February 11, 2025 • 33 mins
In this episode, Mary Katharine Ham and Karol Markowicz discuss their weekend experiences, including family adventures and the Super Bowl. They reflect on the cultural significance of The Big Game, the political landscape surrounding Trump, and the media's reactions to recent developments. The conversation highlights a perceived cultural shift and the dynamics within the Republican Party as they navigate their relationship with Trump. Normally is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey guy, it's fun. It's normous, countrymen. We are back
on normally, the show with normal it takes for when
the news gets weird. I am Mary Catherine.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Ham Carl Marcowitz. What a weekend, Mary Catherine.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
There's a lot going on. We had stitches at our house,
stitches for the stitches for the youngest, the boy. This
is like what they do, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I mean we keep trying to buy like a twenty
pack to the emergency room, but they don't.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Sell those, so.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I want my card punch. Yeah, we had. He had
a close encounter with the banister and it didn't It
didn't end well for him, but he's kids are magic.
He's like he was jumping out a trampoline two hours later.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
So he'll get that banister next time.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yes he will. And as as a mother with good judgment,
I of course have him immediately on a trampoline after
this incident.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
We are gonna get mail.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I got to get back on that horse. You really, yes,
you do.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
So that was a Super Bowl? Has there ever been
that kind of lopsided result? I count on you for
the sports bawl.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I don't think I think that lead that the Eagles
had at one point with the shutout before it came
not a shout out, was the biggest ever in Super
Bowl history. That was a just a beating. I was
rooting for the Eagles, not because I'm an Eagles fan.
I'm a Lions fan. But the entire defense is Georgia Bulldogs.
So by the end of their four years, they've won
(01:38):
two National championships and a Super Bowl. So way to go, guys.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
All right, I'll be happy for you, even though I
hate the Eagles so many But you know, I didn't
feel any particular way because like enough of the Chiefs already,
Like that's that was sort of the problem last night,
Like I.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Despised the Eagles, but like, did I really care that
they finally unseated the Chiefs?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Not that much.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I like the idea, by the way that everybody's like, oh,
Taylor Swift is devastated. I'm neutral on Taylor Swift to positive.
I like her. I'm this isn't devastating. You went to
two Super Bowls two years in a row in first
outing as a Chiefs fan, Like you're good and you
won one of them, right, and like.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Your boyfriend's on the team, You're okay.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
You're good.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
You just had this Mego world tour.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
You know, I didn't mind Taylor getting booed, because I
think that that's just a rite of passage for everyone.
We Trump got applauded, but he could have easily gotten
boot also, because you just never know what these kinds
of things. I think booing at sporting events is a
national pastime and Taylor shouldn't take it too personally.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, don't put me on that jumpatron, I'm good, Just
let me watch.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I did think the super Bowl, which I love because
it's basically the only thing we all do together anymore.
That was one of the sad things about the kneeling
and the anthem. The whole political discussion about that was
that this thing we had formally all embraced together and
one of the few things left culturally for us to
(03:12):
do together was gone for a while, and a lot
of people pieced out on the NFL as a result.
And now it really does feel like people are kind
of back on the same page when it comes to football,
and I like that.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I like it too.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I thought a lot of that was Listen, I thought
it was by design. When AOC said there was no
going back to Brunch. I think that was, you know,
the kind of thing that she meant, like, we can't
just all go watch the Super Bowl. The world's going
to explode, and people.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Were like, no, we would like to watch, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Please leave us alone, lady.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Look that this return to normalcy, this vibe shift, is
what we talk a lot about on here, and it
was very visible this weekend.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
It was clear that.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
And you know that the ads that were still a
little woke, were they stuck out because they were weird
and they didn't fit anymore. And per siddenly really hate
the Snoop dog Tom Brady ad against Tate, against.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Just all hate, all hate. Heyere, yeah, I hate the Eagles.
You're not going to stop me.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
I'm not against it.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
But you know that that company, that group started as
a anti Semitism group, an anti anti Semitism group, and
now it's just like generic hate and it just rings
like such bs and they've spent such an insane amount
of money. Obviously, you get a Super Bowl ad, you
have Tom Brady in it, you have Snoop DOGG in it,
(04:33):
what are you accomplishing? And it just like it missed
the moment completely.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
I think my favorite ad was probably the Glenn Powell
Three Little the Three Bears retelling with the Dodge Ram trusts.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Oh no, I did see that. Yeah, that was good.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Glenn Powell, to me is sort of emblematic of the
vibe shift because he's not some winger. Nobody's asking for that.
What Glenn Powell is entertaining fun. He does not take
himself too seriously, and that's what we're looking for. Of
course he had so his origination or his buzz came
(05:09):
mostly from Maverick, which was this refreshingly non political pro
America product that everyone enjoyed because they were like, oh,
this is not what we've been doing for a while.
So I liked that. I know that there were many
Olds who were disappointed with Kendrick Lamar's Oh man, yeah,
(05:31):
I love the Olds.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah I was.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
I was neutral to positive on it.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
I didn't think it was that great a performance. I
do like Kendrick Lamar, like his music, you know not.
I can't say I'm a huge fan, but I knew
to say a minor or the rest of the crowd.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
So man Drake thought he was just going to have
a normal beef and this is not no it's not
for those who don't know. That line is a the
whole track of Drake. That line in particular is a
very savage dig on Drake. And then he had Serena
Williams come out, who is Drake's They weren't in a
(06:10):
long relationship, but they they were in some sort of
entanglement at some point. And at first I was like,
why is Serena Williams out there when they had this
very short entanglement at that Yeah, and like why does
she care about Drake at this point? And then I
looked it up and refreshed my memory. Drake talked junk
about not only her but her husband, who she ended
up marrying and having kids with. So go on, Serena
(06:33):
enjoy and she looked great.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Yeah she did so other vibe shifty news over the weekend,
and this is you know, Donald.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Trump was at the super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Apparently he was the first president ever at the super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I'm surprised.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Did that be How Barack Obama never went to the
super Bowl. That makes no sense to me.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
He was always up in every everything sporting all the time. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
So CBS poll came out this weekend right around before
Trump went to the super Bowl. It had Trump's approval
rating at fifty three percent. The number that I think
is most interesting and most obvious is seventy percent of
responders said, he's doing what he said he would.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Do during the campaign, and.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
You can hate the guy, but he's doing what he said.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
He would do now, and he, like you said, he
got to cheer there. The numbers showing up for him
among eighteen to twenty nine year olds have to be
just very scary for Democrats. This is a demographic that
they have had a lock on for a generation now
and it seems not the case anymore, and so that's
(07:44):
not good news for them. And I would argue that
the vibe shift at the Super Bowl is partly because
that group has like value to advertisers, and those advertisers
who are sort of somewhat confused about where to go.
