Monday, December 8th, 2025 Today, Brian Cole confessed to planting the pipe bombs the night before the insurrection and is a MAGA election denier; the developer of the ICE Block app is suing officials from DHS ICE DOJ and the White House; the DOJ is considering taking a third swipe at getting a grand jury to indict NYAG Letitia James; the Government Accountability Office is investigating Bill Pulte - the guy who made all the mortgage fraud referrals to DOJ; the Indiana House advances it’s 9-0 map to the Senate; the DOJ has already started stonewalling judge Boasberg in his contempt proceedings against against government officials; Rep Adelita Grijalva was pepper sprayed by ICE after identifying herself as a Congresswoman; Kash Patel ordered a tactical SWAT guy to give his girlfriend’s drunk pal a ride home; an internal BOP memo halts rape protections for trans inmates; the Department of Health and Human Services deadnamed an official on her portrait; a judge has ordered the unsealing of Epstein grand jury materials; and Allison and Dana deliver and your Good News.
Monday, December 8th, 2025
Today, Brian Cole confessed to planting the pipe bombs the night before the insurrection and is a MAGA election denier; the developer of the ICE Block app is suing officials from DHS ICE DOJ and the White House; the DOJ is considering taking a third swipe at getting a grand jury to indict NYAG Letitia James; the Government Accountability Office is investigating Bill Pulte - the guy who made all the mortgage fraud referrals to DOJ; the Indiana House advances it’s 9-0 map to the Senate; the DOJ has already started stonewalling judge Boasberg in his contempt proceedings against against government officials; Rep Adelita Grijalva was pepper sprayed by ICE after identifying herself as a Congresswoman; Kash Patel ordered a tactical SWAT guy to give his girlfriend’s drunk pal a ride home; an internal BOP memo halts rape protections for trans inmates; the Department of Health and Human Services deadnamed an official on her portrait; a judge has ordered the unsealing of Epstein grand jury materials; and Allison and Dana deliver and your Good News.
Guest: Joshua Aaron of ICEBlock app
https://www.iceblock.app/
https://bsky.app/profile/joshua.stealingheather.com
https://www.tixeconsulting.com/
Guest: Deirdre von Dornum
Prominent federal criminal defense attorney - 23 years at Federal Defenders of New York - Attorney-in-Charge for the Eastern District; Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Specializing in complex federal cases, indigent defense, civil rights, and pro bono work.
https://www.youtube.com/@MSWMediaPods
Rep. Adelita Grijalva says she was 'sprayed in the face' during ICE confrontation | NBC News
Pipe bomb suspect confesses and has expressed support for Trump, sources say | MS NOW
Kash Patel ordered FBI detail to give girlfriend’s pal a lift home: sources | MS NOW
DOJ won't say what it advised Noem amid contempt inquiry over El Salvador deportations | ABC News
HHS changed the name of transgender health leader on her official portrait | NPR News
Government Accountability Office opens investigation into FHFA chief Bill Pulte | NBC News
DOJ orders prison inspectors to stop considering LGBTQ safety standards | NPR
Judge orders unsealing of grand jury transcripts from Epstein case in Florida | CBS News
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Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Monday, December 8, 2025. Today, Brian Cole confessed to planting the pipe bombs the night before the insurrection and is a MAGA election denier, the developer of the ICE block app, is suing officials from dhs, ICE and the Department of Justice and the White House. The Department of Justice is considering taking a third swipe at getting a grand jury to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James. The Government Accountability Office is investigating Bill Pulte, the guy who made all the mortgage fraud referrals to the Department of Justice. The Indiana House has advanced its 9 Republican 0 Democrats map to the Senate. The Department of Justice has already started stonewalling Judge Boasberg in his contempt proceedings against government officials. Representative Adelita Grijalva was pepper sprayed by ICE after identifying herself as a congresswoman. Kash Patel ordered a tactical SWAT guy to give his girlfriend's drunk friend a ride home. An internal Bureau of Prisons memo halts rape protections for trans inmates. The Department of Health and Human Services deadnamed an official on her portrait. And a judge has ordered the unsealing of Epstein grand jury materials. I'm Allison Gill.
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
Wow, Dana. We're recording this a day early on the weekend so we can travel on Sunday. And there's still so much news.
There really is. but I'm glad we could do it. Make sure that everyone has the beans in their ears even when we're in the air.
Human Rights Campaign gala tonight to raise money for midterm elections
Yeah. So you're, tonight, as we record this, it will have been passed when this episode airs. But you have a, Human Rights Campaign gala tonight, right?
I do. It's the last of the year. very excited. We're honoring one of the stars from the. The hit TV show Boots that has caused all kinds of uproar in the Pentagon because it's gay marines. And God forbid that Kegseth had probably to watch it 14 times to decide. I don't like this from his. From his makeup chamber.
I'm gonna need to watch that again just to make sure. I hate it.
Exactly. Nancy Pelosi speaking this evening and a couple other reps. Weiner is also speaking tonight. So it's. It's going to be a wonderful last HRC gala of the season. And then it all starts back up again next January. So we've got a big ahead of us. And tonight we're going to start raising some money for the midterm elections and, getting. Getting the vote out.
Cool. And the, leguminati had the landing page on the HRC website and we did pretty well.
They did. I didn't get to announce that the other day. I gave you all a challenge. Let's see if we can raise $10,000 for the human Rights Campaign. And my God, you did it. I am just blown away by this community. Every time we passed $10,000, they called me personally, which was really nice, and just said thank you and it's because of you all. And the donations were anywhere from five to $500. You know, it was just so moving. I saw so many names. Some of you stayed anonymous. The rest of you, I just, you're incredible. And I love this family, I love this community. And thanks for going to bat when I asked you to come to the plate.
Pretty amazing.
Patagonia finished their hike and raised over a million dollars for eight organizations
And speaking of fundraising, Patagonia finished their hike and raised over a million dollars from like 35,000 individual people.
Yeah. For eight outdoor organizations. So this is incredible. I think each organization is getting 148,000, doll. She hiked all hundred miles in drag. And when I tell you Patagonia is in drag, it's not just like a little bit of makeup, like some eyeliner and you know, a skirt, Like, I'm talking full drag wig that probably weighs more than Pete Kegseth can, you know, bench in a day. But yeah, Patty's incredible. And one of our listeners, we had this in the Good News a few days ago past Patagonia on her hike and did a little video and thanked her. What a moment. What a moment.
Yeah, all, to make outdoor spaces more inclusive. That's just amazing.
