Monday, January 13th, 2025 Today, more Judge Cannon shenanigans, or cannanigans; in the fight to release the final Jack Smith report; the pizzagate gunman has been fatally shot by police in a North Carolina traffic stop; President Biden extends temporary deportation protections for nearly 1 million immigrants ahead of the anticipated Trump crackdown; Trump’s property company is in talks to buy back his DC hotel; a Trump campaign worker is among Elon Musk’s $1M lottery winners; the House GOP puts Medicaid, the ACA, and climate protections on the chopping block; and the daughter of Dominique Pelicot speaks to the BBC saying her father should die in prison; and Allison and Dana delivers your Good News.
Monday, January 13th, 2025
Today, more Judge Cannon shenanigans, or cannanigans; in the fight to release the final Jack Smith report; the pizzagate gunman has been fatally shot by police in a North Carolina traffic stop; President Biden extends temporary deportation protections for nearly 1 million immigrants ahead of the anticipated Trump crackdown; Trump’s property company is in talks to buy back his DC hotel; a Trump campaign worker is among Elon Musk’s $1M lottery winners; the House GOP puts Medicaid, the ACA, and climate protections on the chopping block; and the daughter of Dominique Pelicot speaks to the BBC saying her father should die in prison; and Allison and Dana delivers your Good News.
Stories:
Trump campaign worker won Elon Musk’s $1mn election raffle prize(Financial Times)
'Pizzagate' gunman killed by police in North Carolina after traffic stop, authorities say (AP News)
House GOP puts Medicaid, ACA, climate measures on chopping block (Politico)
'My father should die in prison', daughter of Dominique Pelicot tells BBC (BBC)
Trump’s property company in talks to buy back his Washington DC hote (The Guardian)
Good Trouble - Oppose Pete Hegseth
Tell your Senators: Oppose Trump's selection of Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense (Action Network)
WATCH DUTY APP
Watch Duty Fire Public Safety Information (App)
Something to do
https://www.justice.gov/doj/webform/your-message-department-justice
Choose “Message to the Attorney General” from the drop down.
From The Good News
Incidents | CAL FIRE
Reality Winner Petition - reality-is.us
‘Path Of Exile 2’ Fans Say Elon Musk’s Characters Are Clearly Being Boosted (Forbes)
Documenting the Saga of "Elon Musk's" Account - Reddit
Um, MSW Media Media.
Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Monday, January 13, 2025. Today, more Judge Cannon shenanigans, or Cannonigans, as I like to call them, and the fight to release the final Jack Smith report. The Pizzagate gunman has been fatally shot by police in a North Carolina traffic stop. President Biden extends temporary deportation protections for nearly a million immigrants ahead of the anticipated Trump crackdown. Trump's property company is in talks to buy back his D.C. hotel. A Trump campaign worker is among Elon Musk's $1 million lottery winners. The House GOP puts Medicaid, the Affordable Care act and climate protections on the chopping block. And the daughter of Dominic Pellico speaks to the BBC saying that her father needs to die in prison. I'm Alison Gill.
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
Hey, Dana, Happy Monday.
Happy Monday to you, my friend.
Um, and there's no, uh, sugarcoating this Dominic Pellico story that I'm going to deliver. There's no way to transition into it smoothly. There's no way to transition out of it smoothly. So just kind of note its jarring existence among the news that, uh, we're going to read to you today later in the Hot Notes. And there's going to be a content warning. I'll give it at the top of the story. If you haven't been following the Dominic Pellico story, it's truly, truly incredible.
Yeah, it's pretty awful. So, but we will, um, the fires, uh, we want to give you an update on the fires. Obviously, the Santa Ana winds, they're expected to strengthen unfortunately again today after a brief reprieve yesterday and over the weekend. Um, but gusts are about to hit 30 to 50 miles an hour, coastal areas and up, um, to 70 miles per hour in the mountains of Los Angeles and Ventura County. So the scary thing with that is even if the fires are out, they're keeping an eye on, um, even stumps from trees that have burned down. Because what's happening is they look and appear to be out and they're literally burning from the inside out.
Yeah, all of those embers and the conditions, um, because of the climate crisis are peak fire conditions. So, um, thanks to all of the first responders from Mexico and Canada helping our first responders in Los Angeles and other responders from around the country. The United States, truly incredible response. So thank you for that. The wind fed wildfires have killed at least 16 people. Now. That's the death count swept through 40,000 acres in the greater Los Angeles Area destroying entire communities and more than 12,300 structures. Evacuation orders for the largest fire, the Palisades fire, have expanded as it sweeps east. Now it's threatening Bruntwood, Encino and Westwood. It is 11% contained. Evacuation orders are in place for over 100,000 LA residents and 87,000 are in evacuation warning zones, which means they may need to leave at a moment's notice. So make sure you have stuff ready to go, your documents ready to go, your vital documents, your precious mementos, and of course, your loved ones, pets. And there's a lot of really great resources. And what was the app, Dana, that you were talking about to get updates on where the fires are?
