Normally Podcast: Hegseth Headlines, Tennessee Trends & Kids’ Vaccine Concerns

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: Normally Podcast: Hegseth Headlines, Tennessee Trends & Kids’ Vaccine Concerns

Date: December 4, 2025
Hosts: Mary Katharine Ham and Carol Markowitz (sub for Clay and Buck; "Normally" podcast, syndicated within the show)

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Episode Overview

This episode tackles three major topics from the week's headlines:

1. The controversy over Pete Hegseth's orders in a US military strike on a Venezuelan drug boat,
2. Analysis of a special election in Tennessee and what it means for national politics,
3. New revelations about the risks of COVID mRNA vaccines for children.

The hosts bring an accessible, conversational, and skeptical tone, interrogating mainstream media narratives, challenging partisan spin, and highlighting concerns about lost public trust.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Hegseth Headlines: The US Drug Boat Strike Debate

(Segment begins ~03:58)

Context:

• The Washington Post alleged Pete Hegseth gave an order to "kill them all" in a US military strike on a Venezuelan drug boat, with claims survivors were killed in a second strike.
• The New York Times countered, saying he didn't specifically order killing survivors, citing five (anonymous) US officials.
• The incident and reporting expose ambiguity in both military orders and media narratives.

Discussion:

• The hosts criticize reliance on anonymous sources, questioning the varying accounts and narrative framing in major publications (WaPo with 2 sources, NYT with 5).
• Mary Katharine wants real legal clarity from the administration: "I want the administration to engage in it and say, this is legal for these reasons. This is why we're undertaking it. This is why this wasn't a violation." (06:47)
• Noted the Pentagon initially dismissed the story as "fake news," but confirmed later that the boat was hit twice.
• Carol Markowitz calls for the administration to clarify the legal rationale, not just meme about it online.

  "If the administration could give some more clarity on that, I think that would be a good thing all around." (09:18)

• Cites examples of media double standards, referencing the lack of scrutiny following the Biden administration’s errant drone strike in Afghanistan.

Memorable Quotes:

• Pete Hegseth, on the media's criticism:

  "This is called the fog of war. This is what you and the press don't understand. You sit in your air conditioned offices or up on Capitol Hill and you nitpick...and then you want to throw out really irresponsible terms about American heroes, about the judgment that they made." (07:14)

• Mary Katharine, on accountability:

  "There is a thing where empowering people to make their own decisions is important, but a little bit, you're like, 'I wasn't there. This was on him.' While you're also saying, 'he's amazing.' Like, there's a weird dance going on here, right?" (08:30)

Additional Points:

• Rand Paul's criticism ("21% of boats stopped had no drugs") dissected—hosts clarify that these attacks are targeted, not blanket operations, but acknowledge risk of collateral harm.
• Note that after a classified briefing, Congressional complaints lessened, indicating possible behind-the-scenes justification.
• Also briefly discussed: a VA report of a large cut in backlog cases, attributed to a shrinking federal workforce.

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2. Tennessee Trends: Special Election Analysis

(Segment begins ~12:37)

Background:

• Reporting on a Tennessee special election where Matt Van Epps (Republican) defeated Afton Ben (Democrat, dubbed "Tennessee’s AOC"), in a district Trump won by 22 points.
• National Democrats had hoped for a symbolic upset; Van Epps won by 9%, closer than expected.

Discussion:

• Mary Katharine notes Democrats are consistently outperforming Kamala’s numbers by double digits in special elections, suggesting GOP vulnerabilities.

  "There is a special election trend...Democrats are outperforming Kamala's numbers by 13 to 18%." (13:33)

• Carol jokes about the "Tennessee AOC" label not playing well, especially after Ben’s viral clip about hating country music and Nashville—a faux pas in the state.

