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Normally Podcast: Just a Bunch of People Having Fun, Watching Cars Burn · Normally

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey guys, we are back on normally normalistics, but when
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the news gets weird.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: I'm Mary Cappenham and I'm Carol Marcowitz. Hi Mary Catherine.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: How was your very calm and no news weekend?
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: You know, as always very chill.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: You know, we all have different traditions for how we
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: kick off writing season, right and.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: What's yours For me?
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: I just like to kick back and watch X. That's
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: really my way of honoring that moment. I don't burn anything.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: That's just me.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: That's really your mistake.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: I don't know about your family.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: I don't do a lot of civil unrest in general,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: but I don't know what you guys are doing to
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: march this mark this important occasion.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: You know, we went to the beach.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: We watched it unfold from the Florida shore. So yeah,
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: that was an exciting few days of la setting itself
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: on fire again.
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: What's funny about.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: It is the media taking all of these different approaches
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: to covering what is going on in la So let's
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: start this off with what is going on in La.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Ice is deporting people and they are a lot of
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: the stories that you may hear are actually untrue.
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: Like right before we went to air.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: I heard that the really prevalent story over the weekend
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: was that ICE had raided a home depot, and that
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: turns out to be false.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Can I throw some context from law enforcement in here. Yeah,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: So when they gather in a large parking lot, huge
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: numbers of very skilled operatives, those people are not there
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: to pick up day laborers in a line at home depot. Yeah,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: they were going to do that, they wouldn't need all
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: those assets.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: Exact.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Those people are simply staging in a home depot or
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: a Walmart parking lot. So then they can go out
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: and serve the semi dangerous warrants that they have been
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: given to serve.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: That's how that works.
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: That's right.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Well, because of these arrests and deportations that they are
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: doing on again criminals, there have been protests that devolved
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: into riots with Mexican flags and fires and burning the
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: American flag.
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: And I got to tell you, I am an immigrant.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: I don't understand the perspective of you better let me
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: stay in this.
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: Country or I will burn it down. Really don't get that.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: I don't get it either.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: I think and I think, Look, this is a situation
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: where in the past, pre twenty twenty, I would have
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: had a lot more leeway for protesters and said, like, Okay,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: let's look, the law enforcement presence needs to be like
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: really on their game and careful and all that stuff,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: and all that stuff is true, like I don't want
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: them overstepping.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: I am done right with people burning.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Down American cities, and I think a lot of people
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: are done like fool me once in twenty twenty, And
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: I've been watching this since like what was it Seattle
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: World Trade Organization when we were like in our teens,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: And I've been watching this the whole time. They destroy stuff,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: They stand in front of cars and then complain that
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: the cars didn't like leave them alone. You're in a street,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: They ruin businesses, they hurt people, and because it's for
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: the right reasons, being the left reasons, we all have
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: to just be like it's okay.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: They mean well, but they don't mean well.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: They don't mean well, And in fact, their cause in
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: this case is stopping the federal government from federal warrants
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: on people who largely have already been convicted of a
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: violent crimes. So they're in the country illegally, they have
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: warrants out for them. From the federal government, which a
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: sanctuary city cannot block. The federal government comes in to
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: do so, and people line the streets to attack them
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: physic when they come to serve the warrants. And by
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: the way, the warrants I looked up some of them.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Bill Malujin has been reporting on this. The warrants are
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: for people who again have convictions. There was I looked
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: at a brief list a three Mexican nationals and one
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Filipino national who had each a.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: Sexual assault or a deadly assault with the deadly weapon charge.
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: I want to keep them in the country for sure,
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: not charged.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: Conviction, right, and we're just gonna be like, sure, stay Yeah.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: So the big controversy of force is that Donald Trump
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: sent in the National Guard, and this apparently is a
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: very terrible thing to do in the middle of a riot,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: and Governor Gavin Newsom of California really didn't want him
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: to and is now blaming the presence of that National
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Guard on the riots escalating, which is absurd. And there's
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: a lot of evidence that the National Guard actually only
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: protected federal buildings.
