← The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
Normally Podcast: Operation Epic Fury: U.S.-Israel Strikes Iran, Retaliation Fears & The Left’s Weird Week
00:38:08
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- [00:00]
Mary Katharine Ham
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
- [00:04]
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Mary Katharine Ham
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Carol Markowitz
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- [02:08]
Mary Katharine Ham
Hey guys, we are back on. Normally the show is normal. It takes for when the news gets weird.
- [02:13]
Carol Markowitz
I am Mary Kathryn Ham and I'm Carol Markowitz. How are you Mary Kathryn I'm good.
- [02:18]
Mary Katharine Ham
I'm in Hillsdale, Michigan. Up at Hillsdale College this week doing some teaching so I look forward to that.
- [02:24]
Carol Markowitz
I love that I have a lovely
- [02:25]
Mary Katharine Ham
time in my 12 hours so far.
- [02:28]
Carol Markowitz
I loved my time at Hillsdale. I have to send you some restaurant recs. It was amazing I thought the kids were just unbelievable.
- [02:35]
Mary Katharine Ham
Yes, it's a smart group here. So I'm looking forward to it.
- [02:40]
Carol Markowitz
I took my 16 year old daughter to see Normaleee's favorite comedian, Nate Brigazzi last night. Super hilarious and very, very clean humor. Really, really funny. Kevin James did a surprise opening for him. There was three openers. They added Kevin James at the last minute. Um, he basically told a joke and a half and we laughed our faces off like it was, it was a really quick Kevin James appearance, but it was so funny.
- [03:10]
Mary Katharine Ham
Yeah, no, that's a, that's a normie night right there. Kevin James and Nate Fargozzi. So good.
- [03:15]
Carol Markowitz
Yeah. There was like nothing that was questionable at all. It was really great and she had a great time. It was part of her 16 birthday present. And you know what? We did not take the boys because that we're allowed to do that.
- [03:28]
Mary Katharine Ham
We didn't invite the boys. It might be time to cancel you or impeach you for that one. Oh my goodness.
- [03:34]
Carol Markowitz
Never play hockey again.
- [03:37]
Mary Katharine Ham
Well, the news is both weird and momentous this week. Yeah, Carol has, you know, we knew
- [03:45]
Carol Markowitz
it was coming and then it came.
- [03:48]
Mary Katharine Ham
Yeah. So there has been a US and Israel together attack on Iran over several days now. And you know, some have said in retrospect, perhaps the tell was that the entire military was at the doorstep of Iran. Right. But it seems like the President for several weeks was weighing different plans and trying to decide and wasn't sure if they were gonna go for it. And then they did. And then they did.
- [04:19]
Carol Markowitz
It's called Operation Epic Fury. I saw some people mocking this online as being like too childish and simplistic. Like, I love that. I love simple words describing things very clearly. We are epically furious and we're gonna launch an operation.
- [04:35]
Mary Katharine Ham
I mean, Desert Storm is one of the great monikers of our time. There's nothing wrong with a boss operation name. You gotta have a cool operation name.
- [04:46]
Carol Markowitz
Right, Right.
- [04:47]
Mary Katharine Ham
So that's what's happening. We, of course, this was, as some members of Congress are noting, not authorized by Congress. Although some of them, it seems, were briefed at various ways in various degrees at different times. The President has not addressed the American people about this yet. And I do think that he needs to do that at some point. But I am comfortable with the idea that presidents can do strikes without totally telegraphing exactly what they're going to do at any moment by even briefing Congress and then having it leaked, which is a real risk when you're in these situations.
- [05:23]
Carol Markowitz
Absolutely. And I think Trump takes that risk extra, extra, seriously. So we attacked Iran, and we hit over a thousand targets in just a few days. Israel and the US are, like you said, coordinating on this. And Iran has launched missile and drone attacks all across the Middle East. I'm talking Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the uae, and a bunch of other Gulf states in response to this. And it's crazy. And, you know, and I tweeted the picture of the Economist, you know, like, last year, saying they had an Israeli flag, and it was like, Israel alone, Like, Israel's literally working with the rest of the Middle east against Iran. And no one is posting up Iran alone on their cover because, you know, the idea that Israel should be sort of isolated is one that the left pushes. It's one that people on the right sometimes buy into. It's one that America largely rejects.