Oh, um, it is watch duty.
Right.
Um, it's one of the best ones I've found. And, you know, I just want to make a little point. The Altadena fires, I just want people to understand that this is a predominantly black community because Altadena was the first middle class black community. And, uh, it was a rare refuge, exempt from redlining, offering black families the chance to actually acquire land in that area. They could build homes and create generational wealth amid systemic oppression. This was during the Great Migration. The area became a sanctuary for black Americans filling the Jim Crow South. So Altadena especially, there's a tremendous amount. You know, all of these people are like, oh, the, you know, the celebrities are going to be fine, then rebuild. You don't understand. This is families that have been there for 50, 60 years that are now just being able to walk back into their neighborhoods to see if their houses are even standing and the majority of them are not. So there's a lot of GoFundMes out there. Please vet them. There's a lot of people that need help. There are so many things and that you can donate to and the animal shelters and just do a little bit of research. Uh, there's too many for us to list right now, actually, on the podcast. But if you are moved to do such and you want to help, those are things that you can do. Donation, uh, donations, the, uh, animal shelters. Uh, there are GoFundMes for families that have lost everything that really don't have that much to rebuild. So, yeah, I know you all can hear the exhaustion in my voice. It's been a trying time for so many. Even those that haven't lost their homes. The, uh, empathic community that we are, it's just. It frays the nerves. It frays the nerves. We're all just doing the best we can. So that's what you hear in my voice.
Yeah. And we all know so many people we do that have been impacted by this. It's a massive amount of land that has burned. And, you know, for all the Republicans or the misinformation about, oh, it's cut the trees down, rake the forest. These aren't forest areas. This isn't the forest. Okay. This is, this is the city. And it's, it's just devastating. It's heartbreaking. So thanks, uh, to again, all the first responders, folks like Chef Andres, people who are raising money, people who are there to help on the ground. Thank you, thank you very much. And thanks to Governor Gavin Newsom for, you know, putting like he's got a website up to talk about the misinformation that's being put out there and debunking all the myths. So I, you know, we really appreciate that as Southern Californians. So a quick brief update on the Jack Smith final report battle. Judge Cannon is a terrorist. She has nowta. And de Oliveira filed another thing on her docket saying they wanted to extend her three day injunction because it expired last night. And the 11th Circuit has yet to weigh in. The DOJ appealed to vacate her order after they overturned Nauta and de Oliveira's emergency motion, or denied it, I should say, not overturned it. Um, but they wanted, they, they wanted Jack Smith and the, and the DOJ separately to file, uh, an appeal to vacate her injunction on jurisdiction. They said you need to notice her court and notice our court. They did that. Uh, and so that took the jurisdiction away from her. But she's continuing to respond to Nauta and de Oliveira filings. There's a new sealed order on the docket. She demanded the DOJ respond by 10am Sunday morning with parts of volume one that mention volume two. She's trying to connect the two together so she can block the entire thing from being released. Um, and so that sealed order, don't know what it is yet. And the 11th Circuit doesn't work on the weekends. So maybe we'll have more clarity on, uh, Monday. There is a brand new episode of the Jack podcast out now. You can hear everything up to this point, Andy. Uh, and I go over it all. So thanks, uh, so much for listening to that podcast. It's free wherever you get them. But that's just a real brief update on, on Judge Cannon just going out of her way to make ridiculous filings. She's just obviously trying to delay the release of this report until after January 20th when Donald Trump can get an Insure at, you know.
Yeah.
All right, we have, ah, a lot of news to get to, but we have some quick hits. First, and to make a long story short, too late. First up from the Financial Times, Elon Musk awarded the final million dollar prize of his 2024 illegal election campaign to, uh, a Donald, uh, Trump campaign worker. According to election filings, Tyler Van Aken was pictured on Election Day at an Atlanta airport as the final winner of the contest run by Musk's pro Trump campaign group, which offered million dollar lottery prizes to registered voters in swing states who signed a petition to support the. The accompanying post did not mention that he had worked on the Trump campaign and was heading to the election night party at Mar A Lago in West Palm Beach.
Of course he didn't.
