I Make Myself Cringe All The Time. You'll Get Used To It.

Summary

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Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: "I Make Myself Cringe All The Time. You'll Get Used To It."

Date: February 27, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this humor-filled yet incisive episode, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty—joined by headline/newswoman Katie Green—navigate the political circus swirling around the Clintons and the Epstein investigation, congressional norm erosion, generational changes in language, AI in national security, and the existential burden of modern news. They also weave in lighter observations, family anecdotes, and trademark self-deprecation, staying true to their style of mixing sharp commentary with comic relief.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Clinton–Epstein Congressional Spectacle

[00:32–09:15]

• Armstrong and Getty lament the current wave of congressional hearings where former presidents and officials are constantly called in for testimony—specifically, Bill and Hillary Clinton regarding Epstein.

• Both hosts argue this is more about political point-scoring than uncovering truth:

  • Jack Armstrong [01:15]:
    “What we're doing other than just your normal point scoring, partisan, making the other side unhappy. Thing. That is.”
  • Joe Getty [03:02]:
    “The other side is that the Democrats will not pass anything Trump proposes...because they can't, quote, unquote, give him a win. I mean, it's just so dysfunctional…”

• Mark Halperin’s reporting that Clinton insiders are worried about Bill Clinton’s capacity to handle tough questioning is highlighted, with the hosts comparing Bill’s rumored cognitive fluctuation to “early Biden territory” [03:32–04:39].

• Both are skeptical of the utility of such hearings, citing lack of substance:

  • Joe Getty [05:12]:
    “What are we even allegedly trying to learn through this grilling?”

• The show mocks media sensationalism and the repetitive political vendettas such hearings enable.

2. Media, Public Obsession & Trust

[07:22–09:15]

• Armstrong and Getty scorn mainstream and partisan media’s spin on the hearings—for example, MSNBC's claim that Hillary Clinton “owned the Republicans,” despite the lack of public information from the closed-door session.
• They discuss public fatigue and cynicism with the news, noting a growing trend of people checking out:
  • Joe Getty [07:54]:
    “[People say,] you know, I've kind of checked out of the news. Which is one of the reasons I treasure our non adherence to what the lemmings of the media are reporting on…"
  • They praise their own approach for focusing on what’s genuinely important, not just the current media frenzy.

3. Language, Dialect, & Generational Shifts

[09:32–12:50]

• Lighter banter: The trio mock younger generations for dropping 'T's in words (e.g., “Clintons” becomes “Clinnons”), referencing both American and British dialect quirks.
• They reminisce about how language trends spread, drawing a parallel between linguistic fads and internet-age viral behaviors.
• Notable Moment:
  • Armstrong and Getty challenge Katie Green to parody the “up talker with vocal fry who drops their T’s,” resulting in laughs and self-deprecation, and inspiring the show title:
    • Katie Green [12:34, 32:50]:
      (Putting on a parody accent) “We had to sit here and listen to Hillary Clinton.”
    • Jack Armstrong [33:07]:
      “I make myself cringe all the time. You'll get used to it.”

4. Headlines and Lighter News

[14:35–17:43]

• Katie Green headlines rapid-fire:
  • Clintons face questions in Epstein probe (ABC/NBC)
  • FedEx returns tariff refunds (NBC)
  • Anthropic rejects Pentagon’s lethal chatbot terms (Washington Post) → foreshadowing the coming AI discussion
  • Massive 13-lb baby born in New York (NY Post)
  • Peanut butter boosts muscle power in seniors
  • Babylon Bee jokes: Genius dad joins TikTok, his daughter cringes

5. Social Media, Parenting, and Corporate Accountability

[16:58–17:19]

• Social media usage trial: A plaintiff claims she spent 16 hours a day on Instagram as a child; Getty asks if blame lies with corporations or parents.

6. Global and National Affairs Fast-Round

[17:43–25:25]

• Brief mentions and analysis of:
  • J.D. Vance’s comments on the Iran war—Vance claims there's "no chance" of strikes on Iran leading to a prolonged U.S. war [22:02].
  • Pakistan–Afghanistan conflict, potential for escalation, and the ongoing debate over Iran.
  • Paramount-Warner Brothers merger—Hosts express confusion about the public significance, with an aside about media/ownership changes potentially affecting CBS/Bari Weiss.

7. AI, National Security, and Government Control

[25:33–30:36]

• Discussion of the Pentagon’s conversations with Anthropic (AI company) about deploying AI in nuclear retaliation scenarios.

  • Jack Armstrong [26:51]:
    “What an interesting scenario if AI for some reason was put in charge of that, but it decided no, it's not the right thing for humankind to get into a nuclear war. So we'll just not fire back. I don't want that to happen. Interesting.”

