Why Is The Rent So Damn High?!

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand: Episode Summary – “Why Is The Rent So Damn High?!”

Podcast Information:

• Title: Armstrong & Getty On Demand
• Host/Author: iHeartPodcasts
• Episode: Why Is The Rent So Damn High?!
• Release Date: May 1, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of Armstrong & Getty On Demand, hosts Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty dive deep into pressing national issues, blending humor with insightful analysis. From military strategies and economic challenges to political maneuvering and societal shifts, the duo covers a broad spectrum of topics, culminating in the central question: “Why Is The Rent So Damn High?!”

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Military and Defense Insights

Aircraft Carrier Incident: The episode opens with a discussion about a troubling incident where a plane rolled off an aircraft carrier into the sea. Armstrong expresses frustration over the lack of clear answers, musing, “Did we figure out yet why that plane rolled off the aircraft carrier into the sea? Do we know the answer to that yet?” (01:35).

U.S. Air Force Dominance: Armstrong highlights the strength of U.S. air power, noting, “The number one air force in the world is the United States Air Force. The number two air force in the world is the United States Navy...” (02:11). This dominance is juxtaposed against emerging threats, particularly from Russia and China.

Drone Warfare Evolution: A significant portion of the discussion centers on the transformation of modern warfare through drones. Both hosts ponder the future battlefield, envisioning scenarios where drones outpace traditional military assets: “You hear the drones coming and they hunt you down. How brutal is that?” (04:46). Joe Getty adds, “The US is overdrive developing our drone programs,” emphasizing the urgent need to adapt to these technological advancements (04:36).

Pentagon’s Financial Challenges: The hosts touch upon the Pentagon's financial intricacies, describing it as “the money spigot of all money spigots” (03:16). They discuss the perennial struggle between defense needs and bureaucratic hurdles, highlighting concerns about corruption and inefficiency within the military-industrial complex.

Russia’s Military Alliances: Armstrong provides updates on Russia’s collaborations with North Korea to bolster their air and naval forces, questioning the implications of such alliances on global security (07:25).

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Economic and Political Landscape

Trump’s Trade Strategies: Trump's approach to trade deals is dissected, with Armstrong referencing a town hall where Trump asserted, “we are in the catbird seat” (12:36). The hosts critique Trump's stance of taking a “take it or leave it” approach in negotiations, calling it “Trumpian strategic chaos” (12:49).

China’s Economic Struggles: A detailed analysis highlights China’s economic vulnerabilities amid ongoing tariff wars. Armstrong remarks, “China is starting to groan a bit,” referencing falling export orders and factory production (26:29). This section underscores the fragility of China’s economic resilience in the face of sustained pressure.

US GDP and Tariffs Impact: Joe Getty offers an in-depth breakdown of the recent GDP decline, attributing it to a surge in imports driven by anticipated tariffs: “US imports surged more than 40% year after year over year in the first quarter... it drove down gross domestic product” (19:41). He suggests that the GDP figure may not accurately reflect the economy's true performance, advocating for a focus on upcoming job reports for a clearer picture (22:30).

Labor Market and Manufacturing Jobs: The conversation shifts to the labor market, with Armstrong highlighting the staggering number of empty manufacturing jobs: “We have 140,000 plus empty manufacturing jobs right now that people don't want or won't take” (22:56). Getty criticizes the societal attitudes towards these roles, arguing for a reform in the safety net to incentivize workforce participation (23:08).

Housing Market Challenges: Armstrong and Getty discuss the struggling housing market, noting that home builders are offering significant discounts and incentives to attract buyers amid economic uncertainty: “Home builders are piling on discounts. They're struggling to entice buyers” (24:26).

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Political Developments

Trump and Zelensky Mineral Rights Deal: A notable highlight is the signing of a mineral rights deal between the US and Ukraine, brokered during a meeting between Trump and Zelensky at the Vatican. The hosts ponder its implications: “Are we getting involved in the war... or is it just the money grab?” (07:25).

Kamala Harris’s Comeback: The hosts critique Kamala Harris’s recent speech, questioning the public’s enthusiasm for her leadership: “She is clamorous. She is a hollow clamory” (10:14).

National Security Advisor Changes: Updates on the political landscape include reports of potential changes in the National Security Advisor position, with sources indicating that Mike Waltz and Deputy Alex Wong might be out the door: “Three sources tell him that Mike Waltz... are out the door as early as today” (11:04).

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Societal Issues and Miscellaneous News

Penny Elimination Efforts: A lighter segment touches on bipartisan efforts to eliminate the penny, with Armstrong humorously referencing it as “one war that we've been fighting for some time is starting to look better and better” (08:50).

