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The Daily Beans
Refried Beans | Dial W for Willard (feat Hugo Lowell) | Nov 29, 2021
00:26:09
Nov 29, 2021 In the Hot Notes: the 1/6 Select Committee will vote Wednesday to refer former DoJ official Jeffrey Clark for criminal contempt of congress, the DoJ has filed to oppose Bannon’s request to release evidence to the public; Matthew McConaughey says he will not run for Governor of Texas; a little bit of schadenfreude for you; plus Allison and Dana deliver your Good News. Our Guest: Hugo Lowell
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- [00:00]
Alison Gill
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.
- [00:22]
Unknown
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.
- [00:32]
Alison Gill
SW hello and welcome to the Daily Beans for Tuesday, November 30, 2021. Today, the January 6th committee will vote Wednesday to refer former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark for criminal contempt of Congress. The Department of Justice has filed to oppose Bannon's request to release evidence to the public. Matthew McConaughey says he will not run for the governor of Texas. And a little bit of schadenfreude for you. I'm Alison Gill.
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Dana Goldberg
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
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Alison Gill
I want to keep that schadenfreude a little bit of a surprise until it happens.
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Dana Goldberg
Not going to say a word. I'm not going to say a word. It's delicious, though, I'll tell you that, people. It is delicious.
- [01:22]
Alison Gill
It's quite tasty. And there's a lot going on today. I mean, we're not going to be able to have time to cover the thing with Lauren Boebert and the terrible phone call, bullshit apology she made to Ilhan Omar. And Ilhan Omar, she just doubled down and started talking about how Omar should make an apology and just a bunch of absolute bullshit. And so she hung up on her. And I'm glad she did. I'm glad she did, too, and rightfully so. And there's a lot of considerations that I'll be talking about today as far as filings in the Bannon case, what's going on with Meadows and Jeffrey Clark. And I'm going to be going into that in some more depth on Tomorrow's cleanup on L45 pod. But also later in the show with our guest today, who is the author of the book Compromised. My favorite spy hunter, Pete Struck, will join me to discuss what's going on with the Department of Justice. And he can lull you to sleep if you would like to listen to the podcast later. With his delightful voice, I've must have gotten 100 replies to the tweet that he's going to be on the show, that everyone just likes to listen to him talk. He's quite intelligent. He just also has adult, dulcet tones to his voice, I guess people are into it. So he'll be joining us later on for that. So with that in mind, with all of that in mind, let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, top story today, the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol moved on Monday to begin contempt of Congress proceedings against Jeffrey Clark. Sort of leapfrogged over Mark Meadows. We were all waiting to hear about that. First, Jeffrey Clark is a former Justice Department official involved in the, you know, Trump effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. He's the guy who wrote the seven letters to the seven states saying we found corruption and you're voting. You should send a different slate of electors for Trump to, you know, for the certification on January 6th. That was part of, you know, Eastman and Ellis six point coup attempt that was like step three or something like that. And so he was trying to overturn the election. And they're setting a vote this week on recommending criminal charges for his refusal to cooperate with a subpoena from the panel. This vote would be the second such confrontation between the committee and an ally of Donald since Congress began investigating the circumstances surrounding the Capitol riot, including the former president's attempts to subvert the election. The House voted in October to recommend that another Trump associate, Steve Bannon, recommend he be charged with criminal contempt to Congress for stonewalling the inquiry. And a federal grand jury subsequently indicted him on two counts that could carry up to two years behind bars in total, with a minimum of two months. The House committee issued a subpoena in October seeking testimony and records from Mr. Clark. In early November, he appeared before the panel, but he just handed them a letter saying he wasn't going to say anything. That was a letter from his. His lawyer, Harry McDougald, saying that Clark was not going to answer any substantive questions. The letter cited attorney client privilege protecting Mr. Clark's conversations with Donald and argued the former Justice Department official was duty bound not to provide any testimony to your committee covering information protected by the former president's assertion of executive privilege, which doesn't exist. At