No One Takes You Seriously If They Can See Your Shins

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand: "No One Takes You Seriously If They Can See Your Shins"

Release Date: February 20, 2025
Host/Authors: Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty
Podcast: Armstrong & Getty On Demand
Produced by: iHeartPodcasts

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1. Introduction & Opening Remarks

The episode begins with Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center. They introduce the episode with their characteristic banter, setting a candid and conversational tone for the discussions ahead.

2. Putin and the Ukraine War

[00:23] Unnamed Guest:
“To the extent that the White House said that Ukraine started the war, I disagree. I think Vladimir Putin started the war. I also believe through bitter experience that Vladimir Putin is a gangster. He's a gangster with a black heart.”

The guests delve into the origins of the Ukraine conflict, vehemently attributing the initiation of the war to Vladimir Putin rather than Ukraine. The unnamed guest paints a grim picture of Putin, comparing him to notorious figures to emphasize his malevolent nature.

[01:02] Unnamed Guest:
“I wouldn't trust this guy like I trust gangster gas stations. Sushi.”

Joe Getty responds with his trademark humor, mocking the guest’s metaphor before acknowledging the seriousness of the point being made.

3. Republican Perspectives on Putin and Rubio

[03:09] Joe Getty:
“My great worry... is that the great things Trump is doing will soon be derailed by the nutty things he's doing and saying.”

The conversation shifts to internal Republican dynamics, specifically focusing on how different members view handling the situation with Putin and Ukraine. They highlight Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s stance, suggesting he aligns with advocating a strong response against Putin’s aggression.

4. Trump's Influence and Concerns

Joe Getty expresses concerns about President Trump's actions potentially undermining his policy achievements. The discussion reflects apprehension that Trump's unconventional approach might derail significant conservative progress.

5. Culture Wars and Conservatism

[04:03] Unnamed Guest:
“It was the best three weeks for conservatives in the culture war in a half a century.”

Referencing Rich Lowry's analysis, the hosts discuss the recent conservative gains in cultural battles. However, they contrast this with their frustration over current policies, particularly criticizing immigration and what they perceive as fascist tendencies in energy and border policies.

6. Hollywood’s Portrayal of China and Tom Cotton’s Critique

[05:08] Unnamed Guest:
“Have you ever seen anybody Chinese is the bad guy in a movie?”

Tom Cotton's new book, "7 Things You Can't Say About China," is discussed, highlighting his criticism of Hollywood’s portrayal of Chinese characters. The guests agree that economic pressures, primarily the lucrative Chinese market, influence Hollywood to avoid depicting Chinese individuals as antagonists.

[07:17] Joe Getty:
“We’re gonna punish you.”

They elaborate on the consequences Hollywood faces when producing anti-China narratives, citing the banning of films like "Seven Years in Tibet" in China as a deterrent against negative portrayals.

7. Gender and Sports Policies in Schools

The hosts address controversial policies allowing boys to compete in girls' sports, sharing anecdotes of athletes like John Katie Spencer who have outperformed their female counterparts. They criticize these policies as undermining fair competition and express frustration over the lack of public outcry.

[15:41] Unnamed Guest:
“I’d rather ride a porcupine to work than have Hollywood something or other.”

They argue that such policies prioritize ideology over athletic fairness, questioning the long-term implications for school sports and the broader societal acceptance of these changes.

8. Government Deficit and Fiscal Responsibility

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to discussing the national deficit and its implications on essential services like Social Security and medical care.

[18:18] Unnamed Guest:
“If we don't solve the deficit, there won't be money for medical care, there won't be money for Social Security.”

They emphasize the urgency of addressing the deficit to prevent financial strain on critical programs, advocating for fiscal responsibility as a cornerstone of sustainable governance.

9. Government Inefficiencies and Waste

The conversation moves to government inefficiencies, highlighting the massive improper payments identified in recent fiscal reports.

[27:04] Unnamed Guest:
“She wanted to push back on the trans thing and they wouldn't let her have a meeting in the library.”

They discuss the systemic issues within government spending, referencing the Wall Street Journal's report on $149 billion in improper payments—nearly 4% of all government expenditures—as a reflection of outdated and inefficient systems.

10. Recent News Highlights

a. KFC Moves Headquarters to Texas

[14:03] Unnamed Guest:
“What is happening? What's next? Jersey Mike's becomes Maine's Mickey's?”

The hosts humorously critique KFC’s decision to relocate its corporate headquarters from Kentucky to Texas, suggesting it as another example of corporate instability and the unpredictable nature of corporate governance.

b. IVF Mix-Up Lawsuit

[31:37] Unnamed Guest:
“What a terrible story.”

