Refried Beans | Family Christmas Barroom Brawl (feat. John Fugelsang) | 1/5/2024

Summary

The Daily Beans: "Refried Beans | Family Christmas Barroom Brawl (feat. John Fugelsang)"

Date: January 5, 2024
Hosts: Allison Gill (AG) & Dana Goldberg (DG)
Special Guest: John Fugelsang
Podcast: The Daily Beans (MSW Media)

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Daily Beans delivers a rapid-fire roundup of the week’s major political and social news—with the trademark blend of progressive insight and comedic snark characteristic of hosts Allison Gill and Dana Goldberg. The hosts tackle breaking stories, from Trump’s foreign payments and domestic extremism, to Republican Christmas chaos, and abuses of power by conservative figures. The second half features a deep-dive conversation with comedian/political commentator John Fugelsang on Epstein’s associates, GOP whitewashing of history, performative cruelty in politics, and the weaponization of Christianity.

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Key News Stories & Insights

Iowa School Shooting

[03:47]

• A 17-year-old killed a sixth grader and wounded five others in a small Iowa high school.
• Many students had to hide or flee before police apprehended the suspected shooter, who later was found dead.
• Ongoing updates promised as the story develops.

Hydroxychloroquine COVID Deaths

[04:18]

• New research estimates nearly 17,000 deaths may be linked to hydroxychloroquine use in the first COVID wave across six countries (France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Turkey, US).
• The drug was pushed by the Trump administration “despite the absence of evidence documenting its clinical benefits.” [DG, 04:18]

Proud Boy Sentencing

[05:06]

• Christopher Worrell, a Proud Boy charged with assaulting officers on Jan 6, cut off his ankle monitor before sentencing, went on the lam, but was captured.
• He received a 10-year prison sentence. Police found him with night vision goggles, $4,000 cash, and camping supplies.

Colorado Supreme Court Shooting Update

[06:18]

• Brandon Olsen, who fired shots inside the CO Supreme Court, had his bond set at $100k; charges include arson, aggravated robbery, and burglary.
• Authorities do not believe the attack was connected to Trump’s ballot disqualification, but the hosts express skepticism.

Trump’s Foreign Payments Scandal

[07:10]

• Bombshell: Trump received at least $7.8 million from foreign governments during two years as President (per House Oversight Dems report).
• China led with $5.5 million spent at Trump properties; other countries included Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, India, Afghanistan.
• Rep. Jamie Raskin:

  “these payments came from some of the world's most unsavory regimes.” [B, 08:35]
  “Trump violated the Constitution's foreign emoluments clause” [B, 09:33]

• Most transactions were through Trump’s hotels in DC, Las Vegas, and New York.
• Hosts highlight how some arms deals were signed after large Saudi payments, bypassing Congressional approval.

Threats Against Rep. Eric Swalwell

[11:17]

• 72-year-old Michael Shapiro (Florida) arrested for leaving multiple voicemails threatening to kill Rep. Swalwell and his children.
• Ties to debunked Chinese spy conspiracy.
• Context of growing threats to public officials, with multiple bomb threats forcing state capitol evacuations nationwide.

New RICO Indictment: Guo Wengwei / Steve Bannon Connection

[14:03]

• Update on Chinese financier Guo Wengwei, ally of Steve Bannon:
  • Now facing a racketeering charge on top of a $1B fraud indictment.
  • Accused of defrauding online followers with fake crypto investments, laundering funds, and promising gold-backed assets (false).
  • Massive asset seizures and a trial set for April.
• Guo’s yacht is where Steve Bannon was arrested for the ‘We Build the Wall’ scam in 2020.

South Carolina GOP Barroom Brawl

[18:42]

• SC GOP political director Braylee Estep (22) and mother Michelle (53) charged with third-degree assault after a bar fight at their own family bar.
• Incident involved Estep’s boyfriend, other patrons, and escalated to banging on car windows and physical assaults.
• Both released on bond, with mockery at GOP’s “family values” and the frequency of such stories among rightwing figures.

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In-Depth Interview: John Fugelsang

[23:55–41:16]
In a lively Friday segment, AG and John Fugelsang riff on moral hypocrisy, historic whitewashing, and the performative cruelty dominating GOP politics:

Epstein List, Dershowitz, & Hypocrisy

[24:18–27:55]

• Fugelsang calls Epstein headlines “a distraction for people who don’t want to talk about Trump’s foreign money.”
• AG rips into Alan Dershowitz’s Fox News meltdown:

  “I don’t understand what kind of monster you have to be to witness the rape of a minor child and decide to help the rapist.” [B, 25:08]

• Fugelsang:

  “Ken Starr went after Bill Clinton for consensual sex but covered up gang rape at Baylor... Both he and Dershowitz defended Epstein, both defended Trump.” [C, 26:20]
  “If Bill Clinton was proven to have done this, the left would make him a pariah. If Trump was proven, his supporters would reject the evidence. That’s the difference.” [C, 28:15]

Nikki Haley, GOP & Slavery Denial

[29:08–33:07]

• Nikki Haley failed to mention slavery when asked about the cause of the Civil War, corrected herself after backlash, but hosts see the omission as pandering to white supremacist sentiment.
• Fugelsang:

  “It shows how terrified Nikki Haley is of white supremacy that she played dumb in such an elaborate way.” [C, 29:54]
  “If you’re too scared to admit slavery was the cause of the Civil War, you and your base deserve each other.” [C, 32:49]

Performative Cruelty, “Christian Nationalism,” & Greg Abbott

[34:23–40:55]

• Discussion of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s anti-immigrant policies and DOJ lawsuits over inhumane tactics.
• “Show Me Your Papers” law branded as unconstitutional and performative.
• Fugelsang connects Abbott’s posturing to a strain of Christian nationalism, where the cruelty itself is the point:

  “The cruelty is the point... These are not good men. They’re not Christian men. They’re not decent men.” [C, 35:52]
  “There’s one commandment in the entire Bible about immigration... it’s to welcome the stranger. Greg Abbott doesn’t know a thing about the damn Bible.” [C, 39:17]

• Hosts dissect Abbott’s and DeSantis’ attacks on migrants, their misuse of religious language, and the hypocrisy of “Christian” leaders fueling bigotry.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• AG on the Trump foreign payments report:

  “This is a limited window on a far broader universe of foreign government spending... which Trump used to personally enrich himself while making policy decisions that affected these same countries.” [B, 10:14]

• DG on the South Carolina brawl:

  “Who among us have not been in a barroom brawl with our mothers at a bar that we own?” [D, 19:02] (sarcastic)

• Fugelsang on the GOP & racism:

  “In the era of Trump... you’re always criticizing protests against racism... that’s the modern Republican party.” [C, 31:10]

• AG on the escalation of violence:

  “Just violence upon violence because of the former guy.” [B, 13:58]

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Notable Timestamps

• Main News Lightning Round: [03:45–11:17]
• Trump Emoluments/Foreign Payments: [07:10–11:17]
• Interview with John Fugelsang Begins: [23:55]
• Epstein/Dershowitz discussion: [24:18–27:55]
• Nikki Haley/Civil War & GOP whitewashing: [29:08–33:07]
• Texas/Abbott/Christian Nationalism: [34:23–40:55]
• Close of Interview: [40:55–41:18]

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Closing Segment: Good News

[42:22+]
The hosts read uplifting listener submissions, from wedding stories and adoptions to student debt cancellation, ending the episode on a positive, community-focused note.

