Speaker 1: Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio at the
Speaker 1: George Washington Broadcast Center.
Speaker 2: Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 3: And now, here's Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 4: Tony Romo. He's made tens of millions in his second
Speaker 4: career after the NFL.
Speaker 5: Where are you coming from?
Speaker 2: The golf course.
Speaker 4: But this on-camera performance near downtown Milwaukee back in July
Speaker 4: put his future in TV on hold. A strong odor
Speaker 4: of alcohol. Feet together. a poor execution of field sobriety tests.
Speaker 6: So what am I doing?
Speaker 4: The father of three boys pleaded no contest to charges
Speaker 4: of driving while intoxicated. This public apology followed. Romo said,
Speaker 4: multiple back surgeries left me with constant debilitating pain, a
Speaker 4: dependence on pain medications, and my efforts to get off
Speaker 4: those medications led to an over-reliance on alcohol.
Speaker 5: Can't drive drunk.
Speaker 3: You just can't.
Speaker 7: No, and you shouldn't, and it's bad, and people get
Speaker 7: killed because of drunk driving, but the way we treat
Speaker 7: these things, I don't get it. I mean, if this
Speaker 7: is his fifth time or whatever, it happens to lots
Speaker 7: of people. Like, do you just, I'm sorry, we can
Speaker 7: no longer be friends, Jim, for the rest of our lives,
Speaker 7: or you can't work here.
Speaker 5: Or whatever over.
Speaker 7: That one, he was golfing with friends and had more
Speaker 7: to drink than he realized or whatever. I don't want
Speaker 7: it to not be a crime or anything like that,
Speaker 7: but we don't cut off. But for celebrities, we have this,
Speaker 7: they're found to be a child murderer standard.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: We've, as a society, decided on a sanction for this crime,
Speaker 3: and it does not include necessarily public, like, humiliation. You're
Speaker 3: going to be embarrassed, but it's not like an orchestrated
Speaker 3: campaign of humiliation and loss of career.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: Show me where that is in the statutes. It isn't there.
Speaker 5: It's interesting.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I tell you what, alcohol is underrated as
Speaker 3: a painkiller. When I'm dealing with either chronic pain stuff
Speaker 3: or injuries, that's when I want to drink. Because, man,
Speaker 3: it's the best painkiller on earth. But it's a bad habit.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you've heard that.
Speaker 7: So we didn't talk about this, I don't think, at all.
Speaker 7: A couple of weeks ago, there was a big announcement
Speaker 7: that two Pennsylvanians had died of the measles. And the
Speaker 7: portrayal of the story and the roundtable discussions on cable
Speaker 7: news were all about how, and you know the direction
Speaker 7: this is going to go.
Speaker 5: RFK Jr.
Speaker 7: because he's anti-vaccine, has caused lots of people to not
Speaker 7: get vaccines, and now a disease that we mostly had
Speaker 7: under control like measles is making a comeback. In fact,
Speaker 7: Josh Shapiro, the governor of the fifth largest state in America,
Speaker 7: held a press conference to announce two measles deaths. And
Speaker 7: that's one of the things the free press is on
Speaker 7: about today is, why is the governor of a big
Speaker 7: state taking time to announce the deaths? It's a relatively,
Speaker 7: it's rare. It's both rare and common. What is the
Speaker 7: right term for that?
Speaker 5: It happens.
Speaker 7: People get measles now and then and die from it
Speaker 7: and have measles. all through the vaccinated period of measles.
Speaker 7: It doesn't happen very often, but it does happen sometimes.
Speaker 7: It's not a shocking occurrence if it would happen. It's
Speaker 7: not the sort of thing your governor goes and has
Speaker 7: a press conference about. And then the added layer, and
Speaker 7: you know exactly what's going on here, but the added layer.
Speaker 5: Of this is.
Speaker 7: The CDC has not confirmed these as deaths from measles.
Speaker 7: The media immediately went to, oh, look, the Trump administration
Speaker 7: trying to pretend, trying to cover up the fact that
Speaker 7: they're anti-vaccine. The free press says, looking into this, there's
Speaker 7: no confirmation whatsoever that.
Speaker 5: These are measles deaths.
Speaker 7: What it looks like to the free press is these
Speaker 7: are people who died of– it's exactly the COVID thing.
Speaker 7: They died of other things and had measles. It's like
Speaker 7: the did you die of COVID or from COVID thing.
Speaker 7: With COVID. With COVID thing, yeah. Did you die from
Speaker 7: COVID or with COVID? These people, did they die of measles,
Speaker 7: the measles, or die with the measles? And it looks like–
Speaker 7: One of them died with the measles and the other
Speaker 7: one may not have had measles at all. And it's
Speaker 7: perfectly legitimate, according to Free Press, who does not have
Speaker 7: either Trump derangement syndrome or stand up for Trump syndrome
Speaker 7: at all at the Free Press. It's just saying this
Speaker 7: is replaying the whole COVID era nonsense.
