January 30, 2025 • 36 mins
Hour 3 of A&G features...
- Tulsi Gabbard's confirmation hearing & toenail clippings in meals
- New trend: being responsible!
- Kids aren't reading & problems in our schools
- Trans in the military
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 (00:01):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Armstrong and get Katie and he Armstrong and Heady.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
First of all, the plane crash, a black Hawk helicopter
being flown by some of the best pilots on planet
Earth crashes into a domestic flight and everybody's dead.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Sixty some people.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
You're probably aware of that, but they have declared no survivors,
and it looks like it's just a human error thing
which happens down that the worst air disaster actually the
first commercial air disaster in two decades.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
Oh yeah, two decades. It's been a very long time.
It's amazing. This is how good we are at this.
It's a horrific story. Yeah, it's beyond tragic, unthinkable.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
What are your feelings on the constantly showing the because
somebody had their phone out and got a video of
when they crash happens.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
What is that? It's just the way of the world.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Yeah, I'm not sure you should be showing that over
and over again. Here here's the moment. Sixty some people
lost their lives.
Speaker 5 (01:22):
Yeah, all right, you know, as Don Henley put it
years and years ago in his eighties nineties, classic dirty
laundry about the news business. It's interesting when people die,
give us dirty laundry.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
He was mostly mad because so many stories were being
written about him having an underage girl at.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
A party at his house. But well it was still right,
different topic.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
They've got some hearings, more hearings going on today to
confirm people RFK juniors going to be questioned more, even
more about being Secretary of Health and Human Services. You
got Tulsi Gabbard, former senator from Hawaii?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Is that right?
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Who wants to be the DNI Director of National Intelligence?
That puts you over all of the different intelligence stuff.
That's something we created after nine to eleven, another layer.
I'm not sure that was the right idea or not.
And then he got Cash Ptel, who wants to be
the FBI director because Trump's fire and the old guy
his tenure term not up, but getting a new guy.
And they've all said some interesting things already. Are you
(02:21):
willing to say what you just said off the air
about Telsey Gabbard? Are you some sort of keyboard warrior
who won't stick your neck out and something or other?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I don't remember what I say. I said several things.
I think she's used a term whack job, uh, crackpot
or something like that. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
I think she's got some very odd beliefs. She is
adamant that her loyalty should not be questioned. I think
it's her judgment more that should be questioned, and what
she actually believes and doesn't believe. She has such a
history of repeating Bashar all Assade talking points and then
(02:57):
Kremlin talking points, and then excusing every everything Edward Snowden
did because some of what he did was probably pretty defensible.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
And there are other things that she has.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
So she has more baggage than than you know, a
princess on a cruise. There's you know, she she talks
a great game. How about somebody who doesn't have all
sorts of this wacky doodle stuff in her background. That's
what I'm asking for, And I am willing to go
into detail.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yes, she is part of the Tucker Carlson orbit. Would
that be fair? Yeah? I think so? Yeah, Yeah, okay, yeah,
uh so, I.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
Mean we could go into all sorts of detail about
this and and and we will after hearing from Ms
Gabbard herself. Well, unquestionably has strengths and and and she's
right about a lot of stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I'm sorry, were you saying something hot? Oh, thank you
for that role.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
So her her opening statement had some really good stuff
about how Trump's election mandate has broken cycles of failure
and we need to restore trust in the intelligence community
and how bad they've been. Amen to that, sister, I mean,
I do not disagree with that assessment at all.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
She went on fairly persuasively forty six Michael.
Speaker 6 (04:14):
For too long, faulty, inadequate, or weaponized intelligence have led
to costly failures and the undermining of our national security
and God given freedoms enshrined in the Constitution. The most
obvious example of one of these failures is our invasion
of Iraq based upon a total fabrication or complete failure
of intelligence. This disastrous decision led to the deaths of
(04:38):
tens of thousands of American soldiers and millions of people
in the Middle East, mass migration, destabilization, and undermining of
the security and stability ability of our European allies. The
rise of isis, strengthening of Al Qaeda and other Islamus
jihadist groups, and strengthening Iran.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Well, so she thinks the intelligence community wasn't wrong about
weapons of master distrection.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
They fabricated it, which is a.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
Well she said, either fabricated or completely wrong. I'm not
sure we have that truth. So again, she's absolutely right
about that stuff. I don't disagree. That doesn't make her
the right person for the job necessarily, but she goes on.
Speaker 6 (05:20):
Here are just a few other examples. The American people
elected Donald Trump as their president not once, but twice,
and yet the FBI and intelligence agencies were politicized by
his opponents to undermine his presidency and falsely portray him
as a puppet of Putin. Title one of Faiza was
used illegally to obtain a warrant to spy on Trump
(05:41):
campaign advisor Carter Page, using a Clinton campaign funded false
dossier as their so called evidence. Biden campaign advisor Tony
Blinken was the impetus for the fifty one former senior
intelligence officials letter dismissing Hunter Biden's laptop as disinformation specific
to help.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Biden win the election.
Speaker 6 (06:03):
Former d and I James Clapper lied to this committee
in twenty thirteen denying the existence of programs that facilitated
the mass collection of millions of Americans phone and Internet records.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
It was never held accountable.
Speaker 6 (06:17):
Under John Brennan's leadership, the CIA abused its power to
spy on Congress to dodge oversight, lied about doing it
until he was caught, and yet has never been held responsible.
Under Biden, the FBI abused its power for political reasons
to try to surveil Catholics who attend traditional Latin mass
labeling them as quote unquote radical traditionalist Catholics. Personally, just
(06:41):
twenty four hours after I criticized Kamala Harris and her nomination,
I was placed on a secret domestic terror watch list
called Quiet Skies. Sadly there are more examples.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
I don't know the Catholic Church one, but all the
rest of that we are aware of. And wow, I
mean that is a list of a whole bunch of
things that should have gotten way more attention. Absolutely outrageous.
Somebody should have paid a price for but did not.
I agree with everything she said there, right, unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Remember that whole thing. When we found out that.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Was it, The NSA or CIA was spying on our senators.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Without them knowing of it.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
I mean how the fact that they got away with that,
it's just amazing to me.
Speaker 5 (07:24):
Right, And I don't know how interested you are in
some of the details of the resolution in favor of
dropping all charges against Edward Snowden, and the history of
the Bashar al a side stuff, and the weird religious
group she grew up in and has been associated with,
and their methods of making money, and it's all just
very strange stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
What's the name of the religious group she's associated with.
I don't know that story. Click over here.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
It is, uh, the Science of Identity Foundation, a sect
tied to a direct marketing firm accused of running a
pyramid scheme in several countries.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Wow, but she grew up in that Uh? Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
Uh. Has referred to the leaders as her guru dev,
a Hindu term that is frequently translated as divine teacher.
She has described a guy who serves on the board
of this offshoot that runs a giant pyramid's scheme as
her uncle.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
So she's still in.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
She's not one of those people that grew up in
a cult and looks back on it and thinks, what
the hell were my parents thinking.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
She's still into it.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
Yeah, it's a it's a very odd religious group. Gabbard's
follower parents were followers of this Butler guy.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
They raised Gabbard in the group.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
Some adherents mixed Butler's toenail clippings into their meals. A
hold on, you gotta like throw some colmns, so we
slow down and get in the right lane before you
you launch that.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Say that again.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
Yeah, this guy who founded this spiritual group, Chris Butler,
who she has described as her divine teacher.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Uh. Let the group.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (09:07):
Some adherents mixed Butler's toenail clippings into their meals as
a sign of devotion us his shoes as prayer totems.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yes, isn't your shoes a prayer totem? To me?
