Refried Beans | Secretary Of Brain Worms (feat. John Fugelsang) | Aug 15, 2024

Summary

The Daily Beans – "Refried Beans | Secretary Of Brain Worms" (Feat. John Fugelsang)

Episode Summary – August 16, 2024

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Daily Beans, hosted by Allison Gill (AG) and Dana Goldberg (DG), delivers a fast-paced, snarky breakdown of the week’s political news, centering on the ongoing 2024 U.S. presidential election drama, major policy announcements, and escalating Project 2025 revelations. The show features a detailed discussion with comedian and commentator John Fugelsang about the media’s Trump coverage and contrasts between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump’s economic policies. The tone is irreverent, witty, and sharp, aiming to empower progressive listeners while spotlighting major news and moments of resistance.

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Key Topics & Discussion Points

1. Political News Highlights & Headlines ([00:45]–[14:04])

• Trump’s Legal Maneuvers
  • Trump requests Judge Merchan postpone sentencing on his 34 felony convictions until after the election.
  • AG notes: “It’s a bizarre filing. It makes no sense… legally or otherwise.” ([09:13])
• RFK Jr. Attempts a Deal
  • RFK Jr. reportedly offers to drop out and endorse Kamala Harris if offered a position in her administration.
  • “Secretary of brainworms. The brainworm could not be reached for comment.” – AG ([07:19])
• New Senate Appointment in New Jersey
  • Governor Phil Murphy to appoint George Helmi, his former chief of staff, as caretaker for Bob Menendez’s Senate seat ([08:08])
• Democratic Policy Announcements
  • Kamala Harris will announce a proposed federal ban on corporate price gouging and promises to lower prescription drug and housing costs ([03:42])
  • The Biden-Harris administration’s first round of negotiated Medicare drug prices offers significant cost reductions for seniors ([04:14]–[06:03])
• Democrats Target Green Party Ballot Access
  • DNC complaint alleges the Green Party may be ineligible for Wisconsin’s ballot due to technicalities ([06:03]–[07:11])
• Five Indicted in Matthew Perry’s Death
  • Emotional response as AG details the exploitation of Perry’s addiction by doctors and his assistant ([12:10])

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2. Project 2025: Undercover Exposé ([14:22]–[31:42])

• Undercover Operation Reveals Trump’s Ties
  • Undercover reporters posing as GOP donors record Russell Vought (Project 2025 architect) admitting close coordination with Trump, despite public denials.
  • Vought: “Trump’s denials [about Project 2025] are merely graduate-level politics.” ([17:21])
  • Vought describes creating “shadow agencies” and prepping “hundreds of executive orders” for Trump.
• Christian Nationalism & Radical Agenda
  • Vought laments the right’s “excessive focus on religious liberty,” champions “Christian nationism,” and suggests prioritizing Christian immigrants.
  • AG quips: “That’s pretty close to Christian nationalism, because I also believe in nationalism. Yep. Very weird.” ([28:20])
• Mass Deportation & Legal Evasion
  • Plans for largest deportation in U.S. history and strategizing memos to avoid Freedom of Information Act disclosure.
  • Micah Meadowcroft, research director, is recorded explaining efforts to keep plans secret and hand off policies surreptitiously ([25:39])
• Use of Military & the George Floyd Protests
  • Vought claims protests “were not about race, but about destabilizing the Trump administration.” AG exclaims: “What kind of egotistical narcissist are you…?” ([30:31])

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3. Fugelsang Friday – In-Depth with John Fugelsang ([31:48]–[44:45])

Main Themes:

• Media's Role in Enabling Trump
  • Critique of CNN broadcasting Trump’s rambling, often dishonest press conferences for ratings, with little real-time fact-checking.
  • Fugelsang: “If you don’t have fact corrections written and ready to slide in… you’re not doing your job.” ([33:31])
  • “Smell the train wreck because it’s kind of beautiful… only two things Donald Trump’s afraid of: a strong woman and a strong wind.” ([34:59])
• Contrasts in Economic Policy
  • Comparison of Harris and Trump’s positions on not taxing tips—Fugelsang notes how Trump’s plan, written by Ted Cruz, dangerously includes corporate bonuses, favoring the wealthy ([39:49])
  • “They want to starve Social Security… there are ways it could be done, but they’re not willing to tax the rich.” ([37:04])
• Media Critiques and Debate Demands
  • Media insistence Harris should debate Trump; Fugelsang argues she’s right to ignore Fox News, given their track record of misinformation ([38:26])
• DNC and RNC News Cycles
  • AG and Fugelsang discuss upcoming DNC, lack of ‘bounce’ after GOP convention and shooting, and Fox News’ incentive to see Trump lose for future ratings ([43:26]–[43:50])

Memorable Quotes

• “CNN is putting profit over fact checking… ratings-driven news has made Americans this dumb, that CNN is putting profit over fact checking.” – John Fugelsang ([33:30])
• “There’s only two things Donald Trump’s afraid of, and I’ve always said it. A strong woman and a strong wind.” – John Fugelsang ([34:59])
• “As soon as they realize they aren’t displaced billionaires themselves. I can’t understand it.” – AG ([40:41])

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4. Listener Good News & Community Shout-Outs ([45:05]–[59:20])

• Heartening stories about family political conversations, government health programs (ACA, Medicare) saving lives and money, listeners leaving MAGA workplaces, and pets bringing levity and joy.
• The “podpet tax” segment features funny animal photos and light banter.
• Celebration of community support and ongoing progressive activism.
• AG highlights Shepard Fairey’s new Kamala Harris art as a “super awesome high of hope.”

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Timestamps for Notable Segments

• Trump’s Legal Strategy: [09:13]
• Prescription Drug Savings Breakdown: [04:14]–[06:03]
• RFK Jr. Job Offer to Harris: [07:19]
• Project 2025 Undercover Exposé: [14:22]–[31:42]
• Vought’s “Christian Nationism” Comments: [28:20]
• Media and Trump’s Immunity Claims: [34:22]–[34:59]
• Economic Policy Differences – No Tax on Tips: [36:11]–[40:33]
• Listener Good News Segment: [45:05]–[59:20]

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Standout Quotes

• On Project 2025/Trump Collusion:
  “You said it’s definitely for Trump and we’re doing this, we’re writing executive orders for him and he’s given us his blessing.” – AG ([19:14])
• On the Right’s Religious Agenda:
  “We’ve been too focused on religious liberty, which we all support, but we’ve lacked the ability to argue that we are a Christian nation.” – Russell Vought ([27:22])
• On Kamala Harris’s Historic Run:
  “They don’t know how to go after her. They can’t go after her without being sexist and being racist. They’re constantly stepping on rakes.” – John Fugelsang ([34:59])

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Overall Tone, Style & Takeaways

• The episode is dynamic, irreverent, and unapologetically progressive.
• Hosts AG and DG balance deep policy dives with snark, frequent comedic asides, and relatable commentary for a left-leaning audience.
• John Fugelsang brings biting wit and media criticism, highlighting stakes for democracy and the uniqueness of Harris’s candidacy.
• The show closes with community engagement and collective hope, reinforcing an activist, “we’re all in this together” spirit.

