Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast: Holiday Cheer, Parenting Hacks, & Elon Musk

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Normally Podcast: Holiday Cheer, Parenting Hacks, & Elon Musk · Normally

0:02
Speaker 1: Hey guys, friends, Norman's Countrymen back on. Normally this is
0:07
Speaker 1: the show with normal and she takes for when the
0:09
Speaker 1: news gets weird. But this week heavy On takes lighter
0:13
Speaker 1: on news as we do. An Ama, I am here
0:16
Speaker 1: as always with Carol Marco.
0:18
Speaker 2: It's nice to see you guys.
0:19
Speaker 1: And I'm Mary Casingham.
0:20
Speaker 2: But I was gonna say, I feel like we missed
0:23
Speaker 2: something there.
0:25
Speaker 1: It's okay, the order was off. It's a special week right.
0:28
Speaker 3: Well for those who can't see Mary Catherine's and her
0:30
Speaker 3: special Christmas jammis, which you know, I have to tell
0:33
Speaker 3: you there's there's definitely some things that Jews cove it
0:38
Speaker 3: from Christmas.
0:39
Speaker 2: Comfy cute jammys are right up there.
0:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the full matching deal too, all the cousins.
0:46
Speaker 1: My husband was in the matching set last night, so
0:50
Speaker 1: it's awesome.
0:51
Speaker 4: Yeah.
0:52
Speaker 3: I mean we also my kids talk about it.
0:54
Speaker 4: They're like, you know, we.
0:55
Speaker 3: Could have lights. It's not nothing Christmas spelled lights. It's
0:58
Speaker 3: just lights, hot chocolate. A lot of little things around
1:03
Speaker 3: Christmas are very appealing to us.
1:06
Speaker 1: Yes. Well, and also I think I believe it was
1:08
Speaker 1: John put Hoortz who told me he was like it's
1:11
Speaker 1: actually kind of a great deal. We get all the
1:15
Speaker 1: beauty and like the sort of adjacent joy and write
1:19
Speaker 1: all of this stuff the trappings a bit of Christmas
1:22
Speaker 1: without the stress of Christmas. Yeah, I see that. I
1:26
Speaker 1: see that.
1:28
Speaker 2: Yes, Well, let's get into it.
1:30
Speaker 3: We have some good questions, we have some bad questions,
1:33
Speaker 3: we have some questionable questions. You know, let's start with
1:38
Speaker 3: a nice one, because we're nice. People are nice. It's
1:42
Speaker 3: the holidays, so we'll talk about all the different questions
1:46
Speaker 3: we got. But here's a good one. I've always respected
1:48
Speaker 3: how you both maintain your cool and still communicate serious
1:52
Speaker 3: and disheartening info. Would you say, in addition to your professionalism,
1:56
Speaker 3: this is also your temperament coming across. I've been a
1:59
Speaker 3: fangirl of both you independently for many years, cheering you
2:02
Speaker 3: both on in your personal professional lives. Your podcast together
2:05
Speaker 3: makes complete sense. Happy Knaga and Merry Christmas. Blessings to
2:08
Speaker 3: you and your families.
2:10
Speaker 4: People are so good.
2:11
Speaker 2: Isn't that a nice question? Yeah, no, good one.
2:15
Speaker 3: Would you say it's our temperaments?
2:17
Speaker 2: I think yes, I do think yes.
2:19
Speaker 3: I think that what drew me to you early, early
2:22
Speaker 3: on is that you were a happy warrior. We were
2:26
Speaker 3: both in the conservative movement, but we weren't angry about it,
2:29
Speaker 3: and we enjoyed humor that was very big, and we
2:35
Speaker 3: liked making each other laugh, and so right off the bat,
2:37
Speaker 3: I think we became friends over that and it's grown
2:41
Speaker 3: from there. Actually, one of the early things that Mary
2:44
Speaker 3: Catherine and I did together, I mean we were already
2:47
Speaker 3: friends at this point, but on one of the nine
2:50
Speaker 3: to eleven conspiracy theories had grown really big, right shortly
2:54
Speaker 3: after nine to eleven. They're way bigger than you know
2:57
Speaker 3: they are now. They were kind of hitting the mainstream
2:59
Speaker 3: almost I don't know, actually they're bigger than they are now.
3:04
Speaker 3: That is a very conspiratorial moment. But we did this
3:07
Speaker 3: thing where we went to the nine to eleven site
3:10
Speaker 3: and we passed out pamphlets and said the truth about
3:12
Speaker 3: nine to eleven, and inside it was like the official story,
3:15
Speaker 3: just the truth.
