January 7, 2025 • 36 mins
Featured within Hour 3 of the Tuesday January 7, 2025 edition of The Armstrong & Getty Show...
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe, Katty.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Armstrong and Jetty and he Armstrong and Letty.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Images of the homemade explosive devices authority say shamsu Dingjabbar
brought to Bourbon Street the night of the New Year's
terror attack. Surveillance video shows the suspect planting a pair
of coolers they are on the street early that morning.
Authorities say inside they discovered a steel galvanized pipe with
two end caps surrounded by two dozen rolls of nails,
(00:47):
along with the radio controlled receiver. They also say they
found jars of flammable liquid inside the truck the suspect
used to barrel into those Bourbon Street crowds, killing fourteen
people and injuring dozens more.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Okay, I heard that last night when I was watching
ABC News. I got a question about that. But this
is what the FBI had to say. This is not
a terrorist event. What it is right now is there
improvised explosive devices that was found and we are working
on confirming if this is a viable device or not. Okay,
So I'm a little confused by that. Also, so I
(01:20):
have a lot of questions here. So I heard that
on ABC News and I thought, Okay, if I put
a bunch of crap in a bottle, nails and other
stuff that could cut you and hurt you and stuff
like that, and I got a cell phone with some
batteries taped to it, does that count as a bomb?
Even though it might not. I couldn't have done anything
(01:41):
with it. I mean, they didn't specifically say that the
guy could have set that it would have worked, that
it wasn't just a crazy person throwing it together. So
maybe you know if it was or not. But they
didn't say.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Reports i've heard said that he was shot down before
he could detonate them. I have not heard, which does
not disprove anything, but I have not heard anything. But yes,
they could have exploded, okay, but I might have missed that.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
The person there just said at the end they're not
sure if they were viable or not. I don't know
what that.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
That is the same FBI person who said this is
not a terrorism a terrorist event, which is unbelievably irresponsible,
and I would say inexplicable, but I'm about to explicit
because it's disgusting.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
A guy with a truck that has an ISIS flag
on it, drives through a crowd. He's been to Egypt.
All his website stuff says he there's a video of
him you can look at of him swearing allegiance dices
this isn't a terrorist event.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
And he slaughters a bunch of people. That is today's
FBI apparently, or just ALTHEA Duncan, the FBI assistant special Agent.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Charge that part of the country. That's shocking. I didn't
like Trump forcing Ray out before his term is up.
I'm fine with it now. I mean that if that's
Ray's FBI, that's crazy. Yeah, yeah, it is. It.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
It's another example of what we were talking about yesterday
with the absolutely horrific Muslim immigrants raping children in Britain's
story and the cover up of it by law enforcements,
social services, local government, federal government in Britain. And this
is it's the same motivation that would have the FBI say,
(03:21):
and you know, I've had the privilege to, you know,
go on various ride alongs and talk at length to
investigators of very sorts, including murder investigators.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
And the one sacred.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Rule is thou shalt not leap to conclusions because that
cloud's your judgment.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
You've got to take in all of the evidence and.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
For her like and that was the next day to say,
this is not a terrorist event. That is spectacularly irresponsible.
What would motivate something so irresponsible, Well, that pathetic need
to oh, you know what, to cause an anti Islamic
backlash or whatever the hell it is.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Well, I I'm not worried about terrorism. Like in my
own life, I've never been afraid of it. This is
from Meet the Press on Sunday. The country is on edge.
We're mocking that the country is not on edge. I
traveled around. I was in Washington, d C. The next day,
hours after this happened. In the news broke. There were
people staying in line for every freaking thing that was
(04:18):
going on. Nobody seemed to be on edge. We're all
fine at the same time. There's no reason to downplay
it either. Just tell me what is And clearly this
guy was inspired by ISIS. He might be a nut job.
I don't know. I don't know if he directly talked
to anybody in ISIS. Let's find out, right, he is.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
A dead ender and a loser who was angry about life,
and he latched onto a particular ideology that justified him
hurting people, which is what he wanted to do. He
was hurting, so he wanted to hurt. That's the description
of virtually all of these guys in school shooters or whatever.
But yeah, again for the FBI, you don't say that
sort of thing unless you have a particular motivation, which
I think I've already laid out. But I find that
(04:58):
absolutely obscene. Another aspect of this that's gotten a fair
amount of attention is and I wish I had it
in front of me.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I got so much stuff.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
But is all the news media that reported that an
inanimate object had done the killing in New Orleans pickup
truck plows into crowd, Jills twelve or whatever, Ford f
one point fifty plowed into the They wouldn't say a person.
They wouldn't say an Isis devotee. They wouldn't say even
(05:28):
a murderer. The inanimate object did it, which is bizarre,
but is also explained by then they don't have to
get into the person and their motivation, and we don't
want to have an anti Islamic backlash.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Well, first of all, I saw a tweet from Laura Logan,
who you know, formerly of sixty Minutes, who I often
find a little off the rails in her comments nowadays.
But she said, after decades of working with the you know,
following the news and questioning the FBI and everything like that,
she said, they never say anything in the early days.
(06:04):
You can't get a word out of them about anything.
For the person to come out and specifically say this
was not to make a declarative sentence is really something
the FBI doesn't and then to have it be the
opposite of what everybody's seeing with their own eyes is extraordinary.
It is.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Yes, it's troubling, and troubling isn't a good enough word.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
It's worries activist by far.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Yes, yeah, I would agree. I would agree it's incredibly troubling.
And then I want to get into the bigger picture.
Maybe next segment. But there was one more just it
probably doesn't matter, but an incredibly annoying note.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And I didn't watch the Sugar Bowl.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
I didn't watch much football other than my fighting line,
I bravely beating down the favorite game Cocks. Pardon me
of South Carolina, get a better name, South Carolina.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Did you see the Oregon spanking that happened. Holy crap,
that was one of the most extraordinary things in college boards.
I've ever seen the undefeated, far and away number one Oregon.
They were down thirty eight to nothing in the first quarter.
Oh by the mighty Ohio Ones.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Yeah, I uh, And I'd watched Oregon summ and they
looked like an NFL style off.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I was astounded by the game. Well anyway, yeah, I've
got more to the way the so many players leave
before the bowl games happened. Which team had it had
seventeen players that didn't play in their game? They opted out,
as they say, that's I don't know.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
They got to fix that somehow. But anyway, back to terrorism,
I don't think you can in America anyway. We can
talk about that later. So it's the All State Sugar Bowl,
and the CEO of All State decided he needed to
and I'm sorry. The Sugar Bowl was in New Orleans
the day after the terrorist slayings on the street. They
(08:01):
postponed it by a day, and then the All State
to CEO, Tom Wilson, decided he should make a statement
before the game on the TV.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
And here it is welcome to the All State Sugar
Bowl Wednesday, tragedy struck the New Orleans community. Our prayers
with the victims and their families. We also need to
be stronger together by overcoming an addiction to divisiveness and negativity.
