A&G Replay Friday Hour One

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: A&G Replay Friday Hour One
Date: November 28, 2025
Host(s): Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty
Special Guest: Jason Owens (Ret. Chief, U.S. Border Patrol)

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Episode Overview

This “best of” replay blends Armstrong & Getty’s quick-witted banter with wide-ranging cultural observations, economic discussion, and a deep dive into the realities and challenges of border security featuring former Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens. The episode moves seamlessly from language humor and generational anecdotes to sharp commentary on the U.S. economy, social norms, and the shifting complexities at America’s borders.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Language, Punctuation, and Social Cues

• Semicolons: Use and Misuse
  • Jack highlights Kurt Vonnegut’s take: semicolons are "showy"—used mainly to signal one’s education.
  • "Two thirds of people say they know how to use a semicolon. Two thirds actually don't." — Jack (03:55)
  • Joe discusses practical function: “To me, it takes the same role as dot, dot, dot…a soft period, stronger than a comma, but not quite the full stop of a period.” (04:20)
• Student Drivers and Social Understanding
  • Humorous discussion on etiquette toward student drivers and the value of patience.
  • Jack: “I do. I pull around in front of them, brake check them, then I roll coal on them. I do everything.” (12:41)

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2. Economic Anxiety and Class Divides

• Consumer Spending Under Strain
  • Consumer spending sustains the U.S. economy—yet now, half of it is driven by the top 10%.
  • Jack: “The burden of consumer spending is…on a small number of people.” (05:00)
  • Discussion of the Michigan Index of consumer sentiment; notable drop among the middle class from 70 to 55 (where 100 is neutral), reflecting increased economic anxiety. (06:00)
  • “While the wealthy prosper, middle class Americans increasingly feel the pinch.” — Jack (05:48)
• Investment Worries & Market Jitters
  • The hosts joke about stock market volatility and retirement worries.
    • “If you miss the drop by a day and the rally by a day, you will lose out on an enormous amount of wealth.” — Joe (09:07)
    • “Should I be a hardcore long term investor guy?” — Jack (08:35)

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3. Border Security: History, New Realities, and Cartel Control

[24:04] - [36:21]
Guest: Jason Owens, Former Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol

• How the Border Has Changed
  • Owens explains shifts from mostly Mexican, male labor migration to a broader demographic.
    • "Back in the 90s... most folks came from Mexico... single adult males... find work, send remittances... and then they'd try again." (25:00)
  • Post-9/11, the border mission and public awareness changed—security took precedence over economics.
• Cartels’ Dominance
  • "Make no mistake about it, the cartels control everything that's coming across illicitly across our borders… people, illicit substances, money—you name it." — Owens (28:04)
  • Cartels have pivoted from marijuana to fentanyl and human trafficking.
  • In one small Texas sector, cartels made "$30 to $35 million a week on human trafficking alone"—over "$1.5 billion a year in one sector" (31:04).
• Challenges for Mexican Authorities
  • Mexican officials face direct threats: "The life we're living down here is very different… gun battles in the streets, people murdered, dismembered… there are legitimate threats to their families." — Owens (31:57)
• Northern Border and National Security Challenges
  • "Most people don't think about… there’s 4,000 miles of border between us and Canada… and thousands of miles of coast… we even share a coastal border with Russia." (33:03)
  • About 90% of Border Patrol force is deployed on the southern border. Lack of persistent surveillance means vast unknowns about cross-border activity.
    • "There’s a lot of spaces out there where we don't have that situational awareness…" (35:03)

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4. Cultural Commentary & Social Norms

• Stereotypes and Political Correctness
  • Hosts riff on the ironies of permissible versus taboo stereotypes:
    • “You can point out [a group’s] strengths…but not weaknesses. And it makes no sense whatsoever that any group could have only positives and no negatives.” — Jack (14:16)
    • Joe highlights changing leftist positions on identity and stereotyping (15:00–15:45).
• Social Pressure for Braces and Cosmetic Norms
  • Nearly 70% of U.S. kids get orthodontic work; only about one third genuinely need it.
  • "It's cosmetic for two thirds of them...At some point we decided everyone needs perfectly straight, bright white teeth." — Jack (17:00-18:10)
  • Socioeconomic status magnifies the pressure; higher incomes see near-universal orthodontic use.