You could tell some of the ads are like, we're
leaning into it. Other parts other ads were like, we
don't know what to do, as BLM usually gives us
(08:04):
our talking points, but now we know that that's not
what we're doing, but we don't know what to do.
So I think you see that reflected in this By
the way, did you see they played God Bless the
USA at the third quarter in the stadium.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
No, I was cooking a lot of it, all cooking, eating, cooking, eating.
I understand, especially as it was such a blowout. It was,
you know, what was I really watching? But that's interesting,
God Bless America.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
That's good to see.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
The bud Light commercial obviously was.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
They've played oh nice at the third quarter.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Oh amazing, fantastic.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
That is a vibe shift, the bud Light commercial with
the manliest ad in history, just men doing manly things
all over the backyard.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yeah, definite vibe shift.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I will say Shane Gillis's arc is indicative of amazing exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
I will say that I am getting a little concerned,
and this is my Russian pessimistic side, that the right
is being a little too excited about the Democrats position
and they're just saying things like they will never recover
from this, they will never come back from this.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
This is the end of the Democratic Party.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
And my friend Michael Malice had somebody to write that
to him on X and he wrote back, they have
half the House, forty seven Senate seats, and twenty three
governorships and control of the education system. Trump has two
great weeks, and delusional people think the war is over.
The Democratic Party is the oldest political party on earth.
The idea that it's on the verge of destruction is
a Boomer Khn fantasy. So I just want to say,
(09:42):
I feel I'm not tired of winning.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Let's keep the winning going.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
And I love the vibe right now and it does
feel like a culture shift and all of that.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The deocrats are
not done.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
You're right. You have to take your w's when you
get them, and also keep in mind that this is
not over. I had a friend years ago when Obama
flipped North Carolina blue. She was liberal, and she's like,
it's all over like this, never again would North Carolina
be read. And I was like, look, obviously I'm not
(10:15):
on your side of this, but I would just caution you. Right,
things in politics change quite quickly quickly, and certainly they
have in North Carolina, especially over the past couple cycles.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
I don't mean to pick on this guy, but Roy
Tik Sierra wrote a book called Why the White Working
Class Still Matters, and he published.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
It right before George W.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Bush has win in two thousand and the case was
the white working class matters, and they will continue.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
To vote Democrat forever and ever. And so this is
the end of the Republican Party. Can see where this went.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Well, you remember Obama's demographics is destiny, Like it was
all over for Republicans. They were a rump party from
now until forever. That's it. And it's actually you know,
it can feel jarring, but it's actually a sign of health.
We have a relatively stable system, certainly compared to places
like Italy and other places that change, you know, whole
(11:09):
systems every couple of years sometimes, and you know, you
live to fight another day.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
That's it. Yeah, So enjoy this. I enjoy it. It's
very good.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
I'm loving all of it. I think that Trump is doing,
I mean just phenomenally. I think that seventy percent really
represents what everybody's thinking. And you know that seventy percent
includes people who don't like him, right, They're saying, he
campaigned on this stuff and he is charging ahead with it.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
And I couldn't be h Well, I think I wrote
about it for OutKick, But he's always been so fortunate
in his opposition. And there's an old newt Gingrich adage
that was like, find an eighty percent issue and stand
next to it. Yes, And the left continues, I think
because they got really cocky in their cultural dominance. They
(11:56):
continue to find it did the twenty percent side and
stand on it and yell at the rest of us.
And I just think that's not going great for them,
whether it's plastic straws, thank you love that, or big
issues like men and women's sports, like these are eighty
percent issues, and they're like, we will proudly take the
(12:18):
other side, which if you're principled, I guess, but like
they're straws, dude, Like, maybe don't go to battle on
this one. It's right, Drake going to battle with Kindred.
It's going in badly bad call.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Yes, we're going to take a short break and come
right back with Normally, Politico has a story about Trump
getting his dominees through, which shouldn't be surprising to anyone,
but their opener is Donald Trump is back, and it
sure isn't twenty seventeen anymore.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
In the Senate. No, it's not.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
It's not twenty seventeen anymore.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Now, there seems there's this demand that you know, it
sort of frames it as like they're not rejecting all
of his choices. Well, that would be That would actually
be an extraordinary position. That's not the normal position. The
normal position of a party is to say, the head
of our party, who won this election right kind of
(13:16):
gets to choose. Will push back here and there, but
largely he's going to get his choices. The issue is
that the media wants Republicans to live differently than they
want Democrats to live. So they are stemy, they're upset
by this trend. It says the sweep of successful confirmations
(13:36):
is the latest sign from the Senate GOP that it
wants to be viewed as a partner, not a problem
for Trump at the start of a second chance.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Well yeah, yeah, his own party wants to be viewed
as a partner.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Why would that be. And then this scandalous quote from
Senator John Barrosso of Wyoming. My goal was to make
sure everyone of President Trump's nominees got confirmed.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Yes, yeah, yeah, unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Can you can you imagine Republican senator wanting that for
the Republican president.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Now they Politico notes, they are outpacing what they did
in twenty seventeen. That was an extraordinary occasion where Republicans
kind of didn't know what hit them, nor did Trump,
nor did the people he nominated. So this is going
more smoothly. Yeah, it's also going not nearly as quickly
because of Democrats, as Biden's confirmations got the courtesy of
(14:28):
moving the last time around. But all of this is
just they're just reporting normal things like that Vance is
doing a persuasion effort from the administration inside the Senate. Well, yeah,
he's the vice president, right. They are not resorting to
recess appointments, which is that was one of the things
(14:49):
that the press was worried about. And it's like there
is line after line about like, well, I guess this
is going pretty normally.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
I guess this is what's supposed to happen, and it's happening.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
What a surprise that the press is just I think
they forgot what a regular political process is supposed to
look like. The last four years of Joe Biden has
obviously been not normal, and the first Donald Trump administration
was a little bit outside of that as well. I mean,
he by all accounts did not expect to win.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
He was not.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Prepared for that first administration.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
It was very you know, kind of just by the
seat of their.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Pants and all of that.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
And I think the media has just simply forgotten that
this is the process, this is how it works. I mean,
this is you know, related, but not. But Brian Stelter
tweeted on X yesterday a year ago, you can go
days without seeing or thinking about Joe Biden. Now you're
lucky if you can go hours without thinking about President Trump.
He's inescapable and that's just how he likes it today.
(15:51):
The Super Bowl is also the Trump bull. First of all, No,
it's not okay, like he was there. It was not
the Trumpell. It wasn't like they kept black to him.