Tesla Firebombing Incident: The hosts discuss a disturbing incident involving a teenager charged with firebombing a Tesla, highlighting societal tensions around gender identity: “Teen charged in Tesla firebombing. Released from federal custody to continue gender affirming medical care” (15:42).

Egg Price Fluctuations: Armstrong shares a quirky update on the egg market: “Price of eggs is down 80%. The great egg crisis is over” (27:44), adding a humorous take on the situation.

Celebrity and Pop Culture: Brief mentions include Kanye West’s reconciliation with Bianca, and the chaotic lifestyles of public figures like Sean Combs, providing a snapshot of celebrity news (16:16; 28:51).

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Technology and Privacy Concerns

AI Recording Devices: A segment delves into the ethical implications of AI-based recording devices that log conversations for reminders and summaries. Listener Michael voices concerns about privacy and potential hacking: “Seems like a slippery slope and could be hacked and so on” (33:56). Conversely, Joe Getty highlights practical benefits in consumer relations: “I have the power to record the lies and false promises” (34:16).

Impact on Personal Relationships: The hosts explore how AI recordings could influence personal disputes, such as marital disagreements, debating whether factual records would resolve or exacerbate conflicts: “Caleb was a thinking man writes... AI would be wrong” (34:55).

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Listener Interactions and Mailbag

Wisconsin Judge Controversy: Adam, a listener, questions the leniency shown by a Wisconsin judge towards an illegal alien accused of domestic violence: “Maybe they helped that violent illegal alien escape the domestic violence hearing” (29:54). The hosts express frustration over the perceived lack of accountability.

Harvard Muslim Students Report: Sean, another listener, brings up a controversial report about Harvard Muslim students fearing retaliation: “The Muslim students are terrified of the woke white girls” (31:26). Armstrong recalls past instances of overreactions, adding historical context to the current fears.

Tesla Tampering Concerns: A caller, John, shares a suspicious incident involving his Tesla’s Cybertruck, raising issues of property tampering and safety: “He stuck his head in there, like weirdly far and low for too long a time” (31:26; 32:25). The hosts debate the credibility and potential risks associated with such encounters.

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Concluding Thoughts

As the episode wraps up, Armstrong and Getty reiterate the importance of staying informed and vigilant amidst a rapidly changing socio-political and economic landscape. They emphasize the need for adaptability in both national defense and personal financial strategies, all while navigating the complexities of modern technology and societal norms.

Notable Quote: A poignant moment comes when Joe Getty shares a favorite quote by Ayn Rand, encapsulating the duo’s skepticism towards societal corruption:

“When you realize that to produce you must obtain permission from those who produce nothing... your society is doomed.” — Joe Getty (29:04)

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Timestamp Reference

• MM:SS: Each timestamp corresponds to the point in the transcript where the quoted statement or discussed topic occurs.

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This comprehensive summary captures the essence of Armstrong & Getty On Demand’s episode, providing listeners with an in-depth overview of the discussions and insights shared by Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

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[Joe Getty]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. Armstrong and Jetty. And now here. Armstrong get ready.

[Jack Armstrong]

From Studio C. I'm.

[Joe Getty]

Sorry, Barely alive from studio.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's a bad start.

[Joe Getty]

Clinging to life from studio C. Right, right on our.

[Jack Armstrong]

On my deathbed from Studio C. Dimly lit room. I don't know. This might not work. Today we're under the tutelage of our.

[Joe Getty]

General manager, the United States military. Couple of big military stories today I want to talk about. And by golly, a nation that can't defend itself will not be a for long high priority. We'll get to it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I love that. Did we figure out yet why that plane rolled off the aircraft carrier into the sea? Do we know the answer to that yet?

[Joe Getty]

Not too much. Well, I forgot to set the parking brake and I feel terrible about it, but yes, it's on me.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't care if we get lied to. I mean, if the Houthis shot at us and somehow caused that to happen and we don't want to admit that. I'm fine with that. I'm, I'm, I'm pro fog of war. The other side does it. We get to do it too.

[Joe Getty]

But not fog of stupid.

[Jack Armstrong]

But I'm. Yeah, no, I want to know if it was incompetence of some sort that's like, oh my God, we shouldn't be making mistakes like that, right?

[Joe Getty]

Discipline, etc.

[Jack Armstrong]

I found this. Came across this yesterday. Funny you brought that up. The 10. It's actually a list of the eight most powerful air forces on earth. Four of the top five are the U.S.

[Joe Getty]

How many air forces do we have total? Several.

