October 30, 2025 • 23 mins
In this episode, Mary Katharine Ham and Karol Markowicz tackle the nonstop news cycle shaping America in 2025. From Tucker Carlson’s latest controversial comments to Bill Gates’ surprising reversal on climate change, they explore how shifting narratives are influencing politics, media, and public trust. The hosts also unpack key foreign policy developments and what’s at stake in the 2025 election. Normally is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - ew episodes debut every Tuesday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, guys, that normal ticks. But when the news gets weird.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I am Mary coutha pants and I'm Carol Margott. How
are you, Mary Catherine.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I'm doing all right as usual. The onslaught of news
is somewhat overwhelming, to the extent by the way that
the president's on a whole ass Asian trip.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
It's funny because when we were talking topics today, you know,
I keep thinking, like, should we talk Virginia and New
Jersey New York City elections? Like we were on Fox
and Friends together this morning, possibly our first ever TV appearents, although.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I think soon there one of us has.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
That great a memory, so who knows, it could be
we may have been on before.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
But you know, there's really not much to say.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
We're careening toward election day and it's not looking good, so.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Like a little bit of tightening. I do think that
a g rayson Virginia. There's a chance that Republicans pick
that one off, not to use an inappropriate metaphor given
the opponent there, but I think that one's possible. It's
gonna be an uphill battle for everyone else. As you know,
I did early vote today. I like to vote on
election day, but I am traveling on election day, so generally,
(01:18):
when I can, I vote on election day. But I
do enjoy the part where I in my northern Virginia
area walk by and the Democrats see a mom and
they go, do you want our ballot? And I say, now,
give me that one lonely Republican over here. I' let
me grab that from you.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I could even get it. You guys have separate ballots.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
No, it's the sample ballot. We're not even registered as
party in Virginia, so like you can grab, you can
vote in either primary. You can do whatever you want here.
But I do enjoy kind of like tweaking them a
little bit because they're not even aware that we are
around them. Right, do you even make much less than
we're forty something moms? So that's always a fun moment
for me. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
In New York, I have to explain to my mom
how she's not voting for the Republican candidate this time,
and it's going to have to be some party she's
never heard of, like the wing. You do is you
find Andrew Cuomo on the ballot, My.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Gosh, bless them, bless him. All right, So we decided
to talk a little foreign policy, since that's important and
that is happening right now.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, and so Donald Trump is in Asia. He met
with the new Japanese Prime Minister, who is also a
heavy metal drummer, which I absolutely love. That is just
and she's so cute, And I mean, I know it's
not fair that we describe women as cute, although I
have to say Abbe was also very adorable, but she
(02:41):
just is so cute. She jumped up and down when
she met Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Adorable, super cute. Well, and she apparently is a shinzo.
Abbe was the former prime minister who was assassinated, a
story that we don't talk about enough. That one kind
of just like slipped by everybody story. Yeah. So he
was a great friend to Donald Trum. They liked each
other a lot. She's a protege of his and is
(03:04):
a conservative as he was, so there's reason for her
and Trump to get along. Her name is Sanai teik
to Kaichi. I'm sure I'm mispronouncing it medium wrong, but
that's what it is. And they had a seem to
have a very nice time together. She donated some more
cherry trees to the to d C, which actually is
much needed. The title Basin Storm wiped out a bunch
(03:25):
of them, so it'll be nice to have some new ones.
I also noticed in Japan, and I sent you this
and we can play a clip of it, because it
is pretty spectacular, just the showmanship of Donald Trump in
any place, on any occasion. He comes down and look,
I'm sure there's a term for this. He's like on
a battleship in Japan and he comes down on what's
(03:48):
essentially to meet the troops, an elevator for the fighter jets,
and like reveals himself as the elevator cost. It's just insane.
The troops go crazy. He has a real gift for that.
And at this point, at this point, like he does
it so often that that one doesn't even make news,
(04:09):
you know, like I saw. I happen to see it
on X at some point.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, I actually I didn't see it until you sent
it to me. I saw the one where he lands
in Malaysia and goes right into dancing with like the
Malaysians who are waiting there for him. Whatever you think
of Donald Trump, and he's amazing at this kind of showmanship.
He is so real in those moments. He is not
faking the funk in any way. He is just like
(04:34):
getting down with the Malaysian readers.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I've always been a fan of presidents dancing. I don't
get mad at any of them for it. I think
it's cool. I think it's you being yourself, enjoying the moment.
