Has Joe Gone Commie??

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand: "Has Joe Gone Commie??" – Detailed Summary

Release Date: November 22, 2024

In this episode of the Armstrong & Getty On Demand podcast, hosts Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty delve into a variety of pressing topics, ranging from current political scandals and international relations to cultural debates and business news. The episode, intriguingly titled "Has Joe Gone Commie??", offers listeners a blend of sharp commentary, humor, and provocative insights.

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1. Weather and Thanksgiving Football

The episode kicks off with a discussion about the unusually cold weather forecasted for Thanksgiving in Chicago.

• Jack Armstrong (00:54): Highlights, "Chicago's gonna have the coldest Thanksgiving since '72."
• Joe Getty (01:03): Notes observing snow on Michigan Avenue.

The hosts reminisce about the charm of football games played in the snow, particularly Thursday Night Football featuring the Browns and the Steelers, pondering why such games hold appeal for men of a certain age.

• Jack Armstrong (01:08): Questions the enjoyment factor, suggesting a nostalgic connection for those who grew up in snowy Midwestern climates.

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2. Political News: Trump Trials and North Korea

The conversation shifts to significant political developments:

• Delays in the Trump Hush Money Trial:

  • Jack Armstrong (01:30): Briefly mentions the continuation of legal challenges facing former President Trump without delving into specifics.

• North Korean Airstrike and Geopolitical Tensions:

  • Jack Armstrong (01:30): Reports on a North Korean general being wounded in an airstrike, questioning its impact on ongoing conflicts.
  • Joe Getty (02:00): Discusses Kim Jong Un's stern message to the incoming Trump administration, emphasizing North Korea's self-sufficiency and reluctance to seek assistance.

The hosts explore the intricate relationship between North Korea and Russia, highlighting the exchange of weapons for money and oil, and the implications of North Korea sending troops to Russia amid global sanctions.

• Jack Armstrong (02:14): Explains, "North Korea is sending 100,000 troops over there [to Russia], and South Korea is really, really unhappy about that."

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3. Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth: Scandals and Political Standards

A substantial portion of the episode focuses on the political scandals surrounding Congressman Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth, nominated for Secretary of Defense.

• Matt Gaetz's Legal Troubles:

  • Jack Armstrong (02:43): Details the reasons behind Gaetz's declining support, including bipartisan opposition and allegations of inappropriate relationships with a minor.
  • Joe Getty (04:00): Criticizes Gaetz, stating, "The guy has no supporters, he has no friends."

• Pete Hegseth's Allegations:

  • Jack Armstrong (04:07): Introduces allegations against Hegseth, including accusations of sexual assault.
  • Joe Getty (04:14): Summarizes the ABC report, noting conflicting accounts and Hegseth's denial.

The hosts engage in a broader discussion about the standards to which political figures are held, referencing historical figures like JFK Jr., FDR, and LBJ, and debating the balance between personal morality and professional capability.

• Jack Armstrong (09:26): Reflects on societal standards, "Some of our most revered presidents... do you want those people not in public life because of the things they do in the bedroom or not?"

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4. San Jose State Spartans Volleyball: Transgender Player Controversy

The duo transitions to sports, specifically focusing on the San Jose State Spartans volleyball team's dispute involving a transgender player.

• Legal Rulings and NCAA Implications:
  • Jack Armstrong (14:24): Explains the ongoing legal battles regarding the player's eligibility and the impact on game forfeits.
  • Joe Getty (15:55): Predicts future NCAA rulings and criticizes the logic behind categorizing players based on gender identity.

The hosts debate the biological versus gender identity definitions, with Joe Getty firmly stating, "The absence of a penis does not mean that a man is a woman," reflecting a contentious stance on transgender issues.

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5. Transgender Issues and Cultural Shifts

Continuing their exploration of cultural debates, Armstrong and Getty discuss the broader societal shifts regarding transgender recognition and policies.

• Critique of Transgender Policies:

  • Joe Getty (16:00): Criticizes legislative measures ensuring trans women are recognized as women, labeling such statements as absurd.

• Impact on Business and Media:

  • Joe Getty (17:17): Expresses extreme views on transgender policies, reflecting the polarized nature of the debate.

The conversation underscores the tension between progressive cultural changes and conservative pushback, with the hosts highlighting the societal divide on these issues.

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6. Business News: Target vs. Walmart Stock Performance

Shifting focus to business, the hosts analyze the contrasting stock performances of Target and Walmart, attributing discrepancies to cultural and political factors.

• Target's Stock Decline:

  • Joe Getty (17:42): Attributes Target's stock drop to its cultural stance, particularly its inclusive marketing strategies.
  • Jack Armstrong (18:19): Agrees, stating, "They set it up there so you Couldn't avoid it was their display of rainbow stuff, including trans stuff for kids."

