Speaker 1: Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio of the
Speaker 1: George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Ketty Armstrong
Speaker 1: and Katty and now he Armstrong and Hetty.
Speaker 2: We are suspending campaign operations. This is incredibly difficult because
Speaker 2: I know that some will think it's an admission of kilt,
Speaker 2: and it most certainly is not. We're not doing it
Speaker 2: because of the allegations. We're doing it because of the
Speaker 2: structures that are being taken away from us by those
Speaker 2: in power.
Speaker 3: Those in power like Bernie Sanders and zoron Mum Dannie.
Speaker 3: I mean, when Bernie and the socialist communist mayor of
Speaker 3: New York have turned on you, then you really got
Speaker 3: no friends. So it's that Graham Platiner dude, and he
Speaker 3: got out, and everybody knew he was going to get out,
Speaker 3: and I think everybody knew that's where this story was
Speaker 3: headed a long time ago, really, But there's a lot
Speaker 3: of interesting stuff around that, and we welcome to the show.
Speaker 3: Are one of our favorite political analysts that exist anywhere
Speaker 3: on the planet, lonhe Chen, David and Diane Stephie fellow
Speaker 3: in American Public Policy Studies at the Hoover Institution and
Speaker 3: the director of Domestic Policy Studies at Stanford University.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show, Hey Jack, Good to be with you.
Speaker 1: Pretty good. Where to start? Maybe here?
Speaker 3: One guest I had on earlier I hadn't seen the
Speaker 3: latest polling was Platner way down in the polls against Collins.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 5: I think the polling was actually pretty competitive, okay, And
Speaker 5: that's why Democrats were so keen to figure out what
Speaker 5: to do about the situation, because they see the main
Speaker 5: Senate race as being a critical part of their pathway
Speaker 5: to try to take the majority of the Senate. It's
Speaker 5: going to be a tough pathway for Democrats just because
Speaker 5: of the states that are in play this cycle. But
Speaker 5: I think they really felt that Plattner had an opportunity
Speaker 5: to beat Susan Collins, and so this whole thing has
Speaker 5: been very, very, very disruptive to their Democrat plans.
Speaker 3: Here's one of my thoughts on this, an interesting angle.
Speaker 3: I was reading Mark Alpern's newsletter earlier today, and he
Speaker 3: was making the point that these voters in Maine chose
Speaker 3: this guy knowing most of it. You know, the most
Speaker 3: recent pretty solid rape allegation is new, but a lot
Speaker 3: of it was known, and they still chose them, Which
Speaker 3: makes me wonder where we are on the character issue
Speaker 3: with candidates across this country. As long as somebody's on
Speaker 3: our team, do we care anything about their personal lives.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, we heard this
Speaker 5: over and over again. You know, you looked at the
Speaker 5: different politicians who stood behind Graham Plattner even as allegations
Speaker 5: came out.
Speaker 6: Not this one.
Speaker 5: I mean, this one obviously was a more extreme version,
Speaker 5: but there were lots of similar allegations, and not just
Speaker 5: those allegations, but also severe lapses in judgment and character.
Speaker 5: You know, the idea that he'd have an offensive tattoo,
Speaker 5: that was something. You know, there were a bunch of
Speaker 5: stories about this guy that suggested he was not exactly
Speaker 5: the most savory character. And the argument that basically supporters
Speaker 5: of his used was well, you know, he's our guy,
Speaker 5: and it doesn't really matter because look, you know, the
Speaker 5: other side has a bunch of scoundrels too, so we're
Speaker 5: going to run a scoundrel and it's not going to matter.
Speaker 5: So I do think Jack, we're in a different era
Speaker 5: in American politics. You know, if you think back to
Speaker 5: the eighties, and nineties and even two thousands that the
Speaker 5: character question did reflect in a much more different way
Speaker 5: than it does today in today's politics. It's really come
Speaker 5: down to what I call the shirts and skins era. Basically,
Speaker 5: it just depends on if someone's on your side or not.
Speaker 5: If someone's on your side, then what they've done is forgivable.
Speaker 5: And you know, I think both sides have been guilty
Speaker 5: of this, you.
Speaker 1: Know, in terms of the sexual stuff.
Speaker 3: Rapes a different case, but obviously, but the cheating on
Speaker 3: your wife and that sort of lifestyle, from what I understand,
Speaker 3: our European friends have always marveled we care about that
Speaker 3: because they just don't care about your private sex life.
Speaker 3: You know, obviously we're talking about legal stuff between consenting adults,
Speaker 3: but in Europe they don't care about your private sex life,
Speaker 3: whereas the United States we always have. So maybe we're
Speaker 3: just moving into that sort of thinking.
Speaker 6: I suppose.
Speaker 5: I mean, I again, I don't want to dismiss it,
Speaker 5: because I do think that there are elements of character
Speaker 5: that are reflections on how how people will govern.
Speaker 3: I mean, right, sorry to interrupt you, but the fact
Speaker 3: that this guy was on various hookup sites.
Speaker 1: Trying to get laid weeks after he was married. What
Speaker 1: the heck is that?
