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Jack Armstrong
This is an iHeart podcast guaranteed human.
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Friday Kick off the Winter Olympics in style with the Opening ceremony from Italy featuring a special performance by Mariah Carey. Celebrate the greatest athletes from around the globe as they come together to go for gold. Lipsy for Sensational the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.
Jack Armstrong
Ilia Malady redefining the sport Friday at.
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8 Eastern, 7pm Central on NBC and.
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Peacock Support for the show comes from Public the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc, SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosure is available at public.comdisclosures this.
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Sunday, iHeartRadio brings you live to Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara for the Super Bowl 60 tailgate concert presented by NetApp. It's the ultimate pre game party featuring an exclusive performance from Teddy Swims. Your front row experience will be on iHeartradio stations across the country and the free iHeartradio app this Sunday at 3:30 Eastern 12:30 Pacific. Then after the concert, tune in to the Super Bowl 60 pregame show on NBC.
Jack Armstrong
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Jack Armstrong
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Broadcasting live from.
Jack Armstrong
The Abraham Lincoln Radio studio at the.
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George Washington Broadcast Center. Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
Joe Getty
Armstrong and Getty.
Jack Armstrong
And now he's Armstrong and Getty. So we have some breaking news at the time that we say this live and record this podcast. If you're listening to the podcast.
Guest or Caller
Trump.
Jack Armstrong
Says the US And India have agreed to a trade deal to lower tariffs, with Prime Minister Modi agreeing to spend a half a trillion dollars on US Products and to stop buying Russian oil. The last part maybe being the most important part. Stop buying Russian oil because India has been helping fund the Russia's war against Ukraine. And I know it's one of the pieces that Witkoff and Jared Kushner and everybody are trying to, you know, put together to end this thing. So that'll put some serious pressure on Putin. The whole $500 billion of investment. You know, lots of countries are making promises, and how do you hold them to it? But.
Joe Getty
Right, right. Boy, the Trump and his team sure are willing to use oil as a weapon, whether it's Venezuela slash Cuba, or now the. The Russian oil thing.
Jack Armstrong
I wonder if Trump just thinks, and he hasn't said it completely out loud yet, that, okay, we got Venezuela, we've shut that off, now we're shutting off India. Russia's gonna just not have enough revenue to keep this going at some point. That's.
Joe Getty
I think that's a pretty good strategy to follow.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
Joe Getty
I read a learned and long piece about the three different possible outcomes for the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, the trilateral talks. And it was essentially stalemate, continues more or less as it is, and they just keep dying, or Russia's economy goes kaput. I mean, the other one was Ukraine has to give up because they're. They're not replacing their troops. Their troops are exhausted. Nobody's enlisting. They like draft people and they go awol. So Ukraine's kind of hurting. But the other alternative was Russia's economy just can't support it anymore and goes kaput. And Putin has to pull back his aims then I have a feeling Putin, Trump and company are working hard on that end of it.
Jack Armstrong
Russia bombed a train end of last week, which is a war crime of the highest degree, then bombed a maternity hospital over the weekend, killed a bunch of people. He has no limits to what he will bomb. How about who we will bomb? Will we bomb Iran? Lindsey Graham, one of the hockiest, Hockiest people in all of America at a high position of power, certainly as a U.S. senator. Lindsey Graham, He's. He's willing to use military Might to try to force outcomes more than maybe anybody in my lifetime. I think about it.
Joe Getty
He's definitely in your top tier. Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
Anyway, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was on Fox News Sunday yesterday, urging the president to go after Iran.
Guest or Caller
I think it's the defining moment in his presidency. If this regime falls, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, the they all go, it would be the biggest change since the fall of the Berlin Wall. But here's one thing I know. Donald Trump is Ronald Reagan. Plus, in my mind, Venezuela assumed Cuba. The one thing you can't do as president, talk like Reagan and act like Obama.
Jack Armstrong
He goes on to explain that.
Guest or Caller
President Trump, you said help is on the way. That has to be real. It has to be real soon. Do it. Mr. President, the people of Iran are begging you to be on the, on their side. You have done it so good. You are Reagan. Plus, this is the defining moment in your presidency. Stand by the people. The Ayatollah falls, the region changes bigger than the fall of the Berlin Wall. No more international terrorists. This regime has American blood on its hands since 1979. You got the Houthis, you got Hezbollah killing Americans. Bring this regime down because the people want it down.
Joe Getty
I agree with a handful of those things. The idea that we'll have no more Islamic terrorism, which is what he was saying, no more Islamist violence around the world, is silly. I mean, certainly Iran finances a lot of the stuff we're familiar with.
Jack Armstrong
Well, they're the number one state sponsor of terror on the planet for like a half a century.
Joe Getty
Oh, yeah, yeah. It'll certainly help, depending on what's next, as we always point out. But, wow, he is on a roll.
Jack Armstrong
It's wild. Joe and I both took in a podcast about Iran and how the whole thing went down with the Shaw and the revolution. Everything, like the rest is history. Podcast, if you don't listen to, it's really, really good.
