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Jack Armstrong
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center.
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Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
Jack Armstrong
Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Getty.
Joe Getty
Around.
Jack Armstrong
Rand Love for Wimy.
Joe Getty
Wimy was calling for the alley oop right there. Fox gets the two on one with Anthony Edwards being the low man. He is above the logo.
Jack Armstrong
Jerry west,
Javier Becerra
man.
Jack Armstrong
If you've missed out on watching Wemby the French kid for San Antonio playing. I saw the power rankings the other day. They had him as the third best player in the NBA. He's 22.
Joe Getty
Wow.
Jack Armstrong
She's pretty young. He's going to be around for a long time. He looks like he could break in half. I think that's why he elbowed that guy in the face the other day. He got kicked out of a game. Flagrant elbow. But I think it was one of those, you ain't gonna push me around.
Joe Getty
Oh, yeah.
Jack Armstrong
Don't think I'm weak.
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
Don't think I'm soft.
Joe Getty
I get that. It's physical game. God.
Jack Armstrong
It is.
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
Anywho, that's from the NBA playoffs. I just saw a thing up on the King Charles was addressing parliament for some reason and there might be a new election there and the prime minister might go. Anyway. King Charles was there at Buckingham Palace. I didn't know they did this. He was sitting on the throne. A throne. I suppose it's a Dutch throne. Is sitting on the throne.
Joe Getty
Reading the newspaper.
Jack Armstrong
I did not colloquially like, like it's a toilet. Oh, like, like, like, like in an old timey movie throne. Sure. It looked exactly like it. Like Henry viii. And he's on this big giant gold thrown with plush red pillows and he's got this giant cape around his shoulders and a big freaking crown on his head.
Joe Getty
Yep.
Jack Armstrong
How do they still do that? I don't like the whole king thing at all. But you call him a king and he wears a suit and he, you know, he speaks to parliament now. But the actual sitting on a throne with a crown. How do you hang on to that?
Joe Getty
And the big fur cape. I love that. I know. Especially because I'm reading Tim Sandifer's fabulous.
Jack Armstrong
I need a eunuch. Somebody give me a couple of eunuchs.
Joe Getty
Better get me a couple in case
Jack Armstrong
the first one gets fired. Out. What do you got there? Make him a new unic. I want him to sing. I want him to sing later for me.
Joe Getty
I say, yeah. Especially I'm reading Tim Sandifer's Wonderful book proclaiming liberty. And the early part of it has to do with the relationship of the colonies and the crown in parliament and how England, you know, went through a
Jack Armstrong
couple of kings and beheaded one and ran the other one out of town.
Joe Getty
And then there were big disputes about how much power they ought to have versus Parliament, blah, blah, blah. So for the longest time, maybe forever, they've been like, what is a king anyway? I mean, we, we gotta have one, right? Everybody knows we gotta have a king, but we don't know what he ought to be really or do. And so get rid of it.
Jack Armstrong
But yeah, Tim is on the show tomorrow, be talking about his book, among other things.
Joe Getty
Oh, fantastic. Excellent.
Jack Armstrong
I just thought that looked so ridiculous. You got the crown on. Come on.
Joe Getty
Speaking of leadership, the biggest state in the Union, Cal Unicornia, trying to elect a new governor because the old one is termed out and wants to be the president even though he's a pots. And the Democratic Party in a one party state of hacks has turned out some pretty uninspiring choices, including the current frontrunner, Javier Becerra, who I'll tell you more about in a minute. But he utterly undistinguished his congressman. He's a handsome guy and he's reasonably well spoken, but did nothing as a congressman. Inexplicably. He was named state Attorney General, did nothing but sue Trump, and then became health secretary in the Biden administration and was, according to Biden officials, a complete embarrassment. So why wouldn't he run for president or governor?
Jack Armstrong
We talked about that Politico piece from last week in which they are quoting all kinds of former Biden people saying, I mean, they're laughing behind the scenes and slapping their forehead. This guy's going to be the governor of California. He is. He doesn't know anything about anything. And the way you know, this is true, and it didn't even occur to me until it was pointed out by Politico. He was the secretary of HHS during the biggest pandemic in a century and he was a nothing. You have no memory. I have zero memory of him saying or doing anything ever. He was a non entity.
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
When his department with the biggest budget in America. He had no role in the pandemic. That shows you what a nothing he is. And he might be governor. That's hilarious.
Joe Getty
Yeah. They described him as an embarrassment at briefings and that sort of thing. He's the, he's the front runner. And we'll get to some great audio in a second or two.
Jack Armstrong
Can you hand Me, my phone.
Joe Getty
Oh, yeah, sorry.
Jack Armstrong
Joe's got my phone.
Joe Getty
I was going through it, making him take all the nudes of me out of there, so better not be copies.
