November 14, 2024 • 31 mins
In this conversation, Mary Katharine Ham and Karol Markowicz discuss the appointments made by Trump and the media's reaction to them. They express satisfaction with many of the picks, particularly Pete Hegseth, while also analyzing the implications of key appointments like Marco Rubio and Mike Huckabee. The discussion also touches on the historic meeting between Biden and Trump, and the effectiveness of campaign ads in shaping public perception. Normally is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey guys, welcome back to Normally the show with normalist
takes for when the news gets weird. I'm Mary Cathay
Hail and Carol Markowitz.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The news has been somewhat weird, not overly so I
think people are still adjusting to the election results. But
the appointments have started rolling in and commentary on those
appointments has been a bit hysterical.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
So I think there's like a it's not as bad
as last time, was as bad as last time, so
that's it's a mild improvement. And I do think there
needs to be like a def con chart there where
you should be if you're a person in the press
covering Trump and like whether you should be worried about
(00:47):
whatever he's doing it any given helment. The problem is
they can't gauge, so they just like kind of freak
out about everything, and that that's not a good way
to do news. And I would say that this transition
compared to his last one because he didn't know he
was going to win last time, is much smoother. As
a professional who's like we're cranking through these names, right,
(01:09):
We're hitting them quickly. It feels like there's a plan. Yeah,
So I think that helps.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, I agree. I also have really liked almost all
of the picks at all, but almost all, almost all.
I feel particularly defensive of the Pete Hexth pick, not
just because I've met Pete. You know, I can't say
we're friends, but we're friendly, We've hung out. I really
(01:36):
like him and his wife. But I think that there's
just this air of elitism that is in play about
his pick. And I would say that it is probably
because he's a good looking man and he looks you know.
I I the first time I ever met him, I
was like, he looks like like an action movie star,
(01:58):
like I want my son's to meet him. But he
I feel like he is like looks for getting in
the way of people realizing he went to Yale and Harvard,
he has two Bronze Stars, he did three deployments. He's,
you know, not some pretty boy dummy, which is what
the media is portraying him as. And I just think
(02:18):
he's such a breath of fresh air for this role.
I think that the position, you know, leading the defense department,
being at the head of that, I think it's not
really what people think. It's not actually like planning warfare
and doing stuff like that. It's really motivating that department,
changing the culture, getting enlistments up, which are super down.
(02:43):
I think people big incredible spokesman for that department, and
I just think all around, he is a fantastic pick
if you didn't want out of the box picks, if
you wanted the same bureaucrats that we've always had. Electing
Donald Trump was a mistake. So here we are. I
well pro pete Hegseth all the way.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, I do. I do think. Uh, I've largely been
satisfied with these picks, and to the point that it
makes me wonder, like I'm not necessarily the cons constituency
he's trying to serve, so like if I'm not disturbed
yet or concerned, other people.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Might be mad comfortable.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yeah, But on the heg Seth point, I think a
couple of things. I think it's fair to have like
a little bit of reservation and say, Okay, he's never
run a giant organization before. I do not believe that
that's not something you can hire for and like surround
yourself with people for I hate this thing where the
media is like, first, first of all, they're all TV hosts, right,
(03:44):
like and they're.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Like, jo I read is just like, he's just a
TV host, like you, ladies, like.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
You, You're a TV host and you tell all of
us what to do all the time, all the time.
So there's that. But I hate that they say that
that's all he is. So Jim Acosta reporting for CNN
is like, well, it's a Fox and Friends pick for
the Secretary of Defense. As you note, he has a
double Ivy League degrees. It was actually Princeton and Harvard
(04:09):
double Ivy League degrees, which the same folks who are
saying he's not a good pick would tell you any
other day that two IVY League degrees basically qualify you
for anything anything. On top of that, I believe it's
three deployments. He had a combat leadership role. He has
two Bronze stars. And at the risk of sounding like
(04:31):
a lib, I just want to say, y'all can't send
men to wars for twenty years where they gain experience,
and when they come back you tell them that experience
doesn't count. That's right, because I think that experience counts.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, And let's not forget that Biden's Cabinet Transportation secretary
got picked because he likes trains, so spare me the
lectures about Pete Hegsat's experience. I think he's perfectly qualified
and makes a great pick.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Well.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
And there's another part of this where perhaps someone can
make this point at the confirmation hearings, which is, would
Pete hegseeth go a wall and have surgery without telling
the president that he was gone from his post as
secretary Lloyd Austin did, because if you won't do that, Yeah, like,
(05:22):
we're there. But that's a thing that the press is
very bad at doing. They don't see the the what
is it? They don't see the log in their own
eye while they're pointing out the vote in someone else's. No,
I think it's an interesting pick, definitely, definitely unexpected. Yeah,
but I definitely.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Like is this one real?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Is this one real?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:41):
But I'm not a verse to things that are unconventional
because one of the things, A, people voted for change
and B there's a lot of very very stodgy, stultifying
bureaucracy that can use people looking at it differently, perhaps
(06:01):
especially from a combat that's perspective.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, yeah, fully agree, and I like the other picks
again pretty much so far. I have to say, Christynome
at Homeland Security might be the one that I quite understand.
But here we are as we record this, Marco Rubio
still has not been announced as Secretary of State, which
(06:27):
is worrying me a little bit. I've heard from two
people inside the process that there is some inner strife
that somebody else was promised that position, and that there's
somehow figuring it out. I don't think they could walk
it back at this point. I bet that by the
time this airs tomorrow, Rubio will be announced, because this
(06:48):
is quite a long time. Actually, it's already been over
twenty four hours that the rumor was first floated, and
it wasn't really floated so much as given to the
New York Times.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Well, and I have I have heard reported by some
who have better contacts in Trump world than I do,
that Rubio is a Wiles pick and that that was
part perhaps part of the trade off for JD Vance
at VEEP, and Rubio gets a good slot in the administration,
and I think he'd be extremely good in this spot.
(07:22):
The perfect moral clarity uh serious person speak Spanish can
put Latin American countries on the front burner and pay
attention to those which you know is helpful to the
new giant Latino voting block that the GOP has earned
around this time. So I think he'd be great there.
