July 8, 2026 • 36 mins
Hour Four of A&G features...
- The reason why The WNBA fails to appreciate Kaitlin Clark...
- The DOGE Mission is complete...
- The Mamdani Rebuttal...
- Final Thoughts!
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio of the
George Washington Broadcast Center.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Jack Armstrong and Joe Katty I'm strong and and he
arm strong and.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Eddy you okay, man, you should lie down.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
You don't sound okay? Wow? Can I call your wife?
You're an.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
So that was after Messi, who they call the greatest
soccer player of all time, I'll take their word for it,
scored last night in Argentina. The defending World champ came
back after almost getting upset by Egypt and won and
or down to the final late. But the USA is
not in it, and whether the United States is going
to pay attention the average viewer is going to pay
attention now that the US is out of it, I
(01:26):
have no idea Thirty three million people tuned in the
other day though, most ever for any soccer match. That's
a lot more people than watch the WNBA. I'll tell
you that. That's the Women's National Basketball Association. Professional women's
basketball does not do that well, but it's doing a
lot better in the last couple of years because of
one player, this woman named Caitlin Clark. You probably have
(01:50):
heard of her. She was a phenom at Iowa University
set the all time scoring record for men and women
in college and it's just fun to watch. I mean,
she's a great player and does it with the style
and you know, a swagger and everything like that, and
she's got all of the star making qualities that you
(02:11):
want in athletes. What I'm about to tell you is
more about culture than sports. So if you're not a
sports fan, don't worry. This is from the National Review
and they're writing about it because it is a cultural
kind of political thing. What Caitlin Clark's treatment tells us
about the WNBA. She's been getting the hell beaten out
of her this season, well actually since she entered the league,
(02:31):
what three four years ago. She just gets beaten on
by other players constantly. And one of the things the
National Reviews pointing out is how now there's pretty good
argument to be made that the refs and the league
are turning a blind eye toward her being physically attacked
on the court. When other players get elbowed in the
(02:56):
face same sort of play, there's a penalty or fright,
flagrant foul. When it happens to Caitlin Clark, they pretend
nothing to happen. Why is the league so against her will?
I will read on from the National Review. The unfair
and often physically abusive treatment of Caitlin Clark by the
WNBA is reaching a boiling point. The problem is not
limited to Clark's on court rivals. The league itself is
(03:19):
increasingly complicit in ways that look deliberate. The league's behavior
tells us a lot about what the WNBA really is,
which is it's neither a sports league nor a business.
If the WNBA was primarily a business, Clark should be
seen by the league as its most valuable asset and
the best thing that ever happened to him. Ryan Brewer,
(03:42):
a finance professor at Indiana University who specializes in valuation,
calculated that Caitlin Clark alone accounted for more than twenty
six and a half percent of all WNBA economic activity
in the twenty twenty four season. One player accounted for
over a quarter of all the economic activity, a figure
spanning attendance, television, and merchandise. Of the twenty four WNBA
(04:06):
broadcast that drew at least one million viewers last year,
twenty one of them were Caitlin Clark. Twenty one out
of twenty four times that they had more than a
million viewers. It was her Her games averaged around one
point two million viewers, about a two hundred percent more
than the games or she did not play. Indiana, that's
the team she plays for, set a single season league
(04:29):
attendance record. Opponents relocated home games into larger NBA arenas
to hold crowds whenever she would come to their town,
and league merchandise sales surged above six hundred percent with
Clark atop the Jersey rankings. In the summer of twenty
twenty four, the league signed an eleven year media rights
(04:50):
agreement worth roughly two point two billion dollars, more than
triple its prior deal before she arrived in the WNBA.
That's the sort of wind field that a windfall that
has arrived on the growth she's ignited. An independent economist
at Holy Cross estimated that roughly one in every six
(05:11):
tickets sold league wide, home and away, are owed to
the Clark effect. One out of every six tickets sold.
In twenty twenty five, Clark drew one point three million
All Star fan votes, a single season record. By the way,
the other day they did the player like an anonymous
player ranking thing. The players voted her the not only
(05:33):
the eleventh best player, the eleventh best guard in the league.
I don't know how many teams are in the league.
Can you look that up for me, Michael, I'm guessing
the WNBA is about thirty. Does every WNBA team, I mean,
does the every NBA team have a WNBA team associated
with it?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
I don't know. If there's twelve what That's what I can.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
So they had a second to worst guard in the
league according to the other players. And again, to get
to the punchline, this is a lot of it because
she's white and straight and they hate her for it.
But getting back to you know, establishing what a big
deal she is. And if again, if this was an
actual sports league and an actual business, you would be
(06:18):
doing everything you could to promote Caitlyn Clark and make
her happy because she has changed your business into a
nothing into a something. By some estimates, Clark and her
teammates Sophie Cunningham currently account for seventy one percent of
all WNBA jersey sales between them. Even Michael Jordan at
(06:39):
his peak didn't represent such a dominating share of monetizable
fan interest in his league as what Caitlyn Clark does,
which is a heck of a statement. Now, is this
just because she's white and straight, which is what a
lot of the players say, Okay, Well, in twenty twenty four,
she averaged almost twenty points, eight assists, five rebounds, and
(07:03):
one point steals per game. If you follow the NBA,
that doesn't sound like a lot, but these are unprecedented
numbers in the women's game, which has never before seen
this combination of score. In Playmaker, her numbers are amazing.
There have been three seasons in WNBA history where somebody
scored at least sixteen points and seven assists. All three
(07:24):
are Caitlin Clark. So it's not just because she's straight, white,
Midwestern girl that she gets all this attention, although that
I guarantee.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Is some of it. She's also a really great player.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
She's the all time WNBA career assists per game leader. Already,
she led the league in three point shots made in
twenty twenty four. At this writing, at age twenty four,
she's averaging twenty one point two points a game. If
you think she's only a fan favorite because she's white, straight,
and aw shuck's middle American, the reality is that If
(07:58):
she doesn't get injured, and she stays up on the
trajectory she's on, she could easily end up being the
best player the league has ever seen. Okay, so you
got all this build up while watching a fist pressed
into Clark's neck. The other night, her coach abandoned the
usual diplomacy and said that it was crazy, it was
(08:20):
also dangerous, and that these cheap shots are unacceptable. You
get fined for this sort of thing in all sports
leagues when the people nearest the team are reduced to
narrating their own stars peril to reporters because the officials
don't act, the institution has stopped pretending. At the same time,
Clark has been repeatedly snubbed in honors and promotions, as
(08:42):
I mentioned by the league, such as the players voting
her far lower than the fan vote in the All
Star balloting. As I said the other day, they had
her the eleventh best guard, which is ridiculous. They did
their big thirtieth anniversary league celebration thing that had a
posters of all the players in NBA NBA League history.