• Walmart's Stock Surge:

  • Joe Getty (17:57): Contrasts Walmart's ascent, associating it with a more traditional, "Trumpian" brand image.
  • Jack Armstrong (19:05): Reinforces the cultural divide, emphasizing Walmart's alignment with conservative values.

The hosts argue that cultural affiliations significantly influence consumer behavior and, consequently, corporate financial performance, beyond mere business strategies.

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7. North Korea, Communism, and Bureaucratic Criticism

Delving deeper into international politics and economic systems, Armstrong and Getty critique Xi Jinping's leadership and communism's inherent inefficiencies.

• Xi Jinping as an Efficiency Expert:

  • Joe Getty (20:34): Labels Xi as a "communist" and criticizes his authoritarian practices.
  • Jack Armstrong (21:28): Comments on bureaucratic inefficiencies, noting that even totalitarian leaders recognize the wastefulness of excessive meetings.

• Bureaucracy in Government and Business:

  • Joe Getty (25:36): Compares Chinese bureaucratic demands with similar inefficiencies in American government offices.
  • Jack Armstrong (27:09): Discusses the universal issue of bureaucratic stagnation, irrespective of political ideology.

The conversation highlights the universal challenge of bureaucratic inefficiency, suggesting that even authoritarian regimes struggle to eliminate redundant administrative practices.

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8. Restroom Politicization and Whispers of Cultural Shifts

Addressing the episode's title, the hosts explore the politicization of restroom policies and its broader implications on societal discourse.

• Politicization of Restroom Use:

  • Jack Armstrong (31:39): Criticizes efforts to politicize the use of restrooms, emphasizing personal choice.
  • Joe Getty (32:04): Agrees, labeling such issues as deliberately politicized by authorities.

• Whispered Conversations and Election Outcomes:

  • Jack Armstrong (33:10): Reads and discusses an article by Rich Lowry from the National Review, which posits that whispered conversations about cultural issues influenced the recent election, contributing to a backlash against progressive elites.
  • Joe Getty (35:26): Supports this view, asserting that oppressive cultural mandates have led to widespread frustration and political realignment.

The hosts argue that subtle yet pervasive cultural changes, enforced through institutional policies and societal expectations, have alienated a significant portion of the electorate, thereby affecting political outcomes.

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9. Personal Anecdotes and Humor

Throughout the episode, Armstrong and Getty intersperse their discussions with personal anecdotes and humorous exchanges, providing a relatable and engaging dynamic for listeners.

• Preparing for a Football Game:

  • Jack Armstrong (29:01): Shares his apprehensions about attending a cold-weather football game, highlighting cultural mismatches.
  • Joe Getty (29:31): Teases about the necessity of proper winter gear and the discomforts associated with it.

• Stereotypes and Humor:

  • Jack Armstrong (30:33): Mocks racial stereotypes in NFL team names, adding levity to the serious discussions.

These lighter moments balance the episode's heavier topics, maintaining listener engagement through humor and personal connection.

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10. Conclusion and Future Topics

As the episode wraps up, Armstrong and Getty hint at future discussions, including an in-depth analysis of North Korea's geopolitical strategies under a potential Trump administration. They also promote their podcast's availability and encourage listeners to stay tuned for more content.

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Notable Quotes:

• Jack Armstrong (09:26): "Some of our most revered presidents... do you want those people not in public life because of the things they do in the bedroom or not?"
• Joe Getty (15:55): "The absence of a penis does not mean that a man is a woman."
• Jack Armstrong (18:19): "They set it up there so you Couldn't avoid it was their display of rainbow stuff, including trans stuff for kids."
• Joe Getty (35:26): "It's clear Lowry's making a great point too, that the whispered stuff is widely, widely agreed upon."

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Conclusion

In "Has Joe Gone Commie??", Armstrong and Getty navigate through a complex web of current events and cultural debates with their characteristic blend of candor and wit. From dissecting political scandals and international tensions to critiquing societal shifts and corporate strategies, the episode provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges and controversies shaping today's landscape. Whether you're a dedicated listener or new to the podcast, this episode offers valuable insights and thought-provoking discussions that resonate with contemporary issues.

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

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[Joe Getty]

Plus right now you can switch keep your phone and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save on every plan versus Verizon and AT&T. @t mobile.com Keep and switch up to four lines via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlocked device credit service ported 90 plus days with device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months. Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. Armstrong and Getty. And now he's Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Your hometown. Thanksgiving Chicago's gonna have the coldest Thanksgiving since 18 1972.

[Joe Getty]

So yeah, I saw snow on the on Michigan Avenue on the news last night.

