Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast: LA Election Chaos, Graham Platner Scandal & The Down Syndrome Abortion Debate

Transcript

Normally Podcast: LA Election Chaos, Graham Platner Scandal & The Down Syndrome Abortion Debate · Normally

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: We are back on normally the show with normalist takes
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: for when the news gets weird.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: I am Carol Markowitz.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Mary Catherine ham is on vacation this week, and I
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: am joined by my friend Gates Garcia, who has the
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: amazing podcast We the people that you should check out
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: subscribe like do the whole thing high Gates.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: So nice to have you on.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: What's up, Carol? You wanted weird news, so I brought
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: my weird mustache.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: I think your mustache looks cool? Does your wife not
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: like it?
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: I'm calling it a summer stash, and so long as
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: it's seasonal, I'm allowed to keep it, so check back
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: in during football season.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you that my husband started growing his
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: beard as a Covid beard.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: And he still has it. So yeah, I quite like it.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: You know's got a very masculine growth on his face.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: That is one way to put it, for sure.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: So we're gonna start out with the LA election story today.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: The other big news that we're really not going to
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: get into today is that Iran is getting hot again.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: They launched missiles at Israel yesterday. Israel has apparently retaliated.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: There's been a lot of chatter about what Trump wants.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Here.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Again, we're not getting into this because there's just not
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: that much news yet and we're going to see how
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: it plays out. But I would tell listeners that, you know,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: we've learned this lesson with Donald Trump before. He says
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: things to get people off kilter, and don't listen to
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: everything he says.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Watch what he does. What do you think of that? Gates?
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Uh?
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, he's a man of results. He said,
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: promises made, promises kept. He's he's said a lot of things,
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: but he's done a lot more than he said. And
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: you know, the temperament and the mood and all that
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: changes quickly. But one thing stood firm with him. He's
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: he's going to dictate the terms of the United States
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: of America, both on our own turf and around the world.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: And you know, I continue to judge him by his results,
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: and I've been pretty happy with him for the last
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: you know, ten plus years.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I have to say I've been, especially on foreign policy,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: very happy with Donald Trump. And there's this atmosphere online
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: that's like, oh, trust Trump at any cost, and people
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: kind of mock it. But I do trust him, and
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: we'll see where this goes again. We're gonna not get
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: into this, but you know, I had to touch on
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: it a little.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Bit because it's clearly the story of the day.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Our other big story that is going to be our
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: first topic today. The LA election has really shifted gears. Yesterday,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Nathia Rahman overtook Spencer Pratt for the second place slot
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: in the LA mayoral election. And this is obviously a
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: big deal because the LA election is such that the
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: top two candidates move on to the general. Now there's
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: a lot of people online saying that this isn't stolen,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: this is just how LA election goes, and maybe it is.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Maybe it is. Maybe this is.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: How this election is run, but from the outside, it's
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: run very, very poorly.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: What do you think?
