October 11, 2024 • 36 mins
Hour 2 of A&G features...
- CEO of United Way, Dan Leroy talks to A&G about what is really happening in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene
- Greg Gutfeld goes over Howard Stern's interview of Kamala Harris
- What's happening in Chicago & their schools makes CA look reasonable
- A hobby becomes a sport
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Armstrong and Getty and he Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
FEMA officials say they have already distributed three hundred and
forty four million dollars worth of assistance to victims of
Hurricane Helene in six states. FEMA has also shifted more
than seventeen million meals and nearly fourteen million liters of
water to the disaster area. As a result, FEMA is
plowing through its disaster relief budget and the Small Business
(00:45):
Administration could run out of money for low interest home
rebuilding loans by the end of the month.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Well, we're glad we're talking to somebody who's on the
ground in those areas, because it's hard to tell from
national stories how hurricane relief is actually going talking about
the first big Hurricane Helene and specifically North Carolina, and.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
I think the attention being paid to what the federal
government is doing is fine and good, and they certainly
have a role, But as anybody who's lived through this
sort of thing knows, it's the state and then local
entities that provide a tremendous amount of the humanitarian relief
and the assistance when times are dark, which is why
we're helping to raise money for the good folks at
the United Way of Ashville and Buncom County, and their
(01:28):
president CEO, Dan Leroy, joins us.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Now, Dan, how are you, sir.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
I'm doing all right. Thanks for having me today.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Busier than heck, I'm sure. Yeah. How are things in
your area at this point?
Speaker 5 (01:41):
Well, things are still pretty crazy, still pretty dire. You know,
this hurricane hit us so much harder.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Than we ever could have imagined.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
And I'm sure your listeners have seen all of the
images and it is just as bad as folks have
seen it. It has just wiped out in structure across
our region and certainly here in Buncom County, from the
smaller towns like Swananoa, Barnardsville, Black Mountain. We're just so
(02:11):
hard hit that in many cases, you know, whole neighborhoods
are gone and having to be rebuilt. And so the
good news is a lot of our infrastructure is starting
to come back. A lot of folks have power now,
Dell service is pretty ubiquitous, which was not the case
even a week ago, and so that helps a lot
(02:33):
with communication. But in our county specifically, the biggest problem
that we have is water. The municipal water system was
basically wiped out, and we have what I would describe
as a heroic effort not just by our public Worse Department,
but by you know, partners from across the Southeast that
(02:53):
have come into support and rebuilding this because it's so
critical for our business community, it's critical for our schools,
and you know, you can't do anything without running water.
So that's the biggest issue for us right now.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
So before we get into some of the relief stuff,
Joe and I worked in North Carolina for a couple
of years, and I I was foot loose and fancy
free and single and childless. So I did a lot
of travel on North Carolina, spent a lot of time
in the Ashville area, really really enjoyed it. But did
was he even on your mind most of you around
there that this hurricane was going to be a big deal?
(03:25):
At what point did you realize holy crap?
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Yeah, you know, I'll tell you.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
One of the things that we have thought about ourselves
and talked to other folks about.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Ourselves here in western North Carolina.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Is just how resilient this area is and and sort
of the kinds of natural disasters that were used to
thinking about, whether it's the you know, the big fires
that they have out west, or you know, the huge
hurricanes that you see on the coastlines, or even the
you know, the tornadoes that.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
You see in the Midwest.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
We've been pretty well insulated from all of that for
a long time. And so this storm was truly unique
in that we got thirteen inches of rain that you
know that two days before the hurricane even came this way. Wow,
in a single day, right, And so it was a
(04:17):
very unusual weather pattern that basically soaked every we had.
We had flooding, you know, like you wouldn't see for
you know, in the last decade before the hurricane hit.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Oh, and so that was really what made it so unique.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
And so no, we were not I don't think anyone
could have imagined the level of impact here because it's
such an unusual weather.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Event and then a quick one before we move on,
how long were we all without self service? So all
this happens, it wasn't even on your mind all of
a sudden, things are just devastated homes are gone and
roads are covered, and wondering how long were you without
self service? You couldn't even talk to anybody.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Well, it's you know, to sort of answer your first
question from before, I think it was probably Tuesday that
the Tuesday before the hurricane hit on Friday morning, essentially
where folks were starting to kind of look around at
the radar and say, okay, this could be a big problem.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
And so, you know, and to just give you an idea,
I was actually.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
At a conference in Salt Lake City, so I was
not on the ground. So I had information that nobody
in our community, and certainly none of my colleagues or
teammates or partners had because they couldn't talk to each
other really for.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
About two days.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
If you were a part of, you know, some kind
of emergency response operations, they were able to stand up
in different places, access to self service and Wi Fi
and those kinds of things. But for the first couple
of days, I couldn't even talk to my family who
was in town to make sure that the folks here
in our house and everything else was okay. So it
was pretty much like in the dark for most people
(06:00):
within the affected region for about forty eight hours.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Wow, and then you're talking about the catastrophic damage to
the water treatment system. It could be weeks before there's
running water correct or even longer.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
And it's not the treatment system, it's the distribution system, Okay.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
And so they have, like I said, they have been able.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
To get the main line inter reconnected, which is pretty incredible,
but there's a lot of time that it's going to
take to actually work through the entire system. They say
that the linear feat of our water system here is
the equivalent of the distance between here and Miami and back.
So you can imagine it's a lot of line that
(06:41):
needs to be cleared out.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
And so they aren't giving us estimates. But you know,
it's interesting.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
We do a lot of work in partnership with our schools,
and you know, we we have schools that are drilling
wells right now in their ball field because they want
to make sure not just for this getting water back,
but in the future because obviously it's everything. So we
don't have a clear estimate for when it could be back,
but it's.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Definitely in the order of weeks and not in newer
of days.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
So for what it's worth for folks, who haven't been there,
you know. And I spent a week in Ashville slash
Waynesville this past July. I have family there, and I
love the area. It's not only beautiful geographically, but it's
just so interesting because you have, you know, conservative retirees
and kind of your traditional we've lived in the mountains
for generations conservatism. You've got tattooed and pierced waitresses and
(07:33):
artists and just the most amazing mix of people in
that area. And it's fun and funky, and it's very
very American, and it's just the devastation is astounding. So anyway,
if folks listening get a chance, if you can spare
a couple of bucks or more, go to Armstrong you
getty dot com. The banner is you can't miss it.
Donate what you can to help out to your fellow Americans, and.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
It's going directly to you. What can that money do
for you? If we can get our listeners to throw
a couple of bucks your way and you get a
pile of money, what can you do with that short term?
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Sure thing?
Speaker 5 (08:04):
Yeah, And I just want to echo what you just
said in terms of the incredible diversity of our communities here,
and what's been so beautiful to watch is the way
that you know, those barriers have been broken down and
we have people just working together, Neighbors helping neighbors, the organizations,
community organizations helping you know, whoever's out there in their
community without regard to any of that affiliation. So that's
(08:26):
been beautiful. Our focus really is right now. We are
recruiting thousands of volunteers and working with our community organization
partners to identify where are the volunteers most needed and
being able to connect those volunteers to those organizations doing
the work on the ground. We also have created a
(08:47):
disaster relief fund which will go to these community organizations
who are directly impacted by the hurricane itself and the
other thing that we're doing that this would support us
that we're working really closely with our partners at the
City of Asheville and Buncott County to help coordinate the
(09:07):
thousands of tons of supplies that are coming into our
region through these donations and to make sure that they
are have a safe place to go to be sorted,
and then to get out the door to our community
partners who are most proximate to the neighborhoods and the
folks that were most impacted by the storm.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Dan Leroy of the United Way of Ashville, Buncome County,
you guys are doing what is so sorely needed when
it's most needed, and you're all heroes. Keep at it.
