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The Daily Beans
Refried Beans | Comer Chameleon (feat. John Fugelsang) | 12/15/2023
00:55:55
Friday, December 15th, 2023 A New York court has denied Trump’s appeal of his gag order, and then denied his request to appeal to the highest court; the jury has the Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss defamation case against Rudy Giuliani; Jim Comer has a shell company; Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta is leaving the Justice Department; the European Union opens accession talks with Ukraine; The Supreme Court leaves the Illinois assault weapons ban in place; a judge rules that Elon Musk must sit for a deposition again in the SEC’s investigation into Twitter. Plus Allison delivers your good news. Dana is out and about.
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MSW Media. Hey everybody, it's ag and welcome to Refried Beans, where we play an episode of the Daily Beans podcast from the same week either one, two or three years ago so we can see how far we've come. So please enjoy this episode from days gone by and note the date in the intro.
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Refried beans. I like refried beans. That's why I want to try fried beans, because maybe they're just as good and we're wasting time.
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Swearing.
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Jelly beans. Jelly beans. Jelly beans. J be.
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A
Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Friday, December 15, 2023. Today, a new York court has denied Trump's appeal of his gag order and then denied his request to appeal to the highest court. The the jury has the Moss and Freeman defamation case against Rudy Giuliani. Jim Comer has a shell company. Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta is leaving the Justice Department. The European Union opens accession talks with Ukraine. The Supreme Court leaves the Illinois assault weapons ban in place. And a judge rules that Elon Musk must sit for another deposition in the SEC's investigation into Twitter. I'm your host, Alison Gill. The schadenfreude for Elon never ends, and I don't think it will anytime soon. Hi everybody. Happy Friday. Dana will be back next week. I'm very excited. But thank you again for hanging in there with me doing this solo. I appreciate that. Later in the show, we'll be joined by John Fugal saying you should check out his show on Sirius XM progress channel 127. It's called Tell Me Everything. It's weeknights at 9:00pm Eastern. Also, you do not want to miss this weekend's episode of the Jack podcast. I'll be joined with Andy McCabe, obviously. And you do not want to miss this weekend's episode of the Jack podcast. Along with Andy McCabe, who is always my partner in crime, or I should say injustice. We'll be joined by law professor and SCOTUS nerd, self proclaimed Steve Vladek. And he's going to answer my questions because I have many about the Supreme Court taking up the Fisher case. That's the case about the obstruction of justice charge two that Trump is facing. But this is for the Fisher case. That's Title 18, U.S. code Section 1512. Boy, you've heard me say that a million times. And we'll go over the neck and neck race between the circuit court and the Supreme Court on hearing Trump's absolute immunity claim. And we're gonna look at the timing of that March 4th trial. But specifically that February 9th jury selection date. I don't know that we're gonna make that one. So that might push the whole shebang back a little bit. So tune in to that. If you're wondering what the heck is going on with Actis Reyes and Mens Rea and how the 1512 case could impact the Trump indictment. You don't want to miss it. I don't want to miss it. I have questions for the law professor. So we'll suss it all out together. And there is a beans patron happy hour tonight. It's at 4pm Pacific, 7 Eastern. We'll go for an hour. I will take your political questions and we will have cocktails and mocktails. The final happy hour of the year. This is because I will be off on the 29th. So if you're a patron and you have some questions, feel free to hop on and we'll email you the link. And if you're not a patron and you want to become one, you can do that for as little as 36 bucks a year. Head to patreon.com mullershirote if you sign up at the $5 level, you also get early access ad free episodes of the Jack podcast. You get Jack and the Beans kind of cool. And again, we'll be doing that happy hour today at 4pm Pacific Time. And you know, also we have a whole patrons helping patrons thing. I haven't brought this up in a while, but it is the holidays. And if you, if you know there's a lot of folks who can't swing 36 bucks a year for a premium subscriber account, but you can purchase a year's worth of premium beans for someone for just 36 bucks. You can do that or sign up to be on the list to get one of those donated one year premium subscriptions. You can do that at DailyBeansPod.com, scroll down on the front page to patrons helping patrons. We've had hundreds and hundreds of people donate one year subscriptions. So thank you. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. All right, that is it. That's the intro to the show. We have a lot of news to get to, plus John Fugal saying plus good news. So let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes notes. First up from Reuters. A New York State appeals court on Thursday denied Donald Trump's bid to overturn a gag order restricting the former US President from publicly talking about court staff in his New York civil fraud trial. The judge overseeing the case, Arthur Engoron, issued the gag order October 3rd. And the former US president, well, he shared on social media this is why he issued the gag order, because Trump shared on social media a photo of the judge's law clerk posing when with U.S. senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and falsely calling her Schumer's girlfriend. The post left the court inundated with hundreds and hundreds of threats made by Trump supporters. Now, Trump, the front runner as we know for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination for now, appealed the order last month, arguing it violated his constitutional right to free speech. No sorry hon. But on Thursday, the mid level state appeals court known as the Appellate Division, said the gag order did not have a major impact here. Quote, the gravity of potential harm is small to Trump given the gag order is narrow, limited to prohibiting solely statements regarding the court's staff. That's what the order read. Trump's lawyers did not respond to a request for comment because they were cleaning up ketchup from the walls. Testimony concluded on Wednesday in the trial over a lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general seeking to fine Trump at least $250 million and sharply curtail his ability to do business in New York, meaning probably taking it away altogether. That's home to several of his iconic properties, and she's doing that for lying about his net worth to dupe lenders. Angoron has already ruled that Trump's financial statements were fraudulent, largely limiting the trial to just damages. Angoron is expected to issue a verdict in writing after closing arguments on January 11th. Trump has denied wrongdoing, calling this a scam. The gag order was initially paused by a judge on November 16 when Trump appealed, but. But the panel of judges reinstated it two weeks later. The Appellate Division later on Thursday rejected Trump's request for permission to appeal the reinstatement