Monday, March 3rd, 2025 Today, Trump and Vance capitulate to Russia during the Zelensky visit as Marco Rubio sinks into the couch; the Democratic Party has sued the trump administration for his attempt to control independent watchdog agencies; Republicans are terrified of crossing Trump and Musk; a federal judge has barred the administration from issuing executive orders barring gender affirming care for transgender minors; ProPublica outlines all the lifesaving USAID programs Trump is cancelling; FAA officials have been ordered to find funding for Musk’s Starlink; Texas introduces a bill that bans gender affirming care for all ages; Judge Amy Berman Jackson issues a preliminary injunction against the firing of Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger; and Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
Monday, March 3rd, 2025
Today, Trump and Vance capitulate to Russia during the Zelensky visit as Marco Rubio sinks into the couch; the Democratic Party has sued the trump administration for his attempt to control independent watchdog agencies; Republicans are terrified of crossing Trump and Musk; a federal judge has barred the administration from issuing executive orders barring gender affirming care for transgender minors; ProPublica outlines all the lifesaving USAID programs Trump is cancelling; FAA officials have been ordered to find funding for Musk’s Starlink; Texas introduces a bill that bans gender affirming care for all ages; Judge Amy Berman Jackson issues a preliminary injunction against the firing of Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger; and Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
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Texas Bill Seeks to Ban Gender-Affirming Care for All Ages | TransVitae
February 28, 2025 - by Heather Cox Richardson
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Trump Education Department Opens Snitch Line Against Diversity
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Indivisible.org
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Um, MSW Media Media. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Monday, March 3, 2025. Today, Trump and Vance capitulate to Russia during the Zelensky visit as Marco Rubio sinks into the couch. The Democratic Party has sued the Trump administration for his attempt to control independent watchdog agencies. Republicans are physically terrified of crossing Trump and Musk. A federal judge has barred the Trump administration from issuing executive orders that stop gender affirming care for trans minors. ProPublica outlines all the life saving US aid programs that Trump is canceling. The FAA has been ordered to find funding for Musk's Starlink. Texas introduces a bill that bans gender affirming care for all ages. And Judge Amy Berman Jackson has issued a preliminary injunction against the firing of Special counsel Hampton Dellinger. I'm Allison Gill.
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
Oh, uh, there was a little bit of a flub there in the headlines. I wonder if anybody caught it.
We'll find out.
I had a little bit of a, ah, pause. It was funny. I was hanging out with my friend the other night and she was, she was doing that, you know, trying to tell me something. She's like, yeah, but you know what in reality. And then she sat there for a minute and then she said, whatever the reality was, I can't remember what it was. And I was like, that was quite the dramatic pause. She was like, that was a pregnant pause. I'm like, no, you were trying to remember what you were going to say.
Yeah, ah, those.
She goes, that's right. It was more like a menopause.
And that's exactly what I call them now. They're Menno. Pauses.
Yes, we both said it at the same time. It was pretty great.
Funny.
So, yeah, everything was correct in the headlines. I just had a little bit of a Menno pause there. So I apologize. But I wanted to thank everybody for all of your support during the economic blackout. We didn't run any ads that day and we're waiting to see what the impact is. But I know, you know, most of us participated, so thanks for that.
Yeah, I did as well. I had a great weekend in Boston, had a good event. A couple Illuminati came up and said, hello. I don't want to put anyone's name out on the air without their permission, but lovely, um, woman at the after party that came and said hello to me made, um, my night, and, um, my dear friend Denise listens all the time to the pod. So it's just nice that the Leguminati are at these fundraising galas standing in solidarity with their LGBTQ community as allies. Um, some as part of the community, but some as allies. It's just so lovely to see. There's so many people in these rooms, Alison, that have trans or non binary or queer kids. Because the numbers are going up. I'm talking Congress. People like the congresswoman in Massachusetts, one of the speakers. She's got a trans daughter that she's incredibly proud of and would fight tooth and nail for her.
That's amazing. I know we have a ton of listeners, too.
Yeah.
Who are, you know, in. Who similarly situated and are doing their best to help protect their kids and their community members.
I mean, yeah, it's really interesting. And I don't even know. I don't even think they care at this point because the cruelty is the point. I think the Republicans are trying to hurt trans people directly by making them feel like second class citizens. I wonder if they're even considering how these parents feel. You know what I mean? A m. Lot of them are parents. And how would you feel if someone was villainizing your child because they were different than yours? Like, I just. It blows my mind. I bet there's not even a thought in their head about how this is affecting the greater pop.
No, they don't care. And we're going to cover a story about possibly why they're keeping their cowardly mouths shut when, uh, these horrific things come forward, whether it's what happened in the Oval Office with Zelensky or what's happening to trans kids. And now every trans people of all ages in Texas. We're going to talk about a House bill there. But, you know, there was a lot of news that happened over the weekend, but probably what they did to Zelensky and our NATO allies is going, uh, to be probably the lead story. But everything is just so important. And again, the whole idea here is to bog everybody down with a million different really important things so that nobody is quite sure what to focus on. So we do really appreciate the fact that you're listening to the news, staying apprised by listening to the Daily Beans, and also showing up at these galas to help support the community. That's so cool.
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I enjoy my work. It's a little exhausting at times, but I'm grateful that I was given gifts and I'm able to use. Use them. So.
So are we, my friend. So are we. All right, we have a lot of news to get to today, but first we have some quick hits and to.
Make a Long story short, too late.
First up, Judge Amy Berman. Jackson. Judge Jackson, if you're nasty, has issued a preliminary injunction protecting the job of special counsel Hampton Dellinger. So little background. Trump fired him. Judge Jackson issued a temporary restraining order reinstating his job. Because you have to have fired. You know this position for cause, not just because you feel like it. Trump appealed the restraining order to the D.C. circuit. They said, SOR restraining orders aren't appealable. You got to wait until there's a preliminary injunction. So then he went to SCOTUS and said, uh, you need to stop this restraining order. And they kicked the can down the road. They wouldn't listen to it. But now they have that preliminary injunction. That's what happened this weekend. Trump has already appealed this preliminary injunction to the D.C. circuit. We'll go over why Judge Jackson doesn't think Hampton Dellinger serves at the pleasure of the president. On the next, cleanup on aisle 45, pod. And this case will likely reach the Supreme Court next week in the first big test of presidential power to fire special counsel.