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Tone & Style

The episode maintains a playful, irreverent tone even as it handles serious political stories—snark, camaraderie, and righteous outrage abound. There’s a strong sense of solidarity with listeners and a shared sense of mission in holding bad actors accountable.

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Useful for Non-Listeners

This summary provides a clear rundown of major news stories covered, critical arguments, highlighted hypocrisy in US politics, and the hosts’/guest’s strongest quips—making it perfect for those wanting insights without listening to the full episode.

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The Daily Beans: “Just the right amount of snark, and a whole lot of receipts.”

Transcript

[A]

It's Sunday morning and that wonderfully relaxed feeling of a long, lazy day lingers in the air. If you want to make the moment last, may I suggest the perfect solution, the Martin Sheen Podcast. Join me, your host, Martin Sheen, for beautifully crafted 20 minute programs filled with never before heard stories of my life, along with personal reflections and poetry that inspires. The Martin Sheen Podcast is the perfect Sunday refresh. A chance to take a deep breath, relax and know that the stress of Monday may be just around the corner, but not here, not now. So make this your weekly moment of calm as we explore faith, hope, love and what it means to be human. And know this, this journey is ever unfolding as I invite you to see what's next with me, Martin Sheen.

[B]

And thank you, 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.

[C]

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.

[D]

News. Daily beans jelly beans.

[B]

Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Friday, January 5, 2024. Today, Donald Trump received $7.8 million in payments from 20 foreign countries while president. According to a new congressional report, exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengwei has been hit with a new RICO conspiracy charge. A 17 year old killed a sixth grader and wounded five others in an Iowa school shooting. A new study finds that hydroxychloroquine may have caused 17,000 deaths during COVID Proud boy Christopher Worrell has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. A Florida man has been arrested for threatening to kill Representative Swalwell and his children. We have an update on the Colorado Supreme Court shooting. And a South Carolina R Republican and her mom have been arrested after a Christmas bar room brawl. I'm Allison Gill.

[D]

And I'm Dana Goldberg.

[B]

Nothing like the old barroom brawl. Waron Christmas fight for you.

[D]

That's right. I mean if the war on Christmas Christmas is a losing.

[B]

Yeah. So her and her mom got in a little bit of a bar room.

[D]

Brawl and she is not with each other, I'm sure.

[B]

Although it's possible, who knows. But this is your South Carolina Republican Party at work. And Dana, I saved that story for you.

[D]

I appreciate. I don't know what you're trying to say here, but I appreciate it.

[B]

I try to save the funny ones.

[D]

For you, my friend.

[B]

You're the actual touring professional comedian amongst the two of us. So I, you know, I'm like, oh, well, let's see. There's, there's got to be comedy gold in here. Also, later today we'll be joined by John Fugelsang because it's Friday and on Fridays we have John Fugal saying on the show, can't wait to speak to him. Also tune into his podcast. It's free. If you don't have Sirius XM progress, you know, progress channel 127. If you don't subscribe to Sirius and you can't hear his show weeknights at 9pm Eastern, you can hear his podcast for free. Wherever you get your podcast. JOHN fugle, SAN SHOW we have a lot of news today, so let's do a lightning round.

[C]

And to make a long story short, too late.

[B]

All right. Police have said a sixth grader was killed and five other people were wounded by a 17 year old suspect in a shooting Thursday at a small town Iowa high school. Multiple people were shot inside this small town Iowa school early Thursday as students were preparing for their first classes after winter break and they were forced to duck into classrooms, barricade themselves in offices or run for an exit before the suspected shooter was found dead. This is a developing story and we will keep you posted as more of it unfolds.

[D]

Thank you, Ag. And it seems nearly 17,000 people have died after taking hydroxychloroquine during the first wave of COVID I wonder who suggested that was a good idea. According to a study by French researchers. Now the anti malaria drug was prescribed to some patients hospitalized with COVID 19 during the first wave of the pandemic. Now it's a quote from the story. Despite the absence of evidence documenting its clinical benefits, the researchers point out in their paper published in the February issue of Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy. Now researchers have estimated that some 16,990 people in six countries, that's France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the US may have died as a result of it. The drug was pushed, as we know, by the former guys administration as a cure for COVID 19.

[B]

Yeah, I wonder if Pete Navarro has been forced to turn over all those emails. By the way, he was the advisor for Covid and hydroxychloroquine for the Trump administration, had a bunch of proton mail, you know, using a private email server for work emails and was sued by the federal government to hand those over because they're presidential records. And he's been fighting that. I wonder if, because the court ordered him to turn him over, I wonder if he has. That guy's weird. All right, next up from abc, the former member of the right wing extremist group the Proud Boys who went missing, he went on the lamb just before he was set to be sentenced for his role on January 6, was sentenced today to 10 years in prison. Christopher Worrell, 52, is his age. He was initially charged with assaulting law enforcement officers at the Capitol. On January 6, he was found guilty of those charges. But four days before his sentencing in August of just this past year, he cut off his ankle monitor and ran away, leading to a six week manhunt when the FBI arrested him in September at his house in Naples, Florida. That's always a Florida man. He was unresponsive and had night vision goggles, a wallet with about four grand in it and a bag with new camping gear inside. So bye.

[D]

Oh, my goodness. Now, we covered this story in depth on a previous episode. But this is an update. The man accused of firing gunshots inside the Colorado Supreme Court building appeared Wednesday in court where judge said his bond at a hundred thousand dollars, noting in defend alleged escalating behavior during the incident. Now Denver police are holding Brandon Olsen, he's 44, who was surrendered at the scene almost two hours after the vehicle.

[B]

Crash we talked about.

[D]

And that's from authorities. Now, prosecutors haven't formally charged him and he's being held on charges of first degree arson, aggravated robbery and second degree burglary. Burglary. Goodness. According to online jail records. Now all are felonies and authorities do not believe this attack was connected to the Colorado Supreme Court ruling to keep Trump off the ballot. But I don't know if I believe that this story is done.

