Friday, September 4, 2026 Today, the Missouri Supreme Court has paused the Republican gerrymander netting Democrats 1 seat this November; ICE agent Christian Castro has been federally charged with false statements over his shooting of Sosa-Celis in Minnesota but not the actual shooting because the Justice Department blocked that; a federal judge has blocked Trump’s new order limiting birthright citizenship; ICE plans to spend $5M creating a national voter database; Speaker Johnson has canceled House votes for the next two weeks after Democrats propose a new Epstein Files discharge petition; the House has rejected Mike Johnson's amendment to keep the Supreme Court at 9 Justices; the Pentagon has suspended the testosterone testing program but for worse reasons than you think; a whistleblower says ICE skipped basic standards in a rush to recruit; Mitch McConnell’s staff says they hope he’ll return to the Senate September 14th; Maria Bartiromo is leaving Fox News effective immediately; the trailblazing journalist and activist Gloria Steinem has died at 92; plus Allison delivers your Good News.
Friday, September 4, 2026
Today, the Missouri Supreme Court has paused the Republican gerrymander netting Democrats 1 seat this November; ICE agent Christian Castro has been federally charged with false statements over his shooting of Sosa-Celis in Minnesota but not the actual shooting because the Justice Department blocked that; a federal judge has blocked Trump’s new order limiting birthright citizenship; ICE plans to spend $5M creating a national voter database; Speaker Johnson has canceled House votes for the next two weeks after Democrats propose a new Epstein Files discharge petition; the House has rejected Mike Johnson's amendment to keep the Supreme Court at 9 Justices; the Pentagon has suspended the testosterone testing program but for worse reasons than you think; a whistleblower says ICE skipped basic standards in a rush to recruit; Mitch McConnell’s staff says they hope he’ll return to the Senate September 14th; Maria Bartiromo is leaving Fox News effective immediately; the trailblazing journalist and activist Gloria Steinem has died at 92; plus Allison delivers your Good News.
Thank You, IQBAR
Text DAILYBEANS to 64000 to get 20% off all IQBAR products, plus FREE shipping. Message and data rates may apply.
Blue Wave Nation | https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mswbluewave
The Trump Epstein Memorial Bookmobile
The Daily Beans is proud to partner with Miles Taylor and our friends at DEFIANCE.org For a limited time, members of the Daily Beans community can receive a FREE 3-month full membership to DEFIANCE.org and gain access to one of the fastest-growing pro-democracy movements in America. Join here: https://www.defiance.org/beans
Diamond Dames - Subscribe here: Diamond Dames - A Ted Lasso Podcast
Diamond Dames - YouTube playlist
Guest: John Fugelsang
The John Fugelsan Show Sirius XM Progress 127 Weekdays at 12 PM ET
The John Fugelsang Podcast, John Fugelsang|Substack, @johnfugelsang|Bluesky, @JohnFugelsang|Twitter
Separation of Church and Hate by John Fugelsang
The Latest Breakdown→ The Breakdown | Trump DOJ Nears Contempt Over Epstein Cover-Up
Stories
Missouri Supreme Court pauses GOP gerrymander, likely netting Democrats 1 House seat | POLITICO
ICE agent charged with lying about shooting Venezuelan man during crackdown | ABC News
House rejects GOP constitutional amendment to limit Supreme Court to 9 justices
| CBS News
ICE Plans to Pay $5 Million to Create National Voting Database | WIRED
ICE Skipped Basic Checks in Rush for Recruits, Whistle-Blower Says | The New York Times
US judge blocks Trump's newest order limiting birthright citizenship | Reuters
Fox News parts ways with Maria Bartiromo | NBC News
Good Trouble
Help staff your local polling place - Power The Polls
→Hands Off Our Vote! 2026 Toolkit | Indivisible
→Operation Take Up Space - Commondefense.us/otus
→Voter Registration Deadlines - Vote.org
→Voter Registration Volunteer Opportunities · Mobilize
→Helpline Orientation- Spanish Speakers Needed! · VoteRiders
→Help save Texas from Ken Paxton! →NO HATE in WA State
→Stand With Minnesota →iceout.org
Good News
secondtermmadness.com
IMAB Monthly Meeting | Indivisible
Oct 9 -Southwest Funny Fest:
Dana Goldberg's Southwest FunnyFest - City of Albuquerque -Email Dana@DanaGoldberg.com for sponsorship information
Tickets for Dana Goldberg: Outrageous - Sep 23 - Den Theater - Chicago
→Share your Good News & Good Trouble - The Daily Beans
→Beans Talk audio -beans-talk.simplecast.com
Subscribe to the MSW on YouTube - MSW Media - YouTube
Our Donation Links
The Trevor Project - trevorproject.org/beans
Blue Wave California - ActBlue.com/donate/msw-bwc
Donate to Public Citizen - https://citizen.org/beans/
National Security Counselors - Donate, WhistleblowerAid.org/beans
Donate to It Gets Better / The Daily Beans Fundraiser
Pathways to Citizenship - boomerang - pathways
Dana and The Daily Beans support of Human Rights Campaign ONE CAUSE HRC
The Daily Beans supports It Gets Better
Dr. Allison Gill - The Breakdown | Allison Gill, Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com - Bluesky, MSW & The Daily Beans Podcast @muellershewrote - Instagram, MSW Media - YouTube →Federal workers email AG - fedoath@pm.me
Dana Goldberg - Dana is on Patreon! At Dana’s Dugout, @dgcomedy - Bluesky, @dgcomedy - IG, Dana Goldberg - Facebook, DanaGoldberg.com
More from MSW Media - Shows, Cleanup On Aisle 45 pod, The Breakdown | Allison Gill
msw media. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Friday, September 4, 2026. Today, the Missouri Supreme Court has paused the Republican gerryman netting Democrats one seat this November. ICE agent Christian Castro has been federally charged with false statements over his shooting of Sosa sellers in Minnesota, but not the actual shooting, because the Justice Department blocked that. A federal judge has blocked Trump's new order limiting birthright citizenship. ICE plans to spend $5 million creating a national voter database. Speaker Johnson has canceled House votes for the next two weeks after Democrats propose a new Epstein files discharge petition. The House has rejected Mike Johnson's amendment to keep the Supreme Court at nine justices. The Pentagon has suspended the testosterone testing program, but for worse reasons than you think. A whistleblower says ICE skipped basic standards in a rush to recruit Mitch McConnell's staff says they hope he'll return to the Senate on September 14th. Maria Bartiromo has been fired, leaving Fox News effective immediately. And the trailblazing journalist and activist Gloria Steinem has died at 92. I'm your host, Alison Gill. Hey, everybody, we did it. We made it to Friday. Congratulations. That deserves a break. So we have Labor Day weekend, so I hope you all have a relaxing one and take some time for yourself. I'll be here on Monday. I'll be doing the breakdown on Sunday. But definitely, take some time for yourself. I will be. I'll be carving a big chunk of time out on Saturday for myself, so I'm looking forward to it. Today it's Fuglsang Friday, so John Fugelsang will join us later in the show. we're going to talk about the two most opposite things ever, Pete Hegseth and Gloria Steinem. So you want to stick around for that. Also, like I said, tune into the breakdown on Sunday at noon Pacific, 3 Eastern. First of all, I'm going to be speaking to the lawyer who represents the USPS whistleblower in the mail ballot portal situation. There was a hearing on the matter today, and I'll unwind how the Department of Justice is moving the goalposts. They were saying that, well, the rule hasn't been published yet, so you need to lift this day. Supreme Court. Well, now the rule's been published, they have a whole new argument. They're now arguing that the plaintiffs don't have standing because before you can sue in federal court, you have to first go to the Postal Regulatory Commission, which is a weird thing, but this happens in government. Like when I, sued the government for wrongful termination from the Department of Veterans Affairs. I first had to exhaust my grievance through the Administrative Veterans Affairs Department like an administrative law judge. That took two and a half years, the Merit Systems Protection Board. Then I was given a 90 day window if I wasn't successful there to sue in federal court. So that is their new argument. I don't think it's going to work in this particular case, but we'll see because just today Trump reappealed to the Supreme Court to lift the new bloc. Using this new argument, the Supreme Court has given the plaintiffs, the good guys, until Tuesday at 10am to respond to Trump's re appeal to the Supreme Court. Now, Judge Talwani during the hearing today said she's not going to take the whistleblower report into consideration because it's double hearsay, but she will take a different declaration in a different case in DC into account, one that presumably says this sort of the same things that the whistleblower said. And I'll tell you what I'm going to do about all this because I'm going to get involved myself and I'm going to do that Sunday, high noon Pacific time, 3pm Eastern. You can subscribe to muellershirote.com for free to get notified. But I'll also be putting the link up Sunday morning on my Blue sky feed. It's going to be a big show. So I'm looking forward to it. All right, everybody, we have a ton of news to get to. