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The Daily Beans
Refried Beans | Janelle Meownae (feat. Adrian Fontes)
01:03:09
Mar 7, 2021 Democrats have passed the American Rescue Plan propping up the middle class with $1.9T; a Trump campaign aide and State Department appointee is arrested for his role in the insurrection; the FBI finds a contact between a member of the Proud Boys and the White House before the attack on the Capitol; Rep. Zoe Lofgren catalogs GOP members spreading the big lie leading up to the siege; Eric Swalwell sues Trump for his role in the insurrection; the Fulton County Georgia DA hires a top RICO prosecutor for her investigation into Donald; Manchin signals that he’s amenable to amending the filibuster; plus AG and Dana Goldberg (@DGComedy) deliver the Hot Notes and your Good News.
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- [00:00]
Allison 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.
- [00:21]
Dana Goldberg
Refried beans. I like refried beans. That's why I want to try fried.
- [00:23]
Allison Gill
Beans, because maybe they're just as good.
- [00:25]
Dana Goldberg
And we're wasting time.
- [00:33]
Allison Gill
Daily Beans. Daily Beans.
- [00:37]
Jaleesa Johnson
Daily Beans.
- [00:38]
Allison Gill
Daily Beans. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Monday, March 8, 2021. Today, Democrats have passed the American rescue plan, propping up the middle class with $1.9 trillion. A Trump campaign aide and State Department appointee is arrested for his role in the insurrection. The FBI finds a contact between a member of the Proud Boys and the White House before the attack on the Capitol. Rep. Lofgren catalogs GOP members spreading the big lie leading up to the siege. Eric Swalwell sues Trump for his role in the insurrection. The Fulton County, Georgia DA hires a top RICO prosecutor for her investigation into Donald. And Manchin signals that he's amenable to amending the filibuster. I'm AG And I'm Dana Goldberg. Hey. Hey. Happy Monday. And you know what? We're already a week through March. It seems to be going regular speed watch.
- [01:33]
Jaleesa Johnson
Just careful. Careful what you say, AG Knock on wood. Knock on wood. So far, everything's okay.
- [01:38]
Allison Gill
So far, yeah. Biden even moved up his end of May supply for every adult to be vaccinated to mid May. We had a record setting 2.9 million doses administered the last count. It's going up. He will easily make his 100 million shots in arms in the first hundred days. Of course, Republicans are like, oh, the schools aren't open yet. And I'm like, it's day 48. He said 100 days, like calm.
- [02:05]
Jaleesa Johnson
I really hope that, I mean, what he has done with this, with what he started, he has really pulled off something tremendous. And I do hope that he gets the proper credit for what he's done with this vaccination rollout. After what we started with, it's been pretty amazing.
- [02:19]
Allison Gill
And the COVID relief plan, too. He pitched 1.9 trillion, he got 1.9 trillion. There were some small concessions with a couple of Democrats, but it took 32 days from start to finish. The Affordable Care act was half as much, cost half as much, and it took nine months. So. And that's no slam on Obama. Back then. He was trying to negotiate with Republicans. And Republicans were proposing amendments that were being let in exchange for a vote, a promise to vote yes on it. And then the Republicans reneged on their promises. So we learned our lesson, I think is what's happening. But we got it passed really quickly. And then of course I'm going to be talking with Adrian Fontes. He's the former Maricopa county recorder. Just really incredible guys doing a lot of great work out in Arizona. We talk a little bit about what's going on with the anti voting bills that are coming out of the Arizona state legislature and some of the other antics that are happening.
- [03:15]
Jaleesa Johnson
Maybe he can talk to a certain senator about not taking her theatrics into voting sessions.
- [03:22]
Allison Gill
We did mention that. We didn't mention the theatrics. Although, I mean, you know, a lot of people at Kyrsten Sinema's office were calling it sexist to be upset with the way in which she phys voted. I don't know, she looked like a dick to me. But you know, I. That was just.
- [03:44]
Jaleesa Johnson
No, you and I are on the same page. I think it was completely inappropriate. If you want to vote no, fine, you can talk about it. She said that she didn't like that the minimum wage happened to be in the COVID relief plan. You don't need to walk in there like Marie Antoinette and you know, with your little skirt in your expensive bag and go and put your thumb down like be an adult.
- [04:02]
Allison Gill
And you know, I was trying to do like John McCain. No, no, John McCain was voting against people having health care taken away from them. You were voting against raising the minimum wage, which you ran on.
- [04:16]
Jaleesa Johnson
Right. And she said she doesn't want to do it now. She would look at a bill. I always think back to the night I met her. I was backstage at a gala and Adam Rapon was talking to some woman and I wanted to meet Adam. So I walked up and waited and I was like, hey. And they both turned around and introduced myself to Adam Rapon. And then I asked this woman to take a picture of us and she was a little off putted, you know, she was a little put off by the whole thing and was really upset that I didn't know who she was. And that's the night I met Kyrsten Sinema. She did not like that.
- [04:46]
Allison Gill
I didn't have any idea who she was until she started writing. But. Okay, cool. Now also this Wednesday, clean up on aisle 45. We've got Merrick Garland vote set for this Wednesday. So that's going to be a big, a big fun thing. Now, we record that show on Monday, so keep that in mind. But Merrick Garland scheduled to vote for his confirmation is Wednesday. Also, hearings for Vanita Gupta start this week. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Now, we have a lot of news to get to this week. A lot. So let's do it. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, everybody, lead story. President Biden's sweeping $1.9 trillion stimulus bill passed a deeply divided Senate on Saturday. The Senate is the only thing divided the American people are not. We'll get into that in a minute. Democrats pushed through a pandemic aid plan that includes an extraordinary increase is spending in the largest anti poverty effort in a generation. The package which still must pass the House again before it heads to Joe Biden's desk. President Biden's desk to be signed into law is the first major legislative initiative of his presidency. And it comes at like day 40 something, you know, like 48. Just incredibly fast. And the measure seeks at once, it seeks to curtail the coronavirus pandemic, bolster the sluggish economy, protect the neediest people within it. He's starting from the ground up. Unlike the tax plan, which there was no economic crisis or panic pandemic when that was passed, that gave a bunch of money to rich people. Because we all know there's just a ton of evidence that trickle down economics works.
- [06:17]
Jaleesa Johnson
Oh, for sure. Yeah. No, Rudy Giuliani's hair dye actually trickles down faster than Reagan economics.
- [06:24]
Allison Gill
I remember we had an old episode of Mueller She Wrote called the thick trickle down boys, and that's what we referred to Republican dudes in Congress as. Now, Republicans voted unanimously against the bill and assailed it as unnecessary and unaffordable. The cool thing is they're gonna have a hard time proving that come election time. Unless shit goes bad, you know, they're not gonna be like, there was just too much money. Look how successful we are. That's not a.
- [06:54]
Jaleesa Johnson
That's not gonna work out well.
- [06:56]
Allison Gill
No. It would inject vast amounts of federal resources into the economy, including one time direct payments of up to $1,400 for hundreds of millions of Americans. Jobless aid of $300 a week to last through September. Money for distributing coronavirus vaccines. Relief for states, cities, schools and small businesses. Beyond immediate aid, the bill, titled the American Rescue Plan, is estimated to cut poverty by a third this year and would plant the seeds for what Democrats hope will become an income guarantee for children. It would potentially cut child Poverty in half, though. A generous expansion of tax credits for Americans with children, which Democrats hope to make permanent increases in subsidies for child care. A broadening of eligibility under the Affordable Care Act. Act, meaning you can only be capped at 8% of your income as the cost of your monthly premium for the Affordable Care act, the highest plan and expansion of food stamps and rental assistance. It's just truly an incredible bill. Researchers at Columbia University project the overall package will lift more than 13 million people from poverty this year, including nearly 6 million children, and estimate that a permanent program of children's payments would decrease child poverty by half. Tell me how the Republican tax plan did any of that. It did not.
