Thursday, September 26th, 2024 Today, the Jack Smith 180 page immunity briefing is due today; every Teamsters union in Florida has endorsed Kamala Harris; a Wisconsin mayor is caught stealing a ballot drop box; Alabama Republicans are working to block Glock switches which are like bump stocks for handguns; Georgia Democrats are suing Brian Kemp to force an ethics investigation into the State Elections Board; the House passes a clean government funding bill and are now on break until after the election; Hurricane Helene will jump to a category 4 before landfall in Florida; a top Muslim organization has endorsed Kamala Harris; and the Supreme Court refuses to stay the execution of Marcellus Williams; and Allison delivers your Good News.
Thursday, September 26th, 2024
Today, the Jack Smith 180 page immunity briefing is due today; every Teamsters union in Florida has endorsed Kamala Harris; a Wisconsin mayor is caught stealing a ballot drop box; Alabama Republicans are working to block Glock switches which are like bump stocks for handguns; Georgia Democrats are suing Brian Kemp to force an ethics investigation into the State Elections Board; the House passes a clean government funding bill and are now on break until after the election; Hurricane Helene will jump to a category 4 before landfall in Florida; a top Muslim organization has endorsed Kamala Harris; and the Supreme Court refuses to stay the execution of Marcellus Williams; and Allison delivers your Good News.
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Wisconsin mayor carts away absentee ballot drop box, says he did nothing wrong (CNN)
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GOP lawmakers now back Glock switch ban after mass shooting at Birmingham Hush lounge (AL.com)
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Daily Beans. Hello, and welcome to the Daily Beans for Thursday, September 26, 2024. Today, the, uh, Jack Smith 180 page immunity briefing is due. Every Teamsters union in Florida has endorsed Kamala Harris. A Wisconsin mayor is caught stealing a ballot Dropbox. Alabama Republicans are working to block Glock switches, which are like bump stocks for handguns. Georgia Democrats are suing Brian Kemp to force an ethics investigation into the state elections board. The House passes a clean government funding bill, and they're now on break until after the election. Hurricane Helene will jump to a category four before landfall in Florida. A top muslim organization has endorsed Kamala Harris. And the Supreme Court refuses to stay the execution of Marsalis Williams. I'm your host, Allison Gill. Hey, everybody. Happy Thursday. It's almost Friday. We're almost through the week. I do have a correction. Trump's response to the 11th Circuit was extended to October 25. It was initially due yesterday, and I was waiting for it. Uh, but then I have found where Donald Trump actually asked for an extension. And now he doesn't have to respond to the 11th Circuit until October 25. So we won't get that until then. That is the response where Jax, you know, Judge Eileen Cannon dismissed the whole Florida espionage obstruction of justice documents case. And Jack Smith, you know, has appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The case was dismissed because Judge Cannon says that Jack Smith wasn't appointed or funded appropriately. So he's appealed and he handed his appeal in August 26, and then Trump had 30 days. But then Trump asked for that extension. So it wasn't due yesterday. It's not due until October 25, so we aren't going to talk about that until then. But Jack Smith's massive 180 page immunity brief is due do today again. We'll go over all of this on the Jack podcast this Sunday, including Jack Smith's motion to file a response to Trump's nonsense motion to compel discovery. Because as you know, while they're working out the immunity stuff, she is also front loading this case, working out Trump's discovery issues. These are the issues where he says the Jack Smith, uh, has all of the deleted January 6 documents. And I need the CIA's and the intelligence community assessment of the 2016 election referrals asking for all of this crazy broad discovery stuff that doesn't exist, like the deleted January 6 files, there are none. And he wants it all. And he wants to expand the scope of the investigative team, the prosecution team, so that he can get discovery from basically every single federal agency. And his request, his reply in support of that, which, again, Judge Chukin is allowed to run concurrently while they determine immunity. His response was so ridiculous. It was due September 10, and we covered it on the Jack podcast. It was so stupid that Jack Smith is like, I'm going to need to respond to that. So he filed a motion for leave of court to file a sur reply, which means he's asking permission from the court to respond to that nonsense. And she granted it. And it's due first week of October. So we're going to go over all that on the Jack podcast. But I wanted to correct the record that we were not expecting his Trump's reply, uh, to the 11th Circuit dismissal of the Florida case tonight, by the way, tonight at 09:00 p.m. six Pacific. That's 09:00 p.m. eastern, six Pacific. I will be the first speaker on the creators for Harris call. I will be joined by folks like Billy Porter, um, Mesa, Arizona Republican mayor John Giles, Rick Wilson, uh, and Justin Ross. It's going to be so cool. I'm so excited to be the first speaker here. Um, and so you will find a link to register for this free virtual call in the show notes today. And I would be remiss if I didn't address an extremely racist tweet from Representative Clay Higgins from Louisiana. He tweeted this from his official government account and it said, these Haitians are wild eating pets, voodoo, nastiest country in the western hemisphere. Cults, slapstick gangsters. But damned if they don't feel all sophisticated now filing charges against our president and VP. All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20. Wow. First of all, Trump is not the president and Vance is not the VP. That's who charges were filed against. Now, he has since, second of all, deleted this tweet. But Clay, honey, the Internet is forever. And you tweeted this from the official account of congressional rep for Louisiana's third district. That just blows my mind. Now. Uh, the story now is that Mike Johnson spoke to him, and the leader of the congressional Black Caucus spoke to him on the House floor today while they were voting for this continuing resolution. We'll get to that in a second. And then Clay Higgins, I guess, told Mike Johnson he prayed about it and felt bad and so he deleted the tweet. But now there is a motion for consideration for censure on the floor once they return from their break, which will be after the election. Now, as I said, the House did vote to fund the government through December 20. Merry Christmas. With a clean continuing resolution, which is what I said is the only thing that would pass. And it did, and the Senate voted and passed it as well. Although 