Normally Podcast: Portland, Crime, and Classrooms: What Failing Cities Teach Us About Accountability
September 30, 2025 • 32 mins
In this episode, Mary Katharine Ham and Karol Markowicz examine the nation’s troubling literacy rates, spotlighting how red states like Mississippi are seeing surprising success, while many others fall behind. They also tackle controversial school leadership hiring practices, media bias in covering education reform, and the struggles facing cities like Portland under federal intervention. 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 (00:00):
Hey guys, we're back on. Normally the show with almost takes,
but when the news gets weird.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I am Mary Captain Camp and I'm Karl Marco. Sorry,
Mary Captain.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
All Right, the news is as busy as my weekend one.
So we had one of those weekends where you do
so so so many things.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Yeah, I kind of busy.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
Price I got through it.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
It's unpleasant because you just feel like you need another weekend,
Like that wasn't a weekend?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
What was that?
Speaker 4 (00:24):
What happened there?
Speaker 5 (00:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
You know I did.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
On Friday night, I went to see Shane Gillis, and
I have to say, even though the show was super
raunchy and like definitely went too far from me in
a couple of different spots, but I will say I
think that Shane Gillis is the most bipartisan comedian working today.
And I say that, Look, obviously we were Nate Bergazzi
(00:48):
fans on this show. He does not know politics at all.
Sebastian Manoscalco, I love him. He really doesn't do politics either.
I'm talking people who do politics and make fun of
both sides equally. Gillis might be the top of the
list for me and the left will never accept him
because he codes so conservative, and he talked about how
(01:09):
he was like sort of affiliated with BLM, and he
was very outraged about the killing of George Floyd and
all of this stuff, and how he sort of moved
rightward in the last few years. But he still seems
very in the middle.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
And if the left.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Would wake up a little bit, they'd realize what they
have in a Shane Gillis type.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I mean, like normal dudes, whogite and like football and beer,
end up getting pushed to the right by the psychos
on the left, crazy right, like a storyline I've seen before.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
You've heard of.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
This, yes, And then they'd be like, we need a
Shane Gillis for the left, Like, yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
You had one, right, you had one.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Now. I do think every time I see live comedy,
I have more fun than I thought I was going.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Yeah, right, I get there right now.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I get a little nervous to watch other people speak,
which is silly because I speak all the time, but
that's part of it. It just kind of like I
get sympathetic nervousness for other people. Sure, and when they're good,
they're great. Chris Rock is also a good one for
making fun of all sorts of people. I've seen him
live before, and he ticks off everyone at some point
during the show.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Right, Yes, that's exactly what this was.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
And I would say Shane Gillis's comments about Joe Biden
or the warmest comments I've heard from anyone about Joel
Biden in many, many years.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
So Gillis just went after his fellow comedians, by the way,
for performing in Uh. Yeah, he's not afraid to jump
in the mix.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
All right, little news, Yes, yes, okay.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
So we're going to talk education because we like to
get into that, and there's a couple crazy stories.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
One, let's talk about literacy.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
We talked a little bit about the national report card
that came out a week and a half, two weeks ago,
and you know, the top lines on that are really embarrassing.
I'll just run through a couple of them real quick,
which is, twelfth grader scores dropped to their lowest level
in more than twenty years. Scores for lowest performing students
are at historic lows. In reading, the average score was
(03:12):
the lowest score in the history of the assessment. It's bad.
Thirty two percent of high school seniors scored below basic
which means that they cannot find details in a text
and helped them understand the meaning of the text. So
we're not doing great. Math is equally problematic. But I
wanted to talk about literacy because Kelsey to Ok is
(03:35):
that how.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
You say your last name.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
She's a ye, Kelsey to Oak, who writes for The Argument,
which is sort of a place that the left is
trying to have fights about the abundance renewal that they
want to go on, or what their party's going to be.
And I think Kelsey thinks critically about a lot of things.
And she has written about the Mississippi miracle and the
(03:58):
Southern Surge wherein all the Red.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
States have figured out how to teach.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Kids to read and Blue states are inexplicably not following
their lead.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
It's wild because they're not doing anything special.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
That's what's really so crazy about this.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
I wrote about this in February and it wasn't It's
not just Mississippi. I wrote about Louisiana and they have
an amazing superintendent there. His name is Kad Brumley. You'll
hear about him in other places. He credits the achievement
with quote going back to basics and this is a
quote from him. We've done symbolic things like shipping old
school flash cards with math facts to every elementary school
(04:43):
in the state. He said, that is what they came
up with. They went back to flash cards, and they
do things like they get kids help instead of just
promoting them, I mean, really obvious, basic things. And yet
the Blue states can't manage it. And you know one
thing that Kelsey writes, and she says, I like this
(05:05):
part a lot when she points out many people who
aren't too focused on education policies seem to imagine Mississippi
has simply simply stopped underperforming that they're now doing about
as well as everyone else. This is not true. They
haven't just caught up to your state. They are now
wildly out performing it. And it was true for a
while that these states were catching up, and then they
(05:27):
caught up and went way past everyone well.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
And it's also that they are serving.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Low income and minority children better than California.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
She uses California as an.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Example because she lives there and she pays taxes there,
where they spend a ton more money and are not
serving these students. So it turns out that low income
black students can learn to read, and that you shouldn't
treat them as if they cannot and that this is
some impossible task. In fact, you just use phonics, you
(05:59):
teach teachers to teach phonics, and then you apply accountability.
