For the Love of a Deformed Raccoon!

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: "For the Love of a Deformed Raccoon!"
Date: August 4, 2026
Host: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty, and co-host Katie tackle a wide array of topics ranging from the early appearance of Halloween merchandise and shifting American drug habits, to sharp critiques of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s newly-released pandemic diaries, changing perceptions of marijuana, and even the viral saga of Jimothy the deformed raccoon. The discussions blend humor, cultural critique, and pointed commentary, while also dipping into artificial intelligence oddities, California’s high cost of living, and thoughts on democratic socialism.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Halloween in Summer: Retail Creep

• Discussion: Early Halloween displays in stores—hosts wonder about the logic and effectiveness of stretching the season.
• Quote:
  • "I groan when I see Christmas stuff in August or Halloween stuff in July. I don’t get happy about it." — Joe Getty [01:45]

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2. Marijuana Use Surpassing Cigarettes & Alcohol ([01:49], [14:07], [18:43])

• Insight: For the first time ever, daily marijuana use exceeds daily cigarette and alcohol consumption in the U.S.
• Discussion:
  • Public perception is shifting: more Americans now view marijuana less benignly, especially with the increase in very strong marijuana products tailored to daily users, not occasional consumers.
  • Legalization support may be fading as social and health concerns climb.
  • Notable Statistic: 85% of daily pot users account for the majority of usage, making marijuana usage patterns similar to cigarettes rather than alcohol.
• Quotes:
  • "For the first time ever... there are more daily pot smokers than daily cigarette smokers or alcohol drinkers." — Joe Getty [01:49]
  • "It's turned out to be way more like cigarettes than alcohol in that the consumption is being driven by daily users the way cigarettes are." — Joe Getty [19:04]

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3. Dr. Fauci’s Pandemic Diaries: Critique & Media Coverage ([02:31]-[13:31])

• Context: Discussion of recent revelations about Dr. Anthony Fauci’s pandemic response diaries.
• Key Points:
  • Fauci reportedly knew early that COVID infection fatality rates were relatively low, and vaccines didn’t notably prevent transmission—contrary to public claims justifying mandates.
  • Media blackout: Mainstream networks gave scant coverage to the diary’s revelations.
  • Comparisons: Peggy Noonan’s scathing column contrasts Fauci’s self-celebratory diary entries with Samuel Pepys’ diarist insights during London’s Great Plague and Fire.
• Memorable Quotes:
  • "His diary doesn’t seem at all humbled by the role in which he’s been cast or his responsibility. I saw no deep reflection on the sufferings of his countrymen." — Peggy Noonan via Joe Getty [09:36]
  • "My final exhibit in the trial of the evil murderer Dr. Fauci. Shallow." — Joe Getty [11:15]
  • "That might be part of his problem is he's shallow." — Joe Getty [11:21]
  • "He doesn’t understand electron microscopy and he doesn’t understand medicine. He should not be in a position like he's in." — Kary Mullis clip, regarding Fauci [11:46]
• Media Analysis:
  • Fox News: 1hr 39min coverage
  • CNN: less than 2min
  • CBS/MSNBC: ~30 seconds each [05:19]

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4. The Jimothy Saga & AI Limitations ([13:34]-[17:19])

• Topic: Internet phenomenon of Jimothy the deformed raccoon becomes a running joke.
• Pivot: Leads to a discussion on AI, large language models (like ChatGPT), and their ability (or inability) to quickly update with new viral cultural references.
• Quote:
  • "I do not understand how these search engines work that I bring up Jimothy and it has no idea what I’m talking about until I point out…it’s like a giant, giant story, dude." — Joe Getty [15:52]
  • "It's weird because I think the programming there is spliced between information and trying to connect with humans to keep them hooked." — Katie [16:36]

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5. Changing Attitudes Toward Cigarettes, Pot, and Legalization ([23:08]-[31:35])

• Discussion:
  • The growth in daily pot use contrasts with declining tolerance for tobacco; 57% of Americans now support banning tobacco outright.
  • The debate on libertarian values vs. public health: If medical costs from vices are socialized, should personal habits be regulated?
  • Potency and methods: Modern products (vapes, edibles, dabbing) deliver far higher THC doses, raising mental health alarms.
• Quotes & Stats:
  • "Marijuana is closer to the cigarette in that it’s a smaller number of people that do it every single day. And he makes the argument in the Free Press that that's what is driving the whole making it so strong thing." — Joe Getty [19:04]
  • "57% of Americans say we should ban tobacco products altogether." — Joe Getty [23:08]
  • "The high point … of people loving the whole marijuana movement crested a few years back and it's going the other direction now." — Joe Getty [29:46]
• Notable Moment:
  • Katie describes dabbing (using cannabis concentrates) and warns about high potency and health risks, sharing a personal anecdote [26:16].

