S2 E Triscadecaphobia

 S2 E triscadecaphobia

Hello and welcome! Thank you for putting your ear to the Listening Tube. I’m your host, Bob Woodley. On this episode, we’ll hear about the man who came home to find it abandoned, how vulnerable we are to the whims of our nearest star, and a US President that admitted he misled the people. But first, (not the headlines)…

Just a reminder, this is the last episode of season two, and I’ll be taking two weeks to get the next episode out. I’m looking forward to season three. I hope you are, too!

The social media habits of American teenagers is changing rapidly. Of the five most popular during the first survey in 2015, three of them have had declines in use over the last seven years. Two of them had increases. Five others that make up the top ten didn’t even exist in 2015. Of the five that did, Snapchat had the largest increase, from 42 to 59 percent. The biggest decline was facebook, which was at one time at the top of the heap, with 71 percent of teens using it then, and just 32 percent using it now. The top two for today’s teens is tiktok at number two with 67 percent of teens on the platform, while the leader by a bunch is YouTube. At the same time American teens, as well as a lot of post-teens, are sharing intimate parts of their life on tiktok, a commissioner of the United States Federal Communications Commission, says it’s a big data security risk. He called the tiktok platform the sheep’s clothing. When you look beneath it, it’s all about the data that’s being pulled from your device to be sent back to China. Once there, it pulls biometrics like face prints and voice prints, keystroke patterns and rhythms, plus your search, browsing and location information. Two of my relatives laughed at me when I warned them of this a few months ago. I still love them. But now we have an FCC commissioner backing me up. Brendan Carr reminded viewers of an Epoch TV show that the Chinese Communist Party runs the world’s most sophisticated operation focused on data analytics, and they have a history of industrial espionage and blackmail. If you think for one minute that the Chinese Communist Party isn’t using your tiktok app against you in some way, against our country in some way, against our government in some way, against our military in some way, then you’re a willing victim. Maybe you think you don’t have anything to hide, and I’m sure you don’t. But they’re not just interested in digging up dirt. They have bigger goals than that. Still not convinced? Commissioner Carr says, “Whether it’s a foreign influence campaign or other content, it’s noteworthy that China does not allow Tik Tok inside of China.” My advice? If you love the American way of life, get off tiktok now, and never go back. Tiktok isn’t a social media site, it’s an information and data-gathering site for the purpose of advancing the power of the Chinese Communist Party around the world. Sixty-seven percent of American teens say it’s working. Thousands of them will be poisoned by Chinese fentanyl before they become adults. Not because they’re drug addicts, but because pills are being made to look like other, legitimate pills but contain fentanyl instead. 

Speaking of mislabeling things, I saw a headline on an Associated Press story that was not just a headline, but a self-fulfilling prophesy. It said, “Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' law fuels anti-LGBTQ hate online.” Well, of course it does. That’s why the press started calling it the “Don’t Say Gay” law! We talked about this on an earlier episode. No where in the law does it say you can’t say gay. But some liberal think-tank came up with the misleading moniker and the press loved it and now they blame the public for inciting violence. You, the media, incited the violence when you named it the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which became a law. You, the Associated Press, now write a story with a headline that uses the same misleading nickname for the law that you blame for anti-LGBTQ online hate. I’m not condoning the hate. I’m just pointing out that it was the media that started using a misleading name for this law to create the hate, and they’re still using it to report on the hate that they created. 

