millions of Americans. And as someone tweeted recently, they were like, so, I'm sorry, is it going to be like your tax refund has been delayed? Because it appears that you posted something derogatory about Elon Musk on X. You know what I mean? Like, this is what is possible. And I. No one knows what level of security these new servers even have. We could have just opened up this entire database to hackers that could sell our information to China. Elon could just give the information to China. Everything about what Elon and Donald and the Republicans have allowed right now is completely reckless. And so far, there's zero accountability.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Well, that's the most frightening thing, right? Is because you and I, I've long said it's hard to imagine what Donald Trump is going to do next or somebody like Elon Musk. Musk is going to do next, because we don't have cold, dead, blackened hearts and evil souls. So I'm trying to sit here and wrap my head around what this could mean for us, for a billionaire Nazi, for all intents and purposes, fellow who likes to do Nazi salutes. If that's how somebody would rather say it has all of our private data and information and banking information and what he could do with that. I mean, I think back to Cambridge Analytica and psychographic targeting, which, if you.

[Lee McGowan]

Don'T remember what Alison's talking about, that was the programs that were used and the company that used to mine our data before the 2016 election and allowed Russian infiltration to kind of target market us to make sure we were voting for Donald Trump because they knew what we liked, who we were, that kind of thing.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Or that we wouldn't vote for Hillary because of Bernie or because of, you know, whatever psychographic target they could use it for, that they could sell. This information is priceless. And he could sell it to Mohamed Bonsa, his buddies over in. You know, like, I'm trying to wrap my head around what this could mean. I put out a post after he hijacked the treasury, and I said, look, I will never just stop podcasting without telling you ahead of time. So if I stop podcasting, it's not because I decided to. It's because somebody stopped me from doing it. And somebody. Everyone's like, that's a cryptic, scary post. And I'm like, it's kind of a cryptic, scary time. I do so much to keep my identity safe. And I was generally feeling pretty good about it until the treasury was hijacked. So I, you know, I'm just. I'm like. I feel like we're all just kind of out there completely exposed to really, really bad guys. Like, I don't know how, like, how to boil it down and simplify it, but I also can't wrap my brain around the possibilities of what they could do with that information.

[Lee McGowan]

Yeah, no, it's like living through a Jason Bourne or like a James Bond movie or like, you know, Tom Cruise should be running very, very fast to stop them from getting this information, and they all failed. You know what I mean? Like, he has the information now. I mean, you and I, look, we have been very critical of the Democrats because they're the opposition party, and, you know, most of them aren't acting like it, and it's infuriating. But the only people that can really stop this very terrible behavior, which I think realistically should be referred to as a coup, are Republican politicians, because they're the ones in charge. Democrats can complain. They can draw attention to the crimes. They should be screaming from the rooftops about everything that is illegal. And all of these behaviors about Donald Trump's completely incompetent cabinet that he's surrounding himself with, I don't know why most, you know, more of them are not doing that, but that's. That's not their job at this point. It's up to the Republicans who are in power to shut this absolute dismantling of our institutions and democracy and rule of law down. And they're not doing it well because.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

They want the government dismantled. I mean, long. I mean, do you remember the. What was it, Grover Norquist promise about.

[Lee McGowan]

So I love that you're saying, do I remember the Grover Norquist promise? No, Alice. And I don't remember the Grover Norco. Tell us about it. Remember the Grover. No, I do not. Tell me.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

It's to shrink government down so you can drown it in a bathtub. So this has been a long Republican dream. I don't know that they wanted Elon Musk to hijack the treasury or they wanted half of the FBI, which is a conservative, you know, by the way, the rest of the. Half of the FBI from all of the people who are talking to me from. I've been talking to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of federal workers about what's going on inside. And apparently who's left. The people left at the FBI are being trained by ICE agents to go to the border as part of mass deportation. So that's what they want to do with the rest of the remaining FBI.

