Friday, April 24th, 2026 Today, the Department of Justice inspector general is investigating compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act; the Trump administration is targeting hundreds of citizens for denaturalization; a federal judge has ordered ICE to release the family of the Colorado fire bombing suspect; the White House tells the court that it’s preserving presidential records despite the Justice Department’s memo that the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional; Allison talks with John Fugelsang and Dana delivers your Good News.
Friday, April 24th, 2026
Today, the Department of Justice inspector general is investigating compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act; the Trump administration is targeting hundreds of citizens for denaturalization; a federal judge has ordered ICE to release the family of the Colorado fire bombing suspect; the White House tells the court that it’s preserving presidential records despite the Justice Department’s memo that the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional; Allison talks with John Fugelsang and Dana delivers your Good News.
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Hello, and welcome to the Daily beans for Friday, April 24, 2026. Today, the Department of Justice Inspector General is investigating compliance with Epstein Files Transparency Act. The Trump administration is targeting hundreds of citizens for denaturalization. A federal judge has ordered ICE to release the family of the Colorado fire bombing suspect. And the White House tells the court that it's preserving presidential records despite the Justice Department's memo that the Presidential Records act is unconstitutional. I'm, your host, Dana Goldberg. Hey, everyone, You've probably noticed Allison is out today, but she and John Fugelsang are going to make an appearance a little bit later in the show for Fugue saying Friday. So keep an eye out for that after some of this news. Just a quick one. The Secretary of the Navy has resigned and is being replaced by a MAGA politician and captain. Name. You ready, Hung Kao? I just. Saturday Night Live is going to have a fucking field day with this. I cannot wait for, Pete Kegseth's character, Colin Jost, to come out and do something about Hung Cow. It's going to happen. So I will show you some clips of Hong Kao. I'm going to keep saying it in Beanstalk, so make sure you head over to the video version of this, podcast that we have, because I'm going to have some videos of the new Secretary of the Navy. He is a fucking piece of work, I'll tell you that right now. But until we get to Beans Talk and everything else, we've got some hot notes.
Hot notes.
All right, first up, from the Associated Press. The Justice Department's internal watchdog announced a review Thursday of the department's compliance with the law mandating the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, stepping into a politically sensitive saga that has shadowed the Trump administration for the past year. I would say it shadowed him for much longer than that. The review from the Inspector General's office will focus on how the department collected, reviewed, and redacted materials in preparation for their release, as well as its process for addressing concerns that arose after the files were made public when Epstein survivors complained that personal information about them had been disclosed, which it had. Now, the audit is going to revisit the department's staggered and uneven release of millions of documents and records from the Epstein sex trafficking investigation, a process that exposed it to accusations that it was attempting to protect who. The President, of course, Donald Trump, and who decades, for decades, was friendly with the financier. I'm sorry, sex, offender. I'm going to correct that for this for this source, it marks the watchdog office's first significant effort since the Trump. Since the Trump. Since Trump might as well call him that since Trump took office for a second time to scrutinize the actions of the department that has been just buried in drama, including mass firings of employees and allegations of politicization of investigations. The records were released starting late last year in compliance with the bill that was passed by Congress. And it was signed into law by the fucking President himself, who bowed to political pressure from his own party after initially resisting efforts to disclose additional files. That November law, by the way, requires the release within 30 days of records related to Epstein, as well as any information about the investigation into his death in a jail in 2019, and also allowed for redactions of information about victims. But the problems with the department's process, they soon came to light like they were all over the place. Officials released only a fraction of the records within the 30 day deadline. They later disclosed that they would need several more weeks because of the abrupt discovery of a massive tranche of records tied to the case. I'm sure they didn't know those were there. Give me a break. In late January, the department released what it said were 3 million pages of records, but subsequently withdrew several thousand documents and media after lawyers told a judge. And by media, I mean pictures and videos after lawyers told a judge that the lives of nearly a hundred abuse survivors had been turned upside down by careless redactions and lack thereof. The exposed materials include nude photos with faces visible, as well as names, email addresses, and other identifying information that was either unredacted or not fully obscured. The department blamed, and I quote, technical or human error. I'm going to go with human error on that one, like a lot of fucking human error. Now. The scrutiny continued after several news organizations reported that some records involving uncooperated accusations made by a woman against Trump were not among those released to the public. The accuser was actually interviewed by the FBI four different times as it sought to assess her account. But a summary of only one of those interviews has been included in the publicly released files. The department said those files had been, and I quote, incorrectly coded as duplicative. Said that we've seen this shit before and therefore were inadvertently not published, along with other investigative documents. There's no way of knowing if that's true because they haven't released those files. Now, Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing, as we know, in connection with Epstein. Authorities say Epstein killed himself in a New York jail cell In August of 2019, the month after being indicted on federal sex trafficking charges. I think everyone listening to this podcast has questions about that. What this