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Is nothing compared to mixing toenail clippings in your meals.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Sure that's that's your lead, No doubt, that's your lead. Story.
Holy crap.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Yeah, it's it's very very odd, and to the extent
that she still believes all of this or is really
really into it and science of identity, this this group
which sounds scientology maybe in some ways.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
But did you or did you not eat toenail clippings
in your morning oatmeal?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Oh, he's answered a question yes or no.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
The record show she will not answer the question yes
or no whether she clippings with their oatmeal.
Speaker 5 (09:57):
The sect seems to get its funds from this direct
marketing firm accused of running a pyramid scheme in several countries,
and she hired a PR group to play down the
connections earlier in her curber. Here's the thing, here's the thing. Yeah,
go ahead, I just got to make my ultimate point.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
I was going to say, you're right about all these
things with the last couple of days. So these people
lay out stuff that's absolutely one hundred percent true, doesn't
mean they're the person that the only person that can
drive home that point though.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I mean, she just did a laundry list.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
There of some horrific things that have happened in our
intelligence community.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Just horrific things.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
The spying on Trump with a faked up PISA warrant.
There should be fifteen people drummed out of government, maybe
in prison over that.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Please.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
I agree with everything she said there, but jack true
or false. Rosa Parks was the first person, first black person,
told to give up her seat on a bus, and
that's why she was the big test case.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Uh so, the point.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Being, I thought maybe you would jump in there. She
was selected as the test case because her character was unimpeachable.
She was the person for the job because you could
not throw any dirt at her, You could not weaken
her or the case with any of her many sins.
(11:22):
Tulsea Gabbert is right about this stuff, but she is
not clean enough. There are way too many questions marks
Edward Snowden revealed something. She introduced a resolution in Congress
calling for the FEDS to drop all charges acount against
Edward Snowden. For instance, Snowden who revealed the NSA's bulk
collection telephones record was illegal and unconstitutional.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
One hundred percent right about that.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
But Snowden Pilford and distributed to our enemies an enormous
cash of secrets that were awful in their effect for
the United States, for Britain, for the Five Eyes alone alliance. Uh,
there's a reason he went to Russian was immediately made
a citizen Inhaled as a hero.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
So, I man, even some of this more complicated stuff
I never even looked into, because how do you get
past the Bashar Alissad stuff? I mean, that's damning enough
of me, and that's I wish I had more of
the facts in front of me.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
But and again her her explanation of.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
It is quite reasonable. She thought the whole a couple
of things. Number one, the Iraq War and then the
idiotic half cocked intervention in Libya that Obama and Hillary
Clinton did was just half thought out, dopey American messing
(12:47):
with the Middle East, which was causing destabilization and refugees
in the rise of gorilla groups and the rest of it.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
She was right about that, but she went on.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
To suggest that Bashar Alisade was really just a nice
guy try to run his country and blah blah blah,
and just went way overboard, like she does with almost everything.
And one more thing, Mark Warner, who you know, he's
a Democratic senator, he's reasonable. Some of the time pointed
out that the specific verbiage of the DNI loss is
(13:17):
that they must have extensive experience in the intelligence community,
and she doesn't. It might be as simple as that.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
Man that laundry list. She had though, of abuses by
our intelligence community. Though that's pretty damning. Wow, when you
hear them all back to back like that, and all
of those one hundred percent true and underappreciated, certainly by
the mainstream media. We got a lot more on the
way I keep checking. Chips are still a one and
a half point favorite for a Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Coming up.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Kids lost ground in learning during COVID, not a surprise,
we're not gaining it back. And the latest nationwide proficiency
the score card is out and.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
It ain't good and it should be a bigger story. Yeah,
it absolutely should.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
Also coming up more details on Tulsea, Gabbert and bashar
al aside, just to be fair, and it's Tony A.
Leaden apparently we've lost Jack, Yeah, because I absolutely want
to be fair and I understand a lot of attacks
on MAGA people are unfair, and the intelligence community is
crazy and dishonest and the rest of it. I just
(14:32):
think there's a better share to run things than her.
The latest internet trend, Jack, because everything's got to be
an Internet trend is shockingly being responsible. They're calling it
no by twenty twenty five, in which e y or
be you y, be you y Okay, that's good, good clarification.
(14:56):
Those are homonyms, as we say in the hominym business business.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
The trend is to reduce spending and pay off debt.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Amid rising inflation and economic uncertainty, individuals are cutting back
on non essential purchases, focusing on using up existing products
and implementing strategies like Project Pan to minimize spending.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
About this trend. Can I just whistle the national anthem
with a mouthful of eggs or something?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Does it have to be?
Speaker 5 (15:24):
This one's not nearly as much fun as that, Jack so,
And of course it's hot on Instagram and TikTok as.
Everything is people displaying instead of what they've bought. Now
great it is they're displaying how they're buying nothing. The
no buy twenty twenty five trend encourages people to purchase
as little new stuff as possible.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
I would love this if I thought it could catch on.
It just it runs counter to you know, human nature
of you know, pleasure. But it'd be awesome if, for
whatever reason, people decide no stuff is a bad buying
stuff is a bad. Idea of planning ahead is the
best way to get pleasure. That'd be great if that happened.
(16:06):
I just don't know if I believe it. Well, yeah,
I think it's more specific than that. And I found
myself wondering whether this is another example of how the
breezes have definitely changed in America, because a lot of
it when again in the specific examples, is this Gal Rachel,
part time nurse, stay at home mom. She came across
these no buy videos and she wanted to pay off
her family's ten thousand dollars credit card debt, and she
(16:28):
and her husband wanted to stop living paycheck to paycheck.
So she's cutting out hair treatments, manicures, and unnecessary purchases
like new water bottles. It's been very empowering to live
within our means. They've paid down their debt and are
living like financially responsible human beings. Yeah, all those things
you just mentioned you probably shouldn't be buying if you're
got a ten thousand dollars credit card bill.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
So Again, it's kind of Goofy and Jiv that it's
a TikTok trend like everything. But if the trend is
people living within their means, reducing their debt and getting
rid of luxuries they can't afford, I'm not going to
condemn it.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
How about the trend of how long can you hold
your hand over a candle? I think that'll probably get
more owling. You remember owling, really good tabs are strong
and getty.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Worse than reading, barely hanging on in math.
Speaker 7 (17:21):
If you look at reading proficiency, those who are at
or above proficiency in fourth grade twenty nineteen thirty five
percent twenty twenty four only thirty one percent, and for
eighth graders thirty four percent in twenty nineteen thirty percent. Now,
so trying to crawl back, but really not getting there.
When you look at attendance is a big part. Obviously,
(17:42):
the pandemic pushed people out. They weren't there to attend.
The school has never really recovered from that, and tendance
continues to be low. They're having trouble getting people to
simply be there. In addition to that, they noted in
this that fewer kids are reading for fun, they're just
not reading, So this comprehension is lower.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
There is so much. I mean, I had planned in
my head what we're going to talk about, but there
are a couple of topics there that are their own
damned interesting topic. The absenteeism that has skyrocketed since COVID.
