October 23, 2025 • 35 mins
Hour 4 of A&G features...
- Trump cancels meeting with Putin & sanctions
- Transgender athlete hangs up his spikes
- NBA gambling bust & addiction
- Final Thoughts!
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 arm Strong
and Jatti and he Armstrong and Yetty.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
And we canceled the meeting with President Putin.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
It just it didn't feel right to me. It didn't
feel like we were going to get to the place
we have to get. So I canceled it. But we'll
do it in the future. Good. I'm glad Trump canceled
the meeting. But that's not all what he did yesterday,
As reported on CNN and other places.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
This is the first time we're seeing him actually go
through with this step. The Treasury Department posting about these
imposing sanctions on Russia's two largest oil companies. And these
are not just secondary terraces, which was the original threat
that it was going to be sanctions on countries like
China or India who buy their oil from Russia. No,
he is actually sanctioning the Russian oil companies. He's saying
(01:04):
that he hopes that this helps Putin come to his senses,
that it helps it helps him be reasonable.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
So Mark Cowpern's newsletter that I read every morning said
that this is the most uncovered major story of the
current news cycle. President Trump's coalition of the Willing. The
United States and Europe are united in putting serious pressure
on Putin economically to come to the table and end
the war. Significant new US energy sanctions on oil, new
(01:32):
capacities for Ukrainians, hit Russia with long range missiles, not
the Tomahawks, which we're going to talk about soon, but
other equipment that they hadn't had before, new European economic sanctions.
Why they haven't sanctioned Russia to the hilt already, I
don't quite get. And new European efforts to use frozen
Russian assets to aid Kiev, which is another thing I
can't believe it took till now to decide to use
(01:54):
that money that they had seized from Russia back at
the beginning of the war. As to the oil set
and how big a deal they are, I came across
this from Ian Bremer last night. If I can find it,
which is right whereas it's here close, I don't know
(02:14):
where I put it here? We got any gain it
on it was He was making the point that anybody
thinks that that says Trump is a stooge of Putin
is just going with a tired, too stupid story, because
these are very serious sanctions that Trump had been holding
off on for quite a while and has now decided, Yeah,
I'm going to do it.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Yeah, even that statement, though, we need Putin to come
to his senses. His senses are perfectly fine. He's doing
precisely what he wants to do deliberately. I just the
thing that bothers me is not that Trump is Putin stooge,
but that he's been inexplicably slow in waking up to
who Putin is. The idea we got a great relationship.
I call him and then he's bombs more. I don't
(02:57):
get it.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
No, I think hit it, start getting it. I think
that's I hope that's a psychological thing. He just he's
trying to do the presumed close thing. But it's not
gonna work on Putin right right, Just keep calling him
a nice guy, even though you both you know he's
a crook, and he knows you know he's a crook,
but you keep saying the nice guy stuff. Well, a
(03:18):
crooking a monster.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
I mean, my god, they deliberately bombed a kindergarten the
other day to try to terrorize the Ukrainian people onto
their knees.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Pretty freak. It's unbelievable. You know.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
The other headline, US lifts key restrictions on Ukraine's use
of European long range missiles, going deeper and deeper into
Russia with more armaments. As you said, not the tomahawks.
But let's not get fixated on that.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
It was funny.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Trump made the same argument that our friend Mike Lyons
made at the very beginning of this take too long
to train him.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, let's let's hear it. Let's hear it. Here, here's
a reporter asking Trump about why not the tomahawks. Go ahead?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Well, the problem with the tomahawks that a lot of
people don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
It'll take a minimum.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Of six months, usually a year to learn how to
use them.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
They're highly complex.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
So the only way of tomahawk is going to be
shot is if we shot it, and we're not going
to do that. But there is a tremendous learning curve
with the tomahawk. It's a very powerful weapon, very accurate weapon,
and maybe that's what makes it so complex.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
But it will take a year.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
It takes a year of intense training to learn how
to use it, and that's right.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Is it six months or a year? And in six
months the war is still going to be going on.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Right. But Mike Liines made the point last week that
they're so far have only been shot from ships. There's
no land based way to shoot a tomahawk, And they
say that maybe they have one now, but it's never
been used before. It'd be a brand new thing. That's
an issue for sure.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Yeah, and if that's classified and trumble staying away from that,
that's fine. I get it, that's justified. But no, Putin
is not going to be persuaded to stop. He has
a megalomaniac's goal to restore the glory of the Soviet Empire.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
And the senator with the biggest arms in the chambers,
Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, said this about how we bring
down Russia.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
Putin's conversation with the president is one thing, but his
actions aren't following it up. And if Putin isn't going
to be somebody that's trustworthy that's going to negotiate in
on his terms, the best same thing we can do
is go after his you know, his economy. If you
start putting the economic woes and start damaging their economy
(05:25):
even farther. I believe this is what will bring Putin
to the table. Other than that, nothing else seems to work,
and the President has been very frustrated with this.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
So what do you think. Do you think Putin can
get damaged enough economically that he would actually lose face,
lose Ukraine. Ah?
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Yes, but given his megalomania as I was describing, it
should have happened already. The rates of their losses are horrific.
They lose as many guys in a month as they
lost during their ten years in Afghanistan. And that broke
apart from the Soviet Union to a large extent because
(06:06):
of the expense of it, among other things. In the
arms race, it's more compiscated than that. But and then
the damage to the economy that's already been done, although
they're switching down to a war economy, which is I
don't know. That's like methadone to get you off a heroin.
It worked for a while. Yeah, it's going to take
some serious squeezing to get them to come correct.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yeah. They lose as many dudes in a handful of
months as we lost in the entire Vietnam War. Which
was a national crisis that spread out over fifteen years.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Oh yeah, Yeah, it's really astounding that this is happening.
If you divorce yourself from the horror of it, the
politics of it, and the fact that it's already that
it's happening right now as we speak, if you just
look at it like as a case study in politics
and war, it's extraordinary.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
It's borderline sidel Yeah, it could make the history books. Definitely,
is like a turning point for that old country. Yeah,
so young men that they won't have.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
It's incredibly ill advised on virtually every level. But I
don't think he's half a crazy, isn't he?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yeah, that's what I was about to say.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Yeah, I think Putin it's not like psychotic crazy, but
obsessed crazy and an egomaniac.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
And you can't blame him.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
I mean, he he's the successful dictator of an empire.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Well, he scored six goals against NHL players.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
That's good point. Hell of a skater. Two turns on
a dime, like he was like fifty five when he
did that, well and right, and his wristshot is like
twelve miles per hour. I mean a child could stop it.
But he's so elusive and skilled that that went right
by the goalie over and over again.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
And he's a really lucky guy in that any of
his opponents trip near open windows and tumble on the
dead right right.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Oh, speaking of great athletes, one of California's most storied
transgender athletes is hanging up his high school career, whooping
up on girls and really successful in multiple sports.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Jack.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Isn't that surprising? No, not really, because it's a dude
playing against girls. But we'll celebrate great career later.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I don't know that story. I want to hear that.
