An Ass-teroid If You Will

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: An Ass-teroid If You Will

Date: April 2, 2026
Hosts: Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty (with Katie Green)

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the nuances of the ongoing Iran war, media coverage, updates on the latest moon mission (with some humorous detours about space toilets), and trending political news. The team wrestles with the implications of recent presidential speeches, polling data, and broader dissatisfaction across the American electorate, sprinkling in signature Armstrong & Getty humor and cultural commentary.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Strategic Race to the Moon and Space Mission Talk

• U.S.-China Moon Competition:
  • Armstrong & Getty note the lack of media coverage on the strategic importance of the U.S. lunar mission, focusing instead on identity politics within astronaut selection.

    "It was, as usual, the identity politics of the astronauts as opposed to the strategic reason that we're going to the other side of the moon." (Jack, 01:10)

• Space Mission Mishaps:
  • The hosts open with the moon mission's less glamorous side: toilet malfunctions and the need for a special fan to handle floating waste in zero gravity.

    "If you go number two in space, it just floats off on you, apparently." (Jack, 03:50)
    "Floating Deficit is the name of my new freeform dark metal band." (Joe, 04:58)

2. War in Iran: Policy, Media, and Gas Prices

• Media Framing:
  • Frustration with media simplification of the Iran war, particularly tying public sentiment to gas prices over actual strategic objectives.

    "Somehow we decided we're going to judge the war entirely on gas prices... It's either a good idea or it's not. The price of gas really doesn't have a lot to do with it." (Jack, 01:37)

• Trump's Strategy and the Uranium Quandary:
  • Discussion on the logic of neutralizing Iran's rocket and uranium capabilities:

    "The war ends when we've taken out the rocket capability... Wouldn't you need to like secure an incredibly large area for like a month and bring in bulldoze? Yes." (Jack, 06:08)

  • Assessment that removing enriched uranium is likely impractical, and perhaps buried under rubble after strikes.

    "It would take them ages to get it out and use it. We're gonna keep an eye on it..." (Joe, 07:25)

3. Humor, Wordplay & Lighthearted Tangents

• The episode title is revealed as a scatological pun based on a space toilet mishap:

  "An asteroid, if you will." (Joe, 04:25)

• Several prolonged riffs about floating waste, band names, and Joe's failed alpaca farm keep the tone irreverent.

  "I bought 300 head. I thought, go big or go home." (Joe, 08:30)

4. Katie’s Headlines: News Roundup (10:15–14:28)

• Iran War: Presidential Messaging
  • Trump promises to hit Iran "extremely hard" if necessary; mixed media reviews on his address.
• U.S. Embassies and Security Alerts:
  • Americans advised to leave Iraq as terror threats rise.
• Oil Prices:
  • Immediate market reactions to war talk; surge in prices.
• Birthright Citizenship:
  • Supreme Court appears skeptical about restricting it.
• Cuba, Venezuela, and Global Oil:
  • Russia exports oil to Cuba; U.S. relaxes sanctions on Venezuela.
• Red Lobster's Endless Shrimp Deal:
  • Amusement over the return of a business plan that sparked prior bankruptcy.
• Health & Humor:
  • Study shows positive aging mindset is beneficial.
• Political Satire:
  • Babylon Bee headline on Kristi Noem, poking fun at political scandals.

5. Political Polling & Party Woes

• Trump’s Declining Approval:
  • Detailed breakdown of new polling showing Trump’s approval and economic marks dropping:

    "Handling of the economy is down 8 points since January... from 39 to 31. You're almost in the 20s..." (Jack, 20:52)

  • Discuss growing perception that Trump’s policies have worsened the economy.

    "2/3 of Americans think Trump's policies... have worsened economic conditions." (Jack, 22:13)

• Democratic Party Not Capitalizing:
  • Noted that 74% of Americans—across all affiliations—think Democrats in Congress have the wrong priorities.
• Independents Are Key:
  • Both hosts emphasize that the real political action is among independents, who view both parties as off-topic.

    "If one of those parties could break through with a, you know, we're trying to help your lives, you could make some hay." (Jack, 25:21)

• Reflections on Midterm Swings:
  • Historical context: parties regularly lose big in midterms, often due to public’s rapid swings in enthusiasm.

    "2010 midterms... Obama, they lost 63 House seats..." (Jack, 26:19)

6. Media Criticism

• Ongoing Media Distrust:
  • Jack and Joe deliver a withering critique of the mainstream media for both bias and lack of curiosity.

    "They're incurious, they're biased and don't even know it. They're coddled, they're limp wristed simpletons. They're just despicable in virtually every way you can think of." (Joe, 28:16)

• Media’s Role in Framing Political Cycles:
  • Observation that sensationalist media narratives amplify natural electoral swings for partisan or financial benefit.