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right. We're going to start for a change with some really great news. I'm going to give you the compliment sandwich here of news. We're going to start good. We're going to end good. This is from Politico. Missouri's Supreme Court suspended a congressional map that state Republicans drew last year that would have netted the GOP an additional House seat, likely keeping the seat in Democratic hands in November. Now, the court ruled unanimously, unanimously on Thursday that a referendum petition organized by Democrats in the state to put the new congressional maps to a vote was incorrectly deemed insufficient by the Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins and ordered that the gerrymandered map be put to a vote in the fall. The court ruled that the new districts were effectively placed on hold in December when opponents submitted over 300,000 signatures seeking to put the map to a vote to the people. Now, voters will ultimately decide the fate of the new lines in November, but in the meantime, it cannot be in place for the midterms, meaning Representative Emmanuel Cleaver's original Kansas City based district will likely stay in Democrats hands this fall. Now of course the Republican Attorney general says they're immediately going to appeal to the Supreme Court. So that is still hanging out there. Next up From BBC A U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement agent has been charged with federal crimes for lying about the non fatal shooting of a Venezuelan migrant in Minnesota. Christian Castro, who was released from custody in Texas last week, faces federal charges relating to a shooting on January 14th. And that's according to the BBC's US media partner CBS. The Department of Homeland Security initially said Castro fired in self defense after being attacked by three Venezuelan illegal migrants with a shovel and a broom. Minnesota investigators alleged the agent fired through a closed door and shot the man in the leg. It is rare for the current Justice Department to accuse a federal agent of breaking the law on the job. The federal grand jury in Castro's case returned a six count indictment against him on Wednesday, according to US Media. Officials expect to make the indictment public once Castro is in custody. The charges against him come after the governor of Texas refused to extradite him to Minnesota, where he faces separate charges of assault and false reporting of a crime related to the shooting. Alfredo Alejandro Ahorna, that's the friend or who was with Julio Cesar Sosacellis that night and so Cecilis was shot in the leg and survived. They were originally charged with forcibly assaulting, resisting and impeding federal officers. But after surveillance video raised questions about that version of events, federal prosecutors investigated the officers. In February, ICE said two immigration agents may have made untruthful statements about the shooting and they were placed on administrative leaves. The charges against the migrants were dismissed with prosecutors citing newly discovered evidence and Castro was arrested in Texas in May and Minnesota's top prosecutor, Ellison asked him to be extradited to stand trial and filed a lawsuit last month seeking to compel the Texas governor to sign off on extradition. But he didn't and he let the clock run out and released him from jail and then mocked Ellison. But now he's federally arrested and guess who knows where he is. Attorney General Ellison but here's the thing. According to ProPublica, federal prosecutors in Minnesota had been preparing to charge Castro with deprivation of rights under color of law for the shooting. That's according to several people familiar. That's similar to the ones leveled against Minneapolis police officers accused in George Floyd's killing and they can carry hefty prison sentences. Late on Tuesday, Matthew Evans, the assistant U.S. attorney in Minnesota federal at the DOJ, the one in charge of the case told lawyers for sosacellas and other victims to prepare for Castro to be charged only with false statements. That's according to an email that he sent, and this email was reviewed by ProPublica. That charge is going to carry far less severe punishment. Quote, this is being directed by the main justice and the U.S. attorney. That's what Evans wrote in a remarkably candid email of internal deliberations. Quote, I objected in the strongest possible terms and fought it as hard as I could. It wasn't enough, so they stopped that part of it. Andy McCabe and I are going to discuss this in depth on this weekend's episode of the Unjustified podcast that comes out Sunday. All right. Let's see what Congress is up to. From abc. With government funding in the rear view, Speaker Johnson on Thursday canceled votes for the last two weeks of September, leaving just four days of legislative business between now and and the November 3rd midterm elections. A, reversal from Johnson's comments on the matter just a couple of days ago. The House is scheduled to return on September 14 for four days of legislative business, leaving on September 17 for six full weeks of campaigning ahead of the midterms. But earlier this week, the House passed a government funding bill through December 11, clearing the Speaker's top legislative priority ahead of the election. And in some amazing news from cbs, the Republican proposed constitutional amendment to limit the Supreme Court to nine justices. It failed in the House on Wednesday. It came up well short of the two thirds majority that was needed for adoption. The House voted 212 to 206 on this joint resolution to approve the amendment, which was proposed by Andy Biggs of Arizona, who's currently really, really lagging in the polls for governor of that state behind Katie Hobbs. Coming up here in November, the amendment would require that the Supreme Court of the United States shall be composed of nine justices, consisting of one chief justice and eight associate justices. Now I'm going to go over why this is such a big deal. I'm going to reveal the one Democrat who voted with Republicans, and I'm going to talk about why I think Johnson is ghosting the Hill early on today's episode of Beans Talk over on our, YouTube channel. That's our super amazing short video podcast. You should check it out. It's totally free. There is a link to it in the show notes, by the way, for ease of transportation to YouTube. Next up from CNN House Oversight Chair James Comer of Kentucky said Thursday that Mitch McConnell's staff told him they're hoping the senator who has had an extended absence from D.C. due to health issues, hoping he'll return when the Senate comes back into session on September 14th. That is 12 days from now. No, 10 days from now. Now, although he says he hasn't spoken to McConnell, Comer said he communicates regularly with the senator staff, as their offices often work together on matters for their state. Asked if McConnell is expected to come back at that time, Comer said, I expect that. I sure hope so. Quote, I've not talked to Leader McConnell. I've talked to his staff, many of whom are from my district originally, and they've all said it's their goal for Senator McConnell to be here when the Senate comes back. That's what Comer said. Now, Stephanie Penn, a spokesperson for McConnell's office, told CNN this Wednesday when asked if there's a date for his return. They said there's no scheduling announcements at this time. So, okay, do we take Comer's word for what the staff said? Do we take the staff? I mean, we're in Lazarus territory now, y'.