Speaking of sports, the big NBA scandal, if you haven't
heard it, thirty one arrests, including a current head coach
from the Portland Trailblazers and another player were several caught
up in a gambling ring, some of it having to
do with games, a lot of it having to do
with illegal poker and ripping people off for the tune
of tens of millions of dollars. Can't wait to hear
(08:46):
how this whole. The thing I want to know most
is did the players who faked injuries or whatever they
did in games, were they driven to that by gambling losses.
That's what I want to know. If it has got
to be almost has to be that that wasn't the
original plan. I know how I'm gonna make money. I'm
(09:07):
gonna fake injuries during games and reput all.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Given what NBA players make, how much would you have
to pay them to make a significant difference in their lifestyle?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Right?
Speaker 4 (09:18):
It would be mind boggling amounts of money. It would
make sense.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
So our theory is that like Chauncey Billups or that
what's his name Rosier NBA player that pretended to get
hurt nine minutes doing a game, that they got themselves
into a pickle gambling wise in these illegal poker games,
and then the mob came to him. And it's four
(09:42):
of the five biggest mob crime families that make all
the documentaries that you've heard of for years, and you
keep hearing. I've been hearing my entire life that that
is overking my whole life since I was a little kid.
Of course, that was the old days. The mafia doesn't
really exist any extent anymore. And then it just continues.
I mean they were operating a tens of millions of
dollar the poker ring across eleven states.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
All right, Well that's funny. Since I was a little kid,
the Mafia has been pushing hard the notion that the
mafia doesn't exist, right, you're talking about that stuff in movies.
That doesn't e We going to.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Go along with it anyway.
Speaker 6 (10:14):
So guys, I was I just read that Chauncey Billips
was paid apparently by the mafia to be at these games,
at these.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Poker games, so he was a face. Yeah, they paid
him to be there, facing card. We learned. We learned
that earlier they to have celebrities in these poker games
to lure other people into play, and then they would
have the games rigged and rip off these rich people.
What did Chauncey know and when did he know?
Speaker 7 (10:35):
It?
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Is that illegal to be a face? You can't pay
me to be a celebrity at a poker gaming card.
He was cheating. He was cheating.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Also, well, if he was part of the scam, yeah,
if it's an illegal poker game, then yeah, you're vitelating
a law by just being there. But uh, just to
what extent how involved was he We'll find out.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I suppose.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Wow, that would suck if you would have been in
a witch you gotta be you're making NBA money. No kidding,
well again, I think it gets to the gambling addict.
You get such a thrill out of gambling, right, Wow,
I can't wait to get all the details on this story.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
A lot more on the waist to hear. Were you
a fish at one of these high dollar poker games
from the big FBI rs today? Well, let the NYPD
explain the fish and face and all the stuff with
the illegal poker games coming up next segment worth mentioning
over and over again.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
In case you didn't hear, it's the number of teenagers
identifying as transgender as in free Fall. It's like been
cut in half in two years.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
That's it.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Quite was and always has been a social contagion, and
if you dared say so out loud, you could be
canceled and lose your job.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
A couple of years ago we said it. Anyway, other
great examples like you mentioned anarexia also recovered memories or
whatever that whole thing. Remember when that was a craze. Yeah, yeah, anyway,
it's the end of an era.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
A great high school transgender athlete is hanging up his spikes,
his pink spikes.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Normally, I never mentioned.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
The names of high school transgender athlete types because they're kids.
They're misguided, they're confused, maybe they're gay. Maybe their parents
pushed them, maybe activists have pushed them. And what you
do as a kid needs to be left behind in
childhood to a large extent. But this person has become
(12:31):
semi famous. Aby hernandez great volleyball career ended when the
Harupa Valley High School got beat in the first round
of California state playoffs. It's a shame as he led
his team to the playoffs a couple of years in
a row. This was the team that saw ten games
(12:53):
forfeited off the team's schedule.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Volleyball lawsuit. My son played high school volleyball, so I
saw quite a few boys and girls high school volleyball games.
The difference in the speed is night and day.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Oh yeah, the speed, the height of jumping, et cetera.
It's yeah, you could brutalize women in volleyball, and in
fact some have been by men or boys pretending to
be girls. There's also law school law suit against the
school district filed by two current and one former teammate
of this young gentleman.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Anyway, yeah, ten, ten, what do you call it? I'm old.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
So the forfeits during the season, they don't have that
many games. They mentioned that a bunch of girl athletes
were in the stands for the game, cheering the other
team and were being heckled by some of the fans
who were woke and thought it was mean that they
(13:56):
were there and their transphobes or whatever.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
People. I don't, I don't. I would have ended up
in jail if I had a daughter in one of
these situations on the team, I would be out in
the middle of the court. Yeah. Who else thinks this
is crazy? Right? That's a boy right.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
And what's especially bittersweet about this young man hanging up
his pink spikes is that he's really been a standout
in multiple girl sports. He made a run to the
girls state finals in long jump, triple jump, and high jump,
as well as being a great volleyball player.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
That, by the way, was why Trump.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Sent that truth social post warning Gavy Newsome in the
state not to allow trans athlete to compete in the
girl's event and the poor kid clarify the title nine rules.
But the California Inner Scholastic Federation persistently defied the federal
government and says, no boys can play in girl sports
if they throw in some Messcara.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
That poor kid getting convinced of this somehow, and then
imagine the whispers loud enough to hear he's been hearing
in the hallways of high schools all these years.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Appropriately but right, well, an example three hundred and seventeen
of how fed up California is.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Listen to this.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
On April first, the California state Legislature blocked two bills
that would reverse the current law that allows males in girls' sports.
Every single Democrat voted against it, and Assembly Member Ricky
Chavez Zber argued that one of the bills quote is
really reminiscent to me of what happened in Nazi Germany
(15:38):
in the nineteen thirties. Oh god, we're moving toward autocracy
in this country. In Nazi Germany, transgender people were persecuted
and barred from public life, and a gal who is
a descendant of a Holocaust survivor had to leave the chamber.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
She couldn't take it.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Every single Democrat in California voted in favor of boys
beaten the crap out of girls in girls' sports.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
We're on the down sick is that, as we've talked about,
we're on the downhill side of the peak of the
trans thing though though they are, as you've just pointed out,
miles to go. But the peak might have been the
Democratic debate Kamala Harris on stage, Corey Booker, all those others,
(16:26):
Elizabeth Warren when Joe Biden ended up the candidate. I remember,
specifically Corey Booker black you as sender up there saying,
and in my state black trans women. Nobody up here
but me is talking about black trans women. I thought, Wow,
we are slicing it, Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Now, Sethan, I would like to state publicly, Rick Chavez
Zbor you are a moral reprobate and or dumb as
a dog. Shame on you, except you don't have the
capacity for shame, you monster.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
You get invented invited to a high stakes poker game?
Are you the fish? Just learned a new term today
from the NYP do NYPD with this big poker bust.
It's really quite the story. I hope you can stay here,
Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
It's not popular to go after some of the defendants
that we went after today, but justice is served blindly
and how.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Do we counterman that simple.
