Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast: NYC Budget Crisis, Colbert “Censorship” Drama & CNN Ratings Collapse

Transcript

Normally Podcast: NYC Budget Crisis, Colbert “Censorship” Drama & CNN Ratings Collapse · Normally

0:07
Speaker 1: Guys, we are back normally, so we're normal from it's weird.
0:11
Speaker 1: I'm her copying. I'm Carol Markowitz.
0:14
Speaker 2: The news continues to be weird, continues to be weird.
0:17
Speaker 2: It just does not stop with the weirdness. But we're
0:21
Speaker 2: not going to get into any topics we don't want
0:22
Speaker 2: to talk about today. Although the news remains Epstein wall
0:26
Speaker 2: to wall, I'm watching so many people fall down rabbit holes,
0:32
Speaker 2: and on the flip side of it, every time one
0:34
Speaker 2: of my friends who I trust otherwise posts something about Epstein,
0:39
Speaker 2: I end up googling because I'm like, well, this can't
0:42
Speaker 2: be right, And a lot of times it's not right
0:45
Speaker 2: because it's like innuendo and questionable commentary. But we're going
0:49
Speaker 2: to overall stay on the Epstein story. But we're not
0:52
Speaker 2: going to talk about it every episode episode.
0:55
Speaker 1: Yes, I think that is wise.
0:58
Speaker 2: We are wise. We are wise.
1:00
Speaker 1: We do want to talk about broken promises in New
1:04
Speaker 1: York City already.
1:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, there is no money tree in the backyard of
1:09
Speaker 2: New York City.
1:10
Speaker 1: Turns out free buses aren't free.
1:13
Speaker 2: It's so weird, like I want everything else that's supposed
1:15
Speaker 2: to be free. How come that's the free?
1:17
Speaker 1: Can we get the Dully parton Imagination Library to do
1:21
Speaker 1: Basic Economics by Thomas so Well to every politician in
1:25
Speaker 1: the country, because that really good idea. Actually that maybe
1:28
Speaker 1: that's my library. I will just send a copy of
1:31
Speaker 1: Basic Economics to every man legislator in the country.
1:36
Speaker 2: I mean donate use Mary Catherine's imaginary library.
1:40
Speaker 1: No imaginary Catherine's Financial International Library, financial literacy, imagination library.
1:49
Speaker 2: Us on that one though.
1:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll workshop it. Yeah, it would be useful, except
1:56
Speaker 1: nobody would read it. I'd have to read it aloud
1:58
Speaker 1: and send them a podcast, right, I could do that too. Yeah.
2:02
Speaker 1: So up in New York, Zornmmdani was trying to get
2:06
Speaker 1: Kathy Hockel, the Governor of New York, to raise a
2:09
Speaker 1: bunch of taxes so that he could pay for his
2:12
Speaker 1: free stuff.
2:12
Speaker 2: Right.
2:13
Speaker 1: He wants to go to everyone in New York, and
2:15
Speaker 1: she's like, nah, bro, I'm not I'm not sure I'm.
2:18
Speaker 2: Going to do that, right, and I have an election
2:21
Speaker 2: coming up?
2:21
Speaker 1: Why would I do that? High earners who they want
2:25
Speaker 1: to tax more even though they pay a substantial majority
2:30
Speaker 1: percentage of taxes in New York. They're like, no, you
2:33
Speaker 1: shouldn't do that, right, So mom. Donnie's like, well, what
2:38
Speaker 1: else can I do? Now? It's going to fall in
2:40
Speaker 1: the middle class. So here he is announcing this ultimatum
2:44
Speaker 1: to New York City. Just what are we a month
2:46
Speaker 1: into this experiment? Here we go take it away, Zorn.
2:49
Speaker 3: At the heart of this path is a property tax increase.
2:53
Speaker 3: This would effectively be a tax on working in middle
2:56
Speaker 3: class New Yorkers who have a median income of one
2:58
Speaker 3: hundred and twenty two thousand dollars. The second path also
3:01
Speaker 3: requires us to raid our reserves. It would mean with
3:04
Speaker 3: drawing nine hundred and eighty million dollars from our city's
3:07
Speaker 3: Rainy Day Fund in fiscal year twenty twenty six and
3:10
Speaker 3: two hundred and twenty nine million dollars from the Retiree
3:13
Speaker 3: Health Benefit Trust in fiscal year twenty twenty seven. These
3:17
Speaker 3: are steps that have been taken before, but only in
3:20
Speaker 3: moments of extraordinary external crisis. Mayor Bloomberg's response the two
3:24
Speaker 3: thousand and eight financial collapse and Mayor Deblasio's response to
3:27
Speaker 3: the enormous revenue shortfall caused by the pandemic. We do
3:31
Speaker 3: not want to have to turn to such drastic measures
3:34
Speaker 3: to balance our budget.
3:35
Speaker 1: Can I say? Something you are the extraordinary crisis.
3:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, new York elected a socialist and cause an extraordinary crisis.
