January 6, 2026 • 29 mins
In this episode, Mary Katharine and Karol kick off the New Year with personal reflections and resolutions before diving into one of the most consequential foreign policy developments of the moment: President Trump’s bold move to apprehend Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro. They analyze the implications of Maduro’s capture, the legal questions surrounding the operation, and the explosive reaction from Venezuelans on social media.
The conversation then turns to a massive childcare fraud scandal in Minnesota, raising serious concerns about government accountability and taxpayer dollars. To close, they examine a growing shift in academia away from political activism in the classroom and the ongoing struggle of San Francisco leaders to confront rising crime. A wide-ranging, news-driven discussion to start the year.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey guys, I'm back normally.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Joe with normal takes the wed Day.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
It's weird.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
I'm married out in ham. I'm Carol Markowitz. How are you,
Mary Catherine?
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Happy New Year, Happy New Year.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
I'm making it, man, We got it. We got through
the holidays. I flew down to the Sugar Bowl to
watch the dogs lose.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
But everybody was very nice.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Even as I walked back on Bourbon Street among the
revelers who.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Were all Ole Miss fans.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Everything went fine, aside from the actual result of the game.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Any New Year's resolutions.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Not in particular, just to kind of get myself back
in order.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I made it to the gym today. What about you.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, I mean other than like, you know, see the
inside of a gym at some time, some point, I'm
going to focus more on developing friendships this year. I've
been in Florida four years, and like, I know a
lot of people here, and I'm always and I have
stuff to do. But like I have to just like
start making plans with my kids friends, you know, mom,
(01:07):
Like I have to. I have to just do better
at stuff like that. So that's that's the one for
this year.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
I love it. I love it. Right, Yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Also four years in Florida.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I told the Internet that it was January second. It
turns out it was January third. So in general I
just need to get more organized. But yeah, four years Floridian.
Very happy about that and couldn't be glad, you know,
couldn't be better than when mum Donnie became mayor of
New York to be like I live in Florida.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Actually that four years happened fast. Well.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Another person had some New Year's resolutions that he executed
on on January third, that Donald Do you know that
President Donald Trump engaging in his foreign policy doctrine, which
is sort of you can just do things you could
just do you can just do things, you do things.
He did those things in Venezuela on January third, and
(01:58):
the dark of night with one hundred and fifty aircraft
executing a precision apprehension illegitimate President Nicholas Maduro YEP from
Caracas along with his wife, who have both been indicted
in New York for several years now, carried them out
of the country. No casualties to American troops, although there
(02:18):
were some injuries I think which are minor. Everybody high
tailed it out of there and TBD on Venezuela.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
But Maduro is in a cell in New York right now.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Unbelievable, right.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I mean, look, you know it's funny because if you
had asked me on January twod should the US go
in and depose Maduro? I would have been like, no,
death not. But now that we've done it successfully, I'm like,
that's good. My concern would have been losing American lives.
It wouldn't have been international law, it wouldn't have been
you know, anything else other than would an American die
(02:52):
in this operation? I would not have wanted that no
American died. So I can look back at it and
be like, that was excellent. This is why you don't
lack people like me, President, because I would be like,
I don't know, I don't know if we should do this.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Well, so I'm with you. I like a little I
don't know. But let me let me.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Say this part first, watching General Raisin Kane explain this
operation after it is already done and everyone's back, yep.
I think it's been dominant to note it took a
shorter amount of time to apprehend him than the last
episode of Stranger Things, so they were, They were in
and out of there between that and the Aaran strike,
(03:31):
which again we were. You know, I would have been like,
maybe a little squeamish about how is this gonna go?
Watching our military so insanely competent and its leaders be
insanely competent is something I have been starved for, man, yeah,
maybe ten years, just to watch an instanation do what
it's supposed to do. So Delta Force is down there
(03:53):
taking care of business, and that part in and of
itself is gratifying. And I think perhaps some in the
media and liberals in general underestimate. Yes, people don't care
about foreign policy that much, but the demonstration of American
competence and power they do care about, and that part
made me go, whoo, my goodness. I also want to
(04:18):
note one of my favorite tweets because the meaning of
this news event.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Oh my god, so good, almost like nothing I've ever seen.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Someone said today of Venezuela and named Delta Force, Donald
Trump Vasquez will be born. So so good that part,
that part just is inspiring to me. And I think
my concern is what happens next, and American lives obviously
was my first concern.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
What happens next.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
However, I do think Secretary of State Marco Rubio has
been thinking about this problem since the year nineteen ninety.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Nine took over.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Yeah, so since his twenties, he's been like, what would
we do right if we had this chance?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
And so that makes me feel better about it.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I mean, speaking of competence, like, does anybody appear more
competent than Secretary of State Marco Rubio?
Speaker 3 (05:09):
I just think he is on buyer.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Really, the memes about him taking on more jobs, like oh,
now he's going to have to be coach of the
Miami Dolphins, and now he's going to have to run Venezuela,
Like I would trust him to do all of that,
and he's just fantastic. It's so funny how starved we
were for this kind of competency. Look, the joke is
that we wanted a grown up in the room. Is
(05:34):
it surprising that that grown up is Donald Trump?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Yes, but he is.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
He's the grown up in the room who is like
taking care of business, blocking out the crazy voices around him,
and there are crazy voices around him, and just going
for it, making America great again on the world stage.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
I'm so impressed. I am just I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Everybody who's listened to me and has watched me and
read me for years knows that I wasn't like Donald
Trump is the guy who's going to get things done,
and yet here he is just exceeding all expectations on
every level.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Well, I think what he's engaged in doing, which I
really appreciate, even when I'm nervous about whatever eventuality is
coming next. What I appreciate that he's doing is he
is re establishing deterrence, and it's a place where I
can have more leeway for him, because having lost deterrence
in such dramatic ways after the Knistan pull out and
(06:33):
all of that, and no one responsibility and no one
being punished for it, re establishing deterrence requires very muscular
actions because people will not believe you once you've lost
that right. I think people are believing him, and one
of the folks who must believe him now, as I
(06:54):
believe there was a Chinese delegation on the ground, and
that was just within several days of this event, and
so I think that sends a message as well to
China and to people in another hemisphere. But I'm open
to the idea that this is our hemisphere. We're taking
care of business. Thissus Maduro is from the beginning illegitimate. Yeah,
(07:16):
Taves was illegitimate. He just takes over and starts nationalizing businesses.
