Le Cheap Fake

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand: Episode Summary – "Le Cheap Fake"

Release Date: May 28, 2025
Host: Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty
Platform: iHeartPodcasts

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1. Introduction and Opening Remarks

The episode kicks off with Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty setting the stage for a deep dive into geopolitical tensions and current events.

• Jack Armstrong (00:38): "I just came across the story about a lip reader who's read the lips of McCrone and his wife, President McCrone and his wife on the plane. What they were saying as she was shoving him in the face."

• Joe Getty (00:51): "Has it justified, backed up my theory that it was an actual angry conflict. Stay tuned."

This teaser introduces the primary focus of the episode, blending international politics with intriguing personal dynamics.

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2. Historical Context: Putin vs. Hitler

Jack and Joe draw parallels between Vladimir Putin’s actions and those of Adolf Hitler, emphasizing patterns of aggression and global response.

• Jack Armstrong (01:29): "I usually think it is amazing how many of the similar things are happening with the way Putin is being looked at just little by little. Crimea was the Rhineland."

• Joe Getty (03:25): "If you come up with a threat and an excuse to back down, they will accept both."

They discuss Putin’s strategic moves, such as the annexation of Crimea, likening it to Hitler’s invasion of the Rhineland, and explore the world's hesitance to confront such aggression directly.

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3. Current Political Climate and Media Influence

The hosts analyze the current U.S. political landscape, focusing on President Trump's rhetoric regarding Putin and the media's role.

• Joe Getty (05:03): "Trump made those ridiculous statements the other day on the tarmac about what happened to Putin. He's changed."

• Jack Armstrong (06:29): "We have run out of time and we're not going to get to the Macron wife lip reading thing."

They critique Trump’s public statements, emphasizing the consistency of Putin's character and his adeptness in manipulation and strategy, while also touching upon the media's portrayal of these figures.

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4. Macron's Incident – "Le Cheap Fake"

The episode delves into a viral video featuring French President Macron and his wife, analyzing whether the altercation was genuine or staged.

• Joe Getty (17:36): "The video of the shove quickly going viral. The President's team initially called it a fake."

• Jack Armstrong (18:34): "Emmanuel then steps closer to his wife before composing himself and crossing to the other side. Moments later, he signals for her to follow him with let's go."

The hosts dissect the body language and lip-reading claims, debating the authenticity of the incident and its implications on Macron’s public image.

• Jack Armstrong (19:47): "Stay away you loser."

• Joe Getty (21:47): "No way, you loser. Can we try, please? No. Oh, geez."

This segment highlights the tension between public personas and private interactions, questioning the nature of political leaders' relationships.

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5. SpaceX and Media Coverage

Jack and Joe transition to discussing the latest developments in the space industry, particularly focusing on SpaceX's rocket launches.

• Joe Getty (22:05): "SpaceX just launched some more satellites into space, only FOX was covering it."

• Jack Armstrong (23:26): "The booster part then came down and was grabbed by the arms again, which is one of the most amazing technological feats."

They contrast SpaceX’s “fail fast, learn faster” approach with NASA’s more cautious methodology, criticizing mainstream media for misrepresenting Elon Musk’s successes and failures.

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6. U.S. Financial Markets and Budget Deficits

The discussion shifts to the bond market and the U.S. budget deficit, exploring the implications of recent financial news.

• Joe Getty (12:22): "The bond market reacted. Yields were blam, blah, blah. And you think, I guess that's bad without really getting it."

• Jack Armstrong (14:48): "Wall Street Bets the worst of Trump's Trade War is behind it."

They explain the bond market’s movements and consumer confidence statistics, linking them to Trump’s trade policies and broader economic strategies.

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7. Spending Bills and National Debt

A critical analysis of the proposed spending bills and their impact on the national debt is presented.

• Joe Getty (25:16): "This is my favorite line on this. We spend 7 and we take in 5 trillion. We spend 7 trillion. We take in 5 trillion every year."

• Jack Armstrong (26:40): "We need a new electorate, is a big painful bill that is going to include all kinds of cuts to all kinds of things and tax increases because we got no choice."

The hosts debate the sustainability of current spending practices and the political challenges of implementing necessary fiscal reforms.

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8. Frequent Correspondents' Mailbag

Jack and Joe engage with comments and questions from their audience, covering topics from perseverance to military preparedness.

• Sean (30:57): "Why are they doing this to me?"

• Kevin, the Texas Marine (31:04): "The answer is both. I have a job Mike Groh would approve of, so I need a shower after work."

They offer humorous and candid responses, fostering a connection with their listeners while addressing diverse viewpoints.

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9. Media Critique and Political Bias

The discussion returns to media integrity, focusing on perceived biases against political figures.