Joshua Aaron is suing Apple for removing his ICE Block app from App Store
Also, today I will be conducting an exclusive interview with the developer of the Ice Block app, Joshua Aaron. You'll recall Apple removed his app from the App Store. Yeah, well, he's suing and we have the exclusive here. He's suing multiple government officials, dhs, ice, Department of Justice, and the White House for coercing, for the government coercing Apple into removing the ICE Block app from the Apple App Store. So I think that's gonna be a really eye opening interview and I'm really glad that, he's, you know, back when we interviewed him before, he's like, all the cards, you know, nothing's off the table. but he wouldn't, say whether or not he was gonna, they were gonna file a lawsuit, but they're gonna do that later today. Also, did you see the video of representative Adelita Grijalva at a taco shop? She showed up because ICE was raiding a neighborhood like institution.
I did. I did.
And she got hit with pepper spray.
She wasn't even in their face. This is what bothers me. She was up there telling them to leave, saying it was inappropriate, that she was a U.S. congresswoman. She identified herself. It's really unnerving. And I'm telling you, if they're going to do this to a United States sitting congresswoman, think about what they're doing to innocent civilians that they don't think have any weight, you know, to, to, to carry. It's just, it's grotesque. But, yeah, the video.
yeah. So thank you so much to Representative Grijalva for standing up.
Yeah.
To these kidnappings is what they are.
The pipe bomber told the FBI he was a Donald Trump supporter
All right, we have a lot to get to today, so let's, let's do some quick hits.
And to make a long story short. Too late.
First up from Ms. Now, the pipe bomber confessed. Dana, it's him. But we were right to wonder why they're being so quiet about his politics. The man charged with planting a pipe bombs Republican Democratic National Party headquarters before the Jan. 6 insurrection told the FBI he was a Donald Trump supporter and he believed Trump won the 2020 election. That's according to two people familiar with the interview, not the FBI, by the way. The FBI isn't telling us anything. And Ms. Now says the FBI says a motive isn't clear.
I'm telling you, we can talk. We talk about this on beans talk. But I wonder if they profiled him thinking he was a black man and just assumed that he was a liberal or a Democrat because of the col of his skin. I would not be surprised if these assholes did that. And then all of a sudden they find out, oh, he's a MAGA supporter. We've got new info. It's very confusing on why he would have done this. No, he fucking confessed. He confessed.
Not confusing. And does Donald Trump's pardon cover him? I think it does. We talk about that on yesterday's episode of Unjustified. So you might want to check that out.
Absolutely.
Judge Boasberg is holding criminal contempt proceedings against the government over planes
This one's from Ms. Now, speaking of the FBI Director Keshe Patel has on more than one occasion ordered that the security detail protecting his girlfriend escort one of her alleged inebriated friends home. I wonder if it's they were inebriated and they're alleged friends, but I'm sure for, you know, I'm. For legality purposes, we have to do allegedly inebriated.
Is it allegedly inebriated friend or inebriated Alleged alleged friend home after a night.
Of partying In Nashville. By the way, this is according to three people with knowledge of these incidents. An FBI spokesperson says the story's made up and it didn't happen. I call bullshit.
Yeah, sure, whatever. So, declarations in Boasberg's contempt proceedings. Those are back on the contempt proceedings in Boseberg's court because he told the government to turn the planes around and they defied that court order. So he's holding criminal contempt proceedings to decide whether or not to refer them to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution. I don't think Pam Bondi will do anything, but he might try to appoint, under his power. Judge Boasberg has the power right now at least to appoint a special prosecutor for the judiciary and not for the executive branch. But I think the Supreme Court won't let him do that. But anyhow, the declarations from everybody involved in the decision to not halt the planes in the government was due on Friday. And Dana, three people signed a two sentence affidavit saying, yeah, I made the decision. All of the discussions were, are protected by privilege. Signed Kristi Noem.
Oh, dear.
and so they're just like, per usual, stonewalling these contempt proceedings, and it's gonna be really hard to get anything out of them. you know, I think over on the breakdown, which I, you know, which I did yesterday live on the Midas Network, I was like, wonder if they could be held in contempt for not complying with contempt. It's like a contempt turducken. And I just can't. I can't with this, with this administration. But that's where we are. Yeah.
And I was so sure. And maybe it's because we were talking about the state senators, but I guess I was a little bit wrong on the maps in Indiana. The Indiana State House. On Friday, they passed a new congressional map that aims to make all nine of the state's U.S. house districts friendly to. How the fuck do you even do that without looking like a Tetris board? After months of contentious debate and pressure from the Trump administration, the bill passed in a 57 to 41 vote. And now it heads to the GOP controlled state Senate, which is convening on December 8th. A number of vocal Republicans in the Indiana State Senate, they've held out against redistricting, although it's unclear if there's enough of them to prevent it from actually passing.
Yeah, we'll see. I don't know what the vote count is, but that they'll be talking about that today.
Unbelievable.
it really is. Here though let me tell you something. The Supreme Court that said that Texas maps are allowed to stand, one of the reasons, besides the fact that they think it's political and not racial, even though Greg Abbott said it's race with his mouth. The other reason is that it's too close to the primaries to go back to the old map. So if we challenge the India, if this passes and we challenge the Indiana map, I think the Supreme Court, I hope the Supreme Court might be consistent and say, sorry, your new map is too late, but they might also do that for Virginia, too. So we'll see. We'll keep an eye on it. All right. We got more news to get to. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes.
Admiral Rachel Levine's official portrait recently altered, according to HHS
All right, first up from npr, and I'm so sorry I have to report this, friends. As you walk down a particular hallway on the seventh floor of the Humphrey Building in D.C. you'll find a line of photographic portraits of all the people from years past who have led the Public Health corps at the federal Department of Health and Human Services. Only one of those portraits is of a transgender person, Admiral Rachel Levine, who served for four years as Biden's assistant secretary for health. She was the first transgender person to win Senate confirmation, and her portrait has been displayed in the hallway since soon after she was confirmed in 2021. The role is a four star admiral position in charge of the commissioned corps of the US Public Health Service. Levine's official portrait was recently altered, according to a spokesperson for HHS confirming this to npr. A digital photograph of the portrait in the hallway obtained by NPR shows that Levine's previous name is now typed below the portrait under the glass of the frame. Quote, during the federal shutdown, the current leadership of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health changed Admiral Levine's photo to remove her current legal name and use her prior name. That's what Adrienne Shanker, former deputy assistant secretary for health policy in the Biden administration who worked with Levine and is now her spokesperson, said he called the move an act of bigotry against her. Levine told NPR it was an honor to serve the American people as the assistant secretary for health, and I'm not going to comment on this type of petty action. Good for her. NPR has asked HHS who made the change and why. In response, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said, our priority is ensuring that the information presented internally and externally by HHS reflects gold standard science. We remain committed to reversing harmful policies enacted by Levine and ensuring that biological reality guides our approach to public health Fuck, you. It's a name change. It's not like we had their chromosomes up under her portrait.
