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Friday, December 6th, 2024 Today, the Biden Whitehouse is weighing preemptive pardons for potential Trump targets; a reporter finds that GOP led states are hiding their abortion ban death tolls; Ric Grenell paid influencers five figures to boost him for the Secretary of State job; Republicans in the House blocked a Democratic effort to release the Gaetz ethics report Thursday night; Chelsea Manning and others have been arrested for staging a transgender rights protest outside Speaker Mike Johnson’s office; and Allison delivers your Good News.
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Allison Gill
MSW Media thanks to Smalls for supporting the Daily Beans. Smalls cat food is made with protein packed recipes made with ingredients you'd find in your fridge and a silvered right to your door. To get 50% off your first order plus free shipping, go to smalls.com dailybeans and use promo code dailybeans at checkout. And a big shout out today to Helix Sleep. Helix is offering 20% off site wide plus two free pillows with any mattress purchase. When you go to helixsleep.com DailyBeans News we're swearing jelly beans. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Friday, December 6, 2024. Today, the Biden White House is weighing preemptive pardons for potential Trump targets. A reporter finds that GOP led states are hiding their abortion ban death tolls. Rick Grinnell paid influencers five figures to boost him for the Secretary of State job. Republicans in the House blocked a Democratic effort to release the Gates ethics report Thursday night. And Chelsea Manning and others have been arrested for staging a transgender rights protest outside Speaker Mike Johnson's office. I'm your host, Allison Gill. Hey everybody, Happy Friday. Thank you for joining us on the Daily Beans. New listeners, welcome everybody. Welcome patrons, welcome. This is our last day without Dana. She'll be back in our ears on Monday. I miss her so dearly. So I appreciate you hanging in with me all week. We've had a big, heavy week of news and I just want to go on record before I get to this Chelsea Manning story in the Hot Notes, this podcast, this place, this community. We do not throw our trans friends under the bus to be more electable. We will never do it. I will never succumb to that bullshit. And I just want everybody to know that about me and my friends. I feel like I sound like Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality. And if, if anyone hurts one of my new friends, I will hunt them down. So just want to make sure everybody's clear where I stand. And I hope you'll continue listening and spread the word. It's Friday here on the Beans. If you're a new listener this week, that means it's Fugal saying Fridays, which means I get to talk to my friend John Fugal sang later in the show. He's the host of Tell me everything on SiriusXM progress channel 127. You can listen to him weeknights at 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific, or download his podcast, the John Fugal Saying Show. He's magnificent. As is his hair. And a quick story before we get to the Hot notes and and this is the one I wanted to talk about. I'm going to talk about it before the hot notes. Chelsea Manning was among a group of activists arrested Thursday outside of House Speaker Mike Johnson's office after taking part in a protest advocating for transgender rights. This is after the dance party protest was held in the ladies room with the song Meet Me in the Ladies Room playing, which I fucking loved. The protest came after Mike Johnson supported a GOP led effort to ban transgender women from using women's restrooms at the Capitol. And one day after transgender rights took center stage in a very high profile case at the Supreme Court that we've been covering here this week on the beans. Quote, I'm here today because every person deserves dignity and respect both in daily life and in more symbolic places like the U.S. capitol. That's Manning, who is a transgender woman, said in a statement to cnn. They ended up getting tickets citations I believe. So thank you for your bravery and your protest and your good trouble, my dear friends. All right, we have a lot of news to get to. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up from Scott Wong et al at NBC News, House law lawmakers voted Thursday night against releasing an ethics committee report on an exhaustive years long investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Florida, a close ally and confidant of President elect Donald Trump. Democrats had forced the votes and Republicans responded by not like voting no, but they've instead voted to return the matter to the ethics committee, ending the fight over the report's release for now. Whether the report ever becomes public remains unknown. The votes came shortly after the bipartisan ethics panel met privately for a second time in as many months about whether to make public the report on allegations that Gates engaged in illicit drug use and sexual misconduct with a 17 year old girl. I call that rape where I come from. Obstructed the House probe and other claims, sex trafficking, for example. But after two and a half hours, the panel did not release the report, saying in a statement that it is continuing to discuss the matter. Ethics Chairman Michael Guest, a Republican from Mississippi, told reporters that his panel would meet again before the end of the year. Quote, I'm not going to speculate on future action that the committee may take. That's what he said when asked whether it might still vote to release the report. Other members of the panel from both political parties had no comment as they left the meeting. The committee's top Democrat, Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, did not attend the meeting and her office had no comment. I wonder why? Gates has denied the allegations, which contributed to some Senate Republicans saying behind closed doors they would not vote to confirm him as the attorney general before Thanksgiving. On November 20, the 10 member ethics panel deadlocked over publishing the report on Gates, who Trump announced as his pick to lead the Department of Justice on November 13. A week earlier the same day, Gates resigned from Congress. But Gates withdrew his name from consideration on November 21, a move guest said at the time should end the discussion about releasing the report. No, it does not, sir, and I say sir and kind of like a Southern, bless your heart way. Without movement from the Ethics Committee, the full House Thursday evening took action, putting all lawmakers on the record. Two Democrats, Sean Kasten of Illinois and Steve Cohn of Tennessee, forced the votes with resolutions focused on the Gates report. Kasten's resolution would have directed the committee to release its report to the public, while Cohen's resolution would have forced the committee to preserve and release the records of its review of Gates. Because the resolutions were introduced as privileged on Tuesday, they had to be voted on within two legislative days. But Republicans thwarted the resolutions by voting to send them to the ethics panel. Democrats had pushed to release the report, with Gates openly flirting with a bid for Florida governor in 2026 or being mentioned for another potential role in the White House, one may not need him to be confirmed by the Senate, right? But Republicans didn't want the report released, arguing that the Ethics Committee only has jurisdiction over sitting members of Congress, not ex members. And that's bullshit because they've released this before on former members of Congress. House Democrats tried to do the same thing in 1996, pressing the ethics Committee to release a report from an outside council about its investigation of then Speaker Newt Gingrich. But the House rejected the resolution in a vote on the floor. Democrats at this time are pushing back against the GOP argument that the ethics panel can't publish a report without a member who's resigned. Kasten's resolution cited multiple instances of the ethics panel releasing reports about former lawmakers. For example, October 5, 1987, Rep. Bill Boehner, Democrat from Tennessee, resigned to become mayor of Nashville. The Ethics committee released an initial staff report the following December examining allegations that Boehner misused campaign funds, failed to disclose gifts and accepted bribes. And that's a Democrat. And in 2006, after Rep. Mark Foley, a Republican from Florida, resigned from office over revelations he sent explicit electronic messages to at least one teenage former congressional page. The ethics panel released its report on the matter, quote, whereas given the serious nature of the allegations against Representative Gates. This is what Kaston's resolution said. A failure of the Committee on Ethics of the House of Representatives to publicly release its report on its investigation undermines the committee's credibility and impedes the safety, dignity and integrity of the legislative proceedings of the House, unquote. So they found another loophole and buried the report again. Why wasn't Susan Wild at that committee meeting, the Ethics committee meeting, I wonder. I'll give our office a call on the public line. Next up from Matthew Chapman at RAW story. And this is what I've been warning about, right? Yes. I am terrified about what Trump policies will do, how they will result in deaths. And we'll get to another story about that in a minute. But equally, if not more worrying to me was that we won't know the scope of the carnage because the Trump administration