Allison Gill (0:00)

MSW Media thanks to Beam Dream for supporting the DailyBeans. Beam Dream is a science backed healthy hot cocoa to help you sleep better. There's never been a better time to finally try Dream Shop their Black Friday sale and get up to 50% off when you visit shopbeam.com dailybeans and use code dailybeans at checkout. Beans. Daily Beans. Daily Beans. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Tuesday, November 19, 2024. Today, two women testified to the House Ethics Committee that they were paid by Matt Gaetz for sex. Elon Musk is reportedly butting heads with Boris Epstein. Republicans are targeting Medicaid and food stamps in draft legislation. And the hosts of Morning Joe have Travele Mar A Lago to kiss the ring. I'm your host, Allison Gill. Hey everybody, Happy Tuesday. Dana's out today. She has her final HRC gala, human rights campaign gala of the season. So she's out raising incredible amounts of money, doing amazing work to support and defend the LGBTQ + community. So I love her for doing that and I'm super proud of all the work that she does and she will be back in your ears with me tomorrow, I promise. So thanks for hanging with me solo today. I also want to welcome all of our new listeners. Folks apparently are turning off cable news in droves and they're stopping the corporate media thing and they're apparently looking for better sources of news. So welcome to all of you here at the Beans. We work kind of like npr. These podcasts are free for anyone who wants to listen to them. But if you kick us a few bucks to support independent media, you get the ad free version of this show. You get the show the night before it's released. You get all my cited sources for every single thing that I say in this show show. And there's a ton of other benefits too. So head to patreon.com mueller she wrote. For more info or dailybeans.supercast.com but whether you're listening for free or if you pledge, we are so, so very happy to have you here. Welcome, welcome, welcome. This community is incredible. I think you'll find that I like the support among our just hundreds of thousands of listeners is just so amazing and everybody's here for each other and I, I really think that you're going to enjoy it. So welcome. Also, there's a new episode of the Jack Podc out right now where Andy McCabe and I answer all your questions. Not just Jack Smith related questions, but you know, stuff about what things. Maybe Joe Biden can do in the next two months. And so we had over 250 submissions. We got to as many as we could. We'll continue to get to those questions because we're still waiting for those Jack Smith reports to come out. We'll have a better idea when he responds to both the documents case and the January 6th subversion case on December 2nd. So we'll keep you all posted on the Jack podcast. And you know, it occurred to me today, if you've listened to the most recent episode of the Jack podcast and I was talking about how I was worried and Andy McCabe was also worried that if he pauses these cases or somehow gets them dismissed without prejudice, and so maybe they could be picked up again in four years. While that would be very difficult to do, I was like, but Trump's just going to destroy all the evidence anyway because all the evidence in possession of the Department of Justice now goes back to him. It's Trump has access to all of it. And I thought today, well, what if he just handed it all over to state prosecut like Chris Mays, the attorney general in Arizona who has a case over the fraudulent elector scheme brewing there, or perhaps Dana Nessel and, you know, the whole group of amazing women running Michigan, send it to them and then they'll have it at least, you know, as far as I know, Donald Trump can't reach in and take it all to the shredder. But anyway, just a thought, just something I wanted to add on to the discussion that we had on the latest episode of the Jack podcast. Also, we have a lot of news to get to today here on the Beans. And at the end of the show for all our new listeners, we read listener submitted good news. And if you have any good news or you just want to share pets, photos of your pets or your family or baby pictures or whatever, happy place stuff, we like to end the show that way. We like to end it on an up note. You can send it to us by going to our website, DailyBeansPod.com clicking on Contact and submitting your good news story that way. As Brene Brown said, we need to microdose hope in these times. As we, you know, figure out a way forward, the path will present itself. But right now, we put our heads down, do the work. And so my work is to continue to bring the news to you. I scour the news so that you don't have to, to bring you what I believe are the pertinent headlines. And we do it with, you know, appropriate profanity because you know you can't really read the news without a dropping an F bomb here or there. So let's do that. Let's, let's get to the news, then we'll get to the good news. So what we do here on the Daily Beans, I'm t like people who've been listening to the Beans for years. You must be like, yeah, we know how this works, A.G. i know. But I'm talking to all these, like there's tons of new listeners. This is so amazing. But first we go through the headlines at the top of the show. Now we're going to go a little bit in depth and we do that in the hot notes. Hot notes. First up, from Jacqueline Alemany at the Post. A woman testified to the House Ethics Committee that former Congressman Matt Gates paid her for sex and that she witnessed president elect Donald Trump's pick for attorney general having sex with a 17 year old at a party. That's according to her lawyer over the weekend. And we've heard part of this story. But this new reporting from, from Jacqueline Alemany gives a little more detail and that's why I have it in today's show. So Florida attorney Joel Leopard said in an interview with the Washington Post that one of his clients witnessed Matt Gaetz having sex with a minor. We call that rape. At a drug fueled party in 2017, July of 2017. And that Gates was unaware of her age at the time but subsequently was told she was underage. ABC News first reported that and we talked about that yesterday. And I also mentioned that it doesn't matter if you are human, if you're