Why Is The Rent So Damn High?!

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

Arm Strong and Jack and He arm Drawn live from sto C. I'm sorry it's early alive from studios. It's a bad start. Clinging to life from studio se.

Right right, honored on my deathbed from Studio CE dimly lit room.

I don't know.

This might not work today. We're under the tutelage of our general manager.

The United States Military.

A couple of big military stories today I want to talk about and Bye Gully. The nation that can't defend itself will not be a nation for long, high priority.

We'll get to it. Yeah, I love that.

Did we figure out yet why that plane rolled off the aircraft carrier into the sea.

Do we know the answer to that yet? Not too much?

Well, I forgot this. That's the parking break, and I feel terrible about it. But yes, it's on me.

I don't care if we get lied to.

I mean, if the Huthi's shot at us and somehow cause that to happen and we don't want to admit that, I'm fine with that. I'm pro fog of war. The other side, does it we get to do it too, but not fog of stupid But yeah, no, I want to know if it was incompetence of some sort that's like, oh my god, we shouldn't be making mistakes like that, right not go discipline, et cetera. I found this. I came across this yesterday. Funny you brought that up the ten.

I got y.

Yeah, number one air force in the world is the United States Air Force. The number two air force in the world is the United States Navy. The number four air force in the world is the Army. In number five is the Marines. So for of the top five air forces in the world are US and then in the middle Therey you get the Russian Air Force, which I'm kind of surprised by that.

It's bigger than China. China is down at seven. Hmmm.

Interesting, Yeah, well good for us, Yeah, exactly. I liked a little shot of Hey we're number one. I needed I needed that.

Yeah, we need to beef up the navy.

Part of our navy certainly, although that is one of the defense stories. We're going to be talking about a.

Major infusion of what seems to be some fairly well directed cash. The Pentagon's way, well, I heard what at least been proposed by Congress. It's tough with the Pentagon and reports like this, because it's the money spigot of all money spigots.

If you can, if you can, and.

Not that you know, we are in a country patriots wanting to do our best, but there are also you know, there are plenty of people then think, you know this weapon system over here that I benefit from, Here's why you should spend the money on this instead of that one. And there was a report out yesterday that we are not prepared for the new drone world of fighting, which the Ukraine in Russia have you know, changed warfare probably forever.

One of the updates I wanted to share a had to do with the US in absolute overdrive developing our drone program.

So that's an interesting light to shed on it what you just said.

Certainly, but they're talking about the front lines in Ukraine and how the drones have just changed that warfare. So it's trench warfare, World War One style, but you add in drones and you're in that trench and you hear a buzzin and here comes, you know, two hundred drones.

Right, How brutal is that?

I suspect strongly that the good folks at Boston Dynamics and wherever DARPA is spending its money, are frantically working to replace the aforementioned human being with yet another drone, right, some sort of R two D two looking thing with a machine gun. And so there's no need to have much of a trench and food and water and sanitation and the rest of it, because it'll be drones firing at the drones.

Right.

Yeah, that's all really interesting stuff. I just hope we're on the cutting edge of it, in the front of it, and not you know, a power leaning on the force that would have been dominant twenty years ago but is

Sure. Yeah.

One of the great uneasy tensions in any government, and certainly out of a superpower. And if you go around spouting spouting only one half of this, you're the classic example of knowing just enough to be dangerous. A the need for a robust, powerful, overwhelming, terrifying defense. Okay, but that costs zillions of dollars. Has Jack put it earlier, It's an enormous money spigot constantly flowing full. Well, what does an enormous money spigot attract? Greed heads, fraud, corruption,

Waste horribly as Russians do. But one other thing, and all that is the story that broke yesterday afternoon. It did happen as predicted that. Apparently, when Trump and Zelensky got together to the Vatican the other day, they were talking about that mineral rights deal and it has come together and gotten signed. So we're now invested in Ukraine. And does that mean we're invested invested like, hey, Russia, don't be messing with our investment. Is that what's happening here?

