No One Wants A Long Eyeball

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: No One Wants A Long Eyeball

Date: January 5, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the “Maduro Operation”—a dramatic U.S. military raid leading to the capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro. Hosts Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty dissect the details, strategic implications, and political fallout of the raid, moving from military precision to international consequences. They also touch on heightened protest activity in Iran and meander into lighter topics like travel stories, electricity grid vulnerabilities, sports oddities, and a playful critique of aging TV formats.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Maduro Raid: American Military Shock and Awe

[01:14 – 14:17]

• The show opens with a recap of the bold U.S.-led operation to apprehend Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

• Joe Getty highlights the remarkable precision of the raid and American military’s ability to coordinate vast assets:

  • Gen. Dan “Raisin” Kane delivers the core narrative:

    “We think we develop, we train, we rehearse, we debrief, we rehearse again and again. Not to get it right, but to ensure that we cannot get it wrong.”
    (Gen. Dan Kane, 01:40)

  • 150+ aircraft were involved, demonstrating “integration” beyond what most people could imagine.
  • The show relishes the surprise and discipline of special forces, with appreciation for the joint Army/Navy effort.

• Armstrong underscores the political risk:

  “...these things go wrong. Not only... Geez, I hope we don’t have, you know, 20 Marines die here... But then just the political fallout would be immense.”
  (Jack Armstrong, 03:17)

• Comparison is drawn to previous presidential military decisions (Obama & bin Laden).

• The hosts debate why U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan seemed so much less competent, speculating about leadership and military doctrine:

  "One of the most difficult things a military ever does is withdraw or retreat.”
  (Joe Getty, 04:48)

Notable Quotes

• “Our ability to coordinate our various branches is what separates us from the rest of the world.”
  (Mike Lyons via Armstrong, 07:25)

• “I didn’t know it got cold there. It was 25 degrees with the wind chill while we were there…”
  (Jack Armstrong, on his New Orleans trip, 15:28)

2. The Aftermath: “Who Runs Venezuela Now?”

[08:24 – 14:17]

• Discussion pivots to the legal and political implications—the fate of Maduro, Venezuela’s leadership void, and Trump’s bold declarations:

  “Trump saying we run Venezuela… everybody in the world I think said what? What does that mean?”
  (Jack Armstrong, 10:04)

• Joe Getty notes: “The greatest yada yada yada in the history of geopolitics.”

• The hosts probe the next steps: “We are going to tell them what we need them to do and if they resist or defy us, we're gonna put a terrible, terrible hurt on them.”
  (Joe Getty, 12:40)

• They note the capture of Maduro’s wife as a sign of seriousness and speculation about potential death penalty consequences.

3. Iran Protests & Possible U.S. Intervention

[10:28 – 13:40, 23:00 – 27:23]

• Coverage of mass protests in Iran, with the hosts acknowledging the potential for regime change or brutal crackdown:

  "Either there is going to be a terrible, terrible bloodbath at the hands of the security forces, which Trump has vowed... or this is the beginning of the end of the regime."
  (Joe Getty, 11:47)

• Trump's tweet:

  "If Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go."
  (quoted by Jack Armstrong, 23:50)

• The uncertainty and possible outcomes (military dictatorship, cautious liberalization) are analyzed, with concern about credibility and feasibility of an American rescue.

4. Foreign Policy Philosophy & Risk

[13:40]

• Armstrong critiques the idea that “doing nothing” is the least risky approach:

  “Sometimes the most insane gamble you can make... is to do nothing.”
  (Jack Armstrong, 13:40)

• The folly of U.S. inaction in the Americas is discussed, with reference to China, Iran, and Russia’s encroachment.

5. Life, Technology & Security Vulnerabilities

[14:29 – 18:23]

• Jack recounts a San Francisco power outage and speculates on potential cyber-attacks:

  “My first thought always with this stuff was, was this the Chinese trying to see if they could work...?” “If the electricity goes off in a big city... that's frightful.”
  (Jack Armstrong, 16:35 & 17:12)

• They note how dependent modern life is on seamless, ever-present infrastructure—an under-appreciated vulnerability.

6. Social Media & Human Instincts in Disaster

[19:05 – 20:25]

• Reflecting on the Swiss ski resort fire tragedy, Armstrong laments bystander fixation on capturing video instead of escaping:

  “Place catches on fire and everybody gets their phone out. Instead of immediately running for the door, they get their phone out to try to capture the moment...”
  (Jack Armstrong, 19:24)

• Getty expands on how this turns real life into “internet slop”.

7. Cultural Oddities & Media Critique

[27:35 – 31:59]

• Extended riff on Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve, age-inappropriate bookings (Diana Ross at 81), and the absurdity of TV’s desperate bid for shrinking audiences.

