The A&G Replay Friday Hour Four

Summary

Podcast Summary: Armstrong & Getty On Demand – The A&G Replay Friday Hour Four

Title: The A&G Replay Friday Hour Four
Host/Author: iHeartPodcasts
Release Date: January 3, 2025
Duration: Approximately 36 minutes

---

Introduction

The Armstrong & Getty On Demand podcast episode titled "The A&G Replay Friday Hour Four" delivers a robust discussion on pressing societal issues, focusing primarily on the healthcare industry's challenges, the controversial role of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in corporate America, and broader socio-political dynamics. Hosted by Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty, the episode features insights from guest Craig Gotwell, a healthcare guru and attorney.

---

Segment 1: The Healthcare Industry Crisis

Timestamp: 00:00 – 07:23

The episode opens with Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty introducing the latest discussions, quickly transitioning to a critical analysis of the healthcare system in the United States. Craig Gotwell joins the conversation, addressing the recent high-profile murder of a UnitedHealth CEO and the community's visceral reactions.

Key Points:

• Social Contract and Economic Inequality: Craig Gotwell emphasizes the breakdown of the social contract, where extreme wealth concentration among billionaires undermines democratic and economic stability. He states, “Violence is never the answer,” highlighting the dangers of taking frustration into one’s own hands (00:58).

• Impact of Obamacare on Healthcare Economics: The discussion delves into how the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) fundamentally altered the financial incentives within the healthcare industry. Gotwell explains that Obamacare introduced price controls, limiting insurance companies to retain only 15% over claims, which inadvertently encouraged the growth of medical claims to sustain profits (04:02).

• Medical Inflation and Government Policy: The hosts and guest explore the historical context of medical inflation since the late 1990s, detailing how successive administrations have failed to address the rising costs, thereby burdening employer-funded health plans. Gotwell notes, “Medicare and Medicaid payments have not kept up with true medical inflation,” forcing employers to shoulder disproportionate healthcare costs (07:23).

Notable Quote:

“We have created this government corporate alliance in health care that has just bullied the American people for really, for 60 years, but most intensely for 30 years.” – Craig Gotwell (02:24)

---

Segment 2: The Anatomy of DEI in Corporate America

Timestamp: 07:23 – 35:21

The conversation shifts to scrutinize the effectiveness and motivations behind DEI initiatives within major corporations, using Boeing as a primary example.

Key Points:

• Failure of DEI Programs: Citing insights from journalist Chris Rufo and Gerard Baker, the hosts argue that DEI programs have failed to deliver on their promises, describing them as “anti-excellence” and inefficient (29:09).

• Corporate Pushback Against DEI: The episode highlights Boeing's decision to dismantle its DEI department under new CEO Kelly Ortberg, attributing this shift to a renewed focus on core business values and financial efficiency. The insider quoted by Rufo describes DEI as “lazy thought leadership” that undermines company performance (29:49).

• Political and Social Backlash: Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty discuss the broader societal rejection of DEI, noting that state officials and financial leaders are urging companies to prioritize Return on Investment (ROI) over DEI initiatives. They reference Lathan Watts from National Review, who remarks on the failure of DEI policies and their unpopularity among consumers (33:34).

• Cultural and Educational Critiques: The hosts express disdain for contemporary cultural shifts, particularly criticizing policies related to gender identity in education and the perceived erosion of traditional values. They advocate for a return to “cut the crap” honesty and accountability in societal institutions (24:12).

Notable Quotes:

“DEI is the drop you put in the bucket and the whole bucket changes. It is anti excellence and because it is ill defined, it becomes part of the culture.” – Insider Source at Boeing (29:09)

“We have just had to endure will be buried, that important things will become normal again.” – Gerard Baker, as discussed by Jack Armstrong (27:43)

---

Segment 3: Societal Reflections and Call to Action

Timestamp: 35:21 – 35:58

In the concluding remarks, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty reflect on the overarching themes discussed, particularly the resistance against bureaucratic overreach and the need for societal reform. They encourage listeners to engage critically with these issues and support initiatives that prioritize economic efficiency and personal accountability over ideological mandates.

Key Points:

• Optimism for Change: Despite the challenges, the hosts express hope that the current backlash against DEI and other bureaucratic policies will lead to meaningful reforms in the coming years.

• Engagement and Advocacy: They urge listeners to actively participate in the dialogue surrounding these issues, promoting platforms and resources where more in-depth discussions can be found (35:44).