the same time, the committee is considering what to do about a third potential witness. As I said, Mr. Meadows, that's Trump's former chief of staff, who has also refused to comply with the subpoena. The committee said that Mr. Meadows has refused to answer even basic questions, such as two plus two. No. Such as whether he was using a private cell phone to communicate on January 6th or private Gmail account and the location of his text messages from that day. Hmm. I imagine the committee may be waiting on Meadows to make a decision on Meadows for a couple of reasons, either maybe to see what happens with the appeals court decision or a hearing today in the Trump case against the National Archives and the Department of Justice and the executive branch and or one of yes, this and or possibly there are more executive privilege considerations for Meadows than there are for Clark because Merrick Garland waived privile for former DOJ officials. And of course, Meadows was the chief of staff. And as Ellie Hoenig just said to Wolf Blitzer, if executive privilege was created for anyone, it's created for the chief of staff. But Ellie went on to say, I don't think he's got any good privilege claims here, but there are definitely more considerations and it's more complicated. And while it's true that Biden waived privilege over Meadow's documents because of his proximity to the president, the executive branch, like I said, there's just going to be more hurdles to prepare for in case the Department of Justice indicts and goes to trial. The January 6 committee has said it will make a decision on Meadows later in the week.
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Dana Goldberg
All right. We will stay tuned for that. I'm taking you down to Texas, the actor and author. Author I didn't want to do it. Matthew McConaughey announced on Sunday that he would not run for governor of Texas for now after months of weighing whether he would seek the office in a video posted on Twitter and Instagram. Mr. McConaughey, who's 52 now, who knew, said running for governor is a, quote, humbling and inspiring path to ponder. Really? And another quote, it's also a path that I'm choosing not to take at this moment. Now, Mr. McConaughey's announcement came about two weeks before the candidate filing deadline for the Texas primary and about two weeks after Beto O'Rourke, a former El Paso congressman, as we know, in 2020, Democratic presidential candidate announced his run for the office against Governor Greg Abbott. And we all know he's a Republican. It does not need to be said.
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Alison Gill
Yeah. Well, thank you for that.
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Dana Goldberg
Yes, thanks for that. Sidebar Mr. McConaughey's announcement also came weeks after he drew widespread attention for saying that he would not mandate vaccines for young children because he would like more information, adding that in his household, we go slow on vaccines on vaccinations, even before COVID Now, instead of running for governor, Mr. McConaughey said he would continue to support entrepreneurs, businesses and foundations that are, quote, leaders, establishments that are creating pathways for the people to succeed in life. And organizations that have a mission to serve and build trust while also generating prosperity.
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Alison Gill
How vague can you be?
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Dana Goldberg
Very. I'm just going to support businesses that are doing good things and the pathways that I'm not going to talk about specifically to help people succeed in life, not going to talk about which people those are. And organizations that have a mission to serve and build trust, which we have none of in Texas, while also generating prosperity, which only a few are actually enjoying.
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Alison Gill
This sounds like some sort of weird corporate, like flashcards.
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Dana Goldberg
Right?
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Alison Gill
Well, the paradigms are going to shift and, you know, there'll be synergy and we will analyze that for, you know, future potential growth. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
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Dana Goldberg
All right. Thanks, Matthew.
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Alison Gill
All right. All right. All right. Also in the news today, late last night, the Department of Justice filed an opposition in court to a Bannon motion. Bannon had demanded that all evidence used against him in the contempt charge not be filed under seal. He was opposing, you know, filing. That's the Department of Justice wants to file this shit under seal. And he was opposed to that. He wanted all out in the public. In the response, the Department of Justice goes over the perils of making a prosecution public before trial and accuses Bannon of potential witness tampering.
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Dana Goldberg
Nice.
