The Good Ol' Rub & Cuss

Summary

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Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: The Good Ol' Rub & Cuss
Date: February 11, 2026
Host: Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty
Notable Guest: Katie Green

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Overview

In this fast-paced, newsy episode, Armstrong and Getty dive deep into the Nancy Guthrie abduction case, dissect internet tabloid culture, riff on everything from AI job cuts to non-alcoholic beer, and explore the American mood through Gallup polls. With their signature blend of irreverence and sharp insight, the hosts weave through headlines, police tactics, and media criticism while keeping things highly engaging, conversational, and peppered with memorable moments and quips.

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Main Theme

The episode centers on the Nancy Guthrie case—a kidnapping that captivated public attention—using it as a springboard to discuss media culture, law enforcement procedures, and societal cravings for justice. Regular news rundown sessions touch on a variety of national and international stories.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Nancy Guthrie Kidnapping & Police Tactics

• Media Framing & "Tabloid" Culture
  • The hosts riff on how the Guthrie case exemplifies society’s obsession with sensational crime and tabloid-style storytelling.
  • Quote ([02:22]) – Armstrong: "There is a fundamental human yearning for justice... We want justice as human beings. We crave it."
• Botched Pro Suspect & Law Enforcement Procedures
  • Amused disbelief at the would-be kidnapper’s amateur attempts to cover cameras (with a bush), contrasting “professional” vs. “hack” criminals.
  • Quote ([01:09]) – Armstrong: "Walk up, put your face right in front of the camera, then try to put the bushes in front of the camera."
• Warrants, Raids, & Innocent Suspects
  • Live discussion on armed police raids and what happens if someone is mistakenly targeted.
  • Quote ([03:27]) – Armstrong: "If this guy is legit, got nothing to do with it... holy crap, what a scary thing to happen."
• Body Language Analysis – “Rub and Cuss”
  • Katie Green offers anecdotal “body language” analysis, giving the episode its title.
  • Quote ([05:23]) – Katie Green: "There’s something about the way he was rubbing his hands together and cussing... the old rub and cuss."
• Professional vs. Amateur Kidnappings
  • Former FBI negotiation techniques: pros take victim’s meds to preserve life.
  • Quote ([07:25]) – Getty: "...in a pro kidnapping... they go in and they take all the medication. That’s what the backpack is for."

2. Media and Tabloidization

• Armstrong acknowledges the irony of public interest and tabloid-style coverage (“All the world’s a tabloid”).
  • Quote ([11:05]) – Getty: "There is so much of real significance going on in the world, but we've just become internet tabloid culture."
• Reflections on how sensational stories dominate over substantive news (e.g., possible war with Iran being ignored).

3. Headlines Rundown with Katie Green ([12:16–16:42])

• Nuts & Bolts News:
  • Guthrie case updates: suspect released, video analysis.
  • US jobs numbers: good reports but claims of unreliable methodologies.
  • El Paso airspace mystery (later revealed as cartel drone activity; [29:51]).
  • ACLU sues ICE over raids, Illinois' small-scale reparations.
  • Heineken job cuts attributed to AI.
  • Development of legitimate non-alcoholic beer.
  • Smart underwear for flatulence tracking, Babylon Bee satire.

4. Trust & Mood in America ([18:00–24:49])

• Jobs Numbers & Public Sentiment
  • Mismatch between reported strong jobs data and people’s pessimism; discussion of flawed government data gathering.
  • Gallup poll reveals record-low (59%) optimism in Americans’ five-year outlook, despite ongoing economic malaise and general social sourness.
  • Quote ([21:05]) – Armstrong: "It’s not good to have a record number of people thinking things are going to suck in five years."
• Interplay between Personal and National Pessimism
  • Observation: People often optimistic about their own situation, pessimistic about the country (“right track/wrong track” paradox).

5. Other Notable Segments

• Media Critique: Google Nest Footage Delay ([27:43–29:36])

  • The hosts clarify why footage was delayed (“deep dive” into backups, not nefarious Google plotting), poke fun at MSNBC’s populist framing.
  • Quote ([28:57]) – Armstrong: "They’ve got three and a half trillion dollars and it takes them 10 days. Something is up here because Google’s got lots of money or something."

• Education, Gen Z, and Grade Inflation ([32:28–35:38])

  • Featured listener mail: College professor blames lack of reading habits and parental disengagement.
  • Discussion of Harvard’s “grade deflation” announcement and student freakout.