3:16
Speaker 1: Right.
3:18
Speaker 4: So we've done fun stuff like that.
3:20
Speaker 3: And I think, yeah, I think our temperaments really do
3:22
Speaker 3: match up.
3:23
Speaker 1: I agree. I do think in our early days of
3:25
Speaker 1: blogging and such, when we first met, I was like,
3:28
Speaker 1: I feel like this is the person who also knows
3:31
Speaker 1: a few rap lyrics and has been to a few clubs,
3:33
Speaker 1: and I was like, that's like someone that I need
3:36
Speaker 1: to talk to. And then, of course, since we became moms,
3:39
Speaker 1: you're one of the group of moms that I wish
3:41
Speaker 1: lived closer to me, so we could mom together because
3:44
Speaker 1: we have similar philosophies. So we've sort of grown over
3:47
Speaker 1: this arc together, I would say. And then I think
3:50
Speaker 1: I'm just a generally optimistic person, even when intellectually I'm
3:56
Speaker 1: looking at a situation and going this is very bad.
4:00
Speaker 1: So the combination sort of makes for a level headed
4:05
Speaker 1: take on news even when it can be very bad.
4:09
Speaker 1: And sometimes you can be two level headed and optimistic. Frankly, sure.
4:12
Speaker 1: One of the things I say about American exceptionalism is like,
4:16
Speaker 1: we are exceptional, but if we stop acting exceptionally, when
4:20
Speaker 1: does that run out? Like that credit runs out at
4:23
Speaker 1: some point, And so that's uh. I sort of admonish
4:26
Speaker 1: myself sometimes for you know, not taking things maybe enough seriously.
4:30
Speaker 1: Sometimes Yeah, but I do.
4:32
Speaker 3: I hear, I can't help you, right, I mean, finding
4:35
Speaker 3: the humor in things in bad situations is definitely what
4:39
Speaker 3: I'm all about. And I'm also very optimistic, So I
4:42
Speaker 3: think we come together on the optimism and making fun
4:46
Speaker 3: of everything.
4:48
Speaker 2: It's true, hard hitting culinary question. Mary Catherine.
4:51
Speaker 3: I know you're a fellow Southerner and Bojangles fan feeling
4:54
Speaker 3: on biscuits and gravy. Has Carol ever been blessed by
4:57
Speaker 3: this Southern delicacy? Big fan of the pod and getting hand.
5:00
Speaker 3: I'm from Huntsville, Alabama.
5:01
Speaker 4: Roll Tide to MK.
5:03
Speaker 1: I will forgive the role tide in this situation.
5:07
Speaker 4: I thought that would be nice.
5:09
Speaker 1: No, it's okay, it's okay. We're all sec here. I
5:12
Speaker 1: will allow it. I feel like when you get to
5:14
Speaker 1: the mid Atlantic and you're out of the sec you
5:16
Speaker 1: do find more more camaraderie with former rivals because we're all,
5:22
Speaker 1: you know, displaced sort of. But yeah, so biscuits and gravy.
5:27
Speaker 1: I've actually had a journey on this, and I would
5:30
Speaker 1: like to say that I am remiss and I've never
5:31
Speaker 1: taken Carol to Bojngles. We have done waffle House, but
5:35
Speaker 1: not Bojangles, so I will correct that. However, when I
5:39
Speaker 1: was young, I did not like biscuits and gravy. I
5:41
Speaker 1: was like, why are we putting white gravy on biscuits?
5:44
Speaker 1: That seems weird. I'm not a fan. And then at
5:47
Speaker 1: some point, I don't know, in my older wiser years,
5:51
Speaker 1: I tried it again and was like, this is amazing,
5:54
Speaker 1: This is amazing. Why why would anyone not eat this?
5:57
Speaker 1: So I feel like I might ruined my cred by
6:00
Speaker 1: saying at one point I did not like biscuits and gravy.
6:03
Speaker 1: But it's true. As a child, I was not into it.
6:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love biscuits and gravy. I'm actually this is
6:08
Speaker 3: this is the really controversial take in general. I'm not
6:11
Speaker 3: a huge gravy fan, white or brown. It's fine, it's good,
6:14
Speaker 3: but people go a little crazy for it, like it's
6:16
Speaker 3: it becomes a whole cult thing.
6:19
Speaker 2: I like it.
6:20
Speaker 3: It's good, But the biscuits the key thing for me there.
6:23
Speaker 3: I could have biscuits without gravy, you.
6:25
Speaker 4: Know what I mean? I saw, I hear you.
