Armstrong & Getty On Demand

I Might Need The Paddles!

35 min
Mar 31, 20262 months ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

Armstrong and Getty discuss media coverage of international conflicts, a Supreme Court ruling on conversion therapy counseling, California's population exodus, homelessness in Los Angeles, and various cultural and political issues affecting Americans.

Insights
  • Media outlets frame serious geopolitical issues through consumer impact angles (gas prices, chocolate bars) rather than substantive policy debate, potentially obscuring public understanding of complex conflicts
  • An 8-1 Supreme Court decision on First Amendment speech protections for counselors received misleading characterization in major outlets, suggesting journalistic failure to investigate consensus rulings
  • Government policy oscillates between extremes (opioid crisis to over-restriction) rather than implementing balanced, sensible regulation that serves public health
  • Political candidates face pressure to avoid condemning violence against specific groups due to electoral concerns, indicating polarization of basic moral positions
  • California's largest-ever population decline coincides with major infrastructure investments, raising questions about policy effectiveness and resource allocation priorities
Trends
Media sensationalism prioritizing consumer lifestyle impacts over geopolitical substance in conflict coverageIncreasing polarization of basic moral positions (condemning violence) along demographic and electoral linesState-level regulatory pendulum swings from under-regulation to over-restriction without middle-ground solutionsPopulation migration patterns shifting away from high-cost urban centers despite major infrastructure investmentsFirst Amendment jurisprudence expanding protections for professional speech against state regulation attemptsHomelessness becoming normalized in public spaces with declining civic engagement or solutionsJournalistic bubble effect limiting investigation of consensus court decisions and policy outcomes
Topics
Supreme Court First Amendment Ruling on Conversion Therapy CounselingMedia Coverage of International Conflicts and Geopolitical EventsCalifornia Population Decline and Urban Migration PatternsHomelessness Policy and Encampment Management in Los AngelesOpioid Regulation and Government Policy OscillationPolitical Polarization and Moral Consensus BreakdownJournalistic Standards and Misleading Headline FramingHigh-Speed Rail and Infrastructure Investment EffectivenessInflation Reporting and Economic Data AccuracyMLB Robot Umpire Implementation and Accuracy RatesHezbollah-Inspired Terror Threats and Domestic SecurityLeBron James Father-Son NBA Playing AchievementHospital Patient Discharge Rights and Legal LiabilityInvasive Species and Environmental Health Threats
Companies
CBS
Hosts 'Face the Nation' program criticized for delayed coverage of major international conflicts
New York Times
Criticized for misleading characterization of Supreme Court conversion therapy ruling in headline
Wall Street Journal
Criticized for similar misleading framing of Supreme Court conversion therapy ruling
CNN
Reported gas price milestone without adjusting for inflation, creating misleading economic narrative
Fox 11
Reported on homelessness and illegal drug use encampments along Los Angeles River
iHeartMedia
Distributes Armstrong & Getty podcast as part of iHeart podcast network
Los Angeles Lakers
NBA team featuring LeBron James and his son Bronny James playing together
Tallahassee Memorial Health Care
Hospital sued patient for refusing to vacate hospital room after discharge determination
People
Jack Armstrong
Co-host of the Armstrong & Getty On Demand podcast discussing current events and politics
Joe Getty
Co-host of the Armstrong & Getty On Demand podcast discussing current events and politics
Neil Gorsuch
Wrote majority opinion in 8-1 conversion therapy counseling First Amendment ruling
Elena Kagan
Wrote concurring opinion in conversion therapy counseling First Amendment ruling
Ketanji Brown Jackson
Sole dissenter in 8-1 conversion therapy counseling ruling, wrote lengthy dissent
Jon Stewart
Criticized media for downplaying international conflict coverage in favor of consumer impact stories
Tiger Woods
Mentioned regarding vehicle accident and hydrocodone possession discovery
Rush Limbaugh
Referenced in discussion comparing oxycodone and hydrocodone prescription medications
LeBron James
Achieved first father-son NBA game appearance with son Bronny James on Lakers
Abdul El-Sayed
Michigan Democrat Senate candidate who expressed hesitation condemning synagogue attack due to Muslim voters
Nithya Raman
Commented on homelessness challenges along LA River, advocating for housing solutions
Anne E. Merrimow
Wrote New York Times article on Supreme Court conversion therapy ruling with misleading framing
James Rossimer
Wrote Wall Street Journal article on Supreme Court conversion therapy ruling with misleading framing
Quotes
"Government does two things, nothing and overreact."
