Crabs In A Bucket (feat. John Fugelsang)

History is messy. It's weird, wild, and anything but boring. Rainy Day Rabbit Holes is a history podcast about unhinged stories that make you stop and ask, wait, is this real life? From crazy disasters and tasty scandals to enlightening and surprising heartwarming tales, we explore the moments where people behave badly and sometimes beautifully. We've got naughty politicians, cultural chaos, and a deep love for the Pacific Northwest, including Bigfoot. It's thoughtful, irreverent, occasionally serious, and always entertaining. Let's fall down the rabbit hole. M.S.W. Media. M.S.W. Media. Daily beans, daily beans, daily beans, daily beans, daily beans. Hello and welcome to the Daily Beans for Friday, February 13th, 2026. Today, Judge Leon blocks Pete Kegseth's effort to punish Senator Mark Kelly for his illegal orders video. The House Republicans passed the SAVE Act with one Democratic vote to help them. Senate Democrats block Department of Homeland Security funding, which will likely result in a shutdown of the agency. Trump has lifted greenhouse policy underpinning key climate rules. The feds are still refusing to cooperate with Minnesota investigations into the murders of Alex Preddy and Renee Good. And Judge Boesberg has ordered the return of Venezuelans illegally removed to Seacoat Prison last March. I'm Alison Gill. And I'm Dana Goldberg. man almost a year later and we're getting a ruling on the jgg case with bozberg for the alien enemies yeah i can't believe it's already been a year it's wild i also can't believe it's friday by the time everyone's listening to this this week i don't even i can't believe it's 2026 like i still yesterday i thought it was a couple maybe it was a week ago anyway recently I wrote 1996 as the year somewhere. I think in my notes, when I take notes for it. We could always hope. Yeah. I'll be, how old was I? 22 in 19? No, actually, no, I take that back. I do not want to relive my 20s. That was a weird time. I was like the junior high of life. But it is Friday, which means it's Fuglesang Friday. So we're going to be joined by John Fuglesang later in the show. And hey, new Wall Street Journal reporting coming out right now that that whistleblower, that Tulsi Gabbard whistleblower? Yeah. That underlying call she hid from everybody and blocked for eight months was a call between two foreign nationals about Jared Kushner. Oh, boy. Yeah, hoo, boy. Oy, boy. And the sad thing is, it could be a million things, right? Yeah. Like, oh, that one thing Jared Kushner did. No, no, no. There's just possibly hundreds of things that he did, but we still don't know what that underlying discussion was. Hopefully we'll learn more as time goes on. And today... I love this. I love the story you're about to highlight. It's so important. Thank you so much because I posted about this on Blue Sky. I was thinking about it. We're all watching the Olympics. I love figure skating. I've been watching figure skating since I was a little girl. I've been figure skating since I was a little girl. Well, I stopped also when I was a little girl, but I did figure skate when I was very young. I grew up with a pond in my backyard. I wanted to be an Olympic figure skater when I was a kid. But once you hit five foot tall at the age of nine, they're like, no, probably not for you. Same with gymnastics. But everyone's going nuts about, and as am I, this amazing skater named Ilya Malinan. He's a United States figure skater. He's probably going to run away with the gold. I know he's skating today, I think in the men's free skate individual competition. And everybody's going nuts over his backflip. But I remember... Yes, I do too. gently remind everyone that the first skater to land a backflip on one skate on Olympic ice was a black woman named Surya Bonali. She did it 28 years ago at the 98 games in Nagano, Japan. She also did it in 1991 and 1992. She was landing on two feet back then. So it's been a minute. And I just want to remind everyone, this was an illegal move back then. She did not care. She was getting penalized for this move when it first started. And now they're rewarding the move, which is really frustrating. But yes, I love that we are highlighting her for sure because the move was banned. Like I said, she was punished for doing it. They doctor points from her score. She did it anyway. Yeah, she figured I'm not going to win because first of all, I'm a black woman in figure skating in the 90s. And so she's like, I'm putting it in. I don't care. It was her last skate of her professional Olympics career. She went on to retire. She's now a skating coach. She's just an incredible athlete and just a beautiful skater. She was my favorite. I remember watching it live on television. I was watching it and I just jumped up and I screamed like, oh my God, she did the backflip because there was rumors that she might and that she would get docked for it, but she didn't care. So she's the pioneer who landed the first single blade land on Olympic ice with that backflip. And I just wanted to highlight Surya Bonale today because, man, she was such an inspiration to a lot of young women. All right. With that, we have a lot of news to get to. So let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right. First up from Politico, a federal judge has sided with Senator Mark Kelly because he's a badass astronaut who did nothing wrong. But also to stop Defense Secretary Pete Kegseth from punishing the former Navy captain for advising troops not to follow illegal orders. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, in a Thursday ruling that included 12 exclamation points, he likes those, issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Pentagon's effort to demote the Arizona Democrats' rank and reduce his retirement pay. Quote, this court has all it needs to conclude that the defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly's First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees. To say the least, our retired veterans deserve more respect from their government and our constitution demands they receive it. Now this decision is the second legal setback this week for the Trump administration's campaign to punish Mark Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers who released that video last fall telling military personnel they don't have to adhere to illegal orders. The Justice Department on Tuesday failed to secure criminal charges against the six Democrats, all of whom have military or intelligence backgrounds over the video after a grand jury in Washington rejected an indictment. And I don't think we had this particular bit of news, so I'm gonna add it here. It wasn't that they didn't get a majority to get a true bill from that federal grand jury, Dana. They got zero votes. They were shut out. Wow. And many prosecutors and legal scholars, including Steve Vladek, Joyce Vance, They're like, never have I heard of a shutout. It's rare enough to not get a true bill, to not be able to indict a ham sandwich, so to speak. Yeah. And it was a George W. judge, wasn't it? This is a GW judge. Yeah. But for the grand jury to come back to shut him out, zero, zero votes to indict, that's totally and highly unprecedented. So the Pentagon launched an investigation, as we know, into Kelly in November after the release of the video. And at the time, Whiskey Pete threatened to call Kelly, a fighter pilot who served 25 years in uniform, including time at NASA as an astronaut, to call him back to active duty to face a court martial. But the Defense Department ultimately stopped short of that, instead launching the process to demote him. So Kelly sued Hegseth and the Defense Department in January after the Pentagon chief announced the demotion proceedings. Hegseth also issued a letter to censure Kelly for his