[Jack Armstrong]

Did anybody watch Thursday Night Football with the Browns and the Steelers in the snow? Why is that so enjoyable for men of a certain age? I don't know why. Or maybe you had to grow up in the Midwest where it snows and it reminds you being a kid.

[Joe Getty]

Football in the snow all the time.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know. But there's something, it's just super awesome and charming about that. But that was cool.

[Joe Getty]

I agree.

[Jack Armstrong]

Another development in the Trump hush money trial. It's going to be delayed even longer for some reason. So once again that sort of thing is going away, I guess. And I had one more news thing I wanted to throw in. Oh. North Korean general badly wounded in a an airstrike yesterday. I don't know what that does to the war. If Kim Jung Un thinks, hey, I didn't know my generals were going to get killed or anything. I don't know if it means anything.

[Joe Getty]

Kim Jong Un sent rather stark message to the incoming Trump administration the other day too. Essentially saying, yeah, you remember how it was last time? Not interested. I don't care what you think. I don't need your help. We're fine.

[Jack Armstrong]

South Korea reporting that all along it's been a trade of weapons for money or there's oil involved. Getting around the sanctions between North Korea and Russia. Well, Russia's out of a lot of things, including humans. That's why North Korea is sending 100,000 troops over there. Russia's going to send air defense systems to North Korea and South Korea is really, really unhappy about that.

[Joe Getty]

Oh boy.

[Jack Armstrong]

Said that is there has always been their biggest fear is North Korea having an air defense system if things ever went down between them. So yeah, there's, there's drip drip, drips of I'll say it World War Three out there. So we'll see. We'll keep an eye on it. So Matt Gates is gone. The reporting is there's a couple of different reasons. One they JD Vance and him went around and talked to all the Republican senators and it would seem according to reporting there were at least 10 hard nose which is more than double the number of hard no's you could get and and then there's just no point in continuing. You might continue to fight it and hope to turn it around if you didn't have reports of either a different 17 year old or you had sex with the same 17 year old twice. I've heard two different reports on that but either way another report of additional sex with the 17 year old. So do you want that out there in the news for the next couple of months if you're Matt Gaetz and there's very little chance of you getting confirmed anyway.

[Joe Getty]

And for what it's worth speaking for myself I'm well aware of his scumbag friends Greenberg was that his name in that whole fracas and how their accusations flying around and a lot of it's a little cloudy. Look the guy has no supporters, he has no friends.

[Jack Armstrong]

Everybody hates him. Do you think that's there's no reason for that. It's all deep state every Republican hating.

[Joe Getty]

Him and look it's mostly been that sort of guy in my experience who ends up in a situation where scumbags are telling lies about him and some of it's true, some of it's not. Everybody's covering their own ass. Nobody's behaving honorably. So yeah those some of it is kind of cloudy and murky but he's got to go and he went and.

[Jack Armstrong]

There'S some belief that Trump with especially the 17 year old girl another sex thing and then find about the Republicans told him yeah let's you gotta, you gotta call it good.

[Joe Getty]

Oh yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

So you say you're bound out. So Trump maybe called the shot on that but headline Trump maintains support for Hegseth. That's Pete Hegseth who he named as his nominee for secretary of defense who has his own sex scandal. Now we're going to listen to this ABC report about it. I don't know what details it will include or not and then we'll fill in the rest of them.

[Joe Getty]

In the police report from Monterey, California a woman who met Hegseth at a conservative conference told authorities he cornered her in a hotel room took her Phone and quote, blocked the door with his body, preventing her from leaving. She said he sexually assaulted her and that she remembered saying no a lot. Hegseth denied the allegations and told police what happened in the hotel that night was consensual. The matter was fully investigated and I was completely cleared. According to the report. Police recommended this case before forwarded to the local district attorney for review and possible prosecution. Akseth was never charged with a crime.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know why? Because they got all kinds of videos, for one thing, of her all over him at the bar. If you've ever seen that sort of thing before. It's pretty obvious who's coming on to who sometimes. And they had videos of that and a number of other things that caused it apart. She was blackout drunk. It's a bad story all the way around. So he had, and I've heard two reports on this. It was either his wife at the time or was about to be his wife home with their newborn. And he goes to speak at this conference, meets a woman. They're both drunk. Woman's blackout drunk. All over him. He's a very good looking guy. All over him. They end up in the hotel room having sex. This woman at the conference, he has sex with her. Husband and kids are there. What?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

So he's got a woman at home with their kid. At least she's at home and not at the hotel. This woman, husband and kids are at the hotel and doesn't come back to the room that night and has to come up with some sort of story why I didn't come back to the room. Holy crap. Can you imagine being at a hotel on vacation with your wife and kids and your wife goes down to the bar for drinks and doesn't come back to the room. Holy crap.

