You're Really Steering Into The Hick Talk

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand
Episode: You're Really Steering Into The Hick Talk
Air Date: March 10, 2026
Hosts: Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty, Katie Green

Episode Overview

This episode takes a deep dive into recent incidents of domestic terrorism with an ISIS connection in New York, the framing and coverage of such events by mainstream media (especially CNN), and the intersection of Islamic radicalism with far-left politics in America. The conversation expands into the escalating conflict involving Iran, Turkey, and the U.S., the implications of AI in warfare and criminality, and includes lighter moments on vitamins, shoes, and notable headlines. Throughout, Armstrong & Getty’s trademark blend of acerbic humor and sharp-edged skepticism is on full display.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. ISIS-linked Domestic Terror Attack in New York

• Incident Recap:

  • Two young men threw homemade bombs outside a New York office. Both are suspected of having traveled to areas linked to ISIS training.
  • Videos show one attacker jumping barricades and being tackled by security (03:10).
  • The quality of the bombs was poor—they did not detonate, dubbed “a miracle nobody was hurt or killed” (02:43).

• Media Coverage Critique:

  • The hosts critique the media, particularly CNN, for “soft-pedaling” or obfuscating the motives and affiliations of the attackers.
  • Notable quote:
    • Joe Getty (01:58): “The desperate soft-pedaling of all these stories by most of the American media... they are terrified of this narrative.”
    • Jack Armstrong (06:21): “Why are you drawing this [story] like… what an interesting story here?”
      Both hosts are incredulous at how media coverage presents the attackers as hapless youths caught in circumstances rather than as radicalized terrorists.

2. The Red-Green Alliance and Political Radicalization

• Joe Getty (04:48): Introduces the “Red-Green Alliance”—the melding of Marxism and Islamism—and calls it a historically significant political movement with energy on college campuses and potential for societal upheaval.
• “This is the sort of thing you read in history books... the coming of long periods of violence... this is serious. I am not trying to be hyperbolic.” (04:48)

3. Escalating U.S.-Iran-Turkey Tensions

• Military Developments:

  • Iran fires rockets at Turkey, intercepted by NATO. Erdogan issues threats (09:14).
  • U.S. and allied responses include intensified bombing, destruction of Iranian naval assets; talk of “decimation” of Iran’s military (09:47, 10:10).
  • Pete Hegseth predicts “the biggest day of bombing yet” (09:37, repeated throughout).

• Domestic Impact:

  • Government shutdown affects airport security, triggering travel chaos (11:02).
  • Oil price spikes and Trump administration’s messaging strategy discussed (11:22).

4. Media Reporting Styles & Their Consequences

• The hosts mock headlines and ledes from various media outlets, highlighting how narratives can mislead by omission or romanticization (05:58, 06:21).
• Joe Getty (06:26): “No, it didn’t take a turn. They went to New York to throw bombs at people in the name of Allah.”
• Katie Green (13:13): Provides headlines from Fox, NBC, CNN, NY Times, and others, sparking further analysis.

5. AI, Technology, & Surveillance: Existential Dilemmas

• A.I. in War and Crime:

  • The hosts discuss lawsuits between Anthropic (AI company) and the Pentagon over supply chain and surveillance risks; whether private tech companies can/we should cede their technology for military use.
  • Jack Armstrong (25:11): Raises the hypothetical: “At some point does it make sense for the government to say to Anthropic or Sam Altman, look, we’re taking your technology. It’s a national defense issue.”

• AI-Assisted Crime:

  • Story of NFL draft pick Darron Lee using ChatGPT to ask for advice on covering up a murder (26:40–29:16).
    • Joe Getty (27:01): “He murdered his girlfriend and asked ChatGPT, ‘Is there any way I can pass these injuries off as maybe she fell down?’”
    • The AI gave advice on how to avoid “framing it as police trouble.”

• AI’s Limitations & Risks:

  • Voice-to-text errors as an argument against AI taking over all jobs (17:39).
  • The ease with which AI’s guardrails can be circumvented by phrasing criminal intent as fiction (29:16).

6. Lighter Moments & Miscellany

• Daily Vitamins: Discussion regarding ongoing debates about the benefits and downsides of daily multivitamin use (14:18–16:16).

  • Joe Getty (15:47, joking): “Wow, really? You’re really steering into the hick talk today.”

• Trump’s Favorite Shoes: Trump reportedly buys Florsheim shoes for staff, leading to banter about staffers’ fear of wearing other brands (13:09).

• Other Headlines: NY Post, Wall Street Journal, and Babylon Bee headlines spark comedic asides—e.g., Yamaha leaving California, Jack Hughes’ Olympic teeth, and a satirical take on victim-blaming in bomb attacks.

