Pander To Me!!

Summary

Podcast Summary: Armstrong & Getty On Demand – Episode: Pander To Me!!

Release Date: February 19, 2025

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Introduction

In the "Pander To Me!!" episode of Armstrong & Getty On Demand, hosts Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty, along with co-host Katie Green, delve into a myriad of pressing political and social issues. From the implications of government spending and foreign aid to the complexities of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the trio offers sharp insights, humor, and critical analysis throughout the episode.

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Elon Musk's $5,000 Checks: A Populist Move

One of the episode's focal points is Elon Musk's controversial proposal to distribute $5,000 checks to every American adult. This initiative, often referred to as the "Doge Boys" plan, is dissected by Armstrong and Getty.

• Jack Armstrong ([03:59]) expresses his support:
  "Oh yeah, I'm in favor of it. I'm tired of other people being pandered to. Pander to me."

• Joe Getty ([04:08]) speculates on its political ramifications:
  "If $5,000 goes out to every adult in America, that might be the all-time populist move."

The hosts debate whether such a move is a genuine attempt to support citizens or a strategic maneuver to gain political favor ahead of upcoming elections.

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Government Spending and Foreign Aid: Waste or Strategy?

Armstrong and Getty critique the often absurd allocations of taxpayer money abroad, highlighting instances like funding "transgender operas in Colombia" and financial aid to countries for seemingly trivial projects.

• Jack Armstrong ([04:48]) laments the misuse of funds:
  "If that were what I've been doing for the last quite a few years, I might be against what Doge is doing too."

• Katie Green ([09:44]) lists questionable foreign expenditures:
  "20 million on a Sesame Street show in Iraq. 6 million to boost tourism in Tunisia and Egypt... 45 million for DEI scholarships in Burma."

The discussion underscores the perceived inefficiency and misdirection of foreign aid, questioning the true benefits versus the public outcry over such expenditures.

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Super Bowl 59: The Philadelphia Eagles’ Triumph

Amidst heavy political discourse, the hosts take a lighter turn to celebrate the Philadelphia Eagles' victory in Super Bowl 59.

• Katie Green ([39:52]) announces the win:
  "The Eagles win at Super Bowl 59."

• Jack Armstrong ([39:40]) adds enthusiasm:
  "It's over. Fly, Eagles, fly."

This segment provides a brief respite from the otherwise intense discussions, showcasing the show's versatility in covering both serious and celebratory topics.

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Russia-Ukraine Conflict: Analyzing Putin’s Strategy and Western Response

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Armstrong and Getty analyze Vladimir Putin's tactics and the West's strategic responses, including the controversial statements from former President Donald Trump.

• Katie Green ([19:29]) highlights Trump’s contentious remarks:
  "Trump said something absolutely unforgivable about Ukraine, that they started the war."

• Jack Armstrong ([21:36]) reflects on Putin's resilience:
  "He knows he's been weakened... He thought he had an easy win and it is just beat the crap out of his military."

The hosts debate whether increased support for Ukraine or a strategy of attrition against Russia is more effective, considering the staggering casualty figures reported.

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Listener Mailbag: Public Concerns and Perspectives

The episode incorporates listener feedback, addressing topics such as the elimination of the penny and public frustration with governmental policies.

• Rick from [26:18]:
  "There's downstream issues with ending the penny. That was really interesting."

• Josiah from San Jose ([26:44]) muses on future fiscal policies:
  "Imagine every household receives a Doge dividend check. How will the media and the Dems cry to the American people about their loss of funding because of the evil Elon Musk?"

These segments reflect the audience's engagement with the show's themes, offering diverse viewpoints and raising critical questions about economic reforms and governmental accountability.

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Quotes of the Day: Wisdom from Lincoln and Washington

In a nod to historical perspectives, Armstrong shares favorite quotes from Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, juxtaposing them with contemporary societal issues.

• Jack Armstrong ([25:13]) reflects on Lincoln's wit:
  "How many legs does a dog have? If you call his tail a leg? The answer is four."

This segment emphasizes the timeless relevance of historical wisdom in interpreting modern-day challenges.

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Kanye West and Public Perception

The hosts briefly discuss the controversial figure Kanye West, contrasting public and media reactions based on racial lines.

• Jack Armstrong ([29:07]) points out:
  "A white guy acting like Kanye West should serve as a decent example. Black Kanye West gets a pass."

This observation critiques societal double standards and the selective empathy exhibited towards public figures.