3:45
Speaker 1: Where's where's this lack of funds coming from. It's because
3:49
Speaker 1: you're one to send everything out the door, and New
3:52
Speaker 1: York has never been particularly fiscally responsible to begin with. Yeah,
3:56
Speaker 1: a couple people flagged, for instance, that forty percent of
3:59
Speaker 1: the one hundred and twenty seven billion that is in
4:03
Speaker 1: the budget is fifty billion for the Department of Education.
4:06
Speaker 1: This despite enrollment falling I think ten percent over the
4:09
Speaker 1: last couple of years.
4:11
Speaker 2: Just more money, more money, more money. Yeah, and it
4:14
Speaker 2: makes no sense. So I think the same person you're quoting.
4:17
Speaker 2: We got to find out who that is to give
4:19
Speaker 2: them some credit. But they said that New York City's
4:22
Speaker 2: budget is the same. Oh it's Ian Miller. He's still great.
4:25
Speaker 2: He said, New York City's budget is bigger than Florida's,
4:28
Speaker 2: and forty percent of it is going to the Department
4:30
Speaker 2: of Education, even though enrollment fell.
4:33
Speaker 1: Also, let's talk about the fact that New York's budget
4:35
Speaker 1: is bigger than Florida. Right, that's a big deal.
4:38
Speaker 2: I mean Florida's, you know, twenty plus million people and
4:41
Speaker 2: New York city is seven and a half million. Why
4:44
Speaker 2: can't you guys make it happen?
4:47
Speaker 1: Also, Jordan Weisman reports that New York is expected to
4:50
Speaker 1: spend forty two k per student in public schools. DC,
4:55
Speaker 1: for perspective, spends twenty five to twenty six per student.
4:58
Speaker 1: And we were already like in the upper echelons of spending.
5:02
Speaker 1: Just for a moment, imagine what that could buy you
5:05
Speaker 1: in a private school education.
5:07
Speaker 2: Right, it's unbelievable. Florida actually spends around ten thousand a student.
5:12
Speaker 2: So you can make it happen. And I've been, and
5:15
Speaker 2: you can learn.
5:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, can I also learn on top of it?
5:18
Speaker 2: Yes, I've been in that New York City public school system.
5:21
Speaker 2: It has it ties and lows. I'll tell you that
5:23
Speaker 2: right now. Yeah, not sure it's worth thirty plus thousand dollars.
5:27
Speaker 1: But so is this political jiu jitsu here where he
5:31
Speaker 1: has a d chess plan that I don't see, where
5:33
Speaker 1: he's going to charm everyone into giving him the money
5:37
Speaker 1: he needs from elsewhere, and he's going to blame hocal
5:40
Speaker 1: or he just thinks it's costless to impose this thing.
5:43
Speaker 1: Because he sounds like the villain in this case.
5:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's because he's blaming someone else, but he's
5:49
Speaker 2: going to be the one doing it.
5:51
Speaker 1: He's like, don't force me to do this, but you're
5:54
Speaker 1: forcing yourself by not making other decisions.
5:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe some spending cuts would be better. There's also
6:01
Speaker 2: a lot of people who point to the fact that
6:03
Speaker 2: the budget shortfall matches exactly the amount that previous mayor
6:08
Speaker 2: Eric Adams said it was going to cost to house
6:11
Speaker 2: and support all the illegal immigrants they came in over
6:15
Speaker 2: the last five years or so. So it's not a
6:18
Speaker 2: surprise here it is here. Eric Adams said we can't
6:22
Speaker 2: pay for this, this is going to be the budget shortfall,
6:25
Speaker 2: and that budget shortfall is here. And I don't like
6:27
Speaker 2: to give Eric Adams credit for that, because he was
6:30
Speaker 2: hoping that the federal government would fill in that shortfall
6:33
Speaker 2: and they didn't. And he never said let's stop this
6:36
Speaker 2: illegal immigration to New York City. He just said, can
6:39
Speaker 2: somebody help me pay for it please? And now he's
6:42
Speaker 2: getting the blame for the shortfall that he told everybody
6:45
Speaker 2: was coming.
6:46
Speaker 1: Yeah. I just they always are looking for the bailout, right,
6:51
Speaker 1: And I think the object for many liberal cities is
6:54
Speaker 1: to run themselves into a ditch so far that there
6:58
Speaker 1: is no way to grow yourself out of it or
7:00
Speaker 1: to tax yourself out of it. And then they go, well,
7:02
Speaker 1: let's just wait till democrats are in charge of the
7:04
Speaker 1: federal government and then we'll have them mail us out.
7:06
Speaker 2: That's the plan.
7:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the explicit plan, Although some people are fighting back.
7:10
Speaker 1: In New York, Queen's Borough President Donovan Richards Junior says,
7:14
Speaker 1: as I told Maryam Donnie this afternoon, a property tax
7:16
Speaker 1: hike upwards of nine point five percent as considered as
7:18
Speaker 1: a non starter under new circumstances. Should we consider balancing
7:22
Speaker 1: our budget on the backs of working class New Yorkers,
7:24
Speaker 1: especially seniors on fixed incomes and public sector workers who
7:28
Speaker 1: keep our city running. So that's a lot of constituencies
7:30
Speaker 1: jammed into that.
7:31
Speaker 2: H oh yeah.