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5. Humor in Daily Observations

• Vanity Sizing & Fashion Trends
  • Petite women resorting to buying children’s clothes due to “vanity sizing” and shifting fashion trends.
  • "The average American woman weighs about 170 pounds, which is 30 pounds more than in 1960..." — Joe (41:45)
  • Hosts joke about statistical outliers: "Bill Gates could walk into a bar and change the average net worth. A 50,000-pound woman is not going to roll into the bar or probably the buffet." — Jack (42:33)
• Plastic Surgery Mishaps
  • Dissection of “Brazilian Butt Lifts” and their dangers—both medical and olfactory.
  • Joe: "Once you have death, infection is kind of irrelevant." (43:52)
  • Jack: “What is that cologne you're wearing? Black Plague? No… Dead Raccoon? No, that's my BBL surgery gone wrong.” (45:25)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Semicolon. That would all be amusing.” — Jack (10:45), riffing on punctuation humor.
• “In June, middle-class confidence gave out and the [Michigan] index went down a lot. And this concerns economists, of course. Everything concerns economists and they disagree on everything.” — Jack (07:25)
• Jason Owens (Border Patrol): “That’s not narcotics. That’s nothing but human smuggling in one sector of nine across the southwest border… unlimited resources, and nothing but time to sit there and think about how they're going to defeat whatever security measures we have.” (31:04)
• “You have to respect and, and empathize with the situation that [Mexican authorities] are in…they literally deal with, at times, gunbattles in the streets, people that are being murdered, dismembered. There are legitimate threats to their families.” — Owens (31:57)
• "Beautiful the way you are, right?" — Joe, on resisting unnecessary cosmetic procedures (45:42)

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Important Timestamps

• 03:42 – Semicolon jokes and Vonnegut quote
• 05:00–07:12 – Consumer spending and economic anxiety
• 09:07 – Investing and stock market fears
• 10:09 – Trump-Netanyahu tapes hypothetical
• 12:11–14:24 – Student driving, stereotypes, and social boundaries
• 16:37–20:25 – Braces, cosmetic dental pressures
• 24:04–36:21 – Interview: Jason Owens, Border issues & cartel influence
• 40:15–45:48 – Women’s vanity sizing, BBL surgery dangers

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Tone and Style

Armstrong & Getty blend conversational irreverence and sharp satire with earnest inquiry, especially during their border security interview. Humor is central—both as cultural critique and coping mechanism. Personal anecdotes and pop culture references keep the discussion dynamic, while guests add expertise and gravitas without atmosphere-heavy solemnity.

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This replay hour captures the Armstrong & Getty show’s trademark: an ongoing dialogue between the news, American life, and the quirks and anxieties defining our age.

Transcript

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[Jack Armstrong]

Now broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the George Washington broadcast.

[Commercial Voice]

Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty. And now he.

Welcome.

[Jack Armstrong]

We are off this week so you're gonna hear some best of replays of the Armstrong and Getty show. Oh, you're gonna love them. They're gonna be so good. I'm gonna be at home sitting in my car listening to the radio while you do so.

[Joe Getty]

While you're enjoying yourselves this week, why not hit armstrong and getty.com and pick up an ang t shirt or hat for your favorite a fan, including the hot dogs.

[Jack Armstrong]

Our dogs. Yeah. Our Black Friday special is same price as every other day. So now enjoy the Armstrong and yeti replay. The writer Kurt Vonnegut, who I'm a big fan of, said that the semicolon said of the semicolon, it's showy. It's chiefly used to show you've been to College. More than 2/3 of young Americans say they know how to use it. About the same number test prove. Actually don't. That's pretty funny. Two thirds of people say they know how to use a seven column. Two thirds actually don't. Kurt Vonnegut says you only use it to show you've been to college. That's pretty funny.

[Joe Getty]

You know what? I actually use it semi frequently. It to me takes the same role, has the same role as like dot, dot, dot. It's, it's, it's. Well, I've heard it described as a soft period, stronger than a comma, but not quite the full stop of a period. I have a big meeting tomorrow. Semicolon. I need to prepare tonight.

[Jack Armstrong]

Less cramping.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, you're an idiot.

[Jack Armstrong]

So my dot, dot, dot, which I'm a big fan of, is basically using a semicolon.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay.

[Joe Getty]

I think so.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's fantastic. So I did want to talk about this. This is actually important. So the stat from a week or so ago really got my attention. Consumer spending is doing okay. Pretty good. Hanging in there. Because when consumer spending goes, the economy collapses because two thirds of our economy is consumer spending. But right now, half of consumer spending is just the top 10%. So the burden of consumer spending is being is on a small number of people.

[Joe Getty]

I find myself wondering what's the usual percentage that the top 10%, actually they have more Money.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah, I actually had that and I don't remember what it was, but it was significantly significant change. Okay, because I wondered that too. I'll have to look that stat up because that is important to the whole thing. But so this news out of that is not that surprising. While the wealthy prosper, middle class Americans increasingly feel the pinch. There is something called the Michigan Index, which I've heard before whenever you get into this topic. It's a common and well respected consumer sentiment gauge that factors in a bunch of different things. The Michigan Index, anyway, consumer sentiment was at 70 not that long ago. In the summer it collapsed. It's down to 55. Where the number 100 signals neutral feelings on the economy. When you're at 100, you're just like, yeah, it's okay, it's not great, it's not bad. I don't know, below that you're, you're mostly negative. But it went from 70, which was already somewhat negative, to 55 for the middle class. Economic anxiety is running particularly strong among lower and middle income consumers. And they're. And it fell off a cliff this summer. Higher income Americans. And for this study they're calling anybody that makes more than 100,000 a year. You make $101,000 a year in the Bay Area. You do not consider yourself a higher income individual.