All.
McConnell spokesman David Popp on Thursday referred CNN to the office's latest comment. All right, let's talk about ice, which needs to be abolished, but Wired is reporting that in a bid to tackle alleged voter fraud, ICE is preparing to award a contract worth up to $5 million to a company that will create a massive national database of voters. ICE wants a list of voters. ICE first detailed what the contract would entail in a document published last week. The purpose of this acquisition is for the handling and secure delivery of publicly available voter registration files and voter history files to support homeland investigations, fraud detection, and data segmentation activities. In the document, ICE says that the agency will initially provide a list of specific states it wants to acquire public voter registration files from. Though the successful contractor would need to have the capability to obtain data from all 50 states, ICE is also seeking voting history data for each federal election specified by the government, including general primary runoff and special federal elections. They want to know. ICE wants to know who we voted for. Why would Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Why would a, Gestapo, a secret militarized police force, want to know who we all voted for? Now, ICE is seeking publicly available information from each state, which each have their own rules around how it's obtained. This would include voter registration, in many cases, voting history. Either could potentially include party affiliation, a move that experts believe will violate a right to privacy for U.S. voters. I feel violated. Is it because you want to target Democrats? Are we moving now? Are we making the move like we said, like we warned in 2024. Now, this document states that the successful contractor will not be asked to collect and share party affiliation data fields for voters. But that could change if explicitly directed in writing by the contracting officer. Yeah, but you're going to know who we voted for. That contracting officer is listed as Michael Royer, section chief at Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative unit within ice. Ice, dhs. And Royer didn't respond to a request for comment. Yeah. On Monday, the agency published an acquisition forecast document that revealed the ICE contract would be worth between 2 and 5 million dollars. The final contract is expected to be published next Monday and is likely to be awarded soon after, given that the term of the contract will expire on September 30th. So it's a couple, weeks. So you need this before September 30th. You need lists of voters and who we voted for before the midterm elections. Now, ICE's effort to create a national voter database is part of a much broader effort within DHS and the Trump administration to undermine trust in the upcoming midterm elections. States and courts have pushed back. DHS has already demanded states comply with its investigations. The agency has also said it would withhold emergency preparedness and counterterrorism funding from states who refuse to implement White House policies on elections. And the agency has gone after voters directly threatening to deport those suspected of voting illegally, even when they have no criminal convictions. Despite assertions from DHS and Trump, incidents of non citizens voting are vanishingly rare, with an investigation in Georgia this week finding very few examples. They claim there were tens of thousands. I think there were like a hundred since the nineties and from the times. In the wake of a hiring surge last summer, more on ice. An official in charge of evaluating new recruits to ICE issued a dire warning. The Trump administration, he wrote in a memo, was cutting corners, violating the law, and fast tracking unqualified, improperly vetted candidates into ICE's ranks, part of a dangerous move that exposed the agency and its law enforcement operations to grave national security risks. Citing an unprecedented lowering of standards, the career ICE official said that systemic breakdowns had allowed applicants to receive job offers before they passed basic fingerprint identity or credit checks and preliminary vetting processes. Political appointees had unjustly skirted background investigations and received national security eligibility. The official, a unit chief who directly oversaw more than 100 employees who evaluated thousands of ICE applicants, was so troubled by what he saw that he outlined these concerns not to his superiors, but in a formal whistleblower complaint. To the office, the inspector general at Department of homeland security. This whistleblower, 17 year ICE veteran who spoke to the New York Times on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the claims, said the agency cut corners in its rush to fill the ranks. Quote, we chose as an agency to be more convenient rather than thorough. He described the agency's decision to reduce scrutiny of recruits in order to expedite hiring. By doing so, there was a potential to put lives at risk and to jeopardize national security. The scrutiny of ICE's hiring practices has intensified in recent weeks, spurred in part by the fatal shooting of Duran Guerrero, a Colombian immigrant in Biddeford, Maine, on July 13. You'll remember his two ex wives of David Brulette. I think it's Brillette. That's the ICE agent. Two of his ex wives, one of whom identified him as the person who fired the fatal shots, have accused him in interviews and court recordings of being abusive. In a filing for a protective order in December 2019, one of them wrote that he had broken her door down, destroyed her belongings and dumped her clothes over a bridge. The women have also said Mr. Brulette, a former military serviceman and Veterans affairs police officer who was hired amid the recruiting surge last year, has post Traumatic stress disorder related to his deployment in Afghanistan. A local official in Maine told the Portland Press Herald that Mr. Broulette sought jobs with the Hallowell Police Department in 2024, but was denied because there were, quote, too many red flags. Mr. Burlett could not be reached for comment. So the preliminary vetting process, which usually takes about seven to 10 days, that's just the preliminary one that was upended last summer. The vetters, the people who do the vetting, were told to make determinations on recruits without having the full security form, without having fingerprints or any polygraph testing. And that's according to the former unit chief and a former federal official familiar with the process who was granted anonymity to speak about it. That meant that new hires were heading to training without having their identities, criminal histories and other basic information checked and verified. The agency also sped up its training program, as we know, cutting it from 10 weeks to six weeks. This resulted in agents reporting to their full time positions while their full background checks were still pending. And some of those classes that were cut, according to one of the whistleblowers who testified to Congress this past February, were, you know, the fact that you need a warrant to go into a house, a judicial warrant. All right. In some better news, Back to the better news. This is from Reuters. A federal judge Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from enforcing the new executive order limiting the number of people eligible for birthright citizenship that Trump issued after the Supreme Court rejected his previous effort. U.S. district Judge Deborah Boardman in Greenbelt, Maryland. She issued a preliminary injunction at the request of, immigrant rights advocates who had last year secured a ruling from her blocking the Trump administration from enforcing his 2025 executive order curtailing birthright citizenship. U.S. supreme Court on June 30 rejected that initial effort to end birthright citizenship for children whose parents were not American citizens or were not legal permanent residents, known as green card holders, finding it that violated citizenship clause of the U.S. constitution's 14th Amendment. And it was by a hair, by the way, reading the plain text of that. Now, the clause, which was the focus of The Supreme Court 6, 3 ruling in Barbara v. Trump, it was actually a 53 ruling because one went half and half, confers citizenship to those born in the United States who are subject to the jurisdiction thereof. Now, following that decision, Trump signed a new order on August 6 last month that took particular aim at birth tourism, in which women travel to the United States to give birth so their children can obtain citizenship. Citizenship would also be denied to children if one of their parents work for foreign governments in the United States, engages in fraud or a commercial transaction to obtain citizenship, or is classified as an alien enemy. Okay. After he signed that order, lawyers pursuing a class action lawsuit on behalf of babies who would have been deprived citizenship under Trump's 2025 order asked Judge Boardman to block this one, the enforcement of the Republican president's new order and ensure their client's citizenship continued to be honored. The judge, an appointee of Joe Biden, agreed to do so, saying the latest order, quote, is almost certainly unconstitutional as applied to the certified class for the simple reason that the Supreme Court in Barbara already decided that children in this class are citizens at birth. Quote, the Supreme Court has spoken. Children in the certified class are citizens at birth. Now, her order bars agencies including the, U.S. department of State, U.S. department of Homeland Security, and the Social Security Administration from taking any action to interfere with denial, deny or fail to recognize citizenship of the children covered by this class action. Next up from NBC. Fox News said Thursday it's parted ways with longtime anchor Maria Bartiromo, a vocal defender of Trump who hosted several financial news shows. Bartiromo's departure was effective today. According to the Fox spokesperson. And according to the Status newsletter, Bartiromo was fired because of a previously unreported incident earlier this summer, specifically per report from Oliver Darcy. And, hats off to independent journalism. Quote, After Trump delivered his unhinged primetime speech in which he pushed more conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, this time making a number of allegations against China, Fox News issued a guidance to senior employees instructing them to steer clear of giving credence to Trump's delusional claims. That's a quote. It was in a text message to the staff. Once that happened, Bartiromo spilled the beans to the White House, quote, that Trump's speech had received scant coverage on the channel because the network bosses ordered it so and provided them with a screenshot of the text message. Quote. In doing so, Bartiromo not only effectively betrayed her employer, Fox News, but also disclosed confidential company information, violating the terms of her employment agreement. That's from Oliver Darcy. So.