Jack Armstrong
So we're about to play this clip of Javier Dicera sitting down for an interview. And I saw this online yesterday. And David Axelrod, who is the campaign manager for Barack Obama, so he knows a little something about running for office and politics and Democratic politics. He said as HHS secretary during COVID Becerri rarely was the administration's point person in communicating the American public on the pandemic. This may be the reason why. Here's what it sounded like in the interview yesterday.
Joe Getty
So he interviewed with Annie Rose Ramos for KTLA 5 in Los Angeles. And this is going completely viral. It's 90 and 91. Let's go with 91st.
Annie Rose Ramos
Michael, this is the start of our interview with Javier Braceta in Highland Park.
Javier Becerra
By the way, this is a profile piece. This is not a gotcha piece. Right.
Annie Rose Ramos
Well, look, I think we're, these questions are fair. It's in order to learn about you as a candidate.
Javier Becerra
So why is about the profile?
Annie Rose Ramos
I don't know how you define profile, but I'd like to begin the interview.
Javier Becerra
The way I describe profile is you talk about all the things that I've done, things I want to do, and along with some tough questions. But not only tough questions.
Joe Getty
Wow. So he's begging her for a softball interview while the cameras roll and he's getting killed for this.
Jack Armstrong
How weak is that?
Joe Getty
Even the New York Times. As Becerra rises in polls, he draws fire for trying to direct interview. And they soft pedal it in the New York Times. How humiliating it was your point about
Jack Armstrong
it being a one party state so everybody that rises to, you know, a high level in, in, in, in California, you're in a, a one party state. You're never challenged by anybody with a compliant media.
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
And so it's same thing happened with Katie Porter. The whole, you know, where she cut off that interview and got all angry and everything like that was basically the same thing. Like why are you, why are you asking me hard questions and treating me like a politician here?
Joe Getty
Do you not understand how this works?
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, you do a profile piece that is a puff piece about all my accomplishments.
Joe Getty
Right.
Jack Armstrong
And don't say anything that's gonna make me look bad. That's the way it's been my whole life. Why, why is it changing now?
Joe Getty
Yeah, aside from, and I swear this is true. It's not hyperbolic. I'm not Trying to be persuasive or bomb Chucky or anything like that. Aside from, you know, just general, some charisma. The only thing you need to gain high office in California is to check the boxes of acceptability to the big unions, the public employee unions and nurses unions, et cetera. The teachers, God knows, and the trial attorneys, among others. And as long as you pledge that you will faithfully execute exactly what they tell you to do, you will be anointed, whatever the office happens to be. I mean, Kamala Harris is the proof beyond proof of that.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, but how could you rise to the level that this Javier Becerra is and, like, be completely he? You haven't ever seen on television people running for big offices and doing interviews and having to answer questions?
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
Have you've never. You've never encountered that in your life.
Joe Getty
He comes off as a simpleton. He does.
Jack Armstrong
Like a child.
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
This is a profile piece, right? You're just supposed to talk about my accomplishments.
Joe Getty
Well, a profile piece is when you talk about the things I want to do and what I've accomplished.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
Joe Getty
I'm a professional reporter, as Annie Ramos is thinking, yeah, I'll ask you what I want.
Jack Armstrong
Plus, you. The fact that you are unaware that the press might lead you. Because Joe and I have run into this many times in our careers. They are all friendly and like and that sort of stuff and try to get you to say stuff.
Joe Getty
Right.
Jack Armstrong
And hurt you or come up with something that's exciting that people will want to read or watch.
Joe Getty
Exactly.
Jack Armstrong
But how is he completely unaware of that? Well, because of the reasons we just said. He's had nothing but puff pieces his whole life.
Joe Getty
Right. But don't worry, it gets worse during
Annie Rose Ramos
your time as HHS secretary. A New York Times investigation found the Health Department couldn't find some 85,000 children it had released.
Javier Becerra
That's not accurate. What you just read is not accurate. First, that's what I'll say, because it was never the case that we could not find kids. You're essentially. I don't know if you got those talking points from Donald Trump.
Annie Rose Ramos
It's from a New York Times article.
Javier Becerra
That's not what the New York Times article said. The New York Times said that individuals, the children and their sponsors did not respond to calls. They didn't say, we couldn't find kids
Annie Rose Ramos
working overnight in slaughterhouses, replacing roofs, operating machineries and factories. Children as young as 14 years old.
Javier Becerra
That part occurred after these children had left the care of Department of Health and Human Services.
Annie Rose Ramos
Do you let these Children go into those individual sponsors in their responsibility.
Javier Becerra
Some of these kids, probably because they needed to earn some money, started working in places that were very exploitive during
Annie Rose Ramos
your time as HHS secretary. A New York Times investigation found the health.