[Lee McGowan]

So if you are a child trafficker or a sex trafficker or any other terrorist, now's your time, baby. They're not looking for you. And that puts us entirely at danger. Yeah.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

The Joint Terrorism Task Force, which was what Andy McCabe used to do, like Boston Marathon bombing and 9 11, that's gone. They've all sent them to the Sanctuary city borders training or whatever, so that they can help ICE round up mothers and toddlers. Yeah, yeah. Like, it's. It's the complete dismantling of law enforcement in our country that one of the things that makes or made the United States and America what it is as a country, as an independent law enforcement, that's a pillar of democracy. And now we've got him. One of our other pillars of democracy, the free press. They're moving the New York Times and NPR out of their Pentagon offices and replacing them with Breitbart and oan. Like this is happening, this dismantling of democracy. The fascist regime is here. It's taking over. And I'm scared for what they're going to do with our data.

[Lee McGowan]

Yeah. And in case you don't know what Allison was talking about there, the Pentagon Press association has kicked the following publications out of the Pentagon press corps. The New York Times, NBC News, National Public Radio, Politico. And they're going to replace them with the New York Post, One American News, Breitbart and the Huffington Post. The FCC is currently coming after NPR and pbs, so we can't even get the right news if it's not skewed by the administration at this point. This is like full authoritarian behavior. Take over the press. Make sure that people can get the information. Make sure that we're only getting the propaganda they want us to get. It's just so incredibly dangerous. And look, like I was saying in one of my rants this week, this is. It doesn't matter who you voted for. Right? You didn't vote for this. This is not what they said they were going to do. Dismantle the government, dismantle law enforcement, you know, absorb Canada, annex Canada, you know, like, attack Panama, send, you know, troops to Panama. We didn't vote for this. You know what we're voting. What we're seeing right now is a hostile takeover of the United. And. And we need to acknowledge that, because if you're just a regular citizen right now, you count on VA benefits, you count on your Social Security check, you count on unemployment benefits or disability or Medicare or Medicaid, you know, grants to run your business, or you know, just law enforcement looking out for terrorists that might blow up buildings near you. We just want a functioning government that isn't completely gutted or now apparently dead broke because we opened the vault to a bunch of thieves. And people should be outraged about this. They should be calling their state AGs and their senators and their congressperson to ask what they're doing about all of this. Because this week has been absolutely bananas. Like you and I have only talked about a couple of things. Like on top of all of this, Trump is threatening this trade war, okay, with two of our biggest trading partners and allies, Canada and Mexico, with 25% tariffs on all imports, 10% tariffs on Canadian oil and gas, 10% tariffs on Chinese goods. This is a huge deal in itself, right? This is a huge deal in itself that could absolutely decimate our economy. I will say it was supposed to start on Saturday, February 1st, and now, as I understand it, it's going to start on Tuesday, February 4th. But both other North American countries, Canada and Mexico, were very forceful in their opposition and they promised retaliatory tariffs on American products, as did China. I don't know if this is going to happen. I think it will. But if it does happen, it will be, as the very conservative Rupert Murdoch owned Wall Street Journal said, the dumbest trade war in history. Because America will be tanking three economies for what feels like absolutely no reason. And this president, who ran on lowering costs of everything from groceries to gas, is going to immediately make everything ludicrously more expensive and alienate our closest neighbors and allies.

[Unknown]

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[Lee McGowan]

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[Lee McGowan]

I'll be honest, the more we move.

[Unknown]

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[Lee McGowan]

This president who ran on lowering costs of everything from groceries to gas is going to immediately make everything ludicrously more expensive and alienate our closest neighbors and allies.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Yeah, and he's even kind of admitted it, you know, in a truth social post. He's like, oh, yeah, there's probably going to be a little pain at first, which we kind of heard right before the election from Elon Musk a little bit as well. Oh, it's going to hurt. It's going to hurt for a minute, but then, you know, it's for the better, it's for your own good type of a, you know, situation.