will hide these statistics. Okay, so here's that story from Matt Chapman. Some Republican led states that passed near total abortion bans have mysteriously stopped collecting statistics on maternal mortality over the last couple of years. And some observers suspect it's not a coincidence. This is Susan Rincunis for MSNBC said that this comes as reports begin to trickle in in cases of women who have died after being denied abortion care in dangerous pregnancies, despite every state with an abortion ban ostensibly having exceptions for the life of the mother. Women of color being the bulk of these cases. We saw this coming and were ignored. The Latest found by ProPublica was Portia Newmanzi, a Texas woman, I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, a Texas woman who died after miscarrying at 11 weeks because her hospital refused to dilate and evacuate her uterus, a procedure used to treat miscarriages but which also almost entirely banned in the state now because of its use in abortions. Instead, she was given medication to try to stop her bleeding, which proved ineffective. Despite this, the Texas Maternal Mortality Review Committee has stated it will not examine deaths in 2022 and 2023, when abortion became illegal in the state, citing a backlog of cases from previous years to review. We just have too many maternal deaths in Texas to count the ones that happened after Roe was overturned. We're just too busy to keep an eye on the statistics of maternal mortality in our state starting in 2022. Quote an analysis published in September by the Gender Equity Policy Institute found that from 2019 to 2022, the rate of maternal deaths in Texas increased by 56% compared with 11% nationwide. That's Rincunis saying that but rather than investigate, the state is essentially admitting that the bodies are piling up faster than the state can count them. Investigative reporters have, quote, found at least five women who've died under abortion bans. Three in Texas and two in Georgia. Quote, after the outlet ProPublica reported that Georgia's MMRC, that's the Maternal Mortality Commission, had determined the two deaths were preventable, state officials responded by firing all 32 members. We talked about this on the beans. The commissioner of Georgia's public health department, a Republican, wrote in a letter to members that because the department wasn't able to figure out who shared the confidential information with ProPublica, it was dismissing the whole committee and would seek applications for replacements. It seems leaks to the media are more important than urgent investigations of these women's deaths. We're going to fire you all and we're going to hire people who won't tell anyone what we found out. The issue, she continued, is that the whole point of these committees is to identify problems in medical care for expectant mothers. They call themselves pro life. They're fucking not. They don't give a shit about the life of the mother. And these moves create the impression that the state, like Texas or Georgia, states like Texas or Georgia, would rather suppress those efforts than risk the data showing that abortion bans are killing people. Quote, conservatives are trying to convince people that they live in an unreality where these tragic deaths are the fault not of politicians who banned medical care, but rather of the doctors who face imprisonment, huge fines and the loss of their licenses. That's what Rincunis wrote. Because of the delays these states have created in the review process, says Rincunis, quote, it could be years until anyone knows the true toll of these laws. If and when more deaths are reported, we can expect anti abortion activists and lawmakers to blame anyone but themselves. Next up from Natalie Allison at Politico. As Rick Grenell made a bid after the election to be Donald Trump's Secretary of State, a flurry of social media posts from MAGA influencers started popping up, advocating for the President elect to pick him. Pick me. Pick me. Around the same time, an associate of Grinnell had approached conservative social media influencers. According to Two people with knowledge offered paid contracts of as much as five figures to post favorably about Grinnell. You know, I never got a call from like Pete Buttigieg saying, I'll give you ten grand if you tweet that I should be Secretary of Transportation. Never got anything like that. Nothing. One such contract obtained by Politico and not previously reported, outlined that the influencer would do so during quote, peak posting times. That, quote content must appear genuine and it, quote, could not appear as an overt advertisement or promotional message. The proposed paid social media campaign, which organizers told Politico never took off, illustrates the lengths to which people close to Grinnell went to ensure he got the job. And Grinnell, who typically goes by Rick, had made no secret in private conversations over the last three years that he wanted to serve as Trump's next secretary of state. He told people in Trump's orbit that it was the secretary of state or bust, as one person close to the president elect said. Grinnell, Trump's former ambassador to Germany and acting director of national Intelligence, who Trump had been known to call his wild man, according to former administration officials, had been one of the president elect's most loyal foot soldiers throughout the 2024 campaign. But Trump ultimately chose Marco Rubio for the coveted state job, rewarding one of his top vice presidential contenders, though outwardly less maga, aligned with a key seat in his Cabinet, leaving Grinnell without his preferred post, Womp Womp. Grenell was offered other posts in the Trump administration, including director of National Intelligence, which he turned down, according to two people familiar with the conversations. Most recently, he had been vocal about helping his friend Kash Patel land as FBI director, and multiple people with knowledge of the transition did not rule out the possibility Grinnell will still get some kind of important job. So he wanted to be the dni. He said no, and then it went to Tulsi. Interesting. There's no evidence directly linking the influencer campaign to Grinnell himself. In response to a request for comment, Grinnell referred yeah, I, I, you know what? People who don't know me generally go out and offer people five figures to get me jobs. It happens. I mean, you know, who among us right now? Grinnell referred to the Politico reporter making the inquiry as unserious gossip and said none of this is true. Grinnell had put in the work to demonstrate his loyalty to Trump, championing the president elect's policies in public and private, traveling around the country to campaign for him and raising campaign cash. He's close with Melania, whose only public political activities this year were the conservative LGBT group Log Cabin Republicans, with which Grinnell is affiliated and for which she was paid six figures. Some senators close to the President Elect, like Lindsey Graham and Senator Mike Lee, praised Grinnell as a standout option for secretary of state. And Grinnell even appeared alongside Trump during a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky in September, at Trump's final rally of the election, a midnight event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Grinnell also spoke. Trump praised Grinnel, who's very special with great talent. I'll never forget when I took him out of the ambassador role. The happiest person in the world was Angela Merkel. That's what Trump said, a former German chancellor. When Rick Grinnell was taken out, this was the best day in Angela's life. He was not your typical ambassador. What the fuck does that mean? Trump said of German officials. They really loved him. But Grinnell was wise to what they were doing. He was wise to what they were doing. In addition to ambassador to Germany, Trump entrusted Grinnell with another top diplomatic role during his time in the White House as special envoy for Serbia Kosovo relations. At the end of Trump's term, with Grinnell's diplomatic push, Serbia and Kosovo agreed to restore flights between their capitals in a step toward normalization in that period, after, Grinnell continued to meet with foreign leaders to promote Trump and his foreign policy. Kind of like a shadow secretary of state. But other factors weighed against him. If Grinnell was tapped for a Senate confirmed role, his business dealings in foreign countries, among them plans to build a $500 million hotel project with Trump's son Kushner in Belgrade, would have been scrutinized. The former Trump official's bid for the top state job also ruffled feathers, and his open lobbying for the position had grated on people in Trump's orbit. There were concerns that his prickly personality earned him a reputation among people close to Trump for being difficult and less than diplomatic. Oh, I don't know if that being less than diplomatic is a problem in Trump's orbit. That's that. I'm sure that wasn't it. It was something else. He just annoyed the fuck out of him. He's also gay. Maybe that's it. People assume the president wants a big personality who's pushing the envelope. That's not always the case. I think there were a lot of questions about whether Rick was diplomatic enough to be Secretary of State. I don't. I seriously don't think that that's it. I think Trump just didn't like him. The person said Rick was offered several positions that he turned down. It's not like he was shut out. After it was leaked that Rubio was Trump's pick for state, there was an outpouring of support for Grinnell from top