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Normally Podcast: The Democrats Look To Take Out Chuck Schumer · Normally

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey guys, we are back on normally the show with
0:08
Speaker 1: normalist takes for women, use kids weird.
0:10
Speaker 2: I am Mary Kathy him and I am Carol Marco
0:13
Speaker 2: and H'm Mary Catherine. How was your weekend?
0:15
Speaker 1: It was pretty good. Had a nice dinner out, enjoyed
0:19
Speaker 1: some chill time yesterday. Not really much going on as
0:22
Speaker 1: far as plants. Watched robin Hood with my kids yesterday,
0:26
Speaker 1: the Disney one.
0:26
Speaker 2: Do they like it?
0:27
Speaker 1: That's a fantastic That's one of my favorites.
0:29
Speaker 2: I haven't seen it. I have to see that one.
0:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, gosh, it's so great.
0:33
Speaker 2: Added to my list.
0:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, they basically it was like nineteen seventy three
0:37
Speaker 1: strange time, and they basically took English Middle medieval figures,
0:43
Speaker 1: folk heroes and made them into rednecks. And that's why
0:45
Speaker 1: I like it.
0:47
Speaker 2: I like that, Okay, I'm going to enjoy that.
0:49
Speaker 1: Clearly some good country music. It's fantastic. It's a weird thing.
0:52
Speaker 1: It's a weird movie.
0:54
Speaker 2: Speaking of medieval times. I went to the Renaissance Fair
0:57
Speaker 2: in South Florida this weekend because I really love my
1:00
Speaker 2: twelve year old son, who is you know, into this
1:03
Speaker 2: sort of thing.
1:04
Speaker 1: It was ninety degrees.
1:05
Speaker 2: It was like on dirt, so like as you're eating
1:09
Speaker 2: their wares or whatever, it's like dirt is flying up everywhere.
1:13
Speaker 2: It felt very medieval.
1:14
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you that. I was gonna say, that's
1:16
Speaker 1: very much like the true experience that you're having. Aside
1:20
Speaker 1: from the ninety degrees, right.
1:21
Speaker 2: I felt like I was suffering the way they might
1:24
Speaker 2: have been suffering. So yeah, I wanted to give a
1:28
Speaker 2: shout out to my friend Josh Hammer. He has a
1:31
Speaker 2: book out today called Israel and Civilization, The Fate of
1:35
Speaker 2: the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West. It
1:37
Speaker 2: is doing super well on Amazon right now. It's number
1:40
Speaker 2: three on the entire site. I haven't read it yet,
1:43
Speaker 2: but I know it's going to be a banger because
1:45
Speaker 2: Josh is really smart and has it going on.
1:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, I will look for that. I did not pre
1:51
Speaker 1: order it, and I need to get on it.
1:52
Speaker 2: I have pre ordered. I should be getting it today.
1:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, alrighty well, I got some news coming out of
1:58
Speaker 1: the Capitol.
1:59
Speaker 2: Guys.
1:59
Speaker 1: You know what I'd to myself, Carol. Every time we
2:01
Speaker 1: do a fight over a government shut down and a
2:03
Speaker 1: continuing resolution, which is these stop gap measures that they
2:07
Speaker 1: passed when they can't figure out how to do the
2:09
Speaker 1: rest of the budgeting, I think to myself, let's get
2:12
Speaker 1: back together and do this in a couple of months,
2:14
Speaker 1: which is what we do every single time. So you'll
2:17
Speaker 1: remember in fall or in during the lame duck Biden time,
2:22
Speaker 1: right before Christmas, they passed another continuing resolution that got
2:26
Speaker 1: us to now, so the government was not shut down
2:29
Speaker 1: over Christmas, that wasn't shut down in January or February.
2:31
Speaker 1: We get to now and once again they have to
2:34
Speaker 1: have this conversation. They're having this conversation about a continuing
2:38
Speaker 1: resolution that basically continues what was happening.
2:43
Speaker 2: Right in there.
2:43
Speaker 1: In the name, it just continues what was going on
2:47
Speaker 1: during the Biden years. There are some things that are
2:49
Speaker 1: in there that make it, don't make it totally clean,
2:52
Speaker 1: as they call it, but it's basically that the House
2:56
Speaker 1: by some miracle passes it. Way to go Speaker Mike Johnson.
3:00
Speaker 1: I don't know how he managed that with his tiny margin,
3:03
Speaker 1: but they passed it, and Democrats didn't know what to
3:07
Speaker 1: do after that. I think they thought Johnson would fall
3:11
Speaker 1: on his face. So this continuing resolution to prevent a
3:16
Speaker 1: government shutdown, which I can have many problems with the
3:18
Speaker 1: funding of the government as it stands, but they were
3:21
Speaker 1: preventing a shutdown by passing this. It goes to the Senate,
3:25
Speaker 1: at which point Schumer sort of promises some resistance he
3:30
Speaker 1: can't really deliver. He's like, we should stand up against this.
3:34
Speaker 1: We can't vote for a thing Trump once, the thing
3:38
Speaker 1: that we already voted for and are on record supporting.
