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Normally Podcast: Senate Hearing Highlights and One-Liners · Normally

0:03
Speaker 1: Hey, Yeah, it's a weird back on. Normally the show
0:06
Speaker 1: with normal it takes for when the news gets weird.
0:09
Speaker 1: I am Mary Katherine.
0:10
Speaker 2: Ham, Carol markoozz how's going Mary Catherine?
0:13
Speaker 1: It's all right. We got toddler dumb happening in this house.
0:17
Speaker 1: So there are a lot of emotions. I really try
0:20
Speaker 1: to keep mine in check because there's a lot happening.
0:24
Speaker 2: What if we just joined the screaming, Like, what if
0:27
Speaker 2: we were like, you know too, I'm upset.
0:30
Speaker 1: Sometimes it happens. There has been an occasion, especially in
0:34
Speaker 1: my younger, more rookie parenting days, when I just matched
0:37
Speaker 1: the energy and I was like, let's see how she
0:39
Speaker 1: likes that?
0:41
Speaker 3: How did she like that?
0:42
Speaker 1: You know? It wasn't that effective.
0:46
Speaker 2: Well, speaking of screaming toddlers, the confirmation hearings have begun yesterday.
0:53
Speaker 2: Pete Hegseth got his hearing and I'd say he flat.
0:57
Speaker 4: Out killed it. Yeah, answered all the questions.
1:01
Speaker 2: He was respectful but to the point, and they didn't
1:04
Speaker 2: land a single blow on him. You know, I've thought
1:08
Speaker 2: the whole time that if he got to the hearings,
1:12
Speaker 2: that he would get through because it seemed so obvious
1:16
Speaker 2: to me that Democrats and some Republicans were trying to
1:19
Speaker 2: use the media to push him out, and they didn't
1:22
Speaker 2: want him to get to a hearing because then they'd
1:23
Speaker 2: have to get on the record of why they don't
1:25
Speaker 2: support him. Now I think he's pretty clearly going to.
1:29
Speaker 4: Make it through.
1:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, And this shows the virtue of being prepared for
1:35
Speaker 1: a hearing, right. You know. Pete is of course accomplished
1:40
Speaker 1: at being on camera at answering and posing questions. He's
1:45
Speaker 1: a smart guy, but he clearly prepped for this in
1:49
Speaker 1: a way that anticipated questions and had thoughts about how
1:54
Speaker 1: one might answer tough questions, which, it turns out in
1:58
Speaker 1: the Senate is like not as routine as one would hope. Certainly,
2:04
Speaker 1: I think the Democratic senators could have been better prepared
2:07
Speaker 1: to try to corner him than they were. But you know,
2:12
Speaker 1: a lot of people, despite the fact that Senate confirmation
2:16
Speaker 1: questioning isn't always super sharp, people crumble. Nonetheless, Hegseth did not.
2:21
Speaker 1: I think he was just ready.
2:23
Speaker 3: Right, he just thought so.
2:26
Speaker 2: Let me just add to that, they just thought they're
2:28
Speaker 2: so much smarter than him. Elizabeth Warren, for example, came
2:32
Speaker 2: in there like I'm so smart and I'm going to
2:36
Speaker 2: defeat this, you know, TV talking head, and she was
2:39
Speaker 2: a failure, a complete bust.
2:41
Speaker 1: Yeah. Actually, can we go to the clip of Warren first,
2:45
Speaker 1: which shows a that you know, she wasn't quite ready
2:49
Speaker 1: and be the real power of a one liner if
2:52
Speaker 1: you can deliver it.
2:54
Speaker 5: You're quite sure that every general who serves should not
3:00
Speaker 5: so directly into the defense industry for ten years. You're
3:03
Speaker 5: not willing to make that same pledge. I'm not a general, Senator,
3:10
Speaker 5: You'll be the one. Let us just be clear in
3:13
Speaker 5: charge of the generals.
3:15
Speaker 3: Let us be clear.
3:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, that Liz, that laughing you heard, by the way,
3:21
Speaker 1: is from the gallery, which is full of vets, many
3:25
Speaker 1: of them combat special Forces, Navy seals, combat vets lining
3:31
Speaker 1: up to support heg Seth because they believe that having
3:34
Speaker 1: somebody who was on the ground, who was not who
3:37
Speaker 1: is not a Pentagon general primarily is something that they want.
3:43
Speaker 1: But that sort of response can just neuter the entire question.
3:48
Speaker 1: I mean, and it did. Yeah. There's also a strange
3:54
Speaker 1: moment where Senator from Virginia Tim Kaine asks something about
4:02
Speaker 1: seemingly about Hegst's personal life, which we knew was going
4:05
Speaker 1: to be part of these hearings and was, but this
4:08
Speaker 1: one seemed weirdly off base. Here's Tim Kane.
4:11
Speaker 6: Did you ever engage in any acts of physical violence
4:13
Speaker 6: against any of your wives?
4:15
Speaker 7: Senator? Absolutely not, But you.
4:17
Speaker 6: Would agree with me that if someone had committed physical
4:20
Speaker 6: violence against the spouse, that would be disqualifying to serve
4:23
Speaker 6: as sectary of defense.
4:24
Speaker 7: Correct, Senator, absolutely not.
4:27
Speaker 8: Have I ever done that?
4:28
Speaker 6: You would agree that that would be a disqualifying offense,
4:31
Speaker 6: would you not?
4:33
Speaker 7: Senator, you're talking about a hypothetical.
4:36
Speaker 6: I don't think it's a hypothetical. Violence against spouses occurs
4:40
Speaker 6: every day. And if you, as a leader, are not
4:43
Speaker 6: capable of saying that physical violence against the spouse should
4:47
Speaker 6: be a disqualifying fact for being secretary of the most
4:52
Speaker 6: powerful nation in the world, you're demonstrating an astonishing lack
4:55
Speaker 6: of judgment.
4:56
Speaker 1: This is literally when did you stop beating your Yeah? Right, exactly,
5:02
Speaker 1: that's amazing. There are allegations against HeiG Seth for several
5:07
Speaker 1: different things, right, not one of them includes violence. Yeah,
5:12
Speaker 1: this is introduced in order to smear him, in order
5:16
Speaker 1: to suggest that there is some allegation of this, And
5:21
Speaker 1: it's so gross And if you have a more substantial point.
5:26
Speaker 1: Maybe it ruins the rest of anything you're saying.
5:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, And of course, you know, which went through
5:33
Speaker 2: an election season where the presidential candidate's husband is pretty
5:37
Speaker 2: credibly accused of smacking an ex girlfriend and she had
5:42
Speaker 2: told people about it at the time, and she was
5:45
Speaker 2: kind of on the record about it, and yet that
5:48
Speaker 2: was not a concern to Tim Kaine at all. None
5:51
Speaker 2: of that came up really with the media. They didn't
5:54
Speaker 2: want to investigate it, they didn't want to look into it.
5:56
Speaker 2: And again, this isn't, you know, a cabinet position, and
6:00
Speaker 2: this would have been the first gentleman of the United States.
6:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just so sleazy the way he did that.
6:07
Speaker 1: It had like definitely vibes of Kavanaugh era to just
6:12
Speaker 1: start introducing stuff that hegseth himself. Has to explain to
6:16
Speaker 1: every weight this is a hypothetical that you are talking about,
6:20
Speaker 1: because Cain clearly meant to imply that it was not.
6:24
Speaker 1: And then, you know, we've talked about this on the
6:27
Speaker 1: podcast before, but there were entirely anonymous allegations of drinking
6:32
Speaker 1: on the job at Fox News, whereas all of his
6:35
Speaker 1: morning show hosts are on the record saying I was
6:40
Speaker 1: there at four in the morning with Pete Hegseth on
6:42
Speaker 1: weekends repeatedly for eight years and never saw anything like this.