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I kind of like what you said there, Like,
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: I don't think this is necessarily about fraud. It may
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: be fraudulen. I think LA and California in general has
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: proven itself to be one of the homes of fraud
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: in our country, but you can sort of put that aside.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: I mean, the number one issue with Americans and an
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: election should be trust. And I think that the real
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: scandal here is that nobody trusts the process anymore. I mean, Carroll,
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: it's twenty twenty six. We can track Uber drivers to
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: the foot, you know, we can stream UFC fights around
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: the world, we can deposit checks on our phones, and
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: yet we have Los Angeles they still can't even tell
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: us who finished an election weeks after it took place,
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: regardless of the party. It's embarrassing. And we continue to
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: see this in the same places over and over again,
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: and it's like, until we restore trust, this is the
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: same party that doesn't want to manage fraud on our
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: elections or integrity, i should say, in our elections. But
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: they're the ones that seem to raise the most red
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: flags when it comes to stuff.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: That's exactly it that we see it over and over
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: again in the exact same places. And look, it makes
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: a lot of sense that in blue Los Angeles the
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: two Democrats would win the top two slots, right, It
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: makes no sense that an entirely different demographic of people
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: voted via mail than voted on election day. And it
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: seems suspect and that's really the problem here, that the
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: mail in ballots didn't correspond to what was happening before
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: and on election day, where if Karen Bass had continued
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: to run away with it in the mail in votes,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: that would make sense. But the third place candidate that
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: was needed to knock out the second place non Democrat candidate,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: it just doesn't make sense. And it's a completely different ratio.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: And is it a coincidence that the candidate getting the
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: majority post election day isn't the first place candidate but
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: the one who gets Spencer Pratt out of the race.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: I don't see how that works.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: I think Romin got forty percent of the count after
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: after election day, and like you said, proportionally, it just
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: it doesn't make sense. I mean, there's ways to there's
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: ways to hide fraud, and there's ways to just completely
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: expose yourself, and that's what they're doing here. I mean,
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: even if even if there is an explanation, regular people
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: look at this and they're like, here we go again.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: I mean, fens and elections is a public good. Government
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: should be designing systems that increase trust, not erode it.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: They can play with the numbers anyway they want, but
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: they don't even try to hide the ball here. I
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: don't I honestly don't think they care. Carolly. There are
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: so many reasons. There are so many reasons. I wake
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: up every day and you share this sentiment happy to
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: open my eyes in the Great State of Florida, because
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: we don't deal with this BS. We don't put up
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: with lesson and like, at some point, I almost want
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: to just give La and California to the Democrats, like
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: they can have it. They can all move there and
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: we'll just watch them from afar. They just continue to
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: embarrass themselves.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: What do you think about the betting aspect of this?
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Like CALSH and sites like that allow people to bet
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: on results in an election, and Kel she had an
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: uptick in people betting that Ramen would come in second
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: place even though she conceded on election night.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: That's a pretty strong bet.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: When you know, the candidate thinks that she lost, but
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: you don't think she lost. And then there's the additional
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: thing of like are people betting on these results and
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: then going and.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: Getting more ballots for Ramen?
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: It's like where is the fraud happening and who's doing it?
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I think a deep dive into the betting around the
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: election would expose a lot here.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: One hundred percent. I think two of the most corrupting
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: forces in the world are government and money, and when
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: you take betting markets that are betting on US elections,
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: you combine the two of those. Vegas sort of reminds
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: me a lot of the government. You know, the House
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: always wins, everything else always wins in the House's favor.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: That's kind of how government's been operating, especially in blue states.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: So I haven't thought much about that, but it's definitely
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: worth something that we should all look into because I
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: see too many parallels to how both of those, both
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: casinos and money and the government and politics work.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's also the additional thing that LA voters had
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: twelve three hundred and fifty more votes for the LA
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: mayor race than the California governor's race.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Now, it's usually the opposite. The top of the.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Ticket usually gets the majority of the votes and people
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: sit out like down ballot races. How does this make sense?
