June 6, 2023 • 36 mins
Hour 2 of A&G features Joe's outstanding featurette, "Armstrong & Getty Giving You the Business". Plus, are Wagner troops being targeted by...Russian troops? And, gender affirming care continues to earn more scrutiny.
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
From the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio at the George Washington
Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty Armstrong and Getty show.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yo, Yo, Yo, how you doing. We got to talk
about Ukraine later. It certainly seems like the big counter
offensive is underway. A lot happened in the last twenty
four hours fighting between Russian troops, or at least between
Russian regular troops and that Progosian guy in the Wagner group.
Actually he captured a Russian guy and that looks to
(00:43):
have apparently beaten him and trying to get a confession
out of him for video. Wow, wow, is.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
That guy ranking you?
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Guy?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Do we know?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'll have that for you coming on. I can reading
from the Wall Street Journal. I the Wall Street Journal
had like five great Ukrainian stories today in their newspaper.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Yeah, I'm a little down on I've just gotten word
that Astrad Gilberto has passed. She will be missed. She
was the gal who did the super popular version of
the girl from Epanima. That's like a feature in every
groovy early sixties parody. Michael, perhaps you could come up
(01:19):
with that the Astrad Gilberto version of the Girl from epanima.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I don't know this. Oh you do? Yeah? Actually do
you do? Maybe? I do you? Clearly? Do you?
Speaker 3 (01:29):
May? Do you do?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Do you do?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Do?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
I'm certain?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Stay with us.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I don't see any activity in there. What's going on?
I'll get it later. It doesn't matter. So a couple
of Oh, that's right, I was gonna call this well,
I couldn't decide Armstrong and Getty business in focus.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Cutting business in focus.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Armstrong in Getty's business. No, that's even worse.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
The business of.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
America is Armstrong and Getty's business.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
How about Armstrong and Getty giving you the business?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Yes? Do it?
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Play it quick?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Business and focus sounds like a fifth grade film strip. Ah.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
So A couple of stories from the world to work
found very compelling and interesting. Number One Vertiefly Farmer's Insurance
Group told and is a giant employer thousands and thousands
of employees twenty two thousand, I believe told employees last
year that most of them would be remote workers, and
so they sold their cars, expanded their home office, moved
(02:36):
their families near their grandchildren. Whatever. Then last month, Raoul Vargas,
who recently took over as the new CEO, said we're
reversing that approach. You're required to be in the office
three days a week, and predictably to anybody but him,
his workforce went insane and said, wait a minute, I've
(02:56):
moved to Omaha that.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
So that is an ongoing struggle with farmers, like so
many companies these days.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, that's three seems to be the magic number of
some sort or there's a belief that two's too few
to do any good. But four is pushing it with
our employees or something. But three is I think what
they're doing around here. And we got a text from
somebody who said the same thing happened where they work,
and they were promised a year ago that they'd be
virtual forever and adjusted accordingly, And just like you were explaining,
(03:27):
now while.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
You have every man, woman and child in a commercial
real estate touting studies and you know, any opinion piece
that says people really ought to be back in the workplace.
So a lot of messaging going on back and forth.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
God, I was in a strip mall area where was
I yesterday? Someplace?
Speaker 5 (03:46):
And I was just it was wild to look at
there's like one store that's still there and all these
empty buildings and grass growing up in the parking lot
because nobody's maintaining it and just wild.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
It used to be thriving. Yeah yeah, nuts moving along
is armed? What is it?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Armstrong?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
And Getty give you the business.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
That was really good?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
So this is such an unintentionally funny article to a
lot of us. It's from the Wall Street Journal. The
headline is company's new cause dodging the culture wars. Executives
rethink if and when to weigh in on potentially divisive issues,
fearing backlash from all sides and developing crisis plans and
in case things go wrong, and they talk about In May,
(04:33):
clothing company The north Face released a video for Pride
Month featuring drag performer Paddy Gonia. The ad was similar,
similar to one from last year. The reaction, though was
not within hours, calls for the boycott of the company
spread on social media. Quote The north Face wants to
be the next bud Light, etc. Etcetera.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Sir, I'm always amused by this sort of thing. So
Chris Rock makes a big deal out of his giant,
splashy NETFLI comedy thing of Hey, corporations, we don't care
what your politics are that what was that last six
months ago, nine months ago that happened. You've got all
(05:12):
these examples out there. You've got people screaming at the
top of their lungs on top radio or opinion pieces
about it, and then all of a sudden, there's a
move from corporations to get away from politics. Wondering if
perhaps it doesn't how did you catch on so late.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
It's because everybody is so siloed, so bubbled. They don't
hear our voices in major corporate suites. All they hear
the voices of the media elite, the Eastern bubbled lefty
media elite, and they developed an attitude that, oh, progressive politics.
Everybody's into this, and we get credit for being super
(05:48):
cool and maybe increase our market share, and there's no
downside to it because nobody disagrees with this. I mean,
they didn't state it like that, but that's clearly what
they believed. Getting back to the articles, CEO spent the
last few years adjusting to a world in which investors, customers,
and employees expect corporate leaders to align themselves with social causes.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
No, we do, no races.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
You hear in mainstream lefty media, including Chris Rock don't
want that even a little bit.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Right. We all roll our eyes when we see whatever
political sign you've got in the window as we walk
in whatever.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, huge numbers of Americans do. And you know, frankly,
I don't want to walk into I don't know, some
of my favorite golf store and have a big sign
that says abortion is murder. I'm there to buy golf clubs,
all right, and I won't be able to hit them
any better than the old ones that are sitting in
my garage. But I'm going to squander my money anyway.
But keep politics out of it, all right. Today, Oh
(06:54):
that tendency to align themselves with social causes today that
has made companies targets in the US culture wars. We're
one step can turn a social media storm into a
corporate crisis that cripples businesses and rex careers. Some CEOs
are rethinking how or whether to weigh in on sensitive
political or social matters with trans and other LGBT issues,
particularly in the spotlight.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
How are you so late to this party?
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I know, so late to the knowledge that this stuff
is extremely controversial and represents a minority viewpoint. I don't
mean the viewpoint of minorities. I mean, very few people
think it. But because they have the campuses, they have
the media, they have entertainment, those who don't really mix
(07:42):
and mingle with normal America start to think that's the
only point of view. They're talking about glidden paints for
God's sake, or the CEO as senior leaders at the
company who review its processes for engaging on polarizing topics.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
You're a paint company.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
The only polarization you should be talking about is do
we want to go with approachable gray or something a
little more blue tinged. Don't tell me about drag queens
freaking make paint that looks good on my walls. Holy cow.
They go into various companies that are are now bending
over backwards to try to figure out exactly how to
(08:18):
balance this stuff, and they you know, there's not the system.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Sam, They're wrong. They're wrong. They're wrong, they're wrong. There's
nothing to balance that. The sentence you had at the beginning,
where companies believe their customers want socially active corporations, No
they don't, so there's nothing to balance. Just stay out
of it.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Well, and if you're of not just twenty four year
old employees are insisting on it. Tell them to be
quiet or work somewhere else, because they're going to ruin
your freaking company.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Crazy that you think you need to be involved in
this at all, Hellululemon, sell your pants and your shirts
and everything like that. Don't tell me a thing about
trans or black lives, or abortion or anything else.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
So this parrot company of A and Pains used an
internal scoring system to determine if and when it makes
sense for the company to comment on matters that may
offend some of its customers and employees or affect its brands.
