It's no surprise that newspapers try to manipulate the audience. They want you to believe that they are the one holding the line and they'll use any trick they can to get you there. But don't let them fool you. Get unspun.
I'm an anti-stirgile. I've been a reporter and today I teach you reporters to cut the spin and think critically about what Newsmaker said. My podcast, Unspun, shows you how to know when you're being manipulated by the news. Learn to spot the tricks and how to make up your own mind about what's true.
So if you're tired of being fooled by the news, subscribe to Unspun today. Unspun, because you deserve the truth. M-S-W-W-Media Hello and welcome to the Daily Beans for Thursday, December 25th, 2025. Today, Judge Crenshaw has canceled Kilmora Brago's criminal trial and ordered the government to prove they didn't vindictively and selectively prosecute him.
The Justice Department says it just found like a million new documents in the Epstein files from the Southern District of New York. So it's going to be a little while longer. A federal judge has ruled that Trump's revocation of lawyer Mark Zade's security clearance was illegal. Top Heritage Foundation officials are fleeing to Mike Pence's nonprofit and ICE plans to hold 80,000 immigrants in warehouses across the country.
I'm Allison Gill. And I'm Daniel Goldberg. Hello, welcome back my friend. Hello, thanks for covering me while I'm gone.
I missed you. I had a lovely week. I would love to say it was relaxation, but do you ever just need a vacation from your vacation after you're done? You're like, why didn't I relax more?
Yeah, yeah, no, I know exactly how bad it is. We all miss you so much. The news is not to be, it's not meant to be faced alone. No, it is definitely, I get it.
Even on those rare days when you're not with me, I'm like, oh man, it's just much more enjoyable when you're with me. Yeah, and everybody was like, oh, I love the new beans, it's like having you guys in my living room and then, you know, that's off, that's dark until Monday. But you're back, you're back here for a day and I'm super glad that you are. Me too.
I'm glad you got to rest and recharge. Somebody else who gets to spend their holiday at home is Kilmar O'Brigo. Amazing. Yeah, because Paul has seen his judge, seen his was like, yeah, no, I'm extending my, you may not re-arrest him, restraining order to ice.
But Judge Crenshaw, the judge in his criminal trial, because there's two cases here, there's this civil case with Judge, seen his criminal case with Judge Crenshaw in Tennessee, he canceled the trial. Wow. Yeah, he's like, it's canceled. And basically he issued this order saying that once Mr.
O'Brigo made a prima facie showing of vindictive and selective prosecution, the burden shifted to the government to prove they're not vindictively prosecuting them, which is going to be nearly impossible, if not entirely impossible. So this judge has boxed them the fucking and I love it. So Judge Crenshaw scheduled a hearing for January 28th to say, because the trial was supposed to start January 26th. But because of all these shenanigans, he's like, we're canceling the trial government, you're coming in January 28th and you're going to have to prove to me that you did not vindictively and selectively prosecute Mr.
O'Brigo. Now if they can prove, if the government can prove that they aren't dickheads, then Crenshaw will consider their motion to quash O'Brigo's subpoena of Todd Blanche, right? Because Todd Blanche has been lying to the court this whole time saying nothing to do with the decision to prosecute Mr. O'Brigo.
Now, if they cannot prove that they didn't vindictively and selectively prosecute Mr. O'Brigo, the judges required to dismiss the charges. But the nice holiday story here is that Mr. O'Brigo gets to spend Christmas with his family as I discussed yesterday without having to worry about checking in at a nice facility or being rear-rested and rendered to Liberia or wherever.
So I mean, everything he's been through, yeah, it's the least. I mean, it really is the least. Yeah. So I will see these criminal charges.
I think these charges will be dropped next month. And then we'll see where we go from there. I imagine he'll end up being deported to Costa Rica. But he's OK with that.
And he's OK with that this whole time. All right. We have a ton of news to get to. Let's hit that notes.
All right. First up from CNN's Caitlin Polance, who I trust. You know, I'm not a big fan of CNN. Dan, I like to treat journalists like fantasy football players.
Like I don't like your team, but I like your reporting. Like Scott McFarland from CBS Caitlin Polance, Carol Lening from NBC. Like I have my fantasy team of journalists whose sources I trust and he's reporting I trust. And this is one of them over at CNN.