Speaker 3: I mean, that's that's that's a different thing than some
Speaker 3: of the affairs we've heard about in the past with
Speaker 3: different totally but.
Speaker 5: I mean, just like Eric Swalwell, that was different too, right,
Speaker 5: And and look at how long Swallwell really hung in
Speaker 5: there until By the way, if you look at Swalwell's
Speaker 5: exit video, not all that dissimilar from the Platiner one, right,
Speaker 5: sort of disheveled saying look that this doesn't mean I'm guilt, YadA, YadA.
Speaker 5: I mean, the whole thing is just remarkable if you
Speaker 5: look at the severe defects in character that both of
Speaker 5: these candidates exhibited.
Speaker 6: And how well known.
Speaker 5: A lot of this was right, And I think that's
Speaker 5: part of the challenge, is that you had so many people,
Speaker 5: whether it was Slowwell or certainly Platiner, who because he
Speaker 5: wore the right jersey, we're willing to say, you know what,
Speaker 5: it doesn't matter. And you know, the argument that they
Speaker 5: would repeatedly use was the other side does it too,
Speaker 5: And that's when you know that our politics have entered
Speaker 5: a new era, and frankly, I think a more troubling time.
Speaker 1: Uh, you're the perfect guy to ask about this.
Speaker 3: So I assume the Democrats are going to take the
Speaker 3: House for all kinds of different reasons historically, blah blah,
Speaker 3: blah blah. But why the Senate is so close to
Speaker 3: fifty to fifty and each seat matters so much?
Speaker 1: Why is it? Would it be such a big deal?
Speaker 3: What would be the difference between the Republicans controlling the
Speaker 3: Senate or the Democrats controlling the Senate in the last
Speaker 3: two years of Trump's last term.
Speaker 5: I think the crucial difference is really two things. One
Speaker 5: is appointments and nominations. You know, the President makes a
Speaker 5: whole bunch of nominations, and the Senate's the only chamber
Speaker 5: that really advises and consents on those. And so if
Speaker 5: Democrats were to control the Senate, that would make it
Speaker 5: much harder for President Trump to fill his administration. I
Speaker 5: presume the Democrats would blockade pretty much all of his nominees,
Speaker 5: whether for courts or for executive positions. So that's number one,
Speaker 5: And then number two is the legislative question. Right there's
Speaker 5: not a whole lot of legislating happening right now. Congress
Speaker 5: doesn't do a lot of that anymore, which is kind
Speaker 5: of funny because anybody who studied the US Constitution will
Speaker 5: know it's Congress's job to, I don't know, make laws, but.
Speaker 6: Didn't really do that anymore.
Speaker 5: But to the degree that they do, it tends to
Speaker 5: require unified control of both the House and the Senate,
Speaker 5: because if one, you know, one sort of party controls
Speaker 5: both houses, then that creates an issue. Now, in this case,
Speaker 5: it's interesting because if the Democrats do take the House,
Speaker 5: then that piece is less relevant for the Senate because
Speaker 5: you've already got a roade block there. The only way
Speaker 5: for Trump to continue to legislate would be if Republicans
Speaker 5: were able to pull off a miracle and hold onto
Speaker 5: the House and hold onto the Senate.
Speaker 3: So I want to ask you about this about the
Speaker 3: Democratic Party and specifically their progressive or socialist wing of
Speaker 3: the Democratic Party. I don't know if you saw that
Speaker 3: video that surfaced a few days back, Scott Wiener, San
Speaker 3: Francisco political legend who's trying to get Nancy Pelosi's seat.
Speaker 3: He's always been a big active part of anything LGBTQ
Speaker 3: plus trans this sort of stuff, and he's a hero
Speaker 3: to that crowd. He was at a big Pride event
Speaker 3: and he got attacked by a bunch of other progressives
Speaker 3: because he's been too friendly to Israel over the years.
Speaker 3: And then I read some analysis that said, to my mind,
Speaker 3: crazy is in the Democratic Party the center of gravity
Speaker 3: is moved from the whole sexuality thing to the Jewish
Speaker 3: Israel support thing. Do you think that's accurate and how
Speaker 3: the deal is.
Speaker 5: That I do, Jack, this has become the new litmus
Speaker 5: test in progressive politics, and it has moved from I mean,
Speaker 5: we've seen the progression of this over the years, right
Speaker 5: from issues of gender identity to race and ethnicity questions,
Speaker 5: and now I do think it's a question that a
Speaker 5: lot of Democratic progressive activists are asking, which has a
Speaker 5: candidate received money from APAC, which is the political action
Speaker 5: committee that supports causes aligned with Israeli Jewish issues. And
Speaker 5: I think that has become the litmus test now for
Speaker 5: a lot of Democrats out there, and the question is
Speaker 5: have you taken that money? And the funny part of this, Jack,
Speaker 5: is if you look back in Democratic Party politics, there
Speaker 5: was a time back in the nineteen nineties and two thousands,
Speaker 5: not to date myself, but there was a time when
Speaker 5: that was worn as a badge of honor that a
Speaker 5: lot of Democrats wanted to be perceived as being prostry,
Speaker 5: certainly pro Jewish issues in the US, and that was
Speaker 5: something that they wore proudly, and that has completely flipped
Speaker 5: on its head. And I think it's a really disgusting
Speaker 5: part of progressive politics in my view, the degree to
Speaker 5: which some of this anti Semitism has been not just
Speaker 5: tolerated but encouraged by elements of the progressive left. And
Speaker 5: I think that's going to be a big challenge for
Speaker 5: them going forward and could signal. The last thing I'll
Speaker 5: say about this is a could signal of realignment. I
Speaker 5: think of a lot of Jewish voters in the US
Speaker 5: away from the Democratic Party.
