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Jack Armstrong
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Boom XBoom there's a lot going on in Hollywood. How are you supposed to stay on top of it all? Variety has the solution. Take 20 minutes out of your day and listen to the new daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives.
Jack Armstrong
Where do you see the business actually heading?
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Featuring the iconic journalists of Variety and hosted by co Editor in Chief Cynthia Littleton.
Joe Getty
The only constant in Hollywood is change.
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Open your free iHeartradio app, search daily Variety and listen now.
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@o d o o.com. that's o d o o.com.
Jack Armstrong
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at.
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The George Washington broadcast. Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
Jack Armstrong
Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Getty. Already this morning from inside the White House, President Donald Trump has been commenting about this case, describing former FBI Director James Comey as a dirty cop and a destroyer of lives. That comes as Comey now faces federal charges of obstructing justice and making false statements that could land him behind bars for five years if found guilty. Yes, for the first time ever, a former or current FBI director has been indicted. James Comey. You might remember the name if you follow politics at all. He probably got Trump elected in 2016 when he announced with, what, like a week to go before the election? I've reopened the case with Hillary Clinton. What? What? Why'd you tell us this?
Joe Getty
She's guilty of all sorts of stuff that we're not going to charge her. Back to you.
Jack Armstrong
All right. That's how it ended. That was funny.
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
By the way, the indictment, Comey, just so you know what the other side is saying. Msnbc, for instance, I was watching this morning. They're treating it like this. I'm looking at a tweet from Joe Scarborough's account. The Comey indictment is among the worst abuses in Department of Justice history in this country. Shocking. It is hard to overstate how big a moment this is. They are calling this. This is a completely new level of lawlessness, even by Trump standards. We are into unknown territory. Our democracy is over. That's the way it's being looked.
Joe Getty
Right, Right. Well, that's exciting. Describing this as lawlessness. Trying to enforce the law is kind of funny. If you want to say that the independence of the Justice Department is threatened, okay, that's a good discussion to have. But as we've mentioned earlier in the show, the fess up to all the times Democrat administrations pressured the Justice Department to do one thing or another, including all the lawfare against Trump, which doesn't make it right, of course. What Trump's doing now, necessarily. Quick recap of the Wall Street Journal's description. And then we've got a lot of great audio for you. A federal grand jury in Virginia indicted former FBI Director James Comey. Blah, blah, blah. False statements and obstruction. Days after President Trump demanded the prosecution and ousted the U.S. attorney who determined that there was insufficient evidence to bring the case. All right, here's what we're talking about. Back in 2020, Congress was holding hearings about the investigation into Trump and the campaigns alleged ties to Russia back in the 2016 election and how dirty that was. All the leaks, the faked up FISA warrants, the strock and page and the insurance plan and just everything else. Oh my God, the Steele dossier. And oh, it goes on and on.
Jack Armstrong
And on and on.
Joe Getty
And Comey was asked this and said this. Have you ever been an anonymous source in news reports about matters relating to the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation?
Jonathan Turley
Never.
Joe Getty
Mr. McCabe, who works for you, has publicly and repeatedly stated that he leaked information to the Wall Street Journal and that you were directly aware of it and that you directly authorized it.
Jonathan Turley
I stand by what the testimony you summarized that I gave in May of 2017.
Joe Getty
And it's saying that no, I didn't. No, I didn't.
Jack Armstrong
And it's known that he leaked to that Columbia professor to get stuff into whichever newspaper was, I think the Washington Post, New York Times, whichever one, doesn't matter. That was the way he did things, According to Andrew McCabe, who was the FBI director after Comey.
Joe Getty
Right, Right. So it seems like he lied in front of Congress or at least there's reasonable suspicion that he lied in front of Congress. I think he's guilty as a dog, but so why not just go ahead and do this? Well, you got the question of Trump brow beating the Justice Department into filing the charges, even though most of the pros, including according to sources in the administration, Pam Bondi, told him, don't do this, it won't work. We won't get him. It's, it's not a good look, etc. But Trump was intent on doing it. Why don't we hold off on self righteous James Comey hauling himself up on the cross? 35, this is the President of the United States.
Jack Armstrong
They're going to make a determination. I'm not making that determine. I think I'd be allowed to get involved if it wants, but I don't really choose to do so. I can only say that Comey's a bad person. He's a sick person. I think he's a sick guy, actually. He did terrible things at the FBI and, but I don't know. I have no idea, idea what's going to happen.