6:46
Speaker 1: Here's Senator Mark Wwaine Moulin of Oklahoma with a fun
6:52
Speaker 1: point on this.
6:53
Speaker 9: The Senator for Virginia starts bringing up the fact that
6:55
Speaker 9: what if you showed up drunk.
6:57
Speaker 8: To your job? How many sooners have showed up drunk
7:01
Speaker 8: to vote at night?
7:04
Speaker 9: Have any of you guys asked them to step down
7:07
Speaker 9: and resign for their job?
7:09
Speaker 8: And don't tell me you haven't seen it, because I
7:11
Speaker 8: know you have.
7:12
Speaker 9: And then how many senators do you know have got
7:14
Speaker 9: a divorce before cheating on their wives?
7:17
Speaker 8: Did you ask them to step down?
7:20
Speaker 5: No?
7:21
Speaker 8: But it's for show, you guys. Make sure you make
7:24
Speaker 8: a big show and.
7:25
Speaker 9: Point out the hypocrisy because the man's made a mistake
7:29
Speaker 9: and you want to sit there and say that he's
7:31
Speaker 9: not qualified.
7:32
Speaker 8: Give me a joke. It is so ridiculous that you.
7:36
Speaker 9: Guys hold yourself as this higher standard and you forget
7:38
Speaker 9: you got a big plank in your eye.
7:40
Speaker 3: You know, I love that.
7:41
Speaker 2: I love that he called out there hypocrisy. I'd love
7:43
Speaker 2: to know how many senators have been drunk voting on
7:46
Speaker 2: a bill at night. I imagine that number is fairly high.
7:49
Speaker 3: I've seen that.
7:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think at DC restaurants and you know they
7:56
Speaker 2: have to go in and vote for a bill.
7:59
Speaker 1: You know this I referred to on x as the
8:03
Speaker 1: day that Senator Mullen sucked it to the Harper Valley Pta.
8:07
Speaker 1: Do you know that song. It's a very dated reference,
8:10
Speaker 1: but go listen to it because it's fantastic and it's
8:13
Speaker 1: about a divorced mom, possibly a widowed mom in the
8:17
Speaker 1: sixties or seventies who it's like one of those story
8:21
Speaker 1: story songs and she goes in and calls out the
8:24
Speaker 1: whole PTA on all of their hypocrisies because of course
8:27
Speaker 1: she's been called onto the carpet as a single mother
8:30
Speaker 1: who can't raise her daughter properly.
8:33
Speaker 3: That was very much sheld know. We should have had
8:35
Speaker 3: it ready to play.
8:37
Speaker 1: I mean, if we can get the if we can
8:39
Speaker 1: do fair use for a few seconds, it's worth it.
8:43
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think there's a lot of entertainment there
8:45
Speaker 1: and not a lot of punches landed.
8:49
Speaker 3: Right.
8:51
Speaker 2: As for the other people at the hearings, Pam Bondi,
8:55
Speaker 2: Marco Rubio, not a lot of news being made out
8:59
Speaker 2: of any of them that I've heard, unless you know
9:02
Speaker 2: you have something about those.
9:05
Speaker 1: I mean, everyone seems again this is like a novelty
9:08
Speaker 1: to some extent, but it seems like they prepared themselves
9:12
Speaker 1: for these hearings. I imagine there will be more fireworks
9:15
Speaker 1: with like an RFK junior, right, and he's more of
9:19
Speaker 1: a loose cannon when it comes to speaking, but.
9:22
Speaker 3: Who knows what he'll say.
9:23
Speaker 4: Right.
9:24
Speaker 1: Thus far, people are giving sort of normal answers to win.
9:29
Speaker 1: They're hostile, kind of not very effectively hostile questioning right exactly.
9:35
Speaker 2: And it's interesting because you know, again, for that long
9:37
Speaker 2: period of time, it seemed like Pete what was really
9:40
Speaker 2: not going to make it.
