Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast: Tragedy in Texas

Transcript

Normally Podcast: Tragedy in Texas · Normally

0:01
Speaker 1: Hey guys, we are back on normally the show with
0:03
Speaker 1: normalist takes for when the news gets weird. And when
0:06
Speaker 1: I say we, I do not mean Carol Markowitz. Today,
0:09
Speaker 1: the lovely Carol Markowitz is healing her voice, which she
0:11
Speaker 1: has lost a bit of and so we're gonna let
0:14
Speaker 1: her rest up. And I am in Colorado. Was my
0:16
Speaker 1: friend Kelly Maher him, Mary Catherine, Thanks very ny. I
0:20
Speaker 1: should probably give you a plug, Kelly Maher of restoring standards. Yes,
0:25
Speaker 1: in the state of Colorado. She is an operative out here.
0:28
Speaker 1: She's my very good friend. She's also just very entertaining
0:31
Speaker 1: and grows a great garden which I've been visiting on
0:33
Speaker 1: her patio. It's true. Welcome, Kelly, Thank you so much
0:37
Speaker 1: for having me, Mary Catherine. But of course I'm traveling
0:41
Speaker 1: out here. Yes. See one of our favorite artists, yea
0:44
Speaker 1: which is relevant to the news today, Robert O'Keane. Yes,
0:49
Speaker 1: he's a Texas honkitant guy. Oh, he's one of our
0:53
Speaker 1: favorite We love him, cowboy poet. We've seen him now
0:57
Speaker 1: live several times. We've seen him in Virginia. Yes, we've
1:00
Speaker 1: seen him here in Colorado, and we have on the
1:04
Speaker 1: list before he retires for the second time to go
1:09
Speaker 1: to Texas at some point and see him together. Yes,
1:12
Speaker 1: we will work on that. We also he was our
1:14
Speaker 1: last concert before the pandemic. It won December twenty nineteen,
1:19
Speaker 1: and he was our only concert during the pandemic because
1:23
Speaker 1: as a good Texan he was still touring and doing concerts.
1:27
Speaker 1: We Rebels went out in Northern Virginia where the Rebel
1:30
Speaker 1: Concert Venue was holding an actual concert, and we went
1:34
Speaker 1: there and drank beers with other people and had a
1:37
Speaker 1: singer sing in front of us, and it was fantastic.
1:39
Speaker 1: It's glad. Robert oak Is Keen is fantastic, and he
1:42
Speaker 1: is relevant to the news right now because he is
1:44
Speaker 1: from Kerrville, Texas. Yes, so when we see him on
1:48
Speaker 1: the day of this podcast, it will not be quite
1:50
Speaker 1: as celebratory a tone for this concert as it would
1:54
Speaker 1: otherwise be because it is his hometown has been struck
1:57
Speaker 1: by a tremendous tragedy. Original fourth. At this point, the
2:02
Speaker 1: death toll is more than eighty for extreme flooding from
2:05
Speaker 1: the Guadalupe River. Yeah, including some sixty plus adults and
2:11
Speaker 1: twenty plus children. And it's a it's almost too sad
2:15
Speaker 1: to even think about There was an all girls Christian
2:19
Speaker 1: camp on the banks of the river and Mystic Camp.
2:22
Speaker 1: Mystic that Robert Okane, as he notes in his video,
2:26
Speaker 1: raising money for the town. He sent his daughters there,
2:30
Speaker 1: So it will it will no doubt be sort of
2:32
Speaker 1: a raw performance and tribute to some extent tomorrow. And
2:37
Speaker 1: he's he's also been raising a ton of money. I
2:40
Speaker 1: want to mention the fund which is at TinyURL dot
2:44
Speaker 1: com slash curve flood Relief ker r flood Relief. My
2:49
Speaker 1: co host Carol was on this very early on and
2:53
Speaker 1: was generously matching donations, and so I planned to throw
2:57
Speaker 1: my money at it as well to the first responders
3:00
Speaker 1: on the ground taking care of this incredibly tragic situation. Yeah,
3:04
Speaker 1: it's a real heartbreaker, especially when you have kids. Yeah,
3:09
Speaker 1: you know, it's just and we're both moms, as is Carol,
3:12
Speaker 1: and it's just it gets you. It's, like I said,
3:17
Speaker 1: it's hard to even think about. There are, of course,
3:19
Speaker 1: stories of heroism, tragic stories of heroism. The director of
3:23
Speaker 1: the camp was reportedly in the process of trying to
3:25
Speaker 1: evacuate some of the girls when he lost his life.
