Season 12, Episode Six August 2, 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. On this episode, we'll hear about tariffs, what Donald Trump has to do to become the next Hitler, making the case for eugenics, and when the media became unfair. I'll share my thoughts on the current situation in Gaza in the epilogue.

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But first, not the headlines.

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The Democrat and left-leaning media's reaction to the allegations by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has predictably been that of destruction. But it's being done in a very amusing way. The left is claiming that the allegations that President Obama was an active participant in undermining the first term of President Trump is just a distraction from the current interest in the Epstein case. So they're using the Epstein case as a distraction from the Obama case. As far as I know, I'm the only one accusing the left of using the Epstein case as a distraction from the Obama case, because everybody else is focused on the Obama case being used as a distraction from the Epstein case. I'm sure the right will at times use the distraction excuse, but right now the left and the legacy media are all about how Tulsi Gabbard is trying to curry favor with the president and draw attention away from any contact the president may have had with Epstein. Epstein did some terrible things, and nobody wants to be associated with him, even though he's dead. And the media needs something to pin on Donald Trump and they smell blood in the water. I doubt there's any actual food there. So when DNI Gabbard comes out with the even bigger news and it's about their sweetheart, Barack Obama, they have no choice but to call it anything but credible. It seemed convenient to call it a distraction. Here's the thing: it's becoming more obvious that the Democrats and the left-wing media think the American public are a bunch of idiots who can't keep track of more than one thing at a time. If your government representative thinks that the Obama allegations are a distraction, then they obviously can't keep track of more than one thing at a time and don't deserve a vote for an office in which they represent a large number of people. Anybody who tells you that the story about what could be the largest scandal in the history of the United States of America is a mere distraction considers you to be an idiot. They are literally telling you that they don't think you're smart enough to walk and chew gum at the same time. But they'll still go on lengthy diatribes about how the allegations make no sense, instead of admitting that it's something the media should have investigated and discovered and reported years ago. Now that the story has come out, they question the timing of the revelation. Maybe if the media had done their job instead of covering for one political party, the timing of it would have already come and gone. Now we're being told it's a distraction. Here's some advice for the media. Assign one reporter to the Epstein story and another to the Obama story. Then you'll be able to inform us about both of them, without either of them being a distraction. And while you're at it, you could use social media to create 15-second blurbs that mislead with clickbait headlines because, you know, our attention spans are so short and we're easily distracted. Wait, that's not us. That's you. Aside from Obama and Epstein stories, there's also the story about how the president is making historic trade deals with nations around the world, and they all favor the United States. I really haven't heard much about the way President Trump has created a climate that discourages war and encourages prosperity. Oh, and what's distracting the press so much that they haven't really reported much on low inflation and record income from the Trump tariff policies? Everybody was predicting gloom, but now that it hasn't happened, it's not newsworthy anymore. Is the press distracted by all the lawsuits and criminal charges and fake dossiers used in the attempt to remove Donald Trump from the American political landscape? No, because they reported on all of that ad nauseum. But when something is revealed that doesn't match the left's political ideology, it's nothing more than a distraction. There are so many ways the legacy media could be serving the American public with news about an unprecedented shift in American culture. They could be reporting about a president who's reimagining America's role in global affairs and getting results that most thought impossible. But the legacy media is distracted by the need for a distraction. They need something to draw attention away from their own shortcomings. By calling Tulsi Gabbard's allegations a distraction, they create one. Don't believe me? Consider that I just spoke about the distraction instead of the actual issue for the last few minutes. Now ask yourself, is the fact that President Obama may have spearheaded a treasonous conspiracy to undermine his successor more or less important than the media's claim that it's merely a distraction? Here's my advice. Any time either party claims something is just a distraction, that means it needs to be investigated to the fullest extent of the law. That goes for the Epstein case and the Obama case. The press need not worry. We're perfectly capable of following two stories at the same time. Just do your job, and we'll take it from there.

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Sincerely, the listening to.