All right, Allison. And this one's from Kyle Cheney. A federal judge in Washington has barred the Trump administration from enforcing executive orders related to medical care for transgender youth and grant funds for institutions that offer medical services to transgender people. But only in four states that sued, and that's Colorado, Minnesota, Washington, and Oregon. The judge did not bar a component of the executive order that prioritizes prosecution for, quote, female genital mutilation because the statute has nothing to do with services for transgender people. Its inclusion in Trump's executive order may be, and I quote, bad faith.
Yeah. You think? Yeah, they're like, um, there's already a whole law against that, so it has nothing to do with gender affirming care. So kind of off with your bad faith.
Yep.
And this is from, uh, Transvite, a newly introduced Texas bill. House Bill 3399, aims to ban gender affirming medical care for all individuals, regardless of age by replacing references to children with persons. The bill would criminalize hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and gender affirming surgeries for adults as well as minors. If passed, it would make Texas the most restrictive state for transgender health care, prompting legal challenges and widespread concerns. So, okay, so did this include Viagra?
Yeah. And Jobs? Um, and. And estrogen for women in menopause. That's gender affirming care.
Yeah. I have to take hormone replacement therapy so I can feel more like the gender, uh, that I am.
I will say this over and over and over. So many of These executive orders are actually going to hurt CIS people by numbers more than they will ever hurt our trans community. They will hurt our trans community. But you know what I'm saying here, I'm talking about the young girls in schools. They're going to have what, genital checks. Because your daughter doesn't look like what a girl should look like when she plays sports. How many women in menopause are going to say, oh well, oh we. They can have their gender affirming care. This is such. The whole thing is. And it's about controlling women, period.
Right. And like that other judge said that we went over, I think probably last week who was like if you do this, you're gonna, you know, inadvertently ban like puberty blockers to be used as cancer treatment in cisgender children.
Mhm.
So it's. No, it was never about the kids. It's about their hatred of women and their hatred of the transgender community.
Yep. This other bill, the other bill talking about how your name has to match your birth certificate, I guarantee that was started to attack the trans community who has changed and gone with their. The name that they feel and most identify with. And it inadvertently is going to affect millions of women who married and took their partners names and some men who also did the same thing. It's this whole thing and Frangela said it the best. Frances Colliers, when she said so many white people are shooting themselves in the face when the. They're aiming for black folk. And I will add trans folk into that. And that's exactly what's happening.
Mhm. Yeah. I mean who is spared by the name change thing? It's white males.
That's it.
So that's kind of. Yet you know, they always say diversity, equity, inclusion is racism against white males. Which is why they attack that too.
Yeah. And I'm glad we're saying the names diversity, equity, inclusion. Saying dei like whittles it down to some woke letters, say it Diversity, equity.
Inclusion and accessibility in a lot of these cases.
Yep.
Which goes after disabled folks. So it's, it's all just, it's all just, it's all just like a, a cloak for authoritarianism and fascism. I mean it's, it seems very obvious to me. I'm not sure why other people don't see that like that. I shared this video of Senator, uh, Marshall, I believe from Kansas, a Republican who did a town hall and just was a complete asshole to his constituen. And this wasn't, this was like rural Kansas. This wasn't like you know, a blue dot and a red sea. Yeah. And there were people in there who, you know, one. One guy was like, well, you, you. You always say that you stand up for our veterans. He calls them veterans. But, you know, a lot of these people who are getting fired from federal government are veterans. What are you doing about that? That's shameful. And everyone's like, yeah. And he, the guy was just like, well, I gave my elder a chance to speak at the microphone. And, uh, I think it's great. Uh, I mean, uh, I have two other stops to make, so thank you, and God bless the United States of America. And he gets up to walk out, and everyone's like, boo. And then one guy goes, hey, I'm not a Democrat or anything, but I'm worried about the veterans. Yeah, maybe you should look into the democratic thing, uh, if you're worried about the veterans. Just. Just my two cents there. But anyway, it was miserable. The guy was an asshole. He was like, he. When he was asked if Russia invaded Ukraine, he dodged the question. Yeah, he dodged it. Like, he couldn't just straight up answer it because he's been told not to say that. He's been told that. The talking point is that somehow it's Zelensky's fault.
Yeah. And I'm. I don't know if we're going to get into that in the first story in the Hot notes, whether or not. But I just, I want to say this. In this horrible interaction that we're about to talk about in the next segment. One of the things that I, I wish that every, every reputable journalist would be saying is that Vance on Mike said that Russia invaded Ukraine. He, uh, forgot his talking points, and he said it right before he turned into some stupid fake thug. Have you ever said thank you? Have you said thank you? Once. Oh, my God, you sound like an abusive husband. Anyway, we got a lot of. We got a lot of news to get to.
We do, we do. But we're going to take a quick break right before we hit the hot notes. Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages.
We'll be right back.
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This is fabulous.
She's so great, she says. Today, President Donald Trump ambushed Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in an attack that seemed designed to give the White House an excuse for siding with Russia in its war on Ukraine. Vice President J.D. vance joined Trump and Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. His attendance at such an event was unusual in front of reporters. Those reporters included one from Russian state media Tass but no one from the Associated Press or Reuters who were not granted access. In front of the cameras, Trump and Vance engaged in what John Marshall of Talking Points Memo called a mob hit, spouting Russian propaganda and trying to bully Zelensky into accepting a ceasefire and signing over rights to Ukrainian rare earth minerals without any guarantees of security. Vance especially seemed determined to provoke a fight in front of the cameras, accusing Zelensky, who has been lavish in his thanks to the United States and lawmakers, including Donald Trump, of being ungrateful. When that didn't land, Vance said it was disrespectful of Zelensky to, quote, try to litigate this in front of the American media, unquote. But it was Russian media that was in the room.
Yeah.
