Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast: Iran Ceasefire Collapse, Strait of Hormuz Showdown & Swalwell Scandal Fallout

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Normally Podcast: Iran Ceasefire Collapse, Strait of Hormuz Showdown & Swalwell Scandal Fallout · Normally

0:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, we are back on normal with normal kicks.
0:08
Speaker 2: But when the news gets weird and it won't stop
0:10
Speaker 2: being weird. I am Mary Catherine Camp.
0:12
Speaker 1: I am Carol Markowitz. How was your weekend, Mary Catherine.
0:15
Speaker 1: I know you're trying to stay offline and your haters
0:19
Speaker 1: do not like that.
0:20
Speaker 3: They don't appreciate you taking breaks.
0:22
Speaker 4: They don't They're like, all these people come out of
0:25
Speaker 4: the woodwork when you step away from Actually you haven't
0:28
Speaker 4: commented on this, and I was like, yeah, I told
0:30
Speaker 4: you I was not gonna be doing that. That's that's
0:33
Speaker 4: what I said. I'm going to watch the Masters, so
0:36
Speaker 4: deal with it.
0:37
Speaker 1: Yep. Yeah, I watched The Masters against my will because
0:40
Speaker 1: my husband turned on the TV and I don't know
0:41
Speaker 1: how to turn it off, so and then he like
0:44
Speaker 1: left and I was just on in my living room.
0:47
Speaker 3: It was good though.
0:48
Speaker 1: I like that Rory guy. He's got some charming personality.
0:53
Speaker 2: Amazing is this amazing?
0:54
Speaker 3: I kept all the ball. I don't know following. Where
1:00
Speaker 3: does that ball go?
1:01
Speaker 2: It's very small. They have graphics now that help you
1:05
Speaker 2: understand that.
1:07
Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have never been a golfer, which is silly.
1:12
Speaker 4: I should learn. But I do like watching golf, which
1:15
Speaker 4: I think is the opposite of most people. They enjoy
1:17
Speaker 4: praying but maybe not watching. But I find it very soothing. Yeah,
1:21
Speaker 4: Sunday nap on the last day of the Masters, Like
1:23
Speaker 4: how you can't do better than that? With a Pomeno cheese.
1:25
Speaker 1: Come down to Florida and let's learn how to play
1:28
Speaker 1: golf together.
1:29
Speaker 2: Okay, I've been.
1:30
Speaker 1: I've been one time, and it happened to be a
1:33
Speaker 1: very cold day in Florida and I almost froze to
1:35
Speaker 1: death on that golf course.
1:36
Speaker 4: Yes, it was very It's very tragic. I can imagine
1:42
Speaker 4: that the two degrees was rough on you.
1:45
Speaker 3: It really was.
1:46
Speaker 4: It was a slight breeze that day.
1:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, skills acquisition is very easy in your forties.
1:51
Speaker 2: So I think we'll be great.
1:54
Speaker 1: I believe in us. Actually, who does it want? And
1:57
Speaker 1: come on, wouldn't you want some like normally golf gear?
2:00
Speaker 1: Because my problem with golf, more than anything else is
2:02
Speaker 1: the outfits are very bad for women, very bad.
2:06
Speaker 4: I think they're improving, isn't it a bit of a situation.
2:10
Speaker 1: Again on a cold day, and I know, I know,
2:12
Speaker 1: I don't believe that we have those I was dying,
2:16
Speaker 1: all right, you know what, you.
2:17
Speaker 3: Could laugh at me.
2:18
Speaker 4: That's okay, get you some fleece lined golf.
2:22
Speaker 1: Were all right, I think we're just you know, like
2:27
Speaker 1: our haters say, we just don't want to get.
2:29
Speaker 3: To talk about the real topics.
2:31
Speaker 2: That's what it is. Stick to the news, alrighty, there's
2:34
Speaker 2: all right.
2:35
Speaker 3: There is news. The Iran ceasefire is off.
2:41
Speaker 1: I think a week ago today we recorded a podcast
2:45
Speaker 1: where I said I didn't think we was gonna hold
2:47
Speaker 1: You said the same. We just both didn't have a
2:51
Speaker 1: lot of optimism that Iran was willing to make peace.
2:57
Speaker 3: And JD Vance, which by the way, we never really
3:00
Speaker 3: talked about.
3:00
Speaker 1: Why was a JD Vance going to Pakistan to talk
3:04
Speaker 1: to the Iranians?
3:05
Speaker 3: What do we think about that?
3:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it is different from the crew that usually
3:09
Speaker 4: goes and it's very presumably a very high stakes it
3:13
Speaker 4: really is, yeah, negotiation from the point of view of
3:16
Speaker 4: the White House. And so they send this new guy in,
3:19
Speaker 4: not to say that he's not a smart guy who
3:21
Speaker 4: knows things, but like it's Ben Kushner Kushner or wikkough
3:26
Speaker 4: on every other thing and sometimes Rubio.
3:29
Speaker 2: In the mix.
3:30
Speaker 4: And since Vance and I'm kind of of the mind,
3:33
Speaker 4: particularly after I saw that in an almost literal split screen,
3:39
Speaker 4: Trump was at a UFC fight with Marco Rubio.
3:42
Speaker 3: He just wanted to hang out with Marca.
3:44
Speaker 4: I felt like maybe Vance was sent because Trump was like, hmm,
3:49
Speaker 4: I don't.
