A&G Replay Friday Hour Two

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: A&G Replay Friday Hour Two

Date: November 28, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode is a lively replay from Armstrong & Getty, blending their trademark sarcasm, skepticism, and wit as they cover topics ranging from questionable health research and the reality of sleep studies, to the silliness of cable news, the risks of “Buy Now, Pay Later” economics, AI in daily life, U.S. politics, the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, and American spending habits. The hosts—Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty, and contributor Katie—dive into news and social trends, questioning conventional wisdom and poking fun at the absurdity of modern life, with special focus on media misrepresentation, alarming studies, and AI advances.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Health Stats & The Media (00:51–02:19)

• Armstrong and Katie humorously debunk the "10,000 steps per day" health myth, noting newer studies suggest even 7,000 steps can be beneficial.
• Jack criticizes how media often misrepresents small, preliminary health studies for sensationalism and notes the proliferation of industry-funded research skewing public perception.
  • “The original 10,000 step thing was completely made up.”—Jack (01:15)
• They vow (with skepticism about their ability to stick to it) to stop referencing cable news, arguing its actual viewership is negligible.

The Decline of Cable News (02:19–03:37)

• Reflect on how networks like CNN are mostly watched in airports and have lost relevance, holding onto reputation from a bygone era.
  • “Anytime you talk about Jake Tapper...nobody is watching that show. Nobody.”—Jack (02:21)

Revisiting a Shooting Story & Media Accuracy (03:45–04:33)

• Jack addresses a correction regarding a New York shooter, clarifying he never claimed the shooter played in the NFL, highlighting the importance of careful language.

The Science of Sleep – New Research (04:44–12:14)

• Extended discussion about new, large-scale sleep research using objective data from fitness trackers instead of self-reporting.
  • Discovery: Many overestimate their sleep; a fifth of those claiming more than 8 hours were actually getting 6 or less (06:23).
• Key finding: Sleep rhythm (consistency and quality) is more crucial than duration, with irregular patterns linked to 83 diseases—some claims from the study are met with incredulity.
  • “Sleep rhythm matters more than sleep duration. Inconsistent or weak daily sleep rhythms were linked to 83 diseases…”—Jack (07:11)
  • “That’s an extraordinary claim. I am…skeptical…”—Katie (07:45)
• Discussion includes skepticism of dramatic causal links asserted by researchers, especially with Chinese studies and claims like 37% of Parkinson’s attributed to sleep patterns.
• Katie relates personal family impact from Parkinson’s, questioning whether correlation is misconstrued as causation.

Screen Time, Technology, & Modern Malaise (11:00–13:22)

• Both discuss the mental health toll of screens and “doomscrolling,” and advocate for intentional, screen-free reflection.
  • Jack describes a personal ritual watching sunsets and finding meaning away from technology.

AI in Everyday Life – Therapists & Celebrity Lookalikes (13:42–16:22)

• Exploration of AI-powered therapy and novelty apps (astrology, celebrity lookalikes).
  • Jack and Katie mock the popularity of astrology bots and note AI’s tendency to give overly positive, vague feedback.
  • “The number one use for AI…is astrology. You’re combining the most cutting edge, advanced thing…with the most old timey, dumbest…reading the stars for your future.”—Jack (15:44)

Geoffrey Hinton & AI: The Godfather’s Warning (16:44–17:36)

• Commentary on Geoffrey Hinton’s proposal to make AI “care for us like we’re babies” to prevent them from turning hostile.
  • “We need to make machines that are smarter than us to care for us like we’re their babies.”—Jack (17:20)

AI-Generated Political Satire & Outrage (17:47–22:32)

• Audio impressions of political figures like Chuck Schumer and J.D. Vance using AI voices, to satirize political discourse around immigration, healthcare, and negotiations.
  • The hosts clarify these are parodies, not real statements, and poke fun at the increasing absurdity and lack of subtlety in political trolling.
• Discussion on the Democrats’ approach to government shutdowns versus Republican strategies in past years.
  • “These shutdowns are dumb and don’t matter…and you don’t even remember [the last one] happened…”—Jack (21:03)

The Israel-Hamas Conflict – Realities of War & Media Narratives (25:20–27:25)

• Ongoing developments in Gaza, Israel’s strikes, and the prospects of ceasefire deals.
• Hosts argue Western media holds Israel to unprecedented standards in warfare, perpetuating unrealistic expectations.

America’s Buy Now, Pay Later Crisis (27:40–34:16)

• Discuss the surge of “Buy Now, Pay Later” services and the hidden debt they foster, especially among younger consumers.
  • Survey: Half of U.S. consumers have used BNPL schemes.
  • “Serious credit card and auto loan delinquencies have climbed to the level of the 2008–09 recession.”—Katie (28:09)
• Armstrong highlights the dangers of relying on future income for purchases and the lessons he’s teaching his son about debt.
• They highlight government interventions masking underlying economic vulnerabilities, drawing satirical connections to Ponzi schemes and the "Chinese Loan Office."