article doesn't mention is that Trump fired all but two inspectors general, the DHSIG and the DOJ ig. But the DOJ ig, Michael Horowitz, has been moved to Federal Reserve, and William Bleer is the acting IG of the Justice Department. Bleer has been in the Office of inspector general since 2007. So lots of questions. I'm glad that there's some investigation into this. Maybe we'll get some answers. I am sort of surprised it's happening, but we'll see what we can do because we all know that the release of the Epstein files was intentionally botched by Pam, Bondi and Kash Patel, who has seen everything as well. So we'll get down to it. You know, we'll get down to it. But we're going to move on to another story. This one's from cnn. White House staff are still following the preservation mandates of the Presidential Records Act. And the Justice Department told a federal court as it pushed back on a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's disavowal of a Watergate error documents law. Now, the filings made public the White House's official approach to records retention, now that the Justice Department, via an opinion from the department Office of Legal Counsel, told President Donald Trump that he no longer had to comply with the Presidential Records Act. Jesus Christ. Now, White House counsel David Warrington issued a memo, a memo on April 2, the day after the OLC opinion was published that was released publicly with Tuesday's court filings. Okay. The law requires that presidents and their staffs preserve records related to government activity and that those records be turned over to the National Archives at the end of each administration, with provisions of the law eventually making some of those documents available to the public. Well, the new White House memo, it didn't address what steps President Trump OR Vice President J.D. vance should take to preserve any records, nor did it lay out plans to ultimately turn White House documents over to the archives. This is what happened last time with the whole documents case. He took Tranche's boxes, kept him in his shitter at Mar A Lago. And they're saying now there's no, there's no problem with that. Now, critics have obviously raised concerns that Trump is going to take with him when he leaves office the same kinds of highly sensitive government records that he brought to Mar A Lago after his first administration. Those led to the charges against Trump by Special counsel Jack Smith for allegedly mishandling classified documents. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and personal lawyer of Donald Trump. As we know, because he actually represented Trump in the criminal case, that specific case. He rejected the idea that the OLC opinion would undermine government transparency. And I quote, there's no dispute that this administration in just 14 months has been a lot more transparent than the last administration or any other administration. That's what Blanche said in a response to A question from CNN's Paula Reed on a Tuesday press conference, quote, so if critics are suggesting that somehow we're not being transparent, I don't find that credible in any way, shape or form. I can't with this guy. His lips move and he's lying. He's getting paid to by the President of the United States. In the new documents preservation memo, Warrington told White House staff that even though the administration no longer considers itself bound by the Presidential Records act, they should, and I quote, preserve any material related to the performance of their duties. While noting those records might be needed in future litigation. Physical documents and work related emails sent via official White House accounts should be saved. This is what Warrington says. But he also made a distinction for when staff members are required to retain text messages and they quote text messages reflecting personal conversations, workplace gossip, ministerial tasks or other workplace minutiae, they need not be preserved, he said, but the staff m must save messages when they are the sole record of official decision making government action or contain unique information not available elsewhere. And you know, they're all talking about this over text message and signal and everything else. Now, the American Historical association and American Oversight, which is a left leaning government watchdog group, they're seeking an emergency court order that would require the preservation of presidential records and that would make clear the PRA's demands apply to messaging apps like I said, including encrypted services like WhatsApp and Signal. Now, the Justice Department laid out several reasons the request should be denied, including with an argument that the historians are not currently facing imminent harm because the White House is still following a policy consistent with the Presidential Records Act. Additionally, the archives is continuing to preserve the presidential records it already holds. This is what the DOJ said, which we know is bullshit. If the DOJ said it and they are, pointed to a declaration from an archives employee. Quote, plaintiff's claim to irreparable harm hinges on the possibility of indiscriminate document destruction. But the record is entirely to the contrary. That's what the administration said. And by the way, Senior U.S. district Judge John Bates, he has scheduled a hearing for May 5, so we'll keep you posted on what happens there. We know that the Department of Justice lies constantly and no surprise. And speaking of the Department of Justice, this next story is from the Times. The justice department has identified 384 foreign born Americans whose citizenship it wants to revoke, part of a push to increase the pace of denaturalizations by assigning the cases to prosecutors in dozens of U.S. attorneys offices across the country. Senior Justice Department officials in Washington told colleagues during a meeting last week that the civil litigators in 39 regional offices would soon be assigned to file denaturalization cases against the individuals. This is according to an official familiar with the announcement who was not authorized to describe it on record. Two people familiar with the plans confirmed the broader effort to ramp up denaturalizations. Now, it was not clear what led the department to target these specific 384 individuals. I have a guess they're probably brown. Now, under federal law, the government may ask a court to strip the citizenship of people who obtained it fraudulently, for instance, by entering into a sham marriage or by withholding information about their past that would have made them ineligible. Some who commit crimes may also be denaturalized. The government must present evidence to a federal judge through a civil or criminal proceeding, making the process challenging and time