Joe Getty
Jonathan Turley is a sane, sober voice with conservative sympathies. Certainly always interesting to listen to Jonathan about legal matters. Michael hit the first Turley, would you.
Jonathan Turley
It is a seismic event. I mean, you're talking about a former director of the FBI, and there have been long allegations that, that Comey was a leaker. If you recall, the inspector report was scathing with regard to Comey's conduct. Comey removed FBI documents, including classified information when he was fired, and the inspector general went after him, but it did not find that he specifically leaked that to the New York Times. But this could be a perjury case as opposed to a leak case.
Joe Getty
Hit the next one. It's brief.
Jonathan Turley
False statement or perjury. Prosecutions are not easy matters because they can be subject to interpretation. James Covey's very. Comey's a very clever person. He's testified a lot. And so these cases can be tricky to make out.
Jack Armstrong
That's a very charitable way to put it, I think Jonathan Turley saying it could be tricky. Andrew McCarthy writing in the National Review, and he is a conservative and he hated almost all of the cases against Trump and wrote at length about why they were ridiculous and, you know, a travesty of justice and we should be worried about going down this road, et cetera, et cetera. He thinks the indictment against Comey should be dismissed. He says it's absolutely illegal mess. He's writing today. He said we have to resort to reporting about what's in the indictment rather than just reading the indictment itself because the charge is so poorly drafted that it's not entirely clear what Comey is.
Joe Getty
Alleged to have lied about.
Jack Armstrong
The indictment does not mention McCabe or Hillary, who are referred to as someone else at the FBI. This is in quotes and person one. Missing from the indictment is any description of the incident involving McCabe, Clinton and Comey, out of which the perjury charger charge supposedly results. So it's difficult to understand what the charge actually is, says Andrew McCarthy.
Joe Getty
Oh, boy.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, oh, boy is right.
Joe Getty
Here's Keith Jarrett on Fox and friends. 44. It seems to me that his deceptions were pretty obvious. And, you know, the false statements obstruction charges are pretty straightforward, Brian.
Jonathan Turley
And if convicted, of course, up to.
Joe Getty
Five years in prison.
Jonathan Turley
You know, he allegedly leaked sensitive FBI.
Joe Getty
Material and then lied about it under questioning from Congress twice. 2017, again, he doubled down in 2020. And while testifying, Comey insisted, gee, I never authorized anybody else to anonymously leak. Well, several former FBI officials, including allegedly, Andrew McKay, James Baker, they're on record stating that Comey did authorize numerous, as we mentioned. That's fine on that one, Michael. So there you have folks on Fox and Friends saying, oh yeah, these charges are rock solid. Well, we're going to get them.
Jack Armstrong
I'll point out again, Fox, I turned on Fox and Friends this morning that while while other cable news channels are saying this is one of the biggest things that has ever happened and the worst thing Trump has ever done, Fox didn't even get around the story to the second segment, which makes me think that they're not super proud of it. They went with a bunch of other stories. Comey's a liar and he's absolutely full of crap about so many different things. And I do think he's a bad human. I don't know if he's the worst human that's ever existed or something that Trump said, well, he's in the finals.
Joe Getty
He'S in the running.
Jack Armstrong
Which is a hell of a thing to say. But once again, reading from Mark Halprin's nonpartisan newsletter today, he wrote, I've long been mystified as to the deification of James Comey by the media, a man whose public actions and statements have been put in sharp relief with a complete unprincipled phony and liar. He is unprincipled phony and liar. That's exactly what he is. We gotta play the Comey defending himself Instagram stuff just because it's so good. It's classic James Comey.
Joe Getty
One more at Lindsey Graham 52, then we'll get to Comey. When I questioned him five years ago, I didn't believe a word he told me. I don't believe it's possible for the director of the FBI not to know that the sub source who gave the information about the Russian dossier recanted it and it never got up to him. I don't believe it's possible that Comey did not know there was accusations against Clinton cooking this up. Because now we know that in August of 2016, three months before he applied for the warrant, they had a meeting about whether or not her campaign started this storyline to avoid exposure for the email scandal.