• JT and Livermore (34:01): "Since the 2020 primaries, they were biased against Trump and biased for Biden."

• Joe Getty (35:19): "May you be covered in slime of shame."

The hosts condemn the media’s alleged partisanship, arguing that it has failed democratic principles by favoring certain candidates over others.

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10. Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Wrapping up, Jack and Joe recap the episode’s key discussions and tease upcoming topics.

• Jack Armstrong (35:54): "We're at a major inflection point."

• Joe Getty (36:07): "So that's exciting. I got to get it. I got to get to a game at Dodger Stadium and see him because he's a once in a hundred years player."

The hosts emphasize the critical nature of current global and political events, urging listeners to stay informed and engaged.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Jack Armstrong

  • (01:29): "World War three is a showstopper."
  • (06:29): "We have run out of time and we're not going to get to the Macron wife lip reading thing."
  • (14:48): "Wall Street Bets the worst of Trump's Trade War is behind it."

• Joe Getty

  • (03:25): "If you come up with a threat and an excuse to back down, they will accept both."
  • (05:03): "Trump made those ridiculous statements the other day on the tarmac about what happened to Putin. He's changed."
  • (25:16): "We spend 7 and we take in 5 trillion. We spend 7 trillion. We take in 5 trillion every year."

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Key Takeaways

• Geopolitical Tensions: Parallels drawn between Putin’s strategies and historical aggressors highlight ongoing global power struggles.
• Media Influence: Critique of media bias underscores concerns about the integrity and impartiality of news outlets.
• Economic Concerns: Discussion on the bond market and budget deficits emphasizes the fragility and challenges within the U.S. economy.
• Personal Dynamics in Politics: The analysis of President Macron’s personal interactions offers insight into the human side of political figures.
• Innovation vs. Failure: SpaceX’s approach to rocket launches exemplifies the balance between innovation and the acceptance of failure as a learning process.

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This episode of Armstrong & Getty offers a comprehensive exploration of current events, blending political analysis with personal insights. Through engaging dialogue and critical perspectives, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty provide listeners with a nuanced understanding of the complexities shaping today's world.

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

You're listening to an iHeart podcast.

[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's Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, my God. I just came across the story about a lip reader who's read the lips of McCrone and his wife, President McCrone and his wife on the plane. What they were saying as she was shoving him in the face.

[Joe Getty]

And has it justified, backed up my theory that it was an actual angry conflict. Stay tuned. Live from Studio C, say senor.

[Jack Armstrong]

A dimly lit room deep within the bowels of the Armstrong and Getty community communications compound. And hey, you know what you like about these short weeks? It's already the middle of the week. Today we're under the tutelage of our.

[Joe Getty]

General manager, Vladimir Putin, author of World War iii. Question mark hanging in the air.

[Jack Armstrong]

Geez, you dropped a World War III right at the beginning of the show.

[Joe Getty]

I figured you'd be excited about that. Has been predicting the onslaught of World War III for many years now.

[Jack Armstrong]

One of our favorite lines from the great Larry Sanders television show, you can't show. You can't start the show with the showstopper. That's a showstopper. Yeah, don't start the show with a showstopper. World War three is a showstopper. Holy crap. Yeah, that's some good stuff. I've been reading this book or listening to it, but counts as reading called Appeasement about all of Europe and the world, letting Hitler get more and more powerful and do whatever he wanted to do because nobody wanted to have to go to war again. And it's really damned interesting. And while I don't constantly look for parallels that, you know, mean this is the new Hitler or the new Germany or whatever, because that's all ridiculous. I usually think it is amazing how many of the similar things are happening with the way Putin is being looked at just little by little. Crimea was the Rhineland. I mean, it was the same sort of thing. Go into Crimea and nobody really does anything. Okay, cool. They don't have the guts to stop me, so I guess I'll try to.

[Joe Getty]

Take all of Ukraine.

[Jack Armstrong]

Hitler did exist. Hitler invaded the Rhineland, part of Germany that he was not allowed to have after World War I. So there's a buffer between them and France. He made up a reason, just like Putin does. He just make up a reason. He went in and the world went, yeah, I don't want to go to war. Do you want to go to war? I don't want to go to war either. Let's just let him have it. He probably won't go any further.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. It's a bit of a head scratcher if you've studied this sort of thing for a while. But if you do something completely horrific, just do it. The world will condemn you. And sanctions and who knows what sort of opposition will arise. But if you do that same horrific thing and float some ridiculous fish story about why it's justified, people rub their chins and spend a great deal of time debating it. And a certain percentage of people will say, you know, he kind of has a point.