Speaker 3: Well to the point to the point of not just
Speaker 3: you know, we don't like what Israel is doing in
Speaker 3: Gaza or whatever that debate they had in Michigan the
Speaker 3: other night. That guy doesn't think Israel should exist running
Speaker 3: against a mainstream Democrat.
Speaker 5: I mean, that's the problem is that, you know, it
Speaker 5: starts with critiques of the Israeli government, which I mean, look,
Speaker 5: people can have different opinions of how successful or unsuccessful
Speaker 5: the current Israeli government has been that's a legitimate question.
Speaker 5: But what is illegitimate, of course, is then using that
Speaker 5: as a platform to basically say there should not be
Speaker 5: a Jewish state. That to me is this disscussed and
Speaker 5: I mean, it's disgusting. But it's also become frankly much
Speaker 5: more common on the progressive left, to the point that
Speaker 5: it is becoming a test of whether someone has taken
Speaker 5: that position, and that is the litmus test that some
Speaker 5: of these particularly democratic socialist organizations are using to endorse
Speaker 5: or not endorse candidates. So it's really staggering how quickly this.
Speaker 1: Is to be I know, that's what I was about
Speaker 1: to say.
Speaker 3: I can't believe that it's moved this far this fast
Speaker 3: in my life, where you'd stand up running for office
Speaker 3: and say I don't think the Jewish States should even exist,
Speaker 3: and you.
Speaker 1: Might be the nominee.
Speaker 6: Yeah, oh, in fact, you might have a very good
Speaker 6: chance of being the nominee. Right.
Speaker 5: I mean, you look at Zon Mamdani, You look at
Speaker 5: some of the positions that this person is running against.
Speaker 5: Karen vass In La Nitya Raman heard some of her positions.
Speaker 5: It's remarkable to see and it's just not something I
Speaker 5: thought I would see in my lifetime. You know, I
Speaker 5: thought there was a basic consensus amongst both political parties
Speaker 5: that America and the Jewish State of Israel are allies
Speaker 5: and friends and we're going to do everything we can
Speaker 5: to support the success of the Jewish state. That doesn't
Speaker 5: seem to be the case anymore for some on the
Speaker 5: progressive left.
Speaker 3: So, Lannie Jen, you are a smart, well spoken guy,
Speaker 3: and I wanted to give you a couple of minutes too.
Speaker 1: And even though we're now.
Speaker 3: Five days out from the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary
Speaker 3: of this country, give me a couple of minutes on
Speaker 3: why you think America is exceptional. Maybe I'm putting words
Speaker 3: in your mouth, whether or not you think America is exceptional,
Speaker 3: and why pushing back against some of those detractors in
Speaker 3: the socialist wing of the Democratic Party.
Speaker 5: Well, America is exceptional, There's just no question about it.
Speaker 5: I mean, my family and I just get back from
Speaker 5: a vacation. We went to Europe for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 5: And yeah, there's a lot of things that are historical
Speaker 5: and beautiful about Europe, but the whole time you're there,
Speaker 5: you're realizing you know that it's not America. The amount
Speaker 5: of innovation, ingenuity and creativity and drive of people is
Speaker 5: just different. But I think what makes America different is
Speaker 5: just this idea that you can have people from all
Speaker 5: over the world coming to a country who you know,
Speaker 5: may not speak the language, may not know much about
Speaker 5: what America is, and they can make a life here,
Speaker 5: and then they can have kids and grandkids that have
Speaker 5: success far beyond the success that they had. That kind
Speaker 5: of achievement and accomplishment. It's becoming less common, I will say,
Speaker 5: but it is still something that distinguishes America in my
Speaker 5: mind from other countries around the world.
Speaker 6: Is just the ability for people to come here.
Speaker 5: To make a life, to be successful, and to become
Speaker 5: part of this American story, and it is it is
Speaker 5: just the most exceptional place on earth. Jack, I really
Speaker 5: I cringe when I hear people who make it their
Speaker 5: job to look down on America who basically say, you know,
Speaker 5: I'm not proud to be in America because of X,
Speaker 5: Y and Z. It's like, if that's really the case,
Speaker 5: if you're not proud to be in this country, to
Speaker 5: be part of this country, there are lots of other
Speaker 5: places around the world you can go to look down
Speaker 5: on America.
Speaker 1: I agree. I've been talking about go fund me. I'll
Speaker 1: buy you a ticket. We'll send you to.
