The Reptile Surprise

Summary

Podcast Summary: Armstrong & Getty On Demand – "The Reptile Surprise" (July 23, 2025)

In the July 23, 2025 episode of Armstrong & Getty On Demand, hosted by iHeartPodcasts, hosts Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty delve into a range of pressing global and domestic issues. Entitled "The Reptile Surprise," the episode navigates through complex geopolitical tensions, media narratives, sports labor disputes, intelligence community revelations, and even touches on the lighter side of climate change. Below is a detailed summary capturing the key discussions, insights, and conclusions from the episode.

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1. US-Iran Relations and Nuclear Negotiations

The episode opens with a discussion on the latest developments in US-Iran relations, particularly focusing on Iran's nuclear program.

• Key Points:

  • US allies are set to meet Iranian officials in Turkey to discuss Iran's nuclear ambitions.
  • Iran's Foreign Minister emphasized their commitment to their nuclear enrichment program, labeling it an achievement of Iranian scientists.

• Notable Quote:

  • Getty (04:04): “If Israel’s intentions and actions are genocidal… why hasn’t it been more methodical and vastly more deadly or more successful?”

2. Media Coverage of Violent Crimes

Armstrong and Getty critique the media's prioritization of sensational violent crimes over more substantial geopolitical issues.

• Key Points:

  • The hosts question why Fox News elevated the sentencing of a murderer in Idaho to its number one story.
  • Armstrong remarks, “If it bleeds, it leads. It’s just this sort of lowbrowish, click-baity, horrifying murders.”

• Notable Quote:

  • Armstrong (05:12): “If it bleeds, it leads. It’s just this sort of kind of low browish, click baity, horrifying murders.”

3. Bret Stephens' Argument on Genocide in Gaza

A significant portion of the episode centers on Bret Stephens' opinion piece in the New York Times, arguing against labeling Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide.

• Key Points:

  • Stephens contends that the term "genocide" should retain its definition and not be applied to any unfavorable military action.
  • He compares Israel's actions to the Allied bombings in WWII, emphasizing intent over casualties.

• Notable Quotes:

  • Getty (06:33): “Genocide is a word that was coined in the 1940s… The abuse of the term genocide risks blinding us to real ones when they unfold.”
  • Armstrong (07:43): “We're watching… Israel's attitude at this point is, no, anything that strengthens Hamas, we're not going to do.”

4. Comparison to WWII Bombings

The hosts draw parallels between current events in Gaza and the Allied strategies during the final stages of World War II.

• Key Points:

  • Armstrong references the massive bombings in Japan, highlighting the difference in media coverage due to the absence of real-time global broadcasting.
  • Getty anticipates renewed debates on the ethics of dropping atomic bombs, paralleling them with Israel's actions today.

• Notable Quote:

  • Getty (10:18): “The aim of the Allies was to defeat the Nazis… Not to wipe out the Germans, simply for being German.”

5. WNBA All-Star Pay Demands

Shifting focus to domestic sports, Armstrong and Getty discuss the WNBA All-Stars' recent push for higher salaries and profit sharing.

• Key Points:

  • The hosts analyze media reactions, noting the disparity between public support and the reality of the WNBA’s financial situation.
  • They critique the inflated claims of the WNBA owing the NBA $400 million, labeling it as misleading.

• Notable Quotes:

  • Getty (22:03): “The NBA essentially pays for the WNBA, which has lost money every single year of its existence.”
  • Armstrong (22:15): “Good luck with your labor dispute.”

6. Intelligence Community and Russian Interference

A heated discussion unfolds around newly declassified intelligence reports questioning the extent of Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

• Key Points:

  • Tulsi Gabbard’s release of newly declassified documents reveals that the FBI and NSA had low confidence in the claim that Russia hacked Democratic emails.
  • Armstrong and Getty express skepticism about the narrative that Russia aimed to help Trump win the election, highlighting internal dissent within intelligence agencies.

• Notable Quotes:

  • Armstrong (31:49): “Brennan could get up there and say… the guy lies for a living. So he'd say under oath, yeah, I was at that meeting.”
  • Getty (37:31): “US intel concealed high level doubts about Russian interference… We don't know that.”

7. Energy and Cybersecurity Concerns

The hosts touch upon national security issues related to energy infrastructure and cybersecurity threats from China.

• Key Points:

  • Discussion revolves around the Department of Energy's prioritization of cybersecurity to protect energy systems from Chinese interference.
  • Armstrong underscores the potential chaos resulting from cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure, such as power grids and hospitals.

