Pencils & Dolls

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Caddy arm Strong and he.

Armstrong and Dya from studio Ceez and youre a dimly let room deep with them, the fowls of.

The Armstrong and Getting Communications Compound. Brand New Week. How about this Prosset's sinco to myow, I wrote a borough to work. I had to leave at three thirty in the morning to get here.

Because Burrow, we appreciate your commitment.

By the day, you know, in honor of defeating the French so that Emperor Maximilian would be booted out or something.

Yeah.

Oo, who zeus for maximillion? Nobody woo. Anyway, it's Monday, Brand New Week. It's sinko to my own. Today we're under the tutelage of our general manager ben Ya mean neting Yahoo and Israel having just announced a plan to occupy Gaza and control aid distribution themselves, bringing closer to fruition. What I've been saying for quite some time, they're doing uh, not living side by side with anybody.

They're taking it over.

So they had a vote overnight and they're gonna occupy Gaza. Yes, sir, run the place. Okay, yes, sir. I don't think they got any choice. Meanwhile, I'd like to discuss the Western media's just utter loyal sycophancy with Amas. I heard amplify their talking points and video messages slavishly.

I heard that on NPR this morning.

Critics say Hamas should be given a chance to something or other or whatever. There's no talk of amass surrendering or giving.

Back to the hostages or anything what not. Have you mentioned, yeah, exactly.

I may have heard that same report, and I heard a similar one in which they described the suffering of the Palestinian people, which I don't debate for a minute, and then throw an offhand. You know, the monsters, the Israelis. They say they'll ease up and there can be peace if they give the hostages back. But anyway, in other news,

I mean they were like it was like watching Oliver Twist. Please second, I have some awe.

I mean it was utterly designed to provoke sympathy and outrage it whoever was putting the children in that the poor children in that position, which.

Is a moss.

By the way, funny you had mentioned Oliver Twist, written by Charles Dickens. Walsoll wrote Christmas Carol, which features sickly little Tim. Because That's what I've been thinking about over the last several days. I'm sickly. I am now a sickly character, tiny Jack. I am like you know, I'm like sickly or Week. I'm like Fredo and the Godfather. I'm like the weak brother. I'm a sickly, weak human being. And so I'm just trying to embrace that role now.

I don't know about that, but I am. I am sickly.

I'm sickly and weak, and I hope I don't know if I don't know, if I could listen to a radio show that has a.

Worse I'm worse now than I was last week.

Get yourself a little crutch and and say vaguely affirming things like God, bless us everyone. That's what I'm It's endearing. I started a prednizone on Friday, a pretty high dose which amps you up. And uh, I didn't sleep one minute Friday night, not a single minute. I don't know if I've ever done that in my wife, like he's in partying. I don't know if I've ever gone a whole night without one minute of sleep, without at least like a five minute catnap or something.

I said the entire night it was crazy. Should we just shut.

The whole thing down for a week and lets you try to rest or something? And I don't get to be on the air the last week of my life because I'm probably dying. Wow, that's that's the point being that's not a static reality. Perhaps we could affect that. That would be my point. Anyway, that was crazy. I had another point. Oh, and the best news story of the last eighteen hours is obviously Trump reopening Alcatraz.

That's about story out there. How great is that? How do you define best exactly? I don't know. Catches your eye and makes you want to know more. That caught my eye and maybe you want to know no more. Wow.

He is the all time king troller, get people talking guy of all time. You know he very well. This just bopped into my head, now, my adult, sickly head.

He might have timed this.

With nothing Yahoo. He might have thought, oh boy, I'm gonna have to answer this question all day. What would be open Alcatraz? Because that's what's leading everywhere. He might have just covered up the whole Israel is going to take over Gaza. Yes, you know, gosh, dang it, you're right. I mean the freneta. I was gonna make the points. That's a frenetic pace of this just it tends to wear people out over time. But yeah, if you were going to dodge talking about that, yes, all right, what

Yeah, I was singing.

If it was an old timy radio, we would call Alcatraz like roughly, now call him up and say, hey, have you heard about because it's a big tourist destination. So I was just in San Francisco a week before last with my son. I said, I can't believe I've never taken Alcatraz, which I can't believe I haven't. And when I heard the news yes day, I thought, oh, did I miss my window. I'd like to call him up and say, have you heard word one about this?

Ever?