Is it both?

It could be one of the most brilliant and innovative diplomatic moves I've ever witnessed. Could be We're not, but we will absolutely talk about that.

Yeah. If it's a no, we're not getting involved in the war.

We have no interest in fighting you, but we do have a big finance interest in these minds, so you better stop.

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaking of long unproductive wars, Jack, one war that we've been fighting for some time is starting to look better and better like we might win it. That is the war on the penny by partisan support for eliminating the penny.

Wow of my minor gee, Hods, this one time change is next. We get this taken care of, then it's on to the time change. That's pretty much at the end of your long ge hot day. You look up at the clock, you got six seven minutes left in the day, and what's.

A LoVa penny? Damn pennies.

You're not gonna spend all day railing about it, but it's worth a few minutes, Michael.

I just think it's a wonderful time to be alive and see the penny go penny going possibly, you know, daylight saving time. It is wonderful. Let's start the show officially. I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty on this it is Oh boy, it's Thursday. It's May first. The rent is due your twenty it's too damn damn right, man. I have my rent set auto pay like you probably do. And so you get the email saying my rent's what? I forgot it so much? Why is rent so damn high?

Let's beginning then, officially according to the FCC rules regulations.

What a show it's going to be. Here we go at mark Hi everyone, Thank you all, thank you, thank you. And Dougie's here too.

Why oh please have a seat, please have a seat.

Oh oh, it's wonderful to be home and thank you.

Oh my lord, I thought I remembered how off putting she was.

It in faded in my memory.

Kamala Harris with her comeback speech for some reason, no Ah and Douggie's here too. Where did they find people willing to cheer her like she was missed?

That was my first question. Explain your enthusiasm to me, take your time.

Where did those people come from? Here's my favorite thing before we take a break from Charles C. A. Cook about Kamala's speech, because he was responding to some article about there's a clamoring for her voice right now, and Charles CW.

Cook wrote, there is not.

There has, in fact, never ever been less of a clamoring for anything that is on off er. In the history of clamoring, no people has ever clamored less than the American people are clamoring for Kamala Harrison's voice.

She is clamorless. She has a hollow clamor.

Ee who wrote the original line with a straight face, I guess that American's clamoring for her voice?

What?

Oh, that is funny. We got Katie's headlines on the way. More news of the day, lots of stuff. Hope you can stay here. I'm gonna steal a headline from you, Katie that you probably don't have because it just came across. Mark Halpern, who has tremendous sources, is tweeting out. He says three sources tell him that Mike Waltz, the currently National Security Advisor, and the deputy Alex Wang are out the door as early as today. Yeah, so be kind of interesting to see. Why not shocked.

I hate that because I like Walltz. He's a good guy and a smart guy.

But yeah, it was that whole Jeffrey Goldberg a signal chat thing. But Trump's too strong willed to get rid of him then, like it's a reaction to criticism.

He'll just wait and then shove him out the door when somebody's looking in the other direction. Okay, well he is more of a traditional we need to support Ukraine attack Iran guy, and maybe they didn't want his voice around on that.

I don't know, I wonder. Yeah, all right, so much to talk about today. Let's get started to figure out who's reporting what. It's the lead story with Katie Green.

Katie, starting with ABC News.

Trump says he's not in a rush to make trade deals. Quote, they want us, we don't need them.

Yeah.

I saw part of the town hallidd on News Nation last night and he said, yeah, we're in the catbird seat, he said several times, which we either we are or we aren't. But from a negotiating deal, acting like you can take it or leave it is always a good place to be.

Trumpian strategic chaos in the midst of negotiation yep USA.

Today, Ukraine and United States sign long awaited minerals.

And reconstruction deal.

How it develops and what it means ultimately a really interesting topic.

From the Washington Post, China Signal. I'm sorry, can I'm skinned. I jumped in.

The one thing that offended me as an American was the idea and Trump expressed this several times that they.

Need to pay us back for what we spent.