[Jack Armstrong]

If it's because you don't want to have to fight.

[Joe Getty]

Yes.

[Jack Armstrong]

That you will go ahead and take their excuse. And Hitler knew that, and Putin knows that, and lots of people have known that.

[Joe Getty]

If you come up with me, summarize, offer them a threat and an excuse to back down and they will accept both.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Offer them an excuse to do what they really want to do. That's what Putin does.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

And the world accepts it. At least so far.

[Joe Getty]

Has.

[Jack Armstrong]

And one other element of this that I just wanted to throw in this weird thing that was going on in between England and Germany, and I never heard this before, and I don't think I'd have picked up on it if I hadn't lived through all the Tucker. Tucker Carlson stuff that's been going on, how England, after World War I, there was a belief that they're young people today, no longer cared about England and blah, blah, blah. And they really admired the elites in England, really admired how energetic the Germans were, how much they cared about their country, how willing they were to fight how. How much they cared about Christianity. Exactly the same sort of stuff that the Tucker crowd says about Russia's Putin. Well, they're the manly men. They're the ones that, you know, they're. They're reinventing manhood over there. Look at us. We're weak and soft and turning all kinds of weird.

[Joe Getty]

Well, true.

[Jack Armstrong]

And England did the exact. Had the same theory toward. They kind of admired what Germany was doing. And yes. You had that crowd also.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Helping push the idea that.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

We were a little hard on Germany after that whole World War I thing. And besides, look at them. They're better than us.

[Joe Getty]

Right. So Trump made those ridiculous statements the other day on the tarmac about what happened to Putin. He's changed. I thought we were buddies. I mean, I'm paraphrasing. And I, I said yesterday I thought that was nuts, because Putin hasn't changed. A bit. I mean, his appetite has grown with the eating, as they say, but other than that, no. He's the same cold hearted, KGB trained crocodile he's always been. But he is a absolute genius when it comes to, you know, carrying out the sort of plans we're discussing. He is a student of history. He is a student of human nature. He has been schooled at the highest level in the arts of deception and persuasion and flattery and threats. And, you know, even as you hate him, you've got to admire seeing him operate. And Hitler, who is way over referenced in society these days, was likewise a somewhat mad genius. Obviously his heart was rotten with hate, but the two of them, actually, what they have in common is incredible effectiveness. But hubris, that's just running a bit hot. I mean, Putin's whole Covid fueled dreams of reestablishing the Russian empire and being the new Peter the Great. Little nutty, a little Third Reiki. Yeah, yeah, nutty and Third Reichi. Yeah, I'm not a fan of Hitler.

[Jack Armstrong]

But the understanding that, that your opponents don't really want to fight. They would, they would. They will keep backing up and backing up and backing up rather than actually fight.

[Joe Getty]

Well, that's why this is such an incredible pivot point right now.

[Jack Armstrong]

That is exactly what the Wall Street Journal says today. We'll have to read from their editorial board that all the tweeting and talking and theorizing and get is up. Like very soon, like maybe this week, maybe today. Trump's gonna have to either decide to continue to arm Ukraine, support the new sanctions that Europe is signed onto, et cetera, et cetera, or, or not.

[Joe Getty]

Or send a message similar to, not the same as there are plenty of differences, but similar to Biden backing down in Afghanistan, the disastrous running for the exits, withdrawal, the signal being we will not hang in for the long term. So if you're an evildoer, go ahead, give it a try.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right, let's start the show officially because there's conversation that will stem from our opening clip. I'm Jack Armstrong, he's Joe Getty on this. It is hopefully not the beginning of World War III. I hope this isn't a date that lives in mph. Wednesday, May 28th, the year 2025. We're Armstrong and Getty and we approve of this program.

[Joe Getty]

It's probably worth mentioning when the Chinese turn off the electric grid, the power grid and the cell phones and the water and the rest of it. We'll be working on getting back on the air and doing a podcast. It could be wild though. Just keep checking in. Okay. Anyway, good luck. It doesn't come to cannibalism. Thanks for.

[Jack Armstrong]

I hope it doesn't come to cannibalism.

[Joe Getty]

Look, you got to be mentally.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh God.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Why do you, why do you drill? Why do you practice? You got you. So it doesn't freak out when the poo hits the fan.

[Jack Armstrong]

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. At least put it in the back of your head. You might have to eat your neighbor.

[Joe Getty]

Right, Right. Have two weeks worth of water on hand. Cash, weapons and mental preparedness for cannibalism. Here we go. Officially now, according to FCC rules and regulations, which will also be off when the dystopia begins. Here we go at Mark Medvedev writes regarding Trump's words about Putin playing with fire and really bad things happening to Russia. I only know of one really bad thing. World War Three. I hope Trump understands this.