George Bush was famously a charming and slightly dorky dancer,
and I enjoyed it very much, and so more power
to him. But yeah, he's in He's in Malaysia, he's
in Japan. He's going to South Korea, which has a
(04:57):
new prime minister at host coup prime minister, remember that,
yeah story, And then he's off to meet Xijingping in China, where,
of course, in all of these stops, trade is a
talk they're having. I believe in Japan they talked about
some soybean and gas trade changes. She was talking about
purchasing vehicles from the US, all sorts of stuff like
(05:18):
that as the tariff conversation continues. But China will be
the main event.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, So the Chinese trade talks are supposed to be
kicking off. And you know, if you're wondering what side
the Washington Post is on, it's not our pride.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
No, yeah, you think right.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
The headline is Drew Holden highlighted this on x as
Trump meets Chi Chinese leader has the upper hand. It's
like if it was an opinion column. Okay, this is
in their news section, in their world section, and then
they have this line. The parent deal on offer signals
a little more than a redemption of the status quo
from around when Trump returned to office in January, and
(06:01):
serves as vindication of China's own hardball approach to the
Trump administration's coercive tactics, Like why are you rooting against
us even if you don't like tariffs, which I understand completely, Yeah,
why would you want China.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
To win well? And I don't like tariffs, And also
I don't think the facts on the ground reflect that
it's gone super well for China since this whole thing started. Yeah,
so let's even if you don't dig the tariffs or Trump,
can we evaluate it in a fair way?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
No, fair away. That's the thing though, Like, you know,
we don't expect fairness, and it's gone to the point
where we don't even you know, we don't even expect
it in like the most basic ways, right, It would
be so much better if everything was just like, here's
our opinion, because that's really all it is anyway, Like
just be honest and say.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
All of it, this this whole newspaper's opinion. Like, yeah,
well I do think that is I mean, that's essentially.
I was a straight journalist when I got into journalism,
and I decided that as a right leaning person, it
would be extremely hard to continue and to rise as
a straight journalist because once they figure out what you are,
(07:11):
they're like, well, you can't do straight journalism, so you're
sort of relegated to doing opinion journalism, opinion and reporting
as you and I do sometimes. But I actually think
it's helpful for people to know this is where I stand,
right and this is how I'm evaluating these facts.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Right, Like, let's stop pretending.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So that you can evaluate, Okay, where's she coming from
on this? And I try to be an honest broker
and I try to be rational about things, and as
a result, I ended up writer about a lot of
things at CNN and then everyone else while I was
there because I was coming from a different place. And
so that's helpful to know.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, and again, everybody has an opinion, like, let's stop
pretending otherwise.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Come on. Yeah, well, we'll keep you posted on the
g meeting. Ye, I'm not rooting against us.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Well, I'm very much rooting for us, and now would
be rooting for us even if it were Joe Biden
taking this meeting or Kamala Harris or anybody else root
for America. It's really not that hard.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Yeah, righty. We'll take a break on Normally and we'll
be back in a moment with another podcast that had
some disappointing thoughts on it.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
This week, we are back on Normally, and I hate
to talk about this subject because I don't want to
give it air. But on the flip side, as we
were talking about it before, like you said, not giving
this air hasn't worked, and that is that Tucker Carlson
(08:40):
has gone off the deep end, and he had Nick
Fuentes on his show this week. I'm disappointed. I really
like Tucker. I said this on an episode, you know,
on a previous episode, that I liked him when he
was a conservative. I don't know what this is anymore.
He's obsessed with Israel and Jews. It is the topic
on every show, and if it's not on the show.
(09:01):
Then it's in his newsletter. It's all all the air
in the room for him. And I liked him. We
were friendly. I don't overuse the term friends. We weren't friends,
but we certainly had a good rapport. We were text
And it's sad. He doesn't even look the same to
me anymore. He looks like a different person. The eye
that are completely different, the smile is completely different. Something
(09:24):
happened there and I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Yeah, it's it's a whole thing. And in keeping with
the theme of our show, it's not normal. No, this
is This is a very online discussion. Nick fuent Us
is a very online personality, as Tucker has become at
this point because he is not with a network anymore,
and there are like healthy online personalities and unhealthy online personalities.
(09:50):
My concern in the past has been, Okay, do I
want to spend a bunch of my time as a
normal person, raising a normal family, right parsing Groper's and
all other groups of anti semites and all of these
online fights and figuring out who everyone is in order
to push them away. Or do I want to be
a normal person and do my part. And it feels like,
(10:11):
you're gonna have to be in this If you want
to be in this business, you're going to have to
understand who these people are. To agree you do a
degree you don't really want to and listen to them
to a degree you don't really want to in order
to say this is why no, this is why no.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, I agree with you. And the silence from so
many different quarters on the right is also disappointing. They
all see what's going on, they don't want to comment
on it because they know it's gross. Nick Fointes is
not anti Israel. He is just an anti Semite. He
has little to no opinion on Israel. His only opinions
stem from I don't like Jews, therefore I don't like Israel.
