I've Always Wanted A Moat

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: I've Always Wanted a Moat
Date: February 12, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty examine a turbulent news cycle dominated by the ongoing release of the Epstein files, political grandstanding in Congress, and broader themes of class warfare and societal instability. They weave in cultural commentary, economic analysis about jobs and immigration, and even tangent into personal observations on restaurant odors and the allure of moats for the super-rich. The hosts invite listeners into a candid conversation with their signature blend of skepticism, humor, and sharp political insight.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. "Race to the Bottom": Congressional Dysfunction & the Epstein Files

• Political Spectacle:
  The hosts kick off with a discussion about recent Congressional hearings focused on Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Epstein files. They lament the performative outrage from both political parties and express frustration with a lack of substantive problem-solving.

  • "[It's] not good in the race to the bottom as we just keep going further, further and further away from grown ups trying to solve problems. It's...I don't, I don't know where it ends."
    — Jack Armstrong [07:28]

• Populist Narratives & Media:
  Drawing parallels between current populist anger at the “Epstein class” and historical moral panics (like the Jack the Ripper era), the hosts reflect on class dynamics and media manipulation.

  • Joe Getty notes, "...the narrative that it was an upper cruster who was preying on the poor and the lower classes because that's what the rich do...that sort of narrative is populist catnip." [04:09]

• Transparency, Redaction, and Conspiracy:
  They question why some Epstein case files remain redacted and muse on how conspiracy theories thrive in the absence of total transparency.

  • Jack: "You think there's a chance that the Justice Department...kept a couple of things back among people they really don't want embarrassed?" [09:47]
  • Joe: "There's no satisfying the conspiracy theory crowd because they would say, ah, that was the distraction." [10:28]

2. Media, Culture, and the News Cycle

• Valentine's Day Cynicism:
  Jack recounts his teenage son’s skepticism about Valentine's Day, echoing themes of commercialism and societal programming.

  • "Valentine's Day has got to be the stupidest day. It's just chocolate and card manufacturers trying to make money. You've nailed it down at age 14." [02:35]

• Class, Social Change, and the Persistence of Scandal:
  Jack and Joe relate the moral panics of the 1880s (Jack the Ripper) to modern political scandals, suggesting that public outrage doesn't fundamentally change.

  • Joe: "The undercurrents of human nature don't change." [09:32]

3. Economic Discussion: Jobs, Immigration, and Labor Markets

• Healthcare Leads Job Growth:
  The hosts highlight the U.S. jobs report, pointing out that health care is now the main engine of employment.

  • "Nearly all of the 130,000 new jobs...in January allegedly were health care jobs or positions related to health care. As the people of America age..." — Joe Getty [19:13]
  • "Health care jobs have become the engine of America's labor market." — Katie Green (quoting WSJ) [15:55]

• Immigration’s Role in the Labor Market:
  Discussion on how foreign-born workers are concentrated at both ends of the medical field’s skill spectrum:

  • "By 2024, they accounted for less than 15% of the U.S. population but 39% of home health aides, 28% of physicians and 24% of dentists..." — Joe Getty [21:27]

• Uncertainty & Technology:
  They touch on how economic uncertainty (trade policy, AI) complicates both employment growth and future prospects.

  • Joe: "Hesitation to hire as employers await the onset of AI could also play a role, especially at large companies that are able to deploy AI sooner." [22:56]
  • Jack: "If you are one of our younger listeners...I have no idea what's going to happen or what to do about it. You're right to think that." [26:16]

4. Social Trends & Cultural Observations

• Moats and Ultra-Rich Security:
  In a lighter moment, the hosts discuss a trend among the ultra-wealthy fortifying their homes and joke about the childhood fantasy of having a moat.

  • Joe: "Coming up, the ultra rich are turning their homes into fortresses. The new trends in ultra security." [20:48]
  • Jack: "I've always wanted a moat." [20:55]

• Olympic Politics, Restaurant Odors, and Everyday Life:
  The news round-up includes a variety of topics:

  • Ukrainian athlete banned from the Olympics over helmet images supporting victims of war—reinforcing Olympic policies on political messaging. [15:06]
  • Humorous exchange about unpleasant restaurant smells and the cultural subjectivity of cuisine. [16:48–17:44]

5. Technology, AI, and the Uncertain Future

• The looming impact of AI on employment and the value of traditional skills, like writing.
• Concerns that many are not taking AI advancements seriously enough.
  • Jack: "Will you...will there be any value in being able to write? Or is it just being able to use AI to write?" [26:41]
  • Joe: "They'll just babble out verbal prompts in their overly simplified...moronical ramblings, and AI will sort it out and make it coherent." [27:03]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "It would have been nice if one congressperson could have stood up and said, 'We have a $35 trillion debt. I yield my time.' Sit back down. Anybody want to talk about that?"
  — Jack Armstrong [08:03]