• Notable Quotes:

  • Armstrong (39:07): “If the Chinese ever decide to pull that trigger, it’s going to be crazy days.”
  • Getty (39:25): “Don’t trust China.”

8. Climate Change Humor

Injecting some levity, Armstrong and Getty explore quirky and humorous effects of climate change as imagined by ChatGPT.

• Key Points:

  • The conversation lists absurd climate change impacts like left-handed polar bears and tasteless fish, highlighting the sometimes bizarre public perceptions of climate issues.
  • Getty shares a personal anecdote about an iguana falling from a hammock, humorously attributing it to global warming.

• Notable Quotes:

  • Getty (44:31): “More left handed polar bears. Tasteless, tasteless fish. Exploding trees.”
  • Armstrong (47:33): “Oh, of course.”

---

Conclusion

In "The Reptile Surprise," Armstrong and Getty offer a blend of incisive political commentary, critical analysis of media narratives, and moments of humor. They scrutinize the use of charged terms like "genocide," question mainstream intelligence narratives, and explore the complexities of labor disputes in sports. Additionally, the episode underscores national security concerns while also exploring lighter topics related to climate change. Through their candid discussions and pointed quotes, Armstrong and Getty provide listeners with a nuanced perspective on some of the most pressing issues of the day.

---

Notable Quotes Compilation:

• Armstrong (05:12): “If it bleeds, it leads. It’s just this sort of kind of low browish, click baity, horrifying murders.”
• Getty (06:33): “Genocide is a word that was coined in the 1940s… The abuse of the term genocide risks blinding us to real ones when they unfold.”
• Armstrong (07:43): “We're watching… Israel's attitude at this point is, no, anything that strengthens Hamas, we're not going to do.”
• Getty (22:03): “The NBA essentially pays for the WNBA, which has lost money every single year of its existence.”
• Armstrong (31:49): “Brennan could get up there and say… the guy lies for a living. So he'd say under oath, yeah, I was at that meeting.”
• Getty (37:31): “US intel concealed high level doubts about Russian interference… We don't know that.”
• Armstrong (39:07): “If the Chinese ever decide to pull that trigger, it’s going to be crazy days.”
• Getty (44:31): “More left handed polar bears. Tasteless, tasteless fish. Exploding trees.”

---

This comprehensive summary encapsulates the essence of "The Reptile Surprise," offering both seasoned listeners and newcomers alike a thorough overview of the episode's key discussions and insights.

Transcript

[Podcast Host]

This is an iHeart podcast.

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[Jacob Goldstein]

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[Podcast Host]

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[Armstrong]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center.

[Sonesta Advertiser]

Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Getty. This week, European leaders are focused on.

[Getty]

Both trade and Tehran.

[Armstrong]

US Allies will meet with Iranian officials in Turkey to talk about its nuclear program. Something Iran's foreign minister said on Special.

[Getty]

Report last night it has no plans to abandon.

[Armstrong]

We cannot give up our enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists Trump posted on social media, future.

[Getty]

Strikes against Iran are possible, writing we'll do it again if necessary. What was that comment from the Iranian foreign minister? We can't give up our program because it's an achievement of our scientists. What the hell kind of argument is that?

[Armstrong]

That was a very odd one. I was just reading about all of those scientists. What Was that? Was it 19? Who Israel took out.

[Getty]

Yeah.

[Armstrong]

As part of the big raid and how senior they were and how they're in charge of everything that was. I think the bombs in Fordo were certainly significant and Israel's other bombing very significant. But I think the whole rubbing out all the scientists is underappreciated.

[Getty]

Probably make the next generation of smart kids maybe choose a different major. Also, I was going to be a nuclear scientist, but I think I'll study something else.

[Armstrong]

Can I do computers, please?

[Getty]

Right. Before we get to the main thing I want to get to. So Fox's number one story today, just observing Fox, is that scumbag murderer up in Idaho and his sentencing today. Any idea why they elevated that to the number one story?

[Armstrong]

If it bleeds, it leads. It's just this sort of kind of low browish, click baity, horrifying murders. You don't. I myself, I want to know about that because it's part of, you know, our psyche as human beings. We want to know more about what might kill us and how to prevent it.