I would say it was more the tailor Bowl in
a lot of ways over the you know this one
and the last one than it was the Trumpell. They
did not keep showing him. They showed him for a
little bit and that was the end of that. Brian
Stelter forgot that.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
We're supposed to hear from the president to be out there.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah, he's not supposed to be hidden away in some basement,
not allowed to speak to some people and having staffers
make policy.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
That's just not how it's supposed to go.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
And this is a great reminder for the you know,
journalists class, that this is what the president is supposed
to do. He's supposed to go to events. He's supposed
to be out there. He's not supposed to be afraid
of walking or talking or just existing.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
One of the things that where he was visible at
the super Bowl was that Trump met with families of
those who were killed in the terrorism incident in New
Orleans on January first, on New Year's he met. I
believe there might have been some survivors also of the
plane crashes in both Philly and Washington who were there,
(17:02):
and he was in an attendance chatting with them. But interestingly,
the NFL tweeted a picture, Yes, oh that was with
those folks. So it's like first responders, the president and
you know, people who survived these terrible incidents. That is
what a president is supposed to do. That's what a
normal president does, and he's being treated as such by
(17:24):
a large entity like the NFL.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
And people are losing their minds about it, obviously, like
how dare they treat this president like he's president?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
That is just so unfair.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
It's they really are not appreciating that he didn't get
this kind of treatment his first term. So it's interesting
and it's nice to see him get it this time.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
He is the president. People have to accept that it's healthy.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Even if you don't like him, it's healthy. You don't
like him, healthy to treat him as the president. As
I used to always say on CNN, you can't unpresident him.
You have to impeach him and remove him, or you
have to beat him. Right, And for the entirety of
his first term, it was just this idea that they
could unprecedented him like he's just it's not right. So
(18:09):
we're just not going to go along with it, and
that's not how it works. But they are attempting to
do that again in some cases, whether it's in the
courts or whether it's in the media. As we move
forward with this second term adventure.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
You think they'd see that they failed at this, that
it did not work. Unprecedenting him did not work, And
they have tried to impeach him twice and that didn't work.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
And they've tried to beat him twice and that didn't work.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Like I you know, I've said this song here, but
if I were a Democrat. I would be nice to him,
and that's how I would try to get my issues through.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
But I think if they had the first time, he'd
be less of Ah, I know, right leaning figure by now.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
I agree again, Kim Kardashian did it and Nancy Pelosi didn't.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
So yeah, we'll be right back on normally.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Into our last subject, which is the the ongoing drama
of DOGE and the controversy surrounding what powers Elon Musk
has as a advisor slash slash special government employee. I
would note that Anita Bryant was the same kind of
employee under a Bidence administration. Yeah, see, that was fine, right,
(19:25):
Just so you guys have context and the people who
work under him what kind of authorities they have. There
have been several temporary restraining orders put in three thus far,
one from Rhode Island, one out of DC. Those have
to do with overall federal spending and freezing it. But
the one out of the Southern District of New York.
(19:47):
Here they come again, one of our favorite characters in
national politics. They come along, and a judge on late
Friday night, I think into Saturday morning, issued an emergency
temporary restraining order for anyone accessing Treasury Department records under
the sort of the impetus of or under the auspices
(20:09):
of DOGE. But included in that was all political appointees,
which brings in the Senate confirmed Secretary also Treasury, who
is not amazing. Yeah, who is one of the most sensible,
normal pics of the entire thing, like sort of like
(20:32):
a person you would think would get respect from media
and judicial entities. And yet now they're saying he can't
have access to Treasury.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, well, it's mind boggling. What are they doing.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
It's just it is a insane line of attach this
whole Elon Musk.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Is going to steal our data and do what with it?
Open like credit cards?
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Like what are they imagine Elon Musk is going to
do with it? Like take over their identity.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
He's Elon Musk. He doesn't need you.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
And it's just the idea that tons of government employees
don't have access to our data is ridiculous, because they are.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Every slope overs has your data. I do think I
looked into it a little bit and someone tweeted about
this and led me to it, and I hadn't noticed
it before, and I'm glad that he alerted me. I
can't remember what his name was. The Doze idea is
merely a renaming and a use of the authorities already
(21:33):
granted to the United States Digital Service. This is an
office within the Office of Science and Technology Policy that
wait for this, I know you're going to be surprised, Carol.
Under Obama was considered groundbreaking and wonderful because here's what
they did, Carol, is they brought people from the technology
(21:56):
sector into the administration to audit and improve services using
their private sector expertise under a fellowship approved by executive order.
Does this sound like anything that's happening right now.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
It sounds like they're trying to steal our information, Mary Catherine.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
There were many glowing profiles about this effort, and wouldn't
you know it, they were stationed in various different departments,
so when the USDs experts came in, they would go
often do work at VA, they would go often do
work at Treasury to update our systems. This was all
good because they were liberal technologists and liberal young people
(22:39):
who were good with code. Okay, so that was fine.
But the idea that this isn't legal I think is
very much answered by the fact that the executive order
put this under an already existing office that has all
sorts of authorities that everyone was fine with before. Right.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
What they don't like is Elon Musk cutting their slush funds,
and that appears to be the biggest issue here. I've
never seen the Democrats so worked up about anything, trying
to break into the Department of Education and then staging
their USAID, which why why can't we just call it USAID?
Like can explain to me, It just naturally looks like
(23:18):
us EID. I get it USAID, But I mean.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
You know what, it's a new era, Carrol.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
You say what you want to say, We'll say what
I want to say. So they're just they're they're really
not liking that this is happening to them, And how
dare we cut off their friends and funding to all
of their different ridiculous projects.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
I want to play this video.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
This is from twoenty twenty three, and it's John Stewart
interviewing the then US Department Secretary of Defense, Kathleen Hicks,
And we're going to play the whole three minute clip
because it's just that good.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
She's the Deputy secretary, right, so she was under.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
Yeah, there is a lot of waste fraud in it
abuse within.
Speaker 6 (24:01):
Assistance audits, waste broaden abuse are not the same thing.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
So let's decompose these.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Please educate me on on sure.
Speaker 6 (24:08):
So an audit is exactly what you just described, which
is do I know what was delivered to which place?
The ability to pass an audit or in the fact
that the DD has not passed audit is not suggestive
of waste frauden abuse.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
That is completely false right there.
Speaker 6 (24:23):
So now is a question of it's suggestive that we
can't we don't have an accurate inventory that we can
pull up of what we have where that is not
the same as saying we can't do that because waste
frauden abuse has occurred.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
So in my world, yeah, that's waste.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
How is that waste?