[Joe Getty]

Probably.

[Jack Armstrong]

They have buoyant sentiments.

[Joe Getty]

I rarely describe myself as, hey, Joe, how you doing? Buoyant.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm gonna start doing that more often.

[Joe Getty]

You should.

[Jack Armstrong]

How's it going? Buoyant. Af. I'll say. But in June, middle class confidence gave out and the index went down a lot. And this concerns economists, of course. Everything concerns economists and they disagree on everything. But that doesn't surprise me really. Things are still expensive.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Announcer]

Well.

[Joe Getty]

And as I've said before, doesn't everything just feel a little precarious?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yes, yes, it does. Well, if you, if you're, you know, you follow the stock market at all my life experiences when it's setting records, like every other day there's a correction coming. Like my dad, who's been retired for quite some time, says, I've lost everything. I've half of everything. I've got like three times since I retired. I mean, it happens now and then where you get the big correction and.

[Joe Getty]

The correction isn't going to be like the gentle parenting craze. It's going to be more like an angry Catholic school nun in 1950. Okay, the ruler is going to come down with a resounding smack.

[Jack Armstrong]

God dang it. Have Y' all looked at your 401k? I rarely do. I just had to for some form. The other day I looked at my 401k, I was like, holy crap. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised with the stock market constantly setting records and it's pretty tied into that. But yeah, should I be a hardcore.

[Joe Getty]

Long term investor guy? If you miss the drop by a day and the rally by a day, you will lose out on an enormous amount of wealth.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

That's why you just ride it out. On the other hand, I look at what's going on right now and I think, oh, God, cash out, cash out. Just cash out now.

[Jack Armstrong]

Cash out.

[Joe Getty]

My gold bars are Bitcoin or Dogecoin or GameStop stock. Is that still going on? I don't know.

[Jack Armstrong]

Gold bars? Yeah. Maybe that's the answer. This is breaking news. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone with the prime minister of Qatar and apologized for violating Qatar's sovereignty in the strike on Doha and expressed regret for the killing of a Qatari security guard while they were taking out the various Hamas leaders.

[Joe Getty]

There, see, everybody's fine.

[Jack Armstrong]

Now Netanyahu is sitting with the president as right as we are. I wonder if that was that part of the deal. Trump said, you got to call and apologize. Tell him you're sorry. No, tell them you're sorry and mean it.

[Joe Getty]

Someday I wish they would release the Trump Netanyahu tapes like they did the Nixon tapes. I don't know if there are tapes, but, you know, like after the Qatari attack, the word was Trump just lit him up. He yelled at him. But then they subsequently, whether it was a couple hours later the next day, had a very good, calm, productive chat. So they've obviously got a couple of alpha male, hot tempered, yelling at each other. You know, a relationship.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'd love to.

[Joe Getty]

Hear it someday or just read the transcripts, but I don't know if that'll ever ask.

[Jack Armstrong]

Semicolon. That would all be amusing.

[Joe Getty]

Agreed. An anti ice protester in Massachusetts forgot to put her car in park while yelling at agents making an arrest of an illegal alien and her car rolled into a lake and sunk.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's disappointing.

[Joe Getty]

Tells Fox News it happened in up Upton, Massachusetts, a small, very blue town in blue Worcester County, 40 miles west of Boston. In a clip, a voice can be heard saying, well, that sucks. Look at that, Lucy. Her car got lost. As the woman's car drifts further into the water.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, the lesson for all of us. Oh, that reminds me. I was practicing driving with my son yesterday, we were driving around on county highways in his truck as he is coming up on getting his license. And so I took him over to a friend's house and Saturday night. And his friend, who is a few months older than him, has his license now, and I saw him pull up and it was just like. It was.

[Joe Getty]

I'm sure you had this experience.

[Jack Armstrong]

Just. It was so weird to see this kid that I've known since he was in kindergarten driving a car.

[Joe Getty]

It's like, well, I know the hell. Just. Are you sure this is all right? Is this really?

[Commercial Voice]

Really?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Times change. People grow.

[Joe Getty]

Hey, do you guys have a student driver on your.

[Jack Armstrong]

On your bumper?

[Announcer]

A little.

[Jack Armstrong]

No. No, I don't. Can you get those? Are you supposed to have those?

[Announcer]

I guess.

[Jack Armstrong]

I mean, I don't carry any legal weight. Do you get any? You get.

[Joe Getty]

No, it doesn't carry legal weight. But I appreciate it, honestly. If I'm on a city thoroughfare.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yes.