Speaker 5: The media and the Democrats and the New York Times.
Speaker 7: Tried to make this exhibit a of the anti-vax hysteria
Speaker 7: of jrfk jr causing people to die from measles and
Speaker 7: um and then there's a cover-up and it goes back
Speaker 7: and forth and everything like that that we haven't gotten
Speaker 7: any better than we were back during the covet era
Speaker 7: on this.
Speaker 3: Story let me let me give folks a hint folks
Speaker 3: on the left especially the new york times hey When
Speaker 3: you try to prove your case with crappy evidence, trumped
Speaker 3: up evidence, you weaken your case. You don't strengthen it.
Speaker 3: You weaken it. Try to stop doing that.
Speaker 5: But I know you won't.
Speaker 7: I'm glad you mentioned that. That's one point that this author,
Speaker 7: I should figure out what their name is and mention it.
Speaker 7: But that's one of the points they make here in
Speaker 7: this article is all it does is discredit the whole
Speaker 7: thing more to where people don't believe either side of it.
Speaker 7: because it becomes so political so fast, their main point
Speaker 7: is the governor having a press conference to announce two
Speaker 7: measles deaths is ridiculous.
Speaker 5: That's not a thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, much like when Gavin Newsom makes an ass
Speaker 3: of himself semi-regularly trying to elevate his national profile, that's
Speaker 3: what Josh is doing. He was just profiled in the
Speaker 3: Wall Street Journal today, I think it was, as an
Speaker 3: example of A persuader in politics who helps people who
Speaker 3: are undecided see the real story. And he's the opposite
Speaker 3: of a like a rabble rouser that just fires people
Speaker 3: up and gets them to the polls. He's an ideas guy.
Speaker 3: So ironic timing.
Speaker 7: Alec Berenson of the Free Press. Did measles kill two
Speaker 7: Pennsylvanians or not? And says it's perfectly OK that the CDC.
Speaker 7: is investigating this further before they declare these measles deaths,
Speaker 7: because it's very squishy as to whether that's.
Speaker 5: True or not.
Speaker 7: But all the news outlets, including the New York Times
Speaker 7: with splashy headlines, jumped on it immediately. We are exactly
Speaker 7: in the same conversation as we were during COVID.
Speaker 3: There are a handful of topics, and this is clearly
Speaker 3: one of them, where it takes so much work to
Speaker 3: get past the dishonest brokers. and the ideologues and the
Speaker 3: evidence twisters, the whole vaccine thing, and people who believe
Speaker 3: whatever wackadoodle website they favor. It's one of those stories
Speaker 3: that I've– here's my talent, Jack, my secret talent. I
Speaker 3: look at a topic and I think, all right, I
Speaker 3: can guesstimate how much of my life is going to
Speaker 3: be spent trying to get a handle on this thing.
Speaker 3: And on that topic, I've just decided, no, no. I'll
Speaker 3: focus on 50 other things.
Speaker 7: That's probably why it didn't come up on the show
Speaker 7: when everybody was talking about these measles.
Speaker 5: Deaths as being a.
Speaker 7: Harbinger of things to come in the RFK Jr. health world.
Speaker 7: Thanks to the free press for looking into it and saying, no,
Speaker 7: it doesn't even look like it is the measles.
Speaker 3: I got the world's worst memory in 2015. You're not
Speaker 3: a ton of help on stuff like this because neither
Speaker 3: one of us have that encyclopedic. Oh, yeah, that was
Speaker 3: Congressman Jones back in 84. Anyway, Alex Berenson, wasn't he
Speaker 3: the less famous half of the Jake Tapper book when
Speaker 3: that came out?
Speaker 2: No, no, no.
Speaker 5: Different guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was he was the co-writer of something big.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: All right. Never mind. Doesn't matter.
Speaker 5: Take your word for it.
Speaker 3: The blind leading the blind, the forgetful. leading the senile
Speaker 3: whatever's going on here let me do.
Speaker 7: This health note before we take a break and move
Speaker 7: on to something else people text me about it ask
Speaker 7: me about it because lots of people are either on
Speaker 7: glp ones or thinking about getting on a glp one
Speaker 7: um i have been on zep bound for two and
Speaker 7: a half weeks i constantly either feel a little nauseous.
Speaker 5: Or a little.
Speaker 7: Full or something i haven't liked the way i felt
Speaker 7: the entire time just my anecdotal evidence katie you i
Speaker 7: feel fine but good jack do we have a bm
Speaker 7: oh we did finally get there yet okay.
Speaker 3: Oh thank like six days i think i've got national
Speaker 3: nightmares over i think i've.
Speaker 7: Got that nailed down on what i gotta take of
Speaker 7: this or whatever but i'm so tired i've been going
Speaker 7: to bed at like 7 30 at night yeah i've
Speaker 7: been so tired from And I didn't know why. So
Speaker 7: I chat GPT and can the GLP-1 make you tired?