When it was the White House that set up the event in front of reporters. Zelensky maintained his composure and did not rise to the bait, but he did not accept their pro Russian version of the war. He insisted that it was in fact Russia that invaded Ukraine and he's still bombing and killing on a daily basis. His refusal to sit silent and submit meekly m to their attack seemed to infuriate them. Trump appeared to become unhinged when Zelensky suggested that the United States would in the future feel problems, apparently alluding to the new U.S. relationship with Russia. Quote, you don't know that. You don't know that. Trump erupted. Don't tell us what we're going to feel. We're not. We're trying to solve a problem. Don't tell us what we're going to feel. Now, Zelensky answered that he was just answering the questions that Vance was showering on him. Quote, you are in no position to dictate what we're going to feel. Trump said, again, we're going to feel very good. And Zelensky said, you will feel influenced. And Trump disagreed. We're going to feel very good and very strong. And I'm telling you, Zelensky said, you will feel influenced. Trump appeared to lose control at that point, ranting at Zelensky that Ukraine was losing and that he might just m he must accept a ceasefire. But also complaining about former Presidents Biden and Obama and echoing Putin's talking points when he could get a word in. Zelensky reiterated that he would not accept a ceasefire without guarantees of security and pointed out that Putin had broken a ceasefire agreement in the past. Later, when a reporter picked up on that question and asked what would happen if Russia broke a ceasefire agreement, Trump became enraged. Among other things, he said, Putin Went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt. Trump referred to what he calls the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax that Russia had worked to elect him in 2016. That effort, though, was not a hoax. The Republican dominated Senate intelligence committee in 2020 released an exhaustive report detailing that effort. One of the things Trump, uh, one of the things, excuse me, Russian operatives believed Trump's team had agreed to, the report said, was Russia's annexation of the parts of eastern Ukraine it is now trying to grab through military occupation. Then Trump continued to rant at the reporter, rehashing his version of the story of Hunter Biden's laptop at some length, tying in former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Representative Adam Schiff in a larger stew that brought up Trump's history with both Russia and Ukraine and their roles in his quest to hold power. Clinton ran against Trump in 2016, as we know, when Russia worked to elect him. And Zelensky came across Trump's radar screen when, in July 2019, Trump tried to force Zelensky to say he was opening an investigation into Hunter Biden in order to smear Biden's father, Joe Biden, before the 2020 election. Only after such an announcement, Trump said, would he deliver to Ukraine the money Congress had appropriated to help Ukraine fight off Russia's 2014 Invas. But Zelenskyy did not make that announcement. A whistleblower reported Trump's phone call, leading to a congressional investigation that in turn led to Trump's first impeachment. Schiff led the House's impeachment team, and after unloading on the reporter, Trump abruptly ended the meeting, saying it was going to be great television. Shortly afterward, he asked Zelensky and his team to leave the White House. This afternoon, former Representative Liz Cheney posted, quote, generations of American patriots from our revolution onward have fought for the principles Zelenskyy is risking his life to. But today, Donald Trump and J.D. vance attacked Zelenskyy and pressured him to surrender the freedom of his people to the KGB war criminal who invaded Ukraine. History will remember this day when an American president and Vice president abandoned all we stand for. By the way, Zelenskyy left the White House without signing the Rare Earth Minerals Agreement. So everybody please subscribe to Heather Cox Richardson's Letters to America when you get a chance.
Thanks so much, Alison. This one's from Robert Tate at the Guardian. Republicans on Capitol Hill. Well, um, they're shying away from critic Donald Trump's policies over fears for their physical safety and that of their Families. This is from a Democratic member of Congress. This is what they told the press. Eric Swalwell, a Democratic representative from California, said his Republican colleagues were terrified of crossing Trump not only because of the negative impact of their political careers, but also from anxiety that it might provoke physical threats that could cause personal upheaval and require them to hire round the clock security as protection. Swalwell's comments came in a webinar chaired by the journalist Sidney Blumenthal in response to a question on whether Republicans might be driven to rebel against or even impeach Trump. And I quote, I have a lot of friends who are Republicans, he said. They are terrified of being the tallest poppy in the field. And it's not as simple as being afraid or being primaried and losing their job. They know that that can happen. He said. It's more personal. It's their personal safety that they're afraid of. And they have spouses and family members saying, quote, do not do this. It's not worth it. It will change our lives forever. We will have to hire around the clock security. Life can be very uncomfortable for your children. And goes on to say, this is real, because when Elon Musk, Trump's most powerful ally, tweets at somebody or Trump tweets at somebody or calls somebody out, their lives are turned upside down. When he tweets at you, people make threats and you have to take people at their word. And so that is a real thing my colleagues struggle with. Swalwell warned that fear of Trump was likely to further weaken support for Ukraine among GOP House members following his recent attacks on the country's President Zelensky and his public praise for Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Quote, I thought that the numbers that we'd shown to be unified around Ukraine would hold, and it's not holding. Swalwell's comments came at a time when some Republican members of Congress are encountering pressure from constituents to push back against the attacks on federal government workers by Musk's, quote, Department of Government Efficiency, that unit which critics say is usurping the powers of Congress. His portrayal of Trump inspired intimidation was supported by Bradley Moss. Bradley's a lawyer for the FBI Agents association, which has filed a lawsuit to prevent the Trump administration from m publicly naming agents and bureau employees who worked on the 6th of January criminal investigation.
Yeah, and there's a ton of examples of this, right? Jack Smith wrote all about it when he was trying to get protective orders against, um, you know, the names of agents and people being released to the public in those investigations. We had even in with the, you know, January 6th, Brad Raffensperger, um, was targeted with death threats. The speaker of the House, Rusty Bowers in Arizona, um, city, ah, commissioner in Philadelphia, Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss. You know, there are real world examples of the threats and how having Trump and Musk target you can upend your life.
Absolutely.
But if you, if you can't take the heat, don't run for office.
Seriously.
Is my two cents on that get round the clock security just to roll over for fascism because you're afraid that the fascists will hurt you? Isn't, uh, going to fly. Didn't fly in the Nuremberg trials.
That's right.
Just my two cents. All right. From Perez and sub sang at Rolling Stone. Elon Musk's satellite business, Starlink, may not have officially taken over Verizon's $2.4 billion contract with the Federal Aviation Administration, yet to upgrade the systems it uses to manage America's airspace. However, on Friday, FAA officials ordered staff to begin finding tens of millions of dollars for a Starlink deal. That's according to a source with knowledge of the FAA and two people briefed on the situation. The sources note that these internal directives have mostly, if not entirely, been delivered verbally, which they say is unusual for a matter like this. The source with knowledge of the FAA tells Rolling Stone that it appears as though someone does not want a paper trail.
Mhm.
So remember when we said they're going to fire all these FAA employees and then use that money to give giant contracts to Elon Musk? Yep. We're talking about. It's unclear at this moment if the Verizon contract is officially dead or if a Starlink deal has been formally inked. The FAA and SpaceX, the Musk company that owns Starlink, did not respond to Rolling Stone's request for comment. Musk, the world's richest man, is leading Donald Trump's so called Department of Government Efficiency. And in that role, he has overseen an unprecedented purge of the federal workforce, including at the faa, as well as Doggy's, uh, effort to gain access and control over sensitive information and systems. Trump and Musk recently directed the firings of hundreds of employees at the FAA along understaffed agency ranging from air traffic control support staff and lawyers tasked with keeping drunk and reckless pilots out of the skies and staffers who evaluate potential new construction hazards to inform flight paths like, hey, big tall building went up in Missouri. Maybe we shouldn't fly our planes through it.