Speaker 5 (24:45):
If I give you a billion dollars and you can't
tell me what happened to it, that to me is wasteful.
That that means you are not necessary responsible. But if
you can't tell me where it went, then what am
I supposed to think? And when they're has been reporting
I mean, this is not Look I'm not I'm not
saying this is on you and that you cause this,
(25:07):
but I think it's it's a tough argument to make
that cause it an eight hundred and fifty billion dollar
budget to an organization that can't pass an audit and
tell you where that money went. Like, I think most
people would consider that somewhere in the realm of waste,
fraud or abuse because they would wonder why that money
(25:29):
isn't well accounted for, and especially when they see food
insecurity on military basis and they see we talk about.
Speaker 6 (25:38):
That, because that's a good we should be talking. I mean,
I understand where you're trying to go. Other than the dollars, which.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
Will bother you, I think it doesn't really bother me.
I think it's all connected.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
I think when I say that story, tell me how
you're When I see a state department get a certain
amount of money and a military budget be ten times that,
and I see a struggle within government to get people
like more basic services, and then that department that got that,
I mean, we got out of twenty years of war
(26:09):
and the Pentagon got a fifty billion dollar raise, Like
that's shocking to me. Now, I may not understand exactly
the ins and outs and the incredible magic of an audit,
but I'm a human being who lives on the earth
and can't figure out how eight hundred and fifty billion
dollars to a department means that the rank and file
(26:31):
still have to be on food stamps. Like, to me,
that's fucking corruption. I'm sorry. And if that blows your mind,
and if you think like that's like a crazy agenda
for me to have, I really think that that's institutional
thinking and that it's not looking at the day to
(26:52):
day reality of the people that you call the greatest
fighting force in the world. So I just again, I
get back to this idea of like, I'm not looking
to pick a fight with you, but I am surprised
at that the reaction to these questions are you don't
know what an audit is, bucko, Like, that's just weird
to me.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
I mean, first of all, anybody who's ever watched John Stewart,
that is him being as kind as he could possibly
be to her. If Bill is a Republican that he
was speaking to, he would rip their face off. He
would absolutely demolish them. That was him trying to be like,
it's kind of not funny that you lost all this money. Yeah,
(27:33):
and Herbie like you focused on the dollar, Like, yeah,
he's focused on the dollar.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
This crystallizes a difference between normal people and people who
work in government and have for a very long time,
and people who are steeped in that, which includes the
media and Washington. People think things about how things should
and do work that are just wild. When Stuart says,
I'm just a human being on the earth, that makes
(28:03):
you very different from the people who work inside the
federal government. That's why she's laughing. She doesn't understand because
she has not been held accountable. It is her position
that she needn't be held accountable that, in fact, losing
eight hundred and fifty billion dollars or whatever the figure is,
is jump change. It's insulting to her that you would
(28:26):
ask about it. And that is how every agency feels
about itself. They do things in a way that, as
a normal person, you are absolutely not allowed to do.
And I don't just mean running a business. I mean
filing your personal taxes. When you do your little audit
report to the federal government, you're not allowed to say
(28:48):
I misplaced a couple bill.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Whoops, You're not.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Allowed to do that, but they are allowed to do it.
And I think Elon Musk tweeted out this weekend about
a couple things that I think show again, the more
people learn about how the federal government does business with
this megaphone from Elon Musk, the less popular it's going
to be. So he's putting in a couple rules at
(29:13):
Treasury if the courts don't stop him. Require that all
outgoing government payments have a payment categorization code, which is
necessary in order to pass financial audits. This is frequently
left blank, making audits almost impossible. Number two, all payments
must also include a rationale for the payment in the
comment field, which is currently left blank. Importantly, we are
(29:34):
not yet applying any judgment to this rationale, but simply
requiring that some attempt be made to explain the payment
more than nothing. And number three, there's a do not
pay list of entities for are known to be fraudulent
or non existent. They just keep paying.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Them anyway, insanity, they just.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Keep paying them. So these are the requests. And I
think normal people look at that list of requests and
they say y'all haven't been doing right right. Well.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
It's also funny because the left is pushing back on this,
being like, well, this has been going on forever.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Why do you care about it now? Like, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
I didn't know this was going on forever. I'm glad
to hear about this, and I'm glad that Elon is
on it.
Speaker 5 (30:12):
He is.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
I just this is probably my favorite thing about the
administration so far. Doge is exposing so much crazy stuff
in our government that just I love everything about it.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Well, and as Bascent notes when he was asked by
Bloomberg about it, it's not just these guys who have
been brought in by Elon as the Executive Order and
as USDs. Again, an Obama era entity is designed. People
go to each agency, but they are accompanied by career folks.
They are accompanied by the Senate appointed person, They're accompanied
(30:45):
by a lawyer. That's the requirement for each team at
each agency, and they're doing work finding out things we
need to know, such as for instance, at FEMA discovered
that FEMA spent fifty nine million dollars last week on
hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants. They
(31:07):
say that this violates an executive order. But regardless, fifty
nine million is going last week to illegal migrants in
New York to house them. But people are being kicked
out of hotels in North Carolina who are.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Citizens right and living intents in cold weather and.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
All of that. It's feel free to explain that to me. Yeah,
guys right.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
And you know, if had we challenged this something like
this like two years ago, people who just called us
racist and in the end of the conversation. And that
is why the vibe shift to tie this all together
is so important. Because the work is really important, but
the conversation around the work has changed so much that
that is what's allowing the work to get done.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
It would you say that we are doing the work.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
We are doing the work.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
We're doing, we're reading the book, We're we're sitting down
and listening.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, leading space for people like Elon to talk to
us about what's happening in the federal government.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
We are, we are. And let's end here.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Let's we have a Trump clip about what Elon is
going to do next.
Speaker 7 (32:08):
I don't know if it's kickbacks or what's going on,
but the people, look, I ran on this and the
people want me to find it. And I've had a
great help with Elon Musk, who's been terrific.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Talm On, you say you trust him.
Speaker 7 (32:22):
Trust Elon. Oh, he's not gaining anything. In fact, I
wonder how he can devote the time to it. He's
so into it. But I told him do that. Then
I'm going to tell him very soon, like maybe in
twenty four hours, to go check the Department of Education.
He's going to find the same thing. Then I'm going
to go to the military. Let's check the military. We're
going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of
(32:44):
fraud and abuse. And you know, the people elected me
on that.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
I love that Trump is saying he's giving Elon the
power to go do this, and Elon is going to
make it his mission to help all these different agencies
wasting our money.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
How can anyone be against this?