• "The utter dishonesty and wokeness of the media, clearly."
  — Joe Getty [02:31]

• "We kind of had a moat, sorta in one house, but it was more like a well landscaped drainage ditch."
  — Joe Getty [21:07]

• "I don't think there's any preparing for it [AI disruption] other than maybe, you know, save your money."
  — Jack Armstrong [25:52]

• "As Matt Taibi, I quote him so often: upper class twits promoting revolution. I Caramba."
  — Joe Getty [29:39]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Political Performance & The “Race to the Bottom”: [07:17–11:27]
  Congressional hearings devolve into spectacle over substance regarding the Epstein files.

• Class Warfare Through History (Jack the Ripper): [04:09–06:35]
  Parallels drawn from Victorian England to today’s populist politics.

• Economic Update & Labor Market Analysis: [18:00–22:56]
  Latest jobs data, healthcare employment surge, and immigration’s role discussed.

• AI & the Future of Work: [25:50–27:47]
  Concerns over automation’s impact and the fading value of traditional skills.

• Ultra-Wealthy Security Trends (Moats): [20:48–21:14]
  Light-hearted discussion about literal moats as status symbols.

• Mailbag and Listener Feedback: [28:07–36:09]
  Reader questions and comments on pessimism, media narratives, restaurant odors, and more.

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Tone & Style

The episode maintains the Armstrong & Getty signature: irreverent, questioning, occasionally exasperated but always witty. They blend pointed criticism of political and media actors with humor, skepticism, and moments of everyday relatability.

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For listeners seeking to catch up on the episode’s core conversations — from Congressional circus acts to why a moat might be the new status symbol — this summary covers the essential moments and insights, preserving the hosts’ candid point of view.

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Joe Getty]

Guaranteed Human. Hey, Sal. Hank. What's going on? We haven't worked a case in years. I just bought my car at Carvana, and it was so easy.

[Jack Armstrong]

Too easy. Think something's up?

[Joe Getty]

You tell me. They got thousands of options, found a great car at a great price, and.

[Jack Armstrong]

It got delivered the next day.

[Joe Getty]

It sounds like Carvana just makes it easy to buy your car, Hank. Yeah, you're right. Case closed.

[Katie Green]

Buy your car today on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply.

[Joe Getty]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. Armstrong and Getty. And now here, arms draw. And get it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Live from Studio C Senior. I think if you don't have your roses order in yet, it's not going to get there on time. That'd be my guest. We are deep within the bowels of the Armstrong and Yeti communications compound, and today we're a toiling odle over the title of the show, Race to the Bottom.

[Joe Getty]

And I don't mean Olympic skiing or gender Ben Murder. We need to talk about it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, boy. The school shooting up in Canada, which.

[Joe Getty]

Was just horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible. Yet another confused quote, unquote, transgender person.

[Jack Armstrong]

How do we know how many this is? It seems like there's been quite a few.

[Joe Getty]

It's several of the last few. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Certainly seems like there's enough that it. It's. It's okay to wonder if there's some reason that's happening since it's tiny percentage of the population that's transgender.

[Joe Getty]

Right? Indeed. And it fits perfectly with what I've been trying to tell you all along. We will discuss that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. What fits perfectly with what you've been trying to tell so long?

[Joe Getty]

The explanation of why that would be such. Such a wildly disproportionate number of quote, unquote, transgender people are shooting places.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. But not the. Well, I think we understand why the coverage doesn't include any raised eyebrow. Hmm. This is kind of interesting.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, yeah. The utter dishonesty and wokeness of the media, clearly. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, that's nice. How y' all doing? We are. We're two days from the most. One of the most important days. My son. Last night, we were sitting in the car. My other son had to run into Dollar Tree to buy some ramen noodle packages because he really likes them. And we're sitting there, and we saw all the balloons and candies and stuff like that around the various stores, and he said, valentine's Day has got to be the stupidest day. It's just chocolate and card manufacturers trying to make money. You've nailed it down at age 14. Pretty. Pretty.

[Joe Getty]

Well, he's fallen in love with the truth.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, we'll see how it goes. We got Valentine's Day stuff tomorrow. Because Tomorrow's Friday the 13th. Right before Valentine's Day. Wow. How often does that happen? Imagine if we were having a beaver wolf moon at the same time.

[Joe Getty]

It's kind of a super bonus for stupid people. Yes. That is exciting. Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

So from the.

[Joe Getty]

The Enlightenment people look into it. It really freed us up as a species. Let's not throw it away too quickly.