Speaker 5: Exactly I mean, you know, we'll use your frequent fire
Speaker 5: mouths and give you a one way ticket to places
Speaker 5: around the world where there is no respect for the
Speaker 5: same kind of values that we have in America. And
Speaker 5: I and I just think that this is such a
Speaker 5: special place and it is incumbent upon all of us
Speaker 5: to protect this place as this incredible experiment that's been
Speaker 5: so successful.
Speaker 6: There really is nowhere else around the world.
Speaker 5: Like I heard a great interview with Jensen Huang as
Speaker 5: the founder of this company and video which if anybody
Speaker 5: has stopping congratulations but but but he you know, he
Speaker 5: basically talks about how his story would just not have
Speaker 5: been possible anywhere else in the world. And this is
Speaker 5: something that I've heard over and over again, and I
Speaker 5: believe it because it's my story.
Speaker 6: Well, you know, things would not have been possible.
Speaker 5: For me in any other country but America. And that
Speaker 5: that's why I believe in this country so much. And
Speaker 5: that's why I do think our better days are ahead
Speaker 5: of us, because it's just such an awesome place, Jack,
Speaker 5: I mean it really is. And you know we've got
Speaker 5: our share problems, of course, you know we've got some disagreements,
Speaker 5: but fundamentally what a great place to live.
Speaker 6: Really, nowhere else better in the world.
Speaker 3: Lonnie Chen I knew you'd be great on that. Thank
Speaker 3: you for your time today. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 6: Hey, thanks, Jack, had a good one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And speaking of the guy runs n video, just
Speaker 3: the fact that what seven of the top eight country
Speaker 3: biggest companies in the world, most able companies in the
Speaker 3: world are all started by foreigners who came to this land.
Speaker 1: Anyway, more on that later. I want to tell you
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Speaker 3: And you use the code armstrong and in cognity dot
Speaker 3: com slash armstrong. I want to talk a little more
Speaker 3: about American exceptionalism, something that I left out the other
Speaker 3: day when we were talking about it, among other things.
Speaker 1: On the way stay.
Speaker 6: Here arm Strong, he yetni.
Speaker 3: So we're just talking a lot heat chan and got
Speaker 3: onto the topic about American exceptionalism and our culture and
Speaker 3: why this is the greatest country on earth and it is,
Speaker 3: and the reason that if you want to start something new,
Speaker 3: you come here, and because even with all our regulations
Speaker 3: everything like that, it's still all of a lot better
Speaker 3: in Europe and anywhere else, and you can start a
Speaker 3: new company. And that's why you got SpaceX, and you
Speaker 3: got Nvidia, and you got Apple and you got all
Speaker 3: these different.
Speaker 1: Sorts of things. But it reminds me so I went
Speaker 1: to Italy years ago. I was there. Hey, Gladys, you
Speaker 1: still work here? Thank you? Sorry Gladys, maybe too much coffee.
Speaker 1: Shouldn't have said that. Now she's crying. Hey, Michael, can
Speaker 1: you put your arm around her again?
Speaker 6: All right?
Speaker 3: I was in Italy and uh, and picked up on
Speaker 3: the lifestyle there, the fact that I don't know if
Speaker 3: you know this, if you've never been, but they like
Speaker 3: close everything down like around eleven o'clock in the morning
Speaker 3: and don't open up again to one Like everybody just
Speaker 3: takes a couple hour break in the middle of the day,
Speaker 3: and everybody gets six weeks vacation like they do in
Speaker 3: France and a lot of the European countries, and people
Speaker 3: retire early and all this different sort of stuff. And
Speaker 3: I remember when I was at LEAs with a younger
Speaker 3: crowd and talking about why won't we do this in
Speaker 3: the United States. This is so cool, We're so we
Speaker 3: work so much, it's sorry to go. Yeah, here's the problem.
Speaker 3: These countries can't sustain their own lifestyles. They've been running
Speaker 3: out of money for decades. And the only reason that
Speaker 3: they haven't been taken over by China or Russia is
Speaker 3: because we protect them with our military and our productive society.
Speaker 3: It doesn't actually work. You can't be that relaxed about
Speaker 3: your productivity and survive as a country. And whether it's
Speaker 3: Greece or Spain, or Italy or France, it's all coming
Speaker 3: to an end.
Speaker 1: Or England. And I was talking to a buddy of mine.
Speaker 3: He's got this new job where he works with a
Speaker 3: bunch of people from different countries, and they remark regularly
Speaker 3: about how hard Americans work, and they think it's ridiculous
Speaker 3: that Americans work so hard. Like this guy that was
Speaker 3: from Mexico. When he gets off at five o'clock, he
Speaker 3: turns off his phone. There's no texting him or email
Speaker 3: in him. When he goes on vacation, you can't reach him.
Speaker 3: And you Americans, where you allow your boss to reach
Speaker 3: you on vacation. That's why we've had the number one
Speaker 3: economy on planet Earth since I think eighteen seventy. It's
Speaker 3: not an accident that we're so productive and so dominant
Speaker 3: economically that we can provide the military protection for the
Speaker 3: entire planet. That's one of the reasons, one of the
Speaker 3: many ways that we're exceptional. I've got more on that later,
Speaker 3: and some other news coming up about Iran brand new
Speaker 3: Iran stuff, Armstrong.