18 Republicans wanted to shut down. The government voted no, but it passed. It'll be signed, and so we'll have to do this whole dance again on December 20, and hopefully they're all fucking lame ducks at that point. Also to our friends in Florida, Hurricane Helene is now forecast to reach category four strength by the time it makes landfall in Florida on Thursday, the National Hurricane center says, with storm surge potentially climbing to 20ft along some parts of the coast. So please be safe. Please follow government instructions. And also today, later in the show, I'm going to be speaking with the founders of generation data, a, ah, nonprofit that trains progressive data analysts at, uh, low or no cost. So I'm really looking forward to that conversation. But first, we have lots of news to get to, so let's hit the hot notes. Hot, uh, notes. All right, first up from the Associated Press, the mayor of a central Wisconsin city who ran for office on his opposition to absentee ballot dropboxes said Wednesday he did nothing wrong when he put on work gloves, donned a hard hat and used a dolly to cart away a drop box outside city hall. And I might be pronouncing this wrong, but Wassau Mayor Doug Diny posed for a picture Sunday to memorialize his removal of the city's loan Dropbox that had been put outside city hall around the same time last week that absentee ballots were sent to voters. Quote, this is no difference than the maintenance guy moving it. That's what diny said on Wednesday. I'm a member of staff. There's nothing nefarious going on here. I'm hoping for a good result. Dining ran as a conservative and was backed by the Republican Party in the nonpartisan mayor's race. He is in his first year as Wausau mayor after being elected in April. The move, which sparked a, uh, protest in the city on Tuesday night and anger among Dropbox advocates, or we could just say voting rights advocates, is the latest example in swing state Wisconsin of the fight over whether communities will be allowed to have absentee ballot dropboxes. The Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2022, then controlled by conservatives, banned the use of drop boxes. But in July, the now liberal controlled court. Thank you, Janet Protozewitz reversed that decision and said drop boxes could be used. However, the court left it up to each community to decide whether to install them. It is a felony, however, in Wisconsin, to impede or prevent the free exercise of the franchise and an election. The Wisconsin Elections Commission urged clerks to contact law enforcement if anyone attempted to tamper with a Dropbox or prevent its use. That seems like what happened here. Diny insisted he did nothing wrong. The city attorney, Anna, uh, Jacobson, did not return messages seeking comment. Quote, if somebody would have put it in their pickup truck and drove away, the police would be looking for them for theft of property. That's what Diney said. The Dropbox is safe inside city hall while the issue is unresolved. What the issue was resolved by the fucking Supreme Court. Uh, if you want to remove the drop boxes, then you need to do that through the proper procedures in your county. You can't just grab a hand cart and put on a hard hat and wheel the shit away. Just my two cent. Next up from CB's the state and national democratic parties sued Monday to block two recent rules adopted by Georgia's state election board. That's state and national democratic parties. And they, they're suing to block two recent rules that could be used by county officials who want to refuse to certify an election, potentially causing delays and finalizing the state's results. A lawsuit filed before a state judge in Atlanta argues the rules violate a state law that makes certification a mandatory duty. The suit asks the judge to find the rules are invalid because the state election board, now dominated by allies of former President Trump, is exceeding its legal authority. I also think it runs afoul of the Electoral Count Reform act of 2022, but that's neither here nor there for this discussion. The actions of the board alarm democrats and voting rights activists, playing out against Georgia's background of partisan struggles over voting procedures that predate even the 2020 presidential election. It's a battle in yet another state over what had long been an administrative afterthought. State and local boards certifying results used to just be. That's what we fucking do. It's the law. The lawsuit says rules invite post election chaos, that the board is defying state law that says county officials shall certify the results, and that more than a century of court precedent in Georgia finds county officials have no wiggle room on this. Like call Dan Quail, he'll tell you. The democratic lawsuit specifically cites language added by one rule to require county election officials to conduct a, quote, reasonable inquiry before certifying results. It also takes aim at a second rule that allows county election officials, quote, to examine all election related documentation created during the conduct of elections. Alleged fraud or misconduct should be handled by the courts, not by county officials. That as they tally the results. That's what the suit says, and they cite more than a century of Georgia court rulings. The lawsuit was filed by county election board members from counties in metro Atlanta, most chosen by the local democratic party, as well as voters who support Democrats, two democratic state lawmakers running for reelection, and the state and national democratic parties. A bunch of people on, um, this lawsuit. So we'll keep you posted on that. I feel good that the electoral count Reform act is going to be clear on this and that the governor and secretary of state of Georgia and other swing states will comply with their obligations and duties to certify the election results by a certain date, by the date that they're due. They did it last time. I think they'll do it again, but we'll see. All right, from al.com a bill to ban devices that convert semi automatic handguns to automatic fire has support from Alabama lawmakers in both parties, even in a state house generally leery of any restrictions on firearms. This comes after a mass shooting outside the hush Lounge in Birmingham. Senator Jabo Wagoner, a, uh, Republican from Vestavia Hills, he's also chair of the Senate rules committee, told AL.com that he has decided to support a ban on Glock switches. Quote, that brings it pretty close to home, Wagoner said of the shooting that killed four and injured 17. Police said shooters used a trigger activator or a Glock switch to spray a crowd of people with gunfire. Support from Wagoner and other Republicans in the House and Senate will be crucial for this bill, HB 26, before the 2025 session happens and sponsored by Philip Enzler, a Democrat from Montgomery. Now, Enzler had introduced the measure twice before and made progress with his bill. During the 2024 legislative session, law enforcement officials came to the state House to show their support for this law enforcement. They do not want folks to have these Glock switches, which are essentially bump stocks for handguns. They came to the state House, and that bill passed the House by a vote of 60 to 38, but it died without a vote in the Senate. Now, Alabama House Democrats have already released a statement urging support of a similar measure in the next session. 