(10:47):
And this you know washing of his reputation that's going
on where Tucker and others are trying to portray him
as no, no, he's just you know, anti Zionist whatever. No,
not at all. He's just a racist, anti semi and
it's just not that interesting a person. And that's the
other thing. I feel like the fact that he has
(11:08):
a following says some really bad, dark things about you know,
where some people in our country are.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah, I have trouble understanding the appeal in a lot
of these cases, whether it's Candice Owans or Tucker at
this point or fuint Ess And like, you know, some
would say that's a weakness of mine. I don't think
it's a weakness. And by the way, I think one
of the analogs on the left is this Jennifer Welsh
woman who's become a light of the movement, and just
today I saw it she gets again, this is sort
(11:36):
of how you get famous being very online, is that
you say outrageous and sane, very very mean things and
then your clips go everywhere. And so I saw her
today calling Riley Gaines a twat and was just like,
this is how we create leaders. Now, yeah, I know
we're trolling all the way down in politics, but like it.
(11:57):
At some point I watched a watched a segment of
the Fintest discussion that was about women and porn and sex.
After that my day was pretty much shot, Like like
one of my one of my favorite lines was not
about the porn, but it was just Fuintests saying, the
women are they're they're very emboldened, they're too emboldened. And
(12:20):
then there was a lot of discussion about, you know,
sort of the dopamine problem with porn and how it
burns people out. It's an addiction, and all the points
were correct, but when they're paired with the problem is
the women right now the porn, Like, I'm not sure
that's going to solve the problem, folks. H And at
one point also Tucker was just like, Wow, that's a
(12:42):
lot of jerking off, And I was like, I think
I've heard enough. I think I've heard enough.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, it is a lot of jerking off. Actually, Nick
Fuintes one time live streamed himself watching gay porn and
guess who he blamed for it. Guess who he blamed
for quote unquote hacking his computer? Is real married Catherine,
It was Israel.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Why'd y'all do that, Carol? You know.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
And that's the other thing, like talkwards like mister you know,
have a family, get married young, like conservative or at
least you know he was and lived that life right,
and we used to talk about that all the time.
How that was the most important thing and how I
know Number one for me is that my kids get
married and have kids. And he would stay you know
the same for him. And now he entertains this kind
(13:28):
of nonsense and people like the Tate brothers who just
are misogynist and gross and dumb, just so dumb, and Yeah,
I continue to be massively disappointed in him. I was
really on his side after he got fired from Box
and this is where he is now.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah, it wasn't a pleasant watch. No, as my as
my very tame description of it probably indicates, Sorry, guys,
my kid is having a fit downstairs.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
The right is going to have to face this. It's
going to have to decide whether they are in the movement,
and if they are, I can say people like me
are out. Which listen, you know the all the comments
I got on X that good Jews shouldn't be in
it any way, if that's where you want to take it, like,
good luck with that. We saw what happened to the
left when they entertained their fringe voices, and that's where
(14:23):
we are now, at a crossroads of do we entertain
this insanity or do we push them aside and move
past them.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah. I think the Seth Dylan thesis is like, you
can see what letting the Koop's drive did to the left.
Do you want to do that or should we sort
of rent it in here.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, and look, I like, you know, the people who
are speaking out, like Seth Dill, and like you like
a lot of other people like Dana Lash. They're my people.
This is who I want on my side for any
upcoming You know, I don't want to say war or
battles because I don't mean it literally metaphorical political battles
(15:06):
like this is this is the squad that I would
like to be with.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah, and also not Jennifer Welch.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Right back with more on Normally and Bill Gates changed
his mind. Look at that we are back on normally
where Bill Gates has had a change of heart about
climate change, which is kind of funny because he was
a giant, you know, we got to do everything we
(15:34):
could to stop climate change. He had an essay that
he wrote where he said, I want to read from it.
Climate change, disease, and poverty are all major problems. We
should deal with them in proportion to the suffering they cause.
Although climate change will have serious consequences, particularly for people
in the poorest country, it will not lead to humanity's demise.
(15:57):
This is a chance to refocus on the metric that
should count even more than emissions and temperature change improving lives.
Our chief goal should be to prevent suffering, particularly for
those in the toughest conditions who live in the world's
forest country. I mean, that's nice.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Now, told Carol, Yeah, that's dot can be told all along.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
I said this to my kids today, Like, you know,
we're trying to get more into current events and what's
going on. And you know, with the note of like
you may have heard Mama say this once or twice
in the last few years, that defeating poverty is far
more important than any climate goals.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
You know.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
It's bizarre, and I'm sure that there's some personal gain here.
A lot of people are pointing out that he has
some sort of something in the works that he'd get
some climate pushback on. Somebody tweeted at me, he's setting
up a defense for his AI data centers that will
consume massive energy. I mean, that's probably what's going on here.
(16:57):
I don't think that he actually had a change of heart.
He needs people to tone down the crazy climate change
veteric because he's got a business deal in there.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Well, I think it's a combo of the two. Yes,
the data centers are becoming a real energy issue and
a populist energy issue that both Republicans and Democrats and
races this year are addressing and sort of pushing back
against because it can raise electricity prices, and they're saying, hey,
you guys need to kick in for maintenance of the
grid if you're going to have these big power eaters.