[Getty]

Okay, so Bret Stephens, he's an opinion peace journalist for the New York Times, has a piece out today. No Israel's not committing a genocide, which I think is, you know, good news that the New York Times is willing to print that. I'm sure the newsroom was very upset about that. It's also an argument that needs to be made. I'm going to skip to the very end before I get into some of the details, because I thought it was pretty important that he said this. Genocide is a word that was coined in the 1940s, and if it is to retain its status as a uniquely horrific crime, then the term can't be promiscuously applied to any military situation we don't like. Wars are awful enough, but the abuse of the term genocide runs the risk of ultimately blinding us to real ones when they unfold, which is obviously true. Diluting the meeting of genocide of the word will only make them more likely to happen. Right?

[Armstrong]

Yeah. It's like clearly argued for years when everybody was calling everybody a racist for anything they didn't like. Of course we didn't understand it was an effort to take over institutions. But yeah, it's the same thing. It just weakens the word, oh, I'm a racist, who cares? You call everybody a racist, you call everything a genocide.

[Getty]

He makes the argument that the term genocide does not fit with the facts on the ground. With what Israel is doing in Gaza. He points out, for instance, if Israel's intentions and actions are genocidal, if it is so malevolent that is committed to the annihilation of Gazans, which is what a genocide would be, why hasn't it been more methodical and vastly more deadly or more successful? Why not say hundreds of thousands of deaths after two years of being at this, as opposed to about 60,000, which is the claim of the Hamas run health ministry. And they are probably exaggerating and they don't distinguish between combatant and civilian deaths. Even their exaggerated number that includes Hamas combatants is 60,000, not hundreds of thousands. If Israel is wanting to commit a genocide, they're the most powerful military in all of the Middle East. They could do it and quickly.

[Armstrong]

Right.

[Getty]

So that's one argument it's kind of hard to get around.

[Armstrong]

I have a comment. Just let me know when you're wanting to move on from this topic, but go ahead.

[Getty]

I wanted to get to the. He talks about how lots of civilians have died and the completely chaotic food distribution and everything like that, and the impossible situation that Israel is in and trying to get food to the Gazans without Hamas stealing it and strengthening them.

[Armstrong]

Right.

[Getty]

And he also points out that the fact that Over a million German civilians died in World War II, thousands of them in bombings that we were doing in Dresden and other towns made them victims of the war, but not a genocide. The aim of the Allies in the United States was to defeat the Nazis for leading Germany into war. Not to wipe out the Germans, simply for being German, same as what's going here. The quite a few Gazans, or Palestinians or whatever you want to call them, could die in the attempt to wipe out Hamas, but the goal is to wipe out Hamas, not the Gazans.

[Armstrong]

So that. That actually fits really well with the point I was going to make. And I've been saying this for a while, and I have not come across anybody who. Who has refuted it via email or text or whatever or in alternate media. I think what we are seeing is something close to total victory for the first time, televised all over the world. Everybody's got a camera, everybody's televising what it looks like for one country to say, that's it. We've got to completely defeat our enemy, because they attack us over and over again, and we're through with it. And it's ugly and it's heartbreaking. And from the Israeli perspective, and I happen to agree with them, it's necessary. I mean, for instance, you loosen up the food distribution thing so Hamas steals more of it, and your guys and the American contractors are at much greater risk. You let people cluster around you, some of whom have weapons. You don't fire into them, et cetera, et cetera. Then you strengthen your adversary. And Israel's attitude at this point is, no, anything that strengthens Hamas, we're not going to do, including getting our hostages back. That's what we're watching, in my opinion.

[Getty]

I keep mentioning that. I'm reading this book, Twilight of the Gods, which is about the last year of the war in the Pacific, the very end of World War II, which we're celebrating the anniversary of right now. I'm surprised it's not getting more attention. The 80th anniversary of Iwo Jima and, you know, some of those great big battles leading up to the dropping of the atomic bombs. I have a feeling here in about a week or so, on the actual 80th anniversary, adopting the bomb, there's gonna be quite a bit of talk of, they were on their backs, we didn't need to do that, et cetera, et cetera. So all that stuff is gonna come back up. But, man, we were just obliterating Japan at the. The weeks leading up to this. Like, some of the Stats are just incredible. We dropped more bombs on Japan, like in the day before the atomic bomb than the entire previous part of the war. I mean, it just had ramped up so much toward the end to try to get them to your point, to capitulate, to completely submit, to surrender. Same way that had to happen with the Germans. And imagine if that had been televised and reported on and Twitter in the way that it would be now or the way it is with Israel trying to wipe out Hamas. It's hard to imagine. I mean, a lot of this stuff didn't get. A lot of these stories didn't get told for decades. You know, best case scenario was a week later in the New York Times, there'd be a paragraph. But some of this stuff didn't get told for years of what.

[Armstrong]

And there. There are some people who can't deal with that. They think, no, there's got to be another way. That. That's.