Notable Quote:

“If you stand up to the crap and you say, cut the crap, you're gonna see a bunch of people, maybe a few, maybe a ton, are gonna say, yeah, what he said.” – Jack Armstrong (23:02)

---

Closing Remarks

The episode wraps up with promotional content encouraging listeners to download the podcast for continuous updates and discussions. The hosts reiterate their commitment to addressing critical societal issues and fostering a community of informed and proactive individuals.

---

Conclusion

"The A&G Replay Friday Hour Four" serves as a compelling exploration of the intertwined challenges within the U.S. healthcare system and the contentious role of DEI initiatives in modern corporate America. Through incisive analysis and candid dialogue, Armstrong & Getty provide listeners with a nuanced understanding of these complex topics, advocating for transparency, efficiency, and a reevaluation of established socio-political norms.

---

For More Information and Resources:

• Craig Gotwell’s Insights: Visit Gotwalls.substack.com for in-depth articles on healthcare and insurance.
• Armstrong & Getty On Demand: Available on all major podcast platforms for continuous access to insightful discussions and analyses.

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

Foreign.

[Joe Getty]

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

[Jack Armstrong]

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

[Craig Gotwell]

Stop and think overall about the social contract, you know, part of the deal and how we've kept this, this democracy, this economy, this country on a fairly steady path for more than 200 years has been that those at the top pay a little more in taxes, are a little less rich than they otherwise might be, and everybody else at least gets a chance.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Guest]

What.

[Craig Gotwell]

And what happens when you turn this into the billionair run it all is they get the opportunity to squeeze every last penny.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Craig Gotwell]

And look, we'll say it over and over. Violence is never the answer. This guy gets a trial who's allegedly killed the CEO of UnitedHealth. But you can only push people so far and then they start to take matters into their own hands.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Co-host]

No, I'm just doing the tomahawk chop.

[Jack Armstrong]

How in the world does she keep getting elected? Elizabeth Warren. So let's talk about the murder of the healthcare CEO, the reaction to it and all matters health care with Craig Gotwell's Craig, the healthcare guru, attorney, law benefit consultant, benefit revolution and good longtime friend of the A G show. Craig, how are you, sir?

[Unnamed Guest]

I'm great, gentlemen. Thank you much for having me on.

[Unnamed Co-host]

First of all, Joe and I went with humor around the fact that she's a pretend Indian and glossed over how outrageous that is, what she just said. There's so much wrong with that at every level.

[Jack Armstrong]

Anyway, now Craig is you as a person who is immersed in the world, benefits and health care and insurance and that sort of thing, and a person of good conscience, etc. And a student of the media. What, what have, what's your reaction been to the murder and, and the, the ensuing discussion? I know you've probably got a million things to say.

[Unnamed Guest]

Yeah, I think the oversimplified reaction I would give is, you know, just the assumption that, like, I just don't even engage in the whole concept and the idea of, you know, it's appropriate to slaughter people in the streets, one individual. Because you don't like what a whole industry is doing. I mean, obviously it's the most insane, ridiculous, murderous, horrific way you would ever address any issue. And so of course I say, I think, guys, I think a lot of what you're seeing out there is sort of like you've said in the past, you know, like you're frustrated at something, you're angry at something. And part of humor is the dark sort of stuff that you're not willing to say out loud. And I think a lot of what we're seeing online is probably that just the irreverent attempts at humor, but obviously this isn't the way to address the matter. I mean, we've created this government corporate alliance in health care that has just bullied the American people for really, for 60 years, but most intensely for 30 years. And so you just have tremendous frustration out there. And a lot of people just don't even really understand where they should channel their frustration. So a lot of the, a lot of the frustration channeling, if you will, is falling along party lines like everything else in our world. So some people blame the government, some people blame private equity and large corporations. And I'm here to tell you there's plenty of blame to go around.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, the one thing that's frustrated me, frustrated me, and maybe you've heard us hammer on it, is that all these people who are howling about the greed of the health care companies and the insurance companies and all, they never mentioned the unholy nexus with governments and how Obamacare in particular just utterly perverted the industry.