Bye. Bye.
I thought, oh, maybe they're going to make her the press secretary. Nope, she's just fired. But I don't know, maybe he will because Trump was. She was loyal to Trump. Oh, boy. Anyway, good riddance. Good riddance to bad trash. But who, who this morning is gonna squawk about the terrible job numbers that come out on Friday? Not her. All right, everybody, we're gonna be right back with John Fugal saying, followed by the good news. Stick around. We'll be right back after these. This episode is brought to you by IQ Bar, our exclusive snack and hydration sponsor. IQ Bars are better for you. Clean plant protein bars. Packed with fiber and brain boosting nutrients. They have zero added sugar. You no longer have to choose between healthy or delicious. And right now, IQ Bar is offering you an exclusive deal. 20% off all IQ Bar products. Plus you get free shipping. Just text daily beans to 64,000 IQ bars. Plant protein bars are simple, high quality ingredients. They have almonds as the number one ingredient. they're also free from gluten, dairy, soy GMOs, and artificial sweeteners, which makes them an easy choice for folks with a wide range of dietary needs or allergies. There are nine different flavors and all of them are great, including mint chocolate chip, lemon blueberry, banana nut, toasted coconut chip. That's my new favorite, Chocolate sea salt peanut butter chip. I like to rotate the flavors, so I enjoy the variety. That's why the variety pack is very good to get to start with because they don't just make protein bars. They also make hydration mixes and mushroom coffees designed to help support brain and body. And I keep all three in my kitchen. Year round. And all three come in that sampler pack. So I love how reliable IQ Bar is. Sometimes the next meal is ways off. if something comes up or, you know, I get thrown into a meeting and I need a quick snack or I'm out protesting and I just reach into my bag and grab one. Having something tasty on hand means that no matter how much I've got going on, I won't have to go without until the next time I can sit down and eat. All in all, IQ Bar is my first choice when it comes to protein bars, hydration mixes, and coffee. They also have more than 20,000 5 star reviews and m counting. So it's time you found out why. Right now, IQ Bar is offering our special podcast audience 20% off all IQ Bar products, plus free shipping. So to get your 20% off, text Daily Beans all one word to 64,000. That's Daily Beans to 64,000. Text Daily Beans to 64,000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. Hey, everybody. Welcome back. It's your favorite time of the week. It's Fugal Sang Fridays here on the Daily Beans. So please welcome my good friend, host of the John Fugal Sang show on SiriusXM progress channel 127. That is weekdays at noon Eastern, 9am, Pacific. New time slot, excellent time slot. And also make sure you have a copy. He's the author of the New York Times bestseller Separation of Church and Hate. Please welcome my good friend, John Fugelsang.
Thank you so much and happy deporting Milo Yiannopoulos Day. To all who celebrate, welcome.
Oh, yeah, so anyway, I wanted to talk about. Talk, today about Hegseth, because there's, as you and I talked offline a second ago, there's enough on Hegseth this week. What did you say to make them want to get rid of him?
Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, we keep waiting. We're like, it's so how bad is it for Pete Hex? How. How glad are you folks that you're not Ptag. Seth, of course you're glad, because only more stuff is going to come out about him. he's a rapist, by the way. I invite him to sue me, for saying that. I always do. we've been thinking, wow, Trump only hires these henchmen, flunkies and fall guys so they can eventually take the blame for bad Trump policy, right? Pam Bondi was fired because of what Trump did with Epstein. So, like, eventually, Pete Hegseth is gonna have to Pay the price for Donald Trump's terrible choice to obey Netanyahu and have this insane illegal war with no end in sight and no clear objective. So, we're all waiting for the midterms to be over, right? As soon as midterms are done, Hegseth's out of here. This week alone, Dr. Gill has been so astonishingly inept, so many rakes stepped on, I would be shocked if there aren't some in the White House urgently saying we should fire Hegseth before the midterms. Cuz that'll give Trump a boost in the polls. Like that's how badly they're gonna need to blame him for everything Trump's done.
All right, so let's go over the week with Hagseth. What do we got? We got. Well, first of all, you mentioned the USS Abraham coming back. Well, they're in Thailand right now.
Yes, very happy for them. that's great. Thanks to all of the parents who bravely posted photos of the fit for consumption beef that people were eating on the boat. Again, they're gonna try and make this an issue about. Well, the leaker is the problem. Right? They're gonna punish the person who told the truth. This has always been the pattern. You reward obedience and you punish those who are independent and you smear those who speak the truth. I mean, Washington Post just count more than two dozen senior military leaders who've left under this guy's tenure. You know, Dan Driscoll, the Army Secretary? I mean, this has been months of clashes. And he's not some random Pentagon intern, he's the Army Secretary. And apparently he went to Trump and said, this is all about exef, and Trump had no idea. This is after the ouster of Army Chief of Staff Randy George. And now we just found out another half dozen generals were denied a promotion to two star. Two of them were black, two of them were female. Yet again, blocking the promotion of these people. He's created the worst.
That's why Driscoll's pieced out.
Yeah, well, that. No, I think. I think Driscoll's pieced out because, he thinks there's gonna be a ground war in Iran. If you really wanna know, there's also that Driscoll's pieced out because he knows that Iran is a quagmire and that he's not gonna get a straight answer out of anybody. So this is what they do, right? This is the world's most expensive employee retention program. You fire everybody who knows what he's doing. It's not a chain of command. It's a chain of sycophancy. All for the most expensive culture war in America. Because, remember this guy, time and again, it's only been about the ideological fights. It's not about making America safe. It's been about. We've taught the dei, the gender, the pronouns, the purges, the who's sufficiently loyal, who's not woke. Here's my creepy pastor speaking in front of you. And it's like, then there's this war. And we knew there were risks. We knew there'd be retaliation. We knew there'd be attacks on US Ships. But now our missile supplies are depleted. We knew this was gonna have enormous demands on the navy and air defenses. And Hegseth was the one cheering this on. Tulsi Gabbard advised against this, and she's out of a job now. But after all of Hegseth's cheerleading. Seven months in, Dr. Gill. What? 120 little girls killed in the double tap strike on the school. 18 service members killed. They've lied about that number. We don't have an accurate number of how many have been injured by this. Gas prices record highs. And Trump's grotesque. Kids are raking in billions as private contractors through Pentagon contracts, and no objective has been achieved. So now, in the middle of all of this, the Navy. The Navy Chief of, naval operations, Admiral, Cottle, he's just come out and said that the navy can't sustain the current level of support for the Iran operation. Barely one quarter of our destroyers are apparently ready to deploy, according to the Washington Post. And then there's the missile defense, and
they were pillaging Navy payroll to help pay for the operation.