That's the three pronged attack that Mississippi used and that
took them from forty ninth in literacy levels to ninth
in literacy levels, and that Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama are all following.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
And look, it takes some time.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Sure, the solution is actually quite simple, Yeah, and it
is having these incredible results. And I kind of think
I wonder too if, like in these negative partisan polarization times,
that the way to get blue states to adopt these
things is just to troll them by saying Mississippi is
better than you.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
But the thing is they won't be like, let's get
flash cards and work on phonics.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
They're going to be like, we need this new.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Technology that everybody needs to pay more for. It's they
don't understand doing things that have worked in the past. Again,
they are completely focused on finding new angled solutions to this.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And that's why we lost ground over all those years,
is that a bunch of people got conned by this
other style of teaching reading, which is not science based,
which does which doesn't work, and makes children sort of
guess based on the context clues.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Makes me insane context they're reading.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
It's a terrible idea, but because it was trendy and
because it's not write coded, it went everywhere. And by
the way, a lot of people say, well, if you
hold kids back in third grade, which is what Mississippi does,
and this is what the Mississippi teachers and administrators were
concerned about. They said, if you hold them back in
third grade, if they can't read, everybody's going to get
(07:40):
held back. But it turns out that when you put
a fire under everybody's butts and tell them they're going
to have to back everyone who can read, they teach
them to read. The adults take charge and do what
they're supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, it's just it's it's so weird that there's this
stigma of being held back. You know, you ever see
those videos like what's like cool if you're rich, but
not cool if you're poor, having a refrigerator in your garage,
like all kinds of like, you know, differences like speaking
a second language. This seems like one of those things
because in elite private schools, kids get held back so
(08:19):
that they succeed and that they're at the top of
their class and they're bigger than everybody else and just
so many things. But if you get held back at
like a poor school, you're like dumb, and you're this
is the worst thing that could happen to you, and whatever.
It makes no sense.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
I think the.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Social promotion is so much worse than being held back,
and the stigma around it really does need to change,
because this doesn't work at all. Promoting kids from third
grade who can't read is a.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Terrible idea because they just lose ground forever for the rest.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Of it, Nobody moves on without them. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I want to note this part too, and I appreciate
her homing in on this. She asks why this, you know,
huge success that seems rather simple, isn't getting implemented everywhere,
isn't getting glossy magazine coverage, isn't getting documentaries, And some
educational leaders tell her this is just a politically awkward story.
(09:13):
Education policy expert Andy Rotherham told me, it's all these
red states. This is a very ideological field, people struggle
with calling balls and strikes. Karen Vates, who's a friend
of mine, who's a great follow on Twitter, Yeah, says
I think the story is going untold for the same
reason journalists ignored the successful school reopening stories in Florida
and the rest of the Sun Belt in August twenty twenty.
The appetite to tell positive stories in red states is low.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Yeah, I will say about that though.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
They also ignored European schools opening because they couldn't fit
it into their ideological model. Now, if your an ideological
model is more important than kids learning, you have a
bad ideological model.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
And I think that that's just the case.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
And again, you know, why isn't this story being told.
It is being told on the conservative side. It's being
told by the people you don't listen to and don't
read and don't follow.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Carol's written about it, I've written about it.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Yeah, but it's good to start talking about it no normally.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Yeah, it's good to see it get more coverage.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
And I think you know, what I've heard from literacy
experts is that one of the things that needs to
be done is people in blue states need to talk
to their school boards and say why are you not Mississippi,
Why aren't you making this happen?
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Because they're not.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
They're so ensconced in their bubbles that getting them to
consider Mississippi's success is not going to happen without outside.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Pressure and they deserve that pressure.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Well, should we talk about their bubble and what it causes?
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Let's do that.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yeah, we got another good one out of des Moines, Iowa.
The superintendent of des Moines Public Schools was picked up
by Ice because he had a deportation order from twenty
twenty four. He has had a weapons charge against him,
(11:02):
he has a criminal record. It turned out so that
he's probably falsified a lot of his educational achievements, and
he went on the run when Ice came after him.
So that's who they hired to be the superintendent of
des Moines Public Schools. Jackie Norris, who was an ex
(11:23):
Michelle Obama, which is a former Michelle Obama aide, is
the head of this school board and led the hiring
of this man.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
And I just want you to listen, Carol to what
she had to.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Say about how we should feel about the guy she
hired being picked up by Ice.
Speaker 6 (11:42):
On behalf of the Des Moines Public School community. I
want to provide an update from district leadership and the
board on the current situation unfolding with our superintendent, Doctor
Ian Roberts. Before we begin, it seems fitting to take
a page out of doctor Robert's book and ask the
community to engage in radical empathy as we work through
(12:05):
the situation together. Radical empathy is the recognition that we
can disagree and still empathize with each other the respect
of others humanity. This concept will be essential as we
wait to learn more.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
We do not have all the facts.
Speaker 6 (12:26):
There is much we do not know. However, what we
do know is that doctor Roberts has been an integral
part of our school community since he joined over two
years ago. During his time with our district, he has
shown up in ways big and small, and has advocated
for students and staff concept.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, a lot of words to say.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
He's on our team and we're going to defend him.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
By the way, we don't know all the facts.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Your actual job is to know the facts about the
guy you hired. And I just when it comes to
education in liberal areas where liberals make up the school boards,
the stuff they will tell you is acceptable is astounding.
And I know because I live in one of these
(13:19):
areas where the school boards will just tell you, like,
no school being closed for two years is good fine.
Having a sex offender in several high school locker rooms,
who does yea, seems fine to us. In fact, let's
lobby for more of that. I mean, it's just shocking.
(13:39):
The bar is so so so low. And teachers like
she's going to tell parents who are upset about this
empathize with.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Him, radical empathy, and with me who hired.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Him, just like google your guy, Google your guy.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Right, doesn't seem like that's a stretch, right.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
His public pronouncements about himself are all conflicting about where
he went to school, where he was born. He signed
paperwork apparently saying he was a citizen when he in
other public statements said he was born in Guyana.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
It is wild.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, yeah, this is where it leads when you protect
your side at all costs, and the left is very
very good at that, and this is what happens.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
By the way.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
He also Guy Binson pointed out to me this morning
that he had instituted a policy about hiring criminals. People
with criminal backgrounds was work he was for it because
it would diversify their staff.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Yeah, that's not racist.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
I just yeah, these people are beyond don't let them
fool you. Make sure they teach your kids how to read,
and don't take this nonsense from them.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Oh it's bad.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
We'll be right back with more on normally talking and
the New York Times just can't help itself not have
radical empathy for Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
We are back on normally where the.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
New York Times just can't seem.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
To get itself together on the death of Charlie Kirk.
They don't want to be the kind of people that
have staffers rooting on murder of ideological foes. But that's
sort of where they're edging up to. So here we are,
and it's a Tannahisi Coates who has some words about
(15:42):
Charlie being a hate monger. And I he says, I
think Charlie Kirk was a hate monger. I take no
joy in the killing of anyone, no matter what they said.
But if you ask me what the truth of his
life was, I would have to tell you it's hate. Now,
Coates excused the rape murder of Israelis and said that
if he were gosen, he might participate in that as well.