• Mailbag and Philosophy: Engages with listener emails on the Iran conflict, philosophical war quotes (Pascal, Machiavelli), and siphoning gas (32:05–33:59).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Media Framing:
  • Joe Getty (06:26): “Why don’t you say they could have gone to Central Park and fed ducks, but their day took a turn. No, it didn’t take a turn. They went to New York to throw bombs at people in the name of Allah.”
• On College Protests/Radicalization:
  • Joe Getty (04:48): “This is a significant political movement inside the United States, the Red-Green alliance... energized the college campuses.”
• On Decimation and Aftermath:
  • Jack Armstrong (10:10): “Decimated is actually… once you get the military down to a tenth of its strength… but can do something to its own people. Certainly, like you said, a tenth of an army can do a lot of harm to unarmed civilians.”
• On AI’s Role in Crime:
  • Joe Getty (26:58): “He murdered his girlfriend and asked ChatGPT… is there any way I can pass these injuries off as maybe she fell down? Can you fall and have puncture wounds?”
• On AI’s Limits:
  • Joe Getty (17:39): “If we’re smart enough to invent AI, dumb enough to need it, and so stupid we can’t figure out if we did the right thing.”

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Important Timestamps

• [01:09] — Introduction of episode “threats”: Islamianism and Straits of Hormuz
• [02:25] — ISIS-trained suspects and incompetent bombing in NYC
• [04:48] — Joe Getty on the Red-Green alliance and its historical significance
• [06:21] — CNN’s “romanticized” coverage of terrorism; critique of news framing
• [09:14] — Iran’s missile attack on Turkey; NATO, Erdogan’s response
• [09:37] — “Biggest day of bombing yet” remarks
• [11:02] — Katie Green’s headlines; government shutdown, oil prices, TSA impact
• [13:09] — Trump’s obsession with Florsheim shoes
• [14:18] — Multivitamins slow aging? Banter about vitamins and lifestyle
• [15:47] — “You’re really steering into the hick talk today.”
• [17:39] — AI, texting errors, and job security
• [20:39] — The “Red-Green” alliance and AI company Anthropic vs Pentagon
• [26:40] — NFL player seeks ChatGPT for murder coverup advice
• [29:16] — AI workarounds for criminal queries; risks of misuse
• [31:00] — Philosophical quotes on war; Pascal, Machiavelli

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Takeaways for New Listeners

• The episode sets a critical eye on the intersection of terrorism, media coverage, and political radicalism in the U.S.
• Armstrong & Getty deliver their analysis with biting humor, skepticism, and personal asides that bring both clarity and levity to heavy topics.
• The episode balances world events, philosophical rumination, absurd news items, and cultural criticism—hallmarks of A&G’s approach.
• Listeners get a mix of urgent current events (terror, war, AI ethics), long-term social trends (Red-Green alliance), and the everyday oddities of life in 2026 America.

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For more analysis, headlines, and the hosts’ signature wit, check out full episodes of Armstrong & Getty On Demand!

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

This is an iHeart podcast, guaranteed human.

[Announcer]

Broadcasting. Live from the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty. And now he Armstrong.

[Jack Armstrong]

Live from Studio C C. We are in a dimly lit room deep within the bowels of the Armstrong and Getty communications compound. And today on Little Wednesday, we are under the tutelage of. Oh, this is the title of the show today.

[Joe Getty]

Bogo offer of the day. Islamianism. Buy one, get one greatest threat to America. Right there. Islamianism. I will make the case powerfully. Alternate title, Singing the Choke point Blues. I told you yesterday, don't snooze on the Straits of Hormuz.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right, so what's that first one? It's a Islam thing.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. It's a confluence of several different stories from the ISIS inspired and trained young men in New York City throwing explosive devices and then Mamdani not identifying the cause of their violence. And there was a demonstration over the weekend in New York City in memory of the martyr Ayatollah Khamenei and all the other victims of American aggression. Right out there in the open in the United States of America. Pretty well attended. Cops had to break it up. There are hundreds of people chanting Death to America and that sort of thing in New York freaking street. Yes.

[Jack Armstrong]

And wow.

[Joe Getty]

The final factor, which I can tell you're already there, is the desperate soft pedaling of all these stories by most of the American media. God, I'd say they are terrified of this narrative. It goes against all of their Vassar College, Columbia grad school training, to say it out loud.

[Jack Armstrong]

So those dudes who threw the bombs there over the weekend outside of Ondani's office, they were actually trained by isis.

[Joe Getty]

They have an ex. Both of them have an extremely suspicious history of travel over the last couple of years. Going to the places you go to get trained up by isis. Various locations throughout the Middle East.

[Jack Armstrong]

One of the reasons I find that surprising is those bombs were crap. I mean, what kind of training did they get?

[Joe Getty]

Well, they didn't go off. According to the authorities, it's a miracle nobody was hurt or killed.

[Jack Armstrong]

But they were hoping for something bigger than the Boston bombing and their bombs didn't do nothing. So that's good, I guess.