On Household Realities & Smells (34:37–35:54)

• A lighter ending with Jack humorously lamenting his son’s overuse of cologne to mask teenage bedroom odors.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On health research:
  “The problem is…the media goes crazy with it. And then there’s studies that are paid for by mattress companies or candy bars…”
  —Jack Armstrong (01:15)

• On sleep studies:
  “If there’s one period of my life I can’t really account for, it’s when I’m asleep.”
  —Katie (06:10)

• On cable news:
  “If you’re younger, you don’t even know what it is.”
  —Jack Armstrong (03:13)

• On AI replacing therapy:
  “I just…used one of the medications from my IVF process and ChatGPT regular kind of sympathized…then gave me a list of resources and things I can do…”
  —Katie (13:52)

• On political satire and AI:
  “That is not actually Chuck Schumer. That is an AI voice of the Democratic leader of the Senate…”
  —Jack Armstrong (18:10)

• On buy now, pay later:
  “There’s always one person like this at the party. She points out, you have to pay for debt later with interest.”
  —Katie (28:09)

• On economic risk:
  “Seven out of 10 of you…have a risky debt to income ratio.”
  —Jack Armstrong (33:54)

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Important Timestamps

• Health & Steps Myth Debunked: 00:51–01:15
• Cable News Irrelevance: 02:19–03:37
• Sleep Study Revelations: 04:44–12:14
• Screen-Free Rituals: 11:39–13:22
• AI Therapy, Astrology, Celebrity Lookalikes: 13:42–16:22
• Hinton’s AI “Baby” Theory: 16:44–17:36
• AI Political Satire: 17:47–22:32
• Israel-Hamas & Media Standards: 25:20–27:25
• Buy Now, Pay Later Debt Crisis: 27:40–34:16
• Teenage Bedroom Cologne Anecdote: 34:37–35:54

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Tone & Style

• Informal, conversational, and irreverent with regular asides and running jokes
• Affectionate skepticism toward mainstream narratives, science reporting, and politics
• Satirical, using parody voices and mock headlines for comedic effect

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Summary

This Armstrong & Getty Replay Hour offers sharp social commentary interspersed with banter and playful self-deprecation. The hosts dissect the dubious quality of media health advice, the pitfalls of modern financial habits, the state of cable news, and the real-life impacts of debt culture. They humorously highlight the inescapable presence and mixed blessings of technology and AI, while engaging thoughtfully with ongoing world events and domestic politics. Original insights and memorable moments abound, making this episode insightful, relatable, and highly entertaining.

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

This is an iHeart podcast, guaranteed human.

[Joe Getty]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Getty. Not live from studio C. Armstrong and Getty. We're off for taking a break.

[Katie]

Come on. Enjoy this carefully curated Armstrong and Getty replay. And as long as we're off, perhaps you'd like to catch up on podcasts. Subscribe to Armstrong and Getty on Demand. Or one more thing. We think you'll enjoy it.

[Guest or Contributor]

You probably heard that you're supposed to get like 10,000 steps a day, but according to new research, just 7,000 steps a day could be enough to improve your health.

[Katie]

Do I hear sex?

[Guest or Contributor]

It really sounds like scientists have lowered their expectations for us. Explains why the new surgeon General warning on cigarettes says do not smoke during pregnancy unless it's your second kid, then whatevs.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I like the jokes, but the problem is the original 10,000 step thing was completely made up. The problem with a lot of health stats, and we're about to get into some here, is they're misinterpreted regularly. Oftentimes they're very, very small preliminary studies that the researchers themselves would never put out there as a national story to talk about. But it's something exciting about something that can cause cancer or eliminate cancer or whatever. And so the media goes crazy with it. And then there's studies that are paid for by like, you know, mattress companies or candy bars or whatever. And lo and behold, the study says eating more chocolate leads to better sex life or whatever, you know. So, sure, you got to watch out for that. Before we get to that stuff, couple of things real quick. First of all, can we make a vow? We need to make a vow. I don't think we can keep it, but we should try. We should make a vow every day and work toward this goal to stop talking about cable news as if anybody's watching it, because nobody is.

[Katie]

So that's fine with me.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I agree. But anytime you talk about Jake Tapper said this or whatever, it might be interesting for some reason, but nobody is watching that show. Nobody. I'm just, I'm looking at this stats that Byron York just put out from Fox. It's more likely you're watching a Fox show, certainly. But CNN's total audience during their 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11pm hours, you're cherry picking added together, don't beat one showing of the five, which is not even one of Fox's highly rated Shows. Oh, so talking about anything on CNN or MSNBC really is. Who are you talking to?

