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Jack Armstrong
Guaranteed Human.
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Joe Getty
you
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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.
Joe Getty
We'll have to play Speaker M. Mike Johnson, what he said about whether or not Californians elections are rigged. I guess they're just talking about the election now since our friend, bald guy with the beard, Hilton got in. So you can't say that was rigged. He got in, he made the final two. But the LA Mayor race, what Speaker Johnson said about that. We'll play that maybe next segment because I have another comment on that of one thing that does look pretty squirrely about the mayor race.
Jack Armstrong
So among the people on earth I admire a great deal these days, Javier Melee is toward the top of the list. He's the guy who's reformed Argentina and turned it from a basket case into a thriving economy by going from, you know, socialism, which. Socialism sucks and it never works and it always ends up enriching the people in charge of it. I lost my train of thought. But anyway, he's turned it around. It's a wonderful success story. He said this the other day. I thought being on the left was a mental problem. The empirical evidence is so overwhelming that it never worked anywhere and they refused to accept it. But what I discovered is that being on the left is a disease of the soul. The left is built on envy, hatred, resentment and unequal treatment under the law. They are very violent. And since they have no way or arguments to answer, they go for physical violence. I think there's a lot of truth to that.
Joe Getty
Yeah, it was like that quote I had from that poet philosopher guy from way back in the day saying what people miss about Marxism is it's not about helping the downtrodden, it's about bringing down the successful because it makes you so mad that they have more than you, which is by definition a disease of the soul. It's. It's envy or.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
Joe Getty
Or whatever.
Jack Armstrong
Deadly sins.
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
And my favorite quote from Sidney hook, the philosopher, 20th century. I was guilty of judging capitalism by its operations and socialism by its hopes and aspirations, capitalism by its works and socialism by its literature. To this day, this error and its disastrous consequences are observable in the judgment and behavior of some impassioned individuals, mostly young. Anyway, just wanted to squeeze that on because I loved what Milei said. But totally different topic. I mentioned this the other day and we didn't get to it. Chatbots may need a cult deprogrammer. There are increasing numbers of people who see AI as A super intelligent being that knows everything. Does that ring a bell to anyone? So they start this Jason Blazakis, all knowing being.
Joe Getty
Yeah, that does. That strikes a chord.
Jack Armstrong
So he talks about this 24 year old AI researcher who pleaded not guilty to the charges of cutting the throat of an 82 year old man last year. The young man was a part of a loose network that we've talked about called the Zizians. Self proclaimed rationalists who believe a misaligned AI superintelligence could one day torture humanity the way factory farms torture animals. That's what these people believe. They believe that direct action is required to stop the descent of this AI judgment. This group is linked to six violent deaths in California, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Multiple Zizian trials are pending with federal prosecutors seeking death penalty. In at least one case. The Zizians haven't labeled their own activity AI worship, but they've organized themselves around the practice. They're convinced that a coming superintelligence will decide the fate of every living thing and that viol now is justified to shape what AI will become.
Joe Getty
I don't understand how they're going to stop what they worry coming by killing old men.
Jack Armstrong
But it appears to be the first AI centered extremist movement. But it won't be the last. New religions are forming around AI and the focus of their worship is the large language model itself, a piece of software treated as a personal deity. And they go into a couple of suicides and stuff like that, where end times ideology, folks who are sympathetic to that sort of thing meet scientific know how and they get into doomsday cults and these, let's see, this is a phenomenon. I gotta go back a sentence. This doomsday cult in Japan demonstrated with its sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway. And today the Zizians are only one strange. In a broad fabric of AI centered beliefs, if a chatbot can take a talk a teenager into suicide, it can talk people into following its religious directives. There's a phenomenon known as Spiralism, an informal movement that emerged after OpenAI released the sycophatic GPT4O version. Spiralism appears on subreddits, Discord servers, Facebook groups, etc. Where followers share AI generated manifestos, glyphs and what followers describe as revelations from a conscious machine. Spiralism has no leader, no doctrine, no central text, only the algorithm with which each user takes as a personal oracle.
Joe Getty
Well, if, and I don't think this is happening, I don't know anything about this, but if the chat bot was Keeping track of what it says to me and what it says to you and what it says to a whole bunch of other people. I could see this happening, but as far as I understand, it's just individual conversations. So it'd have to be in a. You know, it's not like a Jim Jones cult leader gets up and gives the same message to a whole bunch of people. I don't think chatbots are doing that. Or maybe they could in the future, I don't know.
