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Jack Armstrong
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center.
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Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
Joe Getty
Armstrong and Getty. And now, hey.
Jack Armstrong
Live from Studio C. Oh.
Joe Getty
I see you are still ailing, signor.
Jack Armstrong
Damn it. I even practiced with the microphone off for a little bit so I'd be ready. I still didn't pull it off. We're in a dimly lit room deep within the bowels of the Armstrong and Yeti communications compound. I'm trying to spread my disease around everyone. And today we're under the tutelage of.
Joe Getty
Our general manager, Ilhan Omar. What did she know and when did she know it about the gigantic fraud by all of her buddies and contributors. Who is she? She is the Somali born American hating America hating Minneapolis squad member, House of Representatives.
Jack Armstrong
Gotcha. Okay.
Joe Getty
There's nothing but contempt for the United States of America and its laws and traditions.
Jack Armstrong
I don't know. That story I look forward to hearing. I mean, I know the Minneapolis stealing money story. We did that yesterday. But I don't know this latest thing with her. Remember about a year ago or so when I said a friend brought up to me is the first time I'd ever really fully embraced this. They said, you know, you get sick a lot. And that's the first time I'd ever fully embraced the fact that I am a sickly human. I do get sick a lot. I either have a bad immune system or a poor lifestyle or both. And I get sick a lot. And it's just. It's disappointing to me. It's very disappointing to me.
Joe Getty
It runs counter to your self image is, yeah, plucky individual.
Jack Armstrong
That's why I hate admitting. But it's clearly true.
Katie Green
But yeah, you also have kids and.
Joe Getty
That kind of comes with kids too. But he gets sick a lot.
Katie Green
Okay.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, I think I get sick. I was all very. I get very little sleep, so that probably doesn't help me in either. I don't know how much of it is my lifestyle and how much of it is. I'm just one of those people that get sick more often because I'm not good at fighting off diseases.
Joe Getty
Well, I know you check your tire pressure by licking your tires. I've asked you not to do that many times. Just in general, you know, I lick lots of stuff.
Jack Armstrong
Doorknobs, sure.
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah. It goes out to the mailbox. Instead of opening it, he licks the handle to see if the postman's been there lately. It's just It's a habit. Yeah. Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
And I've tried to quit.
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
So, Jack, are you forming a plan.
Joe Getty
To become more healthy?
Jack Armstrong
I mean, are there steps you're going.
Joe Getty
To take or something?
Jack Armstrong
Why'd you have to say that?
I suppose I told you he wouldn't like that. Hanson. I suppose getting more sleep would be the best idea because I didn't know. I don't know if there's anything else. Maybe eating, but. I don't know, like we were talking about yesterday, you get. You get most of the stuff you need from. Unless you eat an extremely crazy diet, you actually get most of the stuff you need from. From your. From a diet.
Joe Getty
Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I've noticed your. Your boys got sick a lot, too. It's almost certainly just a genetic thing. One of them does, like a tendency toward arthritis. I mean, it is.
Jack Armstrong
One of them doesn't. One of them doesn't. One of them is like, my dad never gets sick.
Joe Getty
Oh, there you go.
Jack Armstrong
Huh.
Joe Getty
Interesting.
Jack Armstrong
And they're, you know, and they're in the same house, exposed to the same things, more or less.
Joe Getty
Just do a quick checklist. Do you or do you not have a flush toilet?
How about a sink? You know, do you own soap? Right. Nah, it's just, it's. It's got to be genetics.
Jack Armstrong
I don't know. I don't know what it is. Anyway, it seems to be getting worse, so that's exciting. I have something fun. You want something fun?
Joe Getty
No, please.
There's nothing more fun than fun. That's what I always say.
Jack Armstrong
So they put out the list of the top searches for Google in the U. S for 2025, which I found interesting.
Joe Getty
I do loves my end of the year lists.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, I do too.
Joe Getty
And it feels, you know what? Honestly, it feels like the holidays. I mean, obviously it's just the. The guilt by association, pleasure by association, but yeah, it's fun.
Donald Trump
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
And what I found interesting about it is this is not just the top searches, because that's actually pretty boring because every year a whole bunch of people search a lot of the same stuff, like about cold symptoms or whatever, but it spikes. It's things that spiked and stayed spiked for a certain period of time. That counts as like a trending spike. And so the top trending searches in the US this last year.