comments, which he said were part of a pattern of reckless misconduct. Federal grand jury in Washington rejected an effort by the U.S. attorney Jeanine Pirro's office to charge the lawmakers the latest extraordinary rejection of efforts to take legal action against the president's foes. it's unclear which charges Piro sought to bring against the lawmakers. But this court, again, he says, has all it needs to conclude the defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly's freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees. But after that quote, which I gave you earlier, he throws a Bob Dylan quote in there. He says, after all, as Bob Dylan famously said, you don't need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. And then there's a little footnote and it says, Bob Dylan, subterranean homesick blues. That's actually very funny. This next story, I'm actually, I was hoping, I was hoping, I was hoping this wouldn't happen, but this is from Democracy Docket. The GOP sweeping new anti-voting bill cleared the House. It cleared the U.S. House Wednesday, setting up a high stakes battle in the Senate. So you know what good trouble is? We're going to make you call some more people, everybody just to get ready. The House voted 218 to 213 to pass the Save America Act, which experts have said could disenfranchise millions by requiring voters to show documentary proof of citizenship at registration and to provide photo ID when they cast ballots. All Republicans present voted in favor of the bill, not surprising. There was one Democrat, one Democrat that voted against it, and that was Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas. but i do have some better news this is from the wall street journal the department of homeland security is on the verge of a shutdown after senate democrats yep voted to block a bill to fund the agency saying negotiations with republicans to put new restrictions on immigration enforcement hadn't made enough progress in fact i was watching the rep from new mexico sansbury say they all just started walking out we came to do a vote everyone just wanted to go home A bill to fund DHS through September failed to advance with 52 in favor and 47 opposed. That's short of the 60 votes required. Republicans control the Senate 53 to 47, and they needed at least some Democrats to vote with them due to the longstanding filibuster rule. Lawmakers have passed legislation to fund every other part of the government through the end of the fiscal year in September, but they split off the DHS bill to allow time for more negotiations. A two-week stopgap funding patch expires after Friday. Quote, if they don't propose something that's strong, that rains in ice and ends the killing, don't expect our votes. This is from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and I'm sure hoping that stays, Chuck. Senate Majority Leader John Thune was so downbeat about the potential for a deal that he allowing senators to go ahead with their plans to leave Washington, like I said, for a week-long recess despite the imminent shutdown. Both the Senate and the House are scheduled to be out of session next week because of the President's Day holiday, and many lawmakers are heading to a security conference in Munich this weekend. In a sign of how dug-in Democrats are, centrists who oppose the record-length government shutdown in fall, they largely, over a failed effort, extend Enhanced Affordable Care Act coverage. Remember that? Said this week they would oppose even a short-term funding patch to keep DHS open for a matter of weeks while negotiations continue. That blows my mind, that these centrist Democrats didn't even vote for another two-week stopgap for DHS is pretty mind-blowing. Yeah, enough is enough. This is the quote from the story. I'm not going to support a stopgap if my Republican colleagues don't come to the table and work with us right now and get this done. This is from Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, who voted against the last shutdown. Cortez Masto said she didn't think the GOP and the White House were working in good faith with Democrats on overhauling the department. Really? I would agree with you, Cortez Masto. I don't think they're ever working in good faith. Way to go out on a limb there, Cortez Masto. But she didn't vote for it. That's what matters. Well done. Good. All right. Let's see if they can hang on to that. Next up from Politico, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told Senators Thursday that federal law enforcement agencies are still blocking state and local authorities from participating in the investigations into the shootings of two U.S. citizens by ICE in Minneapolis. It's actually Customs and Border Protection. We haven't had any cooperation up until now, which is very unusual because in prior cases where there's been federal and state interests in a crime, we've seen collaboration between federal and state authorities. That's what Ellison told lawmakers on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Ellison said that in the case of the shooting of 37-year-old Good, Renee Good, in early January, state officials still haven't had any access to her car, the car she was driving, when they shot and killed her. They don't have the bullet casings either. Ellison said federal officials are not investigating the shootings and added, quote, we still haven't received any access to the evidence that's involved in that case, but we are with good faith hoping that things will change. Well, sir, I'm afraid it's probably not going to. Yeah, we're way past good faith. Yeah. FBI declined to comment. Justice and Homeland Security departments didn't respond to requests for comment either. So that's what's going on there. Thanks so much, AG. This is from the Times. President Trump on Thursday announced he was erasing the scientific finding that climate change endangers human health and the environment, ending the federal government's legal authority to control the pollution that is dangerously heating the planet. Good Lord. Yeah. The action is a key step in removing limits on carbon dioxide, methane, and four other greenhouse gases that scientists say are supercharging heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and other extreme weather. Led by a president who refers to climate change as a hoax, the administration is essentially saying that the vast majority of scientists around the world are wrong and that a hotter planet is not the menace that decades of research shows it to be. It's a rejection of facts that have been accepted for decades by presidents of both parties, including Richard Nixon, whose top advisor warned of the dangers of climate change, and the first president, George Bush, Sr., who signed an international climate treaty. And it's a knockout punch in its years-long fight by a small group of conservative activists, as well as oil, gas, and coal interests, to stop the country from transitioning away from fossil fuels and towards solar, wind and other non-polluting energy, which has proven to be cheaper than coal. Mm hmm. Yeah. And has proven to make people rich as fuck I mean ask Rick Perry Yeah Wonderful Well I got some better news from NBC A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to start allowing Venezuelans sent to the notorious mega prison Seacoat in El Salvador to return to the United States for their immigration proceedings if they choose to. This is District Judge James Bosberg. He wrote this in an order that he is requiring the administration to allow entry to any of the more than 130 Venezuelan men who were held for four months in the terrorism confinement center Seacoat. Quote, it is worth emphasizing that this situation would never have arisen had the government simply afforded plaintiffs their constitutional rights before