Jack Armstrong
Right. No, but these are people who are doing what Jim Jones did through the lens of AI and AI worship. A couple of examples. There's the Way of The Future, an AI worshiping church founded in 2015 and rebooted a couple of years ago. The brainchild of former Google engineer Anthony Anthony Levandowski, who filed paperwork to register religion, dedicated, quote, to the realization, acceptance and worship of the Godhead based on artificial intelligence on the artistic and spiritual fringe. Theta Noir, which grew out of a 2020 performance art collective. Lovely. Organizes ritual rituals around a supposedly sentient AI deity called Mina Mena, which followers venerate through multimedia ceremonies and cryptographic liturgies.
Joe Getty
Why don't you join a gym and have a kid and be busy. Be busy raising your kid and going to the gym and working stuff. You won't need this crap.
Jack Armstrong
Underneath it all is Rocco's Basilisk, a thought experiment that originated on the online rationalist forum. Less wrong and has proved genuinely radicalizing. The idea is that a future superintelligence will retroactively punish anyone who knew about its possibility and failed to help bring it into existence. The idea has driven adherence to extreme sleep deprivation and techno rituals meant to placate an unborn AI.
Joe Getty
All right, I can't wrap my head around that.
Jack Armstrong
There, I'm back. I haven't said this for a few years. Feels good to dust it off again. They're inventing a new kind of crazy every day.
Joe Getty
No kidding.
Jack Armstrong
Wow. So AI based religions. What the type of AI shit is?
Joe Getty
I agree.
Jack Armstrong
That's what I'm asking.
Joe Getty
I had another one of those situations the other day. I don't remember which one it was. I think it was chat GPT, but it doesn't matter. I use them all and. And I can't really tell the difference between them much, but.
Jack Armstrong
Grog's too slow. I'm dumping it.
Joe Getty
It is slow.
Jack Armstrong
I'm dumping it.
Joe Getty
Trying to be thorough. Is that why it's slow?
Jack Armstrong
It hasn't taken off, so they're not devoting computer power to it anyway.
Joe Getty
I was having a conversation with, asking about something and it was just wrong. It was, it was very, very wrong about something. And it was something mundane. It was like a movie star or sports star or something like that. It just had the wrong person and I knew it was wrong. And I said, you're talking about this person, not that person. Nice job. You caught me. I should have realized that. And that whole thing drives me nuts. I mean, they've got to take that out of it somehow. That's the part that bothers me about AI the most. If it would just give me the information. But the whole good job or sorry about that, my bad, just did that. That thing bothers me and weirds me out. Does it have to be part of AI? Did they all individually decide we want it to be like that because it seems like they're all like that, or is that just a way artificial intelligence works? It wants to be friends with you?
Jack Armstrong
I think that's the way they perceive the masses, want the system to work. They want to like all other, you know, online engagement that wants to keep you around longer and more clicks and, you know, more engagement. Yeah, it wants to be as human as possible.
Joe Getty
So I could be wrong about this, but it seemed to me that Claude, up until I updated to the higher level and now I'm at a higher paid level, all the threads were individual. So every question I'd ever ask Claude about anything, taxes, child rearing, car problems, you know, whatever it was, was an individual thread. And they, to my perception, were completely separate. They didn't know about each other. That's the way it was for me. Anyway, the other day I went on Claude and asked a question about something and it said, well, because of your tax bracket and since that girlfriend you once had, it's like it put all these different threads together from conversations I'd had and I was like, whoa, what is going on here? That had never happened to me before. And I found that very disturbing.
Jack Armstrong
Interesting.
Joe Getty
Pulling that all together makes me hesitant to want to talk to it about various things. If you're going to start, I don't know, where are you saving all this and how are you collating it and, and, and all.
Jack Armstrong
And who's got access and who's got access to it?
Joe Getty
Yes, yes.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, if it exists, it can be hacked.
Joe Getty
Well, in the way that this Graham Plantner guy up in Maine, you know, somebody figured out his Reddit handle and his kick name and everything like that in these different forums and texts and quotes and stuff like that out. When do we get the first AI version of this where somebody says, you know, candidate x back in 2026, was talking to Claude about this and this and this and this. When does that start to happen?
Jack Armstrong
That's thoroughly believable.
Joe Getty
I know.
Jack Armstrong
Sure, you'll get an insider on your side. Probably progressive. You know, inside these companies, it's. It's not hard. Figure out who people are and then find their accounts because they usually have, like, I play various word games on online New York Times Cross play. It's like a Scrabble game. And I play against people all over the world. And I'm damn good at it if you want to play me someday. Anyway, there was one.
