I'm Starting To Get A Little Twitchy

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe, Ketty.

Armstrong and Getty and he Armstrong and Getty. Hi, y'all doing.

So.

We're about to talk a little bit about misinformation disinformation. Mark Zuckerberg was on Joe Rogan's Much Listen To podcast on Friday, said some things that should be giant news stories, but partially not because of the fires eating up a lot of time and space and newspapers and broadcast TV and that sort of stuff.

But yeah, I think it's more about the media's hesitation to admit what is plainly true about censorship and the Biden administration in COVID.

But for instance, on misinformation disinformation, this is a breaking story in the La Times right now. Investigators looking into electric towers possible eating fire origin site. That's the big fire in the Pasadena Altadeene area. Then you got the other fire, the bigger fire the Palisades area. They think the last story I read about it, and I think it was also in the La Times some fireworks from New Year's Eve had been smoldering and started that whole thing.

But there's no evidence that that's actually happening.

But if you're on social media for a big crowd, it's as if it's completely true and nailed That's the way information works.

That's the way information works in the modern era.

For I know that for a lot of people on Twitter, for instance, that story's done for the rest of their lives. Illegals started these fires, even though that's not what happened, at least not yet. So that's that's a difficult situation. Even if you're trying to do your best in social media and you know monitor what's true and what's not.

But let's let's start at the beginning here.

Here's Mark Zuckerberg, guy runs Facebook on Joe Rogan on Friday.

But it was really in the last ten years that people started pushing for like ideological base censorship. And I think it was two main events that really triggered this. Sixteen There was the election of President Trump, also coincided with basically Brexit in the EU and sort of the

Institutional pressure to censor content. Well, where was that coming from and in what way? He talks more about it here.

It was during the Biden administration when they were trying to roll out the vaccine program. And I'm generally like pretty pro rolling out vaccines. I think on balance the

We don't have the audio of this, but he says Biden administration officials used to call and scream at us, demanding that we remove COVID related content, even things that were facts or memes in humor. When we refused, we found ourselves under investigation by several agencies.

Well, right, And I thought it was ironically kind of ridiculously charming that he said we faced incredible institutional pressure. The institution in question is not like the National Association of orthod Donnists. It's the executive branch of the federal government was calling him in, screaming at him and telling him what to print and what not to print. It sounds like censorship to me.

Well especially, I mean when there is a clear penalty there. When we refused, we found ourselves under investigation by several agencies.

Well right, yeah, As I said at the time when I was howling about this, whether it's investigations or regulations or lawsuits or just impediments, I mean, if a federal government decides to f with you, pardon me, f with you, they will they will make it impossible to do business through the tax code. Witness the conservative organizations during the Tea Party era or whatever. The Pea Party era is

The First Amendment.

Yeah, rockstar lawyer Randy Barnett, who's got a great book out right now, tweeted over the weekend the Biden administration pressure on Facebook should be big news and a huge scandal, big enough for Scotus to hear about it.

But will it. He thinks it should be a Supreme Court case like you're just talking about. I think so too. I mean, this is a big deal. The fact that it.

Landed on Friday with very little coverage, again partially because of the fire obscuring everything like that is well, and I don't know, I get what you're saying.

I think the fire is a pilot light compared to the utter you know, discussed that most of the media has with the idea of saying, you know what, all that stuff that we were one hundred percent for suppressing, like the the you know, the scientists who are advocating for the Great Barrington Declaration, for instance, who are pointing out, yeah, there are side effects, who are pointing out, no, the vaccine does not prevent transmission, who are pointing out we

Without the fire, I think Fox would have made this a very big story over the weekend. But you're right, I don't think Meta Kress faced the Nation would have touched it at all, because if they can post the New York Times, maybe they would have been completely implicated in this sort of thing. One more clip from Rogan. I thought was interesting. You were just lying to us about this, that and the other thing, and now I'm supposed to believe you're one of the good guys, you're

I tell you what, with all due respect to our need to not prop up people we compete with, allegedly, that's a great question by Rogan, That's an incredibly uncomfortable question.

Yeah.

Yeah, Well that's been the pushback since last week when Zuckerberg first came out and all of a sudden, as a Bill Wright's first Amendment, guy, is okay, which one's.

The real you?