of the order to the Court of Appeals. That's New York's highest court. They call their Supreme Court the Court of Appeals. So reject it again. But do you, anybody else get the feeling every single court at every single turn is rejecting Donald Trump? He just got rejected for his immunity plea in the E. Jean Carroll case. This is the second time he's going to trial for defaming E. Jean Carroll, but it's the first time he defamed her when he was president. We've got the Supreme Court willing to hear arguments for an expedited petition to grant a writ of certiorari. That basically means, you know, the Supreme Court is saying, hurry up, we want to decide if we're going to even hear this case. Trump's response is due on the 20th. We've got the appellate court in D.C. setting up a blisteringly fast briefing schedule for his immunity appeal there. He has to turn everything in by December 23rd. We talked about that yesterday, saving Christmas no longer the Grinch because it's not due on the 26th. DOJ due by the 30th. Response from Trump due on the 2nd. That will be done. Briefing on January 2nd. But remember, the jury selection begins in that trial on February 9th. And that is probably going to get pushed back a little bit, but I wouldn't worry too much about it. Again, we'll talk about all that on Jack. But he's losing at every turn. I mean, ever since the 60 plus lawsuits that he filed against the election results back in the day, one that went up to the Supreme Court, that was a Texas lawsuit signed on by 17 attorneys general, he's been rejected on all of them. All of his privilege battles with Jack Smith and other investigators trying to get information from people he had private conversations with. His lawyers have lost all of their, most of their, I should say, attorney client privilege battles because of the crime fraud exception. He keeps losing and I think he will continue to keep losing. I am a little bit concerned about what the court does with the 1512. But again, I'll be asking Steve Vladic those questions when it comes up on Jack this weekend. But remember, he's charged with two other counts besides 1512 counts. And 1512, if that went away, it would negate the 1512 K, the conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. But the other two counts, conspiracy against rights and defrauding the United States, are still there. So we'll see what ends up happening. And again, like I said, I have many questions for Steve Vladek. Now, as we know, Judge Engoron fined Trump a total of $15,000 for twice violating the order, fines which have been paid. Trump faces a raft of other legal troubles, Reuters says, as he campaigns to face President Joe Biden in the November 2024 election, including four criminal cases. He has pled not guilty in all four. He'll never take a deal. He'll never be offered one, honestly. Next up, and I know you've heard a lot of this before. I know you've heard a lot of this story before here on the beans and on cleanup on L45. But there's some news in here. And this is from the Associated Press. Rep. James Comer, multimillionaire farmer, boasts of being one of the largest landholders near his rural Kentucky hometown. And he has meticulously documented nearly all of his land holdings on congressional financial disclosure documents, about 1600 acres in all. But there are six acres, just six, that he bought in 2015 and co owns with a longtime campaign contributor that he has treated a little differently, transferring his ownership to Farm Team Properties, a shell company he co owns with his wife. Interviews and records reviewed by the Associated Press provide new insights into the financial deal, which risks undercutting the force of some of Comer's central arguments in his impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden. For months, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee and his Republican colleagues have been hounding Biden for how his relatives traded on their famous name to secure business deals. In particular, Comers attacked some Biden family members, including the president's son, over their use of shell companies that appear to be designed to obscure millions of dollars in earnings they received from, quote, shadowy middlemen and foreign interests. Such companies typically exist only on paper and are formed to hold an asset like real estate. Their opaque structures are often designed to help hide ownership of property and other assets. But as Comer works to, quote, deliver the transparency and accountability that the American people demand. Oh, and by the way, that's a quote from him. He wants to deliver the transparency and accountability even though during the vote, Democrats wanted to add an amendment to the impeachment inquiry about transparency and the Republicans said no. But anyway, as he works to deliver his transparency, his own finances and relationships have begun to draw notice as well, including his ties to prominent local figures who have complicated pasts after Democrats blasted him for being a hypocrite after the Daily Beast disclosure of the company last month. That's what we talked about here on the beans and over on cleanup. Comer countered by calling a Democratic lawmaker a Smurf. That's Moskowitz, by the way, and saying that the criticism was the kind of thing only dumb, financially illiterate people pick up on. The Associated Press found that Farm Team Properties functions in a similarly opaque way as the companies used by the Bidens, masking his stake in the land that he co owns with the donor from being revealed on his financial disclosure forms. Those records describe Farm Team Properties as his wife's land management and real estate speculation company. Without providing any more details. Now, it's not clear why Comer decided to put those six acres of the 1600 he owns in a shell company or what other assets Farm Team Properties may hold. On his most recent financial disclosure forms, Comer lists its value as about a million bucks, which is a substantial sum but a fraction of his overall wealth. After this story, first published Thursday, Comer responded during an appearance on Fox News stating that FarmTeam Properties has five different assets and a lot of revenue. He didn't reveal what those other assets might be. He also falsely claimed that the donor, Darren Cleary, wasn't a campaign contributor at the time the property was purchased. Cleary and his family have donated to Comer's political campaigns since 2010. He lied on Fox News. I'm shocked. Ethics experts say House rules require members of Congress to disclose any assets held by such companies that are worth more than a thousand bucks. Hmm. This impeachment's gonna be fun. Gonna raise a lot of money off of that. And from Reuters, A federal judge on Thursday tentatively ruled that Elon Musk must testify again for the U.S. securities and Exchange Commission's probe in his $44 billion Twitter takeover, handing the SEC a victory in its latest skirmish with the world's richest person. During a hearing In San Francisco, U.S. magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler quickly rejected arguments by Musk's attorney that SEC officials do not have the authority to issue subpoenas, saying the agency has broad investigative powers and that no judge would, quote, second guess an SEC probe. Bealer told the sides to figure out when Musk would sit for one more four hour deposition or I'll make you do it, quote if you don't work it out, then it's in San Francisco in February, she said. The SEC sued Musk in October to compel the Tesla and SpaceX CEO to testify as part of an investigation into his 2022 purchase of social media giant Twitter, which he subsequently