- [08:10]
Jaleesa Johnson
And zero Republicans, zero voted for it.
- [08:14]
Allison Gill
Yep. And on the cusp of this first major legislative achievement, 2/3 of Americans, more than 2/3, 68% approve of Biden's handling of the pandemic. That is a consistent result since he took office in January at a moment of deep political polarization. His study approval also reinforced by positive marks from 35% of Republicans, 67% of independents, and an overwhelming 98% of of Democrats in the poll, which was conducted by IPSOS in partnership with ABC News. Now, I think that that's amazing and wonderful. And if Bernie Sanders touted the plan as the most progressive, amazing thing we've done for the middle class in a generation, I think that the entire 98% of Democrats are behind this 67% of independents. And I've never seen 35% of Republicans like anything.
- [09:03]
Jaleesa Johnson
No kidding.
- [09:04]
Allison Gill
That a Democratic administration has done.
- [09:06]
Jaleesa Johnson
Yeah. Sherrod Brown, Senator Sherrod Brown said this is the most spectacular thing. He said he's. While he's been in the Senate his entire run. Yeah. And he's such a good man.
- [09:15]
Allison Gill
I think it's lost on. On some folks how big this legislation is. $2 trillion almost.
- [09:20]
Jaleesa Johnson
Yeah. It's pretty incredible. So hopefully we start seeing things turn around. Things are turning around already. Donald's in a lot of shit. The district attorney investigating whether former us the former guy. We're just going to call him the former guy investigating whether the former guy illegally interfered with Georgia's 2020 election has hired an outside lawyer who's a national authority and racketeering ag. So Fulton County District Attorney Feny Willis has enlisted the help of Atlanta lawyer John Floyd, who wrote a national guide on prosecuting state racketeering cases.
- [09:52]
Allison Gill
Kind of wrote the book on recon.
- [09:54]
Jaleesa Johnson
Kind of literally wrote the book. I hope he throws it right at Donald's face. Flo was he was hired recently to provide help as needed on matters involving racketeering, including the Trump investigation and other cases, which I think is very important. Lindsay Graham.
- [10:10]
Allison Gill
Giuliani or the Lindsay Graham. Yeah. Lindsey Graham.
- [10:13]
Jaleesa Johnson
Yeah, yeah. Said the sword. Who is direct and who has direct knowledge of the situation. The move actually bolsters the team's investigating Trump as Willis prepares to issue subpoenas for evidence on whether the former president and his allies broke the law in their campaign pressure to state officials to reverse his Georgia election loss. Now, Willis said that her office would examine potential charges, including solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local government bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, and those are just among other possible violations. The list goes on and on.
- [10:49]
Allison Gill
Somebody's in trouble.
- [10:53]
Jaleesa Johnson
It's all gonna start coming down.
- [10:56]
Allison Gill
Busted, moated. I'm so excited. All right, we'll keep an eye on that investigation for you. Thank you for that reporting, Dana.
- [11:03]
Jaleesa Johnson
Yes, ma'am.
- [11:04]
Allison Gill
All right, we got a lot about the insurrection here. Let's see how fast I can get through it. 3, 2. A political appointee of President Donald Trump has been arrested on charges that he stormed the US Capitol of January on January 6 and assaulted an officer with a weapon. I'll repeat that. An appointee of Donald Trump has been arrested on charges that he assaulted an officer with a weapon, marking the first arrest of a Trump administration official in connection with the insurrection. His name is Federico Guillermo Klein, former State Department official. He made an initial appearance by teleconference on Friday before a magistrate, Judge Faruqi in Washington, where prosecutors said they would seek to jail him pending trial at a hearing next Wednesday. They want him held without bail. The court papers obtained by the Post Washington Post detail Klein's alleged conduct throughout the siege of the Capitol, tracing his apparent movements and actions, from using a police shield to try to pry a door open to calling for reinforcements from a crowd. Klein had a top secret security clearance that was renewed in 2019 at the State Department. His LinkedIn profile the FBI identified as Klein's also listed a top secret security clearance and shows that Klein has been politically active in the Republican Party since 08, when he began volunteering for political campaigns. Before joining the State Department in 2017. Klein worked on the Trump campaign, too, which paid him a salary of 15 grand. Prosecutors said they're seeking to jail him pending trial on the grounds that he's charged with assaulting an officer. And a member of the far right nationalist Proud Boys was in communication with a person associated with the White House in the days just before the January 6th assault on the Capitol. Location, cellular and call record data revealed a call tying a Proud Boys member to the Trump White House. The FBI has not determined what they discuss, and the official would not reveal the names of either party separately. Enrico Tarrio, a leader of the far right nationalist Proud Boys, told the New York Times on Friday he called Roger Stone Jr. A close associate of Trump, while at a protest in front of the home of Senator Marco Rubio. During the protest, which occurred in the days before the capitol, he put Mr. Stone on speakerphone to address the cat the crowd. A law enforcement official, though, says it was not Mr. Tarrio's communication with Stone that we're talking about here. That's not what's being scrutinized. And that the calm made in front of Mr. Rubio's home was a different matter as well. That two members of the group were in communication with people associated with the White House underscores the access that violent criminalist extremist groups like the Proud Boys had to the White House and to people close to the former guy and Rep. Zoe Lofgren has quietly posted a nearly 2,000 page report documenting social media posts by her Republican colleagues who voted against certifying results of the election on January 6. The information compiled is not a secret, but the report is another sign of the deep distrust that has settled into the U.S. capitol in the weeks since the insurrection. The report chronicles the social media activity of members on public forums immediately before the November election and right after the January 6th insurrection. The report has been online for a week. It features a collection of social media posts and tweets that span dozens of pages from Paul Gosar in Arizona, where he urges supporters to hold the line days before what would become the insurrection. And another social media post included in the report, Gosar wrote, sedition and treason for stealing votes is appropriate. Hmm.
- [14:18]
Jaleesa Johnson
Yeah.
- [14:18]
Allison Gill
No, not.
- [14:20]
Jaleesa Johnson
Not appropriate. Not appropriate. Not appropriate.
- [14:23]
Allison Gill
The report also captures numerous tweets where ghosts are invoked. Ali, that's on Twitter. That's, you know, Ali Alexander. That's the account formerly used by him and a leader of Stop the Steal, who said in several Periscope livestream videos he planned the rally that preceded the riot. In conjunction with Gosar and two other congressional Republicans, Mo Brooks and Andy Biggs, Eric Swalwell now has filed a lawsuit against Trump, the former guy, for his role in the insurrection. This is now the second lawsuit brought against Trump, along with one filed by the naacp. We will keep you posted on the disposition of that lawsuit as it unfolds I imagine other congressional representatives will be signing onto it as they did with the NAACP lawsuit as well.
