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Normally Podcast: Tariffs, Transitions, and Tinfoil Hats · Normally

0:02
Speaker 1: Hey guys, we are back on normally the show with
0:04
Speaker 1: normal wish takes, but when the news gets weird, my
0:07
Speaker 1: co host Carol Mark Woodz is out on the vacation
0:10
Speaker 1: and we're letting her enjoy it. So joining me again
0:13
Speaker 1: is Matt Whitlock, my buddy, formerly of the National Republican
0:16
Speaker 1: Senatorial Committee, worked on various campaigns and the various Senate offices,
0:20
Speaker 1: and now runs his own consulting company. And is it
0:24
Speaker 1: You're sorry? Should I should check the facts on that.
0:27
Speaker 2: I work for a very smart people in a consulting company.
0:29
Speaker 2: I don't want them to think that I'm telling people
0:31
Speaker 2: I read the show, but very smart people.
0:34
Speaker 1: Yes, and now is a consultant and runs his own
0:38
Speaker 1: podcasts called The Excellent Minute Drill. Welcome Mat Whitlock to
0:42
Speaker 1: the show. A lot going on in the news as usual.
0:46
Speaker 1: I could play seventeen more Hunter Biden clips and arguably
0:50
Speaker 1: that would be the thing to.
0:51
Speaker 2: Do and people wouldn't tune out because it's an entertaining content.
0:55
Speaker 2: Hunter gave us a lot to I mean, it was
0:56
Speaker 2: a three hour interview and then he's done.
0:59
Speaker 1: More so, No, it's it's going to be my new
1:01
Speaker 1: gym soundtrack. I'm just going to put the Hunter Biden
1:04
Speaker 1: interview on and go with the gym and be motivated.
1:07
Speaker 2: Guy f that guy, I got run up the hill
1:09
Speaker 2: to that.
1:09
Speaker 1: There's one answer I heard today, and this is just
1:11
Speaker 1: an aside. We're going to get into the real news,
1:13
Speaker 1: but there was one answer today I heard that I
1:15
Speaker 1: hadn't heard earlier. That was, like, to be sure, I
1:18
Speaker 1: don't want to instruct anybody on how to make crack cocaine. Oh,
1:22
Speaker 1: these ingredients and also when you're making crack cocaine, people
1:26
Speaker 1: act like it's dirty, but it's actually healthier for you.
1:28
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. He goes through the health benefits of certain
1:30
Speaker 2: kinds of crack cocaine, and that segment on crack cocaine
1:34
Speaker 2: is like probably five minutes. You know. The highlight was
1:36
Speaker 2: I'm not going to tell people how to make crack cocaine,
1:38
Speaker 2: but he talks pretty specifically about how to get into it.
1:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's he's something else. As comfortably smug said, I
1:45
Speaker 1: think the left has found its Joe Rogan.
1:47
Speaker 2: Yes, I didn't hear say that.
1:50
Speaker 1: That's a good smug take. That's a good one, all right,
1:53
Speaker 1: But let's get some more slightly more serious stuff. I'm
1:55
Speaker 1: sure Hunter will have tons to say on all the
1:58
Speaker 1: issues of the day, and we can quote him in
2:00
Speaker 1: the future. The US Olympic team is stating that they
2:05
Speaker 1: are going to comply with Trump's keeping men out of
2:08
Speaker 1: women's sports executive Order. They have changed some of their
2:12
Speaker 1: official language. This is the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee
2:16
Speaker 1: updating its policies with specific reference to the executive Order.
2:22
Speaker 1: And I think this is like obviously a win for
2:25
Speaker 1: women's sports and for sanity. This is a thing that honestly,
2:30
Speaker 1: I wish I had been louder about at times, because
2:33
Speaker 1: it did kind of sneak up on you and then
2:34
Speaker 1: you're like, wait, what's happening? And here we are where
2:39
Speaker 1: I think the tide is finally turned. It was really
2:42
Speaker 1: hard to talk about for a long time. The female
2:44
Speaker 1: athletes who did talk about it deserves so much credit.
2:47
Speaker 1: I attended several rallies in the past, getting heckled all
2:52
Speaker 1: the while with some of these very brave women like
2:55
Speaker 1: Riley Gaines and others, And here we are seeing the
2:59
Speaker 1: payoff from that. MIDS.
3:01
Speaker 2: This has been a crazy, crazy sort of progression over
3:05
Speaker 2: I want to say, probably like ten twelve years when
3:08
Speaker 2: you go back to like the initial bathroom bills that
3:11
Speaker 2: dealt with trans issues in North Carolina places like that,
3:14
Speaker 2: where I believe was the NBA moved a All Star
3:17
Speaker 2: Game or something out of the state because the state
3:19
Speaker 2: had done bathroom specific bills. But what happened over time,
3:23
Speaker 2: and if you watch the polling on this year over year,
3:25
Speaker 2: the more people saw this in action, the more people
3:28
Speaker 2: saw female athletes get crushed by male athletes in sports,
3:33
Speaker 2: the more it became very real. And that hit a
3:34
Speaker 2: fever pitch the last three or four years to where
3:37
Speaker 2: this jumped to the very clear seventy five to twenty
3:40
Speaker 2: five eighty twenty issue that it is now. But it
3:43
Speaker 2: took people seeing this in action to play out. And
3:45
Speaker 2: I've talked to so many, you know, friends who have
3:48
Speaker 2: young daughters who have had to compete against biological boys
3:52
Speaker 2: in things like you know, rec league soccer, and it
3:55
Speaker 2: is just unfair. But also parents watch this and are
3:58
Speaker 2: just flabbergasted. But that's how this shifted. People saw it
4:02
Speaker 2: in real life. And what happened with this Olympic level
4:05
Speaker 2: decision is the fact that you know, it seemed like
4:08
Speaker 2: Olympic committee and some of the you know, NCAA, those
4:11
Speaker 2: types of organizations were the last holdouts on this, trying
4:14
Speaker 2: to sort of continue to be the virtue signalers on
4:17
Speaker 2: letting men compete against women's sports because of freedom or
4:20
Speaker 2: whatever absurd justification they had for it. This is yeah,
4:24
Speaker 2: kind of equity and you know, welcoming and belonging and
4:28
Speaker 2: all that. But this is a win for the culture
4:31
Speaker 2: shift that those athletes, Riley gained, so many others started
4:35
Speaker 2: that President Trump capitalized on, like we talked about, you know,
4:37
Speaker 2: on Tuesday, seeing these eighty twenty issues and saying, hey,
4:41
Speaker 2: wait a second, the people are actually like all aligned.
