Normally Podcast: Renee Good Shooting, Iran’s Silenced Protests & Why Parenting Needs Boundaries

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: "Normally Podcast: Renee Good Shooting, Iran’s Silenced Protests & Why Parenting Needs Boundaries"

Date: January 13, 2026
Hosts: Mary Kassenham & Carol Markowitz

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Mary Kassenham and Carol Markowitz dive into three major topics shaping current headlines:

1. The controversial shooting of activist Renee Goode by an ICE agent in Minnesota and the complex intersection of activism, law enforcement, and city policy.
2. The intensifying and underreported protests in Iran, and Western media’s puzzlingly muted response.
3. A lively discussion on modern parenting, focusing on discipline, boundaries, and what happens when parents lose control.

With their trademark mix of intelligence, humor, and sharp opinion, Mary and Carol tackle difficult subjects with frankness and practical perspective.

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1. Renee Goode Shooting: Activism Meets Law Enforcement

Key Points & Insights

• Incident Summary: Renee Goode, an activist, was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minnesota after intervening in a federal law enforcement operation.
• Complex Landscape: The hosts discuss the unique dangers that arise when direct-action protest cultures in left-leaning cities clash with federal agents operating without local cooperation.
• Breakdown of Events:
  • ICE was active in specific neighborhoods due to lack of local police cooperation, which Mary argues increases risks for both officers and civilians.
  • The cultural norm against physically interfering in active law enforcement has eroded in some protest circles.

Quotes & Analysis

• On protest escalation:

  “Putting your body and your vehicle into an active federal law enforcement operation was not a good idea. But we have not preserved that cultural norm in many, many places. And it can end really, really badly.”
  — Mary (04:05)

• On changing attitudes:

  “There's been a shift... especially middle class to affluent white women... believe they could just get in the middle of a police investigation or an ICE operation... and everything will just stop.”
  — Carol (05:00)

• On demonization of law enforcement:

  “Democrats are portraying ICE agents as illegitimate because they don’t want to say what their position on immigration is... so they found this demon for their audience to attack.”
  — Carol (05:23)

Use of Force Discussion

• Mary argues once a car is involved, reasonable fear on the part of officers is understandable (06:41).
• Carol mocks the idea of downplaying car assaults:

  “They're like, she just tapped him a little. She just grazed him. She hit him with her car.”
  — Carol (07:24)

• Both regret how this situation spiraled and recognize mistakes on both sides while emphasizing that responsibility ultimately lies with those escalating the incident.

Broader Problems Identified

• Sanctuary Cities & Policy Consequences:

  "They have had to take on this giant operation because liberal cities are explicitly not cooperating... You have created conditions that are gonna be problematic."
  — Mary (08:53, 09:43)

• Masked Agents & Safety:

  “They wouldn't be masked if they weren't threatened... We've gone so far, I just over the line that I think it’s a scary time to be in law enforcement.”
  — Carol (09:47)

• Communication & Clarity:
  Mary makes clear law enforcement must always be both marked and clearly identified (10:25), even if she understands agents' security concerns about masking.

Memorable Moment — Alternate Police Encounter (Clip)

[13:49 – 15:20]
The hosts play audio from a recent, comparatively calm incident where a mother rolls up on a police scene with her child. The officers control the situation, affirm her right to record, and enforce distance—all calmly.

• Carol’s reaction:

  “She’d love a ticket. She would love a ticket. She’s like, more law enforcement interaction, please.”
  — Carol (15:40)

• Mary notes:

  “These arrests can go so wrong so fast. Even for people who are trained to be in the area.”
  — Mary (16:45)

Takeaway

The hosts urge that more adults—in politics and among activists—should encourage clear boundaries around law enforcement events to keep everyone safer.

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2. Iran’s Silenced Protests and Western Hypocrisy

Key Points & Insights

• Protest Overview: Large-scale, potentially transformative protests are taking place in Iran, with reports of regime violence and hundreds possibly killed or injured.
• Western Media Response: The New York Times, Washington Post, and other outlets offer sparse coverage, which the hosts see as a major missed opportunity for solidarity and global human rights advocacy.

Quotes & Analysis

• On support from the left:

  “If you're reading the New York Times... this is barely a blip. And really, I just don’t see any rooting for this on the left at all, which just makes no sense.”
  — Carol (22:01) “It’s such an obviously human rights focused story, free speech focused story, things that they claim passionate about.”
  — Mary (22:51)

• Trump’s stance and political opposites:
  The hosts note confusion on the left—because Trump expresses public support for Iranian protesters, progressive outlets may reflexively avoid supporting the movement (23:01–23:12).