• Armstrong:

  “Their average [prime time audience]... is 4 million people. I'll bet the average... when we were kids was something like 45 million people... Why they continue to hang on to the old model until it's completely dead... is bonkers to me.”
  (Jack Armstrong, 31:39)

8. Light Stories, Sports & Eyeball Trivia

[14:29, 20:26 – 22:29, 32:37 – 34:08]

• Jack shares personal travel mishaps, food highlights in New Orleans, and football playoff tidbits.
• Curiosity about extremely tall female basketball recruits (“Tall drink of water!”) and the genetics behind it.
• Late episode: Getty introduces a medical segment on myopia and screen time:

  "Staring at a screen... for a prolonged time causes the eyeball to grow longer from front to back, making it harder to focus farther away.”
  (Joe Getty, 33:08)
  Armstrong exclaims, “No one wants a long eyeball.” (33:33)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On military supremacy:
  “We can do some serious ass... like nobody else on earth.” (Joe Getty recounting a military friend, 04:16)

• On power outages as a warning:
  “Everybody was just walking around wondering what we supposed to do for the whole day. That’s frightful.” (Jack Armstrong, 17:12)

• On media hypocrisy:
  “Here are the news networks who have not covered Zoran Mandani’s salute…every single one of them had multiple stories about Elon Musk’s salute…That’s all you need to know, isn’t it?” (Jack Armstrong, 22:02)

• On pop culture absurdities:
  “She came out there and she sang her songs, though. Was it lip synced? She actually sang them. You could tell because she got so winded... She was so winded from walking around the stage and twirling around at her age.” (Jack Armstrong, 30:29)

• On the risks of inaction:
  “Doing nothing sometimes is the stupidest freaking thing you could do.” (Jack Armstrong, 13:50)

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Important Segment Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment Description | |-----------|----------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:14 | Start of Maduro raid discussion, Gen. Kane’s statement | | 05:26 | Gen. Kane’s detailed breakdown of the operation | | 10:04 | Trump’s Venezuela comments & “who’s in charge” debate | | 11:24 | Protests in Iran—tracing events & “locked and loaded” warning | | 13:40 | Philosophical take on U.S. foreign policy risk | | 14:29 | Armstrong’s travel anecdotes, San Francisco blackout story | | 17:12 | Vulnerability of cities to power loss, public confusion | | 19:05 | Swiss resort tragedy & social media behavior in emergencies | | 22:02 | Network news bias, Elon Musk “salute” vs. Mandani coverage | | 23:50 | Trump’s Iran tweet and speculation on intervention | | 27:35 | New Year’s special, Diana Ross performance | | 33:08 | Myopia epidemic & “long eyeballs” explained | | 35:07 | Final thoughts & wrapping up |

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Closing Tone and Takeaways

Armstrong & Getty blend wry humor with skepticism as they navigate serious geopolitics and trivial pop culture, regularly questioning media narratives and policymaker decisions. They provide deep-dives on military and diplomatic affairs, leavened with relatable asides and playful banter:

• The Maduro operation is hailed as a display of American might, raising questions about leadership, intelligence (“we had a mole!”), and global message-sending.
• There’s palpable concern about world order shifting in real time (Venezuela, Iran)—with both hope and anxiety for what comes next.
• Offbeat side topics—culinary revelations, sports anomalies, technology’s downside for youth—break up the heavy geopolitical content.
• The hosts maintain their trademark irreverence, offering both insight and good-natured mockery to keep listeners engaged and informed.

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Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

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[Jack Armstrong]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the.

[Joe Getty]

George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Getty. Nicolas Maduro had his chance, just like Iran had their chance. Until they didn't. And until he didn't. He effed around and he found out.

[General Dan Kane]

What we've witnessed today is a powerful demonstration of America's joint force. We think we develop, we train, we rehearse, we debrief, we rehearse again and again. Not to get it right, but to ensure that we cannot get it wrong.

[Jack Armstrong]

Also, we haven't mentioned this yet today. New York Times with their reporting on Sunday that we had somebody next to Maduro. I mean, we had a mole in.

[Joe Getty]

There, knew where he was hour by.

[Jack Armstrong]

Hour, all the time. And so others have said that's a good message to send to Putin or various bad guys around the world, Ayatollah, whoever, that we can get somebody really close to you that knows exactly what's going on. I'd like to see.

[Joe Getty]

And if that raises a little paranoia among the evildoers of the world, well, ha ha.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Makes him look around, wonder. Oh, but it's him. I saw the way he looked at me the other day at dinner. I think I'm gonna kill him.

[Joe Getty]

Super quick note. Had a really enjoyable conversation with Mike Lyons about this during hour two of the show to kick off hour two. If you missed it, you'll probably enjoy it. Grab it via podcast. Armstrong and Getty on Demand. You ought to be subscribing. That way it downloads automatically.

[Jack Armstrong]

I've seen the pictures of Trump in the, what do they call it, that room that they're in when these things are happening.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, the situation room.