3:29
Speaker 1: It's a family owned camp has been in the family
3:31
Speaker 1: for generations he had run it since the seventies. The
3:37
Speaker 1: river rose twenty six feet in under an hour, which
3:43
Speaker 1: is they have suffered floods there before. It's Central Texas. Yeah,
3:48
Speaker 1: the ground is dry. It doesn't suck up water when
3:51
Speaker 1: water comes over the edge, which is part of the
3:53
Speaker 1: reason it gets so dangerous. In nineteen eighty seven, some
3:57
Speaker 1: floods struck the same area, struck the camps in that area.
4:01
Speaker 1: But from what I've read about this, some of it
4:03
Speaker 1: was just the cabins had held in the past. They
4:06
Speaker 1: had never seen this type of flooding, this to quite
4:11
Speaker 1: this degree, to this many fatalities. Certainly, there are, of
4:17
Speaker 1: course people turning it political as quickly as they can.
4:23
Speaker 1: I think the worst tweet was like Ron Filipowski, who's
4:27
Speaker 1: an editor over It might As Touched, which is a
4:29
Speaker 1: partisan lefty news outlet, who was just like, they voted
4:33
Speaker 1: for this governance and they get what they deserve. It's like, sir,
4:36
Speaker 1: they're seven to eight year old children. Yeah, it's unbelievable.
4:41
Speaker 1: You know, this is I think baseball Crank at National
4:45
Speaker 1: Review made this point, this is it is unfortunate that
4:48
Speaker 1: it was the Katrina Playbook, which was successful in really
4:54
Speaker 1: taking George W. Bush down several notches by filling a
4:59
Speaker 1: knowledge vacuum with information that often wasn't true. And it's
5:03
Speaker 1: not that there weren't mistakes. Of course, there are mistakes
5:05
Speaker 1: in a disaster, but to turn it into a partisan
5:10
Speaker 1: news event, I think was new in two thousand and five,
5:14
Speaker 1: and they've just been recycling. No, it's just a standard now.
5:17
Speaker 1: You will notice they don't recycle it in North Carolina
5:20
Speaker 1: with western North Carolina floods because there was democratic governor
5:22
Speaker 1: and Biden with president, So if they don't have the
5:25
Speaker 1: right person to blame, they won't do that. But in
5:29
Speaker 1: this case they're doing it somewhat somewhat enthusiastically. And I
5:32
Speaker 1: just want to note for information's sake, you know CNN's
5:40
Speaker 1: noting now National Weather Service cuts and NAA cuts. In
5:45
Speaker 1: the National Weather Service itself says, actually we had extra
5:48
Speaker 1: staff in the office that night. Other mainstream media folks
5:53
Speaker 1: have said, oh, there aren't enough alerts, whereas the Austin
5:57
Speaker 1: meteorologist who is on the case and local says they
5:59
Speaker 1: do their job and did it well. That's the quote.
6:03
Speaker 1: There were various warnings at various times of the night,
6:07
Speaker 1: starting at like twelve forty one am. But most of
6:10
Speaker 1: this happened when people were sleeping, making it sort of
6:13
Speaker 1: a worst case scenario of a very risky place, a
6:17
Speaker 1: very risky time of night, an incredibly strong flood in
6:23
Speaker 1: a vulnerable place, in a vulnerable place. And also, you
6:27
Speaker 1: know you do that cost benefit analysis, right, which is like,
6:32
Speaker 1: what does taking a bunch of little girls out in
6:36
Speaker 1: the middle of the night in their pgs running them
6:38
Speaker 1: up a hill? Yes, yes, we have experienced something like
6:42
Speaker 1: this before and these cabins of hell, right, And I
6:47
Speaker 1: mean here in Colorado we will regularly get tornado warnings
6:51
Speaker 1: and it's like do you take your kids downstairs? Do
6:54
Speaker 1: you know? It's not always clear in the moment. It
6:59
Speaker 1: becomes a lot clear in retrospect, like oh, if they
7:02
Speaker 1: would have done this then that, But in the moment
7:06
Speaker 1: it's not always clear what is the safest or best
7:09
Speaker 1: thing to do? Yeah, And again, I this is the
7:13
Speaker 1: thing about all these turning everything political. LA residents do
7:17
Speaker 1: not deserve wildfires, right right. I don't think that they
7:23
Speaker 1: are being punished for anything. What I do think is
7:26
Speaker 1: that local governments in Florida is the greatest example of this,
7:29
Speaker 1: and the federal government to the extent it can should
7:32
Speaker 1: have things in place to the greatest degree to help
7:35
Speaker 1: as quickly as possible when or something like this happens.
7:38
Speaker 1: To that point, the Texas Air National Guard has been
7:41
Speaker 1: rescuing folks and has rescued some like three hundred and
7:44
Speaker 1: eighty five people amazing with their helicopters in very dangerous conditions.
7:50
Speaker 1: And again I want to say that that url is
7:56
Speaker 1: TinyURL dot com slash car flood Relief, ker flood Relief.