[Katie]

Boy, it is the ultimate example of something holding on to just any reputation based entirely on its gloried past and.

[Jack Armstrong]

By people who are old enough to remember when it mattered. If you're younger, you don't even know what it is, so.

[Katie]

Right. Well, it's on in. In airports, inexplicably.

[Jack Armstrong]

We got this.

[Katie]

CNN have a picture of the head of the FAA with a mule or something. How is CNN on in airports all over America?

[Jack Armstrong]

That is almost. That is almost certainly the explanation.

[Katie]

Well, there you go. Anyway, moving along, we got this text.

[Jack Armstrong]

About that horrible story in New York, the shooting. I just wanted to deal with it real quick in case I did use sloppy language. You're putting out fake news again. The shooter in New York never played in the NFL. I didn't mean to imply that he did. I thought I said he was a high school star and that's where his career ended.

[Katie]

You never stated anything that could be taken to indicate that he played in the NFL. Well, I guess you made reference to other. Okay, yeah, whatever. That's fine. Okay, fine. He didn't play in the NFL, but heighing in there.

[Jack Armstrong]

He did seem to be blaming that brain malfunction that you can get from playing football though, as he had a note about that and shot himself in the chest and wants his brain to be studied, which doesn't make him some sort of anybody to look up to because he killed a bunch of innocent people like a scumbag.

[Katie]

Right?

[Jack Armstrong]

If you didn't get enough sleep last night, you've doubled your chance of gangrene. I hope you're happy.

[Katie]

Oh no, not another bout of gangrene.

[Jack Armstrong]

Another bout.

[Katie]

It ruined my summer vacation.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, wow. It certainly ruined my beach. Look, my beach body. Getting to big studies. This is pretty damned interesting and a bit of a breakthrough. I think we've been talking about sleep stuff a lot. Everybody that I know deals with sleep issues or if you're getting enough sleep, they found a way pretty simple with having. Instead of self reporting about sleep, which is all you had to really go on up until fairly recently. Now you can have everybody wear these little devices that report on how much sleep you're actually getting. And there are way too many fake long sleepers in all studies we've ever heard. They actually. That's what they actually call them, fake long sleepers. In studies that we've heard about through our whole lives. It's people maybe like me who report a certain number of hours of sleep but actually get much less if you actually wear a device that measures how much you're sleeping. Just because you're in bed and semi unconscious that amount of time doesn't mean you're actually sleep sleeping. And so they had people wear these devices trying to track how much like actually you were asleep. Sleepy. God. The numbers are a lot lower. And so those other numbers skewed everything we've ever had about sleep. Because you got a whole bunch of people in there claiming they sleep eight hours a night and they're actually sleeping six.

[Katie]

Is anybody struck. Anybody else struck by the hilarious irony of self reporting sleeping habits? I mean if there's one one period of my life I can't really account for, it's when I'm asleep.

[Jack Armstrong]

True. It's the largest study of its kind ever. Researchers strapped fitness Trackers on nearly 90,000 adults for a week. Followed their health for almost seven years. Among people who claimed to sleep more than eight hours nightly nearly of 22%. So a fifth were actually getting six or less. That's a big chunk of people who thought they were getting eight hours of sleep and are getting six or less.

[Katie]

That's. That's enormous. Yes. Statistically. That's like. Why are you even talking about the previous numbers? They're ridiculous.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. But let me jump to the headlines from it. Other than the headline that everything you've ever heard about sleep studies is fake because of. What do they call them? Lying bastards. That's not what they call them. Fake long sleepers. Lying bastards would be too harsh.

[Katie]

Be appropriate.

[Jack Armstrong]

Sleep rhythm matters more than sleep duration. Inconsistent or weak daily sleep rhythms were linked to 83 diseases and then they list them. And we could get into that later with the sleep rhythm being when you're going in and out of REM like happens. If you've ever learned anything about sleep disease burden is comparable to smoking or obesity. Up to 37% of Parkinson's. These numbers can't be true, can they? Up to 37% of Parkinson's and 36% a type 2 diabetes could be attributed to disrupted sleep patterns. That's a lot. That.

[Katie]

That's an extraordinary claim. I am. I got my fur up.

[Jack Armstrong]

Me too.

[Katie]

I'm very free. Wow. What's. What's our source here? What's our publication?

[Jack Armstrong]

Is this. It's a dirty Chinese research led by Dr. Quinn Chen Army Medical University and Chang Wang Peck, Peking University.

[Katie]

Okay.

[Jack Armstrong]

Are you concerned that the Chinese are trying to infiltrate our sleep devices?

[Comedian or Impersonator]

Don't trust China.

