March 21, 2025 • 35 mins
Hour 3 of A&G feature...
- Conservative influencers being swatted
- Gov. Mel Gibson?
- Why Americans are on board with the federal firings
- Woman attacked over her Tesla & sock shoes
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 of the
George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Armstrong and Jetty and now he Armstrong and Eddy that
call between President Trump Anzie.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
We're doing very well with regard to Ukraine and Russia.
And one of the things we are doing is signing
a deal very shortly with respect to rare earth with Ukraine,
which they have a tremendous value in rare earth and
we appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
And so we're going to have a deal with them,
and then we're going to be in the mining business
in Ukraine. Now, Zelensky responded to this. Here's a news
report on that.
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Zelenski's fearing to dismiss Trump's proposal the US take ownership
of Ukraine's nuclear power plants for long term security.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
She autumn all nuclear power plants belong to the people
of Ukraine, while.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
Leaving the door open to one currently under Russian occupation.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
That is a.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Completely different issue. We are open to discuss it, Okay,
I have no idea what's going on at this point.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, those are two different topics, the rare earth mining
thing and the Trump just floated the idea off the
top of the said, you know it could help them
with their energy plants too.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I don't care.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
We need to talk about this later. I'm worried about
this myself. There have been fifteen, more than fifteen of
those swatting attacks against conservative influencers in the last week.
Do you know what a swat thing is. It's really
(01:55):
easy to do. I call the police and say, hey,
Jim Jones at thirteen twenty one, marking Mockingbird Lane. He's
holding his wife gunpoint. He just beat her up and
he's holding a gunpoint. He says he's gonna kill her,
and then the cops show up, guns drawn at the door.
(02:16):
Nothing has happened, nothing actually is happening, but gun's drawn,
and there's the opportunity for something to go really really wrong.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Well and at the best, at its best, it will
be a terrifying and disconcerting experience for the people involved.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Oh sure, If I'm at home and i get boom boom, boom,
open up, I'm scared to death. Even if they're saying
it's the police, is it.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
If it's the police, I might have a gun when
I show up at the door and then of course
I might get shot, or they might get shot, or
all kinds of horrible things can happen. And this has
become a tool that bad people are using to just
disrupt annoy Fright and their enemies. But anyway, fifteen plus
(03:03):
conservative influencers have been squatted had a swatting attack in
the last week.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Wow, that's insane. I know.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Pam Bondi has said we're going to crack down on
this like crazy and go after it. I certainly hope
they do it. It has resulted in injuries and death
in the past. It's an incredibly dangerous thing to oh,
for everybody, for the cops and the person in the house.
I mean, if you're in a rural area or a
high crime area or something like that, and this has
happened more than once, and it's tragic, and you think
(03:30):
it might be the cops or it might not. I'm
going to have a gun in my hand when the cops,
who have been told something horrendous and violent was going on,
see you with a gun in your hand, and now
you're dead.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Well like you and I don't live in neighborhoods where
this sort of thing happens. Ever where there are police
showing up and pounding on doors. So if in the
middle of the night there's pounding on my door somebody
yelling police, how would you react to that. I mean
you appear out the window.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I mean yes, Nobody with a quick trigger finger thinks
you're threatening them, because again, they have been told that
you are a violent lunatic who is about to kill people. Right,
so I might be peering out the window to shoot
at them, so they don't in their mind, Yeah, I'm
(04:19):
thinking I want to go home to my wife and kids,
gonna I'm gonna shoot before I'm shot. Right Again, it's
impossible to fully appreciate how incredibly dangerous this is. And
you know, if it's some sixteen year old jackass, you
know the sanction needs to be sufficiently strong that no
other sixteen year old jackass thinks it's a good idea.
But if this is adults who are knowingly doing this,
(04:42):
there's got to be extremely strong sanctions.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
I think you're right.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I think the best way to stop it is that
the penalty is just so high that you wouldn't want
to mess.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Around with it. I don't know how else to stop it.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
And you know, whether that would work because a lot
of these people are crazy.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
I was just looking at a video. Maybe we'll play
the audio a little bit later of somebody cutting off
a tesla. I think it was in Washington State, but anyway,
cutting off a tesla in traffic, and then the person
pulling over because they were so rattled, and then the
person getting out of the car coming up into being
screamed at by a lunatic on the road because they
try a tesla. Well, can you deter somebody like that
(05:28):
with a penalty, because they're clearly freaking nuts, but you
gotta try.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Well.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
We mentioned speaking of things that Pam Bondi says she's
going to crack down on. She says it's clearly domestic
terrorism and we'll be treated as such. We mentioned yesterday
that of the four people arrested so far for vandalizing, destroying, bombing, shooting,
tesla facilities, chargers and vehicles, three of them identify as
transgender or non binary.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
In that something, what percentage of the country is a
try Well, of course, spirit Brown University thirty percent of
the student body is trans. But I mean in the
general population it's like zero point oh one percent. But
for people who destroy Tesla dealerships.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
It's for three quarters or whatever it is. Yeah, yeah,
it's something.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
I'm scrolling through the headlines and the news pictures and
the rest of it, and of course the delightful headline
from a Colorado news paper. Woman arrested for vandalizing Tesla
dealer and there's a picture.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Of a full grown dude. He's a man.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
He's clearly a man, beyond anybody's reasonable questioning.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
He is a man. Woman arrested.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Well, he said he's a woman, so that makes him
move will Seriously, how insane.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
If somebody had brought.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
You that ten years ago, you'd think, oh my god,
they've lost their mind.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
But if it's the picture I saw, they weren't even
presenting as a woman.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
No, there are trying. No, Well, I thought you had to,
I mean, cause you can't.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
You can't expect me to call you a woman if
you're not even a ten thinking any way.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
To look like a woman.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Oh, yes, you you are, and you'd better or we
will ruin you. We'll doc you will hound, you will
end your career.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
This swatting thing. Worries man. I've had people actually ask me,
are you worried about that?
Speaker 4 (07:14):
I had, because there's a whole bunch of just like
Twitter accounts to get a lot of attention, or radio
shows that have said things and.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Getting swatted ain't cool. Yeah, no, it's not.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Somebody's gonna get killed at a at a Tesla dealership
or in one of these swatting. There's gonna be death
at some point. And then I don't know if that
gets people's attention, or we come up with the new
rules or what.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, I can't remember when we talked about this yesterday.
Was it this hour or the next hour? About the
incredible divorce literally and figuratively between white college educated women
and white men no degree.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Stunning, It's it's different worlds.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Donald Trump, there's an eighty point spread of approval, eighty
points jd Vance similar Doge it's an eighty point is
that that's seventy point spread DEI seventy one point spread
between those two groups of people. They are from different planets.
(08:19):
And what's interesting is white men no degree have, when
you pull on specific issues, only become slightly more conservative.
Who they vote for has changed recently, but in terms
of issues, they're slightly more conservative. White college women with
a college degree or higher education have swung so violently
toward the left, nobody can recognize them.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
I feel like so for a long time, the.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
If you're going to break down groups of people, that
has a college degree meant a level of education up
until I don't know however many years ago. But now
it doesn't mean you've got any different level of eduction. Well,
your education, you've educated in Marxism or craziness or whatever.