Or do you just yeah and fair enough? Although you know, my goal in this discussion is not whether I should like more Exegerber sure, not that sup has sailed. It's about the First Amendment in government censorship.

That's horrifying that that could happen though at that level on things that were really important. Yes, are there side effects on the vaccine the government is forcing you to get or you.

Lose your job, not allowed to say, what are you kidding? Mind?

That included a hell of a lot of firefighters and soldiers and sailors and marines. So you young, healthy, primarily men who would not get the JAB, many of whom already had natural immunity.

So you're employed by the government at some level, and the government's not allowing discussion on whether or not the vaccine has side effects, but you're being forced to take it to keep your job.

That's exactly the sort of thing you don't.

Want to in a free society, I would agree, And the technicalities of who can sue and who has standing and blah blah blah gets you know.

I'll let the lawyers argue about that. But yeah, I agree with you completely.

The Supreme Court has got to issue some sort of edict about this censorship by proxy.

Zuckerberg did have the option, didn't he though, of going full profile and courage and with his I mean, especially then Facebook was bigger then than it is now in terms of people paying attention to it. If he had to come out and said, the Biden administration is really pressuring us to take down things that are true or at least possibly true.

God doubt of it, a huge story. Yep, absolutely, I wish he had.

I mean, that could have been one of those on a Sunday morning where they do the full five, where he goes on like face the nation, meet the press, by all the shows, and talks about how the Bedministry people are screaming me on the phone and threaten me, threatening me with investigations if I take down things that are true.

Oh my god, what a story that would have been. But he chose not to do that.

He either lacked of moral courage or he made the decision as a businessman, what will be best for my company, and you've given him he decided it just shutting up would be the best.

I think he's probably a weasel, but I am giving him a little benefit of the doubt, like in the midst of the pandemic, where things were crazy there for.

A while, and uh, and in Silicon Valley there was such uniformity of progressive thought. I mean, you got people there who are still friggin masked. Pardon me, I get fired up over this stuff. We have a lot of new listeners. Generally, I can contain my mild obscenity is a little better than I am. But this stuff really really.

Fires it is it dry January wearing on you?

I'm starting to get a little twitchy. Yes, always been disappointing, and we've talked about this so many times. I don't feel nearly as good as i'd anticipated, having given up the booze.

Kind of hoping it feel better. So this is just what I feel like. Hum. I'm still a sleepy half wit for like the first hour and a half of the day, and it's disappointing.

I have a whole bunch of interesting nuggets that I captured over the weekend that are not the news of the day, but are all interesting, So I'm hoping to get to those this hour at some point. Excellent for instance, how big a deal is AI? Uh, something China's doing that's horrible. North Korean soldiers are dying like crazy in Ukraine.

A bunch of stuff on the way. Stay here, Satty.

Austin's husband, Emmanuel, an orthopedic surgeon, has been named in a New York reco case involving federal insurance fraud. So here, he's a great surgeon. Even did Joy Behar's hoof replacement?

Oh that's cold? What as that's shallice? What hoof for replacement?

Do I take off my coat like a girl? We'll discuss this later. It became a topic at dinner last night. Wow, Wow, a couple of things to discuss. Just notes I took over the weekend. Somebody tweeted this out and Elon Musk tweeted, retweeted it true. If you're not double checking your doctor's diagnostics with an LM, that's a language learning model AI chatbot. If you're not double checking your doctor's diagnostics with an LM,

Exactly take my doctor's diagnosis and ask social media what they think.

I'd exactly go on Twitter, go on Reddit. Does this look like something to you? And then you show them a picture of a blotchy thing on your skin.

This is a joke.

It was a girl woman, sorry, woman talking to a mechanic. My car's making a terrible noise. The mechanic says, try taking the Taylor Swift seat out.

I get it. I thought that was shot at thought that was mistress of note right.

Uh. Diary of a dead North Korean soldier reveals grizzly battlefield tactics.

Oh yeah, whoa, I got into that a little bit. That was heavy.

The troops are exposed, green, loyal, and dying by the thousands in frontline combat against Ukraine.

I didn't realize North Korean soldiers were dying by the thousands. Yeah, and you just you don't even try to protect your own life.

You just march into the machine gun fire because there's a chance your family will have a slightly better life back in North Korea.

If you're a quote unquote hero.