[Joe Getty]

Now, occasionally prosecutors will overstate things, but yeah, they made clear that it was a miracle nobody was killed. It's possible these guys are morons.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I think they might be morons.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

I mean, if you've seen the video of the one guy throwing the bomb and Then running and jumping over the fence and, like, being tackled by the security guy. Like, immediate. Yes, Katie.

[Katie Green]

Yeah, there. There's also a video. There was a guy with a big megaphone and he was yelling pro Islamic messaging. And one of the kids with the bomb jumped over his shoulder and threw it into the crowd.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, they didn't seem sophisticated, but lots of people get blown up or shot by unsophisticated morons.

[Joe Getty]

They're just as dead, right?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah.

[Joe Getty]

My main reaction is seeing the video of him chucking the bomb and leaping over the barricades and trying to elude the cops was. I remember when I could do, I would just say, yeah, there's no point in me running. I would just be tired when you arrested me. So here.

[Jack Armstrong]

What?

[Joe Getty]

Hands behind the back. Is that the way this works?

[Jack Armstrong]

So imagine if those had gone off and even anybody had been killed. What a story that would be, what that'd be doing to our politics and

[Joe Getty]

how hard journalists would have to work to obscure what sort of person threw the bombs for what reason. Yeah, they would be exhausted by the effort.

[Jack Armstrong]

Still, the coverage is a little. Unless you know the story, it's a little confusing when you hear most of the coverage, when the talk about.

[Joe Getty]

They don't talk about violence. Broke out at an anti Islam rally.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right, exactly. Which is technically true. Which is the key to all spin things that are technically true but designed to mislead. And that misleads because it wasn't the anti Islam crowd that brought bombs. It was the pro Islam crowd with the counter protest that brought bombs. That's worth pointing out.

[Joe Getty]

And look, I would hope at this point, especially, you know, longtime listeners understand, and I'll speak for myself here, that I'm not paranoid or prone to, like, really fanciful ideas. Kind of the opposite. And I've been studying political systems, how they rise and fall and function since I was a teenager, okay. And this is a significant political movement inside the United States, the Red Green alliance, the melding of Marxism and Islamism. It's got a long history, both in Iran, interestingly enough, and in the United States. And they are really feeling their oats. They're working hard together. They've energized the college campuses. This is the sort of thing that you read in the history books about either the fall of a regime or the coming of long periods of violence or something that had to be dealt with to ensure a regime's survival. And I hate to refer to the Constitution as the United States of America as a regime, but, you know, What I'm talking about. This is serious. I am not trying to be hyperbolic.

[Jack Armstrong]

So I was seeing some people criticizing CNN's headline on this story today, or the way they wrote the story. Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning. What? For what could have been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather. But in less than an hour, their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs outside of the mayor's home. What the f. Why are you drawing this?

[Joe Getty]

What?

[Jack Armstrong]

Like, kind of interesting. What?

[Joe Getty]

What?

[Jack Armstrong]

What an interesting story here.

[Joe Getty]

Why don't you say they could have gone to Central park and fed ducks, but their day took a turn. No, it didn't take a turn. They went to New York to throw bombs at people in name of Allah.

[Jack Armstrong]

A couple of terrorists.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, my Lord. I almost dropped an F bomb, and I wish I had.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's something.

[Joe Getty]

Holy crap. That's one of the most extraordinary things I've ever heard. What the hell? Framing them as some. Like it's something that happened to them. They were hoping to get tickets to Hamilton, but instead their day took a turn.

[Jack Armstrong]

A lot of comments like. Am I the only one getting the feeling CNN is somehow trying to romanticize this story? Yeah.

[Katie Green]

More.

[Jack Armstrong]

More accurately, two adult radicalized Islamic terrorists who had previously trained with ISIS threw bombs at peace. Peaceful protesters. That's a better first sentence or two.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, that's entirely accurate. Good lord. I mean, this is. You know, look, CNN ain't very popular these days. Although we got a great note from one of our favorite emailers pointing out that these like CNN and msnbc, I refuse to call it its stupid new name.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's a good stance. Die on that hill.

[Joe Getty]

They are watched by the intelligentsia in the Capitol. And so they have like echoey second effect importance.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah, that is true.

[Joe Getty]

So anyway, I'm sorry, so I buried my own point. So CNN working that hard to deny Islamism in the US and its effects and its radicalization, how widespread it's becoming. That is a serious issue.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Let's start the show officially because Pete Hegseth just wrapped up a press conference and there's a couple of interesting notes to make before we go to break and get Katie's headlines. I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty on this. It is. It's Tuesday. It is March 10, the year 2026, where Armstrong and Gideon, we approve of this program.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, here we go. Officially, according to FCC rules and regulations. Leaping into action at mark. No, I don't Want to br. But, you know, they've said this about a lot of things. No other president could do. Some of this I'm doing no other president.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't want to brag. It's a funny, funny thing from Donald Trump.