[Lee McGowan]

Yeah. Like, I didn't see him running on. You're going to be in pain for a while. I know Elon said it. He said regular Americans are going to feel some suffering, but no one was taking Elon seriously because no one knew he'd be, like, taking over the entire government. But like you said, Trump himself just said that, you know, there's going to be some suffering, there's going to be some pain for Americans. Like, he didn't run on pain for Americans. He ran on fixing everything for Americans. Right. And now he's saying maybe Canada should just get ambitious, annexed, you know, and then they wouldn't have to do this. And these are not things that the President of the United States should just be throwing around.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Well, and that's what I had said before. I said, look, when he was talking about Greenland and Panama and Canada being a state and joking, people thought he was joking when he was calling Trudeau a governor of the great state of Canada, of the United States. And I said, look, he's going to use economic power to try to force Denmark to sell Greenland, to try to force Canada to become the 51st state, to try to force Panama to hand over control of the Panama Canal. Well, what was he gonna send the military? And I'm like, I don't think he has to. He can just. Economically, the United States has a lot of power, but in the meantime, it hurts Americans.

[Lee McGowan]

These three nations are a catastrophic decision. I mean, a live update just came in that Mexico has reached a deal with the US to delay Trump's tariffs. President Trump said he would pause the tariffs on Mexico for a month, but the levies on Canada and China were still set to take effect on Tuesday. The US Shares fell at the opening bell. The stock market is dropping, and there were drops in the Asian and European market because people are fearing this trade war. Like, this is so serious. Like, listen, we get 40% of all of our goods in this country from China, Canada and Mexico. Right. 60% of our produce comes from Mexico. So I guess they've made some sort of a deal with that. But most of our lumber, our Milk comes from Canada. A lot of our cars are put together in Mexico. Our electronics, our chips that make our electronics and make our cars come from China. You know, like, this idea that we're going to have to feel suffering and pain, it's just. This is ludicrous. You know, it's. The whole thing is so stupid. I mean, you don't alienate your closest allies. Like, I cannot believe that there are Americans out here that are so dead set on supporting Trump that they're now, like, absolutely dissing Canada for no reason. It breaks my heart as a Canadian citizen. It breaks my heart growing up beside America and having them be our closest ally. It breaks my heart seeing, you know, them refusing to sing the Canadian national anthem at American Games and the Canadians booing the national anthem at Canadian Games. I just. It makes me so sad. Like, listen, Canada does border control. They give money, money to border control to the states to help with the border. They sent emergency personnel to help with our disasters. They held all the American planes during 911 and took care of those people in towns. They just sent down planes and firefighters to help with the California fighters. They have fought alongside us in every war. To give Canada the finger like this, to give Mexico the finger like, this is so fucked up for American president. And we just signed a new trade agreement with them, like, two years ago. It's like nothing. Our word counts for nothing with this man as a leader. And that breaks my heart.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Well, yeah, it denigrates our promises that America makes around the world. It creates chaos, which is, I think, part of the point. It's a feature and not a bug. And I stand with Canada. I actually love the fact that they're targeting goods and services in southern states and in red states, trying to limit the pain that Californians and New Yorkers and friends of Canada and supporters of Canada feel. And I mean, the thing that also really frightens me is that the people in charge, the Elon Musks, and this cabinet that he's selected, are supposed to be the ones that are supposed to tell us how many jobs we've lost and how many people have died. And we're not going to get accurate reporting on that, nor do they care.

