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Jack Armstrong
You're listening to an iHeart podcast.
Joe Getty
Welcome to the W where elite athletes are redefining the game of basketball. From buzzer beating shots, jaw dropping defense and logo threes, the WNBA delivers non stop action and world class talent every game. These athletes don't just play the game they elevated. The New York Liberty are the reigning champions and the Golden State Valkyries are the newest team to join the league since 2 2008. Watch the WNBA this season on ABC, CBS, ESPN, ION and Prime starting May 16.
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Jack Armstrong
Ah, come on.
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Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center.
Bruce Springsteen
Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty, Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Yeti.
Walmart Ad
Attention Walmart shoppers. Instead of rolling back prices, America's biggest retailer just announced they're raising them and they're blaming Trump's tariffs. How many more stores are going to have to follow Walmart's lead?
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, that story broke while we're on there yesterday. I should have mentioned it, I just wasn't in the mood. But probably should have is a big deal. Walmart saying they're going to raise prices because of tariffs. For one thing, they're the biggest retailer in the world. Like Jake said, they're lying Lion Jake Tapper.
Bruce Springsteen
And I was just going to say the list of voices I can hear on our show that don't immediately sour me to what they're saying is shrinking. David Muir of ABC News, please. I know if I needed to know what time of day it was and he had a watch, I wouldn't ask him because I don't want to hear his stinking voice. And Jake Tapper, I'm sorry, sorry. Jake. The great Sherlock Holmes style solver of mysteries who figured out that Biden was senile. Please.
Jack Armstrong
More on that a little bit later. I'll tell you what it is personal between Mark Halperin who's got a new TV show that's on YouTube every night it's on YouTube and somewhere else. It's really good. I mean it looks like a TV show. He's sitting there in a suit and tie with a TV throw in a background, has guests. But, but man, he is killing Jake Tapper and then with receipts every single night. Well, maybe I get into that while we're on it. Why the hell not?
Bruce Springsteen
Why not?
Jack Armstrong
So Tapper has got this book coming out next week, right where he's going to try to be the hero of the story and, and bring you all these behind the scenes details of what was going on with the COVID up. And practically everybody's. Well, not true. I was going to say everybody's reaction, but no, the New York Times and the Washington Post and, and CN, CNN's own media person have reviewed the book like oh my God, Jake Tapper has uncovered some secrets that are. Oh, wait till you hear this.
Bruce Springsteen
Okay, why don't we just say everyone who's not guilty of precisely the same crimes as Jake Tapper have reacted this way to Jack. Jake Tapper's book.
Jack Armstrong
Right. And so Jake Tapper, as we mentioned yesterday, hired some PR firm when it became fairly obvious that some people are like, oh, give me a Break. You can't set the fire, put out the fire and then take credit for taking, you know, putting out the fire and act like you didn't. I mean, we did not just putting up with this. And so Mark Halperin, whose main thing is as a news guy, I think he's got two things going for him. One, he got driven out of the industry when he got me to around what, 20, 20, 21 somewhere in there. And I think a lot of people, he's like, you didn't come to my defense. Screw you. So I don't think he cares if he hurts any feelings here with calling out.
Bruce Springsteen
We were one of the first shows to have him back on, by the way. You know, I'm not sensing a lot of gratitude, but anyway, and, and the.
Jack Armstrong
Other end of it is I, he, he, he really is concerned. And if people don't believe the media, we can't hold any presidents accountable. He said, you can't hold Trump accountable because he lost all of your credibility with Biden and, you know, vice versa. So it just. The media can't do its job, and we're doomed if the media can't hold either party accountable, which is obviously a problem. He regularly calls this, and he's absolutely correct. The biggest media failure is in US History. It absolutely is. What would compare to pretending that the president is fine for all those years anyway? So I think we. First of all, I can't. Just looking at the list quickly. Hanson, that clip I sent you to get. Okay, here it is. Here it is. I want you to play 40 and let me set this up real quick. So back toward this was before the election. Wall Street Journal does a not even really strong piece about how Biden's brain doesn't work anymore. And it made such waves in the world of media. The Wall Street Journal says the president isn't fit mentally to be in office and he certainly remember president for another four years.
Bruce Springsteen
I remember presenting it to the good folks on our show where we decided, yeah, this is good, solid, a good, solid accounting of that which all of us can see with our own eyes.