[Jack Armstrong]

Number one air force in the world is the United States Air Force. The number two air force in the world is the United States Navy. The number four air force in the world is the army, and number five is the Marines. So four of the top five air forces in the world are us. And then in the middle there you got the Russian Air Force. Which I'm kind of surprised by that it's bigger than China. China is down at 7.

[Joe Getty]

Hmm. Interesting.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Well, good for us.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, exactly. I like the little shot of, hey, we're number one. I need. I needed that.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. We need to beef up the Navy. Part of our Navy, certainly. Although that is one of the defense stories. We're going to be talking about a major infusion of what seems to be some fairly well directed cash. The Pentagon's way. Well, I heard one at least been proposed by Congress.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's tough with the Pentagon and reports like this because it's the money spigot of all money spigots. If you can. If you can. And not that, you know, we are in a country of patriots wanting to do our best, but there are also, you know, there are plenty of people that think, you know, this weapon system over here that I benefit from. Here's why you should spend the money on this instead of that one. And there was a report out yesterday that we are not prepared for the new drone world of fighting, which Ukraine and Russia have, you know, changed warfare probably forever. And I mentioned yesterday I was listening to a podcast, this great daily Ukrainian podcast, where it was quoting a number of Ukrainian leaders about how, like, for instance, armored vehicles are irrelevant now after 100 years of tanks. Armored vehicles are irrelevant now, they did have other guests on who said that's not true, because, for instance, Great Britain is working on an anti drone weapon that will make drones useless. And this might just be a little blip of little mass drones coming and taking out your tanks, and the ability to shoot them down will overtake that. You know, it's a constant back and forth. Who knows? I certainly don't know. But that wouldn't surprise me.

[Joe Getty]

One of the updates I wanted to share had to do with the US in absolute overdrive developing our drone programs. So that's an interesting light to shed on it, what you just said. Certainly.

[Jack Armstrong]

But they're talking about the front lines in Ukraine and how the drones have just changed that warfare. So it's trench warfare, World War I style, but you add in drones and you're in that trench and you hear a buzzing and here comes, you know, 200 drones. Whether you're, they're coming at you as a Russian or North Korean, or they're coming at you as a Ukrainian maybe, soon to be Frenchman, Englishman and German maybe. But anyway, you hear the drones coming and they hunt you down. You take off running and one drone will chase you until it catches up to you and shoots you right. How brutal is that?

[Joe Getty]

I suspect strongly that the good folks at Boston Dynamics and wherever DARPA is spending his money are frantically working to replace the aforementioned human being with yet another drone.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

Some sort of R2D2 looking thing with a machine gun. And so there's no need to have much of a trench and food and water and sanitation and the rest of it because it'll be drones firing at the drones.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right? Yeah, that's all really interesting stuff. I just, I just hope we're on the cutting edge of it, in the front of it, and not, you know, a power leaning on the force that would have been dominant 20 years ago, but is no longer that dominant. Because technology has changed. And, you know, you know, what kills often big countries or any organization is you just, you get big and slow and stuck in the past and bureaucracy doesn't allow you to innovate and change because there are a bunch of corporations that want you to still build the same plane and tank.

[Joe Getty]

Sure, yeah. One of the great uneasy tensions in any government and certainly that of a superpower. And if you go around spouting, spouting only one half of this, you're the classic example of knowing just enough to be dangerous. A. The need for a robust, powerful, overwhelming, terrifying defense. But that costs zillions of dollars. As Jack put it earlier, it's an enormous money spigot constantly flowing full. Well, what does an enormous money spigot attract? Greed heads, fraud, corruption. The rest of it, beware of the military industrial complex. And so we've got the never ending need for the giant money spigot and the never ending need to protect ourselves against those who would, you know, drain us unjustifiedly or dishonestly. Just. You must be ever, ever vigilant. It never goes away, that challenge.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, Russia. This story came out yesterday. Russia is helping North Korea with planes and boats, beefing up their air force using my finger quotes and Navy in exchange for giving you a bunch of young men that we waste horribly as Russians do. But one other thing in all that is the, the story that broke yesterday afternoon. It did happen, as predicted, that apparently when Trump and Zelensky got together at the Vatican the other day, they were talking about that mineral rights deal and it has come together and gotten signed. So we're now invested in Ukraine and does that mean we're invested, invested? Like, hey, Russia, don't be messing with our investment. Is that what's happening here or what is it just the money grab? Is it both?

[Joe Getty]

It could be one of the Most brilliant and innovative diplomatic moves I've ever witnessed.

[Jack Armstrong]

Could be.