[Jack Armstrong]

The situation room. I like that. We've got a situation happening which is.

[Joe Getty]

Pretty named after the guy from Jersey Shore, Mike. The situation.

[Jack Armstrong]

Pretty broad term because everything's a situation.

[Joe Getty]

But the situation, it's a fair point.

[Jack Armstrong]

And Trump sitting in there, tylus collar open, looking very stern faced. I'll bet he was. Because same as Obama with getting Osama bin Laden or whatever, man, these things go wrong. Not only. And I imagine first and foremost your thoughts are, geez, I hope we don't have, you know, 20 Marines die here or something like that. But then just the political fallout would be immense if that had been a disaster.

[Joe Getty]

Right? Yeah, yeah, both are true.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, Zielinski over the weekend, more or less saying, how about that's pretty cool what you did there with Maduro. How about you try that with the Putin there?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, a little different, different situation, but I see your point. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That it could have been a disaster. And one of the main things we talked to Mike Lyons about was what a magnificent display it was of American military might and coordination and prowess. I reached out to a person I am close with, career military fellow, and expressed that in many words. And he responded back. We can do some serious ass. I said, yours is more concise than mine. We can like nobody else on earth.

[Jack Armstrong]

But we certainly didn't when we were leaving Afghanistan.

[Joe Getty]

So why is that horrible leadership?

[Jack Armstrong]

That's what, that's what I'm wondering, was it just, was it Biden? Was the people below him, was it just didn't plan in the way they were just talking about there? Were you plan and plan and plan and plan or.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. One of the things I learned later in life that has to be taught to non military people is that one of the most difficult things a military ever does is withdraw or retreat.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure that's very, very hard.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. And, and Joe Biden was a horrible president on virtually every level. So we heard General Kane there, Dan Raisin Kane, it's such a good nickname. I hesitate to use it because everybody uses it all the time, including our commander in chief. But his descriptions during the news conference of how the raid unfolded to me were just riveting. Jack, do you mind if we jump into that now? Let's start with 52. Michael.

[General Dan Kane]

This was an audacious operation that only the United States could do. It required the utmost of precision and integration within our joint force. And the word integration does not explain the sheer complexity of such a mission. An extraction so precise it involved more than 150 aircraft launching across the Western hemisphere in close coordination, all coming together in time and place to layer effects for a single purpose. To get an interdiction force into downtown Caracas while maintaining the element of tactical surprise.

[Jack Armstrong]

I mean, that's. I had no guess. If you'd asked me to guess how many planes or aircraft were involved, I'd have said, I don't know, 8.

[Joe Getty]

Or if you're trying to be extravagant, you might have said 30.

[Jack Armstrong]

But I wouldn't have been able to come up with why you need 30. 150.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. He goes on, describing how it unfolded.

[General Dan Kane]

As the helicopter force ingress towards the objective at low level. We arrived at Maduro's compound at 1:01am Eastern Standard Time, or 2:01am Caracas local time. And the apprehension force descended into Maduro's compound and moved with speed, precision and discipline towards their objective and isolated the area to ensure the safety and security of the ground force while apprehending the indicted persons.

[Joe Getty]

As Mike Lyons described so beautifully, the wave of aircraft that. Whoops, there goes your air defenses.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

And now your power's out. Oh, there's your cordon of security. Goodbye, fellas. And just coordinating then with the special Forces, both Army and Navy, and. And just a crazy level of coordinated forces that I guess we're the best in the world at. Thank God.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. So Mike Lyons did say, and you should listen to that segment if you have any interest in this sort of thing, but he said the same thing that that guy with the cool nickname just said. Our ability to coordinate our various branches is what separates us from the rest of the world. And that I don't know anything about, but I'll take their word for it.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. The more I hear about that, the more I understand how incredibly important that is and how impressive we are at it. Hey, Michael, I need your vote on this, Dan, or Mike needs a great nickname too. Mike. Roaring lions.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, wow, that's too much.

[Joe Getty]

Sounds great, Mike. The Mighty Lions. Mike. A pride of. No, that's just obscure and showing off my knowledge of groups of animals working on it. I mean, the guy's name is Lyons.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, that's true.

[Joe Getty]

Goodness sakes. We got to be able to come up with, you know, a good one.

[Jack Armstrong]

So Maduro is going to appear in court. He gave the thumbs up. I think he just did or he did whatever today. He's in court today. Past tense or, or, or present or.

[Joe Getty]

Future will be in court today.

[Jack Armstrong]

But the other day when he got arrested in their perp walking and everything like he gave the two thumbs up to the camera. What is that all about? What are you giving a thumbs up for dude? I mean he's lucky.

[Joe Getty]

He's an optimist I'd say.

