Jack - Doin’ the Right Thing is Never the Wrong Thing (feat. David Rothkopf)

Episode Date: August 16, 2021

Today, in the Hot Notes: the Taliban has taken Kabul as the US considers sending troops to stabilize the region; the Supreme Court rejects the challenge to Indiana University’s vaccine mandate; Louis DeJoy bought over $300K in bonds from the Chair of the Board of Governor’s investment firm; Lindsey Graham called Biden to make nice and was rebuffed; plus Dana and AG deliver your good news.Follow our guest:David Rothkopf, Host, Deep State Radio; Author, Traitorhttps://twitter.com/djrothkopfFollow AG and Dana on Twitter:Dr. Allison Gill (@allisongill)Dana Goldberg (@DGComedy)Follow Aimee on Instagram:Aimee Carrero (@aimeecarrero)Have some good news, a confession, a correction, or a case for Beans Court?https://www.dailybeanspod.com/confessional/Want to support the show and get it ad-free and early?https://dailybeans.supercast.tech/Orhttps://patreon.com/thedailybeansPromo Codes Scribd is the ultimate reading subscription service, letting you explore all of your interests, in any format you choose — ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and more — for only $9.99/month. Go to try.scribd.com/DAILYBEANS for your free 60 day trial Download the 5 star-rated puzzle game, Best Fiends FREE today on the App Store or Google Play. Try ZipRecruiter FOR FREE. Go to Ziprecruiter.com/DAILYBEANS. The smartest way to hire Helix is offering up to 200 dollars off all mattress orders AND two free pillows for our listeners at HelixSleep.com/dailybeans. To find your perfect sofa, check out Allform. Allform is offering twenty percent off all orders for our listeners at Allform.com/DAILYBEANS.

I'm Greg Oliar. Four years ago, I stopped writing novels to report on the crimes of Donald Trump and his associates. In 2018, I wrote a best-selling book about it, Dirty Rubles. In 2019, I launched Proveil, a biweekly column about Trump and Putin, spies and mobsters, and so many traders! Trump may be gone, but the damage he wrought will take years to fully understand. Join me, and a revolving crew of contributors and guests as we try to make sense of it all. This is Preveil. [♪ Music playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in Hello and welcome to the Daily Beans for Monday, August 16, 2021. Today the Taliban has taken Kabul as the U.S.

consider sending troops to stabilize the region. The Supreme Court rejects the challenge to Indiana University's vaccine mandate. Louis DeJoy bought over $300,000 in bonds from the chair of the Board of Governors investment firm and Lindsey Graham called Biden to make nice and was rebuffed. I'm Allison Gil. And I'm Dana Goldberg. Well Dana we thought you were going to be home and I even scripted a welcome home but you are still in New York. I am still in New York. I will be back, I believe on Tuesday. So Wednesday, who knows? But still in New York and I'll fly back mid-week and

be there for a while since several of my in-person gigs have been canceled because of these numbers. So frustrating to say the least, but I'm grateful that I got a couple of four gigs in before that happens. hopefully the things will open back up when the numbers start to drop again. Yeah, we got to stay safe and that is a bummer. But I'm glad that we have you. And I miss you, friend. It's nice to be had.

I miss you too. You had a good time in LA. I'm sorry, I missed the meet and greet and all that. Yeah, I did. It was a lot of fun. And got to see the great movie. Yes. And it's called Knock-O- Going Quietly with Addy Barkin.

And I recommend everybody check that out and look him up and follow him and donate to his Be A Hero project. It's really, it was really incredible. I got to meet a lot of really great people, see an incredible film and then hang out with some of our patrons afterwards. And then again, I'll be in DC, which is probably going to be my last trip before we all stop taking trips in a couple of weeks. And we're gonna have a meet and greet then as well, probably August 29th Sunday.

I imagine maybe we'll have some brunch somewhere. I will send all that information out to patrons. If you wanna become a patron, do that at patreon.com slash muller she wrote, and you become a patron of all my shows. And you get a mad free and early and bonus content going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things.

I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things.

I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things.

I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. I'm not going to get a lot of things. There's chaos in the ground in Kabul today as the Taliban has taken the capital city in the United States scrambles to airlift embassy staff in Americans out of the country. We have learned from the New York times this morning that the reason the Biden administration was taken by surprise with regards to how fast the Afghan surrendered quote the spectacular collapse of Afghanistan's military that allowed Taliban fighters to reach the gates of Kabul on Sunday, despite 20 years of training and billions of dollars in American aid, began with a series of deals brokered in rural villages between the militant group and some of the Afghan government's lower ranking officials.

The deals initially offered early last year were often described by Afghan officials as ceasefires, but Taliban leaders were in fact offering money in exchange for government forces to hand over their weapons, and that's according to an Afghan officer in a U.S. official. Over the next year and a half, the meetings advanced to the district level and then rapidly on to provincial capitals, culminating in a breathtaking series of negotiated surrenders by government forces.

That's according to interviews with more than it does in Afghan officers, police, special operations, troops, and other soldiers. The Taliban capitalized on the uncertainty caused by the February 2020 agreement reached in Doha, Qatar, between the militant group Taliban and the United States, President Trump, calling for a full American withdrawal from Afghanistan. So, Afghan forces realized they would soon no longer be able to count on American air power and other crucial battlefield support and grew receptive to the Taliban's bribes. We've also learned that the former Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, has been working as an agent for the Taliban.

