Season 10, Episode Ten January 19, 2025

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This is the Listening Tube.

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Hello. Thank you for putting your ear to the listening tube. I'm your host, Bob Woodley. Is it just me or does it feel different in here? On this episode, we'll hear about voting rights, presidential inaugurations, and I'll break down President Biden's farewell speech.

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But first, not the headlines.

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This is season 10, episode 10 of the listening tube. This is the last episode during the Biden administration. The listening tube has only existed during the Biden administration, having begun in February of 2022. I didn't start the listening tube because of President Biden, but because of the way I saw the deterioration of the news media. News hadn't been news for a while, and I wanted to point out some of the ways it had changed from a source of information to a tool of political parties. That's why I have a segment called Not the Headlines. Because I wanted to bring you not just stories you may have missed if you only watch the legacy media, but also to examine the way the news was presented to us in a way that is meant to influence more than inform. That's why I have a history segment. Our history shows us that today's world is not that different from yesterday's. It's actually a lot better, but with many of the same fundamental problems that have plagued mankind for centuries, if not millennia. I'll admit, I only added the epilogue because I had stuff I wanted to get off my chest. In season eight, I started having interviews, bringing new perspectives to the program. I knew when I began that the program would evolve, and it has, and it will. I'm looking forward to discovering how the listening tube will evolve with the introduction of a new president of the United States into the equation. I'll be interested in how the media react and I'll examine how stories are written. I want to see if the media learned anything from the last eight years of media activism and spin. So far, only some individuals have recognized the fallacy of their ways, but the parent companies of the legacy TV media haven't got the message. Some left-leaning newspapers have moved more toward the center, but only because of their owners, not because of the reporters and editors. The reporters and editors are digging in their heels when it comes to producing negative coverage of the next administration. I'm not here to defend Donald Trump, but I'm not here to criticize him either. Ideally, I can move on from talking about politics and just talk about other interesting stuff. The less I talk about politics, the more likely it is that things are going well. But if the media continues to be a propaganda machine against the conservative administration after literally hiding the faults and covering for the liberal administration, then that's what'll be on my agenda. If the press can't do its job in a responsible way, then I'll be here to point it out. I pointed it out during the Biden administration, and I'll point it out during the Trump administration. The difference will be that criticizing the press during the Biden administration was like killing two birds with one stone. The press and the administration were in cahoots. Now criticizing the press will be its own entity. You can't mistake criticizing the press for also criticizing the Trump administration. What I expect to see is a press that is very critical of the Trump administration. They'll claim they're just doing their jobs while never explaining why they didn't do their jobs during the Biden administration. They'll ask you for your forgiveness and resume doing their jobs after eight years of what I'm going to call media fair. Like warfare or lawfare. Media fair. I'm not saying media fair doesn't go in both directions either, but it seems like the left-wing media has been doing the biggest disservice to the American people, while the right wing media was trying to shine light on what was being hidden by the left. There's no doubt the legacy media tried to manipulate the audience in favor of liberal policies and made deliberate choices in what agenda to support and promote. Yet somehow, Fox News is the most watched. And yes, Fox News does lean right. They've had plenty to complain about and call people on the carpet for what's been going on in America and American politics. While the left spends a lot of time criticizing the people who aren't even in power, and trying to defend woke policies and failed social experiments. If you ask me, it was the failed policies of the Biden administration and the support of those policies from the media and the cover-up we now know the media perpetrated that got Donald Trump elected president again. Honestly, I don't think it's out of the realm of FCC regulations that an examination of the requirements to have a license to broadcast find some boxes that need to be checked. In order to have a license to broadcast, you have to meet certain requirements concerning public service and value. Perhaps a reevaluation and reassessment of FCC regulations should be done, and the results shared with entities that hold FCC licenses, so everyone knows what's expected of them in order to maintain that license. Working for the public good should be priority number one. Deceiving and manipulating the public should be grounds for losing your license to broadcast. That's what happened to that guy who said the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax. He didn't need an FCC license, but he was basically taken off the air for trying to manipulate the story and mislead the public. There's no reason it shouldn't also happen to any other media company. But I digress. Look, I know Donald Trump is going to say some stupid stuff. He says things to provoke a response. I'm not going to fall for it. While the legacy media will hang on every word, looking for a way to twist the meaning or distort the intent, I'll save my criticism for actions. Yes, what the president says is important, but the press often neglects to recognize when they're being played, or they pretend they don't see it and take it literally. While the press is evaluating the president, I'll be evaluating the press and the president. Because they're two different things now. More on the president in the epilogue. In other not the headlines, insurance policy cancellations have been a big part of the drama for the people of the Southern California fires. I understand why the insurance companies pulled out of insuring certain properties in certain locations. I may not agree with it, but I understand it. Auto insurance, on the other hand, seems to have rising premiums, even for those with good driving records. According to Forbes magazine, Allstate has gone from an average of $2,300 a year in 2021 to over $3,000 a year in 2024. Erie went up $700, Farmers over $1,000, GICO more than $600, as well as State Farm. Some of the reasons given for the increase are broken supply chains and shortages of parts, climate change, and the move toward electric vehicles. Vehicle thefts are also a contributing factor, as well as good old-fashioned inflation. As for broken supply chains, that's a remnant of the COVID pandemic. Forbes says the conditions haven't yet recovered. Climate change? Okay, natural disasters like floods will tax an insurance company, but the climate's been changing for thousands of years, so that's really not a good excuse. Electric vehicles are more expensive to repair, but if you don't drive one, why should you have to pay higher premiums? Here's where I think the problem lies. With the manufacturers of the vehicles themselves. Let's face it, back in the day there were all kinds of driveway mechanics. If your Mustang 2 needed a new water pump, you could go to the auto parts store and buy one and install it yourself. Same with a starter or spark plugs or fan belts. You can't do that anymore. When you open the hood on a late model car or truck, everything's covered. You need proprietary tools to do any kind of work on a modern automobile. Instead of fixing a problem yourself, you have to take your car to a certified mechanic, or more likely an authorized dealer, to get any meaningful repairs done. There's no longer any way to save money by doing it yourself or having some of your buddies come over and help. With the ability to repair your own car taken away, you must rely on professionals to do the work. Those professionals know that you can't do it yourself, and they can charge pretty much what they want, depending upon the local economy, and charge the insurance company for the work that you might have been able to do yourself. Even a minor fender bender that could have been patched up with some body putty is now a job that will cost thousands of dollars. It's not that the people aren't willing to fix their own cars. It's the industry itself that prevents it, driving up prices for everyone.