Speaker 6 (17:27):
The unsealing of these indictments today shows the force of
the Department of Justice and our great Attorney General and
the leadership that we have at the FBI and the
team here to specifically meet out justice. And look, let's
not you know, mince words. This is the insider trading
saga for the NBA. That's what this is. That's why
we are going to take heat. But as the evidence
(17:47):
comes out, as the indictments are unsealed, you will see
the extensive work these men and women put in countless
hours over years.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
And that's how we countermand it. That's cash Bettel runs
the FBI announcing the arrest of a whole bunch of people,
including some NBA players and coaches because they had bad
mouth Donald Trump. They are now under arrest. So that
is what we think. Is he pushing back against He's
he You're right, that's funny. I hadn't thought about that,
but yeah, he's acting.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
You're gonna take a lot of heat for busting up
a sports betting scandal.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
He's acting like he's bravely standing up against the howling
mob by everybody's against that arresting some players and coaches
who may have done bad things. So the biggest name
in it, and if you're an NBA fan, you know
his name. If you're not, you don't. Chauncey Billups. He
was a won a championship with Detroit back in the day.
Current coach of the Portland Treble is just being charged
(18:39):
with six felon accounts. Woh uh yeah and including.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
So it's not as many as the president who got
convicted of twenty three felony accounts.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Billups took part in an illegal poker game that had
been taking place in variety of city's Manhattan, Miami, Las Vegas,
and the Hamptons. According to the officials, the game allegedly
involved members of at least three of New York's mafia
families were sitting there at the table with him playing poker.
He was being paid for his participation, and there there
were ripping people off. Miami Heat guard Terry Roser has
(19:14):
also been named the allegations. Former Cleveland Cavaliers player and
coach Daman Jones arrested as well. Sources say that Jones,
player and coach, had been giving Billups that information that
Billips was using to place illegal sports bets. So he
wasn't just getting involved in the poker games. He was
also betting on NBA games with insider information too. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
The unholy relationship between gambling, gambling debts, the mob point
shaving weirdly fraudulent poker games.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Wow. At least for Billups, it almost has to be
some sort of gambling addiction because he was a star
NBA player, had lots of money. Of course he could
have spend it all and had a couple of divorces,
but he's a current NBA coach that pays pretty well too.
Your life is you're you grew up dreaming of being
exactly what you are now. Yeah, and you blew it
all gambling.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Parent.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
To explain how this whole gambling thing was going, here's
US attorney Joseph Ncella.
Speaker 7 (20:15):
The scheme targeted victims known as quote phish, who were
often lord to participate in these rigged games by the
chance to play alongside former professional athletes who were known
as quote face cards.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
The so called face cards.
Speaker 7 (20:35):
Included the defendant, Chauncey Billips, who at the time of
the scheme was a former NBA player and is currently
the head coach of the Portland Trailblazers, and also Damon Jones,
a former NBA player and coach. What the victims the
fish didn't know is that everybody else at the poker game,
(20:58):
from the dealer to the player, including the face cards,
were in on the scam. Once the game was underway,
the defendants fleeced the victims out of tens or hundreds
of thousands of dollars per game. The defendants used a
variety of very sophisticated cheating technologies.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
So I know nothing about gambling and poker in particular,
I know nothing about but Joe was explaining earlier how
it's pretty damned easy for a couple of guys to
gang up and cheat. So I don't understand why they
have to be sophisticated cheating technologies. If you have some
sort of all sneeze, if I got a good hand
the tip, sure, I mean, yeah, that's yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
I'm more subtle than that, obviously, I know you're kidding,
but yeah, the fact that everybody at the table was
in on it except the fish, I found myself thinking about.
You know, that's a lot of troubled Like if I
sat down, I lose two hundred bucks.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
I'm done.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
That's not worth assembling a bunch of mobsters and former
NBA players and all. So I gotta believe that part
of the deal, part of the scam was they would
identify high dollar card players who will be like hot prospects.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
I mean, who would show up if they could play
with a former NBA player or a current NBA player.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
All right, you probably try a variety of angles to
try to get him to show up. But in places
where high dollar gambling takes place, I'm sure there were
scouts out there for the mob who'd say, hey, Joe Geddy,
he's a radio guy, gambles like a fiend. We got
to see if we can get him to one of
these games. Because you'd have to build a guy out
(22:38):
of a lot of money to be worth going all
that trouble.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yeah, I can't wait to learn the details of this
as a poker enthusiast. Well, let's go with forty five there, Michael,
this is an NYPD. Jessica Tisshill explain how much one
person lost.
Speaker 8 (22:53):
The organizers also enlisted well known public figures, former and
current NBA players and coach is, including Chauncey Billups, the
head coach of the Portland Trailblazers and NBA champion and
a Hall of Famer. To make the games appear legitimate,
victims believe that they were sitting at a fair table. Instead,
(23:14):
they were cheated out of millions. One victim in particular
lost one point eight million dollars in total losses exceeded
seven million dollars and continue to climb.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Wow, Wow, you got a lot of money. You're doing that?
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Yeah, of course that might be all terrible, terrible problem.
That might be all of your money.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
As comedian Norm MacDonald famously lost everything he had three times,
I think he says in his life, so sometimes you
know you're playing with everything you got, right right, Oh,
that's so insidious. His description of why he did it
was the only thing that I've ever heard that made
any sense to me. That him explaining as a gambling
(23:59):
addict that winning didn't it wasn't the thing, because that's
what I always assume is a non gambling addict, that
you're going for that feeling of the win. He said,
it's that feeling between the bet and the result. That's
why you do it. The winning, and then you gotta
get onto your next thing, because that's it's over the
orgasm or whatever. The good feeling you got is over.
(24:19):
It's that feeling in between the bet and how it
pays off, whether you win or lose. That is the
tickles your fancy in a way that doesn't take all
other people's fancy. If they ever really figure out addiction,
the different kinds and how they work and everything like that,
it'll be miraculous because I get I'm an alcoholic, but like,
gambling makes no sense to me whatsoever, like zero, But
(24:42):
other people would look at me and say, well, don't
drink so much.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
So I mean, so, you know, yeah, And it's funny
because I've I've played a fair amount of poker in
my life. I'm not a gambling addict at all, and
I intellectually I get what Norm McDonald is talking about.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
But I've never really felt that I just liked to
thank God, thank God. I've never felt that.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
I don't like to lose. I'd much prefer to win.
But I said, very strict limits and blah blah blah.
But that's the difference between being an addict and an enthusiast,
which brings me to an absolutely brilliant piece I came
across from Kevin Williamson, the great Texas Conservative, who may
be one of my all time favorite guys I disagree
(25:25):
with about twenty percent of the time because I like
that because it tests my ideas and I have to
try him out against his But anyway, he wrote this
great thing, and it's very short about the difference between
an enthusiast and a snob and how it's rotted out
journalism in America that I thought was crazy andsightful. Unless
(25:50):
we have anything else to get to, we could take
a break and end up the show with that.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
I thought it makes perfect for journalism. I would have
never thought of using the term snob INHH, I knowed
the journalism at all. Great insight. Okay, should I tune.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
Armstrong?
Speaker 5 (26:08):
Construction workers have broken ground on the new White House ballroom.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Either that or Pete Hegseth should not have driven home
last night. Oh God.
Speaker 9 (26:16):
A lot of people are angry at President Trump because
it was just announced that he's demolishing the entire East
wing of the White House to build his new ballroom.
