Normally Podcast: Christmas Controversies, National Guard Tragedy, Afghan Immigration & the Lane Kiffin Drama

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: Normally Podcast: Christmas Controversies, National Guard Tragedy, Afghan Immigration & the Lane Kiffin Drama
Date: December 2, 2025
Hosts: Mary Katherine Ham, Carol Markowitz

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Episode Overview

This episode of "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show" (guest-hosted by Mary Katherine Ham and Carol Markowitz) deftly blends sharp political commentary with lively, personal conversation. The main themes revolve around recent news controversies: the holiday season’s cultural debates, the tragic shooting of two National Guard members in D.C., scrutiny of Afghan immigrant vetting after the shooting, massive welfare fraud uncovered in Minnesota, and the soap opera-worthy drama of college football coaching moves (specifically Lane Kiffin). The hosts offer a mix of humor, skepticism, and strong opinions on these current events.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Christmas Season, Elf on the Shelf, and Saying "No" to Kids

• Christmas Enthusiasm: Carol is brimming with excitement for the holiday spirit, while Mary Katherine shares a more reserved approach, waiting until after Thanksgiving to fully embrace Christmas decor and music.
• Elf on the Shelf Controversy: Both hosts critique the Elf on the Shelf tradition, discussing the artificial pressure it puts on parents and the "big brother" aspect of the elf "reporting" to Santa.
  • Quote: “Saying no to children is okay. A lot of parents need to internalize that.” (Carol Markowitz, [04:07])
• Takeaway: The hosts celebrate bringing holiday magic in their own way and relieving parents from unnecessary holiday stress.

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2. National Guard Tragedy in Washington D.C.

• Incident Recap: The shooting resulted in the death of specialist Sarah Beckstrom and left Sgt. Andrew Wolf critically injured. The attacker was a former Afghan military aide, supposedly vetted and radicalized after arrival in the U.S.
• Political & Media Reactions: The story’s coverage and subsequent finger-pointing, particularly from Democratic lawmakers questioning why the National Guard was deployed in D.C., are scrutinized.
  • Quote: “It is weird to say there’s nothing to do but pick up trash in a city where people were just executed... perhaps we do have some things (to fix).” (Mary Katherine Ham, [06:59])
• Support for the National Guard: Carol’s personal testimony about feeling safer seeing Guardsmen on D.C. streets.
• Host Critique: Strong disapproval for downplaying the security role and dignity of National Guard members.

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3. Afghan Immigration and Vetting Debates

• Vetting Flaws: The hosts argue that the Biden administration rushed Afghan evacuees through insufficient vetting, leading to unsafe situations.
• Policy Reflection: Trump’s calls for a “reevaluation” are discussed, with both hosts agreeing some reassessment of the process is necessary.
  • Quote: “Let’s shut it down till we figure this out.” (Mary Katherine Ham referencing Trump, [09:05])
• Personal Stories: Mary Katherine shares about Afghan families who have integrated positively, but reiterates the overall systemic failures.
• Macro View: Carol highlights the broader impact of uncontrolled immigration under Biden on U.S. attitudes toward immigration and border security.

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4. Washington Post’s Seal Team 6 "Kill Them All" Reporting

• Controversy: The Washington Post and CNN’s anonymously sourced reporting alleges Pete Hegseth ordered SEAL Team 6 to kill defenseless narco-terrorists. The reliability of these sources is criticized.
  • Quote: “Anonymous sources say is never, never a great start for CNN.” (Carol Markowitz, [11:50])
• Host Positions: Skepticism about legitimacy and legality of reported actions; concern about the meme-ification (e.g., Hegseth’s "Franklin the Turtle" meme) of such grave matters.
  • Quote: “We should act like adults about this... you should make clear that this is why you think the things you’re doing are legal and here’s why they’re important for the American people.” (Mary Katherine Ham, [14:12])
• Pardons Discussion: The hosts highlight the precedent of Biden's blanket pardons and suggest that future administrations will likely continue the trend, for better or worse.