There's there are many things that are giving me heavy
(07:44):
thoughts in the beginning of this process, and we will
I will be ready for when that stops.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Well that's it. We have to be ready because there
are a lot of factions, there are a lot of
people to keep happy. But so far, I don't know
that I would change much Hukaby as ambassador as well.
I love that. I love Mike Kokabee. I think he's
just a fantastic person. He loves Israel so much. He is,
(08:13):
you know, a real American patriot. He will be there
to represent America's interests in Israel, and he is just
a fantastic choice.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yeah, And he's been outspoken about this forever, very affectionate
about Israel. Now it goes beyond like sort of an
ideological bent or a patriotic alliance. I think he's very
affectionate towards Israel and the people of Israel.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
That's right. And it's a tough job. I like to
joke that if I could choose any job to be
appointed to it'd be like ambassador to Turks and Caicos. Like,
that's not what he's getting. He's not getting the ambassadorship
to take Turks and Caicos. Israel is a tough one
he's going to be working.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
So he picked this.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
I mean, he obviously probably could have had, you know,
the ambassadorship to tricks and Cakeos. He chose to take
the tough one because he cares about the place and
he thinks he could do it a good job.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And I agree that Press secretary position still standing open
as we speak. We shall see what becomes of it.
Perhaps by the time this comes out, we'll have more information.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
But yeah, there was a rumor floated today that it
was Tucker, but I just.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
I don't see that. By the way, can I just
say that the uh, the Trump World Press Release form
is too easy to spoof, So things, things go out
on Twitter, and because Trump is so unconventional and unpredictable,
I didn't know if they're true or not, and it
takes a minute. And sometimes I'm on a hair trigger
about those things. So we will be we'll be careful
(09:44):
about that. We're in our we're in a healthy death
con situation. We know, we know when to freak out
and when not to. So right here we.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Are another transition news. Trump and Biden met today, just
two bros hanging out in front of a roaring fire.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
The fire was out of control. It was a conflagration.
Carol in the in the Oval office, I actually was thinking,
did someone put like gen Z staffers in charge of
the fire? And they were just like should it be
bigger than that? Like, I don't know, I don't do
a lot of fires. But then I thought, I'm not
sure they could have started it on their own, right,
(10:21):
Like sorry gen Z?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah, I mean I would just say I didn't have
a lot of fire making experience in Brooklyn. I lived
in Scotland learned how to make fires there. But like,
I don't think it's that crazy for people not to know.
But that was a rager. I feel like they both
must have been sweating through their suits, was sitting there.
I'm just like, I don't know how they're doing it.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
That's a big fire. It was. It was very real.
Uh So, nonetheless, you know, if they want to bring
me on to teach people in to build the fires.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yes, yes, the Mary Katherine Ham Hour to build fires.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
That's what I bring to the table. That and teaching
politicians to grow okay like normal people.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Right. Well, so Biden and Trump looked great together, very calm,
at ease, not at all like previous interactions.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Kind of have to wonder.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
If Trump wasn't just hanging out with one of his voters.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Yeah, let's let's hear a little bit of that interaction.
We'll be president.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I'd like former praying and your shining congratulation, Thank you,
and looking forward to having a likely said smooth transition
toevery We can make sure you're accommodating what you need,
and we're gonna get a chance to talk across I'm
out today.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
It's good, welcome, Thank you, jat.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
And thank you very much. And politics is tough, and
it's many cases not a very nice world, but it
is a nice world today and I appreciate it very much.
And a transition that's so smooth, it'll be as smooth
as it can get.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And I very much.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Appreciate that you you are.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
That was a different conversation then they used to have
the really stiff kind of conversations that we've kind of
gotten used to with the two of them.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Pretty crazy, Yeah, you can hear the fire in the
background of that clip, by the way, just threatening to
take over the entire office. Later, they both sat there
smiling while Biden's staff ushered yelling press out of the
room in classic Biden's style. They're just like yelling questions
and they're pushing, just physically pushing them out of the room.
(12:32):
Trump and Biden just sat there smiling. I do wonder, Carol,
who they voted for, Jill and Joe both because Jill
wore a red pants suit to vote.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Red pants suits at a mouthful.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
It really did, like, you don't do that as a
Democratic first lady, go into the polls. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
There was also an exchange between Jill Biden and Kamala Harris.
I believe that was on Monday, on Veterans Day, and
Jill didn't even look in her direction or say a word.
And my husband sent me that video and said, very
Carol over here, because I you know, when I love everyone,
but when you're dead to me, like I don't even
look at you, you don't exist. So he said, Carol
(13:14):
vibes there. I support you, Jill Biden.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
When when somebody crosses.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
You dead, that's it. Yeah, that's it. I mean it
was It had a real housewives feel like some is
about to go flying if if everyone doesn't mind their
p's and q's. So we got out of that Veteran's
Day ceremony without any chardonay flying. It's nice.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, we don't know what happened after they went inside.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, it could get it could get weird.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
We're going to take a short break and come right
back with.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Normally, speaking of transition of a different kind, shall we
talk about the ad that reportedly the Trump campaign spent
the most money on, Yeah, for placement, and it was
the trans ad. Can we tell you that thirty second
(14:04):
ad real quick?
Speaker 5 (14:05):
Kamala supports taxpayer funded sex changes for prisoners.
Speaker 6 (14:08):
Surgery for prisoners, for prisoners, every transgender inmate in the
prison system would have access.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
It's hard to believe, but it's true. Even the liberal
media was shocked. Kamala supports taxpayer funded sex changes for
prisoners and illegal aliens.
Speaker 6 (14:26):
Every transgender inmate would have access.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
Kamala's for they them, President Trump is for you.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah. That was a really popular ad, and I think
that what the main thing was is that people wanted
normal so badly and that's what they were getting with
Kamala Harris, and I think that that sent the message
that this won't be the normalcy that you're craving.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, I think there's First of all, that tagline brilliant
is just going down in history as one of the
greatest bites as political writings. I mean, it just just
nailed it, very effective. I think part of it too,
is it's there's got there's some silly pictures in it.