They recount a distressing case where a fertility clinic mistakenly implanted the wrong embryo, resulting in racial identity confusion and a heartbreaking custody lawsuit. The hosts express sympathy for the affected individual and criticize the clinic's negligence.

11. Cultural Trends: Less Colorful Society

The episode concludes with a discussion on the noticeable decline in color vibrancy in various aspects of life, from cars to media.

[34:02] Unnamed Guest:
“Every aspect of life is being stripped of color.”

They explore observations made by a culture critic about the shift towards more muted and monochromatic choices in design, entertainment, and everyday objects, pondering the societal implications of this trend.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• [00:23] Unnamed Guest:
  “Vladimir Putin is a gangster with a black heart. He makes Jeffrey Dahmer look like Mother Teresa.”

• [03:09] Joe Getty:
  “The great things Trump is doing will soon be derailed by the nutty things he's doing and saying.”

• [05:08] Unnamed Guest:
  “Have you ever seen anybody Chinese is the bad guy in a movie?”

• [15:41] Unnamed Guest:
  “I’d rather ride a porcupine to work than have Hollywood something or other.”

• [18:18] Unnamed Guest:
  “If we don't solve the deficit, there won't be money for medical care, there won't be money for Social Security.”

• [27:04] Unnamed Guest:
  “She wanted to push back on the trans thing and they wouldn't let her have a meeting in the library.”

• [34:02] Unnamed Guest:
  “Every aspect of life is being stripped of color.”

Conclusion

"No One Takes You Seriously If They Can See Your Shins" is a comprehensive episode where Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty tackle a range of pressing political and cultural issues. From geopolitical conflicts involving Putin and Ukraine to internal Republican strategies, fiscal responsibilities, government inefficiencies, and societal shifts in cultural expression, the hosts provide a blend of critical analysis, personal anecdotes, and sharp commentary. Notably, the episode underscores the importance of fiscal responsibility and highlights concerns over cultural and policy changes affecting sports, media, and societal norms.

For listeners who missed the episode, the detailed discussions and notable insights offer a thorough understanding of the current political landscape and cultural debates shaping America.

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

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

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Getty.

[Unnamed Guest]

To the extent that the White House said that Ukraine started the war, I disagree. I think Vladimir Putin started the war. I also believe through bitter experience that Vladimir Putin is a gangster. He's a gangster with a black heart. He makes Jeffrey Dahmer look like Mother Teresa. He has Stalin's taste for blood. And as I've said in another context, I wouldn't. I trust this guy like I trust gangster gas stations. Sushi.

Just, you know, I knew you.

[Joe Getty]

He's kind of making a good, serious point. He's gotta. Oh, that's right. My brand is throwing in a clever little saying. So let me just undermine my perfectly reasonable point of view by making some idiotic effing metaphor. Wait a minute. I tell you what. That that cab ride was longer than a boa constrictor that swallowed a wire and plugged its wing into a 220 out. No, just say it was long. Just say it was a long ride. No stupid metaphors. God, when's he up for reelection? Who's running against him? I'm donating.

[Unnamed Guest]

Was I right? Michael, I told, I told Hanson and Michael, I said, we're going to come back with this clip. It'll wind up Joe, and then we'll just let him go for a while and then we'll move on to other stuff.

[Joe Getty]

I'm done.

[Unnamed Guest]

Yes, Katie.

[Joe Getty]

So while Joe catches his breath as a man who trusts gas station sushi.

[Unnamed Guest]

Jack, what did you think of that? Yeah, that was a little hurtful.

[Joe Getty]

He.

[Unnamed Guest]

There he is on TV again. You know why he does that? Because he gets on tv. The reason he's on. I'm looking at cbs. The reason they have him on there right now is because he's making his mother sushi. Gas station. Teresa.

[Joe Getty]

Whatever.

[Unnamed Guest]

Clip.

[Joe Getty]

I wonder if behind the scenes he's just a completely serious man.

[Unnamed Guest]

I wonder, too. Maybe, maybe. So there's that. We are going to talk a little more about Ukraine and Putin and all that coming up. And I think a lot of your high ranking Republicans are trying to figure out how do we deal with this? Because a number of them don't agree at all. You know who disagrees with Trump's been saying the most? Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He hasn't uttered a word about it, but I've been listening to him for the last three years on all the Sunday shows. I know what he thinks of this, he thinks it's 100% in the United States interest to show Putin, Russia and the rest of the world you can't get away with this. And that Putin's an evil gangster and that. And obviously he doesn't feel like Ukraine caused the war or Zelensky's in it for the money. So how long he keeps his mouth shut about this, I don't know. That's going to be interesting to watch.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. And again, my great worry or my. It's not even a worry, it's a certainty that the great things Trump is doing will soon be derailed by the nutty things he's doing and saying. And it's a damn shame.