[Podcast Host]

We.

[Armstrong]

I can't be for that. We've got to give peace a chance or whatever. And there are some of us who are a bit more coldly practical who say that all of those things you just described ultimately saved many lives. So it was horrific, horrible, horrifying, but necessary.

[Getty]

Back to this story. Cause I have a feeling we're gonna get plenty of chance to talk about the end of World War II here in a couple of weeks, because that's guaranteed. Mainstream media is gonna go big on the. Whether we should have dropped the bomb or not. But Brett Stevens writes in the New York Times, what's unusual about Gaza is the cynical and criminal way Hamas has chosen to wage war in. When Russia attacks with missiles, drones, or artillery, the civilians go underground while the Ukrainian military stays above ground to fight in Gaza. It's the reverse. Hamas goes underground, doesn't allow the civilians to use their network of tunnels. They're not allowed in there. Hamas goes underground to leave the Gazans up above and suffer the consequences of Israel trying to bomb out Hamas.

[Armstrong]

Right? Yeah. They're despicable.

[Getty]

It is quite amazing.

[Armstrong]

Despicable. Islamist totalitarians. Israel said, that's enough. We can't trust you ever again.

[Getty]

How do you prosecute a war in the modern world where everybody gets to see it up close? Well, I guess we're watching that.

[Armstrong]

You've almost got to have the desperation of the Israeli people, a lot of them, and. And somebody like Netanyahu, who, depending on who you ask, is just a very, very practical man, having been a special forces soldier himself or a maniac or he's holding on to power to keep himself out of jail or whatever. You've got to have a leader who.

[Getty]

Is completely resolute back to the end of World War II. There's been a lot of controversy for the last 80 years over whether or not FDR should have demanded unconditional surrender. The part that I didn't know was it was a complete off the cuff. None of his aides knew it was coming. Every it was a very Trump esque and that everybody is scrambling because the press immediately was asking questions to, you know, chief of staff, everybody. Unconditional surrender. Would that come from. What does that mean? What about this? What about that? And they're all we'll get back to you on that because no, nobody knew he was going to say that.

[Armstrong]

Interesting.

[Getty]

Yeah, it really is.

[Armstrong]

Then he croaked.

[Getty]

Then he croaked. And I was just reading the part last night where they have to sit down Harry Truman and let him know. Interesting story. Here we see we're working on this bomb. We're actually just about done.

[Armstrong]

Ever been to New Mexico? It's beautiful.

[Getty]

Anyway, gonna be the biggest weapon in the history of the world. So he's completely in the dark on that.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, he was.

[Getty]

He was completely in the dark on practically everything about the war. Not just that he was just not involved. I had to get up ice really quick.

[Armstrong]

He was the classic balancing VP choice for fdr Midwestern guy down to earth. He attracted the X voter and the Y voter but they had nothing to do with each other.

[Getty]

He was not even close to the last person in the room when big decisions are made. He had no idea what was going on for the strategy of World War II. Then all of a sudden it drops in your lap in the final weeks and you got to figure out do we drop a bomb? Do we invade with the plan was significantly bigger than D day invasion of France for invading Japan significantly. It's going to be much, much bigger.

[Armstrong]

And bloodier and bloodier.

[Getty]

Anyway, we'll get a chance to talk about that in early August. I guarantee you. Stay here.

[Hannah Jewell]

Armstrong and Gettysburg.

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[Jacob Goldstein]

This is Jacob Goldstein from what's yous Problem? When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing. Odoo solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on the features you need. Check out Odoo at o d o o.com that's o d o o.com I.

[Hannah Jewell]

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[Frustrated User]

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[Armstrong]

Hi guys, I saw that Subway just hired an executive from Burger King to Be their new CEO.

[Getty]

There could be a lot of changes.

[Armstrong]

Coming to Subway, but they just put out a new ad to reassure their longtime customers. Even though we're changing management, we promise to keep all your favorite things about Subway. Like five dollar footlongs for eight dollars workers who clearly hate your guts. Cookies that were made either 10 minutes or 10 days ago. No. In between. Brighter lights in an operating room. A massive Jared cover up on the same scale as the Epstein cover up. And tuna Subway eat fresh. Yeah. What was that shot at tuna? I'm not having that lights as bright.

[Getty]

As an operating room. That is true. Subway is an incredibly bright restaurant. I'm not exactly sure.

[Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Getty]

My local Subway the person does seem to hate the customers. True. My experience with the cookies are always fresh and delicious. Their cookies are damn good. They brought this hate on themselves though. Don't claim you have a foot long sandwich and it turns out to be 11 inches.