  "Yeah, I hate country music in Nashville. Not a great quote." (15:13)

Key Analysis:

• Over-interpreting special elections is cautioned, but the trends are significant for the coming midterms.
• Republicans are advised to pay attention:

  "The trend here and the swings don't look great for the midterms." (15:59)

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3. Kids’ Vaccine Concerns: Examining mRNA Vaccine Risks

(Segment begins ~19:47; Main section 20:47–25:31)

Context:

• A new FDA memo appeared, prompted by Dr. Vinay Prasad, analyzing reported deaths in children following COVID vaccinations.
• The memo suggests ten conservatively identified deaths potentially linked to the vaccine, acknowledging earlier safety signals (notably myocarditis in young people) were overlooked.
• Hosts discuss the mismatch between risk and benefit for children and critique the honesty of public health narratives.

Discussion:

• Carol: By the time vaccines were mandated for children, it was already known they didn’t prevent spread and children’s risk from COVID was "statistically zero."

  "When kids were getting the vaccine and the booster, it was like, you're still at zero. You remained in the same place that you were before you got this vaccine. The dishonesty...it's going to be so long before we recover from this." (21:19)

• Mary Katharine: Notes Vinay Prasad’s fairness in interpreting the data and his reasonable stance on medicine for targeted populations.

  "Certain medicines you give to certain people with certain ailments and certain risk profiles and you don't give them to other people where you might cause harm, period." (24:46)

• Carol: Frustration over how public health officials treat skeptics and whistleblowers.

  "If you point out that these things are real. You're the problem with trust. No, you're the problem with trust because you're not reckoning with the facts. That's what we need." (23:39)

Notable Moments:

• Both express a desire for a genuine reckoning on COVID public health missteps.
• They criticize those who still push blanket policies and ignore evidence in the name of consensus.

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4. Uplifting News: The Michael & Susan Dell $6.25B Child Savings Initiative

(Segment 29:06)

Story:

• The Dell family is donating $6.25 billion to fund $250 investment accounts for 25 million American children, managed via tax-advantaged savings vehicles.

Discussion:

• Both hosts are enthusiastic; Mary Katharine notes this is "wealth generation in action," enabling possibility and ambition for kids.

  "This $6.25 billion would not exist if Michael Dell hadn't created something that was worth $6.25 billion and then some." (31:39)

• Carol: "If Michael Bloomberg wants to give us each a million dollars, we'll take it." (32:25)

Key Points:

• Funds will grow with compound interest, used for major life expenses (education, homeownership, business).
• Both support direct-to-kid investment over charity ("Let's give it straight to the kids").

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Notable Quotes

• Pete Hegseth (on criticism): “This is called the fog of war...You sit in your air conditioned offices...and you plant fake stories...and then you want to throw out really irresponsible terms about American heroes, about the judgment that they made.” (07:14)
• Mary Katharine (on transparency): “I want the administration to engage in it and say, this is legal for these reasons...That’s better than memeing it on X.” (06:58)
• Carol (on vaccine honesty): “By the time kids were eligible...we knew it didn’t stop spread...And kids’ risk of dying of COVID was statistically zero.” (21:19)
• Mary Katharine (on public health trust): “You’re the problem with trust because you’re not reckoning with the facts. That’s what we need.” (23:39)
• Mary Katharine (on Dell's donation): “This seems like it encourages the right stuff.” (32:25)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Hegseth headlines & boat strike controversy: 03:58–12:37
• Tennessee trends & special election analysis: 12:37–16:07
• Kids’ vaccine concerns & FDA memo: 19:47–25:31
• Dell Foundation donation to children: 29:06–32:31

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Tone & Style

• Conversational, witty, skeptical but informative.
• Willingness to challenge consensus narratives, especially on media, military policy, and public health.
• Emphasizes real-world impacts and the importance of transparency and trust.

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Summary

This episode offers incisive commentary on controversial military actions, illustrates political trends via a hyped Tennessee special election, and probes the long-term fallout from COVID vaccine policies in children. The hosts combine skepticism about media and government narratives with a desire for more honesty, accountability, and data-driven policy—and close with rare celebration of big philanthropy’s direct investment in America’s children. Their humorous, relatable style punctuates the episode, making it both an engaging and highly substantive listen.

Transcript

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[A]

Hey, guys. We are back on. Normally the show where normal it takes, but when the news gets weird. I am Mary Katherine.

