Now I'm In A Rave! I'm Dancing!

Summary

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Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: "Now I'm In A Rave! I'm Dancing!"

Date: October 9, 2025
Hosts: Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty
Podcast Network: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into major current events and controversial cultural debates, putting a special focus on crime and accountability in Seattle politics, the effectiveness of drug rehabilitation, the phenomenon of "lavender marriages," a high-profile arson case in California, and an extended examination of gender ideology and related issues in mental health and public education. The tone is sharp, irreverent, and highly critical of progressive policies, especially around criminal justice and gender.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Seattle Politics, Crime, and Public Safety

• (00:27 – 12:29)
  • The hosts analyze comments from Seattle’s Mayor Bruce Harrell during a recent debate, scrutinizing his responses to questions on repeat offenders and their treatment in the criminal justice system.
  • Mayor Harrell is portrayed as evasive and emblematic of progressive politics that, in the hosts' view, prioritize ideology over public safety.
  • The effectiveness (or lack thereof) of drug rehabilitation programs is discussed, with both hosts arguing that mandated rehab is largely ineffective, especially for people not motivated to quit.

Notable Quotes:

• [02:56] Jack Armstrong:
  “He did the politician thing... if you don't like the question somebody asks you, you answer a different question. That's what that guy did.”
• [05:53] Joe Getty:
  (On Harrell’s response to repeat offenses)
  "Wow."
• [07:20] Jack Armstrong:
  “You're living in La La Land, right?”

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2. Drug Rehab Scams & Skepticism

• (03:17 – 04:36)
  • Discussion of a Wall Street Journal expose on rehab centers scamming insurance, leaving people untreated.
  • The extremely low success rates of even credible drug rehab programs are highlighted.

Notable Quotes:

• [03:50] Jack Armstrong:
  "Oh, it's like low like 2%. ...It's low like almost nobody."
• [04:13] Joe Getty:
  "You've got all the scammers in the rehab business who couldn't give a crap whether they get anybody off drugs."

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3. Lavender Marriages and Shifting Relationship Norms

• (14:44 – 17:58)
  • Hosts explore the concept of “lavender marriage”—platonic partnerships between gay men and straight women—as reported in the Washington Post.
  • They express bemusement at the idea and skepticism toward the claim that this is a significant trend, viewing it as part of a broader cultural push to challenge traditional norms.

Notable Quotes:

• [15:26] Jack Armstrong:
  “It sounds like you both would be unhappy. So what? What's the point? I'm with somebody who doesn't like me.”
• [17:31] Joe Getty:
  “It's part of the whole postmodern DEI neo Marxist thing where every single convention has to be challenged, right?”

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4. California Arson Case

• (19:22 – 24:34)
  • A detailed look at the arrest and background of Jonathan Renderknecht, accused of causing the devastating fire in Pacific Palisades.
  • The discussion focuses on Renderknecht’s motives, mental health, and extensive digital footprint, raising questions about our ability to understand and prevent high-profile acts of violence.

Notable Quotes:

• [22:14] Joe Getty:
  “You’re short of suicide, cry for help, which this seems to be.”
• [23:16] Jack Armstrong:
  “He had literally burnt a Bible, boasting that he felt amazing and so liberated after he burnt the Bible.”

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5. Gender Identity, Therapy, and Public Education Debates

• (27:20 – 38:37)
  • A significant segment is devoted to stories from therapists navigating gender identity cases—including cases of patients identifying as wounded male dogs.
  • They discuss the institutional pressure for “gender-affirming care,” concerns about treating children, and the professional risks of questioning prevailing gender ideologies.
  • The hosts view these developments as manifestations of extreme progressive or “neo-Marxist” ideologies infiltrating therapy and public education.

Extended Therapist Story [Top Segment: 27:37–33:44]:

• A therapist recounts (audio clip) being instructed to affirm a patient identifying as a “wounded male dog,” with her concerns about the mental health implications dismissed as “political.”
• She describes being pressured, reported to risk management, and eventually losing her job after resisting gender-affirming protocols for a mostly non-verbal 13-year-old patient.

Notable Quotes:

• [29:40] Jack Armstrong:
  "The fact that her coworkers and bosses and everybody said, well, you just say, you know, good for figuring out who you are—a wounded male dog... How crazy is that?"
• [30:37] Joe Getty:
  "They basically just said, there is no reason why a person's mental health would impact their identity."
• [33:46] Joe Getty:
  "Mutilating children and filling them with these chemicals. And if you say, you know, I'd really like to take a look at this research... they will run you out of the profession."