6:27
Speaker 3: I I but yeah, it's a great dish. Actually, some
6:31
Speaker 3: of the best biscuits and gravy I've had was in Tallahassee, Florida,
6:35
Speaker 3: which if you don't know Florida, which I didn't before
6:38
Speaker 3: moving here, the further north you go in Florida, the
6:41
Speaker 3: more south you are.
6:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, Tallahassee is like like if I were to move
6:45
Speaker 1: to Florida, I would be in the Panhandle. That's like
6:47
Speaker 1: South Georgia. It's just the same for me, right, So
6:51
Speaker 1: that's uh.
6:52
Speaker 3: They have some really good biscuits and gravy in Tallahassee.
6:55
Speaker 1: There's two places that I've had my favorite biscuits and gravy.
6:58
Speaker 1: One is in the middle of virgin which is a
7:01
Speaker 1: little further north than you would think for a great
7:03
Speaker 1: biscuits and gravy. But this little tiny restaurant, it's like
7:06
Speaker 1: one of these you know hole in the wall side
7:08
Speaker 1: of the road places, has an entire menu section for
7:12
Speaker 1: gravy related items that is just entitled gravy. So you know,
7:15
Speaker 1: they take it very seriously. So that one's great. And
7:18
Speaker 1: then another one a friend of mine who lives in
7:21
Speaker 1: New Jersey. No I'm not kidding. He's an Italian in
7:24
Speaker 1: New Jersey and he makes biscuits and gravy homemade. And
7:28
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm sure this is fine, right, So
7:32
Speaker 1: I go up there, very snobby, visit my friend. He
7:34
Speaker 1: makes biscuits and gravy and it was fantastic and I
7:37
Speaker 1: had to eat my words.
7:39
Speaker 3: I mean, in New Jersey, what can they not make tastes.
7:45
Speaker 3: They are our culinary betters.
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Speaker 1: He did a bang up job. I was not mad
7:50
Speaker 1: at it at all.
7:51
Speaker 2: Will be right back on normally.
7:56
Speaker 1: I always like these, and I'm going to throw it
7:58
Speaker 1: to you first, Carol, what's your best mom hat?
8:02
Speaker 4: I think lazy parenting.
8:05
Speaker 3: I coin that phrase somewhere along the way is the
8:09
Speaker 3: best way to go. You cannot be overly involved in
8:12
Speaker 3: your children's lives. I know that that is completely opposite
8:15
Speaker 3: to what we all are told.
8:16
Speaker 4: All the time.
8:17
Speaker 3: But I think what makes momming so enjoyable for me
8:22
Speaker 3: and I love being a parent so much. I really
8:25
Speaker 3: I never imagined I would enjoy having children as much.
8:28
Speaker 4: As I do.
8:29
Speaker 2: I think a lot of it is I'm.
8:31
Speaker 4: Not like a helicopter parent.
8:33
Speaker 3: I'm not hanging over them, monitoring their every second.
8:39
Speaker 4: We talk a lot in our family.
8:41
Speaker 3: We give them a lot of basics, a lot of foundations,
8:44
Speaker 3: but we'd set them free to do.
8:45
Speaker 4: Their own thing.
8:46
Speaker 3: And especially living in Florida, we've gotten to where they
8:50
Speaker 3: just you know, run free, and they ride their bikes
8:52
Speaker 3: and they come home whenever. They're living a very Generation
8:56
Speaker 3: X existence in a very whatever jed alpha world that
9:00
Speaker 3: they're in now. And other than the language with their
9:02
Speaker 3: skimmity toilet, Ohio, it's very much like my childhood. Yes,
9:07
Speaker 3: less like they're allowed to come into the house.
9:09
Speaker 4: That's really the difference.
9:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, I heard skibbty so many times on the way
9:14
Speaker 1: to West Virginia in the mountains, which is where I
9:16
Speaker 1: am now, and the older children were teaching the younger
9:20
Speaker 1: children to say skimmity toilet, So that's a nice addition.
9:25
Speaker 1: I have a similar hack, which is basically, you should
9:29
Speaker 1: ignore your children more often, like at the playground when
9:33
Speaker 1: they're in your home, when they're out in the neighborhood.
9:37
Speaker 1: You should send them out in the neighborhood to explore.
9:40
Speaker 1: And we do the same thing, which is I feel
9:42
Speaker 1: grateful that we have a neighborhood where we can do
9:44
Speaker 1: that and nobody calls CPS on us. But I think
9:48
Speaker 1: our kids have encouraged other families to have their kids
9:51
Speaker 1: come out and play as well because they they do that.