They of course took Venezuela, which is an incredibly resource
rich place, down to just grating, awful, rationed poverty.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I've been there years.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
I've been there as a child. It was, I mean,
beautiful and amazing. It was a very hot spot for
I don't know, there was a time period where Russian
immigrants were really into going to Venezuela's I'd been there
more than once. It was gorgeous and somewhere that, you know.
I hope tourism comes back. I hope they come back.
I hope the whole place recovers. The glee from Venezuelans
(07:54):
is just so beautiful to watch. I've loved every minute.
I think we have some clips we're going to play.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Yeah, Because it's not just the glee from them, it
is also, to my mind, one of the most thorough
social media punishments for libs that I have seen, because
Venezuelans keep taking to social media to say, guys, you're
getting this wrong, right, let me explain why. So we
do have a couple clips of a couple of Venezuelans
(08:21):
explaining to the libs why this matters and why they're happy.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
This is a video for all those liberals and leftists,
mostly American that I've seen in the media complaining about
what's going on in Venezuela, complaining about this military attacks
against military buildings, against government buildings that we're attacked today
(08:46):
in the early morning. What the fuck is wrong with you?
We have had twenty seven years of dictatorship in our
country that has censored us, that has talk to us,
that has killed us, and that made us go away
from our country like they made us run away from
(09:09):
our own homeland. Do you ever imagine that you will
have to do that? Like you do you even put
yourself in the situation of what does that mean?
Speaker 4 (09:23):
All right? And then we have another one. This is
the nature of many of them. My feet is just
full of them. And it's a delight because this is
the information they know.
Speaker 6 (09:31):
Are you an American or other First world or with
democracy privilege, who's all of a sudden, very very concern
about the United States taking the oil of Venezuela. Well,
let me tell you something, fear not, because Iran and
Cuba have been receiving free Venezuelan oil for decades in
(09:53):
exchange of protecting the dictator that has been exiling, killing us,
and disappearing us for twenty six years. So please, you
should be more concerned about the dictator that is killing us,
exiling us, and disappearing us than the United States taking
our oil. We are not concerned about that, So why
are you concerned about that? Be concerned about the imperial
(10:16):
powers of Iran and Russia, who are already in Venezuela.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I saw another influencer say, yeah, you know, the United
States is there for oil? What do you think Russia
and Iran are there for their rapa recipes?
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Yes, there has been a lot of quality commentary mm
hmm on this, and yes, what do you think those
forces were there for? They were there to coalesce close
to America, to put to give a foothold to.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
All of our worst enemies in that area.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
By the way, Venezuela, of course has a close relationship
with Russia. Russia put out a very strongly worded statement
about this, so apparently that ally ship was not quite
as ally as they had hoped.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
When it came down to it. Yeah, l was whisked
out of the country.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah, so the legal part of it, Law Professor Glenn Reynolds,
he's instapundon. He's one of the people I turned to
to break down stuff like this, he writes, brought to
the United States and put on trial Noriega. He's talking
about Manuel Noriega, and that's kind of the precedent for this.
And his lawyers made the same arguments that Maduro supporters
on the left are making now, violations of the UN Charter,
(11:26):
illegal rendition, head of state, community, et cetera. None of
these convince the courts, and for reasons that are likely
to obtain here. Of course, one wild card may be
the Trump rule, which is that anything Trump does is
judicially suspect. Basically, all the best people know Trump is
no good. That's stupid, but it would be wrong to
entirely discount its power.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
So that's really where we are.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Whether the courts will find that this was an illegal
action because Donald Trump was involved. But the Southern District
of New York apparently he is taking this quite seriously,
and they're prosecuting them there.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
So we'll see.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
But you know, he was indicted five years ago. The
Biden administration happened during that time. They could have, you know,
done something with that indictment and they didn't.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
So here we are, he's in the US.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
It's just the whole operation, the fact that they were
able to do this and bring him to the US,
and it's really just a miraculous thing to watch. Well.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
And we should note also that Democrats before now were
very in favor of ending the Maduro illegitimate yep illegitimate
presidency of Venezuela. He ran against someone in twenty twenty four,
not the woman who won the Nobel Prize but she
(12:48):
was barred from running, but the guy who ran it
against him in twenty twenty four one, with like sixty
seven percent of the vote. It was very clear, and
he of course just overrode Thatto. The woman who was
leader of the opposition has since left the country, like
Democrats at the time, because it happened on their.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Why right, we're like, this is reprehensible.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Biden put a twenty five million dollar bounty on his
on what would lead to his arrest, and it's amazing
to me how loudly. Democrats say, no, we just say
stuff we don't mean all.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
The time, and they're proud of it. They're like, no, no, no, no,
we did.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Yeah, we put a twenty five million dollar bounty on it,
but like we didn't mean that.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Yeah, we didn't mean go get him. We just meant like,
hope he comes to us.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Right, like what? And they think they think that's a
point in their favor.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
I mean, Kamala's statement about it was very much just
like this is absolutely outrageous that this would ever happen.
It's like, but your own administration put it a million
dollar bounty on it, What did you think.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Was gonna happen? Like it would be really funny.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Actually, if Trump collects that bounty and puts it towards
the ballroom.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
I believe.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
I believe Rubio has already argued that we saved fifty
million by doing this, which is the argument I make
when I'm when I buy on sale things at Target.