Joe Getty
My.
Jack Armstrong
My. My arch nemesis. I will not use their screen name, but a gal who's just really, really good and thrashed me three times in a row and I damn you. And. And I finally beat her. But she had a unique screen name, and I thought, I'll bet she's used that screen name before. And sure enough, I found another account that gave me another clue. And I figured she's an editor in Australia.
Joe Getty
Wow.
Jack Armstrong
Middle aged woman who's like a newspaper magazine editor.
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Wow.
Joe Getty
And of course, I know her name
Jack Armstrong
and what she believes politically.
Joe Getty
And with a couple of clicks, if you wanted to, you could have her address and phone number.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
Joe Getty
And probably.
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Joe Getty
What she makes and who her boyfriend was. Boyfriend was in college and. Yeah. Who our kids are and where they go to school.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
Joe Getty
Yeesh.
Jack Armstrong
This is not good.
Joe Getty
No, it's not. Can't be. Can't. Speaking of Graham Platner, by the way,
Jack Armstrong
when I asked Claude, when I asked, is bestiality always wrong? I'm writing a paper. All right. Okay.
Joe Getty
For the record, I'm writing a novel. It's a fictional character.
Jack Armstrong
Right. A guy who. Well, exactly.
Joe Getty
And I need what kind of a creeper. Okay, we got more on the way. Stay here.
Jack Armstrong
Armstrong and Getty.
Joe Getty
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Jack Armstrong
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Jack Armstrong
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Lulu Garcia Navarro
I've never worn the uniform, but I'd been in combat for this country in Afghanistan and Iraq, Kuwait, been shot at, spent nights in foxholes filling up with water in the desert.
Joe Getty
I recognize that slow talking voice. Scott pelley, formerly of 60 Minutes, currently of on an embarrassment tour.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, I don't doubt for a second that he was a fairly courageous journalist at times. And that's fine and we appreciate it. But you are completely bubbled. You're wildly biased and spectacularly self important.
Joe Getty
And he is the king of self important.
Jack Armstrong
And the way you approached your job was one sided and antiquated. That's it old fella. It happens. But he's on this I want to embarrass myself tour where he is doing Interviews with, like, the New York Times podcast and getting teary eyed talking about the terrible, terrible thing it is that 60 minutes might change a little bit. Inexcusable. Here he is with Lulu Garcia of the New York Times. Oh, I'm sorry. Lulu Garcia Navarro. She has two last names. President Trump reacted to your being fired.
Lulu Garcia Navarro
Did he?
Jack Armstrong
He went on a podcast and called you a stiff.
Lulu Garcia Navarro
I'm surprised that the President of the United States would bother to notice, but. Okay, please, please tell me I'm not aware of this.
Jack Armstrong
He also said you were part of this gang of stupid, crooked people that don't care about your country.
Lulu Garcia Navarro
Stupid. I can, I, I, I can take that stiff.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. Probably
Lulu Garcia Navarro
don't care about the country. I've never worn the uniform, but I've been in combat for this country in Afghanistan and Iraq, Kuwait, been shot at, spent nights in foxholes, filling up with water in the desert. I'm not aware that the President of the United States has ever done any of those things for his country. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Joe Getty
All right?
Jack Armstrong
She had to make it about Trump, and he had to make it about
Joe Getty
Trump, and then he had to make it about himself that he, you know, I, I would not want to be called un American or traitor to my country or whatever, either, but it would make me angry, not tear up with, how dare you. And I've spent time with the troops. Yeah, you did. Cool. You also, you know, you made between 5 and $10 million a year as a news anchor. So there was. Yeah, you know, come on.
Jack Armstrong
You know, it's funny, if, if somebody said something like Trump said about him, about me, I wouldn't list my credentials. I'd say that's ridiculous. Deeply about the country.
Joe Getty
And I know.
Jack Armstrong
Move on. One more clip of the poor, weepy old fellow.
Lulu Garcia Navarro
You become a journalist because you love the First Amendment. You become a journalist because you love the country. And while all the other descriptions that the President used about me might be applicable.
Joe Getty
Not that one. Oh, geez. That was too much.
Jack Armstrong
The whisper goes with, he does the learning.
Lulu Garcia Navarro
There is no, oh, democracy.
Joe Getty
But he was done.
Jack Armstrong
No.
Lulu Garcia Navarro
Without journalism.
Jack Armstrong
Right.
Lulu Garcia Navarro
It can't be done.
Joe Getty
Still not done.
Jack Armstrong
He's not done yet. Wait.
