Speaker 1: Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Speaker 1: Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty arm.
Speaker 2: Strong and Getty and he Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 3: I think if you've run the numbers here, you know,
Speaker 3: twenty five percent chance it turns out really well and
Speaker 3: there's a secular country kind of emerges. I think twenty
Speaker 3: five percent it shuts down pretty quickly as Jihatas takeover.
Speaker 3: Maybe a fifty percent chance it looks like Libya, which
Speaker 3: is an ongoing state of conflict.
Speaker 2: Man, seeing how people the happy, those people were in
Speaker 2: Syria over the weekend, bringing down those statues, dancing in
Speaker 2: the streets, children, old people, people crying as they saw
Speaker 2: loved ones who were released from the prisons that they
Speaker 2: hadn't seen in decades. But you know, if you're old
Speaker 2: enough to have lived through the Arab Spring, you know
Speaker 2: how a lot of these turned out unfortunately.
Speaker 4: Right, So an enormous couple of days for the people
Speaker 4: of Syria with the uncertain future ahead. Also, the fall
Speaker 4: of the Asad regime has sent shockwaves.
Speaker 2: That's a cliche.
Speaker 4: I should have avoided it throughout the region, and geopolitically
Speaker 4: is it's exposed Russian Iran is much much weaker than
Speaker 4: they've been formerly.
Speaker 2: Where does it all go?
Speaker 4: Perhaps we'll we'll discuss that with Mike Lyons, military analyst
Speaker 4: who joins us from now. Mike, I realized predictions are
Speaker 4: extremely difficult in that part of the world.
Speaker 2: But this is a big one, isn't it.
Speaker 5: Yeah? For sure? That was Admiral Sterheti's I take it
Speaker 5: from his voice. Yep, yeah, right, So you know, fifty
Speaker 5: percent turns into living interesting analysis. I think that there's
Speaker 5: a higher probability that things go south very quickly. Unfortunately,
Speaker 5: it's just human nature of what we've seen in history
Speaker 5: in that part of the world. But there is opportunity,
Speaker 5: no question. The main thing is what are these external
Speaker 5: countries like Turkey going to do to get involved. I
Speaker 5: see the United States and Israel already going after military targets,
Speaker 5: taking away capability, military capability of this new group, this
Speaker 5: HTS group that seems to have taken control of the
Speaker 5: country right now, getting rid of their AMO dumps and
Speaker 5: keeping them from waging more conflicts. But what Turkey you
Speaker 5: would like to do is create this state of Kurdistan.
Speaker 5: I don't know think of Syria becoming let's say, Balkanized
Speaker 5: and kind of chopped up to a big piece of land,
Speaker 5: not a lot of desert areas. So the cities are
Speaker 5: the built ups there. But what Turkey you would like
Speaker 5: to do is find a home for thirty million people
Speaker 5: that are indigenous to that part of the world and
Speaker 5: call it a homeland. Now, the problem Theyria has as
Speaker 5: a country. It doesn't have a lot of natural resources,
Speaker 5: It doesn't export a lot of things. So you have
Speaker 5: a country, you have to have all those things. Anyway,
Speaker 5: all those things you brought up tremendously important as well.
Speaker 5: Russia is now weigh down the fact that they've lost
Speaker 5: a war and more report in the media. Tranian the
Speaker 5: Uranians can't help either. So we'll just have to see.
Speaker 5: But I'm betting things there to go south before they
Speaker 5: get better soon.
Speaker 2: Well, we have nine hundred troops there, seventy five air
Speaker 2: strikes yesterday, so we're involved at some level. As reading
Speaker 2: this from the La Times, their headlined in Syria, militias
Speaker 2: armed by the Pentagon are fighting those armed by the CIA.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, it's likely a story as we have looked
Speaker 5: to prop up some groups. The problem though, this this
Speaker 5: HTS group. This the main the main rebel organization is
Speaker 5: nothing more than a merger of different al Qaeda facts
Speaker 5: and al Nustra in factor or one of their main
Speaker 5: supporters and so as that was used in some ways
Speaker 5: to fight ISIS, and that and that reason you're still
Speaker 5: at groups that are on the terrorist watch list, which
Speaker 5: is why I know that this administration is looking anywhere
Speaker 5: to get a win. You saw ject Sullivan over the
Speaker 5: week and talking about how well Israel has done because
Speaker 5: of the Biden foreign policy. Well, actually they've done well
Speaker 5: because they've not paid attention to the Biden foreign policy.
Speaker 5: That's really what's happened there, not anything that this administration did.
Speaker 5: But this administration is looking for some victory as it
Speaker 5: walks out the door as it cheapestly has the door
Speaker 5: kind of shut it behind as it leaves. And if
Speaker 5: they can, if they can try to claim something that
Speaker 5: this will go well, they'll obviously try to take credit
Speaker 5: for it.
Speaker 2: So we'll see.
Speaker 4: Yeah, speaking of Israel and Iran, this is a huge
Speaker 4: blow to Iran, It's got to be, and to its proxies.
Speaker 4: I mean, has Law, which has already had the hell
Speaker 4: beat out of it by Israel right now lacks a
Speaker 4: direct supply route.