24 other states, including those with republican leadership, have passed laws that ban or regulate Glock switches or similar conversion devices. That's according to the advocacy group Everytown, so we'll keep an eye on that. Alabama, that's big. And in election news from Florida politics, every Teamsters union in Florida has just announced support for democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Half a dozen unions issued endorsements, including Teamsters Local 79, Southwest Florida Tampa Teamsters Local 173, Bradenton Teamsters 385, Teamsters Local 512, Jacksonville Teamsters Local 769, Miami and Teamsters Local 947, Jacksonville. The endorsements were issued as part of a joint and endorsement of unions from Florida, Georgia and Alabama. Quote, the executive board of Teamsters Joint Council 75 is proud to announce our endorsement of the Kamala Harris Tim Walls ticket for president and vice president of the United States. That's a letter from the North Miami based regional Teamsters affiliate. The council said. The democratic candidates strong record on workers rights and advocacy stands in clear contrast to that of the republican nominee, Donald Trump. The chapter action followed a decision by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters not to endorse for president this year, citing a division in polling of its national membership. Quote, the Teamsters thank all candidates for meeting with members face to face during our unprecedented roundtables. That was what Teamsters general president Sean O'Brien said. He then went on to say, unfortunately, neither major candidate was able to make serious commitments to our union to ensure the interests of working people are always put before big businesses. Even though Biden and Harris and Harris cast the tiebreaking vote to save their pensions. Now, this decision not to endorse sparked a lot of anger for many leaders across the country, especially after O'Brien this summer became the first Teamsters president ever to speak at the RNC. The Teamsters union has issued a national endorsement of every democratic nominee for president since 1996. The letter also, by the way, calls out project 2025, the blueprint from conservative think tanks for the next republican administration. That agenda, the letter said, quote, would be a disaster for all workers, particularly union members. Quote, for these reasons and many others too numerous to list, we strongly encourage your support for the Harris Walls ticket in the upcoming presidential election. And next up from the Associated Press, Vice President Kamala Harris has secured the endorsement of one of the nation's largest muslim american voter mobilization groups, marking a significant boost to her campaign, since many muslim and arab american organizations have opted to support third party candidates or to not endorse at all. Action, the political arm of an 18 year old muslim american advocacy group, endorsed Harris presidential campaign on Wednesday, saying in a statement provided first to the Associated Press that the group, quote, recognizes the responsibility to defeat Donald Trump in November. This group, based in DC, operates in eight states with a significant presence in key battleground states like Michigan and Pennsylvania. The organization will now focus its ongoing voter outreach and efforts to support Harris in addition to other down ballot candidates. And here's a quote, this endorsement is not an agreement with Vice President Harris on all issues, but rather an honest guidance to our voters regarding the difficult choice they confront at the ballot box. That's the CEO of engage action went on to say, while we do not agree with all of Harris's policies, particularly on the war on Gaza, we are approaching this election with both pragmatism and conviction. Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Harris's campaign manager, noted in a statement that the endorsement comes, quote, at a time when there is great pain and loss in the muslim and arab american communities. Harris will continue to, quote, bring the war in Gaza to an end such that Israel is secure. All the hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza ends, and the palestinian people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity, security and self determination. And finally, from CB's, the state of Missouri on Tuesday executed Marcellus Williams shortly after the United States Supreme Court rejected a request to delay the execution. The state Department of Corrections said he was pronounced dead as 610 pm central time. St. Louis county prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, who had sought to have the conviction overturned, said, quote, this outcome m did not serve the interests of justice, went on to say Marcellus Williams should be alive today. There were multiple points in the timeline when decisions could have been made that would have spared him the death penalty. If there is even the shadow of a doubt of innocence, the death penalty should never be an option. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Kitaji Brown Jackson said they would have granted the request to halt the execution. Quote, tonight, Missouri will execute an innocent man. That's attorney Tricia Rojo Bushnell of the Midwest Innocence project, in a statement after the Supreme Court ruling, the victim's family opposes his execution. Jurors who originally sentenced him to death now oppose his execution. The prosecutor's office that convicted and sentenced him to death has now admitted they were wrong and zealously fought to undo the conviction and save Mister Williams life. That is not justice, and we must all question any system that would allow this to occur. All right, everybody, we need your good news, so send it to us@dailybeanspod.com. and click on contact. But first, before we get to the good news, we'll be right back with the founders of generation data stick around. We'll be right back. Hello, foodies. Are you feeling lost in a sea of meal kits? There's like 9 million of them out there. It's like you're on a bad date with each one of them. But let me introduce you to the culinary match you've been waiting for. Home chef. 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That's homechef.com dailybeans for 18 free meals and free dessert for life. You heard that right. Must be an active subscriber to receive free dessert. Hey, everybody. Welcome back. I am really happy to be joined today by people who use data for good. I am talking to the co founders of generation data. It's a 501 c, four c, three operations situation. And the co founders are Nancy Stalnaker and Matt Mulwini. Hi, Nancy. Matt, please, I'm so glad to have you here. Welcome.