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

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This week in 1912, the International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague. Following a 13-nation meeting in Shanghai a few years earlier, the 1912 Convention is considered to be the first international drug control treaty. The targets of the convention were primarily morphine and cocaine, and the movement of them as far as importing and exporting and selling and distributing. They didn't say anything about growing opium poppy or coca plants or cannabis. Today we need a new opium convention for the control of fentanyl. As were the opium wars, China is the catalyst for yet another drug craze that needs international intervention. COVID-19 wasn't enough. When the southern border was opened by the Biden administration, China took advantage of the Mexican cartel's eagerness and killed millions more Americans on top of the COVID pandemic. This week in 1964, the 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections is ratified. Poll taxes were used primarily by Southern Democrats to discourage black people from voting, but many northern and western states also employed them. But because poll tax laws didn't specify a particular group of people, they also prevented many women and poor people, regardless of skin color, from voting as well. Today there are all kinds of battles about voting rights and regulations. Perhaps the biggest fight is the one for and against voter ID. Opponents say it will prevent anyone who doesn't have ID from voting. Proponents say you can get a free voter ID wherever you get a driver's license. We need ID to drive, to consume alcohol, to buy cigarettes and pornography. We need ID to get a passport, which is another form of ID. We should have to have voter ID. If the privilege to vote is so sacred, it should be protected. Especially now that millions of migrants have been allowed to enter the country by the Biden administration.

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You can hang your hat on that.

