Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast: America at 250: Trump vs. Mamdani, the Rise of Socialism & Why Standards Still Matter

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Normally Podcast: America at 250: Trump vs. Mamdani, the Rise of Socialism & Why Standards Still Matter · Normally

0:06
Speaker 1: Hey guys, we are back on normally the show with
0:08
Speaker 1: normalist takes for when the news gets weird.
0:10
Speaker 2: I am Mary Catherine Ham and I'm Carol Markowitz. How
0:13
Speaker 2: are you, Mary Catherine? Happy two hundred and fifty years
0:16
Speaker 2: to this great country.
0:18
Speaker 1: Of ours, Happy to fiftieth. It's it's quite an occasion.
0:22
Speaker 1: I've been living a period accurate lifestyle because my phone
0:26
Speaker 1: went in the lake, So just just pretending that I'm
0:32
Speaker 1: a colonialist, a patriot of long ago with no way
0:36
Speaker 1: to contact anyone.
0:37
Speaker 2: Are you kind of enjoying it? Like there's no scrolling, right,
0:40
Speaker 2: I mean, it's.
0:40
Speaker 1: Got a nice discuss, so I may I may have
0:44
Speaker 1: missed a few things, but I've tried to catch up.
0:47
Speaker 2: It was a really busy weekend. I mean that was
0:49
Speaker 2: a busy Independence Day weekend. That was not like one
0:53
Speaker 2: of those relaxing, like you know, luxurious weekend. No, No,
0:57
Speaker 2: this was it was on so I don't know. First
1:02
Speaker 2: of all, Trump and mom Donnie had competing speeches, and
1:06
Speaker 2: we'll get into that in a minute. The United States
1:10
Speaker 2: had a red card during their soccer match and it
1:14
Speaker 2: got overturned yesterday, and that's a real big deal, and
1:17
Speaker 2: we'll talk about that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelcey got
1:21
Speaker 2: married because so many things. Yeah, so just you know
1:26
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff.
1:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had a great time. We always host family
1:30
Speaker 1: for July fourth, so it's a you know, it's hectic.
1:34
Speaker 1: I do love how my children just are completely on
1:40
Speaker 1: their own when the cousins are there, like there's no
1:43
Speaker 1: they don't need me anymore. They're like your pesse mom here.
1:50
Speaker 1: So that's always fun. It's hectic, but they're off doing
1:52
Speaker 1: their own thing. Had some great swimming times despite the heat.
1:57
Speaker 1: And I don't know, it's I think it's hard to make.
2:00
Speaker 1: I have feel this pressure to make sure I'm celebrating
2:03
Speaker 1: and understanding enough how amazing this anniversary is, this birthday is.
2:09
Speaker 1: But also I think we did get the We had
2:11
Speaker 1: the kids watch The Patriot, which I felt like it
2:14
Speaker 1: was a pretty good July fourth call and they were
2:15
Speaker 1: very into it.
2:17
Speaker 2: I to add that to my movie list. I have
2:19
Speaker 2: two out of three of my kids are away, which
2:21
Speaker 2: was a bummer because I really wanted to celebrate you know,
2:24
Speaker 2: two fifty with them. It's obviously like a really big deal,
2:27
Speaker 2: and I wanted to go see Young Washington. We're going
2:30
Speaker 2: to go see it when they come back and nice.
2:32
Speaker 2: You know, it's a it's a family event celebrating our
2:36
Speaker 2: incredible country and our two hundred fifty anniversary.
2:41
Speaker 1: It was great. I did we did suffer from the
2:44
Speaker 1: very serious thunderstorms here. We were not in the city,
2:47
Speaker 1: but nonetheless were hit by them, and it was it
2:51
Speaker 1: was pretty exciting, everybody just running for the house. That
2:56
Speaker 1: happened a lot.
2:57
Speaker 2: I have to say that the thunderstorm out of nowhere
3:00
Speaker 2: is one of our one of our things. But we
3:02
Speaker 2: had like glorious, like not too hot weather at all
3:05
Speaker 2: while there was a New York and in DC. It
3:09
Speaker 2: was funny because I you know, I was like, oh,
3:11
Speaker 2: you guys are just we're gonna have the same weather.
3:13
Speaker 2: And then it was like, oh, we're actually gonna have
3:15
Speaker 2: like eighty and breezy.
3:17
Speaker 1: Yeah that's nice. But again, once again, once the cousins
3:24
Speaker 1: are there, I feel like my children's uh stamina goes up,
3:29
Speaker 1: like they're just like you always think they're gonna melt
3:31
Speaker 1: or they're gonna melt down. It's just it's gonna be
3:33
Speaker 1: too much. And then they're like, no, I'm still good.
3:35
Speaker 1: I've been I've been swimming and running around in one
3:37
Speaker 1: hundred gree heat and I'm totally fine.
3:39
Speaker 2: Mom. Yeah, great, it feels like the eighties and nineteen eighties.
3:42
Speaker 2: You know, that's what we did. We ran around the
3:44
Speaker 2: heat and there was nobody to be like, oh, you know,
3:47
Speaker 2: are you gonna are you gonna be okay? Can I
3:49
Speaker 2: get you anything? Like?
3:50
Speaker 1: They didn't even give us water. No, it was a
3:53
Speaker 1: different time.
3:55
Speaker 2: It was a different didn't even live on who knows.
3:58
Speaker 2: I don't know.
3:59
Speaker 1: I think I I I thought I was dehydrated for
4:01
Speaker 1: about thirty years, and then one day I realized, oh,
4:04
Speaker 1: I would feel better if I just drink.
4:06
Speaker 2: At Yeah, it really does work, that water.
4:09
Speaker 3: It's the whole thing, all right, let's get let's talk
4:14
Speaker 3: about it, Momdanie decided to give a two fifty speech,
4:20
Speaker 3: which everybody was like why.
