Tuesday, February 18th, 2025 Today, Elon Musk is seeking access to personal taxpayer data raising alarms at the Internal Revenue Service; The Washington Post has blocked a two page ad calling for the removal of Elon Musk; January 6th rioters are arguing in court that their pardons apply to unrelated charges; Trump has fired hundreds of FAA employees despite four deadly crashes in four weeks; the Washington state judge who imposed a temporary restraining order last week on Trump’s executive order blocking gender affirming care for minors has now imposed an injunction on him; and Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
Tuesday, February 18th, 2025
Today, Elon Musk is seeking access to personal taxpayer data raising alarms at the Internal Revenue Service; The Washington Post has blocked a two page ad calling for the removal of Elon Musk; January 6th rioters are arguing in court that their pardons apply to unrelated charges; Trump has fired hundreds of FAA employees despite four deadly crashes in four weeks; the Washington state judge who imposed a temporary restraining order last week on Trump’s executive order blocking gender affirming care for minors has now imposed an injunction on him; and Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
Stories:
Here's the ad the Washington Post wouldn't run - Common Cause
DOGE-affiliated employee expected to seek access to IRS system with sensitive taxpayer information - Garrett Haake and Megan Lebowitz | NBC News
Judge Hits Donald Trump With Legal Setback: 'Unconstitutional' - Sean O'Driscoll | Newsweek
Good Trouble:
The FCC is accepting comments from the public regarding their case against 60 minutes on CBS. Let them know how you feel.
COMPLAINT INVOLVING CBS BROADCASTING INC., LICENSEE OF WCBS, NEW YORK, NY - PDF
Comments - FCC.gov
FCC Seeks Comment on WCBS News Distortion Complaint | Federal Communications Commission
FCC case against CBS for ‘news distortion’ may go far beyond precedent, scholars say | Reuters
Federal workers - feel free to email me at fedoath@pm.me and let me know what you’re going to do, or just vent. I’m always here to listen.
Check out muellershewrote.com for my interview with a systems security expert about the massive breach at opm.gov caused by Elon Musk
From The Good News
Flow (2024 film) | Wikipedia
Um, MSW Media Media. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Tuesday, February 18, 2025. Today, Elon Musk is seeking access to personal taxpayer data, raising alarms at the Internal Revenue Service. The Washington Post has blocked a two page ad calling for the removal of Elon Musk. January 6th. Rioters are arguing in court that their pardons apply to unrelated charges. Trump has fired hundreds of FAA employees despite four deadly crashes in four weeks. And a Washington state judge who imposed a temporary restraining order last week on Trump's executive order that blocks gender affirming care for minors, has now imposed a full injunction. I'm Allison Gill.
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
Hey, Dana. Happy President's, uh, day.
Happy Monday to you, too. Yeah, happy Monday, everyone.
Happy Obama and Biden Day. Happy Lincoln, uh, and Washington Day.
Man, there were protests all over, which was beautiful to see. Um, you know, people are, people are pissed and they're not gonna honor him. Uh, you could see what's happening nationally. Uh, he's clearly not acting, uh, in the space of the presidency. Uh, in, uh, my opinion, he's just been castrated by these billionaires around him. He totally has been.
Oh, yeah, he's just a puppet, right? He's a figurehead. He's a vehicle for them to get their dirty little hands and everything. And from what I heard from around the country, from most of the protesters is the thing that's upsetting them the most isn't, uh, inflation that's on the rise again. It's not the cost of eggs, uh, that a lot of folks seem to want to keep talking about up, uh, on the Hill. It's that Elon Musk has gotten his fingers into our treasury payment system and he's about to infiltrate our tax system, our personal tax data. We're going to go over that in a story in the Hot Notes. But it's just such an intrusive and gross and violating feeling. Um, like if you've ever had, like, your car broken into or your house broken into, that's the same feeling of just a, um, violation of privacy. And it's awful. And that's what most people are super pissed about.
I can understand why. And let's remember, he's doing the bidding for a guy that refuses to release his tax returns to the American public for years.