• Humor and Personal Touches

  • Joe Getty's birthday lament–wishing he’d been born one day later to share Lincoln’s birthday instead of Burt Reynolds'. ([24:24–26:18])
  • Occasional lightness: Olympics testicle injury call (“the boys took a beating”; [09:53]), AI voice jokes, jokes about betting on self-created outcomes at the Super Bowl. ([35:38])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote/Comment | |-----------|-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:22 | Armstrong | "There is a fundamental human yearning for justice... We want justice as human beings. We crave it." | | 05:23 | Katie | "There’s something about the way he was rubbing his hands together and cussing... the old rub and cuss."| | 07:25 | Getty | "...in a pro kidnapping... they go in and they take all the medication. That’s what the backpack is for."| | 09:53 | Armstrong | "The boys took a beating on that one. His testicles got hit really hard is what happened." | | 11:05 | Getty | "There is so much of real significance going on in the world, but we've just become internet tabloid culture."| | 21:05 | Armstrong | "It’s not good to have a record number of people thinking things are going to suck in five years." | | 28:57 | Armstrong | "They’ve got three and a half trillion dollars and it takes them 10 days. Something is up here because Google’s got lots of money or something."| | 24:24 | Armstrong | "I don’t know if I could get up in the morning if my answer was going to be, I ain’t going to be very good [in] five years."| | 26:09 | Getty | "If my mom had held out one more day, I'd have shared my birthday with my hero, Abraham Lincoln. Instead... with Burt Reynolds."|

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Timestamps of Important Segments

• 00:44–06:30: Guthrie kidnapping, criminal amateurism, law enforcement response
• 05:23–05:35: “Rub and cuss” body language analysis (title reference)
• 07:16–08:45: Discussion of kidnapping “pros” vs. “hacks”
• 11:05–11:54: Reflection on tabloidization of news
• 12:16–16:42: Katie Green’s news headlines
• 18:00–24:49: Jobs report, Gallup poll, American mood
• 27:43–29:36: Google Nest footage and media criticism
• 29:51–31:12: El Paso airport closure; cartel drone revelation
• 32:28–35:38: Education decline, Gen Z, grade inflation
• 35:38–36:38: Super Bowl bet on streaker anecdote

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Episode Tone & Style

Lively, irreverent, skeptical, and quick with topical humor and self-deprecation, Armstrong & Getty maintain their characteristic informal style while dissecting serious news and broader social trends. Their conversational rapport and ability to blend sharp critique with levity remain front and center.

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In Summary

"The Good Ol’ Rub & Cuss" showcases Armstrong & Getty in top form—unpacking a headline-grabbing crime story for its media and societal implications, questioning the veracity of public data and the mood of Americans, and lampooning the lighter absurdities of the news cycle, all while peppering the show with in-jokes, asides, and colorful commentary.
This episode is a must-listen for fans of their incisive, entertaining approach to current events.

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Transcript

[A]

This is an iHeart podcast, guaranteed human.

[B]

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

[A]

And now here, Armstrong. Live from Studio C. Senor Midweek Armstrong and Getty Communications compound. And today we're toiling under the title.

[B]

Of all the world's a tabloid. Or at least we got one DoorDash driver off the streets.

[A]

Wow, that's a light hearted view.

[B]

Yes, yes, it is. It's kind of what I was going for.

[A]

Oh, on purpose. Okay.

[B]

Yes, yes.

[A]

What I like best is that it has gone from. These were clearly pros. People have done this sort of thing before. People know what they're doing to. This guy's complete hack showed up. I should cover up the camera with something. There's a. There's a bush over there. Let me see these branches. Walk up, put your face right in front of the camera, then try to put the bushes in front of the camera.

[B]

Right.

[A]

So not pros, apparently. No.

[B]

The Guthrie snatching, of course, our topic as all the world's a tabloid and that's. I tell you what, there are. It's funny, we've gotten. We've received a number of emails. I don't know how the text line looks, but saying, guys, enough of that story. That's. What are you going to say? And. And I hear what you're saying, but I think it's interesting that there is a fundamental human yearning for justice that is at the center of these stories. You know, there are folks who would have you believe, well, it's just because there's an attractive white person involved, even by proxy and blah, blah, blah. No, it's not that at all. It's that we. There are plenty of cases of other people being snatched up. We want justice as human beings. We crave it.

[A]

Well, there was nothing going on yesterday. There is now. That's one difference.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Something actually happened in the last 24 hours.

[B]

And even more fundamental than that, people want to save a life if they can.

[A]

So they got the video and they actually go to a. Some tip. They got 10,000 tips. It looks just like my cousin Jib.

[B]

Or whatever and Mustache Mike for sure.

[A]

One of the tips led him to stop a guy, pull him out of his car and talk to him and then go to his house with the SWAT team last night. I just heard some experts say they took down doors. So they had a warrant. Took the. Like, like came to the house and took the doors off the house.

[B]

Knocked them down, knocked them in.

[A]

Is that what happens when there's a warrant? They just come on in, or do they knock and if you don't come out, they come in. I don't. I should. I'm sure I've learned this five times in my life, including in college, but I don't remember.

