On this episode of Normally, Mary Katharine Ham and Karol Markowicz break down the latest developments surrounding Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner as new controversies continue to emerge and Democrats struggle to answer questions about the party's rising star. The hosts discuss the growing scrutiny over Platner’s personal conduct, military service claims, campaign response, and what the saga reveals about modern political vetting.
They also examine the rocky rollout of America’s 250th anniversary celebrations, the challenges facing the Freedom 250 and America250 initiatives, and the broader debate over patriotism, national identity, and whether Americans still know how to celebrate their country.
Plus, Mary Katharine and Karol share practical advice for parents heading into summer break, discussing the benefits of reducing screen time, encouraging boredom-driven creativity, and creating meaningful offline experiences for kids and families.
Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, guys, we are back on normally the show with
normal it takes for when the news gets weird.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I am Mary catherin him.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
I'm Carol Marcowitz. How are you, Mary Catherine?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm doing all right. I love summer. It's my favorite season.
So is it summer?
Speaker 3 (00:16):
It feels like still kind of spring.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Summer for me, summer for me guys, I for you,
I do not allow fall to come early, but I
do allow summer to come early.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Right, you're just like, who cares about?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
We're done now?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Right?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
We're on summer.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Are you a school over for you guys? Yes? Oh wow,
that's that's early. Yeah. Our is this still like two
more days?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
So yeah, a lot of a lot of people around
here are in for like two more weeks, but we are.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
We're done, so I love it. We're doing fun things.
We're in the pool.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Oh it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, I mean, I know I can do that all year,
but yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
I could do that all year, but we don't, so
because it's winter in the winter, so how's the weather.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
It's okay, it's it's actually really really temperate, which is
a little too cool for the pool actually, but for summer.
If we want to scare quotes for summer for summer
in the DC area.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Lovely love it.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
It's like seventies and no humidity right now?
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Awesome? All right, Well, we have an event in DC tomorrow.
We'll tell our audience about it for the Wednesday show,
for the Thursday show. Sorry, so we'll see how that goes.
I'm not sure what closed a pack because you know, again,
summer here, summer different than summer there.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Not going to be as warm here.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
All right, I'll pack some Sweater's fine, you can borrow
my park up. All right, Okay, what's going on in
the news The Graham Platner Show, really, and I don't
think the show is wrapping up anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yes, Graham Platner, the insurgent Democrat basically nominee presumptive nominee for.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
The Senate race Maine.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
You'll remember that Governor Janet Mills, who was the normy
establishment Democrat but older and like definitely establishment, dropped out
because he had such a commanding lead in their primary.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
But Graham Patner is.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
An untested, unvetted marine oyster man slash rich kid from Maine.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Right, because the oyster man story is one of the
stories falling apart right now? His only client is his
mother's restaurant. Like, that doesn't sound that's like when I'm
the only client of my kids, like lemonade. Stand, are
you really doing it? Because it doesn't seem.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Like it, You're not really doing it in the way
that other people do it.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I think.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
So, Yes, a lot is happening there, enough to the
point that now I'm like, did anyone vet him before
they decided that he should be.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
You think so?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
They liked how he looked, they liked how he sounded.
They keep doing this whole thing of like, oh, this
is what men are like and then running these ridiculous men. Well.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, so the pendulum swings wildly from this is what
men are like, James Tallerico, this is a this is
a normy Christian dude from Texas, right, Nope, And then
you've got Graham Patner who is becoming the walking form
of toxic masculinity.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
But they can't, man, they.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Can't see it, like, no, this is men, right, this
is men meet some normal men.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
So the latest on mister Plattner is that he was
sexting with I love this up to six women up
to six women, and Jim Garrity had a great line
on this. He said, I love the Platiner campaign's use
of use of the phrase up to six. If Platner
had been sexting with three women, the campaign would have
said it was three, it was it was four, they
(03:50):
would have said it was four. If the official campaign
statement is up to six, it means six, you know
six or more? Frankly, well right, and and hed no
married men is going to overestimate the number of women
he's sexting. They shouldn't be that hard to count. This
isn't the sennial national senses. So yeah, so up to
(04:10):
six women.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
So this story broke in the Wall Street Journal, And
like I said, he's untested and unvetted and has been
caught lying about many things before. Just last week, he
was lying about his own service in the War on
Terror and being and his many deployments because he was
very clear that he wanted to do that. He enlisted
after the war started. He was very specific about wanting
(04:33):
to be in battle in writing. And then he turns
around and blames Susan Collins for it because she voted
for the Iraq war. And now he's decided that that's unpopular.
He's not had any like evolution or explained it to us.
He just changes the story.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
So, now we have the sexting.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
He's been married for three years and I don't know
how you felt about this, Carol, but he sent his
wife to do.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
The rapid response so gross.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
To this story breaking in the Wall Street Journal and
then being confirmed in the New York Times. Yeah, and
she does a straight to camera selfie video of herself
just saying, like, you know, my marriage isn't perfect. This
is these things we've gone through. She even referenced to
her fertility issues, which she's been on the campaign trail
talking about that, and to tie that to his misbehavior
(05:23):
as like is that causal? Like what are we saying here?
Real red flag? I mean he's been a red flag
for me since then tattoo. Right, I feel like that
was a tell you know, it's almost as if that's
a signal that someone makes bad decisions and has bad
impulse control. Right, So she goes out and does a
five minute selfie video about which is.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Like even worse than what the women used to do
in these scandals, which is stand next to the man
as he looked you know, sullen and was upset that
he got caught, like, I'm just thinking of all the
different women who have stood next to the man as
he admitted to his affair.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
But it is this is new.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
She's like all by herself, straight to video talking about
their marriage.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Like lad and then by the way, I have said,
I would give so much for one political spouse and
a cheating scandal to just do that.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
It's not right, but it's okay, witness.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
The response I would just feel like Ellie Spitzcher's wife
was a little bit that she was like, I am
not doing any press conferences, like.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Just put on a press release. That's only the lyrics too.
It's not right, but it's okay. Yep. Yeah, and your
boys went out to eat ye. So we haven't gotten
that response.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
But then so in the aftermath of this, first of all,
what it reveals is that there's a bunch.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Of stuff out there on Platner that is woman related.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
And as I said, once I saw the Nazi tattoo,
I was not particularly surprised by the idea that he
might have other issues. It also reveals about the campaign
that like he's still got active accounts on like Tinder
type you can look them up right now, scandalous websites.