[Unnamed Guest]

Yeah. If there's some clever three dimensional chess thing going on here that's going to turn out good for America, maybe that, you know, I don't see what it is, but maybe it's there.

[Joe Getty]

I tell you what, I've been in businesses, I've been in relationships, I've been in rock and roll bands, I've been in sports teams that felt like they were heading toward the rocks. And I got that feeling now get as good stuff done as we can.

[Unnamed Guest]

Yeah. It's too bad because all of the, you know, we were reading from Rich Lowry's piece in the Natural Review last week that it was the best three weeks for conservatives in the culture war in a half a century.

[Joe Getty]

Yep.

[Unnamed Guest]

The first, the first three weeks of the Trump administration and that continues. And the Doge stuff, I love the, the focus on cutting government and blah, blah, blah.

[Joe Getty]

And all this energy policy, the, the, the, the border, it's all fascist.

[Unnamed Guest]

Oh, my God, the immigration stuff. Yeah, no kidding. By the way, CPAC is going on and J.D. vance is about to speak. Is CPAC in league with the Westminster Dog Show? And something that used to happen once a year is now every three weeks.

[Joe Getty]

It seems like it.

[Unnamed Guest]

Or is that just because I'm old?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, it's like Dancing with the Stars now. It's. Wait a minute. Didn't they just start a season when you're old?

[Unnamed Guest]

Annual things seem to happen every three weeks. I guess that's just the way that is. From the stupid file. I was looking up at the television and they're making a very big deal out of it. With Oscars coming up here soon, gender parody reached across the top 100 grossing films of 2024. It's the first time in movie history gender parody. And they're going big on that. Like that's really important.

[Joe Getty]

The hell are you talking about?

[Unnamed Guest]

Boy, we got the same number of lead roles for women as for men for the first time ever, apparently protagonists and in various films. Okay, great. But okay, great on the. I don't know, forcing certain genders into art seems odd, but whatever. It's to make money. And which is leading me to this. We're gonna have Tom Cotton on for a podcast soon. He's got a new book out. He's a Senator Hawk, especially a hawk on China with his new book, 7 things you can't say about China. And I've listened to several interviews with him already, and one of them that he brings up is Hollywood and the way they rolled over for China. And he uses a whole bunch of examples. But he said, have you ever seen anybody Chinese is the bad guy in a movie? There are number one foe. You do any polling of Americans, Our number one enemy in the world is China by far. And Americans get that and know that when. When Joe and I were young, long time ago, when we were in a cold war with the Soviet Union, the Russians were the bad guy. Like every movie you ever watched, unless it was a Western. I mean, anything with a modern setting, the Russian was a bad guy.

[Joe Getty]

Occasionally they would tag in an East German just to give themselves a breath or two, and then they would jump back into their evil doing. Yeah, well, and it's especially egregious because the country is lousy right now with Chinese intelligence agents and spies.

[Unnamed Guest]

Oh, that's why we need to have Tom Cotton on. Amazing. Him talking about how they've taken over our colleges, sending all these Chinese students over who pay full freight. And the colleges love people that pay the. The, you know, the full tuition and everything like that, which keeps, by the way, the prices up and your kid from being able to get in. But then they get educated at our universities in the very top tech and all that sort of stuff, while sometimes, you know, hanging around as. As teachers and being spies and whatnot. But the Hollywood thing, it hadn't occurred to me. Never is there a bad guy that's from China in any movie, which is ridiculous, given the current state of the world.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Unnamed Guest]

Well, but for the obvious reasons, I. I'm skipping ahead, assuming you're brilliant enough to already know this. The biggest movie market on planet Earth is China. And if you make a movie and you want to make a lot of money, it ain't gonna get shown in China if you have somebody Chinese that's a bad guy. As a matter of fact, it goes way back to when Brad Pitt was in the movie Seven Years in Tibet, which China hated. They banned whichever studio is Paramount or whoever. They banned whichever studio made that movie for years and years and years. They couldn't even get a film of any kind in China. Sending the message, you get on the wrong side of us, we're not just not gonna show this movie, we won't show any of your movies.

[Joe Getty]

We're gonna punish you. Yeah.

[Unnamed Guest]

And you just can't afford to do it. And it worked. And Tom Cotton makes the argument that that's what happens with a lot of our news. All of the big news networks are paired with a big movie company. And he listed them off. I don't know what they are, but ABC and Disney and NBC and Paramount and there's others that CBS is joined.

[Joe Getty]

To something unholy judging by their recent performance.

