Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast: Virginia Democrats’ Court-Packing Plot, Spencer Pratt’s LA Surge & America’s Urban Crisis

Transcript

Normally Podcast: Virginia Democrats’ Court-Packing Plot, Spencer Pratt’s LA Surge & America’s Urban Crisis · Normally

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey guys, we are back on normally the show with
0:07
Speaker 1: normal it takes for when the news gets weird. I
0:09
Speaker 1: am Mary Calvrhim.
0:10
Speaker 2: And I'm Carol Marcowitz. How are you, Mary, Katherine.
0:13
Speaker 1: I'm good. Happy Mother's Day to you.
0:14
Speaker 2: Thank you to you too.
0:15
Speaker 3: You filled in that. You did such a great job
0:17
Speaker 3: with Bethany. She was such a great filla in. Thank
0:20
Speaker 3: you for you guys doing that. I was in New
0:22
Speaker 3: York just you know, New York Inc.
0:25
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. I'm glad you hitting
0:27
Speaker 1: all the Chinese food and having the Manhattan Institute shindig,
0:31
Speaker 1: which is great.
0:32
Speaker 2: Ben Sas was fantastic. I mean, the thing is okay.
0:35
Speaker 3: I don't want to overshadow Ben's ass, because obviously he
0:38
Speaker 3: was beautiful, meaningful, gorgeous speech.
0:40
Speaker 2: You kind of knew he was going to do that
0:42
Speaker 2: and it was going to be amazing and you might cry.
0:45
Speaker 3: Jeff Yass, who I did not really know that much about,
0:48
Speaker 3: gave a absolute killer speech on school choice. And I
0:54
Speaker 3: know how many speeches have we heard about school choice,
0:57
Speaker 3: you and I in our careers, but this one really
1:00
Speaker 3: struck me. It was so honest and so heartfelt.
1:03
Speaker 2: I loved it. I'm a Jeff yes fan.
1:06
Speaker 3: I didn't really know who he was before the event,
1:08
Speaker 3: and now I'm like, that guy's awesome.
1:11
Speaker 1: Very nice, very nice. Well cool, I didn't. We had
1:15
Speaker 1: a little like brunch outside in my side yard for
1:18
Speaker 1: Mother's Day because I didn't feel like doing a restaurant brunch. Yeah,
1:23
Speaker 1: shercutery in the yard and uh. And then my only
1:27
Speaker 1: boy somehow gave himself a black eye.
1:29
Speaker 2: That's how, that's what only boys do.
1:32
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, look at that. You were supposed
1:34
Speaker 1: to be napping, question mark.
1:37
Speaker 2: That's when they do it.
1:39
Speaker 1: That's when it happened.
1:41
Speaker 3: So today's gonna be a fun episode because we were
1:45
Speaker 3: really despondent about the Virginia redistricting and last week the
1:51
Speaker 3: Virginia Supreme Court said, nope, what you've done is unconstitutional
1:56
Speaker 3: and they've overturned the redistricting. And I mean, the only
2:00
Speaker 3: people more surprised than you and I that that happened
2:03
Speaker 3: were the Democrats, right like.
2:05
Speaker 1: Right, So I was, yes, I was blackpilled on this,
2:12
Speaker 1: and look, I was. I was emotionally preparing myself for
2:15
Speaker 1: the fact that you know, they wouldn't get flagged on
2:18
Speaker 1: all these mistakes. They'd made bringing this to the ballot.
2:21
Speaker 1: It did seem risky to me to do this, to
2:24
Speaker 1: have the Supreme Court hear this post voting, because at
2:28
Speaker 1: that point it's a pretty large bar to say like, hey,
2:31
Speaker 1: I know you guys ran this election, but no, we
2:35
Speaker 1: have to throw it out now, right, So I was concerned.
2:38
Speaker 1: Let's give credit words due Kin Kushnelly, former ag of Virginia,
2:44
Speaker 1: was more optimistic than I. Shann't breemed. My friend at
2:47
Speaker 1: a Fox News she who knows her legal stuff, was like, no,
2:51
Speaker 1: this seems like there's some real problems for them here.
2:53
Speaker 1: So I didn't think Democrats should be quite so confident,
2:56
Speaker 1: but I certainly wasn't cor So this just desion came down.
3:00
Speaker 1: On Friday morning, I was chaperoning a field trip at
3:03
Speaker 1: King's Dominion, and oh did I enjoy the roller coasters?
3:06
Speaker 1: After that?
3:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just texted you Virginia exclamation point, exclamation point,
3:11
Speaker 3: exclamation point.