And all of that is piggybacking on all of the hate and bigotry and all of the bullshit that they're throwing out there to try to get us divided so that they can slip into the treasury and the irs. And rob us blind. That's the whole goal here. And that's why. And it continues to endanger our friends in marginalized communities, um, and the LGBTQ+ community. And it's, it's, it's infuriating. And that's why people are so upset. And, um, I'm glad to see everyone out there in numbers, um, trying to have their voices heard. I appreciate it.
Absolutely. I do as well.
All right, so the Washington Post this week, um, backed out of a fire Elon Musk ad order that it was gonna run as a wrap on some of its Tuesday editions. And that's according to the advocacy group Common Cause now, the group signed a $115,000 deal with the Washington Post to run this ad, uh, on Tuesday, as well as a full page ad with the same theme inside the paper. It said it planned to purchase the ad in collaboration with the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund. Common Cause. Lear. The Washington Post decided not to run the outside the paper ad that criticized Elon Musk. And the Post didn't provide an explanation for why it decided not to run the rap ad.
Okay, okay. Disappointed.
So that's frustrating and a bunch of bullshit. Um, because, you know, like I said, one of the number one problems people have with this administration is that the fact that it's the Musk regime.
Yeah, absolutely. And the knee bending is just grotesque by these billionaires.
Yeah.
I mean, Bezos, I'm sure, had a lot to do with whether or not that thing was going to run or not.
Yeah, he wants those contracts. As soon as he fires and dismantles NASA, Jeff Bezos is going to want some of those space contracts along with Elon's SpaceX.
Yeah. These guys just, they're already billionaires and they want more and more and more money and power. It's so crazy to me because they could do such good in the world. And I don't know what happened. Elon Musk, even. He could be this really cool fucking dad who honors his transgender daughter Vivian, who decides to use his money to help the poor and, and create incredible things instead. Uh, whatever switches in these guys and makes them literally evil men taking food away from poor people so they can actually line their pockets with more money. It's, it's mind boggling to me. It's, it's just gross.
It is to me. What the fuck are you going to do with that money? You're not paying alimony. Like, what are you doing with that money? Like, every, like, here, here at like, MSW Media Media. Dana Every single dollar that we make over after all of our bills are paid good. Just gets paid out in bonuses at the end of the year. Like what? What am I going to do with it? Like what? I don't understand it.
I don't either. I don't either. And the amount of money. No one needs that much money. No one.
Yeah, well, I'm a proud thousand heir, so.
Yeah, you and me both. You and me both.
Anyway, it's just fucking mind boggling. He could cure cancer, he could feed the hungry, he could save every single person with hiv, aids. And he, uh, could like. I mean, there's just.
You could fix the homeless issue in this country. How's the houseless issue? Excuse me? Houseless issue in this country?
Mhm. Yeah, for sure. All right, anyway, disappointment. It's one of my favorite lines from A Fish Called Wanda. So just share that. All right, we have a lot of news to get to. Let's hit the hot. Not hot. Uh, notes. All right, first up, from Garrett Hake at NBC. Who I really like is. Really cool guy in real life. An IRS employee named Gavin Kleiger, who is affiliated with doji, the Department of Government Efficiency, is expected to seek access to an IRS system that houses sensitive taxpayer information. According to an administration official, the access would be to the Integrated Data Retrieval System, which allows IRS employees to access taxpayer accounts that include detailed financial information about every taxpayer, business and nonprofit in the country. It also contains information such as taxpayers individual master files, taxpayer identification numbers, retirement account information, and details on pending adoptions. There is so much information in this database. IDRs, users, quote, are authorized to access only those accounts required to accomplish their official duties. According to the IRS website, they are not allowed to access the accounts of people with whom they have personal or financial interests, such as friends and relatives. And that's according to an IRS document. The move, first reported by the Washington Post, is an expansion of dodgy's efforts to access sensitive information held by the federal government. One of the software engineers, the one we're talking about that's about to get access, his name is, like I said, Gavin Kleiger. And he's set to work for the IRS for 120 days. Though a tax agency and the White House can renew his deployment for the same duration, they can keep re upping him for 120 days at a time. According to the Post, the agreement requires that Kliger maintain confidentiality of tax return information, shield it from unauthorized access, and destroy any such information shared with him upon the completion of his IRS deployment. What do you want to bet that's going to happen?