There's actually I believe I feel like I've seen another
(15:12):
version that had a slightly more upbeat music soundtrack, and
it's like, it's not super dark. It actually makes fun
of the absurdity, which I thought was a nice touch
because most Americans are not hateful about this issue. They
just don't want you to be insane, and Kamala Harris
(15:32):
could not back off of insane. And it's it's also
a great illustration of the media not serving Democrats well,
because when Trump brought this up at the debate, the
whole media like that that's crazy. But I believe it
was Andrew Kazinski of CNN who found this a cluh questionnaire.
(15:57):
She had done. It is real, it's in her hand.
These are her beliefs, and in that clip she even
goes further and she says, yeah, this is something that
I'm going to use my power to do. Quote I
believe she says for the agenda. These are not messages
for the normies.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
No, they're not. No, and that thing. We talked about
this before, but they shot themselves in the multiple feet
in twenty twenty with the crazy beliefs. They all raised
their hand about getting rid of private health insurance. I mean,
they had such whack a doodle concepts and beliefs, and
the fact that Biden won is a miracle. It's tough
(16:40):
to walk back any of that stuff, and it's particularly
tough when you're on video saying things like that. But again,
it was completely acceptable to say stuff like that back then.
It was in the Democratic Party primary. It was encouraged
to as left as possible.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Well, and what apologists will say is, I don't know
what these people were hearing. This transad is misleading, it's
not misleading. All of the things are true. Now you
can argue there are very few of these cases. People
don't care that there are very few of those because
they think that that's crazy, right, and they think it's
an emblematic of how you can't figure out what's crazy
(17:17):
and what's normal, right, and.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
So yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
So there's that, but like, yeah, I just think they're
having trouble reeling this back in. But the apologists say, well,
what are these people watching? Her campaign is nothing like this,
And it's like people can see her and hear her
from four or five years ago, from her time in office.
You don't get to just say, restart the clock for
(17:43):
three months and this is who I am.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Right. The other thing is is that when you hear
her say something that insane that she will pay for
free sex changes for illegal immigrant criminals in prison, you wonder,
what of the crazy ideas does she have?
Speaker 1 (18:03):
This can't be the only one.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
She didn't just come up with this one. There's got
to be others. So it leads people to think of
her as she was, which is a far left candidate
who was trying to cover it up for a few
months as she ran for president.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Yeah. Can I note that two people in the party
at least have tried to sort of reel this in
post election, so going for them, Well, so one of
them is Representative Seth Moulton, and he basically said, I said,
I have two little girls. I don't want them getting
run over on a playing field by male or formerly
male athlete. But as a Democrat, I'm supposed to be
(18:39):
afraid to say that. Okay, yes, they are all afraid
to say that. Well, yeah, twenty twenty and the level
of bullying we saw for everything made a lot of
people very scared to say a lot of things. And
that hurt the Democratic Party, I think more than it
hurt Republicans. Yeah, because this guy is starting with the
easiest thing, which is biological males on women's sports teams.
(19:05):
This is like, in some places, like an eighty five
percent issue if I'm conservative, it's a seventy thirty issue.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Controversial at all.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Well, wouldn't you know it? CBS reports it. That's Representative
Seth Moulton is defending controversial remarks that he made about
transgender athletes in the wake of the presidential election. To
his credit, although he should have spoken up sooner, he's
not backing off of this. I think he knows that
this is an electoral poison and he's continuing to talk
(19:36):
about it. But they're having a lot of trouble down
in Texas. The head of the head of the Democratic Party,
which got wiped out in the election Tuesday, said that
the transgender agenda hurt Democrats at the polls. We can say, Okay,
we respect people's right to say we don't want my
taxpayer money to be used to do that, and at
(19:58):
the same time support transgender rights, saying we need to
take that position right now, but when these votes happen,
we need to recognize that there are going to be
long term political consequences when we do that. We have
a choice as a party. You could, for example, you
can support transfer to rights up and down all the
categories where the issue comes up, and you can understand
that there's certain things that we just go too far
on that a bulk of our population does not support.
(20:20):
I believe he's out of that job now now. To
be fair, it might not be because of the comments.
It could be because of the shillacking, but right and I.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Saw right before we went on that there's already a
movement to primary South Moulton. So yeah, that's you know,
that's what he's going to get for that. Again, no
lessons learned, nothing, you know at all being picked up
from what just happened to the Democrats, they're going to
continue to be this far left thing. But what you
(20:50):
said was completely right is that people didn't care about
this issue for a long time and they do now
because we were made to care. They put it in
to our lives in so many different ways. I know,
I always talk about growing up in New York City,
like I had drag queen friends, I had, like you know,
people who were calling themselves trends. You know, back in
(21:11):
the nineties. They weren't trying to read books to elementary
school kids. They it wasn't about kids at all, And
I think that that's really what changed the conversation. They
directed it at children and parents were like, oh hell no.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Well, and the left frequently can't see itself as culture
warriors like y'all are in a cultural war. You're, in
fact the aggressors a lot of the time, and they
get upset when the culture defends itself. And I think
that's what a lot of normal people did on this issue, which,
(21:47):
by the way, I should also say I think it's
it makes people more upset because the backlash to talking
about it is so great on this issue. Abigail Schreyer's book,
which she truly bravely wrote called Irreversible horror, irvitual damage,
(22:08):
irreversible damage about the increase in trans youth and gender
dysphoria and whether that could be a social contagion. Was
literally banned at some books, took it off Amazon at
one point.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yep, taking off Amazon or moved from Target.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
So the actual, the actual book bannings, not the made
up ones. The actual backlash to this issue, I think
hardened people and made them more annoyed that they weren't
allowed to address this. And then Trump just says He's
for they, She's for them, I'm for you. I mean,
he cuts through all of it.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
It's impressive and again, great ad, just great conversation starter
in so many ways. And Democrats really have to tone
all of this down. We'll see whether they actually do that.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
We'll see whether they'll listen to molten. We we have
two back to back our regular segments. I want to
give you two of them. One us first.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
On video balloons just appeared on somehow I triggered that screen.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
First of all, Still mad bro, where Carol and I
bring up stuff that, yes, indeed, we are still mad
about even if most of the country has said that
we should get over it. And here's a new one.
This is from the New York Times, which has graced
us with this reporting now after gaslighting us in twenty twenty,
(23:35):
Americans started drinking more as the COVID nineteen pandemic got underway.