Anybody in the entire US Park surface, which is run Alcatraz for like, well not sixty years, has been closed as a prison for sixty years, but it's been run by the Ark Service for decades and decades. Here's what's interesting and just typical of the whole Trump thing. So every news outlet taking it completely seriously, except for Fox, who dismissed it very quickly as obviously he's not going to open Alcatraz, but he's making the point that we've got to lock these people up. I mean, they just

But I'll bet that's it.

It bumped Israel invading Gaza and taking it over off the front page, which was a was, you know, a no go as an option for mainstream media not too long ago and probably still is. But declaring a war on Disney. Mickey Mouse is an actual mouse, and he's plotting the overthrow of the country.

We are going to.

Hunt down Mickey or Michael Mouse if it takes everything we've got and then pushes everything off the front page. Antavirus. Gene Ackman's wife would still be alive if it weren't for Mickey Mouse, the great Gene Hackman, the late great Gina.

Out there he goes again.

Yeah, so okay, that's funny, absolutely Hilarious's going to reopen Alcatraz.

Worked as a story.

Let's start the show officially, then get us into a different conversation.

Give me a chance to call for a while. I'm Jack Armstrong.

He's Joe Getty on this it is Sinko Demayo, both wearing sombrero's big giant Sombreros twenty twenty five.

We are armstrong in getting we approve of this program, Viva Mexico. All right, let's begin the show officially now.

According to the FCC rules regulation, the show starts at Mark.

I've also signed and forty seven executive orders, everything from banning paper straws to defunding PBS. I understand Elmo has now been apprehended by ice, brought to you by the letter L for El Salvador.

He's not coming back.

I tell you what, that whole bit was really funny, all the executive orders Trump was signing, it was just good, funny political human He's not coming back.

You know what I list for else? Alphador?

Oh my, Not to get off on comedy because it's not that important, I suppose, but I hate that there's a number of political like round up newsletters I read every day, and the one I read it on Sunday.

Here are your Trump jokes from Saturday Night.

Live and just I just hate that the rest of the show, the of the ninety minutes, the other eighty six minutes are really good, often of just sketch comedy. I hate that it's been distilled down for so much of America as to what were the Trump jokes?

All right, whatever, Yeah, it's.

We've talked about this one once and I think it's pretty self evident to a lot of people. But the extent to which politics, you know, our versus d Trump versus not Trump, whatever, has become people's identity and their hobby and their passion and their talking point. It's the modern It looks like a clear day, Jim. You see what Trump did. Jim. I've got the best example, which I'm gonna talk more about later, from uh going to

And I was like, what really, I.

Went, You're insane if you watch that movie and you're thinking that it's taking shots at Trump and America, and that's what gets into your head. You're crazy. This is the whole wolf Right thing that's taken over. You're nuts. I remember the same thing with the movie up Oh a transparent defending of climate and I didn't get that at all.

Don't look up, don't look up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I didn't get.

That at all. So everybody's gone nuts with this stuff where it's just it's it's your It's like you were just saying, it's your identity, it's your life. You see every single thing through the through the lens of is this supporting Trump or not? Or my point of view or not? Every single tiny thing now it's it's it's a psychosis of some sort. Yeah, it's partly a psychosis.

I must disagree with you.

On the other hand, you're a specific example. I get Yeah, but this I.

Read this long article, I mean where it was.

It was pages long in Oh yeah, this guy is a I know, the guy who does that stuff for and are He is a sophisticate, a brilliant man, a wordsmith. Yeah, I just think it's crazy. So we used to laugh at the left when they talk about cowboy movies. Of course the bad guys have black hats. A good have white hats because black people are bad. So the way you read into this crap we used to all call crazy. Now the right does it exactly as stupidly, by the way,

And I think that's happening a lot. I don't know what we do about it. I don't know if there's any getting out of it.

Yeah. Again, I haven't seen him dead, so it's impossible to judge. Well, we'll play his greatest well, milk, his greatest hits greatest rants for I don't know, a few days coming backs, yes, yeah, just Hanson and I are planning on the air.

It's probably gonna do you know, new co host. So we don't have Katie here today, she's off.

We don't have Michaelangelo here today, so it's just Joe and I are some in our sombreros and Hansen in there, who also.

Wrote a burrow to work in honor of Sinco Tomaio.

And you're sick as can be and don't drink. So I'm swinging down Marguerite's on my own drag.

Yeah, we've got more news for you coming up.

We're probably not going to reopen Alcatraze, but Israel probably is going to take over Gaza and that's gonna be quite the mess. And a bunch of other stuff that happened over the weekend, including uh, some more tariff stuff that Trump talked about. You're needing less pencils. You can live with a terrass on movies whatever that means. Your kids are gonna have less dolls. You're gonna have less pencils. That's the world you're gonna live in.