Speaker 2: How significant is this?
Speaker 5: Yeah, incredible, the fact that exactly that land bridge now
Speaker 5: is torn between Iran and those proxy forces there as
Speaker 5: well inside of a rock. That's why those nine hundred
Speaker 5: troops are there as they kind of they straddle the
Speaker 5: tigers euphrate's value there and try to shut those supply
Speaker 5: lines down on a lot of the attacks that were
Speaker 5: taking place that we took over the weekend were against
Speaker 5: those Militsia forces that the Urine support. So they've lost
Speaker 5: all of their proxy forces in Hasbla, in Hamas and
Speaker 5: then these these small splinter groups that it's now open
Speaker 5: season for US, I'd say at some level, which is
Speaker 5: why I heard eight tens for example, we're striking some
Speaker 5: of their targets there. So again, Irana is very exposed
Speaker 5: right now. They've never been weaker. Russia to me, is
Speaker 5: no longer any kind of superpower whatsoever. And again part
Speaker 5: of the issue is going in destroying that military equipment
Speaker 5: that Russia left behind, because if that falls into the
Speaker 5: wrong hands, I think that the world is going to
Speaker 5: see increase conflict that Israel is looking to show up
Speaker 5: AT's bordering a Golden Heights with Cerea as well.
Speaker 2: So for a lot of our audience, I don't know
Speaker 2: what percentage, but a chunk of our audience would say
Speaker 2: this we should stay out of it. Did we never
Speaker 2: get a good result. I don't want us involved at all.
Speaker 2: What's what's your response to that?
Speaker 5: There's nothing that we can do to influence anyone's side.
Speaker 5: Let's see what Turkey does. Let's see what Turkeys respond.
Speaker 5: Is going to be as there in the region. Let
Speaker 5: them do a lot of this dirty work. It does
Speaker 5: not make any sense to even send treasure there to
Speaker 5: pick one side or the other. The only thing we
Speaker 5: should do is continue to support our ally Israel as
Speaker 5: I would not be surprised if this new organization at
Speaker 5: run Syria declares so I'm kind of ge hot against Israel.
Speaker 5: So that'll just be another, you know, another target for
Speaker 5: Israel to take down. That would be that would be
Speaker 5: bad because Israel would eventually accomplish that mission. And this
Speaker 5: that's where this revolution then that just took place there
Speaker 5: would go down with die in the ashes, it would
Speaker 5: ever get off the ground, because again, Israel's Israel's at
Speaker 5: the strongest point right now. But there's literally not a
Speaker 5: single soldier, not a single dollar we should send to
Speaker 5: their way right now at this point, So.
Speaker 4: You can clarify something for me, because I know we'll
Speaker 4: be pressuring Turkey not to go wild on the Kurds,
Speaker 4: who have been you know, reliable US allies. But so
Speaker 4: are you suggesting that because Turkey has always been vehemently
Speaker 4: against some sort of Kurdish homeland. But is it now
Speaker 4: that the Sad regime is gone they can carve it
Speaker 4: out of Syria that now they're in favor of it?
Speaker 2: Is that right?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's right there against the homeland because most of
Speaker 5: them sit inside of Turkey proper and they don't want
Speaker 5: that to happen. They sit in rock Syria, Turkey and Iran.
Speaker 5: And so this is similar to what happened in the
Speaker 5: forties when when Israel gets its own homeland set up
Speaker 5: by the you know, kind of a World Council. That's
Speaker 5: what I would not be surprised if Turkey does though
Speaker 5: again that Balkanization. They're gonna they're going to take fury
Speaker 5: of what was once is big land Masks and whack
Speaker 5: it up into four or five different areas and different
Speaker 5: secular groups. The Drus, There's there's a Christian section there
Speaker 5: in Damascus. There's all different areas that you can easily
Speaker 5: do this. But but again you have to create more
Speaker 5: of a republic because it's you know, each of these
Speaker 5: different groups, would we have a have a channel surviving
Speaker 5: on their own. So for example, if if the Curds.
Speaker 5: One of the reasons why the Curds are so successful
Speaker 5: as an indigenous group outside is because they own oil
Speaker 5: rights in the northern part of Iraq. They generate red
Speaker 5: If you don't have a country, you got to have
Speaker 5: a generate revenue. If to the military, all these kinds
Speaker 5: of things, you've got to figure all that out when
Speaker 5: you try to redraw new boundaries. Here the boundaries that
Speaker 5: Syria has created after World War One by colonial powers
Speaker 5: that just thought these were the boundaries that we were
Speaker 5: going to do. Saying with the rocks sands koit same
Speaker 5: with everything that exists there, and now they're falling into
Speaker 5: more of the natural position as to where they are
Speaker 5: based on the tribal people where they lived.
Speaker 2: I think this question is relevant. So I was looking
Speaker 2: at the end of the year book lists and various
Speaker 2: publications because I like reading the best books of the year.