(16:06):
So don't tell me that this guy is not all
about hate. He also very famously said that he could
not relate at all to the murdered firefighters and policemen
who died on nine to eleven. They were not people
he felt sorry for.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
He is full of hate and rage.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
And yet is constantly telling us who else is hateful.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, he had a conversation with Ezra Kline, who is
one of so very few liberals who seems to understand
what the murder of Charlie Kirk requires of them, Ezra Cline,
And like one other person, who is this liberal professor
who wrote for The New York Times, so credit for
(16:47):
publishing it. Nicholas Kreele, an associate professor of business law
at Georgia College and State University who wrote a piece
about how he advised a turning Points chapter at his
college because a conservative professor wouldn't because he was afraid
he'd get lambasted or fired. And this guy with liberal
creds was like, I'll step in and do it, and
(17:09):
in the spirit of free exchange, even though I disagree
with everything they say.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
And then Ezra Klein is like, yeah, this is an
attack on all of us.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
It's important to honor what he was doing on campuses.
This made Tanasi Coats very angry, and they had a
public disagreement about it, and then they sat down for
a podcast together. And I just want to hear Tahanasi
Coats wrestle with this while talking to Klein. It's you
(17:39):
can tell how much it pains him to think that
this guy is worth saying, Oh, he shouldn't be shot.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
Here we go, having not done the research that I
eventually did for the cola. There was something off about
what I knew about this guy and the presentation of
him as and I don't want to misquote you here,
but as basically a paragon of politics and how politics
should be done. So I think I had the same
reaction that most ordinary people would have, which is absolute
(18:07):
horror at the idea that this guy was somewhere speaking
and was killed. But I always think it's like important
to differentiate how people diversus how they live. And then
after doing the research, I had to be honest with you.
That's when it got really really difficult. When I went
(18:29):
past my initial impressions and started like going through all
of the clips of the things he said, the way
he talked about people, the way he you know, described
groups in ways that honestly, even as I was writing it,
I was uncomfortable saying. And so the idea that this
guy should be in any way celebrated for how he
(18:50):
conducted politics, the fact that he just slurred across the board,
you know, all sorts of groups of people and then
ran an organizedation we're in you know, which appeared to
me just a haven a hatred. You know, I would
not want that to be a model for my politics.
(19:13):
And I know you know as we talked between us
that you know, you are not attempting to make a
statement for his the entirety of it.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Obviously obviously who was talking about the entirety of it.
I despised that line of thinking so much. No, No,
you and I have talked about this on here. But
I didn't agree with everything Mary Catherine said.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
I didn't agree with everything.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Mary Catherine said, because I'm a normal person, and I
don't agree with anything anybody says. I don't agree with
everything my husband says. I don't agree with anything. I
can't think of anyone where I would agree with everything
that makes no sense, and the fact that there's this
guy who is considered a thinker and so smart and
I just don't find him that at all. But saying
(19:59):
you know, I, I know you weren't talking about the
entirety of Charlie Kirk's commentary, like obviously as a climb wasn't.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
And if you watch Ezra Kline's face in that.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Clip, it's like he's looking at him like we are
never going to win again.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
No, well, that's partly what he's worried about, is that
if your goal, explicitly, as Tanahasekoss is, is to say
that this form of argumentation that Kirk was doing is
on its face evil and hateful because you disagreed with
his frankly very normal policy positions, then yeah, the Democratic
(20:37):
Party is going to have trouble winning people over because
you are unwilling to talk to them.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
And I want to follow that up with the.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Nicole Hannah Jones, who is another thinker alleged thinker from
the twenty twenty period, who is the author of the
sixteen nineteen Project, which has all of its own accuracy
issues issues. She comes straight out and says it in
her column for The New York Times, because New York
Times needs to publish a couple people ragging on Kirk.
(21:08):
In some parts of polite society, it now holds that
if many of Kirk's views were repugnant, his willingness to
calmly argue about them and his insistence that people hash
out their disagreements through discourse at a time of such division,
made him a free speech advocate and an exemplar of
how we should engage politically across difference. But for those
who were directly targeted by Kirk's rhetoric, I could think
(21:29):
of maybe a different phrase for that in this case.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
But she does it on purpose.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Yeah, of Quesse, she does.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
His thinking seems to place the civility of Kirk's style
of argument over the incivility of what he argued through
gossamer tributes. Kirk's cruel condemnation of transgender people and his
racist throwback views about black Americans were no longer anathema,
but instead or being treated as just another political view
to be respectfully debated, like a position on tax rates
(21:55):
or health care policy. Okay, she's incorrect about everything, incites
him saying and I don't know how it got through
all the fact checkers over at the New York Times,
but she's trying to disqualify all conservative thought. If you
express yourself in civil ways on a college campus because
(22:18):
Jones disagrees with you, she just says, you're a racist, fascist,
homophobe whatever, and we can't dignify this.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
But nobody is the racist.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Fascist homophobe here except for maybe the person saying we
can't argue right.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
And she was.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
She led so much of the silencing of the of
the cancel culture years. You know, any any criticism of
her was racist. Anything that you know she didn't like
was racist. She made us at each other's throats. And
I have just no sympathy for the New York Times
being stuck with her and you know, having her be
(22:57):
kind of their their most prominent voice, because they sort
of deserve it at this point.
Speaker 6 (23:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
And the other thing is she doesn't write, so I
guess I'm glad something finally got her to do.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
So, right.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
I know, who knows how much they pay her, But
she doesn't turn out a lot of copy, and she.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Spends her time like on you know X but now
probably a blue sky arguing that like Anne Frank had
a lot of white privilege. I mean, the true story,
this is what she does well.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
And apparently the Blue Sky folks are very angry that
Klein sat down with Dona Assikots and slightly disagreed with
him in this interview, because like how, I mean, what
is it?
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Is it Barry Weiss that calls it the moral flattening
of the earth right.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
If arguing is fascism, then yeah, we're not allowed to
do anything.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Apparently, no disagreement allowed. Obviously.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
I call it like they reverse victim and offender all
the time. Like the New York Times is convinced that
lefty thinkers are the actual victims of Charlie Kirk's murder.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Yeah, I don't think that's it.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
I don't think that's it.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Can I add one more thing that also goes with
our first topic, After like a week of being told
that we're the violent ones and that left the left
definitely doesn't valorize violence, and it's so far from the truth.