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Conclusion

"Pander To Me!!" encapsulates Armstrong & Getty's hallmark blend of humor, critical analysis, and unabashed commentary on current events. By navigating through topics ranging from Elon Musk's financial proposals to the complexities of international conflicts, the hosts provide listeners with a comprehensive and engaging discourse. The episode concludes with a teaser for upcoming segments, ensuring that the conversation remains dynamic and thought-provoking.

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Notable Quotes:

• Jack Armstrong ([03:59]):
  "Oh yeah, I'm in favor of it. I'm tired of other people being pandered to. Pander to me."

• Katie Green ([09:44]):
  "20 million on a Sesame Street show in Iraq. 6 million to boost tourism in Tunisia and Egypt... 45 million for DEI scholarships in Burma."

• Jack Armstrong ([21:36]):
  "He knows he's been weakened... He thought he had an easy win and it is just beat the crap out of his military."

• Jack Armstrong ([25:13]):
  "How many legs does a dog have? If you call his tail a leg? The answer is four."

---

This summary aims to encapsulate the essence of the "Pander To Me!!" episode, highlighting key discussions, critical insights, and the dynamic interplay between hosts Armstrong, Getty, and Green. Whether you’re a regular listener or new to the show, this overview provides a comprehensive glimpse into the episode’s engaging content.

Transcript

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[Jack Armstrong]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty Armstrong and Getty and now here. Here's arms on.

[Joe Getty]

Here'S Here's a little insight for the listeners you might not know. I have no idea who Joe is going to say is the general manager every day, and I find myself intrigued today as to what it's going to be. Live from A dimly lit room, Armstrong and Getty show, et cetera, et cetera. Today we're under the tutelage of our general manager.

[Jack Armstrong]

First of all, if you think the primary debates where you got 11 ninnies standing on stage carping at each other, were complicated and difficult. The interview process for this morning's general manager was torturous, Jack. Torturous. But I'm gonna go with the positive. I'm loving what I'm hearing from the Doge Boys. The Doge Boys. Our general manager.

[Joe Getty]

There you go. That's a good one. That's a good one. How about Elon's latest thing where he's gonna send everybody $5,000 or the government's going to. Or he's going to tell the government to. Or however. That whole thing.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh yeah, I'm in favor of it. I'm tired of other people being pandered to. Pander to me.

[Joe Getty]

That might be. If $5,000 goes out to every adult in America, that might be the all time populist move. Just like blow everything out of the water.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

Everybody gets a five thousand dollar check.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, they shook it loose. It was being wasted or frauded or abused and now we get it a little.

[Joe Getty]

I would save it a little closer to the midterm maybe if I was wanting into the full political benefit out of it. But anyway, we have more of the long lists of hilarious things money was being spent on. Not actually hilarious if you think about your taxpayer money being wasted, but hilarious nonetheless.

[Jack Armstrong]

Here's my headline on that topic. It was. It was odd and oddly funny how Chuck Schumer, among others, and quite a few Democratic leaders were screeching on the steps of the Capitol or demonstrating with union or whatever. This is outrageous. It's horrible. It can't continue. Well, if I were party to just the things that have been uncovered so far. Never mind that they've just gotten started right when the horrific squandering of the hard earned tax dollars of Americans, and I don't think sometimes that phrase trips off the tongue a little too easily. People bust their ass, they leave their family, they do things they don't want to do to make a living. Then the government takes a chunk of it and they squander it and bribe their fr. Exactly. They squander it and they bribe their friends with it and laugh about it and laugh at you and me. If that were what I've been doing for the last quite a few years, I' might be against what Doge is doing too.

[Joe Getty]

Or maybe it would Be a good idea, I think. I think if I'm a Democrat and I'm in any of those meetings, I'd say, let's get on board with this crazy stuff and say, we agree. Why not? Why wouldn't you? Acting like it's a horror that this is going on, when every day there's. There are lists of insane, you know, expenditures. Just seems like bad politics to me. But again, like we've been saying, they overestimate how many people love giant, bloated government.

[Jack Armstrong]

Who knows? But anyway, so he's shaking his head sadly because he's like, this is abc. One, two, three, scoop of vanilla, scoop of chocolate. You join them and say, I love all these savings that have been done. So when the midterms come around and the Republicans run on, the savings can say, yeah, we're in favor of that, too. But you know, what we're not in favor of is these things. You neutralize them. You triangulate your morons.