[Lee McGowan]

The cabinet that he has put together has a collective worth of, I believe, $430 billion. These are not people care about regular American lives. These are not people that are interested in how we suffer, how we feel, what we might want. And they're certainly not going to give us the right information. They're going to give us information that makes them look good. That's why we've put all the journalists out at the Pentagon and put all the propagandists in.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Yeah. And that's why we have to kind of watch the markets and watch what commerce does, watch what the business folks do because they'll know if we've lost 250,000 jobs in January. And Trump says we got 350,000 jobs. Incredible. We added 350,000 jobs. The people with the money know what's really happening. Do you know what I mean? The people who it impacts, whose bottom line the shareholders are impacted by. And that's kind of where I'm going to be taking my cues from. And I know that the stock market is not the economy, but I just mean in broader terms, like we will see, I think business leaders and people in commerce stepping up and saying, no, we didn't get 300,000 jobs, we lost jobs. We don't know exactly how many because I don't work at the Department of Labor. But those numbers are reported to the Department of Labor from elsewhere. Right. They have to come from somewhere else. So hopefully someone else will be aggregating these real time numbers. Jobs deaths from H15N things that Trump would otherwise lie about. Or you remember Covid, he wouldn't test and he wouldn't let that cruise ship dock because he didn't want to add to his numbers of people who had Covid or whatever. So I'm going to be trying to find the real numbers and the real consequences of this administration somewhere else besides from this administration.

[Lee McGowan]

Yeah. And it's going to be a challenge. I mean, honestly, you know, the CDC right now is gutting the website of information on everything from airborne diseases to contraception information. You know, 35 states right now are reporting a rise in flu and COVID 19 and norovirus and RSV, but no one's telling us because the CDC and the NIH and the FDA, so our food, our medicines, our health are no longer allowed to communicate with the public or with our doctors to tell us what's going on. Someone pointed out, and I think this is a very good point like this, taking this information from us, from the cdc, from the nih, from the FDA is actually theft because the American taxpayers paid for this information. Right. We, we paid to have these, these drugs found, you know, research and this information stored. I will tell people in a bit of good news, according to some experts, the data in a lot of these places has been backed up and archived by, you know, independent people that work at Those agencies that knew that it couldn't be information that was lost. So federal workers are actually smarter than the directives that they were given. But like you said, like, this is what we're looking at right now is an untrustworthy government, a government that's not gonna give us the proper information. A government that goes back on its word. I mean, if people haven't heard about this Panama thing, Panama is apparently bracing for war. Right. Our new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is in their country talking about how we can annex or take back the Panama Canal, which is something we willingly gave the Panamanians in 1999. Panama is warning its people of a US invasion, saying they're worried about mass casualties if the US starts a war. And I'm like, if the US starts a war, like, is this not the same guy who said there would be no new wars under him? He's literally getting into trade wars and threatening to invade our allies. He hasn't done anything about Ukraine. Ukraine. He apparently now wants to level Gaza. You know what I mean? And now another foreign nation is like, we're afraid he's going to invade us. Right. Like, we're cutting off U.S. aid to foreign countries. It's just so astonishing how poorly behaved we're being. We're just such assholes as a country.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Yeah. And it's. It's embarrassing. It's globally embarrassing. I mean, didn't he fire some missiles yesterday or the day before? Sent a bunch of missiles over to Syria or something? I mean.

[Lee McGowan]

Oh, God, I didn't see that.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

It's very hard to keep up with deliberately.

[Lee McGowan]

It's done deliberately. I mean, I was going to ask you. Apparently Elon tried to get information, highly protected secrets in some skiff. Did you know about that?

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Like, yeah, I heard about that. He was trying to access classified documents. A private citizen. He does have clearance, but not sci. I don't think he has TSSCI compartmented information. Right. Like, it's a need to know thing. Like the guy who puts the satellites up for our national security. There's certain classified information he might need to know, but whatever he was trying to access is not part of that. Being in the Navy, working for the government. The government's had all of my personal information, my fingerprints, my DNA, my blood, my everything for my whole life. And I've never been concerned about. About that until now.