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5. Minnesota Welfare Fraud Scandal

• Scandal Scale: Minnesota faces possibly the largest welfare fraud in U.S. history, with $100+ million stolen from child hunger and autism therapy programs, much of it traced to the Somali American community.
• Media Critique: The New York Times’ late arrival to the story is mocked; investigative credit is given to right-wing journalists and Chris Rufo in particular.
  • Quote: “Chris Rufo deserves a lot of credit here... he basically bullied The New York Times into getting into this.” (Carol Markowitz, [22:05])
• Political Implications: The reluctance to act on early red flags due to fears of being labeled racist is seen as a key enabler of the fraud.
  • Quote: “When the fear of racism overrides the need to take care of taxpayers money to this degree, you are in a very bad place.” (Mary Katherine Ham, [24:03])
• Government Accountability: State employees publicly call out Governor Tim Walz’s role in the oversight failures.

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6. College Football Coaching Drama: Lane Kiffin

• Overview: Lane Kiffin’s career is recapped, highlighting his reputation for abruptly leaving programs and the drama surrounding his potential moves between SEC schools.
• Recent Events: Kiffin was the center of speculation about leaving Ole Miss, stirred further by a podcaster who referenced the “can’t make a hoe into a housewife” lyric. Kiffin confronts the podcaster at a game.
  • Quote: "You can’t make a hoe into a housewife, referring to the fact that Lane Kiffin likes to jump around..." (Mary Katherine Ham, [35:41])
• Host Commentary: Mary Katherine draws an analogy between Kiffin’s unpredictability and Trump, noting both the charisma and chaos both men can bring to institutions.
  • Quote: “He is raw talent and he’s clearly magnetic and he makes these programs work for short periods of time and he is posting through it like, you can’t control that man.” (Mary Katherine Ham, [38:52])
• Memorable Moment: Kiffin’s belongings were reportedly set on the curb by Ole Miss fans after his official departure.
  • Quote: "They put his clothes on the street outside his house. That’s what happened. Hoes." (Mary Katherine Ham, [37:56])

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Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• “Saying no to children is okay. A lot of parents need to internalize that.” – Carol Markowitz [04:07]
• “It is weird to say there’s nothing to do but pick up trash in a city where people were just executed... perhaps we do have some things (to fix).” – Mary Katherine Ham [06:59]
• “Let’s shut it down till we figure this out.” – Mary Katherine Ham referencing Trump [09:05]
• “Anonymous sources say is never, never a great start for CNN.” – Carol Markowitz [11:50]
• “Chris Rufo deserves a lot of credit here...he basically bullied The New York Times into getting into this.” – Carol Markowitz [22:05]
• “When the fear of racism overrides the need to take care of taxpayers money to this degree, you are in a very bad place.” – Mary Katherine Ham [24:03]
• “You can’t make a hoe into a housewife...” – Mary Katherine Ham, quoting a podcaster on Lane Kiffin [35:41]
• “He is raw talent and he’s clearly magnetic and he makes these programs work for short periods of time and he is posting through it... you can’t control that man.” – Mary Katherine Ham [38:52]

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [02:21] – Christmas, Elf on the Shelf, and holiday stress
• [04:27] – National Guard shooting in DC and political/media reactions
• [07:57] – Afghan vetting flaws and immigration policy
• [11:07] – Seal Team 6 and “kill them all” reporting criticism
• [20:08] – Minnesota welfare fraud exposed
• [32:05] – Personal/family football talk and college football drama
• [34:00] – Lane Kiffin’s SEC turmoil and Real Housewives analogy

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Tone and Style

The episode is conversational, frequently humorous, and peppered with cultural references, but always returns to substantive policy points and fierce defenses or critiques of political figures/institutions. The hosts’ banter keeps even dense topics lively and accessible, making for a fun—yet well-argued—listen.

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For Listeners Who Missed It

You’ll catch up on the season’s cheerful controversies, grieve with the hosts over tragedy and systemic failures, and wrap up with the kind of wild sports drama that even non-fans will appreciate. From sharp media critique to keen insights on governance and culture, the episode weaves together personal anecdotes and major news in a way that’s both insightful and entertaining.

Transcript

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[Mary Katherine Ham]

Hey guys, we are back on.

[Jenna Kim Jones]

Normally the show is normal.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

It takes for when the news gets weird post Thanksgiving officially Christmas season. I'm Mary Catherine Hale.

[Carol Markowitz]

I am Carol Markowitz and I love Christmas. So I'm very excited about this. Although again, I think we talked about it on a previous episode where the lights are all up all over South Florida since like, I don't know, Halloween. And the Christmas music at TJ Maxx is playing nonstop. I mean, for the last month. So I'm very happy about all of that. The Christmas. I don't know people who hate Christmas. I can't even imagine who that might be. Might not be. But I can't get enough.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Yeah, it's a good time of year.