And if we're following biological reality, gender is a social construct. Fuck, you.
Are you going to go around and change everything that says Trump to Drumpf because that's his real name?
Ugh.
Just can't, The current Assistant Secretary for Health is Admiral Brian Christine, a, urologist from Alabama who was confirmed by the Senate in October. An HHS staff member who asked not to be identified for fear of professional retribution, called it disrespectful and added that it exemplifies the erasure of transgender individuals by this administration. As we know, since taking office, Trump has moved aggressively to curtail the rights and basically disappear transgender and intersex people through many federal agencies, including the Departments of Health, Justice, Education, and others. At the Pentagon, transgender service members were forced out of the military without benefits. At the Department of State, decades old passport policies were reversed. The President often describes transgender people as a, quote, danger to society. Now, Shanker says the alteration of Levine's official portrait is unprecedented. He praised her public health work on COVID 19, syphilis, HIV, AIDS, and opioids, and said, rather than act vindictively towards her, current leaders at HHS should focus on the many public health challenges facing the American people.
Thank you so much, Allison.
Government Accountability Office to investigate Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte
This next one is from NBC. The Government Accountability Office, which is an independent and nonpartisan investigative watchdog for Congress, says that it's open an investigation into Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte. Good. In November, top Senate Democrats wrote to ask the agency to, and I quote, promptly investigate recent actions undertaken at the Federal Housing Finance Agency by Pulte. Specifically, it highlighted actions related to recent referrals of New York Attorney General Letitia James and US Senator Adam Schiff, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and Congressman Eric SWALWELL to the U.S. department of justice for mortgage fraud. And I quote, I can confirm the GAO has accepted this request following our standard process. This is from a GAO spokesperson. Pulte's repeatedly faced questions about how the mortgage documents he used in his referrals even came to light in an exchange on CNBC in September. Pulte said he received, and I quote, a tip, but refused to disclose where it came from. He says, I'm not going to explain our sources and methods. That's. Well, you're going to have to eventually inquire.
You're going to have to. To the court, right? Yeah.
He said, we make referrals almost every day. Lisa Cook Happened to be one of them.
Yeah, like, was this a legal search and seizure? If the judge asks, we're not going to explain our methods to you.
Yeah. What are you going to. Come on now. Pulte was one of few officials who accompanied Trump in July on a visit to the Federal Reserve's headquarters, an active construction site, by the way, while the historic buildings are under renovation. Pulte's attention getting behavior has reportedly frustrated some of his fellow administration officials. That's including Secretary I like to threaten to punch people. Scott Besant. In September, Bessant reportedly threatened to punch Pulte in the face of when the two men encountered each other at a White House dinner. And women are too emotional to be in power. You remember that everybody asked about the report on cnbc. Bessant all but admitted it was true. He said treasury secretaries dating back to Alexandra Hamilton have a history of dueling. I guess that he's calling it. He didn't smack him with the white glove. He punched him in the face.
Yeah. And okay, if we want us to each give you a pistol and you can turn and fire at certain cases, I'm in.
Okay, I'm in.
My God. What a bunch of idiots.
Department of Justice instructs inspectors to stop evaluating prisons using transgender standards
All right, from m NPR and content warning for sexual assault. The Department of Justice has instructed inspectors to stop evaluating prisons and jails using standards designed to protect transgender, intersex and gender non conforming people from sexual violence. That's according to an internal memo obtained by npr. This population is uniquely vulnerable to attacks while incarcerated. That's what the data shows. And advocates say the change will put such people in in even more danger. I think this is a violation of the Eighth Amendment of cruel and unusual punishment. The memo explains the Department of Justice is in the process of reversing federal standards related to the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act, PREA in order to align with Trump's executive order on, quote, gender, ideology, extremism. The January 20th executive order asserts that the United States recognizes only two sexes, male and female. According to the DOJ memo. While the revision process is underway, detention centers that undergo PREA audits will no longer be inspected using the standards specifically designed to keep LGBTQ and intersex people safe. The facilities include federal prisons, state prisons and jails, juvenile detention centers, and immigration detention centers. These inspectors, referred to as auditors, are not employed by the Department of Justice, but are hired by corrections agencies or by individual facilities. The Department of Justice certifies the auditors and can decertify them. PREA mandates regular audits for prisons and jails. Those audits are among the few oversight tools for evaluating whether detention centers follow laws meant to stop rape, harassment and retaliation. The auditors visit the facilities regularly to ensure the staff and officials are doing everything they're supposed to under PREA to prevent sexual abuse and harassment. They interview staff and inmates, they tour the facilities, and they check existing procedures. In practice, the memo says, auditors will no longer review whether facilities house transgender people based on their gender identity and on a case by case basis. Among other changes, the memo also says auditors should no longer consider whether sexual assaults were motivated by gender identity bias. A major 2015 survey from the criminal justice group Black and Pink found that LGBTQ prisoners were over six times as likely to be sexually assaulted as the general prison population. This is based on survey responses from more than, 1100 inmates. And according to Brenda Smith, a professor at American University Washington College of Law and director of the Project of Addressing Prison Rape, the available data doesn't show the whole picture, and that rate is probably much higher. In 2003, by the way, Smith was appointed to the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission, which helped develop these very standards. She said the current changes laid out in the memo ignore this grim reality.
Thanks so much, Alison. These stories are hard to deliver sometimes, but just please know there's organizations fighting back on behalf of behalf of the trans community and will continue to stand by them.
Federal judge grants Justice Department request to unseal grand jury transcripts on Epstein
This is from cbs. A federal judge on Friday granted the Justice Department's request to unseal grand jury transcripts from a federal investigation in Florida into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Justice Department had renewed its request for the material to be made public last month after Congress passed and President Trump signed a law that requires the attorney general to disclose records related to the government's investigation into Epstein. We already know this is pointless. Just release the files. This is just. They're. We tried again. We tried again to release testimony. That's not what we're asking for.
No, but, you know, like, I thought they were going to use this as an excuse like they did in July. Courts told no on 76 pages of testimony from one FBI agent, not the 300,000 pages that the DOJ and the FBI have. And I was like, they're going to try to use this as an excuse. Right. But the judge called their bluff.
Dude, love it. This is U.S. district Judge Rodney Smith granted the request from the Justice Department officials in a brief order. The Trump administration initially petitioned courts in Florida and New York in July to unseal grand jury materials after it faced backlash for a Justice Department memo that said any additional disclosure of information regarding Epstein was neither appropriate or warranted. While judges in Florida and New York denied those initial bids for the information to be released to the public, since federal rules generally require grand jury proceedings to be kept secret. But the Trump administration tried again following Congress's passage of the Epstein Files Transparency act, arguing that the law should override grand jury secrecy rules. It said that any victim related and personal identifying information would be redacted from the grand jury's transcripts of unsealed.