8:00
Speaker 1: There's also the Cajun Navy and all these guys who
8:02
Speaker 1: are always helpful in these situations who you can help
8:06
Speaker 1: out as well. But I want to play the interview
8:11
Speaker 1: that oh, I wanted to know one more thing from
8:13
Speaker 1: a local expert who noted one of the takeaways maybe
8:17
Speaker 1: that there are too many flash flood warnings in areas
8:21
Speaker 1: like this that dilute the power of a flash flood warning.
8:27
Speaker 1: That what I just said about the tornado warnings, they
8:29
Speaker 1: happen all the time around here, and it is one
8:34
Speaker 1: of those things that it's hard to know what is
8:37
Speaker 1: the most really like what is an imminent threat versus
8:40
Speaker 1: not well, and what is an abundance of caution that
8:42
Speaker 1: is then going to cause you trouble in the future.
8:45
Speaker 1: Emergency planning is like the vegetables of governance. Yes, and
8:50
Speaker 1: it's not sexy work, but man, it makes a difference
8:54
Speaker 1: when you're if you do it well and you do
8:56
Speaker 1: it right. There is one guy who got it really
9:00
Speaker 1: right with his team and as Petty Officer Scott Ruskin
9:04
Speaker 1: of the Coastguard, who was the first first responder at
9:09
Speaker 1: Camp Mystic and surrounding areas, and he had the estimates
9:14
Speaker 1: are like one sixty to between one sixty and two
9:17
Speaker 1: hundred kids who were, as he notes, having the worst
9:20
Speaker 1: day of their lives, ran scared and cold, and it
9:23
Speaker 1: was his job, as a new like diving rescue diver
9:31
Speaker 1: to help them to the best of his ability. And
9:35
Speaker 1: it seems that he did so with incredible courage and effectiveness.
9:43
Speaker 1: And I'm going to just play him explaining what happened
9:47
Speaker 1: to George Stephanopoulos. Now this clip is a little long,
9:50
Speaker 1: but I think it's worth letting him narrate this.
9:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'll kind of give you as a quick
9:56
Speaker 2: synopsis of what was going on. The Coastguard launched US
9:59
Speaker 2: and decided to send crew from air Station Corpus Chirsty
10:01
Speaker 2: at about six thirty seven am on Friday, the fourth
10:04
Speaker 2: of July. I just happened to be on the junior
10:06
Speaker 2: career with ian hopper Blair Wouge for Seth Reeves some
10:10
Speaker 2: of our crew members in the Coast Guard, and yeah,
10:13
Speaker 2: they sent us out. We kind of encountered some pretty
10:15
Speaker 2: serious weather, some of the worst flying we've ever dealt with. Personally.
10:19
Speaker 2: It took us, you know, which should have been an
10:20
Speaker 2: hour flight, probably took us about seven or eight just
10:23
Speaker 2: to get into the landing zone. Once man got four
10:25
Speaker 2: different approaches trying to get in. We were able to
10:27
Speaker 2: get out getting boots on the ground with the Air
10:29
Speaker 2: National Guard, Department of Public Safety for Texas game Wardens,
10:34
Speaker 2: and we decided to leave me on scene at can't
10:36
Speaker 2: mist it. That was kind of our main triage site.
10:38
Speaker 2: We were trying to help out with.
10:41
Speaker 1: Just a note. Notice how many times in a three
10:43
Speaker 1: minute clip he names other people to thank Yep, just
10:48
Speaker 1: from second one.
10:50
Speaker 2: We decide, Hey, if we leave the rescue summer on scene,
10:52
Speaker 2: we'll have more space in our Dolphin MH sixty five.
10:55
Speaker 2: So based on that, I got on scene boots on
10:57
Speaker 2: the ground it can't miss it. Kind of discovered was
11:00
Speaker 2: the only person there as far as like first responders go. So, yeah,
11:03
Speaker 2: I had about two hundred kids, mostly all scared, terrified, cold,
11:09
Speaker 2: having probably the worst day of their life, and I
11:11
Speaker 2: just kind of need to triage them, get them to
11:12
Speaker 2: a higher level care and get them get them off
11:15
Speaker 2: at a flood zone with a lot of the US
11:17
Speaker 2: sixty Army helicopters.
11:19
Speaker 1: Talk about how that wor you got it?
11:21
Speaker 2: One hundred and sixty five close two hundred kids there,
11:24
Speaker 2: how do you get them out just one by one? Yeah, yeah, sir,
11:27
Speaker 2: it's a great question.
11:29
Speaker 1: Yeah.
11:29
Speaker 2: So, the United States Army National Guard was landing their
11:32
Speaker 2: sixties with Task Force one some of their rescue summers,
11:34
Speaker 2: and they were able to land. We kind of came
11:36
Speaker 2: up with two different landing zones. There's one off an
11:38
Speaker 2: archery field and then one at a soccer field.