We'll see what we can raise for y'all and good luck.
We're thinking of you.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
Well, thank you for shinning a spotlight on this. It's
going to be a need for a really long time,
so all the support that we can get from your
listeners is very much appreciated.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Excellent point, you got it. Thanks Dan, great to talk
to you.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Yeah, that's going to be a problem for a while obviously,
and they'll run out of money quick if they don't
have a big parliament. And if you're the sort of
person listening to the show, you probably believe in local, small,
over giant far away, and this is a way to
get money, like to the source or where they're actually
(10:13):
you know, the people getting the money or their families
are dealing with this as opposed to bureaucrats somewhere far
away who lives are comfortable and they don't really care
right exactly. This goes directly to the need, and the
number of news pieces I've seen on how many people's
(10:33):
insurance doesn't cover this for all kinds of different complicated reasons, like, well,
you had flood insurance, but flood insurance caused by a
river rising, not by a hurricane, so sorry, it doesn't count,
or you just all kinds of different caveats.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Oh right, and then you got to get into the lawyers.
Well it rained thirteen inches two days before. Well we
think it was the hurricane. So it's a nightmare. But
before you even get there, the roads are gone. It's
not that they're flooded, gone, the bridges are gone, the
water distribution system doesn't.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Work, and what for weeks?
Speaker 1 (11:06):
I mean, it's it's like civilization, modernity was blotted out
for a huge swath of you know, one of our
most populated states.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yeah, as I saw one guy say, the houses are gone,
but so's the land the houses used to sit on,
so that you can't build a house there again. Sohi,
what does insurance do for.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Replacing your house that you would have to get somewhere
else or bring in two hundred truckloads a dirt time?
I have no idea, no anyway, give what Ken Armstrong
e getty dot com.
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Speaker 2 (12:48):
So we got a little Tim Walls coming up for you.
Is on ABC, what's their show, Good Morning America talking
to the former football player Michael Strahan, who hits him
with some questions, and Tim Wallas goes back into his
I don't know why he hasn't come up with an
answer yet for all of his stories, but.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
It's astonishing that he hasn't. That's what he's doing.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
I just watch it. It's better than it was during
the debate, but it's still not as good as it
should be anyway. Also on the topic of the campaign,
but slightly different, Kamala Harris is doing her media blitz
this week, which accornered a lot of my favorite pundits
who talk to people behind the scenes, including Democrats. They're
(13:32):
worried that she's doing all softball friendly interviews. Still playing
it safe and making no news's in. She's either tied
or behind, and you gotta be making some news. You
gotta be on offense. You got to be moving the
ball down the field. Just getting out of an interview
without screwing up is not going.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
To do it. I'd argue, she's not even doing that.
She's missing the softballs. She's with him anyway.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Howard Stern, which used to be a scary place for
anybody to go to get interviewed because he was all
about making news by being naughty, gave her a heck
of a softball interview the other day. I mean, just
as obsequious and fawning as you could possibly get.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Great.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Guttfeld was talking about that on his show on Fox
the other night, and here's how that went. I mean,
talk about a transition.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
On Tuesday, he conducted an interview with Kamala Harris that
was so simpering and feminine. I got my period while
listening to it. You should hear what keeps him up
at night.
Speaker 7 (14:35):
This is what keeps me up night. I don't understand how,
my fellow Americans, I don't even understand how this election
is close. Yes, I'm voting for you, but I would
also vote for that wall over there.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Well, he's half right. We do need a wall.
Speaker 6 (14:49):
You had to keep out gang members, Fendyl dealers, human traffickers,
and Anna and Navarro. Stern has become such a whissified
sick of a fan. He doesn't realize that telling Kamala that
he votes for a wall is telling her that he
knows she's as dumb as.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
One not to mention.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
Trump is the wall candidate, not cackles McNee pads. Oh,
used to throw boloney slices at stripper's butt with accuracy,
I might add, cackles McNee pads.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Oh, that's kind of rough. I like these sipprings so
much estrogen I got my period. Oh my god. Anyway,
he goes on, here's Stern.
Speaker 6 (15:33):
On anyone daring to poke a little fun at Kamala.
Speaker 7 (15:36):
Even when I watched them on Saturday Night Live with
the where they have Maya Rudolph playing you, I hate it.
I don't want you being made fun of. Oh my god,
it's too much at stake. I believe the entire future
of this country right now, I mean as America, Land
of the Free, Home of the brave. I think it's
literally on the line.
Speaker 6 (15:54):
So a guy who's supposed to be funny for a
living now claims her candidacy.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Is too important to joke about.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
This is the guy who once joked, right after the
column by massacre that the killers should have raped the
students before killing them. Not that I like that, Stern,
But this pendulum swing from saying the most tasteless thing
in the universe to putting your balls in a tic
tac container, you gotta wonder.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
What's going on here.
Speaker 6 (16:20):
It's striking that the king of the most misogynistic humor
ever now turns into a breathless over a progressive, hopelessly
shallow candidate.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
How about freaking Howard Stern of all people saying it
really bothers me when they make jokes about you. They
shouldn't do that. It's too important. You don't want jokes
about politicians. Wow, the worshipfulness of it. Wow, humor, humor
is off limits for politicians on my side. From Howard
(16:54):
Stern who used to think obviously, as you just heard there,
nothing was out of bounds for humor. Nothing right, right,
It's an interesting aspect of Trump derangement syndrome that you
get how would I phrase this? You get cipher.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
That's the kind of fancy word idiot worshipfulness syndrome. If
something is not or not Trump, I must love it.
If it is against Trump, I love it, which explains
keeping the kids out of school and the plastic screen
at the seven eleven, and anything that defies Trump, I
love automatically.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
I just I love it.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
She's an idiot, she has no beliefs, but she's not Trump,
so I love her.
Speaker 7 (17:39):
Well.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
A gut film made a good point. Stern saying I'd
vote for that wall over there is not exactly a
ringing endorsement. It's a you could be anybody and I
would vote for you, right exactly, Yeah, you could.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
You could be I don't know, talentless, have no principles,
a half wit word salad spout, chippering moron, and I
would still vote for you.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Wow. I hope I never become that person. I watched
Maya Rudolph and I just think they shouldn't be joking
about this. It's too serious.
Speaker 8 (18:09):
Wowis So there's a couple of low points in my life.
I'm not I'm passing a line, and I'm gonna have
a grand slam. The grand slams are the key I
feel like at my theater checking the AA there or
an institute of some sort, because this is crap.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
It's full of crap. This is crap. It's full of crap.