For whatever reason, nobody went to school for a couple
of years because the government wouldn't let you. I think
maybe the worst thing our federal government has ever done,
(18:20):
once you get past like the slavery area era, but
the worst singer government has ever done to shut down
the schools and not let kids go to school for
no good reason. And they know it was no good reason.
Oh it's so maddening. But we won't get sidetracked on that.
Why have kids still not gone back? Well, what's going on.
It's a parent's decision. You can't blame the kids, all right.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
I was just gonna say you can't YadA YadA YadA
as they say kids didn't go to school from COVID
and now there's still not going to school.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
I mean, wait a minute, Wait a minute, wait a minute.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
Not in any family I know or hang out with,
unless they're chosen to homeschool or kids because of what
they observed during COVID.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
So that seems odd to me.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
That speaks to a cultural norm in certain segments of
society that got changed where they just they were never
that into education for their kids anyway, And if the
kids don't want to go to school, they just don't
make them.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
I would like to see that broken down by race
to see if there's a racial difference or economic difference,
because we're about to get into some of those numbers.
And then then the other topic he threw there at
the end that I wasn't planning on talking about. Kids
don't read for phone anymore. Yeah, I have a lot
of trouble with that with my kids. I push them
really hard to read. They grew up in a household
where mom and dad read constantly. I still do. But
(19:38):
you're different than me, or lying to yourself if you
don't admit as an adult that it's harder for you
to read a book now than it used to be
because your attention span is so much shorter. What do
you think it's like for your kids who never had
a long intention span. They've only known these blue, super
fast world of quick things.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
Right, But they're not reading even short magazine articles about
like their hero video gamers or anything like that. They're
just not reading at all. They're watching videos about them,
right exactly.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if anything can
turn that around either. Interesting.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
Okay, then back to the here. I'm gonna put out
coffee mugs that say this. They won't sell, but they're right,
they're one of the most truth based coffee mugs ever sold.
Mankind has invented pleasures mankind can't handle.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Right, And now we're gonna have VR porn. I'm gonna
have a coffee mug that says coffee makes mondays better.
I'll bet mine sells better than yours. That one hurt
my heart. So we had the story a couple of
days ago. This's got a lot of headlines that kids
(20:49):
haven't caught up from the learning loss of the pandemic.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
What a shock? How is that supposed to happen?
Speaker 4 (20:54):
I mean, I don't know, I understand, unless you're going
to invent more hours in a day or make everybody
go to full school all summer long or something. We
weren't doing that well before, which is the main point
of this whole conversation. And you're gonna catch up from
a couple of years in the case of California and
not going to school and zoom school was basically not
going to school, and you're gonna catch up? How how
(21:17):
are you gonna jam in two years of loss into
the last two years along with the stuff that obviously
you'd have to learn those years to stay on track?
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Right.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
I mean, you've got two distinct and really troubling layers
to dig through.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Here.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
You've got the COVID effect on schools and students, which
is enormous and disastrous, and I think you're right. I
think it is the greatest sin by our federal government
and its allies. They inherited slavery and nobody knew how
to end it. This was an affirmative sin committed by
the government.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
But anyway, so you.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
Got all the COVID complexities of it, and then you've
got the underperformance of our government schools going into COVID
and after it. I mean, for instance, we've been talking
about fundamental principles in a variety of contexts, and if
you don't get those right, you're wasting your time, or
you're going to waste your time. You're really undermining yourself
(22:13):
and a fundamental principle of the classroom teachers, can I
get amen. If you don't have control of the classroom
and a reasonable level of discipline, your school is not
going to be effective, or it is going to be
significantly less effective.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
We need to cure that.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
I mean, there's so much slack we needed to take
up before COVID that we haven't. How are we going
to take up the slack to make up for the
COVID learning loss to the extent achieve and ken we
have multiple.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Problems absolutely, which we're about to discuss more of. But
so I got into this last night again. So the
story a couple of days ago was we have not
regained ground. Then the new more numbers came out yesterday
nationwide proficiency scores, and we should link. I got the website.
I'll send it to you, Hansen. It's pretty handy. You
can go in there and pick your state and then
(23:04):
pick your school district or county and compared to the
rest of the state or the rest of the country.
But it's universally not good for the most part. And
so I came to it through the New York Post.
They're talking about New York City. Most of you don't
live in New York City or have your kids, but
it's the biggest school district in America, and their numbers
aren't much different than the national average, so it does
(23:25):
have some information for us. Only a third of NYC
fourth graders deemed proficient in math, even though they spend
tons of money in New York City, way more than
they ever spent adjusted for inflation per student than ever
in history when the numbers were much higher. So don't
even start down the road. If they need more money,
that's a non starter. As a conversation, only a third
(23:47):
of NYC fourth grader's deemed proficient in math, despite the
sky high spending, Only thirty three percent of Big Apples
and Big Apple kids in math, only twenty eight percent
in reading last year according to the results. And again,
these numbers are only slightly different than the national averages.
They're a little below in New York City, even though
(24:07):
they spend more money than everybody else than the national averages.
But this is about where everybody is. And I thought, well,
that's damned interesting. And we've talked about this a lot.
Here's the version of the story today that I think
is being left out a lot, and many paragraphs down
on the NPR site, they get to this, COVID nineteen
isn't all to blame. A longer view of fourth grader's
(24:28):
math scores and student achievement more broadly shows those scores
have been stagnating and declining for years prior to COVID.
It's sped up during COVID, but they've been going down
for a long time and getting off track on COVID
caused this, and how do we bounce back? Is really
missing the boat if they've been dropping off year by
(24:50):
year for quite some time. Math scores peaked around twenty thirteen.
Multiple education researchers told the NPR they aren't sure why.
That is the multi trill dollar question, says an education
research at the University Washington who has studied pandemic learning laws.
One thing we know is that fourth grade math performance
improved around the same time as the no child left
(25:12):
Behind thing that George W. Bush brought in in two
thousand and two. Now, I know lots of teachers that
hated that.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
I don't have an argument one way or the other.
I know a lot of teachers that, at least statistically,
things got better when No Child left Behind hit And
then when those requirements were phased out in about twenty twelve,
math scores, all scores, and specifically math scores even worse
all started dropping and have been dropping ever since, even
without COVID.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
Yeah, it gets a little complicated in that you have
no child left behind, which was you know some mostly
good ideas and some weaknesses. But then good hearts law interceded, Jack,
which you've talked about a lot. Where you have objective standards, well,
people figure out how to manipulate those objective standards. They
start to teach to reach those standards, or cheat to
(26:00):
eight those standards or whatever, and they're not so worried
about the learning. And that became just so clear. America
chucked those standards because they were being abused so much.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
But it worked for a while.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
Well, the problem is funny, as having this conversation with
the psychiatrist the other day, it's very difficult to get
down to one variable to ever test anything. You know,
you got this going on and that going on, So
you got like four variables. How do I know if
this pill is working or not working when I got
all these variables. That's the way it is with the
school stuff. There are so many variables going on at
(26:32):
the same time. The one child left behind thing might
have nothing to do with it. It also coincides fairly
decently with kids getting smartphones.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Okay, that's not a minor thing.
