Monday, May 12th, 2025 Today, Nosferatu Stephen Miller announces the White House is considering suspending habeas corpus, Qatar gives Trump a $400M luxury jetliner to use as Air Force One; the Mayor of Newark Ras Baraka was arrested by the administration at an ICE facility; Trump has fired the Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden; Rumeysa Ozturk has been released from ICE custody in Louisiana on bail after six weeks of unlawful detention; Trump is going to stop tracking the cost of extreme weather; a judge has dismissed the ICE case against the man they detained by bashing in his car window; West Virginia coal miners lose access to black lung screening; more judges are targeted as MAGA cultists ramp up their threats; the 11th Circuit has ruled that Alabama’s congressional maps are racist; more trouble at Newark airport as air traffic control screens black out; Trump fires members of the Consumer Protection Board; a federal court has blocked Trump’s unlawful restructuring of the federal workforce; and a punk band drowns out MAGA speakers on a college campus; and Allison delivers your Good News.
Monday, May 12th, 2025
Today, Nosferatu Stephen Miller announces the White House is considering suspending habeas corpus, Qatar gives Trump a $400M luxury jetliner to use as Air Force One; the Mayor of Newark Ras Baraka was arrested by the administration at an ICE facility; Trump has fired the Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden; Rumeysa Ozturk has been released from ICE custody in Louisiana on bail after six weeks of unlawful detention; Trump is going to stop tracking the cost of extreme weather; a judge has dismissed the ICE case against the man they detained by bashing in his car window; West Virginia coal miners lose access to black lung screening; more judges are targeted as MAGA cultists ramp up their threats; the 11th Circuit has ruled that Alabama’s congressional maps are racist; more trouble at Newark airport as air traffic control screens black out; Trump fires members of the Consumer Protection Board; a federal court has blocked Trump’s unlawful restructuring of the federal workforce; and a punk band drowns out MAGA speakers on a college campus; and Allison delivers your Good News.
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Stories:
Fake pizza orders sent to judges seen as threat to judicial safety | The Washington Post
Court rules Alabama redistricting intentionally discriminates against Black voters | NPR
Judge Blocks Unconstitutional Reorganization of Federal Government | Democracy Forward
Judge dismisses ICE case against New Bedford man | WJAR
President Trump fires Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden | AP News
US will stop tracking the costs of extreme weather fueled by climate change | ABC News
Radar screens at Newark airport went black again overnight | ABC News
Trump fires all 3 Democrats on the Consumer Product Safety Commission | NPR
Trump administration will accept a luxury jet from Qatar to use as Air Force One | NBC News
Democrats celebrate wins in Lincoln’s officially nonpartisan election | 10 11 NOW KLON KGIN
Punk bands drown out anti-LGBTQ+ speakers on college campus |
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Newark Mayor Ras Baraka arrested at ICE facility while joining Democrats to conduct 'oversight' | ABC News
Trump DHS eyes arrests for House Democrats over New Jersey ICE incident | AXIOS
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Um, MSW Media Media. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Monday, May 12, 2025. Today, Nosferatu Stephen Miller has announced the White House is considering suspending habeas corpus. Qatar gives Trump a $400 million luxury jetliner to use as Air Force One. The mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, was arrested by the administration at an ICE facility. Trump has fired the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. Rumeza Oosturk has been released from ICE custody in Louisiana on bail after six weeks of unlawful detention. Trump is going to stop tracking the cost of extreme weather. A judge has dismissed the ICE case against the man they det by bashing in his car window. West Virginia coal miners are losing access to black lung screenings. More judges are targeted as MAGA cultists ramp up their threats. The 11th Circuit has ruled that Alabama's congressional maps are still racist. More trouble at Newark Airport as air traffic control screens black out. Trump fires members of the Consumer Protection Board. A federal court has blocked Trump's unlawful restructuring of the federal workforce. And a punk ban drowns out Charlie Kirk on a college campus. I'm your host, Alison Gill. Hey, everybody, Happy Monday. Dana's out today, she'll be back tomorrow. So thanks for hanging with me solo. This is week 300 of the Daily Beans. That's 1500 episodes going back to 2019. And this thing we've built, this community we've built, is just one of the most incredible things I've ever been a part of. And I just wanted to thank you all. And this is the part where I ask for your help, because asking for help, it works. It's why I'm comfortable making sure that Daily Beans is always free. Because I know there's always amazing people ready to back us up. That's not easy to ask for help. Asking for help makes you feel vulnerable. But that's, I think, what makes this show so personal for all of us. 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No contracts, no obligations, just that good feeling of being a helper. All right, on to the show. Thanks for indulging me for a second there. Today I'll be talking to someone who really changed my life after speaking with her, Brandi Scalacci. She's an author, historian and journalist, and she has a new book coming out tomorrow called the Intermediaries. It is an incredible story of the history of a daring team of sexologists who built the first trans clinic in the shadow of the Third Reich. Extremely prescient. So I hope you enjoy that interview. But first, we have a lot of headlines from the weekend, so let's hit the Hot Notes. Hot Notes. Back in November, I was spinning out, imagining all of the dystopian scenarios that any one of us could wind up facing once Trump took office. I even told y' all that if I stopped putting out content, it would never be because I chose to stop. It would be because someone had stopped me and folks were shocked. So was I. I was even fitting myself for my own tinfoil hat because I thought I sounded kind of conspiratorial. I posted on Blue sky back then. What if Trump's Department of Justice circumvents the grand jury and due process the way they want to circumvent advice and consent from the Senate to ram stupid cabinet picks through? So how can you circumvent a grand jury in due process? I imagine you'd have to detain someone by declaring them a terrorist. But even then, you get to file a writ of habeas corpus to challenge your detention. So then I thought, but what if Trump suspends habeas corpus under the old Habeas Corpus suspension Act of 1863, asserting that his political enemies are part of an invasion or a rebellion and can be detained without due process? And then I had a glass of wine because I didn't know the answer. That was the post I made in November of last year. Well, over the weekend, Stephen Miller told reporters that the White House is actually considering suspending habeas corpus. On Friday, Miller once again put the onus on the independent judicial branch, suggesting that whether the administration will act to suspend habeas corpus, quote, depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not. However, there's near universal legal consensus that only Congress can suspend habeas corpus and that unilateral suspension by the president. It's per se unconstitutional. Georgetown University Law center professor Steve Ladig pointed that out in his substack newsletter called One First. You should be subscribed to that if you're not already. But what if Trump sends people away after suspending the Great Writ before the courts can even intervene, much like he did with his unlawful invocation of the Alien Enemies act that resulted in hundreds of people being unlawfully detained in El Salvador? I'm sure the courts will hold, but would it be too late to get those people back? Trump is already knee deep in his regime's intimidation of judges that rule against him. Talking about the independent judiciary, here's the latest example from Washington Post Federal judges say unsolicited pizza deliveries to jurists homes that began in February may number in the hundreds across at least seven states, prompting increased security concerns and a demand from a Senate leader for a Justice Department investigation, which I'm sure we won't get. Many of the deliveries have gone to judges presiding over lawsuits challenging the Trump administration's policies. The U.S. marshals Service has been tracking the deliveries, and judges have been sharing details about their experiences in hopes of finding out more about what they call an ongoing attempt to at