Let's Go Back Through the Listening Tube July 20-24

SPEAKER_03 0:04

Let's go back through the listening tube for this week in history.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

I'm Bob Woodley from the Listening Tube. This week in 1487, citizens of Leewarden, Netherlands strike against a ban on foreign beer. While there were many local brews to be enjoyed, the people felt that the ban was restricting their rights to choose which brand they could drink. A nice German beer might be preferable to someone in the Netherlands. It wasn't a countrywide ban, only this one city, but it was an important economic hub. Imported goods of all kinds passed through Leeuwarden, and beer was being singled out because the city couldn't keep track of the flow, pun intended, for taxation purposes. At the same time, taverns were an important part of the culture, and nobody wanted the city to be messing with that. According to Is Itaholidaytoday.com, the ban led to a peaceful demonstration that soon escalated into a full-blown protest that galvanized the people of the city in a way no other action could. Merchants and artists came together. Even clergy joined the crowd of protesters. Priests don't only drink ceremonial wine. After my grandfather died during Hurricane Agnes in 1972, the priest at my church would sometimes invite my grandmother over to the rectory for beer after mass. Did she ever go? Well, that's none of our business now, is it?

SPEAKER_02 1:56

The 1700s.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

This week in 1796, surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company name an area in Ohio Cleveland, after General Moses Cleveland, the superintendent of the surveying party. Well, now it all makes sense. When LeBron James won an NBA title with the Cavaliers, he proclaimed Cleveland! This is for you! So that's who he was talking to. This week in 1807, Nisefora Nietzsche is awarded a patent by Napoleon Bonaparte for the Pyreolophora. The world's first internal combustion engine. After it successfully powered a boat upstream on the River Saone in France.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

The 1900s.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Nearly a hundred years later, in 1904, Louis Rigoli, a Frenchman, becomes the first man to break the 100 mile per hour barrier on land. He drove a 15-liter Gobron Brilla in Ostend, Belgium. So it was the French who started this whole trend of using fossil fuels to get around. Now we know who to blame for global warming. Male C. They can't take all the blame though, more on that in a moment. This week in 1935, during the Dust Bowl, the heat wave reaches its peak, sending temperatures to 109 degrees Fahrenheit or 44 Celsius in Chicago and 104 degrees Fahrenheit or forty centigrade in Milwaukee. Climate change, said no one. This week in 1885, the Football Association legalizes professionalism in football under pressure from the British Football Association. To avoid any confusion, it's what Americans call soccer. The World Cup just wrapped up in New Jersey, with Spain taking the crown. Funny thing, I turned on the match when it started, looked away for two hours, and wouldn't you know it, nobody scored. The real hero of the game was Argentina's goalkeeper, who had more saves than any goalkeeper in World Cup history. But his team couldn't even get a shot on Spain's goal until the second half of overtime. Sports channels have been trying to push soccer on American audiences for a long time now, and I'm sure it'll get a little bump from the hype of this year's tournament. But that championship game certainly didn't create any converts. This week in 1894, the first ever motorized racing event is held in, where you guessed it, France, between the cities of Paris and Rouen. The race is won by Comte Jules Albert de Dion. There's the French again, causing bucku pollution. But then, in 1903, a guy named Henry Ford says, Hold my beer. And the Ford Motor Company sells its first car. There's a popular myth that Henry Ford invented the automobile, while clearly he did not. What he did do was create the moving assembly line, thus reducing the cost of building a car and making it affordable to more people. If Henry Ford invented anything, it was the middle class of America. This week in nineteen sixteen, in San Francisco, California, a bomb explodes on Market Street during a preparedness day parade, killing ten and injuring forty. I don't really have a joke about that.

SPEAKER_03 6:32

Send email to thelisteningtube at outlook.com.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

This week in 1929, the fascist government in Italy bans the use of foreign words. If you want to control the way people think, you must first control the words that they use. And there is a distinct difference between controlling what people say and controlling what words they use to say it.

