It's A Dirty Dish Storage Box

Summary

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Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: It's A Dirty Dish Storage Box
Date: October 15, 2025
Hosts: Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty
Network: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty blend their signature banter with serious discussion on key current events, including the ongoing trade war with China, U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, criticisms of green regulations, the reemergence of religious trends among the youth, and ongoing domestic news. The hosts' irreverent tone is balanced by deep dives into nuanced topics, punctuated by their signature humor and skepticism.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Middle East Crisis: "Who Is 'We' and Who Is 'They'?"

[00:25 – 04:58]

• The show opens with a tongue-in-cheek debate about who the general manager for the day should be, quickly segueing into a serious discussion about President Trump's recent statement: “Hamas will disarm or we will disarm them.”

• Jack questions the definition of “we”—is it just the U.S., Israel, or a broader coalition? Joe draws attention to the ambiguity and the challenges of organizing a multi-national peacekeeping force.

• They discuss the threshold where disarmament shifts from a military challenge to a policing one, referencing post-Civil War analogy:

  "Once you get past a certain point in the spectrum, it's no longer a military problem, it's a policing problem. They're more like a violent gang." — Joe Getty [02:52]

• The hosts emphasize skepticism about the possibility of Hamas fully disarming and question the political and rhetorical clarity on what “disarmament” can actually mean.

2. The Challenge of Handling Hostages & Remains

[04:58 – 05:58]

• Discussion turns to the handling of hostages' bodies in Gaza, with skepticism about the abilities and motivations of Hamas amidst ongoing chaos.
• Jack: “It's not like they've got a careful cataloging of bodies system. One, they don't care. Two, they've been getting the bejesus bombed out of them for two years and moving from hole to hole.” [04:58]
• Egypt's offer to assist in locating remains is met with pessimism about the chances of success.

3. U.S.–China Trade War Escalates

[06:00 – 08:47], [13:53 – 16:00], [19:55 – 29:00]

• Strong focus on escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and China:
  • Trump announces a 100% tariff on Chinese goods.
  • China responds with restrictions on rare earth minerals and plays “hardball” with the U.S. over soybeans.
  • The hosts critique Western hesitancy to call China an “enemy” due to economic entanglements, referencing a British espionage case:

    “If major Western powers aren't willing to call China an enemy. The enemy, really? That's a problem.” — Jack Armstrong [08:03]

  • Joe and Jack highlight how the U.S. is strategically vulnerable due to dependence on critical Chinese exports.
  • They muse on American short-termism compared to China's authoritarian long-view strategy.

Notable Moment:

“It's especially phony because we're the cleanest, most careful oil extractors on the planet and we go ahead…and have these awful countries that don't give a damn about polluting and human rights and the rest of us dig our or drill for our oil. For us, it's one of the most ridiculous, hypocritical, limousine liberal things we do.” — Joe Getty [25:16]

• Discussion of how tariffs could greatly impact the price of consumer goods, particularly with the holiday season approaching.

4. The Modern Dishwasher (“A Dirty Dish Storage Box”)

[08:47 – 10:11]

• Jack vents about his apartment dishwasher’s ineffective performance, humorously calling it a "dirty dish storage box,” criticizing modern appliances and their eco-friendly regulations:

  “A dishwasher that washes no dishes is not a dishwasher.” — Joe Getty [09:12] “It is a box. It is a dirty dish storage box.” — Joe Getty [09:18]

• Brief mention of regulatory rollbacks and longing for “boiling hot water” and “powerful chemicals.”

5. Religion, Youth, and Social Indicators

[10:38 – 12:06]

• Discussion about a ceremony posthumously awarding Charlie Kirk the Medal of Freedom and the reported resurgence in church attendance, especially among young people.
• Jack notes the skepticism from liberal media over these trends:

  “It's funny that they would go to the trouble to deny that.” — Joe Getty [11:46]

6. Lighter News Moments

[13:42 – 18:08]

• Lead story headlines with Katie Green cover a variety of topics, including:
  • Non-alcoholic wine for pets.
  • U.S. Supreme Court parental rights case.
  • Oregon’s budget priorities (healthcare for illegals vs. police funding).
  • China–trade and spying headlines.
  • Bizarre news about a “zombie drug” causing auto-amputation.
  • Tech pranks with Waymo driverless taxis.
  • Americans’ fear of the dark.
  • Trump’s satirical retaliation for a peace prize snub.
• Jack’s running dad-joke feature:

  “What did the duck say when he bought Chapstick? Just put it on my bill.” [14:01]

7. Mailbag Section: Law, Immigration, and Listener Thoughts

[35:44 – 39:44]

• Listener emails react to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s stance on illegal immigrants and the complex intersection of law and compassion.
• Jack and Joe debate the politics vs. legalities of existing immigration law:

  "Compassion without order is chaos. Change the law." — Listener email [37:11]

• Reflection on the evolving composition of both U.S. political parties and the shifting priorities of their bases.

