September 4, 2025 • 26 mins
In this episode, Mary Katharine Ham and Karol Markowicz discuss the recent conspiracy theories surrounding Donald Trump's health, his approach to crime and the deployment of the National Guard, the alarming situation regarding free speech in the UK exemplified by the arrest of comedian Graham Linehan, and the potential implications of a declining U.S. population. Normally is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Guys, we are back on Bromley The Show with Romalis
takes for when the news gets weird. I am markasan
him and.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I am Karl Marks Big News, Mary Katherine. Donald Trump
is not that and he didn't resign. That was the
other insane thing that people were speculating that he was
going to hold a press conference and resign because they
had never even heard of Donald Trump before to imagine
that he would do.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Something like that. Yeah, I just what, guys.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
The left has their own conspiracy theory insanity like this.
But then it makes me feel worse overall, you know,
like it's like, I'm glad the right doesn't have a
monopoly on crazy people believing crazy things and just asking questions,
just asking really stupid questions. But then it does make
me worried about the country as a whole.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Well, and we also have a troll in chief, which
means once he knows that this is what people do
when he takes two days off, he's going to we
aren't taking two days off so that people will just
absolutely spin out online and then he can come back
and be like trick yah, I'm alive.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
The other thing about that troll in chief is that
he has an incredible ability to unmask the other side.
I think that he really makes them do and say
crazy things. Let's hear from Tim Walls, who was Kamala
Harris's VP pick, because he was such a normal guy,
(01:32):
Mary Catherine, he was such a normal guy. He would
appeal to other normal guys. And then he said.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
This, you get up in the morning and you doom
scroll through things. And although I will say this, the
last few days you woke up thinking there might be news,
just saying just saying there will be news sometime, just
so you know there will be news.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Really there will be news. Donald Trump will die someday.
Is that what you're sharing with us.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Walls also, just like, in addition to being creepy and trashy,
it's so online because unfortunately we to some extent, we
have to live our lives on the internets, on the
social media's. But for normal people over Labor Day weekend,
they were not experiencing the crash out of the left
fantasizing that Trump was dead. But Tim Walls, of course
(02:23):
was because despite being a very normal football coach, this
is the life that he this is the circle he's in,
and he knew that everyone he was talking to at
that event would be conversant in the idea that this
was the big fantasy over the weekend, and I just
doesn't speak well, doesn't speak well.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Guys are weird. You guys are weird. Stop being weird.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Okay. In addition to coming back, you know, from his
weekend hiatus, Trump came back strong.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
I was going to say weekend at Bernie, but okay, close.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
He came back strong with announcements that, you know, when
we had sort of anticipated this, that National Guard will
be deployed in Chicago. I think Baltimore is on a
possibility list. The announcements have kept it mostly to immigration enforcement,
which is a federal issue, but it's clear that Trump
(03:20):
wants to solve other problems as well, the problems of
general violence and violent crime in these cities that the
cities themselves have not solved, and he's just like, we're
going to go do it. We're going to go do it.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, And for some reason, the governors of those states
are like, no, don't don't help us with our crime problem.
We don't like you. And that's supposed to be a
normal thing for them to be doing instead of saying,
you know, this isn't the president's problem. We're going to
get on this. We are going to do a B
and C to help fight crime in these cities. Instead
(03:59):
of that they're pretending there is no crime, which I'm
just not sure is the right strategy here.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Yeah, and I'm sympathetic to governors or mayors who are like, WHOA,
this isn't within your power, and there are certain things
you can do here. But I think the biggest utility
of Trump saying he's going to do these things, or
if you just end up with the National Guards standing
in front of a few federal buildings, the thing it's
(04:27):
best at is shaming cities into doing the jobs they
should have been doing, because it points out, Okay, there
is a real problem here, and perhaps perhaps there's a
solution that includes the presence of law enforcement and sometimes
national guard, right, and so it shows that there is
(04:48):
a solution, which then makes the JB. Pritzkers, Governor of
Illinois or Wesmore, governor of Maryland.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Go.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Now everybody sees that there could be a way to
solve this problem. Nobody wants that perhaps we should get
on solving this problem. So I mean the utility is there.
I get their concerns, and I have concerns too, But
the thing is, you can't tell regular people that zero
murders is not pretty good, Like that's a pretty good
(05:18):
outcome in d see over a week and a half
when you have three or fours of a week normally.
So a lot of folks just go like, I don't know,
it sounds nice to have these guys around for a
little while and keep things under the control.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
And as we pointed out in a previous episode, there
are National Guard troops in the New York City subway
for similar reasons, and nobody seems to have a problem
with that. That's not fascism. This is fascism.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Let's also note national Guard in the nation's capital after
January sixth, for like six to eight.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Months, right, they were there was fascism in very large numbers.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Right, So this is not an unprecedented thing. And the
fact is there are real problems in these cities. And
let me let you hear Jamie Pritzker, the governor of Illinois,
who should be on top of solving these problems, tell
you what he thinks about them. You're going to hear people,
especially pat his past weekend, fifty four shot, seven dead.
(06:15):
They're going to say the city's not safe. Would you
ask your friends to ride the l after midnight or
after nine o'clock at night, even to come down to
the city from O'Hare.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Look, big cities have crime, there's no doubt about it.
