October 18, 2024 • 36 mins
Hour 4 of the Friday October 18, 2024 edition of The Armstrong & Getty Replay features..
- DEI in US Military Hurts Readiness
- Here's how money actually works, Oasis Reunion
- The Crisis in America's Government Schools
- Jim Jones Mailbag, Chinese Spies
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong, Joe.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Gatty, Armstrong and Getty and he Armstrong and Getty Strong and.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Came across a fantastic think piece by a fellow by
the name of Tom Klingenstein about DEI in the United
States Military. And I've heard various folks, including some of served,
talk about how it's hurt readiness, and I believed it,
but I've never heard it fleshed out this well. And
I wish we had hours and hours, because I'd love
(00:53):
to read the whole thing and discuss it with you.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
But his point that is.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Quite eloquently made, and we'll post it at Armstrong and
Getty dot under hotlinks, is that.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Well.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
He writes, the military is often perceived by well meaning
Americans as the last holdout in the progressive march through
the institutions. In reality, however, it was among the first
American institutions to formally embrace the radical logic of group quotas.
And he talks about the difference between civilian society and
milliate military society in its values, in its training, in
(01:27):
its social norms, and why they're so important, and how
DEI is utterly incompatible with the cultural norms that have
underpinned every military in the history of time, discipline, sacrificing
oneself to the unit, everyone being the same, your only identity,
(01:49):
as I'm a member of this unit. It's very, very
well written, and it's made me all the more dedicated
to stamping out this radical ideology wherever it happens. I
was encouraged to see again editorial in New York and
The New York Times pointed out by fabulous frequent correspondent
Paulo DEI is not working on college campuses.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
We need a new approach.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
It's by a couple of academics from Stanford Law and
Stanford University, and they write it in a way that
is they are lefties approaching lefties. So it's fairly gentle
about how the DEI programs that exist on campuses are
(02:35):
not quite what they purport to be and don't really
achieve what they've said they should achieve, pointing out the
rampant anti Semitism on all of these enlightened campuses.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
And again it's it's very well written and I'd love
to go into more detail.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
On it, and anti Asian bias, which we'll get to
in a second.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Oh yeah, yeah, And we could certainly get into the
report that just came out from Columbia University about how
miserable failure Dei has been in rooting out anti Semitism there,
and he gets into the I'm sorry, these two academics
get into the rigidity of these programs and how and again,
this is not a revelation to us at all. They
(03:16):
don't seem to actually be about diversity, equity and inclusion,
whatever those things mean. They seem to be rigidly enforcing
a particular point of view, and they seem to just
want to see the power at the universities. Well, welcome
to enlightenment, my friend. But what was interesting was, and
this is what Paolo, the service Paolo provided, which I
(03:38):
appreciate very much, he says, more interesting than the article
are the generally pretty solidly left New York Times reader's comments.
If you view the reader's picks, meaning the comments on
the story that got the most thumbs up and that
sort of thing, you'll see that they are all critical
of Dei, and they run from as a white male
(03:59):
is perfectly can be even helpful to ask me to
examine my values and beliefs for racism and sexism. But
it's not fine to assign me the category of a
pressor based solely on my race or gender.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Blah blah blah. How about this one.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
As a black immigrant from Africa, the idea that groups
are inherently oppressed based on skin color is shocking to me.
All races and genders have issues because we're all human beings.
I've received far more discrimination in Africa on the basis
of my tribe than I have from any white person.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And he goes down that line for a while. As
a staunch liberal and white minority, ally, the only thing
that's ever made me consider voting Republican is having to
write diversity statements for a university job. It's a blatant
tool of discrimination and everyone knows it.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
A couple one more quick one. As a professor at
a university, I agree for students to succeed in the university,
they must feel that they belong. For a minority student
from a public school and a class full of white kids,
it's tough to feel like you belong's. Uh, this guy,
As you finally get to the point, Oh, it's that
(05:02):
socializing with peers, involvement in student groups, for participating with
a broad array of people is what breaks down those barriers.
Not being set into camps and set against each other.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
That's the opposite of what works.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
So, as I've said many times, this is not the
beginning of the end of this neo Marxist garbage. It's
the end of the beginning. People are starting to realize, Wow,
this isn't about diversity or equity, which is communism or
inclusion at all. They just want to take control of
things by cowing us into silence, by calling us racists on.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
The racial breakdown at colleges. Maybe you saw this headline.
I saw the initial headline over the weekend after Supreme
Court ruling against affirmative action. Black acceptance to MIT drops
ten percentage points, and they presented it only that way.
I think it was The New York Times had it,
and obviously it's supposed to be a.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Horror that happened.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Sich Lowry actually wrote in The New York Post yesterday
digging into it.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
A little more.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
A spike in Asian Americans who were admitted to MIT,
who you can only assume were not getting in even
though they deserved it before because of affirmative actions.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So the whole numbers on that.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
So MIT is the first top level college to release
their numbers on this. We're going to be hearing more
about these in the fall, I assume from Harvard, Yale,
whoever else. But MIT released its first post affirmative action
admissions number for the incoming class since the Supreme Court
ruled the affirmative action in these universities is wrong, and
the percentage of Asian American students increased from forty to
(06:39):
forty seven percent the first year are the first opportunity
to have, you know, merit based admissions. Black students dropped
from fifteen to five, Hispanic students from sixteen to eleven,
White stayed roughly the same, and as Rich Lowry rights,
either the MIT admissions office has been somehow infiltrated by
(07:00):
racists who want to exclude as many black and Hispanic
students as possible while boosting Asian Americans for some reason,
or they were working to keep out meritorious Asian American
applicants all these years, people that deserve to be in
the school and weren't allowed in because they weren't the
right race.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
What could be more racist than that.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Well, and to take a step back to I think
the greater and more important issue is now that we
haven't papered over the difference is in achievement by shoving
kids in who probably can't make it at MIT, because
there's a huge incidence of that the kids who are
elevated beyond their level of achievement and stuck into these colleges,
they fail at unbelievable levels.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
You're not going to read that in the mainstream media,
but it's true.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Instead of papering over the question of okay, why is
a disproportionately small percentage of black students able to qualify
for MIT start before they're even in school. Let's talk
about kindergarten. Let's look at first grade through eighth grade.
Let's talk about middle school and high school and the
(08:07):
rest of it. Let's address causes as opposed to these
affirmative action at the end programs that enable a people
who are profiting from this, the teachers' unions and don't
want to solve the problems, and b society that's uncomfortable
talking about it. Why do black kids underachieve if you
(08:28):
don't paper over the process at the end, you're forced
to reckon with the problem at the beginning. And that's
why I like these problems as somebody who's not trying
to take over universities through my DEI critical thinking or
I'm not critical thinking, critical theory, neo Marxism.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
I actually care about little black kids.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
So a doke researchers expecting similar results in other Ivy
League schools this fall a big increase for Asian American students,
white students staying about flat, and then a substantial drop
in Black and Hispanic admissions. Rich Lowry points out here
it's the same experience California had when the state passed
the anti Affirmative Action proposition in two thousand and nine,
(09:12):
I mean two o nine. Back in ninety six, Asian
Americans went from thirty seven percent of freshmen at UC
Berkeley to forty three percent. White students dropped ten points.