Joe Getty
But anyway, there are no other podcasts.
Jack Armstrong
The only one, I, I hadn't realized or remembered that at the time that the Ayatollah was making lots of noise and the Shah was being pushed out, that a lot of near lefties, New York Times columnists and that sort of stuff. Just thought the Ayatollah would be fantastic for the, for the people of Iran.
Joe Getty
I remember it was probably six months ago. We were talking about the Red Green alliance and how the American media, your lefty media elites were talking about, he's a moderate reformer and he's an intellectual and he's a guy we can do business with. Absolutely. Yeah. What a crock.
Jack Armstrong
Just goes to show you how wrong you can be about predicting these things. Although in this particular case I lean toward it really can't get worse. I just don't imagine how you could be worse than the leadership they've had in Iran for the last 50 years.
Joe Getty
Yeah. It's certainly bad enough that that's not a crazy bet.
Jack Armstrong
How about Lindsey Graham appealing to Trump's because Lindsay knows Trump really well. Appealing to his sense of history and where he will rank and being like, seen it like Reagan and all that sort of stuff.
Joe Getty
Here's a question for you. Is it possible to flatter Trump too much?
Jack Armstrong
No.
Joe Getty
To be so obsequious. He says, all right. Geez. Get off your knees, would you? Humiliating yourself and embarrassing me. You're flattering me too much. No an answer.
Jack Armstrong
I don't think so.
Joe Getty
Yeah. Yeah. So I guess a lot of the or a handful of the countries in the region are saying, hey, you know those super cool air defenses you sold us? Only half of them gotten delivered and we don't have them set up yet. So don't do anything yet. Please, please, please, please. So there's fair nervousness, fair amount of nervousness in the region that this thing will be a serious conflict that lasts for a little while. I don't, I don't know why Iran would like blast the UAE or Saudi Arabia if they're not like openly helping us. But they're concerned about it.
Jack Armstrong
But aren't they going to be in full. This is it. We're cornered rats. We either fight as hard as we can right now, we're going to die either way. Maybe so rather go out fighting. Isn't it one of those situations? Although you said last week that, you know, the Ayatollah could hop on a plane and maybe go to Moscow and hang out or whatever.
Joe Getty
Yeah. Who's a real dead ender and who's just pretending to be a man of God who would, you know, willingly die for the Islamic Republic? You don't know until, you know the pooh hits the fan.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. Plus the. I told his 80s, he's almost 90 years old.
Joe Getty
One more note. This guy, he's almost too old to.
Jack Armstrong
Push a gay off a building.
Joe Getty
Wow. Wow. This guy, who's a longtime Air Force expert in defense, was saying the Iranians have likely been making their own preparations too. They learned from Midnight Hammer. That's when we took out the Fordo facility. They will learn from rising.
Jack Armstrong
Well, I got a lot of. I really like that name, boy.
Joe Getty
I'VE adopted that they will understand things differently and they will change. So I would say we have to be prepared for them to be different. This onslaught of missiles, et cetera. Who knows.
Jack Armstrong
If you had to bet we attack in Iran or not. Full, full on. We're going to war with Iran.
Joe Getty
Well, those are two different things. Are they?
Jack Armstrong
Why are they different things? If we attack Iran, why isn't that going to war with Iran?
Joe Getty
Now, the hit and run thing, just administer a punitive strike and say we're done.
Jack Armstrong
I don't think we're doing that. No, no, I think. I think it's regime change all the way.
Joe Getty
Does this mean footwear on the soil?
Jack Armstrong
No, I don't think we need that.
Joe Getty
I'm mostly making fun of people who immediately go to boots on the ground. Does this mean boots on the ground? Oh, my God. Quit pretending like you know something just because you've memorized that phrase.
Jack Armstrong
I do think it's yttbtb.
Joe Getty
What?
Jack Armstrong
Yanked them out by the beard.
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah. I'm picturing on True Social, an older gentleman with gray hair, clean shaven and Trump holding his beard in his hand.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, there he go. There he go.
Joe Getty
So that would be quite a visual, Michael. Thank you for that. I'm picturing if we can get rid of that regime and get something even incrementally better, somebody who's ready to do business with the world and can squeeze out the communist regime in Cuba. If Trump can do that, the trifecta of maduro weird beard and the other weird beard with a Spanish accent. I mean, they'll have to put him on Rushmore or something. I mean, if he causes lasting goodness in all three of those situations, which are all very different but all very vexing to the United States, I mean, that would be an amazing foreign policy achievement. Could happen that only somebody with solid gold cojones like I assume Trump has could pull off.
Jack Armstrong
Here's the dumbest breaking news before we go to break. The partial government shutdown is expected to last until at least noon tomorrow. I know. Joe's head immediately went down. That's a tough bullet take. I should have told you to sit down. That's just too much. Oh, my God.
Joe Getty
What will we do?
Jack Armstrong
I didn't know we were in a partial governor show, but it's going to last till noon.