consuming. I wonder if harboring a criminal, would get you denaturalized, because wouldn't Melania Trump fall under that for harboring a felon? I mean, that feels like something she might lose her citizenship for, just, you know, pontificating. Now, traditionally, experts in the department's Office of Immigration Litigation have handled the, denaturalization cases. But the effort to enlist regular prosecutors to pursue these cases, it could lead to a surge in denaturalizations, which have been rare in recent decades. It also comes just months after the Trump administration officials ordered the Department of Homeland Security staffers to refer upward of 200 denaturalization cases a month. A month, everyone, to the Department of Justice. Matthew Tragaser, a Justice Department spokesman, said that officials were, and I quote, pursuing the highest volume of denaturalization referrals in history from the Department of Homeland Security. He said the Department of Justice is laser focused on rooting out criminal aliens, defrauding the naturalization process. Citizens fraud is a serious crime. Anyone who has broken the law and obtained citizenship through fraud and deceit will be held accountable. This is from Abigail Jackson, that's a White House spokeswoman. The push indicates that the Trump administration aims to make good on its plan to increase the pace of denaturalizations as part of its crackdown on immigration. The move is probably going to scare many naturalized immigrants as the Trump administration has sought to curtail immigration across the board and spoken disdainfully about migrants from certain countries. Again, I'll give you an idea which countries those are. And I quote, the message it sends is that naturalized citizens don't have the same rights and stability as native born citizens. This is from Amanda Frost. Amanda's a law professor at the University of Virginia. She said the government has used its power in the past to target people it views as political opponents. Now, between 2017 and late last year, the government sought to strip just over 120 naturalized Americans of their citizenship. Such cases were far less common before Trump was elected the first time. And this is what Ms. Frost said. Who has written about this, by the way, and the, whole history of denaturalization? Between 1990 and 2017, the government filed 305 denaturalization cases. That's an average of 11 a year. That is from 1990 to 2017, they filed less denaturalization cases than this administration is trying to do right now at that 385. They are targeting brown people in this country. This is racism, pure and simple. not surprising. Speaking of racism, this next story is about ice. This is from Politico. A federal judge has ordered ICE to release, thank goodness, the wife and children of Mohammed Solomon. That's the Egyptian national accused of hurling Molotov cocktails at the march in support of Israeli hostages last year in Colorado. The family members who have not been linked to Solomon's attack. Those family members were arrested by immigration authorities shortly after it. And the White House quickly trumpeted plans to deport them within hours, declaring hearing that, and I quote, six one way tickets would be arriving for Solomon's wife and five children, including four minors. That post it formed part of the basis of a magistrate judge's decision earlier this week recommending that the family be released from their 10 month of ICE custody as a result of due process violations on Thursday. 10 months. They've been in custody for 10 fucking months in horrible conditions because we've heard about it day in and day out. Poor kids and family. On Thursday, U.S. district Judge Fred Beery approved the recommendation ordering the immediate release of Salman's wife, Haim El Gamal, and her children. Salman's trial on a dozen hate crime counts is slated to begin in November. But the saga of El Gamal and her children has played out separately from her husband's criminal proceedings. A judge in Colorado blocked their, immediate deportation after the White House's initial threat that they have remained in ICE custody since. An immigration judge in Texas initially ruled that they were not a flight risk or a danger to the community, recommending their release from custody. But the Justice Department invoked procedural mechanisms to keep the family in detention during a lengthy appeal process. Magistrate Judge Betsy Chesney concluded that the effort to keep them detained, it violated their due process rights, citing in part the White House's own statement, and I quote, it's unquestionable that the petitioners have been targeted by the government due to their connection to an individual allegedly responsible for a terrorist act, despite the fact that there has never been any evidentiary finding that El Gamal or her children themselves were affiliated with that act or had any knowledge of its occurrence. Again, that's Chesney. She noted White House's claims of quick deportation were impossible under federal law. And this is a quote, the posts reflect both disregard for due process protection petitioners are guaranteed and the targeting of, petitioners for potentially punitive and political purposes. Again, that's from Chesney. Now, Burey, who happens to be a Clinton appointee, approved Chesney's report Thursday, requiring the family's release from custody to be Friday and rejecting requests by the Department of Justice to delay his order in anticipation of a potential appeal. Beery is the same judge, by the way, who in January ordered the release of Liam Conejo Ramos, that sweet five year old little boy that was detained by ICE in Minnesota and transferred to a detention facility in Texas. So I am glad. I hope this family gets out. And the fact that they had been detained with no connection to this crime for 10 months is inhumane and just disgusting. We're seeing stories of this over and over and over. But thank you for staying with me through the hot notes. As you know, it's Friday, so we're going to be right back after this break with John Fugelstein. So stay with us. We'll be right back after these messages.
We'll be right back.
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Hey everybody. Welcome back. It's Friday on the Daily Beans. That means it's Fugal sang Friday. So joining me is the New York Times bestselling author of the Separation of Church and Hate, working on his second book, also host of Tell Me Everything on SiriusXM progress channel 127, weeknights at 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific. Please welcome my good friend John Fugelsang. Hi, John.
Thank you, Alison. Great to be back.
It's good to see you as always. Per Huge. So what is going on in the Pope versus the potus?
Oh, is this the best story ever?
Throwdown this week?