[Jack Armstrong]

Your cool. I get to do whatever I want all the time. Life has just gone 180 degrees the other direction. Yeah, I'm surprised you're not executed, which he may be. He may get the death penalty.

[Joe Getty]

I was surprised to see you flew first class. At least that's what I'm guessing because that picture that the administration put out, he had eye shades which I assume were complimentary. And, and the good headphones, not like dopey little earplugs but like the good headphones they had him in. So that must have been a comfortable flight for him.

[Jack Armstrong]

And we don't usually grab the wife but we grab the wife in this case too because she is a full on accomplice, co conspirator.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. And there she was. Why not snatch her up?

[Jack Armstrong]

Well you wouldn't normally. Right. You go and you get somebody. I mean shoot Bin Laden's old lady on person, on purpose.

[Joe Getty]

No, not unless she reached for a weapon which I think she did. Or used her as a human shield or something. Anyway, she'll be missed. So the question though is what the hell now?

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh yeah, yeah. And Trump saying we run Venezuela, I mean he said that like an hour later or something like that. We now work in a run that.

[Joe Getty]

Country until there's a judicious transition.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. We're in charge of Venezuela and everybody in the world I think said what? What does that mean?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, how's that going to work exactly? It was perhaps the greatest and we're going to take control. Yada yada yada. The greatest yada yada yada in the history of geopolit. Now he, it's become more clear and we could probably play some of Marco Rubio on the various talk shows.

[Jack Armstrong]

He also said over the weekend that because we have simultaneously happening an even bigger event going on in Iran because they got protests all across the country and people are tearing down posters of the Ayatollah and defacing government buildings in a way that they've never been able to get away with it. I mean, it's really got that, okay, this is different wall coming down in Germany or Soviet Union look to Arab Spring look to it. I mean, people are getting away with stuff they've never gotten away with before. And you got, you almost have to assume that the security forces have decided not to shoot him down or what? And then there's the New York Times saying the Ayatollah and the closest people to him have plans to get out of the country if they need to in the next couple of days. But I had a point that the reason I brought up in Iran, whatever. Oh, Trump said over the weekend about Iran, he said, if they start killing protesters, we're going to protect them. And I thought, okay, how are we going to do that?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

What does that mean?

[Joe Getty]

I've got to admit, I haven't been paying enough attention to the Iran situation just because I've been so. I've long been a hardcore, we need to be more activist in our hemisphere guy. And so I'm really interested in the Venezuela thing and where it might go. But you're right, that's a huge story. There are two choices. Either there is going to be a terrible, terrible bloodbath at the hands of the security forces, which Trump has vowed.

[Jack Armstrong]

We'Re not going to let happen, or.

[Joe Getty]

This is the beginning of the end of the regime. Those are really the only two choices. Oh, yeah, I can think of some others, but those are the two main choices.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, which would be huge.

[Joe Getty]

One final thought for now on the Venezuela deal because. Oh, the president. Let's go ahead, Michael, play. I just was looking at it a second ago. There he is. 60 60, please. The next question is who's in charge of Venezuela right now? Have you spoken to the newly sworn in president there, Rodriguez, and what are your thoughts on the entire situation? We're dealing with the people.

[Jack Armstrong]

We're dealing with the people that just got sworn in. And don't ask me who's in charge because I'll give you an answer and it'll be very controversial.

[Joe Getty]

What does that mean?

[Jack Armstrong]

We're in charge.

[Joe Getty]

So we're in charge. And it became more and more clear as Marco Rubio made the rounds on the Sunday shows. And maybe we can sprinkle some of that in the rest of the hour. But it became that the plan is, look, we are going to tell them what we need them to do and if they resist or defy us, we're Gonna put a terrible, terrible hurt on them. It's not regime change, it's not democracy. It's not Ms. Machado, the Nobel Prize Peace Prize winner, nor her appointed successor when she got banned from the ballots, who won the election, by the way? So there are a whole lot of big giant question marks. But I had this thought and I want to squeeze it in because I keep forgetting to one thing that was completely lost, especially during the Biden years. And Obama was like this too to some extent. And this is true in life as well as foreign policy. Sometimes the most insane gamble you can make, the most wild out there, ill advised plan you can follow is to do nothing.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I know. And that, that Barack Obama definitely didn't understand that the whole don't do stupid s doing nothing sometimes is the stupidest freaking thing you could do.

[Joe Getty]

Right? It's the wild gamble. But inaction looks like not a wild gamble, so people don't understand that. But letting for instance, China especially and Iran and Russia have a beachhead right across the newly renamed Gulf of America from us in Venezuela, that would have been the wildly stupid doing nothing strategy. And I'm glad it's over. Where it goes, nobody knows. But I'm glad it's over.