Speaker 2: And there's this book that Steve call wrote I wrote
Speaker 2: read Ghost Wars years ago, but the Achilles Trap Sadam
Speaker 2: lu saying the CI and the origins of America's invasion
Speaker 2: of Iraq, and it's all about how we had four
Speaker 2: different presidents that were pro regime change and all our
Speaker 2: momentum towards Iraq and how we invaded and what did
Speaker 2: we get out of it and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2: You were there, do you feel like I'm not trying
Speaker 2: to like relitigate Ara. I'm just trying to figure out
Speaker 2: is that where your point of view comes from of
Speaker 2: we should stay out of Cerea, that we rarely get
Speaker 2: a good outcome.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we try to. We try to import democracy into
Speaker 5: places that can't. It won't take it, It won't hold
Speaker 5: there on any level. I mean, it's just not going
Speaker 5: to work. What we should try is create the environment
Speaker 5: where we import capitalism. I think that's what's failed in
Speaker 5: a rock in the last twenty years. We always have
Speaker 5: the government and you know, we have those people with
Speaker 5: the pictures and their purple thumbs, but next thing, you know,
Speaker 5: the extremists and the regime start cutting their thumbs off
Speaker 5: because they just they're not into democracy. Is that they
Speaker 5: just don't they don't have that this feeling of self rule. However,
Speaker 5: capitalism and money and wealth is more or less a
Speaker 5: you know, a human condition as well. That's more easily
Speaker 5: transferred to. If you can create the conditions where businesses
Speaker 5: can exist, then then democracy will follow. We've always tried
Speaker 5: to do it in the different other direction. We try
Speaker 5: to implement the democracy first and then capitalism hasn't worked,
Speaker 5: and that's why that's why it's failed. I think in Iraq,
Speaker 5: if we could figure out a way to bring capitalism
Speaker 5: there first, bring the businesses first, I think the democracy
Speaker 5: would follow well.
Speaker 4: And Americans in general have a naivete that would be
Speaker 4: charming if it wasn't so dangerous that they imagine either
Speaker 4: everybody around the world thinks like Americans do, or they
Speaker 4: can be persuaded to when you're talking about hundreds of
Speaker 4: year old's religious fundamentalist, fanatical movements, that they're just nuts.
Speaker 4: That doesn't make me a racist, that makes me a realist, exactly.
Speaker 5: You know, so much of the world, especially in the
Speaker 5: Middle East as part of the world, where the normal
Speaker 5: civilians go hours without electricity, they can't drink water from
Speaker 5: the faucet. There's so many things we take for granted
Speaker 5: here in our you know, in our country, that they
Speaker 5: don't have, or their basic necessities that the government can't
Speaker 5: provide for. But no, that's right. It's the real politique
Speaker 5: to how we should deal with this, and we should
Speaker 5: get back to containment, get back to the countries that
Speaker 5: we know, our allies in that region, and support them
Speaker 5: and make sure that they don't fall. But let the
Speaker 5: ones in the region take care of it. Let's say,
Speaker 5: if Turkey is successful at carving out a Curtistan, they
Speaker 5: solve a couple of problems. They solve a revolutionary potential
Speaker 5: problem in their country. The Turks are concerned that the
Speaker 5: Kurds will all get together because there's thirty million of them.
Speaker 5: If they all get together to tide to overthrow the
Speaker 5: Turkish government, well that creates a NATO problem then at
Speaker 5: some level. So that's what I think that we should
Speaker 5: the path we should go down.
Speaker 4: Military analyst Mike Lyons, Mike, great to talk to you,
Speaker 4: Thanks so much for the insight.
Speaker 2: Great guys, thanks for me absolutely so, I can't tell
Speaker 2: if I'm inconsistent or wise. I don't actually know, but
Speaker 2: as you know, if you listen, I'm big time supporter
Speaker 2: of US being involved in Ukraine, and I think it's
Speaker 2: very important to the world order, and I think it's
Speaker 2: directly important to the United States, and the Secretary of
Speaker 2: Defense Austin announced yesterday another one billion dollars in military
Speaker 2: aid for you. I'm all for supporting Ukraine. I am
Speaker 2: not for getting involved in these Middle Eastern countries. I
Speaker 2: just don't see what we've gotten out of it over
Speaker 2: the years.
Speaker 4: Well, obviously the answer to that is long and complicated
Speaker 4: and probably book length. You know, I'm more than happy
Speaker 4: to engage in that chat if you want. It just
Speaker 4: has to do with our national interest obviously, and which
Speaker 4: seel like we.
Speaker 2: Get the same result whether we get involved or not
Speaker 2: in these countries Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, in the Middle East. Yeah, you could make
Speaker 4: that argument, But more on that to come. After a
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Speaker 4: It's interesting.
Speaker 2: Mike Lines is one hundred percent stay uninvolved in Syria
Speaker 2: and Trump, who's going to be president here soon and
Speaker 2: to some extent he is is also, we have no
Speaker 2: business being there, so that's probably the direction we're going
Speaker 2: for better or worse. Oh, we got a lot more
Speaker 2: on the way. You can join us anytime on the
Speaker 2: text line four one five two nine five kftcrong.
Speaker 7: A woman has filed a lawsuit against Diddy, accusing him
Speaker 7: of assault and dangling her off a seventeen story balcony,
Speaker 7: which is just incredible grip strength for a guy coated
Speaker 7: in pavi oil.
