WEBVTT - Dumb-Bass 0:00:01.320 --> 0:00:04.840 Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio at the 0:00:04.860 --> 0:00:06.840 George Washington Broadcast Center. 0:00:06.920 --> 0:00:11.180 Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. Armstrong and Getty. And now, 0:00:11.539 --> 0:00:17.680 here's Armstrong and Getty. 0:00:23.489 --> 0:00:27.090 Finally, the last planes got ready to leave with the 0:00:27.150 --> 0:00:35.230 remaining troops. The war was over. 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:40.040 And I had to go do a press conference and 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:42.120 report that fact. So I was focused on the press conference. 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:46.519 I'm the person who announced it. The last C-17 lifted 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:50.180 off from Hamad Karzai International Airport on August 30th this 0:00:50.260 --> 0:00:52.470 afternoon at 3.29 p.m. 0:00:52.590 --> 0:00:53.269 East Coast time. 0:00:53.750 --> 0:00:58.310 So that was five years ago yesterday, our disastrous withdrawal 0:00:58.350 --> 0:01:04.580 from Afghanistan. That was a, I think, practically criminal failure 0:01:04.660 --> 0:01:05.319 of our government. 0:01:07.220 --> 0:01:12.770 On every level, from military to political to moral to, 0:01:14.250 --> 0:01:17.569 you know, our duty to our fighting men and women. 0:01:17.870 --> 0:01:23.170 It was such a miserable failure. I think I'd let 0:01:23.209 --> 0:01:27.360 the years go by a little bit and had, you know, 0:01:27.380 --> 0:01:29.740 let the details get fuzzy. But the Wall Street Journal said, 0:01:30.209 --> 0:01:33.080 just put out a damn near one-hour documentary on the 0:01:33.140 --> 0:01:37.220 Afghanistan withdrawal that I watched yesterday and tweeted about and 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:40.860 texted Jack. I found it difficult to go through as 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:45.039 I was by turns so angry it was hard to watch, 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:48.900 then so sickened it was hard to watch, then so 0:01:49.100 --> 0:01:51.920 sad it was hard to watch, and then back to 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:55.460 angry again. It was a delightful 57 minutes spent, but 0:01:55.500 --> 0:01:57.120 it is a brilliant documentary. 0:01:57.390 --> 0:01:59.450 Has Wall Street Journal released this so you don't have 0:01:59.470 --> 0:02:01.290 to be a subscriber to watch it, or do you 0:02:01.330 --> 0:02:03.190 have to be a Wall Street Journal subscriber? 0:02:03.810 --> 0:02:04.790 I do not know the answer to that question. 0:02:04.810 --> 0:02:06.250 I wish everybody would see it. I wish it was 0:02:06.270 --> 0:02:09.750 airing on, I wish it aired on NBC last night 0:02:09.850 --> 0:02:12.000 or something like that. You know, one of those things 0:02:12.010 --> 0:02:14.800 where everybody in America tunes in like they did in 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:16.380 the old days, and then we talk about it the 0:02:16.419 --> 0:02:16.779 next day. 0:02:17.770 --> 0:02:18.530 Absolutely. 0:02:18.610 --> 0:02:21.750 One of the reasons we don't do that is because 0:02:21.850 --> 0:02:24.230 we are where we are with our politics. And then 0:02:24.389 --> 0:02:27.290 you have to get into criticizing the Biden administration and 0:02:27.310 --> 0:02:29.780 it becomes a, you know, do you like Biden or 0:02:29.790 --> 0:02:34.800 Trump better or whatever? Which is part of why it 0:02:34.860 --> 0:02:36.900 was the way it was at the time. I mean, 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:40.139 we were outraged five years ago when this was going on. 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:42.800 There was enough known at the time that it was 0:02:43.060 --> 0:02:47.040 absolutely depressing and outrageous to the way we exited Afghanistan 0:02:47.100 --> 0:02:49.899 and screwed all those people in Afghanistan who had. 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:52.620 Helped us, screwed our own soldiers. 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:55.440 I mean, it's just, there's so many bad things going 0:02:55.540 --> 0:02:56.480 on in this story. 