trafficking a minor, it doesn't matter whether or not you knew they were underage. The woman, a second woman who was also represented by Leopard, testified that they were paid by Matt Gaetz to have sex with him. And individuals who attended these sex parties, they were paid through Venmo or other conduits, including the paypal of Nestor Gal Bon, whom Gates has referred to as his, quote, adopted son. And that's the news here that we didn't get in the ABC story. They were paid through Nestor. Gates never pressured Leopard's clients to do drugs at these parties, one of his clients testified, but said that the usage of drugs such as Ecstasy was widespread and expected. When they were asked by House investigators if Gates showed signs of being on drugs, the woman answered affirmatively, according to the lawyer's account. Gates's nomination has been met with shock and pushback among a faction of Senate Republicans. Several have raised doubts that he would have the 50 votes needed to be confirmed? After what would doubtless be a damaging and scandalous confirmation hearing, Alex Pfeiffer, a spokesman for the Trump transition team, indicated in a statement that Trump stands behind his pick. Quote, matt Gates will be the next Attorney General, he said, noting that President Joe Biden's Justice Department ended the investigation into Gates without charges. That shouldn't matter. Can you find. Can you. Are you incapable of finding an Attorney General that wasn't investigated for sex trafficking and raping a minor? Can you. Can you find one that wasn't investigated for it? That. Let's make that the floor. You know what I'm fucking saying? I mean, well, sure, he was investigated for ecstasy fueled cocaine parties and fucking minors and paying these women for sex through his adopted son, Nestor. Sure, sure, sure, he was investigated for that, but they didn't bring criminal charges. Of course, I would say the same thing about a fucking President of the United States that was investigated for colluding with Russia. Not enough evidence to charge for conspiracy, but over 180 contacts with the campaign and Russia. Okay, sure, you're qualified. While we're at it, adjudicated rapist. While we're at it, 34 felony counts, convicted of 34 felonies. Sure, sure, sure. Oh, but he didn't go to jail. You know, like, where the fuck. How far, how big are you at Wembley? Are you at the biggest goddamn stadium in the world so that you could continue to move your goalposts further and further away? Sorry, I've taken the Lord's name in vain. I know some of you don't like that. Anyway, quote, he's the right man for the job and will end the weaponization of our justice system. He continued. Even though they have said they are going to go after their political enemies. Uh huh. These are baseless allegations intended to derail the second Trump administration. Maybe don't. Sex traffic, minors. Just a thought. Leopard called on the Ethics Committee to publicly release their report, explaining that his clients expressed concern about testifying in front of the Senate in what is expected to be a bitter confirmation battle. Quote, they've already been through so much and each time it happens, it kind of rips apart an old wound. That's what Leopard said. They really don't want to be called in to testify. There's a lot of facts out there. They've given a lot of testimony, provided countless hours and documents to the House, and they don't want to see it go to waste. It's unclear whether the Senate Judiciary Committee would be able to access the House Ethics report if the panel refuses to make it public. But several Republican senators have said they expect to have its findings to consider his confirmation. Well, if you have it, why, why won't you release it? We know Mike Johnson doesn't want to release it. We can't do that to a private citizen. And he resigned 10 seconds before the report came out. So technically, he's a private citizen. Yeah, a private citizen being considered for Attorney General. And by the way, we don't release reports on private citizens here in the House of Representatives. Hunter Biden would like a word. James Biden would like a word. Fuck you guys. I mean. Yeah, and I don't. I don't know the mechanics of getting the report to the Senate from the House Ethics Committee. But the House Ethics Committee is meeting tomorrow to discuss this report. So you can call your representatives that are on that committee. Just Google House Ethics Committee. You can see who's in there. And then you just Google their phone numbers. Give them a call. Call their local offices. If you can't get them in D.C. like, let's swarm them with calls to release this report. Quote, I believe the Senate should have access to the report. That's Mark Wayne Mullen. He's a senator, Republican from Oklahoma. Republican said that on Face the Nation on Sunday. Mullen, a staunch Trump ally, has feuded with Gates over his vendetta against former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and has accused Gates of showing colleagues inappropriate videos on the House floor of girls he'd slept with. This is goes all the way back to, by the way, his days as a lawmaker in Tallahassee. Senator John Cornyn, Republican from Texas, member of the Judiciary Committee, told reporters last week he wants to see the report. Quote, we should be able to get a hold of it, and we should be able to have access to it one way or another. Senator Mike Rounds, a Republican from South Dakota, said that on CNN Friday. Now, Cornyn said on Monday he doesn't believe the ethics report release is critical for Gates confirmation hearing because he believes the Senate Judiciary Committee will call the witnesses to testify. They want to drag these women through this again. Quote, the truth is the information is going to come out one way or another. So I guess the more I thought about it, it's not crucial they released a report because we know roughly who the witnesses are, and we'll call them in front of the Judiciary Committee. He said, yeah, let's re traumatize these women. Let's do that. Fucking assholes. Gates has been calling senators to shore up support in recent days. That's according to three people familiar. Trump's team's also reached out to senators about the nomination. Senate Judiciary Committee could try to obtain materials