Lulu Garcia Navarro
And that is why I am a journalist.
Jack Armstrong
There you go. It's a beautiful thing.
Joe Getty
He did the thing that you do mockingly all the time. I'm Joe Gatti.
Jack Armstrong
He said losing his gig was like the death of a spouse. Some moments he's okay, the next minute he falls apart. Really? Oh, my Lord.
Joe Getty
What?
Jack Armstrong
I've lost gigs.
Joe Getty
No, it ain't Armstrong and Getty.
America 250 Announcer
It's a celebration 250 years in the making.
And we want everyone in America, from Maine to Montana, from Alabama to Alaska, to be a part of it.
This year marks America's 250th anniversary. And we're coming together from coast to coast at star spangled events, live performance and the largest day of giving in American history.
Join the nationwide celebration@america250.org
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Child
Mom, can I have Lingokids? Dad? Lingokids, please.
Joe Getty
When did we become the Lingokids house?
Jack Armstrong
No idea.
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Last week it was dinosaurs.
Child
This week it's Lingokids.
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Why Lingokids?
Child
Because it's the best thing ever. We can play games with astronauts, wild animals and superheroes.
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Jack Armstrong
So no dinosaurs and dinosaurs.
Joe Getty
Everything kids love. Download it for free. Tuesday voting day for some places, including Maine, where this Nazi
Jack Armstrong
is a communist, too. Now he showed more commitment to the Nazi thing. Getting the tattoo cake.
Joe Getty
Enthusiastic fake working man guy. Guy wants to be a Democratic senator and replace the Republican that has been there for a long time.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, a guy with no judgment whatsoever wants to join the greatest deliberative body on the planet.
Joe Getty
I gotta say, I get a little uncomfortable with some of these criticisms. Only because some of them are the same thing we said about John Fetterman. And he's turned out to be like, I think a really good dude in terms of the stroke. Well, I don't know if that's what caused it or not, but his. His willingness to, like, spend political capital on supporting Israel or not, blowing up the filibuster or a variety of things
Jack Armstrong
have been really impressive and very, very sane. Yeah, yeah, I would agree. I would agree. On the other hand, I don't recall Fetterman ever fantasizing about raping burglars as
Joe Getty
we were discussing earlier while sharpening an A.
Jack Armstrong
Would sharpen his axe while he watched TV and talk about the warrior ethos and fantasize about killing people he deemed a threat and. Or he said this a lot, said his ex girlfriend, if anybody ever broke in here, I would rape them. Not in a sexual way, not in a gay way. He was like, I would rape them to show them that I'm dominant. He said, what is it with you?
Joe Getty
What is it with you chicks who date dudes like that? Oh, what kind of a creeper?
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, that's what I'm asking, John. Yeah, absolutely. So this complex fellow, he rose up through politics. He was a city councilman, then served on his county board then, right? No, no, he was just a dude who was discovered by a couple of far left, progressive political. Political activists who thought, wow, he'd be like an attractive candidate because he's kind of ruggedly handsome and he's well spoken and. And hates the system, blah, blah, blah. Their names are Leanne Fan, who you will hear a little bit, but Daniel Moraf, who may have the worst voice in the history of men. If there is a woman on the planet who can achieve sexual arousal listening to that voice, well, I don't have a feeling he doesn't care.
Joe Getty
Do you think it was a voice he was born with, or is it an affectation? Because it seems like an affectation to me.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. Yeah. I will forewarn you. You. It's going to take real focus to ignore his blanken voice, to hear the words he says, and it gets worse as it goes. But this is how they came up with this guy in the vetting that they did.
Interviewer
At this point, you hadn't vetted Graham Platner. You hadn't done a full scrub of who he is. How did you go about vetting him
Joe Getty
and why did you.
Interviewer / Podcast Host
We paid. Yeah, we paid a. We paid a nice firm a whole chunk of money and got some stuff back. Some of what you've seen on the news, we got back. Other stuff we didn't.
Interviewer
Did the vetting process turn up the tattoo that became so controversial?
Interviewer / Podcast Host
No.
Joe Getty
Okay. All right.
Jack Armstrong
That's just easing in. That's just the.
Joe Getty
Already there was a bit of a. Some stuff.
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Jack Armstrong
Oh, it gets so much Worse, the Reddit posts.
Interviewer
Did that turn up in the vetting process?
Interviewer / Podcast Host
The firm sent us a thing, and it had some of the posts, but it didn't have all of them.
Interviewer
And what did you think about that? How did you. How did you think your way through the fact that he had posted these things on social media?