[Carol Markowitz]

It is.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

And I usually start around Thanksgiving week. I try not to do like beginning of November, like let Thanksgiving have its moment. But we have officially moved on here and we have a tree.

[Carol Markowitz]

I love it.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

About to be decorated this week.

[Carol Markowitz]

I also saw that you did a post over the weekend about saying no to Elf on the Shelf. I really enjoyed that even though it doesn't apply to me very, very much. They tried to bring it to Jews. It was like I don't even know. Rabbi on the whatever. I don't know. Or like Shlomo on the I don't know. But yeah, I didn't take and no way doing that.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Yeah, it's like, and it's the thing is it's not even. I don't particularly like Elf on the Shelf and some people have issues with the big Brotherism of it all because he's there. Like watching your kids to make sure they behave and reporting back to an authority figure in Santa. However, I just think it's one of those things like I want an extra daily duty of making sure before my kids are up to. By the way, content warning on this if you have kids listening. Yeah, but do I want that on my plate? Giving. I'm doing plenty of Christmas cheer without that, so feel free to leave something. Yeah.

[Carol Markowitz]

You're bringing the magic in other ways. I am fully with you. I, I, you know, it's cute. I like when friends post, you know, clever things that they do with their elf on a shelf. But yeah, I wouldn't do it either. Yeah, I appreciated that. I just, I liked your overall point. Saying no to children is okay. I, A lot of parents need to internalize that.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Yes. Far more, far more than are doing it now, I think.

[Carol Markowitz]

So it was a big news week actually while we were away. The very sad story from the last few days is that two National Guard members were shot in Washington D.C. ramanula Lakhanawal shot specialist Sarah Begstrom and allegedly picked up Beckstrom's weapon and continued shooting at 24 year old Guard Sergeant Andrew Wolf Beckstrom has died from her injuries. Andrew Wolf remains in critical condition. It's a horrible story, made even more horrible by the fact that it looks like Leconwell was radicalized in America, that he arrived in the U.S. potentially not radicalized, and picked up the radicalization in his home of Bellingham, Washington.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Yeah, it sounds like he was a pretty highly vetted, actually person who worked with the military in Afghanistan, worked in concert with the CIA, was a person who would have been sort of passed through during the slapdash withdrawal process because he had a badge that indicated he had been through some of these processes. And first of all, prayers for both of those families. I think Wolf. There continue to be reports that Andy Wolf is doing fairly well and that is looking promising, but he is obviously still in the hospital. There was also another Guard member who apparently armed with a pocket knife, took down the shooter. So thank you to him. And then it's also made more tragic by reactions to this, which include up into, up into and including Democratic lawmakers saying the real problem is that the Guard was on the streets of D.C. and they shouldn't have been there. Implying that this provocation of merely having uniformed, honorable young men and women on the streets of D.C. making things safer is somehow justification for an execution style ambush of them.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right. Also as if he wasn't going to shoot somebody else. Like, as if he would only have accepted a National Guard target.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

It's.

[Carol Markowitz]

That's ridiculous. Yeah, there's a lot of that in the last few days. It's just unfortunate that this kind of thing is where their minds go instead of saying, hey, violence is wrong. It's like, well, you know, maybe Trump had something to do with it.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Because it's also weird to say they're like they were here unnecessarily. All they're doing is picking up trash. That's not true. The presence has made things safer in the city, whether you think they should be there or not. But it is weird to say there's nothing to do but pick up trash in a city where people were just executed, attempted executed in one case and actually successfully in another in broad daylight. Like perhaps we do have some things.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yes, one or two things, crime wise, can be fixed in your. In Washington, D.C. i was in D.C. i saw you right before Halloween and I saw a lot of National Guardsmen on, on the street. I loved seeing them. It did make me feel more safe and secure and I really appreciate them.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Yeah. And in my experience, just like unfailingly kind and polite to people like doing their thing without being obtrusive at all.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right. Yeah. They deserve far more respect than they're getting from the left side of the aisle. And that's really unfortunate. The other big story of the last.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Few days, can we, can we ask real quick, can we have a quick discussion of what this means for vetting of Afghan immigrants?