[Joe Getty]

Now show me that song.

[Jack Armstrong]

Turn. Shake it for me, baby. I still work. Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, wow. My eyes still work. That is something.

[Jack Armstrong]

Cringe Katie, by the way, that was.

[Katie Green]

That was fine. It's too early for that.

[Joe Getty]

My eyes still work. I wonder if the whole. If this was a strategy to go with, you know, trans operas in Ireland and some of the most ridiculous stuff first, then the Department of Education, which is pretty, you know, pretty easy to argument at least for half the country for why you got to cut expenditures before they take on the Pentagon, which is supposed to start happening in a couple of weeks, because that's. That's going to be a little less comfortable for, I think, a lot of the Right. Even though I'm sure the Pentagon has tremendous amounts of bloat, right?

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, yeah, absolutely. Buying some goodwill by picking the lowest hanging fruit is a good strategy, certainly. I think, and I'm very confident that they'll be able to make this right argument pretty successfully. I think that the approach with the Pentagon is to say, hey, we need to be efficient. We need to protect our fighting men and make sure they have what they need. We can't have bureaucrats wasting the money that's supposed to protect this country. It's a pretty easy argument to make, I think.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We need to spend the money on MRAPs, not DEI training or whatever they find that they can. They can do away with.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, not trans rappers, huh? Then you'd cut to some sort of.

[Joe Getty]

Drag show, and then, you know, you're seriously rolling today. I'm spitballing we should start the show officially. I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty on this. It is Wednesday. It's a short week already on February 19, the year 2025, where Armstrong and Gideon, we approve of this program.

[Jack Armstrong]

All right, let's swing into action then, officially, according to FCC rules and rags, here we go at Mark.

[Katie Green]

20 million on a Sesame street show in Iraq. 6 million to boost tourism in Tunisia and Egypt. 40 million to build schools in Jordan. 11 million to tell the Vietnamese to stop burning trash. 45 million for DEI scholarships in Burma.

[Jack Armstrong]

Or transgender opera in Colombia. Or translate. It sounds like, how can these things be real? But this is actually what was done. It sounds like a comedy sketch, right? It's not. It's a list a mile long.

[Joe Getty]

Wow. Pick your favorite there. I think I like trying to convince the Vietnamese not to burn their trash.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah. Okay. The. The only thing that concerns me is chucking the bambino out with a bathwater because there is some foreign aid that I think is useful, and there are some things that have been guffawed at online that I think you just don't understand the purpose of it. Yeah, well, go ahead. Hit me with yours, and then I'll bounce back, and then, you know, I'm.

[Joe Getty]

Sure there is plenty of waste, and I'm sure we fund all kinds of really, really stupid things. But I did hear the explanation the other day that a lot of times it's a. It's a. It's a way for us to get in to a country, and it's a CIA operation. Okay. You want us to fund this ridiculous thing? We're gonna have a whole bunch of people there that are gonna, you know, in your shorts and hanging around your communities and your buildings and your government offices and that sort of stuff to try to get the trans opera going. And we're going to take off, get a whole bunch of intel. Sometimes that's the deal. But I doubt that's what's going on in Ireland. How much intel do we need on Ireland?

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. And one thing that's really been assaulted online, I guess, mostly, but is some of our funding of foreign media outfits. Like, what are we doing funding at TV stations in Columbia? That's ridiculous. No, it's actually not. You see, influencing populations and. Oh, can you play the door opening there, Michael? There he is. No.

[Joe Getty]

Hey, everybody.

[Jack Armstrong]

Hey, it's Jack, everybody. Good to see you. What I was starting to say is spending money is you're trying to influence populations, because, you know, depending on the country, you're Talking about you got a bunch of yahoos running around with second grade educations and the local witch doctor has told them that the US is evil and it's complicating our plans to have relations with the government, do trade, blah, blah, blah, whatever national priorities are there. And you've got to have a way to influence the populations in these countries not to hate the U.S. it's actually, if it's done right, money well spent.

[Katie Green]

Don't you think we can easily add this stuff back in the stuff we go too far on?

[Jack Armstrong]

Having said that, gotta do a reset, gotta strip it down to the studs and. And then rebuild it according to modern needs and not just keep, you know, flushing money down the toilet of foreign aid just because it's happened before. I don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. On the other hand, hold the baby. Let's drain the tub and fill it up again.

[Katie Green]

Okay. All right.