I'm about to say the Justice Department's leadership asked career prosecutors in Florida to volunteer over the next several days to help redact the Epstein files in the latest Trump administration push toward releasing the hundreds of thousands now millions of documents, photos, memos, and other evidence around the late convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. See how she doesn't call him a disgraced financier supervising prosecutor in the Southern District of Florida, US Attorney Office email the entire district office on Tuesday two days before Christmas announcing an emergency request from the Deputy Attorney General's office. The Southern District of Florida must assist with. And that's according to a copy of the email reviewed by CNN.
Well, we need a USA's that's assistant US attorneys to do remote document review and redaction related to the Epstein files, the email said. So this will be great for morale. Yeah, forcing your DOJ what's left of your Department of Justice Attorney US attorneys to redact and protect pedophiles, but also from CNN, the Justice Department Wednesday said it uncovered a million more documents potentially related to Jeffrey Epstein and may need quote a few more weeks to process and release them to the public. The department made the revelation in a post on Twitter saying that the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the FBI had informed the Department of the new documents.
But y'all know this is a lie. Right. Allow me to read to you from this letter that Jamie Raskins sent to Pam Bondi a couple of months ago. He said until January 2025, the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York was running an active investigation into Epstein and Maxwell's co-conspirators in January, Southern District of New York prosecutors were ordered to transfer the Epstein case files to the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, DC.
Since that time, according to information provided to our committee by Council for Epstein survivors who provided the key evidence enabling the successful prosecution of Ms. Maxwell, the investigation into the co-conspirators has inexplicably seized and no further investigative steps appear to have been taken. DOJ and FBI formally closed the case in July 2025 abruptly issuing a memo that declared without offering any supporting details that the DOJ and FBI quote did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties. So January 2025, those files were moved from the Southern District of New York to DC.
And Pam Bondi wrote a letter to Cauch Patel in February saying, before you came into office, I requested the full complete files related to Epstein. In response to this request, I got 200 pages of documents which consisted of primarily of flight logs, Epstein's list of contacts and a list of victims, names and phone numbers. I repeatedly questioned whether this was the full set of documents responsive to my request and was repeatedly assured by the FBI that we had received the full set of documents. Late yesterday, I learned from a source that the FBI field office in New York was in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein.
Despite my repeated requests, the FBI never disclosed the existence of these files. When you and I spoke yesterday, you were just as surprised as I was to learn this new information. Therefore, by 8 a.m. tomorrow, February 28, the FBI will deliver the full and complete Epstein files to my office, including all records, documents, audio and video recordings and materials related to Jeffrey Epstein and his clients, regardless of how much information was obtained.
Dana, they're so full of shit. And Dana, Axios just reported today on Wednesday that the White House has taken over the DOJ social media account on Twitter and they're trolling people. I've seen some of the responses. It is the most, it's insane what the timeline we're living in right now.
The responses are just ridiculously juvenile. It's like, oh, that's what we're doing, you dope. That's the Department of Justice. Yeah.
And you know what I was thinking, and I know a lot of people are thinking this, Pam Bondi has been involved with this for a very, very long time. But Pam Bondi and Cash Patel have seen and reviewed all of the videos, all of the photos, they've read all of this, and they are still protecting these sons of bitches. I hope they go down for this. I don't know how you can even live with yourself knowing that you're protecting these people, seeing what you've seen, knowing what you know.
Yeah. Merry Christmas. You get to help protect, protect pedophiles this holiday season by working remotely to redact the Epstein files. So gross.
All right. This next one has from the Associated Press, a federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a March presidential memorandum to revoke the security clearance of prominent Washington attorney Mark Zade ruling in that order, which, which also targeted 14 other individuals that could not be applied to him. The decision marked the administration's second legal setback on Tuesday after the Supreme Court actually declined to allow Trump to deploy national guard troops to Chicago's area, capping a first year in the office in which President Trump's efforts to impose a sweeping agenda and pursue retribution against political adversaries has been repeatedly slowed by the courts. US District Judge Amir Ali in Washington granted Zade's request for a preliminary injunction after he sued the Trump administration in May over the revocation of his security clearance.
