Super Bowl Culture Wars, ICE Surveillance Whiplash & Why Trust in Media Is Collapsing

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: Super Bowl Culture Wars, ICE Surveillance Whiplash & Why Trust in Media Is Collapsing
Date: February 10, 2026

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Overview

This episode dives into the intersection of pop culture, surveillance, policy, and the media landscape. The hosts discuss the Super Bowl’s cultural messaging, lingering surveillance anxieties through mainstream tech, evolving Democratic positions on ICE and body cameras, and the financial and ethical freefall of the legacy press—most notably, the Washington Post. The episode closes with a look at blue state exoduses, especially among Jewish communities, and how permissive liberal policies are driving migration and frustration in urban centers.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Super Bowl Culture Wars

[02:44 – 06:57]

• Hosts Mary Katharine Ham and Carol Markowitz reflect on the Super Bowl’s cultural tone, halftime shows, and the underlying political messaging.
• Reactions to Bad Bunny’s all-Spanish halftime performance, and the inclusion of Ricky Martin, are discussed as part of an ongoing trend toward internationalization and "representation."
• Skepticism about claims of new representation, given the prominent “Latin pop moment” decades ago (e.g., Ricky Martin, Gloria Estefan).

Memorable Quotes:

• "I really did have a problem with the ‘God Bless America’ and then listing all the countries in North and South America, as if that's what you're talking about when you're talking about God blessing America. It just…don't try to like, fool us with this nonsense."
  — Carol Markowitz [03:30]
• "This thing that the left always does where they say finally there’s representation… In the show where you’re saying there’s finally representation is Ricky Martin? He was one of the central faces of the giant Latin pop moment!"
  — Mary Katharine Ham [05:58]

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2. Surveillance State & The “Dog” Ring Camera Ad

[06:57 – 09:19]

• Discussion springs from a Super Bowl ad for Ring’s AI-powered lost dog search, prompting concerns about normalization of mass surveillance.
• Hosts see the ad as masking surveillance expansion under the guise of feel-good animal rescue.
• Debate over the futility and inevitability of public camera surveillance.

Memorable Quotes:

• "Let me let you in on a secret, guys: we're the dogs."
  — Mary Katharine Ham [07:35]
• "That ship has sailed…You go outside and there are cameras everywhere and they're watching you and it's over."
  — Carol Markowitz [08:26]

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3. ICE, Body Cams, and Political Whiplash

[09:19 – 15:25]

• Update on Democrats’ shifting stance on ICE body cameras: previously seen as essential for accountability, now viewed as potentially dangerous for protester privacy due to facial recognition.
• Body camera footage and FOIA-able data have had complex, sometimes unintended effects, including showing police in a more sympathetic light.
• Discussion of law enforcement cooperation in Minneapolis, post-Renee Goode case, with ICE receiving renewed support from counties.

Memorable Quotes:

• "This is maybe the quickest I’ve ever seen Democrats and liberals go from ‘this is the righteous thing’ to, ‘wait no, the opposite is righteous’."
  — Mary Katharine Ham [09:19]
• "CNN pressing him [Mayor Jacob Frey], he seemed stunned by it."
  — Carol Markowitz [13:55]

Timestamps:

• [12:41] — CNN presses Minneapolis mayor on ICE policy: "It is worth noting, during the Obama years, the Hennepin County jail actually had a policy where they let an ICE agent keep an office there..."
• [14:48] — Discussing change in protester-policing imagery: "It's no longer the protesters running rampant. Now it's police cracking down on it and it changed the image for Americans."

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4. Trust in Media and the Washington Post Crisis

[18:09 – 24:55]

• Post’s layoffs blamed on massive loss in subscriptions and traffic; staff baffled that billionaire Jeff Bezos will not indefinitely subsidize losses.
• Hosts critique the disconnect of journalists who encourage subscription cancellations yet lament job losses.
• Peggy Noonan’s lament about decline in journalism is critiqued, with COVID cited as the era where media most spectacularly failed.
• Broad rundown of recent high-profile media failures (Russiagate, Covington, BLM, Kavanaugh, Biden coverage, etc.).