3:12
Speaker 1: Now, there was a there's a complaint from a lot
3:15
Speaker 1: of national Democrats who haven't bothered to read up on
3:18
Speaker 1: any of this, and it's a complaint that I share
3:21
Speaker 1: with them, right that this why didn't this happen before
3:25
Speaker 1: the vote? But it only takes reading two or three
3:29
Speaker 1: pages of the decision to learn that it was the
3:33
Speaker 1: Democrats and their lawyers on behalf of the state of
3:37
Speaker 1: Virginia who asked the Supreme Court to hold off until
3:40
Speaker 1: after voting. And I analogize it this way. They did
3:43
Speaker 1: that thing, Carol, that we used to do when we
3:45
Speaker 1: were kids, which is, you plan a sleepover without your parents' knowledge,
3:48
Speaker 1: and instead of doing instead of doing the normal process,
3:52
Speaker 1: you announce it in front of all the moms and
3:54
Speaker 1: hope it's too awkward for them to say. No. That's
3:57
Speaker 1: what they had to really do. That. Yeah, that's what
4:01
Speaker 1: Virginia Democrats thought they were going to do. And I
4:03
Speaker 1: thought it might work, but the Supreme Court was like, no,
4:06
Speaker 1: and by the way, don't complain about it, because you
4:08
Speaker 1: won a legal argument telling us we should wait to
4:11
Speaker 1: decide until now. In fact, you wanted this, you wanted this,
4:14
Speaker 1: in fact, let me play just a little. There's one
4:16
Speaker 1: minute of the oral arguments at the Supreme Court of Virginia. Again,
4:19
Speaker 1: if anyone listened to this, they would have known within
4:21
Speaker 1: four minutes that it was Democrats arguing for this. Here
4:24
Speaker 1: is their lawyer at the Supreme Court saying Yeah, it
4:27
Speaker 1: doesn't matter that people voted. In fact, we did ask
4:29
Speaker 1: you to do this. Here we go.
4:31
Speaker 4: As a result, the proposed constitutional amendment has been ratified
4:35
Speaker 4: and is now part of the Virginia Constitution. The Circuit
4:39
Speaker 4: Court attempted to interfere with that democratic process by halting it.
4:43
Speaker 4: This court properly put a stop to that. The challengers
4:46
Speaker 4: here now try to overturn the results of that democratic process.
4:50
Speaker 4: This court should not continents that.
4:52
Speaker 5: I don't understand that as a legal argument, given that
4:55
Speaker 5: you asked us too are ironically enough names got decision
5:00
Speaker 5: from over one hundred years ago that specifically says you
5:04
Speaker 5: don't deal with any potential procedural irregularities before the people
5:08
Speaker 5: who voted. So saying that the people have voted yes,
5:11
Speaker 5: after having said you don't even look as to whether
5:14
Speaker 5: there's procedural irregularity and after they voted, doesn't add anything
5:17
Speaker 5: to the equation, doesn't.
5:19
Speaker 4: No, And to be perfectly clear, we're not arguing that
5:21
Speaker 4: this court lacks jurisdiction to review whether the constitutional requirements
5:26
Speaker 4: of Article twelve have been complied with it does. Instead,
5:29
Speaker 4: I'm saying that on the merits, this court should not
5:32
Speaker 4: accept the challenger's artists.
5:34
Speaker 5: But the fact that there's a yes vote doesn't tell
5:36
Speaker 5: us anything about those merits.
5:38
Speaker 1: No, it does not mean yeah, that's something I just think,
5:42
Speaker 1: like the it's so it's ignorant if you don't look
5:45
Speaker 1: into it all and make this complaint. It is cynical
5:48
Speaker 1: if you know it and you make this complaint, which
5:50
Speaker 1: is what's happening with Jay Jones, the Attorney General, who
5:54
Speaker 1: surely knows it was their idea to wait. Yeah, and
5:58
Speaker 1: he's nonetheless like, I chan't lave this right right.
6:03
Speaker 3: So last night there was a story in The New
6:05
Speaker 3: York Times which was also extra delicious about how the
6:09
Speaker 3: Democrats are having a real tough time accepting this defeat
6:14
Speaker 3: and are considering forcing their entire Virginia Supreme Court to retire,
6:19
Speaker 3: filling the bench with new people, and also overturning the
6:23
Speaker 3: constitutional amendment that created this independent redistricting Commission. And as
6:27
Speaker 3: I said on X, it's because they just love democracy
6:30
Speaker 3: so gosh darn much, just so much.
6:33
Speaker 1: Yes, the first step in the process would be invoking
6:36
Speaker 1: the January ruling of a Circuit Court judge to say
6:39
Speaker 1: that the two thousand and twenty constitutionalmen was incorrect or
6:43
Speaker 1: something like that, and then they would just lower the
6:46
Speaker 1: retirement age on the bench to whatever is the youngest.
6:52
Speaker 2: Justice aage it all out.
6:54
Speaker 1: This would include, by the way, getting rid of several
6:57
Speaker 1: justices of color, including the first black woman to ever
7:00
Speaker 1: serve on the Virginia Supreme Court may have comvoted on
7:04
Speaker 1: their side.
7:05
Speaker 2: Right right.
7:05
Speaker 3: They don't care about that at all. They just want
7:08
Speaker 3: to win, and so yeah, that's the.
7:12
Speaker 2: Plan right now.
7:13
Speaker 3: I mean, it's amazing that it's in the New York
7:14
Speaker 3: Times because like, there are actually people talking about this.
7:18
Speaker 3: This isn't just springe like blue sky nonsense. This is
7:21
Speaker 3: like there's actual politicians thinking that this through and being like,
7:25
Speaker 3: what could we do? Maybe we can get rid of
7:27
Speaker 3: the entire Virginia Supreme Court.
7:29
Speaker 2: That'll be step one.
