Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast: California Fires and the Lack of Leadership

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Normally Podcast: California Fires and the Lack of Leadership · Normally

0:04
Speaker 1: Hey guys. Here we are on normally the show with
0:06
Speaker 1: normal as it takes for when the news gets weird.
0:09
Speaker 1: I'm Mary Katherine.
0:10
Speaker 2: Ham and I am Carol Marko. It's I'm Mary Catherine.
0:13
Speaker 3: How's it going.
0:14
Speaker 1: It's going all right. We are just embarking. I don't
0:16
Speaker 1: know if your family has on the Adventure of Orthodontics.
0:20
Speaker 3: We're partially there.
0:22
Speaker 2: Our oldest has in visi line, but she's sort of
0:26
Speaker 2: a self cleaning oven, so we don't really do that
0:28
Speaker 2: much with her. I don't love but the youngest one,
0:31
Speaker 2: the younger ones, it's gonna be trickier.
0:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm like monitoring each child's jaw growth, Like, how
0:36
Speaker 1: much am I going to have to spend on you?
0:40
Speaker 1: Is there another way we can do this? Three year old? Yeah,
0:43
Speaker 1: I need you to overachieve in jow growth. So anyway, Yeah,
0:46
Speaker 1: that's that's what I get for having all these big teeth. Man,
0:48
Speaker 1: they inherited them.
0:50
Speaker 4: You know.
0:50
Speaker 2: I actually when our daughter was up for getting in
0:54
Speaker 2: visi line.
0:55
Speaker 1: I almost didn't want her to do it.
0:57
Speaker 2: I liked her imperfect teeth, and it does make me
1:00
Speaker 2: a little like she's gonna, you know, they already are
1:03
Speaker 2: you know, more.
1:04
Speaker 3: Perfect than they were, and.
1:05
Speaker 2: I kind of miss her little fangs and her I
1:08
Speaker 2: don't know, I don't know that I'm super into everybody's
1:11
Speaker 2: teeth looking exactly the.
1:12
Speaker 1: Same, exactly the same, me neither.
1:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I had orthodont you know, I had
1:16
Speaker 2: bracest for many years.
1:17
Speaker 3: I get it, but it's just I don't know.
1:20
Speaker 1: See, now, your kid's teeth are probably like charmingly imperfect.
1:24
Speaker 1: If you saw mine, if you had seen mine when
1:28
Speaker 1: I was eight years old, you would have different thoughts
1:32
Speaker 1: about the urgent need for orthodonte. It was like quite
1:36
Speaker 1: a spectacle, as my father always said, and I think
1:40
Speaker 1: I attribute some of my current thick skin to this.
1:44
Speaker 1: He said, Well, on the upside, you could eat corn
1:47
Speaker 1: on the cobs through a picket fence.
1:49
Speaker 2: So.
1:51
Speaker 1: I may here, I am. Oh my goodness.
1:55
Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:55
Speaker 1: Well, unfortunately, not everything in the news is as light
1:59
Speaker 1: as the orthodontics talk. We have an ongoing disaster in
2:05
Speaker 1: southern California. Thousands and thousands of acres burned in you know,
2:11
Speaker 1: a handful of fires, four or five different fires at
2:14
Speaker 1: this point, the worst of which remains the Pacific Palisades one.
2:18
Speaker 1: But there's an eaten fire. There was one close to
2:20
Speaker 1: the Hollywood Hills that was thankfully gotten under control fairly quickly,
2:25
Speaker 1: and then the risk of more fires breaking out every
2:28
Speaker 1: day as conditions remain windy and dry, although not as
2:31
Speaker 1: windy as the first day. And there are also like
2:34
Speaker 1: rogue actors out there who run around with blowtorches and
2:39
Speaker 1: or light fires for fun. As you know, arsonists have
2:43
Speaker 1: been caught in the streets, sometimes by citizens and apprehended. Nonetheless,
2:50
Speaker 1: the people are sort of banding together with the help
2:55
Speaker 1: of one chef. Gruel is notable in his efforts to
2:59
Speaker 1: get people food and clothing and volunteers out and mobilized.
3:05
Speaker 1: The city is not shut down, but it's you know,
3:08
Speaker 1: in dire straits and parts, and the public response from
3:12
Speaker 1: their very highly paid officials it's not exactly what one
3:17
Speaker 1: would wish at this point.
3:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's at least twenty four people dead at
3:22
Speaker 2: this point, and it's the fires are not out like
3:26
Speaker 2: you said, they're actually in danger of growing again. In
3:29
Speaker 2: the latest report I read this morning, the Palisades fire
3:33
Speaker 2: looks like it's it's starting up again and the winds
3:36
Speaker 2: are adding to that obviously, and their elected officials are
3:43
Speaker 2: kind of just you know, covering their own butts, and
3:48
Speaker 2: so it's it's unfortunate and I you know, we all
3:51
Speaker 2: wish the best for California.
3:54
Speaker 3: It's sad to see their leadership and action. Let's play
3:58
Speaker 3: the Gavin Newsom clip.