from the Justice Department's investigation into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls that resulted in no federal charges against Gates. But even when subpoenaed, the Justice Department rarely gives Congress sensitive law enforcement materials or criminal investigatory files. Here's why. Under Rule 6E of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, written by the Judiciary Conference, right? This isn't something that the DOJ whipped up. This isn't their policy. Any grand jury materials must be kept secret and confidential. They cannot be shared. And there are some exceptions under the rule related to national security or if the material is used in a judicial proceeding. Doug Letter, who's a former counsel for the House of Representatives, sought to obtain special counsel Robert Mueller's grand jury material as part of the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment investigation of Trump, arguing the framers discussed impeachment as a judicial proceeding. The effort was originally successful in the courts, but the issue became moot before it was decided by the Supreme Court. Quote, there's no impeachment going on here, said Doug Letter. It's just the Senate doing its constitutionally provided job to advise and consent. There's nothing in there that would be covered as an exemption to Rule 6e, meaning this isn't a judicial thing. This isn't a. This is just a confirmation hearing. It's not an impeachment, it's not a court proceeding. So we probably won't be able to get that investigatory grand jury material from the Department of justice. Under Rule 6E, only judges can release those. By the way, it's not like Merrick Garland can do this. And watch this is going to happen. They won't release this grand jury stuff and everybody will blame Merrick Garland. So he can't. Neither can Jack Smith. Nobody can. Only a judge can. And it has to be, you know, there has to be a nexus to a judicial proceeding like impeachment. All right. Anyway, I think they should release this report. Somebody has it. And I'll let you know what happens at that meeting with the Ethics Committee tomorrow. Next up from Axios. Elon Musk has quickly become an influential figure in President elect Trump's inner circle, but there are signs of tensions. No, surely not. No. Growing between Musk and longtime Trump advisor over Cabinet appointments to the new administration. The friction is between Elon Musk and Boris Epstein, who has, by the way, friction with everyone. That's why so many Trump attorneys have quit is because they butt heads with Boris Epstein. He's a top adviser who pushed for Cabinet picks that include Matt Gaetz for attorney general. That was Boris pushing that. It signaled a rivalry stemming from Musk's growing influence on Trump. To the dismay of Trump loyalists, Musk, who fueled Trump's election effort by giving at least $119 million, has questioned whether Boris Epstein has had too much influence in Trump's selections, especially his top Justice Department picks and the White House counsel, according to three people familiar. At the same time, Musk has been trying to push for his own Cabinet favorites. Epstein has bristled at Musk's questioning the qualifications of Epstein's favorite candidates, and their rocky relationship came to a head last Wednesday during a heated discussion at a dinner table in front of other guests at Mar A Lago. At one point, during what sources described as a massive blow up and a huge explosion, Musk accused Epstein of leaking details of Trump's transition, including personnel pics, to the media. Epstein responded by telling Musk that he didn't know what he was talking about. And the rift between Musk and Epstein wasn't a surprise to Trump senior staffers and confidants who have seen tensions between them bubble up during the transition meetings at Mar A Lago that began shortly after the election. Epstein, who coordinated the legal defense in Trump's criminal cases, was a big influence in Trump's presidential appointments last week. Those appointments include Gates as Attorney General, William McGinley as White House counsel, Trump's criminal lawyers Todd Blanche and Emile Beauvais. They were appointed to top Justice Department post the PAYDAG and the dag. That's deputy attorney general and principal Assistant Deputy attorney General. That's Beauvais and Blanche. Musk, meanwhile, is making a late push for Trump transition co chair Howard Lutnick to be chosen for treasury secretary instead of fund manager Scott Besant. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly, nor do I care. Feel free to write in with your pronunciation corrections, but Scott can get Besant, he can get bent, right? I don't care if I'm pronouncing his name right. A Wall street favorite, by the way, who met Trump in Florida on Friday, according to the Wall Street Journal. Besant is a business as usual choice, whereas Lutnick would actually enact change. That's what Musk posted on Twitter. Business as usual is driving America bankrupt. You're about to see America go bankrupt. You're going to put a Guy who's got six bankruptcies on his record in charge of the United States. But okay. Musk's involvement in the transition process and near constant presence at Mar A Lago has begun to wear on some who've been in Trump's inner circle longer than he has and who see him as overstepping his role in the transition. Also, he's just fucking annoying. It has got to be so annoying and taxing and exhausting to hang out with that guy for any extended period of time. Well, I've been here longer. You know what? He's annoying as fuck. He, I can't imagine Boris Epstein is any better. Nobody gets along with that guy. But anyway, who didn't see this coming? Tensions between Trump staffers, that is, that is the foundation of his entire first term, was people leaking shit and tattling on people and going to the media because they hated each other and rivalries and intrigue and, you know, I mean, Stephanie Miller calls it the big bag of rats, right? Anyway, good luck, fellas. Next up, from Dan diamond at the Post, President elect Donald Trump's economic advisors and congressional Republicans have begun preliminary discussions about making significant changes to Medicaid and food stamps and other federal safety net programs to offset the enormous