But let's just pay attention to what President Trump is
doing targeting shadow. He's overlooking red states that have much
higher crime rates.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, I mean, you can't say that, Oh, just big
cities just have crime and that's the way it is,
and expect that to be okay. Donald Trump is actually
saying we can help solve this, we can help with this.
You can't be the governor of Illinois and say no,
thank you. This is just the way it is.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
What it does is say and Brandon Johnson is the
same way. Who's the mayor of Chicago. Brandon Johnson? Oh gosh,
that guy has like a six percent approval rating. And
this is why his quote was something like similar, which
is like, there's always crime in big cities. It's because
of gun laws in other places, and those guns somehow
(07:21):
magically get to Chicago and magically start working to kill
other people here more than they do in other places.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Right, Indiana is always like, why are you guys looking
at us? We don't have your crime rate?
Speaker 1 (07:32):
No, And what it does is it absolves him of
all responsibility and tells you he will never be solving
the problem, which then makes regular people much more open
to someone who will solve the problem.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Absolutely. In as Stepman, she lives in New York now,
but she used to live in DC, and she tweeted
the other day from a visit to DC, there's not
a single solitary bum in or around Union Station. I
have never seen this in my life. Extraordinary What can
be accomplished with supposedly intractable problems if you just ditched
the idiocy. I mean that is huge. I see Union
(08:10):
Station as always filled with homeless people surrounding it. It's
just the way it always was. It's the way it's
been for the last decade, and it doesn't have to
be that way. And I like to see that well.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
And I also one last point on this. I am
open to the idea that, like, there are trade offs
for having a lot of enforcement around and a lot
of military presence, and that there might be liberty costs here,
Like I'm open to that idea. What I'm not open
to is the idea that presence causes more crime, which
is somehow the argument they start making, like, no, I
(08:43):
don't think it causes more crime. I in fact think
it lessens crime, as it has at Union Station, which
I came in and out of the other day without event,
and it was quite pleasant and it was like it
was twenty years ago. Not to sound like an old timer,
but my friend Matt Connetti, who writes for Commentary and
other folks, noted that when I got to DC and
(09:06):
when he got to DC, and that like sort of
post nine to eleven era of the George W. Bush hears,
we were probably benefiting from increased presence in the streets
of Washington, d C. Where we were concerned about a
present terrorist threat. But as a result, it was some
of the best times in the city. And now it
kind of felt like that again. So presence, Matt.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Right, Yeah, absolutely, another Donald Trump thing that he did
once he confirmed that he was still alive. Pete Hegseth
tweeted out Donald Trump truth earlier this morning. On my orders,
US military forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified
trend Ragua Narco terrorists in the southcom Area of Responsibility
(09:51):
TDA is a designated born terrorist organization operating under the
control of Nicholas Madura, responsible for mass murdered, drug trafficking,
sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the
United States and the Western Hemisphere. And then they posted
the video of this little boat going boom.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
It was really something well, and this is what the
Trump administration gets. The Trump administration is interesting. It was
interesting the first time as well, because there is this
he doesn't want to be in wars, right, and it
makes that very clear. However I call it however, however,
I call it occasional bellicosity. Like he likes the flex
(10:34):
a little bit, whether it's sole money or this. He
likes you to see the tape. He likes you to
know that enemies have been taken out. And Kelly, an
obvious example is the bombing and Iran, which was masterful,
and it sends the message that like, these are things
we can do, we are not always interested in doing them.
(10:56):
I like that part. I would like a little more
information on this target.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah, you know, I was expecting actually some pushback. It's
been actually muted, very very muted. Pushback. I guess the
left was startled that Donald Trump was actually still alive
and on the regard, yeah, and the right, who has
decided that no military use is ever okay. That part
of the right also very very quiet. I guess no
(11:22):
Jews are involved, so who cares well.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
I also think just like Americans in general, are very
comfortable with an occasional flex. They don't want to be
boots on the ground. I don't want to do nation building.
But they're like, oh, did that go well? And some
people that were declared and identified terrorists are gone? We
feel okay about that, We feel good about that.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Will be right back on normally with the story of
a British comedian being arrested for some tweets pathetic written.
Don't like it at all. Be right back. We are
back on normally with the story of Graham Linehn and
I hope I'm saying that correctly. He is an Irish
(12:03):
comedian and co creator of one of the most popular
sitcoms in Britain called Father Ted. British people. If you
know British people, they just walk around quoting Father Ted
all the time. It is a very specific kind of
British humor that I don't always get, but I appreciate it.
And it's insane that he was arrested at Heathrow Airport
(12:26):
after landing from a trip to America and was told
that he was being arrested because of some tweets that
he had. I am concerned about the UK. I see
them as you know, a very close ally. I don't
know how else to look at them other than heading
down a direction that is scary to me. And what's
(12:50):
really worrisome to me, and this is you know, happens
in America too. There's a lot of like we should
this big problem should not be dealt with because of
how A look to other people. For example, Lord David Blunkett,
he was a Labor member of Parliament for many years.