(17:27):
All of that is worth talking about. But I don't
think he had a change of heart. I think his
original position was cynical and stupid. Yeah, and he was
just freaking people out because that was what was utilitarian
at the moment. And now what's beneficial and utilitarian is
that people calm down a little bit. But we should
have been calmer the whole time, and a person who
invented something so world changing should always have been telling
(17:52):
people that innovation, technology, freedom, capitalism create better outcomes for
the most impoverished areas. And the quicker you get those
those places, more technology, and by that way, that means
more power, Ye, the better off they're gonna be. I'm
reading a Fossil Future, which I should have read years ago,
(18:15):
but it's it's by Alex Epstein, and he makes the point,
which is, you know, our sort of gut feeling the
whole time, which is we only evaluate the energy discussion
on the prospective negative consequences. Yeah, we never talk about
how it's the lifeblood of everything, right, and how you
can't have human flourishing without it.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Right.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
The more people have it, the better off they are,
and the more we are able to create solutions to
any possible negative downside. Like exactly, yeah, I'm so glad
you're with us now, Bill, but like we've been here
for a while.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yeah, nice of you to join us. There was an
AP story like two days ago that about how young,
some young people don't want to have kids because of
climate change. And you know what's interesting about that also
is the Semaphore website they do this thing where they
point out stories that each side isn't reading, like what
conservatives aren't reading, what liberals aren't reading, And this was
(19:12):
the conservatives aren't reading story that AP story and young
young people not having kids because of climate change, maybe
because we've read that story like a million times and
we know about it and we talk about it more
than they do. We talk about the fact that that's
ridiculous and stop.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
That, and yeah, we should give some some stats from
that just for perspective, because I hate this thing where
leading liberals get to do this thing, where they get
all this social credit and plaudits for a decade, two
decades for being on the panicky side of this. They
turn people into this. In a twenty twenty four Lancet
(19:49):
study of people sixteen to twenty five years old, the
majority of respondents were very or extremely worried about climate change.
Study also found fifty two percent so they were hesitant
to have children because of climate change. Adults fifty years
old without children were four times more likely than adults
over fifty without children to say that climate plays a
factor in their decision, according to a Pew Research Center poll,
(20:10):
and a study a published this year in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences found that more than
half a respondent said yes or maybe to whether climate
change made them question having children. Now, from our perspective,
having children is like the greatest joy, Yeah that I
have experienced, the greatest fun that I have experienced. And
to freak people out to the degree that they change
(20:31):
their life trajectory because of something you now think can like, oh,
we can solve that later.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah, right, they damage this generation of kids. And look,
if you want to be extra specific about it, it's
not conservative kids. Like conservative kids are not getting the
message at home that like, you know, you shouldn't have
kids because the climate change is can get real bad.
You know, we have a joke that we make in
our house, which is when the kids were little and
they were learning about climate change is school. And I
want to diffuse the situation and not make it like
(20:58):
a crazy thing and say, you know, the world's not
going to end. The world is going to be fine.
People might not be here, but the world will be fine,
and you don't have to worry about it. Nothing that
you need to concern yourself with. And it's something I've
always talked about also, like why do we start beating
the climate change story to kids in kindergarten? Why what
is the kid going to do about it? And then
they kind of do state of the kids, Well, well,
(21:20):
what should we do about it? Like how about you
leave the kids alone and you figure it out yourself.
Bill Gates seems like he's fine with not figuring it
out anymore.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Well, I know, and like, as I said, this would
have been the crazy right wing position ten years ago, right,
which is like Hey, I think we could probably figure
this out, and maybe we should all chill. Also, a
lot of people change their life plans based on the
stupid population bomb from Paul Rlick, which was not a
real thing, and like it changes people's lives in bad ways.
The anxiety is terrible. People shouldn't have to worry about
(21:52):
it now. According to Bill Gates, thanks a lot. And
I just think there's like as usual with these huge
damaging policy pushes, like keeping schools closed, for instance, there's
no one who's held accountable for this. He's just like, oh, yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Rapes right the whole time he's been flying on his
private plane. I mean, oh yeah, but like, well, yeah,
you know ed you shouldn't be you know, it doesn't
matter how rich you are, how many people will talk
to you on the flight.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Yeah, you know, they don't believe it, because if they did,
Obama wouldn't have built like three shoreline homes for himself.