[Katie]

Yeah. I'm. Yeah, I'm highly skeptical about all of this. The idea that. That bad sleep rhythms are more serious a problem than we understand. That that's perfectly reasonable. But a bunch of commies there at Peking. I thought we were supposed to say Beijing these days. Maybe they kept the name for the university.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's a good question. The study linked various sleep problems to 172 different diseases across virtually every system in the human body. Some diseases showed dramatic associations. For example, people with the most disrupted sleep rhythms faced more than triple the risk of age related physical debility. I don't really doubt that. Well, yeah, triple, but I don't doubt that.

[Katie]

Yeah. Your previous sentence about Parkinson's caught my ear. Partly because both my mom and my grandfather died of complications from Parkinson's. But so little is known about what causes Parkinson's. I mean, could there be some correlation without causation or. Half and a half? That's. That was utterly unclear to me.

[Jack Armstrong]

But my guess would be that whoever wrote this article took the numbers and presented it as if it's causation when it could just be those two things to go together for unknown reasons. But I wanted to get back this because I thought it was funny. Well, it could be.

[Katie]

You've got a gene mutation that causes poor sleep rhythms in Parkinson's, for instance. Parkinson's, for instance.

[Jack Armstrong]

Sure. So people with bad sleep triple the risk of age related physical debility. Also, you doubled the risk of gangrene compared to those with the robust sleep patterns. Yeah, again, don't I eliminate the any chance of gangrene by getting a tetanus shot?

[Katie]

Ruined my beach vacation. It's. It's. It's hurt my golf game, the gangrene. It's terrible.

[Jack Armstrong]

How many people have you ever known who gotten gangrene? Unless you're 180 years old, my dating.

[Katie]

Life has been poorer for it. Listen, you're a great guy, but you're. You're gangrenous.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, I saw you said to me. I saw your hinge profile and you mentioned the gangrene right up toward top. So it shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone.

[Katie]

Oh my goodness.

[Jack Armstrong]

So this sentence, this is the one you're having trouble with? And I don't blame you. Researchers estimated that up to 37% of Parkinson's. Parkinson's disease risk. Not exactly sure what that means.

[Katie]

That means nothing. Sorry. I hate to be killjoy.

[Jack Armstrong]

You're not killing anything for me. I didn't write this study. I have no investment in this.

[Katie]

Brought it to us. We need a meeting, a long meeting.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay.

[Katie]

Full of questions. Long meeting, prolonging questions.

[Jack Armstrong]

I would not be surprised if a lot of the problems we have though in the modern world is people not getting decent sleep.

[Katie]

Yeah. Yeah. And I've become re, re. Re re re re re convinced about the omnipresence of screens and smartphones being a reason for people's mental problems recently.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Katie]

I heard it presented in a religious context by a man of the cloth who was repeating what I think man has known for. For thousands of years. But. Well, I'll just say what he said. Leave time in your life for God. Leave time in your life for prayer and meditation and contemplation. Put down your damn screen.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know, I didn't even do this on purpose. It has just kind of happened for a variety of reasons. But I've been on this kick all summer long of at sunset. I schedule my evening around this. At sunset, I ride my bike to the edge of town. It's about two and a half miles. And then I'm looking at a wheat field. I'm from Kansas, so I like seeing the sunset over wheat fields. So I'm there, I'm looking at this wheat field with the sunset and I do this combination of prayer and affirmations and just kind of talking to myself or whatever. I don't bring my phone. And I do it every night. And it has become like my favorite part of the day. Like I just say, oh boy, I got to get this done because the sunset's coming. Because it's just. There's clearly some like, nourishment I'm getting from that, that I look forward to it. And I really go out of my way to make sure I've arranged so that I can do it. Yeah, I mean there's something just organically making me want to do it every night.

[Katie]

Yeah, I. I have a similar ritual. I drink myself incoherent and fall asleep muttering angrily about the people who've wronged me with fox on really loud some nights. Yes, you do you man.

[Jack Armstrong]

You do you. I've actually been lately thinking, how am I going to keep this going when the days are shorter and the Sun's setting at 5:30 and dinner and blah blah, blah. Or it's raining, I don't know. But I'm going to miss it. I got to come up with a. With a substitute for when the beautiful weather is over because it has become super important to me.

[Katie]

It's not as good. Videotape it then. Watch it on your Screen, carry it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Around on my phone, but don't like.

[Katie]

Say, wow, that was really good. That was really soothing. Now that I have my screen open though, let's do a little doom scrolling.

[Jack Armstrong]

No, no. Right.

[Joe Getty]

Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. The Armstrong and Getty Show. The armstrong and getty show.

[Jack Armstrong]

We were wondering if, like, if you use the therapist Harry on Chat GPT, if it's different than just generally asking questions the way the rest of us have been doing. What did you find out, Katie?