[C]

And I'm Carol Markowitz. Mary Katherine, have you mailed your holiday cards yet?

[A]

I'm not doing them.

[C]

No. Are you really not doing them? I like your Christmas card.

[A]

Thank you. But I saved my Christmas cards. I saved my sanity by saving my Christmas cards for only when I have a baby at this point. So I think we're done.

[C]

The people demand a Christmas card.

[A]

I used them as a birth announcement for two of my kids. And then I was like, oh, yeah. So for now, off the plate. But my second child has asked if she could assist in a. In a Christmas card project. So we. It may come back at some point.

[C]

All right, Okay. I. I'm rooting for it personally. Or like, I, you know, you could just go rogue and like, Halloween card.

[A]

You know, that's true. You.

[C]

I feel like that would really work for you. Um, I send a Hanukkah card. And I know we haven't. I haven't even ordered them yet. And I. I tweeted about this today, but, like, I had two waiting for me Monday after Thanksgiving in my mailbox, and it was from Mary Chastain and Nikki Neely. And I was like, you guys are a little too type A for me to have it all together like this. And I was like, I'm gonna ask Mary Katherine. I'm sure she hasn't ordered hers either yet.

[A]

Oh, even when I did them every year, they arrived on, like, the 17th. And I would just not a January, hopefully. No, just try to get them there by Christmas.

[C]

I think they're there by New Year's. It's a win.

[A]

Yeah, that's what I say.

[C]

All right, let's get into the news. We, you know, talked about some stuff in the last episode, and we just want to follow up on. On that news story that we discussed, the Pete Hegseth double tap, second strike, Venezuelan drug boat story. So when we last left you, the Washington Post had a. Had an article called Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike. Officials say kill them all. And the story is that Hegseth said kill them all. And apparently a commander took that to mean, even when they're clinging to the boat survivors of the first strike, you should take them out in the second strike. The New York Times, of all outlets, which was really surprising, had sort of a defense of Hegseth about this and said he never said anything like that, of course, both stories are anonymously sourced. Everything should be taken with a grain of salt. I just, I have a hard time believing anything with this much anonymous sourcing in it. So, the New York Times writes, according to five U.S. officials who spoke separately and on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, there's under investigation Mr. Hegseth, ahead of the September 2nd attack, ordered a strike that would kill the people on the boat and destroy the vessel and its purported cargo of drugs. But each official said Mr. Hegseth's directive did not specifically address what should happen if a first missile turned out to not fully accomplish all those things. And the official said his order was not a response to surveillance footage showing that at least two people on the boat survived the first blast. Now, that's interesting because that's not how I read the Washington Post story at all. And now rereading it with this information, I could see where the Washington Post story was super vague and didn't really say whether Hegseth said kill them all before the strike began, which is how I understood it, or whether he said it mid strike or after the first strike, which is how a lot of other people understood it. I have to imagine that's by design. Personally. What do you think?

[A]

Well, a couple things. My, my smart friend Tom Bevin of Real Clear Politics noted that the New York Times story has five sources. The Washington Post had two. So we do have more people on this, I think. Look, that likely there's a version of this story that's between Washington Post, New York Times, and Pete Hegseth's version. But there was the initial response from the Pentagon that was like, this is all fake news, basically. And then there was like, oh, wait, no, we did hit the vote twice. Now, I would like the legal ramifications of the narco terrorism attacks to be addressed in an adult manner. In general, we are dealing with Congress. So, like, that's not going to happen. They're going to call for hearings and then they're just going to give a bunch of lectures. But I wish they would actually engage in this. And I want the administration to engage in it and say, this is legal for these reasons. This is why we're undertaking it. This is why this wasn't a violation. Right? Yeah. That's better than memeing it on X. We got a little closer to that. Here's a little bit of Hegseth speaking to Trump at the end to the press at the Cabinet meeting this week.

[B]

The thing was on fire. It was exploded and Fire, Smoke. You can't see anything.

[C]

You got digital.

