April 1, 2025 • 36 mins
Hour 2 of A&G features...
- The Ukraine/Russia war & possible war with Iran
- Trump administration going after Harvard
- Torpedo bats & new admissions policies at colleges
- New billionaires are self made
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 Getty and no He Armstrong and Yetty.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
President Trump tells NBC News that he is quote very
angry at Putin for criticizing Ukrainian President Vladimir z Lenski,
now threatening to impose additional tariffs.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
He says, twenty five.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
To fifty percent on Russian oil if Putin stands.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
In the way of a deal. So we're going to
get the two wars we are kind of involved in
out of the way here this segment, at least for now,
first Russia Ukraine. Trump saying he's really pissed off at
Putin is the first negative ish thing he said about
Putin maybe ever, certainly in this attempt to brok her
(00:58):
apiece and.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Attack some pretty serious economic sanctions to is anger.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
And we'll see where that goes. But I was surprised
how little talk as in. I didn't hear it anywhere.
The giant Sunday New York Times front page piece about
our involvement from the beginning of helping the Ukrainians being
so much more than it had ever been reported. Now.
The why that was in there at that time is
(01:25):
kind of interesting. I don't know if that's just when
they got the reporting together, or if this is some
sort of effort to let people know how involved we
are so we need to continue, or I don't know,
maybe there's no political thing to it at all. It
might it might just be journalism. But did you read that?
(01:46):
It is quite amazing? Yeah, I read of It's like
four parts. It's like one of those We're going to
win a Pulzerprize over this incredibly long pieces that they wrote.
But one of the lead paragraphs about it New York
Times reporting that Ukrainian in hi Mars when we gave
them those super fancy missiles and that sort of stuff.
The strikes on Russia were directly coordinated from a US
(02:07):
military base in Germany. We were in charge of the
coordinates and the we gave them this stuff, coordinate everything really,
really the whole thing, right, just we're across the border,
your fingers on the triggers. That's it. Revealing the Ukraine's
dependence on US support was far deeper than anyone had realized.
And they go into from the very beginning, like day two,
(02:30):
A truck pulls up in Kiev, picks up a couple
of Ukrainian generals, all under secret, you know, protected by
British secrets, so all this sort of stuff gets them
to the border. They go to our military base that
we've got in Germany, and we immediately start the instructing, planning,
coordinating at a very very deep level, like we're running
(02:51):
the war, right, which I always assumed. I've said many
times and I've always assumed that there's no way they're
doing this without our help. But right, that's funny.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
I had the same reaction that it was very very
thorough and interesting but not surprising.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
And by the way, a lot of folks on the.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
What do you call it, the new right, the isolationist right,
is there a name, the woke right, the JD vance
Ish right, And I love JD in a lot of ways,
but not so much in others. If you're making the
argument that that was a bad policy and unjustified and
we provoked to Russia, that's fine, but you got to stop.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Just calling people neocons. That's not an argument. It's like
the left calls everybody fascists. You're just you're not advancing
the football, but maybe that's not what you want to
do ideologically, you're not convincing anybody of anything. There were
also the New York Times reports SMEs some months earlier,
at the very beginning of the war, and they mentioned
this general had been allowed to send a small team
(03:53):
about a dozen officers to Kiev, easing the prohibition on
American boots on Ukrainian ground, by calling them SMEs so
as not to evoke memories of the American military advisors
sent to South Vietnam that ended up being because it
was advisers, they called them advisors. They called them advisors
all through the Kennedy administration. Pretty soon you're in a
(04:14):
full on war kind of what we were doing then,
same thing, except this time instead of advisors, they called
them SMEs subject matter experts. Oh so we sent in
a dozen subject matter experts.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Ah, that's weird, the government using obscure terms to obscure
what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
American military advisors that were right in Kiva, a dozen
of them, right at the beginning of the war and
coordinating all kinds of their respons This is what you
should do where when, and this is what our intelligence shows.
I mean, if you remember the very beginning of the war.
It was just stunning the way Ukraine was able to
halt that invasion and the tanks and all that sort
of stuff. It's because we were as involved as you
(04:57):
could get without us actually just you know, dropping the
airborne rangers there, right.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Yeah, yeah, And yet there was that very halting, incremental
increase in support by the Biden administration, right, which is interesting.
You know, the books will be written, I suppose, and
they'll disagree with each other, but the incoherence of his
policy will, you know, fascinate me for the rest of
my days. Well, according to both the Woodward and the
(05:25):
Sanger book, it was all about Biden really worrying that
he could trigger Putin wanting to use nuclear weapons, and
like Secretary of State Blincoln was further on the other
side of we got to push harder, we got to
push harder.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
We don't need to be so scared. But that was
Biden's decision, for better or worse. Yeah, those of you
who think, you know, we're close to World War three
and it's none of our business, you're probably happy about that,
right yeah. Okay, So the other war, I thought that
if you're interested in that stuff, from Ukraine. Read that
New York Times, so I thought it was interesting. The
(06:01):
other war we're involved in, it might be getting way
more involved in as Trump threatened a military strike on
Iran Sunday and I didn't get that much attention either.
It's funny how running for third term panel discussions We're
gonna bomb the but Jesus out of a major military
power and get involved in a war in the Middle
East with the biggest dog in the neighborhood barely makes
(06:25):
the news. Technically, we're gonna bomb the bi Allah out
of them. Excellent point, Thank you. I shouldn't use that term.
It makes no sense. This is from sixty minutes on
Sunday night. One of the hostages has that got released
by Hamas. He'll tell his story and what's not in here,
I'll fill in the rest ninety If you could say
(06:49):
something to President Trump, what would you say, Please stop
stop this wall and help bring all those back. And
you think he can help. I know he can help.
I'm here because of Pump. I'm here only because of him.
I think he's the only one who can stop this
roll again. So you think he can bring about another
(07:11):
cease fire, he has to Hamas, and I think he
can do it, you know, from a media politics side,
I just thought it was interesting for the second week
in a row they had they lead with a story
that's pretty Trump friendly. But this guy's story, if you
didn't see it, is freaking brutal. I did not. Oh
my god, it's it's you know, we'll ruin your day
(07:33):
sort of story. His wife and his whole family massacred,
and him thinking he was going to be killed. He
already his wife and kids had already been killed, right
and and and him thinking every single day when they
came to get him, they would, you know, they would
act like they were going to kill him, and then
not like.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
They did to a number of He might not not
have been aware of it, but they did that plenty
of times. It was not an unrealistic expectation.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I am interested that he both thinks thanks Trump for
getting him out, but thinks that they need to stop
the war so Hamas can continue to exist. I don't
know that there's a presumption in the media, the mainstream,
which is to say, left to media, that somebody like
(08:21):
him has greater moral weight and special insight into really
complicated political policy.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
And a guy like me. I have full empathy for
the horrors he has endured. I can't even imagine it.
