August 15, 2025 • 36 mins
Hour 3 of A&G features...
- Justin Logan, the director of defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, talks to A&G
- Joe the Olympian & adult summer camp
- Greg Gutfeld's got jokes & the dark side of Putin's tactics
- Bingo, Bango, Bongo
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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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 Jetty arm Strong and
Jetty enough Key, I'm strong.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And it doesn't look like it's even going to work
on paper. But imagine trying to force those huge movements
of population or militaries in the real world in potentially
a continuing battlefield zone. That's the reality of the idea
(00:38):
of territorial swaps already flat out rejected here by Ukraine.
A tough political ask, an impossible military ask, you might argue,
and that really leads people so anxious here that as
the bedrock of these talks, potentially it's territorial swaps, and
that is impractical and unsellable here. What possibly could Trump
(01:00):
emerge from that meeting.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
With that's CNN's reporting yesterday. I've heard a lot of
different reporting and a lot of different angles, of course,
because this came together really fast, and we have no
idea how it's going to go or really even what
the topic matter is going to be.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Let's discuss with Justin Logan, director of Defense and Foreign
Policy Studies at the Cato Institute. Justin's take might differ
somewhat from ours, but he has at least an idea
from judging from his recent piece of how a settlement
might look at the title of the piece is the
key to success at Trump puton Alaska summit on Ukraine.
(01:39):
Low expectations, Justin Logan joins us. Now, Justin, how are you, sir?
Speaker 5 (01:43):
Just fine, good morning.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Low expectations, I think is absolutely an appropriate stance, as
we don't see much overlap at all between Putin's goals
for the territory of Ukraine and and Ukraine's certainly.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
Yeah, I mean, the underlying and unhappy, unfortunate act of
the matter is that Russia is in a relatively stronger
position on the battlefield than Ukraine is, and that makes
Russia both more willing to continue the conflict and less
willing to compromise diplomatically. So Trump has a very difficult
(02:24):
task here, which is to see whether a piece can
be produced that isn't disastrous from Ukraine's point of view,
and that you know, as I said, the piece, we
should have low expectations. Even incremental shifts would be welcome
at this point.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, well, that seems like one of the problems I've
been saying for the last couple of days is a
Ukraine is horrified with the status quo. Putin's okay with
the status quo. He'd be fine with continuing prosecuting the
war the way he is, So a nothing burger would
be good from his standpoint. How do you get around that?
Speaker 5 (03:01):
No, that's exactly right. And you know, the Ukrainians have said,
you know, look, our constitution commits us to pursue NATO membership,
which isn't going to happen, and prohibits us from seating
any territory, including Crimea, which has already happened. So they're
sort of using this sort of legalistic argumentation to dig
(03:21):
in on a position that just isn't going to happen.
So I don't fault them for that. It makes a
lot of sense to me that they should look as
unwilling to compromise as possible in the hopes of getting
a compromised that again is a total disaster. But on paper, yeah,
this thing isn't really going to go very far, very fast,
if it goes anywhere.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
One question we've been banding back and forth is whether
Europe will, as I put it earlier, find at least
one of its testicles and assert itself as a party
that truly has a strong interest in stability or not.
How do you see NATO slash Europe's involvement in this
latest chapter.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
Yeah, I mean they are also digging in and not
showing much flexibility. But I think the question is, you know,
Europe needs to you know, to maybe I'll avoid your metaphor,
but it needs to sort of it needs to sort
of back its diplomacy with force. Right the ultimasio in
international relations is military power, and Europe is short still
(04:22):
to this day on military power, despite its declaration that
it's going to spend three and a half percent of
GDP on defense by twenty thirty five. It needs to
spend more, and it needs to spend better if it
wants more voice. And I think that that's the sort
of crucial disconnect that Trump has living pair, which is
that you know, if Europe wants more say, it needs
(04:44):
more power, and that is an enduring problem for both
particularly for the Europeans, but also in my view, for
the Americans. If the Americans want to hand over European
security to Europe, which I think would be a good
thing to do, needs to attack together, and it's making
noiages about doing so, but not to my not enough
(05:07):
to my satisfaction.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
So you don't do a lot of testical metaphors there,
Kato not nothing of radio. You know, this might end
up being a lesson in real politic for a lot
of us. This whole thing because Lindsey Graham saying on
the Sunday Shows that look, Ukraine isn't gonna, you know,
get back every bit of their land and Putin's not
(05:31):
going to Kiev. But which I think those things are true.
But why I don't know where this goes.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
Yeah, I mean Lindsay Graham grappling with reality is progress
in international politics anyway. I mean, the bare fact of
the matter is we're not going back to twenty fourteen. Unfortunately,
it would be great if Ukraine, you know, regain all
territory the international community recognizes as being part of Ukraine.
(06:01):
But in politics is a brutal business. Ladder. Putin is
you know, someone who reveals that every day he gets
out of bed in the morning. And so we have
to maximize what what is sort of the art of
the possible, if you will, you know, what can we
produce it? And I think look to you know, revealed.
You know, I thought that this was going to go
(06:22):
way worse, way quicker for Ukraine. So they have been heroic, right,
they have defended their territory. Right. I think no one,
you know, to talk about the realities that Vladimir Putin
has to grapple with. He's not going to take all
of Ukraine. He's not going to take most of Ukraine.
Ukraine is going to come out of this as a
sovereign autonomous country. And you know, so there's all these
things that need to be haggled over. You know, Putin
(06:44):
wants to put I think unreasonable limits on Ukraine's arm forces.
It's not going to join NATO. So so we're revealing
truths through the course of this thing. And and one hopes,
you know, I hope I'm wrong. I hope that you know,
there's more progress made today than I suspect, and we
get closer to a settlement of this conflict that leaves
(07:05):
a Ukraine that is a sovereign, functioning country on Russia's border.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
We're talking to Justin Logan, director of Defense and Foreign
Policy Studies at the Cato Institute. Justin, if you were
to advise Donald Jay or any other leader about negotiating
with Putin, especially sitting down with Putin to negotiate, what
would you tell him about Putin and his methods.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Well, you know, if you read the newspaper, I mean,
it's all sort of there in black and white, right,
he doesn't need any sort of putent whisperer to say
this is a brutal guy who really means business and
really cares deeply about Ukraine's international orientation. Certainly, he's revealed
that he's willing to pay extremely high costs to influence
(07:53):
the sort of future orientation of Ukraine. And you know,
one again sort of brutal reality is, you know, we're
we're all worried about escalation. We were all worried about
the potential of nuclear escalation or escalation outside Ukraine's orders.
And part of the reason that that hasn't come to
the fore is the fact that Putin has been gradually,
slowly brutally winning the conflict. And so we need to
(08:16):
internalize he is revealed in the breach that he's willing
to pay enormous costs to influence the settlement of this conflict.
And we've revealed under President Joe Biden and under President
Trump that we're not willing to go to the mattresses
and fight Russia in Ukraine over Ukraine. So that's going
to be the sort of starting point of understanding what
(08:37):
we should do. And you know, to be honest, we've
used a lot of economic leverage, a lot of sanctions
and it hasn't worked, if you define work as you know,
caused to change his mind and leave Ukraine. So again,
I hate to be the sort of dark cloud here,
but it's you know, playing the type.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
I guess.