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This episode is essential listening for progressives seeking candid news analysis with plenty of humor, an inside look at Trump world exposés, and a passionate case for policy clarity amid the chaos of 2024.

Transcript

[A]

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.

[B]

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.

[A]

Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Friday, August 16, 2024. Today, Donald Trump asks Judge Merchan to postpone his sentencing until after the election. RFK Jr told Kamala Harris he would drop out an endorser in if she'd give him a job in her administration. Governor Phil Murphy is set to appoint his former chief of staff, George Helmi as outgoing Senator Bob Menendez's replacement. Five people have been charged in connection with Matthew Perry's death. Democrats are trying to block the Green Party from the ballot in Wisconsin, citing legal issues. Kamala Harris is set to announce a federal ban on corporate price gouging in her first hundred days. The Biden Harris administration announces the first round of negotiated Medicare drug prices. JD Vance said on Twitter he's willing to do two debates with Coach Walls. And undercover reporters posing as Republican donors have proof that Trump is inextricably linked to Project 2025. I'm Alison Gill.

[C]

And I'm Dana Goldberg.

[A]

Oh, my gosh. The news didn't sleep this week.

[C]

It did not. That last story, by the way, makes me laugh so hard.

[A]

Oh, my. It's. It's so bad. These guys, these reporters posed as huge Republican donors and got Ross Vaught to tell them every furry thing.

[C]

It's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing. Not as good as John Fugelsang's hair, but it is a beautiful thing.

[A]

No. And we get some of that. Well, I mean, it's, it's, you know, an audio podcast. But you can imagine the hair, you know, flowy, flowy, feathered and majestic. It's not feathered, but it's fantastic. And you can envision it. Close your eyes. As he appears later on today's program for Fugal, saying, Fridays on the Beans. And today we're going to do things a little differently because we. One of our stories is very long. It's that one about the undercover reporters. And we have a ton of news news to get to. So let's knock out the headlines with some quick hits.

[B]

And to make a long story short.

[A]

All right first up, JD Vance has finally agreed to debate coach walls on October 1st. CBS News Wednesday posted on Twitter that the network had invited both Vance and Walls to debate in New York City, presenting four dates, September 17, September 24, October 1 and October 8, as options. @ first, Vance refused to answer questions from the media because Kamala Harris said, we take October 1st. See you then. That was the Harris campaign about Tim Walls, right? He's Tim Walls, will Deb. And then Tim Walls tweeted out, see you then. And Vance wouldn't answer any questions whether he would debate. He was shouted those questions as he got on and off a plane. When he went and talked to dozens of twelves of people at, I don't know, total Landscaping somewhere, he told Laura Ingram he didn't want to do the debate because he didn't like CBS or whatever. But then he posted on Twitter that he would accept October 1st. He also challenged Waltz to a September 18th debate, which wasn't originally a plan, but he wants to do that on CNN. And funnily enough, September 18th is when Trump is set to be sentenced for his 34 felony counts. So good pick, bro.

[C]

Absolutely. And Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday will unveil a proposed ban on price gouging in grocery and food industries, embracing a strikingly populous proposal in her most significant economic policy announcement since becoming the Democratic Party's nominee. In a statement released late Wednesday night, the Harris campaign said that if elected, she would push for, quote, first ever federal ban on food price hikes. With sweeping new powers for federal authorities. Harris on Friday will also announce plans to lower prescription drug and housing costs.

[A]

Yep. And those prescription drug costs are already a thing that's going on in the Biden Harris administration. They finally, after decades got got the drug companies to negotiate on, on prescription drug prices. And they announced the first round of 10. You know, they were going to do 10 and then 20 and then 50. The first drug that they lowered the price for is eliquis. It's normally 521. It's down to now 231. So it's down 56%. Jardiance. I know you love those commercials that take once daily. Jardiance at each day start that's going down to 197 from 573 while she's lower in her A1C. Okay, I'm sorry. That is down 66%. Xarelto down 62% to 197 bucks a month. Januvia down to 113 bucks a month from 527, that's a 79% drop. Farsiga goes from 556 to 178 bucks. That's a 68% savings. And Tresto 628 to 295amonth. That's 53% off. Enbrel. $7,100 a month is what it was. Now it's $2,350 a month. That's a 67% cost savings. Imbruvica $14,934 a month. Dana. And it's going to be $9,300 a month. That's a 38 Stellara about 14 grand a month, down to about $4,700 a month. 66% saving. And Novo Log Fiasp from 495 to 119. A 76% savings. So these are just the first 10. There's going to be more. This is huge cost savings. And right now seniors have that annual cap of $2,000 out of pocket for prescriptions. This is going to go such a long way for so many people. So I'm really happy about this.

[C]

Thank you. Ag and an employee of the Democratic National Committee filed a complaint Wednesday seeking to remove the Green Party's presidential candidate from the ballot in Wisconsin, arguing that the party is ineligible. State law requires that those who nominate electors in October be state officers, which includes members of the legislature, judges and others. They could also be candidates for the legislature. Well, the Green Party does not have anyone who qualifies to be a nominator and therefore can't legally name a slate of presidential electors as required by law. What the complaint alleges. I hope this actually happens because I think all too often third party spoilers come in and try and things up. Not that the Green Party, if they actually like. Listen, when I first registered, I didn't, I didn't know what I was doing. I registered it for the Green Party. I was like, this sounds good. Well, now the Green Party has seemed to have ties to Russia and is likes to be spoilers in elections. So there's that.

[A]

Yeah. And we're never going to get our money back for that Hillary recount.

[C]

Oh, we're not.

[A]

And I'm really not sure that'll work. I'm not really, you know, I'm not sure. Keeping people off the ballot. I don't know if it's illegal though.

[C]

That's fair. I should stop saying I wish that would happen. I don't want anyone to not be represented in our. You know, in our politics. Yeah.

[A]

But also. Fuck. Okay, so thank you. Independent presidential candidate RFK Jr. Speaking of third party spoilers, sought a meeting last week with Kamala Harris to discuss the possibility of serving in her administration, perhaps as a cabinet secretary, I guess. Secretary of brainworms. If he throws his support behind her campaign and she wins. That's according to Kennedy campaign officials. Kennedy campaign officials now, of course, Kennedy vehemently denies this. The brain worm could not be reached for comment. One other story on Kennedy, the Wall Street Journal issued an update on its reporting about the photo of RFK Jr eating barbecued dog. They want you to know that Kennedy has insisted that it was actually barbecued. Do goat. Christy Nome, who has experience slaughtering both dogs and goats, could not be reached for comment.

[C]

And from the New Jersey Globe, Governor Phil Murphy intends to appoint George S. Helmi, his former chief of staff, to the United States Senate to replace Bob Menendez. Helmy, who happens to be a 44 year old mountain Lakes resident, was the most powerful non elected official in New Jersey politics while serving as Murphy's chief of staff for nearly five years. He also served as a deputy chief of staff and state director for US Senator Cory Booker and as an aide to Booker's predecessor, Frank Lutenberg. Given New Jersey's five month timeline for filling a House vacancy, Murphy did not consider appointing Rep. Andy Kim, who's the Democrat from Morgan, the Democratic nominee for U.S. senate. That's Andy. Is that at this moment? Or any other member of the House delegation. Helmy is expected to take office on September 9 when the Senate returns from its August recess. He will be a caretaker and will be succeeded by the winner of the 2024 Senate race in New Jersey. That's going to be either Kim or Republican Curtis Bashaw. So let's make it Kim.