Speaker 2: Wow. Wow, So I really I see that you didn't
Speaker 2: grab any of them, Michael, and I understand why their
Speaker 2: first like four jokes were all about the assassination of
Speaker 2: that United Healthcare CEO in Manhattan, and unfortunately I saw
Speaker 2: blowback against that before I saw the jokes would put
Speaker 2: a thought in my head, I hate that. Uh. I
Speaker 2: didn't think they were particularly out of line him. They're distasteful.
Speaker 2: I don't like being the joke police. Ever, if you're
Speaker 2: intent his humor, you know some of it's distasteful, and
Speaker 2: then you know, if you don't like it, you don't
Speaker 2: like it. But I don't mind jokes about serious things.
Speaker 2: The this stuff the New York Time Times headline. Some
Speaker 2: on social media see suspect and ceo killing as a
Speaker 2: folk hero. You know that's sort of like turning him
Speaker 2: into a folk hero stuff I am bothered by. But
Speaker 2: making jokes about things either you like it. I had
Speaker 2: the same experience.
Speaker 4: I ran into the online condemnation, thought, oh, I had
Speaker 4: to listen to those jokes, and I found them much
Speaker 4: more innocent than they're portrayed.
Speaker 2: A couple of yes. On the insurance thing, we got
Speaker 2: quite a few texts that are really interesting about the
Speaker 2: way insurance companies handle bills and people who work in
Speaker 2: the industry and stuff like that. And again, I'm uncomfortable
Speaker 2: with even getting into that because there's a certain bit
Speaker 2: of the killer getting his way. It's kind of like
Speaker 2: when you read a school shooter's manifesto and take his
Speaker 2: argument seriously. Yeah, I get that.
Speaker 4: Ethically, I'm uncomfortable going into it, although there are it's
Speaker 4: beyond denial that we have serious issues with health care
Speaker 4: and insurance and stuff in the country, and a lot
Speaker 4: of people get hurt and a lot of people are mad.
Speaker 2: So I get it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we shouldn't buy the discussion with the blood of
Speaker 4: this poor son of a gun who's gunned down on
Speaker 4: the pavement, but it is a legitimate discussion. I just
Speaker 4: hate to even imply that therefore it's okay to shoot
Speaker 4: people in cold blood.
Speaker 2: Well, we got some text about it. We'll get to
Speaker 2: them later. This hour.
Speaker 4: Got an email from Jan wanted to know if I
Speaker 4: buy a present for my husband.
Speaker 2: I shouldn't have used a real name. Ah, you just
Speaker 2: ruined their Christmas. I hope you're happy you probably Christmas,
Speaker 2: probably every Christmas to come, because the pain of this
Speaker 2: day will linger in their memories. Anyway.
Speaker 4: A woman whose name is definitely not Jan wonder whether
Speaker 4: if she got her husband a present from the Armstrong
Speaker 4: a Giddy store, whether it would get there in time
Speaker 4: for Christmas?
Speaker 2: Yes, but do it today? Oh I need to do that.
Speaker 2: I actually had that thought over the weekend.
Speaker 4: The premium may in ge hoodie flying off the shelves.
Speaker 4: People are loving the cut, the crab t shirt, and
Speaker 4: the hot dogs are dogs as well.
Speaker 2: Armstrong getdy dot com? How is it? How do you
Speaker 2: crass commercialism? How do you feel about me buying family
Speaker 2: members Armstrong and Getty stuff? Does that seem it's a
Speaker 2: little odd? Is it's fine? You would you would like it?
Speaker 2: Here's a gift to you. You helping me by wearing
Speaker 2: an advertisement that puts more money in my pocket. It's Michael,
Speaker 2: I bought family member stuff. Yeah, they liked it.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, And I don't know if you've seen the books,
Speaker 4: the money actually doesn't go in our pockets. But I remember, well,
Speaker 4: this is a long story. To listen to the show
Speaker 4: because they see the advertisement. That's what I oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: because yeah, that's that's a good point.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Ah oh, we've just got thirty if I bought
Speaker 2: my parents, I bought you a billboard on I eighty
Speaker 2: in your name for Christmas advertising the radio show. It's well,
Speaker 2: it's it's.
Speaker 4: A warm wearable that taken the say look, this is
Speaker 4: my brother, my son, my whatever.
Speaker 2: It says. Shit, I don't know, do whatever you want.
Speaker 2: Trump did an hour plus interview and meet the press
Speaker 2: yesterday kind of got obscured by the news of the
Speaker 2: day with the ultrabiased she Wolf.
Speaker 4: Kristen Welker will have the highlights of that interchange between
Speaker 4: the evil suckubists and the power resident elect coming up
Speaker 4: Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 6: Well, I don't want to be breaking up families. So
Speaker 6: the only way you don't break up the family is
Speaker 6: you keep them together, and you have to send them all.
Speaker 2: Back there you go.
Speaker 4: Trump, in response to the inevitable question, you say you
Speaker 4: wanted to poor people.