(07:09):
They did not remove them, they did not act when
they got this information in the first place, and go hmm,
should he be a snic candidate? And so all the
way through it just seems like both he and the
campaign are aggressive and making bad decisions.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Yeah, and there's this sense of like, if you think
this is weird, maybe you're the weird one. And he's admitted,
you know, it's stuff like he's talked about masturbating in
portal potties and picking up prostitutes and of course the
Nazi tattoo, and it just goes on and on, and
it's supposed to be like, oh, this is what a
normal man is like, and it's really really not. And
(07:47):
there's a Free Press piece today by River Page is
getting dragged. I actually often like rivers work, but it
was that voters find Platiner quote relatable and all the
comments are like, I do not find him relatable for
this thing.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
From relatable, I want to note also in the Free
Press today, Leife Babin, who's a friend of mine is
a seal, defended Chris Kyle, the American sniper against insults
and accusations from Platner, who said that he was he
and his team were intentionally killing civilians. Now Leif Babin
(08:24):
was there, and Chris Kyle can't speak for himself anymore
because he died, he was murdered, and he's speaking up
for him. And that's just the idea that that's like
not even the main thing, right, It's a problem with him.
He also said another veteran deserved to die, basically did
not deserve to live. That veteran is still alive, thank goodness,
(08:45):
and has spoken out on TV about it.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
So he had a piece in the Waalshet Journal last
week as well.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yeah, both of these things are just insane to me.
And of course our Democrat friends who have been loving
their moral high ground for years and just lecturing everybody
about life about and who have.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Seen a Nazi and a white supremacist and a toxic
male everywhere they look for the last.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Ten years, they can't see one. Now where is he?
Speaker 1 (09:17):
So we have two clips of Democrats in the Senate
being asked about Platner this weekend on Sunday Show.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
So first up is Andy Kim.
Speaker 6 (09:26):
I want to ask you about the Senate race in
Maine and The Wall Street Journal in New York Times
reporting that last August, Democrat Grand Plattner's wife told his
campaign about sexual text messages she had found between her
husband and other women early in their marriage, and they
were married in twenty twenty three. The Time says Platiner
exchanged messages with as many as a dozen women, and
(09:50):
his campaign said no, it was up to six, and
a statement Platner's wife said she feels betrayed by the
ex campaign aide who revealed the information, and that the
couple went to counseling. Do you have concerns about grand Platner.
Speaker 7 (10:03):
Well, first I'll say is you know, I've been very
much focused on the crisis in my home state, so
i haven't been able to focus as much on this.
But right now, you know, this information is out there
with any campaign in the country, you know, the character
and the transparency about the different candidates is going to
come out. That's part of a campaign, and the voters
will decide what it is that they ultimately think in
(10:27):
terms of their ability to trust those candidates.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
You think, well, look.
Speaker 7 (10:31):
Right now, for me, like I have not met him,
I've never talked to him yet.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
In his state.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah, yeah, focusing honest, that's Andy Kim of New Jersey.
Then we have Chris Murphy of Kinnecticut.
Speaker 8 (10:43):
The campaign for grand Platiner confirmed to CBS on Saturday
that the main Senate candidate had sent sexually explicit text
to women other than his wife. This is in addition
to other past controversies. Does he pass the character to
I mean.
Speaker 9 (11:00):
I have not followed this story as closely as others have,
but I mean grand Platner is somebody that served our country,
he served his community. He's also made mistakes, and he
has admitted that character also involves standing up to people
who are bankrupting and corrupting this country. And this race
(11:23):
is going to be a contrast between somebody that has
put his life on the line for this country against
somebody that is literally empowering the moral hollowing out of
our nation from the White House. So he certainly admitted
that he has made mistakes. But I think this is
going to be a pretty clear contrast in Maine.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Because yeah, so they're just you know, they don't know
what's going on. They're not all caught up on the news.
They don't know what the saga happening in the Democratic
Party is they're just real focused, you know, on like
what they're doing well.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
And here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
You can have a really flawed candidate, and as we
happened many times, right, you can have a really flawed
candidate and you can call people out and say, this
guy's really flawed.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
If there's a lot.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
To commend the candidate, and if you have a really
reprehensible person on the other side of the ticket or
a really extreme person on the other side of the ticket,
people might make the decision to go for this flawed candidate.
From what I can tell, Graham Platner doesn't have a
lot to commend him, hasn't built a lot.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I will give him that.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
He's talented on the stump, he has some charm, he's
good speaking. And then the monster they claim they must
beat with this Grand Platner Susan Collins. Susan Collins the
most lowered bipartisan Republican member of the Senate. So I
just think like you can you can lecture people about
candidate quality, or you can have Grand Platner to beat
(12:52):
Susan Collins and just say that's what you must do.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
But you can't have both.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Yeah, I would just I try to imagine the reverse
and just the Nazi tattoo.
Speaker 10 (13:05):
All by agree with that alone, Yes, would be disqualifying,
and he would just never have a situation where we
would behave like the podcast brows on the left are behaving,
where they're just all defending it, like, what's the big
deal he got a Nazi tattoo.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
He didn't know, he didn't know like he do he knew.
Speaker 6 (13:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
I mean there's an incident, which was the was it
to the twenty seventeen special election for the Alabama Senate seat,
where led by Republican dissent, people decided that Roy Moore,
the Republican, was a bridge too far because of his yeah,
sexual exploitation, shenanigans, bad ethics, and Doug Jones, a Democrat,
(13:47):
ended up being the Senate, the Senator from Alabama for
a while for that reason, right, and then so, I
just like it is amazing to watch the people who
tell you that acknowledging anything good that Donald Trump has
ever done makes you a Nazi, or like, no, this
guy's fine.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Right right, It's all dog whistles from them, but they
can't hear this one, like the Nazi tattoo is just
a dog whistle they cannot hear. Yeah, all right, Well
we'll see where this Platner campaign goes. The Democrats, you know,
if they ever find out about it, that would be
interesting what people have to hear from them.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
One more thing, can we add Graham Platner talking about
this to reporters, because a lot has broken about I
think this is indicative of what this campaign is like.
