Thursday, December 19th, 2024 Today, the House Ethics Committee voted in secret December 5th to release the Matt Gaetz report; how we lost an incredibly qualified judge to a broken judicial nomination process; the infamous paper that popularized hydroxychloroquine has finally been retracted; current secretary of the interior and former New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland is eyeing the governor’s race in 2026; the Fed cut rates but the market plummeted on the news they’d make fewer rate cuts next year; and Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
Thursday, December 19th, 2024
Today, the House Ethics Committee voted in secret December 5th to release the Matt Gaetz report; how we lost an incredibly qualified judge to a broken judicial nomination process; the infamous paper that popularized hydroxychloroquine has finally been retracted; current secretary of the interior and former New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland is eyeing the governor’s race in 2026; the Fed cut rates but the market plummeted on the news they’d make fewer rate cuts next year; and Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
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Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Thursday, December 19, 2024. Today, the House Ethics Committee voted in secret December 5th to release the Matt Gaetz Report. How we lost an incredibly qualified judge to a broken judicial nomination process. The infamous paper that popularized hydroxychloroquine has finally been retracted. Current Secretary of the Interior and former New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland is eyeing the governor's race in 2026. And the feds cut rates, but the market plummeted. On the news they'd make fewer rate cuts next year. I'm Alison Gill.
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
Hi, Dana. How are you?
I am good. I'm happy to be back in New York and you are back in San Diego safely, which is wonderful. Um, and I'm good. I'm still flying high from this weekend with you and just making some really extraordinary memories. So it was. I'm good. I'm good.
It was, um, so amazing. And thank you so much for going with. And I do apologize to everyone. My voice, I'm, uh, losing. I feel like I think I'm losing my voice. So I'm going to do my best to get through today and then I'm going to have a bunch of, like, throat coat hot tea with honey and lemon and maybe a little whiskey and then see if I can, uh, hot toddy myself back into action for, for tomorrow's beans.
I realized I just said to you I had a great weekend with you, and it wasn't the weekend. It was the middle of the week. I completely. Whenever I have anything that's social, it's usually falls on the weekend. But, uh, no, we were at the White House on a Tuesday.
Well, yeah, but we were also doing a thing in New York and then a train and then a thing. So it's very. I lost track of. I remember on Monday, I was like, what is today? Even so I feel you. I feel you on that. The feds announced a quarter point rate cut today, which was what we expected, but the stock market fell over 1100 points because they also said that they're only going to do, like, half of the rate cuts that they had planned for next year. So the rich people borrowing short cash are mad that they're not going to be able to do it for even cheaper, uh, and so drove down stock prices. At least that's my understanding from experts. Not. This isn't my opinion. Right. I've read, I put, read a ton on this today. And I don't do my research on YouTube. You know, I, uh, mean, unless they're like legit, unless it's like kai Rizdal on YouTube. But, uh, that's my understanding of what happened. There could be, uh, other factors. I don't want anybody to write in and be like, well, you also didn't consider this or you didn't consider that. I am not an expert in markets, but the consensus seems to be that because they said they were going to do fewer rate cuts in 2025 than previously anticipated. That's why. And a lot of that's actually driven by some of the incoming administration's economic policy. And I put economic policy in air quotes. So again, I understand that the stock market's not the economy and there's a million things, uh, that contribute to these kinds of days on Wall Street. I'm just giving you sort of the top line. And from what I understand from cnbc, uh, and other folks, Kyra's Dawn Marketplace, stuff like that. So that happened today. We have other news to get to. And then of course we'll do the good news at the end of the show. I hope you stick around for that because we love the good news. If you have good news, you can send it to us dailybeanspod.com and click on Contact. And then I want to thank our patrons who came out Monday night. Dana, I have so many gifts for you. People bring us gifts and, oh, lovely challenge coins from, uh, folks that are in the military or were in the military.
Yes, yes, yes.
So the next time you're out in LA or I'm out in New York, I'll have to load you up with all these gifts that were given from our wonderful patrons.
Going to be close to you in January. So maybe you can just make me a, uh, to go bag and I'll pick them up from you then.
Will do. And, uh, you know, thank you to our, to our patrons who support this show. We had some great remarks by Andy McCabe and Pete struck was there, uh, and, uh, Harry Dunn, which was wonderful, uh, to see everyone. And I got to also see our friend Olivia [Troye Troy, which was nice. So thanks to our patrons who came out. If you want to become a patron, you get these episodes ad free and early. All of our Podcasts are free. But if we're like NPR over here, if you want to kick us in, a buck or two a month or three, I think is the minimum. Actually, I think it's $36 a year. Is the, the lowest you could do that by?