[Jack Armstrong]

I went from construction to babies and baths to witch doctors, and that's the foreign aid stuff.

[Katie Green]

But unlike the laying off government workers, there's a mainstream medias are making a big deal laying off some of the workers that actually deal with our nuclear arsenal. Okay, so you're telling me it's impossible that we have more employees involved in our nuclear arsenal than we need? Why would you think that? That is guaranteed. We've got exactly the right number of people and they're all working very hard.

[Jack Armstrong]

Why?

[Katie Green]

Why would you think that?

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. It's ridiculous. And the idea that they went too far, too fast in some places and are rehi. You can't be like wildly, stupidly too far, too fast. But the media acts as if any margin of error or any margin of screw up and whoops, we really need those 200 people back. We gotta rehire them. They act as if any error whatsoever is just some sort of, you know, fatal indictment of the entire enterprise.

[Katie Green]

Especially after decades of going not far enough and too slow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right, right.

[Katie Green]

Which is always the other option, unfortunately. Anyway, we got Mailbag and Katie's headlines to get to this hour. Oh, wow. There's an. I just learned this really interesting thing they're going to try for the baseball preseason. Have you, have you heard about this? That's really. I'm gonna see if Joe's a purist skeptic.

[Jack Armstrong]

What's going on here? What are you trying to pull beyond my back?

[Katie Green]

And now that we are the morning show at this station that is the official home of the Oakland A's, we are heavily involved in major League baseball, of course.

[Jack Armstrong]

Tell you what, if you so much as utter the phrase golden at bat, we're gonna drop gloves like U.S. canada, hockey, man. As I mix the sports. I finally watched the videotape of that game the other night where there are four. Three fights in the first nine seconds. Oh, spectacular.

[Katie Green]

So do I understand we play them again. Is it tonight or tomorrow night for the championship final?

[Jack Armstrong]

Is tomorrow night Thursday night. Check your local listings. Them Canuckers are gonna get what they got coming.

[Katie Green]

And there were three fights in the first nine seconds the last time they played each other? Two days ago, whatever it was.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I think there were three fights and two passes in the first nine seconds. More fights than passes. Glorious.

[Joe Getty]

Awesome.

[Katie Green]

So, man, that might be a big national spectacle. Yeah, you're gonna America's hat, huh? Let's bring it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Our long time enemy, the Canadians. So we need to have our team hand out maps with the 51st state already attached.

[Katie Green]

Oh, that'd be fantastic.

[Jack Armstrong]

On the Gulf of America down below. That's right, Michael.

[Katie Green]

So we got a lot on the way. Stay here.

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Armstro and Getty.

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[Katie Green]

But so it's gone from 1 in 50 to more like 1 in 33 chances of the asteroid hitting the Earth which could wipe out, you know, Tokyo or New York or whatever. That's what it would sound like.

[Jack Armstrong]

Scientists have prepared the simulation of what it would sound like and that's in.

[Katie Green]

Seven years I think 2032. So I don't know what to do about that. We'll keep our eye on that story for you. So we are going to talk about what Trump said about the war between Russia and Ukraine and I guess it comes up in Mailbag, which is next segment. A couple of things that I thought were interesting kind of around that. First of all, Marco Rubio tweeting out yesterday as he's dealing with Putin and his people there. Many in the west still don't understand that Putin is an expert liar. He doesn't care about humanitarian relief. In fact, a ceasefire. If he agrees to a ceasefire, it's because he sees some strategic or tactical benefit and beware of attacks on refugees that Russia blames on Ukraine and NATO. So there's the Secretary of State saying, if there's a ceasefire, don't be surprised if Russia's attacking Ukrainians, trying to get back into their country.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Katie Green]

And blaming it on NATO. At the same time, his boss is saying Ukraine started the war, which, again, we're going to get into later. I thought that was interesting. I don't know how that's going to play out, their relationship there. And then these statistics that came out yesterday around the war in Russia's military in 2024, just last year suffered over a half million casualties. Casualties just last year. It's been going on for three years. As of next week, Russia's casualty count total is now 837,000 killed and wounded in three years. 837,000. Unimaginable numbers. If you had 8,000 US soldiers killed somewhere, it would be the biggest political crisis we've had since Vietnam for whatever party was involved.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, we haven't endured anything like that in so long, I can't even remember. I mean, it just. It would be horrible. Right.

[Katie Green]

It's just absolutely astounding, those numbers of what's going on over there.