You don't sure, you're not any more knowledgeable in terms
of things that are going to get you a job
than anybody else.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
So the term a college degree.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
It's almost it's almost misleading as a term.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yes, I see what you're saying.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Instead of saying college educated women, you might it might
be more accurate to say college indoctrinated women vote this
way at this percentage as opposed to non college and
indoctrinated men.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Honestly, I think that would be more accurate. And I'm
not trying to be an exciting, nasty right wing talk
show host. I think that's actually true. I mean, we
had that reel of it was all women significantly who
had just gotten their PhD or masters or whatever it was.
In non binary decolonialization dance symbolism, right, And that's not
(09:54):
even an exaggeration really, Oh no, no, it's like a
random word generator thing. They were all thrown them out.
It was like a parody, but it wasn't a parody.
And so you look at that and do you call
those educated people that's doctrinated.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Yeah, that's not the right term, based in the way
we've used it throughout history. So no university indoctrinated people
vote this way. Non university indoctrinated people vote that way
is the way we should go forward.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yeah, it's like if the boy scout's taught nothing but
hand to hand combat and you said, well, that young
man's an eagle scout, Well it means something.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Very very different than it used to.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
And the colleges have trent many of them have transformed
themselves in a way that's nearly that drastic. So I
don't know where this ends. Nobody knows. I mean, I've
got a couple of different examples, and they're really good.
They're really encouraging about how DEI has been shed at
this corporation and that investment fund and this government and
the rest of it. We're making great progress, but the
(10:51):
problem is not to get like super gross with you.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
But and I'll be gentle, but.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
There are situations in medicine where you can clear up
everything but the main source of infection, but you still
have the main source of infection, And the main source
of infection of this neo Marxist mind virus is the
education system, and we are barely barely scratching the surface
of it. Some of them are in retreat in a way,
(11:22):
like that poor beleaguered gal who's running at Columbia University
right now, Armstrong?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Your name is she?
Speaker 5 (11:28):
What?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Your sister?
Speaker 1 (11:30):
And the I think it was Wall Street Journal did
a profile of her about how she's in an impossible
position because you know, if she makes even a gesture
toward what I would describe as sanity or complying with
the Trump administration's demand so they get their four hundred
million dollars in grants back, she makes a single move
(11:51):
in that direction her left flank, which is like the
entire faculty saved ten percent and the entire student and staff,
save maybe ten percent of them, will go nuts. And
you know, I was tempted to feel sympathy for this
woman who was supposed to be a nice gallon a
smart gal.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
She's a doctor.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
But I thought, you know the expression, you have created
a monster. The unsaid part is, now you're screwed because
you have a monster. You haven't created a mild inconvenience.
You've created a terrible beast that will will bloody you
and tear your limbs off you. I mean, you've created
a monster. Good luck dealing with your monster, sweetheart.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
It's like the monkey on that new movie film. Yeah,
we thought it was a what was it?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
I can't remember. I found that phrase very funny, that sentence.
We thought it was an accident. It wasn't an accident.
It was a monkey.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
So I don't want to talk about the California gubernatorial race,
but a new Straw poll out shows a certain Republican,
a certain person at the top of the Republican A list,
and it's a famous crazy drunk actor.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
So we'll mention that among other things. On the way
stay here, did you guys hear about this?
Speaker 6 (13:13):
As if Tesla isn't having enough problems, they just recalled
nearly all cyber trucks because the roof panels can detach
while driving. It's dangerous. I mean if the roof clows off.
People could see you in a cyber truck anyway, only.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Anyone seeing that. I was just.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
Quite a long string of bad stories for Tesla, no
doubt about it.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah, Rock Sometimes.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
So these early polls in various things are dumb because
especially if nobody has risen up as a choice. So
we had the example the other day, AOC was at
the top of the list for presidential candidates or something
like that in some dumb pole just because there's nobody
out there.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
So her her number was like twelve percent, but it
was the highest number. Yeah, so you know, it doesn't
it doesn't mean anything.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
But similar sort of poll taken in California, really early
in the going for who should be the Republican candidate
to run for governor? And at the top of the list,
I didn't even know anybody who's considering this. Mel Gibson,
the actor, there's Mel Now, I don't know Mel Gibson's
current mental state. We had made great sport of Meil
(14:35):
back in the day when he what was what happened there?
So he called an ex his wife for he had
a meltdown of some sort.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah, his his woman h who he was on the
ounce with and read her the Riot Act on her
answering machine.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Yes, we have more of those clips, yeah, Glomacy, that's right.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Oh, that's that's it's tough to bounce back from that.
You can't unsay that, Mel.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah, we should get we should get the phone call.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
It's an entirety, not the clips, because it's pretty damned
entertaining if I remember correctly, the whole thing, the rant
that he went on. But do you have any idea
why he's at the top of our list here?
Speaker 1 (15:14):
I had no idea he had aspirations I need it
to be governor of California.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
And is he now a sober, reasonable gentleman who doesn't
call women he disagreed, disagrees with glum seas.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
And has he lightened up on the Jews? Also?
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Oh right, I'd forgotten that was an aspect of his personality.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Therefore, a devout Catholic, a little hardcore on the Jews
killed Jesus. You know, it's it's been a few thousand years.
I say, you know, let it rest, but it's me.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Wow, that is.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Awful on so many levels, Sue Yeah, Mel Gibson, I no, no,
I can't take that seriously.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
And and Okay, God, dang it, I don't know that
I've ever been that unhinged.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
I don't think, but if I ever have been, I'm
glad it's not on tape for me to ever have
to hear.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
And there was that the friend who was the son
of somebody or other and it doesn't really matter, but
Mel was unhinged and he started recording the unhinged rants
on his smartphone.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I guess do you have any of that, Michael lunchtime?
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Yeah, when you're see, that's when you're you're brought to
the level of just grunting.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Basically, we don't have the who wants to eat.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
You? You are a pain in my head.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
And here's a guy who wrote, who's written Oscar winning films,
he's written his scripts, so he's a writer, and you
come up with you are a.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Pain in my ass. Stop being that. God, that's not
the unhinged.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yes, Katie, that's often how I called my children to
the lunch table.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
It would appear he's been sober for fifteen years.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Okay, fantastic, there you go. So he's a new man
and maybe he'd make a great governor or not. Idem
Armstrong and Geddy.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Not getting near the attention I thought it would, but
the associated press of reporting Israel's renewed military offensive could
be even deadlier, more destructive than the last, which is
hard to imagine. Well, you're gonna make the rubble pieces
smaller in terms of the destruction.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
I think there's more and more honesty emerging that there's
no way we can live in peace side by side
with anything run by Hamas, and.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
We are going to keep going till we're victorious, period. Darrek.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
There's gonna be no two state solution. If Amas is
within a million miles of it's going to be no
cease fire. They've made it clear they're not going to
return the hostages. We're done blanking around. If I were
to interpret so back at least briefly to the topic
of reducing the size of the government and DOGE and
the rest of it, I found some of the underlying
(18:17):
attitudes Americans have about this sort of thing just so interesting.