Speaker 1 (33:03):
I'm mad at it at all.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
I wish them well, yes, and I wish that they
continue to succeed and do it as fast as possible,
because Americans deserve not to have their money misspent.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
You are entering your explain yourself era.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Enjoy 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 guy, it's fun. It's normous, countrymen. We are back
on normally, the show with normal it takes for when
the news gets weird. I am Mary Catherine.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Ham Carl Marcowitz. What a weekend, Mary Catherine.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
There's a lot going on. We had stitches at our house,
stitches for the stitches for the youngest, the boy. This
is like what they do, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I mean we keep trying to buy like a twenty
pack to the emergency room, but they don't.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Sell those, so.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I want my card punch. Yeah, we had. He had
a close encounter with the banister and it didn't It
didn't end well for him, but he's kids are magic.
He's like he was jumping out a trampoline two hours later.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
So he'll get that banister next time.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yes he will. And as as a mother with good judgment,
I of course have him immediately on a trampoline after
this incident.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
We are gonna get mail.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I got to get back on that horse. You really, yes,
you do.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
So that was a Super Bowl? Has there ever been
that kind of lopsided result? I count on you for
the sports bawl.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I don't think I think that lead that the Eagles
had at one point with the shutout before it came
not a shout out, was the biggest ever in Super
Bowl history. That was a just a beating. I was
rooting for the Eagles, not because I'm an Eagles fan.
I'm a Lions fan. But the entire defense is Georgia Bulldogs.
So by the end of their four years, they've won
(01:38):
two National championships and a Super Bowl. So way to go, guys.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
All right, I'll be happy for you, even though I
hate the Eagles so many But you know, I didn't
feel any particular way because like enough of the Chiefs already,
Like that's that was sort of the problem last night,
Like I.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Despised the Eagles, but like, did I really care that
they finally unseated the Chiefs?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Not that much.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I like the idea, by the way that everybody's like, oh,
Taylor Swift is devastated. I'm neutral on Taylor Swift to positive.
I like her. I'm this isn't devastating. You went to
two Super Bowls two years in a row in first
outing as a Chiefs fan, Like you're good and you
won one of them, right, and like.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Your boyfriend's on the team, You're okay.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
You're good.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
You just had this Mego world tour.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
You know, I didn't mind Taylor getting booed, because I
think that that's just a rite of passage for everyone.
We Trump got applauded, but he could have easily gotten
boot also, because you just never know what these kinds
of things. I think booing at sporting events is a
national pastime and Taylor shouldn't take it too personally.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, don't put me on that jumpatron, I'm good, Just
let me watch.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I did think the super Bowl, which I love because
it's basically the only thing we all do together anymore.
That was one of the sad things about the kneeling
and the anthem. The whole political discussion about that was
that this thing we had formally all embraced together and
one of the few things left culturally for us to
(03:12):
do together was gone for a while, and a lot
of people pieced out on the NFL as a result.
And now it really does feel like people are kind
of back on the same page when it comes to football,
and I like that.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I like it too.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I thought a lot of that was Listen, I thought
it was by design. When AOC said there was no
going back to Brunch. I think that was, you know,
the kind of thing that she meant, like, we can't
just all go watch the Super Bowl. The world's going
to explode, and people.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Were like, no, we would like to watch, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Please leave us alone, lady.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Look that this return to normalcy, this vibe shift, is
what we talk a lot about on here, and it
was very visible this weekend.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
It was clear that.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
And you know that the ads that were still a
little woke, were they stuck out because they were weird
and they didn't fit anymore. And per siddenly really hate
the Snoop dog Tom Brady ad against Tate, against.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Just all hate, all hate. Heyere, yeah, I hate the Eagles.
You're not going to stop me.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
I'm not against it.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
But you know that that company, that group started as
a anti Semitism group, an anti anti Semitism group, and
now it's just like generic hate and it just rings
like such bs and they've spent such an insane amount
of money. Obviously, you get a Super Bowl ad, you
have Tom Brady in it, you have Snoop DOGG in it,
(04:33):
what are you accomplishing? And it just like it missed
the moment completely.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
I think my favorite ad was probably the Glenn Powell
Three Little the Three Bears retelling with the Dodge Ram trusts.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Oh no, I did see that. Yeah, that was good.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Glenn Powell, to me is sort of emblematic of the
vibe shift because he's not some winger. Nobody's asking for that.
What Glenn Powell is entertaining fun. He does not take
himself too seriously, and that's what we're looking for. Of
course he had so his origination or his buzz came
(05:09):
mostly from Maverick, which was this refreshingly non political pro
America product that everyone enjoyed because they were like, oh,
this is not what we've been doing for a while.
So I liked that. I know that there were many
Olds who were disappointed with Kendrick Lamar's Oh man, yeah,
(05:31):
I love the Olds.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah I was.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
I was neutral to positive on it.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
I didn't think it was that great a performance. I
do like Kendrick Lamar, like his music, you know not.
I can't say I'm a huge fan, but I knew
to say a minor or the rest of the crowd.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
So man Drake thought he was just going to have
a normal beef and this is not no it's not
for those who don't know. That line is a the
whole track of Drake. That line in particular is a
very savage dig on Drake. And then he had Serena
Williams come out, who is Drake's They weren't in a
(06:10):
long relationship, but they they were in some sort of
entanglement at some point. And at first I was like,
why is Serena Williams out there when they had this
very short entanglement at that Yeah, and like why does
she care about Drake at this point? And then I
looked it up and refreshed my memory. Drake talked junk
about not only her but her husband, who she ended
up marrying and having kids with. So go on, Serena
(06:33):
enjoy and she looked great.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Yeah she did so other vibe shifty news over the weekend,
and this is you know, Donald.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Trump was at the super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Apparently he was the first president ever at the super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I'm surprised.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Did that be How Barack Obama never went to the
super Bowl. That makes no sense to me.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
He was always up in every everything sporting all the time. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
So CBS poll came out this weekend right around before
Trump went to the super Bowl. It had Trump's approval
rating at fifty three percent. The number that I think
is most interesting and most obvious is seventy percent of
responders said, he's doing what he said he would.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Do during the campaign, and.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
You can hate the guy, but he's doing what he said.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
He would do now, and he, like you said, he
got to cheer there. The numbers showing up for him
among eighteen to twenty nine year olds have to be
just very scary for Democrats. This is a demographic that
they have had a lock on for a generation now
and it seems not the case anymore, and so that's
(07:44):
not good news for them. And I would argue that
the vibe shift at the Super Bowl is partly because
that group has like value to advertisers, and those advertisers
who are sort of somewhat confused about where to go.
You could tell some of the ads are like, we're
leaning into it. Other parts other ads were like, we
don't know what to do, as BLM usually gives us
(08:04):
our talking points, but now we know that that's not
what we're doing, but we don't know what to do.