Now he's in the House of Lords. He said, when
(13:11):
police and security services get it badly wrong, they play
into the hands of enemies, the people who undermine our
freedom of democracy and our freedom of speech. But this
part is what I'm listening for. So they play into
a narrative which the Americans have come out with, which
is that we no longer believe in free speech. And
of course we are in favor of free speech. If
you have to say it after some a comedian has
(13:33):
been arrested at your airport, it's a problem. It's now
the Americans doing it to you.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
I feel like we need to add the CARDI B gifts.
It's like, this is what I'm saying. That's how we
know because you just arrested somebody for tweets exactly. Our
friend Charles Cook, who writes for National Review, you know,
he's been watching this since he immigrated to America. He's
now a citizen, but that's the country of his birth, England,
(13:59):
and he notes that this is the new British mode
in the year twenty twenty five. Britain has a Parliament
that can meet to help you kill yourself, but not
to protect your speech, a next checker that can pluck
the population's feathers from nine thousand different angles, but that
has no interest in generating wealth. And a network of
police forces that are incapable of solving the most sordid
crimes imaginable, but that are sufficiently well staffed to guarantee
(14:22):
that if an outspoken Irish comedian steps off a plane
from Arizona, he will be met by enough lawmen to
fill a small office crazy.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
It's really crazy.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yeah, And that to me is the thing that brings
this together with worries I have about our country or
worries I have about Canada where you see things like
this is the emphasis on just nailing citizens for very
small offenses while favoring non citizens and or people engaged
(14:52):
in actual violent crime for every exception in the book,
every kindness you could come up with, ever a bit
of compassion week muster for those folks, while the actual
citizens who are trying to be law abiding are getting
nitpicked to death.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
And it's terrible.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
That's what it feels like to me in San Francisco,
as what it feels like in Toronto, as it it
feels like in London, and people are real risk, yeah,
because they're speech policing instead of actually policing. And what
he was referring to as the groomer gangs and gang
raping of many people in the UK, which is sort
(15:31):
of given.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
A pass absolutely. A Prime Minister spokesman said this is
an operational matter for the police, but the Prime Minister
and the Home Secretary have been clear about what their
priorities on crime and policing are. That's tackling antisocial behavior,
shoplifting and street crime, as well as reducing serious violent
crimes such as knife crime and violence against women. The
spokesman added, Sir Kuir did not agree with the comment
(15:55):
by Elon Musk that the arrest showed Britain was now
a quote police state. But again, your concern over what
America is saying about you should not be the main
topic of conversation here. The fact that Elon Musk is
saying it's the police state, the fact that Americans are
worried about Britain not having free speech, This is not
(16:18):
what's causing the problem. The problem is being caused by
the policies that you have, and it's been going on
for a long time. We're going to play a clip
from Constantine Kissin. This is from a few years ago
where he exposed this issue originally at least to me
and to many other people in the UK.
Speaker 5 (16:35):
In Russia last year, four hundred people were arrested for
things that they said on social media. Four hundred people
in Russia. Obviously this country is very different. How many
people do you think were arrested in Britain for things
they said on social media last year? Go on, take
a guess I've no idea. Three three hundred really.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Arrested for what I said on social media?
Speaker 5 (16:54):
What sort of things get you up? One example I've
given my show is there was a young woman from
Liverpool called Chelsea Russell, and people can look this up.
Her friend was killed in a car crash, nineteen year
old woman, and she posted the lyrics of his favorite
song on her Instagram and there was a rap song,
so the lyrics contained several instances of the N word.
She was arrested, prosecuted, found guilty, given five hundred dollars
(17:19):
of community service and a fine tagged, and for a
year she was under eight pm to a am curfew.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
My goodness in Britain.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
In Britain in twenty eighteen, the.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Police state, Yeah, there's no other way to look at that.
And you know, the thing is so Graham Lineman, the comedian.
He posted his story on his substack. He also has
a recording of the original. He started recording when the
police approached him and what they were saying to him,
and there's a moment where they say you're under arrest
(17:56):
and he cannot believe it. He is just besides himself.
I mean, it's all all curse words, So we're not
going to play it. But there's a lot of just
shock in his voice and the sounds that he's making.
It is somebody who is absolutely baffled that his words
on the internet are getting him arrested. And I will
say the other thing is is like people are like, go,
(18:17):
what did he say? He did not say anything that
warrants anything even remotely close to this kind of response.
I'll say that the worst thing that he said was
if a man is in a woman's bathroom, you should
call the police, you should confront them, and you should
kick him in the balls if you have to. And
that is the worst of it. And the rest of
(18:39):
it is like he posted a photo of a pro
trans march and he said you could smell this picture.
I mean, that was one of the tweets that they
mentioned had gotten him into trouble. This is absolute insanity
and I don't know how British people can go on
knowing that they could be arrested for this kind of thing,
(19:00):
knowing that their words on the internet, knowing that they're
being compared unfavorably to Russia for freedom of speech.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Well, and first of all, if saying kick him in
the balls was a crime. Every single My siblings and
I would have been arrested so many times as children.
But no, what, how do you speak at all if
these are the rules? And I think he was made
an example so that people know you can't be making
jokes like this, you can't be making untoward comments. And
(19:30):
again the difference between what you use law enforcement for.
