Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast:"Accountability, Agenda, and the War on Truth: From FDA Firings to Gaza Coverage

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Normally Podcast:"Accountability, Agenda, and the War on Truth: From FDA Firings to Gaza Coverage · Normally

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hey, guys, we are back to normal.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: She takes coo when the news gets weird and back
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: with us this week.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Is my regular co host. I'm Mary Kavin.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: You I'm Carol Markowitz. It is so nice to be back.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: Although I will say the guest hosts did a fantastic job,
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: really amazing, so well done. Thank you to them both
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: for filling in. I really enjoyed all four episodes.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they were much appreciated, guys, and wonderful job.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: A ray of sunshine.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: But it's so nice to have you back after you
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: got sunshine for a couple of weeks.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Paris was actually very cold, and you should feel sorry
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: for me. I only brought one pair of jeans. I
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: wore them for the first four days because I was
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: freezing to death. It was like fifty nine degrees in
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: the morning. I did not come to Paris in the
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: summer for fifty nine.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Degrees, and I taught for you, not pack for it.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: But I was there because my middle son was in
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: a week long history competition and he came home with
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: a silver and a bronze medal, and I'm very proud
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: of him.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Over here, nice, very nice, well done.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Thank you. There's some traveling around France, and a good
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: time was had by all. Much seafood was eaten, a
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: lot of a little bit of escargo. Not not really
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: in sales, but I did try them.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Nice.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, good time. Oh you know what I want to say. Actually,
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: Normandy was unbelievable and I you know, I knew it
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: would be moving and beautiful, but Normandy the region is
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: just stunning. It was. I've been saying it's the sleeper
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: hit of the trip. It's the place that I don't
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: feel like I knew it would be so gorgeous and
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: beautiful and French and delicious, and I.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Love It's a it's a life goal of mine to
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: make it to Normandy, so now I will for sure,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: and we're doubling down on it.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And the American Cemetery is just I we could
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: have spent all day there. It was really really powerful.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: A lot of the houses around Omaha Beach still fly
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: American flag. There's just a really moving feeling that you
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: get there and it was very nice to see.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: By the way, if you ever get a chance to
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: all our listeners wherever you're traveling, if you get a
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: chance to visit the American cemetery overseas, it's very nice
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: to do so Normandy obviously gets a lot of visitors,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: but others don't. I went to the one in Tunisia,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: which doesn't get a ton of visitors. And then if
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: you know put on social media that you're there, sometimes
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: people will come across it who have relatives who are
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: buried there. So it's a nice thing to honor those
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: folks who lost their lives, you know, many many miles
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: from home.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: That's right. Yeah, it was definitely something that we would
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: repeat in other places. You know. I saw the headline
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: come in that an FDA employee was fired, and I
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: just naturally assumed it would be some no name bureaucrat
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: and whatever. And then when I saw that it was
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: been a Prisad, and my heart dropped. I was like,
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: what in the world happened here? And then when you
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: get into the story what happened? I think it's a
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: really terrible episode that needs to never be repeated. So
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: let's get into it. Vinet Prissad was really one of
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: the heroes of COVID time. He was ahead of the
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: curve on so many things, and he was a trusted voice,
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: and so the fact that he got to the FDA
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: was We celebrated.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: It on this show show. Yeah, we were.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: Really really happy about it because it is a time
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: of a lack of trust and to have people that
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: we do trust in these positions of power meant something
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: to us. So we were thrilled about that. Now it
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: turns out that he was let go because he questioned
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: a therapeutic the It was a company called Therapeda Therapeutics.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: They have this gene therapy that is kind of questionable,
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: and he was interested in getting to the bottom of
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: why it was reproved and how. And Laura Lumer, who
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: is a fringy figure on the right for some reason,
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: has a little bit too much power in.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: The Trump way, too much power, yes, was one.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: Of the key person in getting rid of him because
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: she said he was not loyal to Trump, and she