Senior leaders, including representatives from the legal and human resources departments,
meet regularly to discuss the pros and cons of taking
a position. Sell paint you morons, And again it feel
(09:21):
free to ignore your employees. And if they say we
need to take a stand against these fascist states that
are denying gender affirm and care for children, tell them
shut up and go back to your desk.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Shut up and go back to your desk.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
We'll figure it out soon enough. And the other thing
is corporate America. And first of all, thank you finally
for listening to the Armstrong and Getty show. The other
thing you need to understand is that the woke mob
we're talking about in the universities, the media, entertainment, they
are on a campaign to push things as far left
as they conceivably can, and where they were only five, six,
(10:03):
seven years ago is very different than what they're asking
people to swallow right now. It's gone from you can't
fire somebody because you find out they're gay, to experimental
surgeries that dismember children in the name of adolescent confusion
over gender should be permitted in all cases. That's a
(10:23):
hell of a journey they're asking us to take. So, yeah, hey, target,
we're not going to fire anybody for being gay. Talking
to the target of six years ago, nobody is. But no,
we're not gonna We're not gonna say yay for mutilating
children either, And you ought to quit pitching it. End
of rant. Oh you know what, I have one more
(10:43):
bit of that rant. I thought it was so interesting.
A couple of sources, New York Posts to end, I
think it was Wall Street General are reporting on why
some of these companies are feeling so much pressure to
make left these statements, And I've got to throw that
in in fairness, some of the giant investment firms Blackrock, Vanguard,
(11:04):
State Street. They're managing the retirement funds of giant states
like California and New York in particular, and are being
told by these state retirement funds, you can handle our
trillions of dollars and you can get those commissions and
all the benefits of that, but you've got to push
(11:24):
the woke stuff. And so the black Rocks of the
world are saying okay, And so they're forcing companies or
pressuring companies to take stands on social issues because their
giant benefactors in the state retirement systems are telling them to.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Well, I'm glad you threw that in, because that explains
the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
It explains some of it.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
I couldn't figure out why they were.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Doing well a lot of it, though, I don't want
to attribute all of it to that, because not true.
In all cases. You do have obnoxious activists, you have
obnoxious employees.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
You have the media.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
How many media outlets didn't repeat don't say gay, which
is so incredibly dishonest. All of them did. And again,
the corporate CEOs they see that, they hear that, and
they think, oh, everybody agrees on this. So anyway, it's
a stew of dishonesty and poisonous activism.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
So we have got some breaking Trump news we should
tell you about coming back, which I think is gonna
be a fairly big deal in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Making golf news as well, speaking of the Great Game,
huge news.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Okay, all on the way, stay.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Here Armstrong and Getty, the Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
So before we get to breaking golf news and breaking
Trump news, I'm told this is a woman losing her
s when she finds out her daughter is pregnant.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
What is this you've go on?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
We saw how much you love the beach and it's
summer around the planet.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Want to send you our newest beacon, stainless tumbler. Let
us know what you think. What the hell is this?
Speaker 2 (13:13):
I did not order that.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Am I?
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Are they ascending? Mesh?
Speaker 3 (13:19):
I did not order that or anything else.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Oh my god, Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Wait a minute, wait that's uh. I don't know exactly
what was going on there, but the scream of finding
out your daughter is pregnant is similar to the scream
of a mask man entering your bedroom in the middle
(13:47):
of benight. It sounds like so.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Would seem yeah and just and I hate to rain
on your parade, Michael, but there are hints in there
that this is a family that posts videos and goes
viral in the rest.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
And when people if okay, so, when people do that,
what do they get out of they get anything out
of there?
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Ill, if they consistently have a lot of followers who
like their content, they sell as.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, but that can't happen very often where you get
it up regularly. I don't know anyway, I don't want
lot of people.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
People are making zillions of dollars.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Not with that crap. Uh uh just breaking news. I
don't even know what it is.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
So, oh, the PGA Tour and Live Golf Tour. If
you're into golf, you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
They have merged.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
They have ended their war and their lawsuits and which
players can play here and who's angry at home? And
they're now going to merge. Hayla hey, law on a
court has been reached. Harmony, peace and love.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
So is that good news for you golf viewers or
bad news? Are neither?
Speaker 3 (14:46):
I think it's probably good honestly, Okay, it was kind
of weird there for a while. A bunch of top
players go make a paycheck from the Saudist instead of
playing in the big tournaments.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Okay, the world will little note.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
This in ten years or on.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Here's the big Trump news, which I actually think this
is going to be kind of big. Trump has agreed
to sit down with Fox News anchor Brett Behar for
an interview later this month. As it says here, despite
his repeated attacks on the network in recent months, so
and Brett Beer, Brett Behar asks serious questions and follows
(15:21):
up with serious questions, so that that'll be something. This
is breaking. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
You cannot thank you. Wow. The president himself, you cannot
intimidate Brett Bear either. He's not impressed by anybody.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
So that'll be some good stuff right there now. Chris
Christie's announcing today. The Wall Street Journal has a piece
today Chris Christie's twenty twenty four mission to bring down
Donald Trump. As it says here, the presidential contest is
about to get more crowded. In the new entry. Chris
Christie is going to go on the attack immediately. Chris
(15:54):
Christie said just the other day on CNN, which nobody
paid any attention to, about Trump's not taking sides on
the Ukraine War. Chris Christie said, I think Trump is
a coward and I think he's a puppet of Putin.
He wouldn't say last night the Ukraine should win the war.
I mean, I was stunned. It was to me the
most stunning moment of the debate. So he's going to
(16:16):
say stuff like that starting today, and the mainstream media
is going to lap it up and get it out there,
and it'll make headlines. Even though he's a candidate that's
going to have one percent in the polls, anything he
says anti Trump is gonna, you know, it'll make the
evening news probably, it says here in the Wall Street Journal.
Most of the GOP's other twenty twenty four contenders have
treated Trump as if they're handling an unexploded grenade. Chris
(16:39):
Christy is not going.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
To you know, on Chris Christy, you've referenced a couple
of times how his poll numbers are weak and he
won't go anywhere as a candidate. I've thought of him
more as a commentator for a long time, yeah, than
as a politician, and I think his ratings as a
commentator a higher than his his poll numbers.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Because he attacks Trump all the time. I think that's
why he get so much attention on ABC this week,
because he goes after Trump on the way that nobody
else does and they just love it.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Oh yeah, yeah, no doubt. You know, when he left
office in New Jersey, he had the lowest approval ratings
of any governor in the history of the poll. Oh really, yeah,
fifteen percent.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
I have a feeling Trump will be pointing that out
to anybody who hasn't heard.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
That, or Ruppy Chris Christy, what's going on?