Joe Getty
Yeah, that's where it started to repeat. So she was making the point. So you released them to their sponsors who put them to work in roofing, in slaughterhouses. Well, yeah. During the giant open border. It's almost surreal looking back on it. We had a president, an entire administration that threw the border wide open.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. Without the specifics of what he's talking about in both of those clips, he talks like Frosty the Snowman.
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
This is a profile piece. Right. I have a magic hat.
Joe Getty
He is what they used to call back in the day when people used fancy words, a mediocrity. He is undistinguished in any way other than being handsome and an absolutely loyal lackey of the powers that be in the state of California. Wow.
Jack Armstrong
And he was, he was looking like he was going to be governor. But I wonder after this stuff went viral because there's a lot of Democrats fighting it out to be the other candidate other than Steve Hilton.
Joe Getty
Katie Porter is beside herself with glee right now. She's put the boiling potatoes she was going to throw on somebody back on the back burner. She's thinking, things are shaping up well for me.
Jack Armstrong
She went on the GOP one, she lost a bunch of weight.
Joe Getty
Good for her health.
Jack Armstrong
Get out of my effing kitchen. I heard an NPR piece yesterday where they had a bunch of academics and experts on, on why the jungle primary system is a terrible idea. That is what we do in California and some states where the top two vote getters coming up here in a couple of weeks run against each other for governor. Even if they're both Republicans. Well, they put it that way so that they, they, they thought they'd never have a Republican running at all, that, that every cycle it'd be two Democrats running against each other. It was basically, we're a one party state. Why are we going through this charade?
Joe Getty
It's the illusion of choice, like China.
Jack Armstrong
Why are we going through this charade of having a Republican run against a Democrat when we all know it's going to be a Democrat. He might as well have the two best Democrats debating it out. But then this time around, it might be two Republicans, so they want to do away with it. It's unfair and it's, it's, it's leaving a bunch of people out of the conversation. And okay, all of a sudden like
Joe Getty
Vladimir Putin is the Secretary of State or something. So this Dan Schnur, who's a longtime political analyst, teaches at UC Berkeley, usc, been following him for years. He says a candidate for governor California shouldn't just expect gotcha questions, they should welcome them and thrive on them. He added, given questions that have been raised on his ability to handle high profile pressure situations, this is not what he needs right now.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, obviously he's a punk and he sounds like Frosty the Snowman.
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Jack Armstrong
Even without the substance of what he's talking about, I don't know what's going on here. That's what he sounds like.
Joe Getty
I know we're running late. Michael, play 90 again real quick.
Annie Rose Ramos
This is the start of our interview with Javier Braceta in Highland Park.
Javier Becerra
By the way, this is a profile piece. This is not a gotcha piece, Right?
Annie Rose Ramos
Well, look, I think these questions are fair. It's in order to learn about you as a candidate.
Javier Becerra
So why is about the profile?
Annie Rose Ramos
I don't know how you define profile, but I'd like to begin the interview.
Javier Becerra
The way I describe profile is you talk about all the things that I've done, things I want to do, and along with some tough questions. But not only tough questions.
Joe Getty
I'm melting my corn cob pipe.
Jack Armstrong
This is a profile piece, right? What an embarrassing thing to say.
Joe Getty
Happy birthday, Class A moron.
Jack Armstrong
We got more on the way.
Joe Getty
Armstrong and Getty.
Jack Armstrong
Warning.
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And we want everyone in America, from Maine to Montana, from Alabama to Alaska, to be a part of it.
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This year marks America's 250th anniversary. And we're coming together from coast to coast at star spangled events, live performances and the largest day of giving in American history.
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Join the nationwide celebration at america250.org 102
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can help in any way?
Jack Armstrong
I don't think we need any help with Iran.
Joe Getty
We'll win it one way or the other.
Annie Rose Ramos
Tonight President Trump says he can handle Iran alone as he heads to China for a summit with President Xi in Beijing, noting though that China is the largest buyer of Iranian crude oil.
Jack Armstrong
We're going to have a long talk about it. They get a lot of their oil from that area. We've had no problem and he's been a friend of mine, he's been somebody
Joe Getty
that we get along with and I
Jack Armstrong
think you're going to see that good things are going to happen. I don't know how this isn't going to be more of a sticking point. They're the China is the number one purchaser of oil from Iran and Trump has been kind of yada yada yada ing the whole thing as he goes over there. I just can't believe how this isn't going to be like the only thing President Xi wants to talk about. Hey, what's the deal? Get that straight opened up.
Joe Getty
Trump's going to say, hey, go buddies With Iran, you open it up, it's your oil. Yeah, we're fine.
Jack Armstrong
Interesting to see what happens there. We're talking yesterday a little bit about how Trump went on a spree of late night Truth Social posts the other night. Like he often does.
Joe Getty
Yes.
