Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast: Sign Here, Sleep Later: Joe Biden and the Auto Pen Chronicles

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Normally Podcast: Sign Here, Sleep Later: Joe Biden and the Auto Pen Chronicles · Normally

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we are back on normally the show with normalish
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: takes or when the news gets weird.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: I am Mary Catherine Camp and.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: I'm Carol Markowitz. Another relaxing weekend. Mary Catherine.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I was saying, like, I can't, I can't engage with this,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: like when the whole cooj is fighting with each other
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: on Friday night. I'm like, nah, yeah, I'm checking out.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: And I went and got my kids. They were with
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the grandparents for a week, and I went on a
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: road trip with all four kids to pick them up
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: and bring them back. And it was one of those
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: days I'm sure you've had them where everything went haywire,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: like we ate an epic storm where people are driving
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: with their flashers on just so they can be seen.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I get the big kids.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Every single thing I had planned to do with the
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: four of them was either.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Happen right out. There was no power.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: At the places we wanted to go because of the galleon,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: and we ended up eating at waffle house and like
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: waiting in a creek.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: So if you haven't wonder.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: That sounds perfect.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Actually, like just just revert to redneck when disaster strikes.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: That okay, Yeah, you.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Know, I have three kids, you have four kids.
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: I saw a mom on a plane yesterday with four kids,
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: and I always am like I wish I had a fourth,
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: Like I wish we had, you know, gotten for it.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: That fourth kid. It's it really does add a lot
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: of kid.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Just the counting of heads, like when you're in a
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: public space becomes larger.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: But we did have a wonderful time. It was a disastrous,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: wonderful day.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: So yeah, amazing.
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: All right, Well, we're not going to get into the
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: Epstein stuff today. We are going to see how it
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: shakes out in the next day or two. I know,
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: we get accused of like not covering some topics because
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: we are you know, we wait and see, but we've
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: not been wrong on the waiting and seeing yet.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: It's a really good skill to have for a normous Yeah. Yeah, like,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: is anyone going to quit? I would like to see
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: and then we'll discuss, Right.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: We will watch it play out and then we'll talk
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: about it. But we probably will.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: Get into it for Wednesday's episode, depending on how the
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: next day or two shake out. But we'll start today
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: with our last president, Joe Biden and his cooky administration.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Wow, what have they been up to. Well, here's the
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: first thing that's good. So the news story is that
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: the New York Times gets an interview with Joe Biden
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: in which he says, yeah, in these giant categories of
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: pardons that you've all been wondering about where people were
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: controversially let off the hook, and these giant tranches of pardons, yeah,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: I theoretically said yes to those, but no, not I
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: did not sign all of them. The autopen was used
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: to a great degree in those large groupings.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: Let me read you the quote.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: Mister Biden did not individually approve each name for the
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: He and the AIDS confirmed.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: off on the standards he wanted to be used to
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence.
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: Now people are comparing this to January sixth pardons by
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: Donald Trump. Whatever you think of those pardons, Donald Trump
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: signed those pardons on camera.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: They were not signed by who knows who with an autopen.
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: Donald Trump might not be able to name every January
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: six six er. But that's irrelevant because we saw him
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: sign the pardons, and this is an entirely different story.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Well, and I just think all of it goes back
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: to the question is not whether it's okay for an
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: autopin to do things we have all agreed to some extent,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: sure that that happens in a presidency.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: The question is whether the person in charge.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Of saying that the autopen could sign things was of
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: a state of mind where he could actually agree to
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: those things. Yeah, exactly in Biden's case, especially with some
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: of these more controversial things, it's real unclear that's exactly
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: where he was, and it makes me uncomfortable. Although I
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: do think the pardon power is so clear and extensive
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: that there's probably not a lot to be done except
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: for to expose what happened, which is I sure there's consequences.