[Jack Armstrong]

How's your response to Trump saying you're really playing with fire? They shot back. Oh yeah. How about World War Three dropped a World War three on Trump. So what do you make of that?

[Joe Getty]

It's another example of Putin's posturing throughout this whole thing that this will escalate beyond your control and end in cataclysm and you'll be to blame. It hasn't happened so far. Is it a completely hollow threat? Yeah, I don't know.

[Jack Armstrong]

It worked on Biden. This is the reporting.

[Joe Getty]

There are a lot of folks on the right in America, some of whom are listening, frustrated and red faced right now, who think we're playing with that sort of fire for no supportable reason. We've heard your arguments. I don't agree with you, but we've heard them.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, I do agree with you, just in a different way. I think you let Putin win and and you get closer to World War iii. Not further from World War iii as he's right on the board of NATO border on of NATO countries and he is going to try to take one of those little NATO countries under some trumped up something or other.

[Joe Getty]

Sure. If you would like to drop us a note saying why we're wrong, please do. Mailbag at armstrong and getty.com Again, that's mailbagmstrongandgetti.com you are not allowed to use the term neocon nor forever wars because though they don't mean anything, those are just catchphrases.

[Jack Armstrong]

Are they allowed to use the phrase be better at the end of their screed?

[Joe Getty]

Certainly. Why or why don't you guys do A little studying before you shoot off your mouth. Yes, that would be better. Yeah. My, my final thought on this is. And perhaps address this thought. What we're talking about is the difference between telling Xi Jinping invading Taiwan or telling Vladimir Putin invading Estonia or, or going full on nuke on Ukraine or whatever. It's the difference between this will cost you $1,000 or $100,000. What will it cost them to try to realize their expansionist aims? Will it cost a little or a lot of. If it costs a lot, they reconsider. It's been true from. For all of human history.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, Richard Engel is reporting on NBC News what intelligence sources tell him Putin's strategy is. We can get into that later because I'd been wondering and this actually makes sense. So one of Elon's rockets blew up yesterday and the media once again treating it like he's obviously a failure of a rocket engineer, which makes me insane.

[Joe Getty]

They're stupid, stupid idiots.

[Jack Armstrong]

We got Diddy trial updates. We got all kinds of stuff for. I hope you can stick around. We got some.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, including let's talk about the bond market.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, God.

[Joe Getty]

Who wants to talk about bonds?

[Jack Armstrong]

You, World War III and bond markets. What?

[Joe Getty]

What the hell? Come for the horror. Stay with. For the snooze. I got it all.

[Jack Armstrong]

So we got a lot on the way. I hope you can stay here. Here's our text. Line 415295 kftc armstrong and. Okay, I'll make this deal with you. We can go through some real headlines if you promise to leave me time to get to the lip reader on McCrone and his wife from the plane. Somebody was reading the lips of the video. We now know what they said to each other. According to this lip reader, when she shoved him in the face.

[Joe Getty]

I will agree to that bargain if you let me talk about the bond market.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, my God. Can we have an egg timer on that or.

[Joe Getty]

Seriously? I came across an explanation of how it works and I thought, oh, now I get it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, okay. Well, yeah, if it helps us understand, that's fantastic.

[Joe Getty]

Well, come on. How. How many of us have not heard various financial. The bond market reacted. Yields were blam, blah, blah. And you think, I guess that's bad without really getting it. And it's actually quite simple. So that's coming up in a little bit. Believe it or not. Buy the dip. Buy the dip. So you got a handful of headlines about Trump at war with Harvard and foreign students and visas and stuff like that. A lot of this is going to get knocked down by the courts. Some of it's silly. It's all about the awful state of our universities. And that's fine. And we can dig into it a little bit. I was shocked. I was looking at the numbers of how many foreign students there are in the US and universities and how much money they're worth to the universities.

[Jack Armstrong]

The foreign students?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh yeah.

[Joe Getty]

I mean everybody makes noises about, well, it's diversity and different perspectives and blood. No, it's an effing money spigot.

[Jack Armstrong]

And they pull that and they pay that full rate that practically no American kid does.

[Joe Getty]

So I heard a couple of times. Yesterday the White House officially changed Covid vaccination guidelines with RFK Jr. Croaking out that healthy children and pregnant women no longer need to be vaccinated. On ABC News it was reported or you know, described last night as overcoming the opinions of the experts are ignoring them. RFK Jr changed national COVID policy. Can anybody explain to me why the hell healthy children and pregnant ladies were getting the shot anyway, especially at this late date?

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. And as was pointed out only on Fox they had an expert on said European countries gave up on making kids get inoculations several years ago.