Jack Armstrong
He had 55 messages between. Between 10:14pm and 1:12am not at all unhinged. I don't think he's unhinged. I just think it's. I just think it's the way his way he is at the end of a long day. He's just got a whole bunch of things rattling around in his head. And rather than keeping to himself, he
Joe Getty
blasts them out to people unhinged,
Jack Armstrong
including retweeting someone. Cat Turd, who's a very popular Twitter guy.
Joe Getty
Delightful moniker. Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
Disgusting. Trump retweeted arrest Obama the traitor. I mean, the sitting president. Tweeting out that a former president should be arrested, you would think would make the news, but it doesn't anymore.
Joe Getty
Just because people just roll their eyes.
Jack Armstrong
That's where we are.
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
As they write in the Wall Street Journal, after the sun went down two nights ago, another familiar ritual began. Late night social media posting in the President's Truth social account. Posting 55 messages. It's not unusual to have that many. He has 12.6 million followers on Truth Social, which is a way smaller number than he ever had on Twitter because not as many people went over to Truth social. Monday was one of 44 similar spates of a dozen or more Truth Social posts published between 8pm and 6am since he returned to the White House. The record is 160 times. Back on December 1st, he posted 160 times. No after 8 o' clock at night.
Joe Getty
Many of them retweets or retruths or whatever. Still, that's extraordinary.
Jack Armstrong
And it means he's sitting there sifting through social media, which is full of crap.
Joe Getty
Retweet.
Jack Armstrong
Just crap.
Joe Getty
Comment and retweet. Retweet.
Jack Armstrong
Isn't that wild?
Joe Getty
Yeah. Has Obama been jailed yet? I haven't been following this.
Jack Armstrong
He retweeted Nancy Pelosi. Nancy Pelosi's former top staffer said Nancy Pelosi planned January 6th for two years. Lock her up. Trump retweeted that the other.
Joe Getty
Oh my God. Not really him.
Jack Armstrong
Okay, we got more on the way. Interesting story about a public school you're going to want to hear.
Joe Getty
Armstrong and Gettysburg warning.
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It's a celebration 250 years in the
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making and we want everyone in America, from Maine to Montana, from Alabama to Alaska to be a part of it.
America 250 Announcer
This year marks America's 250th anniversary and we're coming together from coast to coast at star spangled events, live performances and the largest day of giving in American history.
Announcer
Join the nationwide celebration at america250.org 102
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miles ago the oil light came on. 100 miles ago you'd noticed. Now it's time to head to Take five this Oil change Fall in love with your car all over again. In just 10 minutes, your dream technician will check your tire pressure, top off fluids, change your oil and verify with carfax exactly what your car really needs, all while keeping you in the driver's seat. Take five the stay in your car 10 minute oil change find your nearest
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shop@take5.com support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.comDisclosures the therapy
Joe Getty
platform RULA announced yesterday that it's partnering with the Van Leeuwen to provide people with a free therapy session plus a scoop of Ice cream. It's just their way of getting you accustomed to the idea of being manipulated by your therapist.
Jack Armstrong
Follow up on story we did before the commercials. Wall Street Journal had a piece on Trump's late night postings on Truth Social. And Hanson pointed out to me that the article, apparently I didn't read far enough down, included that Trump has a young woman that works for him that does a lot of the posting. But that doesn't make sense because why would you hire somebody to post late at night and not all day long? The bursts of them being posted at night almost have to be him.
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah.
Jack Armstrong
And he famously stays up late.
Take 5 Oil Change Advertiser
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Jack Armstrong
He's alone in the room. You hired somebody to post stuff while you're up flipping through the channels. I don't know if I'm buying that. I think it allows you to. I mean, I'm sure he probably does have an employee to the. But I think it also allows you say if something goes really wacky. I didn't post that.
Joe Getty
Right. Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. And I've told that person under no circumstances ever again post that we should be arresting former presidents.
Joe Getty
Yeah. She brings him, I guess, lots and lots of stuff that he could, you know, reach maybe that maybe that's.
Jack Armstrong
Maybe she's pouring through the stuff and then he posts them. I'll bet that's what's happening.
Take 5 Oil Change Advertiser
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Joe Getty
Yeah. Not uncommon. Social media assistant.
Jack Armstrong
Anyway, if you have a kid in the San Francisco public school district, they are about to learn the privilege wheel in one of their classes. In fact, it's mandated now and there's a lawsuit involved. About a year long ethnic studies course that was just permanently adopted by the San Francisco Unified School District.
Joe Getty
Oh my.
Jack Armstrong
The. There's a letter from the Friends of Lowell Foundation. So Lowell is a private school that's pretty famous in America in the Bay Area for being like the best of the best smart kids in America. And there have been various efforts over the years to do away with the meritocracy part of it, like open it up to.
Joe Getty
It's like a magnet high school. It's a public magnet high school.