[Joe Getty]

Where nobody ever goes the speed limit and somebody's going the speed limit and I say, patience, please, student driver. I see that you're like, oh, okay. Got it, got it, got it. Yep. I. I won't get up on. Not that I would like dangerously tailgate anyway, but I get it, so. Cool. You're cool. I'll just call it.

[Jack Armstrong]

I do. I pull around in front of my brake, check them, then I roll coal on them. I do. I do everything. You drive him. Too soon for me.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, not rolling, Cole.

[Jack Armstrong]

But yeah, that happened to me just the other day. I was. Was that a weird four way stop situation? And I said, what is that person doing? And Sam said, they got the student driver sticker. And I was like, oh, okay.

[Jacob Goldstein]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

They're trying to figure it out. And yeah. My patience went way, way, way up.

[Joe Getty]

Right. I shouldn't have screamed. Go, you f. F Ing mfer. I just. If I'd seen the sign, I wouldn't have.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know, my son, I think, figured out the other day we were having a conversation about a particular group of people that seem to struggle with driving.

[Joe Getty]

Oh. And I think he came upon this realization himself.

[Jack Armstrong]

No, no, no, no, no. We.

[Joe Getty]

He was.

[Jack Armstrong]

He's very aware of it. He's very aware of this, the existence of this. And I won't say why, but I think he figured out why. And it's always been a mystery. Why does this particular group of people struggle with driving so much when they seem to excel at other things? I won't. I won't name the group, but I've.

[Joe Getty]

Got a great punchline. But it would end our careers today.

[Jack Armstrong]

And I, I can't. I can't explain why, but it reminded me of one of the many Armstrong and Getty, I don't know, laws of social physics or whatever, things that we've come across over the years. The fact that you can point out the strength of a racial group or ethnic group or whatever, or really any group, you can point out their strengths as divided out from other people, but not weaknesses. And it makes no sense whatsoever that any group could have only positives and no negatives. I mean, that doesn't make sense on any face of it whatsoever.

[Joe Getty]

No. You want another layer of irony? If you were to say, because you didn't say that group has high homeowner, owner.

[Jack Armstrong]

Owner, high homeowner rates less crime, gets divorced less. But if there's a negative stat, you can't say that out loud or you're in trouble.

[Joe Getty]

Well, so here's the extra load of irony, for instance, can't drive, for instance. And particularly in. Particularly if, if you were to suggest that sort of thing, even a positive. I remember if you were to suggest that, yeah, Indian kids, you know, they work really hard and they value education. And you weren't even supposed to say that because that reduces the individual to just his group. And that's ugly. That's a stereotype. Even positive stereotypes are racism and wrong. And then the woke crowd came along and took over the left. And they're like, everybody is the stereotype of their race. All white people are evil white supremacists. All black people are victims. There are no individuals. You will not be judged on your individual achievements or efforts or character. You will be painted with the color of your race, Period. And that was the left again, but.

[Jack Armstrong]

The new Left, yeah, I wish I could talk about this more, but I can't. It would end our careers.

[Joe Getty]

And people so weak and stupid that they really, they ought to be at the end of the leash that their dog is holding. People so damn stupid they couldn't recognize what was going on. Fell for it all. And they're thick in our nation's universities and schools and blue towns. Yes, indeed, they believe every word of it. And when the new New Left comes along and utterly contradicts that, but yells at them a little bit, they'll go along with that. Next.

[Jack Armstrong]

The Irish. The Irish can't drive. And I also said it out loud.

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[Joe Getty]

Get more Jack, more Joe podcasts and our hot [e-mail].

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[Jack Armstrong]

My son got, my 13 year old got braces yesterday and I was wondering what percentage of kids get braces in the modern world? As we decided at some point that everybody needs to have perfectly straight teeth and they need to be as bright as the sun in terms of whiteness.

[Joe Getty]

Yes, just.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's what we decided. It's. If you watch a movie from the 90s, all the actors like not bright white teeth, they're just kind of, you know, John Travolta's got kind of yellowish.

[Joe Getty]

Teeth like people have normal colored teeth.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, it's, it's, it's striking and I.

[Joe Getty]

Love this, this is my favorite aspect of modern movies. If the, you got a movie, it's a western, it's set in 1840 and you got a character who's a town drunk who's dying of consumption, he's still got gleaming white teeth.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. About 70% of kids in the US currently get some sort of orthodontic treatment, braces being the number one. And at least a third or only a third truly need braces in, in the traditional sense. Like it would be a quality of life situation if you didn't get your teeth straightened out. It's, it's cosmetic. In other words, for 2/3 of them, which, you know, if, if we've decided, you know, I had a person really berating me for the fact that I hadn't got my sun braces yet. Yet. If we've decided that you gotta have straight teeth, is that kind of like we, we use the example of the, the cracked phone screen. That's like the modern day missing tooth. And that's because nobody's missing teeth anymore. So are you, are, are you really setting yourself aside as you can't be part of even mid level or above society if you didn't get your teeth straightened. I don't know, I don't know what it's like out there. I have straight teeth just naturally. So I don't know what it would be like. I don't know how self conscious I would be. Lots of people had crooked teeth when I was younger. But like every kid has braces. It also socioeconomically, depending on your, you know, your social strata, the higher you go up the income, the more it's like a hundred percent of the kids get braces for even mildly crooked teeth according to this article.