I mean, it's great what the Pope has done that's so smart. And you know, I love Chicago Pope. I'm into my Chicago Pope, my deep dish pontiff, my south side Leo. I'm into this guy, the Pope. That could be. And forgive your sins and show you how to hide a body. You know, this guy is so smart because what he's done, he's not really arguing with Donald Trump. That's what I. I was on MSNBC this week, Ms. Now this weekend, I tried to say, Trump's not fighting this pope. Vance and Mike Johnson aren't fighting this pope. They're fighting Jesus. This Pope hasn't really taken an opinion of Pope Leo on anything except that Donald Trump's website is ironically named. That's the only editorializing he's done. Everything else this guy has done is deliberately, systemically, directly quoting the guy from the religion these other three are trying to prostitute to sanctify their illegal war. So he's been really smart. They're not fighting with him, they're fighting the gospel. And that's what Pope Leo just sticks to the script. He's like, I'm not fighting them. I'm just preaching against war because that's what I'm supposed to do. And it's been amazing to watch because being angry that a Pope won't approve of you, it's like being angry that your doctor won't, you know, approve of your crack habit. It doesn't make sense. And, so this guy is playing them all without breaking a sweat, and he's not actually doing anything. This goes back to St. Augustine and the just war theory. I mean, Jesus's word is not good enough for these people. They have to have an escape hatch from Jesus so they can somehow get approval of killing people. And that's what the whole racket has been for 1700 years. Years.
Well, Sean Hannity took the escape hatch from Jesus and gave up the Catholic Church. But Tucker Carlson has apparently apologized for supporting Donald Trump. I for one, don't forgive him. But I am also not the Pope. What do you think?
Well, if he's asking me for forgiveness, I'm obliged to give it to him. But, what's interesting is he hasn't apologized for racist, ah, great replacement theory has. He hasn't apologized for having looked little simian Nazi child. Nick Fuente is on his show. who. He hasn't apologized for saying immigrants make the country poorer and dirtier. Hasn't apologized for, saying the COVID vaccines were the deadliest mass vaccination event. I mean, the lies he's told.
I think he's sorry that he's losing supporters because Donald Trump.
No, that's not what. Well, yes and no. Here's the deal. Tucker is running for president. Tucker is running for president in 2028. He's going to try to follow the Trump model and build this media notoriety into this whole Thing. The only problems with this are that Tucker hates Trump and he's always hated him. We know that in 2020, Tucker Carlson was saying in the text messages how much he hated Trump, and then he was going on Fox News and lying for him. We can't forget Tucker was fired from Fox because he was lying for Trump. Fox News got fined three quarters of a billion dollars because they were lying for Trump. Tucker hasn't come out and said Trump lost in 2020. He hasn't apologized for those lies. He just feels awful. Oh, awful that he was a part of this. He's not repenting. He's rebranding. Okay. Tucker knows this thing ends like the last scene of Scarface. And by doing this now, he's ahead of JD Vance on both opposing the Iran war first and throwing Trump under the bus first. Tucker has just outsmarted JD Vance on JD's two greatest vulnerabilities for a potential nomination in 2028.
My friend and I were talking about this yesterday after work, because this is what we do in our spare time, is we talk about JD Vance, is that he actually has a stupendous opportunity to try to invoke the 25th Amendment, take this over and end this war.
Yeah, he could do it. He could be a man. He could become a real life boy, Alison, if he wanted. And even if he failed, he'd go down in history. You know, Mike Pence did one decent thing in his entire life, and all he did was not break the law one time. And Mike Pence is going to be hailed as a Roman God in American history books for that. Can you imagine if J.D. vance actually had the bravery to recognize that obedience to Trump doesn't end well or anybody? And if he were to instigate it and it failed and Trump fired him, then he owns the nomination in 2028. But he's not a smart man. Or even a man.
Or even a man.
And that's why Wat Tucker is like, you know, a complete hypocrite. But he's getting ahead of the story. Right? The guy who helped sell you the piece of crap car is so shocked that the car he helped sell you is a piece of crap. But he's not actually refuting any part of Trumpism except for the Iran war. He's not apologizing for any of his racism. Not apologizing for anything. He still thinks. Tucker Carlson still believes that it's murder if you shoot a person who's attacking the Capitol. But if a person drives away from an ICE agent, they Deserve to be murdered. Tucker hasn't changed at all. He's just rebranding because he's all about Tucker, which is why he supported Trump in the first place.
Yeah, and I think that's what I meant by he's losing followers, just like Trump is, and he needs to pivot. Right, but that's such a good point. He's rebranding. And, you know, now we've got a ton of Republicans clutching their pearls, talking about how terrible gerrymandering is.
Oh, yeah.
And, you know, Democrats have been against gerrymandering for. Since it starts. Since the Republicans started it two decades ago, three decades ago, with that Hoffender guy. I can't remember how to pronounce his name. I just. I always called him Dr. Hoffar. But he wrote the playbook on political gerrymandering, racial gerrymandering. And now that the Supreme Court has given its blessing, the Republicans wanted to start a fight in Texas without consent of the voters, but somehow they're all broken up about what's going on in Virginia.
