AM Show Hr 1 | China Influence, Mail Theft Busts & Texas Political Shakeups

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Why should you listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand? We're not boring. A lot of news is boring. And tedious. And depressing. And makes you angry. You don't want to live your life like that. Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty. We're Armstrong and Getty. We try to bring you the truth. And help you figure out this crazy modern world. How about something about a comedic tone? We have a winner. Listen to Armstrong and Getty on the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. It's that time. Lock and load. The Michael Vary Show is on the air. It's clear just the swiftness with which these southern legislatures moved, these Republicans move, to eliminate black political power. It's clear that the Republicans see black political power as a democratizing force, which it is. They understand that. And this is a way to consolidate power. And it's also a way to express white supremacy. We went from the progress of emancipation to the backlash of Jim Crow. the progress of the civil rights movement to the backlash of mass incarceration, the progress of electing Barack Obama to the backlash that has resulted in the elevation of Donald Trump, MAGA extremism, and this behavior that we're seeing coming out of the Supreme Court of the United States to throw the American South back into the gym pro era. So it's going to take an all hands-on-deck effort. I would rather go blind, boy.

issue an opinion in the middle of May while primers were going on and then the US Supreme Court thought you know what sure we let black voters wait two years and vote under illegal maps but God forbid these white voters have to do the same in Louisiana that would be a constitutional crisis and against all of that backdrop have we learned nothing I mean have we learned nothing has the broader legal community not learned anything have the have the broad the other in the civil rights groups. Have people not learned that when you do this to black voters, it turns out bad for democracy for everybody? I just disagree that the only person, the only kind of a politician who can elect black people in Congress, must be a Democrat. This is just an artificial... That's not what I'm saying. That's not what I'm saying. Black voters are still fully franchised and go vote for who are they want. That's not what I'm saying. It just doesn't have to be a... Just you walk away, see you walk away from me. Just when you don't think that vegetables have phones, onion rings.

Ramon, why did the guy quit playing the triangle in the reggae band? Because over and over, it was the same ting. A woman passed out on a carousel. She's coming around. President Trump off to China. with a number of American CEOs. He is taking with him the CEOs of Apple, Tim Cook, Black Rock, Larry Fink. That's a most unfortunate name. Can you imagine going through life as Larry Fink? I think I think I would change my name. The CEO of Blackstone, which is Stephen Schwartzman, CEO of Boeing, Kelly Ortberg, the CEO of Cargill, Brian Sykes, CEO of City, Jane Fraser, CEO of Cisco, the technology company, not the food company, Chuck Robbins, CEO of Coherent. Do you know what Coherent is? I don't know either. Jim Anderson, CEO of GE Aerospace, which is H. Lawrence something. I didn't write his last name down. CEO of Visa Ryan McKennerney, McAnerney. He looks about 20. CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk. Qualcomm, Cristiano Amon. Micron, Sunjay Marota. He doesn't look into, though. CEO of Meta, which I guess is not Mark Zuckerberg. It's Dina Jerome Powell McCormick. She's kind of cute. CEO of MasterCard, Michael Maibach, Illumina. Do you know what Illumina is? Jacob Thesson and the CEO of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon. We were talking about. Larry Fink being an unfortunate name, I saw a list the other day. There's different groups who do this. A lot of Eastern Europeans will change their name. This one happened to be Jewish Americans who changed their name, usually because they're a public figure, and it's easier for people to remember. But John Stewart began life as Jonathan Leibowitz. Robert Allen Zimmerman became Bob Dylan, but you knew that already. John Kerry ran for president. His family's name originally was Cone, K-O-H-N. It was changed to Kerry. Michael Douglas's family name was Danilovich, and it was changed to Douglas, not by him. Jay Scott Greenspan, you knew on Seinfeld as Jason Alexander. Brad Gerstenfeld became Brad Garrett from Everybody Loves Raymond. Kayam Witts is known to you in thousands of women as Gene Simmons. Georgie Schwartz became George Soros, an evilder.