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

What that looks like. Trump, of course, is saying, like, I'm going to reevaluate a bunch of this stuff. And I think a lot of people are probably pretty comfortable with that move. I do wonder how it works and how it looks. It cannot be denied that Biden skipped a bunch of steps trying to get a bunch of people out of Afghanistan out of a problem he created.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right, right.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

And we do need to reckon with that. It is not the case that a bunch of Afghan nationals have been involved in terroristic plots. But this is one. And another one was broken up this week in Texas and Afghan national arrested over an alleged bomb threat, according to dhs. So if we choose a lot, that's certainly an escalation in what we have been seeing. And if they're being radicalized once they got here, that's. Let's try to figure this out. As, as Trump once famously said, let's shut it down till we figure this out.

[Carol Markowitz]

So we can figure out what's going on.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Yep.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, that's absolutely right. Also, I've seen people blaming Trump for the Afghan nationals being in the US And I'm sure that, that he's read the takes on that as well. So he's like, okay, you want to do this? Let's, let's really shut things down.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

And I shout out, also, I know personally Afghan families who made it out partly thanks to the work of friends of mine who were former military who got in touch with the right people and smuggled them into the right place because there was no plan under Biden. And those folks have integrated in sort of amazing and beautiful ways into usc and they have Thanksgiving dinners with my friends like this is. There are two different stories, but the verification process was not real.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

And not what they would have been subjected to in many other scenarios.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right. All around. The border story and just the immigration story of the Biden years is so bad and continuing to just have an effect on us all. I think that it's very hard for us to get some sort of reset where Americans are going to, you know, be pro immigration again, which we were for the majority of time in this country. And I think that it's really changed in the last few years because of how bad things got and how open our border was and how many people came in unvetted and how we were not supposed to ask about any of that. And I, you know, I don't see that changing anytime soon. The other story from the last few days, if we're doing straight news, the Washington Post ran an anonymously sourced piece where Pete Hegseth had ordered Seal Team 6 to execute a strike against narco terrorists in the Caribbean. And he said to, quote, kill them all. And an anonymous source told the Washington Post that one of the commanders ordered a second strike on a boat when the first one failed to kill them all.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

So these would have been, if it happened, these would have been defenseless people clinging to the wreckage of this thing as sort of a double tap strike. Look, I'm a little skeptical of the legality of these strikes, period. Like, you sort of newly name somebody a terrorist threat and then you can do what you want. I'm willing to listen. I would like the justification to be made perhaps more thoroughly. And then this comes up and I go, okay, well, what's really going on here? And what was Hexeth's response when asked about this? Because my first thought is, well, who's reporting on this? It's all anonymous. You got Natasha Bertrand over at CNN piling on and saying, oh, yes, this is real. And it's like, okay, well, you were like queen of Russiagate. So I'm just not sure how much I can.

[Carol Markowitz]

Anonymous sources say is never, never a great start for cnn.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Yeah, that concerns me. But Hegseth's response was a sort of a non denial denial.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, yeah, I would have loved to see kind of more. And he did, you know, he called it fake news. He said they're delivering more f. Inflammatory and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland. It was a long post on X. The reaction from the left is to say, you're a war criminal and we're going to prosecute you. Harry Sisson, who is, you know, the, the 23 year old Democrat who all Democrats are, for some reason listening to, tweeted. So to be clear, you aren't denying the reporting and are confirming you killed two defenseless people. I mean, obviously he did not confirm that. We don't know if they were guilty or not. Who didn't pose an immediate threat. Instead of prosecuting them, we'll see what a jury thinks during your trial in 2029. Which, Harry, bless your heart, if you don't know what's going to happen in 2029. Everybody in the Trump administration is going to be pardoned because they learned a valuable lesson from the Biden administration. You could just give blanket pardons and it doesn't matter if they did anything. You don't even need to specify any particular crimes and you don't even need to specify a year. You could just say last 10 years. Why not, you know, play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Don't count on that. Show trial.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

This is an interesting wrinkle in this where people are like, you see what Trump's abuse of the pardon system has gotten us? And I'm like, wait, wait, wait, hold on. Trump could have done what Biden did in his first term. Did not.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Biden did it. And now we have ratcheting to equal Biden potentially, by the way. Potentially.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

So I think we will. Yeah, I think we have to like, pinpoint the origin of the blanket pardon innovation from Biden. The Hegseth's response that I do not like at all is when he tweeted Franklin the turtle in an AI produced children's book cover for your Christmas list. Franklin targets narco terrorists and it has sweet Franklin the turtle hitting with a rocket propelled grenade launcher. Some narco terrorist. We should act like adults about this. I don't like that either. Yeah, I know that meme life is where we are.

