I've Got A Delicious Monkey On My Back

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: "I've Got A Delicious Monkey On My Back"
Date: October 14, 2025

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Brief Overview

In this episode, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty return after the Columbus Day break with a raucous, fast-paced discussion of the latest world events. Their main focus: the historic release of Israeli hostages and new moves toward Middle East peace under President Trump. The episode also covers the vulnerabilities of U.S. infrastructure to Chinese cyber-attacks, the rising cost of coffee (and how we're all caffeine addicts), current domestic politics, and some quirky, lighthearted moments (including coffee jokes and Alec Baldwin's car crash). With trademark irreverence and biting humor, Armstrong & Getty navigate complex issues, highlight media absurdities, and offer a skeptical take on political spin—staying true to their "accept no substitutes" ethos.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Columbus Day Hangovers & Opening Banter

• The hosts joke about taking Columbus Day off, referencing modern criticisms of the holiday and poking fun at themselves for being "slackers."
• Jack claims to be "so hungover from my Columbus Day party" (00:41), with the duo indulging in facetious, self-deprecating humor.

2. Middle East Peace Moves and Hostage Release

• President Trump receives extraordinary reception in Israel following a breakthrough that brought home 20 remaining hostages.
• Sobering reminder: many hostages perished due to execution, starvation, denial of care, or abuse. The hosts emphasize that “they are murder victims” (01:56).
• Notable skepticism about media coverage focusing on optimism without addressing the deaths.
• Joe Getty:

  “What is called reality is, in fact, just convention...Trump looks at the conventional wisdom and says, ‘Yeah, I don’t care, I don’t care. We’ve got a deal to make.’” (05:34)

• Jack shares a memorable quote (attributed to George Bernard Shaw) about how history is driven not by those who accept reality, but those who ignore it and press ahead (04:34).
• Discussion of unprecedented cooperation among former enemies in the Middle East; hosts see this as a potential historical pivot point (03:34).

3. Political Spin and Credit-Grabbing

• Biden and Blinken claim the Trump peace plan “built on their approach”; the hosts lampoon this, labeling such claims as typical political credit-grabbing (21:12).
• Jack:

  “That’s my favorite part of politics—everybody trying to take credit when something goes well or...distance themselves when something goes poorly.” (21:15)

• Notable contrast drawn between the Trump administration's boldness and previous “conventional” approaches.

4. Hamas and Regional Dynamics

• Deep dive into the pressure campaign applied by Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey on Hamas to accept a deal they initially rejected; ultimate surrender framed as a sign of isolation and desperation (24:28).
• Discussion on the moral asymmetry of prisoner exchanges:

  “So you give us...some college girl you snatched...we’ll give you back five people that blew up Israeli buses…” (27:15)

• Hamas’s declining popularity, execution of suspected traitors, and future prospects are examined with a skeptical, sometimes darkly comic lens.

5. Media & Government Dysfunction

• Criticism of U.S. government shutdowns as largely forgettable and media coverage as dishonest and driven by “shameless political grandstanding” (07:05).
• Satirical skepticism toward new government messaging in airports (15:23).

6. China: Cyber Threats and Trade Wars

• Alarm over China’s infiltration of U.S. infrastructure exposed by a recent “bone-chilling” 60 Minutes segment (09:22).
• Jack relates chilling claims about Chinese hackers having the power to poison water supplies or shut down essential services at will (09:58).
• Joe:

  “My God, we are so vulnerable and we’re asleep...China is asshole.” (09:33)

• Trump’s announcement of a 100% tariff on China—potentially for rare earth metals—raises questions about presidential powers and future economic disruption (13:38).

7. Coffee Shortages & Caffeine Addiction

• The Atlantic reports coffee production is threatened, prices skyrocket, and the hosts riff on America’s caffeine addiction with classic A&G wit:

  “I got a delicious monkey on my back.” – Jack (08:11) “As long as there’s enough for me, I’m good.” – Joe (08:16)

8. Notable Quotes and Humorous Exchanges

• Joe Getty, wryly referencing China’s cyber capabilities:

  “We are at the hottest cold war that’s ever existed.” (11:10)

• The infamous dad joke section:

  Jack: “What do you call a snowman who can play the piano?”
  Katie: “I don’t know.”
  Jack: “Melton John.” (14:05)

9. Katie Green’s Headlines (14:27–17:35)

• Roundup of international and domestic headlines:
  • Trump pushes for lasting harmony in the Middle East.
  • Russian airstrike hits Ukrainian hospital ahead of Trump-Zelensky meeting.
  • U.S. starts charging Chinese ships to dock.
  • Gavin Newsom bans Glock pistols in California.
  • Gouda cheese contaminated with microplastics (“not Gouda news”).
  • New malware films people watching porn.
  • Satirical piece from Babylon Bee: “Hitler brings peace to Israel.”
• Brief discussion of how major world events might quickly disappear from headlines or collective memory.