[Jack Armstrong]

I found the tweet from Trump about Iran. We'll get to that later because that's a heck of a thing if he's plans to back it up. Anyway, we got lots of other stuff to talk about Tuesday here.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

So I, Jack, did a lot of traveling over the two weeks we are off with my kids. We did two nights in San Francisco, three nights in New Orleans and three nights in Wichita, Kansas for a family get together. Lots of hotel rooms, lots of flights, a million restaurant meals and 8,000 Uber rides.

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

By the way, everybody kept saying, I said I was telling people I was going to New Orleans. I said, oh, you're gonna love the food there. And I'm not a foodie. I don't care that much about food. Holy crap. Was the food good there? First restaurant we went to, I got the the sampler platter, had their jambalaya, had their gumbo, had their Crawford Something other and had the red beans and rice. That was the best plate of food I've ever had in my life. In my life. Oh my God, that was good. Holy cow. I love that style of cooking. Oh, I could eat that every single day. But here's a story that disappeared from view.

[Joe Getty]

You gotta move down there and move down there and get big and fat and Wear a white suit and sweat a lot.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, it sounds great. You know, I had no idea it gets cold in New Orleans. It just, you know, I just didn't know that if, like, if we had gotten hired in New Orleans, I thought, oh, wow, cool. I guess I'll get rid of all my coats. I didn't know it got cold there. It was 25 degrees with the wind chill while we were there walking around. The first day, 25. The high was like 38. I didn't know it got that cold. Anyway, there's news to you if you ever go take a winter coat on the. They're having the Sugar bowl there at the Superdome. So everybody in town was there for the college football game, and it was very festive. You add that, too, New Year's Eve, and I guess New Orleans is always festive, probably. But here's a story that got obliterated by the news. We. We broadcast. We're on in San Francisco, and we broadcast 60 miles from San Francisco. I went to San Francisco. When was it? Right after Christmas, right before Christmas. And I hadn't even heard this story because I kind of was on a news blackout. The electricity went off in San Francisco for the entire day, the Saturday before Christmas.

[Joe Getty]

That's crazy.

[Jack Armstrong]

The busiest shopping day they have in one of the most Christmassy cities in America. And it is very Christmassy, is very, very cool. The electricity went off over the whole city. And I thought, one, how did this not make the news? And two, my first thought always with this stuff was, was this. The Chinese trying to see if they could work. And by the way, the official story was there was a fire at one of the power stations for PG&E. Nobody I talked to believed that. Nobody, not one person even kind of took that as an explanation for why all the electricity went down in the whole city for an entire day and for parts of the city for multiple days.

[Joe Getty]

But they're just trying to limit the panic a little bit.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, but this is what it's like if this. The electricity goes off in a big city. And I hope we don't ever find out because the Chinese get involved in it. First of all, everybody sat around in the restaurants and bars and the shopping malls thinking, well, it'll come back on. And then you wait a little longer. Then you wait a little longer, it doesn't come back on. Then you realize you can't get your car out of the parking garage because the things don't go up or down. Then you realize that the waymos all are confused because there are no traffic lights and are sitting at every street, blocking off every street in the entire city. Nobody could go anywhere the entire day. People just walked out of restaurants without paying because there was no way to pay. Cell phone towers without. Nobody could communicate with anybody. With the. Who's down? You could. Everybody was just walking around wondering what we supposed to do for the whole day. That's frightful.

[Joe Getty]

That is a weapon that could be wielded. The ability to bring a major city to paralysis like that. That's a little scary.

[Jack Armstrong]

God. I would say so. You combine that.

[Joe Getty]

So dependent on our technology.

[Jack Armstrong]

We really, really are okay. A lot more on the way. Stay here.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Gettys.

[Jack Armstrong]

An emotional tribute in Switzerland, where hundreds of people held a silent memorial march to honor at least 40 people killed at a bar fire on New Year's Eve. It happened at a Swiss ski resort in the alps. More than 100 people were injured. Authorities say that the victims were as young as 14 years old. 40 people died at a ski lodge. Swiss ski lodge. You don't expect that at a fancy place. They had. Somebody came up with this stupid idea to put flaming sparklers on the champagne bottles and everybody thought that was cool. And it caught the place on fire and killed 40 people.

[Joe Getty]

I'm reminded of that horrific fire. Where was it the band Great White was playing a number of years ago.

[General Dan Kane]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

And all those people died because of the pyrotechnics in the show. Look, if next time somebody proposes, hey, you know what we ought to do indoors is have some fireworks. You know, just ought to be rejected out of hand.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Another interesting aspect on it, a lot of people picked up on were all the videos that ended up coming out. Place catches on fire and everybody gets their phone out. Instead of immediately running for the door, they get their phone out to try to capture the moment. Because we all think we need to do that no matter what's going. I think.

[Joe Getty]

And we'll get a bunch of clicks.

