You're An Ass & I Hate You

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand: Episode Summary – "You're An Ass & I Hate You"

Release Date: January 13, 2025
Host: Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty
Produced by: iHeartPodcasts

---

Introduction

In the episode titled "You're An Ass & I Hate You," hosts Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty delve into pressing issues affecting California, particularly focusing on the devastating wildfires and the perceived shortcomings in governance by state and local leaders. The discussion is laced with sharp critiques, insightful observations, and a blend of humor and frustration over ongoing crises.

---

California Wildfires and Governance

Overview of the Situation

The hosts open the conversation by setting the scene of California's severe wildfire situation. Joe Getty paints a grim picture of the destruction:

"LA has the largest economy of any city in the United States of America. 40,000 acres so far have burned. ... 12,000 structures, homes and businesses that have burned down." [02:14]

Jack Armstrong emphasizes the disproportionate attention given to celebrity homes affected by the fires, arguing that the plight of everyday Californians is being overshadowed:

"And for the love of heaven, can we stop talking about celebrities? There are thousands and thousands of just Everyday Americans ... an actual fire is actually bad for his actual house." [03:31]

Critique of Leadership

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to criticizing California's leadership, particularly Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass. The hosts allege incompetence and mismanagement as key factors exacerbating the wildfire crisis:

"The depth of the incompetence and dishonesty of government in California is. It's difficult to comprehend if you haven't lived it." [07:23]

Joe Getty further underscores the bureaucratic failures by highlighting the drastic population growth juxtaposed with insufficient firehouses:

"Since the 60s the population has expanded 30 times. We have actually fewer firehouses was one thing she said." [15:52]

Impact on Residents

The conversation touches on the human cost of the wildfires, including homelessness and the struggle for affordable temporary housing. The hosts discuss the challenges faced by residents in securing safe accommodations amidst skyrocketing rents and limited availability:

"Competition for hotel rooms and rental units ... rents are skyrocketing. It's awful." [06:20]

---

Media, Censorship, and the First Amendment

Mark Zuckerberg's Stance on COVID Content

A substantial segment of the episode critiques Facebook's (Meta) handling of COVID-related content under pressure from the Biden administration. Drawing from Zuckerberg's remarks on a Joe Rogan interview, the hosts argue that suppression of factual information constitutes censorship:

"Mark Zuckerberg: ... they tried to censor anyone who is basically arguing against it. ... they pushed us and said, you know, anything that says that vaccines might have side effects, you basically need to take down." [22:23]

Jack Armstrong expresses frustration over governmental overreach and its implications for free speech:

"Come on now. We're working together to take care of people." [11:34]
"If you refuse, the agencies would start Getting on him and pressuring him is unbelievable. ... clear cut a case of, I think, first amendment violation." [25:34]

TikTok and National Security Concerns

The hosts shift focus to the ongoing debate over TikTok's potential ban in the U.S., discussing the complexities of national security threats posed by foreign-owned platforms. They highlight Congressman Mike Gallagher's stance on the impossibility of qualified divestment due to TikTok's inherent ties to China:

"As long as TikTok and ByteDance are beholden to the CCP, the National Security threat is too big to ignore." [28:51]

---

Listener Mailbag and Audience Interaction

Public Sentiment and Feedback

Armstrong and Getty engage with their audience by addressing listener comments, reflecting widespread frustration with leadership and policy decisions. One listener, Darren, criticizes the inefficiency of permit processes post-wildfires, urging government bodies to adopt streamlined and efficient practices from the outset:

"How about you always try to be streamlined and efficient? ... Hey government, here's a wild idea." [16:58]

Another listener, JT from Livermore, questions President Biden's discontent with Vice President Kamala Harris, acknowledging Harris's pivotal role during crises:

"If there's one person who went above and beyond ... it would be Kamala. She had the power and the constitutional mandate to remove Biden from the presidency." [17:54]

---

Definitions and Philosophical Musings

Conceptualizing Stupidity

As the episode progresses, the hosts introduce a discussion on defining "stupidity." Jack Armstrong brings up a new functional definition that challenges conventional understandings, setting the stage for deeper philosophical exploration in the upcoming segments:

"I'm thinking maybe hour two. I've come across a new definition of stupid that fascinates me." [04:01]

Joe Getty adds intrigue by suggesting that stupidity can manifest across all levels of intelligence, from the simplest to the highly educated:

"The author ... believed essentially that stupid occurs more or less consistently from the very simplest people to PhDs." [32:26]

---

Satire, Humor, and Cultural Commentary

Advertisements and Satirical Takes

While adhering to the user's instruction to omit advertisements, the transcript includes segments where the hosts mockingly comment on commercial breaks and sponsorships. They make light of common advertising tropes and infuse humor into critiques of societal norms and corporate behaviors.