Shoot, I gotta start saving my pencils and dolls.

A lot of stuff on the way. I hope you can stay here for the first time in four years you gotta make your college student loan payment. If you're behind, get caught up, or you're gonna be in real trouble that starts today. According to it's all presented from a sympathetic that's horrible for you point of view from everything that is mainstream media as opposed to, of course you

Today.

You know, I could almost believe that Joe Biden was relieving the student debt or trying to because he was so guilt stricken, if he had a conscience over how how badly screwed so amara so many American young people are by that whole fraud. You've got to go to college to have a decent life where we will, oh, all of culture will look down on you and call you names and think less of you. Oh, by the way,

Holy crap. Yeah.

According to the Israeli military, they knocked out about ninety five percent of the missiles launched at them by the Houthis but occasionally get through. It stopped air traffic there at the biggest airport for like an hour.

I think a little more than that.

Heck, we got a rainstorm in Kentucky's right right, the entire country for a week.

It rains in Kentucky. You're not flying out lax today.

Yeah, what Israeli armies started calling up tens of thousands of reservists in preparation for an expanded operation in the Gaza Strip. You got a judge knocking down one of Trump's executive orders targeting law firms that had gone up against them. That one was obvious. Sorry, it was silly, it was dumb. Will it's over. We'll get into the details in some of these big stories. But here's my

Are real, that's for sure. Armstrong and Getty. What's vax? All right, sir?

This order would reduce the number of interracial couples in TV commercial.

It's just too many.

Right.

You see him in the kitchen together making.

Meal from HelloFresh.

He's wearing loafersh she's got tight braids.

You're like, where did they meet? You know, why did they even talk about? It's insane, sir. I thought that was pretty funny. What do they even talk about?

You know, it's a cartoon version of you know, the culture war?

Blah blah blah. That's fine, We're all fine. Oh that's funny.

It's brought to you by HelloFresh. Where did they meet? Okay, So that's the fake Trump on Saturday Night Live. You got the real Trump, who's done his third interview.

With Christian Walker Meet the Press in one hundred days.

The overtly hostile, relentlessly negative.

Unfair, brutal, one sided. Kristen Welker.

Democrats get away with not doing very many interviews period, and then when they do do them, they give them to mainstream media outlets.

There are all on their side.

Trump goes into hostile territory like every day answering questions. Let's review Joe Biden's last interview. Sir, your wonderfulness is a wonder to us all. How are you so wonderful? But so last week a lot of tension was made talking about the tariff war and what it'll do, and Trump's saying, you know, kids can get by fewer dolls. And I thought it meant under the tree. You thought it meant on the shelves. Well, it was a little ambiguous, that's what I thought. Still trying to figure out where

Want to ask you about something you said this week got a lot of attention. You were at your cabinet meeting. You said, quote, going to quote what you said, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of thirty dollars. Yeah, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally. Are you saying that your tariffs will cause some prices to go up.

No, I think the tariff's are going to be great for us because it's going to make us rich.

You said some dolls are going to cost more. Isn't that an acknowledgement that some prices will go up.

I don't think a beautiful baby girl needs at eleven years old, needs to have thirty dollars. I think they can have three dollars or four dollars. Because what we were doing with China was just unbelievable. We had a trade deficit of hundreds of billions of dollars with China.

When you say they could have three dollars instead of thirty dollars, are you saying you say Americans could see empty store shelves.

No, No, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying they don't need to have thirty dollars. They can have three. They don't need to have two hundred and fifty pencils, they can have five.

You're basically saying there could be some supply.

Because they can't waste money on a trade deficit with China for things we don't need, for junk that we don't need.

Now.

Ian Bremer called that the most anti American thing I've ever heard of.

US President say, it's a bit strong.

I agree, it's a bit strong, but it sure sounds like he means under the tree, like you just your kids can do deal with less toys. And you've got too many pencils, by the way, what a weird example.

And they're going to cost more. Yeah, listen, you don't need three hundred and fifty pencils. Good lord.

I would hope at this point we have earned a reputation for fairness that you can trust us.

We calls them as we see them.

I found that to be, as political pitches go, one of the more amazing ones. There's going to be less to choose from, and it will cost more, but it will protect our industry and our manufacturing jobs, and we will all be better off for it.

Was his the second half of the sentence that he never really spoke.

Well, yeah, so here we are as usual as people often are, trying to fill in the stuff he doesn't say.

