John Fugelsang (21:45)

We'll be right back.

Brian Caram (21:50)

I'm Brian Caram, and I've spent decades covering politics. Now I'm taking you behind the scenes one interview at a time.

John Fugelsang (21:57)

Join us as each week Brian confronts the issues that matter, posing the questions

Alison Gill (22:02)

you wish you could ask.

John Fugelsang (22:03)

No filter, no agenda, just the truth.

Brian Caram (22:06)

We're not here for sound bites. We're here for substance. Join me, Brian Caram, every week as we cut through the noise and get straight to it. This is Just Ask the Question where curiosity will lead us to the facts.

Alison Gill (22:21)

Subscribe now on your favorite podcast platform

John Fugelsang (22:24)

and remember, when you want answers, all

Brian Caram (22:26)

you have to do is just ask the question.

Alison Gill (22:39)

Hey, everybody, welcome back. It's Friday and that means it's Fugal Sang Fridays here on the Daily Beans with my very good friend John Fugal, saying he holds the Tell Me Everything show on Sirius XM progress channel 127 weeknights, 9pm Eastern, 6pm Pacific. And if you don't have Sirius, you can always listen to his podcast, the John Fugal Saying show for free, wherever you get your podcasts. John, how are you?

John Fugelsang (23:00)

Allison, I'm so glad to be back on your show. Thank you so much.

Alison Gill (23:03)

I am so glad to have you. And you are going on tour and that's pretty exciting.

John Fugelsang (23:08)

We are going on tour. The Sexy Liberal Comedy Tour is back for the first, like, real year of touring. We've had in about seven years. We've only done like a few gigs a year, but we're going to do, I think, 16 shows through live Nation. For the first time, we are partnering with Live Nation to do one of these things. Stephanie Miller, Frangela, Hal Sparks and myself and tons of special guests. And we're coming all over the country to so many cities. It's really exciting. It's never been more important to laugh at fascism and ridicule the Christian nationalists. And I'm delighted we'll be doing it in a bunch of really gorgeous theaters filled with thousands of very moral and morally deviant people.

Alison Gill (23:49)

Excellent. That's so awesome. And where can people get information and tickets on your tour?

John Fugelsang (23:54)

People can go to live nation.com or ticketmaster.com you can learn everything you need to know at sexy liberal.com that'll send you to all the right places for all the right cities. We'll be in Chicago for the Democratic convention and playing coast to coast going up until Washington D.C. for inauguration weekend.

Alison Gill (24:13)

Very cool. Very, very cool. I'm going to be in D.C. in August at the Hamilton Theater with Pete struck and Andy McCabe. I'm excited about that.

John Fugelsang (24:21)

I want to come see that show. I want to be in your audience. That's going to be amazing.

Alison Gill (24:24)

You should come up on stage with us. That's, that's what you should do.

John Fugelsang (24:28)

But yeah, see how drunk you get. Me. See how drunk you get.

Alison Gill (24:31)

We're doing Seattle, Portland, St. Louis, Nashville with Phil Williams is going to be joining us.

John Fugelsang (24:40)

You're playing some towns we're not going to. I'm very jealous.

Alison Gill (24:42)

Yeah, Philly, Boston, New York, Chicago. I mean, we're going to be all over the place. I'm doing Columbus this March 29th at the sold out Natalie's Music hall. And I think Olivia Troy is going to be joining me for that. It's going to be great.

John Fugelsang (24:53)

What a light up.

Alison Gill (24:55)

So anyway, okay, so we got our live stuff shows out of the way. Let's talk about the election. We had Super Tuesday this week and boy, there was some super stuff that happened, including very disappointing numbers for Donald Trump. I mean, he did win. He will probably secure the nomination, which is in my view, a suicide pact with the Republican Party.

John Fugelsang (25:18)

Allison.

Alison Gill (25:18)

Shh.

John Fugelsang (25:20)

Let them do it. Let them do it.