[B]

This is called the fog of war. This is what you and the press don't understand. You sit in your air conditioned offices or up on Capitol Hill and you nitpick and you plant fake stories in the Washington Post about kill everybody phrases on anonymous sources not based in anything, not based on any truth at all. And then you want to throw out really irresponsible terms about American heroes, about the judgment that they made. I wrote a whole book on this topic. Because of what politicians and the press does to war fighters, President Trump has empowered commanders, Commanders to do what is necessary, which is dark and difficult things in the dead of night. On behalf of the American people, we support them, and we will stop the poisoning of the American.

[C]

Donald Trump's face, as Pete Hegseth is criticizing the press, is so perfect. He's just like, that's my boy.

[A]

Well, and like, they seemed, you know, very comfortable together here. I think people, when they saw the meeting, were looking for clues. Is like, is. Is the White House upset with Hegseth? And it didn't look like it in this moment, but there is an interesting thing going on here where Trump is saying, they're basically sort of both disavowing somebody while trying to sound like they're not. So Trump is like, oh, yeah, yeah, no, he sits right next to me. The only thing I know about this is from him. Like, he just gives me the information. I totally trust him.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Hegseth is like, this admiral is great. He was in charge of all of this. I wasn't even in the room. But he's awesome and we trust him. And I'm like, okay, well, there is a thing where empowering people to make their own decisions is important, but a little bit, you're like, I wasn't there. This was on him. While you're also saying he's amazing. Like, there's a weird dance going on here, right?

[C]

Yeah, it's.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Look, I, I think that the people who are hoping that Trump is going to throw Hagseth under the bus here are just. It's folly because it's not going to happen. I, I don't see Trump saying, oh, we were too vicious here, and therefore you're going to have to be fired or have to resign. I just don't, don't think any of that's happening. Look, your point is a good one, that they should be clearer about the legal ramifications of all of this.

[A]

It's.

[C]

Look, I'm not a lawyer. The People that I follow that are law feel pretty comfortable that these strikes are legal. But if the administration could give some more clarity on that, I think that would be a good thing. All around the New York Times, Washington Post, they'll never be satisfied. It's not like, oh, yeah, okay, you guys say that it's legal, that's cool, it's legal. They're not going to say that.

[A]

A couple things. One, where were the Washington Post and New York Times when Biden blew up a whole Afghan family because he was smarting from his terrible Afghanistan withdrawal? Those things should have been, you know, hearing worthy as well. People should have been held accountable for those things. So I understand people getting upset. I have no illusions that I'm like a normal person for having this concern. Like a lot of normal people are like, I don't know, they seem like they're right. Drug, drug dealers on a boat. That seems fine with me. It's international waters, so I don't think that I am indicative.

[C]

Right. Look, you know, also Congressman Rand Paul, who has clashed with the President a lot and is, you know, libertarian, more libertarian member of Congress. He tweeted, Coast Guard records show that prior to the reign of blow them to smithereens, quote, unquote, 21% of boats stopped off the coast of Venezuela possess no drugs. I don't know how he tweets this as some sort of criticism of the strikes. That means 80% of the boats have drugs.

[A]

Well, that's because if 100% of the people you target, you're killing, 20% of them might not have had any drugs.

[C]

Right.

[A]

That's the thing.

[C]

But they're not targeting 100% of the votes. Right. So that's where I, that's where he loses me. And, and I understand the concern.

[A]

I'm on the other side of that one. If you're accidentally killing 21% who are innocent, that's going to be a problem.

[C]

Right, but we don't know that they're killing 21%. I, I didn't take that to mean that we're killing 21% at all. I took that to mean the great majority of boats because we're not destroying all the boats that are, that are in that area. It's a very targeted attacks.

[A]

No, this is true. And another, another point on your side, which is that Rubio went up and gave a briefing about the behind the scenes stuff, which is where you can present evidence that you can't present in public, ostensibly. And there was quite a bit less complaining after he went and gave that briefing which indicates that what you're saying that this is very targeted and ameliorates those concerns.

