Two Straits And A Pipeline

0:00M-S-W Media. Hello and welcome to the Daily Beans for Monday, September 14, 2026. Today Todd Blanche's deputy has filed an appeal to resurrect the $1.776 billion slush fund and Trump tax immunity agreement. Iran-backed Houthis have attacked the East West Saudi oil pipeline and have seized a key island in the Bob Al-Mondab St. The Pentagon has pushed two airmen shot down over Iran to appear on 60 minutes. Chinese satellite imagery has been linked to an Iranian strike that killed three US troops. Donald Trump pushes back against anthropics, Amadeh, and open AI's Sam Altman calls

1:00for an artificial intelligence slowdown. And a federal judge has ruled that Trump's plan to cut FEMA by 50% is illegal. I'm your host, Alison Gil. Hey everybody, happy Monday. Dana will be back tomorrow, hooray. So let's flood the zone with sunshine, please. And send us all your good news at dailybeanspod.com. Just click on contact. Also, if you want to join our Election Night Watch Party, you've got a little more time to become a patron about one more day to join as a sustaining member. You'll get that link to the tickets plus unjustified and the dailybeans ad for you and early. You get some swag, links to our monthly happy hour Q&A's, and invites to all of our live events. patreon.com slash the dailybeans. And we will send out the ticket link for Election Night Watch Party live to patrons email addresses tomorrow, Tuesday, September 15th at noon Pacific 3PM Eastern tickets are 40 bucks. It gets you two premium drink tickets, food in and out privileges

2:02for the entire night here in San Diego. Again, that's patreon.com slash the dailybeans. Your support helps us pay humans to make shows. And whatever's left over, we spend on big parties for you. So thank you very much. And we'll see you on Election Night. Also, I have an Alison Gil exclusive for you in a stunning move. During the Friday news dump, the Justice Department moved to dismiss my anti-weaponization slush fund lawsuit, arguing the fund is dead and my case is moot. Ironically, just an hour earlier, they filed an appeal to Judge Williams' nullification of the underlying settlement agreement that ordered the fund to be set up in the first place. Blanche rescinded the subsequent order, but not the underlying agreement. And they got the number two guy at main justice to personally sign the appeal. They're literally resurrecting the zombie slush fund while moving to dismiss my lawsuit against it, claiming it's a dead letter. Now, the rate that this is the reason I didn't drop my lawsuit, y'all, you can watch all of this at the breakdown at mullersheywrote.com or you can listen to the audio episode of the breakdown here

3:06in the Beans feed today. All right, we have a lot of news to get to. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up from CNN, a fuck up of epic proportions. The desperate pleas for air cover from Yemeni general started coming mid-morning on Thursday and advanced by the Iran-backed Houthis toward Yemen's strategic port city of Mocha was in full swing and backup support from chief ally Saudi Arabia was nowhere in sight. Quote, the Houthis committed everything they had. Waves upon waves of fighters along with their available ballistic missiles and weapons. That's what a senior Yemeni source attached to their military forces told CNN. The source that he contacted the United States Central Command sent comm and was assured that the US was quote, watching the situation closely and that Saudi air support was on the way. Quote, but the air support never came. And Mocha has now fallen hours later on Friday, the Houthis captured another key coastal asset, Parom Island, at the mouth of the Red Sea. This island splits the Bob Al-Mondobstrait into

4:10giving Tehran de facto control over another key oil shipping route. The Houthis rapid advance amounts to an extraordinary 36 hours in a conflict that had been largely on ice for years. But the kindling for renewed fighting had been laid for months amid the conflict between the US and Iran. That's, you know, as Tehran seeks to use oil prices and their impact on the global economy as leverage. Now Yemen and the Red Sea have the potential to become a true second front in the Iran war. Iran's effective control is straight-ahorn moves, plus its tightening grip on the Bob Al-Mondobstrait threatens to push oil prices even higher weeks before November midterm elections in the United States. While the Bob Al-Mondobstrait, which is the gateway to the Suez Canal shipping route, is less critical to global energy markets than Hormuz, it still carries essential goods worldwide, including millions of barrels of oil every day. The strait has become increasingly important since the start of the Iran war, and Saudi Arabia has rerouted some exports through that waterway to bypass Hormuz. Saudi crown prince Mohammed Ben