Alison Gill (25:22)

They can't go rogue. Their party rules say that their delegates have to vote for, for Donald Trump if they chose, if they were delegated to vote for him in the primaries. So they, they can't really do anything,

John Fugelsang (25:36)

but they can try to go rogue. They can try to go rogue. But I know Mike Pence will do the right thing. Alison. Mike Pence. If Mike Pence will do the right thing, it won't matter.

Alison Gill (25:45)

But we had Dean Phillips drop out and endorse Biden and Nikki Haley drop out and not endorse Donald Trump. What are your thoughts?

John Fugelsang (25:53)

I think she's waiting to have the pot sweetened. There's no way she doesn't endorse Donald Trump because Nikki Haley, let's not forget, does everything for Nikki Haley. This entire party's ethos is selfishness. As John Kenneth Galbraith said 1967, the modern conservative is engaged in one of mankind's oldest pursuits, the search to make selfishness appear virtuous. And that's the party, that's their platform, that's the candidates. Nikki Haley does what she does for herself. She ran against Trump in 16 to campaigning for Ted Cruz. Then she embraced Trump and worked for him, all for self gain. Then she turned on him for self gain. Believe me, she wants to be the party's nominee in 2028. She will endorse Trump at the right time and bring her delegates to the convention. I'm a bit surprised she dropped out as soon as she did. I thought she'd hang in there even longer and try to rack up a few more delegates, but we'll see.

Alison Gill (26:47)

Yeah, I thought so too. I, I figured she. Well, she didn't. She. She lost the Coke brother.

John Fugelsang (26:55)

That's it.

Alison Gill (26:56)

Singular backing. And so that probably is what pulled her out of the race, honestly.

John Fugelsang (27:00)

Yeah, she's not gonna. Nikki Haley's not gonna want to fly coach for this whole thing. Come on. Kyrsten Cinema taught us that people, Kirsten Cinema taught us don't fly coach with a rabble.

Alison Gill (27:11)

And speaking of Kyrsten Sinema, she is not going to be running for Senate this year In Arizona, putting a head to head matchup between Ruben Gallego and Kerry Lake, which is I think a very good thing for Democrats and their prospects to hold the Senate. If you'd asked me a year or two years ago, I would say probably in 2024 we'll keep the White House, we'll take the House back, but we probably would lose the Senate. It's a very hard map for Democrats in the Senate this year. But this, her dropping out helps us considerably and we are in a post

John Fugelsang (27:46)

Roe world so incredibly. I mean, just imagine if the Democrats somehow can keep the Senate, then this time next year the Democrats will control the Senate but without a mansion or A cinema. I mean, that's what Biden's whole thing is about, his whole State of the Union. His whole message is, look how much we've done so far, elect more Democrats and we can do more. Imagine if both Manchin and Sinema were replaced with Democrats. Then you can codify Roe, then you can have the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. There's so much that Democrats can actually get done without these two there protecting the filibuster in exchange for Mitch McConnell telling the big donors to funnel their money to Manchinima.

Alison Gill (28:31)

And there was a lot of it that went their way, I have to say. And speaking of the State of the Union, that's tonight. It hasn't happened yet as we record this, but I'm looking forward to it and I know you're doing some live coverage. Tell us about that.

John Fugelsang (28:44)

Yeah, well, I'm hoping to get you to join us at some point. But we have a lot of, we have a lot of good people on the show tonight. And you know, look, this is going to be a, they're always interesting to me, but this State of the Union and a lot of folks listening to this have already watched it. But I mean, Biden has three things he has to do. He has to convince Americans that the economy is as strong as it is and it's recovered as strongly as it has in spite of high prices here and there on different things. He's gotta calm everybody down about his age and his ability to serve. I'll remind you that he's gonna be running against 95 year old Herbert Hoover economics. So ideologically, Joe Biden is the young guy in this campaign and he's gotta remind everybody what the stakes are of a rematch against Donald Trump. You know, and a week when Elise Stefanik, who is disqualified from holding office because of the 14th amendment, by the way, but when Elise Stefanik is coming out asking are you better off now than four years ago? This is exactly what Biden's going to talk about. Four years ago when we had double digit unemployment, mass death, crime all over the place. I mean, in April we were losing 2,000American citizens per day. April of 2020 2,000American citizens dying per day. We are so substantially better off now than we were four years ago. But of course, Ronald Reagan proved when it comes to Republicans, amnesia can be contagious.