[Lee McGowan]

Yeah. I mean, which brings me to the last piece of hideous news I'm going to get into before we just talk about how to fight back. Trump is now Claiming he's going to reopen gitmo and put 30,000 prisoners in a place that at most has had 800 prisoners, and that would be, by definition a concentration camp. And I think we have to keep in mind he already has contracts to private prison operations to open two 10,000 person prisoners prisons. 14, 500 to a thousand person prisons. And now apparently he's in talks with El Salvador to have U.S. prisons there. And I'm like, U.S. prisons there for what? Because that's not just going to be for illegal immigrants. Like, that's not like, oh, we're going to take all the, you know, rapists from Guadalajara and put them in El Salvador. Like, that's not it. Right. It's going to be for anyone he wants out of the way. And you were just saying at the beginning of this pod, if I ever stop podcasting without telling you, it's because someone made me stop. Right. And someone wrote me this week to say, I can't believe you're not scared doing what you're doing. And I was like, I am scared. You know, but what's the alternative? Like, what's the alternative? Giving in, stopping, Allowing this criminal and his horrifying friends to just have America? Like, no, I. I'm just going to keep doing the work. And I'm just going to keep doing the work. Scared.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

This is what I do. And I took several oaths. You took an oath when you became a citizen. Yeah, it matters. Those things matter. You know, it cost me my job during the first Trump administration. It cost me my job, the job I had done for over 10 years, my heart, my soul. Helping veterans, working at the Department of Veterans affairs, helping active duty service military and their family get health care access, timely access to quality healthcare meant everything to me. As a disabled veteran with PTSD due to military sexual trauma, I wanted to make sure nobody went through what I went through, or at least didn't get care for it. It's what I do. And I risked that to stand up and be loud about what was going on in that administration and the laws, that would be the lawlessness. And it cost me my job, and I won't ever stop doing. And that's like I said, if I'm not on the air one day, it's not because I've decided to disappear.

[Lee McGowan]

Same.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

So it's frightening. That's the level of frightening that it is. And I'm very glad to hear that Canada now has a political asylum program for folks like you and me. Ground on the border. Land border. So If I need to drive up to Canada, I'll have my rig with me. I'm bringing my microphone, you know, but if I have to drive up to Canada, they'll let me in and give me asylum. So I'm very happy about that to know that.

[Lee McGowan]

But to imagine that we had to get there, you know, as a veteran, as someone who fought for this country, like, that we're even here, you know, like, listen, I want to leave people with something that isn't, like, and it's over. Bah. You know, like, so listen, what do we do? Because this conversation itself is why people are tempted to shut down and check out. But that's, like, the worst thing we can do right now. I think back to Timothy Snyder's call to not obey in advance. And I think we have to be unwavering. I think we have to be unwavering as Americans, that this is supposed to be the land of the free. I believe this is the land of the free. And I think we need to challenge anyone who is suggesting they take your freedom from you. Jamelle Bouie, who is a terrific writer.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

B Boy Bouilly. Base, right?

[Lee McGowan]

Yeah, he's amazing.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

I love him. I love him.

[Lee McGowan]

But he made this interesting point this week about dei, you know, and how DEI is being ripped out of all our institutions. And he said, you know what? I think we should factor in how. How these states, how these counties, how these localities, how the hospitals are going to respond to these executive orders. Like, I get that you want to do it, but what's your enforcement mechanism? Right? So instead of just affirming this belief that Trump is king of America, it is important to recognize that federalism provides the states the tools to push back or even in sometimes ignore some of these orders. Like he pointed out, there's 13,000 public school districts in the U.S. there's about 100,000 primary and secondary schools. What agents are they planning to send to all those schools to make sure kids who are gay aren't being allowed to be gay, you know, that there's no trans kid in grade five. You know what I mean? Like, where are they sending it? Because there is a part of us that needs to be a little bit like, I hear you, but you can't do that and fudge, you make me every single day. I think that's a very essential American, quite frankly, attitude to be bringing to this wannabe authoritarian dictatorship that's telling us the way it's gonna be. And we have to be like, is it?