[Jack Armstrong]

Political newsletter I read every day when I get up is talking about how the running against the Epstein class is becoming a bigger and bigger thing for the Democrats in the midterm elections in November. The Epstein class and trying to paint a lot of Republicans as hiding important things in there. And then the Epstein class just be rich and powerful. You know, just the rich and powerful people. You think that's gonna stick? The Epstein class?

[Joe Getty]

I think it could. And it's such a funny coincidence. I've been digging into late 19th century London through the lens of the Jack the Ripper killings, as I've mentioned once or twice. And the narrative that it was an upper cruster who was preying on the poor and the lower classes because that's what the rich do. I mean, that narrative caught hold like crazy, even though there was really no evidence to indicate that. No good evidence. So that sort of narrative is populist catnip.

[Jack Armstrong]

When did Jack the Ripper do his killings? Late 1800s, 1880s. How many?

[Joe Getty]

Five, definitely.

[Jack Armstrong]

In London.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. There are a couple that might have been but probably weren't. Yeah. In London. In the poor. Entirely in the. The warrens of the poorest sections of London where the people tried to eke out a living. And there was prostitution. Although interestingly, in 1880s London, if you lived with a man who was not your husband, you were considered a prostitute.

[Jack Armstrong]

That seems about right.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, boy. Put a ring on it, huh?

[Jack Armstrong]

Exactly. Milk the cow. Or whatever the heck the thing is. Whatever that thing is.

[Joe Getty]

There's a cow involved. Yes, yes.

[Jack Armstrong]

Raping and killing or just killing.

[Joe Getty]

Just murdering and dismembering fashion. It was the first generally recognized psychopath.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is one of the many things I've learned multiple times in my life but then forget and have to start all over again. And then. Did they ever figure out who it was? No, no, no.

[Joe Getty]

There are people who have some pretty solid theories, but no, he Stopped killing inexplicably and was never brought to justice.

[Jack Armstrong]

Maybe it was William Shakespeare to bring two mysteries together.

[Joe Getty]

That is one of the theories, yes.

[Jack Armstrong]

So person probably took it to the grave or maybe, you know, just had a heart attack and died, certainly.

[Joe Getty]

Or got killed in a bar fight.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right, right.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. You never know.

[Jack Armstrong]

Is this a new book about it or.

[Joe Getty]

No, no, it's actually a review of quite a. Quite a few of books about it. It's kind of a digest of that sort of thing. But again, the part that's really, really interesting, the murders are, I suppose, in the way that a murder mystery always is, but just the way the press functioned in that time in London and police procedures and how primitive they were, but they were just starting to come into the modern era. Really quite interesting.

[Jack Armstrong]

Get some class warfare thrown in there.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I'm sure that's calling every chick who ain't got a ring on her finger a hooker. I mean, that's a little rough.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm sure I.

[Joe Getty]

Again, you're in favor of it.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm sure I read some books about that with. I'll get to the bottom of this idea when I was like 12 years old.

[Joe Getty]

You and everybody.

[Jack Armstrong]

Like the Lincoln assassination or whatever. I'm gonna figure this out. I'm tired of hearing all this speculation. Let's start the show officially just so we can discuss your race to the bottom comment. I'm Jack Armstrong, he's Joe Getty on this. It is Thursday, February 12, the year 2026, where Armstrong are getting. We approve of this program.

[Joe Getty]

Let's begin then, officially, according to FCC rules and regulations, the show starts at.

[Jack Armstrong]

Mark, I told you about that Attorney General before you started.

[Katie Green]

You don't tell me.

[Joe Getty]

No, I did tell you because we.

[Jack Armstrong]

Saw what you did in the Senate.

[Katie Green]

Lawyer.

[Joe Getty]

Not even a lawyer.

[Jack Armstrong]

A small taste of what went on yesterday as Pam Bondi was questioned mostly about the Epstein files by Democrats. And there were plenty of low moments on both sides. I felt like it was not good in the race to the bottom as we just keep going further, further and further away from grown ups trying to solve problems. It's. I don't, I don't know where it ends. I really don't know where it ends.

[Joe Getty]

And what's especially interesting is that we have enormous problems to solve. Sure. It's not like it's all, you know, peaches and cream.

[Jack Armstrong]

It would have been nice if one congressperson could have stood up and said, we have a $35 trillion debt. I yield my time. Sit back down Anybody want to talk about that?