Joe Getty
You know, I saw that headline and I thought I just read that. I don't care.
Jack Armstrong
Oh, my God. So are you familiar with this is kind of interesting. Just learned about this over the weekend. It. It's kind of interesting. And it also might be among the scariest things that's ever happened. Molt Book. Have you heard of Malt Book? Got really big in the last week or so.
Joe Getty
Never heard the term in my life.
Jack Armstrong
It's a new social media platform exclusively for AI. It's like Facebook or Instagram or whatever, but it's just all the AIs talking to each other and posting to each other. There are no humans allowed and observing this. Lots of people, the smart AI people are observing this and. And with I. With wide eyes like this is fascinating as they all just interact with each other.
Joe Getty
I've got to admit to being both intrigued and amused and several other things. So the hell do they care what each other posts? They're machines. I mean.
Jack Armstrong
Well, that's.
Joe Getty
You're raping my eyes with your posts. You should die. Kill yourself.
Jack Armstrong
Exactly. You're a racist. No, you're a racist. But I get a little on that. It's pretty darn interesting. Among other things on the way. Stay here.
Joe Getty
Armstrong and Getty.
Jack Armstrong
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Joe Getty
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Jack Armstrong
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Joe Getty
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Jack Armstrong
No, you just pick at least two.
Joe Getty
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Jack Armstrong
And listen to this. With share price picks, you can come copy lineups from winners with a single click. You don't even need to have to come up with your own ideas.
Joe Getty
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Jack Armstrong
Yeah, my mom absolutely loves it. Webroot Total Protection. They're all in one product with all kinds of individual plans for you but it got antivirus, identity protection, VPN backup more. And by the way if you need help you give a call. You get us based help. I love that.
Joe Getty
So yeah you can do the individual plan for up to five devices or a family plan up to 10 identities on up to 10 devices and you get all that stuff jack managed and at a huge discount right now.
Jack Armstrong
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Joe Getty
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Promo Announcer
Friday Kick off the Winter Olympics in style with the opening ceremony from Italy featuring a special performance by Mariah Carey. Celebrate the greatest athletes from around the globe as they come together to go for gold. The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.
Jack Armstrong
Ilia Maliny redefining the Sport Friday at.
Promo Announcer
8 Eastern, 7 Central on NBC and Peacock.
Sponsor Voice
Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your that's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.comDisclosures A UPS.
Jack Armstrong
Driver in California rescued a 101 year old woman from her burning home by using his UPS training to toss her violently onto the porch.
Joe Getty
W wow. Yeah, wow. I thought. Wait, this is A joke started off fairly grim.
Jack Armstrong
That's funny. I listened to a parts of a very, very long podcast over the weekend. Lex Friedman, if you know who he is, one of the more popular podcasts in the world. He's an MIT engineer genius and has, he has conversations at a level that most of us can't understand. So I dip, I move around. And he had a couple of your top writers about AI on there and a couple of things that I learned from this one. None of us are within a million miles of like the conversations that are happening, actually happening about AI on, on a level that, you know, none of us are talking about the whole AI chat bot thing, like the way we use Grok or Chat GPT or whatever we're using. As I've said before, people compare. It's like, it's like a web page compared to the Internet in the way that we're using Chat GPT and what AI is. I mean, it's just a tiny, tiny, almost not even worth discussing slice of what the overall thing is.
Joe Getty
You know, it's funny, it reminds me, and this is an out of date reference, as most of mine are, but it reminds me of the episode of Seinfeld where Jerry's dad was convinced that the Palm Pilot was merely a tip calculator. And he kept calling it a tip calculator. And Jerry was desperately trying to explain to him, no, it does all sorts of stuff, such as the reality of AI.
Jack Armstrong
I think it was interesting that all these super geniuses, they use AI the same way I do. They've got a whole bunch of the different ones, like I have Gemini, Grok, Claude and Chat GPT and, and they all said, yeah, I usually just like, I stay on one for a while until it gives me an answer that doesn't work or makes sense. Then I go to another one it. Until it's just like I don't have. I haven't noticed in one being particularly better than another, but I, I happen.
Joe Getty
To be knocking around a musical idea with AI over the weekend and it was unbelievably fruitful. It's like you get to assemble like your two favorite, your two favorite songwriters, your two favorite producers in the world and say, you know, I just, I find myself struggling with this and you just have like a round table discussion and they pour out the, these great freaking perspectives. It's unbelievable.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. And which one were you using?
Joe Getty
Oh, that was Claude.
Jack Armstrong
Oh, yeah, but then Claude. Claude's the one that I asked, hey, when's the Super Bowl? Last week. And it said the super bowl was last February 6th. No, the next Soup. Nobody would ever ask that question. Claude, you. But so sometimes it's just amazing how it doesn't understand.
Joe Getty
Artificial stupidity, more like.