    "Remember when they get up there on the podium when your party takes it back... and they get up there and talk about how a new era has dawned... send me money, send me money." (Jack, 28:40)

7. Listener Emails & Audience Engagement (29:01–35:31)

• Audience weighs in on Moon Mission:
  • Awe at the scale of the Apollo launches compared to current missions.

    "Some things never lose their ability to take your breath away..." (Listener email read by Joe, 31:15)

• Trump’s Speech Assessment:
  • Mixed listener reactions; some sarcastic about its effectiveness.
• Canadian Left/Intersectional Politics:
  • Listener amused by a Canadian party’s “intersectionality point” system, noting hypocrisy in inclusivity rhetoric.
• Space Alien Theories:
  • Another listener references the "dark forest" theory on why we shouldn't be broadcasting our presence to the cosmos.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Space Bathroom Malfunction:
  “If you go number two in space, it just floats off on you, apparently, which makes sense. Perfect.”
  —Jack Armstrong (03:50)

• War’s Media Coverage as Economics:
  “We decided we're going to judge the war entirely on gas prices... The price of gas really doesn't have a lot to do with it.”
  —Jack Armstrong (01:37)

• Political Humor:
  “Floating Deficit is the name of my new freeform dark metal band.”
  —Joe Getty (04:58)

• On Party Politics:
  “About 3/4 of independents say that... each of the parties have the wrong priorities.”
  —Jack Armstrong (24:56)

• Media Critique:
  “They're incurious, they're biased and don't even know it. They're coddled, they're limp wristed simpletons.”
  —Joe Getty (28:16)

• Classic Churchill Quote:
  “We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches... We shall never surrender.”
  —Joe Getty quoting Winston Churchill (29:31)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:35 – Show opens; setting and quick banter
• 01:03 – U.S.-China Moon race, media’s focus
• 03:23 – Space bathroom malfunction story
• 06:08 – Uranium removal debate
• 10:15 – Katie’s news headlines
• 17:25 – Trump’s Iran speech audio and discussion
• 19:06 – Iran’s internal power struggle explained
• 20:52 – Trump’s polling slumps and economic perceptions
• 25:23 – The fruit is ripe for political change (independent voters)
• 26:51 – Midterm historical perspective
• 28:16 – Media critique rant
• 29:31 – Freedom loving quote; Churchill
• 31:15 – Mailbag: Apollo launch & moon mission awe
• 33:07 – Trump’s speech effectiveness revisited
• 34:58 – Listener email on Canadian “intersectionality” party
• 35:22 – Dark Forest theory and space aliens

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Conclusion

In this brisk, highly conversational episode, Armstrong & Getty dissect pressing headlines—from the war in Iran and moon landings to polling woes and the follies of news media and government with humor, skepticism, and their trademark irreverence. Whether bantering over space toilets or parsing the shifting tides of American opinions, the team keeps things lively for news junkies and casual listeners alike.

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(Listeners who missed the episode can catch the full Armstrong & Getty On Demand podcast for deeper dives into each topic discussed.)

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

This is an iHeart podcast, guaranteed human. Broadcasting. Live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio

[Joe Getty]

at the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Get ready.

[Joe Getty]

Live from Studio C. Si, senor.

[Jack Armstrong]

We are in a dimly lit room deeper than the bowels of the Armstrong and Getty Communications compound, so close to the weekend you can smell it. And today we are toiling under the

[Joe Getty]

title of the show, A Return to Bitta Bitza. We will explain in a moment. If you're not familiar with that term, it goes back always. Or if you prefer, nice moon. That's what she said.

[Jack Armstrong]

She X, I, J.

[Joe Getty]

Chairman xi. We are in a race for the Moon. I hadn't realized the true significance of it. We will elaborate.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay, cool. We talked a little bit about that yesterday. I was complaining that that angle of it was getting no coverage. It was, as usual, the identity politics of the astronauts as opposed to the strategic reason that we're going to the other side of the moon.

[Joe Getty]

Well, and if the United States is in some sort of contest, even with the most evil, oppressive regime on Earth, obviously we're the bad guy, according to virtually all of the media. So they would never take an us versus them stance.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, Interesting. I want to hear more about that. Definitely the. I'm. I guess I shouldn't be amazed at this point. Five weeks into the war, or four and a half weeks into the war, somehow we decided we're going to judge the war entirely on gas prices. I don't know how that got started, but apparently, I mean, that's every media story. Oil jumped after the president speech. It's either a good idea or it's not. The price of gas really doesn't have a lot to do with it.

[Joe Getty]

You know, when I had to get my completely ravaged joint replaced, they knocked me unconscious. Then they dislocated my leg and it hurt for weeks.