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: They did not do very much at all.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: And as we go to air the New York Times
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: is reporting that Newsom says California will sue Trump over
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: National Guard deployment, which is a great use of California's resources.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Well, and to this point, when the federal officers come
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: to serve the warrants that it is their duty to serve,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: they clearly need protection of those folks who are unable
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: to do their job because of this, these crimes being
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: committed upon them. In the city of La LAPD or
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: California Highway Patrol or one of these law enforcement organizations
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: would be the people to do that, but they say
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: that it took two hours for them to respond. Newsom
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: and Bass, the governor and mayor, are like, we're doing
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: everything we can, right, Well, we've.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: Seen everything y'all can do. Yeah.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: For since it's not going to cut it to the
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: point about whether the National Guard is the issue and
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: has escalated the riots, Let's go to the LAPD chief
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: who will tell us whether this is going on. Because
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: a reporter, of course asked him, this is Trump's fault, right, curious?
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: Right?
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Do you think that the presidence of National Guard increased
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: the level to this kind of situation?
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: I mean, you said that it's disgusting.
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: Do you think that if you control it with them, without.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: Them, it's could be a different.
• 6:24
  Speaker 6: Situation, you know, I don't know. That's a very interesting question.
• 6:28
  Speaker 6: What was the catalyst for us seeing the second and
• 6:31
  Speaker 6: third day of this becoming increasingly more violent. To be
• 6:35
  Speaker 6: able to say it's because of the National Guard, I
• 6:37
  Speaker 6: can't because they're aren't enough on the ground at this
• 6:40
  Speaker 6: point to make a difference. I've seen civil unrest a
• 6:45
  Speaker 6: number of times before, and generally the second and third
• 6:48
  Speaker 6: days are more violent than the initial phase, and so
• 6:51
  Speaker 6: this is not much different from that pattern. But certainly
• 6:56
  Speaker 6: I think there's a number of things that cause people
• 6:58
  Speaker 6: to come out. Much of it is they watch this
• 7:00
  Speaker 6: and see it on TV, social media, whatever social media
• 7:04
  Speaker 6: outlets they follow, are asking them or telling them to
• 7:07
  Speaker 6: come down and be part of this, and they do
• 7:09
  Speaker 6: that and they come out here. And many come out
• 7:11
  Speaker 6: and just want to see what's going on. They're out
• 7:13
  Speaker 6: there with their cameras, but they're putting themselves in harm's
• 7:15
  Speaker 6: way and potentially setting themselves up for a criminal future.
• 7:20
  Speaker 6: When you look at some of the things that are
• 7:22
  Speaker 6: happening here, somebody could easily be killed, and if you're
• 7:25
  Speaker 6: a part of that, then you're going to be facing
• 7:27
  Speaker 6: those charges as well. Talk to the DA just a
• 7:30
  Speaker 6: couple of minutes ago, and the DA will file felony
• 7:33
  Speaker 6: charges on individuals where it's appropriate, but won't be shy
• 7:38
  Speaker 6: about doing that where it is appropriate. And also the
• 7:40
  Speaker 6: potential for federal charges given the type of environment we're
• 7:43
  Speaker 6: in and the federal authorities don't play.
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: All authorities don't play well.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: And I hope there are felony charges at home too.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: The thing is we can't count on that because we
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: haven't been able to count on that for the last
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: five years. Meanwhile, the LAPD the day before or this
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: had been upgraded to unrest by the head. They released
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: this news release and said today demonstrations across the city
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: of Los Angeles remained peaceful, and we commend all those
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: who exercised their First Amendment rights responsibly. The Los Angeles
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Police Department appreciates the cooperation of organizers, participants, and community
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: partners who helped ensure public safety throughout the day, saying nonetheless,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: they remain ready to respond should.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: Things go badly. I don't know what the disconnect is between.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: The police sheet and the Public Affairs Office, but it
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: wasn't peaceful the first time, And protesters are not protesters
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: once they're setting things on fire, they are not protesting.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: See Paul, it's not First Amendment rights to throw rocks
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: off of overpasses onto police vehicles.