intimidating the judiciary. Some of the pizza deliveries have gone to judges relatives. In recent weeks, orders have been placed in the name of U.S. district Judge Esther Salas's son, Daniel Ann Durrell, who was fatally shot at the family home in New Jersey in 2020 by an attorney who posed as a delivery person. So you think pizza is no big deal, right? But Judge Salas, that federal judge whose son was murdered, said she was watching with growing alarm over the past few months as whoever sent the pizzas to judges appeared to change tactics. She says it went from judges getting pizzas to then judges children getting pizzas to then judges getting pizzas, or their children getting pizzas that they didn't order in my murdered son's name. That's what Sala said. So let's go over some of Trump's court losses this weekend alone. A federal judge in Vermont ruled Friday morning that detained Tufts doctoral student Rumesa Ozturk must be released on bail. Quote, her continued detention chills the speech of the millions and millions of people who are not citizens. That's U.S. district Judge William K. Sessions III. He said that in a Vermont court, adding that her detention, quote, cannot stand. That reporting comes from Adam Klassfeld @ All Rise News Something Else you should subscribe to. It's in a huge win for voters in Alabama. NPR reported that a panel of three federal judges says the Alabama Legislature intentionally drew its congressional district maps to dilute black voting strength, which is unconstitutional and violates the Voting Rights Act. The judges also said the state can't use this current map in Future elections. The 571 page ruling issued Thursday comes in a lawsuit, Allen v. Milligan, that made it to the U.S. supreme Court. The court agreed back then that Alabama's 2021 congressional map discriminate against black voters in a state where African Americans make up about a quarter of the population. In finding for the black voters who sued, these three judges wrote, try as we might, we cannot understand the 2023 plan as anything other than an intentional effort to dilute black Alabamians voting strength and evade the unambiguous requirement of the court standing in the way. U.S. district Judges Manasco and Moorer on this three judge panel were appointed by President Trump and President Clinton appointed Marcus. A senior judge on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals also joined this opinion. The ruling pointed out Alabama's history of defying federal court orders and the judges said they were deeply disturbed by the way the state responded to the Supreme Court in this case. Quote, the legislature knew what federal law required and purposefully refused to provide it in a strategic attempt to checkmate the injunction that ordered it. So there's another court loss and from Democracy Forward, the US District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division issued a temporary restraining order to block the Trump administration's unlawful reorganization of the federal government. The coalition bringing the motion includes nationwide labor unions, nonprofit organizations and cities and counties in California, Illinois, Maryland, Texas and Washington and is represented by lead co counsel Democracy Forward and Altshuler Berzon llp, Protect Democracy Public Rights Project and Democracy Defenders Fund, AFGEV Trump argues that the Trump administration's unlawful reorganization of the federal government, which is already underway without legislative authority, violates the Constitution's fundamental separation of powers principles. In a statement, the coalition said, quote, the Trump administration's unlawful attempt to reorganize the federal government has thrown agencies into chaos, disrupting critical services provided across our nation. Each of us represents communities deeply invested in the efficiency of the federal government. Laying off federal employees and reorganizing government functions haphazardly does not achieve that. We are gratified by the court's decision today to pause these harmful actions while our case proceeds. And today, by the way, if you check out the latest episode of unjustified with Andy McCabe and me. You can hear our interview with the CEO and President of Democracy Forward, Sky Perryman. Not only was Democracy helping with the case I just mentioned, but they're also part of the lawsuit brought by Andre Hernandez Romero and Frango Reyes Mota and the rest of the Seacoat class trying to get everyone that was sent to El Salvador home for due process. That podcast is also free wherever you get your podcasts and from WJAR A federal immigration judge dismissed the case against a New Bedford man whose dramatic detainment by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents was captured on video last month. Juan Francisco Mendez was taken into custody on April 14 as he sat in a car with his wife in New Bedford. The now widely circulated video shows agents using a sledgehammer tool to smash the car's rear passenger window before pulling Mendez out. At a hearing this week, the case against Mendez was thrown out after the Department of Homeland Security attorneys failed to present a charging document. So that case has been tossed and a federal district judge, Charlotte Sweeney of the District of Colorado, issued a ruling against the Trump administration in the Alien Enemies act case. Trump has been trying to use the AEA of 1798 as a tool for deporting Venezuelan migrants with virtually no due process. But the act can only be used to detain and deport immigrants in the event of a declared war or an invasion or predatory incursion perpetrated by a foreign nation or government. And in her decision, Judge Sweeney built on her own earlier ruling imposing a temporary restraining order against AEA deportations in her district and also a recent AEA ruling by a federal district court in Texas. Her new decision replaces her temporary restraining order with a longer lasting preliminary injunction, which is appealable. Now let's get to Trump regime corruption from over the weekend. First up from the Associated Press, President Trump abruptly fired the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, as the White House continues to purge the federal government of those perceived to oppose the president and his agenda. Hayden was notified in an email late Thursday from the White House's presidential personnel office, according to an email obtained by the Associated Press confirmed by the Senate to the job in 2016, Hayden was the first woman and the first African American to be the Librarian of Congress. Now, idiot. Caroline Levitt, or Caroline Whatever, Leave it, Levitt, whatever. She was asked about this during a press conference and she said some shit about the doctor, uh, Hayden letting inappropriate books be checked out to kids in libraries. Does she think. What does she think the Library of Congress is what I does she does she think it's a borrow books library that kids can go into? Like, it's just the incompetence would be overwhelming were it not so evil. And the email, by the way, it didn't say Dr. Carla Hayden or uh, dear Ms. Hayden or anything. Just said, Carla, you're immediately fired. Just absolute disrespect from top to bottom. Next up from abc, the national oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA will no longer track the cost of climate change fueled weather disasters, including floods, heat waves, wildfires and more. This is the latest example of changes to the agency and the Trump administration limiting federal government resources on climate change. Long time ago, right after the election, I said, yes, I'm worried about the damage that this administration will do. What I'm more worried about is the lack of reporting on the impact because we remembered what Trump did during COVID He downplayed the numbers so he wouldn't look so bad. So now that's starting to happen in earnest. NOAA falls under the US Department of Commerce and is tasked with daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings and climate monitoring. It's also parent to the National Weather Service. The agency said the National Centers for Environmental Information would no longer update its billion dollar weather and climate Disasters database beyond 2024 and that its information going back to 1980 is going to be archived. Also from ABC. Radar screens at UH New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport went black again early Friday morning. The outage happened at 3:55am M lasted about 90 seconds. Air traffic controllers could be heard telling a FedEx plane that their screens went dark and then asking the aircraft to tell their company to put pressure on the administration to get the problem fixed. I'm for one super shocked that real world reality TV idiot Sean Duffy can't seem to get this under control. Last week, an outage at Newark caused ATC computer screens to go dark for about 60 or 90 seconds and prevented controllers from talking to aircraft during the time their radio stopped working. That's according to multiple