Friday, December 12th, 2025 Today, a federal judge has ordered the immediate release of Kilmer Abrego from ICE custody; the DOJ has failed for a THIRD time to indict NYAG Letitia James; the Indiana Senate has rejected the gerrymandered map that Trump pressured them to pass; the US Senate failed to pass bills extending ACA subsidies; more details have been released about the double tap boat strike that murdered two survivors; after getting the fake FIFA Peace Prize - Trump’s Justice Department has dropped the federal corruption charges involving FIFA; Kristi Noem ran away after scrutiny during a House Homeland Security hearing; and Allison and Dana deliver and your Good News.
Friday, December 12th, 2025
Today, a federal judge has ordered the immediate release of Kilmer Abrego from ICE custody; the DOJ has failed for a THIRD time to indict NYAG Letitia James; the Indiana Senate has rejected the gerrymandered map that Trump pressured them to pass; the US Senate failed to pass bills extending ACA subsidies; more details have been released about the double tap boat strike that murdered two survivors; after getting the fake FIFA Peace Prize - Trump’s Justice Department has dropped the federal corruption charges involving FIFA; Kristi Noem ran away after scrutiny during a House Homeland Security hearing; and Allison and Dana deliver and your Good News.
Guest: John Fugelsang
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Subscribe to the MSW YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@MSWMediaPods
Stories
Abrego Garcia Is Released From ICE Detention After Judge’s Order|NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/11/us/politics/abrego-garcia-released.html
A Grand Jury Again Declines to Reindict Letitia James|NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/11/us/politics/grand-jury-letitia-james.html
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/general/ar-AA1S95T8|MSN
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/general/ar-AA1S95T8
Indiana GOP rejects Trump’s map in major blow to his gerrymandering push|POLITICO
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/11/indiana-republicans-redistricting-vote-trump-00687714
Good Trouble - https://near.tl/sm/ik-ZushRa
From Joyce Vance - a way to file a formal complaint against Emil Bove:
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/judicial-ethics
“According to The Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980 … anyone can file a complaint about a federal judge. The Act establishes the process for making them. The Code of Conduct for federal judges says “a judge should refrain from political activity” and shouldn’t attend any events “sponsored by a political organization or candidate.” Judges are also charged with upholding the integrity and independence of the judiciary and avoiding impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities….”
"ANY person can file a complaint" Seems perfect for Beans listeners.
From The Good News
Malicious Women Co - https://maliciouswomenco.com
2026 Candidate Filing Deadlines - https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/2026-candidate-filing-deadlines
KVN For State Senate 2026 - https://www.facebook.com/people/KVG-for-Senate-2026/61579337620539/
Public shows up to refute ‘only two sexes male and female,’ board hears 5 hours of comments - https://www.mlive.com/news/2025/12/public-shows-up-to-refute-only-two-sexes-male-and-female-board-hears-5-hours-of-comments.html
Nativity Puppets - nativitypuppets.org
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MSW Media. Hello, and welcome to the Daily beans for Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. Today, a federal judge has ordered the immediate release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from ICE custody. The Department of Justice has failed for a third time to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James. The Indiana Senate has rejected the gerrymandered map that Trump pressured them to pass. The US Senate has failed to pass bills extending Affordable Care act subsidies. More details have been released about the double tap boat strike that murdered two survivors after getting the fake FIFA Peace Prize. Donald Trump's Justice Department has dropped the federal corruption charges involving FIFA. And Kristi Noem ran away after scrutiny during a House Homeland Security hearing. I'm Allison Gill.
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
Hey, Dana. Happy Friday, my friend.
Happy Friday. I cannot wait to make a video about that FIFA news, because I had another video go viral about that bullshit award he got, and I had no idea that there was a corruption charge drop now. So thank you for the fodder.
Yes, you are absolutely welcome. There's a lot of fodder today. We've got so many failures by this Trump administration to talk about, you know, and a couple weeks ago, I was like, it's all about to fall apart. Everybody pay attention. It's going to start falling apart. And now it is. So I'm really happy about that. Later in the show, we're going to talk about, all of this stuff, plus more with our good friend John Fuglesang for Fugelsang Fridays, because it's Friday on the Daily Beans. If you're a new listener, welcome. Every Friday, we talk to John Fugelsang, and we call it Fugal Sang Friday. So you can look forward to that. We have so much news to get to today, and a lot of it is good. So let's do some quick hits.
And to make a long story short. Too late.
All right, we're going to start with, actually a little bit of bad news. The U.S. senate has failed to pass two partisan health care bills ahead of a key Dec. 31 deadline to avoid steep insurance premium hikes for millions of Americans under the Affordable Care act extensions. Right. The stuff that, you know, we really tried to hold for the government shutdown stuff never made it into the bill to fund the government. And of course, the Senate was like, we'll do it. We'll pass it. Well, they failed to pass both a Democratic one and a Republican one. But House Speaker Mike Johnson says he thinks it'll be solved in the House with one Vote next week, we'll see if that bill can be passed by the Senate before. I mean, we're gonna see double, triple, sometimes quadruple premiums for people's healthcare insurance plans. It's gonna be devastating to millions of Americans.
It is, it is, it is. And if it happens, I hope the Democrats capitalize on that with every ad under the sun before the M midterms. this is what I was laughing at. The top of the hour. A couple of days after Trump got his fake FIFA Peace Prize, federal prosecutors in New York moved Tuesday to drop charges against Hernan Lopez. He is a former Fox employee who was convicted of paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes to secure broadcasting rights to the World cup and other top soccer matches. So that's how that was all involved. And now we understand.
Yep. Now we're like, why the FIFA Peace Prize? What did he promise them? Well, he promised to drop these charges. It involved them. I don't think they were charged directly, but my gosh. And Kristi Noem testified before the House Homeland Security Committee today, and Democratic Representative Seth Magaziner from Rhode island dismantled her for all to see. You know, we talk a lot about. Man, I wish Democrats were better at this. He did.