7:33
Speaker 1: But by the way, wouldn't this robbing the piggybank of
7:36
Speaker 1: pensions be on the backs of public employee union who
7:40
Speaker 1: are one of his biggest supporters.
7:43
Speaker 2: He's not doing this. That's where this comes down to.
7:45
Speaker 2: You know, he's saying it, but he's not doing it.
7:48
Speaker 1: I feel like it's bad to have yourself on video
7:50
Speaker 1: saying this. But again, he has what I called with Obama.
7:56
Speaker 1: You know, Obama's not my cup of tea, but he
7:57
Speaker 1: had a charisma cushion, which means you can get away
8:00
Speaker 1: with some stuff.
8:02
Speaker 2: I mean, not to mention the mainstream media and never
8:04
Speaker 2: asking any tough questions or challenging you at all, and
8:08
Speaker 2: com a theme on this show, loving you so so much.
8:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, but this does seem like we're being set up
8:15
Speaker 1: to pay for this eventually, Carol.
8:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is why you can't elect Democrats. I mean,
8:20
Speaker 2: their policies don't work. They don't they just do not work.
8:23
Speaker 2: And now we're having this kind of reckoning where people are.
8:28
Speaker 2: You know, Barack Obama is looking at California and being like,
8:31
Speaker 2: you know, people don't really like tense cities of homeless people. Yeah,
8:35
Speaker 2: this is your party, dude, This is where we are
8:38
Speaker 2: because of your leadership. And you know, the idea that
8:42
Speaker 2: the Democrats keep discovering that their policies are abject failures
8:46
Speaker 2: and maybe they could just rename it every few years,
8:49
Speaker 2: like eventually we just need to face facts that their
8:52
Speaker 2: ideas are horrible and they don't work, and not saying
8:56
Speaker 2: every one of our ideas is great, but they're better
8:58
Speaker 2: than those ideas.
8:59
Speaker 1: But I do think there is a need, as I
9:02
Speaker 1: mentioned about basic economics, to basic economics get that some
9:07
Speaker 1: of the things you think you're doing to help people
9:11
Speaker 1: do not actually help them and indeed hurt them. A
9:13
Speaker 1: couple of examples in Seattle, the gig worker law was
9:17
Speaker 1: supposed to change life for Uber Eats drivers and door
9:22
Speaker 1: dash drivers, and what it ended up doing was nothing
9:26
Speaker 1: like that. A National Bureau of Economic Research study confirmed
9:30
Speaker 1: and this is Joe Wallen tweeting this from partly from
9:34
Speaker 1: an NPR report out in Seattle, so you know, not
9:37
Speaker 1: exactly a right leaning bias. The NBER study confirmed what
9:41
Speaker 1: the numbers already showed. Higher per delivery pay was completely
9:44
Speaker 1: offset by fewer deliveries and lower tips. Active drivers saw
9:48
Speaker 1: on zero net gain in monthly earnings. The local NPR
9:52
Speaker 1: outlet reported this week that two years in, the results
9:55
Speaker 1: are undeniable. Seattle is now the most expensive delivery market
9:58
Speaker 1: in the country. Denver, Portland, and San Francisco cities without
10:01
Speaker 1: these laws, saw delivery revenue grow twenty to forty percent.
10:04
Speaker 1: Seattle stagnated. This is because they jacked up delivery driver
10:08
Speaker 1: pay to twenty six forty an hour, which meant everyone
10:13
Speaker 1: was like, I'm not going to pay eighty seven fifty
10:18
Speaker 1: for a delivery, yeah, topo plate.
10:23
Speaker 2: But they made the minimum wage twenty six dollars. How
10:28
Speaker 2: people didn't want to pay that.
10:30
Speaker 1: It's just so obvious that these things have second order
10:34
Speaker 1: effects that democrats never think about, even though they've been
10:37
Speaker 1: studied over and over again. Virginia Democrats this week are
10:41
Speaker 1: hiking the minimum wage here to I believe it's a
10:44
Speaker 1: fourteen something in the beginning, and then fifteen in a
10:47
Speaker 1: couple of years. And it will do what it does everywhere,
10:51
Speaker 1: which is cut down on job opportunities for low skilled workers,
10:55
Speaker 1: for young workers who might want to get a job
10:57
Speaker 1: and then move up. It will not make things more affordable,
11:01
Speaker 1: which is how they're touting it. It will just all
11:04
Speaker 1: the costs will get passed on to us or every
11:07
Speaker 1: single person that you wanted to have a job is
11:10
Speaker 1: now going to be a kiosk.
11:11
Speaker 2: Sorry, right right, that's really the thing that they're the
11:15
Speaker 2: minimum wage as actually zero, and that's what they're going
11:19
Speaker 2: to be paying the automated services that take over these jobs.