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: Which is a step forward, and again finding out who
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: was running the country during that time. I love this
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: part of the New York Times article. Mister Trump, asked
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: by a reporter last month whether he had uncovered evidence
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: that anything had been illegally signed without mister Biden's knowledge,
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: said no, but he cited his rival's debate performance in
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: June twenty twenty four, when mister Biden eighty one at
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: the time, delivered halting and meandering answers. Mister Biden withdrew
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: soon after his reelection bid quote, I've uncovered, you know,
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: the human mind. Mister Trump said, I was in the
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: debate with the human mind, and I didn't think he
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: knew what the hell he was doing.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: End quote. Fair.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Fair. The other part of this reporting says, so he's
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: given the strictures or the he's talked, he signs off
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: on the guidelines for what a group of pardons should reflect.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: But then it goes on to say even after mister
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Biden made that decision, One former AID said, the Bureau
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: of Prisons kept providing additional information about specific inmates, resulting
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: in small changes to the list.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Rather than ask.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Mister Biden, who this is my parentthetical was probably napping or.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Comotos or what have you. Are given times right on
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: the beach.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Rather than asking mister Biden to keep signing revised versions,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: his staff waited and then ran the final version through
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: the auto pen, which they saw as a routine procedure.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: The AID said, that's an interesting sentence because it does
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: not include a check back, either over a phone or
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: in person yep or anything. No, there's no conferencing with
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the president on Oh, we made a few changes.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: Right, we added people.
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: I mean it has to be through the president, and
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: that goes unmentioned. I also liked that the New York
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: Times headline was, of course, a variation on the Republicans
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: pounced theme right right?
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: Donald Dr.
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: Trump and his allies had begun investigations to support their
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: claims that Joseph bar Biden Junior was incapacitated and his
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: staff conspired to take presidential actions in his name.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he was incapacitated, but his staff was empowered.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: To take actions in his name. Like that's the problem.
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: Why are you pouncing, Mary Catherine?
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Like, pouncing on the truth is pretty is a pretty
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: decent thing to do.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: Do you think we find out who was running the
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: White House?
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Probably not really.
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: I don't think kjp's book is an independent tells us anything.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: No. No, I mean, look, I think that's.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: The only way her book sells though.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: So that's true.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: But I think she's going to critique him from the left,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: and she is not interested in exposing what actually went down,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: like that would be interesting. I mean, she certainly had
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: a front row seat right, although like she's not a
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: person of discernment, so who knows what you would get.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: But I just think this is one of those things
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: where because largely the presses to the left, they're all
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: going to be like, see, it's one of those things
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: where you can't talk about it while it's happening because
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: that's rude and conspiracy theorizing, and then you can't talk
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: about it after it happened because that's old news and
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: why would we talk about that? And I'm like, that's amazing,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: it's very recent, and I feel like we should talk
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: about it. So I appreciate Republicans investigating it, and I
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: think that such that we get answers, that'll be the
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: only place because unless there's a follow up to all
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: these tellaws about the campaign that include what the hell
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: happened for four years, I don't think we're getting it right.
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: And I don't know that Senate and House Republicans can
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: get to the bottom of this either, although I would
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: like to see them continue to try.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: This is important.
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: It's not nothing story imp This is like we elect
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: someone to run the country and that someone was really
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: unable to do that for those last four years and
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: somebody else was taking his place. Maybe it was multiple people,
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: maybe it was many people, But I'd like to know that.
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: And I want to know who covered it up and
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: how it all went down. And these kinds of asides
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: about him not really participating in the autopen signing of
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: these pardons. It's a step in the right direction of
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: telling that story.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Also, can we just note why is he giving interviews?
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: Why is he giving interviews? I don't know, Like.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: Everyone who had a part in said scandal that we
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: have just explicated is like, please please stop talking, praise please?
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Why are you talking to the New York Times? Yeah,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: because I think someone made this point on Twitter. I
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: forget who it was. But Trump has not had a
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: great price, even though he should because of the big,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: beautiful bill.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: And the NonStop wins.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, however, because of the Epstein stuff, which we're talking
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: about later in the week, he has had not a
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: great day and a half several days of coverage and
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: what does this do? This just you knights, all the
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: people of the right again to be like, look at
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: what we were enduring.
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: Yep and he you know, so many times during the
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: campaign Biden kept inserting himself into the conversations and making
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: himself the story even you know, even while he was
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: still running in a negative way.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: And so this is just a continuation of that.
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: One of the other things they mentioned in the story
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: that we didn't actually get to last week, but Biden's
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: former doctor testified in front of lawmakers or answered questions
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: from lawmakers last week, and he pled the fifth when
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: he was asked whether the President Biden was.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: Fit to serve.