Of course not.
This one's from cnn. The Biden administration on Friday extended temporary deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants residing in the United States as communities brace for the incoming Trump administration. The relief, known as temporary protected status, applies to people who would face extreme hardship if forced to return to homelands devastated by AR conflict or natural disasters. Therefore, the protections are limited to people already in the United States. Republican and Democratic, uh, administrations have designated the protections Friday's announcement applies to people from El Salvador, Sudan, Ukraine and Venezuela, shielding them from deportation for another 18 months, starting from the expiration of the current protection and allowing to remain in the US with work permits.
Good. Make it as difficult as possible for Trump to be at all successful in his plans for mass deportation and internment. All right, we have more news to get to, so let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up from the Associated Press, a man who fired a gun Inside a Washington, D.C. restaurant motivated by fake online conspiracy theories called Pizzagate nearly a decade ago, was actually shot and killed by North Carolina police during a weekend traffic stop. Edgar Madison Welch was a passenger in a vehicle stopped by officers in Kannapolis on Saturday night. According to Kannapolis police, one of the officers recognized the SUV as one he'd seen Welch drive before. The officer had arrested Welch before and knew he had an outstanding warrant for a felony probation violation at the time. When the officers approached the vehicle to arrest Welch, police said the man pulled out a handgun and pointed it at one of the officers after he was instructed to drop the weapon, but didn't. Two officers shot Welch. Emergency responders took Welch to the hospital. He died from his injuries two days later. According to the release, none of the officers nor the driver and another passenger were injured in 2016. Authorities said Welch drove from North Carolina with an assault rifle to Comet Ping Pong restaurant in Washington after believing an unfounded conspiracy theory that prominent Democrats were operating a child sex trafficking ring out of that pizzeria. The fake theory, dubbed Pizzagate, began circulating online during the 2016 election. He entered the restaurant armed and as customers fled the scene, Welch shot at a locked closet inside. After realizing there were no children held captive in the pizzeria, Welch peacefully surrendered. No one was injured at the time. Comet Ping Pong's owner, James Alifontes, said the conspiracy theory and subsequent violence from it traumatized him and his staff. Welch later pled guilty to interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition and assault with a dangerous weapon in 2017. His judge, now Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, subsequently sentenced him to four years in prison. City of Kannapolis Communications director Annette um Prevet Keller confirmed that the man who died was the same one involved in the Pizzagate incident.
Just so sad, so sad these people being brainwashed into believing these lies and wanting to take action. Yeah, this one's from Politico. House Republicans are passing around, quote, a menu of more than $5 trillion in cuts they could use to bankroll President elect Donald Trump's top priorities this year, including tax cuts and border security. The early list of potential spending offsets obtained by Politico includes changes to Medicare and ending Biden administration climate programs, along with slashing welfare and reimagining quote unquote the Affordable Care Act. So that must be their plan. They've got some plans. Five. We have concepts of plans.
Yeah, it's a concept.
Five People familiar with the document said those provisions are options to finance Republicans massive party line reconciliation bill or other spending reform efforts, including those being superheaded by the so called Department of Government Efficiency. Yeah, the people, granted an anonymity to discuss closed door negotiations, said that the list originated with budget committee that's chaired by Rep. Jody Arrington. In Texas, the Republican Republicans involved in the reconciliation plans have been generally targeting the listed programs for several months. But internal GOP fights over trillions of dollars in potential cuts are just the beginning. The overall savings they add up to as much as $5.7 trillion over 10 years, though the list is highly ambitious and unlikely at all to become law. Given narrow margins for Republicans in the House and the Senate, cuts to Medicaid, the Affordable Care act and the country's largest anti hunger program would spark massive opposition from Democrats and would also face some GOP resistance. House Speaker Mike Johnson can't afford any Republican defections if he wants to pass a package on party lines. Even proposed cuts to green energy tax credits worth as much as $500 billion. Those could be tricky. As the document notes, they depend on political viability. Already 18 House Republicans, 14 of whom won reelection in November, they warned Johnson against prematurely repealing some of the IRA's energy tax credits, which are funding multiple manufacturing products in GOP districts. Yep. Also on the chopping block are President Joe Biden's climate policies, which are estimated to yield as much as $468 billion. That includes Trump's repeated promise to repeal Biden's EV mandate, as well as discontinuing, quote, green New Deal provisions from the bipartisan infrastructure law and green energy grants from the ira.