Which.
What does that mean?
That means they're redacting. Sorry. Oh, no, no.
it's okay. I, I, I mean, I know what that means. Sorry, Allison, but what it means is, like, you're going to redact the victim's names, and you're probably also going to redact the, the assaulters, names.
Right. But the judge can say that's inappropriate. The judge can, like, review the redactions in camera.
Oh, okay, got it.
That's what happened when a judge, like some folks, sued and said that Bill Barr inappropriately and over redacted the Mueller report. The judge looked at his redactions in chambers and was like, yeah, this is a bunch of M bullshit. And then released the. Released the entire Mueller M report.
Understood. Okay. So grand juries were. They were convened in West Palm beach in 2005. Okay. This is when all this started in court. And in 2007, to investigate Epstein. And as we know, he ultimately evaded federal charges because of that sweetheart deal at the time, through a deal with prosecutors that allowed him to plead guilty to a state prostitution charge with everything, you know. Now, doesn't that make you want to, like, burn this place down? Because it sure makes me want to. In 2019, he was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges, and he died in custody.
Yeah. And something else that will really piss you off is in that 2005. 2007, in that sweetheart deal.
Epstein's lawyers paid for lawyers for the survivors.
Oh, my God.
So they were working. They were working for, For Acosta.
I did not know that. Oh, these motherfuckers. The material that Smith ordered to be unsealed is transcripts from those grand jury proceedings in Florida. Now, it's unclear how quickly the information's going to be made public, but this is interesting. I think it's, I really wonder if the Department of Justice is like, let us do this, because it maybe won't be as damaging. And then thinking the judge was going to say no. Now the judge is like, okay, here it is.
But you also still have to release all the other Epstein files that you have.
Yep. Yeah.
Like, if you really want the Epstein files to go out to come out, you don't go to court for 76 pages for 2008. One guy thing for one guy.
Right.
Because these grand jury transcripts aren't going to include anybody but Epstein and his crimes.
Right.
It's not going to have anybody else in there. No. It's just stupid. All right, we have this exclusive, interview with Joshua Aaron coming up next. So stick, around for that and then we'll do the good news. We'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back.
Joshua Aaron, developer of Ice Block, plans lawsuit against ICE and others
Hey, everybody. Welcome back. I'm honored to be joined today because we've got some very exclusive reporting here on the Daily Beans. And over at the breakdown on my substack@mellisherote.com, that the developer of the Ice Block app, you'll remember, we've had Joshua Aaron. Hi, Joshua. On the show before, developed an app so that you could enter when you see someone from ICE within a 5 mile radius, you can enter that location. And the app was available only on the Apple, in the Apple App Store. And we talked about how there was this, you know, after an interview on cnn, there was this immediate rush by members of this administration to, first of all, go after Joshua Aaron and iceblock publicly with threats and things like that, but then to also contact Apple and coerce them to remove the Ice Block app from the App Store. And when we last spoke, Joshua, I had asked her if you were going to file a lawsuit, and you said, we aren't taking anything off the table at this moment and we'll keep in touch. And you've kept in touch. And later today, you will be filing a lawsuit against members of this administration that work for ice, the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice and the White House. So everybody joining me today to talk about this lawsuit and why he's filing it is Joshua Aaron, the developer of the Ice Block, apparently, and one of the brilliant minds on his legal team, Deirdre von Dornam. Hi, Deirdre. Joshua, welcome to the Daily Beans.
Thanks.
Thanks so much for having us, Alison.
Lawsuit claims government coerced Apple to remove Iceblock app from App Store
So most of the listeners of the Daily Beans are aware of the history of the Iceblock app. They've seen my interviews with you, Joshua. But can you briefly sum up why you created this app in the first place and its intended purpose?
Yeah. So, I mean, I created it because of the rhetoric that we heard from Trump, not only in the first administration, but certainly in the campaign leading up to the second, time he was elected, which was just amped up hate speech 100 times worse than we had seen before. the night that he was elected, it was just my brain going a mile a minute on a million different topics. How can we help? How can I do anything to right these wrongs that I'm seeing are going to be perpetrated on the American people? And the one that meant the most to me was this idea of this mass deportation, the biggest deportation in history. We're going to get all the, you know, the problem people out, which, you know, I think you, I, you know, anybody with a logical mind knew meant any person of color in this country. and so that's really the impotence from creating, ICE Block. And of course, what it is, as we've talked about numerous times before, is it's a. It was, I mean, it is. It was a crowdsourced app that allowed people to report public sightings of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents. And what would happen is other users within a five mile radius of that sighting would get a notification on their device and then they could make the decision of how they wanted to proceed. Do they want to avoid that situation? Do they want to avoid conflict, turn around, go home, protect themselves and their families? That was the whole idea behind creating it.
Yeah. So now what we faced, and there's a pretty clear timeline of events, you know, that I think show specifically that the government in this case and certain officials in the Trump administration actually used the power of the government to coerce Apple to remove your app from the App Store. And at that point, I believe it was in October, you had over a million people who had downloaded the app. I think it was 1.1 or 1.2 million people that were using the app. And I think it's important to note. And Deirdre, before we get into some of the problems that the government could face in this lawsuit here, I think it's important to go over what Joshua is suing for and what cases, like precedent, case law, is being cited in the lawsuit here.
Sure.
So what we're looking for is a declaratory judgment by the district court. so that basically applying the rule of law to say that the actions that the government has taken violate the First Amendment by suppressing Joshua's speech and by keeping publicly available information from being circulated. since all of the sightings reported on the iceblock app are of, solely the location, no photograph no video, no name, but the public location of public officials to remove that violates the First Amendment. And we would like a court to say that and to further say that such censorship cannot happen in the future, either for the ICE Block app or other similar applications or speech, and also to enjoin the government from threatening to prosecute Joshua for the creation of this speech. Because it's not just that they coerced Apple. At each stage, the Attorney General and the other officials called the app illegal and threatened to prosecute or investigate Joshua for his protected speech.
Right. And, Joshua, those kinds of threats tend to chill us from participating and engaging in our protected speech. And it's not just you, although this is obviously, you know, your lawsuit, but it's anyone else who might want to engage in protected speech when they see the government coming after them and trying to coerce private industry into basically stopping the distribution of free speech. Because we can't do that. The First Amendment is a protection from the government, not a right that the government has to control our speech. Right. And so. So when you got notification from Apple about them removing your app from the App Store, did they tell you that, we found that this violates some terms of service or something to that effect?
