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Jack Armstrong
Armstrong and Getty.
Joe Getty
And now he
Jack Armstrong
Armstrong and Getty.
Joe Getty
Welcome to a special week of programming of the Armstrong and Getty show, which we have dubbed Operation Mediocre Punditry. Mmm.
Jack Armstrong
I stand ready to serve.
Joe Getty
Today we are toiling out of the
Jack Armstrong
title of our show, Jack we're the Big Tent podcast. We're the Everybody is welcome radio show. That's why I've prepared two titles that should please everyone. Number one, Trump's war of choice to stabilize his region two is I told you what would happen.
Joe Getty
I like that. I told you I was gonna drop a bomb on your head.
Jack Armstrong
I told you once, I told you twice, now how you like me.
Joe Getty
Yeah, my favorite thing is Trump did an interview with the New York Times overnight, which he was asked about who's going to be in charge. Had you identified anybody to be the next leader? And he said, yes, we'd identified several people. They were killed. However, whoops, so they're dead. We killed the Ayatollah. 40 of the leadership, which I'm in favor of, by the way, personally.
Jack Armstrong
So, warmonger, with all the.
Joe Getty
With all the various serious and non serious comments I'm going to make throughout the day, I'm in favor of this. Not sure I'm in favor of it being one guy's decision as opposed to Congress being involved. In fact, I'm sure I'm not. How that should work out, I do not know.
Jack Armstrong
But that's an interesting discussion because I think given the realities of today's Congress, it would render the country completely unable to take any action.
Joe Getty
Right. I understand the argument Constitutionally, but in reality, I don't think any president would be able to do anything.
Jack Armstrong
Right. Right.
Joe Getty
Militarily, this is.
Jack Armstrong
I never hear this point made, or at least not, not often. I think that that conflict, that Congress has the right to declare war according to the Constitution, everybody knows that, is that the declaration of war meant something very, very different when the Constitution was written. You know, we don't really have the time to get into it, but it is troubling that we kind of say, yeah, that part. Nobody's sure what that means, so we're not going to worry about it.
Joe Getty
Yeah, that's a good point. It's like arguing over the Second Amendment, what a well armed militia means in terms of me getting to own a gun. They should get into the. What does declaring war mean? Since back in the day, you couldn't just, you know, hit Paris with a couple of strikes overnight and then back off. Either sent over an army and went to war. You didn't.
Jack Armstrong
Right.
Joe Getty
And, you know, that's. That's a, That's a good point right there.
Jack Armstrong
And of course, Congress, the preeminent branch of government it was supposed to be anyway, has the right to write laws clarifying all this and. Or propose amendments to the Constitution. They just don't.
Joe Getty
As we go to air live, we now have four guys that have died. Another died from his wounds from that attack on our base in Kuwait. So we're now at 4. And we had three jets that, the initial reporting was crashed into each other. The New York Times is now reporting were shot down. So, you know, we'll get all the details on that. What happened? Everybody's safe in that. They managed to. God, I can't imagine a jet hitting another jet and then you're amazingly discombobulated, but somehow eject and then float to the ground. Good God. Can you imagine how crazy that would be?
Jack Armstrong
Oh, yeah, absolutely. My understanding was they were accidentally shot down by the Kuwaitis. Is that not the current thinking?
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I don't know.
Jack Armstrong
Everything's changing so quickly.
Joe Getty
Yeah, I. Well, even if you had a solid sentence from the New York Times, you know, at this point in war, since we've covered several of these, there's almost no point.
Jack Armstrong
Right.
Joe Getty
Waiting for days. If you remember, what was the name of that woman? Jessica something. Story that broke early in the Iraq War in 2003, who, who stood there by herself, machine gun blazing, fighting, defending, and it turned out to be completely untrue on any level whatsoever.
Jack Armstrong
Right, right, right. My gosh, I'd forgotten about that one.
Joe Getty
But and for good reason. This stuff, there are no reporters on the ground where these things happen. Both side. Both sides, including our side, have a reason to spin the story, and I'm all for it. You don't need to let your enemy know absolutely what's happening all the time.
Jack Armstrong
Oh, certainly not. And, and on that topic, if you live in Iran, maybe, or China or North Korea, and you, like, can't find your glasses, call the CIA, because they probably know where they are because they appear to know freaking everything going on when they want to. At least in Tehran, they did.