sources with knowledge of that incident. And as a result, the FAA briefly halted all departures to the airport following the outage. Several controllers went on medical leave, calling the experience traumatic. The controllers are entitled to at least 45 days away from the job and must be evaluated by a doctor before they can return to work. And from npr, the Democratic members of an independent agency dedicated to protecting us from dangerous products and issuing recalls and safety warnings were fired by Trump via an overnight email. In the latest instance of Trump seeking to replace high ranking officials at the independent federal agencies, efforts that have drawn legal challenges. The firings at the Consumer Product Safety Commission, that's the cpsc, come as consumer protection groups and lawmakers warn that Trump may be attempting to dismantle the entire agency. Under federal law governing the agency, the president can remove a commissioner for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, but for no other cause. So this is very similar to the consumer, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the ftc, et cetera, et cetera. One of the fired commissioners said of Trump, I'll see you in court. So we expect these lawsuits any moment now. And from CBS News, in West Virginia's coal country, Marion Tennant says he was destined to work in the mines. Quote, that was the only thing in this area when I graduated high school, he said. And that was 1974, when Tennant was protected by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. For decades, it offered free screenings for black lung, a chronic disease caused by prolonged exposure to coal dust. But the screenings have stopped because of Trump's mandated budget cuts. West Virginia, by the way, voted for Trump 70 to 30. And from NBC, the Trump administration is preparing to accept a Super Luxury Boeing 7478 Jumbo Jet from the royal family of Qatar as a gift to be used by Trump as the new Air Force One for presidential travel until shortly before Trump leaves office. That's according to four sources familiar. Two of the sources also confirmed that ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Trump presidential library. Pam Bondi apparently okayed this emolument even though she herself was a registered agent of Qatar on Earth. One she would have recused from this. Jimmy Carter's peanut farm seems quaint as fuck now. And they are delulu if they don't think Cutter has that plane wired. So I hope they have somebody they trust from the intelligence community to sweep it. Just blatant corruption. Two dolls for you. $400 million plane for me. Blatant violation of the constitution. And just so I have this clear, Jim Jordan and Jim Comer, Republicans in the House, tried to impeach Biden for a non existent $5 million bribe made up out of whole cloth by a guy tied to Russia who is now sitting in prison for lying about that $5 million bribe from Ukraine. 5 million made up out of whole cloth, impeachable offense. $400 million plane from Qatar. I guess that's fine. All right, time for a couple of good news stories to lift our spirits. This is uh, from 1011 now in Nebraska. Although Lincoln City's election is officially nonpartisan in Democratic leaders are declaring a massive victory after several registered Democrats won key races, including seats on City Council, Lincoln Public School Board and the Airport Authority. The Lancaster County Election Commission released unofficial final results Tuesday night. About 7,700 early vote ballots will be counted Friday, with 220 provisional ballots, 216 and 4 requiring voter ID to be tallied. On May 14, the Nebraska Democratic Party and Lancaster County Democratic Party celebrated what they described as a strong showing by Democratic candidates citywide. Quote, Lincoln voters have spoken loud and clear, electing a strong and diverse slate of Democratic candidates. That was Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Cleb went on to say. With the reelection of Lincoln City Council members Tom Bnny SH and Sandra Washington, Democrats will continue to hold a majority to assist Mayor Larry and Gaylor Baird in making Lincoln a, uh, top destination for raising families. Cleave also noted victories for Democratic candidates and the Lincoln Public School Board race, multiple races and the Lincoln Airport Authority. Congratulations Lincoln Nebraska Democrats massive wins. So well done. And finally, my favorite story of the weekend comes to us from LGBTQ Nation. A loud punk show at San Francisco State University drown out a public on campus debate led by anti LGBTQ activists Charlie Kirk and Riley Gaines. Punk rockers heckled conservatives, spitting on one and chanting fuck you to the others. Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA with the guy with the small face, and Gaines, an activist against trans participation in girls and women's sports, set up a stage in a public field outside the university's health center to debate campus members about abortion, immigration, quality of life in San Francisco and whether the Bible endorses slavery. However, a punk show performed by the bands Surprise Privilege and False Flag began playing in a grassy roundabout nearby by While Kirk and Gaines debate had gained a mix of supporters and counter protesters, the bands began playing loudly, making it difficult for people to hear them. Quote, this song goes out to them, Surprise Privilege, singer Joey S said, pointing to the conservative supporters. It's called you. One man in a MAGA hat and a Filipinos for Trump shirt complained, I'm trying to hear Charlie Kirk. I'm trying to hear a good conversation and all I hear is ah, yep, that's the idea, replied punk Rock fan Donovan McNitt. John Willans, a 19 year old non student who attended the punk show after learning about it through Instagram, said that the punk show was, quote, certainly siphoning off a good portion of the conservative crowd, adding that protest music is a powerful legacy of the punk movement. One Charlie Kirk supporter approached False Flags lead singer and extended his middle finger, only to be surrounded by dozens of the band's fans who began chanting you until police led the man away. Another man who walked around the punk show while wearing a Trump flag was spit on by a punk rock fan. A phlegmatic goober stuck to the back of his neck. A pro Kirk preacher also set up speakers to loudly recite Bible passages and play gospel music. Charlie Kirk recently gained fame by appearing on the podcast of California Governor Gavin Newsom. Newsom disappointed Democratic fans by agreeing with Kirk's assertions that it's unfair to allow transgender female athletes to compete against other girls and women and acceptable for anti LGBTQ groups to pressure schools into banning some LGBTQ inclusive books as pornography. Fuck that guy. In a world of performative cruelty, kindness is punk as fuck. Be punk as fuck. All right, everybody. Time for some good trouble. What are you guys doing? Getting into trouble. It's funkin in trouble today. I just want to take a moment to give some recognition of good trouble. This is from ABC News. Ras Baraka, the Democratic mayor of Newark, New Jersey, was arrested on Friday while joining members of Congress at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement and ICE detention center. And that's according to Interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Haba. Baraka, who is one of six candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in New Jersey's primary next month, quote, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey, this afternoon. He has been taken into custody. That's what Haba said on Twitter. Violating 9,000 policies of the Department of Justice. Justice. Talking about someone's potential guilt if this actually gets anywhere near a courthouse. A motion to dismiss for selective and vindictive prosecution will be very easy to get me. Thanks. Baraka was charged with trespassing, according to court documents filed on a Friday evening. In a live interview Saturday morning, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Trisha McLaughlin said, quote, There will likely be more arrests coming after Friday's incident outside the Delaney Hall ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey. McElaughan claimed body cam video showed a member of Congress or members of Congress assaulting and body slamming ICE officers. I watched this video that did not happen. And Axios has reported that Pam Bondi is considering arresting those congressional reps that were with Baraka. To which I say do it. Go ahead and raise their national profiles and make them heroes. Do it. You've already solidified the mayor's re election, dumbasses. All right. Anyway, I just want to Recognize that. Good Trouble for today's Good Trouble segment after this break, we have some good news. But first, my interview with author Brandi Scalace about her new book, the Intermediaries. You really don't want to miss it. Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages. Will be right back.