For instance, the Wall Street Journal, which again they're report,
seems to be swinging a bit leftward lately in a
way I find annoying headline. Maybe it's the editor. Why
many Americans are on board with federal worker firings, and
(18:38):
they you know what, this is not left yet, now
that I think about it, this is a good explainer
for people who are left. Some envision bloat and cushy
jobs and guaranteed pensions that nobody else gets and the
rest of it. And they have lots of quotes about actually,
so you got fired from your job. I've been fired
from my job more than once.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
They actually say that sort of stuff, that people were
expecting cushy jobs with th ridiculous benefits.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Well know that that's what other Americans see, gushy jobs
and benefits they don't have.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yes, that is what I see. Effect. I know tons
of people in that situation.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
They retired long before me because they went to work
for the government.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Right. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Government employees overall have long experienced a lower rate of
layoffs than their private sector counterparts, especially during shocks such
as the early Davis Code nineteen et cetera. Federal employees
also tend to spend less time unemployed in their lives
because they're less likely to lose their jobs.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Blah blah blah. And they quote a bunch of.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Normal Americans who say, yeah, it's too bad, but I'm
not gonna like fall to my knees, weeping over your misfortune.
I've dealt with it myself, and it's fine. I soldiered
on anyway. I thought this chart was.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Indeed, if you look at Republicans and Republican leaning Independence
and ask them, let's see a shehriff Americans who say
they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence
in career federal government employees, whatever that means.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
And before before you give a so, what are my
choices here? Scale of one to ten or.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
No, you're just asking do you have a great deal
or a fair amount of confidence in career employees?
Speaker 2 (20:20):
No, of the federal bureau.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
So, from twenty eighteen to today, among Republicans and Republican
leaning Independence, the number who said yes to a great
deal or a fair amount has gone from forty nine
to it looks like about thirty five percent. Is that right, Yeah,
thirty three percent, So it's gone from almost half to
(20:46):
about a third. Right. Among Democrats and Democratic leaning Independence,
it's gone from what looks to be seventy percent down
to about sixty three percent and then back up to
seventy two have a great deal or a fair amount
of confidence in career employees of government agencies. That is
(21:07):
just a real divide in attitudes. As Robert Shapiro, Professor
of Government at Columbia said, public support for federal workers
varies widely. Of people on the left just are generally
much more supportive of Democrats of government, government workers and programs. Well,
if democrats have said another research and give me a second.
(21:29):
Democrats have tended to favor a government that does more
to solve problems. Republicans have been more likely to say
the government does too much.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
If you lean right, your hero is Ronald Reagan, who
ran on the scariest eight or nine words in the
English language are I'm from the government and I'm here
to help you. I mean, that is a declaration that
I don't think most federal workers are whatever that scale
(21:59):
is doing a great job or a reasonable job or
whatever I mean, isn't it. I mean, if you say
that's the scariest phrase in English language.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
It's this is probably not gonna be good for me.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Right sure, yeah, yeah. So anyway that those attitudes underlie
a lot of the poll results you're seeing now. Moving on,
kind of uh, the Trump administration announced they're more or
less shutting down in the way they have other things.
I mean, they cut the staff and budget to the
bone so it can't really operate. Uh, they're terminating the
(22:31):
grants for Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe, and
Radio Liberty, the Voice of America, the Office of Cuba,
Cuba broadcasting, all the Voice of America type broadcast things
that that I think we're all dimly aware.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Of through the years, trafficking weather together.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
I don't know. I don't know, perhaps not as a
professional jabberer and a patriot, I've long thought, you know,
maybe some day I should retire and go just work
for nothing at the Voice of America and just craft
messages to help people who live under nasty regimes around
the world understand how great this country is and how
(23:09):
great it can be for them. And you know how
cool self governance is and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Welcome to the Noys of America.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
Remember the phrase that pays is democracy is better than authoritarianism.
If you're a collar six can recite the phrase the
page you get a free constitution in the way.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Well, that would be exciting.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
So the headline from the Wall Street Journal editorial board
is a US retreat in the War of ideas Trump
shuts down network that helped evade dictators ships, firewalls, and
their opening is actually quite persuasive. President Trump, Trump, drump, drump,
there's no President Trump.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
I don't even know who you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
President Trump has adopted Ronald Reagan's peace through Strength theme
to echo the Gipper's successful foreign policy realism. But what
mister Trump ignores is the idealism that was the other
half of Reagan's mess, the promotion of human freedom that
undermines dictatorships from within.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Well, I got I have a great sympathy toward that philosophy. Yeah,
I bet, I got to admit that I haven't looked
into the story. I'm glad you have.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
But I just assumed that the Voice of America has
gone left like everything else has.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
And it's basically it's a hell of a leap, sir.
That's a hell of an assumption to make stay tuned,
and it's basically broadcasting NPR to the rest of the
world or the sixteen nineteen project or something. So it
didn't really bother me that much. Wow, wait to steal
my thunder you, Kirk.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Well, I don't know. That's just what I was assuming
they go into the history of it.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
The news agencies were created to counter communism and spread
the truth, and countries where the media are controlled by
the dictatorships and they lie about the rest of the world.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
It's like in.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Judy and I took a cruise around parts of Europe
last year at Christmas time, and one of the places
we ended up in was Broadislava, which was part of.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Yeah there is Oh.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
It was beautiful, Yeah, but it was interesting because the
tour guide grew up the daughter of a guy who
turned out to be an anti Soviet activist, but he
kept it very very very very quiet. He was like,
not a big activist, but he believed in his art
that freedom needed to come.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Back to his people and he wanted it to happen.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
But he dared not even tell his daughter that he
was listening to the Voice of America and that because
you would be jailed, beaten, tortured, maybe killed for being
caught listening to the Voice of America. So anyway, that
made a hell of an impression on me and what
she told us in the tour, because I think it
might have even been me who asked her what she
(25:43):
thought of the West or what they're taught about the West,
and she said, oh, we were taught that people were
just starving, that it was miserable, there was crime everywhere,
nobody could eat, kids were starving in the streets and
after his dogs. And the reason that our country is
walled off, literally walled off and protected by armed guards
(26:04):
everywhere was because everybody in the West was trying to
get in because they were so desperate.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
So that is the history of the Voice of America,
and that's why I've always been such a fan of
the idea of it. Well here's the headline from the
Washington Free Beacon, which I think does some of the
best conservative journalism around these days. They've refused to call
a terrorist a terrorist. Voice of America's demise comes after
(26:31):
years of liberal training sessions proer and bias and even
Russian propagandists. And then they go into when Trump or
drump if you prefer, moved this weekend to dismantle the
Voice of America. MSNBC wrote that the move brought an
end to pro democracy media outlets, blah blah blah, all
the good stuff we were talking about. But VOA's liberal
(26:53):
staffers have not only face criticism from running at left
wing broadcaster similar NPR. They're also accused of operating at
proer on, been producing anti Israel news coverage, and at
least two cases publishing Russian propagandists. Said, Oh lord, I
don't want to quote carry Lake on anything unless it's
how to look good and high heels. But she retails
(27:15):
or she mentions a couple of those complaints, and then
she discusses how she's not really running the VOA, she's
running the umbrella organization. The current director apparently sees things differently,
telling the journalist Mark Alprin that he considers himself a
caretaper taker who's happy to help Blake as she takes
on the responsibilities for all.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Right, let's get into the main part.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
A White House fact sheet accompanying the Executive Order said,
in an assortment of reports, including those published in The
Free Beak and detailing VOA's left wing biases and sympathies
toward Tehran, it took aim at past VOA contributors ties
to the Kremlin, including a Russian anti US propagandist who
produces videos with anti US and anti Semitic themes, bah
(27:58):
Bah Bah VOA's liber leanings, which became particularly pronounced during
Trump's first term, run counter to the broadcasters state admission
to quote represent America and present the policies of the
United States clearly and effectively. In fact, in many cases
its advanced narratives preferred by America's adversaries and aligned itself
with the anti Trump left. VOA reporters, for example, are
(28:20):
instructed to be fair, impartial, and objective in all public spaces.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
In twenty nineteen, a.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Collection of those reporters took to social media to trash
the administration they're meant to highlight abroad just littered with
anti Trump posts.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Without expect without looking into it at all. I just
assumed this. I've assumed.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Why would Voice of America be much different than NPR,
similar sort of situation, and NPR is ridiculous, right, listen
to this now. Under the Biden administration, the Umbrella Organization
spent about twenty four thousand dollars in taxpayer funds to
teach reporters under itswing how to be quote, balanced and biased. Okay,
(29:01):
oh good, that's a good expenditure. The contract to do this,
Edge mccaton went to the Pointer Institute, a liberal journalism
group that in twenty nineteen, released a blacklist of conservative
news outlets, including The Free Beacon, which it deemed unreliable.
