Monday, August 17, 2026 Today, the Democratic National Committee passed resolutions that could inform the 2028 party platform; the Justice Department is expanding the military’s law enforcement power; the Food and Drug Administration traveled to Mexico a month after linking Taylor Farms to cyclospora outbreak; U.S. and Ukrainian forces went head to head in a drone exercise and Ukraine won; the Tate brothers’ custody hearing was postponed as they fight extradition; a Canadian petition to oust Hoekstra as the ambassador has nearly 200,000 signatures; plus Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
Monday, August 17, 2026
Today, the Democratic National Committee passed resolutions that could inform the 2028 party platform; the Justice Department is expanding the military’s law enforcement power; the Food and Drug Administration traveled to Mexico a month after linking Taylor Farms to cyclospora outbreak; U.S. and Ukrainian forces went head to head in a drone exercise and Ukraine won; the Tate brothers’ custody hearing was postponed as they fight extradition; a Canadian petition to oust Hoekstra as the ambassador has nearly 200,000 signatures; plus Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
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Msw media. Hello, and welcome to the Daily beans for Monday, August 17, 2026. Today, the Democratic National Committee has passed two resolutions that could enforce the 2028 party platform. The Justice Department is expanding the military's law enforcement power. The Food and Drug Administration traveled to Mexico a month after they linked Taylor Farms to cyclospora outbreaks. US And Ukrainian forces went head to head in drone exercises, and Ukraine won. The Tate brothers custody hearing was postponed as they fight extradition. And a Canadian petition to oust Hoekstra as the Ambassador has nearly 200,000 signatures. I'm Alison Gill.
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
Hey, happy Monday, my friend.
And to you. How was your weekend?
it was good. It was kind of a relaxing, weekend when I wasn't working. I mean, I only had a couple shows that I had to do over the weekend, but I really kind of just did nothing. And it was everything I'd hoped it could be.
You're like. It was glorious.
It was pretty wonderful. How about you?
Good. I celebrated a friend's 50th at a roller rink. First time I had been on skates in 30 years. I used to DJ and manage a roller rink when I was younger called Roller King in Albuquerque, New Mexico. If you're from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and you've been to Roller King, you know what I'm talking about. And I was very good on them. And I, you know, listen, I turned 50. I was like, I don't want to break anything. And it came back very quickly. I was a smooth skater. We did fine.
Oh, that's interesting. I haven't been on skates either. I used to have my own skates with the neon covers and the purple shiny box with glitter on it. My skatebox. Oh.
You were way more into it than I was.
I was into it. I was into it, dude. And, Skateland is where we went in Mesa, Arizona.
There you go. Yeah. So, anyway, good weekend? Well, I had a, Yeah, it was just. It was a good weekend. Monday's here and we'll see what the week holds.
That's so cool that. Your birthday party at a. At a roller rink, because we did that when we were kids. Did the big chicken come out and you do the Hokey Pokey?
No, but that is really funny. I. We used to do that at the other one when I. When I was working there. Oh, my God. I walked into this place, and it was like, whoa. It, like, took me back 30 years. It was wild.
The smell, like, So many memories attached to the smell of a roller rink. Yeah, yeah.
Very cool.
I'm glad you had fun. Something cool on the show today. I'm going to be talking to Heather Cox Richardson.
Nice.
This is from our live discussion that we had on Substack over the weekend. So if you watched it there, feel free to fast forward or feel free to listen again. There's a lot of really salient points that she makes. She tends to be like jam packed with points like the. She's a great word economist in that way.
M. She's brilliant. She's brilliant. The two of you together, just magic.
Super fun to be able to speak to her. Also, a couple quick stories. We're going to talk about this over on Beans Talk. Today. There was a US Drone exercise with the Ukrainians and they kicked our asses.
Oh, boy.
Okay, so that's fun. So we're going to cover that on Beans Talk. But also, Dana, check this out. After boycotting American products and shunning vacations south of the border, rightfully so, Canadians in the thousands are pouring their incandescent anger at the United States into a new cause, ousting our American ambassador, Pete Hoa. They've got almost 200,000 signatures on a petition to the Canadian parliament submitted by a Calgary resident on July 21 calling for the removal of. Of Pete Hoekstra. So I could just high five my emotional support. Canadians, good job.
Yeah, well done. Well done. Gotta look to the north, kind of look to the north for always.
They're just amazing. I love Canada. All right, we have a lot of news to get to. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up from cbs, the Justice Department on Friday issued a legal opinion. They're doing this over there all olc, all day these days. Another slip opinion giving the military broader powers to do law enforcement detain migrants accused of trespassing in an area that the Department of Defense controls as part of Trump's crackdown at the southern border. I was there when the wall came down in Germany. And in between the wall separating Berlin, East Berlin, there was this thing called no man's land.
Okay.
But people would try to run, you know, when people try to escape that you would be shot. In no man's land. It was this weird neutral zone, federal government area. And that's what this reminds me of that they're doing on the border. Yeah, it's just, it's, it's freaking me out and it's.
I,
It's also way against the Constitution. But we'll get to that in a minute. The opinion from the Justice Department's, Office of Legal Counsel concerns large swaths of land near the US Mexico border that the second Trump administration is designated as a national defense area for the purposes of deterring illegal immigration. And while the military is generally prohibited from enforcing laws on domestic soil under the longstanding Posse Comitatus Act.
These zones have allowed, quote, unquote, soldiers to detain migrants accused of entering national defense areas which are closed to civilians. The arrangement has allowed the Justice Department to prosecute those arrested in the zones for trespassing on federal military land. Now in its opinion Friday, DOJ said military personnel can arrest individuals who leave national defense areas before they can be apprehended for trespassing, quote. In sum, we conclude that the use of military personnel to arrest trespassers outside of an NDA would not violate the Posse Comitatus act given the express statutory authorization and the military purpose of a commander's traditional protective power. That's Deputy Assistant Attorney General William Hyde in his opinion. Trump administration has so far set up six national defense areas along the southern border in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. But Friday's opinion said the military had suggested it may designate additional zones in the future. Like in Minneapolis.
Like what I know. And if this is up to Hegseth, he fucking kidding me.
You can just co opt land and
call it national defense area and let the military be the police.