• They raise concerns about the military relying on private tech firms, the implications of a civilian veto on military AI action, and the dangers of miscommunication:

  • Joe Getty [28:36]:
    “It would be a heck of a deal if one of your...civilian partners had a veto over every use of its technology…”

8. Government Waste & AI Potential

[28:43–30:46]

• The hosts discuss J.D. Vance's proposal to root out fraud in federal entitlement programs, wishing for AI’s data-processing abilities to track waste:
  • Jack Armstrong [30:36]:
    “What if you could get AI into the federal government and its tentacles go out there trying to...justify every dollar spent...at a speed human beings couldn’t.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Joe Getty [03:26]:
  “I am cheerful in my real life. I'm not so much about the news cycle.”
• Jack Armstrong [06:07]:
  “You think Hillary was gonna say, all right, you got me. I'm running child prostitutes out of pizza places and then we eat the rent trails for dinner. And it's a worldwide cabal run by the Jews.”
• Katie Green [12:34, parodying Gen Z newscaster]:
  “We had to sit here and listen to Hillary Clinton.”
• Jack Armstrong [13:00]:
  “I got a shiver like someone was breaking into my house. Yeah, I had a fight or flight response.”
• Joe Getty [32:22] (quoting Ludwig von Mises):
  “Every step which leads from capitalism toward planning is necessarily a step nearer to absolutism and dictatorship.”
• Katie Green [33:02]:
  “I just made myself cringe.”
• Jack Armstrong [33:07]:
  “I make myself cringe all the time. You'll get used to it.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Clinton–Epstein Hearing Disillusionment: [00:32–09:15]
• Media, Fatigue, & Language Trends: [09:15–12:50]
• Generational Speech & Self-Parody: [12:24–13:11] / [32:50–33:10]
• Rapid-Fire Headlines: [14:35–17:43]
• Social Media and Parenting: [16:58–17:19]
• News Roundup (Global Conflict, Iran, Media Mergers): [17:43–25:25]
• AI, Pentagon, and War: [25:33–28:43]
• Government Waste & AI Potentials: [28:43–30:46]
• Mailbag, Dad Jokes, and Listener Feedback: [32:24–36:32]

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Tone & Style

The episode maintains the Armstrong & Getty hallmark: skeptical, irreverent, self-deprecating, blending frustration with contemporary politics and culture with humor, banter, and lived experience. “I make myself cringe all the time. You’ll get used to it” becomes both a running joke and a lens for how the hosts reflect on their own work—parodying themselves, the news, and, by extension, the very spectacle they're critiquing.

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For listeners who missed the episode, this summary encapsulates not just the topics covered, but the shrewd, playful, and acerbic tone that defines Armstrong & Getty.

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

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

[Joe Getty]

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

[Jack Armstrong]

Since Friday, Woohoo. Deep within the bowels of the Armstrong and Getty communications compound. And today we're toiling under the title

[Joe Getty]

of the show, you don't want Vance in your pants or discouraging and annoying the Hillary Clinton story. What It's. It struck me that the dragging her in to testify for hours about something she knows nothing about was just discouraging and annoying. And it occurred to me that like every chapter, her, her presidential campaigns were discouraging and annoying. Both of them. Her entire career, her presence on the American scene has been discouraging and annoying at every turn.

[Jack Armstrong]

Looking around at the televisions, lots of headlines, lawmakers to grill former President Epstein ties Bill Clinton never happened before. And as I heard, I just heard one person point out, and I'm sure this is true, this is the problem with all this norm breaking that we're doing is the other side gets to do it too. The Democrats take the House, you know they're going to subpoena Donald Trump. Now the sitting president. I remember this because we've been through this a million times. It's believed you can't do that with a sitting president, but it's never really been challenged. So nobody's positive whether you can do that with a sitting president. But anyway, he'll be, he'd be out two years after that. And I guarantee you. Yeah. Moment he's out of office, if the Democrats have the House, they're going to do the same thing to him that they did to Bill Clinton and bring him in and force him to answer questions.

[Joe Getty]

And Don Jr. And Eric. Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

All of them. Oh my God, this is so far from over. I know when I heard somebody say that, I thought, oh, of course that's what's going to happen. Oh my God, we gotta live through that. Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

I don't know if the old man will still be kicking at that point, but yeah, you're right. This is just the new thing. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

You don't think he's gonna live two and a half more years?

[Joe Getty]

He's old. He's very old.

[Jack Armstrong]

I realize that.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Anyway. Oh my God. Oh, what are we doing? What are we doing? And I know some of you because I see the text every day and I have plenty of friends that are really think there's something there in the Epstein files. But I, I Don't. If there is, I don't think we're gonna find it out from bringing Hillary Clinton in and talking to her. And I don't like Hillary Clinton and I don't like Bill Clinton, but I just don't see what we're doing other than just your normal point scoring, partisan, making the other side unhappy. Thing. That is.