Social and Political Satire

The episode also features satirical commentary on gender roles within firefighting, referencing a fictional scenario from the Babylon Bee where a female fireman questions a victim's weight during an emergency:

"Babylon Bee female fireman rushes into burning building to tell victim he's too heavy." [36:53]

Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty use this satire to highlight perceived absurdities in social policies and gender norms:

"They live in a dream world. They really do, where human beings don't act at all like human beings do here on Earth." [37:14]

---

Closing Remarks and Future Topics

As the episode winds down, Armstrong and Getty tease upcoming discussions, including a deeper dive into the functional definition of stupidity and its applications. They maintain an engaging and provocative tone, encouraging listeners to stay tuned for more in-depth analysis and spirited debates in future episodes.

"Plus, next hour, I can't wait to get to this. A new functional definition of stupid that I found just super thought provoking." [32:12]

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Joe Getty on Finger Pointing in Crises:
  "Now is not the time for finger pointing ... it just flips scripts depending on who's in trouble at the time." [01:34]

• Jack Armstrong on Celebrity Impact:
  "You're an ass and I hate you." [04:56] (Note: Armstrong humorously overstates his frustration before apologizing)

• Governor Gavin Newsom's Flustered Response:
  "We're all in this together. We're all better off. We're working together to take care of people." [11:34]

• Mark Zuckerberg on Government Pressure:
  "Anything that says that vaccines might have side effects, you basically need to take down." [22:23]

• Jack Armstrong on Media Complicity:
  "It's difficult to get real critical mass in America without some buy in from a substantial part of the mainstream media." [24:00]

• Joe Getty on First Amendment Violations:
  "That's a clear cut a case of, I think, first amendment violation." [25:34]

• Katie Green on Climate Change and Wildfires:
  "Human driven climate change played major role role in wildfires." [34:00]

---

Conclusion

In "You're An Ass & I Hate You," Armstrong and Getty deliver a fervent critique of California's handling of wildfires, leadership inefficiencies, and broader issues related to media censorship and national security. Their impassioned discourse invites listeners to reflect on governance, societal priorities, and the balance between free speech and regulatory oversight. The episode stands as a testament to the hosts' commitment to addressing contentious topics with both seriousness and a touch of irreverent humor.

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Getty live from Studio C. Si, senor.

[Joe Getty]

It is a dimly lit room deep within the bowels of the Armstrong and G communications compound which is located in California, which plays into a lot of today's show. And today we're under the tutelage of.

[Jack Armstrong]

Our general manager, co general managers Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom tour A the brilliant leadership of A Los Angeles and B Cal Unicornia itself, the mayor and the governor. What a couple of paragons of wise governance they are.

[Joe Getty]

So one of my favorite things following politics all these years is if you're in trouble, you say now is not the time for finger pointing. When you're on the other side of it and you see smell blood in the water, it's absolutely the time for finger pointing. And everybody does exactly the same thing, both parties, everybody. It just, it flips scripts depending on who's in trouble at the time. But if you're in trouble, you say now is that time for finger pointing.

[Jack Armstrong]

One of the finest lines ever delivered by thespian Homer J. Simpson after he'd screwed up the Simpsons lives completely. We could play the blame game, right?

[Joe Getty]

Mark Kalpen writes as a newsletter today. Hell hath no fury like a homeless celebrity. Or put another way, he said a Los Angeles conservative is a liberal actor who blames Newsom Bass and decades of liberal government governance for their houses burning down. That could be true. That might play out for quite some time. LA has the largest economy of any city in the United States of America. 40,000 acres so far have burned. It ain't over yet. Ain't even close to over 75 mile an hour winds over the next several days. And the biggest fire still not even close to contained over 12,000 structures, homes and businesses that have burned down. I mean it's just a stunning number. Second largest school district in the whole country shut down the entire week last week, some of it opening back up today. Major, major disruption and the loss of life is starting to climb up there. 24 now with a couple dozen people missing. And then a lot of people had been predicting this sort of thing for many, many years as we are hinting at. And we'll hear clips about coming up not being prepared or funds going different directions, knowing that the LA area was a tinderbox and this could happen.

[Jack Armstrong]

And for the love of heaven, can we stop talking about celebrities? There are thousands and thousands of just Everyday Americans, working folks, retired folks who've lost their homes. I mean, if you're extra fascinated that Steve Guttenberg, who's done us no wrong. I am not anti Steve Gutenberg. But if you're that you find it so fascinating that, wow, he's an actual guy with an actual house, an actual fire is actually bad for his actual house.

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Boy. Well, go read Dr. Seuss or something. Oh, that reminds me. I'm very excited about this. I'm thinking maybe hour two. I've come across a new definition of stupid that fascinates me. How do you appraise if someone's stupid?

[Joe Getty]

I love that.

[Jack Armstrong]

And I know it sounds stupid in and of itself in one way, but trust me when I say it's a thought provoking mental framework to put on human activity.