4:22
Speaker 2: Because he did not seem like he was into America
4:25
Speaker 2: or America's birthday or any of it at all. He
4:28
Speaker 2: spent the entire World Cup wearing a New York jersey
4:32
Speaker 2: for a team that like you know, is not playing,
4:36
Speaker 2: and it made no sense. So him deciding to give
4:39
Speaker 2: a speech was very like I on the future of
4:41
Speaker 2: like his you know, political future. But he also is
4:45
Speaker 2: not born in America, so he can't run for president.
4:47
Speaker 2: So what is that futures? You want to be governor
4:50
Speaker 2: of New York. I mean mayors of New York generally
4:52
Speaker 2: do not go on to be governors. I think very
4:55
Speaker 2: I would say maybe none. I every one of them
4:57
Speaker 2: ends in disaster. So yeah, that's that's the confusing Mumdannie.
5:05
Speaker 1: I think I think he did it because there's an
5:07
Speaker 1: opening for a leader of this party. Yeah, and he
5:11
Speaker 1: is a Democratic socialist, and he would prefer that the
5:13
Speaker 1: leader of this party be a Democratic socialist to a Democrat.
5:16
Speaker 1: Now for you and I, we might look at your
5:18
Speaker 1: average LIB and say, eh, you guys aren't that far
5:22
Speaker 1: apart really, which is which is why I think the
5:26
Speaker 1: likes of Hackeim Jeffreys are going to get rolled so
5:28
Speaker 1: hard by Mom Donnie and the socialists. But to him,
5:32
Speaker 1: he's like, look, I am an official, real, loud and
5:37
Speaker 1: proud socialist, and I would like to be the one
5:41
Speaker 1: calling the shots. So he's putting himself in the position
5:44
Speaker 1: where he is giving a speech basically opposite Trump, and
5:48
Speaker 1: they did embody very different visions for the United States
5:51
Speaker 1: of America. And that's what he's putting out there.
5:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, So what was interesting was, Mum, Donnie's known for
5:58
Speaker 2: being this smiley so he's having a good time. He's
6:01
Speaker 2: jumping into pools fully clothed, he's you know, riding his
6:05
Speaker 2: bicycle around New York City. He's supposed to be the
6:09
Speaker 2: fun guy, and he came off as dour and just
6:13
Speaker 2: not angry here but very not on the mark, which
6:18
Speaker 2: was funny because Trump came off as extremely likable and personable.
6:22
Speaker 2: And the criticism, of course of Trump is that he
6:25
Speaker 2: often talks about himself and he didn't do that this time.
6:27
Speaker 2: He like paid tribute to veterans and you know, armed
6:30
Speaker 2: forces and our America's amazing accomplishments. And so what you
6:33
Speaker 2: hide from, mom Donnie is he's standing around with what
6:37
Speaker 2: he said was newly sworn in Americans who had immigrated
6:43
Speaker 2: to this country. You know, I was like them at
6:45
Speaker 2: one point. They're standing there holding these little flags as
6:49
Speaker 2: if they're in a hostage video. Nobody's smiling, nobody's having
6:52
Speaker 2: a good time, and it just it's at odds with
6:57
Speaker 2: the message that's been there for a out him, which
7:01
Speaker 2: is that he's this you know, happy socialist. He's the
7:04
Speaker 2: happy warrior socialist and didn't seem like he was happy
7:07
Speaker 2: at all.
7:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a strange vibe. I think it was
7:10
Speaker 1: a fairly uncharacteristic misstep for him with tone. It felt
7:17
Speaker 1: as you say, I think he's best. He's at his
7:18
Speaker 1: best when he looks like he's having fun, and he's
7:20
Speaker 1: pretty good at looking like he's having fun frequently, and
7:24
Speaker 1: that takes off the hard edges of the you know,
7:27
Speaker 1: philosophy that has killed millions of people around the world.
7:30
Speaker 1: So the unworkable economic philosophy leads to ruin. And so
7:37
Speaker 1: that is his strength, and he did not play to
7:40
Speaker 1: his strength here, and he took what is our most
7:46
Speaker 1: joyous civic observance, which is the naturalization of citizen like
7:53
Speaker 1: you've You've been to them. I've been to them, You've
7:55
Speaker 1: been naturalized like this is. It's a an incredible moment
8:00
Speaker 1: where you're welcoming new people. They're very excited to be citizens,
8:05
Speaker 1: You're excited to have them. It's something that's you know,
8:08
Speaker 1: deep in our you know, American DNA to do this,
8:11
Speaker 1: and I've never seen one where the recipients of American
8:17
Speaker 1: citizenship look this sad, and I think they they quickly
8:21
Speaker 1: figured out that this wasn't a great look. Because again,
8:24
Speaker 1: he's great at pictures. He does the jump into the pool,
8:27
Speaker 1: he does the you know, the jersey everywhere he goes,
8:30
Speaker 1: and the play in soccer on the field and in
8:32
Speaker 1: his tie and all that. He does pictures very well.
8:35
Speaker 1: He does imagery very well. This did not look good.
8:39
Speaker 1: He's sitting at Washington's desk with a frown on his face,
8:43
Speaker 1: surrounded by people with frowns on their faces, and talking
8:47
Speaker 1: about how American exceptionalism is only exceptional because you know,
8:51
Speaker 1: he can still change America to make it in his mold.
8:54
Speaker 1: I guess right, right, we have a clip? Right, do
8:58
Speaker 1: we have a clip? And I will note too. The
8:59
Speaker 1: next day they put up another picture where everybody's smiling.
9:04
Speaker 1: It is not reflected in this bit here, which we'll
9:06
Speaker 1: see him give a little bit of a speech.