The I also wanted to point out, just to couple
with this, the this has always been a scam the
California This is from this week too. The California Public
Employees retirement system for state employees lost seventy one percent
(22:42):
of a four hundred and sixty eight million dollar investment
in a clean energy and technology private equity fund, state
records show, but they won't explain how these losses are
a major problem for the California taxpayers, who, at least
for now, are the backstop for underfunded state pensions. So
all this like economy built around this, and I use
(23:03):
economy loosely because it's a lot of scam stuff loses
people money, loses taxpayers money. You remember the Cylindra of
the past. There's a thousand of those that we funded,
and now California yet again showing its optimum governance by
throwing in on this stuff and losing everybody's money.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Good work, California. 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, that normal ticks. But when the news gets weird.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I am Mary coutha pants and I'm Carol Margott. How
are you, Mary Catherine.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I'm doing all right as usual. The onslaught of news
is somewhat overwhelming, to the extent by the way that
the president's on a whole ass Asian trip.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
It's funny because when we were talking topics today, you know,
I keep thinking, like, should we talk Virginia and New
Jersey New York City elections? Like we were on Fox
and Friends together this morning, possibly our first ever TV appearents, although.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I think soon there one of us has.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
That great a memory, so who knows, it could be
we may have been on before.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
But you know, there's really not much to say.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
We're careening toward election day and it's not looking good, so.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Like a little bit of tightening. I do think that
a g rayson Virginia. There's a chance that Republicans pick
that one off, not to use an inappropriate metaphor given
the opponent there, but I think that one's possible. It's
gonna be an uphill battle for everyone else. As you know,
I did early vote today. I like to vote on
election day, but I am traveling on election day, so generally,
(01:18):
when I can, I vote on election day. But I
do enjoy the part where I in my northern Virginia
area walk by and the Democrats see a mom and
they go, do you want our ballot? And I say, now,
give me that one lonely Republican over here. I' let
me grab that from you.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I could even get it. You guys have separate ballots.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
No, it's the sample ballot. We're not even registered as
party in Virginia, so like you can grab, you can
vote in either primary. You can do whatever you want here.
But I do enjoy kind of like tweaking them a
little bit because they're not even aware that we are
around them. Right, do you even make much less than
we're forty something moms? So that's always a fun moment
for me. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
In New York, I have to explain to my mom
how she's not voting for the Republican candidate this time,
and it's going to have to be some party she's
never heard of, like the wing. You do is you
find Andrew Cuomo on the ballot, My.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Gosh, bless them, bless him. All right, So we decided
to talk a little foreign policy, since that's important and
that is happening right now.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, and so Donald Trump is in Asia. He met
with the new Japanese Prime Minister, who is also a
heavy metal drummer, which I absolutely love. That is just
and she's so cute, And I mean, I know it's
not fair that we describe women as cute, although I
have to say Abbe was also very adorable, but she
(02:41):
just is so cute. She jumped up and down when
she met Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Adorable, super cute. Well, and she apparently is a shinzo.
Abbe was the former prime minister who was assassinated, a
story that we don't talk about enough. That one kind
of just like slipped by everybody story. Yeah. So he
was a great friend to Donald Trum. They liked each
other a lot. She's a protege of his and is
(03:04):
a conservative as he was, so there's reason for her
and Trump to get along. Her name is Sanai teik
to Kaichi. I'm sure I'm mispronouncing it medium wrong, but
that's what it is. And they had a seem to
have a very nice time together. She donated some more
cherry trees to the to d C, which actually is
much needed. The title Basin Storm wiped out a bunch
(03:25):
of them, so it'll be nice to have some new ones.
I also noticed in Japan, and I sent you this
and we can play a clip of it, because it
is pretty spectacular, just the showmanship of Donald Trump in
any place, on any occasion. He comes down and look,
I'm sure there's a term for this. He's like on
a battleship in Japan and he comes down on what's
(03:48):
essentially to meet the troops, an elevator for the fighter jets,
and like reveals himself as the elevator cost. It's just insane.
The troops go crazy. He has a real gift for that.
And at this point, at this point, like he does
it so often that that one doesn't even make news,
(04:09):
you know, like I saw. I happen to see it
on X at some point.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, I actually I didn't see it until you sent
it to me. I saw the one where he lands
in Malaysia and goes right into dancing with like the
Malaysians who are waiting there for him. Whatever you think
of Donald Trump, and he's amazing at this kind of showmanship.
He is so real in those moments. He is not
faking the funk in any way. He is just like
(04:34):
getting down with the Malaysian readers.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I've always been a fan of presidents dancing. I don't
get mad at any of them for it. I think
it's cool. I think it's you being yourself, enjoying the moment.