Great to be here.
Thanks, Angie. Great to be here.
So this is so fantastic. First of all, fresh off the heels of the nerds and geeks for Harris call welcome, because we are going to talk all things data today and how we can use data for good, for good forces in the world. Talk a little bit about why you co founded generation Data. What's the mission?
So, back in 2018, I was a data consultant, founding, uh, data diva consulting, and I was specializing in training candidates that indivisible convinced a lot of people to run for office for the first time, and a lot of them just did not know how to use van. Van is the software used to keep track of your volunteers and your voters. And they didn't know. How do you pull a list? How do you print them? How do you do the data entry once you've gone and knocked on the doors? And so I started a consulting firm specifically to be that person who was good with Van, even if you only needed me for two or 3 hours. And so I had my website up, and then, um, Matt.
So my background prior to co founding generation data with Nancy was I was working for a nonprofit called Launch Code, where the focus was free coding education and then placing people into good paying tech jobs, typically with Fortune 500 companies like Mastercard or express scripts or carnival cruise lines. And so for me, it was coming at it from the point of view of, can we be doing this? But in the sort of both progressive democratic and more sort of civic engagement, voter registration, pro democracy space. So the kind of the c four, c three distinction. Um, and so started having some calls, getting introduced, some people, and somewhere along the line, someone was like, hey, you need to talk to the data diva. Uh, I think theres a lot of synergy between what the two of you are doing. And we had that call, and we decided eventually to basically hang out our shingle and rent some classroom space at american university and advertise to the world, hey, we have this training coming up where youre going to learn all these skills, like NGP, Van, like Excel, like SQL, that can make you more impactful when it comes to doing campaign work, organizing work, um, and, you know, with a specific emphasis on, uh, more, getting more diverse individuals into this space, because historically, it has been predominantly cis, straight, white, male.
Yeah, white dudes. Right?
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. So talk a little bit about, I want to get to the diversity and the impact of the diversity in your program. But let's talk a little bit about how many people have gone through this training and where they've ended up putting those skills to use, because I think that the track record here for generation data is pretty amazing.
So, uh, since 2019, when we first started, we've had over 500 people participate in a generation data training of some kind. Uh, our flagship training is what we call introduction to progressive data. So that's some of what, you know, that's the van skills, the SQL skills, the vis skills, but we have other offerings as well, both in English and Spanish. Um, some of them are like a, ah, standalone data visualization course. But across all those different trainings, we've had over 500 people, and those individuals have gone to work sort of pretty much everywhere under the sun in social change work, uh, everywhere from the Biden campaign via our C four in 2020, to the DNC, to democratic state parties, to Planned Parenthood action funds, major national labor unions like SEIU, AFL CIO, and, uh, then on the c three side, some of the organizations, uh, like state voices that do a lot of, uh, important voter registration work or supporting groups that are in the states doing a lot of civic engagement and voter registration work to really, um, help build the foundations of a multiracial democracy. So it kind of expands the gamut, uh, across the progressive ecosystem.
Uh, Nancy, let's talk for a second about how this actually translates into votes or good stuff, because we know back in 20 16 20 18 20 20, the bad guys, Cambridge Analytica, for example, were using psychographic targeting, finding out what really makes people mad, what they hate, using that to divide and going after people specifically for that. Like just really the dark side of the utilization of data. And so we know exactly how that worked and how that helped them in those elections. How does what generation data does help us in, uh, progressive values, democratic values, and fairness and justice? Where does the rubber meet the road? What does that look like in terms of getting out the vote or, uh, m properly managing your volunteer list, et cetera.