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: That's a huge story in and of itself that his
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: doctor is pleading the fifth and not wanting to answer
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: questions about what he knew about his condition at the time.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he just like kind of walked out of the
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: part of that gathering, which was I think closed press.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: It was like a you know, under oath, but in
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: a in a closed setting situation.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: I do think we're in a we're in a pickle
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: about how we deal with these issues in the future
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: because the press will only want to use a new
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: rubric with Donald Trump, like, oh, well, we really got
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: burned by that Biden guy, but we're going to use
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: this very strict standard now to Donald Trump, and Republicans
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: will not accept that. So it's kind of like looking forward,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: I think the big hack might be just like someone
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: under seventy.
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, good luck, that's my that's my governing hack everyone.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: That would be nice.
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: I'm not sure we're going to be counting on that,
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: although I don't know.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: The future field.
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: Does look more youthful, but I think they're going to
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: sneak in some eighty year olds, right and.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: Next president, eighty five year old Bernie Sanders.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: Love it, love it. We're heading there.
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: Ah, well, we're going to take a short break and
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: come right back with more normally.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: We are back with normally. Thank you for sticking around.
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: Graduation rates are up, but SAT scores are down.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: How does that work?
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a little thing called social promotion.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: Right, So apparently kids are doing worse than.
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: Ever on the SAT, but graduation rates continue to climb.
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: And Americans for School Oversight on x posted that teachers
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: are being told to give fifty percent even when students
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: skip tests or turn in nothing failure rate to suppress
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: to protect the system, not student learning.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: This does not seem like a good idea.
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: This seems like letting a bunch of people who are
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: unprepared for a lot of things, for higher learning, for
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: life out into the world without the proper preparation.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a recipe for disaster. Lowering the bar is
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: not wise. One of the things that they discovered in
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: this literacy surge in places like Louisiana, Alabama, tennesse that
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: are doing better than in all demographics versus other states,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: is it. One of the things they implemented in those
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: states was to say, if you have not learned the
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: basics of literacy, if you are not reading by third grade,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: we have to hold you back. We will not be
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: letting you forward even though you have if you haven't.
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: Hit it's the way to go.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: And in all.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Those states, everyone freaked out and was like, no, we'll
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: have to hold back so many students. And what happened
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: in reality was that it lit a fire under adults
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: because there wasn't actual consequences consequence. They were like, oh crap,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: we have to spend these years actually teaching them to read,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: all right, And students no doubt responded to the higher
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: bar as well, And you end up with not that
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: many holdbacks because people were accomplishing the skill. So if
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: you take away that part of the system, yeah, there's
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: no skills.
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: I really do think that people need like I mean,
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: I for sure need like deadlines or you know, accountability.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: I need stuff like that.
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: In order to work, Like like I have a substack
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: and I write on it in frequently. I'm trying to
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: do better for people who follow and pay for my subjects.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: Sorry about that, I feel you.
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: But if I don't have a deadline, if I don't
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: have a marker, it's very hard to do. And you know,
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: on the flip side of this, I have a friend
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: who has a son with special needs, and she wanted
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: him to repeat a grade because she felt he wasn't
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: prepared enough and they just wanted to keep promoting him,
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: and she wanted him to, you know, stay in the
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: same class, get a real handle on the information, be
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: able to proceed to the next grade really with confidence.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: And she had to fight her school system in order
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: to make that happen. And he was clearly not prepared
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: for the next grade.
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: So you know, I'm sure there are parents who worry
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: about their kids not being promoted to the next grade.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: But there's also the parents.
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: Who think, my kid could use another year of this
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: and they're not allowed to do that.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Well, and standardized test scores get a bad rap standardized
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: tests in general get a bad rap. I understand the concerns,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: and some of them are very real. They also mean
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: something as a gauge they actually do, and all these
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: colleges that have tried to toss them out have come
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: up with pretty bad results as a result of that decision.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: I want a note from There's a New York Times
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: up ed on standardized testing, which of course was only
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: written from a leftist perspective, to say, Linda McMahon is
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: going to ruin standardized testing, which they were never big
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: fans of before, but it makes this important point. Standardized
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: testing isn't perfect, and I'm sympathetic to the argument that
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: it can hamper teacher autonomy in the classroom, but there
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: is evidence that without standardized testing, parents have little awareness
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: of their children's deficits.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: In part because of great inflation.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Over the past few decades, test scores have gone down
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: while grades have gone up. The issue, which predated the
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: pandemic is known as the honesty gap. I will add
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: that the honesty gap got larger after the pandemic. So
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: my district, because they shut down school for so long,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: dispensed with their apples to Apple's stats comparison in a
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: lot of areas because they were like, ooh, that's going
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: to look bad for us. And so in a lot
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: of cases, the less standardized testing, the more they're trying
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: to cover up, and covering it up isn't helping anyone.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, you know.