Joe GettyEarly segment
"Colorado may regard its policies as essential to public health and safety. Certainly, censorious governments throughout history have believed the same, but the First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy and thought or speech in this country."
Justice Neil GorsuchSupreme Court ruling discussion
"You fundamentally misunderstand the First Amendment. It exists to protect speech you think will lead to people thinking the wrong thing. That's why it exists."
Jack ArmstrongSupreme Court analysis
"You cannot hate the media enough."
Jack ArmstrongMedia coverage criticism
"The only lasting solution is to bring people inside. And we are pursuing that solution with urgency."
Nithya RamanHomelessness policy discussion
Full Transcript
This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George Washington Broadcast Center. Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. I'm Strong and Getty. And now, here's, I'm Strong and Getty. We're talking about Tiger Woods and how news came out that he had a couple of hydrocodones in his pocket when he rolled his vehicle the other day. And I was saying, is that the thing Rush Limbaugh was on? Doctor Friend of mine texted me, oxycodone is what Rush was on, oxy. I didn't know this. Oh. Oxy is 10 times stronger than hydrocodone. Now that you mentioned it, yeah, hydro is the one I had after. I didn't know that they weren't even close to the same strength. I've had hydrocodone, I think when I had cancer, I had to take one once, but I don't think I've ever taken oxy. That's interesting. And remember when we, I love the way we go, we swing so far one direction and the other. Remember when we had six figures worth of people dying from these things? Because pharmacies around the country were just giving them to anybody randomly. And it was just out of control. Well, now we went so far the other direction. My son is on one drug that could be addictive. And you just cannot, you can get 30 days at a time and you have to wait until the full 30 days are up until you can get the next prescription. Can't overlap by a day. And then sometimes they're busy and you can't get it. And I'm like, what are you supposed to do? You can't skip a day, but they just got the strict rules because you can get addicted. And just so unreasonably far the other direction. Why can't we manage things in any sensible way? Government does two things, nothing and overreact. Correct. I remember you saying that many years ago and that is a hundred percent true. So I've been complaining a lot about the media coverage of the war. I think it's by far the biggest story in the world. And like Sunday, I faced the nation. They didn't get to it for 18 minutes to start facing the nation. They talked about TSA lines and they talked about shutdown and they talked about some other thing I didn't care about before they got to the war. Like seriously? John Stuart on the Daily Show thinks it's ridiculous that the media isn't getting to the war more often and treating it with more seriousness. Also, his conclusion about the war is different than mine, but the coverage, he's got the same point of view. What else is being blocked? It's getting harder to get food that comes with pistachios. You can't make to buy chocolate bars. Oh no. What will our influencers stand in line to pretend to eat? To buy chocolate, by God, that's been an American staple for tens of days. I can't believe how the news has to frame world events to try and make Americans care. The whole region is being flattened. Innocent people are dying. Their food and fuel are in total chaos. And our news is like, if this goes on any longer, say goodbye to your stuffed crust pizza. I agree with that. I don't agree with his thought on the war, but they have to come up with these gases expensive. So that's why you should get... There's a freaking war going on that could go any direction at any point. Anyway, Jon Stewart goes on. It turns out there is another key material being affected by the war in Iran, fertilizer. There could be helium shortages. Yes, the gas that's used in party balloons. What the f***? Halium is the fundamental gas used in the production of advanced chip technology. You don't have to dumb it down to make us, oh, this war could be even bad for your promposals. Like, come on! I agree. Wow, that is shocking. That is, I mean, I thought I was cynical enough. The same gas that's used to build party balloons. Yeah, we know. A, we know. B, that's not the problem at all. Helium's incredibly important to high tech. Production of chips, et cetera, as he mentioned. Well, all those things he mentioned, though, including to me the price of gas, if