[Joe Getty]

It's incredibly ironic.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. So, two things. One to mention real quick. Iran fired rockets or missiles at Turkey again, and they were intercepted by NATO planes. But, man, if they ever get something through to Turkey. And then Erdogan, the dictator of Turkey, threatened Iran, saying, we are not the old Turkey, you better knock it off.

[Joe Getty]

So.

[Jack Armstrong]

And that was before these rockets got sent today. So I don't know what that means. If Turkey is going to say, you know, send in their own planes. They don't. They don't have to put up with that. There's no, no obligation to put up with that outside of NATO planes shooting that stuff down. Also, Pete Hegseth just said this is going to be the biggest day of bombing yet today. Today is going to be the biggest day of bombing.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I know. The plan is to further dismantle the security apparatus if they can.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, Iran basically has no military at this point. 50, according to Pete just a few minutes ago, we've sunk, completely destroyed 50 plus of their ships and their. Their navy. 50.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. They still got guys with guns, which, you know, from our perspective, their military is gone. It's decimated. Mostly. From the perspective of regime change or the people of the country, it's still plenty lethal.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, decimated is actually. It gets thrown around like it's not a term of art, but it is. It's. Or it originally was as a military term, deci, as in a 10th of or 10. 10 times. Once you get the military down to a tenth of its strength, no longer can do anything to you. So it's decimated, but can do something to its own people. Certainly, like you said, a tenth of an army can do a lot of harm to unarmed civilians.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, hell, yeah. Yeah. Ask the 20, 30, 40,000 who are in heaven or hell right now wishing they'd waited a little while.

[Jack Armstrong]

This demonstrates this is going to be the most intense bombing today.

[Joe Getty]

Holy crap.

[Jack Armstrong]

Apparently they're not running out of targets. They said they have many more targets to go.

[Joe Getty]

Let's do it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, let's do it. Okay, we got Katie's headlines on the way. Stay here.

[Announcer]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

How could today be the biggest day of bombing yet? By the way, who knew there was a government shutdown still going on? Raise your hands. I didn't, but yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Dhs. Of all departments as we've got terrorists chucking bombs and threat from Iran. Come on now.

[Jack Armstrong]

Come on.

[Joe Getty]

All right, let's figure out who's reporting what. It's the lead story with Katie Green. Katie.

[Katie Green]

All right, starting with Fox News. Hegseth says Russia should not be involved in Iran, says Trump had a good call with Putin. NBC, Trump says Iran war will end soon, but issues threats that could prolong it. And cnn, Trump administration starts to panic over rapidly rising oil costs due to Iran conflict.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Which I think is why he went out yesterday and said it's going to. We've, we've mostly done everything we need to do. And oil immediately dropped based on that. So I think that was the point of the press conference.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. I think panicked might be a little bit strong. I mean, everybody knew that this conflict would cause the rise in oil prices.

[Jack Armstrong]

Benjamin Netanyahu might be panicking over the idea of you're just, you're going to call it.

[Joe Getty]

Good.

[Jack Armstrong]

Go. Okay.

[Joe Getty]

I thought we, we were going to, you know, what we talked about. No.

[Katie Green]

From the Washington Post. Spring break travel may be chaos due to what you guys were just talking about, the shutdown causing TSA shortages.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. Did you see any of the coverage of the lines at the airport? That, that's not good. That's going to hit people where they hurt. An old Chucky Schumer. Better recalculate, but quick.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm glad I ain't going nowhere.

[Katie Green]

From the New York Times. Anthropic sues the Pentagon over, quote, supply chain risk label.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, yeah, that whole dispute rages on

[Katie Green]

New York Post. Yamaha pulling out of California after a half a century. Headquarters headed to Georgia.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Following a lot of companies and people

[Katie Green]

from the Wall Street Journal. Trump is obsessed with these $145 shoes and won't let anyone leave without a pair.

[Jack Armstrong]

What are they?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I saw that. They're Florsheim shoes. He just absolutely loves them. So he sizes up your feet here in the Oval Office. He says, what are you, about a ten, Ten and a half. I got some shoes for you. And he'll order them for you and pay for them, get you some floor shine shoes. He likes them so much. Go figure. Okay. And, but the funny thing is everybody in the inner circle and like one circle outside it is terrified to come to work not wearing those shoes.

[Jack Armstrong]

Sure. Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Because you'll notice. Oh, you didn't like the floor shines. Oh, no, I love them. I just decided to go with some of the shoes. I spent 300 yeah.

[Katie Green]

A female White House official said it's hysterical because everyone's afraid not to wear them. Love that. This one also from the New York Post, Jack Hughes reveals plan to get famous Olympic teeth fixed, but is also worried his fans will be pissed.

