Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast: Trump, Vance & the GOP’s 2026 Problem, Plus Luigi Mangione and California’s Wealth Tax

Transcript

Normally Podcast: Trump, Vance & the GOP’s 2026 Problem, Plus Luigi Mangione and California’s Wealth Tax · Normally

0:06
Speaker 1: Hey, guys, we are back on normally, the show with
0:08
Speaker 1: normal it takes for when the news gets weird. I
0:10
Speaker 1: am Mary Katherine Hamps.
0:11
Speaker 2: I'm Carol Markowitz, and it's been a really long time
0:14
Speaker 2: since we've been together, Mary Catherine.
0:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've made the most of summer, you know, we have.
0:22
Speaker 2: I continue to be away. I am in Normandy right
0:25
Speaker 2: now on a World War two trip with my middle son,
0:29
Speaker 2: and it is amazing and incredible and excruciating, and I
0:35
Speaker 2: don't know what's going on anymore, so I'm, you know,
0:39
Speaker 2: looking forward to being caught up on all the news.
0:42
Speaker 1: Yeah. This is the thing about traveling with your kids
0:44
Speaker 1: is sometimes you just got to do the work Carol.
0:46
Speaker 2: As they used to say, I am doing.
0:50
Speaker 1: When I did my thousand mile road trip with four children,
0:53
Speaker 1: I was due in the work and I.
0:55
Speaker 2: Had a lard. Yeah. Yeah, it's great. I mean, it's amazing.
1:00
Speaker 2: I definitely highly recommend traveling with your kids as much
1:04
Speaker 2: as possible, even though it is grueling and difficult, and
1:09
Speaker 2: it's so worthwhile.
1:10
Speaker 1: So we stayed, did I tell you? We stayed in
1:13
Speaker 1: a tiny house for Oh my gosh, it was my
1:18
Speaker 1: just just me with four kids in a tiny house,
1:21
Speaker 1: and they thought it was the most charming, magical thing
1:23
Speaker 1: they'd ever seen. There was a loft, there was a
1:25
Speaker 1: pull out futon. I was like, well, this is charming you.
1:31
Speaker 2: How did you What did you think of it?
1:33
Speaker 3: Oh?
1:33
Speaker 1: We had a great time. It was it was exactly
1:35
Speaker 1: what we needed. You know, we don't need We don't
1:37
Speaker 1: need all that much for a trip. And it didn't
1:39
Speaker 1: cost that much. And yeah, you know how a little
1:42
Speaker 1: kitchen net and the kids thought they were in a
1:45
Speaker 1: little Hobbit house and I was cute.
1:49
Speaker 2: Oh, I love it. It's awesome. All right, let's do it.
1:53
Speaker 2: Let's find out what the news is saying. I do
1:56
Speaker 2: know that today, as you're listening to this, Tuesday, August eighteenth,
2:01
Speaker 2: it is election day in Florida. I absence. He voted
2:04
Speaker 2: because I knew I would be away on election day.
2:07
Speaker 2: And I love voting so much in Florida, and only
2:12
Speaker 2: in Florida. I didn't enjoy it nearly as much in
2:15
Speaker 2: New York, when not a single candidate I ever voted
2:17
Speaker 2: forever one. But this is much better. So Byron Donald's
2:22
Speaker 2: is poised to run away with the governor nomination and
2:26
Speaker 2: likely win the general in November he has a couple
2:30
Speaker 2: of people running against him, the most kind of concerning
2:33
Speaker 2: one with James Fishback, and I you know, if Fishback
2:38
Speaker 2: breaks ten percent, I think we have a problem. I
2:42
Speaker 2: think it is something to be concerned about going forward.
2:46
Speaker 2: If he doesn't with all the attention he's gotten, and
2:49
Speaker 2: I don't think he will, that will put eddyase the
2:55
Speaker 2: idea that these groyper internet candidates can succeed in real life,
3:00
Speaker 2: because you know, I don't see him making it.
3:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's the question, both on the cartoonishly
3:07
Speaker 1: anti Semitic right wing and the cartoonishly anti semitic left wing,
3:11
Speaker 1: is does the online stay online right right? And can
3:14
Speaker 1: you contain it? And in the case of Fishback, it
3:17
Speaker 1: looks like it's more likely to be the case than
3:19
Speaker 1: other races, And I hope, I very much hope so.
3:22
Speaker 2: So I actually don't think he cracks five percent, but
3:25
Speaker 2: I am kind of hedging a little bit because I
3:26
Speaker 2: just feel like it could be like six. You know,
3:28
Speaker 2: it's like one of those I just don't think he's
3:30
Speaker 2: going to get very very much percentage of the vote
3:33
Speaker 2: at all. And I hope that's correct, because if I'm wrong,
3:38
Speaker 2: it really portends bad things for the future. Yeah, we
3:43
Speaker 2: don't mean horses, Yeah, exactly. The other two guys in
3:47
Speaker 2: the race are really just stellar human beings. I mean,
3:51
Speaker 2: Paul Renner, Mike Collins really wonderful people candidates. But going
3:57
Speaker 2: up against a Trump endorsed popular congressman is impossible. And
4:03
Speaker 2: I think that's what they found they couldn't gain traction.