[Joe Getty]

Right, right. You know. Right, exactly. The other side is that the Democrats will not pass anything Trump proposes, even if it's something they have been advocating fiercely for for the last five decades because they can't, quote, unquote, give him a win. I mean, it's just so dysfunctional. Sorry, this is, we're cheerful, like, yay, it's Friday, like a minute and a half ago.

[Jack Armstrong]

I am, I am cheerful in my real life. I'm not so much about the news cycle.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

I now, I do think it's interesting. I was watching one. One of my afternoon news shows is a podcast that doesn't air anywhere on any television. That's, you know, the world has changed so much. It's one of my go to shows every single day. Mark Halperin has his own TV show on YouTube, not on any channel, with lots of great guests every single day. And it's among the best news shows that exists. I don't know how many people watch. It seems to be quite a few. Anywho, he says all his sources close to Clinton's and Clinton, Bill Clinton, and he's got a lot of them are really worried about whether Bill Clinton has got the ability to handle it today. He must be in kind of early Biden territory where he has good days and bad days. Mark Halpern is actually asking one of the Democratic strategists, like, if you went in with, would you, would you go to his house today early and like, you know, hit him with a couple of questions to get a sense of how he's doing, if he's having one of his good days or bad days. And if he's having a bad day, maybe, you know, claim illness or something like that. I thought, wow, that's really interesting. If it's, if it, if it's at that point.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah,

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't, who knows with Bill? I mean, Bill, when it comes to women, Bill Clinton documentedly is capable of practically anything.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, it's a little strong, but I see it directionally. I agree with you.

[Jack Armstrong]

Depends on whether you believe. What's that one woman who constantly tweets? Juanita Broderick.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So what, what are we Even allegedly trying to learn through this grilling.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's what I was thinking the whole time yesterday. I thought, can somebody please tell me what you're trying to find out? Exactly. Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

You're trying to find out if this will work to shore up your numbers. The Republicans can act like they're serious about Epstein. The Democrats can continue acting as if they're serious, even though when they had all the branches of government, they did nothing. Didn't even ask the questions.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, this is one of the most

[Joe Getty]

ridiculous political, you know, monkey dances, Kabuki theater, whatever.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's not a monkey. Because I would watch a monkey dance. I might watch that several times, but the sound turned up really loud.

[Joe Getty]

Then I'd send the link to my kids. Right?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. But when they put out the Hillary Clinton six hour testimony, seven hour testimony from yesterday.

[Joe Getty]

Are you people who are fascinated by this.

[Jack Armstrong]

What is it about it?

[Joe Getty]

Ain't nobody got time for that.

[Jack Armstrong]

I can tell.

[Joe Getty]

You think Hillary was gonna say, all right, you got me. I'm running child prostitutes out of pizza places and then we eat the rent trails for dinner. And it's a worldwide cabal run by the Jews.

[Jack Armstrong]

Good Lord, come on, we got a republic to run here.

[Joe Getty]

And we're dealing with the wackadoodle fantasies of like 1% of the population.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, there's. There's that version that's way out there, but then there's the version that a lot of my lessons, crazy friends seem to be into of just. Lots of powerful men have sex with underage women and get away with it and they cover up for each other. I, I don't know. I don't know that I feel like that. I believe that that was going on, like at a level of. We all know we're doing this. We're all having sex with underage women and covering up. I just. Maybe I'm naive.

[Joe Getty]

No, I think that's a moral contagion. It's happened before in, in, in England in the 1800s. It happened. I, I do think they're like partying with Russian models and having sex that. But I think the vast majority of them, if they were told, by the way, she's a 17, would run screaming from the room. It's an utterly unnecessary risk.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, there's.

[Joe Getty]

I'm not going to convince anybody, so I'll shut up.

[Jack Armstrong]

There are untoward things going on, I'm sure. So then I flip on MSNBC this morning and they're going on and on about, man, how about the way Hillary Clinton just owned the Republicans embarrassed them yesterday. I thought, what are you basing this on? You haven't seen it either. So I don't know. What are you talking about? All right, if that makes you feel good and your audience feels good about how Hillary Clinton owned them, even though it's behind closed doors and we have barely any reports about what happened,

[Joe Getty]

I don't think it's a coincidence that all of us run into people in our lives increasingly who say, you know, I've kind of checked out of the news. Which is one of the reasons I treasure our non adherence to what the lemmings of the media are reporting on or talking about. Because often it's not what people want to hear, it's not what they need to hear, it's not what's important.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, it's, it's right, but it's, it's interesting that even the mainstream media, that I guarantee you, including npr, which I just heard driving into the radio station, they, they hate the Republicans and Trump. But like I'm looking at CBS's tweet right now, Former President Bill Clinton will appear before a House oversight committee in New York as part of its investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

[Joe Getty]

Okay,

[Jack Armstrong]

where's the meat on the bone, though? There's no second paragraph. Usually in a, in a story like that, the second paragraph would get really interesting. He's being accused of, or something like that. But there's not.