So you can't claim it's white supremacy or white power
structure or something like that. The number of white kids
getting into Berkeley dropped from thirty percent to twenty percent.
(09:34):
And this is my favorite part of it. There isn't
some giant factory somewhere that's manufacturing generic Asian Americans either,
who all have the same backgrounds and attitudes. The category
of Asian American includes people from countries that hate each
other and always have people from countries that have little
to do with one another. For instance, China, India, the
(09:56):
Philippines whatever, They.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Got nothing to do with each other. Some cases hate
each other and always have hated each other.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
They've killed each other by the hundreds of thousands in
brutal ways. It's not like some monolithic group like you
claim white people are, who are trying to take over something.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Well, and you've got to drop your preconceptions too about
elite universities and such. I tell you what, here at
Joe's second tier university, you're gonna learn a hell of
a lot. You're gonna drink some beer and get laid.
It's gonna be great at the superachiever universities will be
for superachievers.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
And that's fine.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
And I remind you of the fact that generally speaking,
A students work for B students at companies owned by
C students.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
As the old saying goes, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
I'm glad you mentioned that, because Rich Lowry did end
with as for students who would have been admitted under
the old racialized system. It's not like they'll have no future.
If they end up at a good state school somewhere, you'll
be absolutely perfectly fine. If you're good to ed her off.
Probably yeah, very good chance you will be better off.
But the idea that your life is ruined or something
(10:58):
like that's insane. Took us a long time to get here.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
These affirmative action programs exist in large measure to prevent
us from considering the uncomfortable and difficult questions of black underachievement.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I believe that to my bone. That's really interesting.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
The Armstrong and Getty Show, Yea or Jack or Shoe
podcasts and our hot links.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
The Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Oh here's how money actually works.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Seven dollars beautiful? Are you about to say something?
Speaker 5 (11:47):
No?
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Okay, So we're gonna do the one on one class
first and then two to one class. If this first
part is too obvious for some of you, Congratulations on
understanding the basics of economics, which is a fairly rare
thing in today's world, which is highly discouraging. But first
of all, they're talking about who's this writer. I like
to ta give credit because this is really well written.
Matthew Hennessy in the Wall Street Journal is talking about
(12:09):
the fellows in Oasis, the British rock band which is
getting back together.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Wonderwall. He gets back, he.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Gets into some of the backstory, the Gallagher brothers who
can't stand each other and can't get along, but they're
the indispensable members of the band Oasis. Last month the
Boys Buried the Hatchet announced series twenty twenty five concerts.
Delirious Fans were young and relatively poor during the band's
heyday are now older and relatively rich. They have the
willingness and ability to pay to see Oasis and concert.
Economically speaking, that's called demand, but demand is only one
(12:40):
side of the economic story.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Morning Glory for the moment.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
At least, the Oasis reunion is limited to a handful
of shows, and the Wembley Stadium is large. It's not
infinitely so, and there's no guarantee the brothers will remain
on speaking terms beyond next summer. Fans understand that this
may be their last chance to see the battling Gallagher
lads together on stage.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Supply is limited now.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Introductory economics tell us that when supply is tight and
demand is high prices rise to an equilibrium, which is
exactly what happened. Then he talks about dynamic pricing and
how the tickets are significantly more expensive than they seem
to be when initially announced. Some accuse the greedy brothers
of ripping off their loyal fans. Many more aimed their
(13:22):
furia ticket Master, the American ticket Sales BMTH, owned by
Live Nation Entertainment.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
The fur revealed terrible.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Probably not going to argue me out of my anger
at ticket ticket Master in general, but go.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
On, Oh the fees, the fees that creep up onto
your bill at the end. Yes, that's a different topic
and an interesting you're electronic sending me of the ticket
cost forty dollars what? Yeah, anyway, putting that aside, because
this is just a question of the price of the tickets.
The furor revealed a terrible ignorance, even among the highly educated,
(13:54):
of what prices are and how they work.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I would argue to the journalists that know these.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Are people opposing is being outraged, they're not actually outraged.
Like the very Prime Minister of Britain, kir Starmer, told
the House Commons that he found it depressing to hear
of the oasis price hikes, he promised a commission to
investigate what he called extortionate price resalers whatever. Culture Secretary
Lisa Nandy told the Bebe that quote, vastly inflated prices
(14:22):
would exclude ordinary fans.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
They have a culture secretary, Yeah, why do you need
that secretary of culture? And there should be some sort
of government intervention in that some things are more expensive
than others.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
What, yeah, bollocks in economic terms a concert ticket. And
this is the really important part. This is the econ
one to one stuff that if you don't understand it,
you don't get anything about economics. A concert ticket is
no different from a book, a bottle of wine, or
a house. It has no inherent value, only the price
a buyer is willing to pay and a seller is
(14:59):
willing to accept. The market clearing price of anything is
where demand meet supply. The correct and fair price is
whatever the market will bear. No buyer has a right
to a low price, just as no seller has a
right to a high price. Then they point out the
obvious oasis could be nice guys and sellar tickets for
five bucks, but scalpers would snatch them all up. And
(15:20):
resell them for much much more. What good would it
do for Oasis, for the ordinary fan or anybody to
allow third party resellers to capture all that value.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Well, that's what Yeah, that's what people don't understand about sports,
guitar players, whatever, actors and actresses. Somebody's going to get
that money because there's a demand for it. So if
it's not George Clooney or Shoheyo Tani or the Gallagher brothers,
then the company that puts on the show or the game,
(15:53):
or the network or whatever, they get the money. But
somebody is getting the money. It's just the way it works, right.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
A couple more quick tidbits of music industry guru explained
that the acts hide behind Ticketmaster. They want them to
take the flack.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
All this stuff.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
That's pretty good, that's probably true.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Yeah it's not good for your image, but Ticketmaster takes
all the flack. And he also writes, here's the dirty
little secret. Ticketmaster does nothing that the band does not
agree to. So anyway, I thought that was a good
little instructional on if there's demand and little supply, the
prices are going to go up, and it should.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
And you know what's gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
The gallery good boys are going to put down their
fists and open up their calendars and say, you know,
I'm a lot to play half a dozen more shows,
are you? And supply will increase in the prices will.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
I was drunk in the backseat of an suv that
could go. I have one thousand, five hundred stories that
start that way, but in this particular one enter my seat.
I was drunk in the back of the suv on
the way to an Oasis concert Charlotte, North Carolina, in
nineteen ninety five when we heard on the radio that
they'd cancel the concert because the two brothers had gotten
(17:01):
a fistfight backstage.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
So I still have not seen them.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Wow, Wow, Yeah, that legend not overblown. No, that reminds
me when they were like in their sixties, the Davis brothers.