Jack Armstrong
But there's been a lot of pressure to open it up to underprivileged this and people who can't score as high on that as opposed to just keep it. No, these are the smartest people in America. We want the smartest high school kids in America, period.
Javier Becerra
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
Anyway, so they're suing the public school district for allowing this to happen, which I think is pretty interesting. And they pointed out that this $7 million program has been adopted largely concealed from concerned parents. Let's read a little bit about what it is, the privilege wheel, which sorts students into an oppressor, oppressed framework. Based on this wheel. This is what the wheel looks like. I'll read from the wheel. Isn't that fantastic?
Joe Getty
Round, multicolored, looks like a wheel.
Jack Armstrong
Children are being sorted, labeled and instructed according to race based ideological frameworks that no parent consented to. And then no reasonable reading of the federal civil rights law permits according to a civil rights attorney who is suing the San Francisco school district and every ninth grader. And it's a the entire school year class. Every day you have this class calling
Joe Getty
our mate Dylan, calling her, meet Dylan.
Jack Armstrong
But so the way the wheel works is right in the center of the wheel is the word power. And then if you go to the very outside, you have a bunch of different categories. Wealth, housing, body size, mental health, sexuality, ability, skin color, citizenship, gender, language. And as you get closer to the inside, it gets closer to power.
Joe Getty
Yes.
Jack Armstrong
And obviously, well, the closest to the, the power is if you are an English speaking rich kid, cisgender man, US citizen, white, able bodied, heterosexual. Yes. Neurotypical, robust, slim, and your parents own property.
Joe Getty
Well, eight out of 10 ain't bad. You're not slim, they're not terribly robust.
Jack Armstrong
You're the closest to power. And then you would, they would put you in one group there in the classroom.
Joe Getty
Right. And throw crap at you, call you terrible names, call you names, or just
Jack Armstrong
lecture you about how you, you know, you were given all this power that you need to check and give back to the people that are in the office.
Joe Getty
Exactly. You will remain silent. You will shut up. These people will talk.
Jack Armstrong
The very outer ring is the poor, homeless, large body size.
Joe Getty
Yes.
Jack Armstrong
Vulnerable, lesbian, bi, pan, asexual, significant disability, elementary education, dark skin color, undocumented, trans, non, binary. That's different from the sexuality. The gender and sexuality are different categories. They have, you know, I'm not gonna
Joe Getty
lie, that person is up against it. I'll agree with them that far.
Jack Armstrong
So you're homeless, for overweight, you're pansexual, trans, you don't speak the language, you're here illegally.
Joe Getty
Exactly.
Jack Armstrong
You're right, it's gonna be rough.
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah, you got my sympathy there, brother. Well, the sister either.
Jack Armstrong
The thing is though, the main thing about that is it's not the fault of the person closer to the middle of the wheel that you're all those things.
Joe Getty
And the idea that because they are, they have no rights, they shouldn't have an opinion, they need to shut up and give away power. It's all about capture, capturing institutions, capturing power, taking it in the name of Marxism.
Jack Armstrong
I don't know how you keep your kid in a school where they're separating them into these groups and, you know, putting your kid in the bad group just because they were, you know, happen to be born straight and white, for instance, and in this country. How dare you be born in this country. You need to, you need to give away some of that power because you're, you're being dinged for being born in the country.
Joe Getty
Right.
Jack Armstrong
Let alone the immutable characteristics of being straight. And I think being straight is immutable. Being straight and, and white, you're being dinged for being born in the country. How nuts is that? In the United States, it's fairly similar
Joe Getty
to the state mandated curriculum too. San Francisco, of course, being San Francisco has taken it maybe a tad farther, but not much.
Jack Armstrong
The textbook's goal is to give students terms and tools they need to analyze the impacts of race and ethnicity in U.S. history in the present day.
Joe Getty
No, it's not. It's a tool of capture.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
Joe Getty
Yep.
Jack Armstrong
It's like my, I think I mentioned this last week. My son was so disappointed that they got to the Civil War in their history book and all it was, all they learned about is the way it impacted Native Americans. They didn't learn anything about the Civil War. Nothing about Grant and Lee and Appomattox and Gettysburg Address and none of that
Joe Getty
stuff that is straight out of like Portlandia.
Jack Armstrong
It's. I know. He said, he came home and he said everything we learn in history class ends up being about Native Americans. Everything.
Joe Getty
Yeah. Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
The railroad kind of finally connect, the intercontinental railroad, the golden spike and everything like that. All you're going to learn about is how it displaced Indians.
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
Not anything about transportation or first railroad in the world or whatever.