Speaker 5 (26:43):
On the present entertainment devices in their pockets. Gee, I
wonder if that had any effect on education. Come on,
are we adults here?
Speaker 4 (26:50):
It also coincides with the Great Recession. They don't really
spell out how that would fit in, but it is
roughly the same time that score started going the wrong direction,
increased access to smartphones and tablets, obesity going up while
that was going down. Does that have any fact I
don't know, but you do have a lot of variables involved.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
Yeah, I think the Great Recession thing is more coincidence
than explanatory.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
But okay, I think you certainly can't underappreciate the fact
that the score started dropping roughly the same time as
smartphones becoming prevalent in the schools.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
That one seems crazy.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
If I might further cloud the waters. You also had
an influx of millions of people who don't speak English,
legally and illegally flooding into government schools.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
And what point did we start having Pride Month where
every single day you have an assembly and talk about
the role of gay this or that in every classroom,
taking time from teaching.
Speaker 5 (27:52):
Other stuff, and literally lessons about you're probably transgender and
that's wonderful in the government schools, all of that along
and roughly the same time or all kinds of abandonment
of core principles.
Speaker 4 (28:03):
Yeah, all kinds of non reading and writing core stuff
that has crept into schools over the last decade or so.
And then this I wanted to get breaking it down
by race, and then it gets really complicated here. Percentage
at or above proficiency basic proficiency nationwide, Asian kids eighty
nine percent at are above basic proficiency nine out of ten.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
That's pretty impressive.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Why supremacy black half, Hispanic sixty one percent? This is
basic proficiency. You get to the proficient, which is where
they would like you to be a little higher standard.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
God, basic proficiency has got to be low. I mean
the standard.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
They ought to call that functional, fairly functional.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
If you get into actually proficient, where you probably want
your kid to be, and it's probably not that highest
standard anyway. For Asian sixty three percent of kids, for
Black ten percent of kids. Oh my gosh, how about
that Hispanic twenty two white half. What is that all about?
(29:13):
I mean, I know, if you're Ibram Kenny, how you
explain it? But how do you actually explain it?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (29:20):
Yeah, Well, there are a number of fascinations, are there
A lot of including does your culture Roared Revere learning
or not.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
I mean, start there. How can you not start there?
That's the last place you can start. Oh, I know,
I know which witch is. You know it means you're doomed.
Speaker 5 (29:40):
Now, let's we need to confront this problem, but not
any aspect of it that makes us feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
And what's surprising to me about that is I think
most white families I know look at the Asian families
and think, good, Yeah, go ahead, knock yourself out.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
We ain't doing that, So I.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
Mean they're taking it too seriously. So fine, if there
were a way to ascertain attitudes among various ethnic groups,
which is broad brush painting, and it's you know, of
limited usefulness, but a time favorite.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
But if you were to do.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
That though, speaking of white and Asian people, oh bet,
you'd have an exit to him. Your exact correlation with
test scores, to what extent do you think your kids
should make educational priority, how much do you help them,
how much work do you do, how often you talk
to him about education? You would see a near perfect correlation.
So why are we wasting our time pretending like it's
not the case. Need to take a quick break and
(30:37):
bring a word from our friends at Prize Picks.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
That's right, isn't it, Michael Oh?
Speaker 5 (30:41):
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Speaker 4 (30:59):
Yeah, Patrick Homes only needs one yard to win, So
I'm looking at these other stats. Barkley had that sixty
yard run for the Eagles the other day. One run.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Will he rush for more than one hundred and twelve and.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
A half yards? More or less on that one for instance?
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Speaker 2 (31:36):
Oh that's right, we're still in the here, Yes we are.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
More of the hearings are going on Telsea Gabbard being
questioned to be dn I Cash Pattel being questioned to
run the FBI. Anything jazzy appens, we'll have it for you.
Stick around, arm Strong.
Speaker 8 (31:51):
One of the dumbest phrases in military history is our
diversity is our strength. Our diversity is not our strength.
Our and our shared purpose is our strength. And the
Pentagon is excited to get back to that core mission.
It's happening rapidly. The services are responding, and those that
don't want to respond can work somewhere else. So diversity,
(32:13):
equity inclusion will not be a part of the Defense Department.
Speaker 5 (32:15):
Not a minute long, Amen, Pete Hagzeth, go get them, Pete.
Reforming the Department of Defense. Love everything I've heard so far.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
According to the economist, Iran is screaming toward a nuclear
weapon and Donald Trump is going to have to deal
with that real soon. So a lot of these conversations
about the Secretary of Defense are probably going to fall
by the wayside, and it's going to be what do
you have to say about our current war with Iran
or something along those lines.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
Although I will say this, the idea of all right,
let's cut the crap, or prefer if you prefer the
term nonsense. We got to cut the nonsense. These are
serious times. This DEI garbage and it is absolutely garbage.
Has got to go, and thank god it's starting to go.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
I thought this was interesting.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
N The idea that diversity is our strength in the
military is the dumbest thing ever said.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Yeah, it's unspeakably idiotic.
Speaker 5 (33:13):
It's hard to believe anybody, any adult, would repeat it,
and yet many do. And they should not be in charge.
Rob Smith is a gay combat vet and has been
posting on the internet lately about transgender service people and
Trump's order that they should not be in the service
(33:34):
for a variety of reasons.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Here's what a member of.
Speaker 5 (33:37):
The LGBTQ plus minus over the power of seven community
has to say about it.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
We'll start with ad Michael first of all.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Number one, and this is what a lot of people
don't realize. There are upwards of fifteen thousand people that
are serving quote unquote in the United States military right now.
The first thing that I'm going to tell you is
that all of these people are non deployable. What that
means is that if you are a transgender identified person
that is quote unquote serving in the United States military
(34:05):
right now, you are non combat deployment. So these people
cannot deploy two combat theaters when the United States is
involved in any sort of conflict.
Speaker 5 (34:15):
Over he gets a little repetitive here, So Michael, go
ahead and fade that out, and I want to get
to the next club.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
That's interesting.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
The vast majority of transgender people when they separate from
the United States Military do so by medically separating. This
means that they are at eighty to one disability. And
so now what that means is that taxpayers are on
the hook for two to three hundred thousand dollars per
(34:41):
year annually of quote unquote transgender healthcare, which is also
covered by the VA. This costs American tax payers to
the tune upwards of six figures per perse.
Speaker 5 (34:55):
So you serve for a cup of coffee and have
the taxpayers take up the bill for your transgender or
healthcare for the rest of your days under the VA.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
One more, Michael Ginger.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Dysphoria is a documented mental illments, which means that we
have these people that are not only non combat deployable,
they are also costing the US taxpair one hundred thousand
dollars plus per year for their healthcare. And they also
had a documented mental health condition. This is why Trump
(35:26):
has signed or is about to sign, the executive order
banning transgender people from the military. Because the military is
not a medical experiment. Taxpairs should not be footing the
bill for this.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
And we don't have time to get into it.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
But he talks about some of the transgender people he
served with and how they're all unstable. I'm not saying
every single person is, but his experience was unstable. It
contributed negatively to readiness to group cohesion in every way.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (35:57):
And that was going on during the Biden administry and
they knew that, but it's looked so good to have
the trans.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Community in the military and they wanted to continue it.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
Interesting 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 get Katie and he Armstrong and Heady.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
First of all, the plane crash, a black Hawk helicopter
being flown by some of the best pilots on planet
Earth crashes into a domestic flight and everybody's dead.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Sixty some people.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
You're probably aware of that, but they have declared no survivors,
and it looks like it's just a human error thing
which happens down that the worst air disaster actually the
first commercial air disaster in two decades.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
Oh yeah, two decades. It's been a very long time.