Speaker 5 (08:59):
You know, we need to realize that we have limited
leverage to produce a maximually good outcome for Ukraine from
this thing. So we're very much in the realm of
third best, fourth best, or as I might put it,
least worse outcomes.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Well, first of all, if you're dealing with Putin, you
don't stand next to any open windows. Secondly, I love,
I love dealing in reality. I mean, there's no advantage
to ever not dealing in reality. So if the reality
Putin is going to end up being rewarded for having
invaded a smaller country and getting to keep the land
(09:36):
because the rest of the world's not willing to, uh,
you know, put up the fight to stop him? What
how do you deal with Taiwan and China? What's how
do you make that not send the message to China
that here now it's your turn.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
Yeah, I mean it's you don't want to be a
small country bordering a larger, more powerful country if you
can avoid it, and unfortunately neither Ukraine nor Taiwan can
avoid that. So the question then becomes what do you
do optimally to make yourself look like? And this is
a Taiwan metaphor that think tanks works use all the time.
(10:11):
Like a porcupine, right, porcupines don't get attacked because they're
bristling with quills. They're likely to get their hooks into you,
and it hurts. It's not a pleasant experience. And so Taiwan,
I think, you know, there are more things that Taiwan
needs to do better for itself than there are things
that the US military needs to do on behalf of Taiwan,
which is to say, if the balloon goes up God
(10:33):
forbid in Taiwan, it will take the US military, in
optimal scenarios four or five six days to really meaningfully
get into the fight. And Taiwan has been so negligent
with its own defense, spending about two percent of GDP
art defense not spending it well that it may all
be over, but the crime by the time we were
(10:53):
to get there. So I think that from a Taiwan
point of view, Taiwan needs to engage in asymmetric sense.
It needs to do another hokey before that, we think
tank Doork's use a small number of things at great scale,
So it needs to prevent China from getting a lodgment
that it could flow troops onto and without getting too
(11:16):
boringly into the weeds here. It hasn't been doing a
great job of that. So I would love to see
Taiwan focus its military less on big ticket items that
China is likely to be able to pick off early
in a conflict, and do things that really again turn
it into a porcupine that China can't swallow.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Be a better porcupine.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
So a final question for Justin Logan Justin back to
the Russia Ukraine US thing, what are the chances that
Putin comes to the table with a grand bargain in
capitals that Ukraine is merely a part of to tempt
Donald J. Trump into some sort of historical Arctic minerals
arms control package.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
That's a good question. I hate to make predictions. It
seems unlikely to me. Putin was sort of signaling yesterday
that he might be willing to talk about arms control,
which is a sort of weird non response to what
the commit is supposed to be about. So I think
it's possible that he brings things to the table that
(12:17):
don't pertain to Ukraine, because as we sort of established
earlier in the call, he's kind of sort of okay
with the best quo in Ukraine. And I think it's
a real question of whether Trump and the people Trump
brings with him are willing to bite on that, or
whether they bring things back around to finding some sort
of diplomatic resolution to the war in Ukraine.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Justin Logan of the Cato Institute, fabulous conversation. Justin, we
thank you. It's been far too long since we've talked.
We will verbally abuse our staff for letting that happen.
Thank you so much for the time.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
There's a great pleasure.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Have a good week, ID guys, Thank you you too.
Speaker 6 (12:52):
Man.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
That was a snap back to reality. It's so easy,
speaking for myself, to let your wishes be your the
father of your thoughts with things?
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Right?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Trump has that land? Is anybody willing to push him
off of it?
Speaker 5 (13:06):
No?
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Show a hands?
Speaker 7 (13:07):
No?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Okay, well then let's just concede that deed gets that land.
It's gonna happen, right, Yeah, yeah, it's I don't know
when it was. It might have been about a decade
ago that it occurred to me. The term disillusioned ought
to be a positive, not a negative.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
What good are your illusions doing you? Especially in important stuff?
I mean, if your illusion is that you're handsome and
chicks digya, that's fine?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Okay, me too, right anyway.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
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Speaker 3 (14:27):
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Speaker 8 (14:31):
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Speaker 7 (14:44):
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Speaker 3 (14:56):
Cup and Ball.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
That's funny, wow.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
I have amused my myself for seconds at a time
the Cup and Ball. At one point I convinced my
kids that I competed in the Olympics in the.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Cup and Ball competitiones.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
I got like three in a row, and they're like,
oh my god, Dad, I said, listen, I don't like
the brag, but.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Good times lying to my children.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Speaking of children, I will mention this very briefly, there
is an alarming new study that we probably ought to
go into deeply. Smartphones are ruining our brains at unprecedented speed,
especially young people in you know, the levels of conscientiousness, neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion,
(15:49):
et cetera. The numbers are unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Is it possible, I've said this before, Is it possible
that walking around staring at your phone becomes like smoking?
Is now? I mean, you know, back when my dad
was smoking, way back in the day, everybody did it.
It was recommended by doctors.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
It calmed you.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Down, and it helped you lose weight. It was all
kinds of buzzy, and everybody did it. And now it's
just you see somebody smoking anything.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
What are you doing?
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Do you think it could go that far? Or we
just just too much into appealing it. It's too universally appealing.
Cigarettes didn't have enough upside. There's too much upside, well
upside using my finger quotes. Yeah, So anyway, everybody's staring
at their phones and miserable in one hundred different measures,
or at least half a dozen. And in a related story,
this is crazy. Adults are going to sleep away camp
(16:42):
to make friends, and it actually seems to work. Overnight
camps for single adults. It's not a dating thing. It's
generally separated by sex. But where you go to like
a summer camp for adults and make friends and you
do you know, a tug of war, climbing, ropes, courses,
(17:04):
a hiking, you know, canoeing, blah blah blah. And this
focus is almost entirely on women this article. But this
gal says, when you're a twenties in your twenties and thirties,
you don't make a ton of friends unless you're doing
something that bonds you. And they've found the camps have
been great. They really hit it off with people, They
(17:24):
stay in touch and become long term friends.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
I feel like this has got a real extrovert bias
to it, that it would really work for extroverts and
they would love it and for better and good for you,
that's fantastic. You're I don't know what percentage of people
are extroverts, but uh, that'd be great. I just man,
I heard that. My immediate reaction was that sounds freaking awful. Oh,
(17:48):
we need to start an introverts camp. I don't expect
attendance to be great, at least not at first. We're
all going to read alone in our tents.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
Right exactly, and look, you want to wander out and
talk about what you're reading, totally voluntary, totally. We're gonna
have a kayak thing tomorrow, single kayaks.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
All right.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Let me assure you single, it'll be cool. All right,
We'll gently coach you into it.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Everybody's got a different time to eat, so you can
eat alone if you want, right, Armstrong and Getty so
didn mention this. Greg Guttfeld was on was first of all,
Greg Gutfeld is a was he originally is? Did he
come from a comedy background or a journalism background? Is
(18:31):
he a comedian?
Speaker 1 (18:32):
I think comedy?
