"He's Dumb As A Bag Of Bricks"

Summary

Podcast Summary: Armstrong & Getty On Demand – "He's Dumb As A Bag Of Bricks"

Release Date: April 8, 2025
Host: iHeartPodcasts
Podcast Title: Armstrong & Getty On Demand
Episode Title: "He's Dumb As A Bag Of Bricks"

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1. The Tariff Tweet and Market Reactions

Timestamp: 01:32 - 05:25

Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty kick off the episode by dissecting a recent tweet that suggested the President might pause certain tariffs for 90 days, excluding those on China. This tweet caused a significant stir in the financial markets, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly soaring by 900 points before retreating.

• Jack Armstrong [01:40]: "There was a tweet that went out that signaled that the president may be open to pausing some of these tariffs for 90 days. Except on China."

• Katie Greener [02:18]: "$2.4 trillion of market value was added in minutes. That's hard to wrap your head around."

Armstrong and Greener explore the chaotic market response, questioning the authenticity of the tweet and pondering whether it was a strategic move by the Trump administration to stabilize the markets amid plummeting stock values.

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2. Criticism of Peter Navarro and Economic Policies

Timestamp: 10:11 - 12:37

The conversation shifts to the Trump administration's economic strategies, particularly focusing on Peter Navarro, a key proponent of the current tariff regime.

• Katie Greener [10:38]: "That is the modern era we live in. Back in the old days, you just said, I believe the gentleman from Kentucky may be confused in his numbers when he posits that no..."

Elon Musk's public denouncement of Navarro as "dumb as a sack of bricks" is discussed, highlighting the tension within the administration and among its supporters regarding economic policies.

• Katie Greener [10:21]: "Elon Musk in on Twitter today has called Peter Navarro a moron."

Jack Armstrong references Thomas Sowell's critique of academic elitism, further mocking Navarro's Harvard background and questioning the effectiveness of the administration's economic decisions.

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3. Supreme Court Ruling on Federal Employment

Timestamp: 08:52 - 10:11

The hosts delve into a significant Supreme Court decision allowing the Trump administration to proceed with terminating 16,000 probationary federal employees across six agencies. This ruling emphasizes the administration's authority over federal workforce management.

• Jack Armstrong [09:01]: "What the hell is the executive branch? Nope, it's a one-way ratchet. All you can do is grow, please."

Katie Greener reflects on the implications of the ruling, contemplating its impact on the federal workforce and the broader executive-judicial dynamics.

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4. Colossal Biosciences and Direwolf De-Extinction Efforts

Timestamp: 15:31 - 19:24

Armstrong and Greener pivot to a lighter yet intriguing topic: the ambitious projects of Colossal Biosciences aiming to resurrect extinct species like direwolves and woolly mammoths through genetic engineering.

• Jack Armstrong [17:31]: "It's a regular wolf with a dye job."

The hosts critically assess the feasibility and ethical considerations of de-extinction, humorously mocking media outlets for falsely reporting the creation of entirely extinct species.

• Katie Greener [18:23]: "It's like Joe mocking a couple weeks ago. Was it the same company with their hairy elephants?"

They question the scientific accuracy and potential ecological impacts of such endeavors, highlighting the disconnect between corporate claims and biological realities.

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5. Free Speech in Britain and the Salman Rushdie Case

Timestamp: 23:10 - 37:42

A substantial portion of the episode is dedicated to discussing the erosion of free speech in Britain, drawing parallels with past incidents involving Salman Rushdie and contemporary challenges faced by Western societies.

• Jack Armstrong [26:25]: "Nellie Bowles, who is both very, very smart and very Very funny. But she says, what's going on in Britain..."

The hosts recount the controversy surrounding Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses," including the assassination attempts he faced and the ongoing threats from fundamentalist groups.

• Jeremy Scott [22:15]: "At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer."

Armstrong and Greener criticize Britain's legislative moves that threatened to implement racially biased sentencing, emphasizing the dangers of allowing extremist ideologies to influence legal frameworks.

• Katie Greener [27:39]: "Jeremy."

They argue that such policies undermine the foundational principles of free expression, warning of a slippery slope where only favored narratives are permitted, echoing concerns about rising authoritarianism.

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6. Federal Retiree Office Inefficiency

Timestamp: 38:06 - 39:23

The discussion transitions to inefficiencies within a government office located in a mine in western Pennsylvania, responsible for processing federal retiree benefits.

• Katie Greener [38:52]: "It can take months for the Office of Personnel Management to process a case, potentially delaying retiree benefits."

Armstrong humorously compares the archaic paper-based system to outdated business practices, highlighting the urgent need for digital transformation in federal operations.

• Jack Armstrong [39:18]: "When's that clip from, like 1992 or something? No, no, now we still have filing cabinets full of paper, and that's currently. And that's not yesteryear."

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7. Sports Highlights

Timestamp: 23:10 - 41:56

In a lighter segment, the hosts celebrate the Florida team's national basketball championship victory, commending their defensive prowess—a rarity in today's NBA-centric focus on offense.

• Katie Greener [23:10]: "The defense Florida played was amazing. That's what you don't see."

They juxtapose this achievement with broader inefficiencies in other sectors, using sports as a metaphor for discipline and strategic planning.