One of them, only one of them, is confusing to me. Global, the US versus the global. In the United States. Top spike search. Not surprising. Charlie Kirk with lots of people thinking, who's Charlie Kirk? And why is this such a big Deal. Who weren't aware, who weren't in on it. K Pop Demon Hunters. We talked about that a little bit during the year. That has been very hot. It's a pop culture trend. It's a. What's it like a cartoon on Netflix or something?
Joe Getty
Yeah. Or a movie. Yeah, something like that.
Jack Armstrong
My boys are at the age where boys like them really hate it and hate the fact that other people like it. So.
Joe Getty
Yes.
Jack Armstrong
But it's very popular amongst younger girls. I think we also. I would be disappointed if anything on these list any of these on this list we hadn't talked about because that meant we weren't doing our job. Labubu. That's that little doll thing that people hang off their purse or whatever.
Joe Getty
Yes. That people who desperately need to belong belonged to. Briefly, yes.
Jack Armstrong
Did adults get into that, Katie, do you know?
Katie Green
Yes, they did.
Joe Getty
And I also Labs Right. Celebs.
Katie Green
Adults. And I've also seen something going around on TikTok where people are having full blown like fake nail manicures made for their Labubu and then matching with them. And it just made me want to vomit.
Joe Getty
Oh my God. Have a baby.
Start a family, for goodness sakes.
Jack Armstrong
It's funny, I said this yesterday. Somebody sent me a picture they were in traffic of somebody with a Tesla in front of them. Said part of the I hate Elon club. And that's exactly what I said to them. People like that need to have a kid. They'd be too busy to be worried about arguing over the ownership of the car company.
Joe Getty
They're extremely online. Anger over the owner of the car company and his political stances? Yeah, please. Oh my God, you're seriously angry about like that last 1/4 of 1% of your existence. How fundamental are Elon Musk's political beliefs to you and your joy? If you answered well, pretty much none. Great, you're normal. If you answered anything else, take a long hard look at yourself. Buy a Bible, have a kid, go to Tibet, do something, just not what you're doing now.
Jack Armstrong
Go to Tibet. That's a good. That's a good thing to shout at someone. Go to bat.
Back to the Google list of spikes. IPhone17 when it got released, people apparently Googled it for several days wanting to know, you know, are the features enough for me to want to buy it? Blah, blah, blah. One big beautiful bill act got enough attention a piece of legislation that it spiked for a while. People wanting to know what the heck was in. I'm happy to hear that one. Yeah, this one's not Surprising. Zoran Mumdani. Who the heck is this guy? And everybody wanted to know. Government shutdown. Apparently people want to know what that was, what it meant. Always on these lists, something soccer related. FIFA cup or club World Cup. All right, I don't follow soccer, so that wouldn't. I'm not into. But apparently enough people are tariffs. Not surprising that a lot of people wanted to figure out what the heck is a tariff. What does this mean to me?
Joe Getty
Oh, that reminds me. There's a. There's a story in the New York Times. Your package arrives. Shocker. You have to pay the tariff. And on some goods, like you buy an expensive coat from overseas. Tariff can be a couple hundred bucks.
Jack Armstrong
And you don't know it until you get it.
Joe Getty
Correct. Yeah. At least that's the, the conceit of the article. If something shows surprise when your package arrives, you have to pay the tariff.
Jack Armstrong
Well, and who's gonna tell me that? The postman? I'm not giving you your package till you hand me 200.
Joe Getty
Well, after the coat was shipped, UPS told this gal from Oakland, California in an email that she would have to pay over 250 in customs duties to receive it.
Jack Armstrong
Then can you just say send it back if you want to?
Joe Getty
I don't know.
Jack Armstrong
Then I don't want it. All right.
Joe Getty
America. Yeah. Happy?
Jack Armstrong
And finally, I find this interesting. The only AI related search on Google. Now, it's possible that if you're into AI, you are already further enough down the road. Like, I googled fewer things this year than any year probably of my life since Google's been a thing because I was using the various chat bots. I never Google anything now. Never. A lot of people probably used Google's Gemini to figure out what, you know, the Google searches are. But Deep Seek was the number one searched on AI company, which is a Chinese AI site.