9:08
Speaker 4: There is a term so often used to describe our
9:11
Speaker 4: nation and those who have shaped it, American exceptionalism. American exceptionalism,
9:15
Speaker 4: the conventional wisdom tells us, makes our freedom a little
9:18
Speaker 4: more free. Is how we dug the Erie Canal and
9:21
Speaker 4: irrigated the West. Is why children in far away lands
9:24
Speaker 4: grow up dreaming of one day moving here. And yet
9:26
Speaker 4: the irony is that the story of America has so
9:29
Speaker 4: often been written by those who were told by others
9:31
Speaker 4: with power and influence and wealth that they were anything
9:34
Speaker 4: but exceptional. For generation after generation, we have been told
9:38
Speaker 4: that when the world has sent its people to our shores,
9:42
Speaker 4: it has not sent its best. It sent Puritans and
9:45
Speaker 4: Sikhs and Quakers and Muslims and Jewish people who were
9:48
Speaker 4: banished for praying the wrong way, worshiping the wrong gods,
9:51
Speaker 4: angering the wrong people. It sent peasants and serfs from
9:55
Speaker 4: slums and chettles who were treated as less because they
9:58
Speaker 4: hardly owned clothes, let alone land. It sent immigrants from
10:01
Speaker 4: whom power was something someone else had. We are told
10:05
Speaker 4: that America is exceptional because we are richer, stronger, more
10:10
Speaker 4: powerful than everyone else. The truth, my friends, is that
10:13
Speaker 4: America is exceptional because here nothing is fixed into place.
10:18
Speaker 4: The frontier may be closed, we may have walked on
10:21
Speaker 4: the moon, but the work of fulfilling the values first
10:24
Speaker 4: enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. That work endures, and
10:28
Speaker 4: it belongs to us all. It belongs to to our
10:31
Speaker 4: newest Americans, those standing here with me today, all of
10:34
Speaker 4: whom were recently naturalized. Nearly a decade ago, I too
10:38
Speaker 4: felt what you feel, the joy of no longer being
10:41
Speaker 4: just a New Yorker, but an American too. You each
10:45
Speaker 4: hold a special power, the power to determine what America means.
10:50
Speaker 4: The powerful have always known their answer. America, in their view,
10:54
Speaker 4: is an arena of supremacy. We're only a select view
10:57
Speaker 4: or allowed freedom where not all are created equal. America,
11:00
Speaker 4: if you ask them, becomes less the more people it welcomes. America,
11:05
Speaker 4: they will tell you, belongs only to those with the
11:07
Speaker 4: right accent or the right shade of skin. The rest
11:10
Speaker 4: of us, they insist, should be grateful for merely being
11:12
Speaker 4: allowed to visit, how small they are, how weak, how unoriginal.
11:18
Speaker 4: At every moment in our past, those who led through
11:22
Speaker 4: exclusion and isolation have tried to win power and enrich
11:25
Speaker 4: themselves by turning us against one another. Division is the
11:29
Speaker 4: oldest trick in politics and the cheapest. But time and again,
11:34
Speaker 4: including two hundred and fifty years ago, though, those forces
11:37
Speaker 4: of division have been vanquished by the forces of progress.
11:41
Speaker 4: As Thomas Paine once wrote, this New World hath been
11:45
Speaker 4: the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty.
11:48
Speaker 4: Hither have they fled. And yet today too many of
11:52
Speaker 4: our leaders do not believe in a vision of this
11:55
Speaker 4: nation as an asylum for the persecuted.
11:57
Speaker 2: All right, yeah, you know. Just the thing is, the
12:02
Speaker 2: last five plus years had the concern about immigration. The
12:07
Speaker 2: conversation about immigration has not been about race, and it
12:11
Speaker 2: has not been about religion. It has been about the
12:14
Speaker 2: papers that these people lack in getting into our country.
12:17
Speaker 2: They're not coming legally. And from Homdanni, that has been fine.
12:21
Speaker 2: For the rest of us. We don't think that's fine.
12:23
Speaker 2: We don't think that breaking the law to get here
12:25
Speaker 2: because you don't think that America's law should be respected,
12:28
Speaker 2: is acceptable. And so him turning it into a thing
12:32
Speaker 2: about race or religion or whatever, it is completely not
12:35
Speaker 2: about that, and it hasn't been. And he has to
12:39
Speaker 2: step over the point, which is that legal immigration is
12:41
Speaker 2: bad for our country in order to get there, and
12:45
Speaker 2: it's really disingenuous.
12:46
Speaker 1: He's also appropriating the actual hard and legal work that
12:50
Speaker 1: all of the people flanking him did to become legally
12:54
Speaker 1: naturalized citizens. By sort of just blurring the categories in
12:59
Speaker 1: this way, I think he gets in exactly backwards. We
13:03
Speaker 1: are rich and strong and powerful and prosperous because we
13:07
Speaker 1: are exceptional and free. Yeah, like he gets it exactly backwards.
13:12
Speaker 1: He says our freedom is better because we're richer, we're strong, right,
13:16
Speaker 1: like the crazy stew that made this country made us
13:22
Speaker 1: rich and prosperous and strong and inventive and creative and
13:27
Speaker 1: all of those things. And there also is this there's
13:30
Speaker 1: such great irony in being a progressive, because being a
13:33
Speaker 1: progressive means one must never admit progress. So in the
13:39
Speaker 1: same speech, he's saying, the afflicted came here in the
13:44
Speaker 1: sixteen seventeen hundreds, eighteen hundreds, all throughout right when we
13:48
Speaker 1: were this terrible nation that hadn't met its promises. They're
13:51
Speaker 1: coming because they were persecuted. They're not the best according
13:55
Speaker 1: to the powerful. They've been coming here for hundreds of years,
13:59
Speaker 1: and now he has to say that in twenty twenty six,
14:03
Speaker 1: that has all changed, no progress has been made. We
14:05
Speaker 1: are so terrible. Yeah, Like, that's just not ringing true
14:10
Speaker 1: for me. It could just be that there were no
14:12
Speaker 1: rules for five years and people were like, we should
14:15
Speaker 1: have rules again.
14:16
Speaker 2: Yep, that's exactly it. And I think a lot of people,
14:19
Speaker 2: like I read things that I wrote, you know, in
14:21
Speaker 2: the last decade, and I don't believe those things anymore
14:25
Speaker 2: because of what happened in the last five years. Like
14:27
Speaker 2: my view on a lot of things has changed. I think,
14:29
Speaker 2: for example, I used to be extremely into the idea
14:32
Speaker 2: of birthright citizenship. I thought it was an incredible thing
14:34
Speaker 2: that we had in America right, and then all these
14:37
Speaker 2: people took advantage of it, and I no longer think that.
