Season 11, Episode 9 May 4, 2025

SPEAKER_06 0:00

This is the listening tube.

SPEAKER_04 0:08

Hello. Thank you for putting your ear to the listening tube. I'm your host, Bob Woodley. It would be a great honor to have my portrait on display at the White House, but not on the lawn. On this episode, we'll hear about a London Molly House, Veterans Day, and the CIA Chief Who Went Missing, and how President Trump is playing the opposition like a fiddle.

SPEAKER_06 0:36

But first, not the headlines.

SPEAKER_04 0:42

I just read a story about how the mainstream media is concerned about the intrusion of independent reporters of the White House press briefings. There was a time when a select few administrators got to choose who was allowed in. The Trump administration changed that. Not drastically. All of the same people are allowed in, but the Trump team added room for people like myself to ask a question or two. The legacy media might not think to ask, or don't want to ask. And that sticks in the craw of those legacy reporters who feel they've worked their way into the White House crew and these other guys didn't. The people who used to choose who got into the briefings recently held their annual ball. The White House correspondence get together is often referred to as the Nerd Prom. At this prom, the correspondents are the kings and queens of the journalist world, and letting in some podcaster is like letting some drunk guy in a cheap suit dip his cup into the punch bowl. Now he's just gonna spread his germs. That's exactly why the mainstream media is warning us that these outsiders are just parrots of the administration, echoing Trump talking points and supporting the policies. Oddly enough, the story seemed to indicate that all independent journalists, not just those invited to the White House briefing room, are right-leaning, non-traditional, often digital first platforms. It points out that podcasters and bloggers bypass legacy media gatekeepers. And we can reach anyone just about anywhere. The listening tube has been downloaded in more than 750 cities in 65 countries. The legacy media no longer controls the narrative, and their ratings show it. Don't get me wrong, they still have way more followers than I, but the time when the media decided what you found out about are long gone. Unfortunately for all of us, the mainstream media decided to choose sides just when a wave of alternative viewpoints was about to burst upon the scene. What's being overlooked is that it was the mainstream media's job to provide alternative viewpoints. Instead, it stifled them during a critical time in the history of the United States. Unfortunately for the media, people began to see through it. Well, some people. The kind of people who would never be invited to a White House press briefing under the Biden administration. Someone who might ask, what's wrong with the president? He seems out of it. The story accuses new media as, quote, prioritizing engagement over traditional journalistic standards, unquote. Sounds like somebody's jealous. Has the mainstream media reduced itself to a competition for the most likes? Well, maybe the legacy media would be doing better if they had stuck to those traditional journalistic standards. They accuse independent voices of minimizing at the expense of engagement. A majority of American media showed their true colors when Donald Trump floated down an escalator and announced his candidacy for President of the United States about a decade ago now. By choosing sides, the media committed a cardinal sin for journalists. Not only did they choose a side, but they weren't even afraid to show it. And the longer they got away with it, the deeper they dug themselves in. And now they have the nerve to call independent journalists an echo chamber for Trump policies. The story cites a New York Times report that offers this comparison. Mainstream media journalists ask critical questions. New media figures focus on softer topics, like Trump's fitness plan. First of all, the media would pounce on any clue that Donald Trump has some kind of physical ailment, so if a podcaster didn't ask, they would have. Second, how many times was Joe Biden asked what kind of ice cream he was eating while there was record inflation and COVID and the threat of a war in Ukraine?

SPEAKER_06 5:37

And if that wasn't enough.

SPEAKER_04 5:40

The mainstream media is suddenly claiming to be holier than thou, while claiming it's their job to be critical of President Trump and also claiming they had no idea President Biden wasn't fit to run the show. They admit it now, of course, with books and half-wit apologies at the White House Correspondence Dinner about how Biden's inner circle hid it from everybody. Well, yes, they hid a lot, but there were plenty of people who were ringing the alarm bells, and the media quickly muted them at the direction of someone in the administration. We know that from the release of the Twitter files. I don't know why the legacy media is so surprised that an outside legion of independent journalists like myself would take the time to point out all the ways they fail us. By letting us in, the White House is making it obvious to the rest of the media in the room that there are many and far better questions to be asked. The legacy media is biased, and so are their questions. The Trump administration introduced diversity to the newsroom by inviting outsiders. And the legacy media don't like the questions they're asking. But I do, because it's one less facet of the narrative controlled by the media institutions that have been hoodwinking us for years. Yes, hoodwinking. That's a grandpa word. Start using that around your friends, and you'll be the bee's knees.