They were stressed, isolated, uncertain the world as they had
known it had changed overnight. Two years into disaster, the
trend has not abated. Researchers reported on Monday the percentage
of Americans who consumed alcohol, which had already risen from
twenty eighteen to twenty twenty, and step further in twenty
twenty one and twenty two and more people reported heavy
(23:58):
or binge drinking. This obviously has a lot of bad
cascading effects, Carol. But if we said that in twenty twenty,
we were told we were crazy. Right.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Schools were closed, liquor stores were open. Obviously. I remember
in the first few weeks when it was still sort
of a fun, funky time and everybody was home. We
were all zoom drinking with our friends. My daughter, who's
now fourteen, she was ten at the time, came downstairs
and she saw us like having drinks with our friends
on zoom, and she was like, are people developing drinking problems?
(24:33):
She didn't mean us, because we really don't drink that much,
but she immediately was like, this is probably not good
for us. She was ten. I swear to god, I
tweeted about it so people could know it was true,
and it happened at the time, but she saw it right.
You're home, you got nothing going on, You're sure, let
zoom with our friends and have some whiskey. A lot
(24:54):
of the things that happened during the pandemic that we
find it very hard to get over. Part of it
is why. Part of it is because we're still suffering
through a lot of it. A lot of kids still
having trouble catching up with their reading because they didn't
have school for so long. It makes total sense if
you've been drinking in twenty twenty it might not be
that easy to stop in twenty twenty four. It's not like, oh, okay,
(25:17):
everything went back to normal. I guess I'll drop this
bad habit. Sometimes that's really hard to do.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah, And also it also notes we think that what
happened during the pandemic was that there were a large
number of people who were already in a high risk zone,
so to speak, and the pandemic pushed them over the
brink into severe illness and death. Doctor Hindershot is who's
quoted telling us about that. Well, yeah, that was always
a danger, as we said at the time, And the
problem with the pandemic is that no one compared dangers,
(25:44):
no one compared risks. You were only allowed to think
about one kind of risk. And yep, you know, my
husband lost a friend to isolation and alcoholism during twenty twenty.
It was certainly exacerbated by that, certainly partially caused by lockdowns,
and we were not we were told we weren't allowed
(26:06):
to be concerned about that. Again with the bullying from
twenty twenty, and I think it's really sad. You're also
gonna love this sentence. Let me find it. The surgeon
alcohol consumption Carol was one of several lingering legacies of
the pandemic, along with school absenteeism lags and educational attainment
arise in overdose deaths and a surge in mental health problems,
(26:27):
especially among young people.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
If only somebody had said something.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
I'm still a little mad, bro, I am.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Will be right back on normally.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
This isn't in case you missed it, And unfortunately, I
think probably most everyone has missed.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
You bekept this news to me.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Well, it got really lost in the election news. The
announcement was made October thirty first, and this is the announcement.
Do you remember in May when several soldiers were hurt
building are working on the Gaza floating peer. Okay, yeah,
Well one of them was critically injured, and he's a Columbia,
South Carolina native. He goes, he's flown back to the
(27:10):
States to get treatment, and he passed away on October
thirty first, and it was announced a couple days later,
so right next to the election. And I just want
to read a little bit about him. His name, So,
Sergeant Conderius Devon Stanley, twenty three was one of three
US service members hurt May twenty third while working on
the temporary floating peer that Biden had announced with great
(27:31):
fanfare during his State of the Union address in March.
The other two service members thankfully minorly injured and are
back to work. But that peer cost up two hundred
and thirty million. I'm sure we'll find out later it
was more. It lasted from May to early July mid July.
It did almost nothing. They claimed that a bunch of
(27:53):
humanitarian aid was moved to Gaza, which some of it was,
except it got lost because it's there those goods are
taken by Hamas and they were raided. And then the
peer fell apart at one point in choppy waters because
it wasn't even really supposed to be used in a
place like the Mediterranean in that spot, and we lost
(28:16):
one soldier doing this, which was basically a terrible, unsuccessful
photo op to undermine Israel, by the way, because it's
saying Israel's not helping getting humanitarian aid there was not.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
True nonsense, Uh huh.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
And you know, I went and searched the White House
website to see if maybe Karine Jean Pierre had mentioned
Quandarius Stanley in any of her announcements or press releases.
I cannot find his name on the site, and I
just wanted to say, especially as Veterans Day came this week,
and obviously it's different, it's not Memorial Day, but I
would like to memorialize him and his family, who probably
(28:55):
will not be recognized by the White House unless Trump
decides to at some point. It's really sad, and it
makes me angry that they undertook.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
This fully agree, and you know, it's sickening that they
didn't say his name, and he an American, was lost overseas,
an American you know, military member, and we don't even
know about it. It's barely a story. It's a really
bad sign for a lot of things out of this
White House. I don't know. I'm cautiously optimistic, but I
(29:27):
really do think I have some faith in the Trump
White House that I simply don't in the Biden White House.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Well, and this is one of those things where I
think too often Democrats are judged by their intentions and
Republicans by results, right, and Democrats are given so much
benefit of the doubt that they tell us over and
over again that Biden obviously cares about the troops. He
definitely does, except when it comes to the hard stuff
like spending time with these families of the Abbey Gate thirteen,
(29:57):
for instance, to lifting up those families, recognizing them when
it might be a political liability for you. Trump actually
has a record of doing that. He brought to maybe
seal widow who was to the State of the Union,
whose husband was lost on an operation he oversaw right,
he has a record of doing that, and Biden doesn't
(30:19):
certainly lately, and I find it really offensive. Actually, it's
one of the few things I get actually mad about.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Right, Yeah, I agree, there's just there has to be
some level of doing the hard work. It's hard, obviously
to talk to people who have been lost, the families
of people who have been lost on your watch, but
it's part of the role of commander in chief and
you have to get over it.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
And do it well. I just wanted to bring that.