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Is he a comedians? He might know he started as
a stand up or something. Anyway, He's been on Fox
for a long time comment on stuff, and then they
gave him his own show. When he runs it like
late night talk shows if you've never seen it, and
it's on Fox in it and for quite a while
now has been getting bigger ratings than The Tonight Show
or Kimmel or Colbert and Jimmy Fallon wisely had Gutfeld
(18:59):
on the other night and had the highest ratings he
had I think I heard in five years because surprisingly well,
because Guttfeld promoted it on his show, so all the
Fox people watch. Oh, I want to see how he does,
you know, on the mainstream shows. And he did well.
He was funny, but so huge ratings.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
It's funny.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
And I'm not quibbling with your your verbiage because how
to use the same words. But it's funny that the
most popular show is not the quote unquote mainstream show.
He literally has the main part of the stream.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Good point. Anyway, my parents watch it every night and
they love it. I don't watch any of them, so
we just played the clips in the morning. But anyway,
here's a joke from last night.
Speaker 7 (19:44):
The UFC will host the first ever White House Fight
on July fourth.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
It's the first.
Speaker 7 (19:53):
Violent beatdown to take place at the White House since
Hillary discovered the Blue Dress. Meanwhile, the Democrats also want
to participate in so far, they've already suggested these bouts
Jasmine Crockett versus a book, Jerry Nadler versus soap, Rashida
(20:17):
Talib versus a razor, and JB. Pritzker versus a narrow hallway.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Yeah, all right, are they branding Rashida t lib As Harry.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I Ah, I'm not comfortable with that one. But that
was not me laughing, It was someone else in here. Yes, Katie,
I'm comfortable with it. She has a mustache.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Oh, a mustache, I see, or as they saying, some
of my favorite old timy literature mustaches. Right all right, now,
she's also an American hating America hating Marxist.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yes she has a mustache. Yes, thank you care.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Perfect a perfect background for the joke. But those are
some biting jokes. We all know. The biggest story probably
in the world today is Putin and Trump meeting together.
It could be a history making meeting. I think there's
a decent chance nothing comes out of it.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
For now.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Anyway. First of all, this CNN, and I wasn't listening
to it. I was just watching it. Just did a
retrospective of various US leaders meeting with Putin over the years,
and God, I forgot what he looked like when he
was younger. He's always had that pimp walk man like
I am the biggest freaking deal in this room, and
that smirk on his face like I could kill you,
(21:50):
I could have sex with you. I could do both
of those with you. I mean, that's it's just his personality.
And sitting with every president Bush, Clinton, Obama, Biden and
all of them, he does that whole leg spread open,
leaning back in his chair. What do you got. I'm
kind of paying attention, but I don't really have to.
I mean, he's just, he's his personality is just. I mean,
(22:13):
he puts it on so over the top display you
can almost smell his cologne through the video.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah. Wow, not an accident.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
And the embarrassing among the most embarrassing because George W.
Bush saying I looked in him was eye, I saw
his soul. He's a good person. I mean that is embarrassing.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yes, uh.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
But Hillary Clinton showing up there with the reset button,
Oh my god, what is it with all these the
Barack Obama administration where we're different people, we can handle
the world differently, people react differently to us, and give
him the Nobel Prize. I mean, it's just it's it's
if I was Hillary Clinton, I'd be asking CEE and
then is anyway he could not show that ever? Again,
(22:54):
it's embarrassing.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
All right, never mind that the reset button was the
wrong word, but it said, right, didn't even say reasons
like I.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Said vacuum cleaner in Russian or somebody.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
But this from the Washington Post today, and they've got
the picture which i'll describe later, with the young Putin
meeting with Angela Merkel, who's leader of Germany at the time.
And Putin's got the legs spread open, leaning back, Aren't
I cool thing going? German Chancellor Angela Merkel experienced the
darker side of Putin's tactics in two thousand and seven
when she met him in Sochi for a big one
(23:26):
on one meeting that's the Black Sea resort city, and
he brought his giant black Labrador retriever to the meeting.
Merkel later said in her memoirs that she believed it
was a deliberate tactic to intimidate her because he knew
she was so afraid of dogs. And they've got the
picture here and he's got this enormous black lab just
(23:47):
walking around. They're sitting by the fireplace while she's sitting
there looking frightened.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Wow. How about wow? Wow?
Speaker 3 (23:57):
And she didn't have the courage, leverage whatever she thought
to say, Hey, I don't really like dogs. Let's get
this out of here before we talk.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
That's some mobs toss Yes it is.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
I mean, yeah, that's like sending you a fish in
the mail. I mean, that's right.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
It's as close to a threat as you can get
without issuing a threat.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
But they go on to write in the Washington Post
the fact that summit is taking place as a potential
sign of Putin's own vulnerabilities. The only good news is
that Putin does feel like he needs to respond in
some way to the US President to avoid worse things happening,
in terms of a return to full military assistance or
partial assistance, or potential sanctions. Another sign of Putin's potential
(24:42):
weakness are the Kremlins hurried preparations for the Alaska summit.
Putin usually prepares himself immaculately. He reads a lot, gathers
recommendations from experts. This time, the windows extremely short, and
they do not have a plan. A Kremlin insider told
the Washington Post. Right now there is a huge frantic
effort going on inside the Kremlin. So at least that
(25:02):
opinion piece the Washington Post, they're reading the fact that
he's meeting at all, and in such a short timeframe
as a sign of he needs this.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Yeah, how interesting. And from Putin's perspective, he's thinking, No,
we don't have a plan, we don't know what to expect,
but I want to go there personally. I will engage
in the judo and see what comes out of it,
(25:31):
will develop our plan from there. It's got to be
kind of exciting for the pooter. I mean, it's like
he's back at his KGB days. He is the agent,
He's not the bureaucrat. He's the agent again. I don't know,
as I said yesterday, and I have not changed my
mind about this. If you gave me five different scenarios
(25:54):
for how this plays out, or the five or so
I've imagined, I will put him at twenty percent eighth.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Just don't know.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
It's got to be something to sit down with somebody
who has ordered the murders of his own people, Like
I'm thinking of the way he bombed that Chechen apartment
building to make it look like a terrorI stacked by
so he could invade Chechnya. He killed his own people,
and he's done that lots of times. Yeah, it's just
(26:26):
got to be something to sit there with somebody like that.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Well, something his closest cronies end up plunging out of
windows if it's time for house cleaning.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
But most of us, when we're dealing with somebody, we
believe they've got even if you don't trust them, you
believe they've got some sort of moral limit, as opposed
to sitting down with somebody who has zero moral limits.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Zero right, right?
Speaker 5 (26:48):
God?
Speaker 3 (26:48):
That hold the picture of him with the dog in
Angela Merkle is like the way he's it looks exactly
like if you're gonna portray that in the Sopranos, the
way he's sitting there.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
How about this?
Speaker 5 (27:00):
What do you think?
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (27:01):
Yeah, Well, And as we've said, I hope Trump is
ready to deal with somebody who's a master manipulator, utterly immoral.
I just why does Trump keep saying I think he
wants peace? I don't know, I mean he doesn't. He
only wants peace if it's peace because he's accomplished his goals.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
I mean, it's.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Mildly inconvenient to his you know, the fiscal health of
his government. And Russia does not have an limitless time
horizon to accomplish what they want to accomplish.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
They do have problems, but it's.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
Counting on him to just want peace because oh my god,
there's been enough killing.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
That's that's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
So we got a breaking clip here. So Trump is
on the plane flying from Washington, d C. To Anchorage.