3:42
Speaker 1: And also our whole argument to the American people is
3:45
Speaker 1: that government is sacro sanct and important in their everyday
3:49
Speaker 1: lives and we should not be on the side. Yes,
3:53
Speaker 1: that's their argument. So then they're on this weird tight
3:57
Speaker 1: wire tightrope where they're like, well, we can't vote for
4:01
Speaker 1: anything Trump wants, but also we don't want the government
4:04
Speaker 1: to shut down because the government is our greatest love
4:07
Speaker 1: and passion. So Schumer ends up announcing, after sort of
4:13
Speaker 1: fainting that he might block it. He announces, now I'm
4:16
Speaker 1: going to vote for it, and that thing passed the Senate,
4:20
Speaker 1: and oh boy.
4:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're mad. The squad is mad. You know. It's
4:26
Speaker 2: interesting because I very rarely say that I think Schumer
4:29
Speaker 2: did the right thing. You know, I'm not against shutting
4:33
Speaker 2: down the government and figuring out what our spending should be.
4:37
Speaker 2: I get that it's portrayed as like antics or not
4:41
Speaker 2: being serious or not being the adult or whatever. But
4:44
Speaker 2: had that happened, Schumer would have gotten the blowback of it.
4:49
Speaker 2: He is absolutely right to protect his own hide. Basically
4:54
Speaker 2: the fact that the resistance or whatever they're called these days,
4:58
Speaker 2: the squad people want him to stand in the way
5:02
Speaker 2: of Trump getting any wins whatsoever. They don't seem to
5:06
Speaker 2: realize that it will harm them, And I don't know
5:08
Speaker 2: if it will harm them specifically. AOC is going to
5:12
Speaker 2: get re elected no matter what, and you know people
5:15
Speaker 2: like her in the Senate as well. But Schumer is
5:20
Speaker 2: you know, feeling definitely some heat and is concerned that
5:24
Speaker 2: it's going to affect.
5:25
Speaker 1: Him well and for them. So I'm with you that sometimes,
5:29
Speaker 1: like if there's a I know that the government shut
5:31
Speaker 1: down is not smart politically for anyone basically. Let's however,
5:37
Speaker 1: you and I are like, I mean, if the O
5:39
Speaker 1: and B has to be declaring who's essential and non essential,
5:43
Speaker 1: okat to hear who's non essential that I'm paying to
5:46
Speaker 1: be at work. So that was what the Democrats were
5:48
Speaker 1: up against because they're like well, if russ vaute over
5:50
Speaker 1: at omb a Trump administration official and who who they
5:55
Speaker 1: say is like the father of Project twenty twenty five, right,
5:58
Speaker 1: that dude is put in charge of deciding who's essential
6:01
Speaker 1: and non essential during a government like, I don't think
6:04
Speaker 1: that will go well for our cause, which is federal bureaucrats.
6:08
Speaker 2: So they're right, they're right, And while I would like
6:11
Speaker 2: to see you know, that happen, they're absolutely right.
6:14
Speaker 1: For stopping that from happening. But they do have this
6:17
Speaker 1: left leaning base that wants to and is irrational lock
6:21
Speaker 1: Trump at all levels and at all times. And honestly, like,
6:25
Speaker 1: we've been here before. The Republican Party has been here before, concernatives,
6:29
Speaker 1: you've been here before. Where my most relevant memory on
6:33
Speaker 1: this is like it feels twenty thirteen or so when
6:37
Speaker 1: Ted Cruz and some others were like, we can kill
6:40
Speaker 1: Obamacare magically by shutting down the government, and I was like,
6:43
Speaker 1: I don't know how that's going to work. But they
6:46
Speaker 1: have a base that's saying you have to stand up
6:48
Speaker 1: against this horrible thing. So I those are the dynamics
6:51
Speaker 1: at play. But man, it's not going well for Schumer,
6:55
Speaker 1: who did take tox with his little influencer my and
7:00
Speaker 1: try to explain to people why it was important that
7:03
Speaker 1: he not vote for the shutdown. Yeah, let's hear a
7:06
Speaker 1: little bit from Van Jones, who I think we can
7:08
Speaker 1: say safely has his finger on the pulse of the
7:11
Speaker 1: left leaning base. He's reporting on CNN what he's hearing about,
7:17
Speaker 1: how people feel about this. How angry are Democrats at
7:20
Speaker 1: Leader Schumer.
7:21
Speaker 3: I've never seen this level of volcanic anger at a
7:24
Speaker 3: Democrat ever. You know, ever, we could be grumpy, we
7:29
Speaker 3: can be frustrated with each other, there is a there
7:31
Speaker 3: is a volcanic eruption of outrage at Leader Schumer because
7:38
Speaker 3: we want a Mitch McConnell. I remember when Obama had
7:41
Speaker 3: all the cards. Mitch McConnell drove Obama nuts, twisted his pinky,
7:46
Speaker 3: broke his kneecaps, and got stuff done for Republicans When
7:50
Speaker 3: they should have gotten an inch, they got miles. We
7:53
Speaker 3: have a Senate, a majority leader who is beloved in
7:57
Speaker 3: this party. But we want somebody who's to stand up
8:00
Speaker 3: to this bully. Stand up this bully, do something. And
8:03
Speaker 3: if you shut the government down and it gets it
8:05
Speaker 3: gets a little bit crazy. At least some politics is
8:08
Speaker 3: about the rationality. There's an emotional need to stop Donald
8:13
Speaker 3: Trump and Elon must from running over this party. And
8:16
Speaker 3: and I think Chuck Schumer has radically misread the room.