8. Consumer Culture & “Stuff Poisoning”

[27:00 – 31:54]

• Lively brainstorming over American consumer culture:
  • The proliferation of unused household goods/toys and the desire for a mass consignment or swap system.
  • A segment on whether selective burglars could be hired to “steal” only the clutter you want gone—a tongue-in-cheek solution.
  • References to Marie Kondo’s “does this bring you joy?” philosophy.

9. Notable Quotes & Moments

• “We got some serious pronoun problems. My pronoun is he him, but we got some serious…” — Jack Armstrong [01:41]
• “Xi Jinping's betting we can't take a long trade war with them…” — Joe Getty [20:39]
• “That could work. That's a gazillion dollar idea if you could just come up with the infrastructure.” — Jack Armstrong on toy consignment shops [28:47]

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Timestamps of Important Segments

• Middle East segment begins: 00:25–04:58
• Hostage remains & Egypt's role: 04:58–05:58
• China trade war intro: 06:05–08:47, picks up again at 19:55
• Dishwasher rant: 08:47–10:11
• Religion resurgence: 10:38–12:06
• Lead story news headlines: 13:53–18:08
• China-U.S. trade escalation in depth: 19:55–29:00
• Consumer clutter & consignment brainstorm: 27:00–31:54
• Mailbag—Immigration, law, party politics: 35:44–39:44

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Tone and Language

The episode is full of quick-witted humor, skepticism toward political platitudes, and distinctively irreverent takes on the news of the day. The hosts balance playful banter (especially on topics like dishwashers, bad jokes, and “toy swap” ideas) with lucid, sometimes hard-hitting analysis of geopolitical and policy issues.

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Summary

This episode of Armstrong & Getty is a classic mix: sharp, skeptical, and sometimes zany, but always engaging. They provide insightful, if irreverent, exploration of tension points in U.S. foreign and domestic policy, reflecting larger anxieties about the global order, American consumer life, and the effectiveness of modern conveniences. Listeners are treated to headline snippets, broader thematic conversations, and the trademark back-and-forth that characterizes their unique brand of commentary.

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Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Announcer]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln radio Studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center. Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Joe Getty]

I'm Strong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

And now here's I'm Strong and Getty live from Studio C. See, Senor, wow, it took Columbus Day off, so it's already Wednesday. We got the camel in the studio, which is disgusting, but kind of a cool little gimmick. Who else has a camel in the studio, right? Nobody. Welcome to the Armstrong and Getty Show. Today we're under the tutelage of our.

[Joe Getty]

General manager, tempted to go with Xi Jinping because of the trade tensions. You got a strong nominee.

[Jack Armstrong]

Is that some Chinese guy?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, Chinese guy. Yeah, he runs the place.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, I know. What's on my mind is who's we? The word we. Who's we? Who is we? Maybe we is our general manager. Who define we for me.

[Joe Getty]

Wow. Help me out with this.

[Jack Armstrong]

President of the United States said Hamas will disarm or we will disarm them. Who's we? Oh, who is we?

[Joe Getty]

Violently of the willing.

[Jack Armstrong]

Violently if necessary. He said, who do you think we is?

[Joe Getty]

Well, and they're not. They are 100% not going to disarm, as their recent actions have proven.

[Jack Armstrong]

Who's that?

[Joe Getty]

Roughshod through.

[Jack Armstrong]

We got some. We got some serious pronoun problems. My pronoun is he him, but we got some serious.

[Joe Getty]

Take a while if we have to break down the grammar of every sentence.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, who's they? I mean, do you mean, like every single last dead ender or do you mean like just the bulk of the organization disarm? The bulk of the organization's not going to disarm.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, the military, the part that matters. The fat rich guys in Qatar don't matter. But the fighters on the ground, they absolutely will not disarm. They are trying to consolidate power as quickly as they can and show they are still in charge. They're rounding people up, executing them. It's fights in the streets.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, do you. For you to be satisfied. And it's all about whether or not Joe Getty is satisfied with a piece of deal. Free to be satisfied. Does every dead ender have to be disarmed? Because I've just been thinking, well, you know, the bulk of them, like the. You know, any organized group of them, like, I keep using the example of the civil war. If you got random confederates out there in the woods who still want to fight on, that's not the same as, like, organized militias led by a general somewhere, right?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, it there's kind of a spectrum of, you know, how well armed are they, how well organized are they, how ambitious are they? And once you get past a certain point in the spectrum, it's no longer a military problem, it's a policing problem. They're more like a violent gang.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Joe Getty]

At that point. Yeah, you can have a functioning society.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay, so you've defined they then. Who's we?

[Joe Getty]

What sentence are we talking about? Oh, back to your who's we? The coalition of the willingness.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, does that include the United States?