Speaker 7: And it says, yeah, that's for whatever percentage of people.
Speaker 7: It makes you incredibly tired, possibly because you're not taking
Speaker 7: enough calories.
Speaker 5: And I realized yesterday I took in like a thousand calories.
Speaker 7: If you take in only a thousand calories in a
Speaker 7: day as a guy who's six foot tall, you're going
Speaker 7: to be tired.
Speaker 5: You're not you're not taking in enough calories. And also
Speaker 5: your metabolism is working overload.
Speaker 7: So that's going to exhaust your body from the inside out.
Speaker 7: So the question, if you're thinking about trying one of these,
Speaker 7: is do you want to get into the chemistry game
Speaker 7: of making sure you get there?
Speaker 5: Right amount of fiber so you can have your bm.
Speaker 7: Or do you ever want to you're not tired at
Speaker 7: the end of the day or whatever i don't know
Speaker 7: if i want to.
Speaker 5: Do you ever want to bm again.
Speaker 7: Well it'd be nice if i never had to ever
Speaker 7: but i don't think that's an oh i.
Speaker 3: Would miss it but you know teach their own So
Speaker 3: we're not in a trade war with Canada, according to
Speaker 3: Scott Besant, but the words are flying back and forth
Speaker 3: with savagery across the border. It's really too bad. More
Speaker 3: on that to come. But first, a word from our
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Speaker 3: bluecollardollar.com paid for by Epic Financial. So the non-war with
Speaker 3: Canada coming up in a couple of minutes. Let's see.
Speaker 3: What else do we have that's exciting? Oh, my God.
Speaker 3: This might be my favorite story of the day. A
Speaker 3: Ukrainian influencer infiltrated a Russian Zoom meeting about drone production.
Speaker 5: Oh, I love that.
Speaker 3: And, oh, did he dick with them. Sorry for the
Speaker 3: frank talk. Oh, so good.
Speaker 7: The war with Iran seems to be back on, and
Speaker 7: we'll talk to Mike Lyons at some point about that.
Speaker 5: So stay here.
Speaker 1: Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 2: The Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 6: We discussed A.I., We discussed global imbalances where the Canadians
Speaker 6: have been very strong. And we discussed how do we
Speaker 6: put the trade situation back together. And I think that's
Speaker 6: going to have to be done at the leader's level.
Speaker 3: Scott Besson there, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, who's now like
Speaker 3: the de facto half a Secretary of State, half a
Speaker 3: Secretary of War. He seems to be the lead guy
Speaker 3: in a handful of things. Talking about the... ongoing talks
Speaker 3: with Canada over trade and tariffs and the rest of it.
Speaker 3: I'm not a big fan of what's been happening so far,
Speaker 3: and neither is the Prime Minister of Canada, who's only
Speaker 3: the Prime Minister, and the Liberal Party is only in
Speaker 3: power because Trump messed with them, and they got the
Speaker 3: chance to show how tough they were. They were about
Speaker 3: to get swept out and change Canada for the better.
Speaker 3: But anyway, here's Mark Carney.
Speaker 8: And when the Americans stopped doing memes, stopped throw in shade,
Speaker 8: stop trying to be tough, and start being serious about
Speaker 8: having those discussions, we can have those discussions. But it's
Speaker 8: not constructive, but that's their democracy.
Speaker 3: It's hard to pay attention to the guy unless there's
Speaker 3: music behind him.
Speaker 8: And when the Americans stop doing memes, stop... thrown shade,
Speaker 8: stop trying to be tough, and start being serious about
Speaker 8: having those discussions. We can have those discussions, but it's
Speaker 8: not constructive.
Speaker 5: That's their democracy.
Speaker 3: I believe the humor there with Trump accompanying him on
Speaker 3: the recorder, whatever that thing is. So it's like that
Speaker 3: he's a whiner.
Speaker 5: Is Trump up on the corner of the video playing
Speaker 5: that instrument?
Speaker 3: Something like that.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Hanson was trying to tell me what he was speaking
Speaker 3: in riddles. Anyway, so Besant suggested that Prime Minister Carney
Speaker 3: was to blame for the current political shouting match between
Speaker 3: the two countries because the keeping the fight alive was
Speaker 3: good for his poll numbers.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Let's see. He was asked if his country is in
Speaker 3: a trade war with Canada, and Besson said, well, I
Speaker 3: don't think you can be in a tit-for-tat with someone
Speaker 3: that's 13 times larger than you are. I mean, we're
Speaker 3: not at war with Canada. How are we going to
Speaker 3: be at war with Canada? What, are they going to
Speaker 3: take their two submarines from the Edmonton Mall and sick
Speaker 3: them on us? Oh, that's not helping.
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 3: That's the throwing shade part. Why are we picking fights
Speaker 3: with our closest allies? Explain to me how that helps anything.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Lord.
Speaker 5: I came across this. Trump said this yesterday.