Join All State, working in local communities all across America
(08:30):
to amplify the positive, increase trust, and accept people's imperfections
and differences.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Together we win well. First of all, the leader of
Vices has said, I.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Was brought to tears by the head of All State
saying we should not be so divisive. He's right, good God,
And to me, a tragedy is an earthquake, not a
terrorist slaying of innocence.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
I'd say that's a horrible crime. Why did he speak
at all? He could have just said nothing. I mean,
there is no need for him to come out and
give a speech. But then he does come out and
give a speech before the game. What was his goal there?
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Well, and I could think of a dozen approaches better
than Hey, we're too divided. We got to there's too
much negativity. That's the problem. That's why a sworn adherent
of issis slaughtered a bunch of innocence in a violent
and horrific manner, including children. We have too much divisiveness.
What the hell was that?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
I don't know. I you know, we do this sort
of thing for a living, and I heard that, and
I thought, I don't know what his intention was with
that message, with that crafting of that message. Play that
one more time.
Speaker 5 (09:46):
Michael, Welcome to the All States Sugar Bowl. Wednesday, tragedy
struck the New Orleans community. Our prayers are with the
victims and their families. We also need to be stronger
together by overc coming in addiction to divisiveness and negativity.
Join all state working in local communities all across America
(10:07):
to amplify the positive, increased trust, and accept people's imperfections
and differences.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Together we win. I thought he praised the Incadella's rights.
Speaker 6 (10:19):
We spent too much time thinking about our difference is
I thought he was going to go with some sort
of But we decided to play the game because the
players and fans and we need something to root for
or something like that.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
The people of New Orleans have been such great hosts.
Were horrified and saddened by the terrible thing they've endured,
but we've decided to play something route that s.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I should use the word back to the attack itself.
One of the first things I thought was because the
reason I bought an electric car is not because I
care about climate change, because they're so freaking fast and
it's really fun. And one of the first things I
thought is he picked that lightning f one fifty electric
truck because of the power of acceleration. It has more
(11:06):
than any other truck you could possibly drive if you
want to hit a bunch of people and.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Kill him that. I don't know if he does, but
it's true. Just keep this in mind. Clip seventy four.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Michael, this is not a terrorist event. That's right there.
You have it.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
That's the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigating. You're in good hands, folks.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Who, as Laura Logan pointed out, only ever says we're
still in the process of investigating, so we have nothing
to say at this time always, but in this instance
they decided to say something, and it was that how
do you explain it?
Speaker 4 (11:42):
We got more on the ways to hear after a
word from our friends that prize picks Michael, Is that correct?
Speaker 1 (11:48):
All right? Great? So the football playoffs are just starting.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
This is not the college Fellows obviously, but Prize Picks
is an easy, fun way to get involved and capture
all that excitement.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
This is not the college felas I like that very
home had fun. You can now win up to a
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games and the amazing plays in there. Is there going
to be more or less on all the stats. I'm
looking forward to starting to dig into it before the weekend.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Yeah, it can be as few as two players or more.
And Prize Picks invented the flex play, which means you
can still cash out if your lineup is not perfect.
You can double your money even if one of your
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Download the app today. Use the code Armstrong to get
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(12:38):
You don't have to win, you get the fifty dollars
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code Armstrong.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
It's the Prize Picks app. Prize Picks run your game.
I just see Trump doubled down on taking Greenland. I
think Greenland might actually become a sting.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
No, no, no, Greenland's like in the Danish You're like,
what are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
H huh. We got more, by the way, Armstrong the
only thing by being the oldest president. I know more
world leaders than any one of you ever met in
your whole goddamn wife, and I know how they see
(13:19):
not a joke. Oh yeah, So somebody stuck on microphone
in the face of that old man for some reason.
I don't know what's going on there. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Wow, the senile, bitter old president who's trying to do
as much damage to the Trump administration in advance as
he can, you know, blocking off loyal oil leases and stuff.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
We'll talk about that down the roadeen days.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
I'd sell you what I've waited on more people at
this restaurant than you have in your goddamn life, say
the waiters and waitresses of Washington, d C. Jack, where
you just were. The Washingtonian, which is read in the
self obsessed Nations Capital, has a piece about how DC
(14:03):
restaurants have long been like politically neutral spaces. Obviously, to
cite the cliched example, you got Reagan coming in, you
got timp O'Neil coming in right, so you treat everybody
with respectfully.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
But that changed during the Trump years.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
Restaurant owners became much more politically outspoken. They were part
of the resistance, and Trump officials became social pariahs when
dining out. You remember several incidents involving Ted Cruz and
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who got kicked out of a restaurant
in West Lexington, Virginia. Homeland Secretary Kirsten Nielsen's dinner at
(14:43):
a DC Mexican Mexican restaurant was interrupted as they yelled
shame Steven Miller tossing eighty dollars worth of takeout sushi
after somebody cursed him and flipped him off at a
sushi place, somebody on the staff. But anyway, in the
Washington Washingtonian, anyway, you got all these restaurant tours and
(15:05):
waiters and bartenders saying we're not gonna be silent, We're
not gonna be quote unquote civil.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Let's see, here's this guy. What does he do.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
He's a DC restaurant. He's a manager at a club,
big club in DC. If you're just going out for
a nice dinner at your anniversary or birthday, and God forbid, RFK.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Junior is sitting s to you.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Now you're going to be dealing with whatever repercussions happened
from that. He's saying, all this restaurants to have is
justified in cursing these people out and yelling at him
and kicking him out.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Well, we'll see if this actually happens or not. Like
I said, bumping around d C, it was quite a
bit different than the last time I was in DC
when Trump got elected, he was being treated like a
regular president. I mean, the number of Trump shirts, hats, pins,
inauguration forty seventh president stuff that I saw. There was
nothing like that in twenty seventeen when I was there
(16:02):
for the inauguration. Right. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
In fact, that was my question. I wonder if this
is just big talk by little people.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I'd be my guess.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Here's a woman who's a server and manager at a
saloon on Capitol Hill. Quote, people who are a lot
more motivated the first time around to do these kinds
of shows of passion. This time around, there's kind of
a sense of defeat and acceptance. But I hope that
people will still do stand up to this administration and
tell them their thoughts on their misbehavior as they're trying
to get a ham sandwich at lunchtime.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Here's my biggest question about restaurants, DC restaurants because I
had this and I tweeted it out and it's the
most controversial tweet I've ever put out ever. It got
more responses than anything I've ever tweeted this question. So
I mean it in Gordon Ramsay's restaurant, which I wish
I'd had spent the time to look into what it
costs to eat there, because it's the most expensive meal
I've ever paid for for me and my two kids,
partially because there was the we've added to twenty percent
(16:58):
already thing that rustaurants are doing sometimes now, and so
service charge is that what they call it? Earth It
just said, yeah, we've we've added a twenty percent service
charge to your bill, and then it's got the line
for the tip, and I thought, do I tip on
top of this or not? And I tweeted that out.
I googled it and tweeted it and same result either way.
Plenty of people say, absolutely, that's not the tip. You
(17:21):
need to tip on top of that. You're screwing your
server or one hundred percent, that's the tip, No way
you should give any more money. I still don't know
what the answer is on that. But obviously, if they
add twenty percent and I didn't know they were going
to do that, or I wouldn't have gone. If they
add twenty percent and I'm supposed to tip twenty percent,
that's forty percent on top of my meal, that's a
(17:42):
no go. That's a second group. That is the tip.
