Tuesday, March 4th, 2025 Today, federal workers are being asked again to provide five things they did last week and it’s going about as well as a Cybertruck strapped to a SpaceX rocket on Twitter; DOGE is pressing to check benefit payments against IRS tax records; the National Institute of Health’s ban on renewing senior scientists adds to the assault on it’s in-house research; Trump firings at NOAA will impact how we get weather reports; JD Vance is being rebuked by NATO allies and the Pope; a USAID official has been placed on leave after saying Trump’s barriers to programs will cause preventable death; a top HHS spokesperson has resigned after clashing with RFK Jr.; the Trump regime is bribing SEC employees to resign because they know it’s legally difficult to fire them; and Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
Tuesday, March 4th, 2025
Today, federal workers are being asked again to provide five things they did last week and it’s going about as well as a Cybertruck strapped to a SpaceX rocket on Twitter; DOGE is pressing to check benefit payments against IRS tax records; the National Institute of Health’s ban on renewing senior scientists adds to the assault on it’s in-house research; Trump firings at NOAA will impact how we get weather reports; JD Vance is being rebuked by NATO allies and the Pope; a USAID official has been placed on leave after saying Trump’s barriers to programs will cause preventable death; a top HHS spokesperson has resigned after clashing with RFK Jr.; the Trump regime is bribing SEC employees to resign because they know it’s legally difficult to fire them; and Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
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Stories:
USAID official placed on leave after saying barriers to lifesaving programs will cause ‘preventable death’ | NBC News
Top HHS spokesperson quits after clashing with RFK Jr. | POLITICO
Some Federal Agencies Offer Staff $25,000 Or More To Quit—As Trump Aims To Cut Workforce | Forbes
NIH ban on renewing senior scientists adds to assaults on its in-house research | Science
DOGE presses to check federal benefits payments against IRS tax records | The Washington Post
Ohio's J.D. Vance rebuked by the Pope, denounced by NATO allies, ridiculed for bizarre rant - Marilou Johanek | Ohio Capital Journal
Good Trouble:
The Heritage Foundation DOGE Survey
From The Good News
Letters From An American | Heather Cox Richardson | Substack
AI video of Zelensky doing to Trump
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Um, MSW Media Media. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Tuesday, March 4, 2025. Today, federal workers are being asked again to provide five things they did last week. And it's going about as well as a cybertruck strapped to a SpaceX rocket on Twitter. Doge is pressing to check benefit payments against IRS tax records. The National Institute of Health's ban on renewing senior scientists adds to the assault on its in house research. Trump firings at noaa, the national oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will impact how we get weather reports. J.D. vance is being rebuked by NATO allies and the pop. A U.S. aid official has been placed on leave after saying Trump's barriers to programs will cause preventable death. A top HHS spokesperson has resigned after clashing with RFK Jr. And the Trump regime is bribing SEC employees to resign because they know it's legally difficult to fire them. I'm Alison Gill.
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
Hey, Dana, it's Tuesday, and did you see what Pete Kegseth did today?
Uh, I did not. What did he do?
Oh, God. So Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense, renamed Fort Benning down in the south to Fort Moore after a Vietnam hero because Fort Benning was a Confederate guy. They named it in 1918 after a Confederate general or whatever. And so when they did that whole renaming commission to yank the names of Confederate generals from our bases, that's, you know, that's why he did that and renamed it Fort Moore. Today Kegseth is renaming it Fort Benning.
Of course he is, but in order.
To make it look like he's not naming it after the Confederate general Benning, he's naming it after a, uh, guy from World War I. What?
He's naming it after Annette Benning. I mean, what is.
I will sell this house today. It's going to be. Yeah, uh, um, no, but what a dick. Like, what a seventh grade move. Like, we're going to call it Fort Benning again, But it's the World War I Benning libs, so don't get all mad and woke. Um, just ridiculous.
I really dislike so many people in this administration. I want to say all, but I haven't met all of them, but I think there's a good chance it's all of them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember. Uh, was it, I think, just yesterday, or maybe it was on the Sunday shows when Senator Murphy was, uh, like, asked about, does he think it was a mistake now to vote for Marco Rubio? He's like, yeah, that was stupid. Sorry.
Yeah, like, too late. It's too late.
Stand up. Although. How did you not see it coming? I saw it coming, yeah. I don't know.
Anyway, I have a question for you before we get into this, like, the quick hits that we do. I saw a headline that was basically like, the people in it was one of the branches. Uh, any trans service members in one of the branches needs to quit the military by march, let's say 26. Is it me, or can people not just quit the military? Isn't that called going awol? Like, can you just quit the military?
Yeah. No, you have to be administratively separated by the military. The military has to do that.
Yeah, that's what I thought. Okay. I just want to. You can't just, like, write up your.
Own DD from a veteran in crayon and say trans. You know, you can't. I want a bunch of.