Memorable Quotes:

• "Why do we need to make money? Which, let me tell you, is not how people who have made money think about it."
  — Carol Markowitz [18:37]
• "I have never understood why people think they're entitled to someone else's money."
  — Mary Katharine Ham [19:15]
• "We just had [the kind of crisis Noonan describes], and journalism failed on a massive, massive level."
  — Carol Markowitz [22:02]
• "Turns out journalism was already in a bad place before the Washington Post firings. Who knew? Except we knew."
  — Carol Markowitz [24:55]

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5. Blue State Blues: Migration & Urban Dysfunction

[27:58 – 34:21]

• Tablet’s article on Jewish migration from New York to Florida is summarized: the main reason is not weather, but “oxygen”—the need for freedom and sanity in governance.
• Critique of progressive urban policy: empathy for perpetrators over victims, illustrated through anecdotes involving crime, dogs, and homelessness.
• Discussion of societal consequences: property owners being evicted due to illegal encampments, permissive malfunctioning city government, and public’s political patience running out.
• San Francisco’s recent crackdown on crime, due to Super Bowl hosting, held up as an example of basic governance returning under pressure.

Memorable Quotes:

• "The person violated is the one who has to sort of take the L, not just the violation, but also affirm the person who has violated them."
  — Mary Katharine Ham [29:20]
• "How did allowing dogs to bite people become a Democratic point of principle?"
  — David Sedaris quote read by Mary Katharine Ham [32:15]
• "There was a point at which people go, like, I don't know, man… Even if I think this guy’s a little much, I can't take this anymore."
  — Mary Katharine Ham on urban voters returning to Trump [33:52]

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Notable Quotes (with Timestamps)

• [03:30] Carol Markowitz:
  "Don't try to like, fool us with this nonsense." (on Super Bowl’s ‘God Bless America’ performance)
• [05:58] Mary Katharine Ham:
  "To claim that finally we're redeemed by Bad Bunny… is erasing the entire Latin pop moment."
• [07:35] Mary Katharine Ham:
  "We're the dogs." (on Ring’s lost dog AI ad as a Trojan horse for personal surveillance)
• [09:19] Mary Katharine Ham:
  "This is maybe the quickest I’ve ever seen Democrats go from ‘this is the righteous thing’ to, ‘wait, no, the opposite is righteous’." (on ICE body cams)
• [13:55] Carol Markowitz:
  "He seemed stunned by it." (on CNN pressing Mayor Frey about ICE and Obama-era policies)
• [22:02] Carol Markowitz:
  "We just had that happen. And journalism failed." (on COVID as media’s moment to step up, which it didn’t)
• [32:15] Mary Katharine Ham (reading David Sedaris):
  "How did allowing dogs to bite people become a Democratic point of principle?"

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Important Segments (Timestamps)

• Super Bowl halftime and cultural messaging: [02:44 – 06:57]
• Ring Camera ad and surveillance concerns: [06:57 – 09:19]
• ICE, body cams, protest policing: [09:19 – 15:25]
• Washington Post layoffs and journalism crisis: [18:09 – 24:55]
• Blue state exodus, urban dysfunction: [27:58 – 34:21]

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Tone & Takeaways

The hosts combine sharp critique, humor, and a right-of-center skepticism on popular trends and progressive politics. Much of the episode reflects frustration with media hypocrisy, shifting liberal positions, and the loss of trust in institutions. Listeners get a detailed, pointed, but conversational navigation through dystopian tech, urban malaise, and what happens when reality intrudes on ideology.

Transcript

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[A]

Hey guys. We are back on normally the show with normalish takes for when the news gets weird. I am Mary Kathryn Hale.

[C]

And I'm Carol Markowitz. Mary Kathryn, did you watch that Super Bowl?

[A]

I did. It was not the most scintillating super bowl, but.

[C]

But the Pinks lost, which is all I was rooting for. So.

[A]

Well, and the head coach of the Seahawks is a dog, so I gotta be excited about that.

[C]

Yes, I watched, but I know that in advance I would have extra rooted for the Seahawks instead of just rooted for them by default because I hate the Patriots.