14:40
Speaker 2: It's like, you have to evolve on your views. You
14:42
Speaker 2: can't just you know, hold on to them. And I
14:45
Speaker 2: think what happened in the last five years really shifted
14:48
Speaker 2: a lot of perceptions. And he's trying to make it
14:52
Speaker 2: seem as if the anti immigrant sentiment is about the
14:56
Speaker 2: people standing around him, and it's just not.
14:59
Speaker 1: He also repeatedly says, you know, he's fighting division, but
15:03
Speaker 1: then he's like this mythical they tell you they if
15:08
Speaker 1: you ask them, they say something different. It's all very dour,
15:13
Speaker 1: and I do have to say there is sort of
15:16
Speaker 1: a time, place, and manner issue with the way liberals
15:19
Speaker 1: talk about the country. Like if you had a friend
15:22
Speaker 1: whose birthday party it was, and you just walked in
15:25
Speaker 1: and were like, I mean, you're not so perfect. The
15:29
Speaker 1: friend would be like, I mean, it's my birthday, and
15:32
Speaker 1: it's like and here you are not answering for all
15:35
Speaker 1: your faults, and your friend is like, I don't. I
15:38
Speaker 1: just thought we'd have a party, and the lives like,
15:40
Speaker 1: absolutely not, we cannot do that. We gotta lecture you.
15:44
Speaker 1: And the throat clearing on the occasion of the two
15:47
Speaker 1: hundred and fiftieth birthday is annoying. I don't think it
15:51
Speaker 1: is something that is reflected in normal period people's experience
15:55
Speaker 1: of these of this holiday.
15:57
Speaker 2: And I'm really glad, you know, so some of the
16:01
Speaker 2: things that I've I enjoyed in the last few days.
16:05
Speaker 2: I don't know if you saw, but John and Rassic
16:08
Speaker 2: who is He's the wonderful band five for Fighting. He
16:12
Speaker 2: performed on the USS Knimits, and he performed his song
16:17
Speaker 2: Superman for the Navy at FDNY Heroes and gold Star Families,
16:21
Speaker 2: and he performed it with former hostage in Israel alone,
16:25
Speaker 2: Oh Hill, and it's just it was so beautiful and
16:28
Speaker 2: it was like a miracle, watching a miracle come to life. Really,
16:32
Speaker 2: our friend Jarvis's Best said it best. I think on
16:35
Speaker 2: X he said, first time I saw John alone was
16:38
Speaker 2: a hostage in Gaza. John told everyone that he was
16:40
Speaker 2: going to do this one day. It was a nice thought,
16:42
Speaker 2: but and then here you.
16:44
Speaker 5: Are here, they are so really really I also liked
16:49
Speaker 5: and I would say in so the July fourth celebration
16:53
Speaker 5: on the Mall, of course featured I think they said
16:55
Speaker 5: like eight hundred and fifty thousand fireworks.
16:57
Speaker 1: I was not there for that part. I was not
17:00
Speaker 1: there for the July fourth celebration. I had been on
17:02
Speaker 1: them all earlier in the week. But I would encourage
17:05
Speaker 1: everybody to say that Trump's going to make every speech
17:08
Speaker 1: about himself, because the more you say that, the shorter
17:11
Speaker 1: his speeches are liable to be. The occasions where this
17:14
Speaker 1: has happened have been the Army's Birthday, where I think
17:18
Speaker 1: he gave one of his shortest speeches, and at the
17:20
Speaker 1: UFC fight, where I don't believe he gave a speech.
17:22
Speaker 1: I think the camera pan to him and he did
17:25
Speaker 1: not give a speech. And then this one, I think
17:26
Speaker 1: it was about a thirty five minute speech on the
17:29
Speaker 1: occasion of the two fiftieth after, as you said, people
17:31
Speaker 1: had been evacuated and then been able to come back in.
17:34
Speaker 1: It was very late at night. I was a little
17:37
Speaker 1: worried that he was just going to talk for a very,
17:39
Speaker 1: very long time. But he honored Medal of Honor recipients,
17:43
Speaker 1: He honored World War Two veterans. There's a stunning shot
17:46
Speaker 1: of World War Two vets watching the display from their memorial.
17:52
Speaker 1: A beautiful thing. And he kind of for all his faults,
17:58
Speaker 1: he gets it. It's an exceptional nation because of the
18:01
Speaker 1: idea and the brave people who created this free place.
18:05
Speaker 2: And look he hit his topics. You know, he talked
18:08
Speaker 2: about tightening election laws, proof of citizenship, restrictions on mail voting.
18:12
Speaker 2: I mean, this all went into his speech, but ultimately
18:15
Speaker 2: it was a speech about how amazing America is. You
18:18
Speaker 2: know what else he did that? I thought it was interesting.
18:20
Speaker 2: I think people are starting to use the language like communism.
18:24
Speaker 2: It is what's happening. And we'll talk more about some
18:27
Speaker 2: communes that want elections in the next segment. But I
18:30
Speaker 2: think it's just a more obvious, blunt way of describing
18:35
Speaker 2: the people who are winning, like this democratic socialist nonsense
18:38
Speaker 2: label is not one that we should give them just
18:41
Speaker 2: because they chose it for themselves. It's not what it is.
18:43
Speaker 2: It is communism, and I think Trump calling it out.
18:45
Speaker 1: I like it well, and we should also entertain exactly
18:49
Speaker 1: what they say their goals are right, And it's not
18:52
Speaker 1: like healthcare for all, although that is listed among them.
18:55
Speaker 1: It's like we should overthrow the American gun. So I
18:59
Speaker 1: think dealing seriously with that is part of being honest
19:03
Speaker 1: about who they are, even if they want to claim
19:05
Speaker 1: it's just like, oh, just like Medica for all, that's
19:07
Speaker 1: like what we're into. But yeah, I appreciate it. I
19:11
Speaker 1: think we have a little clip of Trump also speaking
19:15
Speaker 1: to what makes this country exceptional.