They're threatening to have people quit and otherwise they'll get fired. And I have a feeling what they're doing is they're having all these people quit for fear. And then the courts are going to come back and be like, this is unconstitutional. And so many trans people will have already put in that whatever, if you can, your notice to the military. I mean, it's just fucking bizarre. Yeah.
I would have given my two weeks if I knew I could.
Right?
You can just do that. Yeah, right. Oh, my God. Also, just. Uh, so you know, we have a new episode of cleanup on L45 coming out tomorrow. Harry and I just recorded it. We go way in depth on the Hampton Dellinger preliminary injunction issued by Amy Berman, Judge Jackson, if you're nasty. Um, and then also one other thing I wanted to, uh, relate. We were laughing pretty hard yesterday at us trying to pronounce Rappahannock. And some people thought we were laughing at the, you know, the native name of. Of. Of.
Oh, my God. No, we were.
No, no, I just want to be. If you. If you're a new listener. See, we have this thing where people send us on purpose, hard to pronounce stuff, um, because it's hard to pronounce. Especially we had an issue with malifluous later on in the show as well. And all the laughing is laughing at ourselves. It's all self deprecating. It's got nothing. The. The name of the place or the thing that we can't pronounce. I just wanted to be very clear on that because we. We didn't make that clear yesterday. And if that was the first episode you'd listen to, you'd be like, why are These making fun of Rappahannock. Like, I just wanted to be clear about that.
Now those bitches are making fun of Dana because I pronounced it four different ways, trying to do it and. And earnestly trying to pronounce it. Like, earnestly trying to pronounce words I've never seen before.
Yeah, that wasn't purposeful mispronunciation.
No, it's. It's not often that I will do that, that's for sure.
Yeah. Anyway, so we just wanted to make sure that we completely, 100% respect the names of towns and cities and rivers and things that we are very not good at pronouncing. Just, uh, wanted to make that clear. All right, we have a lot of news to get to today, but first we've got some quick hits. All right, five bullets 2.0 is on. And like I said, it's going about as well as a cyber exploding cybertruck strapped to an exploding SpaceX rocket strapped to the rapid, uh, what is it called? Unscheduled. Rapid. Unscheduled disassembly of Twitter. It's just a clusterfuck, you guys. So, like, there are people from commerce getting emails from Pete Hegseth, um, to. To do. There are people who are trying to respond, but they can't because they can't. The email that they are responding to won't accept encrypted emails, so they're asking to be sent unencrypted, which is a. Not good. Um, it's. It's like just a huge, uh, cluster. People are being told, like, don't respond. Okay, no, now do respond. And, uh, I did put something up on my blog, uh, with a little guidance on how to respond to these things. And my number one guidance is to make sure that, you know, you send a plan for this going forward, like a plan to cover every week on how you're going to respond to your supervisor and get their sign off. That way, if they fire you because of your responses or because of how you're responding to the five bullets, you can say, no, no, my supervisor said that this is the way I should respond, and here's the email showing that. So get your.
And also P.S. uh, Trump is on record saying that these are going out to people just to make sure there's actually people receiving them. So that was his reasoning, which is such bullshit. So it sounds like as long as you return the email. Oh, okay, well, there's someone in that position. Uh, uh, uh, make sure you are following people, like Alison's advice and and, and the people that know about this, because every single thing that's happening right now feels like a setup. It just feels like a setup.
I know. Like a damned if you do, damned if you don't. Do I do it? Do I not do it? What if I do it and they don't like it? What if I don't do it and they don't like it? It's just, that's the point, you know, is to cause confusion so chaos and degrade people and humiliate people. It's disgusting.
Well, speaking of humiliated, this one's from NBC. An official @ the federal foreign aid agency targeted by the Trump administration with layoffs, cuts and funding obstacles was placed on leave Sunday after saying those moves will lead to, quote, preventable death and threats to US Security. They said the truth out loud and they got rid of them. In a memo to staff, including those placed on leave or laid off, Nick Enrich said the U.S. agency for International Development has not implemented, quote, life saving humanitarian assistance under a temporary waiver to pause on foreign aid issued by Secretary of State Marco I live in a couch Rubio. And this a, quote, this will no doubt result in preventable death, destabilization and threats to national security on a massive scale. That's what Enrique wrote in the memo obtained by NBC News.
Yeah, and, uh, I think somebody said on Twitter that Marco Rubio sunk down so far into that couch that.
That J.D.
Vance wants to it. Next up from Politico, the top spokesperson at Health and Human Services has abruptly quit after clashing with Robert F. Kennedy Jr's brain worm and his close aides over their management of the agency amid growing measles outbreaks. Right. Especially in Texas. And that's according to two people familiar with the matter. This is Thomas Corey. He announced Monday he had resigned, effective immediately, just two weeks after joining the department as its Assistant Secretary for Public affairs. The sudden departure was prompted by a growing disagreement with Kennedy and his principal deputy Chief of Staff, Stephanie Spear, over the management of the health Department. That's according to two people who were granted anonymity to speak candidly. Now, Corey had also grown uneasy with Kennedy's muted response to the intensifying outbreak of measles in Texas that has left one child dead.