4:00
Speaker 4: You just said you're organizing a Marshall plan for the
4:02
Speaker 4: rebuilding of California. What is that Marshall force marriages starting
4:06
Speaker 4: to lay out. I mean, we're still fighting these fires.
4:09
Speaker 4: So we're already talking to city leaders, We're already talking
4:11
Speaker 4: to civic leaders. We're already talking to business leaders and nonprofits,
4:16
Speaker 4: we're talking to labor leaders. We're starting to organize how
4:19
Speaker 4: we can put together a collection of individuals on philanthropy
4:22
Speaker 4: for recovery, how we can organize the region, how we
4:25
Speaker 4: can make sure that we are seeking federal assistance for
4:29
Speaker 4: the Olympics more broadly, but also federal assistance for the
4:32
Speaker 4: recovery efforts, and how we can galvanize the community with
4:37
Speaker 4: folks that love this community to really develop a mindset
4:41
Speaker 4: so that at scale we're dealing with the scope of
4:45
Speaker 4: this tragedy and responding to it at scale with efficiency.
4:49
Speaker 4: Like the executive Order, I talked about time value of
4:52
Speaker 4: delivering projects, addressing building codes, addressing permitting issues, and moving
4:57
Speaker 4: forward to rebuilding and being more resilient.
5:01
Speaker 2: No, sir, I will not be buying your online coaching
5:04
Speaker 2: plan at this time. Only listening to the audio, you
5:08
Speaker 2: kind of have to imagine Knewso doing this like interpretive
5:12
Speaker 2: dance with his hands as he babbles on about how
5:14
Speaker 2: he can galvanize the community with folks who really love
5:17
Speaker 2: this community, to really develop on mindset so that at
5:20
Speaker 2: scale we're dealing with the scope and at scale it's
5:24
Speaker 2: just it's insane to me that this guy is considered
5:29
Speaker 2: the great Democratic hope to run for president, because at
5:32
Speaker 2: this point, I think Republican should be like, yeah, bring
5:35
Speaker 2: him on.
5:36
Speaker 1: So disasters are by definition disastrous. There will be very
5:40
Speaker 1: bad outcomes, almost regardless of what is in place before
5:45
Speaker 1: the disaster. However, and there's way too much of this
5:50
Speaker 1: in media. The assumption that these people get off the
5:54
Speaker 1: hook because they are Democrats who are faced with a
5:57
Speaker 1: disaster and that that's going to have disastrous consequences is
6:01
Speaker 1: not right. Because what he's giving you is a list
6:04
Speaker 1: of things he's going to do in the future. He
6:08
Speaker 1: should have done things in the past that's how that
6:12
Speaker 1: is your responsibility as a public servant to have an
6:15
Speaker 1: idea of what's on the ground, what's at your disposal,
6:18
Speaker 1: what is staged to make a disaster as little disastrous
6:23
Speaker 1: as you possibly can. And I know we do this
6:26
Speaker 1: a lot, but there's a very obvious comparison to Governor DeSantis,
6:31
Speaker 1: who knows exactly what assets he has, who has three
6:34
Speaker 1: or four plans behind plan A for every incident that happens.
6:41
Speaker 1: Karen Bass was at a press conference yesterday, also saying,
6:45
Speaker 1: we will be prepared, we will be prepared to rebuild,
6:49
Speaker 1: we will be prepared to scale, we will be prepared
6:53
Speaker 1: for these efforts as the fires are ongoing, prepared as
6:57
Speaker 1: past tense. Ma'am prepared his past ten yep, a long
7:02
Speaker 1: time ago. And that is not fair to the people
7:04
Speaker 1: who are facing danger now or the people who are
7:07
Speaker 1: trying to pick up the pieces bravely and do what
7:10
Speaker 1: has not been prepared for exactly.
7:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, this ongoing thing with the both of them have
7:16
Speaker 2: just exposed how poor their leadership is. You know what's
7:19
Speaker 2: interesting in the newsome kind of rant. First of all,
7:22
Speaker 2: in that clip, we didn't play it, but he starts
7:25
Speaker 2: with praising the Trump administration for helping LA secure the Olympics,
7:32
Speaker 2: and it's definitely a change of tone. You also don't
7:37
Speaker 2: hear anything about like we'll be rebuilding with an eye
7:39
Speaker 2: on equity, and you know, he couldn't take that level
7:43
Speaker 2: of mockery. At this point, I think that they're finally
7:46
Speaker 2: getting off the script that has been their go to
7:50
Speaker 2: for the last few years, where every time anything happens,
7:53
Speaker 2: they kind of blame Republicans, blame rich people, and talk
7:57
Speaker 2: about how much better their side would do well.
8:00
Speaker 1: And we're seeing performance here, right. This is a you're
8:06
Speaker 1: being graded on performance, and I don't think he's used
8:09
Speaker 1: to being graded right on the like he's not a
8:12
Speaker 1: spiritual guru. He's a governor and so your job is
8:16
Speaker 1: to lead. I noticed in the press conference yesterday also
8:20
Speaker 1: a that tone shift you're talking about, because there was
8:23
Speaker 1: a member of the Board of Commissioners who said, I've
8:25
Speaker 1: reached out to Trump to see if he will visit.