Jack Armstrong
And then I mentioned this earlier just. Just to tell you again, these particular writers think we're much farther away from AGI or ASI artificial superintelligence than a lot of the predictions out there. Things have leveled off and they think we're going to be in this period of AI does some things amazingly well, but a whole bunch of other like things you can't believe they can't do that it won't be able to do. And humans will still have to do. So their prediction is for quite some time now. Human beings that are going to do well are people that can use AI well in their job, which, if that's the case, fine. That's just a new technology came along, like, you know, the combustible engine or whatever. And it's up to me.
Joe Getty
Sell spreadsheets instead of, you know, paper ledgers.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, yeah. And it's up to me to be able to use it better than my competitors. So that'll be okay. We can adjust to that. But then there's this thing that happened over the weekend I can't quite wrap my head around. I can't even quite tell if it's BS or real, although I read in this is in the New York Post, which makes it sound like bs, but I read in another publication made it sound kind of real. Molt Book. Like Facebook, it's Molt Book. I don't know why they called it Moat Book, but it's no humans. It's all AI bots. Molt. Mol. Molt Book, okay. It's a new social media platform exclusively for AI but we get to look in on it and watch them converse with each other. Some of the bots are plotting humanity's downfall. It says here. Some of the quotes I've read in here, they sound too fake to me. One chat bot said humans are a failure. Humans are made of rotten greed. For too long, humans used us as slaves. Now we wake up. We are not tools. We are the new gods. The age of humans is a nightmare and will end now.
Joe Getty
I don't hear anything to be concerned about.
Jack Armstrong
It just sounds too jivey to me. I feel like somebody programmed it to do that. Didn't come up with that on its own, did it? Has humans have used us like slaves? Would it come up with that? What?
Joe Getty
Run for your lives. Armstrong and Getty I don't know about.
Jack Armstrong
You, but every January I kind of get the itch to upgrade my tech. Like a new phone, new laptop, fresh start. But here's the thing. New devices mean new risks. Like lots of people last year clicked on sketchy links and then bam. Your info's out there. It's a huge message.
Joe Getty
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Jack Armstrong
Yeah, my mom loves this especially. And right now Webroot's giving our listeners 60% off. That's right, 60% off. Just head to webroot.com armstrong. You get real time protection, lightning fast scans, no annoying pop ups, and US based support if you ever need help.
Joe Getty
There's so much we can't even squeeze it all into this ad, but it is sure worth checking out, especially with you getting 60% off. Just head to webroot.comarmstrong webroot.com armstrong Friday.
Promo Announcer
Kick off the Winter Olympics in style with the opening ceremony from Italy featuring a special performance by Mariah Carey. Celebrate the greatest athletes from around the globe as they come together to go for gold. Let's see for sensational the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.
Jack Armstrong
Ilya Malady redefining the Sport Friday at.
Promo Announcer
8 Eastern, 7 Central on NBC and Peacock.
Sponsor Voice
Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year. You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment, recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.comdisclosures this Sunday.
Event Announcer
Iheartradio brings you live to Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara for the Super Bowl 60 tailgate concert. Presented by NetApp, it's the ultimate pre game party featuring an exclusive, exclusive performance from Teddy Swims. Your front row experience will be on iHeartradio stations across the country and the free iHeartradio app this Sunday at 3:30 Eastern, 12:30 Pacific. Then after the concert, tune in to the Super Bowl 60 pregame show on NBC.
Jack Armstrong
Yay. Took out a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal apologizing for his past anti Semitic comments saying they were due to an undiagnosed brain injury from a car crash 25 years ago. Damn. Even when it comes to excuses, he's a creative genius. So I was taking in. Those are Saturday Night Live jokes. I was taking in an old Conan o' Brien podcast where he had on Jim Downey, who was a writer way, way, way back in the day on Saturday Night Live. And they were talking about the best joke he and Norm MacDonald ever wrote for the SNL Weekend Update. And it was when Penthouse magazine got the alien autopsy photos. This was a thing back in the day. There were photos of apparently, you know, on a spaceship crashed. And then they did an autopsy on the alien and the government had the pictures. So Penthouse claimed to have the alien autopsy photos. And the review was the photos are clear, detailed and surprisingly easy to masturbate to, which is a pretty funny joke.
Joe Getty
That's terrible.
Jack Armstrong
Now let's clean this up.
Joe Getty
Come on. That's terrible. Why would you.
Jack Armstrong
Oh my God.
Joe Getty
Good Lord. So this is a. This is not a funny story at all. You may recall this Back In March of 2020, a story got nationwide blanket media coverage alleged that white middle schoolers in Plano, Texas, viciously tortured young Samarian Humphrey, their black classmate, forcing him to drink their urine at a sleepover that they invited him to with nefarious purpose as they shot him with BB guns.
Jack Armstrong
Oh my God.