cost of extending Trump's tax cuts for the wealthy. Among the options under discussion by Republican lawmakers and aides are new work requirements and spending caps for the programs. That's according to seven people familiar with the talks. Now, those conversations have included some economic officials on Trump's transition team as well. However, concern is high among some Republicans about the political blowback of such cuts, which would affect programs that provide support for at least 70 million low income Americans. And believe me when I say, believe you me, it's not that they give a about hurting 70 million Americans, it's that they give a about hurting their chances to stay in power and be re elected. Trump doesn't give a shit. He's either not going to be reelected because of the 22nd amendment that only allows two terms or is not going to be reelected because there's not going to be elections in 2028, he's going to stay in power. But regardless, these senators, when they talk about, oh, this could starve children and make life immeasurably difficult for 70 million Americans, it's not because they care about the Americans that they're hurting. They only care about their reelection chances. So I know I'm preaching to the choir, but had to say that it's not in the article, quote, I don't think that passing just an extension of tax cuts shows on paper an increase in the deficit is going to be challenging. That's one GOP tax advisor. But the other side of the coin is you start to add things to reduce the deficit and that gets politically more challenging. So we really want to lower the deficit, keep giving massive tax cuts to the wealthy while the middle class bears that burden, and then also cutting all of these programs that help people feed kids, for example, or get healthcare. They want to take that money away from you, make your life miserable so that they can give it to their rich friends in the form of tax cuts. The discussion about these tax cuts and cutting these programs center on Trump's 2017 tax bill lowered taxes for the vast majority of Americans. Major portions of that law are going to expire at the end of next year. Extending those provisions, as Trump has proposed, would add more than $4 trillion to the already soaring national debt over the next decade. The debt exceeds 36 trillion now. TRUMP also campaigned on a bevy of new tax cuts, such as ending taxes on tips and overtime. But he's going to eliminate overtime so you don't have to worry about being taxed on that. And he wants to end taxes on tips by also calling other things tips, like corporate bonuses so that you don't have to pay taxes on your $10 million CEO Christmas bonus. That's a tip. Now he doesn't give a fuck about the waitress in Arizona making 275 an hour plus tips. And anyway, that's tacking trillions of dollars more onto the price tag, which he wants to gut our benefits to pay for. While Republican leaders support extending the tax cuts, many are concerned that the resulting loss of revenue would increase borrowing. So the hunt for savings is on. In additional to social safety net programs, many Republicans are looking to repurpose clean energy funds approved by Democrats. All that money going toward climate change, just give that to the rich people, too. Trump's tariff plans could also raise additional revenue, but those ideas may prove unworkable or insufficient to fully account for the cost of a sweeping tax package. Republicans warn that Medicaid spending has ballooned in the wake of the Affordable Care Act's expansion, saying that the program structure puts outsize pressure on the federal budget. While states administer the program, the federal government provides matching payments that heavily subsidize it. House Budget Committee Chairman Jody Arrington, Republican of Texas, told reporters Wednesday that a responsible and reasonable work requirement for Medicaid benefits, resembling the one that already exists for food stamps, could yield about $100 billion in savings. We're going to take money away from people. He also said another 160 billion in reduced costs could from checking Medicaid eligibility more than once per year. But I thought you hated big government. Hmm. Quote, I feel like there are some common sense, reasonable things that almost 90% of the American people would say that's got to change. No, no. I mean, when you pose it as, gosh, look at our ballooning deficit, the problem is the benefits. Instead of look at our ballooning deficit, the problem is $4 trillion in deficits from tax cuts for the rich. One influential conservative think tank, the Paragon Health Institute, published a July paper outlining some additional Medicaid changes that it said would cut federal deficits by more than 500 billion over a decade. And Republicans are also discussing stripping presidential authority to recalculate benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP. That's food stamps. The 2017 farm bill allowed the White House to increase the benefits, even if doing so raise the national debt. Republicans argue that if they eliminate that authority and hem in the SNAP benefits, which by the way increase automatically with inflation, that should count as reducing the deficit by tens of billions of dollars. It should count. It's money moved from one bucket to another. But it looks like we're reducing the national debt by starving children. Limiting what food items SNAP recipients can purchase with benefits would also reduce costs. It's another idea they have. House Republicans have pushed a similar proposal in recent spending bills. One GOP tax advisor said lawmakers were looking at broadening work requirements for SNAP eligibility, something the conservative Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 recommends. But I know they Trump has nothing to do with Project 2025. Republicans have long denied they're trying to reduce benefits for low income Americans. And they have framed their efforts as an attempt to reduce wasteful and unnecessary spending, arguing that streamlining the programs would preserve government benefits. You could actually just close the tax loopholes for fucking rich people instead. The last time Republicans controlled both branches of Congress and the White House in their first two years of Trump's first term, they