9:42
Speaker 4: But now I don't know. He did so well that
9:45
Speaker 4: I really struggle.
9:47
Speaker 2: To see how they're going to figure out a way
9:49
Speaker 2: to vote against him.
9:50
Speaker 1: Well, I believe Joni Ernst, who was the on the
9:52
Speaker 1: fence Republican, came out in local radio and then later
9:56
Speaker 1: nationally to various other press saying that she would support him.
10:01
Speaker 1: That certainly comes a lot closer to clearing the way.
10:04
Speaker 3: Will be right back on normally.
10:09
Speaker 1: Up next, we have a court victory for people who
10:15
Speaker 1: are fans of the traditional Title nine rules, which the
10:19
Speaker 1: Biden administration totally corrupted. Of course, it was initially meant
10:23
Speaker 1: as a way to protect women, but the Biden administration decided,
10:28
Speaker 1: because of its commitment to trans ideology and gender ideology,
10:31
Speaker 1: that anyone who says they're a woman would be covered
10:35
Speaker 1: under the Title nine rules, meaning that men who classify
10:41
Speaker 1: themselves as women would be covered, which perverts the entire
10:46
Speaker 1: intention of the thing. So the State of Tennessee went
10:50
Speaker 1: to court about this, and a federal district court in
10:53
Speaker 1: Kentucky issue decision Thursday that blocks the Biden administration's unlawful
10:57
Speaker 1: attempt to change the meaning of sex and Title nine
11:00
Speaker 1: and a federal law designed to create equal opportunities for
11:02
Speaker 1: women in education and athletics to include gender identity. Alliance
11:05
Speaker 1: Defending Freedom is the one writing up this account. They
11:09
Speaker 1: defended this. They represented a West Virginia High School female
11:12
Speaker 1: athlete and Christian Educator's Association International in the lawsuit, alongside
11:15
Speaker 1: the State of Tennessee. District ruling applies nationwide into every
11:19
Speaker 1: part of the Biden Title nine rule, meaning the rule
11:21
Speaker 1: is completely invalidated, and the US Department of Education is
11:25
Speaker 1: unable to force it, enforce it anywhere.
11:28
Speaker 3: Excellent.
11:28
Speaker 1: Yes, so very good news in the courts for the moment.
11:32
Speaker 1: These things can always change. But one of the great
11:34
Speaker 1: things about Biden doing a lot with rulemaking or stroke
11:39
Speaker 1: of a pen or picking up the phone, as Obama
11:42
Speaker 1: you know, famously referenced, is that those things can change
11:46
Speaker 1: fairly quickly. But it's good to see this legal challenge
11:50
Speaker 1: happen and be successful, right.
11:52
Speaker 2: And I think this legal challenge is following public opinion,
11:56
Speaker 2: because public opinion is strongly against biological males competing in
12:02
Speaker 2: sports with biological females. Even if you're like I've always
12:06
Speaker 2: considered myself pretty soft on the trans issue, a lot
12:10
Speaker 2: less soft when it's trans kids, but in general, you know,
12:13
Speaker 2: I would have kind of supported, you know, using people's
12:16
Speaker 2: pronouns whatever they wanted until they became plural, et cetera.
12:20
Speaker 3: I think that this really is.
12:22
Speaker 2: A huge line for people, even again, people on the left.
12:25
Speaker 2: I think that they see that boys bodies and girls
12:29
Speaker 2: bodies are different, and there's a reason that we have girls'
12:32
Speaker 2: sports in the first place, and it really negates that
12:35
Speaker 2: whole purpose if you're allowing biological boys to compete.
12:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was a women's athlete, proudly mediocre women's athlete,
12:45
Speaker 1: but it was such a huge part of my upbringing
12:48
Speaker 1: and the way my personality formed and my relationships with
12:51
Speaker 1: other women formed. And watching this very dark turn that
12:56
Speaker 1: women's sports has had to endure, and that when at
13:00
Speaker 1: like young women athletes have had to door. The thing
13:02
Speaker 1: that always makes me so angry and frankly not angry
13:06
Speaker 1: enough early enough, was to watch high school female athletes
13:12
Speaker 1: have to compete about against just totally post pubescent dudes. Yeah,
13:18
Speaker 1: and then when they were beaten by those dudes, predictably
13:24
Speaker 1: they'd have to stand up and cheer for them. Yeah.
13:27
Speaker 1: If they didn't stand up from like, it wasn't just
13:30
Speaker 1: right you get your butt beat, It was oh no, no,
13:33
Speaker 1: you have to congratulate the stunning, bravery, superior to anything
13:37
Speaker 1: you've ever done, of this young man who just took
13:40
Speaker 1: your spot on the podium. And that just seems so
13:44
Speaker 1: desperately unfair to me, such an inversion of everything. The
13:48
Speaker 1: fifteen year old girl in this case was forced to
13:52
Speaker 1: compete against a male athlete on her middle school track
13:54
Speaker 1: and field team. The male just placed her several times,
13:56
Speaker 1: taking away a spot to compete in a conference championship,
14:00
Speaker 1: also given access to the girls locker room, and the
14:02
Speaker 1: ADF client had to endure vulgar sexual comments that the
14:04
Speaker 1: athlete directed at her, and he finished ahead of three
14:08
Speaker 1: hundred female competitors in three years of competition on the
14:12
Speaker 1: girls team. That just makes a difference, the negative difference
14:19
Speaker 1: for those women, and you can't just brush it away.
14:23
Speaker 2: Right well, to the point about them also having to
14:25
Speaker 2: congratulate the boy who just beat them in girls sports,
14:29
Speaker 2: it really did go hand in hand with cancel culture
14:32
Speaker 2: over the last few years. Parents didn't feel like they could,
14:35
Speaker 2: you know, speak out, and girls felt like if they
14:38
Speaker 2: did speak out, they might not go to college because
14:41
Speaker 2: the college would call them transphobic and then they would
14:43
Speaker 2: get in. And all of this was were very kind
14:46
Speaker 2: of realistic concerns, and it's interesting that as we're moving
14:51
Speaker 2: past this era, I hope we don't forget the kind
14:53
Speaker 2: of pressure that these people were all under to keep quiet.
14:58
Speaker 3: And not speak out.
14:59
Speaker 2: And how brave a girl like this is for bringing
15:02
Speaker 2: this lawsuit and for putting herself out there, because not
15:05
Speaker 2: so long ago it really would have destroyed her entire life.
15:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the Riley Gainses of the world and the
15:11
Speaker 1: Abigail Schreyers for speaking up about this aggressively about this
15:16
Speaker 1: particular issue early and often was very very hard, and
15:22
Speaker 1: I appreciate that they did it. I should add that.
15:24
Speaker 1: In the House this week, again the vibe shift continues.
15:28
Speaker 1: Two House Democrats voted alongside Republican lawmakers to ban athletes
15:32
Speaker 1: born male from participating on girls sports teams the Protection
15:35
Speaker 1: of Women and Girls Girls in Sports Act, led by
15:38
Speaker 1: Representative Greg Studia of Florida when a men federal law
15:41
Speaker 1: is specified that student athletes must participate in school sports
15:44
Speaker 1: teams that coincide with their gender at birth, represented Henry
15:49
Speaker 1: Quaar of Texas and also VINCENTE. Gonzalez of Texas for
15:54
Speaker 1: the lone Democrats to vote for the bill. That's a
15:57
Speaker 1: House bill. We will see where it heads from here,
16:00
Speaker 1: but interesting to see people break off. Notably Seth Moulton,
16:04
Speaker 1: who is one of the Democrats who has spoken up
16:07
Speaker 1: about Democrats extremism on the gender ideology issue post election,
16:13
Speaker 1: did not vote for it, right. He felt that it
16:15
Speaker 1: went too far.