Speaker 2: Are you going to separate families? Always asked from the
Speaker 2: point of view of it being bad, even though he
Speaker 2: ran on that got elected and sixty percent of people
Speaker 2: approve of it. So it just drives me nuts.
Speaker 4: Whenever we talk about this, I'm reminded of my youthful
Speaker 4: idea of living in Germany to work and study and
Speaker 4: stuff like that, because I studied German and thought that
Speaker 4: might be interesting, and it became clear that there were
Speaker 4: severe limitations in getting into the country.
Speaker 2: Then staying in there and working was very, very difficult.
Speaker 4: You had to get permits and stuff like that, so
Speaker 4: I and I accepted that. I thought, well, that's unfortunate,
Speaker 4: but it is what it is, the idea that I
Speaker 4: would go to Germany sneak in and then when they say, hey,
Speaker 4: you don't have authorization to be here, and you certainly
Speaker 4: don't have authorization to work, me saying, how are you
Speaker 4: gonna separate.
Speaker 2: Me and my family?
Speaker 4: And what would the Germans say to that, Well, they'd
Speaker 4: say it in German, so you wouldn't understand it, folks.
Speaker 4: But what it would mean essentially is be quiet and
Speaker 4: get back in line.
Speaker 2: It's not our problem. We got a bunch of clips,
Speaker 2: but I thought maybe the most important one that should
Speaker 2: have gotten a lot of attention but didn't from Trump
Speaker 2: was when he was asked about do you ran on
Speaker 2: re retribution and he said, I'm really looking to make
Speaker 2: our country successful. I'm not looking to go back into
Speaker 2: the past. I'm looking to make our country successful. Retribution
Speaker 2: will be through success. Okay, there's your hitler for you,
Speaker 2: there's your hitler, there's your thermal.
Speaker 4: Would be another election again, well, and he has made
Speaker 4: that point repeatedly. The retribution is how successful we're going
Speaker 4: to be.
Speaker 2: That lays it to rest. But it's such a good
Speaker 2: clickbaiting narrative.
Speaker 4: The lion liars in the media and Kristen Welker is
Speaker 4: their unholy princess. They just can't leave that to the
Speaker 4: narrative alone.
Speaker 2: Stop it.
Speaker 4: There are real problems with Trump quld making stuff up right.
Speaker 4: By the way, I'm told Daniel Penny has been acquitted
Speaker 4: in the death of that homeless lunatic on.
Speaker 2: The New York subway. Wow, so it's over for him,
Speaker 2: Thank you, bless him?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, shame somebody had to die, but enforce the
Speaker 4: law in New York.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well you don't want to die, don't go jumping
Speaker 2: on a subway car threat and a whole bunch of
Speaker 2: innocent people. That'd be a good way to avoid it.
Speaker 2: Poor Daniel Penny, What a trial he has been through.
Speaker 2: And I shouldn't use that term. What a you're the
Speaker 2: word guy, come up with a word? What a difficult
Speaker 2: period of his complit journey whatever, Yeah, journey is good.
Speaker 2: What a horrible thing to have to go through when
Speaker 2: all you did was you're the one alpha male in
Speaker 2: the room who's willing to try to stop this guy
Speaker 2: from hurting people. Everybody on the train car was thrilled
Speaker 2: that you did something about it, and you came this
Speaker 2: close to go into prison.
Speaker 4: Yeah all right, So back to Trump and Welker. A
Speaker 4: lot of people have enjoyed this clip. It's thirty seven, Michael.
Speaker 4: They are discussing January sixth.
Speaker 8: In general, officials say that the order never came in.
Speaker 9: For the national ars on January sixth. Let me ask
Speaker 9: you this about.
Speaker 6: Joe in a statement that he has destroyed evidence.
Speaker 9: Let me ask you this about January sixth.
Speaker 6: I wish you could be a if you you know,
Speaker 6: you have such potential, if you could be just just
Speaker 6: non biased. You hurt yourself so badly. I'm telling you,
Speaker 6: they deleted and destroyed all the evidence. Everyone knows it,
Speaker 6: and you off like it doesn't mean anything. No, if I.
Speaker 9: Didn't deny it, that's all I'm saying.
Speaker 6: List if I did it, you would be standing up
Speaker 6: in that chairs shouting at me, and you know what
Speaker 6: I do, I'd say, you got me.
Speaker 2: My main takeaway with that is, Okay, you're gonna ask
Speaker 2: him about January sixth again and try to get him
Speaker 2: to admit to something or whatever. Do you I assume,
Speaker 2: Christian Walker, you don't like Trump and don't want him
Speaker 2: to have power and be elected. You're helping him. You're
Speaker 2: helping him.
Speaker 10: Yes, the majority of people are like whatever, move on
Speaker 10: to something else. I know a lot of super hardcore
Speaker 10: Trumpeters would love to talk about January sixth for the
Speaker 10: rest of their.
Speaker 2: Lives, but that's not where most of America is.