But I don't grant him any special intellectual or any
other sort of power to dictate policy or even insight
just because Yeah, yeah, I don't understand that assumption. That's unspoken,
(08:52):
but it's there.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
We had the news story that there were Hamas protests
against Hamas in Aza over the weekend, and we had
the story yesterday that one of the voices that spoke
up against AMAS had been killed. Well, more details came
out yesterday. Hamas found this guy, tortured him for hours,
(09:16):
and then dropped him on the doorstep, near death at
his family's house, with the message that don't be protesting us, Yeah,
to send to everyone else. Yes, So you freaking moron
college kids? What what? What? How do you square that
with your opinion? This is a Palestinian dude who was
(09:38):
protesting with a number of other young Palestinian people against
TAMAS and they tortured him for four hours and killed him.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Right, Yes, well, an organization that is against every single
principle you claimed to have.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
He was against them too, but you know I was.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
I'm rereading James and Helen Pluckrose's brilliant book Cynical Theories
about the origin of the postmodernist, neomarxist whatever you want
to call it, woke thing, and how it works, how
it functions in the ideology itself and it is. It's
difficult to convince people that college students who've been thoroughly indoctrinated,
(10:21):
some of them since they're in kindergarten, but certainly once
they get to college are so captured by the idea
that the world is quickly and easily divided into the
oppressor and the oppressed. You'd think, no, no, no, nobody
could buy an argument that oversimplified and have that as
(10:42):
their worldview and just be able to, for instance, because
they perceive the Palestinians being oppressed, not see any fault
in Hamas, not see any sin or hatred or evil
in Hamas none because they are oppressed.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Simple, that's the end of it. Don't tell me anything.
I don't want to hear anything else. You think, no, no, no, no.
An adult, even a very young adult, couldn't possibly be
that cultize, that indoctrinate. But it's true. You just have
to accept it. This is a brave young man twenty
two years old who stood up and led a protest
against Amas. I mean, that is a true patriot right there,
(11:19):
and he knew this was coming. Good lord, Yeah, that's brutal.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
I find myself wondering, will we have to as a
nation or as you know, parents and grandparents and aunts
and uncles and neighbors and friends, have to borrow a
number of pages from the dprogramming cultist's handbook for dealing
with our young people because they were stolen away by
(11:44):
a cult.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
We just didn't know it. It was at your local schools.
The same guy didn't cover his face, by the way,
Oh my lord, he's there with his face showing his
name available, protesting Hamas because they're evil and he wants
his little strip of land have a shot a chance,
and he is tortured to death for it, and you
freaking more hunts and college can.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Getting your gender studies master's degree from freeing your faces, brave,
brave revolutionaries? Nutjobs? Yeah no, I'm telling you. It's it's sad,
all right.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
That's enough of that. I want to get to that
Forbes billionaire list. We got a bunch of stuff to
get to today. Boy A Maria Shriver with a piece
about her divorce from Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yeah, Arnold Schwarzenegger, one
of the new billionaires on the list, by the way,
just added this year. Wow, all fits together. See it's
all coming again. A bunch of stuff on the way.
Stay here. Do you think these little elections they have
(12:41):
mean anything? I just never have. Am I wrong about that? Anyway?
Talk about that later? Not talking about that? Now? What
little elections?
Speaker 1 (12:46):
What? What?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
What? When I have these little special elections somewhere like
in Florida, Wisconsin weather for the member. God, he's hitting me,
Stop hitting me. I've never believed that. It seems so
dumb to me. Yeah, yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
I I'd meant to throw this in the last discussion
because it occurred to me when you're describing Trump's turning
maybe on poutin and now threatening in the rest of it.
Trump is his own good cop and bad cop. That's
his negotiating style. He comes on with the handshakes and
the smiles and everything, and if you defy him, he,
(13:22):
you know, it turns around snarling like some sort of
horror movie. Then you got a mess on your hands,
and you come around to his side and you're his
buddy again.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
He's his own good cop bad Could I talk about
this on the air how I has shown my son
how the car salesman tried to shine me on the
other day to get something. I don't think, so maybe
I'll talk about that on the air later. Because he
was doing the kind of good cop thing, and I
was like, you see what he did there? What was
going on there?
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Coming up a brand new feature I've entitled woke Watch
because the battle is far, far, far from over. But
I was ranting about colleges and schools, and so I
thought an example of the evildoers and the people who
are getting it right very quickly. The Trump administration is
now targeting Harvard with a review of nine billion dollars
(14:10):
in federal funding that's on the way to the school.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Wow, not the four hundred million of Columbia. Now.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
It's two hundred and fifty six million in current contracts
and eight point seven billion in grants spread over multiple years,
and that money is spread among Harvard and a couple
of affiliates, including Boston area hospitals. But it places Harvard
alongside Columbia University in the Trump administration crosshairs as they're
(14:36):
fighting over the future of higher education in America.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
We'll let me present it from the left. This send
a chill down the spine of anybody that cares about
independence in higher education. That's very good, it says.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
If you're quoting the guy later in the article, I
was going to mention Harvard was one of sixty schools
the Education Department contacted earlier this month warning them of
potential enforcement actions if they didn't quit letting Jews get
beat up and kept out a class. Ah so, and
they made statements to that effect.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
I definitely have to talk about the whole car salesman
experience because the guy who was doing the financial stuff
talking about his career path didn't go to college. And
none of the guys that I was dealing with early
twenties went to college. They're making lots of money, and
it's just interesting.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
But that kind of fits into this right, right, And
let's see the guy, the person the spokeshole from Harvard.
The president said if the federal government removes its funding,
that would halt life saving research. We fully embraced the
important goal of combating anti Semitism, one of the most
insidious forms of big and try I appreciate him saying that,
(15:47):
but he and where's that other professor made a study
that I fear that this will chill the free and
open exchange of ideas and scholarship on America's campuses. And
the rest of America is saying to this guy, I'm sorry,
I don't have his name in front of me, but brother,
that's exactly what you're not doing. You literally make your higharies,
(16:11):
your hires, your hyres.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Write a statement of loyalty and adherence to a single
philosophy and a single school of scholarship that most of
the country doesn't agree with, right, that most of us
find abhorrent. You don't hire them unless they swear on
their mother's soul. They won't participate in the free exchange
of ideas. And that's why we're here. That's why we're
(16:37):
here with Trump and his checkbook and the rest of it. Well,
we fear this will really send a chill through a
good Lord. You people are insane. I didn't get to
the Good College because I ran in too long. Oh dang,
dang it. Any next segment, who's on the Billionaire's list
this year? Among other things? On the way, what Joe
just mentioned if you missed the segment at the podcast
(16:58):
Lots of Fun Stuff Today Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
There is a new must have accessory in Major League Baseball,
the torpedo bat. It's all the rage after multiple New
York Yankees players used these bats to contribute to tying
an MLB record hitting fifteen home runs in three games.
The torpedo bat, which is actually customized for each hitter individually,
(17:24):
moving more wood to their specific sweet spot where they
most often hit the ball.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
That's interesting. So is this a big deal the baseball
season has just started. I think it is definitely. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
The Yankees are hitting home runs at a prodigious rate.