Mhm. So let's be clear. The Republicans want to slash your Medicare, your Medicaid, your Affordable Care act, and health insurance subsidies, your snap. Right. Food stamps, um, many of which a lot of active, uh, duty service members in their family and their families rely on, and climate programs. They want to slash all of that so that they can give themselves a tax cut. Just let's be clear. Our money that we pay in taxes is not going to go to pay for these programs. It's going to go to pay for their tax cuts. Okay. I feel like we warned folks about that.
Yeah, I think so.
I think we did. All right, this is the story I was talking about. It's from the BBC, content warning, um, for sexual assault. Like, really content warning. Don't take that one lightly. And, and there's going to be another story after this. And again, there's really no way to pivot back after this particular story. Um, this one's going to be hard for me to deliver, but it's important, uh, that everybody hear it. The story begins. It was 2025, meaning 8.25pm on a Monday evening in November 2020, when Caroline Darien got the call that changed everything. On the other end of the phone was her mother, Giselle Pellico. Quote, she announced to me that she discovered that morning that my father, Dominic, had been drugging her for about 10 years so that different men could rape her. Ms. Darian recalls in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today program's Emma Barnett. At that moment, I lost what was a normal life. That's what Darian said. She's now 46. I remember I shouted, I cried, I even insulted him. It was like an earthquake. It was like a tsunami. Dominic Pellico was sentenced to 20 years in jail at the end of an historic three and a half month trial that happened in December. Um, well, that ended in December, I should say. More than four years later, Ms. Darien said that her father should die in prison. Fifty men who Dominic Pellico recruited online to come rape and sexually assault his unconscious wife Giselle, were also sent to jail. He was caught by police after upskirting in a supermarket, leading investigators to look closer at him. On this seemingly innocuous retired grandfather's laptop and phones, they found thousands of videos and photos of his wife Giselle, unconscious, being raped by strangers. On top of pushing issues of rape and gender violence into the spotlight, the trial also highlighted the little known issue of chemical submission drug facilitated assault. Carolyn Darien has made it her life's struggle to fight chemical submission, which is thought to be underreported, as most victims have no recollection of the assaults and may not even realize they were drugged. In the days that followed Giselle's fateful phone call, Caroline Darien and her brothers Florian and David traveled to the south of France, where their parents had been living to support their mother as she absorbed the news that, as Ms. Darian now puts it, her husband was one of the worst sexual predators of the last 20 or 30 years. Soon afterwards, Ms. Darian herself was called in by police, and her world shattered again. She was shown two photos they found of her on her father's laptop. They showed an unconscious woman on the bed wearing only a T shirt and underwear. And at first, she couldn't tell the woman was her. Quote, I, uh, lived a, uh, disassociation effect. I had difficulties recognizing myself from the start, she said. Then the police officer said, look, you have the same brown mark on your cheek. It's you. I looked at those two photos differently. Then. I was laying on my left side like my mother in all of her pictures. Ms. Darian said she's convinced that her father abused and raped her, too, something he's always denied, although he has offered conflicting explanations for those photos. Quote, I know that he drugged me, probably for sexual abuse, but I don't have any evidence. She said. Unlike in the case of her mother, there's no proof of what Pellico may have done to Ms. Darian, quote, and that's the case for how many victims. They are not believed because there's no evidence. They're not listened to, not supported, she said. Soon after her father's crimes came to light, Ms. Darian wrote a book, I'll Never Call Him Dad Again, explores the trauma. It also delves Deeper into the issue of chemical submission, in which drugs typically used come from the family's medicine cabinet. Painkillers, sedatives. It's medication. Darien said. As in the case for almost half the victims of chemical submission, she knew her abuser. The danger, she says, is coming from the inside. She said that in the midst of the trauma of finding out she'd been raped more than 200 times by different people, her mother, Giselle, found it difficult to accept that her husband may have also assaulted their daughter. For a mom, um, it's difficult to integrate all that in one go, she said. Yet when Giselle decided to open up a trial to the public and the media so as to expose what had been done to her by her husband and dozens of men, mother and daughter were in agreement. Quote, I knew we went through something horrible, but that we had to go through it with dignity and strength. When I look back, I don't really remember the father that I thought he was. I look straight to the criminal, the sexual criminal that he is. But I have his DNA. And the main reason why I'm so engaged for invisible victims is also, for me, a way to put real distance between me and the guy. That's what she told Emma Barnett. I'm totally different from Dominic. Ms. Darien adds, she doesn't know whether her father was a monster, as some have called him. He knew perfectly well what he did, and he's not sick, she said. He's just a dangerous man. There's no way he can get out. No way he can get out. It will be years before Dominic Pellico, 72, is eligible for parole, so it's possible he'll never see his family again. Meanwhile, the Pellicos are rebuilding themselves. Giselle, Caroline Darien says, is exhausted. Giselle is exhausted from the trial, but also recovering, and she's doing well.