chocolate bars go away and gas gets way more expensive than we'd like, the war's either a good idea or it's not. Let's discuss it on the merits of being at war with another major country or not. Yeah, how about the whole major malevolent power exporting Jihad around the world, killing more of our soldiers than any other country? And I mean, we'll get to the chocolate and the party balloons if you want to, but can we take a look at that picture first? That is astonishingly, I'd say it's condescending, but maybe they just know where their viewers are. Trying desperately. I'm guessing that, and I'm surprised CBS faced the nation. That's Barry Weiss. I'm sure she cares about the war. Maybe they've got data that says, hey, people just don't care. Well, either that or she just hasn't gotten to face the nation because nobody watches it. The, we get several texts of, oh my God, you guys are talking about a ran again. I ignore them because I think it's a really, really important story, but some of you feel that way. Fine, good, great. Some of them are dressing up as furry animals and then having sex and... Maybe they need conversion therapy. I was in my transition too. I know, I just, I'm beyond helping. Michael, I may need the paddles. Go out to the lobby. I might need the paddles. Get the paddles. Again? Already on Tuesday, usually we don't have to bring out to the paddles until like Thursday or Friday. My will to live has gone so low. I'm gonna need, Claire! All right, here's the story. Oh my God, this is not gonna help me at all. The Supreme Court made an absolutely fantastic ruling. Eight to one. Now explain why I'm struggling with this in a moment. Saying that a Christian counselor in Colorado who challenged a ban on mental health counseling for either transgender confused kids or in some cases gay kids or whatever, that you can't restrict that for First Amendment reasons. It's the law censor speech based on viewpoint. Justice Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion, Colorado may regard its policies as essential to public health and safety. Certainly, censorious governments throughout history have believed the same, but the First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy and thought or speech in this country. Justice Kagan wrote a concurring opinion. She went at it a little bit differently from a legal point of view. It was eight to one. Katanji Brown-Marxist was against, she wrote the only dissent. Her dissent was longer than the court's opinion and Kagan's concurrence combined. Wow, even the other liberal justices have to be rolling their eyes at her behind the scenes, don't they? Right, and I scanned her reasoning and essentially, and oh my God, you wanna talk about a slippery slope. This is, you know, I don't know, one of those old playground slides covered with KY jelly. I mean, it is a slippery slope. She said, well, because the state has an interest in regulating medical professionals, then they can regulate speech medical professionals. And like, oh, for God's sake, the state regulates fricking everything at this point. So barbers can be barred from speaking out against Democrats by your insane post-modernist reasoning. Anyway, here's the reason I was not completely enthusiastic about bringing you this story. Oh my God, I expected it out of the New York Times. Whoops, it closed for some reason. Here we go. The Supreme Court on, oh, oh, oh, sorry, you need to know this. This case is about the gender-bending madness, especially for kids. These kids who are autistic or they are victims of sexual abuse or they are merely misfits, they want to be somebody else, they're not comfortable in their own skin, they have the sort of angst that adolescents always have, always have, some more than others. God bless them. And as the dad of an autistic kid, I can tell you that angst is suffocating at times. These counselors say, hey, before we start feeding you hormones or talk about surgeries or transitioning, let's talk about what's going on in your life. Let's talk about what's going on in your heart and mind for a while before we go down that road. Would that be okay? That's what this counseling is, and it's being called conversion counseling by the transgender activists because they want people to think of that like fundamentalist religious thing where you would tell a gay boy, you can't be gay because that's against God. Here's a woman, get with a woman, you can't be gay. When those are two very different things, although they're both protected by the First Amendment in my mind, or in my opinion. So that's what the counseling is. Let's talk about what some of the other problems might be in your life and we'll get