[A]

So many did. Yes. So many did. I watched the halftime show. Yeah, I. I tend not to get too wrapped up in that. It's like, yes, but I would prefer my generation get a few more Super Bowls before we move on to the young.

[C]

That is true too. Yes. You know, I, I did not watch the halftime show. We did switch to the Turning Point one and then I watched the Bad Bunny one this morning just to kind of catch up on everything. I don't know. I didn't. I don't mind his music and it's not even the. The Spanish or, you know, all being in Spanish that I had a problem with. I really did have a problem with the God bless America and then listen all the countries in north and South America, as if that's what you're talking about when you're talking about God blessing America. It just don't try to like, fool us with this nonsense.

[A]

No, that. That's the part I don't like to. Where it's like, I see you, I see what's happening. Exactly.

[C]

Like, we know what's happening. And I have to say this about the Turning Point show. I thought I would not have any idea. Like, I thought I would have no clue who any of the stars on their performance were. I mean, Kid Rock, obviously, I know, but like everybody else, I turn it on and this woman is singing a country song that I know. You know, the. I Hope by Gabby Barrett. I hope you know, next time she cheats on you. Whatever the. But I was like, I know this one. That's crazy. They got somebody that I've heard of.

[A]

That's. Wow. I thought it was interesting that the Bad Bunny thing. I know it's a play for younger people. It was. I was watching a lot of reels with NFL players where they were asking them, what's your favorite maybe Bad Bunny song? And they're like, they clearly didn't have one. So it's missing at least part of the demo, even among the young and the hip. I thought the staging was cool, but it is like the NFL is just trying to reach an international audience still filled with left leaning executives. And their way to reach an international audience is to not be like, America's awesome. Here we are. Here's some flyovers. And the successful sport that we created, the most successful TV product there is, their version is.

[C]

We'll cater to you.

[A]

Will cater to you. Yeah, yeah.

[C]

And this isn't even one of our topics, but of course this is a hot issue. But Ricky Martin. And I'll have a piece about this in Fox too, because I. It was on my mind this whole halftime show. But Ricky Martin joins Bad Bunny on stage for a song, Lo Que paso In Hawaii. What happened to Hawaii? And it's about Hawaii becoming gentrified and newcomers moving in and people who live there not being able to afford their lifesty. It's like, you know, you could apply this to the rest of the country and talk about illegal immigration. Right. Like, you know what you're saying here. Like, what happened to Hawaii? It could be what happened to America. It's not specific to Hawaii.

[A]

One last point on this. That with the Ricky Martin thing, I appreciate it a little. Ricky Martin, that was my generation. He looks great. This thing that the left always does where they say finally there's representation. Right. And in the show where you're saying there's finally representation is Ricky Martin, who was one of the central faces of the giant Latin pop moment that lasted several years and was almost all of pop music at the time. Like if you look at the. If you look at the TRL countdown around the Ricky Martin era, it's nothing but Latin influenced music.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

So I hate erasing that. To claim that finally we're redeemed by Bad Bunny.

[C]

Gloria Stefan. She was kind of a thing. Yeah. Yeah. All right, let's get into the actual news today. All right, what's our first story? The Ring Camera commercial. I liked it.

[A]

Goodness. Okay, we have a disagreement on this. Can we play the Ring Camera commercial from the Super Bowl? This is Milo.

[B]

Pets are family. But every year 10 million go missing. And the way we look for them.

[C]

Hasn'T changed in years.

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[C]

It'S so touching.

[A]

Let me let you in on a secret, guys. We're the dogs.

[C]

Yeah. They're not gonna just use it on dogs.

[A]

We're the dogs. Like, no, oh, wait. My ring camera can be automatically deployed without my knowledge or consent. Maybe there's some box you check that says yes. But this is this weird thing where we've opted into mass surveillance, which can have many upsides. Right. You can solve crimes more easily. One time I bought something off of Facebook marketplace and lost a piece of it and surveilled myself trying to find where I had left this.

[C]

That's craz cool.