[Joe Getty]

So we're ignoring the opinions of experts.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

Please.

[Jack Armstrong]

So on the financial side of things, the stock market, maybe you're paying attention. Yesterday was up yesterday and looks like it is again today. Wall Street. This is from the Wall Street Journal. Their headline Wall Street Bets the worst of Trump's Trade War is behind it. It looks like that's what the smart people are thinking. And also that consumer confidence number that came out yesterday that we didn't really talk about, up 12 points or something like that in one month. Can you explain that? Why, why did it go up so high?

[Joe Getty]

No, no, I cannot.

[Jack Armstrong]

Either I need to explain why it went down so low or why it went up so high again. I mean one of those two needs to be explained.

[Joe Getty]

The best I can offer is that those two stories are related. It's become more clear that the we're going to become some sort of isolationist Smoot Hawley tariff protected fortress of domestic economy. It's just, it's not going to happen. And he wasn't serious about it. It was posturing. That's true.

[Jack Armstrong]

I feel that way. But I guess maybe this makes me an elitist. I didn't assume that most people paid enough attention to, to know both of those things happened. The, the threat of the whole tariff war and then the backing off of it. I didn't know, most people paid attention to that.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I was struck a couple of times. I can't remember if we talked about it on the Internet. It doesn't really matter, I suppose, but there were a handful of polls about the tariff policy and I was surprised how few no opinions there were. People seem to be paying attention to it, to your point. A couple more headlines real quickly. US Military has begun to strengthen its presence in northern Europe in the face of increased Russian activity. We're going to get more deeply into some of the interesting things being said by Trump. Yeah, he gets all the attention by major figures in his administration and by an overwhelming number of United States senators. There are Now, I believe, 82 co sponsors of a bill to crush Russia's economy with oil sanctions, roughly speaking. More on that to come.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, that's interesting.

[Joe Getty]

Based on huge consensus, this Wall Street.

[Jack Armstrong]

Journal headline, which is actually at the top of their online right now, Putin has retooled his entire economy to focus only on war.

[Joe Getty]

Right. I was going to cite that as an exhibit of why, you know, we must stop the killing. Vladimir, stop. It's just right. It's doomed.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

He's, he's put all his chips on the table.

[Jack Armstrong]

So I blame myself. We have run out of time and we're not going to get to the Macron wife lip reading thing. We got to guarantee we're going to get it at some point because I.

[Joe Getty]

Know, first thing we do. Next segment.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is the sort of thing I would wait in my car to hear. Yes, it's pretty good, too.

[Joe Getty]

Look, gloom, doom and horror will be there afterward. Yes, get to that.

[Jack Armstrong]

But a spat between a Russian president and his old wife, who was his teacher when he was a kid, which is weird.

[Joe Getty]

Especially the passionate French. Oh, you know them and their tempers.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, she shoves him in the face with both hands. Is it just they're just a playful couple or is there real animosity in the air?

[Joe Getty]

We'll get that Mary Day out of here.

[Jack Armstrong]

She said, we'll ask the lip reader some real news. All on the way, so stay tuned.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty. The video of the shove quickly going viral. The President's team initially called it a fake, but later Macron acknowledged it was real, downplaying the incident, saying he and his wife were bickering and joking.

[Jack Armstrong]

Who originally called it a fake?

[Joe Getty]

The president, Macron.

[Jack Armstrong]

Did he really?

[Joe Getty]

It is le cheap fake.

[Jack Armstrong]

Le cheap fake. Wow, wow, wow. All right, so you've probably seen the video by now of Macron, the plane, the big Plane like his Air Force One lands, door opens. Whatever was going on between him and his wife, she shoves him in the face with both hands. He turns, sees the doors open. Then it's a big smile and waving. He tries to turn it around real quick and hope that nobody saw that other part. They did. And everybody's been speculating, was this an actual fight or they did they just being playful and that's the way they're playful or whatever. I've seen people do that playfully.

[Joe Getty]

I would that age.

[Jack Armstrong]

But yeah, true. This is more of a 20 something.

[Joe Getty]

Sort of play and face shove at age 60 or whatever.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, anyway, so the New York Post went to a lip reader to try to figure out what was being said. As the aircraft door opens, President McCrone is seen turning toward Bridgette. In an unexpected moment, she pushes him in the face. After the door opened, McCrone noticed that the cameras were on him. Then he said hi before raising his hand. Even I figured out that part when I saw the video. Emmanuel then steps closer to his wife before composing himself and crossing to the other side. Moments later, he signals for her to follow him with let's go. The lip reader says he thanks the pilot and waves at the camera, trying to recover his public facing image. But at the top of the stairs, things turn icy again. He offers his arm, she ignores it, choosing to cling to the Rayleigh instead. We all saw that. To me that was the indication that it was an actual anger thing. I mean because that was pretty evident. As she passes, she appears to mutter, I won't try to say it in French, translated in English. Stay away, you loser.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I don't know if I believe.