[Unnamed Guest]

Yeah, but they all are. And he said that's why you don't see as critical coverage of China as you might. Fox has more critical coverage of China. But they, they're not tied in with any movie making company where they have to worry about it. But they would be punished. ABC would be punished if they go too far on being anti China. Disney would get punished and China wouldn't allow the movies in and there's too much money at stake. That, that is, that is not a good position to be in.

[Joe Getty]

Especially when that is combined with the woke crap, which I want to get to after a quick word from our friends and sponsors at Prize Picks. Futball has wrapped up, but basketball getting more and more intense. Hockey than the best ball. My beloved baseball comes down the pike. And Prize Picks is the best way to get in on sports action in more than 30 states including California, Texas, Georgia's in Florida. Join over 10 million users and sign up today.

[Unnamed Guest]

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[Joe Getty]

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[Unnamed Guest]

One more example that Tom Cotton gives from the movie industry. If you're old enough, you Remember the movie Red dawn, which I think was in the 80s or early 90s? But anyway it was the, the Russians land in the United States, the Soviets land in the United States and a bunch of plucky high school kids in the middle of the country band together as an insurgency and take on the, the Russians. And it's a great up with America, anti Soviet Union sort of movie. They tried to remake that a couple of years ago and they were going to use China. They had it all, they filmed and everything like that. China pushed back, said there's no way this is going to air in China. And they changed the bad guys to North Koreans. Like North Korea is going to invade the United States.

[Joe Getty]

The logistics would be daunting. Yeah. So another great example of this, well, of how perverse Hollywood's become. It's gotten so woke. I mean that's kind of an old topic, I don't need to re establish it. But I was so disgusted. Judy and I, we watch our big TV shows together, we binge them or whatever and we're all excited about Slow Horses, which is on one of your streaming services services. It's about like the bottom of the barrel intelligence agents in Britain trying to make their way and do their jobs. And it's a bunch of slouchy characters, great cast and the rest of it. But their first great task, their, their challenge is a terrible terrorist attack in Britain. Islamist terrorism. And I don't know if you follow the news at all, horrific attack after horrific attack thanks to Europe's absolutely unbridled uncontrolled immigration from the Muslim world, now utterly changing the face of Europe in a way that is just heartbreaking in my mind anyway. But so the plot twist is no, it wasn't Islamists because they're nice people and they just want to fit in. It was ugly right wing white people faked an Islamist attack because that would never happen. Oh my God. I said to Judy, I can't watch this. I'm sorry.

[Unnamed Guest]

Yeah, I would have been out, I'd have been.

[Joe Getty]

I can't watch this. It's just. No, sorry.

[Unnamed Guest]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

It's like. Yeah, well, I don't know. I've made my point, but it makes me insane. The one of the great difficult to deal with phenomenon of the phenomena of the modern age is the outsized voice certain smallish groups have. Whether it's the woke left who captured the media and academia. But most people hate their crap. But it seems like, and it seemed like for a while everybody believes their crap and you dared not Speak against it in a lot of blue parts of the country. Crazy, outsized influence. I think the woke right. The. America's always wrong. Vlad Putin's a swell guy. Woke right is way, way, way smaller than you'd think they are online. Well, but it's easy to get the idea that there are way, way more people who embrace a certain point of view because they're so loud and they post so frequently everywhere.

[Unnamed Guest]

I'd rather ride a porcupine to work than have Hollywood something or other. Getting back to how we opened the segment. Colorful metaphor.

[Joe Getty]

It's harder than it looks.

[Unnamed Guest]

Yeah, you think it's easy.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, speaking of a return to traditional values, Playboy magazine is back with pretty girls showing their cute little parts.

[Unnamed Guest]

Yeah, Tim and I talked about that. Tim Sydnifer and I talked about that a lot on Friday. It's an interesting topic. He's a big, big, big in favor of this Wall Street Journal. Not happy with the way Trump's handling Ukraine. We can read a little of their day two. Two days in a row of an editorial board opinion piece, among other things. On the way. Stay here.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Unnamed Guest]

We get news of yet another inexplicable chaotic move seemingly bent on undermining everything we as Americans hold dear. And today is no different because KFC is moving its corporate headquarters from Kentucky to Texas.

[Joe Getty]

That.

[Unnamed Guest]

That is finger licking.

[Joe Getty]

What is going on?

[Unnamed Guest]

What is happening? What's next? Jersey Mike's becomes Maine's Mickey's? Will Papa John step down as pizza pope? Burger King abdicates his throne to marry a common nugget?