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A story written by Nicoletta Lanise and posted on Livescience.com tells the tale of a pizzeria in Wisconsin that reveals how American citizens have become aware that there are many ways to use marijuana. Specifically, the active ingredient in it, THC. THC can be condensed to almost pure and also diluted to specific levels depending upon the intended effect. The resulting substance can then be added to other things like butter or oil or gummy candies. They can be used for medical or recreational purposes depending upon where you live. I don't know what the laws in Wisconsin are, but the pizza parlor in question had THC infused oil in the kitchen, and it was used to make dough that ended up on pizzas, subs, garlic bread, and other menu items over a period of a couple days. There's no mention in the story about how potent the oil was, but forensic analysis of sales would indicate that more than 80 people were served THC infused food. Not surprising, only 15 people couldn't seem to figure out what the hell was going on. Seven of them ended up in the hospital with symptoms that, as the story says, hint at THC intoxication. Some of the ways they describe THC intoxication includes dizziness, increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, nausea, vomiting, anxiety, panic attacks, paranoia, hallucinations, and short-term memory loss. They didn't even mention the munchies driving below this prescribed speed limit, pondering life's mysteries, and suddenly realizing why you like the color orange. So out of more than eighty, only seven of them panicked. Based on the numbers, you could consider that of those seven, one or two may have realized what was happening and felt it was an opportunity to file a lawsuit. We are a litigious society. But seventy of the people who bought the THC infused food either weren't tested or the results weren't available, according to the story. Nobody under age 18 was hospitalized, nor did any display any ill effects. I'm reminded of a pizza place in Indianapolis, Indiana. If you knew the code word, you could get psychedelic mushrooms on your pizza. This was back in the early 1980s. I don't remember the name of the place, but they always had the film Apocalypse Now playing on a loop on one of those projector screens that had just come out. It's possible that someone may have accidentally used the code word when ordering a pizza. It could happen. I would guess that psychedelic mushrooms would have a much more surprising effect than marijuana, but I don't know. Enough about the oil used in Wisconsin. Bottom line, the CIA could not have pulled off a better secret test of the effects of marijuana on unsuspecting subjects. What it showed is that THC, even enough to feel it in a pizza dough, is not cause for alarm. The final tally of people who may have been exposed to the THC infused dough came to ninety-three. Most of them are looking forward to ordering pizza from that place again.

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And you can hang your hat on that.

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A recent survey by an organization called The Third Way concluded that young American men have a hard time naming a masculine Democrat. Joe Biden threatened to take Donald Trump out behind the woodshed and give him a whoopin'. That's pretty masculine. Vice presidential candidate Tim Walls was the very definition of masculine, according to the Democrats. They even had a picture of him wearing camouflage and holding a shotgun. So what does a guy have to do to be considered a masculine Democrat? Using profanity hasn't worked. Sharing videos of themselves in fighting postures or lifting weights hasn't swayed anybody. Unfortunately, not every Democrat can get a BJ in the Oval Office.

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

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One, the people who were surveyed. All of the people in the survey were men between the ages of 18 and 29. They were all from battleground states. None of the stories I read had an exact list, but there were seven battleground states in the last election. The subjects in the survey were uncommitted to politics, having a less than enthusiastic attitude about news and ideology and social issues. Another way to put that would be swayable. Sounds like an interesting group, but then it gets weird. The men were divided into three focus groups. The groups were defined as soft Trump supporting black men, soft Trump supporting Latinos, and non-college educated white men. I can't think of a better example for demonstrating the rampant racism in the Democrat Party. And yes, the organization that did the survey is a left-center organization. It's not just that they continue to divide us by race, but the assumption that only non-college educated white men are more closely aligned with Latino and black men is nothing short of an insult to black and Latino men. The survey takers are coming right out and saying, we already know that college educated men are smart enough to vote Democrat. It's what the dumb people are thinking is what we're trying to find out. So we'll only include black, Latino, and non-college educated white men. The survey wasn't as racist as it could be. There was no mention of Asian men. But the real irony within this story is how the left can't figure out why there are no easily identifiable masculine role models in the Democrat Party. Maybe it's because they have deemed masculinity as toxic. The left has treated men as second-class citizens or worse, blaming all of the world's troubles on men. Specifically old white men. Even some who never went to college, but now have colleges named after them. Put that in your atomizer and spray it on your neck. Democrats have isolated and demonized men and now can't figure out why men see the Democratic Party as weak. The opposite of masculine.