Zade's request called it an act of an, I quote, improper political retribution that jeopardized his ability to continue representing clients in sensitive national security cases. The March presidential memorandum, it's singled out say and 14 other individuals who the White House asserted were unsuitable to retain their clearances because it was a, I quote, no longer in the national interest. Yeah. The list included targets of Trump's fury from both the political and legal spheres, including former deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco.
We got New York attorney general, Latisha James, former president Joe Biden and members of his family. And this is a quote, this court joins the several others in this district that have enjoined the government from using this summary revocation of security clearances to penalize lawyers for representing people adverse to it. That's what Ali wrote in order. Ali emphasized that his order does not prevent the government from revoking or suspending Zade's clearance for reasons independent of the presidential memorandum and through normal agency processes.
Yeah, you can do it. If you do it the right way and it's justified. The preliminary injunction does not go into effect until January 13th. Now you have to check out this paragraph on the judge on the ability for the courts to review this case.
And this is the quote, the government acknowledges it chose to revote Zade's security clearance without any of the process that usually affords, but argues the legality of its summary revocation is an, I quote, a quintessential political question that cannot be reviewed by federal courts. However, its position is premised on ignoring binding precedent that says otherwise, including simply omitting relevant case law from the motion to dismiss and preliminary injunction opposition. Yeah. So here the judges who have taken him to law school, they're like, there's a lot of precedent in case law and you just sort of decided to leave it out of your because it's devastating to your case.
That's right. I thought that was a funny paragraph myself. All right. Next up from the Wall Street Journal.
This is bonkers former vice president Mike Pence. He's got political group and it's poaching top officials from the Heritage Foundation and the growing ideological fights within the conservative movement and backlash at the think tank. I'm not sure I'd call it Heritage Foundation a think. Yeah, no, maybe just a tank.
Think away from that. Pences Washington base group started in 2021 and called advancing American freedom is slated to hire about 15 of heritage as employees, including several of its prominent leaders in an interview with the former Republican vice president told the Wall Street Journal. He had long admired the Heritage Foundation, but sees the group now abandoning its principles. He said the foundation has fallen because it had embraced elements of isolationism stopped backing Ukraine in the war with Russia, supported some tariffs and backed RFK junior as the health and human services secretary among other things.
Quote, why these people are coming our way is that heritage and some other voices and commentators have embraced big government populism and have been willing to tolerate anti-Semitism. That's what Pence said. Wow. Among those joining AAF, which is Pence's joint, are John Malcolm, the head of the foundations legal and judicial studies center Kevin Day, Aratna.
He's the head of the foundations data analysis center and Richard Stern, the director of the foundations economic policy studies institute. Pences AAF says it's bringing on about a dozen other staff members. Malcolm is taking seven members of his center's team from the Heritage Foundation in a statement. Heritage's chief advancement officer Andy Olavostro was critical of some staffers who decided to leave accusing them of disloyalty.
He said Malcolm and another staffer last week were actually fired for conduct inconsistent with heritage and standards. You can't quit. You're fired. Quote, our mission is unchanged and our leadership is strong and decisive.
Okay. All right, sir. You used to back Ukraine. And now you do not.
So like you used to enjoy NATO membership. Now you do not. He also said, heritage is always welcome to bait, but alignment on mission and loyalty to the institution are non-negotiable. Wow.
A handful of staff shows a different path, some through disruption, others through disloyalty. My God. Wow. I want to do that.
I want to people are leaving. Two other top officials, Cully Stimson and Hans von Spakowski resigned Monday afternoon from their legal center at Heritage. They didn't announce their next moves. I bet they're going over to the Pence place.
Quote, we regret leaving one as long been the premier conservative institution where we spent so much of our legal careers, but we can no longer carry out that mission established by them. That's what's two wrote in a joint resignation letter. When you have joint resignation letter, you suck when you have joint resignation letters from your foundation. Conservative groups are jocting a whole significant influence as the Republican party charts its future in the coming years.
I would say as they fall apart with Trump and his term ending in January of twenty nine. The fight is played out at America Fest this weekend in Arizona, America Fest. Pupu with prominent speakers clashing over the future of the party. How aggressive it should be in shaping the world.