[Joe Getty]

Or not. But we will. We will absolutely talk about that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. If it's a no, we're not getting involved in the war. We have no interest in fighting you. But we do have a big financial interest in these mines, so you better stop.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of long, unproductive wars, Jack, one war that we've been fighting for some time is starting to look better and better, like we might win it. That is the war on the penny. Bipartisan support for eliminating the penny.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow. Of my minor jihads. This one time change is next. We get this taken care of, then it's on to the time change.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. That's pretty much at the end of your long jihad day. You look up at the clock, you got six, seven minutes left in the day. And you know what's a little of a pen.

[Jack Armstrong]

Damn pennies.

[Joe Getty]

You're not gonna spend all day railing about it, but it's worth a few minutes.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yes, Michael.

[Joe Getty]

So I just think it's a wonderful time to be alive.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. To see the penny go, penny go.

[Joe Getty]

And possibly, you know, daylight savings time.

[Jack Armstrong]

It is wonderful. Let's start the show officially. I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty on this. It is.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, boy.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's Thursday. It's May 1st. The rent is due the year 2020.

[Joe Getty]

It's too damn damn right.

[Jack Armstrong]

I have my rent set, auto pay, like you probably do. And so you get the email saying my rent's what, I forgot it so much. Why is rent so damn high? The year 2025. We're Armstrong and Yeti and we approve of this program.

[Joe Getty]

Let's begin then, officially, according to FCC rules and regulations. What a show it's going to be. Here we go at Mark.

[Jack Armstrong]

Hi, everyone.

[Joe Getty]

Thank you all.

[Jack Armstrong]

Thank you.

[Joe Getty]

Thank you.

[Jack Armstrong]

And Dougie's here, too.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, please have a seat. Please have a seat. Oh, it's wonderful to be home. And thank you. Oh, my Lord. I thought I remembered how off putting she was. I, I, it faded in my memory.

[Jack Armstrong]

Kamala Harris with her comeback speech for some reason.

[Joe Getty]

And Dougie's here, too.

[Jack Armstrong]

Where did they find people willing to cheer her like she was missed?

[Joe Getty]

That was my first question. Explain your enthusiasm to me. Take your time.

[Jack Armstrong]

Where did those people come from? Here's my favorite thing before we take a break from Charles C.W. cook about Kamala's speech, because he was responding to some article about there's a clamoring for her voice right now. And Charles C.W. cook wrote, There is not There has, in fact never, ever been less of a clamoring for anything that is on offer. In the history of clamoring, no people has ever clamored less than the American people are clamoring for Kamala Harris's voice. She is clamorous. She is a hollow clamory. Yes.

[Joe Getty]

Who wrote the original line with a straight face.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm guessing that America's clamoring for her voice.

[Joe Getty]

What?

[Jack Armstrong]

That is funny. We got Katie's headlines on the way. More news of the day. Lots of stuff. Hope you can stay here.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm gonna steal a headline from you, Katie, that you probably don't have because it just came across. Mark Halpern, who has tremendous sources, is tweeting out. He says three sources tell him that Mike Waltz, the currently National Security Advisor, and the deputy Alex Wong are out the door as early as today.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

So be kind of interesting to see why?

[Joe Getty]

Not shocked. I hate that because I like Waltz. He's a, he's a good guy and a smart guy. But, yeah, it was that whole Jeffrey Goldberg a signal chat thing, but Trump's too strong willed to, like, get rid of them. Then, like, it's a reaction to criticism. He'll just wait and then, you know, shove him out the door when. When somebody's looking in the other direction.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay, well, he was more of a traditional we need to support Ukraine attack Iran guy, and maybe they didn't want his voice around on that. I don't know.

[Joe Getty]

I wonder. Yeah. All right, so much to talk about today. Let's get started, figure out who's reporting what. It's the lead story with Katie gre.

[Katie Greene]

Katie, Starting with ABC News, Trump says he's not in a rush to make trade deals. Quote, they want us, we don't need them.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I saw part of the town hall he did on News Nation last night. He said, yeah, we're in the catbird seat. He said several times, which we either we are or we aren't. But from a negotiating deal, acting like you can take it or leave it is always a good place to be.

[Joe Getty]

Trumpian strategic chaos in the midst of negotiation. Yep.

[Katie Greene]

USA Today, Ukraine and United States sign long awaited minerals and reconstruction deal.

[Joe Getty]

How it develops and what it means ultimately. Really interesting topic from the Washington Post.

[Katie Greene]

China Signal.

[Joe Getty]

I'm sorry, can I, I'm, can I jump in? The one thing that offended me as an American was the idea, and Trump expressed this several times, that they need to pay us back for what we, we spent. You can't retroactively convert a gift into a loan. And I mean, that's despicable on a human level and certainly in conducting foreign policy going forward. Nobody would ever take us seriously again. That's been dropped.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, that's part of the deal. Even according to NPR this morning, right.