4:43
Speaker 2: They're not aligned on a lot of things. This is
4:46
Speaker 2: one where they're on the same page and it is
4:48
Speaker 2: a win, and it's really important for the sanctity of sports,
4:51
Speaker 2: the opportunities for women to compete. You know, it's shouldn't
4:55
Speaker 2: have taken this, but I'm glad that it got there.
4:57
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think another thing that it took. In addition
4:59
Speaker 1: to people seeing action, I think Leah Thomas was a
5:02
Speaker 1: turning point. There were just really see this. I think
5:06
Speaker 1: part of it also was follow people following the lead
5:09
Speaker 1: of people like Jennifer Say, Riley Gaines, who were really
5:14
Speaker 1: in trouble for speaking out. There's a wonderful young sprinter
5:17
Speaker 1: in I believe, Connecticut who was one of the early
5:19
Speaker 1: folks who wrote a USA Today column very bravely, and
5:23
Speaker 1: they were just dog piled in. Like transactivists are some
5:27
Speaker 1: of the most vocal you're going to find, and it
5:31
Speaker 1: takes brave people to help other people be brave. Jk
5:34
Speaker 1: Rowling another great example. You can't cancel her, you can't
5:37
Speaker 1: cancel Dave Chappelle. Right, So when people saw people being
5:42
Speaker 1: brave on behalf of this very common sense thing. But
5:46
Speaker 1: unfortunately we lost our minds so much between twenty twenty
5:49
Speaker 1: and twenty four that you couldn't say common sense things
5:52
Speaker 1: that they then felt empowered to say. Yet no, I'm
5:55
Speaker 1: on the side of the women as well. USA Fencing
5:58
Speaker 1: is another organization that immediately followed suit. As soon as
6:01
Speaker 1: the Olympics said we got to change this, they said, okay,
6:05
Speaker 1: we're on board too. And this is important because, as
6:08
Speaker 1: Fox reports, USA Fencing has been under a national microscope
6:11
Speaker 1: for its gender eligibility policies since April, when footage of
6:14
Speaker 1: women's fencer Stephanie Turner kneeling to protest a trans opponent
6:18
Speaker 1: at a competition in Maryland went viral. Turner was disqualified
6:21
Speaker 1: and given a black card for her refusal to face
6:23
Speaker 1: the trans opponent, prompting mass backlash against USA Fencing. Again,
6:28
Speaker 1: this is a person who put her own reputation and
6:31
Speaker 1: career such that it can be on the line to
6:34
Speaker 1: say this is not right, and we're seeing results.
6:38
Speaker 2: When when you think about, you know, fencing, similar to swimming,
6:41
Speaker 2: some of these very specialized sports that people dedicate their
6:44
Speaker 2: entire lives to, you know, like I like swimming as
6:47
Speaker 2: an example, because the competitive swimmers that I've known their
6:49
Speaker 2: entire lives had to wake up at five am for
6:52
Speaker 2: swim practice and go directly after school to three hours
6:55
Speaker 2: of swim practice. Swimming as a technical I mean, fencing
6:58
Speaker 2: similarly has such a technical, high level, you know, requirement
7:03
Speaker 2: for being competitive. They get this far and then have
7:06
Speaker 2: to compete against men.
7:07
Speaker 1: I just think, you know, you know what happens in
7:09
Speaker 1: fencing when your your arm and your extremities are three
7:12
Speaker 1: times longer than your opponent. Oh my gosh, it's crazy.
7:16
Speaker 1: It's actually crazy. It is even have to have this discussion,
7:20
Speaker 1: and that lefties are like, well, I don't know, there's
7:22
Speaker 1: not a lot of studies. We don't need studies, guys. No,
7:24
Speaker 1: just like you don't need studies, We didn't need studies.
7:27
Speaker 1: And it's similar whether it was going to hurt toddlers
7:29
Speaker 1: to cover their faces for two years like we k exactly.
7:32
Speaker 2: And volleyball was another one like this where people could
7:34
Speaker 2: just say, wait a second, you watch a biological male
7:37
Speaker 2: spike a ball in the face of a female and
7:40
Speaker 2: there were legitimate injuries. The San Jose State volleyball team
7:44
Speaker 2: had a male athlete competing on their team who caused
7:47
Speaker 2: several injuries and led to a flood of other teams
7:50
Speaker 2: dropping out of playoff competition even though they work their
7:53
Speaker 2: entire lives to get there, because they were afraid for
7:55
Speaker 2: their lives. And that's exactly what has sort of, you know,
7:58
Speaker 2: added kindling to this fire of eventually being able to say, Okay,
8:01
Speaker 2: you know we're being inclose to we love everybody, but
8:04
Speaker 2: also this is just unfair. And to your point about JK.
8:06
Speaker 2: Rowling and Dave Chappelle, you needed people like that with
8:09
Speaker 2: that kind of platform who were essentially uncancellable to create
8:12
Speaker 2: the permission structure where we could say this is absurd,
8:15
Speaker 2: you know, and like Dave Chappelle did it in a
8:16
Speaker 2: very different way that I think, you know, was helpful
8:19
Speaker 2: in adding a comedy shine to abs sad it was. JK.