Speaker 8: I don't.
Speaker 7: Know if I can find it real quick, but it
Speaker 7: was about how much money, how much money we'll save
Speaker 7: by winning this trade war. And most economists don't seem
Speaker 7: to think that that is accurate.
Speaker 3: Well, he's had like three different pretexts for why we
Speaker 3: need to hammer Canada. First, it was the laughable fentanyl claim.
Speaker 3: And then it was something else. And now it's that
Speaker 3: we have a trade imbalance. That's because we buy their
Speaker 3: oil because it's good oil for us to refine.
Speaker 5: We don't need their product.
Speaker 7: So if we cut off trade with that country, we
Speaker 7: just made $ 40 billion. You do a few countries like
Speaker 7: that and we become a big money machine.
Speaker 5: A number of economists have reacted that saying that's not
Speaker 5: the way it works.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Carney pulled Canada's negotiating team in late August after
Speaker 3: the U.S. team introduced, quote, last-minute changes that the government
Speaker 3: deemed unfair and uneconomic. He is a punk, by the way, Carney.
Speaker 3: He's a waste of skin. He shouldn't be in office.
Speaker 5: A waste of skin? That's an insult.
Speaker 1: You heard me.
Speaker 3: Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Manitoba Premier Wah Bikinu have
Speaker 3: both pushed back against Trump, with Ford inviting the U.S.
Speaker 3: president to, quote, kiss my ass. We remember that one.
Speaker 3: And Mr. Kinu comparing Trump to an over-the-hill band playing
Speaker 3: out their last days in a casino, which, as shots go,
Speaker 3: is a pretty good shot.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: All right.
Speaker 3: All right. Yeah. And then Besant said, I think it's
Speaker 3: very unfortunate that Prime Minister Carney has turned this into
Speaker 3: a political shouting match. He came to power on an anti-American,
Speaker 3: anti-Trump agenda. That's true. He was 20 points behind in
Speaker 3: the polls, and then he started this. No, Trump started it.
Speaker 3: All right. All right. I'm sick of this. I don't
Speaker 3: think we're a little tense at the big G20 finance
Speaker 3: ministers pre-meeting in Asheville, North Carolina. I guess, by the way, pretty,
Speaker 3: pretty snipey among us and our allies. So I pay.
Speaker 5: Very little attention to the trade wars. I pay a
Speaker 5: ton of attention to the.
Speaker 3: Actual war wars.
Speaker 5: Russia, Ukraine, us and Iran, hopefully not China and anyone,
Speaker 5: anybody soon.
Speaker 7: I don't think you were here last week when I
Speaker 7: was talking about this think tank guy I.
Speaker 5: Was listening to making the.
Speaker 7: Point at people who talk about Iran, Russia, and China
Speaker 7: as being kind of an axis.
Speaker 5: And then some people say, well, they're not really.
Speaker 7: They are working together more in these wars than Japan
Speaker 7: and Germany and Italy ever worked together during World War II.
Speaker 7: That's an interesting way to put it, especially with the
Speaker 7: news that came out yesterday. Well, you saw the president
Speaker 7: of Russia sitting down with the president of Iran and
Speaker 7: Russia saying, we'll do whatever we can to help you.
Speaker 7: And then a news story broke that they're supplying them
Speaker 7: with some super fancy missile technology and everything like that.
Speaker 7: These countries are working together, China, Russia and Iran, in
Speaker 7: a way that's very troubling.
Speaker 3: And Russia is lashing out at Europe for their military
Speaker 3: and financial support of Ukraine through these gray zone attacks,
Speaker 3: cyber attacks, mysterious bombings, that sort of thing. That sort
Speaker 3: of thing could easily spread.
Speaker 7: And we're going to talk to Mike Lyons a little
Speaker 7: bit about all this coming up in just a moment.
Speaker 3: Stay tuned.
Speaker 1: Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 2: The Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 9: The United States unleashing a series of airstrikes against southwestern
Speaker 9: Iran overnight. According to CENTCOM, a variety of IRGC targets
Speaker 9: were hit, including air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets,
Speaker 9: mine laying capabilities, and communication sites. President Trump told Fox
Speaker 9: News overnight, if they do respond, they'll be hit much harder.
Speaker 9: This is a very big hit today. If it goes
Speaker 9: a third time, they're going to be totally wiped out
Speaker 9: as a country.
Speaker 7: And then you got the... President of Iran sitting down
Speaker 7: with the president of Russia, Putin, yesterday, sitting together, doing
Speaker 7: a little news thing. And Putin said, we stand with
Speaker 7: Iran in support and specifically said that they're going to
Speaker 7: work very closely with them in trying to beef up
Speaker 7: their air defense systems.
Speaker 3: Lovely. So we've both got a narrow focus, a series
Speaker 3: of questions for military analyst Mike Lyons, and we'll go
Speaker 3: a bit broader. But Mike, how are you, sir? Welcome.
Speaker 2: Hey, guys.