It makes perfect sense. It reminds me of some of
the technology and golf clubs these days. But the idea that, yeah,
you almost always catch the ball, you know here on
the bat, let's move a little more mass there. You
never hit squibs off the end, or even if you do,
there's no point in having that much mass at the
(17:56):
very end of the bat, which is why they're cupped
out sometimes. But so now they're making it their bulgey
in the sweet spot. There's more wood there. It's not
like a just a cylindrical barrel anymore.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yeah, we had our little conversation yesterday about if Babe
Ruth played today he just had a regular stick, if
he'd have had the modern technology, I wonder it would
have been anyway.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Yeah, yeah, so was Renton and Raven As I want
to do about how perverse and cultier colleges were. Last
segment one to highlight once again, one that is doing
it right, the University of Austin, Texas, the brand new
re embracing the old Principal's university of free exchange of
(18:40):
ideas and scholarship and dissent is welcome and the rest
of it, which seems weird you have to defend. But anyway,
they tweeted. College admissions are unjust, not just biased, not
just broken, unjust. Students spend high school anxiously stacking the
resumes with hollow activities, then collect generic recommendation letters and
out source their essays to tutors or AI. Admissions at
(19:03):
elite colleges now come down to who you know, your
identity group, or how well you play the game. This
system rewards manipulation, not merit. It selects for conformity, not character.
That's why we're introducing the University of Austin's new admissions policy.
If you score fourteen to sixty plus on the SAT,
thirty three plus on the ACT, or one hundred and
(19:25):
five plus on the COLT, you will be automatically admitted
pending basic eligibility in an integrity check. Below that threshold,
you'll be evaluating on your test scores ap slash IB
you results and three verifiable achievements, each described in a
single sentence.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
That's it.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
We care about two things, intelligence and courage. Intelligence to
succeed in a rigorous intellectual environment. We don't inflate grades.
Courage to join the first ranks of our truth oriented university.
College admissions should be earned, not inherited, bought or gained
at UATX, your merit earns you a place in full
end at full tuition's scholarship.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Want to cly here? Wow? Cool, hallelujah. So I'm not
anti college, but I am anti the idea that everybody
should go to college and if you don't, you've failed
at life or something. I am very anti that, and
I think well poles show a growing number of people
feel the same way. But anyway, I ran into a
(20:21):
couple of young people who I was buying a vehicle
at a car dealership the other day. The car salesman
who I was dealing with was probably twenty four or
something like that. The guy just, you know, sells cars.
And he he had started working at a dealership when
(20:42):
he was seventeen, and he was like washing cars, and
he worked his way up and he's doing sales and
he said, he's making really good money. So then I
go to the finance guy and you know, you go
in the room and you sit down and they do
that whole thing. And then that guy's got that you
sign all the papers and everything like that, and he's
a step up. You work your way up to that
from car salesman. And he was twenty four, I think
(21:03):
he said he was. He worked at Walmart straight out
of high school and worked hisself up to a management
position in Walmart. He must have only been twenty two,
and he was making one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
a year at the Walmart as a twenty two year old.
And he said, all my friends went to college. They
owe one hundred and fifty thousand dollars and have a degree,
and they can't get a job doing anything, and he's
(21:24):
making one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. And then he
got hired with that Walmart did some things he didn't like,
so he went and work at the car dealership. And
I assume he's making more money there or he probably
wouldn't have taken the job. Yeah, And I just thought
that was interesting that that story's not told more often,
that there are people doing that. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
And I say this as a guy who got a
liberal arts education and enjoy the hell out of it
and have benefited from it enormously. And I'm not sure
I've just concocted this thought in my head. I'm not
sure I agree with it completely, but I'll toss it
out there anyway. If one of those two guys, either
one of them, is curious enough to want to learn
(22:07):
the things you would learn at a liberal arts education,
they will seek that knowledge out. They will read about
history and the arts and stuff, which I think is important.
And if they're not curious enough about that stuff to
pursue it in their lives at all, in spite of
you know, the Internet, and you know, just the availability
(22:27):
of all the wisdom of mankind at the tip of
your fingers that they wouldn't have benefited much from college anyway.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Correct, although most people, I think most I think it's
fair to say most most people don't benefit from college.
Now they don't, I don't think they do, or they
pay so dearly for it. It's a net loss, you know.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
The only contradiction to myself I want to make is
that sometimes you don't know what you're interested in until
it's put in front of you. True, so I'd say
it's not without value, but it's because such a ripoff.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
But at the high, very top, toward the top the list,
your interest should be making a living and supporting yourself. Well,
that should be very high on the list.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
Nancy Pelosi said, we're gonna make it so if you
want to be a poet or a guitar player, you can.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
I'll never forget that. The Obamacare discussion, I don't know.
I just I wonder if that's gonna I think it's
turning around this idea that obviously you should go to college,
and if you don't go to college, your life is
going to be a waste in a disaster. And the
whole circular thing of Elon is talking about doing away
(23:37):
with the you got to have a college degree for
practically every job in the federal government, and it's just
not necessary at all. It makes no sense. The private
sector has started to go that direction because they've figured
it out, but in the government you still have to.
So the government who lends money for people to go
to college so that college can raise the prices, and
(23:57):
then requires that you have this worthless free can degree
right to get a job in government. I mean, it's
pretty obvious what's going on there. It's almost like the
company store. Yeah, that's very much like that. It's a circling,
circular profit racket.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
And then you add in the fact that you're being
indoctrinated with truly perverse ideas. Yeah, that to the stew
of your decision making. Yeah, it's man, it's so off track.
Like I said, I'm not anti college. I'm glad I
went to college. There's a bunch of stuff that I enjoyed.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
But I have known some people that one were not
interested in a bunch of the things that you was
just talking about. And two they were just so go
getters and wanted to get started out in the world
and do their thing. They could not sit in a
class for four years wondering, what the hell is this
going to do me any good?
Speaker 4 (24:42):
Yeah, Yeah, that's why I abandoned my original career plans
of going to grad school.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
I couldn't stand it anymore.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
AnyWho, those of you who can, including my beloved daughter,
I admire your pluck if you have, you know, specific
goals in mind. The never ending pursuit of another meaningless
degree racket.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
On the other hand, a lot of that, a lot
of that for some people is just putting off. That's
what I'm saying. They don't the thing I was talking about,
the kind of person that wants to get out there
in the world and get into it and get started.
There's people that are the opposite. The last thing I
want to do is get out there in the world
and get started and have to.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
Yes, So many of the degrees, the advanced degrees these days,
are what I would call decoration masquerading his achievement.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
My dad, when I was a kid, used to talk
about the perpetual college students that he'd run into, and
that had to be a tiny slice. Yeah, back in
the late fifties of people. Now it's a lot of people.
It seems like everybody I know gets a graduate degree
of some sort.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
You almost have to, because undergrad degrees are so meaningless
at this point. They taught you nothing. You learned nothing, right,
you know, no more than the day you enrolled. You're
one hundred and fifty grand in debt.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
So the college keeps you around for another year with
unlimited federal loans. Yes, wow, Yeah, what a racket. Yeah
it is. It's got to be torn down to the studs.