Yes. So what happened is, on October 2nd, I, received a message from Apple that said, we received information from law enforcement that your app is targeting law enforcement officers. And we basically revisited our approval of this app and decided to remove it from the App Store. They cited what they termed objectionable content and the guideline 1.1.1. Now, what that guideline states is, it's actually a pretty good guideline, to be honest with you. It says, you cannot develop an app that targets a specific individual or group. But what it's meant for is don't develop an app that says, here's where all the Jews are, or here's where all the black people are. You know, that could be a very dangerous situation. When we talk about public sightings of law enforcement, this is an issue that has been ruled on multiple times in the past. I mean, I know you and I have talked about, you know, going back to the. When Waze was first, created, and the idea of reporting speed traps and the exact same rhetoric was used with, you know, they're going to perpetrate violence, and then our law enforcement officers are at risk. The reality is they didn't like the fact that they couldn't continue to operate with impunity. Well, it's the same thing times a thousand with ice, because this is a private paramilitary force in this country. I mean, that's essentially what they've developed. And so when we have masked agents who won't identify themselves, basically kidnapping people off the street, including US Citizens, by the way, this is not just our immigrant friends and neighbors. These are US Citizens as well. And there's no bounds to what they can do. Now we're saying, okay, well, here's where they are. So people can maybe choose if they wish to avoid that conflict or avoid that situation. And now they're saying that's illegal. And then we have Bondi in, a Senate oversight hearing, talking about how Iceblock, somehow has the agent's home addresses and then had to walk that back three minutes later. It's just one fear mongering rhetoric after another to energize their base. Unfortunately, they have very much crossed a line and we're going to aim to make sure that they can't continue to do so.
Yeah, agreed.
Joshua Aaron says lawsuit meets legal requirements to survive government motion to dismiss
Now, Deirdre, let's talk about some of the legal requirements here. Because, you know, in order to survive a government motion to dismiss. Right, right. You gotta show irreparable harm. You gotta show at least the likelihood that what you're saying or alleging is true. And so one of the main points, I think in this lawsuit, after reviewing it, is, you know, you wonder, well, did the government actually coerce Apple into doing this? And a lot of times plaintiffs will have a hard time proving that, but in this case, Pamela Jo, Pam Bondi from the Department of Justice said with her mouth, using her words, I contacted Apple and they removed the app. So I think that, you know, when we say something like on information and belief, sometimes it's a little bit ambiguous, as to what that information belief is. But it seems really straightforward forward here that the government by its own admission, coerced and pressured Apple to remove this app from the App Store. So can you talk a little bit about that? The standards that you need to meet to survive government motions to dismiss and to bring a complaint in the first place and how Joshua Aaron easily meets these thresholds.
Sure.
looping back and tying it back to your earlier question to me about what cases govern this. I mean, this falls squarely into a 2024 Supreme Court decision finding that the then head of the Finance Commission or Industry Regulation Board for the New York State, Maria Vulo, had violated the First Amendment by pressuring insurance companies not to insure the NRA and not to insure gun owners and gun associations. similar to that, Maria Vullo had Been very public about her criticism of the NRA and her concerns about gun companies and organizations like the NRA being insured by insurance companies. And the Supreme Court said, you just can't do that. You can say, I think the NRA is scary. I think they're doing bad things. But as a government official, you cannot say, if you do this, you could be prosecuted, or if you don't do this, your regulations will be lighter, will go easier on you. So what we have to show is that there was coercive speech by the government. Not only did Attorney General Bondi already acknowledge that she pressured Apple, but before the app was taken down, she and the other defendants repeatedly, publicly on the news media, said, it's illegal. We are going to prosecute them. It is not protected speech. so on a motion to dismiss, you just have to overcome one. You just have to state the facts and they're taken as true. So here, usually, then you have to prove them. Fortunately, these statements are under oath before a, congressional committee by the Attorney General of the United States.
Right.
And I think, if I recall correctly, and again, I'm not a lawyer, so correct me if I'm wrong, but when I was doing a little bit of research on the Jim Kimmel issue, what I found the Supreme Court said is that you cannot directly or indirectly coerce private industry. Because in that particular case, it was the FCC chair, you know, who was like, you'd better watch out. But in this case, we have Pam Bondi. we have. It's direct. It's not even indirect. In this case, it is direct coercion and pressure. And, Joshua, I want to ask you really quickly about some of the things that are gonna make this case really hard for the government to defend. And first of all, let me just say this is against Pam Bondi in her capacity at Department of Justice. It's against Lyons in his capacity at ice, it's against Tom Homan in his capacity as the. Whatever czar.
Order czar, I think, is the order.
Czar of the White House. And then who is the fourth individual? Christine Noem.
Right.
in her position, official capacity as the Secretary of Homeland Security. But there are a couple of issues that I think the government's going to have here, and one of the main ones is that early on in this process, starting when you were just beginning to develop this app, and once it was developed, you had to submit it to the Apple app developer portal, and there was a very rigorous back and forth conversations, meetings, and notes through the portal. And on the phone, where they and their legal team go through your app and make sure it meets and does not violate the law or their terms of service. And you went through that process thoroughly with Apple, did you not?
Oh, I absolutely did, yeah. It's called going through app review. When you submit an app, it goes to an app review team. They initially denied it, and I was fine with that because they wanted to make sure it was legal. It was doing everything that I said it was doing, and it wasn't, you know, collecting user data. You know, when I say it's 100% anonymous, it wasn't, you know, subverting that somehow. And not only did it go through the regular app review process, but once it was denied, it went to Apple's legal, which is. I've never seen that before. And we had multiple, or I had multiple WebEx calls with, different members of Apple's legal team. And they were not short calls. I mean, we're talking, you know, 20, 30 minutes apiece. And then once legal said, yes, we're good, there's no laws being broken here, everything's fine. it got sent to senior officials at App Review, and they then went ahead and vetted it from a technology standpoint. So there was no ambiguity in that. I mean, it was like five weeks of back and forth, which I had never. Like I said, I've never seen that rigorous, process before. But, yeah, yeah, they signed off and they were fine with it. But it goes even beyond that because once it's up, there's no users at first, and then it starts growing and growing, growing to the point that it becomes the number one app on the App Store. So to even surmise that Apple wasn't aware of this or it somehow slipped through the cracks is absurd.
Yeah.
And Deirdre, one of the, I think, best tools you can have in your toolbed as a lawyer is some clearly similarly situated people who are not subject to the same problems that you are and what we have here. And Joshua, you can speak to this too.