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8. Final Thoughts and Closing

Timestamp: 40:10 - 42:23

As the episode draws to a close, Armstrong and Greener share their final thoughts, blending humor with poignant reflections.

• Jack Armstrong [41:03]: "My final thought, I'm gonna cede to Mia Love, who wrote a beautiful farewell wish to America..."
• Katie Greener [40:44]: "The direwolf's pups are pretty cute. They are cute."

The hosts encourage listeners to engage with the podcast's community, promote merchandise, and sign off with a mix of humor and sincerity.

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Notable Quotes

• Katie Greener [10:21]: "Elon Musk in on Twitter today has called Peter Navarro a moron."
  (Timestamp: 10:21)

• Jack Armstrong [17:31]: "It's a regular wolf with a dye job."
  (Timestamp: 17:31)

• Jeremy Scott [22:15]: "At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer."
  (Timestamp: 22:15)

• Jack Armstrong [23:10]: "The defense Florida played was amazing. That's what you don't see."
  (Timestamp: 23:10)

---

Conclusion

In "He's Dumb As A Bag Of Bricks," Armstrong & Getty tackle a range of topics from volatile market reactions influenced by social media, criticisms of economic policies and key figures like Peter Navarro, ethical debates surrounding genetic engineering and de-extinction, to pressing issues of free speech and governmental inefficiency. The hosts blend insightful analysis with humor, providing listeners with a comprehensive overview of current events and societal challenges, all while maintaining an engaging and accessible narrative.

Transcript

[Joe Getty]

You know, when you're really stressed or not feeling so great about your life or about yourself, talking to someone who understands can really help. But who is that person? How do you find them? Where do you even start? Talkspace. Talkspace makes it easy to get the support you need. With Talkspace, you can go online, answer a few questions about your preferences, and be matched with a therapist. And because you'll meet your therapist online, you don't have to take time off work or arrange childcare. You, you'll meet on your schedule wherever you feel most at ease. If you're depressed, stressed, struggling with a relationship, or if you want some counseling for you and your partner or just need a little extra one on one support, Talkspace is here for you. Plus, Talkspace works with most major insurers and most insured members have a zero dollar copay. No insurance, no problem. Now get $80 off of your first month with promo code SPACE80 when you go to Talkspace.com match with a licensed therapist. Today at Talkspace.com, save $80 with code [e-mail].

[Gilbert King]

Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season one.

[Jeremy Scott]

Every time I hear about my dad is, oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil.

[Gilbert King]

I was becoming the bridge between Jeremy Scott and the son he'd never known.

[Jeremy Scott]

At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer.

[Gilbert King]

Listen to new episodes of bone Valley Season 2 starting April 9 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jack Armstrong]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center.

[Joe Getty]

Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Getty. There was a tweet that went out that signaled that the president may be open to pausing some of these tariffs for 90 days. Except on China. And when I was here in the room, there were cheers when that went out. But quickly the White House said, no, no, no, that's fake news saying that that's actually not true. And you saw the dow climb about 900 points and then fall again.

[Jeremy Scott]

Yeah.

[Katie Greener]

So a tweet went out that wasn't accurate and $2.4 trillion of market value was added in minutes. That's hard to wrap your head around. Then most of it erased just as quickly when it turned out that that tweet was inaccurate. But you wouldn't think that the economy could work that way. Where at tweet without even like confirming it or discussing it or letting what talked about happen would move the market $2.4 trillion.

[Jack Armstrong]

Now, this guy is a blue check mark, for what that's worth on Twitter, it's not worth anything. So quite literally a guy said something. Markets went wild. Now here's a twist. Was that tweet actually inaccurate now that the White House is starting to say much more openly, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're negotiating, it's huge. Trade barriers forever is the goal.

[Katie Greener]

Or did the Trump team somehow get.

[Jack Armstrong]

That tweet out because they were worried at the way things were going? Perhaps. I've got to believe. Got to believe because they were.

[Katie Greener]

Markets were down as much as the Dow was down as much as 1600 when we went on the air yesterday. And I mean, another, a third really bad day would have been a lot of political pressure.

[Jack Armstrong]

There might have been panic in the streets. And, and you got to remember, the entire administration is. That's a hell of a lot of people. And surely among that hell of a lot of people, there are at least a couple of them that were fielding calls from Ford Motors CEO or some Wall street super heavyweight or something and told them, look, no, giant trade barriers forever is not our goal. We're just trying to get better deals. This is a negotiation. And they said, oh, thank God, thank God. And they went and told everybody they wanted to tell. So word got out there might have.

[Katie Greener]

Been people woke up with a horse head in their bed. I mean, these are some high stakes here. We often mock Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana for his folksy jokes and whatnot. What he said, and I thought was a pretty decent point. This is Trump's economy now. So there is no more, for better or worse. There's no more blaming Biden or things for anything at all. Any of it is going to be.

[Jack Armstrong]

It wouldn't ring true.

[Katie Greener]

No, it wouldn't ring true. But so all of it is at Trump's feet now. And that's certainly quite amazing because we are. It is April, ladies and gentlemen. He took over in January. You could have been able to ride. I inherited a bad economy for maybe a couple of years, possibly, but that's over. It's your economy now.