Hey, that's all I have to say about that. Uh, last in the quick hits with this one's from Forbes, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Education reportedly offered workers $25,000 or more to resign or retire in recent days as the Trump administration is expected to make the most sweeping staff reductions thus far in the coming weeks. The SEC offered some employees $50,000 to retire, leave their jobs in an email Friday with a March 21 deadline to apply for that. The Education Department also, in a Friday email, offered some of its workers $25,000 to resign or retire. And that's according to multiple people. That said employees were given a deadline on Monday at 11:59pm to accept the offer, which would take effect March 31. Federal agencies have, quote, buyout authority via what's known as the Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment Authority, which allows agencies that are downsizing to offer employees up to $25,000 to voluntarily separate via resignation or retirement. That's according to the Office of Personnel Management. Eligible employees include those in surplus positions or, quote, who have skills, who are no longer needed in the work force. That's fucking vague. Especially with the people that are doing the firing.
Yeah, and that, um, vsip, which is, you know, the Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment Authority only goes up to 25,000. So I'm not sure how they're able to offer some of these other guys 50,000 to resign. But here's what they're trying to do. They know it's really hard to fire federal employees, and there are a lot of legal barriers, especially with a reduction in force. And so they're trying to avoid that by getting people to resign voluntarily. That's why they did the fork in the road. That's why they're doing this. That's why they're doing the return to office order to make people hate having to come into work that, you know, were otherwise working remotely. And now they're going to jam them into a bullpen with folding tables and chairs. That's the idea, is to get people to resign so they don't have to face the legal consequences of possibly possible legal consequences of firing them.
So 100%.
Yeah. Anyway, um, that the cruelty is the point. Always has been. And we'll continue to cover it for you. We have more news to get to with the hot notes, but we have to take a quick break. Everybody stick around. We'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back.
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Welcome back. It's time for the Hot Notes. Hot Notes. All right, first up from the post at dozens of National Weather Service offices across the country, staffing levels were low well before President Trump took office. And as the new administration announced mass terminations this week, current and former staffers say an exodus of new hires and veterans will hinder the agency's ability to monitor and predict weather hazards. The administration let go of meteorologists, hydrologists and technicians that help inform daily weather forecasts in places including Boston and Boise, Idaho. It fired scientists who build and improve and maintain weather models that form the backbone of weather forecasting around the globe. Staff at offices responsible for warning the public about tsunamis, tornadoes and hurricanes lost their jobs, as did an entire team dedicated to communicating NOAA's work and science to the public. At the same time, buyouts from Musk's Doge Service that went into effect Friday effectively shrank the weather service ranks by about 170 positions. That's according to multiple officials. Combined with Thursday's firings, which the officials said surpassed 100 within the weather service and more than 600 overall across NOAA, its parent agency. The government climate and weather Enterprises workforce contracted by more than 6% in just two days. A national Weather Service employees organization, which is the union representing about 4,000 workers argued the changes, part of Trump's swift and broad moves to shrink the federal workforce, could leave some offices unable to track weather hazards around the clock. About half of the weather service's forecast offices were already understaffed. I've been saying this, Dana. I'm, um, like, we were already woefully understaffed across the federal government. And that's according to a congressional analysis released last year. When Trump took office and instituted a government wide hiring freeze, it further strained the staff, forcing some to work double shifts to ensure all day coverage. Current. That's according to current and former weather Service staff. So the loss of any staff members in those offices makes it that much harder to ensure that the agency can maintain coverage in the event of unexpected severe weather. That's what Louis Uchinelli, who served as Weather service director from 2013 to 2022, said. For example, he suggested, what if an office lacked a key equipment technician on the midnight shift and a radar system went down right now, uh, jobs were also eliminated at NOAA's National Hurricane center and Storm Prediction Center. That's what Rick Spinrad, who served as the NOAA administrator under Joe Biden, said. The offices produce forecasts and analysis that inform work done by meteorologists and local forecast offices around the country, as well as private sector meteorologists and the media and dickheads sitting at the Resolute desk with a Sharpie. And the cuts also impacted. I added that part. And the cuts also impacted Noah's Tsunami Warning centers in Alaska and Hawaii. Sure, that's just fine. That's according to a person familiar. Even before those layoffs, scientists at the centers logged overtime hours a bunch to ensure the public was apprised of tsunami threats ahead of an out. Um, because, you know. Well, it's cool though, Dana, because earthquakes only happen between, you know, during banking hours.