Speaker 4: And Getty two.
Speaker 7: Essential Command confirms a second consecutive wave of strikes targeting
Speaker 7: military military infrastructure in southern Iran, also coastally Ran. These
Speaker 7: strikes have been described as more aggressive than the initial
Speaker 7: wave that we saw earlier this week, sparked by attacks
Speaker 7: on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Tran has
Speaker 7: responded by targeting neighboring nations including.
Speaker 1: Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar.
Speaker 7: Now Iran taking up much of the talk in Turkey,
Speaker 7: where President Trump just was for the NATO summit. There,
Speaker 7: he said, the fragile ceasefire deals signed last month is over.
Speaker 8: It's sort of crazy, to be honest, with this Souded
Speaker 8: gracing there a little bit out of it, but they
Speaker 8: want to make.
Speaker 1: It do badly. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was a little disappointed to hear that I'd predicted
Speaker 3: yesterday morning or feared yesterday morning when I first saw
Speaker 3: that we're attacking Iran again.
Speaker 1: And I was happy to see.
Speaker 3: Trump come out and say, uh, these people are liars
Speaker 3: and scumbags. I don't know if you saw the video
Speaker 3: where he was asked at the podium a couple weeks ago,
Speaker 3: you said these are good, reasonable guys, and now you're
Speaker 3: bombing them and say they're scum.
Speaker 1: What changed?
Speaker 3: And Trump said, I got to know them. And Rubio
Speaker 3: was standing behind him in the Secretary of State and
Speaker 3: started laughing, probably happy to hear Trump finally come around
Speaker 3: to understand who.
Speaker 1: He's dealing with.
Speaker 3: But then last night on the plane, Trump saying, they
Speaker 3: really want to deal bad No they.
Speaker 1: Don't, dude, No, they don't. They want to drag this
Speaker 1: out longer.
Speaker 3: They want you to hold off the full on American
Speaker 3: mite of the military so they can drag this out longer.
Speaker 1: They don't want a deal. Putin doesn't want a deal.
Speaker 3: How do you not get This drives me nuts. Here's
Speaker 3: a different Fox report from Mark Tobin about what's going
Speaker 3: on between US and Iran and their neighbors.
Speaker 9: For the first time now around showing defiance has fired
Speaker 9: into Jordan. The US embassy staff was ordered to shelter
Speaker 9: in place. Jordanians now say they've intercepted some eight missiles
Speaker 9: that were fired into Jordan.
Speaker 6: No injuries from that. Now.
Speaker 9: This follows a night in which the US fired on
Speaker 9: some ninety targets that were hitting Iran.
Speaker 6: Last night.
Speaker 9: That's an increase from eighty the night before. Airport runways,
Speaker 9: missile launchers were among the targets, and we know that.
Speaker 6: A railroad bridge was hit.
Speaker 9: Iranian state media reported explosions in southern port cities, explosions
Speaker 9: in Bashir, home to that massive nuclear power plant complex,
Speaker 9: and explosions in port cities. We've seen video from the
Speaker 9: Iranian port city Kabakhar.
Speaker 3: So people that I respect, pundits that I respect, say,
Speaker 3: this has been some pretty significant hits.
Speaker 1: These are not just.
Speaker 3: Demonstrations of a response and that sort of thing that
Speaker 3: some times happens. These were some serious military hits. And
Speaker 3: Trump said when he was asked, are we back at war?
Speaker 3: And he said, no, we're not bagg of WARO. Sure,
Speaker 3: it looks like we're bagg of war. This is like
Speaker 3: Operation Enduring Freedom looking strikes for two days in a row.
Speaker 1: And we got a text.
Speaker 3: Earlier from somebody who lives near an air force base
Speaker 3: and three of the big giant B one B two
Speaker 3: bombers took off from there. I don't know if that
Speaker 3: means anything, but there's no reason to think we aren't
Speaker 3: going to continue to hit Iran. I don't know if
Speaker 3: that would bring them to the negotiating table or not.
Speaker 3: As mentioned yesterday, according to Wall Street Journal, there had
Speaker 3: been zero headway made in the nuclear talks. None, none,
Speaker 3: So we loosened up the purse strings. Iran started making
Speaker 3: money again off oil. We cut that off two days ago,
Speaker 3: but there for a couple of weeks they got to
Speaker 3: make money off of oil with the guarantee from the
Speaker 3: lot buying Iranians that they would sit down and be
Speaker 3: serious about nuclear talks. And it turns out, of course,
Speaker 3: they weren't serious about it, and zero headway has been made,
Speaker 3: and they didn't get into any of the details. But
Speaker 3: enriched uranium or inspections or any of that sort of
Speaker 3: stuff a surprise to no one, but apparently Trump and
Speaker 3: Jdvans I just I don't I'm mystified. I don't believe
Speaker 3: they don't know who they're dealing with. There's something else
Speaker 3: going on here. I don't quite know what it is.
Speaker 3: Maybe we won't know for years till the books are
Speaker 3: written by the people behind the scenes. Trump was asked
Speaker 3: some questions about.
Speaker 1: Ending the war, the war going on? Where we are now?