renamed X. Musk refused to attend a September interview for the probe. The agency is examining whether Musk followed the law when filing the required paperwork with the agency about his purchases in Twitter stock and whether his statements in relation to the deal were misleading. Thursday's face off is the latest spat in a years long feud between Musk and the top US markets regulator dating back to 2018, when he tweeted that he had funding secured to take the electric carmaker private. The SEC has been probing Musk's Twitter takeover since April of 2022, when he first disclosed he had purchased stock in the company. Musk gave the SEC documents for its probe and testified via video conference for two half day sessions and the SEC said that in a filing. So he sat for two of these two half day sessions. It was considered one deposition. SEC attorney said they have more questions from Musk after receiving new documents and had sought additional testimony in September. But Musk didn't comply. In response to the SEC's October lawsuit, Musk's lawyers urged Beeler, the judge, to deny the SEC's request, calling the probe misguided, quote, the SEC's pursuit of Mr. Musk has crossed the line into harassment, they wrote in a filing last month. They also argued that based on a clause in the Constitution relating to official appointments enforcement, staff conducting the probe are not lawfully appointed and therefore lack the power to issue subpoenas. The judge said she's inclined to take the SEC's view on the issue, but I'll take a closer look before I issue the order. She's also conceding the demands of long running investigations. They can be frustrating, she says. But she still sided with the sec, emphatically dismissing Musk's attorney's arguments. You've got one more four hour deposition, one more day of depositions to survive and it's over. It seems unlikely there's going to be any more hassle, she said. Musk and the SEC have been sparring since his funding secured tweet in 2018. Like I said, the SEC settled that case, but the commission sued Musk again in 2019 for breaching that settlement. The tweets also prompted a shareholder lawsuit. A jury in February found Musk was not liable for misleading investors. Over the years, the agency has opened multiple other probes into Musk and Tesla. In April of 2022, Musk disclosed he'd require 9.2% stake in Twitter. It was 11 days after the SEC's deadline for such disclosures. Musk initially indicated that regulatory filing that he planned to be a passive stakeholder, meaning he didn't plan to take over Twitter. Later that month, however, he announced plans to buy Twitter for 44 billion. He subsequently tried to get out of that deal, alleging Twitter was not disclosing the full extent of bot activity on its platform. After being sued to complete the deal, he closed his acquisition of Twitter in October of 2022. Next up from CBS the Supreme Court on Thursday declined to block an Illinois law banning assault style weapons, leaving the measure in place while proceedings before the federal appellate court continues to so that probably take about a year, year and a half or so, according to Law Dork. The decision from the justices with no noted dissents marks the second time they've declined to halt Illinois's statewide ban, which a gun rights advocacy group and gun shop owner argued violates the Second Amendment. It has also left in place a similar ordinance in Naperville, a suburb of Chicago. I hope I'm saying that properly. Chicago the unsigned order from the court rejecting the request from the pro Second Amendment organization comes on the heels of the latest spate of shift shootings, one at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Austin. In San Antonio, Texas, the shootings have reignited. Now familiar calls from President Biden to Congress to pass a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines. And next up from Hannah Rabinowitz at cnn. Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta is leaving the DOJ after three years of overseeing some of the administration's most contentious legal issues, ranging from pro protecting abortion rights to criminal and police reform efforts. That's according to the department. Gupta is the first woman of color and first civil rights attorney to hold the Justice Department's number three post, which oversees the department's civil litigation sections, including antitrust enforcement as well as civil rights and environmental and natural resources divisions. Her departure early next year is expected to come after the Justice Department completes its critical incident review of the law enforcement response to the Uvalde shooting. In a statement to cnn, Merrick Garland thanked Gupta for her work and being a trusted advisor, quote, vanita's commitment to the pursuit of justice and her relentless focus on bringing people together to find common ground has made her an incredibly effective leader in dealing with some of the most complex challenges facing the American people. Vanita has played an essential role in our work to fulfill DOJ's mission to uphold the rule of law, keep our country safe and protect civil rights. I am confident that her enormous contributions to the department will continue to be felt long after her departure. And our final story today is from the Times. European Union leaders agreed Thursday to officially open accession negotiations for Ukraine to join the bloc to join the eu. It's an important breakthrough for Kyiv as it tries to bolster support from its allies. Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, announced the decision on Twitter. The move came at a crucial time for President Volodymyr Zelensky, who had just returned from a bruising visit to the United States, where he pled for desperately needed money for his war effort that was being held up by Republicans. Even though the accession to the EU will take years, the announcement on Thursday was symbolic. It was a symbolic win that's likely to rile President Putin of Russia has decried Ukraine's European ambitions as a form of aggression. The European Union also approved session talks for Moldova. Remember Moldova? Remember the guy Trump pushed out of the way at the summit? Yeah, that's Moldova the impoverished neighbor to Ukraine's south that's also threatened by Russia. Both nations have struggled to overcome entrenched corruption which has hindered progress toward EU membership. At the start of the EU meeting on Thursday, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary said he planned to veto an official opening of Ukrainian accession talks, arguing that the country was not ready and that Ukraine's entry would be bad for the bloc and for Hungary. But in the end, Orban appears to have abstained from the decision to let the talks begin. Actually, he walked out so he wouldn't have to vote. The next immediate hurdle for Ukraine in the two day EU summit is to secure 50 billion euros. That's about $52 billion in aid for the country. Mr. Orban, who has in the past delayed some EU sanctions against Russia and is seen as Putin's closest ally in the bloc, said the aid should come only after Europe wide elections planned for the summer, which we are totally going to be, we're totally going to be interfering with. Meanwhile, we're still trying to get Ukraine funded here in the U.S. senator Schumer says the Senate will be here next week to continue talks, but the House has gone home for the holidays to hide from their constituen back at home. All right, everybody stick around after this break. We have John Fugal saying, and then that will be followed by the good news. Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages.