4:07
Speaker 2: I don't know. I think probably Collins comes in second
4:10
Speaker 2: and then Fishback comes in third. We might prefer it obviously,
4:14
Speaker 2: would be fish Back and forth and runner in third,
4:18
Speaker 2: and that would be sort of where we end up
4:20
Speaker 2: with this. But you know, I think Byron Donalds is
4:23
Speaker 2: going to do a good job. I am a huge
4:26
Speaker 2: fan of his wife. She is a big education activist,
4:29
Speaker 2: and I've had her on my other show, on The
4:31
Speaker 2: Carol Markowitz Show, where we've talked about how she's still
4:34
Speaker 2: mad bro about the pandemic and I love stuff like that.
4:38
Speaker 2: So Erica Donalds really makes me feel optimistic about Byron Donalds.
4:44
Speaker 1: Yeah. Meanwhile, you've got in Michigan some new polling I
4:48
Speaker 1: believe from Fox was in the field and found that
4:52
Speaker 1: you know, basically, voters are much more worried about Elsayaed
4:55
Speaker 1: being too close to socialists in Michigan than Mike Rogers,
5:00
Speaker 1: his Republican opponent being too close to Trump. So that's
5:03
Speaker 1: obviously a good sign for Rogers, who is basically a
5:07
Speaker 1: normy are in the past, has suffered frankly by being
5:10
Speaker 1: seen as too much of a pre Trump era Republican,
5:13
Speaker 1: But that might help him in Michigan this around in
5:16
Speaker 1: an anti establishment year. And Elsie of course has a
5:21
Speaker 1: flood of bad press and opo and things he said
5:27
Speaker 1: in the Crazy era, such as, you know, football is
5:30
Speaker 1: bad one patriarchal, bad things about America and more fair
5:36
Speaker 1: like he hates Mcinaw Island, this idyllic, beautiful place are
5:42
Speaker 1: there Michigan. Just the things that people on his wing
5:48
Speaker 1: of the party just said openly on video and in
5:51
Speaker 1: print for three years, which is why they have trouble
5:54
Speaker 1: escaping exactly.
5:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it. It's it's interesting. The other ones that
6:01
Speaker 2: obviously we're watching are tall Rico in Texas, asaf in Georgia,
6:06
Speaker 2: Cooper in North Carolina. Harry Enton at CNN has all
6:11
Speaker 2: three of those ahead. I don't know. I guess tallar
6:16
Speaker 2: Rico could win. I understand that it's possible, but it's
6:20
Speaker 2: just it just seems so improbable to me. He seems
6:23
Speaker 2: like such a terrible candidate too, and he's sort of
6:25
Speaker 2: getting away with being not as bad as some of
6:28
Speaker 2: the other ones in the field right now. But yeah,
6:32
Speaker 2: tell Rico could absolutely pull it out, and that's concerning
6:36
Speaker 2: for Texas.
6:38
Speaker 1: I think the danger with tell Rico is one he's
6:40
Speaker 1: of course up against Paxton, who has damaged in a
6:42
Speaker 1: lot of ways. In the eyes of a lot of voters,
6:44
Speaker 1: tell Rico his personality reads harmless, dude. Now then you
6:50
Speaker 1: see him in the pulpit, literally a pulpit, preaching about
6:54
Speaker 1: the need for public funding of trans abortions, and well,
6:58
Speaker 1: that's not really my guy. And most Texans would agree
7:01
Speaker 1: that's not their guy, and that's not harmless. But I
7:03
Speaker 1: think the way he reads makes a bunch of independent
7:07
Speaker 1: voters go, I don't know, I'm not super engaging. He
7:09
Speaker 1: doesn't seem problematic to me, So it will be on
7:12
Speaker 1: the Republican Party to communicate that despite Paxton's problems, tall
7:18
Speaker 1: Rico is a person who wants to do crazy things.
7:21
Speaker 2: Right right exactly.
7:23
Speaker 3: So.
7:24
Speaker 2: Harry says that this is the best polling Texas Dems
7:26
Speaker 2: have had in a Senate race this century, Tallerrikho's chances
7:30
Speaker 2: are very real. He's pulling around ten points better than o'verurke.
7:34
Speaker 2: In case anybody forgot about Beto O'Rourke in twenty eighteen,
7:38
Speaker 2: was at this point. Paxton's net favorables are fifteen points
7:42
Speaker 2: lower than cruises what we're in twenty eighteen. Trump's much
7:46
Speaker 2: less popular than in twenty eighteen. So yeah, it's tough.
7:51
Speaker 2: Not really sure what to make of that, but it's
7:55
Speaker 2: you know, Republicans better defend Texas because that a Tallarico
8:00
Speaker 2: win is very, very possible.
8:02
Speaker 1: The environment is tough for Republicans, but it's also worth
8:04
Speaker 1: reminding people that the states they are charged with flipping
8:12
Speaker 1: are double digit Trump states right now. That mean in
8:16
Speaker 1: a good year that they can't go. But it is
8:18
Speaker 1: a it is a large ask for a thirteen point
8:22
Speaker 1: Trump state to be flipped, even in a good year.