There are so many questions about the renovation, who's paying
for it, is it legal? And just how long was
Rudy Giuliani living in the wall.
Speaker 7 (26:32):
You know how.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
All right talk about a non issue. So I found
this very interesting. Kevin Williamson, Kevin Williamson, great Texas conservative
who was hired by The Atlantic. Remember, and the woke
readers just had their ponies, so wadded their cowardly editor.
The cowardly editor Jeffrey Goldberg fired him before he wrote
(26:56):
a word, but he was writing a piece. And I'm
gonna summarize the first part a Loewi's very good writing.
It's about in the gun policy debate. He talks about
there's a whole rhetoric of mockery, the idea being that
gun rights advocates who correct people about the difference between
(27:16):
a clip and a magazine, for instance, or a semi
automatic weapon versus a fully automatic weapon, or just weirdos,
or trying to avoid talking about the real issues, as
he writes, as though the technical aspects of firearms design
wasn't the actual issue. Ignorance about firearms is taken as
a kind of badge of honor, a sign that one
(27:37):
is not one of those people, the unwashed. No, of
course I don't know that about guns, because I'm not
one of those weird, oh redic types right, and he
gets into the now. It's into the gist of the
thing that I found really intriguing. The root issue is snobbery.
If you know any music snobs or movie snobs, then
you may have observed that a snob is not obsessed
(27:59):
with him his own taste in music or movies. He
is obsessed with your taste, with everyone else's taste, and
takes pleasure not from the things he enjoys, but from
heaping scorn on the things other people enjoy that he
judged contemptible.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Ha ha.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
I never thought about it that way, but it's true.
It is true. It's funny.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
I've always said, once in a while, because I'm a
wine enthusiast, somebody the old joke that I'm a wine snob,
and I'm not a snob at all. If you like
a wine that I think tastes like kool aid, but
you like it and it makes you happy, drink that one.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Be happy. Hell do I care? Anyway.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
People who actually know things and have a genuinely cultivated
critical sensibility tend to be the opposite of high fidelity
style ranking list snobs, which is a great reference to
a great novel in a great movie.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
I was just thinking about that movie before you even
mentioned it, when they would roll their eyes, that people
would come into the record store and ask for certain music.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
Right, exactly, yeah, he writes. My friend Jay Nordlinger, who
is a classical music critic. When he's not doing one
of his other four jobs, he's a brilliant guy. Is
the least snobby person you will ever meet when it
comes to music. A critic is interested in music. A
snob is interested in what his choice of music says
about him.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Here's where he brings it home.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Snobs of that kind do not make very good intellectuals,
a word that I'm here using broadly to include journalists, novelists, translators,
book editors, and such. Both opinion journalism and cultural criticism
in our time are deformed by the infantile self obsession
of columnists and critics, who are less interested in presenting
(29:41):
interesting observations or compelling writing than they are in cultivating
a particular self image. The crippling notion of personal brand
having seeped very deeply into our assumptions about what it
is journalists are there to do.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
The unspoken question is, what does this say about me.
It is mad and tedious.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Am I the sort of person who likes Taylor swift
slavest album. Am I the sort of person who towes
the conventional progressive line on trans issues. Am I the
sort of person who now talks about abundance as if
it were a new idea. And then he gives a
couple of examples. When the editor of the New York
Times a pine that his writers don't quite get religion,
he was making a genuine confession, but he was also
(30:22):
making a statement statement one not entirely lacking in self satisfaction,
about what kind of people work at the Times.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
You know, the right kind. You're right, that is true.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
Journalists and critics have a hard time seeing the subject
because they are standing in their own way and cannot
get a good view of it through themselves. Journalists and
novelists and academics and such are meant to be curious.
I'm glad he mentions academics. But there are certain matters,
usually involving social distinctions, that seem to provide a kind
of pro provoke a kind of profound in curiosity in
(30:56):
a certain kind of person. And he talks about the
principle of the ideological Turing test holds that you really
do not understand this a dispute until you can argue
the other side of it in a way that would
sound convincing to a person holding that view.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
That should be a standard for all conversations. You have
to state my position to my satisfaction, and then we
can argue about the particulars. Yeah, and vice versa. Oh,
that reminds me.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
I'm really looking forward to getting into that email from
a gal who disagreed with our take on the great feminization.
We'll do that tomorrow. It's good, it's it's well thought out.
I still think what I think, but it'll be fun
to go through it.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
We got quite a few texts on the whether or
not it's okay for me to call the groc lady
the B word hmm, and quite a few people saying that,
like me, well you you recoiled when I did suggested
that I was going to call her a bee, yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
Like with a modifier, right, a stupid bee or a
use not just bee.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah. She was saying Yoko Ona was good music and
I was gonna say you stupid bitch. Oh, I couldn't
bring myself to say it and you're horrified by it,
and like some people said they couldn't do it either,
and then somebody else saying, it's it's like calling a
red light a stupid bitch. It's it's the same thing.
It's just yes, yes, it is yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
And actually, speaking of taking another side of the argument,
I might argue that you ought to do that to
remind yourself over and over and over again that these
systems are not living being.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
That it's not an actual woman. The fact that I
haven't is because I kind of feel like it's, you know,
my female companion who I disagree with about Yoko Ona,
you know, you know who was a stupid bitch. I was.
I'm Joe getting Oh my god, I cracked myself up.
(33:06):
Here's your host for final thoughts, Joe Geddy.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
Hey, let's get a final thought from everybody on the crew.
Wouldn't that be delightful. Let's begin with our technical director
Mike Langelo. Michael, with all this news about gambling in
the news, I'm gonna confess something.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
I once cheated at yacht Sea to get some baked
goods from my brother. So there you go. I'm sorry.
Heathen slut for baked goods.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Shameful Katie Green, our esteemed newswoman. As final thought, Katie,
speaking of treats, I discovered Reese's peanut.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Butter cup popcorn.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
Wait what yeah, yeah, it's a problem.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
I could see devowering. I could see intending to eat
a couple of pieces of that and killing a bag.
Not a dimominating to do. Treats it once or enough
for you? Wow? Jack. A final thought for us came
across a guy online who's running an extra mile every
day for the shutdown. So like, on day or two
he ran thirty two miles he's an ultra marathoner. Then
(34:02):
on day thirty three he ran thirty three miles. He
adds a mile every day the shutdown continues to draw
attention or something. Go ahead, go ahead and knock yourself out, dude,
have a good time whatever. Good lord.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
Oh my final thought be an enthusiast, not a Snob's
a good one.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
I was thinking about myself in a couple of different
areas to make sure I don't do that.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
There was one lady who is standing in my living room.