initially deporting them. Now, the men were sent back from El Salvador to Venezuela in July as part of a prisoner swap between the two nations. That's the one that freed that triple murderer from Spain that's now hanging out in Florida. Yep. Yeah. Many have said they suffered physical, psychological abuse. They were abused. They were tortured while imprisoned at Seacoat. Bozberg said the number of men who might seek to return to the U.S. would likely be very small. Lee Gellernt, that's the lawyer with the ACLU who's representing the plaintiffs in the case, said previously in court that there would be only a handful of his clients who may take them up on the offer. The judge also ordered the government to offer a boarding letter to any plaintiff in the case who is in a third country and requests commercial air travel to the U.S. at the government's expense. Quote, it is unclear why plaintiffs should bear the financial cost of their return in such an instance. The parties in the case agreed that anyone who wants to come back to the U.S. would immediately be detained as their immigration cases proceed. The government is required to file a status report on this by March 13th, inform the court as to the feasibility of returning plaintiffs still in Venezuela who wish to return for their proceedings, and describe the steps taken to obtain any passports or identification documents of the individuals. You may remember the last time Judge Boesberg told them to tell him about any steps that were taken to facilitate the return of an immigrant sent to Seacoat, they ignored him. And that's why there's contempt proceedings that are still kind of being hung up in the appellate court. So we'll keep an eye on it for you. Thanks so much, Allison. And good news to end this segment. The pride flag is back up at Stonewall. A big, massive crowd. HRC was there. So many supporters in New York. They all gathered today to say loud and clear, LGBTQ plus history will not be erased by Donald Trump. And the crowd is massive. I'm seeing all kinds of things on social media. They are also putting up the pride flag right next to the American flag. And that's where it belongs. Those two belong side by side. That is a national monument to the Stonewall riots, where they took place in this country. That should not be a political issue. It should not be. It's just so annoying. But I am just so happy to see this. We've been, this community has been fighting back for a very long time. You're not going to hold us down by taking a flag down. And then you take it down at night, it's going to go back in the morning. You take it down at night, it's going to go back in the morning. I guarantee it. I guarantee it. Yeah. You know, you've fallen victim to one of the classic blunders. First, never go into a land war in Asia. Second, don't fuck with the LGBTQ plus community. Yeah. It's the most resilient community I've ever seen. They never stopped fighting. They never stopped fighting for visibility and rights. And I should say we, but you know, it's, you pick the fight with the wrong group of folks. Yeah, you really have. And there's so many people, it's just flooding social media. And I'd love to see it. There's so much press covering it, but it doesn't matter. We're still going to get out there. We're still going to be in community. Just like this June, I guarantee you're going to see some of the biggest pride parades and festivals and celebrations you've seen in this country in a long time. Yeah, we look forward to it. All right, everybody. We're going to get to John Fuglesang and then some good news, but we have to take a quick break. So everybody stick around. We'll be right back. After these messages, we'll be right back. Hey, everybody. I cover breaking news for a living, but the most urgent alert in my house is always the same. One of my cats will appear out of nowhere to inform me while I'm sleeping loudly that the Smalls Bowl is approaching empty. Politics, scandals, all of it has to wait. This is a real crisis. And because I have several cats with very strong opinions and zero patience, I keep Smalls on hand all the time so breakfast stays peaceful. This podcast is sponsored by Smalls. Is the news making you want to cuddle up with your cat? Smalls, the fresh cat food, is protein-packed recipes made with preservative-free, 100% human-grade ingredients that you would find in your own fridge. And it's delivered right to your door. That is why Cats.com named Smalls their best overall cat food. So for a limited time, get 60% off your first order, plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com slash daily beans. Starting with Smalls is extremely easy. You tell them what your cats have been eating, details about their health, their age, their needs, what flavors they tend to like, and they send a personalized sampler for you. That alone saves me from staring at shelves full of random brands, picking one and then hoping for the best. I recently decided that I would do a side-by-side taste test with Smalls and their old food, and it was not even close. They ignored the old food and went straight for Smalls. They love it so much. And if your cat is extra picky, the risk-free trial really helps because Smalls will refund you if your cat refuses to eat it. So stop guessing which meals will upset their tummies for a limited time. Because you're a Daily Beans listener, you get 60% off your first order plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com slash Daily Beans. One last time, that's 60% off your first order plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com slash Daily Beans. Hi, I'm Frances Callier. And I'm Angela V. Shelton. And we're Frantula. You know what you need in your life? Hmm. The Final Word Podcast. Yes, you do. That's right. It is the final word on all things political and pop cultural. Where we make real news real funny. Where we inspire you so you can hashtag resist. Subscribe and get a new episode of The Final Word Podcast each week. It's the news we think you need to hear. That's right. We think you need to hear it. Okay? Yeah, it's what we say so. That's right. And because all we do is give, every Thursday you can listen to our hysterical podcast, idiot of the week. We round up the stupid because you know what? Somebody has to. Okay. All we do is give. Hey, everybody. Welcome back. It's Friday on the Daily Beans, which means it's Fuglesang Friday. So please welcome my friend, host of Tell Me Everything on Sirius XM Progress. That's channel 127, weeknights at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 Pacific. Also, New York Times bestselling author of The Separation of Church and Hate. If you don't have Sirius, you can always catch the John Fuglesang Show podcast for free wherever you get your podcasts. And you can always subscribe to his sub stack as well. Please welcome my friend John Fuglesang. Hi, John. How are you? You're just the best, man. Every week you give me such a dignified intro I have to measure up to. Thank you so much, Dr. Gill. They used to do that to me at comedy shows. They'd be like, the best, funniest, most amazing person ever in the world. What? I'm like, all right, hope I don't suck. Oh, yeah. Believe me. Superlative hype is how I've made it this far. Absolutely. Wonderful. Well, hey, high five to you. Let's talk a little bit about superlative hype on Capitol Hill, because the Pam Bondi Senate hearing was bad, but she took it to 11. Amazing. In this House hearing. House Judiciary hearing. Amazing. Yeah. It was extremely frustrating to watch, especially if you're a survivor, especially, I imagine, if you're an Epstein survivor, they're in the gallery and she wouldn't even look at you and acknowledge you. Not she wouldn't even fake it. She wouldn't even fake it. Photo of the year. All she had to do was turn around