What economic policies it should embrace, how it should handle social issues and who its next leaders should be. Quote, the conservative movement is in serious danger. That's what prominent podcast host Ben Shapiro said from the stage. Vice President J.D.
Vance who represents a different wing of the party than Mike Pence. That's one way to put it. Spoke at the conference on Sunday drawing rousing applause. Heritage is much larger than Pence's group and retains more institutional sway in Washington.
It was central in writing project twenty five. The document Trump decried but has since followed to the letter. But the organization has seen significant tumult in recent months. And the tipping point for some was a video filmed by Heritage leader Kevin Roberts.
In the video, Roberts defended Tucker Carlson who drew condemnation for his friendly interview with the right wing influencer. Some might say Nazi prick Nick Fuentez, a white supremacist and Holocaust denier. There we go. All right.
There's some stronger language. Thank you, well street journal. Art Pope, a longtime prominent donor in North Carolina said he stopped giving the Heritage Foundation because he saw the group supporting populist economic policies in recent years. He's now giving to AAF, Pences thing.
He's giving them money now in a bid to move the party in a different direction. President Trump's term is coming to an end. He said the Republican Party is not going to see really a primary among candidates but a primary on principles and fundamental policies. I've heard that song and dance before but now the Heritage Foundation is falling apart.
I tell you what though and I have to say this we should be very concerned about this Erica Kirk bullshit and Charlie Kirk's old, whatever it's called. What's that? Oh, turning point USA. Turning point USA.
And I don't think the DNC is prepared for this. I don't think they're doing what they need to for this. Turning point USA rallies are becoming the Trump rallies with those massive rallies in the stadiums. We should be concerned.
They're reaching the youth and it's not saying it's the region they want to. It's the same people. Charlie Kirk has always reached but this should be concerning and I don't think we're handling it in a way that we need to. It's really alarming.
It is. That was so bizarre too. I think I saw somebody post on Twitter like she came out in a sparkly suit and pyrotechnics and somebody was like, are you ready to grieve? We land.
I can't hear you. Yeah. I mean listen, the internet does win from time to time but she's dangerous to share her history and everything else. Oh man, you do a deep dive into that one.
She is a walking hypocritical. Listen, I know she may or may not be grieving her husband's death but if you look at the history of this person, she's sketch. She's a cult. This is the next cult.
Yeah, sure is. All right. This one's from the post. Speaking of cults, the Trump administration is seeking contractors to help it overhaul the United States' immigration detention system in a plan that includes renovating industrial warehouses to hold more than 80,000 immigrant detainees at a time.
At a time, according to a draft solicitation reviewed by the Washington Post, rather than shuttling detainees around the country to wherever detention spaces available. And that's what's going on right now. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement aims to speed up deportations by establishing a deliberate feeder system. This is what the document says.
Newly arrested detainees would be booked into processing sites for a few weeks before being funneled into one of seven large scale warehouses holding 5,000 to 10,000 people each where they would be staged or deportation. Just think about Seaco in the United States in massive numbers. That's what these would be. It would be horrible.
It just sounds like not too Germany to me. Yeah. The large warehouses would be located close to major logistics logistical hubs like in Virginia, Texas, Louisiana, Arizona. Georgia, Missouri.
16 smaller warehouses would hold up to 1,500 people each. Commercial real estate experts, they concentrating detainees in warehouses would create its own logistical problems such structures are designed for storage and shipping, not human habitation. They tend to be poorly ventilated. They lack precise temperature controls.
And because they're typically located far from residential areas, they may not have access to plumbing or sanitation systems needed to support thousands of full-time residents. This is a quote. It's dehumanizing. This is from Tanya Wolfe.
She's an advocate with the National Immigration Project. That's based in New Orleans. And it's also about one hour south from the site of a planned warehouse in Hamman, Louisiana. She said you're treating people for lack of a better term, like cattle, which is how they talk about them, this dehumanization.
And if you think this is, I hesitate as do you to compare things to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, but this is the fucking beginnings of stuff like this. Right. The document says they want to speed up deportations by establishing a deliberate feeder system. Yes.
They're talking about human beings. Oh. Yeah, that's pretty horrifying. I'm sorry.