[A]

Yes, let's. Yes.

[C]

Or probably Bashaw. Yeah.

[A]

Now, how is it by the time you're 44, you've been appointed to fill in a Senate, a Senate seat. You've already been chief of staff for Cory Booker and the governor and Booker's predecessor, Lautenberg. And by the age of 44, I'm feeling like I don't even deserve a business card. Like what the. How did you get all that done? That's amazing. And also Donald has asked Judge Juan Merchan to postpone. He wants to put off the sentencing for his 34 felony convictions until after the election. Please. It's a bizarre filing. It makes no sense. And legally or otherwise. And I broke it down in detail for you on my Sub stack. Check it out. Mollierove.com and Pete and I are going to go over it in detail on the next cleanup on aisle 45 podcast as well.

[C]

All right. And after three weeks of unmitigated disaster for Donald Trump, he makes new additions to campaign leadership teams. He's bringing on Corey Lewandowski. What could possibly go wrong as well.

[A]

He's great with women.

[C]

He really is. As well as Tim Murdoch. Alex. I'm going to try with these last names, everyone. Alex. Bruce. Brucewitz. Brucewicz.

[A]

Broisiewitz.

[C]

Brucewicz.

[A]

Now I know. Taylor Buttowich.

[C]

Okay, Taylor Budowich and Alex Pfeiffer. And I'd like to read everyone this incredible official Harris campaign statement about Trump's disaster of a quote unquote press conference today as we're reading this news. And this is what they said for planning purposes, reluctantly.

[A]

That's the title.

[C]

That's how it fucking starts, everyone.

[A]

The all caps title reluctantly.

[C]

August 15, 2024 Media Advisory. Today Donald Trump to ramble incoherently and spread dangerous lies in public, but had a different home. Today at 4:30pm Donald J. Trump, loser of the 2020 election by 7 million votes, will hold another public meltdown in Bedminster, New Jersey. Date and time is going to be Thursday, August 15th at 4:30pm the venue, not a battleground state preview. Not so fresh off of nabj Florida and Twitter glitches. Donald Trump intends to deliver another self obsessed rant full of his own personal grievances to distract from his Toxic Project 2025 agenda. Unpopular running mate and increasingly detached from the reality of the voters who will decide this election. These remarks will not be artificial intelligence, but they certainly will lack intelligence. Raising costs on families, confusing basic facts, cutting Social Security and Medicare, blocking border security and being publicly unstable, unfit and unwell will not help his struggling campaign for president. Tune in for the same old thing. This was their official statement that they sent out to the press.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Whoever is running their comms. H Chef's kiss.

[A]

I want to hug them. I want to hug them forever.

[C]

Yep.

[A]

All right, next up and, and we're going to take a pretty hard left turn here because extremely devastating.

[C]

I'm so fury infuriated by this story.

[A]

I am so angry. A prosecutor says five people have been charged with crimes in connection with Matthew Perry's death. The Friends star from a ketamine overdose last year, including the actor's assistant, two doctors. Here are some facts. Five defendants, including two doctors and Perry's live in assistant have been charged in connection with his death, Perry became addicted to ketamine. When seeking treatment, he was taken advantage of by doctors who sold him ketamine for thousands of dollars. The cost to them was like 12 bucks. Text messages between the two doctors revealed they knew they were taking advantage of Perry with text messages like, I wonder how much this will pay. One of the doctors sold ketamine to Perry's live in assistant and taught the assistant how to inject Perry with ketamine. Knowing he was not a medical professional, Perry then sought to obtain ketamine for less money than from the doctors. So he obtained drugs from street dealers via his assistant, per the dea. And the ketamine that ultimately led to Perry's death was sold by these street dealers. Perry's assistant was the one who injected the ketamine on October 28th when he died. Now, after Perry's death was reported in the news, one of the street dealers texted the other, delete all our messages. So they killed him and they tried to cover it up. Dana.

[C]

Yeah, the doctors, the text messages between the doctors is disgusting, by the way. Yeah, thank you. I know there were some questions around because the way people treat addiction in this country and these doctors, and there are good, good doct doctors out there, but these bad ones taking advantage of people's addictions for a dollar, not caring about their lives, it's disgusting.

[A]

Yeah. And it, it never sat right with me, you know?

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

What happened? And I think we're going to learn a lot more. And we'll, we'll stay on top of the story for you. All right. We still have more news to get to, but we have to take a quick break. So we'll be right back with the Hot Notes. Stick around after these messages.

[B]

We'll be right back.

[A]

Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the Hot notes. Hot notes. All right. This story comes from Kurt Devine, Casey Tolan, Audrey Ash, and Kyung La. At CNN last month, Russell Vaught sat in a five star Washington, D.C. hotel suite, bowing his head in prayer with the two men he thought were relatives of a wealthy conservative donor. Vaught, one of the key authors of Project 2025, the right wing blueprint for a second Trump term, expected the meeting would help his think tank secure a substantial contribution from these two wealthy cousins. For nearly two hours, he talked candidly about his behind the scenes work to prepare policy for former President Trump, his expansive views on presidential power, his plans to restrict pornography and immigration, and his complaints that the GOP was too focused on religious liberty instead of Christian nation nationalism. But he said nationism is what he called it. But the men Vought was talking to actually worked for a British journalism nonprofit, and they were secretly recording him the entire time. The nonprofit, the center for Climate Reporting, published a video of the meeting on Thursday, offering a window into the thinking of one of the top policy minds of the MAGA movement, who's been floated as a possible White House chief of staff. Trump has publicly rejected Project 2025, as Kamala Harris campaign has sought to tie him to some of the plan's most extreme proposals. But in private, Vought said, those disavowals, when Trump is saying he's not, I have nothing to do with it. That's merely graduate level politics. That's what Vought said. Now, Vought said his group, the center for Renewing America, was secretly drafting hundreds of executive orders for Trump, regulations for him, memos that would lay the groundwork for a rapid action on Trump's plans if he wins. Describing his work as creating shadow agencies, he claimed that Trump has blessed his organization and he's very supportive of what we do, quote, unquote. 80% of my time, he said, working on the plans is working on the plans of what's necessary to take control of these bureaucracies. And we're working doggedly on that, whether it's destroying their agency's notion of independence, whether that is thinking through how deportation would work. That's a quote from Vought to these journalists. In discussing Trump's plan to carry out the largest deportation in US History, which the former president has called for publicly. Vought said the expulsion of millions of undocumented immigrants could help, quote, save the country once deportations begin, quote, you're really going to be winning a debate along the way about what that looks like, whatever that English is. And he went on to say, and so that's going to cause us to get us off of multiculturalism just to be able to sustain and defend that deportation. That's his quote. The video is the latest example of secret recordings exposing political figures, private comments. The tactics used by the center, which created fake websites and fake LinkedIn profiles to deceive Russ. Amazing. Are typically rejected by mainstream American media news outlets. Right. That's unethical to do here in the United States. I guess we have other ways of being unethical that fit within the ethics rules. But using hidden cameras and deceptive practices in reporting is more very common in the UK where the center is based, and it's been on the rise in the fringe of the US Media as well. I'm thinking of my good buddy, Lauren Windsor. The conservative group Project Veritas has long conducted sting operations and published selectively edited videos. And earlier this year, a liberal activists released audio recordings of conversations she had with Justice Sam Alito and his wife, as well as Chief Justice John Roberts. That's Lauren Windsor. Thanks for not using her name. Okay. In this article. In an email, Lawrence Carter, the center's co founder and director, defended the group's tactics, saying that there was a public interest in revealing Vought's private comments about his relationship with Trump and the work on Project 2025. And see, I've, I have a. Opinions about this too, right? Like, is it okay for Julian Assange to steal passwords, to hack into stuff and then release it and call it journalism? I say no.