That's right. And that's the magical words you just said. The consent of the voters. Anybody who still doesn't understand gerrymandering, I strongly recommend to your very attractive audience, just go Google Jim Jordan's voting district and then hit Image and you'll see it looks like a drunk octopus having a seizure on the L train drew this thing, and it's all done to carve out black neighborhoods and reduce the power of a concentrated black vote. That's the racket. So this is why a year and a half ago, Donald Trump, we've been talking about it for a year, Dr. Gill, he kicked off this whole redistricting arms race by flailing his arms and leaning on Texas to redraw these maps so aggressively, it makes them incumbents from life, from space. Right. And so the Democrats did a really smart thing. They went to the voters and said, hey, should we fight back on this? They didn't try to cheat. They didn't try to swindle the Republicans out of a greater number of districts. What Gavin Newsom did and the voters in California. California, it's really crappy. It's. They're taking power. There are a lot of Republicans in California, and those Republicans now have their voting power taken away because of the redistricting, because California is not going to let Texas steal the House, and neither is Virginia. So it hurts Republicans when you do this in majority blue states. And again, they didn't want to do it, but look at the logic. When Republicans redraw maps on their own, it's electoral strategy. And when Democrats ask the voters through democracy, it's a power grab. And this judge, Jack Hurley, Republican, appointee, I mean, he said it. Republicans redraw maps without voters, totally fine. Democrats go to voters, that's illegal. And if the voters approve it, doesn't count because procedural difficulties, ballot wording, it's like they lost the game. And they're trying to argue with the ref that it's the wrong size font in the rulebook. But this is something that Trump started a year ago. And I think the whole thing is going to be a stress test for how dumb and aware we really are. Do people, are people going to be able to connect the dots from Trump telling Texas to do this? Voters in California, voters in Virginia know. They understand why they did it. They know what this was about. It passed by 89,000, more than 89,000 votes in Virginia. But will the rest of America be able to connect the dots? And will corporate media in its current bari weissified state tell the full story, or are we just going to hear, oh, they're trying to steal your vote in Virginia? Because the hypocrisy is astonishing, even by MAGA standards.
Are we trying to steal our own votes? We voted for it.
I mean, I mean, all they're saying is, oh, so we're playing too. Let's let the voters decide. And these Republicans, they're clutching their pearls like someone gerrymandered their fainting couch. You know, I mean, they started this. They started. It's the George Zimmerman school of politics. Alison, you know what that is? when you're losing and getting your ass kicked in a fight, you started pull a gun on the guy. And that's what this judge ruling is.
Yeah. Although this judge ruled the same thing months ago and put a temporary restraining order on board. and the Virginia Supreme Court actually said, this doesn't impact the vote. Still have it. We're gonna litigate this, but, ah, by all means, continue. But then the day after voting, he had to put in a, permanent injunction. The day after voters went to court,
that guy was standing by, he was watching the results. He probably would have done it the night before if it would have seemed tasteful enough. Yes, this is it. It's organized cheating. That's exactly what they're doing. And the Democrats are saying, fine, we'll cheat right back. And they're furious at these Democrats for cheating. So I hope that there's so many Lawsuits. I hope that every kid in high school writes a term paper about this. I hope, I hope it's such a great civic education and people learn how crappy this system really is.
Yeah.
But this is all Trump. Like the Iran war. Like the blockade. Of the blockade, the gas price. It's all one guy doing this.
Yeah. And I want to talk about. Go back a little bit a minute ago about how J.D. vance could be a gigantic hero.
I love this story.
If he were a man.
Yeah. A real life boy.
What I'm concerned about is yesterday Lindsey Graham tweeted, I had a great phone call with Hegseth and Trump about a way forward in Iran. And whenever Lindsey Graham has a way
forward in Iran, your kids are going to war.
Your kids are going to war. And so then five hours after that, five hours after that tweet, all of a sudden, the Secretary of the Navy is out and replaced by a MAGA politician.
Yeah, a crazy MAGA politician.
A crazy MAGA politician.
I mean, the previous one was too. The previous one was this a rich guy who was given the post and has no naval experience. Because, of course.
Yeah.
Who thinks that witches are taking over Cannery Row?
Witches are taking over.
We.
We have. I mean, to be fair, it's, it's, you know, we just haven't told anybody.
No.
But, with that combo, the Lindsey Graham just had a great phone call and then the Secretary of the Navy being canned and put, having a MAGA guy put in there. I am kind of terrified at what they are planning to do in the Gulf with our Navy.
I'm kind of terrified of what they're planning to do stateside with their military on election day.
That as well. That as well, yes.
Because they're taking out all the adults in the room and they are replacing the adults with these Renfield Dracula blood slaves. I mean, this is tied into Pete Hegseth, who just decided that the US Military no longer needs the flu vaccine. so peak at peak readiness. Right. Like your aircraft carrier is now going to be an urgent care clinic. I mean, no. No need to get a flu vaccine now. All you guys get in the submarine and hope the other guy got his flu vaccine. Because I've never seen a bigger middle finger to the soldiers who do get the vaccine and take care of themselves. And to say we're going to put you in poorly ventilated areas with people who have freedom measles. I mean, it's like 70 years of military tradition of getting shots in soldiers arms, and it's gone and the reason why they did it 70 years ago is because they remembered World War I, which is called the Spanish Flu, because Spain was the only country that was not involved in the war. So every other country blamed Spain. It was really the Kansas army base flu. It started here, and soldiers from Kansas brought it over and. And 26,000American troops died, which is why Washington had all of his troops inoculated, because he was losing more of them to illness than to battle. So, Pete Hegseth is a special kind of stupid where you're going to ignore, 200 years of military tradition, ignore science, and ignore, reality in favor of. My cousin saw some shit on YouTube. That's essentially what this is. This is RFKification of the military. I mean, and the Marines are now a controlled experiment in Darwinism. No shots if you don't feel like it. I mean, what is this going to do? You're free to catch influenza in a barracks of 200 people. And I'm pretty sure these soldiers that are at risk didn't vote to let the guy down the hall in the barracks have this freedom from inoculation. It's going to get people sick. It's going to impact readiness. Even a dopey civilian like me knows this. And this is a week after he fires the Army Chief of staff because the Army Chief of Staff recommended two black officers and two women officers to get general promotions. And Hegseth tried to line out and veto these people out. How much must this man be hated within the walls of the Pentagon document
because Donald Trump didn't want to appear next to a black female officer?