to the transgender thing. Here's how it's characterized in the New York Times. The Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with a Christian therapist rejecting a Colorado law that prohibited mental health professionals from trying to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ minors. They characterized that caring, patient, actually looking at underlying problems as quote unquote, trying to change the sexual orientation of minors. And then I look at the Wall Street Journal. The Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with a Christian counselor who challenged a band, blah, blah, blah, on mental health counseling that seeks to change young people's sexual orientation or gender identity. The New York Times, written by Anne E. Merrimow, who is a died in the world progressive in the Wall Street Journal, handed this assignment over to James Rossimer, who apparently is of the same ilk. Or because big time journalists exist in a journalistic bubble too. You wouldn't think they would. That's what they think this is. They just don't know. The Colorado law targets what is colloquially known as conversion therapy. No, it's called conversion therapy by transgender activists. James, you jackass. Do you call it conversion therapy when the teachers, counselors at school are trying to convince your little girl she's a boy? And then tell her, let's not tell your parents, they don't need to know about this. That's not conversion therapy. Excellent point. Oh my God. Only Justice Katanji Brown Jackson dissented in this eight to oneer. I mean, for God's sake, you'd think that a journalist in the Wall Street Journal in the New York Times would say, holy crap, eight to one, maybe I ought to look into this. Why was it nearly unanimous? But I could see right in that headline if it was a five for you didn't agree with, maybe. But if it's eight one, you gotta think, well, okay, I must be missing something here if you have the point of view of your headline. KJB warned of the broader implications for medical care. She said, could be catastrophic if states cannot regulate some kinds of speech by licensed professionals. And I quote, this decision might make speech only therapies and other medical treatments involving practitioner speech effectively unregulatable. She wrote criticizing her eight colleagues for having made quote, this momentous decision without adequately grappling with the potential longterm and disastrous implications. Hey, I almost said something disparaging. Why would I do that? I'm a grown man. Hey, Justice Jackson, you don't get to regulate speech based on what you perceive to be longterm implications. You fundamentally misunderstand the First Amendment. It exists to protect speech you think will lead to people thinking the wrong thing. That's why it exists. Well, it went eight one the right direction. Yeah, it did. God, you cannot hate the media enough. End of rant. There is a mass exodus out of LA County, California in generally, but specific LA County, among things we can talk about, if you can stick around, oh, new ratings out. Trump's got the lowest approval rating he's had of this term. Is it because of the war? I think it's the economy. Well, it's both and the war is feeding into the economy. Sure, of course it is. And more later, stay here. Armstrong and Getty. The FBI says that terror attack on the Detroit synagogue was inspired by Hezbollah, that their propaganda is believed to be what fueled I'm in Muhammad Ghazali to search for quote, the largest gathering of Israelis in Michigan to purchase fireworks, approximately 300 bullets, and an AR-15 sending a video to his sister just 10 minutes before the attack, saying he would quote, kill as many of them as I possibly can. It's just luck that we still aren't as a country talking about this every single day, because that guy went in there and killed 50 little Jewish kids, because that was his intent. There is a candidate for the Senate in Michigan who was, I've got that somewhere. Yeah, he said on a conference call with his media people, look, I can't condemn that shooting. It'd be dangerous for me, because he's a Muslim and he wants the Muslim vote. So I will just, if anybody brings it up, I'm gonna say Trump is just trying to distract from the Epstein files. So here's a Muslim candidate who couldn't bring himself to condemn the near mass murder of little children. What does that tell you? And by the way, as is pointed out often, that's what globalize the intifada is. And we have college kids chanting that around the country and we just let that go. I mean, you have to let it go, it's free speech, but don't critique it really. That's globalizing the