- [06:22]
Mary Katharine Ham
Well, and the groundwork for this sort of amazing alliance was laid in Trump, one with the Abraham Accords. But to see Iran, you know, there are costs in any military operation, and there are already four American troop members who we've lost in this operation. So that is a. It's a very serious undertaking. And also the extent to which we are able to very specifically target very specific things with success, thereby, by the way, sparing civilians in Iran to the greatest degree possible. Um, and the way that Iran's response over and over again, by the way, since Israel started taking out many of the. The. Their capabilities, many months and years or in these various operations, has been sort of, like, surprisingly sporadic and has led to them hitting all these other countries. And the reaction of those other countries has been to go, whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah, now we're with these guys. And by the way, for anybody watching, this should show why these guys cannot have nukes, because the irgc, the Republican Guard there is like, I think we should just hit the entire Middle east now and all of our sometimes friends, anyone we can reach. So it seems like a really good reason to keep them from having nukes.
- [07:47]
Carol Markowitz
Absolutely. And that's such an important thing. Like, I. I keep seeing people. I mean, I saw somebody say, like, how come the US doesn't take on North Korea? And it's because they have nukes, or it's because they're on their way. Like, they. They already have the weaponry that we don't want them to have.
- [08:01]
Mary Katharine Ham
Yes.
- [08:02]
Carol Markowitz
And once you have crazy people having that, it becomes a far larger risk. I'm devastated that four Americans were killed in this operation. Can you imagine how many would be killed if Iran did have nukes? And it just. We need to be serious. And I have to say that, again, is it surprising to me that Donald Trump is the grown up in the room? Yes, but he is the grownup in the room. It's marvelous, you know, amazing to watch it. And it's just a reality that I'm able to face. And people who didn't always like Trump should be able to face it as well. Yeah.
- [08:40]
Mary Katharine Ham
And a lot of this, again, we don't have the names of those troops, which we will give to you guys when we have them, but I want to be sensitive about that. Uh, the, the rationale for this is kind of all over the map because it's Donald Trump, which is why I think an address is warranted. And yet most of the reasons I am down with. Right. At least when it comes to a, A short operation, when we get to more in depth stuff, you know, we need to think that through. But you have the threat that they could become nuclear. And critics say, oh, but didn't we decimate or take, you know, completely ruin all of their nuclear capabilities? Well, they did a good job. And also they can rebuild, which was.
- [09:21]
Carol Markowitz
Rebuild other things.
- [09:22]
Mary Katharine Ham
Yeah, right.
- [09:23]
Carol Markowitz
Which was a desperate Iran could build a dirty bomb. That's, you know, a conversation that I'm seeing.
- [09:29]
Mary Katharine Ham
And, you know, there are many people who hang their hats on the jcpoa, which was the Obama negotiated deal with Iran, but its limits, many of them sunsetted this year. Right. So pulling out of that. And by the way, they violated it the entire time it was enacted. And then also Obama just thought, or said, he thought that if they gave money to the Iranians and if they relaxed sanctions on the Iranians, that all that money would just go to making things better for the citizens of Iran. Because in an actual speech, Obama's like, you know, even in a dictatorship, you can't just ignore the concerns of. Yes, you can. That's actually easily can.
- [10:11]
Carol Markowitz
Yeah.
- [10:12]
Mary Katharine Ham
Dictatorships work. So all that money did go to all these proxies who have been destroyed by Israel's incredible intelligence and military with some of our help. And Obama's philosophy was just wrong. Giving them pallets of cash. This is not the way to stop the badness. And perhaps bombing is the way to stop the badness.