Jack Armstrong
But, man, serious pushback. And that's when Joe Scarborough on MSNBC went nuts and said, hey, look at the camera. F you if you don't believe this is the best version of Joe Biden. I mean, people pushed back hard, including Jake Tapper, who had on various guests to counter the Wall Street Journal narrative and let them say their piece completely unchallenged on his show back at the time yesterday. He has the gall in Trying to rewrite history to have these Wall Street Journal reporters on and called them heroes. Here it is. Clip 40.
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They're with me now. Two of the heroic reporters were covering this intensely during the Biden years, Annie Lynskey and Siobhan Hughes. They are with the Wall Street Journal. They reported on the decline of Biden's mental acuity back in June of last year. The piece then quotes, behind closed doors, Biden shows signs of slipping. Participants in meetings said the 81 year old President performed poorly at times. The White House said Biden is sharp and his critics are playing partisan politics, unquote. This is not the first time you guys have been on. I said it last year before the election and I'll say it again. The journalism you did was vital and the smear campaign by Democrats against you.
Bruce Springsteen
Two is disgraceful, which you participated in.
Jack Armstrong
The smear campaign by Democrats against the Wall Street Journal reporters at the time. He helped along and again, getting to the home Mark Halperin thing, his TV show last night, I mean he's been dedicating so much time to this. He had a segment where the next day or the day of the Wall Street Journal peace Tapper had on coons, Senator Coons, big Biden advocate and surrogate and on there and just tore into the Wall Street Journal and says where's the Wall Street Journal criticizing Trump for when he gets a name wrong? And Tapper let him say his giant piece, no pushback whatsoever. So he participated. And the Democrats tearing down the Wall street journalists then has the balls to have them on yesterday and call them heroes. I mean that is another level.
Bruce Springsteen
And to make the point repeatedly in his introduction that I've been on this story the whole time I said this last year, I'm saying it now along with that other stuff I said all through the Biden years that I'm sure everybody remembers. Jake Tapper cannot hear the cosmos screaming at him, saying, Jake, you can't defend you. This is not working. You're just reminding people of what a liar you are. You cannot be your main advocate because you got no credibility. Chum.
Jack Armstrong
I don't know if it's going to matter because it's people in the usual circles. If you read the Washington Post, in the New York Times, you're, you're, they're taking in this book like oh my God, did you hear? And, and Fox and everybody leaning right who already knew Joe Biden was in the situation. He, you know, are laughing at this book. But he must, he must be worried to do what he did yesterday. This was yesterday.
Bruce Springsteen
Oh, yeah.
Jack Armstrong
He had the Wall street journals on, reporters on and called them heroes. I mean, how do you sit there and do that?
Bruce Springsteen
It's pathetic. It's desperation. And it's so clearly desperation. That's what. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. I would be embarrassed.
Jack Armstrong
I would be embarrassed to go that far.
Bruce Springsteen
Yes. You know, it's funny. I just had the feeling wash over me that the utter dishonesty of the mainstream media has been recognized by the vast, vast majority of the American people. They're less popular or less trusted than any institution but Congress, which should make you shudder as a fan of the Constitution and their punishments already been exacted upon them. They're laughing stocks.
Jack Armstrong
Here's the problem, though. It hurts us. If it. If it only hurt them, I'd be fine with that. I don't care. But it's not. This is Halperin's point. It's bad for the country. So you're. They've been punished. They've gotten what they deserved, but with having an 8% approval rating. But that's a terrible place for us to be as a country. And they're not agree and they're not trying to dig themselves out of it. They're making it worse. Well, I'll read from Mark Halpern's today.
Bruce Springsteen
He gets it. I'm having lots of fun.
Jack Armstrong
He quotes Politico Today in his newsletter. This is Politico Today. It was. What happened in that debate was a shock to me. Jake Sullivan told Playbook's Jack Blanchard at Politico security summit on Thursday. I think it was a shock to everybody. So Jake Sullivan saying this week that it was a shock to everyone around Joe Biden when he showed up that bait and asked, acted that way.
Bruce Springsteen
That's ridiculous.
Jack Armstrong
Halpern writes, no one can legitimately say they were shocked by what happened in the debate because Biden exhibited all the same behaviors in public for years and goes on to say, oh, my God, reporters need to stop asking Democrats, were you surprised by the debate or should Biden have run for reelection? Or did you see signs of decline in private? The correct question at this point is, given Joe Biden's obvious mental decline in public, why didn't you speak up? That should be the only question every single time.
Bruce Springsteen
Right? Right.
