January 14, 2025 • 36 mins
Hour 2 of A&G features...
- A look in the China cabinet & TikTok ban?
- The life changing 7 minute workout
- Congressman Tom McClintock talks to A&G
- The Pete Hegseth hearing & the protesters
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Armstrong and Getti and he Armstrong and Yeddi.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
President Biden claimed the country's stronger because of his work
to expand NATO support Ukraine, withdraw US forces from Afghanistan,
and take on China. In his remarks on Afghanistan, the
President only briefly mentioned the thirteen US service members who
died in the suicide bombing at the Kabol Airport during
the withdrawal of US forces, widely seen as one of
the darkest moments of his presidency.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, I'd say so.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
And also just factually, it's when his ratings tanked and
never recovered. It basically ended his presidency. So I realized
the President is trying to shape history with his speech.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Good luck with that, and horribly undermined his foreign policy
goals too, as America was displayed as weak and feckless. Yeah,
I was just going to say the whole you know,
the great saying, which is so true, watch what people do,
not what they say. Well, he's already done it, so
he can say anything he wants.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
It's just kind of sad.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
And useless in my opinion, and according to the Bob
Woodward book, it was a real indication to putin all
this this administration does not have it to act together
in terms of pushback to invading Ukraine when he saw
the pull out of Afghanistan, right that was done more.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Or less undisputed.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Outside of Morning Joe a lot to get to this hour,
including a chat with Congressman Tom McClintock about the wildfires
in California that absolutely are to a large extent caused
by politics or exacerbated by politics. Not climate change policy matters.
It absolutely does. But first take a look in the
(02:01):
China cabin.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Which is admittedly China.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
China adoping named for a handful of that.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I'm sorry, Michael, I had forgotten that guy. Do you
have the China's a whole guy China as oh, oh, sir, true.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
But harsh I thought this story was so interesting. The
Wall Street General reporting that China's reigning in it's once free,
willing finance sector with purges and pay cuts. Chinese Letursesian
ping is bringing the country's financial sector to heal, one
banker at a time, and they go through the list
(02:48):
of these guys who are often Western educated, who are
very skilled, brought in enormous levels of investment and profit
to China, which they finance Jesion pings goals for consolidating
power and growing China's you know, global influence of that
sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
But he is killing the golden goose. It is clear.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
And I remember when you first brought us this story,
some communications had been leaked. I can't remember the exact
outlines of the story. But this guy is a real communist, right.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
I think that's what I was saying to Ian Bremmer
when he said I was over egging the pudding. But
there were reports that, based on things she was saying
and reading and doing, here's the big story. He's actually
a communist. He's not just pretending to be a communist
so he can be a dictator. He actually is a communist.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
I think you were one of the few commentators who
took that story as seriously as it should be taken,
and which is what does.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
For us because communism doesn't work, oh no, it's miserable
in every way by every measure.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
So many economists and bankers fear that the shakeup is
going to dampen what they call the animal spirits one
of my favorite Wall Street expressions. When everybody's feeling positive,
it's the animal spirits. Haven't we all felt the animal
spirits Friday night? Who knows, maybe a drink or two
ennus the animal spirits. Anyway, financiers and regulators are becoming
(04:20):
much more conservative to avoid mistakes that could get them
in trouble. So they're starting to play a very very
safe game, which if any you know, if you have
any sophistication as an investor, whatsoever, you understand, the more
safe you play at the lower your returns are going
to be. China is also losing bankers and regulators with
international experience and technical knowledge at the time when it
faces complex financial risks that require more sophisticated oversight and
(04:45):
animal spirits. Not less, they have trillions of dollars worth
of off the books local government debts, they have the biggest
property bubble in the history of mankind and.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
A shrinking pop.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
And they're jailing or purging anybody who has any experience
and any verve in dealing with this sort of thing.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
I was looking at some of the videos overbreak of
those cities. I mean, there's chunks of cities with all
these giant buildings, and they're all empty, just building after
building after building, a house after house after house that
they threw up. I don't know where they thought these
people were coming from, but anyway, they built all this
(05:31):
stuff and now they're just empty. And they, like you said,
a shrinking population and a shrinking economy. China could do
the whole. How did you go bankrupt gradually? Then suddenly
thing just collapse one of these days.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
And they have horrific sociological problems too. The young people
don't have job prospects, they don't have hope, they don't
have families, no girls. Well, right, and then so many
people have invested virtually their entire self forth in the
property bubble, which is now burst, and so they have
(06:05):
their life savings invested in an apartment. Say that may
may never exist. Let's see, there's one other aspect of this.
I wanted to get to.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Where'd that go?
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Oh that's all right, We'll move along and come back
to it later. Let's see this story. Trump and She
face off expect Us China tensions as the two leaders
pursue opposing agendas. That's absolutely true, and it's appropriate, and
it's good any sort of You can't woo China. You
(06:39):
can just offer them cards at the poker table of
international relations that they will exploit. They are not going
to be nice guys. They are not going to help us.
They are not going to do anything that is not
in their naked self interest. And to wit I like
this John Ratcliffe, who's a rare hold over from Trump
(07:01):
one's national security team. Ratcliffe is Trump's CIA pick and
he is expected to push for bare knuckle spycraft against China.
Ratcliffe is not screwing around, which I absolutely love. He's
likely to push from more aggressive spying operations targeting Beijing,
(07:22):
and that America says is about to take the gloves
off and it's shadow boxing with Beijing.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Well good, They took their gloves off a long time ago, right.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
You know?
Speaker 1 (07:33):
The part that I was trying to find in the
analysis of China and becoming more and more communists is
ta go ahead, is take the gloves off. We've discussed
this before.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
A boxing thing like I'm taking off the soft gloves
and hitting with my bare hand. Or is it a
taking off the gloves sliping in the face dual thing?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Oh? Or is it.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
You know, as a former hockey player, it's like a
hockey thing to me.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
But I don't know what the origin is.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Everybody understands what it means, but yeah, what's of gloves
are we taking off?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Katie? Do you have the answer?
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Yes, it comes from the practice of boxers removing their
gloves before a fight to inflict even more damage. Okay,
bare knuckle boxing. I teased yesterday the upside of dueling
and how we should bring it back, and it's really interesting,
So I hope I get to that today.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
So anyway, what the article that I can't find. They're
making the point that as these headwinds grow and the
challenges within China grow and confront cheshion Ping and the communists,
they're going further down the road of aggressive nationalism, hostility
(08:37):
toward outside threats.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Up with China, we're the best, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
The problem with that is the international community, from you know,
the Western world to even the Third world.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Is like whoa.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
China is getting weirder and meaner and more nationalistic, and
they're no longer talking about how they want to help everybody,
so it's going to exacerbate their wh So I'm telling
you their internal political situation is unstable.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
The next quick look inside the China cabinet China. This
is this is related to China.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Chinese officials have discussed options for TikTok's US operations, including
a possible sale to Elon Musk. I have no idea
if Elon has any interest in buying TikTok, but you
certainly got the money. I was listening to one of
my favorite pundits yesterday, Harvard Lawyer of person that you
see on TV now and then explaining to people who
(09:40):
haven't done TikTok, like a lot of us grown ups,
how incredibly addictive it is, saying that if you're like
comparing it to YouTube or Instagram or Facebook or anything
like that, it's a completely different world of engagement and
how it lures you in, which I found fascinating and
almost makes me want to download the TikTok app just
to have had the experience. But I know that if
(10:02):
you download the app, there all of a sudden intelle
your phone and have all your information, But it's just
a com It makes Instagram look like nothing in terms
of guessing what you'd be interested in to waste your
time and that algorithm is worth something.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Uh yeah, absolutely is my goodness, it's it's indisputable how
successful it's been, to the point that because it's fun,
people are willing to overlook statistics like this. According to
a major study done on TikTok more TikTok, more than
eighty percent of the content generated in an Instagram search
on the Wigers was negative towards China. On Instagram. If
(10:40):
you if you search on the wigers, it's eighty percent negative.