[Joe Getty]

I would be up scouring the hotel. Unless I guess he slept through everything. But yeah, and. And evidently she claimed I fell asleep on Jenny's couch in her room. And it has every sign of. She woke up full of regret, which is understandable. But then to call it rape, you know, I wasn't there. Well, people were drunk. I have no idea.

[Jack Armstrong]

I was going to say, as a guy who's known my way around a, you know, a drinking too much liaison. That's the problem with them. That's the problem with them. Everybody's hammered out of their mind. Neither party can remember any or portions of it. And then what are you going to do with that information? How are you going to nail down anything? And when you got that situation going.

[Joe Getty]

On, right, and she Had a vague memory of saying no a lot, she claimed. Yeah, I've read through the parts of the police report and it's all very vague and wishy washy. You know, Pete doesn't live his life the way I lived mine. And I suggest you don't either, but it's up to you.

[Jack Armstrong]

You end up in situations like this.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah, it's all tawdry for sure. But the prosecutors at the time said no, no, just passed on it.

[Jack Armstrong]

The concern from some of my favorite pundits who wouldn't be making this up just for the hell of it is that. And some of them actually know him saying his personal life is quite messy and has been for a long time. So in, you know, based on my experience, my life experience probably wasn't the only time this sort of thing has happened in his life.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

So who knows?

[Joe Getty]

I don't believe that everybody who has a sexual life that is outside the strict confines of standard morality or whatever, that means they are bad at everything or evil at everything or untrustworthy about everything. I think there are brilliant leaders of business who you would be smart to hire as your CEO who can't keep it in their pants or aren't faithful to the spouses or whatever. I don't admire it, but I get it. The sexual thing is just kind of out there in a different area to me.

[Jack Armstrong]

Clearly is. Clearly is There are all kinds of people that are upstanding in every single other aspect of their life except that it's counterintuitive.

[Joe Getty]

And again, I'm not approving of it. It just. It strikes me that that is true. And some of my favorite thinkers say that Pete is extremely bright and extremely serious about his purposes with reforming the military and the Pentagon and standing up for our troops and making sure they have their fighting capabilities. He could not be more serious and have more fidelity to those issues. So it's an interesting choice. Can you find somebody who fits that bill and also brings no baggage? Yeah, probably, maybe.

[Jack Armstrong]

Am I right or wrong on this? Do I. Do I remember this being true or did I make this up in my head that many of our European allies think it's odd that in the United States we hold this against people?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Because they just accept it as a different part of your life. And I don't know if that's good or not. I find this topic fascinating. If you're going to go backwards through history, you to eliminate a lot of men. And especially as you go back through history, it's more men you would eliminate a lot of the greatest men in US History if you were going to hold them to a standard of being decent people around the world of, you know, fidelity and sex. Some of our most revered presidents, Martin Luther King Jr. I mean, just all kinds of people. And do you want those people not in public life because of the things they do in the bedroom or not? I don't even know what I think of that now.

[Joe Getty]

If the guy's a rapist, I don't know.

[Jack Armstrong]

Different. That's different.

[Joe Getty]

Right, right. Just getting back to Pete. But yeah, I don't, I don't know.

[Jack Armstrong]

And how do we, how do we solve this? So people knew John F. Kennedy Jr. Was the kind of guy was. People knew FDR was doing that, people knew LBJ was doing that. And it just was an agreement with the press that you didn't report on that sort of thing. Were we better when it was that way?

[Joe Getty]

Yes. And worse, it's a mixed bag like those things.

[Jack Armstrong]

Worse in what way?

[Joe Getty]

Oh, sexual assault, exploitation, all sorts of stuff went along with it.

[Jack Armstrong]

And that's where, that's where it gets really difficult. Gray area of harassment and all that sort of stuff or power dynamics and all those kind of things. It's very, very difficult. But there's no getting around the fact that if you're going to have a standard of people who have these kind of things in their background affairs and whatnot and drunken one night stands, all sorts of stuff, they can't be in high office. Well, you would eliminate a lot of people.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

And do you want to do that or not?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. At some point you've got to just look at what was said by the various parties and then what the prosecutor decided and you know, regretful drunk women who have torrid one nighters often regret it terribly and sometimes, especially in the modern era, make claims that are unsupportable and horrible in themselves.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, the party that cares the most about morality and religion, at least in theory, has elected Donald Trump twice.

[Joe Getty]

Yes.

[Jack Armstrong]

Knowing very well what his life is like. So, yeah, maybe we've made our decision.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. The whole history of this is so interesting too because it was viewed differently, you know, prior to the great Protestant reform of the early, I guess the late 19th and early 20th centuries. When do they cite that? It doesn't matter. I don't know. To each their own, I suppose, judging these things.