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6. Public School Curriculum and Parental Rights

• (34:15 – 37:09)
  • Analysis of California’s Comprehensive Sex Ed curriculum, with a guest op-ed highlighting requirements around gender identity and the lack of parental opt-out.
  • The hosts voice outrage at the normalization of gender fluidity and polyamory in public schools, connecting it to broader ideological trends.

Notable Quotes:

• [35:37] Jack Armstrong:
  “When did gender become an ever-evolving thing? Like five minutes ago.”
• [37:04] Jack Armstrong:
  “I wonder why so many people [are] pulling their kids out of public schools.”

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Memorable Moments

• Jack Armstrong’s satirical take on Amazon prescription drug vending machines:
  [00:44] Jack Armstrong: "Make it more fun and have prescription drug claw machines. Come on, Xanax..."
• Critique of Mayor Bruce Harrell's priorities:
  "How can you live in a city where a mayor thinks that I don't care if they commit seven or eight crimes?" — [05:54] Jack Armstrong
• Therapist story of affirming a ‘wounded male dog’ identity:
  A clinician tells her bosses about a client identifying as a wounded dog; their response:
  [28:21] Therapist: "They said, you just basically say, awesome, I'm glad you know who you are and you continue to be a therapist."
• Intense criticism of public institutions and progressive ideology:
  [38:09] Joe Getty: “This sickness, the neo-Marxist gender bending, radical gender theory, radical queer theory is right up there with critical race theory. It is so evil and so wrong and so sick. Get your kids out of public schools if you possibly can.”

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Segment Timestamps

| Topic/Segment | Timestamp | |--------------------------------------------------------|--------------------| | Amazon prescription vending machines (satire) | 00:27 – 01:04 | | Seattle Mayor Harrell on crime & accountability | 01:04 – 08:09 | | Effectiveness of rehab and rehab scams | 03:17 – 04:36 | | Public safety, repeat offenders, and political evasions | 04:51 – 12:29 | | Lavender marriages discussion | 14:44 – 17:58 | | California arsonist case | 19:22 – 24:34 | | Gender affirming care in therapy | 27:37 – 33:44 | | California public school curriculum controversy | 34:15 – 37:09 | | Hosts’ final remarks & podcast plug | 38:09 – 38:35 |

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Episode Tone and Themes

• Blunt, irreverent, and highly skeptical of progressive policies
• Criticism centers on criminal justice leniency, skepticism of gender-affirming therapy—especially for kids, and disbelief at “non-traditional” marriage arrangements.
• The hosts aim to challenge conventional media narratives and voice frustration at what they perceive as widespread institutional dysfunction or ideological capture.

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For listeners seeking a deep dive into crime policy, the effectiveness of health measures, trends in marriage and gender, and pointed criticism of current cultural and political trends—delivered with heavy sarcasm and strong opinions—this episode is a must-listen.

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

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

[Commercial Announcer]

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

[Bruce Harrell]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

And now here's Armstrong and Getty.

[Bruce Harrell]

Switching gears. Amazon is adding vending machines stocked with prescription drugs to their medical clinics. So now you can touch the buttons knowing that someone very sick touched them. Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Before you.

[Joe Getty]

Forget vending machines, they should.

[Jack Armstrong]

Make it more fun and have prescription drug claw machines. Come on, Xanax. Come on, Xanax. Come on, Xanax. Lipitor again. Give me another five bucks, I'll get this out. That's pretty funny. I don't know anything about that, but that was a funny joke.

[Joe Getty]

So the mayor of Seattle is a fellow by the name of Bruce Harrell, who is the living embodiment of progressivism. He's recently signed an order to neutralize ICE doing anything in Seattle and to counter federal troop deployments and that sort of thing. He's just. He's died in the will progressive, as you might expect from the mayor of Seattle. Uh, he is running for reelection. And they had a debate the other day and Fox 13 in Seattle asking some really good questions about crime and repeat offenders and that sort of thing. And his answers are getting the attention they deserve. Michael, we'll start with 90.

[Therapist]

Is the city too lax on repeat offenders?

[Bruce Harrell]

That's a. Interesting question. Um, I don't know how to answer that question. Too lax. I don't know how you gauge that. I know it's necessary to catch criminals in the act of doing bad things. And I have all the faith in my police department who is a best practice in terms of using force. I need 1,500 officers. I need constitutional arrests. I need people that are killing themselves with drugs to get help, get treatment. So I'm not going to give an opinion on the attitude of my officers. I look at them in the eye and I tell them this is my vision. George Floyd was murdered. Murdered purely and simply. And I need you to recruit culturally competent officers. And we created the CARE Department, which is an unarmed response. The largest city in the country to do this. So whether the lacks not for me, in all due respect, is just not the question. The question is, are they effective? And they are very effective. I just need to get my numbers up because the defund movement demoralized the police department. I was down 300 when he started. But the good news is we get. We're getting 10 applications a day.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay. That he did the politician thing. George Bush taught us about this. He said it out Loud one time he said, if you don't like the question somebody asks you, you answer a different question. That's what that guy did. Because where George Floyd come in and enough police officers. The question was, are you paying 2 lax on repeat offenders? He didn't want to answer that question.