Like the people in our country and certainly the people
of the left in Britain would tell me that the
National Guard and ICE are fascists, right, that we're living
in a police state because I saw National Guard when
I was leaving Union Station, because they had removed homeless
camps and were going after people who might do violent crime. Right,
(19:53):
I'm actually okay with that use of law enforcement and military.
Those same people we're happy to use law enforcement to
go after people having barbecues in their backyards five years ago,
and would happily use it to go after wrong speak
in the United States, many of them led by Nina Jankowitz,
(20:15):
the former head of the Disinformation Agency within the United
States government. And I just can't take their argument seriously
when they come at me about the nice, peaceful National
guardsmen from Minnesota standing outside union station.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Yeah, that's fascism. Not arresting comedians for words online.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
This one is. And I do want to note also
to think just a reminder about our media on this
sixty minutes like a flagship program, interviewed German speech police.
There's actually it was on the show. He covered it
a thirteen minute fawning segment a couple of months ago,
and this was the opening to it. In the United States,
(20:56):
most of what anyone says, sends or streams online, even
if it's hate filed or toxic, is protected as free
speech under the First Amendment. But Germany is trying to
bring some civility to the World Wide Web by policing
it in a way most Americans could never imagine. As
we saw it often begins with a pre dawn wake
up call from the police, and then they happily tagged
(21:17):
along for a bust right man for speaking.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yeah, I don't want to be like Germany, but thanks
for that. Sixty minutes.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Thanks sixty minutes. This is bad y y'all don't want
to do this. We don't want to do this.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Well, we'll be right back on normally where we're going
to talk the US population may be shrinking, possibly shrinking,
could be shrinking, and what that means be right back
on normally.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
All right, we are back on normally with more news
about the American population, with the with the birth rate,
with the natalism. We like to talk about babies here, kuju,
what's going on today?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Well. Derek Thompson, he is the author of the book
I like to call Republicans for Republicanism from twenty years
ago for Democrats Prey, which is actually just called Abundance,
posted this tweet the US population could shrink for the
first time ever in twenty twenty five, and he says
(22:18):
three things that could happen next labor shortages and construction,
farming and care, big demographic issues for New York City,
LA and other big US metros, coverage age and US
instantly rises. Now here's my major problem with this. For
one thing, anything that has like could shrink could happen
if you don't even know if it's going to happen,
but you're already trying to scare us about it. But
(22:40):
the second thing is he posted these images that are
like immigrant workers in the construction labor force twenty twenty three.
I'm an immigrant I'm an immigrant, and I don't understand
why you're lumping us in with the people that were
coming in illegally across the border, which is what this is.
He's trying to say, Look another thing. Immigrant to count
(23:00):
for more than a quarter of all physicians at US hospitals.
So you're telling me that a doctor who came here
twenty five years ago legally is that's the concern to you.
You think we're going to lose those people, because we're not.
That's not who we're losing. Demographic components of change. Yes,
a lot of young men came in on their own
across our poorest border over the last decade, and now
(23:23):
that's been put to a stop. So yes, our age
is going to go up because we've stopped that flow.
All of this is designed to make people afraid of
fighting illegal immigration. If we really are going to have
labor shortages in these fields, we could always have legal immigration.
We could always bring in guest workers, we could do
a lot of different things that we've been unable to
(23:45):
do because we had this deluge at the border.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Well it's funny because this is like a warning sign
for fewer citizens means bad things, right, But they don't care.
They just mean they just need people, right. Their argument
often is that the only source of vibrancy or population
should and can be only illegal immigration. And I just
(24:11):
don't believe that to be the truth. And then if
you talk about natalism and if you talk about babies,
then you're a weirdo. But he's conceding that fewer people
and an older population can be not great for societies,
as we have seen in places like Japan for instance.
Uh And so I don't know, I'm really not sure
(24:34):
how to square this circle when it comes to talking
about these issues.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Especially especially as on our last episode we talked about
the writer at the Financial Times who discovered that maybe
liberals should be having more kids and the kids who
are being born in the US are larger being born
to conservative families and what that means for them politically
and all of that. So, now that you guys have
made that leap, maybe make the next leap of yeah,
we're going to need more kids.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
By the way, the big demographic issues for New York City,
LA and other big US metros, which he notes again
these are these little time bombs planted during COVID and
before because there was some you know, as cities began
to turn way left and liberals began to turn way
left and to forget about governing, which is what Derek
(25:21):
Thompson is trying to encourage them to care about again.
People started leaving. People started leaving, and then I term
it in twenty twenty, I watched cities commit suicide exactly.
I was like, you're telling commercial real estate to hollow
itself out. You're telling your entire tax space that commutes
in not to come. You're telling people that they're going
(25:44):
to spend a lot of money to live in this city,
but it no longer has any of the perks that
it had before, like great restaurants and entertainment and zoos
and museums. And also they're going to get mugged more often.
It's not going to go well for you, and it
hasn't gone well for them, And this is going to
have electoral con sequences moving forward.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Only someone had seen this coming, Mary Catherine, If only
someone had said something.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
I feel like we said a few things.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Thanks for joining us on normally normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays,
and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts. Get
in touch with us at Normallythepod at gmail dot com.