Jack Armstrong
Like, I'm not a lawyer, I'm not an expert in this area at all, and I don't claim to be, but just from reading the Smart people that I like, it seems to me classic lawfare, which is going on here. There's very little chance because of the particulars that they get anything, you know, legally real against Comey. But the whole lawfare thing is often just to make your life miserable, just to drag you through the whole process, have to hire a bunch of lawyers Dominate your life with a very unpleasant situation for a long time to come because you hate the person, which is exactly what they did to Donald Trump for years.
Joe Getty
And friends, are you there sitting there. Are you thinking Comey deserves that?
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Joe Getty
Well. So Jack, in this country, we let the defendant speak. In other words, we don't hang a man without a fair trial.
Jack Armstrong
This is true. That's right, dad. Now I've got to go shopping with your mom. So this is James Comey last night in his Instagram post.
Jonathan Turley
My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn't imagine ourselves living any other way. We will not live on our knees. And you shouldn't either.
Jack Armstrong
Could he be more dramatic and pompous? We will not live on our knees. And you shouldn't either. Okay, go on.
Joe Getty
I'm good. I'm fine.
Jack Armstrong
I'm not.
Jonathan Turley
Somebody that I love dearly, recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant. And she's right. But I'm not afraid. And I hope you're not either. I hope instead you are engaged, you are paying attention and you will vote like your beloved country depends upon it, which it does.
Jack Armstrong
I'm not afraid. And you shouldn't be either. As he takes the mantle of leader of those who are so afraid out there. Although I know some people are.
Joe Getty
James, that was good. That was really good. But let's do one more take. Can you tone down the I'm Jesus on the cross thing just a little bit? Just roll it back a notch. That'd be good. Let's try again. Ready? Action.
Jack Armstrong
Go on.
Jonathan Turley
My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system and I'm innocent. So let's have a trial and keep the faith.
Joe Getty
I will. And I'll get off my knees and I won't be afraid. Was there more?
Jack Armstrong
Your heart is broken for the judicial system. When you lied about stuff to get FISA warrants so you could spy on people when you wanted to. Planted stories in the paper so you could then brief the President and then plant another story that the President has been briefed. I mean, just if your heart didn't break for the Justice Department, then. Cuz you were doing the right thing because you James Comey, and this is what he has been from the beginning. He thinks he is the one arbiter of what is true and good and he can go outside the norms because he could be trusted with the norms. He knows what's good. And what's right.
Joe Getty
Right. He's far more enlightened than those simple men who made the rules. I will change the rules when necessary for justice.
Jack Armstrong
Is there another one?
Joe Getty
That's it.
Jack Armstrong
Okay. God, he makes people vomit. He is so hard to take.
Joe Getty
Doesn't mean this. This case is a good case or should be brought. But yeah, he's hard to take.
Jack Armstrong
Okay, we got more on the way. Stay here.
Jonathan Turley
You see, in this country, we're very.
Joe Getty
Proud to have a process known as the law.
Jack Armstrong
Sure, dad.
Joe Getty
And under the law, a man is presumed innocent until he's proven guilty.
LG X Boom Announcer
Right, dad?
Joe Getty
In other words, we don't hang anybody without a fair trial. Everybody knows that.
Jonathan Turley
Sure, but sometimes we tend to forget.
Joe Getty
Well, I'm glad you understand. I'll see you kids later. I have to go shopping with your mother. Armstrong and Getty.
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Joe Getty
Bring the boom.
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Xboom.
Cynthia Littleton
There's a lot going on in Hollywood. How are you supposed to stay on top of it all? Variety has the solution. Take 20 minutes out of your day and listen to the new daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives.
Jacob Goldstein
Where do you see the the business actually heading?
Cynthia Littleton
Featuring the iconic journalists of Variety and hosted by co editor in chief Cynthia Littleton.
Joe Getty
The only constant in Hollywood is change.
Cynthia Littleton
Open your free iHeartradio app, search daily Variety, and listen now.
Jacob Goldstein
This is Jacob Goldstein from what's yous Problem? Business software is expensive. And when you buy software from lots of different companies, it's not only expensive, it gets confusing. Slow to use, hard to integrate. Odoo solves that because all Odoo software is connected on a single affordable platform. Save money without missing out on the features you need. Odoo has no hidden costs and no limit on features or data. Odoo has over 60 apps available for any needs your business might have, all at no additional charge. Everything from websites to sales to inventory to accounting, all linked and talking to each other. Check out odoo@o d o o dot com. That's o d o o dot com.