That's. Yeah, a female officer or a black male officer.
Right.
I mean, and so he. So instead of, like, you know, he can't answer the question, why are you doing this? He fires the question. I mean. I mean, how hated must this guy be? Pilots are going down and troops are in harm's way, and this guy's auditioning generals based on his idea of what a 1952 military would look like. Pete Hexith wouldn't feel comfortable with you at brunch, sir. So you can't be a general. How hated must this guy be?
I don't know. I haven't seen. I've talked to a few people in the military, and the general consensus is everybody loves him, or most people will
love him, but I can't in the officer class.
No, that's where the difference is.
That's what I'm talking about.
So when I talk to enlisted folks, they say, oh, yeah, it's great. We're fine.
Yeah.
Talk to anybody? 01 and above. Oh, no, no, no, no.
Yeah.
But you know, I, I, the thing is, he's like, you don't have to get this vaccine.
Ooh.
You know, but, but they still give 14 other vaccines to the military.
Like, I don't know why the flu.
Why are you drawing the line?
Because it's the weakest thing he can get away with and he needs to posture. This guy is a cable news clown. This guy is the douche who threw to the 8:15am ad for the MyPillow commercials on Fox News on Sunday Morning. This guy's a TV personality who put a makeup room in the Pentagon and allowed that to leak that he had done it. He's all about image and surface. That's what his Christianity is. It's all performative Christianity and performative masculinity. So he puts out this video swinging his little tiny disease digit around because they're not going to have to get flu shots anymore. Like somehow he's done something great. Wait a lot of compromises, readiness. Wait until you see an entire ship fall sick over something like this. When Hegseth goes, he's not going to be remembered as a strategic figure or as a reformer. And this kind of leadership always burns out. History has shown us this, you know this better than me arrogance without anything to back it up has a very short self life. especially in a meritocracy like the military.
Yeah.
And by the way, and the officer, the military is one of the great heroes in our government to, fighting racism. This military has filed so many briefs for affirmative action cases because they affirm that having a diverse hiring pool is better for the military. I mean like, it's not a racist officer class. And this clown shows up and he's taken Jackie Robinson off the Pentagon website and not promoting merit based generals because of his own personal bigotries. It's embarrassing.
Yeah, it is. And when we start talking about how to get out of Iran effectively, I just, you know, every week there's a pump and dump, there's a Taco Tuesday, and then we start the whole thing over again. Now the ceasefire is indefinite, but with this Lindsey Graham stuff, I just don't know how it ends or how we get out of it. But we kind of didn't. We John, know that once it started that it wasn't just going to stop easily.
It's not going to stop until it's not going to stop. I mean, it's not going to stop until Netanyahu wants it to stop, or until Netanyahu is no longer prime minister, or until there's a different president. I don't see how it stops otherwise, because they're literally. Netanyahu needs this to stay out of jail. And, And Trump is making money off of this. People are profiting off of this. There will be books written in the future about this stock manipulation when the ayatollahs are calling it out. The ayatollahs are the SEC whistleblowers here. I mean, this is a level of corruption that means they're going to let more troops die. They're going to keep this going on the fake ceasefire where Israel still gets to bomb Lebanon, but call it a ceasefire, will continue because all they care about is optics and they're making a profit. And Putin's making 150 million a day off of this. Iran doesn't seem to mind turning the Strait of Hormuz into a toll road. So it's not going to end anytime soon. And I just hope it doesn't get worse. But I fear there's going to be much greater loss of life. And if Lindsey Graham is in the same zip code, you know, it involves putting American troops on the ground. You know it.
Yeah. Well, we'll keep an eye on it. Thank you so much for joining me today. It's always, always a pleasure to talk to you, my friend. I hope everybody has their copy of Separation of Church and Hate, but you don't have to read that to read the second book. That's true when it comes out, but you should anyway, so if you don't have your copy, you can get it wherever books are sold. I recommend going to your local independent bookstore and ordering 10 copies and then putting them m in your little free libraries wherever you go. You can also check out Tell Me Everything that's, weeknights on SiriusXM progress channel 127, 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific. There's also, if you don't have Sirius, you can always get the John Fugle Sign show podcast.
Lady, you are thorough. I love.
Which is free. Wherever, you get your podcast. There's also a sub stack, the Fugal Stack. and, you know, I just, I really appreciate you coming on and speaking with us every week. It never gets old, my friend.
Listen, it's an honor to talk about military matters with you, regarding anything and anybody out there of any ideology who cares about our troops, should be appalled at this senseless loss of life and putting them in danger. And, apparently that we've met the enemy and the enemy is a healthy immune system. So thank you, petulant beat.