Alison, thank you. Um, I just know that's hard to report, so thank you. So much bravery. These women, it doesn't even scratch the surface, what they have done.
Gisele Pellico is just a phenomenally brave woman.
That's right. She said that shame needs to go to the other side. This one's from the Guardian. Donald Trump's property company is in negotiations to repurchase his Washington hotel, which opponents say was a venue for illicit influence pedaling during his first presidency. Now the Trump International Hotel, housed in the city's old post office building, a short walk from the White House, was sold in 2022 and is now the Waldorf Astoria. The President elect's son, Eric Trump, who's an executive vice president at his father's company, met a senior executive from BDT and MSD Partners. And that's the merchant bank that controls its long term lease at the family's Mar a Lago estate in Florida this week to discuss buying it back. This is all from the Wall Street Journal. Talks are said to be at an early stage. Trump opened the hotel in 2016, the same year he was first elected president. Four years after winning a fierce bidding competition to buy the lease against other hotel operators, including Marriott and Hilton, he spent about $200 million turning it into a, quote, ultra luxury hotel. That's according to Forbes. But while it became a magnet during the presidency for Trump admirers, lobbyists and Republican Congress members, it generated less annual revenue than anticipated. This is what the website reported, dropping to $20 million, well short of the hundred million dollar plus expected. This is after the COVID 19 pandemic had struck. He sold the leasing rights for about $375 million about 18 months after his 2020 election defeat at the hands of Joe Biden. He is now interested in reacquiring it as the family seeks a new hotel in the capital as he prepares to return as president on January 20th. That's according to their journal. Why would they need a hotel in the Capitol if they're not going to be making any fucking money while he is president?
Yeah. I don't know.
Yeah. The disclosure drew an alarmed response from the Democrats who accused him of using the hotel as his, quote, personal government atm. Yep. By overcharging for rooms during his first spell in the White House. They also alleged that he was violating a foreign emoluments clause of the U.S. constitution, which prohibits a president receiving anything of value from governments by having official overseas dignitaries stay there. A Democratic led report published by the House of Representatives Oversight Committee last October accused Eric and his brother Don Jr. Of Charging Secret Service agents that were part of his official security detail, far above the going rate for staying there.
Huh.
I wonder if these were the same Secret Service agents whose text messages disappeared. The support also said that eight US Ambassadors appointed by Trump stayed at the hotel, often while on official business. This meant that, quote, any payments they made using taxpayer funds directly violated the constitutional prohibition on domestic emoluments. It identified four judges who were guests at the hotel before being nominated to positions as federal judges, while five people who paid for rooms and services were subsequently granted presidential pardons. Fuck. In a statement marking the report's publication, Jamie Raskin, then chair of the Oversight Committee urged Congress to, quote, put legal barriers in place now to prevent the kind of ripoff corruption our fawning fathers so strongly opposed. The Trump administration had previously denied marketing the hotel to foreign dignitaries and said it wrote a check to U.S. treasury Department for money earned from foreign government guests.
Bullshit, man. That paragraph with the four judges who were nominated to the bench and five people who were granted pardons like, I know.
That's why I just, I didn't have anything else to say.
I mean, how many different ways can you, you know, I mean, it's. Gets away with everything. He gets away with everything. All right, thanks for that story. And everybody get your middle fingers ready for when the Trump hotel happens in D.C. everybody in the DMV area, because we love bird watching, right? Where you send us a photo for your good news of you and your friends and families and loved ones flipping the bird to Trump Properties. So get your middle fingers warmed up there in D.C. all right, uh, we have some, uh, good trouble and some good news, but we have to take a quick break, so stick around. We'll be right back after these messages.
We'll be right back.