Highlighted Social Media Perspective

Carol reads a pointed critique by Tamina Debazorgi about media self-censorship:

“The Western liberal media is ignoring the Iranian uprising because explaining it would force an admission it is desperate to avoid. The Iranian people are rebelling against Islam itself, and that fact shatters the moral framework through which these institutions understand the world...”
— Tamina Debazorgi, via Carol (24:10)

• Mary and Carol discuss how many on the left have conflated criticism of Islamic regimes with racism, missing the historical and cultural realities of modern, pre-mullah Iran and ignoring the protests’ feminist significance (25:49–26:21).

Broader Connections

• Comparison to U.S. policing, and how perspective is often lost when equating American law enforcement issues with theocracies or totalitarian regimes (26:21–26:34).
• Note that Iranian- and Venezuelan-Americans are vocally frustrated by the West’s blind spots (26:27, 26:34).

Democrat Messaging and Hamas

• Sudden shift among Democrats publicly distancing from Hamas-supporting protestors (such as AOC) is scrutinized (26:34–30:46).

  "All of a sudden... the chants made explicit that they were pro Hamas... The AOCs of the world are like, could you be just a bit less clear? Because I need to have plausible deniability."
  — Mary (27:31)

• Carol speculates that a larger, perhaps coordinated messaging push is at play—one they find almost comically transparent (30:26–31:02).

Antisemitic Attack in the U.S.

• Brief coverage of the arson at Mississippi’s oldest synagogue highlights the ongoing rise in antisemitism and insufficient media attention (31:02–32:27).

---

3. Parenting: Boundaries, Authority, and “My Food, My Food, My Food”

Key Points & Insights

• Viral Parenting Debate: The hosts address a viral story where rationalist blogger Scott Alexander admits difficulty getting his toddler to bed, leading to wider criticism of “Gray Tribe” rationalist parenting.
• Their Perspective: Both Mary and Carol advocate for parents to take clear authority and set boundaries, not leave life decisions to three-year-olds.

Quotes & Analysis

• On parental authority:

  “You’re in charge. Be the parent.”
  — Carol (37:26) "Your 3-year-old doesn't know when he needs to eat food. You know when he needs to eat food."
  — Mary (39:09)

• On negotiation fatigue:

  “The kid’s in charge. Constant thing where they can’t get their kid to bed. And I’m not gonna hate on you, dude, but here’s the deal—you’re in charge.”
  — Mary (36:51)

• On discipline and love:

  "Parents... are like, will my kids still love me if I yell at them? Like, oh, I assure you they will still love you. I yell. I yell quite a bit, actually."
  — Carol (38:19)

Practical Tips

• Choose Your Battles: Decide which issues are worth enforcing—for both sanity and parenting efficacy (38:25).
• Sleep is the Crucial Battle: "Sleep, it makes everything else good or bad... The sleep one is always worth fighting."
  — Carol (40:28)
• On consistency:
  Mary describes evolving her own parenting:

  "I used to be less scheduled, but now I got two kids who are on their schedule and they sleep well and I'm like, hold on, not mess with it."
  — Mary (41:04)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On activist-police risk:

  "I wish that we had observed the cultural norm that putting your body and your vehicle into an active federal law enforcement operation was not a good idea..."
  — Mary (04:22)

• On left's silence on Iran:

  "Why can’t we all be united to want Iran to not free itself? ...to have some normalcy, it was a normal country..."
  — Carol (22:19)

• On parenting boundaries:

  "It is not cruel to not give the reins to a three-year-old."
  — Mary (39:59)

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:06 – Start of discussion on Renee Goode shooting and ICE operations in Minneapolis.
• 10:25 – Conversation about agents being masked and importance of clear law enforcement identification.
• 13:49 – 15:20 – Play and analysis of alternate police-civilian interaction goes smoothly (minivan incident).
• 21:08 – Iran protests topic introduced.
• 24:10 – Carol reads the Tamina Debazorgi tweet.
• 26:34 – Democrats’ sudden about-face on Hamas support/protest messaging.
• 31:02 – Attack on Mississippi synagogue discussed.
• 35:56 – Parenting segment begins.
• 37:26 – Carol's clear message on authority: "Be the parent."
• 39:08 – Mary on parents' responsibility for structure.