Apple removed ICE Block, but other similarly situated apps remain on the App Store
I just want to sort of talk about the legal aspects of similarly situated things. We've got multiple apps on the Apple App Store that do this exact same thing. And Joshua, you created this app for simplicity. And like you said, Deirdre, there's nowhere you can put pictures or names or docs people, which is something else that this administration was accusing you of doing. So can you talk just briefly about the legal argument about these similarly situated apps that were not subject to this removal because of Coercion from this government?
Sure. I mean, this is what makes it seem like viewpoint discrimination.
Right.
Apple has its own app where people can post where law enforcement is. It's automatically downloaded in each of our phones and Apple Apple devices. Ways you can warn of speed traps. and there's multi citizen, multiple other apps that remain up on the App Store. and importantly, there's multiple court decisions upholding the right to warn other people of the presence of law enforcement as protected speech under the First Amendment. Police officers used to try to give people tickets for flashing your headlights at another car to let them know there was a police officer or having a police scanner. And the courts have said that is particularized speech. And as long as you are not inciting immediate violence, which, of course, publicly available information about the location of law enforcement does not do that. It is protected speech under the First Amendment. So the police have never liked this. But it doesn't matter. Whether you work for ICE or you work for Border Patrol or the state, you're allowed to warn other people. And as we've seen, one function of an app like ICE Block is to allow people to protest the activity of ICE lawfully, to be there, to speak out and to protect others from harm. including, as Joshua said, people who may be targeted based on what they look like, what language they speak, or where they work, as we've seen in these massive sweeps.
Yeah, and, Joshua, you were telling me offline the fact that there are actually apps on the App Store that do what the government is accusing you of doing that are still up on the App Store. Can you talk about that for a minute?
Yeah, I mean, sure. Deirdre was talking when she said an Apple app, she was talking about Apple's own map app. so that's, you know, carplay. I mean, we all who have an iPhone, I assume, are, you know, using CarPlay in the car, and you're getting speed trap notifications. So it's literally their own software that's doing exactly the same thing that ICE Block was doing. But you know, what's interesting is it was only available for the iPhone, and when Apple removed it, then Google immediately followed suit and said, we haven't even been contacted by the doj. We haven't been contacted by the government. We, too, are going to remove all law enforcement tracking apps. Well, it seems that they've removed all law enforcement tracking apps or anything to do with holding law enforcement accountable. That goes against this administration's directives. It's not, you know, if it complies with their beliefs, that's okay, but if it doesn't, it has to go. But I think you're alluding to that we were talking about before we started recording here is there's an app called Abshur, I think that's how you pronounce it. A B S H E R that is specifically designed to basically put a leash on women. It's a Saudi based app. I believe it's ah, developed in Saudi Arabia but the idea of it is for men to track the every movement of women. So when Apple comes out and says we removed ICE Block because the app store is a safe place for our users, that's complete bullshit. Because when you're literally tracking the movement of a human being, that is what puts them in harm's way. That's what controls somebody's body or you know, causes them to be in danger. That's a bad app that should be taken down under Guideline 1.1.1 that specifically targets an individual or group. That is what 1.1.1 was designed for, not ice block.
Yeah, and I mean that's, you know, to think that somehow that app is fine, but your app somehow violates their terms of service lends to the argument that this was coercion from the government to suppress your speech. Disfavored speech that's disfavored by the government. I favor your speech.
Government's argument that this app harms national security will be shot down
I want to ask Deirdre just two more legal questions about this lawsuit, something we already talked about. The government's argument that will be obviously shot down, that this is a tracking law enforcement and that's somehow doxing or somehow bad because we've got all these other apps similarly situated that do the same thing, that are actually integrated into our Apple devices that do the same thing and haven't been taken down. Another argument they might try to make is because you know, I was thinking of, well, what's the difference between our police and speed traps and ice? Right. And they might make us national security argument. What is your rebuttal to a government's argument that, that this harms national security and that as the executive, I am the President, I get to decide what is national security and what's not. And that allows me to somehow suppress free speech when it's a national security concern.
Right.
Well the courts have also said that even in the national security context, you can't just wave the flag and say as the president or his administration is trying to do here, this is affecting national security. There has to be a factual basis for saying that here there is no factual connection that's ever been shown between anything on ICE Block that was posted and any act of violence or threat. And nor could that there be, because again, it's publicly available information. So unless you're going to lock everyone in their homes and say they can't speak to each other and tell each other where ICE is, this is no different just because it's on an application platform. and it's really the highest level of protected speech because it's political speech. And it goes to protest, it goes to community safety, it goes, to protecting each other. So, the words national security are not sufficient. and there has been no showing whatsoever. And nor could there be because again, it's publicly available information.
Right. The second amendment allows us to have guns to stop tyranny. This is an app. So I just, I think maybe that's why first amendment is first.
Joshua Frum says this lawsuit could have chilling implications for free speech
But the other question I had for you, legally, and then I'll have one question for you, Joshua, is something that's called like the parade of Horribles. Oftentimes we'll see in a lawsuit if this is allowed to stand, if the court doesn't say and quash this and tamp it down, then this would be the result. Right? And I'm thinking like, if I'm, as I'm reading this lawsuit, I'm like, would it be illegal for me to call my mom and tell her ICE is in the area? Like, so talk about your parade of horribles. Talk about what the implications are if the court does not stop the government from doing this.
I mean, unfortunately, I think we're already seeing some of them, which is why this lawsuit is so important. I'm sure, as you know better than I do, the White House has been trying to force reporters to not report publicly available non classified information about our, military. That's exactly similar, and terrifying because again, this is the, sort of height of protected speech. But yes, you know, if the first amendment protects it, it doesn't matter what the platform is. So, you know, could you be prosecuted for telling your mother? Could you be prosecuted for texting a friend? Could a newspaper be prosecuted for publishing information about ICE and their locations? all of those things are possible if this lawsuit were not to succeed. And obviously there need to be.
Legal.
Attacks on these policies from many different angles. This is just one. But it truly is a slippery slope and if we don't fight back, a lot could happen. It's one of our, you know, at my firm, it was one of our concerns about the big law firms folding so quickly, some of them to Trump, because we're losing the actors who need to help to push back. And it's only, you know, independent developers like Joshua, independent media like you, Alison, and independent law firms like ours now need to bear the weight of that. And we want to do that. But it's important, truly important, that we do that.
Elson: Joshua, if you prevail in this lawsuit, what goal
Right. And Joshua, one last question for you. Like, I know what it says in the lawsuit about what you're asking for to enjoin the government from coercing Apple to stop carrying, apps like this, and not just Apple, but any other platform that might be looked at in the future. And also to stop threatening you with, you know, criminal prosecution, chilling your First Amendment speech. But what is your end goal aside from that, if you prevail in this lawsuit, is the goal to return the app to the Apple App Store and perhaps other platforms as well?