SPEAKER_06 7:22

You can text the listening tube from the homepage. If he says something stupid.

SPEAKER_04 7:31

Anyway, the left and the liberal media pretend to support diversity until it comes to diversity of thought. Democrats preach diversity when it comes to skin color and sexual orientation and gender identity and actual gender when they care to define it, but don't seem to give a damn about diversity of thought. The liberal media can't stand the thought of somebody else having the opportunity to ask a question or present an opposing view. Case in point, the president held a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, and the first two hours of it was televised live. Each secretary was given an opportunity to speak, and each took the opportunity to summarize what their departments have accomplished in the first 100 days of the current administration. They talked about the economy, jobs, agriculture, defense, health, housing, crime, justice, industry, energy, cost cutting and fraud, waste and abuse, and of course, immigration. This unprecedented display of transparency gave the reporters in the room a plethora of options for subject matter when the meeting was open for questions. The first two questions were about a citizen of El Salvador and what the administration is doing to get him back to America.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

Well, I would never tell you that. And you know who else I'll never tell? A judge. Because the conduct of our foreign policy belongs to the President of the United States and the executive branch, not some judge. So we will conduct foreign policy appropriately if we need to. But I'll never discuss it. And no one will ever make us discuss it because that's how foreign policy works.

SPEAKER_04 9:24

Out of hundreds of questions that could have been asked, the legacy media insists on continuing to ask about an issue that the administration considers closed. The man had his due process. He was sent to his home country, and if he ever comes back here, he'll be sent to a third country. It would have been a total waste of time and attention had not Marco Rubio basically declared that further asking about it will get you nothing but condescending side eye from your fellow reporters. It's that kind of tail chasing that turns away viewers and diminishes the public's opinion of today's media. Not only do they appear narrow-minded, but they also seem to be focused on issues solely because they contradict whatever the Trump administration does or is doing, pouncing on every opportunity to criticize, often without sincere analysis or considering other contributing factors. Perhaps Donald Trump oversold himself when he said he'd fix everything on day one. But to realistically expect him to accomplish everything he set out to accomplish in even 100 days is now being heralded by the left as a failure. The president failed because he didn't accomplish all of his goals in the first 100 days of a four-year term. The press is more than happy to perpetuate this dismal view of the new America because it's not perfect already. But what about all the uncertainty, they'll ask? What about the chaos and the instability we're going through? Why does it have to be so drastic? My question is, when did Americans become so soft and content that we can't come together as a country and fix what needs to be fixed? We have a president who's willing to get the country to be more self-sufficient. Self-sufficient has to be a worthy goal for any country that wants to be considered a world power. The United States of America has been considered a world power ever since we took away the right of a king to rule us. A lot of the world depends upon the U.S. to be a world power for the sake of peace. When we lose that power, as we did under the Biden administration, wars break out. Donald Trump has a plan to keep America as the deterrent to war. You want stability? How about a world without war? Why does it have to be so drastic? Because the Biden administration and the co-conspirators in the media created a crisis that needs to be dealt with expeditiously. That's why the left is using the courts to slow the process as much as possible. But when you ask why, the most they can come up with is because Donald Trump wants it. There's simply no other reason. The Democrats are literally celebrating what they consider failure of President Trump's first 100 days in office. They are celebrating what they consider the failure of our president and what's happening in our country. They don't want you to have more than 100 days patience because any day now things might start working out the way President Trump planned it all along. Even still, there's probably more in the works than his political opponents, both foreign and domestic, will be completely unprepared for. It's kind of a shame that he has to do it that way, if he does. It shows us that he's fully aware that no matter how good an idea it might be, his opponents will try to kill it as soon as possible. Giving them a heads up will only provide an opportunity for finding ways to prolong implementation. As is the left's MO. One thing we might see moving forward is President Trump using the so-called new media to announce policy statements, letting the legacy media find out at the same time everybody else does. Now that I think about it, Mr. President, if you ever want to make an announcement on the listening tube, I will be more than happy to release a special episode. I know it might be a challenge for you, but it would be great if you could keep it under 40 minutes.