Under criticism, Pointer withdrew the list, which was put together
with its partners from the far left Southern Poverty Lass.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Wow, well they're involved at all. Shut down Voice of America.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
That's your how to be balanced and bias free educator.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
I would love to see that list. I'm sure NPR,
New York Times anything like that. Probably some of your
cable news channels were not on there as being biased
in any way.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
The Pointer Institute a large rapp largely funded by George Soros,
Craig Newmark, Bill Gates, and Tim Gill, an activist whose
husband served as former presidents ambassador to Switzerland, which would
be really cool gig. Anyway, They used US money to
pay Pointer for at least four balanced and biased training sessions.
(30:04):
Then VOA shifted further left during the so called racial
reckoning in the spring of twenty twenty, after George Floyd
doing stories like what is white privilege? In whom does
it help?
Speaker 2 (30:16):
EANs? Tutingly what you speculated?
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Thanks you tuning and Voice of America. If you're listening
in Soudan, here's your weather today. Fundamentalist Muslim groups are
going around slaughtering people.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
So bring an umbrella, right exactly. And America is evil
and racist. In fact, it's the most racist country on earth.
So the one thing you must not do is act
like America. This is the vice of America. Yeah, strip
it to the bone, rebuild it with sanity. I would
be happy to run it.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Yeah, put us on it. No, I wouldn't. I can't
take the cut and pie. Put us on the morning,
that'd be fantastic. Huh. Broadcast would be pretty cool. Yeah,
I'd love that. H We got more in the way.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Here's our text line if you want to comment on
any of the things we talk about. Four one, two, nine, KFTC.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
And getty.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
So the whole tesla thing is really weird and getting weirder.
This is a story from the Seattle area.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
I was thankfully by myself.
Speaker 5 (31:13):
Lee was on the way to a doctor's appointment in
Lynnwood Wednesday morning when she says, all of a sudden,
a driver behind her just laying on the horn as
they came up to a red light.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Things spiraled out.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
Of control when a white SUV followed her and cut
her off, stopping in the middle of.
Speaker 7 (31:28):
The road, gets out and walks straight up to my
door window. So I cracked my window and I said,
what what is for the problem?
Speaker 2 (31:36):
He is, you need to sell your car. This is
a Patsy car. You're driving it. You need to sell
your car.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
Lisa, She's been driving a Tesla for the last two years.
She says, a man wearing a camouflage jacket and a
ski mask attacked her for it.
Speaker 7 (31:51):
It's really sad that this is what's happening to people
who honestly, it doesn't affect how I believe or what
I believe.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Oh wow, and leaving you know, left out of that story.
She had to be scared to death. A dude stops
in the middle of the road, cuts her off and
is walking up to her car. I'd be thinking, on
I'm about you, as I think I would have driven off.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
I wouldn't have waited around to see what the guy
in the ski mask wants.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
After he had driven over him.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Yeah, I'm not rolling down my window and talking to
a dude in a ski mask. Wow, that's a scary story.
How freaking crazy are these people?
Speaker 4 (32:29):
Yeah, you realize, of course, I assume that the person
driving the Tesla almost certainly is on your side politically,
almost certainly.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
They drive a tesla that does I.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Mean, I don't fit that profile what most tesla drivers do.
And this is so obvious as to be a little tiring.
But if it was some you know, maga person doing
something similar to some gay person or whatever, it would
be seen as a horror and a maniac was on
the loose quite appropriately. Yeah, when you're stop it strangers
in traffic and terrifying them like.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
That wouldn't have just been on the Seattle Evening News.
That would have been on the CBS Evening News if
that had been a guy in Camo who was walking
up to.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Well, go back six months.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
You go back six months and a guy in Camo
walking up to a tesla cutoff in traffic and said,
you believe in climate change? You fascist weirdo or something
like that.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Right, Oh my god, the coverage of that anyway, I
don't know where this is going.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
I don't think it's over.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Oh no, no, I think the crazy people are getting
emboldened if anything, and desperate is there fed the harem scare.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Them rhetoric of their side. A different topic before we
hit the top, of the Hour.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
First of all, wasn't it like a week ago that
we mentioned coastal grandmother style or something like that.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yeah, coastal grandmother chic. That's right, it's right.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
Look, and it's got to do with your It's got
to do with clothes and the way you decorate your house. Anyway,
I just came across this in the Wall Street Journal.
Grandpa Style. Cool guys love grandpa style. How to make
cardigans and pleated pants look modern. So cardigan sweaters, completed pants,
grandpa style.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Yeah, I'm busy over here. That's not the one I
was going to talk about.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
I was going to talk about the growing popularity of
sock shoes. It's got a particular brand here, Brave Pudding
their three hundred and eighty bucks, which is a pretty
pricey shoe. Their socks with hard bottoms on them, sock shoes,
the shock shoe. The sock shoe trend has been embraced
by fashion influencers and fancy moms whatever.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Whatever the hell of fancy mom is. Most moms not
one of those. Most moms, I know.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
The last thing they would call themselves at this point
in their lives is fancy.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
You gotta go with shoes, right.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
It looks pretty comfy though, I mean it's basically like
a sandal you slip on.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
It looks like wearing socks. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
I might try that. I don't know if I'll get
the four in a dollar version. It sounds stupid looking.
I'm not looking at the picture, but you look like
you're wearing socks. You're just walking around outdoors. You want
to look like you are wearing socks in public. That
would brand you as a mental patient or an escaped convict.