So like I I mean, for sure understood, my dude understood.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I'll also note that Donald Trump was seen shopping for
marble in Lakeworth, Florida, near where he lives in Palm
Beach like looking at tile and marble slabs.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
The day this happened.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yes, it was like yes, h.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
He also arrived at his mar A Lago New Year's
Eve party and was asked, you know what his New
Year's Eve resolution was, and it was for world peace,
which I enjoyed very much. Of course, knowing that this
is going to happen. Also, can I briefly say Milania
what a god is? Sometimes you just have to say
(14:48):
like right, wow, wow, Okay, So that's just a brief aside.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah, listen, Milania needs a moment.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
As it stands now, Jim Garretty writes about out who's
in charge in Venezuela at this point? Now Donald Trump
has said we're in charge, but we're not sure exactly
what that means.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Meet the new boss, the vice president of the old boss.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
In the early morning hours of Saturday, in the US
military executed one of the most stunningly proficient operations in
its history, grabbing Nicholas Maduro. But apparently the Trump administration's
plan is to leave Maduro's vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, in
charge as head of the Venezuela state and to hope
that the threat of additional military action keeps her in line.
Right now, I think from what I can gather from
(15:30):
Rubio on the Sunday shows scolding all of the anchors,
it seems like they envisioned something possibly with the official
opposition led by Matado, who Trump was not very complimentary
of at this At this presser she dedicated his Nobel
Price today. From what I gather, their sense was that
(15:54):
they weren't prepared to handle the military to have enough
to be seen as legitimate. So in the meantime, what
they've decided to do, and I'm just layman's terms in basically,
put a blockade on oil, strangle this leadership and say
here's what you have to do. We're going to tell
you what to do, and then we will have elections,
(16:16):
and I believe the Chevistas can be involved in those elections,
and then presumably the opposition would be elected.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Right right, they could be involved in the elections, but
nobody's electing them.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Everyone wants to eat, so.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
Yes, yes, they'd like to eat something other than zoo animals,
which is a thing that happened in Venezuela at one
point because people needed food.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Well, we're going to take a short break and come
back with even more news that happened in the last
few days.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Be right back with more on normally.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
We are back on normally where Also while we were off,
a nine billion fraud scandal was uncovered in Minnesota. Nick Shirley,
he's a YouTuber, taped him self visiting multiple child care
facilities that were receiving large amounts of taxpayer dollars but
were largely empty. How did the liberal media react to this?
(17:11):
Did they say, Wow, this is a really great find,
Nick Shirley.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
They did not. You might be sure to find out
Mary Catherine.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
But the big news today is that Minnesota Governor Tim
Walls is not running for reelection. You have to imagine
because of all of this.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Yeah, it's so funny, because I was told that the
fraud was either non existent or small or probably pretty
good and also made up by Republicans and also made
up by Nick Shirley, even though there were investigations and
indictments and local coverage of this in the past. Right,
But for some reason, all this fakeness also precipitates the
(17:51):
dropping out of the race of the current governor of
the state of Minnesota, who has now gone from VEEP candidate.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
YEP told nothing within a year and a half.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
That is such a good point, you know, about how
if it's all fake, then why is he resigning or
why is he not running for reelection?
Speaker 4 (18:11):
Well, yeah, well I can give you the answer from
his statement, which is an insane statement. I'm gonna start
from the beginning, just so you see how quickly he
modulates to blaming others. Good morning and happy met New Year.
Like many Minnesota's, I was glad to turn the page
on twenty twenty five. It was an extraordinarily difficult year
for our state, and it ended on a particularly sour note.
For the last several years, an organized group of criminals
(18:32):
has sought to take advantage of our stage generosity, and
even as we make progress in the fight against the frosters,
we now see an organized group of political actors seeking
to take advantage of the crisis. I won't mince words here.
Donald Trump and his allies in Washington, in Saint Paul
and online want to make our state a colder, meaner place.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Well we can't. We can't make it colder, dude, like
you live in Minnesota.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Yeah, but yes, it's a He really kicked over quickly
to blaming someone else. For this fraud that doesn't exist
but kind of exists. But he's a super fraud fighter.
But also he has to drop out.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Of the race. Yeah, Like Snopes looked into this and found.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Nick Shirley's claims to be quote unverified because quote a
spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Human Services DHS said,
and the statement that it had visited all of the
facilities in Shirley's video at least once in the six
months proceeding December twenty twenty five, as part of the
department's typical license process.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Oh well, I know.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
It's like, oh, okay, well, I guess if they visited,
then there's nothing to see here.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, they totally visited.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
And it's not at all obvious that everyone in this
process is bought off or bought in to this process.
And that's the thing to me, is this, all of
this is so gigantic, The scale is so great that
you didn't not know in Sorry, the whistleblowers have been
very loud, they have their own Twitter account. They have
repeatedly come to state government to say this is how happening.
(20:00):
Mostly been rebuffed, although there have been some There have
been some indictments and there are federal indictments as well.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
But then even the New York Times.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Had to admit and it's reporting finally, not in twenty
twenty four, when they could have connected walls to this
and it would have been helpful diver but like a
month ago, they were like, yeah, so a lot of
people were afraid of being called racist because it was
right twenty twenty three. Yeah, and this is like a
marginalized community doing fraud, so they couldn't say anything about it.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
It's just such bs.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Because here's the thing, and I said this on the
show before, like I would say that, you know, bad
stuff goes on in every immigrant community and in non
immigrant communities.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
But when I see a fraud scandal break in Brooklyn,
my first reaction is like, please don't be you know,
from the former Soviet Union. Please.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
And if it is, all of us are like, oh,
you guys are the worst, Like you make us look
so bad, like this is just horrible. Nobody's like, oh,
you're so you know, you're attacking our ethnicity.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Nobody says that.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Nobody at all argues that fighting crime on behalf of
all of us is somehow anti Exoviet, Like come on
and it's so offensive that they're trying this because these
people are Smali.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Like again, any it could happen anywhere, and.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
That actually should be the message that it's not limited
to Smali community. You should probably look into other communities
as well, and there's nothing racist about it.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Actually.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
One of the things I like about this scandal is
that because the media is so focused on saying not
just Somali Americans, they have admitted things they don't really
admit regularly, which is like all states and all programs
have a bunch of fraud, which is useful to me
as someone who actually cares about the fraud in all
(21:50):
of these programs that you guys have been dismissing for
so long. So it's nice to hear them finally admit
that as a way of defending waltson all of the right.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Right, this happens everywhere, like okay, go fight that.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Okay, great, let's let's get on all of that please,
right right.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
And I do they always say in all of these waste,
fraud and abuse issues, they always say so so dropping
the bucket. Okay, First of all, this isn't a dropping
the buck Yeah, billions of dollars. Second of all, every
single dollar that is not stewarded in the way it
should be is taken from an American who could use
it for honest means instead of fraud. And many of
(22:29):
those Americans are suffering right now trying to pay for
wait for it, childcare yep, while it's being given away
to people who are not engaging in childcare.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
That's right, and I really hope that Republicans don't let
this go.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
This is just it's such a.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Giant scandal, and Republicans are so just very easily distracted.