Yeah.
IDRS access is extremely limited. Taxpayers who have had their information wrongfully disclosed or even inspected are entitled by law to monetary damages. And the request for the dodgy access has raised deep concerns within the irs. As you can imagine, Kliger had not been granted IDRS access as of Sunday evening, according to a person with firsthand knowledge of his movement and access at the tax agency. As acting IRS commissioner, Doug O'Donnell has yet to finalize the memo that would permit him to do more detailed work to get the access. Much like at the Treasury Department, even the politically appointed head of these agencies, irs, treasury, usually don't have access to this sensitive personal data. Dodgy is justifying this by saying they're trying to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse. But if that were the case, Dana, they'd put an auditor in that position.
Yep.
Not a 25 year old douchebag who published a substack article titled why Doge, why I Gave Up a Seven Figure Salary to Save America. And that substack post was hidden behind a $1,000 per month paywall. And when you got in, there was no content.
Wow.
Concerns have been raised about his amplification of extremist viewpoints as well, including reposting content from Nazi Nick Fuentes and misogynistic social media influencer Andrew Tate, also a rapist. And using social media to, quote, call Hillary Clinton a slur and demand military tribunals and executions of undocumented migrants who commit crimes.
I hope this is stopped. They already know he's trying to do it. If he gets access. I mean, un. Believable.
That's every single person.
Yeah.
And who pays taxes or has a nonprofit or a business.
I. I just don't understand why people who voted for him but did not vote for this are not blowing the. The sound alarms. Like, I just don't understand why these people are like this. I don't think they know voted. Yeah, I guess that's probably true. That's probably true.
They're being told, we're going to go in there and cut the fraud, waste and abuse.
Right.
And there are, you know, the cult members are like, yeah. And then they don't stop to think about, well, how does getting access to my tax documents help you cut fraud, waste and abuse?
Yeah. And yeah, okay, we're going to keep on going. This one's from Edward Hellmore at the Guardian. The Trump administration has begun firing. I don't like this story at all because you know how much I Fly like you know how much a lot of the people listening fly. Yeah. The Trump administration has begun firing hundreds of employees at the Federal Aviation Administration. Otherwise the faa, including some who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure despite four deadly crashes since Inauguration Day. According to the Professional Aviation Safety specialists that union, several hundred workers received termination notices on Friday. Many of the workers were probationary employees, those employed for less than a year and lacking job protections, which makes them low hanging food. Unfortunately for the Trump administration's streamlining efforts, former FAA air traffic controller Dylan Sullivan claimed on social media that agency personnel who were terminated, quote, maintain every piece of equipment that keeps flying safe, from the radars to the ILS to ATC automation. Now, the move also comes less than three weeks. Three weeks since a mid air collision between an army helicopter and a civilian jet over Washington D.C. that killed 67 people. Initial reports suggested there was just one air traffic controller working both civilian and military flights in the notoriously busy airspace at the time of the collision. Since then, seven people died when a plane crashed near Philadelphia. Ten people died when another crashed in Alaska. And one person has died when the landing gear on a private plane belonging to Motley Crue singer Vince Neil failed as it landed and crashed into another parked aircraft. On Monday, a Delta flipped. A Delta aircraft. I don't know if you all have seen the videos and pictures from this. It flipped over when arriving at Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Canada with 80 people on board. Early reports suggest that everyone has survived that the PASS union, which is the organization we just talked about, which represents more than 11,000 FAA and Department of Defense workers who install, inspect and maintain air traffic control systems posted on its website. Staffing decisions should be based on an individual agency's mission critical needs. To do otherwise is dangerous when it comes to public safety. David Spiro, national president of PASS and on Twitter of, uh, fired employees, quote, they are our family, friends, neighbors. Many are veterans. It is shameful to toss aside dedicated public servants.