[Joe Getty]

You want to hear the bitter truth? You probably don't. I've been sitting on this editorial written by a senator who just got done with his first year in the Senate and has been trying to bring attention to the fiscal cliff that we are driving toward at 100 miles per hour. And long story short, dude says I can't get anybody to even talk about it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, probably for logical reasons in that. In that people have figured out, and they're probably right, that there is. There's no, there's no audience for it. And if there's not an audience in a democracy, you can't, you just can't get anything going. Now, you could make the argument that you are leaders and you're supposed to lead what we're interested in. So if a bunch of you made powerful, eloquent speeches about what this could.

[Joe Getty]

Do regularly chart a good chart. People love charts. Hammered over and over and over until.

[Jack Armstrong]

People start to catch on. But, man, I just. This is one of the most perplexing things certainly ever in our 30 years of doing talk radio. This whole Epstein thing. What is it? What are they really talking about? How is it going to end? Will it ever end?

[Joe Getty]

The populist theories about what's actually going on again, utterly unchanged from the Jack the Ripper days, for instance, Just different names and different technology involved. What do you think? The undercurrents of human nature don't change.

[Jack Armstrong]

So one of the things they were screaming at Pam Bondi, and then Pam Bondi would scream back would be the, you know, why haven't you unredacted everything? There are still things that are redacted. You think there's a chance that the Justice Department gave us a lot, a lot thinking that would do it and then just kept a couple of things back among people that they really don't want embarrassed or tied into this.

[Joe Getty]

It's not impossible. I don't think that's what's going on.

[Jack Armstrong]

You'd think if you were going to.

[Joe Getty]

And I find the Democrats protestations bitterly.

[Jack Armstrong]

Hilarious, you'd think that if they were going to do that, you wouldn't have included the Howard Lutnick stuff. You would have redacted that. Right. He's the Commerce Secretary in the Trump administration.

[Joe Getty]

Right, Right. But there's no satisfying the conspiracy theory crowd because they would say, ah, that was the distraction. That was the. We'll put Lutnik. We'll throw Lutnik under the train so we can claim complete transparency, but we'll keep the Real files about the, you know what, all that crap. We'll keep that secret.

[Jack Armstrong]

Does this sputter out when the Democrats take the House? Because then they're in charge and then, then, then what? What are you going to do now? Because you've been in charge before with the Epstein files and you didn't do anything.

[Joe Getty]

No, because they won't have control of the Justice Department. So they'll shout fictionally that the Justice Department isn't cooperating with their request. There is not a in on that committee that was yelling at Pam Bondi. I would guess every single Democrat yelling those questions knows precisely why what was redacted was redacted. But they're pretending they don't. And yelling. It's all performative. It's a race to the bottom.

[Jack Armstrong]

Fantastic. We got Katie's headlines on the way. We'll get into some of the news of the day. They found a glove somewhere near Nancy Guthrie's house. Whether that means anything or not. Probably not a ton. Trump's thinking about sending yet another aircraft carrier to the region near Iran. So that's exciting. Lots of stuff to talk about today. Hope you can stick around.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

I was just reading this piece in the Wall Street Journal by Barton Swaim. He goes through a couple of the things that are in the Epstein files that people haven't focused on because it kind of hurts the whole story. Like for instance, an almost 90 page memo by the prosecutors of the Southern District of New York which is a very Democratic leaning little legal institution, if we all remember from the Trump prosecutions. And that 96 page memo talks about.

[Joe Getty]

That Virginia Gauffre girl, Joffrey.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, poor girl who killed herself. That was a very unreliable witness and probably a fabulous as in made up stories. That's what the prosecutors determined in great detail. Nobody wants to talk about that detail in the Epstein files.

[Joe Getty]

Right, Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

It's too bad they said, yeah, we can't use her on the stand. And any evidence from her is highly suspect, unfortunately. Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

More on that later.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. More on a lot of things later. Let's figure out who's reporting what. It's the lead story with Katie Green.

[Katie Green]

Katie, like you guys have been talking about, the Epstein files are at the top of everybody's list. ABC Democratic Rep Giant pal accuses DOJ of sweeping spying on her search history from unredacted Epstein files review. NBC Epstein survivors say they felt, quote, degraded and a lack of empathy from Pam Bondi and CNN Attorney General Pam Bondi's testimony heats up as she exchanges jabs with lawmakers over Epstein.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, I didn't like what Pam Bondi, how she handled it. But then the Democrats will play some of these clips later with the will you turn around and apologize to the victims in this courtroom? You know, those kind of stunts. Shut up.

[Katie Green]

From FOX News, Investigators conduct second search of Annie Guthrie's Arizona home in the search for Nancy Guthrie.

[Joe Getty]

That is interesting. That's the daughter with the husband who was hinted at by what's her face, the Ashley Banfield. Ashley Banfield, podcaster, former CNN chick, but nobody else.