5:16Salman spoke twice on Thursday with Trump and urged him to strike the Houthis. Another source familiar with the matter told CNN. Trump declined to intervene, according to that source. The swift fall of Mokhan, the lack of resistance, have led to finger pointing and recriminations among U.S. allies. Quote, the failure this time is not with the Yemenis, a regional source told CNN. It's a disaster made in DC and Riyadh. The regional source told CNN that it was a complete failure of political leadership amid fear squabbling and delayed decision-making in Riyadh. Quote, there was not one air strike throughout the day yesterday by Saudi support forces. Although there were minute by minute updates, that's what the regional source added. He concluded saying, it's a Saudi-American fuck-up of epic proportions. Quote, the fighters arrived in Mokhan Thursday to find Yemeni battalions that were severely depleted. Their rosters were filled with ghost names, receiving salaries, and the actual strength of the army was only about 20 percent of what it was on paper, according to a Western source with knowledge of the operations. That was compounded

6:21by the fact that the UAE, once a member of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, withdrew its remaining forces from the country in January after Saudi Arabia called for them to leave amid a dispute. And Saudi Arabia did not backfill those troops barracks or their bases. But wait, there's more. Also from CNN, Saudi Arabia shut down a key oil pipeline after it was attacked by drones from Iraq as repercussions of the Iran war, widen. The development is more bad news for the Saudi government after the Iran-backed who these captured strategic points along the Red Sea, bringing them close to controlling the Bob Al-Mundab straight. Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Energy confirmed in a statement posted to its website Friday that the pipeline, called the East West pipeline, had been attacked and was shut down as a precautionary measure. Two U.S. officials familiar with the matter earlier said the pipeline system in Saudi Arabia was struck by projectiles. Now an early analysis found that pump stations which are located next to the pipeline itself were

7:21hit. Now satellite image taken on Friday appears to show extensive fire damage at one pumping station, and an image of a different pumping station taken Thursday shows a small fire sending up plumes of very thick black smoke. Responding to a question about the fresh concerns in Saudi Arabia following the closure of the pipeline and whether he could help move marine traffic through the straight or hormones in light of the developments, Trump said everything will work out fine. The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs later released a statement condemning the attack on the East West pipeline in the Riyadh and let's see Medina regions. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly by several drones coming from Iraq, which resulted in injuries and some damage that's currently being addressed. The statement said they would not respond at this point to allow the Iraqi government the space to react. The strike and the Houthi advances signal that the kingdom's oil resources and its ability to export those oil resources are facing increasing threats as the Iran war continues.

8:24Next up from CNN, Pete Hagseth, Whiskey Pete, and political appointees in the Department of Defense pushed for those two crew members from an F-15 who were shot down over Iran in April to participate in yesterday's highly publicized 60 minutes report about the ensuing rescue operation and that's according to multiple sources familiar. Both Airman initially expressed reservations about doing the interview with one even raising concerns about the prospect of being potentially ordered to take part in the segment while military officials were also wary of revealing classified details of the rescue effort according to three of the sources. I remember when they did all this on TV and showed how they rescued these guys and I was like, why are you telling everyone our sources and methods? That's classified stuff. Political appointees in Hagseth's office were adamant that both crew members sit for the interviews. But after the two survivors voiced concerns, Hagseth met privately with them and asked whether they wanted to participate rather

9:24than forcing their cooperation. And as a result, one of the pilots dubbed Bravo agreed to sit for a non-camera interview and discuss his experience while the other alpha declined to take part in the report. The two crew members have not been publicly identified so CNN could not independently seek comment. But the episode underscores how Hagseth's office is working to craft the narrative, or should we say the propaganda around the Iran war which has become increasingly unpopular and put pressure on the secretary to claim victory. It also shows how Hagseth has played an unusually hands-on role in that effort, engaging in the planning process for the 60-minute interview far more than is typical for a defense secretary. Quote, this entire story is a complete lie. That's Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell when asked about CNN's reporting plans for this segment. Many major news outlets including CNN were eager to interview those pilots earlier this year and the media competition was intense. At CBS, producer Keith Sharman, a 25-year veteran of 60