8:22
Speaker 2: Rowling is an example of the crazy bedfellows this brought together.
8:25
Speaker 2: Jennifer Say is another one. I believe she was a
8:27
Speaker 2: Democrat most of her life, but have these issues thrown
8:31
Speaker 2: in her face in such an absurd way that she's like,
8:33
Speaker 2: wait a second, my side's lost the plot completely. And
8:35
Speaker 2: so we have a lot a debt to these guys
8:38
Speaker 2: for breaking that glass and making it okay to raise
8:41
Speaker 2: questions that eventually led to this.
8:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, and as I say, as a former and current
8:46
Speaker 1: mediocre female athlete myself, I do feel like we are
8:51
Speaker 1: the demographic that is most at risk here because often,
8:54
Speaker 1: and the Olympics are showing this, but often, and I
8:57
Speaker 1: want everyone to be protected, but often elite female athletes
9:00
Speaker 1: don't have to face the same issues because they're like, oh,
9:03
Speaker 1: we'll just be kind and accepting. At lower levels, we
9:06
Speaker 1: don't do any testing for high school, we don't do
9:08
Speaker 1: any testing for middle school volleyball. Right, if you're in
9:11
Speaker 1: that space, you don't have protections until this executive order
9:15
Speaker 1: comes along. If your community is like, oh, anything goes,
9:19
Speaker 1: there's no testing, there's no questions asked, there's no anything.
9:22
Speaker 1: And so I do think one of the losses over
9:25
Speaker 1: the past couple of years that we are hopefully going
9:28
Speaker 1: to reverse is probably women thinking about getting into sports
9:31
Speaker 1: and going that seems like I should do something else. Yeah,
9:35
Speaker 1: it's not like it. There's a lot of glory to
9:37
Speaker 1: begin with.
9:38
Speaker 2: No, No, the sacrifice is so real and if you're
9:42
Speaker 2: going to sacrifice that far, So hopefully this course corrects
9:45
Speaker 2: and does make you know, competing in women's sports again
9:48
Speaker 2: the great thing that it was. You know, for such
9:50
Speaker 2: a long time.
9:53
Speaker 1: I wish everybody the best I do. It was so
9:55
Speaker 1: valuable to me growing up that I don't want erosion
9:58
Speaker 1: and I want women to really be able to enjoy
10:01
Speaker 1: these moments and competing against it, dude, makes it real
10:05
Speaker 1: hard for you to do that. I want to also
10:08
Speaker 1: note this is a big one. This is a New
10:09
Speaker 1: York Times reporting on the gender subject. Hospitals are limiting
10:14
Speaker 1: gender treatment for trans miners even in blue states. Two
10:17
Speaker 1: prominent medical centers in California recently announced they would stop treatments,
10:21
Speaker 1: citing pressure from the Trump administration. I do think Look,
10:25
Speaker 1: the Trump administration obviously deserves credit, and part of that
10:28
Speaker 1: is causal. I also think some of these organizations are like,
10:32
Speaker 1: h should we take this chance to stop doing this
10:35
Speaker 1: crazy stuff.
10:37
Speaker 2: That's the thing, like the vulnerability they have of the
10:40
Speaker 2: permanent damage they do to people with these surgeries with
10:43
Speaker 2: such little medical evidence. And I know in another part
10:46
Speaker 2: of this show we're going to talk about people selling
10:47
Speaker 2: out their expertise for political expediency, but I think this
10:50
Speaker 2: is one where it's incredibly prominent when you look at
10:53
Speaker 2: the medical groups who have said this is, you know,
10:55
Speaker 2: critically important to mental health for young people, but there's
10:58
Speaker 2: nothing to back it up. It's all purely anecdotal. And
11:01
Speaker 2: you also have to give a lot of credit. There
11:02
Speaker 2: are groups who have been hyper engaged in highlighting this,
11:05
Speaker 2: creating resources for the Trump administration and others to look at.
11:09
Speaker 2: For example, Do No Harm is a group that has
11:11
Speaker 2: mapped this out and found exactly how much different hospitals
11:14
Speaker 2: in different states have put into creating these facilities that
11:18
Speaker 2: are performing these dangerous treatments on youth under the age
11:21
Speaker 2: of eighteen. And it's radical and horrific. But when you
11:24
Speaker 2: look at the volume and how much money these medical
11:27
Speaker 2: facilities have made off of these procedures. It's egregious and
11:31
Speaker 2: it makes a lot of sense that they're, you know,
11:33
Speaker 2: cutting their risks by stopping this, but it is crazy
11:36
Speaker 2: that it took so much to get to this point. Again,
11:39
Speaker 2: because this is another issue where if you look at
11:41
Speaker 2: the polling, like Washington Post is a very progressive polster,
11:45
Speaker 2: they're polling showed that about seventy five eighty percent of
11:48
Speaker 2: all people think that these should be banned for anyone
11:51
Speaker 2: under the age of eighteen. And that is all of
11:53
Speaker 2: the different sex change interventions. It is the surgeries, but
11:56
Speaker 2: it's also the hormone treatments. It's also the different irreversible
11:59
Speaker 2: medical interventions that can start that process that affects youth,
12:05
Speaker 2: and it shouldn't be done before someone is eighteen where
12:07
Speaker 2: they can make that permanent decision.