[Jack Armstrong]

Make your number one priority getting the hell out of a burning building.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Wow. That is. That's funny. It's. I read a piece that made a big impression on me that was talking about people are turning their lives into Internet slop. Slop being the sort of content you just scroll right through because, I mean, it's. It's fine, but it's not of any significance. And that's like an extreme example of, oh, something happening in my life. My first thought is I. I will post this for clicks, etc. Or likes or what have you Even to the point of ignoring that you're in mortal danger.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Now, wild.

[General Dan Kane]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Different topic.

[Jack Armstrong]

Couple of sports notes for you. In the NFL, if you're an NFL, NFL fan, your number one seeds, Seahawks. In the nfc, Broncos and the afc. Those are the two teams that get home field all the way through. And there you go. Playoff start this weekend. It'll be fun. In college girls basketball, first seven footer ever, the Texas Tech signed a seven one woman tall drink of water. Yeah. Stephanie Akachukwu. Wow.

[Joe Getty]

She's got legs just like I like him. Up to my chin.

[Jack Armstrong]

Is she Chinese? I don't know. That'd be interesting since Ying, your expert.

[Joe Getty]

Pronunciation of her last name left me wondering, is she perhaps African?

[Jack Armstrong]

But the tallest guy in the NBA before Wemby came along was from China also. So I just got so many tall people over there. What's going on? Somebody look into that.

[Joe Getty]

Well, there's like a billion and a half people and experiments on military human farms.

[Jack Armstrong]

Did you follow this story? Momdani's Hitler salute, which didn't get covered at all. Right. And I only bring this up because it's really everything you need to know about taking in the news. So he gives his speech the other night where he talks about communism and collectivism and everything like that. And then he does more of a Hitler salute. It wasn't a Hitler salute. He's just waving to the crowd or putting his arm in the air. But it was closer to a Hitler salute than like any I've ever seen.

[Joe Getty]

Right. Including Elon Musk's non Hitler salute. Hitler salute.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's the point. So I like whoever posted this. Here are the news networks who have not covered Zoran Mandani's salute. New York Times, cnn, Washington Post, msnbc, npr, USA Today, Reuter Axios and ABC News. Every single one of them had multiple stories about Elon Musk's salute. Multiple stories about Elon Musk when he put his hand in the air at the. So I mean, that's all you need to know, isn't it?

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's all power.

[Joe Getty]

Yep.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's so annoying.

[Joe Getty]

Truth telling business at all. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

For something that actually does matter. I was up. What night was. It was two days ago. Three days ago now. So it was like Saturday night when the Venezuela thing had happened and the Iran thing was happening at the same time. It looked like the revolution in Iran might do its thing this at the same time. I was following both stories, going back and forth on. What's that Twitter feed that's so Good open source intelligence.

[Joe Getty]

I mean, they had, they had stuff sent.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, they had stuff going from Tehran and Venezuela at the same time. And it was really interesting. I, I tweeted out, this could be quite the historic night based on the breaking news. Hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Tehran in Iran, trying to topple Khomeini's Islamist regime and tearing down posters and defacing buildings and all this different sort of stuff. The sort of thing that you don't usually see in Iran, or at least it don't last very long. Couple of interesting things on that topic as it is still going on. Jeb Bush, if you remember him, tweeted out, the Islamic Republic does not represent the greater Iranian people. President Trump continues to demonstrate historic leadership on Iran from Jeb Bush.

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Gotta like that. And then Donald Trump tweeted out, and this is what got my attention. If Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go. Thank you for your attention to this matter. I thought, what does that mean? Because it's almost certainly either either the Ayatollah is leaving on a plane, which the New York Times says he is ready to do, which would be huge international news if you don't follow this sort of stuff. Iran is, well, one, the number one state sponsor of terror in the world and a sworn enemy of the United States for many, many, many decades now. Half, half a century. And it would have killed many, many U.S. soldiers and servicemen and Americans around the world. Be a huge deal if the Ayatollah fled, but usually they have these uprisings, a little bit protests, and they may slaughter people in the streets until it ends. Trump has vowed we are locked and loaded and will come to their rescue. What does that mean?

[Joe Getty]

And usually it's in the big cities and maybe the college campuses that you have some of these demonstrations, but it's filtered out into the hinterlands.

[Jack Armstrong]

Hundreds, hundreds of towns across Varan.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, well, among their many gripes is not only the oppression, but the fact that the annual inflation rate climbed to 42.2% last month. 42% devaluation of your pay and your savings year after year. And the food inflation is even bigger, actually the price of food.

[Jack Armstrong]

So that is definitely one to keep your eye on, for obvious reasons. Like I said, it'd be a big deal if the Ayatollah fell and it, you know, got into that. Yeah. What do you think is most likely, though, some sort of military Dictatorship run by the Revolutionary Guard.

[Joe Getty]

Yes. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Just.

[Joe Getty]

I mean, that's certainly. I would hope and pray for something different, but still could be less.