and just say, I salute you. I'm glad the man's dead. Well, nothing, because she can't promise them justice because she's not allowed to bring justice for these crimes. and she just revealed herself and outed herself as someone who was um willing to go down in the history books as covering up child rape uh for fleeting earthly power and prestige i mean she's not the attorney general at this point she's a future law school case study and we need to i mean and she's also completely crazy i mean like this is the lady who took a bribe from donald trump to drop her investigation into Trump University back in Florida. And the crazy brought notes, the crazy brought charts, the crazy brought like a talking point Ouija board and screamed at it. This was a nervous breakdown of a person with extremely bad professional judgment. And what was the most terrifying to me, Alison, was that she walked into that hearing like a person who has no idea that history exists, right? No awareness that someday there'll be books or documentaries or grandkids being like, Grandma, why are you talking about the Dow and ignoring the rape victims? Like, I mean, could you believe that? Like, how can you criticize the president for covering up child rape when the Dow is doing so well? She like, oh, that must be so comforting to all the rape victims sitting right behind her while she refuses to turn around and look at them. I mean, and that that moment there tells you everything, right? Like, oh, fantastic. The stock market's up. What's the problem? because the stock market that Pam Bondi wanted to talk about, that matters to the accused. That matters to the men who did the abuse. The stock market doesn't matter to the victims standing right behind her who she couldn't bring herself to look. That was the tell right there. Pam Bondi acts like she fears no consequences, not politically, not legally, not historically. And she acts like someone who thinks power is never going to change hands again. And that was the scariest thing about it for me, because when you get past her goofiness and how dishonest she is, there's a level of authoritarian certainty in Pam Bondi's petulance that we see throughout this administration. These stupid douchebags think they're going to be in power forever. Yeah. And that is that is a frightening part. And that's so true for the executive branch, maybe not so true for the legislative branch, as we've now see Republicans defecting on tariffs. We see Republicans defecting on quite a few things that have been wholly embarrassing to the Trump administration this week. And we see the Trump administration retreating as well. I mean, like they ran away from Greenland and now they are running away from Minnesota. And this is happening not because of anything politicians or Democrats have done. This is all happening because of people who are pushing back at the most grassroots level and because the judicial branch is still a guardrail here. But I mean, like he backed down on Greenland. He backed he's backing down on Minnesota right now. Sometimes the bullies will back down if you punch him in the face just once. Yeah. Like Moskowitz, who's like, hey, flip to my page in your burn book and give me your best shot. That was great. He addressed it. I played like a three minute straight clip of Moskowitz last night on Sirius XM because that guy was just like Elvis. And he began by praising Pam Bondi and thanking her for the way she had helped him back when they were both in Florida together. He was a model of how to do it right. He did. He began it without antagonizing her, praised her for the good person she used to be, and then just brought four straight minutes of receipts. And the burn book that you mentioned, that to me was the most terrifying revelation of the day. CNN had good coverage of this. we found out because they zeroed in on our binder that the doj you know jamie raskin said they're only giving us like four computers to study these millions of documents and we now know why because they're tracking which epstein files the members of congress are searching the executive branch is spying on the legislative branch and those photos from her notes show pictures of committee members and what their search histories are and what they've been reading it is all intimidation I mean, after years about screaming that they were spied on, Trump is spying on Congress. Just a week and a half, two weeks ago, eight hours of pointed questions at Jack Smith about him getting their phone records. That's right. And Lindsey Graham wanting to be able to sue for a million dollars for all the senators who had their phone records legally obtained. Get her. Yeah. Does that mean that Rep Jayapal gets to sue for a million dollars for being spied on without her permission? And, you know, excellent point. A lot of people say, oh, these are Department of Justice computers. Well, those senators phones were government issued phones. That's right. These are government issued devices. This is the Department of Justice saying to Congress, we see you. We know what you're looking at. Choose carefully. We are monitoring you. They can't stop. And how does that help defending these men? It doesn't. They don't care about the survivors. They care about changing the narrative. They care about juicing the unemployment numbers. And by the way, the great unemployment numbers we heard about yesterday. I can't wait till what do you think, Alice, in the second week of April? We'll get the revisions and find out what the unemployment numbers really were for January. I mean, this is the game they're playing. It's all distraction. And that's something Donald Trump has actually always been very good at. That's what this stupid freaking Kid Rock thing was all about, just throwing more distractions up. So we're not talking about the fact that they are defending and protecting men who rape children. And Pam Bondi, I mean, I think they're going to be studying this in law school forever. Her client is not the Constitution of the American people. It's Trump. And she defended him and she yelled for him and she lied under oath on camera and humiliated herself in the history books for this guy. And this is what baffles me. Like, I think John Roberts cares about his place in the history books every now and then. But so many of these people, they're never they haven't learned. Temporary power is not worth permanent disgrace. and what she's doing now, that's going to be in the first paragraph of her obituary someday, unless Pam Bondi has a real road to Damascus moment and performs a very powerful flip for justice, which I don't think is within her character. The shot of her not looking at those brave women standing by, and man, it was a man too, not looking at the victims, the survivors behind her. I mean, it's not even Valentine's Day, Alison. I think we got the photo of the year. Yeah, I think you're right. There was just so much laughter and smirking and lightheartedness. And it was just, it was evil to watch. And I think we walk away with a new playbook on committee questioning while Donald Trump is in office. Jasmine Crockett was a perfect example of this. Just make your point for five minutes, force the next Republican to give up their time to let the person answer, and then just yell interruptions when it's appropriate. I think that that's the way that we have to handle a questioning people like Pam Bondi from now on. I mean, if you come with a burn book, you don't care about justice. You don't, you're not the lawyer for the American people. And she wasn't there for justice. She was there to give Fox News their quality clips because you know Fox News isn't going to learn the truth about any of this. Those viewers are just going to see how Pam Bondi owned these libs on Capitol Hill. And Pam Bondi knew it. She was