Speaker 5: Why are you apparently unable to end the Iran war?
Speaker 8: So I think we're doing just the opposite. The Iran
Speaker 8: War has been a tremendous military success. And you know,
Speaker 8: I can only answer the question by saying they're not going.
Speaker 6: To have a nuclear weapon.
Speaker 8: I could we uh denuclearize Iran, and that's happened. They
Speaker 8: will never have a nuclear weapon.
Speaker 1: I sure hope that's true. And they go on, if I.
Speaker 8: Weren't president, Israel wouldn't exist. And we did it two
Speaker 8: times when the g jc POA, the Obama deal, when
Speaker 8: that was originally conceived, everything went to Urn one point
Speaker 8: seven billion in cash, hundreds of billions of dollars. They
Speaker 8: thought they could buy peace with these people.
Speaker 1: You can't do that.
Speaker 8: So the big thing we have is more important than
Speaker 8: anything we can talk about, is you can't let lunatics
Speaker 8: have nuclear weapons. And we've stopped that.
Speaker 1: I hope, like I said so.
Speaker 3: The Associated Press writes the confusion and uncertainty in Trump's
Speaker 3: mixed messaging and his approval of back to back military
Speaker 3: strikes leave major questions, i'd say, about what comes next
Speaker 3: in the conflict. Just weeks after difficult diplomacy to reach
Speaker 3: even an initial deal between the longtime adversaries, the whip
Speaker 3: sawing rhetoric could be a strategy to increase the pressure
Speaker 3: you're on Turan to stop attacking ships transporting oil and
Speaker 3: natural gas in the Strait and bend to US demands.
Speaker 3: Whether it's a negotiation tactic or a signal of an
Speaker 3: escalation in fighting, Mediators are scrambling to save the deal,
Speaker 3: and the actions risk further inflaming tensions, which could spell
Speaker 3: problems for Republicans in November's midterm elections if gas prices
Speaker 3: stay high. That's stuff about the way this affects the
Speaker 3: midterms I always think is just dumb. Personally, the Democrats
Speaker 3: are going to take the House Historically, that's what's supposed
Speaker 3: to happen. Maybe they get more House seats because of
Speaker 3: the war. I don't know, but it's definitely Republicans are
Speaker 3: not gonna don't have any chance of hanging onto the
Speaker 3: House if this war gets wrapped up.
Speaker 1: I don't think.
Speaker 3: And again, if our war policy around the world is
Speaker 3: we can't go to war with anybody. If gas gets
Speaker 3: kind of expensive for a summer, that's just no way
Speaker 3: to run a war or a country. So that's disappointing too.
Speaker 3: I have no idea where this is going. Neither does
Speaker 3: anybody else. Time will tell I guess we'll see the
Speaker 3: other war that we're involved in. We're not actually fighting
Speaker 3: this war, but we are involved with Ukrainian Russia. Obviously,
Speaker 3: this is new news. Ukrainian drones have hit more Russian
Speaker 3: oil facilities and sent two oil tankers a blaze in
Speaker 3: the Sea of Azov. This is a day after President
Speaker 3: Trump pledged to grant Kiva license to manufacture the Patriot
Speaker 3: Air Defense System to protect its cities. If you hadn't
Speaker 3: heard the news, that's a big deal. We're gonna let
Speaker 3: Kiev build the Patriot Air Defense System, which is the
Speaker 3: best air defense system on Earth, which will help protect
Speaker 3: the capital against anything any ballistic missiles that Putin wants
Speaker 3: to send their way. And today drones hitting more of
Speaker 3: the Russian oil facilities. You want to talk about a
Speaker 3: gas crisis or an oil crisis, That's what they got
Speaker 3: going on in Russia right now. And their population is
Speaker 3: really unhappy with the long lines and the closed gas
Speaker 3: stations and the price of gas and that sort of stuff,
Speaker 3: which of course could turn people against the war in Ukraine.
Speaker 3: I hope Ukraine's ability to reach out and disrupt their
Speaker 3: oil refinery industry is really something and that's only going
Speaker 3: to grow.
Speaker 1: What a war to watch?
Speaker 3: That is definitely seems like Ukraine is on the front
Speaker 3: foot there, so both wars are an interesting spot. I
Speaker 3: like the direction Ukraine Russia is going a lot better
Speaker 3: than I like the direction US Iran is going. But oh,
Speaker 3: by the way, one more thing, since we're talking about Iran.
Speaker 3: Rama Manual he was Barack Obama's chief of staff. He
Speaker 3: was the mayor of Chicago. He is a very smart
Speaker 3: moderate Democrat who I'm shocked has not seriously run for
Speaker 3: president before. He is going to run for president this time.
Speaker 3: But does the Democratic Party want a Democrat at this point? Well,
Speaker 3: he has always stood with Israel. He's a Jewish guy himself.
Speaker 3: He's over in Israel giving some strong speeches against Benjamin
Speaker 3: Netan Yahoo. I think he's trying to get his anti
Speaker 3: net and Yah who he's trying to do. He's trying
Speaker 3: to walk a fine line of supporting Israel, like mainstream
Speaker 3: Democrats always have and mainstream Republicans always have, while being
Speaker 3: critical of their current policies, to try to appease the
Speaker 3: anti Semite. I will call them left in the Democratic Party.