So I think you see that reflected in this By
the way, did you see they played God Bless the
USA at the third quarter in the stadium.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
No, I was cooking a lot of it, all cooking, eating, cooking, eating.
I understand, especially as it was such a blowout. It was,
you know, what was I really watching? But that's interesting,
God Bless America.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
That's good to see.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
The bud Light commercial obviously was.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
They've played oh nice at the third quarter.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Oh amazing, fantastic.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
That is a vibe shift, the bud Light commercial with
the manliest ad in history, just men doing manly things
all over the backyard.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yeah, definite vibe shift.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I will say Shane Gillis's arc is indicative of amazing exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
I will say that I am getting a little concerned,
and this is my Russian pessimistic side, that the right
is being a little too excited about the Democrats position
and they're just saying things like they will never recover
from this, they will never come back from this.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
This is the end of the Democratic Party.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
And my friend Michael Malice had somebody to write that
to him on X and he wrote back, they have
half the House, forty seven Senate seats, and twenty three
governorships and control of the education system. Trump has two
great weeks, and delusional people think the war is over.
The Democratic Party is the oldest political party on earth.
The idea that it's on the verge of destruction is
a Boomer Khn fantasy. So I just want to say,
(09:42):
I feel I'm not tired of winning.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Let's keep the winning going.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
And I love the vibe right now and it does
feel like a culture shift and all of that.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The deocrats are
not done.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
You're right. You have to take your w's when you
get them, and also keep in mind that this is
not over. I had a friend years ago when Obama
flipped North Carolina blue. She was liberal, and she's like,
it's all over like this, never again would North Carolina
be read. And I was like, look, obviously I'm not
(10:15):
on your side of this, but I would just caution you. Right,
things in politics change quite quickly quickly, and certainly they
have in North Carolina, especially over the past couple cycles.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
I don't mean to pick on this guy, but Roy
Tik Sierra wrote a book called Why the White Working
Class Still Matters, and he published.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
It right before George W.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Bush has win in two thousand and the case was
the white working class matters, and they will continue.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
To vote Democrat forever and ever. And so this is
the end of the Republican Party. Can see where this went.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Well, you remember Obama's demographics is destiny, Like it was
all over for Republicans. They were a rump party from
now until forever. That's it. And it's actually you know,
it can feel jarring, but it's actually a sign of health.
We have a relatively stable system, certainly compared to places
like Italy and other places that change, you know, whole
(11:09):
systems every couple of years sometimes, and you know, you
live to fight another day.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
That's it. Yeah, So enjoy this. I enjoy it. It's
very good.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
I'm loving all of it. I think that Trump is doing,
I mean just phenomenally. I think that seventy percent really
represents what everybody's thinking. And you know that seventy percent
includes people who don't like him, right, They're saying, he
campaigned on this stuff and he is charging ahead with it.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
And I couldn't be h Well, I think I wrote
about it for OutKick, But he's always been so fortunate
in his opposition. And there's an old newt Gingrich adage
that was like, find an eighty percent issue and stand
next to it. Yes, And the left continues, I think
because they got really cocky in their cultural dominance. They
(11:56):
continue to find it did the twenty percent side and
stand on it and yell at the rest of us.
And I just think that's not going great for them,
whether it's plastic straws, thank you love that, or big
issues like men and women's sports, like these are eighty
percent issues, and they're like, we will proudly take the
(12:18):
other side, which if you're principled, I guess, but like
they're straws, dude, Like, maybe don't go to battle on
this one. It's right, Drake going to battle with Kindred.
It's going in badly bad call.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Yes, we're going to take a short break and come
right back with Normally, Politico has a story about Trump
getting his dominees through, which shouldn't be surprising to anyone,
but their opener is Donald Trump is back, and it
sure isn't twenty seventeen anymore.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
In the Senate. No, it's not.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
It's not twenty seventeen anymore.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Now, there seems there's this demand that you know, it
sort of frames it as like they're not rejecting all
of his choices. Well, that would be That would actually
be an extraordinary position. That's not the normal position. The
normal position of a party is to say, the head
of our party, who won this election right kind of
(13:16):
gets to choose. Will push back here and there, but
largely he's going to get his choices. The issue is
that the media wants Republicans to live differently than they
want Democrats to live. So they are stemy, they're upset
by this trend. It says the sweep of successful confirmations
(13:36):
is the latest sign from the Senate GOP that it
wants to be viewed as a partner, not a problem
for Trump at the start of a second chance.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Well yeah, yeah, his own party wants to be viewed
as a partner.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Why would that be. And then this scandalous quote from
Senator John Barrosso of Wyoming. My goal was to make
sure everyone of President Trump's nominees got confirmed.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Yes, yeah, yeah, unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Can you can you imagine Republican senator wanting that for
the Republican president.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Now they Politico notes, they are outpacing what they did
in twenty seventeen. That was an extraordinary occasion where Republicans
kind of didn't know what hit them, nor did Trump,
nor did the people he nominated. So this is going
more smoothly. Yeah, it's also going not nearly as quickly
because of Democrats, as Biden's confirmations got the courtesy of
(14:28):
moving the last time around. But all of this is
just they're just reporting normal things like that Vance is
doing a persuasion effort from the administration inside the Senate. Well, yeah,
he's the vice president, right. They are not resorting to
recess appointments, which is that was one of the things
(14:49):
that the press was worried about. And it's like there
is line after line about like, well, I guess this
is going pretty normally.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
I guess this is what's supposed to happen, and it's happening.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
What a surprise that the press is just I think
they forgot what a regular political process is supposed to
look like. The last four years of Joe Biden has
obviously been not normal, and the first Donald Trump administration
was a little bit outside of that as well. I mean,
he by all accounts did not expect to win.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
He was not.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Prepared for that first administration.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
It was very you know, kind of just by the
seat of their.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Pants and all of that.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
And I think the media has just simply forgotten that
this is the process, this is how it works. I mean,
this is you know, related, but not. But Brian Stelter
tweeted on X yesterday a year ago, you can go
days without seeing or thinking about Joe Biden. Now you're
lucky if you can go hours without thinking about President Trump.
He's inescapable and that's just how he likes it today.
(15:51):
The Super Bowl is also the Trump bull. First of all, No,
it's not okay, like he was there. It was not
the Trumpell. It wasn't like they kept black to him.