[Jack Armstrong]

No, it had to be done.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, the interim's painful and uncomfortable and

[Jack Armstrong]

then the job is done.

[Joe Getty]

It's the way that the world works sometimes. God, they're so dishonest.

[Jack Armstrong]

You can't hate the media enough. Well, you can still be against the war. It just doesn't seem like the best angle to me is to. Gas went up okay. After the speech because the whole goal, apparently, is to keep gas at a certain price as opposed to keeping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. I came across a couple of things yesterday that finally it all made sense. I never understand why the Trump White House can't or doesn't communicate these things more clearly, what's going on but around all the rockets, why we got to take out the rocket capability and why that why Marco Rubio said the other day, the war ends when we've taken out the rocket capability. Everybody's like, what? Well, it makes sense to me now, so maybe we can get to that a little later on. A couple of our different articles I read. So we got lots to talk about today. How's the moon mission going? I heard about the floaters. Did you hear about the floaters?

[Joe Getty]

I don't know about the floaters.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, it's a little gross. Katie, you're prepared for gross to start the show?

[Joe Getty]

Dang it.

[Katie Green]

What else is new?

[Joe Getty]

Into the sewer already. This show just started.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, it was the only problem reported on the space launch so far. They said some sort of problem with the fan in the bathroom, which apparently.

[Joe Getty]

Oh.

[Jack Armstrong]

Keeps the defecate in the bag and from floating around the space capsule. So they had to fix that because if you.

[Joe Getty]

You don't want that.

[Jack Armstrong]

If you go number two in space, it just floats off on you, apparently, which makes sense. Perfect. Yeah, they need a fan to capture it.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, it's not your standard bathroom fan, as lovely as that is. It's. Yeah, it draws the defecate, as you so delicately and sophisticatedly put it, draws the deficit into the storage unit.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. Because otherwise, again, it's just kind of floating kaka. Yeah, good.

[Joe Getty]

Exactly.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay, well, I'm glad they got that figured out.

[Joe Getty]

An asteroid, if you will.

[Jack Armstrong]

Excellent. Excellent.

[Katie Green]

Perfect.

[Joe Getty]

Hey, folks, I get paid for this.

[Jack Armstrong]

Excellent. Excellent. My kids were younger, I would tell them that joke, but I'm afraid they're too old for it.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, boy. I. I'd like to apologize.

[Jack Armstrong]

You should. No, you should not.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, where were we? You know, we could start this show officially a little. Yeah, sure.

[Jack Armstrong]

That seems like a good idea. Especially after that joke.

[Joe Getty]

Executive producer Hansen says Floating Deficit is the name of my new freeform dark metal band. I go to your show just to support you.

[Jack Armstrong]

You're my friend. Interesting problem to have right off the bat, though. I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty on this. It is Thursday, April 2, the year 2026, where Armstrong and Yeti and we approve of this program.

[Joe Getty]

Let's commence then, officially, according to FCC rules and regulations. And explain the bit of bits of reference at mark.

[Donald Trump]

We're going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We're going to bring them back to. To the Stone Ages where they belong.

[Jack Armstrong]

There you Go.

[Joe Getty]

In the wake of 9 11, the phrase bomb them back to the Stone Age was so common we just came up with the abbreviation Bit of bits. I guess it's an acronym, isn't it?

[Jack Armstrong]

So oil jumped almost immediately during Trump's speech last night. I guess as soon as the markets got the inkling that he wasn't going to announce basically that it was over. The market sought perhaps he was going to come out and say, we have won the war, we will be ending operations within the next. But he did not.

[Joe Getty]

We have reached a settlement with the new leaders. That would have been lovely.

[Jack Armstrong]

We are going to bomb them back to the Stone Age if they don't come around, which is an indication this could go on for a while. I have been taking in more information on this whole project. The Wall Street Journal has got a good article on it. To go in there and grab the enriched uranium and get it out of there, that would be one of the all time most difficult military maneuvers of my lifetime. Has everybody thought this completely through to what it would take? Here, this is what I asked last week when we were talking to my clients. Wouldn't you need to like secure an incredibly large area for like a month and bring in bulldoze? Yes. You would have to do all that sort of stuff.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

It would take a lot of people and you'd just be a such a sitting duck target.

[Joe Getty]

And then the transportation of the stuff, they'd have to bring in trucks. Where are the trucks gonna drive to? Exactly.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

How vulnerable would they be? Good gracious.

[Jack Armstrong]

The border with Iraq, it's a little more friendlier. Saudi Arabia, I guess. I don't know. But it very well might be a hundred percent necessary to do. To get that enriched uranium. You can't just have it floating around like space deficate.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

I mean, it's gotta be.