---

Conclusion

With humor and forthright analysis, Mary and Carol urge listeners and policymakers alike to reinforce sensible boundaries—whether confronting chaotic activism, choosing where to apply international moral pressure, or putting toddlers to bed. They warn against confusing outrage for activism, highlight media blind spots, and encourage parents to remember: sometimes, being in charge is the most caring thing you can do.

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For full episodes and show details, visit: normallythepodmail.com

Transcript

[Mary Kassenham]

This is an iHeart podcast.

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[Carol Markowitz]

And I'm Carol Markowitz. You know, some days we are like, what should we talk about today? And then other days it's like a deluge of topics. So we're gonna do our best today to squeeze in a bunch of things, but we're gonna have to start here with the very tragic shooting in Minnesota of an activist woman, Renee Goode, by an ICE agent a few days ago.

[Mary Kassenham]

Yeah, it's. By the way, I took my kids to their first Broadway show this weekend and so they were up in New York with me. We were very busy, but I was also working some. And by the time, oh, we saw Lion King, they loved it. But by the time we were coming back on the train, more news was breaking and I just was like, I can't until probably Tuesday. And so because this requires a lot of thinking and a lot of very different angles. So let me start by saying, like, as somebody, you know, who has pretty close experience with law enforcement, I am very concerned about the direct action culture of protesting in liberal cities coming together with an ICE operation that has not been helped by locals.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yep.

[Mary Kassenham]

And therefore has to be in a bunch of neighborhoods and ends up increasing the number of possibly tense situations you are going to have between officers and civilians, which makes both civilians and officers unsafe in many situations. And I wish that we had observed the cultural norm that putting your body and your vehicle into an active federal law enforcement operation was not a good idea. But we have not preserved that cultural norm in many, many places. And it can end really, really badly.

[Carol Markowitz]

I feel like there's been a shift in what a lot of people believe interactions with law enforcement should be like, especially. And it's hard to avoid this observation, but it's been largely kind of middle class to affluent white women who sort of believe that they could just get in the middle of a police investigation or an ICE operation or any number of law enforcement kind of situations. And just them being there will make them stop the whole thing. And I think that people need to get a grip and realize that's just not how it goes. When a law enforcement agent tells you to step out of the car, you step out of the car, you don't gun it. And I think that that's part of what makes society function is that we do have rules and regulations and laws, and these are the people we have trusted to enforce those laws. I wrote about this in a Post column a few days ago. But Democrats are portraying ICE agents as illegitimate because they don't want to say what their position on immigration is. They can't say, hey, we're for open borders, and. And anybody who comes in illegally, we want to ultimately legalize, because that's electoral death. But they also, you know, so they can't say who they are, but they also can't really oppose illegal immigration. So they found this, you know, kind of demon for their audience to attack. And that happens to be people who are enforcing the existing laws. And Democrats can't say, well, we should change these laws because they'd never win again. And so this is where we are.

[Mary Kassenham]

Well, and look, I so wish that this had ended differently. There were decisions made throughout this interaction that escalated it. I think reasonable people can disagree on whether the officer acted reasonably. To me, if there is a car involved, the officer pretty quickly can go to reasonable fear that something is going to hurt him badly or his fellow officer who was on the other side of the car. And I don't want to get into all the forensics of it because there's plenty of that that will happen in court. But once, to me, once a car is involved, you're in pretty safe territory being reasonably, reasonably afraid. And I am a little bit mystified by people who don't think a car, right, is dangerous.

[Carol Markowitz]

They're like, she just tapped him a little. She just grazed him. She hit him with her car.

[Mary Kassenham]

Yes, that is. That is, I think, again, the cultural norm that you cannot hit law enforcement officers with your car or anyone really, at any speed, is one worth preserving. But I wish so much this, this had ended differently. Certainly law enforcement doesn't want it to end this way, but there is a part of this where it's like at each step that you are inserting yourself, you are escalating the situation as a civilian. Now, that may be something that you feel must righteously be done. I want people to be able to robustly protest because there are moments where ICE does stuff, and there have been plenty of reports of it where I go, okay, if you are detaining American citizens, that's a problem. You're making mistakes. If you're detaining them for any length of time without access to lawyers, that's a mistake. You're messing up. There have been questions about recruiting and whether training is commensurate with this giant operation that they have had to take on now. They have had to take on this giant operation because liberal cities are explicitly not cooperating. There is a way where this gets done because when a criminal is detained, the local police honor the ICE detainer. And then ICE comes to the jail, away from everyone, and picks up this person. By the way, Bill Melujian included.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, I was gonna say that. Yeah.