[C]

Yes, obviously, if we were destroying all the boats in the region and 20% of them were innocent people, that would be a problem. But that's not how I read that. I read that as of all the boats, 80% are carrying drugs. And that's quite a lot.

[A]

Another note, just from the cabinet meeting, because it's fun to actually listen to the nitty gritty of these things.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Beyond the sexier story, which is this one, and the politics of the. Of the Hegseth Trump relationship, Doug Collins at the VA reported that they have cut the backlog, which is famously gigantic at the VA, for treating veterans, by 57% in a year. And that is with a reduced workforce. Now, I'll shave off a little bit of that because the government always gives itself more credit than it deserves. But, like, even if you take it down 10%, that is a huge accomplishment. So appreciate that. That he's been working on that in concert with Hegseth in many ways, because the VA and the War Department now work together. But that was a. That was a cool thing to hear.

[C]

Yeah. All right. The other story that we covered earlier in the week was a special election happening in Tennessee. Matt Van Epps versus Afton. Ben and Ben had made a lot of noise, and people thought that the Democrat might win this seat. Matt Van Epps, the Republican, did end up winning, writes Roger L. Simon, who lives in Tennessee. The possibility that Ben would win in a district that Donald Trump won by 22 points in 2024 had Democrats and all the ships in their legacy media see salivating. Would they be going for a third pickup after New Jersey and Virginia, but this time in a certifiably red state? Better yet, Ms. Benn was a progressives progressive, already dubbed Tennessee's AOC. This could be a national trend. Of course, Van Epps ended up winning by a relatively comfortable 9%. Is it a sign? Is it a sign of anything? Is every election supposed to be a sign?

[A]

Look, you can always overread special elections because they are sort of weird. But there is a special election trend, and the special election trend shows over about five different special elections that Democrats are outperforming Kamala's numbers by 13 to 18%. What does that say?

[C]

Kamala?

[A]

So, like, one, it says that Kamala is bad. Two, it says that there might be a real environmental problem here for Republicans who are not responding to something that the voters need to hear. Three, it says that the left is very fired up. And I think Bain probably got a little bit. I don't. I don't know whether her leftism worked against her or for her in this red district, because on one hand, you rile up a bunch of lefties and get them out to vote in a special election, which is weird. And generally low turnout. Although the turnout numbers are really close to 2022 for this special election. So it wasn't that low turnout here. What I think is probably good for Republicans is that lefties are going to be like, we just needed to be more left than Afton Bain, and then they'll start recruiting.

[C]

Yeah, Tennessee's aoc. I'm not sure about that. That's really going to fly anywhere. Not even in Tennessee.

[A]

I liked that at the very end. Remember, she had the. She had a famous viral clip in her oppo about hating Nashville and hating country music.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And then in her concession speech, she shows up in like a nudie suit, like a rhinestone Grand Ole Opry suit with, like, big padded shoulders and done up like a country star. And I was like, too little, too late, girl. You should have done this earlier.

[C]

Yeah, I hate country music in Nashville.

[A]

I mean, not a great quote.

[C]

Not a great Right. And Scott Jennings pointed out on CNN that she also didn't walk back any of her previous comments like this. There's become this thing where when a Democrat says something before they run for office, or maybe when they were in a different office, it's no longer admissible because they don't run on it in this campaign. But if you're saying you want to defund the police, you know, four years ago, as a private citizen, that still counts. Like the idea that, like, oh, you said something as a private citizen, but you're not saying it as a, as a running of candidate that nobody cares. It's the same thing. So, yeah, she was a far lefty and Tennessee said no thank you to that. So thank you.

[A]

But I would say Republicans just beware, man. The. The. The trend here and the swings don't look great for the midterms.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. Republicans should maybe focus on that a little bit more. We'll be watching because that's what we do here. So we'll be right back with more on normally. And the MRNA vaccine, was it necessary for children? Yes. We're still mad, bro. Be right back.