It's amazing. This is how good we are at this.
It's a horrific story. Yeah, it's beyond tragic, unthinkable.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
What are your feelings on the constantly showing the because
somebody had their phone out and got a video of
when they crash happens.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
What is that? It's just the way of the world.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Yeah, I'm not sure you should be showing that over
and over again. Here here's the moment. Sixty some people
lost their lives.
Speaker 5 (01:22):
Yeah, all right, you know, as Don Henley put it
years and years ago in his eighties nineties, classic dirty
laundry about the news business. It's interesting when people die,
give us dirty laundry.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
He was mostly mad because so many stories were being
written about him having an underage girl at.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
A party at his house. But well it was still right,
different topic.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
They've got some hearings, more hearings going on today to
confirm people RFK juniors going to be questioned more, even
more about being Secretary of Health and Human Services. You
got Tulsi Gabbard, former senator from Hawaii?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Is that right?
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Who wants to be the DNI Director of National Intelligence?
That puts you over all of the different intelligence stuff.
That's something we created after nine to eleven, another layer.
I'm not sure that was the right idea or not.
And then he got Cash Ptel, who wants to be
the FBI director because Trump's fire and the old guy
his tenure term not up, but getting a new guy.
And they've all said some interesting things already. Are you
(02:21):
willing to say what you just said off the air
about Telsey Gabbard? Are you some sort of keyboard warrior
who won't stick your neck out and something or other?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I don't remember what I say. I said several things.
I think she's used a term whack job, uh, crackpot
or something like that. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
I think she's got some very odd beliefs. She is
adamant that her loyalty should not be questioned. I think
it's her judgment more that should be questioned, and what
she actually believes and doesn't believe. She has such a
history of repeating Bashar all Assade talking points and then
(02:57):
Kremlin talking points, and then excusing every everything Edward Snowden
did because some of what he did was probably pretty defensible.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
And there are other things that she has.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
So she has more baggage than than you know, a
princess on a cruise. There's you know, she she talks
a great game. How about somebody who doesn't have all
sorts of this wacky doodle stuff in her background. That's
what I'm asking for, And I am willing to go
into detail.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yes, she is part of the Tucker Carlson orbit. Would
that be fair? Yeah? I think so? Yeah, Yeah, okay, yeah,
uh so, I.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
Mean we could go into all sorts of detail about
this and and and we will after hearing from Ms
Gabbard herself. Well, unquestionably has strengths and and and she's
right about a lot of stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I'm sorry, were you saying something hot? Oh, thank you
for that role.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
So her her opening statement had some really good stuff
about how Trump's election mandate has broken cycles of failure
and we need to restore trust in the intelligence community
and how bad they've been. Amen to that, sister, I mean,
I do not disagree with that assessment at all.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
She went on fairly persuasively forty six Michael.
Speaker 6 (04:14):
For too long, faulty, inadequate, or weaponized intelligence have led
to costly failures and the undermining of our national security
and God given freedoms enshrined in the Constitution. The most
obvious example of one of these failures is our invasion
of Iraq based upon a total fabrication or complete failure
of intelligence. This disastrous decision led to the deaths of
(04:38):
tens of thousands of American soldiers and millions of people
in the Middle East, mass migration, destabilization, and undermining of
the security and stability ability of our European allies. The
rise of isis, strengthening of Al Qaeda and other Islamus
jihadist groups, and strengthening Iran.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Well, so she thinks the intelligence community wasn't wrong about
weapons of master distrection.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
They fabricated it, which is a.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
Well she said, either fabricated or completely wrong. I'm not
sure we have that truth. So again, she's absolutely right
about that stuff. I don't disagree. That doesn't make her
the right person for the job necessarily, but she goes on.
Speaker 6 (05:20):
Here are just a few other examples. The American people
elected Donald Trump as their president not once, but twice,
and yet the FBI and intelligence agencies were politicized by
his opponents to undermine his presidency and falsely portray him
as a puppet of Putin. Title one of Faiza was
used illegally to obtain a warrant to spy on Trump
(05:41):
campaign advisor Carter Page, using a Clinton campaign funded false
dossier as their so called evidence. Biden campaign advisor Tony
Blinken was the impetus for the fifty one former senior
intelligence officials letter dismissing Hunter Biden's laptop as disinformation specific
to help.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Biden win the election.
Speaker 6 (06:03):
Former d and I James Clapper lied to this committee
in twenty thirteen denying the existence of programs that facilitated
the mass collection of millions of Americans phone and Internet records.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
It was never held accountable.
Speaker 6 (06:17):
Under John Brennan's leadership, the CIA abused its power to
spy on Congress to dodge oversight, lied about doing it
until he was caught, and yet has never been held responsible.
Under Biden, the FBI abused its power for political reasons
to try to surveil Catholics who attend traditional Latin mass
labeling them as quote unquote radical traditionalist Catholics. Personally, just
(06:41):
twenty four hours after I criticized Kamala Harris and her nomination,
I was placed on a secret domestic terror watch list
called Quiet Skies. Sadly there are more examples.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
I don't know the Catholic Church one, but all the
rest of that we are aware of. And wow, I
mean that is a list of a whole bunch of
things that should have gotten way more attention. Absolutely outrageous.
Somebody should have paid a price for but did not.
I agree with everything she said there, right, unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Remember that whole thing. When we found out that.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Was it, The NSA or CIA was spying on our senators.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Without them knowing of it.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
I mean how the fact that they got away with that,
it's just amazing to me.
Speaker 5 (07:24):
Right, And I don't know how interested you are in
some of the details of the resolution in favor of
dropping all charges against Edward Snowden, and the history of
the Bashar al a side stuff, and the weird religious
group she grew up in and has been associated with,
and their methods of making money, and it's all just
very strange stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
What's the name of the religious group she's associated with.
I don't know that story. Click over here.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
It is, uh, the Science of Identity Foundation, a sect
tied to a direct marketing firm accused of running a
pyramid scheme in several countries.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Wow, but she grew up in that Uh? Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
Uh. Has referred to the leaders as her guru dev,
a Hindu term that is frequently translated as divine teacher.
She has described a guy who serves on the board
of this offshoot that runs a giant pyramid's scheme as
her uncle.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
So she's still in.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
She's not one of those people that grew up in
a cult and looks back on it and thinks, what
the hell were my parents thinking.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
She's still into it.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
Yeah, it's a it's a very odd religious group. Gabbard's
follower parents were followers of this Butler guy.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
They raised Gabbard in the group.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
Some adherents mixed Butler's toenail clippings into their meals. A
hold on, you gotta like throw some colmns, so we
slow down and get in the right lane before you
you launch that.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Say that again.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
Yeah, this guy who founded this spiritual group, Chris Butler,
who she has described as her divine teacher.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Uh. Let the group.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (09:07):
Some adherents mixed Butler's toenail clippings into their meals as
a sign of devotion us his shoes as prayer totems.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yes, isn't your shoes a prayer totem? To me?