She was left off of it. They didn't have Caitlin
(09:04):
Clark's picture on the celebration going on with the National
Review piece, we should be candid about the shape that
resentments appear to take. The WNBA is a predominantly black
league in which openly lesbian players are represented far above
their share in the general population, and into it walked
a straight white woman from Iowa, Iowa, who became within
(09:28):
weeks its biggest draw in the face of an audience
that had never before watched their sport. A newcomer who
made everyone wealthier is resented precisely for arriving from outside
the tribe, and the resentment surfaces and the elbows that
go un called the eleventh place ballots, and the poster
that found no room for her face. National Review also
(09:51):
draws a parallel that seems damning, one that cannot be
unseen once it's named. It says here, but in fact
is even worse than he thinks. If the WNBA was
a business that needed to pay its own bills with
the money it makes, its incentives to protect and celebrate
Caitlin Clark would override everything else. It wouldn't care what,
(10:13):
you wouldn't care whether she was quite, straight, midwestern, whatever.
She's the key to you staying financially successful. That's how
the NBA works, That's how the NFL works, That's how
Major League Baseball worked. Money talks, and it talks loudly,
and you have to use your best stars to stay afloat.
But instead, the WNBA from the outset, and this is
(10:34):
where it gets interesting, I think, has been an ideological
project bundled with the NBA. The only reason the WNBA
exists is because there was pressure and wokeness or whatever
in the NBA to think, you know what, there should
be some sort of girls league that gets attention, so
(10:55):
they formed one and they subsidized it. As with n money.
As we've talked about over and over again, the only
reason the WNBA can exist is money from the men's league.
The WNBA does not make enough money to exist at all.
The WNBA from the outset has been an ideological project
(11:15):
bundled with the NBA. People pay for the NBA because
they want its product, and they tolerate the fact that
the dollars they spend on it go to cross subsidize
the bundled project. That is a tiny niche audience, a
lot of lesbian women, a lot of black lesbian players,
so the league can act out its resentments at Clark
because it doesn't need the money she makes. And worse,
(11:38):
Clark's popularity threatens the whole justification, justification for continuing to
treat the WNBA as a bundled welfare case rather than
spinning it off into a profit for a new audience.
I thought that was really interesting, and I agree with
the National Review. Once that is seen. Now that I've
seen it, I can't unsee it. It was an ideological project.
(12:00):
It was a It was a Dei project from the beginning.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
The only reason it exists at all.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Is that.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
DEI project. If you separated it out, it would go
under in a year. Then Caitlin Clark came along, threatening
the whole justification for the league, so that women have
a sport, lots of black players, lots of lesbian players,
whatever it is, without having a fan base for it.
And here you get a straight white player dominating it,
(12:30):
and it makes them all very, very angry. It's something culturally,
it's just awful. It's absolutely awful. And I remember Charles
Barkley said her freshman year, what a big mistake the
WNBA was making in treating her this way and beating
(12:51):
up on her and saying bad things about her and
shunning her and all the things that they were doing.
It's the best thing that ever happened to them by far,
even close a bigger deal than Michael Jordan as a
percentage in terms of bringing in eyeballs in money. But
she doesn't fit the whole black league lesbian league thing,
and so they don't want her. And they can act
(13:13):
that way because they're not an actual business and they're
not an actual sports league. They're a DEEI ideological project
that the NBA came up with, and now they're so
locked into it they'd get killed for abandoning it. I
thought that was a really interesting piece in the National Review.
You have any thoughts on that text line four one
five two nine five KFTC. Alleged and probably actual rapist
(13:44):
Graham Plattner is supposedly recording a video in which he'lle
announced he's getting out of the race. He's supposedly trying
to negotiate some sort of deal with the people of
the government of Maine to have some infl on who
has chosen. When you're a rapist, you don't get to
negotiate terms at all. You just got to get out
(14:05):
of the race and go away and be an embarrassment
to everybody who supported you at one time. Anyway, So
that's over. We're just talking about the WNBA. Haven't mentioned this.
Have you been following this, Michael, because I know you're
an NBA fan. Lebron not staying with the Lakers. He
announced he's leaving the Lakers and two places he might
(14:28):
end up the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers. That's
his hometown, which I think is supposedly has the edge
right now. But one of the big stars from the Warriors.
They're a really old team but decided to take a
big pay cut to open up money to bring Lebron over.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
That'd be fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah, I've also heard the Sixers possibly, Yeah, I'd be
fun to watch Lebron with Bill Warris.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I would love that. But I'll bet he goes to
his hometown would be most likely. So do you remember Doge?
Speaker 1 (14:59):
I mostly remember Doge because I get flipped off almost
every single day driving a cyber truck.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I think because of Doge.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
I need to ask one of these people when they're
flipping me off sometime, Hey, excuse me, and I don't
want to have to get into a fistfight. But why
are you so angry at Elon Musk that you're flipping
me off for driving a Tesla cyber truck. And I
would like to know is it DOGE or is it
just because he supported Trump in general? Anyway, here's a
report from Fox about the wrap up of DOGE.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Our goal is to reduce the defsit by a trillion dollars.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
As of the deadline this past Saturday, the Department of
Government Efficiency fell short of that goal by seven hundred
and eighty five billion dollars. Now, Scott Cooper and the
Office of Personnel Management is going long.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
You know, OPM is a cross functional agency, so like
I can't reach into HHS and say you must stop
spending in this area. What we are trying to do is, look,
we've set a set of rules and policies and we
are helping manage them. So think about us as we
are a power of persuasion part of the government's more
so than a hammer where I can reach in and
(16:03):
make changes on behalf of an agency.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
So one of the things I always hated about the
DOGE coverage was any any advancements you made that weren't
what the goal was. Nobody cared about, so they cut
out of a quarter of a trillion dollars. That ain't
nothing anyway. The report goes on.
Speaker 6 (16:21):
The reason we're doing this is because if we don't
do it, America is going to go insolve, it.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Going to go bankrupt, and nobody's going to get anything.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Nonetheless, the US national debt stands at thirty nine trillion dollars.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
This is the chance of of bureaucracy.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
And legal challenges continue against doses cost cutting measures that
slash the federal workforce, with one hundred and fifty four
thousand employees taking the so called fork in the road
buyouts in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
You know what, that report is depressing and it reminds
me I'm going to push back against all the talk
from a fourth of July. How about that as a
role for a talk show host. Have that clip ready
of Armstrong and Getty, the most depressing radio show in America,
because I'm gonna lay a little on that.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I love that on you when we come back. Elon
was right by the way.
Speaker 7 (17:17):
Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Their industry marking during the commercial break amongst ourselves, Trump
is at the NATO meeting, and he's standing at a
podium taking questions and talking. And he has been for
three and a half hours that we've been on, talking
with various reporters about various things. His motor, regardless of
what do you think of his politics or anything else,
his motor as a human being is amazing. He's eighty
(17:43):
years old. He hardly sleeps, he doesn't exercise, he eats crap,
and he can go all day long, day after day
after day in a way that most of us can't
much younger and in better shape. I don't know, He's
just he's got a motor. Whenever, that's all about out
speaking of politicians. So Mayor Mom Dannie of New York.
(18:05):
I got all worked up over it at the time,
and I've I've lost come of some of my fever
for it since Fourth of July weekend. But he basically
did a rebuttal to Trump's speech. So Trump did the
fourth of July night night before he was at the uh.