Very low.
Yeah, it is. Because you get to come into our stuff and our hangouts and ours.
Whoa, whoa. You might need to edit on that. I'm just kidding. You get to come into our stuff. Keep going with.
Come to our stuff, not into our. Dana. Uh, I'm sorry.
That's what I heard. And sometimes I turn to a 15 year old boy.
No, $3 a month does not get you Matt Gaetz MO access to us.
No, absolutely not.
Um, and we will talk a little bit about Matt Gaetz in the Hot Notes in a minute. But if you want to become a patron, seriously, you get all kinds of great stuff. It's patreon.com Mel she wrote. Thanks for supporting us. But it's always free if you need to keep it free. So thank you, thank you, thank you. All right, everybody, let's get to the news. Let's hit the Hot notes. Hot Notes. All right, first up, from Jacqueline Alemany at the Post. The House Ethics Committee is set to release its report on former Congressman Matt Gaetz this week. A reversal for the panel that last month voted along party lines not to release the results of a long running investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use. And this has to be funny because they voted to release this. Then there was a full House vote and the full House voted no. Ah. But they didn't vote no to release it. They voted to kick it back to the committee. And the committee must have been like, he, he. We already voted to release it. We just haven't told anybody yet.
Like, oh, uh, boy.
Either that or the Republicans in the House knew that the committee had voted to release it and hadn't told anyone yet, and that's why they voted to kick it back to the committee. Like knowing that. So it's just very interesting. Weird sort of Hill dynamics. So the panel, the committee voted this month to release the report, which will be made public as soon as House lawmakers take their final vote for the year. That's according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke anonymously to discuss the confidential deliberations. So this is two. This is two people that are saying that this is going to happen. And I know everybody is like, trust but verify. I'll believe it when I see it. I'm with you on that. CNN first reported on the panel's secret vote to release, uh, this report. And the committee's turnaround was the culmination of a contentious debate over whether to release the report after Gaetz resigned from Congress and had withdrawn from consideration for attorney general. A majority vote of the committee is required to publicly release a report, meaning that at least one Republican lawmaker joined with Democrats on the matter. It's a secret vote, so we won't know unless somebody spills the beans. The 10 member panel initially voted to table the report after Trump named Gaetz his pick for the nation's top law enforcement official. The Florida lawmaker submitted his resignation shortly thereafter and days before the committee was expected to meet to vote on the release of the investigation. Rep. Michael Guest from Mississippi, who's the committee chairman, along with other prominent Republicans, argued against disclosing the report since Gaetz was no longer in Congress or Trump's nominee for ag. But Democrats still pushed for its release. House Republicans successfully quashed a resolution introduced by Sean Kasten from Illinois that would have forced all House lawmakers to vote to make the report public. And another resolution by Steve Cohen from Tennessee that asked the panel to preserve all documents investigating Gaetz. Gaetz has denied all the allegations. The DOJ did not bring charges in a 2022 trafficking investigation, but the House ethics investigation opened in 2021, continued with the committee announcing this summer it had identified new lines of inquiry that merited review, including whether Gaetz had, quote, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct. Now, last month, new details emerged about Gates conduct, including testimony provided to the panel by a woman who said she witnessed him having sex with a 17 year old at a drug fueled party. Gates on Wednesday once again denied the charges. Quote, My 30s were an era of working very hard and playing hard, too. He wrote on Twitter. It's embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now, by the way. Ah. He also said, I paid a lot of women I dated and some I didn't date because they needed it.
Stop it.
Yeah, like his thing on Twitter was just bizarre. It sounded like he was trying to lube the truth, right? Draw out the sting and be like, yeah, the report's gonna say that I sex trafficked a minor.
Oh my God, did you just say lube the truth with Matt Gaetz and I'm the one that's in trouble?
Earlier I was in trouble earlier.
Thank you for this horrifying story.
Yeah.
So I actually. I'm excited about it. I love that there was a secret vote. I hope that. I hope that this hasn't been altered, if you know what I mean. Like, we're going to release this, but we're going to take this part out. Like, in some weird agreement, there may.
Be redactions, um, to keep, uh, people safe or to protect people's privacy, um, and we won't know what's behind those redaction bars, and people will speculate and be angry that it's not fully released. So be prepared for that. But we will. I have already committed to reading this report.
Okay, great.
Provided it's not, like, 2,000 pages. Totally on the podcast. I'll be reading it in bonus episodes that are free to the public in the daily beans feed. They'll be amazing. In your feed as a daily Beans bonus.