It's thirty four hundred miles and he just came out
and said something to reporters on Air Force one. Here
it is, thank you for coming.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Back to take questions.
Speaker 9 (28:03):
We saw that Russia continued as violence into Ukraine last night,
launching even more drones.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
What did you make of that?
Speaker 6 (28:09):
I think they're trying to negotiate. He's trying to set
a stage. I mean, in his mind that helps him
make a better deal. It actually hurts him, But in
his mind that helps him make a better deal if
they can continue the killing. Maybe it's a part of
the world. Maybe it's just his fabricus, gens, his genetics,
(28:30):
but he thinks that makes him gives him strength and negotiating.
I think it hurts him, but I'll be talking to
him about it discussion.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
This is so interesting. Has Trump finally reached the I
understand who this guy is? Point? And like, you know,
and and and and even if that's true, it's like,
how did it take you so long. But I mean
Trump is despite what they say on MSNBC in braces places,
he's no dummy. He's not he's on a punk. I mean,
(29:00):
he's a smart, ruthless businessman and he's certainly surely he
can handle that sort of situation.
Speaker 5 (29:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
My only quibble with that is that I think any
of us who've known a lot of different people, achievers
and go getters and wheelers and dealers, is there some
people who are very, very capable in certain areas, but
they have blind spots. And there are times that I
think Trump has blind spots.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
But you think he has a blind spot with negotiations
he's been doing in his whole.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
Life with megalomaniac Russian would be is ours.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Yes, yeah, God, he's probably had to deal with lots
of megalomaniacs building casino, but they're.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Motivated by completely different things. I think Trump has an
oversimplified view of leverage.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
It's funny, I was thinking that yesterday. I thought this
for a long time. A lot of business people I
know are like this. There's only one thing that matters,
profit or making more money. That's the only thing they
can think about, and feelings or morality or all kinds
of things go out the window. It's just what's going
to make me the most money. And he can't imagine.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Nationalism or philosophy.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Or he can't imagine anything mattering more than making more money,
and like wanting to institute Peter the Great's land mass,
doesn't make sense exactly or even just rational goals from
Trump's point of view, re establishing the Soviet Empire, why
the hell would you want that?
Speaker 4 (30:37):
A lot of it is crappy. Yeah, you know you're
already too far flung. Your treasury is bare. Why don't
you just concentrate and make good deals and make more money.
You're overexpanding. That's dumb.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
He just doesn't understand irrational motivations.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
Getting back to the clip about Putin continuing the attacks
and stuff like that, again, I don't know. Sometimes Trump
postures just to posture, and he knows what he's doing.
But yes, Putin thinks that continuing the attacks makes him
gives him a stronger position than in negotiating. Because you've
made it clear over and over again, you want peace,
(31:13):
you want the killing to stop.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Now.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
If you were to say, yeah, me too, how much
would you have to give him to get the killing
to stop very little, because you've both expressed the desire
to and the killing. You've come to the table saying
I want the killing to stop, and he's come to
the table saying, you know what, I just killed more
people today, And if you'll excuse me, yeah, right now,
(31:35):
I just killed five hundred more people. You're gonna have
to give up a hell of.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
A lot more at the table. I think he's going again.
I don't Trump surely understands.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
I think he's gonna have to say to Putin's face
at some point that's bulls, You're full of crap, because
Putin's gonna say something like these are military targets. They
attacked us first, you know, all that sort of stuff,
And Trump's come on, where's there Trump, where's our bleeped
Trump clip?
Speaker 4 (32:01):
Michael, what's Trump gonna say to Putin? Two syllables? I
wasn't kidding when I said this yesterday.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
I want him to treat Putin like he treated Rand
Paul or Chris Christy or any of those people. You know,
Carly Fiorina. Treat him like that.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Hey, you got it.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
You you had the perfect coaching every time you look
at Putin picture rosy O'donald's head on his neck. Mister president,
that'll get you in the right fighting spirit.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
The exact he needs to say that to Putin's face.
We got what's f what? What are your thoughts on it?
Here's the text line four one five two nine five
KFTC last weekend before school starts from my kids, they're
in a panic.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
They're in a panic.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Oh boy, oh boy, taking deep breaths like jumping in
a cold pool. He'll get used to it pretty soon,
but I remember that feeling. So I was tempted to
end the hour with the discussion of Russia's finances. Read
a really good detailed analysis. They are in financial trouble.
I hope this war is enormously expensive and it can't
(33:13):
last forever. But you know, we've talked about that a
fair amountain it'll still be true on Monday, so maybe
we'll get to it again then. So a couple of
stories to bring to you very quickly. I found this
very funny. Andrew Styles of the Free Beacon the Emerging
Democratic Consensus for twenty twenty six, curse Moore, obey less,
protect criminals and illegal immigrants at all, costs and evidently, yes,
(33:37):
swearing is a big part of the strategy.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
We actually do we have that to Beto or rourk.
Yeah that we had the Yeah we do.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
We had it yesterday.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Yeah, no, I think we did today again. I'm sorry.
We should have got eleven play eleven.
Speaker 9 (33:52):
We are in a basketball game right now, if you'll
excuse the metaphor, where the refs have left the arena
and the other side is he clobbering us. He's plunging
us in the face, kicking us in the nuts.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
And he mentioned that the Dems need to fight harder
in defense of the illegal immigrant community. That quote makes
this country so g D great.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
It's interesting. I wonder whose decision that was that we
need to curse more to show that we're fighting.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
Representative Jasmine Crockett, the potty mouthed diva who's a rising
star thanks for republic Transom tantrums and phony accent, being
a boarding school grad, but sounds ghetto when it's convenient.
She's argued that illegal immigrant is not a crime, called
Donald Trump a piece of ass, etc.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Good luck with that.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
The Hill urged Democratic leaders to follow her lead. Crockett
is the base. She is the movement. Whether you like
her delivery or not, She's speaking a language people understand,
and that's what exactly what this party needs.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
If she is the base of the Democratic Party, they
ain't gonna win an national elections for a long time.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
All right, how about this strategy instead.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
The Loudun County virgin It's a DC suburb, Loudun County,
Fairfax County, woke America. They voted tuesday to keep their
transgender policies, even after the Education Department warned the district
that and four others they could face legal punishment lose
federal funding for violating Title nine, the federal law that
(35:20):
bands sex discrimination. Boys can keep going into the girls'
locker rooms and watch them change.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Boys can keep.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
Whipping up on girls on the sports fields as long
as they say I'm a girl today in Loudun County.
I wish you well, see you in court. I'm actually
glad they're doing this. Why not let's have it out
yep And final story, complete change of topic. This is
about AI in entertainment, specifically animation. There are systems already
(35:50):
being used by the studios that are improving like week
by week that will reduce the time taken to render
a sophisticated animation picture toy story to animate a scene
will go from weeks two minutes, wow, two seconds. We
(36:10):
can provide tools for animators to animate a character in
ten seconds instead of a week. There's no turning back,
says the founder.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Well, that's interesting. I have things to say, but we're
out of time. We're out of time for the week.
For a lot of you, we do four hours every day.