There's an unhappy Philly fan by being knocked out by
the Mets, who are moving on to the Championship Series
against either the Dodgers or the Padres. Will find that
out later today. She says the loss was worse than
her dog time. Wow, well the dog was old.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
The Phillies were supposed to go on exactly anyway, and
they Yeah, I'm a Royals fan. So the Yankees beat
the Royals last night, and they're gonna be She got
the Yankees and the Mets both in the Championship Series
kill me in terms of national media coverage. Hmm, yeah,
that will be profoundly annoying. On the other coast, I
was explaining to a friend of mine from Elseware about
(19:08):
why California is so screwed up, and it's politically speaking,
and it's it's primarily because the Democratic Party has entered
into this unwholly corrupt marriage with all of the public
employee unions, and the government serves only to do the
bidding of the unions and they throw the people a
(19:29):
bone now and again just to to you know, cover
up the scam. But the unions nominate the politicians who
get elected with the votes and contributions of the unions,
and then the politicians who are former union officials then
give the unions anything they want until they're turned out,
(19:49):
and then a new union guy takes the government post.
And my great fear, because I've always been an optimist
about the United States and our people and our system
is that. And you know, our old friend Tom McClintock,
the Conservative rep from California, always said, you know, we've
we've run into all sorts of problems in this country,
(20:10):
and what's great about it will fix them. My problem
is this that now they have enough bulk of the
union two way straight thing, the feedback loop, whatever you
want to call it, the population at large, unless they
get like crazy fired up, don't really have the numbers
to turn out well, at least in terms of the
(20:31):
usual turnout numbers. That just not enough regular people who
just want a healthy, functioning government turnout. So election after
election goes to the union owned Democratic Party anyway, that's a.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
That's definitely the government you deserve, I suppose.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Although they're they're smart people, I mean, they're utterly corrupt,
and they're they're treasonous to me, they are betraying their
their most sacred vowels. But they are smart, and so
they limit the tax paying pool as much as they can.
So the people who really really care that their money
is being squandered and given away in this unholy marriage,
they are way too few in number to win an election.
(21:11):
So anyway, it's a scam that is so efficient and
so morally bankrupt, I'm not sure how to beat it. Anyway,
So I'm pretty discouraged about the state of California, especially
and the state I happened to grow up in Illinois,
because Illinois politics, because of the population, is Chicago politics,
(21:32):
and what's happening in Chicago is crazy, makes California look reasonable.
So the mayor, Brandon Johnson, who was a union official,
a Chicago teachers Union official, and the teachers union, because
that has many, many thousands of employees and a hell
of a lot of money, got him elected mayor. So
now his only job is to reward the Chicago Teachers Union,
(21:54):
and so he's.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
In the middle. The city's in the middle of.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Quote unquote negotiating what is likely to be a costly
new contract with the CTU, which is Johnson's largest campaign contributor.
Since the Chicago School District can't afford the hefty races
and benefits that CTU demands, the mayor has suggested, get this,
that the Chicago Public Schools take out a three hundred
(22:21):
million dollar short term high interest loan to cover the shortfall.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
That sounds like your friend who wants to buy a
boat and is already paycheck to paycheck.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yeah, excuse me, taking a sip of coffee, and he
hasn't even suggested, well, wait a minute, we don't have
the money now, so we're going to take out a
short term high interest loan. How are we going to
pay that back? Brandon is uninterested as a matter of
fact and brand.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
They're always uninterested because the government officials know if they
can just get the money spent, that's somebody else's problem.
I mean it'll down there before Yeah, they'll be a
leverage to raise taxes or whatever.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Just got to get it on the books, right, which
is why neither party is talking about Medicare right now.
In social Security or the entitlement programs in short, because
you just you wait for the disaster, partly because you
cannot convince the electorate to make sacrifices before it's a disaster,
because the other guy will say those sacrifices aren't necessary.
(23:25):
They're trying to take away your bloody blah or they're
trying to balance the budget on the back of the
blah blah. And then the disaster happens, the bloody bla,
and everybody's like, how did this happen? And then you know,
the politician says, we got no choice. You gotta do
these hard things. So if that's just the nature of democracy,
and I ought to just deal with it. But here's
(23:45):
the funny part. Here's the part I really wanted to
get to. Let's see, this is from the Wall Street
Journal editorial board. They say, voters deserve what they get
in a democracy, but no one deserves Chicago may or
Brandon Johnson, and certainly not Chicago school children. You know,
that's the heartbreaking part. No kidding in seeking to reward
his union benefactor. And then you know when these poor kids,
(24:08):
who are in large number black and Hispanic whatever, when
they don't achieve in these utterly corrupt schools. It'll be
blamed on white supremacy and systemic racism and whatever. And
Johnson and his ilk Kamala Harris are hardcore against school choice. No,
you will stay in your corrupt union bound at neighborhood
school anyway. So his honor is having in seeking to
(24:31):
reward his union benefactors. His honor is having a political
meltdown for the ages. On Monday, mister Johnson replaced the
entire Chicago school Board with his allies after the previous
board resigned on Moss last Friday. Every air sucking homo
sapien on the school board said we will not be
party to this.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
We quit, and that's progressive Chicago. It was too much
for those folks.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
The previous board opposed the mayor's three hundred million dollars
high in tresloan. We were talking about that to hand
raises to the CTU, which funded his election campaign. Asked
about the opposition to his loan scheme, mister Johnson pulled out,
wait for it, the slavery card. Yeah, and I quote,
(25:18):
when our people wanted to be liberated and emancipated in
this country. The argument was, you can't free black people.
Because it would be too expensive. They said that it
would be fiscally irresponsible for this country.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
To liberate black people.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
And now you have detractors making the same argument of
the Confederacy when it comes to the public education in
this system.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Wow. And this is with all the numbers that we've
talked about over the last year or so of the
achievement rate in Chicago, where you've got lots of schools
where it would seem that it wouldn't make any difference
if they were not open at all, right, because nobody
reaches his the proficiency level.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
So literally nobody in some of the schools zero kids
actually zero percent reach reading and writing proficiency. So there's
just what do you even open for let alones asking
for more money?
Speaker 2 (26:12):
How about we just close them down? The same result,
right exactly.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
It's and you know, Jack, occasionally you god bless you,
will say how do these people sleep at night? The
answer is they have no shame. They're criminals, They're they're victimizers.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
On some levels like this, you'd have to be just
to be have to be the criminal mind. It's just
like I'm stealing from people, because there's no twisting that
into a I'm doing the right thing for the kids.
There's just no way, right.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Oh no, no, that's the pose, and anybody who falls
for it as a sucker. You're not maybe you're not
the facts. I'm not gonna try to hurt anybody's feelings.
But oh yeah, the whole teacher's union thing, depending on
where you are, it's it's more scammy than others. But
so the accountants in the audience, I'm sure are are
asking now, Joseph, you've said that their high interest loans.
(27:04):
Tell me more about that. Well, the Chicago school district
is junk rated. When they borrow money, their IOUs are
rated as junk in the world of bonds, meaning you
might get your money back. So mister Johnson's plan for
the three hundred million dollar loan would cost Chicago Public
(27:27):
Schools not three hundred million.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Seven hundred million dollars.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
So he is going to pay off the teachers union
three hundred million dollars at the cost of taxpayers of
seven hundred million dollars over the short term. I abhor
the very idea of political violence. On the other hand,
(27:54):
theft of this size and utter ammorality has been dealt
with throughout human history.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
In various ways.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Now he careful and constitutional investigation and prosecution is probably
the best way to deal with it. On the other hand,
if one's mind flies to tar and feathers, I can't
blame you.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
I was trying to find it. A tweet I came
across the other day from several years back during the pandemic,
when Brandon Johnson whatever he was at the time, then
tweeted out that this effort to reopen the schools reeks
of white supremacy and blah blah blah. Why is the
president of the Chicago Teachers You. Oh, that's right, that's
what he was doing at that point, that this effort
(28:39):
to reopen the schools reeks of white supremacy. That's why
people want to reopen the schools.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
That's why they want to get the little black kids
back to learning because of white supremacy. Good, good argument.