It's eleven percent on TikTok. One in ten mentions of
the wigers are negative on TikTok. Search for tion Men
on YouTube generated tian Men Square the massacre etcted content
(11:00):
that was sixty five percent negative, twenty percent on TikTok.
It's unquestionably a propaganda wing of the Chinese Communist Party.
It's owned by a hostile foreign power. There are laws
about that. It's not it is not a complicated First
Amendment argument in my mind, No, I don't.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Think it is. That's where it gets complicated. That it's
a complicated business ownership. Who gets to do what? How
do you stop them? Thing for the Supreme Court to
deal with, especially in the computer age, right, exactly. Internet's
the way, Internet's cross boundaries and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, exactly, I.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Don't understand where are their factories? Would be the question
to asked by every single Supreme Court justice up until
roughly the current crop, because these challenges did not exist.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Yeah, so it looks like there might actually be an
Israel Hamas peace deal, which would be a huge win
for Trump. Among other things we got coming up, including
a congressman who we're friends with, Tom McClintock, wrote a
piece on The Wall Street Journal about how California policy
used to blame for a lot of the disaster. We'll
get to that this hour too.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Stay around.
Speaker 6 (12:09):
At Kamala Harris's home in Brentwood, California, police responded to
an alleged burglary, but the suspects were instead detained for
violating curfew and thanks to Doug Emahoff, both of them
are now pregnant.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Wow uh as a gut salt works edgy Hey tounished.
So this on kind of that angle, thought this was interesting.
Julia Roberts says, f you uses the actual word in
an interview to looters as her ten million dollar home
continues to be robbed during the LA fires.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Wow, Wow, what a beautiful example of the protected class
and the unprotected class.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
More on that to come right.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
And it was pointed out by someone online that Roberts
did ads for Kamala, who, of course, Kamala wouldn't even
take a stand on whether theft under one thousand dollars
should be a felony, wouldn't even make a comment on
that policy. She was so freaking weak. And that was
your hero, Julia Roberts. And now the sort of people
that have been trained that crime isn't a crime are
(13:16):
stealing from you. So I don't even know what to say.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Yeah, middle class people, working class people, really, everybody but
the elite has already been battered by crime and junkies
and the awful results of progressive policies.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
And now that it's hit.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
The Hollywood elite, they're like, oh, crime hurts, crime makes
me sad. Yeah, wow, thanks for your perspective.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
So I'm not I don't know if it does this
any good to bring up these stories or not. Does
it convince anybody? I mean, we do it on a
regular basis. Maybe it's just good to be reminded. Maybe
if you get reminded enough at some point. The original
science backed seven minute workout to get fit Fast research shows,
and you brought up this sort of thing the other day,
reshirt research shows that a very simple little bit of
(14:06):
exercise can rapidly increase your health and how you feel
and all sorts of different things. It takes so little
to be better than nothing. Don't be sedentary anyway. This
seven minute workout that they're touting in the New York
Times today, and there's no arguing that this wouldn't be
a great idea compared to nothing. It's super simple. You
(14:29):
don't need to join a gym or buy an equipment
or do anything. It's push ups and jumping jacks and
set ups and stuff like that. It's basically the idea
of you do as many jumping jacks as you can
in thirty seconds. Then you take a little rest and
you can do as many push ups, and you can
do cheap push ups if you have to, whatever you
can do at this point. You just do as much
as you can for thirty seconds. Then you take a
little break and you just do it for seven minutes.
(14:50):
If you did that every day, it goes with the
percentages of heart health and tonality and blah blah blah
and less injury and all the things the benefits that
you would.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Get out of it.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Wow, need to post that at armstrong and Getty on
I'm sorry armstrong and getty dot com under hot links.
I prefer the one armed push ups with a clap
in between.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Yeah, I do a lot of those. It's the style
I prefer. There is a great benefit to uh.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
It helps to be older because when you're young, especially
as a man, it's tough. But there's a great benefit
to letting go of how much weight are you're lifting,
or how many of these are you doing, or how
fast you're running. None, none of it matters. Oh yeah, yeah,
you're not trying to get babes. You're trying to stiff
arm the grim Reaper. I actually a completely different game.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I actually am trying to get babes. It depends on
your stiff arm.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Well is, you're going to be busy, but I'm going
to stiff arm the grim Reaper at the same time.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
But I'm past the age of comparing myself to other
people and thinking that makes any difference. That's not what
I'm trying to accomplish. I'm trying to be as fit
as I can. I'm not trying to beat you, right,
that's where it breaks down.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, yeah, so run.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
As fast as you can, do as many push ups
as you can't, all that sort of stuff, which might
be very.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Slow and very few, but it's so much better than nothing. Yeah.
I was never a gym guy, per se.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
I worked out a lot to play baseball and then
golf to some extent, believe it or not, but I
was never enough of a gym guy. I never felt
that sort of competition because it was useless. It was like,
you know, speaking of golf is like a guy who
can't break a hundred showing up and saying, who wants
some of this? You can't beat anybody. So that was
my point, the point of view in the gym. Yeah,
(16:30):
well it's different in the gym than like playing golf.
You can be out on the golf course and people
see you, they don't really know how good you are
or not. But in the gym, it is very clear.
How many plates are on your bar.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Few there are supposed to be plates on this bar.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
This bar is heavy, few and small is the I
could barely lift the bar.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
The kidding.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Tom McClintock is a congress person from California. He knows
a lot about the policy over the years that may
have led to these fires world did lead to these
fires and disasters.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Long time ember of the Natural Race Source's Commission too,
he understands timber and water and infrastructure. Tom McClintock and
much more to come, Stay with us, Armstrong and Getty show,
Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Does the buck stop with you? I mean, you're Governor
of California and inviting it will be the mayor of California.
We're all in this together.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
We're all better off.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
We're all better off.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
We're all better off, and we're working together to take.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Care of people.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
And there wasn't a yes in there. Does the buck
stop with you? To Gavin Newsom? And then haamanahammahammanahamana. And
yesterday we mentioned the Mark Halpern line of health. Hell
hath no fury like a celebrity scorned. Maybe that's what
it takes to drive policy changes. Celebrities are upset. I
don't know it's sad that that's the case, but it
might be.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Congressman Tom McClintock represents California's fifth congressional district, longtime friend
of the Armstrong and Getty Show, member of the Natural
Resources Committee, and a significantly author of an absolutely terrific
piece published the other day in the Wall Street Journal.
