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January 14, 2025 33 mins

In this episode, Mary Katharine Ham and Karol Markowicz discuss various topics ranging from the challenges of orthodontics in parenting to the ongoing wildfires in California and the political leadership's response. They critique the lack of preparedness and competence among elected officials during disasters, explore the bureaucratic red tape that hinders recovery efforts, and analyze the implications of wealthy Californians facing the consequences of their policies. The conversation also touches on the decline in child immunization rates and the political narratives surrounding it. Normally is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Thursday.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey guys. Here we are on normally the show with
normal as it takes for when the news gets weird.
I'm Mary Katherine.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Ham and I am Carol Marko. It's I'm Mary Catherine.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
How's it going.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
It's going all right. We are just embarking. I don't
know if your family has on the Adventure of Orthodontics.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
We're partially there.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Our oldest has in visi line, but she's sort of
a self cleaning oven, so we don't really do that
much with her. I don't love but the youngest one,
the younger ones, it's gonna be trickier.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah, I'm like monitoring each child's jaw growth, Like, how
much am I going to have to spend on you?
Is there another way we can do this? Three year old? Yeah,
I need you to overachieve in jow growth. So anyway, Yeah,
that's that's what I get for having all these big teeth. Man,
they inherited them.

Speaker 4 (00:50):
You know.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
I actually when our daughter was up for getting in
visi line.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
I almost didn't want her to do it.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
I liked her imperfect teeth, and it does make me
a little like she's gonna, you know, they already are
you know, more.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Perfect than they were, and.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
I kind of miss her little fangs and her I
don't know, I don't know that I'm super into everybody's
teeth looking exactly the.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Same, exactly the same, me neither.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, I mean, I had orthodont you know, I had
bracest for many years.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
I get it, but it's just I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
See, now, your kid's teeth are probably like charmingly imperfect.
If you saw mine, if you had seen mine when
I was eight years old, you would have different thoughts
about the urgent need for orthodonte. It was like quite
a spectacle, as my father always said, and I think
I attribute some of my current thick skin to this.

(01:44):
He said, Well, on the upside, you could eat corn
on the cobs through a picket fence.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
So.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
I may here, I am. Oh my goodness.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Well, unfortunately, not everything in the news is as light
as the orthodontics talk. We have an ongoing disaster in
southern California. Thousands and thousands of acres burned in you know,
a handful of fires, four or five different fires at
this point, the worst of which remains the Pacific Palisades one.

(02:18):
But there's an eaten fire. There was one close to
the Hollywood Hills that was thankfully gotten under control fairly quickly,
and then the risk of more fires breaking out every
day as conditions remain windy and dry, although not as
windy as the first day. And there are also like
rogue actors out there who run around with blowtorches and

(02:39):
or light fires for fun. As you know, arsonists have
been caught in the streets, sometimes by citizens and apprehended. Nonetheless,
the people are sort of banding together with the help
of one chef. Gruel is notable in his efforts to

(02:59):
get people food and clothing and volunteers out and mobilized.
The city is not shut down, but it's you know,
in dire straits and parts, and the public response from
their very highly paid officials it's not exactly what one
would wish at this point.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, so there's at least twenty four people dead at
this point, and it's the fires are not out like
you said, they're actually in danger of growing again. In
the latest report I read this morning, the Palisades fire
looks like it's it's starting up again and the winds
are adding to that obviously, and their elected officials are

(03:43):
kind of just you know, covering their own butts, and
so it's it's unfortunate and I you know, we all
wish the best for California.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
It's sad to see their leadership and action. Let's play
the Gavin Newsom clip.

Speaker 4 (04:00):
You just said you're organizing a Marshall plan for the
rebuilding of California. What is that Marshall force marriages starting
to lay out. I mean, we're still fighting these fires.
So we're already talking to city leaders, We're already talking
to civic leaders. We're already talking to business leaders and nonprofits,
we're talking to labor leaders. We're starting to organize how
we can put together a collection of individuals on philanthropy

(04:22):
for recovery, how we can organize the region, how we
can make sure that we are seeking federal assistance for
the Olympics more broadly, but also federal assistance for the
recovery efforts, and how we can galvanize the community with
folks that love this community to really develop a mindset
so that at scale we're dealing with the scope of