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This week in 1968, a B-52 bomber crashes near Thule Air Base, contaminating the area after its nuclear payload ruptures. Part of one of the four bombs remains unaccounted for after the cleanup operation is complete. Although the crash landed on an ice sheet, the heat from fires caused some of the wreckage to sink to the ocean floor. The exercises being conducted at the time were discontinued until further safety measures could be put in place. Today, Donald Trump is preparing to negotiate a possible sale of Greenland to the United States. We'll learn more after the inauguration. This week in 1981, 20 minutes after Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as U.S. President, Iran releases fifty-two American hostages. Sounds familiar to what's about to happen with the hostages in Gaza. They won't all get out on the same day as the Iranian hostages did, but the changing of the guard in America would indicate Hamas got the message when Donald Trump threatened hell to pay if the hostages were still being held when he takes office again. This week in 1985, the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan to a second term, already postponed today because January 20th fell on a Sunday, becomes the second inauguration in history moved indoors because of freezing temperatures and high winds. The parade is canceled altogether. Similar to Reagan's second term, the second term of Donald Trump is also being moved inside because of frigid temperatures. It's still undecided if the parade for the 47th president is canceled or if it will go on as planned. This week in 1986, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time. Dr. King is remembered as a civil rights advocate and perhaps best known for a dramatic speech in Washington, D.C., in which he proclaimed, I have a dream today. If you've never heard the entire speech, which many of us haven't since it happened so long ago, you should. I think it demonstrates how far civil rights have come in America and how the goals of civil rights advocates today differ from the goals of Dr. King. I recited the entire speech in season three, episode one of The Listening Tube, and you can still listen to it if you'd like. This week in 1986, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members. Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley. That's a very good starting point, if you ask me. All are certainly early contributors of the genre of rock and roll. As we heard last week on the Listening Tube, Elvis is still the king. But I've been disappointed by many of the Hall of Fame inductees. I feel it's no longer fitting to call it the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but perhaps a more accurate moniker like the Popular Music Hall of Fame. This week in 2007, a Canadian and British team, using only skis and kites, completes a 1,093-mile trek to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility. At first I thought, what's wrong with these people? And I still think that. But then I realized there aren't any gas stations along the way. Taking advantage of the windy conditions was a very efficient way to get from point A to point B. So why is it called the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility? How is that different from the South Pole? I'm going to look that up.

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He's gonna look it up. He's really gonna do it. I want the truth!

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You can't handle the truth.

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Okay, now I get it. The southern pole of inaccessibility is the furthest point from any coastline and can be found in different locations depending upon what you define as coastline. That point is over eight hundred miles or thirteen hundred kilometers from the South Pole. It's just harder to get to the southern pole of inaccessibility than the South Pole. Especially if all you have to get there is skis and a kite. Nobody had been there since the Soviets in 1958, and they left behind a hut for anyone who happened by, and a large bust of Vladimir Lenin high up on a pedestal. By the time the 2007 expedition arrived, the hut was buried in the snow, and only the bust of Lenin was visible, the pedestal also buried in the snow. So if the wind and the skis got you there, can you also use the wind to go back the way you came? I can't tell, because once they reached the site, they were picked up by an airplane and taken back to civilization.

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The listening tube will return at the speed of sound. Contact the listening tube by calling 570-601-1101 or email thelistening tube at outlook.com.

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President Biden gave his farewell speech the other night, sitting behind the executive desk while his wife and son, as well as the vice president and her husband, sat off camera to the president's left. It was anticipated that Joe Biden would give us a retrospective of his life as a politician. Instead, what we got was a warning and attempts to whitewash the decisions he's made as president. Often taking credit where none was due, often overestimating the degree of success he's had on a number of issues. After a detailed description of the Statue of Liberty, he began by noting he's been around for 50 years.

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After 50 years at the center of all of this, I know that believing in the idea of America means respecting the institutions govern a free society. The presidency, the Congress, the courts, a free and independent press.

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We'll see how much respect people have for the institution of the Trump administration when we see how the people are treated by the businesses around Washington, D.C. We'll see if administration officials are allowed to have a peaceful dinner in a D.C. restaurant without being harassed by radical liberals. We remember how they did it before and how certain members of Congress even encouraged it. As for the courts, the Democrats have done little more than complain about it and suggest more jurists be added so the balance of power can be re-established by the liberal thinking. A free and independent press? Are you kidding me? Mr. President, you had most of the press under your thumb, whether you knew it or not, and any you thought were getting out of line, like Facebook, you browbeat and threatened. Cancel culture was abundant, and it was the press who spread the message for you. People were being silenced and censored, and anything not in line with the liberal agenda agendas. The plural of agenda was beaten into submission with labels like misinformation and disinformation. You might believe in all that, Joe, but it sure doesn't look like it.