3:50
Speaker 2: Love how this is feeling right now. Why don't you
3:52
Speaker 2: go give it a try?
3:53
Speaker 1: J D.
3:53
Speaker 4: Because you had some thoughts about how this wasn't going
3:56
Speaker 4: to work out, right, Go deal with the Iranians. You
3:58
Speaker 4: tell me what they say about being peaceful and reasonable, and.
4:02
Speaker 2: Marko and I are going to go to the fight.
4:04
Speaker 3: Could luck with this?
4:05
Speaker 2: And then you report back. That's what it feels like
4:08
Speaker 2: to me.
4:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, look, you know, I feel like we'll see about JD.
4:13
Speaker 3: Vance.
4:13
Speaker 1: I'm very on the fence about him. I was a big,
4:15
Speaker 1: big fan in the past. I am kind of mixed
4:18
Speaker 1: on him now. But I do think a lot of
4:20
Speaker 1: unfair things are attached to him, like.
4:23
Speaker 3: For example, like Joe Kent, who.
4:26
Speaker 1: You know, famously step down from the counter terrorism position
4:33
Speaker 1: because he didn't support this war.
4:35
Speaker 3: He's sort of attached to JD.
4:36
Speaker 1: Vance, which I don't know necessarily that there's evidence that
4:39
Speaker 1: they have a relationship or that they are even on
4:42
Speaker 1: the same side, but they're sort of seen as united
4:46
Speaker 1: on the same side of the what we would call
4:49
Speaker 1: the people who are on the right but have really
4:51
Speaker 1: turned on Trump.
4:53
Speaker 3: Now, sending Vance might have been kind of.
4:58
Speaker 1: A gift to those people, like, Hey, look, we're going
5:00
Speaker 1: to send the guy you do trust to try to
5:03
Speaker 1: make peace.
5:03
Speaker 3: You say you don't want war. Here comes JD.
5:06
Speaker 1: Vance to figure out if we could really make this
5:08
Speaker 1: cease fire happen. And you know, the idea that they
5:12
Speaker 1: fell apart because the Iranians were like, we are not
5:15
Speaker 1: giving up our nukes. And Joe Kent had told Tucker
5:19
Speaker 1: Carlson that there was a fatwah against developing nuclear weapons
5:23
Speaker 1: in Iran. There's a lot of kind of humor to
5:27
Speaker 1: that because they were so against developing nukes that they
5:31
Speaker 1: won't give up the nukes after you know, twenty plus
5:33
Speaker 1: hours of negotiations with JD. Vance and they're unwilling to
5:38
Speaker 1: discuss any kind of give part of giving up any
5:40
Speaker 1: part of their nuclear program.
5:42
Speaker 2: Yeah.
5:42
Speaker 4: So Vance is there for twenty one hours in Islamabad,
5:45
Speaker 4: sitting down face to face along with Kushner and Witcuff,
5:49
Speaker 4: and he comes out at the end and this is
5:51
Speaker 4: what he had to say briefly about the progress there.
5:53
Speaker 5: We've been at it now for twenty one hours and
5:58
Speaker 5: we've had a number of substance discussions with the Iranians.
6:01
Speaker 5: That's the good news. The bad news is that we
6:03
Speaker 5: have not reached an agreement, and I think that's bad
6:06
Speaker 5: news for a Ran much more than it's bad news
6:07
Speaker 5: for the United States of America. So we go back
6:10
Speaker 5: to the United States having not come to an agreement.
6:13
Speaker 5: We've made very clear what our redlines are, what things
6:16
Speaker 5: were willing to accommodate.
6:17
Speaker 1: So one of the points on the fifteen point plan
6:20
Speaker 1: was that the US had presented to Iran. It included
6:23
Speaker 1: assistance to them in advancing and developing a civilian nuclear project.
6:28
Speaker 1: So there's this argument that, like no, Iran doesn't want
6:31
Speaker 1: nuclear weapons for war or to attack other countries. They
6:35
Speaker 1: want it for electricity generation, which you know is simply
6:39
Speaker 1: untrue because they are unwilling to give up any uranium enrichment,
6:44
Speaker 1: even if we provide them.
6:46
Speaker 3: With already enriched fuel.
6:48
Speaker 4: So the idea that they're super interested in playing power
6:52
Speaker 4: to the people of Iran, it is somewhat undercut by
6:54
Speaker 4: the fact that they cut out the Internet and all
6:56
Speaker 4: sorts of things for the last.
6:57
Speaker 2: Forty exactly days.
6:59
Speaker 4: The Times called it a remarkable conclusion to a high
7:02
Speaker 4: stakes diplomatic trip for mister Vance. I didn't think it
7:06
Speaker 4: was that remarkable. You're sitting down with Pakistan and Aron like,
7:11
Speaker 4: Pakistan's like the good cop in the room. We think
7:15
Speaker 4: we're gonna get something good out of this. The thing
7:17
Speaker 4: about Trump is that in the past, yes, something like
7:20
Speaker 4: this would have been extremely orchestrated. For any other president,
7:24
Speaker 4: it would have been extremely high stakes. Every single word
7:27
Speaker 4: that came out of every person's mouth would.
7:29
Speaker 2: Have been a huge deal. And everybody's reading the tea leaves.
7:33
Speaker 4: It simply doesn't work that way with Trump. Trump is like, yeah,
7:36
Speaker 4: give it a try. Yeah, and if it doesn't work,
7:39
Speaker 4: come back and then we'll do something else, Or at
7:42
Speaker 4: least that's how it feels to.