What's the I'm from South Dakota and I can't think
(18:26):
of it. Mount Rushmore. I went to Mount Rushmore every
single year of my life. He was at Mount Rushmore
and he gave a big speech about American exceptionalism, how
great a country we were, and all that sort of stuff,
and I agree with all that. Did you see them?
Was it the Navy band or the Marine band playing
guns n' roses? Sweet Child of Mine?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
That was cool? Anyway.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Trump gave that speech and so and then on fourth
of July, they're at the Capitol with the biggest fireworks
celebration in world history, they called it. And it looked
pretty spectacular. I wish I had seen it in person.
Trump gave another speech about American exceptionalism and how great
we are. Mamdani, for whatever reason, felt the need to
do a rebuttal to that, kind of like when there's
(19:09):
a State of the Union address and the other party
does a rebuttal to that State of the Union address,
And Mam Donnie's address got a lot of attention. And
in some ways he may be the leader of the
Democratic Party at this point, as he did his whole
Democratic socialist thing on how we're not exceptional in any ways,
that we're exceptional, they're all bad and children going to
bed Hungary and all that sort of stuff. And you
(19:31):
know why, there's a tremendous amount. I followed online of
pushback by a lot of really really smart people and
good writers that I really like on how America is
exceptional in so many different ways and is I think
easily arguably the greatest country that has ever existed on
planet Earth in terms of what it has done for
(19:52):
it's people and the rest of the world's people. I
just think that's such an easy argument to make, and
even with the you know, and so nobody's perfect, no
country is perfect. To point out the flaws and lean
on them on your two hundred and fiftieth birthday, that's like,
you know, we keep using this example. It's like on
your fiftieth wedding anniversary, he decided to point out all
(20:14):
the bad things your husband did over the last fifty years,
as opposed to the fact that in general, over time
you're glad you married him and it's been great. You're
gonna lean on the few bad things he did because
we all do bad things as people.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
As countries. Is whatever, it's weird.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
So I'll start with this. I'll start with something positive.
This is from Elon I don't know remember when he
gave this speech, but I saw it retweeted over the
weekend about America and how we're different than other countries.
After World War Two, the US could have basically taken
over the world and any country. This was This wasn't
(20:52):
a written speech. This is Elon talking. So that's why
it sounds like this like we got nukes. Nobody else
got nukes at the end oforld or true, this is true.
We don't even have to lose soldiers. Which country do
you want? One nation held a weapon. No civilization had
ever possessed total monopoly on destruction, no rival, no consequence,
no limit. Every empire in history that held that kind
(21:15):
of power did the only thing empires know how to do.
They took until there was nothing left to take. America
had a greater advantage than all of them combined, and
it rebuilt the nations that had just defeated. The United
States actively helped rebuild countries. It helped to rebuild Europe,
it helped to rebuild Japan. This is very unusual behavior.
(21:38):
It is completely unprecedented in world history to defeat someone
who had attacked you, had tried to take over the world,
when you're in a point of leverage, and instead of
taking them over, you rebuild them and let them be independent.
It had never happened, not in the five thousand years
of recorded civilization, as any country, empire, powerful state ever
(22:00):
done this. The nation with the power to take everything
chose to rebuild instead. Enemies became allies, Rubble became economy's
surrender became partnership. Germany went from ashes to the economic
engine of Europe in a single generation. Japan went from
unconditional surrender to the third largest economy on Earth. Did
(22:20):
you see the Tokyo fireworks celebration on the fourth of
July honoring the United States? A country that we were
at war with eighty years ago, now loves us so much.
They had that sort of celebration because of our birthday.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
That is fantastic.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
That decision reshaped every economy, every alliance, every trade route,
and I would say every human being's life on the planet.
That decision for us not to take them over, but
to help them. Billions of people lifted out of poverty
over the next half century traced back to one moment,
one nation choosing restraint over domination. No other country in
(22:58):
history can make that, not one. As Elon said, there's
always like, well, America's done bad things, well, of course
America's done bad things, but one needs to look at
the whole track record. Every nation on Earth has blood
in its history, but the measure of a nation was
never its worst chapter chapter. It's what it does when
nobody can stop it. When nobody could stop America, it
(23:20):
fed its enemies and rebuilt their cities. You're being told
every day that this country is something to be ashamed
of by people who have no idea what the world
looks like without the United States. Every free market, every
open border for trade, every democracy that took root outside
of Europe would be gone without the United States. That's
(23:41):
why we are the exceptional nation in world history. I
believe all that sort of stuff to my bone. The
fact that my kids only know that because I told
them that and they're not taught that in school is
a problem. So here's where I'm shifting gears from my
positive mode to my negative food. Do you have our
liner that we play, Michael, because this is sometimes is true.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Unfortunately Armstrong and Getty the most depressing radio show. So,
like I just said, I believe that. Ever, I believe that,
to Mike.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Bones, America is the greatest country that ever existed on
the planet and we are the last best hope, as
has been repeated by.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Ronald Reagan and many people. Winston Churchill, however.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
For freedom for all human beings for all time on
planet Earth. And I was happy to see that so
many great writers and thinkers pushed back on Mamdanie's load
of crap, or all the other haters and socialists out
there who somehow have convinced themselves the world would be
better without the United States. That's just a childish, ignorant notion.
(24:49):
I was happy to see the pushback on all that.
But now that we're a couple of days from the
fiftieth wedding anniversary, maybe we could mention to our husband
that he drinks too much or something that clip we
played a little bit ago about our debt, for instance
from Elon Musk again, that were thirty seven trillion dollars
in debt and growing on an unsustainable path, not on
(25:13):
a path that could go wrong, on a path that,
unless interrupted, is going to doom us.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
It's just math. That's a serious problem. You gotta look
at that.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
All the good stuff about our constitution and things we've
done the past and all that, and the American spirit
and we work harder than blah blah. That's all true,
But thirty seven trillion dollars in debt and a structural
problem where we spend more than we take in that
nobody's willing to look at is a problem, a huge,
(25:50):
huge problem. The other thing, I was screaming at a
podcast the other day. They were going on and on
about how great our country is and how strong it is. Again,
I love all that that's true. Maybe it's more front
of mine for those of us in California than it
is for those of you in other states. I don't know,
but our education system K through PhD, kindergarten through PhD
(26:13):
is convincing young people that this is a bad country
and not worth sustaining and not worth fighting for. That's
a systemic issue. That is a problem that will only
be overcome with decades of work. And that's if we
started today at K through PhD and teaching kids that know, actually,
(26:36):
this is the best country that they ever existed in
the last great hope for mankind on earth and all
the stuff I just said. If we started today, it
would take a long time to deal with the millions
and millions of young people who are our next, you
know layers of leadership who think this is a bad
country because that's what they've been told their whole life.
(26:56):
So between the debt and the fact that we're educating
everybody who's young that this is a bad country, we're
in trouble. We're in big trouble. And I don't know
if I see any help on the horizon for those
two issues at all. Making a little headway in the schools,
(27:17):
but not enough. Again, unless you're in certain parts of
the country or certain private schools, you're not here in
any of that American exceptionalism stuff. In the school you're
hearing about slavery. The only thing my kid learned about
capitalism is how we made kids work in factories, not
(27:39):
that it's lifted more people out of poverty than any
other process in the history of the world. We'd also
be still living in huts without capitalism. So I don't know.