8:25
Speaker 1: So if you have people who are performing well on
8:27
Speaker 1: the Republican side of the ticket, you can be pretty
8:29
Speaker 1: safe in a lot of those places. And it has
8:32
Speaker 1: been interesting to me that New Hampshire is sort of
8:33
Speaker 1: sneaking up on Democrats. A flinty, individualist, independent state that
8:39
Speaker 1: could do something strange in an off year, so we'll
8:43
Speaker 1: keep an eye on that too.
8:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an interesting thing because I think the Dums
8:50
Speaker 2: are just leaning too far left for the country, and
8:55
Speaker 2: you know, turning Hassan Piker into their spokesman for some
8:58
Speaker 2: reason is just a bad idea. And that doesn't mean
9:02
Speaker 2: that Republicans aren't going to somehow sabotage themselves, because we
9:07
Speaker 2: certainly are. But the whole Hassan Piker moment is so
9:14
Speaker 2: so dumb. But you know, again, Trump Advance right now
9:19
Speaker 2: saying dumb things that I just would not understand. You
9:25
Speaker 2: broke the news to me on both of those stories.
9:28
Speaker 2: I had not seen the Trump statement on North Korea
9:30
Speaker 2: nor the Dvance comment about the US dollar, and they're
9:35
Speaker 2: just I'm flabbergasted. What is happening?
9:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, Trump truths this true, true insanity. Based on my
9:44
Speaker 1: very good relationship with King Kim Jong Un of North Korea,
9:47
Speaker 1: I am not happy with the fact that the United
9:49
Speaker 1: States has long ago agreed to participate in joint military
9:52
Speaker 1: exercises with South Korea. These exercises are not only costly,
9:56
Speaker 1: with much of these costs paid for by the United
9:58
Speaker 1: States of America, as usual, but send a signal that
10:01
Speaker 1: is totally inappropriate and hostile to a country that, as
10:03
Speaker 1: long as Donald J. Trump has been president, has been
10:05
Speaker 1: unthreatening and respectful. Therefore, and based on the fact that
10:08
Speaker 1: it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary
10:10
Speaker 1: of War Pete Hagsat to substantially reduce the joint military exercises.
10:14
Speaker 1: While somewhat unrelated, I recently asked the president of South
10:17
Speaker 1: Korea if they would like to join us in the
10:18
Speaker 1: denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said no, thanks,
10:22
Speaker 1: Thank you for your attention to this matter of President
10:24
Speaker 1: Donald J.
10:24
Speaker 2: Trump.
10:25
Speaker 1: This is one of those things where it's like, there's
10:28
Speaker 1: obviously a good guy and a bad guy here. Yeah,
10:31
Speaker 1: that's pretty clear for you to not recognize that. Because
10:36
Speaker 1: Kim Jong un occasionally kisses the rear end. It's back very.
10:42
Speaker 2: Bad, baffling. It's like something about South Korea made him
10:48
Speaker 2: mad today and he decided to post this. And you know,
10:52
Speaker 2: I said this before we started rolling. But it's unfair.
10:55
Speaker 2: But I just don't Trump just says things. I just
10:59
Speaker 2: don't take him seriously. I don't. I don't remember which
11:02
Speaker 2: one we're supposed to take him seriously or literally or whatever.
11:06
Speaker 2: But whichever one it is.
11:08
Speaker 1: I want to deserve for this one.
11:12
Speaker 2: So I you know, he just had a bad day
11:15
Speaker 2: with South Korea and they're going to be right back
11:17
Speaker 2: okay with it, you know, in a few days. It's
11:20
Speaker 2: just it's it's tough having a president that you really
11:23
Speaker 2: have to disregard a lot of what he says. But
11:27
Speaker 2: that's just the way it is with Donald Trump.
11:30
Speaker 1: So should we disregard what Vance said? Which I believe
11:32
Speaker 1: we have a little quik here he is talking on
11:35
Speaker 1: a panel about the dollar as the reserve currency.
11:39
Speaker 4: That's exactly right. And by the way, you know, I'm
11:41
Speaker 4: a it's like maybe super heterodox. I am not sure
11:46
Speaker 4: that I think the reserve currency is actually good for
11:48
Speaker 4: the United States of America. I think there is a
11:50
Speaker 4: good argument the reserve currency status is akin to cole
11:54
Speaker 4: in Appalachia.
11:55
Speaker 1: It's a resource curse, right.
11:57
Speaker 4: It allows your consumers to consum very cheaply.
12:01
Speaker 1: Right.
12:01
Speaker 4: That's been the story of the American economy for the
12:03
Speaker 4: last fifteen or so years. Even before that is we
12:06
Speaker 4: can just borrow basically in a unlimited way because we
12:09
Speaker 4: have the reserve currency.
12:11
Speaker 2: It sounds much more ideological when Van says it, and
12:14
Speaker 2: it doesn't sound like he just woke up mad at
12:17
Speaker 2: the reserve currency today. It sounds like he's given it
12:21
Speaker 2: some thought. And that's where the problem begins with JD.