Speaker 3: Good morning.
Speaker 10: Thanks for having me back.
Speaker 7: What are your first thoughts on the re-engagement with the...
Speaker 7: kinetic action between.
Speaker 5: Us and Iran?
Speaker 10: Well, it's still not to the level that is really
Speaker 10: going to matter. It's still, to me, somewhat responding back
Speaker 10: and forth. I think the attack that we made at
Speaker 10: that Lark Island was, uh, you know, a target of opportunity,
Speaker 10: so to speak. It's, it's the main threat of them
Speaker 10: having this capability to use coastal batteries and close in
Speaker 10: weapon systems to knock out some of those ships that
Speaker 10: are going through there. Um, you know, they go after Jordan,
Speaker 10: we use air defense systems to go back. So I, I'm,
Speaker 10: I still don't think we're, we're at that point yet
Speaker 10: where it's, uh, where it's a full on military, um,
Speaker 10: adventure yet.
Speaker 5: Well, good.
Speaker 7: Um, what did you make of, uh, Putin sitting down
Speaker 7: with the president of Iran and vowing to help them
Speaker 7: out with their air defense systems and stand stand by
Speaker 7: them through this war, through their difficult times.
Speaker 10: That's to be expected. And the Iranians need allies. They're
Speaker 10: not going to get anything from Iran. russia at this
Speaker 10: point they've got their hands full continued in uh ukraine
Speaker 10: with that situation there i um you know the the
Speaker 10: shaheed drone inventories that we're trying to that you know
Speaker 10: that the iranians were sending to iran or sending to
Speaker 10: russia now um are no longer happening um and in
Speaker 10: fact the ukrainians are hitting some of those supply ships
Speaker 10: going from ukraine to russia So that's more theater. Vladimir
Speaker 10: Putin's in big trouble there, and he knows that as
Speaker 10: Ukraine continues to not only win by not losing, but
Speaker 10: really attrit most of those Russian forces that are sitting there.
Speaker 3: So you described the current exchange of fire as pretty
Speaker 3: limited and not terribly significant. To what extent do you
Speaker 3: think the president's restraint is based on our lack of armaments,
Speaker 3: that much-jawed-about topic lately?
Speaker 10: Yeah, a lot of conversation about that. And I think
Speaker 10: you have to look at the analytical framework and how
Speaker 10: you take that down. There is a clear difference between
Speaker 10: offensive operations and defensive deterrence. And in most cases, that
Speaker 10: stockpile had been towards defensive deterrence here. But now, if
Speaker 10: we decide to go on some much greater offensive operation
Speaker 10: inside Iran, but I don't think we're going to need
Speaker 10: to do this, but we're going to need more Patriot missiles,
Speaker 10: THAAD interceptors, more Tomahawks, more of the canisters that we
Speaker 10: claim that we're running out of. Now, so there's no
Speaker 10: question we're probably keeping a lot of that powder dry,
Speaker 10: which is why you'll not see another epic fury.
Speaker 2: You know, that.
Speaker 10: If we start that kind of operation, that really starts
Speaker 10: the clock on whether or not how long we can
Speaker 10: sustain that. Maybe it's 18 months. Maybe it's nine months.
Speaker 10: No one really knows. Again, if you stay on the
Speaker 10: defensive side, which is what he's trying to do with
Speaker 10: the blockade, that just requires far less inventory than anything
Speaker 10: on the offense. And that's really the issue here. So
Speaker 10: I don't necessarily I'm concerned about it, but it just depends.
Speaker 10: It depends on what the mission is going to be.
Speaker 5: Well, were you surprised? It surprised me. And I'm a layman,
Speaker 5: so I don't have any idea what I'm talking about.
Speaker 7: But I would have thought we were stockpiled to the
Speaker 7: point that we could get into a big, long war
Speaker 7: with China if we had to. And it turns out
Speaker 7: we get into a pretty small war with Iran and
Speaker 7: hit them for a little bit. We're already dangerously low.
Speaker 7: Were you surprised by that?
Speaker 10: Well, you know, the thing about it is these weapons
Speaker 10: systems that we had been inventorying for the past, let's say,
Speaker 10: 30 years, since the end of the global war on
Speaker 10: terror there, since You know, they expire and they become
Speaker 10: dangerous to shoot. And we, for example, we took a
Speaker 10: lot of old artillery rounds and we sent them to Ukraine.
Speaker 10: Those DPICM artillery rounds were some things that were 30
Speaker 10: and 35 years old. Was I surprised?
Speaker 2: Somewhat.