[B]

Yep. And if anything else develops in this story, we'll keep you posted.

[D]

All right.

[B]

We have some more in depth news to get to. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right. First up from Shabbat, Ryan Nobles And Kaplan at NBC, former President Donald Trump received at least $7.8 million in payments from foreign governments during two of his four years in the White House. That's according to a report released Thursday by Democrats of the House Oversight Committee. That's James Comer's committee. That's the one that's investigating all of these payments to the Biden crime family or whatever. And the guy who did $200,000 lamb swaps with his brother Chad to go on with this story 20 foreign governments made the payments to Trump's businesses during the two year period that the committee was able to review. This is only two of the four years. Dana. The information in the report was first reported by the New York Times and cnn. Rep. J. Amy Raskin, Democrat from Maryland, the ranking member of the Oversight Committee, wrote in the reports forward that the payments came from, quote, some of the world's most unsavory regimes, with China being the leading spender paying more than $5.5 million to Trump owned properties. According to the report, some of the other countries that made payments to Trump include Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, India and Afghanistan. This is a limited window on a far broader universe of foreign government spending that took place. That's what Raskin told reporters Thursday on Capitol Hill. Rafkin said in the report that the information demonstrates that Trump violated the Constitution's foreign emoluments clause, which he said prohibits the President from accepting money, payments or gifts of any kind whatever from foreign governments and monarchs unless he obtains, quote, the consent of Congress to do so, quote. Yet Donald Trump, while holding the office of President, used his business entities to pocket millions of dollars from foreign states and royalty and never once went to Congress to seek its consent. That's another quote from Raskin. He also said the 7.8 million is, quote, almost certainly only a fraction of Trump's harvest of unlawful foreign state money. But this figure in itself is a scandal and a decisive spur to action. The payments were made to properties owned by Trump, according to the report, including his hotels in D.C. las Vegas and New York. The report said, quote, these countries spent often lavishly on apartments and hotel stays at Donald Trump's properties, personally enriching President Trump while he made foreign policy decisions connected to their policy agendas with far reaching ramifications for the United States. Documents provided to the committee showed, for instance, that Saudi Arabia and its royal family spend at least $615,000 at Trump properties during his administration. It noted that while Saudi Arabia did this, Trump signed an arms deal as president in 2017 with the government worth more than $100 billion. And it's important to note too, Trump did this without the approval of Congress, getting pomp to say that there was an emergency so that they could do an end run around Congress to sell these arms to Saudi Arabia. The information contained in the committee report stems from documents from Mazars, Trump's foreign accounting, excuse me, Trump's former accounting firm, although could be both actually foreign accounting firm fits here, which took Democrats years of litigation to obtain. Remember it took like three years to get the Mazars documents. They first attempted to acquire the records when they last served in the House majority and then issued a subpoena to Mazars in 2019. Trump fought the subpoena in court, but ultimately reached a settlement with Mazars and the committee in September 2022 that said the accounting firm had to produce relevant records. Democrats say, however, that Republicans then successfully got a court to terminate the enforcement of the agreement in July of 2023. Huh, quote. Despite these obstacles, committee Democrats succeeded in obtaining a subset of documents that shine a light on the finances of at least some of the former president's businesses, despite being incomplete and lacking in significant respects because of the chairman's actions and significant gaps in the records possessed by missiles. That's also from the report. So that's interesting. After that whole fight, somehow the Republicans were still managing to block some of the Mazars documents, but the House Democrats got enough of them to put this report out.

[D]

All right, A.G. thank you so much. The story's from NBC. A Florida man was arrested Wednesday in connection with threats to kill Rep. Eric Swalwell. As we know, he's a Democrat from California and not just him, his children as well. Now, Swalwell was not named in the court documents, but he confirmed the threats targeting him and his family. And I quote, there is no place in America for threats of political violence. That's what he said in a statement on Wednesday night and went on to say, we must always resolve our differences at the ballot box. While I will continue to protect my family and staff, these continue threats will never stop me from representing my constituents. Now, Michael Shapiro, he's a 72 year old from Green Acres, made his initial appearance Wednesday in connection with the threats. The Justice Department, that's where that came from. And he was released on bail and has an arraignment scheduled for January 24th. Well, according to a criminal complaint, Shapiro left a series of threatening voicemails at Swalwell's congressional office in Washington last month. The five voicemail messages Shapiro is alleged to have made from his Florida home on December 19th included threats to come after and kill you and a threat to come and kill your children. Now, Shapiro left other voicemails that appeared to refer to allegations tying Swalwell to a suspected Chinese intelligence operative. You know that myth that got debunked? Yeah, that's according to the complaint. They repeatedly refer to a Chinese spy and Fang Fang, it says. Now the House Ethics Committee last year ended its investigation into Swalwell dating to 2021 over allegations that he had ties to a suspected chines by Christine Feng. Well, that investigation arose from an Axios report that Feng was involved in fundraising operations for Swalwell's 2014 reelection bid and helped put an intern in his office. Now, it's not the first time Shapiro has been accused of making threats. He pleaded guilty in federal court in 2019 to making threatening communications to another victim. That's according to the complaint. Now, an attorney listed for Shapiro did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. And Shapiro's arrest comes amid a wave of threats, as we've seen, to public officials and those seeking political office. A New Hampshire man was indicted last month after threatening text messages were allegedly sent to three presidential candidates, and that included Republicans Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie. Now, threats have also reached state officials, with at least six state capitol complexes being forced to evacuate Wednesday morning because of bomb threats, email bomb threats, if I'm correct on the story now. Last month, the FBI said it was working to address threats to Colorado Supreme Court justices after the court deemed former President Donald Trump ineligible for the state's Republican primary ballot.

[B]

Just violence upon violence because of the former guy.

[D]

Yep.