[Joe Getty]

Hence the social pressure. Sure.

[Jacob Goldstein]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. So it's kind of self reinforcing.

[Joe Getty]

I'll be in Britain next week, so. Oh boy.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, that would be interesting.

[Joe Getty]

Bring your report.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it is interesting that that is, it's not uniformly a western society thing. I mean, United States leads the way in like needing to have perfectly straight teeth for cosmetic reasons. And it's expensive and painful, but yet we do it. And I just find it interesting, you know, we did it. I'm doing it.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, that's, it's a conundrum. I mean, if you were a real activist, you'd say, all right, this is an artificially imposed social norm.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

A status norm. An eminence front is Pete Townsend, who just turned 80. Of the who. Pete Townsend of the who is 80? Good Lord. Anyway, as he would put it. But if indeed it is a barrier to achievement, acceptance, dating, whatever, certain relationships.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

And are you gonna die on that hill? As people like to say, far too candid.

[Jack Armstrong]

And it's not even that am I gonna have my kid die on that hill because it's not me who's, who's living with it.

[Joe Getty]

Right?

[Jack Armstrong]

So that's what every parent is dealing with. But it's expensive. Man, I was shocked by the price. Yow.

[Joe Getty]

Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

The Armstrong and Getty show.

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[Joe Getty]

The Armstrong and Getty show.

[Jack Armstrong]

We'Re gonna talk to the former Border Patrol Grand Poobah 26th Chief of the United States Border Patrol. Now retired, Jason Owens joins the Armstrong and Gettys show this morning. Jason, how are you today?

[Joe Getty]

Good, Jack. I've never been called a Grand Tuba before. Thank you for that.

[Jack Armstrong]

The Big Cheese so what years were you the guy in charge?

[Joe Getty]

So I was, I was the chief of the Border Patrol from the summer of 23 until March of 25.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay, what's. Do you know what the history is of our border enforcement? I mean, did we used to have much stricter border enforcement and people just chose not to come? Or, or did the economics change to where people want to come across? And so we now we need more border agents.

[Joe Getty]

I actually don't know that the whole dynamic has changed. It's not just about the, the traffic that we're seeing, but it's about the public's awareness and attention to the. The border has always been an issue in some form or fashion. It's just that we didn't pay as much attention to it back in the 90s. When I started, the Border Patrol was a small agency that not many people knew about. We only had a few thousand agents and predominantly focused on immigration along the southwest border with Mexico. Nobody really gave any thought to the economic migration. Most of the folks came from Mexico. They'd come up and they'd try and find work. They'd send remittances home, and during the holidays, they'd go back home, visit their family, and then they'd try again as soon as the holidays were over. And that's really the extent of, you know, what was border security during that time. And throughout the, the ages, we've had those surges where we've had very busy times. And I'm sure, you know, being out there in California, you know, back in the 90s, San Diego was incredibly busy. But it was a different demographic that was crossing then. It was, it was a very different mission because 9, 11 hadn't happened yet, and our awareness of the threats that are out there didn't exist, in what.

[Jack Armstrong]

Way was it a different demographic that was, was crossing back then versus now?

[Joe Getty]

Well, like I said, predominantly you had a lot of folks from Mexico, and they were mostly single adult males, and they were coming forth to. To find jobs in the US and send money back home, and they would go home to their families. Well, over time, that started to shift because people started to see that, well, the situation got a little bit rougher in Mexico. You had people from Central and South America that were, that were, you know, interested in coming up as well. And people started to see that it was more difficult for us to remove people from the country if they didn't come from Mexico. Most of the time, if you caught Jason Owens from Mexico and you said, hey, do you want to go before an immigration judge and see if you're going to be deported or if you can stay here most of the time, they would say, you know what? I'm going to voluntarily return and skip all of that, knowing that it's probably going to turn right around and try and cross again. And eventually they made it because of the sheer, you know, how big the border is and how few agents we had. Well, you can't do that with folks from other countries because Mexico is under no obligation to take those folks back if they're not citizens of Mexico. And we don't have those. Those processes and procedures in place with these other countries in many cases. And in many cases, it's a lot more expensive than just walking them across the border to the authorities in Mexico.

[Jack Armstrong]

He also, there is no place in the country you're going to get free health care as someone here illegally, not that many years ago. And now he can. So there are different magnets rather than just jobs. We also didn't have anything like fentanyl or meth way back in the day. How much different has that made the drugs that are available and our appetite for them here in the United States?