So the person who they alleged leaked this information to
the Wall Street Journal.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
In their time, she's the bad guy.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
She's right.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
They turned it into she's about it, including a lot
of media and Democrats in office. We're trying to say, like, oh,
she broke her pledge. I'm like, that's not the pledge
I'm that interested in. But okay, yeah, So she claims
they threatened her, that the campaign threatened her and told
her she had to like record a conversation with the
Wall Street Journal and retract everything. So she goes public
with this. He's asked about this, and this is what
(15:08):
he has to say.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
We're gonna come after us in every awful way that
they possibly can, and we're just gonna keep talking about
the fact that the hospitals are closing, the fact that
child care facilities are closing, the fact that teachers and
nurses aren't paid enough, and the fact that everybody down
here continues to work harder and longer and get less.
But of course the powers that be do not want
us to talk about that, and so they're going to
(15:30):
just do gossip instead. That started true, right, No, No,
this is this is the amazing part. The Wall Street
Journal of New York Times ran stories without any evidence
besides the gossip from a former staffer. I'm sorry. That's
that's frankly journalistic amount practice. We pushed back on it.
(15:51):
They wanted, they did it anyways, So I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Concerning that the messages did not exist with that did
the message They did not.
Speaker 5 (16:01):
I'm confided of what Jennvieve MacDonald said in the New
York Times is not true.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
So you never met with her about uncomfortable, to lack
of a better word, sexting messages.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
As the campaign was doing, we talked about things and
amianized marriage that we've gone through over the years.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Because the thing is that they released this thing saying
that she had violated their trust and had also shared
explicit falsehoods. How could it be both? How could it
be both? If she violated personal trust? It's because she's
shared something that you didn't want shared. She couldn't have
shared explicit falsehoods and also violated that personal trust.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
They've since had to retract that denial because everyone acknowledges
that the texts are real. That wasn't an issue, right.
He also says that like everyone will do everything they
can to tear him and his wife apart, and I'm like,
I'm not sure that I'm the one with the most responsibility, right.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I think it was Christian.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
I think that was on you.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
And again, like people will point to Paxton and say, look,
this is a person who is flawed.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Look, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Think the infidelity issue kind of went out the window
in my coming of age around nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
I remember something happened there. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Also, like JFK, like, I don't like it.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
I won Cornyn over Paxton, Right, But then you have
the matchup which is a far left tall Ico versus
this guy you don't like that much but agrees with
you on things.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Right, So tell Rico, ain't no.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Senator Collins, right, exact difference Kamala Harris was no Senator Collins.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Yeah, yeah, it is actually amazing. You know, we've touched
on this, but to watch the Democrats just rally around him,
and I you know, there's a lot of rumors out
there that there's more coming. A lot of people expect more.
I mean I expect more just because it was May.
It's now, you know, we're recording this June first. But
looking back on the last presidential campaign, the fact that
(18:10):
Joe Biden went up on a debate stage and completely bombed.
There's news stories now that Joe Biden thought that Joe
Biden was having a stroke on the stage. I mean,
she didn't do anything about it, shouldn't rush to his
aid or anything. She you know, rallied with him afterwards,
but a number of New York Times columnists said that
(18:31):
he tied with President Trump. So that's where Democrats are.
There's no filter where they're being told this is crazy,
this is bad. You know, don't do this, don't don't
believe this guy. There must be more to this. They're
just like, we're going to support our people to the end.
And there's on the Republican side. A lot of times
(18:54):
we look over there like kind of wish that was
us sometimes. But on the other hand, I like the
honesty and I like that we aren't just randomly supporting whoever.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Just because Also like the Biden's and the gas lighting.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I mean, you watch Platner gaslight about the texts and
then you see Jill Biden just be like, yeah, no, no,
I definitely thought he was having a stroke, which is
then went to a rally and also to lawful house
like what are you talking about, ma'am.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
We all knew what was going on with him, and
like even.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
A majority of Democrats thought he was too old in
twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Yeah, and you're like, I never saw this until that night. Well,
I mean you might have been having a stroke for
like probably four to six years.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
What is she doing back out there?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
She's trying to make money, That's what this is all
they're doing.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Bizarre.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I mean, they have to go out.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
And humiliate him and themselves several times over because they
have to keep some sort of dribble coming in because
that's how they made their money, was.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Being the Bidens. Yep, And now nobody wants to hear it.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Man tough, really tough. I saw news that his presidential
library is like not raising anywhere near the amount of
money that they need. So for all the rallying around,
Democrats are also very quick to throw the people they
don't need right onto that bus.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Well, and Platner has about until mid July where they
hit a deadline where they can't replace him.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah, so we'll see what happens between now and then.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
As long as they can replace him, they're happy to
break any rule necessary to do so, and even after that,
I suppose, as they did with with with other situations.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
But we'll see what happens.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
We will see what happens. We're gonna take a short
break and be right back with more on Normally. We
are back on Normally, where the country is turning two
hundred and fifty years old and there's a lack of
I don't know, community patriotism, just cohesiveness really. And the
(21:07):
latest on this is that the two fifty concert is
really in shambles. I saw that lineup and it was
like Millie Vanilli, I was like, are they still touring?
I don't even know what's going on. One of them
is dead. But also their whole claim to fame is
that they were lip syncing the whole time and somebody
(21:29):
else was singing, So what are they touring? I don't
know Brett Michaels, who I know loved back in the nineties,
some other names that just you haven't heard of in
a very very long time. And I was like, Wow,
this cannot get any worse. And then it got worse.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah, Look, fifth grade.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Mary Catherine was very excited about Music Factory in.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Young MC and all of these folks. But look, I
think part of what happened here.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
There are two organizations that are tasked with planning America
two fifty stuff. There is a two fifty or America
two fifty dot org, and then there's Freedom two fifty,
which is the the Trump Administration's non partisan, but it
comes from the Trump administration. The other one is bipartisan. Now,
(22:19):
Trump created Freedom two fifty via executive order because he
didn't like what America two fifty was doing now with
some good reason, because it was pretty lackluster in some ways.
And one of the reasons it was lacklusters because there
are a lot of people on a bipartisan commission who like,
aren't that excited yet the rating America problem, Like that's
(22:44):
that's the problem is when you have a lot of people.
I mean, there's several problems, Like I understand that Trump
is polarizing, and so anybody who's brought in to do that,
they don't think of it as an America two fifty concert,
even though they should, like it's the Great State Fair.