[Joe Getty]

Right, right. Two things. Number one, just to correct the record he was the interim mayor for a cup of coffee is not the incumbent. And secondly, he said, I want people who are addicted to drugs to Wall Street Journal with a great story today, an expose. Drug rehabs lure in patients for insurance money, then leave them on the street. In the best of circumstances. And this is the least known fact maybe in, you know, conversation about an important issue in America in the best of circumstances, these rehab places have a very, very low batting rate.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, it's like low like 2%. I mean it's not like low like a third. No, it's low like almost nobody. And, and that's generally of people that want to quit that are going to those kind of rehabs. They're, they're. Politicians are always talking about putting people in rehabs who have no interest in quitting. So your, your batting average on that's going to be close to zero.

[Joe Getty]

And then you've got all the scammers in the rehab business who couldn't give a crap whether they get off anybody.

[Jack Armstrong]

Off drugs or it's close to a scam anyway. Even the people that are well intentioned using my finger quotes since it works, I mean, you know, I could really, really, really want to have these magic beans grow a big tree for you. But if it doesn't happen, it's kind of a scam.

[Joe Getty]

You know, if the number is low enough, the percentage is low enough, you could argue that that's just chance. I mean those people would have gotten clean whether they done that or you pressure or, you know, gone surfing in Australia for a month. Anyway, more from the debate.

[Therapist]

Mayor Harrell, I'm going to go back to that repeat offender question. If somebody has offended six, seven, eight times, even if it or offense, but they continue to fail to turn their life around, at what point do you balance public safety to giving this person, you know, some accountability? What does that balance?

[Bruce Harrell]

So let me make something very clear. I was the one that sponsored the ban the box legislation when everyone posted because the criminal system has had a disparate impact on black and brown communities. Let me lead with that. So when this person is committing six or seven crimes, I don't know his or her story. Maybe they were Abused as a child. Maybe they're hungry. So my, my remedy is to find their life story to see how we could help first. I have no desire to put them in jail, but I need to protect you. And that's the calibration that we have. I put police officers on the stand. I've cross examined them. So whether they commit seven or eight crimes to me is not the issue. The issue is why are they committing these crimes?

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

How can you live in a city where a mayor thinks that I don't care if they commit seven or eight crimes. Wow, thanks for protecting me.

[Joe Getty]

Well, you're getting to the bottom of the fact that they, you know, are kind of bitter because they didn't make their little league team or whatever. They're going to commit more crimes and hurt more people and often kill them like that poor Ukrainian girl in North Carolina or a dozen other examples just in the last few months.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, well, I think that is unfair. Have in my mind the book In Cold Blood because it came up in conversation with somebody yesterday because if you've ever seen the movie or read the book, that the Clutter house is very close to where I grew up. I know where it is in Holcomb, Kansas, but.

[Joe Getty]

Murdered an entire family.

[Jack Armstrong]

Murdered an entire family for no reason whatsoever. Robbed them kind of. But the story of In Cold Blood, if you've never read it by Truman Capote and you should, is mostly the background of these two guys who had horrible, horrible childhoods. I mean, just unspeakably awful. Not so, you know, getting to the whole they didn't make their little league team, but.

[Joe Getty]

Which is very disappointing, by the way.

[Jack Armstrong]

But how are you going to craft any sort of society where you excuse any crimes because you had a bad childhood or your wife left you or whatever your situation is? You can't.

[Joe Getty]

It's impossible.

[Jack Armstrong]

You're living in La La Land, right?

[Joe Getty]

Well, yeah, like so many progressives are. But yeah, put them in jail and get him in a program or something. Anger management counseling. Take class, take. Take Diddy's how to Get Ahead in Business class that he was teaching there in New York. But get him off the damn street, you soft headed dreamer.

[Jack Armstrong]

Tell him to make lemonade. Lemonade out of lemons. I don't know, do something. But you can't let them just go out and commit more crimes. That's so crazy how. And this is the argument I got into in a city council meeting in my town about the whole homeless thing. When do you look out for the people that are doing it? The right way. So I had a. A good childhood and I'm paying taxes and I don't commit crimes and I get to be robbed or beaten because that guy had a bad childhood. I mean, what kind of sense does that make to anybody?

[Joe Getty]

I have a PhD in translating progressive speech. And you know this is true because you've seen it over and over again. What Bruce Harrell said was we're gonna let the person offend over and over again till they murder someone, and only then will we stop them.