You can't retroactively convert a gift into a loan, and I mean that's despicable on a human level and certainly in conducting foreign policy going for nobody would ever take us seriously.

Again, that's been dropped.

Yeah, I'm glad to part of the deal, even according to NPR this morning.

All right from the Washington Post, China Signals ever so obliquely that it's more open to trade talks.

Well, it better be there. They're sinking quickly to their knees. More on that to come. Major economics update, including how misleading some of yesterday's economics were that everybody was talking about all day long. We will remove the scales from your eyes. To paraphrase the Good Book.

Of course, your daughter might have to get by with just one dollar this year, according to Trump, So we'll have that for you later.

That's quite there. Quite the statement.

If you haven't heard it, doll shortach, Yes, stay tuned.

From Breitbart.

Kilmar Obrego, Garcia's wife filed second protective order in twenty twenty, said he's made murder threats and quote, my kids are afraid.

Oh that's horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible.

And he's now the Rosa parks of the Democratic Party.

Good strategy from NBC.

Judge rules Palestinian activists mcmood Khalil can fight wrongful detention case in federal court.

You had to contradict what I said seconds ago. Yeah, we do have to follow the rules. I mean, we're a nation of laws.

Do you see all the detainees there at that place in Texas that made an SOS for planes flying overhead yesterday, No miss that.

I don't know who came up with that idea.

That was a great, great play into the hand of the Trump Hayton media.

They just loved that. Of course, look.

At all those detainees making an SOS in the dirt in Texas to try to save their lives.

Great vicial too, Yeah, we love, we love a good visual. In fact, no story matters on TV news unless there's a good visual.

From the Wall Street Journal, US Army plans massive increase in its use of drones.

They're saying the shift to.

More small unmanned aircraft is based on lesson to learn from the Ukraine battlefield.

Yeah, we're just talking about that. Gotta major look into that coming up as well.

From the New York Post, team charged in Tesla firebombing released from federal custody to continue gender affirming medical care.

Yeah right, all right, samany it was amazing how many of these jobs burning up Tesla's were.

Gender bending lunatics. What's up with that? Wow, that's charitable. From the New York Times.

In an uncertain economy, McDonald's is seeing a spending decline.

Yeah, I just saw a thing up on the TV snack foods go stale on the something about sales for snack foods.

So we eating less.

McDonald's and crappy food so in store for some reason, I'd be good.

I have Key k Jr.

Is making America healthy again. Jack, he's successful. He's doing his thing.

From page six, Kanye West doubles down on being wife Bianca's quote master after they get back together.

I didn't realize they'd gotten back together. Wow.

Yeah, it's a shock that both ends of that relationship are a little nutty.

And finally, the Babylon be global birth rates hit historic lows as Elon Musk is busy with Doge.

Les less busy starting yesterday, I guess so had the headline break on my phone last night, Tesla board searching for Musk's successor, wanting to replace Elon Musk for running Tesla. But then the Financial Times with the headline today Tesla board denies launching search for Musk's successor, which doesn't mean it's not happening, but they are denying it.

Yeah, they might have just trying to be trying to stare. I'm sorry, Can I have a second take on that, Michael, They're trying to scare him straight.

Hey, you might want to pay attention to the most valuable car company in the world.

Yeah, if you get a minute, Yeah, exactly.

So all that stuff Joe teased, and a bunch of other things coming up. If you missed a segment, get the podcast Armstrong and Getty on demand.

Armstrong and Getty.

President Trump and Bortally spoke on the phone yesterday with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. But even he doesn't know how to cancel your prime membership.

It because I don't think I need it anymore.

Well, because I'm the president, so the savings matter less.

I don't think I need any more. That's it. That's pretty amusing, that is.

And so that was the whole tariffs on Amazon stuff, to show why the prices went up, And did the tariffs have anything to do with the shrinking of the econo that came out yesterday? People saying yes, people saying no. Maybe, Jokin tell us, I will.