If they were.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Doing God's own job of teaching what they claim to
be teaching, the core stuff, it would still be fraudulent
because it's such a ripoff, right, yeah, just amazing.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
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and what they are now. He's buying a home. He's
like twenty four years old and buying a home with
his job and everything. But interest rates to what they
(27:43):
were from my parents and his parents and this and
that and car loans and the advantage of paying it
off and if you can get a car loan that's
lower than inflation and blah blah blah, and my son said,
I want to learn about that stuff you guys were
talking about, not the stuff they're teaching me right now
in high school. Wow. So you know, it depends on
what you're into, depends on what you're in to.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
To apply to the University of Texas at Austin or
what do they call it, what's the actual name University
of Austin.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
How's their basketball team? That's what matters. Oh lord, college
Sunday Saturdays. If they're not a number one seed. Oh
my gosh, that's right.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
I was chatting with some fellows who are very, very
up on college sports. Your top high school quarterback prospects.
High schoolers now haven't played it down down in college.
The major college programs are offering them six million dollars
to come play for your high school football six million
(28:39):
whoa and more.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Wow. Same in basketball. So in what sense none? Is
it amateur sports? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Or you're not you have to pafy you're on the
golf team it is, or the you know whatever, or
you're a non hot female athlete, or you're a swimmer
or something.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Oh that's interesting. Well, maybe some of them will end
up on the Billionaire's List, which Forbes is out with today,
which is kind of interesting. Look at, you know, how
people make their money in the world in a variety
of things. A stick around that's coming up next. Arm
Strong hey Gety.
Speaker 6 (29:18):
A New Jersey resident who won more than a million
dollars in the lottery, said they were inspired to buy
a ticket, buy a dream, the dream of finally leaving
New Jersey.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
I thought that'd be a lead insiner. One way to
become a billionaire is win the lottery. Another way is
to well. Another way is to inherit it. But most
of the new billionaires on the Forbes list of billionaires
are self made, and I love that. Seventy percent of
the new billionaires that have showed up made their money themselves.
They did not inherit it. With a record three twenty
(29:51):
eight new billionaires on the Forbes list for twenty twenty five,
that's a lot. That's the total number of billionaires the
new ones. There are only two hundred and eighty eight newcomers,
but seventy percent of them did it themselves, which I love,
hailing from thirty three countries and territories collectively worth nearly
(30:13):
six hundred and eighty billion. And some communists will claim
that that's somehow taking money from you. I don't get
that check. No, I still have my money. The United
States has the most new billionaires once again, with one
hundred and three Americans added to the ranks this year.
Yes and again for you know, Bernie Sanders or that crowd.
(30:34):
That's just proof that we're an evil country that is
set up for billionaires or something or or were the
biggest economy in the world, and we have the most
innovative people. Right here's my favorite name on the list.
The youngest billionaire is a nineteen year old German named
(30:54):
Johann Vombomback. How would you like to be a billionaire?
You're ninety and your name is Johan Bomback. It's pretty good,
pretty good life. But he is he inherited his It's
actually split between him and fourteen other ears to the
boring Ecohm pharmaceutical fortunes. Oh, they do work, but I'm
(31:14):
not really that interested in the people that inherited their money. No,
Germany had the second most newcomers, behind the United States
with thirty seven. China and Hong Kong ranked third. It's
interesting countries like China and then Russia was India's fourth,
the Russia was fifth. Countries like China and Russia. What's
(31:38):
that mean becoming a billionaire? You must you must be
you know, a favored son. It's almost all men in
these countries of the communist party or the dictator or
they wouldn't allow you to, right.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Right, Yeah, I would love to know more about some
of those individual cases.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Again, about seventy percent of the world's newest billionaires are
self made, meaning they established their fours rather than inheriting them.
The richest self made newcomer seventy three year old dude
from Saudi Arabia. And I love this one. The youngest
self made billionaire Scale AI. I don't know that AI company,
(32:15):
Scale AI anyway, the co founder and CEO, Alexander Wang.
He's worth two billion dollars and he's the youngest self made.
Good for him.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Yeah, the guy from Saudi Arabia that falls under the
China and yeah, Russia rubric right.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Right, You wouldn't have unless they wanted to allow you to.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
Yeah, you know, I've known a fair number of very
successful people, especially in the last decade or so of
my life. Build a business and sell it. If it
has something to do with tech, all the better. That's
how you get rich. You build a business and you
sell it. The most famous New billionaires he stupidly designed
a business.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
We have to show up and work at every day,
can't so stupid? Stupid, stupid. The most famous New billionaires
became household names by finding success in the various art forms.
Blue collar worker Bruce Springsteen, who's never actually had a
real job, is now worth one point two billion dollars
and is on the billionaire list. Congratulations Bruce. His twenty
(33:15):
one studio albums, ten live albums, and seven EPs of
Solda combined one hundred and forty million copies across the
gold It would be interesting to me if he arrived
now where you make no money off of so you
can't sell albums, there's no money in that. How much
will will there be billionaire outside of Taylor Swift? Like
really rare occurrences your concert circuit favorites.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
I happen to watch Saturday Night Live with Morgan Wallen
the other night, and I know he does really well.
I'd love to know, you know, what his financial situation is.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
It'd be a lot less though. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
I look at bands of the eighties and nineties who
are like crazy rich, who now would be touring relentlessly
to make their mortgage right and thank boy, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
You're lucky you got in when you did. Yeah, oh yeah,
Springsteen the reason he showed up on the Billionaire At
least he sold his music catalog to Sony last year
for five hundred million, So that's a pretty big jump.
Movie Stars Swartzenegger now on the list one point one
billion dollars.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
I'm willing to sell my song catalog for a five
million and that's a starting point.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I'm a reasonable man. So Schwarzenegger's a billionaire. Yes, his
ex wife is out with how devastating the divorce was
to or maybe we'll talk about that later. I thought
it was a comedian Jerry Wow. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is
on the list for the first time at one point
one billion dollars, benefiting from a five hundred million deal
(34:41):
for Netflix to show their sitcom for the next five years.
Oh wow, So Seinfeld the TV show is now and
he sold it for what three hundred million? And he
s with Larry David that was not a limited time
and now he's getting a five hundred million dollars deal
from Netflix. Wow wow Wow. Yeah. Most of the billionaires
(35:05):
on the list are men, all practically all of them,
and about two thirds of them inherited their wealth. So
that's where you are. Yeah, we really need to do
a sitcom. Is that still a thing? Can you still?
It'll be a Netflix streaming special. It's I don't know,
a couple of guys with a wacky technical director and
a wisecracking newswoman.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
Just off the top of my head. I haven't gotten
much further than that. Well, we could sell the show, no,
but we don't want to. So yeah, I have to
still show up and work with a point. We'll sell it,
but we won't be on it.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
What is that worth? So then what are you buying?
The microphones?
Speaker 4 (35:45):
I don't know the name, and you can have that
buy me a nice lunch? Coming up next hour, brand
new feature, The Fight is far from over.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
It's woke watch.