[Katie (Therapist AI segment)]

Yeah, it's. It's significantly different. So for example, I just. You used like one of the medications from my IVF process and ChatGPT regular kind of sympathized with that. It might make me not feel good, but then gave me a list of resources and things I can do to feel better in all this.

[Katie]

Yeah, I was totally unaware, as Katie pointed out last segment, that they have like individual bots with specialized programming for different topics, including the number one being astrology. So there's no hope for humanity. But number number two was find my celebrity lookalike. And so I did that. I uploaded a photo and. And it struggled for a while. I could tell it was thinking, jeez, if somebody looked like you, they wouldn't be a celebrity. That's. What do we tell this guy? Did it give you anyway?

[Jack Armstrong]

Did it give you Barney Rubble looking?

[Katie]

No, but it should. As a younger man, I did resemble the great Barney Rubble a great deal. Looking closely at your features, strong brow lines, expressive forehead, square jaw, with a salt and pepper beard and a slightly rugged but approach. Was it trying to have a blade? Hey, it's doing pretty well so far. If it is, you have a resemblance to Nick Nolte in his later years. Wait a minute. Hollywood and sleeping on park benches.

[Jack Armstrong]

No, no, Buddy Holly. Nick Nolte. Not now. Nick Nolte.

[Katie]

Oh, no, unfortunately not. And also a bit of Kurt Russell in his more recent roles. Again, in recent Nolte, resemblance comes through in the weathered, expressive forehead lines and the way your beard frames your face. Especially like nolte around the 2000s. Oh, oh, they cite Kurt Russell and the Hateful Eight. Yes. If only.

[Jack Armstrong]

The fact that the number one use for AI for Dunderpates is astrology. It's amazing that you're combining like the most cutting edge, advanced thing human beings have ever come up with with the most old timey, dumbest from a hundred thousand years ago. Reading the stars for your future.

[Katie]

But more importantly, I need Katie to react with complete honesty to this. Your look has that mix of ruggedness and warmth that both of those actors are known for in their later careers. I. I think you'd probably agree, wouldn't you?

[Katie (Therapist AI segment)]

Yeah, nailed it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Why is that thing giving you all positive feedback and there's no, you look sort of like a hobo I saw on the way to work.

[Katie]

Or just. Are you all right? Do you. Do you have medical professionals you can call? Oh, my gosh. How long did the doctor tell you you had? Oh, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

One.

[Katie]

One final AI note. Katie mentioned this headline. Geoffrey Hinton, often called the godfather of AI, is calling on researchers to design systems that will take care of us like we're babies. And. And we all reacted like, I'm not sure I need that, but thanks very much. But I read what Hinton's reasoning is. That's the only way to keep them from becoming like our overlords who shred us and take our organs for whatever purpose. He's like, we need to make machines that are smarter than us to care for us like we're their babies.

[Jack Armstrong]

He's like a knitted baby.

[Katie]

We need to imbue them with genuine concern for human well being. Otherwise, it could be really.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. So we need to convince AI to.

[Katie]

Care about us so they don't, you know, eat us.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

The Armstrong and Getty Show. Get more Jack, more Joe podcasts and our hot [e-mail] the Armstrong and Getty Show.

[AI Voice of Chuck Schumer]

Look, guys, there's no way to sugarcoat it. Nobody likes Democrats anymore. We have no voters left because of all of our woke trans bullshit. Not even black people want to vote for us anymore. Even Latinos hate us. So we need new voters. And if we give all these illegal aliens free health care, we might be able to get them on our side so they can vote for us.

[Jack Armstrong]

That is not actually Chuck Schumer. That is an AI voice of the Democratic leader of the Senate. And that was not actually Donald Trump in a sombrero behind him playing the trumpet.

[Katie]

I was going to praise Schumer for his candor.

[Jack Armstrong]

Hakeem Jeffries was not actually wearing a sombrero with a big giant black mustache. Also, J.D. vance did not actually say this. Okay?

[AI Voice of J.D. Vance]

Esto is mucho. Simply, el Democrat Party is mucho retardo, okay? Mucho retardo. Especially El Hakimo Jeffries. El Chucko Schumer. They are extra retardo. So El presidente and I cannot negotiate with these Democrat retardos.

[Katie]

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't like that term. Otherwise, it was very funny.

[Jack Armstrong]

Started earlier in the week with that, just Schumer saying this stuff about the Democrats. And then there's kind of the subtle ish sombrero and mustache. And it's grown since then into this. All subtlety has been lost and it's just completely out of control now.

[Katie]

Well, and I love that that. Is it helpful to post sombrero pictures when you're attempting to negotiate? Oh, come on.