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Hey everybody. Welcome back. I am truly, truly honored to be joined today by author, historian, journalist and expert in medical history and not like, medical history. Like what your doctor does when you sit down in the office and they ask what's in your family. Like, historical medical stuff. And she has a new book coming out May 13th called the Intermediaries. It's a story of hope. You know how I feel about hope in the darkest places. It's a history of science and gender resistance. It's nonfiction. And, you know, they say history repeats, but this, you know, the fascinating history of a. Like, a daring team of sexologists who built the first trans clinic during the Third Reich, you know, and we always talk about here on the show that they always.
The.
The fascists and the dictators, the authoritarians, the oligarchs, always target LGBTQ plus transgender people. And it's a way to get in to also target women. And so, uh, please welcome the author of the book, Intermediaries, Brandi Scalace. Hi, Brandi. How are you?
I'm great. Thank you so much for having me on the show.
I am really, really excited to talk to you because, like, this book is so prescient. It's so important. Right now we talk, Dana and I talk all the time on this show about history repeats, history rhymes, and talk a little bit about, first of all, the serendipitous, I guess, timing of the release of this book.
Yeah, I really thought this book was going to come out and we'd all be like, look, we dodged a bullet. Not like, oh, um. But I spent three years working on this book, and it felt so strange to watch the news and be writing up to the point where the Nazis take over, because a lot of this book is. It doesn't pick up in 1933. It goes all the way back to the late 19th century to say, how did that happen? How did we let that happen? And then to watch us sort of speedrun the Weimar era, um, and land in this exact same place was deeply upsetting and uncanny and also accidentally, uh, prescient. So, you know, the book is literally coming out in the middle of all of it happening. So you're reading the book, it's going to feel like you're reading the news, and so it's history that doesn't feel like history. I think it's. It wasn't Mark Twain who says, history doesn't repeat. It rhymes. But this time it's like they didn't even bother with some, like, variation. They just. They just. They just. I feel like the GOP just took the playbook and just went with it.
Right. It's not an interpreter. They're tracing it, they're just, they've got, they've got the tracing paper on it and they're just. Actually, it's not rhyming, it's just repeating and it's um. And it's truly fascinating to get into the, the, the nuts and bolts of, of what happened during that time period to, to become historically aware of all this. And it, and it wasn't an easy feat either.
Right.
Because this isn't just like going and talking to somebody now who happens to know everything. I mean, you really got to dig into the past. So let's, first of all, let's just overview this because this is the story of. And it's about like, like just generally, uh, uh, talk about that.
Sure. Well, so it's all, it's basically, it's three different stories kind of braided together and the. In one on one hand is a history of science, because that's history of science and medicine is what I do. And it looks at the beginning of understanding hormones and genes. So what's really interesting is the hormone and the gene were discovered almost at the same time, really close together. Named at the same time, close together. But hormone science told people, wait a minute. You know, all this time we thought it was the brain did everything. Brain top down. Uh, it was a very like, um, Judeo Christian idea, like God, brain, kind of everything. And that meant morals were attached to anything that you did. So sexuality. They were like, oh, that's your brain doing that. You've, you know, you, you. Therefore it's a sin if you're not straight or if you're not whatever. And all of a sudden hormones come along and it's like, oh, these tiny little things that you can't see all over your body control all sorts of things. And you know, welcome to the proletariat. This is no longer a God developed top down kind of thing. Then the gene comes along. And similarly, it's a science of small things. It's really fascinating. But hormone science goes in one direction where people go, wait, maybe, maybe it's actually completely natural to have, you know, variations of sex and gender. And gene science goes into eugenics. So you have this split. So one of the things it's about, it's a history of science and how science is not apolitical. Like it's very much who's going to use the science for what ends. There's that story. Then there's the story of the clinic that decided I should say clinic. It's a, uh, center, the Institute for Sexology, which did surgeries, which did hormone replacement therapy, counseling, sex counseling, supportive, um, group therapy, all kinds of wonderful things to support the LGBTQ community and women, because they teamed up with women who were fighting to get votes, fighting for abortion rights, reproductive rights. So they were doing that, and they were the ones kind of on the hormone side going, okay, hormones tell us that this is natural. If it's natural, it can't be sin. And finally, it's a story of Dora Richter. Dora Richter was the first person to undergo what we consider modern transgender, uh, affirmation surgery. That doesn't mean that it hasn't happened previously in the past, but the way we think of it today. She had a, um, vagina plastic, she had an orchidectomy, and she had a vagina plasty. Um, and she took hormones. I mean, she really did the things that we think of. And nobody knows who she is, because Lily Elba tends to be the one that people think of because she's quite glamorous. But Dora's just an everyday character. Like, she's just somebody, you know? And I love. I love that she's this unsinkable, amazing character who is full of joy and is. Has decided to live her life authentically, despite all of the dangers, despite all of the frustrations.