Speaker 2 (17:25):
You crant? A bunch of other stuff we can get
to if you miss an hour of the show. Grab
the podcast Armstrong and Getty on demand.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Armstrong and Getty, The Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
The captain of the Canadian HMCS Montreal telling reporters from
Canada's Global News that the Chinese salers told the Americans
to move all risk a collision.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
The fact that this was announced over the radio prior
to doing it clearly indicator that it was intentional.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
The Americans asking the Chinese to stay clear of the ship,
but ultimately forced to slow down to to crash. China's
defenseman is to telling the US to mind its own business,
warning any severe confrontation between the US and China would
be an unbearable disaster for the world.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Mind your own business, dude says to us. So there
you go.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Okay, Uh, that tough guy.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Latest on Ukraine in a moment and.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
A major announcement from a major European country. They've banned
much gender affirming care quote unquote for children. Yet another
European country have said, we've looked at the evidence, there
is no justifying this. Meanwhile, the mainstream media in America
would tell you anybody who tries to restrict quote unquote
(18:42):
gender if firming care as a monster.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Right and only whack job right wing transphobes, transfobe Maga
states do that sort of thing, and European countries. So
a major dam was destroyed in Ukraine Russian occupied Ukraine overnight.
Both sides are blaming the other side for what happened,
(19:05):
and that's not exactly known. Though it does seem to
benefit the Russians and doesn't seem to benefit the Ukrainians.
The destruction of the dam could win Russia time to
reconfigure its defenses, while at the same time depriving Ukraine
of some of its options for its big counter offensive
that most people think is underway. Crossing the Denpro River
along that stretch of the front will now become impossible,
(19:28):
according to the former German Defense Ministry official. So it's
got to be Russia, right, Yeah, it doesn't seem like
anything that had helped the Ukrainians anyway. By the way,
yesterday National Security Council spokesman John Kirby was asked whether
or not the Ukraine counter offensive had begun, and he said,
(19:50):
that's for them to speak to. What I can speak
to is how hard we work to prepare them to
be ready. So uh yeah, So we got a lot
invested in this material and training and I think prestige.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I need to keep this vague, but a source close
to a source with knowledge of the source says that
those F sixteens are going to be in the air
quicker than you might think, or quicker than various commentators
have suggested. Perhaps the state of training is more advanced than.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
As has been the case the entire war at every step,
And I'm not exactly sure if that's on purpose or what.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Yeah, well, I think it is to some extent. Yeah,
on both sides. The US as we're being extremely careful,
hurry up that training, and the Ukrainians are saying, oh,
we don't have tanks at all, and then a week
later they're on the battlefield.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
I was watching an analyst from the Eurasia Group on
TV this morning. That's Ian Bremer's outfit, and he said,
a couple of things to keep in mind is that
the next couple of months are going to be very bloody,
even by the standards of this war, and people need
to be prepared for that. So oof it is going
to be during the counter offensive. And secondly, statistics show,
(21:06):
on average, any war that lasts more than a year,
on average lasts ten years, and this one is now
more than a year old. Oh now, most wars do
not have one side being backed by the United States
of America, which is quite a different situation indeed, but
that is still an interesting stat Here is what got
(21:28):
my attention. Russian infighting escalates as Wagner claims that the
Russian army fired on his troops. A video posted by
the leader of Russia's Wagner group. This Progosian guy, we've
been talking about now for quite a few weeks, just
quite the character on the face of the earth. They
released a video showing the captured commander of a mechanized
(21:52):
in infantryat Brigade confessing to firing on Russian forces. But
this was not a Ukrainian He is an offer in
the Russian Armed Forces, and he appears to have been beaten.
And he's being questioned to the side in this video
do you think personal animosity has a place in this war?
And the guy says no and then lowers his gaze.
(22:15):
The video is posted late last night by Progosian as
evidence of his claim that Russian defense troops are targeting
his troops, signaling a marked escalation in the feud between
the paramilitary force and the Russian troops. It's hard to
imagine where this is going.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Boy, I'm so interested in this. Is he pushing it
as hard as he is Progosian in spite of Putin
or with the approval of Putin? Is he exploiting the
power he has as the commander of a military force
Putin desperately needs in a way that's really pretty ballsy.
Or is Putin using him to undermine the generals because
(22:58):
they're the only threat to his power. I don't know
I need to read up on this because that's such
a great interesting question. Games Arony, Oh god, I would say,
how about him capturing and torturing It would look like
a Russian commander and forcing a confession of some sorts
out of him and then posting the video. That is
(23:18):
one thing or the other. He's either got his finger
in Putin's face or it's with his approval. Which is it?
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Which would you guess? I don't know. I don't have
any idea now. He also said yesterday Progosian that Ukrainian
forces had retaken part of the area north of Bakmot.
So his people had fought like crazy for months and
lost many men to take bak Moot. Now then he
(23:43):
turned it over to the Russian forces. Now Ukraine has
taken back part of that. He said, troops are slowly
running away. It's a disgrace. So he's bad mouth in
the Russian troops capturing commanders and torturing him. I have
no idea what's going on there? Wow?
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Does that end that work itself?
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Out?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Seen anything like that, except in like a gorilla war
where you have various factions that you know, spend as
much time fighting each other as the you know, el presidente.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
And who this is so interesting, God, I would say,
and at this moment that the counter offensive is taken off.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, putting aside for the moment the horrific and repugnant
loss of human life. Just the power dynamics are unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Yeah, and blowing up that dam is not a minor
deal either, if Ukraine can no longer cross that river,
which according to Mike Lyons and other people we'd talk to,
is you know, was going to be part of the
whole thing.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
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know about you all, but when it comes to Father's
Day for me, I really want to express my love
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(24:59):
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Speaker 2 (26:21):
A couple of random things to throw in. If you
follow sports, you know who Stephen A. Smith is. He's
one of the biggest names and all of sports broadcasting.
He just announced that the country needs a new president.
So he's not on board with Biden being reelected. Wow,
how much he's a black guy, very well known. How
much half that has I don't know.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
It's interesting now he's coming out on that at all.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
But yeah, it's not good no for Biden. I mean right,
it's probably good for America, it's not good for Joe Biden.
I came across this. I don't remember who said it
was kind of random. I thought it was a good
message to Kamala Harris. It's never too late to make
a fourth impression. Ah thought that was funny, no kidding.
As that conundrum continues on, because you got the whole
(27:07):
Biden can't run, but his vice president nobody wants. I mean,
what watching or reading somebody lay out the dynamics. So
what's happening for the twenty twenty four presidential election. I mean,
it's unprecedented in so many ways. So what we haven't
even talked about the Trump story where it looks like
they had a flood there the pool broke or whatever there.