Jack Armstrong
And if you're going to talk to reporters, it should be to the reporter. Given his obvious decline, why weren't you reporting on that?
Bruce Springsteen
There are only two possible. Well, yeah, for the politicos, the One question reporter is another. But the only possible answer for politicos would be, I place my party above my country. Well, the second answer might be, look, I go along to get along. That's what politicians do. Third answer. And if they were going to be honest, they would say, this Kamala Harris is an effing idiot. I figured we were better off with old man Biden and his inner circle than that half wit from California and her band of renegade dopes. What a powerful metaphor.
Jack Armstrong
The, the why to that is, and this is what Halperin points out all the time, is that they hated Trump so much they just didn't want him to win. Whatever kept him from winning.
Bruce Springsteen
Yeah, that's. That's answer for right?
Jack Armstrong
Yep. Yeah. And but to go so far to bring in those Wall Street Journal reporters. They should have called him out there on the show. You're calling us. I wish one of them would have said, you're calling me a hero. You had guest after guest on to tear us apart at the time.
Bruce Springsteen
Yeah, that's weird, Jake. I was an idiot last year. Now I'm a hero. Huh, that's great.
Jack Armstrong
Hero. Heroic coverage. Because they were able to report what everybody already knew. This, this is. Well, I keep quoting Mark Halpern. He said last night, we're through the looking glass. I don't even know what to say anymore.
Bruce Springsteen
Well, right, yeah, yeah. What's your next book, Jake? Nixon was a little paranoid. You got a book about Carter? He's a well meaning fellow, but didn't do very well. You got any more crazy revelations? Nobody saw God.
Jack Armstrong
I, I mean, can he go any. Can, can Jake Tapper go any farther than this? Calling them heroes?
Bruce Springsteen
Well, the harder he tries, the more sad and pathetic it is. Which is what I was trying to say about the cosmos. I mean, Jake, you just gotta let it lie. Dude, you are the last person who ought to be saying these things.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. Do you think he's just completely self unaware? That's what I wonder. I have been self delusional about things before and then when it becomes evident to me how wrong I was, I'm amazed. It's like, wow, the human brain can do that. Or my human brain did this, or. But he doesn't seem to want to have that. How interesting would that be if he did? If he'd be willing to come on the air and say I was so against Trump winning and so just buried deep in the idea of not helping him that I ignored the obvious.
Bruce Springsteen
That would be interesting.
Jack Armstrong
It would be more interesting. Well, be more believable than this.
Bruce Springsteen
Yeah, you raised an interesting point, or Michael did at the end there. You've never had any brain but the one you've had. You know, all of us obviously can say that. I wonder if there are people who are just way, way, way more pliable to that sort of groupthink than I can imagine being. It's got to be true.
Jack Armstrong
Wow. Any thoughts? Text line 415295 KFTC ARMSTRONG and GETTY.
Bruce Springsteen
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Jack Armstrong
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Joe Getty
Welcome to the W where elite athletes are redefining the game of basketball. From buzzer beating shots, jaw dropping defense and logo threes, the NBA delivers non stop action and world class talent every game. These athletes don't just play the game they elevated. The New York Liberty are the reigning champions and the Golden State Valkyries are the newest team to join the league since 2008. Watch the WNBA this season on ABC, CBS, ESPN, ION and Prime starting May 16th.
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Jack Armstrong
Heart.
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Joe Getty
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Jack Armstrong
Hey, I was just in an accident. Don't worry, we'll get you taken care of.
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Bruce Springsteen
Week, over 1,200 Starbucks employees have gone.
Jack Armstrong
On strike to protest the company's new dress code.
Bruce Springsteen
It was strange.
Jack Armstrong
All the employees walked out and the line moved just as fast.
Bruce Springsteen
Yeah, Starbucks workers are upset about the dress code. Meanwhile, over at Dunkin, you're allowed to.
Jack Armstrong
Wear an apron with nothing underneath it.
Bruce Springsteen
Wow. You know, that reminds me, I just saw it was a Twitter thread that AI has just gone too far now. And it was an AI video of a McDonald's. A McDonald's run entirely by cats. And they were doing all the jobs, doing the fries, cooking the burgers, manning the register. And it was utterly convincing. I mean, not like I was convinced There's a cat McDonald's.
Jack Armstrong
You briefly were concerned that there's a feline. Entirely feline. Run McDonald's somewhere.
Bruce Springsteen
What of the fur in my. My drink? Gross. No, it's just. It's amazing.