[Joe Getty]

No, no. I think the, the, the power of the Epstein thing is that it is so many different things to. So as we've discussed several times and I don't. But I'm befuddled by the never ending fixation on it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, it's not over yet. Like I said earlier, Donald Trump will be subpoenaed and asked to do the same thing the Clintons are doing right now.

The Clintons. The Clintons put in Clinton's. The Clintons.

I heard that same woman doing her report on. Oh, no, I can't remember that. News channel, News Nation, News Nation this morning, same reporter doing the same thing. Bill Clinton.

Clinton's. The Clinton's.

But my oldest son does that.

[Joe Getty]

So tell him to stop. Tell him, son, if you want a roof over your head, you'll pronounce teas and words.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know more young people than me, Katie. News person, Katie Green. You know more young people than me. Do you have any idea why they start, started dropping their teas?

[Katie Green]

I, I think this happened after me. I don't know why, but I agree with Joe. Tell him to stop.

[Jack Armstrong]

You need to Start pronouncing your T's.

[Katie Green]

Yes.

[Jack Armstrong]

Or you will be sleeping in the yard.

[Joe Getty]

I remember the first time I ever heard it. It was in a cage. The Elephant Song. A Barack band I enjoy a great deal. Still wait in for the explanation was the line. And I'm like, why does he say waitin'? Is that a Southern California thing? Because they're an LA band.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, there's a particular British accent, the Cockney accent, where they drop their T's like that.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Katie Green]

Not. We're not there.

[Jack Armstrong]

We don't live there.

[Katie Green]

Nope.

[Jack Armstrong]

But I would have always thought that.

[Joe Getty]

Pronounce your teeth.

[Jack Armstrong]

Is it even. Is it even. Calling it a dialect. It's like a version of a dialect or. I don't even want to know what to call it.

[Joe Getty]

Linguists might call it an affectation.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay.

[Joe Getty]

The dropping of the R's in the Northeast, that. That was not. That was just something they started doing.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

Well, right. Among the rich class back in the day.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. But we all assumed. I think I always assumed, like, the Cockney dropping the tea or the, you know, I saw her yesterday from the North. That's like, you know, hundreds of years old and that sort of thing. And basic. But no, now that we've lived through a couple of these up talking and dropping the teas, some cool influencer just comes along and does it like a Kardashian or something, and everybody else just starts doing it. It's not quite as. As I always thought it would be.

[Joe Getty]

Well, it's instantaneous now through the Internet.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. But I suppose the same version happened in the Northeast. And I don't know what year, but some wealthy hottie stopped saying, yeah, I saw that yesterday. And they caught on the fact. Oh, the wealthy hottie socialite says Rs at the end of some words. Let's all start doing that.

[Joe Getty]

And drops them at the end of others.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

Baka ka. Right. So I'm probably gonna have to live through, like, 50 more of before I'm dead.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, probably.

[Joe Getty]

I'm not sure I can take it. Probably.

[Jack Armstrong]

And, you know, with the modern age where everything happens so much faster. Yes. Okay.

[Joe Getty]

But, Katie, you'd probably do this better than me. An up talker with vocal fry who drops. Drops their teas talking about the Clintons.

[Katie Green]

Yesterday. We. Oh, wait, hang on, hang on.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is rough.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I know. It's. It's. I'm throwing a hell of a challenge at you.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is like landing a quad.

[Katie Green]

We had to sit here and listen to Hillary Clinton.

[Joe Getty]

That's pretty Good.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, you're killing me.

[Katie Green]

And you for making me do that.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, that was so good.

[Jack Armstrong]

That was good.

[Katie Green]

Thank you.

[Joe Getty]

Horrible.

[Jack Armstrong]

We gotta start the show officially before we run out of time.

[Joe Getty]

We've got a good one for you here.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Jo Getty on this. It is Friday, February 27, year 2026, where Armstrong and Giddy and we approve of this program.

[Joe Getty]

I got a shiver like someone was breaking into my house. Yeah, I had a fight or flight response.

[Katie Green]

I came here and I did it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

All right, let's begin the show officially now, according to FCC rules rags at

[News Reporter]

mark call it a Whopper of an announcement from Burger King. The fast food giant is making its first major changes in a decade to the iconic burger company says the Whopper will have a softer bun and creamier mayonnaise and will also be served in a cardboard box instead of being wrapped in paper. Burger King is making the changes. After years of customer complaints. Revamped burger will roll out this week in more than 7,000 locations across the

[Jack Armstrong]

U.S. there you go. That's the news of the day. I myself has softer buns.

[Joe Getty]

So that was weirdly sexual.

[Katie Green]

I do not like the phrase creamier mayonnaise for some reason.

[Joe Getty]

Well, they're followed immediately after the softer bun reference.

[Jack Armstrong]

We'll have to revisit that later. Now you're gonna do the paper box like McDonald's. You're giving into your competition. Anyway, we got Katie' headlines coming up in a little bit. Stay here.