7:31
Speaker 1: I do think that this is one of those situations
7:34
Speaker 1: where the press being on the side of Democrats serves
7:37
Speaker 1: them badly, because if Republicans were discussing this and it
7:41
Speaker 1: were covered in the New York Times, it would be
7:43
Speaker 1: framed as obviously insane instead of like, oh, look at
7:47
Speaker 1: this interesting idea, Like there isn't one quick trick to
7:52
Speaker 1: subvert this whole thing. You went to the Court of
7:54
Speaker 1: last resort. By the way, Attorney General J. Jones, the
7:56
Speaker 1: one who wants all of our children to die in
7:58
Speaker 1: our arms. He is also appealing to the Supreme Court.
8:01
Speaker 1: Question mark. The Supreme Court does not have jurisdiction over
8:05
Speaker 1: the Virginia constitution.
8:06
Speaker 2: It's amazing. So again, we really just need some civics
8:09
Speaker 2: classes here.
8:10
Speaker 1: Yes, but again this is partial ignorance, partial cynicism. Because
8:14
Speaker 1: the cynicism is kick it to the Supreme Court, ask
8:17
Speaker 1: them to hear it. When the Supreme Court says we
8:19
Speaker 1: have no business hearing this, this is a Virginia constitutional issue,
8:23
Speaker 1: then Libs get to say, aha, you see, all the
8:26
Speaker 1: courts are bad. We should pack all of that.
8:29
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right.
8:30
Speaker 3: Matthew Iglesias, who's considered a liberal, moderate or whatever, he
8:36
Speaker 3: had this idea a few days ago when that ruling
8:39
Speaker 3: first came down. He said, don't know what the mechanisms are,
8:42
Speaker 3: but these Virginia judges need to go, because if you
8:45
Speaker 3: don't like the result, you have to get rid of
8:47
Speaker 3: the judges.
8:48
Speaker 2: And that's what makes our democracy so great.
8:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's how it works. Can I say also that
8:54
Speaker 1: this discussion Virginia Democrats and Virginia Democratic consultants quickly after
9:00
Speaker 1: they heard this story. We're like, ooh, I'm not sure
9:03
Speaker 1: we want anything to do with this, despite the fact
9:05
Speaker 1: that the Loudun County Virginia Representative Democrats said, quote, everyone
9:09
Speaker 1: has got to have a strong stomach right now, this
9:11
Speaker 1: is a complete disaster waiting to happen if people are
9:14
Speaker 1: timid and so like, there's at least one guy on
9:17
Speaker 1: the record from the state government saying yeah, let's get
9:19
Speaker 1: on with it.
9:20
Speaker 2: Yeah.
9:21
Speaker 1: Other folks today have been like, oh, oh, we do
9:23
Speaker 1: not plan to do that. But Hakim Jeffries and his
9:27
Speaker 1: crew read this online. This was an idea I think
9:31
Speaker 1: hatched at the down Ballot, which is a blog and
9:35
Speaker 1: analysis hub run by two election and analysts formerly associated
9:41
Speaker 1: with Daily Cost Elections. So of course, yeah, I think
9:44
Speaker 1: if that's where you're getting your ideas to then trial
9:47
Speaker 1: balloon in the New York Times because you're everyone's super angry,
9:52
Speaker 1: it's not gonna go well for you. Do you think
9:54
Speaker 1: this was a trial balloon?
9:55
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think so.
9:56
Speaker 3: I think they were just like, what are the New
9:58
Speaker 3: York Times readers think of this? I don't know what
10:00
Speaker 3: the New York Times, where you just think of this.
10:01
Speaker 2: But I know my.
10:02
Speaker 3: Entire ex feed was like, good try, guys, solid effort here.
10:07
Speaker 1: It sounds on its face insane, But.
10:10
Speaker 3: The thing is that Democrats, just like you said, don't
10:13
Speaker 3: get the pushback that Republicans would get. In the same
10:16
Speaker 3: New York Times yesterday, there was a story right below
10:19
Speaker 3: this story about how California Democrats are thinking of reworking
10:23
Speaker 3: their entire electoral system because what they have right now
10:26
Speaker 3: is all the candidates run in the primary and like
10:29
Speaker 3: all together and then the top two candidates go on
10:32
Speaker 3: to the general election. Well, right now, the top two
10:35
Speaker 3: candidates are Republicans who are pulling at the top for
10:38
Speaker 3: the governor's race. And that wasn't supposed to be what happens.
10:41
Speaker 3: They were supposed to be two Democrats at the top.
10:43
Speaker 3: And that's what makes our democracy again so great. So
10:47
Speaker 3: when you have no Republican candidates, that was the goal.
10:50
Speaker 3: So now that that goal wasn't meant, they want to
10:52
Speaker 3: change their system so that they could go back to
10:55
Speaker 3: having only Democrats in nice.
10:58
Speaker 1: I do want a credit Guy Benson with this because
11:00
Speaker 1: I had a discussion with him like three months ago
11:01
Speaker 1: where I was like, can you imagine if there were
11:03
Speaker 1: two Republicans who end up in the general election, because
11:06
Speaker 1: this California has what's called a jungle primary, so everybody
11:08
Speaker 1: faces off against each other and then the top two
11:11
Speaker 1: end up in the general election. Again, normally that would
11:14
Speaker 1: be Democrats, but in this case, Democrats have really made
11:16
Speaker 1: a lot of people upset, and so there are two
11:18
Speaker 1: Republicans who are close to the top of that field.