[Dr. Allison Gill]

No, I agree. And that's something I'm working on right now. Along the fuck you make me lines is I've just set up and I just actually got the text message that the tax identification number is here. I now have a 501C3 and it's a nonprofit called fedoath.org and we're going to be. There's not a website yet, but I will be sending out information soon. But we're going to be raising money and funding legal pushback for federal workers who are being wrongfully terminated or set aside on administrative leave for DEIA when that's completely illegal to do. So we're going to be helping get resources and fundraise and refer to lawyers we're working with like Mark Zaid, who I know that you know, and Whistleblower aid, and Kel McClanahan who is the lawyer who's suing for those two OPM employees for privacy concerns. And that's the National Security Councilors, my lawyer who's been representing me in my wrongful termination case from when I was kicked out of the government. So follow me. At Military Road, I'm going to be putting out some information. There's going to be a Patreon, so you can give five bucks a month and all of that money will go to help fund the legal. I'm calling it a legal offense fund, not a legal defense fund. So we can get lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit to really gum this up and throw sand in the gears of this dismantling of our institutions. So that's my little thing that I'm doing.

[Lee McGowan]

That's amazing. I mean, that's the thing. I think that what they say right now is that what we have to do is pick our, our. The things we are passionate about.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Focus. Yeah, focus on a thing. Because the best opposition is focused.

[Lee McGowan]

Yes. You have to have focus resistance. We can't be like, everything is terrible. You have to be like, what are the things I care most about? Set boundaries with how much you take in and put out. Right. Like pick your two to three key issues that you care deeply about and put your attention on them because you're talking about this. Sustained focus is going to make a difference, not scattered awareness. Right. Find people like you and I who are aggregators and experts and people who will analyze what's going on and synthesize these topics for you, who can see the big picture and explain the patterns and break down events so you're not just like doom scrolling all day and you don't know what to do. Like Watch the Daily Beans or listen to the Daily Beans every morning and get kind of like, like a breakdown of the news without having to, you know, absorb it all into your body because we're doing it for you. Listen to the Politics Girl podcast once a week so I can round it up for you. Like, look at what we're doing here. We shot a podcast on Friday. We were like, nope, people will need more information. We reshot it on Monday, right? Like, we have to remember that we can't take it all in, help have. Take the help from the people that are doing it and also take breaks, right? Take breaks to process what's happening. Because this overwhelm is, is the point. And when we remember that we regain some power, we don't feel like we're constantly in fight or flight, right? Like, this is going to be a flipping marathon and we're going to have to pace ourselves because this is too much. It is too much and it is deliberately too much. I think I read and I think this is a brilliant way of looking at it. Wait 24 to 48 hours before reacting to anything new. New policies, new news, new things. Because, because as they say, the urgent clouds the important. So a lot of time, initial reporting you, you hear will often miss the context, the main points, and, and then you don't get the full story. Wait and watch how something unfolds before you start reacting to it, right? And react to it within your communities. Find and build community around you of people who care about the same things you do or who care about different things that you do. And you guys focus on different things and then keep each other, other informed because network intelligence beats individual overload. I think the whole thing is that, like, they want us scattered and overwhelmed and shutting down. And our focus right now, our sustained focus, is going to be our resistance.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Yeah, No, I agree 100%. I look at somebody like Mark Elias, laser focused on democracy, docket, voting rights and those kinds of lawsuits, right?