I will share with you the product of my reading far too much yesterday about all of this and this morning as well. So, first of all, to belabor the fact that the drive by media are terrible at their jobs and biased seems unnecessary at this point, Can we just stipulate that your honor, so be it?

Moving along?

Of course, what most of us heard yesterday did not enlighten us much and in fact obscured the truth. Here's what you need to know. So the GDP on an annualized basis shrunk the announced yesterday right the first quarter? Is that Trump's economy or not, blah blah blah doesn't really matter much, not yet.

Here's the one thing you need to know. How do we figure the GDP? I was trying to remember. I learned that ages ago and have to be reminded of a few years. GDP is calculated by adding consumption, government expenditures, investments, and exports together and subtracting imports.

That's how you get the GDP.

Now, the reason that last part is so significant G for gross domestic product?

Did we say that it is? Indeed?

Yes, thank you, that's excellent. Let's not be too hip for the room. So the reason that is significant is that, as the headline from the journal puts it, the rush to beat tariffs is distorting the economy.

And there's more to come. Short version, there.

Was an enormous, mind boggling surge in imports in the first quarter because of the anticipation of a big, giant, god knows what's going on tariffs. So I actually kind of pushed up the purchase of a automobile that may be of German origin, Yaavol, because.

I thought, well, if there's a giant terriff, I might as well do it.

Now, evidently many, many, many people and corporations thought the same way.

US imports surged more than.

Forty percent year after year over a year in the first quarter of this year, and that drove down gross domestic product by zero point three percent annualized one point two whatever. Now, there's a great deal of uncertainty going forward about how the tariffs and the uncertainty over the tariffs is going to affect the economy. But that's why the economy shrank. It didn't our production didn't shrink, our spending didn't shrink, our investment didn't shrink.

It's that we had.

An enormous amount of imports in anticipation of the tariffs. Now, having said that, Goodness knows what the next quarter is going to be like, I mean, because all of these numbers generally chug along in a reasonably predictable way because of economic inputs and outputs. But this is you know, Trump has thrown the whole thing up in the air. So anyway, don't worry about the GDP number yes yesterday. In fact, as greg Ip writes, forget the GDP, it's

It's early etc. Se.

Yeah, the job's remember coming out tomorrow. A great deal will be made to that. Interesting one of my favorite numbers floating around out there. Sort of separate from that, but in the same realm with bringing back manufacturing and everything like that. We have one hundred and forty thousand plus empty manufacturing jobs right now that people don't want or won't take.

That's why we need to bring half a million more back. Jack, So I'll have six hundred and forty empty jobs. Well that's the question. Would they be higher paying or different or something.

Or can we reform our freaking safety net so that able bodied men all over this country aren't sitting at home smoking pot, playing video games and either faking a disability or or whatever other method they've found to suck off the government teat get their ass into a job. I've been desk. Trust me when I say it's a hell of a motivator.

Uh.

Well, we've made a turn where we think. I can't believe most of America thinks this? Does most of America think this? Where there are just jobs you shouldn't have to do. If you're like a twenty six year old dude, I mean, you went to college you got a degree, you shouldn't have to go do that.

Who decided that? I don't know.

With the craziest domestic not domestic, Progressive America is really pushing that idea, and infrequently it either takes the form well.

White people shouldn't be doing those.

Jobs, which is unbelievable, or you know, if you want to broaden it a little bit, native born people and citizens shouldn't be doing these jobs.

We need to import third worlders. They'll do the jobs.

It's you know, when you say it out loud, and I don't think I'm being unfair with that characterization.

When you say it out loud, it's repugnant.

Absolutely is When was the last time you had heard a mainstream met a useless, dumb ass weasel. I'm sorry, folks, wow, I'm getting in passion my language is.

I'm sorry it was over the top. I apologize anyway, But when was the last time you heard somebody enunciate that it's crazy? A couple more e count stories I found interesting. Home builders are piling on discounts. They're struggling to entice buyers. The spring season is huge for home builders. Your biggies, your d R Horton, your PULTI Group, your lg I homes Lennar, and they are down fifteen percent

Hey, hey, can we ease up a little bit. Then finally this.