And this is all just since Monday. Right? This is all this week.
Oh, and there was more, too. All of his heads of the three main branches and, all of his generals entered a non concur on continuing the war. Right. Because Pegseth is in charge. He tells them what to do, and if it's not in a legal order, they go forth and do it. But. But in some very, very rare instances when they say, we are really, really against this, they'll enter what's called a non concur. It's like when you sign a check.
Yeah.
Paid under duress or whatever.
That's right.
That's what they said. That's hugely embarrassing for a secretary of defense. Not for this particular secretary of defense,
but not for major normal times. Yeah.
You know, he doesn't care. And so that was probably one of the more low key stories this week, but probably the most embarrassing for us as a, as a military power.
Can I, can I give you a couple more? Because I'm, I'm not done. Like, I had to make a whole list, Dr. Gill, of this. I mean, I mean, let's talk about the online influencers that he's hired to do pro Pete Hegseth propaganda on the Pentagon dime on social media. Like Kurt Schlichter, who is one of the more loathsome brown shirt trolls on social media. Like they, they just realized, oh my God, like, like let's get some guy with a ring light to go out there and make the case for us, propaganda wise. So you've had these right wing influencers on social media who, unbeknownst to the rest of us, have been taking a check as a Pentagon job to go out there and say what an awesome job Hegseth is doing and we're paying for all of it. Like, these guys got Pentagon jobs and paychecks to go online and sell Hegseth to vets over the pleas of actual military leadership. I mean, Eisenhower would hang himself over this. And then, then my favorite story of the week, it's not the most deadly, but you know the one about the Canadian youth cadet instructor story? Oh, right. You know this one.
Yeah.
So he tweets out about the physical appearance. This is a guy who's already attacked the physical appearance of officers under his command. Right. I want fat generals. So Monday, he shares this picture with his 2 million followers from the Vernon Cadet Training center in British Columbia. And this is a place that teaches young cadets 12 to 18, you know, military style leadership and drills, and it's all volunteers. And Hegseth posts this picture of these two young women at cadet training, and he's mocking the size of this young woman instructor presenting the medal. He picks one photo from a carousel of 10. He adds a Canadian flag icon. And he wrote, this is real, this rat bastard. He's body shaming a minor. We're at war. And he's body shaming a civilian instructor in a program for teenagers that isn't even part of the Canadian military. Like, we needed to look like bigger dicks to Canada this week after Lake Ontario. So I mean, like, this is all happening all at once. And then another strike hits. A wedding. We just blew up a wedding in Iran and there's video all over the place of it. So you tell me, Dr. Gill, how can Hegsef keep his job for another two months until after the midterms when he's making Trump look this bad because he's doing what Trump wanted, I don't see how he can survive.
I guess it depends on whether or not Natalie tells Trump that he's making Trump look bad or, you know, how it's presented to Donald Trump.
But apparently that's why the Driscoll resignation was such a shock, because all the sources say the same thing, that he went to Trump beforehand and explained how unpopular this was and how bad it was and how Hegseth is holding back the promotions of qualified officers. And allegedly, according to every report we've heard, Trump had no idea.
Right.
And why would he? He watches Fox. Right.
And it was Berea earlier on that argued. That's like a Hegseth acolyte at the Pentagon that argued to Dan Driscoll that the reason that we couldn't promote these black female officers is because Donald Trump refused to stand next to a black woman in a photo.
We've been told. Yeah.
Now, was that his just his opinion, or did Trump really not know that people are speaking?
Jeff Epstein said the same exact thing about a different kind of, arrangement. If you'll recall, Jeff Epstein said that Donald didn't like black girls, as the local talent hired for the parties.
Yeah, I do remember that.
Yeah. I'm m sure there's so many ways to interpret that, though. When Jeff Epstein sang it. There's so many ways you could read into that. I know.
Well, and then we had this bombshell today, which I thought was a little interesting. Reuters had an exclusive that, Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon are pausing the testosterone testing for men over 30. And then you're like, oh, great. And I think, hang on, let me read why this is great.
This is brilliant.
Because it's never for the right reasons. And as I'm reading this article, I'm learning that it's just temporarily paused because they want to update the standards to include hormonal testing for women that have low libido. Somebody I put this out. I put it up on, Blue sky, and somebody responded, I'm sorry, are we trying to fuck our way to victory? I don't understand.
These are the people who want to do nothing about military sexual assault, but they'd like to inject testosterone to make the female cadets hornier. That's literally what they're talking.
They want to make men and women.
Yes, yes, yes. Readiness, huh? that's what it's all about. Yeah. look, let. I hope he never gets fired at this point. Because this is exactly what should be next to Trump's name in the history books.
And just a week after, that woman was told that, her sexual assault case was a workers comp claim.
That's right. That's right.
And apparently this was the first time people had heard that rape had been considered an occupational hazard in the military. But I'm here to tell you it is not. When I did the invisible war in 2012, many of the people from that film, that documentary, Oscar nominated documentary I was in about military sexual trauma also sued the government and were also told basically, that rape is an occupational hazard in the military. occupational hazard. This has been, unfortunately, the truth for a very long time. But now we have another incident where somebody tries to sue, and they're told it's a workers comp claim issue because it's an occupational hazard. So go file a worker's comp claim. And now we've got. Let's pull down the testosterone testing because we want to add.
Let's. Yeah, let's do it.
Libido for women and.
Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, and this is a, Defense Secretary who is credibly.
The first thing I thought was they, they, they. I think that if they increase the sex drive for women, they'll be less likely to think they were raped.
I thought the same thing. Or they'll be more likely to find reasons to discharge women for inappropriate congress with commanding officers. Right. Like they'll use the slut shame.
They were going to charge me with adultery because my rapist was married.
Exactly. Right. Yeah. That's. We. We know the kind of man who is drawn to this kind of authoritarianism. And this is a guy who is credibly accused of sexual assault. Again, remember, folks, with Pete Hegseth, it was when the lady went to the nurse for the rape kit. The next day, it was the nurse who called 911. That's who called 911 on Pete Hegseth, the woman who did the rape kit for the woman who'd spent the night with Hegseth. And he then paid her 50 grand in an NDA to be quiet. And that's the guy who promised he'd stop drinking if we'd put him in charge of our military. So if the commanders are afraid to give unwelcome advice because they're worried about being fired, that makes all of us less safe. And if civilian leadership is replacing actual expertise with blind obedience, that makes all of us less safe. And if we're losing senior leaders during a war I think that makes all of us less safe. And if the Navy says they can't maintain this current tempo, and if missile defense stocks are being depleted and all of this is happening while the President is promising the next attack is going to be even bigger. I mean, I mean, just. They attack anyone who reports the consequences and then say things are going fine.
Yeah. And then they fire the Stars and Stripes people. Right.