God, dang it.

That is brutal.

I was listened to a podcast with David Petres remember him. He was the commander in Iraq and Afghanistan and CIA director and probably should be in the government at some level because he's brilliant. But he had an affair with a woman and that kind of ruin is great.

He said. His numbers were the.

Russians have lost five hundred thousand soldiers from the battlefield that can't return dead or wounded, to the point that they can't return half a million.

Wow.

That's a stunning number.

Wow.

And that is the history of Russia, just feeding people into the meat grinder until the other side wears down and it looks like it's going to work again.

Except their birth rates are a tiny fraction of what they were fifty one hundred years ago.

Now true ad Speaking of bad countries, China is removing Tibetan children from their families and placing them in schools where they face political indoctrination. So they're literally taking children out of homes in Tibet, taking them to China and re educating them to believe in the Communist Chinese Party.

That is horrific.

That is happening right now. College students are not protesting on campuses about that. In America, government schools are teaching your children that they can change what sex they are. On a whim Bill Maher said, rumors he's retiring are not true. I hadn't heard those rumors. He is gonna retire from stand up comedy as he's a very old man. But he said they will have to drag him off the set of Real Time. He will continue to do that. I'm glad because it's a good show and at least

I'm not very bright.

And I tweeted that out and somebody said, yeah, that could be a receptionist, and they would say, yes, which is true.

Well, if I'm feeding my family as a receptionist, I'm concerned.

True, But if it's on an employee here or there, it's not quite as devastating as the number indicated, right.

All right, I guess they didn't indicate the size of the workforce ruction and they had in mind. So we're going to touch a bit more on the utterly unthinkably devastating wildfires and stuff than California. Next to chat with legendary meteorologist from La Rick Dickert, and then on to more of the news of the day.

If you can't stick around, grab the podcast. Armstrong and Getty on the band. And it was like a hurricane. This fire no water, but like eighty miles an hour plus. It feltser real. There's a fire like racing down the hill at that point. Yeah, well that's what's scary about this. It just was shooting like a blow torch, Like a blow torch. It was literally just shooting off of the mountain.

Man, I just watched a video I hadn't seen this doorbell camera captures early moments of the eating fire. That's the one up by Altadena and Pasadena and these people. She was coming home from work and she saw a little orange glow off in the distance underneath the power lines. That's why they're now reporting. The La Times is reporting

All kinds of things happen. Do we need that, I don't know. It's what I wonder.

So I would say it's a pleasure to talk to our next guest, and it is in a way, but it's a terrible, a terrible topic. Rick Dickard is a legend of LA Media Fox eleven Morning News, among other credits for years, certified broadcast meteorologist, heard many, many, many many times on our beloved affiliate seven ninety KABC, and he joins us, Now, Rick, how are.

You, sir?

I'm well, given what's happening here, Thank you for having me, Jack Joe. And you mentioned the PDS, and that is an official term used by the National Weather Service to express the heightened risk of severe weather, and here it's a wildfire or the potential of more wildfires that they issue those PDS's for severe weather hurricane tornadoes. So this

And I want to get to that in just a second, But first, can you describe to folks what the weather was like last week when the fires started? Giving your perspective of reporting on this sort of thing for years and years.

And I worked in the broadcast media here in southern California for thirty plus years, twenty of which I spent up in an airborne capacity in a helicopter covering these events, these wind driven events. This is the worst I have ever seen, and I was on the ground for this one.

Yeah, I thought I knew what these videos would be like when I started watching them. But some of the videos they had in sixty minutes last night and somebody saw this morning on my phone. It was so windy, it was like it was like CGI special effects, because I'd never see anything like that anywhere.

No wonder it's been so difficult to fight, and it was like a machine gun of embers being shot over tremendous distances.

Miles that those embers that Ember cast and the Ember intrusion, as we call it, it gets caught up in the eaves of homes two miles away from the fire zone because it was so dry out there, it ignited homes well away from that major fire zone. And that's exactly what happened for a good twelve to twenty four hour period after the two fires started. The Palisades Fire started

Pacific Palace states of Alcadina and Sierra Madre, including bizarre fire behaviors racing downhill driven by the wind, which is something normally that doesn't happen.

Rick Dickert a longtime meteorologist reporter in LA Online. Rick talk to us about what's expected this week weatherwise.