I will say the Republican Study Committee members, Representatives Radfinstead,
Peter Staber, and Michelle Fishbeck, are demanding answers from Tim
Walls about the fraud. They have given him until today
to commit to full cooperation with federal investigators. We'll see
(23:10):
if anything comes of any of that. I would love
to see Republicans, you know, die on this hill. This
is really important to the American people. I think one
of the other things that people have said in the
last a week or so about the scandal is like
all of these scandals are showing us that there's so
much money where people are just you know that there's
(23:31):
already a universal basic income for so many people in
America and not like we don't even know about it.
It's wrong, it's unfair, it hurts us all. We need
to stop it, and like this is where Republicans can
really shine.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Yeah, and it increasingly makes a bunch of honest people go,
why am I being?
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Why am I working?
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Why am I trying to open a childcare center and
getting told by the state that I have to meet
all these regulations when none of these other people have.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Right, Why are we putting on makeup and doing this
podcas so when we could just open a childcare center,
Like that's ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
I'd be great at a no childcare childcare center, say
fantastic at that for millions of dollars. One last thing,
which is that it looks like Minnesota Senator Amy Klobachar
will get into the race for governor. On the Republican side,
you have Mike Lindell, the my pillow guy who has announced,
and Lisa Damouz, who was the head of the Minnesota
(24:23):
Republicans in the state, who would be the sensible choice
to take on at Amy clobchart And by the way,
one more thing, as I said, no one in power
as a Democrat didn't know what was going on here. Yeah,
Clobachar is gonna sound all tough like she's, oh.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
I'm the one to get to the bottom of this.
And she might even be convincing because she is a
tough lady. But she wasn't being tough on it before.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Now, why not, right, she hoped nobody would find out.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah, we'll be right back with one more segment of
normally coming right up.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
All right, we're back on normally with a little bit
of now it can be told. It turned out that
in academia and in San Francisco, the Libs are learning
they were wrong and we were right a long time ago.
But you know, I welcome these realizations. The first one
comes from Harvard President Alan Garber, who said in an
interview that the university went wrong by allowing faculty activism
in the classroom, arguing professor's political views have chilled free
(25:19):
speech and debate on campus. Part of the quote is
how many students would actually be willing to go toe
to toe against a professor who's expressed a firm view
about a controversial issue. I think he's obviously right about this,
but it's not just the expressing right. The expressing is
not the problem. It's that you only hired people who
believe one thing, and part of what they believe is
(25:42):
that everyone must believe what they believe. So that doesn't
really allow for a lot of back and forth.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
It really doesn't. And look, the kids who are different
from their professors know to cater to them. I wrote
a paper in college that I found a few years
ago about how the family is an outdated got an a,
got an a.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
So I found I found a little bit of a
squishy gun control paper when I was back at my parents'
house and.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Was like, whoa.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
Somebody, somebody definitely signaled to me that I was not
going to get an error if I didn't say this.
But yes, and I think it requires kids being braver now,
adults in college. But it requires them being braver now
because the punishments are worse than when I was in school.
And even when I was in school, you were ripping
something to stick up for what you believed. So I
(26:29):
appreciate him acknowledging be told, yeah, we'll see what happens. Meanwhile,
in San Francisco, Jonathan Carl of ABC traveled to interview
the San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lourie about the challenges that
San Francisco faces and this is what he's realized.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
We have a clip of him.
Speaker 7 (26:46):
What went wrong in this city? I mean, San Francisco
had become the symbol of in some ways progressive or
liberal failure.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
For what happened here.
Speaker 7 (26:55):
We lost our way as a city. We all know
that we had, you know, career politicians that were focused
on what was next for them instead of what was
best for San Franciscans. And what I've tried to do
is focus on getting results for the people of San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
And what specifically was.
Speaker 5 (27:14):
It was it a approach of not enforcing the laws.
Speaker 7 (27:19):
I think we got away from the basics of government
now today, if you come to San Francisco to commit
a crime, we're going to catch you and we're going
to prosecute you. If you come to San Francisco to
deal drugs or to do drugs, we're going to prosecute you,
and we're not going to tolerate it for as long
as I'm mayor, and I think we sort of had
(27:42):
a lais a fair attitude. We said, Okay, it's somebody's
right to do drugs. Our progressive value sort of overtook
a common.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
Sense, sure did bars on the ground. Man, we will
be prosecuting crimes.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Congratulations.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
And by the way, they at laissez faire, they're only
laissez fair toward criminals.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
That's the problem.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Normal people who live in San Francisco have to follow
the rules, and the rules are onerous and terrible and
make you want to leave San Francisco, which is what
a bunch of companies have done.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah, Michael Malice was in New York the last few
days and he posted to his ex about how everything
in like the local stores and the Dwayne Reads and
the CVS's, is locked up and you have to go
find an employee for everything and how is that a
business model? And of course it's not. And all of
these companies are going to leave these places that make
(28:35):
it so impossible. I was also in Singapore over the break.
It was my second time there, and I get it.
We shouldn't have the death penalty for like spitting on
the ground, Okay, but what if what if we just
enforced the laws that we have with the punishments that
we have for those laws, Like, how would that go?