8:28
Speaker 1: No one was trashing him. They were saying that they
8:32
Speaker 1: were hopeful about the tone of their conversations, including Bass herself.
8:37
Speaker 1: But another thing I noticed about that press conference is
8:39
Speaker 1: that no one wanted to lead that press conference. They
8:43
Speaker 1: were handing the mic off, not just for specific information,
8:47
Speaker 1: but handing the mic off because bas didn't want to
8:50
Speaker 1: take more questions. And it really is such a different
8:56
Speaker 1: vibe than you see from places that have thought through
9:00
Speaker 1: emergency management. For instance, when folks were trying to get
9:03
Speaker 1: into their Pacific Palisades neighborhood to check on pets, to
9:07
Speaker 1: check on their homes, it was clear from the briefing
9:12
Speaker 1: that there wasn't really a plan for when people should
9:15
Speaker 1: be allowed to get back in, how many people should
9:18
Speaker 1: be allowed to get back in, And they ended up
9:20
Speaker 1: sort of stymying themselves and maybe putting people in danger
9:23
Speaker 1: by having too many people go back at one time.
9:26
Speaker 1: So they had to put the brakes on that and
9:27
Speaker 1: announce that. And I just think I have seen other
9:31
Speaker 1: people who would have had a plan for how many
9:34
Speaker 1: people go in on a daily basis to which areas.
9:38
Speaker 2: Absolutely and had a plan on just how to speak
9:41
Speaker 2: to the public.
9:41
Speaker 3: I think that there's a chef cart.
9:44
Speaker 2: It's just nobody knows what to expect from these people. Yesterday,
9:49
Speaker 2: Gavin Newsom or two days ago, issued an executive order
9:52
Speaker 2: that will allow victims of the fires to not get
9:55
Speaker 2: caught up in bureaucratic red tape and quickly.
9:58
Speaker 3: Rebuild their homes.
10:00
Speaker 2: Great, But as Lydia Leiterman points out on x our PACHLDS,
10:04
Speaker 2: he's saying a red tape can magically vanish when it's expedient.
10:09
Speaker 2: Red tape is pointless. The state will go back to
10:11
Speaker 2: being broken after this. Dems caused the red tape, and
10:14
Speaker 2: if rich Democrat voters had to deal with the red tape, they'd.
10:17
Speaker 3: Stop voting for Democrats.
10:19
Speaker 2: So it's interesting that they can get rid of the
10:22
Speaker 2: red tape when they have to.
10:24
Speaker 3: But why did the red tape exist in the first place?
10:27
Speaker 1: Well, and Bass herself called it the bureaucracy that holds
10:31
Speaker 1: us back even in normal times. And I ask you,
10:36
Speaker 1: why hold yourselves back? If it's if it's genuinely stuff
10:40
Speaker 1: that's saving lives, right, then it shouldn't be cut. If
10:45
Speaker 1: it's not, why is it there? And I don't think
10:49
Speaker 1: they're prepared to answer those questions. I'm not even sure
10:52
Speaker 1: that any of them. Again, I don't think they have
10:54
Speaker 1: a grip on how many regulations there are. Like if
10:58
Speaker 1: you asked Bass, what does it look like to rebuild
11:01
Speaker 1: in Pacific House, I don't think she has that information
11:03
Speaker 1: right now. I hope she gets it right. I hope
11:06
Speaker 1: they inform themselves, but it would be helpful to have
11:09
Speaker 1: people who have a grasp on that before this happens.
11:12
Speaker 1: I do see the idea of getting rid of red
11:16
Speaker 1: tape as at least promising shower as they move forward,
11:19
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, they're not even close to that yet.
11:21
Speaker 1: They got to get a lot of these fires out
11:23
Speaker 1: before they can even take that step.
11:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, and again we're rooting for California. You
11:30
Speaker 2: and I have discussed our California love in the past,
11:34
Speaker 2: and on the last episode, it is unfortunate that they've
11:38
Speaker 2: gotten themselves to this place.
11:40
Speaker 3: I would really love to see an awakening over there.
11:43
Speaker 2: I'd love to see them realize, Wow, we have been
11:46
Speaker 2: pushing crazy policies. I think I wrote about this for
11:49
Speaker 2: the New York Post over the weekend. But a lot
11:52
Speaker 2: of times rich people are immune from the policies, the
11:56
Speaker 2: leftist policies that they push, like California schools are failing.
12:00
Speaker 2: For example, Gavin Newsome and the wealthy people there send
12:03
Speaker 2: their kids to private school, so who cares.
12:05
Speaker 3: But this is a.
12:05
Speaker 2: Situation where rich people are seeing up close the effects
12:09
Speaker 2: of their poor policies, and I think that it can
12:12
Speaker 2: really be a moment of change for this state. Obviously,
12:15
Speaker 2: everybody can be you know, should be involved. I wrote
12:18
Speaker 2: this article on our mutual friend Alicia Krause, who lives
12:21
Speaker 2: in California and loves California, said, you know, it won't
12:23
Speaker 2: just be rich people. It'll be the middle class and
12:25
Speaker 2: the working class. And of course it will be of course,
12:27
Speaker 2: but I think that this is a moment where rich
12:30
Speaker 2: people kind of see what they've been supporting and hopefully
12:35
Speaker 2: they'll they'll change well.