Joe Getty
We were talking earlier about how like cities and counties and all have like crazy exorbitant fines and fees if you get caught rolling a stop sign or something like that, because you're on the wrong side of law and therefore you don't get a say, you need to shut up. Well, you should have followed the law. This stuff works exactly that same way. If they can convince you or all of your peers that you're on the wrong side of being a racist or a transphobe or an Islamophobe, you think, oh my God, I'm not. I'm really not. Just. And it takes away any of your, you Know power is the wrong word. Any of your status, you have been convicted of being an awful human being. Therefore you sit down, you shut up, and you give your power to them. Now, the fact that it's an invented charge, like making a microaggression, remember that? Or, you know, being quote unquote transphobic because you don't want a dude whooping your daughter's ass in high school sports, they get you on the wrong side of their fake moral laws and therefore can tell you to sit down and shut up because you're a bad person. That's how it works. Don't fall for it.
Jack Armstrong
By the way, I don't have the statistics handy of what the proficiency percentages are for reading and math. The San Francisco Unified School District. I would guess it's pretty low, like everywhere else in the country. Nope, I don't think there's anywhere in the country where public schools are doing very well in that. So you've taken an hour out of the day to teach the wheel of I should be ashamed of myself every day. But not reading and math.
Joe Getty
I was pleasantly surprised to see the New York Times with a big piece today. American education is in crisis. Almost everywhere in the country, students academic performance is worse than their peers was a decade ago according to scores.
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Joe Getty
The numbers are startling. They go through the reading scores, which are shocking. Math scores are every bit as bad.
Jack Armstrong
Do they mention that we're spending more money than we ever have per pupil?
Joe Getty
No. Who did? The other day? They had a big article. Well, a couple have been writing about the fact that in New York City, the other end of the country, they're spending $42,000 per student per year per student. Miserable and declining test scores. And they mentioned the drops are happening in rich districts as well as poor one. Urban, suburban and rural crossing racial divides.
Jack Armstrong
Man, if you gathered 10 parents or sets of parents together and said, here's $420,000 to spend this year on educating these 10 kids, you could do a good job.
Joe Getty
Oh my God. Even adjust downward because New York is expensive. Give me $300,000 to educate those 10 kids, please. Oh, you could give him an unbelievably rich education. Yeah. Well, speaking of giving things.
Jack Armstrong
Joe Sandwich is almost here. An update on that right after this.
Joe Getty
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Jack Armstrong
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Joe Getty
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Jack Armstrong
So judge just ordered a sandwich from Panera using my doordash app and here's the picture of it. It's at the door out there. So during the kirschmanship, you can go get your sandwich.
Joe Getty
That's exciting.
Jack Armstrong
Nobody has stolen it yet, but kind of fits in the fact that you're ordering a sandwich. And we're keeping a track of it with this because I took a phone call yesterday. I needed to. It was a family emergency. Anyway, we got this text yesterday. I can't believe Jack would take a call while broadcasting. Armstrong, you are a joke. How you have a job is beyond me, which is, you know.
Joe Getty
Amen to that, brother.
Jack Armstrong
I wonder that myself.
Joe Getty
Oh, you angry little man. I hope you find happiness someday.
Jack Armstrong
Your sandwich is here. We got more on the way. Stay here.
Joe Getty
Armstrong and Gettysburg Warning.
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Jack Armstrong
I've been reading this story by Christopher Ruffo who we've quoted many times over the years. We ever had him on the air?
Joe Getty
I don't think we oh, maybe once back in the day, but not enough.
Jack Armstrong
Anyway, the title of this story is Watching Porn on Death Row and it's out of the California prison system Under Gavin Newsom, state prisoners are turning taxpayer funded tablets into personal sex machines. And what's fantastic about this? As a guy who wants to be President of the United States, Gavin Newsom sought to transform the massive prison system into a Nordic style rehabilitation program. Newsom has placed a moratorium on all executions, transferred condemned prisoners to facilities across the state, dismantled San Quentin's death row and turn the notorious president into a therapeutic center with art classrooms, a cafe and podcast studios. Nice, because that's what rapists and murderers need. Podcast studios. Yeah, part of the transformation. The Newsom administration approved a 189 million dollar contract that we all paid for its taxpayers in the state of California. What's that number again? 189 million to provide new digital tablets to all the prisoners.
Joe Getty
Wait a minute.
Jack Armstrong
They already had tablets, by the way. I would be against this even if they didn't have them at all. But the fact that they already had them and needed the newest coolest one. Are you freaking kidding me?
Joe Getty
How did it cost that? Give me the state credit card. I'll go down to the Apple store.
Jack Armstrong
I don't give my kids the newest coolest one. If that one you've got from several years ago still works, keep using it. Yeah, until you grow up and buy your own. Anyway, the administration heralded the effort to replace the inmates old tablets which were from 2018. Oh, what? Prisoners to have committed crimes against society to have to use an old tablet.