You're here.
Yep. The Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, said on Twitter that he, quote, talked to Doji that team and they are going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system. That's horrifying. Aviation experts have long pointed to outdated air traffic control systems used by the FAA as a source of concern.
He's going to go in there and install his X AI Yeah. Shit. To do our air traffic controlling. And let's talk about how terrifying that now we don't have any confirmation that that's what he's doing, but that's what I think he wants to do.
Uh, I would put your beans are usually right. I wouldn't be surprised. Elon Musk later reposted that, by the way, that tweet saying his department, quote, will aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system. All of these fuckers are flying in private jets. Let me remind you, probation employees targeted by Doji have little recourse to employment tribunals. Sullivan, the former FAA air traffic controller, said in his social media post, and I quote, FAA technicians undergo years of specialized training to maintain mission critical systems and cannot be replaced quickly. In the 30 years since I began my controller career, we have never had a surplus of technicians and engineers. Once our aviation safety infrastructure is compromised, it will take decades to bring it back. Money will not be saved, and lives may be lost. You know, I dated an, uh, air traffic controller for a little while when I was younger, and I remember helping her, um, study for the test that she had to take. And it is intense, the hours and the hours of training. And this is also. People have to understand air traffic controllers have one of the most stressful jobs. And I know this is a crazy statistic, but suicides within this, in this career are higher than many, many other careers because of the intense stress that they are under working in dark rooms for hours, hours at a time. These people are not dispensable.
Yeah, no, and, and, and a lot of these are veterans. And you know, Trump just fired a thousand people from the VA and also gutted the veterans crisis line, which helps field calls from veterans who are having suicidal ideations. So all of that. You know, when you think about 30% of our federal workforce being veterans now, probably losing access to one of the big things that they have in place to support them in those times of need, also being gutted. Um, you can see the exponential potential for tragedy.
Yeah.
Next up from Scott Calvert et al, at the Wall Street Journal. And again, I gotta say, I am noticing some really strong reporting coming out of the Journal. Better than the Washington Post, better than the Times. So if you are thinking of wondering where to put your subscription dollars besides, you know, the daily beans premium, which is, you know, ad free early episodes, uh, I would, I would give a good look to the Wall Street Journal. Seriously, it's, uh, They've been doing some really great work. So. Less than a month after receiving pardons for participating in January 6, some former defendants find themselves in a familiar place back in court, facing other criminal charges. There's Edward Kelly, who was pardoned for assaulting police at the US Capitol but is now fighting in another case. In November, a jury convicted him of conspiring to murder the FBI agents who investigated his January 6th participation with evidence showing he had a kill list of targets. Kelly now argues that conviction should be tossed out, too. The Tennessee man believes that President Trump's blanket pardon covering offenses related to events that occurred at or near The Capitol on January 6th extends beyond that day. Other defendants are similarly arguing they should be absolved of other alleged crimes, such as illegal gun possession and child pornography discovered during January 6th investigations. At least one defendant has died in postpartum altercations with police. We've talked about all these. Now, weeks after the pardon that freed hundreds of prison inmates and ended remaining cases winding through the courts, life is far from settled for a large contingent of these defendants. This month, dozens of defendants joined forces on Twitter to compile and publicize the names of at least 124 people who had a hand in their convictions, mainly prosecutors, but also a few judges and FBI agents. This is from a review by the Wall Street Journal. The post of names with, uh, at least 60,000 views included photos and disparaging remarks and demands for accountability. On January 27, county prosecutors in Houston announced a manhunt for Andrew Take. That's the pardoned January 6th defendant who was being sought on a 2016 charge of online solicitation of a