8:21
Speaker 2: He's right, but I would love to see that emotionality
8:24
Speaker 2: or whatever he calls it, a little bit lower. Just
8:28
Speaker 2: bring it down a notch. And I know that, you know,
8:30
Speaker 2: I know that the right was just as guilty of it.
8:32
Speaker 2: Obviously politics is very emotional, but just bring it down
8:37
Speaker 2: just a touch.
8:38
Speaker 1: Well, what he's missing or he's he's saying two different things,
8:41
Speaker 1: and he's correct about both of them, but they don't
8:44
Speaker 1: work together. Mitch McConnell was not the emotional yes such
8:48
Speaker 1: a party.
8:49
Speaker 2: That's why people dislike him.
8:51
Speaker 1: That's why people don't like him. He was the tactical
8:54
Speaker 1: voice and he was very good at it. And even
8:57
Speaker 1: though he got stuff for people that al they wanted,
9:00
Speaker 1: like he's the reason there's no Merrit Garland on the
9:03
Speaker 1: Supreme Court. I know he is the reason. But there
9:07
Speaker 1: are people in the Republican Party who hate him because
9:10
Speaker 1: he didn't give them that.
9:11
Speaker 2: Emotional He does not.
9:13
Speaker 1: He didn't give them that and that's what they wanted.
9:15
Speaker 1: And I would argue to Democrats that, much like with Republicans,
9:19
Speaker 1: go for the tactical wisdom. Pelosi is actually probably the
9:22
Speaker 1: best counter part example here, although I think she's lost
9:25
Speaker 1: a step and don't indulge the emotional part. That's the
9:29
Speaker 1: part that doesn't work.
9:31
Speaker 2: Pelosi actually walked that tightrope quite well, being the tactical
9:35
Speaker 2: genius and then the emotional ripping up her speech, and
9:40
Speaker 2: she actually did nail that middle ground and they loved
9:44
Speaker 2: her for it. It's a tough place to be. And
9:47
Speaker 2: get such a good point about McConnell because he got
9:50
Speaker 2: so many wins and yet he is considered I mean,
9:54
Speaker 2: he's also obviously lost his step. He voted against Hegseth
9:58
Speaker 2: and the Mother of Trumpsmini, and he's definitely on his
10:02
Speaker 2: way out. But it's it's interesting how much he got
10:06
Speaker 2: done and doesn't get the credit for because he was
10:08
Speaker 2: unable to emote.
10:10
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I mean, and I think that in politics
10:12
Speaker 1: that can you need it. You need it, and also
10:16
Speaker 1: you if it takes you too far, your party will
10:18
Speaker 1: end up where the Democrats are right now exactly.
10:21
Speaker 2: You need both.
10:22
Speaker 1: Needing the emoting so much that the idea that democrats
10:26
Speaker 1: and liberals don't emote enough, is like like, oh, I
10:30
Speaker 1: don't know if I can take any more. Guys, do
10:33
Speaker 1: that somewhere else. It will steer you wrong if you're
10:36
Speaker 1: not careful exactly, I think for the two of us,
10:40
Speaker 1: for instance, And this is not what Democrats wants. Had
10:42
Speaker 1: they had they shut down the government, I would have
10:44
Speaker 1: been like, let's go to work figuring this out right.
10:49
Speaker 2: We would have loved it, and that would have made
10:51
Speaker 2: them realize that they had made a terrible mistake.
10:53
Speaker 1: But crisis averted for now. But all of all our
10:56
Speaker 1: government ever does is avert crises at the last second.
11:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll get every Yeah, see you guys again.
11:03
Speaker 1: In six This one last still September, so we have this.
11:07
Speaker 2: A little longer. Yeah, we'll be right back on normally.
11:14
Speaker 1: Topic two.
11:15
Speaker 2: Trump is using the Alien Enemies Act of seventeen ninety
11:19
Speaker 2: eight to deport Venezuelan gang members, and people are unhappy
11:24
Speaker 2: about this. I don't quite understand it here I am
11:28
Speaker 2: reading from the Free Press. It's indirect defiance of a
11:31
Speaker 2: federal judge's ruling. The Trump administration has flown two hundred
11:34
Speaker 2: and fifty plus alleged migrant gang members to al Salvador,
11:37
Speaker 2: where they will be held in a notorious megaprison. The
11:40
Speaker 2: deportations come just hours after a US District Court judge
11:43
Speaker 2: temporarily blocked the Trump administration from invoking the eighteenth century
11:47
Speaker 2: Alien Enemies Act to remove the alleged gang members without
11:51
Speaker 2: a formal hearing. The Trump administration decided the ruling did
11:54
Speaker 2: not apply because the planes were outside US airspace. Well,
11:59
Speaker 2: I don't know where that ends up, but I'm not
12:02
Speaker 2: loving all the judges getting in the way of anything
12:06
Speaker 2: that the Donald Trump administration wants to do. I see
12:09
Speaker 2: it trickling down to the normies in my life, who
12:12
Speaker 2: are like, what's up with all these judges and don't
12:15
Speaker 2: understand how the president doesn't have the right to deport
12:19
Speaker 2: gang members? That that's where we are. The White House
12:22
Speaker 2: obviously said that the judges order itself was not lawful
12:26
Speaker 2: and was issued after the group was deported. But the
12:29
Speaker 2: argument that people are making are is the Act is
12:32
Speaker 2: so old it hasn't been used since World War Two.