We did four hours every day, If You Missing Me
(35:19):
segment gets podcast Armstrong and Getty on the Man Armstrong
and Getdy
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio of the
George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Armstrong and Jetty and now he Armstrong and Eddy that
call between President Trump Anzie.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
We're doing very well with regard to Ukraine and Russia.
And one of the things we are doing is signing
a deal very shortly with respect to rare earth with Ukraine,
which they have a tremendous value in rare earth and
we appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
And so we're going to have a deal with them,
and then we're going to be in the mining business
in Ukraine. Now, Zelensky responded to this. Here's a news
report on that.
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Zelenski's fearing to dismiss Trump's proposal the US take ownership
of Ukraine's nuclear power plants for long term security.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
She autumn all nuclear power plants belong to the people
of Ukraine, while.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
Leaving the door open to one currently under Russian occupation.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
That is a.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Completely different issue. We are open to discuss it, Okay,
I have no idea what's going on at this point.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, those are two different topics, the rare earth mining
thing and the Trump just floated the idea off the
top of the said, you know it could help them
with their energy plants too.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I don't care.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
We need to talk about this later. I'm worried about
this myself. There have been fifteen, more than fifteen of
those swatting attacks against conservative influencers in the last week.
Do you know what a swat thing is. It's really
(01:55):
easy to do. I call the police and say, hey,
Jim Jones at thirteen twenty one, marking Mockingbird Lane. He's
holding his wife gunpoint. He just beat her up and
he's holding a gunpoint. He says he's gonna kill her,
and then the cops show up, guns drawn at the door.
(02:16):
Nothing has happened, nothing actually is happening, but gun's drawn,
and there's the opportunity for something to go really really wrong.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Well and at the best, at its best, it will
be a terrifying and disconcerting experience for the people involved.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Oh sure, If I'm at home and i get boom boom, boom,
open up, I'm scared to death. Even if they're saying
it's the police, is it.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
If it's the police, I might have a gun when
I show up at the door and then of course
I might get shot, or they might get shot, or
all kinds of horrible things can happen. And this has
become a tool that bad people are using to just
disrupt annoy Fright and their enemies. But anyway, fifteen plus
(03:03):
conservative influencers have been squatted had a swatting attack in
the last week.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Wow, that's insane. I know.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Pam Bondi has said we're going to crack down on
this like crazy and go after it. I certainly hope
they do it. It has resulted in injuries and death
in the past. It's an incredibly dangerous thing to oh,
for everybody, for the cops and the person in the house.
I mean, if you're in a rural area or a
high crime area or something like that, and this has
happened more than once, and it's tragic, and you think
(03:30):
it might be the cops or it might not. I'm
going to have a gun in my hand when the cops,
who have been told something horrendous and violent was going on,
see you with a gun in your hand, and now
you're dead.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Well like you and I don't live in neighborhoods where
this sort of thing happens. Ever where there are police
showing up and pounding on doors. So if in the
middle of the night there's pounding on my door somebody
yelling police, how would you react to that. I mean
you appear out the window.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I mean yes, Nobody with a quick trigger finger thinks
you're threatening them, because again, they have been told that
you are a violent lunatic who is about to kill people. Right,
so I might be peering out the window to shoot
at them, so they don't in their mind, Yeah, I'm
(04:19):
thinking I want to go home to my wife and kids,
gonna I'm gonna shoot before I'm shot. Right Again, it's
impossible to fully appreciate how incredibly dangerous this is. And
you know, if it's some sixteen year old jackass, you
know the sanction needs to be sufficiently strong that no
other sixteen year old jackass thinks it's a good idea.
But if this is adults who are knowingly doing this,
(04:42):
there's got to be extremely strong sanctions.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
I think you're right.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I think the best way to stop it is that
the penalty is just so high that you wouldn't want
to mess.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Around with it. I don't know how else to stop it.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
And you know, whether that would work because a lot
of these people are crazy.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
I was just looking at a video. Maybe we'll play
the audio a little bit later of somebody cutting off
a tesla. I think it was in Washington State, but anyway,
cutting off a tesla in traffic, and then the person
pulling over because they were so rattled, and then the
person getting out of the car coming up into being
screamed at by a lunatic on the road because they
try a tesla. Well, can you deter somebody like that
(05:28):
with a penalty, because they're clearly freaking nuts, but you
gotta try.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Well.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
We mentioned speaking of things that Pam Bondi says she's
going to crack down on. She says it's clearly domestic
terrorism and we'll be treated as such. We mentioned yesterday
that of the four people arrested so far for vandalizing, destroying, bombing, shooting,
tesla facilities, chargers and vehicles, three of them identify as
transgender or non binary.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
In that something, what percentage of the country is a
try Well, of course, spirit Brown University thirty percent of
the student body is trans. But I mean in the
general population it's like zero point oh one percent. But
for people who destroy Tesla dealerships.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
It's for three quarters or whatever it is. Yeah, yeah,
it's something.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
I'm scrolling through the headlines and the news pictures and
the rest of it, and of course the delightful headline
from a Colorado news paper. Woman arrested for vandalizing Tesla
dealer and there's a picture.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Of a full grown dude. He's a man.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
He's clearly a man, beyond anybody's reasonable questioning.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
He is a man. Woman arrested.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Well, he said he's a woman, so that makes him
move will Seriously, how insane.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
If somebody had brought.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
You that ten years ago, you'd think, oh my god,
they've lost their mind.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
But if it's the picture I saw, they weren't even
presenting as a woman.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
No, there are trying. No, Well, I thought you had to,
I mean, cause you can't.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
You can't expect me to call you a woman if
you're not even a ten thinking any way.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
To look like a woman.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Oh, yes, you you are, and you'd better or we
will ruin you. We'll doc you will hound, you will
end your career.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
This swatting thing. Worries man. I've had people actually ask me,
are you worried about that?
Speaker 4 (07:14):
I had, because there's a whole bunch of just like
Twitter accounts to get a lot of attention, or radio
shows that have said things and.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Getting swatted ain't cool. Yeah, no, it's not.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Somebody's gonna get killed at a at a Tesla dealership
or in one of these swatting. There's gonna be death
at some point. And then I don't know if that
gets people's attention, or we come up with the new
rules or what.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, I can't remember when we talked about this yesterday.
Was it this hour or the next hour? About the
incredible divorce literally and figuratively between white college educated women
and white men no degree.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Stunning, It's it's different worlds.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Donald Trump, there's an eighty point spread of approval, eighty
points jd Vance similar Doge it's an eighty point is
that that's seventy point spread DEI seventy one point spread
between those two groups of people. They are from different planets.
(08:19):
And what's interesting is white men no degree have, when
you pull on specific issues, only become slightly more conservative.
Who they vote for has changed recently, but in terms
of issues, they're slightly more conservative. White college women with
a college degree or higher education have swung so violently
toward the left, nobody can recognize them.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
I feel like so for a long time, the.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
If you're going to break down groups of people, that
has a college degree meant a level of education up
until I don't know however many years ago. But now
it doesn't mean you've got any different level of eduction. Well,
your education, you've educated in Marxism or craziness or whatever.