10. Alec Baldwin’s Car Crash

• Brief entertainment break: Alec Baldwin blames a "truck the size of a whale” after crashing his wife’s Range Rover. Armstrong & Getty joke about celebrities' compulsion to post explanations on Instagram (30:31–31:15).

11. Mailbag & Listener Feedback (34:44–39:39)

• A highlight: Dr. Joe’s quote from Michael Oakshott on ideology vs. tradition (33:47).
• Joking skepticism about social media use being down—hosting see it as kids “lying there, slack-jawed...scroll and scroll and scroll” (36:47).
• Listener questions whether Hamas really gave up anything of value, prompting speculation about the shifting alliances in the Arab world (37:40).
• Listener JT calls Trump “on track to be the third greatest POTUS of all time” as A&G run down a list of Trump’s achievements (38:34).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On political reality:

  “There’s a lot of what is called reality that is, in fact, just convention.”
  – Joe Getty (05:34)

• On credit for Middle East progress:

  “That’s my favorite part of politics—everybody trying to take credit when something goes well...”
  – Jack Armstrong (21:15)

• On Chinese cyber threats:

  “We are so vulnerable and we’re asleep...China is asshole.”
  – Joe Getty (09:33)

• On coffee addiction:

  “I got a delicious monkey on my back.”
  – Jack Armstrong (08:11)

• Dad joke time:

  “What do you call a snowman who can play the piano?... Melton John.”
  – Jack Armstrong (14:05)

• On award cynicism:

  “Honestly, I would like to devalue that prize as a thing. Anyway. It’s been ridiculous for a very long time.”
  – Joe Getty (18:10)

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Timestamps & Segment Map

• 00:41 – Joking about Columbus Day hangovers, self-parody.
• 01:33–04:34 – Hostage release and the pivot in Middle East geopolitics.
• 04:34–05:34 – Shaw quote on history driven by dreamers vs. realists.
• 05:34–06:13 – Trump’s approach: “reality is just convention.”
• 07:05 – Dysfunctional government and dishonest media.
• 08:05–08:53 – Coffee shortages, price surges, and caffeine jokes.
• 09:22–11:10 – China’s cyber infiltration and vulnerabilities in U.S. infrastructure.
• 13:38–13:53 – 100% China tariff and rare earths; looming trade war.
• 14:05–17:35 – Katie Green’s headlines & dad jokes.
• 18:10 – Dismissal of the Nobel Peace Prize’s significance.
• 21:12–24:28 – Peace plan credit-grabbing; behind-the-scenes on the Hamas deal.
• 27:15–28:03 – Exchange of hostages and Israel’s ethical calculus.
• 30:31–31:15 – Alec Baldwin’s car crash and social media habits.
• 33:47 – Oakshott quote on ideology and tradition.
• 34:44–39:39 – Mailbag: Columbus Day, social media skepticism, Trump’s legacy.

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Overall Tone & Style

With their hallmark mix of hard-nosed skepticism, dry wit, and blunt commentary, Armstrong & Getty dissect the news of the day, taking no sacred cows and consistently lampooning political spin from all sides. The tone swings between sometimes biting critique, gallows humor, and the unserious (dad jokes, pop culture ribbing), sticking closely to the hosts’ irreverent style.

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For Listeners New to the Episode...

If you missed the show, this summary covers the central news topics: the real-world stakes and complexities of Middle East peacemaking, the shadow war with China, economic anxieties like coffee inflation, and plenty of classic Armstrong & Getty style: skeptical, snarky, and refreshingly unfiltered. The episode is as much about how the media and political class spin events as the events themselves—expect analysis laced with both insight and irreverence.

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

This is an iHeart podcast broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln radio Studio at.

[Commercial Announcer]

The George Washington Broadcast Center. Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm Strong and Getty. And now here.

[Joe Getty]

I'm Strong and Getty live from Studio C. Senor, I am.

[Jack Armstrong]

So hungover for my Columbus Day party. Oh, my God.

[Joe Getty]

Drinking so much Spanish wine.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. And brought in some Native American people to abuse. It was quite the party. But anyway, a dimly lit room deep within the bowels of the Armstrong and Getty Communications compound. And hey, y', all, today we're back at work and we're under the tutelage.

[Joe Getty]

Of our general manager, Donald J. Trump, Ass kicker, comma, peacemaker.

[Jack Armstrong]

Ass kicker, comma, peacemaker.

[Joe Getty]

And those two are closely related friends, our honorary assistant general managers, Joe Biden and Anthony Blinken, who are out saying Donald Trump and his administration built on the peace plans that we had developed. Okay, our hilarious boys. Everybody's totally buying that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Quite a day yesterday, huh? I was almost regretting us not being on the air as all the hostages were being returned. The 20 remaining hostages that are alive, which I guess.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know, I understand why you didn't focus on the fact that there are only 20 alive and a whole bunch of bodies. And how did those alive people become bodies? I guess that's the only way you can get this peace thing to happen, but. Heck of a thing to overlook.