[Unnamed Guest]

Yes, it's funny you bring that up. I was thinking of, you know, that the book that is cited, you know, he had words written on the bullets and a lot of people jumped on the book. Delay, Defend, excuse me, Delay, Deny Defend by Jay Feynman was the book. That book was written in 2010. So the reality is there, if there ever was a time when large insurance companies were financially, economically motivated to deny claims system, mathematically, that that may have existed prior to 2010. Now there's a whole other economic argument that it's bad for the insurance industry if claims don't grow. They want claims to grow because that's how they charge more premium. But set that aside. If you accept the fact that, okay, before 2010, they wanted to deny claims, right to keep more money. That all changed with Obamacare, because as a reminder for your listeners, Obamacare coming into law in March of 2010 specifically said, okay, now there's price controls. Now, an insurance company may only keep 15% more than claims. So what that means is when you add up all the medical claims in a given year, the insurance company is allowed to keep 15% of that for its profit and overhead. So everything flipped with Obamacare. The whole incentive to keep costs down went away. And insurance companies very quickly realized in 2010, oh, my God, we need claims to grow because that's the only way we can charge more premium. So it's funny that a lot of this, this, this is, you know, like you guys talk about when you hear the mainstream media talk about radio, it's way more wrong than it's right. That's what's going on here is everybody's talking about this, this book that was written in 2010 that spoke about a landscape that just doesn't even exist anymore.

[Unnamed Co-host]

Well, that's interesting. And then in his manifesto, he talked about how we have the worst life expectancy of any first world country or whatever. And then I heard that broken down yesterday on how there's a number of reasons why that's inaccurate. We, we count a life expectancy different than a lot of people that put out their data around childhood deaths in the first year. We also are the only country on the list where people drive a lot and we have a lot of deaths from automobiles. And then we have a certain segment of society that's constantly shooting each other. If you take all those out, our life expectancy is pretty good. And it's got nothing to do. None of those things have anything to do with health insurance.

[Unnamed Guest]

No, you're exactly right, Jack.

[Jack Armstrong]

And Death Sentinel has nothing to do with the level of my deductibles either. Right? Yeah, yeah, go ahead, Craig.

[Unnamed Guest]

Yeah, no, no, no, I was just gonna say. And then if there's, if there is, I would just say, you know, being inside of the healthcare industry and understanding all of the various landmines in this world, if there is one thing we have gotten incredibly good at as a society, it's keeping people along who have acute conditions, gunshot wounds, you know, heart attack, putting stents in, addressing strokes right away, or our healthcare system is addressing acute issues. We're horrible at addressing chronic conditions.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah, well, I'd like to hear more about that maybe next segment. Can you give folks a three to four minute whatever you think is appropriate little primer for people who are not hip to this. The relationship between government paid health care services and what they pay to doctors and hospitals and stuff, and those of us with private insurance and how Congress has handled the whole thing.

[Unnamed Guest]

Yeah, so this, this started all the way back in the late 90s. It started, it started with Clinton. Bush kicked the can down the road. Obama kicked the can down the road. Every, every president's guilty of this issue. But what happened starting in the 90s was medical inflation. Like true inflation. What hospitals and doctors needed to treat you was going up faster than Medicare and Medicaid, which is, you know, when we talk about government healthcare, it's Overwhelmingly, Medicare and Medicaid inflation was going up faster than Medicare and Medicaid could handle. So one of the ways that the government and we're talking Congress, right, we're talking our legislature, one of the ways they would pass these massive boondoggle laws was to say, well, you know, there's a huge part of our budget that's killing us is Medicare, Medicaid. So what they would say is, well, we're going to start reducing what we pay on Medicare and Medicaid. We're going to, we're going to, you know, reduce the increase or have no increase at all for Medicare and Medicaid. And that's how we're going to fund whatever pet project we're trying to fund in our district. And that, that started occurring in the 90s and it just kept getting kicked down the road all the way along to the point where Medicare and Medicaid payments have not kept up with true medical inflation. So what happens then is employer plans, what we call corporate plans, for roughly the third of us who are getting our health care at work, we have to pay many times, 3, 4, 5, 6 times what Medicare would pay for a certain claim to make up for the fact that the large hospital ch want a larger reimbursement for those medical claims. So there's been this insidious cost shift, a wink and a nod between Wall street and K Street, the lobbyists and of course Congress that has said, look, we'll keep, we'll keep the Medicare reimbursements artificially low at like 1% increase per year. And then that gives you the green light insurance industry to go ahead and charge 7, 8, 9, 10% more every year to the private marketplace to pay for this health care to the point now where you just have this ridiculous, absurd situation where employers are paying three to six times what they should be for health care because Medicare didn't keep up with the actual cost increases.