Joe Getty
Right, right. That was that shocking announcement late summer, early fall, that China was indeed much farther.
Jack Armstrong
Ah, you're right. That's why, that's why people were searching on it. They were thinking, well, deep seeks better. I want to check that out.
Joe Getty
Right. Turned out they're out of curiosity or, or concern about the dirty commies.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, it turns out it was overblown. They were over, over, over exaggerating their qualities to a certain extent, as all of these AI companies seem to do, because they're trying to get funding for their own company. But there you go, there's your top searches. If you didn't search any of those, you're, I don't know, a Cool person who's not with the mainstream or something. I don't know.
Joe Getty
Coming up later in the show, who is on what social media and some of the numbers will shock you. Yeah, that's what I heard on Instagram. So stay with us for that.
Jack Armstrong
Let's. Let's start the show officially. I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty on this. It is Thursday already. Man, this week went by fast. December 4, year 2025 or Armstrong Getty. And we prove this program.
Joe Getty
Okay then. So much to get to. Let's get to it. Precisely according to FCC rules and regulations. Here we go. The show starts at Mark.
Jack Armstrong
People understand these accounts can make a big difference in the lives of young American. When a young person has an account like this, they're way more likely to graduate from college or high school, start.
Joe Getty
A family, buy a home, and be.
Jack Armstrong
A productive member of society.
Joe Getty
Michael Dell there talking about the. The Trump savings plans and his ginormous contribution to them. I think it is. You know, it's funny, it strikes me some of the. Obviously the simplest things are the truest things. And we have systematically failed to do what he is encouraging us to do. Teach our kids about the things that make America great.
And explain why they should value them and or love them. We have just let that kind of. We assumed because we were taught that and it was taught in schools that that was still happening, but it's not. So why is the free market the most incredibly brilliant artificial intelligence that's ever existed? I could explain it to you, but most kids couldn't answer that question on any level whatsoever. Why is hate speech protected speech, quote, unquote hate speech? Why is free speech? Why is liberty so wonderful, man, we have to do a better job at that.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, it's quite possible. They had a teacher explain to them how we have more inequality in this country than any other country as opposed to the wonders of the free market.
Joe Getty
Yeah. What a load of crap. Well, it's guaranteed what you just said is happening. Guaranteed.
Jack Armstrong
We got Katie's headlines on the way and a whole bunch of other news for you to catch up on. A new Pete Hegset's report came out. Timing seems suspicious to me. Is somebody just out to get Pete that we got yet another different Pete scandal going on? It's a drum beat, all of that. Stay tuned.
Joe Getty
Armstrong and Getty. This episode is brought to you by Prize Picks.
Jack Armstrong
It's the holiday season and the best.
Joe Getty
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Jack Armstrong
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Jack Armstrong
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This is where mindset comes in.
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Jack Armstrong
Shh.
Child Voice
You won't believe what my new friend just told me about dinosaurs.
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Jack Armstrong
Trying to read the latest on the various Pete Hegseth scandals. Trying to figure out if there's there there or not.
National Review has a piece out today and they're definitely a Republican leaning outfit saying the convoluted changing explanations for the second strike on that boat is there. The story has shifted quite a bit. I thought yesterday it got cleared up pretty well. My only question was why didn't they give us that information right off the bat? Well, you had a lawyer there looking at the scene advising you legally where you should be on this and the lawyer decided this was okay. Well, why didn't he tell us that right off the bat?
Joe Getty
If you have the time and energy to watch as much coverage as we do, you'll become aware that this is a great example of competing narratives like ABC News. Last night their their big lead was pressure growing on Pete Hegseth is the investigation. I was like, that's funny. I don't perceive the pressure growing. It's kind of an ongoing question that they're dealing with. But so there are a lot of different narratives and various headhunters hunting for heads as headhunters will. Let's figure out who's reporting what. It's the lead story with Katie Green. Katie, quick question for you, Katie.
Jack Armstrong
What do you get when you cross human DNA with dolphin DNA? Oh, you get your ass banned from marine world, I'll tell you that.
Joe Getty
Oh, a troubling.