I mean listen, we've been co oping land for centuries, so of course, but
to, to, to designate it in this, this area, the military are the police.
What? Now since national defense areas encompass wide strips of land that might not appear to be part of a military base, the Defense Department in some areas has put up signs in English and Spanish warning that the area is restricted and unauthorized entry is prohibited. U S command, which oversees U.S. military forces in North America, has said on its website the military service members can apprehend those who trespass onto one of the national defense areas and transfer them to appropriate law enforcement authorities. Now the Justice Department began charging individuals who were apprehended in April of last year and since then has charged hundreds more. The specific charges for trespassing a national defense area are most commonly violating a military security regulation and entering a military, naval or Coast Guard property, both of which are misdemeanors. There can also be other charges associated with crossing the border that aren't directly related to trespassing onto military land. Now the Pentagon made the US Mexico border its first mission during the initial days of Trump's second term. I remember that. Announcing plans to ramp up U.S. forces there. And since then, the Defense Department says more than 20,000 service members have served deployments at the border. Our border. A spokesperson for the military Southern border Joint Task Force says It currently has 8,000 troops at the border. The task force has made 161 temporary detentions in national defense areas, and the individuals are then transferred, like I said, to law enforcement. The Office of Legal Counsel's legal opinion is advisory only and does not set legal precedent. This is something for the courts. And I'm just going to drop one of my favorite quotes here from Battlestar Galactica. There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state. The other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.
Wow.
That's Commander Adama. Edward James Olmos. So say we all.
Such a good quote.
Let me just give you the Posse Comitatus act in full. It's just one sentence long. It says, whoever, except in cases under circumstances expressly authorized by the constitution or an act of Congress, and whoever willfully uses any part of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned no more than two years or both.
The end.
That's, it.
That's the whole Posse Comitatus Act,
Everything they're doing, and none of it is making this country any safer.
No, it's not.
It's just ridiculous. All right. Speaking of not making this country any safer or healthier. This is from the Post. Food and Drug Administration investigators traveled to Taylor Farms operation in Mexico for the first time this week to start inspecting the facilities linked to the largest cyclospora outbreak in the U.S. according to four people with knowledge of the matter who spoke, of course, on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing investigations. They just went there. People have been blowing out their asses. For how long? They just decided to go investigate this. Donald Prater, the FDA's acting deputy commissioner for food, confirmed in an interview Friday that inspectors were on site at the processing facility and planned to be in the fields next. Given the scale of the outbreak, food safety experts and former top FDA officials said the agency should have gone to Mexico sooner. You think? Then, nearly a month after officials publicly connected the company's shredded lettuce to an outbreak that has sickened nearly 10 though Mexico officials and the company have conducted their own testing on the farm. Some food safety experts worry the conditions that may have contributed to the contamination are gone. Complicating investigative efforts, the company said it suspended all production on the facility on July 18. Prater said the lettuce that sickened people was probably grown and potentially contaminated weeks before any illnesses were detected, adding that the parasite's long incubation time adds to that delay. The FDA tried to reconstruct conditions that existed when the lettuce was actually being grown and harvested before sending investigators into the field. That includes gathering information for tracing the product back to its source and examining historical weather patterns and increasingly, satellite imagery, as well as obtaining testing supplies in laboratory space. At least 3.1 million pounds of lettuce linked to the farm have been recalled, compared to the largest prior cyclospora recall of nearly £31,000 of parsley last September. That's according to the Washington Post analysis of the FDA enforcement data.
So wait, the two biggest cyclospora outbreaks have happened in Trump's second term?
Yes, and I also think this particular farm has had some problems in the past with like onions and some other things. Like this is not their first time. Mexican officials conducted a sanitary inspection and visit at Taylor Farm's processing facility from from July 18 to July 20. That's according to Mexican government lettuce and water samples collected tested negative for the parasite and other contaminants and an assessment of workers health conditions. They didn't find any red flags. The United States and Mexico, they have a unique relationship when it comes to ensuring the safety of fruits and vegetables. Since 2014, the two countries, they have had a partnership focused on ensuring the safety of produce traded across the border, preventing foodborne illnesses and improving data sharing. However, the culprits, or culprits if you will, behind the contamination of shredded iceberg lettuce, they have not been found yet. Trevor Suslow, a food safety expert who is helping investigate the cyclospora outbreak as a consultant for Taylor Farms and has an emeritus faculty position at the University of California, Davis, said he headed down this week to Salinas, California where Taylor Farms is headquartered. He wanted to continue the review data and records as the search for potential contaminant continues.
Okay, so yeah, maybe waiting a month to go to Mexico wasn't the best idea.
Yeah, maybe not.
And what about that whole thing where they said it was them and then they got a million dollar bribe and then they said oh, it wasn't them and now there it's them Again. And now they're going a month later. Like, what? Oh man, the incompetence. I'm just going to the farmer's market from now on.
Yeah.
Everybody shop local. yeah, I'm just. I mean, that's generally how I do, but like for like, no exceptions now. All right, from the Associated Press. Democrats on Saturday approved dueling messages on whether ICE should be abolished or reformed, reflecting opposition to Trump's crackdown, but revealing a little bit of a disagreement in the party. Ahead of the midterms, the Democratic National Committee, gathered for a summer meeting, also signed off on a raft of policy positions, including one that calls for concrete reforms of ICE and another for abolishing ice. That's been at the center of several fail encounters, as we know now. ICE has been at the heart of a progressive rally in cry since 2018 during the first Trump administration, and it's been renewed among some in the party after two recent fatal shootings by the agency in July. Saturday's vote isn't binding. It doesn't set the party's platform. That's going to be determined at the 2028 DNC, the convention, but it does reflect the party's differing views on a major issue. Candidates and lawmakers will continue to determine their own positions on the issue. Michelle Johnson, a DNC member from Louisiana who proposed the measure to abolish ice, said it's time for Democrats to take a stand and pointed to the dissolution of ICE's predecessor agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, as a precedent. And I'm telling you, there's nothing. What voters do you think you're gonna lose by saying? Are there like, people dug in supporting ICE on our side?
I would hope not.
I don't understand what vote like anyway.
I, mean, listen, there's some legislators that are. They voted for the Blake and Riley Act.
Mm,
And so there are some Dems that are seen as not being hard enough against ICE on this, on this issue.