[Carol Markowitz]

I know it really comes.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

We shouldn't be there and the federal government shouldn't be there and you should deal seriously with this and you should make clear that this is why you think the things you're doing are legal and here's why they're important for the American people.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, he, he did a little bit of both, but, yeah, I'm with you 100%. I think it's not the time for the memeing. Although we in a me, we are in a meme economy.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

I don't know, what did Franklin do? I haven't seen Franklin a badass in many, many years.

[Carol Markowitz]

I, I like it. It definitely triggered some nostalgia for me that Franklin, Franklin taking out the narco terrorists.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Yeah.

[Carol Markowitz]

I don't know about the legality of it. I, I actually, I think I veer away from you because I think I don't, I don't see how it's not legal for the US to take out what it would deem imminent threats. Obviously, the second strike would be questionable because we can't just. You can't be going around shooting survivors. And I think that that's, that's that's the question here. Um, like you, I don't anonymous sources talking to Natasha Bertrand. Not, not really who I'm going to believe here. We'll see how this story plays out and we'll follow up on it here. We'll be right back with more on normally and a story out of Minnesota that may end up being the largest welfare fraud oper American history. Be right back.

[Jenna Kim Jones]

Hey, audiobook lovers. This week on the podcast I'm sitting down with musician, producer and walking encyclopedia Questlove. We're talking about Mark Ronson's memoir, Night how to be a DJ in 90s New York City. All right, like we talked about before, Mark Ronson found sanctuary in the DJ booth. What's a tool or piece of equipment in the studio or on stage that gives you the most control? So I have two microphones on stage. We have the microphone that you hear as the audience. Then we have a second microphone in which we communicate with each other. I feel like that second microphone kind of saved all of our friendships. No band likes each other after 20 years or 25 years. The Beatles broke up in seven and a half years and we're going on 30. Listen to earsay the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club on the iHeartradio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Carol Markowitz]

Breaking News Everybody not everything is terrible. I repeat, not everything is terrible. The Ripple Effect with Janakim Jones is proof that the Internet it hasn't ruined humanity entirely.

[Jenna Kim Jones]

Clean the world. We have almost 10,000 hotels that operate our soap and plastic recycling program and we have created and distributed 90 million free bars of soap to children, families, mothers in 127 countries across the globe.

[Carol Markowitz]

It's like magic you guys. So put down your doom scroller and.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Pick up your faith in humanity and.

[Carol Markowitz]

Join me, Jenna for the Ripple Effect. It's a reminder that you can start a ripple that changes everything. You really can.

[Jenna Kim Jones]

Best stat of all is that the death rate to children under the age of five dying to hygiene related illnesses has decreased by more than 60% since the day we started.

[Carol Markowitz]

Listen to the Ripple Effect with Jenna Kim Jones on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Mary Katherine Ham]

Okey doke. Now on Normally we travel to Tim Waltz's Minnesota and we have a story out of the New York Times which look, if you were listening to normally or reading right leaning journalists, you would know about this story and you would have known about this story while Tim Walsh was running on the ticket with Kamala Harris. Nonetheless, the New York Times is now it can be tolding about this how fraud swamped Minnesota's social services system on Tim Walsh's watch. Fascinating. That would have been interesting a couple of months ago. This is the beginning of the story. The fraud scandal that rattled Minnesota was staggering in its scale and brazenness. Federal prosecutors charged dozens of people with felonies, accusing them of stealing hundreds of millions from a government program meant to keep children fed during the COVID 19 pandemic. At first, many in the state saw the case as a one off abuse during a health emergency. But as new schemes targeting the state's generous safety net programs came to light. So the deal is that they went searching through this program that we had known about as the biggest Covid fraud because Jim Garrity and others had reported on this during the election. The New York Times didn't find it interesting at that point. But now 59 people have been prosecuted by the feds because once they looked into one program, they found that all sorts of programs were being exploited. In one case, providers were reimbursed for assistance they claimed to have provided to people at risk of homelessness. They didn't help anyone, just like they didn't feed any children. In another program aimed to provide therapy for autistic children, prosecutors said providers recruited children in Minneapolis's Somali community, falsely certifying them as qualifying for autism treatment and paying their parents kickbacks for their cooperation. So it's like every generous safety net, oh yeah, it's referred to in here as a Swedish style version of doing this in Minnesota, was exploited at every turn and it was largely minus, I think seven or eight of the people prosecuted within the Somali American community.