Jack Armstrong
It wasn't babies this time, it was cats. Yeah, to the Starbucks thing. Just, just this came up because it was a news story hit, my kids were listening and I just threw up. My usual dad sort of advice. If your boss tells you you got to wear a black shirt, wear a freaking black shirt.
Bruce Springsteen
I want to wear my rainbow. Black lives matter. Shirt because I want to bring my whole self to work at Starbucks.
Jack Armstrong
You're you make coffee.
Bruce Springsteen
Do your work and shut up. That's been the history of all the history of mankind can be summed up with the sentence show up and shut up. All right. Even this job, oddly enough. So anyway, I've got a trio of stories about crime maybe we can squeeze in next hour, including Chinese money launderers flooding particularly Southern California with hundreds of thousands of dollars of cartel cash. And the challenge that is posing for both banks and law enforcement authorities. We are, you know, like Trump made that trip to the Middle east and was getting trillions of dollars of investments out of the various oil sheiks. Some good enough, some kind of evil. The cartels look at the US that same way. We are the trillions of dollars land of gold. Because we do. We love their drugs.
Jack Armstrong
Another story I'd like to get to. This is an exclusive in the Wall Street Journal today. I am we, we've been downplaying this fear of flying thing for several years. I think this is going to happen. There is going to be a midair collision that kills hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people.
Bruce Springsteen
Really?
Jack Armstrong
I think so. At some point the air traffic controller averted a midair collision. Now he's speaking out. Interview in the Wall Street Journal. Guy walked off the job at Newark after a couple of weeks ago when he barely caught a couple of planes that were going to crash into each other.
Bruce Springsteen
Yeah, yeah, okay, we can talk about that.
Jack Armstrong
I'm not afraid to fly, but I think at some point just, you know, it's going to happen.
Bruce Springsteen
I think it is absolutely righteous that the current Secretary of Transportation and the Trump administration are trying to update, modernize, make more efficient and safe our air traffic control system. I think it's a great thing they're doing.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, absolutely. We've got a lot on the way. Hope you can stick around.
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Armstrong and Getty.
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Joe Getty
Welcome to the W where elite athletes are redefining the game of basketball. From buzzer beating shots, jaw dropping defense and logo threes, the WNBA delivers non stop action and world class talent every game. These athletes don't just play the game, they elevate it. The New York Liberty are the reigning champions and the Golden State Valkyries are the newest team to join the league since 2008. This season will be the first with Kelsey Plum on the Los Angeles Sparks, Jewel Lloyd on the Aces and Alyssa Thomas in Phoenix. Whether you're a lifelong basketball fan or new to the game, the WNBA invites you to be a part of something bigger. Catch live games, follow your favorite teams and witness history in the making. Watch the WNBA this season on absolute CBS, ESPN, ION and Prime starting May 16.
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Bruce Springsteen
The frightening scene in Silver Spring, Maryland. A toddler has survived a 15 story.
Jack Armstrong
Fall from an apartment building.
Bruce Springsteen
First responders believe the 2 year old boy fell from a balcony and survived by landing on the bushes below. Authorities are now investigating the fall. Again, the boy is expected to survive this.
Jack Armstrong
Holy crap.
Bruce Springsteen
Yeah, yeah. I'm reminded of that ride along we did with the Charlotte Fire Department. This is probably like in 1994, 30 plus years ago. Good Lord. And the guys, we actually responded to a call where somebody fell out of a seventh floor window and landed in the bushes and sustained a broken arm. I think was the most serious injury. And in talking to some of the firefighters, they talked about, you know, they've gone to cases where somebody tripped walking off a curb, hit their head and died.
Jack Armstrong
Friend of mine did last year, like 60 years old.
Bruce Springsteen
Yikes, yikes.
Jack Armstrong
You're your two year old falls off the balcony in the 15th floor. You have no expectation whatsoever of a good outcome. Oh my God.
Bruce Springsteen
I don't know what the takeaway is here other than try not to fall off of balconies or trip going over curbs, but it's amazing, you know what the outcomes can be.
Jack Armstrong
Life is completely unpredictable. So be very, very afraid.
Bruce Springsteen
Exactly. Yes, yes. Don't do anything ever.
Jack Armstrong
Live your day in amazement. Amazing fear. I mean, just paralyzing fear all day, every day.
Bruce Springsteen
Great idea.
Jack Armstrong
Or a vengeful God maybe you go for vengeful God.
Bruce Springsteen
All right, all right. So what do we want to talk about? Do you want to do the, the prices thing or. I've got my crime stories.