11:41
Speaker 1: So yeah, Also, I love the details from a first responder.
11:44
Speaker 1: This cadence of telling the story is very first responder. Yeah, sig,
11:48
Speaker 1: let me, let let me tell you exactly what kind
11:50
Speaker 1: of vehicles we were using and the landing zones we're
11:53
Speaker 1: able to.
11:54
Speaker 2: Kind of land those sixties in there. And then I
11:56
Speaker 2: was kind of the main guy as far as like
11:58
Speaker 2: grabbing people's like fifteen to ten kids at a time,
12:02
Speaker 2: maybe one adult with them, and bringing them over to
12:04
Speaker 2: those sixties and getting them to a different LZ that
12:07
Speaker 2: was kind of safe and had more first responders than
12:09
Speaker 2: just myself out there. Had you ever done this before? No,
12:12
Speaker 2: this is my first one. I haven't had any cases before.
12:14
Speaker 2: I've been a rescue swimmer from had a year fully
12:17
Speaker 2: trained for about six months, so yeah, this was my
12:20
Speaker 2: first experience. But I really just kind of relied on
12:22
Speaker 2: the training we get. Coast Guard rescue summers get some
12:24
Speaker 2: of the highest level training in the world, So really
12:27
Speaker 2: just kind of relied on that and that, you know,
12:29
Speaker 2: just knowing that any of the rescue swimmers in the
12:30
Speaker 2: Coast Guard would have done the exact same, if not
12:33
Speaker 2: better than me. So training, so we want to tell
12:34
Speaker 2: you this was.
12:35
Speaker 1: The very old deal.
12:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, this is definitely the real deal. But I
12:38
Speaker 2: just remembered that, you know, when I got on seeing
12:40
Speaker 2: there was you know, two hundred kids looking to someone
12:42
Speaker 2: for some sort of comfort and safety. They don't really
12:45
Speaker 2: know what my experience is, or my rank or my age.
12:47
Speaker 2: They just know, hey, this guy's this guy's a professional
12:49
Speaker 2: and need to shoot to help us, and I kind
12:50
Speaker 2: of had to live up to that standard. But yeah,
12:52
Speaker 2: the real heroes, I think we're too that the kids
12:54
Speaker 2: on the ground, like those guys are heroic and you know,
12:56
Speaker 2: they were dealing with some of the worst times of
12:58
Speaker 2: their lives and they were staying strong. And that album
13:00
Speaker 2: inspired me to kind of get in there and help
13:02
Speaker 2: them out.
13:03
Speaker 1: Okay, thank goodness for men like him. Yes, he is
13:08
Speaker 1: twenty six. I believe he changed careers from like a
13:13
Speaker 1: finance or an accountant guy with I believe KPMGAH to
13:17
Speaker 1: the coast Guard and became a rescue swimmer, which is
13:20
Speaker 1: some of the most insane training that any American military undergoes.
13:26
Speaker 1: And thank goodness, he was there that day on his
13:28
Speaker 1: first ever mission. And I just the whole spirit of that,
13:32
Speaker 1: like the way he's recounting it, the way he's noting
13:37
Speaker 1: everyone else who helped, Yes, the way he's being very
13:40
Speaker 1: calm about it, just like exactly what you want. The
13:44
Speaker 1: fact that he's twenty six gives me hope. Yeah, right,
13:50
Speaker 1: Like my impression often of twenty six year olds and
13:54
Speaker 1: there are shiny exceptions all the time, right, but one
13:57
Speaker 1: of them is just that we need more more men
14:01
Speaker 1: like him coming up the ranks right well, and like again,
14:07
Speaker 1: he probably spared He spared so many families in all
14:10
Speaker 1: likelihood worse stories. I think one of the one of
14:15
Speaker 1: the things about this storm, it does seem that the
14:18
Speaker 1: water receded fairly quickly, so in other places that were
14:22
Speaker 1: further from the river, even though people were in danger,
14:25
Speaker 1: they were able to get out of danger quickly, quickly
14:28
Speaker 1: enough they could save a lot of people. No doubt
14:32
Speaker 1: that the numbers will go up, which is terrible. But
14:35
Speaker 1: I just this has been on my mind since July fourth,
14:39
Speaker 1: even though it's very very hard to think about, and
14:41
Speaker 1: I just wanted to end with this segment of the
14:43
Speaker 1: show with something that was like hopeful, somebody rescued one
14:47
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty five kids. And you know, as you said,
14:50
Speaker 1: we're heading to this concert from this artist that we
14:54
Speaker 1: both love and have both seen, and this is going
14:57
Speaker 1: to be you know, usually his concerts are very kind
14:59
Speaker 1: of like happy, upbeat, and he's got some he's such
15:04
Speaker 1: a fabulous storyteller, and he has some songs that are heartbreaking,
15:08
Speaker 1: and it's going to be I think, I think it's
15:11
Speaker 1: going to be meaningful was the word that you used.
