March 11, 2025 • 31 mins
In this episode of Normally, Mary Katharine Ham and Karol Markowicz explore the humor in political self-deprecation, the political maneuvering of Gavin Newsom, and reflect on the fifth anniversary of COVID-19 lockdowns. The conversation also critiques Dr. Fauci's role during the pandemic and addresses the impact of Randi Weingarten's policies on education. Normally is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Thursday.
#memes #JDVance #GavinNewsom #COVID19 #Fauci #RandiWeingarten #politicalhumor #educationpolicy #politicalcommentary
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey guys, we are back on normally the show with
normal it takes or when the news gets weird. I'm
Mary Catherine Ham.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
And I'm Carol Marco. It's him, Mary Catherine. How is
your weekend?
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Weekend was good and my week will not be so
good because we're doing a potty training and intensive over here.
So I won't get into details, but there's a lot
of work on us this week.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Nice. Yeah, I don't miss those days. I have to
tell you.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
People are like, oh, you're going to miss stuff when
it's gone.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
I miss some things, but I don't miss that.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I don't miss like having different sized bottles all over the.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Place, A lot of things I could live without.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Really, Yeah, this is definitely one of them. This transition
is the one that is u It's not a delight,
but we're going to make it through. Yeah, we're having
to have success.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
So let's speaking of babies exactly.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
So there's a new meme craze on the internet, and Carol,
you probably have this too. But I have to bring
my husband up to speed on memes.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I had to bring my husband up to speed on everything.
A few days ago. My husband was like, wait, what
are the dancing Israelis from the like nine to eleven
Conspiracies and like, you're a little late on this.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, So it's a funny thing when you have an
offline mostly offline normally husband. Normally husband is that you know,
he knows politics. He's sort of generally clued in and smart.
But there are things on the Internet that get so
far away by the time I'm explaining to them to
him that they get it's just a little off the rails.
And this week there's one of them, which is the
(01:36):
meaning of jd Vance. Jd Vance, the Vice President of
the United States of America, is now being turned into
everything under the sun thanks to AI and photoshop on
the interwebs, and The Atlantic has written about it, which,
on one hand, I find helpful because I did not
know where this started, and I was like, it's fun.
(01:59):
It's fun. We're making him into Star Wars characters and
garbage pale kids and Willy Wonka extras. But I don't
know where it started. So it turns out The Atlantic
reports that this started in October when a user on
x posted an image of Vance captioned for every one
hundred likes, I will turn jd Vance into a progressively
apple cheeked baby but baby faced. Vance has gone fully
(02:21):
viral since last week after the clash in the Oval
office with Zelensky and Trump. So and then they have
phrases over them like you have to say please and
Tank you miss to Zinski, so they give him a
funny voice. Okay. The Atlantic writer says, of course, people
love making memes that portray their political adversaries as hapless
and incompetent. That's not exactly what's happening with these images
(02:43):
of Vance. The memes are going viral on the left
wing internet, but they are equally, if not more, popular
on the right, explicitly pro Trump accounts on x that
otherwise spend their time bashing liberals or posting embarrassing memes
of their parties second in command. The headline of this
piece is, wait, who's posting these unflattering JD. Vance memes?
(03:04):
The online wrote, right is trolling one.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Of its own, right, What they yeah, go ahead, you.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Can diagnose it if you would like.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Can we all join it?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
They don't get is that we're able to laugh at ourselves,
and they don't understand that because they are so used
to only laughing at us and never at themselves, and
when Saturday Night Live or late night comedian makes fun
of the left, they don't appreciate it at all. Meanwhile,
Orange Man Bad became something that people on the right
say because it's funny and it's okay.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
To laugh at yourself.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, and we we are used to being trolled constantly, right,
that's part of our day to day life. That's why
I can enjoy art that's created by people I don't
agree with, because it happens all the time. I have
a lot of practice, that's right. The other thing I
think they're missing, and I think it was Michael Duncan
who who posted this making fun of each other is
dudes rock one oh one totally.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, this is and it's why you and I get
along well with men, because who like to make fun
of everything and each other and ourselves and all of it.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
And so I think this is yet another example of
the left illustrating why it's not reaching men. Yeah, because
I've been enjoying this JD Fance thing so much good. Yeah,
and it's it's so fun to see what people turn
him into.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
And he's enjoying it, and that is.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
The other part. He's enjoying it, and he I gotta say,
I got to give him props on this. Usually when
a politician tries to join in on a trend or
a meme fest, it doesn't go that well. They're usually behind, right,
they're usually cringe, they're usually not tonally correct, because there's
(04:44):
a lot of as dumb as the Internet is, there's
a lot of nuance in what these things mean and why,
and which is why it's hard to bring your normal
husband up to speed on memes.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
But jd Vance, as part of this, posts himself as
Leonardo DiCaprio in the Tarantino film Once Upon a Time
in Hollywood, because there is a famous meme of Leonardo
DiCaprio's character in this, pointing at the TV, acknowledging like,
oh no, I know what that is.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Right, it's like a meme within a meme.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
It's a meme within a meme.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
Yeah, it perfectly deployed, perfect tone, right, funny, clever and
joined in perfectly with the whole thing, thereby gaining respect
because he's illustrating that he's fine with being made fun of,
and he's seeing all of it and enjoying it.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
It's great and so anchy comedy is the callback, right,
Like so many stand up comedians will start with something
and then like at the end of their act like
callback to that.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
The meme within the meme is exactly that, and it's
it's so good. You're absolutely right.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
It's what the left is lacking. They are lacking a
lightness right now, and.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
I think they did it to themselves.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
We talk about a lot that they don't get negative press,
so they don't know how to react to press that
is negative. They don't get difficult interviews, so they don't
know how to handle, you know, even slightly difficult interviews.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Kamala Harris just collapsed.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
In any interview because she was unable to deal with
any conflict or any pushback at all. This is the
same thing in humor format.