[Joe Getty]

Well, and talking about how the dynamic has changed along the border, make no mistake about it, the cartels control everything that's coming across illicitly across our borders. And that's whether that's people, whether that's, you know, illicit substances, whether that's money, you name it. And so, you know, back in the, again in the early 2000s and 90s, and, you know, it was all about marijuana, and you had cocaine and you had some meth cases and the like, and, and heroin. Those are the traditional narcotics that we would come across. And of course, you know, the world's view on marijuana has changed. And so the cartels adapted and they look for the next best thing, because at the end of the day, theirs is a business, and they're looking at, how can I make money off of, you know, what it is I'm doing? Well, they took a pivot to two things. Number one, fentanyl started becoming much more prominent because of how potent it is and how easy it is to make comparatively. And then also they got into the people business, they got into human trafficking, because for the longest time, there was not as much risk associated. You know, people would be a little more sympathetic to folks that were smuggling people across the border than they would somebody bringing across, you know, kilos of cocaine. And so they. They shifted to the product that was going to be in more demand and where they stood to make the most money with less Risk that's essentially been with the cartel's business model has been and how it has impacted the dynamic along particularly the southwest border.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's interesting. So that doesn't surprise me. But you say the cartel. Nothing's really happening without their approval.

[Joe Getty]

Absolutely not. And there's, there's different ones that are out there. And if you talk to anybody in the national security space, especially with CBP and border patrol, they will tell you that that is our true adversary. The, the smugglers, the criminals, the cartel members, those are the ones that we face off single day. And when we go out there to help secure the border, that is who we have in mind. The immigration issue, it's, it's an important one. We have to have law and order. But the national security aspect of border security is really what is first and foremost on our minds because that represents by far the greatest threat to our country.

[Jack Armstrong]

And the Mexican government just can't get control of those cartels. Apparently.

[Joe Getty]

It's a tough situation. They, you know, if you think about an adversary like the cartels, that, the amount of money that they make. And I'll use Del Rio sector in Texas as an example because I was the, I was the sector chief there before I took over as chief of the border patrol. And that's a, that's a pretty remote small sector. And of course, back a couple years ago, that was front and center with Eagle Pass and Uvalde and the Haitian, Haitian migration and. Well, that little sector, just off of human trafficking alone, we estimated that the cartels were pocketing upwards of 30, $35 million a week.

[Morton Buildings Representative]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

You do the, you do the math. And that's not narcotics. That's nothing but human smuggling in one sector of nine across the, the southwest border. You know, for. And again, my Oklahoma Math, that's over $1.5 billion a year in one sector that they're making. So you're talking about an adversary that is well funded, unlimited resources, and nothing but time to sit there and think about how they're going to defeat whatever security measures we have in place. And part of that is destabilizing the communities and the governments in Mexico so that they can maintain a foothold and keep an advantage. And that's been a persistent problem for our partners over in Mexico for four years.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, it's a very gentle way of saying it. Destabilize the communities. As in, if you're a. The cops in that town, you're gonna die if you try to take them on.

[Joe Getty]

Absolutely. And I would, I would have Conversations with my counterparts. These, they would be the Sedana generals or they would be the colonels over Samar. And, and they would tell you, it's, it's not that we don't want to respond or we don't want to help out. It's just that the life we're living down here is very different. You know, they. They literally deal with, at times, gun battles in the streets, people that are being murdered, dismembered. There are, there are legitimate threats to their families, and they go out there job. So you have to, you have to respect and, and empathize with the situation that they're in. So I don't always buy into. Oh, it's just, it's just a matter of corruption. No, there's. There's a lot of factors that get taken into account. And I think any of us in that situation would be faced with.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, culturally, that's why we've got to hang on to our culture of, of not having very much corruption. Because, man, once you lose that, it's tough to turn it around. That's rough. So talking about, talking about the border, when we just say the border, we all assume the border between us and Mexico, but you say there's a lot more going on between the United States and Canada now, the longest undefended border in the world.

[Joe Getty]

It was always funny to me every time I would talk to a member of Congress or staffers or in many cases, reporters, and it still didn't get covered as much as I would have liked. People forget that, yes, there's about 2,000 miles between us and Mexico, but there's 4,000 miles of border between us and Canada, if you don't count that vertical slash that Alaska shares, which is another 1500 miles. And oh, by the way, we have thousands of miles of coast, and most people don't think about it in these terms. We actually share a border, a coastal border with Russia because of Alaska. So we have some legitimate things to think about in vulnerabilities that exist along our multiple borders and the threats, both state and non state actors that are out there, that deserves a space in the discussion anytime we're talking about national security and especially border security. Because if you're going to resource an agency that's responsible for keeping us safe, you have to take into account all that they are responsible for and not just one piece that the mainstream media wants to focus on.