A native English speaker, Yes.

Because the argument that it's going to be painful for a while that's the way terif wars work, but it's going to turn out in our favor.

I don't know if that's true or not, but at least you can make that argument. It's a theory.

The whole you have too much stuff, I'll determine how much stuff you need to be happy is not something people are going to enjoy. No, that is Frankly, that's awful political messaging. If one is just going to be completely cynical about it, it's not good.

Your kids have too many toys. I'm just telling you, no, No, my kids will have as many toys as I think they ought. Nobody wants anybody to tell them.

That, Yeah, I don't need that sort of value judgment. If it was coming from a Democrat, folks, friends, and no kidding, be honest with your you would be going nuts. If Obama or Biden had said your kids don't need that many dolls for Christmas, Yeah, you'd be going crazy over that. Interestingly enough, Scott Bessens, who is the cool head I think in the administration when it comes to trade and tariffs and that sort of thing, has a

I think he was just.

Trying to pick a kind of an anonymous, you know, generic good.

You know, I feel amply penciled myself. You don't need two hundred and fifty pencils.

A couple of pencils is plenty, right, all right, you got me on that one. Yeah, we mostly use the mechanical ones around my house, so I think, you know, last lifetime anyway, So that was just odd his mystifying strategic chaos or strategic ambiguity in negotiations. That was at Lutnik. One of his guys was talking about, hey, now he does it.

Yeah, we know.

Nobody knows where this is going. That's the point. Okay, I'm not sure. I love that, but I think I understand it.

What do you use a pencil for? What are you writing in pencil for? I have a second grade paper due.

Oh no, don't. I don't use them much, honestly. Uh, you'd have to ask my wife if maybe you're doing math or things you need to erase.

I don't know, use a pencil. We do a lot of drafting in our house, busy drafting.

I feel like I use a pencil maybe to mark the kid's height up against the wall. Yeah, but the only thing I can think of off the top of my head, you know, if you want the honest truth, And it's a probing question, I appreciated I only use a pencil because I picked it up thinking it was because we use mechanical pencils around my house. Yeah, okay, I admit it. So that got a fair amount of attention. And honestly, I think it's silly and indefensible and an odd thing

Blah blah blah. My problem with that.

It's defensible, you know, in some ways I get it, but I despise central planning, right, It's a horror.

It's a horror.

I could go on and on without pausing for breath for two and a half hours if you would like me to about how incredibly stupid and flawed central planning is and how it is a miserable failure every single time it's tried, and the smacks of central planning except that I just think it's a means to the end of the trade negotiations. Yeah, I have a thought on that. Right after this, I watched the Warriors game last night. I'm a Warriors fan, like to see them go as

You want to get that next hour, when we got time to really flesh them out.

I was I was all ready to go right now, right now do you understand the whole movie tariff thing that has just been announced on fortunal. That's that's why I wanted to do the constitution stuff now, because I don't honestly, well, I would like to point out where I think Trump is being criticized unjustifiedly on a big one, the constitutional stuff.

I'm here to defend him on that. Okay, believe it or not. Cool, that's a good one. That's a hot one. Pencils, I don't care, I don't know.

We can do it now or do it. Let's kick off next hour with it. I will give you the very very short version. I did not love his answer, But I've said since Trump was running in twenty fifteen twenty sixteen that his his grasp of and his love for the Constitution is less than I would like. On the other hand, the constant abuse of the Constitution by you know, your Biden's and Obama's and company or are certainly more.

Than I would like.

But having said that, he was obviously in an environment with a person who is trying desperately to trap him to get the big juicy news quote. And there is subtlety and complexity to anything but the very very simplest answer to those questions. Now, he could have given the very very simplest answer, but he knew she was trying to trap him, and so he.

Was engaging in ambivalence. I get it, and we'll play you the clips.

So I think it's amazing that the Trump people are willing to troll to the level they troll. I mean two things. One thing she asked about I meet the press yesterday. You sell Trump twenty twenty eight hats. I mean, so that's some serious patrolling. They actually sell Trump twenty

So I can't remember.

So I want to talk about two movies I saw every the weekend. Since I'm sick, I saw more movies than usual. I saw the new Marvel Comics movie, which had a really interesting message I thought, and my son thought was the best deprayal deep portrayal of depression he's ever seen in any TV or movie ever. Oh really, yeah, which I find interesting. The very adult movie wasn't like any other Marvel movie I've ever seen by far.

I actually people clapped at the end, including me. It was really something.