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: That's not your First Amendment pleasure. There.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: So the three lines of kind of defense about this
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: from the left is it's not violent. If it is violent,
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: that's bad optics for us, So stop being violent. Or
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: the violence is very contained. And so each of those
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: is getting its own hearing obviously.
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: That you know, the no violence is taking place. You
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: just talked about that.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Adam Shift tweeted, violence is never the answer. Assaulting law
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: enforcement is never okay. Indeed, doing so plays directly into
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: the hands of those who seek to antagonize and weaponize
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: the situation for their own gain.
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: Don't let them succeed.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe the optics aren't really what the problem is here.
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: Maybe it's actually the violence that's the issue.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a problem in and of itself.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: And by the way, somebody did some digging and found
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: that some of these groups that organized these protests that
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: became riots were actually funded by the California state government government.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: And because they have so much money to spare, and
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Karen Bass and Newsom are like releasing press releases at
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: the time about all the money they got partly from
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: the federal government as well.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: Right, that makes it.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Worse because I think you can call up your bud
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: over at the the agitators group and say, hey, we
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: actually really need you guys to not be violent, like
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: they're your buddies. You gave them many millions of dollars,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: and they're not doing that because in fact, they prioritize
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: law breakers and illegal immigrants and illegal immigrants who have
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: committed criminals crimes above that over their own citizens.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, the media is helping them with that narrative
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: of you know those three things. Again, if the violence
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: is happening, it's just bad optics.
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: Or it's contained. Here's we're going to roll a clip
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: from ABC News.
• 10:36
  Speaker 7: Large group of people. It could turn very volatile if
• 10:39
  Speaker 7: you move law enforcement in there and the wrong way
• 10:41
  Speaker 7: and turn what is just a bunch of people having
• 10:44
  Speaker 7: fun watching cars burn into a massive confrontation and altercation
• 10:50
  Speaker 7: between officers and demonstrators.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: So I can't believe that's real.
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: That's the local ABC.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: And by the way, you should be able to count
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: on local news to least understand that this is a
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: problem for local people. I love the idea that applying
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: law enforcement to the law breakers is where things go awrid.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: It's going to be warm in there a good time,
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Mary Catherine, you.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Are videotaping people setting fire to Waymo vehicles, which are
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: self driving vehicles, someone's property, someone's asset, and they're just
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: having a good old time doing that, And if the
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: police come and break that up, that would be the.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: Problem is over.
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you don't want that.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: Who normal thinks this way?
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: No one.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: Who is the constituency for this, Well.
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: And also Brian Stelter at CNN, he thinks that we
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: don't understand that only a small part of LA is
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: on fire, not the whole thing. You got to say
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: that it's only a small small part of Los Angeles
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: that is feeling these riots.
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: Let's roll that clips.
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: On one level. Protests are always about images, about spectacle.
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: You might even say it's about theater, and we are
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: seeing that play out in LA. And I think it's
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: valuable to have that perspective as we see some of
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: these pictures, especially as we zoom out and we recognize
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: that the unrest is isolated, is not overtaking. The entire
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: city of La La is home.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: To millions of people.
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: Most of them are having a normal day here on Sunday.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: Cool.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Cool, Yeah, most people are having a normal day. So
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: was I in Florida? It didn't affect me over here.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: The chiron on that clip was as La.
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: I believe it was as Elie riot spread. So do misinformation?
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: Misinformation?
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: The misinformation is really what we're all worried about here.
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: So here's the thing.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Because La is large and someone in a much richer
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: part of town is insulated from this, does that make
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: throwing rocks off of overpasses onto policemen?
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Okay, yes, I don't think that was the take on
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: January sixth.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: I think the take was attacking law enforcement is bad
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: from Stelter, and that it didn't matter that other parts
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: of the capital or other parts of Washington were undisturbed
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: by this particular conflagration.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: At the Capitol. Was that, sure, do they apply the
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: same standard here? They do not.