And Chris Murphy, Senator, confirmed in a call this morning with Secretary of State Blinken and the Secretary of State, Floyd Austin, that if Biden had abandoned the withdrawal agreement broken by Trump, we would have had to surge thousands of additional troops because the 2500 left by Trump were not nearly enough and they were in harm's way And finally we can't forget the Taliban co-founder Mullah Baradar was released from a Pakistani prison in 2018 after Trump made the request as part of peace talks That was along with 5,000 additional Taliban fighters that were released from prison Baradar this one fella is now set to become the president of Afghanistan under the Taliban

following the collapse of the Afghan government. My heart goes out to the women and children of Afghanistan that will suffer unimaginable terror under the Taliban. A little bit later in the show, I'm going to be talking with a host of deep state radio and author of the book, Trader David Rothkoff, about the situation on the ground. That's what's happening right now. Thank you so much and I know that we will follow that story closely as it continues. I do have some good news for everyone. This is from the Supreme Court. They actually refused Thursday

to block Indiana University's requirement that students be vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend classes in the fall semester. So this is interesting. It was the first legal test of the COVID vaccination mandate to come before the justices. A challenge to the policy was directed to Amy Coney Barrett, the justice in charge of that region of the country. She denied it. There were no noted dissents from other justices. So basically what happened was a student test, the court for an emergency order, arguing that the risks associated with the vaccines outweighed the potential benefits for the population in their age group, narrator, they do not. Protections and this is a quote, protection of others does not, mainly, power society

from the central canon of medical ethics requiring voluntary and informed consent. They told the justices seeking an emergency order to block the vaccination requirement. A federal judge ruled last month that the school had a right to pursue, quote, a reasonable and due process of vaccination in the legitimate interest of public health for students, faculty, and staff. The students have many options. The judge said such as applying for exemptions, taking the semester off, viewing classes online or attending other universities. So the seventh US Circuit Court of Appeals, this is based in Chicago,

they agreed, and noted that the Supreme Court ruled in 1905 that a state can require all members of the public to be vaccinated against smallpox. That's how we eradicated it everybody. Indiana's requirement is less demanding the court said, allowing exemptions for students who object on the basis of medical conditions or religious beliefs. They're giving them a lot of rope with this, but they're not going to rule in favor of them. It's absurd. Yeah, I remember the lawyer that was bringing this suit was the same guy who brought the citizens United case. So he vowed to take it to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court

said, fuck you. Nope. Go fuck yourself. Yep. Any case you've been wondering why the chair of the Postal Board of Governors, who is a Democrat, Ron Bloom, appointed by Trump, why he hasn't fired to joy. Well, this is just out today. I have been.

I have been wondering. Yeah. This is just out today from the Washington Post. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy purchased up to $305,000 in bonds from an investment firm whose managing partner also chairs the US Postal Services governing board. That is the independent body responsible

for evaluating DeJoy's performance. Between October and April, DeJoy purchased 11 bonds from Brookfield asset management, each worth between $1,000 and $15,000 or $15,000 and $50,000. That's according to DeJoy's financial disclosure paperwork. Ron Bloom, a Brookfield senior executive who manages the firm's private equity division, has served on the Postal Board since 2019 and was elected its chairman in February. DeJoy's financial advisor purchased the bonds on the open market, Postal Service

spokesman Jeffrey Adams said and Bloom manages a division of Brookfield separate from the one that sells public securities. Other elements of DeJoyce Financial ties have drawn close examination from ethics watchdogs, including everything. First of all, DeJoy controlled companies, lease for office buildings to global shipping behemoth XPO logistics. That's the joy's former company XPO pays to join more than two million annually in rent. That's the according to the Washington Post. Brookfield also owns more than $500,000 in shares of XPO Brookfield where bloom works. That's according to its securities filings.

Biden needs to replace bloom and the board of governors needs to fire fire to Joy. End of story. Yes, should have happened a while ago. I do have some interesting news. This comes out of South Carolina. It's hard not to laugh at the story because we've seen just the complete unraveling of this man publicly. So this comes from the New York Times. Senator Lindsey Graham, bless his heart, seems to have no qualms about attacking President Joe Biden and said Hunter, during head no problem, no problem during the 2020 election. But at the same time, he apparently wanted to remain friends with his former Senate colleague.

We've all seen the video of him in the back of like that taxi and the car talking about what a great guy Biden is. We've all seen that. So according to the New York Times, Graham called Biden shortly after the election to try and repair their friendship. Now allegedly telling the president elect that he only attacked Hunter to satisfy the former guy's supporters, even as he called for a special prosecutor to look into the younger Biden's business dealings. I only did that for the book. Why would the fuck make that better? Yeah, I just don't. I only did that because I'm a total asshole.

Seriously. And Biden was like, listen, he was reportedly not interested in patching up the relationship, telling Graham he was trying to play both sides. He was, and that source is close to the president, days after the phone call, times noted, Biden remarked to Stephen Colbert that Graham was, quote, a personal disappointment because I was a personal friend of his and he was.