Joe Getty
Yeah, that's what was reported in the last 24 hours that we, our CIA, gave Israel. The information is, oh, we know exactly where the Ayatollah is every minute of every Day and have for over a month. Isn't that something?
Jack Armstrong
Would you like the roll call of who's in the building right now? Yeah. Yeah. Well, between us and the Israelis, I imagine the, the level of intelligence is just mind blowing.
Joe Getty
And the reason I wish we got
Jack Armstrong
to know, just so we could admire it.
Joe Getty
And the reason it was go time in the middle of the day, which you usually attack at night for all the advantages of dark. The reason it was go time in the middle of the day was they knew he and 40 of the top brass were going to be meeting above ground and thought, we're never going to get a better chance than this.
Jack Armstrong
Right.
Joe Getty
And they all died, according to the Defense Minister of Israel, yesterday, within the first minute of the war, the Ayatollah was dead. So when Trump is warning you, Maduro Ayatollah, I don't know if there's anybody less, maybe the guy running Cuba. When Trump is warning you, look, you got a negotiator. We're going to have to do something. You might want to take that seriously. You're going to be dead soon. I didn't understand it last week, Friday morning, and these are, these were the last hours of the Ayatollah's life. Friday, when we were talking about this is like, why won't they just give up on the nuclear program? They're going to end up dead. I mean, what's the point? And now they're all dead.
Jack Armstrong
They obviously had a serious miscalculation about Trump's intentions and willingness to. To do what he did. I mean, like an enormous mind boggling Miss Mist.
Joe Getty
Guess that'll be written about, talked about for years. Also, the crazy idea Iran had. I know what we'll do to turn the tide. We'll attack nine of our neighbors, right? To show them nobody messes with us. We'll attack the fanciest hotel in Dubai and then they'll be on our side.
Jack Armstrong
What, find every hornet's nest in the neighborhood and kick it? Yeah. Good idea. Wow.
Joe Getty
Hitler invading Russia is saying, wow. I don't think that was a very good idea. Wow. Incredible. And now you see, you've got Saudi Arabia announcing yesterday. Saudi Arabia, Wait. You know, most of my life has been not our best friend. Saudi Arabia announcing, look, we're gonna, we're gonna go to war with Iran, too. We're getting all the other countries together if we have to, but we're not going to let this continue.
Jack Armstrong
Right?
Joe Getty
Iran attacked nine neighbors. Absolutely unbelievable. And plenty of civilian targets.
Jack Armstrong
Saudi Arabia, by the way. And this is such a classic example of the contrast between domestic foreign policy, or domestic policy, rather in the Middle east, and the COVID foreign policy. In the days leading up to the attack, they were making all sorts of announcements about de escalating and negotiating and blah, blah, blah. Behind the scenes, the Saudis were telling the Trump administration, now, now would be a time, perfect time. I mean, go ahead if you want.
Joe Getty
I know we have listeners who are probably against this. I have talked to several Trump supporters, or at least were Trump supporters who hate this idea. And then a lot of the left is at least pretending to hate it.
Jack Armstrong
I can't tell whether or not they're knee jerk. Yeah.
Joe Getty
Honest or not. My favorite thing to retweet over the weekend was videos of people cheering and dancing in the street, whether it was there in Iran or Iranian expatriates in London or in Los Angeles or wherever. Dancing in the street, doing the Trump dance, saying, we love you, Trump. A banner flying over Los Angeles yesterday, it says, thank you, Trump. And then saying, hey, Democrats, you might want to send videos to these people because they don't seem to agree with you. You know, apparently they. They haven't tuned into MSNBC and realized they should be unhappy about this. Why are they partying and dancing all around the world? Former Iranians who seem to think this is a good idea. Did you not listen to Senator Chris Murphy? This is awful. You should be unhappy about this.
Jack Armstrong
I will absolutely concede. And we will discuss that. There is uncertainty in the road ahead. We've unleashed the dogs of war. Nobody's very clear on what might happen next in Iran. There are a number of terrible options for what their leadership might become. You know, we just don't know that's absolutely true. But as I said, speaking of the left and their. Their protestations, I retweeted this. This is a perfect tweet from Kurt Schlichter. It will never not be hilarious. That, and excuse the use of the R word here, it will never not be hilarious that the same retarded SSRI gobbling weirdos who walked around dressed as handma are now collectively wedding themselves because Donald Trump killed a guy who literally made women walk around dressed as handmaiden.