Joe Getty
An old free tablet. Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
They gave taxpayer funded. They gave to all prisoners in 23 as a step toward digital equity. These are all in quotes. These are actual terms used by Gavin Newsom on prisoners to achieve digital equity for the justice impacted individuals who could.
Joe Getty
Justice impacted individuals. This is a Orwellian masterpiece.
Jack Armstrong
It really is. I'm the justice impacted individual if you, you know, stole my car, hit me on the head or whatever the hell.
Joe Getty
Right.
Jack Armstrong
I don't give a crap about their justice impact. They earned it anyway. Digital equity for justice impacted individuals who could in theory. This is hilarious. Especially given the headline that they're using these things to look at porn. Corsia, you're a dude locked in a cell all day long with wi fi and a tablet. What do you think you're.
Joe Getty
Well, I think I would do that. And Scrabble porn and Scrabble.
Jack Armstrong
What they were supposed to be doing, or what Gavin Newsom thought they would be doing is using the devices to contact their families, consume educational content and learn new technology so that they could get a job when they got out. Of course that's what they're going to do.
Joe Getty
Much like what was the program we talked about the other day that was many, many, many times more expensive than could possibly be justified? It's because whoever was the nonprofit.
Jack Armstrong
That's the diaper thing.
Joe Getty
Yeah, the diaper thing, exactly. Somebody got an enormous hunk of cash to go down and buy tablets you could have bought for a fraction.
Jack Armstrong
I'm sure that's true. I don't think we ought to be giving them tablets anyway. I don't care about their digital equity though. The state has claimed to regulate Explicit content. The inmates told us at the City Journal that users can easily evade detection. Of course they can. So the official word from the prison and from the state is they're not allowed to look at porn. And they aren't because we got this. They interviewed all these different inmates to say, we look at porn all day long, that's what we do. This thing. Inmates told us a different story. For some, the devices have become personal sex machines. In the words of one inmate, California's death row is populated with desperate, horny criminals who see the tablets as a way to satisfy their bases, fantasies and desires. All thanks to the California taxpayer. Thanks for taking my money. They even interviewed this guy named Robert Maury, who you, if you've been in California your whole life, might remember as before our time here in the 1980s, he was a serial rapist murderer, nicknamed the tipster killer because we don't actually murder or murder, we don't actually execute anybody on death row. He's still alive, of course. They interviewed him and he's a horrifying person. Killed a woman by strangling her with a clothesline, strangled and killed two other women, raped, blah, blah, blah, all this different sort of stuff. He's living in a state prison facility in Stockton, California, where he says he has viewed pornography on his taxpayer funded digital tablet all day long. In an interview, he told us inmates can receive nude pictures, watch pornography through their devices. In his case, he claimed to receive topless photos from a 22 year old psychology student who was hoping I would share my story with her for a class project. He said he flirted with her for a while.
Joe Getty
Fair is fair.
Jack Armstrong
See a guy got a guy who strangled and murdered women for years, gets thrown in prison and you give him a tablet paid for. And the wifi is being paid for us by two, obviously. Sure, yeah, so he can look at porn all day long. What the hell kind of world do we live in?
Joe Getty
Boy, there have been a handful of high profile cases. We haven't gotten to them because we don't want to, you know, be all horror all the time. But a couple of high profile cases lately where guys have been turned loose by the woke justice system of one blue state or another, then committed an even more horrendous act. Oh, the one with the famous quote, oh, where is it? Oh, where is it? Oh, I don't want to put another black man in jail. This woman who was violently accosted by a guy, but was woke and thought, no, I shouldn't, and then he did something truly horrific to somebody else. Now she's thinking, I don't know, maybe I should have called the cops or
Jack Armstrong
pressed charges back to the prisoners in the tablets. The potential for abuse is obvious. The Newsom administration has made the tablet program universal with no access restrictions based on offense. So no matter what your offense was, you still get the tablet. Inmates, including child predators, can communicate with members of the public through their tablets with no age restrictions. And they just send videos to kids or try to get to kids or whatever through their tablets.
Joe Getty
It's madness.
Jack Armstrong
It is absolute insanity.
Joe Getty
I don't know what to say.
Jack Armstrong
I don't either. How do you come to that worldview?
Joe Getty
People leave California because of the high housing costs. That's part of it.
Jack Armstrong
If you missed a segment, get the podcast Armstrong and Getty on Demand.
Joe Getty
Armstrong and Getty Warning.
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Joe Getty
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Date: May 13, 2026
In this episode, Armstrong & Getty deliver their trademark satirical take on the latest political happenings in California, focusing notably on the current gubernatorial race and a viral interview with frontrunner Javier Becerra. They deconstruct Becerra’s interview gaffes, analyze the underlying issues with California’s one-party system, and critique the state’s educational and prison policies – all while interspersing sharp humor and poignant commentary. National news, Trump’s social media habits, and a widely-debated San Francisco school curriculum also figure prominently.