12:37
Speaker 1: And the thing is that, you know that what they've
12:39
Speaker 1: often done is like they have a sort of unofficial
12:42
Speaker 1: regime of non compliance. And if you're rich, either you
12:46
Speaker 1: have the money to pay for the regulations and do
12:49
Speaker 1: the thing, or in a lot of cases, people just
12:51
Speaker 1: like don't inform la of what they're doing, right, that's
12:55
Speaker 1: a that's a that's an option for them. However, like
13:02
Speaker 1: you hand off a bunch of power to bureaucrats and
13:06
Speaker 1: they sort of create their own jobs and make their
13:09
Speaker 1: jobs more powerful and burrow in and create more and
13:11
Speaker 1: more obstacles. And there have been a couple of high
13:14
Speaker 1: profile cases where rich people have talked about how hard
13:18
Speaker 1: it is to make just normal things happen. Adam Carolla
13:22
Speaker 1: mentioned someone's pool, Carson Daly's pool that needed like basically
13:28
Speaker 1: the kind of hole that you would store nuclear waste
13:31
Speaker 1: in in order to build a pool right in his backyard.
13:35
Speaker 1: Or Bill Maher who took you know, several years I believed,
13:39
Speaker 1: to get permitting to make a solar powered shack in
13:43
Speaker 1: his backyard. Right, it's like not a big structure. And
13:48
Speaker 1: there's a famous story of the edge the U two
13:51
Speaker 1: guitarist is that right, Yeah, who he was? He's in
13:54
Speaker 1: like a twenty year fight with the Coastal Commission to
13:58
Speaker 1: build on his own property. It just is outrageous the
14:04
Speaker 1: things that these folks are put through, particularly when the
14:07
Speaker 1: state leves the hugest taxes in the US.
14:11
Speaker 3: That's it, right, Like, yeah.
14:14
Speaker 1: Maybe they can get better value for their dollar after this.
14:18
Speaker 2: Well, one thing that I mentioned in the post piece
14:20
Speaker 2: is that, look, California's had this massive exodus, but it's
14:24
Speaker 2: mostly been lower and middle class people until last year
14:28
Speaker 2: where rich people started to leave.
14:30
Speaker 3: If rich people start to leave.
14:32
Speaker 2: California, it's going to be a steep slide. They cannot
14:36
Speaker 2: function without their tax dollars, and I don't know what
14:39
Speaker 2: they're going to do. I mean, New York is suffering
14:41
Speaker 2: in a lot of ways, but it's harder, I would say,
14:44
Speaker 2: to leave New York where like the center of banking
14:46
Speaker 2: still happens there and you can make movies anywhere. And
14:49
Speaker 2: I think people are realizing that that's the reality that
14:52
Speaker 2: if you lose these this industry, if you lose these
14:55
Speaker 2: people at the very top, California will suffer even more
14:58
Speaker 2: than it is now.
15:00
Speaker 1: Cummings, who's been great to follow on X during this,
15:04
Speaker 1: partly because she approaches all of this she had to
15:06
Speaker 1: evacuate and take her stuff with her. She approaches it
15:08
Speaker 1: with a gallows sense of humor. Yeah, And she noted
15:12
Speaker 1: like about the good folks who live in LA who
15:15
Speaker 1: like don't deserve any of this, of course, and she
15:18
Speaker 1: was sort of addressing those who've been nasty about it,
15:20
Speaker 1: and she's saying, like, look, you know a lot of
15:22
Speaker 1: us are out here because you know, our parents didn't
15:24
Speaker 1: pay attention to us, and this is where the cameras are.
15:28
Speaker 1: So our fathers left us and we had to come
15:31
Speaker 1: here because that's where the lights and the camera cameras
15:34
Speaker 1: are and we had to get the attention here. But
15:36
Speaker 1: then she's talking to the phone and she's like, but
15:37
Speaker 1: now you can do this anywhere, right, the attention is everywhere,
15:41
Speaker 1: And she's right, like that is a microcosm of the
15:44
Speaker 1: issue for LA as a sort of business and entertainment center.
15:49
Speaker 3: Yeah.
15:50
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And she's been so great. She's been so upfront
15:54
Speaker 2: about her kind of shifts and opinion and what she's
15:57
Speaker 2: saying and what she's talking about is exactly what I'd
16:00
Speaker 2: like to see other Californians do, basically to admit that
16:06
Speaker 2: what they believed in did not work and that they're
16:10
Speaker 2: going to change course because they have face reality.
16:13
Speaker 1: Well, like, it doesn't have to be Republicans necessarily that
16:17
Speaker 1: you elect the basics. The basics don't have a Republican
16:21
Speaker 1: in there, right, I mean, like, but I'm just saying,
16:23
Speaker 1: the basics don't have to be based like you guys
16:27
Speaker 1: made it based to believe in giving basic government services,
16:32
Speaker 1: and that doesn't have to be a right of center belief.