[Jack Armstrong]

Neil Ferguson wrote a great response to the JD Vance flap that I'll share some of at some point during the show. But one of the points he makes, and it's worth repeating, is that this is Putin's greatest blunder. He talks big and he's gained some territory, and the Ukrainians are definitely in a tough spot. And Trump said something absolutely unforgivable about Ukraine, that they start the war essentially. I don't know what he's at or thinking about. We'll get to that a little bit later on. But it absolutely is a horrible blunder that Putin is trying to extricate himself from. And there's part of me that thinks Trump understands that and is trying to play Putin's weakness against him. On the other hand, Putin is a crocodile. I mean, he's, he's a master tactician, utterly amoral and, and will gain any advantage he can. So you.

[Katie Green]

Do you think Putin thinks it's a blunder? I mean, he doesn't care about 837,000 soldiers. That means nothing to him.

[Jack Armstrong]

He knows he's been weakened.

[Katie Green]

But if he gets. If he ends up with which what seems to be on the table, if he ends up with 20% of Ukraine and a guarantee they're not going to be in NATO, and then there's some talk of us pulling troops out of various countries. If he gets that, you think he's going to feel like this was a failure?

[Jack Armstrong]

No, not exactly. But again, he has been badly, badly weakened, which going forward is not a state he wants to be in. He thought he had an easy win and it is just beat the crap out of his, his military and exposed them as being incredibly weak. No, it's, it's, it's a win, but it's a Pyrrhic victory, as they say. I mean, he got a $20 bicycle for $5,000.

[Katie Green]

We've got mailbag on the way, Katie's headlines, news of the day and a lot of controversial stuff, so stay tuned.

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Armstrong and Getty.

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[Jack Armstrong]

It's over. Fly, Eagles, fly.

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[Katie Green]

The Eagles win at Super Bowl 59.

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[Katie Green]

We're about to live in a penniless world, ladies and gentlemen. Are you prepared for that to be.

[Jack Armstrong]

Penniless after all this work? Got some great email to get to some of it during Mailbag in a moment, some of it later on, including Rick's extremely thoughtful pointing out of some downstream issues with ending the penny. That was really interesting. So please do stay tuned. First freedom loving quote of the day plunging on after a brief break yesterday with our great quotes from Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday just passed. This has always been one of my favorites.

[Katie Green]

Are there many quotes from Washington? Is his birthday what, this Saturday?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, that's correct. Sure. Yeah. Oh he has some incredible quotes. Wonderful.

[Katie Green]

Yeah, he wasn't the quote machine. Lincoln was, though.

[Jack Armstrong]

Not quite Lincoln. Lincoln loved to talk to people. Washington very dignified and reserved man. Anyway. But yeah, we'll go with Washington next. But this is one of my all time favorite Abe Lincoln quotes an apropos as apropos today as it was then and will be in a thousand years. How many legs does a dog have? If you call his tail a leg? The answer is four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn't make it a leg.

[Katie Green]

That's a good one. That is a great one.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yes. There are many examples in the contemporary world, one might cite, of saying something that is clearly not something is indeed that something. And if you don't say so, you're a bad person. And then finally this oh, we could certainly go with government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth unless you screw it up so bad it does. I added that last part on Mailbag.

[Katie Green]

By having an unelected billionaire take over.

[Jack Armstrong]

As opposed to oh my God, somebody slapping Drop us a Note [e-mail] anytime you like. Like, what's with all the cocaine? Writes Jay in San Jose. What with the Daily Doge revelations, I'm seeing a trend where we pay researchers to give cocaine and other illicit drugs to animals for a variety of reasons. What's that all about?

[Katie Green]

Good question.

[Jack Armstrong]

Cocaine monkeys, cocaine dogs, cocaine ducks. What's the story? The infamous cocaine bear.

[Katie Green]

The other thing I like these government agencies doing, or the mainstream media pushing it, is this idea that that there was a meeting on Tuesday with the cancer board that had to be canceled. Oh, and they act like Tuesday at 2:00 they were gonna cure cancer, but.

[Jack Armstrong]

Now the meeting had to be canceled.

[Katie Green]

Damn it went back timing.