Joe Getty
Finally, American Airlines has unveiled new amenity.
Jonathan Turley
Kits for premium tickets, which include beauty products from celebrity facialist Joanna Vargas. While Spirit said they'll just keep passing.
Joe Getty
Around a tub of Vaseline.
Jack Armstrong
Wow. Relentless on the Spirit Airlines. Is that an east coast thing or do more people fly Spirit? I don't know.
Joe Getty
I think it's mostly East Coast.
Jack Armstrong
I never hear anybody bring it up as a airline. So this is exciting. People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive poll is out and up and you can vote on it if you want.
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
And this is my year.
Joe Getty
Michael, Finally. I've been working out a lot.
Jack Armstrong
What's mostly interesting as you get older and pay less attention to pop culture like me, you don't know who any of these people are, but it's interesting to me that next to the names of these people, I don't know, it's what they do.
Joe Getty
Number of TikTok stars, podcasters, influencers.
Jack Armstrong
Influencers that you would have to be in that world to have any idea who they are. Isn't that something? This year, this year, Sexy Fan Live could be some influencer that nobody under the over the age of 40 has ever heard of. Maybe. I don't know.
Joe Getty
Yeah. And has, you know, many, many, many Millions of people who are big fans.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, I was listening to something. Rob Reiner was talking about this. He's the movie director. Spinal Tap 2 is coming out and he's talking about shared experiences and how we don't have those anymore. And he thinks it's bad. I think it is, too. I don't know there's anything to do about it. But he was on the TV show All in the Family, and he was talking about how back in the day it was the number one show on television for five years. And every Thursday night at 8 o', clock, I think he said.
Joe Getty
About a.
Jack Armstrong
Quarter of the country would tune in. And that's including men, women and children. About a quarter of the country would tune in and not only watch the show, but at that moment, because there was no way to record it or anything like that. So every a quarter of the country was sitting on their couch at that moment. All across the nation. We don't have anything close to that now other than super bowl every year.
Joe Getty
Oh, I can't imagine what it would be. Unless there's some sort of cataclysm. But then, no, even then, everybody would separate to their. A favorite website or streaming service or what have you.
Jack Armstrong
Even the really big popular shows, people aren't watching them at the same time, you know, so, you know, somebody brings it up at a dinner and you say, oh, don't tell me, I'm only on season two. You know, that sort of thing. So. And there was something. There was definitely a bonding, pulls us together. Here's something we can talk about that's shows we, you know, have some common personality before we get it. You know, any political issue comes up that might keep us from flying apart and hating each other. There's got to be something there, right?
Joe Getty
No, I think you're 100% right at all.
Jack Armstrong
My point was with the Sexiest Man Alive, it wasn't that many years ago that whoever won, everybody in the country knew who that person was. Everybody. Because it was such a common experience. Now, you know, though, there's divided into so many different categories depending on your age. Politics, part of the country you live in.
Joe Getty
Right. So are the amount of overlap in, you know, the things we do, the things we care about, the things that make us laugh is either much, much less. And you never get a chance to find out about it because you're yelling at each other about politics first.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
Joe Getty
Which is unfortunate. Armstrong and Getty.
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Joe Getty
Free.
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Cynthia Littleton
Boom X Boom There's a lot going on in Hollywood. How are you supposed to stay on top of it all? Variety has the solution. Take 20 minutes out of your day and listen to the new daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives.
Jacob Goldstein
Where do you see the business actually headed?
Cynthia Littleton
Featuring the iconic journalists of Variety and hosted by co Editor in Chief Cynthia Littleton.
Joe Getty
The only constant in Hollywood is change.
Cynthia Littleton
Open your free iHeartradio app, search daily Variety and listen now.
Jacob Goldstein
This is Jacob Goldstein from what's yous Problem? Business software is expensive and when you buy software from lots of different companies, it's not only expensive, it gets confusing. Slow to use, hard to integrate. Odoo solves that because all Odoo software is connected on a Single, affordable platform. Save money without missing out on the features you need. Odoo has no hidden costs and no limit on features or data. Odoo has over 60 apps available for any needs your business might have, all at no additional charge. Everything from websites to sales to inventory to accounting, all linked and talking to each other. Check out Odoo at O D O o dot com. That's O D O o dot com.