16:36
Speaker 1: And you should Actually a person like Gavin Newsom should
16:39
Speaker 1: be embarrassed that a person like DeSantis, who is reviled
16:44
Speaker 1: for de emphasizing climate change in his statutes and messages
16:50
Speaker 1: nonetheless protects the people of Florida from extreme weather better
16:55
Speaker 1: than Newsom does. Like put your money where your mouth is.
16:58
Speaker 1: This is not about signaling. This is about serving right
17:01
Speaker 1: and to find some people who do that, regardless of
17:06
Speaker 1: who they are. But at this point they're more likely
17:08
Speaker 1: to be a Republican. That's just.
17:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, they've made competency a conservative issue, like they've turned
17:14
Speaker 2: it into conservative value, and that this is the.
17:17
Speaker 3: Result of that.
17:18
Speaker 2: So I don't know that they're going to need a
17:20
Speaker 2: Republican or that they would elect a Republican, but right,
17:23
Speaker 2: they need someone competent, and they've turned competence into something
17:27
Speaker 2: only that other Ichy party does.
17:29
Speaker 1: Right, if competence is Ichy, then you're going to have trouble, yeah, always,
17:36
Speaker 1: And there's far too little competence in government in general.
17:39
Speaker 1: But you could at least have a fighting chance if
17:41
Speaker 1: you value it and reward people for it.
17:44
Speaker 3: We'll be right back on normally.
17:50
Speaker 2: Switching gears in Yesterday's New York Times, in a surprise
17:55
Speaker 2: to absolutely no one, especially not to me and you,
17:59
Speaker 2: who predicted that.
18:00
Speaker 3: This would happen all throughout the.
18:02
Speaker 2: COVID years, child immunizations are down, yeah, believe it or not.
18:08
Speaker 2: The New York Times reports nationwide, less than ninety three
18:11
Speaker 2: percent of kindergarteners completed the measles vaccine last year, down
18:15
Speaker 2: from ninety five percent.
18:16
Speaker 3: According to the CDC, Immunization rates.
18:19
Speaker 2: Against polio, whooping cough, and chicken pox fell similarly. Similarly,
18:26
Speaker 2: the main thing that The New York Times is doing
18:27
Speaker 2: with this piece, though, is making it seem like again,
18:31
Speaker 2: it's just Republicans, who are you know.
18:34
Speaker 3: Shifting on this.
18:35
Speaker 2: They point out that in states that supported Donald Trumk
18:39
Speaker 2: for president, the number of children receiving exemptions rose. The
18:42
Speaker 2: story with non compliance is more complex.
18:45
Speaker 1: It rose in.
18:45
Speaker 2: Both blue and red states, though more in red states.
18:50
Speaker 2: So I don't know, I you know, I was passionately
18:55
Speaker 2: pro vaccine. I think I would have not let my
18:58
Speaker 2: kids hang out with the kids who were not getting
19:02
Speaker 2: the regular vaccines on time. COVID absolutely shifted my perspective
19:08
Speaker 2: on it. Now my kids are all vaccinated already. It's
19:11
Speaker 2: that shift is sailed. I don't know, if you know,
19:16
Speaker 2: I don't know what I would do if I was
19:18
Speaker 2: starting this all over again. I think I would still vaccinate,
19:23
Speaker 2: but I imagine I'd have a lot more questions, a lot,
19:27
Speaker 2: and I think I would do a lot more reading
19:29
Speaker 2: on my own. I just I trust our pediatrician. I
19:32
Speaker 2: trusted her when they were little. I trust her now,
19:34
Speaker 2: you know absolutely, She's just fantastic and I believe her.
19:39
Speaker 3: So I have that.
19:40
Speaker 2: But if you don't love your pediatrician, if you don't
19:44
Speaker 2: necessarily trust them, and you've had the CDC lie to you,
19:49
Speaker 2: openly lie to you, and not only lie to you,
19:51
Speaker 2: politicize the whole process of the COVID vaccine, get Randy
19:55
Speaker 2: Weingarten to rewrite school reopening policies for the CDC. I
20:00
Speaker 2: think I would say, I don't trust these people, and
20:05
Speaker 2: I need to, you know, do my own research, as
20:08
Speaker 2: the phrase went, And I would.
20:10
Speaker 3: Do my own research at this point.
20:11
Speaker 2: So I get the families that are making their own
20:14
Speaker 2: decisions now and kind of rethinking everything.
20:18
Speaker 1: Yes, this is a natural consequence of what people were
20:23
Speaker 1: given during COVID and the messaging they were given and
20:28
Speaker 1: the bullying. Frankly that happened with a brand new and
20:32
Speaker 1: not very effective vaccine, at least for children, right like
20:36
Speaker 1: the especially for children. For kids, the risk was so
20:40
Speaker 1: low it was zero. It was zero percent, right, adding
20:44
Speaker 1: to your adding this for your kid didn't make sense
20:49
Speaker 1: in a risk benefit analysis, right, And you know, you
20:53
Speaker 1: can make the argument that no harm was done, but
20:56
Speaker 1: you can't make that argument with teen boys, by the way,
20:58
Speaker 1: because that wasn't the truth. But I don't know what
21:01
Speaker 1: I would have done had I had a teenager who
21:05
Speaker 1: needed to play sports. And I was genuinely concerned about
21:10
Speaker 1: at least that age group of boys. And it was
21:14
Speaker 1: pretty awful what they did to people. And they're looking
21:20
Speaker 1: at the same messagers telling them no, no, no, don't
21:23
Speaker 1: ask any questions. All of this is all good. That
21:27
Speaker 1: is not a good consequence, but it's a natural consequence, right.