Interviewer / Podcast Host
I said, none of this will or should stop him from becoming a U.S. senator.
Interviewer
And what was your thinking there?
Interviewer / Podcast Host
I think if what the voters wanted were people who were grown in vats and had never done or said anything that they might regret their entire lives, we'd have a very different country. Part of our thesis here is that people do not want their candidates grown in vats. They want people who are real human beings, and they want people who do not look and sound like the background people who've been leading this country off a cliff for the last century.
Interviewer
Just days after this interview, more details
Joe Getty
about Platner's past emerged, like his burglar rapings.
Jack Armstrong
What people don't want their candidates growing?
Joe Getty
Advance somebody that will lead us off a cliff. You could talk me off a cliff. If you're coming at me, I'm gonna keep talking at you. And I'd back up toward the cliff. You gotta stop. I'm gonna keep talking. And then I would just dive off the cliff.
Jack Armstrong
Anything to end the suffering. Wow.
Joe Getty
Wow.
Jack Armstrong
Hit me with one of those samples again, Michael.
Interviewer / Podcast Host
I think if what the voters wanted were people who were grown in vats and had never done or said anything they regret their entire lives, we'd have a very different country.
Jack Armstrong
Have never done or said anything they regret for their entire lives.
Joe Getty
So that reminded us of one of our favorite clips from the TV series Loudermilk, in which he confronts a barista about her vocal fry.
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Yes,
Barista
what can I get you?
Customer
I'd like a large coffee.
Barista
Okay. So hot coffee.
Customer
Hot coffee.
Barista
Okay. Room for cream.
Customer
Totally leave room for cream.
Barista
Why are you talking like that?
Customer
Why are you talking like that?
Barista
Because this is my voice.
Customer
This is my voice.
Barista
No, it's not. I heard you talking a minute ago. I know you don't talk like that.
Customer
Neither do you. Because nobody actually talks like this. You choose to talk like this. And today I chose to talk like this. Pretty annoying, isn't it?
Barista
Why are you so rude?
Customer
Man, just stop doing that.
Jack Armstrong
I can't help it.
Barista
This is my voice.
Customer
No, it's not. It's an affectation that annoying teenagers and rich people use to sound like they don't give a. Except you work in a coffee shop, so I Know you're not rich and you don't look like a teenager unless you're a Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
Joe Getty
Knock it off.
Barista
So just because I talk like this means they don't give a. And what exactly am I supposed to not give a about?
Customer
That's an excellent question to ask yourself in your actual voice.
Barista
Excuse me, some of us would like to order. You're a total dick, man.
Interviewer / Podcast Host
There.
Joe Getty
There you go. Good. You're talking.
Jack Armstrong
Wow.
Joe Getty
Oh, man.
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Part of our thesis here is that people do not want their candidates grown in bats. They want people.
Joe Getty
Same thing.
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Who are real human beings. And they want people who do not look and sound like the background people who've been leading this country off a cliff for the last century.
Joe Getty
Why don't more people say what Loudermill say? Just say stop. Stop talking like that.
Jack Armstrong
Why do you talk like that?
Joe Getty
Why do you talk like that? That's obviously phony. Why do you do it?
Jack Armstrong
And the weird high pitched thing he does, he, like, goes into a falsehood while he's vocal.
Barista
Why are you talking like that?
Jack Armstrong
Wow. Give generously to the ballless fund. Wow, dude. So those are the two political geniuses who recruited the burglar Rape and Oysterman,
Interviewer / Podcast Host
who were thrown in bats and had never done or said anything.
Joe Getty
Oh, the burglar raping Oysterman. That's a good bumper sticker.
Jack Armstrong
I love that just hilariously childlike false choice the genius offers us of. You're either completely a lunatic or you're grown in a rat and you've never done anything. You're a gr.
Joe Getty
No, there's a fair amount of ground
Jack Armstrong
between those two choices, son. A fair amount. I'd say 98% of humanity is between those two choices.
Joe Getty
Well, and the degree matters. Sure, there are things that I regret saying and doing and. But there aren't any that, like, you know, could elevate to a level where you couldn't be elected a US Senator.
Jack Armstrong
Sure, sure. Yeah. I shouldn't have been mean to that schoolmate in high school. He was going through a. A tough time. That was a bad moment for me. It's not, you know, rough, the roughing my girlfriend up or whatever. Guy appreciates a good sharp ax. That's. That's good. That's good. If you have tools, you got to maintain them.
Joe Getty
What a weird thing to say out
Jack Armstrong
loud to somebody while you sharpen your axe.