[Bruce Harrell]

So whether they commit seven or eight crimes to me is not the issue.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, you know, a better example would be what about the person who had a bad childhood and has overcome it and is not committing crimes and then they get robbed or beaten. Okay, now what? Dude, lots of people have bad childhoods. They don't all end up criminals on the street as drug addicts. I know that for a fact. We all do.

[Joe Getty]

Well, and I like the fact that he says maybe they were abused. Terrible, terrible. Maybe they were hungry. I'm hungry now, Bruce, right now. And I'm committing zero crimes. Crimes against good taste, perhaps, but that's it.

[Bruce Harrell]

So when this person's committing six or seven crimes, I don't know his or her story. Maybe they were abused as a child. Maybe they're hungry.

[Joe Getty]

God, it's a. Maybe they're hungry.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, let's see. I.

[Joe Getty]

Free adult. You can, you can eat yourself to obesity for nothing in Seattle as a junkie. And everybody knows it. You're a Marxist and a nut.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I mean, you're. I know some people like this that have that same belief and very, very, very nice people that. I don't like this and just. Yeah, I don't know how you get that way. Can't talk them out of it. It's just it your, your theory does not work in real life. That's the problem.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. And that, that's the problem with so many progressive theories. And, and part of that is, and I sympathize with this, so I'm glad I'm not one of them. They cannot reckon with the fact that there are just bad people, mean people. There's evil in the world and it could hurt them. What they want to believe, because it's a psychological self protective mechanism, is that all of the bad people who hurt people can be redeemed if we're just nice enough to them. They believe that to protect themselves from the fear that they feel. Reckoning with the existence of evil.

[Jack Armstrong]

Adam, what is your life experience with the Rehabs that You're talking about what is your life experience that these work and the therapy works very often on. You had a bad childhood or whatever your issue is. So how are you gonna fix these people?

[Joe Getty]

There's.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's. It would be. It would be impossible from a cost standpoint, even if rehabs and therapy did work, to take everybody who's got problems and fix them. Even if it did work. But it doesn't work. So now what?

[Joe Getty]

Right? Oh, and by the way, his opponent, his main opponent, Katie Wilson is. Wilson is a longtime progressive activist.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, who is asking those questions? Good job there in Seattle. I'm surprised they even asked those questions.

[Joe Getty]

Fox 13 Seattle. Well done.

[Jack Armstrong]

Good for them. Man, oh man, oh man. It's horrible to be robbed or beaten or raped or killed, obviously, no matter what. But if it turns out it's somebody that did it repeatly, repeatedly, and in your moron Marxist mayor or police chief or DA or whoever, let him do it over and over again, that is just salt in the wound, man.

[Joe Getty]

Well, yeah, and the phrase blood is on their hands is probably a little overused, but that is absolutely the case here. Your suffering and pain and loss for the rest of your life is on their hands.

[Jack Armstrong]

Is that guy's fault?

[Joe Getty]

Yes. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

What a scumbag. He doesn't think he's a scumbag. He thinks I'm a scumbag for not opponent.

[Joe Getty]

Probably considers him the conservative in the race. So good luck. Free adle. Keep trying policies that are miserable failures because they stoke your ego.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'll save you the 800th time. When I had the incident with the homeless people in my family and my kids were crying and I called the cops and everything like that. The first cops said to me, well, the real tragedy is we don't have someplace to put this guy to get him help while my kids are crying. The guy said that? You freaking lunatics. Oh, it makes me insane. All right, we got more on the way. I hope you can stay here.

[Bruce Harrell]

So whether they commit seven or eight crimes to me is not the issue.

[Joe Getty]

Get out of my shot, Armstrong and Getty.

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[Bruce Harrell]

Okay.

[Jack Armstrong]

Hey. Ready every single one of you. Bullpen game.

[Joe Getty]

Nathan, Lucas, Miles, Straw. All you mother. It takes everybody every day.

[Jack Armstrong]

Start spreading the news. Oh, why are people not more upset? We're about to have foreigners headed toward our World Series here pretty soon if we're not careful. Foreigners?

[Joe Getty]

Surprised Trump hasn't stepped in here. Canadians.

[Jack Armstrong]

Toronto Blue Jays. Them or something eliminated the Yankees last night. And the upstart team that has the fourth highest payroll in all of Major League Baseball beat the team with the third highest payroll. So they're, you know, they're a rich team also. So anyway, Canadians.

[Joe Getty]

Toronto. Forces from Toronto invade New York is my headline. Speaking of headlines, he's gay, she's straight. They're happily married. Samantha Wynn Greenstone knows her husband is gay. Okay, she knew he was gay when they met, blah, blah, blah. When he proposed, when they got married in November. He's not bisexual. She's not in denial. That hasn't stopped them from being in a committed monogamous relationship for nearly 10.