12:35
Speaker 2: I don't understand how that's an argument, so what so
12:37
Speaker 2: what the Constitution's old too, It's it's very really Yeah,
12:41
Speaker 2: it kind of doesn't make sense to.
12:43
Speaker 1: Me if you're here illegally. We don't need another reason.
12:47
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, right. The president for sure does not need
12:49
Speaker 2: another reason.
12:50
Speaker 1: I don't. This is the thing is like all and
12:53
Speaker 1: I think the for me, the pandemic anniversary is exacer
13:00
Speaker 1: my feelings about this because so many of the arguments
13:03
Speaker 1: the left is making on behalf of people who are
13:06
Speaker 1: not citizens and who have been here illegally and have
13:08
Speaker 1: actively been committing crimes, is that we must preserve at
13:12
Speaker 1: all costs civil liberties for them that they happily discarded
13:18
Speaker 1: during the pandemic. For citizens like that, that makes it
13:23
Speaker 1: hard for me to side with you, like I'm not
13:26
Speaker 1: going to do this like talmutic reading of every night
13:30
Speaker 1: seventeen whatever law, whatever law.
13:32
Speaker 2: Yes, and then I'm reading the talmud right now. We
13:35
Speaker 2: want no part of this.
13:36
Speaker 1: I know. Sorry, it's an expression, but it's to come
13:41
Speaker 1: to the conclusion that I don't know that to preserve
13:46
Speaker 1: everything and anything for anyone wants to be in our
13:49
Speaker 1: country at a time, because what the Left has revealed
13:52
Speaker 1: about itself over the past five years is that indeed
13:55
Speaker 1: they believe everyone has the right to be here, is
13:57
Speaker 1: entitled to be here as long as you get here
14:00
Speaker 1: you get all the stuff and then say you can
14:02
Speaker 1: put up in a hotel. American citizens don't get that.
14:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, you get checks. I mean, let me tell you.
14:08
Speaker 2: I was a refuge to this country. We did not
14:10
Speaker 2: get checks. We did not get we did not get
14:12
Speaker 2: free anything. So it's a wild, wild scene when they're
14:16
Speaker 2: trying to again push through benefits that Americans don't have.
14:20
Speaker 2: And we saw that of course during the pandemic and
14:23
Speaker 2: actuality when California schools were closed but illegal immigrants in
14:28
Speaker 2: California had teachers from those closed schools come and teach
14:31
Speaker 2: the children at those centers. It was like wait what.
14:35
Speaker 1: That one really was a bit of a breaking point
14:39
Speaker 1: for me.
14:39
Speaker 2: Yeah.
14:40
Speaker 1: I was like, they're doing what now?
14:41
Speaker 2: Right? Yeah? Well the judge thing also, I have to say,
14:46
Speaker 2: another judge ordered the Trump administration to reinstate fired federal employees.
14:51
Speaker 2: Another one has blocked DOSEE from accessing Social Security Administration
14:54
Speaker 2: systems because they contained sensitive data. As if that data
14:58
Speaker 2: is not already available to thousands of bureaucrats. Schmoe in
15:01
Speaker 2: the yes, right, But Elon Musk is going to go
15:04
Speaker 2: buy a new car with our with our information. It's
15:07
Speaker 2: just I worry about the politicized courts. It's not my up,
15:14
Speaker 2: my alley. I don't know enough about it, but I
15:18
Speaker 2: can tell you from a normally perspective, it seems very
15:21
Speaker 2: troubling that courts are able to stop basically anything that
15:25
Speaker 2: they don't like, even you know, from on any level. Well,
15:29
Speaker 2: and of course, yeah, go ahead, I feel like we're
15:31
Speaker 2: gonna say the same thing.
15:32
Speaker 1: Well, I was just going to say that I was
15:34
Speaker 1: going to add a detail that the order from the
15:36
Speaker 1: court about uh, the employees that have to be brought back,
15:40
Speaker 1: those are probationary employees.
15:42
Speaker 2: Right.
15:43
Speaker 1: The whole definition of probationary is that you do not
15:48
Speaker 1: have guaranteed employment. Yeah, you do not have the right
15:51
Speaker 1: to that job. At that point, you are serving a
15:54
Speaker 1: probationary period during which your employer will decide if you
15:59
Speaker 1: have the job for good. And the idea that federal
16:03
Speaker 1: workers are so protect that even probationary workers cannot be removed, right,
16:09
Speaker 1: is part of the problem for normies.