[Jack Armstrong]

Less of an enemy to the. Than the Ayatollah, though.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. And once you let the genie of liberalization out of the bottle, it's very, very hard to get back in. So if the Revolutionary Guard were to say, look, we're in charge now. It's not the Ayatollah, and we realize you're pissed off about this and that, and so we're going to. We're going to work with you on that. We're going to liberalize a little bit here. We're going to make sure that, you know, whatever this economic policy is a little more enlightened. If they fail on that, then they're back to bloody crackdown on an emboldened population or they get swept away.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, but then what do you think about Trump saying, we ain't gonna stand for you shooting protesters in the street?

[Joe Getty]

I think. Wow. Wow. That. That requires a bit of a. Do we have a second? Yeah, we have a second for an answer. A couple of things. Number one, that gives the Ayatollahs and the Revolutionary Guard the ability to say, look, this is an outside attack. We're being attacked by the evil west and by the infidels. They will appeal to everybody's Muslim ism. But it might not be enough because the regime is so hated, enough Iranians would be like, look, I don't want to be occupied by the U.S. but if they're going to punch the Ayatollah in the irc. Right in the beard. Right in a beard. Well, then good, Good on him. And we'll do the rest of the overthrow. And thanks for the help.

[Jack Armstrong]

I think we get a couple Apache helicopters in there, throw a lasso around that beard, yank him up by the beard. Okay. Less serious.

[General Dan Kane]

Fair.

[Jack Armstrong]

I cannot not watch Dick Clark's Rockin New Year's Eve. I've watched it every year since I was, like, 8 years old. I can't not watch it. And my kids enjoy it. Hey, we enjoy hating on it. We enjoy mocking it so much. It's a show. It's just. It's so much fun to hate. First of all, who the hell is watching that show? Who knows who Dick Clark is? Old people go to bed, they don't stay up till midnight. At least all the ones I know.

[Joe Getty]

Contractual.

[Jack Armstrong]

I can't even imagine what's going on, but I got a text from somebody and they said, oh, they keep teasing Diana Ross. I got to stay up for this. They're big tease. So, Ryan, Dick Clark died a long, long time ago. If you don't know this, he was a big deal when rock and roll started in the 50s. Dick Clark. And then he had this New Year's Eve celebration. He died a long time ago. Ryan Seacrest runs it now. Ryan has had too much work. He has now crossed over into little Dolly Parton. Got a little Kenny Rogers thing going there. Little too much. So just a tip to Ryan Seacrest, you've gone too far.

[Joe Getty]

Full Manilow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yes. Yes. That's what he looks like. Barry Manilow. And he's not that old. Can I somebody give me an age on Ryan Seacrest. But he's already had too much surgery anyway. Sounds about right.

[Joe Getty]

That's a guess.

[Jack Armstrong]

Sounds about right. Yeah. What do you got there, Katie? 1:51. He just turned 51. Cool.

[Joe Getty]

That's way too old to be getting the Manilow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Too young.

[Joe Getty]

I'm sorry. It's way too young.

[Jack Armstrong]

Too young to have had so many surgeries that it's noticeable.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's ridiculous. But anyway, how could you possibly be teasing your big tease for the evening? So the show is always people well past their prime and then people that are so new, you've never heard of them. And so it satisfies nobody. Nobody wants to see any of these people. And. And their big tease was the queen of Motown, Diana Ross. Only one hour away. Like, who in the hell is this for? And the crowd is all teenagers and early twenties something Diana Ross. I looked, I told my kids, I said, I think she was a hit before I was born. And Joe and I are old. Her first hit was before we were born, 1964.

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

And you're teasing that as your big get for New Year's Eve. Just hilarious. She came out there. She's almost. She's a one year younger than my mom. She's 81 years old. She was old when I was a kid. She's dressed just like she always did, in a super tight long dress and a boa around her neck and her big giant hair and so much makeup, you can't even tell what she is. And she came out there and she sang her songs, though. Was it lip synced? She actually sang them. You could tell because she got so winded. She was breathing upside down. Upside down. She was so winded from walking around the stage and twirling around at her age.

[Joe Getty]

She almost ended up upside down.

[Jack Armstrong]

Michael, that's the first staff joke of the year. What? I get nothing from.

[Joe Getty]

Wow. It's funny. If you'd asked me to come up with a funny punch line, I'm not sure I could have done that. Well, stay tuned everybody, because we've got a special treat for you. Gary Puckett in the union gap. I can't think anything more silly. I mean, it's a wonderful, wonderful recording artist.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, it's a half a century, right? Yes, Michael.

[Joe Getty]

I don't know if you remember how long they kept Dick Clark on the air.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, well past his ability to. After his stroke and everything like that, but I'm just amazed by it. And so the way these networks, because I mentioned this earlier, the final year end network ratings came out and NBC ended up being number one, which is by a sliver. Their average in primetime is 4 million people. I'll bet the average in prime time when we were kids was something like 45 million people.