Speaker 6 (06:19):
There.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
They don't know what to do with themselves because they're
not a part of it.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Yeah, it is. It is their their inability to sort
of goof and the misunderstanding of the idea of I mean,
there's there's been an old meme that is the left
camp meme. Yes, and it does appear that they are
having some trouble with that, especially if you consider the
pretty cringe videos from Democrats of the past week, including
(06:46):
the CHOOSU Fighter.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
The day.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, the dancing the Doloro Rose Doloro, who's an older
liberal congresswoman on the Hill who has purple hair, and
it's very funny shed around doing gen Z slang on
the Hill. It was cringe and this was not. And
I don't think it's just because I am more favorable
to jd Vance than Rose Doloro. I think it's because
(07:13):
he got it right. He got it And if you
do not understand the concept of excuse me, busting balls,
you will not be reaching mail voters. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Absolutely, they love that. They are all about that. I mean,
I think all male on mail interaction is just like
poking fun at each other and that's how they connect.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
And to the extent that my normy husband does understand memes,
it's because he sends them back and forth between between
friends on like a real people text chain, as opposed
to the fake people I talked to on the Internet.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
And I have to say, as a mom, I also
stress to my kids that they have to be able
to laugh at themselves and if somebody makes fun of you,
it's almost always better to lean into it and make
fun of yourself too, rather than like, go tell the
teacher about it.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
That is never work. You want to be the.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Kind of person who can laugh at themselves, laugh it off,
move on with your life.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Life lessons from my father, by the way, because when
I had these giant teeth, when they grew in, grew
in at about like a forty five degree angle to
the ground, it was very tragic. No one could take
me serious and teeth. Thank there was no way I
wasn't going to be made fun of. And my father
understood this. And I grew up with two brothers, so
like I was gonna get made fun of in the
house regardless. But my father, my father would always say, hey,
(08:29):
look on the bright side, you can eat corn on
the cop through a picket fence. And so various, mister ham,
various barbs of this nature prepared me for what I
would endure in public school. And yeah, it is important
just to understand that, you know, you gotta you can
stick up for yourself by laughing at yourself.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Right, we all have mockable things about us. It's okay,
let's lean into it and not.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Take it too serious.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
I'm not scarred.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Fine, we're going to take a short break and come
right back with normally.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
What's up next in the news.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Well, this is also on the culture side. But the
Gavin Newsom Charlie Kirk interview has been circulating and has
been just kind of a big story because Gavin Newsom
seems able to do that lightness thing. I am very
worried about a Gavin Newsome future. I think that you know,
(09:31):
he is able to present himself as a moderate even
though he is far far left and things that he does,
like I didn't think that Governor Ron DeSantis should have
debated Gavin Newsom last year. Even though I thought that
DeSantis won, I thought it was still better for Newsome
because he got to kind of show himself off to
(09:53):
the country at a time where a different Democrat was
running for president, kind of keep his name at the
top of people's mind, and to really get to spar
and do the thing that you and I say that
they don't do, which is take criticism, learn how to
fight back, formulate the arguments.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
And he did that here with Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
We're going to play the clip that has mostly gone viral.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Here we go.
Speaker 7 (10:15):
You right now should come out and be like you
know what, the young man who's about to win the
state championship in the long jump in female sports, that
shouldn't happen. You as the governor, should step out and
say no, no, And I appreciate and like, would you
do something like that, would you say no men in
female sports?
Speaker 8 (10:30):
Well, I think it's an issue of fairness. I completely
agree with you on that. It is an issue affairs.
Speaker 7 (10:34):
So it's deeply Would you speak out against this young man,
baby Hernandez, who right now is going to win the
state championship in the long time, I can see you
wrestling with it.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
No, I'm not wrestling.
Speaker 8 (10:43):
I'm not relection with the fairness issue. I totally agree
with you. By the way, as someone with four kids.
You got two daughters, right, two daughters I had, and
a wife that went god forbid to Stanford and played
on the junior national soccer team, and a guy who
got into college only because I was left handed and
could throw baseball a little bit or hit the ball
for a little bit. So I revere sports and so
(11:05):
the issue of fairness is completely legit. And I saw
that the last couple of years. Boy did I saw
how you guys were able to weaponize that.
Speaker 7 (11:13):
Issue at another weaponize, don't that's.
Speaker 8 (11:15):
Well, weabinize maybe pejoriti of you're right, but you were
able to shine a light on highlight it in a
way that frankly, there are not that many we're talking about.
I think N two A what five hundred and ten thousand? No, No,
but I just didn't realize.
Speaker 7 (11:27):
It's eight hundred and ninety medals and trophies that we
know of in the last five years.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
That's a lot.
Speaker 8 (11:31):
No, So I'm gonna let me step back say completely
fair on the issue of fairness, I completely agree. So
that's easy to call out the unfairness of that. There's
also a humility and a grace. You know that that
these poor people are more likely to commit suicide, have
anxiety and depression, and the way that people talk down
to vulnerable communities is an issue that I have a
(11:51):
hard time with as well. So both things I can
hold in my hand. How can we address this issue
with the kind of decency that I think you know
inherent in you but not always expressed on the issue, No,
I get it. At the same time, deal with the
under you're asked.
Speaker 7 (12:06):
You asked a good faith question like how do we
Democrats get out of the wilderness? Yeah, this one is
an eighty twenty issue New York Times poll, Right, that's all.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I agree with you.
Speaker 7 (12:13):
We're getting crushed on and like crush and you have
an opportunity in the state to be like. Look, I
have a heart for Ady Hernandez. I have a heart
for the San Jose volleyball player. Yeah, let's give them compassion.
But what's not fair is just for like a woman's
entire woman's sports.
Speaker 8 (12:26):
I agree, you know, by the way I agree with you.
I agree with you, and it's sterty. I stress tested
this child. I was wondering. I said, you know, in California,
and I've been a leader in the LGBTQ places as
face as you know, back in two thousand and four
was marrying sane sex couples. And I know we have
different opinion on marriage equality, and so I've been at
this for years and years. I take a bad seat
to no one, but I was actually on the issue
(12:46):
of sports, which in the last few years has just exploded,
trying to understand and understand the ten athletes in the
NC two A five hundred and ten thousand athletes, but
ten athletes and what but how profound, And even my
own friend Cohort people saying, the hell is going on?
Why aren't you calling this out? When did this happen?
So in two thousand, turns out in twenty fourteen, years
(13:07):
before I was governor, there was a law established that
established the legal principles that allow the allowed trans athletes
and women's sports. But the issue of fairness is completely jit.
So I completely align with you, and we've got to
own that. We've got to acknowledge it. I don't say
that through the prism of politics because you disagree with
same sex marriage on principle, and so I'm not. And
(13:29):
by the way, I value the fact that you're not
trying to walk away from that principle because electorally, I'm
in the side, yeah, in the minority, and I don't
want to walk away from this principle because of electoral
But it is an issue of fairness.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Well, it's interesting. I wanted to play the longer version
of that clip because he gets into so much stuff.
He's like, you know, for example, his pointing. By the way,
Charlie was masterful in this interview. I thought he did
a fantastic job. He really he maintained friendliness, he was
able to get to the bottom of things with him.
They had an exchange that I thought Charlie did a
(14:06):
terrific job. In this clip, he is saying Charlie takes
unpopular positions like against same sex marriage, and Gavin Newsom
is basically saying we're going to stick with our unpopular position,
but also manages to say I don't think it's fair.
He really is very sneaky and Republican should be extremely
(14:27):
careful with him.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Look, I am very uncharitable toward Gavin Newsom, and I
really thought that the mismanagement of the fires in California
would just end him right, end him right. And when
I hear him talk about the fires in a politician's capacity,
I'm like, this is a lizard man, Like, what's happening here?