Armstrong and Getty.

Akg Katie Green, I just sent you your KG on my text. Katie Green, I just sent you another headline to throw in.

[Katie Green]

Funny. You're J A in my phone, jackass.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, a lot. A lot of people.

[Katie Green]

A lot of people didn't say that. All right, there are three headlines in this text message, Jack.

[Jack Armstrong]

Which one? The one in the middle about FedEx. Because I think that's really interesting.

[Joe Getty]

All right, when you two are done, we can proceed with the program. My God. All right, let's figure out who's reporting what. It's lead story with KG ak.

[Katie Green]

Right. The main headline, of course, the Clintons and Epstein. Abc. Bill Clinton faces questions from the House Oversight Committee and its Epstein probe. NBC Hillary told lawmakers during closed door testimony that quote, she never met Jeffrey Epstein and Mississippi. Now Clinton says Epstein committee asked about UFOs and pizzagate.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't like this Norm going away because you would. You go back a few years, you would have had the Democrats bringing George W. Bush in to to explain Iraq and beating him up with all kinds of questions and accomplishing nothing but scoring political points. Just like to try, and we are trying, the country's trying to do now with other presidents. I don't like it. Maybe, I don't know, maybe it's a good idea. Maybe they have to come back in and then and speak to their, you know, bring in Barack Obama to explain. I don't know what, running guns across the border or Obamacare. Who knows what.

[Joe Getty]

You could make a transparency argument, but I kind of agree with the first

[Katie Green]

thing you said from NBC. FedEx says that it will return any tariff refund it might get to shippers and customers who paid them.

[Joe Getty]

How about that? One of 1500 companies that's already sued

[Jack Armstrong]

FedEx is going to start giving money. How much? To who? What a complicated mess.

[Katie Green]

From the Washington Post. Anthropic rejects Pentagon terms for lethal use of its chatbot. Claude,

[Jack Armstrong]

we're going to talk about that later.

[Katie Green]

From the New York Post. Stunned upstate New York mom gives birth to massive record breaking baby Quote. We didn't expect this.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, because it's got three heads. You gotta give us a hint.

[Katie Green]

It was a 13 pounder.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, I was picturing multiple heads, but it was just the weight.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, now that thing was a bass. You'd mount it on your wall. I mean, come on. Thirteen pounds? Holy cow. Good Lord.

[Katie Green]

Study finds three tablespoons daily how peanut butter improved muscle power in older adults.

[Joe Getty]

I'll be darned.

[Jack Armstrong]

I do that. I. I have that much peanut butter every day. So I'm in good shape then.

[Katie Green]

And finally, I think the Babylon Bee is onto something here. Genius dad joins TikTok, causing teenage daughter to think it's lame.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, that's funny.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, there was some interesting testimony yesterday in the social media trial. So the plaintiff woman said she was spending 16 hours a day as a kid on Instagram. Is that a problem with a big corporation or the parents? That's what we got to figure out. 16 hours a day.

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

How do you let your kid do that? Anyway, we got a lot more on the way. Stay here.

Armstrong and Getty.

There are bunch more headlines we need to get to. Something J.D. vance just said about the Iran war. U.S. mortgage rates fall below 6% for the first time since pandemic era and a bunch of other stuff. So stay tuned.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, excellent. First, before we get into that and much more, I mean, holy cow, what a news day it is. Let's take a fond look back at the week that was what a week? It's Cow clips of the week.

[Guest or Clip Speaker]

The Supreme Court's ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing. They're very unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution. I think it's an embarrassment to their families. You want to know the truth? The two of them, two aircraft carrier

[Joe Getty]

strike groups, more than 100 cargo planes. And we're hopeful that we're able to come to a good resolution without the military. It turned very quickly. All we heard was gunshots.

[Jack Armstrong]

Several cartel members were killed, including El Mencho, the head of the new generation Jalisco cartel.

A deadly gun battle off the coast of Cuba. Four people killed aboard a Florida registered speedboat.

[Joe Getty]

But if we will give him all he wants, we will lose everything. Our houses, our lives.

[Jack Armstrong]

We need her to come home. For that reason, we are offering a family reward of up to $1 million.

In New York City, meanwhile, the police

[News Reporter]

are investigating an incident you may have seen online. In Washington Square, officers were pelted by snowballs.

[Jack Armstrong]

Spokesperson for the Clintons, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary Hillary Clinton. She says the Clintons. The Clintons, Clinton.

[Joe Getty]

I'm afraid the issue is not my

[Jack Armstrong]

understanding, but rather the problem is perhaps you've gotten adjusted. I'm in love with my AI boyfriend. And then some time passes and they pop back up again. And here's the catch. They act like nothing happened.

Block across it comes. Jack Hughes wins it. The golden goal for the United States. I love the usa. I love my teammates. I'm so proud to be American today.