We were all drinking, declaring what a huge clash fan.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
She was the band The Clash.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
She knew like two of their songs, and I judged
her very harshly, very harsh.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Armstrong and Geeddy Raving have another grueling four hour workday.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
Don't be a snob or a phony. Okay, so many people,
thanks so a little time. Go to Armstrong and Getdy
dot com.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Blah blah, see you tomorrow. God bless America. I'm Strong
the podcast, then the podcast, then the podcast I'm Wrong
and Getty from the Armstrong and Go and Go. What
(35:18):
do we call? There are two ways to look at
this as a national emergency.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
In Let's go, it's I don't want to keep doing
it because I'm gonna call
Speaker 1 (35:26):
It Armstrong and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty arm Strong
and Jatti and he Armstrong and Yetty.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
And we canceled the meeting with President Putin.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
It just it didn't feel right to me. It didn't
feel like we were going to get to the place
we have to get. So I canceled it. But we'll
do it in the future. Good. I'm glad Trump canceled
the meeting. But that's not all what he did yesterday,
As reported on CNN and other places.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
This is the first time we're seeing him actually go
through with this step. The Treasury Department posting about these
imposing sanctions on Russia's two largest oil companies. And these
are not just secondary terraces, which was the original threat
that it was going to be sanctions on countries like
China or India who buy their oil from Russia. No,
he is actually sanctioning the Russian oil companies. He's saying
(01:04):
that he hopes that this helps Putin come to his senses,
that it helps it helps him be reasonable.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
So Mark Cowpern's newsletter that I read every morning said
that this is the most uncovered major story of the
current news cycle. President Trump's coalition of the Willing. The
United States and Europe are united in putting serious pressure
on Putin economically to come to the table and end
the war. Significant new US energy sanctions on oil, new
(01:32):
capacities for Ukrainians, hit Russia with long range missiles, not
the Tomahawks, which we're going to talk about soon, but
other equipment that they hadn't had before, new European economic sanctions.
Why they haven't sanctioned Russia to the hilt already, I
don't quite get. And new European efforts to use frozen
Russian assets to aid Kiev, which is another thing I
can't believe it took till now to decide to use
(01:54):
that money that they had seized from Russia back at
the beginning of the war. As to the oil set
and how big a deal they are, I came across
this from Ian Bremer last night. If I can find it,
which is right whereas it's here close, I don't know
(02:14):
where I put it here? We got any gain it
on it was He was making the point that anybody
thinks that that says Trump is a stooge of Putin
is just going with a tired, too stupid story, because
these are very serious sanctions that Trump had been holding
off on for quite a while and has now decided, Yeah,
I'm going to do it.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Yeah, even that statement, though, we need Putin to come
to his senses. His senses are perfectly fine. He's doing
precisely what he wants to do deliberately. I just the
thing that bothers me is not that Trump is Putin stooge,
but that he's been inexplicably slow in waking up to
who Putin is. The idea we got a great relationship.
I call him and then he's bombs more. I don't
(02:57):
get it.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
No, I think hit it, start getting it. I think
that's I hope that's a psychological thing. He just he's
trying to do the presumed close thing. But it's not
gonna work on Putin right right, Just keep calling him
a nice guy, even though you both you know he's
a crook, and he knows you know he's a crook,
but you keep saying the nice guy stuff. Well, a
(03:18):
crooking a monster.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
I mean, my god, they deliberately bombed a kindergarten the
other day to try to terrorize the Ukrainian people onto
their knees.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Pretty freak. It's unbelievable. You know.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
The other headline, US lifts key restrictions on Ukraine's use
of European long range missiles, going deeper and deeper into
Russia with more armaments. As you said, not the tomahawks.
But let's not get fixated on that.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
It was funny.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Trump made the same argument that our friend Mike Lyons
made at the very beginning of this take too long
to train him.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, let's let's hear it. Let's hear it. Here, here's
a reporter asking Trump about why not the tomahawks. Go ahead?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Well, the problem with the tomahawks that a lot of
people don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
It'll take a minimum.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Of six months, usually a year to learn how to
use them.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
They're highly complex.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
So the only way of tomahawk is going to be
shot is if we shot it, and we're not going
to do that. But there is a tremendous learning curve
with the tomahawk. It's a very powerful weapon, very accurate weapon,
and maybe that's what makes it so complex.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
But it will take a year.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
It takes a year of intense training to learn how
to use it, and that's right.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Is it six months or a year? And in six
months the war is still going to be going on.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Right. But Mike Liines made the point last week that
they're so far have only been shot from ships. There's
no land based way to shoot a tomahawk, And they
say that maybe they have one now, but it's never
been used before. It'd be a brand new thing. That's
an issue for sure.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Yeah, and if that's classified and trumble staying away from that,
that's fine. I get it, that's justified. But no, Putin
is not going to be persuaded to stop. He has
a megalomaniac's goal to restore the glory of the Soviet Empire.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
And the senator with the biggest arms in the chambers,
Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, said this about how we bring
down Russia.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
Putin's conversation with the president is one thing, but his
actions aren't following it up. And if Putin isn't going
to be somebody that's trustworthy that's going to negotiate in
on his terms, the best same thing we can do
is go after his you know, his economy. If you
start putting the economic woes and start damaging their economy
(05:25):
even farther. I believe this is what will bring Putin
to the table. Other than that, nothing else seems to work,
and the President has been very frustrated with this.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
So what do you think. Do you think Putin can
get damaged enough economically that he would actually lose face,
lose Ukraine. Ah?
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Yes, but given his megalomania as I was describing, it
should have happened already. The rates of their losses are horrific.
They lose as many guys in a month as they
lost during their ten years in Afghanistan. And that broke
apart from the Soviet Union to a large extent because
(06:06):
of the expense of it, among other things. In the
arms race, it's more compiscated than that. But and then
the damage to the economy that's already been done, although
they're switching down to a war economy, which is I
don't know. That's like methadone to get you off a heroin.
It worked for a while. Yeah, it's going to take
some serious squeezing to get them to come correct.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yeah. They lose as many dudes in a handful of
months as we lost in the entire Vietnam War. Which
was a national crisis that spread out over fifteen years.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Oh yeah, Yeah, it's really astounding that this is happening.
If you divorce yourself from the horror of it, the
politics of it, and the fact that it's already that
it's happening right now as we speak, if you just
look at it like as a case study in politics
and war, it's extraordinary.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
It's borderline sidel Yeah, it could make the history books. Definitely,
is like a turning point for that old country. Yeah,
so young men that they won't have.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
It's incredibly ill advised on virtually every level. But I
don't think he's half a crazy, isn't he?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yeah, that's what I was about to say.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Yeah, I think Putin it's not like psychotic crazy, but
obsessed crazy and an egomaniac.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
And you can't blame him.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
I mean, he he's the successful dictator of an empire.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Well, he scored six goals against NHL players.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
That's good point. Hell of a skater. Two turns on
a dime, like he was like fifty five when he
did that, well and right, and his wristshot is like
twelve miles per hour. I mean a child could stop it.
But he's so elusive and skilled that that went right
by the goalie over and over again.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
And he's a really lucky guy in that any of
his opponents trip near open windows and tumble on the
dead right right.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Oh, speaking of great athletes, one of California's most storied
transgender athletes is hanging up his high school career, whooping
up on girls and really successful in multiple sports.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Jack.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Isn't that surprising? No, not really, because it's a dude
playing against girls. But we'll celebrate great career later.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I don't know that story. I want to hear that.
Speaking of sports, the big NBA scandal, if you haven't
heard it, thirty one arrests, including a current head coach
from the Portland Trailblazers and another player were several caught
up in a gambling ring, some of it having to
do with games, a lot of it having to do
with illegal poker and ripping people off for the tune
of tens of millions of dollars. Can't wait to hear
(08:46):
how this whole. The thing I want to know most
is did the players who faked injuries or whatever they
did in games, were they driven to that by gambling losses.