[Joe Getty]

Although one of the takeaways from the speech last night was that Trump didn't state this, you know, just in black and white, but he hinted heavily that no, that all the uranium is buried under tons of rubble. It would take them ages to get it out and use it. We're gonna keep an eye on it, suggesting that no, we're not going to go get it.

[Jack Armstrong]

According to the Wall Street Journal, he's the one that suggested a project to get it out of there. So maybe he's been convinced by the military that is practically undoable. Perhaps. I hope so. It sounds like a. And well, I hope, I hope what he's saying is true because I don't want the world to be able to get their hands on a whole bunch of uranium that has been enriched. But if it's buried under gazillion pounds of rocks, no, it ain't going anywhere. Right?

[Joe Getty]

Right. And life as well as presidencies are full of things that sound like good ideas until you learn exactly what's involved.

[Jack Armstrong]

I brought into a few of those in my life.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, Lord, yes. My alpaca farm, for instance.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, yeah, your alpaca farm. You used to talk about that all the time.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, my gosh. I bought 300 head. I thought, go big or go home.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right?

[Joe Getty]

Terrible mistake.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. He got in early, got out late.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, boy. I bought high and sold low. It was terrible.

[Jack Armstrong]

And you still have, what, three alpacas in every bedroom? Still waiting to find them good homes.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, free. Free. I'll give you 100 bucks.

[Jack Armstrong]

Whatever.

[Joe Getty]

Just please take my alpacas.

[Jack Armstrong]

They're getting old now. Their vet bills are even worse.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, so speaking of deficit, we've got

[Jack Armstrong]

Katie's headlines coming up next. You want to comment on Anything, text line 415295, KFTC. Armstrong and Gettysburg. How y' all doing? Good. Glad to hear it. Nice. Good Friday tomorrow. My son, who goes to a private Christian school has the day off because they treat it like it's something there. I remember when we, when we worked in Charlotte, North Carolina, it was a very, very bad. I mean, it was. It was. People didn't work, people went to church, people, the whole thing. And then you live in godless California. Right. Not enough sharp.

[Joe Getty]

Still the same way because it's exploded in size.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know about Charlotte, but I imagine the rural areas certainly are.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, yeah. Absolutely true. Yeah. Yeah. There are not godless in that part of the country where Jennifer Siebel Newsom takes her children to see the horrors of racism and bigotry and misogyny and who knows what else. Actually, if you missed this, she took her kids on a tour of the red states of America so they could

[Jack Armstrong]

see the horrors like it was a Republican zoo.

[Joe Getty]

Right. She's hilarious. Oh, the gift that just keeps giving. All right, so much going on. Let's figure out who's reporting what. It's the lead story with Katie Green.

[Katie Green]

Katie, also, fun fact. I was born on a good Friday.

[Jack Armstrong]

Were you really?

[Katie Green]

Yeah, I was.

[Jack Armstrong]

Look at you.

[Joe Getty]

It was an extra good Friday that day.

[Katie Green]

All right, let's go to the Alphabet Network's NBC. Trump makes his case for Iran war, saying it will end shortly. But more strikes are ahead.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wall Street Journal, by the way, gave this speech a very high grade. CNN gave it an F, of course. Depends on how you look at it.

[Katie Green]

Abc, US Embassy tells Americans to leave Iraq and cites terror threats. And cnn, oil prices surge on Trump's vow to hit Iran, quote, extremely hard.

[Jack Armstrong]

I would just say briefly on the speech. I'm not sure those things matter that much anymore. It's not like the old days. Everybody waits around for the President to give a primetime speech and otherwise doesn't hear anything. I mean, we get a drumbeat of Trump talking every single day. It was just another him talking. I don't, I don't know why it would matter that much.

[Joe Getty]

Well, I think the, the material mattered, or it could have mattered a lot more than it did. Just because the message last night is we're gonna keep doing what we're doing. And everybody was looking for some pivot point point.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay, well, do you want to bet as to whether or not he says something today that makes you wonder why he said what he said last night?

[Joe Getty]

Oh, no, that's 100% true. What you said is 100% true. Unless he had a major pivot point announcement to make, that's a better way to state it.

[Katie Green]

From the New York Times. Key justices appear skeptical of limiting birthright citizenship.

[Jack Armstrong]

I have a feeling I'm going to be disappointed by this decision.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, me too. We're going to talk to one of our friends from the Pacific Legal foundation about what he thought of the oral arguments and do a little tea leaf reading

[Katie Green]

from Reuters. Russia plans to send second ship with oil to Cuba.

[Jack Armstrong]

So we're trying to strangle Cuba Unless it makes oil too expensive or it makes them fall before we're ready to deal with it or something.

[Joe Getty]

That seems to be the case.

[Katie Green]

From the Wall Street Journal. US Lifts sanctions on Venezuela's leader, opening the door to deals.