Katie Green
A troubling is a good one.
Joe Getty
Holy human animal hybrid.
Katie Green
Yes, Katie, speaking of Pete Hegseth, he's at the top of the headlines today for another reason. From the Washington Post, Republicans begin to tighten the screws on Hegseth's Pentagon From Ms. Now watchdog Hegseth's signal use put troops at risk. And NBC Pentagon's signal gate review finds Pete Hegseth violated military regulations.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. So the inspector general's supposedly nonpartisan report came out on the whole signal gate thing. You remember that? And Hegseth says it cleared him. You know, mainstream Media is saying it's damning.
Hegseth says they're partisan.
I don't know. Why did it come out exactly the same time that he's in this mess? Is that just a coincidence, or is there somebody trying to build a narrative? He's got to go.
Joe Getty
Don't know. New York Times and a reporter suing the Pentagon and Pete Hegseth over their new press credentials rule, too. So spicy times there at the Pentagon.
Katie Green
Abc. Putin vows to take Ukraine's eastern region as top US And Ukrainian. Top US And Ukrainian prepare to meet.
Joe Getty
Yeah. His only desire is for victory. How long does it take you to catch on to that? Although you know they're trying to go with a working. You're going to profit so much from laying down your arms. And we'll gut Ukraine. You'll own it. It will be a vassal state. Let's save some lives. Different people can have different opinions on that.
Katie Green
From the Wall Street Journal. Wall street wants in on the Trump accounts for babies.
Joe Getty
Same.
Katie Green
Banks, brokers, and money managers are eager to find a role in the program.
Jack Armstrong
So, as a Dell family, are they big Trump fans?
Joe Getty
I don't know that. I've never. Never heard of their politics.
Jack Armstrong
Honestly, I would just think that if I'm a philanthropist, calling it Trump accounts or whatever is just, you know, poking a certain segment of society, wanting to make them angry.
Katie Green
From Breitbart.com Subaru drivers say ads are taking over their cars screens, even at highway speeds.
Jack Armstrong
Oh, boy.
Joe Getty
My car is feeding me ads. Mm. Yeah.
They're gonna be watching the tv. I'm listening to a podcast. Whatever. That's fine. That's the bargain. I'll cock my ear to the ad, see if it's something I'm interested in. My car starts pitching me. No, no.
Jack Armstrong
Those ladies are gonna be late for their softball game. That happens.
Hello.
Joe Getty
From.
Katie Green
Study finds patients decide in 20 minutes if they'll ever return to a doctor.
Joe Getty
Sure. Yeah.
Katie Green
I think it's less than that.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, I agree.
Joe Getty
I'm surprised it's that long.
Jack Armstrong
Right.
Katie Green
And finally, from the Babylon Bee, Tim Walls offers journalists free tampons to stop talking about the fraud scandal.
Jack Armstrong
I forgot. He's tampon.
Joe Getty
Tim Tampon. What a loser.
Jack Armstrong
Oh, you gonna pay off. Why? Ilhan Omar is our general manager today.
Joe Getty
Yes. She ought to be deported now. Can you do that? She's a kind of person. I don't like racism.
Jack Armstrong
And Getty.
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Someone will be eliminated. Pressure is coming down.
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Child Voice
Then the space hamster flew his hot air balloon all the way to the bottom of the ocean.
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Where did that story come from? Book Dream? Nope. It came from a conversation. Meet Mikomini, the AI companion that co creates personalized story adventures with your child in real time.
Child Voice
What color was the hamster's cape and what did he pack for lunch?
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Donald Trump
Billions of dollars out of our country. They've taken billions and billions of dollars. They have a Republican Representative, Ilhan Omar, who they say married her brother. That's a fraud. She tries to deny it now, but you can't really deny it because, you know, it just happened. She shouldn't be allowed to be a congresswoman and I'm sure people are looking at that and she should be thrown the hell out of our country.
Joe Getty
I would say the president's obsession with.
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Me and the Somali community is really unhealthy.
Joe Getty
It's creepy.
Commercial Narrator 4
And I hope that he gets the.
Joe Getty
Help that he needs.
Jack Armstrong
I was watching ABC's.
National network coverage of this yesterday afternoon. The story that you brought us about the billion dollars of taxpayer money that got ripped off by the Somali community in particular.