So one of the things no campaign can knock on as many doors as they want and make as many phone calls as they want, talk to register as many people as they want. What data does is it says, this is the best place to put your resources. Something I always make clear to my students. Data does not replace field data makes field more efficient. So we can figure out things like, these are the voters that are the most persuadable, these are the voters that have either never the newly registered people who have either never voted before or only once, or these are the people that have moved. Maybe they need to know the new polling place. Um, we have a lot of data on folks. These are people that are likely to have young kids in the house. So an education meth. If you have 10,000 mailers that you can send out, send them to potentially persuadable voters who are likely to have school age children, um, versus to what may be a lot of the same really basic demographics. Um, people who don't have children who are of the age where maybe they've gotten a lot of stuff about school age stuff would have been sent to them 2030 years ago just because they were a woman between, say, 25 and 45. Um, and now we can make guesses as to who does and who doesn't and maybe put a different message for them. And we try very hard to not be anywhere near as evil. I think I would really struggle to be anywhere close to that evil.
Um, yeah, no, it makes total sense. This is actually super interesting to me personally, because this is kind of what my doctoral dissertation was about. Right. You're saying you aren't going to be able to reach every single voter, uh, but you want to maximize, you know, get the most bang for your buck. Maximize who you talk to. My whole dissertation was about reducing missed appointments at the VA, and we can't call every single veteran and remind them of their appointment. But what we can do is call the single, uh, or unmarried men who have physical therapy appointments three times a week, who, you know, you find out what demographics tend to miss appointments more based on past data, and then you're able to then say, here's a list of instead of 10,000 veterans to call, here are the 19 that are most likely going to miss their appointments, give them a call instead. And so this kind of targeted outreach that really, I, uh, guess, harnesses the value, the impact that every single minute or person hour spent can have is, again, something that's so near and dear to my heart. Now just, you know, so everybody knows. One of my data sets was corrupted, so I didn't even get to determine, uh, whether or not the national initiative to reduce missed appointments was successful. Uh, but, you know, you can draw conclusions. You just aren't allowed to say definitively when you have a corrupt data set. But, uh, I think that this is a really, really fascinating. Now, Matt, tell me about why the diversity part here is so important to what you do and why that actually, I think, would guess, makes for a stronger team to gather, analyze data, and to sort of pinpoint where it works best.
So it's a combination of our values, our values as an organization, but sort of our values writ more largely as a yemenite movement, uh, of people who believe in a multiracial democracy. And so in the process of building a multiracial democracy, engaging with diverse communities, uh, it is better to have people from those communities doing not just, uh, you know, involved in all aspects of reaching out to and engaging with those communities, because they're going to bring their lived experiences of being members of those communities to the, whether it's the messaging that organizations are crafting or the data, in our case, the data analytics that are being run, so that when you see something where you're like, that doesn't track, this is what the spreadsheet is saying, or this is what the van reports saying, but that doesn't track. With my actual knowledge of that community, I call, uh, bullshit. Um, and so you're, people from the communities are better able to organize in those communities. That is a part of the reason why diversity is a big emphasis for us. And then it is also important because our program and programs, like generation data, become gateways to leadership in the broader progressive and pro democracy ecosystem. And so it's both having people from the communities that we're organizing on behalf of, uh, shape the programs, but also eventually grow into people who can lead the organizations, like the planned parenthoods of the world, like the AFL CIO's, like the seius of the world. Uh, so it's kind of a twofold, uh, why we focus so much on training and diverse individuals in this space.
Quantitative data is such a huge, important aspect, but it's only one part of it, right? You bring in your lived experiences and then, bam, you all of a sudden have qualitative anecdotes out the wazoo that make for a, um, better understanding and analysis of the data that you're looking at. Usually that that whole part is left out of a lot of data organizations, data gathering organizations blows my mind. Like, why wouldn't you have somebody who has lived experiences in living these data, like, be a part of understanding and analyzing it? So I think that that's such a huge aspect of what you do, uh, and so important that you don't leave that behind.
Early on, sort of when computers were being developed and what do you do in a database was being developed at that point, it was almost all straight white men in skinny ties in one of maybe a dozen countries that were kind of making these decisions and so, as an example, in a database, it's really common to have a single field for first name. A single field for last name, often only have the middle initial, but certainly only have an expectation of one word in there, and then maybe a suffix for the juniors and seniors and stuff. But, um, for a lot of hispanic folks, they'll have multiple names, and there isn't the exact same. This is your first and your middle and your last name. Or they may go by their middle name, um, because the first name, uh, is a cultural name or a family name. Or you might have systems that cannot handle a name that is less than three letters. Now, in English, it's very uncommon to have less than three letter names, but in many asian countries it is. And so you then have data that gets rejected. So it is both, right?
You have a bunch of Republicans saying your name doesn't match your registration, we can't count your vote, or whatever.
I actually grew up with a guy whose name was null, and he does occasionally have problems because null, for anyone who doesn't know in a database, if there's nothing in the cell, the cell says null. So he will put his name in there and it's like, oh, there's just no last name here. He does occasionally have trouble, um, filling out stuff, but it helps the people, like the students we have, get a very direct benefit from. They now have a place they can go and work in campaigns, and you can do it a little longer. Field work is really hard to do when you're older than about 25. Um, data work, you can do longer. It's good for our organizations who can then have m a, ah, more diverse set of people on their data team. And it's good for data as a whole, sort of as the entire industry, because you have a lot more different experiences coming in and saying things like, hey, when we set this up, we need to have it set up so that a first or a last name is only two syllables and someone who is from a culture where that's really common is more likely to think about that when they're setting their database up. So it sort of helps everyone to have data be more diverse.