11:21
Speaker 1: And Guy was like, it won't happen. They'll change the
11:23
Speaker 1: laws so that it doesn't happen. Smart Ooh, you're probably right.
11:29
Speaker 2: Guy Benson is wise. He saw this coming.
11:33
Speaker 1: At Guy P. Benson, you can follow him for his wisdom.
11:36
Speaker 1: But yeah, I just I do want to reiterate how
11:39
Speaker 1: insane it is that these Democrats are, Like, you know,
11:43
Speaker 1: what we should do is write a new law that
11:46
Speaker 1: the people currently on the Virginia Supreme Court simply must
11:49
Speaker 1: retire tomorrow that then we can get a different decision
11:54
Speaker 1: the next day. And by the way, the State Board
11:56
Speaker 1: of Elections says, after May twelfth, which is when this
11:59
Speaker 1: episode is released, you can't make a map, like we're
12:03
Speaker 1: out of time. So they would also have to change that,
12:06
Speaker 1: which I guess they could try.
12:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, they will try.
12:09
Speaker 3: I mean, is the reality there, They're just going to
12:12
Speaker 3: do whatever it takes.
12:14
Speaker 2: I don't know.
12:14
Speaker 3: I feel hopeful about Virginia now, I you know, not
12:18
Speaker 3: that I don't think you should move to Florida, but
12:20
Speaker 3: I'll ease up on that a little bit. I can't
12:23
Speaker 3: believe that the Virginia's Supreme Court did the right thing.
12:26
Speaker 3: I'm so just white pilled is the only way to
12:30
Speaker 3: phrase it. Right, we were black pilled, now we are
12:32
Speaker 3: white pilled well.
12:33
Speaker 1: And I think it's important that in that oral argument,
12:36
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court's justices made their lawyer concede, Yeah, you
12:42
Speaker 1: asked us to do this now, and now that that
12:45
Speaker 1: time has come, are we correct that the vote result
12:52
Speaker 1: makes no difference in whether the procedural hurdles were met.
12:55
Speaker 1: Because the whole thing is I've been explaining. I don't
12:58
Speaker 1: have to go into detail about it, but the idea
13:00
Speaker 1: is it's supposed to be very very hard to put
13:02
Speaker 1: a constitutional amendment on the ballot, because changing the constitution
13:05
Speaker 1: should be very very hard. And so Democrats, realizing that
13:08
Speaker 1: they wanted to do the redistricting before twenty twenty six, realized,
13:12
Speaker 1: oh no, we really have to do that. Now, and
13:15
Speaker 1: when they started the clock, it was too late for
13:18
Speaker 1: the proper procedure, and so they just sort of like
13:23
Speaker 1: kind of cut a bunch of corners getting it on
13:25
Speaker 1: the ballot, and then we're like, let the people vote.
13:27
Speaker 1: It'll be fine.
13:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, it'll happen.
13:29
Speaker 1: Then even then only one by three points. So I
13:33
Speaker 1: think they've they can try this again on the correct
13:36
Speaker 1: timeline for twenty twenty eight. They can, They probably will.
13:39
Speaker 1: They might try to invalidate the old constitutional amendments so
13:42
Speaker 1: they can just do some maps themselves. But I think
13:45
Speaker 1: they've soured a lot of people on this, and a
13:47
Speaker 1: lot of people are now paying attention to it and
13:49
Speaker 1: paying attention to the people who pushed it.
13:52
Speaker 4: Yeah.
13:53
Speaker 3: I think when it passed, people were like, wait, nine
13:57
Speaker 3: to one, that seems weird. Fifty sorry, ten to one
14:01
Speaker 3: for a fifty to fifty state. That seems like maybe
14:04
Speaker 3: there was some shenanigans here.
14:05
Speaker 1: Oh and we also should note that Louise Lucas, who
14:08
Speaker 1: is the part of the leadership for Democrats in Richmond
14:11
Speaker 1: in our state legislator and as I have noted before,
14:14
Speaker 1: one of the only politicians who can match Trump for
14:17
Speaker 1: just truly unhinged hilarious content on the tweeting she is
14:24
Speaker 1: really audacious. She owns a weed dispensary and also several
14:30
Speaker 1: other like home care services and Medicaid paid services that
14:34
Speaker 1: she runs. And she's sort of, let's say, almost openly shady.
14:41
Speaker 1: She's just like, just like, this is who I am. Sher.
14:46
Speaker 1: She had her dispensary and her offices rated by the
14:50
Speaker 1: FBI earlier last week, and a lot of folks immediately
14:55
Speaker 1: ran to bat for her, saying, oh my gosh, this
14:57
Speaker 1: is clearly a political prosecution by Trump. Now, the New
15:02
Speaker 1: York Times support reports that that investigation started under Biden,
15:05
Speaker 1: which would make sense for how FBI investigations or not overnight. Yep,
15:09
Speaker 1: it's maybe a bribery investigation, some kind of public corruption.