Speaker 4 (35:58):
Speaking of which, we have a a guest who's been
following the doings in the cal Unicorny a state house
to bring us the latest madness.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
You've got a new feature called woke Watch.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
Woke Watch, It's like Baywatch, but let's jiggle Armstrong and
Getty
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 Getty and no He Armstrong and Yetty.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
President Trump tells NBC News that he is quote very
angry at Putin for criticizing Ukrainian President Vladimir z Lenski,
now threatening to impose additional tariffs.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
He says, twenty five.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
To fifty percent on Russian oil if Putin stands.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
In the way of a deal. So we're going to
get the two wars we are kind of involved in
out of the way here this segment, at least for now,
first Russia Ukraine. Trump saying he's really pissed off at
Putin is the first negative ish thing he said about
Putin maybe ever, certainly in this attempt to brok her
(00:58):
apiece and.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Attack some pretty serious economic sanctions to is anger.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
And we'll see where that goes. But I was surprised
how little talk as in. I didn't hear it anywhere.
The giant Sunday New York Times front page piece about
our involvement from the beginning of helping the Ukrainians being
so much more than it had ever been reported. Now.
The why that was in there at that time is
(01:25):
kind of interesting. I don't know if that's just when
they got the reporting together, or if this is some
sort of effort to let people know how involved we
are so we need to continue, or I don't know,
maybe there's no political thing to it at all. It
might it might just be journalism. But did you read that?
(01:46):
It is quite amazing? Yeah, I read of It's like
four parts. It's like one of those We're going to
win a Pulzerprize over this incredibly long pieces that they wrote.
But one of the lead paragraphs about it New York
Times reporting that Ukrainian in hi Mars when we gave
them those super fancy missiles and that sort of stuff.
The strikes on Russia were directly coordinated from a US
(02:07):
military base in Germany. We were in charge of the
coordinates and the we gave them this stuff, coordinate everything really,
really the whole thing, right, just we're across the border,
your fingers on the triggers. That's it. Revealing the Ukraine's
dependence on US support was far deeper than anyone had realized.
And they go into from the very beginning, like day two,
(02:30):
A truck pulls up in Kiev, picks up a couple
of Ukrainian generals, all under secret, you know, protected by
British secrets, so all this sort of stuff gets them
to the border. They go to our military base that
we've got in Germany, and we immediately start the instructing, planning,
coordinating at a very very deep level, like we're running
(02:51):
the war, right, which I always assumed. I've said many
times and I've always assumed that there's no way they're
doing this without our help. But right, that's funny.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
I had the same reaction that it was very very
thorough and interesting but not surprising.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
And by the way, a lot of folks on the.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
What do you call it, the new right, the isolationist right,
is there a name, the woke right, the JD vance
Ish right, And I love JD in a lot of ways,
but not so much in others. If you're making the
argument that that was a bad policy and unjustified and
we provoked to Russia, that's fine, but you got to stop.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Just calling people neocons. That's not an argument. It's like
the left calls everybody fascists. You're just you're not advancing
the football, but maybe that's not what you want to
do ideologically, you're not convincing anybody of anything. There were
also the New York Times reports SMEs some months earlier,
at the very beginning of the war, and they mentioned
this general had been allowed to send a small team
(03:53):
about a dozen officers to Kiev, easing the prohibition on
American boots on Ukrainian ground, by calling them SMEs so
as not to evoke memories of the American military advisors
sent to South Vietnam that ended up being because it
was advisers, they called them advisors. They called them advisors
all through the Kennedy administration. Pretty soon you're in a
(04:14):
full on war kind of what we were doing then,
same thing, except this time instead of advisors, they called
them SMEs subject matter experts. Oh so we sent in
a dozen subject matter experts.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Ah, that's weird, the government using obscure terms to obscure
what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
American military advisors that were right in Kiva, a dozen
of them, right at the beginning of the war and
coordinating all kinds of their respons This is what you
should do where when, and this is what our intelligence shows.
I mean, if you remember the very beginning of the war.
It was just stunning the way Ukraine was able to
halt that invasion and the tanks and all that sort
of stuff. It's because we were as involved as you
(04:57):
could get without us actually just you know, dropping the
airborne rangers there, right.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Yeah, yeah, And yet there was that very halting, incremental
increase in support by the Biden administration, right, which is interesting.
You know, the books will be written, I suppose, and
they'll disagree with each other, but the incoherence of his
policy will, you know, fascinate me for the rest of
my days. Well, according to both the Woodward and the
(05:25):
Sanger book, it was all about Biden really worrying that
he could trigger Putin wanting to use nuclear weapons, and
like Secretary of State Blincoln was further on the other
side of we got to push harder, we got to
push harder.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
We don't need to be so scared. But that was
Biden's decision, for better or worse. Yeah, those of you
who think, you know, we're close to World War three
and it's none of our business, you're probably happy about that,
right yeah. Okay, So the other war, I thought that
if you're interested in that stuff, from Ukraine. Read that
New York Times, so I thought it was interesting. The
(06:01):
other war we're involved in, it might be getting way
more involved in as Trump threatened a military strike on
Iran Sunday and I didn't get that much attention either.
It's funny how running for third term panel discussions We're
gonna bomb the but Jesus out of a major military
power and get involved in a war in the Middle
East with the biggest dog in the neighborhood barely makes
(06:25):
the news. Technically, we're gonna bomb the bi Allah out
of them. Excellent point, Thank you. I shouldn't use that term.
It makes no sense. This is from sixty minutes on
Sunday night. One of the hostages has that got released
by Hamas. He'll tell his story and what's not in here,
I'll fill in the rest ninety If you could say
(06:49):
something to President Trump, what would you say, Please stop
stop this wall and help bring all those back. And
you think he can help. I know he can help.
I'm here because of Pump. I'm here only because of him.
I think he's the only one who can stop this
roll again. So you think he can bring about another
(07:11):
cease fire, he has to Hamas, and I think he
can do it, you know, from a media politics side,
I just thought it was interesting for the second week
in a row they had they lead with a story
that's pretty Trump friendly. But this guy's story, if you
didn't see it, is freaking brutal. I did not. Oh
my god, it's it's you know, we'll ruin your day
(07:33):
sort of story. His wife and his whole family massacred,
and him thinking he was going to be killed. He
already his wife and kids had already been killed, right
and and and him thinking every single day when they
came to get him, they would, you know, they would
act like they were going to kill him, and then
not like.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
They did to a number of He might not not
have been aware of it, but they did that plenty
of times. It was not an unrealistic expectation.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I am interested that he both thinks thanks Trump for
getting him out, but thinks that they need to stop
the war so Hamas can continue to exist. I don't
know that there's a presumption in the media, the mainstream,
which is to say, left to media, that somebody like
(08:21):
him has greater moral weight and special insight into really
complicated political policy.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
And a guy like me. I have full empathy for
the horrors he has endured. I can't even imagine it.