[Joe Getty]

It's the flip side of how do you assess if someone's smart, which is also very, very difficult. And what that means. Well, the only reason I brought up celebrity, and I would agree with you, any buddy or outlet that tries to pretend it's a bigger deal if Sylvester Stallone's home burns down than somebody else's, I don't know what that is, but.

[Jack Armstrong]

Indeed, anybody who pretends like it's a smaller deal because it's quote unquote, a bunch of rich people.

[Joe Getty]

Right, right, right, right.

[Jack Armstrong]

You're an ass and I hate you. Oh, that was too strong. I apologize.

[Joe Getty]

Halperin's point is they get a lot of attention and if they are, hell hath no fury like a homeless celebrity. They, they could drive the politics on this, no doubt about it. Oh, well, there's the whole rich thing, though. There is no doubt that if you got money, you're going to have to be in a hotel for a couple of weeks is different than if you don't got money. I mean, that is a completely different world. And I just heard the insurance commissioner of California. Maybe this is taken out of context and it doesn't sound as bad as it seemed when it was played on npr. I don't know if that was their point, but as the insurance commissioner saying, the last thing people should be worrying about is insurance right now. You know, this is time to worry about your, your, your family and whether, you know, everybody's safe. And I thought, okay, as soon as I've counted my family and we're all here, my second thought is, how am I going to pay for all this? That's my second thought.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah, I know. There was one point. I think it was him. Lara was trying to make that, don't sign anything right now because a lot of the insurance companies. Here's, here's your settlement.

[Joe Getty]

I believe that. Oh, my God.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah. Do not sign anything.

[Joe Getty]

But you might be in a situation where you got no money. You're putting your whole family in a hotel for the next week and you're paying the bill tomorrow and the insurance company's offering you a check and you got no other money. I can see how it'd be very enticing, right?

[Jack Armstrong]

Absolutely. So, yeah, it's, it's, it's nightmarish. And the competition for hotel rooms and rental units of any sort has gone berserk, obviously, with thousands of families homeless, just trying to rent anything at any terms and rents are skyrocketing. It's awful.

[Joe Getty]

You wouldn't, you didn't think that anywhere in the world. Some of the most well known, iconic. Everybody's seen it. People travel from around the globe to witness its stuff could be destroyed by mother Nature like this.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, in a fire. I do history tours everywhere I go and I'm kind of used to the old. And then the Great Fire of 1840 hit or whatever and it, you know, torched the town, they had to rebuild, et cetera. And every time I hear that, I think, thank God we live in the modern world. Modern building materials, firefighting equipment, et cetera, et cetera. But no match for a horrendous confluence of natural phenomenon in the phenomena in the, in the hills of California. And B, utterly incompetent leadership.

[Joe Getty]

Right. For years and years, you combine A, not normal hundred mile an hour wind gusts for several days in a row with mismanagement. You got it. Well, you got what? You got what you're seeing on TV every night?

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, yeah. In a helpful metaphor might be because it is absolutely true that the natural, the, the weather, you know, related situation is crazy, unfortunate and very, very rare. That is true. But it's like if I gamble and do drugs all the time, I've spent my family's savings, I've lived a profligate, indefensible lifestyle. And then I blow a tire and I say to my wife, we're broke because I blew a tire. Is that my fault?

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

No, that's the story of California is exactly. There's a reason people are fleeing one of the most beautiful places on earth.

[Joe Getty]

By the hundreds of thousands. Oh, I heard this stat. Let me find this real quick because I thought this was damned interesting about. So here it is. There are 177,000 taxpayers in California that pay roughly half of all state taxes. How many of their homes or businesses were the 12,000 destroyed in the fire? And do you think they're going to sit around for the average of five years it takes to get permits to rebuild and stay in the state? I wonder about that. Or at least in the area that they were in before. Maybe, maybe not. This is, this is a crowd for a lot of these people that have options and maybe their best option isn't returning to the same spot.

[Jack Armstrong]

The fallout will last for many, many years. And it's worth mentioning especially for folks around the country who are like, I get it, there's a fire in L. A. This could be the greatest natural dis. Well, certainly in the top couple in US history.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, absolutely.

[Jack Armstrong]

Up there with like gigantic hurricanes, cost.

[Joe Getty]

Wise, it definitely can be. Yeah, it's quite stunning. Well, I, I hadn't watched a lot of the videos in the last week because I thought, you know, I. I've seen a lot of really bad fires. I'm sure it looks a lot like that. I was watching a video last night during the hundred mile an hour winds. It looked like it was CGI or something. It looked like something from a space movie.

[Jack Armstrong]

The way the fire hurricane blow us.