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We'll be right back.
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A
Hey everybody, welcome back. It is Friday. That means it's Fugal saying Friday. I am joined by my good friend, host of the Tell Me Everything show on SiriusXM progress channel 127 weeknights, 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific, or for free. Wherever you get your podcast, you can check out the John Fugelsang Show. Hello, John, how are you today?
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B
Hello, Allison. It's great to see you.
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A
It's always good to see you, my friend. I'm so happy that we have this weekly time together because, you know, your insights I think are just so on point and it's always also just good to see my friend every week. So thanks for being here.
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B
I appreciate that. It's really a pleasure to come over here and drag your show down to my level every week. And likewise, it's a great, great to come here and I can sell all my Donald Trump NFTs to your fans.
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A
So we'll get to that. Every, every, I think every time he runs out of money, he's selling pieces of his suit.
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B
I mean, pieces of the suit, Alison. Literally the cheap Ill fitting suit off his back. He is selling like, like liberals get all outraged about this. How could these people be. So can we, can we enjoy the comedy? I mean, if you literally. Donald Trump is. This is like a census for people who drool on the clicker. You have to buy 47 make believe cards that don't exist for $99 a piece. And then if you give Mr. Trump $4,653 for the 47 imaginary cards, you get a 1 inch piece of cloth from the suit that he says was the most historically significant artifact in history. The surrender suit, the Shroud of Turin, only it's the sweat stains of Jabba. And again, he'll sell access to anybody if they chip it a few bucks to help him pay to keep him out of an orange suit. Grifter's got a grift, man. I took all of this as a beautiful sign that Donald Trump is this terrified. I think we're probably about three months away from him selling 2 by 3 inch squares of the adult diaper he wore the day he surrendered at prices like this, folks, imagine what he would sell a box of classified documents for.
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A
I think somebody said fart in a jar, was that. You know, but it's like some weird, like, like Nazi poshmark, right? Like I'm looking around my house like, what can I sell? Oh, I have my five subject notebooks of show notes. Maybe, maybe I could cut those up into illegible piece, shred them and then sell the shredded pieces.
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I don't, I mean, this is the Save America pack. And again, this is another symptom of, you know, the Michigan GOP is going bankrupt. Republicans aren't donating to the RNC anymore. Republicans are pouring all their money into Save America pac. And as we know, half the money from Save America PAC does not go to the Trump campaign. It goes to Trump's defense attorney. So all of this is just an ever increasing sign of how terrified he is. I mean, people talked a lot about his claims of presidential immunity, that the founders wanted presidents to be kings who can never be held accountable for any crimes they commit. That story is directly related to his tragic softCore gay porn NFT cards. It's all how scared he truly is. I mean, Henry Kissinger is gonna have a better year than Trump. You're right.
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A
That's where all the money is going. And the one thing I think McCarthy did mediocrely well was raise money. And he's gone.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And not only is he gone as speaker, he's leaving before the end of the year. So Mike Johnson is going to have a really, when we come up to that first quarter FEC report for earnings, it's going to be really, really bad.
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B
Really true. And Mike Johnson, of course, Mike Johnson, who makes Mike Pence look like Mike Tyson. Not quite. As I've had it with this guy already, this guy, Mike Johnson is going to drive voter turnout more than Trump next year. This guy is hobbit on the outside, orc on the inside. And it's gonna be a riot seeing how this plays out. But in the case of McCarthy, Alison, I think it's brilliant that he left because he proved it was only about power. He doesn't care about conservative ideals. He has no ideology. He doesn't care about values. He doesn't care about his constituents back home in Bakersfield who sent him to Congress all those many times. Nancy Pelosi has lost the speaker's gavel twice. And both times she continued being a public servant. But no, Kevin is, screw you guys, I'm going home. And right away, he has to reveal that he's no different than Trump. He's no different than George Santos. They were all just about the grift.
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A
They absolutely, absolutely were, my friend. And you know, speaking of Mike Johnson and his kind of weird Christo fascist view of the nation, I think his dreams are coming true in Texas because of what we saw this week with Kate Cox, a woman who was 20 weeks pregnant. Her fetus was diagnosed with trisomy 18. She had to beg the court, the death panel. She had to beg the death panel to get care they allowed her, but only because she wanted to preserve her fertility. It had nothing to do with her own bodily autonomy.
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That is correct.
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And then the Texas Supreme Court said, hang on a minute, and they waited. And so she had to go seek her care out of state. And first of all, I want to, in light of this, thank the Pentagon for enacting the policy that grants leave to people who seek abortion care in states where these abortions are banned. Because that, when I wrote that op ed about that, that was my very first thought, is that there would be people trapped in states begging the court, begging the state to get health care, life saving health care. And the Texas Supreme Court comes back and says, you didn't say the magic words that the mother's life was in danger. So wait a minute.
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B
So you're saying that women who enlist in the armed forces and are willing to risk their lives to protect this society should have control over their own bodies? My God. Both sides have gone completely insane. Both sides have gone.
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A
I know, it's weird. And if you want to look at it from a really neat, kind of interesting point of view, once you join the military, you belong to the government. You are government property. This particular government wants you to have that choice. This federal government wants you to have that choice.
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B
Exactly.