[Joe Getty]

Well, see, that's the tricky part. And that's why the Trump plan, while a great breakthrough, has got a rocky road ahead. Initially, it's gotta be Israel. Well, I guys have been whooping ass already because there's no multi country commission of peace in place yet.

[Jack Armstrong]

I was just reading from the newsletter I read from every day from Mark Halpern and Wide World of News. Is there going to be a genuine peacekeeping force or not? Which you just mentioned, who will be in it, under what authority and under what terms of engagement? Hard but essential questions, I would say.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, and they best realize whoever's in that force, they're there to fight. It's not going to be like, you know, the passive, stupid, useless UN observers who Hezbollah was building armaments 100 yards from their lookout towers. No, they're going to be there to fight because Hamas again by the hundreds, thousands, I don't know, they're not going to give up their arms. They're going to fight until they're dead.

[Jack Armstrong]

I just feel like if Barack Obama or Joe Biden had said we will disarm them, the part of the Fox crowd would be up in arms, if you'll pardon the expression, over. Oh, so more soldiers in the Middle east fighting other people's wars. And you said we.

[Joe Getty]

Right, right. Well, it absolutely deserves clarification. Your point is well taken.

[Jack Armstrong]

We will disarm them, perhaps violently if necessary. Okay, well that's a heck of a thing.

[Joe Getty]

Perhaps Trump was speaking French. We as in yes, yes. Will disarm them? Probably not.

[Jack Armstrong]

They've still got 21 bodies or 22. One of the bodies that Hamas turned over turned out to not be one of the hostages. My guess would be Hamas doesn't have. It's not like they've got a careful cataloging of bodies system. One, they don't care. Two, they've been getting the bejesus bombed out of them for two years and moving from hole to hole.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

They didn't care in the first place they got all kinds of bodies of Palestinians and Israelis from this time around and anybody else they've snatched over the many decades, they got all kinds of body parts.

[Joe Getty]

Right? Yeah, I would agree.

[Jack Armstrong]

So Egypt's going to go in there. Egypt just offered to go in there and help them find bodies. What's that process going to be like 22. Those 22 what? What percentage of those 22 are ever going to be found and identified and brought back? I'd be surprised if it's half.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. If five are, I would be pleasantly surprised. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Crazy.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Anyway, so why were you. Why were you considering making Xi Jinping the general manager?

[Joe Getty]

The trade war posturing, the pre gaming is getting really intense with Trump announcing 100% tariff. Xi Jinping saying you can't have any rare earth minerals. And the threats are going back and forth hot and heavy.

[Jack Armstrong]

There is. You mentioned yesterday how weird this is to have an enemy that you're so economically tied into. Like we weren't economically tied into the Soviet Union or them us Not a bit. Yeah, not a bit. But with China, as we all know, we're very tied in to the fact that like at the time Covid hit, we got all of our drugs from there, all our rare earth minerals and all. Every piece of thing you buy at the store order on Amazon comes from China. That's not the way it was when we were at war with the Soviet Union to that point. There is an interesting story in the Financial Times today. A couple of Brits got caught spying for China. They're British dudes with British names that got caught spying for China and that got dismissed because the government was unwilling to say that they were spying on behalf of an enemy. They didn't want to call China an enemy.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Of Great Britain. And you know that that's to the point you were talking about yesterday. They don't want to call China an enemy or the enemy because of all our economic ties.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. A Labor. The labor secretary sabotaged the trial of two alleged spies by refusing to brand China an enemy. The Telegraph was reporting about a week ago. They were accused of passing information about the government's foreign policy to a high ranking member of the Chinese government. And Keir Starmer spokesman said it was extremely disappointing and gravely concerning that they wouldn't face trial. But then it turns out the government withdrew. A star witness who had been tasked with testifying that China was an enemy of the UK said no, we're not going to. We don't want to say that out loud.

[Jack Armstrong]

If major Western.

[Joe Getty]

The spy go free.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, if major western powers aren't willing to call China an enemy. The enemy, really? That's a problem. That's something, right?

[Joe Getty]

And the fact that they couldn't come up with a way to verbally tap dance around, say, well, we are friends and work with China in many different ways. But yes, by the strict definition of foreign policy, you know, section 133.8, yes, China is in this instance, an enemy, perhaps an unfortunate word. I mean, you could fall all over yourself. Bowing and scraping, but still prosecuting spies. But they are so afraid of China, they didn't.

[Jack Armstrong]

How shocking is that much different topic. My dishwasher, it's not really mine. I live in a rental, doesn't do anything. You know, and Trump's always complaining about modern showerheads and dishwashers and washing machines. Because of the green regulations, the dishwasher doesn't do anything unless you wash the dishes by hand almost completely. You haven't accomplished anything.

[Joe Getty]

A dishwasher that washes no dishes is not a dishwasher.

[Jack Armstrong]

I appear to be the dishwasher.

[Joe Getty]

Yes, it is a box. It is a dirty dish storage box.