In your feed. All right, this next one's from Catherine O'Grady at Science Insider. A 2020 paper that sparked widespread enthusiasm. Hydroxychloroquine as a COVID 19 treatment was retracted today following years of campaigning by scientists who alleged the research contained major scientific flaws and may have breached ethics regulations. The paper was pulled because of ethical concerns and methodological problems. There's a word for you. According to retraction notice. I know, uh, there was a couple edits on that one, people. You just didn't hear it. All right. The paper of the Internet, the International Journal of Antimicrobial Microbial Agents, which is I J a a led by Felipe Gatru. The Hospital Institute of Marseille Mediterranean Infection, which is ihu, claimed that treatment with hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, reduced virus levels in samples of COVID 19 patients and that the drug was even more effective if used alongside the antibiotic azithromycin. What? I didn't hear that part.
Yeah.
Then IHU director Didier Raoul, the paper's senior author, enthused about the promise of the drug on social media and tv, leading to a wave of hype, including. From who? US President at the time, Donald Trump. But scientists immediately raised concerns about the paper, noting the sample size of only 36 patients. Yeah, uh, that's not. That's not a valid sample size. Everybody? 36 patients. And the unusually short peer review time. And the paper was submitted, by the way, on the 16th of March of 2020. Published four days later.
Oh, a peer review in four days.
Yeah. And by peer, it literally means one friend of his, I'm sure. On March 24th, Scientific Integrity Consultant Elizabeth Bick noted on her blog that six patients who were treated with hydroxychloroquine had been dropped from the study, one of whom had died and three of whom had transferred to intensive care.
Oh, okay. So, okay, three, six. Six of the patients were taken off of the study of 36 patients because four of them, three almost died and one did die.
That's exactly it. And that potentially skewed the results of the drugs in the drug's favorite. Because they took them out. I know. Larger, more rigorous trials carried out later in 2020 showed hydroxychloroquine did not benefit COVID 19 patients at all. Yep. And critics of IELTS paper have pointed out more damning problems since. In August of 2023, a uh, letter published in Therapies BIC and colleagues noted the cutoff for classifying a polymer. Wow, I'm having a fun day today. Polymer polymerase.
I don't know. I've never seen this word.
Oh, good, there's one that you've never seen. Polymerase chain reaction test as positive was different in the treatment and control groups. The letter also raised questions about whether the study had received proper ethical approval and noted an editorial conflict of interest. IJAA's Editor in Chief at the time, Jean Marc Roulain, was also one of the authors. Yep. A statement saying he had not been involved in the peer review was later added to the paper. Later, the letter called for the paper to retracted the retraction notice states Elsevier and the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, which co own the journal, decided to retract the paper because of ethical issues, quote, as well as concerned raised by three of the authors themselves regarding the article's method. Meth method. Damn it. Methodology and conclusion. End quote. An investigation by Elsevier could not establish whether the researchers had obtained ethical approval for the study before recruiting patients, nor whether the patients had given informed consent to be treated with the antibiotic rythromycin, this medication, which would not have been part of a standard care of these patients in France at the time the investigation concluded this, by the way, so would have been considered an experimental treatment that required consent.
Yeah. And somebody died.
Yeah. According to the notice, the three authors who raised concerns about the paper, quote, no longer wish to see their names associated with the article. Uh huh. Gartray and several other authors told the investigators they disagree with the retraction. And the investigators did not receive a response from real. That's the Corresponding Author to date, 32 papers. 32 papers published by IHU authors have been retracted. 28 of them were co authored by that same Guy Raoul. And243have expressions of concern. In a press release, the French Society of Pharmacological and the Therapeutics says the now retracted study was the cornerstone of a scandal that saw, um, millions of people take hydroxychloroquine unnecessarily endangering patients who experienced side effects, including heart attacks. Quote. These series of events serves as a reminder of an essential point when it comes to medicines. Even in times of a health crisis, prescribing medicines without solid proof of efficacy outside the rig framework of well conducted clinical trials, it remains unacceptable. This is what the Society said and closed with one of the fundamental principles of medicine. First, do no harm. That has been sacrificed here with dramatic consequences. And I also remember that, um, one of Trump's donors had a major share in the company that made hydroxychloroquine.
Mhm. Yeah. And there will be, with RFK Jr. At the helm of Health and Human Services, prescribing of medicines without solid proof of efficacy outside a rigorous framework of well conducted clinical trials. There won't be. And the people who they throw into these studies without consent because they're experimental treatments.
Mhm.
And if they die, do you think they're going to report that to us?
No.
No.