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And so they grant it to you. You can't get a tattoo. But we'll let you make your own bodily autonomy choices. I mean, whoa, what a novel concept. But if Mike Johnson had his way, this is how it would be. And if any Republican running right now, despite what they say, they're trying to back away from this no exceptions thing.
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B
Yes, they are.
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So, like, they've even got Ann Coulter out there now, and everyone's like, oh, I agree with Ann Coulter. Don't fall for it. She is out there to help untether the Republican Party from this no exceptions thing. And if they get in the White House, this is what it's going to be like nationwide. So not only do we have to prevent that from happening, but we've got to help Texas and these red states take back the rights to bodily autonomy as well, because that was just disgusting. It was, it was. You know, it reminds me of that old Statler tweet. Oh, quit overreacting. We're nowhere near Gilead. It is happening in Texas.
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B
Yeah, what a. What a shitty cult. You know, what a low rent, fake Christian, empty platform, Putin groveling, no legislative agenda having woman controlling shitty cult.
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A
At least the mother of God cult had like hallucinogens and weed.
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B
Oh, listen, Ann Coulter. Ann Coulter comes out and tells the truth about one thing and loses her followers. Welcome to Liz Cheney Island. Anne, you told the truth about one thing and now the cult is giving you what they deserve. Can I just say before I mention, Ms. Cox, that are we allowed to cuss on your beautiful show, Allison? Am I allowed to say that I am fucking furious that these mediocre, low wattage men like Mike Johnson, like Donald Trump, like Ken Paxton, like Greg Abbott, these mediocre, moral men are so myopically unaware that they have no fucking moral right to control my wife's body, you little fucking bitches. I am so tired of the women in my life not having control of their own bodies anymore because of these mediocre non men who want the government to take away my wife's freedom because what? Because they're Christian? Well, Christ never mentions abortion, you pious frauds. Christ is against the death penalty and you guys have that for breakfast. I need men, Allison, to rise up next year. And I'm sorry. It's time for the fucking men to take their place in the pro choice movement and say, you motherfuckers don't get to have power over my wife's body. How dare you? How dare a Mike Johnson think he can get off believing he can force taxpaying citizens to be pregnant against their will and still call himself a patriot, still call himself an American, and still call himself a goddamn man. An embryo is not a baby, okay? If you can freeze something for 35 years and it's still alive, then it's not a baby. And in the case of Kate Cox, this, to me, is the only story that the Democrats should be talking about. For the next eight months through September, Texas only had 34 legal abortions performed in the state this year through September, only 34 legal abortions. We don't know how many abortions were actually performed. We know only 34 safe, legal, regulated ones were performed because again, abortion bans are golden tickets for these Dr. Kermit Gosnell Butcher clinics. It used to be like in 2020, it was more than 50,000 abortions happened in Texas by September this year. Only 34. And this case is unusual for many reasons. She filed it during her pregnancy. There's that other case going on right now in Texas where the group of women with the center of reproductive rights are seeking just to get clarified what the wording is for the medical exceptions to the abortion bans in Texas. But, like, these are life affirming options rather than abortion. They're saying, we. Oh, we want. We want. What was it the Texas Right to Life tweeted? We mourn the decision to take Baby Cox's life rather than give her every chance at life. There are life affirming options rather than abortion. Can I say something, Allison, about these godless, fake Christian motherfuckers? The only other life affirming option is the government forcing Kate Cox to have a baby that will swiftly die in suffering agony while harming her ability to have more children. You woman hating, godless fake Christians. This shows it's not about pro life. They're not Christian. It really, really is control of women. They identify as Christian. They boast of their devotion to Christ. Christ is a goddamn prop they wave around in the air, but they force public schools to post Bible passages, but never anything Jesus said. They're Christian nationalists. They defecate on the teachings of Jesus. These are the people who think turn the other cheek in Texas means the most executions of Any other state. They think welcome the stranger means put razor wire in the Rio Grande to slaughter children and refugees. When they try to cross over, these people bear and spread false witness for Trump and they try to make the rich richer and the poor poor. They're not Christian. Women are dying, losing their uteruses, going through these evil, unnecessary delays or withholding of procedures. And they were trying to force this woman to give birth to a baby that would die in agony shortly after birth. I'm tired of the media calling them Christian and I'm tired of the media calling them pro life. We saw this with Nancy Davis, the woman in Louisiana who had a headless fetus in her body and had to travel all the way to Florida for illegal abortion. So they don't care about the grief. These women have the 10 year old rape victim in Ohio who had to leave her home state to terminate a pregnancy because they want to raise the voting age to 21, but they think 10 year olds are old enough to be moms. They don't care about these mothers, they don't care about these fetuses and they don't care about the grief.
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A
And you reminded me of something that you said about these fake Christians and going actually going against the teachings of Christ, something Jesse Waters did this week. It's right in this vein, isn't it?
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B
Oh my God. I mean, look, Jesse Waters, what can you say about, I wish his mom.
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A
Had her own show on Fox.
- [34:59]
B
I wish his mom maybe was a bit more parameters as a parent. I'll say that. Jesse Waters, you know, I don't want to say anything offensive, so let me just call him Bill O'Reilly's jizzrag. If I may. This was the winged monkey that Bill O. Would send out to the hallways of Congress to harass people. Back when Bill was sexually assaulting people and beating women. This was the guy who went down to Chinatown for Fox News and did little racist Chinese voices with people. This is the guy who talked about sabotaging his woman's flat tire so he could go out with her. And he's the worst thing about him is just how unfunny he is. His mediocrity as an on air broadcaster. I mean, he, you could quote every, every, everything he's ever said on Fox News going through TSA and still not violate the no jokes rule. Okay? But what he said this week, even for him, he came out and had this whole thing on Fox News where he more or less just trashed the homeless at Christmas time. You know, they say Keep Christ in Christmas. I'm like, can we get him back in Christianity first? He came out to stigmatize the homeless and say how they failed. If you're homeless in this country, well, clearly you failed. And we have to. I support stigmatizing the homeless.