mega voices who cast doubt that any decision had really been made. When one person urged fellow supporters not to give up the fight because a decision wasn't final. Grinnell responded, bullshit. Stop grifting. Not true. Allies of Grinnell who advocated for him at all costs may not have helped his cause either. Rick Lowery, the former chair of the political youth association Young Republicans who is an associate of Grinnell, had contacted conservative influencers after the election, offering payments in exchange for positive posts about Grinnell on Twitter and Instagram. The contract outlined that the influencers must also engage in their comment section, quote, tweet, share, add to stories and reply in relevant threads and posts. The money, which was to be paid by Magnify Media Partners llc, a political consulting firm run by Taylor Strand, would be issued in several installments between November and January. Strand said in an email that the initiative in question was a project about defending Trump loyalists against mainstream media attacks, but that this project never moved forward and Rick Grinnell nor any other MAGA leaders were involved, unquote. She did not respond to a follow up question about influencers being asked to positively post about Grinnell's bid for secretary of state. Neither Lowery nor the influencer for whom the contract was created commented for the story. A spokesperson for the Trump transition didn't comment either. It's not inconceivable that Grinnell could eventually secure his dream job as secretary of state should Rubio leave the post over the next four years. Has anyone ever lasted more than six scare emojis in a trumpet administration? Quote, if he's not doing something or accepting something, it's because he decided not to. That's what one ally of Grinnell, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said, explaining that he was still being given options to work for Trump but noting Grinnell's proclivity to play the long game and wait for the job he really wants. The round of appointments that has played out over the past several weeks showcased how some people have been more successful than others at maneuvering Trump World and finding a landing place. Trump made loyalty a key criteria when picking his Cabinet and was turned off by any whiff of inconsistency, like rumors of presidential ambitions or past criticisms of his behavior. And he was irritated to learn if anyone felt entitled to a role, presumed it was theirs or tried to buy his favor, according to multiple advisors. Still, Trump has rewarded strategic persistence from contenders for top level positions who got passed over as the first choice. Matt Whitaker Matthew fucking Whitaker, Trump's former acting attorney general who was vying for the top Department of Justice job, ultimately wasn't tapped for attorney General. But after Trump chose Gates for attorney general, who later withdrew from consideration, was replaced with Pam Bondi, Whitaker worked to remain in contention for other high level jobs and was named the U.S. ambassador to NATO because, I mean, you know, somebody who's really designed for the Department of Justice can also be the ambassador to NATO. Right? As long as you've, as long as you've got a patent for big dick toilets, whatever. And Patel, a top Trump ally who was tapped in recent days for FBI director, fought for the job even after it appeared his chances were dim and after some Trump advisors expressed concern about the likelihood of him being confirmed by the Senate. I think that's good news, though, that there are Trump advisors telling Politico that we don't think certain people can be confirmed by the Senate because maybe they're actually going to try to get these people confirmed by the Senate. We'll see. Quote, I think there's a need and a desire to keep these people close. That's a person with knowledge of Grinnell's situation, referencing others like Trump's former trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, who also hasn't landed a job in the administration. Quote, there are loyalists who've been really successful at getting Trump elected. Where does Trump park these people? Unquote, man. All right, next up from Mae Bruce et al at abc. President Joe Biden and his senior aides are discussing possible preemptive pardons for people who might be targeted by the incoming Trump administration, according to sources close to the president. I put out on social media that the pardon of Hunter Biden said to me that Joe Biden understands the gravity of what's coming in this Trump administration and that maybe this is just the beginning of the pardons. We'll see what ends up happening. But not everyone might want a pardon. Let's see where this story goes. Possible names include current and former officials like Mark Milley, Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff and Anthony Fauci. Politico was first to report the news. The consideration comes after Biden issued full pardon for his son, Hunter Biden. The move sparked backlash from Republicans, of course, and some criticism from Democrats who I disagree with. The White House said Biden did so despite his past pledges not to pardon his son because, quote, it didn't seem his political opponents would let go of it. Throughout his campaign, President elect Donald Trump vowed to exact retribution on his political enemies. Milley, who was retired as chairman of the Joint Chiefs last year, has long been a target of Republican attacks over the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. He also stoked Trump's ire over report that Milley secretly called his Chinese counterpart before and after the 2020 election to dispel China's fears that Trump was not planning an attack. Trump accused Millie of treason after that. Cheney and Schiff have also long been criticized by Trump over their investigation into the attack of the Capitol on January 6th. The two were part of the House January 6th Committee's year long probe which concluded with the recommendation of criminal charges against Trump. Schiff also was the lead House prosecutor in Trump's first Senate impeachment trial. Cheney lost her reelection bid in 2022 to a Trump backed Republican challenger. Cheney endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris over Donald Trump and appeared with Harris several times on the campaign trail. Schiff, as we know, is the senator elect from California after winning the seat held by the late Senator Dianne Feinstein in November. Fauci, former head of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, faced intense scrutiny over his response to the COVID 19 pandemic. He's been called to Capitol Hill to testify on school shutdowns, the virus's origins, and more by House Republicans since retiring in 2022. So we'll see what happens with these potential preemptive pardons. All right everybody, we're going to talk to John Fugal saying for Fugal Saying Fridays and get to your good news. But first we have to take a quick break, so stick around. We'll be right back after these messages.
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John Fugelsang
We'll be right back.
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Allison Gill
My cats are my buddies, okay? They're my fur babies. I am the childless cat lady. And when they're curled up on my lap giving me their signature judgmental stares from across the room, they bring so much joy and personality to my day. But finding a food that they all love? That was a nightmare. They're notoriously picky eaters. I've always wanted to feed them something real and nutritious. And then I found Smalls. It's real food made with fresh, high quality ingredients and my cats go crazy for it every time. So if you're still on the hunt for the perfect food, you have to try Smalls. It's packed with protein, made without preservatives. It's a food you can feel good about giving your pets. Plus it's delivered straight to your door. No hassle. Oh my gosh, it's so convenient. No more last minute trips to the store. It's no surprise that cats.com named Smalls the best overall cat food. What started in 2017 as a small batch business for Meals for friends, pets. It's grown into millions of meals served nationwide. And the results speak for themselves. 88% of cat owners notice health improvements after switching 88%. When I introduced my cats to Smalls, I did a little experiment. It was a blind taste test. Two bowls, one with their old food and one with Smalls. They went straight for the Smalls bowl without hesitation, gobbled it down. Now meal time is effortless. I love that I can recognize the names of every ingredient in the packet. No mystery meat, no preservatives, no weird smells. Just wholesome, fresh food. Smalls has completely transformed our routine, and I'll never look back. So now's the perfect time to make the switch to smalls. Head to smalls.com dailybeans and use promo code dailybeans at checkout for 50% off your first order plus free shipping. That is 50% off your first order and free shipping. By going to smalls.com dailybeans with promo code dailybeans at checkout. You'll be glad you did. Hey, everybody, welcome back. It's Friday on the Daily Beans, and for our new listeners, that means it's Fugal Saying Fridays. Which means I'm going to be joined by my good friend, host of Tell Me everything on Sirius XM progress channel 127. You can hear his show weeknights at 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific. And if you don't have that, you can always listen to the John Fugal Saying show podcast for free wherever you get your pods. Please welcome John Fugal Saying hello, my friend.