I'm just speechless. I'm just speechless. Like that images in my hand are just... I do hope there's a way we can stop some of this.
Well, obviously, whether it's through the courts or people in these states get a fucking spine and say, not on my watch, but I don't know. It's mostly bad states. Yeah, and also protest these sites. I know that there's a lot of information about protests that are starting to get amplified across social media and in our Democrat club channels to protest these sites.
Feeder system. All right. After that, I need some good news. And we're going to get to that right after this quick break.
If you've got good news, please send it in at dailybeanspod.com. Click on contact. We'll be right back with it. Stick around.
They have their these messages will be black, bitch. Everybody welcome back. It's time for good news. Watch going in the near.
Good news. Boy, I really need the good news today. And I'm so glad you're back. My friend and make this so much better.
So if you have good news, it can be big good news. Small good news. It can be from recently. It can be from decades ago.
It can be a story that you love sharing when you're sitting around sharing stories with your friends. Maybe a funny joke. Anything at all great anecdotes. Miss heard song lyrics.
Maybe a non-profit. Maybe a community organizing group that's doing some good activism and good trouble in your area. If you have a good trouble suggestion, send that to us as well. Also, shout out to government programs.
We love those too. If they've helped you or a family member, send it all to us. Dailybeanspod.com. Click on contact.
And all you got to do to get your submission right on the air is just submit a photo. It can be of anything. We accept pod pet photos. We can try to guess the breed of your pod pet.
You don't have a pet. Send an adoptable pet in your area. If you don't have that, grab a random photo of an animal on the internet. Send us your family photos, baby pictures.
What you dressed up for is Halloween. What your Christmas decorations or holiday decorations look like. Whatever holiday you celebrate. Maybe something that you're making or creating that you're very proud of.
Send us your thesis title, dissertation title, show a picture of what you're growing in your garden, what you're knitting. If you've got hen... What are they called? Lay-henes in your...
If you've got chickens, I would love to see your chickens go. Wait. What is happening right now? Lay-henes, what are those called?
Chickens if you have chickens? Lay-henes. Egg-lay-henes. There's a term for you.
Some of them lay, some of them don't. Some are just fun chickens. Someone's writing in right now. Someone has stopped the podcast and is writing into the correction of telling us what egg-lay-henes are.
Or letting us know that their chickens are... They're not fertile. We don't... Whatever.
Send us photos. Just send us a picture to make us laugh. Send it to the DailyVin Fund. I'll click on contact.
First up is your good trouble. And as I said yesterday, your good trouble is to relax. Chill out. Take some time for yourself.
That is your assignment. Your assignment is to not do anything this weekend. Take some time off. I'm going to be doing that too.
I did a ton of work on Christmas Eve said that I wouldn't have to do anything on Christmas day. I'm kind of proud of that. I am proud of that for you too. I know that it's not often the case.
Not always the case I should say. Thank you. Alright. This is from Brenda the Beans from Now on She and Her.
Hello Beans Queens. Thank you for sharing the good news. As a Daily listener, it's encouraging to hear positive things happening all over. This is a shout out to the founder and organizer of our local Visibility Brigade in coastal Virginia, Norfolk and Virginia Beach surrounding cities.
He has proved that one person really can make a difference by gathering a group of resistors, funding the letter making and getting us on Bridges July 17. That's John Lewis Day of Action. He gave us an outlet. Action is the antidote to anxiety.
And like so many other bridge rush hour resistance efforts, our group is modeled after the Visibility Brigade in Paramus, New Jersey. It's a fun way to let people know that they are not alone. The honks are our reward. I'm including a photo of our bridge events.
More photos are posted on Instagram and you can follow us at Visibility Brigade CoVA. COVA Visibility Brigade COVA. From my pet tax, I'm attaching a photo of my 10-month-old puppy, Mora. It's just 4.5 pound ray of sunshine that loves an adventure.
Her mother is blank. Her father is unknown but must be a small blank based on ears and fur. We've got Chihuahua. And German Shepherd.
And Adorableness. Yes. That is 100% adorable. Alright, let's see what we got.
Mother is a rescue teacup poodle. Father is a terrier slash Chihuahua. Chihuahua. We'll take it.