And now he's playing the effing slavery card.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
You have. This guy is a monster, You just have
to be a criminal. But people vote for him. I
just said, what do you do?
Speaker 1 (29:00):
It's a proof that democracy Chicago crumble monarchy. Now, well,
there are progressive cities and states around the country that
are realizing the air of their ways and trying to
backtrack a little bit? How far will Chicago fall? And
and you know, if another generation, a little kids or whatever.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Color their skin happens to be for goodness sakes.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Grow up completely uneducated and have no good options. But crime,
that's not an oh well. I mean this sol it'll
take Chicago another generation and a half or so to
figure out.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
How screwed up it is. That's a tragedy. But what
are you gonna do? I we got a funny clip
from Trump at one of his rallies. He's going to Aurora,
Colorado today to point out the whole Venezuelan takeover of
apartment complexes thingy. And so we'll play a little bit
from that. Also got to ask Joe about one of
his favorite hobbies that is now becoming a sport. They're
(29:58):
declaring his sports. So stay tuned for that, lea, Yeah,
stay tuned for among other things.
Speaker 9 (30:03):
Right, are you surprised that she's not doing like five
events a day like barnstorming. I mean, there's only twenty
six days barnstorming every battleground state three or four events
a day. Forget the interview thing, Okay, I realize I'm
biased as a reporter.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
I want interviews the.
Speaker 9 (30:20):
Local news for the local news, interviews, town halls round like,
it just seems like it doesn't feel like October with.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
The schedules I'm looking at for both of them. But
I kind of think he has the edge right now. Yeah,
that's Jake Tapper on CNN saying what a lot of
Democrats are apparently saying behind the scenes, what is she doing?
I mean, when is she? Is she gonna at some point?
You know how presidential candidates usually are in the closing weeks.
They're like on a plane from five in the morning
(30:49):
till eleven at night, and we all marvel at their
schedules and think, how would anybody do that She's doing, Like, yeah,
I'll go to a Marrabi state and do a luncheon
this afternoon, but I'm leaving at eleven. I want to
me back by four.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Why what this is the mirror image of back when
you know, after the debate and everybody's saying, Joe's got
to get out there and show they still has it.
It's got to do interviews in town halls and a
parises and stuff. And the answer, obviously was he can't.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
He's not up to it. That's the same reason that
Kamala is not doing what she's doing.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
She goes to get softballs like what would you do
differently than the previous administration? And she can't string together
thirty seconds of BS to adequately answer that question.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
She's awful. She could do rallies though she's good at that.
Why isn't she doing eight rallies today in four different states.
Nobody see him drunk. You see drunk.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
So one of the great things I came across in
I think the New York Times a couple of years ago,
was the loss of hobbies in America, making the argument
that for some reason culturally, we had gotten into a
habit of if you can't turn a profit on this,
it's not worth doing. Yeah, yeah, And I found that
(32:07):
very very liberating for lots of different things that I
could be interested in.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Just do it because you like it, and it's for fun.
You don't. It's good for your brain, it's good for
your heart. Right, you don't have to like get into
painting or leather work, or or I've got a specific
thing I'm gonna mention here in a second mine playing
musical instruments. It was hard for me to do. But
to get to the point that I'm just doing this
because I like doing it. I don't need to have
(32:32):
in my mind how I'm gonna, you know, play in
front of people or put together a band or whatever.
I'm just doing it because I like it.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
That's a perfectly good reason to play a musical.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Instrument or do lots of different things. So you know,
like if you like the knit scarves, you don't have
to have an Etsy site and figure out how many
you could make a week and how much money the
yarn will cost and what the profit to do it.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Just do it because you'll even if they just go
on a drawer, you give them a good will. It's
perfectly reasonable. People have always had hobbies. In other words,
and tell your liberal friends if Trump wins, don't hang
yourself with this as you hand it to them.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
But I came across this because I think this is
one of your things. You've mentioned a couple of times.
I've never unders one of.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
My hobbies has become a sport. Self pleasurement is now
a sport. Sorry, obvious joke, folks, obvious that the comedy
the laws of physics of Comedy demanded, somebody make that joke.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Well, if it ever, if ever does become a sport,
clear room for a bust in the Hall of Fame.
That's all I'm saying, Katie. Katie's got her eyes closed.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Well, yeah, because I'm trying to take myself to my
happy place in a way.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
From what you guys are saying. Anyway, now we'll try
to move on. We really should, Dick, Sorry, cut that
out of the podcast so nobody ever hears that, and
some that doesn't need to be hurt Bright anyway. Yeah.
The Federalist has an article today about how bird watching
is now a sport, should be considered a sport. Oh no,
it shouldn't. You have mentioned you're a birdwatcher. The only
(34:06):
reason I don't mock bird watching otherwise I would, is
because I just don't. I'd have no interest in watching birds.
But my grandma was into it, and I really liked
my grandma, and she had lots of books about it
and wrote down the birds she saw and everything like that,
so she was into it. So I'm not gonna mind.
I for whatever reason, I just don't have any interest
in birds. If you told me the rarest bird in
(34:27):
the world was in the studio next door, I probably
wouldn't even walk over there and look at it. I
just don't care.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Well, if it's in the studio next door, something's gone
terribly wrong. But you don't trap them to watch. You
observe thee If I was sitting on my car the
parking lot, still I would I'd shoot it away so
it doesn't poop on my car, and I'd get my
car drive home.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Birdwatching is a sport. I'm not exactly sure what the
sport would part would be.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
I know some people who are like crazy into it,
who want to cite the most birds and brag about
it and that sort of thing, and you know, to
each their own. I suppose I just for for Judy
and me, it's boy, that's a pretty bird.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
I wonder what that is and you figure it out.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Or we have apps that identify bird songs, so you
hear something tweeting melodically in the trees and.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
You record it on the app, but it tells you
what bird it is. Wow, that's cool technology. So it's
like the Shazam for bird calls exactly. Yeah, wow, binoculars
in our bird books and stuff. I'm so anti bird.
When I go to the zoo, it's like the bird section,
It's like, why is that here? It's filler, It's like
the bran and raisin bran. You just you just had
(35:34):
to kill some of the space to claim you have
a big zoo. Nobody wants to see a bird what
the brand? And raisin brand is that?
Speaker 1 (35:41):
What? What? Do you just want to eat a bowl
of raisins. Maybe that's a bad example, but I said
the other day, I said, a zoo with my daughter
and my wife. I said, you know, when I was
a kid, I had no interest in the birds, but
now there's just beautiful. Maybe maybe a j I'm not
sure it's a sport. Maybe it's my low tee Billiard's
not a sport. Bird watching sport golf, you say, it's no.
(36:05):
It depends who you are and how you play. But
as the great Jim Rome once said, if you can
gain weight while you're doing something, it's not a sport.