Speaker 3: I don't know if that's going to work or not.
Speaker 3: I don't know if when it comes to a debate stage,
Speaker 3: the fact that ram Emanuel supports Israel's right to exist
Speaker 3: and takes money from Apak, I don't know if he
Speaker 3: has a shot a getting the nomination, But time will
Speaker 3: tell him that one too. Man, If you can't get
Speaker 3: the nomination in the Democratic Party anymore by believing Israel
Speaker 3: should exist as a country, we are in a whole
Speaker 3: new era. Different topic coming up in a little bit.
Speaker 3: Just read an interesting article about those gop ones. There's
Speaker 3: weight loss drugs and all the different things they can do.
Speaker 3: And what is that doing to some people's attitudes about
Speaker 3: life or your your ability to even to try to
Speaker 3: fight or resist bad things, or we all or we're
Speaker 3: gonna start turning to pills rather than having any willpower whatsoever.
Speaker 3: Interesting question on that. And then I also just came
Speaker 3: across the term I saw up on the TV, should
Speaker 3: you get an airport divorce?
Speaker 1: I don't know what an airport divorce is.
Speaker 3: Sounds like one of those cutesy terms and a phenomenon
Speaker 3: just made up by mainstream media. But I will google
Speaker 3: that and I'll figure out what it is. And we'll
Speaker 3: talk about it and the gop ones when we come back.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, and Huey Lewis News.
Speaker 4: I can't hear music. Music is not part of my
Speaker 4: life anymore. I can't find pitch in the music. See
Speaker 4: that technology that I use on my cochlear implant. It
Speaker 4: breaks everything down into digital bits. Speech is easier to
Speaker 4: listen to the music. The cochlear, which is my only
Speaker 4: reliable form of hearing, distorts the music a little bit
Speaker 4: in the same way it distorts people's voices. It makes
Speaker 4: pitch impossible to hear. I can hear conversation. Fight pull
Speaker 4: these things out. I'm deaf.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that.
Speaker 3: So that's Shuey Lewis, who listen to the news, one
Speaker 3: of the biggest musical acts the entire eighties, and he
Speaker 3: went deaf a while back. Did he go deaf because
Speaker 3: of too much loud music?
Speaker 6: Do we know?
Speaker 3: Or is it just one of the random things that
Speaker 3: can happen to anybody. A lot of your musicians are deaf.
Speaker 3: It's because they were standing in front of crazy loud
Speaker 3: speakers every night for years and years and years, like
Speaker 3: Pete Townsend and the Who. But he's got one of
Speaker 3: those cochlear implants like Rush Limbaugh got. I don't know
Speaker 3: if I've ever known anybody that had one of those.
Speaker 3: I didn't know that you couldn't hear me music with them.
Speaker 3: Though you can hear speech fine, which obviously would be
Speaker 3: a heck of a gift compared to being completely deaf.
Speaker 3: But you can't hear music or pitch anyway.
Speaker 1: I'll be darned.
Speaker 3: Speaking to musicians. Huey Lewis is still alive. Bonnie Tyler
Speaker 3: is not. She had a total eclipse of her heart
Speaker 3: last night at age seventy five. Now now you don't
Speaker 3: like that, Michael, No.
Speaker 1: Soon, too soon.
Speaker 3: I read the entire lyrics of that song earlier in
Speaker 3: the show, many of which I didn't know. I've been
Speaker 3: belting that song out in my car or radio studios
Speaker 3: back when I was a DJ for decades, and some
Speaker 3: of the lines I had completely wrong. She didn't write
Speaker 3: the song to Jim steinem production. He wrote all your
Speaker 3: schmaltzy songs of the eighties, seventies and eighties, all your
Speaker 3: big ones. He was the one behind like your big
Speaker 3: meat loaf songs. You know you're really schmaltzy. Meat Loves
Speaker 3: two out of three Bad. You know those kind of songs,
Speaker 3: Total Clips of the Heart. Once you recognize that this guy,
Speaker 3: Jim Steinum, you can pick those songs out easily when
Speaker 3: you hear him. Anyway, he was behind Total Clips of
Speaker 3: the Heart, a giant hit for Bonnie Tyler, and one
Speaker 3: of this is what I'm suggesting little for Little Friday tonight.
Speaker 3: If you're out at the bar, at a karaoke bar,
Speaker 3: get up there on stage quite drunk and sing Total
Speaker 3: Eclips of the Heart in honor of Bonnie Tyler, dead
Speaker 3: at the age of seventy five. I don't know if
Speaker 3: I buy this article before I get to what an
Speaker 3: airport divorce is? What's an airport divorce? I don't know
Speaker 3: if I buy this article in the New York Times,
Speaker 3: How golp ones feed our sick culture. This is what
Speaker 3: this writer in the New York Times is trying to
Speaker 3: convince us that these glp ones, these are any of
Speaker 3: these drugs or zembic.
Speaker 1: Or Zegovni or whatever they're calling.