George Bush was famously a charming and slightly dorky dancer,
and I enjoyed it very much, and so more power
to him. But yeah, he's in He's in Malaysia, he's
in Japan. He's going to South Korea, which has a
(04:57):
new prime minister at host coup prime minister, remember that,
yeah story, And then he's off to meet Xijingping in China, where,
of course, in all of these stops, trade is a
talk they're having. I believe in Japan they talked about
some soybean and gas trade changes. She was talking about
purchasing vehicles from the US, all sorts of stuff like
(05:18):
that as the tariff conversation continues. But China will be
the main event.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, So the Chinese trade talks are supposed to be
kicking off. And you know, if you're wondering what side
the Washington Post is on, it's not our pride.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
No, yeah, you think right.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
The headline is Drew Holden highlighted this on x as
Trump meets Chi Chinese leader has the upper hand. It's
like if it was an opinion column. Okay, this is
in their news section, in their world section, and then
they have this line. The parent deal on offer signals
a little more than a redemption of the status quo
from around when Trump returned to office in January, and
(06:01):
serves as vindication of China's own hardball approach to the
Trump administration's coercive tactics, Like why are you rooting against
us even if you don't like tariffs, which I understand completely, Yeah,
why would you want China.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
To win well? And I don't like tariffs, And also
I don't think the facts on the ground reflect that
it's gone super well for China since this whole thing started. Yeah,
so let's even if you don't dig the tariffs or Trump,
can we evaluate it in a fair way?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
No, fair away. That's the thing though, Like, you know,
we don't expect fairness, and it's gone to the point
where we don't even you know, we don't even expect
it in like the most basic ways, right, It would
be so much better if everything was just like, here's
our opinion, because that's really all it is anyway, Like
just be honest and say.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
All of it, this this whole newspaper's opinion. Like, yeah,
well I do think that is I mean, that's essentially.
I was a straight journalist when I got into journalism,
and I decided that as a right leaning person, it
would be extremely hard to continue and to rise as
a straight journalist because once they figure out what you are,
(07:11):
they're like, well, you can't do straight journalism, so you're
sort of relegated to doing opinion journalism, opinion and reporting
as you and I do sometimes. But I actually think
it's helpful for people to know this is where I stand,
right and this is how I'm evaluating these facts.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Right, Like, let's stop pretending.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So that you can evaluate, Okay, where's she coming from
on this? And I try to be an honest broker
and I try to be rational about things, and as
a result, I ended up writer about a lot of
things at CNN and then everyone else while I was
there because I was coming from a different place. And
so that's helpful to know.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, and again, everybody has an opinion, like, let's stop
pretending otherwise.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Come on. Yeah, well, we'll keep you posted on the
g meeting. Ye, I'm not rooting against us.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Well, I'm very much rooting for us, and now would
be rooting for us even if it were Joe Biden
taking this meeting or Kamala Harris or anybody else root
for America. It's really not that hard.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Yeah, righty. We'll take a break on Normally and we'll
be back in a moment with another podcast that had
some disappointing thoughts on it.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
This week, we are back on Normally, and I hate
to talk about this subject because I don't want to
give it air. But on the flip side, as we
were talking about it before, like you said, not giving
this air hasn't worked, and that is that Tucker Carlson
(08:40):
has gone off the deep end, and he had Nick
Fuentes on his show this week. I'm disappointed. I really
like Tucker. I said this on an episode, you know,
on a previous episode, that I liked him when he
was a conservative. I don't know what this is anymore.
He's obsessed with Israel and Jews. It is the topic
on every show, and if it's not on the show.
(09:01):
Then it's in his newsletter. It's all all the air
in the room for him. And I liked him. We
were friendly. I don't overuse the term friends. We weren't friends,
but we certainly had a good rapport. We were text
And it's sad. He doesn't even look the same to
me anymore. He looks like a different person. The eye
that are completely different, the smile is completely different. Something
(09:24):
happened there and I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Yeah, it's it's a whole thing. And in keeping with
the theme of our show, it's not normal. No, this
is This is a very online discussion. Nick fuent Us
is a very online personality, as Tucker has become at
this point because he is not with a network anymore,
and there are like healthy online personalities and unhealthy online personalities.
(09:50):
My concern in the past has been, Okay, do I
want to spend a bunch of my time as a
normal person, raising a normal family, right parsing Groper's and
all other groups of anti semites and all of these
online fights and figuring out who everyone is in order
to push them away. Or do I want to be
a normal person and do my part. And it feels like,
(10:11):
you're gonna have to be in this If you want
to be in this business, you're going to have to
understand who these people are. To agree you do a
degree you don't really want to and listen to them
to a degree you don't really want to in order
to say this is why no, this is why no.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, I agree with you. And the silence from so
many different quarters on the right is also disappointing. They
all see what's going on, they don't want to comment
on it because they know it's gross. Nick Fointes is
not anti Israel. He is just an anti Semite. He
has little to no opinion on Israel. His only opinions
stem from I don't like Jews, therefore I don't like Israel.
(10:47):
And this you know washing of his reputation that's going
on where Tucker and others are trying to portray him
as no, no, he's just you know, anti Zionist whatever. No,
not at all. He's just a racist, anti semi and
it's just not that interesting a person. And that's the
other thing. I feel like the fact that he has
(11:08):
a following says some really bad, dark things about you know,
where some people in our country are.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah, I have trouble understanding the appeal in a lot
of these cases, whether it's Candice Owans or Tucker at
this point or fuint Ess And like, you know, some
would say that's a weakness of mine. I don't think
it's a weakness. And by the way, I think one
of the analogs on the left is this Jennifer Welsh
woman who's become a light of the movement, and just
today I saw it she gets again, this is sort
(11:36):
of how you get famous being very online, is that
you say outrageous and sane, very very mean things and
then your clips go everywhere. And so I saw her
today calling Riley Gaines a twat and was just like,
this is how we create leaders. Now, yeah, I know
we're trolling all the way down in politics, but like it.