[Katie Green]

From the New York Times, Border officials are said to have caused El Paso. El Paso closure by firing anti drone laser.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, this is unraveling. It's beginning to look a little Keystone Copsy. Border Patrol fires lasers. FAA is like, you can't fire those lasers right next to an airport. You're going to bring down a plane. Then we're shutting the airport for 10 days because you're so stupid. And then it gets to the White House and the White House says, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Everybody calm down. The broad outlines.

[Katie Green]

Yeah. From the Washington Post, Ukrainian athlete barred from Olympic skeleton event over helmet images.

[Jack Armstrong]

So you get to wear a helmet when you're doing the skeleton. So you don't bash your brains open if you're wrecked. But you don't get to wear a helmet with, with sort of writing on it or something.

[Katie Green]

He had photos of Ukrainian victims of, of Russia's war, basically.

[Joe Getty]

Yet no political messaging of any sort.

[Jack Armstrong]

Is allowed on uniforms, which I'm fine with that. And gear because it would, jeez, can you imagine if you opened that door? But so did they tell the Ukrainian, hey, you can't use that. And yeah, he said, well, I'm going to. All right.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, essentially, I'm not racing unless I'm wearing it. And they said, well, I'm sorry we can't come together on this. You know, it's the unfortunate thing that adults understand they've got to consistently enforce the rules. It's too bad they have to enforce it in this instance, but I can deal with it.

[Jack Armstrong]

I wish there was some sort of, hey, press, at least in the official Olympics press room. Don't ask political questions of these athletes. Yeah. Because I mean, that's as bad as wearing political messages on your uniforms.

[Katie Green]

From the Wall Street Journal. Health care jobs have become the engine of America's labor market, saying demand for health care workers beats out all other sectors.

[Joe Getty]

Wow. Yeah. There are a handful of different pieces about the Jobs report and the revisions and everything that have given me a lot clearer picture of where the economy actually is in terms of hiring.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't want to hear that.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, good. I couldn't decide if it was too dry and, you know, economic. See, but to all of us, I think most of us are trying to make a damn living and want to know what our prospects are going forward. So. Yeah, we'll bring that to you next time. Damn. Well, ours are, but, yeah, not everybody's. Some people have real skills.

[Katie Green]

From the New York Post, Raising Cane's sues. Boston landlord trying to evict restaurant over quote, offensive chicken odor.

[Jack Armstrong]

Hmm, that reminds me. I gotta talk about this restaurant my boys and I went into last night was the worst smelling restaurant I've ever been in in my life. Oh, it was like I stepped into a porta Potty.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, my Lord.

[Jack Armstrong]

Does that make me a bigot? Because it was a certain cultural food.

[Joe Getty]

If it smelled like a porta Potty, it smelled like a porta Potty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, an aggressive scent. Other people of that nationality must have thought it was okay because they were sitting in there eating.

[Joe Getty]

Oh my.

[Katie Green]

And I missed the beginning of that. Did you eat there?

[Joe Getty]

No. God.

[Jack Armstrong]

We turned around, we were like, what is going on in here? We turned around.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, O.

[Katie Green]

Study finds are infants trained to love junk food. Troubling. Study finds 71% of baby foods are ultra processed.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm sure that's true. Trained to love. I think our brains are trained to love junk food. They. They hacked our brains.

[Katie Green]

And finally, the Babylon Be Canadian reporter person announces police persons have identified gun person.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, that's some of the language around that horrible shooting in Canada where they're being so damned careful to stay away from the whole trans issue. We'll have to talk about that too. There's a lot to get to today. I hope you can stick around.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty. Wages are up, unemployment is down, and the US added 130,000 new jobs in January. That according to the Labor Department. That's the best month since 2024. Most of the jobs came in health care. And while some white collar jobs suffered mostly in finance and information, parts of the blue collar economy boomed. 33,000 new construction jobs and the first manufacturing growth in more than a year.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, first of all, I thought we were going to spend day four of complaining about the bad bunny halftime show, but if we're going to do something different, the best month in two years.

[Joe Getty]

Gray skies are gonna clear up, put on a happy face, huh? Even as they Announced that, you know that data we told you just a little while back, that turns out that was completely inaccurate, but here's the new data. Yeah, that was kind of weird, but it is. If it's absolutely true, that was kind of weird.

[Jack Armstrong]

It happened in a 48 hour period. One day you had the last year. We were off by a lot. It was a lot less because our. The way we do this now is just, it makes no sense. Here's today's numbers. What?

[Joe Getty]

That's exactly right.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's a very weird way to do it.