[Jack Armstrong]

You can go back to Gary Hart in 80. What year was the Gary Hart scandal? But he would, he would have been the nominee for the Democratic Party Abso freakin lutely. Maybe President of the United States. But they found out he was having an affair and that was the end of it. Because he hadn't. He was having an affair. Really?

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay. That. We wouldn't do that now, I don't think.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

And that wasn't that long ago.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Completely end your political career because you had a consensual affair. There wasn't even even a hint of any sort of gray area, you know, assault, rape, anything like that at all.

[Joe Getty]

Well. And nobody went to, you know, Mrs. Hart, who probably said, I'm actually seeing a dude too. It's fine. We're very, very wealthy. You wouldn't understand.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right, Exactly. That's a good point.

[Joe Getty]

So Xi Jinping is absolutely right about a couple of things. And Kim Jong Un. Oh boy. Donald Trump with the calling his ex booty call. And Kim Jong saying, no, thank you. All that to come. Stay with us. Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

So we have a San Jose State Spartan volleyball update because we're really big on women's volleyball here on the Armstrong and Getty Show. Longtime listeners know that.

[Joe Getty]

Well, mostly the women part of it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, according to the Washington Post article I'm reading today, they have an alleged transgender player on the San Jose State Spartans. I suppose that's fair to say alleged, since if you're a reporter and you haven't seen the penis in question. Yeah. You know, you got taken somebody's word for it and the player has not come out and said that they're transgender. So you're going off the, I don't know, reports of people who have seen them in the locker room, I guess. Anyway, the reason this is in the news today, a couple of things. A judge is about to make a ruling. Could be any minute. Hasn't happened as of yet this morning because the conference tournament is this weekend in Las Vegas. And there are two things that need to be determined by a judge. One, because there's. There are lawsuits going on. One, does the San Jose State player in question get to play or not? And two, do those for count as losses or not? Because there's a. An effort to say, hey, all those forfeits don't count as a loss for the other teams because of the transgender, blah, blah, blah, everything like that. And it has to do with lawsuit and whether or not you get. You get to count it as a win. That's the more important thing. Do you get to San Jose State get to count it as a win to help the record in the conference tournament so it'll be interesting to see what that ruling is. If the transgender player plays and they go in with a really great record, all those forfeits being wins, there'll be a high seed and they could dominate.

[Joe Getty]

This feels to me very much like two years from now, the NCAA will announce that indeed the conference champion was X and they will mail the gals medals. And it's like, you know, if some running back is discovered to have been given a Cadillac, you know, back in the day, recruiting scandal, blah, blah, blah, you would you lose your national championship, whatever, they'll rectify it in. In reverse. Secondly, and I say this not to quibble, but because it's very, very important, this, this simple truth shall set ye free. The absence of a penis does not mean that a man is a woman. A man cannot become a woman by getting a surgery nor taking hormones, a low testosterone. Man is not a woman. Trust me, a man who's been surgically altered is not a woman. Anyway, having said that, well, here's some great stuff from the California Globe about Trans women are the latest chapter in the Emperor's New Clothes. Here is a Montana representative saying, trans women are women, full stop. We're every bit as biologically female as CIS women.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, that last part is definitely crazy. I mean, you're really off the reservation there.

[Joe Getty]

Hot dogs are dogs.

[Jack Armstrong]

Get the hot dogs are dogs T shirt at Armstrong&getty.com.

[Joe Getty]

I'M more sympathetic towards Xi Jinping than I've been in a very long time. You're going to like his new policy. Trust me. I know that sounds crazy.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's Joe Gon Commie Armstrong and Getty.

[Joe Getty]

Some business news. I saw the Target's stock just fell to a yearly low while Walmart soared to an all time high. Yep. Now Target execs are shopping at Walmart and Walmart execs are shopping at Target.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's pretty good. But again, I've read a couple of articles about that 20 some percent drop in target stock the other day after the report came out. None of them. None of the articles trying to describe why Target stock is down so much included their choices. Culturally. Yes. How do you leave that out?

[Joe Getty]

We're selling tuck bathing suits for your little boy who thinks he's a little girl and aggressively marketing them up with trans as you walk in the front door. That changed my perception of Target forever.

[Jack Armstrong]

Absolutely not an exaggeration. I saw it at my local Target store. I walked in the front door. The first thing you saw? They set it up there so you Couldn't avoid it was their display of rainbow stuff, including trans stuff for kids. Yes. That changed my perception of Target forever. I personally know a handful of people who stopped shopping there forever because of that. So how do you leave that out of the conversation? Whereas what's Walmart's brand culturally? Completely 100% the opposite. Up with America, blah, blah, blah.

[Joe Getty]

Much more Trumpian.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, no doubt about it.