Are there donors? Like, are there like mega donors?
Question.
I doubt really supportive of ice. Do they own detention centers? Like, what's going on?
That's a fair question.
I don't understand. If there's somebody out there who's listening, who's like, no, I don't support dissolving DHS or dissolving ICE, you know, going back to pre 911 immigration stuff. If somebody is against that, I would love to hear from you. Let, let us know because I, you, know my.
I'm in a bubble. Right.
I don't, you know, I just. I'm in my own head here.
I,
And I'm. I'm wondering. There has to be a reason, and I just can't figure it out. Michelle Johnson, a DNC member from Louisiana, is the one who again proposed the abolish ICE measure.
Quote, I think one of the reasons
why people are not trusting the party is because we sound so academic. She said, we sound focus group tested. We sound poll tested because we're worried about saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing and not just like, just stand on business, like take a position.
Right.
That's exactly how I feel.
Yeah.
Not every DNC member was convinced. Yvonne Reeves Chong voted against it, saying it would only gain support from part of the party's base while drawing fire from another group of voters. What group? Quote, I would strongly suggest we get to the business of winning races so we can make the policies that make a difference. She said, again, that is a. Her sentence is a poll tested focus group sentence. You know what I mean? Now, DNC Chairman Ken Martin, who is from Minnesota, where Good and Preddy were murdered amid the immigration crackdown earlier this year, said in an interview that the takeaway is that Democrats find the administration's handling of immigration, including by US Customs and Border Protection, unacceptable. Quote, clearly the one thing that unites us, regardless of our position on reform versus abolish or whatever other ways to change what's happening is people believe what ICE is doing right now and CBP and the federal government should stop. There has to be a better way. And I do agree with that, but I don't think this is reformable.
I don't either. We've talked about that. When you can complete agreement. I don't either.
These guys have been here 8, 10, 12 years. The guy who shot Renee Good in the face and then called her a. Is her dead body rolled down the street. That's. That guy was on the. He's been there for 10 years.
Yeah.
Like, what are we even.
Anyway, sorry. I'm,
Never have to apologize for that. You know, our listeners aren't going to ask you to either.
I get a little mad sometimes.
Yeah.
All right. This is from NBC. A court hearing in Miami due to hear arguments Thursday over whether social media influencers. Is that what they're calling him? Andrew and Tristan Tate should remain in custody as they fight extradition to the United Kingdom has been postponed until August 27th. US Magistrate Lauren Lewis will then have a chance to question both sides before determining if the brothers, who have repeatedly denied wrongdoing. Okay. Even though they brag about it on their social media channels, should stay in jail or be released during what could be a months long extradition process. They're also a fucking flight risk. Are you kidding me?
I know.
Don't they brag about having 17 passports and you'll never find me? I mean, hasn't there video of him saying that?
I hope they bring it out. The Tates have remained in federal detention center in Miami since making a brief court appearance two days after their July 18 arrests. Their attorneys have argued that the Tate's high profile makes it nearly impossible for them to flee. Right. And that they regularly post updates about their locations on social media. The Tates have become among the world's most polarizing Internet personalities with their promotion of wealth, male dominance, even though they have their little khakis, their bloom when they got arrested, their cute little bloom clue, little bloom's male dominance and misogyny through their social media empire. The new allegations are the latest in the Tate's long running international legal saga spanning the U.S. britain and Romania. According to U.S. attorney's office filing, the Tate should be detained pending their extradition hearing because they cannot overcome the strong presumption against bail in international extradition cases.
Yeah, that and they're going to run. They're here. They have to be extradited because they fled another country. Like what are you, right?
What are you doing?
The serious pending UK charges involving human trafficking and violent rapes and assaults against multiple victims, along with allegations in Romania that the Tates attempted to intimidate witnesses, it presents a clear public safety concern. This is what prosecutors are saying. I agree. While prosecutors call the brothers a flight risk and so does Dana Goldberg, their attorney said that they have proved that they are not by complying with all pretrial restrictions in Romania where they are accused of luring women for sexual exploitation.
They left. They fled Romania.
Mm, The UK has until mid September to provide evidence to the State Department to support extradition. Meaning the brothers could spend months in federal detention center in Miami before the proceedings are resolved. This is what the defense motion says. No date, by the way, has been set for an extradition hearing. They are being held in a very special unit for, their own protection. Of course they are. Because I'm sure people in their.
And he tweets from jail too, like I'm being treated, so I can't. I don't have phones or anything. And I probably. But you're on Twitter, okay? yeah. So fuck those guys. I hope they stay in jail. For a really, really long time while they're here. And then I hope they get extradited and go back to jail and stay in the jail there until they die. Yeah, that's my hope for these brothers. all right, everybody, we have to take a quick break. Be back with Heather Cox Richardson. And then the good news on the other side of that, stick around. We'll be right back after these messages.
We'll be right back.
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Welcome to the Breakdown. I'm, Alison Gill, host of the
Daily Beans Podcast, and I'm very excited today.
Please welcome, my guest. She's an historian, author, professor. She calls herself a budding curmudgeon. She studies the contrast between image and reality in the United States, especially as it relates to politics. Please welcome Heather Cox Richardson, the one, the only. How are you doing, Heather?
Good, except I think I'm past budding and into full fledged at this point. Hey, and congratulations on the name change.
Oh, thank you, Paul.
I was really glad to see that because I understand why you did Mulla. She wrote and all that, but it just feels like that's, you've grown way beyond that. So I was really happy to see that.
Thank you very much. Yeah, it's a podcast that ended in 2020. but I was kind of, I felt like I was always hiding behind that name. and, it felt safe. but I kind of just wanted to start using my name and everybody called me by my name.
But first of all, thank you so
much for having me join and be a part of your incredible project called 250 to 250, which is, I believe a celebration of the anniversary of the Declaration of independence.
And it's 251 minute videos.
It's like Schoolhouse Rock for the modern age. Right. We're learning all about our history, which
I think is so important right now,
considering everything this regime is doing to whitewash history and bury it by taking things out of museums and putting warning
signs in front of them.
we just had, unfortunately, reluctantly, Judge Mehta dismissed one of the final cases of the January 6 attack on the Capitol when he dismissed, the seditious
conspiracy charges against the Oath Keepers, which
was a very hard fought case of
this whitewashing of history.