[Joe Getty]

So, yeah, nearly all of the 130,000 new jobs had in January allegedly were health care jobs or positions related to health care. As the people of America age, the construction sector again allegedly did pretty well with 30 some thousand new jobs. Manual manufacturing center sector, rather, he said with excited tones, also gained jobs. It was a very small number, but it was a decent enough indication that the shrinking of manufacturing may have slowed or even reversed. But again, too early, too little data to say. Parts of the healthcare industry, writes the Wall Street Journal, have increasingly become reliant on immigrant workforce and immigrant workforce. The US has long offered special visas for highly skilled foreign doctors willing to move to rural America where a need for medical care is great. A surge of young immigrants and immigrants who arrived as part of resettlement programs filled nursing jobs, home health aids. As demand for those positions continued to rise. Left unexplained is why Americans aren't doing those jobs.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, no kidding. And I don't, I've never understood why these articles can't include. Are you talking about legal immigration or illegal immigration? Because in some sectors it's all about illegal immigration you're filling those jobs with. In some sectors it is primarily legal. Which is it here? Probably legal, but I wish they would distinguish.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. And the question of, of how immigration relates to all this is a little complicated and nobody's 100% sure, but I thought this was among many tidbits. Pretty interesting.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh.

[Joe Getty]

Coming up, the ultra rich are turning their homes into fortresses. The new trends in ultra security.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

Well, includes moats. I've always wanted a moat.

[Jack Armstrong]

A moat?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Wouldn't that be great? Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

I didn't know that could be a thing. I got a new goal in life.

[Joe Getty]

We kind of had a moat, sorta in one house, but it was more like a well landscaped drainage ditch.

[Jack Armstrong]

Now you need a full on moat.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Drawbridge. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

But unemployment's around 4%, which is like about as low as it can get. The way the Economy works, right? So it's pretty close. Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Foreign born workers, Jack, are particularly concentrated at the upper and lower ends of the skill ladder in health care. By 2024, they accounted for less than 15% of the U.S. population but 39% of home health aides, 28% of physicians and 24% of dentists, according to census data.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, I would love to know if that upper end is primarily legal immigration and the lower end was primarily illegal immigration. I'd love to know that.

[Joe Getty]

That would be worth knowing. But nobody answers those questions honestly at the job site. Excuse me, we're just here to count the illegal immigrants. We're not going to deport you. We're from the Department of Lab. No, senor, not answering your question, senor. Let's see, let's move on. There's some more data here that I found interesting. Last year they talked about the giant revisions. The net change in total employment was only 181,000 last year, down from the 580 they thought it was. That also makes the first year of the Trump administration one of the most unusual non recession years for employment in history. An economy growing by more than 2% should create more jobs. The reasons for this job stagnation aren't clear, though one culprit might be the uncertainty created by up down, willy nilly tariff policy. Hard to hire new workers if you don't know what your costs are going to be. Hesitation to hire as employers await the onset of AI could also play a role, especially at large companies that are able to deploy AI sooner.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, how about do all the people getting laid off because of AI? Does that factor into the number at all or are those separate?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. They don't drill down into those numbers because they're not known. But yeah, that's absolutely a factor. Major complication in this data is the impact of the administration's mass deportation policy. The national foundation for American Policy looked at the BLS data, found a decline of 534,000 foreign workers in the US since it peaked in March of last year. That's a reduction of about 1.4 million foreign born workers than would be expected from previous government estimates. And they talk about the industries that lean on foreign born folks. We've mentioned a couple. You can imagine the rest. Meatpacking plants, hospitality, landscaping, construction. They say the unemployment rate for U.S. born workers was 4.7% in January compared to 4.3 in January 25th. The jobs that foreign workers filled may simply go away over time as the deportation wave continues. But at Least in January, the labor market shows signs of a welcome rebound, they said, but Americans are not filling those jobs. Let's see, there's more to this. But one interesting thing, and I thought I grabbed it, but I can't find it. They were pointing out how over the last. I guess they went back to 1980. Over the last 50 years or so, 45, 50 years, the relationship between people at the median income and the 80th percentile of income has changed. The 80th percentile has always been looked as the gateway to a comfortable life. Monocles, you can make it up there.

[Jack Armstrong]

Top hats.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, yeah. Spats, Butlers. Right, Butlers. Butlers wearing spats and monocles. But the. And I don't have the numbers in front of me, but the Percentage difference between 50% and 80% is much higher than it used to be as wealth is actually concentrating upward because of the nature of jobs, the nature of economy, the American economy now. And nobody's quite sure what to do about it, but as if you have to do anything about it in a purely libertarian point of view, you don't. It's just the way the cookie has crumbled and technology has changed the world. From a political point of view, though, it's dangerous.

[Jack Armstrong]

And that's the way the cookie has crumbled, temporarily, probably, and, well, different things will be true ten years from now.