It looks like Davies, but it's pronounced Davis of the Kinks. Actually,
we're continuing to come to blows and scream at each
other backstage in their sixties trying to tour.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Wow, get some counseling for us or something.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Let it go Armstrong, the Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
It's funny.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
I've wanted to bring this up for a while, the
real crisis in America's government schools. And I don't want
to be the cliched everything is going to hell all
the time person like me, that's what I am, because
that's my brand, because we already have one of them. No,
(18:07):
but I was thinking about it, and it goes back
to our discussion of the natural state of things is
chaos and poverty and violence, and if you have a civilization,
the challenge of preserving that civilization never ends. And everything
isn't necessarily going to hell, but everything will go to
(18:31):
hell if you don't stop it. Going to hell needs
to be maintained. Yes, in short, So anyway, I think
one of the things in another principle before we get
in the specifics you've quoted George will As saying, one
of the essential, you know, elements of being a conservative
is you have to deal with reality, recognize what is right.
(18:54):
You can't be a utopian, unicorn riding wisher of fond
wishes and call yourself a conservative.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
It's just it doesn't fit. So anyway, I.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Think we have an enormous crisis with America's government schools
right now.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
I don't think there's any doubt of that.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I think it would be a four alarm panic going
on in America right now if it were not for
two things. Number One, a lot of parents think schools
are still what they went to, what they grew up with.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And the distraction of the Golden Bachelor and the Golden Bachelor.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
And there are three things now that I think about it,
And the other one is that there are some schools.
It's actually four things, including the Golden Bachelor. There are
some schools that are still doing a good job. They're
fighting hard, they're in conservative areas, the teachers and administrators
are not fully woke.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
So people think our schools seem to be fine, and
maybe they are.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
But the fourth thing, obviously, is that the dominant media
do not talk about this much at all because it's
extremely uncomfortable for them because they are progressive, they are woke,
they are pro union, and.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
The heavyweights have their kids in private schools, so they
wouldn't know anyway.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
That's a good point. That is a good point in
the middleweights too, anyway. So a couple of exhibits in
the prosecution of America's government schools, one that you've probably
heard similar fare before, But this is a bit of
an update. Between two thousand, year two thousand and the
year twenty twenty two, the number of students in Marca's
(20:41):
schools rose by five percent.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Five percent. The number of teachers rose by ten percent,
which is interesting.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yeah, the number of principles and assistant principles rose by
forty percent.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Whoa what? Who had their kid in school in the
year two thousand thought, you know, this is going.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
Well, it'd be a lot better though if we had
like eight more principles.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Who the hell thought that?
Speaker 4 (21:10):
Right?
Speaker 3 (21:11):
And then again, keeping in mind that the increase in
students is five percent, the increase in administrative staff is
ninety five percent.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
There you go, Samons with universities. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Now, some we've talked about this in the past, and
some folks have said, yeah, the uh, the government mandates
on schools is so cumbersome now, the federal and state mandates.
You have to have compliance staff, oh my god, that
spend their whole days issuing reports and filling out forms
(21:42):
that say you've conformed to all of the demands of
the centralized government.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
There are so many forms. So I have been through
a lot of this and super nice people I'm not
complaining about any of these people.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
But I was one meeting.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
That had like fifteen people in it about my son,
and they kept using the word rubric. Well, this, this
fits the rubric, and it doesn't fit the rubric. And
we've looked at the rubric. Everything I get said. I
I think I said out loud. I think I cannot
hear the word rubric another time. Just we gotta I
don't even know what that is. We gotta stop singing.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
The word rubric.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Please, if we do nothing else here, to refrain from
singing rubric.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
So it was a paperwork thing. It was just all
kinds of different layers of paperwork.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
So you have this from Jason Riley, who's a great
writer and thinker. Biden and Harris worked to crush school competition.
He is more opposed to charter schools than any president
in recent history. And Kamala has spoken enthusiastically about how
wonderful teachers unions are and that everything that tends to
(22:48):
take money and influence away from the teachers unions is
an attack on public schools. That would be bad enough
were it not for the numbers involved. Again, this is
fairly oh you know, the National Review actually touched on
the fact that the left is now trying to promote
or I'm sorry to indict school choice movements as an
(23:08):
effort a secret plot to promote Christian nationalism.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
All right, that's one of the attacks.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
I assume you're about to get to some of the
results we're getting out of the schools. Uh yeah, okay,
But even without that, even if it had maintained what
public schools were from the past, why would you need
to increase administration by ninety percent and think that that
was a good idea, Even if we had maintained the
(23:37):
same quality. It's like, well, why are we spending all
this money? It was working fine.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Before, right, Yeah, And I'm looking at the clock. I
think maybe we take a break and then come back
with some of the results stuff. But the other thing
I wanted to get to, and we have a lot
of great teachers who listen to the show and communicate
to us and blow the whistle on some of the
more insane progressive things that are taking the place of
(24:03):
math and reading in our schools. The genderbread person, which
I'm always hammering about because you know, California is a
particular interest because that's where the show is based and
the perversity in California schools is just it's heartbreaking. But anyway,
Wall Street journal with a big piece. Teachers are burning
out on the job, and the subhead is student behavior
(24:25):
and mediocre pay are taking their toll from lefty media.
It's always about the pay. It's always about money, and
there's such a lack of understanding and wisdom. Maybe it's
that progressives so fill the newsrooms that that's the only
point of view, and a lot of journalists are young
these days because it doesn't pay very well.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
But there is such a lack of wisdom.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
If I have a fun, rewarding, joyful job and I
get the summer off, I would accept that rate of
pay at X. If I have a miserable, discouraging, heartbreaking job,
I'm not going to work for that.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Low level of pay. I'm gonna want a hell of a.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Lot more to keep showing up very good point, student
behavior problems, cell phones in class, anemic pay that's not
really true, and artificial intelligence powered cheating are taking their
toll on America's roughly three point eight million teachers. On
top of the bruising pandemic years the Sheriff. Teachers who
(25:35):
say the stress and disappointments of the job are worth
it has fallen twenty one points in the last couple
of years.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Doubt that. As recently as twenty eighteen, over seventy percent
of teachers said the stress was worth it. Now it's
forty two.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
In surveys and interviews, teachers are most any place you work,
as they is, they layered in more administration to wherever
you work. Did that make things more enjoyable or less enjoyable?
Where you work well?
Speaker 3 (26:07):
And we're going to get to the you know, it's
more than frustration, it's being physically at risk. In surveys
and interviews, teachers are most often pointing to a startling
rise in students' mental health challenges and misbehavior as the
biggest drivers of burnout. In the Rand Corporation survey, student
behavior was the top source of teachers job stress.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
A lot of that, I guarantee you is that whole
restorative justice thing where they have no ability to deal
with it.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
That's the next sentence.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
You're absolutely right to quote a high school math teacher
who says he saw student behavior deteriorate seriously, let yet
his school drew more lenient in administrating administering consequences.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
How is the country not aware of what a failure
this restorative justice thing is.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
I know because nobody talks about it in the media.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
And this poor son of a gun, So he's dealing
with all this frustration and then his district, Kansas City
Public Schools, shout out Kansas City, The Great Cities were
a privilege to be on. They rolled out a new
policy last year. Teachers could not give students a zero
for an assignment even if they didn't turn it in
(27:17):
and didn't make any effort.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
To It is to laugh. I mean, that is so funny.