Alison Gill (30:08)

It absolutely can. And that's all they have, is to rewrite history because it's not on their side. Even current history. They're trying to rewrite history going all the way back to 16, 19. But you know what I'm saying.

John Fugelsang (30:22)

I mean, listen, I'm just tuning in to see, you know, what Marjorie Taylor Greene screams and who Lauren Boebert gropes. I mean, that's really the main thing for me to watch. People with no impulse control going out in public is always good for reality tv.

Alison Gill (30:35)

Well, Mike Johnson was trying to tell his caucus to keep their mouths shut because the last time, you know, there was a, a, I guess kind of an unscripted moment at the State of the Union was when Joe Biden brought up don't touch medic, Social Security and Medicare. And they booed. And he's like, all right, so we're all on the same side then, right? We're not going to cut Social Security, Medicare. Very viral moment for that last State of the Union. And we can see something like that again. So I'll be paying attention to that.

John Fugelsang (31:06)

But by the way, that's an important note, Allison, what you just brought up, because Mike Johnson is not imploring his caucus to behave themselves because he cares about dignity or decorum. No, he doesn't want Joe Biden to play them again and make them look like fools like happened last year. That was a beautiful moment.

Alison Gill (31:22)

It was. Yeah. And I'll also be looking for, you know, his, his discussions on how what we're facing in this election is democracy versus autocracy, or if you want to be like super Republican about it, you could say a democratic republic or a constitutional republic versus an autocracy, which is, you know, when you want to get down to it, that's what they always. That's what they always say. That was, that's always their argument. This is a constitutional republic, not a democracy, because they don't read. So it'll be, it'll be, I think, a good state of the Union.

John Fugelsang (31:55)

I think it will be, too. I think most people already understand the difference between Trump and Biden on abortion, and they understand the difference between Trump and Biden when it comes to democracy and a peaceful transfer of power. But when it comes to the economy, you know, that's going to be the real challenge because things are unquestionably better now than they were four years ago. I mean, America is doing better recovering from inflation than all of our G7 allies. But the fact is it's still price gouging. We're still using words like inflation instead of words like corporate greed. And how does Joe Biden walk that line of reminding people that he's not going to come out and call it corporate greed? But that's what it is. So how will he be able to, with mere facts, convince people?

Alison Gill (32:38)

Yeah. And it'll be, it'll be interesting to see how he, how he goes about doing that. And then one last thing before I let you go, my friend. We had a ruling from the Supreme Court seemingly last minute with apparently some metadata issues about whether what Sotomayor clearly wrote was a dissent or a concurrence. And you have a little bit different take than, than some folks. Tell us your take on this decision.

John Fugelsang (33:06)

Well, my unpopular opinion is that Democrats may have dodged a bullet with this ruling. I, I have said for a very long time that while I, I agree with the argument. Okay. On the, on the logic, on the, on the law, yes, Trump is disqualified. You can read the 14th amendment. It's right there. He is disqualified. On a practical political level, I've never thought this was a good idea for Democrats to pursue. I always thought the Supreme Court was going to get rid of this, and I think we're fortunate they did. Can you imagine what would have happened if the Supreme Court had said, yes, states can throw him off the ballot? Well, first of all, Donald Trump would have had a real win. He gave a subdued victory speech, but he would have raised so much more money if he'd been thrown off the ballot in Colorado. And the Republicans would be screaming that it's the Democratic Party that hates democracy. They would have a cudgel to beat Democrats with for the next year saying Democrats oppose Americans getting to vote for who they want. Democrats are opposed to one person, one vote. They're against freedom at the ballot box, blah, blah. None of it would have been true, but they would have done it and they would have fundraised off of it. And on a broader level, if the Supreme Court. And again, they only believe in states rights when they're trying to excuse racism. But if the Supreme Court has had any stake and throw any president off a ballot, how long would it be before Mississippi and Alabama decided the evidence was in on Hunter Biden and threw Joe Biden off the ballot? And we'd see this happening all over the country. So I really think that in many ways, Democrats dodged a bullet with this. I think conservatives were way too happy, progressives were way too angry about it. All the Supreme Court really did was give Donald Trump permission to lose Colorado a third time. He lost it by 14 points last time. He's gonna lose it again. This doesn't change anything.