[Jack Armstrong]

And then Congress found a way to compel doctors and hospitals to see Medicare and Medicaid patients even though they were getting grossly underpaid for their services.

[Unnamed Guest]

Well, compel. There's still no, there's no compel there. You can still actually find individual doctors that won't take Medicare and Medicaid. But it's still incredibly rare because there's this. Well, a. It's the largest customer. The federal government is now the largest customer of every health care system. So I'm not sure there is a hospital out there that doesn't take Medicare and Medicaid. There are Individual doctors that don't. But it's, it's, there's a, there's a, you can't live on the one third that are paying private rates. You still have to take that Medicare.

[Unnamed Co-host]

Amount, that number that you just hit us with. Only a third of us are having the like traditional kind of. We got our insurance through our company at work. Only a third of us.

[Unnamed Guest]

Well, I should, yeah, I should be more specific with that, Jack. It's probably closer to 40%. I'm falling back on the statistic that we've talked about on your show before and that's that 70% of health care is now paid for by the taxpayers. Because when you, when you add up Medicare, Medicaid, Virginia, you know, all of the community care programs and then you even add up all of the federal and state workers, taxpayers pay about 70%. So about 30% of healthcare is paid for by private individuals, but probably more like 40% are actually getting their, their health care at work. But you know, some of us work for cities and states and governments, etc. It's always way more complicated than you hear.

[Unnamed Co-host]

Of course. Of course.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Unnamed Guest]

One of the things, one of the things we hit on hold. I want to hit this, Joe, real quick, if you don't mind.

[Jack Armstrong]

Go ahead.

[Unnamed Guest]

Mentioned recently that we talked about was. And this. And I pulled the stat because I knew it blew your mind when we spoke about it privately. About 100 million Americans, roughly 30% of us, are on a self funded health care plan, meaning the person paying the claims behind the scene is your employer, not the insurance company. They might be using UnitedHealthcare as an example to administer the claims, to actually process the stuff. But the claims themselves in for roughly One third of Americans, 30% is actually paid for by your employer.

[Unnamed Co-host]

Nobody knows that.

[Unnamed Guest]

Understand that?

[Unnamed Co-host]

I didn't know that till you told me.

[Unnamed Guest]

Right, right. People don't understand it at all.

[Unnamed Co-host]

So you get turned down. Oftentimes it's your company that you work for hiding behind the healthcare company.

[Unnamed Guest]

Exactly right. One out of three. And then how do you know? Well, if you work for an employer that has more than a thousand employees, you're almost certainly on a self funded health plan because people don't insure groups that large. Now if you have an employer that's between 500 and 1,000 employees, it's probably 50, 50 that you're on a self funded health plan. If you work for a small employer, it is the insurance company. Anything under like 250 for sure, it's the insurance company almost always.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know, I'd love to chat a little bit about solutions. Can we take a quick break and come back and chat a little more, Craig?

[Unnamed Guest]

Absolutely. Yeah.

[Unnamed Co-host]

I got one more question too, man. Why is it. Why has it got to be so complicated? Or maybe being complicated is the point. Stay tuned.

[Joe Getty]

The Armstrong and Getty Show. Get more Jack, more Joe podcasts and our hot links at Armstrong and getty.com Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. The Armstrong and Getty Show.

[Bill Burr]

You know what's annoying me about this, this kid who killed this CEO is none of these news programs are talking about the incredible lack of empathy from the general public about this. Because of how these insurance companies treat people when they are at their most vulnerable after we've all given them our money every month and now we finally need you and all you do is deny us. And then these. And all of these things are taking the pictures of their CEOs off their websites. You know, I gotta be honest with you. Okay, I love that CEOs are afraid right now. You should be. By and large, you're all a bunch of selfish, greedy pieces of. And a lot of you are mass murderers. You just don't pull the trigger.

[Unnamed Co-host]

Wow, that is. That's Bill Burr, the comedian. That's some French Revolution stuff right there. I mean, that is society completely coming apart. And I don't want to get too off track on that, but be because of our healthcare guest, we have here expert Craig Gotwell's. I wanted to throw this out. I assume a lot of people like Bill Burr and the people who are cheering the death of the United Healthcare CEO are people who want government health care. They want a complete government takeover of health care and somehow believe that you won't have any deny or delay if the government is running health care. What's the history of government health care around the world?