But I don't grant him any special intellectual or any
other sort of power to dictate policy or even insight
just because Yeah, yeah, I don't understand that assumption. That's unspoken,
(08:52):
but it's there.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
We had the news story that there were Hamas protests
against Hamas in Aza over the weekend, and we had
the story yesterday that one of the voices that spoke
up against AMAS had been killed. Well, more details came
out yesterday. Hamas found this guy, tortured him for hours,
(09:16):
and then dropped him on the doorstep, near death at
his family's house, with the message that don't be protesting us, Yeah,
to send to everyone else. Yes, So you freaking moron
college kids? What what? What? How do you square that
with your opinion? This is a Palestinian dude who was
(09:38):
protesting with a number of other young Palestinian people against
TAMAS and they tortured him for four hours and killed him.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Right, Yes, well, an organization that is against every single
principle you claimed to have.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
He was against them too, but you know I was.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
I'm rereading James and Helen Pluckrose's brilliant book Cynical Theories
about the origin of the postmodernist, neomarxist whatever you want
to call it, woke thing, and how it works, how
it functions in the ideology itself and it is. It's
difficult to convince people that college students who've been thoroughly indoctrinated,
(10:21):
some of them since they're in kindergarten, but certainly once
they get to college are so captured by the idea
that the world is quickly and easily divided into the
oppressor and the oppressed. You'd think, no, no, no, nobody
could buy an argument that oversimplified and have that as
(10:42):
their worldview and just be able to, for instance, because
they perceive the Palestinians being oppressed, not see any fault
in Hamas, not see any sin or hatred or evil
in Hamas none because they are oppressed.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Simple, that's the end of it. Don't tell me anything.
I don't want to hear anything else. You think, no, no, no, no.
An adult, even a very young adult, couldn't possibly be
that cultize, that indoctrinate. But it's true. You just have
to accept it. This is a brave young man twenty
two years old who stood up and led a protest
against Amas. I mean, that is a true patriot right there,
(11:19):
and he knew this was coming. Good lord, Yeah, that's brutal.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
I find myself wondering, will we have to as a
nation or as you know, parents and grandparents and aunts
and uncles and neighbors and friends, have to borrow a
number of pages from the dprogramming cultist's handbook for dealing
with our young people because they were stolen away by
(11:44):
a cult.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
We just didn't know it. It was at your local schools.
The same guy didn't cover his face, by the way,
Oh my lord, he's there with his face showing his
name available, protesting Hamas because they're evil and he wants
his little strip of land have a shot a chance,
and he is tortured to death for it, and you
freaking more hunts and college can.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Getting your gender studies master's degree from freeing your faces, brave,
brave revolutionaries? Nutjobs? Yeah no, I'm telling you. It's it's sad,
all right.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
That's enough of that. I want to get to that
Forbes billionaire list. We got a bunch of stuff to
get to today. Boy A Maria Shriver with a piece
about her divorce from Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yeah, Arnold Schwarzenegger, one
of the new billionaires on the list, by the way,
just added this year. Wow, all fits together. See it's
all coming again. A bunch of stuff on the way.
Stay here. Do you think these little elections they have
(12:41):
mean anything? I just never have. Am I wrong about that? Anyway?
Talk about that later? Not talking about that? Now? What
little elections?
Speaker 1 (12:46):
What? What?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
What? When I have these little special elections somewhere like
in Florida, Wisconsin weather for the member. God, he's hitting me,
Stop hitting me. I've never believed that. It seems so
dumb to me. Yeah, yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
I I'd meant to throw this in the last discussion
because it occurred to me when you're describing Trump's turning
maybe on poutin and now threatening in the rest of it.
Trump is his own good cop and bad cop. That's
his negotiating style. He comes on with the handshakes and
the smiles and everything, and if you defy him, he,
(13:22):
you know, it turns around snarling like some sort of
horror movie. Then you got a mess on your hands,
and you come around to his side and you're his
buddy again.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
He's his own good cop bad Could I talk about
this on the air how I has shown my son
how the car salesman tried to shine me on the
other day to get something. I don't think, so maybe
I'll talk about that on the air later. Because he
was doing the kind of good cop thing, and I
was like, you see what he did there? What was
going on there?
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Coming up a brand new feature I've entitled woke Watch
because the battle is far, far, far from over. But
I was ranting about colleges and schools, and so I
thought an example of the evildoers and the people who
are getting it right very quickly. The Trump administration is
now targeting Harvard with a review of nine billion dollars
(14:10):
in federal funding that's on the way to the school.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Wow, not the four hundred million of Columbia. Now.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
It's two hundred and fifty six million in current contracts
and eight point seven billion in grants spread over multiple years,
and that money is spread among Harvard and a couple
of affiliates, including Boston area hospitals. But it places Harvard
alongside Columbia University in the Trump administration crosshairs as they're
(14:36):
fighting over the future of higher education in America.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
We'll let me present it from the left. This send
a chill down the spine of anybody that cares about
independence in higher education. That's very good, it says.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
If you're quoting the guy later in the article, I
was going to mention Harvard was one of sixty schools
the Education Department contacted earlier this month warning them of
potential enforcement actions if they didn't quit letting Jews get
beat up and kept out a class. Ah so, and
they made statements to that effect.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
I definitely have to talk about the whole car salesman
experience because the guy who was doing the financial stuff
talking about his career path didn't go to college. And
none of the guys that I was dealing with early
twenties went to college. They're making lots of money, and
it's just interesting.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
But that kind of fits into this right, right, And
let's see the guy, the person the spokeshole from Harvard.
The president said if the federal government removes its funding,
that would halt life saving research. We fully embraced the
important goal of combating anti Semitism, one of the most
insidious forms of big and try I appreciate him saying that,
(15:47):
but he and where's that other professor made a study
that I fear that this will chill the free and
open exchange of ideas and scholarship on America's campuses. And
the rest of America is saying to this guy, I'm sorry,
I don't have his name in front of me, but brother,
that's exactly what you're not doing. You literally make your higharies,
(16:11):
your hires, your hyres.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Write a statement of loyalty and adherence to a single
philosophy and a single school of scholarship that most of
the country doesn't agree with, right, that most of us
find abhorrent. You don't hire them unless they swear on
their mother's soul. They won't participate in the free exchange
of ideas. And that's why we're here. That's why we're
(16:37):
here with Trump and his checkbook and the rest of it. Well,
we fear this will really send a chill through a
good Lord. You people are insane. I didn't get to
the Good College because I ran in too long. Oh dang,
dang it. Any next segment, who's on the Billionaire's list
this year? Among other things? On the way, what Joe
just mentioned if you missed the segment at the podcast
(16:58):
Lots of Fun Stuff Today Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
There is a new must have accessory in Major League Baseball,
the torpedo bat. It's all the rage after multiple New
York Yankees players used these bats to contribute to tying
an MLB record hitting fifteen home runs in three games.
The torpedo bat, which is actually customized for each hitter individually,
(17:24):
moving more wood to their specific sweet spot where they
most often hit the ball.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
That's interesting. So is this a big deal the baseball
season has just started. I think it is definitely. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
The Yankees are hitting home runs at a prodigious rate.
It makes perfect sense. It reminds me of some of
the technology and golf clubs these days. But the idea that, yeah,
you almost always catch the ball, you know here on
the bat, let's move a little more mass there. You
never hit squibs off the end, or even if you do,
there's no point in having that much mass at the
(17:56):
very end of the bat, which is why they're cupped
out sometimes. But so now they're making it their bulgey
in the sweet spot. There's more wood there. It's not
like a just a cylindrical barrel anymore.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yeah, we had our little conversation yesterday about if Babe
Ruth played today he just had a regular stick, if
he'd have had the modern technology, I wonder it would
have been anyway.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Yeah, yeah, so was Renton and Raven As I want
to do about how perverse and cultier colleges were. Last
segment one to highlight once again, one that is doing
it right, the University of Austin, Texas, the brand new
re embracing the old Principal's university of free exchange of
(18:40):
ideas and scholarship and dissent is welcome and the rest
of it, which seems weird you have to defend. But anyway,
they tweeted. College admissions are unjust, not just biased, not
just broken, unjust. Students spend high school anxiously stacking the
resumes with hollow activities, then collect generic recommendation letters and
out source their essays to tutors or AI. Admissions at
(19:03):
elite colleges now come down to who you know, your
identity group, or how well you play the game. This
system rewards manipulation, not merit. It selects for conformity, not character.