Alison Gill (35:00)

Yeah, very interesting. A kind of one of the, the bright sides of the supreme court. Waiting until April 25th to hear immunity arguments. If we could have a bright side,

John Fugelsang (35:12)

I mean, that, that I am enraged about. What's the right side of that?

Alison Gill (35:15)

Well, like, well, like, like you, I. On the law that this trial should go before the election 100%. But now we don't have to worry about an acquittal before the election. So there's that. I mean, I guess that's, you know, and we do have a criminal trial starting here in, let's see, two weeks. About.

John Fugelsang (35:35)

It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. I'm sorry. I'm not sick of the Stormy Daniels story. I was mad that DA Cy Vance bumped this thing years ago. And it's an important story. It speaks to all of Donald Trump's criminality in one. It is very, very important and very relevant. And Michael Cohen is already gone to jail. It's election interference. Michael Cohen's already gone to jail for this, like, for this actual case. And I didn't hear any Republicans outraged when Michael Cohen went to do time for it. So I'm glad his unindicted coconspirator is finally going to face the music on this.

Alison Gill (36:11)

Yeah, I concur. All right. Well, with that music, I feel like we're playing you off the stage at the Oscars, my friend.

John Fugelsang (36:18)

Oh, I know. Good luck at the Oscars. By the way, everybody. I hope you win your Office Pools.

Alison Gill (36:22)

Yes. Good luck. It's your Oscar Office Pools, because I, at least nobody I know is nominated for an Oscar. But when is it?

John Fugelsang (36:31)

Soon, I think. I think it's this weekend. Yeah. And, you know, it's a lot of great films nominated for awards this year. I mean, there's two satires up for best picture, Barbie and American Fiction, two satire, live action films up for best picture, which is incredible. One of the greatest Holocaust films ever made. Zone of Interest is just a landmark achievement in cinema. And hey, all the awards are going to go to Oppenheimer, the movie that bends over backwards to make the guy who made the bomb a sympathetic victim. So really, it's something for everybody this year.

Alison Gill (37:05)

Super. I look forward to it. Thank you so much, my friend. Everybody, you can hear John fugal saying, weeknights, 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific, the Tell Me Everything show, a Sirius XM progress channel 127, and his podcast, the John Fugal Sang Show. My friend John Fugal saying thank you.

John Fugelsang (37:21)

Thank you. Friday night, Eddie Izzard joins us to talk about her amazing solo show of Hamlet, where she plays 23 different characters and she and I go really deep on Hamlet. It's amazing. Don't miss it. That'll be on the show live Friday and then the podcast on Saturday.

Alison Gill (37:37)

She's one of my all time favorite comedians. If you, if you get a chance or the ability to see Dress to Kill. Oh yeah, absolutely. Must see. I mean they're all incredible, but Dress to Kill really just opened my eyes.

John Fugelsang (37:49)

I bought that CD as soon as it came out when I was a kid. I love it.

Alison Gill (37:53)

So good. That's incredible. Thank you so much my friend. Everybody stick around. We'll be right back with the good news after these messages.

John Fugelsang (38:01)

We'll be right back.

Martin Sheen (38:05)

You can always count on Sunday to be the best day of the week. You can sleep in, go off your diet, spend the day in your pajamas and go on, have that second questant. You know what else you can count on every Sunday? The Martin Sheen Podcast. Join me, your host, Martin Sheen for beautifully crafted 20 minute programs filled with never before heard stories of my life along with personal reflections and poetry that inspires. And season two begins Sunday, February 1st. The Martin Sheen Podcast is the perfect Sunday relaxing companion, a chance to put your feet up, take a deep breath and enjoy some stress free listening time from the comfort of your favorite easy chair. And that second questant that stays between us. There's no judgment here. So make my podcast your weekly moment of calm as we explore faith, hope, love and what it means to be human. And rest assured, this journey is ever unfolding as I invite you to see what's next with me, Martin Sheen. So let's keep Sunday the best day of the week together and thank you for listening

Alison Gill (39:25)

everybody. Welcome back. It's time for the good news everyone.