[Mary Kassenham]

On the people that they picked up in Minneapolis, that this was an attempt to.

[Carol Markowitz]

Hundreds of people. Not like three or four. Hundreds and hundreds of people.

[Mary Kassenham]

Well, and importantly, the worst of the worst.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Mary Kassenham]

Were people with convictions, sometimes multiple, of child assault, sexual assault, child sexual assault, rape, murder. I mean, these were very serious problems. And the practical position of the Jacob Fries of the world, who is the mayor who says he wants his city to be safe.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right.

[Mary Kassenham]

Is that there is no way that he should cooperate to turn those people over. And therefore, there needs to be active warrant serving and arresting elsewhere in the city at all times. Like.

[Carol Markowitz]

That's right.

[Mary Kassenham]

You have created conditions that are gonna be problematic. Yep.

[Carol Markowitz]

And they wouldn't, you know, people say these masked agents, they wouldn't be masked if they weren't threatened. They wouldn't be masked if there weren't people explicitly saying, we're going to find who you are and do things to you. We've gone so far, I just over the line that I think that it's a scary time to be in law enforcement. And the fact that Democrats have rendered these people illegitimate in the eyes of their base is a real big ongoing problem. And the fact that the violence is so easily and readily excused is just an ongoing issue for all of us.

[Mary Kassenham]

And when it comes to masking, you're right, Carol, that there is an impetus for the masking. I'm on the fence about it. I think it can be really problematic when people are masked, Partly because the communication of commands can get more tricky when you're masked. And that is an important part of these interactions. They should always be marked as law enforcement. That is a part that I am not on the fence about. If you come in an unmarked vehicle and you are wearing clothes that do not indicate your organization, that's a problem, because people will misread it. In this particular case, she knew she was engaged with law Enforcement.

[Carol Markowitz]

She absolutely did.

[Mary Kassenham]

Law enforcement was masked but very clearly marked. Was clearly. The guy in particular who shot was clearly gathering evidence about her car with his video as he was walking around it. And they were aware of this the entire time. So that, that wasn't a miscommunication nor were the commands which were. I, I actually did concede there could be confusing commands here where one guy's telling you to leave the scene and another guy's saying get out of the car. It didn't appear that way on the video. So I just. There's so much inability of public officials to be adult about these things. You had a police chief in Portland crying about the fact that he had to reveal that two Trinde Aragua linked people who had been involved in another ICE shooting because they tried to run over an ICE agent. You haven't heard a lot about that one because it ended up that those guys were criminal records.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right. That one disappeared from the news fast.

[Mary Kassenham]

The Portland police chief is crying not because of victims in his community, but because he has to reveal that these people were culpable and that that might reflect badly on other Latinos. I don't know why you're automatically putting Trinder agua in legal.

[Carol Markowitz]

Unbelievable.

[Mary Kassenham]

Latino citizens in the same bucket. That is not behavior that inspires confidence. Philip Bump can go on TV and cry all day because he's not making decisions about people's lives.

[Carol Markowitz]

But also shouldn't.

[Mary Kassenham]

No, no, also should not. But police chiefs are called to do a grown up job and make grown up decisions. And the same goes for frankly JD Vance like saying just too much like Homan had the right approach where he's like this is an investigation. We will find out more. Everyone else, let's just. Can we give it a minute?

[Carol Markowitz]

Right? And the thing is it's very hard to give it a minute when you see the left turning this guy into, you know, a murderous crazy person who just wanted to kill her for no reason. And oh, his life wasn't threatened. He was just grazed by a 5,000, you know, 2,000 whatever. How many ever many thousands of pounds car.

[Mary Kassenham]

I do, I do want to emphasize that it is not in dispute that the car made contact with. Oh yeah, that is at any speed. That's just an, that's just a pertinent fact.

[Carol Markowitz]

He should have jumped out of the way. They say like who are you on your couch watching this thinking like oh I would have just hopped out of the way. Like plus her wife was screaming drive, baby, drive. And it's, you know, she's after the. After it happened. The wife was also screaming, this was my fault. And look, I don't know, maybe, maybe, maybe you shouldn't have been screaming. Drive, baby, drive.

[Mary Kassenham]

Can we play? So there's another video. I believe this is also out of Minnesota. It is not the same people. There's been some allegations that it's the same person. It's not. It's just a woman who arrives at an arrest scene and wants to be involved in it. And she's a civilian. And this is the interaction she has with the cops there who handle it extremely well. It's about a little over a minute long. And this is the kind of thing that can just go very badly because you're putting yourself in a dangerous situation. Let's listen to. To this clip.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

I'm.