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. Now, ahead of an outbreak of severe storms forecast across the south next week, additional recent changes by the administration could limit the work of meteorologists and, uh, what they're able to do when surveying damage or investigating the path and intensity of any tornadoes. Technicians who repair radar systems across the country, they lost their jobs, too, as did several from a team who handled larger repair projects at the weather service's National Reconditioning center in Missouri. That's, uh, according to Jaron Kirsca, who was fired Thursday after leaving the private sector to join the center as a director just this past September, quote, we're falling even more into, we just can't support the mission anymore. That's what Kurska says. Now they're just, they just terminated all probationary people, too. We are screwed now. As much as 25% of the staff at NOAA's Environmental Modeling center was cut Thursday. That's what Spinrad said. That's a blow to an office that faces a complex task of building, improving and maintaining the computer models that serve as a foundation for weather prediction. The center handles more than 20 numerical weather prediction systems programs that combine mathematical models of earth systems with observations of current conditions to produce weather predictions. Before logging off Thursday, Tom deliberto changed his out of office reply. He was out of the office permanently, and he recalled including that statement in his out of office reply because he'd been fired. He was among many probationary colleagues fired, including those in External affairs and contributors to climate.gov, other communications positions, and crisis communications staff were also fired. NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, meanwhile, wrote on Twitter that its communication services, quote, will be taking an indefinite hiatus because of a reduction in staff. A message on NOAA's External affairs website said, thank you for visiting NOAA External Affairs. Due to the recent layoffs at noaa, uh, all members of the external affairs team were relieved of their duties. De Liberto was two weeks away from completing his probationary period as a federal employee. Two weeks working as a contractor for the agency. Since 2010, he helped the agency communicate weather and climate science to the public, even receiving a regional Emmy nomination for informational videos he produced for the agency, quote. Being a federal employee at NOAA was a dream come true, literally, he said in his farewell letter to his colleagues. I've wanted to work at NOAH since I was in elementary school. He had prepared the letter weeks ago, anticipating that this day would come.
Oh, uh, these stories, they are heartbreaking. They are heartbreaking. How many people are being affected by this? My God. This one's from science.org amid the turmoil, one scientist held on to his position at the U S. National Institutes of Health, which is the nih. Despite the job losses since President Donald Trump took office, he wasn't caught in the firings of workers who still had probationary status because he had already spent three years as a senior scientist in the NIH's in house research program anchored in Bethesda, Maryland. There he had cutting edge resources and had a chance to do, quote, blue sky research with high stakes but potentially high reward. A board of outside researchers had even recommended him for NIH's tenure track, which could lead to a permanent position. But last week, his supervisor delivered bad news to the scientist, who asked to remain anonymous for the story. He could soon be out of a job because the Trump administration has imposed a new restriction on employment that could push out thousands of NIH's senior scientists. The agency cannot retain scientists in a one year to four year positions that have long been routinely renewed. The scientist reaches his renewal date this week and will be put on administrative leave without pay if an appeal fails. The rug would basically be pulled out from under me, he said. It's the Trump administration's latest blow to the NIH's $5.2 billion intramural program, less well known than the agency's $39 billion extramural program, which gives grants to researchers at outside institutions. It includes basic research labs and a research hospital that treats patients with rare diseases and help showcase NIH's work and build support from Congress. The hold on renewals could eventually affect the vast majority of the program's staff scientists, research fellows and tenure track investigators, most of whom are hired under a statute known as Title 42. It allows federal agencies to recruit talented scientists by paying salaries above the federal pay scale, subject to periodic renewal. Although NIH investigators who have been granted tenure have a type of Title 42 appointment that doesn't require renewal, those tenured researchers make up just 20% of NIH's nearly 4,000 senior scientists. Several scientists who have just passed the renewal date have been given a reprieve, albeit without pay until 8 March, while NIH acting Director Matthew Mamoli appeals the policy to his bosses at the Department of Health and Human Services. Mamoli is also hoping to restore the positions of 15 tenure tracked researchers who recently lost their jobs as part of a government wide firings of probationary work. But many NIH researchers, they're not optimistic. Also in limbo are the intramural program's trainee programs, one a post bacc program that employs some 1600 recent college graduates. It's key to staffing many labs and launching young scientists careers. One NIH senior scientist told us now, and I quote, it's incredibly well organized and it's the backbone of the intramural program. The best and the brightest apply. Foreign scientists hired under title 42 have even more reason to worry because when their jobs end, their visas require they leave the country within 60 days unless they obtain a new position. Many have put down roots. They bought houses. They have children in schools. The staff scientist had a well funded lab and tenured university position that he gave up to move to nih. If a renewal doesn't come through. And I quote, it's the end of my career. That's what the scientist said, because it would take years to rebuild his lab at another institution.
Just horrifying. I mean, these are temporary positions by design, you know.
Yeah.