I know it's a little downway to end this, but
I just wanted to acknowledge him.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
His name his name again.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
His name is Sergeant Quandarius Stanley, and his officer says
was an instrumental and well respected first line leader in
the seventh Transportation Brigade Expeditionary, especially during the mission to
provide humanitarian assistance to the people. That's from Colonel John
Eddie Gray, his unit commander. So I wish we'd heard
a little more about him, and I wish that the
folks who had him doing that job would acknowledge what
(31:13):
he gave.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
We will remember you, sergeant well, thanks for joining us
on normally normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you can
subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts. Get in touch with
us at normallythepod at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening,
and when things get weird, act normally
Hey guys, welcome back to Normally the show with normalist
takes for when the news gets weird. I'm Mary Cathay
Hail and Carol Markowitz.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The news has been somewhat weird, not overly so I
think people are still adjusting to the election results. But
the appointments have started rolling in and commentary on those
appointments has been a bit hysterical.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
So I think there's like a it's not as bad
as last time, was as bad as last time, so
that's it's a mild improvement. And I do think there
needs to be like a def con chart there where
you should be if you're a person in the press
covering Trump and like whether you should be worried about
(00:47):
whatever he's doing it any given helment. The problem is
they can't gauge, so they just like kind of freak
out about everything, and that that's not a good way
to do news. And I would say that this transition
compared to his last one because he didn't know he
was going to win last time, is much smoother. As
a professional who's like we're cranking through these names, right,
(01:09):
We're hitting them quickly. It feels like there's a plan. Yeah,
So I think that helps.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, I agree. I also have really liked almost all
of the picks at all, but almost all, almost all.
I feel particularly defensive of the Pete Hexth pick, not
just because I've met Pete. You know, I can't say
we're friends, but we're friendly, We've hung out. I really
(01:36):
like him and his wife. But I think that there's
just this air of elitism that is in play about
his pick. And I would say that it is probably
because he's a good looking man and he looks you know.
I I the first time I ever met him, I
was like, he looks like like an action movie star,
(01:58):
like I want my son's to meet him. But he
I feel like he is like looks for getting in
the way of people realizing he went to Yale and Harvard,
he has two Bronze Stars, he did three deployments. He's,
you know, not some pretty boy dummy, which is what
the media is portraying him as. And I just think
(02:18):
he's such a breath of fresh air for this role.
I think that the position, you know, leading the defense department,
being at the head of that, I think it's not
really what people think. It's not actually like planning warfare
and doing stuff like that. It's really motivating that department,
changing the culture, getting enlistments up, which are super down.
(02:43):
I think people big incredible spokesman for that department, and
I just think all around, he is a fantastic pick
if you didn't want out of the box picks, if
you wanted the same bureaucrats that we've always had. Electing
Donald Trump was a mistake. So here we are. I
well pro pete Hegseth all the way.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, I do. I do think. Uh, I've largely been
satisfied with these picks, and to the point that it
makes me wonder, like I'm not necessarily the cons constituency
he's trying to serve, so like if I'm not disturbed
yet or concerned, other people.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Might be mad comfortable.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yeah, But on the heg Seth point, I think a
couple of things. I think it's fair to have like
a little bit of reservation and say, Okay, he's never
run a giant organization before. I do not believe that
that's not something you can hire for and like surround
yourself with people for I hate this thing where the
media is like, first, first of all, they're all TV hosts, right,
(03:44):
like and they're.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Like, jo I read is just like, he's just a
TV host, like you, ladies, like.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
You, You're a TV host and you tell all of
us what to do all the time, all the time.
So there's that. But I hate that they say that
that's all he is. So Jim Acosta reporting for CNN
is like, well, it's a Fox and Friends pick for
the Secretary of Defense. As you note, he has a
double Ivy League degrees. It was actually Princeton and Harvard
(04:09):
double Ivy League degrees, which the same folks who are
saying he's not a good pick would tell you any
other day that two IVY League degrees basically qualify you
for anything anything. On top of that, I believe it's
three deployments. He had a combat leadership role. He has
two Bronze stars. And at the risk of sounding like
(04:31):
a lib, I just want to say, y'all can't send
men to wars for twenty years where they gain experience,
and when they come back you tell them that experience
doesn't count. That's right, because I think that experience counts.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, And let's not forget that Biden's Cabinet Transportation secretary
got picked because he likes trains, so spare me the
lectures about Pete Hegsat's experience. I think he's perfectly qualified
and makes a great pick.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Well.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
And there's another part of this where perhaps someone can
make this point at the confirmation hearings, which is, would
Pete hegseeth go a wall and have surgery without telling
the president that he was gone from his post as
secretary Lloyd Austin did, because if you won't do that, Yeah, like,
(05:22):
we're there. But that's a thing that the press is
very bad at doing. They don't see the the what
is it? They don't see the log in their own
eye while they're pointing out the vote in someone else's. No,
I think it's an interesting pick, definitely, definitely unexpected. Yeah,
but I definitely.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Like is this one real?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Is this one real?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:41):
But I'm not a verse to things that are unconventional
because one of the things, A, people voted for change
and B there's a lot of very very stodgy, stultifying
bureaucracy that can use people looking at it differently, perhaps
(06:01):
especially from a combat that's perspective.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, yeah, fully agree, and I like the other picks
again pretty much so far. I have to say, Christynome
at Homeland Security might be the one that I quite understand.
But here we are as we record this, Marco Rubio
still has not been announced as Secretary of State, which
(06:27):
is worrying me a little bit. I've heard from two
people inside the process that there is some inner strife
that somebody else was promised that position, and that there's
somehow figuring it out. I don't think they could walk
it back at this point. I bet that by the
time this airs tomorrow, Rubio will be announced, because this
(06:48):
is quite a long time. Actually, it's already been over
twenty four hours that the rumor was first floated, and
it wasn't really floated so much as given to the
New York Times.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Well, and I have I have heard reported by some
who have better contacts in Trump world than I do,
that Rubio is a Wiles pick and that that was
part perhaps part of the trade off for JD Vance
at VEEP, and Rubio gets a good slot in the administration,
and I think he'd be extremely good in this spot.
(07:22):
The perfect moral clarity uh serious person speak Spanish can
put Latin American countries on the front burner and pay
attention to those which you know is helpful to the
new giant Latino voting block that the GOP has earned
around this time. So I think he'd be great there.
There's there are many things that are giving me heavy
(07:44):
thoughts in the beginning of this process, and we will
I will be ready for when that stops.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Well that's it. We have to be ready because there
are a lot of factions, there are a lot of
people to keep happy. But so far, I don't know
that I would change much Hukaby as ambassador as well.