[Mary Kassenham]

I'm far enough away. I'm not influencing anything. I don't know. I need you to get in your. No, I won't, ma'. Am. I need you to leave. It's my right to be here. I will not as well.

[Carol Markowitz]

You were too close right now.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

You were interfering.

[Mary Kassenham]

You are going to get out of my. My face. No, I won't. Tell me why. I'm far enough away from your investigation. Step beyond our cars. Don't touch me, please. Where's your cars? Right here. Where's your cars? All the way. Oh, that's great. That's great. Sure. Beyond your cars. 20ft, right. You see that white, white car? I have a six year old right here.

[Carol Markowitz]

I have a six year old right.

[Mary Kassenham]

Here in my car. Child in danger. Getting. Get your child off of the scene. This is an active police scene. This is all on camera right now too.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Right here.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yes.

[Mary Kassenham]

I'm wonderful. I'm very glad for it. I can be right here. I'm happy right here. You have the right to videotape. I do. Thank you, sir.

[Carol Markowitz]

Listen to me right now.

[Mary Kassenham]

I'm gonna listen, but we have someone that's being detained right here.

[Carol Markowitz]

Okay. You have a.

[Mary Kassenham]

Tell me where you need me to go.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Inside. I need you to stay.

Do me a favor.

[Mary Kassenham]

Yeah, I'll leave.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

No car seat.

Okay.

[Mary Kassenham]

Give me a favor.

[Carol Markowitz]

You can videotape all you like, but.

[Mary Kassenham]

You have to stay. You cannot come past that driveway. Okay?

[Carol Markowitz]

I'll be right back.

[Mary Kassenham]

Thank you.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Thank you.

[Carol Markowitz]

Stay at your car though. Okay?

[Mary Kassenham]

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Do me a favor.

[Carol Markowitz]

My state hall.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

We're policeman too.

[Carol Markowitz]

That child is supposed to be in a booster seat. He's not of age, so make sure you put him in a booster Seat.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Because I'd hate to give you a ticket.

[Mary Kassenham]

You can give me a ticket.

[Carol Markowitz]

I'd love it. She'd love it. She would love a ticket. She's like, more law enforcement interaction, please. Like, I need it all. So you brought a child to an ICE bus, lady, look, it's not.

[Mary Kassenham]

It's just not smart. And this went extremely well. The officers handled her beautifully by, by the way, being nice to her and affirming her right. She does have the right to film and that is important. And frankly, a lot of police officers are happy to have body cam and happy to be filmed from many angles because in the age of the body cam, it has exonerated a bunch of them. So good cops are happy to be filmed in many places now. She has her kid with her. She's on this scene. He affirms her right. He tells her where to be. She complies while complaining, Fine. It all ends fine. These arrests can go so wrong so fast. Even for people who are trained to be in the area.

[Carol Markowitz]

There's still people, you know, it just.

[Mary Kassenham]

And you have no idea who they're arresting or how armed that person is. It just. You are. You cannot de. Arrest people. ICE does have certain jurisdiction when it comes to blocking their vehicles. And I just really would encourage people to be careful about the scenes that they are rolling up into now. She rolls up into this scene as a woman with a phone, not a woman with a car. That is inherently less problematic for the officers. So they can walk her back to her car. And I pray that all interactions go this smoothly. But when you're increasing the number of the interactions and you're increasing the idea that there aren't consequences for this, you'll get into bad places.

[Carol Markowitz]

Absolutely. Democrats should be grownups and tell their base to calm down a little bit. You're allowed to film, as these officers said, but you're not allowed to hit people with your car. That's really where we draw the line. We'll be right back with more on normally talking about the amazing brave protesters in Iran. Be right back.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

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[Mary Kassenham]

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[Carol Markowitz]

Rock, paper scissors.

[Mary Kassenham]

Shoot. No the Wells Fargo ActiveCash credit card. Visit Wells Fargo.com ActiveCash terms applied.

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[Mary Kassenham]

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[Mary Kassenham]

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[Mary Kassenham]

Right? Carol another sort of generationally important news story happening while this very complicated story in Minnesota was unfolding. And that is ongoing protests in Iran. Which, you know my ideology happens to be burn government buildings in Tehran, not Minneapolis. That's my particular vibe, and I'm glad to see it happening. It seems to be spreading. Trump has, of course, said on social and I think verbally that he would stand up for protesters if the regime cracked down on them. There are reports that the regime is cracking down on protesters.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yep.

