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- [00:00]
Jack Armstrong
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:02]
Podcast Announcer
Guaranteed Human.
- [00:05]
Energy Trust of Oregon Announcer
At Energy Trust of Oregon, we know it isn't easy the tremendous costs of maintaining a home, living in a house with drafty windows, poorly insulated spaces, or equipment that's running well past its prime. But we also know how to help you upgrade your systems, insulate your spaces and replace what is old with new energy efficient solutions. Find cash incentives@energytrust.org Energy Trust of Oregon, More power to you.
- [00:36]
Jack Armstrong
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
- [00:45]
Joe Getty
Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Getty.
- [00:59]
Guest or Contributor
The astronauts were totally out of contact with mission control, but the crew used that time wisely because according to Wiseman, the captain, each one of us had a maple cream cookie. And then right back into the science. An experience previously known as high school lunchtime when your only friend is the chem teacher.
- [01:20]
Joe Getty
Yeah.
- [01:24]
Jack Armstrong
What?
- [01:25]
Guest or Contributor
That joke's based on a true story.
- [01:29]
Joe Getty
I'm reminded of how funny funny Colbert is when he's not being obnoxious.
- [01:33]
Jack Armstrong
He's hilarious. Yeah, it's. Yeah, the whole politics thing. Which reminds me, I'm going to Springsteen Monday night with my boys in San Francisco and I've been watching some of the videos and the with the east you band and they sound fantastic. I had the experience of taking my youngest to the Eagles, what, year before last. They're 80 year olds and they sounded flipping amazing. For whatever reason, you can continue to play instruments well into your, you know, late years. And so it doesn't surprise me that the East Street Band will sound great, but the political speeches are going to be rough.
- [02:06]
Joe Getty
Well, all of the announcements of the tour were about politics. I mean, we're going to bring the East Street Band bring to your town to bring you hope in the midst of this fascist dictatorship.
- [02:18]
Jack Armstrong
Meanwhile, I've seen the set list. They still play, you know, 10th Avenue, freeze out and all the songs you want to hear the horn section blasting and all that sort of stuff. So it'll be cool and I'll be able to report on it on Tuesday morning. I'm gonna bring earplugs, not for the loud rock and roll, but for the speeches. I'll put in the earplugs during the speeches, then I'll take them out during the music.
- [02:42]
Joe Getty
If it were possible to get good audio, I'd love for you to tape some of the screeds, but it could just sound poopy on your phone.
- [02:49]
Jack Armstrong
Well, and I've watched some of the videos. What's hilarious is all these screeds. But the lead singer, guitar player from Rage against the Machine is with the E Street ban now. Right. And. And going around and doing his thing and his guitar that says I'm homeless or whatever it is.
- [03:04]
Joe Getty
An actual communist.
- [03:06]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, yeah, he's an actual communist. Great guitar player, but an actual communist in a crowd full of people who've paid a thousand dollars a ticket to come see a concert. I mean, how funny is that?
- [03:18]
Joe Getty
Hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. Yes.
- [03:22]
Jack Armstrong
All right, so this isn't funny. Stealing your money. The state of California again. But lots of government programs do this. Thank you, CBS News, for doing this story yesterday.
- [03:32]
CBS News Reporter
Are doctors trusted to approve care? But one stands out. His name appeared on claims from 126 hospices, and he had 60% more in Medicare reimbursements than the next closest doctor in 2024, Dr. Rajiv Bhuva. We wanted to ask Dr. Bouva how he managed to work for so many different providers. So we followed a trail of hospice officers across the LA BAS and linked to his name $71 million in Medicare claims in 2024. We understand that Dr. Rajiv Bhuva is the medical director here. We're just trying to get some information about him. He's not.
- [04:07]
Jack Armstrong
No.
- [04:08]
CBS News Reporter
Was he at some point?
- [04:09]
Joe Getty
Yes, he was.
- [04:10]
CBS News Reporter
But you're telling me he no longer is associated with you guys?
- [04:12]
Jack Armstrong
No.
- [04:13]
CBS News Reporter
Was he at some point?
- [04:15]
Guest or Contributor
Thank you.
- [04:16]
Jack Armstrong
You know how the company you work for can catch you if you spend $20 you shouldn't have on an expense report when you claim you're taking a client out to lunch or whatever? The government can't catch $100 million. Clearly misspent because they.
- [04:35]
Joe Getty
One doctor who's the director at 126 different hospices. My.