Bad policy served as kindling for California's wildfires. Tom McClintock
joins us, Tom, how are.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
You, sir, I'm doing five?
Speaker 5 (18:07):
Thanks guys.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Yeah, Well, lay out along in short of your piece
in the Wall Street Journal.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
Well, it's not altogether complicated. Throughout all recorded history, California
lost about four and a half million acres a year
to catastrophic fire. This is nothing new. What is new
is beginning in the nineteen hundreds, we established land management
agencies to do a little gardening. You know. We auctioned
(18:33):
off access timber to logging companies that paid us to
remove that access before it could choke off the forest
and burn. We leased public lands to cattle and sheep
ranches to suppress brush growth through grazing. We cut fire
brakes to contain fires. We used herbicides to keep brush
away from residential areas. We put out fires before they
(18:54):
could explode out of control, and fire losses in California
declined from about four and a half million acres a
year to about a quarter million acres a year throughout
all the twentieth century. But the environmental laws that we
passed have made the permitting for these practices endlessly time consuming,
ultimately cost prohibitive. So we stopped doing them, and in
(19:15):
twenty twenty fire losses we're back up to guess what
about four and a half million acres a year. That's
not a new normal, that is the old normal returning
because the environmental laws changed policies that we're working to
keep fires at a minimum.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Tom.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
I know you as we value the environment quote unquote
clean air and water and the beautiful landscapes California, et cetera.
But who is this far left environmental cabal in California
and how much power do they wield?
Speaker 5 (19:49):
Well, it's not just California, it's national laws as well.
It's a national environmental policy acting, Dangerous Species Act, the
Wilderness Act, and you have in California, the California Environmental
Qualities Act. Of these were all passed with the promise
that they would improve the forest, environment and public lands management. Well,
I think after now living with these laws, for fifty years,
(20:09):
we're entitled to ask how's the environment doing? And the
answer is absolutely damning. Our force are now carrying four
times the timber density of the land can support, and
so we're losing them to disease, pestilence, drought, and ultimately
catastrophic wildfire. I mean, all of that excess timber and
(20:31):
growth is going to come out one way or another.
Either we're going to carry it out or nature is
going to burn it out.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Well, a number of people have made this point, So
Gavin Newsom is dropping a lot of the environmental restrictions
with some sort of emergency you know, declaration, so people
will make it it'll be easier to rebuild. And of course
the reaction for a lot of us to that is
so what's the logic there? If they can be done
away with these environmental restrictions for this emergency, whyever have them?
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Well, exactly right, I mean, this is an admission by Newsome.
I don't think he realizes it, but it's an admission
by him that these laws not only have not worked,
they've been counterproductive. And if this doesn't prompt a wholesale
revision of them, I don't know what will well.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
You're right, You're right.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Obviously it is an admission because it's saying this will
make things a lot easier and faster to rebuild.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Oh really yeah.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
And at the same time, these laws have hampered our
ability to deliver water projects for the next generation, as
well as to manage our lands to keep them healthy
and fire resilient. I mean, look, this is the way
nature gardens, and Natures allows the gardener. If you don't
believe that, just leave your own garden alone for a
few years and you tell me what it's going to
(21:48):
look like. You know, that's why we have these land
management agencies to come in and do a little gardening.
The environmental laws of the nineteen seventies stop them from
doing that, and now Nature's coming act to do gardening
her way.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
You mentioned the inability of California to build water storage
over multiple generations now in spite of the people passing
billions of dollars in bonds. We've already talked about the
state imposed price controls on homeowner's insurance and now that's
utterly perverted the market. But I know in your piece
in the Wall Street Journal, you also touched upon how
(22:23):
Mayor Karen Bass in La, who is cutting tens of
millions of dollars from the fire budget, seems to have
unlimited money for bums, junkies, and illegal immigrants.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
Well, again, it's a question of priorities. And this is
this is where people say we should recall Karen Bass,
we should recall Gavin Newsom. Well, I'm all for that,
but simply replacing one left wing idiolog with another is
not going to change these policies. This is the result
of deliberate policies that have been placed into federal, state
and local laws over many decades now at the choice
(22:56):
of voters, and they're the wrong policies because they're wrong people.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
I know your your piece is all about the the resources,
the environment, all that sort of stuff with the fire,
but you also have this angle of we got looting
and crime going on right now in a state that
has made crime legal for the past, you know, quite
a few years and created a culture where, of course
people feel like they can go loot.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Yeah, again, nothing.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
Strange about that. If you stop prosecuting crimes, you're going
to get more crime. And that's exactly what the policy
makers in California have done. That's what the sanctuary cities
is all about. Sanctuary cities is specifically designed to shield
criminal illegal aliens. Under federal law, when an illegal alien
has committed a crime, has been sentenced for that crime,
(23:47):
and jailed for that crime, when they're about to be released,
ICE is supposed to be notified so they can be
deported out of this country. The sanctuary laws stop that
from happening. So I mean, these are again deliberate policies.
You know, if you voted for people like Karen Bass
and Gavin Newsom, this is what you voted for. And
(24:07):
if that surprises you, you weren't paying any attention. Maybe
this has been a wake up call that can't be ignored.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
I'm hoping you're right about that.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
I was in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago,
and the city's already looking cleaner. People have had enough.
Maybe that's gonna happen for the LA area or the
entire state. Well, let's spand go ahead, and Tom.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
I was gonna say, we saw that in New York
it was crime ridden and decaying. Rudy Giuliani took over
and cleaned it all up. Policy matters, and the people
that we elect matter because they determined policy.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Connor's from Tom mcclint Hockey is online. Tom, I was
just going to say, let's extend the conversation to the
nation at large. What are you most excited about energized
about with the incoming Trump administration majorities in both houses.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
Well, I remind people the American people didn't save our
cunt on election night. They gave us the tools to
save our country. We still have to do it. And
as I see it, there are two monumental threats to
our country that we're staring straight at. History is screaming
a warning at us. The countries that bankrupt themselves or
countries that cannot control their borders simply aren't around very long.
(25:17):
Those are the two crises that have to be immediately addressed.
I am very confident that Trump is fully determined to
address them, and I think that the Congress is going
to bend over backwards to get him what he needs.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
So the border thing, I don't dispute for a moment,
but I'm going to hit you with a statement that
is actually pretty damn close to true. Respond however you want,
Tom McClintock, there is no constituency for fiscal conservatism. You
can't get a round of applause anymore for it.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
I think that's changing because I think our country people
are starting to awaken to the fact that our country
is entering a debt spiral. Before you can provide for
the common defense and promote the general welfare, you've got
to be able to pay for it, and countries that
bankrupt themselves can't. That's why many years ago, Mike Mullen,
(26:12):
the former Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said
that in his professional military judgment, the greatest threat to
our country is the national debt. And that's when the
national debt was about a third of what it is now.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Congressman Tom McLintock, fifth District of cal CORNEA time you
keep eating that drum and we will too well done.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
Good to talk, Thanks, good to talk to you guys.