[Unnamed Guest]

Well, as we've talked on your show before, many times, it's horrific, right? I mean, this, there's, there's a reason why, you know, Canadians come here in droves when they have serious issues because they can actually get care if they have money here. You know, there's a free market. Well, there's at least the semblances of a free market in health care still here in America. So you have rationing of health care across the globe. Because anytime that you say, well, this should be a human right now, there can be no human right where I am dependent upon the labor of another. That's not a thing. Right. So all health care has to be rationed. It's either rationed by a waiting list, Canada or UK or it's rationed by money. I mean, that's just the reality of it all. What I would say is the misplaced anger out there. It shouldn't be at the specific insurers or the whatever. It's the iron law of bureaucracy at play here, gentlemen. I mean you have just. The larger these bureaucracies grow, whether they're public or private, they get less personal and they become more dedicated to only fostering their own survival. And that's exactly what we're seeing here in health care. We're seeing the iron log bureaucracy at the government level, the insurer level, and then of course them working together to enrich themselves as much as they possibly can. Horrific. But you don't fix that by randomly slaughtering somebody in the streets. I mean, it's just insane.

[Jack Armstrong]

Can you do 60 seconds on what would be first step to improve it if you were going to advise Trump?

[Unnamed Guest]

Say, as you, as you mentioned before, I made, I made a housing difference in my career. My career is now housed somewhere else as of March of this year. And I'm now free to say even more than I did before. And the reality is, as a guy who installs large insurance plans, my best advice to everybody, individual individuals, employers, everybody, buy as little insurance as you can.

[Unnamed Co-host]

Really interesting.

[Unnamed Guest]

Yes, yes. Because you, when you buy insurance, you're getting, you're getting into a negotiation and buying a product from private equity, Wall street and the government that has all been designed to ensure that it makes the most money. Great. I get it. We got to transfer risk for certain things. But if you're buying insurance, you want the highest deductible you can get, you want to self insure what you can because you're never going to win in that transaction in the long run.

[Unnamed Co-host]

That is fascinating. That is not what I did on the most recent enrollment here at the company.

[Unnamed Guest]

No, and it's, it's, it's, and especially at your company. I know because you, you guys are housed at a large enough place. It's a self funded plan. I would again, I would buy the highest deductible I can get and I would do the most I could myself. Now there's exceptions to that, right? If you have a child with special needs, you know you're going to spend a certain amount in a given year. Of course, buying the richer plan might be advantageous. Yeah, I know. I think you are too, Jack. But as a general rule, I would just say to people, whether you're buying home insurance, auto insurance, health insurance, whether you're an employer buying interest buy you, you're not going to win in a transaction.

[Jack Armstrong]

Sorry to jump in. That's great stuff. If people want more on benefits, insurance, how can they get a hold of you? 10 seconds.

[Unnamed Guest]

Gotwalls.substack.com is probably the fastest and easiest.

[Jack Armstrong]

Way to get me and we'll have a [e-mail] as well, so you can find it easily. Craig Otwells. Craig, thanks a million. Great to talk to you. Much more to come. Hope you stick around.

[Joe Getty]

Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. The Armstrong and Getty show. The Armstrong and Getty Show.

[Jack Armstrong]

I've just become aware of Scotch Jennings because he has been hiding from humanity on cnn. But I love the, the cut of his jib. I love his act. He's calm, he's smart, he's reasonable. I posited last hour that Gen X would save the world. And I realize that's somewhat self serving as we are on the older end of Gen X, but Gen X known for kind of a cut the crap. Don't, don't mess around with us. Just give us the straight scoop feel, not terribly ideological.

[Unnamed Co-host]

I like you pitched. This is not hippies. Not, not, not hippies on the one end not needing coloring books and puppies to deal with bad news on the other end.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. Just for goodness sakes, can we, can we speak plainly to each other? Is kind of sort of, and I've always mocked a generation thing, but it's kind of sort of the feel of Gen X. Anyway, I love that with Scott Jennings essentially, and this is my rallying cry today and probably for a long time, cut the crap. Scott is saying cut the crap. Obama deported lots and lots of people. You had nothing to say. So cut the crap.

[Unnamed Guest]

It's crap.

[Bill Burr]

It's crap.

[Jack Armstrong]

All right. Thank you. And then, you know, I've got also I've got a million examples. You've got this stuff from the University of California, Davis, which is advising the federal government on how to be a woke ally for the Alphabet soup crew. And they have stuff like instead of some saying someone was born a boy or a girl, try saying they were assigned male at birth. These terms recognize the difference between sex and gender and emphasize the way in which sex and gender are not binary or immutable. They can be changed. No, cut the crap. A man can't become a woman because he takes hormones. You start ovulating, call me back. All right? Then I'll Concede you're a woman. Cut the crap. Thought this was brilliant from Gerard Baker. I'm going to hit you with some of it. He's an opinion writer for mostly the Journal, but Jack, jump in anytime you want, obviously.