[Jack Armstrong]

What percentage of border patrol is on the southern border versus the northern border. Do you have any idea?

[Joe Getty]

Typically, about 90% of our workforce is deployed on the southwest border. So if you can, you can do the math. Roughly 20,000 agents, depending on, you know, the, the season that we're in. You know, you have 90% deployed down to the southwest border and the rest are on the northern border, our coastal sectors, and in many cases overseas in our attache offices.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, man. If it ever becomes a real problem, or maybe you're saying it already is, of things coming across the Canadian border. I remember when I drove into Calgary one time, or headed, headed up to Calgary, just crossing on a two lane highway in the middle of nowhere. There was basically nothing there. Showed him a driver's license and drove in. That's all there was to it. How, how many drugs are coming across the Canadian border at this point? Do you have any idea?

[Joe Getty]

Well, and that's, that's the, the million dollar question, so to speak, that we get asked a lot of times what's getting away? You know, there's, there's what we catch and that's between us and the office of Field operations that works at the ports of entry. Ours is the job between the ports of entry. So there's what we actually catch, what we may see and are not able to get to. But then there's that great void, that great unknown and that exists even along the southwest border that a lot of people don't realize as well. There's so much of the border that we don't have persistent surveillance. We don't know what's coming across or what's going on because we're not out there and we don't have the technology. In today's age, it's hard to imagine that there's actually still areas out there where there's no cell coverage, there's no reception, and you need that for technology to be, to be effective. So there's a lot of spaces out there where we don't have that situational awareness and so we can't tell you with any level of certainty what's coming across, what's getting away. And that's one of the things I always said, it keeps us up at night. It worries us because we know the potential and you don't want to have something like that happen on your watch.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, man, that is true. Jason Owens, 26, chief of the United States Border Patrol. Appreciate your time today. That was very interesting stuff.

[Joe Getty]

Good talking to you, Jack. Thanks for having me.

[Jack Armstrong]

You betcha.

[Joe Getty]

Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty the Armstrong and Getty show.

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Kind of programs does this school have? How are the test scores? How many kids do a classroom? Homes.com knows these are all things you ask when you're home shopping as a parent. That's why Each listing on Holmes.com includes extensive reports on local schools including photos, parent reviews, test scores, student teacher ratio, school rankings and more. The information is from multiple trusted sources and curated by Holmes.com's dedicated in house research team. It's all so you can make the right decision for your family. Homes.com, we've done your homework.

[Morton Buildings Representative]

People choose Morton Buildings to build a variety of buildings for their property any time of year because they know Morton buildings are built stronger, last longer, and look better. So if you need a garage, a stall barn or a storage building for an rv, boat or other vehicles, a shop for your farm hobbies or car restoration projects or anything in between, act now and contact morton [e-mail] don't delay. Construction schedules are filling up fast. That's mortonbuildings.com.

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The only thing between you and your best self is a start button this Black Friday Explore the world with NordicTrack from the peaks of Peru to the streets of Paris, every workout moves you somewhere new with IFIT trainers leading the way. The equipment's amazing, smooth, quiet, and those screens make it all feel real. Ready to start your next workout adventure with the number one treadmill brand in the U.S. shop NordicTrack.com for Black Friday savings. NordicTrack train anywhere. Explore everywhere.

[Joe Getty]

The Armstrong and Getty Show.

Over the weekend, the rapper known as 4Extra lost two fingers in a fireworks accident. He's now changed his name to three Left. The good news is he's no longer throwing up gang signs. You know, I saw that first punchline coming, but I enjoyed it a lot. Three Left. I get it. And be careful. The Fireworks Kids Gender Manning Madness update coming up next segment. But first, a handful of consumer oriented stories that I found intriguing and or amusing. A Wall Street Journal reporting Vanity sizing is forcing petite women into kids clothes changing styles and the super sizing of apparel is pushing shoppers to unusual lengths to find something that fits. The sub headline is so much glitter.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, you better like sparkles.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, the petite women who have, you know, been forced to go for children's sizes because the American girth has been increasing. More on that in a moment. But everybody knows this, right? The apparel industry for years has been employing vanity sizing, making clothes larger and larger while keeping the sizes the same. Making matters worse for slender shoppers is a current fashion woman in which oversized looks are in vogue. The result is clothes so big that slender people are swimming in them.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I noticed it with young people. They're all wearing super giant baggy clothes.

[Joe Getty]

This gallows five five has tried petite clothing, but because those fits are designed for shorter people. The shirt sleeves stop above her wrists and the jeans don't even graze her ankles. Children's clothes fit better, but the styles aren't sophisticated. Too many flowers and so much glitter. Final note on this the average American woman weighs about 170 pounds, which is 30 pounds more than she did in 1960, according to the national center for Health Statistics average is 170. That is correct. Is that average or median? Because if there's like one 50,000 pound woman that throws. It's like the Bill Gates walks into a bar thing, right? Your net worth, your average net worth, et cetera, et cetera.