intifada. Right, right. You know what, I'm sorry, I conflated two stories. This Abdul El-Said said he couldn't comment on the death of the Ayatollah, because a lot of people are sad, so I'll just change it to pedophile president decides he doesn't like the front page news. And there was a different story about a similar fellow saying I can't condemn that, I gotta be careful. I'll bring you the facts on that eventually. So saw this story break yesterday, didn't read about it, and it normally only matters if you drive around LA much or you're ever gonna be there on vacation. They're gonna build this $24 billion high-speed tunnel underneath the 405 freeway that could change commutes drastically around LA from the way they've been for many, many decades. And project will probably cost twice as much, three times, five times as much as opposed to and take forever to finish, but it gets done. It could really change LA traffic. Funny that that's happening at the same time that the population is shrinking in LA County though. Tens of thousands of residents are fleeing LA County. The region recorded the largest population drop of any in the nation over the last year of US census data. About 54,000 residents left the county during that one-year period. Continuation of a steady slide for the biggest most populated county in America. Once home to more than 10 million people in 2020, it's now 9.7 million. Yellow's 300,000 people. Your commute's gonna get better. Yeah. Maybe I wanna hold off on that tunnel and see if you end up with, you just don't need it anymore. So is it gonna be like an express tunnel? Just no entrances and exits. It's just, if you're going downtown, that sort of thing. I didn't read up on it, but it's interesting that. It'll probably never exist like the bullet train. You'd think there'd be more attention paid to why is our population shrinking for the first time ever, for the state of California and for LA County in particular. Los Angeles, Brooklyn. It's housing costs. That's it. That's it. I found the facts about that Michigan Democrat thing. I will back up what I said. It sounded outrageous, didn't it? It was true, much more to come, including a fair amount of humor. So stay tuned. If you can't stay tuned, subscribe to the podcast. Armstrong and Getty. From the good folks at the Babylon Bee, when California Liberals get invited to a Texas backyard BDQ. Thanks so much for inviting us. We've never been to a real backyard barbecue before. You need to meet the host. Oh, yeah. Hey, Boat's Mrs. Clay. Hey, how you doing? I'm Timpeny. She, her. I'm Steve. He, him. So I heard you guys moved back to California. Actually, is that true? Oh, we did. When we got there, squatters were in our homes. And by state law, we can't have victim for months. So we moved back. We had no real right to the house, anyways. It being on the traditional and unceded homelands of the Tongva, Shumash, and Kitch Peoples. Oh, well. We are about to eat. So we're going to say a few words. A land use acknowledgment. Grace. I don't get it. Pray. Oh, like the emoji. All right, everybody. Why don't you guys come on over? Let's take care. Take our hats off. Let's bow our heads now. Lord God, Heavenly Father. Or Mother. We just pray. Bless this meat we are about to eat in the name of Jesus. Who was a person of color? Everybody said. Namaste. Namaste. We're going to say a few words before we eat. Oh, a land use acknowledgment. Oh, my God. Where did I read one of those just yesterday? Where was I? Anyway, and I was screaming. He has lost its mind with that stuff. I was screaming at this plaque. Yeah, who had it before them? I guarantee you, somebody had it before this tribe, you just mentioned. Guaranteed. And this tribe on the plaque probably took it by force. Or if they didn't, it's really immaterial anyway. So what do you mean Canada has lost their mind on that? Oh, the whole land acknowledgment thing, the whole wokeism thing. It is still 2022 in Canada. And maybe worse. We'll talk about that another time. Although we do have some very amusing audio from Canada's new Democratic Party, which is some ascendant lefty party that met their meeting hilarious more later. So I know this makes me a pain in the ass, and I'll keep this short. But just because it's, I'm looking up at CNN right now, gas hits $4 per gallon for the first time since 2022. That is just flat out not true in reality because of inflation. We've had so much inflation that $4 today is $358 in 2022 dollars. Just 2022, not 1972. No, yeah, yeah. Or 1992 or any distance. No, just a couple of years ago. So for it to hit $4 for the first time in 2022 dollars, which you're claiming it is, I mean, that's what