- [15:02]
Jaleesa Johnson
I hope it's lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit. I just want the cards to come crumbling down on this, this house of his. This is really interesting. This guy's still on my shit list. But Senator Joe Manchin said Sunday he open to altering the Senate filibuster eg to make it more painful for the minority party to wield. While reiterating his opposition to ending the procedural hurdle altogether. He said the filibuster should be painful. It really should be painful and we've made it more comfortable over the years, he said. That was on Fox News Sunday. Maybe it has to be more painful.
- [15:34]
Allison Gill
He's really into pain.
- [15:36]
Jaleesa Johnson
I mean, I wonder if he wants it to be more painful. He only said it three times.
- [15:40]
Allison Gill
Do you think maybe he wants it to be more painful?
- [15:43]
Jaleesa Johnson
It's unclear. It's really unclear to me. Let me continue with the story. Maybe we'll find out. Manchin has previously supported efforts to require senators to filibuster by talking on the chamber floor in order to hold up a bill, an idea he raised on NBC's Meet the Press. What a interesting idea considering people like, you know, Davis just spoke about $13 filibuster to, you know, to hold up women's rights. I just can't with these guys. Anyways. Yeah. Manchin, he went on to say if you want to make it a little more pain. Oh, he does want to make it painful. Okay. If you want to make it a little bit more painful, make him stand there and talk. Mansion said. I'm willing to look at any way we can, but I'm not willing to take away the involvement of the minority. How right. Which I think is what the Republicans feel like. They don't believe in that with voter suppression. They actually want to take away the involvement of the minority.
- [16:34]
Allison Gill
However, different minority, different minority.
- [16:37]
Jaleesa Johnson
Manchin did not rule out using budget this one is interesting to me. He doesn't rule out budget reconciliation process to pass a voting rights bill with a simple majority, keeping the door open to a potential workaround for the Democrats to push through a voting overhaul while preserving the filibuster. Now, the House on Wednesday, as we know, narrowly passed a sweeping package of election related reforms, a proposal they'd given the the symbolically important designation of HR1. And we've heard a lot about that. Now it's not clear how Manchin envisioned that HR1 could potentially be passed with through reconciliation because it's not A budget issue. Democrats proposed minimum wage increase was tripped up by the process. Just the process is strict rules. And left on the cutting room floor. We saw that happen as we talked about at the top of the hour with a few senators that we are not happy with. We do know the rules. We already know that the rules of budget reconciliation can be changed. So we can do that. However, they can only use it one more time this fiscal year Ag and it's very likely they're going to be using that to pass a sweeping infrastructure bill because it seems like with this administration, we might have to actually have Infrastructure Week.
- [17:47]
Allison Gill
Yeah. And then we're going to have the argument of does a voting rights bill take a back seat priority wise or does HR1 take a backseat priority wise? Does the John Lewis Voting Rights act take a backseat priority wise to an infrastructure bill? This is where we're going to start seeing those kinds of arguments because an infrastructure bill is directly a budget reconciliation consideration. You would not have to change the rules of budget reconciliation to use budget reconciliation to pass an infrastructure bill. You would have to change the rules to use your next shot at budget Reconciliation to pass HR1 or voting rights John Lewis Voting Rights act bill. Now, next year we get another shot to use the budget reconciliation.
- [18:28]
Jaleesa Johnson
When is the end of the fiscal year?
- [18:30]
Allison Gill
Is it October, September 30th? Yeah. Yeah.
- [18:33]
Jaleesa Johnson
Okay. Thank you.
- [18:34]
Allison Gill
So next year, 2022, before the elections, we could then use budget reconciliation, change the rules and pass HR1 or John Lewis Voting Rights Act. But we would only be able to do it once that year before elections happened right now. So that's kind of what's going on with that. At least he's not totally blocking everything here.
- [18:54]
Jaleesa Johnson
Right.
- [18:54]
Allison Gill
He's again, still on my shit list. But he's amenable to some of the Norman Ornstein ideas of, you know, making it. What was the word? Painful. Painful for the minority. They have to actually filibuster. You can't just. It's not a procedural thing anymore. And putting the onus on the minority to have to be there. There was a lot of really good ideas and that we came out with on Friday's show. And speaking of voting rights, Biden signed an executive order Sunday expanding voting access and what the White House calls an initial step in its efforts to protect the right to vote and ensure all eligible citizens can freely participate in the electoral process. Sunday's order directs the heads of all federal agencies to submit proposals for their respective agencies to promote voter registration and participation within 200 days while assisting states in voter registration under the National Voter Registration. In addition, the order instructs the General Services Administration to modernize the federal government's vote.gov portal. So every agency has to do this. So I'm thinking I work over it. When I worked over at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Veterans affairs would now have to put a proposal within the next 200 days on Biden's desk as to how they can help with voter registration. Can you imagine registering everyone who came into the va?
- [20:08]
Jaleesa Johnson
Incredible.
- [20:08]
Allison Gill
I mean, yeah. And that's. And this is every single agency. It's truly amazing. It's as much as you can do with an executive order. It also expands voter access and registration efforts for communities often overlooked in outreach, including the disabled, military serving overseas and incarcerated people. Now, ahead of the signing, Biden spoke about the order during virtual remarks at the Martin and Coretta King Unity Breakfast. That's an annual event commemorating Bloody Sunday where African American demonstrators demanding the right to vote were brutally beaten by police while crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. Yeah, so that's what he wanted to do today to commemorate Bloody Sunday. And he's a good man.
- [20:51]
Jaleesa Johnson
It's so nice to have decency back in the White House.
- [20:53]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah.
- [20:53]
Allison Gill
It's as far as he can go by himself. It's up. It's up to the Senate and us to push the Senate and the, the House to, to take it the rest of the way. All right, we'll be right back with Adrian Fontes. We're going to talk about Arizona. Stay with us after these messages will be read.
- [21:08]
Jaleesa Johnson
Baby.
- [21:14]
Allison Gill
Hey, everybody. Welcome back. We are excited. Today. We're talking to Adrian Fontes, Maricopa county, former Maricopa County Recorder, and he was the chief administrator of the elections for 2.6 million American voters. Adrian, welcome.
- [21:27]
Dana Goldberg
Thank you very much for having me, Allison.
- [21:28]
Allison Gill
No problem at all. I'm really excited to talk to you because there's a lot of stuff going on in Arizona between what we saw that Republican try to propose the other day on the floor and then again all of this legislation they're trying to push through. And I think it's important that we address because Arizona is such a pivotal and important state and it was in 2020 and it will continue to be now, I believe, with the way things are going and the fact that you are all redistricting this year. So let's kick it off with talking about the US House of Representatives passing HR1 and how that would impact the voters in Arizona. Can you talk a little bit about the provisions of HR1?
- [22:15]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, absolutely. So there's several sections of HR1. Some of it has to do with campaign finance reform, some of it has to do with some of the other major infrastructure parts of voting. But as it pertains specifically to voters, it really does expand early voting. It expands the possibility of ballot by math. It opens up voter registration. It really does support the idea that in this democracy the people's voice ought to matter. And it tries to bring as many people as possible into a position where they can easily vote. It gives a chunk of money to security and helps really local administrators and states as well to lock down that infrastructure. So it's a really, really comprehensive bill. Probably the best shot in the arm that American democracy has had since. Since the Civil Rights act and the Voting Rights act era back in the 60s.