And you just, you come and punch it in the face with your 250 to 250. Talk a little bit about that and why you wanted to put that together.
So isn't it fun? Didn't it turn out well, you know, it's one of those things that there was, you know, it's been on the table for a long time that I wanted to do really short videos. And, you know, my team started developing what were essentially really short courses in American history. They were a series of ten 3 minute videos, but even still, that's, you know, longer than I had wanted. And we had this idea to emulate the bicentennial minutes from 1976. And the thing about it is that we got the idea and it was really thanks to this wonderful comms person I had hired. And she was like, you Gotta do something. And she kept at us. And the thing about it is, they are so freaking much work. The most you can put in them is 124 words. And they have to go through. We have, you know, history PhDs writing them as well as me. And then they have to go through copy editors, and then they have to go through editors. And then only then do they go to the people again with doctorates who get the assets for them, and then they go to the video editors. And the fun thing about it has been what we wanted to do was to call attention to moments when people had overcome adversity. Not just to the adversity, but overcoming the adversity. So the idea is to look at things like the Tulsa riots, the race massacre in Tulsa, and talk about what came out of it, rather than what just focusing on that itself. So we wanted to give a picture that was realistic, that also emphasized the ability of individual Americans to change the future. And then, you know, so, you know, it was a great philosophical idea, and then it was an ungodly amount of work. And then, what has transpired is so many people have helped us out. It has become almost, you know, this community project. And it is so much fun. Cause I don't actually know. I make suggestions for who they should ask to narrate the scripts, but I don't actually know who they get. That's not my department. And I'll be sitting here. Yesterday, I was sitting here at my computer, and Fort Mose came on. And it was a guy that I went to high school and college with who now works there. And I had suggested him literally months ago. And I'm like, chip. Chip. Hi, Chip. You know, it was really fun. And you've done one, and, you know, everybody's wanted in, and it's just been. It's been such a fun project. I'm gonna be so sad when they're, over.
But they will live forever on the Internet, which is the great part of it. I did the Palmer Raids. a mob is a mob, et cetera. whether it's the government or whether it's criminals. but I think of when I was asked to do 250 to 250, I was reminded of when you and I, and Lee McGowan and I think JoJo and, a couple of other people all met. we were at the White House for the very final Joe, Biden, I think Christmas celebration. I think it might have been a holiday party. and he invited us all to the White House. And we were standing there together, and you put your hand on my shoulder, and you're like, now we have to start. Now is when the real work starts. We have to join forces. We got to work together. We got to get the word out, and keep pounding the pavement, so to speak. And so when I was, you know, when you asked, if I would do the 250 to 250, I was like. Like, this is exactly what she was talking about. So I just wanted to, first of all, thank you for, letting me be part of that, and thank you for doing it. I think it's really incredible and inspired, especially now we have so not just this regime trying to whitewash history, but it seems like the powers that be, maybe the wealthy, maybe the oligarchs, are doing their best to divide the opposition party, which at this point in our history, is the Democratic Party. I see all the media talking about a war, inside the party, a rift. But the reality I'm seeing is, like, when Francesca Hong lost to Crowley, for example, she said, all right, let's unite and let's get to work and let's beat the Republic. I see it in Maine, with, Troy Jackson, everybody who was a Platner voter, getting behind, solidly behind the Democrat. I see it with Al Sayed in Michigan. See it with, establishment Dems, quote, unquote. The fact that we have the term establishment Democrats, it just feels like there's a lot of money being spent to make us think we're warring with each other when I actually don't see it happening.
So it may be money, for sure. It also seems to me that it is a reflection of the fact so many people are stuck in the rhetorical mode that was established, really, in the 1990s from the Republican Party, sort of insisting that the Democrats were always in disarray and so on. And that was very much a rhetorical project. And before we can even get about talking to divisions in the Democratic Party, I have a question for you. This whole idea of Democratic socialism and the idea that that's somehow radical and communist, tell me where the daylight is between them and those that are being called establishment Democrats.
there's no daylight between the Democratic Socialist Party's platform and what 80% of Americans want. When I watched your video about the 1952 Republican Eisenhower platform and how radically socialist it seemed at the time, it sort of dawned on me that the Overton Window has always kind of been in this one place. And People just spend a lot of money to. To move people around it and away from it, in order to retain power. Because, you know, if we get what we want and what we've always wanted, what Americans have always wanted, whether you call it Democratic socialism, whether you call it Democratic Party, whether you call it the Republican Party, everything we've always wanted has been right there. But everything we want is very bad for the oligarchs.
Yeah. And I would put it a little bit differently. I would make the argument that where not just Democrats and not just Independents, but also where a lot of Republicans stand right now is essentially on either Eisenhower or FDR's platforms. I mean, ironically, the person who is really advocating a socialist approach to the United States right now is Donald Trump, who's taking over businesses. But before we even go there, when we think about where we are now politically, I get a lot less worried about this idea that the Democrats are badly divided and all that sort of thing, which, as I say, is really, really kind of lazy. It's where we learn. It's language we learned 30 years ago, 35 years ago, when, in fact, what I see is something that we saw in the 1850s and the 1890s and again in the late 1920s, early 1930s, and that's that, people across the political spectrum recognize that the system, as it has been now for two generations, has really screwed them all up. The American government has not been working for the American people. And so what you are seeing is not socialism, which, again, there's this real fuzziness around this word in America, and there shouldn't be. Socialism is part of a philosophical, political and economic system that calls for the public ownership through the government, of the means of production. That is, the government's gonna take over the factories and the fields and so on and tell people how to work. And as I said, the only person doing that in the United States right now is Donald Trump. So if you put aside actual socialism, which really nobody in any position of power is advocating, what you are seeing is people across the political spectrum tossing up new ideas for how they can get the things that, as you say, most people want. Universal health care, good education, clean air and water, addressing climate change, all these things that people have liked and wanted since World War II that Trump is systematically tearing apart. And so, you know, I don't think the Democrats are divided. I think, in contrast, they have an embarrassment of riches, a whole bunch of new ideas. Some are good, some aren't so good. But that's where we come in. We have to throw our weight behind the things that we care about.