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Alison Gill
And I'll be going over the filing in depth with Andrew Torres on tomorrow's cleanup on aisle 45 pod. And I'll discuss that witness tampering part and some other quotes from the filing later in today's show with Pete Strzok. Now, it's important to know that in a very specific part of the DOJ filing, we gained some insight as to why it might have taken three weeks for the Department of Justice to indict ban. And a lot of people were screaming, it should be faster. It should be faster. It only took eight days before. As you know, I've talked at length about the Department of Justice taking time to prepare for Bannon's defense during trial. And the last time the Department of Justice indicted someone for criminal contempt, it was in 1983. They only took eight days to indict, and they ended up losing. And we don't want to lose. Actually, they got their asses handed to them because they failed to properly prepare for the trial in this filing. This sort of bolsters my theory that there is a lot more here to consider than just an open and shut case. We learned that there are over 65 documents totaling over 1000 pages of evidence. There are witness interviews with the grand jury, witness interviews with law enforcement. There's other grand jury material. There are internal communications between select committee staff. There's correspondence between Bannon and others, law enforcement database information relating to Bannon, and of course, public source news reporting that the government gathered during the investigation. All of that just for the contempt of Congress charges that everyone was saying was open and shut. I also find it interesting, the Department of Justice mentions interviews between law enforcement and witnesses, and I'm like, are they saying that during those 22 days that the grand jury and law enforcement interviewed witnesses, or is this a reference to some other Department of Justice investigation we don't know about? We'll find out. But all the evidence that Bannon wants released to the public to help him at trial, it supports the need for that 22 day investigation by the D.C. u.S. Attorney's office.
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Dana Goldberg
All right, thank you for that nag. It is time for some schadenfreude.
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Alison Gill
Ooh, Ooh. All right, I'm excited.
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Dana Goldberg
I love it. After all those fawning media segments, remember this on the man they called, quote, the straight Shooter, Chris Christie's new book turns out to be a colossal flop. It seems that the public refuses to apparently buy anything Chris is selling. Interesting. Now, a senior publishing source with access to the industry's book scan tabulation tells us that Republican Rescue, his book, sold just 2,289 copies. Now, that's not 202,000. That's 2,289 copies during its first week in stores. Its first week. If you remember, Mary Trump's book sold over a million the first day. First day. And that's his first week in stores. And that constitutes what are they calling a colossal publishing flop. That figure does not include digital copies of the book. But based on industry sale patterns, you know, given Christie's week showing in stores, he likely sold like, only a few hundred digital ones, probably. And on Sunday, this is what we have. The Republican Rescue was ranked 15,545th. So it is ranked 15,545th at Amazon's Kindle store. Which means, like Computers for Dummies is probably ranked above Chris Christie's book, Windows.
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Alison Gill
95 for Dummies is probably selling.
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Dana Goldberg
That's actually true. Oh, my God. HTML code. How to write it. In comparison to Christie's 2000 copy's debacle, Jonathan Karl's new book, Betrayal the Final act of the Trump show that sold over 24,000 hardcover copies in the same week as Christie's failure. Now, how Christie was able to sell so few books after lining up so much national media attention during his marketing rollout. Well, this week and the View, those two shows, Fox and Friends, along with Fox News, Fox Business, the Daily Show, HBO twice, cnbc. That represents an extraordinary disconnect. All of the free press this guy got and still only just over 2000 books. So this is what it confirms. It confirms that deeply. The deeply unpopular former New Jersey governor remains, first of all and foremost, media creation. That's. That's what it is. For years, he's been propped up by the press as a populist straight shooter. But he left office with an approval rating in the teens, ag. And he failed spectacularly when he tried to run for president in 2020. I mean, that was even worse than his book sales, if you ask me. That explains why CNN's Christie special was a ratings disaster. And coming in a distant third place among the three cable news channels that night. Third place.