7:43
Speaker 3: Me certainly, right, And you know Trump again, and in.
7:47
Speaker 1: The past, a president going to a UFC fight while
7:51
Speaker 1: this was going on would have been some sort of tell.
7:53
Speaker 1: But here it's like, Nah, Trump just likes UFC. It's
7:56
Speaker 1: like he's just interested in that sort of thing. There's
8:00
Speaker 1: a good thread on x by somebody named Miad Malechi,
8:05
Speaker 1: a senior fellow at FDD, and it's just about how
8:08
Speaker 1: the current blockade of her moves straight by US could
8:14
Speaker 1: easily destroy the Iranian economy completely. They rely on the
8:20
Speaker 1: trade through that straight to such an extent that it
8:23
Speaker 1: can really decimate them, and Trump's hitting them where it hurts.
8:27
Speaker 3: You know, I sent this to you last night. Somebody posted.
8:31
Speaker 1: A still from one of my favorite movies of Bronx
8:34
Speaker 1: Tail and it was chas pumentary saying now you can't leave.
8:38
Speaker 1: And that's what it felt like when you know. Iran's like,
8:40
Speaker 1: We're going to block the strait of her moves, and
8:42
Speaker 1: Trump's like, no where going to block the strait of
8:44
Speaker 1: her moose.
8:45
Speaker 4: I mean, there is a part of this where yes,
8:48
Speaker 4: they can exact pain and it will have knock on effects,
8:51
Speaker 4: even though we don't get most of our crudal from.
8:53
Speaker 2: That area in your way get it from my places.
8:56
Speaker 2: But it will have effects.
8:58
Speaker 4: But we also have we have agency, we have Trump
9:02
Speaker 4: at the head who's not afraid to use American power.
9:05
Speaker 2: So this has moved a little bit.
9:07
Speaker 4: From a military operation to an economic war, which by
9:13
Speaker 4: the way, Trump is very comfortable with, despite the fact
9:16
Speaker 4: that you know it could have knock on effects and
9:19
Speaker 4: people will feel it here through trade and all sorts
9:22
Speaker 4: of things.
9:22
Speaker 2: He's very happy to dust.
9:24
Speaker 4: It up in these areas, and that is what makes
9:28
Speaker 4: it tricky for the Iranian regime because they don't know
9:31
Speaker 4: how long he might stick it out doing this.
9:33
Speaker 1: Right, It's like they thought he was in there with them,
9:37
Speaker 1: and it turns out there there with him.
9:41
Speaker 3: We'll see.
9:42
Speaker 1: Last week, Clay Travis, you know we're on the Buck
9:46
Speaker 1: Sexton and Clay Travis podcast network. He tweeted, Iran doesn't
9:50
Speaker 1: control the strait of her moves. Are simply threatened to
9:52
Speaker 1: blow up ships there, something the US and dozens of
9:54
Speaker 1: other countries could also do.
9:56
Speaker 3: So far, we've allowed Iran's oil to leave the straight.
9:58
Speaker 3: We could stop that immediately, and maybe we should. Now.
10:01
Speaker 1: Trump is a big fan of Clay and Buck, and
10:04
Speaker 1: he has responded to things that like their callers have
10:08
Speaker 1: called in and suggested before. So it's actually not even
10:11
Speaker 1: crazy to imagine. Trump saw this Clay Travis tweet and
10:14
Speaker 1: was like.
10:14
Speaker 3: Ugh, oh yeah, I could do that, right, we could
10:17
Speaker 3: do that.
10:18
Speaker 4: By the way, I want to give also a perspective
10:21
Speaker 4: from the New York Times, just to an idea of
10:23
Speaker 4: like how this is reported on.
10:25
Speaker 2: At the end of their piece on JD.
10:27
Speaker 4: Vance not getting a deal with the Iranians, they say
10:30
Speaker 4: it turned out after twenty one hours on the ground
10:32
Speaker 4: in Islamabad, not much had happened to bring a lasting
10:36
Speaker 4: piece between the United States and Iran. Well, yeah, that
10:40
Speaker 4: much has happened since nineteen seventy nine to bring a
10:43
Speaker 4: lasting piece between the US and America. It's just what
10:46
Speaker 4: they liked was the detante that was Iran hitting US
10:49
Speaker 4: and our assets with impunity.
10:52
Speaker 2: That's what they like.
10:53
Speaker 4: They don't like this version where you actually punish bad behavior,
10:57
Speaker 4: and as the FDD expert point out, it might actually
11:02
Speaker 4: move the regime.
11:03
Speaker 3: Right if there's a regime left.
11:06
Speaker 1: We also have just no idea who's in charge there
11:09
Speaker 1: and where that like, who what level of these people
11:12
Speaker 1: even at at this point.
11:14
Speaker 3: But this is what also dealing with these kinds of
11:17
Speaker 3: states is like.
11:19
Speaker 1: And Israel has had this experience firsthand, and I think
11:22
Speaker 1: the US largely hasn't. And so here we are trying
11:26
Speaker 1: to make deals with irrational, stubborn actors who don't have
11:30
Speaker 1: the best interest of their people, so they don't really
11:33
Speaker 1: care if you destroy their country and their economy and
11:36
Speaker 1: kill a bunch of their people. They're just sort of
11:38
Speaker 1: like that just is how it goes. It's very hard
11:42
Speaker 1: to have sane conversations and to make actual deals with
11:46
Speaker 1: those people. So this is a kind of a gearshift
11:49
Speaker 1: for Trump too. He loves the deal making.