An embarrassment. I'm writing this down, by the way, in case anyone's wondering what I'm distracted by. I take notes when I talk to historians, but that's, what I'm doing over here, and I'm writing that down.
Well, while you're writing, can I throw something else out at you?
Because, you know, I'm working on a
new book, and there is this idea that there has been a juggernaut of the radical right taking over the country, really, since the 1950s, but taking off with Reagan. And in this moment, this particular moment, you know, August 2026, I am reminded of what happened to the Republican Party after Nixon resigned in early August twenty. I, mean, it was 1974. There was, of course, a midterm election coming up in that year. And in that midterm election, the Democr Democrats flipped 49 seats in the House of Representatives and five in the Senate. They went ahead and passed a ton. And the Republicans were also less radical. They were much more moderate. They passed a whole slew of new legislation. Of course, there was still a Republican in office with Gerald Ford. But then when Jimmy Carter is elected in 76, there's this whole slew of new legislation to protect the environment, to expand the rights of women and racial minorities and then gender minorities. There is this moment that really says, hey, we can do this. And when we think about the trajectory, from Reagan forward, I think it's a mistake to push it all the way back into the 1950s. In fact, what we should do is recognize that Reagan was a backlash to the American people, saying, hey, this is what we really want, and we can get there again. And, of course, we got this midterm staring at us. Us.
Yeah. Maybe we'll get 49 seats in the House and five in the Senate, which is good, because we have to have one extra to make up for Fetterman's vote on some of these issues. let's, talk a little bit about the elections. What you see happening in the midterms. I know a lot of people are very worried. there's a lot of, fear out there about what Donald Trump could do to try to interfere with or inhibit, the elections, maybe seize voting machines or put, federal agents at polling stations in order to just physically try to just, stop. Suppress the vote.
What do you see?
I think everyone just vote. Do everything you can to vote and do everything you can to help other people vote. But what do you say about people who are worried about what Donald Trump may or may not do.
So I'm not even at the election yet. I am extremely concerned about the ground between now and the elections. And it's a mistake at this point to wait for November to start reacting. I think that here's my read on it. I think if you look at the popularity of the Trump administration, you see it's hovering in the low 30s, 30% job approval ratings, about an average of about 33% right now. That's abysmally low. That's the numbers that he was at after the January insurrection and that Nixon was at during the very last days of the Watergate crisis, right before he resigned. So you can see as this popularity is plummeting, I think members of the Trump administration and his allies grabbing, first of all, as much money as they possibly can. I mean, these federal contracts, I feel like when we dig into these federal contracts, it's just gonna be horrific at the rate they've been spending money. But then also, I think they are grabbing as much ideological ground as they can. So, for example, the crackdown on Immig and the ways in which they are really amping up the idea of taking immigrants, tossing them into detention, again, very large federal contracts for that, and then shipping them sometimes to third countries, I mean, that is a huge scandal. There is also the degree to which RFK Jr, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, has been pushing his anti vax stance even as measles is spreading across the country. There is the attempt, I think, of people like Secretary of State Marco Rubio to push his right wing version of American foreign policy across Latin America and now into Greenland. But I don't think we're paying enough attention to Latin America. It seems very clear that we are again shoveling money toward right wing regimes there. And you're seeing all this attempt to burrow their ideology into the American government, no matter what happens. But here's the other piece that I think I'd love to hear from you about, is that the other thing that they are doing doing is trying as hard as they can to dismantle the idea of there being any oversight of this regime, which suggests to me they know and are very clear that they've broken the law. So we have on the one hand the idea that as soon as he got into office, Todd Blanche went ahead and said, we're gonna change this memo from the Department of Justice to say that the President can protect his conversations with everybody, not just with members of the executive branch under the idea of executive privilege, but also with any private citize. Oh, come on. That's just ridiculous.
Right?
But then the one that really bothers me, is that, and this I feel like has not gotten enough attention, is the fact that the Treasury Department announced earlier this week that it would no longer keep the registry that Congress required. Required through the Corporate Transparency act of 2021, passed by a large bipartisan majority in Congress and repassed over Trump's veto. And that's the one forces people to identify, who owns a, shell company because the US had been the money laundering capital of the world. As much as $2 trillion of money laundered through the US between 2016 and, about five years after that. And why are they doing that? And I think you and I both have some suspicions as to why. But the fact that Trump also doesn't want anyone to look at his tax returns since before May year. I mean, come on. They're basically just saying, we've broken a lot of laws here, folks, but look the other way because we're not going to ever let you get into the kind of power that you would need to have in order to put us behind bars. And that's why I'm worried about the midterms.
M. Yeah, it's going to take a lot, actually, to unwind all this, once we get power back in the White House, much longer than it took to unwind what he did in the first place term, that he had. But, yeah, we talk about dismantling oversight. you know, you mentioned the executive order that expands executive privilege, to, sorry, the Office of Legal Counsel memo. That'll be tossed into the trash, I'm sure, once we get reasonable Attorney General in there. But that is specifically, you know, not just to trample oversight, but to make sure that when we take Congress back one or both houses and we want to conduct oversight, that everyone who Donald Trump has ever spoken to is going to be able to claim executive privilege. and this is one of the things that took so long in the Merrick GARLAND Investigation of January 6th. And Donald Trump, a lot of people thought that he just twiddled his thumbs and didn't do anything. But what he was actually doing was suing 14 recalcitrant witnesses who were claiming executive privilege. And he took them to court to compel their testimony and to have the court order them that executive privilege doesn't count for you in this particular, area, which he did, and he won. And then he got the testimony of his 14 key witnesses that he couldn't have brought a case without. But that took a year because the courts were so backed up because of COVID And now our courts are backed up, and I think by design, with thousands of habeas petitions. since the Supreme Court has said you no longer can have a nationwide injunction, every single individual has to file a habeas petition in the jurisdiction that they're in, which has completely shattered the court system as well. Thousands and thousands of those cases. The minute he got into office, he fired all but two of the inspectors general, to get rid of that, sort of oversight. He dismantled the national security apparatus, and yet he claims national security. He cries national security when he's trying to get anything done in court. he also. Let's see, the FinCEN thing is big.