9:54
Speaker 1: And I always tell parents of particularly two young kids,
9:57
Speaker 1: when they're adding a new kid, the key to not
10:01
Speaker 1: having to hover over your children is that you must
10:04
Speaker 1: ignore your toddlers for twenty minutes. And when you've ignored
10:08
Speaker 1: your toddlers for twenty minutes, they will play with each
10:11
Speaker 1: other toddlers slash young children, and then they start to
10:15
Speaker 1: figure out how to do that. But if you're always there,
10:18
Speaker 1: do not figure out how to do that.
10:20
Speaker 2: That's right.
10:20
Speaker 3: If you're always trying to kind of coordinate their play,
10:23
Speaker 3: they never learn how to do it themselves. And actually,
10:26
Speaker 3: on my other show, I get it, people ask me
10:29
Speaker 3: for advice, and I feel like a lot of the
10:31
Speaker 3: advice recently has been like, how do I help my
10:34
Speaker 3: college age kid make friends or not even college. One
10:38
Speaker 3: of them was like sixteen, Like they have friends, how
10:40
Speaker 3: do I help them coordinate sort of play dates? And
10:43
Speaker 3: if your kid has reached sixteen and doesn't know how
10:45
Speaker 3: to coordinate their own kind of friendships, it's tough. And
10:49
Speaker 3: I see this a lot because people really don't let
10:52
Speaker 3: their kids find their own path and they want to
10:55
Speaker 3: make everything easier for them. I get that, you know,
10:57
Speaker 3: especially if you've had a difficult life, you want to
10:59
Speaker 3: make things easier for your kids. But the easier you
11:02
Speaker 3: make it for them, the harder you're making it for them.
11:04
Speaker 1: Yes, it's all paradoxical because I think you're right. I
11:09
Speaker 1: enjoy parenting because I do less proact it, like, less
11:14
Speaker 1: involved in freaked out parenting, right, and so it just
11:18
Speaker 1: becomes more enjoyable for that reason. An extreme version of
11:24
Speaker 1: letting your kids do what they want to do on
11:27
Speaker 1: their own is that I took my three year old
11:30
Speaker 1: to the snow tubing hill at Snowshoe this week and
11:34
Speaker 1: my husband I decided she's like quite game for such things,
11:38
Speaker 1: and I was like, I think she'll be fine. And
11:40
Speaker 1: then we went up there and I was like, I'm
11:41
Speaker 1: sure there's a way that she can ride in the
11:43
Speaker 1: tube with me, or I'll tether to her. There's some
11:46
Speaker 1: sort of situation. Instead of sending a three year old
11:49
Speaker 1: down the hill by herself, it did not send a
11:52
Speaker 1: three year old down the hill down the hill yourself. Actually,
11:57
Speaker 1: we can play a clip of it because you can
11:59
Speaker 1: hear her having the absolute time of her life. Yeah,
12:12
Speaker 1: she was so unafraid, and I don't know what that
12:15
Speaker 1: means for her future, but she for an hour and
12:19
Speaker 1: a half in seventeen degree weather, ten degree weather, she
12:21
Speaker 1: did the hill and over and over again. So awesome.
12:27
Speaker 2: I have faith in your three year old.
12:29
Speaker 4: Your three year old's gonna be fine.
12:31
Speaker 1: She's a she's quite a character. I was just like
12:34
Speaker 1: bracing for watching her like pop out of the tube
12:37
Speaker 1: like a cork at some point, and she didn't.
12:38
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's great.
12:41
Speaker 3: All right, that is some good parenting, and that is
12:43
Speaker 3: a good Heck, let your kids be free.
12:46
Speaker 1: Here's a good one. Do you have any advice for
12:48
Speaker 1: the politically engaged who are seeking rest during the holiday season?
12:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, I get off the internet.
12:55
Speaker 3: It's such an easy one and such a hard one
12:57
Speaker 3: because I get it.
12:58
Speaker 2: I'm also such a X addict.
13:02
Speaker 3: I wake up, I open my eyes, I reached my phone,
13:04
Speaker 3: and the first thing I do is check X.
13:06
Speaker 4: And I think the main thing.
13:08
Speaker 3: For me is when I take these breaks, and I
13:10
Speaker 3: do take like two or three breaks a year. I
13:13
Speaker 3: don't announce it, which is right away. Once you announce it,
13:16
Speaker 3: you're like looking for everybody to be like, oh no,
13:18
Speaker 3: don't go or a break.
13:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, you've engagement farmed by announcing, and then you're going
13:24
Speaker 1: to get all the all the responses yes.
13:26
Speaker 3: And you're gonna keep checking. Don't announce it. Just take
13:29
Speaker 3: your break. Nobody needs to know. And the second thing
13:31
Speaker 3: is take it off of your phone. This is a
13:34
Speaker 3: big one for me because and you know, It's wild
13:36
Speaker 3: is your finger will still go to the spot where
13:39
Speaker 3: the app used to be and just kind of try
13:41
Speaker 3: to find it, and you're like, oh, it's not there,
13:43
Speaker 3: and it's It really shows.
13:45
Speaker 4: How addicted we are because your finger.
13:48
Speaker 3: Takes a while to get used to not just clicking
13:50
Speaker 3: the blank space.
13:52
Speaker 1: It's true. One of this is sort of adjacent to
13:57
Speaker 1: the or connected to the parenting question, because I try
13:59
Speaker 1: to keep my kids fairly screen free, which is why
14:02
Speaker 1: they are able to explore and come up with new
14:04
Speaker 1: games to play. But I do not model good behavior
14:07
Speaker 1: in this area, and so overbreaks I do attempt to, yeah,
14:11
Speaker 1: like shut it down. And if I'm posting on social media,
14:14
Speaker 1: it's generally something Anna dine, like a picture of my
14:17
Speaker 1: dog in the snow, just so we can keep it chill. Sure,
14:22
Speaker 1: and I stay basically aware of things, but I don't
14:25
Speaker 1: want to get into the details. I actually tweeted the
14:27
Speaker 1: other day that my professional need to understand the continuing
14:30
Speaker 1: resolution fight was at odds with my normy need to
14:34
Speaker 1: just wrap so many presents, and I the presents were winning.
14:38
Speaker 1: The presents were winning that day.
14:40
Speaker 3: And you know a lot of the time. I mean,
14:42
Speaker 3: of course, important things happen. But a lot of times
14:45
Speaker 3: you'll miss the story of the week and you'll realize how.
14:47
Speaker 2: Little it matters.
14:48
Speaker 4: Yes, I think one that I missed.
14:51
Speaker 3: I don't remember what Nikki Haley said exactly, but during
14:53
Speaker 3: the primary campaign she said something about like world War two.
14:58
Speaker 3: I don't know, and I never found it out. I
15:00
Speaker 3: just I completely missed the controversy that went on for
15:03
Speaker 3: a while, and when I came back online, it was
15:06
Speaker 3: like it was like the remnants of it, and so
15:08
Speaker 3: I couldn't pick up what was happening, and I was like,
15:11
Speaker 3: forget it, It's fine.
15:11
Speaker 1: Yeah. Have I ever told you my metaphor for this?
15:15
Speaker 1: What was the soap opera that you watched as a
15:17
Speaker 1: kid or that your mom watched?
15:19
Speaker 3: Well, I mean all of them, honestly, in the summertime,
15:24
Speaker 3: when there was nobody there to oversee me, it was
15:26
Speaker 3: young and the restless days of our lives, building the
15:28
Speaker 3: beautiful all my children, I mean all of them.
15:31
Speaker 1: So I was a days of days of our lives galants.
15:34
Speaker 1: I think that people who are politically engaged and who
15:37
Speaker 1: are newsjake junkies are like really serious days of our lives.
15:41
Speaker 1: Fans who are like something very important is happening every
15:45
Speaker 1: single day, And people who don't watch soap operas, like,
15:49
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that something important is happening every single day.
15:52
Speaker 1: And what they do is they tune in every four
15:54
Speaker 1: years and they find out that like Hope and Bow
15:56
Speaker 1: are still going off again, and like, oh yeah, you know,
16:00
Speaker 1: Defino is still evil and we're all going to figure
16:02
Speaker 1: it out. And so that is the life you're living.
16:04
Speaker 1: And just you know, just become a person who's not
16:06
Speaker 1: a super fan for a couple of weeks. It's good
16:08
Speaker 1: for you.
16:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's exactly right. And you could tune back in anytime.
16:12
Speaker 3: That's the beauty of soap operas and our political system anytime.
16:16
Speaker 2: It's right there.
16:16
Speaker 3: Waiting for you to come back and figure out what's
16:19
Speaker 3: going on in the plot.
16:21
Speaker 1: Should we do a.
16:21
Speaker 2: Serious one, We're a more serious one.
16:25
Speaker 3: Let's see great Trump's cabinet appointments.