Yeah. And that's a really great example of how diversity, equity, inclusion will have a positive impact on data gathering and analysis. So thank you for that. Uh, before I let you go, if anyone is interested in these trainings or what's coming up, how, uh, like, we're pretty short time frame to election here, where do they go and what are you focusing on now? Tell them tell them how they can be trained up in, uh, this step.
Uh, AJ, I did just want to circle back real quick because I think this will help get people interested in the trainings. Nancy mentioned that it's a nice thing, particularly if you're doing field to be able to transition into. They are. By and large, data and tech roles are also really good paying jobs, relatively speaking. So we've had people do, uh, some of our trainings and we didn't say this. Also, the vast majority of our trainings are offered for free and those that are not are offered at pretty low cost. And we've seen people do one accelerated 20 hours training where they're learning valuable skills like SQL and data visualization. And then they can go land a job earning, say roughly sixty k. And then you get a year or two under year or two of experience under your belt and you can earn eighty k, ninety k, one hundred. And um, which is real talking, real money, uh, just by adding a few technical skills to your skillset. But other people don't have those skills. So it does help you stand out. So just wanted to add to that point and in terms of where people can go to find out about our classes. Uh, so special offer for uh, daily Beans listeners. They can go to generationdata.org, uh, daily Beanstar. And the data diva, uh, herself has a special, um, excel training, uh, coming up that uh, we are offering, uh, for free. But I suggest a donation of $47 uh, to, uh, hopefully uh, in honor of 47th president Kamala Harris via Rc four that people can participate in. That would be on October, the afternoon of Saturday, October 12. And uh, you would learn some really valuable, um, excel skills. Things like basic spreadsheet functions, vlookup, which I don't know if you can't see our t shirts, but our motto is vlookup and prosper. You'd learn about if statements, um, pivot tables. So that is the training that is nearest at hand that folks could participate in. Beyond that, if they wanted to learn about other trainings, they would just go to, ah, our main website, generationdata.org and sign up for our mailing list where they could learn about other future trainings.
Amazing. I didn't know I was going to get my own little, uh, daily Beans leguminati listener, uh, special deals. That's so cool. Thank you so much. I appreciate that.
And you know, when we were setting up the event, eventbrite shows you similar, um, events to yours when you're looking at them. And right underneath was a training that looks like it's longer hours, but not necessarily more advanced than I'm going to get. And it was in british pounds, but I think it was $300. So this is a 6th of that cost. And the first lesson is, this is a cell, this is a row, this is a column. And then the last one is, this is how to use an if error off of a vlookup. So it'll print you in three to 4 hours. We will move you from beginner up to solid intermediate, and you get to hang out with me and listen to me talk about data and probably New Zealand wildlife and whatever other random things I think about, because I do that a lot.
Well, fantastic. That's so cool. That is so cool. Because, I mean, there, you know, there's a definite need for low cost, no cost, uh, training like this. It's such an important skill to have, uh, when you're looking for a job, whether it's in progressive politics or any of the other places. You mentioned, uh, Matt, when you talked about how your 300 graduates have gone on to land incredible jobs for organizations. So thank you both so much for your time. And, uh, I appreciate you talking to us today about not just the importance of using data and data analysis for the greater good, but the importance of subsuming diversity into that and lived experiences, and how our personal stories and backgrounds can impact in a positive way how we collect and analyze data. I appreciate you both. Thanks so much.
Thank you.
And we appreciate people coming to the class, um, if you can't come to the class, and it uses political data, kind of as the sample data, but it's meant for anyone who uses it. Um, but this is an investment in the long term strength of the progressive movement data people, because we do tend to get paid fairly well, also tend to leave the space after not too long, because you can get paid a lot better if you're not working for nonprofits. So we constantly need to be training more people. So this is how the people that we train this year are going to be, uh, the state data directors for Kamala's reelection in 2028. And so this is helping us out and making sure that our trainings are either free or very low cost is an investment in the future of the party. And data is, it was the big, shiny thing in 2008, and it hasn't gotten any less important, but it has gotten a lot less trendy. So we would very much appreciate support, um, from folks and from their organizations. And, yeah, come and hang out with me and learn fun stuff it is the funniest training you will ever take about database queries.
Yes. Make Excel great. No, let's not use that. Make Excel fun again. How about that? Thank you so much.
Joyful.