[Katie Greene]

From the Washington Post, China signals ever so obliquely that it's more open to Trump trade talks.

[Joe Getty]

Well, it better be there. They're sinking quickly to their knees. More on that to come. Major economics update, including how misleading some of yesterday's economics were that everybody was talking about all day long. We will remove the scales from your eyes. To paraphrase the good book, of course.

[Jack Armstrong]

Your daughter might have to get by with just one doll this year according to Trump. So we'll have that for you later. That's quite the statement if you haven't heard it.

[Joe Getty]

Doll shortage. Yeah. Stay tuned.

[Katie Greene]

From Breitbart, Kilmar Obrego. Garcia's wife filed second protective order in 2020. Said he's made murder threats and quote, my kids are afraid.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, that's horrible.

[Joe Getty]

Horrible, horrible, horrible. And he's now the Rosa Parks of the Democratic Party.

[Katie Greene]

Good strategy from NBC. Judge rules. Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil can fight wrongful detention case in federal court.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. To contradict what I said seconds ago. Yeah. We do have to follow the rules. I mean, we're a nation of laws.

[Jack Armstrong]

Do you see all the detainees there at that place in Texas that made an SOS for planes flying overhead yesterday?

[Joe Getty]

No, miss that.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know who came up with that idea. That was a great, great play into the hand of the Trump hating media. They just loved that. Of course, look at all those detainees making an SOS in the dirt in Texas to try to save their lives.

[Joe Getty]

Great visual, too. Yeah, we love, we love a good visual. In fact, no story matters on TV news unless there's a good visual.

[Katie Greene]

From the Wall Street Journal, US army plans massive increase in its use of drones. They're saying the shift to more small unmanned aircraft is based on lessons learned from the Ukraine battlefield.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, we were just talking about that.

[Joe Getty]

Got a major look into that coming up as well.

[Katie Greene]

From the New York Post. Teen charged in Tesla firebombing. Released from federal custody to continue gender affirming medical care.

[Jack Armstrong]

All right, all right.

[Joe Getty]

It was amazing how many of these nutjobs burning up Teslas were gender bending lunatics. What's up with that?

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow, that's charitable.

[Katie Greene]

From the New York Times. In an uncertain economy, McDonald's is seeing a spending decline.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Mm.

[Jack Armstrong]

I Just saw a thing up on the tv. Snack foods go stale on the something about sales for snack foods so we eat less McDonald's and crappy foods in store for some reason. That'd be good.

[Joe Getty]

RFK Decay Jr is making America healthy again. Jack. He's successful. He's. He's doing his thing from Page Six.

[Katie Greene]

Kanye west doubles down on being wife Bianca's quote master after they get back together.

[Jack Armstrong]

I didn't realize they'd gotten back together.

[Katie Greene]

They're back together.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Katie Greene]

Yeah, you know, it's not exactly a.

[Joe Getty]

Shock that both ends of that relationship are a little nutty.

[Katie Greene]

And finally, the Babylon Bee global birth rates hit historic lows as Elon Musk is busy with doge.

[Jack Armstrong]

Less busy starting yesterday, I guess so had the headline break on my phone last night. Tesla board searching for Musk's successor Wanting to replace Elon Musk for running Tesla. But then the Financial Times at the headline today, Tesla board denies launching search for Musk's successor. Which doesn't mean it's not happening, but they are denying it.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, they might have just trying to be. Trying to stare. I'm sorry, can I have a second take on that? Michael? They're trying to scare him straight.

[Jack Armstrong]

Hey, you might want to pay attention to the most valuable car company in the world.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, if you get a minute.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, exactly. So all that stuff Joe teased and a bunch of other things coming up. If you miss a segment, get the podcast Armstrong and Getty on demand.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty. President Trump reportedly spoke on the phone yesterday with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. But even he doesn't know how to cancel your prime membership. It's just I don't think I need it anymore. Well, because I'm the president, so the savings matter less. I don't think I need anymore. That's it. That's pretty amusing.

[Jack Armstrong]

That is. And so that was the whole tariffs on Amazon stuff to show why the prices went up. And did the tariffs have anything to do with the shrinking of the economy that came out yesterday? People saying yes, people saying no. Maybe Joe can tell us.

[Joe Getty]

I will. I will share with you the product of my reading far too much yesterday about all of this and this morning as well. So first, first of all, to belabor the fact that the drive by media are terrible at their jobs and biased seems unnecessary at this point. Can we just stipulate that? Your honor. So be it. Moving along. Of course, what most of us heard yesterday did not enlighten us much and in fact obscured the truth. Here's what you need to know. So the GDP on an annualized basis, shrunk. They announced yesterday, right. The first quarter. Is that Trump's economy or not? Blah, blah, blah. It doesn't really matter much. Not yet. Here's the one thing you need to know. How do we figure the gdp? I was trying to remember. I learned that ages ago and have to be reminded every few years. GDP is calculated by adding consumption, government expenditures, investments and exports together and subtracting imports. That's how you get the gdp. Now, the reason that last part is.