Yeah, again, we said it that PDS issued by the National Weather Service heightened fire weather encompassing parts of southern California, Ventura County, the Ranch Area, Semi Valley, San Fernando, the West Santa Monica Mountains. That's very close to the Palisades fire from Pepperdine University over towards point we go. Wind guts again, not as strong as what we saw last Tuesday,

Then the fire spreads.

And I do want to mention that Jack and Jodd of fire. These fires aren't started by the weather. They're driven by the weather. There's some sort of ignition. It could be something in terms of infrastructure. Unfortunately, there's arson. People let start these fires accidentally. The trigger occurs, the atmosphere conditions are in play, and that's what allows these fires to spread so rapidly and create the devastation that we've seen.

I'm really glad we had you on. What a great report. Nice job, Yeah, terrific, Rick, We're big fans.

I'm sorry it's under this circumstance that we talk to you about fabulous jab but I hope we can stay in touch.

Absolutely, stay safe out everybody. Thank you for having me.

It's interesting he brings that up about the Obviously the weather conditions don't start the fire, they spread the fire. David Spade, the actor comedian, is offering five thousand dollars for anybody with information on the arsonists to start the fire. So clearly he's under the impression that some human beings started this on purpose. Is I've often wondered this with with with our you know, you start a you go into a building and start that on fire, that's a

That weather after that long a drought and getting sparked. You have to work like a maniac to make sure that in those conditions nothing gets sparked and there's super quick response if it does. But with one hundred malpar gusts lots and lots of seventy five mile prou gusts,

Slash LA that was a contributor.

Maybe it doesn't explain it, but it should still be identified and rooted out.

I wish I could remember where I heard some fire chiefs saying we could have had every fire truck in America here last Thursday night and it wouldn't have made any difference when it was gusting to one hundred miles an hour, which makes sense.

Well, yeah, the one gent I heard, I think it was on sixty minutes point doubt that if they have a fully involved structure, they want three fire trucks there typically, and that there were as of when they interviewed him, something like twelve thousand structures had burned.

He said, do the math. There aren't that many fire trucks.

I was trying to find the quote that man Gavin got beat up for on Friday it was similar to what you're talking about. See if I can find it real quick.

Oh, Gavin Newsom he was.

He did an interview on a liberal outlet, which also got him some pushback, like he didn't have the guts to go on where he was going to be challenged at all. He said, let's stop with the finger pointing. I'm not interested in who's to blame. Oh really, that's interesting because a lot of people are interested in who's to blame, Like a lot of.

People with no homes are pretty interested in that. Yeah, yeah, that's funny, Gavin. A quick word from our friends at Prize Picks. It's playoff time.

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So we can't play this enough today, speaking to Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, here's here's my tiny little seminar I'm going to do for politicians.

If you're ever asked the question does the buck stop with you? Always say yes. There's no win in anything other than yes, here you go. Does the buck stop with you? I mean, you're governor of California, inviting it will be the Mayor of California. We're all in this together. We're all better off. We're all better off. We're all better off, and we're working together to take care of people.

What.

Wow, obviously, well we know where Kamala Harris's speech writers went to work having been laid off.

Oh my god, that was a terrible job. I'm strong and geddy. Thank you. We've got more on the way. Stay with us. Do I take off my coat like a girl? Apparently I do? I found out last night.

I'll explain that in a second, But first, I know it's head shaking lye on, I know me neither did I. Well, I'll tell you the story in a little bit. But Pete hegzath. This is the week they start getting into the confirmation hearings. I'll just tell you this reporting John fun writing a National review. According to one senator, uh, they might not have the votes to get him out of committee, let alone get to the big floor vote thing. Now.

So we'll see how this turns out.

Yeah, I think Pete Headseth is a good man. I think he has some good ideas. He unquestionably has some baggage though things he said and advocated. And this is not a recommendation or an endorsement or non endorsement of the guy. But at some point Trump and company will say, all right, how about we get a good man with some good ideas who doesn't have all this baggage.

It's just the way it works. So I got to find the exact wording on this.

So I'm eating at Red Robin last night, Katie, because you know, I like the classy diners Red Robin with my son. He really likes the gluten freeburger. There get the burger. I think they got the best fries anyway, we're eating inks, that's not the point.