He's terrible at this. And then I watched this and
(14:51):
I go, oh, he's having a real He's having a conversation,
which is the thing that many of them cannot do.
And I think he also did in the Dysantas Knew
some debate, which I'm in slight disagreement with you on that,
just because I enjoyed the counterfactual of watching these two
people debate each other versus the Biden Trump matchup. And
(15:13):
I do think that hearing those voices and those arguments
from those two folks as the foils was helpful to
America just to see that conversation happen. But yeah, he's
pretty good at having that conversation. Sometimes. I agree with
you that he is tricky here because he's better at
(15:34):
doing the Kamala Harris thing, which was I'm going to say,
I don't think the things I used to think. Yeah,
but I'm not going to do anything about it.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Definitely right.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
He mentioned that the law precedes him, but you're a
governor and you could change that.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
That's what Governor DeSantis does.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
He affects change in the state of Florida and moves
things in his direction in California.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
This is the second major Democrat in a couple of
weeks to say something along these lines, and I would
say Ram Emmanuel went even further. And this one didn't
go viral, but it was on Bill Maher's show, and
I kid you not, as part of a discussion of
how democrats governing major cities have gotten off the rails.
(16:23):
He said, I know me. If in high school or
middle school I could have said I'm a they and
gotten into the women's bathroom, I would have done it
for sure.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
That's the truth about so many of these men, like
they know what they would have done.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Come on, well, but it he conceded the point we've
all been making. When this is subjective, it becomes dangerous
to people. He did it in sort of a coarse way.
I am very surprised that didn't go viral or get
him in trouble. What kind of heat is Newsome taking
(16:58):
for saying these very like but common sense things.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Right well, Newsom got ripped by Democrats. A column in
The Sacramento be titled Governor Gavin Newsom's civility displayed on
his new podcast looks Spineless noted and this is what
they said.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Newsom nodded in agreement so much with Kirk. I would
be surprised if he didn't strain his neck. He allowed
Kirk to say whatever he wanted and didn't provide much
in the way of opposition. If you told someone who
doesn't follow politics to watch this podcast episode and choose
who was the conservative, I'm sure they would say both.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
That's what he nails.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Yeah, he really did. He nailed that. The problem for him,
of course.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Is he's going to have to go through the Democratic
primary first, and this is where they all return to
the ridiculous positions that they have to have last time around.
I think all of them are almost all of them
raised their hands.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
For should we have free health care for legal immigrants?
Speaker 2 (17:54):
I mean, they get caught up in this nonsense in
the primary that gets very hard to walk back in
the general. And him doing it this early is almost
like a sign that he thinks he is the standard
bear and that he's going to be the one that
the rest of the squad has to be.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
So we'll see.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
You know what I found interesting too, he mentions his
own friend cohort, which is very liberal, very rich donor
class Californians. Yeah, okay, so that should tell him how
potent this is, right, because if the people, if the people.
(18:30):
I think it is because David Frums written about it too,
where he was sitting around before the election and all
sorts of actually liberal people were like urbane liberals were like,
I don't know about this one, guys. So I do
think that it's an eighty twenty issue. It's going to
encompass some of every single class in America. And if
you're hearing that at the French laundry table where you
(18:52):
go during COVID, Gavin Newsom, when no one else can
go to a rescue, then that's a that's a red
flag for you. It's a red flag. So he's dancing
around it, but he needs to actually do something if
he if he wants to on the right, but then
he's on the wrong side of lefty politics.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
It's very, very tough spot for him.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
He also mentions that his thirteen year old son is
a big fan of Charlie's and that's.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
That was an interesting point too.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I don't know how i'd feel if my you know,
one of my kids was a huge fan of like
somebody really far on the opposite side politically from me.
But he laughs it off, and he talks about how
his son wanted to take the day off to go
see this interview, but you know, obviously he can't because
he has school. And Charlie delivers the greatest line actually
of the interview, and he says, you close schools for
(19:42):
two years, what's another day? Yeah, Gavin new some his
kids did go to school because they went to private
schools as still mad.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
At that bro forever or ever. By the way, no,
that's a great line.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
We'll be right back on normally.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
You know, it's the fifth anniversary of the COVID two
weeks to stop the spread. And I actually I have
a fun COVID story, Carol. You were at my wedding, yes,
which I don't know how Providence chose for us. It
was amazing seventh, twenty twenty. Yeah, and we got married
on a beach in Aruba, and we had a great
(20:22):
party and almost no one dropped from the wedding list.
People were a little like, are we cool to go
out of the country right now? There was a little rumbling.
I think two people dropped. We had a huge, giant,
guilt free fun party and then everyone went home and
like three days later the world was shut down.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Yeah, it was wild. It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
It was an incredible wedding, and it was the perfect
way to celebrate the end of the world, yes, which.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
We did not know was coming. But by the way,
I posted about that on X the other day. And
just so you know that there are a few dead
enders who will still shame you for having a wedding
in March of twenty twenty, at which zero people got.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Sick, right right, yeah, And like I it was the
Jewish holiday of Perham back home, and my kids were
with my in laws and we called them and they
were like, yeah, the Perham party was canceled.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
And we were like what.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
That's crazy, what a crazy thing to do. How could
they just cancel the Perham party?
Speaker 4 (21:27):
You know, little did we know? Of course, then life
would be canceled very shortly thereafter.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Well, as we're revisiting everyone on this fifth anniversary, someone's
revisiting Fauci.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
If you have a story, right, So, David Scharfenberg in
the Boston Globe has a book review.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
A lot of people are.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Passing it around without reading it, because that's what people
do on the internet.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
But we go the extra mile here.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Normally we actually read the articles. The article is called
the Case Against Fauci, so yes, it gets you know,
the kind of article that just gets passed around without
anybody reading it. But it's actually a book review of
Stephen Mersito and Francis Lee's scathing new book called In
COVID's Wake, How Our Politics Failed Us, And people are
(22:16):
praising this book and this review because finally Fauci is
being seen as the villain of that era, which you
know certainly how I see him, and it's being passed
around by what I would call our people, the ones
still mad bro So Scharfenberg reviews the book and in
the In his review of it, he writes this line
(22:36):
that really pissed me off. He writes, much of in
COVID's Wake feels convincing, in no small part because Messito
and Lee are of the liberal data driven tribe they
critique are they?
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Are they really?
Speaker 2 (22:48):
And the rest of us like who aren't in the
in the liberal tribes just.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Exactly right. I don't remember those names.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I don't remember them being around at the time when
when it really did matter. And he says, quote, but
it's fair to say that Fauci, knowing what he knew
at the time, was wrong to argue that many schools
would have to remain shuttered in the fall of twenty twenty. Later,
he voiced regret over how long remote learning lingered No No.