- [23:08]
Allison Gill
Yeah. And I think, unfortunately, because we have a few senators, including one from Arizona, who do not want to remove the filibuster, that we aren't going to be able to get HR1 passed because we have, by law, one more shot to use budget reconciliation. We would have to change the budget reconciliation rules to allow HR1 to get passed. But I think that they want to use their second shot that fiscal year 2021 budget reconciliat process to pass infrastructure. But today, Joe Biden has signed an executive order expanding voter access and registration efforts. These are for communities often overlooked in outreach, including disabled militaries overseas and the incarcerated. But also, and particularly in Arizona, talk a little bit about, for example, this new voter ID law and how that impacts particularly indigenous peoples who live in your state because there are a lot of folks on the reservation who can't have a physical address because everything is through P.O. box. And I know that there was a problem with that in some other states too. And I think that the Republicans are kind of looking to piggyback off of what they found in other states to use there in Arizona.
- [24:24]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, it's interesting, the posture of a lot of our legislative Republicans here and a lot of the laws that they've passed past seem not to be so much anti Democratic, but anti democracy. Right. They really are working their way through bit by bit, piece by piece. And in this session, really an avalanche of anti voter laws that have come through. As far as voter ID, I think it was last session during the 2022, 2020 session, might have been the one before they instituted voter ID during early in person voting. Voting, which had never been the case. And so now if you go to vote in person at any time during the Course of an election in Arizona, you've got to present id. We have a lot of other very interesting quirky things in Arizona as well. We're the only state in the union that has a fed only ballot. In other words, if you don't have proof of citizenship, if you're sworn, prosecutable by perjury statement is an enemy enough, you get just a fed only ballot. Right. You can only vote for president, senate and Congress. And then you can have a state ballot if you've proven it or if the local administrator can go find that information. So it just is one big piece of the giant or it's one, a bunch of pieces of this bigger puzzle of really sort of a push towards authoritarianism from the political far right. And here, here's the funny thing about it. I worked with and still do work with plenty of Republican county recorders and election directors across Arizona who really want to expand access. They want to make things easier for a lot of people to vote. They want to make it easier for Native Americans on reservations to vote. They want to increase access, you know, with, even with mobile voting and registration trucks and things like this that are being done in very Republican cabinets counties. But it's the legislature, it's a small group of very powerful Republican politicians who are afraid of their voters, they're afraid of democracy, and they're gonna keep pushing this really terrible agenda as they have this year. And I mean, we could talk about some of those bills, but boy, it's come to a head this year.
- [26:40]
Allison Gill
Yeah. And Republicans know that when people can vote, they lose Republicans loose. And their only remedy is to, as much as they can, limit people's access to the ballot box. And even though major prominent Republicans who I would never call friend, said that there was no widespread voter fraud in 2020, they're still using the excuse that there's a potential for fraud. You know, like, I mean, I'm talking Bill Barr, Mitch McConnell, they lost 64 lawsuits because they evidence that there was voter fraud. And yet here they are saying there could be so much voter fraud we have to make it real hard to vote.
- [27:24]
Dana Goldberg
Well, and interestingly, you know, Stanford just came out with a study indicating that expanded ballot by mail and expanded access had almost no partisan impact whatsoever across the United States. Moreover, here in Arizona, we've always had a very healthy ballot by mail system, at least going back the last 20 years. We've always had a very healthy early voting system. We always had all of this stuff. And we've been a pretty dark red state during all that time. And if you look at some of the restrictions they're putting on ballot by mail, for example, one of the bills that's still going through tells you that you have to send like a Xerox copy of your ID in the ballot envelope with your ballot. That's one of the pieces of legislation they want to introduce here. So here's the deal where you have areas like Sun City, Sun City west, usually Republican advantage down in Sun Lakes and sort of the Chandler Gilbert area in Maricopa county, also enormously advantageous to Republicans. All these folks vote by mail and we're talking high 80s. 90% of the voters vote by mail. Huge margins for Republicans. These are folks who are mostly retired, a lot of elderly, retired military, things of this nature. They're making it harder for their own voters to vote because they're afraid that more voters are gonna vote generally. Generally. And it's that sort of self defeating extremism in the rules about voting that's going to have a real negative impact. And one other funny thing about this, not funny, but tragic. We were talking on a Recorder's association phone call because as you know, I'm the chief deputy recorder down in Tucson, which is the Pima county area now, after coming out of office in Maricopa county, we were on a call where we statewide, Maricopa County, Arizona. If you added one second onto the processing of every mail in ballot that showed up this year, one second at 1.9 million ballots, you're adding 500 hours of work to the workload. Now to take out an extra sheet of paper from that envelope and to have to process it against the envelope and against the voter record is going to add a heck of a lot more than one second worth of work per envelope. And at 1.9 million, every second counts. And so the less efficient they make it, the harder they make it on voters and administrators, they're just adding on enormous costs to this thing. And you know, these are supposed to be fiscally conservative folks. The best systems exist in Arizona. And they just don't want to admit it because they all just want to keep swallowing that lie that Donald Trump is feeding them. And they're just kind of taking it down like it's, you know, like it's so much beer at a college frat party. It's crazy.
- [30:10]
Jaleesa Johnson
Right?
- [30:10]
Allison Gill
Like associating yourself with Trump really helped anyone running for major office, elected office in Arizona in 2020 and 2018. So, yeah, so they're making it more expensive, they're adding bureaucracy and they're disenfranchising a lot of their own voters. I have, my grandparents lived in Sun City for Sun Lakes for a really long time. To have them go and get a driver's license or an id, it's just, it's difficult. And so, you know, it'll be interesting. They must know that the number of disenfranchised Republican voters is smaller than the number of disenfranchised or would be disenfranchised Democratic voters or they wouldn't do this unless they're just dumb.
- [30:53]
Dana Goldberg
That's the thing, they don't know that. And as a proportion of voters, voters, they don't have any way of really measuring that because the reality is there are more Republicans who vote by mail than there are Democrats. More of their base votes by mail and is used to voting by mail. Remember ballot by mail in Arizona and the permanent early vote list, all that stuff started under Republican administrations to advantage Republican voters. The entire early voting system was engineered towards this very specific demographic of folks who did not have a lot of mobility. They did not get out that often. They did not have the capacity to get out and about. And so really sending them the ballot, having the signature verification system that is very secure. Most of the foundations for these systems were built under the administration before mine and that was a 28 year long Republican stint at the county recorder's office in Maricopa. And so what we have here is a dismantle of a system that was actually advantageous to Republicans and kept Republicans in power in Arizona under the guise of disadvantaging politically Democrats who have shown to be a lot more flexible in the way that they talk to and encounter their voters. The clear evidence of that is the voting patterns and timing of turning in ballots in the 2020 election. So there are a lot of factors here and I just don't think that they had an intelligent analysis go through through. Particularly for Arizona's voters. There would have been better ways for them to advantage or disadvantage politically. But at the end of the day, you know, one of the things that's super important, I mentioned earlier that Stanford study shows, you know, changing these systems doesn't have that big of a partisan advantage or disadvantage. And I think the mythology that they live under is putting them in a position to hurt voters across the political spectrum. That's why I'm so concerned about it. This is as far as I'm concerned. I'm an American first and as an election administrator I wanted to treat all voters with as much equity as possible. Right. Get those that have been traditionally underserved served well, and get those that had been traditionally voting aware of the time, place and manner of their elections also. So I just think they're just doing it wrong and for the wrong reason.