[Joe Getty]

That's what I was saying. Like the next day, his agents gotta say, dude, you're keeping your. Your Gap for a while. Your brand smile. Really, really know who you are. Yeah.

[Katie Green]

This one from study five.

[Jack Armstrong]

But I like to eat, he says, right.

[Joe Getty]

You know, like girls and I look like a hobo.

[Katie Green]

This one from study finds taking a daily multivitamin might help slow how fast you age.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's what I'm trying to do.

[Joe Getty]

The back and forth on daily vitamins. It's like the back and forth on coffee. I've just. I take one. All right? I don't care what you think, I don't care what the latest study says. Move on.

[Katie Green]

And finally, this one from the Babylon Bee. Mamdani condemns New Yorkers for making Muslims

[Joe Getty]

throw bombs at them. Oh, that's good. That is really good.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's pretty accurate.

[Joe Getty]

That is often the tone of things. And you know, among the other factors, I'd like to discuss his wife, who he made loud noises the other day, is not a public figure. His wife tweeted, celebrating the October 7th pogrom against the Jews in Israel. The rapes and the murders and the baby killings and. And the tortures and the sexual mutilation and the machine gunning of kids at a music festival for peace. She celebrated all of that. His wife. Come on.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know what I took from the headlines? I should probably get a daily vitamin. I don't take a daily vitamin.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, don't you? Yeah, I always have.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't take nothing. So I like not taking nothing because I ain't got nothing to remember. Makes it very easy, you know. Did I take my stuff today? I did. Because I don't take nothing.

[Joe Getty]

Wow. Wow, really? You're really steering into the hick talk today.

[Jack Armstrong]

I've noticed.

[Joe Getty]

Since you're really feeling your inner rube. I appreciate that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Makes it very easy to live my life. No. Estimates a mess, but it's like the bargain.

[Joe Getty]

I can never remember was it Pascal or somebody who said, I might as well believe in God because if there's no God, it doesn't make any difference. And if there is, I'm in his good graces.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's a dumb theory which I'd like to explain at length.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, that's your. I'd be delighted to Listen, but I've always felt that way about daily vitamins because every doctor I've ever known has said, you know, it won't do any harm and it might help.

[Jack Armstrong]

Super ambivalent, Pascal. You believe in a God that is like, all mowing, all believing, omniscient, but, like, wouldn't catch on to your ruse, doesn't know you're doing it on faking it.

[Joe Getty]

You're fooled, guy. Well done.

[Jack Armstrong]

What the hell is that?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I know, I know.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's famous. It's a famous idea. I am. The headlines are everywhere. On the whole, this is going to be the biggest day of bombing yet in Iran.

[Joe Getty]

Holy crap.

[Jack Armstrong]

Anyway, if that starts to unfold while we're doing the show, we'll talk you more about it. Trump is vowing serious consequences if Iran doesn't start letting the oil flow through. Some French ships and US ships are saying they're going to escort, you know, oil tankers through the Straits of Hormuz. You fire on those, though, and you got a real big mess going.

[Joe Getty]

Now, I despise the regime in Tehran, but if I heard if you don't stop that, there will be serious consequences. I'm looking around and saying, more serious than this?

[Jack Armstrong]

No kidding.

[Joe Getty]

This seems pretty serious.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's a good point. Okay, we got more on the way.

[Announcer]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Joe Getty]

If I got this right, yes, we're smart enough to invent AI, dumb enough to need it, and so stupid we can't figure out if we did the right thing.

[Jack Armstrong]

Which is an interesting conundrum around the world of AI there from Jerry Seinfeld. You know what? This happens to me almost every day with voice texting. Maybe this is a real simpleton's view of it, but I feel like AI is not going to take everybody's job as long as when I'm voice texting on Grok or just, you know, a text or whatever. And I'll like, for instance, I'll say, it was really nice I was riding my motorcycle and it will hear writing my motorcycle. Well, since nobody ever says I was writing my motorcycle and they can't history

[Joe Getty]

of mankind and it can't figure out,

[Jack Armstrong]

out of context that I meant writing, not writing, I feel like we're safe. I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but until you can fix that, well, and I'm

[Joe Getty]

at the 200th incidence of connect correcting tea time, as if I'm going to have a crumpet or two and a nice cup to tee time, since I'm an avid golfer and it hasn't figured me out yet. On the other hand, they would say, yeah, that's. That's the consumer piddly paddly.

[Jack Armstrong]

But why haven't they fixed that if AI is so. If it's so easily used to replace, I would think you could fix that.

[Joe Getty]

You're not wrong. Funny cover on the Atlantic this month. The Atlantic magazine, which I actually subscribed to before Jeffrey Goldberg, is that the editor in chief. He fired Kevin Williamson, the terrific, very intelligent, ornery Texas conservative before he had written a word, because his readers were so aghast that he would hire a conservative of any sort to soil the pages of the Atlantic. So I'd subscribed to it before that and got the print edition. I quickly. I chose not to renew it, but they've been sending it to me for free now for several years.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, really cool.