Speaker 10: I had some information, knew that the Navy probably wasn't
Speaker 10: ready to fight this conflict in China, which is what
Speaker 10: the expectation was to be by 2028. And then we
Speaker 10: did send Patriot missiles to Ukraine and did help them
Speaker 10: out there. But when you put it on paper, when
Speaker 10: you look down at it and you think about what's
Speaker 10: happened and how the war has gone in Iran, it
Speaker 10: probably took a little bit more out than we thought
Speaker 10: it was going to take. Now, again, from a context perspective,
Speaker 10: I still don't think it's enough that we should be
Speaker 10: completely worried about it. We're ramping up production lines to,
Speaker 10: what is it, $ 22 billion worth of Tomahawks contracts. It's
Speaker 10: a long-term answer, and the 21-day emergency production orders are in.
Speaker 10: So the production lines are wrapping up on this. But
Speaker 10: from a wholesale perspective, I think we're still going to
Speaker 10: be okay.
Speaker 3: Talking to military analyst Mike Lyons. Mike, we've talked a
Speaker 3: little bit about the overlapping of the parties involved in
Speaker 3: the war in Ukraine and the battle against Iran and
Speaker 3: China's involvement. Number one, how do you perceive Russia? What
Speaker 3: shape is Russia in in the war in Ukraine? And two,
Speaker 3: to what extent do you worry about this metastasizing at
Speaker 3: some point as, for instance, Putin is taking pot shots
Speaker 3: at various factories and such in Europe? It's under the
Speaker 3: cloak of, you know, hired goons or mysterious cyber attacks.
Speaker 3: But what do you think of that whole topic?
Speaker 10: Well, a couple of things. First of all, Russia still
Speaker 10: remains a vassal state of China. And you saw China
Speaker 10: come out and say that they're not going to allow
Speaker 10: Russia to use nuclear weapons. And so Russia has to
Speaker 10: be very careful what it's.
Speaker 5: Going to do.
Speaker 10: And the Chinese have somewhat passive-aggressive oversight over what they're doing.
Speaker 10: Having said that, they operate very well. The Russians operate
Speaker 10: in the gray area. They operate in that cyberspace and
Speaker 10: they operate in that little green men. That's what started
Speaker 10: this whole thing back 2014 into Crimea from the very beginning.
Speaker 10: You know, that's a place where they're comfortable in. And
Speaker 10: because they're so attrited on the front lines and the
Speaker 10: amount of casualties they take is just incredible, they're just
Speaker 10: not able to do all these things at once. And
Speaker 10: it's been their problem from the very beginning. They've not
Speaker 10: been able to combine arms from a military perspective. But
Speaker 10: but they never they can't seem to get anything really going.
Speaker 10: So anything that would happen, I think, would be a
Speaker 10: short term, you know, operation that might do something. But
Speaker 10: their capability to sustain anything right now is just not realistic.
Speaker 7: So can you you know, you spoke pretty optimistically about
Speaker 7: Ukraine's chances just a few minutes ago. Can you see
Speaker 7: Ukraine actually winning this thing, actually driving Russia out of
Speaker 7: the territory they've taken?
Speaker 10: I'm not sure I see that. I see them, again,
Speaker 10: winning by not losing, not losing their original border. When
Speaker 10: you think about, you know, from a military perspective, it's
Speaker 10: all about that land there. But that area in the
Speaker 10: Donbass is just so destroyed. And it's so, you know,
Speaker 10: it's not someplace that people are going to be moving
Speaker 10: back to anytime soon. So winning means stopping, means potentially
Speaker 10: like a North Korea, South Korea border. That's all that
Speaker 10: Ukraine needs to get right now. What then assurance is
Speaker 10: I was not for Ukraine being in NATO territory. prior
Speaker 10: to this for many times. We talked about that. I
Speaker 10: don't think NATO should expand, but in this case, clearly,
Speaker 10: Ukraine deserves that opportunity to have the U.S. nuclear umbrella
Speaker 10: and the NATO countries inside of it right now.
Speaker 3: Military analyst Mike Lyons, always enlightening. Mike, thanks so much
Speaker 3: for the time. Good stuff. Great, guys.
Speaker 10: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 7: That's really interesting. He thinks Ukraine should be part of
Speaker 7: NATO now. That's a good point. Why would you expend.
Speaker 7: Any soldiers to try to get back completely destroyed land
Speaker 7: that's going to be a no-go zone for many years
Speaker 7: as long as Putin's alive as sort of a barrier. So, yeah,
Speaker 7: you win by ending the damn thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you read my mind. I think Zelensky and his
Speaker 3: entire leadership are thinking, look, Putin is intransigent. If we
Speaker 3: can stop the slaughter for now and agree to an uneasy–
Speaker 3: where they have ownership of that now completely decimated earth.
Speaker 3: We'll keep working on it. Keep working on it through
Speaker 3: means both military and diplomatic in the days ahead. That's
Speaker 3: probably something like the bargain I would strike. It's just
Speaker 3: too many people dying for practically nothing at this point.
Speaker 3: I mean, Putin's clearly just trying to terrorize Ukraine into submission,
Speaker 3: which will never, ever work. There's zero chance that'll work.