SPEAKER_06 14:09

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

SPEAKER_04 14:23

This week in 1726, three men who were arrested during a raid on Mother Clapp's Molly House in London meet their fate. Back then, a Molly House was a slang term for a place where homosexual men would congregate and meet each other. All of them were underground clubs, as a certain aspect of homosexuality was punishable by fines, jail time, or even death. But Mother Clapp's place was special, and she took great care to serve the men who came there. One way she did that was to have every room in the house include a bed. But a February raid on the house led to forty arrests. Three of them are hanged at Tyburn for sodomy. As for Mother Clapp herself, she was fined, ordered to stand in the pillory, where she was pelted by mobs of people, then carried off to serve two years imprisonment. It's thought, however, that she died within a day or two of the pillory. Today, not only is homosexuality legal in much of the world, but you might also have an advantage if you're well hung. This week in 1882, the United States Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act. President Chester A. Author would sign it, prohibiting Chinese laborers from coming to America for ten years. And for Chinese already in the country, they were no longer eligible to become U.S. citizens. There was a lot more racism than there is today. Groups of people stayed together in neighborhoods that became places like Little Italy or Chinatown. But the Irish and the Chinese were most often maligned as much as they were exploited for their labor. The Chinese were singled out with this act, and it was extended for another ten years. Then ten years after that it was made permanent. That was 1902, if you didn't do the math. The Chinese Exclusion Act would remain in place until 1943, when the law was changed to allow 105 Chinese immigrants to the U.S. a year. In the four years of the Biden administration, more than 176,000 Chinese, mostly military age men, entered the country illegally. That's forty four thousand a year. The cap of one hundred five a year was repealed in nineteen fifty-two. The concern today isn't that Chinese laborers are coming here to take jobs or stifle wages. The concern today is the theft of intellectual property, counterfeiting, military spying and espionage, secret Chinese government police forces trying to control the lives of Chinese people living in America, or using muscle to encourage people to return to China. There are now limits to how immigration to the United States can be divided up by race or national origin, so prohibiting immigration only from China would have some legal hurdles to overcome if that's what somebody tried to do today. It's worth pointing out that the 176,000 Chinese who came here during the Biden administration are still here illegally and will be eventually removed if the Trump administration completes its task of undoing the damage done by the Biden administration. This week in 1895, in St. Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention, the Popov Lightning Detector. A primitive radio receiver. In some parts of the former Soviet Union, the anniversary of this day is celebrated as Radio Day. Less than 25 years later, radio stations started popping up all over the United States and elsewhere. In the United States today, after more than a hundred years, radio is America's number one mass reach media. More people listen to the radio than watch TV or use their cell phones. A growing number of people are using their cell phones to listen to the radio. This week in 1919, Edward George Honey first proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate the Armistice of World War I, which later results in the creation of Remembrance Day. In the United States, it was called Armistice Day, and since 1954 is now Veterans Day. President Trump caused a bit of a stir lately when he floated the idea of turning Veterans Day back to its roots by calling it Victory Day for World War I. Well, according to a story by Chuck Samples of KVOE News in Emporia, Kansas, local veterans weren't too keen on the idea, especially since Emporia is where Veterans Day was first celebrated, a year before it became official. The people there are proud that they were the ones who brought about the name change from Armistice Day, recognizing only veterans of World War I, to Veterans Day, recognizing all veterans, whether you served in wartime or peacetime. I guess one argument would be that if we change Veterans Day back to honoring only those who served during World War I, then we'll have to come up with other holidays to recognize everybody else. World War II veterans, Korean veterans, Vietnam veterans, Iraq veterans, Afghanistan veterans. Don't forget the Cold War veterans. We know how President Trump likes to celebrate winning, so don't be surprised. In fact, he's already floated May 8th to recognize World War II veterans. But even with the power of the presidency, he can't just make it so. It would take Congress to do that. Maybe we'll find it in the last line of a complex law that has nothing to do with holidays as an amendment to the big, beautiful bill Congress is currently working on. This week in 1920, the Treaty of Moscow is signed. Soviet Russia recognizes the independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, only to invade the country six months later. Typical Russian modus operandi. This week in 1994, American teenager Michael Fay is caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism, a punishment that many in the United States deemed to be excessive for a teenager committing a nonviolent crime. However, significant numbers of Americans We're also in favor of it. Singapore is one of the most law abiding countries in the world, and the laws are strict. Most Americans don't calculate the variables when they travel abroad. Americans have a much different view of law and justice than just about anywhere else in the world. We hope that you'll forgive our ignorance and hope that your country has a friendly extradition treaty with us. I'm not saying we don't know right from wrong, but our Constitution grants us certain freedoms that we take for granted, not knowing that those same freedoms don't apply everywhere else. This week in 1996, the body of former CIA Director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland. He had disappeared eight days earlier, and a search involving divers and dogs and helicopters turned up nothing until now. I was in my mid-30s at the time, and I really don't recall anything about it. I'm going to look that up.