Trump was right, he said in a couple of different forms yesterday. China is really feeling of pain. They are trying to act all stoic and tough, like a boxer who's just been tagged with a right cross to the chin. But cracks are starting to show. Riot su is this I like to give credit words due lingling Way and Raphael Huong both foom sound like they know their way around China. That Chinas singled a signaled that as a nation it's better able to tolerate the pain of a

More than a year.

A lot of the numbers look like the beginning of COVID, when China is starting to groan a bit wow. Speaking of which, did you see the statement China put out about how COVID started in the United States.

We'll have to read that later. That was something.

Oh, no, you're kidding there, you know, I wanted to bring this up. There is a great new book out. I think I can find the type quickly. That's not it, Actually there it is, Yeah, it's it is a book interestingly by two liberal Princeton professors, self described progressive academic and gay activist. And this other guy's work has been praised by liberal thinkers like Ezra Kline. But they wrote a book called in COVID's Wake, How our Politics Failed.

Us, and it is scathing. It's like we and Sean Hannity teamed up to write a book. It is brutal, and I haven't brought it.

Up just because I could go over and over the horrible mistakes and the lack or the vanishing of liberty that happened during COVID for the rest of my life.

Be bored. I think it's that important.

But yeah, they just hammered the Jesus out of it, and including the lab leak thing and how the lab leak theory was silenced, and it's just it's inexcusable.

I'll read that statement from China later.

It's galling finally economic note, price of eggs is down eighty percent. The Great egg Crisis is over. I've had seventeen eggs already today. Oh, Great egg crisis is over. Just you know, pop them like they's nothing. Walk around with a bag full of eggs, popping them in your mouth because they're they're cheap and easy again. Yeah, so has the bird flu been more or less corral?

Speaking of dread disease, I don't know why the price of eggs sound big factor.

Yeah, I don't know.

Let's just hope there's not some sort of toast pox that pops up.

Next to ruin breakfast for all of us. You know.

Oh my god, he'shost. We've got the mail bag on the way. We got to get into some more news of the day. The our military is going more high tech, I guess, to deal with the changing landscape of wars on the ground. We'll get to that story probably an hour or two. Lots of stuff on the way.

Stay here.

Washington Post has a inside look at some of Sean Combe's lifestyle. Is parties and everything like that, laying out in a way I'd never heard before. We'll have to get to that a little bit later. God, he is so much baby oil. Just what a degenerate lifestyle. What a horrible way to chase happiness. It's never regula, never worked for anybody in the history of the world.

Yeah yeah, Wow.

Here's your freedom loving quota of the day, sent along by Jerry. We've used this one more than once, but it's one of my all time favorites.

From Alisa Zenovievin, now better known to the world of letters as ein Rand. When you realize that to produce you must obtain permission from those who produce nothing, When you see that money flows to those who deal, not in goods but in favors. When you notice that many become rich through bribery and influence rather than buy their work, and that the laws do not protect you from them, but instead they are protected from you.

When you discover that corruption is rewarded.

And honesty becomes a form of self sacrifice, then you can confidently say, without fear of being wrong, that your society is doomed.

Ding ding ding.

A little close to home there, Ian Baby, Yeah, Mailbag, she said that what in the nineteen thirties or forties.

You can drop us a note anytime you like. Mailbag at Armstrong and Getty dot com. On the topic of the Wisconsin judge who is helping an illegal wife beater escape justice because she's so mad at ice or something, Adam Wrights, guys, let's cut that judge some slack. Maybe they help that violent illegal alien escape the domestic violence hearing and.

Ice in a moment of panic.

I mean, come on, we've all been trapped in a vestibule once and used any means to escape in a.

Moment of panic.

I was trying to escape a vestibule.

That is one of my favorite tapes of all time. AOC told us it's even okay to pull a fire alarm. Good point, Adam Good callback.

She was asking about whether she wants to run for president yesterday. We'll have the answer later. D.