0:02:56.660 --> 0:02:57.380 It's unbelievable. 0:02:57.860 --> 0:03:00.600 Watching that documentary from the Wall Street Journal, and if 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:03.710 you have access to it, The Path to Zero. 0:03:04.220 --> 0:03:05.220 It's one of the most. 0:03:08.669 --> 0:03:13.230 Affecting documentaries I've ever seen in my life on so 0:03:13.270 --> 0:03:14.230 many different levels. 0:03:15.210 --> 0:03:19.970 Yeah, so let's start it this way. Well, I want 0:03:19.990 --> 0:03:21.470 to throw in as a note, part of the reason 0:03:21.610 --> 0:03:25.030 that this is able to be so good and powerful 0:03:25.169 --> 0:03:28.070 and honest is that a lot of the decision makers 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:31.560 have now left the military. So they are no longer 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:33.820 bound by the chain of command. They can't give up 0:03:33.860 --> 0:03:36.320 anything classified. You got to take that with you to 0:03:36.340 --> 0:03:39.960 the grave. But they can now say like Frank McKenzie, 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:42.180 General Frank McKenzie was the CENTCOM commander. 0:03:44.060 --> 0:03:44.180 He. 0:03:44.750 --> 0:03:49.170 hated biden's announcement that we're going to pull everybody out 0:03:49.970 --> 0:03:51.890 and we're going to do it from the airport and 0:03:51.910 --> 0:03:54.240 we're not going to keep bogram air force base he 0:03:54.690 --> 0:03:57.760 hated the decision and he knew it was a disaster 0:03:57.860 --> 0:04:00.380 and he tried to communicate that but the white house 0:04:00.460 --> 0:04:04.360 wasn't having it and then he watched the horror unfold 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:06.840 in front of him you know even worse than he'd 0:04:06.900 --> 0:04:10.280 anticipated and he's just he likes so many of the 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:15.460 people especially the young marines are just still anguished By 0:04:15.500 --> 0:04:16.380 what they witnessed. 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:22.200 Well, the pullout just in general, leaving behind that Air 0:04:22.260 --> 0:04:24.300 Force base that they made a good point of in 0:04:24.339 --> 0:04:28.779 the documentary, how strategically important that was to us and 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:32.550 could still be today in its proximity to Russia and 0:04:32.650 --> 0:04:35.330 China and Iran and all the, you know, the important 0:04:35.370 --> 0:04:37.190 countries we got to keep our eye on. And the 0:04:37.250 --> 0:04:39.570 fact that we let that go is just amazing. 0:04:40.930 --> 0:04:44.360 When the entire evacuation could have been done in an 0:04:44.570 --> 0:04:49.160 orderly fashion at our timetable, but Biden was so intent 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:52.740 on getting everybody out before the anniversary of September 11th. 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:55.680 He said, no, no, no, just abandon the air base 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:58.200 and go to the airport. Everybody knew it was a 0:04:58.240 --> 0:04:58.840 horrible idea. 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:01.420 That's a horrifying decision, even if it had been a 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:07.060 somewhat orderly withdrawal. But it ended up being, if you remember, 0:05:07.750 --> 0:05:10.750 one of the most hellish scenes that has existed on 0:05:10.850 --> 0:05:15.110 planet Earth with all of those people. attempting to get 0:05:15.250 --> 0:05:17.750 to the airfield so they could get on a plane 0:05:17.770 --> 0:05:21.500 and get out of there, crawling across razor wire, handing 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:22.640 their babies across. 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:26.580 We remember talking about this at the time. Those babies 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:28.580 who are still alive. It's worth noting. 