Thanks, my friend. We'll see you next time. Everybody, stick around. We'll be right back with the good news.
All right, everyone, it's time for the good news.
Who likes good news? Everyone. Then good news, everyone.
Good news, good news. Ah, thank, you for sending in the good news, especially when I fly solo because I love reading these stories. So if you have any good news confessions. Corrections of the Senate Misheard lyrics will be stories. We love those. If you want to give a shout out to someone you love, a shout out to yourself, kids say we love it. All of it. It cleanses our palate. So just send it in. Make sure you attach your pod pet tariff or your pod pet tax. And that could be a picture of your pet, someone else's pet, a baby, hopefully someone you know. Ah, don't send in random babies, without permission. That's just my request. you know, pandas, otters, I love them. Anything. But if you have something, send it to dailybeanspod.com good to submit your good news. Okay. Because I love to read them. We're going to get started with the good trouble as we always do. This is from Murmur on Substack via Jess Craven at Chopwood Carry Water. And we're going to have a link to this in the show notes. But last month, the Department of Labor published a proposed rule affecting the nearly $7 trillion sitting in American workers 401k plans. It arrived under an executive order from the Trump administration titled Democratization Access to alternative assets for 401k investors. This rule makes it easier for employers to allocate workers retirement savings to risky, hard to sell investments such as private equity, private credit funds and crypto. It also makes it harder for employees to sue their employers if these investments fail. Wall street has been trying to get access to retirement funds for more than a decade. Here's what you can do. Your voice belongs in this record. The comment period is now open. Information on submitting your comments and a draft template can be found in the link we are going to put in the show notes. I think that is really important that they hear from us on this specific topic because I know a lot of you have, 401 retirements and I know you do not want to lose them. So that's our good trouble for today. And moving to the good news stories, this is from Amanda Grace Pronoun. She and her hello badass Babes of the Beanery. I wanted to let you know about our May Day effort here in Mentone, Alabama. Our recent no Kings protest is small, very trumpy city of Fort Payne. That's ironic. And had the highest. The highest attendant yet of any rally we've held in the seven year history of our local Democratic club. That is awesome. So I decided, as the owner of a small shop and gallery for local artists that tries to make bigots and fascists as uncomfy as possible, to hold a Mayday gallery show where we all just put our protest signs up on the walls. This is a great idea, Amanda Grace. Now it's free, open to the public, loose and informal event, and anyone can bring and display the protest signs. If anyone is in the Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Tri state area and would like to come be in community with us other sane, democracy loving folks. The gallery is called Coming Up Violets. We're on Blue sky under the same name, and the website is comingupviolets.com. we also plan to hold an LGBTQIA Pride show especially for local youth near the end of June. I've attached an image of the flyer and podpet terror for you today is our dashing young fellow Tiramisu, doing what cats do best besides fitting into improbably sized boxes. Thanks for everything you do, ladies. Making it so I can keep up with the news without despair. Signs of resistance. This is awesome flyer. It's at the Coming up violets. It's Friday, May 1, everyone. So if you're in that little tri state area that we just talked about, make sure you go ahead over there and put your signs, your protest signs in this art gallery. And look at this beautiful cat. That's a very beautiful cat. And you know how I am with cats. Pretty cat. All right, next up, tomboy Helen, who I'm sure I would have hung out with when I was younger. pronoun she and her. Hi, AG and dg. Thank you for helping my wife and I stay sane in this fascist country we're living in. My wife Jen has been listening to you since the kitchen table days. She got me listening when we got together six years ago. We listen every morning faithfully. We love the news. And swearing we both give us laughter and some tears as well. I want to give a shout out to my amazing wife, who is beautiful inside and out. Jen's very passionate about politics and has passed that passion to me as well. We attend every no Kings rally and several other rallies. We live in upstate New York. We're two Liberal lesbians in a red area. Jen has been there for me as I spiraled down PTSD from being sexually abused at 8 and raped at 15 years old when all the news came out about the Trump Epstein files. Not only does she help me with all my ailments from rheumatoid arthritis, but she is a nurse practitioner in women's health urogyn. Jen helps many women of all ages and, transgender women. They came to Jen with UTIs, prolapse pain, incontinence pain with sex, interstitial sit sittis. Lots of docs say to women it's in their head for that, but Jen knows it's very painful and will treat them. Her patients love her and she loves them. There's not enough care and attention for women's health. Amen to that. Jen has been working 10 to 12 hours with hardly any breaks, and she works through lunch for the past five months. She's close to the burnout point, but she won't give up on her patients. Big corporations are in it for the money, not the patients, let alone staff. I wish I could make her work life better, but I can't. So that's why I'm asking for a shout out to Jen from you ladies. Our favorite podcast, so you both are appreciated in more ways than one. Also, I got tickets to see Dana in Rochester. Yes, I was going to ask if you did. This is awesome. I cannot wait to meet you both. It's the night of fun laughter, which is much needed for both of us. We're so excited to see Dana live in person. We love you, ladies. I've included pictures of us giving the bird to the White House while we were at Cliff