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In the past four years, our democracies held strong. And every day I've kept my commitment to be president for all Americans.

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It's funny how he says our democracy has held strong, as if there was some sort of threat to it. What was gonna happen? Were people going to vote in July or something? Oh no, people are voting and we're not even having an election. The only threat to democracy was the absence of a democratic primary. Appointing someone to run for president without earning a single delegate simply because she was the only candidate who had access to the war chest when Joe dropped out. Joe took some time to point out some of the work he's got done, including new roads and bridges, spreading internet connectivity, and cutting drug prices for seniors. Citizens on Medicare. He also bragged about gun safety laws.

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Finally, giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for millions of seniors. And finally, doing something to protect our children and our families by passing the most significant gun safety law in 30 years.

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I wonder if Hunter blushed when Joe read that last part. Bragging about significant new gun laws while the guy you pardoned for violating gun laws is sitting right there in the room is a streak of boldness that could only be accomplished by someone who is clueless about how most Americans view the hypocrisy. But the president is convinced we just haven't had enough patience. You know, that special kind of patience you need in situations similar to when the whole world around you just burned down.

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You know, it will take time to feel the full impact of all we've done together. But the seeds are planted, and they'll grow and they'll bloom for decades to come.

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Yeah, that's what a lot of people are worried about. And to make sure Joe's words have a fighting chance, everything possible is being done to Trump proof the government at the federal level, and even California and other states have similar plans. Literally, plans to prevent what the American people voted for. And they say they support democracy. Joe still has confidence in us, though, but it comes with a warning.

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I have no doubt that America's in a position to continue to succeed. That's why my farewell address tonight. I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern. This is a dangerous concentration, and that's a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people. The dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.

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Okay, you just accused the next administration of abusing their power, but they're not in office yet. But please, go on.

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Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.

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So now he's comparing the next administration to the Russian government. Well, old habits die hard, I guess. And if you can become president, then it's hard to argue that not everyone has a fair shot. President Biden wasn't done with the warnings, though. You may recall from last week's episode of The Listening Tube that we heard about a warning from another president on the way out the door. And I'm just guessing that President Biden heard me talking about it and decided to put it in his farewell address too.

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You know, his farewell address, President Eisenhower spoke of the dangers of the military industrial complex. He warned us then about, and I quote, the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power, end of quote. Six days lex six decades later, I'm equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country as well. Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation enabled in the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling. Edders are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact-checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit. We must hold the social platforms accountable to protect our children, our families, and our very democracy from the abuse of power.

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And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the new leader for the most self-serving, hypocritical thing he's said so far. You want to talk technological giants? How about Amazon? Is it just a coincidence that when your administration locked down the country, we turned to online shopping to get what we needed? Twitter became rich, as did Facebook, by peddling the lies of your administration. When Elon Musk bought Twitter, your deceit was exposed. Your lackeys stopped advertising on the platform so as to punish Elon Musk for exposing the truth. Suddenly, Facebook is revealing the threats it received from liberal goons of the party, demanding posts be removed or blocked or moved out of the algorithm. The left had no problem with a tech industrial complex as long as they controlled it. Now that it's slipping away, as will be demonstrated by the presence of top social media and tech leaders planned to attend the Trump inauguration, suddenly we have to protect ourselves from lies as if they're just going to start now. Clearly, a majority of Americans took measures to reduce the abuse of power when they rejected the incumbent administration in November. The president shamelessly spoke about tax reform and getting rich people to pay their fair share, while his tax dodging son, who got pardoned for it, sat there looking at him. Then quickly pivoted to the subject of dark money in politics.

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We need to get dark money. That's that hidden funding behind too many campaigns contributions. We need to get it out of our politics.

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Well, Democrats raised over a billion dollars in dark money to run the 2020 election that Joe won. Democrats also outraised Republicans in dark money for the 2024 election. Then he suggested some radical ideas for the judicial and legislative branches of the government.

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We need to enact an 18-year time limit, term limit, time and term, for the strongest ethics reforms and the strongest ethic reforms for Supreme Court. We need to ban members of Congress from trade fr from trading stock while they're in the Congress.