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:31.460 Our military being put in the position of having to 0:05:32.060 --> 0:05:35.900 reject babies or whatever they were supposed to do. All 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:37.859 of a sudden, you're trained to fight in wars and 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.730 you're doing some sort of personnel mission at a. 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:48.250 A razor wire fence doing crowd control. Getting conflicting instructions 0:05:48.350 --> 0:05:48.880 every hour. 0:05:49.230 --> 0:05:52.230 With the Taliban about 20 feet away laughing at you, 0:05:52.290 --> 0:05:54.349 readying to shoot the people that you don't let in. 0:05:54.370 --> 0:05:57.830 I mean, it's just as awful as anything could be. Yeah, 0:05:57.850 --> 0:06:01.590 it was so affecting. One young Marine spoke of doing 0:06:01.650 --> 0:06:03.250 an eight hour shift in the middle of the night 0:06:03.350 --> 0:06:07.210 with an Afghan woman begging him the entire eight hours. Please, sir, 0:06:07.250 --> 0:06:09.570 let me in. the Taliban are pointing at me. They're 0:06:09.650 --> 0:06:12.310 going to kill me. I don't have a husband. Please 0:06:12.370 --> 0:06:15.960 let me in. And he couldn't for eight hours. He 0:06:16.020 --> 0:06:18.020 sat there listening to it. And we're going to get 0:06:18.100 --> 0:06:19.940 into a little bit of what that does to a 0:06:19.990 --> 0:06:25.270 human being. Um, Well, it's difficult to summarize other than 0:06:25.310 --> 0:06:28.540 saying it was a horrifying disaster and a preventable one 0:06:28.620 --> 0:06:30.580 on every single level. 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:32.800 We should get to some clips of the documentary. Let 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:35.480 me just throw this in now. I thought I wonder 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:38.779 how the Sunday shows are going to handle the anniversary, 0:06:38.820 --> 0:06:42.180 the five year anniversary. NBC didn't talk about it at all. 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.560 ABC This Week and Face the Nation did, but they 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:48.000 did a segment on it. And it was just so 0:06:48.180 --> 0:06:53.480 tepid compared to this. It was just like a nothing, really. 0:06:53.500 --> 0:06:57.140 I was so disappointed. And again, as you pointed out, 0:06:57.339 --> 0:07:00.990 nobody's paid a price for this. Like nobody, nobody, certainly 0:07:01.020 --> 0:07:03.730 nobody went to jail or was hung the way it 0:07:03.790 --> 0:07:04.510 should have been. 0:07:04.589 --> 0:07:05.470 Or resigned. 0:07:05.589 --> 0:07:08.940 Or resigned or even paid a political price for it. 0:07:09.050 --> 0:07:12.830 Right, right. Partly because of the aid of the media, 0:07:12.870 --> 0:07:14.650 although they did report on this at the time. Give 0:07:14.690 --> 0:07:16.510 us 83 and 84 back to back, Michael. 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:19.520 The way I like to discuss it is, from a 0:07:19.540 --> 0:07:23.000 tactical perspective, is we accomplished the mission that we were given. 0:07:23.340 --> 0:07:26.440 And those young men and women executed that mission and 0:07:26.740 --> 0:07:30.400 got 124,000 people off of the runway that otherwise would 0:07:30.460 --> 0:07:31.450 not have gotten off. 0:07:32.430 --> 0:07:34.770 But how many of those people were the ones that 0:07:34.790 --> 0:07:38.890 we were trying to get out? That's the question I 0:07:38.930 --> 0:07:42.150 think I wrestle with, is I do think that we've 0:07:42.210 --> 0:07:46.800 left a lot of people behind, including... my brother's interpreter. 0:07:47.100 --> 0:07:49.300 He never made it out, and he should be here 0:07:49.340 --> 0:07:52.340 in the States, and we left him. It's hard to 0:07:52.380 --> 0:07:56.210 think about these people that we left behind. 