[Jack Armstrong]

Years that they're calling what? Because I came across this term the other day a lavender marriage. Yeah, I saw that. I don't remember the context. I came across lavender marriage and I.

[Joe Getty]

Thought, what is that?

[Jack Armstrong]

I forgot to Google it. So these are lavender marriages. A gay guy and a straight woman. Can it be the other way around?

[Joe Getty]

They also use terms like platonic marriage, queer, platonic, aromantic, or mixed orientation. And the number of people doing this is probably less than attended your local little league game last week. But the Washington Post is pretending it's some sort of significant trend. Why?

[Jack Armstrong]

Don't know.

[Joe Getty]

These. These people that are featured are their entire living is creating content online about their revolutionary relationship, their lavender marriage.

[Jack Armstrong]

But what's the supp it upside? I don't get what the. It sounds like you both would be unhappy. So what? What's the point? I'm with somebody who doesn't like me. I'm with somebody who doesn't like me. We call it a lavender marriage.

[Joe Getty]

Well, they're like super close friends. Well, good. They love each other.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's nice.

[Joe Getty]

Which is a big part of marriage. Most of it. They have a kid together, by the way. And when asked, how did the kid happen? Actually, the guy says, well, we birds seized it. So he overcame his gayness long enough to impregnate his wife.

[Jack Armstrong]

So he closed his eyes and thought of England and went ahead through with it and.

[Joe Getty]

Or, you know, Burt Reynolds or. I don't know how old this guy is. Probably Ryan Reynolds more than Bert. I see.

[Jack Armstrong]

He was trying to picture some handsome man. That's what I got thrown off by your Burt Reynolds reference. I was trying to think of like.

[Joe Getty]

A studly, manly man. All right. My references are out of date. It happens. All right.

[Therapist]

What is this, the olden days?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I know. Yeah, fair criticism.

[Jack Armstrong]

The guy who plays Thor, that's a good one to throw around. What's his name? Him and his brother.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that. That fella. I know that fella. Anyway, let's see. Blah, blah, blah. This is the first committed relationship Hoff the woman has ever been in. Oh, that's. I'm sorry, the dude. First relationship he's ever been in. Both parties felt a deep connection when they met, but neither had marriage on their minds. That began to change after Greenstone saw a spiritual healer. They do live in LA, after all. Who told her that she and Hoff shared a spiritual umbilical cord?

[Jack Armstrong]

Now quit using terms like that.

[Joe Getty]

I know. And quit trying to convince me this is some sort of trend. Washington Post, please. Anyway, I know.

[Jack Armstrong]

Why does that get people all excited? A certain kind of crowd to.

[Joe Getty]

Come.

[Jack Armstrong]

Up with new, different things, as opposed to just do what everybody's done forever and been perfectly happy with.

[Joe Getty]

Well, and here are these two people who are both asexual, evidently, and are quote unquote, married, but one identifies as solo poly. That means they occasionally date outside their marriage. All right, all right. It's, you know, it's part of the whole postmodern DEI neo Marxist thing where every single convention has to be challenged, right?

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, yeah, that's exactly what it is. We've got a gender bending madness update coming that includes a therapist talking about. You think trans is interesting, Wait till you hear this one.

[Joe Getty]

And featuring California's favorite politician, the angry, angry Katie Porter as well. Oh, really? Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Way to be on the trend. That's all on the way. Armstrong and Getty.

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[News Reporter]

Investigators say they found the suspect and arrested him in Florida where he currently lives now. But at one point he lived in the Pacific Palisades about a block away from the trailhead where investigators believe this fire began. Then they say they extracted data from his phone, including an image that he apparently produced on chat. GBT event shows a city burning with people fleeing. They also say that he was listening to a French song on repeat. Apparently he was raised in France. New French and this song shows the main character in the music video lighting things on fire. Investigators say it went through 13,000 pieces of evidence. He is facing a minimum of five years, up to 20 years in federal prison.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know how it's not more than that. If it turns out to be. Although he seems kind of crazy. Jonathan renderknecht He's a 29 year old Florida man, Uber driver who started the fire that burnt down 7,000 homes and buildings and caused $150 billion in damage and killed 12 people and wrecked many, many lives. Some of them we know people that we know. This guy's is really a nut job. This arsonist that they arrested yesterday, by the way, he was a Biden donor. If that matters to you. It doesn't matter to me. That sort of stuff doesn't mean much to me.

[Joe Getty]

But are you the most interesting part of this to me if you're going to get to it, I'll shut up. But is the fact that he lit a fire, it was put out and he like offered to help put it out and it smoldered underground for days. Yeah, that's a scary thought.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, it is.