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: I actually wrote against the Gifted and Talented Test in
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: New York City when my kids were little, because I
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: thought it was ridiculous to give a five year old
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: a standardized test. And even though my daughter like aced it,
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: I still thought it was ridiculous, and so I wrote
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: about it.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: And I have completely changed my mind about it, in
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: part because they got rid of the test and they.
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: Started going by like teacher recommendations and that kind of thing,
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: which is so easily played. And the Gifted and Talented
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: schools are like in steep decline because they got rid
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: of that test. It just standardization makes it fairer. Everything
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: else can be gamed, can be played. You can, you know,
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: ask the teacher to give your kid the recommendation that
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: they need.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: An interesting point.
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: About the results and the failure rates. Ex teacher Frank McCormick,
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: who tweets at cb heresy on X, posted the results
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: that we talk about, and noted that when he was
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: a teacher, despite being rated excellent, my principal told me
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: that my failure rate was too high and to fix
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: it if I wanted to come back next year. He
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: was reprimanded for holding students accountable and rewarded for fabricating grades.
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: He writes, I have never been more depressed and demoralized.
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: That's the other side of this is that teachers don't
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: want to be socially promoting these kids. They want them
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: to actually learn, and we're putting everybody in a tough
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: situation with this kind of behavior.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Can I note one quick stat also that as sort
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: of encouraging that was bouncing around the educational X of
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: areas this week, which is that, oh lo and behold
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: another one that makes levels a little uncomfortable. Family structure
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: matters to student achievements.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: This is a University of Virginia study called Godfather's Flourishing Kids,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: which came out just recently, and I'm glad it got
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: quite a bit of attention in those circles on X
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: and not just from right leading, right leading people for
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: this reason. This is in the seventy four the research
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: led by my AEI colleague Brad Wilcox, and co authored
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: by a diverse team that includes another AI colleague, finds
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: that children in Virginia with actively involved fathers are more
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: likely to earn good grades, less likely to have behavior
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: problems in school, and dramatically less likely to suffer from depression. Specifically,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: children with disengaged fathers are sixty eight percent less likely
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: to get mostly good grades and nearly four times is
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: likely to be diagnosed with depression. These are not trivial effects,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: and importantly, basically the entire achievement gap on race basis
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: is erased if you put black, white Hispanic students with
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: two engaged parents together in a co If you compare those,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: the stability of the family overcomes a race issue every time.
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, there was a popular story, maybe like a
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: year and a half ago, two years ago. I covered
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: it a lot on the Carol Marko Wood Show, but
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: economist Melissa Kearney, who was.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: A left leaning economist, found that, you.
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: Know, basically, children raised by married parents have better outcomes
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: across the board.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: And it wasn't something that.
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: She wanted to find, and that's what she discovered in
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: her work and all of her the people she worked
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: with were like, you cannot say this, and once you
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: get to even if this helps children, you cannot admit
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: the truth.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: It's a very dangerous place to be.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: And that's where a lot of lefty academics get. Just
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: to make my somewhat muddled version of that clearer, this
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: writer writes, if a black or Hispanic student is raised
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: in a religious home with two biological parents, the achievement
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: gap totally disappears, even when adjusting for socioeconomic status. I mean,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: this is powerful stuff because presumably we would all like
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: children to achieve and read and learn as that teacher does.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: There are a lot of unions who might think different,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: who are trying to cover all this up. Up next,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: we have some reflections on July thirteenth, twenty twenty four
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: in the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, which weird the
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: media is not covering a ton.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: I know we'll be back on normally, all.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Right, Carol, Well, it has been one year since a
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: seismic event in American politics. In American history, the one
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: year commemorations are not that common, but it is the
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: assassination attempt on one Donald J. Trump when he was
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, July thirteenth, twenty twenty four.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: And I just wanted to talk about it a little
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: bit because.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: It's being undercovered, right.
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: It was like a giant story that barely gets any
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: kind of mention at all.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: Where were you when you heard that?