[Joe Getty]

I'm like you. I'm no better than you.

[News Reporter]

I'm a 960sat guy.

[Jack Armstrong]

And that's why I titled my book I'm like you because I'm like you. I didn't write it because I don't know how to read or write because I'm dumb.

[News Reporter]

As.

[Guest or Clip Speaker]

If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support. The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens. Just nobody stands up. These people are crazy. I'm telling you, they're crazy.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's clips of the week.

[Joe Getty]

Everything's theater all the time.

[Jack Armstrong]

So Pakistan is at war with Afghanistan.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, so they say.

[Jack Armstrong]

An actual war. Like we're. We're at war right now. Pakistan and Afghanistan. It doesn't seem like it could be a fair fight. Pakistan is a very big country and a nuclear power. Afghanistan is the Taliban.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. Pickup trucks and AK47s and all of the gear Biden left behind. So they have some pretty good gear, right? I let. Go ahead, kill each other. Kill the hell out of each other.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, no kidding. That's a good point.

[Joe Getty]

Or don't.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't.

[Joe Getty]

I don't know.

[Jack Armstrong]

Knock yourselves out.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Long battles with many dead among your military, not your civilians.

[Joe Getty]

Much more concerned with our coming conflict with Iran. Some of the backlash to that idea has begun. Saying that the administration is exaggerating how far along Iran is in both its nuclear enrichment, its readiness to build a bomb and its missile program. I don't know.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, we've had past administrations go the other direction, exaggerating how contained they had it. And I certainly wouldn't want to wake up one day and Iran announces, hey, we did it. We got a nuclear weapon. Because, man, would that change the balance of things now.

[Joe Getty]

Better to nip it in the bud, says I.

[Jack Armstrong]

Vice President J.D. vance just told the Washington Post and in an exclusive interview view that there is, quote, no chance that such strikes would result in the United States becoming involved in a years long drown out drawn out war. I think that's probably true. Giving Trump's inclinations. Although you could get pulled into it in a way that, you know, step by step. It's hard to not. I hope that doesn't happen.

[Joe Getty]

I wish there was some consensus. I'm reminded of what I've been told about back surgery. Not that I needed, but a doctor once told me about a third of people get better, third of people are the same, and a third of people get worse. Yeah, I don't know if that's still the case, but this sort of strike without a long term what's next plan feels a little like back surgery to me. On the other hand, not to torture the metaphor, but I doing nothing, I think is not a good. Yeah. Medical plan at this point.

[Jack Armstrong]

We can't, as we've discussed, I think in this particular case, the what's next is almost guaranteed to be less dangerous to the United States than the current. Yeah. Even if it goes to hell because it's hell now.

[Joe Getty]

Why?

[Jack Armstrong]

Can you explain to me why so many? What? Why so many. So why so many headlines over the last couple of weeks about this story? And then the final headline today, is there a reason I should care about this at all? Paramount finally closes blockbuster deal for Warner Brothers. So much news coverage on this and does this matter to any regular person? Am I missing something?

[Joe Getty]

I was just going to ask you. I was scrolling through the Dispatch, which generally has five big stories and here's the stuff you really need. You're a serious consumer of the news. You're looking at this in the morning. Here's the five. Number two is Paramount wins Warner Brothers fight.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. And I remember when the, the Paramount deal is falling apart.

[Joe Getty]

Okay.

[Jack Armstrong]

I can't even imag imagine why give a crap who owns the streaming company and when, what umbrella it's under. I don't know. So maybe I'm missing something there.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, there might be some significance to the historic Warner Brothers movie. Blah, blah, blah. Pipe down, baby. Anyways,

[Jack Armstrong]

we just heard a random voice in our ears. I don't know where that came from.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I think it was. It's fine. Okay. Ah, anyway, anyway, no, I don't, I don't have the bandwidth, as they say, which is annoying. Speaking of which, coming up, perfect Friday topic. What business jargon do people find the most annoying these days?

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay. I'm in so few meetings, thank God, that I wouldn't know. Yes, Katie?

[Katie Green]

Oh, it's just on the Paramount thing, they own cbs, so that means that CBS would get new owners and that could put Barry Weiss maybe.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's kind of interesting. Yeah, because I was kind of excited about that experiment to see how it would play out.

[Joe Getty]

Paramount wins Warner Brothers fight. So that's good for Barry. And it is.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay.

[Joe Getty]

Yes.

[Jack Armstrong]

And that will keep her in place. Do we know that or.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, Paramount is run by that gal. I don't remember her name because I don't care about this story very much. Who, who believes CBS had gone way too woke.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, okay. Because there was a lot of talk that the Barry Weiss thing was just to get the deal done, to look like they were not, you know, whack job organization. But. But if she stays in place. Good. I'd like to see where that goes.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Again, this is very close to asking a non hockey fan. Why did they just blow the whistle? I could guess, but I don't know.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'll tell you one of the most interesting stories going and Joe touched on it earlier with AI's anthropic in the Pentagon, but tell you about that right after this.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, speaking of AI, I mean this is an unequivocal good story that Simplisaf with their active guard outdoor protection has AI powered cameras that are backed by live professional monitoring agents to monitor your property, detect suspicious activity. And if there is suspicious activity, they don't like ping your cell phone and make you deal with it.