10:27minutes reached out to longtime US military contacts on the day of the rescue to start pushing for an interview. The lobbying effort went all the way to the top. Soon after the rescue, CBS news editor-in-chief Barry Weiss told journalists in her newsroom that the bookings of the crew members were top priorities and she personally lobbied Hagseth to give CBS exclusive access that's according to three sources at the network. Weiss also reached out to other Trump administration officials. The Pentagon, regardless of political party and power, has historically worked to frame retelling of incidents of military heroism. There's even an office set up specifically to work with Hollywood productions, but the push for details during an ongoing campaign actually concerned military officials. Uniform service members have voiced concern that the 60-minute presentation is an effort by Hagseth's office to use the heroism demonstrated by US troops as part of a successful rescue operation for political purposes. In addition to concerns that

11:28the air crew was hesitant about taking part in the report, members of the military were also wary about potentially revealing classified specifics of the rescue mission itself, particularly while US forces are still engaged in active combat operations against Iran. But multiple political appointees within Hagseth's office insisted the interview go forward, despite reservations voiced by the military, by the chain of command, like General Dan Kane, chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He shared concerns about the possibility that a 60-minute interview could, even inadvertently, disclose military tactics to the enemy, but decided to participate in the segment nonetheless, and that's according to one of the sources familiar with the production process. All right, this is from the Wall Street Journal. Before Iran carried out its attack that killed three US troops in July, Tehran acquired high-resolution satellite images of the base in Jordan from China. That's according to US officials familiar with the details. It is the clearest evidence

12:29so far that Chinese support for Iran during the war has had lethal consequences for US forces, according to the officials who say that the US has connected the imagery to the attack. The US officials declined to identify the Chinese entities that supplied the imagery to Iran and didn't allege direct involvement by Beijing. Tehran procured the images both before and after the attack, but the finding could deepen US China tensions ahead of a planned summit between Trump and Xi Jinping on September 24th. He's coming here. After months of frustration with Beijing's rejection of US warnings about Chinese companies providing imagery to Iran. Senior US officials raised the imagery linked to the July 17 attack with their Chinese counterparts who pushed back and demanded proof. China has repeatedly dismissed Washington's concerns, refusing to acknowledge that any Chinese companies are engaged in such activities. In the July 17 attack, Iranian ballistic missiles struck a housing area at the Muafak salty air base

13:30in northeastern Jordan where American troops had been sleeping. Three soldiers were killed, four others were wounded and medically evacuated. Iran also targeted manned an unmanned aircraft at the base. The attack was one of three separate missile strikes on the base in 24 hours and marked a significant escalation of the war. The strike resulted in the first US death since April cease fire, if you want to call it a cease fire, and expose the difficulty of protecting US forces even at a heavily defended installation. It also raised alarms about Iran's improved ability to hit American targets. Publicly, senior Trump administration officials have downplayed the impact of any Chinese assistance to Iran. Days after the July 17 attack, Marco Rubio met with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, asked afterward if the Chinese were providing Iran with targeting information, he declined to answer and said nothing that China has done has in any way changed the trajectory of the conflict. I dare you to pick up the phone and call the families of those three soldiers

14:32and tell them that. And from NBC7, I witness news, President Trump on Sunday downplayed the need for his administration to check the development of artificial intelligence, saying he worried about seeding America's edge over China in a global competition and that winning would help address the risks from the advancing technology. What? While acknowledging the need for some regulation, Trump provided no specifics about potential rules and attributed warnings about the technology moving too quickly and with little oversight to negative forces that he wouldn't identify, though industry pioneers have raised these concerns. Quote, we can put guardrails, we can do this and that, but I think they have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn't be bringing it up and they're bringing up things that won't happen. That's what Trump told reporters during a weekend trip to Ireland, but whoever wins with AI wins. The Republican president spoke a day after Dario Amadei, that's the CEO of the Artificial Intelligence Company Anthropic, said the industry