(04:45):
this tragedy and responding to it at scale with efficiency.
Like the executive Order, I talked about time value of
delivering projects, addressing building codes, addressing permitting issues, and moving
forward to rebuilding and being more resilient.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
No, sir, I will not be buying your online coaching
plan at this time. Only listening to the audio, you
kind of have to imagine Knewso doing this like interpretive
dance with his hands as he babbles on about how
he can galvanize the community with folks who really love
this community, to really develop on mindset so that at
scale we're dealing with the scope and at scale it's

(05:24):
just it's insane to me that this guy is considered
the great Democratic hope to run for president, because at
this point, I think Republican should be like, yeah, bring
him on.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
So disasters are by definition disastrous. There will be very
bad outcomes, almost regardless of what is in place before
the disaster. However, and there's way too much of this
in media. The assumption that these people get off the
hook because they are Democrats who are faced with a

(05:57):
disaster and that that's going to have disastrous consequences is
not right. Because what he's giving you is a list
of things he's going to do in the future. He
should have done things in the past that's how that
is your responsibility as a public servant to have an
idea of what's on the ground, what's at your disposal,

(06:18):
what is staged to make a disaster as little disastrous
as you possibly can. And I know we do this
a lot, but there's a very obvious comparison to Governor DeSantis,
who knows exactly what assets he has, who has three
or four plans behind plan A for every incident that happens.

(06:41):
Karen Bass was at a press conference yesterday, also saying,
we will be prepared, we will be prepared to rebuild,
we will be prepared to scale, we will be prepared
for these efforts as the fires are ongoing, prepared as
past tense. Ma'am prepared his past ten yep, a long

(07:02):
time ago. And that is not fair to the people
who are facing danger now or the people who are
trying to pick up the pieces bravely and do what
has not been prepared for exactly.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah, this ongoing thing with the both of them have
just exposed how poor their leadership is. You know what's
interesting in the newsome kind of rant. First of all,
in that clip, we didn't play it, but he starts
with praising the Trump administration for helping LA secure the Olympics,
and it's definitely a change of tone. You also don't

(07:37):
hear anything about like we'll be rebuilding with an eye
on equity, and you know, he couldn't take that level
of mockery. At this point, I think that they're finally
getting off the script that has been their go to
for the last few years, where every time anything happens,
they kind of blame Republicans, blame rich people, and talk

(07:57):
about how much better their side would do well.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
And we're seeing performance here, right. This is a you're
being graded on performance, and I don't think he's used
to being graded right on the like he's not a
spiritual guru. He's a governor and so your job is
to lead. I noticed in the press conference yesterday also
a that tone shift you're talking about, because there was

(08:23):
a member of the Board of Commissioners who said, I've
reached out to Trump to see if he will visit.
No one was trashing him. They were saying that they
were hopeful about the tone of their conversations, including Bass herself.
But another thing I noticed about that press conference is
that no one wanted to lead that press conference. They

(08:43):
were handing the mic off, not just for specific information,
but handing the mic off because bas didn't want to
take more questions. And it really is such a different
vibe than you see from places that have thought through
emergency management. For instance, when folks were trying to get

(09:03):
into their Pacific Palisades neighborhood to check on pets, to
check on their homes, it was clear from the briefing
that there wasn't really a plan for when people should
be allowed to get back in, how many people should
be allowed to get back in, And they ended up
sort of stymying themselves and maybe putting people in danger
by having too many people go back at one time.

(09:26):
So they had to put the brakes on that and
announce that. And I just think I have seen other
people who would have had a plan for how many
people go in on a daily basis to which areas.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
Absolutely and had a plan on just how to speak
to the public.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
I think that there's a chef cart.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
It's just nobody knows what to expect from these people. Yesterday,
Gavin Newsom or two days ago, issued an executive order
that will allow victims of the fires to not get
caught up in bureaucratic red tape and quickly.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
Rebuild their homes.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Great, But as Lydia Leiterman points out on x our PACHLDS,
he's saying a red tape can magically vanish when it's expedient.
Red tape is pointless. The state will go back to
being broken after this. Dems caused the red tape, and
if rich Democrat voters had to deal with the red tape, they'd.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Stop voting for Democrats.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
So it's interesting that they can get rid of the
red tape when they have to.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
But why did the red tape exist in the first place?