SPEAKER_06 23:10

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

SPEAKER_08 23:14

You can't handle the truth.

SPEAKER_04 23:19

In hindsight, there were a lot of reasons to believe that William Colby's death was no accident. He had been fired as the CIA director by President Ford. Colby cooperated with congressional investigations that the executive branch wanted him to keep quiet about. A story from the time by David Wise of the Los Angeles Times lists all the reasons some of the most secretive people in the world would want him dead. And they were all in a newly created 693-page report commissioned by his predecessor that listed any activities that might have been in violation of the CIA charter. Almost 700 pages of reasons for Congress to investigate the agency. Among the reports were evidence of assassination plots of foreign leaders, drug tests on Americans without their knowledge, opening people's mail, and spying on Americans. Instead of doubling down, Colby opened up. After decades of being the perfect spy, he earned the top spot at the time when the CIA was going off the rails, and he thought it best to write it, knowing that it would be the end of his career. The Vice President and Secretary of State encouraged him to keep all the secrets, even though the vice president was supposed to be investigating this very issue. Not only did Colby shed light on a lot of what the CIA was doing that it wasn't supposed to be doing, he even brought a poison dart gun to the hearing. He was fired less than two months later. He had a good run, though, beginning in World War II, parachuting behind enemy lines in France and Norway to disable rail lines. He joined the CIA after the war and lived his life in the shadows, inconspicuous. An autopsy revealed William Colby did not die at the hands of another. No grudge-holding spy got his revenge. It seems likely that he suffered a stroke or heart attack while canoeing off the coast near his Maryland home. The official cause of death was hypothermia and drowning. There were no drugs in his system except for alcohol. He had dinner shortly before taking to the water and enjoyed a glass of wine. His blood alcohol level was 0.07.

SPEAKER_06 25:55

The listening tube will return at the speed of sound. Send email to thelistening tube at outlook.com.