I love that. I love Mike Kokabee. I think he's
just a fantastic person. He loves Israel so much. He is,
(08:13):
you know, a real American patriot. He will be there
to represent America's interests in Israel, and he is just
a fantastic choice.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yeah, And he's been outspoken about this forever, very affectionate
about Israel. Now it goes beyond like sort of an
ideological bent or a patriotic alliance. I think he's very
affectionate towards Israel and the people of Israel.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
That's right. And it's a tough job. I like to
joke that if I could choose any job to be
appointed to it'd be like ambassador to Turks and Caicos. Like,
that's not what he's getting. He's not getting the ambassadorship
to take Turks and Caicos. Israel is a tough one
he's going to be working.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
So he picked this.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
I mean, he obviously probably could have had, you know,
the ambassadorship to tricks and Cakeos. He chose to take
the tough one because he cares about the place and
he thinks he could do it a good job.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And I agree that Press secretary position still standing open
as we speak. We shall see what becomes of it.
Perhaps by the time this comes out, we'll have more information.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
But yeah, there was a rumor floated today that it
was Tucker, but I just.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
I don't see that. By the way, can I just
say that the uh, the Trump World Press Release form
is too easy to spoof, So things, things go out
on Twitter, and because Trump is so unconventional and unpredictable,
I didn't know if they're true or not, and it
takes a minute. And sometimes I'm on a hair trigger
about those things. So we will be we'll be careful
(09:44):
about that. We're in our we're in a healthy death
con situation. We know, we know when to freak out
and when not to. So right here we.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Are another transition news. Trump and Biden met today, just
two bros hanging out in front of a roaring fire.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
The fire was out of control. It was a conflagration.
Carol in the in the Oval office, I actually was thinking,
did someone put like gen Z staffers in charge of
the fire? And they were just like should it be
bigger than that? Like, I don't know, I don't do
a lot of fires. But then I thought, I'm not
sure they could have started it on their own, right,
(10:21):
Like sorry gen Z?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah, I mean I would just say I didn't have
a lot of fire making experience in Brooklyn. I lived
in Scotland learned how to make fires there. But like,
I don't think it's that crazy for people not to know.
But that was a rager. I feel like they both
must have been sweating through their suits, was sitting there.
I'm just like, I don't know how they're doing it.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
That's a big fire. It was. It was very real.
Uh So, nonetheless, you know, if they want to bring
me on to teach people in to build the fires.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yes, yes, the Mary Katherine Ham Hour to build fires.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
That's what I bring to the table. That and teaching
politicians to grow okay like normal people.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Right. Well, so Biden and Trump looked great together, very calm,
at ease, not at all like previous interactions.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Kind of have to wonder.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
If Trump wasn't just hanging out with one of his voters.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Yeah, let's let's hear a little bit of that interaction.
We'll be president.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I'd like former praying and your shining congratulation, Thank you,
and looking forward to having a likely said smooth transition
toevery We can make sure you're accommodating what you need,
and we're gonna get a chance to talk across I'm
out today.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
It's good, welcome, Thank you, jat.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
And thank you very much. And politics is tough, and
it's many cases not a very nice world, but it
is a nice world today and I appreciate it very much.
And a transition that's so smooth, it'll be as smooth
as it can get.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And I very much.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Appreciate that you you are.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
That was a different conversation then they used to have
the really stiff kind of conversations that we've kind of
gotten used to with the two of them.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Pretty crazy, Yeah, you can hear the fire in the
background of that clip, by the way, just threatening to
take over the entire office. Later, they both sat there
smiling while Biden's staff ushered yelling press out of the
room in classic Biden's style. They're just like yelling questions
and they're pushing, just physically pushing them out of the room.
(12:32):
Trump and Biden just sat there smiling. I do wonder, Carol,
who they voted for, Jill and Joe both because Jill
wore a red pants suit to vote.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Red pants suits at a mouthful.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
It really did, like, you don't do that as a
Democratic first lady, go into the polls. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
There was also an exchange between Jill Biden and Kamala Harris.
I believe that was on Monday, on Veterans Day, and
Jill didn't even look in her direction or say a word.
And my husband sent me that video and said, very
Carol over here, because I you know, when I love everyone,
but when you're dead to me, like I don't even
look at you, you don't exist. So he said, Carol
(13:14):
vibes there. I support you, Jill Biden.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
When when somebody crosses.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
You dead, that's it. Yeah, that's it. I mean it
was It had a real housewives feel like some is
about to go flying if if everyone doesn't mind their
p's and q's. So we got out of that Veteran's
Day ceremony without any chardonay flying. It's nice.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, we don't know what happened after they went inside.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, it could get it could get weird.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
We're going to take a short break and come right
back with.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Normally, speaking of transition of a different kind, shall we
talk about the ad that reportedly the Trump campaign spent
the most money on, Yeah, for placement, and it was
the trans ad. Can we tell you that thirty second
(14:04):
ad real quick?
Speaker 5 (14:05):
Kamala supports taxpayer funded sex changes for prisoners.
Speaker 6 (14:08):
Surgery for prisoners, for prisoners, every transgender inmate in the
prison system would have access.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
It's hard to believe, but it's true. Even the liberal
media was shocked. Kamala supports taxpayer funded sex changes for
prisoners and illegal aliens.
Speaker 6 (14:26):
Every transgender inmate would have access.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
Kamala's for they them, President Trump is for you.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah. That was a really popular ad, and I think
that what the main thing was is that people wanted
normal so badly and that's what they were getting with
Kamala Harris, and I think that that sent the message
that this won't be the normalcy that you're craving.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, I think there's First of all, that tagline brilliant
is just going down in history as one of the
greatest bites as political writings. I mean, it just just
nailed it, very effective. I think part of it too,
is it's there's got there's some silly pictures in it.
There's actually I believe I feel like I've seen another
(15:12):
version that had a slightly more upbeat music soundtrack, and
it's like, it's not super dark. It actually makes fun
of the absurdity, which I thought was a nice touch
because most Americans are not hateful about this issue. They
just don't want you to be insane, and Kamala Harris
(15:32):
could not back off of insane. And it's it's also
a great illustration of the media not serving Democrats well,
because when Trump brought this up at the debate, the
whole media like that that's crazy. But I believe it
was Andrew Kazinski of CNN who found this a cluh questionnaire.