- [33:14]
Allison Gill
Yeah, I'm 100% with you. Every American, regardless of party, should have easy access to the ballot box. That's how we elect representatives who represent us. And, you know, if you're a majority red state with majority Republicans, then Republicans should represent that state. I am 100% in agreement with that. I don't like their ideas and I think they're incorrect. But we need to represent the people that we want to be constituents of. I have a couple questions about the upcoming redistricting and the January 29 electors bill, but I have to take a quick break. Stay with me.
- [33:46]
Dana Goldberg
Absolutely.
- [33:47]
Allison Gill
All right, everybody, we'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back. Hey, everybody, welcome back. We are getting we're lucky today. We get to speak with former Maricopa county recorder chief administrator of elections in Maricopa county there, Adrian Fontes. And before we took a break, Adrienne, I wanted to ask you about you've got some upcoming redistricting and we talked about it a little bit before we started the interview about where in the state that new district is going to be and if you think it's fair and how you think it's going to impact upcoming elections.
- [34:36]
Dana Goldberg
Well, the conventional wisdom out there tends to ignore some of the political and data driven stuff. Right. A lot of folks are saying out in the east valley of Maricopa county, which is where one of the new LDS temples has been put in. And in the last 10 years it's been monstrously quick in its growth. So that's one candidate in the west part of the valley. GILBERT chandler, Queen Creek area Then some people are saying it should be in the West Valley, which is around the Glendale Football Stadium stadium, sort of in the west side of the metro Phoenix area. And that's not a bad candidate either. Lots of growth down there in that area. But I would contend that the best place and the most sensible place to put it is right in the middle. Literally make a downtown, cosmopolitan arts and sports district, quickly growing, densely populated district right in the middle of Maricopa County. And that would do a couple of things. First and foremost, you could take from four different sitting members of Congress. You can take from Representative Schweikart up in the Paradise Valley slash Scottsdale area. That's District 6. You could take from Ruben Gallego down in South Phoenix and West Phoenix, that's District 7, Debbie Lesco, District 8, which is the northwest part of the metro Phoenix area, and District 9, which is Greg Stanton. So two Democrats, two Republicans, you carve a little bit out of each one and you can plop it right in the middle. It is an incredibly quickly growing area. Downtown Phoenix is popping up cranes and new buildings for multifamily housing like so many weeds on a mid February afternoon here in the metro Phoenix area, which is where our spring starts. So it's really one of those things where I think looking forward to the next 10 years, not just growth, today day, moving it forward now, that can get you much closer to a relatively good five to five split. We've got nine congressional seats right now. We've got four to five, Republican to Democrats in Congress. I'm pretty sure the Republicans think it would be better if it was more evenly split. And I don't think that the Democrats want to give up. So if you went five to five, you could move one of those districts to be a little more competitive. That 10th district in the middle, I think current congressperson Congressman Stanton lives there. That to me makes the most sense out of all of them because you're not just picking on one or two districts, you're picking on four. And I think it's sort of the wisdom of Solomon splitting the baby, both geographically, metaphorically, politically and all other ways. Makes the most sense to me. But then I'm just a student of the numbers and the logic behind things. What do I know?
- [37:20]
Allison Gill
You're just the former county recorder. What do you know?
- [37:23]
Dana Goldberg
I know I only ran the second biggest election in the history because Maricopa county, people don't realize it's the second biggest voting jurisdiction in the country. Right. 2.6 million voters. We've got five congressional districts completely inside of our county. Completely inside of one county. It's huge. Only LA county is bigger. And yeah. So, you know, this is no small potatoes. Just out here, it's fun and it's nice right now.
- [37:53]
Allison Gill
Yeah, No, I live in San Diego. I remember a couple decades ago when you passed us as the seventh largest city and San Diego, we were like, what? Phoenix is bigger than us? Okay, it's huge. It's massive. The Phoenix metro area is gigantic. And I like the idea, as you're saying, to kind of plop that district right in the middle. Take from two Republicans, take from two Democrats, Democrats, and get closer to kind of a split legislature. And I wanted to talk for just a minute before I let you go. Back in January, a bill was proposed in Arizona in the state legislature that would allow. Okay, so going back to a lot of Trump supporters and their complaints about the 2020 election, talking about how, how they really wanted the states to be able to just forget about the Joe Biden electors and appoint their whole new slate of electors to vote for Trump. All of those suits were completely dismissed because, well, first of all, ex post facto, we've already run the election. We have to use the election laws that were in place at the time we had the election. And then there was jokingly I had said on this program, but hey, state legislatures, you get to, by the Constitution, decide how you pick your election. And if you want to disenfranchise all of your citizens and allow yourselves to pick your own slate of electors just and throw away all of the votes in your state, go ahead and try to pass that law. Well, apparently Arizona went ahead and tried to pass that law. Where are we at with that? You said earlier, before we were talking, that you think that bill is doa?
- [39:40]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, well, it wasn't DOA because it did erupt. Arrive. It did arrive, and a whole lot of people kind of got up in arms about it, you know. Yeah, these, these, these folks are just, you know, name calling is just not something that I like to do, but I'll do it anyway. They're just like, nuts. Is it constitutional? You can make a colorable and a reasonable argument that it is. Does it make any sense? Sense? No freaking way. Not under any rubric does it make sense. Because people understand that we've been moving further and further away, you know, from the rule of the philosopher kings as laid out by Plato, and more and more towards a true democracy. And the idea that the state legislature will send its U.S. senate representatives and not the people sending those is an outdated anachronism. And it's very well be constitutional, but it certainly doesn't make any sense. That bill died, as I understand it, but this is Arizona and we are still in session. And so it could come back. Theoretically, there's rules that may very well allow it. And interestingly, Representative Bullock, Shauna Bullock, who introduced the legislation, I believe it was hers in the first place. Her husband's on the Arizona Supreme Court, and she's the one that ran her campaign out of a PO Box, not listing her true address back in the past, and then got all up in arms because she had a protected address. And then her son, working for the campaign of my opponent, went and published their address under that guy's campaign finance disclosures. Really, really fun stuff happens here in Arizona, I gotta tell you. So as to the bill, I don't think it's going to happen. I don't think it's realistic. And if Democrats take the House in 2022, boy, the Republicans certainly wouldn't want the Democrats picking the electors in 2024. So I think wiser heads, cooler heads prevailed on that one.
- [41:52]
Allison Gill
Yeah. I mean, technically, you could argue that if a state legislator, a state legislature wanted to decide who their candidate or their electors were for, for president, they could have a dance off and then a singing competition and, you know, and then count the votes, but do it opposite day where all the Republican votes go to Democrats. I mean, they could make up whatever rules they want technically, and especially if, you know, your, your husband's on the Supreme Court. Probably get it through.
- [42:22]
Dana Goldberg
I think we probably do. I think out here we should probably do like Wheat would do. Poker.
- [42:27]
Allison Gill
Yeah.
- [42:28]
Dana Goldberg
And it would be like in a dusty saloon somewhere up in maybe Strawberry or New River. I think that would be the best place to do it. Certainly they could host it up in Deadman Wash Precinct or Biscuit Flats Precinct. Very Arizona places.
- [42:43]
Allison Gill
Yeah. Or you could, you could have a tubing contest on the Salt river, maybe. I could see that happening. Or we could all go to Skate Land, figure that out. Go, maybe go down to Tombstone, you know, and have a shootout.
- [42:57]
Dana Goldberg
You're dating yourself. I don't know that Skateland's around anymore, but Tombstone certainly is so a rawhide.
- [43:03]
Allison Gill
You could play the chicken in tic tac toe. And whoever wins gets to decide who the president's going to be for that say anyway.