Jack Armstrong
I can hit you with this inflation thing real quick. We meant to talk about this, but Joe got so sidetracked by his hatred for Jake Tapper, we ended up talking about him and his book instead of.
Bruce Springsteen
Not the way I remember it, but go on.
Jack Armstrong
But that Walmart announced yesterday that they're raising price places, they say specifically because of the Trump tariffs, which as the biggest retailer in the world, that gives a lot of other stores cover. If they were thinking, God, we need to raise prices too, but our people are going to, you know, gives them a little political cover or cultural cover. Anyway, I thought this was interesting on the way this was covered two different ways. Let me find it for you. On one hand, the Wall Street Journal writes this. So far, Trump's tariffs have had a muted effect on inflation. Walmart's announcement suggests that a dam is breaking and that a flood of higher prices could soon follow. But Axios put it this way, with major indicators from April, the month of peak tariff uncertainty, now in none show the kind of a recessionary or inflationary conditions implied by business and consumer surveys. So they went with a very positive spin on, we went through the worst month of it and things are fine. So clear skies.
Bruce Springsteen
Yeah. I don't, I don't know how they arrived at that conclusion since the tariffs hadn't actually hit. I don't think. And, and the ones that are in place are not like crazy high, but they're higher than they were.
Jack Armstrong
Well, the analysis of these two stories were you're smarter than I am. If you have any idea which of these is correct. If like enough damage was done that we are going to have inflation or we pulled out of the nosedive in time. So we're going to be okay. I have no idea.
Bruce Springsteen
Wow. All right. Walmart CEO or CFO John David Rainey said the speed and magnitude at which these prices are coming to us is somewhat unprecedented in history.
Jack Armstrong
Wow.
Bruce Springsteen
Trade wars. Full impact on consumers is yet to come.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
Bruce Springsteen
Any businesses stockpiled goods before the tariffs hit. And some businesses have absorbed the initial costs rather than passing them along. Walmart's announcement suggests some businesses are running out of options for putting off price increases, economists said, which would seem to. Unless that's just wrong, counter the, the Axios claim.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. I keep hearing these stories of people are cutting back on travel, eating out variety of things for summer. I will see.
Bruce Springsteen
Yeah, yeah, we will. I think it'll all be pretty clear within a month or two.
Jack Armstrong
Oh, yeah.
Bruce Springsteen
So a handful of crime related stories I found very interesting. First of all, bags of cash from drug cartels are flooding teller windows at U.S. banks. And they tell the story of this undercover. Well, undercover cops were watching a Chinese national by the name of Zhaoyong Yu steps out of a Range Rover in a strip mall parking lot, walks into a Chase bank with a black leather backpack full of cash in Southern California. So at the teller window he pulls.
Jack Armstrong
Out these stacks I've complained a lot about. Like if I want to take out $10,000 to go buy a used car, the bank makes me tell them what I'm going to do with it. And I hate that. It's like my money will do whatever the hell I want with it. On the other hand, a guy rolls in an arrange over with a backpack full of cash. I feel like that's worth a look.
Bruce Springsteen
Yeah, I hear you. So how do, how do I present this exactly? This is a story about some of the most important criminal organizations certainly in our hemisphere. The big cartels in Mexico and Chinese money laundering operations that are, you know, run in cooperation with The Chinese Communist Party. So that would, that would suggest to you a fair degree of sophistication. Right, well, listen to this part now. So at the teller window, you pulled out stacks of bills and waited while a woman fed them into the cash counting machine. After you left, an officer asked the teller if he had deposited more than $10,000. The threshold requiring blanks, banks to flag transactions, blah, blah, blah. More like a hundred thousand, the teller said.
Jack Armstrong
Wow.
Bruce Springsteen
By then you was already on his way to Chase and Bank of America branches in Claremont. Claremont, California, about 35 miles away, with.
Jack Armstrong
More cash to put in.
Bruce Springsteen
Yes.
Jack Armstrong
Wowing in that Range Rover.
Bruce Springsteen
Well, they don't say that specifically, but federal authorities allege you worked for an underground banking network that bought dollars at a discount from Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel.
Jack Armstrong
Did Jason, did Jason Bateman ever think of doing it this way where he doesn't have to like deal with those inbred hick people as he's trying to launder the money on Ozark?