[Joe Getty]

Exploding down the street. It was crazy. And as I heard some fire chief person somewhere yesterday say, it wouldn't have mattered if we had every truck in the country here at points last week. There was nothing that could have been done with that fire and those winds.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right? Yeah, that is, that is true. That's absolutely true. And it's also true that this will shine a light on the horrifically unwise leadership of California and LA for a very, very long time that we cann let those, those who would prefer sane governance, not utterly idiotic corrupt governance. And I'm not saying that as some sort of hyperbolic talk show host trying to be exciting. The depth of the incompetence and dishonesty of government in California is. It's difficult to comprehend if you haven't lived it. But if this will expose that even if the hundred mile per hour gusts made it utterly unfightable, it's still worth pointing out. The question isn't would that particular house have bur down anyway if Gavin Newsom weren't a complete fraud? That's not the question.

[Joe Getty]

God, I don't know who his body people are and we'll start the show officially. But dude, I think your cool guy look does you more harm than good. The unbuttoned tight shirt, the super cool Sunglasses, the slicked back hair. I really think it's doing you more harm than good. I don't think you're getting the, like, Kennedy vibes like you think you are. I think you're getting the douchebag vibes.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, he's that much of a db.

[Joe Getty]

Maybe that's just my, you know, built in opinion of him. Let's start the show officially. I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty on this. It is Monday, January 13, year 2025. We are Armstrong and Getty and we approve of this program.

[Jack Armstrong]

All right, let's begin officially then, according to FCC rules and regs at. Mark, does the buck stop with you?

[Gavin Newsom]

I mean, you're governor of California. Inviting them will be the mayor of California. We're all in this together. We're all better off. We're all better off. We're all better off and we're working together to take care of people.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, so that's from today.

[Jack Armstrong]

That as you ordered the word salad. Who ordered the word salad?

[Joe Getty]

Well, the main word you didn't hear there was yes. Does the buck stop with you as the governor? Well, there's mayors and there's governors and we're all in this together. And wow. Wow, that was Kamala Harris esque in terms of they toss you up a ball and you better hit it out of the park and you went with the dies. Not good. That will be played endlessly today everywhere, not just Fox.

[Jack Armstrong]

Good.

[Joe Getty]

Wow, what a mistake that was. How does Mailbag look?

[Jack Armstrong]

It's very good. Strong start to the week.

[Joe Getty]

Why don't leaders all figure out that if somebody asks you one of those does the buck stop? You Always say yes. Always say yes. It never works to not say yes ever.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah. Well, he's a weasel. It's not easy to get a weasel in human clothing and teach him to speak.

[Joe Getty]

So Mailbag on the way. Text line 415295 KFTC ARMSTRONG and GETTY. It's playoff time and it's now or never.

[Jack Armstrong]

Don't miss out on the last few weeks of football action with Prize Picks the best place to win cash while watching the playoffs.

[Joe Getty]

With over 10 million members and billions of dollars in awarded winnings, Prize Picks has made daily fantasy sports accessible to.

[Jack Armstrong]

The app is really simple to use. Pick two or more players across any sport, pick more or less on their projection, and you can win up to a thousand times your money.

[Joe Getty]

Prize Picks now offers MasterCard for quick and easy deposits into your account this sports season.

[Jack Armstrong]

Join prizepix America's number one daily fantasy sports app available to play in more than 40 plus states including California and Texas.

[Joe Getty]

Download the app today and use the Code Armstrong to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. Again, that's the code ARMSTRONG to get $50 instantly after YOU play your first $5 lineup. Price picks Run your game Business Taxes.

[Katie Green]

We'Re stressing about all the time and all the money you spent on your taxes.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is my bill now.

[Katie Green]

Business taxes is a TurboTax Small Business Expert who does your taxes for you and offers year round advice at no additional cost so you can keep more money in your business. Now this is taxes intuit. TurboTax get an expert now on TurboTax.com business only available with TurboTax Live full service.

[Joe Getty]

Here's maybe an example of what Joe was talking about. The house where the doors wrote Light my fire burnt down. And that's poignant or deeply ironic. I don't know what it is. I think it's nothing.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, it's ironic all right. Clearly ironic.

[Joe Getty]

All right. With a. With a small eye.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah. Here's your freedom loving quote of the day from Clay Routledge, whose work I did not know. He's a leading expert in existential psychology. Sure, he's fun at a party. I kid. He seems like a fascinating guy. Actually in my very quick perusal of his work. Here's here's his quote. We are living in an era of woke capitalism in which companies proportion tend to care about social justice to sell products to people who pretend to hate capitalism.

[Joe Getty]

That's like the Chris Rock bit about Lululemon. We don't discriminate. You discriminate against the poor.

[Jack Armstrong]

Living in an era of what? Capitalism in which companies pretend to care about social justice to sell products to people who pretend to hate capitalism. Well said Clay. Mailbag. There's a Note [e-mail] from Tom and SoCal. Guys, time to take California back. No new reservoirs in decades, right? Generations a water policy that protects a series of species of smelt. Just wait for the inevitable changes to water policy to help save one. Bass. Oh, I get it. As in Karen.