Thanks for listening and when things get weird at normally
Guys, we are back on Bromley The Show with Romalis
takes for when the news gets weird. I am markasan
him and.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I am Karl Marks Big News, Mary Katherine. Donald Trump
is not that and he didn't resign. That was the
other insane thing that people were speculating that he was
going to hold a press conference and resign because they
had never even heard of Donald Trump before to imagine
that he would do.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Something like that. Yeah, I just what, guys.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
The left has their own conspiracy theory insanity like this.
But then it makes me feel worse overall, you know,
like it's like, I'm glad the right doesn't have a
monopoly on crazy people believing crazy things and just asking questions,
just asking really stupid questions. But then it does make
me worried about the country as a whole.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Well, and we also have a troll in chief, which
means once he knows that this is what people do
when he takes two days off, he's going to we
aren't taking two days off so that people will just
absolutely spin out online and then he can come back
and be like trick yah, I'm alive.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
The other thing about that troll in chief is that
he has an incredible ability to unmask the other side.
I think that he really makes them do and say
crazy things. Let's hear from Tim Walls, who was Kamala
Harris's VP pick, because he was such a normal guy,
(01:32):
Mary Catherine, he was such a normal guy. He would
appeal to other normal guys. And then he said.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
This, you get up in the morning and you doom
scroll through things. And although I will say this, the
last few days you woke up thinking there might be news,
just saying just saying there will be news sometime, just
so you know there will be news.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Really there will be news. Donald Trump will die someday.
Is that what you're sharing with us.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Walls also, just like, in addition to being creepy and trashy,
it's so online because unfortunately we to some extent, we
have to live our lives on the internets, on the
social media's. But for normal people over Labor Day weekend,
they were not experiencing the crash out of the left
fantasizing that Trump was dead. But Tim Walls, of course
(02:23):
was because despite being a very normal football coach, this
is the life that he this is the circle he's in,
and he knew that everyone he was talking to at
that event would be conversant in the idea that this
was the big fantasy over the weekend, and I just
doesn't speak well, doesn't speak well.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Guys are weird. You guys are weird. Stop being weird.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Okay. In addition to coming back, you know, from his
weekend hiatus, Trump came back strong.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
I was going to say weekend at Bernie, but okay, close.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
He came back strong with announcements that, you know, when
we had sort of anticipated this, that National Guard will
be deployed in Chicago. I think Baltimore is on a
possibility list. The announcements have kept it mostly to immigration enforcement,
which is a federal issue, but it's clear that Trump
(03:20):
wants to solve other problems as well, the problems of
general violence and violent crime in these cities that the
cities themselves have not solved, and he's just like, we're
going to go do it. We're going to go do it.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, And for some reason, the governors of those states
are like, no, don't don't help us with our crime problem.
We don't like you. And that's supposed to be a
normal thing for them to be doing instead of saying,
you know, this isn't the president's problem. We're going to
get on this. We are going to do a B
and C to help fight crime in these cities. Instead
(03:59):
of that they're pretending there is no crime, which I'm
just not sure is the right strategy here.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Yeah, and I'm sympathetic to governors or mayors who are like, WHOA,
this isn't within your power, and there are certain things
you can do here. But I think the biggest utility
of Trump saying he's going to do these things, or
if you just end up with the National Guards standing
in front of a few federal buildings, the thing it's
(04:27):
best at is shaming cities into doing the jobs they
should have been doing, because it points out, Okay, there
is a real problem here, and perhaps perhaps there's a
solution that includes the presence of law enforcement and sometimes
national guard, right, and so it shows that there is
(04:48):
a solution, which then makes the JB. Pritzkers, Governor of
Illinois or Wesmore, governor of Maryland.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Go.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Now everybody sees that there could be a way to
solve this problem. Nobody wants that perhaps we should get
on solving this problem. So I mean the utility is there.
I get their concerns, and I have concerns too, But
the thing is, you can't tell regular people that zero
murders is not pretty good, Like that's a pretty good
(05:18):
outcome in d see over a week and a half
when you have three or fours of a week normally.
So a lot of folks just go like, I don't know,
it sounds nice to have these guys around for a
little while and keep things under the control.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
And as we pointed out in a previous episode, there
are National Guard troops in the New York City subway
for similar reasons, and nobody seems to have a problem
with that. That's not fascism. This is fascism.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Let's also note national Guard in the nation's capital after
January sixth, for like six to eight.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Months, right, they were there was fascism in very large numbers.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Right, So this is not an unprecedented thing. And the
fact is there are real problems in these cities. And
let me let you hear Jamie Pritzker, the governor of Illinois,
who should be on top of solving these problems, tell
you what he thinks about them. You're going to hear people,
especially pat his past weekend, fifty four shot, seven dead.
(06:15):
They're going to say the city's not safe. Would you
ask your friends to ride the l after midnight or
after nine o'clock at night, even to come down to
the city from O'Hare.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Look, big cities have crime, there's no doubt about it.