- [10:34]
Carol Markowitz
Yeah, absolutely. And I. Look, the fact is that Donald Trump is erratic. You don't know what he's going to do, you don't know what he's going to say, you don't know what the next step is going to be. And that has worked very much in his favor. I Think that that has been just an amazing part of the Donald Trump second term here where the bad guys don't know what to expect. One day Maduro's still the leader of Venezuela, the next day he's not. And the same thing here where on day one the, the US and Israel took out Ayatollah Khamenei and so many of his top people because, and I love the way you, you worded it in a tweet. You know, somebody's gonna get in trouble if that meeting could have been an email. But how do they meet knowing that the entire US Military is poised and ready in the Middle East? Like, how do you guys have a face to face meeting and think that's going to be okay?
- [11:28]
Mary Katharine Ham
Well, and I think what American intel and Israeli intel, by the way, just shout out to the Iranian people for coming and being dead. That, that is a, that's a huge thing in and of itself. And there was celebration in the streets in Iran. But I think American and Israeli intelligence together have prevented the leaders of these proxy groups and Iran from having electronic or in person communication. Like they, they can't do it. And they keep getting knocked off every time they replace someone as the head of Iran right now. Which means that eventually, and I think some, some of the weird nature of these strikes from the IRGC is because they do not have a command structure because the command structure keeps getting collapsed.
- [12:12]
Carol Markowitz
That's amazing.
- [12:14]
Mary Katharine Ham
It's also wild.
- [12:15]
Carol Markowitz
It's crazy to think about somebody else posted a picture of the George W. Bush administration and said, imagine telling these people that the guy on the Apprentice would be the one to take out Iran. It's incredible. It's truly incredible. And then, um, somebody else noted that this is like everything Bill Kristol has ever wanted in his entire life. And he can't be happy because it's the guy he hates more than anything else, anybody else in the world delivering on the things that he wants. It's just incredible.
- [12:46]
Mary Katharine Ham
I also want to note a couple other rationales for doing this. One, of course, that Trump said help is on the way to Iranians who put their lives on the line and many of them died coming out and protesting the regime. And I think beyond freedom for the Iranian people, which has been mentioned, but also gets people's, gets people nervous because it speaks to regime change and boots on the ground and being involved for long periods of time, even though freedom is mentioned. I think Trump's probably more interested in his threat credibility. And I think probably people were telling him, if you say helps on the way, and then you don't deliver in a very obvious way. You lose that with these other bad guys. And I think that's something he wanted preserved. I should also mention, and I think it's important to mention that the Iranian regime has been trying to assassinate him for not a small period of time. And he even said, I got him before they got me.
- [13:42]
Carol Markowitz
Him saying that I got them before they got me is just, it's a glorious moment. It's also going back to something we've talked about. You could just do things. You could just do things. And Donald Trump is like, watch me do those things. There's also this great clip circulating of Donald Trump in 1980 talking about what we need to do with Iran. And I know people think that he ran on never attacking anybody and, you know, sticking our head in our shell and never coming out, but I didn't see that at all as a Donald Trump campaign. I think people just imagined that. And so let's roll that clip of Donald Trump, 1980, talking about Iran.
- [14:20]
Ad Read Male 1
When you get the respect of the other countries, then the other countries tend to do a little bit as you do and you can create the right attitudes. The Iranian situation is a case in point. That they hold our hostages is just absolutely and totally ridiculous. That this country sits back and allows a country such as Iran to hold our hostages. To my way of thinking, thinking is a horror. And I don't think they'd do it with other countries. I honestly don't think they do it with other countries.
- [14:53]
Carol Markowitz
Obviously you're advocating that we should have gone in there with troops, etcetera, and brought our boys out.
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Ad Read Male 1
I absolutely feel that, yes. I don't think there's any question, and there's no question in my mind, I think right now would be an oil rich nation. And I believe that we should have done it. And I'm very disappointed that we didn't do it. And I don't think anybody would have held us in abeyance. I don't think anybody would have been angry with us. And we had every right to do it at the time. I think we've lost the opportunity.