Just come and do your act and everybody's eccess. I
think a lot of people would be willing to do that. However,
the people who would get you the top act buy in,
(23:06):
who are on the left, are not that excited about
having a party for America two fifty because they got
to do a lot of reckoning with our dark, dark.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Past, right, our dark dark past that almost every single
country on Earth has also gone through. I don't understand
why they went to see and dealist artists when it
would have been so much better at this point to
choose people who maybe aren't as famous, but actually want
(23:38):
to be there and won't be bullied out of it
by a little bit of online, you know, pushback. I
think what they have, what they've done, is it's just
sort of a disaster in that nobody would would have
wanted to see these people in the first place, and
now those people that very far down the list dalist
type celebrities. They're canceling and it's just a disaster.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah, it's sad.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I mean, the Memorial Day and the July fourth concert
on the Mall are huge with stars like it's it's
not weird to have stars come out for these things,
genuine stars. It seems like this one got botched and
like you've you've said, and I think many people have
have noted even those nineteen seventy six like things weren't
(24:24):
going great in the country in seventy six, but everybody
was pretty much on the same page that two hundred
years was two hunred years of America was good, right.
I do think we have a cultural issue where two
hundred and fifty years of America to many people is
not good anymore. And a lot of those people are
(24:46):
in places of influence. So it's just the cultural vibe, well,
certainly better than it would have been under a Kamala
Harris administration, which would have been heavy on the land acknowledgments,
is not coming together in the way that many of
us would want.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Yeah, the idea that the youth don't know how good
they have it is one of my peak problems with
just the lack of education in schools and the lack
of perspective, like not giving them kind of you know,
libs love to talk about context, like let's have some
context for how amazing America is and why we should
(25:26):
celebrate it. I don't know, I always say it stuff
like this, but like, if I raise kids who don't
appreciate what they have, especially the country that they got
to grow up in and be a part of, that'll
be my biggest failure.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
There was a New York magazine piece entitled how problematic
is Patriotism?
Speaker 3 (25:47):
How problematic is because?
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Well, I mean there were like four thousand words in
it to discover that, you know, sometimes it's okay to
wave the flag, but it shouldn't be What was the
what was the note? Less noisy and less militarized forms
of allegiance is what this writer would prefer. But one
of the things that the piece pointed out is this,
(26:11):
you know, patriotism in polling is down quite a bit.
A Gallup poll found that in the past dozen years,
this is the writer writing, the percentage of people in
the US who say that they're extremely proud to be
an American has plunged by sixteen points. A recent Harris
Pole noted that roughly four in ten Americans have considered
relocating outside the country, with younger Americans even more inclined. However,
(26:31):
if you look at the cross tabs, you will find
in those Gallop poles that the number of people very
proud to be Americans and very patriotic who are Republicans
stays at about ninety two to ninety six and dips
a couple of times, but only dips to like above
eighty still, while the Democrats go off a cliff in
twenty fifteen, like yeah, And I think that is a
(26:56):
thing that for Republicans, we are proud to be Americans,
and we are ticked off when the President or whoever
is doing something we don't like. Their patriotism many times
is contingent on who is.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
In the White House.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Totally.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yep, It's not just a matter of ticked off at
the policies, right.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Look, when I thought we were on the wrong track
during the Biden years, and I definitely was feeling pessimistic
for maybe the first time in my life on the
way that America was going. I still loved America. I
still felt super patriotic and grateful and just you know,
a fan of this country, a fan of everything that
we do here.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeap, patriotism is very complicated for some people.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
It's funny.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
I went to see seventeen seventy six. I think I
mentioned as some musical that was created in the sixties
about the founding, and it's very good. It's a lot
of fun. It was like Hamilton before there was Hamilton.
And there's a whole song that reckons with slavery. It
is very dark with the economics that animated it, with
(28:06):
all of the disappointments of our value that came from that,
from the compromises that had to be made.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
It's super dark song. It's a very scary moment in
the musical.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
And I thought, oh, man, the problem with America is
that we just really don't reckon right with our past.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
And we do all the time.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Yeah, while we're reckoning with it, we reckon that this
country is the greatest miracle in humankind and in human
freedom ever because it.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Is yeap, best country in the history of the world.
And it's not particularly close. So you could reckon all
you want. That's the reality.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
So and the reckoning doesn't make a great party. Actually, yes,
we're going.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
To take a short break and come right back with
one more segment of normally.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
All right, we are back on normally, And as I said,
it is the beginning of summer.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
It's the kickoff for me. I'm here already, you're there
almost there.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
But one of the things we go back to again
and again is that, you know, for your kids to
have rewarding lives, they have to sometimes be not on
a screen. And The Free Press ran a piece by
an author called I gave my kid a screen free
Summer and you can too. And I just enjoy the
idea of encouraging people to do this, and the tone
(29:26):
of the piece very much says, you really can do this.
It's not impossible to get your kids off of screens.
And I just liked that she's that we're kicking off
summer that way.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
One of the more impressive things about that piece was
not the getting the kids off the screens, but getting
the grownups off the streets. That's really hard. I look,
you know, we work online, we are in front of laptops,
all of that. But also I know that I go
through periods where I get worse, like my swiping my
(29:59):
scroll whatever it's called. I think I feel like swiping's
dating websites module. I'm you know, I'm on the Instagram reels,
the gram. Yeah, no, not that gram. And I feel
like I get I get too into it. And I
like the idea of cutting off screens for everybody at
(30:20):
certain times, and I'm going to definitely try to limit
my screen news this summer. It's easier. It's actually easier
for the kids because they are active outside and they're
doing things like my youngest is sleep boy camp, my
middle one is going to be on a teen tour.
My oldest signed up to take pre calc for reasons
unclear to any of us. So you know, they have
(30:42):
activities that are going to keep them off the screens.
But the grown ups, you're just I've gotten it's gotten
to where like I'm at a car wash and I've
suddenly watched like, you know, fifteen reels or something. It's
it's not good. We have to all kind of cut
down our usage.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Yeah, I'm with you, And I have a couple of
tools that I've built into my technology to keep me
from being on all the time. One of the things
I'm doing in the summer is I do a morning
routine with all the kids.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
When all of them are home.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
It does not include screens and is active. We're trying
to dedicate myself to taking them to the pool at
least like pretty much every day during Yeah, we're just
out away from those things. I love This quote says
the idea of taking a more modern approach to screens
instead of just like asking yourself to have willpower. Yeah,
(31:34):
you build your home and routine so that you are
encountering the opportunity to voluntarily choose offline activity. And even
then what happens you like the offline actio?
Speaker 6 (31:46):
Right?