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
It's amazing Conservatives when any elections, because we're the no
fun people. The Democrats get to say, let's go to
Hawaii on vacation and eat nothing but desserts, and then
we have to say, no, no, let's let's stay home
this year for vacation and save the money. Because I
think you're gonna have some tough times ahead, and we
better not eat dessert. So I mean, there's work to
(26:58):
be done, and eat your vegetables right right, Yeah, and
yet if the dessert hoarding Hawaii vacationers, and.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
I've done both, So hello hippocri who went to Hawaii
last summer and ate nothing but desserts. It's a metaphor.
On it's a metaphor. You get the metaphor right.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
You've got to do the right things or you will
die or go away in the country. Thomson, Absolutely right,
You've got you. You cannot court fiscal disaster and throw
open your borders and survive as a country. End of screed.
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She'll looked into prize picks on the more or less
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Speaker 4 (28:44):
So I got this brand new fire in the Ventura area.
They're calling the Auto Fire for some reason. Anyway, very
windy today, seventy plus mile in our gusts.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
We'll keep our eye on that.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Also, the Pete Hegzef confirmation hearing going on in Washington,
DC right now.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
We've got some high from that. Yeah, it's gotten off
to a wacky start. Multiple protesters bellowing and carrying on.
They can't even do the hearing. Awesome, all on the way.
Speaker 7 (29:10):
Art officers enlisted, black and white, young and old, men
and women, all Americans, all warriors.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
This hearing is for you.
Speaker 7 (29:21):
Thank you for figuratively and literally having my back.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Who are misogamous, not only that you are a.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Christy protester interrupting the Pete Hegzath hearing as they always do.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Protester Old crack Pot bellowing about Vietnam Please, what do
you want Peter to do about it?
Speaker 2 (29:50):
So I'm looking up at the TV.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
It looks like a lot of the questioning that I've
been watching so far has been a route about the
whole women serving in combat roles, which, man, I feel.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Like is a I don't know.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
I'll have to watch the hearing to see how the
conversation is going. I don't understand why this is so difficult.
Sh it does it make us stronger and better fighting force.
Yes or no, then go with that at the end.
I don't understand why it's even an issue.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
But right right, you know, I hate to steal my
thunder from a discussion of LA's Firefighter Corps because it's
more or less the same idea. But has any soldier
in a firefight ever in the history of warfare, going
back to swords and shields and hurling rocks at each
(30:42):
other ever said you know, the fight's going well, but
I wish there were more women here fighting. I mean,
they're getting into their entire focus effectiveness. He's getting into
a conversation with Tom Cotton. As I'm looking at the
TV senator military guy hegxeth them. They're talking about women's
strength versus men's strengths. I mean, they're getting into the
nitty gritty of this.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Well good and they should.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
That's absolutely appropriate, and that's part of the reason that Pete,
I think, would be a breath of fresh air. He
is not absolutely you know, steeped in the conventional thinking
in the last twenty five years, much of which has
been terribly misguided in my mind.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Hits seventy seven, Michael.
Speaker 7 (31:17):
As I've said, to many of you in private meetings.
When President Trump chose me for this position, the primary
charge he gave me was to bring the warrior culture
back to the Department of Defense. He liked me once
a Pentagon laser focused on lethality, meritocracy, war fighting, accountability,
(31:38):
and readiness.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
All right, more, Fredon Babe starts screaming, taste or tays
the old guy too, tas them both, tayso them till
they wet themselves. If they're under hydrated, give them a
good drink of water, then tas them again. So we're
on the air while this is happening. So I don't
know what's driving these various arguments, but if I'm the Democrats,
do so, I want it to be about the things
(32:02):
he's said about women in combat. Do they think that's
the winning issue?
Speaker 4 (32:06):
I think the better issue if I'm a Democrat is
him not being qualified to be sec deaf. It's such
a giant organization. You've never run anything one one thousandth
this size.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Who has right?
Speaker 5 (32:18):
You know?
Speaker 1 (32:18):
That's well, And my purpose in playing these clips for
you is that everything he's said is from certainly our perspective,
more than defensible.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
It's great hit seventy eight. Briefly, Michael, you may proceed
to bring back war fighting.
Speaker 7 (32:39):
If confirmed, I'm going to work with President Trump.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
And this committee to one.
Speaker 7 (32:45):
Restore the warrior ethos to the Pentagon and throughout our
fighting force. In doing so, we will re establish trust
in our military, addressing the recruiting crisis, the retention crisis,
and readiness crisis in our rank.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
All right, so that's sorry, you can fade that out, Michael.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
That's three protesters, like in the first few minutes of
his opening statement, which is ridiculous, he accused by the
way he opened his statement, or at least a significant
part of it, was a what was described by the
National Review as a scorched earth attack on the media,
a coordinated smear campaign that's from the Kavanaugh book, Yeah,
(33:27):
which was decried by the idiots in the media as
being somehow unhinged or inappropriate. It was one of my
favorite moments in observing government and public life.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
So Tom Cotton just explained how our standards are so
low that their requirement for the two mile run is
can you do it in twenty two minutes? And he
said that's not running, that's barely jogging. That's a fast walk. Yeah,
that's a really good paced walk. Is a guy who
(34:00):
takes power walks?
Speaker 5 (34:01):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Anyway, So, like I said, they're getting into the nitty
gritty of the requirements, which I'm fine with that angle.
I just thought it'd be that's from a Republican. Maybe
he wants to put it on this where they're pretty
solidly in the right as opposed to the as he
qualified stuff.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Right. Whether heg Seth is the guy or not is
an open question.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
I'm glad we have these hearings, but to push back
against the military as a social experiment and a jobs
program attitude that has infected Washington, d C. And I
have some very good accounts from highly placed people who
I know personally saying that is unquestionably the case.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Or to put it, as Pete Hegseth put it seventy nine, please, Michael, Now,
it is true.
Speaker 7 (34:46):
And has been acknowledged that I don't have a similar
biography to defense secretaries of the last thirty years. But
as President Trump also told me, we've repeatedly placed people
atop the Pentagon with supposedly the right credentials. Whether they retire,
generals academics or defense contractor executives, and where has it
gotten us.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
That's a good argument, he believes.
Speaker 7 (35:08):
And I humbly agree that it's time to give someone
with dust on his boots the helm.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
That's a pretty good argument. It's a damn good argument.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
The reason we lowered the standards in a lot of
cases is because we aren't getting enough recruits, and so
we're widening the net to get more people to join. Now,
our friend Mike Lyons says, part of the reason you
aren't getting enough recruits is it just doesn't have the
the challenge. You know, I want to be part of
an elite unit thing that it used to have. He thinks,
(35:39):
you know, having higher standards making it seem like, wow,
you're really something. You're in the army. You were in
the military brings in more people, which you might be
right as opposed to just.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Another job flabby people can do exactly well, yeah, exactly, yeah, Hm.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
I served in the army, so what A lot of
America response not us, Don't get me wrong, but I
see his point. I think it's a great one.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
We'll have more of that hearing of any interesting stuff happens.