[Carol Markowitz]

That's right. I, I think Chris Ruffo deserves a lot of credit here for breaking this story open. He has been just all over it and I think he basically bullied the New York Times into getting into this. So props to Chris Ruffo. It's crazy because when the story first started hitting was like people on the left were saying it's racist or it's, you know, somehow anti immigrant to point out these scams. I mean, let me tell you, in the Russian community in Brooklyn, there were definitely, I mean, I know for sure, scams, various different scams going on and every time some story hit the press, we'd all be like, please don't be from the Russian community. Right. Like it is embarrassing and it should be something that people would want to root out and not care who is involved or how or any of that.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Well, and here's the thing, is that when people start reacting to a story like this, it's a tell if the reaction is only. You can't say all of us did this. And it's like, okay, fine, nobody's saying all you do.

[Carol Markowitz]

Who said that?

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Yeah, like the, like. Are you not concerned that this record breaking fraud happened in your community? And this is where you get to some of the woke trap here, which is, is that a lot of the reason that this wasn't caught sooner, that people ignored red flags is because they were afraid of being accused of racism. There's a, there's a quote in here, it says, there's a perception that forcefully tackling this issue might cause political backlash among the Somali community, which is a core voting block for Democrats. They also, by the way, once this, this food program one went to trial, the defendants tried to bribe a juror with 100k in a bag. And the note attached to the bag.

[Carol Markowitz]

Said, is that wrong?

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Said like, don't be racist, here's a.

[Carol Markowitz]

Hundred K. Oh my God. Yeah, they're really trying that.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

When the fear of racism overrides the need to take care of taxpayers money to this degree, you are in a very bad place. Walls, of course. By the way, did you see he tweeted this week and he's like, there will be no pardons for this. And it's like you were on watch this whole time.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right? Right. Well, the Minnesota Department of Human Service employees put out a banger of a tweet and said, tim Walls is 100% responsible for massive fraud in Minnesota. It's several hundred words long, so you have to read it for yourself, but they end up saying, we can't fight fraud in Minnesota alone. Hence why we're appealing to the federal level of government for their help. We need all the help we can get. As Tim Walls. Agency leaders have upped their brazen approach in covering up their knowledge of fraud. It's wild that they're openly saying, they said Tim Walls is dishonest, lacks ethics and integrity, has poor leadership skills, and has never taken accountability for his role in fraud. And they say that they had whistleblowers that were retaliated against. And it's just, it goes on and on.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Yeah. Lisa DeMuth is the Republican and current Minnesota House speaker. Running against Walsh for his third term is what he's running for because he's overseen this success. So let's sally forward. And she of course is noticing this fraud, which is racism in and of itself. Yeah, she's trying to make this point to the, the people of Minnesota. And it just at some point, like, how much are you okay with being bilked? How much are you okay with the. The government going, well, we're trying to help people. And this is the cost of doing business. Really. The cost of doing business is billions and billions of dollars. One of the programs here, because so many people were fabricated to help, quote, unquote, who were not helped, the budget went from like 2 million to 104 million in the space of a year. So it's just like funneling cash. And one of Rufo's points is that there is some question about how much of these remittances go back to Somalia to fund some really bad stuff there.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, that's the, you know, question, too, is where does this money go? And who do we. Who are we helping here? It's bonkers that something of this level went on for so long. And look, you know, conservatives are against government funding of lots of things. We're against growing the size of government. A lot of it is just this kind of thing that it leads to unprecedented fraud. And the more money in the system, the more waste and fraud that's possible. So here we are.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

And you also become a magnet for people who are willing to exploit the system because they see this is like such a great gig over here. I don't have to feed any children or help any autistic children or house the homeless at all. I can just go to Minnesota and say, give me millions of dollars and they'll just do it. Seems like a problem.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah. All right.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Well, thanks for noticing. New York Times. That's pretty.

[Carol Markowitz]

This story. I know. New York Times finally did the right thing and they are getting criticism, by the way, for this. So New York Times only allowed to report what the very leftist base wants them to report. Of course. So. All right, we'll continue following this story also, and we will be right back with a fun little topic.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Football. Let's talk about football.