- [04:40]
Jack Armstrong
He must work long hours because they don't even try. CBS goes on.
- [04:44]
CBS News Reporter
In California, a hospice doctor cares for an average of 140 patients in a year. In 2024, claims with Bouva's name were submitted for nearly 2,800 terminally ill patients.
- [04:56]
Jack Armstrong
There's no reason to think that that's legitimate.
- [04:58]
CBS News Reporter
Dr. Christina Newport, a hospice physician of 18 years, says there are several reasons why one doctor could be linked to so many patients. One of those reasons, identity theft.
- [05:08]
Jack Armstrong
They, you know, would have a superhuman schedule to do that in a meaningful way. No, you don't have to even pretend that you need to make an argument. No need.
- [05:17]
Joe Getty
No. Just make derisive jokes about that.
- [05:19]
Jack Armstrong
Please.
- [05:19]
Joe Getty
It's ridiculous. Yeah, I'm glad to see, belatedly, the Mainstream media jumping on this story. It was independent conservative journalists. What was the name of a young man who. The independent guy provocateur. I can't remember. You ought to get credit. But they didn't. None of them was aware of this or pretended to care until he came along.
- [05:38]
Jack Armstrong
True. I don't have any hope that this will stop or that we will turn it around. I have hope that like an hour two we went big on the whole public school disaster in America. I'll bet we turn that around. I'll bet awareness comes along and we turn that around. There are a number of things that I believe we will fix. The whole trans surgeries for kids has peaked and now we're on the other side of it. We're going to turn that around. I have no hope that we're going to be able to stop thieving from taxpayers because people just don't care enough. I don't see that changing at all.
- [06:16]
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah. Who did you get that insight from? It doesn't really matter. But the polls show you just can't get people to sustain their outrage.
- [06:24]
Jack Armstrong
Megan McArdle, libertarian who writes for the Washington Post and works for the Dispatch. She went through many, many examples throughout history of these scandals burbling up, everybody being aghast and nothing ever happening to do anything about it. We just don't feel like we can or the what system would you put
- [06:45]
Joe Getty
in place or whatever.
- [06:47]
Jack Armstrong
You just can't mobilize people to do anything about wasteful government programs. Which is why as a fiscal conservative, I'm big on the Milton Friedman thing. The only way there's one thing single way you can do this. Don't give them the money in the first place. That's the only thing you can do.
- [07:05]
Joe Getty
And I agree completely. And the other thing that makes it impossible to turn this around. I remember my fantasy that I expressed the other day. No, not that one. This one. That if you could spray truth serum all over Washington D.C. you walk up there and say, hey, I want a little fiscal reform here. Protect the taxpayers. And they would say, look, everyone you see, everything you see is in on a scam. So good luck with that. Sonny.
- [07:33]
Jack Armstrong
The what was I listening to yesterday? What would I would have been listening to that would have had this conversation? Anyway, they were going on and on about that argument that Mamdani and AOC and some have Governor Hochschule of New York, that if you're a patriot, you stay and you pay your high taxes. You're a, you're a, you're a Bad citizen. If you're trying to get out of paying your taxes, which obviously makes the assumption that when I give you this money, you're doing something worthwhile with it. And you and I disagree on that.
- [08:12]
Joe Getty
You have to say you disagree is the understatement of the century. Yeah, it's so right.
- [08:18]
Jack Armstrong
So playing a freaking patriot card on me when it comes to paying ridiculous taxes in high tax states that you're. Then you're going to waste on this homeless program or that. What was this one we were just doing the, the fraud around hospice and everything.
- [08:33]
Joe Getty
Right, right. And there are a hundred examples. Yeah. Oh my gosh. It's enough to piss a fella off.
- [08:40]
Jack Armstrong
You're unpatriotic because you moved to another state so you wouldn't have to pay those taxes.
- [08:45]
Joe Getty
Response to that. Yeah, exactly. But it's not arable. Although Trump would. Would certainly truth it out.
- [08:50]
Jack Armstrong
Yes, he would.
- [08:52]
Joe Getty
Which to bring a couple of threads together there, Mamdani and Co. And in some of the progressive states, they're pushing the woke thing further. It is on the front foot, like in California and New York and Minnesota and other places are pushing the gender bending madness for kids forward right now. They've just learned to disguise it a little better. So, you know, those battles are far, far from over. Although I agree with you, Jack, they're so completely insane. Surely sanity will win that battle eventually. Just a question of how many kids get scarred. Oh, speaking of which, we had a. A victim of transgender activists testified before the California legislature.