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I've rented space on a dozen digital billboards on Highway 101 in Silicon Valley between Santa Clara and San Francisco to advertise my personal dating website, marylisa.com. it's been months since I've been on a date. I can't even get men to talk to me on any of the apps. I don't understand what's going on, but I figured it's time for a bold move. And what's bolder than running billboards on the side of a major highway? To essentially market myself.
Jack Armstrong
Katie, have you seen this woman? Have you gone to marylisa.com? i have. She's.
Joe Getty
She's.
Jack Armstrong
She's cute.
LG X Boom Announcer
I. I'm picking up crazy vibes though, a little bit.
Jack Armstrong
Well, I was thinking that maybe she's like beyond cute. Like stunning. Like she's trying to get a thing going with a website, whether it's only fans or influencer or whatever. But you think she's just a regular person? Yeah, she's.
Joe Getty
I mean, she's not like a Kardashian.
LG X Boom Announcer
But she's certainly not ugly.
Joe Getty
She's cute.
Jack Armstrong
I wonder why.
Joe Getty
Trying to land an Internet zillionaire, maybe.
Jack Armstrong
I wonder why she can't get men to respond to her things on online dating.
Joe Getty
I wish crazy vibes were like scientifically measurable.
LG X Boom Announcer
Yeah.
Joe Getty
And that would be, you know, part of, you know, are you financially together? You know, you're five foot four. Oh, gosh. You're a 6.5 on the crazy scale.
Jack Armstrong
But no, a 6.5 on the crazy scale.
Joe Getty
You gotta hunt it out. You gotta sense it.
Jack Armstrong
She's attractive. Yeah. She's cute. Yeah. It's interesting that she's taking out billboards though. Yeah.
LG X Boom Announcer
See, that screams crazy to me.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. Just as a female, it rod reeks of desperation.
Joe Getty
Yeah. Well. And you're going to get thousands of responses.
Jack Armstrong
Oh, yeah.
Joe Getty
All likelihood.
Jack Armstrong
Oh, yeah. In 10 minutes. So how would you, how would you wade through all of those responses and pick a non crazy person yourself if you're normal? I don't know how the hell you would do that. I don't Know how you. Seems like an odd plan coming up. Just came across this. It wasn't true very many years ago. Wasn't even close to true 20 years ago. It's true now. Britain is poorer than all 50 US states in terms of, in terms of individual quality of life.
Joe Getty
Based on that, socialism works great.
Jack Armstrong
Even our poorest states are richer on average than Great Britain. And we'll get into the stats coming up. It's really quite amazing.
Joe Getty
Yeah. And actually some of our poorest states are staging an amazing turnaround in their education systems. That's what I was just talking about.
Jack Armstrong
That's what I was just about to read.
Joe Getty
Oh, good, good.
Jack Armstrong
A piece about the Mississippi Miracle which you were talking about the other day. Consider this latest chapter of the Mississippi Miracle, which has seen the state climb from 49th in the country on fourth grade reading to ninth nationally. That is quite a turnaround from second to last to not in taught to top 10. This. Right. This rise has received a great deal of coverage in publications ranging from the New York Times, in the New York Post. We talked about it the other day, Joe brought it to us. And yet it still feels like what's taking place in the Deep south has been grossly undersold.
Joe Getty
That's funny.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. No kidding.
Joe Getty
Well, first of all, surely it's. It's the teachers unions that have turned it around and progressive equity based policies.
Jack Armstrong
Right. First, it's not just Mississippi, it's Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee have all adopted the same strategies stemmed from bleeding effective states. Bleeding affecting. Stemmed the bleeding affecting states elsewhere and seen significant improvements. And second, many people who aren't too focused on education policy seem to imagine Mississippi has only stopped the underperforming. But it's not just that the people that were overperforming are now even higher. So it raised everybody. The bottom people and the top people.
Joe Getty
Right. Well. And again, they make the point that it's not that Mississippi is just not sucking anymore, if you'll pardon my French, it's that they're doing really, really well.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. So one other thing on that and then you can get into why the heck this is the difference is most pronounced. You look at the most disadvantaged students In California, only 28% of black fourth graders read at or above basic level, compared to 52% in Mississippi. Over half in Mississippi have the most disadvantage, only better, slightly better than a quarter in California. Gavin Newsom for president. And again. But it's not just that Mississippi has raised the floor, it's also raised the ceiling. The state has also one of the nation's best performers. When you look at students who are not economically disadvantaged.