21:32
Speaker 1: And I keep quoting my friend Kristen Soulda Sanderson because
21:34
Speaker 1: I think it's such a smart point that when people
21:37
Speaker 1: complain about loss of trust and institutions, they talk about
21:41
Speaker 1: it too often as if it's the people losing the
21:44
Speaker 1: trust that's the problem. When it's the institutions giving away
21:48
Speaker 1: the Trustah, that's the problem. So they have to earn
21:53
Speaker 1: that trust back, and they're going to probably be some
21:56
Speaker 1: bad consequences in the meantime before they do. But I
21:59
Speaker 1: do I think you know, if you and I, who
22:02
Speaker 1: were both like died in the wool super provas, no problem,
22:06
Speaker 1: give me what. We started asking questions when they said
22:10
Speaker 1: the COVID vaccine is definitely what you need for your
22:12
Speaker 1: six month old, right, Like, I'm like, I have questions
22:15
Speaker 1: about this, right, And then I started to have questions
22:19
Speaker 1: about other things. The one that always stuck in my
22:21
Speaker 1: craw and the only one that I sort of like
22:24
Speaker 1: do a different schedule or opt out of is he
22:27
Speaker 1: B because they give it to your twenty four year
22:32
Speaker 1: old child, twenty four hour old child, And I just thought,
22:37
Speaker 1: is my twenty four hour old child in intravenous drug unde?
22:42
Speaker 2: Right?
22:42
Speaker 1: And you know, the indications for this vaccine are that
22:46
Speaker 1: it would be for a grown person who has multiple
22:49
Speaker 1: sexual partners or as an ivy drug user. So I
22:51
Speaker 1: just thought, maybe we can hold off on that one.
22:54
Speaker 1: But that's the kind of thing that people didn't say
22:57
Speaker 1: out loud five years ago.
22:59
Speaker 3: I just yeah, right, right.
23:02
Speaker 2: I never asked any questions because I had such full
23:06
Speaker 2: faith in the system, and I have to you know,
23:07
Speaker 2: it's really funny. It's funny that I got called anti
23:12
Speaker 2: vaxer so often during the COVID times.
23:15
Speaker 1: Yeah.
23:16
Speaker 2: And my response after a while was like I wish
23:19
Speaker 2: I had been. I wish I had been an anti
23:21
Speaker 2: vaxer because and I don't mean the classic vaccines, I
23:24
Speaker 2: mean for COVID.
23:25
Speaker 3: I couldn't wait to get the COVID vaccine.
23:27
Speaker 2: I specifically couldn't wait for my mom to get the
23:29
Speaker 2: COVID vaccine because I wanted back to normal, back to reality.
23:33
Speaker 1: But I was excited for that.
23:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, right.
23:37
Speaker 2: We were told that this was it, this was going
23:39
Speaker 2: to be the miracle that let us all be free again.
23:44
Speaker 3: And I was a defender of the vaccine at first, and.
23:47
Speaker 2: Still I was called an anti vaxer because it was
23:51
Speaker 2: just it didn't matter. And when I said that, look,
23:54
Speaker 2: you know, kids have a zero percent chance of dying
23:58
Speaker 2: of COVID.
23:58
Speaker 3: That doesn't mean zero kids of it.
24:00
Speaker 2: It just means statistically zero percent chance of a negative
24:03
Speaker 2: COVID outcome. You can't reduce zero any lower. And then
24:07
Speaker 2: when they wanted kids to get boosters, it's like you're
24:10
Speaker 2: already just in a crazy, crazy place.
24:14
Speaker 3: You can't continue to do this. So a lot of
24:16
Speaker 3: trust has been broken.
24:17
Speaker 2: I look, my trust has been broken, And so I
24:20
Speaker 2: get why people are reconsidering this. I mean, having said
24:24
Speaker 2: all that, I still think that the classic vaccines.
24:27
Speaker 3: Are largely good. Do your own.
24:30
Speaker 2: Research, you know, bring that back, bring that phrase back,
24:33
Speaker 2: and decide for yourself well.
24:35
Speaker 1: And I think Vene Prosad, who was a COVID skeptic,
24:39
Speaker 1: and I think his writing about this is helpful and informative.
24:43
Speaker 1: He writes that maybe the correct question is why is
24:48
Speaker 1: our schedule so different than like Denmark? Right? And that
24:52
Speaker 1: is a question that I think we can safely engage
24:54
Speaker 1: in while retaining trust, Like actually you would gain back
24:58
Speaker 1: by trust by having that conversation while giving people more
25:02
Speaker 1: trust for the biggies, right, the ones we want people
25:06
Speaker 1: to have trust in if you actually just talked about that.