In February of twenty twenty one, and we're going about
(23:17):
to play the clip, Fauci said that Biden's spending plan
had to be.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Passed before schools could open.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
And I get that this was a throwaway line to
be fair to Fauci, but I'm just not having it.
Speaker 8 (23:28):
Let's play that clip, and I think that the schools
really do need more resources.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
And that's the reason why the National Relief Act that
we're talking about getting passed. We need that the schools
need more. Look, the review acknowledges things like, quote, the
liberal follow the science crowd was certain it was right
and had little tolerance for dissent. And ultimately the review
is like, well, liberals were wrong. Sure, but have you
(23:53):
heard of Donald Trump? So you know, I'm just not
as thrilled as a lot of other people are about
this story.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
No, I don't think you should be. So much of
this stuff is far too little, too late. Although I
do appreciate some movement, because some of these people really
freak me out with the way they still talk like
it's twenty twenty. I was on Howie Kurtz's show on
Fox Sunday and Leslie Marshall, who's one of our Democrats
(24:22):
who I appreciate very much, who's on Fox with us,
and we usually have a pretty good back and forth,
but we had a real back and forth this weekend
because when asked about an RFK story, she went hard
on we understand that public health and science are not political.
(24:44):
We are the party that gets at that this shouldn't
be a Republican or a democratic issue. They demonized vaccines
and here we are referring to the measles outbreak in Texas.
It came back to me and I was somewhat flower
gas and I said, how I say to hear from
a dem after COVID that the science is not political
(25:09):
is laughable. And here are the eighty one reasons why.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Went through all of my turns out. I have it
all on the tip of my tongue.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
I was like, oh, when, for instance, Collins was covering
up the origin of the virus and didn't tell us
things we should know, and we have Floyd emails that
tell us he was lying at the time, when FALCI
was doing the same thing, when they were smearing jaboditaria
it was now the head of the NIH, when they
were closing schools for two years, when they were forcing
COVID vaccines on children who didn't need them for RASK
original rets, that's right. Risk analysis. Yeah, I can say
(25:41):
words see, I'm still mad about it.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
You're still mad about it. I'm still mad about it.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
And we're going to continue to be the voice of
this because it really hasn't been that long. We are
constantly being threatened with new viruses possibly emerging. It does
not seem that a lot of people learn the right lessons.
I still hear, you know, from people who say, we
just didn't try hard enough, we just didn't mask hard enough.
I mean, there's still obviously so many people who are
saying that, you know, we just didn't do it good.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
The COVID vaccine is still on the schedule for six
month olds, right, It's on the vaccine schedule. If you
want people to trust the rest of it, you got
to take that off. That's part of the that's part
of how public easy call.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
One last one of our favorite characters just getting from
this era is Randy Winegarden, head of a national teacher's union,
who held public school students' education's ransom for two years
to get their payout. That was the desire. They wanted
to do less work for more money and more benefits,
(26:42):
and she saw that as an opportunity, and so she
made sure that she made the metrics in concert with
the Biden administration, and she made all the headlines about
how dangerous it would be to go back to school.
She scared a bunch of people unnecessarily, she kept kids
out of school. Turns out it hurt the poor and
the those who are already struggling. Worm. Yeah, we all
(27:06):
said this would happen. Well, she's out talking again, which
I have to say, I think is probably good for
anyone who's against Randy Wingarten because she's not great at this.
Let's hear clip number one. This is from an NBC
show explaining she's so mad about the idea of cutting
any of the Department of Education.
Speaker 6 (27:26):
Is why so many people are so mad about it,
because they're just taking opportunity away from kids and have
it so billionaires. Kids are billionaires, they have it. They
go to private schools. Everyone else ninety percent go to
public schools. Don't take away their opportunity.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
So let's stay on the fact.
Speaker 6 (27:45):
Sorry, no, I do not really angry about this, because
I'm really angry.
Speaker 9 (27:49):
I taught kids in Clara Barton High School and Brooke.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
She was a teacher for what like three years, by
the way, before she became a very high paid teacher's
union head. I love the reporter here. It's like, don't apologize.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Yeah, you're doing the right thing, Randy, you feel your feelings.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
She kept children out of school for two years. There
has not been a figure in my living memory who
has hurt public schools more than this person did. Yep,
and students. Yeah, it's like all everyone else is to blame.
Let me play one more clip of her on Molly
jong FAST's podcast talking about why she's angry, and when
(28:28):
she's with an even friendlier voice, she tells you the
real thing, the real deal here.
Speaker 9 (28:33):
It is equally pernicious. They're saying, Oh, don't worry, let's
block rant it so we'll give it to a state
education department. So and then let the state education department
decide what to do, so we know, for example, what
Texas would do. They'll use it for vouchers, so that
you don't give it to the kids who have it now.
(28:54):
They'll just give it for balacy for schools, religious schools.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Yeah, she keeps saying things like billionaires kids will have
opportunities if we do this, Like billionaires kids.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Already have opportunities. You didn't say one word that private
schools were open while public schools were closed. I think
that's that remains to me.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Actually, the thing about the whole school closures during the pandemic,
it clearly wasn't about health reasons. Otherwise, why wouldn't the
private schools also be closed. Why did Gavin new some
kids get to go to school. So this is a
complete red herring from her. Oh, the billionaire's kids are
going to get something that the public school kids were
entitled to.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
It's all nonsense.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
The rich kids are already doing very well.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
And a voucher system would give money to parents of
children who are suffering in the schools that she is
such a cheerleader for, except she degraded them over two years. Like, oh,
they might do something crazy like give money to parents
to go to schools that work, right or because caath
Catholic schools have a much better performance record they do
(29:57):
than public schools do in many, many places. I would
wager all the places, and that would give opportunity to
people who are not billionaires. But the truth is what
she's saying here is this money's mine, right. This money
belongs to the union, it belongs to teachers. It should
not follow students because students as usual are not the priority.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
That's right, And look, it is a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Also, I think that I think people don't know that
the Department of Education, Federal Department of Education has a
budget of nearly seventy billion dollars, which you're like, oh, wow,
that pays for all the schools around the country, So
that seems correct. No, schools only get about eleven percent
of funding from the federal government. The rest comes from
state and local moneies. This is a boondoggle.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
This is money.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
You know, Doge can get in here and find all
kinds of waste and fraud because seventy billion, when you're
only sending eleven percent of the school funding is just
an insane number.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
It's a pass through. And she's the middle woman, right,
so what's coming out of there? Also, I would love
to see her be upset even close to this upset
about the national report card we saw a couple of
weeks ago about which she said basically nothing except for like, oh,
we need more money to fix.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
This, right more money is necessary to fix this right now. Please. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
In New York that number was only twenty three percent
of eighth graders are proficion in math, and only twenty
eight percent are a profession in reading. And I have
all these numbers handy because I'm writing about it for
the New York Post and you can read about it
later this week.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Very nice. Well, I'm still mad.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
I'm still mad.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Bro.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yes, thank you so much for joining us on normally
Normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you could subscribe anywhere
you get your podcasts. Get in touch with us at
Normallythepod at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening, and when
things get weird, act normally
Hey guys, we are back on normally the show with
normal it takes or when the news gets weird. I'm
Mary Catherine Ham.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
And I'm Carol Marco. It's him, Mary Catherine. How is
your weekend?