[A]

It worked, by the way. But there are significant downsides. And every tool that law enforcement can use, they will use. And sometimes that will be an invasion of privacy. And I, I just thought that ad was like, I know you're using the dogs. Guys at a seat. I see you. I see what's happening here.

[C]

Right. The thing is, I guess I just think that ship has sailed. Like, it is something that I would have definitely been concerned about 15 years ago. And now I just think, like, you go outside and there are cameras everywhere and they're watching you and it's over. Like, the idea that, that you're not going to be watched on house cameras is, you know, I just think it's that. That that time has passed. I completely understand the concern and feel it also, but just don't feel like there's anything we can do about it.

[A]

Yeah, I'm. I'm sort of with you where it, like, it rankles me. And then I'm like, I'm part of this. Like, I, I put my face and my voice.

[C]

Right.

[A]

And, And I do also appreciate that you can have video to figure out where crimes happened or whether crimes happened. Right. You can, you can. You could see the things.

[C]

Possibility, for sure.

[A]

Yeah. Well, on this, a similar front, I want to give us an update from the Democrats demands for ICE because it sort of dovetails with the ring camera. This is maybe the quickest I've ever seen Democrats and liberals go from this is the righteous thing to wait. No, the opposite is righteous thing. Are you ready for this headline for Politico? ICE surveillance concerns shift Democrats demands for body cameras. Critics fear the cameras could be used to feed video of protesters into facial recognition tools. So the, the thing that they were like, let's must have ICE do this. We have to do this to protect everyone. They are now at the Last minute, when actually a bunch of people like me because all other law enforcement uses body cams, I'm like, that's fine with me. Then they go, what, do we don't like body cams anymore?

[C]

So funny. And, you know, they should have been onto this when they demanded police officers have body cameras. And all conservatives were like, yeah, I think I agree with that. We were like, all for it. Of course they shot body cameras. Sure. Record all the interactions that they have with, you know, potential criminals and let's see if they behave correctly. Of course.

[A]

Well, and it does seem like there's a shift in messaging on body cameras in general. There was a piece in the New Yorker last week saying that all these FOIA able, like, so readily available body cams of drunk people doing sobriety tests and stuff, saying that they exploit women because there are YouTube videos, there are YouTube channels that take these funny videos and put them up, and the worst day of your Life is on YouTube and there's nothing you can do about it. But also, body cams have revealed, I think largely that cops do a really hard job and that they are often, though there are bad apples. They are often just having the patience of saints and behaving really well with people who are very, very challenging and. Or trying to kill them. And I think the left is maybe not excited about how that worked out.

[C]

Right. Having people see that up close, I think is not what they had in mind.

[A]

It is not what they had in mind. There are more updates from Minnesota. You will notice that the news has moved on, which always is my clue to say, that's the tell. What happened, guys? So Tom Homan went to Minneapolis. He took over the process, and his most recent report is, I'm getting cooperation from the counties. They were already getting cooperation from higher level prisons and state level, but counties were not operating with ICE to give them criminals from the jails. Right. And so he says, I'm getting better cooperation. We're going to cut down the number of officers by 700. Now there was a lot of like, oh, no, Trump caved. I don't think that's the case. Because what happened was Trump said, there will be 2,000 officers, ICE folks, if you guys don't help us out. And then once Renee Goode had been killed, he upped it to 3,000, and now we're minus 700. So we're still over 2,000. Homan apparently has cooperation from people. So I think we're like, this seems like a better place to be.

[C]

Yeah. And we kind of knew that Hohman coming in would change the dynamics a little bit. I think it happened faster than I expected. I didn't think that it would happen this quickly. I didn't think they'd drop it this quickly. But here they are.

[A]

We have a little video just to see how this. The worm has turned here of CNN asking Jacob Fry, the mayor of Minneapolis, a tough question. And I find this fascinating. Here we go. It is worth noting that during the Obama years, the Hennepin county jail actually had a policy where they let an ICE agent keep an office there and allowed them to talk to immigrants. So the policy has clearly been under a Democratic president. What now the Trump administration is asking for? I mean, big picture. Do you think it's good policy for the jails to follow an ICE detainer and hand someone over if they've committed a crime? And again, this only happens after they've served their time, you know, to. For whatever crime they may have committed against the people of Minnesota. I mean, look, you're asking all the right questions here. And while I don't have full expertise in how the operations at the jail are conducted, again, that's not our jurisdiction. What I would say is that there are mechanisms to do this lawfully. By the way, you should have full knowledge. You're the mayor.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

You could call up a bunch of people and have them brief you on this.