(11:57):
At some point I watched a watched a segment of
the Fintest discussion that was about women and porn and sex.
After that my day was pretty much shot, Like like
one of my one of my favorite lines was not
about the porn, but it was just Fuintests saying, the
women are they're they're very emboldened, they're too emboldened. And
(12:20):
then there was a lot of discussion about, you know,
sort of the dopamine problem with porn and how it
burns people out. It's an addiction, and all the points
were correct, but when they're paired with the problem is
the women right now the porn, Like, I'm not sure
that's going to solve the problem, folks. H And at
one point also Tucker was just like, Wow, that's a
(12:42):
lot of jerking off, And I was like, I think
I've heard enough. I think I've heard enough.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, it is a lot of jerking off. Actually, Nick
Fuintes one time live streamed himself watching gay porn and
guess who he blamed for it. Guess who he blamed
for quote unquote hacking his computer? Is real married Catherine,
It was Israel.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Why'd y'all do that, Carol? You know.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
And that's the other thing, like talkwards like mister you know,
have a family, get married young, like conservative or at
least you know he was and lived that life right,
and we used to talk about that all the time.
How that was the most important thing and how I
know Number one for me is that my kids get
married and have kids. And he would stay you know
the same for him. And now he entertains this kind
(13:28):
of nonsense and people like the Tate brothers who just
are misogynist and gross and dumb, just so dumb, and Yeah,
I continue to be massively disappointed in him. I was
really on his side after he got fired from Box
and this is where he is now.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah, it wasn't a pleasant watch. No, as my as
my very tame description of it probably indicates, Sorry, guys,
my kid is having a fit downstairs.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
The right is going to have to face this. It's
going to have to decide whether they are in the movement,
and if they are, I can say people like me
are out. Which listen, you know the all the comments
I got on X that good Jews shouldn't be in
it any way, if that's where you want to take it, like,
good luck with that. We saw what happened to the
left when they entertained their fringe voices, and that's where
(14:23):
we are now, at a crossroads of do we entertain
this insanity or do we push them aside and move
past them.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah. I think the Seth Dylan thesis is like, you
can see what letting the Koop's drive did to the left.
Do you want to do that or should we sort
of rent it in here.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, and look, I like, you know, the people who
are speaking out, like Seth Dill, and like you like
a lot of other people like Dana Lash. They're my people.
This is who I want on my side for any
upcoming You know, I don't want to say war or
battles because I don't mean it literally metaphorical political battles
(15:06):
like this is this is the squad that I would
like to be with.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah, and also not Jennifer Welch.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Right back with more on Normally and Bill Gates changed
his mind. Look at that we are back on normally
where Bill Gates has had a change of heart about
climate change, which is kind of funny because he was
a giant, you know, we got to do everything we
(15:34):
could to stop climate change. He had an essay that
he wrote where he said, I want to read from it.
Climate change, disease, and poverty are all major problems. We
should deal with them in proportion to the suffering they cause.
Although climate change will have serious consequences, particularly for people
in the poorest country, it will not lead to humanity's demise.
(15:57):
This is a chance to refocus on the metric that
should count even more than emissions and temperature change improving lives.
Our chief goal should be to prevent suffering, particularly for
those in the toughest conditions who live in the world's
forest country. I mean, that's nice.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Now, told Carol, Yeah, that's dot can be told all along.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
I said this to my kids today, Like, you know,
we're trying to get more into current events and what's
going on. And you know, with the note of like
you may have heard Mama say this once or twice
in the last few years, that defeating poverty is far
more important than any climate goals.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
You know.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
It's bizarre, and I'm sure that there's some personal gain here.
A lot of people are pointing out that he has
some sort of something in the works that he'd get
some climate pushback on. Somebody tweeted at me, he's setting
up a defense for his AI data centers that will
consume massive energy. I mean, that's probably what's going on here.
(16:57):
I don't think that he actually had a change of heart.
He needs people to tone down the crazy climate change
veteric because he's got a business deal in there.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Well, I think it's a combo of the two. Yes,
the data centers are becoming a real energy issue and
a populist energy issue that both Republicans and Democrats and
races this year are addressing and sort of pushing back
against because it can raise electricity prices, and they're saying, hey,
you guys need to kick in for maintenance of the
grid if you're going to have these big power eaters.