[Mary Kassenham]

Some doctors reporting and getting some information out that hundreds perhaps have been admitted to hospitals or even killed. And I'm not sure where exactly this goes, but it does seem more just in numbers and energy than it has in the past when Iranians have. Have risen up.

[Carol Markowitz]

That's right. And you know, if you're reading the New York Times or the Washington Post, this is barely a blip. They are covering it like it's, you know, not a big deal. And really just I don't see any rooting for this on the left at all, which just makes no sense.

[Mary Kassenham]

Can we go back to the left.

[Carol Markowitz]

That would have loved this kind of thing? Like, why can't we all be united to want Iran, you know, to not free itself? Right. I'm not naive enough to imagine they're going to be free, but at least to throw off the mullahs, to gain some independence, to have some normalcy, it was a normal country. You know, this idea that the left is supposed to just oppose everything that Trump supports and therefore can't stand up for the people of Iran at all. I hate that.

[Mary Kassenham]

Well, and it's such a obviously human rights focused story, free speech focused story, things that they claim, passionate about.

[Carol Markowitz]

Feminism. Feminism. Where are the feminists?

[Mary Kassenham]

An important one as well. And I think, you know, it doesn't fit the narrative that they want to be talking about right now.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Mary Kassenham]

And it's confusing for them. And, and again, because Trump is supportive, they go, their brains just go, I must be against. Which is not the case. It would be hugely wonderful for the world if they were able to overthrow current leadership, which by the way, is beset by economic problems, monetary problems, the loss of its proxies thanks to Israel, the loss of its nuclear program thanks to us, the age of its awful leader. You know, it's facing a lot of handicaps right now. And yeah, a little bit of cheerleading from the west would be great. Yeah. It has been good to see people of Iranian and Venezuelan descent happily flood social media. Like, let me explain this to you exactly, because I do think people who are left leaning and of good faith are more, perhaps more willing to hear that from the people who have fled those regimes.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right. There was a great tweet by somebody named. I don't know her, but she works at IG IJ and her name is Tamina Debazorgi. I'm sorry if I'm butchering that, but I won't read the whole tweet because it's quite long. But I just want to say these two paragraphs. The Western liberal media is ignoring the Iranian uprising because explaining it would force an admission it is desperate to avoid. The Iranian people are rebelling against Islam itself, and that fact shatters the moral framework through which these institutions understand the world. Ideally, to cover an uprising is not just to show crowds and slogans. It requires answering a basic question. Why are people risking death in Iran? The answer is simple and unavoidable. The people are rising up because the Islamic Republic of Iran has spent decades suffocating every aspect of life. Speech, work, family, art, women, and economic survival under a clerical system that treats liberty as a crime. There is no way to tell that story without confronting the nature of the regime. It's difficult to argue with that. It's that. And she goes on to say that in the West, Islam has become kind of shorthand for brown people or Arabs or the Middle East. It's. It's as if Islam were a skin color rather than a doctrine. And this is the problem that a lot of leftist outlets have. They have drawn this line for themselves where they're always on the side of the brown people, and they've decided that Islam means brown people, and so they will be pro Islam. None of it makes any sense and actually clashes with a lot of their other beliefs, as we pointed out. But this one trumps them all.

[Mary Kassenham]

Well. And it forgets how urbane and modern and good for women Iran was before.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right.

[Mary Kassenham]

The mullahs took over. That's something they sort of can't confront. And therefore. And it's not to say that police actions in this country cannot be unjust. They certainly can. And officers have an. Have a duty to be smart about how they interact with civilians. But instead they focus on this sort of total loss of perspective that we are Venezuela or we are Iran.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right.

[Mary Kassenham]

And that these are analogous when we're having a conversation about policing.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Mary Kassenham]

And they lose total perspective about this. Exactly as the Iranian Americans and Venezuelan Americans are definitely noticing.

[Carol Markowitz]

Absolutely. So this kind of a side note to this whole thing, this really weird thing happened with Democrats over the weekend where they suddenly realized Hamas is. They all posted. The first one I saw was aoc. She was criticizing protesters in Queens who were chanting pro Hamas slogans. And she basically said that this is anti Semitic. And everybody on Twitter went, what? Why? Why is she saying this?

[Mary Kassenham]

Where did this come from?

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, right. And then it was a pile on, including Zoran Mamdani. Mayor Zoran Mamdani, who was unable to condemn the phrase globalize the intifada not that long ago was suddenly condemning globalizing the intif. And I saw some people saying that it could be tied to the idea that Iran is about to fall or, you know, in danger. And these people want to be on the right side of history. But I'm not sure that that's it. What do you think?