12:10
Speaker 1: And by the way, one of the reasons that the
12:13
Speaker 1: medical information or lack thereof on this is more mainstream
12:17
Speaker 1: now is because the ACLU's lawyer should not have but
12:21
Speaker 1: brought this to the Supreme Court and argued in front
12:25
Speaker 1: of the Supreme Court, at which point and a lot
12:27
Speaker 1: of these documents put before the Supreme Court, and in
12:29
Speaker 1: a lot of the questioning before the Supreme Court, it
12:31
Speaker 1: was revealed that the data is not there. So I
12:35
Speaker 1: think people now feel comfortable going with their gut on this. Again,
12:39
Speaker 1: another thing where everyone kind of knew this was wrong
12:41
Speaker 1: from the beginning, but it felt it's been a strange
12:44
Speaker 1: five years. Everyone was like, uh, should I be saying
12:49
Speaker 1: that this is wrong? Or am I mean to say
12:51
Speaker 1: this is wrong? And in fact, it's really mean to
12:53
Speaker 1: deny the truth and to tell children that they can
12:56
Speaker 1: change their sex. That is, that's actually the wrong thing.
13:00
Speaker 1: And we're coming to that conclusion. By the way, this
13:01
Speaker 1: New York Times story mostly focuses on like that people
13:06
Speaker 1: are worried about whether youth can consent to this type
13:11
Speaker 1: of decision. They don't get into the actual harms that
13:14
Speaker 1: like bone density and brain development and sexual function are
13:18
Speaker 1: all affected by permanently, permanently by these interventions, and that
13:24
Speaker 1: that matters too. And I would note that the New
13:26
Speaker 1: York Times comment section, which has a lot of upright lit,
13:31
Speaker 1: Yeah it's lit, And also a lot of the up
13:34
Speaker 1: voting has happened for people saying, look, I'm no fan
13:37
Speaker 1: of Trump, when he's right about this.
13:38
Speaker 2: Yep, that's the thing. It's these bedfellows. But to your
13:41
Speaker 2: point before about the ACLU lawyer, I thought that was
13:43
Speaker 2: really interesting after the Scrimeti decision, just what a month
13:46
Speaker 2: ago from the Supreme Court, how many liberal groups are like,
13:49
Speaker 2: wait a sec this was strategically a disaster opening the
13:53
Speaker 2: door to all these other issues, arguing it poorly taking
13:56
Speaker 2: this particular case, and I mean the Scrimetti team in
13:59
Speaker 2: Tennessee that push this and argued that Jonathan Skermetti, the
14:01
Speaker 2: Attorney General, there is a rock star to watch for
14:04
Speaker 2: a very very long time to come. He's got a
14:06
Speaker 2: number of different, very important sort of conservative movement cases
14:09
Speaker 2: that are actually the common sense cases for parental rights
14:12
Speaker 2: for things like this, that I think will be really
14:14
Speaker 2: interesting to track. But again, this is brought together such
14:17
Speaker 2: a unique coalition. I call it the coalition of the Normies.
14:21
Speaker 2: It's people who are just like, hey, like, what if
14:23
Speaker 2: we don't transkids before they have a you know, opportunity
14:26
Speaker 2: to make decisions about their lives.
14:27
Speaker 1: Things like that, Like.
14:28
Speaker 2: What if you know, we let girls just compete against
14:30
Speaker 2: other girls? What if we didn't have you know, thirty
14:33
Speaker 2: five year old dudes in locker rooms and bathrooms with
14:35
Speaker 2: little girls like what if we didn't do that? You know?
14:38
Speaker 1: Yep, And that's who we hope is listening to this
14:40
Speaker 1: podcast called Norms.
14:42
Speaker 2: That's the dream.
14:43
Speaker 1: That's our constituency. Okay, from this culture shift to another
14:48
Speaker 1: a little bit more wonky policy issue. Announcements today that
14:52
Speaker 1: Trump is coming to a massive trade deal with Japan,
14:56
Speaker 1: setting tariffs at fifteen percent. There. There's also reports that
15:02
Speaker 1: you are getting some sort of income from the tariffs
15:06
Speaker 1: that have been set thus far. I don't know where
15:08
Speaker 1: you are on this. I have been look. Trump advertised
15:12
Speaker 1: he was going to do this. I kind of hoped
15:14
Speaker 1: he wouldn't do it too aggressively. I think trying to
15:17
Speaker 1: do one hundred and sixty five ish trade deals at
15:20
Speaker 1: one time, even though you have the energy of Donald Trump,
15:23
Speaker 1: is not the best strategic plan. And yet the economy
15:28
Speaker 1: has not responded as negatively as I would have thought
15:31
Speaker 1: it might, and I'm very glad about that, very glad.
15:34
Speaker 1: I also think there are unfair practices, but I don't
15:38
Speaker 1: know how much we're gaining in this. What is your
15:40
Speaker 1: take on whether this has economic or political advantages or
15:46
Speaker 1: disadvantages for him.
15:47
Speaker 2: I think I'm generally in the same place as you.
15:49
Speaker 2: Liberation Day when they announced the new tariff rates on
15:52
Speaker 2: every country and the markets went into absolute shock was terrifying.
15:56
Speaker 2: But since that time things have generally evened out, and
15:59
Speaker 2: I think to point we've seen a lot of the
16:01
Speaker 2: doomsday predictions were not you know, they didn't quite come
16:05
Speaker 2: to fruition. There are still some warning signs about inflation,
16:08
Speaker 2: you know, rising cost prices going up for goods. Certain
16:12
Speaker 2: companies are dealing with, you know, the tariff issue in
16:16
Speaker 2: different ways, but I think that it is generally coming
16:19
Speaker 2: closer to an equilibrium. I think to your point about
16:22
Speaker 2: you know, unfair practices, we're talking about the EU right now.
16:25
Speaker 2: The EU, because they have not had any innovation, they
16:28
Speaker 2: have very few successful companies. They are trying to find
16:33
Speaker 2: new ways to generate income from American companies, so they
16:36
Speaker 2: have things like their digital services tax, which I think
16:38
Speaker 2: is one of the most absurd things in the world.