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Alison Gill
Womp, womp. Thank you for that schadenfreude. That's lovely. All right, we'll be right back with Pete Strzok to discuss why investigations are secret and when too secret can become a problem. Stay with us. Hey, everybody, it's AG. And today we have an exclusive with the congressional reporter from the Guardian, Hugo Lowell. We cannot run it until the morning, so you're going to have to wait for this interview. We're super sorry about that. And we're also bumping Pete Strzok. He will be on tomorrow's episode. Thank you so much for understanding.
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Unknown
After these messages.
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Alison Gill
We'll be right back. Hi, everybody. Welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news? Everyone. Then good news, everyone. Man, that Pete struck is just a gem. I love talking.
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Dana Goldberg
I mean, really and very. You're right. Just a nice dreamy voice.
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Alison Gill
It's very. It's. It's very soothing. But I tell you what, every time I have him on, he answers all 19,000 of my questions in his first answer. So I have to, like, sort of, you know, kind of stretch it, stretch it, make it through the rest of the interview. So. But it's always a huge pleasure to have him on. I know he's very busy. A little bit of housekeeping here. You will find a link to a survey in the show notes. Please fill it out. It will help us know who you are. This is all important housekeeping stuff. We haven't done a demographics survey since 2018, so it's a little moldy. So we want to know who y'all are. Please fill it out. If you get a chance. First up in the good news. Oh, and by the way, if you have any good news you want to send to us, or corrections, confessions, any games we play, Thanksgiving stories, holiday photos, pod pet pics. If you want to send us a pet that's up for adoption in your area, you can send that into us by going to DailyBeansPod.com and clicking on Contact. This first submission is from Sally Pronouns she and her Dear Beans Queens, where many folks gather with extended family during holidays during the holidays, with a certain amount of dread, my husband and I have been on a journey these past few years of letting go of divisive and toxic relatives. It has been painful and freeing and landed us here a simple, perfect Thanksgiving celebration with just us, me, the hubs and our two sons, Charlie and Henry. My oldest son commented this year that it's his favorite time when it's just the four of us and we got to just be. I look forward to the time when our country comes out the other side of this dysfunction we're in and we can just be again and we'll be even better, stronger, and a truer version of ourselves. We may be digging in the dirt right now, but I believe in us. Thanks for doing your part in keeping us centered and true. You're my morning coffee and me. Time before the day gets going, attach are some pics of us and our simple feast. Much love and gratitude to you from my entire family.
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Dana Goldberg
What a beautiful way to start and a beautiful family. Your kids have great hair. Can we talk about that? Sally, your kids have amazing hair.
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Alison Gill
This is. Yeah, I'm really actually jealous of both of the hairs of your child's.
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Dana Goldberg
Oh my God.
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Alison Gill
And that centerpiece with the golden apple and pear and the pine cones. That's beautiful.
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Dana Goldberg
I love it. Well I'm so glad you have this and it is okay. It's okay to cut the toxicity out of your life. Even if it's family. Give yourself permission. This next one's from Anonymous. Happy Thanksgiving Beans Queens. I didn't grow up with a lot of family close by, so the holidays were pretty small. Since I got married we always go to my in law's house for Thanksgiving. We have three daughters, 18, 21 and 23. My sister in law has three sons, 20, 22 and 24. This year two of the boys girlfriends had nowhere to go on Thanksgiving. My mother in law said that there were too many people and they couldn't come. I told my youngest two daughters that if I ever said they couldn't come for any holiday to remind me of this day. It makes me sad that my mother in law wouldn't let those two girls come to the house. Then on my way home I was getting an obnoxious amount of text from a work chain and when I got home it was about how one of my coworkers coordinated over 100 volunteers that fed over 1700 people meals today. Now that's what holidays are all about. For Pod Tax. A Halloween picture of my dog and oldest daughter. I hope it's not too late. It is never too late.
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Alison Gill
Never, never too late for Halloween costumes. Moo. The dog dressed as a cow is awesome. And then of course eat more chicken. Okay, that's adorable.
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Dana Goldberg
Anonymous thank you for the submission. I'm really sorry that that happened.