[Joe Getty]

So he printed until the high winds, the Santa Ana winds whipped it up again.

[Jack Armstrong]

So he'd lived in la, he'd Hiked the trail on New Year's Day moments after dropping off Uber passengers who later said that the driver appeared agitated and angry. They said he then filmed himself on the mountain and listened to a rap track with themes of despair and bitterness by some French rapper, I don't know whose accompanying music video shows the main character lighting things on fire. So that apparently is where the fire idea came from. He had been listening to a song and watching the video. Lyrics from the song include daily life is killing me, I feel like I'm nowhere and too much bitterness in my head. I think about the mistakes we made. This gets to the thing we were talking about a couple of weeks ago, where a lot of the hope. High profile violence of any kind, whether it's a school shooting or killing politicians or setting fires, apparently it's a suicide. It's a suicide dressed up with other stuff around it is what it is. And apparently in the modern world, where if our baby takes its first steps, it's no fun unless we got it on video and posted it on Twitter, the same thing is true for suicides. Your suicide is no good unless you can somehow get attention for it or.

[Joe Getty]

You'Re short of suicide, cry for help, which this seems to be.

[Jack Armstrong]

You think that's what it was?

[Joe Getty]

Just an expression of I'm in pain, please notice.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Yeah. So as Joe is pointing out, he. He watched the fire burn for a minute before running down the hill and calling 911 immediately and fleeing the area, but then later returned to the scene where the firefighters responded to record them battling the flames. He got some YouTube videos of them fighting the flames that he started months before the blaze. The alleged fire raiser made disturbing chat GPT prompts. Man. 1 thing that's interesting and when all of these things happen is how we all live, leave a digital footprint about everything we do, right? And. And the authorities have access to all of it. Anyway, they went into his Chat GPT. We'd been requesting a grim dystopian painting divided into distinct parts that blend together seamlessly with a burning forest on the far left and a crowd of people sprinting from the fire. He wanted that image created by Chat GPT.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

On a separate occasion, he told Chat GPT that he had literally burnt a Bible, boasting that he felt amazing and so liberated after he burnt the Bible.

[Joe Getty]

Well, he created another picture that had similar with people fleeing a fire, but on one side of the wall were poor people fleeing the fire and on the other side were the rich laughing.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, okay.

[Joe Getty]

So drawn to some sort of Marxist gobbledygook crap.

[Jack Armstrong]

So whether it's Charlie Kirk's killer or this guy or whoever, if they turn out to be half to three quarters of a nut job, what, what do we get out of this? Or what do we do with it? Or does it mean anything? It's. It seems like this sort of thing is happening more often. More nut jobs are causing more trouble.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah, I, I don't know. That's, that's a book length answer because I think nobody knows. It's just one more. All I know I just need dictatorial powers to implement my plan. But it's just one more symptom of, you know, the, the great disease that western civilization is suffering from. Techno, affluent malaise.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I say.

[Joe Getty]

So next hour I really want to get to a book. It may be the number one book in Europe right now if Russia wins. A scenario written by a professor of international politics at Munich's Bundeswehr University, which serves Germany's armed forces. And he's talking about what the next steps will look like as Russia continues to expand. And it is horrifyingly plausible.

[Jack Armstrong]

I want to read that. I will read that.

[Joe Getty]

But I think if you're ready to, we can break on time actually a little earlier for once in our lives and leave plenty of time. Next segment for a jam packed celebrity strewn gender bending madness update featuring the angriest politician in America, California's Katie Porter. Get out of my shop shot.

[Jack Armstrong]

Also featured, don't sit on me. Also featuring a therapist. And I'll give away a bit of the punchline, but not all of it. She had a person come to her that didn't identify as a woman or a man, but as a dog. And when she took it to her higher ups, the way they reacted to how she should respond to that is the interesting part.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, what the hell.

[Jack Armstrong]

Anyway, we got all that on the way. Stay here.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

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[Jack Armstrong]

So, hour four, I almost said hour five. What am I talking about? We don't have a fifth hour. Good lord. Hour four, we'll get back into the peace deal in the Middle east, which is a giant, historic thing. And, and everybody's given Trump credit. People that hate Trump are saying, yeah, this is pretty amazing. So we'll look forward to that.

[Joe Getty]

And perhaps Vladimir Putin is not done with Ukraine and wants to expand even further how that would look. But first, it's a gender bending madness. Special update featuring California's bitterest politician, Katie Porter, and special guest co host Jack Armstrong.

[Jack Armstrong]

So I kept hearing about this thing.

[Therapist]

Called.