He talked about what a great guy Biden was all and on and on and on. Yeah. It's just, I mean, it's amazing how many people have destroyed and not that Graham had a great reputation, but have destroyed their reputation and died on this hill for the former guy. Yeah. Mind blowing. It's the Lindsey fish, right?

Somebody made that whole comparison of the fish that eats off of the shark, you know, and just sort of follows the shark around and, you know, because it was Trump, even after he called Trump a cuck and an asshole and that we would lose democracy and it would be our fault if we elected Trump. And he we deserve it. It would destroy us. And he did that despite Trump's absolute public open hatred of Lindsey's former best friend, John McCain. And now, now, now, Lindsey's like, oh, here's the president now. And so now he's all like eating the, eating the algae off a Biden. He's the Lindsey fish coming to kiss your butt. Donna. Donna. Donna. Like what did I only said that shit about Hunter because

I'm a terrible person. Come on, let's be friends again. I mean, how funny admitting that I only did that so that the other guy would be mad at me. I did that because I'm a weird backstabbing dickhead. Spineless piece of shit. Okay. All right. I'm the Lindsey fish. All right. Whatever. Sorry. I just wonder if the Lindsey fish is a sucker fish or a blowfish because I feel like it's debatable.

No, no, no, no, no. Let's play Suck and Blow. Okay. All right. We'll be right back with the host of Deep State Radio author of the book Trader David Rothkopf We're going to discuss what's happening on the ground today in Afghanistan. Stay with us Hey everybody, it's Allison for the Daily Beans and today's episode is brought to you by Scribd with the endless amount of content today You could spend as much time looking for your next book as you do actually reading it

But with Scribd you get instant access to millions of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, along with thoughtfully curated editors, picks, and smart recommendations based on what you've read. I love using script because it makes choosing my next book that much simpler. Scribbed is the ultimate reading subscription service, letting you explore all of your interests in any format you choose, ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and more. And so only $9.99 a month, you get the entire library for less than the cost of a single book. No complicated credits or additional purchases are required. Not sure what to read,

scribbed combines the latest technology with the best human minds to recommend content that you will love. Want to change things up? You're free to switch between titles, genres, and formats at any time on your phone, tablet, or computer. It's so simple. Right now, we're offering listeners of this program a free 60 day trial, free 60 day trial of their entire library. Go to

try.scribbed.com slash daily beans for your free trial. That's try.scribbed SCR IBD dot com slash daily beans to get 60 days of script for free. Hey everybody, welcome back. I'm joined today by David Rothkopf. He and I are gonna discuss what's happening in Afghanistan because I'm pretty disappointed with the media's coverage of what's really going on and they're seeming to me to kind of miss the depth

of decades of information and just sort of going by what's happening right now on the ground. David, welcome. I hear you. I'm good. I wanted to ask you about a thread, a couple of threads you put out. Steve Vladik, as you know, he's a former guest of ours, Conla expert at University of Texas Austin, retweeted one of your threads saying, mandatory reading. Can you talk a little bit about your ideas about why we're seeing what we're seeing on the ground in Kabul today? Well, I think the reason we're seeing it is because it was inevitable. And there are many metrics by which you could determine it was inevitable. It's almost a cliche at this point to say foreign powers that go into Afghanistan have trouble.

But they've been having trouble for 3,000 years and that's true. The United States, however, has been making mistakes in Afghanistan for 40 years. Almost every administration since the Carter administration has more responsibility for the chaos there right now than the collapse and the catastrophe of US foreign policy than does the Biden administration, which is at least trying to undo the damage that's been done. Carter went in and started to arm the Mujahideen policy, which continued under Reagan, which, you know, these groups turned into al-Qaeda. Later, they turned into the Taliban. When we went in 2001, in the wake of 9-11, first of all, we had seen the Taliban go from nothing overnight. Essentially, 1994, they didn't exist.

In 1996, they controlled the whole country. So we had seen what they could do in the power that they had. And we went in, and instead of just going after al-Qaeda, which is what the mission should have been, we decided to go after the Taliban, try to remake the country. Then we went into Iraq, distracted ourselves from this other mission

that bogged down in this other mission, had set unreasonable goals, and have been working there for 20 years, not because we thought we necessarily could achieve our goals, but because nobody wanted to admit that we couldn't, and nobody wanted the blame in the kind of acid political environment that we live in. And you know, Biden has at least shown the courage to stand up and say, leaving troops there won't help. We had troops there a long time. The Taliban gained strength throughout that period. We don't have a long-term national interest there.

The way to solve the problem of women and girls, which is a real problem, is political or diplomatic or economic, but it's not military. So he said, let's move to doing this the right way. And to his credit, by the way, this is a position he has had since 2009. When Obama did an Afghanistan review and Biden said, let's draw down. Let's get out of this mess. And Obama said, no, let's double down and had his own surge. So it's been predictable since then. I once I wrote a column in 2010 saying our intervention Afghanistan was

a failure. And immediately, I mean, immediately had people writing, you know, other columns going, this is outrageous. It fails to see what we've achieved. And well, it's been obvious, but generals have been lying, presidents have been lying, senators have been lying. Lots of people have been lying about this for a long time. Yeah, I think it does show a lot of courage to be the one that does this finally. You had mentioned

that in your thread. The president said this knowing full well, he would be heaped with criticism. He said this while his team works furiously to find ways to make the best of a bad situation, to be human and responsible. And then you go on to say he is doing the right thing. And if it seems he is not doing it at the right time, that is because all the other better times came before now, and we're passed over by others who lacked his courage. But this didn't happen in a vacuum. I mean, we've been seeing a lot of things lead up to this with the Trump administration in Pompeo I mean, we've been seeing a lot of things lead up to this with the Trump administration in Pompeo in 2020 who announced that the drawdown would happen and he penned a deal.