Speaker 1 (28:56):
It's so crazy. It just might work.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
But let's see what San Francisco does here, and.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
We'll see what happens with Mom Donnie, who's currently weighing
in on the Venezuela raid because we really need him
on that.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Yeah, well we'll see.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
We didn't even get to talk about Mom Donnie, but
that's okay because there'll be lots of opportunities to.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Talk about Zora, Mom Donnie in the future. Thanks for
joining us on Normally.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you could subscribe anywhere
you get your podcasts. Get in touch with us at
normally theepod at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening, and
when things get weird, act normally
Hey guys, I'm back normally.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Joe with normal takes the wed Day.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
It's weird.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
I'm married out in ham. I'm Carol Markowitz. How are you,
Mary Catherine?
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Happy New Year, Happy New Year.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
I'm making it, man, We got it. We got through
the holidays. I flew down to the Sugar Bowl to
watch the dogs lose.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
But everybody was very nice.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Even as I walked back on Bourbon Street among the
revelers who.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Were all Ole Miss fans.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Everything went fine, aside from the actual result of the game.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Any New Year's resolutions.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Not in particular, just to kind of get myself back
in order.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I made it to the gym today. What about you.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, I mean other than like, you know, see the
inside of a gym at some time, some point, I'm
going to focus more on developing friendships this year. I've
been in Florida four years, and like, I know a
lot of people here, and I'm always and I have
stuff to do. But like I have to just like
start making plans with my kids friends, you know, mom,
(01:07):
Like I have to. I have to just do better
at stuff like that. So that's that's the one for
this year.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
I love it. I love it. Right, Yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Also four years in Florida.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I told the Internet that it was January second. It
turns out it was January third. So in general I
just need to get more organized. But yeah, four years Floridian.
Very happy about that and couldn't be glad, you know,
couldn't be better than when mum Donnie became mayor of
New York to be like I live in Florida.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Actually that four years happened fast. Well.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Another person had some New Year's resolutions that he executed
on on January third, that Donald Do you know that
President Donald Trump engaging in his foreign policy doctrine, which
is sort of you can just do things you could
just do you can just do things, you do things.
He did those things in Venezuela on January third, and
(01:58):
the dark of night with one hundred and fifty aircraft
executing a precision apprehension illegitimate President Nicholas Maduro YEP from
Caracas along with his wife, who have both been indicted
in New York for several years now, carried them out
of the country. No casualties to American troops, although there
(02:18):
were some injuries I think which are minor. Everybody high
tailed it out of there and TBD on Venezuela.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
But Maduro is in a cell in New York right now.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Unbelievable, right.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I mean, look, you know it's funny because if you
had asked me on January twod should the US go
in and depose Maduro? I would have been like, no,
death not. But now that we've done it successfully, I'm like,
that's good. My concern would have been losing American lives.
It wouldn't have been international law, it wouldn't have been
you know, anything else other than would an American die
(02:52):
in this operation? I would not have wanted that no
American died. So I can look back at it and
be like, that was excellent. This is why you don't
lack people like me, President, because I would be like,
I don't know, I don't know if we should do this.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Well, so I'm with you. I like a little I
don't know. But let me let me.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Say this part first, watching General Raisin Kane explain this
operation after it is already done and everyone's back, yep.
I think it's been dominant to note it took a
shorter amount of time to apprehend him than the last
episode of Stranger Things, so they were, They were in
and out of there between that and the Aaran strike,
(03:31):
which again we were. You know, I would have been like,
maybe a little squeamish about how is this gonna go?
Watching our military so insanely competent and its leaders be
insanely competent is something I have been starved for, man, yeah,
maybe ten years, just to watch an instanation do what
it's supposed to do. So Delta Force is down there
(03:53):
taking care of business, and that part in and of
itself is gratifying. And I think perhaps some in the
media and liberals in general underestimate. Yes, people don't care
about foreign policy that much, but the demonstration of American
competence and power they do care about, and that part
made me go, whoo, my goodness. I also want to
(04:18):
note one of my favorite tweets because the meaning of
this news event.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Oh my god, so good, almost like nothing I've ever seen.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Someone said today of Venezuela and named Delta Force, Donald
Trump Vasquez will be born. So so good that part,
that part just is inspiring to me. And I think
my concern is what happens next, and American lives obviously
was my first concern.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
What happens next.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
However, I do think Secretary of State Marco Rubio has
been thinking about this problem since the year nineteen ninety.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Nine took over.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Yeah, so since his twenties, he's been like, what would
we do right if we had this chance?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
And so that makes me feel better about it.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I mean, speaking of competence, like, does anybody appear more
competent than Secretary of State Marco Rubio?
Speaker 3 (05:09):
I just think he is on buyer.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Really, the memes about him taking on more jobs, like oh,
now he's going to have to be coach of the
Miami Dolphins, and now he's going to have to run Venezuela,
Like I would trust him to do all of that,
and he's just fantastic. It's so funny how starved we
were for this kind of competency. Look, the joke is
that we wanted a grown up in the room. Is
(05:34):
it surprising that that grown up is Donald Trump?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Yes, but he is.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
He's the grown up in the room who is like
taking care of business, blocking out the crazy voices around him,
and there are crazy voices around him, and just going
for it, making America great again on the world stage.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
I'm so impressed. I am just I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Everybody who's listened to me and has watched me and
read me for years knows that I wasn't like Donald
Trump is the guy who's going to get things done,
and yet here he is just exceeding all expectations on
every level.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Well, I think what he's engaged in doing, which I
really appreciate, even when I'm nervous about whatever eventuality is
coming next. What I appreciate that he's doing is he
is re establishing deterrence, and it's a place where I
can have more leeway for him, because having lost deterrence
in such dramatic ways after the Knistan pull out and
(06:33):
all of that, and no one responsibility and no one
being punished for it, re establishing deterrence requires very muscular
actions because people will not believe you once you've lost
that right. I think people are believing him, and one
of the folks who must believe him now, as I
(06:54):
believe there was a Chinese delegation on the ground, and
that was just within several days of this event, and
so I think that sends a message as well to
China and to people in another hemisphere. But I'm open
to the idea that this is our hemisphere. We're taking
care of business. Thissus Maduro is from the beginning illegitimate. Yeah,
(07:16):
Taves was illegitimate. He just takes over and starts nationalizing businesses.