Yeah.
Musk's exceedingly powerful role leading DODGY and myriad business interests presents obvious and staggering potential conflicts of interests which government contracting rules and ethics requirements are supposed to prohibit. SpaceX has benefited from billions of dollars in government contracts, and many of the government agencies he is shredding regulate his businesses. Example, the FAA fined SpaceX last year for safety and regulatory violations. Afterwards, Musk publicly demanded the agency's previous Senate confirmed administrator, Michael Whitaker demanded he resign, and Whitaker departed the day that Trump took office. The agency has also been conducting a Mishap investigation into SpaceX rockets explosions in January, which occurred days before Trump took office, that sent falling debris across the Caribbean. That hasn't stopped Musk from gutting the FAA or from offering to help the agency. Last month, he volunteered the services of SpaceX engineers to the FAA to help make air travel safer. Last week, Bloomberg reported that Musk recently approved a deal to ship 4,000 Starlink terminals to the FAA. Musk has claimed on his platform Twitter that Starlink terminals are being sent at no cost to the taxpayer on an emergency basis to restore air traffic control connectivity. According to the Washington Post, the Trump administration is considering giving Starlink $2.4 billion, a, uh, $2.4 billion contract that had already been awarded to Verizon to upgrade the information technology systems the FAA uses to manage America's airspace. Musk asserted last week, without evidence that, quote, Verizon, the Verizon communication system to air traffic control is breaking down very rapidly before correcting himself to say the Verizon system is not yet operational. Okay. In a related story, NBC reports to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Thursday that it's pilot error that's caused the majority of high profile plane crashes and close calls in the last few weeks. And this is what they do, Dana. Uh, they blame us and not themselves for everything that goes wrong. Just this Sunday, Mike Johnson said that Musk ran all of our Social Security information through AI to find massive amounts of fraud, waste and abuse. But we all know that the bulk of fraud in this country is perpetrated by the wealthy. But they're going to blame everything on us. That's part of the culture war so they can avoid the class war.
Absolutely. I was laughing sort of, because I gotta find humor in these times. I was flying back from Boston today and the pilot was like, everyone, round of applause. My parents are in row 15. It's the first time my parents have flown with me in 10 years. And my thought was, Jesus Christ, I hope they have a good relationship. Anyway, all right, this one's from Democracy Docket. The Democratic Party is suing President Donald Trump over an executive order that could make it easier for him to tilt elections in the GOP's favor. The lawsuit, filed Friday by Elias Law Group on behalf of the three national Democratic Committees, challenges an expansive executive order that Trump issued earlier this month that would give him unprecedented power over key regulatory agencies that were designed to operate without direct White House control because it's up to the states in it. The plaintiffs argue that the executive order specifically threatens the Federal election commission, the FEC, which Congress established in 1974 to enforce federal campaign finance laws through a bipartisan board of six commissioners who are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. If Trump's order is allowed to stand, the president through coercion and direct control could affect FEC decision making to his party's benefit. This is what the lawsuit warns, quote the extinction of the FEC's independence and replacement with the President's decree severely harms plaintiffs by placing the head of the opposing political party in charge of interpreting campaign finance law for the executive branch. Filed in District Court of D.C. the lawsuit asked the court to declare that the FEC status as an independent regulatory body is constitutional and to bar the Trump administration from applying the executive order to FEC commissioners. They also requested that the Court asked the D.C. circuit Court of Appeals to weigh in on the constitutionality of the Federal Elections Campaign act, the law that established the fecund. Trump's order was a major step toward the conservative legal movement's decades long goal of ending the independence of regulatory agencies and concentrating authority over them in the White House. The movement has been guided by a once fringe legal theory which asserts that the President has unlimited control over the actions of the 4 million people who make up the executive branch. In past decisions like Humphreys Executor vs. The U.S. the Supreme Court has prevented Presidents from dismissing members of independent regulatory bodies like the FEC. However, Trump has taken steps directly pulled from Project 2025 that appear to violate federal statutes to challenge the constitutionality of independent agencies and expand his ability to remove federal officials at will. The moves are likely an attempt to get cases before the Republican appointed majority of the Supreme Court in the hopes of eliciting favorable decisions. And we've already seen time and again I wish I could say that's not gonna fucking happen. There's a Constitution, but I don't even know anymore. I don't know.
Right, right. And I mean if you thought the FEC was a little bit toothless before you give Trump control of it, they'll be just breaking all the finance laws, campaign finance laws, with, uh, impunity, and going after any Democrats who do the same thing. It's what's gonna happen. All right, everybody, uh, it's time for some good trouble. What are you guys doing? Getting me to trouble. All right. From Rolling Stone. Donald Trump's Department of Education has launched a new portal for Americans to rat out the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at their local public schools. The portal, called ndei.ed.gov debuted with a press release that featured no government authorities, but rather a quote from a co founder of the reactionary group Moms for Liberty, which is infamous for its anti LGBTQ activism and links to right wing militant groups like the Proud Boys.
Yes. So, Tiffany justice of Moms for Liberty touted the launch of the portal. I know you all can see where this is going, highlighting it as an opportunity for parents to push back against, quote, critical race theory, rogue sex education, and divisive ideologies. She also added, now is the time that you share the receipts of the betrayal that has happened in our public schools. Justice is a controversial figure in her own right and no stranger to divisive ideologies. She responded to a 2023 controversial in which a Moms for Liberty parent quoted Hitler in a newsletter by claiming, quote, I stand with that mom.
Ah. Uh, well, the portal permits 450 words of explanation and allows users to submit up to 10 megabytes of digital files. Huh. Interesting. The End DEI portal represents the latest salvo in the Trump administration's anti diversity crusade, which has included executive orders that seek to define trans Americans out of existence, an effort to kick trans soldiers out of the military, the ouster of top women and black military leaders, and the revocation of a civil rights era. Uh, executive order that desegregated the ranks of the federal contractors. And it would be a damn shame if that snitch line got clogged up with submissions and 10 megabyte digital files. So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to render that tip portal useless. The link to submit your $0.02 and your 10 megabytes of files is in the show notes, or you can visit ndei.ed.gov to access the form. Thanks, y'all. Uh, we'll be right back.