11:51
Speaker 3: But he's also like, I will do what I have
11:53
Speaker 3: to do here.
11:54
Speaker 4: A thing I appreciated about this and the Vance clip
11:57
Speaker 4: is that Vance, despite being definitely more of a restrainer
12:00
Speaker 4: and someone who probably raised issues with this particular engagement,
12:05
Speaker 4: he comes out not like a Georgetown Foreign Service grad
12:09
Speaker 4: right the opposite and just says like they're being intransigent,
12:11
Speaker 4: We're not getting a deal.
12:12
Speaker 2: Instead of ah, talks are moving along, good.
12:16
Speaker 4: Stuff, and we're gonna just like Mealy mouth this thing
12:19
Speaker 4: until we collapse on a bunch of stuff. He makes
12:22
Speaker 4: it clear that we're not doing that, and I appreciate
12:26
Speaker 4: hearing that from him, even though he has issues with
12:28
Speaker 4: the engagement to begin with, or the engagement site.
12:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel like it's something we just don't know.
12:36
Speaker 3: Does he have issues with the engagement?
12:37
Speaker 1: We hear it so anonymously source second and third hand.
12:41
Speaker 1: I kind of try to give him the benefit of
12:42
Speaker 1: the doubt that he's on Trump's team, but you.
12:46
Speaker 4: Know, yes, but I think he's hesitantly on Trump's team.
12:48
Speaker 4: And I take that from his own words in the
12:51
Speaker 4: Yemen signal chat where everyone was like, we're gonna hit
12:55
Speaker 4: the hoogies because they keep hitting us like one hundred
12:57
Speaker 4: and thirty times in the past two years, and he
12:59
Speaker 4: was like, I don't know about that, and it's Trump
13:02
Speaker 4: fully briefed onne this. That's where That's where my shift
13:06
Speaker 4: on him happened. And I'm like, oh, he seems quite
13:08
Speaker 4: committed to the idea that we shouldn't be exerting power
13:11
Speaker 4: in these ways.
13:12
Speaker 1: What happened to him though, Like, is this an actual
13:15
Speaker 1: change in JD. Van's Have we seen a real because
13:18
Speaker 1: he wasn't this guy just a few years ago.
13:21
Speaker 3: So well, I think, like it's difficult to understand here.
13:25
Speaker 4: This is where I'm I want to be very generous
13:27
Speaker 4: to him, because I think his opposition comes from having
13:32
Speaker 4: served and having known a bunch of people who lost
13:35
Speaker 4: limbs and lives, and you know, watched American treasure go
13:40
Speaker 4: overseas and watched Obama and Biden through withdrawal fred or
13:45
Speaker 4: both Afghanistan and Iraq gains a way to a great extent,
13:51
Speaker 4: and I understand that point of view. I don't think
13:54
Speaker 4: it's solved by restraint all the time. I don't think
13:57
Speaker 4: that that issue is solved, but I get where it
14:01
Speaker 4: comes from, and I think he wants to be in
14:04
Speaker 4: the corner of which I kind of am most of
14:06
Speaker 4: the time, which is like I don't want a giant project,
14:08
Speaker 4: but I do want effective strikes and use of American
14:12
Speaker 4: military might. So there's a place in there where he's
14:15
Speaker 4: honestly coming to the point of view that's like any
14:17
Speaker 4: of the president's in charge. I don't think this is
14:20
Speaker 4: going to end quickly, So I'm very worried about it.
14:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is, I mean, it's it's it's the charitable take,
14:26
Speaker 1: and well we'll give it to him.
14:28
Speaker 4: Well, he The thing that also concerns me is that
14:31
Speaker 4: restrainer ism that also hangs out with Tucker Carlson.
14:36
Speaker 2: It ends up taking a turn. I don't know where
14:40
Speaker 2: he is on.
14:41
Speaker 1: That right, right, we don't know where he is on that,
14:43
Speaker 1: And he is kidding himself if he thinks he's not
14:46
Speaker 1: going to have to face that at some point, because again,
14:50
Speaker 1: everybody has this speculation about him, and he's not like, no,
14:53
Speaker 1: you guys are all crazy and wrong.
14:54
Speaker 2: He doesn't do that.
14:55
Speaker 4: And I should note also because Trump very notably turned
15:00
Speaker 4: the podcast Cruise the other day in a true social
15:04
Speaker 4: where he blasted Trump, Tucker and Megan Kelly and Candice
15:09
Speaker 4: Owens by name in his uh signature, and.
15:12
Speaker 3: Alex Jones, Yeah, and Alex Jones.
15:14
Speaker 1: And it's so funny that all the like blisters of
15:16
Speaker 1: that crew were like upset that they weren't mentioned, right, right,
15:24
Speaker 1: That's all they need, that's all they want, right. All
15:26
Speaker 1: they're here for is the hits. So Trump really did
15:28
Speaker 1: them a disservice by not throwing them in there.
15:31
Speaker 3: Well, here we.
15:32
Speaker 1: Are, here, we are Okay, We're going to take a
15:35
Speaker 1: short break and be right back with more on Normally.