- [09:39]
Jack Armstrong
I just listened to that.
- [09:40]
Joe Getty
That is surprising enough. Yeah, we're gonna feature that. I don't know, maybe Hour four, Gender bending madness update. Very powerful and very, very sad. It's the same damn story over and over again. Confused, alienated kid, maybe autistic, maybe the victim of abuse wants to reject themselves. And like getting a new haircut isn't enough for some alienated kids struggling with emotional problems. And so. And they're not gonna commit suicide, but they reject themselves by being convinced to change their sex. They're convinced that will make them a new person, a happy person, a healthy person. It is evil on the level of. It's practically. Well, it's horrific child abuse that these activists participate in, in my opinion. Anyway, more on that later.
- [10:30]
Jack Armstrong
Get to that. An hour four.
- [10:32]
Joe Getty
Yeah, once I start, I have a hard time stopping because I just, I hate it so much.
- [10:36]
Jack Armstrong
I was just thinking, one of the advantages of the Springsteen concert having the set list that I've seen is going around everything like that. I've got a planned bathroom break in there. That Streets of Minneapolis song. Oh, I know. I can go to the bathroom and like, really take my time because it's a very long, annoying song.
- [10:56]
Joe Getty
As Bruce himself might say. Jack, everybody's got a hungry heart and a full bladder. So why don't you take this moment to go to the bathroom?
- [11:04]
Jack Armstrong
Yes, Katie, I don't know if that's
- [11:06]
Guest or Contributor
a good time to go. You're gonna get the most liberal emotion and psychosis around you. I feel like during that song.
- [11:14]
No.
- [11:15]
Jack Armstrong
He gives a number of speeches from what I've seen. I mean, it's San Francisco. I've seen the speeches he gave in Portland and Minneapolis and the first couple of legs of this tour.
- [11:24]
Guest or Contributor
Oh, all right, fair enough.
- [11:28]
Joe Getty
I'm surprised you're subjecting yourself to this.
- [11:30]
Jack Armstrong
Oh, I can't wait to hear the music. And I want my kids to see Springsteen. This might be the last time him in the E Street Band ever, ever do their thing.
- [11:37]
Joe Getty
Are his shows really long? Yeah, they're not as long as they used to be.
- [11:41]
Jack Armstrong
This one's been running three hours. Oh, pretty long.
- [11:44]
Joe Getty
Yeah. I. As Jack and I and our brilliant agent Derek were texting yesterday, I saw him and the river tour, long, long, long time ago. And it was one of the most amazing musical things I've ever seen. The skill, the. The tightness of the band just. And I love, love, love the songs. But at around the 3 hour and 45 minute mark, I was like, dude, it's been great. But seriously, enough, enough.
- [12:11]
Guest or Contributor
It's been fun.
- [12:12]
Jack Armstrong
He's been ending. Okay, he's been ending with Purple Rain. So I want to stick around and see that. Cause it's pretty awesome. Anyway, we got the latest on the whole Iran deal, whatever the Iran deal is, and nobody seems to know Trump made another statement about it. Stick around. Stay here.
- [12:29]
Podcast Announcer
Armstrong and Gettysburg.
- [12:33]
Jack Armstrong
Nobody does it better than Regent Seven Seas Cruises. Enjoy all inclusive, unrivaled luxury with unlimited shore excursions, indulgent cuisine, personalized service, and more aboard spacious all suite ships. Visit rssc.com to experience the unrivaled.
- [12:48]
Guest or Contributor
Apparently, Southern people put peanuts in Coke when they go on a road trip. Sounds freaky, but that's my middle name, so we got to see what it's hitting on. Peanuts. Inbound Coke tastes the exact same. The peanuts get stripped of all their flavor. Doesn't taste bad whatsoever. The texture kind of throwing me off, though. Feels like someone put a whole bunch of tonsil st in my Coca Cola. I think the salt makes the Coke Fizzier. But if I'm being honest, I'd rather just eat the packet of peanuts, bites up, get a little thirsty, and then quench that with the Coca Cola. Would I put it in my Coca Cola? Again, no. But would I possibly put it in a grape soda? Most definitely.
- [13:18]
Jack Armstrong
What are tonsil stones? Oh, geez.