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Yeah, so all my kids and I, you know, there's
like a little bit of groaning to start these like
family activits from me. Once everybody gets into it, it's like, okay,
we're enjoying ourselves here. So I like the idea that
you can build this into your day where you're creating
even a list of analog activities and the supplies for
(32:07):
them that your kids can go find. This piece notes
that like leaving your kids board can foster like I've
seen it foster creativity in my kids if you set
the table for them so that there's some for them
to choose. If they're not automatic readers, give them a
craft area then they are more likely to do that.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Yeah, Analog Summer, let's do it. We can do it well.
Thanks 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 for when the news gets weird.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I am Mary catherin him.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
I'm Carol Marcowitz. How are you, Mary Catherine?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm doing all right. I love summer. It's my favorite season.
So is it summer?
Speaker 3 (00:16):
It feels like still kind of spring.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Summer for me, summer for me guys, I for you,
I do not allow fall to come early, but I
do allow summer to come early.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Right, you're just like, who cares about?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
We're done now?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Right?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
We're on summer.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Are you a school over for you guys? Yes? Oh wow,
that's that's early. Yeah. Our is this still like two
more days?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
So yeah, a lot of a lot of people around
here are in for like two more weeks, but we are.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
We're done, so I love it. We're doing fun things.
We're in the pool.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Oh it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, I mean, I know I can do that all year,
but yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
I could do that all year, but we don't, so
because it's winter in the winter, so how's the weather.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
It's okay, it's it's actually really really temperate, which is
a little too cool for the pool actually, but for summer.
If we want to scare quotes for summer for summer
in the DC area.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Lovely love it.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
It's like seventies and no humidity right now?
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Awesome? All right, Well, we have an event in DC tomorrow.
We'll tell our audience about it for the Wednesday show,
for the Thursday show. Sorry, so we'll see how that goes.
I'm not sure what closed a pack because you know, again,
summer here, summer different than summer there.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Not going to be as warm here.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
All right, I'll pack some Sweater's fine, you can borrow
my park up. All right, Okay, what's going on in
the news The Graham Platner Show, really, and I don't
think the show is wrapping up anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yes, Graham Platner, the insurgent Democrat basically nominee presumptive nominee for.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
The Senate race Maine.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
You'll remember that Governor Janet Mills, who was the normy
establishment Democrat but older and like definitely establishment, dropped out
because he had such a commanding lead in their primary.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
But Graham Patner is.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
An untested, unvetted marine oyster man slash rich kid from Maine.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Right, because the oyster man story is one of the
stories falling apart right now? His only client is his
mother's restaurant. Like, that doesn't sound that's like when I'm
the only client of my kids, like lemonade. Stand, are
you really doing it? Because it doesn't seem.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Like it, You're not really doing it in the way
that other people do it.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I think.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
So, Yes, a lot is happening there, enough to the
point that now I'm like, did anyone vet him before
they decided that he should be.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
You think so?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
They liked how he looked, they liked how he sounded.
They keep doing this whole thing of like, oh, this
is what men are like and then running these ridiculous men. Well.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, so the pendulum swings wildly from this is what
men are like, James Tallerico, this is a this is
a normy Christian dude from Texas, right, Nope, And then
you've got Graham Patner who is becoming the walking form
of toxic masculinity.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
But they can't, man, they.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Can't see it, like, no, this is men, right, this
is men meet some normal men.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
So the latest on mister Plattner is that he was
sexting with I love this up to six women up
to six women, and Jim Garrity had a great line
on this. He said, I love the Platiner campaign's use
of use of the phrase up to six. If Platner
had been sexting with three women, the campaign would have
said it was three, it was it was four, they
(03:50):
would have said it was four. If the official campaign
statement is up to six, it means six, you know
six or more? Frankly, well right, and and hed no
married men is going to overestimate the number of women
he's sexting. They shouldn't be that hard to count. This
isn't the sennial national senses. So yeah, so up to
(04:10):
six women.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
So this story broke in the Wall Street Journal, And
like I said, he's untested and unvetted and has been
caught lying about many things before. Just last week, he
was lying about his own service in the War on
Terror and being and his many deployments because he was
very clear that he wanted to do that. He enlisted
after the war started. He was very specific about wanting
(04:33):
to be in battle in writing. And then he turns
around and blames Susan Collins for it because she voted
for the Iraq war. And now he's decided that that's unpopular.
He's not had any like evolution or explained it to us.
He just changes the story.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
So, now we have the sexting.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
He's been married for three years and I don't know
how you felt about this, Carol, but he sent his
wife to do.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
The rapid response so gross.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
To this story breaking in the Wall Street Journal and
then being confirmed in the New York Times. Yeah, and
she does a straight to camera selfie video of herself
just saying, like, you know, my marriage isn't perfect. This
is these things we've gone through. She even referenced to
her fertility issues, which she's been on the campaign trail
talking about that, and to tie that to his misbehavior
(05:23):
as like is that causal? Like what are we saying here?
Real red flag? I mean he's been a red flag
for me since then tattoo. Right, I feel like that
was a tell you know, it's almost as if that's
a signal that someone makes bad decisions and has bad
impulse control. Right, So she goes out and does a
five minute selfie video about which is.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Like even worse than what the women used to do
in these scandals, which is stand next to the man
as he looked you know, sullen and was upset that
he got caught, like, I'm just thinking of all the
different women who have stood next to the man as
he admitted to his affair.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
But it is this is new.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
She's like all by herself, straight to video talking about
their marriage.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Like lad and then by the way, I have said,
I would give so much for one political spouse and
a cheating scandal to just do that.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
It's not right, but it's okay, witness.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
The response I would just feel like Ellie Spitzcher's wife
was a little bit that she was like, I am
not doing any press conferences, like.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Just put on a press release. That's only the lyrics too.
It's not right, but it's okay. Yep. Yeah, and your
boys went out to eat ye. So we haven't gotten
that response.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
But then so in the aftermath of this, first of all,
what it reveals is that there's a bunch.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Of stuff out there on Platner that is woman related.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
And as I said, once I saw the Nazi tattoo,
I was not particularly surprised by the idea that he
might have other issues. It also reveals about the campaign
that like he's still got active accounts on like Tinder
type you can look them up right now, scandalous websites.