[Jack Armstrong]

For sure to gauge this piece. De loser. Stay away you loser. Moments later, the lip reader claims Macron said essions silte plate, which translates to let's try, please. Oh God, I've been there before. That's the worst. Then she responds, none, which I assume means no, we. His closing expression and the phrase lip read as javos, translate in English as I see.

[Joe Getty]

All right. That's the direct translation. All right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Great.

[Joe Getty]

Okay.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, fantastic. So you're not even gonna. For everybody in the cameras and everybody down there, even though we got, you know, we're dealing with a war and peace here. Can't let this happen at home now.

[Joe Getty]

Got a crumbling economy trying to cut a trade deal with these nice communist people and you can't even try. All right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Of course it depends on what they're fighting about. Maybe she's hardcore support Ukraine and he's he's, he's more temperate on it. Or it's something incredibly stupid like can happen in a relationship or.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, she's sick and tired of being the first lady of a country because he's been president for a long time. Right. Uh, it's just like, oh, my God, another plane ride so I can smile at dignitaries. I don't even know who these people are. I'm gonna go off to a hotel room. You're gonna have your stupid meetings. Our economy's crumbling. Our empire is a hundred years in the past. Oy. Face. Schlepping around the world. I'm sick of it.

[Jack Armstrong]

I feel like she's aged out of the incredibly short skirt, but she apparently thinks her legs are her best feature and wants to make sure everybody sees them.

[Joe Getty]

Wow. Listen to you. Judging. Plus, they're French.

[Jack Armstrong]

They have different ways they do. God, if that is the translation.

[Joe Getty]

Does that not fit beautifully with all the body language?

[Jack Armstrong]

No way, you loser. Can we try, please? No. Oh, great.

[Joe Getty]

Get away. Well, get away. Get away from me, you loser. Oh, geez.

[Jack Armstrong]

So there you go.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't remember what we're going to talk about next.

[Joe Getty]

The rocketry.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, yes, I was watching that on the television. So the SpaceX just launched some more satellites into space, only FOX was covering it. I think that was Fox wanting to have something successful. Elon Ish on tv because the media went so huge yesterday on another one of Elon's rockets failing. At a certain point, it's, it's a. It's, it's an experiment. It's an effort to make the rockets better and better and better. We've talked about this a thousand times. Elon has a completely different way of doing this than NASA ever did. NASA being a government program, and for a variety of reasons, they wanted to make sure everything was perfect. And it would take many, many years before you'd ever try anything because you couldn't handle the disaster of a missed launch or something like that.

[Joe Getty]

I guess there was a mishap. It was seen as a horror, an utter disaster. Whereas SpaceX, their. Their motto is fail fast, learn faster.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. So you do it. You do it right now. You see how far you get, and then it fails. And you say, okay, so what was the failure part? And then you fix that. And then you go again, you go a little further. This one went further than the last one. It was presented on the media last night. Once again, a special SpaceX rocket fails to blah, blah, blah, without understanding the concept of what he's doing at all. Or they understand the concept and like pretending that Elon is a failure. Then they mention the. The bush.

[Joe Getty]

I'm sorry, let me jump in. These dumb bastards. If they were on the. The. If they were on the beaches of. Of. Of Kitty Hawk, they'd be. The Wright brothers failed again to launch their aeroplane. The bicycle repairman who believed they could equal the birds have failed again.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right, right. You could apply that to a zillion different great breakthroughs in human history, I'm sure. All kinds of medicines and everything else where you tried this, it didn't work. Tried this, it didn't work. You tried a thousand times, it didn't work. But each time you got a little closer until you figured it out. That's the way it works, you freaking morons. You dumb bastards. You dumb bastards.

[Joe Getty]

To quote the great and crazy Pete Townsend of the who typewriter tappers. You're all just crappers.

[Jack Armstrong]

Anyway, then they mention on ABC Evening News I'm watching last night about how the, the booster part then came down and was grabbed by the arms again, which is one of the most amazing technological feats that has ever happened on the planet. And you kind of yada, yada, yada, that.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Shot a skyscraper into space, then brought it back and parallel parked it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. Any who. So there you go.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, speaking of Elon Musk. Oh, I just knocked my mouse into the garbage. Is that a metaph? Is that an omen? Use my finger now. Like it's, I don't know, like it's 1990. Uh, here it is. So Elon Musk in an interview came out strong against DJ T's big beautiful spending bill. Uh, he was being interviewed Sunday, CBS Sunday Morning, Quote, I was disappointed to see a massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit. It not just decrease it and undermines the work that the Doge team is doing.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, he's a businessman and he's big on the debt and understands that it's just unsustainable. As Rand Paul said on Sunday. This is my favorite line on this. We spend 7 and we take in 5 trillion. We spend 7 trillion. We take in 5 trillion every year. We can't continue to do this. It's that simple, ladies and germs.