15:13
Speaker 1: So we're heading into that. We'll be right back on
15:16
Speaker 1: normally onto less harrowing news. The one big beautiful bill passed.
15:25
Speaker 1: It did, and I'm not going to get into a
15:28
Speaker 1: big breakdown on it. I will do that with Carol
15:31
Speaker 1: when she's back with the show. Look, there's a lot
15:36
Speaker 1: of spending in it, there's a lot of stuff in it. Yes,
15:38
Speaker 1: there's some good things in it. There's some positive structural
15:41
Speaker 1: changes in it. Most importantly, there is the extension of
15:45
Speaker 1: the tax rates that came with the twenty seventeen tax bill.
15:50
Speaker 1: Without the extension of those rates, we would see some
15:54
Speaker 1: real economic carnage and the biggest tax hike on virtually
16:00
Speaker 1: every American who pays taxes that we've seen in quite
16:04
Speaker 1: some time. So that part absolutely needed to get done,
16:08
Speaker 1: and it got done. And here's I will say this. Look,
16:11
Speaker 1: I'm going to have my pluses and minuses for this bill. However,
16:17
Speaker 1: they got something done before the deadline. Yeah, I'm look
16:25
Speaker 1: is that it's sort of worth congratulating them over with
16:28
Speaker 1: a tight Congress, right when you're talking about a one
16:34
Speaker 1: or two vote swing either way, you're not ever going
16:39
Speaker 1: to get anything everything that you want. In fact, it's
16:43
Speaker 1: probably gonna be pretty dicey. Yeah. And so then everybody's
16:49
Speaker 1: doing horse trading and everybody's doing you know, real cost
16:52
Speaker 1: benefit analysis. But when we're talking about the economic vitality
16:59
Speaker 1: of this country, being able to anticipate consistent tax rates, yeah, important.
17:07
Speaker 1: It's one of the most important underpinnings of our ability
17:11
Speaker 1: to just keep moving things forward, right, And that is
17:16
Speaker 1: I would give up a lot for that. Yeah. And
17:19
Speaker 1: like I said, that part had to get done.
17:22
Speaker 2: Yes.
17:23
Speaker 1: And the deadline, by the way, was not until December
17:26
Speaker 1: thirty first, right, the tax rates were not going to
17:29
Speaker 1: expire until then, but Trump said July fourth. And Mike Johnson,
17:35
Speaker 1: whose success is a side plot.
17:40
Speaker 2: That I just enjoy so much.
17:44
Speaker 1: He's so underestimated over and over again. He takes the
17:48
Speaker 1: Senate version back to the House over the holiday and
17:50
Speaker 1: it's like, now y'all are going to do this, Yeah,
17:52
Speaker 1: and everyone's like, that's magical thinking. Mike Johnson can't do that.
17:54
Speaker 1: But Mike Johnson can do that. Yeah. It is an
17:59
Speaker 1: interesting side black that I did not anticipate. And yet
18:04
Speaker 1: it's going to be super fascinating for how that plays out.
18:07
Speaker 1: As we get closer and closer to midterms, right, yes, well,
18:11
Speaker 1: and like there will be I think, aside from the
18:14
Speaker 1: One Big Beautiful Bill name being a triumph of branding,
18:19
Speaker 1: the actual contents of the One Big Beautiful Bill that
18:23
Speaker 1: are good and beneficial, beneficial to people have not been
18:27
Speaker 1: broadcast nearly as effectively as the things that Democrats have
18:31
Speaker 1: said about the bill, right, So if you would like
18:34
Speaker 1: to fight that battle, you should start now. It's true,
18:37
Speaker 1: and they're already up with ads and all sorts of
18:40
Speaker 1: stuff about Medicaid reform being Medicaid cuts. And Scott Bessen
18:44
Speaker 1: can't fight this fight on his own, right, He's out
18:47
Speaker 1: there on the Sunday shows doing the best he can.
18:49
Speaker 1: But so I think that that will matter for twenty
18:52
Speaker 1: twenty six. And also every story just gets swallowed by
18:57
Speaker 1: other stories so quickly that how much will it make?