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John Fugelsang
Hello, Alison. I hope you and your listeners are all enjoying the squid game. Cabinet. It's been a lot of fun so far.
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Allison Gill
Yes, the junk drawer. Super, super interesting. Cabinet Bay. I was on Stephanie Miller, I know you've got a really great live show coming up. Your last one of the tour, a couple of days before inauguration day in D.C. and we'll get details on that so people can get tickets to go to that. But I was on Steph Miller the other day, and I think, I think it was right before I went to go get Botox. And I was like, yeah, I'm going full Botox because I don't need to look surprised anymore based on what's been going on with these Cabinet picks. Now Heg Seth is on the ropes. Many Republicans say, including Joni Ernst is a solid no based on his womanizing, his drinking, but particularly, you know, the drinking issue. And I, and I want to be clear here that I do not stigmatize anyone for having a drinking problem, especially if you're, you know, former military with ptsd. A lot of the goal is to numb your feelings so that you don't have to think about what you've been through. But apart, and aside from, as Pete.
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John Fugelsang
Ever claimed, ptsd, or is he just part of the side that's throwing rocks at Hunter Biden for addiction issues?
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Allison Gill
Yeah, it's that. But in general, it's a bad idea to have people like Dr. Ronnie Jackson or Pete Hegset who need to be available 247 in case anything important happens. If you're in charge of the most lethal military force in the world, you can't risk that. And I think that that's what a lot of people are basing this on.
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John Fugelsang
Well, look at the tolerant left. Alison Gill comes out against letting blackout drunks be in charge of our military. So much for the tolerant left.
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Allison Gill
Well, yeah, for me specifically, it's the rapey stuff.
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John Fugelsang
Me, too. Me too.
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Allison Gill
That's a big problem in the military. And I think Joni Ernst has also brought that up, because Joni Ernst actually co sponsored the Gillibrand bill that I've been advocating for over a decade to change the Military Justice Improvement act is just to take the decision to prosecute rapes out of the chain of command, which you can no longer do if the top of the chain of command is compromised.
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John Fugelsang
But Joni Uris would also like the job herself. Let's not forget that. But go on.
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Allison Gill
Yes, yes, of course she would. And so would Ron DeSantis. Trump is mulling them over as potential replacements, even though one side of his mouth, while also saying, I'm 100% behind you, Pete. That's not mulling it over.
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John Fugelsang
I mean, the only reason we know that Ron DeSantis is in the mix and it would never be Joni Ernst because she didn't back Trump in Iowa, so it would never be her. But we know Ron DeSantis is being considered for this because Donald Trump leaked that Ron DeSantis is being considered for this, and that's the only reason, which means Pete Hegseth is going down so hard, Trump's gonna pay him hush money. This is just more of the drama, more of the pageantry, more of the incompetence on display. And it's interesting, I extrapolate so much from the fact that a Trump's not really fighting for his people. He's not working the phones for Pete Hegseth. He did not fight when the Republican Senate stood up to him on Matt Gaetz. And it doesn't seem like he's fighting, that they're standing up to him on HEG.
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Allison Gill
No, he sends them to Congress with J.D. vance or somebody and says you can fix it.
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John Fugelsang
So look at this. I mean, like the Republican Senate is standing up to him and he's not fighting back, which is very interesting. This is not the Trump we know. He's not having public tantrums over any of this. He is letting these people go. And you can watch for this pattern to be repeated with RFK Jr and most likely Tulsi Gabbard and Cash Patel, the marquee names of stupid, the most flagrantly, outrageously unqualified people. This is the DEI Cabinet. Right? Dishonest, extremist and inexperienced. He's going to let us liberals fight and let the media make a big fuss over the marquee names of douchebags like Cash Patel, while the Doug Burgums while the other pardon criminals, while the oil and gas executives all fly under the radar. So this is how it's going to be. Yeah. Pete Navarro's already got a job. I mean, the felons, my God, look at France. You'd think France would be embarrassed throwing out their own government. We're sending a convicted felon to be our ambassador to France. This is what he does. And it's going to be a show. And we have to remember that they're programming a show. They're not serious about governance. Yes, they want unqualified people because their jobs is to tear down the institution. But do you think Cash Patel is going to be smart enough to tear down the FBI with the actual FBI letting him do it? I mean, they're just lazy and incompetent. And Trump's cabinet picks are signaling to the entire world and to the oligarch class not to take him seriously as a man or as a leader.
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Allison Gill
Yeah, and talk about a reality show. We've dragged Pete Hegseth's mother into the mix, who is now out on a tour saying, please hire my son. He's the best. I love him. You know, as a comedian, I used to always make jokes about how my mom loves it that I do this or, you know, if I, if I talk about something self deprecating, I'll end it with, but my mom loves me. I never thought I'd see it in politics until we had a reality show host president.
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John Fugelsang
But look, gentlemen, in the audience, I know many of you are sinners. Many of you have done horrible things in your life. Many men have sunk so low and tried to Hide it their whole time. I don't know many of us who've sunk so low to get a letter from our mom like Pete Hegseth got. Wow, this is just like pulling so many guys off the me too maybe list. Because if you haven't gotten a letter from your mom like this, you haven't sunk that low. He is a sexual predator. And that's nothing new in this cabinet. That's Trump, that's Musk, that's RFK, that's Linda McMahon adjacent. It's like think I said before, it's the hacks, it's the quacks and the sex pest nest. But in the case of Pete Hegseth, you know, I extrapolate a lot that Donald Trump is not fighting for him. And I'm with you, Allison. I've read so much about his time at the Concerned Veterans for America and the incredible blackout drunk he is. So, yeah, he's not qualified based on that alone that I don't want to scorn him. I've been disgusted by the way they've treated Hunter Biden for his situation being a complete mess up on addiction. But Hunter Biden's not being put in charge of the military. Okay? And this is where we're not beating up and being ableist on people. It's another sign that people who voted for Trump shouldn't have believed him on anything. He's not going to deport 11 million people. He's not going to deport 1 million people. He's not going to finish the wall. He's not going to flick inflation with tariffs. He's not going to have a couple of billionaires cut the federal budget by 33%. He's never going to release the Epstein list and he's never going to balance a budget and cash. Patel couldn't pass an FBI background check to be the FBI director. It's going to be lazy and sloppy and incompetent for four long years.