19:17
Speaker 6: For two and a half centuries, our American Republic has
19:19
Speaker 6: stood as the crowning.
19:21
Speaker 7: Achievement of human history.
19:25
Speaker 6: This country is the home of freedom.
19:28
Speaker 7: This is the land of liberty. And this is a
19:32
Speaker 7: flag that's the banner.
19:34
Speaker 6: Of the most extraordinary, most exceptional, most incredible nation ever
19:39
Speaker 6: to exist on the face of the earth. And we're
19:42
Speaker 6: doing better now than we've ever done before. No people
19:50
Speaker 6: have done more good, shown more courage, made more progress,
19:54
Speaker 6: righted more injustice, or achieved more greatness than you, the
19:59
Speaker 6: American people. For two hundred and fifty years, the United
20:03
Speaker 6: States of America has been the hope, the promise, the light,
20:08
Speaker 6: and the glory among all of the nations of the world.
20:11
Speaker 7: All over the world, they try and be like us.
20:14
Speaker 6: Nobody can be like us, and with the God's help,
20:17
Speaker 6: we will always be this or even better.
20:22
Speaker 1: Those are the two visions. It's pretty clear and pretty distinct.
20:27
Speaker 2: Any other points from the weekend? Actually, I have another one.
20:30
Speaker 2: Melissa Chen posted this amazing video of her boyfriend Winston Marshall.
20:34
Speaker 2: He was in a band called Mumford and Sons and
20:37
Speaker 2: then was asked to leave because he didn't have the
20:40
Speaker 2: right political opinions, but he posted this. She posted this
20:43
Speaker 2: great video of him talking about a tribute to the
20:46
Speaker 2: banjo and it's like, it's a very American instrument and
20:50
Speaker 2: I just loved it. I watched the whole thing. It's
20:52
Speaker 2: like eight minutes long, and it's just a gorgeous video
20:56
Speaker 2: describing this beautiful instrument that's all American and it was
21:00
Speaker 2: really nice to see.
21:01
Speaker 1: Oh, very nice. Do we want to do the two
21:04
Speaker 1: other big American events this week? Well, there's the red
21:11
Speaker 1: card being overturned by FIFA. So one of our star
21:15
Speaker 1: strikers on the USA team was given a pretty questionable
21:19
Speaker 1: red card in the last matchup that looked quite accidental
21:23
Speaker 1: and a red card means he's out for that game,
21:25
Speaker 1: which we then ended up winning despite being down a man,
21:28
Speaker 1: and he's supposed to be out for the next game,
21:30
Speaker 1: which would have been very problematic against Belgium. That will
21:33
Speaker 1: have been played by the time you hear this. But
21:36
Speaker 1: in the meantime there was talk of can you appeal this?
21:39
Speaker 1: What does that look like? And apparently the US lawyered
21:42
Speaker 1: up FIFA was examining Trump at some point made a.
21:47
Speaker 2: Call and now it's overturned, right, So Clay Travis reports
21:51
Speaker 2: that his sources say President Trump Commerce Secretary Howard lutnik,
21:55
Speaker 2: I just love that Lutnix. He's just involved here. I'm
21:58
Speaker 2: not really sure what the role is. And then he
22:00
Speaker 2: says White House Task Force head Andrew Giuliani put together
22:03
Speaker 2: a team of elite lawyers from outside the government to
22:05
Speaker 2: challenge the flow ball again red card. Specifically, they challenged
22:09
Speaker 2: the use of slow motion instant replay to give the
22:11
Speaker 2: red card, which they argued violated FIFA rules. The President
22:14
Speaker 2: also conveyed the Gianni Infantino, FIFA's president, that the appeal
22:18
Speaker 2: had been filed and he believed the red card penalty
22:21
Speaker 2: was excessive. FIFA's independent Committee reviewed the decision and agreed
22:25
Speaker 2: the penalty was incorrectly given, rescinding it under their rule
22:28
Speaker 2: twenty seven authority. Now, people who love Trump are like
22:31
Speaker 2: Trump did this, and people who hate Trump are like
22:33
Speaker 2: Trump did this. But it turns out, or it sounds
22:36
Speaker 2: like that FIFA did this for their own purposes and
22:41
Speaker 2: really not having much to do with Donald Trump. It's
22:45
Speaker 2: a really good tweets arrest them.
22:47
Speaker 1: Like I did see some funny tweets that were like,
22:50
Speaker 1: be honest with yourselself. If you think Kamala Harris would
22:53
Speaker 1: have gotten this red card and turned, you're crazy. But
22:55
Speaker 1: I do think this makes us a real soccer nation
22:58
Speaker 1: for the like questionable FIFA reactions that are maybe a
23:03
Speaker 1: little on the corrupt side, like you know, at least
23:05
Speaker 1: from a parent's sake, were fully soccer people. Now, I guess, yeah,
23:10
Speaker 1: all right, we'll take it.
23:11
Speaker 2: You know, all right. The other big story, Taylor Swift
23:15
Speaker 2: got married at Madison Square Garden. And you know, when
23:18
Speaker 2: I would say things out loud like wow, this really
23:20
Speaker 2: just doesn't seem like Taylor Swift at all, my husband
23:23
Speaker 2: would say, you don't actually know her, and that's fair, that's.
23:27
Speaker 1: A good that's a fair point shot.
23:30
Speaker 2: Very good. Yes's true, But of what I know of her,
23:34
Speaker 2: it did not seem like something she would do. Even
23:36
Speaker 2: til the last minute. I kept being like, this is
23:38
Speaker 2: some sort of psych out, this is.
23:40
Speaker 1: A fake out.
23:41
Speaker 2: There's no way this is really how she's going to
23:43
Speaker 2: get married. But no, she did it. That crazy crazy
23:47
Speaker 2: lady married at Madison Square Garden on July fourth weekend
23:51
Speaker 2: on a Friday night with like a thousand guests.
23:54
Speaker 1: Not at all, with Adam Sandler officiating.
23:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, Travis got to pick that, like Travis
24:04
Speaker 2: got his one thing.
24:05
Speaker 1: I think it's so beautiful, No, I thought.
24:10
Speaker 2: I also saw people on Twitter being like, you got
24:13
Speaker 2: married on a Friday night, Like what are you poor?
24:16
Speaker 1: I just gotta save money on the venue, So I
24:19
Speaker 1: think I also figured maybe they got married privately somewhere
24:23
Speaker 1: else and then they were gonna have this big party here. However,
24:25
Speaker 1: I did caveat that that I think they have the
24:27
Speaker 1: money to make msg look like a an Art deco
24:31
Speaker 1: solarium for a night, like they don't. It can look
24:34
Speaker 1: like anything in there.
24:35
Speaker 2: But can't they do that on a private island? Can't
24:37
Speaker 2: they do that? Like? Literally up in Mars, like and
24:39
Speaker 2: they could do it anything.
24:41
Speaker 1: Anywhere, literally on Mars. Yeah, it's an interesting choice. Maybe
24:45
Speaker 1: they just wanted to be in the middle of it all.
24:47
Speaker 1: And I will say New York City really gave it
24:51
Speaker 1: up with the skyline and the sunset and it was
24:54
Speaker 1: really really stunning the big signs out outside Madison Square
25:00
Speaker 1: and were lit up right afterwards. I also like the
25:03
Speaker 1: people being so grumpy about it. Yeah, Madison Square Garden
25:06
Speaker 1: has a high profile event all the time. Sure hers
25:10
Speaker 1: should not be judged any differently than any other one
25:13
Speaker 1: for disruption. They were paying for their own security and
25:16
Speaker 1: NYPD overtime to be there for them. And I don't know,
25:21
Speaker 1: I like those too.
25:22
Speaker 2: I think we love love Eron normally.
25:25
Speaker 1: I think also maybe Travis influenced this decision. He's like,
25:30
Speaker 1: that seems cool.
25:32
Speaker 2: Madison's Square gardens cool, little boy. I wanted to get
25:36
Speaker 2: married and manage the square garden.
25:38
Speaker 1: And it was sweet. They both had their brothers on
25:40
Speaker 1: either side, not a big you know.
25:43
Speaker 2: I like it.
25:44
Speaker 1: I'm rooting for those two.
25:45
Speaker 2: Why not, you know, more people get married because Taylor did.
25:48
Speaker 2: It can't be bad.
25:50
Speaker 1: Oh one more thing. People were saying, it's like narcissistic
25:54
Speaker 1: or something to get married on a July fourth weekend.
25:56
Speaker 1: And I think it's a great anniversary to have a
25:59
Speaker 1: July fourth weekend. There's always going to be a party.
26:01
Speaker 1: If you love America, then like, what a great anniversary.
26:06
Speaker 1: I don't have an issue with it.
26:07
Speaker 2: Sure, yes, it's just it just doesn't fit. But okay,
26:12
Speaker 2: well and they did it. I can't keep pretending that
26:16
Speaker 2: my friend Taylor did something weird here.
26:19
Speaker 1: But yeah, the not is tied. The knot has done
26:22
Speaker 1: been tied. Yeah, I thought the same. I thought she
26:25
Speaker 1: would get married somewhere that goes in a Taylor Swift
26:29
Speaker 1: lyric and Madison Square Garden doesn't feel like that Sumuory.
26:32
Speaker 2: Book wedding on a you know, in a forest that
26:36
Speaker 2: they made a little clearing and they like dropped her
26:40
Speaker 2: in via hell like I mean, who knows, you.
26:42
Speaker 1: Know, I didn't.
26:44
Speaker 2: I didn't think if you roll on at CBS outside
26:46
Speaker 2: of MSG on one hundred degree.
26:48
Speaker 1: Night, No, nope, that's what it was. I got dropped
26:51
Speaker 1: into a basketball court.
26:55
Speaker 2: Maybe they just all played after maybe so all right, Well,
26:59
Speaker 2: didn't think a short break and be right back with
27:02
Speaker 2: another segment of normally we are back on normally where
27:09
Speaker 2: Since the last time we spoke, more communists have been
27:14
Speaker 2: elected in their Democratic primaries in Colorado. Last time we
27:19
Speaker 2: covered that a bunch of Democratic Socialists won in New York.
27:23
Speaker 2: This time it's in Colorado, with the most well known one,
27:27
Speaker 2: melak Kiro's, winning the Democratic primary for Colorado's first congressional district,
27:32
Speaker 2: defeating a fifteen term incumbent. I don't know, this is
27:37
Speaker 2: all very worrisome. I know that that we're not supposed to, like,
27:41
Speaker 2: you know, be too concerned about this, but I'm kind
27:43
Speaker 2: of concerned.
27:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, okay, So Colorado is a great example of
27:48
Speaker 1: a place that you know, people will say, oh, well,
27:52
Speaker 1: these people are only winning in super blue areas. Yes, okay,
27:55
Speaker 1: that may be true. But now these super blue areas
27:57
Speaker 1: are not in New York, right Colorado. Colorado is a
28:01
Speaker 1: place that, you know, until the last ten to fifteen years,
28:05
Speaker 1: was definitely purple and is now trending toward total total
28:10
Speaker 1: blueness to the extent that yes, socialists could win these seats.
28:17
Speaker 1: And during the time that it has turned toward total
28:20
Speaker 1: total blueness, the GOP, which could offer itself as a
28:24
Speaker 1: non crazy alternative, has spun out on its own and
28:29
Speaker 1: will now offer candidates who maybe will not be able
28:33
Speaker 1: to counter these people because they are equally Lenny Tunes
28:38
Speaker 1: in some cases. So I was hoping that the Normy,
28:40
Speaker 1: for instance, would win in the Republican nomination for the governor.
28:46
Speaker 1: But the Normy is looking a tiny bit behind the
28:51
Speaker 1: not at all Normy.
28:53
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, it's a giant concern communism being on
28:58
Speaker 2: the march in America, and it's two hundred fifty if
29:00
Speaker 2: you're again, I'm glad that Trump is calling it out.