That I have no counter argument. Even though that sounds
like a joke. It's a pretty good way to define
a sport.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
If you can gain weight doing it, it's not a sport.
Speaker 7 (36:23):
Armstrong and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Armstrong and Getty and he Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
FEMA officials say they have already distributed three hundred and
forty four million dollars worth of assistance to victims of
Hurricane Helene in six states. FEMA has also shifted more
than seventeen million meals and nearly fourteen million liters of
water to the disaster area. As a result, FEMA is
plowing through its disaster relief budget and the Small Business
(00:45):
Administration could run out of money for low interest home
rebuilding loans by the end of the month.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Well, we're glad we're talking to somebody who's on the
ground in those areas, because it's hard to tell from
national stories how hurricane relief is actually going talking about
the first big Hurricane Helene and specifically North Carolina, and.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
I think the attention being paid to what the federal
government is doing is fine and good, and they certainly
have a role, But as anybody who's lived through this
sort of thing knows, it's the state and then local
entities that provide a tremendous amount of the humanitarian relief
and the assistance when times are dark, which is why
we're helping to raise money for the good folks at
the United Way of Ashville and Buncom County, and their
(01:28):
president CEO, Dan Leroy, joins us.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Now, Dan, how are you, sir.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
I'm doing all right. Thanks for having me today.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Busier than heck, I'm sure. Yeah. How are things in
your area at this point?
Speaker 5 (01:41):
Well, things are still pretty crazy, still pretty dire. You know,
this hurricane hit us so much harder.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Than we ever could have imagined.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
And I'm sure your listeners have seen all of the
images and it is just as bad as folks have
seen it. It has just wiped out in structure across
our region and certainly here in Buncom County, from the
smaller towns like Swananoa, Barnardsville, Black Mountain. We're just so
(02:11):
hard hit that in many cases, you know, whole neighborhoods
are gone and having to be rebuilt. And so the
good news is a lot of our infrastructure is starting
to come back. A lot of folks have power now,
Dell service is pretty ubiquitous, which was not the case
even a week ago, and so that helps a lot
(02:33):
with communication. But in our county specifically, the biggest problem
that we have is water. The municipal water system was
basically wiped out, and we have what I would describe
as a heroic effort not just by our public Worse Department,
but by you know, partners from across the Southeast that
(02:53):
have come into support and rebuilding this because it's so
critical for our business community, it's critical for our schools,
and you know, you can't do anything without running water.
So that's the biggest issue for us right now.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
So before we get into some of the relief stuff,
Joe and I worked in North Carolina for a couple
of years, and I I was foot loose and fancy
free and single and childless. So I did a lot
of travel on North Carolina, spent a lot of time
in the Ashville area, really really enjoyed it. But did
was he even on your mind most of you around
there that this hurricane was going to be a big deal?
(03:25):
At what point did you realize holy crap?
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Yeah, you know, I'll tell you.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
One of the things that we have thought about ourselves
and talked to other folks about.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Ourselves here in western North Carolina.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Is just how resilient this area is and and sort
of the kinds of natural disasters that were used to
thinking about, whether it's the you know, the big fires
that they have out west, or you know, the huge
hurricanes that you see on the coastlines, or even the
you know, the tornadoes that.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
You see in the Midwest.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
We've been pretty well insulated from all of that for
a long time. And so this storm was truly unique
in that we got thirteen inches of rain that you
know that two days before the hurricane even came this way. Wow,
in a single day, right, And so it was a
(04:17):
very unusual weather pattern that basically soaked every we had.
We had flooding, you know, like you wouldn't see for
you know, in the last decade before the hurricane hit.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Oh, and so that was really what made it so unique.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
And so no, we were not I don't think anyone
could have imagined the level of impact here because it's
such an unusual weather.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Event and then a quick one before we move on,
how long were we all without self service? So all
this happens, it wasn't even on your mind all of
a sudden, things are just devastated homes are gone and
roads are covered, and wondering how long were you without
self service? You couldn't even talk to anybody.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Well, it's you know, to sort of answer your first
question from before, I think it was probably Tuesday that
the Tuesday before the hurricane hit on Friday morning, essentially
where folks were starting to kind of look around at
the radar and say, okay, this could be a big problem.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
And so, you know, and to just give you an idea,
I was actually.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
At a conference in Salt Lake City, so I was
not on the ground. So I had information that nobody
in our community, and certainly none of my colleagues or
teammates or partners had because they couldn't talk to each
other really for.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
About two days.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
If you were a part of, you know, some kind
of emergency response operations, they were able to stand up
in different places, access to self service and Wi Fi
and those kinds of things. But for the first couple
of days, I couldn't even talk to my family who
was in town to make sure that the folks here
in our house and everything else was okay. So it
was pretty much like in the dark for most people
(06:00):
within the affected region for about forty eight hours.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Wow, and then you're talking about the catastrophic damage to
the water treatment system. It could be weeks before there's
running water correct or even longer.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
And it's not the treatment system, it's the distribution system, Okay.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
And so they have, like I said, they have been able.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
To get the main line inter reconnected, which is pretty incredible,
but there's a lot of time that it's going to
take to actually work through the entire system. They say
that the linear feat of our water system here is
the equivalent of the distance between here and Miami and back.
So you can imagine it's a lot of line that
(06:41):
needs to be cleared out.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
And so they aren't giving us estimates. But you know,
it's interesting.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
We do a lot of work in partnership with our schools,
and you know, we we have schools that are drilling
wells right now in their ball field because they want
to make sure not just for this getting water back,
but in the future because obviously it's everything. So we
don't have a clear estimate for when it could be back,
but it's.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Definitely in the order of weeks and not in newer
of days.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
So for what it's worth for folks, who haven't been there,
you know. And I spent a week in Ashville slash
Waynesville this past July. I have family there, and I
love the area. It's not only beautiful geographically, but it's
just so interesting because you have, you know, conservative retirees
and kind of your traditional we've lived in the mountains
for generations conservatism. You've got tattooed and pierced waitresses and
(07:33):
artists and just the most amazing mix of people in
that area. And it's fun and funky, and it's very
very American, and it's just the devastation is astounding. So anyway,
if folks listening get a chance, if you can spare
a couple of bucks or more, go to Armstrong you
getty dot com. The banner is you can't miss it.
Donate what you can to help out to your fellow Americans, and.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
It's going directly to you. What can that money do
for you? If we can get our listeners to throw
a couple of bucks your way and you get a
pile of money, what can you do with that short term?
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Sure thing?
Speaker 5 (08:04):
Yeah, And I just want to echo what you just
said in terms of the incredible diversity of our communities here,
and what's been so beautiful to watch is the way
that you know, those barriers have been broken down and
we have people just working together, Neighbors helping neighbors, the organizations,
community organizations helping you know, whoever's out there in their
community without regard to any of that affiliation. So that's
(08:26):
been beautiful. Our focus really is right now. We are
recruiting thousands of volunteers and working with our community organization
partners to identify where are the volunteers most needed and
being able to connect those volunteers to those organizations doing
the work on the ground. We also have created a
(08:47):
disaster relief fund which will go to these community organizations
who are directly impacted by the hurricane itself and the
other thing that we're doing that this would support us
that we're working really closely with our partners at the
City of Asheville and Buncott County to help coordinate the
(09:07):
thousands of tons of supplies that are coming into our
region through these donations and to make sure that they
are have a safe place to go to be sorted,
and then to get out the door to our community
partners who are most proximate to the neighborhoods and the
folks that were most impacted by the storm.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Dan Leroy of the United Way of Ashville, Buncome County,
you guys are doing what is so sorely needed when
it's most needed, and you're all heroes. Keep at it.