- [13:24]
Joe Getty
You know, it's funny. There's a lot to comment on there, including the music in the background, which is funk. Remember when I was talking about that? Yeah. These producers all try to put together digital music that if it becomes viral, they get like royalties when it's run 12 billion times on some viral video.
- [13:43]
Jack Armstrong
So that guy was putting peanuts in his Coca Cola, and Michael Angelo, our board operator, had never heard of that before.
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Joe Getty
Never heard of it.
- [13:50]
Jack Armstrong
That's interesting. Maybe it wasn't a California thing. My dad did it as a kid. I mean, it's an ancient treat and it's delicious. I don't know why that guy didn't like it, but it makes.
- [13:59]
Joe Getty
And your dad was Great Plains, right?
- [14:01]
Jack Armstrong
Iowa.
- [14:02]
Joe Getty
Iowa, yeah.
- [14:03]
Guest or Contributor
Yeah, it's. I think it's not a California. I had never heard of it until a couple years ago when I met a guy from Mississippi who told me I had to try it. And it's very thick accent.
- [14:12]
Jack Armstrong
Maybe it's Midwest south thing. Okay, what's it.
- [14:15]
Joe Getty
What's that other Southern thing? It's a racism. You're an idiot. The mushy peanuts. What is that called? Boiled peanuts.
- [14:26]
Guest or Contributor
Oh, yeah.
- [14:27]
Joe Getty
I've had people rave. I've had family members, like just, you know, cousins rave about them and they're like, oh, you've got boiled peanuts. And I've tried. They're like mushy and wet and gross. It's like, I wouldn't give those to prisoners.
- [14:40]
Jack Armstrong
What? Oh, yeah.
- [14:42]
Guest or Contributor
Boiled peanuts. Yeah.
- [14:43]
Jack Armstrong
If you get a chance to try
- [14:44]
Joe Getty
boiled peanuts, do it.
- [14:46]
Jack Armstrong
I don't know. I don't know why I wouldn't give them to prisoners. I mean, that's not a good review. Oh, it's not.
- [14:55]
Guest or Contributor
Yeah.
- [14:55]
Jack Armstrong
The.
- [14:56]
Guest or Contributor
But the rule is, though, and according to Terry, Mississippi, it's got to be a. It's got to be a glass Coke bottle now.
- [15:03]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, that makes a difference. I don't know why. Does taste better?
- [15:07]
Guest or Contributor
No, I've never done the old school glass bottles.
- [15:09]
Jack Armstrong
I've never tried it in a can, so I can't speak to it, but I don't.
- [15:13]
Joe Getty
I've never done it at all. Oh, really? I may have tried it once and thought, why do people do this? Come to Think of it.
- [15:18]
Jack Armstrong
But I thought, yeah, it makes the beads taste really good.
- [15:21]
Guest or Contributor
I've still never tried it, but, gosh, he made it sound like a delicacy.
- [15:25]
Jack Armstrong
It's pretty good. Speaking of prisons, Gavin Newsom's wife thinks the people in San Quentin are there because they made a mistake, not because they committed a crime, because they made a mistake. Yet another video of Gavin Newsom's wife emerges that is mockable by, I think, all normal people. And we'll have that for you coming up next segment.
- [15:47]
Joe Getty
I would respectively respectfully, disagree. Signed all of the victims of the criminals turned loose by blue state, city and county DAs over and over again till they finally maimed or murdered somebody or raped them. Yeah. Yeah. Jenny. Yeah. We can't wait to hear your next pearl of your wisdom.
- [16:06]
Podcast Announcer
Ooh, that's unkind.
- [16:09]
Jack Armstrong
So I am really trying to nail down what the hell happened last night when Trump declared, we've come to an agreement, two way ceasefire. They've, we're agreeing to negotiate over our plans and we've got a 15 point plan, they've got a 10 point plan. There's no overlap between these plans. I mean, our plan is you need to give up your nuclear program and the uranium. Their plan is we get to keep our nuclear program and our uranium. Our plan is the strait has to be open and free. Their plan is we control the strait. I mean, it's like I don't, I don't even know what that is. I'm going to come meet you to buy your car and I don't want your car. Oh, I don't want to sell it to you. Why are we meeting?
- [16:53]
Joe Getty
So we have a deal.
- [16:55]
Jack Armstrong
Let's meet about it Saturday at noon. But I don't even want to sell the car. It's okay. I don't want to buy it.