But let's just pay attention to what President Trump is
doing targeting shadow. He's overlooking red states that have much
higher crime rates.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, I mean, you can't say that, Oh, just big
cities just have crime and that's the way it is,
and expect that to be okay. Donald Trump is actually
saying we can help solve this, we can help with this.
You can't be the governor of Illinois and say no,
thank you. This is just the way it is.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
What it does is say and Brandon Johnson is the
same way. Who's the mayor of Chicago. Brandon Johnson? Oh gosh,
that guy has like a six percent approval rating. And
this is why his quote was something like similar, which
is like, there's always crime in big cities. It's because
of gun laws in other places, and those guns somehow
(07:21):
magically get to Chicago and magically start working to kill
other people here more than they do in other places.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Right, Indiana is always like, why are you guys looking
at us? We don't have your crime rate?
Speaker 1 (07:32):
No, And what it does is it absolves him of
all responsibility and tells you he will never be solving
the problem, which then makes regular people much more open
to someone who will solve the problem.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Absolutely. In as Stepman, she lives in New York now,
but she used to live in DC, and she tweeted
the other day from a visit to DC, there's not
a single solitary bum in or around Union Station. I
have never seen this in my life. Extraordinary What can
be accomplished with supposedly intractable problems if you just ditched
the idiocy. I mean that is huge. I see Union
(08:10):
Station as always filled with homeless people surrounding it. It's
just the way it always was. It's the way it's
been for the last decade, and it doesn't have to
be that way. And I like to see that well.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
And I also one last point on this. I am
open to the idea that, like, there are trade offs
for having a lot of enforcement around and a lot
of military presence, and that there might be liberty costs here,
Like I'm open to that idea. What I'm not open
to is the idea that presence causes more crime, which
is somehow the argument they start making, like, no, I
(08:43):
don't think it causes more crime. I in fact think
it lessens crime, as it has at Union Station, which
I came in and out of the other day without event,
and it was quite pleasant and it was like it
was twenty years ago. Not to sound like an old timer,
but my friend Matt Connetti, who writes for Commentary and
other folks, noted that when I got to DC and
(09:06):
when he got to DC, and that like sort of
post nine to eleven era of the George W. Bush hears,
we were probably benefiting from increased presence in the streets
of Washington, d C. Where we were concerned about a
present terrorist threat. But as a result, it was some
of the best times in the city. And now it
kind of felt like that again. So presence, Matt.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Right, Yeah, absolutely, another Donald Trump thing that he did
once he confirmed that he was still alive. Pete Hegseth
tweeted out Donald Trump truth earlier this morning. On my orders,
US military forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified
trend Ragua Narco terrorists in the southcom Area of Responsibility
(09:51):
TDA is a designated born terrorist organization operating under the
control of Nicholas Madura, responsible for mass murdered, drug trafficking,
sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the
United States and the Western Hemisphere. And then they posted
the video of this little boat going boom.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
It was really something well, and this is what the
Trump administration gets. The Trump administration is interesting. It was
interesting the first time as well, because there is this
he doesn't want to be in wars, right, and it
makes that very clear. However I call it however, however,
I call it occasional bellicosity. Like he likes the flex
(10:34):
a little bit, whether it's sole money or this. He
likes you to see the tape. He likes you to
know that enemies have been taken out. And Kelly, an
obvious example is the bombing and Iran, which was masterful,
and it sends the message that like, these are things
we can do, we are not always interested in doing them.
(10:56):
I like that part. I would like a little more
information on this target.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah, you know, I was expecting actually some pushback. It's
been actually muted, very very muted. Pushback. I guess the
left was startled that Donald Trump was actually still alive
and on the regard, yeah, and the right, who has
decided that no military use is ever okay. That part
of the right also very very quiet. I guess no
(11:22):
Jews are involved, so who cares well.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
I also think just like Americans in general, are very
comfortable with an occasional flex. They don't want to be
boots on the ground. I don't want to do nation building.
But they're like, oh, did that go well? And some
people that were declared and identified terrorists are gone? We
feel okay about that, We feel good about that.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Will be right back on normally with the story of
a British comedian being arrested for some tweets pathetic written.
Don't like it at all. Be right back. We are
back on normally with the story of Graham Linehn and
I hope I'm saying that correctly. He is an Irish
(12:03):
comedian and co creator of one of the most popular
sitcoms in Britain called Father Ted. British people. If you
know British people, they just walk around quoting Father Ted
all the time. It is a very specific kind of
British humor that I don't always get, but I appreciate it.
And it's insane that he was arrested at Heathrow Airport
(12:26):
after landing from a trip to America and was told
that he was being arrested because of some tweets that
he had. I am concerned about the UK. I see
them as you know, a very close ally. I don't
know how else to look at them other than heading
down a direction that is scary to me. And what's
(12:50):
really worrisome to me, and this is you know, happens
in America too. There's a lot of like we should
this big problem should not be dealt with because of
how A look to other people. For example, Lord David Blunkett,
he was a Labor member of Parliament for many years.