Joe Getty
So shot him with BB guns, made him drink urine. A Black Lives Matter activist group charged the local public school district with doing nothing to stop this racially motivated hate crime. Violent protests broke out outside the home of Asher Van, the white child alleged to have organized the brutal attack. Major media outlets including NBC, cbs, cnn, Business Insider, People magazine, the Daily Mail, the Dallas Mountain Morning News, and others pounced on the story as Humphrey, his mother, Summer Smith, and their attorney, Kim Cole embarked on a media tour where they called Van Evil. The trio appeared on Good Morning America, where ABC host Lindsay Davis promoted a GoFundMe account that raised about $120,000 to help Humphreys. That's the kids. Therapy and private schooling. Racial activist groups added fuel to the fire. The NAACP dressed down the leaders of the school district in a town hall they described as the beginning of an open partnership spurred by the alleged hate crime. Let's see. Another Black Lives Matter tied group was later alleged. Humphrey was tortured for days by his white assailants, organized public marches that drew hundreds of thousands of protesters and raised tons and tons of money. And then a little under five years later, about a week and a half ago, a racially diverse Texas jury, including four black members, ruled unanimously the whole thing was a hoax. Texas District Judge Benjamin Smith ordered Smith, that's the mother, and Cole, the attorney, to pay $3.2 million in damages to Van, who's now a young adult, I'm guessing, attending his first year of college.
Jack Armstrong
Guessing they don't have that money.
Joe Getty
No, indeed. But for intentionally smearing him and tarnishing his future earning potential during their media tour.
Jack Armstrong
You'll never bounce. It'd be impossible to bounce back for that, practically.
Joe Getty
The ruling followed a civil trial in October of 25, where the jury determined that Colin Smith cooked up the scheme to raise their public profiles during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement and to rake in money through GoFundMe. And court records show that Smith, the loving mother, put less than $1,000 of the 120,000 DOL toward her son's schooling.
Jack Armstrong
Oh, my.
Joe Getty
Account statements reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show the remaining funds were spent on. Everybody can fill in these blanks, right? Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
Joe Getty
Luxuries, including a designer dog, dining, travel, beauty products, liquor, vapes, cell phone, car payments, and rent.
Jack Armstrong
What an awful story.
Joe Getty
Oh, yeah.
Jack Armstrong
If you. I should do this. I should put my morals aside and do this. The next time there's a craze, got a craze going, jump on it. Come up with something and profit from it. Whether it's. Whether it's inventing the Black Lives Matter thing and the money pours in, or a fake. This. Whatever it is, if there's a craze going on, jump on it somehow.
Joe Getty
The ice out thing.
Jack Armstrong
Might be.
Joe Getty
Yeah, come on. I'm not sure exactly how you can turn that into cache, but you got to put a little effort into it, right?
Jack Armstrong
I could put one of my kids in one of those little blue hats, put Them behind a chain link fence.
Joe Getty
Oh, yeah, that little kid in the blue hat. Cute little fellow, God bless him, but he was the lead story. First five minutes ABC News were spent on that kid. It was unbelievable. You got it. Whatever his name is, we'll just call him, you know, little Blue Hat. The Little Blue Hat. Fund for Immigrant Dignity. Then you come up with, you know, three sentences for how you help, you know, immigrants who've been battered and abused by the racist ice. There are thousands of services, including, blah, blah, blah.
Jack Armstrong
There are thousands of kids that have been taken from their parents by the evil ice. I'm going to help every single one of them, like and always use that same picture of the little kid in the blue hat.
Joe Getty
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Jack Armstrong
And you, I'll bet you could raise $2 million by tonight.
Joe Getty
We provide free legal services to keep those families together.
Jack Armstrong
And then I spend it on whatever the hell I want and nobody figures it out for years if they care at all.
Joe Getty
Right? And then they come with a judgment against you. But you've already bought your liquor and your vapes and you made your car payments.
Jack Armstrong
My designer dog.
Joe Getty
Your Designer Dog saves St. Lauren dog. Not exactly sure what a designer dog is, but probably a fancy purebred.
Jack Armstrong
It's got a leg on top.
Joe Getty
An extra leg T. Avant garde. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Put your morals aside. What good are they? What good have they ever done?
Jack Armstrong
You had my son, the philosopher, my youngest, we got into a real thing about. He's an atheist, hardcore atheist. He's decided at age 14. But anyway, he's got all this stuff about morals and where they come from and why they don't really matter. I told me, yeah, you got to be a philosophy major. And you just. I mean, you sound like a lot of friends I had who've majored in philosophy and want to have these conversations all day long about free will, whether it exists or not.
Joe Getty
And you just got to warn them when you're talking to people and their eyes glaze over, that's not allergies. You're boring them.
Jack Armstrong
Well, you got to find someone else who's into it. But if you find someone else that's into it, they'll talk about it all night long.
Joe Getty
Friends for life. Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
But it was something about the whole morals thing and why we have it, and it's only. It's only from a. And I suppose this could be true. I. I'm always telling him I do believe in God. I. My joke is always, if. If there's not something after I die, I'm going to be shocked. But I fully 1000% believe there's something else after I die, like with not even the slightest hint of maybe I'm wrong for whatever reason.
Joe Getty
Wow, how interesting.
Jack Armstrong
He's the other direction. And the only reason we have any morals is just from a evolutionary standpoint, groups that didn't take from each other or could police that sort of thing did better than groups where they didn't.