[C]

Exactly. And. And she's asking about something that's in his purview. So it's not like she's asking some crazy statewide question. She's asking about county jails and local jails. It's just, you know, it's interesting because it is such a vibe shift. And we, I know we love that term on here, but CNN pressing him at all. He seemed stunned by it.

[A]

Well, because she's saying, hey, Obama had an ICE officer hanging out in the jail to confer with.

[C]

That's right.

[A]

So why isn't that okay?

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And my question would be the same. Why?

[C]

He's like, that's a good question. Like, thank you. Answer it.

[A]

So things seem to have changed. It also seems like state and local police are doing a lot more policing of protesters, which, again, is why Democrats have now decided that they don't want tape of any of these encounters. The videos have changed.

[C]

It's no longer the protesters running rampant. Now it's police cracking down on it. And it changed the image for Americans. I think, like the normie American who didn't understand what was going on in Minnesota is now seeing a very different picture and I like that.

[A]

Well, and to me it's just your job is to keep people safe. Your job is to. Again, maybe it's my only issue. But like these protesters and agitators do not own the streets. The taxpayers do. They are allowed to drive on them. Do not let them take over like this.

[C]

Yeah, Evergreen. Mary Catherine Evergreen. Could be any cause really. And it will be.

[A]

Yes, it will be. All right, we will be back on normally with more on the dismantling of the Washington Post.

[C]

Oof.

[B]

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We are back on normally where the Washington Post had a round of layoffs recently and that is because they lost around $100 million in 2024 and their traffic has largely cratered. It's owned by Jeff Bezos and the vibe seems to be from the people laid off and the people still working at the Washington Post. Why doesn't he just continue to pay for it? And why did, why do we need to make money? Which let me tell you, is not how people who have made money think about it. They don't think, okay, let me just own this and lose money on it continually. So Jeff Bezos is the target here, but I don't know that any other owner of this newspaper would have done anything differently. The readership has dropped. Daily users fell from a peak of 22.5 million in January 2021 to between 2.5 and 3 million in summer 2024. That's, you know, it's a significant drop, as they say. I, I was told there'd be no math, but I think that's around 90%.

[A]

It's a pretty, pretty big deal. Well, and like the crazy thing about journalists is that many of them who are also activists argued and pushed for happily subscription cancellations after the Washington Post decided not to endorse in the presidential race. Okay, well, it is hard to complain about this becoming a non viable situation once you have encouraged people to drop their subscriptions. There's a huge number of people who are out of jobs. I do not think that that's something to rejoice about. But the extent to which they do not understand that they have made their own beds is amazing to me. And I have never understood in all my life. Maybe this is what makes me right of center. I have never understood why people think they are entitled to someone else's money.

[C]

It's bananas. And I, I've, I've worked for outlets that have gone out of business, heat street was owned by News Corps and, you know, went out of business. Just wasn't doing well. What are you gonna do? That's life. It sucks, but it's life. And this, you know, he only bought the Washington Post for 250 million and he's already lost. I don't. It looks, It's. This says 177 million over the last two years. It's like the purchase price of the newspaper.

[A]

Yeah, it's. It's very serious. And the thing about journalists is many of them are very well off. Right. Particularly like high level anchors and stuff who are complaining about this. And it's like, okay, any one of you rich people who has not taken the portion of your salary that you can spare to hire a full time journalist and put them on your staff or make a new substack for them and completely fund it, you are as morally culpable as you say. Bezos is right. Like you're a millionaire. Why does it matter if you're a multimillionaire? Why does it matter that he's richer? You just. Your assertion is that journalism. Good. Spend money on journalism no matter what. Okay. Do it. Do it.