[Jack Armstrong]

They deal with it.

[Joe Getty]

The live agents can talk to the would be intruder before they get into your house. They can alert the cops, they can turn on spotlights. It's really amazing and it's also amazingly affordable.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah I got the cameras and the sensors and all the stuff from Simply Safe. But this is, this is what's really impressive. No long term contracts or cancellation fees. Most of your home security systems you got to sign up for a year or two and they lock you in and get the monthly payment and you just kind of don't really use it and you don't know if it's doing you any good but you got to keep paying for it. Not with SimpliSafe monitoring plans started about a dollar a day and again no contract 60 day satisfaction guarantee.

[Joe Getty]

And right now enjoy. 50% off a new SimpliSafe system with professional [e-mail] Armstrong that's simplisafe.com Armstrong there's no safe like SimpliSafe life love this

[Jack Armstrong]

headline from the Washington Post. The hypothetical nuclear attack that escalated the Pentagon's showdown with Anthropic. Apparently there was a behind closed door meeting the other day between Anthropic and the Pentagon in which our government I guess is looking at using AI to get. So Soviet Union or China or somebody fires nukes at us out of nowhere. The. What's that called? There's a name the Blue Sky Hand. No, the blue, the Blue sky option. Just out of the clear blue sky. That's the, that's the biggest threat with nuclear Tommy bastards. And Blue sky is pretty unlikely but that's the one you got to be prepared for. Just out of the clear blue sky all of a sudden you get attacked. You didn't see it coming and having AI involved in that, maybe it could detect it faster than human beings could and we could react and all that sort of stuff. The Pentagon is claiming or leaks about this are claiming that they asked Anthropic and Dario, the guy who runs Anthropic. So would you, would your, would your AI respond with a counter attack or whatever and that the answer was kind of wishy washy like well we'd have to think that over or you'd have to give us a call. We'd have to discuss it like seeming like a little not on board with being part of violence in the military. And the Pentagon freaked out Anthropics claiming that's not at all, that's a lie. That is not the way it went down in the hearing. We've got more of the reporting from the Washington Post on that coming up. But what an interesting scenario if AI for some reason was put in charge of that but it decided no, it's not the right thing for humankind to get into a nuclear war. So we'll just not fire back. I don't want that to happen. Interesting.

[Joe Getty]

I was thinking more in terms of the obvious. It misreads something and launches our own blue sky attack.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, the hope would be that it would be better at reading it than human beings have been, because sometimes in the past, if you're a fan of near nuclear holocaust, you know that this has happened in Russia and the United States where we misread various things and thank God nobody responded.

[Joe Getty]

It's also, it would be a heck of a deal if one of your major, major, major civilian partners had a veto over every use of its technology. It's like Northrop, you know, Northrop Grumman, Is that it? You know, or whatever a giant defense supplier could say, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't be using our F18s to attack Iran. That's not. There hasn't been enough provocation. You haven't gotten, given diplomacy enough of a chance to work. So that's obviously completely untenable. The other thing I want to mention briefly, and we can pay it off next hour, is one of the proposed titles of the show today was you don't want Vance in your pants. And that has to do with what appears to me to be a hell of a substantive, long overdue and ass kicking policy of we're gonna root out all the fraud in the giant mess of an entitlement scheme we have. Wow. Because the more you read about this, and I, I don't often bring it to the show because it's a little esoteric and in the weeds, which is redundant. Sorry. We have programs where if a state spends a dollar on something, on something medical, the federal government will give them $6. So the states are like, holy crap, let's just make stuff up and have fake diagnoses. And anybody who, you know, has so much as a runny nose, let's claim they got this and we're just getting bilked as taxpayers and JD's heading up the commission to get to the bottom of that. I love it. I hope it's more successful than the Doge Boys. But it's in the similar spirit.

[Jack Armstrong]

What if you could get AI into the federal government and it just. Its tentacles go out there trying to. It needs to justify every dollar spent and they could do it at a speed that human beings could.

[Joe Getty]

Four word question, Jack. How soon can we.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, wouldn't that be cool? Okay, we got email on the way and lots of stuff. Stay here. Armstrong And Getty, this Washington Post exclusive story about the Pentagon and anthropic. And anthropic is the AI the Pentagon has decided to work with. With if it's true, the Pentagon. The Pentagon threatened anthropic. Either you play ball or we're going to take the technology that you have.

[Joe Getty]

O wait, what?

[Jack Armstrong]

I know more on this an hour too.