(27:29):
You didn't follow that story, no, uh yeah, So mar
A Lago, there was some sort of flood there in
one of the rooms where they were keeping the video
for where he was keeping the documents. Anyway, there's a
bunch of information that's not available because they had a flood,
just coincidentally apparently right at the time where you'd want
the video from the security system at that point. Oh,
(27:52):
that is unfortunate. It's an unfortunate timing, isn't it. Anyway,
So you got that whole thing, and most people seem
to think and Donald Trump and indicated it himself yesterday
in one of his truth postings that he's going to
get indicted again on a different thing. This is the
whole document's case.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Boy, And the Georgia vote influence thing is ongoing rather
so grilling those two firms that Trump hired to find
voter fraud that they couldn't find enough to make any difference.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Right. But so back to the being so incredibly unprecedented
with both sides, it's just so crazy. You got an
ancient old guy that everybody, including people in his own party,
think he's not mentally fit president again. You got the
vice president underneath that nobody wants. Then you got the
guy on the other side that's running away with the
race at least for now, unless some event is going
(28:44):
to have to change it a major event to change
anything from Trump becoming the nominee, and he's going to
be indicted at least one more time. Maybe a couple
of more times. Doesn't mean he'll be convicted, but he'll
have to be battling that the whole time he's running. Wow,
what a crazy time. And and the fact that only
five percent of America wants a rematch between the two
(29:06):
people that at least currently are most likely to be
the nominees. I mean, it's wild. It's hard to emotion
it's hard to imagine how you could end up with
a crazy situation.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
So I'm ninety two point seven percent confident that Joe
Biden will not run. But I have no idea how
they deal with the Kamala Harris conundrum unless although now
you know what, it just clicked in my brain. So
Biden's not running, But nobody's saying that in the elite
of the Democratic Party, because then he would become an
instant lame duck and the knives would come out and
(29:39):
they would have chaos as people clawed over each other
to try to, you know, get the nomination. They want
to put that off until late this year, early next year,
so that part is coalesced in my mind. I think
what they're going to do is declare, we have so
many great Democrats, such a deep bench, so many fine
(29:59):
would be leaders, it would be wrong for us to
anoint one of them the candidate than Kamala Harris. That
would not be right, that would not be American. So
she will compete with the rest, and then of course,
you know, she'll get the same vote total she usually
does practically none right, and vanish from the scene, tail
betwixt legs.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yeah, and it's possible that this so called conundrum disappears
in an instant when somebody says that, and it wasn't
quite the conundrum at all.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
I think I may have just spelled it out for you.
Somebody jot all this down all right and throw it
back in my face if I'm wrong.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Yeah. I think that happens a lot, where they make
up these situations that seem so difficult and they're not
difficult at all. It's like if somebody said they weren't
going to run for president, how would they change your mind?
They just immediately say I changed my mind, and that's
the end of the story. It's over right. Who freaking cares?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Two best descriptions of Washington, DC. Number one, it's Hollywood
for ugly people. Number two, it's one big high school
and a lot of this stuff is high school gossip.
Jeanie is so in trouble. Did you hear what she
said about Jim and it got back to him?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Stuff resolves itself. So if you're uncomfortable with the direction,
a lot of stuff is going trans wise. To me,
the best argument you have against some of your more
progressive friends is what Europe does or what Europe is doing.
And we got another country.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Major step taken by a European country saying no to
experimental treatments on children.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Naturally interesting that and other stuff on the way Armstrong.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
And Getty the Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Remember a couple of weeks ago, maybe I guess it
was last week you got of the conversation about places
in Oregon other places in the country, in the world
where they've tried legalizing hard drugs, especially with the hard
drugs that are on the street. Now what that leads
to We got into the question of what is the
libertarian view of this? Since the libertarian view is all
drugs should be legal, how does that meet up with reality? Well,
(32:12):
it turned into quite the Twitter conversation. I don't know
if you've been following this with Tim Sanderfer and me
weighing in and a bunch of other smart people. I'm
not including myself in that arguing Tim about that. Maybe
we could get into that next hour, because I find
that a really interesting conversation.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Agreed'd love to do that. Speaking of vexing decisions for
a society to make, Texas recently became the most populous
state to ban I'm quitting the Washington Post now gender
affirming care for miners. As the governor assigned a bill
outlawing puberty blockers and hormone therapy for people under eighteen.
It was a really sad day, said Lisa of Houston,
(32:50):
who had lobbied against the bill with her transgender daughter.
So the coverage from the Washington Post blatantly biased as always,
the second sentence is an activist expressing her chagrin. She said,
abbots signing the bill hit particularly hard because it came
at the start of Pride Month. Blah blah blah. I
would rewrite that lead. Texas on Friday became the most
(33:12):
popular state to ban experimental medical procedures on children who
are confused about their sex, because that's what it is.
They mentioned in the WAPPO that several medical associations, including
the American Academy of Pediatrics, came out against this. The
American Academy of Pediatrics is a far left organization. Their
(33:33):
guidelines in this topic were written by one woman. They
did not convene a panel of one hundred experts in
study the data. One woman wrote their policy and she's
an activist on the topic.
Speaker 5 (33:44):
Now.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
I say that to lead into the fact that Norway,
the Norwegian Healthcare Investigation Board, announced it would be revising
its current guidelines regarding so called gender affirming care for
miners because it no longer considers them to be evidence based.
The board also acknowledged that the growth number of teenage
girls identifying as male post puberty remains understudied. The point
(34:06):
of that, which they explained a little bit later in
the article, is that the vast majority, probably around eighty
percent of girls, especially who report that they're transgender pre
puberty or mid puberty, abandon that idea by the time
they're through puberty. They get to womanhood and say, no,
of course I'm a woman.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Sorry about that.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
The vast, vast majority. It's a social contagion among impressionable
adolescent girls. Mostly all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
How do you like to headline? Where it said? Texas
joins Norway and it's thinking about pre adult transgender surgery.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Right experimental treatments. Under the proposed updated guidelines, the use
of puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and transition related surgery
would be restricted to research context and no longer provided
in clinical settings at all. Norway joins Finland, Sweden, and
the United Kingdom in introducing greater safeguarding for children in
(35:06):
the United States. I think we're at nine or ten
states at least who banned that sort of experimental procedures
for individuals under eighteen.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Remember I talked just about how the New York Times
approached it. They had a map of the United States
from two thousand and one in a map now, and
they showed how there were no laws about this just
two years ago. Now there are all these laws because
of right wing lunatics. Now it's because it's a trans thing.
Is that new? There is no need to have a
law about this.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
A couple more pieces of info. It's good, she writes
that professional Lissa doctor, who studies this stuff. It's good
that more professional organizations are recognizing the experimental nature of
this approach in children. An existing body of research shows
that most kids with gender dysphoria grow to be comfortable
in their bodies upon undergoing puberty, and that those wishing
to transition suddenly post puberty may be experiencing a social contagion.
(35:57):
These studies have been dismissed because they don't fit the
preferred to activist narrative. That narrative, however, will continue to
fall apart. A recent paper in the academic journal Archives
of Sexual Behavior discusses how the placebo effect has not
been adequately taken into consideration when interpreting new findings supporting
transitioning in children. Now, this is not the standard. You
gave me a placebo in a test, and I felt
(36:19):
better merely being studied well in a study or an experiment.
People tend to say yes, I'm feeling better because they
want so badly to feel better, and they feel like
they're involved in something that might make them feel better,
so they think. The self reporting of yes, my gender
transition stuff has been rosy is partly the placebo effect.
(36:41):
People are desperate to say, this was a good.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Idea, interesting, that's really interesting. If you missed now the
show we do four hours, grab it on the podcast
Armstrong and Getty on demand Armstrong and Getty
From the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio at the George Washington
Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty Armstrong and Getty show.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yo, Yo, Yo, how you doing. We got to talk
about Ukraine later. It certainly seems like the big counter
offensive is underway. A lot happened in the last twenty
four hours fighting between Russian troops, or at least between
Russian regular troops and that Progosian guy in the Wagner group.