0:07:57.710 --> 0:08:01.890 So you had a rush toward the airfield, toward the 0:08:01.970 --> 0:08:06.870 gates to try to get in, of families, and What 0:08:06.990 --> 0:08:10.150 ended up happening is young, strong men were able to 0:08:10.210 --> 0:08:13.070 push their way to the front and have a shot 0:08:13.150 --> 0:08:16.010 at maybe getting into the gate while women, children and 0:08:16.090 --> 0:08:21.750 old people were left behind. That's pretty awful. And so 0:08:21.790 --> 0:08:24.770 that's why sometimes when you look at those big, giant 0:08:25.530 --> 0:08:28.930 planes full of people, it's like all 20 something dudes 0:08:28.950 --> 0:08:31.930 because they knocked over kids and women to get to 0:08:31.970 --> 0:08:33.190 the front of the line to get out. 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:36.100 And the Marines who were tasked with figuring out who 0:08:36.140 --> 0:08:38.120 to get in, who to get out, all the paperwork 0:08:38.140 --> 0:08:41.740 was faked. Again, they were getting conflicting instructions and had 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.240 no idea what to do as tens of thousands of 0:08:44.300 --> 0:08:47.359 people who were dying in the streets, literally dying in 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:52.890 front of them, including little children in their own feces. 0:08:54.150 --> 0:08:56.710 They were begging to be let in. And these poor 0:08:56.750 --> 0:09:00.230 Marines were having to deal with this with terrible, terrible 0:09:00.290 --> 0:09:02.849 support from above, from the White House and the State 0:09:02.890 --> 0:09:06.880 Department on down. I want to get into this part. 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:12.460 This is the narrator with a retired Marine who now, 0:09:12.740 --> 0:09:16.260 to his credit, heads up a nonprofit that deals with 0:09:17.100 --> 0:09:20.959 soldiers who suffer from moral injury, which they do a 0:09:20.980 --> 0:09:22.980 good job of explaining. Some of you may be familiar 0:09:23.020 --> 0:09:26.420 with the term. It's different from PTSD. It can be related, 0:09:26.900 --> 0:09:31.120 but it's when you have to either do something or 0:09:31.260 --> 0:09:35.130 watch something that is so repugnant to your own morals, 0:09:36.210 --> 0:09:39.510 you can never let it go. Breaks you. It does 0:09:39.650 --> 0:09:43.910 break you, including when the gates got crashed and there 0:09:43.929 --> 0:09:46.890 were tens of thousands of people in the airport. You 0:09:46.929 --> 0:09:50.429 may recall this. They couldn't fly anything in or out. 0:09:50.510 --> 0:09:54.330 The evacuation came to a standstill and the U.S. didn't 0:09:54.370 --> 0:09:56.250 have the people and policies to do what it took. 0:09:56.530 --> 0:10:01.200 So they called in these zero units. They're So. sponsored 0:10:01.300 --> 0:10:05.760 intelligence units of the Afghan army or Afghan military that 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:10.000 literally ran people over in trucks and shot him till 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:13.700 everybody was so panicked. They left the airport. That's how 0:10:13.740 --> 0:10:17.569 they cleared the tarmac and the Marines watched this happening 0:10:17.590 --> 0:10:21.190 and And then the higher-ups throughout the documentary say, we 0:10:21.210 --> 0:10:24.410 didn't get any official reports of that happening. And the 0:10:24.450 --> 0:10:27.309 narrator's like, all these Marines told me it happened. Well, 0:10:28.110 --> 0:10:30.750 I will not tell you they're lying. But it just 0:10:30.790 --> 0:10:33.860 kind of got lost, the way something too horrific doesn't 0:10:33.900 --> 0:10:36.219 make its way up the chain. Anyway, I'll shut up now. 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:37.700 Start with 86, please, Michael. 0:10:38.059 --> 0:10:42.700 For the Marines who manned the gates, those days haunt them. 0:10:44.740 --> 0:10:50.040 They suffer from moral injury. which is very different than PTSD. 0:10:50.740 --> 0:10:55.110 Moral injury is when you bear witness to or you're 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:59.310 the perpetrator of actions that go against your moral compass 0:10:59.370 --> 0:11:05.010 or a code of values. Throughout HKIA, these guys were 0:11:07.390 --> 0:11:11.589 just stuck in a moral dilemma the entire time. You know, 0:11:11.950 --> 0:11:16.510 playing God to people's lives choosing whether or not that 0:11:16.530 --> 0:11:18.650 they got rescued or that they'd take them to the 0:11:18.730 --> 0:11:22.540 exit and potentially be harmed by the Taliban. It was 0:11:22.580 --> 0:11:24.500 a lot to weigh on these guys. 