You don't sure, you're not any more knowledgeable in terms
of things that are going to get you a job
than anybody else.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
So the term a college degree.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
It's almost it's almost misleading as a term.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yes, I see what you're saying.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Instead of saying college educated women, you might it might
be more accurate to say college indoctrinated women vote this
way at this percentage as opposed to non college and
indoctrinated men.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Honestly, I think that would be more accurate. And I'm
not trying to be an exciting, nasty right wing talk
show host. I think that's actually true. I mean, we
had that reel of it was all women significantly who
had just gotten their PhD or masters or whatever it was.
In non binary decolonialization dance symbolism, right, And that's not
(09:54):
even an exaggeration really, Oh no, no, it's like a
random word generator thing. They were all thrown them out.
It was like a parody, but it wasn't a parody.
And so you look at that and do you call
those educated people that's doctrinated.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Yeah, that's not the right term, based in the way
we've used it throughout history. So no university indoctrinated people
vote this way. Non university indoctrinated people vote that way
is the way we should go forward.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yeah, it's like if the boy scout's taught nothing but
hand to hand combat and you said, well, that young
man's an eagle scout, Well it means something.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Very very different than it used to.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
And the colleges have trent many of them have transformed
themselves in a way that's nearly that drastic. So I
don't know where this ends. Nobody knows. I mean, I've
got a couple of different examples, and they're really good.
They're really encouraging about how DEI has been shed at
this corporation and that investment fund and this government and
the rest of it. We're making great progress, but the
(10:51):
problem is not to get like super gross with you.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
But and I'll be gentle, but.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
There are situations in medicine where you can clear up
everything but the main source of infection, but you still
have the main source of infection, And the main source
of infection of this neo Marxist mind virus is the
education system, and we are barely barely scratching the surface
of it. Some of them are in retreat in a way,
(11:22):
like that poor beleaguered gal who's running at Columbia University
right now, Armstrong?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Your name is she?
Speaker 5 (11:28):
What?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Your sister?
Speaker 1 (11:30):
And the I think it was Wall Street Journal did
a profile of her about how she's in an impossible
position because you know, if she makes even a gesture
toward what I would describe as sanity or complying with
the Trump administration's demand so they get their four hundred
million dollars in grants back, she makes a single move
(11:51):
in that direction her left flank, which is like the
entire faculty saved ten percent and the entire student and staff,
save maybe ten percent of them, will go nuts. And
you know, I was tempted to feel sympathy for this
woman who was supposed to be a nice gallon a
smart gal.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
She's a doctor.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
But I thought, you know the expression, you have created
a monster. The unsaid part is, now you're screwed because
you have a monster. You haven't created a mild inconvenience.
You've created a terrible beast that will will bloody you
and tear your limbs off you. I mean, you've created
a monster. Good luck dealing with your monster, sweetheart.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
It's like the monkey on that new movie film. Yeah,
we thought it was a what was it?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
I can't remember. I found that phrase very funny, that sentence.
We thought it was an accident. It wasn't an accident.
It was a monkey.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
So I don't want to talk about the California gubernatorial race,
but a new Straw poll out shows a certain Republican,
a certain person at the top of the Republican A list,
and it's a famous crazy drunk actor.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
So we'll mention that among other things. On the way
stay here, did you guys hear about this?
Speaker 6 (13:13):
As if Tesla isn't having enough problems, they just recalled
nearly all cyber trucks because the roof panels can detach
while driving. It's dangerous. I mean if the roof clows off.
People could see you in a cyber truck anyway, only.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Anyone seeing that. I was just.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
Quite a long string of bad stories for Tesla, no
doubt about it.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah, Rock Sometimes.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
So these early polls in various things are dumb because
especially if nobody has risen up as a choice. So
we had the example the other day, AOC was at
the top of the list for presidential candidates or something
like that in some dumb pole just because there's nobody
out there.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
So her her number was like twelve percent, but it
was the highest number. Yeah, so you know, it doesn't
it doesn't mean anything.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
But similar sort of poll taken in California, really early
in the going for who should be the Republican candidate
to run for governor? And at the top of the list,
I didn't even know anybody who's considering this. Mel Gibson,
the actor, there's Mel Now, I don't know Mel Gibson's
current mental state. We had made great sport of Meil
(14:35):
back in the day when he what was what happened there?
So he called an ex his wife for he had
a meltdown of some sort.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah, his his woman h who he was on the
ounce with and read her the Riot Act on her
answering machine.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Yes, we have more of those clips, yeah, Glomacy, that's right.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Oh, that's that's it's tough to bounce back from that.
You can't unsay that, Mel.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah, we should get we should get the phone call.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
It's an entirety, not the clips, because it's pretty damned
entertaining if I remember correctly, the whole thing, the rant
that he went on. But do you have any idea
why he's at the top of our list here?
Speaker 1 (15:14):
I had no idea he had aspirations I need it
to be governor of California.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
And is he now a sober, reasonable gentleman who doesn't
call women he disagreed, disagrees with glum seas.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
And has he lightened up on the Jews? Also?
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Oh right, I'd forgotten that was an aspect of his personality.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Therefore, a devout Catholic, a little hardcore on the Jews
killed Jesus. You know, it's it's been a few thousand years.
I say, you know, let it rest, but it's me.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Wow, that is.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Awful on so many levels, Sue Yeah, Mel Gibson, I no, no,
I can't take that seriously.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
And and Okay, God, dang it, I don't know that
I've ever been that unhinged.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
I don't think, but if I ever have been, I'm
glad it's not on tape for me to ever have
to hear.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
And there was that the friend who was the son
of somebody or other and it doesn't really matter, but
Mel was unhinged and he started recording the unhinged rants
on his smartphone.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I guess do you have any of that, Michael lunchtime?
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Yeah, when you're see, that's when you're you're brought to
the level of just grunting.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Basically, we don't have the who wants to eat.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
You? You are a pain in my head.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
And here's a guy who wrote, who's written Oscar winning films,
he's written his scripts, so he's a writer, and you
come up with you are a.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Pain in my ass. Stop being that. God, that's not
the unhinged.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yes, Katie, that's often how I called my children to
the lunch table.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
It would appear he's been sober for fifteen years.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Okay, fantastic, there you go. So he's a new man
and maybe he'd make a great governor or not. Idem
Armstrong and Geddy.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Not getting near the attention I thought it would, but
the associated press of reporting Israel's renewed military offensive could
be even deadlier, more destructive than the last, which is
hard to imagine. Well, you're gonna make the rubble pieces
smaller in terms of the destruction.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
I think there's more and more honesty emerging that there's
no way we can live in peace side by side
with anything run by Hamas, and.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
We are going to keep going till we're victorious, period. Darrek.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
There's gonna be no two state solution. If Amas is
within a million miles of it's going to be no
cease fire. They've made it clear they're not going to
return the hostages. We're done blanking around. If I were
to interpret so back at least briefly to the topic
of reducing the size of the government and DOGE and
the rest of it, I found some of the underlying
(18:17):
attitudes Americans have about this sort of thing just so interesting.