19:00
Speaker 1: I mean, this is this is the question going into
19:04
Speaker 1: any midterm ever, right, which is I was a I'm
19:10
Speaker 1: I do political work, right, So I was on a call,
19:13
Speaker 1: I was on a pulling call last week. And it's
19:16
Speaker 1: so hard to anticipate anything gubernatorially or congressionally right now
19:22
Speaker 1: out here in the West and elsewhere, just because there
19:26
Speaker 1: are so many unknown unknowns. The idea that anything that
19:32
Speaker 1: matters right now will be the thing that we're talking
19:35
Speaker 1: about a year from now seems so deeply unlike, well
19:38
Speaker 1: as illustrated. By the time that we spent on the
19:40
Speaker 1: first segment, I nearly forgot about the One Big, Beautiful
19:44
Speaker 1: Bill as I was putting this show together, because it
19:47
Speaker 1: felt like so long ago when it was July fourth. Well,
19:52
Speaker 1: you and I have discussed before, and I'm sure you've
19:54
Speaker 1: discussed with Carol before, the fact that I thought there
19:58
Speaker 1: was going to be more of a punishment of the
20:02
Speaker 1: political class on how they handled COVID, and it mostly
20:05
Speaker 1: didn't happen because we've turned into human etches sketches. Yeah,
20:10
Speaker 1: And to the extent that it happened, as you note
20:12
Speaker 1: about under us or not being able to read it,
20:16
Speaker 1: it happened much later in different forms than we anticipated,
20:20
Speaker 1: because we thought it would be a quick backlash, and
20:22
Speaker 1: I think the backlash was trumpet. It was a lot faster.
20:24
Speaker 1: It was a lot later than we anticipated. Speaking of backlash,
20:29
Speaker 1: Elon and Donald are had it again. Yeah, most of
20:35
Speaker 1: the backlash at all, shock, Most of the backlashes actually
20:38
Speaker 1: just Elon. I think who look I like Elon very much.
20:43
Speaker 1: I think i'm I think I'm fond of Elon in
20:47
Speaker 1: a way that other people are not. Yeah, just because
20:49
Speaker 1: I appreciate his visionary work in other sectors. I wish
20:53
Speaker 1: his visionary work on behalf of cutting the federal government
20:56
Speaker 1: had been as visionary as other stuff he does. Right,
21:00
Speaker 1: a little bit, it got certainly got bogged down when
21:03
Speaker 1: I wish that that that DOGE had been like, we
21:06
Speaker 1: are going to methodically go through, yeah, every single agency
21:12
Speaker 1: in this government. So Elon right, did not like the
21:17
Speaker 1: way the one Big Beautiful Bill went. He has left
21:21
Speaker 1: his work at DOGE. They've already had one blow up
21:23
Speaker 1: that seemed to sort of repair a bit because on
21:26
Speaker 1: the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary or two hundred fiftieth
21:28
Speaker 1: birthday of the Army, Elon seemed like he was hanging around.
21:33
Speaker 1: But now he has formed a new political party titled
21:35
Speaker 1: the America part This is Time magazine. The former lead
21:39
Speaker 1: of the Department of Government Efficiency had promised to do
21:42
Speaker 1: just that if President Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill passed.
21:44
Speaker 1: Musk has been and continues to be a vocal critic
21:47
Speaker 1: of the policy bill, arguing that it will cause a
21:49
Speaker 1: strategy strategic harm to America on account of the trillions
21:52
Speaker 1: of dollars the bill is projected to add to the
21:54
Speaker 1: does the country. I feel you, I feel you on
21:56
Speaker 1: this Elon Trump had this to say about it. I
22:00
Speaker 1: am saddened this untruth. I am saddened to watch Elon
22:04
Speaker 1: Musco completely off the rails, essentially becoming a train wreck
22:08
Speaker 1: all caps over the past five weeks. He even wants
22:10
Speaker 1: to start a third political party, despite the fact that
22:12
Speaker 1: they have never succeeded in the United States. The system
22:14
Speaker 1: seems not designed for them. Kelly probably has thoughts on this.
22:17
Speaker 1: The one thing third parties are good for is the
22:20
Speaker 1: creation of complete and total disruption and chaos, and we
22:23
Speaker 1: have enough of that. But the radical left Democrats who
22:25
Speaker 1: have lost their confidence and their minds. Republicans, on the
22:29
Speaker 1: other hand, are a smooth running machine that just masks
22:32
Speaker 1: the biggest bill of its kind in the history of
22:35
Speaker 1: our country. It is a great bill, but unfortunately for
22:37
Speaker 1: Elon it eliminates the ridiculous electric vehicle mandate, which would
22:41
Speaker 1: have forced everyone to buy an electric car and a
22:42
Speaker 1: short period of time. I have been strongly opposed to
22:45
Speaker 1: that from the very beginning. People are now allowed to
22:47
Speaker 1: buy whatever they want, gasoline powered hybrids, which are doing
22:50
Speaker 1: very well, parents that are pynthetical, or his writing is fantastic,
22:55
Speaker 1: or new technologies as they come about, no more, I
23:00
Speaker 1: mean mandate. It goes on and on Elon probably, let's see.
23:04
Speaker 1: I also thought it inappropriate that a very close friend
23:06
Speaker 1: of Elon who was in the space business run NASA,
23:09
Speaker 1: when NASA is such a big part of Elon's corporate life.