[Jack Armstrong]

It runs for like an hour to try to save energy somehow. And that doesn't really do anything.

[Joe Getty]

I know, it's very frustrating. Got some great stuff on the whole climate change debacle and how phony it is and how the entire world, the western world anyway, is backtracking. Even China is from electric vehicles because it just doesn't make sense.

[Jack Armstrong]

But so did Trump roll back regulations on that Can Maytag now make a dishwasher like they used to make them.

[Joe Getty]

Blast the crap out of.

[Jack Armstrong]

Blast the crap out of your dishes.

[Joe Getty]

Boiling hot water, Powerful chemicals, right?

[Announcer]

How dare you.

[Joe Getty]

You open it up, your dish has been completely dissolved. You gotta, you know, gear a little bit. I don't know that. I hope so.

[Jack Armstrong]

Greta's unhappy about our dish. Go you wash your own dishes, Greta.

[Joe Getty]

But I want a dishwasher to wash the dishes.

[Jack Armstrong]

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, let's start the show officially. I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty on this. And how did it already get to be Wednesday? Hump day, October 15th, year 2025. We're Armstrong and getting. We approve of this program.

[Joe Getty]

All right, all right. Let's begin the show officially now, according to FCC rules that. Well, the good news is with the peace in the Middle east, the camel rental cost gone down a lot. So anyway, here comes the show. We start at mark today.

[Guest Speaker]

We're here to honor and remember a fearless warrior for liberty. Beloved leader who galvanized the next generation like nobody I've ever seen before entering his name forever into the eternal roster of true American heroes. He's a true American hero, an amazing person way, way beyond his years.

[Jack Armstrong]

So I was listening to Fox as Charlie Kirk was given posthumously the American Medal of Freedom.

[Joe Getty]

Medal of Honor.

[Jack Armstrong]

Medal of Honor. I get the mix Medal of Freedom, right? Yeah, yeah. Medal of Honor is what your like your warriors get right in a battle. Medal of Freedom. And it was a nice ceremony and everything like that. And I was listening to Fox and I've seen a variety of stats that church attendance is up quite a bit, particularly among the young. Baptisms are way up, people getting baptized and there's more Christian music making it on to the charts than previously. That I don't, I can't verify any of those things, but I've seen various stats pointing that direction.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I've seen that denied in liberal media. But I didn't find the case they made very convincing. They were citing statistics that kind of didn't apply. It's funny that they would go to the trouble to deny that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Because the. Why does that bother you?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, what if it's not true? So what, why don't you report on actual news?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, exactly. Report on actual news, which Katie has the headlines of coming up in a little bit. And then we got more news of the day that we want to get to the ongoing crisis that is Alec Baldwin crashing his Range Rover. The video came out yesterday.

[Joe Getty]

Please.

[Jack Armstrong]

I think he's an old fat man who ran into a tree.

[Joe Getty]

He's driving too fast, looking at his phone. Drove into a tree. End of story.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, exactly. All right, we got more on the way. Stay here.

[Announcer]

Armstrong and Getty.

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[Jack Armstrong]

New Zealand wine company selling non alcoholic wine for dogs and cats for your pets.

[Joe Getty]

Took a twist there at the end.

[Jack Armstrong]

Have all the details on that coming up.

[Joe Getty]

What if your dog wants to catch a buzz, huh? All right. Let's figure out who's reporting what. It's lead story with Katie Green. Katie.

[Jack Armstrong]

All right.

[Katie Green]

Starting.

[Jack Armstrong]

Katie, I do have this question for you. Okay. What did the duck say when he bought Chapstick? Just put it on my bill.

[Katie Green]

I'm loving this new feature.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, boy.

[Jack Armstrong]

All right.

[Katie Green]

It's more fun than anything I'm gonna.

[Joe Getty]

Have to say here.

[Katie Green]

NBC body that Hamas returned to Israel is not one of the hostages according to the idf.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Like I said, the, the idea that Hamas was carefully cataloging each deceased body and saving it with the name and knows exactly where it is and it's in the, you know, climate controlled vault or I mean, that's crazy, right?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. As they're being routed out of the tunnels and bombed and shot and the rest of it. I will never say anything that sounds anything like defending Hamas. But in this case, if they say, yeah, we don't know where they are, I, I think that's probably true.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Katie Green]

From CBS News, Supreme Court turns away parental rights dispute brought on by Colorado families.

[Jack Armstrong]

We got to talk about this. Coming up, maybe next segment. What's going on there? Joe will tell us because Joe almost went to law school.

[Joe Getty]

That's right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Very close.

[Katie Green]

From Breitbart.com Democrat led Oregon on track to spend $500 million more for health care program that includes illegals than for state police.

[Guest Speaker]

Nice.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. The Pacific Northwest is just crumbling. We've got a couple of stories on that. Yeah. Keep, keep doubling down on your progressive policies. It'll work out soon.