- [33:48]
Allison Gill
Yeah, I agree. And speaking of Hunter Biden, we know about the pardon. We've talked about the pardon. I'm pro pardon for Hunter Biden. Not just because I think it's like a great double barrel, middle fingers out the door, but because there was a lot of problems with that investigation. And you know, we could talk about that for a long time. But I wanted to get your thoughts about the fact that there are now discussions in the White House, according to Politico, and now ABC is confirming about preemptively pardoning others like Jack Smith or Liz Cheney or anybody else that Trump has said he will go after. And I had actually put out on Blue sky, like right after Hunter Biden's pardon. I'm like, this shows me that President Biden is aware of the shitstorm that's coming and this may be the beginning of the pardons. What do you think about preemptive pardons, especially with the idea that, you know, I've talked to some of the folks that might be preemptively pardoned, and many of them don't want the pardon, you know, because they haven't done anything wrong. It would be like admitting that you did. It's not really admitting that you've done something, but it would be like admitting that you did something wrong. But many of them might and they're, you know, John Dean has and Joe Manchin have recommended that perhaps he should preemptively pardon all these folks and Donald Trump. And I'm interested in your thoughts.
- [35:08]
John Fugelsang
Well, he should not pardon Donald Trump and he will not pardon Donald Trump. And so we, even though Trump will.
- [35:13]
Allison Gill
Never be prosecuted for any of this, who knows?
- [35:16]
John Fugelsang
Who knows what could happen? You know, I don't really care. I've always said I don't really care about Donald Trump being in jail or not, but I don't want the charges against him dismissed. It's very important to me that future historians know that so much of us resisted this and pushed back against this.
- [35:32]
Allison Gill
Like, we're in this mess because of the Nixon pardon.
- [35:34]
John Fugelsang
So, yes, you're exactly right. We're in this mess because we didn't come down hard enough on the Confederates when we let them back in the big House. I mean, you know, absolutely. We're in this mess because Pelosi and Schumer said impeachment's off the table for Bush and Cheney after the Iraq war. I mean, like, there were no consequences for that. The only person fired for lies about Iraq was Brian Williams. I want to thank Joe Biden because this is going to be the end of Hunter Biden's stories in the news. This will be the end of Hunter Biden propaganda. Hunter Biden Dick Pics Joe Biden with this pardon undid. The only thing House Republicans have actually done in the last two years, harass his son. Look, Biden, I think he's going to go full Bulworth. I find it very telling that he pardoned his son not on Christmas Eve. Right. Like he's releasing this this early. What is he softening us up for with this pardon? I mean, George H.W. bush pardoned all of Those Iran Contra criminals on Christmas Eve of 1992, and they all walked away clean. Biden should commute the death penalty for 40Americans on federal death row. Biden should try to cancel student debt by executive order as hard as he can and force Donald Trump to put it back. He should try to have an executive order on abortion. He needs to get bold. He needs to take action. He needs to slow down the years of fascism. He needs to go so bulworth on this. But I want to say about his pardon, there is no way of overstating how innocent this old man pardoning his son is going to seem two years from now. It is going to be so forgotten.
- [37:10]
Allison Gill
Donald Trump is not qualified to Trump's pardons in his first term that people seem to have.
- [37:16]
John Fugelsang
It's already innocent compared to that. But after the malfeasance that we're going to see in Donald Trump's first two years, this is going to seem so innocent. Republicans don't care about accountability for breaking the law, or they would not have made a felon their president. And he's not qualified to hold office. He engaged in insurrection or rebellion. It's right there. He's not qualified. So this is going to be a hit on Joe Biden and his reputation for honesty. No doubt. It's going to be a hit on his place in history. I think Joe Biden is. Oh, I think it'll be a little asterisk on there forever, but I think Joe Biden is out of Fs. I think he doesn't care at all. I don't think he cares what Democrats think at all anymore. And history will also record that. Yes. And that Hunter Biden was selectively and unfairly prosecuted. But he's not going to pardon Trump. And I would lose all respect for him if he did.
- [38:05]
Allison Gill
That's interesting. Yeah, I'm worried about it too. Much like I was worried about Merrick Garland, whether or not he's going to release a Jack Smith report, you know, because I can see him being such a protector of the institution of the Department of Justice, saying we don't want to be political, and releasing this report right before the incoming president comes in.
- [38:27]
John Fugelsang
No, releasing it before the election would be political. Joe Biden, by the way, should have an FBI background check on all of these nominees and release it to the public before New Year's.
- [38:35]
Allison Gill
I concur. But Trump has signed the thing saying he'll take the FBI background checks, which means he'll throw them directly in the trash can and instruct the FBI. The FBI actually doesn't have, when they do a background check, the ability to investigate any crimes they find further. They just have to hand it all over. Just like they did with Kavanaugh.
- [38:53]
John Fugelsang
Exactly, exactly.
- [38:54]
Allison Gill
So that, you know, that's not going to do shit. Everyone's like, oh, yeah, he signed the thing. I'm like, doesn't fucking matter. He didn't hear. He got background checks in his first term and still let Kushner in. Still let. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's. Despite them failing their background checks. The background check. When you get a background check from the FBI, it's not like the FBI goes, nope, you can't hire them. And they have to abide by what the FBI says. The FBI says, we found out that he's a child sex trafficker. And Trump goes, don't care. It's his advice. And that's right.
- [39:21]
John Fugelsang
And remember, the rest of us have to deal with this cabinet of meritless sociopaths, because 49% of us would drink bleach and donate to Trump University.
- [39:31]
Allison Gill
Yeah. And to switch gears, one last thing I want to ask you about is the murder of the CEO of UnitedHealth. I used to work closely with UnitedHealthcare. They were a private contractor with the Department of Veterans affairs for tricare. They were always in the mix because, you know, as you know, Republicans don't want to provide direct government care to people. They want people to go to outside private insurance that they can charge 115% of Medicare rates to gouge the taxpayers.
- [39:55]
John Fugelsang
Too many Democrats as well. Let's be fair.
- [39:58]
Allison Gill
Sure, but fair. Okay, yeah, fine. The people. The people who tend to make money from that. But privatization of the VA and military health care has long been a Republican dream. And I'll leave exactly right, exactly right. What I'm interested in here. And first of all, I just want to kick this off by saying murder is wrong. Okay.
- [40:14]
John Fugelsang
Murder is wrong. And gun violence is wrong.
- [40:16]
Allison Gill
Yes, and gun violence is wrong. But what I'm noticing, and you and I talked offline about this, too, is the very blase response to this kind of like, oh, that's too bad, what's for dinner? Response. And I think this speaks volumes to actually what we saw in this election when AOC talked about the split tickets. This is a very populist electorate, and it's almost got, you know, hints of, you know, revolution type shit. So what are your thoughts on. On the public's response again? Murder's bad. Gun violence, bad.
- [40:54]
John Fugelsang
Murder is bad. Gun violence bad. Yeah, I Want to talk about it?
- [40:57]
Allison Gill
What do you say about us as a people where we're like, huh?