Joe Getty
Right, right. The. The key aspect to this, I know in Mississippi there are no teachers union to gum up the works, to quote one Mississippi teacher. And the other thing is the schools and the states have said, we are going to teach reading and writing and math and history. We are going to teach kids core academic, academic topics entirely and nothing but that. We're going to identify the underperforming kids and we're going to give them intense tutoring. This school is about learning and nothing else. No indoctrination. Can you imagine that, friends? Something so radical. And it's working beautifully because of course it effing is. Pardon me. You know, I'm quick huddle here. Quick huddle, friends. Can you believe we let the insane people run education for as long as we did? And they still are in most places who think what I just said is somehow awful or shocking.
Jack Armstrong
Well, it. See, it's. It seems crazy to me that I ever wasn't thinking about this. But like one of the big pushbacks against government health care, for instance, government taking over health care is. Oh, you want your doctor to be like the dmv? Well, I feel like if we were starting from scratch and somebody was proposing the government run schools, I would be saying, oh, you want your schools to be like the dmv?
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah.
Jack Armstrong
Because it's a lot like the dmv. Whole bunch of middle management who kind of have contempt for their customer. The students or the person trying to get a driver's license depending on.
Joe Getty
Doesn't matter how well they do their.
Jack Armstrong
Job, can't get fired no matter what. Yeah, right.
Joe Getty
A couple of exhibits that are kind of the other side of the coin. First of all, interesting article I came across about how boys may benefit from red shirting in kindergarten. It's the idea of. And we weighed this with our kids too, who all happen to have kind of.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
Joe Getty
Could go this way, could go that way.
Jack Armstrong
Birthday between her birthdays.
Joe Getty
Right, Exactly. And is here boys in particular, are they ready to start school? Or would they benefit from one more year of reading at home, mom and dad reading to them, and then they start to school when they're sick or just maturing, Right? Yeah, exactly. It's interesting. This writer quotes a researcher in child and adolescent studies at the unforgivably liberal California State University system. But. But they mentioned that a big training session happened and every single teacher was talking about how boys are struggling and they all wanted to do something about it which is laudable and good and I'm glad to hear it. But later in the article you get to the fact that left leftist groups, including teachers unions are actually coming out against red shirting children. Red shirting children, including boys, because only more affluent families can afford to that. Therefore it's an inequity and you should force those boys who are not ready for school into school.
Jack Armstrong
You people are freaking crazy.
Joe Getty
Oh, I know, I know. It makes you angry, doesn't it?
Jack Armstrong
Yes, it does.
Joe Getty
No. You can't hold your son out even though he's completely not ready because that would be inequitable because some parents can't do that.
Jack Armstrong
Don't even get started again on the whole pre K thing, which makes me nuts. It partially makes me nuts because they just built a big new. I'm sure it cost many millions of dollars building at the school where my kids went when they were little for pre K, which is presented as just obviously a good idea. Even though there are no studies that show it's a good idea.
Joe Getty
No, include including many studies that show the contrary. And one more thing, one more exhibit. And I've mentioned this several times, that through the years various News shows including 60 Minutes have highlighted these unbelievable inner city schools that turn around the kids futures. And it's always the same formula. They raise expectations, they instill discipline. Often there are uniforms involved, take them or leave. And they teach core topics to the kids. They go hardcore on academics and people are held accountable. Yeah. And, and it's in a cheerful positive, you can do this way. And it's always, always, always a charter school or an independent school. Zorin Mandani is damni.
Jack Armstrong
Say it with me, Mamdumni.
Joe Getty
He preaches an equity agenda that includes choking off funding for charter schools. He wants to essentially end them. Mamdani threatens to. And they go into this is. I think the Wall Street Journal is talking about the astonishingly terrible achievement numbers of a lot of students in New York City and how in the charter school system they're vastly, vastly better. I mean there's just like holy crap. And it's, it's white kids, black kids, Hispanic kids and all with similar results. Mandani threatens to stump this success story. Quote, I oppose efforts by the state to mandate an expansion of charter school operations in New York City. He opposes charters co locating, sharing facilities with district schools. He is big on equity. If anybody excels, if, I'm sorry, if everybody doesn't excel, nobody should be allowed to excel. They should be held down. That may be the most sick philosophy known to man.
Jack Armstrong
That might be the main tenet of socialism and communism. That person over there doing well somehow is damaging me. So let's make sure they don't do well. Crazy.