[Armstrong]

All right, all right. Speaking of the world to work a couple of more stories. First of all, Judy and I having a remodel done. I've enjoyed watching the process take place. Sometimes the work crews are there, sometimes they're not. Sometimes the weather turns and they go home. At one point yesterday I texted her the carpenters are back but they're not carpenting yet. And I found myself wondering because I like words, where the hell did the term carpenter come from? It originates from the late Latin word carpentarius meaning wagon maker or carriage maker. Term itself is derived from carpentum referring to a two wheeled carriage and has been adopted from the French form of that word, I guess sharpened here.

[Getty]

So you're getting a bowling lane put in. That's cool.

[Armstrong]

That's correct. And an archery gallery. My twin loves archery and bowling. I love them. Actually I do enjoy both of them, but I. Ah. Anyway, plumbers, plumb, right? Electricians deal with electricity. But carpenters deal with some flatten word. Why don't we have our own word? A good American word.

[Getty]

I can see why you're upset.

[Armstrong]

Another note from the world of work. The WNBA all Stars already fairly commented upon. They're showing up for their game. Nobody watched. Wearing the pay us what you owe us shirts. A demand for higher salaries and profit sharing among the players. And I'm quoting Jeff Blair of the National Review here from time to time, he says then they played a game. Excuse me, that nobody watched. Who won? I did. I was reading a book at the time. He says the reaction on social media was instantaneous and brutal. However, who exactly? What exactly is Owed to whom? By whom? Tens of thousands of online accounts asked significantly or simultaneously. My first reaction was that if WNO now I'll skip that part. The Babylon be had the best headline, as they often do. Uh oh. WNBA players demand to be paid what they're worth and now they owe the NBA $400 million.

[Getty]

Ooh, good one. That's pretty good.

[Armstrong]

And then he gets into whether it's actually a woke social justice thing or it's just a ho hum labor dispute. They're trying to get a better deal, which is fine. Trying to get the fans on their side.

[Getty]

Yeah, I suppose. I don't know. I know people that I would describe as above average intelligence think it's unfair that they're getting paid less than NBA players.

[Armstrong]

They are intelligent, but they are fools. They have no judgment. Back in 2020, the WNBA players union negotiated a revenue sharing agreement guaranteeing them 9.9% of league revenues. Meanwhile, NBA players currently get a 50% share of all back basketball related income distributed to them. And that's blah blah blah. It's that's what gets to why their complaints ring so hollow. The NBA essentially pays for the wnba, which has lost money every single year of its existence. And he goes into he elaborates on that. During the last very profitable season, The NBA generated $11.3 billion in revenue. The NWNBA somewhere around 100 to 200 million. A teeny tiny fraction. Its television ratings are similarly minuscule compared with the NBA's. Except for occasionally a Caitlin Clark game.

[Getty]

Right.

[Armstrong]

So good luck with your labor dispute.

[Getty]

Yeah, and then the fact that they don't embrace the one person that has risen them to the level of even discussing it. Risen haven't helped them. Rosen. We got more on the way.

[Armstrong]

Stay here. Armstrong and Getty.

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[Podcast Host]

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[Tech Advertiser]

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[Getty]

Whether it's right or wrong, it's time to go after people. Obama's been caught directly. Okay, so I hadn't been paying close attention to this story until today. Trump Making some pretty, should be headline grabbing claims. But as David Muir on ABC News last night led. Do you have that clip still, Michael? Tonight we have breaking news as we come on the air. Ozzy Osbourne has died. Yeah. Never mind that the sitting president just said that two presidents ago committed treason in lying about intelligence to try to ruin his presidency, which seems like a.

[Armstrong]

Pretty big story, but probably ought to go to jail.

[Getty]

Yeah, exactly. And said he should be in jail. Nope. Ozzy Osborne died. So we covered that up. Anyway, here's, here's, here's the Fox version of the story. And Obama responded to Trump's claim. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office suggesting his predecessor, Barack Obama should face criminal charges. He's guilty. This was treason. This was every word you can think of. They tried to steal the election. Trump's comments come after the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard asked the Justice Department to look into allegations that members of the Obama administration, quote, altered intelligence to push the narrative of a Trump Russia plot days before Trump took off office in 2017, despite prior intelligence reportedly indicating otherwise. So Matt Taibbi, who we've been quoting a lot lately, he's a journalist we both like. And one of the reasons I, I really believe him on this stuff is he can't stand Trump. He hates Donald Trump. He's written books about how awful he thinks Donald Trump is, but he hates lying in government even more than that.