16:16
Speaker 2: He got pressured, you know, he got the protesters outside
16:20
Speaker 2: his office and the name calling online, and he was pressured.
16:25
Speaker 3: Back into line.
16:26
Speaker 2: Basically, it's just he wasn't allowed to be different from
16:30
Speaker 2: his party, and it's unfortunate, and I think that it's
16:34
Speaker 2: a mistake for these people not to be braver, because
16:38
Speaker 2: the vibe is shifting away from them.
16:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I also want to note Chelsea Mitchell's name, who
16:44
Speaker 1: was a Connecticut track and field star who was one
16:47
Speaker 1: of the very first to encounter this issue and speak
16:52
Speaker 1: up about it. And she did it as a high
16:54
Speaker 1: schooler and going into college and hug just really really
16:58
Speaker 1: tough thing to do about it in USA Today in
17:02
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, but that was after this had happened,
17:05
Speaker 1: and she said, there's a great editor's note here said,
17:08
Speaker 1: this column has been updated to reflect USA Today's standards
17:11
Speaker 1: and style guides guidelines. We regret the hurtful language he's used,
17:14
Speaker 1: because she used appropriate gender, appropriate biological sex labels so
17:20
Speaker 1: that you could understand the story she was telling. But yeah,
17:23
Speaker 1: had to be corrected.
17:24
Speaker 3: We're going to take a short break and come right
17:26
Speaker 3: back with.
17:27
Speaker 2: Normally other vibe shift happenings around the country. Starbucks is changing.
17:36
Speaker 2: It's just hang out here all day, don't buy anything,
17:39
Speaker 2: and please use our bathroom.
17:40
Speaker 4: Policy, which is really quite something.
17:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, I here's the interesting thing. I actually didn't know
17:48
Speaker 1: that this was what Starbucks allowed people to do. It's
17:51
Speaker 1: one of these rules that once repealed, I was like, Wow,
17:53
Speaker 1: y'all shouldn't y'all shouldn't have had that rule. That's yeah,
17:57
Speaker 1: that's crazy. Now. In my I think it's probably a
18:03
Speaker 1: combo of things. You don't hang out in the Starbucks
18:06
Speaker 1: in my area because during COVID they just removed all
18:09
Speaker 1: the seating basically and never put it back. Amazing, And
18:13
Speaker 1: I wonder if part of that was like, oh, we
18:15
Speaker 1: dug ourselves in a hole with this stupid rule, So
18:18
Speaker 1: now the paying customers don't get to enjoy an environment
18:23
Speaker 1: that would be like a third place, is what Starbucks
18:25
Speaker 1: used to refer to it. Yeah, as so you've got
18:28
Speaker 1: this toxic mix of COVID policy and like incentivizing all
18:34
Speaker 1: the wrong behaviors to end up with just an empty,
18:37
Speaker 1: barren Starbucks that you don't want to hang out in.
18:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you'd see it all the time. I mean
18:42
Speaker 3: I would see it.
18:43
Speaker 2: In New York A lot where you walk into a Starbucks,
18:47
Speaker 2: every seat is taken, almost nobody's drinking anything. The bathrooms
18:50
Speaker 2: are super gross because you know, homeless people come in
18:53
Speaker 2: and use them. It's just they really did create a
18:57
Speaker 2: situation where it would be difficult to continue these policies.
19:02
Speaker 3: Look, when you go into suburban Starbucks, however.
19:04
Speaker 2: It's you know, everybody's everybody's drinking, and everybody's kind of
19:08
Speaker 2: behaving the way I think Starbucks intended their stores to be.
19:13
Speaker 2: But you're right, it's like, once you hear about it,
19:16
Speaker 2: you're like, wait, why were you letting people hang out
19:18
Speaker 2: in your store all day without buying anything? On a
19:21
Speaker 2: not unrelated no, but when I heard airlines, some airlines
19:25
Speaker 2: are now enforcing the groups like you, you know, the
19:28
Speaker 2: board by group, but if you if you get to
19:30
Speaker 2: the front and you're not in the group the.