[Joe Getty]

That's an evolving situation. Clearly the weird relationship we have now with the new dictators is somewhat troubling. But take a wait and see attitude.

[Katie Green]

From the Chicago Tribune. Universities pressured to strip names of Epstein Associates from campus buildings.

[Jack Armstrong]

I like that headline. Epstein Associates. So what does that mean? Is that just your name showed up somewhere in an email?

[Joe Getty]

And these universities that are lousy with communists and America haters, please. You're gonna cleanse yourself with the evildoers, are ya? That's cute.

[Katie Green]

From the New York Post, Red Lobster to revive a disastrous endless shrimp deal.

[Joe Getty]

Really?

[Jack Armstrong]

I thought that's what forced them into bankruptcy.

[Katie Green]

That is what forced them into bankruptcy.

[Jack Armstrong]

They're bringing back the endless Shrimp.

[Katie Green]

Apparently they will be rolling it out on like a month's to month basis. So, like it'll be a promotion rather than like an all the time.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Katie Green]

And they're also hoping to put more of their products into stores. You can buy them retail.

[Jack Armstrong]

Fantastic.

[Joe Getty]

Red Lobster branded products.

[Katie Green]

Yeah, I know. Like right now you can buy the.

[Jack Armstrong]

Their biscuit mix that the biscuits are pretty good. The biscuits are good.

[Katie Green]

Study finds thinking positively about getting older may shape how you age.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'll be darned. Attitude matters. Who knew?

[Joe Getty]

That's stupid. Shut up.

[Jack Armstrong]

Breaking news.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, no kidding.

[Katie Green]

And finally, from the Babylon Bee, Kristi Noem asks her husband if there's anything he needs to get off his chest.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, simple but delightful. Well done, Seth and crew.

[Jack Armstrong]

So Mark Halpern, who has a lot of sources in Washington D.C. said there is a lot more shocking stuff to come on that story. I can't imagine what it's going to be.

[Joe Getty]

Credit where it's due to JT from Livermore who pointed out that the story is probably more significant than it seems because of the blackmail threat of a cabinet official and then more importantly, speculated, did she shoot the dog because he knew too much?

[Jack Armstrong]

I heard somebody say, did the dog shoot himself to get out of the family?

[Joe Getty]

Oh, too dark. Too dark.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't like it. Yeah, the whole security risk thing is, is damned interesting because she was the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and any sort of terrorist group or anything like that that's got any sort of blackmailable material on her husband, that could have been a big deal. How did that. How did I assume they do the most thorough of background check on you when you're going to be the DHS secretary? Because I, I just assume you have the absolute top clearance that exists.

[Joe Getty]

But who's they in this scenario? The Senate, I guess.

[Jack Armstrong]

Whoever does the background checks. I think the FBI does the background checks. Didn't we learn that through all this?

[Joe Getty]

Right. But in service to the president.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

So if, if Trump says, I don't care if her husband wears big fake boobs and pays $25aminute to pro skanks to talk to them, but there's no

[Jack Armstrong]

news that Trump was not. Knew that and said that's okay.

[Joe Getty]

Right?

[Jack Armstrong]

You just.

[Joe Getty]

No, I'm just saying even if the FBI uncovered something kinky like that, the President could still say, okay, great, I still want her.

[Jack Armstrong]

I guess you wouldn't, though.

[Joe Getty]

You wouldn't think so.

[Jack Armstrong]

No, no, no, no. But that is a, that is a very blackmailable situation. I mean, that's way beyond having an

[Joe Getty]

affair or something like that.

[Jack Armstrong]

You could have gotten to him and put him in a position where, hey, I need you to kind of go take a look at your wife's phone and see who she talked to today or something. Right. He's thinking, yeah, I don't really want the world to know about my whole bimbofication fetish.

[Joe Getty]

And they're not asking me to go more than like half an inch over the line. Right. And that's the way they get you.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Once you're half an inch over the line, they say, oh, we've got proof you went over the line and we could have you arrested. So we need you to do this now.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh. Something to get off her chest. And he had the big giant. Okay, now I get it. Oh, boy.

[Joe Getty]

Michael, draw Mr. Armstrong a picture.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow. If there's a. If there's some more. More shocking stuff to come out on that, I'm having trouble even imagining what it would be, but okay. We got more news of the day coming up. If you missed a segment of the podcast, Armstrong and Yeti on Demand, Armstro and Getty.

[Donald Trump]

Thanks to the progress we've made, I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America's military objectives shortly, very shortly. We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We're going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing. Regime change was not our goal. We never said regime change. But regime change has occurred because of all of their original leaders. Death. They're all dead.