It is funny. It is hilarious. So say that again.
You can't get a.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Zero even if even if you say, not only did
I not do the assignment, mister Gerald, you should shove
it up your armors. He cannot give you a zero
for that assignment. You've got to get at least like
a C. A C one of the things I got
when I got into teaching. My one thing was about
(27:49):
learning and love of learning, he says. In the end,
it was less about the learning and more about babysitting.
He left teaching this summer oh yeah, yeah, yeah, And
they go into a great deal of detail with many,
many examples of classroom stress and violence, lack of consequences
for bad behavior, a storative justice.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
I mean, look it up, well, don't look it up,
because their description of it won't be accurate as to
what actually happens.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
It is.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
It is the recipe for no discipline and a bullies paradise.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
It is, it is.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
It is tragic for the children and the teachers, and
it's part of oh yeah, absolutely true, and it's one
hundred percent part of the neo Marxist We're going to
break the system. We're going to call everything racist until
we control it. And they do control the schools to
a large extent now, and anybody who stands in our
way will call them a racist until we have imposed
(28:39):
our philosophy on whatever institution you're talking about, from public
schools to corporations, to the United States government to the
military for instance.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
By the way, in Kansas City, we're on FM, so
people can really enjoy our pipes.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
I have nothing to add to that, you know, and
I don't know to the clock.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
I came across another account a number of school districts
in oh it was Virginia and one other state in
which far fewer than half of the children were at
the minimum level in English, and it was less than
(29:23):
a third in district after district were not at the
minimum level for math. We sometimes talk about proficiency. This
was the well the minimum and the vast majority kids
are nowhere near it. And if you say I got
to get my kid out of this school, the forces
(29:44):
of the left, from Joe Biden, Kamala Harrison down will
tell you you're a racist for some reason. B you're
attacking public schools, trying to take resources away.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
You're a bad person and a bad parent. It's crazier
that this is a bigger issue. It is. It absolutely
is arm strong.
Speaker 5 (30:10):
The armstrong and getting shot.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
We got this text out of nowhere.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Do you know why hippies were Petulia oil so blind
people can hate them too?
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Wow, that's that's beautiful. Here's your freedom loving quote of
the day.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Our beloved listeners sent to this to us next.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
To a big picture of Captain America.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
And U and it was Captain America saying this and
I understand this is a speech he gives to buck
up Spider Man. At one point during the movies, and
I thought, boy, this is really eloquent for one of
your one of your comic book movies. Did the script
write or write write this? And I did a little digging,
and no, it's actually a very very close paraphrase of
(31:04):
something Mark Twain said.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Interesting, but I liked it.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
So much I posted it up in the studio so
I could glance at it now and again. I will
give you the Twain version, which is only subtly different.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
As opposed to Captain America.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
Okay, it does lend it a little more gravitas.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Well, unless you're fighting off a mob, then I'd rather
have the Captain on my side than the scribe. Honestly
love Captain America kicks ass. Twain incredibly eloquent. Captain America
definitely stronger on the whoop ass front.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
If you're fighting the Winter Soldier, you want Captain America,
not Mark Twain.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
I agree completely. Anyway, here's what Twain said. It's a
little long, but I love it so much. Maybe we
could work in a little email later on. Let men
label you as they may. If you alone, of all
the nation, decide one way, and that way be the
right way, by your convictions of the right. You've done
your duty by yourself and by your country, holding up
your head, for you have nothing to be ashamed of.
It doesn't matter what the press said, it doesn't matter
(32:01):
what the politicians or the mobs say. It doesn't matter
if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right.
Republics are founded on one principle above all else, the
requirement that we stand up for what we believe in,
no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob
and the press and the whole world tell you to move,
your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside
(32:21):
the river of truth and tell the whole world, no,
you move. Mark fing Twain, that's you, people understand, that's
his middle name.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
That's really good stuff if it's the right cause or thing.
Interestingly enough, and maybe I'll explain later why.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
This has happened.
Speaker 4 (32:41):
I was listening to a speech last night FBI recordings
of Jim Jones down Guyana, before he had all those
people kill themselves, the Jim Jones cult, that whole thing.
He gave a very similar speech there as he had
convinced all those numb nuts that the world was out
to get them and they were doing the right thing.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Very funny preach. I had no idea you'd heard that.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
I knew in my heart of hearts you would come
up with some counter argument against that thought.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I'm not it.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
It just you just have to have you just have
to just you know, it works when the cause is right.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Right, But that's irrelevant as an as an observation of society.
It's one hundred percent correct as a principle. That some
people employ it wrongly is irrelevant, right, I think it's
a moral principle.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Both are true. Isn't that a head scratcher? It is anyway?
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Mailbag drop Snow would your mail bag at Armstrong and
Getty dot com. Oh madd in Honolulu with a really
interesting note about the Honolulu getaway pad that those Chinese
spies who'd infiltrated New York's government pad. But his sign
(33:57):
off is he says, are one more thing yesterday on
price controls and gouging should be mandatory listening to graduate
from high school.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
I would thank you for the kind words.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
You can grab that wherever you like to get podcasts
Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
One more thing, you know, listen to it out again.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
Speaking of counterintuitive price gouging is a good thing and
that and it makes perfect economic sense.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Listen to the One More Thing.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
Podcast, and it's the best thing that can happen for
poor people. Yeah, let's see. Wow, what a contrast, writes
Joe and Ventura, California. Noticed this on my local freeway
off ramp.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Winner and loser.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
There is a young man appears to be of immigrants,
stock selling bouquets of flowers to cars whoever want some
flowers on the way home, and there's a scumbag junkie begging.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
Right right, that's a good one. That's a good one.
You got people there on the corner. This happens driving
out to the farm. When I go home, sometimes you
got people on the corner selling strawberries, usually a whole
family in the h hot sun, set up their table,
got their you know, station wagon there selling strawberries.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
You got people just begging on the street. Yeah, yeah,
that's all I see.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
The people that are working their ass off sitting there
in the sun selling the strawberries.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Can't have much respect for the beggar on the street,
he says.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Wouldn't it be ironic if this was a planned social
science experiment to see what kind of reactions could be
listened from the drivers? I admit I was guilty of
making my opinion known A big thumbs up to the
winner and down to the loser.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Care to put your own caption on this photo? Well, thanks, Joe.