That's why we're introducing the University of Austin's new admissions policy.
If you score fourteen to sixty plus on the SAT,
thirty three plus on the ACT, or one hundred and
(19:25):
five plus on the COLT, you will be automatically admitted
pending basic eligibility in an integrity check. Below that threshold,
you'll be evaluating on your test scores ap slash IB
you results and three verifiable achievements, each described in a
single sentence.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
That's it.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
We care about two things, intelligence and courage. Intelligence to
succeed in a rigorous intellectual environment. We don't inflate grades.
Courage to join the first ranks of our truth oriented university.
College admissions should be earned, not inherited, bought or gained
at UATX, your merit earns you a place in full
end at full tuition's scholarship.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Want to cly here? Wow? Cool, hallelujah. So I'm not
anti college, but I am anti the idea that everybody
should go to college and if you don't, you've failed
at life or something. I am very anti that, and
I think well poles show a growing number of people
feel the same way. But anyway, I ran into a
(20:21):
couple of young people who I was buying a vehicle
at a car dealership the other day. The car salesman
who I was dealing with was probably twenty four or
something like that. The guy just, you know, sells cars.
And he he had started working at a dealership when
(20:42):
he was seventeen, and he was like washing cars, and
he worked his way up and he's doing sales and
he said, he's making really good money. So then I
go to the finance guy and you know, you go
in the room and you sit down and they do
that whole thing. And then that guy's got that you
sign all the papers and everything like that, and he's
a step up. You work your way up to that
from car salesman. And he was twenty four, I think
(21:03):
he said he was. He worked at Walmart straight out
of high school and worked hisself up to a management
position in Walmart. He must have only been twenty two,
and he was making one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
a year at the Walmart as a twenty two year old.
And he said, all my friends went to college. They
owe one hundred and fifty thousand dollars and have a degree,
and they can't get a job doing anything, and he's
(21:24):
making one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. And then he
got hired with that Walmart did some things he didn't like,
so he went and work at the car dealership. And
I assume he's making more money there or he probably
wouldn't have taken the job. Yeah, And I just thought
that was interesting that that story's not told more often,
that there are people doing that. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
And I say this as a guy who got a
liberal arts education and enjoy the hell out of it
and have benefited from it enormously. And I'm not sure
I've just concocted this thought in my head. I'm not
sure I agree with it completely, but I'll toss it
out there anyway. If one of those two guys, either
one of them, is curious enough to want to learn
(22:07):
the things you would learn at a liberal arts education,
they will seek that knowledge out. They will read about
history and the arts and stuff, which I think is important.
And if they're not curious enough about that stuff to
pursue it in their lives at all, in spite of
you know, the Internet, and you know, just the availability
(22:27):
of all the wisdom of mankind at the tip of
your fingers that they wouldn't have benefited much from college anyway.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Correct, although most people, I think most I think it's
fair to say most most people don't benefit from college.
Now they don't, I don't think they do, or they
pay so dearly for it. It's a net loss, you know.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
The only contradiction to myself I want to make is
that sometimes you don't know what you're interested in until
it's put in front of you. True, so I'd say
it's not without value, but it's because such a ripoff.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
But at the high, very top, toward the top the list,
your interest should be making a living and supporting yourself. Well,
that should be very high on the list.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
Nancy Pelosi said, we're gonna make it so if you
want to be a poet or a guitar player, you can.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
I'll never forget that. The Obamacare discussion, I don't know.
I just I wonder if that's gonna I think it's
turning around this idea that obviously you should go to college,
and if you don't go to college, your life is
going to be a waste in a disaster. And the
whole circular thing of Elon is talking about doing away
(23:37):
with the you got to have a college degree for
practically every job in the federal government, and it's just
not necessary at all. It makes no sense. The private
sector has started to go that direction because they've figured
it out, but in the government you still have to.
So the government who lends money for people to go
to college so that college can raise the prices, and
(23:57):
then requires that you have this worthless free can degree
right to get a job in government. I mean, it's
pretty obvious what's going on there. It's almost like the
company store. Yeah, that's very much like that. It's a circling,
circular profit racket.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
And then you add in the fact that you're being
indoctrinated with truly perverse ideas. Yeah, that to the stew
of your decision making. Yeah, it's man, it's so off track.
Like I said, I'm not anti college. I'm glad I
went to college. There's a bunch of stuff that I enjoyed.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
But I have known some people that one were not
interested in a bunch of the things that you was
just talking about. And two they were just so go
getters and wanted to get started out in the world
and do their thing. They could not sit in a
class for four years wondering, what the hell is this
going to do me any good?
Speaker 4 (24:42):
Yeah, Yeah, that's why I abandoned my original career plans
of going to grad school.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
I couldn't stand it anymore.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
AnyWho, those of you who can, including my beloved daughter,
I admire your pluck if you have, you know, specific
goals in mind. The never ending pursuit of another meaningless
degree racket.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
On the other hand, a lot of that, a lot
of that for some people is just putting off. That's
what I'm saying. They don't the thing I was talking about,
the kind of person that wants to get out there
in the world and get into it and get started.
There's people that are the opposite. The last thing I
want to do is get out there in the world
and get started and have to.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
Yes, So many of the degrees, the advanced degrees these days,
are what I would call decoration masquerading his achievement.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
My dad, when I was a kid, used to talk
about the perpetual college students that he'd run into, and
that had to be a tiny slice. Yeah, back in
the late fifties of people. Now it's a lot of people.
It seems like everybody I know gets a graduate degree
of some sort.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
You almost have to, because undergrad degrees are so meaningless
at this point. They taught you nothing. You learned nothing, right,
you know, no more than the day you enrolled. You're
one hundred and fifty grand in debt.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
So the college keeps you around for another year with
unlimited federal loans. Yes, wow, Yeah, what a racket. Yeah
it is. It's got to be torn down to the studs.