Joe Getty
That's pretty good. That is pretty freaking good.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, no kidding. Everything you claim to hate was what the Tehran regime was.
Joe Getty
And then to your disclaimer. And then we've got to start the show officially to your disclaimer. It drives me nuts, the nevering.
Jack Armstrong
But what's next?
Joe Getty
What's the next plan? What are you going to do? With no discussion whatsoever of the fact. What else were we gonna do? Let them get a nuclear weapon and continue down the path they are. I agree. We don't know how this is gonna turn out. We do know how it was gonna turn out. If we didn't ever do this, they were gonna eventually get a nuclear weapon and one of the worst countries on earth was gonna have nukes, not to
Jack Armstrong
mention rebuild their proxies and unleash more decades of death and destruction and misery. Yeah, exactly.
Joe Getty
Anyway, let's start the show officially. I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty on this. It is a Monday, March 2nd. Rent is due. The rent is too damn high. Damn right it is the year 2026 where Armstrong and Getty we approve of this program. Here we go.
Jack Armstrong
Officially then, according to FCC rules and regulations, the show starts at Mark this
Pete Hegseth
is not a so called regime change war, but the regime sure did change and the world is better off for it.
Joe Getty
Pete Exe, the Secretary of War with a Did he take questions? Hanson Was that a press conference or just a no, he just came out and made a couple of statements about what is going on and we'll get into a little bit of that later. We're going to talk to some of our favorite military analysts. We got lots of information we've collected over the weekend. Love to hear from you on the text line. 415295KFTC. We got Katie's headlines on the way. Stay here.
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Joe Getty
this video I'm watching in London of Jews and Iranians dancing in the streets together chanting Care Stormers a wanker. I love that one.
Jack Armstrong
That may be my favorite thing ever.
Joe Getty
And anyway, I tweeted a lot of those kind of videos over the weekend saying groups of people that really need to watch MSNBC that they know that she they should be unhappy about this. Not happy. You got it wrong.
Jack Armstrong
Listen to Adam Schiff, Tim Kaine. They're speaking powerfully. All right, go ahead. Let's figure out who's reporting what. It's the lead story with Katie Green.
Katie Green
Katie well some of the main headlines on the situation in Iran ABC see Department of Homeland Security warns of potential attacks amid Iran operation NBC experts say Iran attack could push North Korea's Kim to meet with Trump yeah hey, hey Kim.
Joe Getty
There's a perfect example right there turns of warning you a lot. You never know. All of a sudden you hear a weird sound and then you're Obliterated.
Katie Green
And then the New York Times with this just pathetic, almost obituary. Ayatollah Maini, hardline cleric who made Iran a regional power, dead at 86.
Joe Getty
Yeah, we got to do the Washington Post obituary over the weekend. Just unbelievable. They can't help themselves, these people. It's incredible.
Jack Armstrong
Steer cleric. Yes.
Pete Hegseth
Yeah.
Katie Green
Speaking of the Washington post, from the WaPo. FBI probing whether Iran attack motivated Austin shooter.
Joe Getty
Yeah, I saw that guy. He went on a shooting spree. Killed a couple people, wounded a bunch. Wearing a shirt that said Property of Ayatollah had a Koran in his car and an Iranian flag in his apartment.
Jack Armstrong
Wow. Wow.
Katie Green
From the New York Times. If China invades Taiwan and cuts off its chip exports, the tech industry and the US Economy would be crippled.
Joe Getty
Thought that was interesting timing for that article in the New York Times, because if I'm China, God, if you moved on Taiwan now, how much ability would we have to help out Taiwan?
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, we're a little busy, and our ordinance is a little spent. Absolutely true. Wall Street Journal had a very similar piece last week.
Katie Green
Wall Street Journal. The push for 875,000 people to help get California's billionaire tax on the ballot.
Joe Getty
Yeah, but it's. It's polling really well.
Katie Green
From the New York Post. Frustrated flyer shocks misbehaved child by reprimanding him mid flight. I'm not going to tolerate this, okay?