- [41:00]
John Fugelsang
Well, that's why. I mean, it's fascinating on several levels. It's fascinating as a true crime story. I mean, this murder happened around the corner from SiriusXM Studios where I work. And we just found out today, I went to see my son Henry for lunch, and I was coming home from the school, and there was a huge phalanx of media outside this youth hostel in my neighborhood. And it turns out the guy was staying around the corner from my apartment. So it's a fascinating story. We're learning more and more about it. But the true crime element, the words on the bullets. The words on the bullets, which now come from a 2010 book directly about the evils of privatized, for profit healthcare. Now, yeah, people are not just callously dismissing this man's horrible murder. They're celebrating it. They're rejoicing. And again, murder is evil and wrong. But you know what else is evil and wrong? A system that values profit over lives and makes people go bankrupt and makes people have to make devastating decisions over healthcare. And UnitedHealthcare is one of the biggest, largest companies in the world by revenue in the nation. And it's a company that makes profits from exploiting people during the most horrible, vulnerable, scary times of their life. And Brian Thompson's unit, Rest in Peace, did not deserve any kind of physical suffering like this. But it was about 75% his unit of the company's 370 odd billion in revenue last year. And it was under Brian Thompson. They began using AI to automate the denial of services. So now it's not even a person turning down your claim. And they had.
- [42:26]
Allison Gill
They want to do that in the.
- [42:27]
John Fugelsang
Va, by the way, and massive error rate. Massive error rate. And we could talk all day about Medicare Advantage plans and how they're designed to bankrupt Medicare. They're bad. Please stay away from those. That's another talk. I know. But all day long, Alison, the jokes kept coming and the sneering and, oh, United Health Care denied his claim for the ambulance ride. He's gonna meet St. Peter and find out what denying your claim really means. I mean, the guy was still someone's father, someone's brother, someone's husband. Brutal act of violence, like forcing people to die from denying health care. Now, yes, murder's heinous. UHC is a wicked enterprise that rips people off. And private healthcare has killed more Americans than every serial killer combined. Private insurance kills more Americans than every Undocumented immigrant combined. But this guy, rest in peace, made money off of this. So the media considers him successful. And you saw so many photos of so many police and so many important people at his murder scene, not at the murder scenes of other people, but his murder scene got a block shut down, had the mayor there, had so many cops, so many photographers, because he made 9 million a year and was very important. In an industry that sentences Americans to death, 41% of us have some kind of medical or associated death. Now again, I think Democrats, smart Democrats, need to lean in and note he was killed going to an investors meeting. Investors should have nothing to do with your healthcare. Your grandparents, your children. Investors should have nothing to do. Healthcare in America is exclusively about profits right now. So the act is horrifying. And it's not karma, it's violence and murder. Karma are people who run insurance companies getting conditions not covered by their package. That's what karma is in this case. This could not happen in Canada. They have guns there, but they don't have healthcare execs who make this kind of ungodly money for sentencing people to death. So a smart Democratic party would look at this scorn from both parties and realize insurance companies don't provide care. They don't provide. They don't improve the quality of our care. They delay or prevent treatment that's needed. They don't reduce administrative costs for the providers. They don't bring any value to us as a society. And it's obscene for bureaucrats, for businessmen to make this much money off of someone else's illness. Now guns. They didn't care about kids in Sandy Hook. Maybe they'll care about one CEO, but healthcare. We're going to see so many articles about CEOs getting more security, more bodyguards, more bulletproof vests arming themselves. We're not going to see any articles about CEOs saying, hey, maybe we should do things that make folks not want to kill us. So too many Democrats won't take on the system because they depend on the donations. But. And they know if they do take on the system, corporations like United Healthcare will finance a primary challenger. So Democrats don't go after this. But if you're looking for a real issue, a truly populist issue that could unite left and right and you don't have to go all single payer. A smart Democrat who says, let's just start with lowering Medicare eligibility to 45 and let's see how it works. Just go halfway. The kind of real progress, not improvement, but reform that Americans are starved for that. Democrats talk about and Democrats improve the system. They don't reform the system.
- [45:52]
Allison Gill
We haven't had anything like this since the aca. Not since LB took the step to subsidize people's.
- [45:56]
John Fugelsang
But even ACA didn't reform the system. We called it reform it improved the system.
- [46:00]
Allison Gill
Of course not. But again, like you said, private insurance. We had to that baby step, right?
- [46:05]
John Fugelsang
It was still baby step, but it was still private shitty insurance. You're totally right.
- [46:10]
Allison Gill
And Democrats will be partly private shitty insurance when we lower the Medicare rate.
- [46:14]
John Fugelsang
And Democrats are the heroes on this. Democrats allow people to not be denied over preexisting conditions to keep your kids on your coverage until they're grown ups for most people to have access to care if they don't work for a big corporation. And Trump and company are trying to take away those little tiny protections. But smart Democrats trying to rebuild a party, trying to think about the issues to build on to let the working Americans know you're really on their side. Health care costs, again, the murder is rank. But look at the comments of Americans and how much hate they feel and how that negativity could be channeled into a positive movement to save lives. It's right there.
- [46:50]
Allison Gill
Democrats you can unfollow reach across the aisle to do this is when they start to use AI to deny veterans benefits claims.
- [46:59]
John Fugelsang
Yes. Why aren't you making noise about this?
- [47:02]
Allison Gill
Yes, exactly. And so there's a good place to start and wrap it all up in a gun violence message.
- [47:08]
John Fugelsang
I mean, you can try while you're at it. You know, maybe, I mean, listen, if they didn't care when they shot at Trump, they're not going to care when they shot at some random CEO.
- [47:15]
Allison Gill
But no, they're not.
- [47:16]
John Fugelsang
You know, I'm just meaning. Oh, I know, I know. May his soul be given the mercy his corporations denied to so many Americans.
- [47:25]
Allison Gill
Well, thank you, my friend. I appreciate you coming on.
- [47:27]
John Fugelsang
And you are the best.
- [47:29]
Allison Gill
You're the best. Tell us about your show. January 18th. That's almost moved my birthday, by the way, from January 20th this year back to January 19th. But your show's on the 18th. Maybe I'll, maybe I'll change it to the 18th.
- [47:40]
John Fugelsang
Listen, no, don't do that. Celebrate that your birthday is on the wackest, illest day in history. It's MLK Day, people. We're going to celebrate MLK and inaugurate a racist at the same time. Embrace the contradiction that has always embodied America. We're going to be there for the last sexy liberal show. When we booked it with Live Nation, we did think it would be a different outcome, but now it's good to know that every morally decent person in D.C. is going to be at our show and very drunk on the night of Saturday the 18th. There'll be some other announcements about it and all kinds of special guests, but if you're in the D.C. area, come on down and have a party because we've got a lot to celebrate, a lot to be proud of, and again, start enjoying being the ones who were proven right every day for the next four years. Don't forget, as bad as things get, stop and smell the train wreck.
- [48:30]
Allison Gill
Where can we get Tickets?
- [48:32]
John Fugelsang
Go to sexyliberal.com and my book is officially on sale. It comes out this summer, but you can order A Separation of Church and Hate through your local bookstore in an Advantage, a small independent local bookstore is the best way to order my book.