If you miss a segment of an hour, get the podcast
Armstrong and Getty on demand.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
Subscribe Armstrong and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Jetty arm Strong and
Jetty enough Key, I'm strong.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And it doesn't look like it's even going to work
on paper. But imagine trying to force those huge movements
of population or militaries in the real world in potentially
a continuing battlefield zone. That's the reality of the idea
(00:38):
of territorial swaps already flat out rejected here by Ukraine.
A tough political ask, an impossible military ask, you might argue,
and that really leads people so anxious here that as
the bedrock of these talks, potentially it's territorial swaps, and
that is impractical and unsellable here. What possibly could Trump
(01:00):
emerge from that meeting.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
With that's CNN's reporting yesterday. I've heard a lot of
different reporting and a lot of different angles, of course,
because this came together really fast, and we have no
idea how it's going to go or really even what
the topic matter is going to be.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Let's discuss with Justin Logan, director of Defense and Foreign
Policy Studies at the Cato Institute. Justin's take might differ
somewhat from ours, but he has at least an idea
from judging from his recent piece of how a settlement
might look at the title of the piece is the
key to success at Trump puton Alaska summit on Ukraine.
(01:39):
Low expectations, Justin Logan joins us. Now, Justin, how are you, sir?
Speaker 5 (01:43):
Just fine, good morning.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Low expectations, I think is absolutely an appropriate stance, as
we don't see much overlap at all between Putin's goals
for the territory of Ukraine and and Ukraine's certainly.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
Yeah, I mean, the underlying and unhappy, unfortunate act of
the matter is that Russia is in a relatively stronger
position on the battlefield than Ukraine is, and that makes
Russia both more willing to continue the conflict and less
willing to compromise diplomatically. So Trump has a very difficult
(02:24):
task here, which is to see whether a piece can
be produced that isn't disastrous from Ukraine's point of view,
and that you know, as I said, the piece, we
should have low expectations. Even incremental shifts would be welcome
at this point.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, well, that seems like one of the problems I've
been saying for the last couple of days is a
Ukraine is horrified with the status quo. Putin's okay with
the status quo. He'd be fine with continuing prosecuting the
war the way he is, So a nothing burger would
be good from his standpoint. How do you get around that?
Speaker 5 (03:01):
No, that's exactly right. And you know, the Ukrainians have said,
you know, look, our constitution commits us to pursue NATO membership,
which isn't going to happen, and prohibits us from seating
any territory, including Crimea, which has already happened. So they're
sort of using this sort of legalistic argumentation to dig
(03:21):
in on a position that just isn't going to happen.
So I don't fault them for that. It makes a
lot of sense to me that they should look as
unwilling to compromise as possible in the hopes of getting
a compromised that again is a total disaster. But on paper, yeah,
this thing isn't really going to go very far, very fast,
if it goes anywhere.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
One question we've been banding back and forth is whether
Europe will, as I put it earlier, find at least
one of its testicles and assert itself as a party
that truly has a strong interest in stability or not.
How do you see NATO slash Europe's involvement in this
latest chapter.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
Yeah, I mean they are also digging in and not
showing much flexibility. But I think the question is, you know,
Europe needs to you know, to maybe I'll avoid your metaphor,
but it needs to sort of it needs to sort
of back its diplomacy with force. Right the ultimasio in
international relations is military power, and Europe is short still
(04:22):
to this day on military power, despite its declaration that
it's going to spend three and a half percent of
GDP on defense by twenty thirty five. It needs to
spend more, and it needs to spend better if it
wants more voice. And I think that that's the sort
of crucial disconnect that Trump has living pair, which is
that you know, if Europe wants more say, it needs
(04:44):
more power, and that is an enduring problem for both
particularly for the Europeans, but also in my view, for
the Americans. If the Americans want to hand over European
security to Europe, which I think would be a good
thing to do, needs to attack together, and it's making
noiages about doing so, but not to my not enough
(05:07):
to my satisfaction.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
So you don't do a lot of testical metaphors there,
Kato not nothing of radio. You know, this might end
up being a lesson in real politic for a lot
of us. This whole thing because Lindsey Graham saying on
the Sunday Shows that look, Ukraine isn't gonna, you know,
get back every bit of their land and Putin's not
(05:31):
going to Kiev. But which I think those things are true.
But why I don't know where this goes.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
Yeah, I mean Lindsay Graham grappling with reality is progress
in international politics anyway. I mean, the bare fact of
the matter is we're not going back to twenty fourteen. Unfortunately,
it would be great if Ukraine, you know, regain all
territory the international community recognizes as being part of Ukraine.
(06:01):
But in politics is a brutal business. Ladder. Putin is
you know, someone who reveals that every day he gets
out of bed in the morning. And so we have
to maximize what what is sort of the art of
the possible, if you will, you know, what can we
produce it? And I think look to you know, revealed.
You know, I thought that this was going to go
(06:22):
way worse, way quicker for Ukraine. So they have been heroic, right,
they have defended their territory. Right. I think no one,
you know, to talk about the realities that Vladimir Putin
has to grapple with. He's not going to take all
of Ukraine. He's not going to take most of Ukraine.
Ukraine is going to come out of this as a
sovereign autonomous country. And you know, so there's all these
things that need to be haggled over. You know, Putin
(06:44):
wants to put I think unreasonable limits on Ukraine's arm forces.
It's not going to join NATO. So so we're revealing
truths through the course of this thing. And and one hopes,
you know, I hope I'm wrong. I hope that you know,
there's more progress made today than I suspect, and we
get closer to a settlement of this conflict that leaves
(07:05):
a Ukraine that is a sovereign, functioning country on Russia's border.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
We're talking to Justin Logan, director of Defense and Foreign
Policy Studies at the Cato Institute. Justin, if you were
to advise Donald Jay or any other leader about negotiating
with Putin, especially sitting down with Putin to negotiate, what
would you tell him about Putin and his methods.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Well, you know, if you read the newspaper, I mean,
it's all sort of there in black and white, right,
he doesn't need any sort of putent whisperer to say
this is a brutal guy who really means business and
really cares deeply about Ukraine's international orientation. Certainly, he's revealed
that he's willing to pay extremely high costs to influence
(07:53):
the sort of future orientation of Ukraine. And you know,
one again sort of brutal reality is, you know, we're
we're all worried about escalation. We were all worried about
the potential of nuclear escalation or escalation outside Ukraine's orders.
And part of the reason that that hasn't come to
the fore is the fact that Putin has been gradually,
slowly brutally winning the conflict. And so we need to
(08:16):
internalize he is revealed in the breach that he's willing
to pay enormous costs to influence the settlement of this conflict.
And we've revealed under President Joe Biden and under President
Trump that we're not willing to go to the mattresses
and fight Russia in Ukraine over Ukraine. So that's going
to be the sort of starting point of understanding what
(08:37):
we should do. And you know, to be honest, we've
used a lot of economic leverage, a lot of sanctions
and it hasn't worked, if you define work as you know,
caused to change his mind and leave Ukraine. So again,
I hate to be the sort of dark cloud here,
but it's you know, playing the type.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
I guess.