[Jack Armstrong]

And, you know, it's kind of interesting, funny from our perspective is I have in front of me like giant stories that would be three days worth of headlines like at any other point in history. But they didn't even get noticed in this just flurry of, of change in policy and, you know, tariffs and deportations and the rest of it. It's just dizzying.

[Katie Greener]

So why are the markets up today? Well, here are some of the backstories that are probably responsible. Politico says that Treasury Secretary Scott Besant flew to Florida to encourage Donald Trump to focus his message on negotiating favorable trade deals or risk the stock market cratering further. So the Treasury SEC went and talked to Trump, and that came out. Also, Politico, with Trump, had started telling allies in phone calls yesterday morning that the end game of the tariffs would be sooner than people expect and that the White House is in talks with multiple countries stressing that deals are close to being made. So you don't know if Trump wanted that to get into Politico. I mean, if you, if you say this is going to be over sooner than people think, and it's just being reported that this is when it's going to be over. Did you get that message out on purpose? Quite possible, right?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Katie Greener]

And per the Washington Post, Elon Musk appealed directly to President Trump to ditch the tariff regime. He wasn't digging it. And Ted Cruz, who has been a pretty big backer of Donald Trump, said if President Trump uses this moment as leverage, that would be a massive victory for the American people. But there are voices in the White House that want high tariffs forever. There are angels and demons sitting on President Trump's shoulders. Who does he listen to?

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, gosh, I hope it's the angels and not the demons.

[Katie Greener]

But from the. But from the Treasury Secretary, Elon, Ted Cruz, and others saying it's enough.

[Jack Armstrong]

There you go.

[Katie Greener]

Yeah, maybe that's where we are.

[Jack Armstrong]

If this ends up with the post WW2 intentional and understandable trade imbalances that lasted way, way too long. The tariff, the barrier imbalances I'm talking about, if this all ends with those being restructured in a way that's much more 21st century and fair to manufacturers, that this would be an enormous victory, absolutely great. I find myself wondering, and I will never. Well, maybe I will get the answer, because everybody always writes books after this stuff is done. But the, like, the, the charts with the numbers and the formulas and some of it was hilarious. I mean, I don't care how much you love Trump. You got to admit, announcing a 30% tariff on an uninhabited island is pretty funny. Or an island that's just got penguins. Or an island with whom we do zero trade and never have that.

[Katie Greener]

Of all the penguin memes, the one where the penguin is sitting in the chair in the Oval Office like Zelensky and Trump is yelling at him, you don't have the cards and the penguin looks so.

[Jack Armstrong]

Aw. I don't care who you are. That's funny. But here's my question. Was that at least semi intentionally chaotic and crazy because Trump likes to, you know, the art of the deal. Takes talked about this. He, he likes to inject so much stress and angst and turbulence into negotiations. People are anxious to come to a deal. Was that intentional or was it just way too fast and sloppy? Unintentionally, I don't know.

[Katie Greener]

So we have a new Supreme Court ruling. Different topic.

[Jack Armstrong]

No.

[Katie Greener]

The Supreme Court said the Trump administration can move forward with the termination of 16,000 probationary federal across six agencies and departments.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow. Okay, that's good. Well, that's the key. What the hell is the executive branch? Nope, it's a one way ratchet. All you can do is grow, please.

[Katie Greener]

And so that's re resending a lower court order. And I realize sometimes judges disagree, but was this a, you know, what Elon was talking about the other day? A judge is as much a politician that as a judge that just didn't like Trump and Elon and Doge and all that sort of stuff, trying to shut it down because the Supreme Court said, nah, he can do that. He can fire 16,000 probationary people. And like you said, if he can't, well then what?

[Jack Armstrong]

The thing you have to remember about progressive judges, a lot of them, and not everybody appointed by Obama, for instance, is like an avowed progressive. Not a lot of them are. But thing you have to remember about them is they, they rule for a result, not a strict interpretation of the Constitution and the law. They will really stretch the law to get the result they want. That's what progressive judges have done since the early part of the 20th century. And that's why it's so frustrating, because they just, they see their job differently than a conservative judge would.

[Katie Greener]

Back to the tariff thing, just to wrap it up. So Peter Navarro, who is the guy really pushing it on all the TV shows and advising Trump on this, you've probably seen him.

[Jack Armstrong]

I think he's one of Ted Cruz's demons.

[Katie Greener]

Yeah, well, Elon Musk in on Twitter today has called Peter Navarro a moron. And what did he call him? Dumb as a sack of bricks.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yes, that is correct. Perfect recitation of the epithet. Yes.

[Katie Greener]

That is the modern era we live in. Back in the old days, you just said, I believe the gentleman from Kentucky may be confused in his numbers when he posits that no, now you say he's dumb as a sack of bricks. Peter Navarro was on Laura Ingram last night and said, I'm telling you, this is going to be a golden age. Dow 50,000, I guarantee that and I guarantee no recession when we pass the biggest, broadest tax cut in history. This is going to be great stimulus, et cetera, et cetera.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, right. And he just stated to her, out. Now we are going to be, you know, I'm paraphrasing, but we're going to have huge tariffs, we're going to manufacture everything for ourselves. We're going to be a self reliant, you know, high wall economy. And I saw that and thought, oh, for God's sake, no. Well, as it turns out, probably no. I like that stuff. Taking shots at people from Harvard too. Do you still have that in front of you?