[Joe Getty]

Well, we'll play. We'll play some of the stuff from the fire chief who did a couple interviews over the weekend. But she said, I don't remember the numbers, but this is close enough. Since the 60s the population has expanded 30 times. We have actually fewer firehouses was one thing she said.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Shocking. Marina and San Diego writes, Seems you missed a good comment from your best buddy Adam Carolla on Gutfeld Wednesday night.

[Joe Getty]

Adam Carolla, Michael, do we have any Armstrong and Getty?

[Jack Armstrong]

There he is. He said it looks like there could be over 60,000 people who could be homeless tonight due to the fires. And he could almost guarantee that no one would be sleeping under a freeway overpass or behind a dumpster. They're going to reach out to the network of family and friends to help them, greg added. Yeah, not to people they stole from to get their drugs right. Housing is not the problem with the so called homeless problem. It's transient drug addicts moving along. Darren writes, After a football game today, I caught part of a press conference where some government spokesole was gushing about how they're going to streamline the process to make it really easy to get permits to rebuild after the fires. As if admitting they could have been more efficient all along, but they just chose not to be. That's good luck. Hey government, here's a wild idea. How about you always try to be streamlined and efficient? The stuff you're deciding to do right now to be more efficient, always do that.

[Joe Getty]

That's an excellent point.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm not going to pat you on the back for momentarily deciding to suck less just because everybody is watching. Well said, Darren.

[Joe Getty]

That's pretty. Bring a thunder, brother.

[Jack Armstrong]

Love it. How about this? Ryan in Houston, Dear Big Freedom and no pie in 25. No pie. That's a good nickname for you.

[Joe Getty]

That is a good nickname. Oh no pie.

[Jack Armstrong]

Did Newsom and Warren, as in Elizabeth, really send their followers to donate to Act Effing Blue for donations for the LA Wildfire? How tone deaf could they be? Ryan in Houston is a solid, longtime correspondent and I thought, wait, what? And I looked it up. Sure enough, Gavin Newsom unleashed a new fact check website to combat misinformation. And it's unholy cousin disinformation. And it turns out that site has a big link to donate to ActBlue, the Democratic Party fundraising giant.

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Beautiful. Finally, on a totally different topic, Joe Biden and Jill hating on Kamala at the funeral, JT in Livermore writes, I don't get why Biden's upset with Kamala. If there's one person who went above and beyond the call of duty, literally the constitutional call of duty, to remove Biden from the Oval Office, it would be Kamala. She had the power and the constitutional mandate to remove Biden from the presidency, but she never so much as hinted that it was something she should do anyway. Yeah, Joe Biden shouldn't be Mad at her of all people.

[Joe Getty]

Joe Biden given his final foreign policy speech today to try to talk about all his accomplishments throughout his life. We'll see how that goes and have the highlights. We have time for it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow. If anybody was short on crap, you know what we need, honey, is just a little more crap.

[Joe Getty]

The LA fire chief with a heck of an admission. Gutsy admission on Friday. Maybe you missed, among other things on the way. Stay with us.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty just saw this fun.

[Joe Getty]

Fact on the tv, which I happen to know, I've known since I was a kid. It's stuck in my head. How much does a gallon of water weigh worth knowing in case you ever come up with a situation. And it. It's.

[Jack Armstrong]

I myself was fascinated by that very thing.

[Joe Getty]

Again, this is a number that stuck in my head since I was a kid. In case you have to have her carry a five gallon bucket or something like that. Maybe that's why I had to remember because I was regularly having to carry buckets of water for various jobs. A gallon of water weighs the same as the average human head, by the way. Eight pounds.

[Jack Armstrong]

I've never weighed my head. I don't have mine. Probably weighs 11.

[Joe Getty]

Yes, I think you're. You do not have the average human head. Neither do I. We have above average heads. We're going to talk about above average intelligence coming up a little bit. Or below average intelligence, I guess. Is that right?

[Jack Armstrong]

Sort of. Don't jump the gun there, sir. What does stupid mean?

[Joe Getty]

So I want to play this one more time to tease to next hour. I don't know if this is below average intelligence. It's below average skills at dealing with a crisis. Notice he doesn't say yes. This is Gavin Newsom.

[Jack Armstrong]

Does the buck stop with you?

[Gavin Newsom]

I mean, hey, look, you're governor of California by will be the mayor of California. We're all in this together. We're all better off. We're all better off. We're all better off. And we're working together to take care of people.

[Joe Getty]

What?

[Jack Armstrong]

It was like my brand new smart bot like you were telling us about Friday malfunction there. Oh, shoot. I gotta reboot its speech center again.

[Joe Getty]

What? Play that again.

[Jack Armstrong]

That was odd in several different ways. Does the buck stop with you?

[Gavin Newsom]

I mean, you're governor of California by then. Will be the mayor of California. We're all in this together. We're all better off. We're all better off. We're all better off. And we're working together to take care of people.