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: How does it make sense that you had twelve thousand
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: plus more votes in a down ballot race than they
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: just decided not to vote for governor. I just I
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: you know, I have friends in LA who are Republicans.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think of Alicia Krause at times like this,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: like she was in the early days of the voting,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: she was like, not being stolen, just you know, hang
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: out and wait and see how this goes.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: I haven't.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: I'm curious to hear what she would have to say now.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: But I root for these people to turn their state around.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: And I understand completely what you're saying that we need
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: to just cut California loose, like they're a drag on
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: the rest of us. They're bad ideas filter out to
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the rest of us, and it really does have a
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: harmful effect on the country.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: But I feel so sorry for these Republicans who are working.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: So hard to get their state to a sane place,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: to a normal place, and they're constantly being roadblocked by
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: this leftist insanity.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll contradict myself a little bit. I have a
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: good friend in California, Elizabeth Barkohana, who's been on my
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: show and we talk often, and she's probably fighting as
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: hard or harder than anyone else in California to make
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: that state red, make La red, and all these sorts
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: of things. And I asked her, I said, why don't
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: you just come to Florida. We would love to have
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: you here because we need people to stay in these
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: areas and fight for these places. California has been read before. Yeah,
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: and I think, look, Chezer Pratt is obviously not going
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: to win, but I think this was a huge inflection
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: point and shine a bright light on the state and
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: LA specifically for homelessness, public safety, affordability, disaster response. I mean,
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: the campaign he run actually took working class voters, blue
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: collar Americans, and the issues that they're facing in that
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: in that city and state more broadly. And you're right,
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's it's a disservice for the rest of
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: us just kind of turn our back on California and
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: say live with this, because it isn't fair to those people.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: I mean, there's an app in San Francisco called snapcrap
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: and it tracks poop, human poop in the streets of
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: San Francisco. I mean, I was in San Francisco ten
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: years ago. It was one of the most beautiful places
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: I've ever been. It's unrecognizable today. So it isn't fair
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: to people that are born and raised from there, that
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: have planted roots there, that want to continue to raise
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: their families. They're like they were raised there. But at
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: the end of the day, if it's not fraud. I
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: don't know how people don't People that live in those
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: areas don't look at what's happening around them and say
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: is enough enough?
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: As in them, I got to get out of here, right.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: I look people, When I lived in New York and
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: people would say just leave, just leave, just leave, I
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: would be like, you know, no, I want to see
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: this place succeed. I want to see this place when
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: and the fact that New York was amazing just a
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: few years ago, like what you said about San Francisco,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: it wasn't that long ago that these were normal, functional
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: places and now they're just you know, we don't curse
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: on this show, but you know holes, they're there are holes,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: and I just I feel sorry for all those people.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: But you made a very interesting point that we never
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: thought Pratt was going to win, right, We did not
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: think that he was going to win the general Benji Starlin,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: he's from Box, he says.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: He tweets.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: I don't pretend to have had some prediction on LA results,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: but I did notice many of my favorite smart conservatives
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: outside LA raving over Pratt ai videos that were entirely
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: political porn for national conservatives. You guys know what it
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: looks like when Libs do the equivalent. I get it
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: when we see like Taller Rico, the left online go
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: crazy for tall Rico, where like, you know, let's see
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: what textans have to say about that. I completely understand that.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: And what I wrote back to Benji is listen, it
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: was fun. But no one thought Pratt was going to
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: win the general. It's just a little too ridiculous that
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: the third place candidate had such a run in post election.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: It smells real bad. We didn't think he was going
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: to win. Nobody thought he was going to win the general.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: We just thought that there would be a normal race
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: where he would get to present his issues, and they
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: really didn't want him to do that.
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: No, and I obviously didn't think he was going to
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: win either, but it would have been nice to have him,
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: have him go head to head with with Karen Bass
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: for five months and on a debate stage. And I
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: think there are some blessings in the skies here, or
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: some silver linings. I'll say. I think this will motivate
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: others in cities that look unturnable. I mean, LA is
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: the biggest, you know, elephant in the room. Their aircraft
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: carrier to turn around, and it's probably insurmountable as we
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: sit here today, but I think people in smaller cities
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: will look around and say, you know, if he can
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: do that, you know, courage is contagious, right, And if
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: somebody can do that in La, I'm willing to do
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: that in the town or the city that I'm in.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: And you know, Karen Bass or Ramen is probably gonna
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: go on to win. But you know, I think there
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: is some silver linings and these people like them, people
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: like Mondami and actually getting elected and running these cities
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: into the ground. And you bring up New York City.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: I'm married a Jersey girl. You know her very well.