And I just want to apologize for that. Um, I'm sure there's medical people out there. However many words I mispronounce ahead and write in and, and give me a soft correction because there was some words that even Allison had never seen in that article.
These words. Seriously. And, you know, I've. I'm. I'm a published dissertation, uh, person and I. This is some stuff that's way out of my league.
So it's a whole different thesis topic.
Do you like how I phrase that too? I have a. I am a published dissertation stuff.
I heard that. I was like, no. Okay. No one likes a bragger.
You can feel how my brain has completely turned to mush every time I travel. I don't know what it is. Either that or it's just going that way now. I'm not sure. Anyway, this next piece comes from Joyce Vance's newsletter. It's called Civil Discourse. And if you haven't subscribed to Civil Discourse on Substack, you must. It's free to subscribe if you. If you want. And, uh, the stuff that she puts out is amazing. This piece is called the Judge we could have had. Our country faces an incoming tsunami of bigotry, hatred, and discrimination. It targets Muslims, Arabs, Jews, Black people, the LGBTQ community, and many others. That's nominee to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, Adil Manji, wrote to the White House, went on to say, and it always pretends to be something other than what it is. These forces are fueled not only by their proponents, but equally by the collaboration and silence of the spineless. They can be defeated only by those who lead voters with courage, not those who sacrifice principles for votes. Manji M. Chose to speak truth to power. His nomination to be a federal appellate judge fizzled, not because he wasn't well qualified for the role, but because the ugly politics of the era we live in intervened. We all understand politics play a role in judicial selection. Federal judges get there by being appointed by a president from one party or another. But Manji was immaculately qualified for this position. He was nominated by Biden on, uh, November 15, 2023. Plenty of time on the clock. A partner at a New York law firm, Manji would have been the first Muslim to serve on a federal appellate court. He was born in Karachi, Pakistan, and his law degrees from both Oxford and Harvard came later. And obviously, in addition to spending 23 years in practice, with an impressive depth of appellate experience, experience in both state and federal courts, he devoted time to pro bono civil rights cases. This guy is supremely qualified to be a judge.
Yes, indeed.
So how did this confirmation process go? Joyce writes, the vitriol he faced seemed destined to shut it down almost from the beginning. There were insinuations that he was anti Semitic and anti Israel, uh, that he was pro Hamas. Senator Dick Durbin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, dismissed these attacks, saying there's no basis for them. While the bulk of them came from Republicans, three Democratic senators said they would not vote for Manji. Mangee wrote to the White House after the Senate Democrats, pragmatically accepting the reality they faced, agreed to drop consideration of four circuit court nominees who didn't have the votes for confirmation in exchange for an agreement from Republicans to opt out of using procedural roadblocks that could have blocked confirmation of Biden's remaining nominees for the lower court judgeships. That means Democrats will confirm more judges during Joe Biden's tenure than Republicans did during Trump's first administration. And that's important, perhaps even the only path forward through a bad situation. It is good news that those judges will be confirmed, but it doesn't make the treatment of Manji any more palatable. In the letter he wrote to the White House after it was clear his confirmation prospects were over, Manji explained it clearly. This unfortunate fact remains. We have a fundamentally broken process for choosing federal judges. There's no longer a system for evaluating fitness for judicial office. It's now a channel for the raising of money based on performative McCarthyism before video cameras and for the dissemination of dark money funded attacks that especially target minorities. It was true for Manji, and it has been true for many others whose nominations stalled. Despite excellent qualifications, Manji's nomination has been pending for over a year. The Third Circuit, which covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the Virgin Islands, currently has seven judges appointed by Republicans and six appointed by Democrats. In addition to being historic, Manji's confirmation would have kept an equal balance on that court. The seat he would have occupied is now open for Donald Trump to fill. I m do not know Mr. Manji personally and don't know the truth of the allegations made against him, but there is no conceivable reason for Senator Durbin to lie. Even the Anti Defamation League, a, uh, Jewish civil rights group, came to his defense. They wrote back in January, quote, just as associating Jewish Americans with certain views or beliefs regarding Israeli government actions would be deemed anti Semitic, berating the first American Muslim federal appellate judicial nominee with endless questions that appear to have been motivated by bias toward his religion is profoundly wrong. That's the Anti Defamation League.
My God.