Joe Getty
Right.
Jack Armstrong
And they mostly went with the angle of Trump and Republicans using this as an opportunity to attack Somalis as opposed to a billion dollars got stolen from taxpayers. That seems like a pretty big story, right?
Joe Getty
In one state, really? In one city.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
Joe Getty
By one particular close knit, non assimilating ethnic group. All right, well that's, yeah, that's just a great example of their incredible dishonesty. So yes, Trump is certainly interested in, in Ilhan Omar and the Somalis of Minnesota. And in fact, they're mounting an operation that's already being called racist and xenophobic or whatever else to remove people who have final deportation orders.
You're just doing what the law says you're supposed to do in the Somali areas of Minneapolis. But yeah, he was. Trump was on fire yesterday, mentioned that Omar married her brother to defraud our immigration laws to get into the country in the first place. That is pretty well accepted, though she denies it. Here he is. Clip 36 Michael.
Donald Trump
They have destroyed Minnesota. Okay, Minnesota, you have an incompetent governor. You have a crooked governor. He's crooked as hell, but he's incompetent.
Waltz is. He should be ashamed. That beautiful land, that beautiful state, it's a hellhole right now. And the Somalians should be out of here. They've destroyed our country and all they do is complain, complain, complain. You have her, she's always talking about the Constitution. Provides me with.
Go back to your own country and figure out your Constitution.
Joe Getty
All right, so Trump, unfiltered in his criticisms of Ms. Omar. Some others are being a bit more scholarly about their their thoughts.
Jack Armstrong
Go ahead. I gotta believe that there are a lot of people who live in Minnesota, not in Minneapolis, St. Paul, who are thinking, it doesn't feel like a hellhole to me. I'm pretty happy here.
Joe Getty
Oh, sure, yeah, right. But anyway, for instance, Barton Swaim in the Wall Street Journal has written a great, great piece. And he covers a couple of different angles, including, oh, and we will get to what did Ilhan Omar know and when did she know it. But he starts with how this is the perfect parable of modern liberalism's failure. It's hard to top the story of Somalis, immigrants and US Citizens alike bilking Minnesota's social welfare system. And then he refers to the New York Times that treated the story with a competent and mostly unflinching article. I finally read the whole thing. It's really, really good in the way that when the New York Times decides, yes, we will deign to report on this story with our might, they do a really good and thorough job. And it is an indictment of Tim Walsh and the Somali community and Minneapolis, Minnesota in general and the federal government just spewing cash during Coke.
Jack Armstrong
Well, that's what I thought when I was watching the news last night. The fact that they made it all about Trump using this as an opportunity to attack Somalis as opposed to a really interesting New York Times story that makes it pretty clear that a particular ethnic group, with the help of some politicians, ripped off a billion dollars from one town. That's a good, that's a compelling story.
Joe Getty
Yeah. And, and I hate to jump to the punchline too early, the fact that it was just stated by several people involved in the article, or, I'm sorry, in the scandal, that, look, you're not going to ask any questions as a politician or you're going to lose the Somali vote. You hear me? All right, so back off. And people backed off to keep the mobbed up Somali vote anyway. Barton Sway mentions the incredible amount of time it took for the Minnesota story to make its way into national headlines. How that's part of the problem. Federal prosecutors have already convicted almost 60 of the fraudsters, which tells you how long this has been going on. That's not a fast process. Few local media outlets have covered the story since the first indictment. You've got Powerline. The Powerline blog has been covering it now for a couple of years. And he mentions a couple others. But then he makes a great point. The Somali fraud stories in some respects akin to the so called grooming scandal in Britain in which gangs of mostly Pakistani men and Pakistani men sexually abused young girls. Even as the country's government and news media look the other way. Terrified by accusations of racism or Islamophobia in the Twin Cities, state authorities couldn't rouse themselves to stop the theft. Hundreds of millions of dollars siphoned from Medicaid housing and other welfare Programs, they really, they targeted every program they could see. It's to the great credit of the US under administration of both parties that it didn't allow the perpetrator's race, religion or country of origin to hinder the prosecution. But then he points out both scandals in the UK and Minnesota. Brace yourselves, folks, you weren't supposed to say this. Raise a question most of us would rather not consider, that of large scale immigration from predominantly Muslim countries.