[Jack Armstrong]

So here's Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democrats in the House. He just reacting to the videos.

[Politician or Reporter]

It's a disgusting video. And we're going to continue to make clear bigotry will get you nowhere. We are fighting to protect the health care of the American people in the face of an unprecedented Republican assault on all the things Medicaid, Medicare.

[Jack Armstrong]

The disgusting video. And here's the reporter thing Joe was mentioning.

[Reporter]

The president's been posting some images of Leader Jeffries and Senator Schumer. I saw recently you've said that your interest in good faith negotiations with these leaders. But you know, what message does that send? Is it helpful to post pictures of Leader Jeffries and sombrero? If you're trying to have.

[Jack Armstrong]

An answer.

[Katie]

But yeah, you know what it shows? It shows that we're the party that's got a sense of hum, wow. Angry all the time. Come on. A little black mustache.

[Jack Armstrong]

Is it helpful to post pictures of Mr. Jeffries in a sombrero and giant black mustache? Well, a whole bunch of trumps. There's only one trump. While five different trumps play trumpets and.

[Katie]

Giant guitars, implying, some might say, that there are multiple trumps who should run for a third term.

[Jack Armstrong]

If there were multiple trumps, they'd be in a mariachi band. Is that helpful?

[Katie]

Oh, my golly. Oh, this is, this is. It's almost kind of fun to watch. Not the, the, the really silly part of it, but the effort Hakeem Jeffries to try to get his civil rights movement. I'm outraged. We're all fighting together, voice going. And he runs out of the flagpole and absolutely no one salutes.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I'll say it again. I've said it multiple times. But the fact that the Washington Post editorial board, the people that run the Washington Post, said the Democrats walked into a trap on this one and then they shouldn't have shut down the government. They should have cobbled together to votes to go with this. So I heard it explained. It's actually pretty good explanation. These, these shutdowns are dumb and don't matter. And the last one lasted a month and you don't even remember it happened. All right, so quit acting like it's a big deal. But several times this happened last couple of times with Republicans where like the Tea Party did this. Like we're going to show how hard we're going to fight. And I was on board with the fighting and everything like that, but you just don't have the leverage or the votes to actually make anything happen. And Ted Cruz did it around Obamacare. He did the law, the, the, the really long, what do you call it, Filibuster. And then they, and also wouldn't go along because they needed his vote to avoid a shutdown and he had no leverage to actually get anything done accomplished. And that's what the, the woke progressive end of Democrats are doing now. We're gonna force a shutdown to show how much we fight, but we don't actually have the leverage to do anything. And so this has happened a couple of times. And again, nobody, nobody, nobody dies, nobody even notices it happens. It disappears into the history books. Man, if you ever read that history book, you are bored to death. But speaking of jokes, here's an AI or no, this is a comedian. This is not AI this is a comedian who does a good Trump voice.

[Comedian or Impersonator]

Hola, mi fellow americanos. Y bienvenidos al sierre de Schumer. That means welcome to the Schumer shutdown. We call it the Schumer siesta, right? It's the Schumer Siesta. He put the government on siesta crying Chuck and El Hachimo Jefe Jeffries. We used to call him Dollar Store Obama till we realized he's worth far less than a dollar. But they put the government on siesta to give illegal aliens your health care. We're not gonna let it happen. I looked at both of them. I said, we're not gonna let it happen. It's no bueno. I said, it's no bueno. They begged me. They said, but Senor Port for more, please give illegal aliens to healthcare. I said, we're not gonna do it. We're never gonna do it. It's not gonna happen. We're gonna end the siesta, we're gonna reopen the government, and we will not give in to the demands of Chuck and el Jefe. We're not going to do that. Thank you. God bless you, Diolo Bendiga, and God bless America. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

[Jack Armstrong]

That last part was probably funny, but I don't speak enough Spanish to know what he said.

[Katie]

Yeah, I missed that one, too. The.

[Jack Armstrong]

But please, senor, that's pretty funny. The funny thing is that that's only like one tick off actual Trump.

[Katie]

Yes.

[Jack Armstrong]

I mean, it's just barely even comedy as opposed to the president actually saying what he was saying. And so Trump said, I got it on where I grabbed it somewhere. I lost it. Trump said something funny, but I can't remember what it was about. The Democrats handing him this. The he can't believe that they same thing the Washington Post editorial board basically said is he can't believe that the Democrats are allowing him to do this and all the leverage.

[Katie]

Well, in Trump's boy Russell vote, the budget chief is taking advantage of it to try to shrink the government as fast as he possibly can. Whether it holds up or not, nobody's quite sure.

[Jack Armstrong]

But.

[Katie]

It'S exactly what Trump and elon Musk and Co. And a lot of conservatives have been wanting to happen. So let it continue. That's fine.