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: I'm very sensitive to New York City. We used to
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: visit four times a year. We now go once every
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: two or three years. We took our kids there and
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: they kept asking what the smell was, and it obviously
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: marijuana in.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: The marijuana and you're in I don't want.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: New York City to go away forever. I love I
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: love the place. But it's almost like, Okay, if mom
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: Dommy does the real harm that his policies are actually
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: going to do in that city, people will finally wake
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: up and say enough is enough. Let's get back to
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: something here, you know.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Maybe yeah, and maybe or people will have left already.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: And that's the other part of it is that as
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: people leave, there's fewer normal saying people to vote in
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: normalcy insanity. So I don't know, I know you and
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: I root for these places, but we get to root
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: for them from the free state of Florida, where things
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: are normal and elections are counted the night of.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: And that's pretty nice. It's nice for our kids, you know. Yep,
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: We're going to take a short break and.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Be right back with more on Normally with guest co
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: host Gates Scarcia.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: Be right back.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: We are back on Normally, where the latest news on
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Graham Platner was a New York Times story last week
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: about his questionable behavior towards women.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: But the thing is that.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: The Grand platin Or story should have been over with
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: a Nazi tattoo, or how he loves to masturbate in
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Porto potties, or how he's lied about his background, or
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: how he wanted American military members to die at the
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: hands of our enemies. Any of those things should be disqualifying,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: and they're not.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: And this New York Times.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Story, you know, It featured several women who talked about
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: his questionable behavior, and as we know from one of
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: the women featured in the story, Lindsay Fei, filed that
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: there was some stuff taken out of it.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: She was put in touch with two women who said.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: They were abused by Platins, and those women's stories did
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: not make it into the article. Will democrats ever turn
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: on Platner they have about I think the primary is
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: the day that this airs on Tuesday, and then they
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: have about three weeks after this to find a different
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: candidate to replace him if he drops out?
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Will they get him to drop out?
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: Carol, just like rewind the tape sixty seconds and go
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: through all the things you just said. I mean it
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: almost sounds like a Babylon beskit. I mean things that
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: this man's look. It's one thing to be accused of
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: one thing. It's one thing to maybe be accused of
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: two things. This man has a life story of just
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: things that make me want to vomit personally. For ten years, well,
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: well for going for ten years. We've been told that
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: character matters from the left, But I want to go
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: back two hundred and fifty years. I'm reading a book
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: on the Founding, and there's a section in the book
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: about you know, all all men and women are created equal,
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: and John Adams speaks up and he says they are.
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: But there's an aristocra and it's in virtue and character,
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: and we should be electing people of the highest virtue
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: and the highest character to carry out the missions of
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: the country. Two hundred and fifty years we focused on character.
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: We've been told that, and now we're being told that
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: allegations matter. We're being told that offensive statements matter. We're
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: being told that associations matter. Yet the second the Democrats
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: think a Senate seat is on the line, suddenly every
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: person becomes every principle becomes negotiable. And what's so funny is,
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: you know, when this was Brett Kavanaugh, it was like
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: throw the book at the guy, and those allegations were
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: so were not credible in the least. And we now
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: have a paper trail, I mean, we have a digital footprint,
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: we have tattoos stamped on the man's skin. I mean,
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: these are the most credible allegations. They're not allegations, credible
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: offenses that somebody could commit. But all the Democrats that
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: wanted to hashtag me too. On their social media are
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: all in on this guy. It's comical.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: They really they can't find a line that they won't
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: cross for him. And I think that is because because
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: the far left has captured the Democratic Party, it's no
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: longer like they're the fringe.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: They're the base. They're the party. Now Chuck Schumer answers
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: to them.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: It's no longer like Dave Marcus made this point, Chuck
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Schumer a couple of years ago could have picked up
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: a phone and made the call and been like grand
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Platner's out.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: And now he can't do that.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: You know, I would say, for better or for worse, right,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: we want the open elections where people get to vote
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: and all that. But a party that can't police itself,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: that can't say these candidates are beyond the pale and
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: we won't stand for it. I don't know how that
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: party survives. And the truth is that the Platner checks
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: these far left boxes. I mean, more than anything else,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: he's anti Israel and that's why they're willing to forgive
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: so much. They're willing to say, we don't care about
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: the Nazi tattoo, and we don't care about his abuses
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: of women, And we don't care about the lies of
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: his past, and we don't care about the offensive things
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: that he said because he aligns with us on the
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: main issue of the day, which is opposing Israel. For
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: all the attention that people on the right get for
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: being into Israel, we're not nearly as obsessed with Israel
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: as the left is right now.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: And that's what the big tell is here.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: For me, Nine times out of ten, when I'm talking
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: about Israel, it's me talking about somebody else talking about.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: Israel, right right.