15:14
Speaker 1: And I just want to say, like, of all the
15:16
Speaker 1: people you want to go out on a limb for
15:18
Speaker 1: before you know information, I wouldn't make Louis that one
15:22
Speaker 1: my first choice. And we will presumably have more information
15:26
Speaker 1: about that. Abbiel Spaanberger, our governor who has been dragged
15:29
Speaker 1: through the mud by Louise Lucas. She didn't really stick
15:34
Speaker 1: up for her too much.
15:36
Speaker 2: That's a sign that tell I think they know I think.
15:39
Speaker 1: They know all right. One last point on the redistricting.
15:43
Speaker 1: I know Florida is doing theirs right now. The map pasted,
15:47
Speaker 1: it's signed, it will face its own legal challenge and
15:50
Speaker 1: there might have something to do with the Constitution there
15:51
Speaker 1: as well. But here's the thing, I would put my
15:53
Speaker 1: money on Ronda Santis, who have been smart about how
15:56
Speaker 1: he did this and follow the rules, versus Louise Lucas
15:59
Speaker 1: any day of the That's the big difference in how
16:01
Speaker 1: this is going to go down.
16:02
Speaker 3: Well, we're going to take a short break and come
16:04
Speaker 3: right back with some more positive feeling news today right
16:09
Speaker 3: here on Normally. We are back on Normally, where Spencer
16:16
Speaker 3: Pratt continues to make a ton of news and he's
16:21
Speaker 3: just really such a breath of fresh air. There's so
16:25
Speaker 3: much excitement around his campaign in LA. Look, do I
16:29
Speaker 3: think he's gonna win.
16:30
Speaker 2: No.
16:30
Speaker 3: I still think LA is far left and they're going
16:33
Speaker 3: to pick one of the far left people. But he's
16:35
Speaker 3: bringing it to the campaign in a way just we
16:38
Speaker 3: haven't seen in a very long time. His campaign ads
16:42
Speaker 3: keep going viral. I still am partial to the one
16:44
Speaker 3: that he made himself, which is he stood in front
16:47
Speaker 3: of Karen Bass's house and said, you know, this is
16:50
Speaker 3: where she lives, and counselwoman Ramin's house and said this
16:53
Speaker 3: is where she lives. And then he said, I live
16:54
Speaker 3: in this trailer because my house burned down and they
16:57
Speaker 3: won't let me rebuild.
16:58
Speaker 2: And it's been all this.
16:58
Speaker 3: Time and it's been really amazing because he clearly really
17:04
Speaker 3: cares about La and he wants La to be better
17:07
Speaker 3: and he wants LA to succeed.
17:09
Speaker 2: And it's not at.
17:09
Speaker 3: All for any outlier, you know, outside purpose.
17:13
Speaker 2: It really is to make the city that he loves better.
17:16
Speaker 5: No.
17:17
Speaker 1: I love the idea behind it. I love the messaging
17:20
Speaker 1: because even though he's pointing out all these negative things
17:22
Speaker 1: about the city, what he's also saying is his tagline
17:25
Speaker 1: is LA is worth saving, like bring it back, Oh,
17:28
Speaker 1: make it great again? Perhaps so. And he's being accused
17:32
Speaker 1: all the time of being Republican when it's a non
17:35
Speaker 1: partisan race. And the reason he's being accused of being
17:38
Speaker 1: Republican is because talking about public disorder and wanting to
17:43
Speaker 1: solve it, perhaps with police presence and the government actually
17:47
Speaker 1: doing its job and not doing the other jobs that
17:49
Speaker 1: has taken on that are bankrupting everyone and making everyone unsafe.
17:53
Speaker 1: That's right, coded, that's right, and that's that's a problem.
17:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean for them.
17:58
Speaker 3: Right, I like safety and security being coded as something
18:02
Speaker 3: I support, Like I'm in.
18:04
Speaker 2: We're in for all of that.
18:06
Speaker 1: That's why we like this campaign.
18:08
Speaker 2: Yeah. So what's happened since the last episode of Normally
18:11
Speaker 2: is that there was.
18:12
Speaker 3: A debate and Spencer Pratt absolutely crushed it. He was
18:16
Speaker 3: so genuine and natural and had all the answers and
18:21
Speaker 3: was so prepared.
18:22
Speaker 2: Because that's the other thing.
18:23
Speaker 3: A lot of times people like this who run for
18:25
Speaker 3: office because they like want, you know, love their city,
18:27
Speaker 3: want to save their city, they come in as a
18:29
Speaker 3: little bit underprepared because they just feel like, well, I'm
18:32
Speaker 3: you know, I'm here to I'll make it happen. I'll
18:35
Speaker 3: fix it somehow. He is not that he's really really ready.
18:40
Speaker 2: For the answers.
18:41
Speaker 3: We have a short clip we're going to play about
18:43
Speaker 3: him talking to Councilman Ramen, who's actually to Mayor Bass's left,
18:47
Speaker 3: which yes, you know, fantastic for La over there.
18:50
Speaker 2: But she proposes going and getting these.
18:53
Speaker 3: Drug addicts who live under the bridges and on the streets.
18:57
Speaker 3: She says like, let's go get them and get them treatment.
18:59
Speaker 3: And this is what Spencer Pratt has to say.