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And if that wasn't enough.

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The Democrats can't define a woman. They can't tell us what a woman is, but they can tell us how terrible men are. The only men they support are the men who pretend to be women. The Democrats have even forced men out of the household with social policies that incentivize the welfare state. The Democrats did know what a man was when they had the support of trade unions, but now they cater to the teachers' unions. The idea that a family needed a male role model was diluted by labeling masculinity the opposite of feminism, instead of the balance to it. The Democrats have gone out of their way to blur the lines between genders. Men can be women, women can be men, and if you want, you can be neither or both. Ignore the body you were born with. Only what you feel determines what gender you are. When the Democrats can't figure out why they're losing men, I just have to slap myself on the forehead. Luckily, it's a fairly large target. As long as Democrats insist that gender is fluid, as long as Democrats can't define a woman, they have no business even asking about masculinity. When they call it toxic and treat it as a disease, masculinity will continue to evade them. I've heard it said by multiple male members of the Democrat Party that they didn't leave the Democratic Party. The party left them. Maybe if the Democrats stopped nitpicking behavior for ways to be outraged, or stopped separating us into random groups based on race and their perceptions of people's intelligence, they might learn how to lead instead of how to follow. As long as Democrats insist that gender is fluid, they can't claim ownership of either. And frankly, have no business even asking about it.

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The 1700s.

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Today, it's recognized as the birthday of the United States Coast Guard. President George Washington signed the Tariff Act and used tariffs to raise funds in order to pay for the existence of the Revenue Cutter Service. It began with 10 ships. The sailors who man the ships had a mission: enforce tariff and trade laws, prevent smuggling, and protect federal revenue collection. Here we are 235 years later, and a federal judge is asked to make a ruling on the Trump tariffs because of a lawsuit brought by small business organizations. They argue that the president doesn't have the authority to unilaterally impose tariffs, even though the very first president of the United States did it. This week in 1929, Jidu Krishnamurti shocks the Theosophy Movement by dissolving the Order of the Star in the East, the organization built around him. Jedhu had been recognized as a spiritual leader while still a child. He had been anointed as the world teacher by the Theosophical Society. But in his early 30s, he had an epiphany that changed his mind. He didn't give up on saving the world, though. He spent the rest of his life on the speaking circuit, preaching his own viewpoint on awareness. It's actually an interesting philosophy that encouraged immediate righteousness without conceptual deliberations and thought. I've never owned a philosophy store, but what I think he was trying to say is that the options we perceive for ourselves are indicative of the limitations of our minds. So it's no wonder that he would also consider an organization dedicated to any specific doctrine to be a limitation of our minds.

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Hey, if he says something smart, you can support the show from the homepage.

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This week in 1934, Adolf Hitler becomes the supreme leader of Germany by joining the offices of president and chancellor into Fuhrer. That makes me wonder what two offices Donald Trump could combine to solidify his hold on power in the United States. Well, he's already the president, so he's got that going for him. But is there another office within the federal government that Trump could usurp to consolidate control? Well, the only one I can think of is whatever office Nancy Pelosi holds right now. It seems that our founding fathers knew what they were doing when they created a government with a president, but not a chancellor.

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Similar, but different.