That's interesting.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
It's also interesting that if you ask Alexa about Kamala Harris,
you get a much different answer than when you ask
about Donald Trump. Quick question for you, what if you
happen to miss this unbelievable radio program.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
The answer is easy, friends, just download our podcast, Armstrong
and Getty on demand. It's the podcast version of the
Badcast Show, available anytime, any day, every single podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Known to man. Download it now Armstrong and Getty on Demand.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Armstrong and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong, Joe.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Gatty, Armstrong and Getty and he Armstrong and Getty Strong and.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Came across a fantastic think piece by a fellow by
the name of Tom Klingenstein about DEI in the United
States Military. And I've heard various folks, including some of served,
talk about how it's hurt readiness, and I believed it,
but I've never heard it fleshed out this well. And
I wish we had hours and hours, because I'd love
(00:53):
to read the whole thing and discuss it with you.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
But his point that is.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Quite eloquently made, and we'll post it at Armstrong and
Getty dot under hotlinks, is that.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Well.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
He writes, the military is often perceived by well meaning
Americans as the last holdout in the progressive march through
the institutions. In reality, however, it was among the first
American institutions to formally embrace the radical logic of group quotas.
And he talks about the difference between civilian society and
milliate military society in its values, in its training, in
(01:27):
its social norms, and why they're so important, and how
DEI is utterly incompatible with the cultural norms that have
underpinned every military in the history of time, discipline, sacrificing
oneself to the unit, everyone being the same, your only identity,
(01:49):
as I'm a member of this unit. It's very, very
well written, and it's made me all the more dedicated
to stamping out this radical ideology wherever it happens. I
was encouraged to see again editorial in New York and
The New York Times pointed out by fabulous frequent correspondent
Paulo DEI is not working on college campuses.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
We need a new approach.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
It's by a couple of academics from Stanford Law and
Stanford University, and they write it in a way that
is they are lefties approaching lefties. So it's fairly gentle
about how the DEI programs that exist on campuses are
(02:35):
not quite what they purport to be and don't really
achieve what they've said they should achieve, pointing out the
rampant anti Semitism on all of these enlightened campuses.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
And again it's it's very well written and I'd love
to go into more detail.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
On it, and anti Asian bias, which we'll get to
in a second.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Oh yeah, yeah, And we could certainly get into the
report that just came out from Columbia University about how
miserable failure Dei has been in rooting out anti Semitism there,
and he gets into the I'm sorry, these two academics
get into the rigidity of these programs and how and again,
this is not a revelation to us at all. They
(03:16):
don't seem to actually be about diversity, equity and inclusion,
whatever those things mean. They seem to be rigidly enforcing
a particular point of view, and they seem to just
want to see the power at the universities. Well, welcome
to enlightenment, my friend. But what was interesting was, and
this is what Paolo, the service Paolo provided, which I
(03:38):
appreciate very much, he says, more interesting than the article
are the generally pretty solidly left New York Times reader's comments.
If you view the reader's picks, meaning the comments on
the story that got the most thumbs up and that
sort of thing, you'll see that they are all critical
of Dei, and they run from as a white male
(03:59):
is perfectly can be even helpful to ask me to
examine my values and beliefs for racism and sexism. But
it's not fine to assign me the category of a
pressor based solely on my race or gender.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Blah blah blah. How about this one.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
As a black immigrant from Africa, the idea that groups
are inherently oppressed based on skin color is shocking to me.
All races and genders have issues because we're all human beings.
I've received far more discrimination in Africa on the basis
of my tribe than I have from any white person.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And he goes down that line for a while. As
a staunch liberal and white minority, ally, the only thing
that's ever made me consider voting Republican is having to
write diversity statements for a university job. It's a blatant
tool of discrimination and everyone knows it.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
A couple one more quick one. As a professor at
a university, I agree for students to succeed in the university,
they must feel that they belong. For a minority student
from a public school and a class full of white kids,
it's tough to feel like you belong's. Uh, this guy,
As you finally get to the point, Oh, it's that
(05:02):
socializing with peers, involvement in student groups, for participating with
a broad array of people is what breaks down those barriers.
Not being set into camps and set against each other.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
That's the opposite of what works.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
So, as I've said many times, this is not the
beginning of the end of this neo Marxist garbage. It's
the end of the beginning. People are starting to realize, Wow,
this isn't about diversity or equity, which is communism or
inclusion at all. They just want to take control of
things by cowing us into silence, by calling us racists on.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
The racial breakdown at colleges. Maybe you saw this headline.
I saw the initial headline over the weekend after Supreme
Court ruling against affirmative action. Black acceptance to MIT drops
ten percentage points, and they presented it only that way.
I think it was The New York Times had it,
and obviously it's supposed to be a.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Horror that happened.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Sich Lowry actually wrote in The New York Post yesterday
digging into it.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
A little more.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
A spike in Asian Americans who were admitted to MIT,
who you can only assume were not getting in even
though they deserved it before because of affirmative actions.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So the whole numbers on that.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
So MIT is the first top level college to release
their numbers on this. We're going to be hearing more
about these in the fall, I assume from Harvard, Yale,
whoever else. But MIT released its first post affirmative action
admissions number for the incoming class since the Supreme Court
ruled the affirmative action in these universities is wrong, and
the percentage of Asian American students increased from forty to
(06:39):
forty seven percent the first year are the first opportunity
to have, you know, merit based admissions. Black students dropped
from fifteen to five, Hispanic students from sixteen to eleven,
White stayed roughly the same, and as Rich Lowry rights,
either the MIT admissions office has been somehow infiltrated by
(07:00):
racists who want to exclude as many black and Hispanic
students as possible while boosting Asian Americans for some reason,
or they were working to keep out meritorious Asian American
applicants all these years, people that deserve to be in
the school and weren't allowed in because they weren't the
right race.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
What could be more racist than that.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Well, and to take a step back to I think
the greater and more important issue is now that we
haven't papered over the difference is in achievement by shoving
kids in who probably can't make it at MIT, because
there's a huge incidence of that the kids who are
elevated beyond their level of achievement and stuck into these colleges,
they fail at unbelievable levels.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
You're not going to read that in the mainstream media,
but it's true.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Instead of papering over the question of okay, why is
a disproportionately small percentage of black students able to qualify
for MIT start before they're even in school. Let's talk
about kindergarten. Let's look at first grade through eighth grade.
Let's talk about middle school and high school and the
(08:07):
rest of it. Let's address causes as opposed to these
affirmative action at the end programs that enable a people
who are profiting from this, the teachers' unions and don't
want to solve the problems, and b society that's uncomfortable
talking about it. Why do black kids underachieve if you
(08:28):
don't paper over the process at the end, you're forced
to reckon with the problem at the beginning. And that's
why I like these problems as somebody who's not trying
to take over universities through my DEI critical thinking or
I'm not critical thinking, critical theory, neo Marxism.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
I actually care about little black kids.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
So a doke researchers expecting similar results in other Ivy
League schools this fall a big increase for Asian American students,
white students staying about flat, and then a substantial drop
in Black and Hispanic admissions. Rich Lowry points out here
it's the same experience California had when the state passed
the anti Affirmative Action proposition in two thousand and nine,
(09:12):
I mean two o nine. Back in ninety six, Asian
Americans went from thirty seven percent of freshmen at UC
Berkeley to forty three percent. White students dropped ten points.