came within one Senate vote of repealing the Affordable Care act amid a significant backlash even in Republican controlled states. Plans to cut Medicaid spending. That one vote, the late Senator John McCain. More than 70 million people receive health benefits through Medicaid. One plan considered by the Senate in 2017 would have lowered Medicaid enrollment by 15 million people. That's 1 in 5, with most of them unlikely to find alternate health coverage. And there's something that's not mentioned in this article that I wanted to remind everybody of. This can be passed using budget reconciliation. That's a way to we used it to pass some bills under Biden. It's a way to pass a bill through the budget. Right. That has to impact on the budget. A tax bill would be that, that circumvents the filibuster. You don't need 60 votes. You just need a simple majority, which the Republicans have in the Senate. So look for these cuts now. Finally, from the Associated Press at msnbc, hosts Joe Scarborough and Micah Brzezinski. I don't know if I'm pronouncing Mika. Mika Przinski. Fierce critics of Donald Trump say they traveled to Mar a Lago for a meeting with him to reopen the lines of communication that would better serve their morning show viewers. Would it better serve their morning show viewers, or would it better serve their morning show ratings? With feelings still raw two weeks after the election, their journey hasn't gone over that well with many fans and critics of Morning Joe. The show's anchor team had been so critical of Trump that in September, Scarborough said that it's not a reach to compare him to Hitler. MSNBC pulled Morning Joe from the air the Monday after the assassination attempt on Trump this past summer. On Monday's show, though, the host said they'd reached out to Trump last Thursday, met with him the next day in Florida, quote, it was the first time we've seen him in seven years, brzezinski said. She said Trump was cheerful and upbeat even as the three of them discussed issues they disagree on. What we did agree on, quote, was to restart communications. Her father, national security advisor in Jimmy Carter's administration, often spoke with world leaders he disagreed with. And she said that's a job for journalists and commentators, too. Is it? For those asking why we should speak to the president elect during such fraught times, especially between us, I guess I would ask back, why wouldn't we? Why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you legitimize a fascist dictator, adjudicated rapist, convicted felon if not for ratings? I can't think of a reason. This isn't like investigative access journalism, where somebody's got sources in the Trump team so that they can put out stories like what Jacqueline Alemany put out today or the other, you know, the stories we hear about, you know, Trump lawyers are intending to do this or there's head butting with Boris Epstein. That's investigative access journalism. This is something very different, I think traveling down to kiss the ring so that hopefully you can get an interview with him to boost your ratings through rage and fear. That shouldn't be what news is based on anyway. The article goes on to say that Trump confirmed the meeting in an interview with Fox News. I very much appreciated the fact that they wanted to have open communication, he said. In many ways, it's too bad that it wasn't done long ago. Not everybody reacted the same way. On the View Monday, co host Sunny Hostin said the country needs a free press willing to speak truth to power, and she didn't think it was necessary to travel to Florida to kiss the ring. Jeff Jarvis, author of Buzz Machine blog and retired journalism professor at City University of New York, said online, it is a disgusting show of obeisance and advance. Right, which is chapter one I think I have on tyranny right here. Let's see, Chapter one Do not obey in advance Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do. Yes, I always keep my pocket version of on tyranny within 10ft of me. Several conservative commentators weren't impressed either. Talk show host Buck Sexton, in a post on Twitter, called the meeting astounding. Trump's victory is so complete. Morning Joe has fully surrendered. That's what Sexton wrote. So complete. It's the smallest margin of votes in almost a quarter of a century in a presidential election, he's fallen below 50% of the vote. It's about 1.5%. Hillary had a bigger margin above Donald Trump in 2016. She won the popular vote by 2%. And the victory? It's not complete. It's not a mandate, it's not a landslide. We're now confirming through local election authorities and state boards of election that we're looking at about, I don't know, 200,000 ish votes in three states per usual quote. Morning Joe, unquote, like many shows on msnbc, has seen its ratings drop precipitously since the election as its liberal audience is taking a break. It's a post election pattern similar to that experienced in the past years with viewers who supported the losing party. After a break, many usually return. Neither host was available to speak to a reporter after the show. A network spokesman said Scarborough seemed to anticipate criticism when talking about the decision to meet with Trump on air. Don't be mistaken he said, we're not here to defend or normalize Donald Trump. Yes you are. We're here to report on him and hopefully provide you with insights. Really? Are you breaking investigative scoops or are you having him on your show? In the same Fox News interview, Trump said that he had an obligation to the American public to be open and available to the press, Quote, if not treated fairly, however, that will end. He said, uh huh. Kind of like your elections. It's only unfair when he loses. Like Marjorie Taylor Greene is out on Twitter right now talking about nefarious election fraud in one of the California House races. Like she truly thinks that the Democrats would cheat in an obscure House race in blue California, but not anywhere else. We know how to cheat, but we didn't feel like winning the House or the Senate or the Presidency. This House seat that she's accusing us of cheating in wouldn't flip the House to Dems. That's just unbelievable. Anyway, thank you. I ranted quite a bit today, so I appreciate you sticking in with me again. I promise Dana will be back tomorrow and I appreciate your patience. Says she is out raising incredible amounts of money, doing amazing work for the Human Rights Campaign as she always does. It's her last gala of the season. There will be more to come, but it's the last one this year. Unless, as she said, until they call me again. So which, you know, who knows what could happen. But thank you for hanging in with me. We have the good news to get to, but we do have to take a quick break, so stick around. We'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back. Hey y'all. As you know, sleep has always been a bit of a challenge for me. Whether it's staying asleep throughout the night or just feeling truly rested in the morning. 