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Oh, I have a very interesting story about that. I
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: was on a plane full of journals, oh, on our
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: way to the RNC, and the plane did not have
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Wi Fi. We happened to all be on a plane
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: without wife. So and it's like everyone's on this plane BBC, CNN,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: like Tappers up there, Chuck Todd's over here, right.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: I'm way in the back, probably have bought my ticket late,
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: like I do. I'm way in the back of the
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: plane and I did.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Sorry, TSA or whoever's in charge of this FA I
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: turned on my phone early to try to catch a
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: signal and see what it was. I didn't The plane
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: was fine, so I don't think it's a safety issue.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: I turned it on, caught a signal, and I start
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: getting these texts from people I trust. So it wasn't
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: like a you know, like this is a made up
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: rumor thing. It was from like guy Benson, who was
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: following up from my husband, who's following up with very
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: specific things. And what happened is I think I was
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: the first person on the plane.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: To know that this had happened.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: Did you stand up and were like?
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: I actually thought about doing that, But much like the
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: fear you have when you're breaking something, I was like,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: what if this turns out to be not what I
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: think it is? And I had no way to back
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: up my information aside from like the two and a
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: half texts I had received.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: But yes, I was on that plane.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: And then once we landed, of course everybody turns on
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: their phones and it goes like wildfire.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: I knew.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: I didn't tell the BBC gall next to me. I
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: was like, hey, you media. She's like yeah, and I
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: was like, I think President Trump was shot. She's like,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: so it goes like wild through fire through the plane.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: And I will say this for the journals. When we
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: exited that plane, it was silent because everyone was in
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: the throes of this is actually potentially extremely tragic.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: And all very interesting. Yeah, I was.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: I was a little bit proud of them, and in
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: that moment, obviously very quickly it turns into nonsense.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Again.
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they didn't really cover themselves in Glory where all
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: some of the headlines were like Donald Trump falls on stage.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: In that moment, though, on that plane it was treated
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: as very solemn and grave and very very very serious.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: I was.
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: I had just woken up in Singapore and I had
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: gotten a text from our best friends and saying, hey,
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: I know you're away, but someone just took a shot
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: at Donald Trump, and I like sat up in bed
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: just like, oh my god, you know, is he okay?
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: Like just I feared the worst, obviously, like I guess
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: a lot of people would.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: And the fact.
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: That it missed the bullet missed him by such a
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: tiny amount, by such a tiny, you know, measure, is
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: really miraculous. And I, you know, he seems like he
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: has leaned on his faith a little bit since then,
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: and I totally get why he talks about God in
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: a way that he did.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: Not before that.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: And I really do feel like I understand it.
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: I had Selena Zito on the Carol Marco wid show
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: a few months ago talking about her new book Butler.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna play a little clip. She was there that day.
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: She was right in front of Donald Trump, and this
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: is her describing what happened.
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: And you know, if you've never been to a rally,
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: you don't understand. But the relationship between him and the
• 24:04
  Speaker 5: people that are attending it is very transactional. He feeds
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: off of them, they feed off of him. And this
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: isn't a positive way. This is a very sort of
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: aspirational way. People believe they are part of something bigger
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: than themselves, and Chump intuitively understands that he is as well.
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: He's part of it, He's part of them. It's not
• 24:27
  Speaker 5: just about him, it's about everybody there. So because of that,
• 24:33
  Speaker 5: he never looks away from the crop. He'll move his
• 24:36
  Speaker 5: he'll move his body and look at different size, like
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: turn around and look at the crowds around.
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: Rights has notes or anything.
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so two things happen simultaneously that never happened. He
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: brings a chart down.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: I'm like, what is he?
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: Ross Perot like, he never has a chart?
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: Amazing.
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: And then he turns away from the crop and he
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: never does that. And at that moment, I hear pop
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: pop pop pop. The bullets fly right over. I watch
• 25:09
  Speaker 5: him go down, but he takes himself down. I note that,
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: like it's really weird. You know how they always say
• 25:15
  Speaker 5: things happen in slow motion. They absolutely do.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: Really, I can see him.
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: Go down, I can see him hold his ear. I
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: see the Secret Service go around him. You remember, I'm
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: like four feet away from him at this point.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: And is your daughter snapping pictures my dog?
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: Yeah, we're We don't stop working until the second four
• 25:36
  Speaker 5: bullets go by and Michelle takes us step the campaign
• 25:43
  Speaker 5: press guy, he's amazing. He's my hero. He Michelle Licard.