you're stating. It's got to get to $447, which I think it probably will in a couple of weeks. But it's just inaccurate. And it drives me crazy since you're making a big deal out of it. Plus, everybody should be aware of how much inflation we've had in the last half dozen years. You were jokingly referring to yourself as Captain Pedantic earlier. But no, I think it's an excellent point. So not only is the news item just misleading, it's fundamentally misleading. It also papers over for reasons I can't imagine. The insidious effects of inflation and how government fiscal policy, monetary policy, causes inflation, which is like a massive tax on your savings and your pay. You'd think people would want to know that. You used to need inflation calculator app or whatever. But now all your chats can do it. All your chat app thingies, all your AIs can do it. So just do it. And this is depressing. It is depressing. I don't know when you're in the mood to be depressed. Yeah, but it's disillusioning in a positive way. It's informative. But if you have in your mind what a million dollars is, based on 1995, check and see what it is now. Help you realize what you've actually got in the value of your home or your 401k or whatever. Let's use the numbers just to keep it simple like the ones you're bandying about. So $4 gasoline is actually, what did you say it is? $358. OK, so my $400,000 in investments is now worth $358,000. In four years, it's worth declined that much. Because, you know, and both parties are absolutely complicit, but mostly because of the Biden gigantic trillions of dollars of infusion to currency during COVID. They stole that money from you. And for whatever reason, journalists are too dumb or incurious or ignorant or something to point that out to you. It's just frustrating. I don't want to bring everybody down. Oh my god, the next thing I was about to do is even more depressing. We'll change tack here. Got a couple of sports notes I want to get to. Maybe next segment, how the whole robot umpire thing is going. Also LeBron with another first. He seems to have one like weekly. And this is last couple of months of his career. Hey, here's a little on ear meeting of us and everybody listening. This is the sort of thing in the modern world that nobody wants. And yet, probably because of lawyers, nobody can do anything about. Here's this Orlando, Florida hospital. Got some woman in room 373. She was in the hospital for medical treatment. Well, that's a good reason to be admitted to a hospital as reasons go. But anyway, on our current. On October the 6th, it was determined she no longer needed acute care services. And they told her you're discharged. You can go now. And she's like, no, I'm not leaving. I like it here. This was October of last year. And they can't make her go? The hospital has repeatedly made efforts to coordinate her departure with family members, offered transportation to obtain necessary identification, whatever. And the lady keeps saying, no, I like it here. I'm saying, you're going to keep feeding me and the rest of it. And instead of heaving her out on her ass, having a couple of big burly orderlies, pick her up by the elbows and dump her out the front door. They feel like they can't do anything about it. Wow. And that's costing somebody tens of thousands dollars a day, I would guess. Well, especially because the lawyers are now involved. The Tallahassee Memorial Health Care has now sued the patient saying she's refused to depart her hospital room since last October. I can't believe that there's not some sort of thing. You sign all that paperwork when you get in. That includes, when we determine you're better, you got to get out. Well, right. Right. And she says, yeah, I don't have an attorney. I'm representing myself. And no, I'm not going to sign those papers. No, I'm not even going to even respond to them. Uh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh. According to a federal agency, hospitals can be investigated by the feds for violations of treating patients when they need it. The patient can be discharged when the clinicians have determined any further care could be provided as an outpatient, blah, blah, blah. But there's nothing about it. But if she won't leave, you can eave her ass out. I'm telling you, I realize it's kind of a semi-amusing story. But isn't that a symptom speaking of medical care? Oh, sure, absolutely. Of terrible dysfunction. Absolutely. Well, and the joke in the Babylon Bee bit about, well, there's squatters in our home. We can't get rid of them for many months. So we move back. Yeah, yeah, namaste. All right, just to prove I didn't make up something as incredibly outrageous