And they fire the Stars and Stripes people again for telling the truth. Trump will always pun. That's why he mocked the reporter's disability. If you tell the truth about him, he will punish you for it. And so this war doesn't have an end date. It's not strategically sustainable, and the president apparently gets bored every time he hears it's expensive and he chose Hegseth in the first place. So this is the whole thing. Right. At some point, Trump's not gonna get to say Pete did it. You know, I mean. I mean, this. This guy, he wants his name on our money, but he doesn't want the buck to stop with him. So the only question is, will Trump fire Hegseth right after the midterms because he's terrified or before the midterms because he's terrified? Right.
Well, we'll see again. We'll see what Natalie Harp decides.
I was in Europe when all that happened, by the way. It was very strange watching that from afar.
Now, I want to say, before we move on to the next subject, if anyone, you know, ever sort of says, if somebody sexually assaulted, if they say, well, why didn't you go to the cops? Why didn't you report it? That's, by the way. First of all, that's, a form of victim blaming.
Certainly is.
But what, I want you to understand is this. The reason they didn't charge me with adultery because my rapist was married was because I basically, they made me a deal. If I didn't file, if I didn't report it and act like. Acted like it never happened, they wouldn't charge me with adultery.
Yeah.
Kick me out of my job. Take my rank, take my meaning.
They coerced you into dropping the charges against the man who assaulted you because they.
With charges with the threat of charges. So if anyone is ever like, oh, well, you should have reported it. Yeah, well, oh, you should fuck off.
But see, this is why. This is why the women and men of the armed forces who came forward like you did so bravely to tell the truth, are every bit as brave and important to this country's moral evolution as all the altar boys and all the MeToo women. It has never been harder for a man to get away with abusing a woman or a child. Because in our lifetimes, in the last 30 years, we've seen the culture move from victimhood to survivors. The Epstein files. This wouldn't have even been a debate in the 90s. There never would have been a way to get this released. We weren't comfortable talking about it yet. And it's only because of the bravery of so many people. People. And I always give credit to the. The. The women and the men in the military, because male victims of sexual assault in the military. I've introduced several. It's so much harder. These guys are like the ultimate to come forward. All the. They put on men to make us ashamed and not communicate and live in shame, which leads to Gloria Steinem. But, like, these are real heroes, and it's the real moral evolution of America. And when you think about the ways America has gotten better in our lifetime, we're not putting people in jail for weed anymore. We're letting gay people marry. We're beginning to not hunt trans people to death. We had a black president, and it's never been harder for a predator to get away with it than it is right now because of so much selfless bravery.
Yeah. And that was also going to be my ability to do things like that or to have that bravery, to have that courage is because I stand on the shoulder of people like Gloria Steinem, who sadly, at 92, passed away today. Just an icon. it's impossible to encapsulate everything that she's done for both men and women.
She's influenced the culture. I mean, how many figures have influenced. I mean, the Beatles, Right. Bob Dylan, like, Like, she's at that level as an activist, and an activist like mlk, whose work. It's like the Big Bang. It's still expanding. Her influence is still expanding. And she made the world better in so many ways. And, you know, I was. I woke up this morning, we're all set to talk about the passing of Cassandra Wilson, the great jazz singer who just died last night, who's one of the best vocalists of all time. I saw her open for Ray Charles years ago, but then I woke to this today. And, you know, we don't talk enough about how Gloria Steinem was a hero to men as well. I tried to talk about this on Sirius XM earlier. She helped teach me that feminism is good for real men. And even though the word feminism is terrifying to weak men, throughout her life. She talked about the patriarchy not as just a thing that limited women. You know, a lot of her work was about liberating men from this fear based, emotional, macho bullshit stigma that forces so many decent guys into these narrow, conformist, emotionally stifling act like a douchebag box. And she said it that true gender equality would allow everyone to be their authentic real selves. And not every man fits the traditional stereotype of being aggressive and hyper competitive. But she talked about the core asymmetry in how we raised children, that even among progressive parents in her 80s, she was talking about this, that we've come so far in raising girls to be less restricted, but we still put the same restrictions on young boys. We encourage girls now to be brave and ambitious and independent. We don't say those are masculine traits anymore. They used to be. But so much of the culture still doesn't have the guts to raise sons that encourage empathy or vulnerability or nurturing. You know, and real men don't dominate. Real men are strong enough to care and help those who are weaker. Real men aren't afraid to ask for help when they need it. But she linked this to all the violence, to male domestic abuse, and then to the fact that men aren't encouraged to take care of themselves, that guys don't go to the doctor and suffer needlessly. And so many men die younger than they should because the same patriarchy encouraged them to not take their feelings seriously and to not care about themselves. So, like this culture that cuts boys off from all these essential human qualities and it creates this vacuum that leads so many boys to find figures on the Internet that'll tell them how to be a douchebag and call it dignity.
But I wonder how those, and I just want to interject here, I wonder how a lot of those young men felt when they learned from the Tate brothers lawyers that all of their wealth was fake and they were renting the things and they didn't own the yachts and they were doing that to try to prove that they weren't a flight risk. And I don't think it's going to work. And now they'll, I think, remain in jail and be exposed as faking their wealth. I wonder if, or if for those who were really into Joe Rogan and voted for Donald Trump and now feel abandoned by it, I feel like they are more easily backing away from the Maga cult than some of the people that had been been steeped in it for the last 10 years. I feel like they're a Little more resilient than maybe some of the, previous generations. But I'm not sure. I was wondering what you thought about that.
I mean, it's hard to say, you know, like, I'm raising a boy who's 14 years old now, and I see it every. And we have to have so many talks about how the Internet is full of guys who are trying to turn you into a woman hater or turn you into a Jew hater or turn you into a Muslim hater or a racist and just say, say that, you know, the Internet's full of guys who will tell you that being anti racist means you're woke up. And we have to teach boys that this is not masculine. You know, I mean, real men care about minorities. Real men care about the women in their lives, their moms and their sisters and, and, And Gloria Steinem, like, she didn't want to eliminate masculinity. She wanted to expand it and shift it away. Not unlike Jesus to shift what it is to be away from control and wealth accumulation and, and suppression and domination towards a healthier and more complete human experience. I think her work was very spiritual. Everyone does better when everyone gets to be whole and gets to be real. And so we're gonna hear a lot about how she fought for women's liberation, but I think this lady fought for human liberation. so many men have been improved by feminism. Feminism has helped teach men to prioritize self care, and it's helped longer lifespans and better health, and it's even taught guys to use moisturizer. How many guys have improved their basic hygiene because of feminism? And thank God for that. So I think Gloria's work is like, yeah, we'll hear how she helped women, but I think she made men more decent, too.
Yeah, I concur. So what do we do with the, Like, I just got a comment about, you know, I just wanted to say, a quick piece, on social media about Gloria Steinem, and I have a young man jumping into my comments saying, oh, I see you've been duped by the feminist, the patriarchal controlled feminist opposition, and, this and that and this and that.
So a douche from the left. A douche from the left, yeah.
And my first is, oh, well, finally the male opinion. Thank you for weighing in. But, like, the idea that someone like Gloria Steinem was controlled opposition, and by the way, he said by the CIA.
No, I know.
It's brilliant to keep the patriarchy in place.
Of course. Yes.
I just, I don't even know how to Respond. I just don't even know how to respond to that.