No freaking way I'm eating there. A whole bunch of
people adamantly said no, that goes to the restaurant, that
the server will get nothing, and you absolutely need to
tip on top of that. Maybe that's true, but I'll
never eat at a restaurant that does that. You can't
pay forty percent top your bill. Nobody's doing that. That's ridiculous.
(18:03):
It is ridiculous. I don't know what the correct answer
is either, or if it varies from restaurant to restaurant.
If you know, text line four one five two nine
five KFTC. But what the hell Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
A lot of people this year texted me their holiday card,
and that.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Is I just want to say, that is unacceptable. I
want you. I won't even look at those. I would
rather have no card. And in fact, that is what
you sent. No card. I did not send a holiday card.
A card is a card. I want something I can
take out of the envelope. Look at Ask my wife,
who are these kids?
Speaker 6 (18:43):
Never figure it out between us and then throw it
in the garbage.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Christmas, more than.
Speaker 6 (18:48):
Anything, is about killing trees, and I want that sacrifice.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
When I got the card, texting a holiday card, that
is the least I could do, as the saying goes.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
Yeah, yeah, that brought me down. And it's because Judy
and I cannot get our act together to send out
a holiday card. I'm glad I'm not the only one
because it hurts my psyche every year.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Well and mostly it's that we don't think of it
until November thirty seventh, you know, Yeah, I just I don't,
and and I'm a worse human being for it. I
admit that. Yes, Michael, maybe this is the ear. It's not.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
I bought Christmas cards, I bought New Year's cards, and
none of them got.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Out well, and then it made that critical first step.
Well yeah, but that you could pull off fairly late
in the game. But if you're going to do the
big family photo and have that turned into a card.
It takes a little planning ahead of time. And I
feel like those of you and I have many friends
workers stuff like that. I believe you're only sending them
(19:54):
to me as a reminder of how much better you
are than me. I feel like it's just an attempt
to make me feel bad. It's a flex. It's absolutelyness.
Look how organized we are. We got family photos, turn
them into a card, know your address, and got them
in the mail in time. So take a you know,
looking looking forward to getting the same from you. Oh
(20:15):
you couldn't. Didn't get that together, too unorganized. Oh sorry
to hear that couldn't be troubled.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
M No, all right, So I love this and this
this story why the economy is trouncing Europe's It's from
Edward Cannard in the Wall Street Journal. But it reminds
me so much of that Twitter thread we brought you
last year, and I wish I had bookmarked it because
it was so terrific. It was by your brit who
(20:41):
is explaining the difference between Britain and the United States
culturally speaking.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
And we'll refer back to that in a second.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
But this this piece opens with, and I love this
that economists never cite one of the most significant statistics
about the US economy.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
And we'll get to that. But according to.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Data released last week by the OECD, the Organization for
Economic I sound like Joe Biden Organization for Economic Corporation
and Cooperation and Development. Only about twelve percent of Americans
score at the highest levels on internationally administered academic tests
twelve percent, while thirty four percent score at the lowest levels,
(21:22):
nearly three lower scores for every high score. Germany's figures
are nearly even, not three to one low to high
eighteen at the highest level, twenty percent at the lowest.
Put another way, Germany's ratio of high to low scores
is almost three times Americas. Scandinavia's is five times better,
Japan's seven times better. These enormous differences, there's twist, have
(21:47):
profound economic implications. With more talent and fewer needy people.
Is it any wonder that northern European countries can afford
more generous welfare policies than their neighbors to the south.
Yet you're right to be Yet America excels relative to Europe.
Despite these enormous differences. While Europe has created fourteen companies
(22:09):
worth more than ten billion dollars in the last half century,
with about four hundred billion dollars of market value in total,
I realize that's a lot of money. Uh, fourteen companies
worth more than ten billion dollars, Americans have created nearly
two hundred and fifty such companies, or thirty trillion dollars,
not forty four hundred billion.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
And of course that is an amazing stat right it is.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
It's mind blowing that success is driven up America's middle
class incomes the median disposable US household income income.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
To inequality income inequality.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
The median disposable US household income, according to the OCOECD,
is now twenty five percent greater than the median in
Brainy Brainy Germany, and sixty percent greater than the median
household in Italy, for instance.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Do you have it for Great Britain? Now they don't
have that. It's interesting just because Charles CW. Cook of
The National Review, who is a brit who has moved
to the United States, constantly says Americans have no idea
how rich they are compared to Europeans. The average American, right,
and a poor American now compared to a poor American,
(23:25):
say eighty years ago.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Is vastly wealthier, vastly, But that's useless politically to point
that out.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Grievance gets people to the polls. Anyway.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Europeans incomes would be even lower compared to Americans if
they weren't free riding on American innovation, defense spending, and
higher drug prices which instead of ize research. Oh. I
was talking to a good buddy of mine who's a
doctor the other day, and he was talking about how
there's no money in antibiotics, and so the the big
(24:00):
pharma companies that are so you know, demonized in reasonable fashion,
justifiedly in some cases, but there's no incentive for them
to innovate and come up with new antibiotics. And he's
he happened to be a urologist, and he said, we
used to run into these unconquerable infections like once every
(24:22):
six months, and now it's once a week really, and
he was talking about a hospital setting. But yeah, the
infections they fight and fight but can't beat are becoming
more and more and more common. As the then to
get off on a not to get off on a
too long at tangent, But as people use antibiotics for
(24:43):
things they don't need them for, or take them just
until they feel better, which is like a super power
training program for microbes. It's selecting only those that can
survive the first seventy percent of your treatment and turning
the loose on the world. Now, if you'd finished your treatment,
you'd have kill them all. But this is rampant in
(25:05):
Africa for instance. Anyway, why do you.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Stop taking your antibiotics once you start feeling better? I mean,
I just you don't feel like you need medicine anymore.
I don't know. I mean I'm a slacker, but I
take the full ten days or whatever. Yeah, do that? Friends,
do that?
Speaker 4 (25:22):
Of course, you're up against tens of millions of Africans
who don't, and they sell antibiotics over the counter there.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
But anyway, we'll all be dead soon.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
To get back to the article, So Europe would be
even worse off if they didn't piggyback on American technological
developments in military spending that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
And here's the point.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
The outside success of America's talented entrepreneurs doesn't stem from
their superior intelligence or even education. It comes from working
at companies like Google and Microsoft and Apple that mind
the technological frontier and expose employees to alluable knowledge, insights,
and opportunities.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
That's absolutely true.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
But unlike Europe, the enormous success of American entrepreneurs motivated
an army of talented Americans and motivates them us every
day to get valuable on the job, training, work longer hours,
take risks, and succeed. A small amount of success bubbles
up from large pools of failure.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
And we have two things.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Number one we have and this is critical and if
we ever lose this, God help us.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
We have a culture of let's try it.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Europe and Britain in particular, and this was the Twitter
thread that I thought was so great, has a culture
of you'd better not to fail. It would be really embarrassing,
it'd be humiliating. You're much better off not trying. And
we have a what the.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Health culture that we're trying to stamp out as fast
as we can, with places like California where you have
so many different regulations and hoops to jump through that
people say I'm going to try it, and then you
go down to the office to get the various permits
and you think, ask screw it. Yeah, absolutely true.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
And the other thing is, and they point this out
and I came across it was it was a little
long and dry to present on the show, but it
was a discussion of.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Was it Denmark one? Are you your super oil.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Rich Scandinavian countries and their tax policies and how they
have driven all of their entrepreneurs out of the country
and now it's just oil revenue. But the other point
they make in the journal is that in Europe, even
more than the US, which has a very progressive tax code,
but if you're successful in America, we punish you by
(27:44):
raising your taxes.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
If you're a little successful.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
We punish you a little bit, if you're moderately successful,
we punish you moderately. And if you're very very successful,
we punish you pretty badly by taking more of your money.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
In Europe, it's extreme.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
I mean, they treat you like you or a child
murderer if you come up with a brilliant idea that
succeeds brilliantly. And what they're urging is that let's not
lose those two things.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Number One, let's.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Continue to be a what the hell, let's try it
society because we're the beacon to the world in innovation.