Oh, it was a, class. Oh, it was a masterclass. Can't wait to talk more about it on, the Beans Talk.
Yeah, he brought in the son of a landscaper who is also a United States Marine and who has two other brothers who are also United States Marines. And he had him in the gallery. And Magaziner said to you want to turn around and thank him for his service? And she did. And then he dropped the hammer. He asked whether his father, the father of these three Marines who has lived in the United States for 30 years with no criminal record should have been deported.
Yep. Oh, watching that. I can't wait to talk more about it. And as we're talking about the story, he didn't stop there. Magaziner, then pointed out a Navy combat veteran in the gallery behind the Puppy Killer and asked her why she locked up his wife. Then he asked if she deported any veterans, and she said no. And he brought in a combat veteran and a Purple Heart recipient via Zoom that she deported to Korea. Just a ma. It was a master class, like I said, and just basically how to confront their lies in real time with his bigotry and hatred. Christine Noem, left the hearing early, by the way. Julie Johnson was about to ask her a question. She was claiming that she had a FEMA meeting, but that meeting had actually been canceled. You know, when they can check your calendar, maybe think of something else.
She just wanted to get the hell out of there. I think he took her apart, making her turn around and thank veterans, being confronted face to face with veterans and relatives of veterans. And then on that zoom call with a veteran that she deported after. After lying and saying she hadn't deported any veterans. So we're going to go over some of those clips on the Beans Talk. If you haven't subscribed to MSW Media Media's YouTube channel, you can watch us. We do a video podcast now called Beans Over There. It's free to watch. All right, we've got more news to get to. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up from the Times, a federal judge on Thursday ordered the release, the immediate release of Kilmer Armando Abrego Garcia from immigration custody, saying that the Trump administration had detained him for nearly four months without lawful authority, despite repeated vows to re expel him from the country. And I seem to remember Kristi Noem standing up in Congress and saying he will never set foot on U.S. soil. Well, the ruling by the Judge Paula Xinis was a stinging defeat for the administration, which had often promised that Abrego would never walk free on US Soil. It was also the latest twist in a long and byzantine saga over the past year that transformed him from an unknown migrant living in Maryland who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador in March into one of the best known symbols of President Trump's aggressive deportation agenda. Judge Xinis's ruling issued in federal district court in Maryland, meant that Mr. Abrego Garcia would be both free from custody and, at least for now, out from under the immediate shadow of being deported from the country yet again. In her 31 page scathing decision, Judge Xinis said she had little choice but to release Mr. Abrego, pointing to the remarkable but often overlooked fact about the case. The Trump administration has never actually obtained a valid final order for his removal from the United States. That lack of a removal order, Judge Xinis said, meant that the government had been holding Mr. M. Abrego Garcia without legal authority. Now, Adam Klassfeld and I discussed this ruling in depth over@muellershirote.com on my substack. You can watch that interview for free.
Nice, Alison. Thank you. This one is also from the Times. A grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, on Thursday rejected the Trump administration's effort to bring new charges against Letitia James. Three strikes? Nope. the New York attorney general, according to people familiar with the matter exactly one week after another set of jurors did the exact same thing. This back to back failures by prosecutors to secure indictment amounted to a striking rejection of the administration's retribution campaign. It also highlighted the Justice Department's unusual strategy of, pursuing second indictments despite earlier failures in court, and suggested the department would face major hurdles in bringing charges against President Trump's foes. Nothing bars the U.S. attorney's office in Eastern Virginia from trying again to indict Ms. James, though a judge might look, askance, probably at multiple juries having rejected the charges. Bruce Green, who teaches legal ethics at Foreman Law School in New York, said that there was no constitutional provision forbidding the repeated presentation of the same case to different grand juries, though he added that most prosecutors, and I quote, would take a hit after being rejected once or twice, three times a charm. The rejection on Thursday was particularly remarkable given that it was the third. Third time in just over two months that prosecutors had sought to lodge charges against Ms. James. It is vanishingly rare for grand juries to decline to indict a case, but in cases involving Mr. Trump's broader immigration crackdown, grand jurors have repeatedly refused to do so.
Yeah, and sandwich Guy, too. Well, they acquitted him at trial, and a federal grand jury refused to bring felony charges. And I just want to clear something up a little bit for folks, because CNN said the DOJ has failed to re indict her for a second time. I'm saying they failed to indict her for the third time. They did fail to re indict her for the second time because there's two re indictment failures, but one initial indictment failure. And when you think about it, they've actually failed four times because Trump wanted Eric Siebert to charge her and he wouldn't even take it to the federal grand jury. And then Lindsey Halligan came in and that failed because she wasn't lawfully appointed. And then two more times in federal grand juries. So they've actually come up short four times, if you think about it. which is just. And again, we. I've said that this is fraught with legal peril as well. If they actually do, if they go back another time and try to get an indictment, actually get one, she really now has a solid case for vindictive and selective prosecution.
Absolutely.