Bruce Springsteen
Well, right. Run a riverboat casino with his angsty wife and angsty children. Right. I don't know. But so you, you buy, you know, a hundred thousand dollars cash from a cartel for $80,000 and then you attempt to launder it. You attempt to, you know, obscure the origin of it until it can be used again. The network allegedly handled some $50 million in proceeds from drug trafficking over four years, depositing a portion of the tainted cash in ATMs and teller windows in major banks, including Citibank in cities around LA county, according to federal prosecutors. And similar money laundering operations operate in plain sight around the US Hiding the staggering returns, which are the reason cross border cartels smuggle fentanyl, meth, coke and other drugs used by millions of Americans.
Jack Armstrong
So that guy might have had half million million dollars he was driving around in that Range Rover with. Man, that's, that's somebody connected to some bad people.
Bruce Springsteen
Oh yeah, yeah. Interesting. Wow. I suggested that, you know, there's like a 20% discount or something like that, but Chinese money laundering operatives in some cases open dozens of bank accounts at multiple banks, using counterfeit passports to disguise their identity, or recruiting local business owners and students. They charge 1 to 2% on the dollar, undercutting competitors who had traditionally charged more for money laundering services. Man, you're, you're doing how much? Start committing federal. You're going to start, start. Ask it so much.
Jack Armstrong
Chinese laundry.
Bruce Springsteen
Oh, geez, what was I going to say? Oh, so you're, you're doing like widespread, fairly easy to track, you know, federal offense, money laundering for 1 to 2%.
Jack Armstrong
Man. If I'm a bank teller and that person leaves, I think I just brushed up against the closest I've ever been to the kind of people that will cut your head off.
Bruce Springsteen
Yes.
Jack Armstrong
And I don't like it.
Bruce Springsteen
Yeah. Now these are more like hirelings and.
Jack Armstrong
Lackeys, I realize, but you're like one degree of separation from the head choppers.
Bruce Springsteen
Oh, yeah. If. Yeah, I. I would be at least slightly concerned that if I became a major figure in the uncovering of.
Jack Armstrong
By accident.
Bruce Springsteen
Yeah, it's at least conceivable. So this copper they talked to assembled the team that watched you deposit this six figure cash haul at the Chase bank on loan from the dea. So anyway, it's a big thing these days. All right, moving on. Different crime. Right? There it is. We mentioned this briefly the other day, and I really didn't know anything about it, but officials with the FBI are growing more concerned about an online network called 764-That- targets and extorts young people. The predators behind I'm sorry. They befriend teenagers on online platforms, then push them into behavior including creating and sharing porn, harming pets.
Jack Armstrong
Good lord.
Bruce Springsteen
Cutting themselves, and suicide.
Jack Armstrong
God dang it.
Bruce Springsteen
So these predators demand their victims share images and videos of the behavior so they can share it with other 764 followers. They also use the contact for the content rather for extortion. Some of the predators even host watch parties for others to watch them torment victims live online, according to authorities.
Jack Armstrong
Maybe the story here should be why do we have so many young people that are easy pickings for this sort of thing? I can't believe that that was true 30, 40 years ago, but there was.
Bruce Springsteen
No means to do it so nobody could ever figure it out.
Jack Armstrong
I know, but I mean, we all know with the number of kids that are on anxiety medicine or kill themselves or deciding they're the wrong gender or whatever. Yeah, there are more messed up young people today. I just don't think there were that many people like in my high school class that even if the technology had existed, you could have gotten to that would cut themselves or something.
Bruce Springsteen
I mean, what the hell, right? Right? Yeah, both are probably true. But getting back to these just monsters, these sociopaths, they host watch parties for others to watch them torment victims live online, according to authorities. And investigators say the darker and more violent the images or videos a member can coerce a minor to produce helps them climb the ladder of standing in the network. So the more horrible thing you can compel some impressionable tween or teen to do, the more cachet you get in the network. Now they've arrested a couple of leaders of the group and charged him with operating an international child exploitation enterprise. One was an American citizen who lives in Greece and the other lives in High Point, North Carolina. And this one guy, Prasan Nepal of High Point, North Carolina, reportedly instructed other members of 764 on how to groom and extort victims. The outlet said Nepal allegedly wrote, quote, extortion is a form of discipline to little girls who might not have a father at home. It's a good thing. Yikes. The Internet is the worst neighborhood in your town, the worst neighborhood in your state. And I would think seriously about whether letting your kids wander around in it is a good idea.
Jack Armstrong
I only think about it every single day.