- [15:22]
Carol Markowitz
It's kind of an amazing clip. It really is. He still talks like that. He looks just like Baron. I mean, really looks like Baron there. And he's again, I get all the reasons people don't like Donald Trump. I really do. But the fact is he's, he's very frank and he's like, we could have just taken their oil, you know, whereas, like George W. Bush went to war with Iraq and everybody was like, you're doing this for oil. And then we didn't take any of their oil.
- [15:49]
Mary Katharine Ham
We didn't.
- [15:52]
Carol Markowitz
He got criticized for that without actually doing it.
- [15:55]
Mary Katharine Ham
I know. I think he's. He's also just a. He is a president who is very interested in and very informed about how he can wield American power. Yeah. And he's doing it in a way that says basically like, oh, we're going to lop the head off over and over again until you act right. And if you act right, you might not get bombed again, but you have to act right whether it's Venezuela or Iran. Right. And I don't know what that means at the top eventually, but it does mean that you've preserved the threat, which means people may act right. Which is what he's attempting without doing a whole enduring campaign.
- [16:34]
Carol Markowitz
That's right. And I hope it's not an enduring campaign. The question now becomes what comes next? And how, how does the US Proceed from here? Of course, the question on everybody's mind is how long are we going to be in there? How involved are we going to be in the region? And today Pete Hegseth was asked about American boots on the ground. And I think he gave a stellar answer. We'll talk about it after we roll this clip.
- [16:57]
Ad Read Male 1
No, but we're not going to go into the exercise of what we will or will not do. I think it's one of those fallacies for a long time that this department or presidents or others should tell the American people and our enemies, by the way, here's exactly what we'll do. Here's exactly how long we'll go. Here's exactly how far we'll go. Here's what we're willing to do and not do. It's foolishness. And so President Trump ensures that our enemies understand we'll go as far as we need to go to advanced American interests. But we're not dumb about it. You don't have to roll 200,000 people in there and stay for 20 years.
- [17:30]
Carol Markowitz
Yeah. You know, that clip is being shared as Pete Hegseth won't rule out boots on the ground. And it's like, yeah, he won't rule out anything. He will not ask him the question about, like, will we shoot at Iran with space lasers from Mars? And he'll be like, I don't know. Everything's on the table. It could be anything right now. And that's a very Trump orientated answer. Where Trump is like, I'm not ruling out a single thing. I'm not telling you what we're gonna do. I'm not tell what we're not going to do. You're going to have to roll with it and see what happens and we'll take it from there. And that's Pete Hegseth giving a very Trumpian response of like, all options are on the table. Yeah. That means he has not ruled out putting American boots on the ground. I don't think that's going to happen, but we'll see.
- [18:13]
Mary Katharine Ham
Well, and I think you're right, Carol, that the advertisement wasn't complete disengagement and never striking anyone.
- [18:19]
Carol Markowitz
Right.
- [18:20]
Mary Katharine Ham
I understood that because I saw Trump won, which included strategic strikes against Soleimani, among others. I called it like occasional bellicosity, like Americans aren't mad if you hit something very hard and it's effective and then we move on. Venezuela is another example. The Fordo bombing runs with the B2 is another example. And people are very happy to see American might, for the most part, other than the people who, like, hate the west, but for the most part happy to see American might displayed and for it to be effective and for it to be competent, which it has been on all of these operations. And I would also add for anybody who knew anyone who was hurt during those many years that made Americans war weary in the global war on terror, I would also note that somebody Patrick Fox, who's a vet, notes, as a global war on terror vet, it is difficult to fully explain to younger folks the satisfaction I take in watching the Islamic Republic be dismantled. The IRGC armed and trained terrorists for decades, specifically supplying and training those groups on the EFPs that killed and maimed hundreds of my brothers and sisters in arms. They deserve everything they get. And that is an element of this that I think some, if you're not paying attention, will miss. Like, this is the, this was the head of the snake that was supplying all these other things that hurt a bunch of American troops actively on purpose, frequently, for many, many years. And if you can change that dynamic, it can lead to a safer Middle east and world.