Oh, she's 4.5 pounds and she's adorable. Look at that. She's really cute. Overpassed sign.
No oath to Trump. Loving. Thank you so much for that friend of the beans. Next up from Todd M.
No pronouns given. Waiting for a walk after your podcast. And it's just two lovely puppers sleeping on a very comfy bed. It looks like some sort of a healer dog and some sort of a hound dog, maybe a beagle.
They're adorable. Cute little doggos. That was so short. Keep going.
Sure. From anonymous, no pronouns. Hi. That's a very long time.
She deserves a quiet adult only home. No other dogs cats are okay. She's at Hempstead Animal Shelter in Wontog, New York. I hope I'm pronouncing that right.
W-A-N-T-A-G-H. Wontog. I do not work for them, but I've been sharing her on social media for a while now. Oh, please help.
Here's her Facebook page. We'll have a link in the show notes and we'll have a couple more links for you to be able to adopt. Well, Leah. Oh my God.
This baby is cute, you guys. She's been here for three years. Man, oh man. She needs a lovey forever home.
Let's find her one, everybody. Yeah. This next one's from Jess Brown. She and her hello, beans, queens.
My good news is a collection of shout outs. First, a self-shout out for leaving an abusive marriage 20 years ago this week. Jess, congratulations. That also allowed me to leave a scarily conservative town for a more progressive one and build a strong family, something my three children and I desperately needed.
Second, a shout out to every government program at every level, Medicaid, daycare, assistance, food, Sam's, Pell Grant, school lunch, you name it. My family needed it as the kids grew up. I eventually worked my way out of everything, but I couldn't have done it without them to begin with. If you have no bootstraps, how do you pull yourself up?
Finally, the biggest of shout outs to my kids. They're adults now making their way in the world and doing a bang up job, including my soon-to-be-son-in-law, their wonderful group of brave, kind, hard-working young adults from pediatric physical therapy to grocery clerk to academia to construction. They're all living in ways that make me very proud. They are, quite simply, my favorites.
As Potte Terre from Attaching a Photo of All of Us from the Summer, oh my God, I love this so damn much. We don't get many of these due to the distance and conflicting schedules, so I cherish the ones we do have. I'm also attached to a photo I took of a pika in a cairn on a climb of a glaise and torries peaks. Can you find it?
It's in the upper right edge of the rocks. You might need to zoom in. Their camouflage game is on point. Thank you for all you do to keep me informed and sane.
You're so appreciated, Jess. Your family is gorgeous. And congratulations. I'm so proud of you for taking that step 20 years ago.
You changed the trajectory of everything. Oh, look it. I can't find the pika. Can you?
I'm zooming in. Oh, wait. Is that it? The Jesse top right corner?
I don't see it, but I trust you that it's there. I do do. I'm gonna have to look later. Is that it?
Yes, you're right. The camouflage game is on point. Very well stated and yes, beautiful family. All right.
Next up is from one of the good Karens. Hello, beans crew. You're one of my first podcasts of the day every day. I rely on your up to date coverage of issues that matter.
Thanks for all you do. My very delayed good news is a shout out to local libraries. Remember the US Supreme Court case? Mahmood, V.
Taylor back in April of 2025 in the 6 to 3 vote. The court ruled in favor of a small group of parents who challenged a Maryland school district decision to include children's books with LGBTQ characters and themes in their classrooms. I wanted to read the books for myself and discovered that my local library had all of them. I had to place holds on some of them, but eventually acquired them.
My well-read cat Benji had to inspect them all as well. So clearly he's my pod bet tariff. So back to the library part, always use your local library to request copies of books that are covered on your show. If your library doesn't own them, they might buy them.
And if listeners want to support the authors and illustrators affected by the Mahmood V. Taylor case, here are the titles. Intersection allies, Prince of Knight, Pride Puppy, Born Ready, Uncle Bobby's Wedding. What are your words?
Love Violet, Jacob's room to choose and my rainbow. Look, there's all the books and the cat inspecting all the books. That's awesome. Incredible.
Yes, always sport your local libraries and yeah, check out your local libraries. If you can get a copy of separation of church and hate. There you go. All right, this is from Cliff, no pronouns given.