11:23
Speaker 2: And it's going to be some unnamed rich person's fault
11:27
Speaker 2: when that happens. But this is dealing with children. It's
11:29
Speaker 2: like they're just like, but why don't we just make
11:32
Speaker 2: the minimum wage of million dollars? It makes no sense
11:36
Speaker 2: and it doesn't work, and it's long past the time
11:39
Speaker 2: for them to know that. I you know, obviously rave
11:43
Speaker 2: about Florida a lot on this show. But here are
11:46
Speaker 2: some major corporations and this is my friend Jordan Shack
11:49
Speaker 2: to compile this on Twitter that have relocated or expanded
11:53
Speaker 2: to Florida recently, Amazon palents here in videos, Citadel Service now,
11:59
Speaker 2: aren't invest Wave, Quantum and Vs. And Florida, he writes,
12:03
Speaker 2: is now home to Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sir Gabrin, Peter Thiel,
12:08
Speaker 2: David Sachs, Jeff Bezos, Ken Griffin, et cetera. And Jordan
12:12
Speaker 2: adds the free state of Florida is one giant boomtown.
12:16
Speaker 2: It's really not an unforeseen consequence of the blue state
12:22
Speaker 2: policies that don't function and don't keep capital there, and
12:26
Speaker 2: they certainly don't keep jobs there. Because people want to
12:29
Speaker 2: live somewhere that they could have normal, functioning governance. That's
12:34
Speaker 2: what they're looking for. They're not looking for a right
12:37
Speaker 2: wing paradise, They're looking for normal.
12:40
Speaker 1: I saw by the way, and it was somewhat encouraging
12:43
Speaker 1: that at least one person got mad enough at the
12:45
Speaker 1: DC mayor about snow removal that she's going to run
12:49
Speaker 1: for mayor against the incumbent mayor. And I thought, oh
12:52
Speaker 1: my gosh, someone actually got mad enough. Someone did it
12:56
Speaker 1: in Washington, d C. Could it be the poop field
13:00
Speaker 1: filled river that over the edge? Perhaps?
13:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, we'll see how that one turns out. Hopefully,
13:07
Speaker 2: when that person runs for office, they don't realize that
13:10
Speaker 2: they have to tell people that they want to make
13:11
Speaker 2: minimum wage twenty nine dollars and they stick to those principles,
13:16
Speaker 2: it won't go well.
13:18
Speaker 1: Stir them all go well.
13:19
Speaker 2: Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review, had this great
13:22
Speaker 2: story a long time ago when he was thinking about
13:24
Speaker 2: running for mayor, and I'm talking like twenty five years ago,
13:27
Speaker 2: that he was in the elevator of a Manhattan building
13:30
Speaker 2: with a little old lady and she said, oh, are
13:31
Speaker 2: you Rich Lowry? And he said I am. And she said,
13:34
Speaker 2: aren't you thinking of running for mayor? And he said, yes,
13:37
Speaker 2: I am. And she said, but you're going to support
13:39
Speaker 2: rent control, right, And he was like, I couldn't tell
13:42
Speaker 2: her no. In the elevator. So that's when I realized
13:44
Speaker 2: I could not run for mayor.
13:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, you've got to tell people what they don't want
13:51
Speaker 1: to hear.
13:52
Speaker 2: Sometimes that's a little old lady in the elevator when
13:54
Speaker 2: you haven't decided to run yet. Is the is the problem?
13:57
Speaker 2: So yes, all right, We're going to take short break
14:00
Speaker 2: and come right back with some television news.
14:03
Speaker 1: Be right back.
14:09
Speaker 2: We are back with more on Normally where a completely
14:13
Speaker 2: made up, fake scandal is developing right now on X
14:17
Speaker 2: and on your TV screens where Stephen Colbert, the host
14:21
Speaker 2: of The Late Show, which has been canceled but he's
14:24
Speaker 2: still on, leading to an angry bitter man being on
14:27
Speaker 2: the television as a coality host ha ha ha. Anyway,
14:35
Speaker 2: he planned to broadcast an interview with James tell Erico.
14:41
Speaker 2: Now CBS, the network that airs the Late Show, pulled
14:45
Speaker 2: this interview from its Monday night broadcast. They say that
14:49
Speaker 2: their lawyers warned that if they aired that interview, it
14:53
Speaker 2: would trigger the FCC's equal time rule, which requires broadcasters
14:58
Speaker 2: to offer comparable air time to all the candidates in
15:01
Speaker 2: a race.
15:03
Speaker 1: To Hilaire says, right as the race is happening, which
15:06
Speaker 1: is what's happening in Texas right now?
15:08
Speaker 2: Right Colbert says he was told he couldn't air the interview,
15:11
Speaker 2: and he even wasn't supposed to mention it on the air,
15:14
Speaker 2: but he addressed it in public because he's just so
15:16
Speaker 2: brave that way.
15:17
Speaker 1: You know.
15:18
Speaker 2: He is saying that CBS bowed to political pressure and
15:22
Speaker 2: censored this interview, which is kind of ridiculous because the
15:26
Speaker 2: person that would be not gaining the benefit of this
15:29
Speaker 2: equal time is Jasmine Crockett, another Democrat. So it's not
15:35
Speaker 2: like CBS heard from Donald Trump, which is what the
15:37
Speaker 2: implication is, and was like, you need to get this
15:40
Speaker 2: democrat off the air. No, there the problem is he
15:44
Speaker 2: needed to give equal airtime to the other Democrat in
15:47
Speaker 2: the race. And you know, the idea that this was
15:50
Speaker 2: a banned interview is absolutely ridiculous. But Colbert is absolutely ridiculous,
15:55
Speaker 2: and he has just become a political actress. Maybe he
15:58
Speaker 2: was always a political activit, he was never a comedian.