And also it's reasonable for her to be able to ask for the grand jury tapes, be like, what did you tell them the fifth time that you didn't tell them the first? So she would be able to get the grand jury materials. And they, poe, might also possibly face a dismissal of the indictment, you know, for grand jury malfeasance. So, anyway, just an, excellent day all around for Mr. Abrego, for Letitia James. And from the Post, this is going to. Now back to the the double tap boat strike on September 2, because more people are coming forward with more information about Admiral Bradley's testimony behind closed doors. In a classified briefing, the Post says that in the minutes after US Forces attacked a suspected drug smuggling boat near Trinidad, Admiral Frank Bradley, the commander overseeing the operation, faced a choice. The video feed shows that the two men were struggling to stay atop flotsam, which people who've seen the footage describe as roughly the size of a dining room table. Bradley turned to the military lawyer advising him and requested input, according to members of Congress who spoke with him privately last week and people later briefed on those conversations. Under the law of armed conflict, were the men now shipwrecked and therefore out of the fight, rendering them unlawful targets? Well, the admiral decided the definition didn't apply to these two, according to the people. Instead, what Bradley explained to lawmakers left some with the impression that there was a prevailing lack of certainty about the existence of any drugs beneath the wreckage and whether the survivors had, a means to call for help or if they intended to surrender. And that was when he concluded that further action was warranted. He ordered a second strike, killing both men. Moments earlier, the video feed had shown them waving their arms and looking skyward. That's according to people who saw the footage, but it was unclear, they added, why they were doing so. The military lawyer who advised the admiral, whom the Washington Post is not identifying because they serve in a secretive unit, explained to Bradley how the law of armed conflict defines shipwrecked. That's according to the people who Washington Post spoke to. International law defines shipwrecked as those who are in peril at sea as a result of a mishap affecting their vessel and who refrain from any act of hostility. Combatants who are shipwrecked receive special protection because, unlike troops on land, they can't take refuge. Now, Bradley spent about eight hours in a meeting with more than a dozen lawmakers on Dec. 4, according to four people familiar and said that he affirmed having sought real time legal advice for this. But no one said whether his military lawyer considered the survivor shipwrecked and out of the fight. So we don't know what that military lawyer advised him. All we know is that he decided they must not fit the definition of shipwrecked. Now, there was dissent in the operations room over whether the survivors were viable targets after the first strike. So there were people who said, no, they're not. They are shipwrecked people. You can't kill them. What the lawyer advised, though, and whether they rendered a definitive opinion remains unclear. While Bradley made the decision to conduct the follow on strike that killed the two survivors, Hegseth was the operation's Target Engagement Authority, meaning he authorized the use of force and ultimately is responsible for the strikes ordered, according to people familiar with the matter. Good.
And I hope this takes down the son of a bitch. I really do. This one's from Politico. Indiana Republicans. This surprised me and we were hoping, but it happened. Indiana Republicans have withstood immense pressure from President Donald Trump and ignored threats on their lives to defeat his plan to withdraw the state's congressional map, dealing him one of the most significant political setbacks since his return to the White House. The GOP controlled state Senate on Thursday voted down the map that gerrymandered two more safe GOP seats, undercutting the party's chances at holding control of Congress next November. The failed vote is the culmination of a brass knuckled four month pressure campaign from the White House on recalcitrant Indiana Republicans that included private meetings with public shaming from Trump, multiple visits from Vance. Those obviously didn't work. Whip calls from Speaker Johnson, who can't whip a fucking horse, and veiled threats of withheld federal funds. The members held out in spite of pipe bomb threats, unsolicited pizza deliveries to their homes. That's terrifying. And swatting's now in A major setback of the president as well, and a blow to his party's hopes of gerrymandering their way to the M house majority in 2028. It sets off alarm bells with top MAGA allies. Says we have a problem. That was former House chief strategist Steve Bannon. Really? That's what they're calling him? No.
White House chief strategist. He was.
Yeah, I know. But there's so many other ways you could describe Steve Bannon.
Yeah, Human cold sore.
Yeah, basically. Who simulcasted the war room show live from a suburban Indianapolis hotel in boost support for redistricting. He said people have to realize that we only have a couple opportunities. We got a net 5 to 10 seats. If we don't get a net 10 pickup in the redistricting wars, it's going to be enormously hard, if not impossible, to hold the House.
The failed votes, you got to get 50 to beat. What's going to happen to you?
Absolutely. The failed vote saves the seats of two sitting members, Democratic Reps. Andre Carson and Frank Mervin, whose districts had been carved up to become heavily Republican under the proposed map. Turning Point Action, the organization funded and founded by Kirk, has promised to work with other Trump aligned super PACs to spend tens of millions of dollars to primary the resistant Republicans who voted no. But the group could only turn out a couple hundred protesters recently ahead of this week's vote. So, primary, I mean, go for it. You want to make these people start voting against you even more? Take them out for having some sort of integrity. go for it.
Oh, yeah. You want to split the Republican vote on these seats?
I'll take it.
In a hot reelection year in the 2026 midterms, in which if we win, we could actually impeach some people and maybe have some investigations to hold them accountable. By all means.
By all means. Right in my veins.
All right, everybody, we're going to talk to John Fugelsang right up after this break. And then after that we're going to have some listener submitted good news. If you have good news or good trouble you want to submit, please send it to us@dailybeanspod.com and just click on contact. We'll be right back after this quick break, after these messages.
We'll be right back.
Hey, everybody, welcome back. It's Friday on the Daily Beans, which means it's Fugal Sang Fridays. We get to talk to New York Times bestselling author of the Separation of Church and Hate. Also host of tell Me Everything on Sirius XM progress channel 127, weeknights at 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific. Also host of the John Fuglesang show podcast. Also writes for the John Fuglsang substack and is. And if you don't know his name by now, that's weird. Please welcome John Fuglsang.
Oh, thank you, Dr. Gill. Pleasure to be here. Hi. We can safely nab an oil tanker, but we gotta blow up a Coke skiff. Hello, Hello, Hello.
So I wanna talk to you about a little bit of breaking news. We covered it earlier in the show today, but, if the Department of Justice, try as they might, they simply cannot indict Letitia James. They went back a third time. A second re indictment a third time total just today got a no bill. And we're unable to again indict New York Attorney General Letitia James on mortgage Fraud charges.