[Jack Armstrong]

Possibly replaced by people that are as every bit as hardline or even more so. So it's hard to tell, man. I was listening to somebody who clearly had more information on this than me yesterday, talk about how there is a battle going on between the Revolutionary Guard, who are bloodthirsty warlord businessmen more than anything else, and the religious zealots and who you're hearing from on a regular basis. When you hear Iran said varies, that's why it seems kind of all over the place. And maybe White Trump's responses seem all over the place because you're responding to two different factions.

[Joe Getty]

What a situation. Great Scott. Who do you pick in that fight

[Jack Armstrong]

and this particular pundit, and I thought this was damn interesting, said Iran might not be able to open the Strait of Hormuz. I mean, if one of those groups makes a deal with Trump that the other group doesn't like, they might keep the Strait of Hormuz closed to try to end up being the power in Iran.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

So just their internal battle

[Joe Getty]

which could turn into an actual open bullets flying internal battle at some point.

[Jack Armstrong]

Interesting. But to the price of gas thing, which we'll talk more about later in the price of oil thing, I was reading a piece by Mark Penn, if you don't know his name, he was Hillary's campaign manager back in 2008. He's big time Democrat, strategist, pollster, back when Democrats were like, you know, left but normal. Which that boat sailed a long time ago. But anyway, he had an article in the New York Post, I'll read about it later, about how gas was this high under Obama for like three weeks during this period and nobody said a word and blah blah, blah, and how we can't be basing the war around the price of oil and all this. The sort of thing that we were just saying not long ago. So thought that was interesting from a Democrat. Speaking of the Democrats, this polling came out yesterday. Who was this polling? It was at CNN I think as CNN Politics and it fits in with most other polls. This is not an outlier, it's kind of confirming other polls that are out there. Trump's numbers are down in a whole bunch of different areas. There will be polls coming out soon where he's in the 20s. They would be outliers at this point. But you know that'll get a lot of attention. The first one that has him at 29% because that's damn low. His approval rating, handling of his presidency and this is since January of this year, we just ended March. So basically how the first quarter go for the President, he went from 39% approval to 35% approval. His handling of the economy is down 8 points since January and it wasn't that high to start with from 39 to 31. You're almost in the 20s on your handling of the economy.

[Joe Getty]

I was just reading some stuff by. Who was it? Phil Graham, I think the old timey senator and economist and moderate who was talking about how the tariffs have been so bad for American business, specifically manufacturers, cuz all of their inputs have gotten so much more expensive, they can't compete. And so yeah, I've been shocked at how not focused on the economy the second Trump go round's been right and

[Jack Armstrong]

that's specific reality you're talking about. People's perceptions can be. Well they can be the opposite of reality or an exaggeration of reality. They don't have to be right on. And people's perceptions right now, economic conditions in the US are poor, say 70%, 77% of America.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, that's terrible.

[Jack Armstrong]

Economic conditions in the US are poor, say 77% of Americans. That's up 8 points since the beginning of this year. And we are already through the whole tariff thing. And people, you know, their attitudes about tariff. At the beginning of the year, I

[Joe Getty]

will double down on my oft made statement that if inflation is high, nothing else matters. And the ugly twin sister of inflation is uncertainty. And there's, you know, it's, that's thick in the air. So you take those two things together and people are really worried.

[Jack Armstrong]

And then in specific, Trump's policies have worsened economic conditions. It's now up 10 points since the first of the year to 65%. So 2/3 of Americans think Trump's policies specifically have worsened economic conditions. Those are not good numbers. And he had unbelievably great numbers his first term around everything economics. That's what got him reelected, really, as people remembering how great that was. But as CNN themselves point out, as bad as that, all, all that is the Democrats are doing just as bad. In all the polling, there is little sign that Democrats are capitalizing on what Americans see as Trump's shortcomings. Writes their analysis in CNN, with an even broader 74% of the public saying Democrats in Congress have the wrong priorities. 74% of Americans think Democrats have the wrong priorities.

[Joe Getty]

Part of the reason I've been so fired up when Trump is either an idiot or an a hole, pardon me, is that the fruit is absolutely ripe to pluck from the tre of not losing the House and Senate in the midterm, of upsetting that tradition because the Democrats are so nuts and so weak and the Republicans just keep screwing it up.

[Jack Armstrong]

Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to be unhappy with their own party. If you want to look at independents, where apparently all the smart people go, because you get more of a sense that these people are actually thinking about things and making a decision as opposed to always going with their party or against the other party, which I think is probably pretty true.

[Joe Getty]

I'm sorry, who made that characterization?

[Jack Armstrong]

I think most smart people, when you look at independence and polls, you think that's the crowd that's not going to always root for their side and root against the other side.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, I just, I think that the way you put that was a little hurtful toward people who say I'm a Republican, that they're not smart people.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay, that's not what I meant. But. Well, I think in polling though, in fact you know, if you look at Trump's approval rating among Republicans, it's like 98% or something.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I would, I would say it's more interesting to look at independence.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know if you learn anything when, when, if you, if you take an issue, you know, go with the Democrats, you present an issue to the Democrats and 100% of the Democrats say it's great what Joe Biden just did, and 0% of the Republicans. Do you learn anything from that? I don't. I don't know if you do.