[Joe Getty]

There's general shape.

[Jack Armstrong]

There's also the fact that Walmart makes like something like 60% of the money on groceries and they have a real big edge on groceries over Target. But you can't, you can't leave out the cultural stuff.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, yeah, I wouldn't claim that that was all of it, but to pretend that it's not part of it is just foolish. But the media is just. The media is the media. We were talking earlier about how the various post mortems that the Democratic Party and their media friends are conducting on the election completely miss a lot of the obvious stuff to which I say it's fine. I'm not going to point it out to you. Anyway, I would love to talk at greater length about the situation with North Korea. As Donald Trump comes back into office, everything has changed. The levers have changed, the alliances have changed. North Korea's place in the world has changed. Their nuclear weapon development has changed. And if you think Donnie's going to drop a note to his old buddy Kim Jong and just rev things up again, it's just not going to happen. And we could get into that maybe next hour. It's interesting, but it's a little dry. And I'd rather talk about this, frankly. Xi Jinping is an evil, rotten son of a bitch. He's a communist. He's a genocidal dictator. He's a crusher of the human spirit. I mean, he's a thousand different evil, evil things. And I will loathe communism with my last breath.

[Jack Armstrong]

He runs a country with a million slaves.

[Joe Getty]

Yes, yes. On the other hand, if you study the Chinese economy at all and Chinese culture as I do, you know that there's all sorts of talk about various ways to fire up their economy because it is floundering. It's propped up by artificial spending on giant government projects and housing developments that will never have people in them. And it's just, it's a bit of a house of cards. And the various policymakers have been hoping for massive stimulus or cuts in this or that and the other. But here's the point of this. One of the ways Xi Jinping Wants to bring the economy back to life. He has said you gotta slash red tape. His directive to supervisors, hold fewer meetings, make them shorter, cut superfluous paperwork.

[Jack Armstrong]

Do you hear that? Middle management all across the country, even Xi Jinping realizes that most meetings are a waste of time. All right. Everybody's caught on.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. Don't burden the grassroots at your local level. Commie government workers with cumbersome and unproductive tasks. Stop using phone apps to track your staff and bombard them with instructions. Don't overwhelm them with performance reviews, lest they focus on pleasing their bosses rather than getting work done. Here. I need to pause and point out that in the Chinese Communist Party, they expect government workers to accomplish something to the point that they're being hounded by their supervisors if they're not productive enough. How much does that contrast with that email we read yesterday about the dude who works for the state of California? He's got nothing to do. Oh, this supervisor's got nothing to do.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's.

[Joe Getty]

Coworkers have nothing to do.

[Jack Armstrong]

There aren't enough books, movies, speeches. There should be folk songs about bureaucracies and what they do. I mean, if the. If the most libertarian, free market person realizes most meetings are a waste of time and the most autocratic dictator realizes most meetings are a waste of time, how do they still continue to be so much of everybody's life? As I've always said, I think I've been to two meetings in my life that needed to happen. All the rest of them could have been an email or a phone call.

[Joe Getty]

Well, and open that. That question to meetings that justified the amount of times expended.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

Anyway, yeah. If Steve Jobs and me and you and Xi Jinping all agree on something. Elon. I mean, Elon. Sure. Yeah. There's more. And this will really ring true to a lot of you, especially in the private sector. But many local bureaucrats are required to submit weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports, sapping their time and energy. One official lamented, quote, the job must be done well, but more important, the reports must be written beautifully. If the word counts in the document are lower than that of the other departments, we get in trouble.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, wow. That happens. The private sector. Similar sort of thing. The reports are more important than the actual result.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

And there's some weird belief, and it drives me nuts that there's some weird belief that, like, somebody will come in. And so you have quarterly reports, we're going to have monthly reports. There. I've done something productive.

[Joe Getty]

Right. We're really going to hold our people accountable. Well, and it metastasizes depending on how local control is. If control is very local. You know, I'm running a. I'm thinking of our various sponsors. I'm running a 10 man H. VAC company. All right? It's. It's me. I'm the boss. My wife does the accounting. And we've got, you know, like eight techs out in the field. Nobody's filing any damn reports. And then when you become bigger and then you're bought by a corporation and then you're taken over by some venture capital, then there's reports constantly.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. Funny. You're talking about President Xi. I was just looking at some video from this morning at the G20 summit and all those world leaders, and it's. It's interesting that we do it this way. Maybe it makes sense. I don't know. But you got all these world leaders, including some really awful human beings, all shaking hands and laughing and joking about who's going to stand where for the picture and everything like that, with the President Xi who tortures and kills people, or the guy in the headdress from one of the Middle Eastern countries who does the same thing. You know, talking with the president of Italy where you care about human beings and everybody just. We're all leaders of our countries. Huh. It's an interesting way to.