as what I said. If I lost it again, here it is. Hang on a second. Stand by. A Michigan Democrat campaigning for a US Senate seat opened up about how it was a risk for him to condemn the local attack on a synagogue full of small children. But he did anyway. It was a risk, he said. All of our team was really worried about saying something. But leadership is willing to say the thing if you believe it to be true that nobody else is going to say. So, and Nellie Bowles of the Free Press makes a point, which is a nice point about leadership, I guess. But can we go back to that part where everybody was worried about you condemning an attempted mass casualty event on children? To understand how fast the rhetoric has shifted toward mass murder of American Jews, this is what counts as a brave stance now. So this Abdul al-Sayed, which actually there's a very funny story about him, too, he wouldn't comment on the death of the Ayatollah because many of his constituents or would-be constituents were sad. And he felt like it was a real act of courage to condemn a near mass casualty of little children because he's a Muslim and his voters are Muslims. Folks, does that not kind of wake you up a little bit or make you think, wait a minute, wait a minute? It's not a good place to be. Oh, it's terrible. It's absolutely terrible. On a lighter note, because everything's a lighter note, hundreds of protesters swarmed a proposed New York men's homeless shelter site, physically blocking the construction beginning. It's a pretty Asian neighborhood. And they say, no, they're going to be all sorts of junkies and weirdos and drunks and perverts around here. And we don't want them in our neighborhood. Do it wherever you want them, Donnie, but don't do it here. Do we have more of the homeless person that clip we opened the show with? We have more of that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Where is that? It's actually, it's a report on a junkie in LA's bums and junkies and trying to clear them out. Why don't we, yeah, let's do 40. And we'll do 41, see how we feel about it. But 41st, Michael Mathew, C. Dorff of Fox 11. Dangers hidden in plain sight along the LA River. You can see the calip of Anita right here. That's where they put the message in. Signs of illegal drug use, stolen property, and what some describe as gang activity. Some of these gang members, they carry backpacks with tools and ghost guns and a lot of narcotics. Dangerous. Very. And then he goes on to interview some of the bums and bombets. Just steps from a busy trail near Griffith Park, dozens live in fortified shelters, tents, and even storm drains. With murky water below. How long have you been out here? 13 years. A place time stands still. Over 10 years. Yeah. Over 10, 20 years at D'Aignolo. Do they try to offer you help? Yes. I've been offered housing. Why not take those resources? I did. It's just right. This is not for me. And I just always come back out to this. And I just like it. She is really a glasses half full sort of homeless crack at it. Yeah, she's got again single. 10 or 20. I don't know. Or I don't remember. As far as I know. Everything's great. Very positive attitudes. Single digit teeth, by the way, on this little cow. I hate to turn this sad and serious. That plucky positive agreeable attitude. It's how a lot of women on the street avoid getting beat up. Or they get allies to help them not get raped by being very friendly and agreeable. It's a survival strategy. Oof. Yeah, oof. But she's and she didn't come off as like. Notably. 10 years or 20. What? As far as I know. 10 or 20. Wow, if you don't know who does. Yeah, yeah, craziness. Let's hear the next clip. Sort of a place for people who have been forgotten or who want to be forgotten. Dirty sites, many who use the trail have grown numb too. You get used to it for sure. It's like seeing a goose or like just seeing something else. Or don't want to talk about. I'm just asking about the homelessness value. That's all. Exactly. I don't think that's, I don't want to comment on that. Why not? I don't want to talk about it. Thanks, man. They put on the blinders, honestly. They look on their phones. They focus on their workout on the bike. They don't want to deal with it. Because homelessness is everywhere. Well, bums and junkies are everywhere. I want to deal with it. I don't know how to. But I want to deal with it. I want to get them out of there. My tax money paid for. Because I have a similar thing in my town. The bike path that we got to ride our bikes past. The homeless junkie. I hope you don't get stabbed. Right, right. I see the description of this next clip and I'm intrigued. Go ahead, Michael. In a statement