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Well, and Bass herself called it the bureaucracy that holds
us back even in normal times. And I ask you,
why hold yourselves back? If it's if it's genuinely stuff
that's saving lives, right, then it shouldn't be cut. If
it's not, why is it there? And I don't think

(10:49):
they're prepared to answer those questions. I'm not even sure
that any of them. Again, I don't think they have
a grip on how many regulations there are. Like if
you asked Bass, what does it look like to rebuild
in Pacific House, I don't think she has that information
right now. I hope she gets it right. I hope
they inform themselves, but it would be helpful to have

(11:09):
people who have a grasp on that before this happens.
I do see the idea of getting rid of red
tape as at least promising shower as they move forward,
But in the meantime, they're not even close to that yet.
They got to get a lot of these fires out
before they can even take that step.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah, that's right, and again we're rooting for California. You
and I have discussed our California love in the past,
and on the last episode, it is unfortunate that they've
gotten themselves to this place.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
I would really love to see an awakening over there.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
I'd love to see them realize, Wow, we have been
pushing crazy policies. I think I wrote about this for
the New York Post over the weekend. But a lot
of times rich people are immune from the policies, the
leftist policies that they push, like California schools are failing.
For example, Gavin Newsome and the wealthy people there send
their kids to private school, so who cares.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
But this is a.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Situation where rich people are seeing up close the effects
of their poor policies, and I think that it can
really be a moment of change for this state. Obviously,
everybody can be you know, should be involved. I wrote
this article on our mutual friend Alicia Krause, who lives
in California and loves California, said, you know, it won't
just be rich people. It'll be the middle class and
the working class. And of course it will be of course,

(12:27):
but I think that this is a moment where rich
people kind of see what they've been supporting and hopefully
they'll they'll change well.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
And the thing is that, you know that what they've
often done is like they have a sort of unofficial
regime of non compliance. And if you're rich, either you
have the money to pay for the regulations and do
the thing, or in a lot of cases, people just
like don't inform la of what they're doing, right, that's
a that's a that's an option for them. However, like

(13:02):
you hand off a bunch of power to bureaucrats and
they sort of create their own jobs and make their
jobs more powerful and burrow in and create more and
more obstacles. And there have been a couple of high
profile cases where rich people have talked about how hard
it is to make just normal things happen. Adam Carolla
mentioned someone's pool, Carson Daly's pool that needed like basically

(13:28):
the kind of hole that you would store nuclear waste
in in order to build a pool right in his backyard.
Or Bill Maher who took you know, several years I believed,
to get permitting to make a solar powered shack in
his backyard. Right, it's like not a big structure. And
there's a famous story of the edge the U two

(13:51):
guitarist is that right, Yeah, who he was? He's in
like a twenty year fight with the Coastal Commission to
build on his own property. It just is outrageous the
things that these folks are put through, particularly when the
state leves the hugest taxes in the US.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
That's it, right, Like, yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
Maybe they can get better value for their dollar after this.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Well, one thing that I mentioned in the post piece
is that, look, California's had this massive exodus, but it's
mostly been lower and middle class people until last year
where rich people started to leave.

Speaker 3 (14:30):
If rich people start to leave.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
California, it's going to be a steep slide. They cannot
function without their tax dollars, and I don't know what
they're going to do. I mean, New York is suffering
in a lot of ways, but it's harder, I would say,
to leave New York where like the center of banking
still happens there and you can make movies anywhere. And
I think people are realizing that that's the reality that

(14:52):
if you lose these this industry, if you lose these
people at the very top, California will suffer even more
than it is now.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
Cummings, who's been great to follow on X during this,
partly because she approaches all of this she had to
evacuate and take her stuff with her. She approaches it
with a gallows sense of humor. Yeah, And she noted
like about the good folks who live in LA who
like don't deserve any of this, of course, and she
was sort of addressing those who've been nasty about it,

(15:20):
and she's saying, like, look, you know a lot of
us are out here because you know, our parents didn't
pay attention to us, and this is where the cameras are.
So our fathers left us and we had to come
here because that's where the lights and the camera cameras
are and we had to get the attention here. But
then she's talking to the phone and she's like, but
now you can do this anywhere, right, the attention is everywhere,

(15:41):
And she's right, like that is a microcosm of the
issue for LA as a sort of business and entertainment center.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
Absolutely, And she's been so great. She's been so upfront
about her kind of shifts and opinion and what she's
saying and what she's talking about is exactly what I'd
like to see other Californians do, basically to admit that
what they believed in did not work and that they're
going to change course because they have face reality.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
Well, like, it doesn't have to be Republicans necessarily that
you elect the basics. The basics don't have a Republican
in there, right, I mean, like, but I'm just saying,
the basics don't have to be based like you guys
made it based to believe in giving basic government services,
and that doesn't have to be a right of center belief.