It's time to get into some good trouble. What are you guys doing? All right, Today on Good Trouble, this comes from the Democratic Coalition, and we're going to tell our senators to oppose Trump's selection of Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense. We have a link in the show notes to fill out the form letter to send to senators. And here's what the Dem coalition writes. Trump's choice of Fox News host Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense is a disaster. As a TV host and a conservative commentator, Hegseth has outlined a number of policy positions that would roll back decades of efforts to promote diversity and expand opportunities for women and LGBTQ service members. He has specifically called for the firing of Joint Chiefs Chair CQ Brown along with any other generals involved in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, and has said women should not serve in combat roles. If installed at the Pentagon, Hegseth would be tasked with carrying out Trump's asinine campaign wokeness in the military, which will likely include banning transgender troops, slashing DEI initiatives, and placing new restrictions on compensation for traveling to receive abortions. Now, that's a very important thing to me because I'm the one who wrote the op ed that helped me get that policy put into place. Rep. Seth Moulton, a ah, former Marine Corps officer, says he believes Hegseth is going to try very hard to politicize the military went on to say, hegseth is undoubtedly the least qualified nominee for SecDef in American history and the most overtly political. Brace yourself, America. Now, there's also the issue of character. A police report released in November 20 provided graphic details about a sexual assault accusation against Pete Hegseth when he was visibly drunk at a conference in October 2017 hosted by the California Federation of Republican Women. And a, uh, previously undisclosed whistleblower report on Hegseth's tenure as the president of Concerned Veterans for America from 2013 to 2016 describes him as being repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization's events. Additional reports detail his fiscal mismanagement of two separate veterans organizations, which begs the question, if he can't handle the budget in the millions, how can he handle a budget in the billions? And even the mother of Pete Hegseth had reservations. Penelope Hegseth, uh, sent him an email in 2018 accusing the former Fox News host of routinely mistreating women for years and displaying a, quote, lack of character. The New York Times reported that earlier, on behalf of all the women, and I know it's many you have abused in some way, I say get some help. This is from his mother. It says, I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man and have been for years. And as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that. But it is the sad, sad truth in every way. This nomination needs to be stopped. Please click on start writing and urge your senators to vote no on Pete Hegseth. You can get that link in our show notes and thanks to the Democratic Coalition and my good friend Scott Dworkin for sending me this information. This has been your mission should you choose to accept it. Thanks so much for getting into good trouble. We'll be right back with the good news, everybody. Welcome back. It's time for the good news. Who likes good news? Uh, good news. And if you have any good news confessions, corrections, especially pronunciation corrections, you want to give a shout out to a government program while we still have them, that has helped you or a loved one, like the Affordable Care act, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, Section 8, um, any, anything, Head Start, and especially student debt forgiveness, send that to us. And then, uh, you know, all you have to do to submit your good news story or your shout out. Um, and by the way, you can do a shout out to A loved one, a shout out to yourself, a small business in your area, your small business. Some great, um, community organizing happening in your area. Send it all to us. All you got to do to submit it is to pay your POD pet tax, which means submit a photo of your pet. And if you want us to guess your shelter pups breed mix, we can try to do that very badly. But it's fun. Anyway, um, and if you don't have a pod pet, send us an adoptable pet in your area. And if you don't have that, send us any animal. We like 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 axolotl? We have all sorts of fun guessing games. And if you don't have any animal photos, you can send us your baby photos instead. We absolutely love B photos. Send it all to us daily beanspod.com and click on Contact. And if you have any submissions for Good Trouble, please send those in too. And of course, your bird watching photos, as I had mentioned at, uh, the end of the A block there, you and your friends and family having a joyous time flipping off Trump properties. We love those photos. All right, first up from Margaret Pronoun. She and her sending heartfelt support to all those in LA who are dealing firsthand with the outcomes of these horrible wildfires. And my deep thanks to all of you at the Daily Beans for everything you do to help us keep perspective. Though I'm in Minnesota now, I used to live and work where the Eaton fire has harmed the Altadena and LA La Canada Flint Ridge communities. Am I saying that right? La Canada, La Canada Flint Ridge communities. Thank you. So it hasn't. It hasn't been hard for me to imagine the lives and locations that are so deeply changed, including around Palisades, Malibu, Sylmar, uh, Agora, and the Hollywood Hills. I'm writing with a quick correction. On the Friday, January 10 episode, when AG and Fuglesang John Fugal sang talked about what's in the works for Volume two of the Special Counsel Report, she mentioned Rep. Jerry Nadler as ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. That's right. It's not him. You're right. That, uh, role now belongs to Jamie Raskin of Maryland. Merrick Garland sent a letter to House and Senate Judiciary Committee chairs and ranking members that outlines the terms of releasing Volume two to them alone until the ongoing case concerning NADA and de Ovari is resolved. And Rep. Raskin is among the recipients, along with Senator Grassley, Senator Durbin, and Jim Jordan. Yeah, I forgot that, um, they had elected Jamie, uh, Raskin. I didn't know if he was in place yet or not. Sorry about that. No pod vet taxes. We are between cats at the moment, so instead will share this photo of my mother in law, Jane, holding my eldest, her first grandchild as an infant. We lost Jane in September 2024 after a multi year stretch, facing short term memory issues. She was in New Zealand, where my husband is from, and we're grateful that her diagnosis arrived and she was settled into a fantastic care setting before the pandemic began. I don't know what we would have done had the chaos of figuring out how to help her happened in 2020 instead of 2019. The second photo is a watercolor painting that Jane modeled after a photo I took of a storm rolling into the Canterbury Plains near Oxford on, uh, New Zealand's South Island. Jane was a fantastic painter in her retirement, preferring landscapes and nature studies along with using watercolors to capture the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. She was the best of people. A teacher, a musician, an artist, a cat person, and an avid reader who introduced me to Terry Pratchett. We miss her dearly. Thanks for all you do. I'm a Beans patron. I've been listening to Cleanup and Jack regularly for a long while. Margaret, thank you, absolutely.