We are but lambs to the slaughter in this country.
We lefties who don't do any of this. The Chicago
(24:29):
Teachers Union honored Asada Secure in a post today. We
honor the life and legacy of a revolutionary fighter, a
fierce writer, or a revered elder of black liberation, and
a leader of freedom whose spirit continues to live in
our struggle. She's also convicted murderer of a New Jersey
state patrolman. She was involved in various armed bank robberies,
(24:50):
I believe, hostage holdings, a he she escaped to Cuba.
This was all political violence. That is good, and it's teachers,
unions and the press and entities of the left are
happy to say so, and there's.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
No real blowback for them. There's nobody on the left
saying this is a line too far. I just again,
we've talked about this, but there's no self policing on
the left. There's no kind of think pieces like oh,
this is not who we are. None of that's going
to happen because they're on the left, and that's the squad.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Well, and when Ezra attempts to very lightly say maybe
this was an attack on us, all they're like, no,
it wasn't.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
It was an attack on the right people, right, the
correct people.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, good luck with that, Ezra.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
He's trying.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
We'll be right back on normally.
Speaker 7 (25:40):
But first it was nearly two years ago the terrorists
murdered more than twelve hundred innocent Israelis and took two
hundred and fifty hostages. Today, it seems as that the
cries of the dead and dying have been drowned out
by shouts of anti Semitic hatred and the most brutal
attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust has been forgotten.
Yet is the world looks away? A light shines in
the darkness. It's a movement of love and support for
(26:01):
the people of Israel called Flags of Fellowship, and it's
organized by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. And
on October fifth, just a few weeks away, millions of
Americans will prayerfully plant an Israeli flag in honor and
solidarity with the victims of October seventh, twenty twenty three
and their grieving families. And now you can be a
part of this movement too, And I know you'll want
to to get more information about how you can join
(26:23):
the Flags of Fellowship movement, visit the Fellowship online at
IFCJ dot org.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
That's IFCJ dot org.
Speaker 7 (26:29):
This is an issue that is close to both Carols
and my hearts IFCJ dot org. That's IFCJ dot org
will return to normally.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Right after this, we are back on normally where President
Trump says he's going to authorize the National Guard to
use quote full force in Portland to get that city
under control. Now, of course, the Portland mayor says that
(26:57):
there's no problem in Portland. What are you even talking about.
Portland's doing just super duper well. And they're suing the
Trump administration. In the suit, Oregon and Portland claim that
the federal government does not have the grounds to call
in the Guard. I don't know how that could be true,
and said the city has seen quote small protests near
an immigration and customs enforcement facility in recent weeks. The
(27:22):
Democratic governor says that she spoke to the President and
said there is no insurrection or threat to public safety
that necessitates a military intervention in Portland or any other
city in our state. Despite this and all evidence of
the contrary, she says, Trump has chosen to disregard Oregonian's
safety and ability to govern ourselves. This is not necessary,
(27:42):
and it is unlawful, and it will make Oregonians less safe.
I don't think so.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
Again, we're reversing victim and offender. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Yeah, the reason that he's sending people to protect a
federal facility. The federal facility has been surrounded and under
siege by people who are not merely protesters. And I
know that the left has decided that speech is violence
and their violence speech, but violence is not speech. And
(28:14):
if you surround a federal facility and you will not
cooperate with law enforcement when you are asked to leave,
that law enforcement has the right to detain you, to
arrest you, to disperse you, and to sometimes use forced
to do that. I'm so sick of these babies acting
like they do not understand this.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Mark Hemingway is from Portland, and I always found that
he definitely has a warmth for the place. But he
tweets that, you know all the Senator Pat Murray had
tweeted Portland is a beautiful and vibrant city. It is
not a war zone. The president needs to keep the
military out of the Pacific Northwest, just another abusive.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Power blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Mark Hemingway retweets that and says I see vibrant as
part of the talking point. Downtown Portland has one of
the highest vacancy rates in the country because of the
deranged homeless everywhere. It is a ghost town. It is
decidedly not vibrant. He in another tweet, says that downtown
Portland is mostly vacant and full of stabby homeless addicts.
Portland has the second most crime of any city in America.
(29:18):
Vibrant and peaceful is objectively a lie, I believe Mark Hemingway.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Yeah, I mean I have been there in the last
eight issue, like it's been a while, but like in
the last ten years, I've been several times.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
And yes, it is hollowed out. Yes.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Many American cities decided to adopt policies that were basically
suicide for their downt town areas in twenty twenty, allowing
for rioting, allowing for vandalism, allowing for occupation of major
parts of cities, allowing for the burning of municipal buildings,
(29:56):
and that violent attacks on law enforcement. These things take
a toll on those areas. And we all remember what
Portland looked like twenty twenty and what was allowed.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
And when you allow that, those things continue to happen. Yep,
they continue to happen.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, And it doesn't have to be that way is
the reality of the situation. I think that we think
of these cities as lost forever.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Look.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
I lived in New York when it made a spectacular
turnaround that nobody thought was possible. I live in the
Miami area. Now it's Miami's booming, and they've cleaned it
up so much. My kids get shocked when they see
homeless people, and it's you know, we came from Brooklyn.
It wasn't like they had never seen homeless people before,
(30:46):
but they had gotten used to living in a place
where it wasn't normal to have people just sleeping in
the streets, and it wasn't normal to have ten cities.
And now when we go places and that does exist,
they're like, oh, why why does this happen? I think
cities need to remember that they can fix themselves, and
I don't see why they wouldn't let the Trump administration
(31:09):
try to help. Trump administration has done an excellent job
in Washington, d C. I think there's very few people
who can argue otherwise. It's gotten cleaned up in a
way that nobody expected, and crime is down. All of
that is good. There's nothing bad about it. Just because
you hate Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
I mean, I think the thing that we really have
to consider is that the liberal bubble inside these cities,
and I think our show today is some evidence of
it is simply pro the.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Crime, yeah, and not being pro crime.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Just they put the criminal and the criminal's rights and
radical empathy above radical the livelihood and quality of life
of their citizens, and that does not work for normal people.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Yeah, it's a crazy thing to do. Stop with the
radical empathy. Just regular empathy, whether.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
It's your whether it's your superintendent, or adopting literacy standards
of a state like Mississippi, or normal just having not
open drug markets in the middle of your streets.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Just be normal, Just be normal what.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Some people would like and like Trump has limited power
in various cities, but if you're going after a federal building,
he has the right to protect it.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Yeah, I think he has that authority.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Well.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
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, we're back on. Normally the show with almost takes,
but when the news gets weird.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I am Mary Captain Camp and I'm Karl Marco. Sorry,
Mary Captain.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
All Right, the news is as busy as my weekend one.