[Jack Armstrong]

So significant, GDP standing for Gross Domestic Product. Did we say that?

[Joe Getty]

It is? Indeed, yes. Thank you, that's excellent. Let's not be too hip for the room. So the reason that is significant is that as the headline from the Journal puts it, the rush to beat tariffs is distorting the economy. And there's more to come. Short version. There was an enormous mind boggling surge in imports in the first quarter because of the anticipation of a big, giant, God knows what's going on, tariffs. So I actually kind of pushed up the purchase of a automobile that may be of German origin. Yeah, Volzh. Because I thought, well, if there's a giant tariff, I might as well do it now. Evidently, many, many, many people in corporations thought the same way. US imports surged more than 40% year after year over year in the first quarter of this year, and that drove down gross domestic product by 0.3% annualized, 1.2, whatever. Now, there's a great deal of uncertainty going forward about how the tariffs, and the uncertainty over the tariffs is going to affect the economy. But that's why the economy shrank. It didn't. Our production didn't shri, our spending didn't shrink, our investment didn't shrink. It's that we had an enormous amount of imports in anticipation of the tariffs. Now, having said that, goodness knows what the next quarter is going to be like. I mean, because all of these numbers generally chug along in a reasonably predictable way because of economic inputs and outputs. But this is, you know, Trump has thrown the whole thing up in the air. So anyway, don't worry about the GDP number yesterday. In fact, as Greg Ipp writes, forget the gdp, it's the job report that matters. The first quarter decline in economic output tells us almost nothing about the economy's actual performance, which through March was fine. It tells us even less about the broader impact of President Trump's tariffs, federal cutbacks and immigration crackdown. For that, we'll have to await the April data, starting with jobs and unemployment, which as we are jabbering now are released to March Tomorrow, Friday the 2nd. This will be the first hard data since Trump's April 2nd tariff announcements. Plus the federal cuts by Elon, by Doge are in full swing. Deportations have messed a little bit with labor market. Weak job numbers could vindicate Trump's critics. Strong number could shut them up, at least for now. And he goes on to say he suspects though that the April report won't tell us a lot, it's early, etc.

[Jack Armstrong]

So yeah, the jobs member coming out tomorrow, great deal will be made to that. Interesting. One of my favorite numbers floating around out there. Sort of separate from that, but in the same realm with bringing back manufacturing and everything like that. We have 140,000 plus empty manufacturing jobs right now that people don't want or won't take.

[Joe Getty]

That's why we need to bring half a million more back, Jack. So we'll have 640 empty jobs.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well that's the, that's the question. Would they be higher paying or different or something?

[Joe Getty]

Or can we reform our freaking safety net so that able bodied men all over this country aren't sitting at home smoking pot, playing video games and either faking a disability or whatever other method they found to suck off the government teat, right, get their ass into a job? I've been desperate. Trust me when I say it's a hell of a motivator. Huh.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, we've made a turn where we think. I can't believe most of America thinks this. Does most of America think this where they're just jobs you shouldn't have to do if you're like a 26 year old dude? I mean you went to college, you got a degree, you shouldn't have to go do that. Who decided that? I know.

[Joe Getty]

Craziest domestic, not domestic progressive America is, is really pushing that idea. And, and frequently it, it either takes the form well white people should be doing those jobs, which is unbelievable, or you know, if you wanna broaden it a little bit, native born people and citizens shouldn't be doing these jobs. We need to import third worlders, they'll do the jobs. It's, you know, when you say it out loud, and I don't think I'm being unfair with that characterization, when you say it out loud, it's repugnant.

[Jack Armstrong]

It absolutely is.