So you can't claim it's white supremacy or white power
structure or something like that. The number of white kids
getting into Berkeley dropped from thirty percent to twenty percent.
(09:34):
And this is my favorite part of it. There isn't
some giant factory somewhere that's manufacturing generic Asian Americans either,
who all have the same backgrounds and attitudes. The category
of Asian American includes people from countries that hate each
other and always have people from countries that have little
to do with one another. For instance, China, India, the
(09:56):
Philippines whatever, They.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Got nothing to do with each other. Some cases hate
each other and always have hated each other.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
They've killed each other by the hundreds of thousands in
brutal ways. It's not like some monolithic group like you
claim white people are, who are trying to take over something.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Well, and you've got to drop your preconceptions too about
elite universities and such. I tell you what, here at
Joe's second tier university, you're gonna learn a hell of
a lot. You're gonna drink some beer and get laid.
It's gonna be great at the superachiever universities will be
for superachievers.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
And that's fine.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
And I remind you of the fact that generally speaking,
A students work for B students at companies owned by
C students.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
As the old saying goes, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
I'm glad you mentioned that, because Rich Lowry did end
with as for students who would have been admitted under
the old racialized system. It's not like they'll have no future.
If they end up at a good state school somewhere, you'll
be absolutely perfectly fine. If you're good to ed her off.
Probably yeah, very good chance you will be better off.
But the idea that your life is ruined or something
(10:58):
like that's insane. Took us a long time to get here.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
These affirmative action programs exist in large measure to prevent
us from considering the uncomfortable and difficult questions of black underachievement.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I believe that to my bone. That's really interesting.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
The Armstrong and Getty Show, Yea or Jack or Shoe
podcasts and our hot links.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
The Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Oh here's how money actually works.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Seven dollars beautiful? Are you about to say something?
Speaker 5 (11:47):
No?
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Okay, So we're gonna do the one on one class
first and then two to one class. If this first
part is too obvious for some of you, Congratulations on
understanding the basics of economics, which is a fairly rare
thing in today's world, which is highly discouraging. But first
of all, they're talking about who's this writer. I like
to ta give credit because this is really well written.
Matthew Hennessy in the Wall Street Journal is talking about
(12:09):
the fellows in Oasis, the British rock band which is
getting back together.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Wonderwall. He gets back, he.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Gets into some of the backstory, the Gallagher brothers who
can't stand each other and can't get along, but they're
the indispensable members of the band Oasis. Last month the
Boys Buried the Hatchet announced series twenty twenty five concerts.
Delirious Fans were young and relatively poor during the band's
heyday are now older and relatively rich. They have the
willingness and ability to pay to see Oasis and concert.
Economically speaking, that's called demand, but demand is only one
(12:40):
side of the economic story.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Morning Glory for the moment.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
At least, the Oasis reunion is limited to a handful
of shows, and the Wembley Stadium is large. It's not
infinitely so, and there's no guarantee the brothers will remain
on speaking terms beyond next summer. Fans understand that this
may be their last chance to see the battling Gallagher
lads together on stage.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Supply is limited now.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Introductory economics tell us that when supply is tight and
demand is high prices rise to an equilibrium, which is
exactly what happened. Then he talks about dynamic pricing and
how the tickets are significantly more expensive than they seem
to be when initially announced. Some accuse the greedy brothers
of ripping off their loyal fans. Many more aimed their
(13:22):
furia ticket Master, the American ticket Sales BMTH, owned by
Live Nation Entertainment.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
The fur revealed terrible.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Probably not going to argue me out of my anger
at ticket ticket Master in general, but go.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
On, Oh the fees, the fees that creep up onto
your bill at the end. Yes, that's a different topic
and an interesting you're electronic sending me of the ticket
cost forty dollars what? Yeah, anyway, putting that aside, because
this is just a question of the price of the tickets.
The furor revealed a terrible ignorance, even among the highly educated,
(13:54):
of what prices are and how they work.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I would argue to the journalists that know these.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Are people opposing is being outraged, they're not actually outraged.
Like the very Prime Minister of Britain, kir Starmer, told
the House Commons that he found it depressing to hear
of the oasis price hikes, he promised a commission to
investigate what he called extortionate price resalers whatever. Culture Secretary
Lisa Nandy told the Bebe that quote, vastly inflated prices
(14:22):
would exclude ordinary fans.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
They have a culture secretary, Yeah, why do you need
that secretary of culture? And there should be some sort
of government intervention in that some things are more expensive
than others.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
What, yeah, bollocks in economic terms a concert ticket. And
this is the really important part. This is the econ
one to one stuff that if you don't understand it,
you don't get anything about economics. A concert ticket is
no different from a book, a bottle of wine, or
a house. It has no inherent value, only the price
a buyer is willing to pay and a seller is
(14:59):
willing to accept. The market clearing price of anything is
where demand meet supply. The correct and fair price is
whatever the market will bear. No buyer has a right
to a low price, just as no seller has a
right to a high price. Then they point out the
obvious oasis could be nice guys and sellar tickets for
five bucks, but scalpers would snatch them all up. And
(15:20):
resell them for much much more. What good would it
do for Oasis, for the ordinary fan or anybody to
allow third party resellers to capture all that value.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Well, that's what Yeah, that's what people don't understand about sports,
guitar players, whatever, actors and actresses. Somebody's going to get
that money because there's a demand for it. So if
it's not George Clooney or Shoheyo Tani or the Gallagher brothers,
then the company that puts on the show or the game,
(15:53):
or the network or whatever, they get the money. But
somebody is getting the money. It's just the way it works, right.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
A couple more quick tidbits of music industry guru explained
that the acts hide behind Ticketmaster. They want them to
take the flack.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
All this stuff.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
That's pretty good, that's probably true.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Yeah it's not good for your image, but Ticketmaster takes
all the flack. And he also writes, here's the dirty
little secret. Ticketmaster does nothing that the band does not
agree to. So anyway, I thought that was a good
little instructional on if there's demand and little supply, the
prices are going to go up, and it should.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
And you know what's gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
The gallery good boys are going to put down their
fists and open up their calendars and say, you know,
I'm a lot to play half a dozen more shows,
are you? And supply will increase in the prices will.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
I was drunk in the backseat of an suv that
could go. I have one thousand, five hundred stories that
start that way, but in this particular one enter my seat.
I was drunk in the back of the suv on
the way to an Oasis concert Charlotte, North Carolina, in
nineteen ninety five when we heard on the radio that
they'd cancel the concert because the two brothers had gotten
(17:01):
a fistfight backstage.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
So I still have not seen them.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Wow, Wow, Yeah, that legend not overblown. No, that reminds
me when they were like in their sixties, the Davis brothers.