- [48:44]
Allison Gill
That's what I say. Go to order it at your local bookstore. And you know, I'm a book person for the holidays. I just buy like 10 copies of every book I love and send them out and I like to order them through the small book shops. All right, well, January 18th and thank you so much, my friend. Everybody. Check out Tell me everything on SiriusXM progress channel 127. That's Sirius XM progress. The word progress is very important in there. Channel 127 weeknights, 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific and the John Fugel Sang Show Podcast. My good friend John Fugelsang. Fugelsang Fridays on the Daily Beans. Thank you, thank you everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back with the good news. Hey everybody. Before switching to Helix, I didn't realize just how poorly my old mattress was serving me. Every morning I'd wake up groggy, achy, and already counting down the hours until I could crawl back into bed. My sleep was constantly interrupted and I never felt rested. It was affecting my mood, my productivity, energy, digestion. A friend who couldn't stop raving about Helix's sleep quiz and their mattress encouraged me to try it out. On the very first night, I felt the difference. I slept soundly. I woke up refreshed and finally said goodbye to those nagging aches and pains. My nights were no longer filled with tossing and turning or waking up in a sweat. And even years later, my Helix mattress feels just as supportive and comfortable as it did on day one. If this sounds familiar, it's time for you to check out Helix, too. Head over to helix sleep.com dailybeans Take your two minute sleep quiz. You'll get matched to a mattress tailored to give you the best sleep of your life. Plus you'll get 20% off all mattress orders. So if you're tired of sleepless nights and constant discomfort, Helix turned my nights into restful, rejuvenating experiences. Even my Apple watch agrees. Higher sleep scores, longer uninterrupted cycles proves the quality of my rest I am finally getting. Helix has made a huge difference in my life and it can in yours too. And right now helix is offering 20% off site wide plus two free pillows with any mattress purchase. Just go to helixsleep.com dailybeans that's helixsleep.com dailybeans with helix better sleep starts now. Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news.
- [50:45]
John Fugelsang
Good news everyone. Then good news everyone.
- [51:02]
Allison Gill
Good news. And if you have a good news submission you want to send us, please do so and include your pod pet tax. That's a photo of your pet as tax to submit your good news story. And if you don't have a pod pet, you can send an adoptable pet in your area and we'll see if we can find him a forever home. If you want us to guess what kind of breeds are in that pet, please feel free to ask us to do so. We will do our best. And if you don't have either of those things, you can send us any animal photo. We can play animal guessing games on anything. Opine on the bovine. What the heck? Wine? What the hell is in that shell? What's the model of your axolotl? Anything at all? Turns out I'm pretty good at turtle breeds, but I think there's only like one so that's not really saying much. Anyhow, send it all to us. And if you don't have any animals, you can attach baby pictures. That takes care of your photo tax just as well. And then of course, shout outs. You have a shout out to a spouse, a loved one, a kid, a parent, a friend, somebody doing incredible organizing or activism in your community. Maybe a local small business that could use a boost for the holidays. Or your small business that could use a boost for the holidays. We have so many makers and creators and entrepreneurs that listen to the daily beans. We would love to hear about your small business too. And we love self shout outs as well. And then of course shout outs to government programs that may have helped you or a loved one. Whether it's SNAP, WIC Section 8 Affordable Care act, which is Obamacare. You might want to let your MAGA relatives know some good VA health care that you've gotten. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, anything at all, including student debt forgiveness. We would love to hear about your student debt relief. Send those to us. And send it all to us@dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. All right, my producer says we're going to start a little heavy and end kind of heavy, but here we go. Anonymous Pronoun she and her hi Beans Queens I've never submitted any shout outs before, but I've been listening for a long time and I love the community that you created and the way that you deliver the news. Thank you Anonymous. I want to give a shout out to a nonprofit called Forever 14. You can find him at Forever 14 the number14.org this nonprofit was started by some friends of mine who suffered the unthinkable a few years back when they came home to discover their 14 year old son had made an impulsive decision and taken his life. The family has taken their grief and started the nonprofit with the goal of teen suicide prevention and to provide hope, support and resources to the people in their Sparks, Nevada community and the Club no One Wants to be in. They sponsor teen activities and many other events to help stop teen suicide in their area. They're really good people. They're doing really good work in the face of their own healing. They could use your help. I hope getting the Word out will provide them with some assistance. Wishing you and the rest of the Leguminati a lovely holiday season. And please keep up the good fight. Here's a picture of my mutts to make your day. Buster is my 14 year old wiener dog and Milo is his 6 year old lab buddy. These two greet me every day with wiggle butts and sloppy kisses. I love wiggle butts by the way. I had an Aussie for a while. He wagged his whole ass. Okay, look how beautiful these babies are. Is that their own little bed? That's very fancy for them. Anyway, thank you Anonymous. It's Forever 14 the number 14 forever14.org See if you can help them out. Next up from Anonymous she her Ladies of the Lagoons. My good news is a self shout out. I love these mostly because I am hopeful some of your other listeners will decide to get involved to use their skills to help in their area. When the former guy started messing with the immigrant population in the first term, I volunteered with Physicians for Human Rights to do forensic evaluations for asylees, PHR physicians for human rights training is training. It offers training for physicians. Appointments are not terribly long and the reports are not any harder than the typical office visit note. Other than the subject matter often discussed, I don't know if it has helped asylum cases being decided for asylees, but I feel I'm doing what I can. I hope other physicians in the Leguminati will see their way to volunteering with phr. We're going to need all hands on deck as my Pod Pet tax I submit my great nephew Murphy. I can tell you his breed 100% Velcro. He loves to spoon lean at every opportunity he visited for Thanksgiving and I smile every time I walk past my sliding door that is now covered with nose prints. Not sure how long it'll be until I wash them off, but it won't be soon. I used to be a foster home for an animal shelter and will again when life settles a bit. Feeling hopeful because three of my neighbors got puppies recently and will eventually need dog sitters while I'm in the mode. When we were in high school we used to sing Beasts of Burden as pizza burning. It's better that way. Look at this sweet angel of a dog. So beautiful. 100% Velcro. Love it. Thank you. Anonymous Next up from Laura Pronoun she and her yes, it's bird watching time. My good news is I'm a new Patreon. Thank you Laura. To celebrate I took this photo. Plus I've included Pod Pet tax with Sweet Mia the Queen nicknamed Kitten and she purrs Love love you lovely beans. Queens loved you in Portland. Laura thank you for becoming a patron. Thank you for supporting independent media and thank you for giving the bird to Trump Tower in Las Vegas. Thank you. Thank you so so much. Anybody wants to become a patron. Patreon.com Mueller she wrote you get free ad free episodes. You get them early. You get to come to our galas and our meet and greets, VIP ticket pre sales like the Q and A happy hour zoom calls that we have. There's just, there's a lot of perks and it's a really fucking cool community and you can actually buy a one year subscription for somebody for the holidays for just 36 bucks. It's called Patrons helping patrons. You can go to DailyBeansPod.com scroll down on the front page see Patrons helping Patrons. That's where you do that. We've given over I think. I think we're close to like 2000 one year subscriptions as gifts to people who can't swing it. But it also makes a good holiday season gift. And look at this angel of adult dog. Hello. This dog is Mia. It's a little Chihuahua, probably at least a chihuahua mix. And it's nicknamed kitten because she purrs. I love this so much. Thank you. I've never had Laura. You're gonna have to get. You're gonna have to get an audio recording of the dog purring because I need to hear that. All right, next up from, let's see, we've got Leslie pronoun she and her hello