- [19:53]
Carol Markowitz
Absolutely. But speaking of a safer world, we had at least one home attack since the attack on Iran began, possibly two. We don't know exactly what happened with the second one quite yet, but the first one was in Austin where an American citizen who was born in Senegal, his name is Indiaga Diagna. He was wearing a, a shirt that referred to Allah. Underneath it, he had an Iranian shirt on. He killed three people in Austin at a bar randomly. And it's looking like this was a retaliatory attack. There was a second incident, which we're not clear yet if this was related to anything going on in the Middle east or not. Stabbed several people on the i495 in Virginia with a curved dagger resembling a meat cleaver. And we don't know what the situation there is quite yet.
- [20:57]
Mary Katharine Ham
Yeah, I thought that when it was in Northern Virginia, it was like one of those situations where it was in traffic, could have been road rage. But I thought a dagger seems weird, a stabbing seems odd for that situation. And at least one woman and her dog were killed in this interaction. And the trooper shot the suspect dead. So law enforcement intervened and probably saved some other lives. There are other people who are being treated at this point, I believe. But yeah, we don't know the motivations of that one yet, but it sure sounds weird, right?
- [21:27]
Carol Markowitz
Also, people like Mehdi Hassan are quoting Scott Jennings saying that terrorism stops now because of Trump's attack on Iran. And Mehdi says, pretty sure he has just energized extremists and given them an excuse to attack Americans. Every president who starts wars in the Mideast ends up becoming a recruiting sergeant for terror groups. And that just sounds like extortion. Do what we want or we're going to kill you here. And I don't know how Mehdi Hassan gets to have a role in American public life when he says things like that you're not pro America in that way. You're rooting for attacks against America and against Americans because the ideology is not going your way. I just, at no point did I want Americans to die so that Biden could see the error of his ways and maybe close the border or something. I wasn't like, rooting for that to happen in order for Biden to do my preferred policy. But people like Mehdi are rooting for it, and it's really sick.
- [22:22]
Mary Katharine Ham
Well, and he calls it, I think he called it at one point, understandable or predictable terrorist blowback attacks. And I would just say it's weird that it wasn't predictable or understandable that we would have terrorist blowback attacks after, like the Venezuela operation. Why is it different? Why are we not worried about a bunch of Venezuelan Americans coming and stabbing people or shooting people in bars? Like, that's. It seems like you're telling on yourself a little bit and you are saying, yes, if you do what we do want you to do, then you don't get hurt. But Donald Trump certainly will not be operating that way.
- [22:59]
Carol Markowitz
Yeah, that's a really great point about Venezuela. That's exactly right.
- [23:04]
Mary Katharine Ham
And by the way, oh, we should note also that the, that the social media being once again flooded with expressions of joy by Iranians and Iranian Americans just like it was by Venezuelan and Venezuelan Americans is very helpful for the affluent white American left that can have these voices centered as opposed to their own feelings for a moment so that they can understand that in many ways people do see this as a liberation and an opportunity for this country that has been under the thumb of the exact people they say they hate. Like religious extremists who kill gay people and want women to not drive. But, you know, whatever.
- [23:44]
Carol Markowitz
Yeah, they say that they don't like somehow.
- [23:46]
Mary Katharine Ham
Yeah, somehow you ended up on that side. And you're telling the Iranians to hush because Trump, I don't think that's a good idea. But it is so nice to see people out in the streets and so joyous. I walked nearby the, the, the big demonstration in Georgetown the other night and people were just screaming in the streets and you know, strangely, no property destruction involved with these particular types of events. And waving the real Iranian flag. So very nice to see. Even though, as always, we, we hold out to see what the next days bring and what this means.
- [24:17]
Carol Markowitz
That's right. We're going to take a short break and be right back on.