- [17:03]
Joe Getty
And you announce your success.
- [17:05]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, yeah. Or we announce we're meeting or what are you going to talk about?
- [17:09]
Joe Getty
Unless the analysis I offered earlier is true, I'm completely befuddled.
- [17:13]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, I, I'm, my hope, My hope is that there's a lot of behind the scenes stuff that we just don't understand. They're, they're talking to an entity or a person that feels like they're in charge in Iran but has to keep their head low until something else gets worked out. I don't know.
- [17:34]
Joe Getty
The other horrible possibility and the Venezuela situation would tend to support this is the IRGC came to Trump and said we get to keep doing what we've been doing, but we cut you in on the deal? And Trump said, yeah, okay, great.
- [17:48]
Jack Armstrong
Cuz as of right now, at least according to Trump in an interview he did with abc, we and Iran are working together to charge a toll for ships going through the Strait. No, Trump said that this morning. That's straight from the horse's mouth. Anyway, lot on the way.
- [18:06]
Podcast Announcer
Armstrong and Gettysburg, like every problem that we have in society right now will be fixed when women come together and partner with our male allies and other allies. But when more women are in the rooms making decisions, changing the status quo and transforming not just our culture, but our society and our economy, she goes
- [18:31]
Jack Armstrong
on to say, I guess it's not in that clip about how racism, greed, those things will be conquered when women are in charge. What?
- [18:42]
Joe Getty
Or at least in the room, there
- [18:44]
Jack Armstrong
will be less misogyny, I would assume, by definition. But I don't think you're gonna do away with other elements of human nature because it's women.
- [18:56]
Joe Getty
Well, and if you just slightly expand misogyny and call it being mean to women.
- [19:02]
Jack Armstrong
Ah, there you go. Hello. There you go, mean girls. Um, so that's Gavin Newsom's wife. And I saw him tweet out yesterday. He said, I've been watching Fox. The President has just threatened to wipe a civilization off the planet of the earth, a war crime, and they're focusing all their attention on criticizing my wife. Fox went big on this yesterday, that. Yet another clip from Gavin Newsom's wife that has reemerged. This is something she talked about a long time ago, talking about and to prisoners in San Quentin. And she told this story.
- [19:38]
Podcast Announcer
I had to be very raw. When we interviewed the young men who were juvenile offenders in San Quentin, I told them about my own loss, where I lost my older sister a few days before my seventh birthday. And I blame myself for her death. And I share that because that they ultimately were accused of committing these violent crimes and sentenced for life. And I think it shocked them that this, you know, blonde lady who was, you know, the interviewing them had a similar story, was perhaps in the wrong place at the wrong time and. But wasn't punished the way they were because clearly it was an accident. But theirs was probably an accident, too. So, anyway, I share that just because I.
- [20:29]
Jack Armstrong
It.
- [20:29]
Podcast Announcer
I guess, you know, I quite enjoy spending time with people and being real and unmasking and showing them that it's safe to unmask themselves.
- [20:41]
Joe Getty
Beautiful. Beautiful.
- [20:43]
Jack Armstrong
So if you don't know the story, my lord, Gavin Newsom's wife, and she's a little girl, and this is a horrible story. I can't imagine how awful it was for the parents. When she was a little girl, she was six, she accidentally ran over her sister with a golf cart and killed her. You know, and anybody who's had kids, you have lots of close calls with all kinds of different things and just horrible. But that's called a mistake and a tragedy. That's not a crime. An on purpose crime that is then dealt with through the legal system and a jury and everything.
- [21:16]
Joe Getty
17 year old putting a bullet in a fellow gang banger's head is a rough comparison.
- [21:23]
Jack Armstrong
And talking to criminals in San Quentin or about criminals in San Quentin, that and they're in here for a mistake too. And then they see this blonde haired, blue eyed person who, who made a mistake and isn't in jail. She is being real, full on, 100% Leninist.
- [21:43]
Joe Getty
Yeah. She's completely off her rock.
- [21:46]
Jack Armstrong
She believes the people in, she believes the people in prison made the same mistakes she made as a kid. But because of the color of their skin or whatever they were put in prison. You're a nut.
- [21:59]
Joe Getty
If she merely produced convincing little kids that transgenderism is wonderful videos, that would make her a monster to me. Certainly a maniac and a fool. If she then forced schools to show them to her own profit cause her husband was the governor, that would really be plenty to convince me of that. But then she comes out with that.