Speaker 5 (08:59):
You know, we need to realize that we have limited
leverage to produce a maximually good outcome for Ukraine from
this thing. So we're very much in the realm of
third best, fourth best, or as I might put it,
least worse outcomes.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Well, first of all, if you're dealing with Putin, you
don't stand next to any open windows. Secondly, I love,
I love dealing in reality. I mean, there's no advantage
to ever not dealing in reality. So if the reality
Putin is going to end up being rewarded for having
invaded a smaller country and getting to keep the land
(09:36):
because the rest of the world's not willing to, uh,
you know, put up the fight to stop him? What
how do you deal with Taiwan and China? What's how
do you make that not send the message to China
that here now it's your turn.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
Yeah, I mean it's you don't want to be a
small country bordering a larger, more powerful country if you
can avoid it, and unfortunately neither Ukraine nor Taiwan can
avoid that. So the question then becomes what do you
do optimally to make yourself look like? And this is
a Taiwan metaphor that think tanks works use all the time.
(10:11):
Like a porcupine, right, porcupines don't get attacked because they're
bristling with quills. They're likely to get their hooks into you,
and it hurts. It's not a pleasant experience. And so Taiwan,
I think, you know, there are more things that Taiwan
needs to do better for itself than there are things
that the US military needs to do on behalf of Taiwan,
which is to say, if the balloon goes up God
(10:33):
forbid in Taiwan, it will take the US military, in
optimal scenarios four or five six days to really meaningfully
get into the fight. And Taiwan has been so negligent
with its own defense, spending about two percent of GDP
art defense not spending it well that it may all
be over, but the crime by the time we were
(10:53):
to get there. So I think that from a Taiwan
point of view, Taiwan needs to engage in asymmetric sense.
It needs to do another hokey before that, we think
tank Doork's use a small number of things at great scale,
So it needs to prevent China from getting a lodgment
that it could flow troops onto and without getting too
(11:16):
boringly into the weeds here. It hasn't been doing a
great job of that. So I would love to see
Taiwan focus its military less on big ticket items that
China is likely to be able to pick off early
in a conflict, and do things that really again turn
it into a porcupine that China can't swallow.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Be a better porcupine.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
So a final question for Justin Logan Justin back to
the Russia Ukraine US thing, what are the chances that
Putin comes to the table with a grand bargain in
capitals that Ukraine is merely a part of to tempt
Donald J. Trump into some sort of historical Arctic minerals
arms control package.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
That's a good question. I hate to make predictions. It
seems unlikely to me. Putin was sort of signaling yesterday
that he might be willing to talk about arms control,
which is a sort of weird non response to what
the commit is supposed to be about. So I think
it's possible that he brings things to the table that
(12:17):
don't pertain to Ukraine, because as we sort of established
earlier in the call, he's kind of sort of okay
with the best quo in Ukraine. And I think it's
a real question of whether Trump and the people Trump
brings with him are willing to bite on that, or
whether they bring things back around to finding some sort
of diplomatic resolution to the war in Ukraine.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Justin Logan of the Cato Institute, fabulous conversation. Justin, we
thank you. It's been far too long since we've talked.
We will verbally abuse our staff for letting that happen.
Thank you so much for the time.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
There's a great pleasure.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Have a good week, ID guys, Thank you you too.
Speaker 6 (12:52):
Man.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
That was a snap back to reality. It's so easy,
speaking for myself, to let your wishes be your the
father of your thoughts with things?
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Right?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Trump has that land? Is anybody willing to push him
off of it?
Speaker 5 (13:06):
No?
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Show a hands?
Speaker 7 (13:07):
No?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Okay, well then let's just concede that deed gets that land.
It's gonna happen, right, Yeah, yeah, it's I don't know
when it was. It might have been about a decade
ago that it occurred to me. The term disillusioned ought
to be a positive, not a negative.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
What good are your illusions doing you? Especially in important stuff?
I mean, if your illusion is that you're handsome and
chicks digya, that's fine?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Okay, me too, right anyway.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
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Speaker 3 (14:27):
Got to go more on the way, stay here, Armstrong.
Speaker 8 (14:31):
Hetty United Airlines has announced to a new partnership with
Apple TV Plus for inflight entertainment, while Spirit is continuing
its partnership with Cup and Ball.
Speaker 7 (14:44):
Spirit Airlines is warning that it may soon cease operations
within the next year. Customers can expect no change in service.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Cup and Ball.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
That's funny, wow.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
I have amused my myself for seconds at a time
the Cup and Ball. At one point I convinced my
kids that I competed in the Olympics in the.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Cup and Ball competitiones.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
I got like three in a row, and they're like,
oh my god, Dad, I said, listen, I don't like
the brag, but.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Good times lying to my children.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Speaking of children, I will mention this very briefly, there
is an alarming new study that we probably ought to
go into deeply. Smartphones are ruining our brains at unprecedented speed,
especially young people in you know, the levels of conscientiousness, neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion,
(15:49):
et cetera. The numbers are unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Is it possible, I've said this before, Is it possible
that walking around staring at your phone becomes like smoking?
Is now? I mean, you know, back when my dad
was smoking, way back in the day, everybody did it.
It was recommended by doctors.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
It calmed you.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Down, and it helped you lose weight. It was all
kinds of buzzy, and everybody did it. And now it's
just you see somebody smoking anything.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
What are you doing?
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Do you think it could go that far? Or we
just just too much into appealing it. It's too universally appealing.
Cigarettes didn't have enough upside. There's too much upside, well
upside using my finger quotes. Yeah, So anyway, everybody's staring
at their phones and miserable in one hundred different measures,
or at least half a dozen. And in a related story,
this is crazy. Adults are going to sleep away camp
(16:42):
to make friends, and it actually seems to work. Overnight
camps for single adults. It's not a dating thing. It's
generally separated by sex. But where you go to like
a summer camp for adults and make friends and you
do you know, a tug of war, climbing, ropes, courses,
(17:04):
a hiking, you know, canoeing, blah blah blah. And this
focus is almost entirely on women this article. But this
gal says, when you're a twenties in your twenties and thirties,
you don't make a ton of friends unless you're doing
something that bonds you. And they've found the camps have
been great. They really hit it off with people, They
(17:24):
stay in touch and become long term friends.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
I feel like this has got a real extrovert bias
to it, that it would really work for extroverts and
they would love it and for better and good for you,
that's fantastic. You're I don't know what percentage of people
are extroverts, but uh, that'd be great. I just man,
I heard that. My immediate reaction was that sounds freaking awful. Oh,
(17:48):
we need to start an introverts camp. I don't expect
attendance to be great, at least not at first. We're
all going to read alone in our tents.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
Right exactly, and look, you want to wander out and
talk about what you're reading, totally voluntary, totally. We're gonna
have a kayak thing tomorrow, single kayaks.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
All right.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Let me assure you single, it'll be cool. All right,
We'll gently coach you into it.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Everybody's got a different time to eat, so you can
eat alone if you want, right, Armstrong and Getty so
didn mention this. Greg Guttfeld was on was first of all,
Greg Gutfeld is a was he originally is? Did he
come from a comedy background or a journalism background? Is
(18:31):
he a comedian?
Speaker 1 (18:32):
I think comedy?