[Jack Armstrong]

All because of the world's richest man, causing them to cancel the meeting. Scott Pellini's introduction to the 60 Minutes piece Sunday was hilarious. It was like the voiceover To a 1940s Frankenstein movie. What a jackass. Morning, boys, writes Josiah in Utah. I'm imagining what it'll be like when every household receives a Doge dividend check. How then will the media and the Dems cry to the American people about their loss of funding because of the evil Elon Musk? This idea from Elon is effing checkmate. It will increase support for more Doge cuts in the future. The overwhelming majority will vote in favor of Doge type audits in the future. We could be looking at the era of fiscal responsibility that we've been dreaming of. Wow, Josiah, don't. Don't raise my hopes that high, brother. I tell you what, though, and you know, I got to admit, I'm kind of ashamed. This has never occurred to me. The way you get it going in a people that's realized that they can vote themselves money from the treasury, which of course is the doom of a democracy, is say, hey, there's all sorts of this bloat and waste and redundancy and fraud. I tell you what, every buck we save will carve out. We'll say 35 cents for the American people will write you checks. Bingo. So we save 65% of the waste they found and then dole out the rest. Everybody, people keep getting Doge checks, cutting the government checks. It's brilliant. It's a perpetual motion machine. 30 years from now, the federal budget's gonna be $175. Oh, my goodness. Moving on. This is actually a. A Great point from Dr. B. We are discussing Kanye west in the super bowl commercial and talked a little bit about it in the One More Thing podcast yesterday. You ought to subscribe. Anyway, he writes, I think Kanye west would have been canceled already if he were a white guy. He wouldn't have gotten those ads on any TV stations as a racist, anti Semite white guy.

[Katie Green]

Well, you're right about that.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know if there's an antonym for shibboleth, but a white guy acting like Kanye west should serve as a decent example. Black Kanye west gets a pass.

[Katie Green]

That is true.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's absolutely true. Yeah. A white guy who said a third of what Kanye said would be, well, he'd be Persona non grata in, like, every aspect of society. Yeah.

[Katie Green]

His music would be pulled off all streaming services and all that sort of stuff.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's you know, it's who. Tyrus on Fox News unleashed a. He's off and on with Greg Gutfeld, if you don't know. A big, strong wrestler guy, black fella. And he. He made the point a couple of years ago with a screed that went semi viral that he has black privilege. And he talked about all the things he could say and do at work, and people will just grumble uncomfortably and go out about their business, but if a white dude did it, they'd be fired immediately. He said, that's the reality right now.

[Katie Green]

I never saw that. That's an interesting angle, but of black privilege around that stuff.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. And. And like Kanye, I mean, what he said about Jews is absolutely abhorrent. He's also mentally ill. I mean, like, seriously mentally ill. So. But that doesn't mean. Therefore, we will run his commercials and play songs and the rest of it moving along. Do we have time for this? We have Jack. I'll let you choose. We have Paolo with some really good kind of dissent, difficult questions about the. The peace talk slash diplomacy toward Ukraine. And then you've got a nice German couple that love the show and the podcast, and she wanted to respond to our arguments about free speech in Germany. Both quite intriguing.

[Katie Green]

I really think we ought to get into the Ukraine thing right now.

[Jack Armstrong]

No time. Okay. All right. Well, Paolo writes a few speculations about the war in Ukraine. Maybe you can have fun contradicting them, but maybe I actually haven't read them all because I thought, let's just take them cold. Because Paolo's great. He always writes great emails. It's pretty much impossible for Ukraine to win the war because we won't give them what it takes to win for fear of escalation. The status quo will result in more casualties and destruction and perhaps more territory lost for Ukraine with no hope, better results. Oh, I would agree with that.

[Katie Green]

Yeah. At this point. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Without dredging up the past or go ahead if you like. You're a dredger now. It's absolutely. Biden was a terrible president in every single way, including this. Putting on the cynical hat. Maybe the US Strategy is to let it drag on as long as possible with the intent to weaken Russia by maximizing the cost of the war for him. That cynical strategy might even not even really care what happens to Ukraine as long as the cost to Russia is high enough. Enough to stop them from trying it again. I think there is certainly an element to that, even if it wasn't intended. It's just a fortunate consequence of an unfortunate situation. Russia and Putin are weakened terribly militarily. The idea that talking to Putin is a bad thing is flawed. How does the war come to a negotiated end without talking to Putin? His cooperation is needed for a negotiated ended the war. Only way battle of attrition ends on the battlefield is with Russia winning. Yeah, I would agree. No, I think, and again, the stuff.