29:03
Speaker 2: I feel like it was not common for, you know,
29:06
Speaker 2: for all of us to point out that this is
29:08
Speaker 2: where this was heading. And I like, again I like
29:12
Speaker 2: using the word communist and communism because that is the
29:15
Speaker 2: end result here. Like, I don't know what else we're
29:18
Speaker 2: pretending progressive or democratic socialist means. They're knocking out other Democrats,
29:24
Speaker 2: so they clearly have an agenda that goes far beyond that. Look,
29:28
Speaker 2: you know, another thing is that they're already throwing out
29:32
Speaker 2: people like Alexandro Cassio Cortez. There's like a thing going
29:35
Speaker 2: around that she's a Zionist, and you know, Jennifer Say
29:38
Speaker 2: tweeted this recently, but the revolution doesn't spare its architects,
29:42
Speaker 2: and they should be very concerned Democrats that they're being
29:46
Speaker 2: replaced with this super super left wing, and they don't
29:50
Speaker 2: seem that concerned.
29:51
Speaker 1: No, because I think I think they understand that there's
29:55
Speaker 1: energy in that sector, and they understand that that sector
29:59
Speaker 1: is not exactly confining itself to democratic means of advancement.
30:06
Speaker 7: Right.
30:06
Speaker 1: I think they're scared of them. You know, Communists have
30:09
Speaker 1: a history of not playing nicely, and so I think
30:14
Speaker 1: they're scared of them. I think they know that that's
30:16
Speaker 1: where young people are, and they want to keep the
30:18
Speaker 1: young people, and they don't know a way to put
30:22
Speaker 1: their foot down on this. They haven't for years. Nancy
30:25
Speaker 1: Pelosi attempted to get an anti semitism resolution in Congress
30:32
Speaker 1: to go after ilan Omar for saying some very obviously
30:36
Speaker 1: antisemitic things, and she had to she was neutered by
30:39
Speaker 1: the squad. She had to change it to like, well,
30:41
Speaker 1: all discrimination is bad, really, yes, And so if Nancy
30:46
Speaker 1: Pelosi can't have an answer for these folks, I don't
30:49
Speaker 1: think how Keem Jeffreys is going to. And yes, it
30:53
Speaker 1: is concerning because the thing about socialism is that you
30:56
Speaker 1: have to compel people to do it with you. They
30:58
Speaker 1: don't care if you don't agree with.
31:00
Speaker 2: That's right, right, yeah, yeah, So at the Free Beacon,
31:06
Speaker 2: Jonathan Levine called up David Duke. For the people listening
31:11
Speaker 2: who don't know who David Duke is. He was a
31:13
Speaker 2: ku klux Klan grand wizard. He won a Louisiana Republican primary.
31:17
Speaker 2: It was a big story for us in like the nineties,
31:20
Speaker 2: and then the party united against him and made sure
31:23
Speaker 2: that he didn't win. Even to though that meant supporting
31:26
Speaker 2: the Democrat. I don't remember if it was governor or. Yeah,
31:29
Speaker 2: I was governor Louisiana gubernatorial campaign in nineteen ninety one.
31:33
Speaker 2: So Jonathan Levin calls up David Duke to ask him
31:38
Speaker 2: what he thinks about Daria Liza a Vila Chevalier. She's
31:43
Speaker 2: the candidate that won in New York that we talked about,
31:45
Speaker 2: the really far left candidate. She had said that she
31:49
Speaker 2: disapproves of inter racial romances, and so Levigne asks David Duke.
31:54
Speaker 1: For woke reasons for woke pinsence, it doesn't matter, right,
31:57
Speaker 1: I mean, it's like you did.
31:59
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter where you agree. Reasons are. It's like
32:02
Speaker 2: but Duke says, I think that people have the right
32:05
Speaker 2: to preserve their particular heritage. And there you have it.
32:08
Speaker 1: You know, there you go.
32:10
Speaker 2: Are Democrats going to night to get rid of her
32:12
Speaker 2: because she aligned with like a David Duke. They won't.
32:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the horseshoe everybody. And actually you can
32:19
Speaker 1: see it happening in speaking of throwing over the old stars,
32:24
Speaker 1: you can see it happening in Michigan where the Senate
32:27
Speaker 1: nomination battle is happening between Abdul say Ed who is leading.
32:31
Speaker 1: And then there was Mallory McMorrow, who tried to be
32:34
Speaker 1: the just right progressive and super anti Trump. Took the
32:37
Speaker 1: stage at the DNC with the Giant Project twenty five book.
32:41
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember her, but that's how
32:42
Speaker 1: she kind of became a star. And then Haley Stevens
32:45
Speaker 1: is the establishment candidate, and he's surging Elsaiad as the
32:50
Speaker 1: new version of progressive, which is anti Israel, very very democratic, socialist,
32:56
Speaker 1: very frank about it. McMorrow, who was last year's model
33:00
Speaker 1: the anti Trump progressive, has had to drop out of
33:03
Speaker 1: the race. She suspended her campaign, and Stevens is sort
33:06
Speaker 1: of muddling along as the establishment candidate. You know, she
33:11
Speaker 1: was the hotness a year ago. But she's not anti
33:13
Speaker 1: Israel enough, she's not loud enough about being a socialist,
33:17
Speaker 1: and so she's going to be replaced by someone else.
33:21
Speaker 2: Yep, the revolution eats itself. That's what happens. All right,
33:26
Speaker 2: We're going to take a short break and come right
33:28
Speaker 2: back with one more segment of Normally. We're back on
33:35
Speaker 2: normally where I get a New York Times email and
33:38
Speaker 2: I think I still just let them send me email
33:40
Speaker 2: so that I could be angry about something. And today
33:44
Speaker 2: the email was about an editorial board opinion that they wrote.
33:49
Speaker 2: So it's from the you know, from the New York Times,
33:52
Speaker 2: an unsigned editorial. A great university is undermining itself and
33:56
Speaker 2: it's about how the University of California system got rid
34:00
Speaker 2: of SAT.