17 other Jewish organizations came to his defense as well. Yeah, Joyce continues. Diversity may have, uh, become a dirty word in conservative circles, but we are all better off when the judiciary reflects the communities it serves, not just certain privileged interests. Judge Mongee should have been the first of many. Shame on all of us that he will not be. Whoever said we must all hang together or we will hang separately foresaw, uh, 2025America. Clearly, in 2010, as the U.S. attorney in North Alabama, I began taking teams from my office to meet with Muslim community members across our districts at their mosques. No U.S. attorney in my district had visited them before, and despite the fraught environment after 9 11, we made it clear we were there to talk with them about their civil rights and our obligation to protect them. We were not there to talk about terrorism. All too frequently, they had been subject to harassment and threats. I wondered initially how they would respond to a Jewish woman in my role. The answer was warmly, earnestly, and with a commitment to learning about each other. The friendships we developed beyond work were sustaining. I enjoyed a feast at the Birmingham mosque several years later. After the birth of a community elder's first grandchild. I was there repeatedly, but just as often. We met to discuss issues and concerns for no reason other than to share time together. And although some of the members of my team were wary at first, as one of them shared during a visit to the mosque in Gadsden, Alabama, it was a moving experience to understand that we had far more in common than he might have expected, that everyone wanted to make a good life for their children and enjoy the promise of America that we were far more alike then we were different. I find that is true whether we're talking about Muslim people, the LGBTQ community, black people, white people, Jews, Catholics, Sikhs, immigrants, or any other distinctive community of Americans. Republicans have all too often and all too successfully driven wedges between us. We must find a path past our differences or Trump will use them to divide and conquer, as conservatives did with Manji's nomination. And we all lose when that happens.
Thank you so much, Allison. And I kind of love that I get this story because I'm going to my hometown, the 505.
That's why I left it for you.
Yeah, this is from Dan Boyd at a paper I know well, the Albuquerque Journal. The race to determine who will be New Mexico's next governor is nearly two years away, but the field could start taking shape in the coming months. Former New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland has been quietly making plans to run. This is a senior Democratic strategist and they said this Tuesday Holland, uh, has spent the last three plus years as U.S. department of the Interior secretary and will be stepping down from that post when President Elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20th. The former state Democratic Party chairwoman, who made history as the first Native American cabinet secretary, spent time in New Mexico during the run up to this year's Election Day, including making phone calls to voters alongside U.S. rep. Melanie Sansbury, a representative for Holland, declined to comment on the story. However, Holland might not be the only high profile Democrat eyeing the governor's race in 2020. U.S. senator Martin Henrich is also considering a run, according to senior Democratic sources, even after winning reelection last month to a new six year term in the Senate and I quote, throughout his career, Senator Heinrich has always prioritized what's best for New Mexico and will continue to guide his work moving forward. This is from a spokeswoman speaking Tuesday. The state's other US Senator, Democrat Ben Ray Lujan, told Axios that both Haaland and Heinrich are popular among New Mexico voters. I can say for a fact that's true. Quote, Martin is going to come at this with resources, but Deb has a strong base with people back home. This is what Lujan reported. When Deb runs, Deb wins. She finds a way to win. New Mexico will have a new governor in 2026, since Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term in office. Lujan Grisham is a Democrat, was first elected in 2018, has won reelection in a hard fought race against Republican Mark Ronchetti in 22. No Republicans as of yet announced a 2026 gubernatorial campaign. Longtime New Mexico political observer Brian Sanderoff and both Holland and Heinrich would be strong candidates. And other Democrats could also end up joining the race. Quote, potentially we could have two Democratic party heavyweights running for governor. That's what Sandroff told the Journal, went on to say both of them would be formidable candidates in a primary and general election. While there's a big question about whether Holland or Heinrich would ultimately decide to run against the other in a primary election, he pointed out that Heinrich would not have to give up his Senate seat in order to make a run for governor. Yep, I know. As for Holland, he said the timing of her departure from President Joe Biden's cabinet could make a gubernatorial campaign a logical next step. But a formal announcement from Holland is unlikely to come before next month due to the Hatch act, which restricts federal government employees from engaging in political activities. I think you know something about that.
Oh, no, I don't know anything about that.
Nothing. And I quote her personal professional biography would play well in a Democratic primary. This is again Sandoroff, which is president of Albuquerque based Research and Polling, Inc. Although the 2026 primary election is still roughly 18 months away, it's not uncommon in New Mexico for candidates to announce campaigns more than a year in advance. Lujan Grisham, for instance, formally announced her campaign for governor in mid December of 2016. And, um, such early campaign launches can be strategic. This is what Sandroff said, as they have to serve to dissuade other potential candidates from running. And I know someone who is now leading, um, a very large tribe in New Mexico. And she was talking about, uh, Deb Haaland. And I know this. When she runs, the Native American communities in New Mexico will band together and do everything they can to get her elected. And that is a very powerful contingent, as well as all the other people in New Mexico that love and respect her. And listen, I know they like the senator as well. I just think Deb would be a hell of a governor for the state. I really do.