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Is he a comedians? He might know he started as
a stand up or something. Anyway, He's been on Fox
for a long time comment on stuff, and then they
gave him his own show. When he runs it like
late night talk shows if you've never seen it, and
it's on Fox in it and for quite a while
now has been getting bigger ratings than The Tonight Show
or Kimmel or Colbert and Jimmy Fallon wisely had Gutfeld
(18:59):
on the other night and had the highest ratings he
had I think I heard in five years because surprisingly well,
because Guttfeld promoted it on his show, so all the
Fox people watch. Oh, I want to see how he does,
you know, on the mainstream shows. And he did well.
He was funny, but so huge ratings.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
It's funny.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
And I'm not quibbling with your your verbiage because how
to use the same words. But it's funny that the
most popular show is not the quote unquote mainstream show.
He literally has the main part of the stream.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Good point. Anyway, my parents watch it every night and
they love it. I don't watch any of them, so
we just played the clips in the morning. But anyway,
here's a joke from last night.
Speaker 7 (19:44):
The UFC will host the first ever White House Fight
on July fourth.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
It's the first.
Speaker 7 (19:53):
Violent beatdown to take place at the White House since
Hillary discovered the Blue Dress. Meanwhile, the Democrats also want
to participate in so far, they've already suggested these bouts
Jasmine Crockett versus a book, Jerry Nadler versus soap, Rashida
(20:17):
Talib versus a razor, and JB. Pritzker versus a narrow hallway.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Yeah, all right, are they branding Rashida t lib As Harry.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I Ah, I'm not comfortable with that one. But that
was not me laughing, It was someone else in here. Yes, Katie,
I'm comfortable with it. She has a mustache.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Oh, a mustache, I see, or as they saying, some
of my favorite old timy literature mustaches. Right all right, now,
she's also an American hating America hating Marxist.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yes she has a mustache. Yes, thank you care.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Perfect a perfect background for the joke. But those are
some biting jokes. We all know. The biggest story probably
in the world today is Putin and Trump meeting together.
It could be a history making meeting. I think there's
a decent chance nothing comes out of it.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
For now.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Anyway. First of all, this CNN, and I wasn't listening
to it. I was just watching it. Just did a
retrospective of various US leaders meeting with Putin over the years,
and God, I forgot what he looked like when he
was younger. He's always had that pimp walk man like
I am the biggest freaking deal in this room, and
that smirk on his face like I could kill you,
(21:50):
I could have sex with you. I could do both
of those with you. I mean, that's it's just his personality.
And sitting with every president Bush, Clinton, Obama, Biden and
all of them, he does that whole leg spread open,
leaning back in his chair. What do you got. I'm
kind of paying attention, but I don't really have to.
I mean, he's just, he's his personality is just. I mean,
(22:13):
he puts it on so over the top display you
can almost smell his cologne through the video.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah. Wow, not an accident.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
And the embarrassing among the most embarrassing because George W.
Bush saying I looked in him was eye, I saw
his soul. He's a good person. I mean that is embarrassing.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yes, uh.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
But Hillary Clinton showing up there with the reset button,
Oh my god, what is it with all these the
Barack Obama administration where we're different people, we can handle
the world differently, people react differently to us, and give
him the Nobel Prize. I mean, it's just it's it's
if I was Hillary Clinton, I'd be asking CEE and
then is anyway he could not show that ever? Again,
(22:54):
it's embarrassing.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
All right, never mind that the reset button was the
wrong word, but it said, right, didn't even say reasons
like I.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Said vacuum cleaner in Russian or somebody.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
But this from the Washington Post today, and they've got
the picture which i'll describe later, with the young Putin
meeting with Angela Merkel, who's leader of Germany at the time.
And Putin's got the legs spread open, leaning back, Aren't
I cool thing going? German Chancellor Angela Merkel experienced the
darker side of Putin's tactics in two thousand and seven
when she met him in Sochi for a big one
(23:26):
on one meeting that's the Black Sea resort city, and
he brought his giant black Labrador retriever to the meeting.
Merkel later said in her memoirs that she believed it
was a deliberate tactic to intimidate her because he knew
she was so afraid of dogs. And they've got the
picture here and he's got this enormous black lab just
(23:47):
walking around. They're sitting by the fireplace while she's sitting
there looking frightened.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Wow. How about wow? Wow?
Speaker 3 (23:57):
And she didn't have the courage, leverage whatever she thought
to say, Hey, I don't really like dogs. Let's get
this out of here before we talk.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
That's some mobs toss Yes it is.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
I mean, yeah, that's like sending you a fish in
the mail. I mean, that's right.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
It's as close to a threat as you can get
without issuing a threat.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
But they go on to write in the Washington Post
the fact that summit is taking place as a potential
sign of Putin's own vulnerabilities. The only good news is
that Putin does feel like he needs to respond in
some way to the US President to avoid worse things happening,
in terms of a return to full military assistance or
partial assistance, or potential sanctions. Another sign of Putin's potential
(24:42):
weakness are the Kremlins hurried preparations for the Alaska summit.
Putin usually prepares himself immaculately. He reads a lot, gathers
recommendations from experts. This time, the windows extremely short, and
they do not have a plan. A Kremlin insider told
the Washington Post. Right now there is a huge frantic
effort going on inside the Kremlin. So at least that
(25:02):
opinion piece the Washington Post, they're reading the fact that
he's meeting at all, and in such a short timeframe
as a sign of he needs this.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Yeah, how interesting. And from Putin's perspective, he's thinking, No,
we don't have a plan, we don't know what to expect,
but I want to go there personally. I will engage
in the judo and see what comes out of it,
(25:31):
will develop our plan from there. It's got to be
kind of exciting for the pooter. I mean, it's like
he's back at his KGB days. He is the agent,
He's not the bureaucrat. He's the agent again. I don't know,
as I said yesterday, and I have not changed my
mind about this. If you gave me five different scenarios
(25:54):
for how this plays out, or the five or so
I've imagined, I will put him at twenty percent eighth.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Just don't know.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
It's got to be something to sit down with somebody
who has ordered the murders of his own people, Like
I'm thinking of the way he bombed that Chechen apartment
building to make it look like a terrorI stacked by
so he could invade Chechnya. He killed his own people,
and he's done that lots of times. Yeah, it's just
(26:26):
got to be something to sit there with somebody like that.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Well, something his closest cronies end up plunging out of
windows if it's time for house cleaning.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
But most of us, when we're dealing with somebody, we
believe they've got even if you don't trust them, you
believe they've got some sort of moral limit, as opposed
to sitting down with somebody who has zero moral limits.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Zero right, right?
Speaker 5 (26:48):
God?
Speaker 3 (26:48):
That hold the picture of him with the dog in
Angela Merkle is like the way he's it looks exactly
like if you're gonna portray that in the Sopranos, the
way he's sitting there.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
How about this?
Speaker 5 (27:00):
What do you think?
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (27:01):
Yeah, Well, And as we've said, I hope Trump is
ready to deal with somebody who's a master manipulator, utterly immoral.
I just why does Trump keep saying I think he
wants peace? I don't know, I mean he doesn't. He
only wants peace if it's peace because he's accomplished his goals.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
I mean, it's.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Mildly inconvenient to his you know, the fiscal health of
his government. And Russia does not have an limitless time
horizon to accomplish what they want to accomplish.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
They do have problems, but it's.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
Counting on him to just want peace because oh my god,
there's been enough killing.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
That's that's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
So we got a breaking clip here. So Trump is
on the plane flying from Washington, d C. To Anchorage.