And number two, let's not demonize people who have a
great idea, take a risk, bust their ass and succeed
with it. That would choke us to death.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
I know, I just I'll never understand how you get
to the Bernie Sanders Elizabeth Warren mindset or a lot
of college students were billionaires. Shouldn't exist? How do you
not understand what you're saying? Okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
I have an idea that people love, and if I
sold it to one person, I'd make a dollar.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Is that?
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Okay, same idea, more people hear about it, one hundred
people hear about it. I make one hundred dollars than
one hundred thousand people. Now a billion people have heard
about my idea. They all like it. I make a
dollar per Now I'm a billionaire. I shouldn't exist. Explain
that to me, please, Chay Marx Sanders Warren guovera, you
(29:15):
idiotic college kid.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
You stupid effing moros. Oh I'm sorry. I'd vowed to
be more restrained in.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
The new year.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Oh boy, it's not an interesting Gallup poll right at
the end of the year. But people's attitudes about all
kinds of things about their own lives, which you can
compare and contrast see if you fit in. And also,
I've decided to embarrass myself as a punishment to try
to get myself to better behavior. I'm embarrassing myself today
(29:50):
and I'm going to do on a daily basis. Wow,
I don't know. It's a carrot and stick. I'm going
with this stick. I'm going with the stick approach with
myself to try to make my behavior better. Self flagellation exactly.
We'll explain that coming up, among other things. Stay here first.
(30:13):
The way that I'm going to embarrass myself into changing
my behavior, I could lap, and I'm doing it today.
I was looking through my closet to try to find
my large dress shirts that actually fit, as opposed to
my medium dress shirts that I was wearing throughout most
of last year that fit at the time. And I thought,
(30:35):
you know what, I'm gonna wear my medium dress shirt
that gaps in the front and show my bare chest
because they're too small for me. And and so every time
I look in the mirror, I see it so that
I need better at home, I get it out in
the world. At work, I'm embarrassed to walk around in
(30:55):
this shirt. I find myself hunching my shoulders to try
to get my shirt to go together. Oh, I know
that move, but I'm going to do it. I'm just
going to embarrass myself until I finally come correct.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
Wow, that's an interesting lever to pull. But whatever works
for you, see if it works.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
My brother was talking about a winter coat that he's
got that he really likes. That he can't come with
the foot of getting the zipper to come together, but
he's still holding out hope. We all do it so pathetically,
we all do it. That is correct. So also seeing
my family, we got on the conversation about the pandemic.
(31:34):
As we're at the five year anniversary mark, it was
five years ago, we'll start hearing the dates five years
ago the first case was seen in wherever it was,
Washington State or whatever. And in March we'll have the
five year anniversary of them canceling the March Madness and
I'll never forget in my life. When they announced at
the school they're calling it off for a month, and
everybody was like, why I'd just how could that possibly happen?
(31:56):
We all know how it played out. But so this
gallop pole is I think mostly about just where we
are psychologically since the pandemic, because it's comparing Americans' satisfaction
with aspects of their life twenty nineteen versus end of
twenty four Oh interesting coincides with pre pandemic and several
(32:19):
years you know after most of it's over. Depends on
where you live, as back in Kansas, where the pandemic
was completely over in twenty one, as opposed to living
in California, where the pandemic ended for some people hasn't
ended yet still earn masks. But I thought these numbers
were Some of these numbers were quite amazing. Your personal health.
(32:42):
Fifty four percent of Americans were satisfied with their personal
health in twenty nineteen, over half, and it's now forty one,
a thirteen point crop. So is that just like a
psychological thing? Are that many people less healthy? I don't know,
I don't know. It's it's your own attitude. It's not
(33:03):
like a measurable number. Yeah, I'm shocked by that. How
about this one theory? Your family life a ten point
drop from pre pandemic till now from seventy six percent,
which I'm glad to hear, was that I three quarters
of people satisfied with their family life. It's now down
to sixty six percent, two thirds. Huh, how would you
(33:27):
explain that.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
The only thing I can offer to you, and I
was going to get into this at some point, is
a study that was done that showed, well, there are
a couple of studies out lately. One that is about
how girls have not bounced back academically and now are
falling behind boys in several subjects in a way that
(33:52):
was the reverse of the trend for a very very
long time. And a sister bit of information, which is
that neurologist say girls' brains aged during the pandemic in
a way they've never seen before. Wow, the lack of
socializing was crippling to the neurological development of young girls.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
One more example of how the.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
COVID eer restrictions were not only unsupportable at the time
but absolutely did obscene damage to our young people.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Well, that could have something to do with this number, then, Oh,
I'm sorry, that's what I was working toward. If developmentally speaking,
it's been it was that devastating to young women, that
that might be a lot of that. Sure, my wife
dumped me during the pandemic, so my family life is
(34:45):
less than it was before. And there were a lot
of divorces during the pandemic, So maybe that's some of it.
I don't know, But ten point drop, I wonder some
of the other big drops. Your community is a place
to live A ten point drop six people were satisfied
with where they lived now fifty one percent because of
(35:06):
the way it handled the pandemic. Or just is everybody's
overall attitude worse? Does that explain all these everybody's just
got a worse attitude in general?
Speaker 4 (35:14):
You're a in my mind, I was just going to say,
Or is it just that that whole period pissed everybody
off and we're in a foul mood. When you're in
a foul mood, flowers smell bad, meals taste bad.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
You don't care? True, true, if things aren't going your way,
a beautiful, nice day and a cute puppy is annoying
that god damned thing out of my way. Yeah, that's
almost got to be it now that I think about it.
For instance, your job or the work you do was
an almost double digit drop and people being satisfied. So
(35:48):
I think it might just be we just aren't. We're
just have a worse attitude. It somehouse killed our will
to live or our ability to enjoy life. This is
a little partisan, but I can't resist.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
I also think that the folks that have been in
charge for a while on the progressive side of things,
there are things. Their message is, this is a bad country.
You're a bad person, You're defined by your race. I'm
judging you harshly. I'm going to shout you down if
I disagree with you. It's not a growth.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Let's do it.