Why would you think you have to? I mean, the guy clearly only made the comment to get a response, right? This is Internet country, folks. Our human brains were never designed by God or the stars or the universe to have to take in so much stupid every day. You know, our brains were not designed to have to register so much false information and so much dumb information and so much hate as the Internet has brought to all of our collective eyeballs. I generally try to keep sane, Allison, by picking three things every day that I'm going to let myself get really pissed off about and everything else. We can't let it happen. You know, like, I'll be mad about Iran today, and I'll be mad about Epstein, but you know what? Interest rates up. Not allowed. Not allowed. You know, the Fed can't get mad about that. I already made my list. And a lot of it is just. You know, I kind of feel like, in the era of Trump, when it comes to social media, I think a lot of us have to learn how to be the attractive woman at the bar. Now you're an attractive woman who's been to bars. You know what I'm talking about. You got these guys that are going to say dumb, ill, Miss Opportune shit just to get your attention. And so many men are like toddlers. They've decided that negative attention is better than no intention.
Okay, I got the response now. I see now. Right? Okay, thanks.
The response is, you're too hot for these losers. Don't even give them the time of day. We all have to learn to be the hot girl at the bar and ignore these trifling fools on the Internet. Cause they're just trying to offend you for attention. And we have one of those in
the White House because of people like Gloria Steinem. We're actually all hot girls at the bar.
Right?
When you put that kind of standard on it.
Exactly. And it's like people are gonna be talking about Gloria Steinem for decades after her passing. Like, they're gonna be talking about Dolly Parton for decades after her passing because of the good they did and how much they helped people and how much they cared about people. There's always gonna be douchebags trying to smear basic morality, even if they're from the left. And this guy just sounds like he's really drunk on his own academic bullshit and trying to be a contrarian for its own sake. I mean, you know what? The CIA was not fighting to give women bodily Autonomy. For the past 50 years, it was feminists.
It just has real, like, oh, you like the Tide Band, we'll name four songs. Vibes, you know, like, it just really had. It has.
Exactly. It's all about me, me, me. These, insecure guys on the Internet who need to feel superior to somebody else by putting them down. You know?
I've also met the guys who act like feminists to get laid.
I don't know how you begin to fight that problem, dear.
No, you just have to kind of learn how to see through it after years.
But I think it's so incredible and inspiring to me how you articulate that. You know? I mean, wow. It's like I always wished as a man that I could somehow experience childbirth. That's how they do it, ladies. They're full of shit. Watch out for these guys.
You had me for a second. You had me for a second. Did you see that? Did you see that?
No, it's just like, I. I leaned
in, I was like, wait, what? Oh, okay.
No, it's just like, I see the struggle that you've had, and I. Like, I. I know I'm not a good enough ally, but I feel like if you and I had a few more drinks tonight, maybe I could learn some how to be a better.
Stop it. You're doing it again.
Right, right. That's how they do it. Yeah. And those are the good ones. Those are the feminist ones. They're the sensitive. I call them yoga pimps. You know, the kind of. There's always that guy in the yoga class who's not. He's not there for the spiritual part of it. He's there to reel in the ladies.
Oh, my goodness.
You know how it is, man. Testosterone.
Well, the good news is, I think the younger generations are, picking up on this a lot better than. Than us. Old. Since I think the kids are okay, at least getting okay, compared to us and our weird generation.
Good old. I hope so. I just. I.
As,
somebody who was raised by a father who was very masculine, but didn't meet all the stereotypes of what a man's supposed to be like. I grew up really appreciating men who were guided by compassion and guts, you know, not toughness and not ability to beat the crap out of somebody. And I can't begin to express how much good Gloria Steinem did for. For men to begin to break that cycle and the way she fought for paternity leave as well. Like, these are all issues that make men's lives better. And show that. And again, if you're a two parent household, two incomes helps you and makes your life better men. There's so many examples through her life that show how feminism lifts all of us up. And you know, if, if, if God loves men and m. Women equally, then God's a feminist too. So. Gloria, she made me a better man.
Well, thank you so much for that perspective, my friend.
And I'm not hitting on you when I say that, but I'm totally not hitting on you.
No, that was different. You didn't do the voice. So. I can tell. I can tell. But thank you. But, I look forward to seeing you next week. Of course. And I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
You too.
And everybody, by the way, if you want to check out more John Fugal Sang. The John Fugal Sang Show. It's on Sirius XM progress channel 127.
And if I can make a quick announcement, we are going to be doing one of the, sexy liberal comedy tour dates this year with Stephanie Miller, House Sparks and me. It's going to be Saturday, October, October 24 at the Saban Theater in Los Angeles with our special guests, Glenn Kirshner, Mark Hamill and just announced Senator Adam Schiff will be joining us on stage. So come to LA in October kids, and we'll see you there.
Excellent. Ask him if he's into expanding the Supreme Court. I want to know his position.
Hey, man, if Clyburn's into it, it's already a done deal. If Clyburn's into it, it's mainstream.
That's what I said. That's what I said.
I waited a long time for this.
I know. I was. My jaw dropped when I, when I heard that. But yeah, I'm just curious. Ask him if he's into it. And report, and if it needs to be off the record, that's totally fine too. but, anyway, where is your show? Oh, Sirius XM progress channel 127 weekdays, noon Eastern, 9 Pacific. And then of course, make sure you get your New York Times bestselling author copy of Separation of Church and hate new books coming out at some point.
Easter.
Easter. Hell yeah. He is risen. Thank you, my friend. It is always good to see you. everybody stick around. We'll be right back with the good news. Everybody, welcome back. It is time for the good news, everyone.
Then good news, everyone.