[Lee McGowan]

You don't see him also out here talking about the environment. That's not his thing. If you, if you care about what's going on with the environment, make that your thing. If you're someone like me that really cares about health care, make that your thing. If you're someone like you who really cares about veterans, right? Or legal challenges to federal workers. Federal workers do that. I think it's really important. And then also, like, dude, keep calling these representatives, right? Like, keep calling the representatives. Democracy is supposed to be interactive. It's supposed to be by, for and of the people. But the people have to also be calling, like, call them every single day. Shannon Watts, who's the founder of Moms Demand Action, said we're supposed to be lighting fires under our lawmakers. Tell them you're being harmed. Tell them you feel unprotected. Tell them you feel unsupported. Expose what you're feeling to them and do it every day. She said, call them every day to thank them if they've done something right or to shame them if they're doing something wrong. Right. And then keep talking about it with your friends and family. Post online if that's your thing. Because they want us to stop telling the truth to each other, and they want to tell us what the truth is, and we can't have that because. Because then we start normalizing that which is not normal.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Yeah, agreed, 100%. And take breaks, self care. Post a cat video every now and again. Very important to make sure you're taking care of yourself. Make sure you laugh, make sure you dance. Have a little joy. It's so important. I remember reading something from Dan Savage where he was like, we were fighting for our rights, Gay rights, LGBTQ rights. We were throwing bricks during the day, and at night, we were partying. We were dancing, and we were full of joy. So keep fighting and keep fighting. Dancing.

[Lee McGowan]

Yeah. No, that is a wonderful quote because he said it was the dancing that reminded us what we were fighting for. Yeah. Well, I want to thank you so much for joining us again today, Allison. So please tell people before you go how they can follow your work moving forward, because they really do need to be doing that.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

Sure. Just follow me anywhere at Mullersherote, and if you want to chip in five bucks to help out federal workers, you can. By the time you hear this episode, I will have probably set up a patron on Patreon and just search for Fed oath. You'll see us. You'll be able to recognize that it's us. And chip in. I think it might make you feel better that you're helping out some federal workers.

[Lee McGowan]

Yeah. And don't give up, my friends. This is still our country, even though.

[Unknown]

They'Re acting like it's theirs.

[Dr. Allison Gill]

100%. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for doing what you do. It's so, so important. And thanks for that's courage isn't, you know, not. This isn't about not being afraid. It's about doing what you do do, even though it's scary. So thank you for having that courage.

[Lee McGowan]

Right back at you, my friend. You too. Thank you for all you do. So that was Dr. Alison Gill reminding us of the importance of finding people who can make the fire hose of information less painful. What's going on is a lot. Honestly, it is too much. So we need to set boundaries both with our time and with the issues we engage with. Because to sustained, focused work is what will truly make a difference. Remember to take breaks, not only so you have a moment to process what's happening, but also so the facts have time to bake. Focus on getting your information from people who care more about being right than being first. We are living in chaos, so build a community around yourself that brings you some peace. None of this is normal and we need people around us who remind us of that.

[Unknown]

Do not lose your joy to the hate.

[Lee McGowan]

It is our joy that reminds us.

[Unknown]

What we're fighting for.

[Lee McGowan]

I want to thank Alison for joining us today and you for caring enough about democracy to be here now. Take a couple of hours off before you get back into it. You deserve it after this episode. Until next week, PG out. Before you go, I just want to say if you're a premium member of this podcast, thank you. And if you're not a member, please consider supporting my work. As Alison said, we have to expand new media. We are almost completely overwhelmed by state supporting legacy media and propaganda at this point. So we have to be out here supporting those of us who are still bringing you the facts. So if you aren't a member of Politics Girl Premium, please consider going to politicsgirl.com and signing up. You will get this podcast ad free, along with my rants and bonus content sent directly to your inbox. So even if my work is silenced on on social media, you will still get access to truth and facts. There's a link to sign up in the bio of this episode, but [e-mail] and as always, please like and share this podcast so we can grow our audience. The more people who have access to the right information, the better. And as always, thank you so much for your time and support.

[Unknown]

The Politics Girl Podcast is written and performed by me, Leigh McGowan, in partnership.

[Lee McGowan]

With the Midas Media Network, and produced.

[Unknown]

And edited by Happy Warrior Entertainment.

[Lee McGowan]

All rights reserved.