16:11
Speaker 2: It is. And look, I believe in our system. I'm
16:13
Speaker 2: sure it'll go through the courts and eventually what I
16:16
Speaker 2: think is the right position will win out. But that's
16:19
Speaker 2: a long process, and I don't like that these activist
16:22
Speaker 2: judges are able to kind of hold up the process,
16:25
Speaker 2: and you know, cause this ruckus in what's supposed to
16:29
Speaker 2: be a kind of easy decision making time. That these
16:33
Speaker 2: aren't complicated details. Again, I don't see why deporting Venezuelan
16:40
Speaker 2: gang members should be difficult. And so what I was
16:42
Speaker 2: going to add is, you know, there's also this whole
16:45
Speaker 2: like the Trump administration is not following court orders. Wait
16:49
Speaker 2: until everybody finds out about what the Biden administration did
16:53
Speaker 2: where they overruled the Supreme Court which said you cannot
16:56
Speaker 2: give you cannot pay off student loans, and they were
16:59
Speaker 2: like to go ahead and pay off student loans anyway.
17:02
Speaker 2: And nobody had a problem with that. Nobody said, oh,
17:05
Speaker 2: our checks and balances are in danger. Nobody thought he was,
17:08
Speaker 2: you know, an autocrat or a king or any of that.
17:12
Speaker 2: They kind of just were like, oh, that's a good
17:15
Speaker 2: thing that he's not listening to the courts.
17:17
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, it is a laudable thing. I mean, it
17:19
Speaker 1: really is. Just when they do it, it's fine. That's
17:23
Speaker 1: the rule. I wanted to add another bit of what
17:25
Speaker 1: seems to be judicial activism happening in Maine, where the
17:30
Speaker 1: main state Representative Laurel Libby filed a lawsuit over her
17:34
Speaker 1: censure for a social media post that pointed out a
17:37
Speaker 1: trans athlete in a girl's competition. She's on the right
17:40
Speaker 1: side of that issue, along with eighty percent of Americans.
17:43
Speaker 1: All of Maine's federal judges accused themselves from the case,
17:47
Speaker 1: which I know there's been a lot of talk about
17:50
Speaker 1: speech threats in the past week. Hers gets much less attention.
17:55
Speaker 1: But she was told not to talk or vote or
17:57
Speaker 1: represent her constituents because she in the wrong position on
18:01
Speaker 1: trans athletes and women's sports. And no one's going to
18:06
Speaker 1: hear her case because mysteriously they're all recused, but they're
18:10
Speaker 1: not really giving reasons why they're recused, So she has
18:13
Speaker 1: to go to another state. In right Island, right fundamental
18:16
Speaker 1: liberty are acceptable. How are you know?
18:21
Speaker 2: I just again, I always say this, but like on
18:23
Speaker 2: the right, there would be a thousand think pieces about
18:26
Speaker 2: how wrong this is, and we have a self check
18:29
Speaker 2: system on the right. I get that there are people
18:32
Speaker 2: who will, you know, follow Trump into the fire, and
18:34
Speaker 2: obviously there's definitely that element as well, but we have
18:39
Speaker 2: a whole universe of people who who love disagreeing with
18:43
Speaker 2: the common wisdom of the right.
18:45
Speaker 1: It's true.
18:46
Speaker 2: And look, sometimes that's us. I'm in there, yeah, right, right,
18:50
Speaker 2: Sometimes that's us. Sometimes it's not. But the left just
18:53
Speaker 2: doesn't have it. They are are completely just don't do it.
18:57
Speaker 2: And anybody in left who does do it is sort
18:59
Speaker 2: of on the right. It's it's they get kicked off
19:02
Speaker 2: the plantation.
19:03
Speaker 1: And I think you saw in Van Jones's comments the
19:06
Speaker 1: fact that they've never been this angry before. I'm like,
19:10
Speaker 1: what have you all been doing right? Right? A, you
19:12
Speaker 1: should have been angry much earlier. Yeah, and B we're
19:15
Speaker 1: this angry at them all the time. That's how you
19:18
Speaker 1: got trumped. Yeah, So yeah, I think they're they're adjusting
19:22
Speaker 1: to that.
19:23
Speaker 4: Yeah, she ever damn case heard in her state. It's crazy,
19:27
Speaker 4: it's insane. She shouldn't have to go to Rhode Island. No,
19:29
Speaker 4: nobody should have to go to Rhode Island. We're going
19:32
Speaker 4: to take a short break and come right back with normally.
19:38
Speaker 2: Our last topic. I mean, we are still mad about it, bro,
19:42
Speaker 2: and we are going to keep talking about it because
19:44
Speaker 2: it is the five year University of COVID and there's
19:46
Speaker 2: still so much to discuss. The New York Times is
19:49
Speaker 2: now it can be told ing about COVID, and I
19:54
Speaker 2: feel very bitter about that. Their COVID reporter is is
20:00
Speaker 2: a Porva, Manda Vili, and she is terrible at her job.
20:05
Speaker 2: The latest piece is that we were lied to about COVID, Yeah,
20:10
Speaker 2: by her, We were lied to by her.
20:13
Speaker 1: Well, and there's an op ed this this weekend that
20:15
Speaker 1: was written by Zana Tofecki, who's like a public health writer. Yeah,
20:19
Speaker 1: and she's as these people go, she's not the worst one.