[Joe Getty]

I understand the difficulty of the editorial decision if you have a shortish newscast and you depend heavily on video. Video to keep people watching, but, yeah, you and I were thinking exactly the same thing. Maybe two of those dead, 28 died of natural causes or some disease that they already had. The rest were starved, abused, executed, or just denied medical care for easily curable conditions. They are murder victims.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Tortured to death. And that's a heck of a thing to ignore, but, you know, I guess that's part of the process of moving on.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, there's a Heck, it's not like no price has been paid by the Islamist monsters.

[Jack Armstrong]

Now, I was looking at some of those. A lot of the videos before they were actually released, the living hostages, where they would say they love their loved ones. I'm coming home. It's just a matter of hours now. There'd be two Hamas guys standing next to him. Right.

[Joe Getty]

It's just incredible. Shoulder to shoulder, menacing them.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, but the man, the reception that Trump got there in Israel yesterday, we got audio from that coming up later, but, man, that was something.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, it was absolutely amazing. And then the turn toward broader peace in the Middle east starts to get a little more complicated, but it's always been complicated. And so he's moving forward. We are moving forward.

[Jack Armstrong]

You certainly have more participants who used to only vow to wipe each other off the map, working together in a way that's never happened.

[Joe Getty]

Right. And herding those cats won't be easy, but the fact that they are in a herd is astonishing, and it does. It's more than just a momentary gesture or an interesting chapter. I really do think it was a pivot point. This is a pivot point in the Middle east where the reasonable folks are realizing that the extremist folks aren't doing them any favors and never have. Now, you know, that makes it sound a little easier than it's going to be, but, I mean, Hamas, for instance, brutally unpopular on the ground in Gaza at this point. Terribly unpopular. The Egyptians, you know, consented to have Netanyahu come. Although the word behind the scenes is a lot of the Arabs were like, dudes, I cannot be in a picture with BB Netanyahu. So, anyway, a lot to be worked out, but the fact that we're moving in that direction is. Is amazing.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah, it's. It's going to be something to watch. I don't know if you heard this quote, like, heard it a couple of different places. I'd never heard it before. I think it's credited to George Bernard Shaw. Some men look at things the way they are and accept reality. Some men decide to ignore reality and go full steam ahead anyway. And history is driven by that second group. I thought that was really interesting. I'd never heard that quote before because I. I lean toward that first group, and I tend to want people who lean toward that first group in charge of everything, who accept reality and work with it, as opposed to, nah, I don't believe it. That's reality. I'm just gonna go barreling this direction anyway. But the fact that history is driven by those who are the second group, you know, a lot of calamities and plans unfulfilled are driven by that second group also, obviously.

[Joe Getty]

Right. There's a lot of what is called reality that is, in fact, just convention. Middle east is a great example of that, and we've talked about this a number of times, that Trump looks at the conventional wisdom and says, yeah, I don't care, I don't care. We've got a deal to make. Let's figure out how to make the deal. Well, Mr. President, you can't move the capital to Jerusalem. Because he's like, yeah, we're gonna. That was just what was called reality was just convention.

[Jack Armstrong]

The post 67 borders after the six day war lead us to. I don't know what you're talking about and I don't care.

[Joe Getty]

Right. Right. Make the problem bigger. Who's standing in the way? Cutter? A, drop a bomb. I'm gonna drop a bomb on them. And B, invite them to the next summit.

[Jack Armstrong]

So the shutdown continues. We're now the fifth longest shutdown of all time. Something like that. And I just saw a chart of the longer shutdowns than we've had so far. You don't remember any of them except for one that happened in 1978. And if you're old enough, that happened in your lifetime. But even if you're younger, except for the one that happened in 1978, they've all happened in your lifetime and you don't remember them at all. So good. End today and then we'll move on with our lives. But maybe I won't end for. Who knows? I don't know. We have a dysfunctional government. There's a. There. There's a breaking news. I hope that didn't shock anybody. I hope you're okay.

[Joe Getty]

And a grotesquely dishonest media, too. If they were reporting anywhere near honestly on this, it never would have happened. So shameless political grandstanding. Checked. It's awful.

[Jack Armstrong]

Check in on that stupid story later. I just came across. The Atlantic has a. I'm thinking about this because I'm drinking coffee right now. Oh, my God, I love coffee. A drug addict. Most of us are drug addicts, caffeine addicts and pathetic junkie. The Atlantic has a story out. Coffee is in trouble. And for a variety of reasons. Tariffs, changing climate, business models, all kinds of different things. Coffee is in trouble. It is 40% more expensive than it was a year ago. And it had taken a giant leap the year before that. Oh, it is. It is becoming a real serious problem where coffee is going to come from and how I'm going to keep it at a price. Anybody can afford it because we're all addicts. And if we ready.