Actually he captured a Russian guy and that looks to
(00:43):
have apparently beaten him and trying to get a confession
out of him for video. Wow, wow, is.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
That guy ranking you?
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Guy?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Do we know?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'll have that for you coming on. I can reading
from the Wall Street Journal. I the Wall Street Journal
had like five great Ukrainian stories today in their newspaper.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Yeah, I'm a little down on I've just gotten word
that Astrad Gilberto has passed. She will be missed. She
was the gal who did the super popular version of
the girl from Epanima. That's like a feature in every
groovy early sixties parody. Michael, perhaps you could come up
(01:19):
with that the Astrad Gilberto version of the Girl from epanima.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I don't know this. Oh you do? Yeah? Actually do
you do? Maybe? I do you? Clearly? Do you?
Speaker 3 (01:29):
May? Do you do?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Do you do?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Do?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
I'm certain?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Stay with us.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I don't see any activity in there. What's going on?
I'll get it later. It doesn't matter. So a couple
of Oh, that's right, I was gonna call this well,
I couldn't decide Armstrong and Getty business in focus.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Cutting business in focus.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Armstrong in Getty's business. No, that's even worse.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
The business of.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
America is Armstrong and Getty's business.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
How about Armstrong and Getty giving you the business?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Yes? Do it?
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Play it quick?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Business and focus sounds like a fifth grade film strip. Ah.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
So A couple of stories from the world to work
found very compelling and interesting. Number One Vertiefly Farmer's Insurance
Group told and is a giant employer thousands and thousands
of employees twenty two thousand, I believe told employees last
year that most of them would be remote workers, and
so they sold their cars, expanded their home office, moved
(02:36):
their families near their grandchildren. Whatever. Then last month, Raoul Vargas,
who recently took over as the new CEO, said we're
reversing that approach. You're required to be in the office
three days a week, and predictably to anybody but him,
his workforce went insane and said, wait a minute, I've
(02:56):
moved to Omaha that.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
So that is an ongoing struggle with farmers, like so
many companies these days.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, that's three seems to be the magic number of
some sort or there's a belief that two's too few
to do any good. But four is pushing it with
our employees or something. But three is I think what
they're doing around here. And we got a text from
somebody who said the same thing happened where they work,
and they were promised a year ago that they'd be
virtual forever and adjusted accordingly, And just like you were explaining,
(03:27):
now while.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
You have every man, woman and child in a commercial
real estate touting studies and you know, any opinion piece
that says people really ought to be back in the workplace.
So a lot of messaging going on back and forth.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
God, I was in a strip mall area where was
I yesterday? Someplace?
Speaker 5 (03:46):
And I was just it was wild to look at
there's like one store that's still there and all these
empty buildings and grass growing up in the parking lot
because nobody's maintaining it and just wild.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
It used to be thriving. Yeah yeah, nuts moving along
is armed? What is it?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Armstrong?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
And Getty give you the business.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
That was really good?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
So this is such an unintentionally funny article to a
lot of us. It's from the Wall Street Journal. The
headline is company's new cause dodging the culture wars. Executives
rethink if and when to weigh in on potentially divisive issues,
fearing backlash from all sides and developing crisis plans and
in case things go wrong, and they talk about In May,
(04:33):
clothing company The north Face released a video for Pride
Month featuring drag performer Paddy Gonia. The ad was similar,
similar to one from last year. The reaction, though was
not within hours, calls for the boycott of the company
spread on social media. Quote The north Face wants to
be the next bud Light, etc. Etcetera.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Sir, I'm always amused by this sort of thing. So
Chris Rock makes a big deal out of his giant,
splashy NETFLI comedy thing of Hey, corporations, we don't care
what your politics are that what was that last six
months ago, nine months ago that happened. You've got all
(05:12):
these examples out there. You've got people screaming at the
top of their lungs on top radio or opinion pieces
about it, and then all of a sudden, there's a
move from corporations to get away from politics. Wondering if
perhaps it doesn't how did you catch on so late.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
It's because everybody is so siloed, so bubbled. They don't
hear our voices in major corporate suites. All they hear
the voices of the media elite, the Eastern bubbled lefty
media elite, and they developed an attitude that, oh, progressive politics.
Everybody's into this, and we get credit for being super
(05:48):
cool and maybe increase our market share, and there's no
downside to it because nobody disagrees with this. I mean,
they didn't state it like that, but that's clearly what
they believed. Getting back to the articles, CEO spent the
last few years adjusting to a world in which investors, customers,
and employees expect corporate leaders to align themselves with social causes.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
No, we do, no races.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
You hear in mainstream lefty media, including Chris Rock don't
want that even a little bit.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Right. We all roll our eyes when we see whatever
political sign you've got in the window as we walk
in whatever.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, huge numbers of Americans do. And you know, frankly,
I don't want to walk into I don't know, some
of my favorite golf store and have a big sign
that says abortion is murder. I'm there to buy golf clubs,
all right, and I won't be able to hit them
any better than the old ones that are sitting in
my garage. But I'm going to squander my money anyway.
But keep politics out of it, all right. Today, Oh
(06:54):
that tendency to align themselves with social causes today that
has made companies targets in the US culture wars. We're
one step can turn a social media storm into a
corporate crisis that cripples businesses and rex careers. Some CEOs
are rethinking how or whether to weigh in on sensitive
political or social matters with trans and other LGBT issues,
particularly in the spotlight.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
How are you so late to this party?
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I know, so late to the knowledge that this stuff
is extremely controversial and represents a minority viewpoint. I don't
mean the viewpoint of minorities. I mean, very few people
think it. But because they have the campuses, they have
the media, they have entertainment, those who don't really mix
(07:42):
and mingle with normal America start to think that's the
only point of view. They're talking about glidden paints for
God's sake, or the CEO as senior leaders at the
company who review its processes for engaging on polarizing topics.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
You're a paint company.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
The only polarization you should be talking about is do
we want to go with approachable gray or something a
little more blue tinged. Don't tell me about drag queens
freaking make paint that looks good on my walls. Holy cow.
They go into various companies that are are now bending
over backwards to try to figure out exactly how to
(08:18):
balance this stuff, and they you know, there's not the system.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Sam, They're wrong. They're wrong. They're wrong, they're wrong. There's
nothing to balance that. The sentence you had at the beginning,
where companies believe their customers want socially active corporations, No
they don't, so there's nothing to balance. Just stay out
of it.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Well, and if you're of not just twenty four year
old employees are insisting on it. Tell them to be
quiet or work somewhere else, because they're going to ruin
your freaking company.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Crazy that you think you need to be involved in
this at all, Hellululemon, sell your pants and your shirts
and everything like that. Don't tell me a thing about
trans or black lives, or abortion or anything else.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
So this parrot company of A and Pains used an
internal scoring system to determine if and when it makes
sense for the company to comment on matters that may
offend some of its customers and employees or affect its brands.