That's what I want to know. If it has got
to be almost has to be that that wasn't the
original plan. I know how I'm gonna make money. I'm
(09:07):
gonna fake injuries during games and reput all.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Given what NBA players make, how much would you have
to pay them to make a significant difference in their lifestyle?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Right?
Speaker 4 (09:18):
It would be mind boggling amounts of money. It would
make sense.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
So our theory is that like Chauncey Billups or that
what's his name Rosier NBA player that pretended to get
hurt nine minutes doing a game, that they got themselves
into a pickle gambling wise in these illegal poker games,
and then the mob came to him. And it's four
(09:42):
of the five biggest mob crime families that make all
the documentaries that you've heard of for years, and you
keep hearing. I've been hearing my entire life that that
is overking my whole life since I was a little kid.
Of course, that was the old days. The mafia doesn't
really exist any extent anymore. And then it just continues.
I mean they were operating a tens of millions of
dollar the poker ring across eleven states.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
All right, Well that's funny. Since I was a little kid,
the Mafia has been pushing hard the notion that the
mafia doesn't exist, right, you're talking about that stuff in movies.
That doesn't e We going to.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Go along with it anyway.
Speaker 6 (10:14):
So guys, I was I just read that Chauncey Billips
was paid apparently by the mafia to be at these games,
at these.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Poker games, so he was a face. Yeah, they paid
him to be there, facing card. We learned. We learned
that earlier they to have celebrities in these poker games
to lure other people into play, and then they would
have the games rigged and rip off these rich people.
What did Chauncey know and when did he know?
Speaker 7 (10:35):
It?
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Is that illegal to be a face? You can't pay
me to be a celebrity at a poker gaming card.
He was cheating. He was cheating.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Also, well, if he was part of the scam, yeah,
if it's an illegal poker game, then yeah, you're vitelating
a law by just being there. But uh, just to
what extent how involved was he We'll find out.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I suppose.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Wow, that would suck if you would have been in
a witch you gotta be you're making NBA money. No kidding,
well again, I think it gets to the gambling addict.
You get such a thrill out of gambling, right, Wow,
I can't wait to get all the details on this story.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
A lot more on the waist to hear. Were you
a fish at one of these high dollar poker games
from the big FBI rs today? Well, let the NYPD
explain the fish and face and all the stuff with
the illegal poker games coming up next segment worth mentioning
over and over again.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
In case you didn't hear, it's the number of teenagers
identifying as transgender as in free Fall. It's like been
cut in half in two years.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
That's it.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Quite was and always has been a social contagion, and
if you dared say so out loud, you could be
canceled and lose your job.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
A couple of years ago we said it. Anyway, other
great examples like you mentioned anarexia also recovered memories or
whatever that whole thing. Remember when that was a craze. Yeah, yeah, anyway,
it's the end of an era.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
A great high school transgender athlete is hanging up his spikes,
his pink spikes.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Normally, I never mentioned.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
The names of high school transgender athlete types because they're kids.
They're misguided, they're confused, maybe they're gay. Maybe their parents
pushed them, maybe activists have pushed them. And what you
do as a kid needs to be left behind in
childhood to a large extent. But this person has become
(12:31):
semi famous. Aby hernandez great volleyball career ended when the
Harupa Valley High School got beat in the first round
of California state playoffs. It's a shame as he led
his team to the playoffs a couple of years in
a row. This was the team that saw ten games
(12:53):
forfeited off the team's schedule.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Volleyball lawsuit. My son played high school volleyball, so I
saw quite a few boys and girls high school volleyball games.
The difference in the speed is night and day.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Oh yeah, the speed, the height of jumping, et cetera.
It's yeah, you could brutalize women in volleyball, and in
fact some have been by men or boys pretending to
be girls. There's also law school law suit against the
school district filed by two current and one former teammate
of this young gentleman.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Anyway, yeah, ten, ten, what do you call it? I'm old.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
So the forfeits during the season, they don't have that
many games. They mentioned that a bunch of girl athletes
were in the stands for the game, cheering the other
team and were being heckled by some of the fans
who were woke and thought it was mean that they
(13:56):
were there and their transphobes or whatever.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
People. I don't, I don't. I would have ended up
in jail if I had a daughter in one of
these situations on the team, I would be out in
the middle of the court. Yeah. Who else thinks this
is crazy? Right? That's a boy right.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
And what's especially bittersweet about this young man hanging up
his pink spikes is that he's really been a standout
in multiple girl sports. He made a run to the
girls state finals in long jump, triple jump, and high jump,
as well as being a great volleyball player.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
That, by the way, was why Trump.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Sent that truth social post warning Gavy Newsome in the
state not to allow trans athlete to compete in the
girl's event and the poor kid clarify the title nine rules.
But the California Inner Scholastic Federation persistently defied the federal
government and says, no boys can play in girl sports
if they throw in some Messcara.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
That poor kid getting convinced of this somehow, and then
imagine the whispers loud enough to hear he's been hearing
in the hallways of high schools all these years.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Appropriately but right, well, an example three hundred and seventeen
of how fed up California is.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Listen to this.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
On April first, the California state Legislature blocked two bills
that would reverse the current law that allows males in girls' sports.
Every single Democrat voted against it, and Assembly Member Ricky
Chavez Zber argued that one of the bills quote is
really reminiscent to me of what happened in Nazi Germany
(15:38):
in the nineteen thirties. Oh god, we're moving toward autocracy
in this country. In Nazi Germany, transgender people were persecuted
and barred from public life, and a gal who is
a descendant of a Holocaust survivor had to leave the chamber.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
She couldn't take it.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Every single Democrat in California voted in favor of boys
beaten the crap out of girls in girls' sports.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
We're on the down sick is that, as we've talked about,
we're on the downhill side of the peak of the
trans thing though though they are, as you've just pointed out,
miles to go. But the peak might have been the
Democratic debate Kamala Harris on stage, Corey Booker, all those others,
(16:26):
Elizabeth Warren when Joe Biden ended up the candidate. I remember,
specifically Corey Booker black you as sender up there saying,
and in my state black trans women. Nobody up here
but me is talking about black trans women. I thought, Wow,
we are slicing it, Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Now, Sethan, I would like to state publicly, Rick Chavez
Zbor you are a moral reprobate and or dumb as
a dog. Shame on you, except you don't have the
capacity for shame, you monster.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
You get invented invited to a high stakes poker game?
Are you the fish? Just learned a new term today
from the NYP do NYPD with this big poker bust.
It's really quite the story. I hope you can stay here,
Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
It's not popular to go after some of the defendants
that we went after today, but justice is served blindly
and how.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Do we counterman that simple.