We'll see what we can raise for y'all and good luck.
We're thinking of you.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
Well, thank you for shinning a spotlight on this. It's
going to be a need for a really long time,
so all the support that we can get from your
listeners is very much appreciated.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Excellent point, you got it. Thanks Dan, great to talk
to you.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Yeah, that's going to be a problem for a while obviously,
and they'll run out of money quick if they don't
have a big parliament. And if you're the sort of
person listening to the show, you probably believe in local, small,
over giant far away, and this is a way to
get money, like to the source or where they're actually
(10:13):
you know, the people getting the money or their families
are dealing with this as opposed to bureaucrats somewhere far
away who lives are comfortable and they don't really care
right exactly. This goes directly to the need, and the
number of news pieces I've seen on how many people's
(10:33):
insurance doesn't cover this for all kinds of different complicated reasons, like, well,
you had flood insurance, but flood insurance caused by a
river rising, not by a hurricane, so sorry, it doesn't count,
or you just all kinds of different caveats.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Oh right, and then you got to get into the lawyers.
Well it rained thirteen inches two days before. Well we
think it was the hurricane. So it's a nightmare. But
before you even get there, the roads are gone. It's
not that they're flooded, gone, the bridges are gone, the
water distribution system doesn't.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Work, and what for weeks?
Speaker 1 (11:06):
I mean, it's it's like civilization, modernity was blotted out
for a huge swath of you know, one of our
most populated states.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yeah, as I saw one guy say, the houses are gone,
but so's the land the houses used to sit on,
so that you can't build a house there again. Sohi,
what does insurance do for.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Replacing your house that you would have to get somewhere
else or bring in two hundred truckloads a dirt time?
I have no idea, no anyway, give what Ken Armstrong
e getty dot com.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
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Speaker 2 (12:48):
So we got a little Tim Walls coming up for you.
Is on ABC, what's their show, Good Morning America talking
to the former football player Michael Strahan, who hits him
with some questions, and Tim Wallas goes back into his
I don't know why he hasn't come up with an
answer yet for all of his stories, but.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
It's astonishing that he hasn't. That's what he's doing.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
I just watch it. It's better than it was during
the debate, but it's still not as good as it
should be anyway. Also on the topic of the campaign,
but slightly different, Kamala Harris is doing her media blitz
this week, which accornered a lot of my favorite pundits
who talk to people behind the scenes, including Democrats. They're
(13:32):
worried that she's doing all softball friendly interviews. Still playing
it safe and making no news's in. She's either tied
or behind, and you gotta be making some news. You
gotta be on offense. You got to be moving the
ball down the field. Just getting out of an interview
without screwing up is not going.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
To do it. I'd argue, she's not even doing that.
She's missing the softballs. She's with him anyway.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Howard Stern, which used to be a scary place for
anybody to go to get interviewed because he was all
about making news by being naughty, gave her a heck
of a softball interview the other day. I mean, just
as obsequious and fawning as you could possibly get.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Great.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Guttfeld was talking about that on his show on Fox
the other night, and here's how that went. I mean,
talk about a transition.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
On Tuesday, he conducted an interview with Kamala Harris that
was so simpering and feminine. I got my period while
listening to it. You should hear what keeps him up
at night.
Speaker 7 (14:35):
This is what keeps me up night. I don't understand how,
my fellow Americans, I don't even understand how this election
is close. Yes, I'm voting for you, but I would
also vote for that wall over there.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Well, he's half right. We do need a wall.
Speaker 6 (14:49):
You had to keep out gang members, Fendyl dealers, human traffickers,
and Anna and Navarro. Stern has become such a whissified
sick of a fan. He doesn't realize that telling Kamala that
he votes for a wall is telling her that he
knows she's as dumb as.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
One not to mention.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
Trump is the wall candidate, not cackles McNee pads. Oh,
used to throw boloney slices at stripper's butt with accuracy,
I might add, cackles McNee pads.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Oh, that's kind of rough. I like these sipprings so
much estrogen I got my period. Oh my god. Anyway,
he goes on, here's Stern.
Speaker 6 (15:33):
On anyone daring to poke a little fun at Kamala.
Speaker 7 (15:36):
Even when I watched them on Saturday Night Live with
the where they have Maya Rudolph playing you, I hate it.
I don't want you being made fun of. Oh my god,
it's too much at stake. I believe the entire future
of this country right now, I mean as America, Land
of the Free, Home of the brave. I think it's
literally on the line.
Speaker 6 (15:54):
So a guy who's supposed to be funny for a
living now claims her candidacy.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Is too important to joke about.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
This is the guy who once joked, right after the
column by massacre that the killers should have raped the
students before killing them. Not that I like that, Stern,
But this pendulum swing from saying the most tasteless thing
in the universe to putting your balls in a tic
tac container, you gotta wonder.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
What's going on here.
Speaker 6 (16:20):
It's striking that the king of the most misogynistic humor
ever now turns into a breathless over a progressive, hopelessly
shallow candidate.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
How about freaking Howard Stern of all people saying it
really bothers me when they make jokes about you. They
shouldn't do that. It's too important. You don't want jokes
about politicians. Wow, the worshipfulness of it. Wow, humor, humor
is off limits for politicians on my side. From Howard
(16:54):
Stern who used to think obviously, as you just heard there,
nothing was out of bounds for humor. Nothing right, right,
It's an interesting aspect of Trump derangement syndrome that you
get how would I phrase this? You get cipher.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
That's the kind of fancy word idiot worshipfulness syndrome. If
something is not or not Trump, I must love it.
If it is against Trump, I love it, which explains
keeping the kids out of school and the plastic screen
at the seven eleven, and anything that defies Trump, I
love automatically.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
I just I love it.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
She's an idiot, she has no beliefs, but she's not Trump,
so I love her.
Speaker 7 (17:39):
Well.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
A gut film made a good point. Stern saying I'd
vote for that wall over there is not exactly a
ringing endorsement. It's a you could be anybody and I
would vote for you, right exactly, Yeah, you could.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
You could be I don't know, talentless, have no principles,
a half wit word salad spout, chippering moron, and I
would still vote for you.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Wow. I hope I never become that person. I watched
Maya Rudolph and I just think they shouldn't be joking
about this. It's too serious.
Speaker 8 (18:09):
Wowis So there's a couple of low points in my life.
I'm not I'm passing a line, and I'm gonna have
a grand slam. The grand slams are the key I
feel like at my theater checking the AA there or
an institute of some sort, because this is crap.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
It's full of crap. This is crap. It's full of crap.