[B]

I think if they have suspicion that there's urgency. No, they don't wait to see if somebody comes to the door because you might shoot the victim in the meantime. Right.

[A]

So you just come on in. Wow.

[B]

That's a pretty sin.

[A]

That's a pretty scary deal. I mean, if this guy. And we'll play a little audio from him because he's now being interviewed by news outlets. But if this guy is legit, got nothing to do with it. He's just a, like an Amazon driver sort of person, then holy crap. What a scary thing to happen. Especially when in your town, you know, there has been a snatching and probable murder. All of a sudden, somebody busts your doors open.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Holy crap. That would be scary.

[B]

Well, interestingly, this guy said, I've never heard of any of these people. I don't watch the news.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So he was not afraid of a snatching. He was totally unaware. Well, I don't know how I would.

[A]

React if somebody busted the doors down. I mean, I'm sure they're younger. Yeah. With tremendous fear. Maybe with my gun in my hand.

[B]

That'd go badly.

[A]

Well, yeah, but what are you supposed to do when people are busting your door down? Oh, that's. That's got to be frightening.

[B]

I think they. They come in with such speed. You wouldn't have time to reach for your gun if it was in your lap.

[A]

Maybe. But then they talked to the guy, and he's like, I don't know what you're talking about. And they left him alone. They left him. Now he's talking to media outlets saying, I got nothing to do with it. Although one member of the Armstrong and Getty show said, that guy's guilty as hell.

[B]

Oh, my. Irresponsible yellow journalism tabloid. Yeah.

[A]

He's not reacting exactly the way I would react.

[B]

Oh, no, we're not gonna play that game. No. But normal person wouldn't react like that.

[A]

He reacted like he reacted.

[B]

They busted him. He's a simpleton.

[A]

He's like, what the f. Am I doing here? I didn't do anything. Thank you for declaring me not a simpleton, because that is not the way I would react. But, Katie.

[B]

No, he's a simple.

[A]

I know, I know. Right?

[C]

In the body language. Guys, it's all in the body language.

[A]

Body language segment. Katie Green. Go get him, Katie. What was the body language?

[B]

Katie Green on the case.

[C]

You know, I'm no expert, but your.

[A]

Dad was a judge. That's close enough.

[C]

And I can sense a BSer, and he just. There's something about the way he was rubbing his hands together and cussing and.

[B]

You know, the old rub and cuss. Right.

[C]

Rub and cuss.

[A]

I felt like I heard him as he walked away, go like that.

[B]

Hey. Get away with it. Yeah. Oh, the microphones are still on. Never mind. Oh, my gosh. You too?

[A]

Please. So that guy most likely had nothing to do with it. And so there's no chance in the.

[B]

World they would have turned him loose if they had any suspicion that he might still be.

[A]

You don't think they'd keep an eye on him or.

[B]

No, no, they'd find something. You can find somebody. Show me the man, I'll show you the crime. They would find something to hold them.

[A]

Until they figured it out.

[B]

Exactly. Yeah.

[A]

Well, I went to bed like a lot of people last night, thought, wow, that happened fast. They got the guy. Then you wake up and they. They let the guy loose. So maybe back to nothing. 10,000 tips, lots and lots of looks like my cousin Ed's. And then you got to go through and try to figure that out. Well, that'd be quite the job. That'd be very, very tedious job.

[B]

Now, I would never do this, but if I lived in Houston or Tucson rather, I'd be at least slightly tempted to throw in a tip or two about my enemies.

[A]

It's just like my boss I don't like that.

[B]

Is Jim Jones. I know Jim. We used to go skiing together. That's precisely how he looked in a ski mask. That's Jim, all right.

[A]

So if you're the family and none of this is the least bit amusing, obviously I. I'd take it as bad news that it wasn't pros, because pros are trying to make money, and the last thing they want to be involved in is a murder. They just want to get money. An amateur who shows up and thinks, oh, damn, a camera. I should cover that up with something. What could I use to cover that up? Lumber around. Lumber around. Find some shrubs.

[B]

That guy, this piece of bush, like.

[A]

You said, that guy might not, you know, not as a non pro, might have had a plan, but didn't work out the way he thought it was going to.

[B]

I heard one guy who spent his career on the FBI's crisis negotiation hostage team saying in a pro kidnapping of an older person, they go in and they take all the medication.

[A]

Wow. That is professional.

[B]

That's what the backpack is for. Because preservation of life is how you get paid. Sure. You must keep that personal. You have every interest, every interest in keeping that person alive.

[A]

Well, that's. If they're not alive, it destroys the entire point of what you're doing. And anybody over 80 has got medicine everywhere.

[B]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[A]

So, yeah, that's. That's. That's pretty interesting. Hey, lame O. You never watched a TV show in your life where a guy carries a gun? Have you ever seen anybody ever on any show in your life where they carry the gun over the crotch like that?