[Armstrong]

He and, and journalists who, who kiss.

[Getty]

The ass of power and particularly has been very skeptical, skeptical of our intelligence agents, intelligence agencies and some of the things that they've done. So Tulsi Gabbard, who it, you know, the messenger on this doesn't help because Telsey Gabbard to me is a bit of a whack job. But that doesn't mean everything that she does is not true. She released these documents, the documents newly declassified by her as the dni, show that the intelligence community assessment, Mueller, who was running the FBI at the time, and Senate reports all excluded the intelligence community's own secretly identified doubts about the allegation. The allegation being that Russia Putin specifically ordered the hack of the Democrat emails. Remember Hillary's emails, that whole thing. Putin was behind that. And it was an effort by the Russians to get Donald Trump elected. Well, according to previously unpublished intelligence, and this is just out, the FBI and the NSA expressed low confidence that Russia was behind the hack and release of the Democratic Party emails. And as is pointed out here, the joint FBI NSA dissent is especially significant, giving their role in this, the NSA is the agency best position to assess this sort of thing. They're the best in the world at this sort of thing. And the FBI would be the group that would lead a probe of the cyber theft and all that sort of stuff, and they didn't because they had such low confidence that Russia was behind the hack. This is all new. So then why, if the NSA and the FBI both thought we don't have any evidence that Putin and the Russians were the ones that hacked Hillary's emails, why then, in October of 2016, right before the election, did the Department of Homeland Security put out a statement claiming that US Intelligence community is confident that Russia hacked the Democratic Party in order to interfere with the US Election and help get Trump elected? Why did that happen?

[Armstrong]

According to testimony, one member of the the working group who I mentioned yesterday said, we have no intelligence to directly support the idea that they wanted Trump to win. None. And, and Comey and Clapper essentially said, shut up.

[Getty]

This has been reported as fact now for how many years is that? Nine years. And I was watching MSNBC last night. They, they, they, they, they state as fact. We all know that Russia was hoping to get Donald Trump elected, that they hacked Hillary's emails. No, we don't know that. At least the FBI and the NSA didn't know that. I don't know where you're getting your information, but those are the two best organizations to try to figure that out. And their confidence was low. Notably, the FBI objected to formally accusing Russia and refused to participate. By that point, the joint statement had a more powerful endorser that according to testimony from J. Johnson, who was the DHS secretary at the time, President Obama approved the statement and wanted us to make it. That is his testimony on that statement that came out October of 2016. That Obama was behind it for whatever his reasons were, and I think we can probably guess. And then on December, after Trump had had been already been elected, Obama made another request asking the intelligence community to produce a new version of the intelligence community assessment that could be made public. The FBI and the.

[Armstrong]

Wow, wow, that's, that's worth saying. He said, look, we got to come up with a version of this we can put out.

[Getty]

Yeah.

[Armstrong]

Because there's too much classified stuff in here. But I got to get this to the New York Times.

[Getty]

I still, my assessment is this. I have very low confidence this will go anywhere and anything will come of it just because of the way the world works. But I will for the rest of my life believe that this was an absolute Railroad job. Even more than I had thought before. I assumed that Russia probably did hack Hillary's emails because they're, you know, they're always, they're missing in on stuff all the time. And I always assumed the trying to help Trump thing was just the Hillary had a 95% chance of winning, according to the New York Times. I mean, they were just trying to muck up our election. It wasn't particularly that they thought Trump was going to help them in any way. They were just trying to mess with our elections and make it harder on the person that was going to come in as president. But the fact that the NSA and the FBI thought, I don't know who hacked those emails. We certainly don't know it was the Russians. We, we have no reason to know that. Wow.

[Armstrong]

Wow. Yeah. So much dirty pool, so much lying, so much cover up. But, you know, you say it's not going to go anywhere because of the way the world works, and I know what you mean by that. I just also think there's too much plausible deniability. I mean, like the, the paper trail around the Brennan decision when he had a number of top people saying, look, we have no evidence of this, we cannot assert this, this, this is a complete violation of our standards. And he had a lengthy meeting in which they articulated their serious concerns, then, quote, the assessment will stay the same. He reported at the end of the meeting, Brennan could get up there and say, you know, then the guy lies for a living. So he'd say under oath, yeah, I was at that meeting. And yeah, five out of six guys said there's no evidence for it. But that six guy, man, was he eloquent. And he convinced me completely. He made some excellent points that nobody else had. And yep, he convinced me that it was the Russians. So what do you got? Now.