Of course, if you miss a segment. You can grab
the podcast. It's Armstrong and Getty on demand.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Armstrong and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Armstrong and Getti and he Armstrong and Yeddi.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
President Biden claimed the country's stronger because of his work
to expand NATO support Ukraine, withdraw US forces from Afghanistan,
and take on China. In his remarks on Afghanistan, the
President only briefly mentioned the thirteen US service members who
died in the suicide bombing at the Kabol Airport during
the withdrawal of US forces, widely seen as one of
the darkest moments of his presidency.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, I'd say so.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
And also just factually, it's when his ratings tanked and
never recovered. It basically ended his presidency. So I realized
the President is trying to shape history with his speech.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Good luck with that, and horribly undermined his foreign policy
goals too, as America was displayed as weak and feckless. Yeah,
I was just going to say the whole you know,
the great saying, which is so true, watch what people do,
not what they say. Well, he's already done it, so
he can say anything he wants.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
It's just kind of sad.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
And useless in my opinion, and according to the Bob
Woodward book, it was a real indication to putin all
this this administration does not have it to act together
in terms of pushback to invading Ukraine when he saw
the pull out of Afghanistan, right that was done more.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Or less undisputed.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Outside of Morning Joe a lot to get to this hour,
including a chat with Congressman Tom McClintock about the wildfires
in California that absolutely are to a large extent caused
by politics or exacerbated by politics. Not climate change policy matters.
It absolutely does. But first take a look in the
(02:01):
China cabin.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Which is admittedly China.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
China adoping named for a handful of that.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I'm sorry, Michael, I had forgotten that guy. Do you
have the China's a whole guy China as oh, oh, sir, true.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
But harsh I thought this story was so interesting. The
Wall Street General reporting that China's reigning in it's once free,
willing finance sector with purges and pay cuts. Chinese Letursesian
ping is bringing the country's financial sector to heal, one
banker at a time, and they go through the list
(02:48):
of these guys who are often Western educated, who are
very skilled, brought in enormous levels of investment and profit
to China, which they finance Jesion pings goals for consolidating
power and growing China's you know, global influence of that
sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
But he is killing the golden goose. It is clear.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
And I remember when you first brought us this story,
some communications had been leaked. I can't remember the exact
outlines of the story. But this guy is a real communist, right.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
I think that's what I was saying to Ian Bremmer
when he said I was over egging the pudding. But
there were reports that, based on things she was saying
and reading and doing, here's the big story. He's actually
a communist. He's not just pretending to be a communist
so he can be a dictator. He actually is a communist.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
I think you were one of the few commentators who
took that story as seriously as it should be taken,
and which is what does.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
For us because communism doesn't work, oh no, it's miserable
in every way by every measure.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
So many economists and bankers fear that the shakeup is
going to dampen what they call the animal spirits one
of my favorite Wall Street expressions. When everybody's feeling positive,
it's the animal spirits. Haven't we all felt the animal
spirits Friday night? Who knows, maybe a drink or two
ennus the animal spirits. Anyway, financiers and regulators are becoming
(04:20):
much more conservative to avoid mistakes that could get them
in trouble. So they're starting to play a very very
safe game, which if any you know, if you have
any sophistication as an investor, whatsoever, you understand, the more
safe you play at the lower your returns are going
to be. China is also losing bankers and regulators with
international experience and technical knowledge at the time when it
faces complex financial risks that require more sophisticated oversight and
(04:45):
animal spirits. Not less, they have trillions of dollars worth
of off the books local government debts, they have the biggest
property bubble in the history of mankind and.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
A shrinking pop.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
And they're jailing or purging anybody who has any experience
and any verve in dealing with this sort of thing.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
I was looking at some of the videos overbreak of
those cities. I mean, there's chunks of cities with all
these giant buildings, and they're all empty, just building after
building after building, a house after house after house that
they threw up. I don't know where they thought these
people were coming from, but anyway, they built all this
(05:31):
stuff and now they're just empty. And they, like you said,
a shrinking population and a shrinking economy. China could do
the whole. How did you go bankrupt gradually? Then suddenly
thing just collapse one of these days.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
And they have horrific sociological problems too. The young people
don't have job prospects, they don't have hope, they don't
have families, no girls. Well, right, and then so many
people have invested virtually their entire self forth in the
property bubble, which is now burst, and so they have
(06:05):
their life savings invested in an apartment. Say that may
may never exist. Let's see, there's one other aspect of this.
I wanted to get to.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Where'd that go?
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Oh that's all right, We'll move along and come back
to it later. Let's see this story. Trump and She
face off expect Us China tensions as the two leaders
pursue opposing agendas. That's absolutely true, and it's appropriate, and
it's good any sort of You can't woo China. You
(06:39):
can just offer them cards at the poker table of
international relations that they will exploit. They are not going
to be nice guys. They are not going to help us.
They are not going to do anything that is not
in their naked self interest. And to wit I like
this John Ratcliffe, who's a rare hold over from Trump
(07:01):
one's national security team. Ratcliffe is Trump's CIA pick and
he is expected to push for bare knuckle spycraft against China.
Ratcliffe is not screwing around, which I absolutely love. He's
likely to push from more aggressive spying operations targeting Beijing,
(07:22):
and that America says is about to take the gloves
off and it's shadow boxing with Beijing.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Well good, They took their gloves off a long time ago, right.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
You know?
Speaker 1 (07:33):
The part that I was trying to find in the
analysis of China and becoming more and more communists is
ta go ahead, is take the gloves off. We've discussed
this before.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
A boxing thing like I'm taking off the soft gloves
and hitting with my bare hand. Or is it a
taking off the gloves sliping in the face dual thing?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Oh? Or is it.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
You know, as a former hockey player, it's like a
hockey thing to me.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
But I don't know what the origin is.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Everybody understands what it means, but yeah, what's of gloves
are we taking off?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Katie? Do you have the answer?
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Yes, it comes from the practice of boxers removing their
gloves before a fight to inflict even more damage. Okay,
bare knuckle boxing. I teased yesterday the upside of dueling
and how we should bring it back, and it's really interesting,
So I hope I get to that today.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
So anyway, what the article that I can't find. They're
making the point that as these headwinds grow and the
challenges within China grow and confront cheshion Ping and the communists,
they're going further down the road of aggressive nationalism, hostility
(08:37):
toward outside threats.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Up with China, we're the best, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
The problem with that is the international community, from you know,
the Western world to even the Third world.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Is like whoa.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
China is getting weirder and meaner and more nationalistic, and
they're no longer talking about how they want to help everybody,
so it's going to exacerbate their wh So I'm telling
you their internal political situation is unstable.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
The next quick look inside the China cabinet China. This
is this is related to China.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Chinese officials have discussed options for TikTok's US operations, including
a possible sale to Elon Musk. I have no idea
if Elon has any interest in buying TikTok, but you
certainly got the money. I was listening to one of
my favorite pundits yesterday, Harvard Lawyer of person that you
see on TV now and then explaining to people who
(09:40):
haven't done TikTok, like a lot of us grown ups,
how incredibly addictive it is, saying that if you're like
comparing it to YouTube or Instagram or Facebook or anything
like that, it's a completely different world of engagement and
how it lures you in, which I found fascinating and
almost makes me want to download the TikTok app just
to have had the experience. But I know that if
(10:02):
you download the app, there all of a sudden intelle
your phone and have all your information, But it's just
a com It makes Instagram look like nothing in terms
of guessing what you'd be interested in to waste your
time and that algorithm is worth something.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Uh yeah, absolutely is my goodness, it's it's indisputable how
successful it's been, to the point that because it's fun,
people are willing to overlook statistics like this. According to
a major study done on TikTok more TikTok, more than
eighty percent of the content generated in an Instagram search
on the Wigers was negative towards China. On Instagram. If
(10:40):
you if you search on the wigers, it's eighty percent negative.