Again. Joyful. Bring the joy. Bring the joy. Joyful warriors back into data and data analysis. Thank you both so much. Everybody stick around. We'll be right back with the good news. Hey, everybody. Welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news? Everyone. Then good news, everyone. And if you have any good news. Confessions, corrections. You want to play what the mutt? Find the cat? Opine on the bovine? What the heck? Wine? What the hell's in that shell? What's the model of your oxolotl? Any animal guessing game, just grab a photo, send it in to us, and, uh, you know, this is how we get you to pay your pod pet tax, right? We want to see pictures of your pets, so send those to us. And if you don't have pod pet tax to pay because you don't have a pet, you can send us an adoptable pet in your area, and we'll see if we can find him a forever home. Also, we love shout outs. Whether you have a shout out to a spouse, a loved one, a friend, a BFF, for example, uh, or, you know, maybe just a friendly acquaintance that you think is awesome, you can do that, too. We also love self shoutouts. Uh, shout outs to kids, shout outs to people doing incredible community organizing in your area. We want to hear about that. There's so many really great local democrats meeting up to canvas and postcard and write letters. We want to hear about that because those experiences are so great, especially door knocking, canvassing. It's so incredible to go out and talk to people like that. It's just. It's very fulfilling. Uh, and, you know, I know a lot of people can't do that. So you can postcard, you can phone bank, you can text bank, whatever you can do, even if it's just to drop a couple of bucks with our leguminati, uh, Harrison walls donation link, which is also in the show notes, we've raised y'all. We raised, like, almost $130,000. That's just beyond incredible. Y'all are amazing. Uh, shout outs to, let's, uh, see, government programs that have helped you or a loved one, whether it's Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, affordable care act, um, pact act, chips, wic snap, um, or special like, uh, incredible care. You've gotten a. At a veterans administration, a va clinic. We want to hear about that, too. And, uh, of course, student debt forgiveness stories are always, like, super great. And I send those right to the White House. Send it all to us@dailybeanspod.com and click on contact if I sound a little under the weather. I am. My brain is very foggy today. I was up all night. I didn't sleep a wink with 102 fever because I got installment two of my shingles vaccine, and it's a bear. But I'm feeling a lot better. It's about been about twelve or 16 hours later. Um, I still got a little bit of a brain fog. I'm still pretty tired. And it's going to be so worth it in the end because shingles is not something that you want to get. So I recommend everybody over 50 get your pneumonia and shingles vaccines. I go back in, in two weeks to follow up with my code and flu shots, but I am kind of out of it today. So thank you so much, uh, for bearing with me and hanging in this week while Dana is out. She will be back with us on Monday. I really appreciate it. All right, let's kick the good news off with Heidi pronoun. She and her. Hello, my name is Heidi, and I have a super quick correction. Senator Tammy Baldwin's challenger in Wisconsin is Eric Hovd. Oh, pronounced Hovdy. He's a real treat. He has said, maybe implied in the past, that seniors in nursing homes usually only have about five to six months to live, so they shouldn't get to vote, that overweight people don't deserve health care. Or maybe it was health insurance. I don't remember. And the farmers don't really work all that hard. They just ride around on tractors all day. M uh, I mean, that's how I relax, riding around on tractors all day. I love the show. And sometime in the future, I will share how the workforce innovation and opportunity act has changed my life. Oh, heidi, I can't wait to hear about that. All right, thank you for that correction, uh, hove djdeh. Okay, next up, from Shea pronoun. She and her. Hi, Allison. We miss you, Dana. First, I want to thank you for what you do when I begin to lose hope. Because no matter what crazy shit the dictator potato and his team of shitty pranksters says, or does the wing nuts just double down? You and Dana reel me back in from the edge of despair and remind me that we can do this. We will fight and we will win. I want to give a shout out to VA healthcare and Medicare. My stepdad spent two and a half weeks in the hospital. And it was such a relief knowing that we don't have to also stress about the hospital bill that could bankrupt my parents. That's thanks to the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability act of 2014, signed into law by President Obama, not Trump, as my parents seem to think that now he is home and continuing to recover and he has a pharmacy worth of meds in the bathroom that are covered again because VA healthcare and Medicare for federal tax. I am fulfilling my obligations as a little sister to embarrass my big brother, Jason, uh, and sending you some of his JC Penney studio baby pics for you to enjoy. He was born looking like a balding, middle aged man because his hair was so blonde that was almost transparent. But you can see from the last picture where he's holding me as a baby that it eventually grew. And for state tax, because I still dream about him every week, even though he's been gone for ten years. Pictures of my dog, cash. He was 50 pounds of attitude and a five pound body. And everyone who knew him grew to love him because his sweet, sassy and funny personality. Most people get his breed wrong, even though he was purebred, because he was a terrible representation of his breed. Thanks again for everything you and Dana do to keep fighting this good fight. And for fuck's sake, have fun and try to relax on your vacation. You will have the best company after all. Ps, I hope you got that brass band and your butt sorted out. I don't know what you're talking about. Oh, Shay, thank you. And I think we will have a wonderful vacation. Okay, so this dog is fucking adorable. Oh, my God. I haven't seen these photos before of my very good friend, your brother. And you're right. I don't know what that. I would say that was a chihuahua, but it doesn't. That's not quite right. So I'll have to look this is these a picture of you and him. You're just like, mer. So fantastic. Uh, fox terrier. Really? All right, I believe you, Shay. Thank you so much for that. And thanks for the shout outs to the VA and Medicare. All right, next up from Anonymous. I just wanted to bring to your attention that the beginning of charlatan's UK video, weirdo begins with