And he mentions, yes, true, that other ethnic groups brought some criminality with them from the home country and that there are plenty of fine Somali folks in Minnesota.
But as he points out from the Giant story I think it was in the New York Times, bad actors. This is a quote. Bad actors within the community would approach potential co conspirators without any fear of betrayal. Even the people who said no to phenomenal offers of tens of thousands of dollars in free taxpayer money did not inform the authorities that a major community wide fraud against the public was in progress. Potential criminal oddities went almost totally unreported to anyone in government. And then he goes into the fact that.
Risking the Somali vote was too much. And so people just literally said, this is crazy, there's something going on here, but I'm not even going to look at it. And then this is where it gets really important and uncomfortable. He goes into some observations recently made by the historian, British historian Tom Holland, whose recent book contends that Christianity has left an imprint on the west so deep as to be uneradicable and imperceptible. Even atheists think in Christian terms without knowing it.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, that's a good book. I've been into that book.
Joe Getty
Yeah, I've got to read that.
And only a Christian nation would invent a social welfare system as lavish and easily exploitable as Minnesota's. And then he points out, and this is so interesting, and I'm going to listen to this whole podcast, but essentially what Christianity has that Islam does not is the concept of the secular. You know, render unto God what is God, and unto Caesar what is Caesar's. There's the spiritual religious part and then there's secular part. And Christianity recognizes the need for those things to be secret or separate so they don't pervert each other. Islam recognizes no such division.
Jack Armstrong
The book he's referring to is called Dominion. It's been around for a while and made a lot of noise. And it's really interesting, the subtitle being how the Christian Revolution Remade the World Culturally in Addition to spiritually.
Joe Getty
You know, there's Part of me that would just like to read the entire New York Times piece. It would take a long time but.
In a way you almost have to get down into the details to understand the true horror of it and how well known it was in these circles. Everybody knew it was happening.
Jack Armstrong
That's what I was saying yesterday. How many thousands of people had to be on board with this to allow it to happen at the scale it happened.
Joe Getty
Right. And there's some repugnant details like is the dad of an autistic kid. The fact that the one of the big scams was the providers recruited children in Minneapolis Somali community, falsely certified them as qualifying for autism treatment and paid their parents kickbacks for the cooperation and made millions and millions and millions of dollars off of that. Just disgusting. Anyway, the New York Post asking the question what did Ilhan Omar know about the $1 billion welfare fraud case in her community There Omar held parties at one of the key restaurants named in the fraud where they were running the fraud out of new one of its now convicted owners. One of her staffers also has been convicted both for stealing millions. Omar even introduced the bill that led to $250 million worth of the fraud. Yet she claims to have been comb completely unaware of it. Bill Glenn, a policy fellow with the Minnesota based Center for of the American Experiment said to the Post quote, Omar knew who these people were. People she personally knew were making tens of millions of dollars in this program. She'd been inside the one restaurant facility on numerous occasions and couldn't put two and two together. Either she's terminally naive or new and didn't care.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, it's pretty hard to imagine that she didn't know. It's also pretty hard to imagine that she's going to get nailed on this because people rarely do.
Joe Getty
Plaza she is smart in calculating plausible denial. That's what it's all about.
Jack Armstrong
Here's a good gift. Mine showed up yesterday. My box from Omaha Steaks. It was at the doorstep when I got here. Very excited about that. Probably be grilling up some burgers tonight or steaks. I don't know. I'll have to ask kids what they're into. We got the sizzle all the way sale. It's a Christmas thing going on right now for a mom steaks where you can get get 50 off site wide at Omaha steaks.com plus our listeners get an extra 35 off with the promo code Armstrong at checkout and everything you.
Joe Getty
Get is of such high quality. We don't joke about steaks around Here. And Omaha Steaks are so good. I'm not even like a filet guy, generally speaking. I love their fillets. Oh, you know, I ought to throw a couple on the grill tonight. Same big on gourmet gifts. It's perfect for your dad, perfect for your granddad or just whoever in your family loves great food. Stay big on gourmet gifts and more holiday favorites with omaha steaks. Visit omaha steaks.com for 50% off site wide right now during their Sizzle all the way sale. And an extra 35 bucks off just because he used the promo code. Armstrong at checkout. You need the code at checkout. Terms Ply. See site for details. That's Omaha Steaks.com and the code is Armstrong.