16:01
Speaker 2: And I hope that he gets to go follow his
16:04
Speaker 2: real passion when the show is over.
16:06
Speaker 1: I really do think there will be a never ending
16:08
Speaker 1: stream of democratic fundraisers that he can m see. I
16:12
Speaker 1: think that is his future. That's already what he's doing, right,
16:15
Speaker 1: and not just on TV, but actually outside of that
16:19
Speaker 1: as well. And this thing. I took like twelve to
16:22
Speaker 1: eighteen hours on this thing before I decided how I
16:24
Speaker 1: felt about it, because I was like, oh, if the
16:26
Speaker 1: SEC did do this, like it does feel heavy handed,
16:29
Speaker 1: and then it's like no, it all comes out that
16:32
Speaker 1: CBS was like, we gave him a couple of options
16:34
Speaker 1: for a leaks that we thought we could do this.
16:36
Speaker 1: And I think somewhat cleverly, Colbert paints himself as this
16:42
Speaker 1: brave truth teller.
16:43
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, he's just a free speech warrior. Mary Catherine laps.
16:46
Speaker 1: The tall Rico interview onto YouTube. There's a bunch of
16:51
Speaker 1: attention to it, giving tall Rico a bunch of donations
16:54
Speaker 1: and attention right as this primary is kicking off, which
16:58
Speaker 1: disadvantages Jasmine Crack, which is what I think establishment democrats
17:03
Speaker 1: of want to do. Yeah, of whom he is one
17:07
Speaker 1: want to do because Crockett is more of a liability
17:10
Speaker 1: in a general election than tall Rico is. I don't
17:13
Speaker 1: think either one of them is winning Texas. Yeah, but
17:16
Speaker 1: she is a tougher cell than tell Rico, who at
17:19
Speaker 1: least is like I'm a preacher. I stand in the
17:22
Speaker 1: back of a pickup, right, Yeah, And she now has
17:25
Speaker 1: come out and said, yeah, the administration didn't ban this. Now,
17:29
Speaker 1: she's not the most reliable narrator either.
17:32
Speaker 2: No, she certainly is not.
17:33
Speaker 1: It just seem to me like this was a ginned
17:35
Speaker 1: up thing.
17:37
Speaker 2: Yeah. And the thing is that you're absolutely right in
17:41
Speaker 2: that they want to stop Jasmine Crockett, and this is
17:44
Speaker 2: sort of the way to do that. Outlets like Vox,
17:47
Speaker 2: for example, are covering this as if it were the
17:50
Speaker 2: Trump administration stepping in and saying, no, you can't have
17:54
Speaker 2: this interview happen, which again is not at all what
17:57
Speaker 2: is happening here. And I think that they like this.
18:01
Speaker 2: They wanted to be a story of the democrats in
18:04
Speaker 2: Texas are really putting up a fight against that Donald Trump.
18:07
Speaker 2: It's like, it's not at all what it's about now.
18:11
Speaker 1: And we shall see what comes of this. But I
18:14
Speaker 1: do think it's it's instructional for everyone who consumes modern
18:19
Speaker 1: media to watch that story Unfeld and go, wait a second,
18:25
Speaker 1: this is not at all what was presented to be
18:27
Speaker 1: in the first hour of this story. Twelve twenty four
18:31
Speaker 1: hours later.
18:32
Speaker 2: But they're not going to correct this. So like the
18:33
Speaker 2: Vox story, which you know, Vox bills itself as like
18:36
Speaker 2: they explain our website, They explained things to you. One
18:39
Speaker 2: time they explained that there was a bridge from Gaza
18:42
Speaker 2: to the West Bank and no such bridge. A classic,
18:45
Speaker 2: but a classic of the thank you so much for
18:47
Speaker 2: letting us in on that information. But here is like,
18:50
Speaker 2: what's the context? President Donald Trump is long headed out
18:53
Speaker 2: for America's late night hosts, most notably as administration intervened
18:56
Speaker 2: last year to briefly force the comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who
18:59
Speaker 2: hosts a c Jimmy Kimmel Liive off the air for
19:02
Speaker 2: Kimmel's comments regarding the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Sidebar.
19:07
Speaker 2: Kimmel lied about the shooting death about Charlie Kirk. It
19:10
Speaker 2: wasn't that they didn't like what he was saying. He
19:13
Speaker 2: was actually lying. But also Trump celebrated TBS's decision last
19:17
Speaker 2: year to cancel Colbert's Late Show. And why does it matter,
19:20
Speaker 2: Vox says the FEC's newfound passion for equal time rules.
19:23
Speaker 2: Is it transparently partisan? Again? Not at all? What happened
19:27
Speaker 2: here it's just wrong. Get that you want to be partisan.
19:32
Speaker 2: I get that you want to have a position thought,
19:34
Speaker 2: you want to be right. I hate being wrong.
19:36
Speaker 1: I know, Well, this is the thing that gets me.