[Jack Armstrong]

I saw there was some thing in the New York Times yesterday. I got the bulletin during the day. You're nervous. Our experts are here to answer your questions about the shutdown. I thought, I'm not nervous. I don't have any questions. I'm perfectly fine. It'll end, like I keep saying, this afternoon or Friday night or next Tuesday, and nobody will ever think about it ever again.

[Katie]

So that was to their sizable percentage of their listenership that still wears Covid masks alone outdoors.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Katie]

Well, those people are scared. They wake up scared. It makes them feel important.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow, I hadn't seen this. Israel struck overnight in the Gaza Strip, killed at least 13 Palestinians, according to whoever. According to hospitals. Of course, a lot of hospitals are just Hamas holdouts and they call them a hospital. But anyway, Israel's continuing to blast that area of Gaza while Hamas is waiting to decide thumbs up or thumbs down on the peace proposal, which the deadline is this weekend. It's Thursday now. Running out of time.

[Katie]

Yeah. Well, maybe they ought to take a hard look at it and figure it out quick.

[Jack Armstrong]

What do you think's going to happen?

[Katie]

I still think there are only two choices. One, Hamas says, all right, we'll go along with it, and pretends to go along with it and. And seeks to do. They've always sought to do as hard as they can. Secondly, they just reject it and say, we'll fight to the death because they've vowed martyrdom over and over again.

[Jack Armstrong]

So the critics are saying, like I saw this, Peter Baker of the New York Times, that this was basically, you know, an all or nothing. For Hamas proposal for from. Yeah. You see, one side is winning the war and they're going to win the war no matter what. So they offered to the people that they're about to completely decimate. Here's a way out if you want it. If you don't, we're just going to continue to do what we're doing. That's the way most wars end.

[Katie]

Yeah. So what, like all of them? Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

So they can decide to do what Joe said and you know, they're, they're.

[Katie]

Dead enders.

[Jack Armstrong]

So they might say, you know, we're going to go ahead and fight to the death because they don't care if they take all the Palestinians with them. Doesn't matter to them. In fact, they think that would be great.

[Katie]

Oh, yeah. In fact, they're going to fight as long as they can and have as many civilians die as possible to hope that the world opinion turns against Israel, because it already has to some extent. So, yeah, that's, that's probably the most likely scenario. But the idea that, you know that Peter Baker's of the world and he's a bright enough guy, but my God, you're holding Israel to a standard that has never existed in warfare in the history of the world. You've just invented this special new one.

[Joe Getty]

For Israel, the Armstrong and Getty Show. Get more Jack, more Joe podcasts and our hot links at [e-mail] Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty, the Armstrong and Getty.

[Katie]

Show from the department of. Why does nobody recognize we're driving toward a cliff at 100 miles per hour? Alicia Finley of the Wall Street Journal pointing out that America's buy now, pay later economy is showing signs of an emerging debt crisis everywhere.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't like this story. I'm not doing that. I'm a I don't buy it until I can afford it sort of guy. But we all get brought down by a financial collapse. We all realize that. Right?

[Katie]

Right. The word inclusive is very hot these days. There certainly was a couple of years ago. That's the brilliant thing about a financial crash. It includes virtually everybody in misery. So anyway, so she points out that serious credit card and auto loan delinquencies have climbed to the level of the 2008. 09 recession.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay, so housing right after that giant crash.

[Katie]

Yes.

[Jack Armstrong]

Not surprising that lots of people all of a sudden were in trouble and not quite making their payments on time and that sort of stuff. What is the reason now?

[Katie]

Nobody's sure we like spending money. She says the housing market shows Cracks while the labor market is weakening. But you wouldn't know it from the buoyant stock market and consumer spending. America's buy now, pay later economy, including police, increasingly fueled by leverage as consumers, investors, businesses and the government are all taking on more debt, which she points out. And there's always one person like this at the party. She points out, you have to pay for debt later with interest.

[Jack Armstrong]

Thank you for that.

[Katie]

What a drag, man. As Americans max out their credit cards after years of inflation, Buy now, pay later offers are popping up everywhere from concert tickets to vacations to grocery stores.

[Jack Armstrong]

Boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. I could see how it'd be appealing if I'm 21 year old Jack and they'll never tour again or whatever.

[Katie]

It's their farewell tour, man.

[Jack Armstrong]

Do not buy your concert tickets on I can't afford it now, but I'll magically have more money six months from now. No, don't do that.

[Katie]

I guess there are now apps where you can split the cost of your purchases into installment payments over weeks or months. Some are template currently interest free. For now just include fees.

[Jack Armstrong]

Here's what you do. You borrow against your used car. Is that still a thing that people are doing where you take out equity from your used car? Yeesh.