Good day, Lagoon Manadi. I was listening to the Daily Beans as a do on my morning walk along Malecon here in Gaimas, Wamas, Swamas, Mexico. You mentioned that the days were getting longer, now that the solstice is over. And I was thinking that you missed out on mentioning my favorite piece of trivia.
That is that while the solstice is the shortest day of the year, it is neither the day with the latest sunrise that won't occur until first week in January. The latest sunrise won't occur to first week in January. Nor is it the day with the earliest sunset that occurred last week. From my pot pet tags, I'm including my co-pilot, Nola.
She is an Idaho fuzzy dog. Yep, it's a thing. She's a rescue from the deserts of South Central Idaho. Thanks for keeping up the work.
Helps me with my sanity daily. Cliff, if you broke my brain, I don't understand how that happens. Why isn't that the earliest sunset, latest sunrise on the shortest day of the year, is it moving? I'm confused.
All right, I'll have to look it up later, do some digging. Next up from Heidi, Pronam, she and her, hi, G&D, G. I have some good news to share. It's old good news, but we get to remember it every year.
In 2014, our family was transferred with the Coast Guard from California to Virginia. When we received our household goods at our new home, several boxes were missing. Most of it was frustrating and disappointing to lose, but fully replaceable. The devastating loss was all of our Christmas ornaments.
Each ornament we had owned had special meaning from the baby's first Christmas to the ones handmade by our grandmother who had passed away six years before our move. Each ornament held a memory and it felt like we were losing all those memories, too. I mopped all through the fall and had no desire to decorate for Christmas. While I was moping, my sister and a fellow Coast guard's bow started conspiring to fix my Grinchy attitude.
In November, we got a package. It was from a friend in Alaska sending us an ornament. A few days later, another came from my hometown in California, then one from a story of Oregon, where we were stationed 12 years before. By the time December came around, we were receiving multiple packages a day with ornaments representing all the places we'd lived and traveled to.
Ornaments from friends, family, Coast Guard families, we never met, but who were stationed where we once lived and friends who just wanted to bring us joy. A high school classmate made an ornament with an old marching band photo and another create a friend made ornaments out of maps of all the neighborhoods we lived in. My mom re-gifted a hand print ornament one of my kids had made and my aunt sent me some of her favorite hand-made ornaments from my grandmother. My sisters recreated some of the ornaments we had made as kids.
Every day we added ornaments to our tree and cried, tears of joy, because although the ornaments and the memories couldn't be replaced, these new ornaments and new memories were the remedy for our sadness. So that was a year our tree was decorated with love and each year since. As we unwrap and hang ornaments on our tree, we get to remember all the people who took the time to find the perfect ornament to show us how very much we are loved. We are loved, included as a picture of our tree decorated with love.
Look at that. This is so sweet. Man, what a lovely submission to end this Christmas Eve recording if you do celebrate. When you listen to this, it may still be Christmas Eve and maybe Christmas Day.
Obviously we're wishing everyone who celebrates this holiday, a wonderful holiday, a peaceful holiday. And I know that the holidays can be really hard for some. I have several friends in my life that lost their loved ones this year. And these first can be absolutely fucking brutal.
So I am sending a lot of love to you if this is a hard holiday season to you. Just know that Alison and I are thinking about you and I hope that you can find something joyful to do today. That makes you a little bit lighter. That makes your day just a little bit lighter.
Thank you so much. I couldn't have said it better myself. Everybody will be back in your ears tomorrow. We're going to talk to people saying on Feigle saying Fridays.
And we're going to be interviewing Progressive Democratic candidate for Utah's Brand Spankin' New, first Congressional District. Hopefully we'll be able to flip it blue. I think we will. I think the odds are in our favor.
We're going to be talking to the Progressive candidate Nate Blueen who's running for that seat. So until then, everybody please take care of yourself. Take care of each other. Take care of the planet.
Take care of your mental health and take care of your family. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate. Happy Holidays. I've been A.G.
and I've been D.G. and I'm Sabine's. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Alison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dina Goldberg. Sound Design and Editing is by Desiree McFarland with art and web design by Joelle Reed 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. M-S-W-Media.
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