[Katie Green]

That'S not true, if we really got behind Ukraine, Russia wouldn't win that battle. But it's probably too late for that now.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah. You've got the problem of Ukraine is so depleted itself and there's just no will among Europeans to do anything. Europe is a weak, spent force. It is, it's moribund. It's, it's living on its reputation. It's, it's teetering.

[Katie Green]

Seriously, the negotiating with Putin thing is a very interesting topic because he is a war criminal at the highest level, the very highest level. And now you could list many, many things, but the Armed Services chairman yesterday said Putin should be in jail for the rest of his life if not executed. That's a Republican, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. And while I find Trump's. Some of the things Trump says about Ukraine abhorrent, like they started the war, he said yesterday, we'll talk about that later on or, you know, we can play now, I guess. But I, I also, on the other hand, I should say, I agree that engaging Putin and his people directly and saying, all right, what are you looking for? What do you want? What does it take to end the carnage? And saying, all right, here's the way we see it, here's the only way we'll back that sort of peace deal. I don't have any problem with that as long as we stand firm on, on principles, and not just like moral principles, but national security principles and the principle of not wanting another giant land war in Europe.

[Katie Green]

Joe Biden did call MBS a pariah and then fist bumped him when he went over to Saudi Arabia when we needed their oil. So those kind of things happen.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, and mob bosses get together all the time in the midst of bloody wars and say, all right, what's it going to take to stop this?

[Katie Green]

So I don't know if you caught this on Friday, since you were having a good time with your birthday and your family and everything like that. We had Mike lines on. But first of all, so the conversation last week on the Secretary of Defense giving up too much at the beginning of the negotiation, I find that interesting because I've heard smart people on both sides of that. Saying what you said that why would you ever give up anything before the negotiation started versus other people who have said things that absolutely can't happen. Get them off the table right away so you can get to the real stuff. I mean, there's no chance under any, any world whatsoever that Ukraine gets their land back. So why pretend like that's on the table or anything at all? Get it off the table so you can get to the real negotiate. I don't know which is the best approach in this sort of thing. I mean, if it's a car or a house, I think I do. But if it's a, a land war, I'm not exactly sure.

[Jack Armstrong]

Anyway, yeah, I, I, I could explain why you keep that on the table, but go ahead. You had a greater point to make.

[Katie Green]

That apparently wasn't the position anyway. It was a Hegset's position and apparently he shouldn't have done that and got, and, and as Mike Lyons said on Friday, Hegseth got out over his skis. Is why J.D. vance did that interview with the Wall Street Journal on Friday, which he said, we're not absolutely, we're absolutely not giving anything and we might put American troops in there. So that was Trump and Vance, I think, saying to the SEC def. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not our position at all. I don't know how that happened. That's a fairly, it seems like major misstep in the first couple of weeks of the new SEC defense that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, it reminds me a little bit of the first Trump term where there was some real lack of messaging discipline from the White House for a while and people would get ahead of the White House and speak out of turn a lot. They've been much more disciplined this time.

[Katie Green]

This is a pretty high level one, though. Oh, my God. The Secretary of Defense should have the bullet points on what we're willing to give up before you start talking about what we're willing to give up. Was he just completely freelancing on that?

[Jack Armstrong]

It looks like that, but my degree of certainty in decreeing that is lower. I don't know what happened.

[Katie Green]

Or is it part of the Trump strategy of just be all over the place? SecDef says this three days later, Vance says, no, no, no, none of that is true. We're gonna put troops in Ukraine if we have to. Maybe it's just the whole, you know, crazy man theory.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow. If that was orchestrated, that is some really creative foreign policy.

[Katie Green]

Probably.

[Jack Armstrong]

I see your point. Well, you know what's, what's interesting or at least that's what I'm shooting for. Interesting is what I was going to say is in the negotiation where you're putting some things on the table that are highly unlikely, like Ukraine getting all of its land back, for instance. One of the reasons you do that is to. Is because the other side doesn't know how serious you are, and you leave ambiguity about how serious you are. And they waste time and energy and concessions on stuff that you're willing to throw away anyway, but they don't know that. That. And maybe they're 5% uncertain that you really want it, maybe they're 50% uncertain. But that's. That's part of negotiating to have stuff that you're willing to throw away, but you make them work to make you throw it away.

[Katie Green]

Yeah, apparently.

[Jack Armstrong]

Now, back to your thing. If that was some genius plot to make them uncertain what we're willing to throw away, well, it worked.