19:01
Speaker 6: Counsel Woman Robin's plan for treatment. First, I will go
19:04
Speaker 6: blow the Harbor Freeway tomorrow with her and we can
19:07
Speaker 6: find some of these people she's gonna offer treatment for.
19:10
Speaker 6: She's gonna get stabbed in the neck. These people do
19:13
Speaker 6: not want a bed. They will Fennol or Superman. These
19:16
Speaker 6: ideas cost us over four hundred million dollars to house
19:20
Speaker 6: for sixty seventy What do you say? Three thousand people
19:23
Speaker 6: for four hundred million is absolute failure for both of them.
19:26
Speaker 2: They're a team, I mean, just amazing.
19:29
Speaker 3: But there was another moment in this debate where counsel
19:31
Speaker 3: Woman Robin accuses Spencer Pratt and Mayor Bass of working
19:35
Speaker 3: together to fight her, and he gives this unbelievable answer
19:39
Speaker 3: where he's just like, I think of Mayor Bass as
19:43
Speaker 3: the person responsible for burning my house down. He's like,
19:47
Speaker 3: and she's endorsed by all these powerful unions. You think
19:50
Speaker 3: I want to run against the powerful incumbent or some
19:53
Speaker 3: like no name, terrible counsel woman.
19:55
Speaker 2: Of course I want to run against you.
19:56
Speaker 3: And again it was so natural and so off the cuff,
19:59
Speaker 3: and there was no part of him that was rehearsed
20:01
Speaker 3: or scripted or any of that, and it was.
20:03
Speaker 2: Just great to watch.
20:04
Speaker 1: Well, yes, it's an interesting combination of every man messaging
20:08
Speaker 1: plus very skilled in front of a camera, and we've
20:11
Speaker 1: seen him be very skilled in front of a camera
20:13
Speaker 1: doing content, but that doesn't necessarily translate to a shape stage.
20:17
Speaker 1: A debate stage can be very hard for people at
20:19
Speaker 1: any level of having practiced this. He attributes it by
20:23
Speaker 1: the way I saw him an interview saying, well, the
20:25
Speaker 1: reason I know all this stuff is it actually reminds
20:28
Speaker 1: me of us during the school closings, where we do
20:30
Speaker 1: the data people on the other side didn't. He is
20:33
Speaker 1: incentivized to know all the data and to know the
20:36
Speaker 1: full story. And he's also been in really tough rooms
20:39
Speaker 1: the entire time he's been running, getting asked really hard questions,
20:43
Speaker 1: so he knows how to answer them. So I was
20:46
Speaker 1: really pleased to see it translate. And I do think
20:49
Speaker 1: for Republicans moving forward, because Democrats cannot get off this
20:55
Speaker 1: kind of politics and this kind of policy, as illustrated
21:00
Speaker 1: by the way by Katie Porter, who was like, oh no,
21:02
Speaker 1: we definitely have to give free health care to every
21:04
Speaker 1: illegal fat just last week because they can't get off that,
21:09
Speaker 1: and on crime in particular and public disorder. This kind
21:13
Speaker 1: of messaging is great for any Republican because it is
21:18
Speaker 1: write coded right, and they won't move off of this.
21:22
Speaker 1: And so if you go into any election arguing that
21:25
Speaker 1: you're the public order person, that can be helpful. By
21:28
Speaker 1: the way, I wanted to give a shout out to
21:31
Speaker 1: Promila Jayapaul, who tweeted this the other day. She's from
21:35
Speaker 1: Washington State. Seattle has one of the worst housing crises
21:39
Speaker 1: in the country. I see it every time I'm home
21:41
Speaker 1: in my district. People working full time jobs who can't
21:43
Speaker 1: afford rent, Teachers, nurses, transit workers, blah blah blah, who
21:46
Speaker 1: can't look. It's a policy payer, it's a policy figure,
21:48
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. It's terrible. We built a crisis.
21:51
Speaker 6: And then.
21:53
Speaker 1: And then a sort of centristy Democrat or a realistic
21:58
Speaker 1: Democrat on ax was like, I swear the Democratic Party's
22:01
Speaker 1: message at this point is that all the most progressive
22:03
Speaker 1: places are unaffordable as holes where nobody can afford an apartment.
22:06
Speaker 1: Therefore you should vote for us. And that to me,
22:09
Speaker 1: that is the problem in LA. That's the problem in
22:12
Speaker 1: Seattle where they just elected a socialist mayorage in New York,
22:15
Speaker 1: and the pitch really runs dry after a while.
22:20
Speaker 3: I hope, so it still has it right, like New
22:22
Speaker 3: York just keeps choosing further and further left. They're like
22:26
Speaker 3: Bill de Blasio not left enough, Like we're gonna have
22:28
Speaker 3: to go for I mean, this is where we are
22:31
Speaker 3: right and they have to hit rock bottom in order
22:35
Speaker 3: to understand that these policies won't work. But for now,
22:38
Speaker 3: they're just you know, continuing on with this insanity. And
22:43
Speaker 3: it's hard to watch for those of us again who
22:45
Speaker 3: care about these cities, because look, I mean it's it's
22:50
Speaker 3: not that easy to watch a city you love declient
22:54
Speaker 3: like that.
22:54
Speaker 1: Well, I see the ads with L. I like La.