Timestamps: [03:00]–[05:44]
Timestamps: [05:57]–[13:41]
“He was the secretary of HHS during the biggest pandemic in a century and he was a nothing…He was a non-entity.” – Jack Armstrong [07:11]
They critique Becerra’s interview with Annie Rose Ramos (KTLA5), which went viral for his defensive, naive approach.
Becerra complains on camera:
“By the way, this is a profile piece. This is not a gotcha piece, right?” – Javier Becerra [08:36, replayed at 15:50]
Ramos persists with tough questions about HHS’s handling of migrant children, leading Becerra to deny the findings and deflect blame ([11:47]–[12:32]).
Getty laments:
“He comes off as a simpleton. He does.” [11:02]
“The only thing you need…is to check the boxes of acceptability to the big unions...and as long as you pledge that you will faithfully execute exactly what they tell you to do, you will be anointed...” – Joe Getty [09:58]
Timestamps: [14:04]–[15:48]
“It’s the illusion of choice, like China.” – Joe Getty [14:42]
“A candidate for governor of California shouldn't just expect gotcha questions, they should welcome them and thrive on them…” [15:02]
Timestamps: [19:08]–[26:30]
“He had 55 messages between 10:14pm and 1:12am… It’s not unusual to have that many.” – Jack Armstrong [20:14]
“You would think it would make the news, but it doesn’t anymore. Just because people just roll their eyes.” – Joe Getty [21:01]
Timestamps: [26:30]–[34:19]
Discussion of an ethnic studies program now required in San Francisco schools, featuring a “privilege wheel” that sorts students into power hierarchies ([27:58]–[29:14]).
“Children are being sorted, labeled and instructed according to race-based ideological frameworks that no parent consented to…” – Jack Armstrong [28:00]
The wheel rates power via factors like wealth, body size, sexuality, gender, ability, and more, leading to classroom groupings:
“You need to give away some of that power because you're being dinged for being born in the country.” – Jack Armstrong [31:24]
Hosts note abysmal reading and math scores locally and nationally:
“Almost everywhere in the country, students academic performance is worse than their peers was a decade ago…” – Joe Getty [34:19]
Comparison of ballooning spending vs. poor results (noting NYC’s $42,000 per student per year):
“If you gathered 10 sets of parents together and said, here's $420,000 to spend this year on educating these 10 kids, you could do a good job.” – Jack Armstrong [35:07]
Timestamps: [40:03]–[46:30]
Armstrong details Christopher Rufo’s exposé: California spent $189 million to provide updated tablets to inmates, who already had tablets from 2018.
“The administration heralded the effort…to achieve digital equity for justice-impacted individuals…” – Jack Armstrong [41:52]
Criticism that "justice-impacted individuals" have unfiltered internet access for porn and communications with the outside, including minors ([42:07]–[46:23]).
Noted murderer “tipster killer” Robert Maury is specifically mentioned as an example ([44:38]–[44:56]).
Getty comments on the woke logic:
“This is an Orwellian masterpiece.” – Joe Getty [42:07]
Both hosts emphasize the insanity of granting convicted felons unrestricted internet-connected tablets subsidized by taxpayers.
On Becerra’s interview:
“He comes off as a simpleton. He does.” – Joe Getty [11:02]
On California’s political landscape:
“It’s the illusion of choice, like China.” – Joe Getty [14:42]
On educational priorities:
“You’ve taken an hour out of the day to teach the wheel of I should be ashamed of myself every day. But not reading and math.” – Jack Armstrong [34:09]
On lavish spending with no accountability:
“How did it cost that? Give me the state credit card…” – Joe Getty [41:24] “I'm the justice impacted individual if you, you know, stole my car, hit me on the head or whatever the hell.” – Jack Armstrong [42:12]
Satirical dismissals:
“This is a profile piece, right? What an embarrassing thing to say.” – Jack Armstrong [16:17]
“He is what they used to call… a mediocrity.” – Joe Getty [13:26]
| Segment | Topic | Timestamps | |---------|------------------------------------------|--------------| | 1 | NBA playoffs, British monarchy satire | 03:00–05:44 | | 2 | CA Governor’s race, Becerra interview | 05:57–13:41 | | 3 | Jungle primary system | 14:04–15:48 | | 4 | Trump’s Truth Social habits | 19:08–26:30 | | 5 | San Francisco schools, privilege wheel | 26:30–34:19 | | 6 | Tablets and porn on death row | 40:03–46:30 |
The episode is peppered with irreverence, sarcasm, and moments of exasperation—classic A&G. They wield humor to expose the absurdity of political and policy decisions, while occasionally offering genuine concern for the state’s direction.
If you missed the episode, this summary contains all the essential debate, pointed satire, and a good dose of Armstrong & Getty’s signature spirit.