[Jack Armstrong]

Bill Gates could walk into a bar and change the average net worth. A 50,000 pound woman is not going to roll into the bar or probably the buffet.

[Joe Getty]

No.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh my.

[Joe Getty]

That was insensitive. She's £50,000.

[Jack Armstrong]

She needs some tough talk.

[Joe Getty]

Look at yourself. When you hit 30,000, didn't you think, you know, I gotta change something?

[Announcer]

Yes.

[Joe Getty]

Katie, this is terrible. There's something terribly wrong here because the average height for a woman is five three. So if we're averaging at 175, three.

[Jack Armstrong]

170.

[Joe Getty]

That's pretty portly.

[Jacob Goldstein]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't think that that sounds high to me. That sounds really.

[Joe Getty]

Are you arguing with the name national center for Health Statistics?

[Jack Armstrong]

I guess I am, but that just. That sounds high to me.

[Joe Getty]

There's a lot more to get to.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay.

[Joe Getty]

The Brazilian butt lift surgery is a procedure that enhances the size and shape of someone's rear end through a fat transfer.

[Jack Armstrong]

Don't I know it. I've had two of them.

[Joe Getty]

It's often considered a dangerous procedure by experts since there's a possibility of death, infection and more. I would restructure that sentence. Once you have death, infection is kind of irrelevant.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right, but.

[Joe Getty]

Or the more but this popular and freaking stupid surgery. Do you seriously think having a bigger butt is going to materially change your life? It's for the better.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's for bigger or higher all.

[Joe Getty]

Is it lifting? It's both. It's both.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'd like mine higher.

[Joe Getty]

It makes it bigger. Not only is BBL surgery risky, there's one bizarre, rather gross side effect that comes along that potential patient should consider. It's called the BBL smell and it is real, says this doctor.

[Jack Armstrong]

What?

[Joe Getty]

There's often a smell expected for BBL patients after sweating or sitting for long periods. An aggressive scent because you have a variety of.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm guessing because you have crevasses.

[Joe Getty]

No, no. There are tissue death, which is a BBL complication, and unhygienic habits that could cause someone with BBL to have a smelly beehive. This is the worst thing you've ever done. By a lot.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

This is the worst thing you've ever done.

Horrible.

I am issuing an important warning to people who might fall prey to this insidious procedure. If a patient was quote overfilled with fat during the procedure. Fat necrosis, which is when fatty tissue in the buck dies, can occur as a result. A rancid smell develops.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well yeah, I. I imagine you smell like a dead body.

[Joe Getty]

Yes. Infections that need antibiotics, hospitalizations and even that lead to sepsis. Okay, well this has been a treat. Thanks Joe.

[Jack Armstrong]

What is that cologne you're wearing? Black Plague? No.

[Joe Getty]

Is that Dead Raccoon? No, that's my BBL surgery gone wrong. I'm telling you ladies, beautiful the way you are, right?

[Jack Armstrong]

God, you gotta wear the kids clothes and you smell like a dead body and things aren't going well for you.

[Joe Getty]

It's the Armstrong and Getty show.

Armstrong and Gettysburg.

Armstrong and Getty.

[Announcer]

What kind of programs does this school have? How are the test scores? How many kids do a classroom? Homes.com knows these are all things you ask when you're home shopping as a parent. That's why Each listing on Homes.com includes extensive reports on local schools, including photos, parent reviews, test scores, student teacher ratio, school rankings, and more. The information is from multiple trusted sources and curated by Holmes.com's dedicated in house research team. It's all so you can make the right decision for your family. Homes.com we've done your homework.

[Morton Buildings Representative]

People choose Morton Buildings to build a variety of buildings for their property any time of year. Because they know Morton buildings are built strong, last longer, and look better. So if you need a garage, a stall barn or a storage building for an rv, boat or other vehicles, a shop for your farm hobbies or car restoration projects or anything in between, act now and contact morton [e-mail] don't delay. Construction schedules are filling up fast. That's mortonbuildings.com.

[NordicTrack Advertiser]

The only thing between you and your best self is a start button this Black Friday Explore the world with NordicTrack. From the peaks of Peru to the streets of Paris, every workout moves you somewhere new. With iFit trainers leading the way. The equipment's amazing, smooth, quiet, and those screens make it all feel real. Ready to start your next workout adventure with the number one treadmill brand in the U.S. shop NordicTrack.com for Black Friday savings. NordicTrack train anywhere. Explore everywhere.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is Jacob Goldstein from what's yous Problem? When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing. Odoo solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way, you can save money without missing out on the features you need. Check out odoo at o d o o.com that's o d o o.com bring.

[Joe Getty]

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O u N D this is an I heart podcast. Guaranteed human.