(17:27):
All of that is worth talking about. But I don't
think he had a change of heart. I think his
original position was cynical and stupid. Yeah, and he was
just freaking people out because that was what was utilitarian
at the moment. And now what's beneficial and utilitarian is
that people calm down a little bit. But we should
have been calmer the whole time, and a person who
invented something so world changing should always have been telling
(17:52):
people that innovation, technology, freedom, capitalism create better outcomes for
the most impoverished areas. And the quicker you get those
those places, more technology, and by that way, that means
more power, Ye, the better off they're gonna be. I'm
reading a Fossil Future, which I should have read years ago,
(18:15):
but it's it's by Alex Epstein, and he makes the point,
which is, you know, our sort of gut feeling the
whole time, which is we only evaluate the energy discussion
on the prospective negative consequences. Yeah, we never talk about
how it's the lifeblood of everything, right, and how you
can't have human flourishing without it.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Right.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
The more people have it, the better off they are,
and the more we are able to create solutions to
any possible negative downside. Like exactly, yeah, I'm so glad
you're with us now, Bill, but like we've been here
for a while.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yeah, nice of you to join us. There was an
AP story like two days ago that about how young,
some young people don't want to have kids because of
climate change. And you know what's interesting about that also
is the Semaphore website they do this thing where they
point out stories that each side isn't reading, like what
conservatives aren't reading, what liberals aren't reading, And this was
(19:12):
the conservatives aren't reading story that AP story and young
young people not having kids because of climate change, maybe
because we've read that story like a million times and
we know about it and we talk about it more
than they do. We talk about the fact that that's
ridiculous and stop.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
That, and yeah, we should give some some stats from
that just for perspective, because I hate this thing where
leading liberals get to do this thing, where they get
all this social credit and plaudits for a decade, two
decades for being on the panicky side of this. They
turn people into this. In a twenty twenty four Lancet
(19:49):
study of people sixteen to twenty five years old, the
majority of respondents were very or extremely worried about climate change.
Study also found fifty two percent so they were hesitant
to have children because of climate change. Adults fifty years
old without children were four times more likely than adults
over fifty without children to say that climate plays a
factor in their decision, according to a Pew Research Center poll,
(20:10):
and a study a published this year in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences found that more than
half a respondent said yes or maybe to whether climate
change made them question having children. Now, from our perspective,
having children is like the greatest joy, Yeah that I
have experienced, the greatest fun that I have experienced. And
to freak people out to the degree that they change
(20:31):
their life trajectory because of something you now think can like, oh,
we can solve that later.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah, right, they damage this generation of kids. And look,
if you want to be extra specific about it, it's
not conservative kids. Like conservative kids are not getting the
message at home that like, you know, you shouldn't have
kids because the climate change is can get real bad.
You know, we have a joke that we make in
our house, which is when the kids were little and
they were learning about climate change is school. And I
want to diffuse the situation and not make it like
(20:58):
a crazy thing and say, you know, the world's not
going to end. The world is going to be fine.
People might not be here, but the world will be fine,
and you don't have to worry about it. Nothing that
you need to concern yourself with. And it's something I've
always talked about also, like why do we start beating
the climate change story to kids in kindergarten? Why what
is the kid going to do about it? And then
they kind of do state of the kids, Well, well,
(21:20):
what should we do about it? Like how about you
leave the kids alone and you figure it out yourself.
Bill Gates seems like he's fine with not figuring it
out anymore.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Well, I know, and like, as I said, this would
have been the crazy right wing position ten years ago, right,
which is like Hey, I think we could probably figure
this out, and maybe we should all chill. Also, a
lot of people change their life plans based on the
stupid population bomb from Paul Rlick, which was not a
real thing, and like it changes people's lives in bad ways.
The anxiety is terrible. People shouldn't have to worry about
(21:52):
it now. According to Bill Gates, thanks a lot. And
I just think there's like as usual with these huge
damaging policy pushes, like keeping schools closed, for instance, there's
no one who's held accountable for this. He's just like, oh, yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Rapes right the whole time he's been flying on his
private plane. I mean, oh yeah, but like, well, yeah,
you know ed you shouldn't be you know, it doesn't
matter how rich you are, how many people will talk
to you on the flight.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Yeah, you know, they don't believe it, because if they did,
Obama wouldn't have built like three shoreline homes for himself.
The I also wanted to point out, just to couple
with this, the this has always been a scam the
California This is from this week too. The California Public
Employees retirement system for state employees lost seventy one percent
(22:42):
of a four hundred and sixty eight million dollar investment
in a clean energy and technology private equity fund, state
records show, but they won't explain how these losses are
a major problem for the California taxpayers, who, at least
for now, are the backstop for underfunded state pensions. So
all this like economy built around this, and I use
(23:03):
economy loosely because it's a lot of scam stuff loses
people money, loses taxpayers money. You remember the Cylindra of
the past. There's a thousand of those that we funded,
and now California yet again showing its optimum governance by
throwing in on this stuff and losing everybody's money.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Good work, California. 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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