I don't want to be negative all the time. I
don't want to actually be the most negative show. When
I was listening to all that ra raw America stuff
on various podcasts and reading it and watching documentaries over
fourth of July, I thought, man, I need to talk
(28:02):
to Joe about this. We need to be less negative.
This is a great country and all this sort of stuff,
but the reality. Not dealing with reality is a bad thing.
The debt and the educating everybody that this is a
bad country will come back to end the last great
hope of humanity on earth quicker than you can imagine.
(28:25):
So we got to keep leaning on that. We don't
have to make it the only thing we ever talked about,
but it is a huge problem. That story Elon told
there is one hundred percent true. No country in the
history of the world has ever done that or likely
would ever do that. You've defeated all your enemies, You've
got a weapon to dominate the planet, and you said, no,
(28:47):
we're going to rebuild our enemies. We're going to give
them food, We're gonna help them get back on their
feet again and let them do their own thing.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
But they teach your kids in school that the world
will be better off without us, which couldn't be more insane.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Okay, that's enough of that. We'll finished Strong next.
Speaker 8 (29:04):
Armstrong who We've settled a lot of wars, and this
one is the one that I thought maybe would be
the easiest but Putin's a difficult character, and this guy's
a difficult character.
Speaker 7 (29:22):
Does it. It's not the easiest, not the easiest thing.
And there's a lot of commitment, and there's a lot
of love of the countries and everything else. But I
think we've made a lot of progress in the last
couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
And yeah, I never liked the way Trump talks about
it like it's equivocal, like it's two countries just don't
agree on something, as opposed to an evil communist country
taking over a democracy that was just mining its own business.
He's sitting there with Zolensky at the big NATO summit
that's going on.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
They go on.
Speaker 7 (29:53):
And he's done an amazing job. Look, he's been he's
been u very effective. Now he's had the best equipment
because he has had our equipment, and he's said, great,
but somebody has to use that equipment. And you have
a lot of brave people that are using that equipment.
And Russia, you know, it's a big it's a big country,
(30:17):
but it's a big force. Russia has always been a
big fighting force, so you know it's but I really
believe it's ready.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
God, it's just got to kill Zelenski.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
The way Trump talks about this like it's an academic project,
as opposed to the millions of people, men, women, and children.
They are being targeted by Russia for Putin for no
reason whatsoever. Go on, Michael, but it's a it's.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
A nasty war.
Speaker 7 (30:45):
Thousands and thousands, mostly soldiers are being killed the battlefields.
I see pictures, and it's horrible. He thinks it's horrible.
They oh, we all think it's horrible. And the President
wants to get it done. And I believe that a
potent wants to get it done, and that should be
a good combination.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Say that's back to the thing we were talking about
earlier about his view of the IRGC and Iran.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
I think they want to get a deal done. No
they don't. And he just said, I think Putin wants
to get a deal done. No he doesn't.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
What makes you believe this, mister President, I do not
get it. Is he just saying that because he's a
deal maker, and that's the way you need to talk
when you're trying to bring deals together. I hope he
doesn't actually believe that. She certainly acted like he's believed
it all along. How much time I got.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Michael, I've got about two and a half.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
We have two and a half minutes. Okay, I want
to give to this clip. I really like this. This
is Trump talking about communism. What number did you say
that is?
Speaker 7 (31:45):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (31:45):
You know what it is, Michael. Okay, this is good
stuff from Trump right here.
Speaker 8 (31:49):
Look, I want to get the word out because what's
forming is a communism in the country, and communism's easy
to sell.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
I would be the.
Speaker 9 (31:57):
Greatest communist in his Chair'd be right up there with Lenning.
I'd be as good as anyway. You've got free rent
for the rest of your life. What they don't say
is that you'll be living in squalor in twelve months.
You've got a free house. Would anybody like to have
a free house. We'll take it away from somebody, We'll
give it to you.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
You'll have murders all over the place.
Speaker 7 (32:18):
Communism is a disaster.
Speaker 9 (32:19):
It's been proven to be for thousands of years under
different names.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
I would love to hear more of that sort of
stuff out of Trump or any Republican leader, actual explanations
for where socialism and communism goes. So these job young
people out there again who are being taught that capitalism
is bad and nothing about socialism always ends up in
the same place, lots of deaths and people with a
(32:44):
lower standard of life, always, always, always, And yes, what.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Trump said there is absolutely right. It's such an easy sell.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Socialism. It's such an easy sell. You won't have to
work as hard. We'll split everything equally. Oh that sounds
great until you think about it for like two seconds,
or you just watch the history of it.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Always. Oh my god, how is it on the march
again in the United States.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
We will have updates on a lot of these conversations
happening at NATO tomorrow. This talk of US some sort
of summit between Zelenski and Putin is obviously a big deal.
And then he got the other war that we are
actually the participant in with Iran, and Trump saying earlier
today that we're probably bombing the crap out of our
(33:34):
am Iran more tonight. We'll have all that for you tomorrow.
And there's that saying. It's become popular recently of sometimes
nothing happens for years in terms of changing the world,
and then sometimes a year happens in a week. This
(33:54):
might be one of those weeks. Certainly in terms of
these two wars, and maybe in terms of NATO coming
together and actually getting serious about supporting their militaries and
all that sort of stuff. Anyway, look forward to talking
to you tomorrow. There's a bunch of stuff I didn't
get to today. I'll have it for you tomorrow. Here's
(34:32):
your host for final thoughts. Me and there's only two
of us. It's a pretty sad state of things. Katie's
on maternity leave, Joe is celebrating his fortieth wedding anniversary.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
He'll be back shortly. Let's get a final thought.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
From the man pressing the buttons, pulling the levers and
running some sort of foot pedals.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
It's Michael Angelo.
Speaker 6 (34:49):
Yeah, it's a reminder to check your AI. Earlier in
the hour, I used AI to see how many WNBA
teams are in there, and they told me twelve. It
turns out it's fifteen. They expanded got old information from AI.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Which AI did you use? I believe it was Google?
Well Google's not You used Gemini or Gemini? Yeah, okay, huh.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Yeah that does trouble me. How often they're wrong about
things that I know about.
Speaker 6 (35:15):
And sometimes it's just at random.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Yeah, yes it is and stuff that's like easily checked.
That is one of the disturbing things about AI, which
might be good news because as long as it's that
often wrong, it's not gonna take over the world and
change it in the horrible ways that we're all worried about.
Armstrong and Getty wrapping up about a ruling the four
(35:38):
hour workday, so many people to think you should go
to Armstrong in Getty dot com. We got cool T
shirts and merchandise there. Gavin Newsome t shirts might be
short lived if he decides not to run for president,
but I do like the ruin the whole country. Vote
for Gavin Newsom for president. You can get it Armstrong
in geddy dot com. We'll see tomorrow. God bless America.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I'm Strong and Getty. You may remember a guy named Joe.
He worked so on this here show. Buddy left us
in a time.
Speaker 6 (36:13):
I'm a need and I'm the war with Iran his
back on It's bad.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
You can see chump tum jump Where did you go?