playing not just for the audience of one. She was giving Fox the soundbites it needed. And Donald Trump wrote a big glowing profile of her on Truth Social today. But again, like when Ted Lieu says you just lied under oath and she screams, don't you ever accuse me of a crime. That's that's exactly how innocent people react, isn't it? I totally That me all day Very normal Yelling that all day All day Yeah Very very future law school case study These people it going to be awful But we have to recognize that that it already begun to collapse They still going to hurt a lot of folks We a long way from justice But no one allowed to be discouraged anymore OK we need you in the fight Despondency is privilege If you need to take a break from the news I get it Take a break and then get back in the game because this house of cards is beginning to crumble It going to take a long time I don't see how Democrats, you could preach a return to normalcy, can win an election, Allison. I think it's going to have to be all about accountability. It's going to have to be about hands-on Bibles. It's going to have to be about a special prosecutor. I want to hear a Democrat say that they want to go and sweep Epstein Island and find if there's any bodies buried on it. These are the things that I want to hear. And whether we like it or Republicans like it or not, this story is not going to go away between now and November. No, it's probably not going to go away until the rest of those three million files come out and they actually remove the redaction bars except for, you know, protecting the survivors. And other countries might do it first. Keep that in mind. Poland has said they may. Can you imagine other countries having the morality and guts to do what our administration doesn't? Other countries aren't taking donations from these guys. Poland is very happy to put out the names of these douchebags. And I think Thomas Massey is, too. I don't know how much longer these guys are going to be able to operate in secret. And once their names become famous, their deeds will become famous. And once their deeds are famous, the deals they made to avoid scrutiny are going to get all the scrutiny in the world. It's going to be quite a year. Yeah. And if you need a break from the horrible news, you need some good news. The Senate Democrats have refused to fund DHS. They won't even do a stopgap, including Cortez Masto. Can you believe it? So I'm actually pleasantly surprised. We'll see how long this lasts. Keep in mind, during a DHS shutdown, ICE and Customs and Border Protection are still fully funded, fully paid for by the big, beautiful bill. But it is harder to get that money and they'll start draining that money. They'll start having to spend their slush fund instead of their regular appropriations. So while it's not ideal, it's progress. And then the Democrats did it. Democrats did something. Yes. And we have to make a lot of noise about it because, you know, sometimes gumming up the works and slowing down the machine is the only thing they can do. And Republicans do it to everything. Republicans do it constantly. Right. I mean, they're they're they're trying to take a kill. Medicare. You can get a Supreme Court justice with a year left to go on Obama's. We had a year. Mitch McConnell got to decide there were only eight Supreme Court justices for a whole year. Come on now. Another guy who doesn't care about his legacy, which that's when I started thinking about legacies was with Mitch McConnell. Yeah, Mitch McConnell cared about his legacy. He would have had three retiring senators go and vote yes on impeachment, and none of this would be happening right now. This is happening because of Mitch McConnell, because he was too gutless on his way out the door to close the door on this once and for all. Yeah, agreed. And another way you can take a break and unwind is to watch any number of amazing breakdowns of the Bad Bunny halftime show, which sent MAGA land into the biggest panty twist I've ever seen in my whole life. Beautiful. Just, you know, obviously motivated and underpinned by bigotry, but also just a terrible fear of being embarrassed and too stupid to understand things. Yes, yes. You know, we see Laura Loomer tweeting, oh, why is he standing on an electrical pole? Doesn't he realize Puerto Rico's electrical grid has major problems? She's so beautifully stupid. She's so beautifully stupid. It's like jazz. It's just perfect. You're so close. You're so close to getting it. She Loomer-ed herself on that one. but what an incredible amazing just i learned so much and also felt like i was celebrating the americas and uh canada i love all these videos coming out of canada with with all these with all these canadians like doing the fucking lumbada in the snow it's so amazing when's the last time someone made you feel like a patriotic uh western hemisphere citizen like it was first time in my life. First time in my life. And I loved it. And it reminds us of what the ethnic and language background of this hemisphere really looks like. Spain, shout out to Spain for all their colonizing crap. But this is where we are. And like, I also want to just say you didn't need to speak a word of Espanol to follow every beat of what he was showing. It was such beautiful visual storytelling the entire time. The painting he was giving and and these racists all about, oh no white people there's lady gaga singing in english and she's blonde oh it's all this gay stuff what there's literally a heterosexual couple getting married in the halftime show you idiots it's the straightest thing i've ever seen it's it's like you could you know but and i also want to say um my greatest praise for the technical wizardry of shooting this along with the kendrick lamar show last year yeah like the super bowl halftime show is redefining how cameras and live TV can document elaborate choreography just as a tech nerd, as a film school nerd, just watching it over and over to think about how this was live and the amount of cameras they did for this many people and performers. I mean, technically, it's beautiful, but spiritually, you know, you flip over the other channel and you'll see these people talking about the gospel and they don't mean it. Kid Rock grabbing his dick in front of a Confederate flag, talking about the gospel. And then you got Bad Bunny saying love is stronger than hate and we are all American together and they're showing the gospel. And it was better than the actual game, because what happens when another culture getting a little bit of representation really feels like something's being taken away from you as a crappy white person? You invent this alternate halftime show with Kid Rock, and even Satan is like, whoa, guys, tone it down. Did you see any of this lip-sync monstrosity? Like, this is for people who think that Puerto Rico isn't really American, but the Confederate flag is. Or for people who, like Donald Trump, who say, I didn't understand a single word this guy was saying. I'm going to go watch Bah, Witte, Bah, Da Bang, Da Bang, Diggy, Diggy. Which he didn't even watch, by the way. Trump watched the halftime show. They all at Mar-a-Lago watched the Bad Bunny halftime show. They didn't flip over to the Turning Point USA debacle. Embarrassment of a debacle. Embarrassment. I mean, he's trying to cover up that he was lip syncing that first number. Because, of course, he's blaming it on the tech crew. You watch him lip syncing into the mic and then he moves the white mic two feet away from his face and his voice isn't interrupted even slightly. Milli Vanilli is turning over in their graves. He even said, well, the rough cut looked like it was out of sync. I'm like, so you admitted that it's none of it was live. None of it was live. And again, man, and he puts his name over the American flag. You dopey