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Who likes good news? Everyone? Then good news, everyone. And if you're joining us for the first time, all of our brand new, amazing, wonderful listeners coming to this community here, which we call the Leguminati, by the way. This is how the good news works. If you have good news, a confession or correction, especially pronunciation corrections, because we pronounce a lot of stuff wrong and you want to send that into us, all you got to do is go to dailybeanspod.com and click on contact and send it in. Now, we have something called Pod Pet Tax. You have to pay your Pod pet tax, which means you attach a photo of your pet. And we've been playing guessing games on your pets like you're like. We have a game called what started out with what the Mutt, Right. Where we would guess your shelter pups breeds and you tell us what they are. And the best is when you don't know because that means we're right. And we like that because we're very bad at these guessing games. But you can send in any animal photo at all. We expanded what the mutt to include opine on the bovine. What the heck? Wine what the hell is in that shell? Because apparently I knew what a turtle, what kind of a turtle somebody sent in was. And what's the model of your Axolotl? I love that one. That was Dana's idea to call, call the game that. And then of course, if you don't have a pod pet, you can always attach like send us an adoptable pet in your area. We have made matches and found forever homes for tons of adopted adoptable pets. You can send that to us. And if you don't have that, send us your baby photos. We love baby photos. Whether it's you, your baby photo or your babies or you know, even a baby out of a catalog. We just love baby pictures. Send them to us, especially the holiday ones. They're great. Then of course we have shout outs that you can send in for good news. Whether you're shouting out like a loved one, like your spouse or a parent or a child, something amazing that's happening in your community that's being organized by a wonderful activist, maybe a small business in your area. You want to give a shout out to them, give them a boost or your small business. We also love self shout outs. We love to hear what you're doing that you're proud of. We love those so much. And then of course, shout outs to government programs that have helped you or a loved one because we love our government programs, whether it's Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, great VA health care you've received, Affordable Care Act, SNAP, WIC, Head Start, Section 8, anything at all. And especially student debt forgiveness. We have a lot of folks who have written about their student debt relief and their student debt forgiveness from the Biden administration. It changes lives. And I actually share those stories with Joe Biden at the White House. I send those over to his staff and they read them and they love them. So send those those to us. Again, you just submit your good news, pay your pod pet tax or your whatever baby baby tax and send it to us@dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. That's a big, long introduction for how the good news works. Everybody who's been listening for a long time knows the knows the drill. But I wanted to explain it to y'all, all of our new listeners. First up, from James no pronouns given. My dear beans Queens, I'm writing to share some local news. Last week, a neighbor began to fly a Nazi flag. A post on Facebook brought it to the community's attention. Yesterday, a rally was held at the local public library to condemn this blatant display of anti Semitism. With less than a week's notice, the community came together. About 500 of us showed up to make the statement that hate has no home. In bluebell, Pennsylvania for my pod pet tax, here's Luna, our five year old rescue. Who rules the roost? Shepherd, Treeing walker, Coon hound. I was hoping I would get to guess, but very beautiful dog. Thank you both for bringing home sanity into my otherwise chaotic world. Love you both, James. Thanks. And this dog is amazing. What is the dog holding? Oh, like a rawhide chew. Very adorable. And look at everybody at the library. And somebody drew an amazing sign, a Keith Haring sign with two people holding up the heart that says hate has no home here. Wonderful. Fuck Nazis. Love it. All right, next up from Marty J. Ladies, I've been fixating over the election and the results, but I started rewatching Queer as Folk as a distraction. Twenty years ago, George W. Bush was president and they the Republicans were pushing the no gay marriage constitution amendments across the country and they passed. He won a second term. It united us. Let's unite. That needs to be our message moving forward. Moral of the story is we've been here before. We overcame then and we'll overcome again. I submit. My husband John, Grandpa John, with our newest grandson as my baby tax. Marty J. Look at the baby with grandpa. So wonderful. Thank you so much for that. You're right, it's hard. It's hard for it not to feel just so devastating. But we've been here before. You're right. And we overcame. I mean, look at the election results that Obama pulled out after our loss in 2004, which is the term you're talking about. Oh, and by the way, rewatching Queer as Folk as a distraction, I have been watching Agatha. What's it called? Agatha altogether. Let's see, Agatha all along. Sorry, sorry. Agatha all along. And I'm loving it. I absolutely love it. I love these distractions. And I was always, I was thinking also fam