[Jack Armstrong]

We'Re in a brave new world and I'm on a rave. Yeah, I'm dancing. Cool. So this video is a little hard to listen to because it's edited the way you young people like things edited where you take out any space, any pause between people speaking. Why do you edit stuff like that? Are you trying to make yourself insane? Anyway, a therapist friend of mine actually makes their living in the world of therapy sent this to me. This is a therapist discussing a. Discussing. It is discussing. Discussing a recent thing that happened. And then the way it plays out is quite amazing.

[Therapist]

I had been a therapist at Multicare Hospital in Washington state for about five years. In March of 2023, I had a client come in, a female client, and say that they identified as a wounded male dog. And I had heard people come in before and say, like, I feel like I'm actually transgender. And I just have kind of of treated them the way I treated any other client. But at this point, when this client came in and said that, I was like, at what point is someone's identity actually a mental illness? And so I emailed my boss, I emailed my colleagues, and I said, hey, I had a client come in and said that they identified as a wounded male dog. They said, you just basically say, awesome, I'm glad you know who you are and you continue to be a therapist. So I kind of just kept thinking this stuff through, like, what is going on here with this gender identity and the way that we are treating these young children. And then September of 2023, we had a mandatory gender affirming care training. And so I just like researched everything I could. About gender affirming care. It wasn't that easy to do. Like, I would Google, like, what are the dangers of gender affirming care? And the result would be like, how to be a good friend. You're lgbtq. I had written a letter saying that I would not go to this training. And I said to all the people that I found who were giving a voice to the fact that we're hurting children, I said, please read this for me. Tell me that I'm not wrong because I might lose my job over this. And I got emails back and said, you're not wrong. You're absolutely right. But. But you have to go to this training because if you don't, they're just gonna fire you and then you lose your influence.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, okay. So the fact that her co workers and bosses and everybody said, well, you just say, you know, good for figuring out who you are, a wounded male dog. And, and, and say you care about them or something. I mean, how crazy is that? Anyway, she goes on, we talked through.

[Therapist]

Some questions that I could potentially ask and when the opportunity presented itself, I said things like, hey, you know, if countries in Europe are pressing pause on this, mandating this of our clinicians now, they were like, you are doing harm to our patients. Keep politics out of this. I was like, politics. Like, I didn't say anything about the president. Like, I don't understand. The person that was doing the training was like, this is not up for debate. At no point did anyone say, like, let's like look at this research together and figure out whether or not there's anything here. Why would that not be a conversation that they would want to engage in? They basically just said, there is no reason why a person's mental health would impact their identity. It doesn't matter if they've had a history of trauma. It doesn't matter if there's co occurring disorders.

[Joe Getty]

Oh my God, it's obscene.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. So the. Don't bring your politics into this, gets into the whole. You have to take every issue or your people try to get you to take every issue and run it through the. So is Trump for or against this? Is a. Is maga for this, against this? And then you make your decision from there, which is crazy. Like she said, I didn't mention the president. What do you mean politics? A guy thinks he's a woman, thinks she's a wounded male dog.

[Joe Getty]

That's nuts. Right? Well, and the gal making the point that why don't we all take a look at the research together and See what's in there. It's because there is no. The research that exists is garbage. It's been disavowed by any reasonable standard or reasonable actor in this field. The whole you've got to affirm the gender of the kill themselves is an utter fiction. There's nothing to support it. Well, the fact that 90% of kids prevent pubescents who express doubt about their gender just come back in alignment. And I don't even use the term gender. What am I doing that they think I'm a different sex than I really am or want to identify as that they all come back to sanity if you talk to them gently and counsel them to which on a side, on an aside, I finally finished listening to the entire hour and a half of oral arguments before the Supreme Court in the Salazar case, in which even the lefty justices were like, wait a minute, you're saying you can encourage gender transition but you can't discourage it, no matter what, based on this research. And you're calling it an established standard of care. Really?

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, wow.

[Joe Getty]

So I think this is going to be an ass kick and it could even be nine nothing, I hope. Anyway, back to you.

[Jack Armstrong]

So back to this therapist. She's got a story here. This is the sort of thing that always angers Joe.

[Therapist]

And then I had a client come in, a 13 year old who was mostly non verbal. She would just like scroll on her phone and like rock back and forth. She had a history of really intense trauma and I saw that she had a gender clinic appointment coming up, her first one. And I asked her how she felt about that and she said she didn't know she had one. And then after that initial appointment, her dad asked me to write a letter to start testosterone. And so I emailed my boss and I emailed the person who did the training and I said, they want me to write this letter for this young child to begin testosterone. And I just feel like there's so many reasons why that's not a good idea. My boss came into my office a few days later and was like, I want you to know the person who did the training has reported you to Risk Management. I met with Risk Management numerous times. They ultimately determined that I was the risk. They took the child from me, said I was incompetent to work with gender distressed young people. And shortly thereafter I left multicare and I went someplace else. And three weeks after starting that new job, my article in the Free Press came out. Lost my job, single mom of three little kids. I ended up Opening my own practice, I got letters from the state saying I was being investigated for not being gender affirming. That's where we are today, man.