(07:09):
They did not remove them, they did not act when
they got this information in the first place, and go hmm,
should he be a snic candidate? And so all the
way through it just seems like both he and the
campaign are aggressive and making bad decisions.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Yeah, and there's this sense of like, if you think
this is weird, maybe you're the weird one. And he's admitted,
you know, it's stuff like he's talked about masturbating in
portal potties and picking up prostitutes and of course the
Nazi tattoo, and it just goes on and on, and
it's supposed to be like, oh, this is what a
normal man is like, and it's really really not. And
(07:47):
there's a Free Press piece today by River Page is
getting dragged. I actually often like rivers work, but it
was that voters find Platiner quote relatable and all the
comments are like, I do not find him relatable for
this thing.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
From relatable, I want to note also in the Free
Press today, Leife Babin, who's a friend of mine is
a seal, defended Chris Kyle, the American sniper against insults
and accusations from Platner, who said that he was he
and his team were intentionally killing civilians. Now Leif Babin
(08:24):
was there, and Chris Kyle can't speak for himself anymore
because he died, he was murdered, and he's speaking up
for him. And that's just the idea that that's like
not even the main thing, right, It's a problem with him.
He also said another veteran deserved to die, basically did
not deserve to live. That veteran is still alive, thank goodness,
(08:45):
and has spoken out on TV about it.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
So he had a piece in the Waalshet Journal last
week as well.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yeah, both of these things are just insane to me.
And of course our Democrat friends who have been loving
their moral high ground for years and just lecturing everybody
about life about and who have.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Seen a Nazi and a white supremacist and a toxic
male everywhere they look for the last.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Ten years, they can't see one. Now where is he?
Speaker 1 (09:17):
So we have two clips of Democrats in the Senate
being asked about Platner this weekend on Sunday Show.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
So first up is Andy Kim.
Speaker 6 (09:26):
I want to ask you about the Senate race in
Maine and The Wall Street Journal in New York Times
reporting that last August, Democrat Grand Plattner's wife told his
campaign about sexual text messages she had found between her
husband and other women early in their marriage, and they
were married in twenty twenty three. The Time says Platiner
exchanged messages with as many as a dozen women, and
(09:50):
his campaign said no, it was up to six, and
a statement Platner's wife said she feels betrayed by the
ex campaign aide who revealed the information, and that the
couple went to counseling. Do you have concerns about grand Platner.
Speaker 7 (10:03):
Well, first I'll say is you know, I've been very
much focused on the crisis in my home state, so
i haven't been able to focus as much on this.
But right now, you know, this information is out there
with any campaign in the country, you know, the character
and the transparency about the different candidates is going to
come out. That's part of a campaign, and the voters
will decide what it is that they ultimately think in
(10:27):
terms of their ability to trust those candidates.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
You think, well, look.
Speaker 7 (10:31):
Right now, for me, like I have not met him,
I've never talked to him yet.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
In his state.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah, yeah, focusing honest, that's Andy Kim of New Jersey.
Then we have Chris Murphy of Kinnecticut.
Speaker 8 (10:43):
The campaign for grand Platiner confirmed to CBS on Saturday
that the main Senate candidate had sent sexually explicit text
to women other than his wife. This is in addition
to other past controversies. Does he pass the character to
I mean.
Speaker 9 (11:00):
I have not followed this story as closely as others have,
but I mean grand Platner is somebody that served our country,
he served his community. He's also made mistakes, and he
has admitted that character also involves standing up to people
who are bankrupting and corrupting this country. And this race
(11:23):
is going to be a contrast between somebody that has
put his life on the line for this country against
somebody that is literally empowering the moral hollowing out of
our nation from the White House. So he certainly admitted
that he has made mistakes. But I think this is
going to be a pretty clear contrast in Maine.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Because yeah, so they're just you know, they don't know
what's going on. They're not all caught up on the news.
They don't know what the saga happening in the Democratic
Party is they're just real focused, you know, on like
what they're doing well.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
And here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
You can have a really flawed candidate, and as we
happened many times, right, you can have a really flawed
candidate and you can call people out and say, this
guy's really flawed.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
If there's a lot.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
To commend the candidate, and if you have a really
reprehensible person on the other side of the ticket or
a really extreme person on the other side of the ticket,
people might make the decision to go for this flawed candidate.
From what I can tell, Graham Platner doesn't have a
lot to commend him, hasn't built a lot.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I will give him that.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
He's talented on the stump, he has some charm, he's
good speaking. And then the monster they claim they must
beat with this Grand Platner Susan Collins. Susan Collins the
most lowered bipartisan Republican member of the Senate. So I
just think like you can you can lecture people about
candidate quality, or you can have Grand Platner to beat
(12:52):
Susan Collins and just say that's what you must do.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
But you can't have both.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Yeah, I would just I try to imagine the reverse
and just the Nazi tattoo.
Speaker 10 (13:05):
All by agree with that alone, Yes, would be disqualifying,
and he would just never have a situation where we
would behave like the podcast brows on the left are behaving,
where they're just all defending it, like, what's the big
deal he got a Nazi tattoo.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
He didn't know, he didn't know like he do he knew.
Speaker 6 (13:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
I mean there's an incident, which was the was it
to the twenty seventeen special election for the Alabama Senate seat,
where led by Republican dissent, people decided that Roy Moore,
the Republican, was a bridge too far because of his yeah,
sexual exploitation, shenanigans, bad ethics, and Doug Jones, a Democrat,
(13:47):
ended up being the Senate, the Senator from Alabama for
a while for that reason, right, and then so, I
just like it is amazing to watch the people who
tell you that acknowledging anything good that Donald Trump has
ever done makes you a Nazi, or like, no, this
guy's fine.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Right right, It's all dog whistles from them, but they
can't hear this one, like the Nazi tattoo is just
a dog whistle they cannot hear. Yeah, all right, Well
we'll see where this Platner campaign goes. The Democrats, you know,
if they ever find out about it, that would be
interesting what people have to hear from them.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
One more thing, can we add Graham Platner talking about
this to reporters, because a lot has broken about I
think this is indicative of what this campaign is like.
So the person who they alleged leaked this information to
the Wall Street Journal.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
In their time, she's the bad guy.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
She's right.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
They turned it into she's about it, including a lot
of media and Democrats in office. We're trying to say, like, oh,
she broke her pledge. I'm like, that's not the pledge
I'm that interested in. But okay, yeah, So she claims
they threatened her, that the campaign threatened her and told
her she had to like record a conversation with the
Wall Street Journal and retract everything. So she goes public
with this. He's asked about this, and this is what
(15:08):
he has to say.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
We're gonna come after us in every awful way that
they possibly can, and we're just gonna keep talking about
the fact that the hospitals are closing, the fact that
child care facilities are closing, the fact that teachers and
nurses aren't paid enough, and the fact that everybody down
here continues to work harder and longer and get less.