[Joe Getty]

When was the last time you heard a mainstream media useless dumbass weasel. I'm sorry folks. Wow, I'm getting impassioned. My language is. I'm sorry, that was heavy. It was over the top. I apologize anyway, but when was the last time you heard somebody enunciate that? It's crazy. A couple more econ stories I found interesting. Home builders are piling on discounts. They're struggling to entice buyers. The spring season is huge for home builders. Your, your biggies, your Dr. Horton, your Pulte Group, your LGI homes, Lennar. And they are down 15% spring over spring a year ago. A couple of them are. Others are down a little bit less. But they're offering big incentives. People are feeling very, very cautious and, and very, very stretched economically already. And so the, the home builders of America are waving at the White House saying, hey, hey, can we ease up a little bit? Then finally this Trump was right. He said in a couple of different forms yesterday. China is really feeling the pain. They are trying to act all stoic and, and, and, and tough, like a boxer who's just been tagged with a right cross to the chin. But cracks are starting to show. Right, sue is this. I like to give credit where it's due. Lingling Way and Raphael Huang, both of whom sound like they know their way around. China signaled that as a nation, it's better able to tolerate the pain of a prolonged tariff war than the fat decadent US. I'm kind of enhancing their article. But cracks are starting to show, suggesting how deeply that pain is already settling across the Chinese economy. Plunging trade across the Pacific is leading to production halts and threatening to undermine job stability for millions of Chinese. On Wednesday, China's economy showed its first big signs of damage from the trade war. With a drop in export orders in April and the weakest production of the country's factories in more than a year. A lot of the numbers look like the beginning of COVID Wow. China is starting to groan a bit.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow. Speaking of which, did you see the statement China put out about how Covid started in the United States? We'll have to read that later. That was something.

[Joe Getty]

Oh no, you're kidding. There. You know, I wanted to bring this up. There is a great new book out. I think I can find the title, Moby Dick quickly. That's not it, actually. There it is. Yeah, it's. It is a book, interestingly, by two liberal Princeton professors, self described progressive academic and gay activist. And this other guy's work has been praised by liberal thinkers like Ezra Klein. But they wrote a book called In Covid's How Our Politics Failed Us. And it is scathing. It's like we and Sean Hannity teamed up to write A book. It is brutal. And I haven't brought it up just because I could go over and over the. The horrible mistakes and the lack or the vanishing of liberty that happened during COVID for the rest of my life and not be bored. I think it's that important. But yeah, they just hammered the bejesus out of it and including the. The lab leak thing and how the lab leak theory was silenced and it's just, it's inexcusable.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'll read that statement from China later. It's galling. Finally, economic note. Price of eggs is down 80%. The great egg crisis is over. I've had 17 eggs already today. Oh yeah, the great egg crisis is over. Just, you know, pop them like they're nothing. Walk around with a bag full of eggs, popping them in your mouth because they're, they're cheap and easy again.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. So is the bird flu been more or less corralled. Speaking of dread disease, I don't know why the price of eggs, that was a big factor. Yeah, I don't know. Let's just hope there's not some sort of toast pox that pops up next to ruin breakfast for all of us, you know.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh my God, he's ghost box. We've got the mailbag on the way. We got to get into some more news of the day. The. Our military is going more high tech I guess to deal with the changing landscape of wars on the ground. We'll get to that story probably an hour or two. Lots of stuff on the way. Stay here.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Washington Post has a inside look at some of Sean Combs lifestyle, his parties and everything like that. Laying out in a way I'd never heard before. We'll have to get to that a little bit later.

[Joe Getty]

God, he's so much baby oil.

[Jack Armstrong]

Just what a degenerate lifestyle.

[Joe Getty]

What a.

[Jack Armstrong]

What a horrible way to chase happiness. It's never, never worked for anybody in the history of the world.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. Wow. Here's your freedom loving quote of the day sent along by Jerry. We've used this one more than once, but it's one of my all time favorites from Alisa Zinovievina, better known to the world of letters as Ayn Rand. When you realize that to produce you must obtain permission from those who produce nothing. When you see that money flows to those who deal not in goods but in favors. When you notice that many become rich through bribery and influence rather than by their work, and that the laws do not protect you from them, but instead they are protected from you. When you discover that corruption is rewarded and honesty becomes a form of self sacrifice, then you can confidently say, without fear of being wrong, that your society is doomed.

[Jack Armstrong]

Ding, ding, ding.

[Joe Getty]

A little close to home there, Iron baby.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, Mailbag. What?

[Joe Getty]

What? She said that. What, in the 1930s or 40s? You can drop us a note anytime you like. Mailbag. At Armstrong&getty.com. on the topic of the Wisconsin judge who is helping an illegal wife beater escape justice because she's so mad at ICE or something, Adam writes, guys, let's cut that judge some slack. Maybe they helped that violent illegal alien escape the domestic violence hearing. And ICE in a moment of panic. I mean, come on, we've all been trapped in a vestibule once and used any means to escape in a moment of panic. Was trying to escape a vestibule. It's one of my favorite tapes of all time. AOC told us it's even okay to pull a fire alarm. Good point, Adam. Good callback.