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Weekend was good and my week will not be so
good because we're doing a potty training and intensive over here.
So I won't get into details, but there's a lot
of work on us this week.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Nice. Yeah, I don't miss those days. I have to
tell you.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
People are like, oh, you're going to miss stuff when
it's gone.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
I miss some things, but I don't miss that.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I don't miss like having different sized bottles all over the.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Place, A lot of things I could live without.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Really, Yeah, this is definitely one of them. This transition
is the one that is u It's not a delight,
but we're going to make it through. Yeah, we're having
to have success.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
So let's speaking of babies exactly.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
So there's a new meme craze on the internet, and Carol,
you probably have this too. But I have to bring
my husband up to speed on memes.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I had to bring my husband up to speed on everything.
A few days ago. My husband was like, wait, what
are the dancing Israelis from the like nine to eleven
Conspiracies and like, you're a little late on this.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, So it's a funny thing when you have an
offline mostly offline normally husband. Normally husband is that you know,
he knows politics. He's sort of generally clued in and smart.
But there are things on the Internet that get so
far away by the time I'm explaining to them to
him that they get it's just a little off the rails.
And this week there's one of them, which is the
(01:36):
meaning of jd Vance. Jd Vance, the Vice President of
the United States of America, is now being turned into
everything under the sun thanks to AI and photoshop on
the interwebs, and The Atlantic has written about it, which,
on one hand, I find helpful because I did not
know where this started, and I was like, it's fun.
(01:59):
It's fun. We're making him into Star Wars characters and
garbage pale kids and Willy Wonka extras. But I don't
know where it started. So it turns out The Atlantic
reports that this started in October when a user on
x posted an image of Vance captioned for every one
hundred likes, I will turn jd Vance into a progressively
apple cheeked baby but baby faced. Vance has gone fully
(02:21):
viral since last week after the clash in the Oval
office with Zelensky and Trump. So and then they have
phrases over them like you have to say please and
Tank you miss to Zinski, so they give him a
funny voice. Okay. The Atlantic writer says, of course, people
love making memes that portray their political adversaries as hapless
and incompetent. That's not exactly what's happening with these images
(02:43):
of Vance. The memes are going viral on the left
wing internet, but they are equally, if not more, popular
on the right, explicitly pro Trump accounts on x that
otherwise spend their time bashing liberals or posting embarrassing memes
of their parties second in command. The headline of this
piece is, wait, who's posting these unflattering JD. Vance memes?
(03:04):
The online wrote, right is trolling one.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Of its own, right, What they yeah, go ahead, you.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Can diagnose it if you would like.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Can we all join it?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
They don't get is that we're able to laugh at ourselves,
and they don't understand that because they are so used
to only laughing at us and never at themselves, and
when Saturday Night Live or late night comedian makes fun
of the left, they don't appreciate it at all. Meanwhile,
Orange Man Bad became something that people on the right
say because it's funny and it's okay.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
To laugh at yourself.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, and we we are used to being trolled constantly, right,
that's part of our day to day life. That's why
I can enjoy art that's created by people I don't
agree with, because it happens all the time. I have
a lot of practice, that's right. The other thing I
think they're missing, and I think it was Michael Duncan
who who posted this making fun of each other is
dudes rock one oh one totally.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, this is and it's why you and I get
along well with men, because who like to make fun
of everything and each other and ourselves and all of it.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
And so I think this is yet another example of
the left illustrating why it's not reaching men. Yeah, because
I've been enjoying this JD Fance thing so much good. Yeah,
and it's it's so fun to see what people turn
him into.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
And he's enjoying it, and that is.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
The other part. He's enjoying it, and he I gotta say,
I got to give him props on this. Usually when
a politician tries to join in on a trend or
a meme fest, it doesn't go that well. They're usually behind, right,
they're usually cringe, they're usually not tonally correct, because there's
(04:44):
a lot of as dumb as the Internet is, there's
a lot of nuance in what these things mean and why,
and which is why it's hard to bring your normal
husband up to speed on memes.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
But jd Vance, as part of this, posts himself as
Leonardo DiCaprio in the Tarantino film Once Upon a Time
in Hollywood, because there is a famous meme of Leonardo
DiCaprio's character in this, pointing at the TV, acknowledging like,
oh no, I know what that is.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Right, it's like a meme within a meme.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
It's a meme within a meme.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
Yeah, it perfectly deployed, perfect tone, right, funny, clever and
joined in perfectly with the whole thing, thereby gaining respect
because he's illustrating that he's fine with being made fun of,
and he's seeing all of it and enjoying it.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
It's great and so anchy comedy is the callback, right,
Like so many stand up comedians will start with something
and then like at the end of their act like
callback to that.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
The meme within the meme is exactly that, and it's
it's so good. You're absolutely right.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
It's what the left is lacking. They are lacking a
lightness right now, and.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
I think they did it to themselves.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
We talk about a lot that they don't get negative press,
so they don't know how to react to press that
is negative. They don't get difficult interviews, so they don't
know how to handle, you know, even slightly difficult interviews.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Kamala Harris just collapsed.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
In any interview because she was unable to deal with
any conflict or any pushback at all. This is the
same thing in humor format.