We just had a story that Capitol
One, who only talked about this because they were sued by Donald Trump, shut down 300 of his bank accounts or so because of money laundering. So, you know, you talk about America being the money laundering capital of the world. Trump was the money laundering king of America. What bank loses, kicks out millions of dollars in business. you know, who does that unless there's some real big problem. But those FinCEN, SARS, that have to be filed with the government no longer. You don't to do that anymore. Also, you can, act as a foreign agent, an agent for a foreign government without having charges brought against you. They've dismantled that office, so they're completely tearing down the government. we don't even have to get
into what Doge did, but they're making
it a thousand times more difficult to build back and to fix.
Yes. And you're listing these things. and just so people are clear, FinCEN is the financial Crimes Enforcement network. And SARS are suspicious activity reports that a government, that a bank, I'm sorry, has to report if it believes that there's suspicious activity in a bank account. and yet you list all those things and you think, this is ridiculous. We're a democracy. Nobody likes this. There's no MAGA Republican out there who's gonna say, oh, that's a great idea. Let's just let all these people work.
Walk.
And the thing that I always come down to when we start to list all this is this is the time for the American people to say, enough. And that doesn't mean that we're going to agree on a whole slew of things. Although, as we started out by saying, a lot of the Things that we like are actually very, very widely shared. You know, low hanging fruit to go after. Healthcare, for example, also low hanging fruit to go after to higher taxes on the wealthy. And the thing that I worry about is this dumpster fire that you were describing. At the same time that we are watching the administration cease to respect the rule of law and spend money like freaking water. Because when all this comes crashing down, as it must, there aren't gonna be a lot of options, without a pretty dramatic reworking of American society. And that you feels very much to me like a, ah, New Deal moment, New Deal type moment that came out of the Depression. But if that's the case, it's gonna be so important for Americans who care about preserving democracy to hold the guardrails and say, we gotta have the rule of law, everybody's gotta pay their fair share and we gotta take care of each other. Those basic principles that the, FDR administration put into effect. Hey, and today on, you know, today's the anniversary of the Social Security Act. Today was the day it was signed. And that, you know, we gotta go back to those and hold fast to those. Because when the dumpster fire really catches, the thing that often happens is we are vulnerable to takeover from another country or we are vulnerable to the rise of a dictator. And you know, that would be awfully easy at this point to have someone come in and say, oh, I can fix this, and have people say, well, you can't do worse than where we've been. But somebody could.
Somebody could, yeah.
Especially if they had a little iota of competence. so what do we do when we say enough?
what do we do?
What does the everyday citizen do? And are we doing it? I mean, you know, we've had, we've logged three, historical record breaking, single day protests. for example, we've, you know, we've, we're seeing incredible numbers and turnout in elections and primaries and our special elections that we've had over the last year and a half, we've been winning them by like 10, 12 points. Are we saying, are we doing it? Are we there?
What else do we need to.
I think we are on track to do it, but we need all hands on deck. And not just for this November, for the next several years. And the way we need to do that is to remember that there are elections every day in America. And you start locally, your school board, your town meeting, your city government, all of those things, and then you move to the state level and remember that not only everyone tends to focus on, the House of representatives and the U.S. senate. But in fact, remember, there are state houses all across this country with elections coming up this November. And those matter a lot. And people, in this case Democrats, but people who care about preserving democracy need to control those in 2030, because that's when we're going to redistrict. And right now, the way the Republicans have maintained their majority in the House of Representatives is by skewing those House districts so dramatically, they have far greater representation than, in fact, people voted for. And what we want there is not maps that are skewed toward the Democrats. We want fair maps. So you focus on the state houses, then you focus on the, Senate and the House of Representatives. And of course at the state level, at state supreme, courts, those are often elected positions and we gotta call every level of government out. But then it's not always about politics. Some of it is about creating a community where authoritarianism can't thrive. And that's finding your people and having fun with them. You know, including people making people feel as if they are not gonna turn on their neighbors. And one of the things that I often see is people saying, oh, well, not enough people are on the streets and so on. There's a lot of organizing now that is going on in ways we can't see. And I would argue, Alison, that what you just identified between you and me and Jojo from jurors and all the people that, you know, Joyce White V. And, you know, all the people who show up for each other's podcasts, for example, we are part of that community and part of spreading fact based information. And that, at the end of the day, is what will bring down an authoritarian regime.
Heck, yeah, I'll high five. I'll take part in that any day. I always said the way Biden described the economy shouldn't be top down, it should be bottom up and out, is how politics should work to do. Everyone focuses on Senate House, da, da, da. But the real where the rubber meets the road is in your local politics. I'm all for, I want big, bold changes. I think we need to add four seats to the Supreme Court so that we can dilute that terrible vote that's there right now. Because any law we pass for fair maps is just going to be gutted, by the Supreme Court. So I'm very much like, kind of in my little corner, like, fighting my little fights here. but I, you know, I really appreciate you coming on and speaking, with me today because like you said, I think that's part of it. I think that's part of us saying enough.
So I'm going to one up you on the Supreme Court. Yeah, I agree with you. We should have as many seats on the Supreme Court as we have districts. We have 13 districts. We should have 13 Supreme Court justices.
And of course, I also want seniority, senior, status and ethics rules. So there's other things.
That's good.
Well, but I would go before I got to that even. Aren't there a couple of justices on there that have really, really run afoul of, ethics rules that seem to me to be well within reach of impeachment? Because, you know, you shouldn't be taking, ah, what's it called, a camper, and expensive trips and all that sort of thing from somebody whose cases then show up in front of your court. That's just bonkers. Right?
Especially if you don't pay taxes on it. but yeah, 67 votes to remove after impeachment. 60 votes with a filibuster to add seats to the Supreme Court. So I'm like, what's the easier one? But you can impeach without removing. We did it to Trump twice, but it just doesn't feel like the political capital is there anymore.
Well, there isn't right now in that, Congress. But that's where we come in, right? We make the pressure such that at the very least somebody says, you know what, it's not worth it to me. I'm gonna retire and go get into that camper and let the world turn without me. That's also another option.
We need the Senate then, to block any nominations, any and all nominations to the Supreme Court by Donald Trump until we can get a Democrat in the
White House that's 100%. I mean, unless he has some great conversion and actually appoints somebody decent. But no, these are ideologues. These are political actors. And did you see Todd Blanche was actually the Attorney General of the United Just. I know what you're going to say. He just endorsed. Endorsed somebody for running for office.