12:24
Speaker 1: Van's well, and I think, look, there are people who
12:27
Speaker 1: have plenty of fair issues with borrowing too much, agreed,
12:33
Speaker 1: and also being the reserve currency is a boon to
12:38
Speaker 1: us while we are in a situation where we have
12:41
Speaker 1: not responsibly addressed our debt and our obligations and all
12:47
Speaker 1: of those things. I also think for both Vance and Trump,
12:50
Speaker 1: they both do a little bit of this. The argument
12:53
Speaker 1: to Americans that the problem is that they just have
12:57
Speaker 1: too much cash to spend, I don't think is a
13:01
Speaker 1: good one. Like when Trump said, when Trump said, just
13:04
Speaker 1: buy one doll instead of twelve dollars, yeah, yeah, and
13:08
Speaker 1: when he says, right, our people are just spending too much. Look,
13:14
Speaker 1: we run up personal debt in this country in unprecedented
13:17
Speaker 1: ways right now, which is not good. But if you
13:20
Speaker 1: were a politician in office who was supposed to being
13:22
Speaker 1: prices down by the way, and people are upset about it,
13:24
Speaker 1: you should never be out saying, just like Trim you know,
13:29
Speaker 1: you gotta trim the fat guys because that's not what
13:32
Speaker 1: they hired you for, and they don't view it as
13:35
Speaker 1: respectful of them.
13:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's it's not good. I don't understand where
13:42
Speaker 2: Vance is politically, and if you even ask anything, if
13:47
Speaker 2: you question it whatsoever on X, you get accused of
13:50
Speaker 2: being part of an OP. And I'm like, I literally
13:53
Speaker 2: just heard this news today, So I have failed at
13:57
Speaker 2: being part of the OP. And I like JD. Vance,
13:59
Speaker 2: and I liked him before he was vice president, and
14:03
Speaker 2: I want to like him now, and I don't understand
14:06
Speaker 2: where he's going or what the point is. And it's
14:10
Speaker 2: true that his relationship with Tucker definitely mars what I
14:15
Speaker 2: and many other people think of him, because it does
14:17
Speaker 2: seem like they're drifting towards the left together and I'm
14:21
Speaker 2: not into that.
14:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think there are just concerns stylistically for
14:25
Speaker 1: anybody who has high aspirations to be a person who
14:29
Speaker 1: speaks on panels and just says like, let me say
14:32
Speaker 1: something like wildly contrarian. Now, like, let's have a real
14:37
Speaker 1: thought process about what that's going to look like if
14:39
Speaker 1: you are a politician. I don't want to go back
14:41
Speaker 1: to the days of the overly careful politician. But some
14:46
Speaker 1: of these things, if you just toss them out there,
14:48
Speaker 1: you're eventually gonna have to flesh out. You're going to
14:50
Speaker 1: learn some of the lessons that these woke one point
14:53
Speaker 1: zero people have learned, which is, when you say a
14:56
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff on tape that is wildly contrarian that
14:59
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't agree with, you will have
15:00
Speaker 1: to answer for it at some point, That's right.
15:03
Speaker 2: So yeah, speaking of people who say wild things on tape,
15:08
Speaker 2: we have this clip of John Ossoff in Georgia talking
15:12
Speaker 2: about Donald Trump.
15:13
Speaker 5: And while the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war,
15:16
Speaker 5: while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the
15:21
Speaker 5: president sleeps through his meetings, he golfs and trade stocks. See,
15:29
Speaker 5: he doesn't want to do the job. He wants to
15:33
Speaker 5: build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently
15:37
Speaker 5: defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.
15:43
Speaker 2: Did you know who Natalie was?
15:45
Speaker 5: So?
15:45
Speaker 1: I did, but I thought this okay. Natalie Harp is
15:50
Speaker 1: an aid to the president who is very close to him.
15:53
Speaker 1: Who is I think they call her her nickname in
15:56
Speaker 1: the past has been the human printer. She's the person
15:58
Speaker 1: who goes around with him and prints all his his
16:01
Speaker 1: clips and hands. He likes to read in hard copy,
16:05
Speaker 1: and he likes to highlight things, and he likes to
16:06
Speaker 1: clip things and send them to other people.
16:08
Speaker 2: Mist likes to read things in a hard copy.
16:10
Speaker 1: It's true. It's true. So I share that with President Trump.
16:14
Speaker 1: So that is her gig. In the past, it has
16:17
Speaker 1: been reported a couple of times that she has a
16:20
Speaker 1: close relationship with the president, at least on her side,
16:23
Speaker 1: that she has expressed things that people think are like
16:27
Speaker 1: too affectionate to the President. But I don't know how
16:30
Speaker 1: much back up these I don't know how much sourcing
16:33
Speaker 1: these stories have. There is he's bringing her name up
16:37
Speaker 1: to imply that this is that's right. It looks at
16:41
Speaker 1: relationship and can I just say that's not fair to
16:45
Speaker 1: all female staffers.
16:46
Speaker 2: And that's it. It's like, if you're good at your job,
16:50
Speaker 2: if the male boss wants you around, you're suddenly sleeping
16:54
Speaker 2: with him. And I remember this so much from it
16:57
Speaker 2: didn't even have to be your boss. If, like you know,
17:00
Speaker 2: in the back in the heyday of blogging, if a
17:03
Speaker 2: big male blogger linked your blog like, oh, you clearly
17:07
Speaker 2: sleeping with them, Like incredibly cheesy and wrong. And for
17:13
Speaker 2: John oss Up to get into this is really disrespectful
17:17
Speaker 2: and unacceptable.