[Katie Greener]

Oh, yeah. For Thomas Soell, this is. That's really good. I should remember that for the rest of my life. I wonder when he said that, how many years ago he said that? Because I would like to keep that in my, my holster, if you will.

[Jack Armstrong]

See if I can. I mean, I can paraphrase it if it's not handy, but I'd like to.

[Katie Greener]

Get it exactly right. Go ahead.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, hang on a second, let me see if I can find it, because you're right, he's such a brilliant writer. Yeah. He essentially said there's been no great disaster in this country that there wasn't somebody from Harvard right in the middle of.

[Katie Greener]

Right. And he's. Elon retweeted that. Referring to Peter Navarro, the aforementioned sac o bricks.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. The other thing he said that I think is good is the principal benefit of a Harvard degree is never again having to be impressed by anyone with a Harvard degree.

[Katie Greener]

A sack of bricks has really no IQ whatsoever.

[Jack Armstrong]

I mean, it's the very intellectually speaking, really not impressive.

[Katie Greener]

Okay, so we'll look at the Supreme Court ruling a little bit, see if there's anything more to that and some other stuff on the way. Stay here.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty. You know, when you're really stressed or not feeling so great about your life or about yourself, talking to someone who understands can really help. But who is that person? How do you find them? Where do you even start? Talkspace. Talkspace makes it easy to get the support you need. With Talkspace, you can go online, answer a few questions about your preferences, and be matched with a therapist. And because you'll meet your therapist online, you don't have to take time off work or arrange childcare. You'll meet on your schedule wherever you feel most at ease. If you're depressed, stressed, struggling with a relationship, or if you want some counseling for you and your partner or just need a little extra one on one support, Talkspace is here for you. Plus, Talkspace works with most major insurers and most insured members have a zero dollar copay. No insurance, no problem. Now get $80 off of your first month with promo code space80 when you go to talkspace.com match with a licensed therapist today at talkspace.com save $80 with code [e-mail] Something unexpected happened after Jeremy.

[Gilbert King]

Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season one.

[Jack Armstrong]

I just knew him as a kid.

[Gilbert King]

Long silent voices from his past came.

[Jeremy Scott]

Forward and he was just staring at me.

[Gilbert King]

And they had secrets of their own to share.

[Jeremy Scott]

Gilbert King I'm the son of Jeremy Lynn Scott.

[Gilbert King]

I was no longer just telling the story, I was part of it.

[Jeremy Scott]

Every time I hear about my dad, it's oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil.

[Gilbert King]

I was becoming the bridge between a killer and the son he'd never known.

[Jeremy Scott]

If the cops and everything would have done their job properly, my dad would have been in jail. I would have never existed.

[Gilbert King]

I never expected to find myself in this place. Now I need to tell you how I got here.

[Jeremy Scott]

At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer.

[Gilbert King]

Bone Valley Season 2 Jeremy, Jeremy, I.

[Jack Armstrong]

Want to tell you something.

[Gilbert King]

Listen to new episodes of bone Valley Season 2 starting April 9 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear the entire new season ad free with exclusive content starting April 9th. Subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts.

[Katie Greener]

Our economy is in the midst of a beautiful metamorphosis. Turning from a simple caterpillar into a dead caterpillar.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's a good punchline.

[Katie Greener]

Funny last night, but it was pretty anti Trump, of course.

[Jack Armstrong]

But all right, so cleaning up the mess from last segment. Thomas Sowell. In every disaster throughout American history, there always seems to be a man from Harvard in the middle of it.

[Katie Greener]

That's good.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Love Thomas. Anyway, so this is just funny and ironic and annoying. Have you ever heard of Johnny Kim? He is 41 years old. He was successfully a Navy SEAL, a Harvard educated doctor and a NASA astronaut.

[Katie Greener]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

And he has become quite the meme, I guess among Asian people. The theme being thank God my mom isn't friends with his mom. Getting to the whole tiger mom, super achieving Asian thing. It doesn't matter how much you've achieved, you're falling short of Johnny Kim, Navy seal, Harvard med school graduate, and on Tuesday blasted off as part of his latest act, astronaut. I'm sure he is penning a best selling novel in space that will make him completely unattainable and insufferable. The son of South Korean immigrants. No, this isn't the land of opportunity. Bruce Springsteen. It's the baby still in the lie that you can get ahead in America. Oh, my God.

[Katie Greener]

I want to make sure you hear it here because you're gonna see this story all day long. That freaking direwolf is not a direwolf. It's a gray wolf with white hair. All right, that's it. That's the end of the story.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's a regular wolf with a dye job.

[Katie Greener]

Please, I mean, look into it. It's true.

[Jack Armstrong]

Let's play that ABC clip again.

[Katie Greener]

Okay?

[Jack Armstrong]

It's just that we need to drive a stake through the heart, the still beating heart of the vampire of mainstream media. Drive it, Michael. Drive it. In a first for science, biotech company Colossal Biosciences says it brought the extinct dire wolf back to life. A species that hasn't walked the earth since the Stone Age.

[Katie Greener]

We've taken a gray wolf genome which.

[Jack Armstrong]

Is already genetically 99.5% identical to dire.