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: They do not.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: So when the La Police chief, as you mentioned, said
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: yesterday they're shooting commercial grade fireworks at us, we are overwhelmed.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: I think what he should have said was, But think
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: of all the people in LA who are not had
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: their commercial grade fireworks shot at them, So everything is
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: okay over here.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: I don't understand it.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: I don't live in DC proper for this reason. I've
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: watched cities do this for many years, and they don't
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: seem to care about the people who live in their
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: cities unless they're those people who love to do this
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: part of.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: The city experience.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: But it's just so incredibly damaging to normal law abiding people,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: and they enforce the laws to the nth degree on
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: those who are willing to obey the laws.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: So they give out a ticket once every seven seconds
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: for parking ille in Washington, d C.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: But something like this, it's fine, We're gonna give it
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: a pass for a while, right, gott to buy off
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: some steam in the summer, you know it is.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Our friend John Echtel, who we love even though he
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: makes fun of us for being women. He retweeted the
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Brian Stelter clip and said, imagine covering a tornado in
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: this manner. They are nearly quote, there are nearly five
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: hundred thousand free standing domiciles in the city, so destruction
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: was relatively minor. End quote, and then he said that
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Guy Benson refers to this as anti journalism. Its purpose
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: is to leave the audience intentionally uninformed, and that's exactly
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: what this is.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: I guess the analogy also would be all LA matters. Right,
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: Let's just pull out for the big picture.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: If you do zoom out from LA, you will see
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: that largely LA is without riots. And then if you
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: zoom out further, you'll see that the only riots all
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: summer long will be in blue cities. You'll see the
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: whole country without riots, Chicago and.
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: New York and LA. Yeah, why do we attribute this? Brian? Right?
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: What could it be? What could it be?
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: A lot of people tried the same kind of arguments
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: In twenty twenty, I pulled up a column that I
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: wrote in The New York Post at the time. But
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: you know, CNN's correspondent Josh Campbell was tweeting about Portland
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: while Portland was partially on fire, saying that he was
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: enjoying a burrito in a park and everything was fine.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: Paul Krugman tweeted something similar about New York when there
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: were riots and broken windows and fires set in d C.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: Washington Post journalist Dan Zach at the time wrote, you know,
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: he posted an idyllic scene in a park and said,
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: Washington d C is simply out of control.
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: It's like, real people are going to be.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: Hurt by stuff like this and minimizing it does not
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: help them. So here we are twenty twenty five.
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: They're trying it again. I don't think they're going to
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: succeed as well.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: And it's worth.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Noting It's worth noting that the federalizing of the National
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Guard and sending it into a city is the subject
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: of the notorious Tom Cotton op ed the New York Times,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: which got our buddy out of Rubinstein in trouble accepting
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: this Senator's.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: Op ed with everybody agrees with now. I mean, you know,
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: they probably probably agree to it then too, but everybody
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: agrees with now.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: Well, And that's the thing.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: There has been this shift where like people are going
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: to put up with less of this, and I think
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: the Trump administration some people are saying, oh, they want
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: us to riot, and they say, okay, well, first so
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: you could just not yeah, you could not riot. Second
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: of all, if he wants a do over of twenty
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: twenty and would like to approach that differently, and you
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: oblige him by doing this, and you give him visuals, yes,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: optics of a guy on a motorbike around burning police
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: cars waving a Mexican flag as your symbol.
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: I don't think that's gonna go well for your party.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So, speaking of losers, how are the Democrats doing?
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: But can I make one last point about safety? As
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: your daughter pointed out, who's a teenager, she's just didn't
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: we just learn that that they're not that great with
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: fire in La, so like maybe we shouldn't be extracurricularly
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: setting things on fire.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: She's just very down to earth.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: She's not super into politics, but she sees the whole picture.
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: You know. She zoomed out.
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: We'll be right back on normally.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: As you mentioned, the party mechanics are going great for
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: the Gems, right.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: They have a leader at the d n C.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Ken Martin, who's just kind of like the sort of
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: guy you want at the DNC, who's like a sort of.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: Anonymous, a little worrying.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: His job is to just run elections the best he
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: can allocate resources, which is as boring as.