[Unnamed Guest]

And.

[Jack Armstrong]

And he talks about Trump's election is a bit of an Emperor's New Clothes moment for America and maybe the rest of the west, too. An overdue recognition and repudiation of the regime, of oppressive insanities we've been subjected to for a decade or more. I think everybody's saying, yeah, man, well said. Especially in blue states. And, you know, I'm gonna issue a battle cry toward the end of this. I understand you're working.

[Unnamed Co-host]

Like, is it going to sound like that?

[Jack Armstrong]

It's a lot like that. Maybe. Maybe you're working at the infamous UC Davis or Berkeley in California, and you're like, dude, I would love to fight against this stuff, but, but, but. And so it's always with the caveat of do what you can. But I'll tell you this. I can practically guarantee no matter where you work, you live, you worship, whatever. If you stand up to the crap and you say, cut the crap, you're gonna see a bunch of people, maybe a few, maybe a ton, are gonna say, yeah, what he said. They're just waiting for someone to call the emperor on having no clothes. Anyway, to Gerard Baker's piece. For a decade or more, yes, even when Republicans have been nominally in control, we've been led by peddlers of a set of ideas that have clothed our institutions in the country in social and political doctrines, fake claims and strictures that have inflicted untold harms. The fancy new items of invisible attire that our nation's rulers have made us wear for too long. Include these. The idea that people who have stolen into this country illegally should be showered with all the rights and benefits of citizens, that it is immoral to deny them those rights and that they should instead be treated as victims of persecution and given sanctuary in our crowded and fiscally strained cities. Call bull. Less on that. That's ridiculous. The idea that a nation that sits atop one of the greatest reservoirs of natural energy resources on Earth should forcibly restrain itself from exploiting them to save the planet on the basis of politicized science, while other countries are free to do much more damage to the global environment.

[Unnamed Co-host]

That's a good.

[Jack Armstrong]

Gavin, cut the crap.

[Unnamed Co-host]

That's a good one.

[Jack Armstrong]

At the risk of going off on this, as I did last hour, meaningless, effectless gestures in the face of all the other countries on earth doing what they're doing. You know, if you were going to do some good, come to the table with that argument, say, yeah, we got to risk damaging the economy and poor people are going to stay poor and inflation's going to rise because energy efficiency prices affect everything. But look that it's lowered emissions 20% globally. Except it hasn't. Hasn't done anything. So cut the crap. Here's another good one. The idea that after a century and a half of progress in solving and soothing America's original sin of racism and making the country more equal, we are suddenly obliged to believe that America is as oppressive as it was in 1619 and that the best way to right the past wrong of treating people based on the color of their skin is to treat people based on the color of their skin.

[Unnamed Co-host]

God, I hope that's over. I really hope that's over.

[Jack Armstrong]

What, what we all hope for is those radicals, just nasty people, don't have the juice to end your career anymore because your management, your corporate godfathers are such cowards, they're not going to stand up to the crap. It's easier to fire you. And they'll say on the way out, you know, Jim, I'm really sorry about this. I mean, it's really unfortunate they don't have the balls to say because you said nothing wrong. But these people are so mad, I'm going to capitulate to them. But that's what they're thinking. Stand up to it.

[Unnamed Co-host]

I'm less optimistic on the illegal immigration part because I've been fooled before. But on the trans and anti racist and what was the other one I was going to include in that? It'll come to me. But on a couple of those. Is it possible the climate change, is it possible we're on the other side of those? And we just all. Unfortunately, those of us of a certain age just lived through this really weird time.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Co-host]

Where things, people said all kinds of crazy stuff and you had to go along with it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. I think we're at this stage of it where the troops are rallied, we're aware we're fired up. But you got to remember the enemy is absolutely running our nation's educational complex right now and our media and entertainment. But education is the insidious part because they're indoctrinating our kids. So, yeah, the battle has just begun. Here's another great one. Another one of these insane ideas that we've been forced to pretend are not idiotic. The idea that children should, without parental consultation or consent, be free to choose their gender, be assisted by the state in committing acts of self mutilation to do so. And all on the understanding that we have repealed millennia of science and just discover there's no such thing as biological sex. Boaz, cut the crap.