22:58
Speaker 1: I liked visiting. I always have a great time. I'm there.
23:00
Speaker 1: You can't argue with the weather. I would like LA
23:04
Speaker 1: to succeed. And I watched these videos that have these
23:06
Speaker 1: you know, the beautiful sunsets and the views, and I go,
23:09
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I'm rooting. I'm rooting for him because
23:12
Speaker 1: I would like LA to perform better. That would be me.
23:15
Speaker 3: Too, Yeah, absolutely, I look, I have always loved La.
23:19
Speaker 3: LA used to be what we, you know, would consider
23:21
Speaker 3: our backup plan to New York, Like if New York
23:23
Speaker 3: falls apart, we're gonna move to LA.
23:24
Speaker 2: And then it turns out like, oh god, La is
23:27
Speaker 2: even worse.
23:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so much.
23:31
Speaker 2: We want to go visit.
23:32
Speaker 3: Right, We've been in La together. It was sunny and
23:35
Speaker 3: beautiful and you know, so lush and gorgeous. And Ron
23:38
Speaker 3: DeSantis has a great line about California. He's just like,
23:41
Speaker 3: how do you ruin this?
23:42
Speaker 1: Like, how do you miss this?
23:45
Speaker 2: How do you mess this up? How is that possible?
23:47
Speaker 5: Ye?
23:47
Speaker 2: There, They just they work real hard at that.
23:50
Speaker 1: They really do. But it's it's been interesting to watch
23:52
Speaker 1: him sort of bust out of the he's busted out
23:55
Speaker 1: of the Oh it's a bit non binary, perhaps, like
23:58
Speaker 1: he's out of the Democratic a Republican box. He's just
24:02
Speaker 1: speaking about only local issues. And by the way, Democrats
24:05
Speaker 1: want to nationalize everything. Everything has become inevitably nationalized, and
24:11
Speaker 1: he's just refusing. He's like, I am talking about La,
24:15
Speaker 1: I'm talking about trash pickup, I'm talking about fires. And
24:17
Speaker 1: I think that really does actually break through an appeal
24:20
Speaker 1: to people.
24:20
Speaker 3: There was a moment in the debate where councilwoman Ramen
24:23
Speaker 3: is like, this is the Maga, you know, version of LA,
24:27
Speaker 3: and he just made this amazing like face, like it
24:31
Speaker 3: was just like moving.
24:32
Speaker 2: His head around like, oh, maga.
24:36
Speaker 1: And by the way, if the Maga version of LA
24:39
Speaker 1: ends up having fewer junkies between you and your local
24:42
Speaker 1: part and harass you, would that be the end of
24:45
Speaker 1: the world. Said, it reminds me a bit of the
24:49
Speaker 1: of the Memphis story that we've followed, which in Memphis
24:52
Speaker 1: local leadership did partner with National Guard and other law
24:56
Speaker 1: enforcement agencies to say like, hey, yeah, can you take
24:59
Speaker 1: some of the so off of our plate because we've
25:01
Speaker 1: got some real problems here and crime has gone down
25:03
Speaker 1: and quality of life is better.
25:05
Speaker 2: And that's a good thing, right right, that's a good thing.
25:09
Speaker 2: All right.
25:10
Speaker 3: We're going to take a short break and be right
25:11
Speaker 3: back with one more segment of Normally.
25:18
Speaker 1: Oh right, we are back on Normally with a discussion
25:21
Speaker 1: all about parenting. Okay, So Emily Austerer, who's one of
25:25
Speaker 1: my favorite reads from the pregnancy book Expecting Better. She
25:28
Speaker 1: has a lot of data work about parenting, and she
25:31
Speaker 1: was talking to Today to the Today Show and saying
25:35
Speaker 1: basically that people overestimate how important it is to daily
25:40
Speaker 1: bathe your young children. She says, quote, eventually they'll hit
25:44
Speaker 1: puberty and it will be important for them to bathe
25:46
Speaker 1: because they smell. But until that point, quote, they don't
25:49
Speaker 1: really need to take a bath that often. And it's
25:50
Speaker 1: maybe not the hill you want to die on. She's
25:52
Speaker 1: basically saying, cost benefit analysis. If this is stressing you out,
25:57
Speaker 1: maybe your three year old does not need a bath
25:58
Speaker 1: every single night.
25:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is false. I look, you know three day old?
26:03
Speaker 1: Sure?
26:04
Speaker 2: Three you know three week old? Okay, as soon as
26:07
Speaker 2: those little.
26:07
Speaker 3: Suckers start moving around and picking up all the dust
26:11
Speaker 3: off your floor and touching all the garbage, and who
26:14
Speaker 3: knows what they need baths?
26:16
Speaker 2: I would say twice a day.
26:17
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I would know.
26:19
Speaker 2: On this.
26:21
Speaker 1: I'm on the opposite side of the spectrum. One. Yes,
26:24
Speaker 1: you're correct. Newborns and very young obviously do not need bathing,
26:28
Speaker 1: and like some people do it as a ritual as
26:30
Speaker 1: part of their camoutine or what have you, if it
26:32
Speaker 1: calms them down. My children hated baths like with a burning,
26:37
Speaker 1: burning passion for a long time, so that made me
26:40
Speaker 1: somewhat less excited to give them to them, but I
26:45
Speaker 1: did do I do less bathing with the young kids
26:48
Speaker 1: than when they get older, and then I'm like, go
26:50
Speaker 1: off and do it yourself. Now. If I'm ever invited
26:54
Speaker 1: to Carol's.