minor. He had been serving a 74 month sentence after pleading guilty to violence at the Capitol. Prosecutors said he sprayed police officers with bear spray four separate times and struck one with a metal whip. The Harris County District Attorney's office said it had asked federal prison officials to hold the 36 year old take. But instead, he was let out of a Colorado facility on January 20, right after Trump's pardon. Federal agents and others have expressed fear of retaliation for investigating the Capitol riot. After the Trump appointed Justice Department leaders demanded a list of all agents involved, agents sued, arguing it would put them and their families at risk from the now pardoned and at large January 6th convicted felons. The federal government temporarily agreed not to make the list public while a judge considers a longer term ban. Quote, if this information were released, I think there's no question that it would put a number of FBI agents in significant and immediate danger. That's what U.S. district Judge Gia Cobb, a Biden appointee, said during a recent court hearing. Nonetheless, many Jan Sixers are taking it upon themselves to publicize these names. Experts such as Bernadette Mailer, a law professor at Stanford, say the language used in the pardon is very specific. To the events around January 6, but the defendants and their lawyers are arguing otherwise. A Tennessee jury convicted Kelly in November of concocting a plan while he was awaiting trial on January 6. On his January 6 case, I should say to kill law enforcement. A, uh, cooperating defendant say he and Kelly planned attacks on the FBI's Knoxville Field Office using car bombs and incendiary devices attached to drones and strategized about assassinating FBI employees in their homes. Kelly's attorney has asked a judge to toss out his case, citing the presidential pardon, saying, in this instance, there can be no dispute that Kelly's case in this court is related to the events of January 6th and is covered by the president's executive action. That's what attorney Mark Brown wrote. Literally, a person put their name to that in a Jan. 27 motion. In Florida, resident Daniel Ball is charged with illegally possessing a gun and ammunition because of a prior felony conviction, including for domestic violence battery by strangulation, according to court records. Sounds like a peach. His lawyer, Amy Collins, wants prosecutors to drop that case, saying it stems from a search that occurred when Ball was arrested for the January 6th crimes that were pending when Trump pardoned him. I don't see how they could in good faith say this case is not covered by the Presidential Proclamation because it only came about because of the January 6th case. That's what Collins said of the prosecution. A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Tampa said the government's position is that the pardon does not apply to Mr. Ball's conduct in the middle district of Florida, unquote. A lawyer for David Daniel, a North Carolina man facing child pornography charges, made a similar argument.
Oh, my God.
Attorney William Tarpenning said in an interview, pretty much all the evidence cited by prosecutors came from a raid on Daniel's house in connection with the January 6th case. So, quote, anything that flowed from that case, given the pardon, should be excluded and inadmissible at, uh, trial.
All of them.
Can you believe that?
Oh, my God.
Yeah. No, no, no. I know that when, you know, you were looking for him because he attacked cops on January 6th, uh, when you came into the house, you found child pornography images and stuff and that he was soliciting minors, but you shouldn't get to use that because it was, uh, January 6th, uh, that got you in the door. That's unbelievable.
It's disgusting. It is disgusting. All right, we're going to end the segment with some good news. As good as we can in this hellhole. This is from Shawna Driscoll at Newsweek. A Washington state judge has struck down President Donald Trump's executive order on transgender care. The Washington state federal judge who imposed the restraining order, this is Lauren King, had granted a temporary restraining order last week after the Democratic attorneys general of Washington state, Oregon and Minnesota sued the Trump administration. That temporary restraining order came one day after the federal judge in Baltimore temporarily blocked the executive order in response to a separate lawsuit filed on behalf of families with transgender or non binary children. The temporary restraining orders are just the first step in a long fight to overturn the executive order. Some background on this. On January 28th of 2025, Trump issued an executive order entitled and I quote, protecting children from chemical