34:01
Speaker 1: Scores a number of years ago.
34:03
Speaker 2: And you won't believe what happened next. I know that
34:08
Speaker 2: you're getting to be so surprised to hear that getting
34:10
Speaker 2: rid of standards for admission meant that the standards declined.
34:16
Speaker 2: And yeah, I know, I know. I also can't believe it,
34:20
Speaker 2: but they are in deep trouble and that these students
34:24
Speaker 2: that they've admitted are just not up to part at all.
34:28
Speaker 2: And you know, fifteen hundred science and mathematics professors, including
34:32
Speaker 2: the chairs of more than sixty departments, have signed a
34:35
Speaker 2: letter asking the university to reinstate the test requirement. Now,
34:40
Speaker 2: I lived in New York City most of my life,
34:42
Speaker 2: and there's we called them screens, schools that had screens.
34:46
Speaker 2: Like if you needed to show good test scores or
34:49
Speaker 2: your grades or attendance to get into a school, that's
34:53
Speaker 2: a screen. And if you supported screens in schools, you
34:57
Speaker 2: were racist and bigoted and you wanted bad things for
35:00
Speaker 2: black people. And here we are in the New York Times,
35:04
Speaker 2: suddenly screens are good and I feel like I'm on
35:06
Speaker 2: blue because duh, this was going to happen, And how
35:10
Speaker 2: do you not realize it? And where is the apology
35:13
Speaker 2: to go along with this article?
35:14
Speaker 1: Oh, there's never an apology. They just change their minds
35:17
Speaker 1: and they forget that they called everybody racist who disagreed
35:21
Speaker 1: with them before. Also, this is so bad for the
35:24
Speaker 1: people who get through without having to go to testing,
35:27
Speaker 1: because then you end up in a situation where either
35:29
Speaker 1: the educational institution itself commits suicide on its standards in
35:34
Speaker 1: order to serve you thereby still learn nothing or you
35:39
Speaker 1: struggle because it keeps its standards high and you aren't
35:42
Speaker 1: able to meet them. It's also bad, ironically, and we
35:45
Speaker 1: find this out with progressive policies so often for minority
35:49
Speaker 1: and economically dis encantaged students who despite their disadvantages such
35:55
Speaker 1: that they may be or the way they were brought
35:57
Speaker 1: up or the schools they went to, they can be
35:59
Speaker 1: smart enough to form on a standardized test, and then
36:02
Speaker 1: that will help them come to the top of the
36:05
Speaker 1: choices for these institutions. It's actually a way to give
36:08
Speaker 1: them a leg up when they're really, really bright and
36:11
Speaker 1: they're just like, nah, let's just do the old school
36:14
Speaker 1: connections and patronage and nonsense instead of the testing. Yeah,
36:20
Speaker 1: so bad, I'm really I think part of being a
36:23
Speaker 1: parent now so much is wanting to raise children who
36:27
Speaker 1: simply know things. I would like them to know things.
36:31
Speaker 1: I would like them to think things, I would like
36:32
Speaker 1: them to read things.
36:34
Speaker 7: And a lot of.
36:35
Speaker 1: Education is the opposite of that.
36:37
Speaker 2: These days, it's crazy, and it's crazier because you know,
36:42
Speaker 2: the New York Times, the editorial board has had previous
36:44
Speaker 2: editorial is called like integrate New York's best schools, and
36:46
Speaker 2: it's against the sh SAT test that you get into
36:51
Speaker 2: the best New York City high schools like Stuyvesantam, Bronx
36:53
Speaker 2: Science in Brooklyn Tech. And then another editorial they had
36:57
Speaker 2: how well the sh s AT prediction student success remains unknown?
37:03
Speaker 2: And like it was never unknown, you always understood that
37:06
Speaker 2: if everybody's taking the same test, you can see who
37:09
Speaker 2: does best on it. So one of the things they
37:12
Speaker 2: say in it was California's policy change was part of
37:14
Speaker 2: a national anti testing push that has combined a vital
37:18
Speaker 2: concern with a fundamental misunderstanding. The concern is about deep
37:21
Speaker 2: inequities in American education that particularly affect low income, Black,
37:25
Speaker 2: Latino and Native students. Each of these groups score below
37:28
Speaker 2: average on the SAT and act the misunderstanding about the
37:32
Speaker 2: reason for these gaps. The critics claim that the two
37:34
Speaker 2: tests are biased and therefore are cause of inequities. But
37:37
Speaker 2: you know what it ends up being is that these
37:39
Speaker 2: kids go to bad schools, and that that should be
37:42
Speaker 2: where you start this fixing this problem. Getting rid of
37:45
Speaker 2: tests doesn't actually fix that.
37:48
Speaker 1: What about closing them for a year and a half
37:50
Speaker 1: would that help?
37:51
Speaker 2: Caryl?
37:51
Speaker 1: I feel like it was also a racist to argue
37:54
Speaker 1: that that might be a problem. This is the thing
37:57
Speaker 1: and when that is the cudgel that they pull out
38:00
Speaker 1: every time you know they're failing. You know they're failing,
38:02
Speaker 1: they're failing, and they're failing generations of kids.
38:06
Speaker 2: Yep, kids were unprepared for rigor of school because they
38:10
Speaker 2: went to bad schools and then nobody tested them to
38:13
Speaker 2: find out that those schools were bad. It's it's a
38:17
Speaker 2: self prophecy here at this point.
38:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's creeping into more and more and more
38:22
Speaker 1: schools because once you know that there's no testing, it's like,
38:25
Speaker 1: I mean, do we have to know things anymore?
38:27
Speaker 4: Right?
38:27
Speaker 2: What's the point scheck the teachers? You mean? And that's it?
38:31
Speaker 1: All right, It's not great.
38:33
Speaker 2: No, Well, thanks for listening to us on normally normally
38:37
Speaker 2: airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you
38:40
Speaker 2: get your podcasts. Get in touch with us at normallythepod
38:43
Speaker 2: at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening, and when things
38:46
Speaker 2: get weird, act normally