Another mislabeled item is the new Inflation Reduction bill recently passed by the Senate. Now, I expect that different news organizations will report things in a different way, often because of political slant, but mostly because different reporters see things differently. Usually, though, the general story is the same wherever you get it, as far as the basics of the story go. When I look at the stories published about the Inflation Reduction bill, it’s hard to imagine they’re all talking about the same bill. Yahoo news said, “ Senate Democrats on Sunday passed a sweeping bill, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, that includes hundreds of billions of dollars to fight climate change.” Fox Business wrote a story about what taxes are in the bill, not about reducing inflation. NPR says, “ Democrats are set to pass a major climate, health and tax bill. Here's what's in it.” They didn’t even bother to call it the Inflation Reduction Act! The Hill dot com calls it a “sweeping health and climate bill.” There’s actual debate about whether or not this bill will even help curb inflation! It’s called the Inflation Reduction Act! Why don’t we just call it the Chicken in Every Pot Act or the Rainbows and Unicorn Act or the We Promise it will Rain Even if there aren’t any Clouds Act? If we’re gonna call it something that pretends to solve a problem, why not call it the Endless Tank of Gas Act or the Solar-Powered Fighter Jet Act? The problem isn’t our form of government, it’s the people who write laws with worthy titles that don’t accomplish what they say they’re going to accomplish, because too many deals have to be made and anything can be added to a bill, even if it has nothing to do with the title of the law. The really sad part is that our politicians know they can pull the wool over our eyes, and there’s very little we can do about it but vote. But we still vote for them even when the pull stunts like this one. What does funding the IRS have to do with inflation reduction? Well, the Republicans certainly found something in the bill they could use to scare the American people about the intentions of it. It wasn’t enough that the bill really doesn’t do enough to fight inflation. While it does a lot of other things, of which no news organization can agree is the most important, the IRS funding is what conservatives decided to hang their hats on. Eighty-seven thousand new IRS agents are coming for you! They’re going to be armed and the IRS has already stockpiled a half-a-million rounds of ammunition! They post pictures of stadiums and claim that the new IRS agents will be able to fill it before they begin coming after the little guy who just wants to earn a living. None of that is true. For as much as I bashed the Associated Press earlier, I have to give them credit here, because they have an article that points out that the money is for the Treasury Department to hire people, not just IRS agents, over a time span of 10 years, so they won’t all be in the stadium at the same time. Many will be replacing people who are scheduled to retire, and the more than 50,000 employees that have left in the last 5 years. Many of them will be enforcement agents, as half of the current agents are scheduled to retire in the coming years. The IRS has about 78,000 employees now. In 2012, it had over 90,000. Replacing the department’s technology is also part of the budget, and we all know that ain’t cheap. Plus, where do you think the IRS is going to get 87,000 new agents? Are they just going to conjure them out of thin air? Are they going to train illegal aliens to be IRS agents? Right now, there are two jobs available for every unemployed American. We can’t get truck drivers, nurses, or even people to work at retail stores. And the math the right-wing uses assumes a 40-thousand dollar a year salary for all of these new agents. Ha! Ain’t nobody got time to be an IRS agent for 40 large a year. It’s a Union job, so we know that ain’t cheap, either. They have to pay them more so the Unions can take part of their wages and donate it to left-wing political causes.

Let’s go back liner

1248

The foundation stone of Cologne Cathedral, built to house the relics of the Three Wise Men, is laid. (Construction is eventually completed in 1880.) So last week, we heard about how it took 200 years to finish the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Cologne Cathedral also took a little longer to complete than they thought it would. The Cologne Cathedral was considered the tallest structure in the world. But the title wouldn’t last long. If the cathedral had been completed in the 1200’s, the same century in which it was begun, it would have held the title for more than 600 years. But that’s not what happened. The completion of this cathedral, which was being built to replace one that had burned down, went through a lot of turmoil during its construction. Construction went on for more than 300 years, and then stalled, while a large wooden crane was protruding from one of the towers. That lasted more than 200 years. Then in the 1820’s, restoration work began. A new cornerstone was laid, and using architectural drawings that were made around 1300, more than 500 years earlier, the cathedral was completed in 1880. Six-hundred thirty-two years after it was begun. Four years later, the Washington Monument would take the title of tallest structure. 

1590

John White, the governor of the Colony of Roanoke, returns from a supply trip to England and finds his settlement deserted. This is worse than if you went away to college, or trade school or the military, and while you were gone, your parents moved away and didn’t tell you. John White was an explorer and cartographer and artist. He was among the first to attempt to establish an English colony there. He became Governor of Roanoke. His grand-daughter was the first English child born in the New World. After becoming Governor, he returned to England to get supplies. The mission lasted nearly three years, and when he returned, the place was long abandoned. There were clues to where the community may have gone, but searches turned up nothing. He had high hopes for settling in America, but alas, repaired to Ireland, where he stayed. His only hope being that his daughter and granddaughter continued to live, where ever they went. Today, John White’s watercolors of early America are in the British Museum, and are sometimes put on display.

The 1600’s were not a good century for witches. This week in 1612, The “Samlesbury witches”, three women from the Lancashire village of Samlesbury, England, are put on trial, accused of practicing witchcraft. This was one of the most famous witch trials in English history. The sad part is, it’s just one of the witch trials they had over a two-day period. They were accused of witchcraft by a 14-year-old girl. This was a time of Christian turmoil. The English Reformation, or Protestantism had begun, and the Catholic Church was under fire. One of the ways they used to diminish each other was to accuse the other of witchcraft. These three women in Samlesbury were lucky. They were aquitted. The practice of accusing someone of being a witch didn’t end there, though. It made the leap across the pond to Salem, Massachusetts, where 80 years later, this week in 1692, four men, including a clergyman, and one woman, were executed for witchcraft. Overall, 14 women and five men were hanged for practicing witchcraft in the Salem Village, which today is called Danvers.