[Joe Getty]

45 million hit shows. Yeah, yeah. Well, average out, of course. Yeah, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

And now it's 4 million for the number one network. You get down to whichever finished last. I think ABC was like three and a half million. And so why they continue to hang on to the old model until it's completely dead as opposed to try to come up with something new and resonate with the new generation is bonkers to me.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Oh, breaking Maduro news. He went before the judge and told the judge he rejects the charges because he was kidnapped. No, the English word is apprehended there, Nikki. So shut up and get back to yourself.

[Jack Armstrong]

He says he is not guilty. He pleaded not guilty there in court. I am not guilty. Contraire, says the prosecutor, some talk of the death penalty and any chance of that US executing Maduro on US soil?

[General Dan Kane]

Probably.

[Joe Getty]

I doubt it, I doubt it. There's a lot of. It's a lot of headache to go to. We got cages.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, put him in a dang cage. Oh, we will finish strong.

[Joe Getty]

Next, Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

The Dow has cracked 49, 000 for the first time ever because of Maduro. More on that tomorrow.

[Joe Getty]

My drilling into him or selling him or what. So I'll give you a very short version of this and maybe pay it off tomorrow. I had long been skeptical of the cliche that people, kids especially, who are bookworms, wore glasses more or that, you know, intellectuals wear glasses. Chairman Mao, famously that. But. But I was wrong. It's absolutely true. And ophthalmologists are raising alarms about an epic, an epidemic rather of childhood myopia, which is short sightedness. And we'd all known that social media and smartphones is good for kids, mental health and hearts. But reading, staring at a screen, looking at something close to you for a prolonged time causes the eyeball to grow longer from front to back, making it harder to focus farther away.

[Jack Armstrong]

No one wants a long eyeball.

[Joe Getty]

Well, you got a long eyeball, son. And that's why kids who are bookworms need glasses.

[Jack Armstrong]

More interesting.

[Joe Getty]

In fact, it's been declared a national emergency in China.

[Jack Armstrong]

More on that perhaps tomorrow. With reading glasses, I'm strong to get it. Get ready with Katie Green and Michael Angelo. Here's your host for final thoughts, Joe Getty.

[Joe Getty]

Let's get a final thought from everybody on the crew to wrap up the first show of the year. Katie Greener, esteemed newswoman. Yeah, why don't you lead us off, Katie? We'll shake it up. Go ahead. What's your final thought? I have to go through my pantry.

[Jack Armstrong]

And get rid of all of the chocolate that I was given over Christmas. Oh.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, boy. Good Lord, so much chocolate. Michelangelo, our technical director has a final thought for us. Michael? Yeah, maybe I'm just being power hungry, but what if the US Takes over?

[Josh Whalen]

Chile.

[Joe Getty]

I like the off season fruit and I'd like to have full access to it. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's an issue, certainly fruit. Jack, a final thought for us.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'll be tuning in to CBS Evening News tonight as they have vowed on too many stories. The press missed the story because we've taken into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American. We put too much weight on the analysis of academics and elites and not enough on you. That changes now. That's the new Barry Weiss, CBS Evening News starting tonight.

[Joe Getty]

I love that so much I can't even tell you.

[Jack Armstrong]

I know.

[Joe Getty]

My final thought is I was really enjoying vacation and looked at returning to work is a lot of people return to work even though we have a great job. And you know what I did? I sat down and read a bunch of emails that we got on the last show of the year last year. A lot of you saying absolutely lovely things about how much you enjoy the show. And I thought it's not about you.

[Jack Armstrong]

Dumb, dumb.

[Joe Getty]

It's about the good people.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. So you're their dancing monkey.

[Joe Getty]

Here we are dancing like the little monkeys we are. Put a fun hat on us and watch us go.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yay. I'm kidding. Oh, boy. Armstrong and Getty wrapping up another grueling four hour workday.

[Joe Getty]

So many people. Thanks. So little time. Go to armstrong yeti.com. here's the deal. You need to follow us or subscribe to the Armstrong you Getty on demand podcast. That way it downloads automatically for you. And if you get a chance, give us a glowing five star review. Wherever you get podcasts, helps with the algorithms.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I agree. Katie. No more chocolate. No more of those kind of things. Just gotta, gotta, gotta get him out of here. We'll see you tomorrow. God bless America. Armstrong and Getty. The United States Armed forces conducted an extraordinary military operation.

[General Dan Kane]

This was an audacious operation that only the United States could do.

[Jack Armstrong]

If you would have seen what I saw last night, you would have been very impressed.

[General Dan Kane]

We train, we rehearse. Not to get it right, but to ensure that we cannot get it wrong.

[Jack Armstrong]

Nicholas Maduro had his chance. He effed around and he found out. Armstrong and Getty. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.