Jack Armstrong
So there's some hearings today around the whole second shot at that boat story with Pete Hegseth. One word I want to get into a little bit, maybe an hour to clinging people. Really? I used the word clinging, and I'm not sure clinging was happening. Every time somebody said clinging, I thought, do we know that they were clinging? Clinging sounds very weak and vulnerable. A couple of people clinging to a boat. Everybody uses clinging. Well, the actual description that came out yesterday is they were crawling across the boat, trying to get the drugs together, waiting for another boat to show up, blah, blah, blah. So that might be the testimony today. So anyway, I want to talk about the word clinging later, among other things.
Joe Getty
One final note on the Ilhan Omar thing is one of her top aides was involved when the Minnesota Department of Education actually finally flagged the feeding our future people for irregularities and serious deficiencies. This guy came out and blasted the state government. He praised the vital work of feeding our families, blasted state agencies for asking too many questions, hinted that it was clearly racism, bigotry, Islamophobia.
Jack Armstrong
I was listening to a podcast yesterday with a Washington Post reporter who made the point that people don't care about this stuff near as much as they should or you would think I want to talk about that. Also, I think it's think she's right. I think she's absolutely right.
Joe Getty
Are they too busy being amused or cynical?
Jack Armstrong
That's a good question. That's a good question right there. We'll have to get into that. We got lots of good stuff today. I hope you can stick around. Mailbag.
Joe Getty
Next, Armstrong and Getty.
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Jack Armstrong
Sickly Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty Armstrong and Getty. I am sickly. My immune system is weak and pathetic. I'm gonna keep yelling at it and see If I can get it to care more.
Joe Getty
First time I ever encountered the word sickly, it was reading, I believe, a biography of Edgar Allan Poe and it mentioned that his wife was sickly. I'm like, that sounds bad.
Jack Armstrong
I'm like the grandpa from the original.
Was the chocolate Factory movie. I'm like Willy Wonka. Yeah, I'm like the grandpa from Willy Wonka. Just in bed, sickly, waiting for other people to bring me soup.
Joe Getty
Here's your freedom loving quotes of the day from James A. Garfield.
Assassinated president of the United States. Too bad too. A really decent and good man from Ohio. If the power to do hard work is not a skill, it's the best possible substitute for it.
And then in a similar vein, he said, I mean, I mean to make myself a man. And if I succeed in that, I shall succeed in everything else. Wow. Which reminds me, I became aware of a fella who's, I think his gig these days is speaking about the masculinity crisis in American boys and how they've been cheated and mistreated and what to do about it. Absolutely wonderful stuff. I'm gonna learn myself up on that and join the crusade. But you know the Jordan Peterson type of thinking that masculinity is not toxic. Sure, there are toxic manifestations of masculinity, just as there are femininity, but the idea that masculinity itself is toxic is one of the sickest, most, well, toxic things that's ever been foisted on a population. Mailbag.
Drop us a note, would you? Mailbagarmstrongandgetty.com is the email address. Mary writes, Jack, Joe, it's that time of the year again. My daughter and son in law coming into town tomorrow from Denver. Thought I'd surprise them with a little homemade eggnog. And she sends me a picture of all the supplies, knowing that I am perhaps the world's greatest fan of the nog.
Jack Armstrong
Have you got.
Joe Getty
And I have been nogging starting this week.
Jack Armstrong
Oh, you have? Yeah. When did it. When's eggnog season officially start?
Joe Getty
Oh, I generally wait till December 1st.
Jack Armstrong
Gotcha.
Joe Getty
Yeah. Yep. Too fat and too drunk is the problem with eggnog. You get both of those things. Moving along, several people weighing in on the question of driverless cars, which we talked about yesterday and how soon they'll be around. Jeff from North Carolina writes, guys, revenue from car insurance payments would plummet if self driving cars became mandatory. I don't agree that insurance, insurance companies want this.
Jack Armstrong
I hope you're right.
Joe Getty
Insurance might not be Mandatory if the chance of accidents are next to nothing.