Speaker 3: Where people are losing weight and really really loving it,
Speaker 3: and they're very, very popular, and and I know people
Speaker 3: personally who it's changed their lives and they couldn't be happier.
Speaker 3: How it's actually a bad thing because it's feeding our
Speaker 3: sick culture of prioritizing thinness over fatness, and all it's
Speaker 3: doing is driving home the point that being thin is better,
Speaker 3: and you've got a choice out there, and if you're fat,
Speaker 3: it's because you eat too much, you refuse take this medicine,
Speaker 3: et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1: C I don't know if I buy this.
Speaker 3: Like I said, I know people are very very happy
Speaker 3: that for the first time in a very long time
Speaker 3: they're thinner and feeling better and looking better and have
Speaker 3: more self confidence and all the different things that go
Speaker 3: with that. I mean, technically, I get the argument it
Speaker 3: does kind of feed that culture in that you wouldn't
Speaker 3: lose weight. I guess if you're really overweight, you got
Speaker 3: to lose weight for health reasons. But if you're just
Speaker 3: kind of overweight, you're probably mostly losing weight because you
Speaker 3: want to look better, for your ego, to get a mate,
Speaker 3: for all the reasons we all want to look better,
Speaker 3: all the reasons we diet and go to the gym
Speaker 3: outside of health reasons. Here's some stunning statistics around that, though,
Speaker 3: and again this is from the New York Times in
Speaker 3: this particular article. Who uses this article uses the term
Speaker 3: patriarchy twice, So I'm a little suspect on any article
Speaker 3: to use their term patriarchar Yes, it's men in the
Speaker 3: patriarchy that have caused society to think thin is better
Speaker 3: than fat. That or just all humans everywhere on Earth
Speaker 3: just automatically, biologically, genetically prefer thin to fat.
Speaker 1: We just do.
Speaker 3: It's not the patriarchy. It's not a flaw, I don't think.
Speaker 3: But these stats are pretty amazing. Among women who are
Speaker 3: single when they started on the golp ones, the probability
Speaker 3: of being married or living with a partner goes up
Speaker 3: eighteen percentage points overall, and twenty nine points over six
Speaker 3: or more quarters, so that'd be a year and a
Speaker 3: half or more. Your likelihood of having a romantic partner
Speaker 3: or getting married goes up thirty points going on the
Speaker 3: golp ones over a year and a half.
Speaker 1: That's something that's too bad.
Speaker 3: Your employment rate rises for people who are overweight going
Speaker 3: on the golp ones by almost thirty points after a
Speaker 3: year and a half. Make more money easier to get
Speaker 3: a job if you're thinner than if you're overweight.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I've never been in a position to hire anybody where
Speaker 3: I would have cared about your weight. Haven't been in
Speaker 3: a position to hire anybody in a very long time.
Speaker 3: I guess Joe and I do we have a role
Speaker 3: and who's on our staff and everything like that. We've
Speaker 3: never cared about weight. I don't know if I buy
Speaker 3: those stats again. I don't know if I trust any
Speaker 3: article that uses the term patriarchy.
Speaker 1: Ever. What's an airport divorce? See what you think of this?
Speaker 3: An airport divorce is a popular travel trend. Is it
Speaker 3: not an actual that says there in parentheses? Where couples
Speaker 3: temporarily split up at the airport after you go through
Speaker 3: security to reduce stress and avoid arguments before a flight.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you If it's to avoid arguments,
Speaker 3: your relationship really isn't that good. If like just being
Speaker 3: around each other for an hour before you fly, you're
Speaker 3: gonna get into a fight.
Speaker 1: But this makes sense to me. Different people have different styles.
Speaker 3: Some people like to go through all the shops, walk
Speaker 3: around and look at the crap in the shops. Some
Speaker 3: people like me, like to find the quietest spot in
Speaker 3: the airport and sit down and read. If you hate,
Speaker 3: If you really don't want to sit down and read,
Speaker 3: you'd rather walk around, well, then have.
Speaker 1: An airport divorce.
Speaker 3: Using my finger quotes and one of he walks around
Speaker 3: the shops and gets a cup of coffee and looks
Speaker 3: at those neck pillows and decides whether you should buy
Speaker 3: another one, or if you need a T shirt that
Speaker 3: says Cleveland because you're at the Cleveland Airport. Every airport
Speaker 3: sells a T shirt with the name of the town
Speaker 3: on it. I don't know how many they sell, but
Speaker 3: as it says in here, it's not a sign that
Speaker 3: your marriage is in trouble if you get an airport divorce.
Speaker 3: I have a feeling that happily married people or normal
Speaker 3: people in general, come to these conclusions on their own.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna sit here and read. Okay, I'm gonna go
Speaker 3: look around the shops.
Speaker 1: End of story.
Speaker 3: I don't know if it need a cute name like
Speaker 3: airport divorce or not. If you miss a segment of
Speaker 3: this show, get the podcast Armstrong and Getty on demand.
Speaker 3: You should subscribe. Then you just automatically get each segment.
Speaker 3: We got more to Go an hour four stick around
Speaker 3: Armstrong and Getty