And it just feels so unapologetic, you know?
Yeah, yeah. She's. I am, um, in awe of this person because she was just being herself. But that is such an act of resistance and such an act of power in a time like. Well, like now.
Right? We are so much different. We've got. We've got hormones in one lane, and we've got genealogy, Elon Musk, and eugenics in another. Like, who would have thunk, like, eight years ago that we would be. Like, nobody was holding up science saying, bring back eugenics.
Oh, my God. I know. Well, yeah, or they were. So. They were very small signs, perhaps. Um, but what I think is fascinating is that, you know, people don't know this story. They don't know this story. This story was hard for me to pull out of the fringes and ashes and edges. And yet almost everyone has seen pictures of the Nazis burning books, right? We've seen that. Yeah. We've seen footage they were burning the institute's library in those photos, in that footage. Everyone has seen it. No one knows what they were burning, because the Nazis themselves were trying to utterly eradicate and erase that history. They didn't want you to remember what m. They were, who they were burning. And so to find that history and to bring it back. We see the damage, but we don't know what we've lost. That was very hard. I mean, years. I spent so much time in archives, I literally wrote a secondary article about trying to get Dora's story out of Berlin. I felt like a spy. Like, at one point, I thought I was going to have to, like, national, uh, treasure it and, like, steal it. I mean, it was crazy, but it. It is a very, very complex thing. And I want to say, despite the work I've done, I relied on a small army of LGBTQ people who also did this work. Clara Hartman, Heike, uh, Bauer. I'm going to forget names, but there's all of these people mentioned in my acknowledgments who went out there to dig up information to the Hirschfeld Archives in Berlin. So it was out there, but so far, it was like, just, you know, it had to kind of vacuum all up all these pieces and then rebuild it.
Yeah. And let's. Let's talk about the historic analog, um, with trying to split the LGBTQ+ community, trying to pull the tq out. Trying to. I remember when JD Vance said, we're going to get the normal gay guy vote.
Oh, God.
You know, and what that has to do with just gender in general, because, you know, you and I talked offline for a little bit. First chapter. How do we first begin to hate? And. And I find that those parallels that build the foundation, the underpinning.
Yeah.
Of the threads that connect these histories together or the history and now are kind of. That's the building block on which we come to understand, sort of the. The. I guess, the entire point, if that makes sense.
Yeah. Well, speaking of J.D. vance, so I actually grew up in Appalachia, and I know where he lives, and he is not from Appalachia. I always thought that was quite confusing. Uh, I mentioned this to him at a speech that he gave in which I maybe kind of sort of laughed him out of a room. Um, I. I wrote an article about that, too, called the day I made J.D. vance sad. Um, but, uh. But, yeah, they. In this history.
Well, you didn't have an account on Grindr, so that made him really sad.
Well, I didn't have a sofa. I mean.
Yeah, yeah, you're not a couch.
But what was amazing to me is, like, I decided, okay, we can't start with Nazis. You have to figure out how you got Nazis. Right? Like, how did that even. How did that become a thing? How did you get a Trump? Like, how did. How did we Allow this to happen. So I went backwards all the way to the 19th century, late 19th century, to look at what was happening. And what I found, unsurprisingly, was a whole shit ton of misogyny. And all of this, you know, this deep seated hatred and mistrust of women who were trying to enter the workforce, who. These things were changing. So some of it is misogyny and some of it is white guy fear of change. You know, it's like, no, but the, this is the way it's always been. My grandfather and my great grandfather and my. And all of their ancestors.
Oh, you mean the entire cause of January 6, 2021.
Right. You know, so, you know, uh, we didn't want, they didn't want change. And you had women pressing boundaries and you had, uh, some other people kind of starting to go, wait a minute, these, you know, these structures don't make sense. And then science, because science was starting to shed, you know, shed light on these things going, well, you know, it's not quite as, um, I guess, world shifting as Copernican. Right? It's going from we go around the sun instead of the sun going around us. But it kind of was that because there was this sense that morals, uh, and, and God and all of these things shape everything. So therefore, if you are a woman and you don't want to marry a man and have lots of babies and stay home taking care of those babies and basically have babies until you die, then you're sinning. And if you're a, if you're a man who doesn't want to wear, marry a woman and have a similar kind of, you know, situation, then, then you're sinning. So this wasn't, uh, it wasn't just against homosexuals and transgender people. It was also like, if you don't fit in this extremely narrow box that we have approved, which is exactly what we see today, um, you know, they, they try to position it as, well, it's really the trans people. It's really that. No, it's, it's really. We're against anyone who doesn't look exactly like us. But we want to make sure that those, that there's divisions out there because we certainly don't want people teaming up against us. There's more of them than us. That, that's basically what the white guy problem is, is there's more of us than them. And they don't want us getting along for fear that we will overthrow their power. And so, you know, as this movement was going on, women and uh, homosexuals. And then as transgender people began to be more understood and recognized as part of this group, and there's a whole lot of terminology shifting around here, um, they began banding together, and the institute was part of this huge community. Hirschfeld was like, let's pull all of this together. Um, and he had to learn too. So originally he wasn't, like, into feminism. And then he, you know, met women, and they were like, hi. No one else is going to support you, but we'll support you. Let's get together, let's do this. Let's argue for reproductive rights. Let's do all the. I was shocked to discover that there was an argument for reproductive rights way back then, when we keep being told all these things are new. So they teamed up, and that was why.
Oh, yeah. Brand new. Brand new. Transgender people didn't show up until 2017.
Box fresh, man. Like, right, yeah.
Doing my unboxing moment. Um, just super new. We've never seen this before, not in.
You know, like, ancient cultures, all the way back to the dawn of humanity.
Makes me wonder why it was so hard to get the story out of Berlin. Like, was that by design?
You know what? It. Honestly, I think it's hard to get things out of Germany because there's a real German bureaucracy that I just did not completely understand at the time. It's like, it wasn't really malice. It was just, you know, like, endless hurdles of paperwork. Um, but what's. What I think is fascinating is Hitler literally says, magnus Hirschfeld is the number one enemy. He's like the most dangerous Jew in Germany. He says, and you might think, how. How could this. He's a gay German doctor who runs an institute. How in the world could he be so dangerous? Because he was helping to create a community where people were not divided, but were together. And the other side knew that was bad news for them.