beans Fam Leguminati. That I was going to start something new that I've never done before to focus on like self care for the next four years. I need, I need a new thing. And I thought, whatever that new thing I start is, think how good I'll be at it at the end of four years or even just to the 2026 midterms. Right? So I think I'm going to start Pilates. I've never done Pilates. I've done yoga. I've done tons of yoga, taught yoga For a minute to veterans at the va. Like yoga for ptsd. So I can do, like, I have the muscle memory, you know, I ran a half marathon when I was 40. I get in shape pretty quickly and I pick things up pretty quickly. And I'm thinking, you know, now that I'm getting older, my muscles are starting to deteriorate a little bit because of menopause. And I was like, I want to bring that back a little bit. I want to get tone, I want to get long, lean muscle. But really the focus is more about building the muscles around my joints and my core to support my bones, my old bones. Like, I think, I think it would be a good idea. And I keep thinking, I keep getting excited about how good I'll be at it in a couple of years, right? Like how, you know, that practice, plus it's meditative. Anything, any practice of anything is meditative, right? And plus, it gives me something to look forward to. Before the election, I was looking down the road. I was looking at how the Jack podcast was going to go, the Trump trials. I had everything planned out. I was going to do a second fun limited series podcast about my dad and his time in service. And I was working on like all these cool things and they were all sort of hinging on the fact that I was certain Harris was going to win the election, the Harrison Walls were going to win, and then boom, you know, the whiplash of that. And so now I've just kind of been making it through each day. But I feel like starting something that is a practice really gives me a future to look forward to. And it also doubles as some great self care. So if you are thinking of starting something new, hiking, rock climbing, knitting. I mean anything. Painting, writing. And you just. We just do it a few times a week for until the midterms. Think of how good we'll all be at whatever that thing is. Take up a musical instrument you've always wanted. Learn a language you've always wanted to learn. So write into me for the good news and tell me if you're thinking about taking up a project so that we can all have something to look forward to together. And then we can all update each other on how it's going and no pressure, right? Like if you only do the thing once a week or whatever, you know, at your own pace, but gives you time with yourself. Anyway, just an idea. So thanks for making me remember and talk about that, Marty. And thanks for this picture from Colin. Pronouns, he and him. Guten Tag from Vienna. Thank you. And Allison and Dana and all the MSW staff for making my days feel a bit brighter. You're welcome Bitition so this is another Blue sky good news. I was part of the UK exit after the exit, right? The Twitter X exit after Musk promoted far right disinformation that led to UK riots. At that time, quite a few of UK podcasts also moved over and set up their starter packs to help reconnect with former followers. So my good news is finding you both and all other Leguminati accounts making the switch. I have set up two feeds to collate your posts plus any with DailyBeans or Leguminati. By the way, we have a link in the show notes to this and a second feed that is just for Pod Pet picks. So any picture with podpet or podpet Tax will get added in and hopefully provide a way for people to stay connected with positive posts when the main feed feels a bit too heavy. Definitely where I've been at times over the past week. Keep potting onwards and look at this beautiful doggo. P.S. pod taxes. My mom's Lakeland terrier Billy. Beautiful, beautiful. And Colin, what a great idea. So you can set up these lists that automatically if you put a hashtag in your post that you make on bluesky, it gets added to this list. So if you post anything on bluesky with a hashtag Pod Pet or hashtag Pod Pet Tax, it'll end up in this feed and you can just click on it and scroll through it at your leisure. We also have people adding the Beans emoji to their usernames. Not their handles, but their usernames that appear at the top of your profile so that we can recognize each other as Beans listeners, as Leguminati or put Leguminati in your profile. And again, if you do hashtag DailyBeans or Leguminati, you'll end up. Your post will end up in this feed too. That's so cool. We'll have a link in the show notes for that. There's so many great tools over at Blue Sky. Plus no Nazis. All right, from Leslie P. Pronoun. She and her hi Allison, Dana and the entire Laguminati family. Like many of us, I'm devastated at 57. I imagine the next 10 years, or at least the next four, going into retirement and beyond, to be light and fun and joyous. Joyful and peaceful. Leslie, I'm so with you. I'm going to be 50. What? At 6. Almost 56, the day he leaves office. I was really hoping that my early 50s would have been with Harris. I was hoping for it to be joyful and peaceful for my husband and me to be able to spend our time in our home, our garden, with our family and friends, traveling, relaxing and enjoying life. And instead I feel like I need to purchase body armor and get ready for the fight of our lives. We've made appointments to renew our passports just in case things get really bad. But we love our home in Colorado and don't want to leave. I cried all day on November 6th and couldn't believe my work colleagues were just going on business as usual. I did not turn on my camera during my meetings that day. Then I got mad. I'm still mad and I'm wondering what I can do. Feeling helpless is the hardest part right now. My job is currently extremely busy and I'm struggling to find the time to take action in what feels like the fight of our lives. I don't want to look back on this time and wish I'd done more. But at the same time, I don't want to ruin today with horrible thoughts and feelings about the future administration. I also want to continue to enjoy my life today. I wrote several letters to both of my senators to oppose recess appointments. Matt Gaetz, Bob Kennedy, Tulsi