John Fugelsang (39:29)

Then good news everyone.

Alison Gill (39:37)

Good news. Hey everybody. It is the good news time and if you have good news confessions, corrections if you want to play what the is in your ark, send us a picture of any animal and we will try to guess the breed or color or just what kind of animal it is in some cases. Also if you have a shout out to a loved one, a self shout out, I love those. Shout out to a small business in your area or your small business or your big business, whatever you're doing, I want to hear. And then also if you have theses titles or dissertation titles, those are always fun, really fun for me to try to guess what you're talking about because sometimes they're so specific and many times have words I can't pronounce which I love. I love deducing. So send those to us. Any great VA healthcare stories or or student debt relief stories, WBY stories, Blankie stories, stuffed animal stories. I think our oldest one right now is I think a little over a hundred years old. Those are incredible stories. I love those. If you have any holiday photos you want to send to us from any holiday pictures of your happy place Pod Pet Tax. If you can't pay pod pet tax because you don't have a pod pet, you can send us an adoptable pet in your area and we'll try to get a forever home for that little baby. So send us anything that you want@dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. First up from anonymous no pronouns I registered for classes today to finish my associate's degree after dropping out of college two decades ago, attending school and working two part time jobs, which is too much and I didn't think returning to college was in the cards for me. But thanks to the Michigan Reconnect Program, Michiganders can attend community college in their area for the associates or certification program of choice. I am so grateful for this opportunity and proud of myself for taking these steps toward a better future. I hope other Michigan residents hear this and sign up too. Thanks for all you do. For Podpet Tax, I've included Hazel and Cassie sitting in our brand new recliners like the royalty they are. Look at these beautiful babies. And I love your end table and I love your bookshelves and your wood floor is gorgeous and so are these recliners. And the kitties are also adorable. Thank you for that and congratulations. The Michigan Reconnect Program. That's amazing. I love Michigan. All right, next up from Kathy Pronoun she and her My son loves axolotls. My husband has started a 3D printing art started 3D printing articulating axolotls for him. So what's the models of these axolotls? Haha. Love you both and love the show. Keep doing what you're doing. And look at the little 3D printed axolotls. Fantastic. And there's a lily pad too to round out the entire collection. That's beautiful. Thanks Kathy. Next up from Chris no pronouns correction and good news. Andy Kim is running for Senate in New Jersey, not Pennsylvania. Oh dang it. That's right. He has the support of many grassroots volunteers like myself who got involved in politics in 2016. I knew that Chris, because he's running to oust Bob Menendez. Ugh. I knew that. Okay, it's. It's because Fennerman's from Pennsylvania and is also trying to get Menendez to resign that I mixed up the states. He's running against our indicted Senator Bob Menendez and Tammy Murphy, the wife of Governor Phil Murphy, who has been anointed by the Democratic machine. Good news. I live in UAE and I'm serving second term on Democrats Abroad despite a lot of challenges this cycle. We launched our presidential primary the other day in Dubai. Chris, thank you for your work with Democrats Abroad, such a vital organization. And thank you for the correction. It just I went Fetterman, Pennsylvania, Andy Kim without making the jump to New Jersey and Bob Menendez. I that's thank you for the correction. Brain Fog Next up for Marcy D. Pronoun she and her Good morning Beans, Queens. The good news is that at 80 years old, my dad published his first book and the official book launches this week. It's called the Blueprint for Going green by Jerry McCarthy, former Albuquerque resident. It's a primer on the environmental movement in Virginia from 1970 to today. This labor of love I'm not doing this to make money, he says describes his efforts from the forefront of the green movement and is intended to advise younger generations on how they can make a difference, even in small ways. It's written for students, but it is so well written that everyone with an interest in the subject will love it. I could not be more proud of my dad. Pod Tax is a photo of him with my then infant son, his only