[Joe Getty]

Sorry, no more trips. I got to afford my brown smack. Got to be able to afford my hot, bitter smack.

[Jack Armstrong]

All right, more vacations. I got a delicious monkey on my back.

[Joe Getty]

As long as there's enough for me, I'm good.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's the attitude.

[Joe Getty]

I got mine.

[Jack Armstrong]

How long does it keep? Maybe if it's going up like that, I should just buy a whole bunch of it, keep it in my house, you know, enough for the next rest.

[Joe Getty]

Of my life, I'm a Nespresso guy and a Keurig guy and. And those pods last a long time.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, they do. They're also expensive. It, I, I've noticed a lot of the time when I go, you get rung up at the grocery store and they ring up the bill, it's like, what? How did I spend that much money? It's the box of coffee pods that I got.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, they're much, much cheaper than getting your coffee out though.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh yeah, no doubt. So, and then I definitely want to. I'm hot to trot about this first story they had on 60 Minutes from Sunday night about China. 60 Minutes has been doing a good job for a couple of years on alerting us to China's threats with a variety of stories. But the one they had on Sunday night was I found Bone chilling. I don't know why. This isn't like the main topic of conferen conversation the way China is.

[Joe Getty]

I've been trying to convince you of that.

[Jack Armstrong]

The way China is hacked into so many of our systems across the country and wondering why did they do it? What is their plan?

[Joe Getty]

And they have a kill switch on everything we depend on. Hanson put together AI saying, Joe Getty, Cold Warrior or just I can do it for you. Yes, yes. My God, we are so vulnerable and we're asleep. We're sleeping like fat little babies with no idea the dangers lurking outside the nursery door. China is asshole.

[Jack Armstrong]

We'll play some summary, we'll play some clips later. But if you didn't see it, they had this four star general on, had been running security at the nsa, all kinds of different things for many, many years. And he was, he was, he was really laying out a frightening story of how they're into all our computer systems, cell phone towers, water plants in tiny little towns all across America. And one thing that they did is they didn't get in with malware, which would eventually be detected. They just hacked in and got the passwords. And so if they ever need to, they can get in there and make all the water in your town poison, really by messing with the chemicals. They could do that like today if they wanted to, or probably more likely, according to this security expert, after they decide to move on Taiwan and we start doing or saying threatening things, all of a sudden there's like five towns spread across America where the water turned to poison. That would freak people out.

[Joe Getty]

Oh yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh my God. You imagine the reaction to that and trying to see we can do that with everything we can do that with cell phone towers. We can do it with your water, we can turn off your hospitals. We can do it all.

[Joe Getty]

Electric grid, please. That'll be the first thing to go.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, that's quite a story. So we'll talk about that. Oh my God. That is just absolutely amazing.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

All right.

[Joe Getty]

You add that to their psychological warfare programs, including tick tock. I'm telling you, we are at the hottest cold war that's ever existed.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm Jack Armstrong, he's Joe Getty. Suffering from our Columbus Day hangovers. The Tuesday, October 14th year 2025. We Armstrong and Getty and we approve of this program.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, let's begin officially then, according to FCC rules and regulations. Here we go at mark.

[Jack Armstrong]

So is that Israel or Gaza? Because it could have been either one. I saw people chanting that in both places.

[Joe Getty]

I believe that was what used to be called Hostage Square now Celebration Square I think they're calling it in Israel. Yeah, yeah. Amazing.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, it actually is. And there will be movies made and dozens of books written over coming decades about how all that came together and.

[Joe Getty]

There'S actually some decent coverage already. How what pressure was brought to bear. Exactly. That com that convinced Hamas to give up their only leverage. Really interesting.

[Jack Armstrong]

Cool. Want to hear that? We got a lot on the way. We got Katie's headlines coming up. Stay right here.

[Joe Getty]

Joe Getty, Cold Warrior. That's good.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's really good.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Gettysburg.

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[Jack Armstrong]

Also, while we were off for a couple of days, Trump announced a 100% CH tariff on China, which is a really big deal and has got the markets all. Why, what's how, how Long. How's it going to work?

[Commercial Announcer]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

And we can talk more about that later.

[Joe Getty]

China holding back on our precious metals to our rare earth metals that we need so badly. So trade, war. Trade war. All right, let's figure out who's reporting what. It's lead story with Katie Green. Katie.

[Jack Armstrong]

Katie, firstly, what do you call a snowman who can play the piano?

[Katie Green]

I don't know, Milton.

[Jack Armstrong]

John, go on.

[Joe Getty]

Who asked for that? Very good.

[Katie Green]

I think that should be a new feature before headlines.

[Jack Armstrong]

It is going to be. I've got a bunch of those.