Jump to Jo? Oh yeah, you're on a cruise with
ask him mos Jojojo, Armstrong and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio of the
George Washington Broadcast Center.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Jack Armstrong and Joe Katty I'm strong and and he
arm strong and.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Eddy you okay, man, you should lie down.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
You don't sound okay? Wow? Can I call your wife?
You're an.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
So that was after Messi, who they call the greatest
soccer player of all time, I'll take their word for it,
scored last night in Argentina. The defending World champ came
back after almost getting upset by Egypt and won and
or down to the final late. But the USA is
not in it, and whether the United States is going
to pay attention the average viewer is going to pay
attention now that the US is out of it, I
(01:26):
have no idea Thirty three million people tuned in the
other day though, most ever for any soccer match. That's
a lot more people than watch the WNBA. I'll tell
you that. That's the Women's National Basketball Association. Professional women's
basketball does not do that well, but it's doing a
lot better in the last couple of years because of
one player, this woman named Caitlin Clark. You probably have
(01:50):
heard of her. She was a phenom at Iowa University
set the all time scoring record for men and women
in college and it's just fun to watch. I mean,
she's a great player and does it with the style
and you know, a swagger and everything like that, and
she's got all of the star making qualities that you
(02:11):
want in athletes. What I'm about to tell you is
more about culture than sports. So if you're not a
sports fan, don't worry. This is from the National Review
and they're writing about it because it is a cultural
kind of political thing. What Caitlin Clark's treatment tells us
about the WNBA. She's been getting the hell beaten out
of her this season, well actually since she entered the league,
(02:31):
what three four years ago. She just gets beaten on
by other players constantly. And one of the things the
National Reviews pointing out is how now there's pretty good
argument to be made that the refs and the league
are turning a blind eye toward her being physically attacked
on the court. When other players get elbowed in the
(02:56):
face same sort of play, there's a penalty or fright,
flagrant foul. When it happens to Caitlin Clark, they pretend
nothing to happen. Why is the league so against her will?
I will read on from the National Review. The unfair
and often physically abusive treatment of Caitlin Clark by the
WNBA is reaching a boiling point. The problem is not
limited to Clark's on court rivals. The league itself is
(03:19):
increasingly complicit in ways that look deliberate. The league's behavior
tells us a lot about what the WNBA really is,
which is it's neither a sports league nor a business.
If the WNBA was primarily a business, Clark should be
seen by the league as its most valuable asset and
the best thing that ever happened to him. Ryan Brewer,
(03:42):
a finance professor at Indiana University who specializes in valuation,
calculated that Caitlin Clark alone accounted for more than twenty
six and a half percent of all WNBA economic activity
in the twenty twenty four season. One player accounted for
over a quarter of all the economic activity, a figure
spanning attendance, television, and merchandise. Of the twenty four WNBA
(04:06):
broadcast that drew at least one million viewers last year,
twenty one of them were Caitlin Clark. Twenty one out
of twenty four times that they had more than a
million viewers. It was her Her games averaged around one
point two million viewers, about a two hundred percent more
than the games or she did not play. Indiana, that's
the team she plays for, set a single season league
(04:29):
attendance record. Opponents relocated home games into larger NBA arenas
to hold crowds whenever she would come to their town,
and league merchandise sales surged above six hundred percent with
Clark atop the Jersey rankings. In the summer of twenty
twenty four, the league signed an eleven year media rights
(04:50):
agreement worth roughly two point two billion dollars, more than
triple its prior deal before she arrived in the WNBA.
That's the sort of wind field that a windfall that
has arrived on the growth she's ignited. An independent economist
at Holy Cross estimated that roughly one in every six
(05:11):
tickets sold league wide, home and away, are owed to
the Clark effect. One out of every six tickets sold.
In twenty twenty five, Clark drew one point three million
All Star fan votes, a single season record. By the way,
the other day they did the player like an anonymous
player ranking thing. The players voted her the not only
(05:33):
the eleventh best player, the eleventh best guard in the league.
I don't know how many teams are in the league.
Can you look that up for me, Michael, I'm guessing
the WNBA is about thirty. Does every WNBA team, I mean,
does the every NBA team have a WNBA team associated
with it?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
I don't know. If there's twelve what That's what I can.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
So they had a second to worst guard in the
league according to the other players. And again, to get
to the punchline, this is a lot of it because
she's white and straight and they hate her for it.
But getting back to you know, establishing what a big
deal she is. And if again, if this was an
actual sports league and an actual business, you would be
(06:18):
doing everything you could to promote Caitlyn Clark and make
her happy because she has changed your business into a
nothing into a something. By some estimates, Clark and her
teammates Sophie Cunningham currently account for seventy one percent of
all WNBA jersey sales between them. Even Michael Jordan at
(06:39):
his peak didn't represent such a dominating share of monetizable
fan interest in his league as what Caitlyn Clark does,
which is a heck of a statement. Now, is this
just because she's white and straight, which is what a
lot of the players say, Okay, Well, in twenty twenty four,
she averaged almost twenty points, eight assists, five rebounds, and
(07:03):
one point steals per game. If you follow the NBA,
that doesn't sound like a lot, but these are unprecedented
numbers in the women's game, which has never before seen
this combination of score. In Playmaker, her numbers are amazing.
There have been three seasons in WNBA history where somebody
scored at least sixteen points and seven assists. All three
(07:24):
are Caitlin Clark. So it's not just because she's straight, white,
Midwestern girl that she gets all this attention, although that
I guarantee.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Is some of it. She's also a really great player.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
She's the all time WNBA career assists per game leader. Already,
she led the league in three point shots made in
twenty twenty four. At this writing, at age twenty four,
she's averaging twenty one point two points a game. If
you think she's only a fan favorite because she's white, straight,
and aw shuck's middle American, the reality is that If
(07:58):
she doesn't get injured, and she stays up on the
trajectory she's on, she could easily end up being the
best player the league has ever seen. Okay, so you
got all this build up while watching a fist pressed
into Clark's neck. The other night, her coach abandoned the
usual diplomacy and said that it was crazy, it was
(08:20):
also dangerous, and that these cheap shots are unacceptable. You
get fined for this sort of thing in all sports
leagues when the people nearest the team are reduced to
narrating their own stars peril to reporters because the officials
don't act, the institution has stopped pretending. At the same time,
Clark has been repeatedly snubbed in honors and promotions, as
(08:42):
I mentioned by the league, such as the players voting
her far lower than the fan vote in the All
Star balloting. As I said the other day, they had
her the eleventh best guard, which is ridiculous. They did
their big thirtieth anniversary league celebration thing that had a
posters of all the players in NBA NBA League history.
She was left off of it. They didn't have Caitlin
(09:04):
Clark's picture on the celebration going on with the National
Review piece, we should be candid about the shape that
resentments appear to take. The WNBA is a predominantly black
league in which openly lesbian players are represented far above
their share in the general population, and into it walked
a straight white woman from Iowa, Iowa, who became within
(09:28):
weeks its biggest draw in the face of an audience
that had never before watched their sport. A newcomer who
made everyone wealthier is resented precisely for arriving from outside
the tribe, and the resentment surfaces and the elbows that
go un called the eleventh place ballots, and the poster
that found no room for her face. National Review also
(09:51):
draws a parallel that seems damning, one that cannot be
unseen once it's named. It says here, but in fact
is even worse than he thinks. If the WNBA was
a business that needed to pay its own bills with
the money it makes, its incentives to protect and celebrate
Caitlin Clark would override everything else. It wouldn't care what,
(10:13):
you wouldn't care whether she was quite, straight, midwestern, whatever.