[Jack Armstrong]

What I would like to know is what happened to that 13 year old, almost entirely nonverbal girl whose dad sets up this appointment and she is like, I don't even know what you're talking about, and wants to start her on testosterone. Holy freaking crap.

[Joe Getty]

Right? These people are monsters.

[Jack Armstrong]

You are a monster.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Mutilating children and filling them with these chemicals. And if you say, you know, I'd really like to take a look at this research because that seems odd to me, they will run you out of the profession for asking the question that reminds you of the DEI training sessions you were forced to sit through. Maybe.

[Jack Armstrong]

And you know that dad was thrilled to have a transgender kid and be able to tell everybody about it.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, my God. Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. I find myself wondering why that child was uncommunicative and had such terrible problems. I don't know, but wow, that is horrifying. And as if we need to pile on anymore. There's a great piece in the California Globe by Brenda Lebzack, who has spent her career in education, talks about how in 2018, while she was serving on the Orange Unified School Board in Orange, California, she was reviewing the new Teen Talk considered the it was the new state compliant curriculum under the California healthy youth act AB 329 for legislative freakazoids. You remember that sort of thing. And she said, having worked in public education for my entire career, I was alarmed at what I found. It contained teachings about gender being based on one's feelings. The Teen Talk video told kids, you can be gender fluid, gender queer, gender non conforming or no gender. School is a place to change and experiment that is not only being taught in California schools, it's required that it be taught in California schools. School is a place to change and experiment with your gender.

[Jack Armstrong]

I thought it was a place to learn math and reading.

[Joe Getty]

Well, it's clearly not. But it used the gender bred person to teach kids that gender is ever expanding and ever evolving. It normalized polyamory. Gender is.

[Jack Armstrong]

What was that phrase?

[Joe Getty]

Ever expanding and ever evolving.

[Jack Armstrong]

It what? When? When did gender become an ever evolving thing? Like five minutes ago.

[Joe Getty]

All right, I'm going to get to the really interesting part. She brought this forward to parents and they were shocked. And after strong public testimony, the board voted just four to three to halt the program. A week later, the ACLU sent a letter reprimanding them, claiming Quote, we fostered an atmosphere of LGBTQ bias and cited a statistic that 89% of California parents support. Comprehension intensive sex education. Curious, I contacted the UC Berkeley professor behind the study. He confirmed the 2007 survey only measured support for contraception and HIV STD prevention versus abstinence only education.

[Jack Armstrong]

That is classic Martin Bailey argument there.

[Joe Getty]

The survey did not even ask about gender identity, pansexuality, or any of the other.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, you don't want to teach teenage girls about contraception, you monster.

[Joe Getty]

Right. And they completely. Well, I'll read what she says. This meant the ACLU, Equality California and Planned Parenthood, who lobbied for AB39, used data that grossly misrepresented California parents. Decision makers were told nearly all parents supported comprehensive sex ed of this sort, when in reality, they never addressed the expanse of LGBTQ subjects now mandated in classrooms. Well, and there's more, but you get the idea.

[Jack Armstrong]

I wonder why so many people pulling their kids out of public schools. Wonder what that's all about.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, and by the way, there's a different law that says parents may not opt out or excuse their child.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, really?

[Joe Getty]

Required. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow. I opted my kid out of all of those classes because they. Yeah, well, way too crazy.

[Joe Getty]

They're working hard to end that. I. I don't. I don't know what to say at this point. This sickness, the neo Marxist gender bending, radical gender theory, radical queer theory is right up there with critical race theory. It's out of the same philosophers and the same, you know, neo Marxist theory. It is so evil and so wrong and so sick. Get your kids out of public schools if you possibly can. And yeah, I know what that means. I know it's hard. I know you can't afford it in some cases, but if you can do it. Oh, I'm sorry. That was a gender bending madness update. Michael. Michael, you were asleep at the switch again.

[Jack Armstrong]

Identify as a wounded dog and people.

[Joe Getty]

Male dog.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wounded male dog.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

As a gender wounded.

[Joe Getty]

In what sense? Oh, my God. If you miss a segment or an.

[Jack Armstrong]

Hour of this show, get the podcast Armstrong and get you on demand. You should subscribe and then it'll just be in your feed all the time.

[Joe Getty]

Yep. Great hour coming up. If you can't stick around again, enjoy it via podcast. Thank you for being here, Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is an I heart podcast.