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: We have all these people that say everyone's obsessed with Israel.
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: It's those people that work Israel into every episode of
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: the podcast, every tweet that they send, every segment of
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: their TV shows. Here here's the other thing I want
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: to say about this. Look, it would be one thing
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: if Platner was going up against like some massive Maga
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: Trump type of candidate. He's running against Susan Collins. She's
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: like vanilla ice cream when it comes to the Republican Party.
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: She's the farthest thing from Maga there is, and this
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: is the person they chose to oppose her with. It's like,
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: that's these are the chips you're gonna put on the
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: table for Susan Collins. Imagine what they'll do when it's
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: somebody like Trump on the ticket. It's it's crazy.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: That's absolutely true.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: That that is such a great point, because Susan Collins
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: is who they say they want. They say, we want
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: the moderate Republican. We just don't want this megabase. We
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: want you know, what we used to have. She is
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: what you used to have. She's that person, She's that
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: moderate who opposes things that Trump does and you know,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: really goes down the middle. If you don't want her,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: and if you're willing to accept somebody with a Nazi
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: tattoo to oppose her, won't won't you accept? And look,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: you know I've said this, but for them, it's it's
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: become the Democratic Party has become really so questionable on
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Jews that you have to think that they either like
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: the Nazi tattoo or they're willing to ignore.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: It for the sake of power, and either either.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: One of those things things should be a deal breaker
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: for most Democrats.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: That it's not is really scary.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: Actually, yeah, and let me add one more thing. So,
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: and I agree with all of that. They're they're both
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: of those things are even and wrong. It doesn't matter
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: which whether it's the former, they're like, he keeps attributing
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: the nonsense of his past to things like PTSD and
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: the trauma he experienced in the military. I want to
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: be very clear about something in that. In that vein,
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: I have a lot of friends that are veterans, and
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: many of them suffer from PTSD. One, it's offensive what
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: he's doing to crediting PTSD with that because the people
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: with PTSD that I know, they suffer from things like depression,
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: they suffer from things like substance abuse. PTSD does not
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: alter your character, okay exactly. It alters your sort of
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: disposition on your outlook and life and the trauma that
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: you've experienced. But it doesn't put Nazi tattoos on your
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: test on your chest. It doesn't send you into a
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: porta potty to masturbate. It doesn't send you on these
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: reddits and four chance saying apparently he's texting you know,
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: underage women. And also nobody with PTSD that I know
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: has done any of that. So it's highly offensive to
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: the veterans in our community that do suffer from real
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: PTSD to say that all that is a pociated with it.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: It's ridiculous.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's offensive to other military members, this whole like, oh,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: you must not know military members if you don't understand
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: Grand Platner. Like I know plenty of military members X
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: and current, and this idea that they're all like, you know,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: doing these terrible things that he's doing or wanting death.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: He said that Chris Kyle, you know, famously the American sniper,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: that he wanted that he juiced his numbers by killing
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: civilians and he didn't care.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: And these are really sick things to say.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: And I always say this, but hatred of Israel and
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: hatred of America are they go hand in hand? And
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: nowhere is that more obvious than grand Platner. I want
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: to just add one more thing about him. I think
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: that it's not that big a story because so many
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: other stories around him are so big. His parents bought
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: his house. His mom is the only client of his
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: oyster farm. This guy is a complete fraud. He's not
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: some working class hero. He's not some oyster man from
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Maine who just is a regular guy. And he wants
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: to bring down all lug arcs. You know, Bernie Sanders
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: talks about it. This guy is a rich boy who
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: got whatever he wanted, and he isn't this pretense that
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: he is showing all of us.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: No, I mean, I can't add much more than you
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: did there. It's it's populism, one on one. It's play
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: the part. It's play the character on TV. Pick the
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: guy from the movie and dress it up and go
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: give speeches. I mean, he's a fraud. What else can
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: we say, Carol? The fact, the fact that his family
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: gave him money and he has one client as an
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: oyster farmer is the.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Least it is.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: But it just shows what a fake he is, and
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: that Democrats don't care. They just don't care that he
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: that his whole persona is fake. They're just you know,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: sticking by him.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: Yep, we have we have a huge opportunity here, by
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: the way. Uh did you see the bet Fetterman's willing
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: to make with him?