[Katie Greener]

Wolf, and we've edited those cells at.

[Joe Getty]

Multiple places in its DNA sequence to.

[Jack Armstrong]

Contain the direwolf version of the DNA. The company tells us they're not stopping there. They plan to have woolly mammoths roaming the earth again by 2028. But critics argue that this de extinction could harm fragile ecosystems.

[Katie Greener]

No, critics should argue that you didn't actually bring back the dire wolf.

[Jack Armstrong]

Not even close.

[Katie Greener]

It's like Joe mocking a couple weeks ago. Was it the same company with their hairy elephants?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, exactly. They're not bringing back the woolly mammoth. They've introduced a gene into regular elephants that makes them hairier. That's. That's it. The critics say. No, critics say they didn't make an effing dire wolf, all right?

[Katie Greener]

And.

[Jack Armstrong]

And I love that lead. The company says, yeah, okay, I have a Tyrannosaurus rex in my basement. I feed it cows. Radio reports say that this man has a Tyrannosaurus rex. ABC News, you're just. You're. You're entertainment for morons. Holy crap. To even hint that you're a journalist and then do that report is absurd.

[Katie Greener]

Yeah, I don't know what to tell you. The Today version of NBC, their headline was extinct Direwolf seen on Game of Thrones has Been revived. No, it hasn't.

[Jeremy Scott]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow. Shame. It's like pointing to a hairy Italian guy and saying, we have recreated the Sasquatch. No, you haven't. You bred a wolf that's kind of big and has light fur.

[Katie Greener]

And like the Yahoo News, of course it's got Yahoo right in the name of it. He expected to be the revival of the once extinct direwolf species has everyone asking the same thing. What animal is next? No. If anybody, the brain is asking, did you really Let me look a little further into this. No, you didn't. Is the dodo next? Dinosaurs. People see shades of Jurassic Park.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, the dinosaurs will eat the dodos. If they run out of dodos, they'll bring down a woolly mammoth. Yes, that's going to happen.

[Katie Greener]

So now you have hairy elephants and white regular wolves. So whoopee.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I've got a saber toothed tiger in my backyard. You can't look at it.

[Katie Greener]

Oh, boy, that's good. More on the waist here.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Joe Getty]

You know, when you're really stressed or not feeling so great about your life or about yourself, talking to someone who understands can really help. But who is that person? How do you find them? Where do you even start? Talkspace. Talkspace makes it easy to get the support you need. With Talkspace, you can go online, answer a few questions about your preferences and be matched with a therapist. And because you'll meet your therapist online, you don't have to take time off work or arrange childcare. You'll meet on your schedule wherever you feel most at ease. If you're depressed, stressed, struggling with a relationship, or if you want some counseling for you and your partner or just need a little extra one on one support, Talkspace is here for you. Plus, Talkspace works with most major insurers and most insured members have a $0 copay. No insurance, no problem. Now get $80 off of your first month with promo code space80 when you go to talkspace.com match with a licensed therapist today at talkspace.com save $80 with code [e-mail] something unexpected happened after Jeremy.

[Gilbert King]

Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season one.

[Jack Armstrong]

I just knew him as a kid.

[Gilbert King]

Long silent voices from his past came.

[Jeremy Scott]

Forward and he was just staring at me.

[Gilbert King]

And they had secrets of their own to share.

[Jeremy Scott]

Gilbert King. I'm the son of Jeremy Lynn Scott.

[Gilbert King]

I was no longer just telling the story, I was part of it.

[Jeremy Scott]

Every time I hear about my dad is, oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil.

[Gilbert King]

I was becoming the bridge between a killer and the son he'd never known.

[Jeremy Scott]

If the cops and everything would have done their job properly, my dad would have been in jail. I would have never existed.

[Gilbert King]

I never expected to find myself in this place. Now I need to tell you how I got here.

[Jeremy Scott]

At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer.

[Gilbert King]

Bone Valley Season 2 Jeremy.

[Jack Armstrong]

Jeremy, I want to tell you something.

[Gilbert King]

Listen to new episodes of bone Valley Season 2 starting April 9 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts and to hear the entire new season ad free with exclusive content starting April 9th. Subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts.

[Jack Armstrong]

Five seconds to sharp. Top of the key. Lost the dribble. He's gotta pick it up. It's scooped up by Condon. Condon secures it. And Florida found a way from 12 down to the school's third national championship in men's basketball.

[Katie Greener]