[B]

I know it's not funny, but it's funny. One time, guy has a holster right over his schwants.

[A]

Well, just. It'd be awkward in all kinds of ways if it's just a tool. I mean, if it's a hammer or whatever, put it on my side or my back. Why am I gonna put it right between my legs where you bend over, you're moving around. I mean, it's just. What are you doing, you lame.

[B]

Oh, more proof. As if we needed it. That proof that you're not smart enough for a criminal career. As you're considering a career as a criminal. That's proof you're too dumb. Yeah.

[A]

Well, we'll actually hear from the guy that they. That went into his house in question a little bit later. We got other stuff to get to. We should start the show officially because we have a good Olympics clip as the opening clip. I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty on this. It is Wednesday, February 11th. We're getting close to the most romantic day of the year, February 11th. Year 2026. We're Armstrong and getting. We approve of this program.

[B]

All right. I don't like card companies and candy companies. Tell me when to love my wife. Okay, here we go. Officially now, according to FCC rules and regs.

[A]

Ad mark, now it's the Frenchman Yannick Bertrand through the s turn. Yannick Bertrand. Oh, the gate to the gro for Yannick Bertrand. And you could hear it. And if you're a man, you could feel it.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Watch this again. Oh, the Frenchman. Oh, miss you. Wow. The boys took a beating on that one. That's the actual Olympics. Call the boys.

[B]

The history of France right there. Right.

[A]

The boys took a beating on that one. From the play by play announcer.

[B]

Oh, boy.

[A]

And if you watch the video, he's. He's trying to go through those. You know, those poles they got there when you're skiing. And he goes over when one wipes up and smacked him right in the crotch.

[B]

Oh, yeah, whatever. He's going 75 miles per hour.

[A]

And you could hear it was really loud. And the crowd goes, oh, oh, miss. Sure. The boys took a beating on that one. His testicles got hit really hard is what happened.

[B]

Sacre bleu.

[A]

No kidding. We got Katie's headlines. My favorite newsletter continues to make the argument that going to war with Iran's a really big deal. And it's really, really on the table and nobody's talking about it. I mean, it's just not a news story for anybody.

[B]

Hence my title of the show. All the world's a tabloid. There is so much of real significance going on in the world, but we've just. We've become Internet tabloid culture. I have. I have matters of substance to discuss.

[A]

Yeah, there might be good reason for that, but we can talk about that later. We got Katie's headlines on the way. Stay here.

[B]

Armstrong and Getty.

[A]

Yo, yo. Looking forward to some, indeed some of these headlines that Katie's got because there's plenty of news out there. I Joe's thing about we the world has become a tabloid. We should discuss that. It's true. It's true to a certain extent. Even. Even more so. It's been growing that way our entire adult lives, but it's getting more and more that way every single day.

[B]

Yeah. Later in the show, I'll be forced to concede that Don Lemon has done something very clever.

[A]

Oh, yikes.

[B]

I know it pains me to my soul that I have to give him credit, but he has horrible, man. Everyone get lucky. Sourest fruit. That's right, Michael. Blind pig, stop clock, et cetera. Let's figure out who's reporting what. It's the lead story with Katie Green. Katie, hit it.

[C]

All right. Well, like you guys already touched on, it is the top of every website I've gone to. ABC person released as search for armed individual and Nancy Guthrie case continues. Fox new FBI video and Nancy Guthrie hunt shows jawline gait and details that experts say should not be ignored. And NBC investigators wrangled the video from Nancy Guthrie's Google Nest camera out of back end systems.

[B]

Yeah, I can explain how that went down. It's actually kind of interesting and surprising and counterintuitive.

[A]

And I'll tell you, the attack NBC was making on Google over that story. Oh, my man. The aerial shot. That is a nice house.

[B]

That Is a really large place.

[A]

They very cool lot. Of course her daughter makes $20 million a year.

[B]

So you buy mom a beautiful house.

[A]

It's nice.

[B]

Was nice till now.

[C]

From the Wall Street Journal, US added 130,000 jobs in January. Starting year off on stronger footing.

[A]

You know, it's really why you should not pay attention to any social media news. I was scrolling Twitter last night late and I couldn't sleep and coming across all kinds of stuff. Boy, the job numbers must be this bad if Trump's saying this. Wait till the lies tomorrow. The job numbers must be horrible because of blah, blah, blah. And I wake up and the official numbers come out and they're really good. So that was laying the groundwork for something by trolls or whatever. I don't know.

[B]

Or the trolls on both sides would claim the other side's administration is lying about the job numbers. Yeah, well, nobody believes anything. Complete cynicism, which has long been Russia's and China's goal. Troubling.