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we have a chance to see John Fetterman wear
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: a suit every day to work.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: So Sarah Barman asked him to prove.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, garm Pleatner, please show us the text of you
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: texting underage girls. I want to see John Fetterman in
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: a suit.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Fetterman asked him, to prove that none of the girls
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: he was texting the app kick, which is known for
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: underage texting.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: It's universe or something, yeap that none of the girls
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: were underage.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: And if he could prove that that Fetterman will wear
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: a suit all the time, I think Fetterman is going
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: to stay in his sweatpan.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: We're going to take a short break and be right
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: back with one more segment of Normally.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: We are back on Normally where I'm here with.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Guest co host Gates Garcia of the podcast We the
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: people subscribe like follow Gates. He's so wonderful, really just
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: doing such a great job. And this is a story
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: that you highlighted for me, Gates. I saw it in passing,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: but it was your video that really made me pay attention.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: There's a YouTuber named Jesse Ridgway and he and his
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: wife were expecting a baby and then he posted a
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: whole thing about how the baby had a potential down
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: syndrome diagnosis and they aborted that baby. And I thought
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: that a lot of people commented and they said, you know,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: terrible things to him and his wife, And I thought
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: that the way you handled it was compassionate, but serious.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: They killed a baby in utero that you know, could
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: have been a lot. It could have been a real human, obviously,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: it could have been a blessing in their world, and
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: it could have been a lot for all of us,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: for all of our society. I want to roll the
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: clip of you talking about it, and then I want
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: to ask you about it.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: Y'all know I usually wait to pop into the studio
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: to share my thoughts with you, but some things can't wait.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: Because currently the most virable tweet on X is of
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: Jesse Ridgeway, a popular YouTuber who announced that he and
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: his wife have terminated their pregnancy after learning that their
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: baby had Down syndrome. And before I say anything else,
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: let me acknowledge something. I don't doubt that they were scared.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: I don't doubt that they cried. I don't doubt that
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: they wrestled with what to do. And as a Christian,
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: I'll lead the judging to God and will hate the
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: sin without hating the sinner. But what struck me wasn't
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: just the decision. It was how the child was discussed.
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: The baby was reduced to a diagnosis, a prognosis, a
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: probability essentially a collection of risks and future challenges. The
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: conversation became entirely about suffering quality of life, medical complications,
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: financial burdens, and what the parents might endure. The one
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: thing missing from the discussion was the person, the child,
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: the human being at the center of it all. And
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: I couldn't stop thinking about something. What would a person
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: would Down syndrome think after reading that tweet? Imagine being
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: a teenager with Down syndrome. Imagine being an adult with
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: Down syndrome. Imagine reading millions of people debate whether someone
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: like you should have been born. Imagine discovering that your
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: extra chromoson is viewed not as a characteristic but as
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: a disqualifier. What message does that send? That your life
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: is worthless, that your existence requires justification, that your value
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: depends on whether other people think you're convenient enough. I
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: volunteer at a special needs ministry, and I can tell
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: you something from personal experience. Some of the happiest people
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: I know have Down syndrome, not because their lives are easy,
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: not because they don't face challenges, but because they possess
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: a capacity for joy that many of us have forgotten.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: Every time I spend time with them, I walk away
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: feeling better than when I arrived. They reflect joy back
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: on to other people. They remind us what gratitude looks like.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: They remind us what genuine affection looks like. They remind
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: us that human dignity isn't measured by IQ productivity, income,
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: athletic ability, or independence. And frankly, some of the people
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: I know with Down syndrome seem to understand love better
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: than the rest of us, which raises an uncomfortable question
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: who is really helping whom? Because every time I spend
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: time with that community, I leave enriched, not the other
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: way around.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: I love that last part. I mean, that's only a
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: clip of your full video.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: I implore everybody to go watch Gates his entire video
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: on this. I just I thought it was so beautifully said.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: And that's what I meant in my opening of this,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: is that this could have been somebody who enriched us
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: all and tell us more about your thoughts on that.