Speaker 4 (36:23):
Positive American spirit on the progressive side gotta get rid
of it.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
If you miss an hour, get the podcast Armstrong and
Getty on demand Armstrong and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe, Katty.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Armstrong and Jetty and he Armstrong and Letty.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Images of the homemade explosive devices authority say shamsu Dingjabbar
brought to Bourbon Street the night of the New Year's
terror attack. Surveillance video shows the suspect planting a pair
of coolers they are on the street early that morning.
Authorities say inside they discovered a steel galvanized pipe with
two end caps surrounded by two dozen rolls of nails,
(00:47):
along with the radio controlled receiver. They also say they
found jars of flammable liquid inside the truck the suspect
used to barrel into those Bourbon Street crowds, killing fourteen
people and injuring dozens more.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Okay, I heard that last night when I was watching
ABC News. I got a question about that. But this
is what the FBI had to say. This is not
a terrorist event. What it is right now is there
improvised explosive devices that was found and we are working
on confirming if this is a viable device or not. Okay,
So I'm a little confused by that. Also, so I
(01:20):
have a lot of questions here. So I heard that
on ABC News and I thought, Okay, if I put
a bunch of crap in a bottle, nails and other
stuff that could cut you and hurt you and stuff
like that, and I got a cell phone with some
batteries taped to it, does that count as a bomb?
Even though it might not. I couldn't have done anything
(01:41):
with it. I mean, they didn't specifically say that the
guy could have set that it would have worked, that
it wasn't just a crazy person throwing it together. So
maybe you know if it was or not. But they
didn't say.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Reports i've heard said that he was shot down before
he could detonate them. I have not heard, which does
not disprove anything, but I have not heard anything. But yes,
they could have exploded, okay, but I might have missed that.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
The person there just said at the end they're not
sure if they were viable or not. I don't know
what that.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
That is the same FBI person who said this is
not a terrorism a terrorist event, which is unbelievably irresponsible,
and I would say inexplicable, but I'm about to explicit
because it's disgusting.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
A guy with a truck that has an ISIS flag
on it, drives through a crowd. He's been to Egypt.
All his website stuff says he there's a video of
him you can look at of him swearing allegiance dices
this isn't a terrorist event.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
And he slaughters a bunch of people. That is today's
FBI apparently, or just ALTHEA Duncan, the FBI assistant special Agent.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Charge that part of the country. That's shocking. I didn't
like Trump forcing Ray out before his term is up.
I'm fine with it now. I mean that if that's
Ray's FBI, that's crazy. Yeah, yeah, it is. It.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
It's another example of what we were talking about yesterday
with the absolutely horrific Muslim immigrants raping children in Britain's
story and the cover up of it by law enforcements,
social services, local government, federal government in Britain. And this
is it's the same motivation that would have the FBI say,
(03:21):
and you know, I've had the privilege to, you know,
go on various ride alongs and talk at length to
investigators of very sorts, including murder investigators.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
And the one sacred.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Rule is thou shalt not leap to conclusions because that
cloud's your judgment.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
You've got to take in all of the evidence and.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
For her like and that was the next day to say,
this is not a terrorist event. That is spectacularly irresponsible.
What would motivate something so irresponsible, Well, that pathetic need
to oh, you know what, to cause an anti Islamic
backlash or whatever the hell it is.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Well, I I'm not worried about terrorism. Like in my
own life, I've never been afraid of it. This is
from Meet the Press on Sunday. The country is on edge.
We're mocking that the country is not on edge. I
traveled around. I was in Washington, d C. The next day,
hours after this happened. In the news broke. There were
people staying in line for every freaking thing that was
(04:18):
going on. Nobody seemed to be on edge. We're all
fine at the same time. There's no reason to downplay
it either. Just tell me what is And clearly this
guy was inspired by ISIS. He might be a nut job.
I don't know. I don't know if he directly talked
to anybody in ISIS. Let's find out, right, he is.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
A dead ender and a loser who was angry about life,
and he latched onto a particular ideology that justified him
hurting people, which is what he wanted to do. He
was hurting, so he wanted to hurt. That's the description
of virtually all of these guys in school shooters or whatever.
But yeah, again for the FBI, you don't say that
sort of thing unless you have a particular motivation, which
I think I've already laid out. But I find that
(04:58):
absolutely obscene. Another aspect of this that's gotten a fair
amount of attention is and I wish I had it
in front of me.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I got so much stuff.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
But is all the news media that reported that an
inanimate object had done the killing in New Orleans pickup
truck plows into crowd, Jills twelve or whatever, Ford f
one point fifty plowed into the They wouldn't say a person.
They wouldn't say an Isis devotee. They wouldn't say even
(05:28):
a murderer. The inanimate object did it, which is bizarre,
but is also explained by then they don't have to
get into the person and their motivation, and we don't
want to have an anti Islamic backlash.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Well, first of all, I saw a tweet from Laura Logan,
who you know, formerly of sixty Minutes, who I often
find a little off the rails in her comments nowadays.
But she said, after decades of working with the you know,
following the news and questioning the FBI and everything like that,
she said, they never say anything in the early days.
(06:04):
You can't get a word out of them about anything.
For the person to come out and specifically say this
was not to make a declarative sentence is really something
the FBI doesn't and then to have it be the
opposite of what everybody's seeing with their own eyes is extraordinary.
It is.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Yes, it's troubling, and troubling isn't a good enough word.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
It's worries activist by far.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Yes, yeah, I would agree. I would agree it's incredibly troubling.
And then I want to get into the bigger picture.
Maybe next segment. But there was one more just it
probably doesn't matter, but an incredibly annoying note.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And I didn't watch the Sugar Bowl.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
I didn't watch much football other than my fighting line,
I bravely beating down the favorite game Cocks. Pardon me
of South Carolina, get a better name, South Carolina.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Did you see the Oregon spanking that happened. Holy crap,
that was one of the most extraordinary things in college boards.
I've ever seen the undefeated, far and away number one Oregon.
They were down thirty eight to nothing in the first quarter.
Oh by the mighty Ohio Ones.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Yeah, I uh, And I'd watched Oregon summ and they
looked like an NFL style off.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I was astounded by the game. Well anyway, yeah, I've
got more to the way the so many players leave
before the bowl games happened. Which team had it had
seventeen players that didn't play in their game? They opted out,
as they say, that's I don't know.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
They got to fix that somehow. But anyway, back to terrorism,
I don't think you can in America anyway. We can
talk about that later. So it's the All State Sugar Bowl,
and the CEO of All State decided he needed to
and I'm sorry. The Sugar Bowl was in New Orleans
the day after the terrorist slayings on the street. They
(08:01):
postponed it by a day, and then the All State
to CEO, Tom Wilson, decided he should make a statement
before the game on the TV.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
And here it is welcome to the All State Sugar
Bowl Wednesday, tragedy struck the New Orleans community. Our prayers
with the victims and their families. We also need to
be stronger together by overcoming an addiction to divisiveness and negativity.
Join All State, working in local communities all across America
(08:30):
to amplify the positive, increase trust, and accept people's imperfections
and differences.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Together we win well. First of all, the leader of
Vices has said, I.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Was brought to tears by the head of All State
saying we should not be so divisive. He's right, good God,
And to me, a tragedy is an earthquake, not a
terrorist slaying of innocence.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
I'd say that's a horrible crime. Why did he speak
at all? He could have just said nothing. I mean,
there is no need for him to come out and
give a speech. But then he does come out and
give a speech before the game. What was his goal there?