That baby.
Oh, uh, what an absolutely beautiful photo to be treasured forever. And that watercolor is absolutely gorgeous. Thank you for this amazing shout out, Margaret. I really appreciate it.
Oh my God. This is from Reality's mom.
Oh my gosh.
No pronouns given. Thank you for sharing the petition for a pardon for Reality winner. I realized I forgot the pod pet tax. So here's a picture of Reality and one of her newest foster babies, litter of six. Keep doing what you're doing. Um, Reality and I follow each other on social media. I have a friend that actually did a movie. Her name is Amanda. She was one of the producers on a movie about reality. Um, and all. I just, I listened to the podcast with Rosie. Um, she's an incredible human being and I hope this pardon comes through. Everything that happened to her was horrifying. She was literally just trying to do her duty and save our demon democracy.
Yeah, you can, ah, again, sign that petition at Reality.
Badass.
Reality is dot us. Look at this. Look at this, sweetheart. Love it. You want to take the next one too?
You bet. This is from Anonymous. Pronouns. He, him, hello, Beans Are you still taking suggestions for a new title for Jack podcast? I'd like to submit Hindsight is 2016. Thank you for Podpet Text. I'm sharing the Chow Chow's Moonin reference pick for her upcoming portrait I'll be painting.
Oh my goodness.
Cute.
Look at this. Chow Chow. Hey Chow Chow. I know you get around girl. Okay, you're in every single dog DNA test that we've ever guessed.
Chow Chows.
Mhm. Thank you for that. Next up is from Terry. I lived in Red Texas and I was enjoying a solo bike ride when I saw this symbol of the GOP. I don't have any buildings made by the 34 count convicted felon, but did this which I hope counts as bird watching. I would say. Um, I'm giving all of his followers the bird. Okay, so I guess flipping off the symbol of the Republican Party, I mean, why not? Yeah, I think it counts. And uh, I'll take the next one here from Anonymous. Uh, pronouns he and him M hello Beans Queens Submitting this for your new Good Trouble category. This is something I took up about a year and a half ago when during blm, my daughter and I were talking about protests and activism and I was saying that you actually can take some direct action in the courts if you can navigate them. And she suggested I try. I'm not a lawyer, but the law does make provisions for non lawyers to file lawsuits. The field I have worked in since 85 is really kind of a mess right now. Visual effects for movies and tv. I was lucky enough to sell my company to epic Games in 2019. Not rich but paid off my house have a bit to coast on. I'm sitting out the job market for now until things shake out. First of all the strikes hit us then AI. A lot of people in my industry are suffering big time now fires. What next? Anyway, I have time and frankly I don't care about looking foolish for chasing some windmills with this stuff. My first case was about 303Creative and honestly it was more of a troll than a serious minded case. Just to point out the absurdity in the record in a form that courts might see to see if it could work. And indeed it did get docketed and put in front of judges. Procedurally, I'm not an attorney. I've been learning quite a lot and getting better at it. I've made a lot of mistakes on this case such as thinking that the electronic filing system worked like the cloud. I submitted like 40 revisions over a weekend thinking I could delete them on Monday. Anyway, this one never really got to the stage of getting in front of the justices. The next set of cases, prompted by the lack of action on the worst culprits of January 6, filed about a year ago. Or much more serious minded, these cases are all still active. There's four of them, ranging from Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, brought in a federal court instead of state that's called Alter v. Trump and Oath of Office, Alter v. McConnell, and one that litigates the good behavior provision of Article 3 against certain Supreme Court members, prompted by their back bends for Trump and hey, fcc, you're going to regulate Fox, which is due for a reply brief on the 24th. This is so cool. You've just kind of taken up lawyering.
Love it.