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you don't meet a lot of people
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: with Down syndrome that are having a bad day. They all,
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: most for the most part, walk around with a smile
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: on their face, and they're facing life challenges far greater
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: than any of us without Down syndrome are facing. And
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: every time I'm around them, they just warm my heart
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: and make me a better person. I just I can't
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: imagine what this family is gonna think for the rest
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: of their lives when they go out to dinner and
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: happen to see a couple with a child with Down
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: syndrome enjoying themselves as a family. The other thing I
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: thought about I talk a little bit about it in there,
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: but I think I'm gonna write a piece on this
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: is parenthood is essentially accepting the uncertain You don't have
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: a child. I guarantee you No one has a child
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: for their own convenience. I mean, children are inconvenient, even
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: the healthiest children are inconvenient. But you willfully accept uncertainty.
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: What would happen if they had a healthy baby but
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: at two years old developed a brain defect, or at
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: five years old had a severe learning disability or a
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: speech impediment. The other thing I want to say is that,
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: on a personal level, my wife and I we have
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: four children, and two of them had significant scares during
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: two of the pregnancies, and on one of them we
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: decided to forego forego any further testing and just say
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: if that's what it ends up being, that's what it'll be,
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: and we'll be prepared for that. And on the other one,
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: the doctors were totally wrong. The baby came out and
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: was one hundred percent healthy, and not enough people are
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: focusing on their announcement. They say that the baby might
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: have Down syndrome. There's a there's a chance that it
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: has Down. For what do we what do we do?
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: In Carol, that's that's a human life. I mean, we
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: talk about protecting the vulnerable in society. Well, the unborn
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: are the most vulnerable, and if we aren't protecting them,
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: we're not protecting anybody.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: My third child, I was told that if there was
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: a high risk that he would be blind.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: He's not, And even if he was, we would have loved.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: Him and accepted him and raised him and loved him and.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: Done all the rest. But they do make mistakes.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: And that's such a big part of this is that
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: you get told that there's a chance or that there's
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: a marker for something, and you make a decision based
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: on that, and that's a decision you know, you really
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: can't undo. You never find out how it would have
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: went and you lose out on a lot.
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely so.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: I also I think the way that they shared it,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: they made it public, they sort of invited the criticism
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: and the.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: Don't I don't want people to spew hated them. I
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: like you said, it was probably a very difficult decision,
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: but they kind of just did it for the clicks.
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: And he's got four million followers on the They documented
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: their entire pregnancy, so much so that at one point
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: they showed live videos of the baby moving on the sonogram.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: They were referring to it as little nugget throughout the
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: whole process. So while I tried to be certainly more
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: empathetic than most, it's still disgusts me that they turned
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: this whole announcement into content for clicks. The last I checked,
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: his announcement had twenty two million views on x I'm
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: sure it's way above that now, and it's very clear
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: that this whole thing was for a lot of that.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, very sad, very very sad. Gates, And thank you
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: again for giving us your perspective. I think it's a
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: really really good one.
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: Thanks.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us on normally normally airs Tuesdays
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: and Thursdays, and you could subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Get in touch with us at normallythepod at gmail dot com.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and when things get weird, you act normally.