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: misrepresented things that he said and really just flat out lied.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: And it is a really gross thing that happened here.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very disappointing.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: More than that, like I'm angry on his behalf, I'm
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: sad that this means that the chances of getting really
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: good evidence based folks who go against the grain is
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: going to be harder now because they've seen what happens
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: if you go into this White House or into this administration.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Rather, he's a very smart guy, who.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Has nuanced views on evidence based medicine, who stands up
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: for what he thinks is correct, who pushes back on
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: people who are powerful, even when it's costly to him.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: That seems like exactly the kind of person you would
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: want evaluating such things. And as you say, this particular
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: medicine was somewhat questionable with the results it was providing.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: There are two deaths attributed to it. He was asking
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: some questions, and it looks like with Laura lumor spearheading
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: with some other forces involved, there was a public backlash
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: against this decision built that got to Trump quickly.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Through Laura Lumer.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: There were some other publications the Wall Street Journal, I
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: believe ran and abed saying that he shouldn't have done this.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: This is a treatment, by the way, for jushan muscular dystrophy.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Rick Santorum reportedly, according to New York Times, has some connections.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: With the with the UH, the Pharmaschool pharmaceutical company UH.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: And then there's also a lobbying firm that was hired
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: by the pharmaceutical company that has notably Chris Lasovita employed
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: by it. So there's a direct line on several fronts
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: to Trump.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: Here famously has close ties to.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: So I think it's a real loss, yeah everyone, And
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: it's it's one of these things where like, this is
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: the kind of thing about Trump where he is, this
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: is where Democrats could take advantage of him, right, go
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: into the office, take the meetings. You're the last person
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: who says something. You get something channeled through loom or
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: and boom, you get a giant change.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: That's not good all the time.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Obviously, and one of the issues we have with him
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: is that this needed discernment, This needed someone to go.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: I think he's worth having.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So, as we're recording this, RFK Junior today said
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: that they're going to be taking action to fully ban
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: foodstamps from being used to obtain soda. Ned Ryan, who's
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: been all over this Venea Prasad story, tweeted, let's hope
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: this holds up and some soda company doesn't hire. Laura
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: Lumer just screeched that actually foodstamps for soda is like
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: totally America first here, that's the concern here. I am
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: very much, not a Laura Lumer fan. I actually block
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: her because I don't want her nonsense in my timeline,
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: even though and you know, obviously Israel is one of
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: my top issues and she and I are aligned on it,
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: and sometimes people will send me commentary from her. I
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: just don't think she's a good person, and I don't
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: care that we agree you're align on certain issues. It
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: just isn't enough for me. Among other things, she said
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: that Casey DeSantis lied about having cancer and used it
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: as a you know, to have people be sympathetic to
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: her husband when he was running for president. I mean,
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: it was extremely disgusting. And she has done a lot
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: of terrible things.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Many things like that, Yeah.
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: Many things like that. Right, there was a picture that
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: we were all in and Christina Pshaw, who worked for
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: Ron DeSantis, was in the picture, and she made her
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: knees different colors, So just really disgusting. Yeah, like, this
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: is not a good person, and I don't care if
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: we're on the same quote unquote side.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Well, and when she sort of got blocked out of
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: the incoming administration for a brief time that that was
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: good news. And now that we're back to her wielding
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: a lot of power. That is not good news for
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: people who want results out of this administration. His colleagues
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: over at the Sensible Medicine Substack, where I've read him
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: for a long time, put it, you know, as well
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: as I could. So mainly I am sad. Sad for
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: vernight because he told me how much he had learned
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: in his short time. He was happy doing a job
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: that had incredible meaning. You could see how much his
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: new role meant to him in the FDA videos he
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: did with Marty. It was a different vene. I am
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: also sad for FDA because I had thought that this
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: new leadership could make a difference. Marty and Vine together