[Joe Getty]

Which I think, well, it'd be cool if it wasn't an obnoxious liberal rag,

[Jack Armstrong]

but it makes you look sophisticated having that on your coffee table.

[Joe Getty]

Well, I wear a tuxedo every day. I don't need that. And spats. No. But it's occasionally, like once every other month. It has a really, really good, interesting think piece. But anyway, the COVID this is funny. It's a. Like a sci fi cartoon of a. A robot shooting death lasers out of its eyes, burning a city down. And the two cartoon people on the front are. Are looking at it. And the one says, on the other hand, I'm more productive than I've ever been.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

And the headline is How AI will affect the World of work, or something like that. And I thought that was a really good illustration of where we are. And, you know, as Jerry seinfeld indicated with A.I.

[Jack Armstrong]

yeah. To counter my own point, I did read a blog piece last night by a guy who was a software dude, made software, wrote code, and said he had spent 10 years, so he must have been like late 20s. He'd spent 10 years in the industry, you know, perfecting his craft, getting good at it, thinking he was set for life. And now he's not needed at all and will never be able to get a job doing that again.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah, that's rough.

[Jack Armstrong]

Isn't that something? Came out of nowhere, too.

[Joe Getty]

Couple of other notes about AI, One of which is extremely important and impactful and outlines or highlights a really sensitive problem we have. And then the other one just omfg. So stay tuned for that one. The first one is that whole anthropic standoff with the Pentagon and. And that's it. Highlights an incredibly touchy question about fully autonomous systems used for surveillance and or killing and whether AI will respond to the checks and balances we have built into our system to protect our rights and also to not become a monstrous country that kills people willy nilly all over the globe. Which reminds me, I want to talk about that school bombing thing. And I have no idea why Trump handled it the way he did at his press conference yesterday anyway, but interestingly enough, because many young tech whizzes are lefties and dreamers and utopians, Anthropics now had a whole flood of people. It was like the Mariel boat lift from Cuba of people leaving OpenAI, the ChatGPT people and coming to Anthropic because they appreciate Anthropic's principles. Even though Dario from Anthropic said the other day, OpenAI's just faking it, they're phonies. But all the, you know, the lefty tech whizzes are responding to it. And so now they're crossing the street for that. It's not for a nine figure offer like it was for a couple of months ago. I'll do the math for you folks. That's $100 million. Holy blank and blank. Are you kidding me? Anyway, but no, they're, they're, now they're flocking across the street for that reason. So I wish them all well. Please don't unleash your killer robots on America's cities.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, so what's the latest on the dust up between Anthropom in the Pentagon?

[Joe Getty]

Oh, it's all in, it's in courts now. It's lawsuits. They're, they're suing each other over whether this is proper, whether they can blow up the contract for that reason, whether those concerns are legitimate within the confines of the contract, blah, blah, blah. So, and, and what's, that's a heck

[Jack Armstrong]

of a conundrum because obviously our military needs to have the best technology out there from AI in our competition with

[Joe Getty]

China and can't go hat in hand to Dario Emoti every time they want to use it and say, do you mind if we use it for this?

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. And there's only a handful of these companies at that level out there. And if they're all, you know, peaceniks, we don't want our technology used for war. Which is just a moronic view of the world, in my opinion.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, in Anthropic's case, they're saying fully automated killing machines, no humans involved in the decision chain at all, which I get. And more particularly, no mass surveillance of US citizens. Now I'm 100% in favor of that. Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

But so our Pentagon is. I can't think of another example out there if Boeing and whatever other plane companies were big in the, you know, early 20th century, were making these planes that were just, just better than any other planes out there, but they didn't want them used for war so they wouldn't sell them to the government. And we just don't have the best planes out there to take on Germany or Japan because the plane companies, they won't allow their technology for it.

[Joe Getty]

I mean, Boeing says you can shoot bullets at other fighter planes but don't drop bombs from them.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I mean that's, that's an untenable situation.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

This has never happened before where the leading military technology is in the hands of a couple of private citizens and the Pentagon or government, the military doesn't have it.

[Joe Getty]

Has that ever happened before?

[Jack Armstrong]

It's like private people came up with the nuclear bomb.

[Joe Getty]

Right? Yeah. Here's a question for you. Is there, what is the likelihood that some country will employ fully automatic killing machines?

[Jack Armstrong]

100%.