Senior leaders, including representatives from the legal and human resources departments,
meet regularly to discuss the pros and cons of taking
a position. Sell paint you morons, And again it feel
(09:21):
free to ignore your employees. And if they say we
need to take a stand against these fascist states that
are denying gender affirm and care for children, tell them
shut up and go back to your desk.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Shut up and go back to your desk.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
We'll figure it out soon enough. And the other thing
is corporate America. And first of all, thank you finally
for listening to the Armstrong and Getty show. The other
thing you need to understand is that the woke mob
we're talking about in the universities, the media, entertainment, they
are on a campaign to push things as far left
as they conceivably can, and where they were only five, six,
(10:03):
seven years ago is very different than what they're asking
people to swallow right now. It's gone from you can't
fire somebody because you find out they're gay, to experimental
surgeries that dismember children in the name of adolescent confusion
over gender should be permitted in all cases. That's a
(10:23):
hell of a journey they're asking us to take. So, yeah, hey, target,
we're not going to fire anybody for being gay. Talking
to the target of six years ago, nobody is. But no,
we're not gonna We're not gonna say yay for mutilating
children either, And you ought to quit pitching it. End
of rant. Oh you know what, I have one more
(10:43):
bit of that rant. I thought it was so interesting.
A couple of sources, New York Posts to end, I
think it was Wall Street General are reporting on why
some of these companies are feeling so much pressure to
make left these statements, And I've got to throw that
in in fairness, some of the giant investment firms Blackrock, Vanguard,
(11:04):
State Street. They're managing the retirement funds of giant states
like California and New York in particular, and are being
told by these state retirement funds, you can handle our
trillions of dollars and you can get those commissions and
all the benefits of that, but you've got to push
(11:24):
the woke stuff. And so the black Rocks of the
world are saying okay, And so they're forcing companies or
pressuring companies to take stands on social issues because their
giant benefactors in the state retirement systems are telling them to.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Well, I'm glad you threw that in, because that explains
the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
It explains some of it.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
I couldn't figure out why they were.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Doing well a lot of it, though, I don't want
to attribute all of it to that, because not true.
In all cases. You do have obnoxious activists, you have
obnoxious employees.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
You have the media.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
How many media outlets didn't repeat don't say gay, which
is so incredibly dishonest. All of them did. And again,
the corporate CEOs they see that, they hear that, and
they think, oh, everybody agrees on this. So anyway, it's
a stew of dishonesty and poisonous activism.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
So we have got some breaking Trump news we should
tell you about coming back, which I think is gonna
be a fairly big deal in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Making golf news as well, speaking of the Great Game,
huge news.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Okay, all on the way, stay.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Here Armstrong and Getty, the Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
So before we get to breaking golf news and breaking
Trump news, I'm told this is a woman losing her
s when she finds out her daughter is pregnant.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
What is this you've go on?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
We saw how much you love the beach and it's
summer around the planet.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Want to send you our newest beacon, stainless tumbler. Let
us know what you think. What the hell is this?
Speaker 2 (13:13):
I did not order that.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Am I?
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Are they ascending? Mesh?
Speaker 3 (13:19):
I did not order that or anything else.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Oh my god, Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Wait a minute, wait that's uh. I don't know exactly
what was going on there, but the scream of finding
out your daughter is pregnant is similar to the scream
of a mask man entering your bedroom in the middle
(13:47):
of benight. It sounds like so.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Would seem yeah and just and I hate to rain
on your parade, Michael, but there are hints in there
that this is a family that posts videos and goes
viral in the rest.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
And when people if okay, so, when people do that,
what do they get out of they get anything out
of there?
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Ill, if they consistently have a lot of followers who
like their content, they sell as.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, but that can't happen very often where you get
it up regularly. I don't know anyway, I don't want
lot of people.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
People are making zillions of dollars.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Not with that crap. Uh uh just breaking news. I
don't even know what it is.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
So, oh, the PGA Tour and Live Golf Tour. If
you're into golf, you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
They have merged.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
They have ended their war and their lawsuits and which
players can play here and who's angry at home? And
they're now going to merge. Hayla hey, law on a
court has been reached. Harmony, peace and love.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
So is that good news for you golf viewers or
bad news? Are neither?
Speaker 3 (14:46):
I think it's probably good honestly, Okay, it was kind
of weird there for a while. A bunch of top
players go make a paycheck from the Saudist instead of
playing in the big tournaments.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Okay, the world will little note.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
This in ten years or on.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Here's the big Trump news, which I actually think this
is going to be kind of big. Trump has agreed
to sit down with Fox News anchor Brett Behar for
an interview later this month. As it says here, despite
his repeated attacks on the network in recent months, so
and Brett Beer, Brett Behar asks serious questions and follows
(15:21):
up with serious questions, so that that'll be something. This
is breaking. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
You cannot thank you. Wow. The president himself, you cannot
intimidate Brett Bear either. He's not impressed by anybody.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
So that'll be some good stuff right there now. Chris
Christie's announcing today. The Wall Street Journal has a piece
today Chris Christie's twenty twenty four mission to bring down
Donald Trump. As it says here, the presidential contest is
about to get more crowded. In the new entry. Chris
Christie is going to go on the attack immediately. Chris
(15:54):
Christie said just the other day on CNN, which nobody
paid any attention to, about Trump's not taking sides on
the Ukraine War. Chris Christie said, I think Trump is
a coward and I think he's a puppet of Putin.
He wouldn't say last night the Ukraine should win the war.
I mean, I was stunned. It was to me the
most stunning moment of the debate. So he's going to
(16:16):
say stuff like that starting today, and the mainstream media
is going to lap it up and get it out there,
and it'll make headlines. Even though he's a candidate that's
going to have one percent in the polls, anything he
says anti Trump is gonna, you know, it'll make the
evening news probably, it says here in the Wall Street Journal.
Most of the GOP's other twenty twenty four contenders have
treated Trump as if they're handling an unexploded grenade. Chris
(16:39):
Christy is not going.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
To you know, on Chris Christy, you've referenced a couple
of times how his poll numbers are weak and he
won't go anywhere as a candidate. I've thought of him
more as a commentator for a long time, yeah, than
as a politician, and I think his ratings as a
commentator a higher than his his poll numbers.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Because he attacks Trump all the time. I think that's
why he get so much attention on ABC this week,
because he goes after Trump on the way that nobody
else does and they just love it.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Oh yeah, yeah, no doubt. You know, when he left
office in New Jersey, he had the lowest approval ratings
of any governor in the history of the poll. Oh really, yeah,
fifteen percent.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
I have a feeling Trump will be pointing that out
to anybody who hasn't heard.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
That, or Ruppy Chris Christy, what's going on?
Speaker 2 (17:25):
You crant? A bunch of other stuff we can get
to if you miss an hour of the show. Grab
the podcast Armstrong and Getty on demand.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Armstrong and Getty, The Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
The captain of the Canadian HMCS Montreal telling reporters from
Canada's Global News that the Chinese salers told the Americans
to move all risk a collision.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
The fact that this was announced over the radio prior
to doing it clearly indicator that it was intentional.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
The Americans asking the Chinese to stay clear of the ship,
but ultimately forced to slow down to to crash. China's
defenseman is to telling the US to mind its own business,
warning any severe confrontation between the US and China would
be an unbearable disaster for the world.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Mind your own business, dude says to us. So there
you go.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Okay, Uh, that tough guy.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Latest on Ukraine in a moment and.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
A major announcement from a major European country. They've banned
much gender affirming care quote unquote for children. Yet another
European country have said, we've looked at the evidence, there
is no justifying this. Meanwhile, the mainstream media in America
would tell you anybody who tries to restrict quote unquote
(18:42):
gender if firming care as a monster.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Right and only whack job right wing transphobes, transfobe Maga
states do that sort of thing, and European countries. So
a major dam was destroyed in Ukraine Russian occupied Ukraine overnight.