Uh, yeah, yeah. And. And again, we see it today.
Mhm.
Um, we see members of our own party throwing members of the trans community under the bus. Um, it must have been wild, you know, in the middle of this project or toward the end of this project to see the advertisements that were coming out in the last election cycle.
Oh, yeah, it just. I mean, even some of the iconography is the same. I just thought someone found a German Nazi book. That's what they did. Like, someone. It was so close. But why is it so close? Because how we first begin to hate is often the same. I. I don't want change. I don't want difference. Um, I. And I this, this deep seated patriarchal need to, to have a master slave relationship with any gender that isn't theirs. Um, and some that are theirs, right, if they're not the right color, like, they just. This master slave dynamic, and you had people going, maybe it's a spectrum. Maybe there's nothing special about you being a man. Like, maybe that's not special. Maybe in fact there's all kinds of divisions and multiple ways that you can exist in the world as a sex, as a gender, as a confluence of cells and hormones. And people were like, oh my God, no. You know, and it's, it's like today. And it happened back then too. They had one hand tried to say that the binary of gender is so strong and viable that it, you know, it conquers everything. And on the other hand, that it's so weak that if you, I don't know, listen to a story by a drag queen, it'll somehow turn you into a gay person. So it's like they want it both ways. They want us to be both incredibly strong and incredibly weak. They want their ideas of the binary to be both incredibly strong and yet also completely, um, under threat all the time. And it's like, it doesn't make any sense logically. That's why they go for pathos. That's why they attack with these emotional attacks, that they're trying to get people scared because that's how they can do it.
And what other sort of parallels did you find? I mean, you know, you were just talking about Hitler saying the most dangerous person, uh, in, in Germany kind of can equate that to certain things that Donald, um, Trump says. But like when we look at the executive order declaring that there were only two sexes, not even the word gender, right? Or when we talk about the fact that we have not just Trump, but a million little minions that are willing to help spread propaganda, or we have the actual criminalization of others and othering, you know, we talk about sending all the lawsuits right now that we see with, um, uh, transgender women trying to stay in women's prisons or transgender troops trying to be able to continue to serve in the military. All these attacks. So it's never just like the one top person. It's, it's like a, a full on, like sort of multifaceted attack. And, and how many. Was it like a build from the late 19th century up to, to the Third Reich, where the attacks just started getting more and more, and the propaganda started coming from all sorts of different places? Was it kind of similar to it now?
It was. And it's very strange. Like I have, um, it's such a. Unusual. I keep saying strange. Strange is not probably the right word because it keeps happening.
So.
So it's not, it's perhaps common. Um, it was, it was a belief that there. So this idea that masculinity was under threat, particularly white Aryan masculinity was under threat, which.
Tucker Carlson Tanning is balls. Exactly. Yeah. And talking about alpha males. Mhm. Which by the way, a. If you're conceding that there are alpha and beta males, you are conceding that gender exists on a spectrum, but. On a spectrum.
Exactly. Yes. Um, and it. Oh, it's this. This. My book is everywhere. My book is life. Now, guys. Like if you read the book that you're just absorbing all the things. Um, but it is an attempt to explain how some of these things do occur. And, and one of the things that they did is say, okay, masculine, uh, is under threat. How can we fix that? Well, we need to m. Create uber mails. Right? We need, we need to create m. We need more masculinity. And how do we do that? Well, we'll get a, uh, we'll. We'll create boys clubs and we'll put a bunch of boys of the same sex together and send them into the woods together. You know, nothing, nothing, nothing homosexual about that. Um, and, you know, we'll build these uber males who will be super masculine and super, you know, aggressive and all this kind of stuff. And what they actually created were, um, a lot of. They indoctrinated both, uh, straight and homosexual males to hate women. And you ended up having. So this was one of the ways they seeded division as they were attempting to create a, uh, rift between these. And early on, the uber masculine gay men sided with, you know, the Nazis. And then we're like, it's that leopard eating faces party. They were like, oh, they're coming after me. But I thought we were on the same team. So they started off by saying, let's create Ubermen. Then once they had the Uberman, they started splitting that off too. Like, okay, Uberman, but also you can't be gay Uberman. But also you can't be non white Ubermen. But also you can't be poor and you can't be from this region and you can't be.
So this sounds like the proud boy is manual. Like you can't masturbate and you, you know, like all the weird rules like to make like you a proud boy.
Right? Which sounds like a, uh, gay Band. Anyway, like, still to me, you know, like, I hear Proud Boy. I literally was like, oh, new gay band, right? Like, it sounds like they should do dance numbers. Um, but they. So that's how they started. And they. As they created these groups, they were indoctrinating young men to hate women and anything that looked feminine. And then they started adding things going, okay, so in addition to women being feminine, um, uh, immigrants. Immigrants are not masculine enough. So they're. They're ladylike, and you should hate them too. And. And then they went after Jews and they said. And part of the reason was, um, that anti Semitism was already in the mix. And, you know, Hitler was expedient more than. He, uh, he just kind of looked at that and went, that's already there. You know, let's. Let's hang more hatred on that. So.
But how do we connect these two?
Exactly? And the other thing, um, that's true is that there was a real sense that, um, the. The masculinity in the Jewish community was different. I mean, you see a different sort of a different kind of respect for women, a different understanding of things. And they were like, oh, too much. Too womany. Too womany. Got to get rid of that. And there were other groups, too, that they went after as well. Um, then what? They just keep adding, right then, oh, well, certain disabilities. That makes you not very. Like, you can't be disabled either. And you can't be this and you can't be that. You can't be autistic, and you can't. You know, people don't realize that the gas chambers were built to get to. To kill disabled people. They already existed before they started being. Using them in the Holocaust, Um, because of this idea. So again, this is why. This is why I say the gene and the horm hormone coming at the same time and yet going in really opposite directions because it was this eugenic. We must cleanse Germany. Right. And get to the best Germans. And this is the whole make America great again could literally just be a slogan. I mean, that you could have used it like, make Germany Nazi again. Right. Make Germany white again or make it Aryan again. That. It's a very similar idea of how do we other everyone else, but also keep them all divided, and then that way we have power.
Yeah. And that's the trick, right? If you're going to other everyone, uh, you have to prevent them from hanging out together. Hence the. The why everyone who sees Nazi book burning, it is that clinic. It is that center.
Is that center.
Because people were Starting to talk a little bit, and, uh, oh, no, no, no, we can't. We can't possibly have that.