You know, the only thing worse than weaponizing the Justice Department against your political enemies is being too incompetent to weaponize the Justice Department against your political enemies. You know, if you're going to accuse Biden of doing something evil, and then. And then accuse Biden of having dementia, and then you try to do what you accuse Biden of, and you can't do it as well as him. Dude, you're kind of. You're kind of blocking yourself in the hate hall of fame. So, yeah, it's. It's hilarious. They. They. This is how you know they're corrupt. They are going to try to find the outcome they want. They're not trying to get a grand jury to see if a crime has been committed. They want someone to agree to their own. It's like how they approach science. They know how they want the conclusions to be. And that doesn't really work in the law or in science, but it's not gonna stop him. God bless Tish James. And this should be getting a lot more news, because it's not that they're corrupt. It's that they're trying to be corrupt and failing at it. That's the story we have to tell our children.
Yeah. And speaking of not getting the outcome you want, when Kristi Noem stood up in front of Congress and said that, Kilmar Abrego Garcia would never set foot on US Soil, Boy, that's embarrassing. He was ordered released today because they never actually had an order of deportation. And it was found that they misled the. When they said Costa Rica wouldn't take him. And they filed that particular declaration under seal. And, as Judge Sini said in the evidentiary hearing a couple weeks ago, we have to eat this elephant one bite at a time. The first bite is to free Mr. Abrego. The second bite is to talk about how this Department of Justice defied court orders through both malfeasance and incompetence.
Correct. And, Kilmar Abrego Garcia will be the story they teach in law school for generations to show how Attorney General Pam Bondi had to have a 9 nothing Supreme Court force her to comply with the law. I am so thrilled by this decision. This is such a victory for everything America claims to be about. It's really going to be hard for people to defend this. And again, you'll notice the corporate media doesn't talk about this all that much because this is one of those irrefutable. Even conservatives have to agree. How dastardly this agenda has been, You know, it's fun around my house to debate who's going to get fired first. Christy Noem, Pete Hegseth, or Cash Patel. I really think it might be Christie. I really think she might go even before Kash Patel, which seems inconceivable, but apparently Donald Trump is very upset because there's adultery and then there's adultery with Corey Lewandowski. And that's something, I guess, is so disgusting, you. You kind of got to shoot a dog in the face. So it's not the worst thing on your resume. But Kristi Noem is just revealing what every native tribe in the Dakotas already knew about Kristi Noem, which was why she was banned from setting foot on about 26% of her own state. Their corruption and their evil will never come close to their stupidity and incompetence. And I said this under Bush, Cheney as well. The greatest blessing America has had in the 21st century is that our wannabe fascists are good enough to get elected, but they're way too stupid to pull off most of their grand ambitions. And when they try, they fall apart and a lot of people get hurt. I mean, Bush, you know, they tried to privatize Social Security so hard under Bush and Cheney. They were way too incompetent. We just talk about the war as their evil, but we keep witnessing this as well. The dumb is always greater than the sinister. I call them Dim Shady. That's their rap name. And try as they might to be great fascists, they're just too goddamn incompetent. And that's what the good fairy has given America. M. And the great thing is that Donald Trump is hiring these people because they're incompetent. He tried hiring competent people, and they told him he couldn't do things. So now he wants to have people who are idiots but that don't have presidential immunity, so he can just cut them off when he needs to. He will fire Pete Hegseth as soon as Pete Hegseth embarrasses him personally. Same with Kristi Noem. Same with Kash Patel. So these people are hired to be lightning rods, to be so incompetent it draws focus away from him. But the real culprit here is the Republican Party that knows better. And they're trying to do exactly what they did with Bush and Cheney. Ride out the storm and let the President ride off into the sunset and take all the blame for the policies they all backed up. Lindsey Graham is going to pretend this never happened. When Trump leaves for sure.
And aside from being, you know, evil and incompetent, they're also chicken shits. Kristi Noem ran out of a. Ah, she ran away, in a house. In a Republican controlled House Homeland Security Committee hearing today. Yes. one Democratic lawmaker confronted her and asked her point blank if she'd ever deported any veterans. And she said, no, we never have. And then, boom, he pulls up on a zoom call. A veteran that she deported to Korea, who had been shot, who had served his country, been shot twice, got a Purple Heart. So she decided she, didn't want to take questions anymore, lied and said she had a FEMA meeting, which had been canceled, by the way, and just tucked tail and ran.
Yes, but no, she didn't tuck tail and ran. She refused to be cornered by the woke mob. Get ready for tomorrow's narratives today. She refused to sit there and face the lies of the woke mob. That is what people will hear tonight on Newsmax and Fox. They will not see the entire clip. They will not know the FEMA meeting was another lie out of Kristi Gnomes surgically corrected face. They will just know that she didn't want to sit there and listen to woke. And that's enough. When people want to be lied to, we forget this is the country where Christians convince themselves it was okay to have slavery and segregation. I'm never shocked that these people put up with this kind of corruption from Donald Trump. Never.
Yeah. And then, and now we've got Jared Kushner helping the Saudis with a hostile takeover of Warner Brothers discovery.
Boy, isn't that comforting? Isn't that a comforting story?
4 billion in Saudi money. They basically want to buy CNN.
Exactly. Well, they want to buy, they want to buy basically Western culture.
Right? I mean, yeah, there's a lot that comes with cnn.