[A]

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[A]

Okay, we are back on normally with some news that we are still mad about. Bro. Really? For real. This is over the last weekend of 20 of November, in 2025, a memo circulated through the Federal Food and Drug Administration that outlined that Vinay Prasad, who of whom we are a fan, had ordered that they go through the vaccine adverse reactions database and look at deaths possibly associated among children with administration of the vaccine. And they did this because at one point another doctor Anne Vinay Prasad had said, like, look, there were real safety signals on myocarditis for young people that we were ignoring. Let's actually look at the data and these individual cases and determine what happened here. And this internal memo suggests that 10 of those, Vinay Prasad says, conservatively speaking, because they were trying to be very fair about what information they had and what they could deem was causal. Ten deaths in children associated with the vaccine, which of course in many places was mandated for children, for many activities was mandated for children and that this information was something they either hid or weren't interested in or refused to contemplate.

[C]

Right. The big problem of the vaccine for kids, the COVID vaccine for kids, is that it wasn't like other vaccines where by the time the kid got it, we, we still believed it would stop spread.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

By the time kids were eligible to get that vaccine, we knew it didn't stop spread. So it wasn't like, oh, you have to get it to protect the community. It was absolutely not about that at all. And kids risk of dying of COVID was statistically zero. And as you and I enjoyed saying at the time, you can't bring zero down any further. So when kids were getting the vaccine and then the booster, it was like, you're still at zero. You remained in the same place that you were before you got this vaccine. The dishonesty. The dishonesty is just, it's going to be so long before we recover from this. People just don't trust anything from the government anymore. They don't trust anything from anywhere anymore. And it's, it's terrible. Low trust. Society is a dangerous society and that's where we are right now.

[A]

Well, and of course, the reaction from many in mainstream organizations and from all the public health folks on X is to say, oh, Vinay Prasad has always been a skeptic and he's bad for all these reasons. They had analyzed 96 deaths and found 10 related. The memo notes. This is a profound revelation. For the first time, the US FDA will acknowledge that COVID 19 vaccines have killed American children. Healthy young children who face tremendously low risk of death were coerced at the behest of the Biden administration via school and work mandates to receive a vaccine that could result in death. In many cases, such mandates were harmful. And he said it's difficult to even read through these cases when you think that this is the conclusion you must come to.

[C]

Right.

[A]

He also notes that these agencies had information while this was happening that they were not disclosing. These agencies did not quickly attempt mitigation strategies such as spacing doses apart from or lowering doses. Whereas the FDA delayed acknowledgement of the safety signal until after it could extend marketing authorization to younger boys 12 to 15, which is the demographic in which this was the most problematic.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. Just thinking back to that time where any conversation about this was simply not permitted and we kept finding that the CDC was lying to us in case after case. I remember David Zweig writing about the myocarditis story and it being, I think, believe he wrote it in Vice, but it was just not hitting the mainstream at all. And it still is not really in the mainstream and that's, it's, it's where that loss of trust comes from.

[A]

Well, and it remains the case that people in the mainstream and sort of left leaning public health figures still say that anyone who notices. You'll notice a theme like with the Minnesota fraud, if you notice the safety signal. If you point out that these things are real. You're the problem with trust. No, you're the problem with trust because you're not reckoning with the facts. That's what we need.

[C]

Which used to be what science was about. Facts. Right. And getting to a conclusion, not starting with a conclusion and altering everything on.

[A]

The way there and giving people information that they can use to make real decisions. A lot of people in this cohort of young men, mothers of young men, would have liked to have had this information.

[C]

Absolutely. Yeah. And taking everything away from them until they did what you demanded of them also. So Wrong. I don't know we're ever going to get a real reckoning on this. I mean, I love what's. What's happening now with our health agencies. I think that they're. We have the people that we trust in them. But I'd love to see a bigger investigation, a bigger look into what really happened in so many of these cases.

[A]

I'm glad to have Vinay Prasad there. I do think he's a voice of reason. And of course, in his memo he says, I acknowledge for fully that vaccines are really good in all of these ways and help. But he was like, certain medicines you give to certain people with certain ailments and certain risk profiles and you don't give them to other people where you might cause harm, period.