[B]

All right. Remember when Steve Bannon was arrested on his buddy's boat by the post office cops? I do for his We Build the Wall scheme? Well, that yacht he was on belonged to Guo Wengwei, and we have an update on that guy from Courthouse News. Federal prosecutors in New York on Thursday added an expansive racketeering account against Chinese financier Guo Wengwei, who was accused of orchestrating a $1 billion fraud consp. Wang Wei, an associate of the American conservative media strategist Steve Bannon, was arrested in March 2023 at his apartment in the Sherry Netherland Hotel in Manhattan, where a fire subsequently broke out later that day as FBI agents were still searching it. Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have accused Wang Wei, also known as Miles Guo or Ho Wan Kwok, of carrying out a complex conspiracy to defraud thousands of his online followers out of over a billion dollars by lying to prospective investors and promising them outsized returns if they invested or provided money to his Chinese media platform GTV and other companies, including the Himalaya Farm Alliance, G Clubs and the Himalaya Exchange. Wang Wei's first indictment included criminal counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, securities fraud, international money laundering and obstruction of justice. The superseding indictment, unsealed Thursday morning, adds an additional count of racketeering conspiracy under racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act. That's the RICO statute which carries a 20 year max sentence and forfeiture of any ill gotten gains from the activities the crimes. Prosecutors say that from 2018 through at least March of last year, Wang Wei and his co conspirators carried out a criminal enterprise through a series of complex fraudulent and fictitious businesses and investment opportunities that connected dozens of interrelated entities which allowed the defendants and their co conspirators to solicit, launder and misappropriate victim funds. The RICO count includes forfeiture allegations requiring the turnover of any interest in security of claim against or property or contractual right of any kind, affording a source of influence over any enterprise the defendant and the co conspirators established, operated, controlled, conducted or participated in the conduct of in violation of Section 1962. According to prosecutors, he misled would be investors in a crypto asset security referred to as H Coin, Himalaya coin or HCN, falsely stating that 20% of H coin's value was backed by gold and that he would personally compensate investors for any potential losses. Those the gold was found in Menendez's house, by the way. No, I'm kidding. Later last year okay, so this is in 2023. U.S. attorney Damon Damian Williams announced that September of 2022 and March of 2023 the feds had seized about $634 million from 21 different bank accounts.

[D]

Goodness.

[B]

New York bankruptcy lawyer Luke Despin was appointed as a Chapter 11 trustee to locate Wen Wei's assorted assets. I don't envy that job. The federal RICO act originated in 1970 as a tool to fight mobs organized crime. The law enables prosecutors to target people in upper positions of authority within a criminal organization, not just lower level people handling the dirty work. A statute is not limited exclusively to organized crime. The U.S. supreme Court noted in 1989 that the law was drafted broadly enough to encompass a wide range of criminal activity, taking many different forms and likely to attract a broad array of perpetrators. Wang Wei has been detained since his arrest last year after being denied bail due to his history of obstructive behavior, including hiding his assets and failing to obey court orders. Why is Trump not in jail for this shit? US District Judge Annalisa Torres on Thursday denied his renewed motion for bail pending trial, which is set to start April 8th. In the year of the trial, that's this year. Wang Wei left China in 2014 during an anti corruption crackdown led by President Xi Jinping that ensnared people close to him including, including a top intelligence official. Chinese authorities have separately accused Guo of rape, kidnapping, bribery and other offenses that have sought the return of the self exiled tycoon. Guo made headlines in August 2020 when Bannon was taken into custody while aboard Guo's 150 foot yacht off the coast of Connecticut. On that he defrauded online donors in the name of helping construct then President Trump's southern border wall. That's the we build the wall scheme. Bannon was indicted for that, by the way, by the Manhattan DA and his trial is coming up. Bannon pled not guilty and was pardoned on the federal charges five months later by Trump in his final days at the White House.

[D]

Thanks so much, AG. This last story is from AlterNet. Seems a high ranking member of the South Carolina Republican Party is now facing charges of third degree assault and battery after both she and her mother were involved in a late December brawl at a bar owned by the family. That's according to police. But really, who among us have not been in a bar room brawl with.

[B]

Our mothers at a bar that we own?

[D]

Yeah, exactly.

[B]

I do it all the time.

[D]

And. Well, the state reported Thursday that South Carolina Republican Party political Director Braylee Estep, 22, was booked Wednesday along with her mother, Michelle stalvy Estep. She's 53. So, 22 and 53, respectively. Both women allegedly struck an unnamed victim with their fists while drinking at Stalvi's watering hole on December 23rd. Now, I'm not laughing at the violence. I'm laughing that there's so much of this in the Republican Party. And I can only think of, like, I'm sure there was a. I don't know. There's a list of who am I thinking of right now that got in a bar brawl? Was it Palin?

[B]

I don't know. But I remember somebody shoved a broken champagne flute into somebody's eye. Was that Felix Sater? There's so many.

[D]

It's so hard to keep track. Well, this one's in North Carolina, it seems. The state cited a police report which described the alleged encounter between Estep, her mother, Estep's boyfriend, and two unnamed bar patrons. In the report, a man believed to be Estep's boyfriend allegedly made a victim, made a victim and a witness, by the way, feel uncomfortable by hanging his arms over their shoulders, which prompted Estep to, and I quote, shake her head and call the victim and witness vulgar names. Then, according to the police report, the victim and witness then decided to leave and the bickering continued between the two parties in the parking lot. Now, even though the victim and the witness were leaving, Braylee Estep reportedly followed them and started to bang on the window of the vehicle. This caught the attention of Estep's mother and an unnamed third suspect to rally to her side and allegedly escalate the altercation. And this is a quote from the state's report. At some point, one of the suspects grabbed a Stanley cup from the vehicle's cup holder and began to bang it on the vehicle, placing dents into the vehicle and quote, went on to say an arrest warrant said that Braylee Estep and Michelle Estep did strike the victim several times with their hands, causing injury. After driving away, the victim and witness called local police. Both women were released on January 3rd after posting a $5,000 bond. Well, according to Estep's LinkedIn profile, she became the political director of the South Carolina Republican Party last August after serving as the party's deputy political director since June of 2023. Before then, Estep was a regional field director with the Georgia Republican Party and assisted with get out the vote efforts for Both Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp's 2022 campaign for reelection as well as former NFL star Herschel Walker's unsuccessful bid for the U.S. senate. Now, in addition to owning Stalvi's watering hole, Estep's family also owns the Conway, which is South Carolina based Stalvi's Bait and Tackle. I'm not sure why that's so important to the story, but perhaps a brawl is going to break out there as well. And apparently that bait and tackle shop is connect connected to the bar. Like literally connected to the bar.

[B]

Oh.

[D]

Yep.

[B]

So this was on December 23rd and then they left and then they were picked up and they weren't released until January 3rd. I wonder when they were picked up, how long did they have to sit in jail?

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Oh, goodness. LinkedIn profile.

[D]

I wonder what she's going to update her profile to now. Job change?

[B]

Bar brawls. Fascinating. Thank you for that story, Dana. We have a bunch of good news we have to get to today, but first we're going to talk to Mr. John Fugle. Sign for Feeble Slang Fridays. But we have to take a quick break, everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages.

[C]

We'll be right back.