Yeah, it's one thing to ruin, you know, golf and comedy, but now they want to own Casablanca and Lord of the Rings. When this whole thing first began, it was shocking because it was, it was the Netflix story. And it was all like, oh, my God. Wow, this is scary. Netflix is going to buy Warner Brothers. These are the people. I rented Aaron Brockovich on a DVD and a paper sleeve from these people. They tried to sell themselves to Blockbuster for 50 million in 2000, and Blockbuster passed. And now they dance on Blockbuster's grave. And these people who've done more than anyone to destroy cinemas are going to take over Warner Brothers. And we're all debating about this thinking, oh, my God, we liberal Purists in our bubble, will this be horrible for film or not? 24 hours later, Zaslav and Paramount with the hostile takeover. And what's amazing is that, the name's involved. Yeah, it's Jared and it's the Cool. And it's the United Arab Emirates and it's our old reliable Bonesaw buddies, the Saudis. And it's the Qataris as well. And these are the people that are fronting the 110 billion cash that Zaslav is dangling to try to get this sale away from the 83 billion that Netflix offered. They're trying to do this. A couple days later. We were worried whether Netflix will hurt the integrity of people attending cinemas. Now, will the Saudis own cnn? That is what is on the table by the end of the week. And Donald Trump has come down on the side of interfering with capitalism so his son in law can get a lucrative contract using his power, violating everything in the Constitution about the emoluments clauses which I understand were phased out of the Constitution in the year 2017. But this is about Saudi Arabia owning CNN, to say nothing of owning HBO, to say nothing of them. Saudi Arabia is going to own Batman. Okay, how much of our American culture are conservatives willing to sell for foreign bribes? I don't mean to sound nativist and jingoistic here, but at some point, I have no problem with other nations investing in America. By all means, this is great. This is trade. It means there'll be more peace if there's peace between nations. Trade guarantees that there'll be less war. I'm not an isolationist in that way, but wow, it creeps me out a lot to think about the Warner Brothers vault. I mean, this is everything owned by Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
I'm not getting behind normalizing this guy or normalizing this evil regime at all. And all the evil bribes they're paying to make our media normalize them are just a sign of the oligarch disease and how it gets Americans to give up their own values in exchange for something shiny that doesn't exist. I don't know what you think of this, Dr. Gill, but I'm terrified. I'm terrified of both sides. now I'm like, netflix, please destroy our cinemas. Go ahead, give it to Netflix. What do you think is going to happen here?
I think probably, they'll Allisons will win their bid to take over Warner Brothers with Saudi money. But you know, to think that just what, seven short years ago they considered it a Win to take over the Inquirer with David Pecker and get a one magazine put out about the amazing new young Saudi princes and, UAE princes and things like that.
That's right. Oh, my God.
Yeah. And now it's Warner Brothers because of, with the help of Jared Kushner and this president.
Yeah. All by design. All by design. And again, like, you know, to say nothing of what this is going to mean for the programming. I mean, hbo, like HBO Max, will, you know, get folded in. It'll be, you know, Netflix Max or something, whoever gets it. But I mean, if these guys do manage to nab it, if Paramount manages to do this, and this is Trump who's at war with Paramount. Like, like as this is happening, as this is happening, Trump is attacking them for a 60 Minutes interview with Marge over the weekend. He's shaken them down for a bribe already this year. And then, of course, this was the whole thing with, with firing Colbert and, and then South Park, I'm sorry, firing Kimmel, and then I, confused my corruption. And then they had the new south park episode waiting in the wings. I mean, he's already at war with Paramount this week because 60 Minutes aired an interview with a sitting congresswoman that he now no longer likes. So in the middle of all this, they're going to make this, this giant Saudi Gofundme. And Trump, if he was smart, would say, like, oh, maybe my son in law working with foreign dictators to buy American media is a bad look. But instead he's like, why did 60 Minutes hurt my feelings? So this could go any which way Again, the stupid is always greater than the evil. But I mean, what could that. I mean, what if this happens?
Well, we know Trump controls the FCC chair, so.
Yeah, I mean, they're, they're going to sell, they're going to, they're going to sell American TV programming, they're going to sell CNN to Prince Bonesaw.
Yeah, that's what they want.
Who will then bring in. And then, and then, you know what? Maybe that's what it'll take to get Barry Weiss fired. I mean, I mean, like, wow, they found someone a lot more conservative than the Republican Party to sell off American media to people who murder journalists and then pay off comedians to say it's okay.
Yep. Yeah. Now, as, as usual, when we have Catholic news, I always like to bring it up with you because you have some background in this.
Come on to me much.
I'll pick up your, copy of Separation of Church and Hate for the holidays. The pastor of a Catholic parish near Boston says an anti immigration enforcement display in its nativity scene is gonna stay up, at least for the time being, despite the archdiocese, the bishop in Boston telling him to take it down. And it's basically a nativity scene with a big sign that says ice was here. And there are, key figures missing from the nativity scene. and this, pastor is ignoring the orders from the archbishop, of the diocese of Boston to remove it.
I love this story so much. I mean, if you want to enrage Christian nationalists, act like Jesus. There is nobody that right wing Christianity hates more than Jesus. Every time that guy opens his mouth for right wing Christians, Jesus is the manger, the miracles and the cross. They don't want to hear anything that came out of that guy's mouth during the three years of his public speaking career. But this is the Jesus who commands us to welcome the stranger, just as God commands us throughout the Old Testament, just as God in the Hebrew scriptures commands us to never mistreat the alien and to treat the alien as one of our own. these people have taken one line of St. Paul from his letter to the Romans, respect the governing authorities. And they now think that that line is more important than everything Jesus and God ever said about how we're supposed to treat foreigners.
Yeah, he didn't mean to respect the Pontius Pilate who was a governing authority at the time.
Right?
Yeah. I mean, and look what they're doing. They're right now they're, I mean the custody USAID are killing babies in developing nations and they are working on a, a, this budget which will throw up to 20 million low income and disabled children of God off of health insurance. Right. Like they, they are not Christ followers. So we've seen nativity scenes like on social media where baby Jesus is zip tied. Right. Or the manger is empty and it says ICE was here. I mean this to me is a classic prophetic art in the biblical tradition. You know Mary and Joseph's flight to Egypt, they fled Herod to save their lives, with their child, to protect their child. They did not respect the governing authorities and they fled to Egypt without any papers, without any stability to hide out until it was safe to come back to Nazareth and raise their kid. Our Lord and Savior Jesus, if you believe this story, spent his formative years as an undocumented teen. There is no Christ based justification for supporting Donald Trump and there is really none. There's no biblical justification for supporting MAGA and Republican immigration policies. These churches are doing exactly what Pope Leo is doing. They are walking the goddamn walk in ways we have not seen done in our lifetime. Alison, when Pope Leo came out and said that what ICE is doing is a violation of the gospel and that you can't call yourself a Christian and support this, do you understand how insanely inspiring that is? This is the Catholic Church. I grew up half city, half Southern. I can tell you the liberal priests go to the liberal cities and the conservative priests go to the conservative towns for the same reason. Who's going to get the most money in the collection plates? Who's going to get the old ladies to open up their pocketbooks and give? The Vatican is a business. We can talk about it. The history of plunder and pillage. And this guy is willing to tell conservative American Catholics you, don't want to show up to church and donate? Fine. It's against Jesus, the way you're treating these migrants. This guy is like cutting off funding for his own business by saying he's an actual Christian.