16:40
Speaker 2: But I have a lot of like little beef with
16:42
Speaker 2: EU on different things now that I've like gotten understand
16:44
Speaker 2: a little bit more about our policy relationship with that
16:46
Speaker 2: very opens Yeah, yeah.
16:49
Speaker 1: I mean the Europeans.
16:50
Speaker 2: I just like I like Europe, I like to visit
16:52
Speaker 2: different places, but so many things they're doing, whether it's
16:55
Speaker 2: you know, like trying to force ESG on American companies
16:58
Speaker 2: while they're buying Russian gas that's used, you know, to
17:01
Speaker 2: fund the war, and you cant all that. We could
17:02
Speaker 2: go on for a long time about beef with the EU,
17:04
Speaker 2: but hopefully with you know, the tariff deal and everything
17:07
Speaker 2: that Now the tariff deal with EU seems like more
17:10
Speaker 2: of a stepping stone towards a larger suite of issues
17:14
Speaker 2: they want to resolve with EU. But if they can
17:16
Speaker 2: get into a conversation about things like these non trade
17:19
Speaker 2: barriers in addition to the tariffs, that would be super valuable.
17:22
Speaker 2: And I also think Japan is a big deal because
17:25
Speaker 2: a lot of the trade conversations up to this point,
17:27
Speaker 2: the places that we've seen progress with have been some
17:29
Speaker 2: of the smaller Asian countries who have important import conversations
17:34
Speaker 2: import export conversations with the United States. But Japan is
17:37
Speaker 2: a very different scale, you know, And it's it's funny
17:40
Speaker 2: we talked a lot about part of my beef with
17:42
Speaker 2: tariffs is the way that you know, Peter Navarro and
17:45
Speaker 2: some of the Trump trade. You know, experts talk about this,
17:48
Speaker 2: you know, why aren't your why isn't Japan buying more
17:51
Speaker 2: American cars? I lived in Japan for a few years
17:54
Speaker 2: as a missionar, and I drove on those roads that
17:56
Speaker 2: feel like you're in a video game. And if you
17:58
Speaker 2: drove an F one to fifty on the road and
18:01
Speaker 2: am in a small town in Japan.
18:02
Speaker 1: It's not gonna work.
18:03
Speaker 2: They're gonna be knocking buildings out of the way into
18:06
Speaker 2: rice patties and it's gonna be a problem. So I
18:07
Speaker 2: think that there was a disconnect there. But I know
18:09
Speaker 2: autos were a big part of this Japanese deal, and
18:12
Speaker 2: they'll find a way to sort of make it work
18:14
Speaker 2: that's profitable for both sides. To your point before, I
18:17
Speaker 2: think trying to do this many deals at once is
18:19
Speaker 2: a little bit scary, and I think there are pressures
18:21
Speaker 2: that come with that. There's a lot of coverage about
18:23
Speaker 2: how you know, our posture on this has maybe pushed
18:26
Speaker 2: more countries towards openness to China, and you know, despite
18:30
Speaker 2: how terrible they are, I don't I don't love that,
18:33
Speaker 2: but I think that they're trying to navigate around that
18:35
Speaker 2: and I think that, you know, Scott Bessant is somebody
18:37
Speaker 2: who has been valuable to watch because he's been very
18:40
Speaker 2: even handed while still being you know, very pro the
18:43
Speaker 2: trade agenda, pro what President Trump's trying to do, but
18:46
Speaker 2: contextualizing it in a way for people who might go
18:49
Speaker 2: in with more concern to feel like, Okay, we're in
18:51
Speaker 2: good hands. The north star here is how do we
18:53
Speaker 2: lower costs for Americans? And how do we get to
18:56
Speaker 2: that point? And I think, you know, that's what they're
18:57
Speaker 2: working really hard to do. So we'll see where I'm saying.
19:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know. And it's like I always say about
19:02
Speaker 1: Trump that first of all, he does have endless energy,
19:04
Speaker 1: so he doesn't mind putting one hundred and sixty five
19:06
Speaker 1: deals in his plate. And he also likes tariffs and
19:11
Speaker 1: likes steal making, so either sure it works. He's like,
19:14
Speaker 1: these are the things he likes to do. He's given
19:17
Speaker 1: himself the opportunity to do plenty of them. I do
19:19
Speaker 1: fear that sometimes we end up in a slightly less
19:21
Speaker 1: advantageous or the same place we were before before we
19:24
Speaker 1: had this big back and forth with these economies that
19:27
Speaker 1: we were doing business with that we did have access
19:30
Speaker 1: to although there are places we need more access to.
19:33
Speaker 1: I totally think that's true, totally besn't I love having
19:36
Speaker 1: my guy around on the case, whether it's talking to
19:39
Speaker 1: Trump about Jerome Powell or the so. I feel like
19:42
Speaker 1: he's a steady hand, he's trying to make the best
19:46
Speaker 1: of this and keeping between so a calming voice, a
19:51
Speaker 1: calming voice, white hair, treasury second voice. Yeah. So that's
19:56
Speaker 1: where I am on that, and we will keep our
19:57
Speaker 1: eye on it. But yeah, I think Trump can take
20:01
Speaker 1: a half a victory lap, at least on the fact
20:03
Speaker 1: that the doom saying was not what came to pass.
20:07
Speaker 1: I do think there are smaller harms that you don't
20:09
Speaker 1: hear about as much. Probably for smaller businesses that get
20:12
Speaker 1: things from some of these smaller Asian economies, that can
20:16
Speaker 1: be an issue. And I don't want to dismiss that, bute.
20:19
Speaker 1: The large picture has not been terrible.
20:21
Speaker 2: So agreed very much.