[Joe Getty]

What I say Again, he was spinning. His brain was spinning. How do I answer this? Yes. You gotta say yes. If you don't say yes, you're in trouble as a president, a governor, anybody. When a big crisis is happening and people ask you if the buck stops with you, you gotta say yes. If you didn't want to have a butt or a caveat or something to dig yourself out of the hole, maybe you do that.

[Jack Armstrong]

But you gotta say yes to a large extent. Yes, it does. Of course it does.

[Joe Getty]

I'm the one that can get to the bottom of this. So, yes, it does stop with me. I'm the one that can get the answers, and I am gonna get the answers. Why did the fire hydrants run out? Were we prepared? Who's at fault? What policies need to change? That's a simple answer.

[Jack Armstrong]

If we fall, if we failed, we're going to call that out. We're going to fix it, right? But he can't because he has no care.

[Joe Getty]

Mayor and something that. But we work together, we work together, we work together. He says three times in a row. For some reason, we're all better off.

[Jack Armstrong]

When we're all better off and we're better off.

[Joe Getty]

What?

[Jack Armstrong]

Huh? I'm the mayor of California. What? He is a man portraying a man with character.

[Joe Getty]

So this is a good transition. Gavin Newsom set up a misinformation site over the weekend to combat misinformation. He thinks there's too many people putting out things that aren't true, and he's working the misinformation beat. As we all have learned over the last several years, particularly through Covid, one man's misinformation is another man's freaking facts is one of the problems. And there is a lot of misinformation that floats around, but there are also a lot of facts that float around and sometimes get put down as misinformation. Which happened when with, among other places, Facebook, during the pandemic. And they wouldn't allow all kinds of different pieces of info that turned out to be just flat true. Why did that happen? Joe Rogan interviewed Mark Zuckerberg on Friday. Unfortunate that this happened on a Friday headed into a playoff weekend, and with the biggest natural disaster maybe in American history going on, it kind of got buried. Here's a little bit of it and we'll fill in the rest.

[Mark Zuckerberg]

It was during the Biden administration when they were trying to roll out the vaccine program, and I'm generally, like, pretty pro rolling out vaccines. I think on balance, the vaccines are more positive than negative. But I think that while they're trying to push that program, they also tried to censor anyone who is basically arguing against it. And they pushed us super hard to take down things that were honestly were true. Right. I mean, they basically pushed us and said, you know, anything that says that vaccines might have side effects, you basically need to take down. And I was just like, well, we're not going to do that. Like, we're clearly not going to do that. I mean, that. That is kind of inevitably true.

[Joe Getty]

So this should be a giant scandal. Actually, I came across this on Randy Barnett's Twitter feed. I don't know know him. He's got a book out that's getting a fair amount of attention among legal nerds about originalism. He's a law professor at Georgetown or George Washington or one of those east coast fancy universities. Super smart guy. He said the Biden administration pressure on Facebook should be a big news story and a huge scandal. It should be big enough for the Supreme Court to hear about. Mark Zuckerberg said Biden administration officials used to call and scream at us demanding we remove Covid related content, even things that were facts or memes or humor. When we refused, we found ourselves under investigation by several agencies.

[Jack Armstrong]

But that's not. That's not censorship. According to that lower court that heard the case.

[Joe Getty]

That's a giant story.

[Jack Armstrong]

I know, I know. I was yelling as loud as I could yell about that for a very long time. It's. I have two thoughts, and they're cut in conflict. Number one, it's difficult to get real critical mass in America without some buy in from a substantial part of the mainstream media. It's just difficult to get the real tsunami going without the Washington Post and the New York Times and that sort of media. And there are a number of different stories that we're gonna talk about today that, that, that match that description. They ought to be enormous, but you can't get them to pay attention because, well, this is a perfect example because of how intensely uncomfortable they are with admitting, yeah, all the gung ho during COVID was really misplaced and unconstitutional, and we were often on the wrong side of it. It's difficult to get people to admit that. Anyway, the conflicting thought is that the idea that you can't get things going without at least some participation by the mainstream media is getting less true by the day.

[Joe Getty]

But having out of Zuckerberg's own mouth that the freaking government was calling him up and screaming at him to take down facts, and if he refused, the agencies would start Getting on him and pressuring him is unbelievable. I mean, that's just clear cut a case of, I think, first amendment violation. You could practically write up in like a made up ethical law course.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, sure, yeah. And the fact that they didn't say, or we'll come in and destroy your printing press. I mean, because that's, that's apparently what it would take to convince, for instance, the Washington Post that something terrible had taken place. No, they said, you do this for us or we are going to regulate you to death. We're going to investigate you to death. We're going to screw with you every chance we have. Come on now.