23:11
Speaker 1: My number one charge is to protect the American public.
23:13
Speaker 1: So there's a couple things in there about you know,
23:15
Speaker 1: great Elon's there's some Elon's conflicts of interest and business, which,
23:21
Speaker 1: by the way, existed before all of these All of
23:26
Speaker 1: these these conflicts that he points out existed previously. They
23:31
Speaker 1: just weren't problematic and they until they switched sides. Also,
23:36
Speaker 1: of note, the fact that it's easier to send people
23:39
Speaker 1: into lower Earth orbit than to cut federal government spending
23:44
Speaker 1: really speaks to the quagmire. There's nothing like cutting the
23:49
Speaker 1: federal government spending just sends you back to trying to
23:52
Speaker 1: solve the easy problem of getting to Mars. Like right,
23:57
Speaker 1: the standards or the standards are easier. I don't think
24:01
Speaker 1: this is gonna go well. So, okay, we have seen
24:05
Speaker 1: this over and over again. You remember a few years
24:08
Speaker 1: ago Andrew Yang started the Forward Party. I had that
24:13
Speaker 1: was interesting. I always personally would enjoy being a libertarian
24:18
Speaker 1: if they could ever try to actually get elected to
24:21
Speaker 1: any A little note on that as well, right, Like
24:24
Speaker 1: I just but President Trump is correct. The systems are
24:30
Speaker 1: set up to promote the binary and the two party system.
24:37
Speaker 1: And I think the only way to get away from this.
24:41
Speaker 1: And I think about this a lot, right with restoring
24:44
Speaker 1: standards rather than thinking about like the left versus right,
24:48
Speaker 1: we try to think about the good faith versus bad
24:51
Speaker 1: faith spectrum. And I'm working hard to try to get
24:54
Speaker 1: crazy people, I'm both the left and the right to
24:58
Speaker 1: step out of the political they were rewarding good face
25:01
Speaker 1: arguments versus just theater or extremism or And I work
25:09
Speaker 1: even with my Democrat friends on this issue, right, and
25:12
Speaker 1: we have discussed how to get to the end goal,
25:17
Speaker 1: which is trying to restore standards in politics. So this
25:22
Speaker 1: is the thing I spend a lot of time thinking
25:24
Speaker 1: and writing and trying to game theory out. And third
25:28
Speaker 1: parties are a really, really hard way to go. Oftentimes,
25:32
Speaker 1: depending on the state, there is a higher standard for
25:36
Speaker 1: ballot access. You also have a donor class and a
25:40
Speaker 1: donor system that is largely just comfortable with and aimed
25:46
Speaker 1: toward the parties. Then you have the entire don't even
25:50
Speaker 1: get me started about the entire soft money just behemoth
25:56
Speaker 1: of an industry onto itself, that is, you know, you
26:01
Speaker 1: see packs that are used to giving to Republican and Democrats, right,
26:05
Speaker 1: and so I tend to think often that one of
26:11
Speaker 1: the better ways if you're looking to really shake up
26:13
Speaker 1: politics is to pick a party and then try to
26:18
Speaker 1: operate within it, right, try to operate and change the
26:21
Speaker 1: incidive structure within the party, within the party, which actually
26:24
Speaker 1: Elon was trying to do doing the thing. Yes, yes,
26:28
Speaker 1: and then and then he realized that the head of
26:31
Speaker 1: the Republican Party, you know, they got into a fight
26:35
Speaker 1: about it. But but at least they did it quietly,
26:39
Speaker 1: you know, so quietly. There are some subtle dudes. Let
26:43
Speaker 1: me tell you. When I think subtlety, I think Donald
26:46
Speaker 1: trus Lelan. Can I note quickly before we move on
26:50
Speaker 1: to our last topic, because Kelly and I will talk
26:52
Speaker 1: for hours about this. I'm gonna note quickly a libertarian
26:55
Speaker 1: who is succeeding. Yes, Javier Malay. If Elon must and
27:00
Speaker 1: Donald Trump had gotten together and Javier malayd this whole country, yeah,
27:04
Speaker 1: and federal government, I would have been so happy, because,
27:08
Speaker 1: as you say, I would be especially economically happy to
27:11
Speaker 1: be a libertarian if we can just hold it together.
27:13
Speaker 2: Yes.