20:23
Speaker 1: Alrighty, going on, we have a segment on this show
20:26
Speaker 1: called still Mad Bro. We're Still Mad Bro, And one
20:30
Speaker 1: of the things I'm still mad about, and I think
20:32
Speaker 1: you share this with me. We're going to do actually
20:35
Speaker 1: two quick conspiracy theories that have come true. The first
20:40
Speaker 1: is you remember that DOJ letter about parents talking at
20:46
Speaker 1: school board meetings and objecting to coronavirus mandates, critical race theory,
20:51
Speaker 1: transgender policies, mandated vaccinations, that kind of thing. The DOJ
20:57
Speaker 1: under Biden sent out this letter basically saying, we should
21:00
Speaker 1: find ways to creatively go after these people as domestic terrorists.
21:03
Speaker 1: They're very dangerous, they're threatening people. It turns out that
21:09
Speaker 1: that was very much done in concert with the National
21:13
Speaker 1: school Board Association. Yes, plus Biden, do OJ plus the
21:18
Speaker 1: White House all brainstorming ways over a weekend, by the way,
21:23
Speaker 1: which shows how important it was to them, brainstorming ways
21:27
Speaker 1: to get parents in trouble, to get them under federal law,
21:31
Speaker 1: to get them under investigation for objecting about these things.
21:35
Speaker 1: This is from newly obtained documents from the America First
21:38
Speaker 1: from America First Legal, who has gone through all the
21:42
Speaker 1: emails related to this memo.
21:45
Speaker 2: It's so egregious when you read they're looking for a
21:49
Speaker 2: hook to use to go after these parents. And one
21:52
Speaker 2: thing that I think you have to start out with
21:54
Speaker 2: huge credit to our mutual friend NICKI Neely defending education.
21:57
Speaker 2: She single handedly kept this the news and kept digging
22:01
Speaker 2: and digging and digging and sending those foyas, which eventually
22:05
Speaker 2: led to the National School Board Association being completely dissolved
22:09
Speaker 2: because of this scandal. But way before that, to your point,
22:12
Speaker 2: just for everyone's background, this began with the parents speaking out.
22:16
Speaker 2: Miguel Cardona, former Secretary of Education, soliciting a letter from
22:19
Speaker 2: somebody to say, which was a part of this hook,
22:22
Speaker 2: how do we create the need for know FBI law
22:26
Speaker 2: enforcement to use these counter terrorism tools against parents and
22:30
Speaker 2: say they're a threat to us? Honestly, to me this
22:33
Speaker 2: I am a little bit disappointed that there aren't people
22:36
Speaker 2: in jail over this because they ruined lives. Some of
22:39
Speaker 2: the parents that they pinpointed that they targeted and treated
22:42
Speaker 2: like terrorists, like changed their lives forever, and so it's
22:46
Speaker 2: horrific to keep hearing about. But like I am so
22:48
Speaker 2: grateful that there were people digging into this at the
22:50
Speaker 2: time to make sure that we were able to expose
22:53
Speaker 2: and find out these forces that were trying to silence parents,
22:56
Speaker 2: because this was a part of the parental rights movement
22:59
Speaker 2: has had a in these last three or four years.
23:02
Speaker 2: COVID was a huge part of it. Parents tuning in
23:04
Speaker 2: to what their kids were hearing on zoom classes. Then
23:07
Speaker 2: there was you know, the mask man, It's the vax man.
23:09
Speaker 2: It's all the different things that parents had decision making
23:12
Speaker 2: power taken away from them on. This played a huge
23:16
Speaker 2: role in lighting the fire that got parents engaged, that
23:19
Speaker 2: became a really strong political movement. Had a lot to
23:21
Speaker 2: do with Governor Youngkin getting elected in Virginia.
23:24
Speaker 1: The timing is important because it was October twenty twenty
23:27
Speaker 1: one and things were sort of hitting a fever pitch.
23:30
Speaker 1: They were playing into Governor Youngkin's pitch. Two parents in Virginia.
23:35
Speaker 1: Louden County, Virginia, of course showing itself to be among
23:38
Speaker 1: the most egregious in the country, and everyone here, particularly
23:43
Speaker 1: in northern Virginia, was so contemptuous of parents during COVID.
23:49
Speaker 1: Here's some of the language from these emails. As you
23:51
Speaker 1: noted the hook, We're aware, so is the deputy Associate
23:55
Speaker 1: Deputy Attorney General. We're aware of the challenge here is
23:57
Speaker 1: finding a federal hook. But White House has been in
24:00
Speaker 1: touch about whether we can assist in some form or fashion.
24:03
Speaker 1: So they're trying to gin up ways to go after
24:05
Speaker 1: these parents. And then some actual career folks are like,
24:10
Speaker 1: I don't know if we can do this, guys, it says.
24:12
Speaker 1: It seems we are ramping up an awful lot of
24:14
Speaker 1: federal manpower for what is currently non federal conduct. It
24:18
Speaker 1: appears to me that the vast, vast majority of the
24:20
Speaker 1: behavior cited cannot be reached by federal law. I only
24:23
Speaker 1: saw three stories that involved what sounded like a possible
24:26
Speaker 1: true threat quote, and one of those did not appear
24:28
Speaker 1: to be related to masks, etc. Almost all of the
24:31
Speaker 1: language being used is protected by the First Amendment. The
24:34
Speaker 1: main issue seems to be disruption and obstruction of school
24:38
Speaker 1: board meetings. So the idea that they were over a
24:41
Speaker 1: weekend all getting together to brainstorm ways to arrest and
24:46
Speaker 1: investigate parents at school board meetings, and this is what
24:50
Speaker 1: we all said at the time. We said they're colluding
24:51
Speaker 1: to do this, and we also said, none of these
24:54
Speaker 1: threats are what they're talking about. They're raising speech into threats,
24:58
Speaker 1: and that's what they were doing well.