It looks like Davies, but it's pronounced Davis of the Kinks. Actually,
we're continuing to come to blows and scream at each
other backstage in their sixties trying to tour.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Wow, get some counseling for us or something.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Let it go Armstrong, the Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
It's funny.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
I've wanted to bring this up for a while, the
real crisis in America's government schools. And I don't want
to be the cliched everything is going to hell all
the time person like me, that's what I am, because
that's my brand, because we already have one of them. No,
(18:07):
but I was thinking about it, and it goes back
to our discussion of the natural state of things is
chaos and poverty and violence, and if you have a civilization,
the challenge of preserving that civilization never ends. And everything
isn't necessarily going to hell, but everything will go to
(18:31):
hell if you don't stop it. Going to hell needs
to be maintained. Yes, in short, So anyway, I think
one of the things in another principle before we get
in the specifics you've quoted George will As saying, one
of the essential, you know, elements of being a conservative
is you have to deal with reality, recognize what is right.
(18:54):
You can't be a utopian, unicorn riding wisher of fond
wishes and call yourself a conservative.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
It's just it doesn't fit. So anyway, I.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Think we have an enormous crisis with America's government schools
right now.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
I don't think there's any doubt of that.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I think it would be a four alarm panic going
on in America right now if it were not for
two things. Number One, a lot of parents think schools
are still what they went to, what they grew up with.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And the distraction of the Golden Bachelor and the Golden Bachelor.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
And there are three things now that I think about it,
And the other one is that there are some schools.
It's actually four things, including the Golden Bachelor. There are
some schools that are still doing a good job. They're
fighting hard, they're in conservative areas, the teachers and administrators
are not fully woke.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
So people think our schools seem to be fine, and
maybe they are.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
But the fourth thing, obviously, is that the dominant media
do not talk about this much at all because it's
extremely uncomfortable for them because they are progressive, they are woke,
they are pro union, and.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
The heavyweights have their kids in private schools, so they
wouldn't know anyway.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
That's a good point. That is a good point in
the middleweights too, anyway. So a couple of exhibits in
the prosecution of America's government schools, one that you've probably
heard similar fare before, But this is a bit of
an update. Between two thousand, year two thousand and the
year twenty twenty two, the number of students in Marca's
(20:41):
schools rose by five percent.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Five percent. The number of teachers rose by ten percent,
which is interesting.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yeah, the number of principles and assistant principles rose by
forty percent.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Whoa what? Who had their kid in school in the
year two thousand thought, you know, this is going.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
Well, it'd be a lot better though if we had
like eight more principles.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Who the hell thought that?
Speaker 4 (21:10):
Right?
Speaker 3 (21:11):
And then again, keeping in mind that the increase in
students is five percent, the increase in administrative staff is
ninety five percent.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
There you go, Samons with universities. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Now, some we've talked about this in the past, and
some folks have said, yeah, the uh, the government mandates
on schools is so cumbersome now, the federal and state mandates.
You have to have compliance staff, oh my god, that
spend their whole days issuing reports and filling out forms
(21:42):
that say you've conformed to all of the demands of
the centralized government.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
There are so many forms. So I have been through
a lot of this and super nice people I'm not
complaining about any of these people.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
But I was one meeting.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
That had like fifteen people in it about my son,
and they kept using the word rubric. Well, this, this
fits the rubric, and it doesn't fit the rubric. And
we've looked at the rubric. Everything I get said. I
I think I said out loud. I think I cannot
hear the word rubric another time. Just we gotta I
don't even know what that is. We gotta stop singing.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
The word rubric.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Please, if we do nothing else here, to refrain from
singing rubric.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
So it was a paperwork thing. It was just all
kinds of different layers of paperwork.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
So you have this from Jason Riley, who's a great
writer and thinker. Biden and Harris worked to crush school competition.
He is more opposed to charter schools than any president
in recent history. And Kamala has spoken enthusiastically about how
wonderful teachers unions are and that everything that tends to
(22:48):
take money and influence away from the teachers unions is
an attack on public schools. That would be bad enough
were it not for the numbers involved. Again, this is
fairly oh you know, the National Review actually touched on
the fact that the left is now trying to promote
or I'm sorry to indict school choice movements as an
(23:08):
effort a secret plot to promote Christian nationalism.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
All right, that's one of the attacks.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
I assume you're about to get to some of the
results we're getting out of the schools. Uh yeah, okay,
But even without that, even if it had maintained what
public schools were from the past, why would you need
to increase administration by ninety percent and think that that
was a good idea, Even if we had maintained the
(23:37):
same quality. It's like, well, why are we spending all
this money? It was working fine.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Before, right, Yeah, And I'm looking at the clock. I
think maybe we take a break and then come back
with some of the results stuff. But the other thing
I wanted to get to, and we have a lot
of great teachers who listen to the show and communicate
to us and blow the whistle on some of the
more insane progressive things that are taking the place of
(24:03):
math and reading in our schools. The genderbread person, which
I'm always hammering about because you know, California is a
particular interest because that's where the show is based and
the perversity in California schools is just it's heartbreaking. But anyway,
Wall Street journal with a big piece. Teachers are burning
out on the job, and the subhead is student behavior
(24:25):
and mediocre pay are taking their toll from lefty media.
It's always about the pay. It's always about money, and
there's such a lack of understanding and wisdom. Maybe it's
that progressives so fill the newsrooms that that's the only
point of view, and a lot of journalists are young
these days because it doesn't pay very well.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
But there is such a lack of wisdom.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
If I have a fun, rewarding, joyful job and I
get the summer off, I would accept that rate of
pay at X. If I have a miserable, discouraging, heartbreaking job,
I'm not going to work for that.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Low level of pay. I'm gonna want a hell of a.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Lot more to keep showing up very good point, student
behavior problems, cell phones in class, anemic pay that's not
really true, and artificial intelligence powered cheating are taking their
toll on America's roughly three point eight million teachers. On
top of the bruising pandemic years the Sheriff. Teachers who
(25:35):
say the stress and disappointments of the job are worth
it has fallen twenty one points in the last couple
of years.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Doubt that. As recently as twenty eighteen, over seventy percent
of teachers said the stress was worth it. Now it's
forty two.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
In surveys and interviews, teachers are most any place you work,
as they is, they layered in more administration to wherever
you work. Did that make things more enjoyable or less enjoyable?
Where you work well?
Speaker 3 (26:07):
And we're going to get to the you know, it's
more than frustration, it's being physically at risk. In surveys
and interviews, teachers are most often pointing to a startling
rise in students' mental health challenges and misbehavior as the
biggest drivers of burnout. In the Rand Corporation survey, student
behavior was the top source of teachers job stress.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
A lot of that, I guarantee you is that whole
restorative justice thing where they have no ability to deal
with it.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
That's the next sentence.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
You're absolutely right to quote a high school math teacher
who says he saw student behavior deteriorate seriously, let yet
his school drew more lenient in administrating administering consequences.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
How is the country not aware of what a failure
this restorative justice thing is.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
I know because nobody talks about it in the media.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
And this poor son of a gun, So he's dealing
with all this frustration and then his district, Kansas City
Public Schools, shout out Kansas City, The Great Cities were
a privilege to be on. They rolled out a new
policy last year. Teachers could not give students a zero
for an assignment even if they didn't turn it in
(27:17):
and didn't make any effort.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
To It is to laugh. I mean, that is so funny.