I would say it was more the tailor Bowl in
a lot of ways over the you know this one
and the last one than it was the Trumpell. They
did not keep showing him. They showed him for a
little bit and that was the end of that. Brian
Stelter forgot that.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
We're supposed to hear from the president to be out there.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah, he's not supposed to be hidden away in some basement,
not allowed to speak to some people and having staffers
make policy.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
That's just not how it's supposed to go.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
And this is a great reminder for the you know,
journalists class, that this is what the president is supposed
to do. He's supposed to go to events. He's supposed
to be out there. He's not supposed to be afraid
of walking or talking or just existing.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
One of the things that where he was visible at
the super Bowl was that Trump met with families of
those who were killed in the terrorism incident in New
Orleans on January first, on New Year's he met. I
believe there might have been some survivors also of the
plane crashes in both Philly and Washington who were there,
(17:02):
and he was in an attendance chatting with them. But interestingly,
the NFL tweeted a picture, Yes, oh that was with
those folks. So it's like first responders, the president and
you know, people who survived these terrible incidents. That is
what a president is supposed to do. That's what a
normal president does, and he's being treated as such by
(17:24):
a large entity like the NFL.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
And people are losing their minds about it, obviously, like
how dare they treat this president like he's president?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
That is just so unfair.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
It's they really are not appreciating that he didn't get
this kind of treatment his first term. So it's interesting
and it's nice to see him get it this time.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
He is the president. People have to accept that it's healthy.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Even if you don't like him, it's healthy. You don't
like him, healthy to treat him as the president. As
I used to always say on CNN, you can't unpresident him.
You have to impeach him and remove him, or you
have to beat him. Right, And for the entirety of
his first term, it was just this idea that they
could unprecedented him like he's just it's not right. So
(18:09):
we're just not going to go along with it, and
that's not how it works. But they are attempting to
do that again in some cases, whether it's in the
courts or whether it's in the media. As we move
forward with this second term adventure.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
You think they'd see that they failed at this, that
it did not work. Unprecedenting him did not work, And
they have tried to impeach him twice and that didn't work.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
And they've tried to beat him twice and that didn't work.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Like I you know, I've said this song here, but
if I were a Democrat. I would be nice to him,
and that's how I would try to get my issues through.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
But I think if they had the first time, he'd
be less of Ah, I know, right leaning figure by now.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
I agree again, Kim Kardashian did it and Nancy Pelosi didn't.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
So yeah, we'll be right back on normally.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Into our last subject, which is the the ongoing drama
of DOGE and the controversy surrounding what powers Elon Musk
has as a advisor slash slash special government employee. I
would note that Anita Bryant was the same kind of
employee under a Bidence administration. Yeah, see, that was fine, right,
(19:25):
Just so you guys have context and the people who
work under him what kind of authorities they have. There
have been several temporary restraining orders put in three thus far,
one from Rhode Island, one out of DC. Those have
to do with overall federal spending and freezing it. But
the one out of the Southern District of New York.
(19:47):
Here they come again, one of our favorite characters in
national politics. They come along, and a judge on late
Friday night, I think into Saturday morning, issued an emergency
temporary restraining order for anyone accessing Treasury Department records under
the sort of the impetus of or under the auspices
(20:09):
of DOGE. But included in that was all political appointees,
which brings in the Senate confirmed Secretary also Treasury, who
is not amazing. Yeah, who is one of the most sensible,
normal pics of the entire thing, like sort of like
(20:32):
a person you would think would get respect from media
and judicial entities. And yet now they're saying he can't
have access to Treasury.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, well, it's mind boggling. What are they doing.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
It's just it is a insane line of attach this
whole Elon Musk.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Is going to steal our data and do what with it?
Open like credit cards?
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Like what are they imagine Elon Musk is going to
do with it? Like take over their identity.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
He's Elon Musk. He doesn't need you.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
And it's just the idea that tons of government employees
don't have access to our data is ridiculous, because they are.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Every slope overs has your data. I do think I
looked into it a little bit and someone tweeted about
this and led me to it, and I hadn't noticed
it before, and I'm glad that he alerted me. I
can't remember what his name was. The Doze idea is
merely a renaming and a use of the authorities already
(21:33):
granted to the United States Digital Service. This is an
office within the Office of Science and Technology Policy that
wait for this, I know you're going to be surprised, Carol.
Under Obama was considered groundbreaking and wonderful because here's what
they did, Carol, is they brought people from the technology
(21:56):
sector into the administration to audit and improve services using
their private sector expertise under a fellowship approved by executive order.
Does this sound like anything that's happening right now.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
It sounds like they're trying to steal our information, Mary Catherine.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
There were many glowing profiles about this effort, and wouldn't
you know it, they were stationed in various different departments,
so when the USDs experts came in, they would go
often do work at VA, they would go often do
work at Treasury to update our systems. This was all
good because they were liberal technologists and liberal young people
(22:39):
who were good with code. Okay, so that was fine.
But the idea that this isn't legal I think is
very much answered by the fact that the executive order
put this under an already existing office that has all
sorts of authorities that everyone was fine with before. Right.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
What they don't like is Elon Musk cutting their slush funds,
and that appears to be the biggest issue here. I've
never seen the Democrats so worked up about anything, trying
to break into the Department of Education and then staging
their USAID, which why why can't we just call it USAID?
Like can explain to me, It just naturally looks like
(23:18):
us EID. I get it USAID, But I mean.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
You know what, it's a new era, Carrol.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
You say what you want to say, We'll say what
I want to say. So they're just they're they're really
not liking that this is happening to them, And how
dare we cut off their friends and funding to all
of their different ridiculous projects.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
I want to play this video.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
This is from twoenty twenty three, and it's John Stewart
interviewing the then US Department Secretary of Defense, Kathleen Hicks,
And we're going to play the whole three minute clip
because it's just that good.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
She's the Deputy secretary, right, so she was under.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
Yeah, there is a lot of waste fraud in it
abuse within.
Speaker 6 (24:01):
Assistance audits, waste broaden abuse are not the same thing.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
So let's decompose these.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Please educate me on on sure.
Speaker 6 (24:08):
So an audit is exactly what you just described, which
is do I know what was delivered to which place?
The ability to pass an audit or in the fact
that the DD has not passed audit is not suggestive
of waste frauden abuse.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
That is completely false right there.
Speaker 6 (24:23):
So now is a question of it's suggestive that we
can't we don't have an accurate inventory that we can
pull up of what we have where that is not
the same as saying we can't do that because waste
frauden abuse has occurred.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
So in my world, yeah, that's waste.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
How is that waste?
Speaker 5 (24:45):
If I give you a billion dollars and you can't
tell me what happened to it, that to me is wasteful.