As a hobby. That's fantastic. And then I assume these are the pod pet photos.
Oh, they're so cute.
Adorable Baby, kitty and puppers. Thank you. Thank you. That's very interesting.
Thank you, ag. All right, this one's from Anonymous. Pronouns she and her hi. I'm a newish listener and I wanted to share how much I enjoy the show, even if Daily Beans is a bit of an earworm. I'll be in New Jersey visiting the fam later this month and I legit have to drive past Trump National. I've given it the Jersey salute in the past and will again. Not sure I can get a picture of that while I'm driving, but hopefully it's still worth a mention. I've added a picture of my sweet Lily. She recently crossed the rainbow bridge. She was with me for 14 years and was the bestest girl. Keep up the Good work, Deborah. P.S. i know this is already too long, but my boss and I call her office Potty Mouth Corner. So I feel like you're my people.
Yeah. Fuck yeah. And the New Jersey salute, I love it. I don't think I've ever heard it.
Love it.
Heard, heard. Uh, it referred to, um, like that before. Um, and Lily is absolutely beautiful. Um, and thanks. Thanks for being a new listener. We actually love it. And yes, the Daily Beans theme song is an earworm. They Might Be Giants did that for us and they tend to write songs that get stuck in your head. So anyway, thanks for all those kind words. Next up from rt, Pronounced rt. First time writing in and just recently started listening to the podcast. Welcome, welcome. I've been following MSW Media for a while, but did not know about the podcast until I switched over to Blue Sky. I swear to God. Twitter.
Yep.
Every time you post a third party link he just buries it. Anyway, uh, I really appreciate what you and everyone at MSW Media are doing to keep us informed and not feel alone. I was inspired to write after I saw a post on Reddit about Elon Musk being uncovered as a fraud in the Path of Exile gaming community. I like to spend my free time playing games to take my mind off everything that's going on. And this overlap was too good not to write about rt. I'm so with you. I think if it weren't for Animal Crossing, I don't know if I'd have made it through 2020. Um, anyway, continuing here, sharing the link to the Reddit post where he's being called out, uh, will for sure eat at him. So that in itself is good news for me. The short of it is that he streamed himself playing and was very clearly indicating that he was confused on a on game mechanics that a player of that level would absolutely know. Among other things, Podpet tax are my two girls, Ruby and Rosie, Yorkie sisters from the same litter.
Oh my God.
Oh, look at these babies. We have links to the, uh, the Forbes article and the Reddit post, by the way, but these puppies are adorable.
So sweet.
Thank you, RT for that submission.
Thanks, ag. This is from Jen Pronoun. She her fugal saying Friday's finest moment was John referring to Kash Patel as this bitch. It made my fucking week for my pot pet tags. Here's Julia as my little fluttern otter. P.S. i listened to the credits and I know that TMBG does your music, but does Dana sing the News with swearing and the Daily Beans? Daily Beans vocals. I like to imagine she does. I do not.
Nope, that's John Flansberg of they Might Be Giants who sings that.
Uh, I do love that they thought I was a male singer. Um, listen, I know I have a deep voice.
He's got a very, very beautiful voice. He does.
I love it.
Look, uh, at this sweet ginger kitty. What's this, Julius? Orange Julius. I get it, I get it.
Cute, cute.
See, I get it. I understand things. Uh, anyway, thank you all so much for your good news. Please send all of your good news to us. If you've been thinking about writing in, do it, now's the time. Also, if you've been thinking about becoming. Becoming a patron, now is also the time. Um, we're going to need to expand, uh, because of all the listeners that are ditching corporate media and come into podcasts. Um, and we need, um, that funding to keep going. It's voluntary, you know, this, this podcast is always free, but if you like npr, if you can kick in a few bucks a month, we sure would appreciate it. You can do it@patreon.com Muller she wrote. Um, but send your good news, send it all to us dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. Dana, do you have any, uh, final thoughts before we get out of here?
No, I do not.
Okay. I, I just want to again thank everybody for letting me read, um, the Dominic Pellico story and talk about how incredible Gisele Pellico and her daughter are. Uh, and also, I guess, kind of a given, just like hearts and loves and virtual hugs going out to everybody impacted by these fires. It's really, really bad.
Yeah.
So thanks all for listening. We really appreciate it. We'll be back in your ears tomorrow. Please check out the new episode of the Jack Podcast that's out now. Every single listen helps us and it's free to do it so you can search, uh, for the Jack Podcast wherever you get your pods. Till tomorrow, 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 I've been dg and them's the Beans. The Daily Beans is written and 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 Reader 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 media.