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Well, and I could think of a dozen approaches better
than Hey, we're too divided. We got to there's too
much negativity. That's the problem. That's why a sworn adherent
of issis slaughtered a bunch of innocence in a violent
and horrific manner, including children. We have too much divisiveness.
What the hell was that?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
I don't know. I you know, we do this sort
of thing for a living, and I heard that, and
I thought, I don't know what his intention was with
that message, with that crafting of that message. Play that
one more time.
Speaker 5 (09:46):
Michael, Welcome to the All States Sugar Bowl. Wednesday, tragedy
struck the New Orleans community. Our prayers are with the
victims and their families. We also need to be stronger
together by overc coming in addiction to divisiveness and negativity.
Join all state working in local communities all across America
(10:07):
to amplify the positive, increased trust, and accept people's imperfections
and differences.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Together we win. I thought he praised the Incadella's rights.
Speaker 6 (10:19):
We spent too much time thinking about our difference is
I thought he was going to go with some sort
of But we decided to play the game because the
players and fans and we need something to root for
or something like that.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
The people of New Orleans have been such great hosts.
Were horrified and saddened by the terrible thing they've endured,
but we've decided to play something route that s.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I should use the word back to the attack itself.
One of the first things I thought was because the
reason I bought an electric car is not because I
care about climate change, because they're so freaking fast and
it's really fun. And one of the first things I
thought is he picked that lightning f one fifty electric
truck because of the power of acceleration. It has more
(11:06):
than any other truck you could possibly drive if you
want to hit a bunch of people and.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Kill him that. I don't know if he does, but
it's true. Just keep this in mind. Clip seventy four.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Michael, this is not a terrorist event. That's right there.
You have it.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
That's the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigating. You're in good hands, folks.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Who, as Laura Logan pointed out, only ever says we're
still in the process of investigating, so we have nothing
to say at this time always, but in this instance
they decided to say something, and it was that how
do you explain it?
Speaker 4 (11:42):
We got more on the ways to hear after a
word from our friends that prize picks Michael, Is that correct?
Speaker 1 (11:48):
All right? Great? So the football playoffs are just starting.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
This is not the college Fellows obviously, but Prize Picks
is an easy, fun way to get involved and capture
all that excitement.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
This is not the college felas I like that very
home had fun. You can now win up to a
thousand times your money on Price Picks with these amazing
games and the amazing plays in there. Is there going
to be more or less on all the stats. I'm
looking forward to starting to dig into it before the weekend.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Yeah, it can be as few as two players or more.
And Prize Picks invented the flex play, which means you
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You can double your money even if one of your
picks does not hit. Prize Picks now offers MasterCard for
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Download the app today. Use the code Armstrong to get
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(12:38):
You don't have to win, you get the fifty dollars
bonus instantly when you play five dollars again, remember that
code Armstrong.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
It's the Prize Picks app. Prize Picks run your game.
I just see Trump doubled down on taking Greenland. I
think Greenland might actually become a sting.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
No, no, no, Greenland's like in the Danish You're like,
what are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
H huh. We got more, by the way, Armstrong the
only thing by being the oldest president. I know more
world leaders than any one of you ever met in
your whole goddamn wife, and I know how they see
(13:19):
not a joke. Oh yeah, So somebody stuck on microphone
in the face of that old man for some reason.
I don't know what's going on there. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Wow, the senile, bitter old president who's trying to do
as much damage to the Trump administration in advance as
he can, you know, blocking off loyal oil leases and stuff.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
We'll talk about that down the roadeen days.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
I'd sell you what I've waited on more people at
this restaurant than you have in your goddamn life, say
the waiters and waitresses of Washington, d C. Jack, where
you just were. The Washingtonian, which is read in the
self obsessed Nations Capital, has a piece about how DC
(14:03):
restaurants have long been like politically neutral spaces. Obviously, to
cite the cliched example, you got Reagan coming in, you
got timp O'Neil coming in right, so you treat everybody
with respectfully.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
But that changed during the Trump years.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
Restaurant owners became much more politically outspoken. They were part
of the resistance, and Trump officials became social pariahs when
dining out. You remember several incidents involving Ted Cruz and
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who got kicked out of a restaurant
in West Lexington, Virginia. Homeland Secretary Kirsten Nielsen's dinner at
(14:43):
a DC Mexican Mexican restaurant was interrupted as they yelled
shame Steven Miller tossing eighty dollars worth of takeout sushi
after somebody cursed him and flipped him off at a
sushi place, somebody on the staff. But anyway, in the
Washington Washingtonian, anyway, you got all these restaurant tours and
(15:05):
waiters and bartenders saying we're not gonna be silent, We're
not gonna be quote unquote civil.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Let's see, here's this guy. What does he do.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
He's a DC restaurant. He's a manager at a club,
big club in DC. If you're just going out for
a nice dinner at your anniversary or birthday, and God forbid, RFK.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Junior is sitting s to you.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Now you're going to be dealing with whatever repercussions happened
from that. He's saying, all this restaurants to have is
justified in cursing these people out and yelling at him
and kicking him out.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Well, we'll see if this actually happens or not. Like
I said, bumping around d C, it was quite a
bit different than the last time I was in DC
when Trump got elected, he was being treated like a
regular president. I mean, the number of Trump shirts, hats, pins,
inauguration forty seventh president stuff that I saw. There was
nothing like that in twenty seventeen when I was there
(16:02):
for the inauguration. Right. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
In fact, that was my question. I wonder if this
is just big talk by little people.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I'd be my guess.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Here's a woman who's a server and manager at a
saloon on Capitol Hill. Quote, people who are a lot
more motivated the first time around to do these kinds
of shows of passion. This time around, there's kind of
a sense of defeat and acceptance. But I hope that
people will still do stand up to this administration and
tell them their thoughts on their misbehavior as they're trying
to get a ham sandwich at lunchtime.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Here's my biggest question about restaurants, DC restaurants because I
had this and I tweeted it out and it's the
most controversial tweet I've ever put out ever. It got
more responses than anything I've ever tweeted this question. So
I mean it in Gordon Ramsay's restaurant, which I wish
I'd had spent the time to look into what it
costs to eat there, because it's the most expensive meal
I've ever paid for for me and my two kids,
partially because there was the we've added to twenty percent
(16:58):
already thing that rustaurants are doing sometimes now, and so
service charge is that what they call it? Earth It
just said, yeah, we've we've added a twenty percent service
charge to your bill, and then it's got the line
for the tip, and I thought, do I tip on
top of this or not? And I tweeted that out.
I googled it and tweeted it and same result either way.
Plenty of people say, absolutely, that's not the tip. You
(17:21):
need to tip on top of that. You're screwing your
server or one hundred percent, that's the tip, No way
you should give any more money. I still don't know
what the answer is on that. But obviously, if they
add twenty percent and I didn't know they were going
to do that, or I wouldn't have gone. If they
add twenty percent and I'm supposed to tip twenty percent,
that's forty percent on top of my meal, that's a
(17:42):
no go. That's a second group. That is the tip.