[Joe Getty]

Well, right. All right. Musk went on to say of the horrible betrayal Bill. That's big but not beautiful. I think a bill can be bigger. It could be beautiful, but I don't know if it could be both. And they talk about some of his Doge goals and how much money's actually been saved and how many jobs have actually been cut. And he said, in the grand scheme of things, I think we've been effective. Not as effective as I'd like. I think we could be more effective. But we'd made progr glad to hear him coming out against this horrific bill. And again, Mike Johnson would say, dudes, it's the best we can get. Well, we don't have the votes for anything more responsible. What do you want me to do? It's our system of government, right? Well, we're fair enough.

[Jack Armstrong]

What we need and are going to have to have at some point, whether we like it or not, is a new electorate, is a big painful bill that is going to include all kinds of cuts to all kinds of things and tax increases because we got no choice. But you know, you kick the can down the road as long as you can, I guess.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. One of the great truths of politics and this is going to make you want to stick your head in the oven. Don't bother. The truth is if you are looking at say four year terms, just to keep it simple, we'll go with presidents because everybody's fixating on the president. You got the president who screams toward the cliff for four years, then the next one who screams toward the cliff, then the next one who screams toward the cliff and then on day three in office, that next guy or girl, Jack, it's legal under the Constitution. It could be a woman, A woman president. Three days into their term, we go over the cliff, they will be blamed. Right? Or at the very least they will be tasked with fixing the problem and the negative effects, the punishment, the imprisonment or beatings or fines. That ought to go to the previous people we've talked about. Those will never exist.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, the opposite. Historians will continue to rate them very highly for growing these various programs over the years that put us in the cataclysm that we got into. Back to sticking your head in the oven. Yes, you alerted me to something a while back I had never thought of in my life. So I've used the phrase makes me want to stick my head in the oven, which is really a pretty dark graphic sort of aside to say in a semi humorous fashion.

[Joe Getty]

It's a like saying I, I like to put a gun in my mouth.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, it's a suicide reference and none of us take it seriously. But the I, I had never really thought about the. I guess I had thought the stick your head in the oven to make it so hot that you're. You die. But you're saying it's a gas thing because you said that would do no good. Because most people have an electric oven and until then I had never thought that it was a gas thing. I always thought it was a heat thing. So you stick your head in the oven, turn on the gas and then the fumes kill you. It's not because you're cooking your head?

[Joe Getty]

Yes, exactly.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay.

[Joe Getty]

Cooking your head would be a slow and patience requiring effort to offer something.

[Jack Armstrong]

You probably want to prehe the oven like you're making a baked potato or something.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, it's like turning on your car in the garage.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, like it'd be. It'd be. It'd be the equivalent now of me parking my Tesla in the garage and closing the door and sitting there until I got turning it on, sitting there until I need to pee or got very hungry and then going back in the house. Right.

[Joe Getty]

Till you just wander out out of boredom.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, you know what?

[Joe Getty]

Now my hope is rekindled and I'm just really bored. So that's hilarious.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know what we're going to do today? We're going to leave enough time for Mailbag because we never do and we got plenty of stuff and man, there's a lot of news today.

[Joe Getty]

Stay here, Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Shohei Otani, who has not pitched in almost two years, is about to pitch again. It'll be very soon according to the Dodgers. And he looks fantastic as one of the best pitchers in baseball and one of the best hitters in baseball will be back doing both soon for the LA Dodgers. So that's exciting. I got to get it. I got to get to a game at Dodger Stadium and see him because he's a once in a hundred years player.

[Joe Getty]

I would agree. Yeah, that sounds really great. Oh, I wonder if he just begged. I want to pitch. Come on. I really like pitch and I don't know. Here's your freedom loving quote of the day. Love this from Daniel Webster. God grants liberty only to those who love him it and are always ready to guard and defend it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Liberty is not a marble edifice. It is a garden. If it is not tended, it will die.

[Jack Armstrong]

Very easy to take for granted.