(16:36):
And you should Actually a person like Gavin Newsom should
be embarrassed that a person like DeSantis, who is reviled
for de emphasizing climate change in his statutes and messages
nonetheless protects the people of Florida from extreme weather better
than Newsom does. Like put your money where your mouth is.

(16:58):
This is not about signaling. This is about serving right
and to find some people who do that, regardless of
who they are. But at this point they're more likely
to be a Republican. That's just.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yeah, they've made competency a conservative issue, like they've turned
it into conservative value, and that this is the.

Speaker 3 (17:17):
Result of that.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
So I don't know that they're going to need a
Republican or that they would elect a Republican, but right,
they need someone competent, and they've turned competence into something
only that other Ichy party does.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
Right, if competence is Ichy, then you're going to have trouble, yeah, always,
And there's far too little competence in government in general.
But you could at least have a fighting chance if
you value it and reward people for it.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
We'll be right back on normally.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
Switching gears in Yesterday's New York Times, in a surprise
to absolutely no one, especially not to me and you,
who predicted that.

Speaker 3 (18:00):
This would happen all throughout the.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
COVID years, child immunizations are down, yeah, believe it or not.
The New York Times reports nationwide, less than ninety three
percent of kindergarteners completed the measles vaccine last year, down
from ninety five percent.

Speaker 3 (18:16):
According to the CDC, Immunization rates.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Against polio, whooping cough, and chicken pox fell similarly. Similarly,
the main thing that The New York Times is doing
with this piece, though, is making it seem like again,
it's just Republicans, who are you know.

Speaker 3 (18:34):
Shifting on this.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
They point out that in states that supported Donald Trumk
for president, the number of children receiving exemptions rose. The
story with non compliance is more complex.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
It rose in.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
Both blue and red states, though more in red states.
So I don't know, I you know, I was passionately
pro vaccine. I think I would have not let my
kids hang out with the kids who were not getting
the regular vaccines on time. COVID absolutely shifted my perspective

(19:08):
on it. Now my kids are all vaccinated already. It's
that shift is sailed. I don't know, if you know,
I don't know what I would do if I was
starting this all over again. I think I would still vaccinate,
but I imagine I'd have a lot more questions, a lot,
and I think I would do a lot more reading

(19:29):
on my own. I just I trust our pediatrician. I
trusted her when they were little. I trust her now,
you know absolutely, She's just fantastic and I believe her.

Speaker 3 (19:39):
So I have that.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
But if you don't love your pediatrician, if you don't
necessarily trust them, and you've had the CDC lie to you,
openly lie to you, and not only lie to you,
politicize the whole process of the COVID vaccine, get Randy
Weingarten to rewrite school reopening policies for the CDC. I
think I would say, I don't trust these people, and

(20:05):
I need to, you know, do my own research, as
the phrase went, And I would.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
Do my own research at this point.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
So I get the families that are making their own
decisions now and kind of rethinking everything.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yes, this is a natural consequence of what people were
given during COVID and the messaging they were given and
the bullying. Frankly that happened with a brand new and
not very effective vaccine, at least for children, right like
the especially for children. For kids, the risk was so

(20:40):
low it was zero. It was zero percent, right, adding
to your adding this for your kid didn't make sense
in a risk benefit analysis, right, And you know, you
can make the argument that no harm was done, but
you can't make that argument with teen boys, by the way,
because that wasn't the truth. But I don't know what

(21:01):
I would have done had I had a teenager who
needed to play sports. And I was genuinely concerned about
at least that age group of boys. And it was
pretty awful what they did to people. And they're looking
at the same messagers telling them no, no, no, don't

(21:23):
ask any questions. All of this is all good. That
is not a good consequence, but it's a natural consequence, right.
And I keep quoting my friend Kristen Soulda Sanderson because
I think it's such a smart point that when people
complain about loss of trust and institutions, they talk about
it too often as if it's the people losing the

(21:44):
trust that's the problem. When it's the institutions giving away
the Trustah, that's the problem. So they have to earn
that trust back, and they're going to probably be some
bad consequences in the meantime before they do. But I
do I think you know, if you and I, who
were both like died in the wool super provas, no problem,

(22:06):
give me what. We started asking questions when they said
the COVID vaccine is definitely what you need for your
six month old, right, Like, I'm like, I have questions
about this, right, And then I started to have questions
about other things. The one that always stuck in my
craw and the only one that I sort of like
do a different schedule or opt out of is he

(22:27):
B because they give it to your twenty four year
old child, twenty four hour old child, And I just thought,
is my twenty four hour old child in intravenous drug unde?