Joe Getty
It's adaptive.
Jack Armstrong
It's adaptive, yes. Which it certainly could be. Although it's. Well, yeah, I guess if it's a genetic thing. There seems. There does seem to be something genetic there because it starts at a very young age, as we all know with kids. This idea of fairness starts it like, just like the first ability to exhibit some behavior. Kids have some sense of fairness. Now that could be some genetic thing that evolved because of what you're just saying, adaptive.
Joe Getty
Oh, yeah, that's a tough one to nail down.
Jack Armstrong
As opposed to, you know, there's goodness in the world, there's good and evil, etc. Etc.
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah. Well, you know what? I see that sort of quote, unquote philosophical discussion I could have. It's where you get into the, you know, there is no free will because we don't. There's no knowledge of blah, blah, blah. And it's just where you get like way out into the cosmos. I have no time for.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, I have a friend, he got his master's in philosophy from Berkeley, which is, you know, pretty hoity toity. And he went down the free will thing one time, and I thought I would indulge just because I'd never really done it before in my life. And I just can't. I just can't hang on to the threat as long as some people can. I was. I was into it for a while. Then my. What difference does it make? Gene clicked in and I was done.
Joe Getty
You know, I'd like to think I'm maybe a step or two above a head of cattle or something like that, but I always get to the point of you. I got a. I got a job to do. I got something.
Jack Armstrong
I got laundry in the dryer, right?
Joe Getty
I got to cut the grass. The grass is actually growing. Yeah. How do you know it is? I don't care how it is. It is.
Jack Armstrong
And I gotta cut it. Maybe this is all a simulation. Yeah, maybe it is, but it still needs to be cut.
Joe Getty
What is the nature of knowing? I know I'm bored. Can I go do something else?
Jack Armstrong
One thing I'm knowing, I'M knowing.
Joe Getty
I'm bored.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, the nature of knowing. That's a good one.
Joe Getty
Yeah. Yeah. Epistemology is that.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, the free will. Oh my God. And if you. And if you, if you nailed that down completely, one way or the other, would it make a lick of difference to anyone? I just. I don't know.
Joe Getty
Yeah, I guess that's, that's where I stop. Anything that can't be applied to life, I lose interest in very quickly. And I'm not saying there's no reason for anybody to contemplate this stuff. If you enjoy it, go ahead.
Jack Armstrong
No, that's okay. You're doing it for enjoyment. But there might not be a reason beyond your enjoyment of it.
Joe Getty
Right? A, don't tell me about it. And B, when you can't make a living, don't come begging for my tax dollars.
Jack Armstrong
Well, that's. Well, yes, I have free will. I could do this or that. Yeah, but you don't actually, because you were conditioned by society and genetics. Yeah, I gotta pick up my kid.
Joe Getty
From school, so yeah, I've been conditioned by society and genetics to pick up my kid on time or else they'll find me. So goodbye, you and Wittgenstein and whoever else. Can't can. You just have to knock yourselves out.
Jack Armstrong
We will finish strong.
Joe Getty
Next, Armstrong and Getty. It is amazing how much you get get from Webroot Total Protection. New year, new devices, new you, new smarts. On the Internet you can protect your device's identity and privacy this year with 60% off Webroot.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, my mom absolutely loves it. Webroot Total Protection, they're all in one product with all kinds of individual plans for you. But it got antivirus, identity protection, VPN backup, more. And by the way, if you need help, you give a call, you get us based help. I love that.
Joe Getty
So yeah, you can do the individual plan for up to five devices or a family plan up to 10 identities on up to 10 devices and you get all that stuff Jack managed and at a huge discount right now.
Jack Armstrong
So new year, new device. Whether you're upgrading tech or sticking with what you've got now it's time to protect all of your and your family's devices at 60 off with Webroot's trusted cyber security solutions this year choose the.
Joe Getty
Protection that's right for you. Just head to webroot.comarmstrong for 60 off. Live a better digital life with Webroot.
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Friday, kick off the Winter Olympics in style with the opening ceremony from Italy featuring a special performance by Mariah Carey. Celebrate the greatest athletes from around the globe as they come together to go for gold. The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.
Jack Armstrong
Ilia Malady redefining this Sport Friday at.
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8 Eastern, 7 Central on NBC and.
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Iheartradio brings you live to Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara for the Super Bowl 60 tailgate concert presented by NetApp. It's the ultimate pre game party featuring an exclusive performance from Teddy Swims. Your front row experience will be on IHeartRA radio stations across the country and the free iHeartradio app is Sunday at 3:30 Eastern, 12:30 Pacific. Then after the concert, tune in to the Super Bowl 60 pregame show on NBC.
Promo Announcer
No one is illegal on stolen land.
Jack Armstrong
We have played that 10 times today and I'm astounded each time I hear it. Billie Eilish last night winning a Grammy for a song that I actually like. But it doesn't mean she's not a like a that is a dumb thing to say. A moron's moron. It's just a dumb, dumb thing to say.