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Is nothing compared to mixing toenail clippings in your meals.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Sure that's that's your lead, No doubt, that's your lead. Story.
Holy crap.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Yeah, it's it's very very odd, and to the extent
that she still believes all of this or is really
really into it and science of identity, this this group
which sounds scientology maybe in some ways.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
But did you or did you not eat toenail clippings
in your morning oatmeal?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Oh, he's answered a question yes or no.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
The record show she will not answer the question yes
or no whether she clippings with their oatmeal.
Speaker 5 (09:57):
The sect seems to get its funds from this direct
marketing firm accused of running a pyramid scheme in several countries,
and she hired a PR group to play down the
connections earlier in her curber. Here's the thing, here's the thing. Yeah,
go ahead, I just got to make my ultimate point.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
I was going to say, you're right about all these
things with the last couple of days. So these people
lay out stuff that's absolutely one hundred percent true, doesn't
mean they're the person that the only person that can
drive home that point though.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I mean, she just did a laundry list.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
There of some horrific things that have happened in our
intelligence community.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Just horrific things.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
The spying on Trump with a faked up PISA warrant.
There should be fifteen people drummed out of government, maybe
in prison over that.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Please.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
I agree with everything she said there, but jack true
or false. Rosa Parks was the first person, first black person,
told to give up her seat on a bus, and
that's why she was the big test case.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Uh so, the point.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Being, I thought maybe you would jump in there. She
was selected as the test case because her character was unimpeachable.
She was the person for the job because you could
not throw any dirt at her, You could not weaken
her or the case with any of her many sins.
(11:22):
Tulsea Gabbert is right about this stuff, but she is
not clean enough. There are way too many questions marks
Edward Snowden revealed something. She introduced a resolution in Congress
calling for the FEDS to drop all charges acount against
Edward Snowden. For instance, Snowden who revealed the NSA's bulk
collection telephones record was illegal and unconstitutional.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
One hundred percent right about that.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
But Snowden Pilford and distributed to our enemies an enormous
cash of secrets that were awful in their effect for
the United States, for Britain, for the Five Eyes alone alliance. Uh,
there's a reason he went to Russian was immediately made
a citizen Inhaled as a hero.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
So, I man, even some of this more complicated stuff
I never even looked into, because how do you get
past the Bashar Alissad stuff? I mean, that's damning enough
of me, and that's I wish I had more of
the facts in front of me.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
But and again her her explanation of.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
It is quite reasonable. She thought the whole a couple
of things. Number one, the Iraq War and then the
idiotic half cocked intervention in Libya that Obama and Hillary
Clinton did was just half thought out, dopey American messing
(12:47):
with the Middle East, which was causing destabilization and refugees
in the rise of gorilla groups and the rest of it.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
She was right about that, but she went on.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
To suggest that Bashar Alisade was really just a nice
guy try to run his country and blah blah blah,
and just went way overboard, like she does with almost everything.
And one more thing, Mark Warner, who you know, he's
a Democratic senator, he's reasonable. Some of the time pointed
out that the specific verbiage of the DNI loss is
(13:17):
that they must have extensive experience in the intelligence community,
and she doesn't. It might be as simple as that.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
Man that laundry list. She had though, of abuses by
our intelligence community. Though that's pretty damning. Wow, when you
hear them all back to back like that, and all
of those one hundred percent true and underappreciated, certainly by
the mainstream media. We got a lot more on the
way I keep checking. Chips are still a one and
a half point favorite for a Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Coming up.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Kids lost ground in learning during COVID, not a surprise,
we're not gaining it back. And the latest nationwide proficiency
the score card is out and.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
It ain't good and it should be a bigger story. Yeah,
it absolutely should.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
Also coming up more details on Tulsea, Gabbert and bashar
al aside, just to be fair, and it's Tony A.
Leaden apparently we've lost Jack, Yeah, because I absolutely want
to be fair and I understand a lot of attacks
on MAGA people are unfair, and the intelligence community is
crazy and dishonest and the rest of it. I just
(14:32):
think there's a better share to run things than her.
The latest internet trend, Jack, because everything's got to be
an Internet trend is shockingly being responsible. They're calling it
no by twenty twenty five, in which e y or
be you y, be you y Okay, that's good, good clarification.
(14:56):
Those are homonyms, as we say in the hominym business business.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
The trend is to reduce spending and pay off debt.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Amid rising inflation and economic uncertainty, individuals are cutting back
on non essential purchases, focusing on using up existing products
and implementing strategies like Project Pan to minimize spending.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
About this trend. Can I just whistle the national anthem
with a mouthful of eggs or something?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Does it have to be?
Speaker 5 (15:24):
This one's not nearly as much fun as that, Jack so,
And of course it's hot on Instagram and TikTok as.
Everything is people displaying instead of what they've bought. Now
great it is they're displaying how they're buying nothing. The
no buy twenty twenty five trend encourages people to purchase
as little new stuff as possible.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
I would love this if I thought it could catch on.
It just it runs counter to you know, human nature
of you know, pleasure. But it'd be awesome if, for
whatever reason, people decide no stuff is a bad buying
stuff is a bad. Idea of planning ahead is the
best way to get pleasure. That'd be great if that happened.
(16:06):
I just don't know if I believe it. Well, yeah,
I think it's more specific than that. And I found
myself wondering whether this is another example of how the
breezes have definitely changed in America, because a lot of
it when again in the specific examples, is this Gal Rachel,
part time nurse, stay at home mom. She came across
these no buy videos and she wanted to pay off
her family's ten thousand dollars credit card debt, and she
(16:28):
and her husband wanted to stop living paycheck to paycheck.
So she's cutting out hair treatments, manicures, and unnecessary purchases
like new water bottles. It's been very empowering to live
within our means. They've paid down their debt and are
living like financially responsible human beings. Yeah, all those things
you just mentioned you probably shouldn't be buying if you're
got a ten thousand dollars credit card bill.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
So Again, it's kind of Goofy and Jiv that it's
a TikTok trend like everything. But if the trend is
people living within their means, reducing their debt and getting
rid of luxuries they can't afford, I'm not going to
condemn it.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
How about the trend of how long can you hold
your hand over a candle? I think that'll probably get
more owling. You remember owling, really good tabs are strong
and getty.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Worse than reading, barely hanging on in math.
Speaker 7 (17:21):
If you look at reading proficiency, those who are at
or above proficiency in fourth grade twenty nineteen thirty five
percent twenty twenty four only thirty one percent, and for
eighth graders thirty four percent in twenty nineteen thirty percent. Now,
so trying to crawl back, but really not getting there.
When you look at attendance is a big part. Obviously,
(17:42):
the pandemic pushed people out. They weren't there to attend.
The school has never really recovered from that, and tendance
continues to be low. They're having trouble getting people to
simply be there. In addition to that, they noted in
this that fewer kids are reading for fun, they're just
not reading, So this comprehension is lower.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
There is so much. I mean, I had planned in
my head what we're going to talk about, but there
are a couple of topics there that are their own
damned interesting topic. The absenteeism that has skyrocketed since COVID.
For whatever reason, nobody went to school for a couple
of years because the government wouldn't let you. I think
maybe the worst thing our federal government has ever done,
(18:20):
once you get past like the slavery area era, but
the worst singer government has ever done to shut down
the schools and not let kids go to school for
no good reason. And they know it was no good reason.