[Carol Markowitz]

What a good week for football. Be right back.

[Jenna Kim Jones]

Hey, audiobook lovers. This week on the podcast, I'm sitting down with musician, producer, and walking encyclopedia Questlove. We're talking about Mark Ronson's memoir, Night how to be a DJ in 90s New York City. All right, like we talked about before, Mark Ronson found sanctuary in the church DJ booth. What's a tool or piece of equipment in the studio or on stage that gives you the most control? So I have two microphones on stage. We have the microphone that you hear as the audience. Then we have a second microphone in which we communicate with each other. I feel like that second microphone kind of saved all of our friendships. No band likes each other after 20 years or 25 years. The Beatles broke up in seven and a half years and we're going on 35. Listen to HearSay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Carol Markowitz]

Breaking news everybody. Not everything is terrible. I repeat, not everything is terrible. The ripple effect with Jenna Kim Jones is proof that the Internet, it hasn't ruined humanity entirely.

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[Mary Katherine Ham]

Great day to be a gray shirt team Rubicon. You know, it truly is a team.

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Those folks, myself included, all had one desire, which is helping folks in disaster. Trying to be a little bit of.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Hope in a really, really bad situation.

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It's like magic you guys. So put down your doom scroller and.

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Pick up your faith in humanity and.

[Carol Markowitz]

Join me Jenna for the Ripple Effect. It's a reminder that you can start a ripple that changes everything. You really can.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

We give just that nugget of hope helping other people. For some of our gray shirts, it's during a time when they need help and by helping others, it helps them.

[Carol Markowitz]

Listen to the Ripple Effect with Jenna Kim Jones on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Carol Markowitz]

We are back on normally where Mary Katherine Ham and I I don't know why I said your last name. Mary Katherine and I Both have new 10 year olds. My youngest and your second of four turned 10 this last week. My 10 year old has the same theme for his birthday party every single year and that is the Dallas Cowboys in some fashion. I will tell you a lot of is November. Late November is not a great time to be a Cowboys fan. Yet we break out all the cowboy stuff anyway. We put up the signs, we get the balloons. He does not care. We we are on those horrible terrible years. He's still Dallas Cowboys all the way on his birthday. This birthday however was amazing. The Dallas Cowboys, for those that don't know, beat both teams that played in the super bowl last year. This week, just this week it was amazing. What a what a week.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Ye I was watching like wow, what a what a Thanksgiving week for I felt sorry for the Lions.

[Carol Markowitz]

I really I I was rooting for the Lions on Thanksgiving. You know there are, there are Thanksgiving.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Buddies and even on decent years for the Lions it's a you know it's A higher, it's low probability that there's going to be a win on Thanksgiving a day is my feeling after having watched for many years. I'm of course a more of a college football fan. Georgia Bulldogs doing well. Have to play in the. I mean, excuse me, are privileged to play in the SEC championship game this weekend. There's a thing now where, because the College Football Playoff is upcoming, threading the needle so that you're good enough to get to the playoff, but maybe get spared the crushing SEC championship game, which is like just tough and going to be hard and going to maybe have injuries is like what people are trying to do. And we just, we're just too good. We're going to end up at the championship game again with Alabama. But that's not the story.

[Carol Markowitz]

No.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

What's the story?

[Carol Markowitz]

Tell us.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

By the way, I do appreciate that our coach is like, hey, if I was worried about injuries, we wouldn't even practice next week. We got a scared team. So.

[Carol Markowitz]

That's right.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Anyway, elsewhere in college football, it is the real housewives of college football. In the sec, there are several coaching openings, so there's going to be musical chairs going on. Florida's getting rid of their coach. LSU already got rid of their coach mid season. And over at Ole Miss is a man named Lane Kiffin, who has been a head coach several places. And he's been at Ole miss for about four or five years and done quite well. And they have an 111 season and they're about to go to the college football playoffs and have a shot at the national championship. But Lane Kiffin's looking around. He's like, where's he looking? Where could I land? Could I land somewhere else for more money? And so what he does is leave everybody on the hook for a month covering the Lane Kiffin will he? Won't he story? Yeah. While LSU and Florida woo him. And over Thanksgiving weekend, after Ole Miss beats its in state rival Mississippi State, he's like, I'll give you guys an answer. I'll give you guys an answer, you know, in, in a day. And then again, once again, everybody's on the hook following Elaine Kiffin story. At one point, it escalates because a podcaster about Ole Miss football calls Lane Kiffin a hoe. He says, well, he says, no, I should not say that exactly. What he did was expertly deploy a ludicrous lyric. Oh, I know the lyric of Lane Kiffin because he said you can't make a hoe into a housewife, referring to the fact that Lane Kiffin likes to jump around and that perhaps he was never meant to be a committed head coach at Ole Miss.