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:26.559 Next clip, Michael. 0:11:27.540 --> 0:11:29.980 And what can you do about moral injury? 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:32.040 I mean, how can you deal with that? 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:36.179 The biggest key to it, though, is that our leadership, 0:11:37.250 --> 0:11:40.150 they need to answer to these things. They need to 0:11:40.170 --> 0:11:45.380 be held accountable for it. And if not, moral injury 0:11:45.420 --> 0:11:51.599 just persists and it can metastasize into mental illnesses or disorders. 0:11:53.260 --> 0:11:55.449 And it's just something that we deserve. We deserve to 0:11:55.490 --> 0:11:58.689 have our leaders address or talk to us, just simply 0:11:58.730 --> 0:12:01.810 talk to us about what happened. And maybe if it's 0:12:01.850 --> 0:12:06.390 within them, to seek forgiveness through us. And I think 0:12:06.429 --> 0:12:09.650 that we would be more than receptive as a community 0:12:09.710 --> 0:12:11.210 to go down that path with them. 0:12:11.550 --> 0:12:13.010 I didn't know that much about that. I thought that 0:12:13.050 --> 0:12:15.590 was really interesting moral injury. I think we've all we 0:12:15.610 --> 0:12:17.689 all know we've all felt that at some level on 0:12:17.730 --> 0:12:22.959 various things. Anytime there's just like that's completely unjust and 0:12:23.260 --> 0:12:25.640 nothing is being done about it. There's a there's there's 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:29.080 a specific feeling that that is. And apparently when you 0:12:29.100 --> 0:12:31.760 have it at the level that they dealt with it, 0:12:32.300 --> 0:12:34.699 it can really break you. And one of the keys 0:12:34.860 --> 0:12:37.750 to lessening the pain of it is, and again, I 0:12:37.790 --> 0:12:39.849 think we've all felt this a little bit, is there 0:12:39.890 --> 0:12:42.490 being some correction to it, some price. Somebody paid a 0:12:42.510 --> 0:12:45.450 price for the fact that that bad thing happened or 0:12:45.730 --> 0:12:47.550 something is being put in place so that bad thing 0:12:47.590 --> 0:12:50.380 can't happen again. And one of the reasons these guys 0:12:50.420 --> 0:12:53.280 are struggling so much is nobody paid a price for that. 0:12:54.020 --> 0:12:56.459 And there's no indication that that couldn't happen again. 0:12:57.210 --> 0:13:01.569 In short, justice. Balancing the scales. They need justice. Next clip, Michael. 0:13:02.170 --> 0:13:04.520 It doesn't seem like that's actually happening, though, does it? 0:13:04.590 --> 0:13:06.770 It does not. No, it does not. 0:13:06.980 --> 0:13:12.220 And it seems like they turned their back to us. 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:16.600 You know, they've lived their life. They're living on while 0:13:16.660 --> 0:13:18.559 we're still here, living with what we had to do 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:21.069 on their behalf, on their mistakes. 0:13:22.429 --> 0:13:24.130 And I know we're running late, but can we squeeze 0:13:24.190 --> 0:13:26.350 in General McKenzie? Let me be clear. 0:13:26.900 --> 0:13:28.770 All of this happened because we did not make a 0:13:28.790 --> 0:13:32.710 decision in April to bring out our embassy, our citizens, 0:13:32.970 --> 0:13:35.570 and our at-risk Afghans. Let's be very clear where blame 0:13:35.610 --> 0:13:38.170 lies for this. It doesn't lie with the joint force. 0:13:38.230 --> 0:13:40.150 It doesn't lie with the military people who are executing 0:13:40.170 --> 0:13:43.760 this operation. It lies with the political leadership that chose 0:13:44.220 --> 0:13:47.320 to turn a blind eye to the situation in Afghanistan 0:13:47.740 --> 0:13:50.800 and allow this to boil to a point in August 0:13:50.820 --> 0:13:53.400 when it became out of control and was beyond control 0:13:53.420 --> 0:13:56.609 of any reasonable military capability to impose order on it. 0:13:58.350 --> 0:13:59.429 So we should just be clear on this. 0:13:59.750 --> 0:14:02.250 The Sunday talk shows did not touch on the political 0:14:02.429 --> 0:14:05.550 aspect of this