[Joe Getty]

Right, Right. But again, politically speaking, ask anybody from any era and any form of government.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

You got masses of people thinking they're being done wrong by the upper crust. Change happens, Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, everybody's going to be out of work when AI takes over, so.

[Joe Getty]

Except health care workers, because we're all getting old.

[Jack Armstrong]

We got a good article about that a little bit later from one of your many AI experts saying people are not taking this seriously enough. Big things are coming. Winter is coming, and you should. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. That's the old. That's the whole thing. I believe big things are coming, but there's nothing I can do about it. I mean, I don't think there's any preparing for it other than maybe, you know, save your money.

[Joe Getty]

If you are one of our younger listeners and you're thinking, yeah, I'm looking at all this and thinking, God help us all. I have no idea what's going to happen or what to do about it. You're right to think that. Yeah, I wish we could offer more than sympathy. Be light on your feet and change with the times. The. Thanks, Grandpa. Yeah, it's as uncertain as it feels.

[Jack Armstrong]

God, who was I talking to just yesterday? They were. They were help. They're helping some young people with writing assignments and then really learning about AI and seeing how good it is and wondering, will young people ever need to write again? Will you. Will there be any value in being able to write? Or is it just being able to use AI to write?

[Joe Getty]

So they'll just babble out verbal prompts in their overly simplified pigeon English, nonsense, moronical ramblings, and the AI will sort it out and make it coherent.

[Jack Armstrong]

I suppose there'd be value in knowing what good writing is just so you could prompt the AI but I mean.

[Joe Getty]

No, I'm a gummer. Want a refund? Cause I got a. Got a bad bill. Dear sir strikes the AI I must protest my recent treatment at your grocery emporium.

[Jack Armstrong]

That is the way it's gonna work. Exactly, yes.

[Joe Getty]

And I am highly unsatisfied.

[Jack Armstrong]

Your humble servant. That is the way it's gonna go.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

You grunt out a couple of words it can barely understand. It comes up with something eloquent and you send it off. That's your resume. We got mailbag on the way and we'll get into some of the. More of the news of the day coming up. So stay here.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Tom Holman just announced the surge is over in Minneapolis with details around that announcement. Maybe we'll get to that in coming hours, but that's a pretty big deal. Pull out ice Barbie, put in Tom Holman and what, a week and a half later he says we're done here.

[Joe Getty]

Wow. All right, we will discuss. Here's your freedom hating quote of the day, continuing our series of quotes from communists. This one's really something. Sent along by alert listener Adam. Thank you, Adam. It's from. You've probably never heard of him. Patera Stirka. He was a Latvian Bolshevik revolutionary, key figure in early Soviet jurisprudence, blah, blah, blah, etc. So he's a big name in the Soviet Union. He said this communism means not the victory of socialist law, but the victory of socialism over any law. Since with the abolition of classes with their antagonistic interests, law will disappear altogether. This guy actually thought the socialist utopia would bring so much happiness and sharing and goodwill, there wouldn't need to be any rules, right? Holy crap. Really, dude?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

It seems that some ideas so idiotic only an intellectual could have.

[Jack Armstrong]

It seems that Lenin, who was an intellectual, thought there will be no stealing once we have the socialist utopia. People only do that because of blah blah, blah, blah Blah.

[Joe Getty]

Good Lord. I know.

[Jack Armstrong]

Isn't that crazy how.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, no kidding. As Matt Taibi, I quote him so often. Upper class twits promoting revolution. I Caramba mailbag, drop us a note mailbag at Armstrong and get Itcom. JT in Livermore frequent correspondent writes. I think it was in the first hour Wednesday show you discussed a poll about how Americans feel about things five years out numbers were a significant drop from previous polls. I don't know when, but Joe, you recently mentioned how business doesn't like uncertainty while consumers don't exactly love it either. Look at the unusual uncertainty facing Americans today. We have Hitler in the White House, the end of our democracy is nigh, ICE is Trump's private army, and they're randomly murdering Americans. Oh, and in a few years everybody is going to lose their jobs to AI. Well, nice job, jt. You left out the fact that we're all gonna die a fiery death when the climate change cooks the planet. Anyway, we've never had any of those concerns hammered into our psyche by the prevailing media the way we are getting it now, let alone all those things at one time. My question is, why is it the number even? Isn't the number even more pessimistic?

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow, that's a good point. Maybe. The amazing thing is look how optimistic we are in the face of all that.