15:41
Speaker 1: We are back on Normally where Eric Swallwell, who was
15:46
Speaker 1: running for governor of California, has dropped out of the
15:50
Speaker 1: race facing just a litany of sexual harassment and possible
15:56
Speaker 1: assault allegations. You know what drives me absolutely crazy about this,
16:02
Speaker 1: I mean, among other things, that everybody knew. It was
16:06
Speaker 1: the same thing with Harvey Weinstein. It was like, oh yeah,
16:09
Speaker 1: everybody knew. I'm like, I didn't know. If you knew,
16:13
Speaker 1: you should have said something, because I know a big deal.
16:16
Speaker 3: I don't know.
16:18
Speaker 1: I did not know, actually, so you should have said
16:21
Speaker 1: something if everybody knew.
16:23
Speaker 3: It's like this way of like I'm in the know,
16:26
Speaker 3: but you didn't do anything about it. You've absolute coward.
16:30
Speaker 1: So that's where I get really pissed off about stories
16:34
Speaker 1: like this.
16:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, the San Francisco Chronicle is the first one that
16:37
Speaker 4: ran with us, and we should note that the allegations
16:40
Speaker 4: are pretty serious. This is a woman in the first
16:42
Speaker 4: San Francisco Chronicle story. It was a woman who went
16:46
Speaker 4: Her name is not on the record. She is anonymous,
16:49
Speaker 4: and she says she was a staffer for him, and
16:51
Speaker 4: he repeatedly sent her nudes, initiated contact over Snapchat, which
16:57
Speaker 4: is like sketchy in and of itself. Yeah, solicited nudes
17:01
Speaker 4: from her, tried to kiss her in a car, you know,
17:05
Speaker 4: solicited her for oorals, ex in a car, like, you know,
17:08
Speaker 4: all all things while she was his employee. And then
17:12
Speaker 4: eventually they hung out she got very drunk. Says she
17:16
Speaker 4: does not remember the encounter, but felt that she has
17:21
Speaker 4: been violated. And this happened a couple times. Yeah, so
17:25
Speaker 4: that's that's where that's what kicked everything off. And then
17:27
Speaker 4: several other women came forward and said, oh yeah, he
17:29
Speaker 4: was very skeasy with me reaching out way.
17:31
Speaker 2: I believe he was married during all of this, right right, Yeah.
17:34
Speaker 3: What a guy.
17:36
Speaker 1: The New York Times is saying that New York has
17:38
Speaker 1: opened a criminal investigation. I believe based on that staffer
17:43
Speaker 1: that you mentioned in the San Francisco Chronicle.
17:47
Speaker 3: It's multiple women have accused him of misconduct.
17:50
Speaker 1: It's like, really, I mean, it goes from like just
17:54
Speaker 1: inappropriate chatter to some very serious allegations, like you said.
17:59
Speaker 3: What's really particularly crazy.
18:01
Speaker 1: To me is that in twenty twenty, Axios reported that
18:06
Speaker 1: Eric Swalwell had a relationship with a Chinese spy and
18:11
Speaker 1: he's still in our political system.
18:14
Speaker 3: Yes, what in the world is going on?
18:17
Speaker 1: Apparently he had an extended relationship with a Chinese spy
18:21
Speaker 1: who goes by Feng Feng and was, you know, from
18:26
Speaker 1: the Chinese intelligence agency.
18:28
Speaker 3: And again it was Axios breaking this story.
18:30
Speaker 1: It wasn't like, you know, National Review finding out, which
18:34
Speaker 1: I would believe anyway. But if you want to question
18:37
Speaker 1: whether these stories are real, these are liberal outlets coming
18:40
Speaker 1: after him and of course, it's like, well why now, why,
18:45
Speaker 1: why is this information coming to light now? He's been
18:48
Speaker 1: around for so long and this story is from twenty twenty.
18:52
Speaker 1: You know, what does that mean? Does it mean that
18:54
Speaker 1: they actually want Katie Porter to win or you know
18:58
Speaker 1: the Yeah.
19:00
Speaker 4: That is important, As our podcast stier, as our podcasting
19:05
Speaker 4: friend John Ashbrook says on Ruthless, no story like this
19:08
Speaker 4: comes out and certainly doesn't become banner headline news unless
19:13
Speaker 4: it is beneficial to another Democrat.
19:15
Speaker 2: So what is happening.
19:17
Speaker 4: What is happening right now is that in the gugnatorial
19:20
Speaker 4: race in California, which.
19:22
Speaker 6: You would imagine should be one hands down by a Democrat,
19:25
Speaker 6: they got a little problem because they have a jungle primary,
19:28
Speaker 6: which means that whoever the top two finishers advance to
19:31
Speaker 6: a runoff, those.
19:33
Speaker 4: Two could be two Democrats, which is what usually happens.
19:36
Speaker 4: Usually say they're guaranteed to win. But what's happening right
19:39
Speaker 4: now is that the people in California have become a
19:42
Speaker 4: little ticked off at the Democrats and there are two
19:45
Speaker 4: Republicans running at the top of this field.
19:47
Speaker 2: Those are Steve Hilton, former Fox host Great Guy, and
19:52
Speaker 2: Chad Bianco, sheriff in California. Now Trump has endorsed Hilton,
19:58
Speaker 2: which I don't think was a great strategic move because
19:59
Speaker 2: I would like both of those guys to move on.
20:01
Speaker 4: But in the meantime, Democrats have Swallwell as their leader
20:07
Speaker 4: at this point, but it's a poultry like twelve percent
20:09
Speaker 4: or something. And then they have Katie Porter who has
20:12
Speaker 4: all sorts of abuse issues, also.