25:09
Speaker 1: And so I think what they've what Public Health didn't want,
25:14
Speaker 1: was to have a conversation about this. And I understand
25:16
Speaker 1: the efficacy of not having a conversation. If you're above reproach, right,
25:21
Speaker 1: you don't have that's the conversation. Once you become not
25:24
Speaker 1: above reproach anymore, you have to have the conversation to
25:28
Speaker 1: get people back in the fold you just do, and
25:30
Speaker 1: you have to answer questions like why is our schedule
25:33
Speaker 1: different from other European countries, and would it be harmful
25:36
Speaker 1: if it were the same.
25:36
Speaker 3: We're going to take a short break and come right
25:38
Speaker 3: back with.
25:39
Speaker 2: Normally well wrapping up our COVID segment. What is your
25:47
Speaker 2: county engaged in over there America?
25:49
Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh, so many good things. Well, first of all,
25:54
Speaker 1: I should to give some perspective. Of course, the public
25:58
Speaker 1: schools didn't have school for like four or five days
26:02
Speaker 1: during the most recent snowfall. They were having trouble, of course,
26:06
Speaker 1: plowing streets. Again, the basics are cool to me as
26:13
Speaker 1: a high tax paying citizen, and yet a thing that
26:18
Speaker 1: my county has been engaged in while not perfecting these
26:21
Speaker 1: other basics, is just putting forth some money for a
26:25
Speaker 1: COVID memorial, just a big old public display about those
26:31
Speaker 1: we lost during COVID. However, the public backlash just spending
26:36
Speaker 1: money on this and doing a whole design process and
26:41
Speaker 1: wasting time and meetings on this, the backlash was so
26:43
Speaker 1: large that they actually were like, never mind, it's a
26:48
Speaker 1: memorial for many good things that people like and first responders,
26:56
Speaker 1: and they just kind of like they're trying to fudget
26:57
Speaker 1: into something else. But if even in this northern Virginia
27:01
Speaker 1: County people's patients is hit for this stuff. It's happening elsewhere.
27:10
Speaker 1: It's part of the vibe shift.
27:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, I saw a rendering of it or something.
27:17
Speaker 3: It is goofy looking.
27:19
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm not sure that you guys should be spending
27:23
Speaker 2: your money on that, but you know.
27:25
Speaker 1: I am. Yeah. It's like it's like a it looks
27:28
Speaker 1: like a like a lame Mario go around that doesn't move,
27:32
Speaker 1: it doesn't go anywhere. It's called circles of Memory, and
27:38
Speaker 1: they are submitting zoning for it, and it's a way
27:42
Speaker 1: to honor every Look, guys, just get the basics right first.
27:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, just get.
27:48
Speaker 1: The basis right.
27:49
Speaker 3: And that's that's all there is to it.
27:51
Speaker 1: Really, so work in progress, work in progress on that.
27:57
Speaker 2: Well, as we're talking about the California fires, I think
28:01
Speaker 2: our last in case you missed its segment for today
28:04
Speaker 2: is going to be about North Carolina. Yes, what's going
28:08
Speaker 2: on over there.
28:09
Speaker 1: Yes, I've been keeping an eye on this just because
28:11
Speaker 1: I have friends and family both in LA and western
28:14
Speaker 1: North Carolina. But I do think that the media tends
28:17
Speaker 1: to reflexively pay a lot of attention to disasters that
28:21
Speaker 1: happened nearby. Media capitals as LA is one, and they
28:25
Speaker 1: don't when it comes to places like Appalachia, particularly Western
28:29
Speaker 1: North Carolina was not paid a lot of attention to
28:31
Speaker 1: because it could have hurt Biden leading into an election,
28:35
Speaker 1: so there was less coverage than there might have otherwise been. Meanwhile,
28:40
Speaker 1: this week, while Biden is announcing six months of totally
28:45
Speaker 1: covered recovery costs for southern California, no matter what end
28:50
Speaker 1: of story, as he was saying that folks were getting
28:55
Speaker 1: thrown out of their FEMA housing, their temporary FEMA housing
29:01
Speaker 1: in western North Carolina as a winter storm was bearing
29:04
Speaker 1: down upon them. Now, what happened was there was a
29:10
Speaker 1: deadline and if you didn't have your home inspected by FEMA,
29:14
Speaker 1: or if you didn't do even if you didn't jump
29:16
Speaker 1: through some of their hoops by this particular day, right
29:18
Speaker 1: before this winter storm comes, you could be kicked out
29:21
Speaker 1: of your hotel room that you're staying in with your family.