It is funny. It is hilarious. So say that again.
You can't get a.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Zero even if even if you say, not only did
I not do the assignment, mister Gerald, you should shove
it up your armors. He cannot give you a zero
for that assignment. You've got to get at least like
a C. A C one of the things I got
when I got into teaching. My one thing was about
(27:49):
learning and love of learning, he says. In the end,
it was less about the learning and more about babysitting.
He left teaching this summer oh yeah, yeah, yeah, And
they go into a great deal of detail with many,
many examples of classroom stress and violence, lack of consequences
for bad behavior, a storative justice.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
I mean, look it up, well, don't look it up,
because their description of it won't be accurate as to
what actually happens.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
It is.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
It is the recipe for no discipline and a bullies paradise.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
It is, it is.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
It is tragic for the children and the teachers, and
it's part of oh yeah, absolutely true, and it's one
hundred percent part of the neo Marxist We're going to
break the system. We're going to call everything racist until
we control it. And they do control the schools to
a large extent now, and anybody who stands in our
way will call them a racist until we have imposed
(28:39):
our philosophy on whatever institution you're talking about, from public
schools to corporations, to the United States government to the
military for instance.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
By the way, in Kansas City, we're on FM, so
people can really enjoy our pipes.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
I have nothing to add to that, you know, and
I don't know to the clock.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
I came across another account a number of school districts
in oh it was Virginia and one other state in
which far fewer than half of the children were at
the minimum level in English, and it was less than
(29:23):
a third in district after district were not at the
minimum level for math. We sometimes talk about proficiency. This
was the well the minimum and the vast majority kids
are nowhere near it. And if you say I got
to get my kid out of this school, the forces
(29:44):
of the left, from Joe Biden, Kamala Harrison down will
tell you you're a racist for some reason. B you're
attacking public schools, trying to take resources away.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
You're a bad person and a bad parent. It's crazier
that this is a bigger issue. It is. It absolutely
is arm strong.
Speaker 5 (30:10):
The armstrong and getting shot.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
We got this text out of nowhere.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Do you know why hippies were Petulia oil so blind
people can hate them too?
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Wow, that's that's beautiful. Here's your freedom loving quote of
the day.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Our beloved listeners sent to this to us next.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
To a big picture of Captain America.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
And U and it was Captain America saying this and
I understand this is a speech he gives to buck
up Spider Man. At one point during the movies, and
I thought, boy, this is really eloquent for one of
your one of your comic book movies. Did the script
write or write write this? And I did a little digging,
and no, it's actually a very very close paraphrase of
(31:04):
something Mark Twain said.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Interesting, but I liked it.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
So much I posted it up in the studio so
I could glance at it now and again. I will
give you the Twain version, which is only subtly different.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
As opposed to Captain America.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
Okay, it does lend it a little more gravitas.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Well, unless you're fighting off a mob, then I'd rather
have the Captain on my side than the scribe. Honestly
love Captain America kicks ass. Twain incredibly eloquent. Captain America
definitely stronger on the whoop ass front.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
If you're fighting the Winter Soldier, you want Captain America,
not Mark Twain.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
I agree completely. Anyway, here's what Twain said. It's a
little long, but I love it so much. Maybe we
could work in a little email later on. Let men
label you as they may. If you alone, of all
the nation, decide one way, and that way be the
right way, by your convictions of the right. You've done
your duty by yourself and by your country, holding up
your head, for you have nothing to be ashamed of.
It doesn't matter what the press said, it doesn't matter
(32:01):
what the politicians or the mobs say. It doesn't matter
if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right.
Republics are founded on one principle above all else, the
requirement that we stand up for what we believe in,
no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob
and the press and the whole world tell you to move,
your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside
(32:21):
the river of truth and tell the whole world, no,
you move. Mark fing Twain, that's you, people understand, that's
his middle name.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
That's really good stuff if it's the right cause or thing.
Interestingly enough, and maybe I'll explain later why.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
This has happened.
Speaker 4 (32:41):
I was listening to a speech last night FBI recordings
of Jim Jones down Guyana, before he had all those
people kill themselves, the Jim Jones cult, that whole thing.
He gave a very similar speech there as he had
convinced all those numb nuts that the world was out
to get them and they were doing the right thing.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Very funny preach. I had no idea you'd heard that.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
I knew in my heart of hearts you would come
up with some counter argument against that thought.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I'm not it.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
It just you just have to have you just have
to just you know, it works when the cause is right.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Right, But that's irrelevant as an as an observation of society.
It's one hundred percent correct as a principle. That some
people employ it wrongly is irrelevant, right, I think it's
a moral principle.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Both are true. Isn't that a head scratcher? It is anyway?
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Mailbag drop Snow would your mail bag at Armstrong and
Getty dot com. Oh madd in Honolulu with a really
interesting note about the Honolulu getaway pad that those Chinese
spies who'd infiltrated New York's government pad. But his sign
(33:57):
off is he says, are one more thing yesterday on
price controls and gouging should be mandatory listening to graduate
from high school.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
I would thank you for the kind words.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
You can grab that wherever you like to get podcasts
Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
One more thing, you know, listen to it out again.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
Speaking of counterintuitive price gouging is a good thing and
that and it makes perfect economic sense.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Listen to the One More Thing.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
Podcast, and it's the best thing that can happen for
poor people. Yeah, let's see. Wow, what a contrast, writes
Joe and Ventura, California. Noticed this on my local freeway
off ramp.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Winner and loser.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
There is a young man appears to be of immigrants,
stock selling bouquets of flowers to cars whoever want some
flowers on the way home, and there's a scumbag junkie begging.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
Right right, that's a good one. That's a good one.
You got people there on the corner. This happens driving
out to the farm. When I go home, sometimes you
got people on the corner selling strawberries, usually a whole
family in the h hot sun, set up their table,
got their you know, station wagon there selling strawberries.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
You got people just begging on the street. Yeah, yeah,
that's all I see.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
The people that are working their ass off sitting there
in the sun selling the strawberries.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Can't have much respect for the beggar on the street,
he says.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Wouldn't it be ironic if this was a planned social
science experiment to see what kind of reactions could be
listened from the drivers? I admit I was guilty of
making my opinion known A big thumbs up to the
winner and down to the loser.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Care to put your own caption on this photo? Well, thanks, Joe.
That's interesting.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
It's also interesting that if you ask Alexa about Kamala Harris,
you get a much different answer than when you ask
about Donald Trump. Quick question for you, what if you
happen to miss this unbelievable radio program.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
The answer is easy, friends, just download our podcast, Armstrong
and Getty on demand. It's the podcast version of the
Badcast Show, available anytime, any day, every single podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Known to man. Download it now Armstrong and Getty on Demand.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Armstrong and Getty
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Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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