20:15
Speaker 1: A lot of abuse baggage, something involving mashed potatoes on
20:18
Speaker 1: her ex husband's.
20:19
Speaker 2: Has had much of it on video.
20:22
Speaker 4: And then who's the thro Oh Tom Styr, who just Tomstire,
20:25
Speaker 4: spends a bunch of money and never wins.
20:26
Speaker 2: So that's their situation.
20:28
Speaker 4: So they realize, if we don't winn oh this field, right,
20:32
Speaker 4: we're gonna split too much and the two Republicans will
20:35
Speaker 4: move on.
20:35
Speaker 2: So that is why, yeah, everything is coming out now right.
20:40
Speaker 1: Well, tom Styr, according to Polymarket, has spiked into a
20:43
Speaker 1: fifty three percent chance to win that thing. I you know,
20:47
Speaker 1: I have heard Tom Stier speak. He has zero personality
20:51
Speaker 1: and no charm at all. But again, if Katie Porter
20:55
Speaker 1: is the other Democrat in the race, he might run
20:58
Speaker 1: away with that. For the Democrats, like you said, it
21:02
Speaker 1: doesn't mean he's going to be in the top two,
21:04
Speaker 1: but we'll see what happens.
21:05
Speaker 3: A Swallow was in pole position to win that election,
21:08
Speaker 3: even though Republicans were in the lead.
21:11
Speaker 1: It just there were a lot of people in the
21:13
Speaker 1: race and he was sort of considered the guy that
21:16
Speaker 1: was going to take it.
21:18
Speaker 4: Our friends embarrassing entire state, hugely populous, which with a
21:24
Speaker 4: giant economy, and the three people y'all are pulling are stire,
21:30
Speaker 4: Katie Porter, and Eric Swolwell.
21:33
Speaker 2: Come on politics.
21:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, as our friend Lisa Booth points out about billionaire
21:37
Speaker 1: Tom Styer, who's really trst trying to buy this thing.
21:39
Speaker 1: I thought billionaires were bad, and of course only millionaires
21:43
Speaker 1: are bad.
21:45
Speaker 4: Just like only credible allegations or even incredible ones. The
21:49
Speaker 4: credible allegations only count, right or like in danger of
21:53
Speaker 4: endangering other Democrats, that's when they count.
21:57
Speaker 2: I do have a running.
21:58
Speaker 4: List of men who were on CNN twice as much
22:02
Speaker 4: as I was when I worked there who ended up
22:04
Speaker 4: becoming hugely flame out, disgusting pods.
22:10
Speaker 2: So he's won. We had Michael Avanati who ended up
22:13
Speaker 2: in jail. Yep, yeah, he he.
22:15
Speaker 3: Was going to be president Mary Catherine.
22:17
Speaker 4: And the thing is that each one of these people,
22:20
Speaker 4: our friends on the left and most of the media
22:23
Speaker 4: I review myself, are perfectly willing to believe anything out
22:27
Speaker 4: of their mouths and hold them up as beacons of
22:29
Speaker 4: trust YEP, as long.
22:31
Speaker 2: As they hate Trump enough.
22:33
Speaker 3: Exactly.
22:33
Speaker 1: It's a bad standard, right, And the way that these
22:37
Speaker 1: people say that they want democracy, but when the billionaires,
22:41
Speaker 1: their billionaires try to buy that democracy, that's okay.
22:44
Speaker 3: So switching gears to Hungary we have.
22:49
Speaker 1: Last night there was an election in Hungary and Orbon,
22:52
Speaker 1: who had been the leader of Hungary for the last
22:54
Speaker 1: sixteen years, was defeated. He was frequently referred to as
22:59
Speaker 1: a Dixon or an autocrat, sometimes a fascist. But he
23:03
Speaker 1: lost the election, he conceded, he stepped down, and he
23:06
Speaker 1: did the same when he lost in two thousand and two. Meanwhile,
23:10
Speaker 1: the billionaires on the left, the Alex Soros for example,
23:15
Speaker 1: is like, the people of Hungary have taken back their
23:17
Speaker 1: country a resounding rejection of entrenched corruption and foreign interference. Meanwhile,
23:22
Speaker 1: Soros has given like close to one hundred million dollars
23:25
Speaker 1: to various groups in.
23:27
Speaker 3: Hungary to cause this result. That is now, you know,
23:30
Speaker 3: democracy in action.
23:32
Speaker 4: Well, and by the way that the uprising is not
23:34
Speaker 4: led by a lib I mean, he's not liberal, he's
23:38
Speaker 4: conservative in many of his views.
23:40
Speaker 2: Also, I just like.
23:42
Speaker 4: Many of the people who claim that Orbon and Trump
23:45
Speaker 4: are the same and that these are existential crises in
23:49
Speaker 4: both countries. They just seem to blip right by the
23:52
Speaker 4: fact that like, Okay, well the guy just lost and
23:55
Speaker 4: then left right, and so yeah, so you're telling me
23:59
Speaker 4: that a re elected some guy that you didn't like
24:01
Speaker 4: for a while, and then they elected a different guy
24:04
Speaker 4: that you like slightly better.
24:05
Speaker 3: Right exactly.
24:07
Speaker 2: That sounds okay to me. Yeah, so then I will
24:10
Speaker 2: never forget.
24:10
Speaker 4: By the way, all of them telling me that Maloney
24:12
Speaker 4: was a fascist, Like, I'm done.