- [43:10]
Dana Goldberg
Wow, you're getting deep. You're going deep on those references from Arizona. All you need is a Lutz casino and references. You'd make the trifecta right there.
- [43:21]
Allison Gill
We could bring up Barizona. We could use that as well. I don't know. We'll. We'll figure. We'll figure something out. But yeah, the people, I mean, how many of, how many Arizonans would be Republicans and Democrats would be like, excuse me, my vote doesn't count. So, you know, hope that's hopefully that's why cooler heads prevailed. Anyway, it's been so great talking to you. Where can we follow you and find more information, especially about the current situation of what's going on in Arizona and how can people help to support the kind of voters, rights, access that y'all are working towards?
- [43:57]
Dana Goldberg
Well, you can follow some of the stuff I'm doing at adrianfontes.com that's a D R I a N F O-N T-E S.com We've got a splash page up looking at working on some projects coming out once I'm done with my tenure working for government down in Pima County. That should be coming up by the time April gets. Gets rolling. As far as helping folks or following the right folks, there's a lot of organizations here in Arizona. They're doing some really good work. Lucha is one of them. Living United for Change in Arizona. Tomorrow We Vote has some folks here, kind of a lot of the usual players. The ACLU is doing a ton of work. They could probably refer folks, but some of our local advocates in the actual House, House and Senate in Arizona, I would suggest Senator Martin Quesada, real smart guy. Friend of mine. Representative Athena Solomon, Representative Reginald Boulding, smart guy. Rebecca Rios is also in the legislature. She's, you know, one of those folks to pay attention to. So we've got some leaders who are on the front edge of this. And let's not forget, if you know Republicans or you are a Republican in Arizona and you think this is nuts, you got to contact your folks, too, because everybody's got to be in on this game. So I would suggest that the reasonable independents and Republicans reach out to those legislators on the red side of the aisle and let them know that this kind of shenanigans against voters is not against the Democratic Party. It's against democracy itself. And that is a vicious, vicious thing. So I'm hoping that folks will, you know, kind of help out, pitch in, contact some of those folks and. And, yeah, get on it, because this is rough stuff. And support HR1. Can I throw that in there? Yeah, 100%, because that's a big deal.
- [45:50]
Allison Gill
Yeah. And the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Well, thank you very much for going over these things with me today. I appreciate it. I spent many, many years in Arizona. I consider it my home state. And I'll let you know if I decide to run against Gosar or run for the state legislature. Contact you first. But that man, he keeps daring me. Dentist Gosar, he keeps daring me.
- [46:16]
Dana Goldberg
Well, I'll tell you what. You. You are a veteran of the United States Navy and unashamed owner of firearms. And I think that that district needs some. Some reasonable heads. You might not do too bad up there because I don't think that they're too happy with him and his addition. You know, a lot of those folks like the constitution more than they like their party. So let me know.
- [46:39]
Allison Gill
Yeah, and it's. And it's. And it's kind of all about getting other voters out into other districts too. You know, it's, it's, it's not just about the one specific thing, but I will definitely let you know. I appreciate you spending time with me today. Thank you very much. Adrian Fontes. Thanks so much, everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back with the good news after these messages. Hey, everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news.
- [47:06]
Dana Goldberg
Who likes good news? Everyone? Then good news, everyone.
- [47:16]
Allison Gill
Good news, good news Monday. Monday good news is always awesome good news.
- [47:21]
Jaleesa Johnson
It really is. I love starting my week off with this. It's just, it's just nice. It's a good energy way to set the energy.
- [47:27]
Allison Gill
It really is. Especially on this cold, rainy San Diego day, which we get. We get 5 of over the year. Today is one of those days. So I'm super excited about this, everybody. If you have anything to submit, anything you want to submit to us, Want us to guess your dogs breeds? If you want us to. You want to tell us about misheard lyrics or if you have a dispute you want settled in Amy's quarter of a confession. Correction. Good news. Happy place, pictures, pod, pet, scratch, grandkids, children, whatever you got. Go to DailyBeansPod.com and click on contact. That's how you send it in. I'm going to kick us off with a submission here from an anonymous person pronoun. She and her hey Beans Queen's crew. Good news. This is Monica in Texas. Okay, she's not anonymous. My mother and I live together and we're both in the high risk group. And I am also an essential worker and a flight attendant. Oh my gosh. We have been semi patiently waiting our turns on the on the county vaccine list and after two months, our day finally came. We both have now gotten our first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. And I'm so excited to finally be moving toward the end of COVID Granted, nationally, and especially thanks to fucking Abbott, there's a long way to go. But it's such a huge relief to be moving in the right direction. I so appreciate the way y'all do the news and with all the laughs along the way, thanks for being you. Unfortunately, we don't have any pets right now, so my pod tags is my great niece's attempt to make snow angels in the Texas snowstorm. The older one is the blue bob and the younger one is in pink.
- [48:53]
Jaleesa Johnson
Look at that Snow coming down ag.
- [48:56]
Allison Gill
Oh, my gosh.
- [48:58]
Jaleesa Johnson
That is incredible. What a great shot too.
- [49:00]
Allison Gill
That's a beautiful house too. That's a good Christmas tree window right there.
- [49:03]
Jaleesa Johnson
Right? That's a good Christmas tree window.
- [49:06]
Allison Gill
Oh, God.
- [49:07]
Jaleesa Johnson
Thank you so much for that. Congratulation on your first shot. Stop scrolling ahead. I'm sorry. Stop it. All right, this next one's from Anonymous.
- [49:17]
Dana Goldberg
Really?
- [49:17]
Jaleesa Johnson
Anonymous. This is pronouns he and they misheard song lyrics time. So this made amusing most by the mo. The means. I discovered my mistake, but here goes. I've always heard the song as Video killed the radio store. Video killed the radio store and assume the song was about technology making jobs redundant. I realized my mistake when I happened upon a deep fake video of JFK and Nixon singing the song and had to double check to make sure attach for pod pet tax to the pictures of my roommates, cats, Pepper and Turmeric, which are great names. And Turmy, or Turmy for short. Oh, my goodness. I, I, I.
- [49:57]
Allison Gill
Can you see why I was laughing?
- [50:00]
Jaleesa Johnson
Yes, I know. It's so cute.
- [50:01]
Allison Gill
Isn't he the best?
- [50:03]
Jaleesa Johnson
He's adorable. He does not look happy about the blanket, even. Even though he looks. He's gotta be warm.
- [50:09]
Allison Gill
I think he has resting, resting grump face.
- [50:11]
Jaleesa Johnson
This is such a cute breed of cat. Like tiny, tiny ears. Like a Garfield face with the tiny, tiny ears.
- [50:19]
Allison Gill
What a honey.
- [50:19]
Jaleesa Johnson
It looks like a Garfield cat.
- [50:21]
Allison Gill
You look at the black kitty with the thing on it. Oh, okay.
- [50:24]
Jaleesa Johnson
Oh, my goodness. And a chip clip. I think it's playing with a chip clip.
- [50:29]
Allison Gill
Yeah, it is.
- [50:31]
Jaleesa Johnson
Dude.
- [50:32]
Allison Gill
The stuff that I should. You know, you spend a ton of money on cat toys and they end up playing with chip clips.
- [50:37]
Jaleesa Johnson
Hilarious. Why don't you take the next two? They're pretty short.