[A]

It's Sunday morning, and that wonderfully relaxed feeling of a long, lazy day lingers in the air. If you want to make the moment last, may I suggest the perfect solution, the Martin Sheen Podcast. Join me, your host, Martin Sheen, for beautifully crafted 20 minute programs filled with never before heard stories of my life, along with personal reflections and poetry that inspires. The Martin Sheen Podcast is the perfect Sunday refresh. A chance to take a deep breath, relax, and know that the stress of Monday may be just around the corner, but not here, not now. So make this your weekly moment of calm as we explore faith, hope, love, and what it means to be human. And know this, this journey is ever unfolding as I invite you to see what's next with me, Martin Sheen. And thank you.

[B]

Hey, everybody. Welcome back. It is Friday and that means it's Fugal Sang Friday, everybody. I'm really excited to be joined by my friend, the host of Tell Me everything on Sirius XM progress channel 127 weeknights at 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific. And if you don't have Sirius satellite radio, you can listen to him at the John Fugal Saying Podcast wherever you get your pods. How are you, my friend?

[C]

Oh, Allison, I'm just great. Still looking for your name in the Epstein data. That's really. I spent all night trying to find a funny line, but you're, you're not there. I'm sorry, I, I looked for you.

[B]

Yeah, I didn't see you either.

[C]

Yeah, I really feel upset. It seems like the real hit hip thing to be on right now now. But it's, it's pretty amazing as distractions go for people who don't want to talk about the fact that Donald Trump took in $7.8 million from foreign governments while he was president. We can talk about his bff, the pedophile. So there's something for every morality out there.

[B]

Yeah. And all stuff we already knew. We just didn't know the absolutely gruesome and monstrous details of, say, some of the encounters with Alan Dershowitz, who insisted that he kept his underwear on. I don't understand what kind of monster you have to be to witness the rape of a minor child and decide to help the rapist. To help Epstein get a sweetheart deal with the who would be eventually the labor secretary in Trump's administration, somebody named Acosta down in Florida to help Dershowitz helped Epstein get that sweetheart deal so he could be serve his couple years from his home but still go to his office and leave a little bit. And then also to put a provision in there that none of Jeffrey Epstein's associates could be prosecuted and to have that deal signed by who would eventually become Trump's labor secretary and Alan Dershowitz eventually joining Trump's legal team. Those kinds of monstrous Acts just baffle me. I can't even imagine not wanting to help the victim in those situations. And not just that, but then going to help the perpetrator.

[C]

Yeah, but they thought they would get away with it. They thought they were that insulated and their power gave them that much protection. So.

[B]

Well, they did kind of get away with it. They're.

[C]

None of them went to prison kinda, but not quite enough. And you know, you're right to bring all this up. Dershowitz and Ken Starr were both lawyers for Jeffrey Epstein. Ken Starr, of course, who went after Bill Clinton for consensual adult activities, but covered up gang rape at Baylor University. So these guys were both lawyers for Jeffrey Epstein. They both defended Donald Trump in his impeachments. And it's worth pointing out that both Alan Dershowitz and Donald Trump are Jeffrey Epstein's Horcruxes. I don't know how familiar you are with Harry Potter, but that's where he put it. His soul when he died. Dershowitz has had a pretty interesting response to this, Alison. He, he went on Fox News and began screaming, saying that, I want to have a list of all the radical feminists who are pushing to get the names from the Epstein list revealed. And then Dershowitz said, I want to know how many of them have ever condemned Hamas for their rapes. So in other words, because Alan Dershowitz is mentioned frequently in the episode comparing himself to Hamas. No, he's saying, because he is mentioned frequently in the Epstein data, he's comparing you to Hamas. He's saying you probably sympathize with the terrorists. That's how terrified he is. And look, we're starting off the new year with a lot of positives, right? I mean, Joe Biden just pardoned all federal marijuana possession before the holidays. Mike DeWine in Ohio vetoed that bill that would have banned gender affirming cases for kids. We got prices falling. We got the best recovery from inflation from all the G7 nations stock market record highs. But the sweetest part of early 2024 is knowing that Alan Dershowitz will never get a table in any restaurant in Martha's Vineyard again, isn't it?

[B]

Yeah. And, and I should mention Epstein did go to jail for a little bit.

[C]

He went to jail for a little bit. And Ghislaine Maxwell, Donald Trump's bff, she's still in jail as well. But even her, her, she came out yesterday and was saying, but look at all this. These men were attacking these women and the only one in jail for it. It's a woman. And I'm like, lady, you were the predator bringing these young girls to these men. Thank God you're in jail for it. And listen, here's the end of the end of the day, Alison. You know this. If Bill Clinton was proven by an investigation to have engaged in illegal activity with underage women with Epstein, everyone on the left would reject him and make him a pariah for life. If Donald Trump was proven by the evidence to have engaged in sex with underage girls with Epstein, Donald Trump supporters would reject the evidence. That's the big difference here. And so it's fun. It's a nice little pageant to see how things are going on. But when Prince Andrew can pay 14 million of taxpayer funds to his victim and he's going to be comfortable for life, it just kind of shows that laws against sexual abuse are all too often laws for non millionaires. And the rich can get away with it.

[B]

Absolutely. Yeah. And speaking of rejecting evidence, I've been excited to ask you about this, and it's been a minute. This is not an exactly a breaking news story, but Nikki Haley. Oh, was asked about what caused the Civil War.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And she left the slavery part out and then came back to fix her answer.

[C]

That's right.

[B]

It's of course, slave, duh, slavery. I shouldn't even have to mention slavery. But it's about freedom. And then, of course, you know. Freedom to do what?

[C]

Exactly.

[B]

Exactly. So that was astounding. And yet I'm sure her numbers will go up with the Republican base for that answer.

[C]

It will, and it shows the power of white supremacy. She didn't say slavery on purpose because she knew that would hurt her with the base. She knew that criticizing the Confederacy would hurt her. She knew that criticizing slavery itself would hurt her with people who claim loudly to be Christians. And so it shows how terrified Nikki Haley is of white supremacy that she played dumb in such an elaborate way. You know, Republicans are all about states rights when it comes to slavery or the Civil War policing a uterus. But, you know, when it comes to Colorado and Maine taking Trump off a ballot or New York passing gun safety laws, they like suddenly, oh, no, no, we'll decide this for ourselves. Look, this is all the lost cause mythology crap. We know slavery was the main issue, but they still want to deny this because, you know, this modern racism is grounded in the denial of racism. Today you've got people who express institutionalized racism by being more angry about Colin Kaepernick's knee than they are about Derek Chauvin's. Knee. Now, in the era of Trump, it's all about. And you look among your right wing loved ones and co workers for this. You either are always criticizing racism or you're always criticizing protests against racism. And that's the modern Republican Party. What was great about this town hall was that it wasn't a journalist who asked her this question, because far too many people in mainstream media would never ask a basic, simple question like this. I love that it was a citizen who asked this question. And then she tried to say it was a Democratic plant. I mean, for God's sakes, it was actually literally in an open town hall. But it shows the exact kind of questions that Republicans need to be asked by mainstream media. Questions like, why was the Civil War fought? Was the Confederacy bad? Why is slavery evil? Where was Barack Obama born? Who won the 2020 election? Is climate change real? Is white supremacy bad? Just ask these really simple questions. But if I can go deeper on this. Nikki Haley propelled her career because she took down the Confederate flag. Right. And so she claims that she's this woke enlightened person. Nikki Haley for years defended the Confederate flag. But after the horrible shooting at a church in South Carolina by Dylann Roof, white supremacist, she made it about the Confederate flag to shift the conversation away from AR15s. Every time there's an AR15 slaughter in Vegas, it was bump stocks. They find a way to make us not talk about AR15s. All Nikki Haley did was take down a Confederate flag that she had defended for years and then tried to pass herself off as some kind of, of evolved cosplay moderate.