You know, I recall it like it was yesterday. He invited the Taliban to camp David on the anniversary of 9-11 and then had to cancel that because of duh. But he penned a deal without curzaiai there which led to Taliban fighters coming out in the New York Times today. Taliban fighters paying Afghan army members to lay down their arms and surrender. So this was coming. I imagine this administration knew this, but it seems like the deescalation, I should say of the issues, the unraveling of security in the region, happened a lot faster than anyone

had realized. But I have a feeling they did realize, and this was more of a rescue mission than a drawdown based on what Trump had already agreed to. Well, yeah, look, I mean, as I said, during the Obama administration, they knew they should leave and they didn't leave. There's bipartisan blame here. Trump ran on saying he would get out. In 2018, Trump had one of his over-off his tantrums and said, I want to get out now, I want to shut the embassy now. Nothing is worth it in Afghanistan. That's three years ago. General scrambled around to stop him because they thought it would be precipitous to pull out. You're right, they negotiated with the Taliban.

They didn't tell the central government. One of the consequences of their negotiation was releasing thousands of Taliban prisoners to strengthen the Taliban without getting anything in exchange for that. That we know of. Well, I mean, nothing that we could value at the moment, they thought they were going to get a deal and appear to be peacemakers. And now Trump, of course, then said, okay, well, we're going to get out by this date certain, which of course set the Taliban to their planning.

Biden came in, remember Biden got criticized. Trump criticized Biden in April for not moving out quicker. Trump said we should have been out much faster. And now, of course, all the Trumpists are, how could they move out so quickly? This is precipitous. That's nonsense. It's precipitous. Everybody, we went into Afghanistan in 2001.

In 2004, Mola Omar said we are beginning to reclaim the Afghanistan, the Taliban announced their counteroffensive between 2010 and 15. They controlled 30 or 40% of the country by our military's estimate. And our military always underestimates these things. In the past couple of years, they've gained even further. We spent a trillion, maybe two trillion dollars. It was a, you know, and I hate to say this, given the loss of life involved. But this is one of the great failures of American foreign policy, and the cost that we paid is going to bear us virtually no return, virtually zero.

Yeah, us as the United States, but I have to wonder how and if it benefited Trump and who this benefits. And I want to talk to you more about that, but I have to take a quick break. Will you stay with me? Of course. Thanks, everybody. We'll be right back. Hey, everybody, it's AG for the daily beans.

I finally went in a trip this summer and it was amazing. As you know, I always find I have the perfect travel companion though, especially when I'm on the subway in New York and I have no internet service. I get to play best fiends. It's awesome. It's my favorite mobile app. It's super fun puzzle game that's perfect when you're traveling because you don't have to be online.

It has thousands of fun levels and tons of cute collectible characters. So many fiends to keep you company on the road. The summer I've played best fiends on the plane, on the beach, on the metro, and on the subway, by the pool, while waiting online for coffee, in every uber, pretty much wherever I'm at, but it's hard to put down. That's why I love it so much, and it's calming, and the visuals are great, and it keeps your brain sharp with the strategic way that you play. They're always adding new puzzles and content so I keep going back. I'm on level, I think 2380 or so. I have to check back. I haven't been on in about a day and a half, but I think it's around there. I've been making progress,

obviously. I love best fiends. It's the best me time. And it's totally free to download. Best Fiends is fun. Bring it wherever your travels take you this summer. To download the five star rated puzzle game, Best Fiends for free today on the Apple App Store or Google Play. That's friends without the R best fiends. And today's show is also brought to you by Zip Recruiter. Forbes reports that gyms, nail salons, hotels, mom and pop shops and more are gearing up for a surgeon hiring in the near future in order to meet the increased need for these services. For me, the comedy shows concerts and spas are most exciting. I can't wait to get back to massage. Reopen all these businesses is creating millions of new jobs.

So we also have the infrastructure plan that's going to be going through soon. So where do businesses turn to fill the roles? Zippercrooter. Right now you can try it for free. It's zippercrooter.com slash daily beans. When you post a job on zippercrooter, they send your job to over a hundred top job sites, giving you access to their network of millions of job seekers.

According to zippercrooter internal data, jobs where employers invite candidates to apply, get two and a half times more candidates, and Zippercrooter's technology is so effective that four out of five employers who post on Zippercrooter get a quality candidate within the first day. And right now you can try Zippercrooter for free. At our exclusive web address, ziprecrooter.com slash daily beans. That's ziprecrooter.com slash daily beans, all one word, just go to ziprecrooter.com slash daily beans. Zippercrooter,com slash Daily Beans. That's zippercrooter.com slash Daily Beans, all one word. Just go to zippercrooter.com slash Daily Beans. Zippercrooter, the smartest way to hire. Everybody, welcome back.