[Katie Green]

Yeah. Including for the American people. Okay, we've got Katie's headlines on the way. And we'll get to an hour to Trump saying Ukraine started the war. Don't. Which is an awful thing to say. Freaking awful. Stay tuned.

[Greenlight Advertiser]

Armstrong and Getty.

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[Jack Armstrong]

It's over. Fly, Eagles, fly.

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[Katie Green]

The Eagles win at Super Bowl 59.

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[Katie Green]

I just came across something so damned interesting because I've been really into this whole Trump's take on the war in Ukraine thing in the last 24 hours. For instance, the New York Post, which is the friendliest Trump public, major Trump publication out there blasting Trump for saying Ukraine started the war. Their editorial board today. But here he is. And I'll get to it an hour, too. But here's a former member of Zelensky's administration tweeting out trump's just doing what Biden and Obama wanted to do but didn't have the guts to. He's just saying out loud what Biden and Obama did.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right? Right. Which they wouldn't say or said contrary to, but their actions bore it out. Right? Yes. Right.

[Katie Green]

So he's, he's just following through on what the past two Democratic presidents have done, for better or worse. But it's not unique, really.

[Jack Armstrong]

The parameters. Deal. But, but, but not saying Ukraine started the war. Not that aspect.

[Katie Green]

No, I don't, I don't know what that is. Is.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, it's craziness. All right. We'll talk about it in, in full next hour. Stay tuned if you can. If you can't, grab the podcast Armstrong and Getty on demand. Right now. Let's figure out who's reporting what. It's lead story with Katie Green. Katie, thank you, guys.

[Katie Green]

From the Associated Press. Hamas says it will free six living hostages and hand over four bodies, accelerating Gaza releases. Okay. There's a lot of complaints among people, well, I don't know on the right or I just think decent moral people. Of all the headlines that are leaving out the fact that Hamas is giving back people they murdered, they didn't die of natural causes in custody, including small children. All the headlines are returning people who died as opposed to were murdered by Hamas.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. Like they died of old age in a nice Hamas retro retirement home.

[Katie Green]

Please. They got cancer in the last year and a half. And we tried our best. But from NBC, U.S. condemns, quote, dangerous Chinese maneuvers after close encounter with Philippine plane.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah, that is just a tinderbox. More on that next hour as well. I have a grand unifying theory of global politics. I've just come on board Joe Joe's.

[Katie Green]

Grand brand unifying theory.

[Jack Armstrong]

You're not gonna like it. From Breitbart.

[Katie Green]

$241 million spent on transgender surgeries and treatments for animals. Wait, no, no, no.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yes.

[Katie Green]

No.

[Jack Armstrong]

Trying to make a stud into a beach to say, you know, dog breeding.

[Katie Green]

Terms from Daily Mail only.

[Jack Armstrong]

Fans model Annie Knight, who plans to.

[Katie Green]

Sleep with 1,000 men, reveals she's looking for a super secure boyfriend.

[Jack Armstrong]

What she ought to be looking for is mental health treatment. Right.

[Katie Green]

Poor girl is just more of parading the mentally ill out there for all our, our entertainment. I don't find that entertaining.

[Jack Armstrong]

But yeah, I, I just, for some reason the, the fragment of a Bible verse jumped into my head and Jesus wept. I mean, that is a troubled woman.

[Katie Green]

Severely damaged and I'll bet, I'm sure her life story is horrific. And finally, the Babylon BE Delta crash caused by failure of passenger in seat 2B to put his seat in the full upright position.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's funny.

[Katie Green]

If you to put your tray on, we wouldn't have landed on our top. All right, now, you know, boy, that.

[Jack Armstrong]

That video that's emerged of that plane.

[Katie Green]

Flipping and everything, I haven't seen it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, it's, it's super dramatic. And the aviation expert on abc, evidently he got done vomiting at having to work with David Muir and he, he gave a really good report in which he pointed out the saving grace of the thing was as it flipped and the fuel is in the wings. As that burst into flames, the wings busted off and were left behind. And so the fire threat to the fuselage which miraculously held together was much, much less than if the plane had remained intact.

[Katie Green]

I didn't know the fuel was in the wings on a plane. Didn't know that. I guess it's got to be somewhere. Where else would it be? Yeah, interesting. We got a lot now or two. I hope you can catch it. If you don't get the podcast. Armstrong and Getty on demand.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Gettysburg.

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[Greenlight Advertiser]

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[Jack Armstrong]

Sketch to the final details.

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