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: It sounds, and get people elected. That's his job. And
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: then his deputy became David.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Hawg Oof, who has been making a bunch of trouble
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: for him as this wonder Ken twenty five year old
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: doesn't know all that much about winning elections, but knows
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: a lot about being famous on Instagram and ex right,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: and is basically saying I want to primary everybody and
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: then saying things that the left disapproves of on mar
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: like dudes like to have fun.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, something like that was right, It's like it was
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: something like that.
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: It was very obvious.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: But I just I don't even want to give him
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: credit because yeah, he's not totally insane, but he is
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: totally insane in a lot of other ways.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Well yeah, I mean he's trying to walk back his
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: insanity of yours past, but in service of primarying a
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: bunch of people who would otherwise be slightly more normal on.
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: The Democratic right side.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Right, So Ken Martin is like the normy in this
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: if we can one enormy And what's his new take
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: on running the Democratic Party with David Hogg as his
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: second in command?
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: So a video surface of a phone call that they had,
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: and Ken Martin told party leaders that he's unsure about
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: his ability to lead the party because of.
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: Infighting created by David Hogg. I'll be very honest with you.
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: For the first time in my one hundred days on
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: this job.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: The other night, I said to myself for the first time,
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I want to do this anymore.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: This was a May seventeenth zoom meeting of DNC officers.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: In a recording obtained by Politico, Martin tears up a
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: few times during the call. Yeah, he chokes up, and
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: he's clearly very upset about his inability to do this.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: David Hogg wants these primaries to happen for people who
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: are not super into politics or listening to the show,
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: because you are normies and we love the normies. The
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: political party don't get involved in primaries. In fact, if
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: they do get involved at all, it'll be on the
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: side of the incumbent to keep the seat and to
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: make I have as many people on their team win
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: as possible. It's not about ideology to the party. It's
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: about party membership. So this idea that David hobg wants
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: to primary all these people, it's clearly upsetting Ken Martin
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: because he knows they're going to lose these seats and
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: that is quite a big deal to him.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Well, there's a universe of about eighteen House seats that
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: are up for grabs.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: Basically it could be flipped. And the problem is when
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: you start primarying.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: People, you add numbers to that eighteen or so, which
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: means you add the money that you have to do
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: to play in all of those And Ken Martin's looking
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: at his numbers and going, oh my gosh, what's going
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: to happen here? By the way, can I just say
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: the tearing up is sad and I'm not picking on
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: him at all. The Left is relentless. Its ability to
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: exact pain on its own members or on the opposition. Yeah,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: is really something.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Own members even more than the opposition, I would say.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: And you know, the circular fire squad, as I like
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: to say, and I've said for many years, never misses.
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: So that's why they do it.
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So, but David Hogg is twenty five, and I
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: think people need to understand that he has zero political
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: experience and they made him vice chair. They gave this
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: kind of power to as twenty five year old, because again,
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: like you said, he's.
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: Famous on the internets.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: He's done almost nothing in his life except fail at
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: starting a pillow company because he felt.
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: It would be really important to compete with my pillow
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: for some reason. Sure, and he failed at that.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: So the fact that he's in this leadership role is insane.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: Even if he does occasionally say things that are not
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: totally bad shit.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Well, and he's making it impossible for the normy to
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: do normy things, which is what the Democratic Party needs.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: By the way, can I say that both the riot
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: story and this story broke at the end of the
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: week where we had the most Jerry Springer esque break up.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: Oh gosh, Trump and Elon Musk, Like, the right is
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: just like falling flat on its face and like very
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: comically having this blow up, and the left is like,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: but we can out do that.
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: I think we can out do it.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: They're like, watch this, it's funny because we recorded our episode,
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: so we recorded on Wednesday.
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: This all hit on Thursday.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: After our episode aired, the Elon and Trump fiasco, And
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: I have to say, our number one fan, my husband,
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: said that we should have done a special episode to
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: address it. Maybe we'll consider stuff like that in the future,
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: but we didn't in this case.