[B]

Right.

[C]

Yeah. We see exactly how she is now. And it was her state. It was the first state to vote to secede from the Union. They said that they were doing it because there was a war on slavery. That's literally the reason they gave. So she's playing dumb about it. But again, like I began by saying, she's terrified to tell the truth because of white supremacy. And if you're too scared to admit that slavery was the cause of the Civil War because your base won't like it, it if facts favor condemning racism, then that's your base and Nikki Haley, you deserve each other.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And they will never condemn white supremacy by name. I saw a clip with Vivek Ramaswamy being asked to condemn white supremacy. He's like, I'm not going to play your game. I'm not going to play your both sides game. I'm against all racism. And, you know, because he wants to be against the, the quote, unquote, real racism against white Christians, men, despite none.

[C]

Of them mean it. And this is, this is, this is also Elise Stefanik. I mean, Elise Stefanik tries to get the scalp, ironically, of a woman with no hair, but she's taking credit for taking down Claudine Gay as the president of Harvard because she cares so much about plagiarism and anti Semitism. If she actually cared about plagiarism, she'd be trying to get Neil Gorsuch thrown off the Supreme Court. And if she cared about anti Semitism.

[B]

She might be an anti Semitism.

[C]

I mean, she, she literally, like Donald Trump had Kanye west and professional Jew hater Nick Fuentes to his retirement home for Thanksgiving dinner and she can't bring herself to criticize it. She doesn't care. It's all faux outrage from a party that has nothing to offer non millionaires but umbrage. So this was Nick. This was at least Stefanik pretending she had actually done something to improve the life of a single American.

[B]

Somebody else who's not improving any lives of any Americans. Governor Greg Abbott is facing another, yet another lawsuit from Merrick Garland's Department of Justice. This time. This isn't the razor wire and bowie lawsuit. This is the show me your papers lawsuit. We're giving them names now because there's so many because Texas continues to thwart the Constitution.

[D]

That's right.

[B]

But they, you know, Texas wants their own local law enforcement to arrest people that they feel in their heart are illegal immigrants. And they want to have Texas judges be able to deport these folks to Mexico regardless of where they're coming from. Absolutely ridiculous. Anti constitutional. You know, here's where they want states rights again, but they can't have them. It's only when it serves their purpose. Do they care about what the Constitution says. Otherwise they just shit on it. Referring to the 14th Amendment as an obscure thing. Any Reconstruction Amendment, always. And they know that. So this is just absolutely monstrous, what Greg Abbott is trying to do in Texas, Flying immigrants to Chicago, working with DeSantis to fly immigrants to Martha's Vineyard without a heads up. It's, it's just absolutely.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Performative.

[B]

Monstrous. It's performative, it's political and it's horrible.

[C]

And DeSantis lied to get those people on that plane. Doesn't help anyone. And, and in the case of desantis, he dumped them on another Republican governor in Massachusetts. But again, these are not good men. They're not Christian men. They're not decent men. The cruelty is the point.

[D]

Point.

[C]

They've been trying to be as cruel as possible to shore up their own support. This is Netanyahu style politics. Desantis is realizing that he didn't go cruel enough. He wasn't racist and mean to marginalized groups enough. And that's why Trump is killing him here. But I was thinking about this because Donald Wildman died over the New Year's weekend and he was really one of the fathers of whatever we want to call Christian dominionism, fundamentalism. Now we call it Christian nationalism. And this is this belief that America is defined by Christianity and that the government has to take steps to keep it that way. We have to be a Christian nation because that's how we were always intended to be. And it's not just about our history. It's a prescription for what America is supposed to be in the future. And that's why you'll see like this federal court smacking down life saving abortions in Texas, right? Like literally 1986 emergency care law that if a woman's life is in danger, she can have an abortion. And the pro lifers are saying they don't care. Donald Trump came out over New Year's weekend and talked about how we have to deport people if they don't like our religion. Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, Rolling Stone had this article how he hangs the appeal to heaven flag from the new apostolic reformation outside his office. They believe NAR's belief is that it's God's will for Christians to take control of all American society. And they're literally saying we need to have a Christian, like they're coming out and saying it. And to me, Alison, a Christian nation implies you don't get to have a religion that's not Christianity. But Rashida Tlaib's a problem. Rashida Tlaib is a problem. So, you know, they say that Jesus and politics don't mix. Not true. Jesus and right wing politics don't mix. But Jesus and democracy mix just fine. What Abbott is doing is exactly what Sheriff Joe Arpaio tried to do and got in trouble for. Go round up anybody on the street and if they're an American citizen, but they're the wrong color and they don't have papers on them, deprive them of their liberties, deprive American citizens of their liberty and freedom and throw them in a cage because of the color of their skin. Greg Abbott knows, Ms. Gill, that this law is never going to stand. He knows this will eventually be struck down. He doesn't care he's doing it to be as mean as possible for the fundraising emails. That's it. And it's all done to this revoltingly fake Christianity. Did you see how Greg Abbott flipped out on the Houston Chronicle because on Christmas Eve they ran an editorial saying 2,000 years ago, a young family became refugees. And it was all about how Mary and Joseph, according to the Bible and the dictionary, were refugees. And 100 million people around the world have been displaced this year. And Greg Abbott tweeted how the Chronicle doesn't know the story of Joseph and Mary. They weren't refugees. Read Luke 2. They were ordered by the government to go to Bethlehem for the census. Nice distortion. Doing devil's work. Now, this shows that Greg Abbott is not just profoundly a fake Christian. He doesn't know a thing about the damn Bible. Luke is about going for the census, which, by the way, there's no evidence in any Roman history this census ever happened. I mean, but also he.