SPEAKER_04 26:05

Unlike the media, a politician's role is to influence people. You have to get the electorate to think that you have good ideas, or at least that your ideas are better than the other guys' ideas. That's why politicians hold rallies where they tout their objectives and how they'll get there and how it will benefit the citizens. Vote for me and ABC will lead to XYZ as long as we stay the course and lean into the headwinds or sacrifice a little now for a better outcome later. Messaging is certainly an important part of the attempt to influence, so that what you say and what you show can mean the difference between success and failure. But just like in a symphony, the parts where the musician rests is just as important as when the musician plays. Sometimes the best way to contribute is to sit there and be quiet. Just ask the lady who plays the harp or the guy who plays the triangle. As it turns out, written into the composition of the Trump administration was a crescendo and arrest with the announcement that Mike Waltz was relieved of his duties as the White House security advisor. Not just him, but several of his staff. Just a day after the president had him at the table of his cabinet meeting, word spread quickly, as did all the opinions of why Mike Waltz was put out to pasture. Many blamed his faux paw adding a reporter to a group chat about attacks on Hootie rebels in Yemen. For ten days, a reporter from the Atlantic was watching the exchange of top-level defense officials about using the military to support American policy in the area. That being safe passage by ships without the threat of attack or seizure. Turns out it was Mike Waltz who created the contact list for the chat group. When it was announced that Mike Waltz was relieved of his position at the White House, many talking heads immediately assumed that Pete Hegseth would be next. If I may digress, it's somewhat customary to not drop anyone from a new administration prior to the first 100 days, so the press was just waiting to see who it would be. It didn't take long at all for them to get their answer. Mike Waltz. The initial reaction by the press was we kind of figured it would be him. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

SPEAKER_10 29:14

What he said was that in fact he believes that that more shoes could drop, uh, is suggesting that there are more firings to come. Uh he quoted Senator John McCain and talked about legs falling off a centipede. I think that was the quote. Uh but he also earlier had spoken to our producers on the Hill, and he had expressed extreme concern about a late night tweet by Defense Secretary Heggseth in which he threatened Iran with potential military action if they don't control the Houthis. Uh and Senator Kane, again, a key member of the Armed Services Committee, said we don't need another war in the Middle East, something that I think many would agree, and which the President, of course, campaigned on. So there's a lot of turmoil right now. Again, a great deal of vacuum at the top of the national security advising chain as a result of the removal of uh Mike Waltz, who had been seen as a as a uh a loyalist to President Trump uh for many years.

SPEAKER_08 30:12

I think uh Mike Waltz's cardinal sin, if I could say that in this instance, was adding a journalist from a court. It was a fat finger that he lost his job of. Yeah, yeah. And I think that that is that is sort of the the uh when you're in this mentality that I think a lot of the Trump folks have, which is it's us against the world, uh, and we know what's right. We have the right policies in place, and and we need to be given the space to do that. When you allow in somebody from maybe the enemy camp, that doesn't look so good. And so that's you know, that is something that is, I think, was his ultimate undoing here.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz is gonna step down. What are your thoughts on that? And should other people follow him? Yes. Some breaking news. Mike Waltz is out as National Security Advisor. President Trump is planning to oust Waltz following the signal gate scandal.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

Several names have already been floated to take over Waltz's position. The replacement has been in the works for weeks, but has recently gained traction in recent days. Deputy Alex Wong, that's Deputy True, Mr. Waltz, is also slated to leave his post following the chat the signal chat fallout.

SPEAKER_00 31:19

Uh this I think is a good idea, is straightforwardly the right thing to do. Mike Waltz is the figure who is responsible for having inadvertently, he says, added Jeffrey Goldberg to the signal chat where plans to bomb the Houthis was discussed. Um it is notable because there was actually a disag uh difference of opinion between Vice President J.D. Vance and uh Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the wisdom of doing this at the time they did it. It became a big national story because Jeffrey Goldberg is the head-in-chief of the Atlantic. Um Mike Waltz is the one who caused that. He says it was a mistake. Um me and some other people on the right who are not who are anti-interventionists, who like the Libertarian Populist Foreign Policy Alliance, myself, Sagar and Jetty, Amber Duke, who hosts a show often with you on Fridays, have all been um not pleased that it seemed Mike Waltz was hanging on as he is also a figure from the Cheney era, more inclined, I think, toward a pro-intervention foreign policy. A lot of people who are more in my way of thinking have exited the Pentagon in recent weeks.

SPEAKER_05 32:30

This national security establishment is an abject failure, beginning with Hegseth. My hope is that Trump is not scapegoating Waltz, and that he identifies where the weaknesses really are with the Secretary of Defense and other members of this security staff.