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Alison Gill
Yeah, but I'm glad that you kind of got that text where 100 volunteers fed over 1,700 people. Sort of make up for that, you know, like, can't do two. My friends just did 1700.
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Dana Goldberg
Yeah, no kidding.
- [18:09]
Alison Gill
Next up from Kimberly, no pronouns given. Don't just start over. Keep starting over. Dearest Beans, as a chronic pain sufferer from injuries accumulated in service, I feel like I've started over a million times in the 15 years since medical discharge. I wish to send my wholehearted thank you for being my daily reminder that if I don't like what's happening, I need to do something about it to have the authority to speak on the matter. So as I'm currently trying to adjust to new symptoms from an old injury, I'm currently making myself a nuisance to the powers that be with weekly emails and calls to voice my displeasure with the new Scarborough Gas Field that's to be established in Western Australia. I swear our Prime Minister is trying to be the Aussie Trump, though I'm hoping there's too many who see through the bullshit to have his kind succeed in the next election, which can't come soon enough. So as I disappoint my kids and frustrate my loved ones, at least I can look myself in the mirror and say I'm trying. As I listen to MSW Book Club, the quote don't just start over, keep starting over hit me like a ton of bricks. Where the news of a new variant shows us greed is humanity's downfall. It's America who can waive the patent to vaccinate the world. It's a bleak reminder that doing the right thing isn't easy. Sending my love and gratitude to you and all the beans listeners. Cheers Pat. Tax my boy with his four legged shadow.
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Dana Goldberg
Oh my Goodness. Aw, look at that face. Look at those cheeks.
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Alison Gill
And you know what? I gotta tell you, Kimberly, I'm sure you're not disappointing your kids and frustrating your loved ones, but I know how it can feel like that. You know, the weight of something like that can feel like that. As somebody who's disabled myself from service, I totally get that. And so here's to you for being a warrior and sticking through it. And just, you know, that quote, that Alexander Vindman quote, don't just start over, keep starting over. Really gave me a lot of hope too. Hit me like a ton of bricks as well. So I feel you on that.
- [20:04]
Dana Goldberg
Very nice. I love that when you. Everyone can. I love that you can relate to so many of these submissions because I know it gives validation to so many of our listeners. Ag this next one. This is from Clark Pronounce he and him. Hello. This starts off sad, but it gets better. My sweet pupper Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird who has been a part of our family since her birth 13 years ago is gone now. How do I describe her? She was our sweet little girl who woke up every morning requesting face rubs to start the day. She was a ball chaser and an avid car rider. Pick scout, road trip weather, the local home improvement store, the vet. Unless they were taking her temperature. A lady has to have her limits or four states away to see the grandparents. She was a perfect guest at hotels or homes. My anti pet mother actually said she looked forward to her visits. She loved going on walkabout to leave tennis balls throughout the area. We think she thought they were tennis ball tree seeds and the neighbors would bring them back and leave them in our need a ball. Take a ball bowl on the front porch.
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Alison Gill
Oh, what a cool idea.
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Dana Goldberg
That's such a great idea. There are too many wonderful stories to tell about our sweet girl. In the end, doggy als got her. It was hard to watch her confusion as her legs got less responsive. But she kept plugging on. Then two weeks ago, she'd had enough. One morning she stopped eating. She decided that that was her day to cross the rainbow Bridge. I don't. I mean, yeah, I think I'm okay. But she still gave daddy a brave smile. There's another pic that Scouts last day. With the help of the wonderful people@angel paws.com we were able to let her go. As much as she liked to roam and explore, she was a good girl. And I'm sure that she is waiting patiently at the clearing at the end of the path. Her passing, her passing has Been hard for us knowing that I'll never see her looking through the viewpoint that I made in the gate. Okay, you take it ag. Just for a second. Jesus.
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Alison Gill
Or sticking her nose out the doggy door to check on me as I stood in the snow. Having a cigarette has been really tough. There's a hole in my heart. Who keeps cutting onions in here.