We have a B block story from ProPublica followed by listener submitted. Good news. Stick around. We'll be right back. Hey, everybody, it's ag. This podcast is sponsored by a Lifesaver. It's called Delete Me. Deleteme makes it easy and Quick and safe to remove your personal data online. At a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable, we can't predict the next data breach or know how details about us might be repackaged, shared or leaked or sold. It's a sobering thought, but in today's world, staying vigilant is essential. Your private details, like your address, your phone number, even family specifics, could easily fall into the wrong hands. And the risks are real scams, identity theft, or worse. It's shocking to see how easy it is to find personal information online. A quick search can uncover details you might assume are private. And this data floating around the Internet can have real world consequences. Whether it's targeted harassment, spam calls, or even financial fraud, the stakes are high. I didn't realize how much of my info was out there until I started using Delete me and receiving my personalized reports of what was getting removed and how much time I was saving that, you know, since I don't have to remove it myself because Delete me does the heavy lifting. Your privacy matters. So whether you're an activist in the public eye or just someone trying to live your life, it's a digital age where our information is constantly at risk. Staying proactive is the only way to protect what's yours. It's not just about avoiding risks. It's about valuing your privacy and taking steps to keep it secure. So take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete me now at a special discount for listeners. Get 20% off your delete me plan when you go to JoinDeleteMe.com DailyBeans and use promo code DailyBeans all, uh, one word at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to JoinDeleteMe.comDailyBeans and enter code DailyBeans at checkout. Again, that's JoinDeleteMe.com DailyBeANS code Daily Beans. You'll be glad you did.
Hey, everybody, welcome back. All right, this next story, I wanted to give this a little bit of a spotlight. It comes from the good people at ProPublica, and I really encourage you to support them if you're able. The byline here is Anna Maria Berry Jester and Brett Murphy. And the headline is, the Trump administration said these aid programs saved lives. It canceled them anyway. After the Trump administration moved to freeze nearly $60 billion in foreign aid in January, officials like Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeatedly assured Americans saving operations would continue. Quote, we don't want to see anybody die, he told reporters. In early February, eight organizations the world over scrambled to prove their work saved lives. Seeking permission from the State Department and the U.S. agency for International Development to continue operating, the administration conceded that many programs prevent immediate death and should remain online field hospitals in Gaza, an HIV drug supplier for the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syrian UH, refugee food programs, health clinics that combat Ebola in Uganda and most of the landmark President's Emergency plan for AIDS relief, known as pepfar. In late January, Rubio and one of his top aides, Pete Morocco, said those programs and dozens of others could continue granting them temporary waivers while the officials conducted what they have called a targeted case by case review of all foreign aid programs managed by the State Department and USAID Aid. That review, they said, would take three months. Four weeks later, on Wednesday, Rubio and Morocco completely ended nearly 10,000 aid programs in one fell swoop, including those they had granted waivers just days earlier, saying the programs did not align with Trump's agenda. The move consigns untold numbers of the world's poorest children, refugees and other vulnerable people to death, according to several senior officials. Local authorities have already begun estimating the death toll in the hundreds of thousands. Now, as the administration faces multiple lawsuits challenging its actions, the court fights largely hinge on whether government officials deliberated responsibly before cutting off funding. The US has also refused to pay almost $2 billion that the government owes aid organizations for work they've already completed. Rubio and Morocco appear to have taken their dramatic steps without the careful review they've described to the courts, and that's according to internal DO documents and interviews with more than a dozen officials from the State Department and usaid, which raises fresh questions about the legality of President Donald Trump's evisceration of the American foreign aid system. Current and former officials say that Morocco and Rubio cut critical programs without consulting contract officers who have oversight of individual programs and are aid group's primary contacts. Quote, none of us believe that they're conducting a careful, individualized review. That's what one official said in an episode that highlights how cursory and haphazard their efforts appear to have been. Morocco and Rubio ordered the cancellation of contracts, including for cell phone service at an office they do not control. The move stranded people in war zones without phones, according to multiple officials and internal correspondence obtained by ProPublica. On Wednesday, AT&T received a termination notice for a $430,000 contract with USAID's Office of Inspector General. That office is meant to be independent from USAID so that it can effectively audit the agency. For more than 24 hours, OIG staff, including people in Ukraine and Haiti, did not have access to their government phones. No one at the Office of Inspector General, including contract officers, knew it was coming, according to the officials, quote, this is an urgent issue for us as we have OIG staff in war zones with no ability to receive security alerts. That's what a senior official in the agency wrote in an email to the company. Eventually, USAID reversed the termination. Current and former officials through USAID and the State Department say the breakneck pace, lack of input from key officials, mistaken cancellations, and boilerplate language in Wednesday's termination notices undermine Morocco's claims of a deliberative process. Quote, it's, uh, a pretext, said one USAID official. The review was supposed to take 90 days. An actual review based on substance requires laying out a process with guidelines, identifying info on each project, and selecting working groups to review. Any review they did was fake. Now, if that turns out to be the case, legal experts and government officials say the administration will have defied a, uh, federal judge's order in a brazen gambit to continue dismantling U.S. aid. The morning after the mass termination notices went out, a senior USAID official sent an email saying Morocco and Rubio had canceled awards for essential services that the agency now wanted reinstated, telling staff, quote, we need your immediate input on any awards that may have been terminated that contain essential services related to the safety, security and operations of U.S. aid staff. That's according to a court filing. Since the initial decision to suspend foreign aid, humanitarian organizations and labor groups have taken the government to court, arguing that only Congress can dismantle USAID and that Trump's blanket actions are unconstitutional. The government has told the courts that it has the right to cancel contracts, dismiss staff and reorganize USAID to align with Trump's agenda. Earlier this month, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting USAID and the State Department from following Trump's executive orders to stop all foreign aid and to force the agency to pay its bills. When it did not comply, the judge issued another order giving the government until midnight Wednesday to pay what it owes to aid groups. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court temporarily paused the last order over underpaid bills to conduct further legal review. That same day, aid organizations around the world began receiving termination notices. More than 90% of USAID's global aid operations and half of those managed by the State Department received termination notices. The move is already putting children and refugees in gravely dangerous situations. The administration canceled almost 50 United Nations Population Fund projects worth more than $370 million, including program to address maternal deaths and gender based violence in Egypt, Nigeria and several other member nations around the world. In early February, the nonprofit ALITE received waivers for its program supporting refugees in war torn Sudan, Somalia and South Sudan. On Wednesday, they were all terminated. Alight runs six centers for extremely malnourished children in Sudan where the organization treats babies and infants so sick that they will die within hours without ongoing care care. The centers cost about $120,000 a month to operate. A light is trying to fundraise to keep them open, knowing that the day they close their doors, children will die. That's CEO Jocelyn Wyatt told that to ProPublica. In the meantime, they've been forced to close other life saving programs. In Somalia, around 700 malnourished children visited the Alight uh clinics every day for weight check ins and to pick up special food. Thirteen health clinics and mobile units served around 1200 patients that day. On Thursday, all of those clinics closed. Alight also shuttered 33 primary health clinics in Sudan and stopped providing water to three refugee camps that housed people displaced by decades of war. Alight had kept all those programs running these past five weeks, even though the organization hasn't received any payments since Trump took office. Quote we believed when Rubio said there was no intention of cutting emergency life saving services that would basically cause immediate death, said Wyatt. We trusted that those would be protected. One of