Cash's rally in D.C. you guys are making the rounds. Trump just happened to be getting off Marine One at the time, and we're giving him the bird. I love this. This is awesome. What a great shout out in the sign, impeach, remove convict. The piggy. I love this. I cannot wait to meet you both at the show in Rochester. And if you're listening to the good news and you're in upstate New York, that show in Rochester is May 17th and you can get tickets at my website, which is danagoldberg.com. i can't wait to see you both there. All right, this is from Deb Pronoun. She and her hey Beanie Babes. I want to share about my parents lives. My parents were a minister and his wife with three kids in Hiram, Ohio. I hope I'm saying that right. If not sending a correction hurom Ohio, when they suddenly decided to go hippie. I was two years old. So what? 1967 and moved to Berkeley, California, so my dad could go to UCB and get a PhD in city planning. Then before he could complete the PhD, they decided to take it one step further. Move us up into the coastal hills in Sonoma County, Live off the grid, buck the establishment, the whole nine yards. They went to anti war demonstrations and chained themselves to fences around nuclear power plants. They demonstrated in front of the Bohemian Grove. My dad even went to Nicaragua to protest against the Sandinista. So when I discovered your podcast, it was like coming home. I've been to every no Kings event and they keep growing. I've also raised four activist children, all doing what they can to resist the tangerine turd and his nasty little minions. Thanks for all you do. Keep up the good fight, Podpet. Tariff me protesting my brains out. And ah, my ride or die Indy the protest dog. Guess away. This is awesome with you. What do we have? Ooh, I don't have a breed, but this looks like a pity healer. Maybe a pity healer mix. Absolutely beautiful. Oh, wait, I do. I do know what this is. What is this? We have a 3/4 healer. 1/4 pit. Dana Goldberg. Look at this shit. Right on. I love you, Allison, but I got one right. Actually, we've been much better at what the mutt. Thank you so much for this submission. Awesome, awesome, gorgeous dog. Keep on protesting and making good trouble. All right, this is from Corey Pronoun. She and her I know how my small business will participate in the mayday economic blackout. I have a small niche coaching business helping adults to have calm confidence in deep water. Literally and, figuratively. Like the Beans podcast. It doesn't work to not provide our service that day, but I'm so very excited to stop our Google and social ads and social posts for that day. While it's only a small amount of money, it feels so great to be a small blue drop of water becoming an ocean with every other drop. I was worried for a second that my ads manager would roll his eyes. This could be true. But it could also be true that he asks his other clients who he knows if this would be of value if they want to as well. I'm no longer a victim to. I don't know what to do. My friend who lives in Lebanon, who often has to cover her ears during our meetings, inspires me. She's in a powerhouse to finding joy in being in action. She's currently gathering Artists to paint a mural on the side of her building have to remember this war and have to vision of the future after the war. we can do this together with love, joy, and deep compassion. My pod pet submission is Oliver, our first cat who maybe thought he was a dog playing with a student.
Oh, I love this. What a beautiful photo too. Everyone participate in the ways you can. I love that for May Day you're doing this exactly in a way that makes sense for you and still participates in the movement. It's beautiful. All right, everyone, next one's from country girl pronouns she and her. I just wanted to write a quick note to share with those like me who don't live so close to their local bookstore or find it hard to get there in person. You can go to bookshop.org and purchase books and choose to have the profits go to the participating indie bookstore of your choice. How cool is this? I didn't know that. Bookshop.org It's a win win. Books delivered to my door and supporting indie bookstores with one stop shopping podpet tariff is the emotional support capybaras from my friend's office. These are adorable. So, so cute. Thank you, thank you, thank you. All right, next up from Evan. Pronouns he and him. Ladies of the lagoon, you are amazing. Thank you, Evan. I live in Fairfax County, Virginia, and I am so proud of us. to the whiners on the right. Roses are red, feces are brown. Shut the fuck up. Sit the fuck down. Thank you for that, Evan. I'm trying not to get too happy, but 2026 is looking potentially great, and we owe you a lot for that. Keep the positivity going and let's send these fuckers packing. My pod pet is Ragu, a blank mix. Ragu looks like a lab with a lot of puffiness. It wouldn't be funny if that was like a Pomeranian lab or something like that. I'd feel bad for the Pomeranian. What do we have here? I'm gonna laugh if it's a Pomeranian. Okay. Oh, it's a black LED shepherd. I was gonna go that direction, which actually makes a better visual in my head than a Pomeranian lab mix. A black lab shepherd. I feel like that's more equal ground. All right, everyone, this is awesome. Thank you for the good news. Allison's gonna be back with us tomorrow, and that's it. My final thoughts are just to take care of yourself for the weekend. As we go into it, make sure you do something nice for yourself. Take a deep breath, go out, enjoy nature and enjoy these moments. This last submitter is right. I really do believe Evan. And thank you for the little poem 2026. This could potentially. Let's just keep believing that this is gonna be a good year. I know there's a lot of shit going on right now, but let's not lo. Okay, so everyone, until next week. I'll be back in yours Monday. Yep, Allison, be back with me. Take care of yourself, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health and take care of your family and your family. Everybody just take care of everybody. my co host is Allison Gill. I'm Dana Goldberg and them's the Beans.
The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they 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.