Season 3, Episode 6

Welcome to season 3, episode 6, and thank you for putting your ear to the Listening Tube! I’m you host, Bob Woodley. On this edition, we’ll hear about some speed records, the last Queen of France and the first Oktoberfest, and, does anybody really know what time it is?...but first, (not the headlines)…

Right now in America, there are more jobs available than workers able to fill them. Is it because the job requirements are so high? Is it because you need a college degree or better to fill the position? Why is it that there are 10-million open jobs in America? Is it because of all the covid stimulus money still floating around out there? I don’t know. But it seem strange to me that at the same time there are millions of open jobs, there are college graduates who are moving back in with there parents because they can’t find employment sufficient enough to allow them to live a life on their own, let alone raise a family. The term of endearment used to describe these people who are moving back home is “boomerang kids.” Mom and Dad thought they had satisfied their commitment to raising a child when they sent them off to college, in many cases fully paid for by the parents or scholarships or student loans. Little did they know that when they turned their kids bedroom into a sex cave, that they would have to change it back. Granted, many kids had to come home mid-college because of the pandemic, but almost two-thirds of them have stayed there, according to a NewsNation article by Nancy Loo. But we’re not talking about those kids. We’re talking about kids, or more accurately, adults, who have graduated from college with a degree in something, but still cannot seem to find work in a country with 10-million job openings. But the story Nancy wrote wasn’t really about that paradox. It was about how a 25-year-old woman who now lives with her parents again is trying to cope with the awful color she chose for her bedroom 10 years earlier. It’s not about what is keeping her from moving out, but about how the carpet has been in her room since before she was born. That’s some solid journalism there. Here’s the college graduate’s real problem, according to the story: This single woman is working remotely from her parent’s home. She earns more than 54-thousand dollars a year working for a pharmaceutical company. She lives in Connecticut. Well, that’s certainly somewhere you don’t want to be homeless. Especially in the winter. So, my question is, if this woman works remotely, which to me means she can do it from anywhere that has sufficient internet service, why can’t she move to where a single person can live comfortably for 50 grand a year? Why not get a roommate? For the entire time I lived in Southern California, I always had at least one roommate, sometimes two. Sometime I thought I only had one roommate, but then he’d get a girlfriend, and suddenly I had two roommates. But we were more social then, and having a roommate, even one you barely knew at first, was a normal way to deal with the cost of living. If you’re single, you need a roommate. If you’re married, it’s likely that your spouse also earns an income. The days of the single income household vanished decades ago. I’m not saying that’s a good thing, I’m just saying that that’s the way it is, and it’s much easier to get through life if you have a partner who’s contributing. These boomerang kids don’t seem willing to do what it takes to get out from mommy’s wings. When I was a kid, your goal was to strike out on your own, to discover what the world had in store for you. The world wasn’t going to come to you, you had to go out there and get it. Today’s youngsters might be disadvantaged by the technology that brings the whole world to them. They don’t have to go out there to see it. They can just bring it up on a screen and say they’ve seen it. But what they’ve really seen is just a moment in time preserved in pixels. So it’s no wonder why today’s youth want to hunker down at mom and dad’s place. Well, for 50-grand a year, you should be able to paint your childhood bedroom a different color and replace the quarter-century-old rug. But it seems like the parents are partly to blame here. The dad is a college graduate, and had a much easier time of it setting up a domicile after graduation. He agrees it’s harder for his daughter. The mom says she doesn’t have the heart to kick the bird out of the nest. But the story cites Pew Research data that says a quarter of adults between 25 and 34 live with their parents, compared to 9 percent in 1971. 