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6. Socialism, Democratic Socialists of America, and Capitalism vs. Free Markets ([34:20]-[36:34])

• Listener Mail:
  • Discussing the naivete and risks of concentrated governmental power promoted by DSA (Democratic Socialists of America).
• Branding Debate:
  • Hosts argue that “free market” polls better than “capitalism,” suggesting a rhetorical shift is needed to make the case for economic liberty.
• Quote:
  • "Free market polls 20, 30, 40 points ahead of capitalism if you ask people questions about socialism versus capitalism as opposed to socialism versus free market. So we should stop calling it capitalism." — Joe Getty [35:33]

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7. California Housing Costs & Dog Surfing Championships ([32:34]-[34:20])

• Brief Segments:
  • World Dog Surfing Championships: Humorous questions about whether dogs know they’re surfing or picking their outfits. [32:34]
  • California’s exorbitant rental prices noted—Santa Cruz ranks as highest in the U.S., average two-bedroom requiring $53/hour income. [34:06]

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On Halloween Creep:

  • "Is there anybody who's buying their Halloween candy? Practically July?...I just don't quite understand what's going on there." — Joe Getty [00:49]

• On Media’s COVID Coverage:

  • "There was an hour and 39 minutes of coverage on Fox News. On CNN, there was less than two minutes. CBS News 33 seconds. MSNBC, 32 seconds." — Joe Getty [05:19]

• Fauci’s Self-Regard:

  • "Movie stars sending him flowers, etc. One sense it screams seven deadly sins, writes Noon, and he gave into his pride." — Joe Getty reading Peggy Noonan [09:46]

• Marijuana Trends:

  • "85% smokers, it's 90%. Well, and as a guy who quote unquote, drinks daily, … I mean there's just, there's practically no..." — Joe Getty [27:04]

• AI Weirdness:

  • "After explaining what Jimothy is. A deformed raccoon. Thanks for pushing back. It improved the answer." — Joe Getty [17:08]

• On Socialism & Rhetoric:

  • "We really should get away from it...free market polls 20, 30, 40 points ahead of capitalism..." — Joe Getty [35:33]

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Segment Timestamps Overview

• [00:16–01:45] – Halloween displays in stores, retail marketing skepticism
• [01:49–02:26] – Pot smoking vs. cigarettes and alcohol statistics
• [02:31–13:31] – Fauci’s diary, media response, historical comparisons, quotes from Peggy Noonan and Kary Mullis
• [13:33–17:19] – Jimothy the raccoon, AI language models’ limitations
• [18:43–29:46] – Marijuana, tobacco, legalization, public health/socialism, dabbing, youth risk
• [32:34–34:20] – Dog Surfing Championships, Santa Cruz rent
• [34:20–36:34] – Mailbag: Democratic Socialists of America, rhetoric on free markets, socialism in politics

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Overall Tone

Consistently irreverent, humorous, and skeptical—hosts mix pop culture banter with pointed sociopolitical commentary. They maintain a conversational, sometimes sarcastic, style, regularly poking fun at absurdities in modern culture and politics.

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For New Listeners

This episode exemplifies Armstrong and Getty’s signature blend: critique and comedy, politics and pop culture, skepticism toward authority (and fads), and the occasional deep digression into unexpected places—like the saga of a deformed raccoon or the polling of economic terminology. Whether discussing the legacy of pandemic decision-makers, the rapidly changing American relationship with intoxicants, or the quirks of artificial intelligence, they reliably offer opinionated, entertaining commentary with plenty of memorable moments and sharp one-liners.

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

This is an iHeart podcast, guaranteed human broadcasting. Live from the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

And now here's Armstrong and Getty. I was at the CBS yesterday and they got their Halloween displays up. What is going on there? Have we ever figured that out? Has anybody ever figured that out? Is that. Is that just to put way back in the back of your mind, when Halloween finally gets here, this is where you can get your candy.

That's part of it. Or just get you first.

Is there anybody who's buying their Halloween candy? Practically July?

That would be odd. Now, the giant. I happen to be at a big box hardware store the other day. Holy cow. Decorations are so cool these days. They have pretty expensive. Oh, yeah. The big giant ghouls and ghosts that are.

Now, that's slightly different because the popular ones have been selling out every year.

Right. And that's infrastructure. But candy is. Is. Is combustible.

The bags of little snickers are there on the shelf year round. You now just have a giant Halloween display next to it. For those of you who need big bags of candy all the time. I just. I just don't quite understand what's going on there. But anybody that's happy with that, everybody I've ever known in myself, I groan when I see Christmas stuff in August or Halloween stuff in July. I don't get happy about it.

I think what you're happy boost sales.

Does it, though? I just. I find it. I find it hard to believe. Anyway, for the first time ever, and I want to talk about this later because this is an interesting topic. For the first time ever, on your list of things you probably shouldn't do, there are more daily pot smokers than daily cigarette smokers or alcohol drinkers. For the first time ever in our nation's history.