Today, witches are free to practice in America, while witchhunts continue to flourish. Just ask Donald Trump. He’ll tell you all about it. 

1841

U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history. In fact, there were two groups of protesters that day! The first group showed up and fired guns in the air and shouted their displeasure at the President. This was when there was no security at the President’s mansion. Down with the veto! Bang! Bang! Tyler and his family were sitting ducks. Luckily, no harm was done to the first family. A few hours later, another crowd shows up with a dummy, or a scarecrow type of thing made to look like the President, and they hung it in front of the White House and then set it on fire. So, what set off this wave of Whig Party hatred for President Tyler? Why was a banking bill such a hot-button issue? Well, the Whig party was in power, and they got this bill all the way to the President’s desk, only to be vetoed by the Whig Party President of the United States. That’s right! He vetoed his own party’s bill. The opposition parties were happy to let them fight among themselves. The intramural battles that followed resulted in President Tyler being expelled from his own party while still in office! But Tyler felt the bill would have been ruled unconstitutional even if he signed it, so he didn’t. There weren’t enough votes to override the veto, and the bill was blocked. 

1858

U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks. Here’s a re-enactment and translation of the occasion: 

PB: It is with great honor, your highness, that I greet you on this special occasion on behalf of the people of the United States of America.

QV: Thank you, Mister President. On behalf of my subjects, I will wish you nothing but ...(incoherent screaming)! 

1858

Charles Darwin first publishes his theory of evolution through natural selection in The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, alongside Alfred Russel Wallace’s same theory. Little did they know it would lead to a battle between science and the church. Well, maybe they knew. Either way, it led to the Scopes Monkey Trial, which truly was the kind of entertainment money can’t buy.

1888

The first successful adding machine in the United States is patented by William Seward Burroughs.

1914

The Panama Canal opens to traffic with the transit of the cargo ship SS Ancon. 

1919

Afghanistan gains full independence from the United Kingdom.

1920

The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing women’s suffrage. Today, it might be found unconstitutional by Judicial branch of our government. After all, if you can’t define it, you can’t support it.

1920

The National Football League, (NFL), is founded in the United States. I started the Listening Tube podcast after last years Championship game, and there was a reason for that. I’m a big fan of the NFL. I don’t yet know what effect, if any, if might have on the program. Stick around and find out! 

1940

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes the fourth of his famous wartime speeches, containing the line “Never was so much owed by so many to so few”.

1959

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union. Hawaii’s admission is currently commemorated by Hawaii Admission Day. Happy Anniversary, Hawaii! May your team have luck in this years Little League World Series.

1961

Motown releases what would be its first #1 hit, “Please Mr. Postman” by The Marvelettes.

1961

Conrad Schumann flees from East Germany while on duty guarding the construction of the Berlin Wall.

1962

James Joseph Dresnok defects to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea after running across the Korean DMZ. Dresnok still resides in the capital, Pyongyang.

1965

The Beatles play to nearly 60,000 fans at Shea Stadium in New York City, in an event later seen as marking the birth of stadium rock.

1969

The Woodstock Music and Art Festival opens.

1977

Steve Biko is arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967 in King William’s Town, South Africa. He would later die of the injuries sustained during this arrest bringing attention to South Africa’s apartheid policies. Peter Gabriel wrote a song about it.

1989

A solar flare from the Sun creates a geomagnetic storm that affects micro chips, leading to a halt of all trading on Toronto’s stock market. It has long been man’s goal to harness the power of the Sun. Reflecting and magnifying it. Creating photosynthesis, building our calendars around it. While the Moon supplies us with some stability, the Sun provides us with life and energy that we can use to our advantage. Being able to replicate the effect of Solar flares is something we should be working on, because if we aren’t, you can be sure some other county is. I have read about creating ways to interrupt electronic communications with electrical pulses, but being able to knock out micro chips would bring electronic warfare to a whole new level. 

1989

Several hundred East Germans cross the frontier between Hungary and Austria during the Pan-European Picnic, part of the events which began the process of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. The fall of the Berlin Wall will eventually lead to the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union. It was this week in 1991 that trouble for the Soviet Union came to fruition, as Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest while on holiday in the town of Foros, Crimea. Later in the week, more than 100,000 people rally outside the Soviet Union’s parliament building protesting the coup aiming to depose President Gorbachev. The Russian people liked Gorbachev. The Americans liked Gorbachev. Right after that, also this week in 1991,Estonia, annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, issues a decision on the re-establishment of independence on the basis of historical continuity of her pre-World War II statehood. Right after that happened, the coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses. Then, to add insult to injury, also this week in 1991, Latvia declares renewal of its full independence, ending the occupation by Soviet Union. It wasn’t long after that the tyrant Putin took command. He’s been planning and plotting ever since, and re-took Crimea in 2014, and is now trying to re-take Ukraine. He has a willing partner in the Chinese Communist Party.