19:38
Speaker 1: And I'm going slightly on a tangent here, but this
19:40
Speaker 1: is the thing that gets me about reporting about shooters
19:43
Speaker 1: or criminals who happened to be trans. Just tell me
19:46
Speaker 1: the truth. Tell me the truth. Don't tell me that
19:49
Speaker 1: two women shot up public spaces this week because two
19:53
Speaker 1: women did not. Yeah, right, that's not what happened. So
19:56
Speaker 1: I need to know what actually happened. And sometimes, in
19:59
Speaker 1: this modern need it's very hard to get to the
20:00
Speaker 1: bottom of it, very.
20:01
Speaker 2: Like two different articles about the trans shooter didn't in
20:05
Speaker 2: a Rhode Island didn't mention that the person was trans
20:08
Speaker 2: and instead said that he had two names.
20:11
Speaker 1: Like, what is that interesting? A person with two names?
20:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, CNN, they are not doing too hot. I will
20:23
Speaker 2: reduce some stats. Greg Price on Twitter writes absolutely hysterical
20:28
Speaker 2: that reruns of Hannity at two am are now getting
20:31
Speaker 2: more viewers than every single show on CNN. At what
20:36
Speaker 2: point do they hang it up? At what point is
20:39
Speaker 2: there no more CNN? Because these numbers are embarrassing. I
20:43
Speaker 2: mean ms NOW, which is what MSNBC is now called
20:47
Speaker 2: now Now, is doing far better than CNN, and it
20:50
Speaker 2: really I guess people really want the insane lunatic asylum
20:55
Speaker 2: that MSNBC is and has been, and CNN is just
20:58
Speaker 2: not cutting it. I don't understand what they can do
21:01
Speaker 2: to make their situation better because they are just disliked overall.
21:08
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a problem of all major media coverage, right,
21:10
Speaker 1: as if you tailor yourself to the far side of
21:15
Speaker 1: each ideological end, you'll get a lot of clicks, right,
21:20
Speaker 1: And CNN did try that for years. Washington Post did
21:25
Speaker 1: try that for years to the left right, and it
21:29
Speaker 1: they couldn't hang on once the Biden administration came along
21:34
Speaker 1: because then it was like, well, who do we fight Now?
21:36
Speaker 1: We like this guy, We're going to cover up for
21:38
Speaker 1: this guy. And it just doesn't bring you the same
21:40
Speaker 1: kind of hate clicks as you used to get, particularly
21:42
Speaker 1: when you're in competition with ms NOW. Who's going to
21:46
Speaker 1: be more hate clickie? I guess right, I.
21:49
Speaker 2: Mean Fox is just eating everybody's lunch, continues to and
21:52
Speaker 2: I have to say, like, you know, for all the
21:54
Speaker 2: like people like to be in their silos, and I
21:57
Speaker 2: know that they do that. The top show is The Five,
22:00
Speaker 2: which is a lighter show and not so much tearing
22:04
Speaker 2: into the other side, and I just think it's not
22:09
Speaker 2: quite the super right wingy show that people might expect.
22:12
Speaker 2: Number two is Jesse Waters, which is more like that.
22:15
Speaker 2: I mean, I feel like he does it with a smile,
22:17
Speaker 2: but still. And then number three is Gutfeld comedy show basically,
22:22
Speaker 2: and number four is Special Report with Brett Bhaer, which
22:25
Speaker 2: is straight news.
22:26
Speaker 1: So for the Five's part, Jessica Tarlov gives as good
22:30
Speaker 1: as she gets. Oh yeah, on that panel, she's very
22:32
Speaker 1: prepared and she will go to war. So she puts
22:37
Speaker 1: in the work for the other side of those arguments.
22:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, all right. Also in television news, Mehdi
22:46
Speaker 2: Hassan one of the just the most. I just dislike
22:49
Speaker 2: him very very much. I just find him to be
22:52
Speaker 2: not only not great at his job, but also just
22:56
Speaker 2: says crazy things. During the pandemic, he said, you know,
23:00
Speaker 2: we have to basically mask forever, and who cares what
23:03
Speaker 2: these conservatives say? Put the kids back in masks. And
23:06
Speaker 2: he said also like we have to pack the Supreme
23:09
Speaker 2: Court and just he says very outlandish things, and then
23:12
Speaker 2: it's kind of taken seriously, which I don't think he
23:15
Speaker 2: should be. But anyway, he was interviewing Jennifer Welch, who's
23:19
Speaker 2: another person I just don't think should be taken seriously
23:22
Speaker 2: at all. She's insane, anti a Trump leftist who has
23:28
Speaker 2: become popular. Anyway, they start.
23:31
Speaker 1: She's a reality show star turned an interior decorator turned
23:36
Speaker 1: podcaster who they think is the lib Joe Rogan. Although
23:40
Speaker 1: we've always pointed out Joe Rogan was a man of
23:42
Speaker 1: the West.
23:43
Speaker 2: Joe Rogan continues to be the lib Joe Rogan.
23:46
Speaker 1: Yes, she's just.