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: had a chance to bring increased rigor and greater independence
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: to drug and device regulation. But his rapid ulster turns
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: this optimism into magical thinking, and they say, you know,
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: it was always going to be a tough job because
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: you are going to have to take unpopular positions with
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: various very powerful lobbying forces. So that he's just the
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: guy to do that.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: That's why I liked him there, right, And that's exactly it.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: That FDA is uniquely susceptible to people being paid off
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: by powerful drug companies to do things on their behalf,
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: and the fact that we lost somebody that trustworthy is
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: a really tough pill to swallow. I'll add though, that
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: as we're recording right now, Marty Mackery, FDA Commissioner, said
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: that Vene. He said, Venee did choose to leave the FDA,
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: and the idea that he was pushed out by anybody
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: is simply untrue. We saw some he saw some head
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: media headlines and didn't want to be a distraction. We
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: encouraged him to reconsider, and we're still doing that. So
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: he left because he didn't want to be a distraction
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: because of the media headlines that Laura lum created.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Created, right.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: So I don't see how there's a real distinction there.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: But the fact that maccuary says we encouraged him to
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: reconsider and we're still doing that maybe makes me a
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: little bit hopeful he'll be back, and I really hope
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: that he does come back.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just it's just unwise to it's just dumb
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: to lose good people over stuff like this. Don't be
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: too easily taken in by those who bring you messages
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: about this kind of person on the same front and
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: by the way.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: It's just not good for public trust.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: In institutions, like this guy is a person you put
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: in place who could earn that trust, and then he's like, nap,
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: now we're out because he tweeted something that Laura Loomer
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: paraphrase inaccurately, and now I'm ticked off. Speaking of being
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: ticked off, I would like to note another bad decision
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: from last week, which is that the Bureau of Labor
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Statistics commissioner was fired by Trump in the wake of
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: a weaker than expected July jobs number, finding a gain
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: of seventy three thousand jobs versus expectations of one hundred thousand. Now,
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: we've seen this a lot of times. We saw this
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: in the Aviden administration, where the BLS the Bureau of
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Labor Statistics, puts out a number one month and then
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: they revise it downward the next month, and sometimes the
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: revisions downward have been frequent and large. That is bad, right,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Like we need to figure out how to get handle
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: on the data. It's been a couple of years now
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: where the revisions downward have been pretty notable in a
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: way that I've been following these numbers for a long
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: time and they don't. They didn't feel this way ten
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: years ago. At any rate, this happens last week. It's
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: revised downward, not a huge revision downward, but like you know, notable,
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: and Trump got mad and fired the person who's in
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: charge of putting out the numbers.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Let's say you.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Wanted better numbers, and you wanted to address these statistics,
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: and you wanted people to have faith in them. This
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: is the opposite of that, because now you have signaled
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: that when you don't like the numbers, you're going to
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: get rid of who's creating the numbers.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: But that doesn't address the data.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: And I don't think the data is actually partisanly problematic.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: I think it's just methodically problematic, probably, and I would
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: like to get that fixed.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: But I don't think we're getting that fixed.
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I get why he did it, but it is
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: not a great sign for public trust, which, like you said,
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: we desperately need. We've gotten to a point where nobody
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: believes anything, and this is where conspiracy theories and all
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: kinds of insanity blooms when public trust decreases like this.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: So yeah, bring back regular normal people into these positions
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: and leave them there. Don't want home. I get them fired.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and Trump works against himself in this way not infrequently.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: The other one is like yelling at Jerome Powell all
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: the time. We're like, Powell might be inclined to do
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: the thing you want him to do, but if you
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: continue to pressure him publicly, he's going to be less
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: inclined to do anything you want him to do potentially,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: And so let's.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Not do it that way.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, Jerome Powell, thehead of the fat Excuse me, I
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: shorthanded that, but you know what I'm saying.