So you come in, build your lab, do some work and then move on or move up or get tenured, you know, to a more permanent title 42 position. We had a lot of positions like that at the VA when we were training nurses, um, that were going to nursing school. If you have the va was attached to a medical school or, you know, attendings or fellows, you know, people who have short stints where they are and, uh, they're just like, nope, you're probationary bat. They just cut you. It's awful. Next, uh, up from the Post. Officials from Elon Musk's Dodgy Service have expressed interest in using personal tax records to check federal benefits payments for fraud, which would mobilize the IRS to drive the Trump administration's campaign to cut government spending. That's according to three people familiar Gavin Kleiger and Sam Corkos. Those are dodgy. Representatives embedded at the tax agency on Friday asked IRS lawyers to assist in creating an omnibus agreement with other federal agencies that would allow a broad swath of federal officials to cross reference benefits roles with taxpayer data. That's according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The request prompted a significant alarm within the irs. By law, taxpayer data is heavily guarded. Improper disclosure carries both civil and criminal penalties, and the AGENC closely polices how other federal officials use their systems. IRS lawyers quickly arrived at the conclusion that dodgy's request would violate privacy laws. That's according to the people. And federal statutes, uh, make it illegal for the IRS to share taxpayer data with other agencies for reasons unrelated to administering taxes. Uh, now, Kliger and Corcos, according to the records obtained by the Post, specifically mentioned investigating eligibility and fraud within student loan and grant programs and snap, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, which serves nearly 42 million Americans. The request escalates the Trump administration's increasing interest in controlling sensitive IRS data. DODGY previously asked for sweeping access to IRS systems that would have provided access to financial information on virtually every individual, business and nonprofit in the country. The Department of Homeland Security in recent days also asked the IRS for the home addresses of 700,000 people suspected of being in the country illegally, the Post reported Friday. Uh, and Kliger and Corcos are seeking to access IRS procurement systems, according to the people to audit the tax agency's contracts. So far, IRS leaders have rebuffed these inquiries, but acting Commissioner Melanie Kraus, who took over at the agency Friday night, has indicated she is interested in compliant with Dodgy's request. Clagar's agreement to work at the irs, by the way, prevents him from accessing personal taxpayer data. That's a court order right now. And Korkos has not yet been granted access to IRS systems because of just data privacy concerns. But Musk has continued to assert, without evidence, that better tracking of federal spending will help solve the nation's fiscal imbalance, most recently saying on an episode of Joe Rogan's podcast last week that Social Security is, quote, the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time and that the retirement program for seniors wastes $100 billion per year. That's just a lie to call what we pay, we pay into that. He doesn't know what that's like because he's capped male What a dick.
Uh, this last story actually love the way it's written. This is from the Ohio Journal, so remember that. This is from the Ohio Journal. J.D. vance has really done Ohio proud these last few days, hasn't he? The lapdog vice president with with evidently a lot of time on his hands has managed to be firmly rebuked by Pope Francis, denounced by outraged NATO allies, and widely ridiculed for his bizarre masculinity rant at a weekend mega fest just a month into his tenure. Way to create buzz otherwise known as acute embarrassment back home. What is wrong with JD have the wheels come all the way off? Why does the 40 year old awkwardly playing VP keep stepping in it statewide and abroad? Is the childless cat lady's charmer acting out unresolved rage from a bad place, working with some deep seated anger? Seriously, Vance manifests juvenile cringe, not sober sway as he settles into his nondescript role as an appendage in the Trump Musk administration. Even Trump won't name him a slam dunk heir apparent. Not good. Now again, this is all from the Journal. For supposed Ivy League intellectual Vance sure spout stupidity on the regular honest. Obviously you've got to be really off base on a Catholic theology for the Vatican to correct your twisted take on love with descending priorities as justification for mass deportation in Vance's God awful reading of the Christian Order of Love concept to mesh with his political ideology. Family, community and country come first and everyone outside that concentric circle later. Or not so much. Which puts migrant families outermost from Vance's constructs On brotherly love for me, but not the from outside our borders. Francis rejected the VP's sophomoric theoretical defense of the cruel immigration crackdowns as flatly wrong. He urged the misguided millennial to meditate on the parable of the good Samaritan, quote on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception. Rumor had it one day that Vance, uh, actually knew about fraternal love. Um, but, and I quote, american citizens first. Nativist Vance has no interest in building a, quote, fraternity open to all, Just an all white patriarchy focused on baby making. To that point, he started a holy war barely a week after inauguration against charitable organizations across the country that feed, clothe, and house refugees and immigrants, like the Catholic Charities and Catholic relief groups. By implying they perform their labor of love for federal money, not humanitarian concerns. Vance, the shameless election denier in service to an authoritarian regime, lawlessly dismantling a democratic republic, had the towering audacity and historical blindness to lecture his European audience on democracy, downplay threats from Russia and China, and publicly court a far right German party, which is the AfD that many Germans consider the heirs of Nazi ideas and that sanitizes the holocaust. His blistering dress down of European leaders rightly dismayed over rising extremism and history repeating itself, coupled with his denounced affection for far right politicians a week before a crucial German election, US Election interference was obscene. The last thing the world needs now is a US vice president trashing 80 years of foreign policy with America's closest and most enduring friends. But that's what a dangerously reckless Vance did on the world stage to compete with Elon Musk and boost his nascent brand as an uber nihilist bent on destroying plurality for purity and ceding a new world order. It's wing nuttery on a disturbingly dark scale. He morphed from never trumper to groveling suck up for unimaginable power. But he can't quite pull it off as a poser with a makeover beard, spewing stupid and offensive and strange. Wow. Vance has been doing us proud by attacking friends, embracing enemies, insulting humanitarians, drawing papal ire, um, pontificating laughably on what makes a man a man.