Speaker 6 (17:27):
The unsealing of these indictments today shows the force of
the Department of Justice and our great Attorney General and
the leadership that we have at the FBI and the
team here to specifically meet out justice. And look, let's
not you know, mince words. This is the insider trading
saga for the NBA. That's what this is. That's why
we are going to take heat. But as the evidence
(17:47):
comes out, as the indictments are unsealed, you will see
the extensive work these men and women put in countless
hours over years.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
And that's how we countermand it. That's cash Bettel runs
the FBI announcing the arrest of a whole bunch of people,
including some NBA players and coaches because they had bad
mouth Donald Trump. They are now under arrest. So that
is what we think. Is he pushing back against He's
he You're right, that's funny. I hadn't thought about that,
but yeah, he's acting.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
You're gonna take a lot of heat for busting up
a sports betting scandal.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
He's acting like he's bravely standing up against the howling
mob by everybody's against that arresting some players and coaches
who may have done bad things. So the biggest name
in it, and if you're an NBA fan, you know
his name. If you're not, you don't. Chauncey Billups. He
was a won a championship with Detroit back in the day.
Current coach of the Portland Treble is just being charged
(18:39):
with six felon accounts. Woh uh yeah and including.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
So it's not as many as the president who got
convicted of twenty three felony accounts.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Billups took part in an illegal poker game that had
been taking place in variety of city's Manhattan, Miami, Las Vegas,
and the Hamptons. According to the officials, the game allegedly
involved members of at least three of New York's mafia
families were sitting there at the table with him playing poker.
He was being paid for his participation, and there there
were ripping people off. Miami Heat guard Terry Roser has
(19:14):
also been named the allegations. Former Cleveland Cavaliers player and
coach Daman Jones arrested as well. Sources say that Jones,
player and coach, had been giving Billups that information that
Billips was using to place illegal sports bets. So he
wasn't just getting involved in the poker games. He was
also betting on NBA games with insider information too. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
The unholy relationship between gambling, gambling debts, the mob point
shaving weirdly fraudulent poker games.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Wow. At least for Billups, it almost has to be
some sort of gambling addiction because he was a star
NBA player, had lots of money. Of course he could
have spend it all and had a couple of divorces,
but he's a current NBA coach that pays pretty well too.
Your life is you're you grew up dreaming of being
exactly what you are now. Yeah, and you blew it
all gambling.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Parent.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
To explain how this whole gambling thing was going, here's
US attorney Joseph Ncella.
Speaker 7 (20:15):
The scheme targeted victims known as quote phish, who were
often lord to participate in these rigged games by the
chance to play alongside former professional athletes who were known
as quote face cards.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
The so called face cards.
Speaker 7 (20:35):
Included the defendant, Chauncey Billips, who at the time of
the scheme was a former NBA player and is currently
the head coach of the Portland Trailblazers, and also Damon Jones,
a former NBA player and coach. What the victims the
fish didn't know is that everybody else at the poker game,
(20:58):
from the dealer to the player, including the face cards,
were in on the scam. Once the game was underway,
the defendants fleeced the victims out of tens or hundreds
of thousands of dollars per game. The defendants used a
variety of very sophisticated cheating technologies.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
So I know nothing about gambling and poker in particular,
I know nothing about but Joe was explaining earlier how
it's pretty damned easy for a couple of guys to
gang up and cheat. So I don't understand why they
have to be sophisticated cheating technologies. If you have some
sort of all sneeze, if I got a good hand
the tip, sure, I mean, yeah, that's yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
I'm more subtle than that, obviously, I know you're kidding,
but yeah, the fact that everybody at the table was
in on it except the fish, I found myself thinking about.
You know, that's a lot of troubled Like if I
sat down, I lose two hundred bucks.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
I'm done.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
That's not worth assembling a bunch of mobsters and former
NBA players and all. So I gotta believe that part
of the deal, part of the scam was they would
identify high dollar card players who will be like hot prospects.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
I mean, who would show up if they could play
with a former NBA player or a current NBA player.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
All right, you probably try a variety of angles to
try to get him to show up. But in places
where high dollar gambling takes place, I'm sure there were
scouts out there for the mob who'd say, hey, Joe Geddy,
he's a radio guy, gambles like a fiend. We got
to see if we can get him to one of
these games. Because you'd have to build a guy out
(22:38):
of a lot of money to be worth going all
that trouble.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yeah, I can't wait to learn the details of this
as a poker enthusiast. Well, let's go with forty five there, Michael,
this is an NYPD. Jessica Tisshill explain how much one
person lost.
Speaker 8 (22:53):
The organizers also enlisted well known public figures, former and
current NBA players and coach is, including Chauncey Billups, the
head coach of the Portland Trailblazers and NBA champion and
a Hall of Famer. To make the games appear legitimate,
victims believe that they were sitting at a fair table. Instead,
(23:14):
they were cheated out of millions. One victim in particular
lost one point eight million dollars in total losses exceeded
seven million dollars and continue to climb.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Wow, Wow, you got a lot of money. You're doing that?
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Yeah, of course that might be all terrible, terrible problem.
That might be all of your money.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
As comedian Norm MacDonald famously lost everything he had three times,
I think he says in his life, so sometimes you
know you're playing with everything you got, right right, Oh,
that's so insidious. His description of why he did it
was the only thing that I've ever heard that made
any sense to me. That him explaining as a gambling
(23:59):
addict that winning didn't it wasn't the thing, because that's
what I always assume is a non gambling addict, that
you're going for that feeling of the win. He said,
it's that feeling between the bet and the result. That's
why you do it. The winning, and then you gotta
get onto your next thing, because that's it's over the
orgasm or whatever. The good feeling you got is over.
(24:19):
It's that feeling in between the bet and how it
pays off, whether you win or lose. That is the
tickles your fancy in a way that doesn't take all
other people's fancy. If they ever really figure out addiction,
the different kinds and how they work and everything like that,
it'll be miraculous because I get I'm an alcoholic, but like,
gambling makes no sense to me whatsoever, like zero, But
(24:42):
other people would look at me and say, well, don't
drink so much.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
So I mean, so, you know, yeah, And it's funny
because I've I've played a fair amount of poker in
my life. I'm not a gambling addict at all, and
I intellectually I get what Norm McDonald is talking about.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
But I've never really felt that I just liked to
thank God, thank God. I've never felt that.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
I don't like to lose. I'd much prefer to win.
But I said, very strict limits and blah blah blah.
But that's the difference between being an addict and an enthusiast,
which brings me to an absolutely brilliant piece I came
across from Kevin Williamson, the great Texas Conservative, who may
be one of my all time favorite guys I disagree
(25:25):
with about twenty percent of the time because I like
that because it tests my ideas and I have to
try him out against his But anyway, he wrote this
great thing, and it's very short about the difference between
an enthusiast and a snob and how it's rotted out
journalism in America that I thought was crazy andsightful. Unless
(25:50):
we have anything else to get to, we could take
a break and end up the show with that.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
I thought it makes perfect for journalism. I would have
never thought of using the term snob INHH, I knowed
the journalism at all. Great insight. Okay, should I tune.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
Armstrong?
Speaker 5 (26:08):
Construction workers have broken ground on the new White House ballroom.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Either that or Pete Hegseth should not have driven home
last night. Oh God.
Speaker 9 (26:16):
A lot of people are angry at President Trump because
it was just announced that he's demolishing the entire East
wing of the White House to build his new ballroom.
There are so many questions about the renovation, who's paying
for it, is it legal? And just how long was
Rudy Giuliani living in the wall.