24:14
Speaker 3: That's up there for sure. Yeah.
24:17
Speaker 1: So the new guy is named Peter Magar. He is
24:21
Speaker 1: socially conservative. He's really a big immigration restrictionist. He wants
24:25
Speaker 1: to according to Jason Kenny on X, he wants to
24:28
Speaker 1: cut taxes and double the defense budget. He criticized Orbon
24:32
Speaker 1: for admitting too many guest workers. Wants to increase Hungary's
24:35
Speaker 1: already generous pronatal incentives. I mean, I watched a video
24:39
Speaker 1: of him today and I think the most liberal thing
24:42
Speaker 1: about him is he wants to rejoin the International Criminal.
24:45
Speaker 3: Court, which is really too bad.
24:47
Speaker 1: I don't think that ICC should have any kind of
24:49
Speaker 1: power or any any of that. But other than that,
24:52
Speaker 1: I kind of see him as just as conservative as Orbon.
24:56
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure what the Democrats or liberals think
24:59
Speaker 1: they want here remains to be seen. But Hungary has
25:02
Speaker 1: been in pretty good shape and I hope that it
25:05
Speaker 1: stays that way.
25:06
Speaker 4: Well, certainly it doesn't seem, at least on the immigration front,
25:09
Speaker 4: that that populist strength I will be losing anytime soon
25:13
Speaker 4: in most of Europe. I mean, it does seem like
25:16
Speaker 4: something that is, whether it's the opposition or the party
25:21
Speaker 4: in power. Now, that's a line of a line of
25:24
Speaker 4: attack that is salient to most many, many, many European voters.
25:28
Speaker 6: Right.
25:28
Speaker 1: Well, again, what remains to be seen what happens there,
25:31
Speaker 1: and maybe MegaR is this great liberal hope, But so
25:34
Speaker 1: far it doesn't seem that way, and we'll have to
25:37
Speaker 1: keep an eye on that. We're going to take a
25:38
Speaker 1: short break and be right back with more on Normally.
25:45
Speaker 4: All right, we are back on Normally with a little
25:48
Speaker 4: bit of a story about marriage.
25:50
Speaker 2: We like to talk about marriage here.
25:52
Speaker 3: Doo. Yeah, we're really big fans of marriage.
25:54
Speaker 2: In this case.
25:55
Speaker 4: Alex Clark, who is a Turning Point USA person, deals
26:01
Speaker 4: with health and wellness in the MAHA universe. And someone
26:06
Speaker 4: tweeted the other day Alex Clark has some good ideas,
26:09
Speaker 4: and I've enjoyed listening to her podcasts in the past,
26:11
Speaker 4: but I don't think it's wise for her to have
26:12
Speaker 4: a prominent role at tpusa's Women's Leadership Conference considering that
26:17
Speaker 4: she's still unmarried at age thirty three.
26:20
Speaker 2: And then there was a response to that, you think
26:23
Speaker 2: you have that?
26:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, So it's interesting because Alex Clark is quite good.
26:28
Speaker 1: She is, she's young, she's smart, she makes some good points.
26:34
Speaker 1: The idea that she shouldn't have a prominent role at
26:37
Speaker 1: TPUs USA Women's Leadership Conference because she's still unmarried in
26:41
Speaker 1: her early.
26:41
Speaker 3: Thirties is obviously absurd.
26:44
Speaker 1: And let me just tell the women that are listening
26:46
Speaker 1: to this, don't think that married women in their thirties
26:50
Speaker 1: don't get the same kind of crap we do. We
26:52
Speaker 1: get the like, why are you here not at home
26:54
Speaker 1: with your children? So, Haley Coronia, she responded to this,
27:00
Speaker 1: he's got a podcast called Scrolling with Haley. She's also
27:04
Speaker 1: a very interesting person. She writes, I'm a Christian, unmarried
27:06
Speaker 1: woman in her thirties. I'd love to get married and
27:09
Speaker 1: have children. Just because I haven't experienced these things yet
27:11
Speaker 1: doesn't mean I don't know that they are good or
27:13
Speaker 1: women should strive for. I do want to ask, though,
27:16
Speaker 1: what should unmarried Christian women do in their waiting season?
27:19
Speaker 1: Settle shut up, be utterly boring and unsuccessful, Live at
27:22
Speaker 1: home off our parents until we meet someone to take
27:24
Speaker 1: care of us, work less hard so that men will
27:26
Speaker 1: be more apt pick us up. What does that say
27:28
Speaker 1: about what men want? Why would a masculine man be
27:31
Speaker 1: threatened by a woman who is passionate about her career
27:33
Speaker 1: and hobbies. And why is it that the assumption that
27:36
Speaker 1: a woman's passion and skills aren't transferable to motherhood. Most
27:39
Speaker 1: working women I know are feminine and would love to
27:41
Speaker 1: be traditional, stay at home moms. It's a real tough
27:47
Speaker 1: question of what should women who want to be married
27:51
Speaker 1: be doing. But that's not what these people are saying.
27:54
Speaker 1: They're saying that you shouldn't even listen to women unless
27:57
Speaker 1: they are married. And again, as you and I know,
28:00
Speaker 1: we get the opposite kind of Hey, if.