Just so well written.
It's so good.
Had to include it today. Just. He's.
He's such a douchebag. Oh, my God.
Devout Catholic, and the Pope's like, you're a dick, bro.
Yeah.
Uh, all right, uh, time for some good trouble. What are you guys doing? All right, we got this good truck Trouble Suggestion from a listener. Dear beans Queens, here's some good trouble. The Heritage foundation, the Heritage Society is conducting a survey. It wants to know what you think about Doge. Uh, an invitation to complete the survey was accidentally sent to somebody who's not a Heritage Society member. Oopsie. So who wants to offer some motherfucking feedback? Please share with a friend or a thousand. And who better to do that than the beans queens? So we'll have a link to the Heritage foundation survey on Doge in the show notes. Let's let them know how we feel. All right, everybody, stick around. We'll be right back with the good news. Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news, everyone. Then, good news, everyone. Good news. And if you have any good news confessions, corrections, especially pronunciation corrections, please send them to us. Any shout outs that you want to send to yourself, a loved one, uh, somebody doing great community organizing, small business in your area that could use a boost. Your small business let us know what you're making and creating. We have tons of amazing entrepreneurs who listen to the beans or, uh, shout outs to government programs that have helped you or a loved one. Whether it's Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, snap, wic, the Affordable Care act, um, great VA healthcare you've received, or maybe student debt relief. We want to hear those stories, too. Any good news you have, and all you got to do to submit your good news and have it read on the air is pay your pod pet tax. That just means attach a photo of your pet. And, uh, if you want us to guess the breeds in your shelter pet, we can try that. If you don't have a pet, you can send an adoptable pet in your area, and we'll see if we can help find them a forever home. If you don't have that, any animal photo will really do. We really love baby animals. I'm a capybara fan. Um, what's your favorite animal to get pictures of, Dana?
Oh, my God. Baby otters.
Baby otters. Okay. Especially a mama otter and a baby otter holding hands, floating next.
I mean, any baby animal. But I do love baby otter. I love otters in general.
They are really.
And that's exactly why. Because they hold hands when they fall asleep so they don't drift away from each other at night in the water.
I love that. I love it so much. And, uh, if you don't have any of that, send your baby photos to us. You as a baby. Your baby is a baby. Anyone is a baby. Um, except, like, anybody in the Trump Administration. I don't want to see them as babies. Uh, send those to us as well. And we're also accepting bird watching photos for the foreseeable future, which is actually a picture of a bird, if you like, or pictures of you and your friends and family flipping off Trump and Musk properties. Send it all to us@dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. This first picture is so cute. Um, from Emily B. Pronoun. She and her. Because I also love Heather Cox Richardson. A quick correction. Her sub stack is called Letters from an American. Oh, what did I say? Letters from America.
That's. Anyway, I imagine it was something like that.
Letters from an American. In fact, I'm a relatively new listener to the Daily Beans, who learned about you from something of yours that Heather, uh, reshared on Blue Sky.
How nice.
Appreciate your work. Thank you. Yeah, she is a genius. Blows me away talking to that woman every time I see her. It's just like. It's like when I used to watch Gore Vidal, um, give lectures. Like, I just hang on every word that she has to say. Photo is of my beautiful rescue pup, Jade, who has been part of our family for almost nine years. Look how beautiful Jade is.
I love that.
Um, and that looks like an exceptional woobie, that. That blankie, which also, by the way, we love if anybody has a story or a picture of a wubby or a stuffy or a blankie that's been in your family forever, we love those, too.
Sure. For sure.
All right.