We're talking with David Rothkopf about what's going on in Kabul today and Afghanistan today. And before the break, I mentioned who benefits from this. We know Putin benefits. We know Erdogan benefits, Iran benefits, ISIS benefits. And you know, at least the first two there are certainly benefactors of Donald John Trump. Now, of course, like you said, this goes back a long time, failures to withdraw and withdraw safely goes back a very long time. You know,

this war is 19 years too long. And then of course, when we went into Iraq, there was problems with resources to fight in Afghanistan. But we, you know, we have to remember Putin was paying Taliban soldiers to assassinate us allied troops. The intelligence on that is, is not been confirmed, but there were multiple reports about it. Can we talk a little bit about who this benefits and how why we're seeing what we're seeing sort of came to pass in a more dangerous way than it would have been had had Trump not been involved at all? Well, you know, I mean, first of all, before we get to it, benefits, don't forget the Trump at one point said in the Oval Office, why don't we just hand everything over to Blackwater? Yeah, it's all about Eric Prince, right?

Everyone's like, well, why? What's the thing? Well, Eric Prince, duh. Right, it was Eric Prince. It's Betsy DeVos' brother. You know, he sort of wanted to hand it off so that they would make billions of dollars off of this thing. You know, when you look at who benefits, certainly not the Afghan people, certainly not the

United States, I think the Iranians, certainly not the United States. I think the Iranians are a little uncomfortable with this, as you might imagine. The Russians may or may not benefit. The ones who benefit the most are the Pakistanis, the extremists in Pakistani ISI and so forth, who supported this all along. But even, they have a problem. And the problem is Islamic extremism frightens the real power in the neighborhood,

and that's the Chinese. China is the biggest benefactor of Pakistan. Pakistan, the biggest Chinese embassy in the world is in Pakistan. China shares a border with Afghanistan. The Chinese have started to pick up conversations with the Taliban because they don't want this to go south. Because obviously, if you have extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, that could impact their situation in Xinjiang with the U weavers and so forth. And so, I think you're gonna see a more active role

for the Chinese because they can't afford this to go the way that it's gone. But the other side of what you're saying is there are a bunch of pun to smart-ass types who are like, well, we should just stay there. And ignoring the fact that 20 years of being there with a lot more troops didn't help, but things were deteriorating when we had this number of troops there, that there was no clear mission for those troops,

that it does put them at risk and that it has a high cost. But the other thing is, we don't have a national interest there. You know, I mean, we went in there to get Osama bin Laden. He was gotten in 2011. For 10 years, we have been there without an active national interest, which is just, you know, contrary to how anybody conducts their foreign policy. Well, but like you said, nobody wanted to back out because this was inevitably what would happen. No, this was really, it was like you took a trillion dollars, you piled it up and you put it behind you because the whole purpose of it was to cover your ass. And we know, you know, I'm just talking about a little more specifically about Trump here.

He's got this pattern of doing seemingly right things for the wrong reason. He pulled the troops out of Syria. We abandoned our Kurdish allies there much to the glee of Vladimir Putin. Same with Germany. He tried to do that. Biden put that on hold. But I can't help but think if Biden decided, because today, for example, let me see here, there's a tweet from Chris Murphy, who was on a call with Secretary Blinken and the Secretary Defense this morning and says he confirmed that had Biden decided to abandon the agreement negotiated by Trump, the US would have had to surge thousands of additional troops into Afghanistan because

the 2500 Trump had left would not nearly be enough. So the two choices here are ramp it up, continue our occupation there pretty much forever or leave. And so I can't help but think what people would be saying if Biden took the other choice and sent another few thousand troops over there and kept the war going when he promised and that he would withdraw. Not a serious discussion going on in the United States. I just exchange speaking of tweets and tweets with Tom Nichols about this. And that there was a point that he brings up.

You can't have a serious discussion because the other side is going to oppose you no matter what. You know, they're Republicans who are immediately going, well, this has been gossy and we need to have investigations. And it's like, first of all, George W. Bush is the person who got us there and made the biggest mistakes possible. Donald Trump wanted this to happen sooner and worse. And so on a partisan basis, it's a hard argument to make.

But I think apropos of the point of adding more troops, we have to send in a couple thousand troops just to help our embassy staff leave. So, you know, if you want it to stabilize Pakistan, it would take a massive commitment. And 77 or 75% of the American people don't want us to be there. At all, they want us out. And Biden Biden was reflecting it. And I got to say that's the courage to me is doing the right thing when you know you're going to get the crap beat out of you. Yeah, sometimes to when you have to lose. Doing the right thing means sometimes you lose. And as Ted Lasso always says,

doing the right thing is never the wrong thing. Very big messages in recent episodes too. And I have to keep in mind, and we should all keep in mind as we watch this unfold that those were the only two choices that we had and a surge by Biden putting more troops in harm's way for what? And then like you said, people say,

what's the save the women and girls? Is Afghanistan the only place in the world where women and girls are treated poorly or LGBTQ plus folks are treated poorly? Why here? Why is this so important? And I'm not saying they aren't, but- But is the US military the right tool to use to help women and girls?