and surgical mutilation. Trump's order blocks, and I quote, the use of sex hormones such as androgen blockers, estrogen, progesterone, or testosterone to align an individual's physical appearance with an identity that differs from his or her sex, and bans, and I quot quote, surgical procedures that attempt to transform an individual's physical appearance to align with an identity that differs from his or her sex. The executive order also blocks federal funding to doctors who give such treatments to transgender minors. Well, on Sunday, February 16, King imposed a preliminary injunction on Trump's executive order. In her written ruling, uh, she found the order unconstitutional on several grounds. Addressing the blocking of federal funding, she wrote, quote, this oversteps the president's authority under the separation of powers. Good. I'm glad people are saying it. She also noted that the executive order would make it a criminal offense for doctors to give gender realignment treatment to minors, and said this was also unconstitutional as it, quote, purports to expand the scope of criminalized conduct to another federal statute. And this trespasses beyond the President's power under what? The Constitution? Again, I'm glad someone's saying it. She said these are not the only ways the executive order is unconstitutional. And she goes on to say the Fifth Amendment's equal protection clause prohibits the federal government from treating people differently based on sex or transgender status unless such differential treatment serves important governmental objectives and is substantially related to the achievement of those objectives. The judge said Trump's executive order on transgender health care would create a perverse situation in which a cisgender person could get puberty blockers to treat cancer, but a transgender person could not get puberty blockers to treat the same disease. Okay. As King has moved from a temporary to a preliminary injunction, her order can now be appealed, and we know it will be. The Trump administration will likely appeal to a Federal Circuit Court, and the case could reach the U.S. supreme Court. Given that several states are involved in this, um, they're calling conflict. It's just a mess. But I'm glad that judges are doing the right thing. Uh, I worry obviously about the Supreme Court, but at the same time, they have surprised us with these specific issues, uh, over the past couple of years. So we're just going to keep on fighting, see what happens.
But they also might be looking for the right vehicle to strike down transgender as part of title. Is it Title seven?
Uh, you're right. Yeah. Title vii. You're right.
So they might just be looking for the right, you know, the right moment for them to make a new rule for the ages or whatever the fuck.
Yeah.
To overturn their previous precedent because they don't care about stare decisis or people.
True.
Anyway, um, yeah, this is a federal case judge, uh, Lauren King, appointed by guess who?
Obama.
President Joe Biden.
Ah, ah.
Da, da, da, da. Thanks, Joe.
Seriously love when it's a. I actually love more when it's like a Trump appointed judge. When they're like, I know yourself.
I know. Me too. Um, there's been a lot of those too.
Yeah.
Particularly in the January 6th cases where they're like, what the. You're doing what?
Yeah.
Yeah. Yep. Mhm. All right, everybody, it's time for some good trouble. Hey, trouble. Yes. All right. This comes from an anonymous listener. Hey, lady, how about this for some good trouble? The FCC is actually accepting comments from the public regarding their case against 60 Minutes and CBS. This is highly unusual. Maybe we should flood the zone with comments that the FCC should stop this case. This is from Reuters. As the U.S. federal Communications Commission probes CBS for potential violations of the agency's rarely invoked policy on news distortion communications. Lawyers and FCC scholars say that the move under newly installed Commissioner chair Brendan Carr could mark a sharp departure from agency precedent. And in an unusual step, the FCC reopened a complaint alleging CBS, in editing a 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, wrongly altered one of her answers. Also atypical, the commission last week invited members of the public to submit comments on the proceedings. We have a link for you in the show notes to leave your public comments. So that's pretty cool.
It is very cool. Let's do it. Flood it. Flood the zone, peeps.
Flood it. All right, everybody, um, we have, uh, some good news that we have to get to, so please submit your good news to us dailybeanspod.com click on Contact. But we have to take a quick break. So stick around. We'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back.