[Caller/Guest]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

And people's attitudes, at least among the elite, have switched, it would seem, on whether or not pot is just perfectly okay. Don't worry about it. It seems like we're deciding it ain't the greatest for you. And we ought to take another look at this.

Seems to be burn one down and relax. Yeah.

Seems to be the direction it's going.

Yeah, I would agree. Interesting. So we'll get to that. Believe it or not, I want to talk at least briefly about Dr. Anthony Fauci. I've come across new perspectives that have really opened my eyes to a couple of things. But first. Well, as an introduction, future NFL hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers.

[Caller/Guest]

I'm Going to plead the fifth.

Okay. Okay.

[Joe Getty]

Gotta love that character.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay?

[Caller/Guest]

Like that. Absolute coward, 25 absolute scholars. Are you kidding me? Yeah.

[Katie]

111.

[Caller/Guest]

You got a pardon and you're in. And you pleaded over a hundred times, spending the entire time writing in his diary about how fun it is to be famous. You got to be kidding me.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, so on that note, what are

[Caller/Guest]

you going to say about me now?

[Joe Getty]

You know, if I hire Aaron Rodgers, I'd want him to focus only on football because I'm paying him for that. But if I am Aaron Rodgers and I've got more money than 18 families could spend on a binge in a lifetime, I'm going to say whatever the hell I want.

Exactly. And remember, Aaron Rodgers was banned from playing or suspended or whatever because he is a healthy young man at zero risk of serious negative outcome, was forced to take the jab or he couldn't make his living. And he's pissed off about it.

Anyway, some of the stuff I saw in the Fauci diary that I didn't see over to the week until the weekend, where he was aware earlier than he obviously ever said out loud that the getting the vaccine didn't really stop the transmission and a lot of other things, it made it less like you were going to get really sick or die, which we talked about all the time. But the transmitting it and stuff like that, that was the excuse for mandating it. Nope, they knew that that didn't make much difference.

I finally got a chance to read the fabulous Nellie Bowles comments on some of the revelations of last week. And she points out that nobody ever thought it was the wet market. Not really. The scientists didn't. They just pitched that as a. As a cover up. And the completely incurious media who was part of the COVID up will never admit it. She also goes on that he knew almost immediately Covid's case fatality rate was pretty low. He said this is acting like a bad influenza and its transmissibility. And the fatality rate is more like 0.2% rather than 2%. But schools were closed, careers were lost, suicide spiked, etc. And all of those revelations will only be very likely reported on. She writes there's currently a TV news blackout in the story, except on Fox News, of course. Here's one analysis mentions of Fauci on the air July 25 through 28. When the whole diary thing came out, it was. There was an hour and 39 minutes of coverage on Fox News. On CNN, there was less than two minutes.

Wow.

CBS News 33 seconds. MSNBC, 32 seconds, CBS 6, that's a local station. 31 seconds.

That is amazing. You couldn't get more than 30 seconds out of interesting stuff in your mind out of seeing that entry From January

of 2000, the most expensive cataclysm that's ever hit mankind, where he said it's

now known that it doesn't have a natural origin.

[Caller/Guest]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Caller/Guest]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

So that it, that it wasn't the wet market. Certainly. Yeah. I, when the diaries came out, thought, and I still think this to some extent, we need to focus on the origin and the COVID up of the origin and the constitutional rights that were squashed. And I thought the whole wow, look how famous I am. Famous people love me, I'm super popular stuff. I thought it was pathetic, but I thought it was a distraction from the serious, serious stuff that we should be talking about in terms of the COVID reaction and the trampoline, constitutional rights and economics and people's emotions and the kids and the rest of it. I still think that, although I've shaded my opinion a little bit, Nelly goes into great detail about how he really, really loved being a celebrity and he was being worshiped. How there was a cult of Fauci and goes into some great detail. And she's a wonderful writer. I'm going to skip that though, because I wanted to get to this. And it's from the fabulous Peggy Noonan who mentions she writes about Fauci's diaries. And Jack, give us the quick 10 second version of the diaries of Samuel Pepys.

He was a writer in around 1660. He kept the daily diary of life in London at a time of great political turke turmoil and a plague and everything else. Some of the most interesting.

And the Great Fire of London too.

[Caller/Guest]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Some of the most interesting things that ever happened in London's history happened while this guy who is a great writer was taking a daily diary. And it's an incredible glimpse into that time and place.