Isn't it multilateral institutions? Isn't it political pressure? Isn't it diplomacy? Isn't it economic? It's not sending in the troops. Otherwise, there would be U.S. troops in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia helping those women who have their rights helping those women who have their rights ridiculously constrained, offensively constrained, and taking them away from them. Yeah, we would have troops in a lot of places and putting them in harm's way. And so, you know, it's kind of a pick your battles thing, but also, like you said, this was an inevitable ending if it were to end. That's right.

And the fact of the matter is that the United States has a lot of enormous priorities right now. And there's a lot of debate about whether we should spend another trillion dollars on our kids, our families, limited America, schools, infrastructure, and so forth. We've spent two trillion dollars in Afghanistan and got nothing out of it, nothing.

And the people who say stay seem to be willing to spend an unlimited amount of money to avoid embarrassment in Afghanistan without achieving anything to help the country, but are not willing to spend that money to improve schools in the U.S., to improve health care in the U.S., to make the United States actually more secure against the threats of tomorrow, cyber, pandemics, global warming, etc. against the threats of tomorrow, cyber, pandemics, global warming, etc. So, you know, we are really living in a crazy moment.

And Joe Biden is right now getting widely condemned for an act of sanity. Yep, that's true. And I appreciate you talking to me about this today because I just want to get that message out. And I encourage everybody to listen to David Rothkopf on deep state radio, read his book called Trader. And he's also a contributing columnist to the Daily Beast. David Rothkopf, thank you so much for your time today. Thanks for items. Everybody will be right back with the good news.

Hey, everybody, it's Allison. And if you want to finally get a good night's sleep after all these years, all you need is two minutes. That's all it takes. Just go to helixleap.com slash daily beans, take their two minute sleep quiz, and they'll match your body type and individual sleep preference to a customized mattress that will give you the best sleep of your life. I used to toss and turn all night, wake up exhausted, and soar, but I've had my helix mattress for almost two years now. I absolutely love it. It's

like sleeping on a cloud. I wake up feeling rested and refreshed. And with helix, you get a mattress that's customized to be perfect for the way you sleep. They have soft, medium, and firm mattresses. They have mattresses great for cooling you down if you sleep hot. They have mattresses great for spinal alignment to prevent morning aches and pains. And they even have a Helix Plus mattress for beautiful plus size sleepers. As you know by now, I took the quiz and I was matched with a Helix midnight because I like a medium firm bed and I sleep on my side. So it's perfect for me. Plus the delivery and setup was fast and easy. They have over 12,000 five star reviews at Helix and they were awarded number one best overall mattress pick of 2020 by both GQ and wired magazine. Helix has been recommended by multiple leading chiropractors to and doctors of

sleep medicine to that's a go to solution for improving your sleep. They have a 10-year warranty and you get to try it out for 100 sleeps, risk free. They even have financing options and flexible payment plans available. So a great night's sleep is never far away. And Helix is offering up to $200 off all mattress orders and two free pillows for our listeners at Helix sleep.com slash daily beans. So if you're sleeping on that treason pillow, you know, the my pillow guys pillows, you can do this now. You get $200 off all mattress orders up to $200 off and two free pillows for listeners at helixleap.com slash daily beans. And let's take the amazingness of custom furniture for your bed, then your bedroom, and we take

it into the living room. Daily beans is sponsored by all form. They craft premium customizable sofas and chairs delivered to your doorstep. All forms furniture is beautiful, high quality, and crafted to fit your personal style. So if a dincher is a custom made to your specs, as well as delivered fast and free of charge. You can customize your own luxury furniture with premium materials, but at a fraction of the cost of regular stores. You pick the sofa color, the shape, the fabric, the configuration, and the fabric, by the way, is spills stained and scratch-resistant, which is great for pod pets. As you know, I put the three-seater sofa

in whiskey-colored leather with a walnut-like finish, and a shade lounge on the end, it's so comfy, I absolutely love it. And all form delivers fast. It takes just three to seven days to arrive in the mail and you can assemble it yourself in a few minutes without tools. They have beautiful arm chairs and love seats all the way up to eight seats sectionals so you can always start small and buy more seats later if your house or your family grows. The best of all you get 100 days to decide if you want to keep it, that's more than three months. And if you do not love it, they will pick it up for free, no hassle, and give you a full refund on all your money back.

They also have a forever warranty, literally forever, so to find your perfect sofa, check out allform.com slash daily beans and all farmers offering 20% off all orders for you by going to allform.com slash daily beans. Alright, everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news. And we really need the good news today. If you have any good news you want to send in or confessions or corrections if I get something, please don't hesitate to to send that into me and let us know. You can send in your idioms or hikus or you know, sonets, whatever songs, videos, find the cat, happy places, whatever you have, pretty much anything. We'll take it. Just

do it over at whatdailybeanspod.com and click on contact. Dana, I'll kick us off today with a submission from Daniel, pronouns, he and him. Ladies, thank'll kick us off today with a submission from Daniel, pronouns he and him. Ladies, thank you from the bottom of my heart for work. For what the mutt, I have two tiny girls, tofu and nacho. That's awesome. They are rescues from Puerto Rico. We think they're about four. Oh my god, but their heritage is shrouded in mystery. We'd love to hear your guesses at their provenance. Nacho is the fluffer of the pair. She is a food-motivated, energetic young lady. Much like me.