- [22:32]
Jack Armstrong
How about that worldview she's got about people in prison? Just same mistake sort of mistake I made as a kid. But they're not blonde haired and blue eyed. So they're in prison.
- [22:44]
Joe Getty
Yeah. Jennifer, if the guards turned their backs for 10 seconds, you would be raped and murdered. Would that be a mistake? And I realize how harsh that is and if anybody's shocked, I apologize. But that's what would happen.
- [23:00]
Jack Armstrong
How do you come to that worldview and you're taught it as a kid? I guess.
- [23:05]
Joe Getty
Well, yeah, you, you live in school and then in your social circles in a theoretical universe where you just agree with each other over and over on your philosophy and you never subject it to the what about reality test or within the, within the ideology. They have explanations for how it doesn't square with reality. That just gets you further and further from reality.
- [23:28]
Jack Armstrong
But how do you avoid running in reality? You know, the old conservative is a liberal who is mugged by reality. How do you not run into somebody, hurt you or a loved one or took your stuff or whatever and you just realize, oh, some people suck.
- [23:42]
Joe Getty
Depends on the depth of your ideology. How, how strongly you believe in the cult? Because again, the, the, the people who perpetrate these ideologies are pretty sophisticated in their ability to brainwash people. And so just. It reminds me of the conspiracy theory thing and. That's right. I've got a big featurette on that I want to do at some point. But you come up with explanations of why what you have been claiming don't square with reality and they are good enough to convince the weak minded that, that they need to hang with your beliefs.
- [24:21]
Jack Armstrong
How is something. Yeah, I'd say, I think that stands out among all the other things she has said. Woof. Have you been following this story of trying to find the guy who created bitcoin? I'm the latest wrinkle. This was from, I think the Washington Post. After a year of searching for bitcoin's elusive creator, a trail of clues led our reporter to a 55 year old computer scientist. There was a Netflix special or some sort of special series a couple years ago where they thought they nailed down who it was, but this, this guy says it's not that person, it's this person. I wasn't aware, I'd forgotten that there's like one person that created it got super, super rich and is like stayed anonymous all this time.
- [25:12]
Joe Getty
That's a heck of a thing. Why did they stay anonymous of Blockchain, more or less?
- [25:16]
Jack Armstrong
Do we know why they stayed anonymous
- [25:17]
Joe Getty
or they just, I'd be guessing, I
- [25:20]
Jack Armstrong
don't know, just didn't want to be
- [25:21]
Joe Getty
famous or you know, fear for their life. I don't know how rich the guy got exactly.
- [25:26]
Jack Armstrong
Crazy rich, according to.
- [25:27]
Joe Getty
Well, it's reason enough to be anonymous.
- [25:29]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, true.
- [25:31]
Joe Getty
It's like the artist Banksy, who they've just unmasked, just hated the idea of being famous and being known and being hounded and all of it.
- [25:41]
Jack Armstrong
Because where do you feel like your grasp of bitcoin is in terms of an investment?
- [25:47]
Joe Getty
Oh, it's purely speculative at this point. It's a casino and I understand blockchain technology well enough and why cryptocurrency could be a really good idea, but right now it's just pure speculation.
- [26:04]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, I don't have a sense of that enough to want to get involved.
- [26:09]
Joe Getty
Yeah, I would if I had more time. I'm not greedy enough. I just, I don't. I would rather, you know, play my guitar and watch birds, but you gotta
- [26:19]
Jack Armstrong
follow the, you gotta really like be tuned into the trends. Right.
- [26:24]
Joe Getty
At least on a daily basis.
- [26:26]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, it'll be kind of fun, I suppose, if you had the funds and time to just play that game.
- [26:34]
Joe Getty
Yeah. I have a friend who is. He's a smart guy and pretty successful. He was into it. And he paid for at least one kid's entire college education with his cryptocurrency profits. I think it was Bitcoin.
- [26:46]
Jack Armstrong
You got to get in and out on the right times, though.
- [26:49]
Joe Getty
Exactly. Oh, yeah, yeah. There are plenty of people who've lost their houses.
- [26:53]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, yeah, that's a good story. But there's probably somewhere with the story of his kid was going to go to college, they'd saved money, and then they lost it all, and now he's washing dishes or whatever.
- [27:05]
Joe Getty
It's like you're 5,000 times more likely to tell your story about going to the casino if you won than if you lost.