1998

 US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an “improper physical relationship” with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. On the same day he admits before the nation that he “misled people” about the relationship. Of course he did! You don’t cheat on your spouse and not try to keep it a secret! Especially if you’re the President of the United States, and the sex you had was in the Oval Office of the White House. I said Oval Office of the White House to distinguish it from some other...any other kind of oval office. None of this happened overnight. Literally. The affair was during daylight hours, and the resulting drama lasted for months. Perhaps the pinnacle of word games came when President Clinton said his answer to a question depended upon what the definition of the word “is” is. I had to laugh at that one. You might think, “Well, Bob. Big deal. So he had a little affair. That doesn’t effect us.” Well, here’s one possible way it did: Hillary Clinton has been embarrassed in front of the entire country and the whole world. Her husband cheated on her while he was President of the United States. She realizes that the only way she can get even with him is to become President of the United States herself. That’s the only way she can put herself in a position to either privately or publicly humiliate him, as he did to her. In her world, she could never outrank him, but she could become the same rank. She worked her way up from there, using her education and sympathy to remain in politics after her husband reached the top, becoming a diplomat and Secretary of State. She was two steps away from her goal: The nomination of the Democratic Party for President of the United States, and winning the general election. Then came Donald Trump. From her point of view, the Obama/Biden administration had served superbly, and she was next in line. Her dream of redeeming herself of her husband’s behavior was in the bag. The truth was, America didn’t want more of the Obama/Biden administration, and Donald Trump was an outsider, and he fit the bill in business prowess, promotion and charisma. Promotion will only get you so far. You have to be promoting good ideas. Well, he won. As far as Hillary Clinton is concerned, it didn’t matter who Donald Trump was. It could have been Pee-Wee Herman. He had to be destroyed. And Hillary Clinton, with all of her connections, had all the tools she needed to do it. That’s one example of how sex with an intern in the Oval Office of the White House can effect all of us.

2005

The first-ever joint military exercise between Russia and China, called Peace Mission 2005 begins. The only peace has been between them.

Phone and e-mail liner

It turns out that milk is racist, and so are school lunches. According to a story in the Hill, more than two-dozen groups have asked the department of agriculture to do something about “dietary racism” in the federal school lunch program. A Washington, D.C. physician who the article says did research on the project, but didn’t cite any actual sources, says, “If Black lives matter, so does our health and nutrition, but the National School Lunch Program has consistently failed children of color,” which is a bigoted thing to say, since Asian people are more likely to be lactose intolerant than Black people, according to the same groups that sent the request for change. In fact, the article states that while only 15 percent of white people are lactose intolerant, 90 percent of Asian people are, and 80 percent of Black and Latino people are, too. So because the National School Lunch Program promotes the use of diary milk, the groups say it’s “inherently inequitable and socially unjust.” But is it really “racist”? 

Look that up liner…

Any word that ends in “ism” has to be taken seriously. The definition of ism is “policy of.” So Socialism is the policy of Socialists, Capitalism is the policy of Capitalists, Communism is the policy of Communists, Sexism is the policy of Sexists, and Racism is the policy of racists.

Let me first say that we’re not talking about Racial. There are racial studies, racial demographics, racial divides, and those are not the same as racist.

Now, before I go any further here, I want to say a few things. I know this is a delicate subject. I know that I may be walking through a minefield by discussing the topic. There’s a chance that I might say something that will offend one or more of you. What I want you to know is that I’m seeking the truth here, and my intention is not to offend anyone. However, if I say something that you find objectionable, I welcome your criticism and insight, as long as it’s delivered with the same dignity and respect with which I’m trying to explore the subject.

What I’m talking about is Racism, as the policy of racists. So what is the policy of racists? 

It turns out that everybody has a slightly different definition of racism. Britannica, the famous encyclopedia people, had the most basic and obvious one: The belief that humans can be divided into separate and exclusive biological entities called “races.” So what they’re saying is that simply saying that people of different histories, backgrounds, skin color, and bloodlines is in and of itself, racism. By just recognizing that we have different races is racist. I think what Britannica is suggesting is that we don’t divide ourselves at all. That we shouldn’t categorize ourselves in ways that might pit us against each other. After all, we are all human beings. Other definitions were more direct, however. The free dictionary dot com says, “The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.” In my opinion, this definition has some flaws. While I agree that race has no effect on character, some races do have abilities that other races don’t have, or at least are not as pronounced. Some races are inherently taller than others, enhancing their ability to reach the top shelf at the grocery store. Now the definition goes on to say, “and that a particular race is superior to others.” I watch a lot of news. I’ve never heard anyone say Black supremacy or Korean Supremacy or Japanese Supremacy, so it seem obvious that the “particular race” their talking about is the white race, as we hear the term white supremacy all the time. But it’s true that if you believe a particular race is superior to another, that’s racist. 