19:32
Speaker 4: Sporting they no longer let you board. I was like,
19:34
Speaker 4: you weren't doing that the whole time.
19:37
Speaker 1: I gotten away with so much, and I known.
19:40
Speaker 4: Me and group seven, I would have been right upfront.
19:43
Speaker 1: By the way, this, uh, this Starbucks policy originated. I
19:47
Speaker 1: don't know if you remember. This originated in twenty eighteen
19:51
Speaker 1: after the arrests of two black men in a Philadelphia Starbucks.
19:55
Speaker 1: Do you remember this very controversial story. They were waiting
19:59
Speaker 1: to meet a business partner about a real estate deal.
20:01
Speaker 1: They hadn't ordered anything, but they wanted to use the
20:03
Speaker 1: bathroom and they were told like, you got to leave
20:06
Speaker 1: if you're not buying something. And this turned into, you know,
20:10
Speaker 1: the police being called, and it was a big controversy,
20:13
Speaker 1: and there were allegations that this was racially racial implications
20:17
Speaker 1: for the reason that that the police got called on them,
20:20
Speaker 1: and I think they were probably done wrong in this incident. However,
20:26
Speaker 1: to change the policy to this for the next seven years,
20:32
Speaker 1: now before you go maybe for that, maybe this wasn't
20:36
Speaker 1: the correct corrective. That was, by the way, also the
20:39
Speaker 1: year right after that where they closed all eight thousand
20:42
Speaker 1: Starbucks's and did racial sensitivity training for every single employe. Yes,
20:49
Speaker 1: so yeah, that's where that originated. And I think corporations
20:52
Speaker 1: would be wise to not knee jerk in this way
20:56
Speaker 1: over individual incidents that become national stories.
20:59
Speaker 2: Right, it doesn't have to be a pendulum swing. You
21:01
Speaker 2: could stop in the middle. You could be normal.
21:03
Speaker 3: Just be normal. That's the message of the show.
21:08
Speaker 1: Walgreens is also attempting to be more normal. It admitted that, hey,
21:16
Speaker 1: you know, we've obviously they've had to lock up a
21:18
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff. But CEO Tim Wentworth was talking in
21:21
Speaker 1: his in his earnings call and saying, hey, you know
21:25
Speaker 1: this thing where we lock up everything, it's not great
21:29
Speaker 1: for business, right, so people buy fewer things. He says,
21:35
Speaker 1: when you lock things up, for example, you don't sell
21:38
Speaker 1: as many of them. We've kind of proven that pretty conclusively.
21:42
Speaker 1: Wentworth said he's working with the company's head of asset
21:44
Speaker 1: protection to develop creative solutions to combat shoplifting. I don't
21:48
Speaker 1: have anything magnificent to share with you today. It is
21:50
Speaker 1: a hand to hand combat battle. Still. Unfortunately, I mean, what.
21:55
Speaker 3: Are they going to do though?
21:56
Speaker 2: They can't not lock up the stuff because shoplifting to
22:00
Speaker 2: become sort of acceptable in.
22:01
Speaker 3: So many different places now. But he's right.
22:03
Speaker 2: If I see, if I go into a store and
22:06
Speaker 2: stuff is locked up that I want to buy, I'm
22:08
Speaker 2: just I forget it. I'll order it on Amazon because
22:10
Speaker 2: I just I'm not going to wait around. I'm not
22:12
Speaker 2: going to find an employee, I'm not going to press
22:14
Speaker 2: the button. I'm not doing any of that. I'll figure
22:16
Speaker 2: out another way.
22:17
Speaker 1: I'm not either. I went to buy what was it like,
22:20
Speaker 1: press on nails for an event because I was like,
22:23
Speaker 1: I don't have time to go to the Sloan. I'm
22:25
Speaker 1: just going to do the stupid ones locked up, locked up,
22:29
Speaker 1: press on nails. I was like, okay, well never mind.