Yeah, I know.
Like what Hatch Act? You know, when I was working at the Department of Veterans affairs and doing a podcast about Mueller at night, I hired a lawyer to help me make sure that I didn't even come close to the line of crossing, violating the Hatch act or any ethics rules. and so here they just are campaigning from their political purchase. It's just, I'm re watching the West Wing right now, and I think it's ah, hilarious that President Bartlett doesn't make donor calls from the White House. He goes to the. Well, he does it from the residents, which is still kind of the White House, but he's got a very strict rule about that. And here we are just blowing through all the norms, you know, every day.
I think we do have to accept, and I think too many people in the have been recalcitrant to say it is, that this is a fascist government. We are not yet a fascist country, because we are still pushing back against that. But they have no intention of restoring democracy. And we need to call that out, because democracy doesn't mean that we're all gonna agree. Just the opposite. We need to have at least two political parties. We need to have people disagreeing, because that's how you move and grow. But if, these guys stay in power, that's gone. And the game for all of us right now, regardless of your political affiliation, is to get rid of the fascists in our political system. And fascism is, again, an idea of a political system in which a few people are better than others and have the right to rule. And they do so by taking away civil rights and welding all the people into one group that they then direct against their enemies, which is exactly what you can see going on. And they take pieces of private enterprise and direct how private businesses will operate. Again, something the White House is doing. We need to recognize that if we don't get those people out of power, American democracy will end. And then it's not gonna matter whether you're a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent, because we will all be equally in trouble. That being said, I think people have woken up in a way that they certainly hadn't before 20, 2016. Yeah, I agree.
I think a lot of it has to do with the overreach. I think, that that's been happening with this regime. They thought everyone would love the mass deportations, but they didn't. We saw that historically with the Fugitive Slave act, that was a huge overreach. And it had to do with people coming in and snatching your neighbors away. And, I think it was Jelani Cobb, who's a professor, a history professor, was saying, yeah, when I taught that in the classroom, everyone's like, oh, the abolitionists were against it. And he's like, no, everyone against that. And I think that we see that here, and I think it has a
lot to do with this overreach that,
I don't know, maybe Stephen Miller, turns out to be A bad advisor to a leader who knew. But, anyway, I just wanted to thank you so much again for coming on and talking to me, and sharing, your project 250 to 250 with me. It was an honor to be able to do that. Is there anything else you want to leave, a message you want to send before we get out of here? To everyone who's listening?
Just keep the faith. Because, you know, you think about the number of times when it seemed like America was done or that different groups of people were done and there would be no way forward. And, you know, people always have found a way and now we have the extraordinary privilege of being allowed to find it for ourselves. So, you know, just get out there and do it and with any luck, you know, have a little fun with it because what do we got to lose?
Yeah, we fight, during the day so we can have some joy at night. Right? Thank you so much, my friend. It's always good to see you. I hope I see you again soon. and thanks to everybody who has joined us today for this chat. I, appreciate your time and thanks for watching the breakdown. Thank you, Heather. Always a pleasure.
Always a pleasure, Alison.
Bye.
Everybody, everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news.
Good news, everyone. And good news, everyone. Good news.
Boy, do we need your good news this week. Please flood the zone with sunshine. Send it all to us dailybeanspot.com click on contact. Even if you just want to say hi. Maybe your good news is small. Maybe it's from 40 years ago. Maybe it's something big that happened to you 10 years ago and you just never got a chance to tell anybody. Let us know. We want to hear about it. Send it all to us. You can even give shout outs if you want. Just write in and give a shout out to your spouse or yourself or a non profit or a small business, that you, that you know, that could use a boost in your area. a government program that's helped you or a loved one, a good trouble suggestion, your favorite street joke, anything. Send it to us dailybeanspod.com click on contact. Just attach a photo or two. You can actually attach two photos. It, can be your pet, it can be an adoptable pet in your area, a random animal on the Internet. we have so many good dog photos that we're going to be showing you over on Beans Talk today. I'm really excited about it because we had, in California, we had the ugliest dog in the world contest and these babies are amazing. but anything at all, send it to Us Daily. Beanspod.com click on Contact. First up is your good trouble. And good trouble is from anonymous pronouns he and him. Today this seems worthy of a good trouble. I read about this and thought it would be a good way to get a shot in on douche Elon. I've done this. I'm, I'm, I've done this. And I recommend everyone else do it too. This is from Cards against humanity. Cards Against Humanity.com Elon has no friends. Nine years ago, 150,000 people paid Cards Against Humanity $15 to protect a pristine parcel of land on the US Mexico border from racist billionaire Donald Trump's stupid wall. I was part of those 150,000 people, by the way. Two years ago we discovered that an even richer, more racist billionaire, Elon Musk, snuck up on us from behind and completely the land with gravel, tractors and space garbage. Last year we took Musk's ass to court. After battling his team of expensive jizz gargling lawyers, we eventually got him to admit on the record that his company did in fact up our land, which is illegal. Then he packed up his space garbage and left. That brings us to today. Our land is now surrounded by a town called Starbase.
Oh my God.
A corporate hellscape littered with broken rockets and ugly mansions for Musk's shit eating executives. What a tragic fate for our beautiful parcel where wild horses once galloped freely in the Texas moonlight. But hope is not lost. We still have our rights as proud Texas land owners owners. We can build something on our land. Something that will annoy Elon Musk. Something that will make him wonder for a brief moment. Wait. Am I a sad little bitch with no friends? Today we're announcing the official Elon Musk is a sad little bitch with no friends monument design committee. For just $10, you can join a movement of like minded people working together to force a moment of introspection upon the world's richest ugliest little bitch. Joining the committee isn't the only way to pitch in. You can can also help help us with Musk by getting one of our new expansion packs. 10% of all the profits will go directly toward the monument. Pet tax is my little buddy Toby. His breed isn't hard to guess, but his favorite activity might be. Oh, look at baby. That's a sw. Is that a Boston?
Looks like.
I think so.
So I have joined this committee to erect a monument that Elon Musk is a sad little with no friends. I. I put my 10 bucks in. But I also am one of the 150,000 landowners of this original parcel Texas land. So this is awesome. This is a great good trouble. Thank you anonymous for sending it in.