to Fox 11, Councilmember and Mayoral candidate Nithya Raman calls homelessness along the LA River a unique challenge. Adding steep concrete slopes, culverts, and hard to reach areas make these encampments among the most difficult to address in the city. The only lasting solution is to bring people inside. And we are pursuing that solution with urgency. Boy, there was nonsense followed by bad policy in that person's statement. Okay, super. It's a unique challenge because of the steep culverts. It makes it harder to do what. So got a couple of sports notes for you and then Katie's got a story about these bugs that are going around stinging people's eyeballs. Pardon me. They're eye stinging bugs that are. Barbaric. Apparently a problem. So we got that too. Stay here. Armstrong and Getty. So LeBron James, he played more NBA games in anybody ever, scored more points in anybody ever. He's got all kinds of more than anybody ever for a variety of reasons, how long he's played and how good he is. But he had the first ever father son, something the other day, because they've had a couple of them, assistant shot or alley-oop or whatever, but his son's playing on the Lakers and they, which is just amazing. Remember our old producer Scott said, that was what was keeping LeBron hanging around is he wanted to play with his son on an NBA team. And he is, that's gotta be a really weird feeling. Yeah, kind of fun. Unimaginable that anybody will ever do that again. Because just the ages will be really hard to pull off and everything else. Lakers are a three seed by the way currently. They are on a tear. In baseball, checking after the first week, roughly of baseball, still about 50% of the time, the robot is right versus the umpire. So it's averaging like two or three times per game that people are trying this, hey, I don't think that was a ball. I think it was a strike or vice versa. And it's about 50-50. So anything to conclude from that? I don't know. I suppose you can look at it two ways, but those close calls where you thought the umpire was wrong, well half the time you were right. The umpire was wrong. Hey, and it's a lot harder to call balls and strikes than you think it is. I don't know how anybody does it. Yeah, yeah. And I certainly don't know how anybody does it. Watching on TV, I've never understood that. I don't have an eye for it, but I've never stood sitting in the sands 100 yards away. Oh, come on! I just have never understood that. It's hilarious. Because I can't tell. Absolutely, it's hilarious. Yeah, as an umpire, buddy of mine has put it to, there's a reason we don't position the home plate umpire 14 rows back 100 yards that way. Yeah, interesting. And he also commented, umpires are expected to learn a new strike zone without any visible references, without any training in the machine that major league baseball uses the measure, has a calibration error and a measurement error, but they hold the umpire at 1 10th of an inch for the accuracy of their ball strike decisions. Yeah, I don't like where it's going, but I guess a lot of baseball purists do so, whatever. Katie, tell us about the bugs that are eating people's eyeballs. All right, the mosquito and vector control district says that the San Gabriel Valley in California is seeing a surging population of tiny eyeball biting flies. Well, this won't haunt my dreams. They said, Is this a new fly or has it always been around? No, it's been around, but last year at this time, guys, fly traps for these little guys, were catching just in the single digits. This year, the number of these flies caught has been in the hundreds. Oh. They bite your eyeballs specifically. Yeah, apparently they're saying apparently it's because of the unusually warm weather from earlier this month, but the tiny black flies common in the foothills are so small, they're actually hard to see. They are known to bite people's eyeballs and necks. My neck is fine, but eyeball, does it hurt? I can't feel pretty good. Not seasoned and being bitten in the eyeball, Jack. We have an idea. This is a biblical plague. I mean, clearly it's probably because of all the sodomy. Gotta be the sodomy. Gavin Newsom is gonna have to answer for this. Eyeball eating flies on your watch. Yeah. Yeah, I just don't, I think for the grace of God. We do four hours of this every day, 20 hours a week. If you miss a segment or an hour, you should get our podcast subscribed to Armstrong and get it on demand, then you'll never miss anything. One of the best descriptions I've come across of the No Kings rallies coming up next hour. Again, if you don't get next hour, grab the podcast later. 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