- [50:40]
Allison Gill
All right, sweet. I will. Here we go. From Philip. Pronouns, he and him. I love your show. I listen every day. Quick question. At the end of every podcast, you say that our copy is written by Jesse Egan. What's the copy? Is it the text for the ads, the text for the show, the text for the podcast description? Something else. It's driving me nuts. Thank you again for keeping me informed. Yeah, Jesse Egan writes our ad copy. That's who writes our ad copy. Thank you for that question, Philip. Now you know. Next up from Anonymous, pronouns, she and her. My husband and I got our first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Our CVS here in San Joaquin County, California, had a written waiting list for unused doses. Put us on the list earlier this week, and within three days we got the call. Check your local pharmacies for wait lists. Like I said, this was a handwritten wait list. And she even had it when. When we got our shots and I watched her cross our names off. It was so satisfying. My arm is sore, but in the best way. Love you all. Look it.
- [51:32]
Jaleesa Johnson
Love it.
- [51:33]
Allison Gill
Yay.
- [51:34]
Jaleesa Johnson
Good. Two more vaccines. And that's the best way to do it. If there's leftovers, take them so that you not get thrown out. All right, this next one's from Nicole.
- [51:42]
Allison Gill
Pronoun.
- [51:42]
Jaleesa Johnson
She and her hello beans queens. Thank you for keeping me sane. I look forward to listening even when the news is at its shittiest because you always deliver it with truth and humor. Plus the occasional rogue dildo story. Keeps my spirits up. No pun intended. I've heard song lyric. I have a misheard song lyric story. And I guess the. And I guess the breed. My daughter was listening to music with me in a man. America was playing. And America was playing. She looked perplexed. What I read ahead.
- [52:13]
Allison Gill
I'm sorry.
- [52:14]
Jaleesa Johnson
She looked perplexed and asked me, how would a horse go through the desert with no legs.
- [52:21]
Allison Gill
Up in through the desert on a horse with no legs.
- [52:26]
Jaleesa Johnson
Okay. She was about five then. And I tried very hard not to laugh and explain that it said no name a horse with no name name. Still my favorite way to sing that to this day. God, that's hysterical. I love kids. Now for my pod pet tax, I present three doggos. I know the breeds, but I wanted to test your awesome knowledge. My girl Jinx, the brown one, she's 14 and we got her from a friend whose two dogs had an oopsie litter. So we knew the parents. She's still sassy. For the two boys, they are three litter mates, bonded and often share a brain. We got them from a friend with an oopsie litter of 1212. Mama was an older girl and dad was the neighbor's six month old puppy. What a cougar who was about 110 pounds at that point. He's a big guy now at 125. You go, girl. All right, we got.
- [53:15]
Allison Gill
Okay, so the two boys are the. The black labs looking ones, right?
- [53:21]
Jaleesa Johnson
Yeah.
- [53:22]
Allison Gill
And dad was a six month old puppy that was 110 and now he's 125.
- [53:28]
Jaleesa Johnson
I would. I mean, that's a big dog. Maybe Mastiff.
- [53:31]
Allison Gill
Yeah.
- [53:31]
Jaleesa Johnson
Or look at the third picture. That looks like a great mastiff head.
- [53:35]
Allison Gill
It does. Mmm. Mastiff lab.
- [53:39]
Jaleesa Johnson
And I've never said that Mastiff lab before.
- [53:42]
Allison Gill
What do you think? Mastiff Lab.
- [53:43]
Jaleesa Johnson
I definitely. Yeah.
- [53:45]
Allison Gill
Okay. And now the brown one.
- [53:47]
Jaleesa Johnson
Now, we're always wrong with this.
- [53:49]
Allison Gill
Another oopsie with two dogs and she's 14. Oh, I got a shepherd. Beagle. It looks like a shaggle.
- [53:57]
Jaleesa Johnson
I know. It looks like a shaggle to me, too.
- [54:00]
Allison Gill
All right. Staffordshire Terrier and Sharpay.
- [54:03]
Jaleesa Johnson
Because seriously, let's just go with those because that's what they. Oh, my God, that's hilarious. Okay, the results are jinx. Mom was Shetland Sheepdog, an Australian Blue Heeler. Dad was Rottweiler, an American Bulldog. We didn't get either of those, dear. She looks like mom, but will stand like a bulldog and hulk out her chest muscles when the boys bother her. Now for Blue and Orion. Okay, that was for. Oh, Jesus Christ.
- [54:31]
Allison Gill
That was for the brown dog.
- [54:32]
Jaleesa Johnson
That was for the brown dog. So the brown dog is Shetland Sheepland. Jesus. Shetland Sheepdog and Australian Blue Healer mixed with Rottweiler and American Bulldog. Okay, we didn't get any of that.
- [54:42]
Allison Gill
Nope.
- [54:42]
Jaleesa Johnson
And then we've got those two black dogs are Chocolate Lab and dad is a Rottweiler.
- [54:48]
Allison Gill
Roddy Mastiff Rottie. Very close. Yeah, very close. But that is a big baby.
- [54:55]
Jaleesa Johnson
Big baby indeed. 125. My goodness.
- [54:58]
Allison Gill
I wonder who the dad was. If the dad was the Rottweiler or the Chocolate Lab. Oh, mom is the Chocolate Lab. Okay.
- [55:05]
Jaleesa Johnson
All right.
- [55:06]
Allison Gill
Well, thank you. What beautiful babies. Regardless of where they came from. I was operating under the. Under the incorrect assumption that the little brown dog had a mom and dad that were single breeds. I didn't know they were mixed breeds themselves, so. But I wouldn't. Even though I thought, you know, beagle, shepherd, none of it.
- [55:29]
Jaleesa Johnson
Which, actually, you do realize that increased our chances by four, and we still missed all of them.
- [55:35]
Allison Gill
Yeah, we did miss all of them. We should just say Blue Healer all the time from. I know. All right, Next up from Dr. Larry, parental brag time. I've been bursting at the seams to share this good news, but every time I'm ready to do it, more good news comes, so I have to wait. Anyhow, it was a bad news 2020 overall for everyone. But there were a few bright spots for us as bad news, good news, part. Okay, this is part bad news, part good news. Our daughter in Portland was working at a restaurant while she pursued her passion of art and graphic design and costume. When it shut down, we told her to move back with us to Orange county while she worked on her application to fidm. Right. That's the. What. I can't remember what that stands for, but it's like the top design school in the country. All right, let me look it up, because I can't remember. Fashion Institute of Design and merchandising.
- [56:21]
Jaleesa Johnson
There you go.
- [56:23]
Allison Gill
Now back to the story. She got accepted, so being with us would help during the interim. Then the Festival of Wales announced a contest for the 50th anniversary logo. I know this. And she got to work on coming up with a design. Watching her work on this was amazing. And she finished. The finished product was quite mind blowing. And she won. So today was the commendation ceremony, and now her logo is blowing up on their website, their Instagram. A brewery made a beer with her logo and there are sweatshirts and T shirts. That's awesome. Anyhow, my wife and I are very proud of her. And just to know this, this is the start, actually more of a continuation of many great things. She's going to fidm. FIDM for costume design for film and television. So expect to see her designs on small and big screens in the future. Meanwhile, you can check out her website at. I think It's Lynn.
- [57:18]
Jaleesa Johnson
Leah.