Speaker 3: Whether you look at the history of this sort of
Speaker 3: thing or Sebastian Younger just wrote a great piece. He's
Speaker 3: just spent a bunch of time in Ukraine talking about
Speaker 3: the will of the people. And oh, my God, that
Speaker 3: there's zero chance they would capitulate to Russia and say,
Speaker 3: all right, we'll be a vassal state. You can have
Speaker 3: our country. Zero.
Speaker 7: Well, they've got generations going back of fighting these kind
Speaker 7: of wars to try to.
Speaker 3: Have a homeland.
Speaker 5: It's their national identity, really.
Speaker 3: And Russians will be villains for the next 50 generations
Speaker 3: in Ukraine.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they already were. I know some Ukrainians. I had
Speaker 5: another point I was going to make.
Speaker 7: Oh, I've been thinking this for quite a few years now.
Speaker 7: Surely this happens someday, doesn't it? Where news breaks that
Speaker 7: Vladimir Putin was just in a car wreck. Oh, the
Speaker 7: reports are he's dead. Or somebody shoots him in the
Speaker 7: back of the head or whatever. How is somebody not
Speaker 7: taking him out yet? In a kleptocracy oligarchy like that,
Speaker 7: how are some of the gazillionaires not thinking.
Speaker 5: This is doing me no good. Why is this happening?
Speaker 3: It's the world's most dangerous idea in a system like
Speaker 3: Putin's because he's acutely aware of what you just said.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 7: God, imagine what his day-to-day life is like. Probably never
Speaker 7: sleeps in the same bed twice like Saddam Hussein used
Speaker 7: to do.
Speaker 3: Oh, so now's the perfect time to tell you about this.
Speaker 3: So there are 14 Russian officials on this Zoom call talking.
Speaker 3: They're representatives of Russia's Federation's Ministry of Industry and Trade,
Speaker 3: specifically making drones for drone warfare, okay? And they're having
Speaker 3: this 14-man Zoom call. And this guy, ironically named Potemkin,
Speaker 3: is the chair of the proceedings. And he says, we
Speaker 3: can say that we have room to improve. And then
Speaker 3: in the... Language of diplomacy took a bit of a
Speaker 3: shot about Chinese production of drones, which now is public, too.
Speaker 3: And I hope that does them some damage anyway. But
Speaker 3: then a guy pipes up. And he says, yes, colleagues,
Speaker 3: there is this question. How is it that Ukrainian engineers
Speaker 3: assemble effective combat capable unmanned aerial vehicles in the space
Speaker 3: of three weeks in primitive conditions? Yet Russian aviation, with
Speaker 3: everyone here sitting at this meeting, billions of rubles spent,
Speaker 3: and all we have is a little packet of certification
Speaker 3: documents to show to our bosses. And everybody just like
Speaker 3: looked at each other, those that didn't have their cameras off.
Speaker 3: And he went on. How is it that the on
Speaker 3: the one hand, the enemy, Ukraine, is fighting a war.
Speaker 3: And meanwhile, at the same time, you are just siphoning
Speaker 3: off money from the state budget. The video shows attendees
Speaker 3: sitting silently in response to the question. After a brief cause,
Speaker 3: the chairman Potemkin demanded that Mr. Volnov identify himself. And
Speaker 3: he said, I am drone tech. But can you explain yourself?
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm sitting here and all I hear is blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 3: He was a Ukrainian prankster and influencer and media personality.
Speaker 3: I just love that. That's awesome.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Now all of it's public as well.
Speaker 5: And good questions.
Speaker 7: I mean, yeah, that should make a lot of your
Speaker 7: Russian higher-ups wonder about that.
Speaker 5: Let's see.
Speaker 7: We're the big, tough military with all the money, and
Speaker 7: they are a bunch of guys building drones in garages,
Speaker 7: and they're beating us at this.
Speaker 5: What's going on?
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then he said, well, that would take too much explaining,
Speaker 3: but At least three conference room full of attendees were
Speaker 3: shown picking up papers and walking off camera rather than
Speaker 3: staying and answering this Volnov guy's questions. Because for whatever reason,
Speaker 3: they didn't disconnect him. And so he went on. Y'all
Speaker 3: are co-conspirators with the regime and you'll be held responsible
Speaker 3: for its crimes. It doesn't matter what your job is.
Speaker 3: You know what you're doing and you know that your
Speaker 3: hand is in the blood of innocent people, children and women.
Speaker 3: He blasted them as they left the conference. Yeah, love that.
Speaker 3: Well done, sir.
Speaker 7: Well, here's an important question for you coming up. Have
Speaker 7: you ever hit your head so far? It's going to
Speaker 7: be good if I get the words out right. Have
Speaker 7: you ever hit your head so hard you couldn't have sex?
Speaker 7: That's what one woman is claiming about her husband who
Speaker 7: got hit in the head with a hockey puck. Now
Speaker 7: she can't get any, and she's suing for lots and
Speaker 7: lots of money.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 7: It's known as loss of consortium. The headline suggests itself.