[Joe Getty]

There's a fair amount, of course, of, well, hey, Zuckerberg, you should have stood up to him. You got a big mouthpiece, you're the third richest man in the world to say, this is what the government's doing and push back. It's easier said than done if you're in that position in the midst of the pandemic and you happen to agree with the administration on a lot of things.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I think that's true. Plus he witnessed the lockstepy of the major and minor media. I mean, except for independent media like ourselves, nobody was speaking truth to power. He just, he must have made the calculation, I'm gonna run this up the flagpole and nobody's gonna salute, so to hell with it. Take down the. Take down the Great Barrington Declaration, which was point by point.

[Joe Getty]

Cor, I appreciate Zuckerberg saying some of the things we took down were flat out facts and then a whole bunch of other stuff that were just jokes or memes, which the government obviously doesn't get to regulate.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I hate to be sympathetic to Mark Zuckerberg, who I still believe to be, on balance, evil, but I would much rather have him. And I'm pissed off about the COVID stuff. I will die pissed off about it, which is probably not healthy, but I survived Covid. But I'll die of anger about COVID irony anyway. But I appreciate him being here even late to the party for whatever reasons, just for the sake of the First Amendment. I kind of appreciate the conversation being had late. Better than never.

[Joe Getty]

I had another point on that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh.

[Joe Getty]

Zuckerberg went back down to Mar a Lago over the weekend for some reason and talked to Trump. Flew his private jet down there, parked it now next to Trump Force One. He was in a suit this time and hard shoes, and walked in and talked with Trump. So he's, he's got some business with Trump. He's been down there a couple of times now there in, in recent weeks. And then a different topic but kind of similar genre is the whole tick tock thing that's going on right now and the fallout from the oral arguments and the both sides of whether or not tick tock gets banned. I listened to a couple different legal podcasts about this. It's incredibly complicated. I mean it got so far out into the weeds of stuff that I don't understand, I didn't even know where to start. So it's a long way from a flat out free speech issue and it's a long way from a flat out China's evil boot them out. It's so complicated. But Mike Gallagher, Congressman or former congressman, he stepped down, he tweeted out. TikTok essentially argued Friday that a qualified divestment is impossible because the source code and engineering remains in China. That pretty much proves the point. As long as TikTok and ByteDance are beholden to the CCP, the National Security threat is too big to ignore. But the, the legal. How you deal with that is. Is tough.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Given God bless us, flowing beautifully from our last discussion given our, our worship. Worship our incredible respect for the First Amendment right.

[Joe Getty]

But it's, isn't it interesting that we ended up. And that's why I put these two together. We ended up in a place where for years now we've let the communist Chinese say whatever the hell they want about America or foreign policy decisions to try to sway our young people to believe America's in the wrong. Our own corporation, Facebook was being screamed at by our own government to not allow facts to come out. Both of those things happened at the same time. Communist party gets to say whatever the hell they want. Nobody gets in the way. You try to say something that's absolutely true in the United States with an American born company and the government stops you. That's a troubling situation. It is.

[Jack Armstrong]

And it's super interesting too because the, the communist Chinese had the balls, I don't know, to, to object strenuously and loudly. Although they were not on the wrong side from the view of the, the mainstream media of Trump derangement syndrome.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Like Facebook would have been.

[Joe Getty]

Right. Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

And that is. And again, you will try to, to explain it to future generations. They will not believe you. They will not believe that grown up adults would become so childishly angry and against one human being that they would deny things that were plainly true if the bad guy said they were false.

[Joe Getty]

Or childlessly or true.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm sorry if he said they were.

[Joe Getty]

True or childless child childish like a child it like in favor of the same guy. Either way it ran through the Trump filter. And if it is this is good for my guy or bad for my guy, depending on whether you hated him or loved him. And then that that colored everything for some reason for years and years and years. And we got another several years of that probably I would simply say help you with the looting going on right now. Maybe if your home hadn't burnt down, certainly if they're in your neighborhood, Simply Safe could give you help. Anyway, regardless. Crime Simplisafe Good idea. I've got the system up. Every time I drive away from my home, I'm happy. I got that Simply Safe placard out there letting people know I got cameras in the house and all the sensors and everything else crazy.

[Jack Armstrong]

Great discount right now. But keep in mind traditional security systems only take action after someone has already broken in. That's too late. SimpliSafe's Active Guard Outdoor protection helps prevent break ins before they happen. They've got AI powered cameras backed by live professionals monitoring you and your home to detect suspicious activity.

[Joe Getty]

So if you want that same peace of mind I was just talking about, we've got this New Year's discount going on with our listeners. 50% off your new SimpliSafe system when you order now.

[Jack Armstrong]

And these monitoring plans start affordably at around a buck a day. No long term contracts, no cancellation fees. Just go to SimpliSafe.com Armstrong that's SimpliSafe.com Armstrong to claim 50% off a new system with a professional monitoring Plan your first month free. Simplisafe.com Armstrong there's no safe like simply safe.

[Joe Getty]

My teenage crush, one of the first crushes of my life, TV star, was tweeting yesterday about Gavin Newsom and looting and all that sort of stuff left. Talk about that next hour. When we get into that topic, she's on our side. I'm very happy that I chose wisely as a teenager.