(15:57):
She had done. It is real, it's in her hand.
These are her beliefs, and in that clip she even
goes further and she says, yeah, this is something that
I'm going to use my power to do. Quote I
believe she says for the agenda. These are not messages
for the normies.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
No, they're not. No, and that thing. We talked about
this before, but they shot themselves in the multiple feet
in twenty twenty with the crazy beliefs. They all raised
their hand about getting rid of private health insurance. I mean,
they had such whack a doodle concepts and beliefs, and
the fact that Biden won is a miracle. It's tough
(16:40):
to walk back any of that stuff, and it's particularly
tough when you're on video saying things like that. But again,
it was completely acceptable to say stuff like that back then.
It was in the Democratic Party primary. It was encouraged
to as left as possible.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Well, and what apologists will say is, I don't know
what these people were hearing. This transad is misleading, it's
not misleading. All of the things are true. Now you
can argue there are very few of these cases. People
don't care that there are very few of those because
they think that that's crazy, right, and they think it's
an emblematic of how you can't figure out what's crazy
(17:17):
and what's normal, right, and.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
So yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
So there's that, but like, yeah, I just think they're
having trouble reeling this back in. But the apologists say, well,
what are these people watching? Her campaign is nothing like this,
And it's like people can see her and hear her
from four or five years ago, from her time in office.
You don't get to just say, restart the clock for
(17:43):
three months and this is who I am.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Right. The other thing is is that when you hear
her say something that insane that she will pay for
free sex changes for illegal immigrant criminals in prison, you wonder,
what of the crazy ideas does she have?
Speaker 1 (18:03):
This can't be the only one.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
She didn't just come up with this one. There's got
to be others. So it leads people to think of
her as she was, which is a far left candidate
who was trying to cover it up for a few
months as she ran for president.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Yeah. Can I note that two people in the party
at least have tried to sort of reel this in
post election, so going for them, Well, so one of
them is Representative Seth Moulton, and he basically said, I said,
I have two little girls. I don't want them getting
run over on a playing field by male or formerly
male athlete. But as a Democrat, I'm supposed to be
(18:39):
afraid to say that. Okay, yes, they are all afraid
to say that. Well, yeah, twenty twenty and the level
of bullying we saw for everything made a lot of
people very scared to say a lot of things. And
that hurt the Democratic Party, I think more than it
hurt Republicans. Yeah, because this guy is starting with the
easiest thing, which is biological males on women's sports teams.
(19:05):
This is like, in some places, like an eighty five
percent issue if I'm conservative, it's a seventy thirty issue.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Controversial at all.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Well, wouldn't you know it? CBS reports it. That's Representative
Seth Moulton is defending controversial remarks that he made about
transgender athletes in the wake of the presidential election. To
his credit, although he should have spoken up sooner, he's
not backing off of this. I think he knows that
this is an electoral poison and he's continuing to talk
(19:36):
about it. But they're having a lot of trouble down
in Texas. The head of the head of the Democratic Party,
which got wiped out in the election Tuesday, said that
the transgender agenda hurt Democrats at the polls. We can say, Okay,
we respect people's right to say we don't want my
taxpayer money to be used to do that, and at
(19:58):
the same time support transgender rights, saying we need to
take that position right now, but when these votes happen,
we need to recognize that there are going to be
long term political consequences when we do that. We have
a choice as a party. You could, for example, you
can support transfer to rights up and down all the
categories where the issue comes up, and you can understand
that there's certain things that we just go too far
on that a bulk of our population does not support.
(20:20):
I believe he's out of that job now now. To
be fair, it might not be because of the comments.
It could be because of the shillacking, but right and I.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Saw right before we went on that there's already a
movement to primary South Moulton. So yeah, that's you know,
that's what he's going to get for that. Again, no
lessons learned, nothing, you know at all being picked up
from what just happened to the Democrats, they're going to
continue to be this far left thing. But what you
(20:50):
said was completely right is that people didn't care about
this issue for a long time and they do now
because we were made to care. They put it in
to our lives in so many different ways. I know,
I always talk about growing up in New York City,
like I had drag queen friends, I had, like you know,
people who were calling themselves trends. You know, back in
(21:11):
the nineties. They weren't trying to read books to elementary
school kids. They it wasn't about kids at all, And
I think that that's really what changed the conversation. They
directed it at children and parents were like, oh hell no.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Well, and the left frequently can't see itself as culture
warriors like y'all are in a cultural war. You're, in
fact the aggressors a lot of the time, and they
get upset when the culture defends itself. And I think
that's what a lot of normal people did on this issue, which,
(21:47):
by the way, I should also say I think it's
it makes people more upset because the backlash to talking
about it is so great on this issue. Abigail Schreyer's book,
which she truly bravely wrote called Irreversible horror, irvitual damage,
(22:08):
irreversible damage about the increase in trans youth and gender
dysphoria and whether that could be a social contagion. Was
literally banned at some books, took it off Amazon at
one point.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yep, taking off Amazon or moved from Target.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
So the actual, the actual book bannings, not the made
up ones. The actual backlash to this issue, I think
hardened people and made them more annoyed that they weren't
allowed to address this. And then Trump just says He's
for they, She's for them, I'm for you. I mean,
he cuts through all of it.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
It's impressive and again, great ad, just great conversation starter
in so many ways. And Democrats really have to tone
all of this down. We'll see whether they actually do that.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
We'll see whether they'll listen to molten. We we have
two back to back our regular segments. I want to
give you two of them. One us first.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
On video balloons just appeared on somehow I triggered that screen.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
First of all, Still mad bro, where Carol and I
bring up stuff that, yes, indeed, we are still mad
about even if most of the country has said that
we should get over it. And here's a new one.
This is from the New York Times, which has graced
us with this reporting now after gaslighting us in twenty twenty,
(23:35):
Americans started drinking more as the COVID nineteen pandemic got underway.