Thank you. And next up from Barbara, pronounce she and her pronunciation correction. And I just read through this quickly and I think I'm about to fuck it up again. Hello, beansies. Minnesotan here. FYI, Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Lisa demuth's name rhymes with Joe Namitz.
Oh, Lisa Dennis.
Okay.
Like Namath Damith.
There we go. Thank you for that, Lisa Daymoths.
All right.
Yeah, thank you. Rhymes with Joe Namus. Awesome. Love the pod. My pod pet tax is this beautiful possum who decided to take up residence in the engine compartment of my boyfriend's van. Not to worry. It was captured in a live trap and released humanely in a safe place. Oh, my God. Look at that face.
Look at the face.
You be here. I'm glad he got out of there. Demis. Okay, well, now we know.
Yeah.
Thanks very much. From Sam. Pronouns she and her dear beloved beans Queens. Thank you for sharing a link to the spoke animal rescue shelter I just donated in honor of our recently deceased Kitty Jr, who survived a devastating house fire in 2016 and then graced our lives for 10 more wonderful years. While my partner and I were in shock in the fire's aftermath and not knowing if he'd seen survived, a friend put out live traps and monitored the ruined house site that day. She brought junior back. She brought junior back to us. And it taught me that the brightest lights can come in the middle of the worst times. Junior repaid her kindness by being the world's best medicine cat, always right there to purr and support on rough days. Thank you all to the volunteers and friends in the world that responded to living beings in crisis, donating they time and love.
Oh, so sweet. Look at those toe beans.
Sweet, sweet orange baby.
So sweet. Next from Cynthia pronouns, she and her. On Friday's show, AG asked for more info on my ancestor Ambrose Mullins. Yes, we did. He does look like a prospector, but he's actually born and raised in central Appalachia in Virginia. It's the area where Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky meet.
Very cool. Was he a moonshiner? I don't know. He just looks like he's got some sort of cool old timey job.
I agree.
I love that picture of him too. It's just so great.
All right, you want to do the next one? Sure.
Next up, from Florence Pronoun. She and her most illustrious beans, Queens. Following on Friday's genealogy comment and welcome to Virginia. Let me introduce you to Virginia's crew, and I quote, to be a Virginian, either by birth, marriage, adoption, or even on one's mother's side, is an introduction to any state of the union, a passport to any foreign country, and a benediction from the Almighty God. I'm so much a Virginian that I am a member of the Potawomec tribe, pronounced Potomac.
Potomac.
Thank you. Potomac. I would have never thought that's how you say that. Thank you. The Potomac tribe, one of Virginia's most recently recognized tribes, still fighting for federal recognition. For, my pot pet tax, I submit a queen size quilt I finished this summer. It's made entirely from scraps and hand me down fabrics. I love to listen to y' all while I sew.
That's an amazing.
It's stunning quilt.
And I have to say, the symmetry pleases me and my OCD brain very, very much. Yeah, so that's incredible.
All right.
I hadn't heard the Virginians creed before the benediction from the almighty mighty God. Very big deal. All right, Chris. Pronouns, she and her. Look at this dog in the river. Good news, travelogue. I brought my doggo with me to Vermont for about three weeks. This place is my favorite on Earth. And I think it's safe to say that my girl Ruby Ray also loved her adventures in the Green Mountains. Look at this beautiful, so sweet little baby dog.
Thank you. All right, except for Anonymous. Pronouns he and him. Good day, AG and dg. Simon P. From Sydney here. I've recently moved back to Australia after living in the US for 20 years, and I've started noticing some subtle differences between our two societies. After rupturing a disc in my lower back, I went to my local hospital where the only thing I had to take out of my wallet was my Medicare card. As the nurse was scanning my card, I noticed a sign designating the types of people the hospital provides free care to. Not sure you would find the same signage in the US Sharing a picture of the sign as well as a photo of my awesome staffie. Sky. And the sign says, all people, abilities, cultures, genders, identities, languages, sexualities, welcome here. And that is a great sign. And oh my God, the staffie all wrapped up in the blankie.
How he's got to keep. I got to tell you. Anonymous, that sign. We had those signs up in the VA under the Obama and Biden administration.
I'd love to hear that.
We did.
We had them all over. They're not there now. and they weren't there under Trump 1 0.
Yeah.
but they'll be back. They'll be back.
I believe so, too.
Thank you, everybody, for your incredible good news. Please send it to us. Overwhelm us with good news. Flood us with your good news dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. I'm super excited about what's going on in Albuquerque in October.
You are so sweet. So am I. And if we have any listeners that are new or just some people that have missed this, the Southwest Funny Fest is coming. Coming back to Albuquerque on October 9th. It's a Friday night this year. We were on hiatus for six years after Covid, while I was trying to figure out my career and how to bring this back to Albuquerque. And we figured it out. We have a lineup of four incredible LGBTQ comedians. part of the proceeds will help benefit Equality New Mexico. So if you want to go, you think about going, go get it now. Go get your tickets now. Get your hotel now, if you don't live there, because it is the last weekend of the book. So right now, we are doing really well in the theater, though we already have about 400 tickets sold for the event. And I just know it's going to be a sellout. So don't sleep on this, because I don't want you to wake up the night before and say, oh, I'll just go for the box office. You won't. So go to danagoldberg.com, hit my tour schedule. You can scan down to October 9th, and it'll take you right to the website. You can get tickets there. And I just. I look forward to seeing everyone. It's going to be an amazing night of community and joy.
And I will be there. I'm going to be due in an hour, and I'm really, really okay.
But I will be there.
I will be there. I might pop on stage and say hi, maybe make a two minute announcement, but, yeah, my hour is from 2012. You don't want it.
it's dated, but, I'm so excited to just be there and support this and support you and support equality. Yeah, it's going to be incredible. These comedians, I vouch for each and every one of them. They're amazing. Amazing. You're gonna laugh until you can't even breathe. Hopefully laughing to you, Pete. Precise, precise mundo. All right, everybody, we're gonna head over, record the Beans Talk. You definitely want to watch Beans Talk today. You definitely don't want to miss it. and 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. 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 Joel Reeder 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 Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information please visit msw media.com msw media.