[C]

Right.

[A]

Is, is it okay for Project Veritas to have somebody scare somebody, bully some woman into breaking into someone's house to steal Ashley Biden's diary and then cherry picking excerpts of it to release to the public? No.

[C]

No.

[A]

Do I think going undercover as major Republican donors to expose fucking Nazis and fascists is okay? Yes, I do.

[C]

I do as well. And if these people weren't vetted, and I know they made up LinkedIn and all this other stuff, but you know what? Vet deeper before you let someone in to talk to you.

[A]

Yeah. And this goes on to say, in a statement Thursday, Vought's nonprofit downplayed the video that they released, saying it didn't reveal any new comments from him. Quote, it would have been easier just to do a Google search to uncover what's already on our website. So he's actually saying like, yeah, all this sinister shit, we put it in writing. You can Google it. But I think the most, the more important part is that you said it's definitely for Trump and we're doing this, we're writing executive orders for him and he's given us his blessing. A Trump spokesperson declined to comment on the video, but his campaign has stressed that he sets his own agenda and the Project 2025 and, and other outside conservative groups don't speak for him. Yes, they do. Quote, President Trump's campaign made it clear that only President Trump and the campaign and not any other organization or former staff represent policies for the second term. That's Daniel Alvarez, senior liar to the Trump campaign, in a statement. Sorry, senior adviser. President Trump personally led the efforts to establish 20 promises made to the forgotten men and women across our nation, as well as the RNC platform. There is no platform. These are the only policies endorsed by President Trump for a second term. Okay, whatever.

[C]

And continuing on with the story, Vought served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget under Trump, where he made a name for himself as a policy wonk committed to the MAGA movement. In public, Trump repeatedly praised Vought for doing, quote, an incredible and fantastic job at omb. After Trump left office, Vought started the center for Renewing America. That's a nonprofit that describes itself as, quote, the tip of the American first spear. CRA was one of the many right leaning groups that partnered on Project 2025. That's that more than 900 page blueprint for Trump's second term that was led by the Heritage Foundation. Now, Vought personally authored the project's chapter on the Executive Office of the President and his group contributed to several other chapters of the plan as well. Vought also served as the policy director of the Republican National Convention Committee that rewrote the GOP's official platform this year, which is basically Project 2025, a sign of how central to Republicans policy goals. Last month, Vought's team was approached by employees with the center for Climate Reporting, which was previously published investigations into climate negotiations and Saudi Arabia's energy policy. The center spun an elaborate fiction with a journalist and a paid actor posing as the brother and son in law of a reclusive New Mexico investor. The non existent Is it you? It is me. The non existent patriarch had watched watched Vought's appearance on Steve Bannon's War Room that show while recuperating from an illness and wanted to make a seven figure contribution to CRA after previously focusing his philanthropy on classical music. This is what they claimed. The meeting took place on July 24, the week after the Republican Convention at the Presidential Suite of the Rosewood Hotel in D.C. where the center had placed several hidden cameras and microphones. This is what Carter said after the center's employees suggested starting the meeting with a prayer. They peppered Vought with questions about his work and views. The video shows this and I just want to remind everyone that DC is not a consent area. You can't be recorded without your permission. I think right AG they've made it that way. So not a lot of sketchy shit.

[A]

Goes on, I think so, yeah.

[C]

I don't think both people have to consent, you know, just to the recording. You have to consent to everything else. AG is going to look that up while I finish this though. Sitting on a couch in a hotel suite, Vought seemed relaxed and comfortable discussing a wide range of topics from the history of the conservative movement to European politics, to his relationship with the former president. Vought said he was unfazed by Trump's repeated denials of any connection with Project 2025, dismissing such public statements as politics. And this is a, quote, I see what he's doing is just very, very conscious, distancing himself from a brand. That's what Vought said. It's interesting. He's in fact, not even opposing himself. Particular policy. About a week after the conversation, the director of Project 2025 stepped down, and Trump's campaign manager said in a statement that, quote, reports of Project 2025's demise would be greatly welcomed. Whatever. Vought said he had personally talked to Trump in recent months and received at least one personal assignment from him after he left office. He noted that the former president has, quote, been at our organization, he's raised money for our organization, he's blessed it, he's very supportive of what we do. That wasn't just bluster to try and to land a big check. That's according to others in the MAGA movement. Trump and Vought have spoken at various times since leaving office, and the former president has adopted some of OT's ideas. This is from two sources familiar with their relationship. That's what they told CNN.

[A]

Yeah. And, and by the way, I have your answer for you. Yes, it is a one party consent district.

[C]

Thank you. That's what it's called.

[A]

Yes. So it says here, and you were right. You don't need the permission of anyone else to record conversations you're part of. If you want to record someone else's conversation, you need consent from at least one party. All right, so yay.

[C]

Yay.

[A]

That's going on in D.C. now, this story continues that in preparation for Trump's potential return to the White House, Vaught said in a meeting that he had a team of staffers working to draft regulations and executive orders that would translate Trump's campaign speeches into government policy. We got about 350 different documents that are regulations and things of that nature that we're planning for the next administration. That's what Vought said. For example, you may say, okay, all right, dhs, we want to have the largest deportation, mass deportation. Now, what are your actual memos that the secretary sends out to do it? Like there's an executive order, regulations, secretarial memos. Those are the types of things that need to be thought through so you're not having to scramble to do that later on. Those plans will not be made public, he said, but instead will be Very, very close. Okay. A Center for Climate Reporting journalist, under the guise of the fake donor's relative, also secretly recorded a separate conversation with one of Vought's aides, who went into more detail about the process. Micah Meadowcroft, the research director for csa, said the drafts the group was preparing would be provided to an incoming Trump administration in a way that would protect them from ever being publicly disclosed.

[C]

Whoops.