Bruce Springsteen
And then finally, best job in America or Switzerland anyway. Work for Swiss bank and then blow the whistle when they're helping people evade taxes according to the laws and rewards. If you blow the whistle on, for instance, Credit Suisse, who wasn't living up to the promises they'd made to courts to stop helping Americans evade taxes by stashing cash and assets overseas. Well, several employees said, hey, we're doing exactly what the banks swore in these court papers that we wouldn't do anymore. Look at all these accounts. 475 accounts that credit Suisse should have known were tied to Americans. They held around $4 billion. This handful of whistleblowers blew the whistle as whistleblowers will. And the former bank employees are going to make up to $150 million each. For the reward you get between 15 and 30% from the Justice Department.
Jack Armstrong
Cool. Good work. If you can get it.
Bruce Springsteen
$150 million. I'll rat anybody out for that. Just so you know.
Jack Armstrong
I have a nominee for the most annoying person in America. It goes by the moniker the Boss. He leads the E Street Band.
Bruce Springsteen
Oh.
Jack Armstrong
Last night as he kicked off his world tour, we'll play a little bit of what he had to say. Oh, shut up, Bruce. That among other things on the way.
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Armstrong and Getty.
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Jack Armstrong
I should have looked up the actual name of Bruce's tour. Maybe you can look that up, Katie. Bruce Springsteen is big new world tour. It's some sort of pretentious saving the world from authoritarianism.
Bruce Springsteen
I think he says it right at the beginning, doesn't he?
Jack Armstrong
Maybe he does, but this is from last night in, in, in England. And this is at the very beginning. He does this like throughout the concert. I mean I saw a long YouTube montage of and we're all used to musicians, you know, they're all left winger and hippie progressives and we have to put up with their crap to listen their music. I thought this was over the top. Yes. What is this called, Katie?
Bruce Springsteen
The Land of Hopes and Dreams tour.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. Thank you for that. Here you go, Bruce.
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All right.
Bruce Springsteen
The Mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power.
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Bruce Springsteen
Roll in dangerous times in my home. The America I love, the America I've heard written about that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration. That's fine. Can I get a fries with that? Play the song. Yeah. Why am I hearing this in this setting? Guitar playing, man.
Jack Armstrong
I feel like that was a new level of that sort of thing that I don't know if I'd have been able to sit there and then listen to the concert. I might have gone out to the parking lot and sat in the car. Yeah, I, I, I'll drive you home afterwards. Whoever I went with, I'm not going to let him lecture me and, and act like we're all with you. Right? And then shut up.
Bruce Springsteen
The west coast version of Bruce Springsteen is Billy Joe from Green Day. I, I love, I have loved Green Day my entire life. I've seen him live multiple times a.
Jack Armstrong
Lot to like went there multiple shows in a row.
Bruce Springsteen
He goes on like a 15 to 20 minute political tirade and you're just sitting there going like, this is not what I paid for.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. I want to be an American idiot. Yeah. So Bruce, at one point during the concert last night, he comes out, he's so old now. I mean he walks like an old man, very stiffly. He's got the piano player doing his little thing and he sits down on the stage. I need to talk to you good people. We're just one generation from authoritarianism taken over the world and all we can do. And I just thought, oh, freaking give me a break. First of all, first of all, it's always the same direction and we all got to put up with. But, but I don't even like, even without the directional attitude of the politics, how did you all become so convinced that rock and roll is going to solve anything? It's not going to solve thing other than entertaining me. It's gonna solve my boredom for the next two hours.
Bruce Springsteen
Right? I like music, it makes me happy. That's why I'm here. That's the only reason I'm here.
Jack Armstrong
Their self importance of feeling like they're actually, you know, striking a blow for their politics in some way by going out there and playing their hits that everybody remembers from high school. I mean, whatever.
Bruce Springsteen
Well, and if Brucey Boy or Billy Joe Armstrong are convinced that, look, I've made enough money and this is really important to me and if I alienate half my audience, fine, you know what, I can almost respect that. But you have alienated me. Goodbye.
Jack Armstrong
F you right? Yeah, it works both ways.
Bruce Springsteen
One of my favorite things about this is that the punk rock machine used to be against the machine. Well, the machine's the left now, so it's like the whole script is flipped. Yeah, exactly. Like the man said, you have the media, you have the universities, you have a lot of the government and you're fighting the power.
Jack Armstrong
What if you missed a segment? Get the podcast. Armstrong and Getty on demand.