[Joe Getty]

Well, no, no, indeed. I'm just my only. Never mind. I think I made myself clear.

[Jack Armstrong]

Independents, both parties are seen as equally off topic. About 3/4 of independents say that. Say that each of the parties have the wrong priorities.

[Joe Getty]

So to your point, say that because it's true.

[Jack Armstrong]

To your point, though, the fruit is ripe for the picking for some party. If you got three, three quarters of the independents out there saying, I'm not happy. They want to be. If one of those parties could break through with a, you know, we're trying to help your lives.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

You could, you could make some hay.

[Joe Getty]

If the Democrats could unload their absolutely nuts, you know, leftward flank, they'd be in great shape. If they became a party of moderates like Rahm Emanuel and Rui Teixeira trying to get going. I don't know if you know, Ruiz, big time Democrat for a long time and he writes for the Free Press, but he's had to shut down his blog now because all of the energy and all of the money has gone out of moderating the Democratic Party. That, that moment came and went, apparently.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. There's one other thing I want to add to this. Just since you talked about taking back the House, which is an obsession of media, which normal people just don't think about, the Sunday talk shows constantly, Will they lose the House? Will so and so. When the House. Normal people don't think about this stuff.

[Joe Getty]

Normal people worry about if they'll lose their house. Jack. I was just too perfect. I couldn't pass.

[Jack Armstrong]

That was really good.

[Joe Getty]

Thank you.

[Jack Armstrong]

That was fantastic. But I wanted to point this out to the whole. Losing the House when the House. And when Trump loses the House, which he probably will, they'll talk about, oh, what a repute, reputed, going against everything that Trump stands for, blah, blah, blah. The 2010 midterms, for instance. Barack Obama, the great Barack Obama, first election after he was elected president. They lost 63 House seats. 63. And six Senate seats.

[Joe Getty]

I'll bet Obama Wore out his permit that night.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. You were just going with. Back to the fruit analogy. Low hanging fruit today.

[Joe Getty]

It's just, it's cheap shot day at the Armstrong and Kenn show. Wow. I don't know what's gotten into me. Back to you.

[Jack Armstrong]

If you wanted to have a grown up conversation about midterms and people taking the house. We're kind of a, I don't know, emotionally flighty electorate. We get all excited about somebody and then within months say, oh, they suck and go completely the other direction.

[Joe Getty]

Their agenda that I just voted for is garbage.

[Jack Armstrong]

No, we need to counterbalance them no matter who it is. Even Barack Obama, who had endless positive coverage right, those first couple of years. I mean, he had the entire media outside of FOX as a cheerleading squad and he lost, like watching a couple

[Joe Getty]

make out on a street corner. It was hard to watch the tongue bath they were giving him.

[Jack Armstrong]

And they lost 63 House seats. They're talking about Trump losing like a dozen.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

So just keep that in mind whenever they get all excited about that stuff. It is kind of weird that we do that, though. Get all excited about somebody there that's. Oh, my God, they've changed everything. Everything's gonna, everything's gonna be different for the rest of all time now that this party just got the presidency. And then within months we go completely the other direction.

[Joe Getty]

The blank party may never win another election according to these Democratic treads. Oh, God, again, you can't hate the media enough. I mean, they're incurious, they're biased and don't even know it. They're coddled, they're limp wristed simpletons. They're just despicable in virtually every way you can think of.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, that's the media and then to the politicians. Remember when they get up there on the podium when your party takes it back, you know, every couple of years and they get up there and talk about how a new era has dawned and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, send me money, send me money.

[Joe Getty]

That's what that's all about.

[Jack Armstrong]

Ding, ding.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, whatever.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay, we got email.

[Joe Getty]

It worked for 250 years. That's not a bad run.

[Jack Armstrong]

We're going to check in on the moon mission, see how things are going. We're going to check in on the Supreme Court oral arguments an hour too. And we got Mailbag next. Armstrong and Gettysburg. Yo, yo. Welcome to the show. Glad you're here. Lots to talk about. That isn't the war in Iran, but some interesting stuff with the war in Iran.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Speaking of war, let's have a freedom loving quote of the day. Getting back to our series on the theme of war. So many interesting ones and good ones. I'm tempted to go with my favorite of all time from Winston Churchill. And I can't do it the way he did it, but. Or I shouldn't. Anyway. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. And I just learned from a recent book that I was reading that in personal conversations he believed it was likely that it was lost at that point when he got elected prime minister, that it was too late.