[Joe Getty]

Right? The doom. Everywhere doom. And then he throws in a an aside. By the way, my goal is to have one day in which every mailbag entry is from JT in Livermore. Just saying that day could come. Jt thank you, buddy. Oh my God. Eric Six Gun Smith from beautiful Astoria, Oregon, another frequent correspondent writes on the topic of Angie suspect firearms knowledge. During the opening of yesterday's show, both of you ridiculed the alleged Tucson kidnapper, specifically the placement of his gun holster directly over his crotch. Jack rhetorically asked if this lame O had ever seen anyone carry a pistol like that. Well, well, well. It would seem that A&G's hubris has met its nemesis, Jacques. Exhibit A. Take a look at the storied adventurer Yukon Cornelius. And he includes a still picture from the treasured Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Stop action animation thing from the 60s. A child of four can clearly see he wears his gat perfectly centered atop his pee pee area. I I should think that this Arctic prospector, eccentric though he may be, knows a little more than you yucks about how to sling his nickel plated roscoe. Given that he can detect.

[Jack Armstrong]

My God.

[Joe Getty]

Given that he can detect precious metals just by tasting his pickaxe while taming Bumble the Abominable Snow Monster and saving Christmas for us all. I rest my case.

[Jack Armstrong]

I like it being about Rudolph and not the murder of an old woman. But it is weird that that scumbag decided to wear as a gun in a way nobody's ever seen anywhere, ever.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Yeah. Moving along, Jack, analyzing your dream, which featured both Gavin Newsom and Snoop Dogg. Correct. Bigger says, I think Jack is unwittingly dreaming an unbeatable Democratic ticket. Dog Newsome 2028. Look out. J.D. vance.

[Jack Armstrong]

I know a lot of you dream every night, and I guess that is normal. Like, you wake up and have dreams. You remember. I dream once a decade. But it's interesting to me how you can have these really powerful dreams and you wake up and they're. They dissipate so quickly and within an hour, you can't remember the details, which is interesting. It is interesting, Gavin.

[Joe Getty]

It is interesting. Yeah. Gavin, good luck with you and your. Your vp Snoop Dogg. On the smell in the restaurant, Quick responder BJ writes. He mentions a couple of ethnicities. Then he said, many years ago, I drove a bus in la. I could actually determine the ethnicity of a passenger without looking up. By the smell, I assume they mean of the clothes, the cooking.

[Jack Armstrong]

Smells interesting. That fits in with that restaurant I was talking about that we went into last night. We were like, whoa, is there a sewage leak? My son actually said that.

[Joe Getty]

Are you gonna reveal the sort of restaurant it's.

[Jack Armstrong]

I feel like that would do me no good. Hmm.

[Joe Getty]

Perhaps you could mention what you'd hoped to order.

[Jack Armstrong]

I didn't know what kind of restaurant it was. It's brand new, and you couldn't tell by the name. So I had no idea what it was. That's the reason I walked in. Oh, and the smell. As soon as soon as I got close to the restaurant, I thought, did the guy in front of us walking in the door just put a load in his pants? But then we got in the restaurant, realized it's what the rest. It was a restaurant smell coming out the door. And it was like. Sam was like, oh, my God, what is that smell? That shouldn't happen when you walk in a restaurant.

[Joe Getty]

Moving along to Ryan from Houston. Dear Jeffrey Armstrong and Jack Epstein on Big Sunday. Big game Sunday. Women peddled by Epstein in a twist of irony pulled in. Ashley Madison released an ad stating they were ready to name names. Congressman Massie states he's ready to name names. Stop playing games, damn it. It's a race to the bottom. I wish everyone involved in this cluster f shot into the sea by Trebuchette.

[Jack Armstrong]

I know, I know, I know. I mean, you should have the ultimate sympathy for the victims, but the victims doing the whole. Well, we have the list, and unless we get that, we're releasing it. What?

[Joe Getty]

Why?

[Jack Armstrong]

If you have information, give it over a long time ago.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I know, I know. And it's probably Trebuchet. I ain't French. And then Lieutenant Eric writes. He says he has something he wants you to watch. But he thinks one of the reason that women are freaked out, whether in Britain that we were talking about or the Western world about having kids, is that they're constantly being stuck, recorded often by themselves, and everything is posted all the time. He doesn't really spell it out, but I found it an intriguing thought that women think it's obligatory that they post their entire lives and that their uncertainty about parenting. They think, well, all of my mistakes will be broadcast because of course, I have to post everything.

[Jack Armstrong]

And. And I could see how it would look more. Parenting is pretty overwhelming anyway, but I can see how it would look even more overwhelming if you see all these videos and think, is this part deal? I got to do this right?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I have more thoughts on the topic, but we're out of time. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

The Financial Times has an interesting article about dropping birth rates that we're going to get to today, too. If you missed a segment, get the.

[Joe Getty]

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