It's eleven percent on TikTok. One in ten mentions of
the wigers are negative on TikTok. Search for tion Men
on YouTube generated tian Men Square the massacre etcted content
(11:00):
that was sixty five percent negative, twenty percent on TikTok.
It's unquestionably a propaganda wing of the Chinese Communist Party.
It's owned by a hostile foreign power. There are laws
about that. It's not it is not a complicated First
Amendment argument in my mind, No, I don't.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Think it is. That's where it gets complicated. That it's
a complicated business ownership. Who gets to do what? How
do you stop them? Thing for the Supreme Court to
deal with, especially in the computer age, right, exactly. Internet's
the way, Internet's cross boundaries and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, exactly, I.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Don't understand where are their factories? Would be the question
to asked by every single Supreme Court justice up until
roughly the current crop, because these challenges did not exist.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Yeah, so it looks like there might actually be an
Israel Hamas peace deal, which would be a huge win
for Trump. Among other things we got coming up, including
a congressman who we're friends with, Tom McClintock, wrote a
piece on The Wall Street Journal about how California policy
used to blame for a lot of the disaster. We'll
get to that this hour too.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Stay around.
Speaker 6 (12:09):
At Kamala Harris's home in Brentwood, California, police responded to
an alleged burglary, but the suspects were instead detained for
violating curfew and thanks to Doug Emahoff, both of them
are now pregnant.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Wow uh as a gut salt works edgy Hey tounished.
So this on kind of that angle, thought this was interesting.
Julia Roberts says, f you uses the actual word in
an interview to looters as her ten million dollar home
continues to be robbed during the LA fires.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Wow, Wow, what a beautiful example of the protected class
and the unprotected class.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
More on that to come right.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
And it was pointed out by someone online that Roberts
did ads for Kamala, who, of course, Kamala wouldn't even
take a stand on whether theft under one thousand dollars
should be a felony, wouldn't even make a comment on
that policy. She was so freaking weak. And that was
your hero, Julia Roberts. And now the sort of people
that have been trained that crime isn't a crime are
(13:16):
stealing from you. So I don't even know what to say.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Yeah, middle class people, working class people, really, everybody but
the elite has already been battered by crime and junkies
and the awful results of progressive policies.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
And now that it's hit.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
The Hollywood elite, they're like, oh, crime hurts, crime makes
me sad. Yeah, wow, thanks for your perspective.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
So I'm not I don't know if it does this
any good to bring up these stories or not. Does
it convince anybody? I mean, we do it on a
regular basis. Maybe it's just good to be reminded. Maybe
if you get reminded enough at some point. The original
science backed seven minute workout to get fit Fast research shows,
and you brought up this sort of thing the other day,
reshirt research shows that a very simple little bit of
(14:06):
exercise can rapidly increase your health and how you feel
and all sorts of different things. It takes so little
to be better than nothing. Don't be sedentary anyway. This
seven minute workout that they're touting in the New York
Times today, and there's no arguing that this wouldn't be
a great idea compared to nothing. It's super simple. You
(14:29):
don't need to join a gym or buy an equipment
or do anything. It's push ups and jumping jacks and
set ups and stuff like that. It's basically the idea
of you do as many jumping jacks as you can
in thirty seconds. Then you take a little rest and
you can do as many push ups, and you can
do cheap push ups if you have to, whatever you
can do at this point. You just do as much
as you can for thirty seconds. Then you take a
little break and you just do it for seven minutes.
(14:50):
If you did that every day, it goes with the
percentages of heart health and tonality and blah blah blah
and less injury and all the things the benefits that
you would.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Get out of it.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Wow, need to post that at armstrong and Getty on
I'm sorry armstrong and getty dot com under hot links.
I prefer the one armed push ups with a clap
in between.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Yeah, I do a lot of those. It's the style
I prefer. There is a great benefit to uh.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
It helps to be older because when you're young, especially
as a man, it's tough. But there's a great benefit
to letting go of how much weight are you're lifting,
or how many of these are you doing, or how
fast you're running. None, none of it matters. Oh yeah, yeah,
you're not trying to get babes. You're trying to stiff
arm the grim Reaper. I actually a completely different game.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I actually am trying to get babes. It depends on
your stiff arm.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Well is, you're going to be busy, but I'm going
to stiff arm the grim Reaper at the same time.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
But I'm past the age of comparing myself to other
people and thinking that makes any difference. That's not what
I'm trying to accomplish. I'm trying to be as fit
as I can. I'm not trying to beat you, right,
that's where it breaks down.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, yeah, so run.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
As fast as you can, do as many push ups
as you can't, all that sort of stuff, which might
be very.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Slow and very few, but it's so much better than nothing. Yeah.
I was never a gym guy, per se.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
I worked out a lot to play baseball and then
golf to some extent, believe it or not, but I
was never enough of a gym guy. I never felt
that sort of competition because it was useless. It was like,
you know, speaking of golf is like a guy who
can't break a hundred showing up and saying, who wants
some of this? You can't beat anybody. So that was
my point, the point of view in the gym. Yeah,
(16:30):
well it's different in the gym than like playing golf.
You can be out on the golf course and people
see you, they don't really know how good you are
or not. But in the gym, it is very clear.
How many plates are on your bar.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Few there are supposed to be plates on this bar.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
This bar is heavy, few and small is the I
could barely lift the bar.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
The kidding.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Tom McClintock is a congress person from California. He knows
a lot about the policy over the years that may
have led to these fires world did lead to these
fires and disasters.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Long time ember of the Natural Race Source's Commission too,
he understands timber and water and infrastructure. Tom McClintock and
much more to come, Stay with us, Armstrong and Getty show,
Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Does the buck stop with you? I mean, you're Governor
of California and inviting it will be the mayor of California.
We're all in this together.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
We're all better off.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
We're all better off.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
We're all better off, and we're working together to take.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Care of people.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
And there wasn't a yes in there. Does the buck
stop with you? To Gavin Newsom? And then haamanahammahammanahamana. And
yesterday we mentioned the Mark Halpern line of health. Hell
hath no fury like a celebrity scorned. Maybe that's what
it takes to drive policy changes. Celebrities are upset. I
don't know it's sad that that's the case, but it
might be.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Congressman Tom McClintock represents California's fifth congressional district, longtime friend
of the Armstrong and Getty Show, member of the Natural
Resources Committee, and a significantly author of an absolutely terrific
piece published the other day in the Wall Street Journal.