Speaker 2 (22:42):
Right?

Speaker 1 (22:42):
And you know, the indications for this vaccine are that
it would be for a grown person who has multiple
sexual partners or as an ivy drug user. So I
just thought, maybe we can hold off on that one.
But that's the kind of thing that people didn't say
out loud five years ago.

Speaker 3 (22:59):
I just yeah, right, right.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
I never asked any questions because I had such full
faith in the system, and I have to you know,
it's really funny. It's funny that I got called anti
vaxer so often during the COVID times.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
And my response after a while was like I wish
I had been. I wish I had been an anti
vaxer because and I don't mean the classic vaccines, I
mean for COVID.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
I couldn't wait to get the COVID vaccine.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
I specifically couldn't wait for my mom to get the
COVID vaccine because I wanted back to normal, back to reality.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
But I was excited for that.

Speaker 3 (23:36):
Yeah, right.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
We were told that this was it, this was going
to be the miracle that let us all be free again.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
And I was a defender of the vaccine at first, and.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
Still I was called an anti vaxer because it was
just it didn't matter. And when I said that, look,
you know, kids have a zero percent chance of dying
of COVID.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
That doesn't mean zero kids of it.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
It just means statistically zero percent chance of a negative
COVID outcome. You can't reduce zero any lower. And then
when they wanted kids to get boosters, it's like you're
already just in a crazy, crazy place.

Speaker 3 (24:14):
You can't continue to do this. So a lot of
trust has been broken.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
I look, my trust has been broken, And so I
get why people are reconsidering this. I mean, having said
all that, I still think that the classic vaccines.

Speaker 3 (24:27):
Are largely good. Do your own.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
Research, you know, bring that back, bring that phrase back,
and decide for yourself well.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
And I think Vene Prosad, who was a COVID skeptic,
and I think his writing about this is helpful and informative.
He writes that maybe the correct question is why is
our schedule so different than like Denmark? Right? And that
is a question that I think we can safely engage
in while retaining trust, Like actually you would gain back

(24:58):
by trust by having that conversation while giving people more
trust for the biggies, right, the ones we want people
to have trust in if you actually just talked about that.
And so I think what they've what Public Health didn't want,
was to have a conversation about this. And I understand
the efficacy of not having a conversation. If you're above reproach, right,

(25:21):
you don't have that's the conversation. Once you become not
above reproach anymore, you have to have the conversation to
get people back in the fold you just do, and
you have to answer questions like why is our schedule
different from other European countries, and would it be harmful
if it were the same.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
We're going to take a short break and come right
back with.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
Normally well wrapping up our COVID segment. What is your
county engaged in over there America?

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Oh, my gosh, so many good things. Well, first of all,
I should to give some perspective. Of course, the public
schools didn't have school for like four or five days
during the most recent snowfall. They were having trouble, of course,
plowing streets. Again, the basics are cool to me as

(26:13):
a high tax paying citizen, and yet a thing that
my county has been engaged in while not perfecting these
other basics, is just putting forth some money for a
COVID memorial, just a big old public display about those
we lost during COVID. However, the public backlash just spending

(26:36):
money on this and doing a whole design process and
wasting time and meetings on this, the backlash was so
large that they actually were like, never mind, it's a
memorial for many good things that people like and first responders,
and they just kind of like they're trying to fudget

(26:57):
into something else. But if even in this northern Virginia
County people's patients is hit for this stuff. It's happening elsewhere.
It's part of the vibe shift.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, absolutely, I saw a rendering of it or something.

Speaker 3 (27:17):
It is goofy looking.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yes, I'm not sure that you guys should be spending
your money on that, but you know.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
I am. Yeah. It's like it's like a it looks
like a like a lame Mario go around that doesn't move,
it doesn't go anywhere. It's called circles of Memory, and
they are submitting zoning for it, and it's a way
to honor every Look, guys, just get the basics right first.

Speaker 3 (27:47):
Yeah, just get.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
The basis right.

Speaker 3 (27:49):
And that's that's all there is to it.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Really, so work in progress, work in progress on that.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
Well, as we're talking about the California fires, I think
our last in case you missed its segment for today
is going to be about North Carolina. Yes, what's going
on over there.