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Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news. Good news everyone. Then good news everyone. Yay. I love the good news. I love the good news part of the show. If you have any good news confessions corrections you want to give A shout out to a loved one. You, um, want to, um, give a shout out to a small business in your area or a self shout out or your small business. We love those shout outs to government programs that have helped you or a loved one. Anything from Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Affordable Care act, the PACT Act, Great VA health care you or a loved one have received. I know I love my VA healthcare, uh, for now, while I have it. Um, so I love that, of course, student debt forgiveness. We love those stories. And then really, anything, Section eight, um, WIC Head Start, anything like that at all, send it to us. And to get your good news submitted, all you gotta do is attach your POD pet tax. And that's just really a photo of your pet and, or pets. Um, and it can be, it doesn't have to be a dog or a cat. It can be like a bird or whatever. And speaking of birds, we take bird photos, but we also take photos of you and your family and friends flipping the bird at Trump Properties or Elon Musk joints. I don't know what else to say about that, but we take those as well. Then of course, baby photos. And if you don't have any of those, you can send us an adoptable pet in your area. We'll accept that as well. So let's kick off this good news for February 18th with a, uh, submission from Peggy Pronoun. She and her. This looks like a good bird watching photo. I want to share with you that I attended my first protest today. Yay for civil disobedience. It was at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul. It was an actual temperature of 4 degrees below zero. So with the wind chill, it was really effing cold. Estimates were about a thousand people. I lasted about an hour, but there were still people there. The energy was high, the signs were awesome. The chance gave me hope and a little bird watching on my drive home. This is a new dealership near my home. I truly hope they never sell a single vehicle. And here she is flipping off a Tesla dealership. Well done.
Absolutely. In the freezing ass cold. Second picture's fantastic. And still smiling.
I gotta tell you that St. Paul and that Minnesota Capitol is beautiful building.
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks ag. This next one's from Debbie Pronoun. She and her dearest ladies of the legumes. This morning I couldn't even eat after all the shitty news from the weekend. A big shout out to my best friend Vicki, who talked me down. She began talking and came across an idea for a meme. So I went to Second Life. And that's a virtual world. And I set up the scene. Needless to say, I feel very much better. I feel much better after completing my little project. I give it freely as a gift to send far and wide. Thanks for helping us make it through each day.
Okay, so we've got a gardener saying pampas grass. I could have sworn you said control of this pompous ass.
It's got Trump in a cage.
Trump's in, like, a go, go dancing cage.
Love it.
Slash birdcage. I don't know who the lady is. Is that Melania? This is fantastic. Debbie, you're awesome. And eat. Eat, Debbie, eat. Even if it's cake. You know, even if it's, uh, some peanut butter cups. Get something in there. I have that.
Even if it's peanut butter cups.
Do it. Peanut butter cups are delicious. Anyway, next up, James from Phoenix. Pronouns he and him. Hello, queens. And as always, thanks for all you do every day to help us through the deluge. This is a quick shout out to the movie I watched over the weekend called Floating. Original Latvian title is strom. This animated 2024 movie from Latvia has won many awards and was nominated for best Animated Film and best International Feature Film at the upcoming Academy Awards. I took the movie as a message of how enemies and differences can be put aside in the presence of immense challenges and threats. Seems apropos for what's happening today. As I watched the film, I was constantly reminded of the daily beans and how the characters would make Allyson and Dana smile. Uh, the cast includes a whiskered void, a lineup of what the mutt contestants, a very large rodent, and a bird whose name might have her assigned to the typing pool. This seems to be some of Allyson's previously shared favorite things. I felt that was cast with Allison in mind. If anyone needs 90 minutes of checkout time, I highly recommend the film for a chance to smile, laugh, and feel some relief. And James, I've heard about Flo from so many people. Haven't you, Dana? I mean, so many.
No. And I'm so, uh, this is the first now. I can't wait to go find it.
Are talking about this spectacular film. Potbet tax is a clip of the movie poster. That counts, I think. Thank you so much, James. Uh, and I hope you're doing well over there in Phoenix.
Oh, my goodness. I love it. I love it. All right, this one is from Hammerpoint. Homo sapien. No pronouns given. I Google mapped Mar a lago on Sunday night as, um, at least Google has one geological point on the map. Correct. And it says orange face properties.
The Mar A Lago Club.
That's amazing.
Nice. All right, good Trouble.
Yeah. This one's from Judy D. No pronouns given. Dang. I tried to rename the White House as Casa de Idiota, and it was blocked. Sharing my tax is a pic of knitted dog I am making for a friend. This dog, Obie, crossed the Rainbow bridge last year. I'm duplicating his markings to send him as a comfort dog.
Oh, my goodness. What an incredible idea. Look at the sweet baby.
I, um, love it. Julie.