[A]

Except it just was. Ta da, jazz hands. Quote, it's a big fat stack of papers that will be distributed during the transition period. That's what Meadowcroft said, while noting, you don't actually, like, send them to your work emails in order to avoid disclosure under the Freedom of Information act, so. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. He described Vaught's work preparing executive orders and policy playbooks as the second phase of Project 2025. And the work of drafting the policies is happening months ahead of the election, in part because, quote, President Trump will want to spend literally zero amount of time thinking or contemplating what a transition looks like. That's what Vought said. It's not how he thinks. Yeah, he. It's the. The thinking is not how he thinks. Yeah, I just want to put that out there. Bot's guiding principle is simple. What would Donald do? Quote, we're always going off of if. If Donald was the head of this agency, what would he do? That's so weird. The Washington Post and Associated Press previously reported Vought was drafting a playbook for the first 180 days of the first of. Of a second Trump administration. More broadly, during Trump's first term in office, Vought said, we had people, appointees that were not on board with the president's viewpoint leaking, destabilizing the policy process. I don't think that would be occurring again, he said. I think we will find people that share his political views and that they're brought in, and that will be a much more healthy White House process as a result. Now, some have speculated that Vought himself could be one of those people. Yeah, duh. With others in the MAGA movement floating him as a potential White House chief of staff. Asked if he had been offered a job in a second Trump term, Vought said no. But he said, I think there's an expectation I would go in, quote, I don't know what that would be. He said, I don't know what the President would want me to do.

[C]

Oh, boy. And to continue. Elsewhere in the conversation, Vaught outlined views on religion and race that seemed more extreme than those Trump has publicly articulated, including criticism of the right for what he describes as an excessive focus on religious freedom in the conservative movement. Quote, we've been too focused on religious liberty, which we all support, but we've lacked the ability to argue that we are Christian nation. This is what Vought argued, an idea he's also talked about publicly. He said our laws are built on the Judeo Christian worldview value system. He said that conservatives should push to have debates over whether to allow mosques to be built in America's downtowns and whether Christian immigrants should be prioritized over those of other faiths, ideas that run contrary to the first amendment protections. Quote, I want to make sure that we can say we are Christian nation, he said. And my viewpoint is mostly that I would probably be Christian nationism. That's what we were talking about, that nationalism. Christian white nationalism. That's just weird. Also, that's pretty close to Christian nationalism, because I also believe in nationalism. Yep. Very weird.

[A]

Okay, there it is.

[C]

Yep. Vaught argued that it was important to pursue some of the culturally conservative policy goals listed in Project 2025's blueprint, including abortion restrictions and making pornography illegal, while taking into account political realities. Instead of an unpopular new law banning all pornography, for example, Vought said that his group would propose, quote, doing it from the back door. Sorry. By making pornography websites legally liable if minors use them. That could lead pornography companies to stop doing business in states with those kind of laws.

[A]

I just love that he used the doing it through the back door phrase while we're talking about banning pornography.

[C]

Absolutely. And in discussing the pro the protests and riots around the US in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Vaught said that the president had the ability to use the military to restore order. He argued that the commander in chief wasn't limited by the. What Ag I've never seen this act before. How do you say that? The pose they Comitatis act.

[A]

Oh, Posse comitatus.

[C]

Thank you. Posse comitatus. I'm sure everyone's giggling, including Fada right now. Posse Comitatus act. A nearly 150 year old law that prevents federal troops from conducting civilian law enforcement except when authorized by law. Quote, the president has, you know, the ability both along the border and elsewhere to maintain law and order with the military. That's what Vought said. And that's something that, you know, know it's going to be important for, for him to remember and his lawyers to affirm. This is where this immunity ruling comes in, by the way.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Trump wanted to deploy thousands of active duty troops on the streets of major cities to quell protests in 2020, but defense officials pushed back, the senior official told CNN at the time. Vought added that the unrest following George Floyd's death obviously was not about race. He said it was about destabilizing the Trump administration. Go yourself.

[A]

Oh, my God. To. To put your privileged white ass ideas on what people were protesting. Yep. Following the murder of George Floyd. To, to. What kind of egotistical narcissist are you to be like, it was about me. They were mad at me.

[C]

Yeah, that's a big one. A big ego. Statistical narcissist.

[A]

That's borderline personality right there. That's. Fuck. Wow. Anyway, that is incredible story. Watch the video. It's all over social media. If you. I'm sure if you just Google CNN or, you know, center, it's C E N T R E for climate journalists or even just go search Russell Vaught. Right. You're going to find that video and it's well worth your time. And there's going to be a lot more that comes out from that. But it's. It definitely links Trump to Project 2025. So no matter how much he pushes back on it, it's him. Anyway, we have good news that we have to read and we have John Fugal saying, but we have to take a quick break. Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages.

[B]

We'll be right back.

[A]

Hey, everybody, welcome back. It's Friday on the Daily Beans. That means it's Fugal sang Friday. So I'm joined by my very good friend, host of Tell Me everything on Sirius XM progress channel. 127 weeknights at 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific. And of course, the host of the John Fugal Saying show podcast and of course on tour with the Sexy Liberal Comedy Tour will save the world. Avengers Amazingness. You have to see a live show if you haven't yet. And he'll be at the dnc. He's doing everything, all the time, everywhere. Please welcome John Fugal saying hello.

[B]

Hello, Allison. Happy Christian nationalist summer to you. Hi.

[A]

Oh, is that what it is? Is that what we're doing?

[B]

Hot Neck Hot Christian national this summer? Absolutely. They're going to keep on making life interesting for the rest of us. Yeah. Are you in Chicago?

[A]

I just landed in D.C. actually, I'll be in Chicago on Monday.

[B]

Nice. I look forward to seeing you there.

[A]

Yeah, I'm going to stop by. I'm going to crash your booth over at the Siriusx.

[B]

Crash my booth? Please, please.

[A]

It's gonna Be fun. And I wanted to talk to you today about. Well, first of all, we just finished watching an hour long one of another quote unquote news conference. CNN seems to have been duped again, not having learned from the same thing that happened at Mar a Lago just a couple of days ago. This one was at Bedminster and you know, same old weird shit. What are your thoughts on these quote unquote press conferences?

[B]

What mistake did, did CNN make exactly? If their job is getting the highest numbers possible and people hate watch Donald Trump, which increases his ratings, then CNN did exactly what their job is, which is satisfying their shareholders, not necessarily bringing.

[A]

Oh, but they act surprised.

[B]

Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, of course. Who, who could know? Oh my. I mean you like at this point, if you don't have the fact corrections written and ready to slide in on a chiron during these live speeches, you're not doing your job. And a lot of this thrives on our outrage as well. I'm, I'm not, not surprised one bit. In the land of clickbait news and a land where ratings driven news has made Americans this dumb, that CNN is putting profit over fact checking. I mean, you know, this is the 50 year anniversary of Nixon resigning in office and can you imagine, I mean, if Ford hadn't pardoned the guy, if the justice system had been allowed to determine the degree of Nixon's guilt and punish him according to the law, we would not be facing Donald Trump running for president ever again. I blame Nixon and Ford for all of this as a dire summer.

[A]

Yeah. Hear, hear, my friend. And you know, you can even go as far as saying we wouldn't have ended up with the Supreme Court that we have today, which is why we are in a holding pattern on holding him accountable anyhow. But I mean, that was a lie. He's not immune for all of the charges against him. And notice he didn't say he was innocent, he said he was immune. Immune? He's not immune to all the charges against him. And Judge Chutkan's gonna determine what is and isn't immune. You know, hopefully soon. But he also said that immigrants were taking 100%. No more than 100% of our jobs.