23:48
Speaker 2: So angry and nasty. But they medi has Son and
23:52
Speaker 2: Jennifer Welch, who, by the way, her face does not
23:54
Speaker 2: move at all. They go into why does Scott Jennings
23:57
Speaker 2: have such an annoying face? Like, ma'am sir, both of you, no, really,
24:04
Speaker 2: and then they talk about masculinity and how people talk
24:08
Speaker 2: about masculinity a lot, and Meddie Hassan calls Scott Jennings
24:13
Speaker 2: the most loathsome man on cable news. Scott Jennings, Scott
24:17
Speaker 2: Jennings is the most loathsome man on cable news. I
24:20
Speaker 2: couldn't help myself. I said, you're mad because you're not
24:23
Speaker 2: a man and also not on cable news.
24:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just there's I know there's a market for this.
24:30
Speaker 1: I know there's a market for just being mean to people.
24:34
Speaker 1: And also it is telling with people left of center
24:39
Speaker 1: how allergic they are to one person effectively countering their messages.
24:48
Speaker 1: They flip out. And I used to get this when
24:51
Speaker 1: I was on CNN panel. So it'll be nine people
24:53
Speaker 1: on the panel who disagree with me. Yeah, and dare
24:56
Speaker 1: people would tweet me like how dare how dare you exist?
25:02
Speaker 1: Is like how dare you exist? Why would they allow
25:06
Speaker 1: you to speak? I want to hear ten people who
25:08
Speaker 1: agree with me. Yeah, yeah, they have some problems.
25:14
Speaker 2: If these are your you know, superstars, good luck with that.
25:18
Speaker 2: The left, I find them both deeply unlikable and I
25:21
Speaker 2: do not think they will be appealing to the middle. Again,
25:23
Speaker 2: the people I named on Fox, they might you might
25:26
Speaker 2: not agree with them, you might find them too far right. Whatever,
25:29
Speaker 2: They're all doing it with a smile. They're not talking
25:32
Speaker 2: about how annoying somebody's face is. On the opposite side, well,
25:35
Speaker 2: Gutfeld might occasionally well, okay, fine, that's comedy. All right,
25:40
Speaker 2: We'll take a short break and come back with some
25:42
Speaker 2: more Virginia redistricting. It's not going so great over there,
25:47
Speaker 2: be right back.
25:51
Speaker 1: Oh right, who's ready for some more redistricting news. This
25:54
Speaker 1: is important, of course, because a bunch of states are
25:58
Speaker 1: trying to redistrict to add to the numbers of various
26:02
Speaker 1: parties before the twenty twenty six election. So all of
26:05
Speaker 1: these lawsuits and all this redistricting is happening as we speak.
26:09
Speaker 1: In some states, you might know which district you're in
26:12
Speaker 1: or who's running for it until much later into twenty
26:16
Speaker 1: twenty six. Virginia has become one of those states, they
26:19
Speaker 1: claim in retaliation for Texas's mid decade redistricting. Now, Republicans
26:25
Speaker 1: had a sort of rationale for their redistricting, which was
26:29
Speaker 1: the census robbed a bunch of red states and districts
26:32
Speaker 1: and population in twenty twenty when it was run badly,
26:36
Speaker 1: Democrats were awarded seats they should not have gotten. So
26:40
Speaker 1: we're going to do a little correction on this and
26:41
Speaker 1: redistrict So Texas does that, and then a bunch of
26:44
Speaker 1: lefty states who I underestimated and thought they had gone
26:49
Speaker 1: as far as they could, and they had not, and
26:51
Speaker 1: so California was like, oh no, we'll do more. So
26:54
Speaker 1: California does more for Democrats to try to rebalance this
26:59
Speaker 1: situation and take back their advantage. And then Virginia in
27:03
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, it's quote unquote moderate governor Democrat Abigail Spamberger,
27:10
Speaker 1: and both of the houses of the Legislature are now
27:13
Speaker 1: run by Democrats. So they say, you know what, this
27:17
Speaker 1: five to six split of congressional districts between Republicans and
27:21
Speaker 1: Democrats here not working for us. What we would like
27:25
Speaker 1: is ten one, like ten to one, ten Democrats to
27:29
Speaker 1: one Republican for a state that is basically a slightly
27:34
Speaker 1: bluer than red state. And the way they're doing this
27:38
Speaker 1: is drawing a bunch of districts that snake out of
27:41
Speaker 1: northern Virginia, where there's a ton of blue population and
27:44
Speaker 1: into more rural areas. So basically, everybody who wants to
27:47
Speaker 1: be a congressman can live up in northern Virginia in
27:50
Speaker 1: the DC area, never leave and keep winning those congressional
27:55
Speaker 1: districts because they never have to like talk to the
27:58
Speaker 1: central Virginia or rural Virginia. You know, Republicans real flat
28:01
Speaker 1: footed on this. Yeah, there was a lawsuit. It went
28:05
Speaker 1: to the Virginia Supreme Court, and the Virginia Supreme Court
28:08
Speaker 1: was like, even though Democrats broke a bunch of rules
28:10
Speaker 1: to get this thing on the ballot, we're not going
28:13
Speaker 1: to rule on the merits until after you guys vote.