The 25-year-old woman who is the subject of the story says that everyone she knows lives with someone or at home. She goes on to say “It’s weird that it’s the norm, but it`s also a very comforting thing to know that I had a family to come home to.” First of all, this 25-year-old somehow thinks that living with someone is somehow abnormal! Well, personally, I’ve lives with someone for most of my life. I currently live with my wife, with whom I’ve lived with for more than a dozen years. Before that, I live alone for a bit because my last wife died, and before that because my wife and I were separated. But prior to that, I lived with my roommate Joe, and before that Russ, and before that Chaz, and before that alone for a little bit and before that in a barracks with other guys and before that in a frat house and before that with my parents. I was also homeless for part of that and slept on my mom’s couch for a bit. But not once did I blame society for where it was I lived. She says everyone she knows lives with someone or at home. Well, it would seem to me that those of your friends who have teamed up and have moved out of mommy and daddy’s house are the ones who should have stories written them, rather than the sorry college graduates who can’t find a job in a country with 10-million job openings, or the ones who can work from anywhere in the country but choose to work from their childhood bedroom with the same paint and carpet. Here’s another reason she still lives in her childhood bedroom: “They say you’re supposed to make three times your rent to afford it; I don’t,” she said. First of all, that’s not true, and even if it was, it would only be one/sixth with a roommate. But then she went on to say, “Most of the people who I graduated with live at home with their parents, a lot of them also work full time.” I think therein lies the problem. As long as the parents tolerate it, the children will never team up. We’re supposed to be able to rely on each other. That’s how I met Russ, a roommate who I met playing darts in a bar in Oxnard, California. I needed a place to stay, and he was looking for someone to occupy the other bedroom in a two-bedroom apartment. I showed up with not much more than what fit in my Air Force duffel bag. We were roommates for four years until his mom died and he moved to Colorado, his lifelong dream. Then I needed a roommate. So did Joe. He was retired from the navy so I knew he had an income. I took a chance. Turns out we both had the same birthday and we were both military veterans. I lived with Joe for five years until I got married. Joe was my Best Man. Maybe if all of these boomerang kids worked together, shared apartments, and experiences, and lived deeper social lives than the ones they see on their screens from their childhood bedrooms, we would have a much more dynamic economy, better social skills, enthusiasm for every day life. When 25 percent of our young adults are still living at home because they think they have to go it alone is the norm, then we have a problem. It seems that the more we seem to evolve, the more we seem to distance ourselves from each other. Our trust in each other is eroding. It’s not because we’re bad, it’s because we don’t experience each other enough. When our youth is afraid to venture beyond the world they already know, we’ll stop evolving as a society, but individually, we may have already evolved into something less than a social species. 

Speaking of evolution, we’re in the robotics age now. Robots are doing things much faster and more accurately than we can, and they’ve replaced us in many parts of industry and service jobs. Robots play a large role in assembling machines like cars and trucks, robots are used to move freight and organize warehouses. Robots will continue to become more prevalent in our lives both behind the scenes and in our personal day-to-day experiences. Robots already do chores like vaccuumming and tossing a ball so the dog can chase it. As technology evolves, the robots we build will become multi-purpose, designed to do a variety of tasks that will make our lives more comfortable. A lot of thought will go into which features consumers will want with their robot. Can it dry the dishes? Will it bring me a beer? Can it operate a can of whipped-cream? They already clean the floors and mow the lawn, so what else do we want? Well, if you want your general-purpose robot to have a weapon, you’d better order one now. Actually, it might already be too late. Six of the leading robotics firms in the nation just issued an open letter promising to not create general purpose robots that can be weaponized. They recognize the militarization of robots by governments is inevitable, but believe it’s in the best interest of the general public as well as the reputation of the robotics industry to not make weaponized robots available to the public. In addition to that, they also plan to carefully review their customer’s intended applications to avoid the possibility of weaponized modifications. These six robotics companies also call on other companies, organizations, developers, researchers and users to make the same pledge to not build or enable general purpose robots to be modified to carry weapons. The benefits outweigh the risks, they say, as long as all of the robot-building companies comply. But not all of them do comply. One company cited in a Techcrunch article said that they’re not responsible for what their government customers do to their robots, or with them. But they did point out that they do not sell robots to governments that aren’t friendly with the United States. Nor to they even ship there. The open letter also challenges lawmakers to work with the industry to set standards for general-purpose robots and the tasks to which they might be limited. I’m sure the federal government in the United States don’t want to get involved in such an arrangement, as it will be one more restriction on the private sector while the government does who knows what with the same technology. It’s the familiar, “rules for thee but not for me” chant we hear so much on conservative media. But this isn’t about Nancy Pelosi getting her hair done during a pandemic, this is about the government making rules about how we’re allowed to use robots while they don’t have rules. So I really don’t expect our federal government to jump on the robot rules bandwagon. I guess it’s a good thing that the robotics industry has taken it upon themselves to police the industry. We can’t have a society where you can go to the local robot store and buy a robot cat that sneaks into your enemy’s yard and shoots him while he’s drinking a beer at the grill. It might be funny if it was just a paintball, but if you can put a paintball gun on a robot cat, you can put a real gun on a robot cat. Though the paintball thing would be funny. It’s nice of these six robotics companies declaring their allegiance to non-violent robots. Unfortunately, they’re decade late and a Constitutional Amendment short. 

Robot fighting soundbite

I’m not saying we should all have weaponized robots. But however well-meaning a half dozen robotics companies proclamation might be, the Second Amendment prescribes what rules are put on weapons, and currently, it’s very few. That’s why the federal government won’t back up these companies. That’s the Constitutional amendment part. The late part is that American civilians, as well as people from other countries have been designing and building fighting robots for years! Granted, the ones we see on T.V. may not be up to the par of an assassin robot that looks like a praying mantis, but you can be sure it’s already been thought of and is in at least the design stage. The reality is that robotics is wide open to whomever wants to explore the possibilities. It would be foolish for the federal government to even consider restricting robot weaponry, if for no other reason, than what other country is going to mess with a country that has civilians who build fighting robots? Even the tyrant Putin isn’t stupid enough to send ground troops into a country that builds fighting robots for entertainment. If Americans want weapons on their robots, they’ll simply build them, and there’s nothing the federal government or private industry can do about it. There are limits already in place on the weaponry, but as for a means of delivery, the private sector is free to design and build the robots. Because the private sector builds the robots, the weapons will evolve to meet the demands of the delivery system. So, if you can build the robots, you control the weapons. Six robotics companies have already relinquished that control. They’ve chosen instead to serve the general public instead of the military/industrial complex. I wish them success for their position on non-violence, as I, too, am an advocate for peace. 