[C]

Yeah. Which brings us to someone I hate criticizing because she was such an inspiration to me, just, you know, getting started in the journalism world. But Peggy Noonan, her take on this was not the best. And she writes, I fear sometimes that few people really care about journalism, but we are dead without it. Someday something bad will happen, something terrible on a national scale. And the thing we'll need most, literally to survive is information, reliable information, a way to get it and then to get it to the public. That is what journalism is, getting the information. And everyone kind of all at once read this and were like, we just had that happen. And journalism failed on a massive, massive level.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Covid was that era. It was the time where we needed the information and the information was so politicized that we weren't allowed to have it. And people were getting banned From Twitter, from YouTube, and the media was literally not reporting the information that we all knew to be true on schools, on masks, on all of it. And people kept giving other examples of things that, you know, why American trust in media has cratered. But Christina Pushaw listed Covington, Catholic, Russiagate, Kavanaugh, Covid, BLM cover up of Biden's senility. I mean, these are all kind of big things that the media completely whiffed on in the last few years.

[A]

And it's group sync. It's not getting information. I wish it was getting information. I wish it was. I am a fourth generation newspaper journalist. I grew up in a newspaper. Metro daily war. My dad was an editor. I value the idea of journalism. I value it when people do it who aren't even technically Washington Post employees. Right. I think getting information can be democratized. And look, it is harder to tell what's real and what's not these days. And this is going to be the problem of the future. But journalists didn't make it easier to tell what was real and what was not. They made it harder. And Covid is the one that I think most closely aligns with Noonan's take here because something terrible on a national scale, something bad. It's like we just lived through this, did this. Yeah, we just did this. And I could count on one hand the journalists who got any kind of platform in a major media organization.

[C]

Right.

[A]

Who actually dug on facts. The mainstream media, largely, they deified people who demonized rational risk analysis and all of the information that we needed to know and then demonized the rational risk analysis themselves. Those two things do not make for reporting news.

[C]

That's right.

[A]

That is. That's propaganda. That's nonsense.

[C]

Yeah. And then so many of those journalists were in my DM saying like, I love you speaking out on schools. Like, obviously I couldn't do it myself. No, of course not. Of course you could.

[A]

How could you?

[C]

You couldn't tell your leaders and listeners the truth. That would be career suicide for you, obviously.

[A]

Yeah. This is, this is the great thing about being right of center and a critical thinker is that you come pre canceled. It's like, I don't care, like I'm not getting in the club. It's fine. But it gives you leeway to say things that are true, whether it's on Hunter Biden or Covid or schools closing or Russiagate. And turns out, you know, you don't need the journalists as much when we're the ones saying the things.

[C]

That's right.

[A]

And they're the ones disgracing themselves.

[C]

Yep. Turns out journalism was already in a bad place before the Washington Post firings. Who knew? Except we knew. All right, we'll be right back with a little more on normally talking blue state problems. You know, one of our favorite topics and Jews leaving New York for Florida. My favorite topic.

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[C]

We are back on normally where Tablet had this great piece in the last print edition, it's February 2026. They have this beautiful glossy magazine they do now. If you don't subscribe. You should. It's basically the only magazine I get to my house now. The article is Miami the new Jerusalem question mark. I don't even think we need that. I already refer to Florida as the other promised land. But it opens with a great anecdote where Josh Greenberg, a digital media strategist who left Park Slope, New York in early 2022. That's exactly when I left. That's also where I left. I also lived in Park Slope, got mugged, and realized that his friends had more sympathy for the mugger than for him. That is such a classic New York story of that era where the $5 million brownstones on my block put up the defund police signs and it was just so obvious that they. None of this was ever going to affect them. They lived in their little bubble. And yeah, the normal people all moved to Florida. And this piece says for many, especially Jews, the move wasn't really about the weather, it was about oxygen. So true. Because I never once considered the weather in our move, not never once did I think like, oh, I don't like the cold and now I can never go back. I've gotten so soft. The weather has absolutely broken me.