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Staying with the Nazi theme, you know, because it's so popular to associate everything with Nazism these days. It was this week in 1936, Jesse Owens wins the 100-meter dash, defeating Ralph Metcalfe at the Berlin Olympics. Many people today don't really fathom how much of an impact Jesse Owens' success at the Berlin Olympics were. This was almost 90 years ago, and Adolf Hitler was trying to demonstrate to the world that his Aryan race was superior to the rest. The 1936 Olympics was the perfect showcase. But along comes Jesse Owens, an American black man and dominates the competition, casting doubt on Hitler's vision of a superior race. Race is still all the rage, though. A recent commercial for blue jeans by a less than pretty actress has people up in arms claiming white supremacy and eugenics and Nazism because the actress has blonde hair and blue eyes. Critics argue that the commercial is promoting the idea that white DNA is better than any other DNA. Don't tell that to Jesse Owens. This week in 1987, the Federal Communications Commission rescinds the fairness doctrine, which had required radio and television stations to present controversial issues fairly. It seems to have taken a long time for this change in FCC regulations to come to fruition, but clearly it has. There is no longer any fairness in how important societal issues are presented to the American public. The legacy media has taken it upon themselves to transform what used to be a reliable source of information about the world outside our hometowns into a machine that churns out regurgitated talking points that only tell us what to think instead of what we need to know. FCC rules allow consolidation of radio and television stations have degraded independent news gathering. The shift from regulated media like radio and television to unregulated digital sources has created an even wider gap between ideologies. Individuals as well as media conglomerates now use the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States to justify lies as opinion, and fairness has been totally abandoned. The current chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, is working to bring responsibility back to broadcast networks under the jurisdiction of the FCC. The problem is that much of what he wants to do is being called bribes, as in the case of the Paramount Sky Dance merger, or extortion or censorship, or anything but fair. Because as of 1987, you don't have to be fair anymore. But the FCC does require any broadcast company licensed by the FCC to operate in the public interest. I can't think of anything more you can do in the public interest than just being fair.