[Mary Kassenham]

This seemed all very coordinated, and all of a sudden, part of it, I think, is that the chants of this particular crowd made very, very explicit that they were pro Hamas. There was no covering it with, like, the Palestinian cause with a couple of Hamas flags thrown in. It was like, no, no, no. We want to be very clear. We love hamas, and the AOCs of the world are like, could you be like, just a tiny bit less clear? Because I need to have plausible deniability. So that might have been part of it, but I think it's been fairly obvious all along, right, they support Hamas. Is it a move by the left? Seeing the tough of the right seems more likely and the groiper class ascendant in some way, although I don't think it's as ascended among normies as people would suggest. But is it their intention to highlight that and to make it part of their pitch in 2026? Like, hey, guys, we're. Hi, Jews, we're back.

[Carol Markowitz]

Right, Right. Look, you know that. I think that's it. If I had to guess, I would say that that is it. There are not that many gripers and there are not that many Tuckers on the right, but they are loud and they exist. And, you know, the truth is that the administration is not doing a great job at beating them back. Tucker was at the White House for a meeting with oil executives from, you know, dealing with Venezuela a few days ago. Who invited him? Why was he there? All of that, you know, is a question mark.

[Mary Kassenham]

If it were me, I simply would not invite people who talk junk about me every day to my house, you think?

[Carol Markowitz]

Right. So I. I don't know. People saying JD and, you know, Vance invited him. I don't know if that's true. I. It could have easily been Donald Trump. He is a very. Wants to, like, everybody wants to be liked by everybody guy, for better or for sometimes worse. And so I don't know. I think that that's right. Though you'll notice that the New York Times, for example, isn't reporting on all of Tucker's deranged commentary. He kind of is getting a pass from them. And don't think that's because they like him now. It's because they're going to use that against Republicans in the midterms or in 28. They're keeping their powder dry. And that is why you're not hearing the Tucker and Gruper people being tied to Republicans quite yet. But we certainly will be hearing that soon. But here's a question I have. You know, my husband, who is a big normie, big fan of the show, asked me, who sends them this script, why do Democrats all end up using the exact same language? And my husband was like, is it the dnc? And I was like, oh, it's definitely not the dnc, because AOC would take that, you know, note and throw it in the garbage if it's the dnc. So it has to be somebody, somebody is coordinating this. And that is a story that I would love for the New York Times or, like, semaphore to tell. Where is this coming from?

[Mary Kassenham]

Also, why don't they make it slightly less obvious? And this goes for anyone who gets these talking points, like just a tiny bit. A little, tiny bit. So you're not all doing the exact same tweet at the same time. Yeah, I don't know. But this one very clearly was a. A heel turn.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah.

[Mary Kassenham]

And an about face. Everybody, everybody, as the meme goes, installed their new chip. Like, half is bad, actually. And I, I would love to join late comers in the Hamas bad camp. However, I am somewhat skeptical of their sincerity.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah. So in other news, if we're going to just keep in this topic vein, the oldest synagogue in Mississippi was attacked with fire over the weekend. A suspect has been charged with arson. No name yet for that suspect. A lot of people are tagging me on X, but I, I don't know yet. So I'll keep posted if I hear anything. It's a really terrible story. It's, you know, again, the oldest synagogue in Mississippi. It should be a gigantic story that this kind of thing is going on in America. I, you know, I would hope that bigger the stories like this would be kind of more front and center. We're doing our best on here, but it really should be more of a story.

[Mary Kassenham]

Yeah. I just want to note from New York Times, the synagogue's library where the fire originated and surrounding rooms were severely damaged. Mr. Felton said. Who's the rabbi, I believe reduced to black and charred ruins. There is smoke damage throughout the building. Two Torahs in the library were destroyed, which is just like a lifetime of work because those are handmade by hand written. One was, one survived which was in a glass case, which was a Torah rescued during the Holocaust. So that's a little bright spot in there, but really awful news and like you said, something that should be larger news. By the way, Charles Felton, excuse me, is the chief of investigations for the fire department that is looking into this.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, well, prayers to the people in Mississippi. Glad nobody was hurt. At least that's a bright spot. And looking forward to hearing who the suspect is. All right, we'll be right back with one more segment of Normally, let's talk about parenting. Why not?