Her adoptive sister, Tofu, is the cuddly princess. Please see who touched. Oh my God, I feel like the one on the left is like a Westie Chihuahua Terrier mix. Yeah, and the one on the left is like a Westie Chihuahua Terrier mix. Yeah, and the one on the right, the ears are just different. They're floppy or so. I feel like there's pug in there because look at that long flat tongue. Oh my goodness, they're just so cute.

Yeah, there's definitely Terrier Westie in there on the, on the on the oh here's another loss of So my Maltese So cute tofu is Okay, they're really both of them are oh my god. This is that's definitely a Westy mix. That's like a tiny Westy Terrier. Yep. Yep. I would say yeah So so cute and I I feel like there's loss of so and pug in the other one with Maltese or So cute. And I feel like there's loss, op, so and pug in the other one with maltees or what they are. They're adorable.

That's what they are adorable. Thank you so much for that submission. I'm going to couple two short ones. I'll just tag these first ones from Lucy. Conan she hergs is a correction. Hello, you awesome people. Now for unexplained reasons, bexar, which I know is on how it's set, but it's how it's spelled. So I'm going to do this for the correction.

Bexer County, Texas is pronounced Bayer, like the aspirin. San Antonio's a wonderful city, beautiful, friendly, rich in culture, keep up the great work. That's it. Nice sweet correction. Thank you, Lucy.

And very short one. This is from David pronouncing him, smoky sun and marigolds. This is the Oregon coast. So far, though, today, we have a good breeze of the ocean and the air is good. Love your various podcasts. It is Smoky Sun and Marigolds. So that is in a reflection in this pond. So the fires. Beautiful. Yeah. but good good breeze off the ocean air. Oh, the fires. What are we? I know. There's just so much. There is. Okay.

All right. I can think about that onto the next Lizzie pronoun. She and her. Thanks for being so rad. I have shit kids say. I have a shit kids say. Well, my eldest was about three. His dad's grandparents really loved to buy tacky shit out of catalogs and have it sent to us. It was sweet, but sometimes the things showed up out of the blue were a lot. One time for that husband's birthday, they sent this enormous gaudy clock, which just cracked me up. Like, I had to sit on the floor and wipe my eyes. I was laughing so hard. As you can imagine, this caused my son to become really fascinated with it and he insisted we hang this giant thing on our tiny apartment wall. A few days

later our friend came over and as soon as she walked in the door our darling toddler wanted to tell her about it. Being fairly new to words he was still having trouble with some sounds including the L sounds so he ran into the room and yelled at the top of his lungs. Look at Daddy's big cock. There you have it. You will find a picture of that boy 11 years later playing with his much younger brother. He is under the coffee table and his 15-month-old brother is on the table looking down at him. Oh my God. Oh my God. That's a really sweet picture though. And I'm going to take the next one too, because it's really short.

And how, first of all, baby gate around the Christmas tree. Nice. But why didn't you include the clock? Come on, send that clock in if you got a picture of the clock. All right. And then here's a short one from Mamie Rines with Amy, pronoun she and her, Allison. You've probably heard a deer barking without knowing it.

They sound like a man yelling fuck instacato Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck oh my god MP town I had my show and cherry grove on Saturday and I'm walking on the boardwalk and I look up and there's a fucking deer with the giant antlers And they're so fuzzy walking toward me and I looked at the guy and I was like, uh, are we just gonna pass pass each other like this is totally normal? He's like, yeah, just don't bother it. It's not going to bother you. I'm walking by this deer. I'll send you the video. And literally it stops on the boardwalk. And the boardwalk is only about three feet wide. It's not big. And the deer stops and starts eating berries. Then looks at me like, it's up and then goes back to eating berries. And I just film the whole thing. It was crazy. But apparently they like to push drunk people off the boardwalk because drunk people think

they're gonna touch them and pat them and the deer's like, don't block yourself. Buck, buck, buck, buck, buck, buck, push, push, and sit. All right. This next one's from Micah. Micah pronounced Micah. Good. I got that right. Pronouncing him. I have a mispronounced lyrics. I thought Metallica's song fuel began. Give me two, give me five, give me two, then double five. It is of course, give me fuel, give me fire, give me that, which I desire. When I grew up thinking it was describing a cool secret hand shake, give me two, give me five,

give me two, then double five. Oh my God, that's funny, Micah, that's cute. I like her's cool secret handshake. Give me two. Give me five. Give me two, then double five. Oh my God, that's funny, Micah, that's cute. I like your better, Micah. We're gonna end this with an anonymous submission. And we have a link to the video, which I watched earlier today, about Eddie Geller. He's gonna fight for you. This is not a traditional good news submission,

but I want to be sure you all see this congressional campaign launched in Florida 15 today by, uh, by my friend and comedian turned activist Eddie Geller. Eddie has been producing videos for democratic causes for many years, which is how I met him. He's an A plus human being. This is from anonymous full of curiosity, humor and empathy. I love how he's redefining what a campaign can look like unabashedly.

Watch his launch video and you'll see what I mean. We'll pay a little audio clip for you here. You're fighting to thrive, or just to survive, but there's too much corruption. You ask yourself, where's the justice, where is our fair share? What we need is a fix, a congressman who cares. And he gathers here to run for the florida that's fair And someone who gives a damn, what a breath of fresh air It's time to take a stand, try something new And he gathers a congress, a guy who's gonna fight for you.