20:23
Speaker 1: But wouldn't it be wild to be a New York
20:26
Speaker 1: Times reader or an NPR listener and just learned this
20:29
Speaker 1: weekend that you were lied to about the Lab Lab
20:32
Speaker 1: week theory by everyone on purpose? Because finally, writes, we
20:39
Speaker 1: were badly misled about the event that changes changed our lives,
20:43
Speaker 1: and people like you and I are like we who's
20:46
Speaker 1: this week? Because I was saying way back in the
20:49
Speaker 1: day that y'all were lying about this, and I was
20:52
Speaker 1: told that I was a racist conspiracer. Right, so now
20:57
Speaker 1: the readers of the New York Times get to learn
20:59
Speaker 1: that now the truth isn't racist anymore. I can admit,
21:05
Speaker 1: as to Fecky, does that in all likelihood this came
21:09
Speaker 1: from my lab. She points out that Francis Collins was
21:12
Speaker 1: involved in lying about it, that Fauci and his top
21:16
Speaker 1: people were involved in lying about it, that they misled reporters,
21:20
Speaker 1: that public health reporters at journals like Lancet and Nature
21:24
Speaker 1: colluded with the government to lie about this possibility because
21:28
Speaker 1: they decided that the lableek theory was going to be problematic,
21:33
Speaker 1: probably for the CCP as part of it, for their funding,
21:38
Speaker 1: for their careers, and for our feelings toward the Chinese people.
21:45
Speaker 1: That's what they decided. And they decided that the less
21:47
Speaker 1: racist version of this was that Chinese people were just
21:50
Speaker 1: like eating bats out of wet market and that ended
21:54
Speaker 1: up making the coronavirus.
21:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, none of that makes any sense. Aporva was
22:03
Speaker 2: again that's the reporter of the New York Times was
22:05
Speaker 2: best known during the COVID years for her multi paragraph corrections,
22:09
Speaker 2: and the paper had to issue. One of them was
22:12
Speaker 2: an earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the
22:15
Speaker 2: numbers of children age five to eleven with multi system
22:18
Speaker 2: and lammatory syndrome. About four thousand have been diagnosed, not
22:22
Speaker 2: died with the syndrome.
22:23
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
22:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a good one. Four thousand kids she said,
22:27
Speaker 2: died from having this multi you know mis Another one
22:33
Speaker 2: was At one point she wrote, nearly nine hundred thousand
22:36
Speaker 2: children have been hospitalized during COVID. That number turned out
22:39
Speaker 2: to be sixty three thousand. She was terrible at her job.
22:43
Speaker 2: She continues in the role. And it's also important to
22:45
Speaker 2: remember that the COVID years coincided with the cancel culture years,
22:50
Speaker 2: and Bethany Mandela and I wrote a book that explored
22:53
Speaker 2: some of this, called Stolen Youth. Check it out, still
22:55
Speaker 2: available for purchase wherever you buy books. Donald McNeil was
23:00
Speaker 2: the science and health reporter at the New York Times
23:03
Speaker 2: who got fired for using the N word in a quote.
23:07
Speaker 2: So he was quoting something and he used the N word,
23:10
Speaker 2: and the New York Times was left with a porva
23:12
Speaker 2: who called the lab theory racist and made tons of
23:17
Speaker 2: errors and wouldn't report on the crisis happening correctly.
23:20
Speaker 1: Well, and he was, yeah, he was canceled over this
23:23
Speaker 1: incident where he was asked proactively about the N word
23:28
Speaker 1: by young people who he was leading on a trip,
23:30
Speaker 1: like these were like teenagers who were like, okay, well
23:33
Speaker 1: it was a it was a discussion about how you
23:35
Speaker 1: handle the word. No grace was given for his intent,
23:39
Speaker 1: of course, So he's picked out of the New York
23:42
Speaker 1: Times just when they need him because he was an
23:45
Speaker 1: experienced science and public health reporter. A Porva takes over
23:49
Speaker 1: and I came across one of her old tweets today.
23:53
Speaker 1: Compared to the Sunday piece about how we were misled
23:56
Speaker 1: in May of twenty twenty one, a Porva was still saying,
23:59
Speaker 1: someday we will start talking about the lab like theory
24:01
Speaker 1: and maybe even admit it's racist roots. But alas that
24:05
Speaker 1: day is not here yet. So the pandemic just fueled this,
24:11
Speaker 1: these ridiculous witch hunts that tossed people out on their
24:15
Speaker 1: butts who shouldn't have been tossed out, and then gave
24:18
Speaker 1: their jobs to people who demonstrably betrayed the public trust
24:24
Speaker 1: over and over and over again. And then I wonder
24:28
Speaker 1: why we don't listen to them, right?
24:29
Speaker 2: Why Americans have lost such a significant amount of trust
24:33
Speaker 2: in our health agencies and our media. Obviously it's because
24:36
Speaker 2: of stuff like this. She obviously has never apologized for
24:40
Speaker 2: calling people racist because they believed well ended up being
24:43
Speaker 2: the truth. I actually again, like you said, I think
24:46
Speaker 2: that it's far more racist to be like those crazy
24:49
Speaker 2: Chinese people eat bats and that's how viruses get spread.
24:51
Speaker 2: I don't get how that's not the more racist version.