SPEAKER_03 28:21

Term limits for Supreme Court judges? That's just crazy. We can't have Supreme Court justices thinking about what they'll do when their term expires. Do you want jurists to be making judgments that will affect the company they might want to go to work for after they're no longer a judge? Crazy. It's just Joe expressing his disdain for the Supreme Court, not showing the respect for the institution that he called for earlier in the very same speech. Then he spread some disinformation himself about the office of the president.

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We need to amend the Constitution to make clear that no president, no president is immune from crimes that he or she commits while in office.

SPEAKER_03 29:13

And it isn't, Mr. President. You of all people should know that. But you're just fearmongering, putting the idea into people's heads that the next president can get away with anything simply because he's president. He can't. He knows it. I know it. A lot of people know it. The president can't rob a bank at gunpoint and not be held responsible for it. Immunity only includes official acts. We don't need a constitutional amendment. It's already the law. You and the other people parroting this narrative just sounds stupid. It's no surprise that President Biden is leaving the office with the lowest ratings among recent presidents, if not the last hundred years. An Associated Press and National Opinion Research Center poll says only about a quarter of Americans feel like Biden was a good or great president, with less than one percent labeling him as great. Three in ten said he was average. When I think of an average president, I think of a caretaker president, and it may end up that Joe Biden was a terrible caretaker president as well. It's one thing to phone it in for four years when all's going well, but when you let the country deteriorate the way it did, that's not caring much. A Gallup poll just released says Biden's standing as he leaves office is about the same as Richard Nixon, the Republican who resigned in disgrace for a cover-up of crimes committed at the Watergate Hotel by his staff. So for the first time in a long time, the polls got it right. I'm actually surprised the results of these polls were even released. But since his term is over now, I guess it's okay. For the past four years, the press wasn't allowed to broadcast such dissatisfaction with our commander-in-chief. We had to maintain the posture that all was well in the White House, and Joe Biden was in complete control. I get it. You don't want to tell the world you messed up when you used Joe as the puppet for the leftist agenda. You had to keep it a secret from our enemies. But then you started treating the American people the same way by keeping it a secret from us. If you need more evidence that Joe isn't in charge, just days before his term expires, he grants clemency to 2,500 people who were in jail for nonviolent drug crimes. Do you really think Joe Biden read every case and felt that the president should intervene? No. Clearly, other people who may or may not have been elected to their posts are deciding to whom a presidential intervention is warranted. That's in addition to the 1,500 commutations and dozens of pardons he dropped already. Maybe some of these people deserved some type of relief of their sentences. But they're all for cocaine-related offenses. Specifically crack cocaine. Okay, but here's my question. If it's the right thing to do two days before you leave office, why wasn't it the right thing to do last year or the year before that? These box checking commutations and such are yet another demonstration of the Biden administration's disdain for the judicial system. The same judicial system Joe claims to hold sacred, then suggests term limits for the highest court in the land. So why did he do it? One could argue that it was because of an op-ed written by the President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He published an article on January 8th, my former wedding anniversary to my late wife Camille, calling for exactly the clemency for crack users that the president delivered. The guy from the NAACP also called for more student debt relief, which the President has continued to pursue to the very end as well. And more oversight of the police, which didn't really happen. After the left realized they screwed up by defunding the police, they've kind of shied away from the topic except to thank them for doing their jobs while letting the criminals go out the back door of the courthouse, so to speak. I am happy about one piece of legislation that got signed by President Biden. The TikTok ban that goes into effect the same day as the publication of this episode of the listening tube. If the Chinese won't sell it, then it needs to go. It's as simple as that for me, and I'm glad the law was signed. It doesn't only apply to TikTok, but also other platforms that may arise under similar circumstances. I hope President Trump will find a way to rid our society of the spyware that is TikTok, either diplomatically or otherwise, as he currently seems to be on the fence about the platform's future. Do what's right for American security, Mr President. President Trump, that is. As for President Biden, well The Listening Tube is written and produced by yours truly, Copyright 2025. Thank you for putting your ear to the listening tube. Support the show or text me from the homepage. I'm your host, Bob Woodley, for the ad infinitum.