Speaker 6 (06:19):
There.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
They don't know what to do with themselves because they're
not a part of it.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Yeah, it is. It is their their inability to sort
of goof and the misunderstanding of the idea of I mean,
there's there's been an old meme that is the left
camp meme. Yes, and it does appear that they are
having some trouble with that, especially if you consider the
pretty cringe videos from Democrats of the past week, including
(06:46):
the CHOOSU Fighter.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
The day.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, the dancing the Doloro Rose Doloro, who's an older
liberal congresswoman on the Hill who has purple hair, and
it's very funny shed around doing gen Z slang on
the Hill. It was cringe and this was not. And
I don't think it's just because I am more favorable
to jd Vance than Rose Doloro. I think it's because
(07:13):
he got it right. He got it And if you
do not understand the concept of excuse me, busting balls,
you will not be reaching mail voters. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Absolutely, they love that. They are all about that. I mean,
I think all male on mail interaction is just like
poking fun at each other and that's how they connect.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
And to the extent that my normy husband does understand memes,
it's because he sends them back and forth between between
friends on like a real people text chain, as opposed
to the fake people I talked to on the Internet.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
And I have to say, as a mom, I also
stress to my kids that they have to be able
to laugh at themselves and if somebody makes fun of you,
it's almost always better to lean into it and make
fun of yourself too, rather than like, go tell the
teacher about it.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
That is never work. You want to be the.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Kind of person who can laugh at themselves, laugh it off,
move on with your life.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Life lessons from my father, by the way, because when
I had these giant teeth, when they grew in, grew
in at about like a forty five degree angle to
the ground, it was very tragic. No one could take
me serious and teeth. Thank there was no way I
wasn't going to be made fun of. And my father
understood this. And I grew up with two brothers, so
like I was gonna get made fun of in the
house regardless. But my father, my father would always say, hey,
(08:29):
look on the bright side, you can eat corn on
the cop through a picket fence. And so various, mister ham,
various barbs of this nature prepared me for what I
would endure in public school. And yeah, it is important
just to understand that, you know, you gotta you can
stick up for yourself by laughing at yourself.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Right, we all have mockable things about us. It's okay,
let's lean into it and not.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Take it too serious.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
I'm not scarred.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Fine, we're going to take a short break and come
right back with normally.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
What's up next in the news.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Well, this is also on the culture side. But the
Gavin Newsom Charlie Kirk interview has been circulating and has
been just kind of a big story because Gavin Newsom
seems able to do that lightness thing. I am very
worried about a Gavin Newsome future. I think that you know,
(09:31):
he is able to present himself as a moderate even
though he is far far left and things that he does,
like I didn't think that Governor Ron DeSantis should have
debated Gavin Newsom last year. Even though I thought that
DeSantis won, I thought it was still better for Newsome
because he got to kind of show himself off to
(09:53):
the country at a time where a different Democrat was
running for president, kind of keep his name at the
top of people's mind, and to really get to spar
and do the thing that you and I say that
they don't do, which is take criticism, learn how to
fight back, formulate the arguments.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
And he did that here with Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
We're going to play the clip that has mostly gone viral.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Here we go.
Speaker 7 (10:15):
You right now should come out and be like you
know what, the young man who's about to win the
state championship in the long jump in female sports, that
shouldn't happen. You as the governor, should step out and
say no, no, And I appreciate and like, would you
do something like that, would you say no men in
female sports?
Speaker 8 (10:30):
Well, I think it's an issue of fairness. I completely
agree with you on that. It is an issue affairs.
Speaker 7 (10:34):
So it's deeply Would you speak out against this young man,
baby Hernandez, who right now is going to win the
state championship in the long time, I can see you
wrestling with it.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
No, I'm not wrestling.
Speaker 8 (10:43):
I'm not relection with the fairness issue. I totally agree
with you. By the way, as someone with four kids.
You got two daughters, right, two daughters I had, and
a wife that went god forbid to Stanford and played
on the junior national soccer team, and a guy who
got into college only because I was left handed and
could throw baseball a little bit or hit the ball
for a little bit. So I revere sports and so
(11:05):
the issue of fairness is completely legit. And I saw
that the last couple of years. Boy did I saw
how you guys were able to weaponize that.
Speaker 7 (11:13):
Issue at another weaponize, don't that's.
Speaker 8 (11:15):
Well, weabinize maybe pejoriti of you're right, but you were
able to shine a light on highlight it in a
way that frankly, there are not that many we're talking about.
I think N two A what five hundred and ten thousand? No, No,
but I just didn't realize.
Speaker 7 (11:27):
It's eight hundred and ninety medals and trophies that we
know of in the last five years.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
That's a lot.
Speaker 8 (11:31):
No, So I'm gonna let me step back say completely
fair on the issue of fairness, I completely agree. So
that's easy to call out the unfairness of that. There's
also a humility and a grace. You know that that
these poor people are more likely to commit suicide, have
anxiety and depression, and the way that people talk down
to vulnerable communities is an issue that I have a
(11:51):
hard time with as well. So both things I can
hold in my hand. How can we address this issue
with the kind of decency that I think you know
inherent in you but not always expressed on the issue, No,
I get it. At the same time, deal with the
under you're asked.
Speaker 7 (12:06):
You asked a good faith question like how do we
Democrats get out of the wilderness? Yeah, this one is
an eighty twenty issue New York Times poll, Right, that's all.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I agree with you.
Speaker 7 (12:13):
We're getting crushed on and like crush and you have
an opportunity in the state to be like. Look, I
have a heart for Ady Hernandez. I have a heart
for the San Jose volleyball player. Yeah, let's give them compassion.
But what's not fair is just for like a woman's
entire woman's sports.
Speaker 8 (12:26):
I agree, you know, by the way I agree with you.
I agree with you, and it's sterty. I stress tested
this child. I was wondering. I said, you know, in California,
and I've been a leader in the LGBTQ places as
face as you know, back in two thousand and four
was marrying sane sex couples. And I know we have
different opinion on marriage equality, and so I've been at
this for years and years. I take a bad seat
to no one, but I was actually on the issue
(12:46):
of sports, which in the last few years has just exploded,
trying to understand and understand the ten athletes in the
NC two A five hundred and ten thousand athletes, but
ten athletes and what but how profound, And even my
own friend Cohort people saying, the hell is going on?
Why aren't you calling this out? When did this happen?
So in two thousand, turns out in twenty fourteen, years
(13:07):
before I was governor, there was a law established that
established the legal principles that allow the allowed trans athletes
and women's sports. But the issue of fairness is completely jit.
So I completely align with you, and we've got to
own that. We've got to acknowledge it. I don't say
that through the prism of politics because you disagree with
same sex marriage on principle, and so I'm not. And
(13:29):
by the way, I value the fact that you're not
trying to walk away from that principle because electorally, I'm
in the side, yeah, in the minority, and I don't
want to walk away from this principle because of electoral
But it is an issue of fairness.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Well, it's interesting. I wanted to play the longer version
of that clip because he gets into so much stuff.
He's like, you know, for example, his pointing. By the way,
Charlie was masterful in this interview. I thought he did
a fantastic job. He really he maintained friendliness, he was
able to get to the bottom of things with him.
They had an exchange that I thought Charlie did a
(14:06):
terrific job. In this clip, he is saying Charlie takes
unpopular positions like against same sex marriage, and Gavin Newsom
is basically saying we're going to stick with our unpopular position,
but also manages to say I don't think it's fair.
He really is very sneaky and Republican should be extremely
(14:27):
careful with him.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Look, I am very uncharitable toward Gavin Newsom, and I
really thought that the mismanagement of the fires in California
would just end him right, end him right. And when
I hear him talk about the fires in a politician's capacity,
I'm like, this is a lizard man, Like, what's happening here?
He's terrible at this. And then I watched this and
(14:51):
I go, oh, he's having a real He's having a conversation,
which is the thing that many of them cannot do.