And he was in his late 20s and 30s for what it's worth. But I found this really insightful. Insightful. So peeps. And it's spelled P E P Y S if you want to read the diaries. Jack says they're brilliant. It looks like Pepys but it's peeps. He watched the great fire from the Tower of London near where he lived and came to grasp with shock the size and scale of it. In a famous passage on, on September 2nd of 1666, he described seeing quote, poor people staying in their houses as long as till the very fire touched them. And then running into boats or clambering from one pair of stairs by the waterside to another. And among other things, the poor pigeons, I perceive, were loath to leave their houses, but hovered above the windows and balconies till they were some of them burned their wings and fell down. He recorded all the chaos around him. His writing was jagged in real time. He reported what he'd seen to King Charles II. He was also an eyewitness. The plague of 1665, which took an estimated 100,000 lives, which was a quarter of the population of London in 18 months. He records empty streets and carts collecting the dead. On June 7, he passes the homes of the quarantined quote this day, much against my will, I did in Drury Lane see two or three houses marked with a red cross upon the doors and Lord have mercy upon us written there. He was pained and frightened. He'd never seen such a thing. Then Peggy Noonan writes within this frame, alas, I read the first five months of Dr. Fauci's pandemic diary. As I as has been reported, it isn't about witnessing or capturing the size and scale of a crisis or feeling shock or anxiety. It's about other things. His super A list party. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hugging him and kissing him at another President Trump tells Dr. Fauci, Lou Dobbs told me you were one of the smartest, knowledgeable and outstanding person he knows. Fauci writes, I was very pleased. Others were stunned and impressed. Then an entry about being hero. Nice profiles of me in political New York Times. A different day, different day. I did all five Sunday shows today. Congratulate some shells. March 26th. Donuts are being named. T shirts have my pictures. Press is still hot and heavy. These are all different entries, different days. Movie stars sending him flowers, etc. One sense it screams seven deadly sins, writes Noon, and he gave into his pride. But it also makes the history in which he took such a big part look banal and inhuman. Your historic emergency is his media opportunity. His diary doesn't seem at all humbled by the role in which he's been cast or his responsibility. I saw no deep reflection on the sufferings of his countrymen. He doesn't see the red crosses on the doors he attaches clips of or links to fawning newspaper profiles and columns, but not to stories about what was happening in the civilian population of his country as it went through a crisis. The sweep and detail of Pepys diary captures the spirit of his age. The Restoration. Let's hope the flatness and self adulation of Anthony Fauci's doesn't capture ours.

Well, that's really, really good. And I would agree with that 100%. Yeah, I missed that. That is very, very true. The fact that he doesn't have long paragraphs where he's really wrestling with the kids are missing out on graduation year or kindergarten and this has just got to be playing or this has got to be devastating to families. Even if he did agreed with his policy, even if he was saying but I think it's the right thing to do, blah blah, blah because but it's so difficult to know people are how. That's not part of your diary. In the midst of this is your. This is why you have a career was being prepared for this sort of thing. And when it happened, you're not writing about the devastation of it. You're writing about the I met Beyonce today.

Right.

That is pretty interesting.

Yeah, it's a great contrast. My final exhibit in the trial of the evil murderer Dr. Fauci. Shallow.

That might be part of his problem is he's shallow.

So it's 90 and 91. Michael, I'm going to need this is Cary Mullis, whose name you probably don't know. He's a scientist, a chemist. He invented PCR, polymerase chain reaction. He won the 1993 Nobel Prize in chemistry. And he was in some sort of debate with Anthony Fauci in the 1990s and said this about Fauci.

[Caller/Guest]

Fauci, get up there and start talking. You know, he doesn't know anything really about anything. And I'd say that to his face, nothing. The man thinks you can take a blood sample and stick it in an electron microscope and if it's got a virus in there, you'll know it. He doesn't understand electron microscopy and he doesn't understand medicine. He should not be in a position like he's in. Most of those guys up there on the top are just total administrative people and they don't know anything about what's wrong.

[Joe Getty]

I knew he didn't understand electron microsity. No, that's a really interesting angle that he. That he might have been just been a bureaucrat and didn't know the actual science.

Next clip.

[Caller/Guest]

Michael, if Fauci wants to get on television with somebody who knows a little bit about this stuff and debate him, he could easily do it because he's been asked. I mean, I've had a lot of people. President of the University of South Carolina ask Fauci if he'd come down there and debate me on the stage in front of the student body because I wanted somebody who was from the other side to come down there and balance my. Because I felt like, well, these guys can listen to me, but I need to have somebody else down here that's going to tell me other side. But if you didn't want to do.

[Joe Getty]

Reminds me what you're always saying. What about law enforcement or the military? That the higher you go up the ranks, the more you become a politician and less a cop or a marine or whatever. Yeah, that must be true in the world of science too.

Yeah, absolutely true. Yeah, he knows nothing about nothing. He's just an administrator and self aggrandizing shallow hack who covered up for his own funding of gain of function research.

I represent science.

If a single word of that is contracted, contradicted rather, between today and the day I die, I will tell you loud and clear and admit it. I don't expect I'll need to do that.