22:33
Speaker 1: Now I have to have an interaction with a store clerk.
22:35
Speaker 1: I can't do that.
22:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, forget it. That's too much, way too much.
22:39
Speaker 1: But yeah, I feel for these chains because you know,
22:43
Speaker 1: they they have to lock everything up. It's a bad
22:45
Speaker 1: user experience. You lose business, but you can't lose as
22:49
Speaker 1: much business as you were doing, yeah, with the with
22:52
Speaker 1: the shoplifting. And then if you close up your business
22:54
Speaker 1: because you're not succeeding for these reasons, you get accused
22:58
Speaker 1: of abandoning the community which in which you couldn't.
23:01
Speaker 2: Exist, right, in which you had to accept all the shopliftings.
23:05
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, they're they're between a rock and a hard place.
23:08
Speaker 3: I mean, it has to.
23:10
Speaker 2: Be businesses pressuring politicians to change laws because there's no other.
23:15
Speaker 3: Way around it.
23:16
Speaker 2: They're they're going to lose lose with the current system. Again,
23:20
Speaker 2: I don't know, you know, I like I other other
23:24
Speaker 2: examples of this. I love going to like Sacks off
23:28
Speaker 2: Fifth at their outlet and trying on all the sunglasses.
23:31
Speaker 2: Even when I don't need sunglasses, I end up buying
23:33
Speaker 2: a pair because I just tried on one hundred pairs
23:35
Speaker 2: for no reason.
23:36
Speaker 3: They've locked them up in.
23:38
Speaker 4: A lot of stores. I haven't bought sunglasses since.
23:41
Speaker 1: It's Carrol sales. I know the graph for Carol sales
23:45
Speaker 1: and sunglasses.
23:46
Speaker 2: You really do see you see a sharp decline in
23:49
Speaker 2: sunglass sales.
23:50
Speaker 1: Well, I think you know, this is all part of
23:52
Speaker 1: the discussion about a high trust society versus a low
23:55
Speaker 1: trust society. And you know, a lot of this was
23:59
Speaker 1: determ like just the idea that shoplifting was bad and
24:03
Speaker 1: that we don't condone it, and it's bad if you
24:07
Speaker 1: get caught and you will get punished, but even if
24:10
Speaker 1: you're not punished, like just the overarching idea that you
24:14
Speaker 1: should be ashamed if you're doing that. Letting go of
24:17
Speaker 1: that I think was very detrimental. And of course, if
24:22
Speaker 1: there's no shame and there's no punishment, why would you
24:25
Speaker 1: not take free stuff? Right? Right?
24:27
Speaker 2: My middle son is always like san Francisco is that's
24:29
Speaker 2: still nine hundred dollars?
24:31
Speaker 3: And are we going to San Francisco anytime soon?
24:34
Speaker 2: I'm gonna let you steal eight hundred and ninety nine
24:37
Speaker 2: dollars kid.
24:38
Speaker 1: No, no, no, it is. It is wild. But the
24:42
Speaker 1: normal people in these places in San Francisco, in LA
24:46
Speaker 1: and Chicago, and they do exist there. They do want
24:49
Speaker 1: to have a normal experience in these businesses, and to
24:54
Speaker 1: the greatest extent they can claw that back, the better
24:57
Speaker 1: off they're going to be.
24:58
Speaker 2: Right, Well, no more using Starbucks bathrooms unless you buy
25:02
Speaker 2: yourself a Venti latte or something.
25:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's maybe step one.
25:05
Speaker 1: Here we are.
25:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for joining us on normally. Normally airs Tuesdays
25:09
Speaker 2: and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts.
25:13
Speaker 3: Get in touch with us.
25:14
Speaker 2: At Normallythepod at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening, and
25:17
Speaker 2: when things get weird, act normally