Yeah, I agree. She's, uh, done such an incredible job, uh, at Interior and working in the Biden administration and was such a powerful and incredible congresswoman. I can't see, I can't see her losing. And so, you know, knock on wood. Uh, but she's brilliant. And I hope she does run.
I hope so, too.
All right, everybody, we have some good news that we have to get to, but we have to take a quick break, so stick around. We'll be right back after these messages.
We'll be right back.
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Everybody. Welcome back. It's time for the good news, everyone. Then, good news, everyone. Good news. And thank you so much for putting up me losing my voice today. I know it's probably grading, uh, on some of y'all, but some of y'all might like it. Some people like a real raspy voice.
Yes, they do.
I don't know. Uh, but, uh, I do appreciate it. Nothing stops me, though. Nothing slows me down. Except for delayed flights sometimes. But then, Dana, you've got the con, and you are awesome at it. So if you have good news, confessions, corrections, especially, especially the article where neither of us knew any of the words.
Please, oh, my God, send it to.
Us and just attach your pod pet tax. You got to pay your pod pet tax to get your good news story in, right? And if you don't have a pod pet, you can send an adoptable pet in your area. If you don't have that, any animal photo will do. And if you don't have that, a baby picture will always suffice. Even if it's like a Santa picture. Especially. Those are the best, right? Like really awkward family photos, especially around the holidays.
Oh, yeah.
Send them in. And then, of course, if you have a shout out, whether it's a shout out to a loved one, um, or, um, a small business in your area that could use a boost, or your small business, or a self shout out. We love those especially, um, and of course, government program shout outs. If there's been a government program that's helped you or a loved one, whether it's, um, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care act, uh, the PACT act, which is a great new veterans expansion, Veterans benefits, expansion in the Biden administration. Uh, or maybe it's an older program like Section 8 or SNAP or WIC or Head Start, and of course, student debt forgiveness. Send it all to us DailyBeansPod.com, click on Contact. First up from Ian. As Canadian as it gets under the circumstances. Hello, AG and Dana, my goddesses of the good news and all that is sane and right in the world. That is a very powerful. I want to put that on my business card.
Right?
Seriously, Goddess of the good news and all that is sane and right in the world. I like that title. Thank you for the mention on Monday about the shakeup in the Canadian government with Christia Freeland resigning from her posts as Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. I'm afraid Justin Trudeau was setting her up to be the fall guy for a bloated deficit economy and she was having none of it. The goings on in Canada caught Trump's attention and never missing a chance to sow more discord, he posted on Truth Social. The great state of Canada is stunned as Finance Minister resigns or was fired from her position by Governor Justin Trudeau. Ah. Uh, we are a nation, you moron, and not one of your states. And our Prime Minister isn't a mere governor. He's the leader of a fucking country. Oh, I know Trump says these things to irritate us, but geez, he's so irritating. Yeah. And Ian, between you me, I think he's actually trying to go and he's going to try to make Canada the 51st state. He wanted to buy Greenland, remember?
Oh my God, he's insane.
Anyway, Ian continues, he went on to say about Christia, her behavior was totally toxic and not at all conducive to making deals which are good for the very unhappy citizens of Canada. She will not be missed. On the contrary, Christian Freeland is a tough negotiator Trump had to deal with when he was President during the U.S. canada Mexico trade deal, and he still resents her for it. He's hoping she sticks around to help with any upcoming tariff negotiation. Here's hoping she sticks around to help with any upcoming tariff negotiations. I have a minor correction for Dana. I live in Saskatchewan, the Canadian province that exports $6.5 billion of potash to the US each year. And it's potash, not potash.
By the way, this explanation potash makes so much more sense to me than whatever we had yesterday. With all due respect to whoever sent it in, potash.
Just imagine $6.5 billion worth of burned up joints potash. Get it?
Potash.
It's actually a mineral used as fertilizer. And we send trainloads to you guys to make all those waving fields of grain possible. Thank you, Canada. As my podbet talks, I'm including a photo of my granddaughter. Her mother lives in the United States with her American husband. Unfortunately, he still refers to Joe Biden as Vice President Biden. So at family gatherings, we practice appease mute, which is a phrase I heard on CBC radio to describe avoiding political discussions during Thanksgiving or Christmas. Thank you both for all you do and for giving me lots to say when I'm unmuted. Ian, thank you again, emotional support. Canadian. Look at this beautiful child.
Oh, my goodness.
She's adorable. I want to eat the Pete's.