15:34should put the brakes on its fast moving development to give safety measures time to catch up. Other tech leaders, including Elon Musk and Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, publicly agreed with Amadei. Asked by a reporter if the industry should slow down or be regulated, Trump said after watching a golfer tee-off in the Irish open at his resort in Dunedag that the United States is leading China in the development of AI and frankly I want to keep it that way because like he said, whoever wins AI wins. So goodness. Next up from the Washington Post, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration broke the law, throw it on the pile, when he had ordered a 50% cut in federal emergency management agency employees, FEMA employees, including thousands of on-call workers who respond directly to disasters. The decision delivered a win for the union that represents FEMA workers, which is arguing in a lawsuit that slashing the workforce so dramatically would violate the agency's independence and hamper its ability to fulfill its legal obligations to respond

16:36to natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires. Quote, frankly, the FEMA staffing plan number appears as if pulled from thin air. That's US District Judge Susan Ilston of the Northern District of California in a ruling issued Friday. She went on to say that the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, you surped the disaster agency's authority with quote an arbitrary and capricious plan to cut staff. The proposal was outlined in documents and emails shared among officials in December. Ilston also says DHS, which was then led by Kristi Nome, overstepped in its move to revoke FEMA's authority to renew appointments of its cadre of on-call response and recovery team. That's core, C-O-R-E, the disaster agency's largest workforce. Members of the core team, who are among the first responders on the ground after a disaster, work under two to four-year contracts that are often renewed. They frequently continue their work for years when it's needed to help communities recover. The judge found that DHS violated the Post-Katrina

17:37Emergency Management Reform Act, which states that Homeland Security quote may not substantially or significantly reduce the authorities' responsibilities or functions of the agency. The court ordered the parties to meet and confer as to the scope of relief in light of the ruling in favor of the FEMA workers. And if they can't reach an agreement by October 9th, the judge's order requires the plaintiffs and defendants to file a joint statement laying out what remains in dispute. We'll keep an eye on that for you. Also, before we go to the break, congratulations to Team USA for winning the FIBA World Cup. They got gold medal. Just came across my desk here. So the women's team USA, congratulations. All sorts of really great celebratory videos on socials. If you're interested, I've reposted one just now, over on my Blue Sky account at Mollershirope. All right, everybody. Thank you so much. We're going to be right back with the good news, but we have to take a quick break. Stick around.

18:38After these messages will be right back. With summer winding down, that means my calendar is filling up again. And somehow, dinner still has to happen every night. Luckily, Home Chef has that handled. I get restaurant quality meals delivered to my door for a lot less than eating out or ordering out without having to build a meal plan from scratch or go to the store. And when I'm tired after a long day, having dinner already figured out just makes it so much easier. Home Chef takes the stress out of cooking because all the most difficult parts are done. Fresh ingredients show up at your door. Recipes are simple to follow. And the meals are something you can look forward to instead of dreading all the work and the cleanup after. Now, the weekend deliveries keep the fridge stocked without having to add extra chores for shopping. And even when my schedule is packed, Home Chef has something that'll fit 30 minute meals to oven ready trays, quick microwave lunches. I get the flexibility I need and the variety without having to sacrifice flavor. An example of why I love them so much. Krispy Garlic chicken with Dijon green bean salad. And less than 20 minutes, I had a restaurant quality meal ready to go. Low carb, high in protein,

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21:50All right it's the last good news segment before Dana gets back so you know what that means send in all your baby photos and your and your family photos and your cute animal pictures. She loves sea otters by the way and send all your good news to us. It can be big good news, little good news. Miss heard song lyrics. My best friend realized she's been singing something actually correctly but their homophones anyway. It's always funny to realize what you've been today I learned. I was today years old when I learned those are great send in your good trouble ideas shout outs to loved ones or yourself for a small business in your area or nonprofit and like I said attach those photos Dana is going to be back tomorrow all at dailybeanspod.com and click on contact first up is your good trouble. Good trouble comes from Katrin pronoun she and her. Hello over Memorial Day weekend this year I was on my porch and my pajamas having coffee. That sounds nice. When my neighbor who works with democracy