[Joe Getty]

The proverbial last ditch effort.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Is that the five days in London that you recommended?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. It's really good. Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

I've got a note to pick up a copy of that, by the way, for the empty time we've been harassed to. Please just post a list of the books you guys recommend. We gotta get corral that Moby Dick. Start with Moby Dick, read it four times, then get back to us cover to cover. Mailbag, drop us a note mailbagarmstrongygetti.com I have for now. I was putting mail back together, separated out all of the emails we got about your frustrating experience at the doctor's office where your doctor, your PA physician's assistant asks you to leave the room so they can be alone with your son and find out what's really going on and where that comes from and people's reaction to it. Got a ton of email on that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Got a post from a friend in Tennessee who said they don't do that here.

[Joe Getty]

No, indeed, they don't do it everywhere in California. It's a wow. There are state guidelines, but then it's mostly the individual practice or hospital or whatever that chooses to adhere to those.

[Jack Armstrong]

Now I'm really ashamed for going along with it.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, don't be ashamed. Moving along here is the correspondence proper. Nice note from Jerry, guys. I've been a longtime listener. Always enjoy your conversations. Thanks, Jerry. Did you have to catch the rocket launch today? Absolutely. Did it immediately brought to mind the Apollo 4 mission. So Jerry's got a couple of years on us, I guess, but. And the way Walter Cronkite described the Saturn 5 liftoff, how it shook the building so violently that he had to hold the glass with his hands to keep it from falling. It was a that captured just how amazing space flight truly was. This launch carried some of that same sense of wonder. Some things never lose their ability to take your breath away. In fact, I went back and re watched that Apollo launch on YouTube.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I'd like to see one of the big launches sometime. It's tough though because they get delayed for weather a lot and like, you know, unless you live nearby, you take some vacation days and hope for the best, I guess.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Somebody once explained to me that a rocket launch is an extremely powerful bomb that goes off, but it all goes off in one direction. So the rocket goes up and that's, that's a pretty good description of the amount of energy involved. But yeah, it was an amazing launch and we wish the astronauts well. And let's see, on the topic of the President's speech, we got a handful of emails, including this one from Don. President Trump's speech was brilliant, save for one emission he neglected ad. Live from New York, it's Saturday night. April fool would have worked just as well. P.P.S. to quote the great Bugs Bunny. What a maroon. Not impressed by the President's speech?

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know that I would. I don't know if it accomplished anything, which I assume you do it to try to accomplish something.

[Joe Getty]

I think, I think it did. One of the main takeaways was trying to bring a little perspective to a TikTok world about these things. Take a little while. So quit with your endless war talk.

[Jack Armstrong]

After four weeks, I'm guessing, I'm guessing as to the way people take in media and I don't, I don't know how many people still wait for a prime time address to. I don't know.

[Joe Getty]

Fair point. Moving along. JT and Livermore listened to our Armstrong and Getty One More Thing podcast yesterday about the new Democratic Party getting started in Canada and how hilariously, in their own way they were. It really is entertaining. You can go for Armstrong and Getty on demand for April 1st or just subscribe to the On Demand podcast. And I'm sorry, one more thing automatically downloads. Anyway, he says, here's my problem with the Canadian political meeting. In the name of enlightened inclusivity, they are literally creating a new caste system via their equity cards in which the person with the most intersectionality points gets to cut in line and speak before others. Quite literally. True friends. And how do they use this newfound power? They use their time to rail on the lower castes for daring to speak before them. Remember, these are the self proclaimed, compassionate, inclusive people. Yet these moral exemplars of inclusivity can't wait to exercise their newfound privilege over the lower caste. Those who simply support inclusivity but are straight cisgender don't get to speak at all. Talk about a classic oppressor paradigm. New boss, same as the old boss. You just have to understand, though, if you actually study the Neo Marxists, the postmodernists, they do that on purpose. They don't actually mean that stuff about inclusivity. Inclusivity means more people who believe what I believe. Anyway, it's still a good point. And Scott from Pleasant Hill on the topic of space aliens. Oh, geez, let's see. And whether we should contact them. He says, dark forest theorists. Those are like Stephen Hawking who believes. Why would we call out, hey, I'm

[Jack Armstrong]

a fat slow beast here in the Dark forest? Who else is out there? Perhaps the wolves.

[Joe Getty]

That would be a stupid thing to do. Anyway, Scott Wright's Dark Forest the forest theorists would say that aliens monitoring millions of planets said yesterday, wow, they're at war on the surface of their planet. And they continue to desperately get off the surface to inflict their war into the universe. Enough of this. Time to exterminate them.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, let's hope. Let's hope that that's not true, shall we? More to come. An hour too. If you miss it, get the podcast. Armstrong and Getty on demand.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Gettysburg.