Joe Getty
I want to. I want to hear that. I want to know the details of
Jack Armstrong
this story before I meet at Arlington National Cemetery. I'm the father. Now.
Katie Green
This one from USA Today. Quote, alpine divorce is a viral new dating term, and it's causing panic across the Internet.
Joe Getty
What's an Alpine divorce?
Katie Green
An Alpine divorce is when you go on a date out in nature, like a hike or a camping trip, and then one abandons the other person out there to fend for themselves.
Joe Getty
Okay. What? That.
Jack Armstrong
All right. Everything is not a trend. Anything that happens is not a true.
Joe Getty
I don't believe this is happening dating term. Well, that might be true.
Jack Armstrong
All right. Keep them to yourself in the future.
Joe Getty
So you leave them in a tree area, right?
Katie Green
You leave them in a tree area, Michael. You got it. Study finds couples who go to bed at the same time report happier marriages.
Joe Getty
Oh, that's fantastic.
Katie Green
I call both.
Joe Getty
Really? Oh, my.
Katie Green
I need a head start.
Joe Getty
Well, you get a. You have a different time schedule than. It's tough if you got one person who has to get up really early. Really, really early.
Katie Green
Or if you, you know, sleep next to a wood chipper, for instance.
Jack Armstrong
There is Snorri I see. Yes.
Katie Green
Okay, that's my reasoning schedule. And finally, the Babylon Bee. Iranian generals kicking themselves for not just meeting over Zoom.
Joe Getty
Yeah, I thought that too. I thought, how are you not doing Zoom meetings? Why are you getting to the 40 most important people, including the Ayatollah in the same room above ground?
Jack Armstrong
Did they accidentally have Pete Hegseth on their Snapchat string or something? Hey guys, let's get together at building C at 10 o'. Clock. Everybody make it. Great. We'll see you then.
Joe Getty
There must have been food. Yeah, maybe there was food. Somebody brought donuts. We got a lot more punditry and news about this whole thing and it's all super interesting and I hope you can stick around if you missed a segment, get the Podcast Armstrong and Getty on Demand
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Joe Getty
Iran's formerly supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei is dead. This wretched and vile man had the blood of hundreds and even thousands of Americans on his hands and was responsible for the slaughter of countless thousands of innocent people all across many countries last night, all over Iran, the voices of the Iranian people could be heard cheering and celebrating in the streets when his death death was announced. Yeah, that, that reminds me. So I was watching one of the shows yesterday, who's the San Diego area Republican who made his money with the carjack thingy? Darryl Isa, Daryl Isa was on one of the shows and somebody brought up then this is still not verified yet but that we hit a school or something killing 60 people. Of course all your major news organizations were willing to run with that as facts even though it was coming out of the Iranian government. The Iranian government announces in the early hours of a war with one of the worst countries on earth that we hit a school. And they just take their word for it. Freaking unbelievable. I mean it's just, I can't believe that you do that. ABC and all the other networks that did that. Anyway, Darrell Issa was asked about that and he made the point that that hasn't been verified yet. And but he said the reason Iranians are so happy about this is that their own regime kills multiples of those people on a regular. They've been living their lives for decades where children, women are tortured and beaten in the street because somebody doesn't like the way they're dressed, you're drunk up at a hospital and beaten to death because they think you might have been. So yeah, if unfortunately somebody machine gunned 20,000 George Will's calling 30,000, but who knows what the number is. But tens of thousands of protesters were killed in the streets. And so they're willing to take a little collateral damage to try to get rid of this regime that will kill many, many, many multiples of those kind of people innocently for decades to come if they had the chance, which is an obvious point. Couple of things you might not know if you weren't following this really closely. I thought this was interesting. Trump launched Saturday morning's campaign after weeks long lobbying effort, including talking to Israel and Saudi Arabia, according to four people who talked to the Washington Post with Crown Prince MBS Mohammed bin Salman making multiple private phone calls to Trump. So he was saying out loud, don't do this, it would destabilize the Middle East. But he was talking to Trump on the phone regularly. According to the Washington Post, he was bugging him over the past month advocating a US Attack despite his public support for diplomatic solutions. So, so he's calling up Trump. Hey, I, hey, I think they're getting closer every day to Obama and think that would be a good time. So I'm just saying they're super weak, man.
