Let's Go Back Through the Listening Tube July 28-31

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Let's go back through the listening tube for this week in history. I'm Bob Woodley from the Listening Tube. This week in 1629, an earthquake in Naples, Italy kills about 10,000 people. At that time, it's estimated that Naples had a population of about 300,000. So that's like one out of every 30 people who live there. The recent twin earthquakes in Venezuela have killed at least 5,000 confirmed with many thousands missing. Current statistics are hard to find. The capital of Venezuela, Caracas, has a population of about two million. It's too early to make an accurate comparison of these two catastrophic events based on lives lost. Regardless, the devastation feels the same for those who survive.

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The eighteen hundreds.

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This week in 1866, New Orleans Democratic government orders police to raid an integrated Republican Party meeting. Oh, the Democrats weren't gonna have any of that. Negroes and whites attending an organized meeting together. It still amazes me that black people continue to support the party that fought so hard to keep them from enjoying the rights of other Americans. The same party that got generations of black people dependent on government programs and trapped them in a difficult cycle of failure. Today, the teachers' unions, who donate 99% of their donations to Democrats, are insisting we lower the standards of education for black kids, ensuring future failure and dependency on the federal government. The Republicans and myself as an independent prefer that we have the same standards for people regardless of their skin color, and that providing a good education and opportunities are the best way to move all people forward. That raid on the black and white people at a Republican Party meeting in New Orleans killed 37 people and injured 136, according to history.com. This event and another similar event in Tennessee led to a constitutional amendment. Two years later, this week in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is ratified, establishing citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law. The American federal government is currently struggling with the Fourteenth Amendment as birth tourism and illegal immigrants having babies in the country have created circumstances unforeseen back in 1868. This week in 1907, Sir Robert Baden Powell sets up the Brown Sea Island Scout Camp in Poole Harbor on the south coast of England. The camp runs from August 1st to the 9th in 1907 and is regarded as the foundation of the Boy Scouts. The organization has undergone some changes in recent years. The Boy Scouts are now called Scouting America and is open to both Boys and Girls. Much to the dismay of the Girl Scouts, which generally don't allow Boys but makes exceptions. As an adult, I would call the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts sexist. But for kids, that's alright with me. Boys and girls need separate spaces when going through the growing process, especially around puberty. I guess my bottom line is that I don't approve of Boy Scouts accepting girls, or vice versa. Boys and girls spend plenty of time together in school and other social interactions. But there are things boys and girls need to learn in different ways, and it's common for both boys and girls to be more open and honest with each other when the opposite sex isn't around. That accelerates growth and confidence. This week in 1921, Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. If you think it's virtuous to support the Democratic Socialists of America, be careful what you wish for.

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You can hang your hat on that.

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This week in 1930, the radio mystery program The Shadow airs for the first time.

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The hard and relentless fight of one man against the forces of evil. These dramatizations are designed to demonstrate forcibly to old and young alike that crime does not pay.

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It's interesting that while radio is still America's number one mass reach medium, you don't hear radio dramas anymore. Ironically, one of the most popular podcast formats is true crime drama. While the shadow was fictional, mostly because crime investigations weren't as immersive as they are today, it might behoove radio executives to look back on what made radio great to begin with. After all, people have a lot of other options when it comes to hearing songs. Radio tries to compete with streaming music and it can't. But radio has a lot more to offer that they don't seem to use anymore. Sincerely, the listening to. This week in 1941, under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Gring orders SS General Reinhardt Heydrich to submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question. That led to what we know as the Holocaust. There's an American politician who seems to have a few Jewish questions. Zoran Mamdani, the mayor of New York City, as well as his wife, are clearly antagonistic to Jewish people. For no other reason than their religion. The Democratic Socialists have a history of anti-Semitic behavior. Yet the left and the media want you to think that Donald Trump is some kind of Hitler protege. Again, if you think supporting the Democrat Socialists and people like Mam Dani is a good idea, be careful what you wish for. This week in 1942, during World War II, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin issues order number 227 in response to alarming German advances into the Soviet Union. Under the order, all those who retreat or otherwise leave their positions without orders to do so are to be immediately executed. When you're the undisputed leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, you can make rules like that. Although Russia is now a communist social democracy, Vladimir Putin has been more kind. Russian soldiers today who refuse to show up for duty in Ukraine or desert their post are subject to up to fifteen years in prison, but no longer subject to immediate execution. Nearly 19,000 men had violated the rule as of a year ago, and there were about a thousand new cases a month in 2025. Ukraine also has a similar problem. But back in World War II, your chances of getting killed in the field was much greater. Russia lost millions of soldiers in World War II, as did many other countries, but Russia fared worse than most. The United States is currently in an undeclared war with Iran. The death toll to American troops so far is eighteen. None of them were executed for abandoning their post. Nobody likes war, but it's important to keep the concept of war in perspective. That's not to diminish the value of the lives of the men and women we've lost. It's meant to demonstrate how good the United States of America has become at waging war, and how obvious it is that the advances we made were meant to minimize the loss of human life, especially American life. This week in 1971, David Scott and James Irwin on the Apollo 15 Lunar Module Falcon land on the moon with the first lunar rover. Alfred Warden was also on the mission, but he was the guy who stayed in the capsule above the moon while the other two got to go four-wheeling. Sometime between 1969 and 1971, somebody at NASA said, Wouldn't it be cool if we showed up on the moon with a dune buggy? Talk about a moon chick magnet. Plus it made exploration easier. Three lunar rovers were taken to the moon back in the 1970s, and all of them are still there. My hunch is that if they ever bring one back, we'll see Kim Gardashian driving it around Beverly Hills. Then everybody will want one. Follow the listening tube at thelisteningtube.com and thank you for putting your ear to the listening tube. Be sure to listen to Not the Headlines and guest interviews too. I'm your host, Bob Woodley, for Thou Ad Infinitum.