28:02
Speaker 4: You're Erica Kirk and you are married with children and
28:06
Speaker 4: then you become tragically not married and still have children,
28:09
Speaker 4: they will go after you for that as well. Okay,
28:12
Speaker 4: this is a situation where some of them just simply
28:14
Speaker 4: don't think it is the place of women. You speak up,
28:18
Speaker 4: and you and I came up in a conservative movement
28:20
Speaker 4: that didn't have those takes. Yeah, yeah, And I think, look,
28:27
Speaker 4: a lot of this is a pendulum swing culturally, because
28:30
Speaker 4: the left asserted that marriage and normal families were bad
28:34
Speaker 4: and that you'd be ruining your life by engaging it.
28:36
Speaker 4: It's right, swing back to like, let's do it the
28:39
Speaker 4: more traditional way. Yeah, but Alex Clark has plenty to offer.
28:44
Speaker 4: Women have plenty to offer, and by the way, they
28:47
Speaker 4: should be engaged in politics because if you don't have
28:50
Speaker 4: them there, you're going to lose because they have to
28:53
Speaker 4: be like voting end things.
28:55
Speaker 3: That's right, yep.
28:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know Republicans do a problem with women,
28:59
Speaker 1: and the problem is this kind of thing. I will
29:02
Speaker 1: say that the account that commented on Alex Clark, you know,
29:05
Speaker 1: maybe she shouldn't be in a tp USA leadership role
29:08
Speaker 1: is called white baby factory.
29:10
Speaker 7: So you know, take it, which is the origin of
29:13
Speaker 7: the country on that take it with a giant, humongous
29:17
Speaker 7: grain of salt that this person even has, you know,
29:20
Speaker 7: the best, the best hope online I just checked the country.
29:23
Speaker 3: It's Canada. You got convenience.
29:25
Speaker 2: But here's you're supposed to be polite.
29:28
Speaker 4: But here's the thing is I think that on the internet,
29:32
Speaker 4: it so often gets polarized into this ridiculous excuse the
29:36
Speaker 4: Obama phrase false choice m hm, between hardcore boss babe
29:41
Speaker 4: with zero children and never just didn't getting married and
29:46
Speaker 4: the opposite and like the big modern life actually, and
29:51
Speaker 4: of course it comes with downsides and we make exchanges and.
29:54
Speaker 2: Trade offs because that's what life is.
29:56
Speaker 4: But there are so many more options available to us
29:59
Speaker 4: as working mo of putting everything together than there were
30:02
Speaker 4: when my mom was raising me.
30:05
Speaker 3: Yeah.
30:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think there's also you know the thing
30:09
Speaker 1: that just because of what you're doing now, whether that's
30:11
Speaker 1: staying at home with your kids or not married or whatever,
30:14
Speaker 1: is what you're always going to be doing is insane.
30:16
Speaker 1: I mean, you could you could be a stay at
30:18
Speaker 1: home mom for a few years and then go back
30:20
Speaker 1: to being a full time working mom, or you could
30:21
Speaker 1: work part time or you know. And I always hated
30:24
Speaker 1: this idea, like, oh, the single women, like that's a
30:27
Speaker 1: temporary state. And you know, as you said about Erica Kirk,
30:31
Speaker 1: marriage could be a temporary state. It's all in flux
30:33
Speaker 1: and you're doing your best. And women should not have
30:37
Speaker 1: to be at each other's throats or being told that
30:40
Speaker 1: they shouldn't be. They should be left out of the
30:41
Speaker 1: conversation whether they're married or single or whatever.
30:44
Speaker 4: By the way, women who do want to get married
30:47
Speaker 4: and have kids, they should have people to listen to
30:51
Speaker 4: who are both married and unmarried, people who are going
30:53
Speaker 4: through that season, and people who are not. And I
30:55
Speaker 4: also just want to shout out Alex Clark for having
30:57
Speaker 4: been very courageous very early in calling out kandases yeah,
31:00
Speaker 4: and very unabashed about it when she had stuff to lose,
31:04
Speaker 4: just as others did when it comes to like that
31:06
Speaker 4: that's right the audience or cloud or what have you,
31:09
Speaker 4: and she was like, no, this is bad, and she
31:12
Speaker 4: was very clear about it.
31:13
Speaker 3: Yep, yep.
31:14
Speaker 1: And I think that's when I started following her. And
31:16
Speaker 1: like I said, I've enjoyed following her. And I think
31:19
Speaker 1: that she's smart and has a lot to say. The
31:22
Speaker 1: idea to dismiss her because she's not married. And you know,
31:24
Speaker 1: I just celebrated my seventeen year anniversary and I post
31:28
Speaker 1: every year on my anniversary that I, at age thirty
31:32
Speaker 1: was a disaster. I mean, I was nowhere near you know,
31:35
Speaker 1: these girls are all doing a lot better than I was.
31:38
Speaker 3: I was really in a bad place.
31:40
Speaker 1: And by thirty one, I was married and at the
31:42
Speaker 1: start of the best decade of my life.
31:45
Speaker 3: It's just things can change very quickly. Again, don't see
31:48
Speaker 3: these as permanent states.
31:50
Speaker 1: And you know, I thought I was never getting married
31:53
Speaker 1: for sure, so you know, things could really change.
31:56
Speaker 2: Yep, life changes all the time. That's the only thing
31:59
Speaker 2: that is constant.
32:00
Speaker 3: That's right. Well, thanks for joining us on Normally.
32:03
Speaker 1: Normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you.
32:06
Speaker 3: Get your podcasts.
32:07
Speaker 1: Get in touch with us at normallythepodat gmail dot com.
32:10
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and when things get weird, act normally