[Jack Armstrong]

She was asked about whether she wants to run for president yesterday. We'll have the answer later.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. On the topic of the Harvard bigots and more on that to come. The Harvard's own report is scathing. I've dug into it. Let's see. Sean writes, maybe the Harvard Muslim students who reported like they could not speak freely. They were like, I'd like to say, hey, let's cool it with the Jews stuff, but I'm scared of all those crazy white chicks. That is a funny thought. The Muslim students are terrified of the woke white girls. Let's see. On the topic of whether some transient tampered with your Tesla, Jack.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Uh, let's see. This guy writes, if you didn't hear.

[Jack Armstrong]

I told the story on one more thing. Brief story is some guys, some guy who is transient adjacent. I don't know why I allowed this, but he said, I parked my cyber beast and he said, hey, I've never seen one of those before. Can I take a look inside? And I hesitated. And yeah, it would have been uncomfortable to say, no, I don't know any. Any. He stuck his head in there, like weirdly far and low for too long a time. It was strange. And now my door makes a weird sound when I close it. And I don't know if he did something to my car or what.

[Joe Getty]

I just forwarded you an email to your personal account from a listener who said, not for air. You might want to take a gander at that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Well, yeah, let's see. Anyway, is it a DP or is.

[Jack Armstrong]

It related to this story?

[Joe Getty]

I'm sorry, a what now?

[Jack Armstrong]

A Richard Pick? Or is it related to the story?

[Joe Getty]

No, you idiot. No, it's directly related to the story.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay.

[Joe Getty]

Anyway, let's see. Sean writes, I think Jack was paranoid in describing that incident, but it's not like he, I don't know, once reported some Italian caterers as Islamist terrorists to Homeland Security in Las Vegas. I mean, if he'd done that, I'd question his judgment.

[Jack Armstrong]

That was John, baby. That was New Year's Eve, 2002. I mean, one turning into two.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Yeah, man, that is a throwback.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's embarrassing in retrospect.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. So we were talking also.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Yesterday. About these AI apps that record every word you say for the purpose of giving you reminders and summaries of the things that you decided to do and accomplished and blah, blah, blah. It's intriguing. My takeaway was, yeah, let's give it a year or two and see how these things work out. But that's our topic. Couple of notes. This one from Michael in Washington state. Guys, I don't think I'd be a fan of the AI wristband voice recorder. Seems like a slippery slope and could be hacked and so on. But my Samsung phone has a new feature that records calls. It does make all parties aware of the recording. It's very useful when disputing financial charges with insurance, phone, utility or other companies. Now I have the power to record the lies and false promises. Most everyone listening to your show has had a phone company or insurance company admit to making a mistake and promise to fix it. Or just flat lie about an inaccurate account charge. Fast forward a month, you receive the same bill in the mail. Now you have to call the company back and get told. We never said any of that. Blah, blah, blah. Well, that's over.

[Jack Armstrong]

Interesting.

[Joe Getty]

These sends them the voice recording and makes them fess up. Yeah, I love that idea. And if you're in a one party state, you don't even have to bother telling them. Although if you're not, hit them with the. The exact. For purposes of quality control, this call will be recorded.

[Jack Armstrong]

We're trying to serve you, not have evidence against you.

[Joe Getty]

Right, exactly. And on the similar topic, we mentioned that you could win an argument with your wife if you'd recorded the phone call.

[Jack Armstrong]

You never told me we had dinner Friday night.

[Joe Getty]

I told you when we were talking about the tennis tournament. Then you go back, you got the whole tennis tournament conversation. You play it for her. Nada there. Well, Caleb was a thinking man writes. I don't think that recording device with aid from AI would change anything about a disagreement. What was said with the wife. Even if AI came back and confirmed nothing was said about Summer With Friends, for example, then you and AI would be wrong.

[Jack Armstrong]

I think what would be disturbing is finding out that you are regularly told stuff and completely forget it. I think that would be the outcome. That would be highly disturbing.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, perhaps. What do we have, Michael? One minute. This is. This is distasteful, and I'm. I regret even reading it, much less reading it to you, Mikey. Luke writes recently on his podcast that no one listens to Governor Gavi Newsom was comparing himself to Elon Musk by saying we were Doge before Doge existed.

[Jack Armstrong]

All right.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, my God. Like, he's been good for California's economy and the government. Rather than comparing himself to Musk, he should be comparing himself to Donald Jr. Because they both had Kim Guilfoyle.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, wow. That's not a.

[Joe Getty]

That's nothing to the discussion.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's.

[Joe Getty]

No, no, Mikey, do better. Be better.

[Jack Armstrong]

Could 60 guys beat a crocodile? Do we have that? We got a lot of that stuff I mentioned in hour two. If you don't get to get the podcast. Armstrong and Getty on Demand.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Gettysburg.