[Katie Green]

From the Wall Street Journal, China betting it can win a trade war is playing hardball with Trump.

[Jack Armstrong]

God dang it. This could get dicey.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, we got some details coming up on that.

[Katie Green]

From Fox News. Katie Porter says she regrets viral outbursts at reporters.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, we need to get into her apology video that she put out yesterday. A lot of people when they're a holes, they like to go with, I don't suffer fools. You know, that whole thing.

[Katie Green]

Yeah, whatever.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah.

[Katie Green]

She's just a horrible person.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Katie Green]

There's that from the New York Post. Horrifying images show how flesh eating Quote. Zombie drug mummifies addicts and causes their limbs to auto amputate.

[Jack Armstrong]

Whoa.

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Whoa. Wow.

[Joe Getty]

That was a hell of a sentence.

[Jack Armstrong]

God.

[Joe Getty]

I'd say every, every time I thought the horror was complete. You lay down another layer.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, you gotta try this new drug. It gives you a heck of a buzz and you're limbs will auto amputate.

[Katie Green]

It's that, it's that tranq stuff.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh my God. So your arms and legs say I want out of here.

[Katie Green]

I'm out of here.

[Jack Armstrong]

Bye.

[Announcer]

Bye.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Katie Green]

From the Hill Altman says ChatGPT will soon allow erotica for adults.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay, yeah, I noticed that. So we, I was going to talk about Grock and some of the fun we were having with Grok yesterday making videos and, and some of the stuff that it wouldn't do, but ChatGPT is saying it will do it soon.

[Joe Getty]

Okay.

[Katie Green]

From the independent Tech prankster sends 50 Waymo driverless taxis to Dead End street in San Francisco.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh boy. And then what do you do when you're in the Waymo? You just sit there at the Dead End street and at some point get out.

[Katie Green]

Twas a cluster f. Yeah. From study finds nearly a third of American adults are still afraid of the dark.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, I got a better one than that about riding bikes for you. So that will fit in. We're all children then. That fits in with that stat perfectly. All right.

[Katie Green]

And from the Babylon Bee, Trump retaliates for peace prize snub with picture of the Nobel committee wearing sombreros.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's what he's going to do, everybody now if he's angry, put you in a sobreo and a mustache.

[Katie Green]

Here's a sombrero.

[Jack Armstrong]

The whole trade war between China and the United States is not getting near the attention that it should. The two biggest economies in the world are going at it. And because of the Middle east stuff and everything like that, it's been ignored. But we'll get into that among other things on the way. So stay here.

[Announcer]

Armstrong and Gettysburg.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

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[Announcer]

Also attending the event, Argentina's President Javier Milei, who was at the White House today to talk tariffs and a $20 billion currency swap to help stabilize the cash strapped country's volatile financial markets ahead of critical elections.

[Guest Speaker]

If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina.

[Jack Armstrong]

That is not the clip I wanted.

[Joe Getty]

Okay.

[Jack Armstrong]

They're mislabeled, I guess, because we're gonna talk about China. China trying to drive a wedge with soybeans and other things with this whole trade war thing that we got going on. And I came across this other headline that just landed from the Washington Times. China's new export export controls on rare earth minerals that they announced last week and products made from them reflect a bid to dominate world markets for the strategic materials since the 1990s. And they're using it in their trade war. And then the story that we did not hear China trying to drive a wedge over soybeans, which is an economic hostile act. Also Trump announcing after the rare Earths deal, okay, 100% tariff on everything from China starting November 1st. And that's where we are today.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Xi Jinping's betting we can't take a long trade war with them, according to people close to Beijing's decision making who apparently are talking to the American media or something. Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's interesting. Yeah. How are people close to Xi Jinping talking to the Wall Street Journal, but go on.

[Joe Getty]

China's holding a firm line, according to the Journal, because of its conviction that an escalating trade war will tank US Markets as it did in April after Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs. And China expects the prospect of another market meltdown ultimately will force Trump to negotiate an unexpected summit with Xi late this month.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's not a bad theory from China that we are not just Trump, but the whole country. We are so day by day, short term thinkers with oh my God, this is terrible or oh my God, this is great, that if the markets tank, there'll be all kinds of political pressure to do something different. Whereas obviously in a dictatorship, Xi Jinping can hold the Line on anything as long as he wants, Right?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Borrow whatever, wait for whatever. Deprive the people of whatever.

[Jack Armstrong]

So that's a pretty good plan. China restricts a bunch of things. Soybeans, rare earth metals. We try to retaliate, the markets tank, we chicken out. And it wouldn't just be taco, Trump always chickens out. It'd be the whole country would chicken out and China would hold firm. That's not a bad theory.

[Joe Getty]

No. As they continue to make progress toward being the superpower they long to be and keep us on the line as the weirdest frenemy in the history of really international relations.