17:18
Speaker 1: I also think it's interesting to me that he's doing
17:21
Speaker 1: it because he generally doesn't come off as somebody who
17:24
Speaker 1: is too online and this is a very online story.
17:27
Speaker 1: Now is the point to get everyone talking about this
17:30
Speaker 1: rumor and to make a very online rumor something that
17:34
Speaker 1: everyone talks about and therefore the press is very willing
17:36
Speaker 1: to track down. Maybe that's the point, but it seemed
17:41
Speaker 1: it seemed below his normal performance level, which is usually
17:45
Speaker 1: pretty mainstream, and that's what works for him in Georgia.
17:48
Speaker 1: He's a very competent politician.
17:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, my bet was he's got an eye on twenty
17:54
Speaker 2: eight and he wants to start getting his name in
17:57
Speaker 2: the press, and this is the way to do it. Yeah. Yeah,
18:00
Speaker 2: it's unfortunate, it's really I think it's the wrong way
18:03
Speaker 2: to go. But everybody seems to think that they're going
18:07
Speaker 2: to just copy Trump being a jerk, and that's going
18:09
Speaker 2: to take them to the White House. And we'll see,
18:12
Speaker 2: we will see, we'll see. All Right, we're going to
18:15
Speaker 2: take a short break and be right back with more
18:18
Speaker 2: on Normally. We are back on Normally. That was a
18:24
Speaker 2: long segment, but we had a lot to get through,
18:26
Speaker 2: so it's okay, it's all right, We're gonna, you know,
18:30
Speaker 2: work through this. The next topic that we're going to
18:33
Speaker 2: talk about is the wealth tax in California, which I
18:37
Speaker 2: continue to be fascinated by because, for one thing, everybody
18:42
Speaker 2: kept assuring everybody else that it was never going to happen,
18:46
Speaker 2: like it wasn't going to get enough signatures to get
18:48
Speaker 2: on the ballot, and then if it did get on
18:50
Speaker 2: the ballot, nobody would vote for it, and if people
18:52
Speaker 2: did vote for it, then Gavin Newsom would Beido or
18:55
Speaker 2: you know, somehow get rid of it. It's on track
18:59
Speaker 2: to become a real thing, and it's it's moving very quickly.
19:04
Speaker 2: And the other thing that I kind of find hilarious
19:06
Speaker 2: about it is that all of these liberal Silicon Valley
19:12
Speaker 2: kind of guys have sort of woken up and realized
19:16
Speaker 2: that they can't support this kind of stuff anymore. And
19:19
Speaker 2: it's it's been interesting to watch.
19:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, Mark Cuban clashed with Rocanna over this. Rocanna represents
19:28
Speaker 1: Silicon Valley and is extremely rich and hides his wealth
19:33
Speaker 1: to some degree on purpose to gain the system. So
19:36
Speaker 1: it's rich coming from right.
19:38
Speaker 2: And his kids own golf courses. His small children own
19:42
Speaker 2: golf courses, so you know, yeah, he's.
19:46
Speaker 1: A well off man. I'm sure you'll be shocked to
19:48
Speaker 1: hear that the wealth tax would exempt him and his
19:51
Speaker 1: level of riches, which he has not given up for
19:54
Speaker 1: the greater good yet. So Mark Cuban comes at him
19:57
Speaker 1: on X and is like, this is totally unworkable. You're
20:00
Speaker 1: going to lose these people. You're going to lose investment.
20:03
Speaker 1: California cannot and should not do this. Cuban is asking
20:08
Speaker 1: real questions, how are you going to tax them? Make
20:10
Speaker 1: them borrow money against they can they just raised the money.
20:13
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's what we're going to do. We're going to
20:15
Speaker 6: have that borrow money. It is in my opinion if
20:19
Speaker 6: this passes, only idiot startup founders stay in California. Now,
20:23
Speaker 6: these are all real questions about how policy works and
20:28
Speaker 6: second order consequences, and that's not how someone like Rokana thinks.
20:35
Speaker 6: It is interesting to me to watch Cuban on healthcare
20:37
Speaker 6: and this run up against his own party allies and
20:41
Speaker 6: realize they aren't interested in actually making this policy work
20:46
Speaker 6: or for their state to work. It is a play
20:50
Speaker 6: just for that money and for him to be a
20:52
Speaker 6: twenty twenty eight guy.
20:53
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, that's definitely on everybody's mind. The couple
20:58
Speaker 2: of points about Mark Cuban that I really liked is that,
21:02
Speaker 2: first of all, I believe it was Ryan Gerdusky who
21:05
Speaker 2: was like, he still is going to vote for the Democrat.
21:09
Speaker 2: He's not going to go vote for Republican. He's going
21:12
Speaker 2: to continue voting for Democrats, never realizing that this is
21:15
Speaker 2: the whole problem, that these Democrats are moving in the
21:19
Speaker 2: direction of communism. And then Jarvis Best, who is a
21:23
Speaker 2: great follow on X, said what I'm enjoying most about
21:26
Speaker 2: this meltdown is the emerging split within the Democrats. Within
21:30
Speaker 2: the Dems on socialism versus performative socialism. For years, they've
21:34
Speaker 2: been saying they're going to eat the rich, and everyone
21:36
Speaker 2: applauded and got their liberal endorphins released, and then they
21:40
Speaker 2: would not eat the rich, and everybody was happy with
21:42
Speaker 2: this arrangement. But then nerds like Roe started believing the
21:44
Speaker 2: campaign slogans, and now they have a mess on their hands.