No freaking way I'm eating there. A whole bunch of
people adamantly said no, that goes to the restaurant, that
the server will get nothing, and you absolutely need to
tip on top of that. Maybe that's true, but I'll
never eat at a restaurant that does that. You can't
pay forty percent top your bill. Nobody's doing that. That's ridiculous.
(18:03):
It is ridiculous. I don't know what the correct answer
is either, or if it varies from restaurant to restaurant.
If you know, text line four one five two nine
five KFTC. But what the hell Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
A lot of people this year texted me their holiday card,
and that.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Is I just want to say, that is unacceptable. I
want you. I won't even look at those. I would
rather have no card. And in fact, that is what
you sent. No card. I did not send a holiday card.
A card is a card. I want something I can
take out of the envelope. Look at Ask my wife,
who are these kids?
Speaker 6 (18:43):
Never figure it out between us and then throw it
in the garbage.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Christmas, more than.
Speaker 6 (18:48):
Anything, is about killing trees, and I want that sacrifice.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
When I got the card, texting a holiday card, that
is the least I could do, as the saying goes.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
Yeah, yeah, that brought me down. And it's because Judy
and I cannot get our act together to send out
a holiday card. I'm glad I'm not the only one
because it hurts my psyche every year.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Well and mostly it's that we don't think of it
until November thirty seventh, you know, Yeah, I just I don't,
and and I'm a worse human being for it. I
admit that. Yes, Michael, maybe this is the ear. It's not.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
I bought Christmas cards, I bought New Year's cards, and
none of them got.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Out well, and then it made that critical first step.
Well yeah, but that you could pull off fairly late
in the game. But if you're going to do the
big family photo and have that turned into a card.
It takes a little planning ahead of time. And I
feel like those of you and I have many friends
workers stuff like that. I believe you're only sending them
(19:54):
to me as a reminder of how much better you
are than me. I feel like it's just an attempt
to make me feel bad. It's a flex. It's absolutelyness.
Look how organized we are. We got family photos, turn
them into a card, know your address, and got them
in the mail in time. So take a you know,
looking looking forward to getting the same from you. Oh
(20:15):
you couldn't. Didn't get that together, too unorganized. Oh sorry
to hear that couldn't be troubled.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
M No, all right, So I love this and this
this story why the economy is trouncing Europe's It's from
Edward Cannard in the Wall Street Journal. But it reminds
me so much of that Twitter thread we brought you
last year, and I wish I had bookmarked it because
it was so terrific. It was by your brit who
(20:41):
is explaining the difference between Britain and the United States
culturally speaking.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
And we'll refer back to that in a second.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
But this this piece opens with, and I love this
that economists never cite one of the most significant statistics
about the US economy.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
And we'll get to that. But according to.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Data released last week by the OECD, the Organization for
Economic I sound like Joe Biden Organization for Economic Corporation
and Cooperation and Development. Only about twelve percent of Americans
score at the highest levels on internationally administered academic tests
twelve percent, while thirty four percent score at the lowest levels,
(21:22):
nearly three lower scores for every high score. Germany's figures
are nearly even, not three to one low to high
eighteen at the highest level, twenty percent at the lowest.
Put another way, Germany's ratio of high to low scores
is almost three times Americas. Scandinavia's is five times better,
Japan's seven times better. These enormous differences, there's twist, have
(21:47):
profound economic implications. With more talent and fewer needy people.
Is it any wonder that northern European countries can afford
more generous welfare policies than their neighbors to the south.
Yet you're right to be Yet America excels relative to Europe.
Despite these enormous differences. While Europe has created fourteen companies
(22:09):
worth more than ten billion dollars in the last half century,
with about four hundred billion dollars of market value in total,
I realize that's a lot of money. Uh, fourteen companies
worth more than ten billion dollars, Americans have created nearly
two hundred and fifty such companies, or thirty trillion dollars,
not forty four hundred billion.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
And of course that is an amazing stat right it is.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
It's mind blowing that success is driven up America's middle
class incomes the median disposable US household income income.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
To inequality income inequality.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
The median disposable US household income, according to the OCOECD,
is now twenty five percent greater than the median in
Brainy Brainy Germany, and sixty percent greater than the median
household in Italy, for instance.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Do you have it for Great Britain? Now they don't
have that. It's interesting just because Charles CW. Cook of
The National Review, who is a brit who has moved
to the United States, constantly says Americans have no idea
how rich they are compared to Europeans. The average American, right,
and a poor American now compared to a poor American,
(23:25):
say eighty years ago.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Is vastly wealthier, vastly, But that's useless politically to point
that out.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Grievance gets people to the polls. Anyway.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Europeans incomes would be even lower compared to Americans if
they weren't free riding on American innovation, defense spending, and
higher drug prices which instead of ize research. Oh. I
was talking to a good buddy of mine who's a
doctor the other day, and he was talking about how
there's no money in antibiotics, and so the the big
(24:00):
pharma companies that are so you know, demonized in reasonable fashion,
justifiedly in some cases, but there's no incentive for them
to innovate and come up with new antibiotics. And he's
he happened to be a urologist, and he said, we
used to run into these unconquerable infections like once every
(24:22):
six months, and now it's once a week really, and
he was talking about a hospital setting. But yeah, the
infections they fight and fight but can't beat are becoming
more and more and more common. As the then to
get off on a not to get off on a
too long at tangent, But as people use antibiotics for
(24:43):
things they don't need them for, or take them just
until they feel better, which is like a super power
training program for microbes. It's selecting only those that can
survive the first seventy percent of your treatment and turning
the loose on the world. Now, if you'd finished your treatment,
you'd have kill them all. But this is rampant in
(25:05):
Africa for instance. Anyway, why do you.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Stop taking your antibiotics once you start feeling better? I mean,
I just you don't feel like you need medicine anymore.
I don't know. I mean I'm a slacker, but I
take the full ten days or whatever. Yeah, do that? Friends,
do that?
Speaker 4 (25:22):
Of course, you're up against tens of millions of Africans
who don't, and they sell antibiotics over the counter there.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
But anyway, we'll all be dead soon.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
To get back to the article, So Europe would be
even worse off if they didn't piggyback on American technological
developments in military spending that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
And here's the point.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
The outside success of America's talented entrepreneurs doesn't stem from
their superior intelligence or even education. It comes from working
at companies like Google and Microsoft and Apple that mind
the technological frontier and expose employees to alluable knowledge, insights,
and opportunities.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
That's absolutely true.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
But unlike Europe, the enormous success of American entrepreneurs motivated
an army of talented Americans and motivates them us every
day to get valuable on the job, training, work longer hours,
take risks, and succeed. A small amount of success bubbles
up from large pools of failure.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
And we have two things.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Number one we have and this is critical and if
we ever lose this, God help us.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
We have a culture of let's try it.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Europe and Britain in particular, and this was the Twitter
thread that I thought was so great, has a culture
of you'd better not to fail. It would be really embarrassing,
it'd be humiliating. You're much better off not trying. And
we have a what the.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Health culture that we're trying to stamp out as fast
as we can, with places like California where you have
so many different regulations and hoops to jump through that
people say I'm going to try it, and then you
go down to the office to get the various permits
and you think, ask screw it. Yeah, absolutely true.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
And the other thing is, and they point this out
and I came across it was it was a little
long and dry to present on the show, but it
was a discussion of.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Was it Denmark one? Are you your super oil.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Rich Scandinavian countries and their tax policies and how they
have driven all of their entrepreneurs out of the country
and now it's just oil revenue. But the other point
they make in the journal is that in Europe, even
more than the US, which has a very progressive tax code,
but if you're successful in America, we punish you by
(27:44):
raising your taxes.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
If you're a little successful.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
We punish you a little bit, if you're moderately successful,
we punish you moderately. And if you're very very successful,
we punish you pretty badly by taking more of your money.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
In Europe, it's extreme.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
I mean, they treat you like you or a child
murderer if you come up with a brilliant idea that
succeeds brilliantly. And what they're urging is that let's not
lose those two things.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Number One, let's.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Continue to be a what the hell, let's try it
society because we're the beacon to the world in innovation.