- [57:20]
Allison Gill
Lynnleamichaels.com that's L Y N L E A michaels.com. really? Check it out. Shameless plug. Need a logo, need art. She'll take commissions. Larry Singer, thank you so much for this. Oh, and with our daughter came a wonderful cat, Kona. So I guess I'm supposed to include pet tacks, even though for the first few times I heard it, I thought you were asking for pet tags. Misheard lyrics. Also, check out the Festivals of Wales Instagram for some more cool photos of her logo being used. It's a really awesome logo. Oh, cool. He's attached it. We'll put it in the newsletter. Let me just give a compliment. Dessert. I'm really proud of all this podcast has become and all you've done, Allison. It's great to have been here for. From the early days. Oh, thank you, Larry. Look at that cool logo.
- [58:00]
Jaleesa Johnson
Wow. That is awesome.
- [58:01]
Allison Gill
It's beautiful.
- [58:02]
Jaleesa Johnson
Holy cow. I love the logo.
- [58:04]
Allison Gill
It's really, really beautiful.
- [58:05]
Jaleesa Johnson
It really is.
- [58:06]
Allison Gill
Oh, there's a kitty. Hello. Hello.
- [58:09]
Jaleesa Johnson
All right, thank you so much, and that's fantastic news. Thank you for sharing with us. This next one's from Casey Pronoun. She and her I have a song mix up for you. My family teases me about this all the time. But when I was a teen, Take It Easy from the Eagles came out. My friends and I were convinced that it went. It's a girl, my lord Flat as a board Slowing down to take A.
- [58:30]
Allison Gill
Look at me, it's a girl, my lord, Flat as a board, slowing down to take a look at me.
- [58:37]
Jaleesa Johnson
That's apparently what she thought it was. Do you know the real lyrics to that?
- [58:41]
Allison Gill
Yeah. It's a girl, my lord, in a flatbed for slowing down to take a look at.
- [58:46]
Jaleesa Johnson
I guess I know the lyrics to that too. Okay. For pot. For pet tax. Isn't it weird how you know lyrics to songs and you're like, oh, I didn't realize that was in there somewhere. For pet tax, I'm including our two that our family referred to as the beans. Sienna the Ruby and Tessa the Try. Do you know the breed? They were therapy dogs before the virus hit. Sent a cute one of the two together. And then one showing Sienna's feelings about spa day. And Tessa giving me side eye because Sienna was on my lap. Love your pod. Listen to it every day. Thanks for adding, Dana. Yay. Oh, look at them.
- [59:18]
Allison Gill
These look like King Charles spaniels to me.
- [59:21]
Jaleesa Johnson
Yeah, they're definitely spaniels. They're not cocker spaniels, but they're definitely spaniels. Oh, side eye.
- [59:27]
Allison Gill
Ah, the bath.
- [59:27]
Jaleesa Johnson
They're so cute.
- [59:28]
Allison Gill
They are cavalier King Charles spaniels.
- [59:30]
Dana Goldberg
Yes.
- [59:31]
Jaleesa Johnson
Nice. We finally got some. Oh, look at the last picture.
- [59:35]
Allison Gill
I know the.
- [59:36]
Jaleesa Johnson
The.
- [59:36]
Allison Gill
The bath.
- [59:37]
Jaleesa Johnson
Oh, that was good.
- [59:39]
Allison Gill
I know that because I watched Sex in the City, and that was the kind of dog that Charlotte had. A cavalier King Charles. Okay, sorry.
- [59:51]
Jaleesa Johnson
I read ahead this time.
- [59:53]
Allison Gill
Back from the 90s. Is it my turn? Yeah. Okay.
- [59:55]
Jaleesa Johnson
Yes.
- [59:56]
Allison Gill
Here we go. From Casey Pronoun. She and her. And I don't know what's coming yet. I haven't read ahead yet, but it must be funny. I've been enjoying your misheard lyrics. My hearing is terrible, so I have dozens of stories, but my favorite, I spent the year thinking Guns N Roses were singing. Take me down to the very nice city where the grass is green and the girls are pretty dang. May I? Home? Oh, my husband laughed so hard, he almost drove off the road when I belted out a lyric. The lyric on a car trip. And now we always sing it that way. Good. I love doing. I love it. Sing it your way. You know, Sing it the misheard way. The very nice city. Whenever I'm in D.C. and I'm taking in the Metro and I see Pentagon City, I'm all, please take me down to Pentagon City. Yeah, it's always, always that. Yeah.
- [60:47]
Jaleesa Johnson
I just jumped. I did it again. I jumped ahead to one of the cat's names. You'll laugh when you get there. Well, it's fantastic cat name. Anyway, go ahead.
- [60:54]
Allison Gill
Okay. As Pet Tax, here are pictures of my three cats, Frank Lloyd Bite. Orange, Fluffy.
- [61:00]
Jaleesa Johnson
Oh, you missed a good paragraph. You missed a good paragraph in the middle.
- [61:02]
Allison Gill
Oh, for good news, everyone in my family is either vaccinated or has an appointment except for me. So such a huge. Except for me. Oh, soon, soon, Casey. Such a huge relief. I don't mind waiting a couple more months for mine. Oh, good news. Such good news. Now, as Pet Tax, here are pictures of my three cats, Frank Lloyd Bite, Janelle Meownet and Pounce De Leon. Little organic baby. Little orange baby. I like Frank Lloyd Bite, too. That's clever.
- [61:32]
Jaleesa Johnson
Oh, my goodness.
- [61:33]
Allison Gill
Send good vibes to Leon. By the time you read this, he will be recovering from surgery. Goodbye, Trouble Puffs. Oh.
- [61:39]
Jaleesa Johnson
Oh, look at those eyes. The black, the brown, the brown, the brown and blue.
- [61:45]
Allison Gill
They're orange around the pupil and then blue on the outside. I've never seen eyes like that.
- [61:51]
Jaleesa Johnson
Beautiful. I've never.
- [61:52]
Allison Gill
I have never once seen eyes like that in a cat. The guy in the last picture. Oh, my God.
- [61:56]
Jaleesa Johnson
That cat knows. It has nice eyes, too, that cat. Look at that.
- [61:59]
Allison Gill
I know.
- [62:00]
Jaleesa Johnson
They're so cute.
- [62:01]
Allison Gill
Take a picture of my eyes, guys. You know you want to.
- [62:04]
Jaleesa Johnson
Oh, I love them.
- [62:06]
Allison Gill
Chilling. Oh, this is so great. Thank you, everyone.
- [62:08]
Jaleesa Johnson
This damn podcast is making me into a cat person.
- [62:13]
Allison Gill
You have made my Monday with all of this, and it's. It's just. It's wonderful news. And, Larry, again, congrats to your daughter for that amazing logo. It was beautiful. We got the Cavalier King Charles, but we didn't get the. Any of the other dogs. Except for Lab, but we said Black Lab, not even chocolate, so I don't know if that counts. But these. This is just such wonderful submissions. If you have anything, send it in DailyBeansPod.com, click on Contact. We'd love to hear from you. Anything. Send us anything.
- [62:44]
Jaleesa Johnson
That's it. Anything. Yeah.
- [62:45]
Allison Gill
Any. Any. Any final words?
- [62:48]
Jaleesa Johnson
No, I have no thoughts. I have no final words. I have any final thoughts. I have nothing to say. No, I'm done working.
- [62:55]
Allison Gill
Sweet. Well, everybody, until tomorrow, take care of each other, take care of yourselves, take care of your mental health, and take care of the planet. I've been AG and I've been dg. Final words. Them's the beans.
- [63:06]
Dana Goldberg
Refried beans. I like refried beans.