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Carol Markowitz
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- [27:56]
Mary Katharine Ham
It does seem weird. You would think somebody's antisemitism would just be only relegated to the permanent body art they decided to have. And it seems so strange that it would leak out into your actual beliefs. I mean, this is all right. This is all not credible. And he, he was actually asked about it on a, on a call in show by actual voters the other day. And he's doing this thing where like, I didn't know what it meant. And that's not true. According to friends of his who knew him at the time when he got this tattoo, which he considered edgy for these reasons. But he is running against in this primary the establishment Democrat governor of Maine, but he is leading her. And Ruben Gallego, who is a young, sometimes interesting Democratic senator from Arizona, considered a moderate. Yes, considered a moderate, has endorsed this guy despite the repeated illustrations of Nazi leanings. Not so great. And I think some of this is like Ruben Gallego is like a little bit more of a guy's guy. Like this is the masculinity that they're branding here. And I would just say that maybe the masculinity on either side should not be joined with these tendencies, which it, it seems to be too often.
- [29:12]
Carol Markowitz
Yeah, absolutely. You know, but going. And you know, we talk about this a lot on here, but can you imagine if a Republican accidentally got a Nazi tattoo and then accidentally reposted something antisemitic and then accidentally was a fan of an anti Semitic podcast that they then went on? What would be the reaction? Would we be learning about this from smaller Twitter accounts or would this be wall to wall news? And the fact that Graham Platner being a lover is sort of a side note in the Democratic Party because of the, their relationship with the mainstream media is kind of wild.
- [29:48]
Mary Katharine Ham
The thing is, when our people go anti Semitic, they start praising them to use them as a wedge to split the rest of us. That's what happens.
- [29:55]
Carol Markowitz
That's exactly right.
- [29:56]
Mary Katharine Ham
They get better pressed than I get.
- [29:59]
Carol Markowitz
Yes, that's right. All right, what else are the Democrats up to? Bernie Sanders is unveiling a new mega tax. You could picture him saying that on America's Billionaires. He says it would raise 4.4 trillion. Sure, sure. Yeah. Ro Khanna is introducing a House version of the bill. I mean, and you know, it's so funny. So again, it's so nice to be a Democrat. The chief economics reporter for the Washington Post, he posts about this and he, he, he, he writes the money would be directed to. And he gives me like a little list of what the fictional 4.4 trillion would be directed to. $3,000, stimulus checks per person. Expand Medicare to and hearing for all seniors, Ensure every public school teacher gets paid at least 60,000 a year. 850 billion for affordable home construction. This list is like what my 4 year old would write in his imaginary journal of what he wants for Christmas. I mean, this is like nonsense. This is such nonsense.
- [31:02]
Mary Katharine Ham
It's just like Iran spent all that cash on making the lives of its citizens better. We don't believe you guys. These are insane things to say. This is an imaginary world you're living in. And also, 4.4 trillion ain't going to cut it, guys. Yeah, it ain't going to cut it.
- [31:18]
Carol Markowitz
That's like even, that's, that's. Yes, you're absolutely right. 4.4 trillion is not going to cut it. But they're also never going to get 4.4 trillion. That billionaires are not going to sit around being like, please, idiot people in Congress take my money. I want you to spend it for me. I mean, we're seeing that in California because of Ro Khanna support for proposal there. It's literally happening where liberal billionaires, billionaires on the left are leaving. These are not right wing billionaires. All the right wing billionaires will be out, you know, before this is anywhere near. But the ones on the left are also leaving. They've all bolted. So they're all living in Florida and they better be voting. Right.
- [31:56]
Mary Katharine Ham
The thing that's always. Again, they don't understand incentives or how actual economics work.
- [31:59]
Carol Markowitz
No, they don't.
- [32:00]
Mary Katharine Ham
If they did, they wouldn't be pitching this. But smart, brave people don't have to do smart risk taking work. They could do much easier work. And once they're billionaires, they can just not work. And then you lose what they would have created if you hadn't turned them into non workers by stealing all of their money. Like.
- [32:23]
Carol Markowitz
That's right.
- [32:24]
Mary Katharine Ham
I know they don't understand where it comes from because Bernie was asked by a constituent where wealth comes from and he doesn't know. I should also note that Senator Mark Wayne Mullen of Oklahoma went after Bernie on the Hill last week and it was fantastic. And he said because he shaded him a little bit. Bernie did. After he had done a little rant about healthcare and health. Obamacare hadn't fixed anything. And Bernie shades him. And Mark Wayne Mullen is like, you're the system. You've been here longer than I've been alive. You haven't fixed anything. It's amazing. And Bernie's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. And you'll come back for that. That's true.