They were stressed, isolated, uncertain the world as they had
known it had changed overnight. Two years into disaster, the
trend has not abated. Researchers reported on Monday the percentage
of Americans who consumed alcohol, which had already risen from
twenty eighteen to twenty twenty, and step further in twenty
twenty one and twenty two and more people reported heavy
(23:58):
or binge drinking. This obviously has a lot of bad
cascading effects, Carol. But if we said that in twenty twenty,
we were told we were crazy. Right.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Schools were closed, liquor stores were open. Obviously. I remember
in the first few weeks when it was still sort
of a fun, funky time and everybody was home. We
were all zoom drinking with our friends. My daughter, who's
now fourteen, she was ten at the time, came downstairs
and she saw us like having drinks with our friends
on zoom, and she was like, are people developing drinking problems?
(24:33):
She didn't mean us, because we really don't drink that much,
but she immediately was like, this is probably not good
for us. She was ten. I swear to god, I
tweeted about it so people could know it was true,
and it happened at the time, but she saw it right.
You're home, you got nothing going on, You're sure, let
zoom with our friends and have some whiskey. A lot
(24:54):
of the things that happened during the pandemic that we
find it very hard to get over. Part of it
is why. Part of it is because we're still suffering
through a lot of it. A lot of kids still
having trouble catching up with their reading because they didn't
have school for so long. It makes total sense if
you've been drinking in twenty twenty it might not be
that easy to stop in twenty twenty four. It's not like, oh, okay,
(25:17):
everything went back to normal. I guess I'll drop this
bad habit. Sometimes that's really hard to do.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah, And also it also notes we think that what
happened during the pandemic was that there were a large
number of people who were already in a high risk zone,
so to speak, and the pandemic pushed them over the
brink into severe illness and death. Doctor Hindershot is who's
quoted telling us about that. Well, yeah, that was always
a danger, as we said at the time, And the
problem with the pandemic is that no one compared dangers,
(25:44):
no one compared risks. You were only allowed to think
about one kind of risk. And yep, you know, my
husband lost a friend to isolation and alcoholism during twenty twenty.
It was certainly exacerbated by that, certainly partially caused by lockdowns,
and we were not we were told we weren't allowed
(26:06):
to be concerned about that. Again with the bullying from
twenty twenty, and I think it's really sad. You're also
gonna love this sentence. Let me find it. The surgeon
alcohol consumption Carol was one of several lingering legacies of
the pandemic, along with school absenteeism lags and educational attainment
arise in overdose deaths and a surge in mental health problems,
(26:27):
especially among young people.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
If only somebody had said something.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
I'm still a little mad, bro, I am.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Will be right back on normally.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
This isn't in case you missed it, And unfortunately, I
think probably most everyone has missed.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
You bekept this news to me.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Well, it got really lost in the election news. The
announcement was made October thirty first, and this is the announcement.
Do you remember in May when several soldiers were hurt
building are working on the Gaza floating peer. Okay, yeah,
Well one of them was critically injured, and he's a Columbia,
South Carolina native. He goes, he's flown back to the
(27:10):
States to get treatment, and he passed away on October
thirty first, and it was announced a couple days later,
so right next to the election. And I just want
to read a little bit about him. His name, So,
Sergeant Conderius Devon Stanley, twenty three was one of three
US service members hurt May twenty third while working on
the temporary floating peer that Biden had announced with great
(27:31):
fanfare during his State of the Union address in March.
The other two service members thankfully minorly injured and are
back to work. But that peer cost up two hundred
and thirty million. I'm sure we'll find out later it
was more. It lasted from May to early July mid July.
It did almost nothing. They claimed that a bunch of
(27:53):
humanitarian aid was moved to Gaza, which some of it was,
except it got lost because it's there those goods are
taken by Hamas and they were raided. And then the
peer fell apart at one point in choppy waters because
it wasn't even really supposed to be used in a
place like the Mediterranean in that spot, and we lost
(28:16):
one soldier doing this, which was basically a terrible, unsuccessful
photo op to undermine Israel, by the way, because it's
saying Israel's not helping getting humanitarian aid there was not.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
True nonsense, Uh huh.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
And you know, I went and searched the White House
website to see if maybe Karine Jean Pierre had mentioned
Quandarius Stanley in any of her announcements or press releases.
I cannot find his name on the site, and I
just wanted to say, especially as Veterans Day came this week,
and obviously it's different, it's not Memorial Day, but I
would like to memorialize him and his family, who probably
(28:55):
will not be recognized by the White House unless Trump
decides to at some point. It's really sad, and it
makes me angry that they undertook.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
This fully agree, and you know, it's sickening that they
didn't say his name, and he an American, was lost overseas,
an American you know, military member, and we don't even
know about it. It's barely a story. It's a really
bad sign for a lot of things out of this
White House. I don't know. I'm cautiously optimistic, but I
(29:27):
really do think I have some faith in the Trump
White House that I simply don't in the Biden White House.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Well, and this is one of those things where I
think too often Democrats are judged by their intentions and
Republicans by results, right, and Democrats are given so much
benefit of the doubt that they tell us over and
over again that Biden obviously cares about the troops. He
definitely does, except when it comes to the hard stuff
like spending time with these families of the Abbey Gate thirteen,
(29:57):
for instance, to lifting up those families, recognizing them when
it might be a political liability for you. Trump actually
has a record of doing that. He brought to maybe
seal widow who was to the State of the Union,
whose husband was lost on an operation he oversaw right,
he has a record of doing that, and Biden doesn't
(30:19):
certainly lately, and I find it really offensive. Actually, it's
one of the few things I get actually mad about.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Right, Yeah, I agree, there's just there has to be
some level of doing the hard work. It's hard, obviously
to talk to people who have been lost, the families
of people who have been lost on your watch, but
it's part of the role of commander in chief and
you have to get over it.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
And do it well. I just wanted to bring that.
I know it's a little downway to end this, but
I just wanted to acknowledge him.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
His name his name again.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
His name is Sergeant Quandarius Stanley, and his officer says
was an instrumental and well respected first line leader in
the seventh Transportation Brigade Expeditionary, especially during the mission to
provide humanitarian assistance to the people. That's from Colonel John
Eddie Gray, his unit commander. So I wish we'd heard
a little more about him, and I wish that the
folks who had him doing that job would acknowledge what
(31:13):
he gave.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
We will remember you, sergeant well, thanks for joining us
on normally normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you can
subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts. Get in touch with
us at normallythepod at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening,
and when things get weird, act normally
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Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
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