Please chip in a popcorn too. All right, so funny, seriously, I love it. I, I, I have a brand for public office. We either of us did, we'd have to put something together that was funny catching, like, it's awesome. Yeah. And you can tell he's a comedian, former. Yeah. This is like, I'm watching this. Like, is this, because you know, somebody just sent it to me and I'm watching and I'm like, is this, is this parody? No. This dude's fucking running for Congress. Awesome. Hopefully we'll have him on the show at some point in a flippet blue segment.

I absolutely love it. Eddie, thank you and anonymous for sending this to us. Thank you so much. He's going to fight for you. Oh my God. Eddie, so before we go, tell us a little bit about how your show went on Fire Island. I have to know. Well, from what I understand, I found this out later.

It sold out, which is wonderful. It was a sweet little room that held, I think, a little over 100 people. And the community on Cherry Grove and Fire Island is just so loving and so wonderful and so supportive. So really nice, makes crowd. I did the 75 minutes. It was hot as hell on stage.

But it was just, you know, you get back up there and you hear that laughter and you make people laugh. And we all need it right now. So it was a very generous loving audience and I standing ovation and some flowers. And we hold on to every moment now because we don't know like I told you when things are going to shut down again and these moments are going to end for us. And I don't think people understand that a lot of the shutdowns won't happen nationally again. People are going to to work. They're gonna have COVID restrictions in place, but for those of us that perform live, and some asshole on Twitter was like,

oh, don't be scared or be broke. And I'm like, dude, this isn't about being scared, like unvaccinated. These big places, these gallows, they're the ones canceling for the safety of the community. So we as performers don't have a choice in the matter. So please, if you can, you can just continue to support your live performing artists, those of us that have to get to make money, we're going to get floored by this variant.

And hopefully people get vaccinated, the numbers go down, or they're just going to keep changing. So God, I just wish we could somehow reach the other side. I really do. I just hope that there's enough that, you know, there has a tendency, we'll lean toward getting it eventually. That's my only hope. Well, we had almost another million people get vaccinated today. We are setting vaccination records again, at least, you know, aside from the first round

of people who wanted to get vaccinated. Sure. So that's, that's moving in the right direction. We just need to mask up and be careful. And push your local businesses to require vaccines and negative tests. I know I'm doing that where I live because it's not been mandated yet for a lot of stuff.

It has for healthcare workers, teachers and stuff. But you know, your bars and restaurants and gyms and stuff like that say, I really would feel better coming here if you required vaccines. they can, and they're able. And so give them the feedback. And there's enough of us. Yep, there is enough of us. I went to a restaurant in New York

and they asked for my vaccine card. Even they said, can I see your vaccine card? They said, oh, yes, you can. Yeah, just felt nicer. And we still ate outside in a pod. You know, we had our little barrier and stuff, but yeah. Same for me in New York City everyone everyone wanted to see my vaccine card When I went to the comedy store in LA. I just walked in because I always just walk in and somebody came and tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to see my vaccine card

When you just start pushing for that because it's the hundred percent It's the people who are who are refusing to get vaccinated that can that should stay home the rest of us should be able to go out into stuff rest of us should be able to go out and do stuff. 9% all right. Well, thank you so much. And David Sats was at your show. He wanted to say how wonderful it was. He's a patron of ours. And he just wanted to pass that message along. And I thank you. David, if you're listening, I wish I had a known. I don't think we met. And it was so fast after the show. I know everyone left. But thank you so much for coming out supporting me.

Truly, truly. Yeah. And thank you all, everybody. We'll be back tomorrow with more news. We'll talk more about what's happening on the ground in Afghanistan and whatever else breaks. And until then, please take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. Take care of the planet and take care of your mental health.

I've been AG and I've been DG and them's the beans. The daily beans is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg and Amy Carrero. Sound design and editing is by Deserima Cfarlin, with art and web design by Joel Reader with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the daily Beans is written and performed by They Might Be Giants, and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Network, a collection of creator-owned podcasts dedicated to news,

politics, and justice. For more information, please visit mswmedia.com. For the past four years, we've been making history in critical elections all over the country. And last year, we made history again by expanding our majority in the Senate, eating election denying Republicans and crucial state house races, and fighting back a non-existent red wave. But the Magga Republicans who plotted and pardoned the attempted overthrow of our government now control the House. Thanks to gerrymandered maps and repressive anti-voter laws.

And the chaotic spectacle we've already seen shows us just how far they will go to seize power, dismantle our government, and take away our freedoms. So the official podcast of the persistence is back with season 4. There's so much more important work ahead of us to fight for equity, justice, and our very democracy itself. We'll take you behind the lines and inside the rooms where it happens with strategy and inspiration from progressive change makers all over the country. And we'll dig deep into the weekly news that matters most and what you can do about it,

with messaging and communications expert, co-founder of Way to Win, and our new co-host, Jennifer Fernandez-Ancona. So join Steve and I every Wednesday for your weekly dose of inspiration, action and hope. I'm Steve Pearson. And I'm Jennifer Fernandez-Ancona. And this is How We Win. M-S-W Media