The last joke was good. I heard it reported about KFC moving their headquarters from Kentucky to Texas. And they mentioned in the story on NPR that all 200 top executives are going to have to relocate to Texas. But they didn't present that as a horror like they do when government workers have to move. They move for the job. And now their life gets upended in the private sector. You just. That happens. I guess so.

[Joe Getty]

Ridiculous.

[Unnamed Guest]

Anyway, um, I don't know if you remember. You probably don't. Beth Born. We had her on the. A podcaster on the show. She lives in the town I live in. She ended up going to the public library and fighting the fact that they were having some sort of up with trans thing in the conference room.

[Joe Getty]

Right. And then they banned her from having a meeting at that same library, as I recall.

[Unnamed Guest]

Yeah, yeah, that was, that was. That was the gist.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Guest]

She wanted to push back on the trans thing and they wouldn't Let her have a meeting in the library. So anywho, we had her on and she keeps track of these sorts of things and she tweeted this out yesterday. Yesterday a boy won the girls state championship for pole vault in Maine. John Katie Spencer, now named Katie, vaulted 10ft 6 inches.

[Joe Getty]

That's weird for a dude. But go back, go on.

[Unnamed Guest]

I, I saw the picture. You look at the, what do you call it, the podium with him standing at the top. Is it. He looks like a guy and he's way bigger than the girls. Anyway, he vaulted 10ft 6 inches. A full half foot higher than the second and third place who tied 18 inches higher than fourth place. So congratulations to John Katie Spencer for keeping that second place girl from having her dream of winning the state title at something that she worked really, really hard at her whole life and are.

[Joe Getty]

Better at everything, including being women.

[Unnamed Guest]

How women aren't running to the forefront of that being horrible is amazing to me. But she mentioned and I missed this somehow in the town I live in, Davis, California. Last spring a boy, Cullen Lily Javers, broke the girls Davis High school freshman school record for pole vault vaulting 10ft.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, that's because it was a guy. Probably.

[Unnamed Guest]

I missed that somehow. The high school record. Yeah. How long will this go on?

[Joe Getty]

In academia? The win for sanity is highly uncertain.

[Unnamed Guest]

Well, Trump signed that EO, I guess with all the little girls around and that was really cool a couple of weeks ago or something like that about. No, no more of this boys competing in girls sports. If you get any federal funding, you can't do it and schools do so.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Unnamed Guest]

I don't know if it's just gonna have to work its way through the courts or there'll be a lagging something 100%.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. It's gonna be a fairly long process and very, very difficult, especially you know, because we don't know which way elections are gonna go. But I've been studying a fair amount of how colleges are getting around that they've changed their DEI offices to the Office of Community Health or whatever. They do precisely the same thing with the same people continuing to mutilate and, and, and give un irreversible treatments to confused adolescents in the name of gender bending madness. But they change the coding of the insurance claims to cover up what they're doing. It's going to be a long fight. It's like rooting out any disease. It's going to take a while.

[Unnamed Guest]

God, if my daughter got pushed off the podium by some dude, I would make such a giant deal out of that. Why are people so quiet about this?

[Joe Getty]

There's an answer to that, but we have no time for it.

[Unnamed Guest]

Yeah. If you miss a segment or an hour, get the podcast Armstrong and Getty on Demand.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Unnamed Guest]

I really want to. I really want to emphasize to people that this is a very important point. If we don't solve the deficit, there won't be money for medical care, there won't be money for Social Security. We either solve the deficit or all we'll be doing is paying debt.

I want that put to music and I want school children to sing that at the beginning of every school day.

[Joe Getty]

Sounds good.

[Unnamed Guest]

Let's hear it again.

[Joe Getty]

Lengthen it a little bit.

[Unnamed Guest]

Think of it with music.

I really want to. I really want to emphasize to people that this is a very important point. If we don't solve the deficit, there won't be money for medical care, there won't be money for Social Security. We either solve the deficit or all we'll be doing is paying debt.

I. It's. It's stunning that this isn't the only conversation in the country.

[Joe Getty]

Not only that, but it's. And I don't mean to turn this negative because this is going to be a very positive segment.

[Unnamed Guest]

There you go.

[Joe Getty]

In most ways, the fact that him saying that in that way is a novelty and kind of exciting and, and, well, new is horrifying and yet it is being said. So let us be grateful for that.

[Unnamed Guest]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

Musk went on to say, there's a.