Alan Konigsberg became filmmaker Woody Allen. Lawrence Ziger became Larry King. Jonah Feldstein became Jonah Hill. Josephine Mincer became Este Lauder. Ralph Lifshitz became Ralph Liffshitz. Ralph Liffshitz. Uh, Nita Lee Hirschlag became Natalie Portman. Winona Horowitz became Winona Ryder. Mike Wallach became Mike Wallace. Actually, he didn't change his name. The family did before him. Andrew Silverstein became Andrew Dice Clay. Jerome Levitch became Jerry Lewis. Barbara Hurtstein became Barbara Hershey from the Brat Pack. Jerome Silberman became Gene Wilder. Bernice Frankel became B. Arthur. B. Arthur. Adam Horowitz became Ad Rock from the Beastie Boys, but you knew they were Jewish. Michael Bolaton became Michael John Bolton. Frank Osnowitz became Frank Oz. I wasn't done yet, Ramon. Stanley Burke Eisen became Paul Stanley. Uncle Sherry's Pinky Toll. Mr. Michael Bari Weiss. Taken from us far too soon. Uncle Sherry's Pinky Toll. I think this is the only thing Jewish you know where you play this every time. This and Kenny and Ziggy's, and Mandy Patinkin. Of course, that's not a bad one to know. Henry Garfield became Henry Rollins. You didn't know he was Jewish. Joyce Frankenberg became Jane Seymour. Jeffrey Liff Schultz became. Jeff Ross. Joan Molinsky became Joan Rivers. I liked her. Isur Danilovich became Kirk Douglas. Kenneth Gorlick became Kenny G. Who doesn't like Kenny G? You can't not like Kenny G. Betty Joan Persky became Lauren Bacall. Melvin Kaminsky became Mel Brooks. Michael Schwartz became Michael Ian Black. If he just took a testosterone shot, he'd be better. Eugene Maurice Oroitz became Michael Landon. How cool was Michael Landon and Little House on the Prairie? Michael Weiner, as you know, became Michael Savage. Robert Cohen, not Cohen, Robert Cohen became Peter Coyote, the voice of the Ken Burns movies. What were we watching last night? Ramona and I were trying to watch Jeopardy last night, but we couldn't get Jeopardy. My Hulu was messing up. I would compare out what was going on. Then I couldn't get it on a YouTube machine. We got aggravated. So we watched a documentary on Steven Spielberg.

And Peter Coyote was in there. Jacob Cohen became Rodney Dangerfield. He was Jacob Rodney Cohen. So he became Rodney Dangerfield. Underrated comedian, entire style of comedy. Adam Spiegel became Spike Jay Jones. Bernard Schwartz became the great Tony Curtis. RIA Leonard Rosenberg became Tony Randall. The family of Walter Matashinsky changed their name to Mathau, making him Walter Mathieu. Did you find it? You sure? Stock market's up. The market is predicting an end to the war. I believe the market sees something and knows something. Where have the Chikoms not infiltrated American life? The Democrat mayor of the Southern California City of Arcadia has been charged with acting as a covert foreign agent for China. Department of Justice says Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to a single felony count that carries a statutory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison, admitting to working on behalf of the People's Republic of China to promote the PRC's interest through propaganda efforts using a news source for Southern California's Chinese American city. I think this has something to do, the timing anyway, with the president heading off to China. I think he's trying to bring to light that he is well aware they are constantly spying on us, which they are. The story from KTLA. TV. That's Eileen Wang in a 2022 campaign video when she was running for Arcadia City Council. On Monday, the 58-year-old resigned from her post as a mayor after being charged with acting as a foreign agent for the Chinese government. The Department of Justice says Wang worked with Yao Ning Mike Soon, an associate to promote the interests of the People's Republic of China, pushing propaganda in the U.S. Among their platforms, a Southern California Chinese American community. community news source used to allegedly disseminate biased news articles. She was trying to say things like there was no genocide, there's no forced labor, or things of that nature against certain minorities by the Chinese government in order to propel, propensiate that type of image for them. And the U.S. government says we're not going to allow that. Lou Josh Shapiro is a criminal defense attorney not involved in this case, but says the allegations were serious enough for Wang to step down as Arcadia's mayor. This may not rise to the level of espionage, such as somebody spying on behalf of the government, but it is a sense of betrayal where somebody is in a position of political power in the United States. They have a lot of influence, a lot of reach, and instead of working on behalf of the United States and the local constituents, they're working on behalf of the Chinese government.