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: We'll be right back with more normally after this break.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: So while I was away, the New York Times put
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: a child starving in Gaza on their cover. And I'm
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: telling you, I was barely on Twitter. I was, you know,
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: really trying to limit my intake, but this one really
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: got to me because before I saw any further news,
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: I was like, this child is ill. This is not
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: a starving child in Gaza. He's being held by his
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: extremely well fed mother. And it was obvious to me
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: that it was going to end up being a hoax.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: I didn't want to post that and get like tied
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: into arguing with people on X but it was I
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: just I almost wish I had, because it was literally
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: my first thought upon seeing that picture, and of course
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: that's exactly what turned out to be the case. It
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: was a child that had cerebral palsy. Apparently the New
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: York Times had internally discussed whether having a child with
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: a condition like that on the cover made sense. They
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: decided it didn't. They removed the first child that they
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: had with cerebral palsy, who was going to appear in
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: the cover, and replaced it with this child who also
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: had cerebral palsy, and they were fully aware of what
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: they were doing. Among other things, they cropped out his
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: healthy looking brother, and it is just vile. I was
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: so disappointed by conservatives who fell for this. I couldn't
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: believe that they just relied on what The New York
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: Times was presenting to them, and that they couldn't, in
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: poker terms, get off the hand. Even after the story
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: was found to be a hoax, there were people still saying, Okay, yes,
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: this child, maybe you know, has a condition, But there
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: are starving children in Gaza still. We don't haven't seen
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: any pictures of them or anything, but they exist.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: So that's the deeper issue, right, it's like, Okay, there
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: is certainly suffering in Gaza.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: No one is disputing this.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: But if this is the story, and the story, by
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: the way from the left is that Israel is intentionally
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: starving the children of Gaza. We don't understand why they're
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: sending them aid and escorting aid into the country and
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: offering to bless the aid into the country. We're never
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: told any of that. Why that makes sense with their
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: starvation policy.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: But they're doing it on.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: Purpose, okay in the lefty media, the entire international community
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: and all the NGOs. Yeah, the thing they want most
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: is a picture of a starving Gaza child so that
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: they get one third of a page on the front
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: page of the New York Times.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: That's what they're all looking for, That's right.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: Why is it that two attempts at it on the
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: New York Times front cover were both children with pre
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: existing conditions that were not in fact of this population
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: they claim is starving. Why can't you find the actual
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: picture when you're all they're looking for that exact picture.
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: Right after this story breaks, like a few days later,
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: videos are released by both Hamas and Islamic Jihad of
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: two hostages Avatar David and Roslavsky, and they are starving.
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: They are a look like they are starving. There is
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: no condition, there is nothing. There is literally just skin
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: and bones of gaunt faces, eyes bulging out of their heads.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: It's just, you know, the difference in coverage is so
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: horrible and disgusting to me. But also not unexpected, is
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: the unfortunate fact of it. It's really sad to watch.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: And the thing is that all those people who were
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: so worked up about gods and children who are not
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: actually starving had nothing to say about this, and silence
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: really spoke for them.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Well in the language that they always use is co
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: opting the language of the Holocaust and saying this is
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: another Holocaust before our eyes. And yet the images that
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: are actually reminiscent of the Holocaust come out advertised by
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: the way, by their heroes, exactly in the governing ranks
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: of Hamas and the other groups that rule Gaza and
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: are not allowing anyone to get food, right, those are
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: the people in charge of that. When you see the
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: actual photos and videos that actually do invoke this, not
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: a word to say of that. It made it made
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: the front page of the New York Post and everyone
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: else very quiet.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: Yes, I actually am extremely proud of the New York Posts.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: I'm really proud to write for them, because that is
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: what should be happening. It should be on the cover,
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: and the fact that it's not on any other cover. Look,
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: it's not a great time for Jews. I'm just gonna
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: tell you all of the conversations that I have with
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: other Jews or like, how bad is this going to get?