Jack Armstrong
They're super weak. They won't be forever. Just saying. I don't mean to bug you or anything, but anyway, we'll talk soon.
Joe Getty
That surprises me not in the least. But again, media willing to say, you know, leaders in the region don't want a war. Okay, you taking that seriously? So that's one thing I thought was damned interesting and not the least surprising
Jack Armstrong
knee jerk negativity toward anything the US does, whether it's the media or the lefty activists. It's just, when will they lose their credibility completely?
Joe Getty
And then this angle which I was talking to my kids about yesterday, you're always going on about the some of our big allies in Europe who have a real political problem with the number of Muslim immigrants that have come into their country politically. So I think that's why Germany, France and the UK had to sound like they were against this or not, you know, involved in it in the beginning. Part of it was politically from that standpoint. Germany, France and the UK which didn't participate in the initial strikes in Iran, said yesterday that they will take steps to defend our interests and those of our allies in the region, potentially through enabling necessary and proportionate defensive action. In other words, joining us in this battle right after it's already started to the thing we were talking about earlier, just since it came up, the ridiculous obituary in the Washington Post about the ayatollah try to picture what they'll write about Donald Trump when he dies. The headline will include all kinds of negative stuff and so will every paragraph. Here's the Ayatollah, one of the worst people on earth, dying at the hands of the United States over the weekend. Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran's supreme leader, dead at 86. He played a behind the scenes role in Iran's Islamic revolution, served as president in the 1980s and dominated the country for more than three decades. That's your headline. Not, Not a tight. Not even a hint of anything negative in there. And slaughtered people by the tens of thousands.
Jack Armstrong
Was repressive to women.
Joe Getty
They would. They murdered gay people, they murdered women, they beat you to death, blah blah, blah, blah, blah. All of the things that you would think the Washington Post cares about, not mentioned at all. And then you get down. Can I get a round of applause
Jack Armstrong
for financing terrorism all across the world and leading to many more deaths?
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
Thank you.
Joe Getty
And here's one of the paragraphs. Also with his bushy white beard, it's almost parody. I had to check to make sure this was true cuz I thought this might be one of those. Somebody made it up. With his bushy white beard and easy smile.
Jack Armstrong
What?
Joe Getty
Kamene cut a more avuncular figure in public than his perpetually scowling but more revered mentor. And he was known to be fond of Persian poetry and classic Western novels, especially Victor Hugo's Les Mis Rob. But like the uncompromising Khomeini, he opposed moderates efforts to promote political and social reforms domestically and to secure report reproach month with the United States.
Jack Armstrong
Well, I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to know him when he was with us.
Joe Getty
That is unbelievable. Yeah. What is their problem? Why do they feel like they have to do that?
Jack Armstrong
Well, it's. Anything that's not the US is beloved. And anything that is the US is contempt held in contempt. You know the part of me as we were talking about the utter idiocy of. I think it was ABC News part of me thinking, thinks never watch them, never refer to them again. Let them die.
Joe Getty
He liked poetry and lemis and he had a great smile. So that's your. That's your comedy. Not that he murdered 30,000 people in the street just in this latest go around. What was this? What would the total number of his own people that he murdered or tortured be over the last 40 years that he was in charge? Who knows?
Jack Armstrong
Certainly approaching six figures.
Joe Getty
Certainly could be.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
Joe Getty
As Jonathan Turley wrote of the Washington Post's obituary. This is a bit narrow. He also had an avuncular predilection for mass killings, suppression of women and the torture of dissidents. Might want to throw that in there.
Jack Armstrong
Well said.
Joe Getty
Yeah. So Pete Hegseth talked a little bit ago. We haven't heard everything he said because it happened right before we went on the air. Do we have a clip of that? The Secretary of war. Michael.
Pete Hegseth
For 47 long years, the expansionist and Islamist regime in Tehran has waged a savage one sided war against America. They didn't always declare it openly, except for their constant chance of death to America. They did it through the blood of our people. Car bombs in Beirut, rocket attacks on our ships, murders at our embassies. Roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan funded and armed by Iranian Quds Force and IRGC killers. My generation of veterans carry the names of brothers who never came home. Brothers butchered by Iranian backed roadside bombs and well armed militias, thousands of our own. We didn't start this war, but under President Trump we are finishing it.