This is from Nick. Pronouns, he and him. Hello, Beans. Queens. I'm a special education teacher in Milwaukee. Thank you, Nick. I have been working to force our Democratic governor to stand up against the Republican legislature to fund our public schools because just last year, more than half of the districts in the state had to go to referendum. This puts the burden on taxpayers instead of using our tax money to fund all of Wisconsin schools rural, urban, and suburban. If that wasn't big Enough, fight. The DOJ's new snitch forum went live this weekend trying to catch us teachers supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion. I mean, as a special education teachers, we can check all of those boxes by the time the bell rings in the morning. No shit, right? That was my interjection. My wife, who is brilliant and a bit of a good troublemaker, made a submission and I thought I would share it. It reads, Ms. Crabapple and Principal Skinner were in the closet making babies, and I saw one of the babies and the bay looked at me. She also included a picture of Ralph Wiggum from the Simpsons picking his nose.
Awesome.
Oh, my God. For my pet tags, there's a picture of my amazing daughter enjoying a hot cocoa on the streets of Chicago, happily flipping the bird to the Trump property in the background. Or as it was it at me. Probably him.
Probably him. Lovely. Thank you so much for that.
Love it.
Oh, and I like how they gave us the form there. That's so cool. Bartholomew J. Simpson, Springfield Elementary. Ms. M. Crabapple and Principal Skinner were in the closet making babies. That's amazing. Next up from Dean trademark. Pronouns, he and him. Hello, queenage of the beanage. I'm a fairly new listener thanks to my brother Guy. Is it G y Guy in Billings, Montana? And I love every second I get to spend with y'all. Thank you, Dean™. I'm a retired fourth grade teacher in Seattle. It's teacher day in the good news. This is awesome. Recently, a former student of mine reached out and asked if I would agree to be interviewed on her podcast, the view from 4ft and 3 inches. That's the name of the podcast. Cassidy Huff was born with a rare genetic type of dwarfism called Conradi Hunerman syndrome, which affects her entire body. She has spent her first 18 years in and out of the hospital and now encourages others to find their own voice and advocate for what they believe in. She was a wonderful presence in my classroom. She continues to inspire as a disability activist, and I would love to widen her reach and recommend her cast as much as possible. We'll have a link to, uh, Cassidy Huff's podcast in the show Notes for my Podpet Tax. Here's my housemate's cat, Fritz, who came, uh, from a home of abuse and neglect. He was incredibly skittish and hissy for several months after he arrived. But now, more than two years later, he's as comfy in his skin as it's possible to be. And he runs the house with an iron paw. He's loved and he knows it. Love what y'all do and hope you keep it up as long as possible. Slava Ukraine. Look at the baby. Look at the toes. Oh, I want to pet the belly. Dean, is it a trap? Can I pet the belly? I love this. Thank you.
So good. Cutie, cutie. Uh, all right. This is from Sam Pronoun. She and her greetings, Beans. I'm a relatively new listener. Welcome to the family, Sam. And now use the podcast as my primary news source. I was happy to hear in last week's letters that I am not the only one that sings Daily Beans. Daily beans to myself throughout the day. Here's a bit of good news. Gen Z is on it. At least a good number. My kiddo is graduating college with honors in a few months and rather go into corporate world. He's choosing to become an inner city public school elementary teacher. Fourth generation teacher in our family. It's my glimmer of positivity in the darkness around us. Thank you for all you all are doing and for keeping us nerds singing. Daily beans, Daily Beans to get through the day. Don't currently have a pet, but here's an old picture of said Kiddo and Mr. Tamnus, no longer with us, who was adopted 11 years ago this week. Oh my God.
Mr. Tumnus is from. Who's Mr. Tumnus from? Is it the lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe? Um, I can't remember. Yeah. Narnia. The Chronicles of Narnia. Look at that. Mr. Tumnus, what a beauty. How adorable. Thank you for that. Is that a whippet? I don't know. He's pretty cool. Or a greyhound. One of those racy dogs for sure. And uh, yeah, that's the thing about they might be giant songs. You get them stuck in your head. They're earworms. Not brain worms, but earworms. Uh, next up, Anonymous pronoun she and her loverly liguminati. This is less a good news than it is my duty to my mom. She was a Republican until 2016 and is currently 85 years old. Uh, Anonymous, you and I have a lot in common. She put me a liberal onto Jack Unjustified and then the Daily Beans podcast and I can't thank her enough. That is where your mom and my mom differ. My mom cannot send a text message, so she's certainly not listening to any podcasts. But uh, her a lot of her friends listen and tell her about it. So if you're a friend of my mom, tell her I said hi. I shared a gif I made using Elon's foot washing video with my family and my brother in law returned an AI video of Zelensky doing uh, of Zelensky doing this to Trump. Uh, what we would love to have seen Friday. Instead of being as diplomatic as one could be in an ambush, my sweet mom wanted to be sure you saw it. I expect you have. It's literally your job to review this material. But we must. We need to be sure. Oh, I'd love to hear Dana and Allison swapping to read headlines at the top of the show like Allison and Andy do. Or keep doing what you're doing and I'll keep listening. Podpet Tax is our newest adoption, Quigley. He joins Juno, long haired Tortie and Father Dougal McGuire. The Atomic Brown tabby with a bottle brush tail. Quigs is not yet a year old while the olds are turning 12 this year. Okay, I have to know where you got Father Dougal McGuire from. Uh, @ these sweet, beautiful babies. Are they part Maine coon? They're just lovely.