- [36:17]
A
Like, he literally said that. That's not a joke. He. He literally said he wants to stigmatize. He supports stigmatization of the homeless.
- [36:26]
B
He said, absolutely, yeah. I mean, and they have to. I mean, this is what they do. They have to stigmatize the poor and the homeless because if they don't, they might accidentally feel empathy. And empathy means woke. And woke is bad. And Fox is for racists who drool on the clicker. This is what they do. They have to dehumanize their fellow human beings. It's so Christlike. That's what fascists do. It's like calling them vermin, saying an infestation, calling the Christian refugees at our southern border illegals. They have to use dehumanizing language. And so they never miss an opportunity to be the party of hate. Instead of pulling a struggling person up, they want to push them further down and take their dignity away. Because punching down is how right wingers do it. You know, America first, so there's no fun. We can't fund Ukraine. We can't stop Putin's Hitler, like, invasion into Ukraine. Because America first. But fuck you homeless people. I mean, this guy cannot understand the size and thickness of the dildo karma will use on him for all generations. This whole. I saw the clip and it was like, Jesse Watters new Christmas album, Fuck youk, Jesus and Everything youg Stand For. And think about it. Jesse Watters, who are his heroes? Roger Ailes, Bill O'Reilly, Elon Musk, Donald Trump, all of them failures. I support stigmatizing right wing bags of liquid crap like Jesse Waters. Because if you're working on Fox and that's your career, you failed. Our homeless are veterans, and he's saying they're failures. Our homeless are single parents who've been evicted in the cold, and he's calling them failures. This is Fox News Christianity. There's no room at the inn. And stay the fuck away from our manger.
- [38:09]
A
That's how I know that they aren't actually Christians, because if they believed in hell, they would be afraid of going there.
- [38:16]
B
I'm smart. You get me all worked up today on a Friday.
- [38:19]
A
That's okay. That's how we do. But you know, no, there's a lot of people who are extremely frustrated, including myself. And before I let you go, if there wasn't enough hypocrisy, there's a little bit more today with Jim Comer and his shell company and then their interesting subpoena of Hunter Biden before they voted for an impeachment inquiry. So that's not going to stand? No. And, of course, I think the best part, though, is Abby Lowell, Hunter Biden's lawyer, filing a motion to dismiss on separation of powers grounds. So every time a Republican member of Congress goes after Hunter Biden, it helps their case for separation of powers dismissal, pretrial dismissal. But that didn't stop the hypocrite Republicans from finally getting some legislation passed or finally passing a resolution. And that's an impeachment inquiry based on zero evidence into the president.
- [39:26]
B
Well, I take this as a sign of how terrified Mike Johnson is. I mean, I didn't hear the media spin it that way, but Mike Johnson was saying how there wasn't a case for impeachment, what, three weeks ago.
- [39:35]
A
Oh, yeah. That there was none. None. Like, he was adamant about it.
- [39:39]
B
He knew it. He told the truth, and then he found out the only way he's going to keep his shiny new job is if he works with Democrats to keep the government from shutting down. To adults with room temperature, IQ or above, that makes a lot of sense. But to Mike Johnson, it's a death sentence. So that's why he did it right away. It's just, here's some red meat I can throw back to the Nazi wing of my caucus, to guys like Matt Gaetz, who is Satan's bidet in a bad suit. And they have to do all this because there's three things to remember, right? Number one, Donald Trump has been a criminal his entire adult life. Number two, Donald Trump really wants to be president again to try to avoid jail. And number three, Donald Trump controls the Republican Party with a level of control and obedience we have never seen. And he wants them to do his dirty work for him and have them go after Joe Biden. This is no different than how in the 2016 campaign he went after Hillary Clinton for her husband's infidelity.
- [40:37]
A
Or how he wanted Zelensky to investigate Biden and then how he wanted the Department of Justice.
- [40:43]
B
I mean, excuse me, Alison. No, he didn't want Zelensky to investigate Biden. All Trump wanted was Zelensky to make an announcement on American television that he was investigating Biden because that's all Trump needed. He wanted a TV appearance. He wanted a foreign leader to make a TV appearance. On American television to say, we're investigating this guy running for president. And the day a military officer blew the whistle on Donald Trump's corruption, Zelensky canceled his CNN appearance because it was all a blackmailed rig. So this is what he does, right? He gets other people to do the dirty work for him. And I think it's great that GOP is going after Hunter Biden because I'm not in a cult. I don't care.
- [41:24]
A
Go after him or the doj Donahue notes. Just, just, hey, doj. Hey, Rosen. Just say there's an investigation into election fraud, and me and the Republicans in Congress will do the rest. That's.
- [41:34]
B
That's all it is. Just give me words that I can use on the campaign trail. Hunter Biden's indicted because the Republican Party really cares about unregulated gun ownership. And they really care about president's children's business dealings. Oh, they care about that. You know what else they really care about? Rich people who don't pay enough taxes. Those are the three things they care about enough. And look, I don't care. I'm not in a cult. If he's guilty, put him in jail. It's very easy to say, but the non stop harassment against this man, his laptop and his addictions and his kids and his dick pics. Oh, my God, Alison. This man's dick pics. I've seen this man's penis more than my own. I can't go on Twitter. I see his penis on Twitter more than I see the people I used to follow on Twitter. Ted Cruz tweeted out a Hunter Biden dick pic this year. I don't know if that's legal where Ted lives in Cancun, but. But you know, this is it. For months, we've seen the Colmer and the Oversight Committee going after him for anything they can do. And again, did Hillary Clinton need closed door private interviews on Benghazi when she gave an hour? No, she didn't. So why is there a different standard for Hunter Biden? Because Hillary Clinton showed up and handed them their asses on tv. And they know that's exactly what's gonna happen. And I love seeing fans of Bill Barr and Andy Biggs and Meadows and Pence and Scott Perry and Mo Brooks and Jim Jordan suddenly really care a lot about congressional subpoenas. Why are they doing it? Because Trump wants it. And they are unmanly vassals in a cult of blind obedience. It's all to distract from their cult leaders. 91 criminal counts in four jurisdictions and they're terrified to have Hunter Biden do it publicly because they know that it's nothing but Liefeld propaganda and he would blow it out of the water. It's again, all of these stories are how scared the Republican Party is on the eve of an election year.