24:54
Speaker 1: No, it's pretty bad, I will say. I read both
24:58
Speaker 1: through this one and the Near Times's coverage of what
25:01
Speaker 1: we've learned about school closures for the next pandemic. I
25:04
Speaker 1: know you won't be surprised to learn that in what
25:06
Speaker 1: we've learned, they didn't go to the people who did
25:08
Speaker 1: it right. No, of course not and ask them what
25:11
Speaker 1: should we learn. They didn't go to the rural counties
25:17
Speaker 1: and the counties the Brave County. There's a one Brave
25:19
Speaker 1: county right near Henryko County in Virginia that did open
25:24
Speaker 1: much earlier than other parts of Virginia in an attempt
25:28
Speaker 1: to get kids back on track. And man, were they
25:31
Speaker 1: abused in the public eye just for attempting this. But
25:35
Speaker 1: you know what, they did the right thing. So I'm
25:38
Speaker 1: reading this piece from the New York Times about what
25:40
Speaker 1: we've learned and noticed that, of course it's all the
25:42
Speaker 1: old bad actors talking again. But the thing that really
25:48
Speaker 1: struck me is that they report on the school closure
25:52
Speaker 1: decision being made, and they say the American Academy of
25:55
Speaker 1: Pediatrics issue to report in June twenty twenty recommending that
25:59
Speaker 1: school's real Republican runs. States like Texas and Florida forged
26:02
Speaker 1: a head with plans to offer in person instruction to
26:05
Speaker 1: families who wanted it. Yet thousands of schools in Democratic
26:08
Speaker 1: majority states like California, Oregon, Washington, and Maryland stayed closed
26:12
Speaker 1: or partially closed for another full year. Policymakers who had
26:16
Speaker 1: a role in those decisions argue that applying evidence from
26:18
Speaker 1: abroad was difficult. Blah blah blah. The politicization of the
26:21
Speaker 1: pandemic also played a role. President Trump repeatedly caught on
26:24
Speaker 1: schools to reopen, while many Democratic officials and advocacy groups
26:28
Speaker 1: fought for stricter safety measures and more federal aid to schools.
26:32
Speaker 1: They report on this without saying the politicization came from
26:37
Speaker 1: the American Academy of Pediatrics, who reversed course when Trump
26:42
Speaker 1: agreed was Trump right because they didn't want to be
26:46
Speaker 1: on the same side as Trump and they were willing
26:47
Speaker 1: to sell out science and kids to do it.
26:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, like the American acadeistic Pediatrics is just They also
26:54
Speaker 2: ended up arguing that kids didn't need to see faces
26:58
Speaker 2: when they were learning to how to speak, something that
27:01
Speaker 2: they had always believed. They reversed themselves on so many things,
27:04
Speaker 2: the Fittings, Yeah, we're great, screens are so good. They
27:09
Speaker 2: reversed themselves on so many things that they believed to
27:11
Speaker 2: fit in with the political moment. Another obviously very famous
27:15
Speaker 2: example was that all the medical professionals were saying that,
27:19
Speaker 2: you know, you had to stay inside, you can't be
27:21
Speaker 2: mingling in groups. But then the George Floyd riots happened,
27:24
Speaker 2: and they said, oh, you should go, you should go
27:27
Speaker 2: protest because this is more important. Well, a lot of
27:31
Speaker 2: people noticed at that point that they didn't think it
27:34
Speaker 2: was more important than like seeing their parents who might
27:37
Speaker 2: not have that much time, or or getting their kids
27:40
Speaker 2: into schools. It's important to keep talking about it. We're
27:44
Speaker 2: going to keep talking about it because it's a moment
27:47
Speaker 2: that still has Nobody has taken responsibility, nobody's been held accountable.
27:51
Speaker 2: The New York Times doing these little drip drips five
27:54
Speaker 2: years later of we were lied to, Like, no, we
27:57
Speaker 2: were not lied to you. You were doing the live you.
28:00
Speaker 1: You lied I have found for it.
28:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you and you made it hard for us
28:06
Speaker 2: to tell the truth. You made it as difficult as possible.
28:10
Speaker 2: You covered everything in a way that was completely opposite
28:13
Speaker 2: of the truth. And I until somebody's held accountable, until
28:19
Speaker 2: we know for sure this will never happen again, we're
28:20
Speaker 2: going to keep talking about it.
28:21
Speaker 1: Well, And not only did they report things that weren't
28:25
Speaker 1: the truth, they in many cases colluded with the federal
28:29
Speaker 1: government or approvingly like clapped as the federal government censored
28:36
Speaker 1: people right who disagreed with their reporting or disagreed with
28:40
Speaker 1: their conclusions. I mean, that's that's a real thing that happened.
28:44
Speaker 1: By the way, would you like to hear what Randy
28:45
Speaker 1: Winegarden has learned.
28:46
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say about Randy go ahead.
28:49
Speaker 1: She's quoted in the New York Times, and honestly, she's
28:51
Speaker 1: smarter than Becky Pringle, who is the other head of
28:53
Speaker 1: the teacher's unions, who's quote I will read next, because
28:56
Speaker 1: she can fudget.
28:57
Speaker 2: A little bit.