22:54now brought Amy Goodman over to meet me. She was traveling around to promote the democracy now documentary. Steal this story please. Nothing like meeting your heroes and your PJs. We chatted about my native plant water resistant garden and she was lovely. So go see steal this story please pair out your water sucking lawns. We'll have a link in the episode to the notes for fine screenings. They're limited the screenings are limited but they have a button to request a screening so maybe if an up listeners in an area request one they could add one near you. Here is a photo of my yellow swallowtail buddy hanging out on a cone flower in my front yard thanks for all you do and appreciate your day. Oh it's beautiful. Beautiful butterfly and beautiful flowers. Thank you so much for this. We'll have that link in the show notes for everybody. All right first up in a good news segment from Tom pronouncing him highbeans queens. I would like to shout out my sweet handsome loving husband Kurt. We've been together for 38 years this week congrats and I would not have spent this time with

23:57anyone else. He makes me laugh every day. We got married in December 2012 on the first day it was legal near Washington State at Seattle City Hall along with about 200 plus other couples but we consider that to be the paperwork anniversary just because some judge says you have civil rights doesn't mean you didn't have them all along. For the photos toll I'm including paintings of our two pups. Oh very cool. You previously showed our Chauini macaron so here's our Chauini crouton and the late great bitch of all bitches Anna. You want to see more of my art visit me at S-A-A-T-C-H-I-A-R-T dot com and we're going to have a link in the show notes and that's at the end of that URL is a slash Tom Macintyre so we'll have that link in the show notes and at Tom Macintyre artist on Blue Sky social like I said links to all that and that these are incredible your art is amazing

24:57Tom thanks for making a world of little sander Tom says we appreciate swearing to look at this babies amazing your artist incredible everybody we have links in the show notes to check it out next up dusty the lesbian pronouncian her hello coins of the beans to this season where I remind my grandkids how important their votes are my grandson has committed adulting moved permanently from his parents home and working full time as an educator I'm on him to take care of his address change before it's too late this is Georgia and things are screwy here his sister still comes home from college to vote I would like to remind anyone who's made a major life change since they last voted to please update your registration and to check regularly that you're all still listed as active voters also keep the young voters involved this is a picture of her sister marveling over a baby bunny thanks for all you do adorable hello baby bunny yeah everybody check your registration even if you haven't had a major life change just like

25:58dusty says all right from zc pronouncian her I got promoted it took a few years for a dumb reason I specialized in a competency not formally recognized as necessary and for a very good reason that I'm immensely proud of I put the career on hold to care for my wife undergoing breast cancer treatment now cancer free amazing the pick is Joey wearing some of his favorite park and one of him holding his tongue can you tell what he's made of oh my gosh a little shitsoo and a little I don't know terrier a little maybe soft coated wheat and maybe maltease or something I have no idea all right let's see what it says behind the bars here we were told he's part husky and part maltease oh I got maltease which I confess is a weird pairing but I don't want to yuck one or both the joe's parents yoms that said he definitely has some husky in him being chewed out by him is one

26:58of life's greatest pleasures all right next up from dianne pronouncian her good news took a road trip with my day to go visit my son so got the fun of a road trip and the absolute joy of time with my grown kids sharing the beauty of the sunrise that we saw on the road trip and an adorable picture of my son's dog to lula breeds unknown great name thanks for all you do to bring rainbow rays of sunshine to us daily oh look at the rainbow clouds that's lovely and the dog is adorable too thank you so much for that dianne that's wonderful news and Nancy from Virginia we found Mitch he's on test gunners creek trail in york river state park in james city county james city county Virginia near Williamsburg he hid in a shell as we passed not sure where he's headed there's a beautiful turtle look at that thank you Nancy thank you everybody like I said danne will be back tomorrow

28:00I'm very excited I'm gonna go over and record some beans talk you are not gonna believe what Mike Johnson got up to this weekend I'm gonna tell you all about it because it's just it's pretty immense uh and uh I guess I'll be back tomorrow with Dana so 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 an a g and them's the beans the daily beans is written in executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by danne goalberg sound design and editing is by deserimic farlin with art and web designed by joelle reater 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 msw media dot com msw media