- [43:29]
A
Well, good. Let's keep them scared. I appreciate you my friend. Everybody tell me everything on Sirius XM progress channel 127 weeknights, 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific and of course, the John Fugal Saying podcast. Wherever you get your podcasts. My friend John Fugle Saying thank you so much for joining me today, Alison.
- [43:45]
B
Your show is dramatically great. Thank you so much for making me smarter. I really appreciate it.
- [43:50]
A
Thank you my friend. Everybody stick around. We'll be right back with the good news after these messages.
- [43:55]
B
We'll be right back.
- [44:02]
A
Everybody. Welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news? Everyone?
- [44:06]
B
Then good news everyone.
- [44:14]
A
Good news, good news. And if you have any good news confessions Corrections Misheard song Lyrics what the mutt o pine on the bovine what the heckwine what the shell cat me if you can what the hoddle Axolotl I I can't think of a rhyme for Axolotl. If you want to give a shout out to a loved one, your spouse, yourself, I love self shoutouts. Your kids, a great friend, just somebody important for the holidays. You can send that to us as well. Or just, you know. And it doesn't have to be the holidays. It can be any. Keep Christmas with you all through the year. If you have an adoptable pet in your area you want to share. If you can't pay POD pet tax, send that to us. Baby Pictures Dana's coming back soon. She's going to want all those baby pictures, so load them up. All of the fun Santa photos. I have many of me screaming and then also smiling on Santa's lap. And the Easter bunny ones can be pretty creepy too. But you know, any holiday photos that you have, your happy place, your theses and dissertation titles, send them all to us. Your small business you want to help promote for the holidays or your small business everything you can send to us@dailybeanspod.com and click on contact first up from anonymous Grandma I'm a happily retired grandma in Oregon and I've been listening for about a year. Took me a while to stop hearing pronounced she her when you were giving pronouns she her. I finally had the aha moment and got a good laugh at myself. Here's a photo of my grandson's first Santa pic at 14 months. Oh, these are two grandsons, by the way. My daughter was thrilled Santa played along. This is our standard Christmas phone wallpaper and framed photo decoration. They're 11 now, but this will always be our classic Christmas photo. The one. The one on the left is killing me. But, oh, they're just both so adorable. And I love that Santa played along. That's great. That's a good Santa right there. Awesome. Thank you, Anonymous Grandma. Next up, from Susan. She her. Hello, beautiful blooms of the legumes. Ooh, I like it. I'm gutted. I was so hoping to get a ticket to see Dana in Tampa for my birthday, but both shows were sold out. Is there a waiting list? I'm a proud patron. I'm so grateful to you guys. I have something sensible to listen to every day. And that I'm not alone in being bewildered at the state of the affairs in the world. You are not. Susan. Thank you so much for being the beacon of hope that you are in these whack times. I tell all my friends I listen to you because it's my therapy for my 16 PTSD. It truly is healing and therapeutic because it tells my brain and my subconscious that justice is being done. Yes, and you're not alone. Thank you so much for the laughs and the good news. Those two are incredibly healing. Regarding dissertations, I just want to say I love that you're so cool about sex work and sex workers. I was a stripper for over 15 years and loved every minute of it. I was able to travel the world and pay for two degrees with my earnings. I worked when and where I wanted, and when I didn't like someone, I just walked away. I didn't get that option as a server. That's very true. I'm convinced that one of the scariest things in the world for people in power, usually old white men, is an unfettered vagina. And I will also add an unfettered uterus. Yeah, what's the quote? If God wanted, there was a comedian. If God wanted women. You know what? I'll think of it. I'll think of it. But it's a great sex work quote and I'll put it in the back of my brain. I'll put a pin in it. I'm going to continue here with the Good news submission. I went to London School of Economics for my master's degree in social policy and planning in developing countries. My dissertation, that's what they call a master's thesis there, was on sex workers organizing in developing countries. I Got honors on it. The title is Organization in the Sex. An exploration of the effects of the women who participate. Hell yeah. And organization is spelled with an S because this is the London School of Economics. It was fun and fascinating to explore. People across the planet of all genders are fighting for their rights to do the work they choose. After graduating with Merit, I helped to start a nonprofit for sex worker rights. We held a conference every two years that brought together all kinds of people. Sex workers, academics, policy wonks, activists, artists, and outreach groups. Everything went great until Fosta Sesta passed. Ugh. Our last conference I put together was in 2010 and it was fabulous. We flew out Tim Barnett as a keynote speaker. He's the parliamentarian from New Zealand who got sex work decriminalized. There's. We also had Dr. Jocelyn Elder speak, as well as a porn star and activist, Nina Hartley and Norma Jean Almodovar. I hope I'm saying that right. Who wrote Cop to Call Girl? Oh, cool. While I was with the organization, I had the privilege of attending an AIDS conference in Mexico City. It was truly life changing to see sex workers from all over the world fighting for their rights to do their work. There was even a contingent from as far away as Madagascar. I was able to meet in person with many of the groups I had featured in my dissertation. It was profound and unforgettable. For Pod Tacks, I'm including two things. A turtle orgy. You're welcome to attempt what the shell. I have no idea what kind of turtles they are, but I saw them on my trip to Greece last year with my girlfriends and immediately thought of the