[Unnamed Co-host]

I think that one is the biggest anchor around Gavin Newsom's neck. If he tries to run for president, how is he gonna, how's he gonna.

[Jack Armstrong]

Deal with that experiment, experimenting on and mutilating children because they're momentarily confused.

[Unnamed Co-host]

And I have adolescence and Gavin signed into law the idea that the schools can keep it a secret from you.

[Jack Armstrong]

So that, that in fact, they must.

[Unnamed Co-host]

How does, how does he deal with that?

[Jack Armstrong]

I I1 that's one of the reasons I want him to run. I want him to be beaten like a drum for these reasons, because it's important to defeat this crap. There's a little more, more of the emperor's new clothes that people have just been walking around silently pretending they didn't notice, or too afraid to resist the idea that democracy and freedom are best protected by denying people the right to express certain views that the author misinformation, and by weaponizing the law against political opponents, lest they weaponize the law for political purposes. That's a good one. There are actually Democrats out right now saying, hey, you know, weaponizing law against candidates is probably a bad strategy. Admitting that that was the strategy. So ambitious elites in business and civil society went along with these fictions. Politicians on all sides, including Republicans, declined to dissent for fear of being called out. And here's where Gerard Baker gives Trump a fair amount of credit. It took a man with some of the instincts of a child, a political ingenue newcomer lacking the sophistication to participate in the sham, to call the whole thing out for what it was. And then he makes it clear that he's not like totally in on Trump and his plans and his policies and the rest of it. But for God's sake, we needed to call bull ass on the bull ass. But here's what I'm optimistic about. He says, four years from now, there's a good chance that the nonsense we have had to endure will be buried, that important things will become normal again. It will have become normal to tell people they have, who have no right to be here, that they must leave. That in the process, people around the world will have been made to understand that they don't have an automatic right to live in the freest, most prosperous country on earth. Then he goes on the children, you know, I'm going To hit this because it's one of my jihads. It will have become normal again for children, helped to respond to the inevitable strains and traumas of growing up not by having their gen genitals cut out, but by receiving loving guidance, guidance and care from family and society. Cut the crap.

[Unnamed Co-host]

I hope that's true. I hope that's true. I think it's true.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's going to be a longer and harder battle in four years, man. The university system and. And their influence on the elementary education system and secondary age. It's going to be a long, hard fight, but I'm up for it.

[Joe Getty]

Are you Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. The Armstrong and Getty Show.

[Jack Armstrong]

Chris Ruffo. You know him, you love him. With a great piece, why Boeing Killed dei. And and the lead is the important part. A reckoning is underway in corporate America. You remember after the death of George Floyd in 2020, likely every Fortune 5 company launched a diversity, equity and inclusion program with very serious faces as they were running terrified from the Marxists who claimed racial justice was their motivation. But now, four short years later, many companies are quietly acknowledging the failure of these initiatives, in some cases winding them down. And Rufo's been writing about DEI at Boeing for a while. He's got an inside source, well placed high up that described it this way, Quote, I thought this was really good. DEI is the drop you put in the bucket and the whole bucket changes. It is anti excellence and because it is ill defined, it becomes part of the culture.

[Unnamed Co-host]

That is some of the most evocative phrasing I've ever heard.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, the drop you put in the.

[Unnamed Co-host]

Bucket and it changes the whole bucket.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's interesting, folks. You've become aware that the whole WOKE thing, dei, anti racism thing, you can't win. It's a constantly moving target. If you say you're not a racist, you're a racist. And if you say you're a racist, you're racist. But either way, you shut up. We're in charge. There's no way to win against the WOKE people. That's not part of it. They're not talking to you to come to an understanding. They're talking to you to rule you. And more people are understanding that. And in the context of Boeing, obviously.

[Unnamed Co-host]

Next thing you know, the doors are falling off your planes.