Now he's in the House of Lords. He said, when
(13:11):
police and security services get it badly wrong, they play
into the hands of enemies, the people who undermine our
freedom of democracy and our freedom of speech. But this
part is what I'm listening for. So they play into
a narrative which the Americans have come out with, which
is that we no longer believe in free speech. And
of course we are in favor of free speech. If
you have to say it after some a comedian has
(13:33):
been arrested at your airport, it's a problem. It's now
the Americans doing it to you.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
I feel like we need to add the CARDI B gifts.
It's like, this is what I'm saying. That's how we
know because you just arrested somebody for tweets exactly. Our
friend Charles Cook, who writes for National Review, you know,
he's been watching this since he immigrated to America. He's
now a citizen, but that's the country of his birth, England,
(13:59):
and he notes that this is the new British mode
in the year twenty twenty five. Britain has a Parliament
that can meet to help you kill yourself, but not
to protect your speech, a next checker that can pluck
the population's feathers from nine thousand different angles, but that
has no interest in generating wealth. And a network of
police forces that are incapable of solving the most sordid
crimes imaginable, but that are sufficiently well staffed to guarantee
(14:22):
that if an outspoken Irish comedian steps off a plane
from Arizona, he will be met by enough lawmen to
fill a small office crazy.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
It's really crazy.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yeah, And that to me is the thing that brings
this together with worries I have about our country or
worries I have about Canada where you see things like
this is the emphasis on just nailing citizens for very
small offenses while favoring non citizens and or people engaged
(14:52):
in actual violent crime for every exception in the book,
every kindness you could come up with, ever a bit
of compassion week muster for those folks, while the actual
citizens who are trying to be law abiding are getting
nitpicked to death.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
And it's terrible.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
That's what it feels like to me in San Francisco,
as what it feels like in Toronto, as it it
feels like in London, and people are real risk, yeah,
because they're speech policing instead of actually policing. And what
he was referring to as the groomer gangs and gang
raping of many people in the UK, which is sort
(15:31):
of given.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
A pass absolutely. A Prime Minister spokesman said this is
an operational matter for the police, but the Prime Minister
and the Home Secretary have been clear about what their
priorities on crime and policing are. That's tackling antisocial behavior,
shoplifting and street crime, as well as reducing serious violent
crimes such as knife crime and violence against women. The
spokesman added, Sir Kuir did not agree with the comment
(15:55):
by Elon Musk that the arrest showed Britain was now
a quote police state. But again, your concern over what
America is saying about you should not be the main
topic of conversation here. The fact that Elon Musk is
saying it's the police state, the fact that Americans are
worried about Britain not having free speech, This is not
(16:18):
what's causing the problem. The problem is being caused by
the policies that you have, and it's been going on
for a long time. We're going to play a clip
from Constantine Kissin. This is from a few years ago
where he exposed this issue originally at least to me
and to many other people in the UK.
Speaker 5 (16:35):
In Russia last year, four hundred people were arrested for
things that they said on social media. Four hundred people
in Russia. Obviously this country is very different. How many
people do you think were arrested in Britain for things
they said on social media last year? Go on, take
a guess I've no idea. Three three hundred really.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Arrested for what I said on social media?
Speaker 5 (16:54):
What sort of things get you up? One example I've
given my show is there was a young woman from
Liverpool called Chelsea Russell, and people can look this up.
Her friend was killed in a car crash, nineteen year
old woman, and she posted the lyrics of his favorite
song on her Instagram and there was a rap song,
so the lyrics contained several instances of the N word.
She was arrested, prosecuted, found guilty, given five hundred dollars
(17:19):
of community service and a fine tagged, and for a
year she was under eight pm to a am curfew.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
My goodness in Britain.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
In Britain in twenty eighteen, the.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Police state, Yeah, there's no other way to look at that.
And you know, the thing is so Graham Lineman, the comedian.
He posted his story on his substack. He also has
a recording of the original. He started recording when the
police approached him and what they were saying to him,
and there's a moment where they say you're under arrest
(17:56):
and he cannot believe it. He is just besides himself.
I mean, it's all all curse words, So we're not
going to play it. But there's a lot of just
shock in his voice and the sounds that he's making.
It is somebody who is absolutely baffled that his words
on the internet are getting him arrested. And I will
say the other thing is is like people are like, go,
(18:17):
what did he say? He did not say anything that
warrants anything even remotely close to this kind of response.
I'll say that the worst thing that he said was
if a man is in a woman's bathroom, you should
call the police, you should confront them, and you should
kick him in the balls if you have to. And
that is the worst of it. And the rest of
(18:39):
it is like he posted a photo of a pro
trans march and he said you could smell this picture.
I mean, that was one of the tweets that they
mentioned had gotten him into trouble. This is absolute insanity
and I don't know how British people can go on
knowing that they could be arrested for this kind of thing,
(19:00):
knowing that their words on the internet, knowing that they're
being compared unfavorably to Russia for freedom of speech.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Well, and first of all, if saying kick him in
the balls was a crime. Every single My siblings and
I would have been arrested so many times as children.
But no, what, how do you speak at all if
these are the rules? And I think he was made
an example so that people know you can't be making
jokes like this, you can't be making untoward comments. And
(19:30):
again the difference between what you use law enforcement for.