If they were.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Doing God's own job of teaching what they claim to
be teaching, the core stuff, it would still be fraudulent
because it's such a ripoff, right, yeah, just amazing.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
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Speaker 2 (26:34):
More or less on the A's getting their asses handed
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Speaker 4 (26:38):
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Speaker 2 (26:48):
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And it's a lot of fun. It's really growing. Millions
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Speaker 4 (27:06):
All you do is pick more or less and at
least two players for a shot to win a big
money and you can combine sports. You got a theory
on a basketball game and a theory on a baseball game.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
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Speaker 4 (27:15):
Download the prize picks alf today used the code armstrong
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Speaker 2 (27:21):
That's right, you play five to give you fifty. Just
to mess around with prize picks, run your game. I
know it's not for everybody to go eat any of
these directions, but I was talking to the finance guy
and we got into a discussion about home interest rates
and what they are now. He's buying a home. He's
like twenty four years old and buying a home with
his job and everything. But interest rates to what they
(27:43):
were from my parents and his parents and this and
that and car loans and the advantage of paying it
off and if you can get a car loan that's
lower than inflation and blah blah blah, and my son said,
I want to learn about that stuff you guys were
talking about, not the stuff they're teaching me right now
in high school. Wow. So you know, it depends on
what you're into, depends on what you're in to.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
To apply to the University of Texas at Austin or
what do they call it, what's the actual name University
of Austin.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
How's their basketball team? That's what matters. Oh lord, college
Sunday Saturdays. If they're not a number one seed. Oh
my gosh, that's right.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
I was chatting with some fellows who are very, very
up on college sports. Your top high school quarterback prospects.
High schoolers now haven't played it down down in college.
The major college programs are offering them six million dollars
to come play for your high school football six million
(28:39):
whoa and more.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Wow. Same in basketball. So in what sense none? Is
it amateur sports? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Or you're not you have to pafy you're on the
golf team it is, or the you know whatever, or
you're a non hot female athlete, or you're a swimmer
or something.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Oh that's interesting. Well, maybe some of them will end
up on the Billionaire's List, which Forbes is out with today,
which is kind of interesting. Look at, you know, how
people make their money in the world in a variety
of things. A stick around that's coming up next. Arm
Strong hey Gety.
Speaker 6 (29:18):
A New Jersey resident who won more than a million
dollars in the lottery, said they were inspired to buy
a ticket, buy a dream, the dream of finally leaving
New Jersey.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
I thought that'd be a lead insiner. One way to
become a billionaire is win the lottery. Another way is
to well. Another way is to inherit it. But most
of the new billionaires on the Forbes list of billionaires
are self made, and I love that. Seventy percent of
the new billionaires that have showed up made their money themselves.
They did not inherit it. With a record three twenty
(29:51):
eight new billionaires on the Forbes list for twenty twenty five,
that's a lot. That's the total number of billionaires the
new ones. There are only two hundred and eighty eight newcomers,
but seventy percent of them did it themselves, which I love,
hailing from thirty three countries and territories collectively worth nearly
(30:13):
six hundred and eighty billion. And some communists will claim
that that's somehow taking money from you. I don't get
that check. No, I still have my money. The United
States has the most new billionaires once again, with one
hundred and three Americans added to the ranks this year.
Yes and again for you know, Bernie Sanders or that crowd.
(30:34):
That's just proof that we're an evil country that is
set up for billionaires or something or or were the
biggest economy in the world, and we have the most
innovative people. Right here's my favorite name on the list.
The youngest billionaire is a nineteen year old German named
(30:54):
Johann Vombomback. How would you like to be a billionaire?
You're ninety and your name is Johan Bomback. It's pretty good,
pretty good life. But he is he inherited his It's
actually split between him and fourteen other ears to the
boring Ecohm pharmaceutical fortunes. Oh, they do work, but I'm
(31:14):
not really that interested in the people that inherited their money. No,
Germany had the second most newcomers, behind the United States
with thirty seven. China and Hong Kong ranked third. It's
interesting countries like China and then Russia was India's fourth,
the Russia was fifth. Countries like China and Russia. What's
(31:38):
that mean becoming a billionaire? You must you must be
you know, a favored son. It's almost all men in
these countries of the communist party or the dictator or
they wouldn't allow you to, right.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Right, Yeah, I would love to know more about some
of those individual cases.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Again, about seventy percent of the world's newest billionaires are
self made, meaning they established their fours rather than inheriting them.
The richest self made newcomer seventy three year old dude
from Saudi Arabia. And I love this one. The youngest
self made billionaire Scale AI. I don't know that AI company,
(32:15):
Scale AI anyway, the co founder and CEO, Alexander Wang.
He's worth two billion dollars and he's the youngest self made.
Good for him.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Yeah, the guy from Saudi Arabia that falls under the
China and yeah, Russia rubric right.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Right, You wouldn't have unless they wanted to allow you to.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
Yeah, you know, I've known a fair number of very
successful people, especially in the last decade or so of
my life. Build a business and sell it. If it
has something to do with tech, all the better. That's
how you get rich. You build a business and you
sell it. The most famous New billionaires he stupidly designed
a business.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
We have to show up and work at every day,
can't so stupid? Stupid, stupid. The most famous New billionaires
became household names by finding success in the various art forms.
Blue collar worker Bruce Springsteen, who's never actually had a
real job, is now worth one point two billion dollars
and is on the billionaire list. Congratulations Bruce. His twenty
(33:15):
one studio albums, ten live albums, and seven EPs of
Solda combined one hundred and forty million copies across the
gold It would be interesting to me if he arrived
now where you make no money off of so you
can't sell albums, there's no money in that. How much
will will there be billionaire outside of Taylor Swift? Like
really rare occurrences your concert circuit favorites.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
I happen to watch Saturday Night Live with Morgan Wallen
the other night, and I know he does really well.
I'd love to know, you know, what his financial situation is.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
It'd be a lot less though. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
I look at bands of the eighties and nineties who
are like crazy rich, who now would be touring relentlessly
to make their mortgage right and thank boy, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
You're lucky you got in when you did. Yeah, oh yeah,
Springsteen the reason he showed up on the Billionaire At
least he sold his music catalog to Sony last year
for five hundred million, So that's a pretty big jump.
Movie Stars Swartzenegger now on the list one point one
billion dollars.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
I'm willing to sell my song catalog for a five
million and that's a starting point.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I'm a reasonable man. So Schwarzenegger's a billionaire. Yes, his
ex wife is out with how devastating the divorce was
to or maybe we'll talk about that later. I thought
it was a comedian Jerry Wow. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is
on the list for the first time at one point
one billion dollars, benefiting from a five hundred million deal
(34:41):
for Netflix to show their sitcom for the next five years.
Oh wow, So Seinfeld the TV show is now and
he sold it for what three hundred million? And he
s with Larry David that was not a limited time
and now he's getting a five hundred million dollars deal
from Netflix. Wow wow Wow. Yeah. Most of the billionaires
(35:05):
on the list are men, all practically all of them,
and about two thirds of them inherited their wealth. So
that's where you are. Yeah, we really need to do
a sitcom. Is that still a thing? Can you still?
It'll be a Netflix streaming special. It's I don't know,
a couple of guys with a wacky technical director and
a wisecracking newswoman.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
Just off the top of my head. I haven't gotten
much further than that. Well, we could sell the show, no,
but we don't want to. So yeah, I have to
still show up and work with a point. We'll sell it,
but we won't be on it.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
What is that worth? So then what are you buying?
The microphones?
Speaker 4 (35:45):
I don't know the name, and you can have that
buy me a nice lunch? Coming up next hour, brand
new feature, The Fight is far from over.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
It's woke watch.
Speaker 4 (35:58):
Speaking of which, we have a a guest who's been
following the doings in the cal Unicorny a state house
to bring us the latest madness.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
You've got a new feature called woke Watch.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
Woke Watch, It's like Baywatch, but let's jiggle Armstrong and
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Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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