And I think he also did in the Dysantas Knew
some debate, which I'm in slight disagreement with you on that,
just because I enjoyed the counterfactual of watching these two
people debate each other versus the Biden Trump matchup. And
(15:13):
I do think that hearing those voices and those arguments
from those two folks as the foils was helpful to
America just to see that conversation happen. But yeah, he's
pretty good at having that conversation. Sometimes. I agree with
you that he is tricky here because he's better at
(15:34):
doing the Kamala Harris thing, which was I'm going to say,
I don't think the things I used to think. Yeah,
but I'm not going to do anything about it.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Definitely right.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
He mentioned that the law precedes him, but you're a
governor and you could change that.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
That's what Governor DeSantis does.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
He affects change in the state of Florida and moves
things in his direction in California.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
This is the second major Democrat in a couple of
weeks to say something along these lines, and I would
say Ram Emmanuel went even further. And this one didn't
go viral, but it was on Bill Maher's show, and
I kid you not, as part of a discussion of
how democrats governing major cities have gotten off the rails.
(16:23):
He said, I know me. If in high school or
middle school I could have said I'm a they and
gotten into the women's bathroom, I would have done it
for sure.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
That's the truth about so many of these men, like
they know what they would have done.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Come on, well, but it he conceded the point we've
all been making. When this is subjective, it becomes dangerous
to people. He did it in sort of a coarse way.
I am very surprised that didn't go viral or get
him in trouble. What kind of heat is Newsome taking
(16:58):
for saying these very like but common sense things.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Right well, Newsom got ripped by Democrats. A column in
The Sacramento be titled Governor Gavin Newsom's civility displayed on
his new podcast looks Spineless noted and this is what
they said.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Newsom nodded in agreement so much with Kirk. I would
be surprised if he didn't strain his neck. He allowed
Kirk to say whatever he wanted and didn't provide much
in the way of opposition. If you told someone who
doesn't follow politics to watch this podcast episode and choose
who was the conservative, I'm sure they would say both.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
That's what he nails.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Yeah, he really did. He nailed that. The problem for him,
of course.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Is he's going to have to go through the Democratic
primary first, and this is where they all return to
the ridiculous positions that they have to have last time around.
I think all of them are almost all of them
raised their hands.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
For should we have free health care for legal immigrants?
Speaker 2 (17:54):
I mean, they get caught up in this nonsense in
the primary that gets very hard to walk back in
the general. And him doing it this early is almost
like a sign that he thinks he is the standard
bear and that he's going to be the one that
the rest of the squad has to be.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
So we'll see.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
You know what I found interesting too, he mentions his
own friend cohort, which is very liberal, very rich donor
class Californians. Yeah, okay, so that should tell him how
potent this is, right, because if the people, if the people.
(18:30):
I think it is because David Frums written about it too,
where he was sitting around before the election and all
sorts of actually liberal people were like urbane liberals were like,
I don't know about this one, guys. So I do
think that it's an eighty twenty issue. It's going to
encompass some of every single class in America. And if
you're hearing that at the French laundry table where you
(18:52):
go during COVID, Gavin Newsom, when no one else can
go to a rescue, then that's a that's a red
flag for you. It's a red flag. So he's dancing
around it, but he needs to actually do something if
he if he wants to on the right, but then
he's on the wrong side of lefty politics.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
It's very, very tough spot for him.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
He also mentions that his thirteen year old son is
a big fan of Charlie's and that's.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
That was an interesting point too.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I don't know how i'd feel if my you know,
one of my kids was a huge fan of like
somebody really far on the opposite side politically from me.
But he laughs it off, and he talks about how
his son wanted to take the day off to go
see this interview, but you know, obviously he can't because
he has school. And Charlie delivers the greatest line actually
of the interview, and he says, you close schools for
(19:42):
two years, what's another day? Yeah, Gavin new some his
kids did go to school because they went to private
schools as still mad.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
At that bro forever or ever. By the way, no,
that's a great line.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
We'll be right back on normally.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
You know, it's the fifth anniversary of the COVID two
weeks to stop the spread. And I actually I have
a fun COVID story, Carol. You were at my wedding, yes,
which I don't know how Providence chose for us. It
was amazing seventh, twenty twenty. Yeah, and we got married
on a beach in Aruba, and we had a great
(20:22):
party and almost no one dropped from the wedding list.
People were a little like, are we cool to go
out of the country right now? There was a little rumbling.
I think two people dropped. We had a huge, giant,
guilt free fun party and then everyone went home and
like three days later the world was shut down.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Yeah, it was wild. It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
It was an incredible wedding, and it was the perfect
way to celebrate the end of the world, yes, which.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
We did not know was coming. But by the way,
I posted about that on X the other day. And
just so you know that there are a few dead
enders who will still shame you for having a wedding
in March of twenty twenty, at which zero people got.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Sick, right right, yeah, And like I it was the
Jewish holiday of Perham back home, and my kids were
with my in laws and we called them and they
were like, yeah, the Perham party was canceled.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
And we were like what.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
That's crazy, what a crazy thing to do. How could
they just cancel the Perham party?
Speaker 4 (21:27):
You know, little did we know? Of course, then life
would be canceled very shortly thereafter.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Well, as we're revisiting everyone on this fifth anniversary, someone's
revisiting Fauci.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
If you have a story, right, So, David Scharfenberg in
the Boston Globe has a book review.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
A lot of people are.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Passing it around without reading it, because that's what people
do on the internet.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
But we go the extra mile here.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Normally we actually read the articles. The article is called
the Case Against Fauci, so yes, it gets you know,
the kind of article that just gets passed around without
anybody reading it. But it's actually a book review of
Stephen Mersito and Francis Lee's scathing new book called In
COVID's Wake, How Our Politics Failed Us, And people are
(22:16):
praising this book and this review because finally Fauci is
being seen as the villain of that era, which you
know certainly how I see him, and it's being passed
around by what I would call our people, the ones
still mad bro So Scharfenberg reviews the book and in
the In his review of it, he writes this line
(22:36):
that really pissed me off. He writes, much of in
COVID's Wake feels convincing, in no small part because Messito
and Lee are of the liberal data driven tribe they
critique are they?
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Are they really?
Speaker 2 (22:48):
And the rest of us like who aren't in the
in the liberal tribes just.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Exactly right. I don't remember those names.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I don't remember them being around at the time when
when it really did matter. And he says, quote, but
it's fair to say that Fauci, knowing what he knew
at the time, was wrong to argue that many schools
would have to remain shuttered in the fall of twenty twenty. Later,
he voiced regret over how long remote learning lingered No No.
In February of twenty twenty one, and we're going about
(23:17):
to play the clip, Fauci said that Biden's spending plan
had to be.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Passed before schools could open.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
And I get that this was a throwaway line to
be fair to Fauci, but I'm just not having it.