Speaker 4: Well, no, America saw it and they had a choice
Speaker 4: between Trump and then Biden and then Harris, and thank
Speaker 4: goodness said we're not electing either one of them. So yeah,
Speaker 4: he brings with him that baggage. But let's let's look
Speaker 4: to that. What are we accomplishing by relitting gating it
Speaker 4: at this point? And Jack and I were both harshly
Speaker 4: critical of Trump then, and I have not changed my
Speaker 4: opinion of his activities on the day one Ioeda, I
Speaker 4: still condemn it. And yet here we are, excuse me,
Speaker 4: in the year twenty twenty four, with a hell of
Speaker 4: a lot on her plate.
Speaker 2: Let's get on it.
Speaker 4: So speaking, which Christen Welker, who again I should have
Speaker 4: written out all of my various insulting adjectives I'd had
Speaker 4: in my head to use for her, because I find
Speaker 4: her obnoxious, smugly, one sided, and snotty ooh, just not
Speaker 4: a good person anyway.
Speaker 2: Ah, she brought up the.
Speaker 4: Federal minimum wage and clip thirty nine B.
Speaker 2: You see that one. Michael.
Speaker 8: I don't if you remember this, but during the debate
Speaker 8: in twenty twenty I asked you if you would raise
Speaker 8: the minimum wage. You said you would consider it. And
Speaker 8: so my question for you is now that you are
Speaker 8: going back to the White House for these nineteen states
Speaker 8: that voted for you, are you going to raise effect.
Speaker 6: It's a very low number, I will agree it's a
Speaker 6: very low number. Let me give you the downside though,
Speaker 6: In California they raise it up to a very high number,
Speaker 6: and your restaurants are going out of business all over
Speaker 6: the place. The population is shrinking. It's had a very
Speaker 6: negative impact. But there is a level at which you
Speaker 6: could do it absolutely.
Speaker 9: What is that level?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 6: I mean, I really don't know. I can say this,
Speaker 6: you have a lot of businesses that are open and
Speaker 6: thriving because of the lower minimum wage. If you raise
Speaker 6: it too much, and you understand this, if California went crazy,
Speaker 6: they went crazy, and people the restaurants are closing all
Speaker 6: of them, many more people are hurt.
Speaker 8: So I hear you saying similarly to sort of what
Speaker 8: you said in twenty twenty.
Speaker 9: Will you consider this something you're going to look at.
Speaker 6: I'd want to speak to the governors. And the other
Speaker 6: thing that's very complicated about minimum wages is places are
Speaker 6: so different. Mississippi and Alabama and great places are very
Speaker 6: different than New York or California, I mean in terms
Speaker 6: of the cour of living.
Speaker 2: And other things.
Speaker 6: So it'd be nice to have just a minimum wage
Speaker 6: for the whole country, but it wouldn't work because you
Speaker 6: have places where it's very inexpensive to live, where a
Speaker 6: minimum wage, which is eight or nine dollars might be
Speaker 6: you know, might have very much, very little effect because
Speaker 6: the cost of living in certain places is really low.
Speaker 2: This makes me so tired, I know. So first of all,
Speaker 2: he's the leader of what is now the working Class Party,
Speaker 2: and the raising the minimum wage polls. Well, it's unfortunate.
Speaker 2: I think with a five minutes of explanation, you could
Speaker 2: explain to a lot of people why it's not actually
Speaker 2: good for you to raise the minimum wage. But Trump realizes,
Speaker 2: you know, the party that he's leading. But even when
Speaker 2: he states to her there's a downside to raising the
Speaker 2: min wait, she just completely blows that off and goes
Speaker 2: with the next question of obviously it would be good
Speaker 2: for everyone to raise the minimum wage. I feel like
Speaker 2: I should inject here one from one of your Thomas
Speaker 2: swell so Well quote on Twitter about the minimum wage.
Speaker 2: The minimum wage law is very cleverly misnamed. The real
Speaker 2: minimum wage is zero, and that is what many inexperienced
Speaker 2: and low skilled people receive as a result of legislation
Speaker 2: that makes it illegal to pay them what they're currently
Speaker 2: worth to an employer.
Speaker 4: Well said, very succinctly, said, Trump frustrates me always because
Speaker 4: he does just a half assed job of of explaining
Speaker 4: some of the principles that I hold dear.
Speaker 2: But you know, he is what he is.
Speaker 4: But the federal minimum wage is to call it irrelevant
Speaker 4: is to exaggerate how relevant it is. It is a
Speaker 4: complete non factor in anyone's life. It's a silly discussion.
Speaker 4: If states want minimum wages, they should pass them. There is,
Speaker 4: you know, with the exception of a couple like enslaved
Speaker 4: immigrants who are probably trying to escape right now, and
Speaker 4: I wish them well, there is nobody in America who
Speaker 4: is exchanging their labor for a wage that they are
Speaker 4: unwilling to exchange their labor for.
Speaker 2: Nobody.
Speaker 4: If you don't want to do a job at a
Speaker 4: particular wage, you will not take that job. The idea
Speaker 4: that the government can, somehow, especially the federal government, prop
Speaker 4: up some sort of minimum it's just it ignores everything
Speaker 4: that is the most fundamental about economics. It's just silly.
Speaker 4: It's a silly question. I mean, it's it's pretty silly
Speaker 4: on the state level. On the federal level, it's completely ridiculous.