28:16
Speaker 2: Isn't there like a whole concern among Democrats that the
28:20
Speaker 2: Texas redistricting was an affront to democracy.
28:24
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, that's not an issue anymore, because this
28:27
Speaker 1: is this is.
28:27
Speaker 2: The good german I see, I see right, when.
28:31
Speaker 1: You do the good gerrymandering, you can break all the
28:33
Speaker 1: rules and violate the Virginia State Constitution temporarily to get
28:38
Speaker 1: yourself a bunch of new seats. So they didn't give
28:42
Speaker 1: people enough notice that this was happening. That's on purpose.
28:44
Speaker 1: So energized Democrat activists will go out and vote. No
28:48
Speaker 1: one else will. It's going to be on the ballot
28:50
Speaker 1: and like starts voting on March six, vote no, by
28:53
Speaker 1: the way, by April twenty first, and it turns out
28:57
Speaker 1: that a bunch of people in Virginia legislature wrote themselves
29:00
Speaker 1: their own districts.
29:01
Speaker 2: Nice.
29:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the new York Times for you for democracy.
29:06
Speaker 1: They actually were naming them for these people, like quite
29:10
Speaker 1: openly in the discussions, like Mary Cactine's district. No, they weren't.
29:14
Speaker 1: They were like, so this will be Dan Helmer's district,
29:17
Speaker 1: and this will be Shannon Taylor's district. And even some
29:21
Speaker 1: Democrats in Virginia were like, ah, we probably shouldn't be
29:24
Speaker 1: referring to them like that. Well, The New York Times
29:27
Speaker 1: has caught up and says huh, an architect of Virginia's
29:30
Speaker 1: aggressive redistricting scheme, will announce on Wednesday that he intends
29:34
Speaker 1: to run for one of the newly drawn Democratic seats himself.
29:37
Speaker 1: Dan Helmer, a four term state delegate who played a
29:40
Speaker 1: key behind the scenes role in last October's surprise move
29:44
Speaker 1: to redraw Virginia's congressional maps, is entering the race for
29:48
Speaker 1: the lobster shaped seventh congressional district, the lobsters shaped that
29:52
Speaker 1: they all created for him. It's quite an audacious thing
29:56
Speaker 1: they're doing here, and Democrats are very excited and they're
30:01
Speaker 1: probably excited to go vote, and Republicans are not as
30:05
Speaker 1: engaged right now. Although there is an effort to counter this.
30:08
Speaker 1: I do think It helps that The New York Times
30:09
Speaker 1: is noticing how obviously backroom deal corrupt, right like when
30:15
Speaker 1: you name the districts after people.
30:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe that's not democracy. Maybe do you think this
30:20
Speaker 2: is ultimately to push Republican voters out of the state,
30:25
Speaker 2: Because I mean, my thought, of course is are you
30:27
Speaker 2: staying Mary Catherine?
30:29
Speaker 1: Are you I don't know it. Look, I was already
30:35
Speaker 1: basically disenfranchised by living in this area to begin with.
30:39
Speaker 1: But I do think truly the people who live in
30:43
Speaker 1: central and southern and southwestern Virginia and over in western
30:47
Speaker 1: Virginia north towards West Virginia deserve congressional leaders who have
30:54
Speaker 1: to occasionally leave northern Virginia. The idea that you would
30:58
Speaker 1: never be able to you don't have to do that
31:01
Speaker 1: to win is bad. The idea that you would split
31:04
Speaker 1: these very very similar districts into five congressional districts, yeah,
31:10
Speaker 1: is wild to me. But look, jerrymandering is never pretty.
31:14
Speaker 1: It's rarely noble. I don't think it's ever been noble.
31:17
Speaker 1: It's part of the game, and they're playing to win
31:19
Speaker 1: here and they're playing in some real shady ways. But
31:22
Speaker 1: I do appreciate the New York Times occasionally telling the
31:24
Speaker 1: truth about.
31:25
Speaker 2: It, very very occasionally.
31:27
Speaker 1: But one more Virginia point for you and for media bias.
31:30
Speaker 1: The New York Times had a profile on Abigail Spamberger
31:33
Speaker 1: the other day, and of course it didn't have anything
31:34
Speaker 1: like really tough in it or any tough questions for her,
31:38
Speaker 1: but it did have a quote and some like really
31:41
Speaker 1: glorified coverage of her CIA stent because she was an
31:44
Speaker 1: intel operative. And one of the quotes where she illustrated
31:48
Speaker 1: how awesome she was at this job is that she says, well,
31:52
Speaker 1: when you talk to somebody, you want to seem trustworthy.
31:54
Speaker 1: And I thought team, huh, that's a there's a politician
31:59
Speaker 1: for you, strategically seeming trustworthy. Yeah, thanks, com Patty.
32:04
Speaker 2: Be trustworthy, but okay, we'll take it.
32:06
Speaker 1: Yeah.
32:07
Speaker 2: Well, thank you for joining us on normally Normally airs
32:10
Speaker 2: Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you get
32:13
Speaker 2: your podcasts. Get in touch with us at normally theepod
32:16
Speaker 2: at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening, and when things
32:19
Speaker 2: get weird, act normally