Of the conversation. I'm eating.

I take off my jacket and my son, Henry, thirteen years old, said, you take off your jacket like a girl. I thought that was hilarious because I don't even know what that means. And I thought, just what a funny thing to say, and I laughed.

I said, was I mean? He said, you do?

You take off your coat like a girl? So I texted a friend of mine who I've known for years, and I thought it was just going to be funny. I said, I'm out to eat with Henry. He said, I take off my jacket like a girl. And they texted back, you are certainly particular and intentional, I said, question mark when removing your jacket. I said, you've observed this, They said, I have that I take off my jacket like a girl a particular, intentional way. That is the way a woman takes.

Off her coat.

In all of our years working together, and what is it now, thirty three or more, have.

You ever noticed I take off my coat like a girl in particular? No, okay, will you take off your coat really.

Fast so we can get a demo because I'm I'm.

Trying to take a step back so we can see over there is it? Okay, I gotta fix this because I'm I'll be single the rest of my life if I'm taking off there taking it off?

What my son said, it's kind of hot, he said. The way you roll your shoulders and stick your chest out, it's like a girl.

I feel like it needs a sexy music bed.

Really, I wish you had a coat on, Katie. Maybe you can show me how a man takes his coat off as opposed to me, you can have a woman demonstrate how to be a man for it, gender bending madness.

This is highly embarrassing.

I could not I'm wearing an armstrong and giddy hoodie good Armstrong, a giddy dot com.

I cannot at this. But how does a guy take off his coat?

And how did I pick up the manu mannerisms of a woman for taking off my jacket?

The way I roll my shoulders and stick up my chest is girl like.

Wow.

Well, I'm thinking about the way that my husband takes his jacket off and he just kind of like throws it over one shoulder and then kind of like just shakes out of it. So I don't know there they're see Michaelangelo.

Watching Michael take off.

Folks, Michael's jacket is on now it's all yeah, see it's the wiry, casual, unassuming, just gets it done, not a bunch of preening and posing like a friend.

Here.

How many dance out of his jacket? You know, out of my tack?

How she said, how many dates have I lost in my life where a woman's thinking, oh, ain't kind interested in him?

And you know, kind of like his blah blah blah. And then I took off my coat and they're like, no, FLA deal breaker is a deal breaker. I can't be with a guy who takes off his coat like a girl. Lady, lady, lady, your way out. I didn't even know there was such thing as taking your coat off like a girl.

And now with people who know me, I bring it up and I say, oh, yeah, you've always done it that way.

What the incisive criticism of Henry well done son? Huh? I gotta think about that long and hard. Where did that come from? I don't no, but man up? Would you?

I got a practice Michael after the show, Can I watch you take your coat off again? And I try to nail down.

Hr the weirdest requests I've ever had. I clearly do it the way I roll my shoulders. What the hell you do? Yeah, that's what we've been asking some deal. You learn something about yourself every day.

We have a whole separate group text thread about how you take your jacket off there.

Okay, don't ask me about my pants. Jack.

So getting back to Pete, Hegsath's just briefly, and again I'm not here to endorse him or to say he shouldn't be sectaf or at least get a try. But this is why good people don't get into politics. You've heard all those allegations about womanizing or at one conference fifteen years ago, he blah blah blah, drinking too much and the rest of it. A lot of that is coming from a former employee name of Cat Dougan, who worked for or Concerned Veterans of America, where Pete was the CEO.

I believe at the time she worked there for eight months.

She received a poor performance review several months into her job as she was serving as cva's North Carolina state director. Shortly thereafter, she filed for short term disability, then long term disability, and ultimately resigned her position and claimed disability. The national field director at the time, Sean Pattison, told the Washington Free Beacon that Miss Dugan quote consistently fell short of performance expectations.

She was a bad hire. She did not do a good job.

She only lasted a few months, then started suing everybody and wanting disability and the rest of us.

And now she is the.

Secret source, the anonymous source of all these allegations.

About hexath Right, and all the people on Fox and Friends say we worked with him every day for years and years and years, and nobody's called us and asked us a single question about this.

There is a long line of people who worked with him for years who say, this guy is one of the most stand up people I've ever known periods.

So I'll bet Pete Hegsaff doesn't take his coat off like a girl.

Right.

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