He knows that money is not more important than the teachings of Christ.
Yes, and he doesn't care how much that will alienate right wing American Christians who've been socialized to think that Christian refugees should be called illegals. All this Hitler shit that we talk about, that you talk about so ably, the way they use the same dehumanizing language against the Christian refugees at our border, the infestation, it's all the same Third Reich shit to make you not view them as humans. And this Pope call and Francis did it, too, to be fair. But calling it out now, in the midst of all of this is the most powerful thing this guy could do in America with his job. And he's doing it at, financial peril to the greediest organization in the history of religion. That's what impresses me the most. Beyond the morality that he would risk the Catholic Church's bottom line with the almighty donations by doing the right thing and alienating. I mean, can the Democratic Party have more guys like this who aren't afraid of alienating the donor class by fighting for the right thing?
That would be wonderful. And it, you know, brings this full, circle. When Judge Sini said in her ruling today releasing Kilmar Abrego that she was going to refer to him as a non citizen and not an alien in her ruling. And by the way, when she did that, she was quoting none other than Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. So that was a nice little turn of the knife as well.
So, yeah, I can't wait for this story to be told. The racism here and what this poor guy has been put through. No one's saying he's a great guy. No one's saying he hasn't screwed up and made mistakes. But my God, these people are here because they believe that American dream nonsense about risking things and trying to have a better life. It's a misdemeanor to cross the border illegally. You show me another misdemeanor where they'll take away your children for it. And again, as we always point out, the majority of undocumented people are those who overstayed their visas, not border crossers.
And it's a civil matter, not a criminal matter.
Civil matter, not a criminal matter. There are thousands, there's, I mean, over 10,000 undocumented Irish. There's thousands of undocumented Russians in this country. Are you seeing any undocumented Irish going alligator Alcatraz? You see any illegals with skin tones like you and me being sent to these gulags? History, is going to show exactly what this was. White Christian nationalism, terrified about the year 2045 when they become a minority. That's what this is about. And the fact that they got behind this trickle down economics so much that now there's fewer white people because white people can't afford to have kids in their 20s and 30s. And it's like, well, how about we go back to what Eisenhower did? so when you came home From World War II with the GI Bill, you could get an education, you could get a job, you could join a union and have security and know that you'd be able to raise a couple of kids and afford a house. We had that. Our parents had that in their lifetimes. Government policies gave us that American dream. Government policies took it away, which means. Government policies, which means taxing those who can easily afford it could get us there again. And it's all tied into this exact story.
Yeah, agreed.
I mean, they're just terrified of America becoming less white. Well, then make it easier for white kids to have more babies. Make it easier to climb the economic ladder and join the middle class and then you'll calm down a bit. But they won't. So we're going to witness them becoming more of a minority and getting more armed and being more crazy and trying to hurt more people as badly as they can. It is my greatest hope that young people are repulsed by this naked racism and that the Democratic Party will start calling it out for the racism it is. Because again, I don't see him sending too many French illegals down to Alligator Alcatraz.
No, I'd like to see that from the Democratic Party as well. Thank you so much, my friend. I really appreciate you the best joining me. You're the best. I hope everybody picks up a copy of the Separation of Church and Hate. New York Times bestseller. Instant New York Times bestseller. Just an incredible book. Sometimes there's a wait list for it, especially if you shop at your small bookshops, which we always recommend that you do. But we appreciate it. And you know, not giving your business to billionaires.
It's been really amazing to see there's such an audience out there. Thank you.
Yeah. Also check out Tell Me Everything on Sirius XM progress channel 127. You can hear it weeknights at 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific. I should come visit you on your show pretty soon.
Yes.
And there's also the substack, there's the John Fugal Sang show podcast. All of it's free. Because you're a bad capitalist and we love you for it.
I sing scat. I do puppets and no theater. Kids birthday parties. but no, I'm not doing cameo. Don't worry, I haven't resorted to that yet. Thank you.
No deal. Everybody, thanks so much for listening. John, thanks for joining me and stick around. We'll be right back with the good news. Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news everyone.
Then, good news everyone.
And if you have any good news, big or small, recent or in the distant past, any fun story you'd like to share, like we're all sitting around having some eggnog and telling stories. If you have a funny joke you want to share with us, if you have some good trouble ideas that you think we can get into, send those to us. You can also send a shout out to a loved one yourself, a small business in your area, a nonprofit doing some amazing work, some great activism you're seeing in your community. shout out to a government program that's helped you or a loved one. Please send it all to us@dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. And all you got to do to get your submission read on the air is pay your pod pet tariff, which at this point means attach a photo of anything. We love to see your pets. We love to try to guess what breeds are in your shelter pup. If you'd like us to. If you don't have a pet, send an adoptable pet in your area. We'll See if we can find them a home. We have a pretty good track record of doing that. and then those pets get to live with people who listen to the daily Beans. So you know that they are spoiled and taken care of.
That's right.