Arricadia city officials call the charges troubling, but say they stem from the time before Wang was sworn into office. It raises concerns for us and for our communities. This also relates to the conduct of one individual. There are no other city council members that are under investigation at this time. The charges have sent shockwaves across the country. FBI director Kash Patel posted on acts that federal partners continue to move aggressively to root out this kind of influence in American institutions. The last thing that Trump administration wants is any sort of Chinese influence into this country. Now officials say Wang has agreed to plead guilty and could face up to 10 years in federal prison. Is there another country in the U.S. as much as China? It's just amazing. They are our enemies. They are absolutely our enemies. They are not our friends. They are constantly engaged in behavior that are nonviolent warfare. You remember during COVID? They looked like they were electing a pope. There was smoke coming out of the embassy over on Montrose. And... It turns out there was an internal courtyard on the building. It's a menacing building. Looks like something the Chinese government went on. And what they were doing was the U.S. government was trying to enter because they had been tipped off that they had stolen all these documents from the Texas Medical Center here in Houston on how we were responding to COVID. and now of a sudden they needed to get rid of the information so they were setting it on fire. Well, that's discreet. Let's just, or maybe somebody got it wrong, and they said, you know what? Put all of it in a file.

Complaints about mail being repeatedly stolen from a post office in West Houston prompted U.S. postal inspectors to stake out the locations where they caught two men breaking in. The men were found with 80 pieces of mail and nine postal keys. The arrests are part of a broader effort by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and other agencies that targeted suspected male thieves across the Houston area. There have been numerous incidents of reported mail theft over the past year, Postal Inspector Miguel Arispe. Tells KHOU been flying postal inspectors in from across the country. They've come from New York, L.A, and they're here in Houston to help us fight and get a handle on mail theft. The story, clip number seven from KHOU. Complaints about stolen mail from this post office, including property tax checks that were intercepted and washed, prompted the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to stake out this big blue collection box. And one night last month, cameras caught a suspect breaking into the box as someone else waited in an SUV. Seconds later, officers swoop in and surprise them as they try and drive away. Police stop now! Get out of the court! Now! Two men were arrested with 80 pieces of allegedly stolen mail, and that's not all. recovered nine keys, nine real postal keys. Postal inspector Miguel Larispe says the keys were previously lost, stolen, or otherwise obtained. You know, we're just out there trying to, you know, combat melt death. In fact, as we speak, USPIS and other agencies are wrapping up a two-week-long surge targeting suspected male thieves, specifically in the Houston area where we've covered numerous issues in recent months. See, we've been flying postal inspectors from across the country. They've been coming. from New York, Los Angeles, and they're here in Houston to help us fight. and you just get a hold of the melt death here in Houston. Some say they always drop their mail inside the actual post office to avoid potential theft, which is recommended for things like checks. That's why I come aside. I showed Dave Jagg video of the recent arrest. Are you glad they were monitoring this? Yes, I'm very glad they were monitoring that. That's horrible. How many people need their packages? May it be medicine? May it be a gift? May it be something? That's just... That's a mail fraud, federal charge. In addition to theft from physical boxes like this, the surge has also targeted places like illegal game rooms used as hubs for alleged criminal activity, including male theft. Wonder how they got those postal keys, what they would want with them. We covered a story in January of 2024, so two and a half years ago. of a postal carrier protest. Remember this story? You remember they were protesting because there had been a rash of carriers being robbed while on their mail route. That's when we learned why those keys are so important to the robbers. We go back to the way back machine.

Which one you want? You want the cops? Or you want that dude to terrorize your neighborhood? Because that's what happens. It could be stopped. It could all be stopped. It is stopped in Japan. It is stopped in some countries. What Adam Smith say? Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent. It's true. I'm so tired of these Susan Serendon movies about, oh, poor fella on death row. I went on Fox News years ago when they wanted to make Carla Faye Tugger. She loves the Lord. Good, she's going to meet him real soon. She hacked a woman to death, but she loves the Lord. Good, good, good, bu. The Michael Bari Weiss Show. A new extensive poll conducted by the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs has been released. Polls don't vote. And particularly in a runoff election, that's why polls are often wrong. Because polls go into people's homes by phone and say, are you going to vote? And people say, yeah, but they don't. Who are you going to vote for? If that person doesn't actually show up to vote, then how they vote skews the results. That being said, I like the results. I just don't trust polls. There are a lot of reasons polls are conducted, and the timing can be very important. But in this case, we are less simple. from the primary. And on the Republican side, the new congressional district 9, it was created out of part of Al Green's district. It's East Harris County into Dayton and Liberty. It's a little over 70% Harris County, almost 30% Liberty County. It's a working class. It's almost a 75% Republican district. This would be a fun district to represent. It is a lot of working class East Harris County and Liberty folks. Alex Miller leads significantly, depending on how you slice and dice. She's up by almost 10 percentage points. She led out of the first round of the She led out of the first round of the primary, and this is, of course, the runoff. Mueller, I think, wins that over Briscoe Kane. Kane's problem, among other things, is that he was tasked with, by Dustin Burroughs. He was brought into the establishment, which is what he desperately wanted, to be part of the Ken Paxton assassination, political assassination. So much so that he wore peach on the first day of the impeachment. Oh, they thought it was very clever, but it's come back to bite him.