the State Department's highest ranking humanitarian aid officials, Jennifer Davis, stepped down this week, according to her resignation letter, which was obtained by ProPublica. During a meeting earlier this week, Davis, the principal deputy assistant secretary of the agency's refugees Bureau, told staff she believed she was bound by the judge's order to restore programs and their funding, according to an attendee. She was in tears about it, the attendee said. Davis did not respond to requests for comment. The State Department, USAID and the White House did not respond to a detailed list of questions for this story. The State Department did not make Marco Rubio available for an interview. Morocco also did not respond to questions. By Thursday, hundreds of workers had returned to USAID's former headquarters, where the name has been removed from the building facade to collect their personal items. They left with boxes and suitcases. Some were crying. Dozens of people cheered and rang bells each time someone exited the building. Many of them had recently lost humanitarian aid jobs as well. Quote this is more than lost jobs. We're losing the sector. A former USAID employee said through tears as she waited for her allotted 15 minute time window to pick up her belongings. She went on to say the US Government is losing its influence Were now more unsafe as a country in the early hours of February 13, at a refugee camp in northern Syria, two armed men wearing masks and police uniforms broke into offices and a warehouse for the aid group Bluemont, stealing more than $12,000 worth of laptops and other supplies the US government had already paid for. Because the organization hadn't received any funds since Trump took office, it no longer had personnel at the camp full time and had paused all its US Funded work except a daily bread delivery. The armed theft was the result of the US not paying its bills, the group told USAID officials, according to an internal agency email obtained by ProPublica. Shortly after the incident, the government started paying Bluemont's invoices and the aid group brought back staff and food services that had received a waiver. It's one of the few programs still online and receiving money now. Prior to January 20th, the US spent about $60 billion on non military, humanitarian and developmental aid each year, far more than any other country in total dollars but less than 1% of the federal budget. The vast majority of that money is managed by US Aid and the State Department. A network of aid organizations carry out the work, which is funded by Congress. Since Trump took office, Morocco and Rubio have not only halted foreign aid, laid off thousands of workers and put many more on administrative leave, they've also stopped paying bills for work that's already been done. In one of several lawsuits related to the administration's dismantling of usaid, aid groups are suing the federal government over the mass program closures and unpaid bills. It was that case that led federal District Court Judge Amir uh Ali to order the administration to settle those bills, which by February 13 totaled nearly $2 billion, according to figures Morocco gave the court. Almost none of it's been paid, court filings show. Additionally, U.S. taxpayers will be on the hook for interest and damages from the unpaid bills and broken contracts. That's what legal experts told ProPublica. Organizations have struggled to get through the opaque waiver process, and programs that succeeded were often so strapped for cash because the government hadn't reimbursed them that they remained inoperative. Medicines that were already purchased by the US Taxpayers are languishing in warehouses instead of being delivered to the people who need them. On Wednesday, as Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily paused the district court's order to the federal government to pay its bills. The administration told the court it had terminated 5,800 of the 6,300 foreign aid programs that USAID administered. The government also shuttered 4,100 programs managed by the State Department, about 60% of the total. In Morocco's own testimony to the court on February 18 about the process, he said that senior staff and political appointees choose specific awards to be evaluated for termination or suspension. He said he personally examines the program and any potential consequence of terminating it before making final recommendations to Rubio. But USAID staff says that subject area experts and key personnel who were responsible for the programs were not involved in making these determinations, while most others had already lost their jobs. In the case of the phone contract for the OIG office, for example, the contract officers had no idea the termination notices were coming, officials said. Those officers are specially trained in contract law and regulations to manage these agreements and make sure the government is in compliance. But they were cut out of the process and only learned about it from AT&T, according to the officials and internal emails obtained by ProPublica, the one page notice to the telecom giant said that Rubio and Morocco had determined your award is not aligned with agency priorities and made a determination that continuing this program is not in the national interest, the notice added. Immediately cease all activities. The notice came as an emailed PDF and not through the normal file management and correspondence system, which led multiple OIG officials to question whether anyone even looked at the contract's basic information like its statement of work, much less conducted a careful review. David Black, an attorney specializing in government contracts, said that the law requires contract officers to approve termination notices and that the episode with the OIG raises questions about Morocco's claims in court about careful reviews. Quote it suggests the process was done very hastily, he said. On the ground. In the places where the aid kept starvation at bay and deadly viruses in check, program directors say there will now be little to stop those threats. Quote what really bothers me is that we're just looking at numbers. We're not thinking about real people who are actually going to suffer the consequences of these terminations. That's Dr. Anya Gephardt, the acting president of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS foundation, which had HIV programs terminated in Eswatini, Lesotho and Tanzania. I hope I'm saying those properly. Let me know if I'm not Pulling treatment away from pregnant women means children will be infected with HIV in the weeks ahead, gipphart said. And doing it so suddenly means other governments and donors don't have the opportunity to Step in. Half of the children who are undiagnosed and untreated for HIV die before their first birthday. Quote. We don't have the luxury of waiting months and months to get this back on track, she said. In Uganda, Baylor College of Medicine Children's foundation, which is funded by usaid, treats tens of thousands of patients for HIV and tuberculosis. In addition, it has for years been one of the only organizations in the country that helps contain Ebola outbreaks, including the current one, which has so far killed two people and infected at least eight others. Earlier this month, the US Government issued the foundation a waiver and said it could continue its life saving work. So those who run the foundation were shocked to receive a termination notice. Just hours later, the Foundation's executive director, Dr. Dithin Karaga, told ProPublica his staff had just begun contact tracing patients with Ebola. He said they will likely now have to halt all US Funded operations and hope that the Uganda Health Ministry can step in. The patients will be told that we're closing, karaga said. They've relied on our system and support for quite a few years. We saved lives. So anybody who wants to read this article, it's ropublica.org and please support them and their reporting because it's important that we stay aware of just what's being done and by whom. Everybody stick around. We'll be right back with the good news. Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news. And if you have any good news stories at all, or confessions or corrections, especially pronunciation corrections, or you want to give a shout out to somebody, whether it's a loved one or a small business that could use a boost, or your small business or any self shout out and of course shout outs to government programs that have helped you or a family member or a loved one, whether it's the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, which is on the chopping block in this latest Republican budget, uh, snap, wic, uh, Head Start, great VA health care you've received. Any government program that has helped you or a family member or a loved one send that to us, including student debt relief. And all you got to do to get your stuff submitted to the good news and have it read on air is pay your pod pet tax, which means just attach a photo of your pet or photos, plural of your pets, uh, pet or pets. If you want us to guess the breed of your shelter pup or kitty or turtle or whatever, you can ask us and submit those answers. We'll see if we can guess to the best of our ability. If you don't have that, you can send us an adoptable pet in your area. We'll see if we can find them a home. If you don't have that, any animal photo will do, especially baby animal photos. And of course, if you don't have any animal photos available, your baby pictures are always welcome here at the Daily Beans. We love them. Send them to us. And we're also doing bird watching for the foreseeable future, which is a picture of an actual bird, or you and your family and friends flipping off Trump and Musk properties. We accept those as pod pet tax payment. So thank you so much. Send it all to dailybeanspod.com click on contact. First up, Polly Wally. Just want a doodle. No pronouns. Dark times. But you are rays of sunshine. Thank you for your steadfast reporting. It's a lifeline for many of us. I hope Dana reads this. Oh, you want to take this?