So we had one of those weekends where you do
so so so many things.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Yeah, I kind of busy.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
Price I got through it.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
It's unpleasant because you just feel like you need another weekend,
Like that wasn't a weekend?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
What was that?
Speaker 4 (00:24):
What happened there?
Speaker 5 (00:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
You know I did.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
On Friday night, I went to see Shane Gillis, and
I have to say, even though the show was super
raunchy and like definitely went too far from me in
a couple of different spots, but I will say I
think that Shane Gillis is the most bipartisan comedian working today.
And I say that, Look, obviously we were Nate Bergazzi
(00:48):
fans on this show. He does not know politics at all.
Sebastian Manoscalco, I love him. He really doesn't do politics either.
I'm talking people who do politics and make fun of
both sides equally. Gillis might be the top of the
list for me and the left will never accept him
because he codes so conservative, and he talked about how
(01:09):
he was like sort of affiliated with BLM, and he
was very outraged about the killing of George Floyd and
all of this stuff, and how he sort of moved
rightward in the last few years. But he still seems
very in the middle.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
And if the left.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Would wake up a little bit, they'd realize what they
have in a Shane Gillis type.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I mean, like normal dudes, whogite and like football and beer,
end up getting pushed to the right by the psychos
on the left, crazy right, like a storyline I've seen before.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
You've heard of.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
This, yes, And then they'd be like, we need a
Shane Gillis for the left, Like, yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
You had one, right, you had one.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Now. I do think every time I see live comedy,
I have more fun than I thought I was going.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Yeah, right, I get there right now.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I get a little nervous to watch other people speak,
which is silly because I speak all the time, but
that's part of it. It just kind of like I
get sympathetic nervousness for other people. Sure, and when they're good,
they're great. Chris Rock is also a good one for
making fun of all sorts of people. I've seen him
live before, and he ticks off everyone at some point
during the show.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Right, Yes, that's exactly what this was.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
And I would say Shane Gillis's comments about Joe Biden
or the warmest comments I've heard from anyone about Joel
Biden in many, many years.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
So Gillis just went after his fellow comedians, by the way,
for performing in Uh. Yeah, he's not afraid to jump
in the mix.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
All right, little news, Yes, yes, okay.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
So we're going to talk education because we like to
get into that, and there's a couple crazy stories.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
One, let's talk about literacy.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
We talked a little bit about the national report card
that came out a week and a half, two weeks ago,
and you know, the top lines on that are really embarrassing.
I'll just run through a couple of them real quick,
which is, twelfth grader scores dropped to their lowest level
in more than twenty years. Scores for lowest performing students
are at historic lows. In reading, the average score was
(03:12):
the lowest score in the history of the assessment. It's bad.
Thirty two percent of high school seniors scored below basic
which means that they cannot find details in a text
and helped them understand the meaning of the text. So
we're not doing great. Math is equally problematic. But I
wanted to talk about literacy because Kelsey to Ok is
(03:35):
that how.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
You say your last name.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
She's a ye, Kelsey to Oak, who writes for The Argument,
which is sort of a place that the left is
trying to have fights about the abundance renewal that they
want to go on, or what their party's going to be.
And I think Kelsey thinks critically about a lot of things.
And she has written about the Mississippi miracle and the
(03:58):
Southern Surge wherein all the Red.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
States have figured out how to teach.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Kids to read and Blue states are inexplicably not following
their lead.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
It's wild because they're not doing anything special.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
That's what's really so crazy about this.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
I wrote about this in February and it wasn't It's
not just Mississippi. I wrote about Louisiana and they have
an amazing superintendent there. His name is Kad Brumley. You'll
hear about him in other places. He credits the achievement
with quote going back to basics and this is a
quote from him. We've done symbolic things like shipping old
school flash cards with math facts to every elementary school
(04:43):
in the state. He said, that is what they came
up with. They went back to flash cards, and they
do things like they get kids help instead of just
promoting them, I mean, really obvious, basic things. And yet
the Blue states can't manage it. And you know one
thing that Kelsey writes, and she says, I like this
(05:05):
part a lot when she points out many people who
aren't too focused on education policies seem to imagine Mississippi
has simply simply stopped underperforming that they're now doing about
as well as everyone else. This is not true. They
haven't just caught up to your state. They are now
wildly out performing it. And it was true for a
while that these states were catching up, and then they
(05:27):
caught up and went way past everyone well.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
And it's also that they are serving.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Low income and minority children better than California.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
She uses California as an.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Example because she lives there and she pays taxes there,
where they spend a ton more money and are not
serving these students. So it turns out that low income
black students can learn to read, and that you shouldn't
treat them as if they cannot and that this is
some impossible task. In fact, you just use phonics, you
(05:59):
teach teachers to teach phonics, and then you apply accountability.
That's the three pronged attack that Mississippi used and that
took them from forty ninth in literacy levels to ninth
in literacy levels, and that Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama are all following.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
And look, it takes some time.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Sure, the solution is actually quite simple, Yeah, and it
is having these incredible results. And I kind of think
I wonder too if, like in these negative partisan polarization times,
that the way to get blue states to adopt these
things is just to troll them by saying Mississippi is
better than you.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
But the thing is they won't be like, let's get
flash cards and work on phonics.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
They're going to be like, we need this new.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Technology that everybody needs to pay more for. It's they
don't understand doing things that have worked in the past. Again,
they are completely focused on finding new angled solutions to this.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And that's why we lost ground over all those years,
is that a bunch of people got conned by this
other style of teaching reading, which is not science based,
which does which doesn't work, and makes children sort of
guess based on the context clues.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Makes me insane context they're reading.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
It's a terrible idea, but because it was trendy and
because it's not write coded, it went everywhere. And by
the way, a lot of people say, well, if you
hold kids back in third grade, which is what Mississippi does,
and this is what the Mississippi teachers and administrators were
concerned about. They said, if you hold them back in
third grade, if they can't read, everybody's going to get
(07:40):
held back. But it turns out that when you put
a fire under everybody's butts and tell them they're going
to have to back everyone who can read, they teach
them to read. The adults take charge and do what
they're supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, it's just it's it's so weird that there's this
stigma of being held back. You know, you ever see
those videos like what's like cool if you're rich, but
not cool if you're poor, having a refrigerator in your garage,
like all kinds of like, you know, differences like speaking
a second language. This seems like one of those things
because in elite private schools, kids get held back so
(08:19):
that they succeed and that they're at the top of
their class and they're bigger than everybody else and just
so many things. But if you get held back at
like a poor school, you're like dumb, and you're this
is the worst thing that could happen to you, and whatever.