21:48
Speaker 2: That really sums it up for me, they did not
21:50
Speaker 2: know where this was going or they didn't care, and
21:54
Speaker 2: now it's here and we all warned them and it's
21:57
Speaker 2: biting them.
21:59
Speaker 1: I do think it's helpful to have someone like Cuban
22:03
Speaker 1: instead of say just me or write people explain this
22:08
Speaker 1: and confront Rocanna about it, because it is harder for
22:11
Speaker 1: people who might be persuadable to say Mark Cuban is
22:15
Speaker 1: just a right wing tool, right Like I I will
22:18
Speaker 1: still be like, oh, he's just a billionaire.
22:20
Speaker 2: He's just just a rich guy who's trying to protect
22:22
Speaker 2: his money from from being taxed the correct way.
22:26
Speaker 1: You know what, you know what Mark Cuban is actually
22:28
Speaker 1: doing right now. He is serving the function of what
22:31
Speaker 1: a journalist would do with Rocan imagine. So I appreciate
22:37
Speaker 1: that from him.
22:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's like, he's like, how would it work?
22:41
Speaker 1: You know, tell me about this, Let's do deep, let's.
22:44
Speaker 2: Discuss the details and not just you know, copy your
22:47
Speaker 2: slogans down and run those.
22:49
Speaker 1: I love that Rocana, by the way, and trying to
22:51
Speaker 1: justify it comes up with like eighteen different government run
22:55
Speaker 1: solutions for the problems he's causing with the original policy.
22:59
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, okay, we would just do this to
23:01
Speaker 1: paper it over and then just say it's like right right,
23:04
Speaker 1: right long, that's that's an option.
23:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, and all these billionaires are out the door because
23:12
Speaker 2: the policy would go in effect retroactively. So we've talked
23:17
Speaker 2: about that on the show before. But they're all like
23:19
Speaker 2: leaving and being like I moved in December, on my day,
23:27
Speaker 2: December twenty second, and so I want to just say,
23:31
Speaker 2: you know, the other Yeah, the other big story in
23:38
Speaker 2: this kind of universe is Luigi Mangioni pled guilty to
23:42
Speaker 2: federal charges in killing CEO Brian Thompson, and apparently some
23:49
Speaker 2: of his fandom is upset he pleaded guilty because they
23:53
Speaker 2: wanted him to like be found not guilty despite all
23:56
Speaker 2: the evidence against him. It's really crazy. It was a
24:01
Speaker 2: crazy thing to watch the left celebrate him, and even
24:05
Speaker 2: the ones who weren't like celebrating him were making jokes like,
24:08
Speaker 2: you know, it's it's wrong to kill but I understand
24:12
Speaker 2: and it's wild. And what I tweeted about it is
24:15
Speaker 2: this guy ruined his own life and obviously he stole
24:19
Speaker 2: Brian Thompson's life, but he did he accomplished absolutely nothing,
24:23
Speaker 2: and the fact that the left encourages and celebrates people
24:26
Speaker 2: like this. They don't move the needle at all. And
24:29
Speaker 2: I wrote, you know, no one got better healthcare because
24:31
Speaker 2: of the zero and that's truth.
24:34
Speaker 1: No, that is definitely the truth. Was it was one
24:36
Speaker 1: of the more unsettling things I've ever seen to watch
24:38
Speaker 1: people celebrate this father of two in cold blood in
24:43
Speaker 1: the streets over the fact that you disagree with health
24:46
Speaker 1: insurance claim decisions and thinking that that's going to spark
24:51
Speaker 1: some revolution. I also think it's irresponsible of press and
24:55
Speaker 1: politicians in the aftermath and the immediate aftermath, they were like,
24:59
Speaker 1: you know, well there's still spark a conversation.
25:01
Speaker 2: It's like, no wesations.
25:05
Speaker 1: Based on who is willing to murder whom, because that
25:08
Speaker 1: is a rather bad incentive for forming public policy conversations
25:13
Speaker 1: and giving attention. So that is a thing that you know,
25:15
Speaker 1: if this had been if this had been a right
25:18
Speaker 1: leaning attack, a conversation about healthcare would not be on
25:22
Speaker 1: the table. After that, they'd be like, are you kidding me?
25:25
Speaker 1: Someone was just murdered over this. We're not discussing it exactly. Yeah,
25:28
Speaker 1: to appease you people, And that should be the answer
25:31
Speaker 1: on the left too. But it really is.
25:33
Speaker 2: Yeah. Brianna Joy Gray had a problem with NYPD Commissioner
25:41
Speaker 2: Jessica Tish saying violence is not a cause, like you
25:45
Speaker 2: shouldn't be murdering people about Luigi, and she said talking
25:49
Speaker 2: about Luigi as a quote unquote killer without mentioning the
25:52
Speaker 2: tens of thousands of deaths Brian Thompson was responsible for.