[C]

Yeah. Or, you know, the risk profile is important. I remember at the time, you know, where the Gavin Newsoms were like, all vaccines are good and you take all of them. I was like, so give your kids the malaria vaccine. Like, why not give them all of them? Like, why are you stopping at just Covid, like, continue on with all the vaccines that have no reason to be given to these kids.

[A]

Still mad, bro. But we're having the conversation even if people are incapable in many sectors.

[C]

That's right. We will be right back with more on normally no football segment this time. I know you all loved it. We'll be talking the Dells giving out $250 to millions of kids to change their lives. Be right back.

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It's about giving more for less. Ross, work your magic.

Hey, audiobook lovers.

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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.

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All right, like we talked about before.

[B]

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. Like 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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Land Breaking news everybody. Not everything is terrible. I repeat, not everything is terrible.

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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.

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Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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All right now, time for some good news on Normally. I love this story. So Michael, the CEO of Dell Technologies, they have committed 6.6.25 billion to fund investment accounts for some 25 million American children. The couple's donation this is in CNBC reporting will be the largest ever devoted to American children, according to Invest America, a nonprofit advocacy group partnered with the Dells. Now this money is so, it's 250 per kid for 25 million kids. It's going directly into a tax advantaged state savings and investment account called, called a Trump account. Created, created in the one big beautiful bill. And the idea behind them is to give a bunch of kids access to the idea of saving, an investment, to encourage saving and investment. And while I don't always love a government mechanism for such things, same, yeah, I like the idea that this could give more people a start doing this kind of thing. Now there's a, there's a thousand dollar credit coming from taxpayers that is going into these accounts. But the Dells of their own volition are throwing in 250. And I love that part unabashedly. This seems smart and innovative. And I know the lefties are going to be like, you should give it to whatever climate change organization. It's like, no, let's give it straight to the kids.

[C]

Let's straight to them. Yeah. And actually this reminded me of that time that the, I forgot her name, but the New York Times editorial person was on TV and said that Michael Bloomberg could give every American a million dollars because he had spent $300 million or something on his presidential race. And it's like, no, $6.25 billion, 25 million children, $250 each. But look, you know, people are saying it, is this going to matter? Is this going to make any difference in the lives of these kids? And I think those people need to look up compound interest, which is what these people are relying on to make a difference in these kids. It'll be invested for them. That money will grow. They can potentially use it for retirement. Yeah, they're probably not going to use it when they're, when they're 18 years old. It's going to be further down the line.

[A]

Well, and they can only be, they can be used in like low risk US Stock indices. And Dell himself, I think, started his company with like a thousand dollars of capital, right?

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And to me this is such a beautiful story about wealth generation, which I know that our liberal friends think is a Myth. But this $6.25 billion would not exist if Michael Dell hadn't created something that was worth $6.25 billion and then some. And so he's able to give a little capital fund to 25 million American children who might get a taste for building and investing and saving and think when I'm older and I have access to this, what could I do with it? They don't get access to it until they're 18 and then I think there are restrictions on how you can take it out and what you can use it for. But you can use it for like starting businesses, buying a house. And it just seems like of all the things you could throw money at, this seems like it encourages the right stuff.

[C]

Yeah, we love it. But if Michael Bloomberg wants to give us each a million dollars, we'll take it.

[A]

He can do that too.

[C]

Well, thanks for joining us on Normale Ly. Normale Ly airs Tuesdays and Thursdays and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts. Get in touch with us@ normallythepodmail.com actually, we're soliciting your anonymous questions for some episodes later this month. So please send us your questions that you want to hear. Hear us answer on the show. Thanks for listening. And when things get weird, act normally.

[B]

How are USDA staff cuts and budget challenges affecting farmers? I have land in conservation to provide water quality benefits. With the nrcs being short staffed, the USDA isn't releasing any information because they're not there. I made an agreement. I've done my part, but now I'm sitting on potentially a large sum that is owed to you. My bills are coming due at the end of the year, but I can't even finalize my plans for next year. It's pretty frustrating. Protect conservation funding and staff that supports farmers paid for by Invest in Our.

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