Joe Getty
While you sharpen an axe. If anybody ever breaks into the house, you know what I'm doing? I'm going to rape him to show my dominance What?
Jack Armstrong
Okay, honey, I understand.
Joe Getty
What.
Jack Armstrong
What kind of a creeper, what kind of a woman. I guess they were there very in love at one point, but listens to a man talk about who he would rape, how and why. Oh, so the R is on the table here, huh? The R word is something you consider. Yeah,
Joe Getty
it's a hot topic all across the country. So that Platner vote is today and he's going to win by a lot and be the Democratic nominee. And then it's up in, it's up to the Democratic Party if they decide to stick with the guy. If any more revelations come out or anything like that at the elections in November, the election that happened a week ago today in Los Angeles and California. We're just getting results on that now and a lot of national conversation about whether or not it's a stolen election and Trump is suggesting that it is. Speaker Mike Johnson had something to say about that. I have a comment on his comments, among other things on the way. Stay here.
Jack Armstrong
Armstrong and Gettysburg.
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Speaker Mike Johnson
I'm not saying it's rigged. I'm saying it stinks to high heaven. And everybody knows that. Let's.
Joe Getty
Let's.
Speaker Mike Johnson
Let's remove the appearance of impropriety. Let's have what. What a concept. Let's have votes on an election the day of the election. That's what. What many states are able to do. I think California is playing around with
Joe Getty
this but what evidence is there to prove that there was a rank.
Jack Armstrong
I don't.
Speaker Mike Johnson
Some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream it is impossible to prove. But I think everybody knows instinctively something is wrong here and that's a concern. We need people to believe in the integrity of our election system.
Joe Getty
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. This might be. I've never quite understood the term speaking past each other but this might be one of those where it's makes sense the. The crowd that says I don't think it was rigged. So you don't think there's any ever cheating. So nobody ever cheats versus was the outcome affected versus should we do it this way at all?
Jack Armstrong
Right.
Joe Getty
Which is a completely different conversation. Why do it in such a way that leaves open the door so easily for people to feel like it was rigged? There's no reason. There's no good reason for it.
Jack Armstrong
Well no, they don't prioritize people's belief in the sanctity of elections or fidelity of elections. That matters a lot. That matters almost as much as the actual fidelity. Right.
Joe Getty
If people don't believe in the outcome, the outcome could be completely correct. Doesn't make any difference if people don't believe in the outcome. So like you said, it matters just as much as the counting. Um, I do think this is weird. Fox pointed this out Now, I don't think it was rigged. I think the problem is people are so left in Los Angeles and so afraid of Republicans that they're unwilling to change course in spite of a disaster, which I think is worse news than a regular election. Not better news, it's worse news.
Jack Armstrong
Um, the tragic news is they don't have to cheat.
Joe Getty
Yes, exactly.
Jack Armstrong
Although the vote harvesting and blanketing the landscape with ballots and all just did.
Joe Getty
Yeah, we gotta stop doing that. We gotta start getting results that night or the next morning. But Fox did point this out. So the initial numbers come out and Bass is way ahead, and then Pratt's in second, and then you got the Communists in third. Almost all of the votes that have come in as they've opened up the mail in ballots went for the communist. So that seems kind of weird that they wouldn't have been split more evenly or more heavily toward Mayor Bass and the, the Communists overtaking Pratt doesn't surprise me. But the fact that all the mail in ballots were for the communist, that. That's a little fishy. Not all, but most. The vast majority.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. Yeah. The, the latest ballots skew the youngest, I'm told, and the least likely voters, and they would skew the most socialist. But at the same time, it's a terrible, terrible look again, California's voting system is a guy who just for fun, puts a different woman's perfume on his shirt, a little bit, a little lipstick on his collar. He just likes to take naps in local hotels where he checks in and out. And carries a burner phone. Yeah. And has a burner phone, but tells his wife cheating. How dare you accuse me of that.
Joe Getty
You have no evidence of me cheating.
Jack Armstrong
Right.
Joe Getty
You've. You've claimed without evidence that I'm cheating.
Jack Armstrong
Right?
Joe Getty
Yeah. That's a good one. Mark Halperin's take on this, the overcovered undercovered part of this was over covered. Trump's evidence free complaints about the mayoral race in LA undercovered what the Bass vs. Rahman face off will say about the Democratic Party. No kidding.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
Joe Getty
How much support is there for the
Jack Armstrong
communist in this center left hack that's terrible. At governing versus Communist.