[Jack Armstrong]

On his truth social platform, Trump said the US Is considering terminating business with China on cooking oil and other elements of trade because of China's refusal to buy US soybeans, a decision Beijing has said is retaliation for Trump's own tariffs.

[Joe Getty]

We're going to deny them their cooking oil. What'll they do now? Bake?

[Jack Armstrong]

It's often funny to me when I read these stories and they throw in terms like soybeans or cooking oil or whatever, and I like that, like you and everybody else, you have no concept of how big a deal that is, you know, None. You just have to assume that it is. And this is the way trade wars go, I guess. One side does something, then the other side does something back, and it's just back and forth, tit for tat until you tell you things get crazy. Is that the way it always works?

[Joe Getty]

I guess so, yeah. Frequently, yeah.

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It's.

[Joe Getty]

And then they get together and talk and wind things down a little bit. But why it has to go through the initial phase, I don't know. It's the showing that we're really, really serious phase, I guess.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. On the other hand, while Xi Jinping doesn't have to worry about the daily stock market and cable news badmouthing him or whatever, the Wall Street Journal says China's own economy has been in a protracted downturn, weighed down by a collapsed property market, which we've talked about a lot. There are millions and millions of empty high rises around China, ever rising debts and weakening consumer confidence. However, Xi is far less beholden. The market swoons, as I just said, even though the Chinese economy faces a precarious outlook. Yeah, but he is beholden to other high ranking members of the Communist Party that wouldn't mind if he got a bullet in his head if the economy went down too much, because that's the way dictatorships work.

[Joe Getty]

Right? Right. One more bit of information. According to the people close to Beijing's decision making. Xi's hardline strategy is based on the belief Trump will ultimately fold and offer concessions rather than deploy Washington's own significant leverage. The confidence was fueled by a US China trade truce. Stuck in May, Trump had imposed tariffs of more than 100% on Chinese products, but relented after Beijing used its leverage as the world's most important exporter of rare earth magnets. I think you mentioned yesterday, did you not, that we actually are sitting on lots and lots of the rare earths materials. We've just not been willing to mine them because of environmental concerns and that sort of thing.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is not something that I know as I am not an expert in this area, but I was looking at a tweet from John Stossel, which I will try to find for you right now. China recently made it harder to import rare earth minerals. Metals needed to make phones, electric vehicles, all kinds of defense tech, fighter planes and stuff like that. A lot of our AI stuff. This shouldn't be a problem. America is full of those minerals. It's only a problem because our government makes mining almost impossible in this country. According to John Stossel, who's usually right about this sort of thing, right? That wouldn't surprise me.

[Joe Getty]

No, no, not at all.

[Jack Armstrong]

I mean, for crying out loud, we import oil that we could easily dig for ourselves.

[Joe Getty]

So yeah, that's especially phony because we're the cleanest, most careful oil extractors on the planet and we go ahead and to to have our hands clean and our starched white shirts untouched by the dirt that would result from mining or drilling. We have these awful countries that don't give a damn about polluting and human rights and the rest of us dig our or drill for our oil. For us, it's one of the most ridiculous, hypocritical, limousine liberal things we do.

[Jack Armstrong]

But am I. I'm. Economics is not my area. I'm not interested enough into it or to read a lot about it and I never have in my life. But it just seems to me that a 100% tariff on everything from China to landing November 1st during Christmas shopping season would be a crazy development for the economy.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah, I would agree. I don't think we have the will as a people. There aren't. I mean, the polls are actually kind of encouraging, showing that most Americans understand China is a serious, serious rival. But I'm not sure we're willing to go full austerity. You know, World War II, butter rationing, stamps.

[Jack Armstrong]

What would that make the Price of everything that comes out of China. We saw them, the iPhone thing originally when they were talking tariffs on how, you know, it's, it's not just a, a straight line. You can draw from 100% on the current price to figure out what it is. Sometimes it's multiples more and on. You know, whether it's iPhone or cheap plastic piece of crap toy you're gonna buy your kid or whatever it is, it's gonna be two, three, five times as expensive. No way we're gonna put up with that.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. You know, I was gonna say we need a national program of the toys your kids sick of. Let's just have a big swapathon.

[Jack Armstrong]

No kidding.

[Joe Getty]

God, that could work. Thrift stores are.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, but somebody should.

[Joe Getty]

Or ebay.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's like my son's really into these high end, whether you call it a consignment clothing store or whatever, used clothes. And they're really hot right now. Like my college town has got like three that have started in the last year and they do really, really well. And it's basically what you're just talking about. It's like I bought these really expensive jeans. I'm not going to give them to Goodwill. I mean they were really expensive. I'll, I'll sell them for, you know, a third what I paid for them.

[Joe Getty]

I'll.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'll easily pay you a third for those expensive jeans. And that has become a market we should surely. There's got to be a way to do that for toys and all kinds of gadgets. Like I got this for my kids. This thing cost $300. They played with it for two weeks. I'd like it for my kids. I'll give you 150.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, it's got a. Just ebay.