For instance, the Wall Street Journal, which again they're report,
seems to be swinging a bit leftward lately in a
way I find annoying headline. Maybe it's the editor. Why
many Americans are on board with federal worker firings, and
(18:38):
they you know what, this is not left yet, now
that I think about it, this is a good explainer
for people who are left. Some envision bloat and cushy
jobs and guaranteed pensions that nobody else gets and the
rest of it. And they have lots of quotes about actually,
so you got fired from your job. I've been fired
from my job more than once.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
They actually say that sort of stuff, that people were
expecting cushy jobs with th ridiculous benefits.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Well know that that's what other Americans see, gushy jobs
and benefits they don't have.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yes, that is what I see. Effect. I know tons
of people in that situation.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
They retired long before me because they went to work
for the government.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Right. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Government employees overall have long experienced a lower rate of
layoffs than their private sector counterparts, especially during shocks such
as the early Davis Code nineteen et cetera. Federal employees
also tend to spend less time unemployed in their lives
because they're less likely to lose their jobs.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Blah blah blah. And they quote a bunch of.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Normal Americans who say, yeah, it's too bad, but I'm
not gonna like fall to my knees, weeping over your misfortune.
I've dealt with it myself, and it's fine. I soldiered
on anyway. I thought this chart was.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Indeed, if you look at Republicans and Republican leaning Independence
and ask them, let's see a shehriff Americans who say
they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence
in career federal government employees, whatever that means.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
And before before you give a so, what are my
choices here? Scale of one to ten or.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
No, you're just asking do you have a great deal
or a fair amount of confidence in career employees?
Speaker 2 (20:20):
No, of the federal bureau.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
So, from twenty eighteen to today, among Republicans and Republican
leaning Independence, the number who said yes to a great
deal or a fair amount has gone from forty nine
to it looks like about thirty five percent. Is that right, Yeah,
thirty three percent, So it's gone from almost half to
(20:46):
about a third. Right. Among Democrats and Democratic leaning Independence,
it's gone from what looks to be seventy percent down
to about sixty three percent and then back up to
seventy two have a great deal or a fair amount
of confidence in career employees of government agencies. That is
(21:07):
just a real divide in attitudes. As Robert Shapiro, Professor
of Government at Columbia said, public support for federal workers
varies widely. Of people on the left just are generally
much more supportive of Democrats of government, government workers and programs. Well,
if democrats have said another research and give me a second.
(21:29):
Democrats have tended to favor a government that does more
to solve problems. Republicans have been more likely to say
the government does too much.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
If you lean right, your hero is Ronald Reagan, who
ran on the scariest eight or nine words in the
English language are I'm from the government and I'm here
to help you. I mean, that is a declaration that
I don't think most federal workers are whatever that scale
(21:59):
is doing a great job or a reasonable job or
whatever I mean, isn't it. I mean, if you say
that's the scariest phrase in English language.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
It's this is probably not gonna be good for me.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Right sure, yeah, yeah. So anyway that those attitudes underlie
a lot of the poll results you're seeing now. Moving on,
kind of uh, the Trump administration announced they're more or
less shutting down in the way they have other things.
I mean, they cut the staff and budget to the
bone so it can't really operate. Uh, they're terminating the
(22:31):
grants for Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe, and
Radio Liberty, the Voice of America, the Office of Cuba,
Cuba broadcasting, all the Voice of America type broadcast things
that that I think we're all dimly aware.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Of through the years, trafficking weather together.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
I don't know. I don't know, perhaps not as a
professional jabberer and a patriot, I've long thought, you know,
maybe some day I should retire and go just work
for nothing at the Voice of America and just craft
messages to help people who live under nasty regimes around
the world understand how great this country is and how
(23:09):
great it can be for them. And you know how
cool self governance is and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Welcome to the Noys of America.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
Remember the phrase that pays is democracy is better than authoritarianism.
If you're a collar six can recite the phrase the
page you get a free constitution in the way.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Well, that would be exciting.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
So the headline from the Wall Street Journal editorial board
is a US retreat in the War of ideas Trump
shuts down network that helped evade dictators ships, firewalls, and
their opening is actually quite persuasive. President Trump, Trump, drump, drump,
there's no President Trump.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
I don't even know who you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
President Trump has adopted Ronald Reagan's peace through Strength theme
to echo the Gipper's successful foreign policy realism. But what
mister Trump ignores is the idealism that was the other
half of Reagan's mess, the promotion of human freedom that
undermines dictatorships from within.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Well, I got I have a great sympathy toward that philosophy. Yeah,
I bet, I got to admit that I haven't looked
into the story. I'm glad you have.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
But I just assumed that the Voice of America has
gone left like everything else has.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
And it's basically it's a hell of a leap, sir.
That's a hell of an assumption to make stay tuned,
and it's basically broadcasting NPR to the rest of the
world or the sixteen nineteen project or something. So it
didn't really bother me that much. Wow, wait to steal
my thunder you, Kirk.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Well, I don't know. That's just what I was assuming
they go into the history of it.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
The news agencies were created to counter communism and spread
the truth, and countries where the media are controlled by
the dictatorships and they lie about the rest of the world.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
It's like in.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Judy and I took a cruise around parts of Europe
last year at Christmas time, and one of the places
we ended up in was Broadislava, which was part of.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Yeah there is Oh.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
It was beautiful, Yeah, but it was interesting because the
tour guide grew up the daughter of a guy who
turned out to be an anti Soviet activist, but he
kept it very very very very quiet. He was like,
not a big activist, but he believed in his art
that freedom needed to come.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Back to his people and he wanted it to happen.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
But he dared not even tell his daughter that he
was listening to the Voice of America and that because
you would be jailed, beaten, tortured, maybe killed for being
caught listening to the Voice of America. So anyway, that
made a hell of an impression on me and what
she told us in the tour, because I think it
might have even been me who asked her what she
(25:43):
thought of the West or what they're taught about the West,
and she said, oh, we were taught that people were
just starving, that it was miserable, there was crime everywhere,
nobody could eat, kids were starving in the streets and
after his dogs. And the reason that our country is
walled off, literally walled off and protected by armed guards
(26:04):
everywhere was because everybody in the West was trying to
get in because they were so desperate.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
So that is the history of the Voice of America,
and that's why I've always been such a fan of
the idea of it. Well here's the headline from the
Washington Free Beacon, which I think does some of the
best conservative journalism around these days. They've refused to call
a terrorist a terrorist. Voice of America's demise comes after
(26:31):
years of liberal training sessions proer and bias and even
Russian propagandists. And then they go into when Trump or
drump if you prefer, moved this weekend to dismantle the
Voice of America. MSNBC wrote that the move brought an
end to pro democracy media outlets, blah blah blah, all
the good stuff we were talking about. But VOA's liberal
(26:53):
staffers have not only face criticism from running at left
wing broadcaster similar NPR. They're also accused of operating at
proer on, been producing anti Israel news coverage, and at
least two cases publishing Russian propagandists. Said, Oh lord, I
don't want to quote carry Lake on anything unless it's
how to look good and high heels. But she retails
(27:15):
or she mentions a couple of those complaints, and then
she discusses how she's not really running the VOA, she's
running the umbrella organization. The current director apparently sees things differently,
telling the journalist Mark Alprin that he considers himself a
caretaper taker who's happy to help Blake as she takes
on the responsibilities for all.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Right, let's get into the main part.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
A White House fact sheet accompanying the Executive Order said,
in an assortment of reports, including those published in The
Free Beak and detailing VOA's left wing biases and sympathies
toward Tehran, it took aim at past VOA contributors ties
to the Kremlin, including a Russian anti US propagandist who
produces videos with anti US and anti Semitic themes, bah
(27:58):
Bah Bah VOA's liber leanings, which became particularly pronounced during
Trump's first term, run counter to the broadcasters state admission
to quote represent America and present the policies of the
United States clearly and effectively. In fact, in many cases
its advanced narratives preferred by America's adversaries and aligned itself
with the anti Trump left. VOA reporters, for example, are
(28:20):
instructed to be fair, impartial, and objective in all public spaces.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
In twenty nineteen, a.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Collection of those reporters took to social media to trash
the administration they're meant to highlight abroad just littered with
anti Trump posts.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Without expect without looking into it at all. I just
assumed this. I've assumed.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Why would Voice of America be much different than NPR,
similar sort of situation, and NPR is ridiculous, right, listen
to this now. Under the Biden administration, the Umbrella Organization
spent about twenty four thousand dollars in taxpayer funds to
teach reporters under itswing how to be quote, balanced and biased. Okay,
(29:01):
oh good, that's a good expenditure. The contract to do this,
Edge mccaton went to the Pointer Institute, a liberal journalism
group that in twenty nineteen, released a blacklist of conservative
news outlets, including The Free Beacon, which it deemed unreliable.