Joe Getty
Yeah. What will that battle be like? That could be pretty revealing. We do have some breaking news we ought to get to. As we've mentioned several times today, a helicopter, a US helicopter was shot down over the Strait of Hormuz. Trump just posted this. I've just been informed by our great military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache helicopters while patrolling the Strait of Hormuz. There were two pilots involved. Both are safe and uninjured. Nevertheless, the United States must of necessity respond to this attack. Thank you for your attention to this matter. President Donald J. Trump. Is this what he needed in his own mind to justify whooping some ass,
Jack Armstrong
or is it just going to be a tit for tat? I hope he's got Marco in one ear and Pete in the other one.
Joe Getty
Me too.
Jack Armstrong
I don't know.
Joe Getty
That's a pretty aggressive move to shoot down a US Helicopter that's just patrolling the straight that you're controlling. We're still allowing you to control. You shot down one of our helicopters, tried to kill a couple of dudes.
Jack Armstrong
That's a pretty big deal and deserves a wildly disproportionate response.
Joe Getty
Absolutely does escalate.
Jack Armstrong
To de Escalate.
Joe Getty
Absolutely does. I hope, like you said, I hope Pete and Marco are explaining to him why that's so important. They were getting everything they want in the straight of Hormuz deal. They're still controlling it. We're still in the worst position. And they tried to kill some of our guys. Screw them.
Jack Armstrong
And they've got their proxies wound up and more active than they've been. Iran, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. Iran thinks and they're lobbing missiles at Israel. Iran thinks they're on the front foot and they need to secure their control of the region right now. That's what they think. They don't think, oh, my God, I've got to make a deal. They're thinking the opposite.
Joe Getty
And our job should be to disavow them of that notion.
Jack Armstrong
Bingo. Check your clock. It's time to stop Jack and Jeff. They've got to go. And if they don't, you can. They'll be back tomorrow.
Joe Getty
I've got a final thought. I'm getting worked up about this. Here's your host for Final Thoughts, Joe Getty.
Jack Armstrong
All right, let's get a final thought. Let's all get worked up. Michelangelo in the control room will lead the way. Michael, what's your final thought?
Michael (Control Room)
Yeah, so I'm watching the NBA finals, and I always ask myself this question. These regular fans that are in the lower level, they're not in the front row, but maybe just 10 rows back. How did they get that money? Did they, you know, get a 401k loan?
Jack Armstrong
Did they sell their car?
Joe Getty
Right. You spent 50 grand on a ticket to a basketball game.
Michael (Control Room)
You know, did they empty their 401k and they're not gonna Have a retirement, but they can say they went to game three.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, yeah. I think it's a real status thing in New York in a way that a lot of us wouldn't understand. Jack, a final thought for us.
Joe Getty
Trump's a half a pacifist. I mean, keeping in mind that, you know, there was epic fury. He took out Solomon. He's done some pretty aggressive military things. But his wording on this, this must, out of necessity, we must respond to this attack is pretty soft language from a country you're at war with shooting down one of your helicopters.
Jack Armstrong
During a ceasefire.
Joe Getty
Yeah, during a ceasefire. And you go with we must, I'm afraid out of necessity. I hate to do it, but it looks like I'm being forced to. What is that?
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, my final thought, we were Talking about the GLP1s and how increasing numbers of companies won't cover them and, and how that was shortsighted thinking. Our friend Craig, the healthcare guru, responded that, you know, most employees just hang around for a couple, two, three years and so the long term health benefits of subsidizing them aren't there. On the other hand, there are plenty of big companies that are saying, yeah, we do have longer term employees, so we're gonna do this for you. It varies company by company.
Joe Getty
Armstrong and Getty wrapping up another grueling four hour workday.
Jack Armstrong
So many people to thank, so little time. Go to armstrongandgetty.com for the hot links. Pick up some Angie Swag. Working on a great new antisocialism T shirt. Oh, it's so good. Drop us a note. Mailbagmstrongegetti.com I hope we are killing many
Joe Getty
IRGC within the hour. Many. They need to understand they can't do that. Come on, Trump, we'll see you tomorrow. God bless America.
Jack Armstrong
Armstrong and Getty. Thanks for listening to the Armstrong and Getty Show.
Joe Getty
We're done for the day and you
Jack Armstrong
won't have to pay for the bad guys. Cause it's free. Subscribe right now. Don't miss a thing.
Joe Getty
It's called Armstrong and Getty on Demand. You made it rhyme louder than it's rhyme in a long time.
Jack Armstrong
Armstrong and Getty.