Speaker 1 (28:09):
Yes, I've been keeping an eye on this just because
I have friends and family both in LA and western
North Carolina. But I do think that the media tends
to reflexively pay a lot of attention to disasters that
happened nearby. Media capitals as LA is one, and they
don't when it comes to places like Appalachia, particularly Western

(28:29):
North Carolina was not paid a lot of attention to
because it could have hurt Biden leading into an election,
so there was less coverage than there might have otherwise been. Meanwhile,
this week, while Biden is announcing six months of totally
covered recovery costs for southern California, no matter what end

(28:50):
of story, as he was saying that folks were getting
thrown out of their FEMA housing, their temporary FEMA housing
in western North Carolina as a winter storm was bearing
down upon them. Now, what happened was there was a

(29:10):
deadline and if you didn't have your home inspected by FEMA,
or if you didn't do even if you didn't jump
through some of their hoops by this particular day, right
before this winter storm comes, you could be kicked out
of your hotel room that you're staying in with your family.
Some thirty five hundred people faced eviction from their hotel rooms,
and a bunch of nonprofit profits who are on the

(29:31):
ground there and folks like the equivalent of the Andrew
Gruhle in western North Carolina were out there saying no, no, no,
raising hell, you can't kick these people out. They raised
enough hell that they got enough attention that FEMA said,
oh yes, I guess we'll extend for a couple of
days past this winter storm, except then everyone's going to

(29:52):
be kicked out on this slightly later date. And in
the meantime, what did FEMA do with their offices in
western North Carolina in case anyone had questions or concerns,
what did they do? They were closed, Oh gosh, they
were closed through the weekend and through the winter storm,
you know, due to the inclement weather. So people can't
get updates or help. And essentially this is going to
be stop gap, like freak out mode public begging for

(30:19):
FEMA to help these people for the next foreseeable future,
which is another reason that I think that that Trump
would be wise to put like JD. Vance or someone
very high profile in charge of a western North Carolina
to just say, like Appalachia matters, We're going to get
resources for them. And although these folks, these folks don't

(30:43):
want to be in a hotel for the rest of
their lives, of course, they don't want to. They want
to do something else. But there's so many other issues
with the FEMA system and getting assistance and getting someone
out there to check out your space, that they're getting
caught up in the bureaucracy, and so they're hitting the
limit without somewhere else to go, Like this is just

(31:03):
right the nature of a disaster, and so I hope
that both federal politicians and North Carolina politicians start paying
a little bit more attention to this so that these
poor people don't have to live on the edge of
knowing whether them and they and their babies will be
thrown out into the cold next week. Right.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
It would be really smart, actually for the Trump administration
to make this a top priority, yes, in the incoming
days of their administration, because these people do seem like
they've been largely forgotten.

Speaker 3 (31:36):
I don't hear at all.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
About anything that's going on in North Carolina. Occasionally some
pictures on x will come across my feed, but very
very rare, and of course, like you know, obviously the
LA fires are in the news, and they're es central
to the.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
Story right now because they're.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
Happening, you know, in real time. But nevertheless, I feel
like we're going to be hearing about the Palisades rebuilding
effort in a way that we're simply not hearing about
North Carolina.

Speaker 3 (32:03):
So yeah, I'm with you.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
Maybe a JD Vance level, you know kind of person
should be on it, and I think he'll do a
better job than the last Vice president did with her
job of being at the border.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
So, by the way, should I should note in case
this news breaks before this comes out, that's Senator Tom Tillis,
who is a North Carolina Senator. After this uproar roar,
spoke to the head of FEMA about the possibility of
having these hotel vultures extended until Trump gets into office.
So that would at least give them some room to
work with here, because these nonprofits are killing themselves trying

(32:36):
to go hotel to hotel and pay out the hotels
for extended stays for these folks. So, and it's Matt
van Swall by the way, who's the guy who I've
been following in Greg Biffel who report on these from
the ground when a lot of other people are not.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
So yeah, can people still donate to North Carolina?

Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yes, one of my favorites. There's Operation Shelter there, Samaritan's Purse,
and there's Emergency RV, which is so clever. It takes
donated RVs and drops them off in emergency areas where
people just need a shelter on short notice, and you
know they can live fairly comfortably in this tiny house
on wheels. So a couple of those could certainly use

(33:18):
your attention.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
Excellent, We'll be donating to all of those.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
Thank you, so thanks for joining us on Normally. Normally
airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you can 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 at normally

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