28:57
Speaker 1: She's like, Yes, I've learned a lot from this, said
29:00
Speaker 1: Randy Winegarden, president of the American Federation of Teachers, in
29:03
Speaker 1: a powerful force of democratic politics, who at times worked
29:06
Speaker 1: behind the scenes to negotiate reopenings. No, she worked behind
29:10
Speaker 1: the scenes to hold reopening's ransom. That's what she did right.
29:14
Speaker 1: She also stood by locals in places like Philadelphia and Chicago,
29:17
Speaker 1: where union members fought for vaccines, tests, ventilation, and other
29:20
Speaker 1: safety measures even after classrooms and other parts of the
29:24
Speaker 1: country had reopened. Miss Winegarden defended her members' rights to
29:27
Speaker 1: work safely and emphasize the importance of ventilation, but said
29:31
Speaker 1: she would strive to be clearer in the future that quote,
29:34
Speaker 1: kids have to be the priority, that includes in person instruction.
29:38
Speaker 1: She said, I thought I was pretty loud. She added,
29:41
Speaker 1: I would be even louder. Oh my god, ma'am, you
29:44
Speaker 1: are a liar, right, you were.
29:48
Speaker 2: The person blocking the school door. You, Mitch, you can
29:53
Speaker 2: cut that.
29:54
Speaker 1: I don't think we should. I don't think we should.
29:59
Speaker 1: So fakes it and that is a lie. Becky Pringle
30:03
Speaker 1: of the National Education Association. She goes even further by
30:07
Speaker 1: the way California Department of Public Health wouldn't even respond
30:09
Speaker 1: to questions about school closures. Becky Pringle says that following
30:15
Speaker 1: cautious Public Health Guide guidance was the right approach and
30:18
Speaker 1: is the one she would follow again. What we needed
30:20
Speaker 1: to do was listen to infectious disease experts. Miss Pringle said.
30:24
Speaker 1: Those infectious disease experts, by the way, are the ones
30:26
Speaker 1: who were lying to you, as The New York Times
30:28
Speaker 1: just pointed out yesterday. Yeah, oh oh my lord.
30:34
Speaker 2: But you're right. You're right that Randy is much smarter
30:37
Speaker 2: because she's painting herself as somebody who tried to get
30:40
Speaker 2: schools open, and that's a crazy thing to do. But
30:44
Speaker 2: you know, she has a very friendly media, compliant media.
30:47
Speaker 1: Hard can you imagine being a Republican and getting away
30:50
Speaker 1: with that answer? Like, I've learned a lot to do
30:53
Speaker 1: the things that are popular now.
30:55
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, and it was me who was doing the
30:57
Speaker 2: things that were unpopular then.
31:00
Speaker 1: But we're not going to talk about that.
31:01
Speaker 2: So, yeah, we're still mad. I'm gonna stay mad, and
31:06
Speaker 2: I have no problem with that, because, yeah, it's the
31:09
Speaker 2: best way forward. It's the way to not forget what
31:11
Speaker 2: they did to us.
31:12
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm I'm going to leave you with one more
31:14
Speaker 1: quote to be mad about. Yeah, this is Brent Jones,
31:17
Speaker 1: superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, said he was not apologetic
31:22
Speaker 1: about his system's eighteen month period of virtual and hybrid learning,
31:25
Speaker 1: one of the longest in the country. I saw it
31:27
Speaker 1: as a forced opportunity to step back. He said. We
31:30
Speaker 1: were called upon, frankly to expand our mission to include
31:32
Speaker 1: many other things nutritional, social, emotional, mental health. There was
31:36
Speaker 1: a cry for support. Schools stepped into that gap. No,
31:42
Speaker 1: they would do this again in a heartbeat. Yep, So
31:45
Speaker 1: get ready to fight it when the time comes.
31:47
Speaker 2: Yes, I'll add one more thing to that. We could
31:50
Speaker 2: just keep going forever. My governor in New York at
31:54
Speaker 2: the time, Governor Angecomo, said we needed to reimagine schools.
31:59
Speaker 2: And he said, we have all these buildings, what for,
32:02
Speaker 2: basically saying we could all have our kids learn online.
32:06
Speaker 2: That man is now trying to be mayor of New
32:08
Speaker 2: York City. This is all again. Nothing is in the past.
32:13
Speaker 2: Everything is in the future, and we should be ready
32:15
Speaker 2: for it.
32:17
Speaker 1: Okay, hold on, I know, do it? What I forgot
32:20
Speaker 1: to mention this line from the New York Times piece. Yeah,
32:23
Speaker 1: in some ways moving to online learning would be easier
32:27
Speaker 1: next time, now that nearly all schools give students their
32:31
Speaker 1: own laptops or tablets. Be ready for it, people, It
32:34
Speaker 1: is coming. We've been right for five years we're right again.
32:37
Speaker 1: They will do this in a heartbeat.
32:39
Speaker 2: That's right, and this time we hopefully will know what
32:43
Speaker 2: to do well. Thanks for joining us on Normally Normally
32:47
Speaker 2: airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you
32:50
Speaker 2: get your podcasts. Get in touch with us at normallythepod
32:52
Speaker 2: at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening, and when things
32:55
Speaker 2: get weird, act normally