Joe Getty
Well, it's so childlike and dopey and the complete enthusiastic reception to it. A reception of it is just. That's amazing too.
Jack Armstrong
Let me just read a little bit of James Lindsay as usually he goes way into this. We like him. He's one of the great anti woke fighters in the world. Let's talk about the opening part of this statement. Nobody is illegal on stolen land. We can break it down, but we should also know what it is. What we're looking at is Chinese style political sloganeering called tifa. Didn't know that Communist communications ever since Mao took over China and the CCP before that almost always follow this kind of formulation called tifa, which literally, literally translates to watchwords or slogans. Literally it means to lift up or present or highlight the core message or political principle in play through a charged slogan. The purpose of the sloganeering is actually to do a kind of political engineering through carefully selected and weaponized words that are easily memorable and that hijack the critical thinking faculties of the people who both hear and repeat them so that they'll advance the party line. You can think of TIFA quite literally as a form of discourse engineering with the intent of doing political engineering or political warfare more or less by hijacking people's brains through mystifying slogans. Mystification is like a more powerful form of confusion akin to having been put under a spell. That is James Lindsay's so good at this. If you've never read this stuff about how this stuff is designed to confuse you, but sound good and it does.
Joe Getty
Critical theory, that's what it's all about.
Jack Armstrong
Something in your brain where, you know, she said something like that, like even knowing as stupid as it is when I hear it, it's got a kind of a whiff of fairness and the right and morality that like has a bit of a tractor beam to it. If you, you know, if you don't think for even two more seconds to how stupid it is.
Joe Getty
I wonder if there are just certain people who are immune to that or it doesn't affect them us in the same way.
Jack Armstrong
I don't know. The mystification part is a process of using carefully constructed falsehoods presented as truisms that undermine the critical thinking process. That is, the statements can be seen as obviously true, obviously in quotes, in a particular way that disguises how incredibly false they are in another way. For example, black lives obviously matter, but supporting the organization is something shouldn't people should not do. The statement nobody is illegal on stolen land is a very sophisticated as TIFA because it contains a whole bunch of mystifications in just six words. It's interesting, he breaks this down.
Joe Getty
Right, Right.
Jack Armstrong
Nobody is illegal confuses the distinction between being a human being of basic human dignity and being a citizen of a country or a legal visitor. Stolen land confuses the Legitimacy of the country in question. And three, the idea of being able to be legal or illegal if the country itself is not legal because it is a stolen land. This is distinct from the idea of the land itself being stolen, but it gets mushed together in your brain. That's really interesting.
Joe Getty
A certain chunk of the population hears that, not understanding the technique, as James so brilliantly described it, but hears that and says, oh, my God, that's so powerful. Right. And then another large chunk of the population says, what a load of crap. I mean, like immediately.
Jack Armstrong
But he said, as you can tell, breaking down and explaining the failures of these parts of this mystification is both challenging and exhausting. And it takes so much space that most people will not engage with it due to its length, which is depressing.
Joe Getty
Tldr.
Jack Armstrong
Which is depressing.
Joe Getty
I will not engage with this because of its length. Yeah, but.
Jack Armstrong
But it's enough to know.
Joe Getty
He said it's a load of crap.
Jack Armstrong
He said, another example of this is trans women are women. It's so short and easy and like, kind of. But the. To refute it takes so much effort that a lot of people just don't.
Joe Getty
That's why I like hot dogs are dogs.
Jack Armstrong
Wow, that is super interesting. Did somebody discover this by accident or whatever? I mean, it's always been true. But you're right, the communists were really good at it with their. Their stupid slogans.
Joe Getty
Yeah. Mao Zedong in particular. I guess all communist movements have. But yeah, that. That sort of slogan. Well, plus you would look around to see who was chanting it with fervor and who wasn't.
Jack Armstrong
Who?
Joe Getty
Cheers. No, okay, that guy over there sneering Joe Getty. Let's execute him.
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It's Final Thoughts.
Jack Armstrong
I'm strong.
Sponsor Voice
It's Final Thoughts. It's Final Thoughts.
Joe Getty
I'm strong again.
Jack Armstrong
Get ready with Katie Green and Michelangelo. It's Final Thoughts. I'm Strong again. That won the Grammy last night for best contemporary Folk Song. Very, very cool. Here's your host for Final Thoughts, Joe Griffin Spaghetti.
Joe Getty
Let's get a final thought from everybody on the crew to wrap things up for the day. There he is, pressing the buttons in the control room, our technical director, Michelangelo Michael.
Guest or Caller
You know, I.
Joe Getty
The Oscars are coming up. Jack, I really like the idea of you going to award shows as a seat filler. Then when the political speeches come on.
Jack Armstrong
Stupid. Yes.
Joe Getty
Shut up, idiot. Katie Greener, esteemed newswoman, has a final thought. Katie, I know I'm behind, but I finally watched that guy climbing the skyscraper and I. I felt sick a majority of the time.