But of course the powers that be do not want
us to talk about that, and so they're going to
(15:30):
just do gossip instead. That started true, right, No, No,
this is this is the amazing part. The Wall Street
Journal of New York Times ran stories without any evidence
besides the gossip from a former staffer. I'm sorry. That's
that's frankly journalistic amount practice. We pushed back on it.
(15:51):
They wanted, they did it anyways, So I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Concerning that the messages did not exist with that did
the message They did not.
Speaker 5 (16:01):
I'm confided of what Jennvieve MacDonald said in the New
York Times is not true.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
So you never met with her about uncomfortable, to lack
of a better word, sexting messages.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
As the campaign was doing, we talked about things and
amianized marriage that we've gone through over the years.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Because the thing is that they released this thing saying
that she had violated their trust and had also shared
explicit falsehoods. How could it be both? How could it
be both? If she violated personal trust? It's because she's
shared something that you didn't want shared. She couldn't have
shared explicit falsehoods and also violated that personal trust.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
They've since had to retract that denial because everyone acknowledges
that the texts are real. That wasn't an issue, right.
He also says that like everyone will do everything they
can to tear him and his wife apart, and I'm like,
I'm not sure that I'm the one with the most responsibility, right.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I think it was Christian.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
I think that was on you.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
And again, like people will point to Paxton and say, look,
this is a person who is flawed.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Look, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Think the infidelity issue kind of went out the window
in my coming of age around nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
I remember something happened there. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Also, like JFK, like, I don't like it.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
I won Cornyn over Paxton, Right, But then you have
the matchup which is a far left tall Ico versus
this guy you don't like that much but agrees with
you on things.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Right, So tell Rico, ain't no.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Senator Collins, right, exact difference Kamala Harris was no Senator Collins.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Yeah, yeah, it is actually amazing. You know, we've touched
on this, but to watch the Democrats just rally around him,
and I you know, there's a lot of rumors out
there that there's more coming. A lot of people expect more.
I mean I expect more just because it was May.
It's now, you know, we're recording this June first. But
looking back on the last presidential campaign, the fact that
(18:10):
Joe Biden went up on a debate stage and completely bombed.
There's news stories now that Joe Biden thought that Joe
Biden was having a stroke on the stage. I mean,
she didn't do anything about it, shouldn't rush to his
aid or anything. She you know, rallied with him afterwards,
but a number of New York Times columnists said that
(18:31):
he tied with President Trump. So that's where Democrats are.
There's no filter where they're being told this is crazy,
this is bad. You know, don't do this, don't don't
believe this guy. There must be more to this. They're
just like, we're going to support our people to the end.
And there's on the Republican side. A lot of times
(18:54):
we look over there like kind of wish that was
us sometimes. But on the other hand, I like the
honesty and I like that we aren't just randomly supporting whoever.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Just because Also like the Biden's and the gas lighting.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I mean, you watch Platner gaslight about the texts and
then you see Jill Biden just be like, yeah, no, no,
I definitely thought he was having a stroke, which is
then went to a rally and also to lawful house
like what are you talking about, ma'am.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
We all knew what was going on with him, and
like even.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
A majority of Democrats thought he was too old in
twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Yeah, and you're like, I never saw this until that night. Well,
I mean you might have been having a stroke for
like probably four to six years.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
What is she doing back out there?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
She's trying to make money, That's what this is all
they're doing.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Bizarre.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I mean, they have to go out.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
And humiliate him and themselves several times over because they
have to keep some sort of dribble coming in because
that's how they made their money, was.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Being the Bidens. Yep, And now nobody wants to hear it.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Man tough, really tough. I saw news that his presidential
library is like not raising anywhere near the amount of
money that they need. So for all the rallying around,
Democrats are also very quick to throw the people they
don't need right onto that bus.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Well, and Platner has about until mid July where they
hit a deadline where they can't replace him.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah, so we'll see what happens between now and then.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
As long as they can replace him, they're happy to
break any rule necessary to do so, and even after that,
I suppose, as they did with with with other situations.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
But we'll see what happens.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
We will see what happens. We're gonna take a short
break and be right back with more on Normally. We
are back on Normally, where the country is turning two
hundred and fifty years old and there's a lack of
I don't know, community patriotism, just cohesiveness really. And the
(21:07):
latest on this is that the two fifty concert is
really in shambles. I saw that lineup and it was
like Millie Vanilli, I was like, are they still touring?
I don't even know what's going on. One of them
is dead. But also their whole claim to fame is
that they were lip syncing the whole time and somebody
(21:29):
else was singing, So what are they touring? I don't
know Brett Michaels, who I know loved back in the nineties,
some other names that just you haven't heard of in
a very very long time. And I was like, Wow,
this cannot get any worse. And then it got worse.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah, Look, fifth grade.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Mary Catherine was very excited about Music Factory in.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Young MC and all of these folks. But look, I
think part of what happened here.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
There are two organizations that are tasked with planning America
two fifty stuff. There is a two fifty or America
two fifty dot org, and then there's Freedom two fifty,
which is the the Trump Administration's non partisan, but it
comes from the Trump administration. The other one is bipartisan. Now,
(22:19):
Trump created Freedom two fifty via executive order because he
didn't like what America two fifty was doing now with
some good reason, because it was pretty lackluster in some ways.
And one of the reasons it was lacklusters because there
are a lot of people on a bipartisan commission who like,
aren't that excited yet the rating America problem, Like that's
(22:44):
that's the problem is when you have a lot of people.
I mean, there's several problems, Like I understand that Trump
is polarizing, and so anybody who's brought in to do that,
they don't think of it as an America two fifty concert,
even though they should, like it's the Great State Fair.
Just come and do your act and everybody's eccess. I
think a lot of people would be willing to do that. However,
the people who would get you the top act buy in,
(23:06):
who are on the left, are not that excited about
having a party for America two fifty because they got
to do a lot of reckoning with our dark, dark.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Past, right, our dark dark past that almost every single
country on Earth has also gone through. I don't understand
why they went to see and dealist artists when it
would have been so much better at this point to
choose people who maybe aren't as famous, but actually want
(23:38):
to be there and won't be bullied out of it
by a little bit of online, you know, pushback. I
think what they have, what they've done, is it's just
sort of a disaster in that nobody would would have
wanted to see these people in the first place, and
now those people that very far down the list dalist
type celebrities. They're canceling and it's just a disaster.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah, it's sad.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I mean, the Memorial Day and the July fourth concert
on the Mall are huge with stars like it's it's
not weird to have stars come out for these things,
genuine stars. It seems like this one got botched and
like you've you've said, and I think many people have
have noted even those nineteen seventy six like things weren't
(24:24):
going great in the country in seventy six, but everybody
was pretty much on the same page that two hundred
years was two hunred years of America was good, right.