[Joe Getty]

Every day tells a kid's joke. Yes, exactly. Fang is to the headlines for the.

[Katie Green]

Adults from NBC celebrating a hard won ceasefire. Trump pushes for, quote, lasting harmony in the Middle East.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Your lips to God, all those ears. Oh, oh, oh.

[Joe Getty]

Interesting comment.

[Jack Armstrong]

Multi layered commenter. Yes. I hope, I hope you picked up on it more. It was more, it was more. It was more complicated than my Melton.

[Joe Getty]

John joke from abc.

[Katie Green]

Russian aerial attack hits a Ukrainian hospital just days before Zelensky set to meet with Trump.

[Joe Getty]

If you're going to terrorize a population, go after those hospitals and schools. Vladimir.

[Katie Green]

And this one coming from cnn. Multiple airports refused to play Kristi Noem video that blames the Democrats for the government shutdown.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Airports refused to play a video.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I don't know about political videos in the airport while I'm walking to my gate. Anyway, I don't know. What is that?

[Joe Getty]

Oh, are they part of CNN's programming? It's a paid spot or what? Katie.

[Katie Green]

No, it was a video that, that the administration put out talking about how, you know, the TSA and the federal workers, they want to do the best job that they can. And it's Kristi Noem saying it. And then it goes into, you know. But the Democrats have shut the government down.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

If there was a mechanism for that sort of thing already. Okay. But honestly, I don't need the government messaging me in the airport.

[Katie Green]

From the New York Times, US starts charging Chinese ships to dock at its ports.

[Jack Armstrong]

There you go.

[Katie Green]

From USA Today, Governor Gavin Newsom signs law banning Glock pistols in the state of California.

[Jack Armstrong]

The governor of California signed a bunch of laws over the last several days that we should talk about.

[Joe Getty]

I'm guessing most of them are as unconstitutional as that one.

[Jack Armstrong]

That is not the point. The point is signaling that you're the right kind of person to be the nominee for president.

[Joe Getty]

That was my point. Huh. He knows they won't get through. Oh, boy. That's just like that famous rock star guy.

[Katie Green]

Okay, this will make you sweat. From PC World. New malware waits until you watch porn, then secretly films you via your webcam.

[Joe Getty]

Please don't. Oh, boy.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, my God. Oh, boys. Is Michael.

[Katie Green]

From the New York Post not Gouda News? Your cheese is teeming with microplastics.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, no, Gouda is a kind of cheese and it sounds like the word good.

[Joe Getty]

So, yes, kind of a play on words. It is.

[Jack Armstrong]

You're right, Michael. It is kind of a play on word.

[Katie Green]

You really cleaned that one up for us, Jack.

[Jack Armstrong]

Thank you.

[Katie Green]

And finally, from the Babylon bee, Hitler brings peace to Israel.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, right. Now Hitler brings dozens of hostage Jews home. Exactly. And saves thousands of Jewish lives.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know, I heard a lot of talk about the Nobel Peace Prize and whether or not Trump will or should win it next time around. It was just announced last week, so I'm guessing it's roughly a year till we'll announce the next one. This will seem like ancient history a year from now. Plus there'll be all the twists and turns out from, you know, how the peace deal comes together or doesn't come together over the next year. I just. I just think it'll be such a distant memory.

[Joe Getty]

Right. And honestly, I would like to devalue that prize as a thing. Anyway. It's been ridiculous for a very long time.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, man. But we're nine months into Trump's term. There are so many things yet to go. We got a lot of stuff to talk about today to catch you up on the news from the weekend. I hope you can stick here.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Gettysburg.

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[Joe Getty]

It's A really significant first step. And I really commend President Trump and his administration, as well as Arab leaders in the region.

[Jack Armstrong]

Lots of people, including Hillary Clinton there, who don't normally have anything nice to say about Trump saying nice things about Trump because of the way things have unfolded in the Middle east over the last several days.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. Hillary is a witch and a partisan, but she's a realist in a way that a lot of people in politics aren't. So. Yeah, I appreciate that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, her and her husband had been bumping up against Hamas for many decades, so they realize. They realize what time it is.

[Joe Getty]

Well, and Billy, Jeff was. I mean, he was about ready to get, like, the next 10 years worth of Nobel Peace Prizes when he got stiffed at the last minute by Yasser Arafat, who was afraid of radical Islamists. So, yeah, they're. They're realists about, you know, the. The jihadis, no doubt. Before we get into the actual news, got to at least tip our cap to the fact that both Joe Biden and Anthony Blinken are on social media claiming that the Gaza breakthrough was just building on their approach and they'd gotten practically all the way to the finish line. And in a lengthy post on X, Blinken said it was. It's good that President Trump adopted and built on the plan the Biden administration developed after months of discussion with Arab partners, Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

[Jack Armstrong]

Ah, right. That's my favorite part of.