Speaker 4: Say you're gonna have a minimum wage for Coonhuller, Kentucky.
Speaker 4: And what is that gonna do for the people in
Speaker 4: Seattle for instance? Or La Nothing, it's just dopey Kristen.
Speaker 2: Oh, what's the main business in Coonhuller?
Speaker 4: Squirrel skinning, mostly squirrel pelts, squol, squirrel coats, squirrel hats.
Speaker 2: I make and sell, I make and sell frog gig
Speaker 2: and sticks. Oh, you're the jack of Jack's froggy sticks. Yes,
Speaker 2: jack sticks are very pointy. My daddy used to tell me, boy,
Speaker 2: you go frog giggins son. You don't have jack sticks,
Speaker 2: you might as well have popstickle stick. Eh. Anyway, I
Speaker 2: assume you stab the frogs or something.
Speaker 4: More of Trump and welk in a moment after a
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Speaker 4: Let's see which what else do we want to play?
Speaker 2: I like where he calls her hostile and nasty. Yeah,
Speaker 2: let's play for me, Michael.
Speaker 6: The press has to straighten itself out because Honestly, it's
Speaker 6: lost all credibility based on the press. I should have
Speaker 6: gotten no votes none. Oh, and yet I got the
Speaker 6: highest number ever. And the reason is because I'm able
Speaker 6: to go on a show even like yours, even though
Speaker 6: you're very hostile, I'm able to go on a show
Speaker 6: like yours.
Speaker 9: No, Well, hopefully you thought it was a fair interview.
Speaker 9: We covered a lot of policy grounds.
Speaker 6: It's fair only in that you allowed me to say
Speaker 6: what I say. But you know, the answers, the questions
Speaker 6: are you pretty nasty?
Speaker 2: But look, that's true. You know, you would think.
Speaker 6: The press would like to see strong boarders, great education,
Speaker 6: are powerful military. So we have a country left and
Speaker 6: all these different things, and somehow they don't want.
Speaker 2: To see that.
Speaker 4: As always, I wish I could, you know, be the fly,
Speaker 4: or not the fly on the wall, but the voice
Speaker 4: in Trump's here and have him say, like you've pointed out,
Speaker 4: Jack many times, you ask every question from the perspective
Speaker 4: of liberal Americans. More than half the country is conservative.
Speaker 4: Ask a question from their perspective ones you might like it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And on some specific issues like the deportation, there's
Speaker 2: polling that shows the vast majority it's in ease. It's
Speaker 2: a sixty to forty win for deporting illegals, right, So
Speaker 2: why why ask it from the point of view of
Speaker 2: the forty speak which she asked every single one of
Speaker 2: her immigration questions. From the perspective of AOC pretending to
Speaker 2: cry in a parking lot miles away, the phoniness thirty one.
Speaker 2: He's talking about, you know, deporting people, and you know
Speaker 2: both ends of the equation.
Speaker 6: You know, the people that have been treated very unfairly
Speaker 6: are the people that have been online for ten years
Speaker 6: to come into the country.
Speaker 2: And we're going to make.
Speaker 6: It very easy for people to come in in terms
Speaker 6: of they have to pass the test. They have to
Speaker 6: be able to tell you what the statue of liberty is.
Speaker 6: They have to tell you a little bit about our country.
Speaker 6: They have to love our country. They can't come out
Speaker 6: of prisons. We don't want people that are in for murder.
Speaker 6: We have to get the criminals out of our country,
Speaker 6: and we got to do it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're going to let the good people in, the
Speaker 4: smart people who we can use, and we're going to
Speaker 4: get rid of the murderers. But what about separating families?
Speaker 4: What the hell?
Speaker 2: So we got some we had the conversation earlier about
Speaker 2: that United Healthcare CEO getting assassinated in New York and
Speaker 2: how awful that is, and anybody who acts like that's
Speaker 2: a way to fix problems is a lunatic. But we
Speaker 2: got some interesting comments on the insurance industry and things
Speaker 2: that people have observed and experience that are worth discussing,
Speaker 2: So we can do that when we come back. Stay tuned.
Speaker 1: Arm Strong Hengetty fans are counting down to one last
Speaker 1: magical performance on Taylor Swift's Eras tour. One thing is
Speaker 1: certain the tour's earthshaking impact.
Speaker 2: Over the past two years.
Speaker 1: The newly minted.
Speaker 11: Billionaire has become Spotify's most streamed artists, broken box office records,
Speaker 11: lifted the NFL's ratings, and boosted economies, all while dropping.
Speaker 2: More than seventy songs.
Speaker 11: Surveys estimate the arastour has driven more than seven billion
Speaker 11: dollars in consumer spending in the US and Canada alone,
Speaker 11: between tickets, travel, food, merch and outfits.
Speaker 2: I remember we broke this down when she was touring
Speaker 2: the US, the amount of money she brought into La
Speaker 2: the three I think she played there in various cities.