I do think we have a cultural issue where two
hundred and fifty years of America to many people is
not good anymore. And a lot of those people are
(24:46):
in places of influence. So it's just the cultural vibe, well,
certainly better than it would have been under a Kamala
Harris administration, which would have been heavy on the land acknowledgments,
is not coming together in the way that many of
us would want.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Yeah, the idea that the youth don't know how good
they have it is one of my peak problems with
just the lack of education in schools and the lack
of perspective, like not giving them kind of you know,
libs love to talk about context, like let's have some
context for how amazing America is and why we should
(25:26):
celebrate it. I don't know, I always say it stuff
like this, but like, if I raise kids who don't
appreciate what they have, especially the country that they got
to grow up in and be a part of, that'll
be my biggest failure.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
There was a New York magazine piece entitled how problematic
is Patriotism?
Speaker 3 (25:47):
How problematic is because?
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Well, I mean there were like four thousand words in
it to discover that, you know, sometimes it's okay to
wave the flag, but it shouldn't be What was the
what was the note? Less noisy and less militarized forms
of allegiance is what this writer would prefer. But one
of the things that the piece pointed out is this,
(26:11):
you know, patriotism in polling is down quite a bit.
A Gallup poll found that in the past dozen years,
this is the writer writing, the percentage of people in
the US who say that they're extremely proud to be
an American has plunged by sixteen points. A recent Harris
Pole noted that roughly four in ten Americans have considered
relocating outside the country, with younger Americans even more inclined. However,
(26:31):
if you look at the cross tabs, you will find
in those Gallop poles that the number of people very
proud to be Americans and very patriotic who are Republicans
stays at about ninety two to ninety six and dips
a couple of times, but only dips to like above
eighty still, while the Democrats go off a cliff in
twenty fifteen, like yeah, And I think that is a
(26:56):
thing that for Republicans, we are proud to be Americans,
and we are ticked off when the President or whoever
is doing something we don't like. Their patriotism many times
is contingent on who is.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
In the White House.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Totally.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yep, It's not just a matter of ticked off at
the policies, right.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Look, when I thought we were on the wrong track
during the Biden years, and I definitely was feeling pessimistic
for maybe the first time in my life on the
way that America was going. I still loved America. I
still felt super patriotic and grateful and just you know,
a fan of this country, a fan of everything that
we do here.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeap, patriotism is very complicated for some people.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
It's funny.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
I went to see seventeen seventy six. I think I
mentioned as some musical that was created in the sixties
about the founding, and it's very good. It's a lot
of fun. It was like Hamilton before there was Hamilton.
And there's a whole song that reckons with slavery. It
is very dark with the economics that animated it, with
(28:06):
all of the disappointments of our value that came from that,
from the compromises that had to be made.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
It's super dark song. It's a very scary moment in
the musical.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
And I thought, oh, man, the problem with America is
that we just really don't reckon right with our past.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
And we do all the time.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Yeah, while we're reckoning with it, we reckon that this
country is the greatest miracle in humankind and in human
freedom ever because it.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Is yeap, best country in the history of the world.
And it's not particularly close. So you could reckon all
you want. That's the reality.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
So and the reckoning doesn't make a great party. Actually, yes,
we're going.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
To take a short break and come right back with
one more segment of normally.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
All right, we are back on normally, And as I said,
it is the beginning of summer.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
It's the kickoff for me. I'm here already, you're there
almost there.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
But one of the things we go back to again
and again is that, you know, for your kids to
have rewarding lives, they have to sometimes be not on
a screen. And The Free Press ran a piece by
an author called I gave my kid a screen free
Summer and you can too. And I just enjoy the
idea of encouraging people to do this, and the tone
(29:26):
of the piece very much says, you really can do this.
It's not impossible to get your kids off of screens.
And I just liked that she's that we're kicking off
summer that way.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
One of the more impressive things about that piece was
not the getting the kids off the screens, but getting
the grownups off the streets. That's really hard. I look,
you know, we work online, we are in front of laptops,
all of that. But also I know that I go
through periods where I get worse, like my swiping my
(29:59):
scroll whatever it's called. I think I feel like swiping's
dating websites module. I'm you know, I'm on the Instagram reels,
the gram. Yeah, no, not that gram. And I feel
like I get I get too into it. And I
like the idea of cutting off screens for everybody at
(30:20):
certain times, and I'm going to definitely try to limit
my screen news this summer. It's easier. It's actually easier
for the kids because they are active outside and they're
doing things like my youngest is sleep boy camp, my
middle one is going to be on a teen tour.
My oldest signed up to take pre calc for reasons
unclear to any of us. So you know, they have
(30:42):
activities that are going to keep them off the screens.
But the grown ups, you're just I've gotten it's gotten
to where like I'm at a car wash and I've
suddenly watched like, you know, fifteen reels or something. It's
it's not good. We have to all kind of cut
down our usage.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Yeah, I'm with you, And I have a couple of
tools that I've built into my technology to keep me
from being on all the time. One of the things
I'm doing in the summer is I do a morning
routine with all the kids.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
When all of them are home.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
It does not include screens and is active. We're trying
to dedicate myself to taking them to the pool at
least like pretty much every day during Yeah, we're just
out away from those things. I love This quote says
the idea of taking a more modern approach to screens
instead of just like asking yourself to have willpower. Yeah,
(31:34):
you build your home and routine so that you are
encountering the opportunity to voluntarily choose offline activity. And even
then what happens you like the offline actio?
Speaker 6 (31:46):
Right?
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Yeah, so all my kids and I, you know, there's
like a little bit of groaning to start these like
family activits from me. Once everybody gets into it, it's like, okay,
we're enjoying ourselves here. So I like the idea that
you can build this into your day where you're creating
even a list of analog activities and the supplies for
(32:07):
them that your kids can go find. This piece notes
that like leaving your kids board can foster like I've
seen it foster creativity in my kids if you set
the table for them so that there's some for them
to choose. If they're not automatic readers, give them a
craft area then they are more likely to do that.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Yeah, Analog Summer, let's do it. We can do it well.
Thanks 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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