26:54
Speaker 3: House, right, I feel like we're gonna have to We're
26:57
Speaker 3: gonna have to implement some rules here.
26:58
Speaker 1: We're going to bathe all of them before we get there.
27:00
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not like outlandishly long periods of time,
27:03
Speaker 1: but we don't do it every day, and I certainly
27:05
Speaker 1: don't do it in that first year of life every
27:07
Speaker 1: day because I am tired and at at six thirty
27:10
Speaker 1: or seven pm, I am not adding that to the routine.
27:15
Speaker 2: We do it daily.
27:16
Speaker 3: I'm very into clean beds, so there's no outside clothes
27:19
Speaker 3: on the bed, there's no sitting on This.
27:21
Speaker 1: Is wild to me. I learned this from you, and
27:23
Speaker 1: I don't know idea that's even existing.
27:25
Speaker 3: I've turned my kids into equally crazy people who don't
27:28
Speaker 3: allow outside clothes anywhere near their bed. But you know,
27:31
Speaker 3: we were in New York over the weekend and my
27:34
Speaker 3: kids had a separate room, and my youngest son texts
27:36
Speaker 3: me and says, you said I didn't have to take
27:38
Speaker 3: a shower, right, And I was like, on what planet
27:41
Speaker 3: would you not need to take a shower? Yes, you
27:42
Speaker 3: need to take a shower. And my daughter, who's you know,
27:45
Speaker 3: the she runs the whole show.
27:48
Speaker 2: She was like, yeah, I knew that was unlikely.
27:51
Speaker 3: Like she knew that I wasn't going to be like, Oh,
27:53
Speaker 3: you spent the whole day hanging out or all around
27:55
Speaker 3: the city and now you're your home in the whole town,
27:57
Speaker 3: you don't need to shower.
27:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, that doesn't sound that doesn't sound great. Is this
28:01
Speaker 1: an Eastern European thing? Is this a cultural difference?
28:04
Speaker 3: I mean for sure, Like if my mom came in
28:07
Speaker 3: and saw people sitting in my bed, she'd lose her mind.
28:10
Speaker 3: I mean, yes, I think inside clothes, outside clothes, shoes
28:14
Speaker 3: off by the door. I'm wearing slippers right now, like
28:16
Speaker 3: I'm a big slipper person. I like wear them out,
28:19
Speaker 3: get a new pair, like every six months.
28:21
Speaker 2: Yeah.
28:22
Speaker 1: Well okay, Well, if Carol comes to my house, we're.
28:26
Speaker 2: Gonna wear my boots all over the place.
28:28
Speaker 1: So you can't. You totally can't, really you shall. You
28:31
Speaker 1: shall know one, my house can't be that dirty because
28:34
Speaker 1: I live with Steve, So you can you can be
28:36
Speaker 1: assured that it's just Steve, it's in very good shape. Now,
28:40
Speaker 1: are my children a little dirty? Yes, they are. I
28:43
Speaker 1: used to use as a rule some of like are
28:45
Speaker 1: they visibly dirty? Visibly I'll clean them up, which again
28:51
Speaker 1: would not work for your household. And definitely not any beds.
28:53
Speaker 1: I never knew it was even a thing that people
28:56
Speaker 1: wouldn't let outside clothes onto their bed. It makes sense.
29:00
Speaker 1: I'm not knocking it. I just it never occouraged me,
29:04
Speaker 1: and it's definitely not a rule in our house.
29:07
Speaker 2: All right.
29:07
Speaker 3: You know, the kids have a good time at your house.
29:10
Speaker 3: They live under a very strict regime over here.
29:13
Speaker 2: But no bathing. I mean, come on, Emily Oster.
29:15
Speaker 3: I'm a very loose parent, but like, aback, at the
29:17
Speaker 3: end of the day, it's so nice.
29:19
Speaker 1: I agree with that, unless I'm the one giving the bet. Yeah,
29:26
Speaker 1: especially in my two under two era, I was like,
29:28
Speaker 1: how dirty.
29:29
Speaker 3: Are They're like, it's fine, do.
29:32
Speaker 1: They really need it? So, you know, I'm glad to
29:34
Speaker 1: have the data back me up a little bit on this,
29:36
Speaker 1: but I will concede that maybe we're a little gross.
29:39
Speaker 2: Not a lot.
29:40
Speaker 1: Not a lot.
29:41
Speaker 2: Steve wouldn't let you be a lot.
29:43
Speaker 1: The sheets are changed frequently. Yes, Steve wouldn't let us
29:46
Speaker 1: be a lot gross, but you know we behave ourselves
29:51
Speaker 1: outside the house.
29:51
Speaker 3: That's right. Well, thanks for joining us on normally. Normally
29:55
Speaker 3: airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you could subscribe anywhere.
29:57
Speaker 2: You get your podcast.
29:59
Speaker 3: Get in touch with us normally theepod at gmail dot com.
30:02
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening and when things get weird at normally
30:11
Speaker 2: H