Joe Getty
Yeah, I don't think a lot of people understand how when we were in Iraq fighting, we were, were practically fighting Iran at the time in Iraq. But one of the reasons we don't know that is that the Bush administration didn't want to talk about that because it made it look like it was even more of a mistake to go into Iraq, that we ended up fighting Iran. I remember talking about it after I started. I read a book called the Devil you know by Bill Baer. He was a former CIA guy saying Iran is the whole is our enemy. That's who we should be worried about. They're who's behind this whole thing. And that was before we even found that out. But yeah, those roadside bombs and all that sort of stuff that killed our soldiers and blew off their legs and all those things, that was Iran behind a lot of that.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, I'm fond of saying there's some problems you can't solve, you just have to manage them in life and in foreign relations. But the, the counter argument I would make to anybody saying that this was a war of choice and, you know, it didn't have to, we should have negotiated, blah, blah, blah. We've been trying to, quote, unquote, manage the regime in Iran for now, you know, three generations and it wasn't working. And their malign influence, their quest for a nuclear program, it just continued and continued and continued and now it's changed course significantly and you know, it may not end well. Soon, but the old course just wasn't working.
Joe Getty
Since you brought that up, there's hardly a pundit at the highest levels who hates Trump more than conservative George Will of the Washington Post. But his headline today at last, the credibility of US Deterrence is being restored. He couldn't like this more. The perhaps 30,000 protesters who perished in Iran's streets in early January did not die in vain. I like this opening paragraph. The Hamas paragliders who are tentacles of Iran began Today's war on October 7, 2023, igniting one of history's most spectacular backfires. Boy, that is true over time. But I want to get down this to this, just since you brought it up. Some say that U.S. involvement in Iran constitutes a war of choice. That too casually bandied phrase rarely fits untidy reality. America's civil war was a war of choice. And he explains Lincoln's choices. Donald Trump's administration has chosen not to wager U.S. safety on Iran's abandoning its multi decade pursuit of nuclear weapons, or on Iran's acquiring them, but not really meaning death to America. And he takes the reestablishing the deterrence, US deterrence around the world all the way back to 1975 when we got out of Vietnam and that since then the, our, our, our level of deterrence around the world has been diminishing, diminishing little by little. He uses a whole bunch of examples, particularly Barack Obama and Joe Biden and number of things that they did. But now, for a while anyway, as long as Donald Trump's in office, various players are going to take it very seriously, right?
Jack Armstrong
I would agree. Vietnam and then the Iraq situation was American deterrence, but it was bungled so horribly. I think the lesson we took as a country was we better not do much because we'll screw it up. If I can give the final word to Pete Hegseth. Michael, can we do clip 71 please?
Pete Hegseth
It took the 47th president, a fighter who always puts America first, to finally draw the line. After 47 years of Iranian belligerence, he reminded the world as he has time and time again, being an American means something unbreakable. If you kill Americans, if you threaten Americans anywhere on earth, we will hunt you down without apology and without hesitation and we will kill you.
Joe Getty
I know some of you out there think this is not America first, this is Israel first. I think you are wrong. I think this does make the world safer and makes the United States safer. You can't let a country that has been chanting death to America for half a century get A nuclear weapon and see how much they mean it. To paraphrase George.
Jack Armstrong
Well, yeah, we need to talk more about the anti Semite wackadoo fringe, which is not on the fringe anymore a little bit. But first word from our friends at Simplisafe Home security. If you're like us, you get dinged on your phone 776 times a day. You silence it, you ignore it, whatever. If that latest ping is from your other company security camera, you could ignore it and it could be a disaster. Somebody's breaking in. But maybe you're at work, you're at the movies, you're on a flight. So that's why Simplisafe is different. They're special. They take care of all of it for you.
Joe Getty
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Simplisafe is a customizable whole home security system backed 247 by monitoring agents you can rely on to act when you can't. Right now our listeners get 50% off their new Simply Safe system at simply safe.com armstrong 50 off simplisafe.com armstrong there's no safe like Simplisafe.