16:30
Speaker 1: Perhaps, Okay, So like my head, now my head has
16:35
Speaker 1: to re engage with things that I've forgotten in the
16:37
Speaker 1: past five days. I mean, I would say my top
16:42
Speaker 1: one is probably doctor j Abouditaria from uh Stanford, just
16:47
Speaker 1: because of the poetic justice of that appointment to nih too.
16:53
Speaker 1: You know, in the stead of the guy who tried
16:56
Speaker 1: to smear him during the COVID days for being a
17:00
Speaker 1: COVID COVID contrarian or COVID realist, really is what he was.
17:08
Speaker 1: So that's like an A plus plus for me just
17:11
Speaker 1: to watch.
17:12
Speaker 4: She's so great, yeah happen.
17:13
Speaker 1: And he's just a very very very good person and
17:16
Speaker 1: a very smart person and a thoughtful person. And I
17:19
Speaker 1: have no doubts about his performance in that position, So
17:21
Speaker 1: that would be like number one for me.
17:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, I overall, I would say I am extremely pleasantly
17:29
Speaker 3: surprised because we talked about this, like we weren't necessarily
17:32
Speaker 3: the target audience, and we feel very good about his picks.
17:36
Speaker 3: I think he catered to a lot of different demographics.
17:39
Speaker 3: Of course, saying that I don't like Diremer the Labor
17:43
Speaker 3: Secretary pick, I want to see Republicans grow a spine
17:47
Speaker 3: and vote him down.
17:49
Speaker 4: You know, she's just far left and her.
17:53
Speaker 3: Policies are not in line with the Republican Party, so
17:55
Speaker 3: why would they vote.
17:56
Speaker 4: Yes for her?
17:57
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I was gonna say.
17:59
Speaker 3: I get a lot of the arguments like let Trump
18:02
Speaker 3: do what he wants to do. He was elected in
18:04
Speaker 3: you know, this land side. He won every single swing state.
18:07
Speaker 3: I fully understand. But when there's conversation about Republicans will
18:11
Speaker 3: vote down some of his nominees, and the conversation turns
18:14
Speaker 3: like Pete Hegsath, I'm like, no, No, let's focus on
18:17
Speaker 3: the far left labor secretary and that's the one you
18:20
Speaker 3: vote down.
18:21
Speaker 1: Well, and like, I think you know, they'll make the
18:24
Speaker 1: argument that she's a move to endear more labor voters
18:30
Speaker 1: to Republicans, But she's a pick for labor leadership. She's
18:35
Speaker 1: not exact for labor rank and file. We can do
18:38
Speaker 1: plenty with labor rank and file, which is the group
18:41
Speaker 1: of the labor leaning vote that is already coming to
18:45
Speaker 1: our side. So I don't think she's necessary for that.
18:48
Speaker 1: And I just think the judgment to back the pro Act,
18:51
Speaker 1: which is this just awful California legislation that they want
18:54
Speaker 1: to nationalize that has been disastrous already in California, is
18:58
Speaker 1: just such terrible judgment and bad economics, and ugh, no,
19:03
Speaker 1: thank you.
19:04
Speaker 2: Right exactly.
19:05
Speaker 3: I mean again, Randy Winegarden is happy, Elizabeth Warren is happy.
19:09
Speaker 2: That's all I need to know. To be unhappy.
19:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say I'm in like a b range
19:17
Speaker 1: for overall feelings about Trump picks, But I think, as
19:23
Speaker 1: you said, I come into it with a realistic expectation
19:25
Speaker 1: that I am an ideological conservative and not all of
19:27
Speaker 1: these picks are designed to be for me, absolutely, and
19:31
Speaker 1: that the president does have significant leeway and should have
19:35
Speaker 1: significant lee way in picking people, and you ask tough
19:38
Speaker 1: questions and then you take the vote. So I'm comfortable
19:41
Speaker 1: with that process for a lot of these folks, and
19:43
Speaker 1: I haven't been appalled as often I thought I might be.
19:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, I'm in the same place. I would say,
19:50
Speaker 3: more like a because I only really don't like the
19:54
Speaker 3: Labor Secretary and the surgeon general in general. There are
19:57
Speaker 3: some peripheral people that I'm questionable on but not anti
20:02
Speaker 3: so in general, I'm I really am a to as
20:06
Speaker 3: and I feel pretty good about it.
20:08
Speaker 4: We're going to take a.