[B]

But also Greg Abbott was against counting immigrants in the census. Oh, yeah, of course I don't.

[C]

Habit's misquoting the Bible because it's in Matthew where the angel comes to Joseph and says, herod's going to kill your children. You have to flee. They literally sought refuge in Egypt, which, according to my dictionary, means they were refugees. He quoted the wrong book of the Bible because he doesn't know the damn Bible. There's one commandment in the entire Bible about immigration or borders. It is to welcome the stranger. That's in the Old Testament and the New Testament. There's so many verses about how you're supposed to treat refugees. But again, we don't get that. We get illegals, we get the border. In the Bible, God doesn't really give a shit about the invisible lines in the ground we invent to separate our tribes. That's not me calling for open borders. I'm just saying what's actually in the Bible. These flock fleecing frauds pretend to follow. And as you've pointed out so many times, Alison, these people are coming here. Under current US Immigration law, they are not illegal. But illegals is the most acceptable slur we've got. I mean, have you ever heard Fox News describe a Caucasian lawbreaker as an illegal? But this is what they do, right? Like, they gotta keep those beneath you angry, so they gotta keep on shaking the jar to keep the ants fighting each other so the ants don't realize who's shaking the jar. But like I asked myself, what kind of Christian thinks welcome the stranger means run razor wire through the Rio Grande. Yeah. And that's the kind of Christian who rejects the shit Jesus really talked about, like Greg Abbott, people who have actually read the Bible, whether you believe it or not, atheist believers. We need to call these frauds out using their own alleged book in 2024.

[B]

Thank you so much, my friend. I really appreciate your time today. I love Fugal saying Fridays. It's my favorite. So everybody please check out Tell Me Everything on Sirius XM progress channel 127. It's weeknights, 9pm Eastern, 6pm Pacific. Or you can listen to the John Fugelsang podcast. Follow him everywhere on social media. My friend, John Fugelsang, thank you again, Alison.

[C]

Thank you for making American better. See you next week.

[B]

We'll see you next week, everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back with the good news.

[A]

It's Sunday morning and that wonderfully relaxed feeling of a long lazy day lingers in the air. If you want to make the moment last, may I suggest the perfect solution, the Martin Sheen Podcast. Join me, your host, Martin Sheen, for beautifully crafted 20 minute programs filled with never before heard stories of my life. Along with personal reflections and poetry that inspires. The Martin Sheen Podcast is the perfect Sunday refresh. A chance to take a deep breath, relax and know that the stress of Monday may be just around the corner, but not here, not now. So make this your weekly moment of calm as we explore faith, hope, love and what it means to be human. And know this, this journey is ever unfolding as I invite you to see what's next with me, Martin Sheen. And thank you.

[B]

Everybody. Welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news?

[C]

Everyone? Then good news news everyone.

[B]

Good news. And if you have any good news confessions, corrections, you want to play what the mutt find the cat. What the hecwin Opine on the bovine. What the hell's in that shell? Cat Me. If you can. What's the model of that Oxalotl or any other what the animal game. You can send that to us. If you have theses titles, dissertation titles, wobby stories, blanky stuffed animal stories. I love those. If you have a self shout out or a shout out for a loved one, your spouse, your partner, your k parents, you. Like I said, I love the self shout outs very very much. Please keep sending those in. Frog orgies, some charismatic megaplastics stories. Anything at all you want to send to us dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. And this weekend my friends in refried beans, you will be getting A rerun of charismatic, megaplastic Happy Anniversary Dildos. Probably the greatest episode of all time. Of the Daily Beans. And it's. It's January. We, you know, I think it's January 5th episode. So it's. It's also very interesting to hear the whole episode because of what was about to happen.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And so we talk a little bit about that. Dana, you're like, I don't know. I feel like something crazy is going to go down tomorrow. I don't know. And as it turns out, crazy. Something crazy went down, as it turns out, and here we are three years later. So look, for that episode, if you haven't listened to charismatic, megaplastic. Seriously, it's one of the. One of the best ones. All right, let's hit this news and start with Dan Pronouns. He and him. That was a weird. Let's hit this news, people.

[D]

If you had any idea what's happening behind the scenes today, you would think we both need a cocktail. But we're just gonna roll with it. We're rolling with it because our producers are like, I shouldn't have to work this hard and they shouldn't.

[B]

Seriously, that. And that, that, you know, thank you to our patrons who help pay for our wonderful producers and editors and administrators and network director. Seriously, we couldn't do this show without you. Thank you for being a patron. Oh, and I should say I'm going to be in, I think, on Monday's Beans maybe, or this weekend on Jack, we're going to start announcing. We're going to send out the rsvp. I'm going to tell you the date. We're going to send it out for our April 20th get together in D.C. i will make sure you do not miss it. I will send instant messages. I will post it on Patreon, whether it's clean up on L45 daily beans or at the Jack podcast or both. We're going to send it to the email you signed up for Patreon and Super Cast with. We're going to do all of that to make sure that you know when the RSVP is coming, because you have to be a patron and we have to cut it off at a certain amount of people because, you know, fire marshal says we can only have a certain amount of people in the venue. So if you aren't yet a patron, now's a good time to sign up. But also, I, you know, I. I wanted to clarify that if you are a Subs paying subscriber on Apple, that we don't have A way to get in touch with you. So you'd have to be a patreon or super cast member so that we can send that information to you. So if you want to switch, you can do that too. I just wanted everybody to be clear on that because if you know, if you know how you can subscribe through Apple for ad free podcasts. We just don't have a way to know who you are to get a hold of you. It's anonymized. All right, anyway, back to the good news. Dan pronouns he and him. Hey Beans Queens. I had a wonderful moment while working. I started a conversation with a gay couple. A little this and a little that. And they told me they were getting married soon. I mentioned the Daily beans and one of them said, oh yeah, my mom listens to them. I told them what an incredible the incredible things you two were doing. A blessing later and they thanked me for being me. I really enjoyed talking with them and receiving an affirmation. So thanks for you encouraging me to step out and share love with those who need it.

[D]

Very, very sweet. What a great way to start today.

[B]

That is awesome.

[D]

All right, this one's from Christy Pronouns she and her hello ladies. I sent in the good news in July of 2022 that my fiance proposed at Niagara Falls. Well, he is now my husband. My husband. This past weekend we got married at a beautiful BNB in Stowe, Vermont. Now it was just the two of us and it could not have been more perfect. Dashes a photo from after the ceremony and also our pod pet tax of our three animals who now live together. Although the cat, my husband's dog have a very uneasy truth. You guys look beautiful. By the way.

[B]

A bed and breakfast in Verm sounds like. Remember the Bob Newhart show? That's what that reminds me of. Look how beautiful.