They of course took Venezuela, which is an incredibly resource
rich place, down to just grating, awful, rationed poverty.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I've been there years.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
I've been there as a child. It was, I mean,
beautiful and amazing. It was a very hot spot for
I don't know, there was a time period where Russian
immigrants were really into going to Venezuela's I'd been there
more than once. It was gorgeous and somewhere that, you know.
I hope tourism comes back. I hope they come back.
I hope the whole place recovers. The glee from Venezuelans
(07:54):
is just so beautiful to watch. I've loved every minute.
I think we have some clips we're going to play.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Yeah, Because it's not just the glee from them, it
is also, to my mind, one of the most thorough
social media punishments for libs that I have seen, because
Venezuelans keep taking to social media to say, guys, you're
getting this wrong, right, let me explain why. So we
do have a couple clips of a couple of Venezuelans
(08:21):
explaining to the libs why this matters and why they're happy.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
This is a video for all those liberals and leftists,
mostly American that I've seen in the media complaining about
what's going on in Venezuela, complaining about this military attacks
against military buildings, against government buildings that we're attacked today
(08:46):
in the early morning. What the fuck is wrong with you?
We have had twenty seven years of dictatorship in our
country that has censored us, that has talk to us,
that has killed us, and that made us go away
from our country like they made us run away from
(09:09):
our own homeland. Do you ever imagine that you will
have to do that? Like you do you even put
yourself in the situation of what does that mean?
Speaker 4 (09:23):
All right? And then we have another one. This is
the nature of many of them. My feet is just
full of them. And it's a delight because this is
the information they know.
Speaker 6 (09:31):
Are you an American or other First world or with
democracy privilege, who's all of a sudden, very very concern
about the United States taking the oil of Venezuela. Well,
let me tell you something, fear not, because Iran and
Cuba have been receiving free Venezuelan oil for decades in
(09:53):
exchange of protecting the dictator that has been exiling, killing us,
and disappearing us for twenty six years. So please, you
should be more concerned about the dictator that is killing us,
exiling us, and disappearing us than the United States taking
our oil. We are not concerned about that, So why
are you concerned about that? Be concerned about the imperial
(10:16):
powers of Iran and Russia, who are already in Venezuela.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I saw another influencer say, yeah, you know, the United
States is there for oil? What do you think Russia
and Iran are there for their rapa recipes?
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Yes, there has been a lot of quality commentary mm
hmm on this, and yes, what do you think those
forces were there for? They were there to coalesce close
to America, to put to give a foothold to.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
All of our worst enemies in that area.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
By the way, Venezuela, of course has a close relationship
with Russia. Russia put out a very strongly worded statement
about this, so apparently that ally ship was not quite
as ally as they had hoped.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
When it came down to it. Yeah, l was whisked
out of the country.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah, so the legal part of it, Law Professor Glenn Reynolds,
he's instapundon. He's one of the people I turned to
to break down stuff like this, he writes, brought to
the United States and put on trial Noriega. He's talking
about Manuel Noriega, and that's kind of the precedent for this.
And his lawyers made the same arguments that Maduro supporters
on the left are making now, violations of the UN Charter,
(11:26):
illegal rendition, head of state, community, et cetera. None of
these convince the courts, and for reasons that are likely
to obtain here. Of course, one wild card may be
the Trump rule, which is that anything Trump does is
judicially suspect. Basically, all the best people know Trump is
no good. That's stupid, but it would be wrong to
entirely discount its power.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
So that's really where we are.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Whether the courts will find that this was an illegal
action because Donald Trump was involved. But the Southern District
of New York apparently he is taking this quite seriously,
and they're prosecuting them there.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
So we'll see.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
But you know, he was indicted five years ago. The
Biden administration happened during that time. They could have, you know,
done something with that indictment and they didn't.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
So here we are, he's in the US.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
It's just the whole operation, the fact that they were
able to do this and bring him to the US,
and it's really just a miraculous thing to watch. Well.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
And we should note also that Democrats before now were
very in favor of ending the Maduro illegitimate yep illegitimate
presidency of Venezuela. He ran against someone in twenty twenty four,
not the woman who won the Nobel Prize but she
(12:48):
was barred from running, but the guy who ran it
against him in twenty twenty four one, with like sixty
seven percent of the vote. It was very clear, and
he of course just overrode Thatto. The woman who was
leader of the opposition has since left the country, like
Democrats at the time, because it happened on their.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Why right, we're like, this is reprehensible.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Biden put a twenty five million dollar bounty on his
on what would lead to his arrest, and it's amazing
to me how loudly. Democrats say, no, we just say
stuff we don't mean all.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
The time, and they're proud of it. They're like, no, no, no, no,
we did.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Yeah, we put a twenty five million dollar bounty on it,
but like we didn't mean that.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Yeah, we didn't mean go get him. We just meant like,
hope he comes to us.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Right, like what? And they think they think that's a
point in their favor.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
I mean, Kamala's statement about it was very much just
like this is absolutely outrageous that this would ever happen.
It's like, but your own administration put it a million
dollar bounty on it, What did you think.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Was gonna happen? Like it would be really funny.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Actually, if Trump collects that bounty and puts it towards
the ballroom.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
I believe.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
I believe Rubio has already argued that we saved fifty
million by doing this, which is the argument I make
when I'm when I buy on sale things at Target.
So like I I mean, for sure understood, my dude understood.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I'll also note that Donald Trump was seen shopping for
marble in Lakeworth, Florida, near where he lives in Palm
Beach like looking at tile and marble slabs.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
The day this happened.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yes, it was like yes, h.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
He also arrived at his mar A Lago New Year's
Eve party and was asked, you know what his New
Year's Eve resolution was, and it was for world peace,
which I enjoyed very much. Of course, knowing that this
is going to happen. Also, can I briefly say Milania
what a god is? Sometimes you just have to say
(14:48):
like right, wow, wow, Okay, So that's just a brief aside.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah, listen, Milania needs a moment.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
As it stands now, Jim Garretty writes about out who's
in charge in Venezuela at this point? Now Donald Trump
has said we're in charge, but we're not sure exactly
what that means.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Meet the new boss, the vice president of the old boss.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
In the early morning hours of Saturday, in the US
military executed one of the most stunningly proficient operations in
its history, grabbing Nicholas Maduro. But apparently the Trump administration's
plan is to leave Maduro's vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, in
charge as head of the Venezuela state and to hope
that the threat of additional military action keeps her in line.