patriots. This is what you signed up for. He puts Kid Rock on top of a flag, you idiots. And the fake Christians. Let me tell you something, Dr. Gil. Kid Rock is the only performer at the entire at both Super Bowl halftime shows who's also been in a sex tape with the singer from Creed. OK, that's that's about as deep as his Christianity goes. Never forget Kid Rock and Scott Stapper in a sex tape together. And and Megyn Kelly, my beloved co-worker from down the hall at Sirius XM, the way she flipped out over this. And again, it's all to get attention on herself. It's all to get racist to tune in. And Megyn Kelly, who, like Donald Trump, was fired from NBC for being so racist. And she can't. I mean, the hissy fit she's having. She doesn't care that Trump is protecting child rape. She doesn't feel upset that two Americans were shot dead in our streets. She's mad that there's Puerto Ricans. This woman goes to see West Side Story. And I guess she goes to the bathroom and protests during all the parts where Puerto Rican people sing. The beautiful thing about their stupid hate is nobody watched. Nobody cared. Bad Bunny had record high ratings. And I'm telling you, man, this is the beautiful thing about the human race. Hate marginalizes itself. The Klan's embarrassing. The Westboro Baptist Church was so upsetting until they were just embarrassing. And even homophobes didn't want to be homophobes anymore because they don't want to be on that team. And you look at how these races tried to capitalize on anti-Latino sentiment because it's a good year for that. Well, America wasn't biting. Nobody watched this piece of garbage. Bad Bunny got the highest numbers of all time. And it was another beautiful example of hate making itself smaller. Well said, my friend. And doesn't Kid Rock have a song about raping underage girls? He sure does. Underage isn't statutory. It's mandatory or something like that. But you know what? The president of the United States has some redacted files about the same thing. You think? Yeah, I do. Can we all bring it back to Pam Bondi. Anyway, my friend, I've been, you know, just consuming all sorts of breakdowns of the halftime show, watching it, learning. I absolutely loved it. I thought it was fantastic. It was beautiful, entertaining. I loved the part where he brought out every single flag for the Americas. Of course, MAGA is like, what about the United States? The U.S. flag was in the front. It was there. It was in the front. Spectacular. They just want to hate. They're just miserable, miserable crabs in a bucket who just their negativity drives them. And it's almost hard to blame them for it because this is how they've been groomed. This culture of grievance for all these years that you're white and you're Christian and you're better. But there's people out there who aren't like you and they want to take something away. And it's true. It's billionaires. They're not like you and they want to take away your way of life. But the Christians and the white folks have been groomed for decades to blame poor people, to blame brown people, to blame people who believe in the American dream. And it makes you look stupid. And it makes us meaner. And it's hurting the economy. And the best thing that could come from all of this is for if these white working class gullibles can finally realize that the invading army they need to worry about are, as John Ossoff called them, the Epstein class, the billionaires who are causing these problems. Ossoff had the speech of the week. Every Democrat needs to study it and to see how to do it with calm, grace, and morality. Yeah, agreed. Did you say crabs in a bucket? Crabs in a bucket. That's in AA, in Narcotics Anonymous, when it's the negativity and a bunch of crabs are in a bucket. And if one crab gets close to climbing out of the bucket, the other crabs will reach up and pull them down. They won't allow one of the crabs to climb out of the bucket. They're going to pull you back down in here with us. And that's the exact kind of negativity that white conservative people have had programmed into them since Rupert Murdoch got a week deal on a network over here. Well, crabs in a bucket, motherfucket. Thank you so much, my friend. Thank you. Appreciate you coming and talking to us every Friday. And I was fortunate enough this morning, which is actually in the future, but Friday morning, I got to go and hang out on the Steph Miller show cover for Dana. So you can always catch John there too. It's going to be great. It was amazing. We're in a little bit of a time travel. I know. I love the loop we're in. But I just want to thank you so much for always coming on and sharing your thoughts and And everybody, if you want more John Fuglesang, and who doesn't, you can always check out Tell Me Everything on Sirius XM Progress 127. That is weeknights, 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 Pacific. And of course, I know by now you have your copy of The Separation of Church and Hate, New York Times bestseller. Congrats again on that. And you can always check out the John Fuglesang Show podcast for free wherever you get your podcasts. My friend, always great to speak to you. And you could always call into my show and talk to me live, and someone can tell me why Howard Lutnick still has a job. because whoa man i mean i never hung out with that guy the six steps to his house i said i'm never gonna be in the same room with that guy oh yeah we went to lunch in 2012 uh took my kids took my took my children to child rape island is what i did all of our kids with us yeah but how about the nannies did you take all the nannies with did you believe that i mean and he's like i I don't never cross my mind. That's kind of crazy because, you know what? For most parents, my top concern would be, is this convicted sex offender interested in my kids or their caregiver? That's usually one of my top questions going to a rape. Right after they have sunscreen. It's, oh, is this convicted sex offender going after someone in my party? This guy still has a job. I mean, it's a cover up culture. And he's the poster boy, along with him. It is. Trump cabinet officials commit crimes at higher rates than immigrants. They're all covering up child rape and the history will record it. Yeah, agreed. All right, everybody. Thank you so much. Thank you, John. And everybody stick around. We'll be right back with the good news. Thank you. Hey, everybody. It's AG. If you've ever tried bone broth and hated the taste, forget everything you think you know. Our next sponsor, Brodo, makes bone broth so good it feels like a treat, not a chore. It's tasty, savory, and deeply satisfying on chilly mornings and afternoons. This podcast is sponsored by Brodo. welcome to the hottest trend in nutrition for the last 2,000 years. Bone broth. Brodo's bone broths are made from scratch. No concentrates, no preservatives or shortcuts. So you get the best broth money can buy. Head to brodo.com slash daily beans for 20% off your first subscription order and use code daily beans for an additional $10 off. Brodo makes bone broth that is honestly good enough to drink. And that's what I do every morning. The sampler pack is a smart way to get started and find out what you like. One of my favorite flavors is classic chicken. I also like the turmeric one. You have to try it. The chicken one truly tastes amazing. It tastes like a clean restaurant quality chicken soup based in a mug, comforting without feeling heavy. And I keep it in my routine. I always have a hard time getting extra protein. I have a hard time getting collagen because the way that regular collagen powders come and you mix them into whatever you're drinking and it just makes it taste weird. But Brodo is delicious. It is warm. It's like a warm hug from the inside. Brodo was launched by an award-winning