Trying to impeach the duly elected attorney general has turned out to blow up in the face of Dade Feeleyn and a lot of that whole crowd. Because the voters said if we wanted to throw the guy out, we'd throw him out for you to execute a palace coup at the very end of the session rather than doing your jobs and think you could pull that off. we're not going to allow you to do that. Dade Feelein is no longer a state rep over it. Or as Shirley K. Licker would say he's no longer a state rep behind it. It ruined Dade Feelein's career and his mommy and daddy had spent a lot of money buying him a career. He's had to go back and sit in their real estate office and I guess answer calls on busted water mains on all the properties that they own. Well. I'm not sure he's qualified to do that, but at least it gives him a place to go and play Tetris, to look like he's got a job. But they brought in Briscoe Kane, and he didn't have the good judgment because he's so desperately, as part of his conversion, he so desperately wanted to seem like he was an insider. He was part of the end crowd. And so he led to charge against... Ken Paxton for the impeachment, and they got it through the House. The Democrats were only too happy to do it, and then they joined in with the Republicans who were bought off, and Briscoe Keynes' involvement in that has now been revealed, and as it turns out, the voters have turned against him. We can't trust you. Add to that the Colony Ridge, taking money from Colony Ridge, Ernest Bales is not a state rep today over Colony Ridge. And he campaigned throughout the district saying that the voters of liberty didn't care about it and that I was off base. And it turned out he's not a state rep anymore. You've got to have some scalps like this to tell these people, hey, I know the moneymen around you. I know those big boys. I know they're taking you for nice dinners at Ruth's Chris. Y'all are drinking nice wines and they're picking up the tab and you feel like a big shot and somebody comes over and slaps you on the back because look at you, you're at the end crowd. Look at you. You're a player at all. But then what happens? Then you got to go back out to that working class voter who says, hey, did you take money from Connie Ridge?

You did multiple times. Did you call Colony Ridge the American Dream? Did you see it? Did you ever actually look at Colony Ridge? Did you, did you, did you, do you know what it's done? Colony Ridge cost Ernest Bales his seat. It's going to cost Briscoe Cain a congressional seat, which he so desperately wanted. The good thing about Colony Ridge, I can say there's a good thing because I don't live next to it because the people of Liberty didn't choose for this hellhole, slop house, third world, dump tenement housing to be next to them. The good thing is it gave people an actual visual on what this looks like. What it looks like to profit on the backs of illegal aliens and drug trafficking and sex trafficking and financial instruments. Even the Biden administration brought a lawsuit because what they were doing is selling houses to these illegals. And they knew they had these illegals by the short hairs. And then at the first chance they got, they'd take the house back. So it's like a repo, you know, these repo shops on the highway that's got the Mexican flag flying, you know, $300 down and $40 a week. And a minute that person, what they want them to do is give the down payment and pay on it for about a year. And then they come and snatch it and sell it to the next guy. Well, that's what Colony Ridge was doing. And it didn't, it didn't help that risk cocaine took money from them again and again and again and again. So now you got all the guys that pay the bills at Ruth's Chris for him. You've got these people who've given them all this money. You've got these people who went out after Ken Paxton. And they're all looking like fools. Well, I tell you what the other state reps and state senators are doing. They're saying, you know what? Those guys look real powerful. But eventually, I've got to go back before the voter. And the voters are too smart. It's a different time. Facebook, Instagram. People now have the opportunity to pull public records, to show what you're up to, to show who's funding it, to pull your comments. Colony Ridge is the American dream. You're going to campaign on that? So I think Mueller beats Kane. By the way, the Christian Minifie Al Green race turned out to be very, very close. The question will be, will Rodney Ellis cheat on behalf of Al Green to put Christian Minifie in his place? If he doesn't, I think Menophe wins. If he does, well...

We're not boring. A lot of news is boring. And tedious. And depressing. And makes you angry. You don't want to live your life like that. Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty. We're Armstrong and Getty. We try to bring you the truth. And help you figure out this crazy modern world. How about something about a comedic tone? We have a winner. Yes. Listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand on the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.