[Joe Getty]

Oh yeah, definitely. I think about that a lot. Mailbag, drop us a note. Mailbagarmstrongandgetti.com got this from Sean on the topic of perseverance which we were discussing, I believe later in the show yesterday. I used to tell my corporate co workers that the healthiest way to approach work challenges is to stop asking why are they doing this? And start asking, why are they doing this to me? Yes. Make it personal. That's fantastic, Sean, you're so right. Why are they doing all about you to me? Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Do the same thing like in traffic, all the time. Anytime relationships.

[Joe Getty]

Your spouse isn't, you know, living their own life and expressing their feel, they're directing it towards you. It's about you.

[Jack Armstrong]

They don't have their own stresses and needs. They're doing it to you.

[Joe Getty]

Right. Moving along. Kevin, the Texas Marine with the thought about the night versus morning shower question. The answer is both. I have a job Mike Groh would approve of, so I need a shower after work. I also have a girlfriend, so I shower in the morning, hopefully with her. Wow. Well, good for you.

[Jack Armstrong]

There you go.

[Joe Getty]

But my real answer is shower whenever you want. Spend literally weeks in the field without being able to do much more than rag cleaning, surrounded by other guys who haven't been able to shower in weeks. You will never want to be stinky again. As comedians, Kevin, the Texas Marine who was stationed overseas, obviously on more than one occasion.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I gotta comment on that. As the comedian Sarah Silverman once said, if you shower with your boyfriend, your boobs will be very clean. True. Yeah. My brother went a whole month, might even been more without a shower in Iraq. I think the first Iraq war and has never been right since. He showers like six times a day.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. Who can blame him? Moving along, different topic from frequent correspondent Paolo. Guys, inspired by the story from the WaPo from the comments section, you might consider it nut picking finding people who spout off, which is so easy to do. Nonetheless, I think it's perfect in this case, so I had to send it. Here's what a WaPo commentator had to say about illegal immigration, quoting, I'm happy with people that want to come here and mow my lawn and pick my crops, whether they're here legally or illegally. I certainly don't expect you and the MAGA bigots to be volunteering for those jobs. It just gives you a reason to spew your bile.

[Jack Armstrong]

That is the dumbest sentence or sentences I've ever heard.

[Joe Getty]

Right. And how do you think this person feels about equity? Paola wants to know. They'd probably have a big moralizing lecture for us on the subject. Do you think he she is volunteering for those jobs or feeling superior and relegating them to the lesser among us? I could respond to the comment in lots of snarky ways, but none better than you could come up with yourself. I'm sure. So I'll just leave it at that. Well, I don't know, Paolo. Try your hand at it. But. Oh, my God. The great progressive who believes in equity, who also believes in importing a brown underclass to do the ugly jobs that we're too good for that can't even recognize their hypocrisy. They amaze me.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Another frequent correspondent, J.T. and Livermore. The media didn't fail. On Tuesday's final hour in the topic of the media's failure to properly report on Biden's mental incapacity, Jack said, and I quote, oh, and there's more on this, believe it or not, more really good info on the media. Cover up. Cover up. But anyway, JT writes, Jack said it's the biggest failure of media in the nation's history, except from their point of view. It was not a failure. It was their goal. Since the 2020 primaries, they were biased against Trump and biased for Biden. Their goal was to be political propagandists and partisans. And they succeeded.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. What's crazy about that, as others have pointed out, is they got Trump elected. You morons, you'd have been way. If your goal was to stop Trump, you'd have been way better off pointing out Biden's failures earlier and having a longer period of time to. For Kamala Harris's campaign or for them to run somebody else or whatever.

[Joe Getty]

Right. Actually. And JT Disagrees. He says just because they weren't able to pull off the impossible, I. E. Get Biden reelected, doesn't mean they failed because they accomplished a lot. But no, I think you win that mini argument. They were so unwilling to let the chips fall. The chips of democracy, which, I mean, for God's sake, the Washington Post with their hilariously selfish, important Democracy dies in darkness. I mean, these people are howling about democracy constantly, but they didn't trust it an iota. They had to fix it in favor of Biden getting the nomination because he was, I guess, the obvious guy. Well, yeah, because you didn't let the process work. So, yeah, absolutely. A miserable failure morally, ethically and professionally if you miss. Covered in the slime of their own shame, may you be you.

[Jack Armstrong]

May you be covered in slime of shame. Yes. I like that.

[Joe Getty]

Well, you almost got it right.

[Jack Armstrong]

If you missed this late in the day last night. Trump and Russia trading barbs about World War three and threats and that sort of thing that are pretty freaking big deal.

[Joe Getty]

We're at a major inflection point.

[Jack Armstrong]

Historically, Ball is still in Trump's court, as far as I can tell on this whole thing. We'll talk about that an hour, too. If you miss that, get the podcast. Armstrong and Getty on demand.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

You're listening to an iHeart podcast.