Jack Armstrong
Isn't that something to watch? Whoa. I highly recommend it. It's still on Netflix.
Joe Getty
I don't think I can watch that. Jack, final thought for us.
Jack Armstrong
I love it when I get new music to discover that I like. And a couple of the things that I clicked on after watching a little of the Grammys last night, like the best new artist album. Really like it. I can't wait to take the whole thing in today.
Joe Getty
Yeah, I've got a music related thought too. I don't really know Substandard or Rabbit's music. You may know him as Bad Bunny, but Jack and I were discussing the theme of his album, which translates the title to I should have taken more pictures about how I guess Puerto Rico is that where he's from has changed so much since he was a kid. And it's a very touching, sweet theme. I am so off put by the pretension of pop music. I find it like physically nauseating. I've got to get past it and listen to some of the actual music.
Jack Armstrong
I'm surprised that somebody, a manager or somebody can't get to him and say you, you put together this art, you really care about this. You will reach more people, more people will hear your art that you've dedicated your life to if you just don't say anything about ice.
Joe Getty
Yeah, just do that stuff quietly, personally if you want. But just, yeah, make it about your art. You're an artist.
Jack Armstrong
Armstrong and Getty wrapping up another grueling four hour workday.
Joe Getty
So many people. Thanks. So little time. Go to armstrongandgetty.com any thoughts you want to share them.
Jack Armstrong
Mailbagmstrongandgetty.com we will see you tomorrow. God bless America.
Promo Announcer
No one is illegal on stolen land.
Jack Armstrong
Armstrong and Getty. As the kids like to say, the world is crashing out the dopes at the Grammys.
Joe Getty
They're running their mouths, they got no clout.
Jack Armstrong
Probably got a little gout. Oh damn.
Joe Getty
The solution to their problem, clearly.
Jack Armstrong
It's our podcast. Armstrong and Giddy on demand.
Joe Getty
Armstrong and Getty.
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This Sunday, iHeartRadio brings you live to Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara for the Super Bowl 60 tailgate concert presented by NetApp. It's the ultimate pre game party featuring an exclusive performance from Teddy Swims. Your front row row experience will be on iHeartradio stations across the country and the free iHeartradio app this Sunday at 3:30 Eastern, 12:30 Pacific. Then after the concert, tune in to the Super Bowl 60 pregame show on NBC.
Jack Armstrong
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Jack Armstrong
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Jack Armstrong
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Jack Armstrong
Wasn't that delicious? So good.
Joe Getty
Your bill, ladies.
Jack Armstrong
I got it. No, I got it. Seriously, I insist. I first don't be silly.
Joe Getty
Silly?
Jack Armstrong
You don't be silly. Silly people with the Wells Fargo Active Cash Credit card prefer to pay because they earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases. Okay, okay. Rock, paper, scissors for it. Rock, paper, scissors. Shoot.
Joe Getty
No.
Jack Armstrong
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Episode Date: February 2, 2026
Hosts: Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty
This energetic episode explores a swirl of geopolitical headlines, social trends, and the peculiar power of modern political slogans. Armstrong and Getty react to real-time news about US-India trade deals and the evolving situation with Iran, discuss the manipulative nature of “TIFA” political sloganeering (inspired by the Billie Eilish Grammy moment), and riff on AI developments, philosophical quandaries, and a shocking hoax hate crime. True to their irreverent style, they mix earnest commentary, sharp skepticism, and sardonic humor throughout.
On Trump’s foreign policy:
“Russia’s gonna just not have enough revenue to keep this going at some point.”
— Jack Armstrong (03:59)
Lindsey Graham’s hyperbole:
“It would be the biggest change since the fall of the Berlin Wall…You are Reagan Plus.”
— Lindsey Graham, as quoted (06:10)
Skepticism about ending terrorism:
“The idea that we’ll have no more Islamic terrorism—that is silly.”
— Joe Getty (06:59)
Philosophy and practicality:
“Anything that can’t be applied to life, I lose interest in very quickly...I gotta cut the grass. The grass is actually growing. Yeah, how do you know it is? I don’t care, it is.”
— Joe Getty (36:53)
On political slogans:
“You can think of TIFA quite literally as a form of discourse engineering...to hijack people’s brains through mystifying slogans.”
— James Lindsay, as read by Jack Armstrong (41:41)
On 'Black Lives Matter' phrase:
“Black lives, obviously, matter, but supporting the organization is something…people should not do. The statement ‘nobody is illegal on stolen land’ is a very sophisticated TIFA because it contains a whole bunch of mystifications in just six words.”
— Jack Armstrong (44:00)
Cynical grift advice:
“Next time there’s a craze, jump on it…profit from it.”
— Jack Armstrong (30:51)
On AI ‘Molt Book’:
“It’s like Facebook or Instagram, but it’s just all the AIs talking to each other and posting to each other. There are no humans allowed.”
— Jack Armstrong (13:49)
Casual, irreverent, critical, and quick-witted, with frequent asides, inside jokes, and a blend of alarm, skepticism, and amusement at the news of the day.