There's an unhappy Philly fan by being knocked out by
the Mets, who are moving on to the Championship Series
against either the Dodgers or the Padres. Will find that
out later today. She says the loss was worse than
her dog time. Wow, well the dog was old.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
The Phillies were supposed to go on exactly anyway, and
they Yeah, I'm a Royals fan. So the Yankees beat
the Royals last night, and they're gonna be She got
the Yankees and the Mets both in the Championship Series
kill me in terms of national media coverage. Hmm, yeah,
that will be profoundly annoying. On the other coast, I
was explaining to a friend of mine from Elseware about
(19:08):
why California is so screwed up, and it's politically speaking,
and it's it's primarily because the Democratic Party has entered
into this unwholly corrupt marriage with all of the public
employee unions, and the government serves only to do the
bidding of the unions and they throw the people a
(19:29):
bone now and again just to to you know, cover
up the scam. But the unions nominate the politicians who
get elected with the votes and contributions of the unions,
and then the politicians who are former union officials then
give the unions anything they want until they're turned out,
(19:49):
and then a new union guy takes the government post.
And my great fear, because I've always been an optimist
about the United States and our people and our system
is that. And you know, our old friend Tom McClintock,
the Conservative rep from California, always said, you know, we've
we've run into all sorts of problems in this country,
(20:10):
and what's great about it will fix them. My problem
is this that now they have enough bulk of the
union two way straight thing, the feedback loop, whatever you
want to call it, the population at large, unless they
get like crazy fired up, don't really have the numbers
to turn out well, at least in terms of the
(20:31):
usual turnout numbers. That just not enough regular people who
just want a healthy, functioning government turnout. So election after
election goes to the union owned Democratic Party anyway, that's a.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
That's definitely the government you deserve, I suppose.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Although they're they're smart people, I mean, they're utterly corrupt,
and they're they're treasonous to me, they are betraying their
their most sacred vowels. But they are smart, and so
they limit the tax paying pool as much as they can.
So the people who really really care that their money
is being squandered and given away in this unholy marriage,
they are way too few in number to win an election.
(21:11):
So anyway, it's a scam that is so efficient and
so morally bankrupt, I'm not sure how to beat it. Anyway,
So I'm pretty discouraged about the state of California, especially
and the state I happened to grow up in Illinois,
because Illinois politics, because of the population, is Chicago politics,
(21:32):
and what's happening in Chicago is crazy, makes California look reasonable.
So the mayor, Brandon Johnson, who was a union official,
a Chicago teachers Union official, and the teachers union, because
that has many, many thousands of employees and a hell
of a lot of money, got him elected mayor. So
now his only job is to reward the Chicago Teachers Union,
(21:54):
and so he's.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
In the middle. The city's in the middle of.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Quote unquote negotiating what is likely to be a costly
new contract with the CTU, which is Johnson's largest campaign contributor.
Since the Chicago School District can't afford the hefty races
and benefits that CTU demands, the mayor has suggested, get this,
that the Chicago Public Schools take out a three hundred
(22:21):
million dollar short term high interest loan to cover the shortfall.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
That sounds like your friend who wants to buy a
boat and is already paycheck to paycheck.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yeah, excuse me, taking a sip of coffee, and he
hasn't even suggested, well, wait a minute, we don't have
the money now, so we're going to take out a
short term high interest loan. How are we going to
pay that back? Brandon is uninterested as a matter of
fact and brand.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
They're always uninterested because the government officials know if they
can just get the money spent, that's somebody else's problem.
I mean it'll down there before Yeah, they'll be a
leverage to raise taxes or whatever.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Just got to get it on the books, right, which
is why neither party is talking about Medicare right now.
In social Security or the entitlement programs in short, because
you just you wait for the disaster, partly because you
cannot convince the electorate to make sacrifices before it's a disaster,
because the other guy will say those sacrifices aren't necessary.
(23:25):
They're trying to take away your bloody blah or they're
trying to balance the budget on the back of the
blah blah. And then the disaster happens, the bloody bla,
and everybody's like, how did this happen? And then you know,
the politician says, we got no choice. You gotta do
these hard things. So if that's just the nature of democracy,
and I ought to just deal with it. But here's
(23:45):
the funny part. Here's the part I really wanted to
get to. Let's see, this is from the Wall Street
Journal editorial board. They say, voters deserve what they get
in a democracy, but no one deserves Chicago may or
Brandon Johnson, and certainly not Chicago school children. You know,
that's the heartbreaking part. No kidding in seeking to reward
his union benefactor. And then you know when these poor kids,
(24:08):
who are in large number black and Hispanic whatever, when
they don't achieve in these utterly corrupt schools. It'll be
blamed on white supremacy and systemic racism and whatever. And
Johnson and his ilk Kamala Harris are hardcore against school choice. No,
you will stay in your corrupt union bound at neighborhood
school anyway. So his honor is having in seeking to
(24:31):
reward his union benefactors. His honor is having a political
meltdown for the ages. On Monday, mister Johnson replaced the
entire Chicago school Board with his allies after the previous
board resigned on Moss last Friday. Every air sucking homo
sapien on the school board said we will not be
party to this.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
We quit, and that's progressive Chicago. It was too much
for those folks.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
The previous board opposed the mayor's three hundred million dollars
high in tresloan. We were talking about that to hand
raises to the CTU, which funded his election campaign. Asked
about the opposition to his loan scheme, mister Johnson pulled out,
wait for it, the slavery card. Yeah, and I quote,
(25:18):
when our people wanted to be liberated and emancipated in
this country. The argument was, you can't free black people.
Because it would be too expensive. They said that it
would be fiscally irresponsible for this country.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
To liberate black people.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
And now you have detractors making the same argument of
the Confederacy when it comes to the public education in
this system.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Wow. And this is with all the numbers that we've
talked about over the last year or so of the
achievement rate in Chicago, where you've got lots of schools
where it would seem that it wouldn't make any difference
if they were not open at all, right, because nobody
reaches his the proficiency level.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
So literally nobody in some of the schools zero kids
actually zero percent reach reading and writing proficiency. So there's
just what do you even open for let alones asking
for more money?
Speaker 2 (26:12):
How about we just close them down? The same result,
right exactly.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
It's and you know, Jack, occasionally you god bless you,
will say how do these people sleep at night? The
answer is they have no shame. They're criminals, They're they're victimizers.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
On some levels like this, you'd have to be just
to be have to be the criminal mind. It's just
like I'm stealing from people, because there's no twisting that
into a I'm doing the right thing for the kids.
There's just no way, right.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Oh no, no, that's the pose, and anybody who falls
for it as a sucker. You're not maybe you're not
the facts. I'm not gonna try to hurt anybody's feelings.
But oh yeah, the whole teacher's union thing, depending on
where you are, it's it's more scammy than others. But
so the accountants in the audience, I'm sure are are
asking now, Joseph, you've said that their high interest loans.
(27:04):
Tell me more about that. Well, the Chicago school district
is junk rated. When they borrow money, their IOUs are
rated as junk in the world of bonds, meaning you
might get your money back. So mister Johnson's plan for
the three hundred million dollar loan would cost Chicago Public
(27:27):
Schools not three hundred million.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Seven hundred million dollars.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
So he is going to pay off the teachers union
three hundred million dollars at the cost of taxpayers of
seven hundred million dollars over the short term. I abhor
the very idea of political violence. On the other hand,
(27:54):
theft of this size and utter ammorality has been dealt
with throughout human history.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
In various ways.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Now he careful and constitutional investigation and prosecution is probably
the best way to deal with it. On the other hand,
if one's mind flies to tar and feathers, I can't
blame you.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
I was trying to find it. A tweet I came
across the other day from several years back during the pandemic,
when Brandon Johnson whatever he was at the time, then
tweeted out that this effort to reopen the schools reeks
of white supremacy and blah blah blah. Why is the
president of the Chicago Teachers You. Oh, that's right, that's
what he was doing at that point, that this effort
(28:39):
to reopen the schools reeks of white supremacy. That's why
people want to reopen the schools.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
That's why they want to get the little black kids
back to learning because of white supremacy. Good, good argument.