at all, as you heard there from 0:14:05.570 --> 0:14:07.449 the general. But that is the whole ball of wax. 0:14:08.350 --> 0:14:10.770 More to say about this coming up. 0:14:11.429 --> 0:14:15.550 Yeah, just one final note that this preceding segment goes 0:14:15.610 --> 0:14:18.250 out to Nicole G's family, one of the Marines lost 0:14:18.270 --> 0:14:20.280 there at the gate, a virtual neighbor of ours at 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:23.340 the radio ranch. And everybody lost folks there and is 0:14:23.380 --> 0:14:25.810 dealing with the pain. So on a much cheerier note, 0:14:25.850 --> 0:14:30.150 the NFL is coming back, and so is DraftKings. 0:14:30.610 --> 0:14:33.150 Yeah, DraftKings now live in all 50 states. One app, 0:14:33.270 --> 0:14:36.160 every sport nationwide. New DraftKings customers sign up with the 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:38.800 code Armstrong. Spend $ 5 to get $ 200 in rewards within 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:44.310 21 days. Includes all markets. That's the code Armstrong in 0:14:44.370 --> 0:14:47.530 partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours. 0:14:47.850 --> 0:14:56.050 Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. 1-800-MY-RESET. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777. Visit ccpg.org. 0:14:56.170 --> 0:14:58.450 On behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas, that tax 0:14:58.490 --> 0:15:01.590 pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 plus. Void in Canada. 0:15:01.630 --> 0:15:04.480 Bet with DraftKings Sportsbook to get bonus bets that expire 0:15:04.500 --> 0:15:07.440 in seven days or trade with DraftKings Predictions to get 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:10.460 predictions dollars that expire in one year. Event contract trading 0:15:10.500 --> 0:15:12.940 involves risk of loss. Predictions offer void in New York. 0:15:13.100 --> 0:15:16.670 Non-withdrawable rewards issued as $ 50 click to claims every seven 0:15:16.710 --> 0:15:21.050 days for 21 days. Terms at DKNG.co slash offer. Limited 0:15:21.070 --> 0:15:24.010 time offer. Nationwide based on Sportsbook predictions and free to 0:15:24.050 --> 0:15:26.700 play sports contest availability varies by state. 0:15:28.410 --> 0:15:41.860 Armstrong and Getty. The Armstrong and Getty Show. What was 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:47.700 that like when that order came through? Um, I, I think, 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:52.040 is it alright if I cuss a little bit? Yes, sure. Okay. Yeah, 0:15:52.060 --> 0:15:54.380 of course. Okay. They've been f * * * ing 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:55.920 me for the past two weeks. Why are they not 0:15:55.940 --> 0:15:57.300 going to continue to do that? 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:01.210 And in the most ridiculous and kind of demeaning way 0:16:01.250 --> 0:16:01.850 that they can. 0:16:02.230 --> 0:16:05.550 That's from the Wall Street Journal documentary that's getting no 0:16:05.590 --> 0:16:08.010 attention in the path to zero. I'm disappointed that it 0:16:08.070 --> 0:16:11.290 isn't like everywhere and everybody's talking about it on the 0:16:11.370 --> 0:16:14.290 five year anniversary of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. 0:16:14.310 --> 0:16:15.250 Yeah. 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:19.900 This is the last chance for any justice of a 0:16:19.940 --> 0:16:23.700 conversation or anybody to pay a price, and it seems 0:16:23.740 --> 0:16:26.180 to me that it's going to go by. It said 0:16:26.230 --> 0:16:30.130 at the end of the documentary that Anthony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, 0:16:30.330 --> 0:16:32.990 General Mark Milley, and General Lloyd Austin did not respond 0:16:33.010 --> 0:16:36.010 to requests for interviews for that documentary. Nobody's going to 0:16:36.050 --> 0:16:38.810 make them. They will not be forced by mainstream media, 0:16:38.930 --> 0:16:44.970 and that's that. Nor probably subpoenaed by Congress. If Accountability 0:16:45.010 --> 0:16:49.010 for our greatest failures becomes either left coded or right coded. 