[C]

From the New York Times. The FAA says it has lifted its closure of airspace over El Paso.

[A]

Okay, that was a mystery there for a day where they said they were going to close airspace over el Paso for 10 days and with no explanation. That's a crazy story. Now they've lifted it for security reasons. What the heck could have possibly been going on?

[B]

They took the aliens into custody and are beginning the autopsy.

[A]

Alien autopsy?

[B]

That's my belief. Well, then the aliens went to Texas because everybody's going to Texas, right?

[A]

Taxes and whatnot. Right.

[B]

The aliens were in California. Said to hell with this.

[C]

From cbs. ACLU sues ICE in Idaho over an unconstitutional wilder immigration raid and class action case.

[A]

I'm sure there's going to be lots of these over the coming year.

[C]

From the New York Post, Illinois city hands out twenty five thousand dollar cash payments to forty four black residents through reparations program.

[B]

Oh, boy.

[A]

Some small town had a reparations program where 44 people got paid.

[C]

Yeah, and it's Evan. Evanston.

[B]

Oh my God.

[A]

Perfect.

[B]

Very, very affluent, very white. Home of Northwestern University, just north of Chicago.

[A]

Wow. And that's. That's to make up for slavery, you see.

[B]

It is exactly the sort of town that would do that. Beautiful.

[C]

From CNBC, Heineken to slash up to 6,000 jobs in AI quote productivity savings amid slump in beer sales.

[A]

What's AI going to do for the beer company? Run the machines and whatnot.

[B]

Push the paper, I guess. Where the drunk's at? Where we got a market.

[C]

Heineken makes a really good Non alcoholic beer.

[A]

By the way, somebody. Some people were telling me about non alcoholic beer the other day. I haven't had one in almost 20 years and somebody told me they are so much better than they used to be.

[C]

Well, fun fact. Majority of them contain 0.5% alcohol, right? But there are a few, including Heineken, that are actually 0.0. And it tastes really good.

[A]

Yeah, And I was told that non alcoholic wine has made leaps and bounds also. Nobody. Darn.

[B]

See, I just. I want the alcohol without the calories. So that's kind of backwards.

[A]

Yeah, you'd like a syringe of alcohol.

[B]

Without all the galleries, just pure trim.

[A]

Steady.

[C]

Study finds smart underwear. Tracks gut bacteria by measuring flatulence.

[B]

Oh boy. Grow up you would you? No.

[C]

And finally, the Babylon bee wife refuses to return stolen land she took from husband's side of the bed.

[B]

That's beautiful. Oh, there was a major case that gratify you Jack about land acknowledgments in a courtroom.

[A]

Oh, I want to hear that. And we'll catch up on all the other news of the day. And if you miss a segment or an hour gets podcast Armstrong and Getty on demand. More on the way.

[B]

Armstrong and Getty. This revision is expected that there will be about 800,000 fewer jobs than originally reported. In some respects, if that's the case, then the data would finally be catching up to sentiment. Because.

[C]

Because for nearly a year, people looking.

[B]

For jobs have said that it is very hard to land one.

[A]

Was that actually Jill Schlesinger or was that AI? Jill Schlesinger. It had an AI sound to it, didn't it?

[B]

Yeah, it really did. Didn't we. Didn't I declare her AI like a week ago maybe?

[A]

Anyway, we're talking about the jobs numbers that just came out. They're good today. 135,000 jobs added. And that was more than expected and all good. But last year's numbers, the entire year, they. They revised downward by a lot. And Peter Navarro was making the rounds, explaining his ties with Epstein and talking about how the jobs numbers were revised down a lot. And what Jill Schlesinger says is, you know, the jobs numbers were pretty good last year, but people's mood was bad. And she is saying, well, now that we know the numbers were not as good as we thought, it kind of meets up with sentiment more.

[B]

Oh, now I get what she's trying to say, right?

[A]

It makes more sense why people felt that way because those weren't the real numbers. The Trump people have been complaining about the way we do jobs numbers now for quite a while and saying they're so wildly inaccurate. The system is just not. It's just broken. I forget what it is. It's like you mail in your numbers or something. I mean, it's some antiquity. You fax it over.

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

It's some antiquated system that doesn't make sense anymore.

[B]

Right. And their return rate or their response rate has plummeted.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And so it's a small sample size. The data comes in late.

[A]

So they're so inaccurate they're almost not worth even talking about. So anyway, that's just a lead up to this. And this may or may not have anything to do with this. This might be more about politics and just our mood. Gallup has been asking this question for 20 years. This is the lowest number they've ever had. It's still a majority, which is good, but not as high as you like it to be. The most recent number, only 59% of Americans gave high ratings when asked to evaluate how good their life will be in five years. How good will your life be in five years? That number is lower than it's ever been in the history of Gallup asking that question. It's still high, I think, at 59%. I mean, that's good. But, you know, you'd like. I don't, man. There's never been a point in my life, even when I was broke and poor, where I wouldn't have been optimistic about what things were going to be in five years.