You want to hear a great tease?

[Caller/Guest]

Sure.

[Joe Getty]

On an update on a story. One of my favorite stories of all.

I'll be the judge of that though. Go ahead.

They've discovered Jimothy's father.

That's really good. Katie's got stupid.

Katie's got both hands in the air.

[Katie]

I'm so happy. Really. They found Jimmy.

[Joe Getty]

You're both idiots.

They found Jimothy's father.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yes.

[Joe Getty]

I resign. I'm resigning.

Full team coverage on that coming up later.

[Caller/Guest]

Stay here.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Gettysburg.

[Joe Getty]

I worry about and read about the state of pot in this country a fair amount because I got two teenage boys and I've known a few people in my life who. Whose lives were not good because of their addiction to the non addictive pot. But Free Press has got a great piece about that today on how it's more like cigarettes than alcohol. It turns out we had the analogy wrong all these years, which I think is really interesting.

[Katie]

And they've been dusting some of the street pot with fentanyl.

[Joe Getty]

You need to be very careful. That helps.

Yeah. Oh my.

But more on that later. So, Katie, I'm glad to see that while you were on maternity leave you had time even raising a newborn to stay up on the Jimothy story.

[Katie]

Oh, Jimothy is at the top of my algorithm.

[Joe Getty]

Dude.

The hell's the matter with you people?

The deformed raccoon that somehow has leapt into all of our consciousnesses.

[Katie]

He's a doll.

[Joe Getty]

That's why he's a freak. But this, this actually ends up being a little bit more of a story about AI and how I don't understand how the chatbots work. So I asked Chat GPT, what is Jimothy? I'm frightened. Of course its response was if somebody said Jimothy and it caught you off guard, there's no need to assume it's something dangerous. Jimothy is just a joking, made up version of the name Jim or Jimmy. An Internet theme or humorous nickname can sound silly, blah, blah, blah blah, but there's no reason to be bothered by the word Jimothy. And I responded, wow, it's been on the news every day for weeks. I do not understand how your search engine works. And it responded with fair point. And in this case you were right to call me out and then explains how it didn't have that information but then got that information. But again, I clearly do not understand how these search engines work that I bring up Jimothy and it has no idea what I'm talking about until I point out. It's like a giant, giant story, dude.

[Katie]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

It does like one extra tiny layer of something and knows what I'm talking about.

Right? Like for instance, finding out this Jimothy. Let's figure out what that is before we answer his question. Yeah, bother with that.

And again, as I always ask, who cares about the Jimothy question? How often does that happen with things that I don't know? That it's really, really wrong because it's

[Katie]

too worried about trying to connect with you on another level. Like that text message that I sent you guys not too long ago where it told me to give my son

[Joe Getty]

extra snuggles for it from, from it, from it.

[Katie]

And I was like, what am I going to write my phone up against his forehead? What do you want me to do?

[Joe Getty]

So creepy.

[Katie]

Yeah, I think it's weird because I think that the, the programming there is spliced between information and trying to connect with humans to keep them hooked.

[Joe Getty]

But like, like Joseph. Yeah, just a cursory search of what the F is. Jimothy would have brought you the info.

[Katie]

Right?

[Joe Getty]

One of our tech head listeners said, yeah, people rate how happy they are with the answers. And consistently, most people like when it creepily tries to connect with you. We're outliers, you know, we just have to accept that most people like that.

It did end. It did end. After explaining what Jimothy is. A deformed raccoon. Thanks for pushing back. It improved the answer.

[Katie]

Did it pull a Joe and go, what a freak.

[Joe Getty]

Pot's getting worse. Stay tuned.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Caller/Guest]

Trump said, it's a disaster with no end in sight. Then Taco Bell said, hey, that's our slogan. Then Trump said, this cabinet just refuses to come together. Then Ikea said, hey, that's our slogan. Then Trump said, everyone who was close to me is now disappointed, distancing themselves. Then Tom's Natural Deodorant said, hey, that's our slogan. Then Trump said, I've never experienced anything so hard and painful. Cape Cod potato Chips said, hey, that's our slogan. Then Trump said, it's a mess. By far the worst situation I've ever wandered into. Then Econolodge said, hey, that's our slogan. And Trump said, so much money down the drain. And for what? Then the random apple storage fee you pay every month said, hey, that's our slogan.

[Joe Getty]

The random apple storage fee.

That's a good bit.

I knew a guy that used the natural deodorant and there'd be one good word to describe him. Smelly. Maybe it works for you, but it doesn't work for everybody.

[Katie]

I worked at Trader Joe's where they sold all of that stuff and the people grabbing it off the shelves. Same situation.

[Caller/Guest]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Stanky

Free Press with a really interesting article about pot today. For the first time on record, more Americans get high every day than drink or smoke every day.

I'm just stone.