0:16:49.250 --> 0:16:52.790 We're through as a country. No doubt. No doubt. 0:16:53.710 --> 0:16:55.310 We need to talk more about this later because we 0:16:55.370 --> 0:16:58.650 didn't even get into Abbey Gate. That's the one horrible day, 0:16:58.700 --> 0:17:02.780 which the anniversary was last Thursday, I guess, when we 0:17:02.820 --> 0:17:07.760 lost 13 men and women and 150 Afghanis got killed 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:11.040 and tons of people got injured and just such a failure. 0:17:11.780 --> 0:17:11.980 Yeah. 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:12.879 Yeah. 0:17:13.310 --> 0:17:19.380 On every level. And again, nobody paid a price for that. Unbelievable. 0:17:19.540 --> 0:17:21.560 One of the most disappointing things that has happened in 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:23.000 my lifetime that our U.S. 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:26.040 Government did. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. 0:17:26.500 --> 0:17:26.700 Yeah. 0:17:26.820 --> 0:17:28.180 Horrific at every level. 0:17:28.820 --> 0:17:30.780 And a horrible job by the media other than the 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:33.760 Wall Street Journal of covering this over the weekend on 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:34.810 the five year anniversary. 0:17:35.869 --> 0:17:36.119 Yeah. 0:17:36.609 --> 0:17:36.909 Yeah. 0:17:37.390 --> 0:17:37.650 Yeah. 0:17:37.810 --> 0:17:40.770 I'm just I'm drained talking about it. It's it's one 0:17:40.790 --> 0:17:44.679 of those things. You're not going to enjoy it, but 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:46.109 I think it's important to see it. 0:17:46.570 --> 0:17:48.430 I was thinking I was going to have my kids 0:17:48.490 --> 0:17:50.330 watch it, then got toward the end of some of 0:17:50.369 --> 0:17:52.889 the stuff was, that's too much. I don't want my 0:17:52.930 --> 0:17:54.630 kids watching that. That was hard to take. 0:17:55.210 --> 0:17:57.000 Yeah, so grim. So grim. 0:17:57.580 --> 0:18:00.960 We'll talk more about that later. We got plenty of 0:18:00.980 --> 0:18:03.639 other stuff that's, you know, way easier to take coming up. 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:07.020 Cell phone ban in schools all across the country. Lots 0:18:07.060 --> 0:18:08.859 of people are doing it. Wall Street Journal says it's 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:10.020 not working for some reason. 0:18:10.180 --> 0:18:10.380 What? 0:18:10.660 --> 0:18:13.139 I just was praising the Wall Street Journal. This one 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:15.560 made me angry. And lots of other stuff to talk about. 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:17.580 If you miss a segment, get the podcast, Armstrong and 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:18.300 Getty On Demand. 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:21.179 I have assembled what I believe to be the quintessential 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:25.480 New York story, the quintessential L.A. story. Likewise, Portland and Seattle. 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:29.270 A potpourri, a buffet, if you will. Coming up. Armstrong 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:29.770 and Getty. 0:18:32.890 --> 0:18:39.330 The Armstrong and Getty Show. 0:18:40.150 --> 0:18:42.570 That music really gets me going, man. I'm telling you what. 0:18:43.710 --> 0:18:46.230 You play that at all your raves, right? When you DJ? 0:18:46.990 --> 0:18:49.650 You need to explain to us about how golf's hottest 0:18:49.750 --> 0:18:53.170 company is kind of getting pushed out of the golf 0:18:53.210 --> 0:18:55.379 business now because they got on the wrong side of 0:18:56.560 --> 0:18:57.520 a media firestorm. 0:18:58.100 --> 0:19:01.910 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought it was an interesting story. 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:04.920 So maybe later. Yeah, I do, too. It's just it's 0:19:04.980 --> 0:19:07.740 the modern world, which tires my ass out in brief. 