Right. And they thought that they were going to erase it. They really did. They thought they were going to stamp it out. Um, and I just want to say the book is not about them winning, actually. Um, because they don't stamp it out. They try really hard. They made it harder for us to find it and to do it, but they don't actually eradicate it. This book is a book about surviving the flames, and the COVID literally looks like a book that has been pulled from the flames.
It does. It does. And, um, before I let you go, I can't imagine, as you're researching this and coming across things in history, like, the amount of light bulbs going up over your head, like, oh, whoa. What?
Huh?
Huh? Like, and just being able to plug it right into today. But what was one of the most surprising things in your research, or one of the most. Like, the biggest aha moment where you were like, whoa?
Oddly enough, the biggest aha moment. And the thing that I think carried me through writing it, because there's a lot of difficult stuff, you know, you have to get through in when you're reading, writing a book like this was the amount of queer joy that was in these people. They were in, like, it. I feel like times are pretty damn dark. But they were in what we often consider to be the darkest time, the darkest timeline.
Right.
And everyone talks about the Holocaust, all these things, and yet the people who were transgender, who were homosexual, who are women trying to, you know, fight for rights, they had this joy of authenticity and of self and of hope that I think, uh, I am in awe of and I am trying to emulate, because I think too often I'm ready to just kind of. I'm so shocked by what's happening. It's hard not to feel like you don't deserve joy. You know, it's like, oh, no, I can't be happy. But they. They did all of this with joy and community and love and relish and, you know, and Dora lived. Dora escaped the Nazis. She did. Um, and she also escaped, like, Soviet Russia later, and she, you know, lived a long and full and healthy life as a woman, as her authentic self. That was the most surprising thing. So it was. It was less. I was already aghast at the uncanny nature of the evils and how much they looked alike. But I think I was most surprised by the love, joy, and the power of that joy coming from the LGBTQ community itself. Including intersex people were being recognized. Non binary people were being recognized as well. I just want to get that out there because it was. That's another one that everyone says is brand new, and it's definitely not.
No, no. That's incredible. That's really incredible. I, uh, instantly thought of today's analog Dan Savage, you know, saying, you know, during the darkest days of aids, uh, we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night.
Yeah.
And it was the dance that kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for. And like, that joy, um, is, you know, I mean, how many, how many memes have we seen? Like, the only thing that can battle darkness is light. The only, you know, et cetera. And we see those messages over and over again for a reason. Because the indelible power and force of joy, uh, is how you win, right?
It is how you win, and it's why you win. Because it's the one thing they do not have. They don't have joy or love or support. You know, they don't. They're held together by a, uh, greed for power and a fear of others and each other. So, you know, that cannot ultimately stand. But this, this book is, is. I want people to know that this book is about. It's like the Rebel alliance fighting the Empire. Like, you know, you're going to read it and go, oh, my God, we're fighting. Yeah, yeah, we're fighting. And I think that's important because there's enough that's bad. But this, this shows us that it can be good.
Wow. I really, really appreciate your time today. And, um, everybody who listens, you know, you know what to do when this book, you can pre order it now, comes out May 13. You can pre order it everywhere. This is one of those books that you need to get a ton of copies of and go put them out in the little libraries around your neighborhood, um, and, uh, donate them and give them to people, uh, as gifts. It's called the intermediaries. It's absolutely, um, brilliant. You can feel all of the work and joy and everything that went into it. So I really appreciate your time today. Tell everyone where they can find and follow you.
Oh, yes. So Brandy sculace, if you can spell it, you can find me.
Too bad.
Otherwise, uh, luckily, I'm the only one. So, um, there aren't that many people named after French alcohol and have an Italian last name. But if you look me up. Brandyscalache.com and also on Bluesky and, uh, Instagram, lots of other places I just put up. Um, I actually commissioned a song, uh, which is about Dora by Maya Byrne, who is a transgender singer, um, songwriter who's amazing. Susan Huang and I did the stop motion animation video for it. And so it shows you sort of I'm tempting to show you the joy that is Dora Richter in that video, uh, which is on my YouTube as well. So find me everywhere.
It is wonderful. And we are going to include a link to that in the show notes today so people can watch that. Thank you so much. Brandy Scalache.
Thank you.
It's been really, truly an honor to speak to you. All right, everybody, stick around. We'll be right back with the good news. Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news, everyone? Then good news, everyone. M. And if you have any good news confessions corrections, especially pronunciation corrections, you want to give a shout out to a loved one or yourself or a small business in your area or your small business or a government program that's helped you or a loved one. Whether it's Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, the Affordable Care act, subsidies, student debt forgiveness, uh, SNAP, WIC, Head Start, um, anything like that. Great VA healthcare you've received. Send it all to us@dailymeanspod.com and click on contact to get your good news right on the air. All you have to do is pay your pod pet tariffs, which means attach a photo of your pet. We're happy to try to guess the breeds of your pet as well. We're not very good at it, but it's fun. Uh, if you don't have a pet, send an adoptable pet in your area. We'll see if we can find him a forever home. If you don't have that, any animal photo will do. We love all animals. We're doing a lot of bird watching recently, which can be either a photo of an actual bird or you and your family and friends flicking, flipping the bird to Trump and Musk properties. Those are always great photos to see as well. If you don't have any of that, you can send your baby photos. You should just send your baby photos. Anyway, Dana will be back in tomorrow, so let's flutter with the baby photos that are hers. It's her favorite thing. So anyway, send it all to us DailyBeansPod.com click on Contact. First up from KT Pronouns, she and her. Greetings to the fabulous beans queens. I just wanted to share how I'm surviving the onslaught of executive actions affecting our citizens. I Do not say the name of the head of the Republican regime, but refer to him as thm m that horrible man man. I refer to a sidekick or handler, depending on how you see the relationship, as evil man. Every time another executive order is announced, I have to announce another villainous that's awesome, kt. Thank you for your news, especially your good news. It, uh, helps me survive not being overwhelmed by villainous. For my podbet tax, I submit photos of my cats, Ariel and Bella. Great names, Katie. They are sisters we adopted shortly after the election and they've given us comfort, joy and laughs. Oh my God, they're so cute. Beautiful tabby. Beautiful calico. Uh, or tortie. Excuse me. Just absolutely gorgeous. Thank you so much for sharing your babies with us. Next up, Tony Pronouns he and him My dear friends, I'm, um, grieved to share with you the news that after dancing on this earth for nearly 18 years, Ellie the Dachshund has joined