Bad policy served as kindling for California's wildfires. Tom McClintock
joins us, Tom, how are.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
You, sir, I'm doing five?
Speaker 5 (18:07):
Thanks guys.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Yeah, Well, lay out along in short of your piece
in the Wall Street Journal.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
Well, it's not altogether complicated. Throughout all recorded history, California
lost about four and a half million acres a year
to catastrophic fire. This is nothing new. What is new
is beginning in the nineteen hundreds, we established land management
agencies to do a little gardening. You know. We auctioned
(18:33):
off access timber to logging companies that paid us to
remove that access before it could choke off the forest
and burn. We leased public lands to cattle and sheep
ranches to suppress brush growth through grazing. We cut fire
brakes to contain fires. We used herbicides to keep brush
away from residential areas. We put out fires before they
(18:54):
could explode out of control, and fire losses in California
declined from about four and a half million acres a
year to about a quarter million acres a year throughout
all the twentieth century. But the environmental laws that we
passed have made the permitting for these practices endlessly time consuming,
ultimately cost prohibitive. So we stopped doing them, and in
(19:15):
twenty twenty fire losses we're back up to guess what
about four and a half million acres a year. That's
not a new normal, that is the old normal returning
because the environmental laws changed policies that we're working to
keep fires at a minimum.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Tom.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
I know you as we value the environment quote unquote
clean air and water and the beautiful landscapes California, et cetera.
But who is this far left environmental cabal in California
and how much power do they wield?
Speaker 5 (19:49):
Well, it's not just California, it's national laws as well.
It's a national environmental policy acting, Dangerous Species Act, the
Wilderness Act, and you have in California, the California Environmental
Qualities Act. Of these were all passed with the promise
that they would improve the forest, environment and public lands management. Well,
I think after now living with these laws, for fifty years,
(20:09):
we're entitled to ask how's the environment doing? And the
answer is absolutely damning. Our force are now carrying four
times the timber density of the land can support, and
so we're losing them to disease, pestilence, drought, and ultimately
catastrophic wildfire. I mean, all of that excess timber and
(20:31):
growth is going to come out one way or another.
Either we're going to carry it out or nature is
going to burn it out.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Well, a number of people have made this point, So
Gavin Newsom is dropping a lot of the environmental restrictions
with some sort of emergency you know, declaration, so people
will make it it'll be easier to rebuild. And of course
the reaction for a lot of us to that is
so what's the logic there? If they can be done
away with these environmental restrictions for this emergency, whyever have them?
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Well, exactly right, I mean, this is an admission by Newsome.
I don't think he realizes it, but it's an admission
by him that these laws not only have not worked,
they've been counterproductive. And if this doesn't prompt a wholesale
revision of them, I don't know what will well.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
You're right, You're right.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Obviously it is an admission because it's saying this will
make things a lot easier and faster to rebuild.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Oh really yeah.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
And at the same time, these laws have hampered our
ability to deliver water projects for the next generation, as
well as to manage our lands to keep them healthy
and fire resilient. I mean, look, this is the way
nature gardens, and Natures allows the gardener. If you don't
believe that, just leave your own garden alone for a
few years and you tell me what it's going to
(21:48):
look like. You know, that's why we have these land
management agencies to come in and do a little gardening.
The environmental laws of the nineteen seventies stop them from
doing that, and now Nature's coming act to do gardening
her way.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
You mentioned the inability of California to build water storage
over multiple generations now in spite of the people passing
billions of dollars in bonds. We've already talked about the
state imposed price controls on homeowner's insurance and now that's
utterly perverted the market. But I know in your piece
in the Wall Street Journal, you also touched upon how
(22:23):
Mayor Karen Bass in La, who is cutting tens of
millions of dollars from the fire budget, seems to have
unlimited money for bums, junkies, and illegal immigrants.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
Well, again, it's a question of priorities. And this is
this is where people say we should recall Karen Bass,
we should recall Gavin Newsom. Well, I'm all for that,
but simply replacing one left wing idiolog with another is
not going to change these policies. This is the result
of deliberate policies that have been placed into federal, state
and local laws over many decades now at the choice
(22:56):
of voters, and they're the wrong policies because they're wrong people.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
I know your your piece is all about the the resources,
the environment, all that sort of stuff with the fire,
but you also have this angle of we got looting
and crime going on right now in a state that
has made crime legal for the past, you know, quite
a few years and created a culture where, of course
people feel like they can go loot.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Yeah, again, nothing.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
Strange about that. If you stop prosecuting crimes, you're going
to get more crime. And that's exactly what the policy
makers in California have done. That's what the sanctuary cities
is all about. Sanctuary cities is specifically designed to shield
criminal illegal aliens. Under federal law, when an illegal alien
has committed a crime, has been sentenced for that crime,
(23:47):
and jailed for that crime, when they're about to be released,
ICE is supposed to be notified so they can be
deported out of this country. The sanctuary laws stop that
from happening. So I mean, these are again deliberate policies.
You know, if you voted for people like Karen Bass
and Gavin Newsom, this is what you voted for. And
(24:07):
if that surprises you, you weren't paying any attention. Maybe
this has been a wake up call that can't be ignored.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
I'm hoping you're right about that.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
I was in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago,
and the city's already looking cleaner. People have had enough.
Maybe that's gonna happen for the LA area or the
entire state. Well, let's spand go ahead, and Tom.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
I was gonna say, we saw that in New York
it was crime ridden and decaying. Rudy Giuliani took over
and cleaned it all up. Policy matters, and the people
that we elect matter because they determined policy.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Connor's from Tom mcclint Hockey is online. Tom, I was
just going to say, let's extend the conversation to the
nation at large. What are you most excited about energized
about with the incoming Trump administration majorities in both houses.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
Well, I remind people the American people didn't save our
cunt on election night. They gave us the tools to
save our country. We still have to do it. And
as I see it, there are two monumental threats to
our country that we're staring straight at. History is screaming
a warning at us. The countries that bankrupt themselves or
countries that cannot control their borders simply aren't around very long.
(25:17):
Those are the two crises that have to be immediately addressed.
I am very confident that Trump is fully determined to
address them, and I think that the Congress is going
to bend over backwards to get him what he needs.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
So the border thing, I don't dispute for a moment,
but I'm going to hit you with a statement that
is actually pretty damn close to true. Respond however you want,
Tom McClintock, there is no constituency for fiscal conservatism. You
can't get a round of applause anymore for it.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
I think that's changing because I think our country people
are starting to awaken to the fact that our country
is entering a debt spiral. Before you can provide for
the common defense and promote the general welfare, you've got
to be able to pay for it, and countries that
bankrupt themselves can't. That's why many years ago, Mike Mullen,
(26:12):
the former Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said
that in his professional military judgment, the greatest threat to
our country is the national debt. And that's when the
national debt was about a third of what it is now.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Congressman Tom McLintock, fifth District of cal CORNEA time you
keep eating that drum and we will too well done.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
Good to talk, Thanks, good to talk to you guys.