And now he's playing the effing slavery card.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
You have. This guy is a monster, You just have
to be a criminal. But people vote for him. I
just said, what do you do?
Speaker 1 (29:00):
It's a proof that democracy Chicago crumble monarchy. Now, well,
there are progressive cities and states around the country that
are realizing the air of their ways and trying to
backtrack a little bit? How far will Chicago fall? And
and you know, if another generation, a little kids or whatever.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Color their skin happens to be for goodness sakes.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Grow up completely uneducated and have no good options. But crime,
that's not an oh well. I mean this sol it'll
take Chicago another generation and a half or so to
figure out.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
How screwed up it is. That's a tragedy. But what
are you gonna do? I we got a funny clip
from Trump at one of his rallies. He's going to Aurora,
Colorado today to point out the whole Venezuelan takeover of
apartment complexes thingy. And so we'll play a little bit
from that. Also got to ask Joe about one of
his favorite hobbies that is now becoming a sport. They're
(29:58):
declaring his sports. So stay tuned for that, lea, Yeah,
stay tuned for among other things.
Speaker 9 (30:03):
Right, are you surprised that she's not doing like five
events a day like barnstorming. I mean, there's only twenty
six days barnstorming every battleground state three or four events
a day. Forget the interview thing, Okay, I realize I'm
biased as a reporter.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
I want interviews the.
Speaker 9 (30:20):
Local news for the local news, interviews, town halls round like,
it just seems like it doesn't feel like October with.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
The schedules I'm looking at for both of them. But
I kind of think he has the edge right now. Yeah,
that's Jake Tapper on CNN saying what a lot of
Democrats are apparently saying behind the scenes, what is she doing?
I mean, when is she? Is she gonna at some point?
You know how presidential candidates usually are in the closing weeks.
They're like on a plane from five in the morning
(30:49):
till eleven at night, and we all marvel at their
schedules and think, how would anybody do that She's doing, Like, yeah,
I'll go to a Marrabi state and do a luncheon
this afternoon, but I'm leaving at eleven. I want to
me back by four.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Why what this is the mirror image of back when
you know, after the debate and everybody's saying, Joe's got
to get out there and show they still has it.
It's got to do interviews in town halls and a
parises and stuff. And the answer, obviously was he can't.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
He's not up to it. That's the same reason that
Kamala is not doing what she's doing.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
She goes to get softballs like what would you do
differently than the previous administration? And she can't string together
thirty seconds of BS to adequately answer that question.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
She's awful. She could do rallies though she's good at that.
Why isn't she doing eight rallies today in four different states.
Nobody see him drunk. You see drunk.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
So one of the great things I came across in
I think the New York Times a couple of years ago,
was the loss of hobbies in America, making the argument
that for some reason culturally, we had gotten into a
habit of if you can't turn a profit on this,
it's not worth doing. Yeah, yeah, And I found that
(32:07):
very very liberating for lots of different things that I
could be interested in.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Just do it because you like it, and it's for fun.
You don't. It's good for your brain, it's good for
your heart. Right, you don't have to like get into
painting or leather work, or or I've got a specific
thing I'm gonna mention here in a second mine playing
musical instruments. It was hard for me to do. But
to get to the point that I'm just doing this
because I like doing it. I don't need to have
(32:32):
in my mind how I'm gonna, you know, play in
front of people or put together a band or whatever.
I'm just doing it because I like it.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
That's a perfectly good reason to play a musical.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Instrument or do lots of different things. So you know,
like if you like the knit scarves, you don't have
to have an Etsy site and figure out how many
you could make a week and how much money the
yarn will cost and what the profit to do it.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Just do it because you'll even if they just go
on a drawer, you give them a good will. It's
perfectly reasonable. People have always had hobbies. In other words,
and tell your liberal friends if Trump wins, don't hang
yourself with this as you hand it to them.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
But I came across this because I think this is
one of your things. You've mentioned a couple of times.
I've never unders one of.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
My hobbies has become a sport. Self pleasurement is now
a sport. Sorry, obvious joke, folks, obvious that the comedy
the laws of physics of Comedy demanded, somebody make that joke.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Well, if it ever, if ever does become a sport,
clear room for a bust in the Hall of Fame.
That's all I'm saying, Katie. Katie's got her eyes closed.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Well, yeah, because I'm trying to take myself to my
happy place in a way.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
From what you guys are saying. Anyway, now we'll try
to move on. We really should, Dick, Sorry, cut that
out of the podcast so nobody ever hears that, and
some that doesn't need to be hurt Bright anyway. Yeah.
The Federalist has an article today about how bird watching
is now a sport, should be considered a sport. Oh no,
it shouldn't. You have mentioned you're a birdwatcher. The only
(34:06):
reason I don't mock bird watching otherwise I would, is
because I just don't. I'd have no interest in watching birds.
But my grandma was into it, and I really liked
my grandma, and she had lots of books about it
and wrote down the birds she saw and everything like that,
so she was into it. So I'm not gonna mind.
I for whatever reason, I just don't have any interest
in birds. If you told me the rarest bird in
(34:27):
the world was in the studio next door, I probably
wouldn't even walk over there and look at it. I
just don't care.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Well, if it's in the studio next door, something's gone
terribly wrong. But you don't trap them to watch. You
observe thee If I was sitting on my car the
parking lot, still I would I'd shoot it away so
it doesn't poop on my car, and I'd get my
car drive home.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Birdwatching is a sport. I'm not exactly sure what the
sport would part would be.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
I know some people who are like crazy into it,
who want to cite the most birds and brag about
it and that sort of thing, and you know, to
each their own. I suppose I just for for Judy
and me, it's boy, that's a pretty bird.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
I wonder what that is and you figure it out.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Or we have apps that identify bird songs, so you
hear something tweeting melodically in the trees and.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
You record it on the app, but it tells you
what bird it is. Wow, that's cool technology. So it's
like the Shazam for bird calls exactly. Yeah, wow, binoculars
in our bird books and stuff. I'm so anti bird.
When I go to the zoo, it's like the bird section,
It's like, why is that here? It's filler, It's like
the bran and raisin bran. You just you just had
(35:34):
to kill some of the space to claim you have
a big zoo. Nobody wants to see a bird what
the brand? And raisin brand is that?
Speaker 1 (35:41):
What? What? Do you just want to eat a bowl
of raisins. Maybe that's a bad example, but I said
the other day, I said, a zoo with my daughter
and my wife. I said, you know, when I was
a kid, I had no interest in the birds, but
now there's just beautiful. Maybe maybe a j I'm not
sure it's a sport. Maybe it's my low tee Billiard's
not a sport. Bird watching sport golf, you say, it's no.
(36:05):
It depends who you are and how you play. But
as the great Jim Rome once said, if you can
gain weight while you're doing something, it's not a sport.
That I have no counter argument. Even though that sounds
like a joke. It's a pretty good way to define
a sport.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
If you can gain weight doing it, it's not a sport.
Speaker 7 (36:23):
Armstrong and Getty
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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