So that's Florida winning the national championship last night. That last couple of minutes the defense Florida played was amazing. That's what you don't see. Like you said earlier, the NBA doesn't play defense. That's not the way the league is structured anymore. So when you see it, it's like, oh, yeah, that's. That could be part of the game, too.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, and it requires so much energy to play that sort of swarming, suffocating defense, but, oh, it makes it hard to score baskets for sure. Yeah, really exciting. So I am so troubled by what's happening in Great Britain for a couple of reasons. And what's happening is essentially, they've really, really chucked a lot of the bedrock principles that we at least partially shared about free speech, free expression, the idea that you don't have the right to not be offended. Just because you're offended doesn't mean you're right. And I'm reminded, as I often am of Reagan's great quote, that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on to them to do the same. Or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States when men were free. That's a great quote. And it's not alarmism. He's absolutely right. And to wit, and I'm going to quote some from Nellie Bowles, who is both very, very smart and very Very funny. But she says, what's going on in Britain. The Sentencing council for England and Wales was hours away from implementing a new criminal code that would have required different procedures for sentencing ethnic minorities for crimes. They would have had two sentencing systems, at least one for white people and one for non white people, which is like the bizarro, not comparative justice, restorative justice procedures of some of our woke schools and universities. At the last minute, the Ministry of Justice planned emergency legislation to stop it. As the Guardian said, the Sentencing Council caved to pressure. And Nelly writes, putting aside that justice should be race blind, obviously there's an interesting note here on the idea of a minority. There are straight up 2 billion people in South Asia, many of whom want to move to England, while the total population of England and Wales is something like 60 million. So 2 billion to 60 million. The plan was to give gentler sentencing for any of those 2 billion who have arrived or will arrive in the future. Just seems hard to sustain. Makes me a little sorry for the ethnic English. Then she makes a joke. That kind of lands then in their own native land, they want to give themselves harsher punishment by dint of their own ethnicity. Sad, strange, death by politeness. That's just one of several examples. I'll give you one more. In free Speech news on the island, a Times radio producer was arrested a few months ago and this week he told his story. He was arrested by the police. Now he explains, quote, I complained about my daughter's school on WhatsApp. Then six police officers turned up. The video of him was talking about. What happened, paired with the footage of arrest is truly incredible. I'll see if we can get you a LinkedIn.

[Katie Greener]

Highly troubling.

[Jack Armstrong]

His arrest was on suspicion of, quote, harassment and malicious communications for being in a group chat snarking about the new head of the school. The most offensive thing I could find, writes Nelly, that the Times radio producer's wife referred to a school leader as a control freak and for that he was arrested by the British police for quote, unquote harassment and malicious communications. Can you imagine that sort of incursion against free speech in the United States? If the WOKE British declare somebody beyond criticism, you dare not criticize them or you will be jailed. That is Great Britain. There are more examples of this, but I will end with a bit of humor before we get onto a brilliant, brilliant quote. England's economy is so sad and they think the problem is that they need to degrow faster de privilege more. As though anyone thinks those castles have central air Opinion, there's no saving them. All we can do is treat their ideas like Ebola, build seawalls around their island. They are America's intellectual parent. But like all elderly relatives, there comes a time to throw them off a cliff, give ourselves a new name and never speak to our siblings again.

[Katie Greener]

That's funny.

[Jack Armstrong]

It is.

[Katie Greener]

So I'm on this Salmon Rushdie kick. Not exactly sure how I got on it. If you don't know or remember, he wrote a book in the 80s, way back in the 80s, called the Satanic Verses that for whatever reason the Islamic world went nuts over it was minor, a minor thing. He didn't feel like he'd written a controversial book at all really.

[Jack Armstrong]

Speaking of threats to your freedom, Islamism back to you.

[Katie Greener]

But people who hadn't even read the book, particularly in Iran, went nuts over it. And then the Ayatollah went nuts over it and said that Salman Rushdie, the author, needed to die. And then his home country of India banned the book to his great dismay. And then that kicked off countries all around the world banning the book. And it just grew and grew and grew and he had to go into hiding for think a dozen years, um, ending with, by the way, whatever. It was two years ago when he was almost killed on stage in the United States of America by a Muslim who was still angry about that book, who of course he had never read. The kid had never read it. He was a 24 year old nut job who lived with his parents, had never read the book. Stabbed out Rushdie's eye, cut his throat. Only because he didn't know what he was doing, did he not kill the guy. And. But I'm reading Rushdie's memoir called. What is it called?

[Jack Armstrong]

Something that doesn't written that damn book.

[Katie Greener]

That's funny.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm sure he's glad he wrote the book.

[Katie Greener]

That comes goes Jess. Joseph Anton is the name of the book because that's the name he went by when he was in hiding and he had protection from basically like the Secret service of England. He's, he's a guy who's been living in England. He went to Oxford and been living in England his whole life. And he was so disappointed when this very first happened. So this fits in with the free speech stuff and also the Muslim immigration stuff that's been going on in Europe. So he writes this book even if it had been flat out a book that said Muhammad was a, was a gay pedophile. I mean like it didn't, but like if, even if it had been like, over the top, critical. You still should be able to write that book in Western civilization. It's crazy that you couldn't. But he didn't write anything even close to that. But people on the left, like artists on the left, came out and said he shouldn't have written a book. Margaret Thatcher on the right said that he shouldn't have written a book. And that sort of thing shouldn't happen because everybody was so scared of Islam that, you know, we shouldn't criticize them, which is crazy.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, everybody. It reminds me of the beliefs about, you know, domesticating the Chinese. The belief was that, look, if we just. If we're cool and not at all combative, they won't be combative to us and try to take over the world in the name of Sharia law. So let's be nice.

[Katie Greener]

All kinds of people, right, left and center of politics, backed down to the Muslim crazies rather than stand up for free speech and free expression and all that sort of stuff. Quite a few people were killed. I think a total of 15 people died through this whole thing, including the Japanese translator who was murdered for translating the book into Japanese there in their country.

[Jack Armstrong]

Just.