Like the people in our country and certainly the people
of the left in Britain would tell me that the
National Guard and ICE are fascists, right, that we're living
in a police state because I saw National Guard when
I was leaving Union Station, because they had removed homeless
camps and were going after people who might do violent crime. Right,
(19:53):
I'm actually okay with that use of law enforcement and military.
Those same people we're happy to use law enforcement to
go after people having barbecues in their backyards five years ago,
and would happily use it to go after wrong speak
in the United States, many of them led by Nina Jankowitz,
(20:15):
the former head of the Disinformation Agency within the United
States government. And I just can't take their argument seriously
when they come at me about the nice, peaceful National
guardsmen from Minnesota standing outside union station.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Yeah, that's fascism. Not arresting comedians for words online.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
This one is. And I do want to note also
to think just a reminder about our media on this
sixty minutes like a flagship program, interviewed German speech police.
There's actually it was on the show. He covered it
a thirteen minute fawning segment a couple of months ago,
and this was the opening to it. In the United States,
(20:56):
most of what anyone says, sends or streams online, even
if it's hate filed or toxic, is protected as free
speech under the First Amendment. But Germany is trying to
bring some civility to the World Wide Web by policing
it in a way most Americans could never imagine. As
we saw it often begins with a pre dawn wake
up call from the police, and then they happily tagged
(21:17):
along for a bust right man for speaking.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yeah, I don't want to be like Germany, but thanks
for that. Sixty minutes.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Thanks sixty minutes. This is bad y y'all don't want
to do this. We don't want to do this.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Well, we'll be right back on normally where we're going
to talk the US population may be shrinking, possibly shrinking,
could be shrinking, and what that means be right back
on normally.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
All right, we are back on normally with more news
about the American population, with the with the birth rate,
with the natalism. We like to talk about babies here, kuju,
what's going on today?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Well. Derek Thompson, he is the author of the book
I like to call Republicans for Republicanism from twenty years
ago for Democrats Prey, which is actually just called Abundance,
posted this tweet the US population could shrink for the
first time ever in twenty twenty five, and he says
(22:18):
three things that could happen next labor shortages and construction,
farming and care, big demographic issues for New York City,
LA and other big US metros, coverage age and US
instantly rises. Now here's my major problem with this. For
one thing, anything that has like could shrink could happen
if you don't even know if it's going to happen,
but you're already trying to scare us about it. But
(22:40):
the second thing is he posted these images that are
like immigrant workers in the construction labor force twenty twenty three.
I'm an immigrant I'm an immigrant, and I don't understand
why you're lumping us in with the people that were
coming in illegally across the border, which is what this is.
He's trying to say, Look another thing. Immigrant to count
(23:00):
for more than a quarter of all physicians at US hospitals.
So you're telling me that a doctor who came here
twenty five years ago legally is that's the concern to you.
You think we're going to lose those people, because we're not.
That's not who we're losing. Demographic components of change. Yes,
a lot of young men came in on their own
across our poorest border over the last decade, and now
(23:23):
that's been put to a stop. So yes, our age
is going to go up because we've stopped that flow.
All of this is designed to make people afraid of
fighting illegal immigration. If we really are going to have
labor shortages in these fields, we could always have legal immigration.
We could always bring in guest workers, we could do
a lot of different things that we've been unable to
(23:45):
do because we had this deluge at the border.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Well it's funny because this is like a warning sign
for fewer citizens means bad things, right, But they don't care.
They just mean they just need people, right. Their argument
often is that the only source of vibrancy or population
should and can be only illegal immigration. And I just
(24:11):
don't believe that to be the truth. And then if
you talk about natalism and if you talk about babies,
then you're a weirdo. But he's conceding that fewer people
and an older population can be not great for societies,
as we have seen in places like Japan for instance.
Uh And so I don't know, I'm really not sure
(24:34):
how to square this circle when it comes to talking
about these issues.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Especially especially as on our last episode we talked about
the writer at the Financial Times who discovered that maybe
liberals should be having more kids and the kids who
are being born in the US are larger being born
to conservative families and what that means for them politically
and all of that. So, now that you guys have
made that leap, maybe make the next leap of yeah,
we're going to need more kids.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
By the way, the big demographic issues for New York City,
LA and other big US metros, which he notes again
these are these little time bombs planted during COVID and
before because there was some you know, as cities began
to turn way left and liberals began to turn way
left and to forget about governing, which is what Derek
(25:21):
Thompson is trying to encourage them to care about again.
People started leaving. People started leaving, and then I term
it in twenty twenty, I watched cities commit suicide exactly.
I was like, you're telling commercial real estate to hollow
itself out. You're telling your entire tax space that commutes
in not to come. You're telling people that they're going
(25:44):
to spend a lot of money to live in this city,
but it no longer has any of the perks that
it had before, like great restaurants and entertainment and zoos
and museums. And also they're going to get mugged more often.
It's not going to go well for you, and it
hasn't gone well for them, And this is going to
have electoral con sequences moving forward.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Only someone had seen this coming, Mary Catherine, If only
someone had said something.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
I feel like we said a few things.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Thanks for joining us on normally normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays,
and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts. Get
in touch with us at Normallythepod at gmail dot com.
Thanks for listening and when things get weird at normally
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