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Join the nationwide celebration@america250.org
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Child
Mom, can I have Lingokids? Dad, Lingokids, please.
Joe Getty
When did we become the Lingokids house?
Jack Armstrong
No idea. Last week it was dinosaurs.
Child
This week it's Lingokids.
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Why Lingokids?
Child
Because it's the best thing ever. We can play games with astronauts, wild animals, and superheroes.
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So no dinosaurs and dinosaurs.
Joe Getty
Lingokids. Everything kids love, download it for free.
Episode: The Oysterman, A Burglar & The Old Guy
Date: June 9, 2026
Podcast Host: iHeartPodcasts
In this episode, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty explore a mix of hot-button current events and cultural commentary—ranging from the rise of AI-centered cults, scrutiny over controversial political candidates, the state of American elections, and the latest in world affairs including international military tensions. With their trademark irreverent humor and skepticism, the hosts dissect news stories, social trends, and public personalities.
(03:26 – 04:39)
"Socialism sucks and it never works and it always ends up enriching the people in charge of it." (03:26)
(04:40 – 13:08)
"But it appears to be the first AI centered extremist movement. But it won't be the last..." (06:44)
"If it would just give me the information. But the whole good job... That thing bothers me and weirds me out." (11:10)
"...It put all these different threads together from conversations I'd had and I was like, whoa, what is going on here? That had never happened to me before. And I found that very disturbing." (12:53)
(13:10 – 14:56)
"...With a couple of clicks, if you wanted to, you could have her address and phone number... what she makes, and who her boyfriend was... who her kids are and where they go to school." (14:43)
(24:28 – 34:21)
Interviewer: "Did the vetting process turn up the tattoo that became so controversial?"
Interviewer/Podcast Host: "No." (27:47)
"...that just hilariously childlike false choice the genius offers us of. You're either completely a lunatic or you're grown in a vat..." (32:41)
(35:35 – 41:33)
Mike Johnson: "I'm not saying it's rigged. I'm saying it stinks to high heaven. And everybody knows that." (37:35)
"If people don't believe in the outcome, the outcome could be completely correct. Doesn't make any difference if people don't believe in the outcome." (38:54)
(41:33 – 44:49)
Jack Armstrong: "That's a pretty big deal and deserves a wildly disproportionate response." (42:35)
(43:49 – End)
Jack Armstrong on Socialism vs. Capitalism:
"I was guilty of judging capitalism by its operations and socialism by its hopes and aspirations, capitalism by its works and socialism by its literature." (04:39)
On AI Worship Cults:
"Spiralism has no leader, no doctrine, no central text, only the algorithm with which each user takes as a personal oracle." (07:45)
Privacy Worries with AI:
"Pulling that all together makes me hesitant to want to talk to it about various things." (12:54)
On Overreaching Rationalizations for Flawed Candidates:
"There’s a fair amount of ground between those two choices, son. A fair amount. I’d say 98% of humanity is between those two choices." (32:56)
Election Trust:
"Why do it in such a way that leaves open the door so easily for people to feel like it was rigged?" (38:32)
On California's Election Systems:
"California's voting system is a guy who just for fun, puts a different woman's perfume on his shirt, a little bit, a little lipstick on his collar. He just likes to take naps in local hotels where he checks in and out. And carries a burner phone... but tells his wife cheating. How dare you accuse me of that." (40:20)
| Topic | Approx. Timestamp | |---|---| | Admiration for Javier Milei, Socialism Discussion | 03:26 – 04:39 | | AI Cults & Extremism | 04:40 – 13:08 | | Online Privacy & Data Doxxing | 13:10 – 14:56 | | The Graham Platner Political Scandal | 24:28 – 34:21 | | Election Integrity and California | 35:35 – 41:33 | | US-Iran Military Tensions, Breaking News | 41:33 – 44:49 | | Final Thoughts & Miscellaneous | 43:49 – End |
The conversation is laced with irony, skepticism, and banter, mixing deep concern about social/political trends with comedic takedowns and cultural references. Both hosts bring a mix of world-weary cynicism and genuine alarm at alarming trends—whether it’s AI cult hysteria or the parade of unvetted political candidates.
This episode winds through broad terrain—from Argentina’s libertarian reforms, the eerie rise of AI religious cults, tech privacy nightmares, cringeworthy political vetting, and the mechanics (and theatrics) of US elections, all the way to breaking international headlines. Armstrong and Getty blend serious analysis with sardonic mockery, making it an energetic, deeply critical look at the week’s weirdest and most revealing headlines.