And number two, let's not demonize people who have a
great idea, take a risk, bust their ass and succeed
with it. That would choke us to death.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
I know, I just I'll never understand how you get
to the Bernie Sanders Elizabeth Warren mindset or a lot
of college students were billionaires. Shouldn't exist? How do you
not understand what you're saying? Okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
I have an idea that people love, and if I
sold it to one person, I'd make a dollar.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Is that?
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Okay, same idea, more people hear about it, one hundred
people hear about it. I make one hundred dollars than
one hundred thousand people. Now a billion people have heard
about my idea. They all like it. I make a
dollar per Now I'm a billionaire. I shouldn't exist. Explain
that to me, please, Chay Marx Sanders Warren guovera, you
(29:15):
idiotic college kid.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
You stupid effing moros. Oh I'm sorry. I'd vowed to
be more restrained in.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
The new year.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Oh boy, it's not an interesting Gallup poll right at
the end of the year. But people's attitudes about all
kinds of things about their own lives, which you can
compare and contrast see if you fit in. And also,
I've decided to embarrass myself as a punishment to try
to get myself to better behavior. I'm embarrassing myself today
(29:50):
and I'm going to do on a daily basis. Wow,
I don't know. It's a carrot and stick. I'm going
with this stick. I'm going with the stick approach with
myself to try to make my behavior better. Self flagellation exactly.
We'll explain that coming up, among other things. Stay here first.
(30:13):
The way that I'm going to embarrass myself into changing
my behavior, I could lap, and I'm doing it today.
I was looking through my closet to try to find
my large dress shirts that actually fit, as opposed to
my medium dress shirts that I was wearing throughout most
of last year that fit at the time. And I thought,
(30:35):
you know what, I'm gonna wear my medium dress shirt
that gaps in the front and show my bare chest
because they're too small for me. And and so every time
I look in the mirror, I see it so that
I need better at home, I get it out in
the world. At work, I'm embarrassed to walk around in
(30:55):
this shirt. I find myself hunching my shoulders to try
to get my shirt to go together. Oh, I know
that move, but I'm going to do it. I'm just
going to embarrass myself until I finally come correct.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
Wow, that's an interesting lever to pull. But whatever works
for you, see if it works.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
My brother was talking about a winter coat that he's
got that he really likes. That he can't come with
the foot of getting the zipper to come together, but
he's still holding out hope. We all do it so pathetically,
we all do it. That is correct. So also seeing
my family, we got on the conversation about the pandemic.
(31:34):
As we're at the five year anniversary mark, it was
five years ago, we'll start hearing the dates five years
ago the first case was seen in wherever it was,
Washington State or whatever. And in March we'll have the
five year anniversary of them canceling the March Madness and
I'll never forget in my life. When they announced at
the school they're calling it off for a month, and
everybody was like, why I'd just how could that possibly happen?
(31:56):
We all know how it played out. But so this
gallop pole is I think mostly about just where we
are psychologically since the pandemic, because it's comparing Americans' satisfaction
with aspects of their life twenty nineteen versus end of
twenty four Oh interesting coincides with pre pandemic and several
(32:19):
years you know after most of it's over. Depends on
where you live, as back in Kansas, where the pandemic
was completely over in twenty one, as opposed to living
in California, where the pandemic ended for some people hasn't
ended yet still earn masks. But I thought these numbers
were Some of these numbers were quite amazing. Your personal health.
(32:42):
Fifty four percent of Americans were satisfied with their personal
health in twenty nineteen, over half, and it's now forty one,
a thirteen point crop. So is that just like a
psychological thing? Are that many people less healthy? I don't know,
I don't know. It's it's your own attitude. It's not
(33:03):
like a measurable number. Yeah, I'm shocked by that. How
about this one theory? Your family life a ten point
drop from pre pandemic till now from seventy six percent,
which I'm glad to hear, was that I three quarters
of people satisfied with their family life. It's now down
to sixty six percent, two thirds. Huh, how would you
(33:27):
explain that.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
The only thing I can offer to you, and I
was going to get into this at some point, is
a study that was done that showed, well, there are
a couple of studies out lately. One that is about
how girls have not bounced back academically and now are
falling behind boys in several subjects in a way that
(33:52):
was the reverse of the trend for a very very
long time. And a sister bit of information, which is
that neurologist say girls' brains aged during the pandemic in
a way they've never seen before. Wow, the lack of
socializing was crippling to the neurological development of young girls.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
One more example of how the.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
COVID eer restrictions were not only unsupportable at the time
but absolutely did obscene damage to our young people.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Well, that could have something to do with this number, then, Oh,
I'm sorry, that's what I was working toward. If developmentally speaking,
it's been it was that devastating to young women, that
that might be a lot of that. Sure, my wife
dumped me during the pandemic, so my family life is
(34:45):
less than it was before. And there were a lot
of divorces during the pandemic, So maybe that's some of it.
I don't know, But ten point drop, I wonder some
of the other big drops. Your community is a place
to live A ten point drop six people were satisfied
with where they lived now fifty one percent because of
(35:06):
the way it handled the pandemic. Or just is everybody's
overall attitude worse? Does that explain all these everybody's just
got a worse attitude in general?
Speaker 4 (35:14):
You're a in my mind, I was just going to say,
Or is it just that that whole period pissed everybody
off and we're in a foul mood. When you're in
a foul mood, flowers smell bad, meals taste bad.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
You don't care? True, true, if things aren't going your way,
a beautiful, nice day and a cute puppy is annoying
that god damned thing out of my way. Yeah, that's
almost got to be it now that I think about it.
For instance, your job or the work you do was
an almost double digit drop and people being satisfied. So
(35:48):
I think it might just be we just aren't. We're
just have a worse attitude. It somehouse killed our will
to live or our ability to enjoy life. This is
a little partisan, but I can't resist.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
I also think that the folks that have been in
charge for a while on the progressive side of things,
there are things. Their message is, this is a bad country.
You're a bad person, You're defined by your race. I'm
judging you harshly. I'm going to shout you down if
I disagree with you. It's not a growth.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Let's do it.
Speaker 4 (36:23):
Positive American spirit on the progressive side gotta get rid
of it.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
If you miss an hour, get the podcast Armstrong and
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