- [27:12]
Jack Armstrong
Right. Or it's even the only one you remember in your own mind, which is a weird thing about gambling.
- [27:17]
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah. So true.
- [27:19]
Jack Armstrong
Okay, well, they found the guy, so maybe he can explain it all to us later. Where in the world is the deal with Iran? Is there a deal with Iran? What is happening? Nobody's exactly sure, but we did not destroy a civilization yesterday. We can get to the latest on that at some point.
- [27:34]
Joe Getty
Stick around.
- [27:36]
Podcast Announcer
Armstrong and Getty.
- [27:40]
Guest or Contributor
The regime remains firmly in control of the country, and it's saying it retains the right to enrich uranium, which, of course, was one of the reasons for starting the war in the first place. Iran's proxies in the Middle east also remained in place, despite the White House saying severing support for these groups was another clear war objective. Iran also claiming all US Forces will withdraw from the region and that sanctions will be lifted. But the Trump administration hasn't mentioned either of these things.
- [28:07]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, I gotta figure. Feel like the breakdown in all of this over the last 18 hours or whatever it's been, is the Trump people are talking to somebody and the media is hearing from a different entity. I'm hoping that's what it is, I guess. The Trump people are talking to somebody, says, look, I'm in charge. We got our hand on the wheel, all right? And then somebody else is talking to the media and saying, no, no, no, no. Our deal is this. You all leave, you pay us to rebuild stuff. We run the straight now, and we're keeping our nuclear program. Pete Hegseth said just a couple hours ago, Iran's going to say all kinds of things that aren't true.
- [28:44]
Joe Getty
Fair enough. Fair enough. I came across this analysis by an author, independent analyst on money geopolitics, etc. He's got hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter. For what it's worth, he said breaking the ceasefire just ate itself. He tweeted this not long ago at all. The head of Iran's parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee just stated, after the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, all plans to open the Strait of Hormuz must immediately cease until there are assurances that Lebanon is included in the ceasefire. There is either a ceasefire on all fronts or a ceasefire nowhere at all. The entire premise of the deal was Hormuz reopening. Trump's condition was complete, immediate and safe opening of the strait. Iran accepted the ceasefire was built on that single exchange. Paused the bombs, opened the water. Brent crashed 13%. The oil s and P surged the market priced peace. Now Iran is threatening to reverse the only thing the ceasefire achieved because of something the ceasefire never included. Three contradictions in 24 hours. Pakistan announced the ceasefire covers everything, including Lebanon, everywhere, including Lebanon. Netanyahu said it does not include Lebanon and launched the largest IDF strike since roaring lion began. 100 Hezbollah targets in 10 minutes. Now Iran says Hormuz stays closed unless Lebanon is covered. The deal's architect says it includes Lebanon. The deal's beneficiary said it excludes Lebanon. And now the deal's other signatory says the core deliverable is revoked unless the excluded front is reinstated. This is what happens when a ceasefire is brokered through intermediaries who need both sides to say yes more than they need both sides to agree. Pakistan shuttle drafts between Washington and Tehran through five mediating channels in one chaotic day. Egypt bridged language. Turkey provided back channels. China earned urged an off ramp. The framework was drafted with sufficient ambiguity that Iran could tell Hezbollah was covered and Israel could tell the public it was not. That ambiguity held for exactly 18 hours before the IDF strikes. It forced Iran to choose between Hezbollah solidarity and Hormuz revenue. Iran chose Hezbollah.
- [30:46]
Jack Armstrong
I'm surprised they would choose if this is true. I'm surprised they would blow up this deal over Hezbollah at this point, unless
- [30:56]
Joe Getty
true ideologues are still, at least to a large extent in power. I mean, that that whole. We have a web of proxies that are our national security. I mean, they dedicated themselves to that. It's going to be tough to move people off that paradigm. A word I hate to use because people mostly use it to sound pretentious.
- [31:19]
Jack Armstrong
What about what Trump said this morning? Now, this is a good thing to mention because it's his own words as opposed to speculation or reports of or whatever. He told Jonathan Carl on ABC News this morning that there's going to be a joint US Iran toll system for letting ships through the strait. We're thinking of doing it as a joint venture. It's a way of securing it, also securing it from other people. It's a beautiful thing.
- [31:49]
Joe Getty
So, but we're thinking of. It's just, it's an idea that's out there.