[Jack Armstrong]

Indignation mixing uncomfortably in Jack's inner cauldron. Plus, next hour, I can't wait to get to this. A new functional, functional definition of stupid that I found just super thought provoking.

[Joe Getty]

What?

[Jack Armstrong]

And here's here's a tantalizing clue. This author, who I'm going to quote, believed essentially that stupid occurs more or less consistently from the very simplest people to PhDs.

[Joe Getty]

I can't wait to hear this. I love this sort of thing. So we got all that coming up on the show and Katie's Headlines next.

[Jack Armstrong]

Next, Armstrong and Getty.

[Joe Getty]

The fire does not discriminate. I might be taking one of Katie's headlines, but the most expensive home in the Palisades area burnt down. $125 million home that was used in the Succession TV series. 18 bedrooms. They rented it out if you wanted to rent it for $450,000 a month. Completely burnt to the ground.

[Jack Armstrong]

I only know like 16 people, so I'd have to give one of the veterans to my dog, I guess. And a number of the richer folks are really pissed off about the policies they've had to take for years where they can't fix up the homes, they can't fireproof them because the Coastal Commission won't let them anyway. There are many angles, many of which include bad governance. To discuss one of the great disasters in American history in the Los Angeles area. Plus functional definition of stupid. This may further pique you. Absolutely fits Joe Biden to a T. Oh, wow.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

And again, this is, this is not childish name calling. This is like a functional definition of stupid. Right. Now let's figure out who's reporting what. It's the lead story with Katie Green. Katie.

[Katie Green]

Well, just gonna start because I love to kick NBC when I can. NBC News. Human driven climate change played major role role in wildfires.

[Jack Armstrong]

God.

[Joe Getty]

I saw. I think it was on Meet the Press that they, they had that in their opening sentence. Like, you got to be kidding.

[Jack Armstrong]

Beyond question, the fires made worse by climate change was like Margaret Brennan's second sentence.

[Joe Getty]

Right. And what would be my question, even if I agree with you, what are you going to do over the next 50 years to change that?

[Jack Armstrong]

And when's your cult meeting? Tuesday nights. That doesn't work for me.

[Katie Green]

From the New York Post. Suspect, suspect arrested with flamethrower near LA Fire is an illegal immigrant.

[Joe Getty]

So.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

Have they nailed down whether or not he started the fire or a fire.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, you want to talk about Occam's Razor, what's your source for this?

[Joe Getty]

Okay.

[Katie Green]

The New York Post.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay.

[Katie Green]

And it was on Breitbart and a couple of other.

[Jack Armstrong]

Who has a flamethrower.

[Katie Green]

It was a. It was a blowtorch. More so. But I've seen flamethrow. That's that everyone else.

[Joe Getty]

That's not nitpick.

[Katie Green]

From abc, Ukraine claims more North Korean soldiers killed as Zelensky offers prisoner swap.

[Joe Getty]

The first dead North Korean soldiers and live soldiers captured by Ukraine over the weekend.

[Jack Armstrong]

That is quite a deal. Wow.

[Katie Green]

From the Wall Street Journal. Hamas has another Sinoir and He's rebuilding.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, it's the little bro of the deceased, Mr. Sinwar. He's. He's 50 years old, little bro.

[Joe Getty]

I don't like his chances.

[Jack Armstrong]

No, I. I would go ahead and make sure your life insurance is up to date.

[Katie Green]

Premiums paid from cnn. Costco pushing back hard against anti DEI movement.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, really? Costco's gonna fight it.

[Katie Green]

They're mega defending it.

[Joe Getty]

Wow. Okay, well, I'm gonna have to look into that story.

[Jack Armstrong]

Part of it is they and others just don't get what they're dealing with. More on that to come from Breitbart.com.

[Katie Green]

Zuckerberg Sanity Tour continues. Meta removes tampons from men's bathrooms.

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow, wow. It's probably because one's been used in the last five years. And that was for a visual joke, right?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Stupid.

[Katie Green]

And finally, the Babylon Bee female fireman rushes into burning building to tell victim he's too heavy. But the real fireman will be there in 15 minutes.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, boy. So maybe you do, maybe you don't know that story. We can get into that next hour also.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, it's something. It's a humdinger. Can you give us a nickel version of it?

[Joe Getty]

It's the idea of whether or not various female firefighters can carry the weight that a male firefighter can carry. And the. The answer from one woman last week was, well, then that guy shouldn't have got himself in that situation.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yes, the answer from the woke always utterly divorced from reality.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

They live in a dream world. They really do, where human beings don't act at all like human beings do here on Earth.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. So we're gonna get into a lot of the different angles on that. They're all pretty darn entertaining. And Joe's definition of stupid, which I'm a little nervous about, fits like a glove. If you miss an hour, get the podcast Armstrong and Getty on Demand.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.