SPEAKER_03 7:01

Similar, but different.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Therefore, it no longer exists. This practice is still in common use. In America, wokeism dictates what words are socially acceptable and which are not. And you might be surprised to find that a lot of common words are verboten. Words like homeless or mother or prisoner, unless it's a political prisoner, are all words we're not supposed to use anymore. Retarded is another, even if it's the perfectly appropriate word to describe someone's mental or physical condition. All of the words I mentioned are perfectly appropriate words, but by discouraging their use, we're swayed in a direction that's intentional. Homeless is now unhoused. Mother is now birthing person, and prisoner is now an incarcerated person. Retarded is now special needs. I got news for you. We've all got special needs, but we're not all retarded in some way. There's a difference. That's why the Trump administration is taking measures to exclude as many of those types of truth speak words and phrases from official government documents. But as a personal American citizen with First Amendment rights, you're free to say whatever you want using the words you choose. All I ask is that you choose them wisely. This week in nineteen thirty six in Catalonia, Spain, the unified Socialist Party of Catalonia is founded through the merger of the Socialist and Communist Parties. Huh. So you're telling me the socialists and the communists end up being the same thing? Well, I wonder if they saw that coming. Maybe they did, but were in denial, as is demonstrated by a recent article by Melissa Golden for the Associated Press. In it, she quotes so-called experts on the difference between socialism and communism, who point out that there has never been a member of the Communist Party elected to any state or federal office, and that even the most left-leaning members of the Democratic Party don't claim to be communists. Her expert says that Democratic Socialism is still far from the communist ideals, such as abolition of private property. Although that's clearly part of New York City Mayor Mom Dani's plan.

SPEAKER_03 10:13

And if that wasn't enough.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

The author's expert also claimed that the Democratic Socialists of America isn't a political party at all. Just a political activist organization. Kind of like Antifa, I guess. You know, we're not really organized. We're just a bunch of guys. So the Associated Press is in denial, and they want you to be in denial too. The socialists and the communists are the same thing. They may have different names for themselves right now, but they eventually reveal their true colors. The question is, why is American media ignoring all the signs that point to what we've already witnessed in the past? Those who forget history are destined to repeat it. The problem here is that we haven't forgotten, but we're being told to forget. This week in 1937, the New Deal. It didn't work. His New Deal did result in things like Social Security, and ultimately, having served four terms as President of the United States, FDR was able to name nine justices to the court. So he did end up packing the court without adding any more seats. This week in 1983, George Brett, batting for the Kansas City Royals against the New York Yankees, has a game-winning home run nullified in the Pine Tar incident. This is the perfect example of being patient. This was the last game of the series, and there is no doubt in my mind that Yankees manager Billy Martin noticed the abundance of pine tar on Brett's bat extended beyond what the rule allowed. But Martin waited until he hit what was a game-leading home run to bring it to anyone's attention. The umpire determined that the extent of the pine tar on the bat was illegal and called George Brett out, thus giving the victory to the Yankees. George Brett had to be physically restrained after charging out of the dugout toward the Empire's like a raging bull. That wasn't where the game ended, though. The Royals protested the rolling, and the commissioner determined that, although the bat broke the rule, it didn't give the batter any advantage. So they had to play that top of the last inning again, beginning with two outs, and Brett's Homer counting, giving the Royals a five-four lead. Twenty-five days later, Billy Martin made a mockery of the resumption in ways I won't bore you with here, and the Yankees ended up losing. But sometimes it's a good idea to keep things in the back of your mind for when you might need them more than you do at the moment. Billy Martin chose the perfect time to expose the illegality of George Brett's bat, even if the president of the league later changed the ruling. Follow the listening tube at thelisteningtube.com for not the headlines and guest interviews. Drop me a line from the website, donate on buy me a coffee. Thank you for putting your ear to the listening tube. I'm Bob Woodley for Thou at Infinitum.