Sure. I hope Dana reads this because her Rapanahawk. Rap. Rapanahawk. Rapahannock. Pronunciation was to die for. Say Rapanahawk however you want. It was funnier each time. Rana Rappahannock. Rappahannock. Rappahannock. Rapanahawk. I know that's not what it is because that was the dyslexic version. Rappahannock. Uh, the origin is Algonquin. It's an Algonquin word. Uh, wow. All right, here we go. Uh, Lipahan or Topahanic for some sources, meaning river of quick, beautiful river. As you are both beautiful beans. And quick. Sharing pics of. I know I fucked up those two, but. Sharing pics of two new members of our family, Shusha and Tycho, both rescued last year. She's a doll and he's a rascal. But you can see they found a way to get along.
Yeah, by not looking at each other.
Oh, my God. The last picture. Close your legs, ma'am. Or sir.
That's a lewd doing a lewd. Adorable. Thank you, Polly Wally. All right. From Bri Pronoun. She and her hi Beans team just got word that public comment for the National Environmental Policy act is open to the public. We have until March 27 to submit comment before the National Environmental Policy act, uh, law is rescinded. This is a 50 year bedrock of American conservation. Please get the word out through your platform so we can flood the Federal Register with dissent. Without these regulations in place, backroom deals for projects could easily be fast passed without proper review of the environmental impact on our local communities, with tremendous consequences to our more vulnerable communities. Also, contact your local representatives at the state and federal level on the dangers. I've included a link below. We'll have it in the show notes to the page for reference. Thanks for all you're doing since finding your podcast via Blue Sky. You're helping us stay sane in these increasingly dark times. Stay strong and hug a tree and we'll have that link Like I said in the show notes. Thanks so much, Bri. That's wonderful.
All right. This is from Christine and I like the way you spell your name, Christine. Pronouns she and her hi Beans, Queens. I'm so grateful for both of you. My shout out is to my granddaughters Ash Ashburn, Virginia Ice Skating team. Hold on, let me put the emphasis on a different place. My shout out is to my granddaughter's Ashburn, Virginia ice skating team. Their ice skating community lost some very special souls the day. Oh that's right, the day the airplane crashed into Potomac Bay. Their missing presence at the ice skating rink is definitely noticeable and heartbreaking in spite of the sadness and noticeable holes in their hearts for their missing ice skating champions. My granddaughter Synchronized Ice Skating Team participated in a competition in Hershey, Pennsylvania a few weeks ago and were crowned undefeated season champions.
Nice.
My pod pet tax is a picture of our granddaughter with my cherished late golden retriever, Bailey. She was the sweetest girl in the world. Also my daughter and my award winning granddaughter. Girls rule.
Look at these fantastic photos.
That is fantastic indeed.
Look at that medal. That is some heavy metal. Loving it. Thank you Christine.
Good shit.
All right. From Sherry Pronoun. She and her hello Beans Queens. I'm a newcomer to your podcast, but I love them all. Welcome. The two of you do some amazing things. I start every morning with your voices in my head and I don't know how I could cope without your humor and insight into what's happening. I want to give a shout out to our ragtag group of retired women, Barbara, Francie, Nancy, Dawn, Debbie, Betty, Jane, Margo, Candy and myself who've been doing good trouble for democracy since 2017. We met through the Indivisible movement at, ah, a town hall meeting for our awful Congressman. For years you could find us every Monday protesting outside said congressman's office. Every Thursday protesting outside our state representative's office. Once a week gathering at Jan's house to write postcards for different candidates and once a week meeting at a restaurant to share a meal and maybe a glass of wine or two. We worked for better and many other local candidates. The candidates we worked for wanted to Call us the granny brigade, but we said, no fucking way. We're the blue wave, bitches. The bwbs. I love that some, um, of us are precinct chairs. Many of us are deputy voter registrars, and most of us work at the polls. We've all block walked, phone banked, marched, and registered voters. We even put up sticky notes in bathroom stalls of many restaurants and businesses telling women their votes are private. Private. And to vote for Kamala Harris. Sadly, we're also aging out. Some have memory issues. Two were diagnosed with cancer this past year. No doubt we will all too soon begin losing members. So I'm sharing a few photos of us in action. We're all devastated by the election results, but we'll keep on keeping on. I also volunteer for our local animal shelter. So for my pod pet tax, I'm sharing a picture of one of my fosters, Nala. She fell asleep on my book one night. Okay. So first of all, this is fantastic.
Yeah.
Second of all, I recommend you grab all one of Yalls granddaughters and bring them in and have them post you guys on TikTok.
Yes.
Doing this shit. Because right now, um, like, folks in the boomer and Gen X generations that are doing this kind of stuff are going viral with their groups, and so you could draw a lot of attention and maybe raise a little money to help pay for all the good trouble you're causing. So thank you so much, Sheri. And look at the kitty asleep on the book.