beans. I've got to flip the bird. A what the mutt. And a shout out fuck yeah hat trick from Leslie. During the pandemic, I moved in with my long term partner. His daughter's family lived close by. This meant we had a toddler in our social bubble. I was fortunate enough to be able to work from home and whenever we got a call for a play date in the park, I would schedule an emergency quote unquote lunch meeting and log off for an hour or so to go play with a giggling 2 year old. I had a toy duck that helped us connect when half our faces were covered by masks. Victoria Duckens. She's a British duck. I'm very good at silly accents. Victoria Dawkins. We got through the pandemic, but alas, my relationship did not. After 13 years, he called it quits. It was all over so quickly. We were never married and not having these kids in my life was breaking my heart. By now, his daughters have each had baby boys, so that's three beautiful grandchildren. Both of those wonderful young women and their husbands still consider me one of their grandmas. We don't see much of each other that often, but I'm overjoyed when we can get together. Victoria Duckens helps us stay connected. I went to Chicago shortly after the breakup, my first solo vacation. And I brought Victoria with me. I could take silly pictures to send to my little granddaughter. And it also happened to have a friend traveling with me. Check out Victoria and I hitting the tourist sites. Victoria and the Bean in Millennium Park. Victoria having deep dish pizza and Victoria flipping the bird. Get it? Flipping the bird. I get it. Victoria Duckins flipping the bird. At the Trump Hotel along the river. I cracked myself up taking that photo. On my last visit, I asked my now 6 year old granddaughter what she was going to be for Halloween. And to my surprise and delight, she said an axolotl. Wow. I was so tickled by that and immediately thought about AG and DG and the good news. So I get to say, can you guess the model of my axolotl? And one last shout out. I got laid off last year. With time on my hands, I searched for podcasts to keep me informed and entertained. It's now been over a year and some days it was the daily beans that got me out of bed. You've been with me at the gym on walks while I do chores, job hunts, and the post election depression. Thank you. Thank you for being there. All of us beans out there, we got this. P.S. i just got a job offer and I start in a few weeks. Oh my gosh, Leslie, thank you. And she says, I think she's a leucistic axolotl, by the way. Okay, so the duck, Victoria Quackens flipping the bird to the drum tower. That's so funny. There she is with the bean. And then Halloween, there she is, an axolotl. That is so fantastic. I absolutely love it. You know, taking that duck around Leslie reminds me of what I used to do when I was in high school. And this might offend some people, and I do apologize, but I was, you know, 17, and if you had one of those big, like gaudy, plastic, lit up glittery nativity scenes in your front yard, I would take the Jesus. Okay? I did this so often in my hometown that St. Timothy's Catholic Church, of which I was a member at the time, actually put a low jack in their Jesus because they were concerned that the Jesus bandit would take it. It was even on the evening news one time. Jesus thefts are up. But here's the thing. I would take the Jesuses or Jesi. I'm not sure of the plural. We've only ever had the one. And so you'd open my trunk at any time in the holidays, there'd be a few Jesuses back there, and I would take them to like four Corners in Magic Mountain and we'd take pictures and, and sneak out in the night and go to Denny's and bring the Jesus with us. And, you know, each one of them had a little post it note on the back because I would keep the addresses because I would always return to Jesus's with prints, with a double set of prints of where the Jesus had been. And here's the kicker. I would return them on Easter. So I thought that was, you know, it's, it's religiously consistent with the story of Jesus. Right? It comes back on Easter. But that, that was what I used to do. And the, the news coverage that, you know, the Jesus Bandit is at it again. They never talked about how I returned them. But anyway, that's something I did as a hellion teenager. So that's my confession for today. I don't know how many years it's been since my last confession. I haven't been to St. Timothy's in a while as an atheist now. But anyway, thank you for that story. Thank you for the photos. Next up, Kim Pronoun she and her dear Allison and Dana. I listened to the Daily Beans today for the first time since the election. Oh Kim, we missed you. My discouragement with Trump's win was so consuming that I shut down. I couldn't bring myself to listen to any political podcasts. Kim, I get it, and I can't tell you how hard it was to make these podcasts. I would still have to consume all the news and scrape it for what I thought was important and curate it. And it was tough, but it gave me a purpose. So thank you guys, but I understand where you're coming from, Kim says Aside from my family and Unitarian Universalist congregation, significant aspects of my life have been dominated by Maga politics. In 2016, my wife and I were expecting our only child and hopeful for the nation's first female president. The outcome crushed us. The 2020 election brought hope with the election of our first female vice president. Yet MAGA only grew stronger. MAGA toxicity has infected local politics. Now I live in Lynchburg, Virginia, a stone's throw from the late reverend, not a Dr. Jerry Falwell Senior's home. In 2023, our city council flipped to a GOP majority, including a toxic MAGA member. The shift targeted our council appointed school board, where I served six years as the city's first openly queer member. During my interview for reappointment, MAGA council members bullied me, even posting clips on Facebook for added ridicule. And unsurprisingly, I wasn't reappointed. The current MAGA aligned and Liberty University affiliated school board has already returned a $10,000 grant from the It Gets Better Campaign awarded to Gay Straight alliance students, and they disbanded the School Division's Equity Task Force. The MAGA influence isn't just political, it's infected my workplace too. My once progressive women's college recently installed a new president with ties to Senator Jesse Helms. She championed a new admissions policy excluding trans and non binary students, the most restrictive admissions policy in all US Women's colleges. Quote applicants must confirm their sex assigned at birth is female and consistently live and identify as a woman. Unquote. The backlash has been immense. Alumni pulling donations, students transferring the faculty and staff fearing termination. A fair amount of my job involves projects for this president. I'm 64, in a niche career and the primary earner for my wife and 7 year old they them. I'm stuck navigating this toxic landscape. My Unitarian Universalist congregation is my refuge from the all encompassing MAGA stronghold. For Daily Beans listeners, I highly recommend visiting a UU congregation, a secular religion grounded in values that unite progressives in action and hope. Finally, I've attached a photo of my 7 year old and their cat. My joys in these challenging times. Kim, I just given you the biggest virtual hug that I that I can muster and I'm glad you're back. I'm afraid the news isn't any better, but I will deliver it the best way I know how. It's the best I can do and I will continue to give suggestions on what we can do, little things we can do, and little bits of hope that we can cling on to. So this photo is amazing, adorable and I love the kitten too. All right, finally from Scott, Pronouns he and him I submit to you a different species of bird for the bird watchers out there. This is a SCOTUS bird. I think it's well deserved for 2/3 of those that roost in the nest of deceit. Well put, Scott. This was taken on my journey throughout D.C. when I was blessed to attend the D.C. gala in April. Scott, I'm glad you were there. Thank you for this photo of flipping the bird to the Supreme Court. Anyway, also a big thanks to John Fugle sang today for Feaglesang Fridays. He'll be here every Friday. He's usually here every Friday. I don't think we've missed a Fugle sang Friday. I think we even got in a fugal saying Friday on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The things that we do. We just love to bring this show to everyone. So thank you so much for all of these kind words. Don't judge me too harshly on the stealing Baby Jesus's story. I was a, you know, I was a rebellious child, if you will, and I guess it wasn't a phase. Sorry Mom. Everybody, Dana and I will be back in your ears on Monday. I'm very excited to see my friend again. And until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health and take care of your family. I've been AG and them's the Beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Alison Gill, with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarland with art and web design by Joel Reeder with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they Might Be Giants and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information please visit mswmedia.com msw media.