It makes no sense.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
I think the.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Social promotion is so much worse than being held back,
and the stigma around it really does need to change,
because this doesn't work at all. Promoting kids from third
grade who can't read is a.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Terrible idea because they just lose ground forever for the rest.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Of it, Nobody moves on without them. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I want to note this part too, and I appreciate
her homing in on this. She asks why this, you know,
huge success that seems rather simple, isn't getting implemented everywhere,
isn't getting glossy magazine coverage, isn't getting documentaries, And some
educational leaders tell her this is just a politically awkward story.
(09:13):
Education policy expert Andy Rotherham told me, it's all these
red states. This is a very ideological field, people struggle
with calling balls and strikes. Karen Vates, who's a friend
of mine, who's a great follow on Twitter, Yeah, says
I think the story is going untold for the same
reason journalists ignored the successful school reopening stories in Florida
and the rest of the Sun Belt in August twenty twenty.
The appetite to tell positive stories in red states is low.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Yeah, I will say about that though.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
They also ignored European schools opening because they couldn't fit
it into their ideological model. Now, if your an ideological
model is more important than kids learning, you have a
bad ideological model.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
And I think that that's just the case.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
And again, you know, why isn't this story being told.
It is being told on the conservative side. It's being
told by the people you don't listen to and don't
read and don't follow.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Carol's written about it, I've written about it.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Yeah, but it's good to start talking about it no normally.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Yeah, it's good to see it get more coverage.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
And I think you know, what I've heard from literacy
experts is that one of the things that needs to
be done is people in blue states need to talk
to their school boards and say why are you not Mississippi,
Why aren't you making this happen?
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Because they're not.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
They're so ensconced in their bubbles that getting them to
consider Mississippi's success is not going to happen without outside.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Pressure and they deserve that pressure.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Well, should we talk about their bubble and what it causes?
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Let's do that.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yeah, we got another good one out of des Moines, Iowa.
The superintendent of des Moines Public Schools was picked up
by Ice because he had a deportation order from twenty
twenty four. He has had a weapons charge against him,
(11:02):
he has a criminal record. It turned out so that
he's probably falsified a lot of his educational achievements, and
he went on the run when Ice came after him.
So that's who they hired to be the superintendent of
des Moines Public Schools. Jackie Norris, who was an ex
(11:23):
Michelle Obama, which is a former Michelle Obama aide, is
the head of this school board and led the hiring
of this man.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
And I just want you to listen, Carol to what
she had to.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Say about how we should feel about the guy she
hired being picked up by Ice.
Speaker 6 (11:42):
On behalf of the Des Moines Public School community. I
want to provide an update from district leadership and the
board on the current situation unfolding with our superintendent, Doctor
Ian Roberts. Before we begin, it seems fitting to take
a page out of doctor Robert's book and ask the
community to engage in radical empathy as we work through
(12:05):
the situation together. Radical empathy is the recognition that we
can disagree and still empathize with each other the respect
of others humanity. This concept will be essential as we
wait to learn more.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
We do not have all the facts.
Speaker 6 (12:26):
There is much we do not know. However, what we
do know is that doctor Roberts has been an integral
part of our school community since he joined over two
years ago. During his time with our district, he has
shown up in ways big and small, and has advocated
for students and staff concept.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, a lot of words to say.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
He's on our team and we're going to defend him.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
By the way, we don't know all the facts.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Your actual job is to know the facts about the
guy you hired. And I just when it comes to
education in liberal areas where liberals make up the school boards,
the stuff they will tell you is acceptable is astounding.
And I know because I live in one of these
(13:19):
areas where the school boards will just tell you, like,
no school being closed for two years is good fine.
Having a sex offender in several high school locker rooms,
who does yea, seems fine to us. In fact, let's
lobby for more of that. I mean, it's just shocking.
(13:39):
The bar is so so so low. And teachers like
she's going to tell parents who are upset about this
empathize with.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Him, radical empathy, and with me who hired.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Him, just like google your guy, Google your guy.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Right, doesn't seem like that's a stretch, right.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
His public pronouncements about himself are all conflicting about where
he went to school, where he was born. He signed
paperwork apparently saying he was a citizen when he in
other public statements said he was born in Guyana.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
It is wild.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, yeah, this is where it leads when you protect
your side at all costs, and the left is very
very good at that, and this is what happens.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
By the way.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
He also Guy Binson pointed out to me this morning
that he had instituted a policy about hiring criminals. People
with criminal backgrounds was work he was for it because
it would diversify their staff.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Yeah, that's not racist.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
I just yeah, these people are beyond don't let them
fool you. Make sure they teach your kids how to read,
and don't take this nonsense from them.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Oh it's bad.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
We'll be right back with more on normally talking and
the New York Times just can't help itself not have
radical empathy for Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
We are back on normally where the.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
New York Times just can't seem.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
To get itself together on the death of Charlie Kirk.
They don't want to be the kind of people that
have staffers rooting on murder of ideological foes. But that's
sort of where they're edging up to. So here we are,
and it's a Tannahisi Coates who has some words about
(15:42):
Charlie being a hate monger. And I he says, I
think Charlie Kirk was a hate monger. I take no
joy in the killing of anyone, no matter what they said.
But if you ask me what the truth of his
life was, I would have to tell you it's hate. Now,
Coates excused the rape murder of Israelis and said that
if he were gosen, he might participate in that as well.