I always say I want to come back. Somebody's, you know, somebody says they want to come back in their next life as a cat, I'm like, yes. But I also want to come back as one of my cats because, oh, boy, they are spoiled. If you don't have that, send a random animal photo from the Internet. send a bird watching photo, which can be an actual bird or you flipping the bird to a Trump building. You can also send photos of your family members, baby pictures, holiday photos. Show us your decorations for the holidays, what you dressed up for as Halloween. Maybe a rally you've been to recently that has some of your favorite signs. Whatever it is, send it to us@dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. First up is our Good Trouble. And Good Trouble today is submitted by Annie, M.D. pronoun she and her. Thank you, Dr. Annie. This is from Joyce Vance, A way to file a formal complaint against Emil Bovey. And here's an excerpt from Vance. According to the Judicial Conduct and Disability act of 1980, anyone can file a complaint about a federal judge. The act establishes the process for making them. The code of conduct for federal judges says a judge should refrain from political activity and shouldn't attend any events sponsored by political organizations or a candidate. Judges are also charged with upholding the integrity and independence of the judiciary and avoiding impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities. Any person can file a complaint. Seems perfect for Beans listeners. So we'll have a link to the complaint website and a link to Joyce Vance's article. And they said here that they've submitted their pod pet photo. And I believe what Annie, Dr. Annie is referring to is that Emil Bovey attended that Pennsylvania rally.
Mm Yep.
That Donald Trump political rally. And, he shouldn't have been within 10 miles of there.
So I was a concern, Sam, just as a citizen.
Mm Mm Now, Dr. Annie has submitted Dash from Oklahoma, her rescue. We picked him up there and drove him back to Providence last February. We've had him for 10 months now and we love him. Oh, look, it's another brindle baby.
That's very sweet.
So cute. Great, great. Good trouble. And thanks to Joyce Vance for pointing it out too.
Yes, thank you so much. This is from Norman Pronoun he and him just saw this on and can't not ever unforget it. Norman, you just put me through something right then. Hegseth referred to as Hagseth podpet tax during the early morning coffee routine today. Look who I found on my chair using my blanket as a pillow. Marley. Who knows? She must have permission before getting up on the sofa and chairs. The expression says it all. Love your podcast and all that you badass queens do, Norman. Thank you for that. Look at the baby.
Yeah, and Heg Seth. By the way, he's spelling H A G U E. Haig. Like the Hague. Yep. calling him Haig Seth. I wish US Officials could be tried at the Hague. but that is a really great nickname. Something you have to kind of see to to get. But Norman, thank you. Look at this sweet baby. Oh, we can guess the breed. Australian cattle dog.
And pittie.
All right, let's see. Australian cattle dog, border collie and Chihuahua.
Stop it. The Chihuahua watched.
3% Chihuahua means the Chihuahua watched. Chihuahua watched. I like how that sounds. Next up from Yuri Pronoun. She and her hi laguma ladies. I want to send a shout out to a local Washington state woman owned business, the Malicious women company. The owner started making candles for her therapy after her best friend lost her battle with depression. She turned that into a business with the belief that real talk over toxic positivity humor heals, especially the dark kind. Women's anger is sacred. Quality and integrity matter, whether it's aerospace or candles. And we don't just burn candles, we burn bullshit.
Nice.
The candle scents are amazing and the labels are fantastic. Attached is a photo of my current bathroom candle and my kitties busta for Jones. Hole, who crossed the rainbow bridge last December. I'm so sorry. And envy the green eyed monster. All right, so what does this menopause candle say?
Fuck off. Off. Where's my phone?
I need a hug. I'm hot. I'm cold. Where did this hair come from?
Infused with.
I love it. I love it.
Oh, my God. Emotional temperature tantrum. That. It's amazing. I'm so sorry you lost your baby. That laughter was for the candle. It just came at an inopportune time.
Look at these sweet, sweet kitties. I love tuxedos too. And that pretty T. Thank you so much for that, Yuri. Appreciate that.
Oh, my gosh. Okay. This is from Wendy Pronoun. She and her bad joke. What did the fish say when it ran into a concrete wall? Answer.
Ouch. No.
Damn.
What is it? Oh, Damn. I see why you said damn. I thought you said damn because I took the punchline away from you.
No.
Oh my God. Damn. Dam. I get it, I get it.
Attach bird photos especially for Dana. These small birds at my. Is it suet feeder?
I don't know.
Suet feeder are called bush tits.
It's bush tits.
Thanks Wendy. Thanks for my bush tits.
Yes. Oh, look at all of them. They're so cute.
I mean, listen, I'm a bush tit girl.
Yeah, yeah, the bird people who name birds. I'm telling you, we had that thrusty coated warbler or whatever the fuck yesterday. We got bush tits. We got blue footed boobies. Come on. I love the people who name birds. All right, next up from Andrew Pronouns, he and him. Hello lovely Laguma Queens. I want to give a gentle correction about state redistricting on the beans pod. Ag said that the Supreme Court could toss out Indiana and Virginia because it would be too close to the primary. In Virginia we need to pass a state constitutional amendment which requires the legislature to pass it two sessions in a row. They accomplished the first step in October. In January the legislature is back in session. Once that vote is done, it is put to the voters in a special election. Most importantly, Virginia's deadline for filing to run for Congress is April 2, 2026, because our primaries are in June. Texas on the other hand, had a deadline of December 8, 2025. Ah, to see a list of all the state deadlines, see the National Conference of State Legislators website for my pick tariff a picture with Santa. My son, 1 year old at the time, is the one crying. The distinguished looking one is our dog, Hudson. oh, and we have a redacted breed for Hudson. But Hudson went over the rainbow bridge a few years ago. But Iz was the best dog ever and lived to be 15 years old. Thanks for all that you do. So I'm wondering with all of that timing if there is time before April 2, 2026 to put it to the voters in a special election after that second session vote. Oh, interesting.