[Jack Armstrong]

For instance. Yeah. Earlier this month, Boeing installed new CEO Kelly Ortberg quietly dismantled the DEI department and accepted the resignation of the office's vice president. So Rufo reached out to the same insider to get insight onto what happened and how it happened. And he says, tell us what happened with dei. It went from dominant to extinct in a very short period of time. The insider says we're shifting from a company whose culture is simply the average of corporate America to a distinct and deliberate vision of leadership. The new boss wants Boeing focused on being an airplane company with our own culture and vision. The resulting cash crunch from the crunch from the strike accelerated this culture shift. When you start to focus on delivering value instead of preserving status, it becomes obvious what drives value, and it's not dei. And then he gets into. He asked. My sense is that many executives are not genuinely committed to DEI as an ideology. They simply want to build airplanes or create software, for instance. Instance. But they feel social pressure to maintain these departments. Is that true at Boeing? And if so, when did the calculus change? And the answer is DEI is lazy thought leadership, best practice by companies in smooth waters with margins large enough to afford the associated inefficiency. That isn't Boeing today. When the new boss prioritized results over fitting in with other CEOs, it sends a strong signal to the culture and builds trust because employees know the rules and it's clear how to succeed through hard work and results. McKinsey that the consulting group now debunked analysis was the standard driver in corporate boardrooms. But even if DEI has to defend itself on purely logical grounds, it doesn't stand up. Boeing, more than anything, needs an aligned workforce focused on building airplanes. And it's an easy decision to reject the divisive and US Centric language of DEI in favor of unified vision for a diverse global company. Anyway, I thought that was. That was really good, just as a description of how it works.

[Unnamed Co-host]

And FBI could go away under a Trump administration, which won't be, you know, working to push that on corporate America. Whereas if the Kamala Harris administration, there would have been so much pressure on all these companies to continue that or add it, if they hadn't already.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. And it's. It's a bludgeon again. It's not about racial justice or any of the things it claims to be about. Like in Jack's scenario, which is a good one, the Harris administration wanted Boeing to suddenly, you know, unionize its last three facilities or something like that. Well, then they could hammer them with DEI stuff or through their DEI executives and get them on their knees begging for mercy because they were being accused of racism. It's the old Jesse Jackson operation push blackmail scam. You don't want racial justice, you want something else. But you Use claims of racial injustice to get there. It's the. It's the race hustlers thing. Anyway, I thought this was good too. From the National Review. Lathan Watts. DEI is a corporate bust and he starts about the. He starts with a wild overreaction to the death of George Floyd and how all the corporations were terrified and how Robbie Starbuck, the filmmaker, has been using sunlight as the best disinfectant. And he's brought failed policies that are legally questionable and highly unpopular with consumers to the attention of the general public and the shareholders of these corporations. As a result, some of the best known brands in the country have hastily canceled their DEI programs and cut ties with the far left Human Rights Campaign which pressures companies to do things like cover sex hormones and puberty blockers for minors. Wow. Monstrous Nazi like experiments on children.

[Unnamed Co-host]

Your company has to cover that stuff in their insurance plan.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow. Yeah, yeah. And I thought this was interesting. Unwilling to let the practical failure of a policy distract from the political fervor. 49 members of Congress, keeping in mind there are 435 of these geeks spurred on, signed an open letter to Fortune 1000 businesses demanding that they double down on DEI. But these companies have recently received two more open letters encouraging them to hold the line in favor of healthy ROI return on investment over feeble DEI ideology.

[Unnamed Co-host]

I like that slogan. R O A I, not DEI for the companies I want to invest in.

[Jack Armstrong]

I love that. The. The second of those two letters came from 17 state treasurers and other financial officials. State of financial officials who are responsible for the gigantic state investment vehicles that hold billions of dollars in ownership positions in these companies for their retirees and that sort of thing. And unlike the partisan gamesmanship paraphrasing the piece in the National Review here where the 49 Congress Geeks Liberal culty jackasses are saying, you've got to double down on di. These people are saying, hey, we don't have the luxury of you and your virtue signaling crap. Would you run your company for efficiency, please? Not to please aoc. And so it's good to see you remember it was what, a year ago I started saying end all DEI programs now, wherever they exist. And it's happening in spades. Hurrah, hurrah. Better for black people, better for white and Hispanic people, Asian people. In short, go get them.

[Unnamed Co-host]

Awesome. The tide sure turned on that whole thing fast.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Although it is still monstrous in academia, media, Hollywood and government. In government itself, friends. Which is why I'm always saying this is just the end of the beginning.

[Unnamed Co-host]

Quick question for you. What if you happen to miss this unbelievable radio program?

[Jack Armstrong]

The answer is easy, friends. Just download our podcast. Armstrong and Getty on Demand. It's the podcast version of the broadcast show, available anytime, any day, every single podcast platform known to man.

[Unnamed Co-host]

Download it now. Armstrong and Getty on On Demand.

[Unnamed Guest]

Armstrong and Gettysburg.