SPEAKER_07 32:54

Mike Waltz has served our country in many ways, first in uniform, then in the United States Congress, and most recently as national security advisor. Nothing's confirmed until President Trump confirms it. But if ultimately this is the President's decision, it's important that the President has a team that he has full faith in in a period of time where we have such a dangerous world with a hostile Russia, challenges with communist China, threats against our ally Israel. And so at the end of the day, it's important that the president is surrounded uh by advisor that advisors that he has full faith and confidence in.

SPEAKER_09 33:23

Well, I think the president is getting rid of Mike Walsh's protecting Hegseth, and I think what it's gonna do is continue the um the upheavals that are continuing to occur within the Pentagon right now. The DoD, we are hearing from people. People are scared to do their jobs, people are concerned to share classified information.

SPEAKER_04 33:39

They even went so far as to predict that Pete Hegseth would be next. The Trump security team is falling apart. We're all doomed because Donald Trump is in charge instead of Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. Signalgate proves we're vulnerable, and Mike Waltz and Pete Hegseth are the two people putting us in danger. Meanwhile, the Trump administration remained silent. They gave Democrats and left-wing media about five or six hours to put their foot in their mouths. By now you might be thinking, What are you talking about, Bob? Well, after announcing that one of the most controversial members of the president's team has been relieved of his duties and letting all the talking heads on TV spout all the reasons they agree that Mike should be fired, the president announces that Mike Waltz is now the nominee for the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. So while the president rested, he let the other members of the orchestra play on. What they revealed is their predisposition to assuming the worst possible scenario. President Trump sat quietly by while his opposition rambles on about how Mike Waltz deserved to go and how Pete Heggseth should be next. He let the media bare their claws and show everyone how willing they are to point out how wrong President Trump was about Mike and Pete. And now he has to take responsibility for putting our country in danger by appointing people so inadequate. He gave the Democrats and the media just enough rope to hang themselves. He could have stretched this out for two or three days, but he doesn't want to waste a lot of time on proving his opposition will overreact to any perceived mistake. I would imagine President Trump was in a meeting where they discussed the strategy, and he said, We'll make the first announcement, wait five hours, then make the next announcement. That will give the press and the Democrats enough time to make fools of themselves. And they did. They pulled out every nasty adjective they could to describe Mike Waltz, and then President Trump nominates him for UN ambassador. As my old friend Kathy used to say, psych. That was back in the 80s, but it still applies. Regardless, President Trump has figured out how to conduct an orchestra on a worldwide scale. He's got the fiddles playing his tune in Ukraine and in national security. The bass line is solid with the border, the percussion is striking the right notes in Yemen, and nobody can say that the Trump orchestra is lacking any brass. Donald Trump is not only conducting the orchestra, he's also plucking the strings. You're free to interpret that as either good or bad. But the guy's got vision and he's quick to adapt. But with Donald Trump, much of what we interpret as adaptation may have been planned in advance. That's why his opposition should probably take a breath before jumping to conclusions based on day-to-day events. Or, in the case of Mike Waltz, hour-to-hour events. Donald Trump has mastered the art of giving the Democrats just enough rope to hang themselves, and it's the media that's tying the knot. The Democrats are so desperate to show their opposition to the president that they pounce on any opportunity they think they have, and the press is so opposed to the president that they quickly go about finding a politician who's found a way to make an argument, whether or not it's a coherent argument. And Donald Trump showed us just how structured the opposition is with his Mike Waltz maneuver. A maneuver that I'm sure was no accident. The only way he could have made the Democrats look more foolish is if he had made the Mike Waltz announcements in a signal chat group that included all the networks, along with CNN and all the newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post, or given them a day or two to dig deeper holes for themselves. But he did demonstrate his ability to drive the narrative despite the headwinds of being President Trump. The sad part is the media has already demonstrated that they have no desire to become objective again, no matter how many times they fail us, the citizens of the United States of America. 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 at thelisteningtube.puzzsprout.com. I'm your host, Bob Woodley, for Thou ad Infinitum.