25:00
Speaker 2: And they wanted to make an example of people, to
25:02
Speaker 2: send a message to parents around the country that they
25:04
Speaker 2: needed to get in line, they needed to do what
25:06
Speaker 2: they're told and have their children go through this. But
25:08
Speaker 2: one of the mistakes they made through this process. Was
25:10
Speaker 2: one of the fathers they identified as a threat to
25:13
Speaker 2: make an example of wasn't there because of masks. He
25:16
Speaker 2: was there because his daughter had been sexually assaulted in
25:18
Speaker 2: a bathroom and the school board covered it up. And
25:21
Speaker 2: while they were covering that up, the same person who
25:25
Speaker 2: carried out that sexual assault did it a second time
25:27
Speaker 2: at a new school. And so when people started finding
25:30
Speaker 2: this out again loud and county, as you're talking about,
25:33
Speaker 2: this was a major national story that went all the
25:36
Speaker 2: way to near the top of the Biden administration, and
25:39
Speaker 2: they had wanted to do it to silence people, but
25:41
Speaker 2: they picked every wrong element of this. And honestly, Miguel
25:43
Speaker 2: Cardona's entire service as Education Secretary was like error after
25:48
Speaker 2: like it was a comedy of errors, but like, this
25:51
Speaker 2: was so egregious. And again again, I maybe this sounds crazy.
25:54
Speaker 2: I wish someone was in jail for this.
25:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I'm I'm with you on this. There was
25:59
Speaker 1: a a special kind of psychosis during COVID, and I
26:03
Speaker 1: think COVID gave people who are inclined to do this
26:06
Speaker 1: kind of thing license to say, like, well, we're complaining
26:10
Speaker 1: about masks. That's a public threat, and it's a public threat, dude.
26:15
Speaker 1: One of the stories about Louden County, as you note
26:18
Speaker 1: this father who was speaking out at meetings because his
26:21
Speaker 1: daughter was actually assaulted and they had hidden it. That's
26:23
Speaker 1: all proven. We've seen all the emails back and forth
26:25
Speaker 1: about that. The person arrested at that meeting was the
26:31
Speaker 1: father protesting about his daughter, I mean, and the entire
26:35
Speaker 1: national media framed it as this guy's just a big
26:38
Speaker 1: jerk who was threatening school board members. I mean, it's crazy,
26:42
Speaker 1: just g regious conduct.
26:43
Speaker 2: His daughter was assaulted, and they tried to make him
26:46
Speaker 2: into this like lunatic guy who's like a mask conspiracy
26:50
Speaker 2: theorist and his daughter been assaulted. Like when you think
26:52
Speaker 2: about what recourse do you parents have when the government
26:54
Speaker 2: just does insane things. That story made people feel more
26:58
Speaker 2: radicalized about what government was from them. Everything that the
27:01
Speaker 2: covid era sort of microwaved. And yeah, that was an
27:05
Speaker 2: explosive story that was just crazy and definitely shifted the
27:07
Speaker 2: Virginia governor's race.
27:08
Speaker 1: I fact checked that about him being arrested every time
27:11
Speaker 1: I mention it because it sounds so insane. I'm like,
27:13
Speaker 1: is that true?
27:15
Speaker 2: It sounds like a conservative fever dream type of thing,
27:17
Speaker 2: but that really happened.
27:19
Speaker 1: Okay, one last conservative fever dream before we're done, Because
27:21
Speaker 1: this conspiracy theory is true as well, and we've had
27:24
Speaker 1: it confirmed before by the Durham Report and other things.
27:28
Speaker 1: But D and I Telsea Gabbart is releasing a bunch
27:31
Speaker 1: of declassified stuff this week rolling on the Russia Gate story.
27:37
Speaker 1: Now I'm actually still a little up in the air
27:39
Speaker 1: on how much new information there is here, but it
27:44
Speaker 1: does at least solidify the Durham Report conclusions and the
27:49
Speaker 1: fact that this wasn't real. I mean, it's just Russia
27:55
Speaker 1: Gate was not real. And the thing that I always
27:58
Speaker 1: said at CNN when I was there and this came
28:01
Speaker 1: to be was I feel like you are all deciding
28:05
Speaker 1: on a conclusion yep, before we have the investigation, whether
28:11
Speaker 1: you're a reporter or the intelligence community. And what Gabbart
28:14
Speaker 1: has released this week about a December ninth, twenty sixteen
28:17
Speaker 1: meeting suggests that in fact, the intelligence community and Obama's
28:22
Speaker 1: officials and Obama himself were like at his behest, he
28:26
Speaker 1: was like, we need a different conclusion than the one
28:29
Speaker 1: you have given me, which is more benign about Russia's
28:32
Speaker 1: involvement in this election, which basically says, I don't think
28:35
Speaker 1: they actually wanted to help Donald Trump, but they were
28:39
Speaker 1: definitely interfering. They weren't interfering by hacking actual machines or votes,
28:45
Speaker 1: but there was an element here. It's just not the
28:48
Speaker 1: thing that it became. And Obama and crew were like,
28:51
Speaker 1: let's do a reassessment because they didn't like that assessment.