Both sides are blaming the other side for what happened,
(19:05):
and that's not exactly known. Though it does seem to
benefit the Russians and doesn't seem to benefit the Ukrainians.
The destruction of the dam could win Russia time to
reconfigure its defenses, while at the same time depriving Ukraine
of some of its options for its big counter offensive
that most people think is underway. Crossing the Denpro River
along that stretch of the front will now become impossible,
(19:28):
according to the former German Defense Ministry official. So it's
got to be Russia, right, Yeah, it doesn't seem like
anything that had helped the Ukrainians anyway. By the way,
yesterday National Security Council spokesman John Kirby was asked whether
or not the Ukraine counter offensive had begun, and he said,
(19:50):
that's for them to speak to. What I can speak
to is how hard we work to prepare them to
be ready. So uh yeah, So we got a lot
invested in this material and training and I think prestige.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I need to keep this vague, but a source close
to a source with knowledge of the source says that
those F sixteens are going to be in the air
quicker than you might think, or quicker than various commentators
have suggested. Perhaps the state of training is more advanced than.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
As has been the case the entire war at every step,
And I'm not exactly sure if that's on purpose or what.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Yeah, well, I think it is to some extent. Yeah,
on both sides. The US as we're being extremely careful,
hurry up that training, and the Ukrainians are saying, oh,
we don't have tanks at all, and then a week
later they're on the battlefield.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
I was watching an analyst from the Eurasia Group on
TV this morning. That's Ian Bremer's outfit, and he said,
a couple of things to keep in mind is that
the next couple of months are going to be very bloody,
even by the standards of this war, and people need
to be prepared for that. So oof it is going
to be during the counter offensive. And secondly, statistics show,
(21:06):
on average, any war that lasts more than a year,
on average lasts ten years, and this one is now
more than a year old. Oh now, most wars do
not have one side being backed by the United States
of America, which is quite a different situation indeed, but
that is still an interesting stat Here is what got
(21:28):
my attention. Russian infighting escalates as Wagner claims that the
Russian army fired on his troops. A video posted by
the leader of Russia's Wagner group. This Progosian guy, we've
been talking about now for quite a few weeks, just
quite the character on the face of the earth. They
released a video showing the captured commander of a mechanized
(21:52):
in infantryat Brigade confessing to firing on Russian forces. But
this was not a Ukrainian He is an offer in
the Russian Armed Forces, and he appears to have been beaten.
And he's being questioned to the side in this video
do you think personal animosity has a place in this war?
And the guy says no and then lowers his gaze.
(22:15):
The video is posted late last night by Progosian as
evidence of his claim that Russian defense troops are targeting
his troops, signaling a marked escalation in the feud between
the paramilitary force and the Russian troops. It's hard to
imagine where this is going.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Boy, I'm so interested in this. Is he pushing it
as hard as he is Progosian in spite of Putin
or with the approval of Putin? Is he exploiting the
power he has as the commander of a military force
Putin desperately needs in a way that's really pretty ballsy.
Or is Putin using him to undermine the generals because
(22:58):
they're the only threat to his power. I don't know
I need to read up on this because that's such
a great interesting question. Games Arony, Oh god, I would say,
how about him capturing and torturing It would look like
a Russian commander and forcing a confession of some sorts
out of him and then posting the video. That is
(23:18):
one thing or the other. He's either got his finger
in Putin's face or it's with his approval. Which is it?
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Which would you guess? I don't know. I don't have
any idea now. He also said yesterday Progosian that Ukrainian
forces had retaken part of the area north of Bakmot.
So his people had fought like crazy for months and
lost many men to take bak Moot. Now then he
(23:43):
turned it over to the Russian forces. Now Ukraine has
taken back part of that. He said, troops are slowly
running away. It's a disgrace. So he's bad mouth in
the Russian troops capturing commanders and torturing him. I have
no idea what's going on there? Wow?
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Does that end that work itself?
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Out?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Seen anything like that, except in like a gorilla war
where you have various factions that you know, spend as
much time fighting each other as the you know, el presidente.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
And who this is so interesting, God, I would say,
and at this moment that the counter offensive is taken off.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, putting aside for the moment the horrific and repugnant
loss of human life. Just the power dynamics are unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Yeah, and blowing up that dam is not a minor
deal either, if Ukraine can no longer cross that river,
which according to Mike Lyons and other people we'd talk to,
is you know, was going to be part of the
whole thing.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Yeah. Yeah, so on a much cheerier note. I don't
know about you all, but when it comes to Father's
Day for me, I really want to express my love
and appreciation for my dad. But with what He doesn't
need stuff. You know, he doesn't need a fruit basket. Really,
he likes fruit, but how much fruit can you eat
before it goes bad? That's why this offer from Omaha
(24:59):
Steaks is so great. My dad loves it when I
send them Omaha Steaks, and yours will too.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Yeah. And we cooked up Omaha products over the weekend
when I was a barbecuing, when I singed all the
hair off my fingers with the grill mishap. Yeah, giant
fire ball right in my face. Clad, I didn't lose
my eyesight.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
So Omaha Steaks perfectly aged, always tender, guaranteed delicious. You really,
you're not gonna send your hair off unless you really really.
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It wasn't a Steaks fault. It's not Omaha Steak's fault
that I let the gas run for like a minute
before I put a match to it.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I appreciate you clarifying that. That's that's great.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
It was.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Oh we had the Steak burgers the other night. Oh man, Yeah,
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Speaker 2 (26:21):
A couple of random things to throw in. If you
follow sports, you know who Stephen A. Smith is. He's
one of the biggest names and all of sports broadcasting.
He just announced that the country needs a new president.
So he's not on board with Biden being reelected. Wow,
how much he's a black guy, very well known. How
much half that has I don't know.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
It's interesting now he's coming out on that at all.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
But yeah, it's not good no for Biden. I mean right,
it's probably good for America, it's not good for Joe Biden.
I came across this. I don't remember who said it
was kind of random. I thought it was a good
message to Kamala Harris. It's never too late to make
a fourth impression. Ah thought that was funny, no kidding.
As that conundrum continues on, because you got the whole
(27:07):
Biden can't run, but his vice president nobody wants. I mean,
what watching or reading somebody lay out the dynamics. So
what's happening for the twenty twenty four presidential election. I mean,
it's unprecedented in so many ways. So what we haven't
even talked about the Trump story where it looks like
they had a flood there the pool broke or whatever there.