[Katie Greener]

Just craziness, absolute craziness. Where here, here is Salman Rushdie talking about how disappointed he is. And he. I don't know when he said this, but it's since he got his eye carved out by the nut job. So in the last couple of years, disappointed in the younger generation.

[Mia Love]

I feel kind of disappointed in the younger generation because it used to be that it was kind of old fogies like me who were conservative about what could be said and what was wrong to say, and young people were iconoclastic and. And, you know, let it all hang out. And now it's the other way around. It's an older generation that still holds on to traditional ideas of free expression. But the fact that there's a generation growing up which is willing to suppress speech which it doesn't like, is extremely alarming. Because, I mean, that simple definition of free speech, in order for it to be free, it has to include speech by people you don't agree with, you know, otherwise, not free speech. And there's an increasing feeling that, that that's a kind of wrong way of thinking.

[Katie Greener]

He's from the atheist hippie generation of the 60s and 70s. And, you know, the young people were the, you know, the people that stood up for that, as he just said. And now it's the other way around. It's only the old people that still remember the Importance of it. And the young crowd is no, no, no, free speech is bad. Too much free speech.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's right. Need lockstep adherence to what we've been indoctrinated into. They wouldn't say that out loud, but that's precisely what they mean.

[Katie Greener]

So you got the free speech aspect of this conversation and then the, the fundamentalist Muslim aspect of this. So I, because I'm on this kick, I was watching some old 60 Minutes interviews with Salman Rushdie one way back in the 80s when he was in hiding, and then one from recently after he was almost assassinated. But they're showing these clips from various parts of the country with, with young Muslim men almost entirely in the streets just insanely enraged still over this book that they've never read just because they were told it was bad. It's. It's so pre Enlightenment, pre age of reason. It's just craziness.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. Which is one of the reasons it's so scary that the postmodernist neo Marxist woke crowd, they're like post enlightenment, but pre enlightenment, they think appeal to objective fact, to science, to data is, is, is wrong somehow. It's just your beliefs. That's the only thing that matters. And it aligns very nicely with fundamentalist religious lunatics.

[Katie Greener]

And then the fact that.

[Jack Armstrong]

And the funny thing is the religious lunatics would throw them off a building.

[Katie Greener]

Absolutely.

[Jack Armstrong]

They were in charge. Absolutely cares for Palestine.

[Katie Greener]

It's amaz amazing that in so many places around the world in Europe is way worse at that's at it than us. And we went too far at various times since 911 in terms of bending over backwards to accommodate a crazy culture that has no room for any other point of view. Don't you see the paradox there? I don't see how more people don't see the paradox there. The conundrum where that's not going to fit. If you got a group of people who don't believe in a different point of view, you can't say we're going to allow your point of view because we allow all points of view. If they end up dominating your point of view and all others go away. You see?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Do you have a duty to support the right of totalitarians, to pitch totalitarianism in the name of a diversity of viewpoints? It's, it's a great paradox. So one more thought. And you, Jack, you may have read this too. I can't remember where I read this, but it made a hell of an impression on me. It was a description of a scene of the stoning of a young woman who is accused of adultery in Afghanistan.

[Katie Greener]

And how could that still be going on in the world?

[Jack Armstrong]

I know, and the evidence was thin at best, but that doesn't really matter. No, but the fundamental part of the description, the part that really made an impression on me, was the description of how there was really a fairly small percentage of the crowd that was in favor of this and were such vehement, devout, fundamentalist lunatics that they wanted to see this young girl's skull crushed for the sin of being seen with a man. But everybody had to outdo each other in signs of fervor and hatred toward this girl, lest they be reported as probably an infidel and soft on Sharia law. And so everybody went through this performative viciousness that spread through the crowd, and everybody checked their conscience and allowed themselves to get fired up. Then when it was all over, you know, they congratulated each other and all shuffled home feeling terrible feelings of guilt and conflict in their hearts.

[Katie Greener]

Performative viciousness. That's exactly what was going on with the whole Salman Rushdie satanic verses thing. And he was pointing out that at the time there in the late 80s, there were people going on BBC television and radio talking about how, like, Muslim clerics going on TV and saying how Salman Rushdie should be killed for this. And that was airing where anything close to that, the other direction is against the law in Great Britain.

[Jack Armstrong]

That sort of giving offense to a religion. Right? Yeah.

[Katie Greener]

But toward him from Islam, they could threaten his life and get away with it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right? Yep.

[Katie Greener]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Way to stand up for Western civilization, Brits.

[Jeremy Scott]

Wow.

[Katie Greener]

We'll finish strong.

[Jack Armstrong]

Next, Armstrong and Getty.

[Gilbert King]

Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season one.

[Jack Armstrong]

I just knew him as a kid.

[Gilbert King]

Long, silent voices from his past came.

[Jeremy Scott]

Forward, and he was just staring at me.

[Gilbert King]

And they had secrets of their own to share.

[Jeremy Scott]

Gilbert King. I'm the son of Jeremy Lynn Scott.

[Gilbert King]

I was no longer just telling the story. I was part of it.

[Jeremy Scott]

Every time I hear about my dad is, oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil.

[Gilbert King]

I was becoming the bridge between a killer and the son he'd never known.

[Jeremy Scott]

If the cops and everything would have done their job properly, My dad would have been in jail. I would have never existed.