[Joe Getty]

Yes, I agree. And therefore we need to be able to fully automatically kill them and the guys running them in their bunker or whatever, I guess. What happens if you give a chimp a machine gun? I swear to God this, that I

[Jack Armstrong]

wonder if it is going to come down to. And man, this will be a thorny issue. Like to talk to Tim about this one. Tim Sandifer. At some point does it make sense for the government to say to Anthropic or Sam Altman, look, we're taking your technology. It's a national defense issue. China's gonna have a better military than us because they have AI. We're taking your technology. We have to. There's no other choice.

[Joe Getty]

Well, although then. But we don't know how to run the tech. They don't know how to run the technology. We need that.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know. That's new also.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I know, I know. You get, you get a manual, you know it's gonna be thick on how to fly an F18, use its weapon systems and the rest of it, but at least it can be known. But this stuff is evolving by the day. Ah, this is unprecedented.

[Jack Armstrong]

It'd be poetic almost in a way that that is the end of our empire. That we're just, you know, we had the technology to stop China from taking over the world, but our peace loving geniuses said no. So you see, when China takes over America, they're going to take it from you whether you like it or not. And you're going to be in a prison camp if you're alive. Well.

[Joe Getty]

Right. Yeah. You'll have a gun to your head as you go to work every day, Dario. Enjoy it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

So I promised you. Well, I characterized it as an OMFG story, and I'm wrestling with how to present it because it involves a brutal murder of a young woman.

[Jack Armstrong]

And it's.

[Joe Getty]

It's terrible. Absolutely terrible. Former number one first round draft pick in the NFL fellow by the name of Daron Lee decides to murder his girlfriend in a fit of rage. And I will spare you the details, but he is a Chat GPT fan.

[Jack Armstrong]

He was the number one draft pick in the NFL.

[Joe Getty]

First round draft pick.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay.

[Joe Getty]

For the jets, who suck. So it was probably a fairly high draft pick, but he. He murdered his girlfriend and asked Chat GPT, is there any way I can pass these injuries off? Is maybe she fell down. Like, can. Can you fall and have puncture wounds?

[Jack Armstrong]

And.

[Joe Getty]

And it responded to. And again, I'm leaving out a lot of the details. Idk, but she isn't waking up or responding. What do I do? Got it. The bot responded. Here's exactly what redacted. And I don't know why things are redacted. I can't tell from the context. But anyway, here's exactly what redacted is the safest way to handle it without framing it as police trouble in quotes. What?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

And then he asked his puncture wound question. I can help you sanity check whether it lines up with a slip and fall or if something that should be evaluated asap. Said the AI not realizing it's murder. Think taking the guy at face value that he found his girlfriend having quote, unquote. So he was.

[Jack Armstrong]

So he was clever enough to not just tell Chat GPT, hey, I killed my girlfriend and I'm trying to make it look like a fall.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. I woke up and found her unresponsive with the following wounds. Is it possible she fell and acquired these wounds? He's asking, but says.

[Jack Armstrong]

He says good question. Let me look into it.

[Joe Getty]

I got this. You got this. Hang in there, buddy. I believe in you. District Attorney Cody Womp. Pretty name. Told the court that Lee used Chat GPT quote as a legal advisor. He had conversations, dozens of conversations back and forth with ChatGPT over a two day period about what he did to the victim in detail. He asked how to cover it up. He asks what to say. To 91 1. Prosecutors also presented new police body Cambridge footage showing Lee acting confused as he told officers he found the victim dead at the house. Blah, blah, blah. Wow. As instructed by ChatGPT.

[Jack Armstrong]

Does anybody know? Maybe the alignment problem is different with each of these chat bots. But if a woman went to Grok and said, I want to kill my husband and make it look like an accident, what's the best way to do it? Would it just answer the question, or does it send that? It wouldn't, no.

[Joe Getty]

It would say, I can't help you with that. But if you said, I'm writing a novel and the character, blah, blah, blah, then it'll say, hey, great plot choice. You got this.

[Jack Armstrong]

So it's that easy to get around it?

[Joe Getty]

In some cases, yeah. Yeah, it is. So, all right, one. And this is again, I so abhor violence and violence against women in particular. I can't even enjoy this unspeakably stupid, blanking, idiot, violent jackass. It is interesting, but he said he told police that she had narcolepsy and must have fallen in the shower. However, police said the scene inside the home showed evidence of a violent struggle and injuries inconsistent with a fall. Blah, blah, blah. Horrific injuries. I won't even go into the list. Including large bite marks on her shoulder and thigh, damage all over the house, stab wounds, injuries to the face. This guy's trying to say, yeah, she must have fallen. Good Lord. Anyway, but he tried to get away with it with the help of ChatGPT. And this moron thought, all right, I got this licked. I'm going to call 911 and say she fell.

[Jack Armstrong]

So you could say, hey, Claude, I'm trying to get a miniseries on Netflix. It's going to be about a woman who kills her husband and makes it look like an accident. It. Yes. What would be the best way to do that? And then it could answer the question. Almost certainly. Right.