On the topic of the Harvard bigots, and more on that to come, the Harvard's own report is scathing.

I've dug into it. Let's see, Sean writes.

Maybe the Harvard Muslim students who reported like they could not speak freely, they were like, I'd like to say, hey, let's.

Cool it with the Jews stuff, but I'm scared of all those crazy white chicks. That is a funny thought. The Muslim students are terrified of the woke white girls.

Let's see.

On the topic of whether some transient tampered with your tesla, Jack, Yeah, let's see this guy writes, if you didn't hear, I told the story on one more thing, brief story is some guys, some guy who's.

Transient adjacent.

I don't know why I allowed this, but he said, I parked my cyberbeast and he said, hey, I've never seen one of those before.

Can I take a look inside?

And I hesitated, and yeah, I would have been uncomfortable to say, no, I don't know, and he he stuck his head in there like weirdly far and low for too long a time.

It was strange.

And now my door makes a weird sound when I close it, and I don't know if he did something to my car or what.

I just forwarded you an email to your personal account from a listener who said, not for air.

You might want to take a gander it. Well, yeah I will.

Yeah, let's see it anyway. Is it a DP or is it related to this story? I'm sorry, a what now? A Richard pick? Or is it related to this story?

No, you idiot, No, it's directly related to the story.

Anyway, let's see.

Sean writes, I think Jack was paranoid and describing that incident, but it's not like he.

I don't know.

Once reported some Italian caterers as Islamis terrorists to Homeland security in Las Vegas. I mean, if you'd done that, I'd question this judgment.

That was Jean Baby.

That was New Year's Eve two thousand and two, I mean one turning into two. Yeah, yeah, man, that is a throwback. Sean, Well, that's embarrassing in retrospect. Yea.

So we were.

Talking also yesterday about these AI apps that record every word you say for the purpose of giving you reminders and summaries of the things that you decided to do and accomplished.

And blah blah blah. It's intriguing.

My takeaway was, Yeah, let's give it a hear or too, and see how these things work out.

But that's our topic.

A couple of notes, this one from Michael and Washington State guys. I don't think i'd be a fan of the AI wristband voice recorder. Seems like a slippery slope and could be hacked and so on. But my Samsung phone has a new feature that records calls. It does make all parties aware of the recording. It's very useful when disputing financial charges with insurance, phone, utility, or other companies. Now I have the power to record the lies and

Yeah. I love that idea.

And if you're in a one party state, you don't even have to bother telling them, although if you're not hit them with the exact for purposes of quality.

Control the phone, this good call will be recorded. We're trying to serve you not have evidence against you, right exactly. And on the similar topic, we mentioned that you could win an argument with your wife if you'd recorded the phone call. You never told me we had dinner Friday night. I told you when we are talking about the tennis turn.

Then you go back.

You got the whole tennis tournament, the conversation, you play it for not there. Well, Caleb was a thinking man rights. I don't think that recording device with aid from AI would change anything about a disagreement to what was said with the wife. Even if AI came back and confirmed nothing was said about subber with friends, for example, then.

You and AI would be wrong, all right.

I think what would be disturbing is finding out that you are regularly told stuff and completely forget it. I think that would be the outcome that would be highly disturbing.

Uh yeah, perhaps what do we have Michael one minute?

This is this is distasteful and I'm I regret to even reading it, much less reading it to you. Mikey Loke writes recently on his podcast that no one listens to Governor Gave Newsom was comparing himself to Elon Musk by saying we.

Were dog before doage existed.

Oh my god, like he's been good for California music economy in the government. Rather than compare baring himself to Musky, should be comparing himself to Donald Junior because they both had Kim Gilfoyle.

Oh wow, that's not a that's not modern thing to the discussion.

That's no, no, Mikey, do better be better? Could sixty guys be a crocodile?

Do we have that?

We got a lot of that stuff I mentioned an hour too. If you don't get to get the podcast Armstrong and Getty on demand Armstrong and Getty