[Gilbert King]

I never expected to find myself in this place. Now I need to tell you how I got here.

[Jeremy Scott]

At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer.

[Gilbert King]

Bone Valley Season 2 Jeremy.

[Katie Greener]

Jeremy.

[Jack Armstrong]

I want to tell you something.

[Gilbert King]

Listen to new episodes of bone Valley Season 2, starting April 9 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear the entire new season ad free with exclusive content starting April 9th, subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts.

[Katie Greener]

Buried deep inside this mine in western Pennsylvania is a little known government office that handles a critical mission for the federal workforce. It can take months for the Office of Personnel Management to process a case, potentially delaying retiree benefits. The facility has literally miles of files, some 26,000 filing cabinets filled with retirement paperwork, some of them stacked 10 high. Doge engineers are working to create a fully digital experience with federal retirees, the hopeful, happy customers. You've heard about the mine. We've talked about it, and Elon's talked about it a lot. But there's nothing wrong with holding that up as an example. Because if that can happen, anything can happen. In terms of not being efficient.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm picturing people in, I was gonna say like Silicon Valley, but just like in the insurance company saying they're gonna digitize their records. When's that clip from, like 1992 or something? No, no, now. Now we still have filing cabinets full of paper, and that's currently. And that's not yesteryear. If somebody retires today, that's how they handle it.

[Katie Greener]

And like I said, if that can happen, anything can happen in terms of inefficiency.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, yeah, but Elon's a Nazi. Paint his cars. What the hell? Seriously. There's times I look around and think I want to become a dog trainer or, or run the monkey house at the zoo or something like that, because human beings are. They're just too strange.

[Katie Greener]

Those are very different jobs, so you should choose carefully.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, true. I have some final thoughts, and some people say they are the greatest final thoughts they've ever heard. But if you look at what's happening, I would have to say Armstrong and Getty have some wonderful final thoughts. They are right up there with Abraham Lincoln and everybody knows it.

[Katie Greener]

I mean, being a dog trainer is a lot different than running the monkey house. So I don't know, I would think.

[Jack Armstrong]

It a lot of poo either way.

[Katie Greener]

Here's your host for Final Thoughts, Joe Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

It flies around more at the monkey house, certainly. Hey, let's get a final thought from everybody on the crew to wrap things up for the day. Michelangelo, lead us off. I'm gonna find the saddest movie this weekend playing in the theaters. And then during a quiet moment in the Film, yell chicken jockey.

[Katie Greener]

That's funny. I would laugh so hard if somebody did that.

[Jack Armstrong]

You'd probably be beaten with many fists. Katie Greener, esteemed newswoman, has a final thought. Katie, I was looking up these dire.

[Katie Greener]

Wolves and the pups that they made are pretty cute. They are cute.

[Jack Armstrong]

And I want one. I'm gonna listen to the Grateful Dead. It's my favorite Dead song. Direwolf, don't murder me. I beg you, please don't murder me.

[Katie Greener]

Jack, final thought, I'm wearing a suit today. As I often do, the average man feels two thirds more confident in a suit than when you're not in a suit. And I feel like I do.

[Gilbert King]

Yes.

[Jack Armstrong]

Excellent. I beg of you, don't murder me. Gotta get the lyrics right. My final thought, I'm gonna cede to Mia Love, who wrote a beautiful farewell wish to America. She passed away recently. My living wish and fervent prayer for you and this nation is that the America I have known is the America you fight to preserve. And that each citizen, every leader, will do their part to ensure that the America we know will be the America our grandchildren and great grandchildren will inherit.

[Katie Greener]

Armstrong and Getty wrapping up another grueling four hour workday.

[Jack Armstrong]

So many people to thank, so little time. Go to armstrongegetty.com. great hot link. Katie's Corner. You got your swag if you bought one. An A G hoodie yet. People love them. I love them. You'll love them. Drop us a Note [e-mail].

[Katie Greener]

I didn't realize Florida had a guy on their team. That's seven foot nine. Hey, that championship's gotta have an asterisk next to it. Seven foot.

[Jack Armstrong]

Slam dunk. Sitting down. Yeah.

[Katie Greener]

See you tomorrow. God bless America.

[Jack Armstrong]

A mixed finish on Armstrong and Getty.

[Mia Love]

I feel kind of disappointed.

[Katie Greener]

Heck yes. Adios, mofo.

[Jack Armstrong]

This was a huge, huge mistake, correct? Yup.

[Katie Greener]

Absolutely. Are you sure?

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, dead sure. I've been thinking that we really all need a tremendous hug. Look, I think the sort of deeper problem here is.

[Katie Greener]

It's a bobcat techno 1.

[Jack Armstrong]

Get the hell out of here. It's rather preposterous, isn't it?

[Katie Greener]

Screw it, I'm leaving. Bye.

[Jack Armstrong]

Bye. Armstrong and Getty.

[Gilbert King]

Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season one.

[Jeremy Scott]

Every time I hear about my dad is, oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil.

[Gilbert King]

I was becoming the bridge between Jeremy Scott and the son he'd never known.

[Jeremy Scott]

At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer.

[Gilbert King]

Listen to new episodes of bone Valley Season 2, starting April 9 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.