[B]

But yeah, yeah, certainly you're striving. You're trying to come up with a way to improve your life constantly, I think. But that's, that is so interesting.

[A]

Do you think that's to do with the reality of like jobs, numbers, inflation, stuff like that, or is that just our sour mood and we've been convinced by both parties that the other party's trying to destroy America and just all that stuff?

[B]

Well, speaking for myself, my mood is buoyant. But yeah, I think, I think you're onto something there. Also the incredibly high degree of uncertainty. The one thing people and companies and investors don't like is uncertainty. And given AI, especially in the rapidly changing nature of the workforce and the, the go to skills of yesterday are now the.

[A]

Forget it.

[B]

Why would you waste your time of today? God knows what's happening tomorrow. I think that's a lot of it.

[A]

Yeah. That's not good, though. It's not good to have a record number of people thinking things are going to suck in five years.

[B]

Right, Right. There's something very significant going on.

[A]

I, I think so also.

[B]

Yeah. Although here's, here's one interesting thing and I think this is a newish trend. Although I'm not super confident, people overwhelmingly will tell pollsters things are pretty good for me and mine, but as a whole, oh, the economy's terrible and effed up and from what I understand, people are miserable. Although this was in this case a personal answer, so I guess what I'm saying doesn't apply. But it's interesting how people's perceptions are shaped and then how that guides their decisions.

[A]

That one, what you just said, most.

[B]

Brilliant scientists and world are studying that sort of thing right now, trying to figure it out.

[A]

What you just said might fit in more with that right track. Wrong track number where you got like 90% of people who say the country's on the wrong track. Oh, I'm fine and I'm going to be fine, but the country's on the wrong track, which is a common one.

[B]

Right?

[A]

Yeah, but so that lowest number by Gallup for how things are going to be in five years includes a couple of pretty giant economic meltdowns in this country 2008 and you know, a couple other not very good periods. And people were still more optimistic about their five year outlook then than they are now.

[B]

Well, and picture or remember, if you you will, the hysteria of 2016 when Trump got elected and how half of America lost its freaking mind.

[A]

Rosie o' Donnell moved to another country.

[B]

Oh, that reminds me, I listened to a little NPR this morning to punish myself for the terrible things I've done. And sure enough, they came through with a good solid beaten. It was a story about all of the people who volunteering to be in a production of the opera the Handmaid's Tale.

[A]

Oh my God.

[B]

Because conservative lunatics and Trump want to take away women's rights, blah, blah, blah. You're still clinging to that? Seriously, dude's got like a couple of openly gay cabinet members, highest ranked ever. Nobody's taking away your anything. But you know, speaking of interesting phenomenon having to do with human beings and how they perceive the world, people, especially on the left love being under threat. They love being afraid because then they can join together with other people. And because so many people on the left are not like logic driven, they're consensus driven. I will say whatever it takes for me to be accepted. They just keep stoking the fear of what women are going to be forced into pregnancy by the fascist evangelicals or something.

[A]

Isn't Susie Wiles like the most powerful woman that's ever been in any White House?

[B]

Arguably? Sure, yeah. Yeah.

[A]

So ask to evaluate how good your life will be in about five years. I don't know if I could get up in the morning if my answer was going to be, I ain't going to be very good. Five years, I've never felt that way. Maybe that's just a ridiculous misplaced optimism. I don't know. But I just. I don't know. I would get out of bed if I thought, oh boy, this is not very good. And it's going down from here.

[B]

By the way. Coincidentally, today is the anniversary of my birth many, many years ago. And I think at my advanced age, I would say, I don't know, I'll do my best.

[A]

It's.

[B]

It's hard to predict.

[A]

I was, I was aware of that, but I feel like not my place to mention it's your birthday.

[B]

Oh, I don't. That's fine. I don't care either way.

[A]

I don't know if you're to that point in life where you'd rather not be reminded as you got one foot in the grave.

[B]

Oh, clearly I do. I was. I was recording last night in my music studio and with a foot in.

[A]

The grave.

[B]

One foot on a distortion pedal, the other foot in the grave, and a calendar notice popped up on my. My screen said, Tomorrow Joe's 61st birthday. And I'm like, what?

[A]

That's a miss.

[B]

That's a typo, right? Stop it.

[A]

No kidding.

[B]

Yeah, it just seen it in print.

[A]

It was like, what the hell?

[B]

Anyway, every year my birthday's bittersweet number one. It's nice because the people I love say really nice things and it's great, but it's bitter because I'm reminded once again that if my mom had held out one more day, I'd have shared my birthday with my hero, Abraham Lincoln. And instead, because she had to quit essentially on the 11th of February, I share my birthday instead of with Abraham Lincoln, with Burt Reynolds, a fact with his which has tortured me since I figured that out at roughly age 8.