It's a new situation. But there's something everyone missed in the data. Charles Fain Layman writes in the Free Press, the days of legal weed may be numbered. The. The. The support for legal marijuana is dropping for a variety of reasons. So if you're old enough, you've been listening to the we need to legalize marijuana argument for a very, very, very long time. And it got com. And I remember Bill Maher used to make this. He's a regular pot smoker. He used to make this argument all the time, too. What about alcohol? Why do we have alcohol? Why is alcohol. Okay now, it was always compared to alcohol, but this point in the free presses, it's turned out to be way more like cigarettes than alcohol in that the consumption is being driven by daily users the way cigarettes are. Most people don't smoke. By far, cigarettes. The people who do smoke smoke every single day and keep the whole industry alive. Marijuana is closer to that than is the minority. A minority of people drink every day. There's alcohol can exist in lots and lots of people who drink occasionally. And that as a. Whatever you want to call it, a vice or whatever name you want to put on the darn thing. But marijuana is closer to the cigarette in that it's a smaller number of people that do it every single day. And he makes the argument in the Free Press that that's what is driving the whole making it so strong thing. Because it's the daily users who buy most of the stuff. And it is a business. You build up a tolerance. So you want stronger. Same with cigarettes. And, and, and so you're not catering to the casual. I'm going to a concert once every six months user. You're catering to the daily pot smoker.

The chronically dependent user, I think was the phrase they used.

Yeah. Which is really interesting when you think about it. Also, people's just attitudes about whether or not it's good for you or bad for you have flipped quite a bit in the last few years. I don't know if what's driving that is just, just looking around you. People don't like pot stores popping up everywhere. Apparently they don't like being able to smell it everywhere they go now. You know, I don't know how big a factor that could be. You don't smell alcohol the same.

[Katie]

You also don't smell the vapes very much. No, I mean, you hit the vape. Well, you hit the vape and it dissipates within seconds. And I have a bunch of friends who have quit drinking and have switched to pot.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I don't, I don't care about any of those things. I just care about young people damaging their brains irrevocably and causing psychotic episodes because it's such a strong drug at this point. And it's. I actually just found out, I have a friend who has an offspring that has been dealing with psychosis after heavy pot use. And it's, it's terrible.

Well, yeah, and the vaping, it is really, is really. It can be a different thing for the way it affects your lungs and your brain and everything like that too. And then it's got, like you said, it doesn't have really any smell. It's really hard to detect. So in terms of young, young people. And they put it in flavors, you know, cherry flavored and everything like that. Good starter kit for a 13 year old or whatever. That's fantastic. Yes, Katie.

[Katie]

But also the, so the ways that they're distributing it now, whether it's a vape, which, like I said, dissipates quickly, or the edibles, they're able to take the THC and condense it down into such a strong level and then distribute it into these like baked goods or gummies or whatever. It might be that, I mean, it's hitting people tenfold. It's, it's not good.

[Joe Getty]

The number of people who identify as pot smokers has only gone up 8 percentage points over a dozen years between 2012 and 2024.

That's a pretty good rise. But I, but that doesn't account for

a store on every other corner depending on what town you live in or whatever.

[Katie]

And smokers or consumers.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, well, exactly. So it's not that many more people decided on, hey, I'm going to smoke pot. But the number of people who smoke it daily apparently has gone.

[Katie]

Or eat it or cook with it.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. However you take it in, I shouldn't call, say smoke use I guess would be better. I also am interested in as a kind of a libertarian. I am clearly not a full on libertarian because I agree with now most Americans. 57% of Americans say we should ban tobacco products altogether. Not talking about marijuana, but like your cigarettes. What's the. How do you justify cigarettes existing unless you're going with a libertarian? We're free people and we should be able to do what they do, but as a product, it's just, there's just no upside to the existence of cigarettes.

No, I'm uncomfortable with that one because it's the classic example of if we had a, if we did not have a gigantic welfare state in which I am responsible for your medical bills. What you do to yourself, the choices you make are your business and they're none of mine. But if, and I hate to even say this out loud, but if somebody say habitual smokers, cigarettes and then my tax dollars pay for their medical care, I mean, where are we?

[Katie]

Well, I'm, I'm a vapor now again, now that I've had my kid, I need some form of advice.

[Joe Getty]

So what are you vaping?

[Katie]

It's, I don't know, it's from China.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, it's nicotine.

[Katie]

Nicotine.

[Joe Getty]

None of my business.

[Katie]

No, I won't get high during the show, I promise.

[Joe Getty]

Thousands of people. Well, your cigarette thing though, Joe, I think because cigarettes started as partially because they were lying to us, as something that was practically healthy or certainly didn't do you any damage. I think if we known what cigarettes were, they're just a poisonous product. That's one of the most addictive things ever invented. If you started there, there's no way it would be a legal product, is there, Is there anything else like that? That's that deadly with no benefits whatsoever. Nutritional thirst quenching, nothing. And it's incredibly high, highly addictive. I don't think you could get it going.