[Unnamed Guest]

Lot of rich people out there. They should be caring more about the country because the reason they should be care more about the countries. If America falls, what do you think is going to happen to your business? What do you think? Do you think, are we going to be okay if the ship of America sinks? Of course not. Like what I'm doing here, what the President's doing is it's just long term thinking. The ship of America must be strong. Ship of America cannot sink. If it sinks, we all sink with it.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I don't know if this is deliberate because I don't know how good a communication strategist Elon Musk is. He seems to shoot from the hip, but it's kind of clicking in my head that you establish enthusiasm for cutting the bloat and horrors of the fiscal irresponsibility of government without looking at the entitlements, which are most of the problem, not the entire problem, but a lot of it. You get that enthusiasm going, you build that cultural excitement or at least positive feelings about no, we've got to reign in the government or we'll all go broke. And when that becomes a cultural norm, then you start to take on some of the more difficult stuff.

[Unnamed Guest]

Wow. I'll tell you what, books will be written about this someday, how this is going to play out, but I, I find it impossible to believe that Musk isn't going to get there. Like you just said, we go through all this stuff. We go through the trans operas in Cambodia or all these different things that we spend money on that are so hilarious. I was just watching JD Vance is speaking live right now at the CPAC convention and he was just talking about sex education for Lithuanians or something like that anyway that we were paying for. But once you get all through all this, I believe Elon is going to say either to Trump to his face or he'll go on camera and say it. And then Trump will be in a weird position of, okay, now we got to look at Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid because that is, that's the, that's where the rubber meets the road. And Trump has said that's off the table. And have they talked about this? Have they come to an agreement? Is that when they split, I wonder?

[Joe Getty]

Or will they go with the Trumpian belief that if you can just increase the growth of the economy by a percent or two annually, which is a bigger, you know, hill to climb than it sounds like, then you can go ahead and keep financing that stuff?

[Unnamed Guest]

Uh, oh, I'm watching, I'm watching J.D. vance speak and he's sitting in a chair and is, he's got a gap between his, he's wearing a suit. Of course he's got a gap between his sock and his pant leg. To me, I just think that's the worst look, the worst look. Just, you know, I don't care. The other fashion choices you can make on your own. You know, you want skinny tie, wide tie, bright colors, muted colors, tight suit, loose fitting suit. Or you can't have the skin gap between your, the top of your pant, the sock and the pant leg. That's just a no go.

[Joe Getty]

I have an idea. Why don't you go down the hall to a different studio and do a podcast about that. And I will keep talking about fiscal.

[Unnamed Guest]

Sanity can take you seriously if they can see your shins.

[Joe Getty]

Next clip. Michael.

[Unnamed Guest]

Well, I think we're seeing an antibody reaction from, from those who are receiving the wasteful and fraudulent money. I'll tell you a lesson I learned at PayPal. You know who Complained the loudest, the quickest and the loudest, and with the most amount of righteous indignation. The fraudsters, that's who complained first loudest. And they would generally have this immense overreaction. That's how we knew there were the fraudsters. That's how we knew.

Wow, that's good.

[Joe Getty]

And it was funny. I was thinking this earlier. The four words everyone should know about government is somebody gets the money.

[Unnamed Guest]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

Everything that's spent is received. And that's not to say that all government spending, therefore, is some sort of theft or graft or whatever. No, they're legitimate, you know, expenditures. Absolutely. Just always remember that somebody is getting the money. And that gives you the. The very, very, very basic framework for thinking about who is getting the money and is it a legitimate transfer of taxpayer funds. Anyway, I absolutely love this, and we've got some good, positive, funny stuff again in a moment or two. But Brett Baer talked to Doug Burgum, who's the Secretary of the Interior, last night, and it was good interview, very solid and interesting. But Burgum's final screed, it's 62 and 63. Michael, I thought was absolutely terrific. Let's hear the first part.

[Unnamed Guest]

There's an opportunity here with the federal government to right size it. And in the process, part of it is the federal government is so outdated on the technology. As you know, Brett, I spent 30 years in technology businesses before I got into this public service side of my life. And we're decades and decades behind. And, and we've got still got people that are, that are absolutely pushing paper. We've got people that are taking faxes off fax machines and then doing the data entry. There's just basic things we can do. We can create more meaningful, more purposeful jobs for people that want to have a life of service. And we can deliver lower cost, more efficient government for the citizens. We can do both, and we have to do both of those together.

[Joe Getty]

And here's the business end of what he said.

[Unnamed Guest]

If you're a CEO in technology where there are no protections, that every day you've got to build a product that's better, faster, cheaper tomorrow than it is today. And a new technology from a new competitor can put you out of business. You're always evolving and changing. And those competitive pressures haven't existed for government. Government often is a monopoly.

[Joe Getty]

But.