[A]

Smokey and the Bandit, right? Gettysburg Address.

[B]

Smoking could have been the great emancipator. Instead, the great depansinator of the 70s.

[A]

Anyway, ranked as the number one president of all time. Got with Sally Field.

[B]

Two very different people in her prime.

[A]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[B]

Anyway, I ought to pay off a couple of things I mentioned briefly before too terribly long, the technical quirk that enabled the authorities to get the video from Poor Mrs. Guthrie's Nest Cam. Also, I must admit, Don Lemon has done something clever, and it pains me deeply to admit that. Okay, that and a couple of other things. Although you know what? I can pay off the Nancy Guthrie thing right now, right after we tell.

[A]

You about rough greens, which is a little something you add to your dog food. It's not replacing your dog food because a lot of people don't like doing that because it. There's all kinds of problems. Sometimes they turn up their nose at it, sometimes it upsets their stomach. But Rough greens you add to your current dog food, and it's got all kinds of live nutritional supplements that you're really, really going to like. And we've got a little way for you to get a free bag to try it out here very, very soon.

[B]

Yeah. Speaking of, you know, another day older, et cetera, et cetera, especially aging dogs. Ruff Greens has all sorts of good stuff to help slow that process and keep them alive, alert, and vital and having fun.

[A]

Yeah. So this is what you do. Rough Greens is offering a free Jump start trial bag. You just cover the shipping. Use the discount code Armstrong to claim your free Jump start trial bag@rough greens.com it's spelled R U F F like.

[B]

A dog saying rough.

[A]

Rough greens.com promo code Armstrong.

[B]

That's right. You just pay for the shipping. It's a great deal and a great opportunity to try Rough Greens. Rough Greens.com use that promo code Armstrong. Don't change your dog's food. Just add rough greens and watch those health benefits accumulate.

[A]

Rough greens.com so you got self taught lawyer Cannonball Run once again.

[B]

Oh, boy. So Mrs. Guthrie had a Google Nest camera next to her door, but had let the subscription lapse, which it turns out was a good thing because the way these things work is they continually replace the image they've just taken with new images with new video. Unless they save it for a deliberate reason. But because she didn't have a subscription, it wasn't recording over it in the same way.

[A]

Well, this is out of. Everybody had the same question yesterday. Why are we 10 days in and just seeing these pictures?

[B]

Right, right. I think the answer is they had to dig deep, deep within their computer systems to find some sort of backup, you know, footage that's normally not accessible.

[A]

I've seen computer experts say it's amazing they were able to find this. MSNBC's take all last night was because I was watching late at night when this was all, you know, really breaking the person's interest and everything like that. MSNBC's take was how does a three and a half trillion dollar company take 10 days to find this? What is going on here? All right, okay. That's based on no knowledge of how this would work at all?

[B]

No.

[A]

So your belief is that Google, and I hate Google a lot, but you're. So you got some sort of belief that Google, with their three and a half trillion dollars was holding back on the pictures out of some sort of something. I don't even know what is that.

[B]

Just hatred of success or the rich?

[A]

Hatred of the success. Yeah, it was weird. I was watching their, their late night primetime show and they're really into that. They've got three and a half trillion dollars and it takes them 10 days. Something is up here because Google's got lots of money or something. I don't even know what you're doing here.

[B]

Well, you were one of 112 people watching that channel, so you should remember that.

[A]

That is a good point. Hey, we've got an update on why the El Paso airport was closed. And they said it was going to close it for 10 days. And it's open back up again. Interesting detail. And mailbag all on the way.

[B]

Armstrong and Getty. CBS News reporter Jennifer Jacobs sharing on X. The decision to close El Paso International Airport to all flights for 10 days was triggered by Mexican cartel drones breaching US airspace. This is something that she says officials have told CBS News the War Department took action to disable those drones. Reportedly. Again, that from Jennifer Jacobs with CBS News.

[A]

Well, that's bold. By the Mexican cartels. I wouldn't be giving Trump a reason to go after you.

[B]

I'm sitting here thinking, I don't think it's a false flag operation. I really don't. But the first thing I thought of, wow, Trump's been talking about attacking the cartels. And if they're. Oh, wait a minute. That would, that would just be very convenient if your goal was to find a pretext to attack the cartel.

[A]

Yeah, I'm not trying to make that argument at all either, but it's.

[B]

I don't have nearly enough facts.

[A]

Hard to imagine why the Mexican cartels would want to. They got such a great business model going. Why they would want to do that.

[B]

Yeah. Oh, man, you poked the bear. Cartels.

[A]

Woof.

[B]

Bears don't say woof. Wow. Here's your freedom hating quote of the day.