Joe Getty
So we got a lot more to get to. We're going to talk to Mike Lyons are one of our favorite military analysts. A little bit later. I look forward to that. We do have four guys that have been killed so far in the war as Trump has said multiple times since Saturday night. Likely to be more. This is expected according to what I think he told one of the news outlets. Overnight like four to six weeks minimum. So this is going to be going on for a while. Israel and the United states have hit 2000 targets already. 2000. I guess that's what Pete Hegseth called it. The most sophisticated, biggest area assault in world history. I don't know if that's true or not, but. But it's something. We got Mailbag on the way. Stay here.
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Joe Getty
we left out the biggest thing pete Hegset said a few minutes ago. He did not rule out boots on the ground. We'll go as far as we need to go and for quite a few years now, everybody's been Ruling out boots on the ground if they ever have the opportunity. But he did not rule that out. So more on that later.
Jack Armstrong
Here's your freedom loving quote of the day. Excuse me, who? My allergies. Beginning a series on war. We'll start with George S. Patton's famous quote. The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his good one. It is a good one. Mailbag lot to get to. Let's start with Jim from Harmony, Pennsylvania. Hey guys. And Katie, much love and appreciation from Harmony. Been listening to us for over half of his adult life. He says your show is my rock, second only to my parents. It's very kind of you, Jim.
Joe Getty
Thank you. Wow.
Jack Armstrong
With that being said, something's been weighing heavy on my mind today. As a minority homosexual, I am, quote, allowed to mock the insanity of the LGHD tv, HGTV plus Community hdtv. I'm stealing that one, Jim, as I've been doing since I was in high school. At any rate, he has hired Katie to speak for him. The following statement. Katie, please, in your obnoxious uptalk voice.
Katie Green
I don't know who needs to hear this, but Iran's next ayatollah should be a trans, black, indigenous, genderqueer, fat, positive, colorblind, bilateral, above the knee, amputee, trans, female of color. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a bigot, hateful, misogynist and needs to educate they themselves.
Jack Armstrong
Hashtag be brave. Hashtag so brave.
Joe Getty
And it needs to educate they themselves.
Jack Armstrong
Entirely crafted by the brilliant Jim from Harmony, Pennsylvania.
Joe Getty
That's pretty funny.
Jack Armstrong
Well done, Jim. A couple of memes of the day for you. It's a big American flag. Suddenly the entire world knows that the US Military is no longer run by men in dresses. And this from John Thinking in similar fashion. Please, gentle radio hosts, the proper term is Ayatollics. Oh gosh. Aaron Rice. Guys, intelligence sources indicate that Minneapolis is weeks if not from obtaining a nuclear weapon. No, we're not going to attack Minneapolis. Aaron, please. Let's see this from Gary in Portland. Supporters of Palestine and Portland are angry that Iran is being attacked. Now funding and supplies for from the river to the Sea seem to be a thing of the past. And he has a link to Oregon Live. I will grab that to see. Well, they're just Neo Marxists, just want to tear down Western civilization in the United States. So they've got to be against everything the US does and in favor of whatever is foreign, even if it is 180 degrees against what they claim on other days to be for it's ridiculous. And I thought this was interesting. Adam from beautiful Lincoln, California, he said this war started a day before my family and I were to travel back to the States. All flights to Qatar were canceled and air space closed. Now we're stuck in Nairobi and airfare tickets have jumped to $3,000 per ticket.
Pete Hegseth
Wow.
Jack Armstrong
I've never been this close to war zone. I can feel the frustration and worry from people around me. I'm extremely unhappy that my trip has turned to hell, but I'm not mad about why it turned. Pray for our troops and my wallet.
Joe Getty
Yeah, I seen a bunch of reports on Americans who are stuck in Dubai or wherever and you can't go anywhere. And there's a chance Iran's going to try to hit, you know, they hit Dubai. I didn't realize that Dubai's got the world's biggest airport, but Iran hit that and hotels and so there's no place completely safe. I don't know how long Iran's going to have the capability to lash out like that. I think we in Israel are working really hard to take that out as fast as we can.
Jack Armstrong
I certainly think the airlines will err to the side of caution though.
Joe Getty
Sure.
Jack Armstrong
It could be many days till he can travel again.
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
Enjoy Nairobi.