I know. That is so sweet.
That's adorable.
It is.
My cat just puts his whole butt on the book. I can't even. Can't.
I can't. Oh, my God. This is from Janine. Pronouns. She and her. Hello, lovely ladies. I could not start my day without your, uh, Malef. Hold on. Malefice. Hold on. On. Mellifluous.
Mellifluous.
Mellifluous.
Mellifluous.
Are you all enjoying this at home? Mellifluous. M. Voices. Mellifluous voices in my ear. So I thank you for making me laugh, even when it's no laughing matter. You know what I need? I'm just gonna take a break. I need other people who have never heard these words before at least write in and be like, I have never heard that word before. So I feel at least I know I. Okay. God, I hope there's at least one person out there. I attended the principal's first summit the other weekend in D.C. and I was there to see Harry Dunn moderate a panel of officers who testified to the January 6th committee. It was so inspiring. Talking about getting into, quote, good trouble. I felt like he was talking straight to me on the train home. I thought, what could I do to make a difference? A Republican congressman has not been available to his constituents. So I decided, why do we need to wait for him to plan a town hall? The next day, I booked a room at the local library, posted the community meeting on, um, Facebook, and called his office to invite him. They declined. Three times in only six days. We spread the word to fill the meeting room, had folks sharing stories of their essential public service and the importance of their federal programs. We brainstormed action items for homework, and we created tons of energy. Thanks, Harry, for the inspiration. I'm sharing a picture of the full room and one of me and Harry from a previous summit. Go, Dukes. This is a fantastic picture of you and Harry, by the way. And I love how many people are in this room and that. You did it. You did this. You did this.
Oh, that's so cool. Like, if your rep isn't gonna have a town hall, have one and invite him. Make them turn it down. I love this. That is some amazing, uh, good trouble and community organizing and networking. That's so cool. Thank you so much. And I'll pass this on to Harry as well. You know, we have a. I don't know if you know Janine. I host a podcast with Harry called Clean up on aisle 45. We talked about that. Principles first summit. Um, so thank you for that submission. Next up, anonymous pronoun. She and her. I'm listening to the latest refried beans from March 1, 2021, which I miss missed when it was just fried beans. I. I love your misheard lyrics section. You should really bring that back. When, uh, my daughter was little, she absolutely loved I Want to be Sedated by the Ramones. It was literally her favorite song. And when she was a toddler, we played it for eight hours straight from Denver [Riggleman back to Kansas City on repeat. Because she would throw a fit if we turned it off.
Oh, my God.
Even if she fell asleep when she got old enough to sing it, she thought it was I want a pizza, baby instead of I want to be sedated. Did. Even more hilarious is the morning when I asked her if she farted because something smelled terrible. And she said, yes, mama. And, uh, it was, uh, p. Deadly. It was a padly. I asked what a padly. You know, a salon. Padley Salon. Padley. Silent but deadly.
Oh, my God.
Trying to maintain my composure, I said over enunciating, honey, that's Silent but deadly. Oh, she said, that makes a lot more sense. Anyway, that kid is a rot diet. Earlier, I sent you a story when she was 2 and talked to both Barack Obama and Joe Biden on her Elmo phone. It was hilarious. For my bod pet tax, I'm sharing a photo of my 18 year old daughter who is graduating in May with our rescue pup, Lily, who we're going to sadly have to put down within the next couple of weeks due to dementia, hers and kidney disease. I have a theory of what her main breed is, but would love your ideas. Oh, okay. This is an adorable photo. Um, what do you think?
Chihuahua Lab?
Yeah, it looks like a Chihuahua Lab to me too. I'm so with you on that. Yeah, absolutely amazing. Let us know if we got that right at all. Anonymous. And thanks to everybody for submitting your good news. We really appreciate it.
Kids do that. There's a video going around of a little ballerina. Have you seen it? And she's about to perform and she goes. And her parents go, did you just fart? And she said. I said, excuse me. I said, excuse me. Ballerinas are allowed to fart too. Ballerinas can fart too.
That's amazing.
It was very cute.
That's like the little girl. I wonder what's inside your butthole. I wonder what's inside. Is it astronauts? Is it aliens?
Oh, my God. I don't know if I've heard this.
Oh, you got to watch it. It's a banger. Anyway, thank you all so very much for sending in your good news. Uh, maybe we can find the I wonder what's inside your butthole and play play you out. Uh, but, um, we do really appreciate all your good news stories coming in. Yeah, we used to have a much longer list at the beginning of good news for things like misheard song lyrics. Who do you think the biggest idiot in the Senate is? We, you know, we have like a million games and it's. We've kind of condensed it, but literally you can send in anything you want, including misheard song lyrics, um, which are called Monda Greens, I believe. Anyway, thank you all so much. Uh, do you have any, ah, final thoughts, my good friend?
It's more of a plea, if you will. Um, I am trying to build my Instagram number, so for those of you somehow I have 114,000 blue sky followers and like 16,000 Instagram followers. And I know that it's a meta platform, but if you're still on that and you'd like to follow me on Instagram, I would love it. It's Dgcomedy. I'm just trying to build some numbers for some reasons, most mostly promotional. So thank you very much.
Yeah. These days, um, folks who want to hire you to host their galas or hire you to help them fundraise or hire you for other reasons, they really rely on how many followers you have on stuff like, ah, Facebook and Instagram and Twitter. Even though, you know, uh, despite who owns them, they still heavily rely on that. Like, if I, when I wanted to publish my book, they really cared about my Instagram numbers and I'm never on there. And I'm like, but I got like a million followers on Twitter. They're like, yeah, but what about Instagram? Instagram? And I'm like, all right, well, I'm sure if I had a million followers on Instagram, they'd be like, all right, well what about spoutable? What do you got over at Substack? What are you doing? Like, it's, you have to have all of those numbers up to get those jobs and do the good work that you want to do. So. So yeah, if you get a chance, just follow. If you're on that platform, if you haven't deleted it, um, we appreciate it.
Please don't yell at me. If you have deleted it and you're mad that I'm still on there. I have to be right now.
Yeah, yeah, yep, that's a thing. Um, maybe we should, we could start pushing, uh, these promoters and people who hire people to not have to be on those platforms. But today is not that day. So it's like the two party system and Citizens United. Like we got to work within it until we over, until we stop it from happening. Thank you all so much. 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 friends. I've been AG and I've been dg and them's the Beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Alison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they Might Be Giants and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information, please visit mswmedia.com commsw media.