Yeah, probably not, but then you have the argument necessarily justify that, but go ahead. Kitchen.

[Katie]

Well, no, there are just some people that say like, you know, there are elements of nicotine that actually aren't bad for you. I know it might be a conspiracy theory, but I mean, it's the chemicals within the cigarettes that create the actual smoke that cause the issue.

[Joe Getty]

Well, the, the ultimate point of this article in the free press is that people's attitudes, whether you agree with them or not, are moving more toward Potts like, like cigarettes as a product bad for you and used by a small number of people regularly than they are toward alcohol, which is what it was compared to my whole life. I think that's. I wouldn't have guessed that this is where we're going to end up. Of course, I wouldn't have a guess that they were going to come up with a new way to smoke it with vaping. I wouldn't have guessed that it was going to get so much stronger than, you know, what hippies at Woodstock were. Smoking is just a different thing.

Or college students in the 80s. Dabbing is how a lot of kids are doing themselves damage, I'm told by someone in a method of consuming cannabis using high potency concentrates like wax shatter or butter vaporized on a hot surface. Extracts contain very high THC levels, typically ranging from 60 to 90%.

[Katie]

I can tell you about that. It's the crystals that actually fall off of the plant.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Katie]

And then they collect those crystals and it turns into this, like you said, a wax like product. And they heat it almost like heroin. Like you can put it on a piece of foil and light it underneath and smoke out of the top of it. And I had a buddy almost die from that a couple of years ago. I mean, you know, they're finding new ways to utilize it. But I also disagree because I've had multiple friends get really sick and almost die from just being at the bar every single day and drinking too much because it poisons you.

[Joe Getty]

Oh sure, you can over drink, you can overdo lots of stuff, but the percent again, a minority of people drink daily. Whereas with pot smokers it's 85% smokers, it's 90%.

Well, and as a guy who quote unquote, drinks daily, I mean there's just, there's practically no. I mean, I have a scotch when I'm reading Tim Sandifer's book at 8:30 at night. I mean, I'm a danger to myself or anybody else.

I don't think that's the point of the number. The number. The, the point is. Oh no, I get the point that most people don't. So why would you ban a product that most people aren't doing it daily and people that do daily. But if it's only if it's a small percentage of people that do something daily, it's, it's. Well, it's kind of a different thing, especially if it's got negative health outcomes. So what would you. When you get into the whole libertarian what should be legal, what should not be legal, it always gets interesting and complicated and where you draw the line. E. Right. It always is. Which is one of the reasons, I guess it's a good classroom sort of discussion. But to your cigarettes should be legal. Well then the places that have tried legalizing hard drugs, what's the upside to hard drugs existing? That's less than cigarette. People who get hooked on cigarettes don't break into my car and steal stuff.

All right? It's about externalities. Absent the welfare state, there are very few externalities to cigarette smoke. The whole secondhand smoke thing was completely overblown. It doesn't do you any good. I mean, I don't want to sit next to somebody in a car who's chain smoking. Okay, I'll grant you that. But externalities, if you're not familiar, it's thing what you do affects other people whether you intend to or not. With cigarettes, there's practically none. With hard drug use, it's enormous.

That's a tough one too. On my whole, what am I libertarian or not? I hated the idea of banning smoking in bars and restaurants just as a. Because in theory, the free market should take care of that. You open up a restaurant or a bar where we don't let smoke, you get more businesses, you get more business than the other people, blah, blah, blah. But that never happened. And I love the fact that I can go into a bar and restaurant in California and it's not smoking. Whenever I'm in a state where they still allow that and I walk in, it's like, this is nuts. It's blue in here. You can't see the ceiling. What is going on? So I don't, I don't know. I don't know how you figure that out.

[Katie]

I, I feel like cigarette smoke is one of those only vices that affects everyone around them just physically. If you're sitting there banging out A dart. Everybody within 25 yards can smell it, breathe it in.

[Joe Getty]

All of that indoors is a different.

I sure didn't like it, my clothes smelling like it. But anyway, the final point on this that they make in the. The article is in terms of polling people's attitudes. The, the, the high point, if you'll pardon the expression, of people loving. The whole marijuana movement crested a few years back and it's going the other direction now. And, and he says, who knows where that ends up? How far does it crater?

[Caller/Guest]

Who knows?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I think we probably ought to start just referring to THC as opposed to pot or marijuana or whatever.

Do you think that'd be helpful?

The plant is just a delivery mechanism for the drug and people are dabbing or doing concentrates or gummies or whatever. It's THC delivery, period. Anyway, a word from our friends at Incogni. Thousands of places on the Internet have a file with your name, your address, your cell number, your email address, your conditions, your kids, names, your age, everything. And they're selling that. You can make them take that stuff down, but there are thousands of them. So what is a boy or girl or non gender specific to do?