[Joe Getty]

Truly hilarious.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's my favorite part part of politics is everybody trying to take credit when something goes well or. Or everybody trying to distance themselves when something goes poorly. That's my favorite thing of the whole political thing. Most of my favorite thinkers who don't like Trump, including Ian Bremmer, say Biden Harris, were never going to get there with their approach.

[Joe Getty]

Right, right. The truth is, of course, that Trump did the opposite of what Blinken and Biden did, which was constantly restrain Israel. And every time they did, it gave Hamas more incentive to hang on. And anytime Bibi would have thought of doing something as bold as throwing a missile into Qatar or asking Biden to bomb the Fordo nuclear plant. Can you picture that?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. I was watching ABC News's coverage of it last night, and they're like, one phrase explanation for how this came together was Trump pressuring Bibi Netanyahu. Oh, no. Okay, so that's. That's why the whole thing went down. It wasn't all these countries making it clear that Hamas days were over and all the pressure that came from that. And, and the Peace agreement is basically a surrender by Hamas. So I don't know.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, anybody who reports that or says that, never watch them or listen to them or read them again. I mean, that's not only is that like wish casting based on nothing, but it's, it's, it's a weird antisemitism too. How can you possibly believe that when it was clear all the Arab states were pressured and, or cajoled into condemning Hamas and yanking away their, their, their support Anyway, to that point, some great coverage in the Wall Street Journal. A coordinated squeeze forced Hamas to accept a deal it didn't want Egypt. Okay, so the plan, which was put together by Trump and the partners in this whole process that was then presented to Hamas, looked nothing like what Hamas's leader, Khalil Ay Haya expected to see, according to officials familiar with the discussions. Haya, who less than a month earlier had been a target of that bombing in Qatar, told his visitors, the diplomats, that the group would keep its Israeli hostages until it had enforceable guarantees the war would end. Period. Two days later, Hamas came back to Arab mediators and said, yeah, we'll go along with the deal. The deal had not changed. The pressure on Hamas had. Egypt and Qatar told Haya the deal was his last chance to end the war. According to the officials, they presented Hamas to understand, or they pressed Hamas rather, to understand that holding the hostages was becoming a strategic liability, giving Israel a source of legitimacy to keep fighting. The next day, they were joined by Turkey, who warned him that if Hamas didn't approve the plan, it would be stripped of all political and diplomatic cover. Qatar and Turkey would kick their asses out, and Egypt would stop pressing for Hamas to have a say in Gaza's post war governance. The official said.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

Meanwhile, the Alphabet news networks report that he pressured Netanyahu.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, so as ABC News said, it all came together because Trump was willing to put pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, that is unbelievable. Says to Tahani Mustafa, visiting fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations. Hamas themselves have been under a lot of pressure from regional mediators. Hamas also knows they're probably not going to politically survive this thing if it continues down this route, especially given that their popularity is declining. Yeah, they were desperate and had no friends left.

[Jack Armstrong]

So Jared Kushner actually met with Hamas leaders, which is one of those things that you supposedly can't or aren't supposed to do, but he did, and that helped bring this all together. There. There's a guy that is somewhat inscrutable and I suppose historians Will have to try to figure out his role and what he is up to. He's been at the center of all this Middle east stuff. He put together the Abraham Accords and. But just. He keeps his head down. He doesn't go on the Sunday shows, he doesn't write long pieces for newspapers.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I remember the whole. He's a Nepo baby. He's just Trump's son in law. So he's been elevated. He has no experience, blah, blah, blah. He's got some sort of talent for sure. And it's probably at least slightly Trumpian in that the. No, I don't care about the old lines. After the 1973 bombing, in the, the lingering tensions between. No, we're going to get to a deal. Sit down.

[Jack Armstrong]

So Hamas spent several days there rounding up Palestinians there in Gaza that they think had betrayed them and executing them, which is quite a thing. Yeah, I don't know how they think that helped them in any way. Turning the population even more against them.

[Joe Getty]

I don't know. Well, I think.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, because they had, they had courts. So anyway, I was just reading Jonah Goldberg writing. The Hamas put together these courts and had trials, they claim, and then executed these people. Jonah Goldberg of the Dispatch writing, it's amazing that Hamas managed to pull off this despite enduring months of famine. It makes it all the more impressive. Standing up a legal system in rubble while ravenously hungry must be really hard.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. Unbelievable. Well, to get back to your question about the show trials and executions and all that just reminds us, I think, that they're dead enders and hardcore Islamic extremists.

[Jack Armstrong]

Man, the list of. And we can go through a little bit later, some of the people that Israel has to let go. I mean, just some horrible human beings.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, yeah, a bunch of life sentence.