Good news, good news. Hey, everybody, welcome back. It is Friday's Good News Roundup. Please send all your good news to us. It can Be big or small. It can be from last week or 20 years ago. It can be a street joke. It can be a funny meme. You can tell us the misheard song lyrics that you've been singing wrong your whole life until recently. Those are always fun. send your good trouble suggestions or a, shout out to a nonprofit or a small business or a loved one. Like tell us why your spouse is awesome or tell us why you're awesome. Do a self shout out. We love those. Because everyone who listens to the show is indeed awesome. I can guarantee that. So you don't have to worry about it. Everyone, you're awesome. Tell us why. And then all you gotta do is attach a photo. It can be your pet. We can try to guess the breeds in your shelter pup. Random, animal on the Internet, baby photos, family pictures, sunsets, gardens, something you're making, knitting, crocheting, needlepoint, travelog photos, anything at all. bird watching, which is can be. It can be like a bird or you flipping the bird to a Trump building. Send it all to us dailybeanspot.com click on contact. First up is your good trouble. Good trouble today comes from Jess Craven at Chop Wood Carry Water. Help staff your local polling place. Power to the polls quote we need poll workers, lots of them. The more of our people we have at these polling places just doing the work, helping folks with difficulties, making sure things are running smoothly, the better our chances of overcoming chicanery from their people this November. So please, if you or anyone else you know can do this. It pays, by the way. Now is the time to sign up. We'll have a link in the show notes. They'll train you. You can pick your dates, the times that work for you, even if you can't do it yourself. Will you please share the power to the polls link with everyone that you know? Go to your list, your contact list in your email and encourage everybody you know to work at the polls. This is something many people can do and we need them to. So help staff your local polling place. Power to the polls. We will have a link in the show notes. Thank you so much Jess Craven. All right, first up from Brian. Pronouns, he and him. Dear ladies of the lagoon. My good news is I own a house because my student loans were forgiven by Biden. We rented for 10 and accumulated cats for seven years. When it was time to move, renting and keeping our fur babies would become difficult to impossible. Luckily, with the loans wiped away, it opened up the opportunity for home ownership. We bought a home a year ago in March, and we're pleased with our decision. My shout out is to my wife, who creates art and jewelry for our local farmer's market in Iowa. Oh, my God. Amazing. She sews, she sculpts, she paints, she creates. Our market is like a weekly date night. We eat out, we see friends, there's music across the street. That sounds amazing. For my pod pet tax, I bet it's awesome in the fall, too, Brian. For my pod pet tax, I'll submit a kitty pick, Frito and Lucky, and some art that my wife sells. She would rather I, share the rings, earrings, bracelets, and necklaces she sculpts and designs. I choose to share a single. No King's pin. Thanks for all you do. I hope I can make it to see you someday. Brian of Dubuque. I almost forgot. Why don't you see elephants hiding in trees? Because they're so good at it. If you could tell the joke on Beans Talk, I'd like to see you enjoy. My best joke. Amazing, Brian. Thank you so much. And, ah, let us know where she sells this amazing art and jewelry and stuff. Feel free to write back. Hi, kitties. Hello, kitties. And congratulations on homeownership and your student debt forgiveness. It's so important that we talk, about how these government programs where Republicans are like, oh, you're spending money. Think about how much revenue and the government can make when you're more successful and you're more secure in your living situation. It's just beyond me that they now they know. I'm like, oh, they're so stupid. No, they know. They know exactly what they're doing. They give everybody just a little tiny sliver and keep the rest for themselves and then call the whole system broken so they can privatize it. Then they take all their money and do stock buybacks. Get corporate welfare from the government. They get all the handouts. Anyway, I digress. Next up, Dave in Seattle. This is the Good News segment. Pronouns, he and him. Hi, everyone. At my favorite and first podcast of the day. Hello. Shout out to Boston John, who submitted his Good News earlier this week. So amazing he was able to sneak one by the goalie at the NIH and get some actual science research funded. He's doing amazing work with that rare disease he's studying that can be applicable to all sorts of diseases in the future. I also want to shout out his work on the activism front. He has created this fun, informative, and frankly shocking website called secondtermadness.com. it entails filling out a March Madness style bracket that allows people to visualize, research and vote on which Trump atrocities are the most important to them. The website will collect and analyze data as a way to help public servants and politicians understand what the people's priorities truly are. We will have a link in the show notes. You can go and fill out a bracket, give some feedback and share with others. Thanks again, Dave. Dave, thank you for being a Boston John cheerleader. I love this, by the way. P.S. do you need to be gay to go to gay bingo? no. Never. Dana's hosting gay bingo in Seattle on November 7th at Victory Hall. By the way, you can get tickets and information@danagoldberg.com. you absolutely do not have to be gay to go to gay bingo.
Okay?
Bingo's amazing. My pod pet tax is my best buddy, Hoku. No need to guess the breed. Oh, thank you. All right, Jessica in Santa Fe. A, note from the producer. Jessica mistakenly sent us two pictures of Lola, the cat who greets them with the arabesque. And she wants to make sure that you see the very long cat Tilly as well. Look at the length. Look at the slunky baby. Tilly is so, so cute. Thank you, Jessica. Next up, Ellen. Hello, Beans Queens. I want to give a shout out to my local indivisible group. Imab M. Laura organizes postcard parties at our local library and stands out to remind folks to vote or protest the latest fascist crap. Barbara organizes our bridges brigades on local highway overpasses. She's got the signage down to a, science. They make being engaged easy and fun. Actually, my pod pet tax, my 11 year old ginger cat Beau. He's a fixture around here. He tucks me in most nights and has lots of weird habits. Ellen, I love cats with weird habits. Be like dolly, vote. I love it. I love it so much. That's great. Yeah, she does have that sign because you have to space it with the polls and stuff like that. So. Way to go, Barbara and Laura. Thanks for your postcard parties and what an amazing cat. He looks like a goofball. Next up, Jane and Bob. Good news and confessions. Good News and Confessions. 100% 10B20. Greetings, beans. As Bob and I are winding down our trip, we managed to fit in a couple of excursions that have been on our list for years. The Durango Silverton train. I've been on this. Jane and Bob. I went when I was very young. And Upper Antelope Canyon in Page, Arizona. Also, Ben. we love trains and whenever possible try to fit rail Trips into our travels. The Durango Silverton Railroad is one of the last remaining narrow gauge lines in the country, built of lightweight rail to handle the narrow, winding routes in the mountains. They still use original rail cars that are over 150 years old. They're wooden and creaky, with big windows. To see the stunning scenery through the Animas River Canyon, most of the passengers ride to Silverton, spend some time, and then return. But they also take intrepid hikers, backpackers, and kayakers who they drop off along the way and pick up one to two weeks later. If you like trains, put this one on your list. Our last adventure of the trip was a visit to beautiful Upper Antelope Canyon. This slot canyon is on Navajo land. It's just outside Page, Arizona, and it's one of the most photographed places in the world. As many as 5,000 people a day walk through this short, beautiful slice in the earth. The walk is only about a half a mile, so accessibility is good for most. And it provides stunning views of colorful sandstone in graceful curves. We've not been here in over 30 years, since the late 90s when Lake Powell was at its highest. Now, after the prolonged southwest drought, it sits at its lowest level since it was filled 21% capacity. To our horror, the guides told us that they want to build a data center here. I don't know how to help them fight that, but if anyone has any ideas, let me know. The idea that someone would want to build a data center in a place that is already starving for water is insane. Maybe someone can come up with a good trouble idea to help. I've enclosed a picture from our train ride and one from inside Antelope Canyon. And we're headed to Vegas today. Not thrilled about that stop, but then we're set headed home on Friday. And we'll be listening to you all along the way. Love you guys. one of my favorite spots in Vegas is the pepper mill, if that's still open. They got full cherry blossom trees and the things. So, you know, you could check that out. there's the Durango Silverton train. It doesn't even look real. It just looks like a train train set. It's just so beautiful. And there it is. Paige. My stepdad was a photographer. He's got three panels of these canyons of Page Canyon standing about 10ft tall by about 4ft wide. I wish I had room for him in my house. Anyway, lovely, Wonderful. Thank you everybody. Please continue to flood the zone with sunshine by sending in all of your good news and photos goes to DailyBeansPod.com and click on contact. Thanks for hanging in solo with me. I will see you on Monday. I will also see you on Sunday twice. And I hope you watch the new episode of Diamond Dames on YouTube with me and Charlotte Clymer talking about the latest episode of TED Lasso Barbecue Sauce. We absolutely love that show and it's just fun. I just wanted to do something fun that wasn't news, you know, but of course, because it's women's sports, there's politics, but. But it's just such a. It's just such a wonderful show and I really do love talking to Charlotte about it every week. So check that out if you get a chance. Everything's free as always. And, again, I'll see you Sunday and Monday. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health and take care of your family. I've been ag and them's the Beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by They M 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 mswmedia.com msw media.