[Joe Getty]

I don't know, probably necessary.

[Jack Armstrong]

Probably is. But I don't know that I could just backslap President Xi, knowing what he does to people. Until recently, Putin would have been there.

[Joe Getty]

Right? Right. Katie, feel free to jump in if you feel like getting back to the main theme of Xi Jinping, efficiency expert. And there are aspects of totalitarianism that are very, very efficient. But this. This reminds me of a certain industry I may have some familiarity with. Government workers. Oh, excessive inspections. Oh, no, that's not the. Oh, there it is. Let's see. Oh, yeah. They're talking about people who spend all their time not doing their job, but doing, writing reports on their job and how well they're doing it. We know salespeople who have no time to sell because they're filling out sales reports.

[Jack Armstrong]

We know great salespeople who have left because they spent more time filling out reports than selling. So they went somewhere where they could spend more time selling.

[Joe Getty]

You got to fill out these reports every day. I kick ass every single day. It's there on the bottom line. I don't care. You got to fill out the reports. Yeah, it's in the dollar amount.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. I don't. It's but that's why I think there need to be more books, movies, and folk songs about bureaucracies. Because the power of a bureaucracy to just do the same thing no matter what, is wild. It's like gravity. It takes a big company takes over a little company and then all of a sudden meetings and reports and crap like that.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. There is something unique to communism that causes this to become a huge problem. Even Stalin fretted over excessive bureaucracy and how, you know, everybody was so into sending him reports that they weren't actually building any tractors. But it happens in the private enterprise too. Well, and in government we've solved that problem by having no accountability whatsoever.

[Jack Armstrong]

And you should. I guess that shows you just how hard it is to stop. Because if in a totalitarian regime where you could execute people for doing things wrong, you still can't stop it, it must be pretty hard to stop.

[Joe Getty]

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[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I wonder what the more or less is on how many fingers freeze off when I go to the football game next Friday? I don't know if you can bet on that. You can now win 100 times your money on prize picks with as little as four correct picks, as Joe has said. But you can get that money so fast with Venmo. Quick and easy deposit withdrawals. Within 15 minutes you can be moving money around. That is all awesome.

[Joe Getty]

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[Jack Armstrong]

Get your game. Run right. So I'm going to be at Arrowhead for the Chiefs game next Friday. They started this last year having the NFL on the Friday after Thanksgiving. So there's games on Thanksgiving Day and then the Chiefs Are playing the Raiders at Arrowhead on Friday. Anyway, it is supposed to be 35 for a high that day. It's going to be a little chilly. I don't know if I'm looking forward to this or not. We're not. We're Californians, me and my, my kids. We're not, we're not cold weather people.

[Joe Getty]

You got the thin blood of the soft, soft California. Do they have the proper gloves and hats and such?

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't think we have any of that stuff now that the fits. You know how it is with kids. They fit last year. So we don't, we don't have this year's version of that stuff.

[Joe Getty]

You got to do a lineup this afternoon, an inspection, right? Throw on your beanie, throw on your gloves, throw on your coat. All right, now stand at attention.

[Jack Armstrong]

I have a feeling they're going to be saying because a football. NFL games at least three hours long, like an hour and a half in. They're going to be thinking, why are we doing this again? I'm miserable. Oh, well, it's a rite of passage, right? Huh? Part of life.

[Joe Getty]

Sure, sure it is.

[Jack Armstrong]

See these other 80,000 people. Yeah. Huh? They know what they're doing, right? Huh? Think they're crazy?

[Joe Getty]

Sometimes fun comes with being fearful of your life. All right, son. That's part of it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Being miserably uncomfortable is what we paid for. And it was very expensive to do this. So sit there and be uncomfortable and enjoy it. Put a smile on your face or I'll take away your video games. That's what I'll say.

[Joe Getty]

Who are the racist Chiefs playing?

[Jack Armstrong]

The Oakland Raiders.

[Joe Getty]

The Raiders, right. Which is soft on crime to me. Raiders, Pirates, Buccaneers, et cetera. Soft on crime, which is right for Oakland. Yeah, well, Vegas now, but same thing. Yeah, they're in Vegas. Mobsters versus a racist.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, I'm gonna be doing stereotypes.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, my God. Smell the racism.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know, maybe I'll stand up and give a speech to the 80,000 people doing their arm wave, including Taylor Swift up in the box. This year we're playing this game on the land that used to belong to the Arapaho.

[Joe Getty]

You know that yell that between every play. Yeah, that'll go well. See how long it takes before you get beat up.

[Jack Armstrong]

We've got more on the way.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty. Do you follow this rule? Do you adhere to it? I have already said that I will.