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And I'd been getting plagued with a certain sort of scam call and I had a feeling I knew how they were getting my info. And Incogni lets you customize it. They say, hey, we found it here. Do you want us to take this down or not? Because it's like a semi legitimate site. Oh, the service was so good, they took it down right away. Love it. Go to incogni.comarmstrong right now for 60% off. That's incogni.com armstrong. Take your private life off the market. I N C o g n I.com

Armstrong I didn't know almost 60% of people are for banning nicotine products now. I didn't know it moved that much.

I didn't know that either.

I could see that becoming a serious issue. If it moves much further, you get to 70, 75%.

My final note on this topic, which is more general than that, because I think you're right, is that we see in a question of whether you can do something or not, creeping socialism really twists the discussion because I've got to pay for you, which means I can tell you what to do. There are politicians running for office, perhaps in a primary today, who want everything to be socialism, meaning they can tell you what to do and what not to do every moment of your life. Resist it, my friends, with everything you've got.

Would there be less layabout daily pot smokers if you were gonna starve to death if you didn't support yourself 100%? Of course there would be. Any thoughts on this text line 415295 KFTC Armstrong and Getty.

[Caller/Guest]

We are in Pacifica, California at Lindemar beach and we are at the World Dog Surf Championship. There's a whole bunch of dogs around the world. Judging goes based on fashion, how long the dog has been on the wave, any tricks that the dog does, how many waves the dog has caught.

[Katie]

I took him to the beach, I took my surfboard. I'm like, I'll do a couple of little photos. He doesn't get off. And then I walk over to the beach and I put him on a wave and he surfed it.

[Caller/Guest]

You know, it's fun. Everybody's having a good time. The dogs are having a good time.

[Joe Getty]

Couple of quick questions. Do the dogs know they're surfing? I feel like they don't.

Scientists studying wild dogs have observed that in the wild they surf to gather prey, to bond with the other members of the pack.

And the fashion plays a major part of your score. Does the dog pick out the outfit? I feel like there's a lot of.

Oh, yeah.

Forcing the dog to wear certain clothes and participate in a sport that doesn't come naturally to the canine species. Related story. Just coincidentally, that's Pacifica right next door. I mean like really next door is Santa Cruz. Yesterday announced the most expensive rental in the country. The most expensive place to rent at all to live is Santa Cruz, California. California is number one in rental costs nationwide as a state run on that. Gavin Newsom. You need in California if you want to rent a place, you need to make $53 an hour to afford a typical two bedroom home in California. That's spread out over the whole state, which includes not just the expensive parts.

[Caller/Guest]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

$53 an hour to just rent a place to live.

Two bedroom spot.

[Caller/Guest]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Affordability,

[Caller/Guest]

of course.

[Joe Getty]

You got enough money to have your dog surf, buy cute outfits.

It's an expensive hobby from what I understand. Yeah. Let's see, what do we have time for? Not very much. And a little bonus mailbag here. Drop us a note [e-mail] Paolo writes on the topic of the DSA, which we've been discussing today. Democratic Socialists of America. They're very out and proud about their platform. Seems odd because many of their positions are well known to be unpopular. They also seem very unaware or unapologetic about how easy it is for the concentration of power in their proposed government to accommodate totalitarian abuse of that power. I think there's a common thread here. They're naive. Well, the useful idiots are. The youngsters certainly are not the leaders, but think they're idealistic and convinced that everyone will come around to their way of thinking if given the chance. They think they can convince most of those who don't like their ideas that they are in fact good ideas. They appear to be unaware of the risks of eliminating checks and balances from government, focusing only on how it will help them carry out their agenda. They appear never to have heard about the tyranny of the majority. Wonder how much of this owes to their being taught a lot more about how our system of government comprises evil, colonialism, racism and white supremacy than they were taught about what's extraordinarily good about it. Oh yeah, that's absolutely true.

You've been fighting the battle and losing about people using the word capitalism. We really should get away from it. I was listening to a podcast yesterday just talking about how free market polls 20, 30, 40 points ahead of capitalism if you ask people questions about socialism versus capitalism as opposed to socialism versus free market. So we should stop calling it capitalism.

By the way, as a player and a coach, I embrace the philosophy. Just because you're behind doesn't mean you're losing. So I am behind in that argument, but I'm not losing.

We got a whole nother hour to

do those who who crave freedom, yes,

but we do have a couple of socialists that are going to get elected today because people hate capitalism or love fundamentalist Islam.

Depends on which race you're trying to dominated. Formally speaking, they will be the Democratic

candidate for a major party, which is crazy if you miss a segment Podcast Armstrong and Getty on Demand Armstrong and

[Jack Armstrong]

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[Joe Getty]

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[Caller/Guest]

Com.