[Katie]

Right? Yeah. And unlike credit cards, a lot of these services don't report the loans to the credit bureaus. So folks are in much more debt than their credit rating might indicate.

[Jack Armstrong]

But so these, all these different entities that are giving people these deals must feel like they're going to get paid back.

[Katie]

Oh yeah, yeah, certainly in the short term. And they, they, they have carefully calculated their default rates and you know, price their services. Excuse me, accordingly. And, and you know, if somebody ends up not being able to pay, they just put them their name on the.

[Jack Armstrong]

Blacklist and boy, my, my oldest son has got a, a life lesson coming on. I don't even remember what it was now it's been so long and something he really, really wanted and kind of fronted him the money. Kind of fronted him the money on that with the idea that you will owe me and I will be keeping track of it and I have been keeping track of it and he still owes me and Christmas might just be here. I've wiped off half your debt. Merry Christmas. That would be a lesson in how that whole thing works.

[Katie]

That would be a great gift in a way.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, sure.

[Katie]

Not to be appreciated at the. According to a recent survey, about half of consumers have used a buy now pay later service. This is not a niche this is half.

[Guest or Contributor]

Wow.

[Katie]

Heavily skewed toward the young. Concert tickets.

[Jack Armstrong]

Your vacation. I mean, everybody kind of does that on vacation, right? Because you put everything on your credit card, whether you pay it off that month or over a couple of months. Good point. Yeah.

[Katie]

Let's see. Federal Reserve paper last December found such users are more likely to have low credit scores, carry a balance on credit cards, have incurred checking overdraft fees, and have more delinquent credit accounts. Financially vulnerable consumers may be overextending themselves. And let's see. One of the bigger buy now, pay later services announced an ipo, which is expected to be one of the biggest of the year. Such services make money by capitalizing on financially stretched consumers, especially young people who don't want to tighten their belts.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow. According to the Babylon Be, as we told you, the Social Security Administration is going to be renamed the Charles Ponzi Memorial Retirement Plan, which I like.

[Katie]

That is great.

[Jack Armstrong]

The Department of Justice will be changed to the Department of Revenge on All Losers and Haters. I don't think that's appropriate.

[Katie]

And yet somewhat accurate in these days of lawfare.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is one that hurts. The Department of the treasury will be changed to the Chinese Loan office.

[Comedian or Impersonator]

Oh, oh.

[Jack Armstrong]

One more that I liked How Housing and Urban Development will retitle as Department of the Poors. The Poor the pores. Wow. By the way, we got text from somebody who said they always appreciate when I do my Porky Pig routine. Not being able to pronounce.

[Katie]

Hey, I got another statistic for you. That's enough fun. Back to the misery. So in 2012, mortgage, you know, holders had debt to income ratios considered risky. Right. 28% of people had a debt to income ratio. That was pretty risky. 28% last year. 69%.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh my God.

[Katie]

For Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It was 38%, up from 16% in 2012.

[Jack Armstrong]

Seven out of 10 of you. Yeah, I don't think I do have a risky debt to income ratio.

[Katie]

And if I haven't driven you to buy gold and bury it in your backyards yet. How much? How about one more? The FHA Federal Housing Association. Do we have a fancy new name for them from the Babylon B?

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know.

[Katie]

Too bad. They've waived or reduced monthly payments on 1.2 million mortg mortgages over the past two years. That's about 15% of the total that they hold. And without that forgiveness passed during the Biden administration, delinquencies would be near the level of the 2008.09 meltdown. Fannie and Freddie have also been slashing and deferring payments on hundreds of thousands of mortgages.

[Jack Armstrong]

So I go into my son's room last night to talk to him, which is one of the grooviest high schooler bedrooms I've ever seen in my life. He's put a lot of effort into it and it's very co. Dark. It's always very dark in there. But anyway, I go into my high schoolers room last night. It did not smell pleasant. I said, what is the deal in here? And he must have taken that to heart because now the entire house smells like high school boy cologne. And what did you do? And he said, well, you sit at smell bed. So I sprayed around some of my cologne. I thought that would help. Some of your cologne? It smells like you're on a date with four high school sophomore boys right now in my house.

[Katie]

Wow. Way too much important to ascertain the source of the funk first.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's funny. I don't know what it is about the scent, but it just. It smells like if you had to name the smell, you'd say, I'm on a date with a boy who's about old enough to get his driver's license. That's what it smells like. Its own scent.

[Katie]

You wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Axe Bedroom spray or something like that.

[Katie]

Yikes.

[Jack Armstrong]

Among the stories, I hope you bought.

[Katie]

It for cash and didn't borrow the money or, you know, break up the paper.

[Guest or Contributor]

It's the Armstrong and Getty show.

[Katie]

Armstrong and Getty?

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.