The anti-defamation league, ADL dot org, is even more direct. They describe racism as, “The marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.” Now, the Anti-defamation League isn’t a dictionary, but they have obviously thought they had a need to create their own definition of Racism. I find it odd that an organization founded to fight antisemitism and all forms of bigotry would create a definition of racism that only cites oppression against people of color that they claim is based on a hierarchy that privileges white people. It seems to me that the Anti-defamation League’s definition of racism is racist!

But let’s go back to the first definition of racism from Brittanica: The belief that humans can be divided into separate and exclusive biological entities called “races.” So by merely dividing ourselves in such a way, we have been taught to practice racism. By dividing ourselves in such a way, we have perpetuated racism in our society. College admissions use race when deciding which students to accept. Cities, Counties, States and Countries all break down their populations with racism. Polls that ask for the opinions of people with or without certain skin color are racist. Advertising agencies know the demographics of metropolitan areas, including ages, number of households with children, education levels, and yes, what percent of an area is white, black and Hispanic. On a side note, when I wrote that last sentence, autocorrect insisted I capitalize Hispanic, but not white or black. Is the program racist? According to the definition, anyone who says black lives matter is racist. Anyone who says it’s important to preserve the purity of the white race is racist. So, if someone ever calls you a racist, all you have to say is, “aren’t we all?” In it’s most basic definition, we’ve all been taught to practice racism. So how did being called a Racist become such an insult? How did the label “Racist” become weaponized? And why do some people believe that only people of certain races can be racist? 

But then there’s the free dictionary dot com definition: “The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.” Now, I understand that the definition of words can change over time. Meanings can be added as slang terms permeate our language and society changes. The Free Dictionary dot com was founded in 2003, so it’s likely to have only more recent definitions. While the Britannica definition states that simply separating ourselves by race is racism, the newer definition brings more nuance, by introducing philosophy into the definition. It talks about beliefs and superiority, not just the divisions themselves. 

The Oxford dictionary goes a little farther, by saying racism is “Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.” This definition, too, gets a little specific. First of all, if you antagonize someone because of their race, that goes above and beyond racism. We’ll talk about that later. But the Oxford definition says that racism typically applies to races that are a minority or marginalized. Again, suggesting that the white race, as a typical majority in the United States and elsewhere, is not subject to being the victim of racism.

Dictionary dot com puts it more subtly: “a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human racial groups determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to dominate others or that a particular racial group is inferior to the others.” This definition suggests that your race will determine your individual achievement, which I don’t believe is true. But then it goes on to say that racism is the belief that one’s own race is superior. So in this definition, someone of any race can believe their race is superior to others.

So my question of when did the term racist become weaponized has to come from when the definitions of the word began to change. But in its purest definition, we are all racist. We all have prejudices. So how do we take away the negative power of these words? We accept that we are racist, not in the new definitions that were re-written to fit a narrative, but in the original definition, that simply separating ourselves into races, we practice racism. By simply coming to a conclusion based on how someone looks, we are prejudice.

So how do you call out someone who truly has hate in their heart for those of a different race? How do you respond when someone does take racism to the next level and intentionally antagonizes somebody else because of their race? We were all taught to be racist, but we don’t all show disdain for those not like ourselves. In the meantime, if you’re called a racist, and the person who’s calling you that is doing it to try to insult you, don’t get mad at them. Just consider their ignorance unfortunate. So, is the school lunch program racist for including milk in the program? No. The only racism being practiced here is by the people dividing milk drinkers and lactose intolerant people by their race. Was the milk program put into place to punish anyone? No. It was put there to help. Decades ago. When it was put into place, it helped the greatest number of children it could. That was it’s purpose. Does it need another look? Sure. If the majority of minorities can’t consume the milk, then an alternative needs to be offered. But in today’s political climate, the quickest way to get attention to your cause is to find a way to say it’s racist. But it’s those who see everything through the lens of racism who are the actual racists. 

The Listening Tube is written and produced by yours truly. Copyright 2022. Thank you for putting your ear to the Listening Tube. I’m your host, Bob Woodley for thou ad infinitum.