She's the key to you staying financially successful. That's how
the NBA works, That's how the NFL works, That's how
Major League Baseball worked. Money talks, and it talks loudly,
and you have to use your best stars to stay afloat.
But instead, the WNBA from the outset, and this is
(10:34):
where it gets interesting, I think, has been an ideological
project bundled with the NBA. The only reason the WNBA
exists is because there was pressure and wokeness or whatever
in the NBA to think, you know what, there should
be some sort of girls league that gets attention, so
(10:55):
they formed one and they subsidized it. As with n money.
As we've talked about over and over again, the only
reason the WNBA can exist is money from the men's league.
The WNBA does not make enough money to exist at all.
The WNBA from the outset has been an ideological project
(11:15):
bundled with the NBA. People pay for the NBA because
they want its product, and they tolerate the fact that
the dollars they spend on it go to cross subsidize
the bundled project. That is a tiny niche audience, a
lot of lesbian women, a lot of black lesbian players,
so the league can act out its resentments at Clark
because it doesn't need the money she makes. And worse,
(11:38):
Clark's popularity threatens the whole justification, justification for continuing to
treat the WNBA as a bundled welfare case rather than
spinning it off into a profit for a new audience.
I thought that was really interesting, and I agree with
the National Review. Once that is seen. Now that I've
seen it, I can't unsee it. It was an ideological project.
(12:00):
It was a It was a Dei project from the beginning.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
The only reason it exists at all.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Is that.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
DEI project. If you separated it out, it would go
under in a year. Then Caitlin Clark came along, threatening
the whole justification for the league, so that women have
a sport, lots of black players, lots of lesbian players,
whatever it is, without having a fan base for it.
And here you get a straight white player dominating it,
(12:30):
and it makes them all very, very angry. It's something culturally,
it's just awful. It's absolutely awful. And I remember Charles
Barkley said her freshman year, what a big mistake the
WNBA was making in treating her this way and beating
(12:51):
up on her and saying bad things about her and
shunning her and all the things that they were doing.
It's the best thing that ever happened to them by far,
even close a bigger deal than Michael Jordan as a
percentage in terms of bringing in eyeballs in money. But
she doesn't fit the whole black league lesbian league thing,
and so they don't want her. And they can act
(13:13):
that way because they're not an actual business and they're
not an actual sports league. They're a DEEI ideological project
that the NBA came up with, and now they're so
locked into it they'd get killed for abandoning it. I
thought that was a really interesting piece in the National Review.
You have any thoughts on that text line four one
five two nine five KFTC. Alleged and probably actual rapist
(13:44):
Graham Plattner is supposedly recording a video in which he'lle
announced he's getting out of the race. He's supposedly trying
to negotiate some sort of deal with the people of
the government of Maine to have some infl on who
has chosen. When you're a rapist, you don't get to
negotiate terms at all. You just got to get out
(14:05):
of the race and go away and be an embarrassment
to everybody who supported you at one time. Anyway, So
that's over. We're just talking about the WNBA. Haven't mentioned this.
Have you been following this, Michael, because I know you're
an NBA fan. Lebron not staying with the Lakers. He
announced he's leaving the Lakers and two places he might
(14:28):
end up the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers. That's
his hometown, which I think is supposedly has the edge
right now. But one of the big stars from the Warriors.
They're a really old team but decided to take a
big pay cut to open up money to bring Lebron over.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
That'd be fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah, I've also heard the Sixers possibly, Yeah, I'd be
fun to watch Lebron with Bill Warris.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I would love that. But I'll bet he goes to
his hometown would be most likely. So do you remember Doge?
Speaker 1 (14:59):
I mostly remember Doge because I get flipped off almost
every single day driving a cyber truck.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I think because of Doge.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
I need to ask one of these people when they're
flipping me off sometime, Hey, excuse me, and I don't
want to have to get into a fistfight. But why
are you so angry at Elon Musk that you're flipping
me off for driving a Tesla cyber truck. And I
would like to know is it DOGE or is it
just because he supported Trump in general? Anyway, here's a
report from Fox about the wrap up of DOGE.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Our goal is to reduce the defsit by a trillion dollars.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
As of the deadline this past Saturday, the Department of
Government Efficiency fell short of that goal by seven hundred
and eighty five billion dollars. Now, Scott Cooper and the
Office of Personnel Management is going long.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
You know, OPM is a cross functional agency, so like
I can't reach into HHS and say you must stop
spending in this area. What we are trying to do is, look,
we've set a set of rules and policies and we
are helping manage them. So think about us as we
are a power of persuasion part of the government's more
so than a hammer where I can reach in and
(16:03):
make changes on behalf of an agency.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
So one of the things I always hated about the
DOGE coverage was any any advancements you made that weren't
what the goal was. Nobody cared about, so they cut
out of a quarter of a trillion dollars. That ain't
nothing anyway. The report goes on.
Speaker 6 (16:21):
The reason we're doing this is because if we don't
do it, America is going to go insolve, it.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Going to go bankrupt, and nobody's going to get anything.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Nonetheless, the US national debt stands at thirty nine trillion dollars.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
This is the chance of of bureaucracy.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
And legal challenges continue against doses cost cutting measures that
slash the federal workforce, with one hundred and fifty four
thousand employees taking the so called fork in the road
buyouts in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
You know what, that report is depressing and it reminds
me I'm going to push back against all the talk
from a fourth of July. How about that as a
role for a talk show host. Have that clip ready
of Armstrong and Getty, the most depressing radio show in America,
because I'm gonna lay a little on that.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I love that on you when we come back. Elon
was right by the way.
Speaker 7 (17:17):
Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Their industry marking during the commercial break amongst ourselves, Trump
is at the NATO meeting, and he's standing at a
podium taking questions and talking. And he has been for
three and a half hours that we've been on, talking
with various reporters about various things. His motor, regardless of
what do you think of his politics or anything else,
his motor as a human being is amazing. He's eighty
(17:43):
years old. He hardly sleeps, he doesn't exercise, he eats crap,
and he can go all day long, day after day
after day in a way that most of us can't
much younger and in better shape. I don't know, He's
just he's got a motor. Whenever, that's all about out
speaking of politicians. So Mayor Mom Dannie of New York.
(18:05):
I got all worked up over it at the time,
and I've I've lost come of some of my fever
for it since Fourth of July weekend. But he basically
did a rebuttal to Trump's speech. So Trump did the
fourth of July night night before he was at the uh.
What's the I'm from South Dakota and I can't think
(18:26):
of it. Mount Rushmore. I went to Mount Rushmore every
single year of my life. He was at Mount Rushmore
and he gave a big speech about American exceptionalism, how
great a country we were, and all that sort of stuff,
and I agree with all that. Did you see them?