I think we would hope that if we were able to get a favorable ruling here, that it would set a serious precedent and would maybe give Apple cover to put the app back. Whether or not that's going to happen, I can't speak to that. I mean, who knows what they're going to do or what behind the scenes conversations are going to happen that aren't going to come out publicly if Pam can keep her mouth shut. so who knows? but I think as to the intention of the lawsuit itself, I would kind of summarize it like this. And I know you love history like I do, so if we remember what Ben Franklin was asked, or when he was asked what the, kind, of government the delegates had created, his response was a republic, if you can keep it. And his point was that our democratic republic, it's not guaranteed. It requires constant vigilance and the active and informed participation of its citizenry. And I think a, really important lesson that we need to take from that is that when we see the government doing something wrong, it is our duty as citizens to hold them accountable. And that is kind of the essence, of what this lawsuit is all about.
Yeah. Chapter two of On Tyranny. Defend institutions. Institutions do not defend themselves. Pick one and defend it. And I think that that's what you and your team here are doing. Deirdre, is there anything else you want to add about this lawsuit before we wrap up?
No, we, you know, we appreciate your very thoughtful questions. We certainly hope, that after we file it on Monday, the administration will acknowledge what's happened, although we don't expect that but we certainly hope that they'll, you know, be able to do that.
Well, they're going to go back and try to indict Letitia James a third time. So I don't think they're gonna have any kind of shame or that they don't change their tact because let me.
Say, I hope others will join us.
You're not seeing a come to Jesus moment happening there, Elson.
Yeah, I mean, bless, that would be nice if they could learn from anything. But that is why these lawsuits are necessary and that is why using and taking advantage of the judiciary and the rule of law and the protections of the First Amendment are so important. So, Deirdre, thanks for helping and filing this lawsuit. Thanks to the legal team. And Joshua Aaron, do you have any final thoughts yourself?
Just one, because I always like to say it in any interview these days is the ask still works. If you have it on your device, do not delete it, do not reformat your device or reinitialize it or anything that would cause you to have to redownload the app because you will never be able to do so again. but if you have it, it is still just as private as it always was, just as anonymous as it always was, and it works just as well as it always did. So we encourage you to continue to use it to keep yourself and your community safe.
Well, thank you both so much, everybody. You can look, for this lawsuit. It's going to hit the docket a little bit later Today on Monday, Dec 8th. Thank you for sharing the story with us. Thanks for letting me know about this lawsuit. I'm really glad that you're doing it and I hope that you prevail and we'll be keeping an eye on it. Deirdre von Dornam and Joshua Aaron, I appreciate your time today. Thank you so much, everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back with the good news.
Send us your good news or corrections via email
Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news, everyone.
Then, good news, everyone.
And if you have any good news or corrections, if you want to tell us your favorite joke, if you want to share a fun story from yesterday or 20 years ago, we all need to smile, send it in to us. We all need to microdose a little happiness. you can send it to us@dailybeanspod.com click on Contact. You can also include shout outs to friends and loved ones or yourself, maybe what you did for your thesis or dissertation. We can't pronounce what is in there, but we would love to try, and then you can send in a correction for how we screw it up. You can also give a shout out to a government program. All you got to do to get your submission right on the air is pay your POD pet tariff, which means attach a photo of your page pet. If you don't have a pet, send an adoptable pet in your area. We'll see if we can find him a home. And if you don't have that, any photo will do. Really. It can be a picture of random animal on the Internet. You can send bird watching photos which can be a bird or you flipping the bird to a Trump building. We love those. You can send photos of your garden or what you're knitting or crocheting or painting or writing anything at all rallies you've been to. Favorite signs, holiday photos send it to us dailybeanspod.com click on contact first. Step up.
Feminist Buzz Kills discusses fake abortion clinics at the Supreme Court
We have a shout out real quick to Feminist Buzz Kills. So a lot went down at the Supreme Court this week. And on the Feminist Buzz Kills podcast, constitutional law scholar Dr. Michelle Goodwin joined them to break down what's actually happening with the fake clinics, the fake abortion clinics case, and why the outcome might not look like what people expect. Let's listen.
Dr. Goodwin M. What's going on with.
Fake clinics at the Supreme Court and what will it mean if they win? In this specific case?
What it means is that the state.
Attorneys general cannot reach into their computers, if you will, and get lists of who their donors happen to be and others who are affiliated with their clinics. And this could actually mean a victory potentially for abortion clinics. Listen to the entire episode of Feminist Buzzkills wherever you get your podcasts. So again, with fake clinics outnumbering real abortion clinics and trying to use the courts to shield their networks and Muddy the truth, Dr. Goodwin cuts through the noise and lays out exactly what's at stake. It's a sharp, clear explainer. It's a must listen episode. Check out the latest from feminist buzzkills. Also, we have some good trouble. And this comes from Ellen Pronoun. She and her Rhode island continues to fight ice. ICE vehicles are routinely spotted parked near or circling the Courthouse. A, WhatsApp text goes out to be present and witness, hopefully maybe prevent ICE kidnappings. So if you're a Rhode island local, you can sign up. If not, your community likely has something similar ice watch Rhode Island. WhatsApp channel will have a link in the show. Notes. Oh, and Dana, before we get to the good news, there's a producer's Note here for WhatsApp. We've included a link to a resource on how to protect yourself while using WhatsApp and WhatsApp channels, so you might want to check out that link as well.
Sounds great. Thanks so much, Alison.
Corrections for pronunciation of Pica, adorable rabbit relative
This one's from Sarin. Pronouns she and her. Hello Sarina, the ex biologist here. Again, just a correction and suggestion for a sign off on your new beans talk. The correction is for the pronunciation of Pica, that adorable rabbit relative. It's pronounced pica rather than pika. And for the sign off for the beanstalk. Maybe something related to tail Jack and the Beanstalk. The story ends with Jack escaping and chopping down the stalk, so my thought was to end the show with chop chop. Anyway, even if this is too dull, perhaps it might lead to another idea for my pod pet tariff. Here are pics of not a pica, but its relative. A cottontail that lived on the property where I used to live. It may have been one that I rescued as a baby after it got separated from its burrow. Perhaps my handling it to return it to its den is why it got tame enough as an adult to take almonds from my hand. Thanks for everything you do. You and Dana help me get through the day.
Look at this sweet baby. All right, Pica. Got it. All right. This is from Nisha. Pronouns she and her AG&DG. New hobby pic from the Good News Thursday. This is a response. The picture is actually a quilt and not a painting. And I'm an elder millennial. Thanks ladies. Oh my gosh.
It looked so good.
I thought it was just. Oh wow, that's a quilt.