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: So now it's been a few days and.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Elon is like tweeting through it. Yesterday he retweeted jd
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Vance praising Donald Trump with a little American flag. It
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: felt very reminiscent of the show Seinfeld when George quits
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: his job in a huff and then regrets it and
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: just shows up on Monday hoping that everybody forgot it.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because this is like three days after he retweeted
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: the idea approvingly that we should impeach Donald Trump, fans
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: should become president, and he's like, oh. He also threatened
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: at one point to decommission some of his rocket technology.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: I do think there are risks for everybody here for
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: the GOP in the future, for he has promised to
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: spend a bunch of money for Elon himself, who has
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: these businesses that are entangled with the government, as all
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: businesses are at this point, where particularly space travel businesses
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: to the American people who might lose out on the
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: actually really good stuff he does.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: And actually some like tiny account tweeted at him and
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: said like, please don't decommission this rocket, like we need you.
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: We kind of all need to be together, and he's like, okay, fine.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: I won't.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's very reachable.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: He is and like, look, both of these men are
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: somewhat volatile. The funny thing about this blow up is
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: that Trump, even though Trump at one point at the
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: high Road, you know, Trump at one was like, maybe
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: we'll cancel all his contracts, But largely he looked like
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: the calmer of the two. And I do think accusing
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Trump of being on Epstein's list, which is without evidence, absolutely,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: and if Democrats had that information inside the federal government
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: at any point, we would have known about it by now. Like,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: coming back from this is going to be tough, but
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: there's always the chance with these guys that like half
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: of it is pro wrestling fighting.
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: That's the thing.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: All of my friends who are very committed MAGA people
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: were extremely upset about it, Like, are the people who
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: are having a good time and we're enjoying it. Are
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: the people who don't like Trump or don't like Musk
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: or don't like both of them?
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: And they were like, this is amazing.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: But the people who really like Trump did not like
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: him falling out with Elon. It was uh, you know,
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: I heard from friends that were like, please tell me
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: this is fake, Please tell me this is just trolling.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: I couldn't tell them that because I didn't think it
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: was again accusing somebody of being a child molester. Accusing
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: the President of the United States being child molester is
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: sort of it's across the line.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: I would say, yeah, yeah, that's a pretty clear line.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: And they had been so I think, look, Trump has
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: always seemed quite affectionate toward Elus, right, yeah, including in
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: the meeting that they had in the Oval Office last
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: week where he's handing him the key to the White House,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: and like, look, I wish that doge had been done
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: less mercurially and more professionally, and that you could like
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: I had higher hopes for that than were realized. But
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: I always have higher hopes than are realized because it's
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: the federal government. But so like part of it is
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: just like move along, go back to the things that
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: you're good at.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: But they were on such good terms and then all
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: of a sudden it was like, right, like sad out
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: of hand.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: But maybe they're finding a way back, as Elon kind
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: of lovingly retweets him, which is really all Trump wants
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: is admiration and retweets.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: And he's still the world's richest man, which means he's
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: got cachet in a little power. I will note I
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: saw somebody tweet I should really verify this first. What
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: the hell I saw somebody tweet that Bill Gates made
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: a visit to the White House while this dust up is.
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: Happening, So like tech bro exactly, He's like, I'm rich.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Dude, We're going to take a short break and come
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: right back with normally the other dust up this weekend.
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: I got it.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Just can you guys not do it on weekends.
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: Like every weekend?
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: Take some weekends off.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: So out of nowhere, Seemingly, Simon Biles tweets bully someone
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: your own size, which would ironically.