[A]

You poke the bear's woof.

[B]

Well, I frequently use woof as a, an exclamation.

[A]

That's pretty funny. I love mixed metaphors. I'm a big fan of them.

[B]

I think they're hilarious. All right, so we're pausing our freedom hating quotes of the day from communists to feature this sent along by Jeff Fabulous honorary producer and friend of the Armstrong. You get a show from Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Being a communist, intelligent and good is completely incompatible. The one who is intelligent and good is not a communist. The one who is a communist and good is not intelligent. And of course the one who is a communist and intelligent cannot possibly be good. It is the doctrine of evil. See Zoran Mamdani. We have more examples of that coming up later. Mailbag this is actually another great quote from Benjamin Disraeli that squares quite beautifully with a story I want to tell later on about an incident in a college classroom. But his quote is There is no education like adversity.

[A]

Boy, that's true. The school of life. Who first came up with that? Michi? Plato? Somebody? But the school of life, that is where you get most your education.

[B]

There is no education like adversity. And you know what? I'm switching the order I'm to go with this from AD on the topic of Gen Z is Dumber that I featured, a piece by Ashley Fike on the dumbness of Gen Z says I have a different take. First, I'm a college professor for a grad school program program. These kids are now my students. They're not dumber because of the technology. And I've got to disagree. I think that does play a role. But he says they are dumber because no one taught them how to learn. First, we have the teachers who spend time on anything and everything but reading, writing, science and math. The kids have never been taught to read. We give them a medical textbook and a reading assignment and they literally cry because they have to do so much reading. For decades now, our schools have been cesspools where our students are indoctrinated with crap rather than educated with knowledge. Next we have the parents. When I was a child, my parents constantly asked, have you finished your homework? If I didn't have homework, my parents would make stuff up. Even on vacation, I was encouraged to the point of being forced to bring along a book to read. These days, many parents don't give this attention to their children. Instead, they're too wrapped up in their own attention seeking drama to pay attention to whatever their children are reading trying to get clicks for their Instagram. They have little. They have given their children over to the state and the state, I. E. The teachers unions care little to educate their child. You want to make your kids smarter, Start educating them.

[A]

Part of it is definitely the school is telling you your kid is a straight A student or an A and B student, and they're not. That has been my actual personal experience.

[B]

Yeah. And the Disraeli quote. Scratch me, Worriedge, because I am a firm believer, as many of you know, in free range parenting, letting your kids make mistakes, letting them get lost and find their way home, not raising a veal calf. And not only is there no education like adversity, there's no way to build resilience and toughness and even a sense of humor like adversity. Once you survive your first few serious challenges, you're. You're 50 times as strong as you were before that. And yet so many people deny their kids that experience. I think it's tragic.

[A]

Boy. On the school part of it, though, that great inflation thing is a serious problem.

[B]

Yeah, I don't doubt it.

[A]

Did you hear the announcement Harvard made yesterday? They're going. They're only going to give out 20% A's.

[B]

Oh, yeah. And people. Yeah, go ahead.

[A]

People lost their mind over this last year. They gave out. Two thirds of the grades they gave out were AIDS. A's, another 18% A minuses to get you up into the 80s percentile of A's and A minuses, which obviously is not Harvard. And they're gonna cut it back to 20%. And people went nuts. Because I've been straight A my whole life. Well, you. Yeah, technically.

[B]

Oh, yeah. I don't blame the kids for going nuts. They were given one set of expectations for their entire scholastic careers and now Harvard is changing that. They're right to and they have to. But yeah, I'm sure the kids are freaking out.

[A]

If I'm semi bright and put in medium effort, I should get an A. Is the lesson you've been taught your whole life.

[B]

Yes. This is a clever boy. The super bowl. Half a streaker recorded everything with his Google Glass, posted it to Instagram, and He also bet $50,000 there would be a streaker. And he won 300k.

[A]

Wait a second, that's. There's got to be something wrong with that bet, isn't there?

[B]

I don't know the terms of use of whatever means he used to bet it.

[A]

How is that. How is that different than I'll bet, you know, so and so misses a free throw, I put money on it and then I missed the free throw. Isn't it the same thing?

[B]

It's similar.

[A]

Well, if that's a possibility. I'm going to make all kinds of bets. I'll bet a dog bites somebody in the parking lot or whatever.

[B]

You can run around on all fours and bite people.

[A]

I'll bring a vicious dog.

[B]

Wow. Yeah. I cannot personally verify this. It's from Dr. Brian, who is a fine man indeed.

[A]

Wow. Okay. If you missed a segment of the podcast, Armstrong and Getty on demand. So much to talk about today. I hope you joined us for hour two.

[B]

Armstrong and Getty.

[A]

This is an I heart podcast. Guaranteed human.