Oh it's so maddening. But we won't get sidetracked on that.
Why have kids still not gone back? Well, what's going on.
It's a parent's decision. You can't blame the kids, all right.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
I was just gonna say you can't YadA YadA YadA
as they say kids didn't go to school from COVID
and now there's still not going to school.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
I mean, wait a minute, Wait a minute, wait a minute.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
Not in any family I know or hang out with,
unless they're chosen to homeschool or kids because of what
they observed during COVID.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
So that seems odd to me.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
That speaks to a cultural norm in certain segments of
society that got changed where they just they were never
that into education for their kids anyway, And if the
kids don't want to go to school, they just don't
make them.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
I would like to see that broken down by race
to see if there's a racial difference or economic difference,
because we're about to get into some of those numbers.
And then then the other topic he threw there at
the end that I wasn't planning on talking about. Kids
don't read for phone anymore. Yeah, I have a lot
of trouble with that with my kids. I push them
really hard to read. They grew up in a household
where mom and dad read constantly. I still do. But
(19:38):
you're different than me, or lying to yourself if you
don't admit as an adult that it's harder for you
to read a book now than it used to be
because your attention span is so much shorter. What do
you think it's like for your kids who never had
a long intention span. They've only known these blue, super
fast world of quick things.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
Right, But they're not reading even short magazine articles about
like their hero video gamers or anything like that. They're
just not reading at all. They're watching videos about them,
right exactly.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if anything can
turn that around either. Interesting.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
Okay, then back to the here. I'm gonna put out
coffee mugs that say this. They won't sell, but they're right,
they're one of the most truth based coffee mugs ever sold.
Mankind has invented pleasures mankind can't handle.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Right, And now we're gonna have VR porn. I'm gonna
have a coffee mug that says coffee makes mondays better.
I'll bet mine sells better than yours. That one hurt
my heart. So we had the story a couple of
days ago. This's got a lot of headlines that kids
(20:49):
haven't caught up from the learning loss of the pandemic.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
What a shock? How is that supposed to happen?
Speaker 4 (20:54):
I mean, I don't know, I understand, unless you're going
to invent more hours in a day or make everybody
go to full school all summer long or something. We
weren't doing that well before, which is the main point
of this whole conversation. And you're gonna catch up from
a couple of years in the case of California and
not going to school and zoom school was basically not
going to school, and you're gonna catch up? How how
(21:17):
are you gonna jam in two years of loss into
the last two years along with the stuff that obviously
you'd have to learn those years to stay on track?
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Right.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
I mean, you've got two distinct and really troubling layers
to dig through.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Here.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
You've got the COVID effect on schools and students, which
is enormous and disastrous, and I think you're right. I
think it is the greatest sin by our federal government
and its allies. They inherited slavery and nobody knew how
to end it. This was an affirmative sin committed by
the government.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
But anyway, so you.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
Got all the COVID complexities of it, and then you've
got the underperformance of our government schools going into COVID
and after it. I mean, for instance, we've been talking
about fundamental principles in a variety of contexts, and if
you don't get those right, you're wasting your time, or
you're going to waste your time. You're really undermining yourself
(22:13):
and a fundamental principle of the classroom teachers, can I
get amen. If you don't have control of the classroom
and a reasonable level of discipline, your school is not
going to be effective, or it is going to be
significantly less effective.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
We need to cure that.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
I mean, there's so much slack we needed to take
up before COVID that we haven't. How are we going
to take up the slack to make up for the
COVID learning loss to the extent achieve and ken we
have multiple.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Problems absolutely, which we're about to discuss more of. But
so I got into this last night again. So the
story a couple of days ago was we have not
regained ground. Then the new more numbers came out yesterday
nationwide proficiency scores, and we should link. I got the website.
I'll send it to you, Hansen. It's pretty handy. You
can go in there and pick your state and then
(23:04):
pick your school district or county and compared to the
rest of the state or the rest of the country.
But it's universally not good for the most part. And
so I came to it through the New York Post.
They're talking about New York City. Most of you don't
live in New York City or have your kids, but
it's the biggest school district in America, and their numbers
aren't much different than the national average, so it does
(23:25):
have some information for us. Only a third of NYC
fourth graders deemed proficient in math, even though they spend
tons of money in New York City, way more than
they ever spent adjusted for inflation per student than ever
in history when the numbers were much higher. So don't
even start down the road. If they need more money,
that's a non starter. As a conversation, only a third
(23:47):
of NYC fourth grader's deemed proficient in math, despite the
sky high spending, Only thirty three percent of Big Apples
and Big Apple kids in math, only twenty eight percent
in reading last year according to the results. And again,
these numbers are only slightly different than the national averages.
They're a little below in New York City, even though
(24:07):
they spend more money than everybody else than the national averages.
But this is about where everybody is. And I thought, well,
that's damned interesting. And we've talked about this a lot.
Here's the version of the story today that I think
is being left out a lot, and many paragraphs down
on the NPR site, they get to this, COVID nineteen
isn't all to blame. A longer view of fourth grader's
(24:28):
math scores and student achievement more broadly shows those scores
have been stagnating and declining for years prior to COVID.
It's sped up during COVID, but they've been going down
for a long time and getting off track on COVID
caused this, and how do we bounce back? Is really
missing the boat if they've been dropping off year by
(24:50):
year for quite some time. Math scores peaked around twenty thirteen.
Multiple education researchers told the NPR they aren't sure why.
That is the multi trill dollar question, says an education
research at the University Washington who has studied pandemic learning laws.
One thing we know is that fourth grade math performance
improved around the same time as the no child left
(25:12):
Behind thing that George W. Bush brought in in two
thousand and two. Now, I know lots of teachers that
hated that.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
I don't have an argument one way or the other.
I know a lot of teachers that, at least statistically,
things got better when No Child left Behind hit And
then when those requirements were phased out in about twenty twelve,
math scores, all scores, and specifically math scores even worse
all started dropping and have been dropping ever since, even
without COVID.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
Yeah, it gets a little complicated in that you have
no child left behind, which was you know some mostly
good ideas and some weaknesses. But then good hearts law interceded, Jack,
which you've talked about a lot. Where you have objective standards, well,
people figure out how to manipulate those objective standards. They
start to teach to reach those standards, or cheat to
(26:00):
eight those standards or whatever, and they're not so worried
about the learning. And that became just so clear. America
chucked those standards because they were being abused so much.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
But it worked for a while.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
Well, the problem is funny, as having this conversation with
the psychiatrist the other day, it's very difficult to get
down to one variable to ever test anything. You know,
you got this going on and that going on, So
you got like four variables. How do I know if
this pill is working or not working when I got
all these variables. That's the way it is with the
school stuff. There are so many variables going on at
(26:32):
the same time. The one child left behind thing might
have nothing to do with it. It also coincides fairly
decently with kids getting smartphones.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Okay, that's not a minor thing.
Speaker 5 (26:43):
On the present entertainment devices in their pockets. Gee, I
wonder if that had any effect on education. Come on,
are we adults here?