Was it the Navy band or the Marine band playing
guns n' roses? Sweet Child of Mine?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
That was cool? Anyway.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Trump gave that speech and so and then on fourth
of July, they're at the Capitol with the biggest fireworks
celebration in world history, they called it. And it looked
pretty spectacular. I wish I had seen it in person.
Trump gave another speech about American exceptionalism and how great
we are. Mamdani, for whatever reason, felt the need to
do a rebuttal to that, kind of like when there's
(19:09):
a State of the Union address and the other party
does a rebuttal to that State of the Union address,
And Mam Donnie's address got a lot of attention. And
in some ways he may be the leader of the
Democratic Party at this point, as he did his whole
Democratic socialist thing on how we're not exceptional in any ways,
that we're exceptional, they're all bad and children going to
bed Hungary and all that sort of stuff. And you
(19:31):
know why, there's a tremendous amount. I followed online of
pushback by a lot of really really smart people and
good writers that I really like on how America is
exceptional in so many different ways and is I think
easily arguably the greatest country that has ever existed on
planet Earth in terms of what it has done for
(19:52):
it's people and the rest of the world's people. I
just think that's such an easy argument to make, and
even with the you know, and so nobody's perfect, no
country is perfect. To point out the flaws and lean
on them on your two hundred and fiftieth birthday, that's like,
you know, we keep using this example. It's like on
your fiftieth wedding anniversary, he decided to point out all
(20:14):
the bad things your husband did over the last fifty years,
as opposed to the fact that in general, over time
you're glad you married him and it's been great. You're
gonna lean on the few bad things he did because
we all do bad things as people.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
As countries. Is whatever, it's weird.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
So I'll start with this. I'll start with something positive.
This is from Elon I don't know remember when he
gave this speech, but I saw it retweeted over the
weekend about America and how we're different than other countries.
After World War Two, the US could have basically taken
over the world and any country. This was This wasn't
(20:52):
a written speech. This is Elon talking. So that's why
it sounds like this like we got nukes. Nobody else
got nukes at the end oforld or true, this is true.
We don't even have to lose soldiers. Which country do
you want? One nation held a weapon. No civilization had
ever possessed total monopoly on destruction, no rival, no consequence,
no limit. Every empire in history that held that kind
(21:15):
of power did the only thing empires know how to do.
They took until there was nothing left to take. America
had a greater advantage than all of them combined, and
it rebuilt the nations that had just defeated. The United
States actively helped rebuild countries. It helped to rebuild Europe,
it helped to rebuild Japan. This is very unusual behavior.
(21:38):
It is completely unprecedented in world history to defeat someone
who had attacked you, had tried to take over the world,
when you're in a point of leverage, and instead of
taking them over, you rebuild them and let them be independent.
It had never happened, not in the five thousand years
of recorded civilization, as any country, empire, powerful state ever
(22:00):
done this. The nation with the power to take everything
chose to rebuild instead. Enemies became allies, Rubble became economy's
surrender became partnership. Germany went from ashes to the economic
engine of Europe in a single generation. Japan went from
unconditional surrender to the third largest economy on Earth. Did
(22:20):
you see the Tokyo fireworks celebration on the fourth of
July honoring the United States? A country that we were
at war with eighty years ago, now loves us so much.
They had that sort of celebration because of our birthday.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
That is fantastic.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
That decision reshaped every economy, every alliance, every trade route,
and I would say every human being's life on the planet.
That decision for us not to take them over, but
to help them. Billions of people lifted out of poverty
over the next half century traced back to one moment,
one nation choosing restraint over domination. No other country in
(22:58):
history can make that, not one. As Elon said, there's
always like, well, America's done bad things, well, of course
America's done bad things, but one needs to look at
the whole track record. Every nation on Earth has blood
in its history, but the measure of a nation was
never its worst chapter chapter. It's what it does when
nobody can stop it. When nobody could stop America, it
(23:20):
fed its enemies and rebuilt their cities. You're being told
every day that this country is something to be ashamed
of by people who have no idea what the world
looks like without the United States. Every free market, every
open border for trade, every democracy that took root outside
of Europe would be gone without the United States. That's
(23:41):
why we are the exceptional nation in world history. I
believe all that sort of stuff to my bone. The
fact that my kids only know that because I told
them that and they're not taught that in school is
a problem. So here's where I'm shifting gears from my
positive mode to my negative food. Do you have our
liner that we play, Michael, because this is sometimes is true.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Unfortunately Armstrong and Getty the most depressing radio show. So,
like I just said, I believe that. Ever, I believe that,
to Mike.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Bones, America is the greatest country that ever existed on
the planet and we are the last best hope, as
has been repeated by.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Ronald Reagan and many people. Winston Churchill, however.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
For freedom for all human beings for all time on
planet Earth. And I was happy to see that so
many great writers and thinkers pushed back on Mamdanie's load
of crap, or all the other haters and socialists out
there who somehow have convinced themselves the world would be
better without the United States. That's just a childish, ignorant notion.
(24:49):
I was happy to see the pushback on all that.
But now that we're a couple of days from the
fiftieth wedding anniversary, maybe we could mention to our husband
that he drinks too much or something that clip we
played a little bit ago about our debt, for instance
from Elon Musk again, that were thirty seven trillion dollars
in debt and growing on an unsustainable path, not on
(25:13):
a path that could go wrong, on a path that,
unless interrupted, is going to doom us.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
It's just math. That's a serious problem. You gotta look
at that.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
All the good stuff about our constitution and things we've
done the past and all that, and the American spirit
and we work harder than blah blah. That's all true,
But thirty seven trillion dollars in debt and a structural
problem where we spend more than we take in that
nobody's willing to look at is a problem, a huge,
(25:50):
huge problem. The other thing, I was screaming at a
podcast the other day. They were going on and on
about how great our country is and how strong it is. Again,
I love all that that's true. Maybe it's more front
of mine for those of us in California than it
is for those of you in other states. I don't know,
but our education system K through PhD, kindergarten through PhD
(26:13):
is convincing young people that this is a bad country
and not worth sustaining and not worth fighting for. That's
a systemic issue. That is a problem that will only
be overcome with decades of work. And that's if we
started today at K through PhD and teaching kids that know, actually,
(26:36):
this is the best country that they ever existed in
the last great hope for mankind on earth and all
the stuff I just said. If we started today, it
would take a long time to deal with the millions
and millions of young people who are our next, you
know layers of leadership who think this is a bad
country because that's what they've been told their whole life.
(26:56):
So between the debt and the fact that we're educating
everybody who's young that this is a bad country, we're
in trouble. We're in big trouble. And I don't know
if I see any help on the horizon for those
two issues at all. Making a little headway in the schools,
(27:17):
but not enough. Again, unless you're in certain parts of
the country or certain private schools, you're not here in
any of that American exceptionalism stuff. In the school you're
hearing about slavery. The only thing my kid learned about
capitalism is how we made kids work in factories, not
(27:39):
that it's lifted more people out of poverty than any
other process in the history of the world. We'd also
be still living in huts without capitalism. So I don't know.