That that means you are not necessary responsible. But if
you can't tell me where it went, then what am
I supposed to think? And when they're has been reporting
I mean, this is not Look I'm not I'm not
saying this is on you and that you cause this,
(25:07):
but I think it's it's a tough argument to make
that cause it an eight hundred and fifty billion dollar
budget to an organization that can't pass an audit and
tell you where that money went. Like, I think most
people would consider that somewhere in the realm of waste,
fraud or abuse because they would wonder why that money
(25:29):
isn't well accounted for, and especially when they see food
insecurity on military basis and they see we talk about.
Speaker 6 (25:38):
That, because that's a good we should be talking. I mean,
I understand where you're trying to go. Other than the dollars, which.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
Will bother you, I think it doesn't really bother me.
I think it's all connected.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
I think when I say that story, tell me how
you're When I see a state department get a certain
amount of money and a military budget be ten times that,
and I see a struggle within government to get people
like more basic services, and then that department that got that,
I mean, we got out of twenty years of war
(26:09):
and the Pentagon got a fifty billion dollar raise, Like
that's shocking to me. Now, I may not understand exactly
the ins and outs and the incredible magic of an audit,
but I'm a human being who lives on the earth
and can't figure out how eight hundred and fifty billion
dollars to a department means that the rank and file
(26:31):
still have to be on food stamps. Like, to me,
that's fucking corruption. I'm sorry. And if that blows your mind,
and if you think like that's like a crazy agenda
for me to have, I really think that that's institutional
thinking and that it's not looking at the day to
(26:52):
day reality of the people that you call the greatest
fighting force in the world. So I just again, I
get back to this idea of like, I'm not looking
to pick a fight with you, but I am surprised
at that the reaction to these questions are you don't
know what an audit is, bucko, Like, that's just weird
to me.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
I mean, first of all, anybody who's ever watched John Stewart,
that is him being as kind as he could possibly
be to her. If Bill is a Republican that he
was speaking to, he would rip their face off. He
would absolutely demolish them. That was him trying to be like,
it's kind of not funny that you lost all this money. Yeah,
(27:33):
and Herbie like you focused on the dollar, Like, yeah,
he's focused on the dollar.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
This crystallizes a difference between normal people and people who
work in government and have for a very long time,
and people who are steeped in that, which includes the
media and Washington. People think things about how things should
and do work that are just wild. When Stuart says,
I'm just a human being on the earth, that makes
(28:03):
you very different from the people who work inside the
federal government. That's why she's laughing. She doesn't understand because
she has not been held accountable. It is her position
that she needn't be held accountable that, in fact, losing
eight hundred and fifty billion dollars or whatever the figure is,
is jump change. It's insulting to her that you would
(28:26):
ask about it. And that is how every agency feels
about itself. They do things in a way that, as
a normal person, you are absolutely not allowed to do.
And I don't just mean running a business. I mean
filing your personal taxes. When you do your little audit
report to the federal government, you're not allowed to say
(28:48):
I misplaced a couple bill.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Whoops, You're not.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Allowed to do that, but they are allowed to do it.
And I think Elon Musk tweeted out this weekend about
a couple things that I think show again, the more
people learn about how the federal government does business with
this megaphone from Elon Musk, the less popular it's going
to be. So he's putting in a couple rules at
(29:13):
Treasury if the courts don't stop him. Require that all
outgoing government payments have a payment categorization code, which is
necessary in order to pass financial audits. This is frequently
left blank, making audits almost impossible. Number two, all payments
must also include a rationale for the payment in the
comment field, which is currently left blank. Importantly, we are
(29:34):
not yet applying any judgment to this rationale, but simply
requiring that some attempt be made to explain the payment
more than nothing. And number three, there's a do not
pay list of entities for are known to be fraudulent
or non existent. They just keep paying.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Them anyway, insanity, they just.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Keep paying them. So these are the requests. And I
think normal people look at that list of requests and
they say y'all haven't been doing right right. Well.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
It's also funny because the left is pushing back on this,
being like, well, this has been going on forever.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Why do you care about it now? Like, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
I didn't know this was going on forever. I'm glad
to hear about this, and I'm glad that Elon is
on it.
Speaker 5 (30:12):
He is.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
I just this is probably my favorite thing about the
administration so far. Doge is exposing so much crazy stuff
in our government that just I love everything about it.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Well, and as Bascent notes when he was asked by
Bloomberg about it, it's not just these guys who have
been brought in by Elon as the Executive Order and
as USDs. Again, an Obama era entity is designed. People
go to each agency, but they are accompanied by career folks.
They are accompanied by the Senate appointed person, They're accompanied
(30:45):
by a lawyer. That's the requirement for each team at
each agency, and they're doing work finding out things we
need to know, such as for instance, at FEMA discovered
that FEMA spent fifty nine million dollars last week on
hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants. They
(31:07):
say that this violates an executive order. But regardless, fifty
nine million is going last week to illegal migrants in
New York to house them. But people are being kicked
out of hotels in North Carolina who are.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Citizens right and living intents in cold weather and.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
All of that. It's feel free to explain that to me. Yeah,
guys right.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
And you know, if had we challenged this something like
this like two years ago, people who just called us
racist and in the end of the conversation. And that
is why the vibe shift to tie this all together
is so important. Because the work is really important, but
the conversation around the work has changed so much that
that is what's allowing the work to get done.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
It would you say that we are doing the work.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
We are doing the work.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
We're doing, we're reading the book, We're we're sitting down
and listening.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, leading space for people like Elon to talk to
us about what's happening in the federal government.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
We are, we are. And let's end here.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Let's we have a Trump clip about what Elon is
going to do next.
Speaker 7 (32:08):
I don't know if it's kickbacks or what's going on,
but the people, look, I ran on this and the
people want me to find it. And I've had a
great help with Elon Musk, who's been terrific.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Talm On, you say you trust him.
Speaker 7 (32:22):
Trust Elon. Oh, he's not gaining anything. In fact, I
wonder how he can devote the time to it. He's
so into it. But I told him do that. Then
I'm going to tell him very soon, like maybe in
twenty four hours, to go check the Department of Education.
He's going to find the same thing. Then I'm going
to go to the military. Let's check the military. We're
going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of
(32:44):
fraud and abuse. And you know, the people elected me
on that.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
I love that Trump is saying he's giving Elon the
power to go do this, and Elon is going to
make it his mission to help all these different agencies
wasting our money.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
How can anyone be against this?
Speaker 1 (33:03):
I'm mad at it at all.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
I wish them well, yes, and I wish that they
continue to succeed and do it as fast as possible,
because Americans deserve not to have their money misspent.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
You are entering your explain yourself era.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Enjoy Thanks for joining us on normally Normally airs Tuesdays
and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts.
Get in touch with us at normallythepod at gmail dot com.
Thanks for listening, and when things get weird, act normally
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Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
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