[Jack Armstrong]

Not use multi stall women's restrooms in the Capitol. But again, that is my choice here.

[Joe Getty]

I always knew that there would be.

[Jack Armstrong]

An effort to politicize my use of a restroom.

[Joe Getty]

And.

[Jack Armstrong]

If anyone had thought to ask me about what I was planning on doing, I would have been happy to tell them, okay, that's the first transgender congressperson being asked about the whole restroom thing. That needs to get figured out. What is that?

[Joe Getty]

Politicized. You're literally in politics.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, and who politicized it? Dudes going into women's restrooms. You didn't politicize it. Those of us who are pushing back against it politicized it. Okay, ridiculous.

[Joe Getty]

The lie is obvious.

[Jack Armstrong]

Which leads me into this. I thought this was really good writing, so I wanted to read a little bit of it. It's from Rich Lowry of National Review, but he's writing in the New York Post about whispered conversations. That has so much to do with why Trump won. And if the left can't figure it out, they're going to lose a lot of elections. We live in an age of whispered conversations. There are aspects of American life that everyone, or nearly everyone knows are absurd, but is too afraid to speak out against and feels powerless to reverse. It used to be said that if someone looked over his shoulder, he was about to tell an insensitive joke. Now people are worried about being overheard making what should be common, sensical observations. Below are the kinds of conversations that are happening all the time, and then I'll run through these because I thought it was so good. It's been true in my life. The maternity ward nurse in a low voice saying where the form says birthing parent, that means mother. They just changed it. I know, it's crazy. The staff are in a medical office explaining that the ethic boxes need to be checked on another form, even though the categories make no sense, and confiding. Maybe I should have checked Hispanic myself at some point. I think we had a relative from Spain somewhere along the line. The group of moms together at the local coffee shop, making sure that no one else can hear from a nearby table. Did you see what happened in the high school track competition? Why are guys competing against girls? The staffer at a bank to a friend he or she can completely trust near the water cooler when it's ab. When they're absolutely certain no one else is around. That training was ridiculous, wasn't it? What a waste of time. It's a little like what it must have been like in, say, East Germany, when no one believed in the system, but no one dared let on what they were actually thinking. This phenomenon surely had an influence on the outcome of the election as the Financial Times has documented, progressive elites hold views often well to the left of the average voter, even the average Democratic voter on cultural issues. America's decades long progress toward racial and sexual tolerance and equality, the paper notes, has been a gradual shift led by progressives with the center and right quickly following the new Cultural shifts are different, largely driven by activists and nonprofit staffers that surround the Democratic Party. They've been abrupt and left the majority behind.

[Joe Getty]

Abrupt is right. I mean, came out of nowhere. And it went from I've never heard of that to if I dare say I think this is crazy, I will lose my career in the blink of an eye and people are pissed.

[Jack Armstrong]

People know that wokeness has been pushed into their lives as a deliberate choice by authorities, HR departments and the like who don't care what they think or worse will punish them for thinking the wrong thing. And he says the Trump vote was a pushback against that abs. Freaking lutely it was. I like the example of the how about that training session we just spent an hour on being a waste of time? What percentage of people agree with that? 90 more.

[Joe Getty]

How many people walk out of that? All white people are racist and evil and you must divide everyone by race. Training sessions angry and resentful versus oh, I've. I've. Now I see the truth might be 10 to 1 or the over the top, soft headed, over educated white women. What's the matter with you?

[Jack Armstrong]

White women or the over the top sexual harassment training or pronoun training or whatever. Yeah, you know which party made that happen? If you're of a certain age, you didn't used to have to do this. You didn't used to spend, God, what is it now, 10, 12 hours a year? You didn't used to spend all those hours doing that and life seemed to be fine. And now you do. Which party's pushing that?

[Joe Getty]

I mean, it's clear Lowry's making a great point too, that the whispered stuff is widely, widely agreed upon.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

But you dare not say it. And it reminds me, actually it's worse in East Germany. It's more like Orwell's 1984 in that since you were constantly under surveillance, if even an eyeroll or a look of boredom crossed your face, the authorities would notice it and they would punish you for it. Think about one of those training sessions. If the trainer saw you rolling your eyes at all white people or born and racists, you're in trouble.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, I think they're not as whispered now as they were prior to two and a half weeks ago.

[Joe Getty]

Well, and I tell you what, not to make myself out as some Joan of Arc or hero of some sort, but one of the reasons I enjoy saying the stuff that we all know to be true, but you're not supposed to say, one of the reasons I enjoy it so much is because I know a lot of y'all can't. And so for no other reason, it's kind of fun to do it for you.

[Jack Armstrong]

If you miss an hour, get the podcast Armstrong and Getty on demand.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.