grandson, Marcy D. Congratulations to him on this book. Jerry McCarthy, Blueprint for Going Green and the baby is adorable. I'll pass this on to Dana. She will love it. Next up, from Erin Pronoun. She and her hello. Love all the podcasts and the community you've created. I feel less alone as a blue dot in a red state and as the parent of an amazing trans Kiddo. Thank you for your advocacy. It means the world. Good News. I'm turning 37 on Saturday the 9th and to celebrate I want to shout out. A nonprofit organization in my area, the Literacy alliance has a mission of empowering people and strengthening our community through education and TLA helps adult learners prepare for their high school equivalency exam, helps adult learners with their English, and they also help kids in grades K through 3 with reading skills. I've been involved as a board member since November of 2022, and it's been amazing to see the impact that TLA has had on people's lives. I've had the privilege of attending a couple graduation ceremonies and it's heartwarming to hear the stories of the students who have overcome so much adversity to achieve passing the hsc. TLA is supported by many volunteers and a small staff, and they could always use help. There's an Amazon wish list on literacyalliance.org and donations are always welcome. I am dedicated to doing what I can to help this organization thrive to help improve the lives of people who are less privileged than I am. Thank you for all that you do to shine a light on amazing people everywhere. For Potpet tax, I've attached a picture of my Chihuahua Charlie and my rescue Pomeranian Nana who are both amazing pups to have around. Oh they're so cute. I like fluffy chihuahuas. I like non fluffy chihuahuas as well, but this was especially cute with the little blep the little maleme. So adorable. Totally amazing. If you can help out, Please go to literacyalliance.org Next up from Gerald Pronouns he and him and this is our last submission of the day. Hi Beans Queens I decided to attend law school at night and had my last year interrupted because of the 911 attack on the World Trade Center. I was one of the lucky ones able to escape from One World Trade center about 10 minutes before it collapsed. Gerald, my God. I retired about five years ago from a state agency, but I was told that I qualified for the Public Student Loan Forgiveness Program, so I applied. I received an email stating that I didn't qualify since I was no longer working. About three months later, although I did nothing different, I received a letter stating that the balance of my loans had been forgiven. I was shocked, happily surprised, and I can't thank Joe Biden enough. Having that extra $500 a month is life changing. I had the pleasure of meeting AG at the DC event last April and again in New York City this past January. Hopefully I will meet DG one day soon for podbet Tax. Here is my blind but you would never know it. Rescue cat Bocelli. He is one of three and this is what happens when you volunteer with an animal rescue to keep busy. Gerald, thank you so much for this. Look at this little baby. He's adorable. I love tuxedos. Moo cats are the best. They're so cute. Everybody, thank you so much for sending in your good news. Please send us all your good news. You can do it by going to DailyBeansPod.com and clicking on Contact and if you're not a patron yet and you want to become one so you can get all those pre sal VIP meet and greet tickets plus these episodes ad free and early and all of the other benefits that come with being a patron and knowing you're supporting independent media. You can do that by going to patreon.com mullershiroad if you sign up at the five dollar level, you get both the Daily Beans and Jack and then there's a separate patron patreon for cleanup on all 45. And that's patreon.com aisle45 pod a I s l e 45 p o d. If you pay $2 you get an extra whole entire episode every week. So you get twice as many episodes. It's two dollar level. That's for cleanup on all 45. Thank you all so much. I hope you have a fantastic weekend. I will be telling you all about my thoughts of the state of the union that happens. If that goes down here in just a few hours, I'll be watching it intently and I know you will too. And thanks to John Fugle sang for joining me today. I appreciate him very much. We'll be back in your ears Monday. Of course. We'll be here on Sunday with the Jack podcast, me and Andy McCabe. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, take care of your family. Vote blue over Q and bring someone with you. I've been ag and them's the beans.

John Fugelsang (48:46)

Refried bean.

Alison Gill (48:47)

I like refried beans.