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Dana Goldberg
I would like to know the same thing.
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Alison Gill
Yeah, Clark. So we started looking for a new member for our family and found an unadoptable cat at a shelter an hour away. Picked cat, 2 years old, white with black markings, asthmatic with something called a mega colon. Okay. She purred the whole drive home. But the stress of relocating backed her up. On the third morning, we were expecting to hustle the vet for an enema. We were so excited to see poop in the litter box Pet parenting joys are so weird. We were scheduled to a normal appointment a few days later, and a maintenance plan is now in place. We were tentatively naming her Frankie after hilarious fake commercial for the real product Movantic. Frank can't poop, but she needs a forever name with a bit more dignity. Will you creative ladies help? We have tried so many literary names or Explorers aviators, but none really stick. Could this be a new name game for the listeners? Name that pet. Yes, I think it is. There's more. A few days later, we found a sweet foster puppy two hours away that we brought home. An adorable black lab mix with white markings. Picked puppy eager to please. She explores the world by taste as much as sight. She and the cat aren't too sure about each other, but they have reached a detente. For now, she responds very well to no ma'am, but I would like something a bit more personal. We've tried Heaven Huckleberry, and my wife is considering Margaret Thatcher. Hard pass. Any help with her name would be appreciated as well. Help us. Daily beans. Ladies, you are our last hope. Okay, I went Galaxy Quest there. Do you want to finish this off?
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Dana Goldberg
You got it. Okay. I'm so sad about what you've gone through both recently and during your career. We send our love and support your way. We were so glad that you were able to bring on dg, my wife's voice crush. And thank you for saying that because I hate the sound of my own voice. I guess most of us do and welcome her into the family. My wife knows that I find smart women incredibly hot, but she is also brilliant, so she tolerates my crushes on you. Dg, Amy, Mandy, Swoon, and the rest. Thank you for what you do, what you have built, and the impact that you have on our society. Do you ever wonder what things would be like if the va they had not tried to silence you? As an unintended consequence of their actions? Your voice has reached so many more than they ever could have imagined. They moved you into a larger pond where the ripples from your pebble can spread farther than before. Best wishes as you grow. MSW Media. Ladies, please take care of yourselves. You mean a lot to a lot of us. My God, this is such. This. Clark, you're an excellent writer.
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Alison Gill
I know.
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Dana Goldberg
My goodness. Okay, we've got names to come up with.
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Alison Gill
Yep. Everybody take a look at the pictures.
- [24:55]
Dana Goldberg
Oh, my goodness.
- [24:56]
Alison Gill
And come up with some names for this little puppy. Oh, and this kitty. This unadoptable, asthmatic butt plug cat.
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Dana Goldberg
Oh, my God, look how adorable.
- [25:07]
Alison Gill
Oh, so. So cute.
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Dana Goldberg
All right, I'm gonna have to put some thought into this.
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Alison Gill
Yeah, we will, too. And everybody submit your name recommendations to us, along with your good news, confessions. Anything you want us to send us, you can do that@dailybeanspod.com and click on Contact.
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Dana Goldberg
Dana, do you think that puppy is black or brown? Before we get to that, because I like the name Mocha.
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Alison Gill
That's a black puppy.
- [25:27]
Dana Goldberg
Okay, well, then maybe Mocha doesn't work. All right, do I have any final thoughts? Apparently, that was my final thought. I want the dog to be Mocha.
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Alison Gill
We can make that count as your.
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Dana Goldberg
Final thought, or we can call the dog Beans. I mean. All right, all right, well, that's going to be my final thought. My final thought is being taken over by me trying to find puppy names.
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Alison Gill
Gotcha. Makes sense. And everybody send those into us. We'll go over them tomorrow. And until tomorrow, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, and take care of your mental health. I've been ag and I've been dg, and them's the beans.
- [26:01]
Unknown
Refried beans. I like refried beans.
- [26:03]
Alison Gill
MSW Media.