Speaker 7 (26:32):
You know how.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
All right talk about a non issue. So I found
this very interesting. Kevin Williamson, Kevin Williamson, great Texas conservative
who was hired by The Atlantic. Remember, and the woke
readers just had their ponies, so wadded their cowardly editor.
The cowardly editor Jeffrey Goldberg fired him before he wrote
(26:56):
a word, but he was writing a piece. And I'm
gonna summarize the first part a Loewi's very good writing.
It's about in the gun policy debate. He talks about
there's a whole rhetoric of mockery, the idea being that
gun rights advocates who correct people about the difference between
(27:16):
a clip and a magazine, for instance, or a semi
automatic weapon versus a fully automatic weapon, or just weirdos,
or trying to avoid talking about the real issues, as
he writes, as though the technical aspects of firearms design
wasn't the actual issue. Ignorance about firearms is taken as
a kind of badge of honor, a sign that one
(27:37):
is not one of those people, the unwashed. No, of
course I don't know that about guns, because I'm not
one of those weird, oh redic types right, and he
gets into the now. It's into the gist of the
thing that I found really intriguing. The root issue is snobbery.
If you know any music snobs or movie snobs, then
you may have observed that a snob is not obsessed
(27:59):
with him his own taste in music or movies. He
is obsessed with your taste, with everyone else's taste, and
takes pleasure not from the things he enjoys, but from
heaping scorn on the things other people enjoy that he
judged contemptible.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Ha ha.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
I never thought about it that way, but it's true.
It is true. It's funny.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
I've always said, once in a while, because I'm a
wine enthusiast, somebody the old joke that I'm a wine snob,
and I'm not a snob at all. If you like
a wine that I think tastes like kool aid, but
you like it and it makes you happy, drink that one.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Be happy. Hell do I care? Anyway.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
People who actually know things and have a genuinely cultivated
critical sensibility tend to be the opposite of high fidelity
style ranking list snobs, which is a great reference to
a great novel in a great movie.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
I was just thinking about that movie before you even
mentioned it, when they would roll their eyes, that people
would come into the record store and ask for certain music.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
Right, exactly, yeah, he writes. My friend Jay Nordlinger, who
is a classical music critic. When he's not doing one
of his other four jobs, he's a brilliant guy. Is
the least snobby person you will ever meet when it
comes to music. A critic is interested in music. A
snob is interested in what his choice of music says
about him.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Here's where he brings it home.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Snobs of that kind do not make very good intellectuals,
a word that I'm here using broadly to include journalists, novelists, translators,
book editors, and such. Both opinion journalism and cultural criticism
in our time are deformed by the infantile self obsession
of columnists and critics, who are less interested in presenting
(29:41):
interesting observations or compelling writing than they are in cultivating
a particular self image. The crippling notion of personal brand
having seeped very deeply into our assumptions about what it
is journalists are there to do.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
The unspoken question is, what does this say about me.
It is mad and tedious.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Am I the sort of person who likes Taylor swift
slavest album. Am I the sort of person who towes
the conventional progressive line on trans issues. Am I the
sort of person who now talks about abundance as if
it were a new idea. And then he gives a
couple of examples. When the editor of the New York
Times a pine that his writers don't quite get religion,
he was making a genuine confession, but he was also
(30:22):
making a statement statement one not entirely lacking in self satisfaction,
about what kind of people work at the Times.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
You know, the right kind. You're right, that is true.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
Journalists and critics have a hard time seeing the subject
because they are standing in their own way and cannot
get a good view of it through themselves. Journalists and
novelists and academics and such are meant to be curious.
I'm glad he mentions academics. But there are certain matters,
usually involving social distinctions, that seem to provide a kind
of pro provoke a kind of profound in curiosity in
(30:56):
a certain kind of person. And he talks about the
principle of the ideological Turing test holds that you really
do not understand this a dispute until you can argue
the other side of it in a way that would
sound convincing to a person holding that view.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
That should be a standard for all conversations. You have
to state my position to my satisfaction, and then we
can argue about the particulars. Yeah, and vice versa. Oh,
that reminds me.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
I'm really looking forward to getting into that email from
a gal who disagreed with our take on the great feminization.
We'll do that tomorrow. It's good, it's it's well thought out.
I still think what I think, but it'll be fun
to go through it.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
We got quite a few texts on the whether or
not it's okay for me to call the groc lady
the B word hmm, and quite a few people saying that,
like me, well you you recoiled when I did suggested
that I was going to call her a bee, yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
Like with a modifier, right, a stupid bee or a
use not just bee.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah. She was saying Yoko Ona was good music and
I was gonna say you stupid bitch. Oh, I couldn't
bring myself to say it and you're horrified by it,
and like some people said they couldn't do it either,
and then somebody else saying, it's it's like calling a
red light a stupid bitch. It's it's the same thing.
It's just yes, yes, it is yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
And actually, speaking of taking another side of the argument,
I might argue that you ought to do that to
remind yourself over and over and over again that these
systems are not living being.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
That it's not an actual woman. The fact that I
haven't is because I kind of feel like it's, you know,
my female companion who I disagree with about Yoko Ona,
you know, you know who was a stupid bitch. I was.
I'm Joe getting Oh my god, I cracked myself up.
(33:06):
Here's your host for final thoughts, Joe Geddy.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
Hey, let's get a final thought from everybody on the crew.
Wouldn't that be delightful. Let's begin with our technical director
Mike Langelo. Michael, with all this news about gambling in
the news, I'm gonna confess something.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
I once cheated at yacht Sea to get some baked
goods from my brother. So there you go. I'm sorry.
Heathen slut for baked goods.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Shameful Katie Green, our esteemed newswoman. As final thought, Katie,
speaking of treats, I discovered Reese's peanut.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Butter cup popcorn.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
Wait what yeah, yeah, it's a problem.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
I could see devowering. I could see intending to eat
a couple of pieces of that and killing a bag.
Not a dimominating to do. Treats it once or enough
for you? Wow? Jack. A final thought for us came
across a guy online who's running an extra mile every
day for the shutdown. So like, on day or two
he ran thirty two miles he's an ultra marathoner. Then
(34:02):
on day thirty three he ran thirty three miles. He
adds a mile every day the shutdown continues to draw
attention or something. Go ahead, go ahead and knock yourself out, dude,
have a good time whatever. Good lord.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
Oh my final thought be an enthusiast, not a Snob's
a good one.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
I was thinking about myself in a couple of different
areas to make sure I don't do that.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
There was one lady who is standing in my living room.
We were all drinking, declaring what a huge clash fan.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
She was the band The Clash.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
She knew like two of their songs, and I judged
her very harshly, very harsh.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Armstrong and Geeddy Raving have another grueling four hour workday.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
Don't be a snob or a phony. Okay, so many people,
thanks so a little time. Go to Armstrong and Getdy
dot com.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Blah blah, see you tomorrow. God bless America. I'm Strong
the podcast, then the podcast, then the podcast I'm Wrong
and Getty from the Armstrong and Go and Go. What
(35:18):
do we call? There are two ways to look at
this as a national emergency.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
In Let's go, it's I don't want to keep doing
it because I'm gonna call
Speaker 1 (35:26):
It Armstrong and Getty
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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