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Armstrong & Getty On Demand: "You Got No Credibility, Chum." – A Detailed Summary
Podcast Information:
The episode swiftly moves past introductory segments and advertisements to delve into pressing issues surrounding media credibility. Hosts Jack Armstrong and Bruce Springsteen engage in a candid discussion, setting the tone for a critical examination of mainstream media figures and their influence.
Key Discussion Points:
Notable Quotes:
Bruce Springsteen (03:38): "Jake Tapper, I'm sorry, sorry. Jake. The great Sherlock Holmes style solver of mysteries who figured out that Biden was senile. Please."
Jack Armstrong (09:54): "Jake Tapper cannot hear the cosmos screaming at him, saying, Jake, you can't defend you. This is not working. You're just reminding people of what a liar you are. You cannot be your main advocate because you got no credibility. Chum."
Analysis: The hosts delve into Tapper's recent actions, including his upcoming book aimed at portraying himself as a hero in investigative journalism. They argue that Tapper's efforts to highlight alleged decline in President Joe Biden's mental acuity are politically motivated and undermine journalistic integrity.
Key Discussion Points:
Notable Quotes:
Analysis: The conversation highlights the systemic issues within the media landscape, where biased reporting erodes public trust. Halperin's points underscore the detrimental impact this mistrust has on democratic accountability and the overall health of the information ecosystem.
Key Discussion Points:
Walmart Raises Prices: The hosts analyze Walmart’s announcement to increase prices citing Trump tariffs, debating the potential implications on inflation and consumer behavior.
Differing Media Takes: They compare how The Wall Street Journal and Axios have reported on the issue, showcasing a divide in media perspectives.
Notable Quotes:
Analysis: Armstrong and Springsteen discuss the conflicting reports from major publications, reflecting broader debates on economic policies and their real-world effects. This segment underscores the complexities of interpreting economic data and the influence of media bias on public perception.
A. Money Laundering by Cartels
Key Discussion Points:
Notable Quotes:
Analysis: The hosts expose the intricate methods utilized by international criminal organizations to launder money, highlighting vulnerabilities within the U.S. banking system and the challenges law enforcement faces in combating such sophisticated schemes.
B. Online Predators Targeting Youths
Key Discussion Points:
Notable Quotes:
Analysis: Armstrong and Springsteen shed light on the dark realities of online predator networks, emphasizing the psychological and emotional toll on young victims. They call attention to the urgent need for better safeguards and parental awareness in the digital age.
C. Swiss Bank Whistleblowers
Key Discussion Points:
Notable Quotes:
Analysis: The discussion highlights the role of whistleblowers in uncovering financial misconduct and the significant rewards they receive for exposing such activities. The hosts commend these efforts as vital for maintaining financial integrity and accountability.
Key Discussion Points:
Notable Quotes:
Jack Armstrong (27:08): "Holy crap."
Bruce Springsteen (28:07): "Amazing fear. I mean, just paralyzing fear all day, every day."
Analysis: This segment brings a personal and emotional dimension to the podcast, illustrating the unpredictability of life and the resilience of both individuals and first responders in the face of tragedy.
Key Discussion Points:
Notable Quotes:
Jack Armstrong (46:40): "I want to be an American idiot. Yeah. So Bruce, at one point during the concert last night, he comes out, he's so old now... I just freakin' give me a break."
Bruce Springsteen (47:33): "I like music, it makes me happy. That's why I'm here. That's the only reason I'm here."
Analysis: The hosts debate the effectiveness and authenticity of infusing political rhetoric into entertainment, with Armstrong expressing frustration over the perceived self-importance and alienation of audiences through such messages.
Key Discussion Points:
Notable Quotes:
Analysis: The conversation delves into economic anxieties, debating the immediate and long-term impacts of tariffs and price adjustments by major retailers on the broader economy and consumer behavior.
The episode wraps up with reflections on the discussed topics, emphasizing the interconnectedness of media credibility, economic policies, and societal issues. Armstrong and Springsteen reinforce the importance of critical thinking and vigilance in navigating the complexities of modern information and political landscapes.
Overall Impression: "You Got No Credibility, Chum." is a robust episode that navigates through complex and often contentious topics with candid discourse. Armstrong and Springsteen provide a critical lens on media practices, economic policies, and societal challenges, interspersed with personal anecdotes that humanize the broader discussions. The inclusion of notable quotes with precise timestamps enhances the narrative, offering listeners clear markers of key moments within the conversation. This episode serves as a thought-provoking analysis for those seeking to understand the multifaceted issues shaping contemporary discourse.