[Unnamed Guest]

But we need to bring some of those pressures, like things through doge that actually start driving the efficiencies and driving the innovation. And I would invite everybody listening Interior We've got, there's a site on X. Send us your ideas about how we can do a better job serving. I know people are frustrated waiting in line to pay to get into a national park and we're paying an employee to collect dollars when they come in the door. And that should all be on an app and people should have a reservation and roll right in. Make it, you know, lower cost for the government, better service for the citizens. There's a thousand ideas out like that and we're ready to get going on them.

Wow. I mean that is so obviously true. I did that last year when I did that long driving trip with my kids, waiting in these long single file car lines to get see if you got any cash in your pocket to buy ticket to get in as opposed to just going on an app and.

[Joe Getty]

Everybody rolls through and is commonsensical as some of the particulars were there. I just like the spirit of saying out loud, which is that which has been so obvious to all of us for so long. Government is a monopoly with no pressure to improve its performance. As the great Tim Sandifer has pointed out many times on this very show. Indeed, it's the opposite. If you can go and say, yeah, we're the department of solving a problem and we couldn't solve the problem, we need more money, we need more people, you'll generally get it right.

[Unnamed Guest]

And well, there's the other problem. Somebody brought this up on Fox yesterday and I, I've known some people who dealt with this, the friends of mine who abused this because it's just human nature who were in government and would at the end of the year find ways to spend all the money in their budget. Because if you didn't spend it, your budget would be cut.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Unnamed Guest]

So you spend it on just dumb crap. I mean, God, there's exam I'm not gonna get so many of them friends with in trouble, but stuff that they bought, just ridiculous just to shove the money out the door. So your budget stays the same.

[Joe Getty]

Can you change it like a notch or two so we can get an idea of how ridiculous you're talking about?

[Unnamed Guest]

Like electronics you don't need, for instance.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Laptops for people. Tv.

[Unnamed Guest]

Yeah, exactly.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, yeah, fair enough. Just something, anything to keep your budget. What a terrible system. Yeah, so I don't know how you.

[Unnamed Guest]

Get around that either. I don't know. I don't know what you do about.

[Joe Getty]

That, but Wall Street Journal with a great piece today. Doge is searching for wasteful spending. It isn't hard to find it's one of Washington's most persistent and challenging problems. The federal government misspends at least $100 billion each year out of its multi trillion dollar budget. Identifying the wasteful outline outlays isn't the hardest part. It's actually doing something about it. But they go into, for instance, in the most recent fiscal year, the agencies that reported their improper payments, and at least we have a system for doing that, identified $149 billion in such outlays, or almost 4% of all payments were improper. The reports cover a large chunk of total government spending, which the CBO put at $6.75 trillion last fiscal year. Last year, more than 90% of the improper payments were overpayments. We just, we don't have stringent enough guidelines and systems, as Doug Burgum was hinting at. I mean, we're running the computer technology of the 70s in some cases or.

[Unnamed Guest]

80S at best, or in that mine with the manila envelopes and everything like that, the technology of the 1800s, maybe 1500s.

[Joe Getty]

So we just bitterly, bitterly need all sorts of updates and competitive pressures on government and privatization of certain functions. I mean, it would be imperfect in some ways, but there's a phenomenon, I guess. Again, I keep looking for the perfect description of it. It's probably letting perfect be the enemy of good or good enough. But there's this deal like getting rid of the penny. It gives you 90 pounds of good and then 10 pounds or so of, oh, boy, we're going to have to work something out because it does cause a bit of an issue in this. And that 10%, that little bit of, you know, upsetting the current deal freaks people out and they turn down the 90 pounds of good. Happens over and over again. The tax, well, the tax code is a little more complicated because so many people benefit from it. But yeah, that tax that. Oh, we'd better not. When it comes to government policy, I don't get it. Let's try it. Maybe it's that we're old enough to have seen all sorts of policies come and go and departments rise and then not do crap with their budgets and the rest of it. No, let's try it. If it F things up, pardon me, for the next seven or eight years, we'll all be seven or eight years older. Who cares? And we'll have learned something. Need to be. Boulder Speaking of which, I love this one more note. Go ahead. You have something to say on that? Okay. Trump weighs direct payments to Americans from Doge Savings. He's considering carving off 20% of the savings from the cost cutting efforts and just writing checks to Americans, this is the most brilliant political idea ever. The more they find, the more they cut, the bigger check you get and the more people love Doge.

[Unnamed Guest]

Right?

[Joe Getty]

I mean, to the point that it might go crazy and we might start selling off aircraft carriers or Louisiana, I don't know. So we got to, you know, tap the brakes now and again, but I'm telling you, it's a perpetual motion machine of popular support for reining in government spending. It is the most brilliant thing I have ever heard. If he cannot screw it up with the stuff he does, that's crazy.