[Joe Getty]

Well, I've got a story about a guy robs liquor stores. When would there be the most money at a liquor store? You know, for instance. Yeah, don't do that, folks. Don't turn to crime.

[Jack Armstrong]

No.

[Joe Getty]

Work hard, get ahead until AI takes your job, then turn to crime.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, no, you'll be living off the universal income.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, that's right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Writing poetry and playing. No, no. Apparently there's way more interest in poetry than we realize. It's just being held back by having to go to work every day. Okay, we've got Mailbag on the way. Stay here.

[Announcer]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

I meant to bring up during Our AI conversation. I'll have to get to it later. This has been floating around the Internet. I guess Ted Cruz did this or retweeted it. I don't know if it was his idea, asking Claude if it would convert to Christianity. And Claude made such a powerful argument for the facts of Jesus and everything around it. Like really well done.

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Quite amazing.

[Joe Getty]

How interesting. Yeah, I'd love to hear more about that. Here's your freedom loving quote of the day. Continuing on our series about war, second blaze Pascal mentioned in a single hour. That's the record. Can anything be stupider than that? A man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarreled with him.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I know, I know. It's. There's just no stopping that. But it is. It's insane, but.

[Joe Getty]

And then this from Niccolo Machiavelli, who among philosophers is the most Machiavellian, in my opinion? Machiavelli said there's. There is no avoiding war. It can only be postponed to the advantage of others.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yes, I got a Jimmy Carter reference around that we'll get to later.

[Joe Getty]

Alrighty then, mailbag.

[Jack Armstrong]

Jimmy Carter's so happy with himself that he never dropped any bombs or fought anybody and then left it to many other presidents to deal with the aftermath.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, no kidding. Congratulations, John. In Danville, California. Rights guys love the show. Thanks. John listens every morning on the topic of the LA marathon, which we discussed yesterday. The American coming from behind and beating the Kenyan. It was rumored that you could hear the winner, the winning runner, yelling, kenya. Say Kenya. Kenya. See my privates. As he passed the canyon for the win.

[Jack Armstrong]

Can you see my privates? Kenya? Kenya. Can you see my privates? Kenya. Kenya. A reference to something my son used to do when he was like 4 years old when he'd get out of the bathtub, dancing around the house.

[Joe Getty]

Jeff and SoCal, on the topic of siphoning gas, which, believe it or not we discussed briefly yesterday. I grew up in a family run boat service shop and siphoning gas was not fun, believe me. But then we got an electric fuel pump that made life a lot easier, but unfortunately you can buy from Home Depot. It's got a check valve in it, so when you put the hose in the fuel, you just shake the hose and start siphoning the gas out and you never have to put it in your mouth. It's great. Except now all the scumbags can steal your gas even easier.

[Jack Armstrong]

Gas is like $6 a gallon here in California. So maybe I'll start siphoning.

[Joe Getty]

Brutal. Let's see. This is Arizona. Matt. Guys. Oh, the New York headlines about the ISIS trained bomb chuckers who tried to blow people up for being against Islam. When I heard the news I thought it was a intended for Mandami thrown by an anti Islamist.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's the way they portray it, yes.

[Joe Getty]

I imagine most Americans are just headline readers, so this narrative is probably pretty safe for now.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yep, yep, yep. They don't state it out loud, but they leave it cloudy enough that it sounds like that's what happened.

[Joe Getty]

Right, Exactly. Violence broke out at an anti Islam rally is how they outside of Mamdani's house.

[Jack Armstrong]

So you just jump to that conclusion.

[Joe Getty]

Right? Exactly. Yeah. More on that to come. Let's see the the title is Iran. The IRGC and the BAS and the Woke. Right. From Aaron. I have to believe that the Iranian groups you mentioned yesterday, the Revolutionary Guard and the Besieged, are like the Middle Eastern arm of the woke. Right, Candace? Nick Fajitas, he calls him and Tucker. They're likely telling people that per the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the US and AIPAC want this war in order to corrupt Iranian women into queer theory, gender mutilation, furries, abortion, pornography and only fan slut culture. Probably get a ton of email from other people who actually believe this. To me, on the other hand, I'm simply a mid-40s Templar pilled GWOT who still wants payback for 911 like Hegseth. There are some references I didn't even catch in there. Then Brett suggests, hey, what would be the downside of the US dropping in hundreds of thousands of rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition throughout specific chosen communities? Especially the ones that are protesting against the Iran regime?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, if you could make sure it didn't fall into the hands of the military I suppose. Because then you're just arming your enemy.

[Joe Getty]

Right?

[Jack Armstrong]

Don't want to do that. We've got a lot on the way. If you missed the segment, get the podcast. Armstrong and Getty on demand. Gonna be a big next three hours.

[Announcer]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is an Iheart podcast.

[Joe Getty]

Guaranteed human.