chef, Marco Conora, and he now ships it nationwide, so you can enjoy it anywhere. I love it. The 10 grams of whole food protein are a real plus. So shop the best broth on the planet with Brodo. Head to brodo.com slash daily beans for 20% off your first subscription order and use code daily beans for an additional $10 off. Once again, that's brodo.com slash daily beans for 20% off your first subscription order and an additional $10 off if you use my promo code, Daily Beans. You'll be glad you did. You can always count on Sunday to be the best day of the week. You can sleep in, go off your diet, spend the day in your pajamas, and go on, have that second croissant. You know what else you can count on every Sunday? The Martin Sheen podcast. Join me, your host, Martin Sheen, for beautifully crafted 20-minute programs filled with never-before-heard stories of my life, along with personal reflections and poetry that inspires. And Season 2 begins Sunday, February 1st. The Martin Sheen Podcast is the perfect Sunday relaxing companion, a chance to put your feet up, take a deep breath, and enjoy some stress-free listening time from the comfort of your favorite easy chair. And that second croissant that stays between us There no judgment here So make my podcast your weekly moment of calm as we explore faith hope love and what it means to be human And rest assured this journey is ever unfolding as I invite you to see what's next with me, Martin Sheen. So let's keep Sunday the best day of the week together. And thank you for listening. Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news, everyone? Then good news, everyone. And if you have any good news, good trouble suggestions, maybe you have a shout out that you'd like to give to a loved one or a nonprofit or a small business in your area or yourself. Maybe you want to tell us what your thesis or dissertation title was. Those are always fun. And we always laugh at ourselves trying to pronounce the words that you have in your titles for your dissertations and theses. But we would love to hear about that. If you have a shout out for a government program that's helped you or a loved one, anything at all. And your good news, it can be small. It can be big. It can be from 20 years ago. It can be from last week. Whatever it is, if it helps put a smile on our faces, we would love to hear from you. We need to microdose the hope. And all you got to do to get your submission read on the air is submit your pod pet tariff, which means attach a photo of your pet or an adoptable pet in your area or a random animal off the internet. Or it doesn't even have to be animals. It could be people. You can send family photos. You can send pictures of rallies or some great protest signs. You can send memes that make you laugh. Maybe your favorite joke or something, a photo of that meme. You can send what you're making or creating. We had an amazing knitted blanket come in yesterday that I want. So beautiful. I know. We have so many talented people listening. It's amazing. But anyway, whatever photo it is, really, it'll be fine to pay your pod pet tariff. Send it in to us, dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. First up, here's your good trouble. Your good trouble today comes from an anonymous Latina who should have been chosen to go to Canada. Hello, AG and DG. Pluto TV, the free streaming platform, is currently running ads promoting ICE and Trump accounts, not political commentary, not news coverage, direct promotional advertising, i.e. propaganda. For a platform that markets itself as free entertainment, this feels like a deliberate choice to monetize one of the most disgusting and negatively perceived federal agencies of all time. If this is something worth amplifying, here's a direct link where viewers can contact Pluto and let them know how they feel. support.pluto.tv slash s slash contact support. We'll have a link in the show notes. No harassment, no threats, just clear, firm consumer feedback, please. Free platforms rely entirely on viewer goodwill and advertiser confidence. If enough people speak up, they may rethink. Appreciate all you do. Thanks for keeping us informed and relatively sane. As a Latina immigrant with two kids who chose the US eight years ago, it's been a very, very hard year or so. I can imagine. Also, Pluto TV is owned by Paramount Global, and we have a Paramount Global contact link in the show notes as well. Thanks so much, Allison. This is from the Elf in Augusta, Georgia, no pronouns given. Dear Legume ladies, tonight, I did a good deed for my community. Let's just hope that it sticks. I found out that there is data center being built in my county, Richmond County, Georgia, that will sit 350 feet from the boundaries of the neighborhood. It is to be built on the wetlands on reclaimed and remediated land. I live on the other end of the county, but it took the time to question our elected officials and representatives of the data center owner, a Blackstone-owned company. I pointed out the types of environmental and pollution damages and costs which the citizens of the county would incur higher electricity, water, etc., and the loss of access to our shared resources to strong applause. For the most part, the government officials excelled at giving non-answers and would refer to the data center company for the responses. This was to the disgruntlement of the audience. After my turn at the mic, I found myself standing in the back of the room next to the blueprints of the site. A representative told me that the noise from the hundreds of generators would barely be heard, to which I challenged him, telling him that his statement was a load of bunk. He then asked me if I needed a job. I do, because he would hire me on the spot. I told him, not on your life. I then found that I had reporters who told me that I was a superstar with the questions that I had put before the panel. They wanted to quote me for the local newspaper and wanted to interview me on camera for broadcast. I did give the newspaper a quote, but I refused to be interviewed on camera. In my discussions with the press, I also brought up the statement, did they not ask us about the ICE detention centers and Social Circle and Flowery Branch in addition to the data centers springing up around us? We are in a time when the government simply does not care about the citizens. I'm proud to have stood up for my fellow citizen against the private sale of warehouses and land that do not benefit our communities. And my tariff, I'm sending you my partners in crime. as Merelda the Great, Queen of Mao Zedong and ASC II. Oh, pronounce ASCII. Look at the babies. That is a mean face. Sweet girls. Okay, so that's fucking awesome. Yeah, it is. Alpha Nogusta. Well done. When the newspaper wants to quote you and they want to put you on broadcast, that's saying something. Well, well done. All right. Next up from Sandra, pronouns she and her. I just want to say I've been listening for several years and enjoy starting my days with your podcast. My cat Gizmo loves the bathroom sink. My grandson Asher's pic is also attached. All right. We got a cat in a sink and we got a baby. Oh, the baby. This is outstanding. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Look at that orange baby in the sink. And then look at that little tiny little baby with the play school activity set. Oh my goodness. So sweet. And next up from anonymous, pronoun she and her. Uh-oh, Dana. Do you see it? It's a picture of an otter. I do see it. Hi, Beans. I love him so much. The new website looks awesome. Ditto what everyone else says. So glad you do what you do. I'm not a big animal person, so I sometimes skip through the good news part. However, my wee bit of OCD means that I have to hear, I've been AG and I've been DG before I can turn off the pod. even standing in my doorway with my coat and keys in hand, unable to leave my apartment until I hear it. A couple of days ago, Dana was flying solo and at the end she got fostered with her sign off. Oh, well, you might not know that. She had to say under her breath, I've been agey first to get back on track. I almost peed myself. I was like this. I was like, how do I end this thing when she's not here? And so I literally went, I've been agey and I've been DG and then that's fucking fantastic positive reinforcement for me to stay to the end keep up the good work here's a random otter photo p.s if you google flip the bird trump tower it's fun to see all the pics thank you so much for this otter i love that i love that data i've been randy and i've been dg yeah um this is from i think it's elaine pronoun he from racine quebec canada hello beans queens love your shows. Pictured is our lovely Melba, a blank. Let me go down to the photo. I got no idea. She's good. She is the good story. If you look closely, you may notice she has no eyes. She went blind four months ago and we needed to have her eyes removed to avoid lifelong pain. Many people would have put her down, especially your favorite puppy killer. We loved her too much and believed in her resilience. It's surprising how well she gets around with no sight. My fantasy good trouble would be for Mark Carney to install winter buns along the Canada-U.S. border from coast to coast. A symbolic middle finger every 10 miles to piss off the orange dictator. That's a fantastic idea. This dog is incredible. I have no idea what kind of dog this is, but I love it. Let's see. I know. What do you got? Wire-haired, pointing, Griffon. There you go. He's fantastic. Yeah, he is. A little resilient buddy. All right, next up from Joelle pronouns she and her. Hello, I have a good news and a shout out to share. First, as a Minnesotan native, I'm proud of my hometown and the community I was raised in. I moved to California at 29 after spending my whole life in Minneapolis. The updates I get from friends and family back home are both equally inspiring and terrifying. Things are still very much active in Minneapolis and we can't let up on our pushback against ice. My good news is today that after three years of planning and eight years as an engineering project manager building wineries in California, I got my visa to move to Portugal. At 37, I'm fulfilling a dream I first had when I was 16, living abroad and immersing myself in a new culture. I'm so excited to start anew and build my own company providing wine tasting and tours. My shout out is to Decant Wine Bar in Napa, California. It is a queer BIPOC female-owned wine bar and wine store. The first location is in San Francisco. The goal of the store is to be a third space in the community while selling wines that also support the community they come from. I worked there for nine months and learned so much from the owner and sommelier, Cara Patricia, as well as master sommelier, Jillian Balance, I hope I'm pronouncing that right, who does their wine education classes. I'm still blown away by the quality of wine I got to taste and serve. It was a big change going from construction and engineering to pouring wine and making cheese or tinned fish plates. I learned so much and I'm forever grateful to the women of DeCant. They poured their knowledge into me just for the love of the game. Nice. Pet tax is my dog, Otto, who is my only companion on this journey. His full name is Mr. Macchiato. He says, since he looks like latte foam, you will never guess his breed. Even the vet was shocked. He was a shop dog at DeCant and the customers loved him. He was employee of the month every month, attached as a photo of him helping a customer pick out wine. He's a blank and everything cute, DNA attached. Please support DeCant wine bar, decantnapa.com. And we've got their Instagram and everything else for you if you need it. So much love, Joelle. This dog is adorable. It sure is. It looks like a cocker spaniel. They said you'll never guess. So I'll say a German shepherd. I think there's probably a chihuahua and a cocker spaniel. An ocelot. So I'm just making shit up now. Smooth haired terrier. All right, let's see what we got. We got poodle. We got chihuahua. We got super mutt. We got miniature pincher. We got bichon frise we got pecanese and shih tzu what this is it's a 43 percent poodle though that doesn't even look like a poodle at all that's why the person was like you're never gonna guess and you're right we never i you know what joelle i think the cops got the dna swapped with somebody else's there you go that's right um joelle is my best friend's name not a very common name so it's nice to meet you. But yeah, a poodle chihuahua. That's incredible. Thank you so much for that. All right. Next up is Kel, pronouns she and her. I just wanted to share a micro dose of happy and a laugh. Mom and I were out running errands last No Kings. She's not able to join the events in person due to health and mobility issues, but I made a point to set our route to pass through our local No Kings here in Indiana. We made sure to drive slow and honk and support all the way through, turned around and went back through. We had the windows down and she was applauding and waving and cheering everyone on. Traffic stopped for a moment and she was all smiles and laughing at the signs. She spied a fuck Trump sign and pointed at it. She liked that sign laughing. Mom hollered to her with a cactus. I haven't laughed that hard in a while. Mom is 79, by the way. I love her to bits. Trump with a cactus from your 79-year-old mom. Ma'am, I love her to bits, and I'm so proud to be her daughter. My taxes, too, my favorite pics of her, a tickle fight with a young me, and then a very young mom back in the 1950s. Thanks, A.G. and D.G., for all you do. I don't know how I'd get through all this chaos without you. Oh, my gosh, these pictures are fantastic. The saddle shoes and the bonnet are killing me. me and her little coat with the flowers on the lapel. So good. Cheeks. I want to eat the cheeks. Oh my God. She's so cute. Thank you so very much everyone for that incredible round of good news to send us into the weekend. Really, really appreciate it. Thanks to John Fuglesang for joining us. Thanks to everybody who caught me on Steph Miller this morning. Thanks for covering me, my friend. Unless you're listening Thursday night, it hasn't happened yet, but you know, time travel. True. Because our patrons get this podcast the night it comes out, right? The night we record it. They get it early. They get it ad-free. If you want to become a patron, now's the time because I'm setting up the galas this year. We're going to have one election night. We're going to have one on June 20th in Chicago. You don't want to miss these. So sign up. I think it's $3 a month. It's nothing. Sign up at patreon.com slash miller she wrote and you'll get all sorts of rad stuff. But I just appreciate all of you so, so very much. And I look forward to seeing you again Monday. Do you got any final thoughts, my friend? No final thoughts for me. All right, everyone. Have a good weekend. Make sure to rest. Listen to Unjustified on Sunday. Listen to me at the breakdown on Midas Touch Sunday at noon Pacific as well. You can also catch the replay of that over at mullershewrote.com on my sub stack after it airs. And we'll see you Monday. 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 A.G. I've been D.G. 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 Reeder with Moxie Design Studios. Music for The Daily Beans is written and performed by They Might Be Giants, and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Network, a collection of creator-owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics, and justice. For more information, please visit mswmedia.com. MSW Media