I know. Seriously. All right, this next one is from Lois. No pronouns given. I was recently diagnosed with a silent heart attack. I had a stent place to prevent further cardiac damage. I'm left feeling unwell. I guess you all are going to have to save our democracy without my help. I turned 75 last week. It's been a crazy ride. Lois, first of all, if you turned 75 last week, you've already done a, uh, hell of a job, um, fighting for our democracy. You're allowed to rest. Please take care of your heart. You'll come back to the fight when you're ready. I really hope that you are okay. And we're sending you healing, healing, healing thoughts.
Yes. Happy birthday. We love you. We've got the watch. Take a break, Lois. Get, uh, better.
All right.
Do you want to take the next one or I can.
Sure. I'm happy to. This one's from star pronouns. She and her. Hello, beans Queens. Since you both and many of your listeners seem to really love animals, I thought you might like to know about this independent film about a black cat that has quite the adventure due to a flood. The film is an animated feature film, features no human speech or language, and is one of the most poignant and touching films I have seen in a long time. The film struck quite the chord with those of us at WNC who are still trying to recover from Hurricane Helene. I, co owner of House of Black Cat Magic, which features one of the only black cat lounges, which is a cat cafe in the world. My business partner Hannah treated our entire staff to tickets to see the film on Sunday evening. Everyone loved it. We're going to put a link in the show notes. Um, and if you are listening to this, it's, it's ah, film independent.org nominee flow. And a slash at the end for my podpet tacks. Magic, the shop cat in her new holiday kerchief. She was upset that slay was spelled wrong.
Slay. Slay girl. Slay. Beautiful kerchief. Thank you so much. All right, filmindependent.org nominee flow. I'm gonna watch this. This sounds amazing. Uh, next up from anonymous pronoun she and her. I would like the beans community to please check out the amazing visual art by Minnesota artist Lane Swanson. Link in the show notes laneswanson.com Lane is spelled L A I N E. Swanson is how it sounds. Her art is a beautiful blend of human anatomy and botany that has helped me, uh, transform my relationship with my own body. The images she painstakingly creates are a celebration of all that mother nature has to offer. Focused and provocative. Plus, she's a really nice person. If anyone's in need of gift ideas, please consider supporting this remarkable artist from the North Star State. Look at this.
Very cool.
So there's a spine with the beautiful flowers. And it was funny when I was reading human anatomy and botany, I wanted to say botany because that rhymes with anatomy and that was, uh, hard to read. I had to slow down there. But the art is beautiful again. Laneswanson.com all right, thank you, Ag.
I feel like that one was short. Now I got a long one. You sure you don't want this next one?
No, you go ahead.
Okay. Uh, this is from Kestrel. I hope I'm m saying that correctly. Pronouns are she, they. Hello, Beans. Queens. New listener post election here, and I wanted to sincerely thank you for making the news make sense, even though none of this makes the smallest amount of sense anymore. I'm an environmental educator, and when the news gets me down, I take myself and my loved ones outside and celebrate the uncomplicated joy and wonder of the natural world as a brief shout out to government programs. My current job only exists because of Biden's um, America m the beautiful initiative to fund land conservation efforts, which gave my organization the funding and support to create my position a little more than a year ago. Biden's American rescue plan act also funded my previous job before this one.
Nice.
Nice to share a way folks can, quote, take care of the planet. This week I'm sharing the incredible news that after 10 years of scientists screaming that they are in decline, the U. S. Fish and wildlife service is finally proposed to list the iconic monarch butterfly as threatened under the federal threatened and endangered species act. This may not seem like much to celebrate, but it opens the door to real, meaningful resources and actions that can help protect the species. Federal money, regulations, critical habitat designations, even international cooperation as we share this butterfly with Canada and Mexico are suddenly more accessible to conservation scientists and communities that want to do their part. Not to mention the additional press and attention aimed toward this incredible butterfly. For now, this is still just a proposal, and there is currently an open comment period where folks can submit public comments in support of the listing decision. Last I checked, most of the comments are in favor of listing, but a good number are whining about how this listing will make it harder to pay paradise and put up a parking lot. We need to drown out the naysayers and protect this beautiful species however we can. It's a small thing, but I'm hoping that with this administration, small things might slip under the radar and make some real progress under the COVID of chaos. So often nature's forgotten during times of political upheaval. Please take this small step to take care of our planet in these tiny winged miracles. Comments are accepted, by the way, on this proposal until March 12th there's going to be link in the show notes if you want to go put your two cents in Leguminati, you could save the monarch butterflies for podpet tax. I'm hoping to submit a photo of my little sis with a monarch perched on her hat from a long ago family vacation. But alas, I couldn't find it in my messy digital hellscape. So instead, here are several photos of when I visited butterfly garden at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona last year. Kudos to you if you can ID any of these butterflies.