Right now, I think from what I can gather from
(15:30):
Rubio on the Sunday shows scolding all of the anchors,
it seems like they envisioned something possibly with the official
opposition led by Matado, who Trump was not very complimentary
of at this At this presser she dedicated his Nobel
Price today. From what I gather, their sense was that
(15:54):
they weren't prepared to handle the military to have enough
to be seen as legitimate. So in the meantime, what
they've decided to do, and I'm just layman's terms in basically,
put a blockade on oil, strangle this leadership and say
here's what you have to do. We're going to tell
you what to do, and then we will have elections,
(16:16):
and I believe the Chevistas can be involved in those elections,
and then presumably the opposition would be elected.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Right right, they could be involved in the elections, but
nobody's electing them.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Everyone wants to eat, so.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
Yes, yes, they'd like to eat something other than zoo animals,
which is a thing that happened in Venezuela at one
point because people needed food.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Well, we're going to take a short break and come
back with even more news that happened in the last
few days.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Be right back with more on normally.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
We are back on normally where Also while we were off,
a nine billion fraud scandal was uncovered in Minnesota. Nick Shirley,
he's a YouTuber, taped him self visiting multiple child care
facilities that were receiving large amounts of taxpayer dollars but
were largely empty. How did the liberal media react to this?
(17:11):
Did they say, Wow, this is a really great find,
Nick Shirley.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
They did not. You might be sure to find out
Mary Catherine.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
But the big news today is that Minnesota Governor Tim
Walls is not running for reelection. You have to imagine
because of all of this.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Yeah, it's so funny, because I was told that the
fraud was either non existent or small or probably pretty
good and also made up by Republicans and also made
up by Nick Shirley, even though there were investigations and
indictments and local coverage of this in the past. Right,
But for some reason, all this fakeness also precipitates the
(17:51):
dropping out of the race of the current governor of
the state of Minnesota, who has now gone from VEEP candidate.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
YEP told nothing within a year and a half.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
That is such a good point, you know, about how
if it's all fake, then why is he resigning or
why is he not running for reelection?
Speaker 4 (18:11):
Well, yeah, well I can give you the answer from
his statement, which is an insane statement. I'm gonna start
from the beginning, just so you see how quickly he
modulates to blaming others. Good morning and happy met New Year.
Like many Minnesota's, I was glad to turn the page
on twenty twenty five. It was an extraordinarily difficult year
for our state, and it ended on a particularly sour note.
For the last several years, an organized group of criminals
(18:32):
has sought to take advantage of our stage generosity, and
even as we make progress in the fight against the frosters,
we now see an organized group of political actors seeking
to take advantage of the crisis. I won't mince words here.
Donald Trump and his allies in Washington, in Saint Paul
and online want to make our state a colder, meaner place.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Well we can't. We can't make it colder, dude, like
you live in Minnesota.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Yeah, but yes, it's a He really kicked over quickly
to blaming someone else. For this fraud that doesn't exist
but kind of exists. But he's a super fraud fighter.
But also he has to drop out.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Of the race. Yeah, Like Snopes looked into this and found.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Nick Shirley's claims to be quote unverified because quote a
spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Human Services DHS said,
and the statement that it had visited all of the
facilities in Shirley's video at least once in the six
months proceeding December twenty twenty five, as part of the
department's typical license process.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Oh well, I know.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
It's like, oh, okay, well, I guess if they visited,
then there's nothing to see here.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, they totally visited.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
And it's not at all obvious that everyone in this
process is bought off or bought in to this process.
And that's the thing to me, is this, all of
this is so gigantic, The scale is so great that
you didn't not know in Sorry, the whistleblowers have been
very loud, they have their own Twitter account. They have
repeatedly come to state government to say this is how happening.
(20:00):
Mostly been rebuffed, although there have been some There have
been some indictments and there are federal indictments as well.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
But then even the New York Times.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Had to admit and it's reporting finally, not in twenty
twenty four, when they could have connected walls to this
and it would have been helpful diver but like a
month ago, they were like, yeah, so a lot of
people were afraid of being called racist because it was
right twenty twenty three. Yeah, and this is like a
marginalized community doing fraud, so they couldn't say anything about it.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
It's just such bs.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Because here's the thing, and I said this on the
show before, like I would say that, you know, bad
stuff goes on in every immigrant community and in non
immigrant communities.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
But when I see a fraud scandal break in Brooklyn,
my first reaction is like, please don't be you know,
from the former Soviet Union. Please.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
And if it is, all of us are like, oh,
you guys are the worst, Like you make us look
so bad, like this is just horrible. Nobody's like, oh,
you're so you know, you're attacking our ethnicity.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Nobody says that.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Nobody at all argues that fighting crime on behalf of
all of us is somehow anti Exoviet, Like come on
and it's so offensive that they're trying this because these
people are Smali.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Like again, any it could happen anywhere, and.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
That actually should be the message that it's not limited
to Smali community. You should probably look into other communities
as well, and there's nothing racist about it.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Actually.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
One of the things I like about this scandal is
that because the media is so focused on saying not
just Somali Americans, they have admitted things they don't really
admit regularly, which is like all states and all programs
have a bunch of fraud, which is useful to me
as someone who actually cares about the fraud in all
(21:50):
of these programs that you guys have been dismissing for
so long. So it's nice to hear them finally admit
that as a way of defending waltson all of the right.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Right, this happens everywhere, like okay, go fight that.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Okay, great, let's let's get on all of that please,
right right.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
And I do they always say in all of these waste,
fraud and abuse issues, they always say so so dropping
the bucket. Okay, First of all, this isn't a dropping
the buck Yeah, billions of dollars. Second of all, every
single dollar that is not stewarded in the way it
should be is taken from an American who could use
it for honest means instead of fraud. And many of
(22:29):
those Americans are suffering right now trying to pay for
wait for it, childcare yep, while it's being given away
to people who are not engaging in childcare.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
That's right, and I really hope that Republicans don't let
this go.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
This is just it's such a.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Giant scandal, and Republicans are so just very easily distracted.