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: It feels like this could be bad, This could be
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: a real bad time for Jews. I believe in America.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: I believe in Americans, So I'm always kind of the
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: positive voice, being like, no, it's just this fringe. And
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: I still do think it is a fringe. But the
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: fact that it's not being covered, and the fact that
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: every story about oh, there's a split on the right
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: over Israel, you know, pushes the same three voices. You
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: know Steve benn Instead, he said that he doesn't think
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: people are going to like Israel anymore, and they just
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: keep writing these stories because they want to will it
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: into existence. It's worrisome, it really is.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Well, it's the highest profile voices of the left, like
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: the Pod Save America guys who on a Tuesday just
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: decided that, after their entire lives of nominally at least
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: backing Israel and being part of the Obama stra that
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: of course sent aid in defense in the traditional way
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: that Americans do.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: They're like, no, the Democratic Party is not going to
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: be able.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: To do this anymore, right, and that's going to be
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: a real interesting dynamic in the primary of that party.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to see if they actually go through
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: with it, because I do think and you know, I
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: say this, but I have a lot of faith in
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: the conservative, you know, side of American politics. The rest
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: I don't know, but it still will be a major
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: shift if Democrats really do say we're not pro Israel anymore,
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: where we're not aligned with Israel anymore, this is not
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: our ally Let's see. Let's see if that really does happen,
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: or if again the leftist fringe doesn't really get a
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: say in what nationally happens at the Democratic Party. We'll
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: see what happens with that. Additionally, to by the way,
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: Avatar David, the video of him clearly in a really
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: emaciated state. He was forced to dig his own grave.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: They told him, you're digging your own grave. It's just
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: there's just no words. Really there really aren't. And I'm
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: really grateful for people like you, like you know a
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: lot of people on the right who do care about
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: this and do kind of keep talking about it because
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: it is lonely and it is hard to you know,
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: kind of I get people's being tired of talking about Israel.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: I'm tired of talking about I want to talk about
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: other things. But it's you know, you have situations like
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: this where I'm so glad that conservatives do remain on
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: the side of Israel and keeping their eye on stuff
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: like this.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: Well, and it's easy to understand where people are coming from,
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: especially casual observers who are like, it's just a lot.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: It feels like a lot, maybe it should end. We
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: get it, we get it.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: Same with Ukraine, Russia, right like it it's a lot,
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: and we wish it were not happening. Okay, I understand,
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: But you also still have to weigh the moral question
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: because war is hard, and war is bad, and bad
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: things happen in war.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: And it blows my mind that people put these two
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: entities side by side and are like, no, I think
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: the Holy war war.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: We want to wipe Israel off the map, and maybe
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: the rest of the Western world as well. Those are
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: our guys, the ones that are the ones that are
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: advertising that they're starving civilian non combatants. We want to
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: we want to be with them, and then not only
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: do we want to be with them, we want them.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: After this behavior, to have a state. We want we
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: want to reward them. Well, I think some of it
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: is just like that.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: The international community is the gentle parenting of foreign policy,
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: and they just they just are like, we wanted to stop,
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: we wanted to stop, we want to stop. Give these
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: people what they want, and that is Yes, it's going
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: to end up being the most destructive thing because you
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: incentivize this horrific behavior.
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, instead of the FAFO parenting that I know, you know.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, bombing Florida is an FAFO parenting move, right,
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: It's not a gentle parenting move.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Yes, these are different things.
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: I would say. I was in France when Macrone said
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: that they would be recognizing a Palestinian state. You know,
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: I guess obviously when you're a tourist and you're justificationing there,
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: it's not going to come up in your life at all.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: But like I can tell you I didn't see a
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: great movement for the Palestinian state while I was traveling
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: around France. There was no no marches in the streets
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: for it or anything like that. We'll be right back
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: after this break with some more normally and Democrats embarrassing
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: themselves again.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: All right, we are back with a semi regular segment
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: of Harryenton on CNN telling CNN audiences things that they
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: don't want to hear. So here's a little segment on
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: the Democrat brand, and then we'll get into why this
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: might be the case.
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: The Democratic brand is in the basement. It is total
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: and complete garbage in the mind of the American public.
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: The Democratic parties net fable rating record lows and all
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: three Wall Street Journal thirty points underwater, CNN twenty six
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: points underwater, Gallup twenty six points underwater. And that is
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: being driven in large pop by discontent within the Democratic base.