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[Mary Kassenham]

Alrighty, Carol, we're back on normal. It was a little parenting chat. There's always a parenting discussion going on on the Internet. This one went a little viral yesterday because someone was critiquing a public intellectual of sorts, Scott Alexander, I believe, founder of Slate Star Codex, which is sort of a libertarian Silicon Valley thinky blog. At any rate, someone was picking on him, or not picking on him, but critiquing him for publicizing that. Yeah, he can't get his toddlers to bed, right? And saying, hey, if this is like the rationalist intellectual part of this movement and they can't control 3 year olds, like what does that mean? This, this movement, can they control? This movement, by the way, is called the Gray Tribe Rationalists. But he tells a fairly normalish story about putting his kid to bed and all the things that his kid wants with. They give a 10 minutes to bedtime warning, they give a 5 minutes to bedtime warning. His kid then wants food. And this is an interesting part because he knows we're softies and won't let him go to bed hungry. They let him eat again and then they try to take him away from his food and he screams, my food, my food, my food, my food, my food. Because it worked the first time and they're just caught in this. Yeah, the kid's in charge. Yeah, constant thing where they can't get their kid to bed. And I like, I'm not gonna hate on you, dude, but here's the deal. You're in charge.

[Carol Markowitz]

Be the parent, you're in charge. Be the parent. Yeah. You know, it's very hard to give parenting advice because, you know, kids change, your situation changes. It's like the idea that you're, you're so good at the parenting that you've raised your kids and you want to give advice to others, it's tough. It's a tough little line to walk. But my kids are 15, 12 and 10, so I could comment on the toddler years and say, you have to be authoritarian. You're the king here, okay? This is not a democracy. Your kids do not get a vote. And that's really where these kinds of people have to understand that they are in charge. And the other thing that I will tell them, and this is the crazy thing that I hear a lot, parents who are like, well, will my kids still love me if I yell at them? Like, oh, I assure you they will still love you. I yell. I yell quite a bit, actually.

[Mary Kassenham]

Also, here's the thing. Look, yes, same. Same as you with the caveat on parenting advice. This, this thing could go sideways any minute.

[Carol Markowitz]

Any minute, right.

[Mary Kassenham]

But having been there with toddlers and having learned through several children, because I think I was too tough in my expectations of my first kid and then realized I was developmentally appropriate at various times. Yeah, we just had too many standoffs that were not necessary and I should have just been like, oh, you're two and a half. But I do think there's a lot of people responding to this who are like, no, this is just like how toddlers act. And that's true. Look, maybe you haven't decided that bedtime is the battle you want to fight. Right? You're going to let the kids sort of dictate that. If that's your decision and you've got other things under control, fine. I do think what people miss is that children need you to be in control.

[Carol Markowitz]

They do. They need the borders.

[Mary Kassenham]

Your 3 year old doesn't know when he needs to eat food. You know when he needs to eat food. And a simple fix for this would be, hey, bud, I know you're hungry sometimes at bedtime, but we have dinner at this time and after 6:00 clock or 7:00 clock or whatever it is, we do no more, we're done. So when he asks for food again, you say, babe, there's the clock. You see the six? We're learning sixes. It's past six, so we will not be adding anything. But let's go upstairs and read your book.

[Carol Markowitz]

Yeah, yeah. Redirect for sure. And understand that These toddlers are playing you. They are smart. They're not dumb. Yeah, they're little and they're not really fully developed. But like, they are smart and they know how to play you. So when the kid is screaming my food, they know what it's gonna do to you. And you know what they know.

[Mary Kassenham]

Yeah, he admits he knows exactly what is his weak spot and the kid knows what the weak spot is. And like I said, choose your battles. But if this is plaguing you and your kid isn't getting enough sleep and you're having constant negotiations, draw the line in the sand and stick with it. Because you are the one who knows what should happen here and you shouldn't trust that judgment to the three year old. And it is not cruel to not give the reins to a three year old.

[Carol Markowitz]

That's right. And sleep is the most important battle. I'll just add that at the, you know, to. As our final note. Because sleep, it makes everything else good or bad. When you're not sleeping, when nobody's sleeping in the house, everything turns to, you know, and it's, it's not a good situation. So get the sleep figured out and then you can decide whether other battles are worth fighting. But the sleep one is always worth fighting.

[Mary Kassenham]

I'm. I'm with you on that one. And people have different ways of fighting it. Like, I used to be less scheduled, but now I like I got two kids who are on their schedule and they sleep well and I'm like, hold on, not mess with it.

[Carol Markowitz]

Well, 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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