I will say the Republican Study Committee members, Representatives Radfinstead,
Peter Staber, and Michelle Fishbeck, are demanding answers from Tim
Walls about the fraud. They have given him until today
to commit to full cooperation with federal investigators. We'll see
(23:10):
if anything comes of any of that. I would love
to see Republicans, you know, die on this hill. This
is really important to the American people. I think one
of the other things that people have said in the
last a week or so about the scandal is like
all of these scandals are showing us that there's so
much money where people are just you know that there's
(23:31):
already a universal basic income for so many people in
America and not like we don't even know about it.
It's wrong, it's unfair, it hurts us all. We need
to stop it, and like this is where Republicans can
really shine.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Yeah, and it increasingly makes a bunch of honest people go,
why am I being?
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Why am I working?
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Why am I trying to open a childcare center and
getting told by the state that I have to meet
all these regulations when none of these other people have.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Right, Why are we putting on makeup and doing this
podcas so when we could just open a childcare center,
Like that's ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
I'd be great at a no childcare childcare center, say
fantastic at that for millions of dollars. One last thing,
which is that it looks like Minnesota Senator Amy Klobachar
will get into the race for governor. On the Republican side,
you have Mike Lindell, the my pillow guy who has announced,
and Lisa Damouz, who was the head of the Minnesota
(24:23):
Republicans in the state, who would be the sensible choice
to take on at Amy clobchart And by the way,
one more thing, as I said, no one in power
as a Democrat didn't know what was going on here. Yeah,
Clobachar is gonna sound all tough like she's, oh.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
I'm the one to get to the bottom of this.
And she might even be convincing because she is a
tough lady. But she wasn't being tough on it before.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Now, why not, right, she hoped nobody would find out.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah, we'll be right back with one more segment of
normally coming right up.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
All right, we're back on normally with a little bit
of now it can be told. It turned out that
in academia and in San Francisco, the Libs are learning
they were wrong and we were right a long time ago.
But you know, I welcome these realizations. The first one
comes from Harvard President Alan Garber, who said in an
interview that the university went wrong by allowing faculty activism
in the classroom, arguing professor's political views have chilled free
(25:19):
speech and debate on campus. Part of the quote is
how many students would actually be willing to go toe
to toe against a professor who's expressed a firm view
about a controversial issue. I think he's obviously right about this,
but it's not just the expressing right. The expressing is
not the problem. It's that you only hired people who
believe one thing, and part of what they believe is
(25:42):
that everyone must believe what they believe. So that doesn't
really allow for a lot of back and forth.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
It really doesn't. And look, the kids who are different
from their professors know to cater to them. I wrote
a paper in college that I found a few years
ago about how the family is an outdated got an a,
got an a.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
So I found I found a little bit of a
squishy gun control paper when I was back at my parents'
house and.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Was like, whoa.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
Somebody, somebody definitely signaled to me that I was not
going to get an error if I didn't say this.
But yes, and I think it requires kids being braver now,
adults in college. But it requires them being braver now
because the punishments are worse than when I was in school.
And even when I was in school, you were ripping
something to stick up for what you believed. So I
(26:29):
appreciate him acknowledging be told, yeah, we'll see what happens. Meanwhile,
in San Francisco, Jonathan Carl of ABC traveled to interview
the San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lourie about the challenges that
San Francisco faces and this is what he's realized.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
We have a clip of him.
Speaker 7 (26:46):
What went wrong in this city? I mean, San Francisco
had become the symbol of in some ways progressive or
liberal failure.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
For what happened here.
Speaker 7 (26:55):
We lost our way as a city. We all know
that we had, you know, career politicians that were focused
on what was next for them instead of what was
best for San Franciscans. And what I've tried to do
is focus on getting results for the people of San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
And what specifically was.
Speaker 5 (27:14):
It was it a approach of not enforcing the laws.
Speaker 7 (27:19):
I think we got away from the basics of government
now today, if you come to San Francisco to commit
a crime, we're going to catch you and we're going
to prosecute you. If you come to San Francisco to
deal drugs or to do drugs, we're going to prosecute you,
and we're not going to tolerate it for as long
as I'm mayor, and I think we sort of had
(27:42):
a lais a fair attitude. We said, Okay, it's somebody's
right to do drugs. Our progressive value sort of overtook
a common.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
Sense, sure did bars on the ground. Man, we will
be prosecuting crimes.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Congratulations.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
And by the way, they at laissez faire, they're only
laissez fair toward criminals.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
That's the problem.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Normal people who live in San Francisco have to follow
the rules, and the rules are onerous and terrible and
make you want to leave San Francisco, which is what
a bunch of companies have done.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah, Michael Malice was in New York the last few
days and he posted to his ex about how everything
in like the local stores and the Dwayne Reads and
the CVS's, is locked up and you have to go
find an employee for everything and how is that a
business model? And of course it's not. And all of
these companies are going to leave these places that make
(28:35):
it so impossible. I was also in Singapore over the break.
It was my second time there, and I get it.
We shouldn't have the death penalty for like spitting on
the ground, Okay, but what if what if we just
enforced the laws that we have with the punishments that
we have for those laws, Like, how would that go?
Speaker 1 (28:56):
It's so crazy. It just might work.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
But let's see what San Francisco does here, and.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
We'll see what happens with Mom Donnie, who's currently weighing
in on the Venezuela raid because we really need him
on that.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Yeah, well we'll see.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
We didn't even get to talk about Mom Donnie, but
that's okay because there'll be lots of opportunities to.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Talk about Zora, Mom Donnie in the future. Thanks for
joining us on Normally.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you could subscribe anywhere
you get your podcasts. Get in touch with us at
normally theepod at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening, and
when things get weird, act normally
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