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: Be a male Riley Gaines.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: Making fun of Riley Gaines's buff amazing body is kind
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: of just a really low blow and confusing because some
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: Biles has a pretty buff body.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: So it's crazy to me that in this discussion, which
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: to my knowledge she's never been in before, she decided
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: on a Saturday night to jump in with body shaming
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: a female athlete. We're having lots of muscles, Like, my friend,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: you have so many muscles. I am in support of
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: both of you having all those muscles. I don't know
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: why you started out by saying like, oh, let's conform
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: to traditional feminine beauty standards and not be strong, was
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: her first outing bizarre on this she went she went
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: harder by saying, at Riley Gains, you're truly sick all
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: of this campaigning because you lost.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: A race, straight up sore loser.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: You should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: a way to make sports inclusive or creating a new
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: avenue where trans feel safe in sports. Maybe a transgender
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: category in all sports? Okay, can I just say.
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, go ahead, I was going to say this.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: You know who had been be an interesting and powerful
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: leader to do that. Yeah, so Mbiles right, if she
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: wants a third category, it also acknowledges, yeah, that they're
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: not the same as women.
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: But I also want to say that, until five minutes ago,
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: saying that we should have a separate transgender category was
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: anti trans Literally, if you look up conversations from a
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: year ago, you'll find that conservatives were saying we should
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: have a separate category. Obviously, kids who identify as something
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: else should be able to play in sports anyway, but
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: they clearly can't compete. Boys cannot be in girls' sports,
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: So that transgender category is only now okay to say,
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: and only because people like Riley Gaines made this conversation
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: a national topic.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: Yes, and by the way, the bullying to which she
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: refers is simply pointing out that boys are competing with girls.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: There is a Minnesota softball team that won its state
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: championship because there's a guy throwing heater from the mound
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: underhanded to young women, and so that that pitcher pitched
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: a bunch of shutouts and they won the state championship.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Riley points this out, and this is considered bullying ridiculously.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: It's bullying from everyone involved to let this person steal
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: prestige from women who have worked really hard to get
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: to the state championship. And by the way, one thing
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: that annoys me about these one percent or female athletes
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: as a mediocre female athlete myself, once you have reached
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: the heights of a Simone Biles or a Megan Rappino, right,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: first of all, you didn't have to come up through
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: a system in which there was a threat of men
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: repeating against you at any point. You got to the
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: absolute pinnacle. And like Simone Biles may never be surpassed.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: You get to the absolute pinnacle and then you're like, oh,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: but these guys like they're not important, like their dream
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: isn't as important as what mine was. I'm totally insulated
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: from this. Have accomplished everything I want to accomplish.
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: Before it held that ladder up.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and now I'm just gonna pull latter up. And
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: by the way, elite gymnasts in particular are insulated from
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: this in a way that more amateur or like lower
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: level gymnasts are not so USA Gymnastics I read from
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Jennifer Say, who's an expert in this allows transjitter athletes
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: up until you get to like the varying lead levels,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: because they know that that's not fair right lower down
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: and you're trying to make your dream happen.
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: Who might run up against a Marissa.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: Those girls should should have to compete against the boys.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: But once you reach elite levels, like you know, Simone Biles,
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: obviously all bets are off.
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: It's disappointing. I'm it makes me sad.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: It's unfortunate. And there was a big tennis match. I
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: don't I don't follow tennis. I gotta tell you it
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: was one of those things. But Coco Goff is from
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: South Florida, and the people of South Florida were losing
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: their minds when she so I do know a little
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: bit about that.
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: But she is the cutest.
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: She won the French Open at I believe she's twenty
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: one years old. I believe she's following a similar track
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: to Serena Williams when it comes to accomplishing these amazing
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: things that I'm at stunning ages. And she just seems
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: like the most positive, positive, kindest, sweetest athlete. Yeah, And
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: I've admired her every time I've seen her win something
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: thus far because she always just seems cool. And she
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: was showing on TikTok today her little apparently you don't
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: get to take the trophy trophy, you get a minier
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: true trophy, and she's like, it's like carry on size.
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: And she's disapplaining. It's everyone adorable. She's get fresh air.
• 31:43
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: I hope it stays that way.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: And maybe and she won't have to compete against dudes,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: say high school tennis, who has to do that.
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: Well. Thanks for joining us on normally normally.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: Airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: get your podcas casts. Get in touch with us at
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: normallythepod at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening and when
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: things get weird, act normally