Jack Armstrong
I hope you're right. I hate the fact that I think driving is going to go away, but I think it is.
Joe Getty
Conversely, in a world where driverless cars are the majority and drivers are not banned from driving, insurance companies would welcome drivers for the extra revenue. Probably be cheaper too since the risk would be lower. Okay, interesting. Thanks, Jeff. And how about this? Dan, auto shop owner in beautiful Sacramento, California. Hello, Silly Jack and Gullible Joe. You two had me yelling at my phone yesterday. You proved that common sense isn't that common. Under 10 years.
Jack Armstrong
Where?
Joe Getty
Wasn't that what you or we said that. Yeah, we think how long it'll be.
Jack Armstrong
Before majority the government doesn't let you drive anymore out of safety ism and lawyers.
Joe Getty
Okay. He says you proved oh under 10 years. Really? 10 years from now, maybe 5% of the cars on the road will be fully self driving. It will be 30 years before 50% of the cars on the road are self driving. Has the government banned cars without airbags? Have they banned motorcycles? Have they banned cars with drum brakes? I love you guys, but you need to pull your heads out of your asses on this one. Dan. If A, I was going to live that long and B cared, I would bet you today. Yeah, some of you mentioned that it's going to be far fewer than 30 years before 50% of cars on the road are self driving. Perhaps the only head in an ass is yours, Sir.
Jack Armstrong
I think 10 is on the outside edge actually.
Joe Getty
Yeah, but we'll see, we'll see, my friend.
Jack Armstrong
The point about you can still drive a car with drum brakes and without airbags and stuff, that's a, that's a decent point.
Joe Getty
But yeah, oh yeah, I appreciate the thoughts, Jeff.
Jack Armstrong
The, the idea that, I'm sorry, insurance companies would lose money.
Joe Getty
That's a powerful point. Right? Sideshow Bob writes on the Pete Hegseth controversy. I'm now convinced that Hegseth needs to go for one important reason. He refuses to accept responsibility, instead trying to throw someone else under the bus. Same thing he did with the signal chat. That isn't a leader. That's a should start wearing a skirt to work. Oh, that's some strong stuff.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, it does have a whiff of throwing someone under the bus.
Joe Getty
Little bit. 20 year school Marmion, great correspondent, is a transplant to Minnesota and wants to talk about the scandal.
Jack Armstrong
Cool.
Joe Getty
Good stuff. But I don't want to rush through it, so we'll get to that in a little bit.
Jack Armstrong
Cool. Yeah. George will with a column about Pete Hegseth Pretty, pretty rough on the Trump administration. Of course he hates Trump, but you know, emphasizing clinging once again. Well, the news that came out yesterday is these dudes were not clinging to the boat in the way it's been now portrayed. Exactly. So maybe we can get into that an hour too. Among other things. If you miss it, get the podcast Armstrong and Getty.
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Jack Armstrong
Shh.
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Guaranteed human.
This episode opens with playful banter about personal health and transitions into a wide-ranging, fast-paced discussion of trending topics in news, politics, social issues, and culture. Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty, joined by newswoman Katie Green, dig into the Ilhan Omar/Minneapolis fraud scandal, Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon controversies, Google’s top trending searches of 2025, and generational reflections on masculinity and American values. The conversation features the show’s trademark blend of sarcasm, humor, and blunt political commentary.
On Illness & Jack's Lifestyle:
On Adult Fads:
On Media & the Fraud Scandal:
On Deeper Cultural Issues:
Armstrong & Getty balance pointed political and cultural critique with irreverent humor and exasperated sarcasm. The episode’s voice ranges from mock-serious (“I lick a lot of stuff”) to deeply skeptical of political and institutional behavior. The discussion feels like “barstool news for grown-ups” with a clear center-right flavor.
This episode offers a good snapshot of the show’s format: rapid-fire headlines, deep dives into headline-grabbing stories, and stream-of-consciousness asides on culture, parenting, and the media. Whether dissecting the Google zeitgeist, slamming both parties on government fraud, or debating the future of driving, Armstrong & Getty keep the pace lively and the commentary unfiltered.
Summary compiled without endorsements, maintaining the original speakers’ tone and intent.