[D]

Very sweet.

[B]

What a beautiful.

[D]

This dog's like. That used to be my spot.

[B]

Both look amazing. Yeah, the dogs. Yeah, the dog's like. And look at the beagle in the background. Oh, adorbs. Well, congrats, Christy. All right, next up from Diana Pronoun. She and her hello Beans family. Just a short note to tell you how much I appreciate the work you do. I remember finding MSW when I was listening to Maddow's bag. Was that the kitchen table days? And I've been an avid listener ever since. I tell anyone who will listen about your podcasts. My good news is that I'm lucky enough to share a birthday with the megaplastics episode on January 5th. I'll be 52 years old sharing with you my two furry babies. I got them to sit still for this photo for all of 15 seconds. You can see them looking up at the treat we were dangling overhead. Feel free to guess their breeds.

[D]

Well, we actually don't have that specific photo. It looks like something got doubled in the good news. And so we're missing the two dogs that were doing what the mutt for? So I almost don't even want to scroll because I'm hoping we can get them soon. Maybe tomorrow's podcast.

[B]

Yeah, we need pumpkin and pepper photos because I think we have a repeat of Christie's pets. Nice with the uneasy truce. All right, we'll skip over the the the dog breeds here and we'll go for the closer. Love all the work. P.S. i wrote in before to tell you about my angel baby, Brandon, who died at 7 weeks old the night Obama was elected November 4, 2008. November 4, 2020 was not the day Biden officially won, but it was the day when the tides turned and it was looking likely that Trump would be defeated. So I believe my angel baby continues to look over all of us.

[D]

Oh, very sweet. Sending love. Sending love.

[B]

Thanks, Diana.

[D]

Yes. All right, we have another Christy with a K, this time pronoun she and her formerly a Phoenix, now back in Melbourne. Melbourne. Excuse me. No pronouns given. Hello. Another kitchen table listener here. Good. Yep. My good news. A couple of weeks before Christmas, I dared to click on an email from Mohela, my student loan processor. I hope I'm saying Mohela, right, but also it's a student loan processor. So Grandpa Joe has forgiven all my student loans. I had about 80,000 left to pay from undergrad and PhD and Grandpa Joe made it all go away. I can't believe I it. I was sure I would die with those student loans. Hallelujah. Love to ag, DG and the whole Illuminati. No pod pet tax for the moment. My dog is still in Arizona. Sad face, but could you imagine waking up checking your email and literally you don't have to pay $80,000 that you've been paying for years? Probably that's just been covering the interest. I mean, that's huge.

[B]

I did.

[D]

Well, there you go.

[B]

I did. I woke up and my $79,000 student loan was erased because amazing Biden went in and erased all student debt for 100% disabled veterans.

[D]

Wow.

[B]

He's doing everything that he can to get rid of everybody's student debt. If you have a student debt erasure story, send it into us. We'd love to hear about it. Next up, Proud Mama pronoun she and her thesis Shout out and a pod Pet Tax Hello Allison and Dana. I want to give a shout out to my son for completing and publishing his master's thesis. Quote Rus Expressions of romanitas between the 10th and 15th centuries, which focused on how the Rus, the medieval ancestors of the Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians, developed a Romanized identity starting in the 10th century and how that has led to modern events. This I I want to read this. It was published in the Wellabithian A Journal of History Volume 50 almost a year ago, but I hadn't yet discovered the daily beans, and now that I have, I'm shouting it out. I'm so very proud because I know what a Herculean task it was to research and synthesize the material, then write the paper. So damn proud. So, for all those HR types looking for a new hire with excellent research, analytic and writing skills, don't overlook people with history degrees. Mypodpet tax is being paid via a whip smart tuxedo Kitty we adopted in early 2023 when a friend of ours was looking for homes for an unplanned litter of kittens. Meet Sir Maxim the Proud, formerly Sir Maxim the Tiny. Oh my goodness, he's got the little white chin. Oh, and there's a baby picture.

[D]

Oh look.

[B]

Amazing.

[D]

Kitty. Kitty.

[B]

That's so cool. Thanks, Proud Mama.

[D]

Yep. All right, this next one's from Kit Pronouns she and her Ag I'm so glad you shared the story of being taken with your mom when she voted and how she explained to then child Ag that whatever and whoever you vote for inside the booth is private. Now I remember a story my mother shared with me about how she and my father got into an argument after he asked how she voted. Yeah, when her reply wasn't the same candidate he chose, he was furious that she canceled his vote. Insert my eye roll here is that phrase. Now. Mom never shared how she voted with him again and always stressed that my brother and I could vote as we pleased so long as we did our civic duty and vote. Now as you can guess, Mom's views skewed more liberal as do mine. Dad, not so much. I think the lesson I took away as a child was vote the opposite of however your dad votes. Lol. Today I do take care to look into the candidates and do my research. But I was liberal. Skewing means I'm still voting opposite of whatever. Dad would choose something vital in a red state. Thank you AG&DG for being amazing, keeping the news swearable, and for all your hard work. Work. Including pics of my three felines for pet tax. Ginger Grant is my chunky orange tabby diva. Belly up is always a trap. Gretel is the smaller, more skittish sweetie and mostly white fur. What do you call that pattern? Piebald. Do y' all know ag do you know?

[B]

Oh, no, I don't, but I. I had a cat named Russell T. Cat that looked just like that and we just called him a Turkish.

[D]

Okay, there you go. And finally, of the three, we've got Conti t Kitty Baker, void of big appetite and giver enthusiastic headbutts.

[B]

Look at these babies.

[D]

Oh, my goodness.

[B]

So lovely. Piebald. I'll look that up. I'm not sure because I've had two cats that have this. These markings. There was no. There was a Russell T. Cat, Rusty and then Dipstick because his tail was the only. The tip of his tail was orange, so he looked like a dipstick.

[D]

Oh, how funny.

[B]

Beautiful kitties. Thank you so much for sending all this in. Everybody, thank you so much for listening. We really appreciate you. Don't forget, we'll have the beans weekly wrap up. That's a bonus episode for patrons this weekend. We'll also have the cleanup on aisle 45 bonus episode that comes out this weekend for patrons of that podcast. Then, of course, we'll be in your ears on Sunday with the Jack podcast. That's me and Andy McCabe and Dana and I will be back Monday. Do you have any final thoughts, my friend, on this?

[D]

I do. Happy anniversary dildos.

[B]

Excellent. Everybody, until Monday, please take care of yourselves, Take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your ment health, take care of your family.

[D]

Vote blue over Q and take that family with you. I've been ag and I've been dg.

[B]

And them's the beans.

[C]

Refried beans.

[B]

I like refried beans.