20:08
Speaker 3: Short break and come right back with normally so a
20:14
Speaker 3: question we got several times, and because it's anonymous, we
20:17
Speaker 3: really don't know if it's like the same person asking,
20:20
Speaker 3: you know, seven questions about this, but we got a
20:24
Speaker 3: lot of questions about are you worried that the US
20:26
Speaker 3: will become an oligarchy controlled by Elon Musk and others
20:30
Speaker 3: like him, and then someone else actually, maybe it's not
20:32
Speaker 3: the same person, because someone else said, why is Elon
20:35
Speaker 3: Musk so involved in decisions?
20:36
Speaker 1: Now?
20:36
Speaker 3: I like him and a lot of what he stands for,
20:38
Speaker 3: but he is not president.
20:40
Speaker 4: Got to say that.
20:41
Speaker 3: I think Elon Musk was part of the package.
20:43
Speaker 2: And if you watched the.
20:45
Speaker 3: Trump campaign unfold, Elon Musk on stage with him constantly,
20:49
Speaker 3: Elon Musk saying that he's going to, you know, have
20:52
Speaker 3: this doge thing where they're going to reduce the amount
20:56
Speaker 3: that government spends. I don't think that anyone should be
20:59
Speaker 3: surprised that you Elon Musk is super involved in this government.
21:05
Speaker 3: Going back to what we were just talking about, where
21:07
Speaker 3: this is not all for us, there were people in
21:10
Speaker 3: the Trump orbit who were on stage with him all
21:12
Speaker 3: the time who I understood would be part of his world.
21:16
Speaker 3: I've talked about before.
21:17
Speaker 2: I'm not a huge Vivek fan.
21:19
Speaker 3: I'm suspicious of RFK, but there was no part of
21:22
Speaker 3: me that thought, oh, when Trump gets elected, these guys
21:25
Speaker 3: are not part of the scene.
21:26
Speaker 2: Obviously they will be. So Elon was part of the package.
21:31
Speaker 3: Personally, I love what Elon is doing. Every time he
21:35
Speaker 3: talks and people get mad when he talks about like
21:37
Speaker 3: cutting all kinds of things in government. I'm for it.
21:42
Speaker 3: I think that we have a ton of waste and
21:44
Speaker 3: Elon is singularly focused on cutting that waste. A lot
21:48
Speaker 3: of people are going to be mad, a lot of
21:51
Speaker 3: you know, projects and kind of friendly pairings are going
21:56
Speaker 3: to be torn here.
21:58
Speaker 2: And that's good.
22:00
Speaker 3: I tweeted recently, I have a tipster who wrote to
22:03
Speaker 3: me about how just one federal prison operates and they
22:07
Speaker 3: basically get computers every X number of years, but they
22:11
Speaker 3: get them so often that the last batch of computers,
22:14
Speaker 3: the new batch arrived and the last batch got thrown
22:16
Speaker 3: out in their boxes because they're also not allowed to
22:19
Speaker 3: give them away or sell them or anything like that,
22:21
Speaker 3: so they had to throw them away. That's just I know,
22:24
Speaker 3: it's a blip, it's a nothing. It's a tiny, little
22:27
Speaker 3: little nothing of the amount of money that our government spends.
22:30
Speaker 3: But imagine that across tons of agencies. Imagine that just
22:33
Speaker 3: across tons of prisons.
22:36
Speaker 2: We're in a bad spot.
22:37
Speaker 4: I like Elon being there to fix it.
22:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I think you're right. This was a truth
22:42
Speaker 1: and advertising thing where we knew he was going to
22:44
Speaker 1: be involved. Unlike, as our friends Scott Jennings pointed out
22:47
Speaker 1: on CNN, much to everyone's dismay, the last four years
22:50
Speaker 1: were unelected. People have been running the country and we
22:53
Speaker 1: were not told about any of that. So I think
22:57
Speaker 1: this was very clear that he was part of the deal.
23:00
Speaker 1: And the thing that even when I have very serious
23:03
Speaker 1: issues with Trump, what he's doing, he's doing out loud. Yeah,
23:07
Speaker 1: and so you have an idea of a what you're
23:09
Speaker 1: getting into and be just what he's up to because
23:13
Speaker 1: he's saying whatever he's thinking right out loud in the moment.
23:18
Speaker 3: I also better or worse, right, I mean better or worse.
23:22
Speaker 1: So, yeah, exactly, And that's the difference between like when
23:25
Speaker 1: he does these press conferences. Look, a lot of the
23:28
Speaker 1: things he says in press conferences could be liabilities, right,
23:31
Speaker 1: but he's just telling you. So I appreciate that part
23:35
Speaker 1: of it, and I think Elon is part of that.