Well, I would be shocked now. maybe I'm wrong here. Until the new legislature takes over in Virginia, which we just made very blue, correct? Am I just. Am I speaking on my ass? If they're. Are they trying to make the maps more blue or are ah, some. Oh yeah, okay.
Well that's the Virginia legislature. They're trying to get it the U.S. congressional districts more blue. Right now it's six to five, six Dems, five Republicans. They want to make it 10 to one.
Understood. Got it, got it, got it.
And they would have to come back, pass legislation to put it to a vote to change the constitution, I think. And then they would be able to do it. I don't know if there's enough time. Maybe there is. It's worth a shot, right?
No kidding, right? All right, this next one is from Dana, not me. Another amazing Dana. No pronouns given. Hey, Beans Queens. Huge shout out to my community up here in the ruby red upper peninsula of Michigan, Yoopers on Tuesday. One Republican, Hofton county commissioner. Maybe that's Haughton. Someone send me a correction if I'm wrong. Haughton county commissioner decided to waste everyone's time with a two. Oh, I heard about this two sexes resolution because apparently the road that look like the lunar surface aren't enough to worry about. Well, my community said hold my pasty a meat and potato hand pie by the way, for the non Yoopers.
Yoopers.
Pronounced Yoopers. Got that one right. Showed up in mass, packed the courtroom and hallways. The stairwells spilled outside into the damn snow. Public comment was capped at three minutes each. But so many people lined up to tell this commissioner to knock off the bullshit that it went five fucking hours. And after all that, the board voted it down 4 to 1. Bigotry got bodied by frozen furious yoopers and parkas. Don't count us out. We're organizing, we're showing up. We're done letting extremists hijack our counties. If you want to support the folks up here who are actually working their asses off to fix this, check out Kelly Van Gynhoven, a, Democrat running for state Senate. The UP has never elected a woman in 189 years and we're damn well ready to change that. Find her on Facebook, Twitter, on her campaign page under KVG for state senate. You've got momentum up here and we're not stopping. There's going to be a link to that Facebook page on our show. Notes. Thanks for everything you guys do. Don't ever stop. Public shows up to refute only two sexes, male and female. Board hears five hours of comments. We have a link to the story and an amazing graphic. This is fantastic.
This is incredible. Go Yoopers. Wow, five hours of three minutes each.
It's also just so fucking stupid. The amount of anomalies and people's sex is numerous, not to mention intersex. I just, I can't with these people.
Yeah, this is what happened when, we talked about this with Montana state legislature with Zoe and, so dumb doing all the work up there. Very dumb. not, not Zoe, obviously, but the, the. These just stupid policies, right? It's also why Moms for Liberty lost every single school board seat where they were contested.
I'm telling you, this, trans attacks are starting to lose weight because people are like, fix our roads.
Yeah, like I don't, legislate my pants. That's, you know, it's. People are fed up. Next up from Christy, Pronoun she and her dear lush is Queenie Beanies. When ducks fly a V formation, why is one side of the V always longer than the other? Okay, this is a joke. Do you have any idea? Because there's more ducks in that row. Do you have a guess?
That's actually kind of funny.
Let's see what it says. More ducks. Look, I got it.
Well done, well done, well done.
My bit of good news is that my daughter and I just finished performances of a, nativity puppet show. We've been doing this every year since she was eight years old and played a sheep. And she's now 19, a, college freshman and plays Joseph. I started as a shepherd and now I play one of the wise guys, Balthazar. It's a beautiful performance. And let me say, these are not little hand puppets or marionettes. They're eight foot tall puppets that we strap onto our bodies and we move the arms and hands with sticks inside the puppets. We cannot see shit from inside the puppets and we have to navigate stairs on a stage. One of these days I'm gonna break my face. But so far, so good. Voice actors and chamber musicians on the side do all the voices and music and we act out the story. It's seriously a gorgeous show. We perform it at an Episcopal cathedral here in Kansas City, Mo. It's a big stone gothic looking affair. The coolest part though, is that this is such a diverse mix of people involved with this show. Different races, genders, and sexual orientations. Trans, non, binary. Literally everyone is welcome and everyone participates. You can find out more about it and see photos@nativitypuppets.org oh my God. This looks really incredible.
Yeah, it does.
Those are eight foot tall.
Wow, that's. That is amazing.
I just did a, Christopher Walken. Right. Wow. For my pop bet. Terrify. Submit a photo of Daphne, our new 11 week old puppy.
Get out of here, Christy.
We adopted three days ago. Oh, my God. Anyway, thank you for preventing me from setting fire to daily by keeping me relatively sane through these trying times.
Times.
I can't start my day without your voices in my head in solidarity. Christy, that is the best review I think we've ever got. Like, one of the best we've ever gotten.
By the way, if you, if you.
Have a minute, it would be awesome if you could go on to whatever podcast app you use and, and rate the Daily Beans. we would. We would appreciate that. Look at this.
This is definitely a Frenchie mixed with it. Chihuahua.
Frenchie. Pitbull. Let's see. French bulldog and Boston terrier.
Oh, God. So cute. Daphne's cute.
So it's got, like a Boston terrier head, Frenchie ears, and a. And a Frenchy body with that brindle.
And pure cuteness is what it is. My goodness.
Thank you all so much for this. if you get a chance, you want to check out, if you like to watch stuff on YouTube. I know that's a lot of people's jams. That's why we decided to do a video podcast. We do one called the Beans Talk. It's free to watch. We do it every weekday, over at the MSW Media Media YouTube channel. So go check it out. we're gonna go record today's version of that in just a minute. do you have any final thoughts before we get out of here for the weekend, my friend?
Not today.
All right, well, everyone, we will be back in your ears on Sunday. Or are you traveling Sunday? I can't remember.
No, I'll be with you. I'll be with you till Tuesday.
Okay? Till Tuesday. Love that band. Until then, everyone, 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 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 Giant and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media M Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics, and justice. For more information, please Visit mswmedia.com msw media.