[B]

Yes, yes. Well, I mean, look at the job of being the woman who has to sleep with Donald Trump. Yeah. I mean, two out of three of those have been immigrants so far. Yeah. You know, this is what he's gonna do because he's desperate, he's revealing how scared he is and it's kind of beautiful, it's really important to folks. Take some time to stop and smell the train wreck because it's kind of beautiful. There's only two things Donald Trump's afraid of, and I've always said it. A strong woman and a strong wind. And for God, so love the world, he made a bullet miss Donald Trump's head by just two inches that we might all witness him lose to a mixed race woman. They don't know how to go after her. They can't go after her without being sexist and being racist. They're constantly stepping on rakes. If they had policy positions that would help non millionaires, they'd be talking about it nonstop. Like, he's talking about not taxing tips, but he doesn't actually mean it. We can go into that if you want. They're terrified.

[A]

Yeah, let's pause there. Yeah, okay, let's pause there. Because there's a huge significant difference between the Kamala Harris plan to not tax tips and the Donald Trump plan to not tax tips. And I put air quotes around tips when I'm talking about Trump's plan.

[B]

Yeah, well, let's talk about it. And by the way, she's not stealing his plan. If you want to play that game, then you can say that Donald Trump stole Ron Paul's plan because he was talking about it long before Trump was. You know, a lot of Democrats would love to do this. I've always supported. I mean, you should not tax people's tips. That's crazy. I also don't think you should tax Social Security benefits. It was wrong of Ronald Reagan to do it.

[A]

It.

[B]

But. But what are we really talking about here with this bold economic plan? He's offering massive tax cuts if he's elected. And he's courting the same people who already vote for him with promises of big giveaways. And he's not talking about how it's going to be paid for. Okay, like no taxes on your tips for service workers. I agree, but that would cost our treasury $250 billion a year. So how do we make it up? A tiny tax on rich people who will never feel the pinch and never notice it. That's how you do it.

[C]

It.

[B]

They won't do it. So no taxes on Social Security. That's 150 billion a year. If you end that, where are we going to make it up? Well, we could cut Pentagon funding. We could, you know, let the IRS chase down tax cheats. There's ways we can do it. But the Republican Party's not interested in bringing in more revenue so they're saying we're going to cut the taxes on tips, but the real goal there is to starve Social Security because then it will go broke. It can't fund itself anymore. So he wants to, he says he wants to do this because that's how you're going to starve the Treasury. It's how you're going to starve Social Security by cutting it. There's ways you could do it, but they're not willing to tax the rich. And Donald Trump's doing all this saying they should be talking about policy. And the media is playing this game where the media is going after Kamala Harris for not bending the knee and rushing to the media to engage in a big kissy face ritual of please like me now, now. It's really amazing watching how Donald Trump and Republicans are berating this woman who's soaring in the polls, who's closed the gaps. I mean, Florida's within margin of error now Florida's within margin of error in one poll. And they think she should stop what she's doing that's successful and go back and do it the old way and go through this media phalanx. Look, this is the same media that published Hillary Clinton's emails, but they won't publish Trump's. Right?

[A]

Right.

[B]

They're refusing to ask questions about Donald Trump's bullet that he took where he didn't need stitches and wore a big fake prop the next day. They got nothing to say about Egypt giving him a $10 million bribe, nothing about the really weird speech impediment we heard on Elon's thing the other night. Like, nothing from the Fourth Estate about any of this. Just, why won't Kamala come talk to us? Trump's saying, why won't Kamala debate me on Fox News News? I have nothing but respect for Vice President Harris for not agreeing to debate on a channel that's paying three quarters of a billion in fines for lying about who won the last election. She'd be a punk if she did it. And I gotta tell you, so far, I think she's making the right play. Let the media be upset. He's got plenty of time to go and do those interviews. That's the outrage of the week. It'll be long forgotten by September. The media's so furious that she's doing something that works and that they're no part of it.

[A]

Yeah, and she's calling them out, too. She's like, well, you know, I'm gonna do this my way. And it's not like the media is super popular with the people right now. So she says, I'm gonna go out and talk to the voters. That's who matters. And I think everybody's gonna get behind her for that message. They can scream and throw a tantrum all they want. I don't care. Something else about the tax on tips on Trump's side. I'm not sure if you knew this or not. Ted Cruz is the one writing up that policy. It also includes corporate bonuses.

[B]

Oh, you don't say. Wow, how lucky those guys are. Finally getting a break, huh?

[A]

So it's, it's a little different when you have Kamala Harris and Tim Walls talking about a cap on the income that you can have in order to get tax on your tips. And it's, it's pretty, it's up there. It's not, you know, it's not like really low where everybody's gonna miss out. It's designed and designated for the service workers in this country.

[B]

Exactly right.

[A]

And then you have, have Donald Trump who wants to add corporate bonuses, thousands and thousands of dollars where you know, if you get a bonus, you don't have to pay tax on that. They're going to consider that a tip. So that is where the majority of the cost of his plan comes in because he is giving another tax break to the wealthy.

[B]

What is it going to take to teach our conservative brothers and sisters what an oligarch is and how these people operate?

[C]

Rate.

[B]

I mean, it's right there. He can't stop.

[A]

As soon as they realize they aren't displaced billionaires themselves. I can't, I don't, I can't understand it.

[B]

I mean, Financial Times poll this week shows Harris is more trusted than Trump on the economy. That, only that, that didn't make a lot of news. You know, again, the media is so, so pulling for Trump as hard as they can because they live in this 2016 ancient times world of Trump sized ratings. And I just don't think it's going to work. I think they're going to get it.

[A]

News channels that are editing videos of President Biden to make him look like he's wandering off, talking to no one when he was actually talking to one of the parachuters.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

That's just one example. And then meanwhile you've got Donald Trump mumbling on Fox about how today, how and this was the Fox News Chiron. If you, if Kamala's elected and the stock market's gonna crash, the stock market's doing terrible. It was way was much better when I was president. And as he's saying that the stock ticker that they show on the side of the screen on Fox News is going up and up and up +500, +519, up to over 40,500. And immediately when he starts talking about how the economy is terrible, the Fox News literally, they never do this, pull that. They pulled their stock ticker, their permanent little corner stock ticker off the screen to not go against what he was saying. So this is the kind of battle back and forth.

[B]

So we, I mean, I think the irony is that Fox wants Trump to lose because hating President Harris is much better for their ratings than defending President Trump, who Rupert Murdoch already deeply hates. I always remember when Barack Obama got elected, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity got new four year deals the week of his inaugural. So it's interesting that Fox actually will do great if it's Kamala Harris. And I think it's the CNNs that are nervous about it.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely. And we're gonna continue to see it. It's not gonna stop. It's their bread and butter. And so when you think, oh wow, CNN's going to the right of Fox News, wow. Yeah, I think that might, might be why that, and now Fox News has had to pay, like you said, three quarters of a billion dollars. Maybe they're being a little more careful about their outright lies. Anyway, my friend, I can't wait to see you next week at the dnc. It's going to be incredible. I'm interested in how long the boost and the new cycle from the DNC lasts because you'll remember it, it ended pretty abruptly thanks to President Joseph Robinette Biden. The RNC news cycle didn't last very.