[Joe Getty]

Pete Hegseth out of control apparently. Shocking. Here's your freedom hating quote of the day. From communists or about communists? One silly and one great. This is from Gideon Defoe who's an author. I don't know anything about his book but this is just funny. Here's your first problem. He said pointing at a sentence religion is the opium of the people. Well I don't know about people, but I think you'll find that the opium of pirates is actual opium. It's a book about pirates, I guess. I don't know, I just thought it was funny. And much more significant significantly from the brilliant, the invaluable, the wonderful Ludwig von Mises in his book Omnipotent Government and I quote this. I'm gonna get this tattoo on my. I haven't decided which body part face show some real commitment. How about we go with neck? Can we compromise and do a neck tat? Every step which leads from capitalism toward planning is necessarily a step nearer to absolutism and dictatorship.

[Jack Armstrong]

We take steps like that all the time.

[Joe Getty]

Including the Trump administration. Certainly. And I don't like it. Mailbags, drop us a note. Mailbagarmstrongygetti.com perhaps your brilliant missive will be read on the air. For instance, this one Sarah writes. Guys, can more of the show please be Katie speaking in vocal fry Upspeak dropping teas. Etc. We need much more of that.

[Katie Green]

Yesterday we. Oh wait, hang on, hang on.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is rough.

[Katie Green]

We had to sit here and listen to Hillary Clinton.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, devastating.

[Katie Green]

I just made myself cringe.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

Wow. Moving on.

[Jack Armstrong]

I make myself cringe all the time. You'll get used to it.

[Joe Getty]

Practically my life story. Curtis here in Santa Rosa, California. Here's one of our local Safeways. Same one that only has one exit now. So you know what's escape is more controlled. Looks like the Reverend Al Sharpton Reverend in Quotes was finally right about something. They are locking up the toothpaste in Santa Rosa, California. KBYto keep buying your toothpaste online. Yeah, virtually all products are locked up in vast swaths of California and it's spreading across America.

[Jack Armstrong]

Insane.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. In red states and places. I never dreamed it would happen. They're locking up my toothpaste.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I know. Somebody mentioned that to me about one of the red towns around here the other day. They said the first time they ever went to their CVS in one of these red towns around here and things were locked up.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Crazy that we put up with that.

[Joe Getty]

Lawlessness spreads and once it's here, it's a war to get lawfulness back. Sleepless and Danville writes on the topic of fortune cookies, which came up at some point. One of my father's favorite jokes. We'd go out to a meal, a succulent Chinese meal, and he would slowly open his fortune cookie, read it, raise his eyebrows and exclaim. It says, help. I'm a prisoner in a fortune cookie factory.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's pretty funny.

[Joe Getty]

A fabulous running dad joke for the family.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, I wish I'd have done that when my kids are younger. It'll still be funny, but it would have been even funnier when they were younger.

[Joe Getty]

Every single time we went out to dinner when I was a kid and he kept doing it after I was an adult, every single time my dad would get the check.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

And do it.

[News Reporter]

Oh, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, yeah. Double take. I've always done that. That's fantastic.

[Joe Getty]

You got a bar none like. Let's see.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's hilarious.

[Joe Getty]

You know, I'm gonna save this one for later because it deserves a longer answer. Punch the monkey. More like Damien the monkey, writes Brigid Schroomer in Healdsburg, California. Other than being a great band name, there's more going on than a poor little monkey in a stuffed animal. I'm with Joe when I say there's something wrong with that monkey and the other animals are clued. Perhaps someone needs to part the hair on his sweet little head and see if the number 666, the mark of the beast, are present. This all falls in line with the AI takeover in the end of days and makes perfect sense that the Antichrist monkey would show up right now. Have a good weekend. The Antichrist monkey.

[Jack Armstrong]

Sorry, I haven't read that chapter of the Bible. Maybe this weekend I'll get to it.

[Joe Getty]

A number of people brought up your sweating when you eat ketchup, Jack. I'm sure.

[Jack Armstrong]

Why wouldn't that?

[Joe Getty]

What about other tomato products?

[Jack Armstrong]

Pizza.

[Joe Getty]

Ordinary plain tomatoes. What's the sweat factor on that? Keeping wet and gross. I like the show anyway. And then we got this. And we'll end with this one, I think, from Matt. The ketchup oddity is interesting, but a small village in the north of Sweden has many folk who don't feel pain. Vitangi, a village in unpronounceable Sweden, is known for its unique resonance who exhibit congenital insensitivity to pain. The condition, also known as congenital analgesia, is a rare genetic disorder that affects the ability temperature.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow, that's interesting. Must have been some serious inbreeding back in the day, right?

[Joe Getty]

It's a terribly dangerous condition because, you know, you got your hand on a hot burner. You wouldn't know until you got no

[Jack Armstrong]

hand or you're about to freeze to death. We got a lot more coming up. An hour, too. Hope you can be here.

Armstrong and Getty. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.