[Jack Armstrong]

I think for some reason that doesn't work that way. We need like a, some, something's missing there to make that work the right way. I don't know what it is.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I don't know.

[Jack Armstrong]

But it's a good idea.

[Joe Getty]

It's. Well, you know what the problem is? You're your own consignment shop and you have to deal with the, you know, the logistics and the shipping and then the payment and the rest of it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Like ebay does help.

[Jack Armstrong]

Like these high end consignment clothes or used clothes or whatever they are. The people that run them have a real sense of what's popular and everything like that. It's and, and, and, and have that stuff in stock and have it laid out in such a way. That you can find it easily and all that sort of stuff. That's what you need with kids.

[Joe Getty]

Crap.

[Jack Armstrong]

Whatever's hot, you have a whole bunch of them. I know where to find it. That could work. That's a, that's a gazillion dollar idea. If you could just come up with the infrastructure.

[Joe Getty]

Toy consignment shop.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I don't know what you would call it. Need to name like my kid got sick of this in a week. Is the name of the store Happy, Happy.

[Joe Getty]

Joy. Joy. I don't know. A word from our friends at Simply Safe Home Security. Speaking of technology, it is amazing how Simply Safe Safe sews together AI security cameras that can identify a threat, someone lurking around your house with their professional monitoring agents who can take action immediately confronting the criminal. Turn on your lights, your sirens, whatever, and call the cops and tell them something specific so they show up quick.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yep, I have Simply Safe at my house. I really, really like it. I got the, all the stuff, the cameras and the sensors and all that. And with their 247 monitoring, it is a step above anything else anybody else has. And you can try it out. 60 day money back guarantee, no long, long term contracts. There's no reason why you wouldn't try Simplisafe. Yep.

[Joe Getty]

So go to simplisafe.com Armstrong you get 50% off your SimpliSafe home security [e-mail] Armstrong be sure to use our code. It's like having a security guard stationed right outside your home. Simply safe.comarmstrong there's no safe like Simply Safe.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know, similar to the toys your kids no longer play with. Just stuff you don't need anymore. It'd be nice if you could get somebody to break in your house and only steal the stuff you'd be happy to have gone. Wouldn't that be handy? Because I got lots of stuff in my house that it really wouldn't be awful if it just disappeared. So if you could, if you could break into my house and take everything in that room, I wouldn't even miss it.

[Joe Getty]

So what you're calling for in your really futuristic, not at all idiotic idea is a thief with a specific shopping list.

[Jack Armstrong]

Exactly. Well, because the one.

[Joe Getty]

Sorry kids, there was a break in.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. And the one more thing podcast. We were talking about this yesterday. I was out at the farm and still gathering up stuff from getting divorced. That stuff in boxes that I've been taking around the country for years. And then it's just, it's just why, why do, why Am I hanging onto it? And it. It should have some value to somebody. I don't know what. But if you're the sort of person that gets rid of crap, old crap that you don't use, whether it's clothes or electronics or, I don't know, just everything that accumulates, too many bowls, plates and spoons. Why am I hanging on to these? I don't use these anymore. Do I think all the current ones are gonna break at some point? I don't even know what I'm doing.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, there's just something deep in our caveman brain. And everybody has it to varying degrees that if something is still usable, it's valuable. Maybe not very valuable, but has some value. It's hard for us to trash it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, man, oh man, do I struggle with that. I got to get better at it. I know. That's the. What was that woman that came up with that theory, though? You need to go through your house and see if things bring you joy.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, what's her face.

[Jack Armstrong]

Get rid of all the stuff that doesn't bring you joy.

[Joe Getty]

Hey, my final, final note. Back to the question of China and all, and maybe we'll get to this later, but Jamie Dimon, the head guy at JPMorgan Chase, just announced a ten year, one and a half trillion dollar effort to facilitate, finance and invest in industries crucial to national security and what he calls economic resilience to make us less dependent on China. So that's an interesting development. We'll look at it in a little while.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, and in light of that Great Britain story where they're not even allowed to call China an enemy, which they clearly are. I mean, you heard us Talking about the 60 Minute story yesterday where China's hacking, and I'm sure they're doing in Great Britain the same thing they're doing here. Hacking into every part of Great Britain's infrastructure. You know who does that? An enemy. An enemy to your countries who does that.

[Joe Getty]

But they're an enemy that has so much leverage over us we won't say the word.

[Jack Armstrong]

And a bunch of cheap plastic crap that we want to buy and including, including other stuff too. Important stuff. We got Mailbag on the way. Lots to talk about today. I hope you can stay here.

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[Jack Armstrong]

The Department of Justice made the world's largest ever crypto seizure. We'll have to read about that later. I don't even know how does a seizure of crypto work. I guess you just hack into a computer or something. Anyway, Trump just threatened to take the World cup away from Boston if they don't get their policing under control. I have no idea if he's got the power to do that or not, but anyway, we'll have that story later too.