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: The Democratic base wants something different, will ultimately end up
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: seeing who they choose. It will be quite the thing who.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: It's a lot of points, a lot of Now. Now,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: this is like a little bit of a Tea party dynamic,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: where it's.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: A lot of their own voters are mad at them,
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: and we will and we will see what kind of
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: behavior that incentivizes as they go forward. One of the
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: things that I think is incentivized is fighting at all costs,
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: even when fighting doesn't accomplish anything and actually looks pretty lame.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: So in this case, we have a redistricting fight in Texas.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: For those of you who aren't in regular politics, redistrict
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: fights happen for equently. This is not a new thing.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: The Texas Legislature gets to vote on this. Republicans have
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: drawn a map that gives them more seats in the Congress,
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: which is the custom.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: When you are in charge and you are able to
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: do that.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: It is not hugely out of proportion with the amount
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: that they generally win by in Texas.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Nonetheless, they're Democratic colleagues.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: In order to thwart this attempt at redistricting, have fled
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: the state, and they because they're so mad about the
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: gerrymandering that is happening here geral and they're so mad
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: about the jerrymandering because they're very principled on this that
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: they went to Illinois, where.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: There's no or there's like the most jerrymandering.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: Like could anybody have just just said, like is there
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: another state we could flee to?
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Right, So they're in Chicago.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: Javi Pritzker flew there on a private so they could
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: not do their jobs in the Texas legislature. I hate
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: this tactic, and if Republicans did it, I would tell
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: them to go back home and take their l You
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: these elections have consequences.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Fight the good fight and take your light.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: And they Democrats repeatedly refuse to do this.
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: There have been Yeah, I was gonna say, Texas Democrats
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: just keep doing this. Why do they think this is
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: going to work?
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, They've done this over and over again.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: There's also the Wisconsin Senate in twenty eleven fighting Governor
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Scott Walker. There's an Indiana House incident. But the Texas
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: Democrats do like to flee. They did it in two
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: thousand and three. Apparently they did it in twenty twenty
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: one or twenty three. It's like all the time they're
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: just leaving the state. And I just think you owe
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: your voters better than this.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: And I don't know that.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: Republicans have pulled this ever. I read one story about
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: an Oregon vote where they had invented this and don't
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: do it don't right, it's embarrassing, you look lame.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: You should go do your job exactly.
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: Gavin Newsom said this is what fighting for our democracy
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: looks like, and Ag Hamilton on X was like legislators
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: fleeing a state because they don't have sufficient votes to
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: stop a change. Is a lot of things, but it
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: is most definitely not fighting for democracy.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: It's the opposite of democracy.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: And I just want to note that The New York
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Times writes this hilarious piece entitled Democrats have few tools
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: to counter gop redistricting.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: Okay, do you want another reason they have few tools? Well,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: let me tell you.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: States where Democrats would have complete control over any redistricting,
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: such as Illinois and Maryland, are already gerrymandered heavily in
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: their favor. Squeezing more democratic seats out of those states
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: would be a challenge, right, Like they're just max you know,
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: they're they're always it's this thing that democrats always do
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: where they're like, we're going to start doing this. If
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: you do it, it's like you've already done it. You've
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: already maxed, You've you've been doing it. Yeah, what's the
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: term they use in in bro podcast? You have Jerrymander
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: maxed like, you're you're good. You've spent generations doing this
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: and you can't squeeze anything else out of it.
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: So, uh that Democrats did this week? I don't think so.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: I think we have no. No, that's not the only one.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: And I will say real quickly that the governor has
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: has threatened them with all sorts of sanctions should they
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: not come back to do their jobs. They have not
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: come back to do their jobs. So that is in
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: limbo at the moment. Okay, the other one, oh, the
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: New York Times, Oh gosh, New York Times just really
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: wants to keep us in business.
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: They're like, what do the normally girls want to talk
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: about this week? And then they just provide us with
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: the fodder.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: Just delivering us a gift.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: So the President of the United States, President Trump, announced
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: that they will reinstate.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: The Presidential Fitness Test.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: This is the physical fitness test that you used to
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: take in physical education class. It consisted of a mile run,
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: a shuttle run, the sit in reach and the pull
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: ups I think that was about and the crunches. So
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: he reinstates this. He does a little ceremony. This is
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: like mostly non controversial, right, but not at the New
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: York Times in the newsroom.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: Are unhappy.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Go ahead?