28:56
Speaker 2: Yep. And you have to track the moving goalposts of
28:59
Speaker 2: what Democrats have claimed from the beginning of this, because
29:01
Speaker 2: you'll remember after President Trump was elected, even around that time, Democrats,
29:05
Speaker 2: media talking heads, Rachel Mattow, everybody was super comfortable coming
29:09
Speaker 2: right out and saying Russia got Donald Trump elected. Russia
29:12
Speaker 2: did this, and they wanted people to believe that they
29:15
Speaker 2: had manipulated votes, they had hacked into machines, they had
29:18
Speaker 2: made this happen. When you look at what President Obama
29:21
Speaker 2: said this week to try and push back on the
29:23
Speaker 2: d and I report and what Tolsy Gabbard put out,
29:26
Speaker 2: he said Russia worked to influence the twenty sixteen election,
29:28
Speaker 2: but did not successfully manipulate any votes. That vague language
29:32
Speaker 2: of working to influence has been so amorphoused what that
29:35
Speaker 2: could mean to work to influence could be as simple
29:38
Speaker 2: as like some Russian bought you know, posted I hate Hillary,
29:42
Speaker 2: or a meme or things like that. But they want
29:44
Speaker 2: you to believe that it's so much more than it was,
29:46
Speaker 2: because in twenty sixteen that was politically helpful. And when
29:50
Speaker 2: you look at the intelligence community over the years, everything
29:53
Speaker 2: from Hunter's laptop when you had all the you know,
29:56
Speaker 2: intelligence experts signed letters of this was Russian disinformation. Everything
30:00
Speaker 2: they sold out their expertise, and unfortunately, with that, the
30:04
Speaker 2: credibility of the industry, the credibility of that entire institution
30:09
Speaker 2: to get you know, in twenty sixteen, try and get
30:12
Speaker 2: Hillary elected. In twenty twenty, try to get Joe Biden elected.
30:14
Speaker 2: And it's so crazy to think back at just how
30:17
Speaker 2: quickly the holes were poked in those things where people said, okay,
30:21
Speaker 2: I mean, like, if they're willing to make this up,
30:23
Speaker 2: what else are they willing to make up? And now
30:25
Speaker 2: the conspiracy theories are everywhere. We're finding out more and
30:27
Speaker 2: more of them are real. But skepticism in the institutions
30:30
Speaker 2: that we need to trust is sky high, and I
30:32
Speaker 2: don't know how they ever get that trust back.
30:34
Speaker 1: I know well, and that's one of the reasons that
30:36
Speaker 1: I think it is important that a Brennan or a Clapper,
30:40
Speaker 1: who were involved in misusing all this stuff, both on
30:42
Speaker 1: the Hunter Biden laptop and on Russia Gate, should face
30:47
Speaker 1: some sort of punishment. They've also lied to Congress in
30:50
Speaker 1: the past under oath both there's no penalty for it,
30:53
Speaker 1: which exactly important. I always noted that when I was
30:55
Speaker 1: on CNN, and they didn't enjoy it at all that
30:58
Speaker 1: those guys had lied under oath. But I do want
31:01
Speaker 1: to know Eli Lake, who I trust very much on
31:03
Speaker 1: this subject and has been an early skeptic as I
31:05
Speaker 1: was on Russia Gate, although I wish I had gone
31:08
Speaker 1: further back in the day because I didn't imagine just
31:10
Speaker 1: how conspiratorial it was totally, he says. One area where
31:14
Speaker 1: Gabbert does bring new information to light is the revelation
31:16
Speaker 1: of a whistleblower inside the intelligence community who did not
31:19
Speaker 1: believe that the intelligence supported the conclusion in the January
31:23
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen ICA Intelligence Community assessment that the Russian government
31:28
Speaker 1: developed a clear preference for President elect Trump. The release
31:32
Speaker 1: from Friday includes this tantalizing quote from the whistleblower. As
31:35
Speaker 1: for the twenty seventeen ICA's judgment of a decisive Russian
31:38
Speaker 1: preference for then candidate Donald Trump, I could not concur
31:41
Speaker 1: in good conscience based on information available and my professional
31:45
Speaker 1: analytic judgment. There were a lot of people who make
31:48
Speaker 1: this argument that Russia was interfering, but not for the
31:51
Speaker 1: reason that became Russia Gate, and that so much nonsense
31:55
Speaker 1: was predicated on their preference for Trump, when in fact,
31:59
Speaker 1: if you think through at LAE, logically everyone thought Hillary
32:01
Speaker 1: was going to win. Yep, they are. The things they
32:05
Speaker 1: were doing were meant to handicap her to the extent
32:09
Speaker 1: that they could, and to shape a playing field when
32:13
Speaker 1: Hillary was present that would make her more helpful to them.
32:16
Speaker 1: That was it, one hundred percent.
32:18
Speaker 2: And I think that this highlight on the motive part
32:20
Speaker 2: is important because it undoes everything we've been told for
32:23
Speaker 2: those years with everyone saying they wanted Trump to win.
32:25
Speaker 2: They wanted Trump to win. I think that matters, and
32:27
Speaker 2: I think that's a really important part of this. And
32:29
Speaker 2: that whistleblower who got ignored. I mean, how often are
32:32
Speaker 2: we hearing in these stories that there was a voice
32:34
Speaker 2: in the darkness who was trying to push them in
32:35
Speaker 2: the right direction that they conveniently ignored, just like you
32:38
Speaker 2: know in the emails we were talking about before about
32:41
Speaker 2: law enforcement in the Bide administration saying Hey, I don't
32:44
Speaker 2: know if these parents that were trying to pin all
32:45
Speaker 2: this on, you know, are guilty of what we're charging them,
32:49
Speaker 2: and yet it disappears. The problem is if you use
32:52
Speaker 2: a government email and try and do a conspiracy, someday
32:55
Speaker 2: someone's gonna find it.
32:56
Speaker 1: It's going to come out. Well, we're all still little
33:00
Speaker 1: mad bro here on Normally Always, Matt Whitlock, thank you
33:04
Speaker 1: so much for being with me. You can listen to
33:06
Speaker 1: his podcast ten Minute Drilling. You should. It'll give you
33:09
Speaker 1: a briefing on politics for the week when you're feeling
33:11
Speaker 1: a little overwhelmed and keep it short. Thanks for joining
33:14
Speaker 1: us on Normally Normal. Yeah. Normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays,
33:17
Speaker 1: and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts. Get
33:20
Speaker 1: in touch with us at normally thepod at gmail dot com.
33:22
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and when things get weird, act Normally