Joe Getty
This Mumdani's hostility to charters is reminiscent of former mayor Bill de Blasio, who made it harder for charters to do what they do. And they go into the details of it and the way he harassed them and hit them with expenses that they never saw coming and never paid before, says Eva Moskowitz, CEO of Success Academies. That has a wonderful success record. It was eight years of daily hostility. It was the worst eight years of my life. And it just made the work so incredibly hard. These are people trying to turn the lives of little kids in cities around. Can you imagine that? And the politicians who are slaves to and money grubbing hoes for the teachers unions. They will kill the success if they can.
Jack Armstrong
It would be sickening if public schools were doing well. It would still be sickening that there are people. Yeah, I'd just like to do it a different way, with an emphasis on, you know, more of an emphasis on Christianity or. Or science or whatever it is. We want to have, you know, private schools or charter schools or whatever, but since the public schools are failing all over the place. Good Lord. It's just that this is one of the biggest problems we've got in the entire country, right?
Joe Getty
I think it is. I absolutely think it is. It might be the biggest problem, because if we're bringing up generation after generation kids to hate their own country and their angry ignoramuses steeped only in Marxism, what do you think the result of that's going to be?
Jack Armstrong
We had this party last night. A lot of people brought up to me having heard me talk about my son's American history class, where so far they hadn't done anything a month into the school year but talk about white people's genocide of the Indians. Haven't gotten to anything about American revolution or Thomas Jefferson or any of that stuff yet. I don't know if that's ever coming because I pulled my son out of the class.
Joe Getty
But when they do, it'll just be to perpetuate slavery.
Jack Armstrong
But I'm sure it would be. I almost wanted him to be around just to see where this was going to go, but it wasn't.
Joe Getty
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Jack Armstrong
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Jack Armstrong
Looks like they're and then the Seahawks kick a field goal as time expires and when. It's amazing how many NFL games come down to a kick at the end of the game. You wouldn't think that'd be possible that it happens that often, but it sure does.
Joe Getty
Which is one of the west has a lot of great teams by the way. Football fans, you know that one of.
Jack Armstrong
The reasons people love it is it comes down to the end like that so often. We got a lot on the way.
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Joe Getty
Free.
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Jack Armstrong
Bring the boom x Boom There's a.
Cynthia Littleton
Lot going on in Hollywood. How are you supposed to stay on top of it all? Variety has the solution. Take 20 minutes out of your day and listen to the new daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives.
Jack Armstrong
Where do you see the business actually heading?
Cynthia Littleton
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Joe Getty
The only constant in Hollywood is change.
Cynthia Littleton
Open your free iHeartradio app, search daily Variety and listen now.
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 dot com. That's o d o o dot com.
Jonathan Turley
Merriam Webster announced today that the 12th edition of its Collegiate Dictionary will include more than 5,000 new words, including riz. As for the definition of riz, if you're looking it up in the dictionary, you don't have it.
Joe Getty
That's partly true. Kind of sounds like me, honey.
Jack Armstrong
How are there 5,000 new words? That's wild.
Joe Getty
I'm sure there are enough words.
Jack Armstrong
You know we're not there yet. It's only September. We'll be at the end of the year and we'll get to all that.
Joe Getty
Sort of stuff, but I'm calling for a moratorium on new words.
Jack Armstrong
There are enough words. The world, one of the world's oldest humans. Her final words at 117 when she died were, study me. And they have. They've studied every bit of her body after she passed away. And the New York Times has an article about things they've learned. And so we'll get to that in hour three.
Joe Getty
Wow. Longevity. It's a hot, hot topic. You know who's spending zillions of dollars on that is a lot of your tech titans, because they have zillions of dollars and they have faith in technology and they're, you know, the financing. All sorts of, from intriguing to promising to ridiculous schemes for staving off aging.
Jack Armstrong
Here's something I heard the other day. The guy who does that podcast, Econ Talk, one of the most famous podcasters in the world, I can't think of his name right now. Roberts. Is that what it is? Anyway, anyway, a common question he has is or a thing he has is, if I gave you $10 million, would you go back to live in 1950? And he said, most of the time, if people think it over, the answer is no. And my initial answer was, hell yeah, I would. But that wouldn't work for either you or me. I mean specifically you or me. So. No, I mean like your hips went out on you, you'd be crippled. I would have died of cancer already.