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
It's amazing Conservatives when any elections, because we're the no
fun people. The Democrats get to say, let's go to
Hawaii on vacation and eat nothing but desserts, and then
we have to say, no, no, let's let's stay home
this year for vacation and save the money. Because I
think you're gonna have some tough times ahead, and we
better not eat dessert. So I mean, there's work to
(26:58):
be done, and eat your vegetables right right, Yeah, and
yet if the dessert hoarding Hawaii vacationers, and.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
I've done both, So hello hippocri who went to Hawaii
last summer and ate nothing but desserts. It's a metaphor.
On it's a metaphor. You get the metaphor right.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
You've got to do the right things or you will
die or go away in the country. Thomson, Absolutely right,
You've got you. You cannot court fiscal disaster and throw
open your borders and survive as a country. End of screed.
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Speaker 2 (27:51):
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She'll looked into prize picks on the more or less
of how often the quarterback for the Vikings would be
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Speaker 4 (28:44):
So I got this brand new fire in the Ventura area.
They're calling the Auto Fire for some reason. Anyway, very
windy today, seventy plus mile in our gusts.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
We'll keep our eye on that.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Also, the Pete Hegzef confirmation hearing going on in Washington,
DC right now.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
We've got some high from that. Yeah, it's gotten off
to a wacky start. Multiple protesters bellowing and carrying on.
They can't even do the hearing. Awesome, all on the way.
Speaker 7 (29:10):
Art officers enlisted, black and white, young and old, men
and women, all Americans, all warriors.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
This hearing is for you.
Speaker 7 (29:21):
Thank you for figuratively and literally having my back.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Who are misogamous, not only that you are a.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Christy protester interrupting the Pete Hegzath hearing as they always do.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Protester Old crack Pot bellowing about Vietnam Please, what do
you want Peter to do about it?
Speaker 2 (29:50):
So I'm looking up at the TV.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
It looks like a lot of the questioning that I've
been watching so far has been a route about the
whole women serving in combat roles, which, man, I feel.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Like is a I don't know.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
I'll have to watch the hearing to see how the
conversation is going. I don't understand why this is so difficult.
Sh it does it make us stronger and better fighting force.
Yes or no, then go with that at the end.
I don't understand why it's even an issue.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
But right right, you know, I hate to steal my
thunder from a discussion of LA's Firefighter Corps because it's
more or less the same idea. But has any soldier
in a firefight ever in the history of warfare, going
back to swords and shields and hurling rocks at each
(30:42):
other ever said you know, the fight's going well, but
I wish there were more women here fighting. I mean,
they're getting into their entire focus effectiveness. He's getting into
a conversation with Tom Cotton. As I'm looking at the
TV senator military guy hegxeth them. They're talking about women's
strength versus men's strengths. I mean, they're getting into the
nitty gritty of this.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Well good and they should.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
That's absolutely appropriate, and that's part of the reason that Pete,
I think, would be a breath of fresh air. He
is not absolutely you know, steeped in the conventional thinking
in the last twenty five years, much of which has
been terribly misguided in my mind.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Hits seventy seven, Michael.
Speaker 7 (31:17):
As I've said, to many of you in private meetings.
When President Trump chose me for this position, the primary
charge he gave me was to bring the warrior culture
back to the Department of Defense. He liked me once
a Pentagon laser focused on lethality, meritocracy, war fighting, accountability,
(31:38):
and readiness.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
All right, more, Fredon Babe starts screaming, taste or tays
the old guy too, tas them both, tayso them till
they wet themselves. If they're under hydrated, give them a
good drink of water, then tas them again. So we're
on the air while this is happening. So I don't
know what's driving these various arguments, but if I'm the Democrats,
do so, I want it to be about the things
(32:02):
he's said about women in combat. Do they think that's
the winning issue?
Speaker 4 (32:06):
I think the better issue if I'm a Democrat is
him not being qualified to be sec deaf. It's such
a giant organization. You've never run anything one one thousandth
this size.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Who has right?
Speaker 5 (32:18):
You know?
Speaker 1 (32:18):
That's well, And my purpose in playing these clips for
you is that everything he's said is from certainly our perspective,
more than defensible.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
It's great hit seventy eight. Briefly, Michael, you may proceed
to bring back war fighting.
Speaker 7 (32:39):
If confirmed, I'm going to work with President Trump.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
And this committee to one.
Speaker 7 (32:45):
Restore the warrior ethos to the Pentagon and throughout our
fighting force. In doing so, we will re establish trust
in our military, addressing the recruiting crisis, the retention crisis,
and readiness crisis in our rank.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
All right, so that's sorry, you can fade that out, Michael.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
That's three protesters, like in the first few minutes of
his opening statement, which is ridiculous, he accused by the
way he opened his statement, or at least a significant
part of it, was a what was described by the
National Review as a scorched earth attack on the media,
a coordinated smear campaign that's from the Kavanaugh book, Yeah,
(33:27):
which was decried by the idiots in the media as
being somehow unhinged or inappropriate. It was one of my
favorite moments in observing government and public life.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
So Tom Cotton just explained how our standards are so
low that their requirement for the two mile run is
can you do it in twenty two minutes? And he
said that's not running, that's barely jogging. That's a fast walk. Yeah,
that's a really good paced walk. Is a guy who
(34:00):
takes power walks?
Speaker 5 (34:01):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Anyway, So, like I said, they're getting into the nitty
gritty of the requirements, which I'm fine with that angle.
I just thought it'd be that's from a Republican. Maybe
he wants to put it on this where they're pretty
solidly in the right as opposed to the as he
qualified stuff.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Right. Whether heg Seth is the guy or not is
an open question.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
I'm glad we have these hearings, but to push back
against the military as a social experiment and a jobs
program attitude that has infected Washington, d C. And I
have some very good accounts from highly placed people who
I know personally saying that is unquestionably the case.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Or to put it, as Pete Hegseth put it seventy nine, please, Michael, Now,
it is true.
Speaker 7 (34:46):
And has been acknowledged that I don't have a similar
biography to defense secretaries of the last thirty years. But
as President Trump also told me, we've repeatedly placed people
atop the Pentagon with supposedly the right credentials. Whether they retire,
generals academics or defense contractor executives, and where has it
gotten us.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
That's a good argument, he believes.
Speaker 7 (35:08):
And I humbly agree that it's time to give someone
with dust on his boots the helm.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
That's a pretty good argument. It's a damn good argument.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
The reason we lowered the standards in a lot of
cases is because we aren't getting enough recruits, and so
we're widening the net to get more people to join. Now,
our friend Mike Lyons says, part of the reason you
aren't getting enough recruits is it just doesn't have the
the challenge. You know, I want to be part of
an elite unit thing that it used to have. He thinks,
(35:39):
you know, having higher standards making it seem like, wow,
you're really something. You're in the army. You were in
the military brings in more people, which you might be
right as opposed to just.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Another job flabby people can do exactly well, yeah, exactly, yeah, Hm.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
I served in the army, so what A lot of
America response not us, Don't get me wrong, but I
see his point. I think it's a great one.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
We'll have more of that hearing of any interesting stuff happens.
Of course, if you miss a segment. You can grab
the podcast. It's Armstrong and Getty on demand.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
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