27:14
Speaker 1: So remember when Javier Malay was elected in Argentina, everyone
27:18
Speaker 1: was like, this is the end of the world. Yes,
27:20
Speaker 1: he's going to ruin everything. His austerity and deregulation will
27:23
Speaker 1: cause chaos and like just poverty everywhere. That's what they
27:28
Speaker 1: were still saying about him two weeks ago. Yeah. But
27:31
Speaker 1: now it's reported that Argentina's growth in the second quarter
27:36
Speaker 1: GDP growth seven point six percent year over year. He
27:41
Speaker 1: has also brought down inflation from like twenty one percent
27:45
Speaker 1: to one point five. Yeah, and this is an important
27:50
Speaker 1: sentence for anyone who is living in an American city
27:53
Speaker 1: who would like more housing. Rent has dropped by forty
27:56
Speaker 1: percent in real term, and the supply of rental properties
27:59
Speaker 1: in Buenos Aara ITTRIS has increased by over three hundred
28:03
Speaker 1: percent as a result of Malay abolishing all forms of
28:07
Speaker 1: rent control for those of us who heard us talk
28:11
Speaker 1: about the mayor candidate, Yes in New York. This is
28:16
Speaker 1: the opposite of him. Yes, and is it did the
28:19
Speaker 1: thing that the liberals say they want to do, which
28:23
Speaker 1: is bringing down the price of the rent. Right. I
28:26
Speaker 1: don't know why I'm having their voice, but that's what
28:28
Speaker 1: they're trying to do. The rent is too damn high.
28:30
Speaker 1: It's too damn Hi. Maybe I was reverting to the
28:32
Speaker 1: too damn high guy, and he always he's still my favorite.
28:35
Speaker 1: We're going to take a short break and come right
28:37
Speaker 1: back with normally. All right, Now, we've got one last
28:42
Speaker 1: story from Carol who wrote in Fox News about just
28:45
Speaker 1: give me a quick day something, right guy. Carol, by
28:48
Speaker 1: the way, she's one of my favorite writers and one
28:50
Speaker 1: of my favorite people, but definitely one of my favorite writers.
28:55
Speaker 1: She writes, so there are so speaking of the fact
28:58
Speaker 1: that there's so many news articles just turning and churning
29:00
Speaker 1: and turning and things get lost. She wrote a really,
29:05
Speaker 1: really great piece for Fox News about one of the
29:10
Speaker 1: Trump cuts is millions in taxpayer funding for a group
29:15
Speaker 1: called Springer Nature, a publisher that is a publishing group
29:20
Speaker 1: that writes primarily about science. Right, So who is. So
29:23
Speaker 1: I'm like already a little annoyed, but then my money
29:25
Speaker 1: is going there, I assume I'm going to get more annoyed.
29:27
Speaker 1: Oh just you wait, Mary Catherine ham let me tell you.
29:32
Speaker 1: As Brian Flood reported at Fox News in late June,
29:35
Speaker 1: according to our friend Carol, the German owned Springer Nature
29:39
Speaker 1: was forced to issue wait for it, Mary Catherine, Okay,
29:43
Speaker 1: two thousand, nine hundred twenty three retractions in twenty twenty
29:51
Speaker 1: four alone. Okay, according to recent they're just doing the
29:55
Speaker 1: opposite of their job, right, which is they're just writing things,
29:59
Speaker 1: making it up, and then being like, JK, let's retract
30:06
Speaker 1: that also, and we've paid twenty million for it.
30:08
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
30:08
Speaker 1: The publishing giant has also been accused of significantly downplaying
30:12
Speaker 1: COVID lab leak theory and censoring content to appease the
30:17
Speaker 1: Chinese government. It also has a peer reviewed process that
30:21
Speaker 1: critics believe is dominated by woke group things. Well, well,
30:25
Speaker 1: well isn't that fas you know, at least we could
30:28
Speaker 1: doge that one. Okay, what is the proper role of government?
30:32
Speaker 1: It is not to be funding German science publishing basically
30:39
Speaker 1: made up stuff. If you're can you imagine we're doing
30:43
Speaker 1: almost three thousand retractions. The folks over at CNN's CNN
30:48
Speaker 1: are like, damn, we got rookie numbers. You have pumped
30:50
Speaker 1: these up. Got to pump these up. Okay, let us
30:53
Speaker 1: end there, because Kelly and I will go on forever.
30:55
Speaker 1: Santure John our producer, for listening to us. Thank you
30:58
Speaker 1: for all of you guys for listening to us. My
31:00
Speaker 1: friend Kelly mar Ma of restoring standards where else can
31:04
Speaker 1: they find you anywhere?
31:05
Speaker 2: Night?
31:05
Speaker 1: Okay? Maher on x Twitter and restoring standards dot com
31:10
Speaker 1: and restoring standard pac love it yep. Thanks for being
31:14
Speaker 1: with us. That ur L for car again was TinyURL
31:17
Speaker 1: dot com slash car flood Relief k e r R
31:21
Speaker 1: flood Relief. Thanks for joining us on normally normally our
31:23
Speaker 1: Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you get
31:26
Speaker 1: your podcasts. Get in touch with us at normally theepod
31:28
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening and when things
31:30
Speaker 1: get weird at normally