[Jack Armstrong]

Guys as part of the exchange. So you give us somebody, some college girl you snatched at a outdoor concert, raped and tortured, we'll give you back five people that blew up Israeli buses and a bunch of innocents. Okay, that's a fair swap, but that's, that's the way they do it in Israel. It's part of their, part of their Jewish law.

[Joe Getty]

Well, they cherish life and believe it's a sacred thing to, to have the body back and bury it. The Islamic extremists embrace death. They want it. They love martyrdom. So, yeah, the Israelis have so much less leverage in that sort of negotiation. It's just, it's interesting.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I'd say you hope some of those bad guys don't become household names in six months or six years, like old Sinwar did. He was one of the hostages released last time around and he. He orchestrated the whole October 7th thing, right?

[Joe Getty]

Right. Well, to neutralize that. And a lot of them you'll never neutralize. They will be and do exactly what you're suggesting. But the tweeners, the wobblers, the guys who might go that route or might not, if this coalition of. No, we're done with that. Let's do deals, make peace and bring, you know, and it's funny, we haven't gotten to this part of the discussion until now. Bring happiness and prosperity and education and open shops and people walking down the streets and cheerily greeting their neighbors in the Middle East. There's no reason that shouldn't be happening. Except for, well, Islamic extremists and handful of other factors.

[Jack Armstrong]

Alec Baldwin crashed his Range Rover yesterday. We've got full team coverage coming up after we tell you about this from Prize Picks. I don't know.

[Joe Getty]

I hope his fake Spaniard wife's all right.

[Jack Armstrong]

It was her car, as he mentioned in his Instagram video. More on that after this.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, Prize Picks. The best, most fun, easiest way to get in on daily fantasy sports. Whether you're a football fan, basketball fan, or. Or both. It always feels good to be right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. So basketball season's cranking up, obviously. Got the baseball playoffs and some great football. Let's deal with the Bills right now. Man, I was picking more on Josh Allen all the time. Maybe I'll go less. Yes, you pick more on or less. Like with the basketball player, you can pick the same player up to three times in the same lineup. You want to pick more on Steph Curry's points, three pointers and cysts. Go ahead. Just download the Prize Picks app today. Use the Code Armstrong to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.

[Joe Getty]

Price picks is going to have to offer for the 49ers. How many of their best players will be rolled off the field in a cartoon? Good lord, pick them more Disaster. Anyway, great player call outs. You've got these big max discount squares where it's a total no brainer to pick them and download the Prize Picks app today. Use the Code Armstrong to get 50 in lineups after you play just a five dollar lineup. That's the code ARMSTRONG. Get $50 in lineups after you play your first five dollar lineup. Prize picks. It's good to be right. Celebrities.

[Jack Armstrong]

They're just like us. So Alec Baldwin claims they're in his Northeast super rich enclave that he is going around the corner and there was a great big garbage truck or something like that he said the size of a whale and forced him off truck. So he was driving his fake Spaniard wife's Range Rover and he had to move out of the way and he crashed into a tree and the pictures of it just like right up against a tree like cartoon style. And the best part of it is that he had to release or he felt he needed to put out an Instagram video explaining himself later for whatever reason. So celebrities are just like us, except they have to put out Instagram videos after they wreck their cars. We'll have full team coverage much later in the show over that. We've got Mailbag on the way. Gotta talk about that. That whole China 100% tariff thing that Trump announced could be a major deal, especially headed into Christmas time if he sticks with it. Some of the things he said in his Truth social post when he announced this. Oh again. And then you got to get to the Supreme Court ruling. Does one guy get to decide there's a 100% tariff on the second biggest economy in the world? Interacting with the first biggest comedy economy in the world doesn't.

[Joe Getty]

If the one guy is Xi Jinping, the answer is yes. If it's Donald Trump, it's different.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I don't know. Doesn't seem like one guy to be able to do that. But anyway, we got a lot more on the way. I hope you can stay here.

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[Jack Armstrong]

I don't want to be too grim, especially when we're dealing with Alec Baldwin having wrecked his Range Rover, but I just came across the video of Hamas executing eight dudes this morning who had obviously been beaten. What do they think they're going to get up, by the way, to a cheering crowd? Wow, that's not helping. You're not helping yourself, I don't think. But I don't know what their point is.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, well, more to say on that topic, really interesting. Here is your freedom loving quote of the day sent along by Dr. Joe and Reno. Well done, Dr. Joe. It's from Michael Oakshott from his essay Rationalism in Politics, which I was not familiar with, but I'm going to pursue this. This one's a little wordy, so hang in there.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'll do my best.

[Joe Getty]

The superiority or victory of an ideology over a tradition of thought lies in its appearance of being self contained. It can best be taught to those minds who are empty. And if it is to be taught to one who already believes something, the first step of the teacher must be to administer a purge to make certain that all prejudices and preconceptions are removed. To lay his foundation upon the unshakable rock of absolute ignorance. Wow. In other words, a shorter version of that would be. That's why they always go for the children and the young people. Because if you're going to convince someone your ideology is better than all that's gone before it and all that's proven to be true, it's best taught to those whose minds are empty. Otherwise it's going to butt up against what's true. That's a wordy, but it's a good point. Thank you, Dr. Joe.