Speaker 2: It is a huge economic boom boom boom if she
Speaker 2: came to your town and now she's finally finishing up
Speaker 2: a two year long tour so she can fully focus
Speaker 2: on Travis Kelcey and the Chiefs playoff run. TMZ is
Speaker 2: saying the United Healthcare ceo murder person of interest has
Speaker 2: been detained by the police. I don't see that anywhere else.
Speaker 2: Oht CBS has it now. A person of interest is
Speaker 2: being questioned in Pennsylvania in the United Healthcare CEO's murder.
Speaker 2: Could be nothing, could be everything. We'll find out they
Speaker 2: probably got them. I'll bet they do too. So we
Speaker 2: already had the discussion of whether or not we should
Speaker 2: be dignifying the guy's probable arguments about healthcare costs and
Speaker 2: being out of control, which we kind of are by
Speaker 2: bringing it up. But got these texts. My wife works
Speaker 2: for an oncologist here in California as billing specialist, so
Speaker 2: all she does is bill insurance companies, and she tells
Speaker 2: me that the dirtiest thing the insurance companies do is
Speaker 2: repeatedly deny certain services hoping the bill will go away.
Speaker 2: And it works because the biller gets tired of trying.
Speaker 2: What you guys said, about doctors losing money on medical
Speaker 2: Medicare patients is one hundred percent true. I think we've
Speaker 2: all experienced that. It seems like they just say no,
Speaker 2: at least once to see if you'll go ahead and
Speaker 2: pay it, and then sometimes like I, just ignore it
Speaker 2: and eventually gets paid, which is a very frustrating way
Speaker 2: to have a system. Right, Yeah, I can picture that.
Speaker 4: And again, none of this justifies gunning a man down
Speaker 4: in cold blood, not even close. But yeah, I could
Speaker 4: see as a policy, Yeah, hey, just deny everything. If
Speaker 4: people have the wherewithal to reapply, then give it to them,
Speaker 4: but we'll cut four percent that way.
Speaker 2: Another point of view, different topic. I can guarantee you
Speaker 2: that if insurance companies approve everything doctors recommend, we will
Speaker 2: soon be given MRIs every time we have a headache.
Speaker 2: The problem is fair resolution of what's medically necessary, and
Speaker 2: that's hard to achieve when the person making that determination
Speaker 2: is employed by the company that has to pay the bills.
Speaker 2: We may need a separate, independent board to make such decisions,
Speaker 2: rather than a claims agment claims agent who thinks he's
Speaker 2: going to move up the corporate ladder by being hard
Speaker 2: nosed and save the company money.
Speaker 4: All right, as I've had I've got a couple of friends,
Speaker 4: golf buddies who are doctors, and they pointed out that,
Speaker 4: you know, a patient says, my elbow hurts, I want
Speaker 4: an MRI, and you tell them, well, there's practically no
Speaker 4: chance that it's anything an MRI would discover. Blah blah blah,
Speaker 4: it's just not worth the cost. And then that one
Speaker 4: in two hundred and fifty case turns out he had
Speaker 4: a tumor in his elbow and it kills him or
Speaker 4: even you know, he has to go in a hospital
Speaker 4: or whatever, you get sued. It's enormously expensive, and so
Speaker 4: you think, all right, ef itt you want an MRI,
Speaker 4: I'll send you for an MRI. It's a complete waste
Speaker 4: of everybody's time and money. But the insurance companies say, dude,
Speaker 4: you don't need an MRI. So, yeah, that push and
Speaker 4: pull is fairly natural.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I remember though, on the I.
Speaker 4: Wouldn't claim for a second that it's not sometimes unfair
Speaker 4: and immoral.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I know, somebody right now keeps getting denied for
Speaker 2: they got a black spot in their lungs something like
Speaker 2: that they can't improve for any MR what's the other one.
Speaker 2: The other one's cat scans or whatever. I had that
Speaker 2: at the beginning of my cancer, where they just yeah,
Speaker 2: that the insurance company hasn't agreed to that yet, we're
Speaker 2: gonna so you could. I finally paid cash. I paid
Speaker 2: twelve hundred bucks out of my own pocket and went
Speaker 2: to a different place. I figured out which one was
Speaker 2: the cheapest, drove forty five miles and had it done there,
Speaker 2: paid cash. It got reimbursed by the insurance company. But
Speaker 2: the fact that they wouldn't do right off the bat
Speaker 2: was highly annoying, given the fact we were already down
Speaker 2: the road to something wrong. So right, you know, sometimes
Speaker 2: it's very frustrating. Again, does not justify murdering the CEO
Speaker 2: has nothing to do with this decision, especially because and
Speaker 2: that the correspondent made reference to this. We were talking
Speaker 2: about it earlier.
Speaker 4: Is the unholy uh relationship between the government and the
Speaker 4: private health insurers and how the government has forced them
Speaker 4: into an incredibly difficult spot. Or they're making a lot
Speaker 4: of profits, but they're essentially we the ratepayers, are getting
Speaker 4: ripped off.
Speaker 2: But more on that to come. Well, if they did
Speaker 2: arrest the guy who did it, We're going to find
Speaker 2: out what his reasoning was pretty soon. If you miss
Speaker 2: an Iver, get the podcast Armstrong and Getty on demand
Speaker 2: Armstrong and Getty