Joe Getty
So whoops.
Jack Armstrong
So no for both of us, our.
Joe Getty
Future heirs, I'm never sure how time machines work. Would be very, very wealthy though.
Jack Armstrong
But so for just from medical advancements, let alone other things.
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah, it's a good point. So speaking of tech zillionaires and that sort of thing, I have no opinion on this topic, which is a rarity. And the question is, will this mind boggling spending on AI by tech companies.
Jack Armstrong
Will it pan out? Obviously.
Joe Getty
Will it turn out to be a good investment?
Jack Armstrong
Obviously. They're betting, yes.
Joe Getty
Oh, yeah, yeah, clearly. Yeah, Literally betting yes. And the Wall Street Journal with some really interesting coverage of it, including they talk about Ellendale, North Dakota. It's got a population of 1100 with two motels, a dollar General, a Pentecostal Bible college, and a half built AI factory bigger than Home 10 Home Depots.
Jack Armstrong
Wow.
Joe Getty
It's more than 15 billion dollar price tag is equivalent to a quarter of the state's annual economic output. The cost of this one plant. And they're writing about how the AI boom has ushered in one of the costliest spending sprees in world history.
Jack Armstrong
No doubt.
Joe Getty
And the numbers defy comprehension. And everybody's doing it from, you know, Microsoft to Meta to Google to OpenAI to everybody else. Mark Zuckerberg, who happens to be Satan, was talking the other day about a conference about how long it might take to pay off. Then he made a couple of wry comments. Then he surmised that the US company spending through 2028 so that's four years or so is going to be something like $600 billion. Wow on AI.
Jack Armstrong
And so a lot of it is with many products. This is true, being the first best is worth a lot of money.
Joe Getty
But there is growing doubt whether all of this money will be a successful investment and whether this is a.com bubble ish chapter in Silicon Valley. There are some very, very learned people who are like, I don't think this is going to pan out again. I have no opinion. I don't know enough to have one. But it'll be interesting to see play out.
Jack Armstrong
No doubt it would be merely an opinion anyway because the experts are all over the place. I take in so much news on topic the the smartest people in the world on this don't agree. So right.
Joe Getty
Yeah, clearly true.
Jack Armstrong
We're going to live through it though. It's gonna we're gonna know fairly soon.
Joe Getty
I would rather not see the stock market Is there another word than bubble I can use? I would rather not see it pop.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, but I'd also not I don't want my organs harvested by AI either. So there's that.
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Jack Armstrong
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Cynthia Littleton
There'S a lot going on in Hollywood. How are you supposed to stay on top of it all? Variety has the solution. Take 20 minutes out of your day and listen to the new daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives.
Jack Armstrong
Where do you see the business actually heading?
Cynthia Littleton
Featuring the iconic journalists of Variety and hosted by co Editor in Chief Cynthia Littleton.
Joe Getty
The only constant in Hollywood is change.
Cynthia Littleton
Open your free iHeartradio app, search daily Variety and listen now.
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This is Jacob Goldstein from what's yous Problem? Business software is expensive, and when you buy software from lots of different companies, it's not only expensive, it gets confusing. Slow to use, hard to integrate. Odoo solves that because all Odoo software is connected on a single, affordable platform. Save money without missing out on the features you need. Odoo has no hidden costs and no limit on features or data. Odoo has over 60 apps available for any needs your business might have, all at no additional charge.
Jack Armstrong
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Jacob Goldstein
Everything from websites to sales to inventory to accounting. All linked and talking to each other. Check out Odoo at odoo. Com. That's odoo. Com.
Jack Armstrong
This is an iHeart podcast.
Episode: We're Going To Make People Vomit If We Don't Stop
Date: September 26, 2025
Hosts: Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty
Production: iHeartPodcasts
This episode dives into the seismic news of former FBI Director James Comey’s indictment for perjury and obstruction. Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty explore the political blowback, the credibility and specifics of the charges, the broader context of "lawfare" in American politics, and how the media is reacting along partisan lines. The hosts then transition to discuss educational achievement and reform in the U.S. South, and end with rapid-fire topics including cultural fragmentation, the AI investment boom, charter schools, and even the economics of Britain. Throughout, Armstrong and Getty provide their signature biting commentary, skepticism, and banter.
This summary is designed to give you a full picture of the content, arguments, and tone of this episode without needing to listen to the entire release.