They are hairy, I guess. Furry. They're furry.
Thanks. Thank you. Anonymous.
All right, well, I get the one about me. That's fine. This is from Anonymous Pronoun. She and her so great to get a hug from Dana at the HRC gala in Boston on Saturday. I am kind of a world renowned hugger. I just want people to know that. Yeah, I didn't want to monopolize your time there, but do want to share this? I became a patron Daily Bean subscriber so that I get an early version of your show every day, but not because I care about about the ads. I subscribe because I'm a bad sleeper. And when I awaken in the middle of the night, I tend lately to fret about the disastrous words and actions and actions or inactions of Elon and the Felon and those soulless, corrupt Congressional Republicans. It's tough to get back to sleep in the midst of obsessing over all of that. My antidote at 4am is to click on Daily Beans, Tuck Ag and DG under my pillow, listen to the DB tune and your intro. And don't take offense at this, but you put me back to sleep in a couple of minutes. It's some subliminal message of, um, I'm gonna be okay, we're gonna be okay. That shuts off my brain and lets me go back to sleep. Don't worry, I listen again, but this time to the whole show when I get up in the morning every day. Thank you for both listens. You two are my daily dose of perspective amidst, um, too much time spent amidst hair on Fire writers and podcasts. P.S. awesome and funny speech, by the way.
Yes, you are very awesome and very funny.
This is the lovely human I told you I met at the after party. And I love that they wrote in, uh, there's a few pictures. I, uh, love the RBG Converse. Those are fucking brilliant. I don't know if you had them made or made them yourself.
Yeah, and look at those leggings with the lace on the bottom of them that go with it, right? That's so good.
And then There's a photo of me we don't have to talk about. Out. Okay. Let's keep it.
Oh, it's a lovely photo of you. They're all lovely. Look at that. Uh, yeah, um, an interesting, um, thing to tell you about a long time ago when we were doing the Mueller She Wrote podcast. Everyone's like, yeah, I kind of like to listen to it when I'm falling asleep, because you guys, like, like, help me not worry about all of the terrible that's coming out of your mouth. I don't know, maybe it's the way you say it. I think it's the swearing. But people actually. There was a nickname for it, the original Leguminati, back in the kitchen table days called it the Shit Show Lullaby.
That's awesome.
Yeah. They'd be like, I listened to you. You put me to sleep. No offense. Like, none taken. I appreciate it. I mean, to be able to read the headlines that happened today, uh, and still be able to fall asleep. I think that's quite a compliment. So thank you.
Yeah, absolutely.
All right, well, um, thanks for everybody. Thanks, uh, to everybody for submitting your good news. Please send us all the good news that you can, anything you can think of. You've been thinking about doing it for a while. Now's the day. Today's the day. Because we're approaching the taint of the week, and we would like to, uh, be stocked up on a lot of good news that we can share. I've got a ton of good trouble coming up that you're going to appreciate, and I can't wait to share it with you. Uh, so again, thanks for everything. Hey, Dana, do you have any final thoughts?
Actually, just a final thank you. When I put a call out yesterday, one, I got to see how many people listened to the end of the show, and two, how many people show up when you ask them to do something. I got a lot of new followers on Instagram from the Leguminati, so thank you, thank you, thank you.
You.
Thank you for heeding our call and just following me on that app. Uh, it helps. It helps with the numbers, and, uh, as I start posting more, you'll be able to see video content, um, some jokes from shows, photos, those sorts of things. So I'm happy to have you on Instagram. I know some of you are against Instagram, and that is okay, but for those of you that were on there, man, thank you, thank you. Thank you for joining yesterday and this morning.
Yeah, that's the life of infotainment and entertainment. And comedy and show business is sometimes you got to put up with a bunch of dick bags in order to. To get your voice out there, you know?
That's right. And it's kind of funny. We were talking about this every time, you know, about one of my shows from Instagram that I'm raising money for. I'm donating that money to a lot of the people that are opposing. So it's almost like I'm taking advantage of their platform and then I'm giving the money to charity.
Yeah, it's almost like a carbon footprint offset.
Yeah, it's not like I'm buying their ads, that's for sure.
No, no. I'm raising money to take you down and take you out on your stupid platform, you Nazis. All right, everybody, we will be back in your ears tomorrow. Um, and also, you can check out, um, tomorrow there'll be an episode of cleanup on aisle 45. So until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, and take care of your family. I've been AG and I've been dg and them's the Beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studio. 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 msw media.