- [33:01]
Carol Markowitz
It's true. Yeah.
- [33:03]
Mary Katharine Ham
Oh, it's just ignorance, man.
- [33:05]
Carol Markowitz
It's unbelievable. And we're heading into this just Democrats becoming full on socialist moment. I think that the next presidential election is gonna be very illuminating the same way that they raise their hands for just ridiculous things the last time around. Whether or not the last time they raised their hands for things like should anybody be able to get free health care in America? And it literally could have meant anybody in the whole wide world comes to America would get free health care. And all of them raise their hands. And so we're going to have situations like that where they're raising their hands during these debates for just ridiculous stuff like do you think we should seize the wealth of all the billionaires? And they're going to largely raise their hands because they need to get through the Democratic primary. And then the American people are going to have to decide whether these crazy people should be elected president in the general despite what they said in the primary when they inevitably try to walk it back.
- [34:00]
Mary Katharine Ham
Yeah, let me note one more crazy Democrat thing. In Northern Virginia, once again, there was a stabbing murder of a woman at a bus stop last week. The perpetrator of this, it turns out, is an illegal immigrant with 30 prior arrests, many of them extremely violent, including but not limited to forcible rape and malicious wounding, which is another attempt to murder someone. And our our Soros funded prosecutor doesn't prosecute crime. So this man has been on the loose and our Soros funded prosecutor and the area does not turn people into ice. So he's been allowed to stay here for 15 years. Horrible doing these crimes. And this was the end result. I wonder if he'll go home now or be punished.
- [34:49]
Carol Markowitz
Still not. Still unclear, right?
- [34:51]
Mary Katharine Ham
Unclear.
- [34:52]
Carol Markowitz
All right, we're going to take a short break and come back with group chat. Insanity. Not ours. Not ours. Other people's. We'll be right back.
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- [39:03]
Carol Markowitz
I thought that was. Yeah, I thought Free Range would be like the parents who let their kids have a little freedom, but turns out it has nothing to do with the
- [39:11]
Mary Katharine Ham
ones who don't want anyone to have freedom, actually. So some of the contributions during this fight are so hilarious. But like a couple of them here from the reporter. Not surprising. This chat has gone the same way, same path as the country. Stop with the lies. You're acting like the children. We come here to learn how to handle. If this is not a parenting community, but an escape, a mirage of what parenting is, then I very sadly can no longer be a part of this group. All because it won't overtly engage in politics and by the way, training for activism. That's what these parents wanted this formerly neutral parenting group to be. And it's miserable. It's miserable.
- [39:54]
Carol Markowitz
Yeah.
- [39:55]
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- [39:55]
Carol Markowitz
The thing is that these people need politics to be a part of every single thing. They do. They do. You know, when AOC once said, no going back to brunch, what that meant was, you're not allowed to do anything, anything without having it be a political action without having a political point.
- [40:11]
Mary Katharine Ham
Correct.
- [40:12]
Carol Markowitz
So exhausting. It's so tiring. We would never stand for that. Imagine the conservative world was like, there's no going back to brunch. We have to just constantly be on guard and on alert and talking about this all the time. We'd be like, bro, stop it. We're going to brunch. We're going to Waffle House, actually.
- [40:27]
Mary Katharine Ham
Yeah. To give you a taste, another flavor of this, this is the the letter from the objectors to Petworth Peanuts. We write as concerned members of the Petworth Peanuts community, Parents, caregivers and neighbors who are deeply invested in safety, inclusion and. And solidarity. It requested a town hall for open dialogue about justice issues. This is a parent group. They said the political moment requires acknowledging that silence is not neutral in moments of crisis. Silence is siding with power. They're coming for everything and they have since 2020. And they want every part of your Life to be 2020 again all the time. The leaders of this group, who certainly are not right leaning, they just wanted a parents group, they eventually did the right thing and said, if you want to do this, you need to go elsewhere. And they rebooted the group chat and started a new WhatsApp. And you know what? It's been non toxic and pleasant ever since because if you put your foot down with these people, they won't ruin things like USA Hockey and parent groups where you just want to do things that are needed in your life.