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: I will love him forever. He was so protective of
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: all of us. And I can I can hear the
• 25:54
  Speaker 5: whole conversation he is having with the Secret Service, and
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: you know, like about when to go up, and you
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: know that the shooter is dead, and you can hear
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: them talking. You can hear the rain, I can hear
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: the radios just because of how close you a and.
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: I can.
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: It was a little bit funny. It's funnier now. It
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: was a little bit funny.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: In the moment.
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: And hear him like they want him to get up
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: and want me to be up, but he's like basically saying,
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: I need to put my damn shoes on right like
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: his someone had knocked his shoes off and and I
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: hear one agent sigh like okay, all right, like okay,
• 26:41
  Speaker 5: put your shoes on right.
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: And they get his shoes off.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: That's so weird.
• 26:45
  Speaker 5: And then he comes off the stage. He goes right
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: past me. There is an agent that holds a gun
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: right in our heads as he's going past, because they
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: still don't know what. And so I did not go
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: to Bedminster that day, no, obviously. But he calls me
• 27:02
  Speaker 5: the next morning, right nerling and before I could say hello, like,
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: I didn't even get my hello out.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: So are you okay? Is Shenon like okay?
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: I'm like and I felt like saying, are you freaking
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: kidding me?
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: You do? You've just been shot?
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe focus on yourself.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: I know that clip was a little long, but I
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: felt like it was important to get the kind of
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: story of that day.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: I just got the book and see how close they
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: were because this is her daughter's photo of before this happened. Yeah,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: just incredible stuff. And I think, you know, his reaction
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: to that was just so genuinely brave and impressive.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: It really was kind of astounding.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: I think I had I had new different respect for
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: him after this happened. I also would like to add
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: that the comforatory family should stay in our prayers. You know,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: his widow lost her husband a year ago this week,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: and he had daughters, and you know, very sad that
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: that happened on that day. I think we were spared right,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: a tremendous tragedy, although not all of it tragedy the
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: way the way this country would have spun out had
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: something they actually succeeded, had he had the shooter actually succeeded,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: I just can't even comprehend.
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: I don't know if we would have gotten over it,
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: I really don't. I have to say that. You know,
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: the right loves their conspiracies, but the left continues to
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: push the idea that this somehow was faked. Adam Parkomenko,
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: who was a dnc Field director in twenty sixteen, tweeted,
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: if they could lie about the Epstein list, they would
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: lie about Butler too. Somebody, Telvin Griffin, who is in
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: Hollywood apparently got Academy Award nominated film whatever, has a
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: following on X. We're getting closer and closer to the
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: truth that the Butler assassination attempt was fake and stage
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: here's the worst part of it all and innocent man died.
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: They did this because the momentum of the election was
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: strongly in Kamala Harris's favor and they had no game
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: plan for her. Kamala Harris wasn't running yet, so and
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: I don't remember the momentum ever being strongly in her favor.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: No, it wasn't, That's just that true.
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, And they wanted to shift the momentum, so
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: they thought they'd take a shot at their own candidate, Like,
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: how does that make sense?
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: Who would be who would be barely missed in a
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: headshot by hitting his ear?
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: I was gonna say, now, now that I.
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: Shoot guns, I can tell you with some certainty that
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: trying to shoot someone in the ear is not a thing.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: And that Trump would be like, sure, I'll sign up
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: for that, Yeah, no problem.
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: The shooter, of course, killed on the scene, was Thomas
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Matthew Crooks, a twenty year old, and I would I
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: would like to know more about him and more about
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: how we're preventing said things for the future. I appreciated
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: the brief moment when everybody was left and right, we're
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: together asking questions about the Secret Service and going.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: Like what happened year? What happened.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: AOC actually had a couple of very good moments asking
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: those questions, and in general I would just like to
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: see more reflection.
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: On this, more normal after more normal behavior.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, after the congressional baseball shooting too, where very few
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: people know the date of that shooting. It was June fourteenth,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, and the next first of all, it got
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: like forty eight hours of coverage maybe maybe not even that,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: like wall to wall coverage an attempted mass murder of
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: congressional members. A year later, there was almost nothing in commemoration.
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: Crazy. Yeah, unbelievable.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: These moments are important.
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: We should do better on that, We really should.
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: Well. Thanks for joining us on normally Normally airs Tuesdays
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: and Thursdays, and.
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: You could subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts.
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: Get in touch with us at normallythepod at gmail dot com.
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: Thanks for listening, and when things get weird, act normally