[Joe Getty]

The whole narrative that he's trying to institute some sort of dictatorship, martial law, blah blah blah. Is it? It's silly, but at some point when you got federal troops or national guard in like 10 cities, it's starting to look a little weird, right? Yeah, yeah. Your freedom loving quote of the day. You'll have to wait till tomorrow because my Internet just died and I had a great quote from Jason Riley of the Wall Street Journal ready to go about how we need to stop any sort of racial gerrymandering. It's not 1965 anymore and to rearrange voters by race is a racist and b unproductive.

[Jack Armstrong]

And I agree completely.

[Joe Getty]

He said it more pithily. But we'll let have that's our freedom loving idea of the day. Mailbag, Drop us a note mailbagarmstrongandgetti.com yesterday you might recall that Brian sent along a story that he said would be cheerful and help get us away from being the most depressing radio show on earth. And I found a depressing angle to it and put him in his place. Today, Brian Plucky Brian has come back with a Dare to Be Joyous Part two story.

[Jack Armstrong]

Awesome.

[Joe Getty]

No downside to this one. It's great and we'll get to it next hour.

[Jack Armstrong]

Cool.

[Joe Getty]

Really encouraging. Well done, Brian. All right, moving along.

[Jack Armstrong]

Come over here.

[Joe Getty]

Two emails in a row with precisely the same Title Change the law. Ryan in Houston writes, Dear Big Freedom, the Cold Warrior, and Old Simple Jack. So Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn't like what ICE is doing, has to suck that she can't do anything about it. If only there was a branch of the government to make and pass laws, some sort of legislative branch to be co equal to our God Emperor. Has any country tried that?

[Jack Armstrong]

Boy, very good.

[Joe Getty]

Pithy and delightful. And then second, change the law. Email. This is from Evan in beautiful Raleigh, California, right down the road from my brother. Been a loyal listener since I was a freshman in high school. Now 37, with my second son on the way. Sorry for making us all feel old. I wanted to follow up on your discussion about illegal immigration. Sound like you were saying it might technically be the law that someone here illegally should be deported, but that it's not necessarily right. Yeah, yeah, that was more or less my argument. I mean, there are nuances to it, but he says, I get that. And I think most people understand why. Many come here for opportunity and are not heartless toward those who've built lives here. But as Jack often says, if we don't like it, change the law. Someone who drove drunk 10 years ago but was never caught still broke the law. Same logic applies here. Compassion matters, but as you've said, order without compassion is authoritarianism. I usually say brutality, but. And compassion without order is chaos. Change the law.

[Jack Armstrong]

I still stand by that. I guess anytime anybody comments on anything I should comment. I should say, am I talking politics or am I talking the law? I think politically, Marjorie Taylor Greene might have a ton of people on her side, including people. MAGA people.

[Joe Getty]

Yep. Yeah, I think the context was we were talking about how much support there would be for, you know, what's going on. But he does make one more interesting point. MTG isn't a true believer. She's protecting her political interests and the cheap labor status quo, which is equally despicable. Talks about our district. They've been here and work hard argument just keeps that cycle going.

[Jack Armstrong]

The roiling of the political parties and what they are, you know, the working class moving to the Republican Party under Trump. And now you've got this Marjorie Taylor Greene crowd. How big that is, I don't know. That says, you know, there's a whole bunch of illegals here working in my district and they probably ought to stay. And she's saying, my kids are on the Obamacare and their health care is going to double, so what are we doing here? She wants to extend the Obamacare subsidies. So is she carving out like a different thing or is that going to work itself out between the two parties? I don't know.

[Joe Getty]

MSNBC offered her a show. Maybe. I don't know. And then Evan signs off. Thanks for decades of entertainment and level headed commentary. You've been calling balls and strikes long before it was popular to do so. Evan, it's much more popular to chuck bombs and conspiracy theories and that sort of thing. We're stupid for doing what we do, but thank you for listening.

[Jack Armstrong]

We're stupid.

[Joe Getty]

Let's see. Oh, and then JT and Livermore with a note about Barry Weiss, who I want to talk about a little bit more, saying that if Barry just changes the political news formula from Republicans pounce to something more evenhanded, it will have a huge impact on how news is perceived. That and the daily, more balanced approach to news stories could have a monumental impact on the nation's politics. It's a good point.

[Jack Armstrong]

You see, when the duck bought Chapstick and said just put it on my bill, it's his lips are. It's a complicated. I don't know if it's that complicated. I think you understand.

[Joe Getty]

Ducks don't have lips.

[Jack Armstrong]

The Supreme Court and whether or not they're gonna take up that Colorado Trans case is an interesting one. Among things.

[Announcer]

Other things, an hour too Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is an I Heart podcast.