[Unnamed Guest]

We've got some Bonnie Blue news. If you know, you know, stay tuned for that also.

[Joe Getty]

Why?

[Unnamed Guest]

Why the world Life is left less colorful than it used to be or the. I don't know about the why, but it is. Life is much less colorful than it used to be just a few years ago. And once I point it out, it'll become very clear to you. Among other things, we're going to get to stay with us.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Unnamed Guest]

A Georgia woman is suing her fertility clinic after a heartbreaking IVF mix up. Christina Murray was implanted with the wrong embryo, only to later give up the five month old baby boy she desperately loved. Christina, a former nurse, says she knew something was off the minute she saw her newborn. She and her sperm donor were white, but her baby was African American. Christina says the clinic found the biological parents who were also clients. They sued her for custody and Christina gave up the only son she'd ever known. In a statement, Coastal fertility specialist says this was an isolated event with no further patients affected, adding that clinic deeply regrets the distress caused by an unprecedented error that resulted in an embryo transfer. Mix up.

Yeah, I saw the interview with this woman. What a rough situation.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, heartbreaking.

[Unnamed Guest]

So Lord, you know, she goes through that whole process. She's going to have a baby. She has a baby. Kid's black, she's white. So she immediately thinks something might be up here. But I mean, you know, they've been looking forward to having a baby and she's has the baby for five months. It goes through the whole thing while people are checking into this and everything like that. And you know, you just all the hormones and chemicals and emotions that go with having a baby, you know, take effect. And then somebody comes here and says, yeah, yeah, yeah, the whole kids black thing, yeah, it's not the who you thought it was or doesn't belong to someone else. We made a mistake. Yeah. What a terrible story. Yeah, I would give them a bad Yelp review. That company one star.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. The good news was I got a kid. Reminds me, I've got to get to the whole the left claiming Trump's against ivf, he's against birth control, that narrative. We've got some audio of that. And then he just signed something completely the contrary. People lie routinely. If you haven't figured that out, it's true.

[Unnamed Guest]

And I think Katie brought us this story. I can't believe I now know the name of Bonnie Blue. She's the weirdo who it says here in the New York Post, slept with. She had sex with. She didn't sleep with them. That implies more intimacy and romance than existed. She. She had sex with coitus. She had genital rubbing with a thousand dudes in one day. And now she claims she's pregnant. Well, that's a great story, isn't it? She has a kid, and then that kid gets to grow up knowing, hey, I'm one of those 1,000 guys that had sex with my mom in one day, is my dad.

[Joe Getty]

The whole thing is so dehumanized.

[Unnamed Guest]

It really is just sickening. Came across this culture critic is one of my favorite Twitter follows. Always comes up with these really interesting things, but has one today out about how we are getting less colorful. Every aspect of life is being stripped of color. Many have noticed this trend, but why is it happening? And he uses a bunch of examples, charts of, for instance, pixels in photographs over the last actually 200 years. But we're getting more black and white and, and. And more blue and gray and olive green and less like, bright colors. Cars. Drastic change in cars to where we just got way, way, way more cars that are black, white, or gray than blue, yellow, red, bright colors. And by quite a bit. And then pointing out movies, which I had noticed how a lot of your big motion pictures and a lot of your cool Netflix series and everything like that, they're barely in color at all. They're practically black and white. They're just kind of muted colors and everything.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Really washed out. Muted, right. Yeah, I happen to see that. And they. They showed the picture of what's his face as Napoleon. And then the way he looked on the screen and all the color was washed out, which is weird.

[Unnamed Guest]

Yeah. And it's just something that we're doing for some reason, deciding to be less colorful. You know, things come in and out of style over time. But sure, I find that very interesting.

[Joe Getty]

And it's so funny this would come up And I happen to see it, too, because Judy and I were getting our kitchen remodeled, and we're looking at various colors and combinations and that sort of thing, like you do. And we're both inclined to shy away from anything too, too bright to notable, honestly. Now, our reasoning is if something can be in, that means soon be out.

[Unnamed Guest]

Yeah, that's the problem.

[Joe Getty]

This is the hot blue. Everybody's using this blue. I'm not using that blue. I want something more classic, and I wonder if that factors into it. Everything lasts. Well, no, everything doesn't last longer. Or your pink refrigerator you bought in 1963, still gonna be there 20 years later. Unlike modern garbage, right?

[Unnamed Guest]

Yeah. I don't know why we're tending toward less colorful stuff. I certainly have noticed that with the TV and movies. Maybe it's just a fad, like, you know, bell bottoms or something. Got some good stuff for hour three. I hope you can get it. If you don't get the podcast Armstrong and Getty on Demand.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Gettysburg.