Under criticism, Pointer withdrew the list, which was put together
with its partners from the far left Southern Poverty Lass.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Wow, well they're involved at all. Shut down Voice of America.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
That's your how to be balanced and bias free educator.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
I would love to see that list. I'm sure NPR,
New York Times anything like that. Probably some of your
cable news channels were not on there as being biased
in any way.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
The Pointer Institute a large rapp largely funded by George Soros,
Craig Newmark, Bill Gates, and Tim Gill, an activist whose
husband served as former presidents ambassador to Switzerland, which would
be really cool gig. Anyway, They used US money to
pay Pointer for at least four balanced and biased training sessions.
(30:04):
Then VOA shifted further left during the so called racial
reckoning in the spring of twenty twenty, after George Floyd
doing stories like what is white privilege? In whom does
it help?
Speaker 2 (30:16):
EANs? Tutingly what you speculated?
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Thanks you tuning and Voice of America. If you're listening
in Soudan, here's your weather today. Fundamentalist Muslim groups are
going around slaughtering people.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
So bring an umbrella, right exactly. And America is evil
and racist. In fact, it's the most racist country on earth.
So the one thing you must not do is act
like America. This is the vice of America. Yeah, strip
it to the bone, rebuild it with sanity. I would
be happy to run it.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Yeah, put us on it. No, I wouldn't. I can't
take the cut and pie. Put us on the morning,
that'd be fantastic. Huh. Broadcast would be pretty cool. Yeah,
I'd love that. H We got more in the way.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Here's our text line if you want to comment on
any of the things we talk about. Four one, two, nine, KFTC.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
And getty.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
So the whole tesla thing is really weird and getting weirder.
This is a story from the Seattle area.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
I was thankfully by myself.
Speaker 5 (31:13):
Lee was on the way to a doctor's appointment in
Lynnwood Wednesday morning when she says, all of a sudden,
a driver behind her just laying on the horn as
they came up to a red light.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Things spiraled out.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
Of control when a white SUV followed her and cut
her off, stopping in the middle of.
Speaker 7 (31:28):
The road, gets out and walks straight up to my
door window. So I cracked my window and I said,
what what is for the problem?
Speaker 2 (31:36):
He is, you need to sell your car. This is
a Patsy car. You're driving it. You need to sell
your car.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
Lisa, She's been driving a Tesla for the last two years.
She says, a man wearing a camouflage jacket and a
ski mask attacked her for it.
Speaker 7 (31:51):
It's really sad that this is what's happening to people
who honestly, it doesn't affect how I believe or what
I believe.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Oh wow, and leaving you know, left out of that story.
She had to be scared to death. A dude stops
in the middle of the road, cuts her off and
is walking up to her car. I'd be thinking, on
I'm about you, as I think I would have driven off.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
I wouldn't have waited around to see what the guy
in the ski mask wants.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
After he had driven over him.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Yeah, I'm not rolling down my window and talking to
a dude in a ski mask. Wow, that's a scary story.
How freaking crazy are these people?
Speaker 4 (32:29):
Yeah, you realize, of course, I assume that the person
driving the Tesla almost certainly is on your side politically,
almost certainly.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
They drive a tesla that does I.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Mean, I don't fit that profile what most tesla drivers do.
And this is so obvious as to be a little tiring.
But if it was some you know, maga person doing
something similar to some gay person or whatever, it would
be seen as a horror and a maniac was on
the loose quite appropriately. Yeah, when you're stop it strangers
in traffic and terrifying them like.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
That wouldn't have just been on the Seattle Evening News.
That would have been on the CBS Evening News if
that had been a guy in Camo who was walking
up to.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Well, go back six months.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
You go back six months and a guy in Camo
walking up to a tesla cutoff in traffic and said,
you believe in climate change? You fascist weirdo or something
like that.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Right, Oh my god, the coverage of that anyway, I
don't know where this is going.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
I don't think it's over.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Oh no, no, I think the crazy people are getting
emboldened if anything, and desperate is there fed the harem scare.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Them rhetoric of their side. A different topic before we
hit the top, of the Hour.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
First of all, wasn't it like a week ago that
we mentioned coastal grandmother style or something like that.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yeah, coastal grandmother chic. That's right, it's right.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
Look, and it's got to do with your It's got
to do with clothes and the way you decorate your house. Anyway,
I just came across this in the Wall Street Journal.
Grandpa Style. Cool guys love grandpa style. How to make
cardigans and pleated pants look modern. So cardigan sweaters, completed pants,
grandpa style.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Yeah, I'm busy over here. That's not the one I
was going to talk about.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
I was going to talk about the growing popularity of
sock shoes. It's got a particular brand here, Brave Pudding
their three hundred and eighty bucks, which is a pretty
pricey shoe. Their socks with hard bottoms on them, sock shoes,
the shock shoe. The sock shoe trend has been embraced
by fashion influencers and fancy moms whatever.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Whatever the hell of fancy mom is. Most moms not
one of those. Most moms, I know.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
The last thing they would call themselves at this point
in their lives is fancy.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
You gotta go with shoes, right.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
It looks pretty comfy though, I mean it's basically like
a sandal you slip on.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
It looks like wearing socks. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
I might try that. I don't know if I'll get
the four in a dollar version. It sounds stupid looking.
I'm not looking at the picture, but you look like
you're wearing socks. You're just walking around outdoors. You want
to look like you are wearing socks in public. That
would brand you as a mental patient or an escaped convict.
We did four hours every day, If You Missing Me
(35:19):
segment gets podcast Armstrong and Getty on the Man Armstrong
and Getdy
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Jack Armstrong
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