[B]

Long, but no bounce. Keep that in mind. Yeah, no bounce for J.D. vance. No bounce for the shooting.

[A]

They've gone down, their favorability's gone down. And just think, we're only in August. The oppo that comes out on these on J.D. vance, especially in October, is gonna be so choice if he's still Trump's VP pick. But anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing you.

[B]

Hey, listen, way just for everyone, this weekend we're doing the sexy liberal show in Chicago at the Vic Theater and it's going to be a pay per view. So if any of your very attractive listeners want to join, we're going to be joined on stage by Governor J.B. pritzker, Congresswoman Jan Schakowski, Jill Winebanks, Jamie Harrison, DNC Chair, joins us on stage and our old pal Mark Hamill. Yes. We are going to have quite a lineup. That's in addition to me and Stephanie Miller and House Sparks and Frangela. That's this Saturday at 8pm Go to sexy liberal.com it's $20.24, chance. And come kick off the DNC with us.

[A]

So fantastic. Thank you, my friend. I'll see you next week, everybody. Check out Tell me everything on SiriusXM channel 127. That's Sirius XM progress and it's again called tell Me Everything with the inimitable John Fugal saying I, you truly are incredible. Thank you so much for doing the beans with me. Thanks. Every Friday. I, I can't thank you enough.

[B]

I can't believe you lower your standards this much. Thank you.

[A]

Oh, stop. You stop. No, I can't believe you lower your standards this much.

[C]

We will.

[A]

We will be right back, everybody with some good news. Stick around after these messages.

[B]

We'll be right back.

[A]

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

[B]

Then good news, everyone.

[A]

Good news. And if you have good news, confessions, corrections, especially pronunciation corrections. But I think we got posse comitatus. All right, you could send those to us. Also podpet tax. Send us a photo of your pet and we'll try to guess what breed it is or what kind it is or maybe how old it is. Anything you want us to guess? And if you don't have pod pet tax to pay, you can send us an adoptable pet in your area or any photo of any animal, whether it's what's the model of your axolotl, opun on the bovine, what the hecwine, what the hell is in that shell? Or just what the shell for short, Any animal photo and have us guess anything about it or just have us enjoy it. We love that, too.

[C]

I'm good with that.

[A]

Yep, I like that. That's a very good thing. Just send us especially baby animals. Love it. Especially capybaras and frogs. Frog orgies. Okay. And we also love shout outs, whether it's a shout out to yourself or a loved one or, or some activists doing some great work in your community or small business in your area or your small business or a shout out to a government program that's helped you or a loved one, whether it's Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, maybe, maybe you're going to start seeing in 2026 you could start sending in your good news about these Medicare drug prices that are being negotiated right now because that's when they go into effect or perhaps the $2,000 a year cap on medication as has helped you out out and especially student loan debt forgiveness. We want to hear about that too. Or you know if anybody had was about to get it and then didn't or is sitting waiting for this. You know the Supreme Court in the eighth Circuit to get their together on the save plan. We want to know about it. Send it to us dailybeanspod.com click on contact first up from anonymous no pronouns. I am a kitchen table days guy all right I have a misheard a misheard something. It's not a lyric, Rick. It's from a few years ago on your show. I thought you were saying pod pet tax T A C K s like you would tack a photo up on the of pets on a board. It didn't really make sense but I still heard that. I heard it like that for many months. So anyway, for podpet tax tix here's a picture of our 10 year old taco Frisbee Frisbee holding dog as I call it. I love it. She's always folded the flexible Frisbee over and holds it like this.

[C]

This.

[A]

That's why she's the Taco Frisbee holding dog. Have a guess on her breed. This shouldn't be hard. Keep up the great work. I feel like I know both of you personally. I look up to you and respect what you say and what you stand for. You're a highlight of my day as I drive into a deep red area of Michigan where I work and it's really difficult to be the only sane minded person at this company and you inject some sanity directly into my ears every day. I hope you don't feel alone. I hope that like the idea is that you feel like you're not alone. And on an and I get that every day with some swearing. Nonetheless, since I wear a beard and flannels and I hunt and fish, everyone automatically assumes I'm a MAGA like them. And they couldn't be more wrong.

[C]

I love that too.

[A]

Looks like yeah, and when you said taco I thought you meant the kind of dog. It was a taco dog because. And, and this is funny because I think chocolate labs, I call them choco tacos. So chocolate labs to me are taco dogs. No, don't ask. It's a stretch. But I thought you were in on that somehow. But no, this is a black lab with a Taco Frisbee.

[C]

Thank you for sending it in. Sometimes I just like to let you.

[A]

Have your moments Ah, I appreciate. I appreciate it. Just. Yeah, it's like. It's kind of like Trump, you know? Hey, just let her talk.

[C]

Yeah, why not?

[A]

Operation Let Her Talk is in full effect.

[C]

This one's from Dana. Not me, but the other wonderful Dana pronoun. She and her hi beans friends. My friend introduced me to your podcast and April, and I've been listening ever since. Usually, while I exercise in the morning, I'm writing in as an act of penance for my cats, Hector and August. The cats hang out with me while I work out because I play with them between weight reps. This morning, you reported Couch Humper Vance saying postmenopausal women are only good for babysitting their grandchildren. And I screamed, oh, you poor Hector and August. I scared the hell out of them, and they shot out of the room. There's a photo of them for pet tax and aforementioned pen. Penitence.

[A]

Penitence.

[C]

Thank you. Excuse me. Penitence. I know I said it wrong earlier. Hector is the orange thing. Yeah, thank you. Hector is the orange tabby. In August is the brown tabby. Thanks for all you do. I can totally. Dana, I have never even met you, and I can totally hear you going, oh, fuck you.

[A]

Yeah, and look at Hector's side eye, too. Like, he's like, you back.

[C]

So good.

[A]

Fantastic. And also, yeah, no, I totally put. I. I couldn't believe I heard, like, he's going after cat ladies. Then he went after childless cat ladies. Now it's postmenopausal. I'm like, damn, I'm a triple threat to him. Like, what are they going to do with us? Like, round us up and put us away in a camp somewhere because we're useless to society now. I don't.

[C]

I can't.

[A]

It's awful.

[C]

It's pissing off so many people. And not just Democrats.

[A]

Well, like you said, you know, in the A block, they're bringing Corey Lewandowski on. He's great with women, I hear. No, he is not. And, Dana, you're new here. You've been here since April. You must go listen to Charismatic Megaplastics. The episode. You can search for it.

[C]

For one second, I thought you were talking to me. I was like, allison, I am not. I've heard the episode. I did it with you.

[A]

No, Dana, you're new here.

[C]

You. Wait, what?

[A]

Dana, you're new here. Are you new here? What?

[C]

Are you new?