0:19:08.100 --> 0:19:13.040 It is the modern world. Welcome to a brand new feature, 0:19:13.100 --> 0:19:20.879 stupidity coast to coast. Actually, it leans a tad heavily 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:24.870 on the left coast. Oh, that's shocking. Well, I feel 0:19:24.910 --> 0:19:27.090 bad giving short shrift to the East Coast, which has 0:19:27.190 --> 0:19:29.110 plenty of stupidity. Yeah, nothing like. 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:33.439 Nothing like your California towns and Portland and Seattle. 0:19:33.500 --> 0:19:36.220 I mean, come on. Yeah, you know, stupidity is a 0:19:36.310 --> 0:19:38.890 lot like wine when you look at the two coasts. 0:19:39.310 --> 0:19:43.629 The East Coast produces some pretty solid stupidity. It's enjoyable, 0:19:43.690 --> 0:19:47.310 but it's not quite as exquisite. It's not the highest 0:19:47.430 --> 0:19:49.970 grade of stupidity like you get on the West Coast. 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:55.760 Too many tannins. So I have what I believe to 0:19:55.800 --> 0:20:00.359 be the quintessential L.A. story, New York story, Portland and 0:20:00.380 --> 0:20:04.480 Seattle in that order. First of all, briefly, in L.A., 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:07.500 I know it could be a thousand different things. We're 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:10.440 just going to pick on this one. As the fabulous 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:15.990 Nellie Bowles pointed out, Karen Bass, the leftist union hack, 0:20:16.090 --> 0:20:20.350 career politician who's ruined L.A., is running for re-election against 0:20:20.410 --> 0:20:26.340 a communist, Nithya Raman. But anyway, as a campaign video, 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:30.320 Karen Bass posted this video about how she was going 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:33.399 to fix a pothole. Except she got there and there 0:20:33.420 --> 0:20:35.680 was a car parked on it, so she said, I'll 0:20:35.700 --> 0:20:39.590 be back later and try again. And that was the 0:20:39.630 --> 0:20:46.780 campaign video. Nothing happened. She just talked about fixing it. Well, dumb, 0:20:47.340 --> 0:20:49.020 dumb bass, bass hole. 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:50.780 Wow. 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:56.889 Wait, what? I think maybe dumb bass would be a 0:20:56.920 --> 0:21:02.980 better one. Okay. Well, certainly more arable. Anyway, um, So 0:21:03.109 --> 0:21:07.250 her communist opponent, city council member Nithya Raman, released her 0:21:07.390 --> 0:21:10.510 own video as a display of strength. The Los Feliz 0:21:10.550 --> 0:21:14.590 neighborhood council alerted our office in 2025 to the need 0:21:14.630 --> 0:21:17.790 for a crosswalk at Sunset Drive and Bates Street, which 0:21:17.830 --> 0:21:21.370 has just been completed. Thanks to our incredible CD4 field 0:21:21.410 --> 0:21:24.210 team for continuing to problem solve, push for solutions and 0:21:24.250 --> 0:21:27.370 make our streets safer. And then there are images side 0:21:27.410 --> 0:21:32.639 by side. And the one is this cracked image. decaying, 0:21:32.820 --> 0:21:37.400 pitted pavement without a crosswalk painted on it. And then 0:21:37.460 --> 0:21:43.980 the after picture is the cracked, decaying, pitted pavement painted 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:49.920 over with yellow stripes. It's like, wow. Wow. That is 0:21:50.050 --> 0:21:53.570 running a city beautifully. Holy cow. How can you not 0:21:53.690 --> 0:21:57.490 look at that and laugh? That's such a dumb stunt anyway, 0:21:57.530 --> 0:21:59.730 even if it wasn't. What it is. 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:00.100 Oh, yeah. 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:03.260 Okay, you have one crosswalk. What do you do? Now 0:22:03.300 --> 0:22:06.010 I'm going to quote the fabulous Nelly. One year later, 0:22:06.030 --> 0:22:08.770 they painted yellow stripes over the cracked asphalt. This is 0:22:08.790 --> 0:22:11.669 what the politicians in California are celebrating. No wonder our 0:22:11.710 --> 0:22:15.149 great progressive leadership from L.A. to New York City universally 0:22:15.230 --> 0:22:18.630