[A]

I understand that having lived in 15 degrees for the last two weeks. No, I can do it. I can imagine. Now, this is the repeated problem with liberal governance, particularly of large cities, but they apply it in many other ways too. Is that the person violated is the one who has to sort of take the l, not just the violation, but also a firm, the person who has violated them. This happens in women's sports with trans athletes. Like, oh, you got a guy competing against you, not only do you lose your medal, but you have to stand up there on the podium or nearby and go, oh my gosh, so brave, so brave. You got to write op EDS about how amazing it is that you got beaten.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And in, and in this case, you know, the mugger is the real concern because obviously you, law abiding citizen are, you know, you have a much nicer life, right. Than this person who tried to hurt you. And you really shouldn't complain.

[C]

Yeah. There was a Great piece in 2022 by Susie Weiss at the Free Press, and it was Crime is a construct. My morning with the Park Slope Panthers, a must read. You have to look it up if you haven't read it. But it was a homeless guy kicked a dog and the dog died. And basically some people decided to form like a community watch. And, and some other people were like, that's racist. Having a community Watch against violent predators who want to kill your dog. That's racist. And this story is just. It's Chef's kiss. Perfection. Must read.

[A]

David Sedaris had a piece. You know, again, urbane liberal, approved for sure. David Sedaris writes, and your little dog too, in the New Yorker. He's bit by a vagrant dog on the street and doesn't like it. For some reason, he has the temerity to complain about this to fellow liberals who say to him at a book signing, you have to understand that these addicts, especially those with an opioid use disorder, lead incredibly difficult lives. And he's like, the dog bit me. I don't know if I made that clear. And he keeps having these encounters with people who are like, listen, those people have a real hard time taking care of their animals. And finally he breaks. He's like, that's when I quit talking about it. I mean, how hard should it be to get a little sympathy when an unleashed dog bites you? What if I were a baby? I wondered, what would people side with me then? What if I were 90 or blind or Nelson Mandela? Why is everyone so afraid of saying that drug addicts shouldn't let their dogs bite people? Actually, I know why. We're afraid we'll all be mistaken for Republicans when really, isn't this something we should all be able to agree on? How did allowing dogs to bite people become a democratic point of principle? Right? Or is it just certain people's dogs? If a German shepherd jumped growling out of one of those Tesla trucks that looks like an origami project and its owner, wearing a MAGA hat, yelled, trumper, no. Then would people in the audience be aghast?

[C]

That line is so good.

[A]

Trumper. This is the dynamic in so many places. There's a great free beacon piece by Aaron Sabarium, who is a wonderful reporter who went out to Prince George's County, Maryland, which is in the DMV area, and found a condominium complex with a giant homeless camp next to it that the county refuses to do anything about. So they sleep in the hallways, vandalize. They have ruined the heating system in that area. They've made it incredibly dangerous. It's an open air drug market. They ruined the heating system. And you know what the city did? The city came and said, y' all have to be evicted from your owned condos now because you don't have proper heat. But the encampment, they feed right? Like it is wild. The priorities.

[C]

And we saw this coming. This is another. Like, we were like, shouldn't the idea of you getting bitten by a dog, an off leash dog, be a universal value, that we all oppose that. And David Sedaris in 2025, 2026 is coming up with the fact that it should be. We were saying that all along. We were saying, shouldn't opening schools be something we all agree on? Why is that political? You know, it either a danger to the kids or it's not on te right. It's just we got to the point where they were believing crazy stuff and we just let them have it. We were like, fine, you guys want to be okay with dogs, you know, homeless people, dogs biting, you go for it. You can go live that dream and we'll be over here not taking it.

[A]

But as the reelection of Donald Trump shows, there is a point at which people go, like, I don't know, man. Like, even if I think this guy's a little much, I can't take this anymore. San Francisco, similarly, where the super bowl was held, the mayor there is finally like, hey, yeah, we. So the thing we do now is that we prosecute the crime. That's the thing we're doing now. And that makes everyone happier.

[C]

And it's no longer racist to do that. So.

[A]

Which is why they can hold the super bowl there and not have, you know, feces everywhere. I guess so. Good job, guys.

[C]

Big plus. Well, thank you for joining us on Normally. Normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays. And you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcast. Get in touch with us@ normallythepodmail.com thanks for listening. And when things get weird, act normally.

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