- [41:42]
Carol Markowitz
Yeah, you have to fight them is the reality of it. And what we saw in the years after 2020, I think that a lot of people learned very valuable lessons where if you give them an inch, they'll take the whole mile. I saw it happen on my super far left neighborhood groups back in Brooklyn where you were not allowed, you know, the liberals were the ones targeted the most. Again, nobody cares what conservatives think or what we do or whatever. We're non entities to them. But it's the liberals who are targeted by the leftists who like, you're not doing enough, you're not far enough, you're not with us. And the liberal's like, no, no, I'm with you. But then once you give them a little bit of that, no, no, I'm with you, it's over for you.
- [42:24]
Mary Katharine Ham
It's. And this is what was good about the USA Hockey thing, by the way, that none of those guys really gave an inch. And then by the way, on snl, they had both the women and the men out and did a good natured joke about the whole thing. And it turns out that like people who are emotionally well regulated can just enjoy life and not make a huge deal out of everything. I do think at the end of this, what you learn from this parenting group crack up is that even in a liberal group in PETWORTH In Washington D.C. there are, there is a silent majority that just wants to enjoy the thing that you've created and doesn't like these people ruining it. But someone has to stand up and be the bad guy. And the leader of this group was.
- [43:02]
Carol Markowitz
Yeah, yeah, right. You gotta stand up to him. That's, that's the reality of it. And you have to be brave and you have to not care about the shots. And you, if you're a liberal, you have to just, just be like, I'm still gonna stay a liberal and I don't care what you say.
- [43:13]
Mary Katharine Ham
Yeah. And they're gonna be super mean to you. But it turns out in this case, and this may be the vibe shift, they did just go and form their other one. And people who want to be insufferable or over there doing it. And then in the old one, people are actually talking about parenting because one of the silent majority was like, yeah, I just wanna know, like, what activities to put my kid in. I don't. Not looking to do it.
- [43:36]
Carol Markowitz
Going to Gymboree. You know, it's.
- [43:38]
Mary Katharine Ham
It's so ridiculous. There was a very funny liberal, very liberal coded miscue here where one of the board members, some of them say, you know, we need to show our support for immigrant families in direct ways. And someone suggested maybe we should make appreciation posts for our nannies, which is.
- [44:04]
Carol Markowitz
How'd that go?
- [44:05]
Mary Katharine Ham
Very liberal, affluent messaging there. Yeah, she got criticized for that one.
- [44:10]
Carol Markowitz
Yeah. Yep, yep. I remember when Kelly Osborne on, I think it was on the View during the first Trump term, she was like, if Trump deports all the immigrants who are gonna, who's gonna clean our toilets? And it's like, yes, we thought she was being pro immigrant there.
- [44:25]
Mary Katharine Ham
Oh, my gosh. Political. When the schools were closed or when the longest civil rights violation of daily activities. My living memory happened. But whatever. Sure. Now that, now that Trump used the National Guard to. By the way, I checked it. Bring crime down 20% in the Petworth neighborhood. They're like, well, now we're very angry right now.
- [44:51]
Carol Markowitz
We have to do something. Yeah. Oh, crazy people. All right.
- [44:56]
Mary Katharine Ham
May those friendships not find me.
- [45:01]
Carol Markowitz
They run after me, but I run faster.
- [45:03]
Mary Katharine Ham
Yes.
- [45:04]
Carol Markowitz
Thanks for joining us on Normally Normally, Eric, 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, you act normally.
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Carol Markowitz
There's a fire inside you you can't ignore.
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Mary Katharine Ham
Not a chance.
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Carol Markowitz
You're a lifelong learner who's kind come this far.
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Now we are here to help you keep going. Further.
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Mary Katharine Ham
Capella University what can't you do? Visit Capella. Edu to learn more. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.