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: Is right wing coded that an article?
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: This is it?
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: So here's the headline over a picture of a like
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: sweet struggling child hanging at a pull up bar for
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: some return of presidential fitness tests revives painful memories. Generations
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: of Americans who struggle to complete a pull up in
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: front of their classmates winced as President Trump announced that
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: he was reinstating the annual assessment. It goes on to
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: give us like twenty pair of of various people's bad
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: experiences in elementary school with the presidential physical fitness test.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: And I just want to say, do they need someone
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: more trauma informed.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: In the New York Times newsroom?
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: So like you can just work through this as an adult,
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: because you are allegedly adults.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: I'm embarrassed for you, right.
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: Josh Barrow commented about the Times article, liberals need to
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: stop doing identity politics for losers, Which that's all I
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: think anyone is saying, like, just stop hating everything so much.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Just so lame. Speaking of blame.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: When they switched it, Obama, of course, was the first
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: to change it from the traditional test to this, and
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: I had totally missed this in all of Obama's lameness.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: When mister Obama abolished the test, he replaced it with
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: the Fitness Gram, a program that emphasized overall student health goals,
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: setting and personal progress, not beating your classmates on the
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: track or the pull up bar boo boo to that.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: I hate it.
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: Is so much, it's amazing, go ahead, point this. He
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: said that the press focuses on the beneficiaries of Democrat
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: policies and the victims of Republican policies. So if it
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: were a Democrat who was doing this, who was bringing
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: back this fitness test, it would be portrayed as this
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: amazing thing to get kids in shape and you know,
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: to make sure that we don't have a staggering number
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: of obese kids and all of that. It would be
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: seen as a win for American children, which it is.
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: So you know. Yeah.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: So the people in this article are quoted as calling
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: it a giant step backwards, and one person described it
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: as her experience as it was survivor fails.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: She said it was Darwinist.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: And then one physical education teacher says, it really breaks
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: my heart that it's coming back if our mission is
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: to help kids love being physically active and love moving,
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: we have to do more than testing them in ways
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: in which the majority are going to fail and they're
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: going to feel ashamed and they're not going to like
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: physical education. Okay, here's the thought. We're setting a goal
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: for you, you have some time to work up to it.
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: How about we all do that. How about we all work.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: On that together.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: And I do have to cup to This was not
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: my particular form of public humiliation as a child.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Nobody enjoyed it, but fun well, like, yeah, so.
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: I actually am the one who enjoyed it. Right, so
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: I'm the weird now one. I'm the weirdo on this one.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: But my point is I faced all other sorts of
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: public humiliation in school growing up, Like that's part of
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: the deal, right, This was not my particular kind, but
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: like every challenge in these settings is going to be tough.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: You're supposed to be tested in various ways as you
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: grow up. And the idea that the people who run
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: elite institutions in this country are the people who haven't
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: worked through through this is gross to me.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Exactly, y'all are lame and you should be laughed out
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: by Josh Barrow. You should be.
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: I didn't love it. I am not sporty or athletic
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: in any way, but look, I want you know, I
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: did it. I want my kids to do it. I
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: think it's a good thing to be physically fit.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Sending a message that like, this is something we value.
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: Right exactly, it is sending that message, and I like
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: that message being sent.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: Democrats by the stuff I.
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: Do, herds who we push into lockers, you know, I know.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: It's like I feel like this kind of thing makes
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: me meaner than I would otherwise be.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I can't with this.
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I will cop to the fact that I
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: was like thirty nine and a half pounds and I
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: was like, you need eleven pull ups.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: I got you. I got you. Now I don't weigh
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: thirty nine and a half pounds, so I can't do that.
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: Thanks joining us on Normally Normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays,
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts. Get
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: in touch with us at normally theepod at gmail dot com.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: Thanks for listening, and when things get weird, act normally
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: M