- [31:55]
Jack Armstrong
Well, there. I haven't heard seen. I don't know if anybody's nailed this down yet. There are ships, are there are the ships going through the Strait today?
- [32:04]
Joe Getty
15 to 20 vessels are currently transiting under the IRGC clearance codes.
- [32:10]
Jack Armstrong
Well, there were ships going through before.
- [32:14]
Joe Getty
They're only just a very small handful.
- [32:16]
Jack Armstrong
So did these ships pay a toll?
- [32:20]
Joe Getty
They got the go ahead, I guess, from the irgc. And this guy's speculating that nobody knows what's going to happen now. And then this is worth mentioning too, I think. Trump has three options. Accept Lebanon inclusion, which means pressuring Netanyahu to halt strikes against Hezbollah, which Israel has refused. Reject Lebanon inclusion, which means Iran recloses Hormuz, which voids the ceasefire's premise. Or ignore the threat and continue as if the 15 ships passing through the toll booth using Chinese currency constitute an open strait, which means the Islam of Ed. Talks on Friday begin over a deal that both parties are publicly threatening to revoke. Huh.
- [33:02]
Jack Armstrong
Israel is not going to stop attacking Hezbollah.
- [33:06]
Joe Getty
No, no,
- [33:11]
Jack Armstrong
I don't. I have no idea where this is going. Nobody knows who they're really negotiating with, so.
- [33:19]
Joe Getty
Right. Just, just stacks of questions we'll have to see.
- [33:24]
Jack Armstrong
And then if this falls apart, are we back to ending their civilization?
- [33:31]
Joe Getty
Something like that. Back to the question of what does that mean exactly? And I still say it'll be taking out five to 35 key bridges and power plants that directly serve the military.
- [33:45]
Jack Armstrong
Okay.
- [33:48]
Joe Getty
More delicious helping of tacos, according to some commentators. Well, right.
- [33:54]
Jack Armstrong
It's not taco.
- [33:55]
Joe Getty
If.
- [33:56]
Jack Armstrong
It's not taco. If Iran agreed to the things in our 15 point plan. But if they get to keep the uranium and, and charge people to go through the strait and all those sorts of things, that. It's definitely taco.
- [34:08]
Joe Getty
Yeah, well, and this would be incredibly unholy. I get the Venezuela situation. I'm very uncomfortable with it. Leaving the Maduro regime in charge just with a new gang of a couple of new gangsters at the top who are willing to cut us in on the profits. That's. That is a very odd twist of American foreign policy. If that happens again with the greatest murderer of our troops over the last
- [34:35]
Jack Armstrong
50 years that the net result of the entire war would be now we're part of a deal with them to charge a toll for European ships to go through.
- [34:46]
Joe Getty
That would be truly unholy.
- [34:49]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, I think that might be what's happening.
- [34:53]
Joe Getty
That would be. Well, that would be obscene.
- [34:56]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, well, I don't know. I hope they're talking to somebody who ends up consolidating power and raises his bearded face one of these days and says, I'm the new something or other.
- [35:06]
Joe Getty
Yeah, well. Well, we'll see. I guess.
- [35:10]
Jack Armstrong
I don't know what that means for the Iranian people if they ever get to live a better lifestyle than the one they've been living for the last 50 years.
- [35:18]
Joe Getty
So next hour, incredibly powerful gender bending madness update. Also some shrinkflation data that's pretty interesting. I'm trying to see what do we have that's not just heavy. It's Ponderous, man. Ponderous. Oh, Ibram X Kendi's new book is out and everybody's like, it sucks and he always sucked. And I'm kind of ashamed that I pretended he didn't. So that's progress.
- [35:42]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, I'd say so. I saw a rundown the other day on his, his, his center that he had his anti racist center that raised millions and millions of dollars.
- [35:53]
Joe Getty
That's part of it.
- [35:53]
Jack Armstrong
And then did nothing. Did literally nothing. Didn't produce a single paper.
- [36:00]
Joe Getty
Well, they, they took the money, so that's doing something true. Got rich.
- [36:05]
Jack Armstrong
Okay. They got rich.
- [36:06]
Joe Getty
Yeah.
- [36:06]
Jack Armstrong
Similar to the BLM crowd.
- [36:09]
Joe Getty
Con man always.
- [36:10]
Jack Armstrong
If you missed a segment of the show or an hour, get the podcast. Armstrong and Getty on demand.
- [36:17]
Podcast Announcer
Armstrong and Gettysburg.