[Jack Armstrong]

Mailbag.

[Joe Getty]

Write to us, would you please? The email address is mailbagarmstrongetty.com first, your meme of the day sent along by Joel. It's a picture of Christopher Columbus and it says, here's to Christopher Columbus, the only illegal immigrant the left ever hated.

[Jack Armstrong]

Columbus Day. I don't get it. I don't get why it's still a thing. Not because I think he was some sort of evil settler colonialist or something like that. I just don't understand why it's holiday.

[Joe Getty]

Mark writes. Welcome back slackers. Columbus Day. Whatever. We're all out getting it done Monday. Well, you're off being soft. Taking a day. You gotta stay frosty. Show up, you start riding the sled of superfluous holiday observance, you might as well just punch the card. I wish I could have taken the day off. I thought I would join the other smart asses. How do you spell that, Mark? Beautiful. Wow, great email.

[Jack Armstrong]

I think that is the first time we ever took Columbus Day off. And what's next? Arbor Day? National Hamburger Day?

[Joe Getty]

Right. Wait a minute. I can't say it any better than him. You start riding the sled of superfluous holiday observance, you might as well just punch your card. Oh, my God. This is one of my favorite emails of all time. Mark. That's funny.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Honestly, we've never taken Columbus Day off because it's a stupid holiday. But Michael, Michelangelo was off celebrating his anniversary, right? And various folks, kids were off school and we thought, yeah, what the heck.

[Jack Armstrong]

Michael, because he is of Italian descent, got married on Columbus Day.

[Joe Getty]

That's right. Yeah, yeah. Beautiful tribute to the great man Michael. Moving along, Brian. Right, right. Well, Michael's a big fan of his wife and genocide. Everybody knows that. Uh, let's see. Brian with a. A nice note. Social media use is dropping. For the first time, I view this as good news, which means you probably won't mention it on the air since you two covet the title of the most depressing radio show ever. Well, well, Brian, my friend.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, man, you.

[Joe Getty]

You think you're gonna wander in here and. And, like, push us around? You're a child, Brian. A child. You just got in the boxing ring with Mike Tyson. Here's why social media use is down. Posting is down because the poor brainwashed kids find it too much. It takes too much effort. So they just lie there, slack jawed and glassy eyed, and scroll and scroll and scroll. That's why social media uses down.

[Jack Armstrong]

So posting is down, but like reading it and getting your news from it is not down. Yeah, okay, that's interesting.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Again, you. You bring your joy in here, Brian. No. It's gonna get its ass kicked, Joe Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah. Cold war.

[Joe Getty]

This has nothing to do with the Cold War.

[Jack Armstrong]

We do not allow good news around here. Joe Getty. Killjoy.

[Joe Getty]

Let's see. Interesting thought here from Paolo. Guys, let's not get carried away with enthusiasm over the Middle east situation. He said the remaining hostages were of little value to Hamas. They were not preventing Israel from doing anything they thought they needed to do militarily. Hamas is ceded nothing of real value to themselves. They need to disarm and relinquish any governing power. I think the only thing you're missing, Paulo, is that the eternal, unshakable support that the various Islamist extremists were getting from the Arab world is going away. It's practically Iran and nobody. And Trump has just made some big overtures to Iran. But you're right Hamas are dead enders and lunatics then perhaps our most rigorous learned and and and and willing to devote a crapload of time Correspondent JT in beautiful Livermore, California says Just planting the seed, Trump is on track to be the third greatest POTUS of all time. Obviously it's too early, given that Trump is only four months nine. Four years nine months into his full eight years. Additionally, a lot depends on how you define great or greatest. But that said, here's a thumbnail list of Trump's monumental achievements. Candidate Trump was the first significant politician to sound the alarm on the problems with China. By contrast, Biden didn't even see China as a competitor to the U.S. trump built a roaring economy only derailed by Covid. I'm summarizing some of these. Trump excelled in foreign policy during his first term, taming North Korea briefly, orderly drawdown in Afghanistan, decimated isis. There's a long, long list. And then the stuff of the second.

[Jack Armstrong]

Term drove Rosie o' Donnell out of the country.

[Joe Getty]

Perhaps his greatest achievement. And he appeared to be politically dead in January of 2020 and staged the greatest comeback perhaps in the history of politics anywhere, anytime.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, that's not a perhaps, that's a for certain.

[Joe Getty]

We got a lot of other stuff.

[Jack Armstrong]

On the way too. If you miss it, get the podcast Armstrong and Getty on Demand.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Gettysburg.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is an I Heart podcast.