[Getty]

The FBI objected to formally accusing Russia and refused to participate. But a joint statement came out anyway from Jeh Johnson, who testified under oath that Obama approved the statement and wanted us to make it that Russia and Putin were behind the hack. Where did that come from? That's made up out of whole cloth. Or like you said, maybe there's one person that did believe it for whatever reason.

[Armstrong]

And then at what point did Obama, Brennan, somebody, Hillary, get the FBI to go along with it? The infamous, you know, Comey leaking that Steele dossier, which is just, just unforgivable.

[Getty]

That whole thing is so awful and there's gonna be a reverse version of that at some point where the intelligence agencies screw a Democrat or a. Yeah, it Goes the other way. And don't you worry about that as a lefty, that you don't want. You don't want these intelligence agencies playing these games.

[Armstrong]

No, because so many of them don't have principles. They just want power. Especially inside the Beltway. They pretend to have principles. To quote for the umpteenth time, that great few lines in Mark Leibovich's book, this Town. We're both in on the joke. What's the joke? They didn't want to tell him. They finally told him. The joke is that we're patriots. No, they just want power because then they have access to the Treasury. So, yeah, they'll do about anything to get it. And if this happens next week, the scenario you described where the shoe was on the other foot, you will see every Bigfoot media member you can name shouting about how the Intelligence Committee needs to be or community needs to be brought to heal and the spooks need to have some serious regulation on them. And this is an absolutely awful dereliction of duty and abuse of power and blah, blah, blah. Now they can't be bothered.

[Getty]

So the headline in that article that Matt Taibbi retweeted, again, he's no Trump fan by any means whatsoever. He's a guy who's, as everyone should be, highly scared of these big intelligence agencies and their ability to, like, manipulate the world.

[Armstrong]

Right.

[Getty]

But anyway, the headline was US intel concealed high level doubts about Russian interference. The whole narrative of Russian interference is doesn't exist Again, as recently as last night, I was watching all the news channels reported as well, this one thing we do know, Russia hacked Hillary's emails and wanted Trump to be elected. We know that. So let's start there. No, we don't know that. We never knew that.

[Armstrong]

No.

[Getty]

How many, how many people in America will ever hear this?

[Armstrong]

Five percent too few. Yeah. Yep. It's disappointing. Democracy doesn't work. Oh, speaking of which, I should ask for this audio the Secretary of Energy, whose name is of course, Ed Schmidt Kovich. I can never remember his name.

[Getty]

I'm the Secretary of Lack of Energy today for some reason.

[Armstrong]

Wow. Wow. Sorry to hear that. But whatever his name is, I really like the cut of his jib. He's smart guy, an entrepreneur. He joked with Brett Bear last night on Special Report that he hasn't had a boss since he was 19. But he's really enjoying Trump as a boss because Trump is so into energy, developing more sources of energy, more, a greater quantity of energy, cheaper energy, blah, blah, blah. And so it's been really, really fun for him. But he, he mentioned in kind of a lesser emphasized part of the interview that their cybersecurity programs are super high priority because China, we know China is inside our systems, our energy systems right now. They are poised to do us damage and take our systems off grid. You know, just screw with us any way they can.

[Getty]

Don't trust China.

[Armstrong]

That's right, sir, I don't. But I thought that was something. Secretary Energy saying, oh yeah, they're inside our systems already and we're trying to figure out how and looking for them and everything. But man, if the Chinese ever decide to pull that trigger, it's going to be crazy days.

[Getty]

That's frightening.

[Armstrong]

Your power goes out, your cell phone goes out, traffic lights go out. The local hospital has is running on emergency power. Oof.

[Getty]

One more note on the story where we're talking about about the whole Russian hoax thingy. This I just came across. Even after John Brennan was told by career intel experts that the Steele dossier was garbage, Brennan ignored them and forced its inclusion into the intelligent community assessment, the one that Obama put out. And this testimony is claimed to be true. Yes, but doesn't it ring true? Brennan reportedly responded after being told the Steele dossier failed to meet the basic requirements for being in this report. Yes, but doesn't it range, doesn't it sound like the sort of thing that Trump would do so they put it in there?

[Armstrong]

No, the intelligence agencies joined in on the oppo research and character assassination that is the, you know, characteristic big time politics. They sure as hell shouldn't. But that's exactly what happened.

[Getty]

And they sleep well at night by feeling like they were patriots because Trump was the new Hitler. So we were doing the right thing. We're standing up for America, right? All right. We'll see if we ever get to the bottom. There's more on the we do not have time for this kind of ceilings.

[Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.

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[Getty]

Here are some other headlines. Tonight, a life threatening heat dome is intensifying. It's expected to push temperatures into the upper 90s for a huge portion of the country. High humidity will make the conditions seem hotter with feels like readings above 100 degrees in some places. Or as Joe calls it, summer. Oh my God, a life threatening heat dome.

[Armstrong]

You say, hey Michael, you know, metal guy who does California scrambling for us and stuff like that. He's got to do life threatening heat dome. Just feels like it needs that to me.

[Getty]

So we got a new one. Life threatening heat dome. Good lord. Or as Joe Getty calls it, summer.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, my wife and I were caught in the lthd the other day and we said to each other, Jesus, hot. I don't want to do anything outside. Do you know, let's stay inside. That's how we dealt with the life threatening heat dome.

[Getty]

You want to hear something amusing? I just asked Chat GPT give me a list of things people have blamed climate change on.

[Armstrong]

Oh really?

[Getty]

And some of them kind of make sense, but even in, in total when you hear them, it's, I mean it is what it is. Like for instance, number one, shark attacks. Warmer oceans, more sharks near the shore. That could be, but I'll just go through them fast. Shark attacks, more plane turbulence. Worsening allergies. Blander wine, Angrier lobsters. Cows producing less milk. Coffee shortages, shorter ski seasons, increase in jellyfish, more kidney stones, Sex changing reptiles. Birds are getting smaller. Invasions of giant spiders. Moose are losing their hair. Worsening bo. More left handed polar bears.

[Armstrong]

Wait a second, wow.

[Getty]

More left handed polar bears.

[Armstrong]

The nightmare. You got thousands of polar bears. Can't use a pair of scissors.

[Getty]

Tasteless, tasteless fish. Exploding trees. Longer mating seasons for pandas. Falling iguanas in Florida.

[Armstrong]

Like, oh yeah.

[Getty]

Thank you, fossil fuel. Falling iguanas in Florida. I actually had that. I was laying in a hammock. Is that how you pronounce it? I was laying in a hammock by this little house I rented by the ocean. And it was just as like serene, idyllic, like you're in paradise sort of setting as you could have. But I was in this hammock under this thatched roof thing and there was like this rustling and stuff. I was half asleep. There's all this rustling and then a plop. And I looked down and this iguana had fallen out of the, the, the, the top of the thing and landed next to me in the, in the hammock on the ground. And it kind of looked around like.

[Armstrong]

What the hell was that?

[Getty]

It ran off because of the global warming. Exactly. Tasteless fish. Warm water can alter fish muscle composition.

[Armstrong]

Oh, of course.

[Getty]

Okay. And so they taste worse, not better. Seems like just as likely as it make them taste better. Worsening bo. Higher temps equals more sweat.

[Armstrong]

Okay, the sex change in rectal thing is true, but what is happening? This is so bizarre. I've learned this about sea turtles, that if the temperature, the mean temperature when the eggs are what eggs do. It's a gestate eggify as they're laying there. Eggifying. If the temperature is below a very precise point, they figured it out. The turtles will be females and if it's above temp, they will be males or vice versa. I can't remember which, but it's thought provoking and very, very odd.

[Getty]

Does that work that way for people? Make your wife sleep out in the car overnight and you have a boy.

[Armstrong]

Or really want a son this time, honey. So I'm sorry. And no, no jacket.

[Getty]

How about giant spiders? Kind of a reverse sort of situation. Birds getting smaller. Is there anything we can do about that?

[Armstrong]

More. Sell your parka. Buy some shorts like this one.

[Getty]

More kidney stones. Dehydration from rising temps. Drink more water. Then if you're hotter, drink more. You don't just drink the same amount of water, no matter how hot it gets, do you?

[Armstrong]

No, of course not. It's all ridiculous. And besides, what are you going to do anyway? China's cranking out the pollutants as fast as they can.

[Getty]

That's pretty good speaking.

[Armstrong]

Yeah, that's pretty funny. Speaking of progressive policies. Next hour. What you don't get next hour. Subscribe to our podcast, Armstrong and Getty on demand, wherever you like to get podcasts. Give us a nice review too, would you? Speaking of progressive policies, the new mayor of San Francisco who has jettisoned virtually every woke policy. What's his approval rating now in the city after just six months? We'll tell you about it.

[Getty]

Oh, I want to hear that.

[Armstrong]

Armstrong and Gettysburg.

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[Podcast Host]

This is an iHeart podcast.