That's. That's mind blowing. That's even more. I don't know. Not. It's equally as important. Impressive.
That's incredible. Thank you for that correction.
Next up from Bruce is an eight month old rescue from Texas
Next up from, Bruce. Bruce, have you heard? I guess you can't indict a ham sandwich. Hahaha. True story. Pod pet tax. Her name is Kia. An eight month old rescue from Texas. The only Texan that I like to be around. Guess her two dominant breeds. Ah, Australian cattle dog and Rottweiler. What do you think?
Pity and staffy. All right, I just made those up.
Oh my God. Australian cattle dog and pit bull. You and I together. Got it.
Love it, love it, love it all.
Terry: I'm ashamed of admiral who lied to Congress today
right, next up is from Terry. Pronouns. She and her just heard the show. I live in Amy Barra's district is Amy Bears. Yep, Amy Bears district. Just next door to Kevin Kiley, pronounced Kylie.
Good.
We are thrilled with Prop 50's California and can't wait until do nothing until my job is in peril. Kevin is out of a job. I love your show. I'm ex Army. Terry, thank you for your service. I'm ashamed of the admiral, who obviously lied to Congress today. Thank you for keeping me somewhat sane.
Yeah.
Oh, these babies are sweet.
You know, speaking of that, we'll go over this in more detail tomorrow. But that admiral that briefed Congress, that boat was not headed to the United States.
Wow.
They found out.
Wow.
On that double tap. Yeah.
Oh, boy.
We're gonna talk about that in more in depth, on tomorrow's Beans. But holy shit, it wasn't headed to the United States. Nope.
President Trump has recently focused his sights on the Somali community in Minnesota
All right, next up from Peggy Pronoun. She and her hello, lovely legumes. I wanted to share an amazing experience I just had. Trump has recently focused his sights on the Somali community in Minnesota. Oh, yes, he has. It's so racist. It's awful. Very quickly, a protest was organized at a Somali mall in Minneapolis. Now, I'm an older lady from the suburbs, but I attended and found a beautiful mix of humanity. They did a potluck that included everything from samosas to Rice Krispie bars. The event even got a little media coverage locally from npr, and it was called out on Rachel Maddow. That's a lot of media coverage. I love it. That's fantastic. I can't believe. well, no, I can believe all these horribly racist, bigoted things that they're saying, but seriously, thanks for going to that, and I'm glad they did it or they organized it and it got coverage. That's wonderful.
Oh, my gosh. I love this. This is from Stacy. Pronouns. She and her good morning beans queens. Here's a small correction. Blanche dubois was the lead character in Streetcar Name Desire. Blanche devereaux was Rue McClanahan's character in the Golden Girls. Thank you very much. I've long said that I don't know anything of great value, but I'm the queen of worthless information. Thanks very much for all you do. You're my first podcast. Every morning, right after Stephanie Miller concludes at 9am for my pod pet tariff, I'm attaching a picture of Grace and Frankie. This is why I love this. Look at these dogs. The bestest girls in the world. Grace is the blank. And even though Frankie. Frankie is groomed to be, like, a blank, she's a blank. Thanks again for your pal, Stacy. So, it looks like a.
There's a poodle groomed to. I think. I think it's Groomed to look like a poodle, but she's actually something else.
I, I, oh, maybe.
Yeah. I don't know.
And then Frankie's groomed to look like a terrier, and she's a.
Well, they're not groomed to look like anything. That's just the other dog. Yeah, it's a little terrier, though. Let's see what we've got. Gracie, is the poodle.
She's a poodle.
No, you were right. Frankie is the one who looks like a schnauzer.
But she's schnauzer. That's what it is.
A terrier mix.
So we got the terrier. God loves a terrier. Just a note, by the way, to Stacy. the pictures of the hummingbird nesting pictures from your front porch didn't make it, but we would love to see them if you want to send them through.
Yeah, yeah, you were right. The poodle is a poodle. Duh, Allison.
We missed giving Tuesday because we were dealing with a small health procedure
All right, next up, anonymous pronoun. She and her dear queens of the bean kingdom. We're a daily listening family. Two humans and one dog tuning in every day and often together to soak up the good vibes even when the news is bad. We missed giving Tuesday because we were dealing with a small health procedure, but everything went well. But then you kept sharing beautiful stories about it, so we had to, too. And we just donated to our local Lions Elevating All Fund Leaf. It's an amazing local program that's helping folks in our small mountain town with food pantry, meals on wheels, mental wellness, and more. We're a small town with a big heart, and every Saturday there's a little protest for democracy on the main route to Rocky Mountain National Park. On no Kings Day, we had about 500 folks there in a town of 2,000. Oh, my God.
Wow.
That's 25% of your population. For our pod pet tariff, we currently have two dogs in the house. Moose, our stoic elder statesmen. And we are fostering a sweet little strawberry color colored dog named Fressi or Fresita for short, or Fressi for short, meaning little strawberry in Spanish. Fressi is a very good girl. A little over a year old. She's looking for her forever home in Colorado. The holidays are difficult for rescues and adoptions are hard to come by. And so I'm hoping the reach of the Laguminati might get some attention that leads to her perfect person or family. Please share her profile at Summit Dog Rescue. We'll have a link in the show Notes. Thanks for all you do. Sarah, Stephen, and Moose. And Fressie, if you want to guess Moose's breeds. Oh, what? Husky? Malamute.
I mean, you see what we have here? Definitely husky.
If that is in fact the dog, we're guessing. Yeah, if that is the other dog.
The dog.
Otherwise.
Otherwise it looks like a Weimaraner.
Oh, wait, we've got them for each one. So for Sita is the husky. And let's see. See? Yeah, husky. And then the next picture, we've got the husky and another dog. What is this dog? Moose on the right?
a Weimaraner mix, or is it just a full bred?
A husky, because look at that eye.
Yeah, maybe it's a husky. Weimaraner.
Australian sheepdog. Weimaraner. Okay, let's see. Oh, I can't unclick the redaction bar. You never know. Our producers redacted it. For real. They didn't. Manafort redact them.
He doesn't even want anyone to know what kind of breed this is.
We'll never know. We'll announce it tomorrow once we find out what's behind the bars. Oh, my gosh. A still adorable and lovely photo in front of the Christmas tree. I'm surprised you got that husky to sit still. Anyway, thank you all so very much for your good news. We really appreciate it. We know we had some bad news in there today, and so this really helps. To end on a better note, please send all your good news to us@dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. We'll see you over on Beans Talk. Do you have any final thoughts, my friend?
nope, not today.
All right, everybody, until tomorrow, 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.
I've been dg.
And them's the beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarland with art and web design by Joel Reeder 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 Media.