Uh, D, that's awesome. Sorry you weren't able to rename the White House as Casa della Diota, but it's good tryin'next. Up from Latitude pronoun, she and her hi Beans Queens. This is a shout out to my daughter, Gina. She is a school counselor in rural northern Nevada and has seen the foster care system up close and personal. A little over a year ago, she had an idea. Instead of taking kids out of their homes and communities and putting them in transitional care where they can be moved around multiple times, put them in a stable group home where they stay. No moving, no trauma. Gina opened Comfort House to meet this need. I'm very proud of her. And everybody will have a link to comfort House, um, nv.org in the show notes. That's comforthhouse n v.org and I'm sharing a picture of my bestie, Chico.
Chico's cute.
Oh, look at the one ear flip down and the one straight up. Adorbs, Chihuahua.
Adorbs indeed. All right, this one's from Claire. Pronouns. She and her hello, lovely beans Queens. Somewhat newer listener and a big fan. I so appreciate your analysis of breaking news and how you always give us both good trouble and good news. We need all of that so much at this time. I've been recommending your podcasts to so many of my friends and they have been so eager to join the crew. I'd like to give a big shout out to the consular services of the U.S. state Department. Uh, they are the front lines of our relations with so many countries and do the hard work of issuing passports to US Citizens, visas to foreign nationals who wish to travel to the US and supporting US Citizens abroad in their most difficult and important moments, such as issuing travel documents for overseas adoptions, helping to arrange the transport home of bodies of U.S. citizens who die while traveling, et cetera. I have a number of friends and relatives who have worked in this division, and they are so often unsung heroes among our public servants. A group I'm in recently posted an anonymous response from a federal employee who basically confirmed that a number of consular staff worked around the clock in December and early January processing as many passports with gender marker and name changes as they could, knowing what the incoming administration was going to do to our trans fellow citizens. And I just used the online passport renewal portal and got my new passport in one week without asking for expedited processing.
Wow.
Amazing. For the department that I know is under the same stress as all the other federal agencies at this moment. So thank you, consular staff. You do great work and you do hard work and I appreciate you. For my pod pet tax, I'm sharing a picture of my kitties, both of whom have passed onto the great sofa in the sky and who I miss dearly. Whisper. The white one was an evil genius in mocha. The dilute calico was an idiot, but a sweet girl. I'm sorry. She kind of looks like a sweet idiot. This picture pretty much captures their personalities perfectly. It sure does. Thank you, AG and dg. You are doing an important public service.
Oh, um, man, I'm probably the evil genius, but I want to be the sweet idiot.
I think I might be a mixture. I like to think I'm not an evil idiot, but I might be a sweet genius. I think I'm gonna go with that.
Sweet genius. I think. Yeah. Uh, let's take the positives from both of those. Fantastic. Thank you for that and what a wonderful shout out.
I know. Seriously, it's so nice to hear that that was happening.
Claire, in your name. I want to call on everyone to please send in your shout out to a federal worker that you know or a federal, you know, an agency. Um, I know we do shout outs to government programs, but like the consular staff, for example, working overtime, making sure that they can change as many of those passports for gender markers before the incoming administration came in. That's just brilliant. We want to hear more of that. So anybody you know, any federal workers who are doing amazing things, please send that in. We. We really need to counter this smear campaign against our federal workforce and see the human side, the kindness, the. You know, when Mr. Rogers says, look for the helpers, look to the federal workforce. That's what they do all day, every day, and they do it for low pay and no thanks. So I think we should really make an effort to shout them out. So thanks for that. Um, and thanks for all your good news, everybody. Send it to us dailybeanspod.com click on contact. Dana, do you have any, uh, final thoughts today?
I do not.
All right, everyone, we'll be back in your ears tomorrow. Don't forget, there's a new episode of Unjustified you have to check out. If you haven't checked it out yet, it's really. It's like one of my favorite things I've ever recorded with Andy McCabe. So check it out, and we will see you tomorrow. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, and take care of your family. I've been AG and I've been dg and them's the Beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Alison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they Might Be Giants and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information, please visit mswmedia.com msw media.