23:38
Speaker 1: I also, with a beast like the federal government, I
23:42
Speaker 1: like to have a creative thinker who has changed the
23:45
Speaker 1: way that things have been done in very frankly amazing
23:51
Speaker 1: ways in industries that needed to be modernized, and to
23:57
Speaker 1: bring that to this table, I think is good. He
24:01
Speaker 1: also brings that to the table while having a huge
24:05
Speaker 1: platform to talk about it. Right, and freedom of speech,
24:08
Speaker 1: as we've seen with George Soros and his son actually
24:11
Speaker 1: extends two billionaires. They're allowed to do things with their
24:15
Speaker 1: money and with their speech to influence politics. This is
24:19
Speaker 1: nothing new. And again it's right out loud, it's in
24:22
Speaker 1: your face. He's saying exactly what he wants, very obviously,
24:26
Speaker 1: not working in some smoke filled room. And I think
24:30
Speaker 1: he's bringing attention to things like you're pointing out, Carol,
24:33
Speaker 1: that people don't even know happen in government.
24:36
Speaker 4: That's right.
24:36
Speaker 1: There's so many things that happen in government that are
24:39
Speaker 1: so on their face ridiculous, and normal people, if they
24:43
Speaker 1: knew they were happening, would be appalled. For instance, like
24:47
Speaker 1: the cr battle where they say, why don't we split
24:50
Speaker 1: this up and vote on each thing so that a
24:53
Speaker 1: cancer pediatric cancer research funding just gets approved? And normal
24:59
Speaker 1: people go, you guys, weren't splitting those up before? Right?
25:02
Speaker 2: Why weren't you doing that already?
25:04
Speaker 1: Yeah? And all of Washington is like, yeah, we couldn't
25:08
Speaker 1: possibly split them up.
25:09
Speaker 2: Right, No, there's no way to do that.
25:11
Speaker 3: How else we can get our special projects in that
25:14
Speaker 3: nobody wants to fund, and that nobody would understand why
25:16
Speaker 3: we're doing this.
25:17
Speaker 2: How else did that happen?
25:18
Speaker 1: Mary Gatherin, You have to use the pediatric cancer research
25:22
Speaker 1: funding to.
25:22
Speaker 3: Do that.
25:24
Speaker 2: Exactly.
25:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know again, I think Elon, I'm a fan,
25:29
Speaker 3: I'm glad he's there, and I would love to see results.
25:33
Speaker 3: I am cautiously optimistic because you know, when I posted
25:36
Speaker 3: this story about this one prison, a lot of the
25:38
Speaker 3: comments I got were like, oh, whatever, it's just like
25:41
Speaker 3: one hundred thousand dollars.
25:42
Speaker 4: You know, who cares?
25:44
Speaker 2: I care?
25:44
Speaker 3: I care, I care, I get it. It's only one
25:47
Speaker 3: hundred thousand dollars and a billion billions and billions of
25:50
Speaker 3: dollar budget. But we have to start somewhere, and we
25:53
Speaker 3: have to start making these changes because you know, one
25:57
Speaker 3: hundred thousand dollars here, one hundred thousand dollars there.
25:59
Speaker 2: Soon you're talking about real money.
26:01
Speaker 1: Yeah. And the way I like to think about it is,
26:03
Speaker 1: how many families in this country have never seen one
26:06
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars? Yes, yes, how many have never come
26:09
Speaker 1: close to one hundred thousand dollars in one pot? Right yep?
26:12
Speaker 1: And we tell them oh, this is nothing. This is
26:16
Speaker 1: a rounding error. And they're like, I'm sorry, what right?
26:19
Speaker 1: Every single one of those dollars and one hundred thousand dollars
26:22
Speaker 1: rounding errors is stolen from American people and their grandkids.
26:26
Speaker 1: That's if you're not using it right, you have taken
26:28
Speaker 1: it from them and you shouldn't have.
26:30
Speaker 2: That's absolutely right. Yeah, well, on that bright note, we're
26:35
Speaker 2: going to are optimistic, right, We are optimistic.
26:38
Speaker 3: We're just you know, cautiously optimistic. Thank you for joining
26:41
Speaker 3: us on this very special episode of Normally. We hope
26:44
Speaker 3: your family has a very merry Christmas, happy Knago, whatever
26:47
Speaker 3: you celebrate. We'll be back with another episode on Thursday,
26:50
Speaker 3: another ask Us Anything episode.
26:52
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening.
26:53
Speaker 3: We are Carol Markowitz and Mary Katherine Ham. Check us
26:56
Speaker 3: out every Tuesday and Thursday on Normally