a couch. That's really, really an incredible memory that you just jolted. Anonymous, thank you so much. We're gonna have a link to the Charlatans weirdo video. Charlatans UK in the show notes. God, I love that band. Thank you so much for sharing that. Wow. This trip down memory lane. I forgot about the couch. Next up, uh, Boston John. Hi ag and dG. Love the show. Been listening for a long time. Just want to follow up on the July 25 episode the good news submission on CTNNB one syndrome. Needless to say, I was gobsmacked when I heard that because as it turns out, I am one of the lead scientists working on the small molecule treatment the submitter was talking about. Talk about a small world. Anyway, I would love to give a shout out to the CTNNB one community as well as our principal investigator, Michelle Jacob, for getting awareness about this rare disease out into the ether. Links to the paper as well as a recent article written about the research will be in the show notes. Thanks for all you do and tell Dana that I am the 45 pod Patreon under the name autocratic mega fascists and see if she gets it. I laughed my ass off when you explained it to Pete. Maybe I'll write in again with my totally niche PhD thesis title at some point. Boston John yes, that was super small world, and we'll have both of those articles linked in the show notes. Thank you so much. Next up from Heather Dear extraordinary women of the legume, I wanted to take a moment to let you know about the beautiful experience I recently had with the incredible women of, uh, she's fly. Oh, I love this. Oh, I'm so excited about this. I just returned from a fly fishing retreat I took to heal my soul after the loss of my husband in December to stage four bladder cancer. His last nine months have been challenging, to say the least, and the retreat couldn't have come at a better time. It was like a balm for the soul. Dylan and Emily, with their vast knowledge and gentle encouragement, made it a truly healing experience. We stayed at the avalanche ranch hot springs in Redstone, Colorado, nestled right along the shimmering Crystal river. The aspens were ablaze in autumn glory, and the air had that perfect crispness. On Saturday, I fished the Crystal river, and on Sunday we ventured to the frying pan with two exceptional guides. I was lucky enough to catch several rainbow trout and even a cutthroat trout, one of my late husband's favorites. I found myself smiling all weekend, feeling his presence with me as I cast my line into the sunshine. It was as though he was right there, sharing in that moment. So here's my heartfelt shout out to the amazing women of she's fly and to our guides, Shannon and Sam from Taylor Creek Fly shop in Basalt, Colorado. My passion for this sport is rekindled and I look forward to sharing it with anyone who crosses my path. Thank you, ladies, for everything you do with love and gratitude. Here are some pictures from this amazing trip and my pet tacks, our fishing guide's canine companions, Billy on the left, and Ruby, the black lab on the right, who hung out and watched as we fished. Heather, first of all, you were an incredible writer. You should do this more often. And second of all, we've talked about she's fly on this show before. They're fly fishing. Uh, organization. Look how incredible. They look beautiful. The setting is like, breathtaking. Thank you so much for sending that in, Heather. All right, next up from Chris, pronouns he and him. This is our final submission, ag in April, you and a bunch of Leguminati worked for our Saturday food bank distribution prior to the DC gala. Yes, Chris, I remember. Thank you for all your support. Since then, this free food distribution to the food insecure families in one of the most expensive counties in the country has grown. Last Saturday, we served over 1500 families in cars and 300 families who walked up to our distro. We gave 110 pallets of food totaling almost 200,000 pounds. No, 200 pounds of food. I can't tell because it's a period and not a comma, but I'm so, uh. That's a lot of fucking food. That was our last free for all distro. We've grown so large we can no longer continue. Due to our effect on traffic in the area, which gets unacceptably shut down. We're taking a few weeks off to convert to an appointment based system. We need the help of any listeners in the DC area to make this happen. We want to meet the demands of everyone who needs food in this area. So if any DC area listeners can help, please email info owatelse.org dot. Thanks for your continued support of our food bank. It was awesome meeting you in the Leguminotti, two of whom came from Australia to volunteer with us. I remember, Chris, you deserve whatever high horse you're riding on in January 2025. Chris, thank you. That is it. That's incredible. That's incredible. 1500 families in cars and 300 more who walked up in a day. Wow. Appointment only. All right, Chris, well, godspeed. Congratulations on your growth and your success. It's really incredible what we can do when we decide to help others instead of ourselves. So thank you so much for that. Thanks to everybody for all of your good news submissions. Thanks for hanging in with my shingles vaccine brain fog today. It's been a challenge. It's been a real challenge to not have 100% of my brain working on firing on all cylinders. So thank you. I also look forward to seeing you all tonight. 06:00 p.m. pacific 09:00 p.m. eastern on the creatives for Harris call. I'm m so excited. I'm so honored to be speaking alongside the likes of Billy Porter and Rick Wilson and Mayor John Giles. Uh, so that's the mesa, Arizona Republican mayor who endorsed Kamala Harris early spoke at the DNC. So I'm so looking forward to this. I'm going to be one of the first speakers. So the link to register is in the show notes. I go on right at 09:00 p.m. eastern. 06:00 p.m. pacific. So come on in, join the call. Let's raise some money. Uh, and, uh, because we're not going back hash dosomething, everybody. I'll be back in your ears tomorrow. As you know, Dana will be back Monday. Again, thanks for hanging in with me solo. Until then, please take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. Take care the planet. Take care of your mental health, take care of your family. Vote blue over Q. Bring someone with you. Bring everyone with you. Go to vote.org comma, check your registration early and often, and vote down ballot all the way. I've been Ag and them's the Beans. The Daily Beans is written in executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joelle 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 Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics, and justice. For more information, please visit mswmedia.com msw. Um mediataindeh.