(16:06):
So don't tell me that this guy is not all
about hate. He also very famously said that he could
not relate at all to the murdered firefighters and policemen
who died on nine to eleven. They were not people
he felt sorry for.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
He is full of hate and rage.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
And yet is constantly telling us who else is hateful.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, he had a conversation with Ezra Kline, who is
one of so very few liberals who seems to understand
what the murder of Charlie Kirk requires of them, Ezra Cline,
And like one other person, who is this liberal professor
who wrote for The New York Times, so credit for
(16:47):
publishing it. Nicholas Kreele, an associate professor of business law
at Georgia College and State University who wrote a piece
about how he advised a turning Points chapter at his
college because a conservative professor wouldn't because he was afraid
he'd get lambasted or fired. And this guy with liberal
creds was like, I'll step in and do it, and
(17:09):
in the spirit of free exchange, even though I disagree
with everything they say.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
And then Ezra Klein is like, yeah, this is an
attack on all of us.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
It's important to honor what he was doing on campuses.
This made Tanasi Coats very angry, and they had a
public disagreement about it, and then they sat down for
a podcast together. And I just want to hear Tahanasi
Coats wrestle with this while talking to Klein. It's you
(17:39):
can tell how much it pains him to think that
this guy is worth saying, Oh, he shouldn't be shot.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
Here we go, having not done the research that I
eventually did for the cola. There was something off about
what I knew about this guy and the presentation of
him as and I don't want to misquote you here,
but as basically a paragon of politics and how politics
should be done. So I think I had the same
reaction that most ordinary people would have, which is absolute
(18:07):
horror at the idea that this guy was somewhere speaking
and was killed. But I always think it's like important
to differentiate how people diversus how they live. And then
after doing the research, I had to be honest with you.
That's when it got really really difficult. When I went
(18:29):
past my initial impressions and started like going through all
of the clips of the things he said, the way
he talked about people, the way he you know, described
groups in ways that honestly, even as I was writing it,
I was uncomfortable saying. And so the idea that this
guy should be in any way celebrated for how he
(18:50):
conducted politics, the fact that he just slurred across the board,
you know, all sorts of groups of people and then
ran an organizedation we're in you know, which appeared to
me just a haven a hatred. You know, I would
not want that to be a model for my politics.
(19:13):
And I know you know as we talked between us
that you know, you are not attempting to make a
statement for his the entirety of it.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Obviously obviously who was talking about the entirety of it.
I despised that line of thinking so much. No, No,
you and I have talked about this on here. But
I didn't agree with everything Mary Catherine said.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
I didn't agree with everything.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Mary Catherine said, because I'm a normal person, and I
don't agree with anything anybody says. I don't agree with
everything my husband says. I don't agree with anything. I
can't think of anyone where I would agree with everything
that makes no sense, and the fact that there's this
guy who is considered a thinker and so smart and
I just don't find him that at all. But saying
(19:59):
you know, I, I know you weren't talking about the
entirety of Charlie Kirk's commentary, like obviously as a climb wasn't.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
And if you watch Ezra Kline's face in that.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Clip, it's like he's looking at him like we are
never going to win again.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
No, well, that's partly what he's worried about, is that
if your goal, explicitly, as Tanahasekoss is, is to say
that this form of argumentation that Kirk was doing is
on its face evil and hateful because you disagreed with
his frankly very normal policy positions, then yeah, the Democratic
(20:37):
Party is going to have trouble winning people over because
you are unwilling to talk to them.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
And I want to follow that up with the.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Nicole Hannah Jones, who is another thinker alleged thinker from
the twenty twenty period, who is the author of the
sixteen nineteen Project, which has all of its own accuracy
issues issues. She comes straight out and says it in
her column for The New York Times, because New York
Times needs to publish a couple people ragging on Kirk.
(21:08):
In some parts of polite society, it now holds that
if many of Kirk's views were repugnant, his willingness to
calmly argue about them and his insistence that people hash
out their disagreements through discourse at a time of such division,
made him a free speech advocate and an exemplar of
how we should engage politically across difference. But for those
who were directly targeted by Kirk's rhetoric, I could think
(21:29):
of maybe a different phrase for that in this case.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
But she does it on purpose.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Yeah, of Quesse, she does.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
His thinking seems to place the civility of Kirk's style
of argument over the incivility of what he argued through
gossamer tributes. Kirk's cruel condemnation of transgender people and his
racist throwback views about black Americans were no longer anathema,
but instead or being treated as just another political view
to be respectfully debated, like a position on tax rates
(21:55):
or health care policy. Okay, she's incorrect about everything, incites
him saying and I don't know how it got through
all the fact checkers over at the New York Times,
but she's trying to disqualify all conservative thought. If you
express yourself in civil ways on a college campus because
(22:18):
Jones disagrees with you, she just says, you're a racist, fascist,
homophobe whatever, and we can't dignify this.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
But nobody is the racist.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Fascist homophobe here except for maybe the person saying we
can't argue right.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
And she was.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
She led so much of the silencing of the of
the cancel culture years. You know, any any criticism of
her was racist. Anything that you know she didn't like
was racist. She made us at each other's throats. And
I have just no sympathy for the New York Times
being stuck with her and you know, having her be
(22:57):
kind of their their most prominent voice, because they sort
of deserve it at this point.
Speaker 6 (23:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
And the other thing is she doesn't write, so I
guess I'm glad something finally got her to do.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
So, right.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
I know, who knows how much they pay her, But
she doesn't turn out a lot of copy, and she.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Spends her time like on you know X but now
probably a blue sky arguing that like Anne Frank had
a lot of white privilege. I mean, the true story,
this is what she does well.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
And apparently the Blue Sky folks are very angry that
Klein sat down with Dona Assikots and slightly disagreed with
him in this interview, because like how, I mean, what
is it?
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Is it Barry Weiss that calls it the moral flattening
of the earth right.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
If arguing is fascism, then yeah, we're not allowed to
do anything.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Apparently, no disagreement allowed. Obviously.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
I call it like they reverse victim and offender all
the time. Like the New York Times is convinced that
lefty thinkers are the actual victims of Charlie Kirk's murder.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Yeah, I don't think that's it.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
I don't think that's it.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Can I add one more thing that also goes with
our first topic, After like a week of being told
that we're the violent ones and that left the left
definitely doesn't valorize violence, and it's so far from the truth.
We are but lambs to the slaughter in this country.