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There's something I haven't talked about on the program for a long time, and although it's still a major issue, it's kind of taken a back burner in American media coverage. I'm talking about the situation in Gaza. The flash point for the whole thing was an attack on southern Israel by Hamas fighters. It was a full-scale, well-planned attack, with paratroopers and mobile assassins killing, maiming, raping, and torturing innocent civilians, many of whom were attending a music festival. Everyone was shocked. Most were disgusted by the sheer brutality of the attack. Others were giddy with glee that Hamas had pulled it off. Antagonists in America used the occasion to create civil unrest, mostly at college campuses around the country, but mainly on the East and West Coast liberal campuses. While the Biden administration turned a blind eye to the chaos, many of those universities are now having to deal with the Trump administration, which has taken an active role in promoting solidarity with Israel while condemning Hamas as a terrorist organization and making it unlawful to provide material support or promote its ideology. Yet the American press is often sympathetic, if not supportive, of Hamas. If we hear any news coming out of Gaza, it's news about how the people there are living in hellish conditions brought on by Israel's retaliation for the initial attack. We're fed death toll numbers provided by the Gaza Health Ministry, which is just another name for Hamas. We know exactly how many people were killed in the Hamas attack. We know their names. We know exactly how many hostages were taken. We know their names, we know their birthdays, we even know how many of them are now dead, but still being held hostage by Hamas. We know that Israeli troops have been killed in the war too, but we don't hear much about that. They are good fighters, so maybe there haven't been that many. But when it comes to people killed in Gaza, there are differences of opinion. Al Jazeera's last count put the toll at just under sixty thousand. Some website called DW.com puts the number at fifty five thousand. The Hamas Health Ministry puts it at just over fifty eight thousand. Everybody has their own opinion about how many people were killed in Gaza. How do they know? One method is they go around and ask, has anyone been killed here recently? There are no records, no tracking system, no nothing. Because Hamas was focused only on killing Jews instead of improving the lives of the people who put them in power. Instead, they built tunnels and smuggled weapons and conspired to attack their only neighbor. They taught their children to hate. They held their citizens under the thumb of fear, fear of the Jews and fear of Hamas for anyone who didn't conform. Eventually, most were willing participants, keeping silent even when they knew there were tunnels being built under elementary schools and hospitals. Tunnels meant for warfare. Tunnels that used innocent people and internationally recognized safe zones for cover. It's what cowards do. Maybe that's why Hamas doesn't differentiate between military and civilian casualties. When you get right down to it, Hamas has trained everyone in Gaza to be militant. There is no difference between Gazan civilians and Hamas militants. Well, there might be now. Considering how little Hamas has been able to do to protect their citizens, how Hamas uses their civilians as pawns and cannon fodder, there may be a few who resent the organization they elected to lead them. After all, they led them into a path of total oblivion. Some call it genocide, but it isn't. It isn't genocide when an army defeats the foes who attacked. If you want to call it genocide, then you'll have to identify the race or religion being exterminated. You can't. The only thing Israel is trying to end is a racist ideology. The one held by Hamas. We should try to save the ones who don't subscribe to that ideal, but it's hard to tell the difference, and the Gaza Health Ministry's inability to separate civilian from soldier confirms that. So now the people left in Gaza, however many there are, are in the midst of what some reports call a dangerous famine. Getting supplies into Gaza has always been a problem, unless they were importing weapons from Iran. Things got worse after Israel decided it had had enough and brought the weight of its defense forces down upon the perpetrators of the most horrific attack on Jews since World War II? It would seem that Hamas underestimated what would happen as a result of their attack. They didn't prepare for the long haul, probably assuming that their attack would be met with an equal and opposite reaction. They were wrong, and now their people are suffering because of it. So who deserves blame for the horrible conditions under which the people of Gaza find themselves? Oddly enough, many people are blaming Israel. Few are holding Hamas responsible for the harm and hardship they brought upon their own people. Now Israel is somehow in charge of making sure people in Gaza don't starve. Israel is now expected to help feed their enemy. It shouldn't have to be pointed out that any food or other sustenance that crosses into Gaza is controlled by Hamas. Much of it doesn't reach the people who need it most. Support agencies claim it's because Israel won't protect the movement of the food inside Gaza. What that would mean would be Israeli soldiers putting themselves at risk, exposing themselves to attack, in order to feed the people who have been indoctrinated their whole lives to kill the very people they now expect to guard their food shipments. You know whose fault this is? It's the fault of the most generous nation on the planet. The United States of America. America's Marshall Plan rebuilt Europe after World War II. We dropped atomic bombs on Japan and then made them our friends and helped them bring their economy into the twentieth century. Now countries with Western values are expected to swoop in and do humanitarian work before the battles are even done. I think that's asking a little too much. Wait until the war is over before you expect recovery efforts. Yes, there are certain times you want to gain the trust and support of the people in enemy territory, but I'm not sure the people of Gaza can be rehabilitated so quickly. It may not be worth the effort. I'm not saying we should let the people of Gaza starve to death, but you can't hold the people of Israel responsible for their well being. That's the job of Hamas, and now the people know how poor of a job they're doing. But they still support Hamas and their agenda. France has actually accepted refugees from Gaza. The program was recently stopped when a woman who came from Gaza was found to be actively supporting Hamas while taking refuge in France. The people of Gaza can't recognize that they've been indoctrinated into a life of hatred and violence against a specific group of people. The question people around the world who genuinely care about the people of Gaza should be asking is where's the help from Iran? They could supply them with weapons, but they can't supply them with food? Why don't the people of Gaza leave? Well, there are three ways out into Israel, into Egypt, and into the Mediterranean Sea. That's probably another thing they should have thought of before they attacked Israel. But again, they thought Israel's response would be slight, and they would be able to retool and reload and do it again. It didn't work out that way. And now nobody is coming to the aid of the people of Gaza except Israel and America and other Western nations. Yes, Arab countries sent stuff a year ago, but there's no guarantee it ever reached the people who needed it most. Much of it doesn't. Recent news reports show stockpiles of supplies, including food, gathered just inside the border of Gaza. Unfortunately, Hamas is using it for control instead of feeding their people. Hamas has no one else to blame for the pain and suffering they brought to the people of Gaza. The rest of the world has no one else to blame but Hamas. The Listening Tube is written and produced by yours truly. Copyright 2025. Thank you for putting your ear to the listening tube. Follow the listening tube at thelistening tube.com. I'm your host, Bob Woodley, for Thou at Infinitum.