Gabbard, and Elon Musk. At least I feel like I did something. One of the listeners, Victoria, wrote a comment on Patreon the other day stating we need local chapters of Leguminati and Illuminati in our cities to meet, plan and resist. I'd been thinking the same thing. Is there a way we could find other Leguminati in our local areas that might want to get together to find ways to fight back? I deleted my Twitter account and I've joined Blue sky, which I'm really enjoying. I have so many new followers that I've not had time to vet them and follow back the legit accounts, as there seems to be many fake accounts in the mix. Yeah, I'll end on some positive notes. Huge shout out to my son, 26, who will complete his PhD in organic chemistry at Caltech in the spring. Okay smarty pants. Oh my God. A PhD at 26 in organic chemistry at Caltech? Like I was like 50 when I got my PhD. No wait, let's see. 2017, eight years. I was like 42 when I got mine and it certainly wasn't in organic chemistry from Caltech. He's just accepted an offer with a prestigious company in San Francisco where his job title is scientist. What a cool job title. I couldn't be happier for him and happy he can stay in blue California when he starts his job next fall. After taking some time off to travel next summer, I've enclosed a photo of him doing chemistry outreach at a local middle school in the LA area. He's the one with the dark hair and the black shirt. I could not be prouder. Also, here's a picture of me as a little girl about 1971. I was 4 years old. Shout out to myself for being a good mom, wife, daughter, sister, grandma and friend. Not to mention being very good at my job and still having red hair with a few sparkles of silver mixed in. Finally, a photo of one of our neighborhood squirrels enjoying some nuts in our backyard Squirrel Bistro in the snowstorm last week, the umbrella held up surprisingly well under the heavy snow. We don't have any pets, but enjoy the backyard wildlife. Thanks for being there for us and for this community. I partly want to bury my head in the sand and ignore everything that's going on. And I partly want to fight like hell. Having the beans community is a good balance where I get the news I need, along with humor and not feeling alone. Thank you all and thank you so much for this amazing submission, Leslie, and congrats to your son. That is incredible. It's a lot of work. Look at him there being a badass smarty pants. And look at you, redhead. That's awesome. And the Squirrel Bistro is fucking cool as shit. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. Yeah, I'm gonna be. I'm working on getting some really incredibly smart people on the phone to talk about exactly what we can do. But we also do need to take care of ourselves. So I think you're doing perfect job. 10 out of 10, no notes. And thanks for being part of this community. And next up, James from Phoenix. He him. Hello beans Queens. I'm back. What I mean by that is that after the results of this election, I had to take a mental health break from all the news and all the pods. I'm coming back online, no time for despair. Quoting John Fugal saying, I've been listening to all the reporting about Matt Gaetz's nomination to Attorney General and I have my thoughts on all this conspiracy. Hats on. Gates strategically resigned before the report could become public, with the excuse being he was to be nominated. Even if and when his nomination fails, we must not forget Matt Gaetz handily won his district with 66% of the vote. He's the duly elected representative of Florida's first district for the 119th Congress. His ethics report was created in the 118th Congress. I think this has mostly been a ploy for him to escape the report being delivered for the 118th Congress. And when, if he joins the 119th Congress, the report will no longer be valid and a new report would have to be created under the new House. Yes, you're correct. There'd have to be a whole new Ethics committee investigation. I can't imagine a new House will pick up the allegations in what is our current environment. We will never be rid of him. And you know, James from Phoenix, that's not a conspiracy hat. That's exactly what's going on. So don't think of yourself as a conspiracy theorist as much as I thought of myself as one when I started talking about the Russian interference in the 2016 election for pod pet tax. Here's a picture of a huge wooden sculpture of an axolotl in Mexico City's Museo. Oh, I'm not, I'm going to pronounce this wrong. Yankuic. I don't speak Spanish. Thank you for all you do to make our mornings better at James, I should speak Spanish. I grew up in Arizona, in Phoenix, near you. I went to Corona del Sol Xavier College Prep. I lived there since 1981 and then I lived in Southern California most of the rest of the time. I should have taken Spanish. But James, when I went to high school in Phoenix, I took Latin and German. That's what I decided to take. But I did get to be an exchange student in Germany. Fruits Fey Monot. I lived there for several months right after the wall came down. But James, thanks for this submission and thanks for the giant wooden axolotl. And everybody, thank you for everything you sent in on the good news. Thanks to all of our new listeners. I'm sorry Dana wasn't here with me for your first time listening to this show but you know, you'll, you'll, you'll settle in, you'll get used to it. You'll get the feel of it. And again, if my new thing, if you're going to start something, start a project, start a self care thing, pick something up you have pick up a new hobby and we'll get really good at it together over the next couple of years and let me know what it is and send all your good news DailyBeansPod.com, click on Contact like I said. All right everybody, I will be back in your ears tomorrow with Dana in tow. So she will be back. Thank you for hanging in with me solo. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, and take care of your family. I've been AG and them's the Beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarland with art and web design by Joel Reeder with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they Might Be Giants and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and just. For more information please visit mswmedia.com msw media.