Speaker 3: It's a rhyme with puck, but not for the air.
Speaker 5: It's kind of an interesting story coming up, among other things.
Speaker 5: Stay tuned.
Speaker 1: Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 2: The Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 11: A lightning strike was caught on home security cameras last
Speaker 11: week showing a man walking along a sidewalk in New
Speaker 11: York City's Staten Island when, there it was, the bolt
Speaker 11: hit him and he fell to the ground. He got up,
Speaker 11: looked for help, and then, as he told the local newspaper,
Speaker 11: he bought a lottery ticket.
Speaker 7: That's an interesting theory. Let's see, I got struck by lightning.
Speaker 7: I'll bet I'm more likely to win the lottery. I'm
Speaker 7: not sure that that makes sense. I'm lucky today, as
Speaker 7: the Wisdom goes, I guess. Speaking of getting struck by
Speaker 7: things out of nowhere, you've got a woman and her
Speaker 7: husband suing for millions because this guy got hit in
Speaker 7: the head with a hockey puck so hard that he
Speaker 7: can't have sex anymore.
Speaker 5: And his wife is not happy about it.
Speaker 6: Oh, boy.
Speaker 5: This is a Los Angeles hockey star. He's actually.
Speaker 3: From Russia, I think. Anyway.
Speaker 5: Lives in the United States.
Speaker 7: He was playing hockey at LA Kings Valley Ice Center
Speaker 7: when a puck pierced his helmet. I saw a little
Speaker 7: of the video and turned it off because it's gruesome.
Speaker 7: He gets hit in the helmet. The puck actually goes
Speaker 7: through the helmet somehow and then like lodges in his
Speaker 7: head and he falls to the ground and blood goes
Speaker 7: all over the ice and it's a pretty gruesome thing.
Speaker 3: I'm reminded of something you said to me when I
Speaker 3: bought my first motorcycle many, many years ago. If you
Speaker 3: have a $ 10 head, buy a $ 10 helmet. He needs
Speaker 3: to buy better helmets.
Speaker 7: Well, it's the helmet manufacturer that's being sued by his wife,
Speaker 7: who says she has suffered loss of conjugal fellowship, sexual relations,
Speaker 7: and companionship. Honey, would you like to have conjugal fellowship tonight?
Speaker 3: Hit by a puck, he can no longer conjually fellowship himself.
Speaker 7: To date, he cannot regularly function, the legal paperwork says.
Speaker 7: There are intimacy problems. They don't have the same sex life.
Speaker 7: And she's not happy about it.
Speaker 3: Me neither. Different reasons.
Speaker 7: The lawyer went on to say it's a recognized matter
Speaker 7: in California that if you lose a sexual partner, that
Speaker 7: is a loss and you have a right to sue
Speaker 7: for that.
Speaker 3: That's interesting. I would agree.
Speaker 7: I've known so many couples where there ain't sex happening,
Speaker 7: but if it, and you know, it's just a, I
Speaker 7: don't know, loss of interest or getting along or whatever.
Speaker 5: Nobody's suing anybody.
Speaker 7: But if you can blame it on something, then somebody
Speaker 7: is responsible to the point of millions of dollars because
Speaker 7: it's so impossible for you to go on with your
Speaker 7: life of not having sex, even though, like I said,
Speaker 7: I've known plenty of people who aren't.
Speaker 5: Having much sex just for other reasons.
Speaker 3: Now, I would never make light of this poor fellow's fate,
Speaker 3: but I know when you're contemplating damages for somebody who
Speaker 3: can no longer work, you look at their potential earnings
Speaker 3: across a lifetime. If you are, you know, a rocket
Speaker 3: scientist for SpaceX and you're making millions of dollars, it's
Speaker 3: different than a common laborer. Sorry, it just is. How
Speaker 3: much sex were they having and how good was it?
Speaker 3: You have to know that to assign a number.
Speaker 7: She's got to testify, hey, my hockey player husband was
Speaker 7: put in the net like he is a hat trick
Speaker 7: every week.
Speaker 3: Oh, my God. As the judges say, do you have
Speaker 3: any home videos? Evidence. Like a.
Speaker 3: Like, you got any Paris Hilton-style memorabilia, as it were?
Speaker 5: Seems like a little.
Speaker 7: I mean, the helmet, maybe the helmet was defective and
Speaker 7: the manufacturer's on the hook for the injury or whatever.
Speaker 5: It seems like a bit of a stretch. But anyway,
Speaker 5: we'll see how it turns out.
Speaker 3: Well, speaking of conjugal joy, the 5,000 sailors from the
Speaker 3: USS Abraham Lincoln have docked in Thailand. Hide your daughters.
Speaker 3: That and a lot more good stuff next hour. If
Speaker 3: you can't get next hour, subscribe to the podcast, Armstrong
Speaker 3: and Getty On Demand. It will auto-download.
Speaker 1: Armstrong and Getty.