You know, many including me have kicked Marvel absolutely four foisting, increasingly dopey, idiotic. Oh these these idiots will watch anything, no movies for the longest time, so you know they're smart people.

They got it. And then oh the other movie I watched.

I watched so where I the eighty year anniversary of the Fall of Berlin, And I watched a movie I'd never seen before with Anthony Hopkins as Hitler, The Bunker. Have you ever seen that? I'd never even heard of it. It's the best Hitler movie I've ever seen. I didn't never even heard of it.

I feel like I have.

Oh my god, it was good. But I want to talk about that later and some things around that, among other stuff. We got mail bag on the way. I hope you can stick around.

Well.

The tryouts for Jack's replacements start before or after I die. Asking for a friend, will there be a hot link for risumni sub submissions? You know, as a man who's played in a number of rock and roll bands through the years, sometimes there's a week link and you need to get rid of them, and you don't. You just say, yeah, we can't practice this Tuesday. But everybody knows, but that person you are practicing on Tuesday. But with the drummer,

I like it? Or Ben piffy mail bag?

Did you go from basically late Great Ben Franklin, Late Great Ben Franklin.

That's right.

You can drop us a note mail bag at Armstrong and getty dot com. Let's start light and move, you know, towards the more pithy or more important Jay team Livermore on the topic of weighing obese people, guys, you don't need to take them to the zoo. Well, I would agree. There are a couple of cases of people needing to be weighed and they didn't have the proper scale at any medical facility for them because of their their heavy heavyweights.

They take them to weigh.

Hippopotamusis exactly which is hurtful all around. Anyway, He says, you only need two traditional bathroom scales with a board between them, and assuming the scales are accurate to two hundred and fifty pounds, the two scales can weigh individuals up to five hundred pounds.

That's what we did.

We did that on the Armstrong and Getty Show. We figured that out years ago. We used to give away tickets to heavy people. Sacramento Kings were in the playoffs and we gave away tickets to the biggest Kings fan by weight, and we didn't have a five hundred pound scales. We had two regular scales. They would put one foot on each and it worked fine. That was in earlier and more idiotic days on the show. We've moved beyond that sort of foolishness.

What weighing giant people and giving them price.

Then he says, you don't need a super executive, expensive elephant scale for your doctor's office. The scales can be put away in a cabinet when weighing traditional patient. No.

JT.

No, it's much simpler to just have the big scale. Uh oh, better bring out another. No, two more.

Scales, come on? Anyway? You are right.

Did you watch the Kentucky Derby on Saturday? I did, and, fueled by what do you make jin out of rice juniper berries? Fueled by whatever's in gin, I threw down a couple of ill advised dollars on various nags which failed to cross the finished money fashion.

You didn't choose the winner? I did not?

Well, I never I never go with favorites. I mean, what's the point anyway? Let's see, this is from Kevin. It seems appropriate that a horse named sovereignty should defeat a horse named journalism in this Saturday's Kentucky Derby during a time that our country is taking back sovereignty. It's a southern border and exposing fake journalism. Finding more meaning from the horse names than I did, Kevin, But you're right, that is kind of funny.

Let's see.

How about Ryan reacting to the President on Meet the Press with his you don't need two hundred pencils or whatever he said, Dear Big Freedom and cyber Jack.

Was President Trump telling me I should do with less.

The man who drapes everything in gold, builds luxury resorts and hotels that I can't afford to google much less to go to and at the cost of tax payer dollars, shows up to whatever sports of any wants.

It's telling me to do more or do with less.

Please, elected officials, don't tell me I could do with less when you have grown fat and rich off the American people. Let's Ryan from Houston. It was a solid conservative lad.

I don't know.

Yeah, I don't think it's very good political messaging anyway. Moving along totally different topic, JT writes one thing to look ahead when you lower the federal He wrote a multipoint email about GDP measurements, which were much in the news at the end of the last week, and he said one more thing, when you lower the federal budget, that too causes a reduction in the GDP calculation. That's right, because it's consumer spending plus investment plus government spending minus imports,

Anyway.

When you borrow money for the federal budget, that borrowed money increases the GDP. Paying down the debt doesn't help the GDP at all. It won't so if Trump and dogs were actually able to find a trillion dollars to cut from the federal budget, the GDP of the country would go down by a trillion dollars, all other things being equal. Well, in three months when the quarterly report comes out, if it's down again, I'm taking that week off while you all argue about whether or not this

Now it'll be good times, you know.

I'll just read passages from my favorite Dickens novels.

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