beans. A picture of my child singing Starships by Nicki Minaj. He was three and we taught him that instead of higher than a motherfucker, it was higher than a muddy puddle. I love it to this day. He's 14. We sing it that way when the song comes on. Oh, so that was how you taught him to sing it when he was 3? Higher than a muddy puddle. I love it. Thanks again for being so wonderful and making us laugh and smile in spite of the shit show. What a great submission. Thank you. Thank you so much for that, Susan. And I just remembered the phrase, if God intended women to sell her body, he would have given her free will and a vagina. So that was the tongue in cheek satirical quote. And I will look up who said it, but I can't remember off the top of my head right now. But yeah, wonderful. Absolutely incredible. That Mexico City thing must have just been a trip. Okay. And look at this. Look at this little kid with the guitar. Oh my God. So adorbs. There's a turtle orgy. Just like little box turtles. Maybe snapper snapping turtles. I'm not sure. If you know, let me know. Right in. All right, next up from Laura Pronoun she and her. In 1998, I had a student loan balance of $38,000. After a rapid, unexpected disassembly of my marriage, I could no longer pay 20% of an income that I no longer had. It took months to get my servicer to work with me. And then I could only pay interest. With fees, penalties and compound interest, I lost control. 25 years later, I had a balance of $66,000. Two months ago, I transferred my loan to M O H E L A Mohela. Mohela. I don't know if that's obviously an acronym, but I don't know if it's got a. If you just say Mohela and applied for the IDR Income Driven Repayment. One month ago, I got an email from the Department of Education that said I was eligible for forgiveness. Last Friday I got an email from Mohela letting me know that I have a zero balance. I ugly cried. This is the one and only time I will thank Republicans for being. Instead of just a helpful 10,000, I got $66,000 and won't die owing $94,000. Getting a little choked up, Laura? That's so awesome. Pet tax. Kevin's neutered but started marking the house to break this habit. I put a belly band on him. He dislikes the belly band. This is Kevin hiding from me. Like Kevin. I had a cat named Kevin. Kevin's a great pet name. Laura, that's brilliant. That's amazing. Fuck yeah. President Biden, thank you. Next up from Ben. He and him. Thanks for all you're doing to keep us up to date with the fire hose of news as it comes. You really helped me make sense of it all. I've provisionally agreed on my PhD thesis title with my supervisor. Barring a dramatic change in my research, it will be volatile anesthetics for critical care sedation in traumatic brain injury. Ah, Ben, that's so cool. I helped do a bunch of administration for the polytrauma centers for the va. There's six in the nation where we treat tbi. Volatile anesthetics for critical care sedation. Incredible. Thanks, Ben. Today I have a. What? The mutt with a difference? This is Charlie. Biologically, he's a Yorkie Shih Tzu. Cross. He's been my pet tax before, so no surprises there. However, the question for today is, what does he think he is? Here's a picture of a massive Aw. When I got him as a puppy, he grew up with a gorgeous husky. Unfortunately, he took a lot of her mannerisms and seems to be convinced that he's actually a husky and is totally unaware of his diminutive stature. He's a very good boy. And the second picture is him enjoying the crinkly duck that he got for his second birthday. Dogs love a crinkly toy, don't they, Ben? Oh, so he thinks he's a husky? Maybe a little bit. Malamute. Malamutes are so funny. They can whisper. Oh, I love a malamute. What a sweet baby. Yeah, those crinkly toys, buddy. Thank you for that. That's a great dissertation. Volatile anesthetics for critical care, sedation, and tbi. Cool. Cool. All right, next up from Sue Pronoun. She and her hello, beans queens. I'm writing to give a big shout out to my niece, who at 37, just started grad school. She's getting her master's in social work. Excellent. Another social worker. I am so proud of her. After years of service industry work and accounting work with far too many Maga Trump loving co workers, she made the decision to go back to school. She was able to sell her house, which will completely cover her grad school, no student loans. Yay. And move into her boyfriend's house, where she was pretty much living anyway. She just finished her first semester. Hell yeah. 90s has been through quite a lot. I can't express how amazed I am by this lovely human. I've told my niece that she does adulting way better than I ever have. For my pet tax, I'm submitting a photo of my three cats laying on my bed. When I walked into my bedroom and saw this, I had to get a photo since they really don't like each other at all. Pearl is in the foreground. I think she's a dilute tortie. Luna blue is the little Russian blue, but she hates Putin looking at the camera. And Ruby is my sweet tabby Calico laying in the corner, as far away as she can get from others. I love them like crazy. Keep doing the good work. My day slash week is not complete without the beans Jack and cleanup. Oh, thank you, Sue. Look at the babies. Yeah, I've got three as well. And it's the triangle, right? I'm always like, what's the triangle today? They're always forming a triangle, and I always feel like it's deliberate. What a couple of sweeties. Hi, babies. Right there in the sun. The Russian blue has the sunbeam, so that's the good spot. Thank you, everybody. Thank you so much these last couple weeks for sticking with me solo, helping me through this. Let me bring you the news. It's truly an honor. It's. I don't. You know, I can't imagine anything I'd rather be doing than to be here with you, bringing you the news. I appreciate you all so, so very much. I hope you have a restful weekend, and I will be in your ears in all kinds of ways this weekend, and we'll see you again on Monday. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, take care of your family. Vote blue over Q. And bring someone with you. I've been ag. And them's the beans.
- [55:53]
B
Refried beans.
- [55:54]
A
I like refried beans.