We lefties who don't do any of this. The Chicago
(24:29):
Teachers Union honored Asada Secure in a post today. We
honor the life and legacy of a revolutionary fighter, a
fierce writer, or a revered elder of black liberation, and
a leader of freedom whose spirit continues to live in
our struggle. She's also convicted murderer of a New Jersey
state patrolman. She was involved in various armed bank robberies,
(24:50):
I believe, hostage holdings, a he she escaped to Cuba.
This was all political violence. That is good, and it's teachers,
unions and the press and entities of the left are
happy to say so, and there's.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
No real blowback for them. There's nobody on the left
saying this is a line too far. I just again,
we've talked about this, but there's no self policing on
the left. There's no kind of think pieces like oh,
this is not who we are. None of that's going
to happen because they're on the left, and that's the squad.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Well, and when Ezra attempts to very lightly say maybe
this was an attack on us, all they're like, no,
it wasn't.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
It was an attack on the right people, right, the
correct people.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, good luck with that, Ezra.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
He's trying.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
We'll be right back on normally.
Speaker 7 (25:40):
But first it was nearly two years ago the terrorists
murdered more than twelve hundred innocent Israelis and took two
hundred and fifty hostages. Today, it seems as that the
cries of the dead and dying have been drowned out
by shouts of anti Semitic hatred and the most brutal
attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust has been forgotten.
Yet is the world looks away? A light shines in
the darkness. It's a movement of love and support for
(26:01):
the people of Israel called Flags of Fellowship, and it's
organized by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. And
on October fifth, just a few weeks away, millions of
Americans will prayerfully plant an Israeli flag in honor and
solidarity with the victims of October seventh, twenty twenty three
and their grieving families. And now you can be a
part of this movement too, And I know you'll want
to to get more information about how you can join
(26:23):
the Flags of Fellowship movement, visit the Fellowship online at
IFCJ dot org.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
That's IFCJ dot org.
Speaker 7 (26:29):
This is an issue that is close to both Carols
and my hearts IFCJ dot org. That's IFCJ dot org
will return to normally.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Right after this, we are back on normally where President
Trump says he's going to authorize the National Guard to
use quote full force in Portland to get that city
under control. Now, of course, the Portland mayor says that
(26:57):
there's no problem in Portland. What are you even talking about.
Portland's doing just super duper well. And they're suing the
Trump administration. In the suit, Oregon and Portland claim that
the federal government does not have the grounds to call
in the Guard. I don't know how that could be true,
and said the city has seen quote small protests near
an immigration and customs enforcement facility in recent weeks. The
(27:22):
Democratic governor says that she spoke to the President and
said there is no insurrection or threat to public safety
that necessitates a military intervention in Portland or any other
city in our state. Despite this and all evidence of
the contrary, she says, Trump has chosen to disregard Oregonian's
safety and ability to govern ourselves. This is not necessary,
(27:42):
and it is unlawful, and it will make Oregonians less safe.
I don't think so.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
Again, we're reversing victim and offender. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Yeah, the reason that he's sending people to protect a
federal facility. The federal facility has been surrounded and under
siege by people who are not merely protesters. And I
know that the left has decided that speech is violence
and their violence speech, but violence is not speech. And
(28:14):
if you surround a federal facility and you will not
cooperate with law enforcement when you are asked to leave,
that law enforcement has the right to detain you, to
arrest you, to disperse you, and to sometimes use forced
to do that. I'm so sick of these babies acting
like they do not understand this.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Mark Hemingway is from Portland, and I always found that
he definitely has a warmth for the place. But he
tweets that, you know all the Senator Pat Murray had
tweeted Portland is a beautiful and vibrant city. It is
not a war zone. The president needs to keep the
military out of the Pacific Northwest, just another abusive.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Power blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Mark Hemingway retweets that and says I see vibrant as
part of the talking point. Downtown Portland has one of
the highest vacancy rates in the country because of the
deranged homeless everywhere. It is a ghost town. It is
decidedly not vibrant. He in another tweet, says that downtown
Portland is mostly vacant and full of stabby homeless addicts.
Portland has the second most crime of any city in America.
(29:18):
Vibrant and peaceful is objectively a lie, I believe Mark Hemingway.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Yeah, I mean I have been there in the last
eight issue, like it's been a while, but like in
the last ten years, I've been several times.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
And yes, it is hollowed out. Yes.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Many American cities decided to adopt policies that were basically
suicide for their downt town areas in twenty twenty, allowing
for rioting, allowing for vandalism, allowing for occupation of major
parts of cities, allowing for the burning of municipal buildings,
(29:56):
and that violent attacks on law enforcement. These things take
a toll on those areas. And we all remember what
Portland looked like twenty twenty and what was allowed.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
And when you allow that, those things continue to happen. Yep,
they continue to happen.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, And it doesn't have to be that way is
the reality of the situation. I think that we think
of these cities as lost forever.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Look.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
I lived in New York when it made a spectacular
turnaround that nobody thought was possible. I live in the
Miami area. Now it's Miami's booming, and they've cleaned it
up so much. My kids get shocked when they see
homeless people, and it's you know, we came from Brooklyn.
It wasn't like they had never seen homeless people before,
(30:46):
but they had gotten used to living in a place
where it wasn't normal to have people just sleeping in
the streets, and it wasn't normal to have ten cities.
And now when we go places and that does exist,
they're like, oh, why why does this happen? I think
cities need to remember that they can fix themselves, and
I don't see why they wouldn't let the Trump administration
(31:09):
try to help. Trump administration has done an excellent job
in Washington, d C. I think there's very few people
who can argue otherwise. It's gotten cleaned up in a
way that nobody expected, and crime is down. All of
that is good. There's nothing bad about it. Just because
you hate Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
I mean, I think the thing that we really have
to consider is that the liberal bubble inside these cities,
and I think our show today is some evidence of
it is simply pro the.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Crime, yeah, and not being pro crime.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Just they put the criminal and the criminal's rights and
radical empathy above radical the livelihood and quality of life
of their citizens, and that does not work for normal people.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Yeah, it's a crazy thing to do. Stop with the
radical empathy. Just regular empathy, whether.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
It's your whether it's your superintendent, or adopting literacy standards
of a state like Mississippi, or normal just having not
open drug markets in the middle of your streets.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Just be normal, Just be normal what.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Some people would like and like Trump has limited power
in various cities, but if you're going after a federal building,
he has the right to protect it.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Yeah, I think he has that authority.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Well.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
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
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show News
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Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
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