Well, I got the monarch. Yeah, right. And the blue one.
Zebra Is a zebra butterfly thing.
I feel like I know the blue one, but I don't think I do. But these are beautiful. Let's see. Monarch zebra.
Stop it.
The zebra long wing though. Dana, it's a zebra long wing.
It don't matter. It don't matter.
Swallow tail. A pipevine swallowtail. That's what I. That was the word I couldn't get. That, uh, was on the tip of my tongue. Beautiful. Thank you so much. Everybody click on the link in the show notes right now. Go click on the link in the show notes and go put your comment in that you support them being listed. Right? Because that opens up all these resources. Thank you so much for that. Next up, Paula. She and her AG and dg. Thanks for continuing to keep us informed with the right amount of news and swearing, adding to the bird watching collection and wanted to be very, very clear what side of history we're on. Thank God we don't have to walk by this monstrosity daily. But when we visited Chicago a few years ago, we were clear on the assignment. Keep up the good and very important work. Yes, that's a good one.
Double bird.
Um, I'll grab the next one.
Go for it.
All right. From Ellie Pronoun. She and her Just a quick note to wish AG and DG as well as the Beans family a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year. I've attached my bird picture from our trip to Bern, Texas, deep in the heart of Trump country. It's a threefer and it gave me much joy to release the bird into the wild. So flipping off a trump Vance Cruz sign.
Love that.
So you get a three for you get a hat trick on that.
Seriously deserve it. All right, this one's from Dr. Mom. Pronoun she her. Hello, Queens of the beans. Here is my model of an axolotl. I'm finishing up quilting and Minecraft themed quilt for my grandson number one, and he requested an axolotl in a lush cave. This is my interpretation. Enjoy the programs immensely. Keep up the God's work.
Beautiful. Look at him.
Love it.
A Minecraft axolotl. That's the model. Cute. Love it. All right, I'll take this last one here from Chris in Portland. She and her Good Morning beans team. My good news as I start my three week vacation on Thursday. Jealous. I'm super jealous. I've been saving up, uh, vacation time, and I don't plan on going anywhere while I'm off work. Maybe I'll have a tea party. Maybe I'll delete a bunch of duplicate photos I have on my computer. Maybe I'll play video games the whole time. So many possibilities. I'm very excited. Pod tacks are a couple of new photos of my two boys, Moose looking flirty. And tenant, having an existential crisis. And one of my Halloween decorations this year. It was a couple months ago, but I'm still pretty proud of them. Tenant. Um, I love it. Okay, look it.
Aw.
Moose looking flirty, Tenant looking sleepy. And that is a really cool Halloween decoration.
That's a very cool Halloween decoration.
It's skeletons sitting on newspapers, carving skeleton pumpkins with a kid's, ah, skeleton. And I think a dog and a cat skeleton. This is amazing.
That is awesome.
I love it. I love it all. Your whole fam is there, I'm guessing. All right, thanks, everybody, for your good news. Please send in all of your good news submissions and any wonderful art you're working on or projects that you're doing to keep yourself occupied. Um, it helps give other people ideas.
Right.
Right. Stuff to do. So, uh, thank you so much. Uh, and again, thanks to our patrons and thanks to everybody for listening. It's because of you that, you know, I'm so grateful that we got that incredible visit to the White House. We couldn't. We wouldn't have been there without you. So thank you so much. You could see all of my pictures now, uh, up on mullershirote.com and I know, Dana, you've posted a bunch too, on your social media, right?
Yeah, uh, uh, most of mine are on Instagram. It's DG comedy, so definitely go check them out there. Uh, there's some great pictures of Alison and myself. We didn't even post all of those. It was just a wonderful time. And we photograph. All right. We clean up okay.
We look all right when we try. We put on hard pants.
That's right, dude.
King and Michael loved the idea of hard pants. And then when I told him about Put some beans on it, he just.
Kept saying it, put some beans on it.
Put some beans on it. He said it. So I wish I should. I wish I got a video of it.
Uh, oh, yeah.
It was fantastic.
I have a feeling we'll see that fine gentleman again.
I hope so. What a great group of people, all working to help democracy. Thank you, everybody. We'll be back on your ears tomorrow for the Friday's Beans. John Fugelsang will be here too. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, and take care of your family. I've been AG and I've been dg, and them's the beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Alison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree 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 msw media.com msw um, media.