25:56
Speaker 2: Is manufacturing consent for corporate genocide. The album with Cops
26:00
Speaker 2: is their selective enforcement of crime. It's about protecting moneyed interests,
26:04
Speaker 2: not you. I mean, it's just a corporate genocide. Is
26:08
Speaker 2: there anything that's not genocide?
26:10
Speaker 1: At this point, I was gonna say, does literally anyone
26:12
Speaker 1: know the definition of genocide?
26:14
Speaker 2: Right?
26:15
Speaker 1: Because it's not that well. The quality of fandom of
26:19
Speaker 1: Luigi Manchioni, as you might imagine, is low intellectually, and
26:24
Speaker 1: I think we have one little clip of an example
26:26
Speaker 1: of that. This is this is the folks gathering outside
26:29
Speaker 1: the courthouse.
26:30
Speaker 3: Si. I would say, it wasn't Surreally, it was weird
26:32
Speaker 3: to hear him say it like guilty, Yes, like I
26:35
Speaker 3: plead guilty and yes I understand all these charges and
26:39
Speaker 3: kind of give his own statement.
26:42
Speaker 2: Ironic.
26:43
Speaker 3: Glaited to find out we're both on the same sleep medication.
26:45
Speaker 5: So that's my little.
26:46
Speaker 3: Bonding moment there. Yeah, and just it was kind of
26:52
Speaker 3: to hear someone I guess like he admitted an open
26:56
Speaker 3: court and this was always a possibility with this case
26:59
Speaker 3: that a lot of people said he was being framed.
27:01
Speaker 3: I went back and forth whether he's being framed or not.
27:04
Speaker 3: I don't know whether he did it, why he did it.
27:07
Speaker 3: I always wanted to presume his innocence when the mainstream
27:09
Speaker 3: media being in him guilty and today, well yeah, that's
27:14
Speaker 3: reality came that day came upon us. He felt guilty
27:17
Speaker 3: to accounts wanted two.
27:19
Speaker 1: Can I just say that if you, if you ever, ladies,
27:21
Speaker 1: if you ever find yourself outside the courthouse like this,
27:25
Speaker 1: you need friends. You need more girlfriends who are willing
27:29
Speaker 1: to say to you this man is not hot enough
27:32
Speaker 1: for this. Right, knew it, girl, this is insanity. You
27:37
Speaker 1: need to go to your home, You need to go
27:39
Speaker 1: to your job. You go, Jim, you need to take
27:40
Speaker 1: a walk in the woods. You need to be here.
27:43
Speaker 2: It's right. I tweeted that. You know that original picture
27:46
Speaker 2: of him where you really couldn't see a space like
27:48
Speaker 2: we all thought he was going to be stunning, and
27:51
Speaker 2: then he was completely just okay, and like, ladies, come
27:55
Speaker 2: on now, yeah, go home.
28:00
Speaker 1: I hate to laugh at it, but like some be
28:03
Speaker 1: honest with your girlfriends, ladies, that she needs more people
28:05
Speaker 1: around her to tell her not to do this.
28:07
Speaker 2: This is bad shit and you really shouldn't. All right,
28:11
Speaker 2: We're going to take a short break and come right
28:13
Speaker 2: back with more on normally.
28:18
Speaker 1: All right, we are back on normally, and I've got
28:21
Speaker 1: on one of our favorite subjects, education, some bad news
28:24
Speaker 1: and some good news. I'm gonna I'm going to tee
28:26
Speaker 1: us up with the bad news first, and it comes
28:29
Speaker 1: from California, and then we're going to contrast it with
28:31
Speaker 1: another state. A UC Berkeley math professor wrote a piece
28:35
Speaker 1: saying she has to teach fractions to calculus students because
28:38
Speaker 1: standards have fallen so far. UC Berkeley is like was
28:43
Speaker 1: a renowned institution. All of the universities California, we're renowned
28:47
Speaker 1: institutions that are hard to get into. But a couple
28:50
Speaker 1: of years ago they decided to go test blind and
28:54
Speaker 1: means that they have like attempted to up diversity at
28:59
Speaker 1: the expense of kids who know how to do things well.
29:06
Speaker 1: It's a horrifying. Yet another horrifying piece of evidence that
29:10
Speaker 1: the classes coming into colleges and then graduating into the
29:13
Speaker 1: professional world are ill prepared for basically anything in large numbers.
29:19
Speaker 1: And it's pretty disturbing.
29:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, the woman who wrote the article says that the
29:28
Speaker 2: most common grade on the exams that she gives was zero.
29:33
Speaker 2: I mean, that is bananas. And it's also it's about calculus.
29:37
Speaker 2: And my daughter's going into eleventh grade and she's going
29:40
Speaker 2: to be taking calculus this year. Like the fact that
29:43
Speaker 2: they're in college and taking calculus is already not a
29:46
Speaker 2: grade sign. And she says that they don't know middle
29:48
Speaker 2: school algebra. It's a bad scene over there. And the
29:53
Speaker 2: thing is that we all saw this coming. We knew
29:55
Speaker 2: what was going to happen. The lack of testing expose something.