I don't want to be negative all the time. I
don't want to actually be the most negative show. When
I was listening to all that ra raw America stuff
on various podcasts and reading it and watching documentaries over
fourth of July, I thought, man, I need to talk
(28:02):
to Joe about this. We need to be less negative.
This is a great country and all this sort of stuff,
but the reality. Not dealing with reality is a bad thing.
The debt and the educating everybody that this is a
bad country will come back to end the last great
hope of humanity on earth quicker than you can imagine.
(28:25):
So we got to keep leaning on that. We don't
have to make it the only thing we ever talked about,
but it is a huge problem. That story Elon told
there is one hundred percent true. No country in the
history of the world has ever done that or likely
would ever do that. You've defeated all your enemies, You've
got a weapon to dominate the planet, and you said, no,
(28:47):
we're going to rebuild our enemies. We're going to give
them food, We're gonna help them get back on their
feet again and let them do their own thing.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
But they teach your kids in school that the world
will be better off without us, which couldn't be more insane.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Okay, that's enough of that. We'll finished Strong next.
Speaker 8 (29:04):
Armstrong who We've settled a lot of wars, and this
one is the one that I thought maybe would be
the easiest but Putin's a difficult character, and this guy's
a difficult character.
Speaker 7 (29:22):
Does it. It's not the easiest, not the easiest thing.
And there's a lot of commitment, and there's a lot
of love of the countries and everything else. But I
think we've made a lot of progress in the last
couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
And yeah, I never liked the way Trump talks about
it like it's equivocal, like it's two countries just don't
agree on something, as opposed to an evil communist country
taking over a democracy that was just mining its own business.
He's sitting there with Zolensky at the big NATO summit
that's going on.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
They go on.
Speaker 7 (29:53):
And he's done an amazing job. Look, he's been he's
been u very effective. Now he's had the best equipment
because he has had our equipment, and he's said, great,
but somebody has to use that equipment. And you have
a lot of brave people that are using that equipment.
And Russia, you know, it's a big it's a big country,
(30:17):
but it's a big force. Russia has always been a
big fighting force, so you know it's but I really
believe it's ready.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
God, it's just got to kill Zelenski.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
The way Trump talks about this like it's an academic project,
as opposed to the millions of people, men, women, and children.
They are being targeted by Russia for Putin for no
reason whatsoever. Go on, Michael, but it's a it's.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
A nasty war.
Speaker 7 (30:45):
Thousands and thousands, mostly soldiers are being killed the battlefields.
I see pictures, and it's horrible. He thinks it's horrible.
They oh, we all think it's horrible. And the President
wants to get it done. And I believe that a
potent wants to get it done, and that should be
a good combination.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Say that's back to the thing we were talking about
earlier about his view of the IRGC and Iran.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
I think they want to get a deal done. No
they don't. And he just said, I think Putin wants
to get a deal done. No he doesn't.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
What makes you believe this, mister President, I do not
get it. Is he just saying that because he's a
deal maker, and that's the way you need to talk
when you're trying to bring deals together. I hope he
doesn't actually believe that. She certainly acted like he's believed
it all along. How much time I got.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Michael, I've got about two and a half.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
We have two and a half minutes. Okay, I want
to give to this clip. I really like this. This
is Trump talking about communism. What number did you say
that is?
Speaker 7 (31:45):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (31:45):
You know what it is, Michael. Okay, this is good
stuff from Trump right here.
Speaker 8 (31:49):
Look, I want to get the word out because what's
forming is a communism in the country, and communism's easy
to sell.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
I would be the.
Speaker 9 (31:57):
Greatest communist in his Chair'd be right up there with Lenning.
I'd be as good as anyway. You've got free rent
for the rest of your life. What they don't say
is that you'll be living in squalor in twelve months.
You've got a free house. Would anybody like to have
a free house. We'll take it away from somebody, We'll
give it to you.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
You'll have murders all over the place.
Speaker 7 (32:18):
Communism is a disaster.
Speaker 9 (32:19):
It's been proven to be for thousands of years under
different names.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
I would love to hear more of that sort of
stuff out of Trump or any Republican leader, actual explanations
for where socialism and communism goes. So these job young
people out there again who are being taught that capitalism
is bad and nothing about socialism always ends up in
the same place, lots of deaths and people with a
(32:44):
lower standard of life, always, always, always, And yes, what.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Trump said there is absolutely right. It's such an easy sell.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Socialism. It's such an easy sell. You won't have to
work as hard. We'll split everything equally. Oh that sounds
great until you think about it for like two seconds,
or you just watch the history of it.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Always. Oh my god, how is it on the march
again in the United States.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
We will have updates on a lot of these conversations
happening at NATO tomorrow. This talk of US some sort
of summit between Zelenski and Putin is obviously a big deal.
And then he got the other war that we are
actually the participant in with Iran, and Trump saying earlier
today that we're probably bombing the crap out of our
(33:34):
am Iran more tonight. We'll have all that for you tomorrow.
And there's that saying. It's become popular recently of sometimes
nothing happens for years in terms of changing the world,
and then sometimes a year happens in a week. This
(33:54):
might be one of those weeks. Certainly in terms of
these two wars, and maybe in terms of NATO coming
together and actually getting serious about supporting their militaries and
all that sort of stuff. Anyway, look forward to talking
to you tomorrow. There's a bunch of stuff I didn't
get to today. I'll have it for you tomorrow. Here's
(34:32):
your host for final thoughts. Me and there's only two
of us. It's a pretty sad state of things. Katie's
on maternity leave, Joe is celebrating his fortieth wedding anniversary.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
He'll be back shortly. Let's get a final thought.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
From the man pressing the buttons, pulling the levers and
running some sort of foot pedals.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
It's Michael Angelo.
Speaker 6 (34:49):
Yeah, it's a reminder to check your AI. Earlier in
the hour, I used AI to see how many WNBA
teams are in there, and they told me twelve. It
turns out it's fifteen. They expanded got old information from AI.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Which AI did you use? I believe it was Google?
Well Google's not You used Gemini or Gemini? Yeah, okay, huh.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Yeah that does trouble me. How often they're wrong about
things that I know about.
Speaker 6 (35:15):
And sometimes it's just at random.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Yeah, yes it is and stuff that's like easily checked.
That is one of the disturbing things about AI, which
might be good news because as long as it's that
often wrong, it's not gonna take over the world and
change it in the horrible ways that we're all worried about.
Armstrong and Getty wrapping up about a ruling the four
(35:38):
hour workday, so many people to think you should go
to Armstrong in Getty dot com. We got cool T
shirts and merchandise there. Gavin Newsome t shirts might be
short lived if he decides not to run for president,
but I do like the ruin the whole country. Vote
for Gavin Newsom for president. You can get it Armstrong
in geddy dot com. We'll see tomorrow. God bless America.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I'm Strong and Getty. You may remember a guy named Joe.
He worked so on this here show. Buddy left us
in a time.
Speaker 6 (36:13):
I'm a need and I'm the war with Iran his
back on It's bad.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
You can see chump tum jump Where did you go?
Jump to Jo? Oh yeah, you're on a cruise with
ask him mos Jojojo, Armstrong and Getty
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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