Joe Getty
Yeah. We got a lot more to bring you up to speed on details we have got gathered. If you miss a segment or an hour, you can get the podcast. Armstrong and Getty on demand again. This is Operation Mediocre Punditry and we're going to do our best all week long to keep you up to speed. That's what we do.
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Jack Armstrong
Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying going. It's not just for celebrities, so do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do@mintmobile.com
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Host: iHeartPodcasts
Main Hosts: Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty
This episode of Armstrong & Getty On Demand is dominated by analysis and reaction to the major U.S. and Israeli military strike that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, alongside 40 top Iranian officials. The hosts wade through breaking news updates, history, media coverage, and partisan reactions, with plenty of signature irreverent commentary.
The episode is part of a special series the hosts call “Operation Mediocre Punditry,” where they embrace their role as opinionated observers trying to make sense of rapidly-evolving events. Their tone is energetic, skeptical, and peppered with biting humor.
“So they're dead. We killed the Ayatollah. 40 of the leadership, which I'm in favor of, by the way, personally.” – Joe Getty (04:00)
“They knew he and 40 of the top brass were going to be meeting above ground and thought, we're never going to get a better chance than this.” – Joe Getty (08:17)
“Not sure I'm in favor of it being one guy's decision as opposed to Congress being involved. In fact, I'm sure I'm not. How that should work out, I do not know.” – Joe Getty (04:09)
“Congress…has the right to write laws clarifying all this and…or propose amendments to the Constitution. They just don't.” – Jack Armstrong (05:44)
“ABC and all the other networks...the Iranian government announces in the early hours of a war...that we hit a school. They just take their word for it. Freaking unbelievable.” – Joe Getty (24:32)
“Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran's supreme leader, dead at 86. He played a behind the scenes role in Iran's Islamic revolution, served as president in the 1980s and dominated the country for more than three decades. That's your headline. Not even a hint of anything negative.” – Joe Getty (28:04)
“Videos of people cheering and dancing in the street…A banner flying over Los Angeles yesterday, it says, thank you, Trump.” – Joe Getty (11:07)
“It will never not be hilarious that…the same retarded SSRI gobbling weirdos who walked around dressed as handma[ids] are now collectively wetting themselves because Donald Trump killed a guy who literally made women walk around dressed as handmaiden.” – Kurt Schlichter, quoted by Jack Armstrong (12:32)
“Germany, France and the UK…didn’t participate in the initial strikes…but now…will take steps to defend our interests and those of our allies in the region, potentially…joining us…” – Joe Getty (28:04)
“Nobody’s very clear on what might happen next in Iran. There are a number of terrible options for what their leadership might become.” – Joe Getty (11:58)
“It is troubling that we kind of say, yeah, that part. Nobody's sure what that means, so we're not going to worry about it.” – Jack Armstrong (04:51)
“…there are no reporters on the ground where these things happen. Both sides, including our side, have a reason to spin the story—and I'm all for it.” – Joe Getty (07:15)
“Their own regime kills multiples of those people on a regular...willing to take a little collateral damage to try to get rid of this regime that will kill many, many, many multiples…innocently for decades…” – Joe Getty (24:32)
“Everything you claim to hate was what the Tehran regime was.” – Jack Armstrong (12:54) “He also had an avuncular predilection for mass killings, suppression of women and the torture of dissidents. Might want to throw that in there.” – Quoting Jonathan Turley, cited by Joe Getty (31:28)
“If you kill Americans, if you threaten Americans anywhere on earth, we will hunt you down without apology and without hesitation and we will kill you.” – Pete Hegseth (36:11)
If you missed the episode: Armstrong & Getty delivered intense, fast-paced, and often sardonic coverage of a major world event—the U.S.-led decapitation strike on Iran’s regime leadership. They critique both the practical and constitutional aspects of the mission, deconstruct partisanship in media coverage, and highlight the emotional responses of Iranians worldwide. Expect their trademark blend of skepticism, dark humor, and sharp-eyed cynicism toward both government and press—even as they reiterate support for eliminating a violently repressive regime. The episode serves as both a real-time chronicle and a critique of how America reacts when it flexes its might on the world stage.
For further updates and punditry on this developing story, Armstrong & Getty will be covering it all week under the banner of Operation Mediocre Punditry.