Speaker 4 (26:50):
It also coincides with the Great Recession. They don't really
spell out how that would fit in, but it is
roughly the same time that score started going the wrong direction,
increased access to smartphones and tablets, obesity going up while
that was going down. Does that have any fact I
don't know, but you do have a lot of variables involved.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
Yeah, I think the Great Recession thing is more coincidence
than explanatory.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
But okay, I think you certainly can't underappreciate the fact
that the score started dropping roughly the same time as
smartphones becoming prevalent in the schools.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
That one seems crazy.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
If I might further cloud the waters. You also had
an influx of millions of people who don't speak English,
legally and illegally flooding into government schools.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
And what point did we start having Pride Month where
every single day you have an assembly and talk about
the role of gay this or that in every classroom,
taking time from teaching.
Speaker 5 (27:52):
Other stuff, and literally lessons about you're probably transgender and
that's wonderful in the government schools, all of that along
and roughly the same time or all kinds of abandonment
of core principles.
Speaker 4 (28:03):
Yeah, all kinds of non reading and writing core stuff
that has crept into schools over the last decade or so.
And then this I wanted to get breaking it down
by race, and then it gets really complicated here. Percentage
at or above proficiency basic proficiency nationwide, Asian kids eighty
nine percent at are above basic proficiency nine out of ten.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
That's pretty impressive.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Why supremacy black half, Hispanic sixty one percent? This is
basic proficiency. You get to the proficient, which is where
they would like you to be a little higher standard.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
God, basic proficiency has got to be low. I mean
the standard.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
They ought to call that functional, fairly functional.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
If you get into actually proficient, where you probably want
your kid to be, and it's probably not that highest
standard anyway. For Asian sixty three percent of kids, for
Black ten percent of kids. Oh my gosh, how about
that Hispanic twenty two white half. What is that all about?
(29:13):
I mean, I know, if you're Ibram Kenny, how you
explain it? But how do you actually explain it?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (29:20):
Yeah, Well, there are a number of fascinations, are there
A lot of including does your culture Roared Revere learning
or not.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
I mean, start there. How can you not start there?
That's the last place you can start. Oh, I know,
I know which witch is. You know it means you're doomed.
Speaker 5 (29:40):
Now, let's we need to confront this problem, but not
any aspect of it that makes us feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
And what's surprising to me about that is I think
most white families I know look at the Asian families
and think, good, Yeah, go ahead, knock yourself out.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
We ain't doing that, So I.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
Mean they're taking it too seriously. So fine, if there
were a way to ascertain attitudes among various ethnic groups,
which is broad brush painting, and it's you know, of
limited usefulness, but a time favorite.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
But if you were to do.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
That though, speaking of white and Asian people, oh bet,
you'd have an exit to him. Your exact correlation with
test scores, to what extent do you think your kids
should make educational priority, how much do you help them,
how much work do you do, how often you talk
to him about education? You would see a near perfect correlation.
So why are we wasting our time pretending like it's
not the case. Need to take a quick break and
(30:37):
bring a word from our friends at Prize Picks.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
That's right, isn't it, Michael Oh?
Speaker 5 (30:41):
Yes, the Big Game, the game that is so big
that the name like Voldemart that must not be named
in a commercial, but last football game of the season,
and they have some great offers. They're given away a
free pick for the game where one of the starting
quarterbacks will only need to throw one yard to win.
If you're correct on at least one more stat projection,
you can win real cash.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Yeah, Patrick Homes only needs one yard to win, So
I'm looking at these other stats. Barkley had that sixty
yard run for the Eagles the other day. One run.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Will he rush for more than one hundred and twelve and.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
A half yards? More or less on that one for instance?
It's really fun. Download the Prize Picks app today and
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Yep, just by playing a five dollars lineup, they will
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Speaker 2 (31:36):
Oh that's right, we're still in the here, Yes we are.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
More of the hearings are going on Telsea Gabbard being
questioned to be dn I Cash Pattel being questioned to
run the FBI. Anything jazzy appens, we'll have it for you.
Stick around, arm Strong.
Speaker 8 (31:51):
One of the dumbest phrases in military history is our
diversity is our strength. Our diversity is not our strength.
Our and our shared purpose is our strength. And the
Pentagon is excited to get back to that core mission.
It's happening rapidly. The services are responding, and those that
don't want to respond can work somewhere else. So diversity,
(32:13):
equity inclusion will not be a part of the Defense Department.
Speaker 5 (32:15):
Not a minute long, Amen, Pete Hagzeth, go get them, Pete.
Reforming the Department of Defense. Love everything I've heard so far.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
According to the economist, Iran is screaming toward a nuclear
weapon and Donald Trump is going to have to deal
with that real soon. So a lot of these conversations
about the Secretary of Defense are probably going to fall
by the wayside, and it's going to be what do
you have to say about our current war with Iran
or something along those lines.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
Although I will say this, the idea of all right,
let's cut the crap, or prefer if you prefer the
term nonsense. We got to cut the nonsense. These are
serious times. This DEI garbage and it is absolutely garbage.
Has got to go, and thank god it's starting to go.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
I thought this was interesting.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
N The idea that diversity is our strength in the
military is the dumbest thing ever said.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Yeah, it's unspeakably idiotic.
Speaker 5 (33:13):
It's hard to believe anybody, any adult, would repeat it,
and yet many do. And they should not be in charge.
Rob Smith is a gay combat vet and has been
posting on the internet lately about transgender service people and
Trump's order that they should not be in the service
(33:34):
for a variety of reasons.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Here's what a member of.
Speaker 5 (33:37):
The LGBTQ plus minus over the power of seven community
has to say about it.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
We'll start with ad Michael first of all.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Number one, and this is what a lot of people
don't realize. There are upwards of fifteen thousand people that
are serving quote unquote in the United States military right now.
The first thing that I'm going to tell you is
that all of these people are non deployable. What that
means is that if you are a transgender identified person
that is quote unquote serving in the United States military
(34:05):
right now, you are non combat deployment. So these people
cannot deploy two combat theaters when the United States is
involved in any sort of conflict.
Speaker 5 (34:15):
Over he gets a little repetitive here, So Michael, go
ahead and fade that out, and I want to get
to the next club.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
That's interesting.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
The vast majority of transgender people when they separate from
the United States Military do so by medically separating. This
means that they are at eighty to one disability. And
so now what that means is that taxpayers are on
the hook for two to three hundred thousand dollars per
(34:41):
year annually of quote unquote transgender healthcare, which is also
covered by the VA. This costs American tax payers to
the tune upwards of six figures per perse.
Speaker 5 (34:55):
So you serve for a cup of coffee and have
the taxpayers take up the bill for your transgender or
healthcare for the rest of your days under the VA.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
One more, Michael Ginger.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Dysphoria is a documented mental illments, which means that we
have these people that are not only non combat deployable,
they are also costing the US taxpair one hundred thousand
dollars plus per year for their healthcare. And they also
had a documented mental health condition. This is why Trump
(35:26):
has signed or is about to sign, the executive order
banning transgender people from the military. Because the military is
not a medical experiment. Taxpairs should not be footing the
bill for this.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
And we don't have time to get into it.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
But he talks about some of the transgender people he
served with and how they're all unstable. I'm not saying
every single person is, but his experience was unstable. It
contributed negatively to readiness to group cohesion in every way.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (35:57):
And that was going on during the Biden administry and
they knew that, but it's looked so good to have
the trans.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Community in the military and they wanted to continue it.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
Interesting Armstrong and Getty
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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