(27:29):
You didn't follow that story, no, uh yeah, So mar
A Lago, there was some sort of flood there in
one of the rooms where they were keeping the video
for where he was keeping the documents. Anyway, there's a
bunch of information that's not available because they had a flood,
just coincidentally apparently right at the time where you'd want
the video from the security system at that point. Oh,
(27:52):
that is unfortunate. It's an unfortunate timing, isn't it. Anyway,
So you got that whole thing, and most people seem
to think and Donald Trump and indicated it himself yesterday
in one of his truth postings that he's going to
get indicted again on a different thing. This is the
whole document's case.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Boy, And the Georgia vote influence thing is ongoing rather
so grilling those two firms that Trump hired to find
voter fraud that they couldn't find enough to make any difference.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Right. But so back to the being so incredibly unprecedented
with both sides, it's just so crazy. You got an
ancient old guy that everybody, including people in his own party,
think he's not mentally fit president again. You got the
vice president underneath that nobody wants. Then you got the
guy on the other side that's running away with the
race at least for now, unless some event is going
(28:44):
to have to change it a major event to change
anything from Trump becoming the nominee, and he's going to
be indicted at least one more time. Maybe a couple
of more times. Doesn't mean he'll be convicted, but he'll
have to be battling that the whole time he's running. Wow,
what a crazy time. And and the fact that only
five percent of America wants a rematch between the two
(29:06):
people that at least currently are most likely to be
the nominees. I mean, it's wild. It's hard to emotion
it's hard to imagine how you could end up with
a crazy situation.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
So I'm ninety two point seven percent confident that Joe
Biden will not run. But I have no idea how
they deal with the Kamala Harris conundrum unless although now
you know what, it just clicked in my brain. So
Biden's not running, But nobody's saying that in the elite
of the Democratic Party, because then he would become an
instant lame duck and the knives would come out and
(29:39):
they would have chaos as people clawed over each other
to try to, you know, get the nomination. They want
to put that off until late this year, early next year,
so that part is coalesced in my mind. I think
what they're going to do is declare, we have so
many great Democrats, such a deep bench, so many fine
(29:59):
would be leaders, it would be wrong for us to
anoint one of them the candidate than Kamala Harris. That
would not be right, that would not be American. So
she will compete with the rest, and then of course,
you know, she'll get the same vote total she usually
does practically none right, and vanish from the scene, tail
betwixt legs.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yeah, and it's possible that this so called conundrum disappears
in an instant when somebody says that, and it wasn't
quite the conundrum at all.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
I think I may have just spelled it out for you.
Somebody jot all this down all right and throw it
back in my face if I'm wrong.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Yeah. I think that happens a lot, where they make
up these situations that seem so difficult and they're not
difficult at all. It's like if somebody said they weren't
going to run for president, how would they change your mind?
They just immediately say I changed my mind, and that's
the end of the story. It's over right. Who freaking cares?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Two best descriptions of Washington, DC. Number one, it's Hollywood
for ugly people. Number two, it's one big high school
and a lot of this stuff is high school gossip.
Jeanie is so in trouble. Did you hear what she
said about Jim and it got back to him?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Stuff resolves itself. So if you're uncomfortable with the direction,
a lot of stuff is going trans wise. To me,
the best argument you have against some of your more
progressive friends is what Europe does or what Europe is doing.
And we got another country.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Major step taken by a European country saying no to
experimental treatments on children.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Naturally interesting that and other stuff on the way Armstrong.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
And Getty the Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Remember a couple of weeks ago, maybe I guess it
was last week you got of the conversation about places
in Oregon other places in the country, in the world
where they've tried legalizing hard drugs, especially with the hard
drugs that are on the street. Now what that leads
to We got into the question of what is the
libertarian view of this? Since the libertarian view is all
drugs should be legal, how does that meet up with reality? Well,
(32:12):
it turned into quite the Twitter conversation. I don't know
if you've been following this with Tim Sanderfer and me
weighing in and a bunch of other smart people. I'm
not including myself in that arguing Tim about that. Maybe
we could get into that next hour, because I find
that a really interesting conversation.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Agreed'd love to do that. Speaking of vexing decisions for
a society to make, Texas recently became the most populous
state to ban I'm quitting the Washington Post now gender
affirming care for miners. As the governor assigned a bill
outlawing puberty blockers and hormone therapy for people under eighteen.
It was a really sad day, said Lisa of Houston,
(32:50):
who had lobbied against the bill with her transgender daughter.
So the coverage from the Washington Post blatantly biased as always,
the second sentence is an activist expressing her chagrin. She said,
abbots signing the bill hit particularly hard because it came
at the start of Pride Month. Blah blah blah. I
would rewrite that lead. Texas on Friday became the most
(33:12):
popular state to ban experimental medical procedures on children who
are confused about their sex, because that's what it is.
They mentioned in the WAPPO that several medical associations, including
the American Academy of Pediatrics, came out against this. The
American Academy of Pediatrics is a far left organization. Their
(33:33):
guidelines in this topic were written by one woman. They
did not convene a panel of one hundred experts in
study the data. One woman wrote their policy and she's
an activist on the topic.
Speaker 5 (33:44):
Now.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
I say that to lead into the fact that Norway,
the Norwegian Healthcare Investigation Board, announced it would be revising
its current guidelines regarding so called gender affirming care for
miners because it no longer considers them to be evidence based.
The board also acknowledged that the growth number of teenage
girls identifying as male post puberty remains understudied. The point
(34:06):
of that, which they explained a little bit later in
the article, is that the vast majority, probably around eighty
percent of girls, especially who report that they're transgender pre
puberty or mid puberty, abandon that idea by the time
they're through puberty. They get to womanhood and say, no,
of course I'm a woman.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Sorry about that.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
The vast, vast majority. It's a social contagion among impressionable
adolescent girls. Mostly all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
How do you like to headline? Where it said? Texas
joins Norway and it's thinking about pre adult transgender surgery.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Right experimental treatments. Under the proposed updated guidelines, the use
of puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and transition related surgery
would be restricted to research context and no longer provided
in clinical settings at all. Norway joins Finland, Sweden, and
the United Kingdom in introducing greater safeguarding for children in
(35:06):
the United States. I think we're at nine or ten
states at least who banned that sort of experimental procedures
for individuals under eighteen.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Remember I talked just about how the New York Times
approached it. They had a map of the United States
from two thousand and one in a map now, and
they showed how there were no laws about this just
two years ago. Now there are all these laws because
of right wing lunatics. Now it's because it's a trans thing.
Is that new? There is no need to have a
law about this.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
A couple more pieces of info. It's good, she writes
that professional Lissa doctor, who studies this stuff. It's good
that more professional organizations are recognizing the experimental nature of
this approach in children. An existing body of research shows
that most kids with gender dysphoria grow to be comfortable
in their bodies upon undergoing puberty, and that those wishing
to transition suddenly post puberty may be experiencing a social contagion.
(35:57):
These studies have been dismissed because they don't fit the
preferred to activist narrative. That narrative, however, will continue to
fall apart. A recent paper in the academic journal Archives
of Sexual Behavior discusses how the placebo effect has not
been adequately taken into consideration when interpreting new findings supporting
transitioning in children. Now, this is not the standard. You
gave me a placebo in a test, and I felt
(36:19):
better merely being studied well in a study or an experiment.
People tend to say yes, I'm feeling better because they
want so badly to feel better, and they feel like
they're involved in something that might make them feel better,
so they think. The self reporting of yes, my gender
transition stuff has been rosy is partly the placebo effect.
(36:41):
People are desperate to say, this was a good.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Idea, interesting, that's really interesting. If you missed now the
show we do four hours, grab it on the podcast
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