[Carol Markowitz]

Cold.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

So Lane Kiffin gets mad about this, I think, because it hit a little close to home. Confronts the podcaster in person at the in state rivalry game, at which point the podcaster looked, frankly, pretty scared. I would have defended myself and been like, like, my point is valid. You're gonna leave, right? My point is valid.

[Carol Markowitz]

Not all podcasters are the same. Let's just talk about that.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Nonetheless, because there was a ludicrous lyric involved and SEC football, I kept paying attention.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah. This story is made for Mary Katherine.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

And Kiffin, it must be said, has left the NFL Oakland Raiders head coaching job in a fuss where the owner called him a. A liar and that he was disrespecting the institution. And he was like, no, I didn't do anything wrong. They're like, nah, you're fired. And an arbitrator came in, was like, yeah, he definitely did something wrong. He's fired.

[Carol Markowitz]

Wow.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Then he's out. Yeah. He goes to the Tennessee Volunteers for one season before he jumps once again to something better, to USC in Southern California. He works there for a couple of years and then jumps over, I believe, to Alabama at that point, where he works for two seasons. And then Saban lets him go before a championship game because he's so much drama. And he took yet another job.

[Carol Markowitz]

Damn.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

And Saban's like, you gotta go. And so this time around, by the way, when he left Tennessee, there were riots at the University of Tennessee because people were so angry. So this time around, the day he's supposed to make the decision, he pushes off, like, three times. He's making negotiations like, I should be able to coach through the championship, which makes no sense because then you get to take players and coaches and, like, wheedle them and get them lured over to your new place with you, which is a conference rival.

[Carol Markowitz]

Can't wait to see where this goes.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

And then he takes the LSU job, gets kicked out on his butt. LSU sends a private plane to come pick him up at the airport. And the Ole Miss fans are out there giving middle fingers and booze, watching him leave with part of the coaching staff.

[Carol Markowitz]

Damn.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

While his players are back in the athletic department, like, what is happening to us? So the hoe goes to lsu.

[Carol Markowitz]

Wow. Mary Katherine using the hoe word.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

And my favorite Real Housewives detail is that they put his clothes on the street outside his house. That's what happened. Hoes. What are you gonna do in Oxford, Mississippi? It was a lot, Carol. Wow. But I do think I haven't heard.

[Carol Markowitz]

About any of this. Like, not even in passing. Not even. I had none of it.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Well, now you know, now I know if Lane Kiffin comes up. And by the way, I do think this ludicrous lyric is going to follow him his entire career. Like, he's also famous for, like, cavorting with mid 20s co eds and such. So he's like, on many levels, one might say. The analogy is working anyway. I wish. Yeah. Oh, poor Lane. In four years, lsu. Just like, remember who you hired because.

[Carol Markowitz]

At the end of the day, can't make a whole housewife.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

I mean, honestly, the thing that, that I noticed during this is like, he's a little trumpy in that he is raw talent and he's clearly magnetic and he makes these programs work for short periods of time and he is posting through it like, you can't control that, man. He is going to do what Lane's going to do. So.

[Carol Markowitz]

All right, where do we, where do we watch this? Is this on Bravo or you got.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

To, you got to pull up the live stream of the Oxford, Mississippi airport, because that was.

[Carol Markowitz]

I think I'm going to have to do that right after this recording. But Lane Kiffin, here you are on. Normally we don't cover a lot of inside drama of college sports, but this.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

Was a good one.

[Carol Markowitz]

Thank you for sharing that all the time. Yeah, I love it. I mean, I think we should do more, you know, Desperate Housewives. It comes to sports moments on the show.

[Mary Katherine Ham]

We should. I should make a trailer.

[Carol Markowitz]

Should. 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@ normallythepodmail.com thanks for listening. And when things get weird, act normally.

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