[A]

Next up from Just don't call me late for dinner. No, can't start. Can't start my day without the Beans. This shout out relates to your position of dialogue with my family members. My dad was a staunch Republican, but a reasonable man. As my girls Amy and Willow got older, he told them they needed to do their own research on politics and if they could explain why they wanted to vote a certain way, he would respect them. It powerful advice from a grandfather. My girls became very inquisitive on politics, accelerated by the events of 2016. My daughter's a blue. Needless to say, as my dad approached his last elections, I discussed politics with him and we went through his beliefs and I realized and told him he wasn't Republican. He was more libertarian. And in his last elections, including 2016, he voted Libertarian. My mom has taken a few more years, but she won't vote for the Republican presidential candidate this time either either. So I shout out to dialogue with family. To my dad, who passed in 2019. I'm sorry. And to my intelligent, beautiful daughters. My picks are my girls and their wonderful partners at my 40th wedding anniversary dinner, and my dad at his bar with his memories around him before and after. My teddy bear. 63 years apart. Wow. Keep up the dialogue, everyone. So anyway, this is wonderful. Look at this. Look at these photos.

[C]

Amazing.

[A]

Is that you with the blue hair and the tattoos?

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Fantastic. And then the teddy bear.

[C]

Oh my gosh. So good. 63 years apart.

[A]

Wonderful. Thanks for sending that in. Just don't call me late for dinner. Appreciate it.

[C]

This one's from Beth in Michigan. Pronoun she her.

[A]

Them.

[C]

Hello to the liguminati who are weird, but in all the right ways. I want to share a story about a government program that has benefited my life, the aca. Since I do not work for the New York Times, I will not bury the lead. Fortunately, everything turned out okay, with a few lasting effects. One of my daughters was born in the mid-1990s with a heart defect that would eventually require open heart surgery to fix. Since she was otherwise pretty healthy, the surgeons wanted to wait until she was three or four to do the surgery, because preschoolers at least can understand simple directions like don't pull the tube out. It's helped helping you breathe. Whether they follow the directions is another thing, but at least there's a chance that it wouldn't have with a younger child. Spoiler. The reason this is related to the ACA is that when my daughter was 16 months old, her dad, through whom we got our health insurance, was going to change jobs in a few months, which also meant changing health insurance companies. When we notified the new company of her situation. They said that because it was a pre existing condition, they would not pay anything on it for a year. So our decision was either to have surgery a lot earlier than the surgeons wanted, thereby making it a lot more risky, or roll the dice that nothing would happen to force the surgery to happen during the year. That would mean paying for open heart surgery out of pocket. Of course we had it early. We were very fortunate that she recovered well, especially after extubating herself because she couldn't understand the directions not to pull her tube out. She had to be in the oxygen tent and stay an extra day in ICU until they were sure her lungs were okay. Okay, so when Republicans talk about getting rid of the aca, it means they are okay with insurance companies having so much power that they can force doctors and families into medical risky procedures to avoid the risk of paying on a over $200,000 medical bill for the rest of their life. Pet Tax is my wonderful daughter's cat who was born deaf but has developed an otherworldly sense of time. Because when it is time for my daughter to get home from work work, the cat will stand and meow at her door until she comes in. Thanks for all that both you do to help keep my doom scrolling down to manageable degree. This is incredible. Animals are amazing. They just are.

[A]

And. And Beth in Michigan. It's. It's hope scrolling on Twitter right now. It's so much fun as long as you've got the bad people blocked. Oh my gosh. Look at this sweet baby. Oh, I love it. All right, next up from Steve. He and him. I recently turned 65 and signed up for Medicare. I've always had good coverage as my wife works with a large hospital. But Medicare is even better. My out of pocket each month, even with the supplemental, is about the same. But my deductible is now $0 instead of $3,800 and my prescription plan costs just 50 cents a month. And that completely covers the cost of my three prescriptions. I've sent in pics of our pets before, so this time I'll submit photos of the furry friends who lives on the roof of our garage. Look at the raccoon baby living on the roof of the garage. And Steve, absolutely incredible. Thank you for that. Shout out to Medicare.

[C]

Absolutely. Oh my goodness. It's a big ass raccoon, by the way. All right, this is from Brent in Wisconsin. Pronounce he and him. Dear beans nation, it's your boy Brent chiming in from the woods up in northern Wisconsin. You may Remember me from such good news submissions as the one last week where I talked about having an interview you for an amazing job that would get me out of my MAGA filled workplace.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

Yep, a game changer. I'm thrilled to report I got the job. I gave my two week notice on Monday. My last day will be next Friday. I'll then have two weeks between jobs to reset, regroup and drive away any lingering evil spirits. My home office is going to be fancy indeed. New job starts the second week of September. This is awesome, Brent. I'm looking forward to my new work environment which will include two little dogs, pajama pants and zero conspiracy theories about Soros funded caravan sneaking across the border to traffic children or Hollywood liberals making kids trans in order to more easily harvest their adrenochrome. Oh my God, I haven't even heard that one. Gonna spend my days with the Daily Beans, Stephanie Miller, Hal Sparks and the Professional left Podcast and music. Ah, such music I'll listen to. Thanks for all the kind support here on the podcast and huge extra thanks to Leguminati who chimed in with even more in the behind the beans group on Facebook. To anyone listening to this who isn't a patron supporter, you're missing out on an amazing community. So get in there. And then the last line is, are you not Brenters brentertained?

[A]

Are you not brentertained? Incredible. Congratulations. We were all sending out like super positive vibes for you to get that job and you got it. And now you get to do it in pajama pants with two little diamonds dogs and no conspiracy theories about Soros funded caravans. And by the way, they're back on the caravan trip. So everybody drink.

[C]

We knew we were ready. They were coming.

[A]

Thank you all so much for your good news and thank you for this incredible week of good news. Keep sending it into us, we're gonna need it. We wanna. I mean I'm just like riding this super awesome high of hope and awesomeness. Shep Ferry came out with his official Kamala Harris art today. I've shared it on Twitter. It's fantastic. If you don't know Shep Ferry, he's the one who came out out with the Hope Obama Hope Art in 2008 and you know, going way back, he was, you know, Andre the Giant has a posse and obey giant. Like that's, that's Shep Ferry. We used to play pool at Gas House in San Diego. Long ass time ago. Anyway, send your good news to us. It's going to be amazing. It's going to get better. All gas, no breaks. Do you have any final thoughts before we get out of here today?

[C]

I do not. Well, I shouldn't say that. I cannot wait to see this crowd in D.C. tonight. So if you're listening to this, obviously you're listening to this before the live show in D.C. just can't wait to meet you. I know it's going to be a riot.

[A]

It's going to be so awesome. And we'll see you there. We're going to do the cleanup bonus. I'm going to do my best to do a beans bonus. We are going to have an episode of Jack on Sunday. I don't know how I do this all. I don't know when we.

[C]

I don't know how you either, honey.

[A]

I don't know how you do it because I know you're doing a lot of traveling and with all the money that you raised for HRC and all the incredible, like, Lambda Legal, all the stuff that you do, I don't know when you sleep either, my friend. But we are going to see you out there and I can't wait. So everybody until then, please take care of yourselves. Take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, take care of your family.

[C]

Vote blue over Q and take all that family with you.

[A]

Go to vote.org to check your registration status and vote down ballot all the way. No roll offs. I've been AG and I've been DG and them's the beans.

[B]

Refried beans.

[A]

I like refried beans.