30:01
Speaker 2: It exposed that the schools that the kids were going
30:03
Speaker 2: to giving inflated grades and that they weren't actually getting
30:07
Speaker 2: the kind of education that they were pretending that they
30:09
Speaker 2: were getting. And it's so terrible.
30:12
Speaker 1: It's really bad, and it all it all compounds. The
30:14
Speaker 1: thing is to me, and I know this is an
30:16
Speaker 1: old fashioned way of thinking. It doesn't help anyone. It
30:20
Speaker 1: doesn't help the school. It doesn't help teachers, it doesn't
30:22
Speaker 1: help students, it doesn't help the universities they graduate and
30:26
Speaker 1: go to. For nobody you have learned anything along the way,
30:30
Speaker 1: Like you are supposed to try hard. You're supposed to
30:33
Speaker 1: glean knowledge by trying hard, by working. And I guess
30:38
Speaker 1: the people it does do good are the teachers and teachers'
30:41
Speaker 1: unions who get money poured onto them in spite of it,
30:44
Speaker 1: because of their failure.
30:45
Speaker 2: They went every time the house always wins.
30:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's a it's a bad state. But you
30:51
Speaker 1: know where what's not a bad state or in a
30:53
Speaker 1: bad state is Mississippi education, where the governor was happy
30:59
Speaker 1: to announce this week that we've talked about the Mississippi
31:01
Speaker 1: Miracle before, where they changed the way they were literacy
31:05
Speaker 1: in order to make students and teachers more accountable and
31:09
Speaker 1: to bring back phonics. And they have just skyrocketed up
31:13
Speaker 1: the rankings in the national report card and Tate Reeves
31:16
Speaker 1: announced this week they're now the fourth graders in Michigan
31:19
Speaker 1: are excuse me, Mississippi are top of the heap in scoring. Yeah.
31:24
Speaker 1: I believe in reading and math because you know what,
31:27
Speaker 1: when you teach them and you hold them accountable for reading,
31:29
Speaker 1: they're able to learn other things as well.
31:32
Speaker 2: Amazing that going back to basics the way we always
31:36
Speaker 2: said that they should works like there was a functioning
31:39
Speaker 2: system that worked, and then they were like, what if
31:42
Speaker 2: we changed this completely and nobody got to learn, Like
31:46
Speaker 2: we made it fair in that it's terrible for everybody,
31:50
Speaker 2: And that's what a lot of states did. So Louisiana,
31:54
Speaker 2: you know, near Mississippi is also doing a great job
31:56
Speaker 2: with this. They had the same kind of back to
31:59
Speaker 2: basics where they went back to phonics and they went
32:01
Speaker 2: back to flash cards and high dosage tutoring and all
32:04
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. And it's working. There's a reason
32:08
Speaker 2: why it's working, and other states should perhaps follow their lead.
32:13
Speaker 1: And by the way it works across demographics and across
32:16
Speaker 1: income levels.
32:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so important. That's it. The fact that it
32:20
Speaker 2: works for everybody should be the tell here.
32:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, can I add one more thing? Sorry on the
32:25
Speaker 1: bad set of the ledger Rope I remembered the story
32:27
Speaker 1: as we were talking at the University of Michigan, which
32:30
Speaker 1: again another like very high level state university. University of
32:36
Speaker 1: Michigan will hide first semester grades on transcripts for students
32:40
Speaker 1: in the College of Science and Arts. It's to curb
32:43
Speaker 1: the mental health crisis. And the policy is mandatory for
32:47
Speaker 1: all students because covering in individual's grades will inadvertently become
32:51
Speaker 1: equated with them not doing well in a class, and
32:53
Speaker 1: you couldn't possibly handle that. Guys, we have to be telling.
32:58
Speaker 2: This to you have to learn how to survive in
33:02
Speaker 2: the real world. You don't get bad grades ever. I mean,
33:04
Speaker 2: people get bad grades. What are you going to do.
33:06
Speaker 2: You have to work harder, you have to do better,
33:08
Speaker 2: And it's just it's crazy, the whole idea of what
33:13
Speaker 2: we do to cover up how the kids are actually doing.
33:16
Speaker 2: And that's the first thing that needs to go.
33:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, in Mississippi you see the upward cycle of requiring accountability,
33:24
Speaker 1: and in a place like Michigan, in California before it,
33:27
Speaker 1: you're going to see the downward spiral of just letting
33:30
Speaker 1: standards go. It's idiocy in real time, and we know
33:35
Speaker 1: how to fix it, and I don't know if Blue
33:38
Speaker 1: states have the stomach to do it.
33:39
Speaker 2: In most cases, and the stomach to do it should
33:43
Speaker 2: be just going back to something that they did not
33:46
Speaker 2: that long ago. It wasn't like twenty thirty years ago.
33:50
Speaker 2: They were following these educational fads. They were doing the
33:54
Speaker 2: same things that worked over time, and they need to
33:57
Speaker 2: go back to it. Yeah. Thanks for joining us on Normally.
34:01
Speaker 2: Normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere
34:04
Speaker 2: you get your podcasts. Get in touch with us at
34:06
Speaker 2: normallythepodat gmail dot com. Thanks for listening, and when things
34:10
Speaker 2: get weird, act normally