It's thirty four hundred miles and he just came out
and said something to reporters on Air Force one. Here
it is, thank you for coming.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Back to take questions.
Speaker 9 (28:03):
We saw that Russia continued as violence into Ukraine last night,
launching even more drones.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
What did you make of that?
Speaker 6 (28:09):
I think they're trying to negotiate. He's trying to set
a stage. I mean, in his mind that helps him
make a better deal. It actually hurts him, But in
his mind that helps him make a better deal if
they can continue the killing. Maybe it's a part of
the world. Maybe it's just his fabricus, gens, his genetics,
(28:30):
but he thinks that makes him gives him strength and negotiating.
I think it hurts him, but I'll be talking to
him about it discussion.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
This is so interesting. Has Trump finally reached the I
understand who this guy is? Point? And like, you know,
and and and and even if that's true, it's like,
how did it take you so long. But I mean
Trump is despite what they say on MSNBC in braces places,
he's no dummy. He's not he's on a punk. I mean,
(29:00):
he's a smart, ruthless businessman and he's certainly surely he
can handle that sort of situation.
Speaker 5 (29:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
My only quibble with that is that I think any
of us who've known a lot of different people, achievers
and go getters and wheelers and dealers, is there some
people who are very, very capable in certain areas, but
they have blind spots. And there are times that I
think Trump has blind spots.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
But you think he has a blind spot with negotiations
he's been doing in his whole.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
Life with megalomaniac Russian would be is ours.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Yes, yeah, God, he's probably had to deal with lots
of megalomaniacs building casino, but they're.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Motivated by completely different things. I think Trump has an
oversimplified view of leverage.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
It's funny, I was thinking that yesterday. I thought this
for a long time. A lot of business people I
know are like this. There's only one thing that matters,
profit or making more money. That's the only thing they
can think about, and feelings or morality or all kinds
of things go out the window. It's just what's going
to make me the most money. And he can't imagine.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Nationalism or philosophy.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Or he can't imagine anything mattering more than making more money,
and like wanting to institute Peter the Great's land mass,
doesn't make sense exactly or even just rational goals from
Trump's point of view, re establishing the Soviet Empire, why
the hell would you want that?
Speaker 4 (30:37):
A lot of it is crappy. Yeah, you know you're
already too far flung. Your treasury is bare. Why don't
you just concentrate and make good deals and make more money.
You're overexpanding. That's dumb.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
He just doesn't understand irrational motivations.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
Getting back to the clip about Putin continuing the attacks
and stuff like that, again, I don't know. Sometimes Trump
postures just to posture, and he knows what he's doing.
But yes, Putin thinks that continuing the attacks makes him
gives him a stronger position than in negotiating. Because you've
made it clear over and over again, you want peace,
(31:13):
you want the killing to stop.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Now.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
If you were to say, yeah, me too, how much
would you have to give him to get the killing
to stop very little, because you've both expressed the desire
to and the killing. You've come to the table saying
I want the killing to stop, and he's come to
the table saying, you know what, I just killed more
people today, And if you'll excuse me, yeah, right now,
(31:35):
I just killed five hundred more people. You're gonna have
to give up a hell of.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
A lot more at the table. I think he's going again.
I don't Trump surely understands.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
I think he's gonna have to say to Putin's face
at some point that's bulls, You're full of crap, because
Putin's gonna say something like these are military targets. They
attacked us first, you know, all that sort of stuff,
And Trump's come on, where's there Trump, where's our bleeped
Trump clip?
Speaker 4 (32:01):
Michael, what's Trump gonna say to Putin? Two syllables? I
wasn't kidding when I said this yesterday.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
I want him to treat Putin like he treated Rand
Paul or Chris Christy or any of those people. You know,
Carly Fiorina. Treat him like that.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Hey, you got it.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
You you had the perfect coaching every time you look
at Putin picture rosy O'donald's head on his neck. Mister president,
that'll get you in the right fighting spirit.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
The exact he needs to say that to Putin's face.
We got what's f what? What are your thoughts on it?
Here's the text line four one five two nine five
KFTC last weekend before school starts from my kids, they're
in a panic.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
They're in a panic.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Oh boy, oh boy, taking deep breaths like jumping in
a cold pool. He'll get used to it pretty soon,
but I remember that feeling. So I was tempted to
end the hour with the discussion of Russia's finances. Read
a really good detailed analysis. They are in financial trouble.
I hope this war is enormously expensive and it can't
(33:13):
last forever. But you know, we've talked about that a
fair amountain it'll still be true on Monday, so maybe
we'll get to it again then. So a couple of
stories to bring to you very quickly. I found this
very funny. Andrew Styles of the Free Beacon the Emerging
Democratic Consensus for twenty twenty six, curse Moore, obey less,
protect criminals and illegal immigrants at all, costs and evidently, yes,
(33:37):
swearing is a big part of the strategy.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
We actually do we have that to Beto or rourk.
Yeah that we had the Yeah we do.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
We had it yesterday.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Yeah, no, I think we did today again. I'm sorry.
We should have got eleven play eleven.
Speaker 9 (33:52):
We are in a basketball game right now, if you'll
excuse the metaphor, where the refs have left the arena
and the other side is he clobbering us. He's plunging
us in the face, kicking us in the nuts.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
And he mentioned that the Dems need to fight harder
in defense of the illegal immigrant community. That quote makes
this country so g D great.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
It's interesting. I wonder whose decision that was that we
need to curse more to show that we're fighting.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
Representative Jasmine Crockett, the potty mouthed diva who's a rising
star thanks for republic Transom tantrums and phony accent, being
a boarding school grad, but sounds ghetto when it's convenient.
She's argued that illegal immigrant is not a crime, called
Donald Trump a piece of ass, etc.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Good luck with that.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
The Hill urged Democratic leaders to follow her lead. Crockett
is the base. She is the movement. Whether you like
her delivery or not, She's speaking a language people understand,
and that's what exactly what this party needs.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
If she is the base of the Democratic Party, they
ain't gonna win an national elections for a long time.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
All right, how about this strategy instead.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
The Loudun County virgin It's a DC suburb, Loudun County,
Fairfax County, woke America. They voted tuesday to keep their
transgender policies, even after the Education Department warned the district
that and four others they could face legal punishment lose
federal funding for violating Title nine, the federal law that
(35:20):
bands sex discrimination. Boys can keep going into the girls'
locker rooms and watch them change.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Boys can keep.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
Whipping up on girls on the sports fields as long
as they say I'm a girl today in Loudun County.
I wish you well, see you in court. I'm actually
glad they're doing this. Why not let's have it out
yep And final story, complete change of topic. This is
about AI in entertainment, specifically animation. There are systems already
(35:50):
being used by the studios that are improving like week
by week that will reduce the time taken to render
a sophisticated animation picture toy story to animate a scene
will go from weeks two minutes, wow, two seconds. We
(36:10):
can provide tools for animators to animate a character in
ten seconds instead of a week. There's no turning back,
says the founder.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Well, that's interesting. I have things to say, but we're
out of time. We're out of time for the week.
For a lot of you, we do four hours every day.
If you miss a segment of an hour, get the podcast
Armstrong and Getty on demand.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
Subscribe Armstrong and Getty
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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