Speaker 8 (23:28):
Let's play that clip, and I think that the schools
really do need more resources.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
And that's the reason why the National Relief Act that
we're talking about getting passed. We need that the schools
need more. Look, the review acknowledges things like, quote, the
liberal follow the science crowd was certain it was right
and had little tolerance for dissent. And ultimately the review
is like, well, liberals were wrong. Sure, but have you
(23:53):
heard of Donald Trump? So you know, I'm just not
as thrilled as a lot of other people are about
this story.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
No, I don't think you should be. So much of
this stuff is far too little, too late. Although I
do appreciate some movement, because some of these people really
freak me out with the way they still talk like
it's twenty twenty. I was on Howie Kurtz's show on
Fox Sunday and Leslie Marshall, who's one of our Democrats
(24:22):
who I appreciate very much, who's on Fox with us,
and we usually have a pretty good back and forth,
but we had a real back and forth this weekend
because when asked about an RFK story, she went hard
on we understand that public health and science are not political.
(24:44):
We are the party that gets at that this shouldn't
be a Republican or a democratic issue. They demonized vaccines
and here we are referring to the measles outbreak in Texas.
It came back to me and I was somewhat flower
gas and I said, how I say to hear from
a dem after COVID that the science is not political
(25:09):
is laughable. And here are the eighty one reasons why.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Went through all of my turns out. I have it
all on the tip of my tongue.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
I was like, oh, when, for instance, Collins was covering
up the origin of the virus and didn't tell us
things we should know, and we have Floyd emails that
tell us he was lying at the time, when FALCI
was doing the same thing, when they were smearing jaboditaria
it was now the head of the NIH, when they
were closing schools for two years, when they were forcing
COVID vaccines on children who didn't need them for RASK
original rets, that's right. Risk analysis. Yeah, I can say
(25:41):
words see, I'm still mad about it.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
You're still mad about it. I'm still mad about it.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
And we're going to continue to be the voice of
this because it really hasn't been that long. We are
constantly being threatened with new viruses possibly emerging. It does
not seem that a lot of people learn the right lessons.
I still hear, you know, from people who say, we
just didn't try hard enough, we just didn't mask hard enough.
I mean, there's still obviously so many people who are
saying that, you know, we just didn't do it good.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
The COVID vaccine is still on the schedule for six
month olds, right, It's on the vaccine schedule. If you
want people to trust the rest of it, you got
to take that off. That's part of the that's part
of how public easy call.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
One last one of our favorite characters just getting from
this era is Randy Winegarden, head of a national teacher's union,
who held public school students' education's ransom for two years
to get their payout. That was the desire. They wanted
to do less work for more money and more benefits,
(26:42):
and she saw that as an opportunity, and so she
made sure that she made the metrics in concert with
the Biden administration, and she made all the headlines about
how dangerous it would be to go back to school.
She scared a bunch of people unnecessarily, she kept kids
out of school. Turns out it hurt the poor and
the those who are already struggling. Worm. Yeah, we all
(27:06):
said this would happen. Well, she's out talking again, which
I have to say, I think is probably good for
anyone who's against Randy Wingarten because she's not great at this.
Let's hear clip number one. This is from an NBC
show explaining she's so mad about the idea of cutting
any of the Department of Education.
Speaker 6 (27:26):
Is why so many people are so mad about it,
because they're just taking opportunity away from kids and have
it so billionaires. Kids are billionaires, they have it. They
go to private schools. Everyone else ninety percent go to
public schools. Don't take away their opportunity.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
So let's stay on the fact.
Speaker 6 (27:45):
Sorry, no, I do not really angry about this, because
I'm really angry.
Speaker 9 (27:49):
I taught kids in Clara Barton High School and Brooke.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
She was a teacher for what like three years, by
the way, before she became a very high paid teacher's
union head. I love the reporter here. It's like, don't apologize.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Yeah, you're doing the right thing, Randy, you feel your feelings.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
She kept children out of school for two years. There
has not been a figure in my living memory who
has hurt public schools more than this person did. Yep,
and students. Yeah, it's like all everyone else is to blame.
Let me play one more clip of her on Molly
jong FAST's podcast talking about why she's angry, and when
(28:28):
she's with an even friendlier voice, she tells you the
real thing, the real deal here.
Speaker 9 (28:33):
It is equally pernicious. They're saying, Oh, don't worry, let's
block rant it so we'll give it to a state
education department. So and then let the state education department
decide what to do, so we know, for example, what
Texas would do. They'll use it for vouchers, so that
you don't give it to the kids who have it now.
(28:54):
They'll just give it for balacy for schools, religious schools.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Yeah, she keeps saying things like billionaires kids will have
opportunities if we do this, Like billionaires kids.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Already have opportunities. You didn't say one word that private
schools were open while public schools were closed. I think
that's that remains to me.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Actually, the thing about the whole school closures during the pandemic,
it clearly wasn't about health reasons. Otherwise, why wouldn't the
private schools also be closed. Why did Gavin new some
kids get to go to school. So this is a
complete red herring from her. Oh, the billionaire's kids are
going to get something that the public school kids were
entitled to.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
It's all nonsense.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
The rich kids are already doing very well.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
And a voucher system would give money to parents of
children who are suffering in the schools that she is
such a cheerleader for, except she degraded them over two years. Like, oh,
they might do something crazy like give money to parents
to go to schools that work, right or because caath
Catholic schools have a much better performance record they do
(29:57):
than public schools do in many, many places. I would
wager all the places, and that would give opportunity to
people who are not billionaires. But the truth is what
she's saying here is this money's mine, right. This money
belongs to the union, it belongs to teachers. It should
not follow students because students as usual are not the priority.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
That's right, And look, it is a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Also, I think that I think people don't know that
the Department of Education, Federal Department of Education has a
budget of nearly seventy billion dollars, which you're like, oh, wow,
that pays for all the schools around the country, So
that seems correct. No, schools only get about eleven percent
of funding from the federal government. The rest comes from
state and local moneies. This is a boondoggle.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
This is money.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
You know, Doge can get in here and find all
kinds of waste and fraud because seventy billion, when you're
only sending eleven percent of the school funding is just
an insane number.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
It's a pass through. And she's the middle woman, right,
so what's coming out of there? Also, I would love
to see her be upset even close to this upset
about the national report card we saw a couple of
weeks ago about which she said basically nothing except for like, oh,
we need more money to fix.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
This, right more money is necessary to fix this right now. Please. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
In New York that number was only twenty three percent
of eighth graders are proficion in math, and only twenty
eight percent are a profession in reading. And I have
all these numbers handy because I'm writing about it for
the New York Post and you can read about it
later this week.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Very nice. Well, I'm still mad.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
I'm still mad.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Bro.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yes, thank you so much for joining us on normally
Normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you could subscribe anywhere
you get your podcasts. Get in touch with us at
Normallythepod at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening, and when
things get weird, act normally
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Buck Sexton
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