her ancestors. In her youth, she was a fierce huntress. She could out sprint a rabbit, chase a squirrel partway up a tree, and even took out a couple of rats that invaded our basement one winter. As ferocious as she was defending her domain, she was even more of a sweetheart with her people. If any one of us were sick, she would climb up on the couch and stretch out full length on us and look us in the eye with concern. No virus would last long when faced with her deep brown eyes. She particularly liked the holidays when we spent all day in the kitchen cooking because she knew she was going to get her own special plate of food. Allie was so particular. First she would devour the gravy, then the turkey, followed by the brussels sprouts and yams. She would completely finish one before she started the next. In her later years, her favorite place was on the couch between me and my wife, politely sharing popcorn and watching tv. I built her a nice coffin last winter. I knew she was nearing the end, and, um, I also knew I would be such a wreck that I wouldn't be safe near power tools if I waited until she crossed the rainbow bridge. We buried her on her napping spot in the backyard beside her favorite rose bush. I then planted another rose on the side and put some daisies directly over her. So now she has her own little memorial garden. As she became increasingly frail, I would carry her out and back in, carry her to her food dish, to the couch, and up to bed. I put my hand under her chest and squeezed her hips between my elbow and side. I could always feel her relax and Just melt into my grasp. I became so accustomed to carrying her these last few years that now that she's gone, my arm feels empty. As Ellie became increasingly frail, my greatest fear was that she would die alone while we were at work or while she was out out in the yard in the dark for one last pee before bed. When I got her up Friday morning to go out, she was having a seizure and I held her while it passed. But when a second one started, we knew she had to go visit the vet. The vet told us it was likely a brain bleed or a tumor, and we knew immediately it was the end. They took us to a room with a couch and some nice paintings of cats and dogs and brought Ellie out to us. She'd been sedated a bit to calm the seizures and we helped her while she woke up for a little. We got to tell her what a good and beautiful little dog she was and thank her for all the joy she'd given us. She drew her last breath on my lap with her head in my hand and my wife stroking her paws. She blessed us with her life and we're so thankful we were able to ease her passing in our loving arms. She had a good life and good. A, uh, good death. With all that's going on, the passing of one small old dog seems like a tiny thing. But I believe that by fiercely, fiercely loving the small things, we learn to love all the big things and we gain the strength to hold on to our humanity for the struggles we're facing. So, friends, please pour out a libation for Ellie, hold each other tightly and go forward in love. Here are pics of Ellie at rest with her roses. Oh boy, this one got me. Now I miss my booba. Thank you so much for that. Much love to Ellie. Next up from Ruth. Pronouns she and her. Dear Allison and Dana, thanks so much for all your hard work. I just listened to the May 9 show highlighting Rachel Feldman's movie Lily and I want to give a shout out to my mother in law, Margaret Fenn. After earning a BS and serving as a lieutenant in the Navy, she earned an MBA from the University of Washington and in 1963 became the first woman in the University of Washington College of Business to earn a PhD. She was well regarded, a well regarded professor there at the college and was an early and very avid supporter of equality for women in management, particularly as executives. Over the years, she often traveled to lecture on the topic, giving voice to the many women struggling for success in a changing environment. She passed away in 2011, but I'm so grateful for her pioneering efforts and miss her encouraging words and loving spirit. I wish I could see Lily with her for my POD pet tariff. I have a picture of my dog, Click. She was a retired sled dog who ran the, uh, Iditarod three times before aging out to younger runners and becoming eligible for adoption. She's an Alaskan Husky, not recognized for standard appearance, but rather their performance as a sled dog. Sadly, I lost her a bit ago, but she was a loyal, quirky, beautiful dog, and she really loved her walks. One quick story about her. I was walking with her on a snowy hillside around sunset. She was having a wonderful time running hither and thither in the snow. So I went a bit further than I should, losing the light to safely see my way back. I told Click I was unsure, being a path follower by nature as well as a devoted friend. She walked right next to me to show me the way, slow enough so I could make it safely down the steep slope.
What a good dog.
Oh, thank you for that. Okay. All these pets are so amazing. Here's another one from Gabe. Pronouns, he and him. I live in South Nashville, which has been under siege by ICE and Tennessee Highway Patrol traffic stops for the last week. Uh, I've read about this, Gabe. This is the immigrant corridor of Nashville, and they're stopping and disappearing people without regard for anything other than the color of their skin or the sound of their name. The main thoroughfare fairs are empty because people are afraid to leave their homes. There are now reports of kids being targeted at bus stops on their way to school. That's not the good news. The good news is that I woke up this morning to my neighbors, my nice, but not particularly activist neighbors, sharing information about how they can help defend our neighbors, including standing guard at the bus stops and reporting ICE activity and more. It was encouraging to see how far the anger about these traffic stops is penetrating to even the apolitical types. For a what? The mutt tariff. I have adopted a dog, Loki, who is a sweet lady dog who was in crisis foster care with the nonprofit poster P A W S T R after her owner lost housing. Oh. Um, unfortunately, her owner was unable to reclaim her, so she's now ready to find her new home so everyone can go to paws. Let's see, what is it? Pawster. P A W s t r pawsternashville.org adoptable and here is this baby. Ah. Lab, yellow Lab. Um, Mix with a pity. Maybe. I'm not sure. But it's a sweet, sweet baby. Gabe. Thank you so much for the adoptable pet. And finally. Oh my God, these photos from Lucinda. She her. Hi there, team Beans. Last weekend I decided to do something a bit different and went to hang out with some alpacas. I sat with them for a couple hours, read my book, drank some coffee and laughed at how goofy they are. It was just the most lovely, chilled out way to spend the morning sharing a couple of photos of a curious alpacas. They'd only recently been clipped so they look at really silly cinda. I want to know where you can just go hang out with alpacas. Oh my God, they're so great. Look. Oh, I want to pet them. Yeah. And so when you shear an alpaca, everything but their head. Their head is this big puffy thing and then their bodies are. They're long, skinny. Oh my God, this is so funny. Thank you, Lucinda. I needed that. Everybody, thank you so much for your amazing good news. Sending out love to all the pets. Please send your good news to us dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. Like I said, Dana will be back tomorrow. Thank you so much. Brandy Scalache really changed my life speaking to her. Um, so I hope you enjoyed that interview. And, um, as promised, you know, barring any mitigating circumstances, Dana will be back with me tomorrow. Thank you for hanging in with me solo. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health and take care of your family. I've been ag and them's the beans. The Daily Beans is written in 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 msw media.com msw media.