29:24
Speaker 1: Some thirty five hundred people faced eviction from their hotel rooms,
29:29
Speaker 1: and a bunch of nonprofit profits who are on the
29:31
Speaker 1: ground there and folks like the equivalent of the Andrew
29:35
Speaker 1: Gruhle in western North Carolina were out there saying no, no, no,
29:39
Speaker 1: raising hell, you can't kick these people out. They raised
29:42
Speaker 1: enough hell that they got enough attention that FEMA said,
29:45
Speaker 1: oh yes, I guess we'll extend for a couple of
29:47
Speaker 1: days past this winter storm, except then everyone's going to
29:52
Speaker 1: be kicked out on this slightly later date. And in
29:55
Speaker 1: the meantime, what did FEMA do with their offices in
29:57
Speaker 1: western North Carolina in case anyone had questions or concerns,
30:00
Speaker 1: what did they do? They were closed, Oh gosh, they
30:03
Speaker 1: were closed through the weekend and through the winter storm,
30:06
Speaker 1: you know, due to the inclement weather. So people can't
30:08
Speaker 1: get updates or help. And essentially this is going to
30:12
Speaker 1: be stop gap, like freak out mode public begging for
30:19
Speaker 1: FEMA to help these people for the next foreseeable future,
30:23
Speaker 1: which is another reason that I think that that Trump
30:28
Speaker 1: would be wise to put like JD. Vance or someone
30:31
Speaker 1: very high profile in charge of a western North Carolina
30:35
Speaker 1: to just say, like Appalachia matters, We're going to get
30:38
Speaker 1: resources for them. And although these folks, these folks don't
30:43
Speaker 1: want to be in a hotel for the rest of
30:44
Speaker 1: their lives, of course, they don't want to. They want
30:47
Speaker 1: to do something else. But there's so many other issues
30:50
Speaker 1: with the FEMA system and getting assistance and getting someone
30:54
Speaker 1: out there to check out your space, that they're getting
30:57
Speaker 1: caught up in the bureaucracy, and so they're hitting the
31:01
Speaker 1: limit without somewhere else to go, Like this is just
31:03
Speaker 1: right the nature of a disaster, and so I hope
31:07
Speaker 1: that both federal politicians and North Carolina politicians start paying
31:12
Speaker 1: a little bit more attention to this so that these
31:16
Speaker 1: poor people don't have to live on the edge of
31:18
Speaker 1: knowing whether them and they and their babies will be
31:21
Speaker 1: thrown out into the cold next week. Right.
31:23
Speaker 2: It would be really smart, actually for the Trump administration
31:26
Speaker 2: to make this a top priority, yes, in the incoming
31:30
Speaker 2: days of their administration, because these people do seem like
31:34
Speaker 2: they've been largely forgotten.
31:36
Speaker 3: I don't hear at all.
31:37
Speaker 2: About anything that's going on in North Carolina. Occasionally some
31:40
Speaker 2: pictures on x will come across my feed, but very
31:44
Speaker 2: very rare, and of course, like you know, obviously the
31:48
Speaker 2: LA fires are in the news, and they're es central
31:50
Speaker 2: to the.
31:50
Speaker 3: Story right now because they're.
31:51
Speaker 2: Happening, you know, in real time. But nevertheless, I feel
31:55
Speaker 2: like we're going to be hearing about the Palisades rebuilding
31:59
Speaker 2: effort in a way that we're simply not hearing about
32:02
Speaker 2: North Carolina.
32:03
Speaker 3: So yeah, I'm with you.
32:04
Speaker 2: Maybe a JD Vance level, you know kind of person
32:07
Speaker 2: should be on it, and I think he'll do a
32:09
Speaker 2: better job than the last Vice president did with her
32:13
Speaker 2: job of being at the border.
32:14
Speaker 1: So, by the way, should I should note in case
32:17
Speaker 1: this news breaks before this comes out, that's Senator Tom Tillis,
32:20
Speaker 1: who is a North Carolina Senator. After this uproar roar,
32:23
Speaker 1: spoke to the head of FEMA about the possibility of
32:26
Speaker 1: having these hotel vultures extended until Trump gets into office.
32:30
Speaker 1: So that would at least give them some room to
32:33
Speaker 1: work with here, because these nonprofits are killing themselves trying
32:36
Speaker 1: to go hotel to hotel and pay out the hotels
32:40
Speaker 1: for extended stays for these folks. So, and it's Matt
32:44
Speaker 1: van Swall by the way, who's the guy who I've
32:46
Speaker 1: been following in Greg Biffel who report on these from
32:50
Speaker 1: the ground when a lot of other people are not.
32:52
Speaker 2: So yeah, can people still donate to North Carolina?
32:57
Speaker 1: Yes, one of my favorites. There's Operation Shelter there, Samaritan's Purse,
33:01
Speaker 1: and there's Emergency RV, which is so clever. It takes
33:04
Speaker 1: donated RVs and drops them off in emergency areas where
33:08
Speaker 1: people just need a shelter on short notice, and you
33:12
Speaker 1: know they can live fairly comfortably in this tiny house
33:15
Speaker 1: on wheels. So a couple of those could certainly use
33:18
Speaker 1: your attention.
33:19
Speaker 3: Excellent, We'll be donating to all of those.
33:21
Speaker 2: Thank you, so thanks for joining us on Normally. Normally
33:24
Speaker 2: airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you
33:28
Speaker 2: get your podcasts. Get in touch with us at normallythepod
33:31
Speaker 2: at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening and when things
33:34
Speaker 2: get weird at normally