Let’s go back liner

This week in 1635, the founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams, is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a religious dissident after he speaks out against punishments for religious offenses and giving away Native American land. So, back in 1635, if you got kicked out one colony, you could just start another one. Although Rhode Island is the smallest of the 50 states today, it was still able to gather the required amount of residents to become one of the original States. It’s probably a good thing he got kicked out when he did, because this week in 1692, The Salem witch trials are ended by a letter from Massachusetts Governor William Phips. People like Roger Williams would have probably been a victim of the witch trials. 

1793

Queen Marie-Antoinette of France is tried and convicted in a swift, pre-determined trial in the Palais de Justice, Paris, and condemned to death. Popular lore cites the Queen as the one who said, “Let them eat cake.” after she was told the people didn’t have enough bread to eat. There’s no evidence that she actually said that, but she was very unpopular with the citizens of France, as was all of the monarchy by then. Queen Marie Antionette and her husband, King Louis XVI, made many poor decisions during their reign, including overspending and ignoring the plight of their subjects. It was during their rule that the French Revolution began, ending the French monarchy altogether. The Charles Dickens novel A tale of two cities is an excellent read, and brilliantly describes the time through the eyes of a variety of characters. 

1810

First Oktoberfest: The Bavarian royalty invites the citizens of Munich to join the celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. So the first Oktoberfest was held in October! Today, it’s held in September. Why? Because it’s cold in Munich in October! The tourists can enjoy the celebration a little more if it’s held during a slightly warmer time of the year.

1823

Charles Macintosh of Scotland sells the first raincoat. If you’ve ever heard of a raincoat referred to as a mac. That’s why. The Beatles used the term in the song Penny Lane, but then Paul McCartney uses the word “raincoat” in his solo song, Just another day.

1884

Greenwich, in London, England, is established as Universal Time meridian of longitude, or the Prime Meridian. That is 0 degrees longitude. From where the East and West hemispheres of the planet begin and end. But why is it in Greenwich?

Look that up liner

The person who developed the lines of longitude was the 7th Astronomer Royal, Sir George Biddell Airy, in 1850. So we already had longitudes and latitudes before the Prime Meridian was established. We also already had time zones, and we still use the same method today. The problem was, not every place used the same time. Even earlier, different cities even used different lengths of time to define an hour! But transportation and communication companies needed a method of time-keeping on which everyone could agree. That’s when United States President Chester Arthur hosted a convention in Washington, D.C., attended by representatives from 25 countries, to set a standard time that we could all use so that we would not only know what time it is where we are, but we can also know what time it is everywhere else. It was at the convention that Greenwich would be the Prime Meridian. In fact, the Prime Meridian is defined by the crosshairs on the eyepiece of the The Airy Transit Circle telescope, designed by Sir Airy in 1850. It was used to track the east to west transit of stars, and the middle cross-hair, which, according to Royal Museums Greenwich dot com, was made from actual spider web. That spider web became 0 degrees longitude for the rest of the world. Today, GPS technology has shown that the Prime Meridian moves because of plate tectonics, but the world still recognizes the Prime Meridian exactly where it was established more than a hundred years ago.

This week in 1906, the San Francisco public school board sparks a diplomatic crisis with Japan by ordering Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools. The school board caved under pressure from the Asiatic Exclusion League, which was a follow-up to the previous Chinese Exclusion League. That began with an influx of Chinese immigrants in the 1850’s, which led to the initial racial segregation. But in 1906, the Japanese were now being excluded as well, and word got back to the Japanese media and government. When the Japanese government filed an official protest, United States President Theodore Roosevelt publicly opposed the San Francisco School Board's decision. But that didn’t get the San Francisco School Board to change its mind. Three months later, President Roosevelt would meet with California State representatives, including the mayor of San Francisco at the White House. When the president agreed to end immigration of Japanese citizens to the United States from Hawaii, Canada and Mexico, the San Francisco School Board agreed to end the school segregation. California would try to segregate schools again in 1947. Four districts in Orange County tried, unsuccessfully, to put Mexican children into Mexican-only schools. 

Six years later, in 1912, while campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for what would have been a third term, the former President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, is shot and mildly wounded by John Schrank, a mentally-disturbed, unemployed saloon keeper. With the fresh wound in his chest, and the bullet still within it, Mr. Roosevelt still carries out his scheduled public speech. He spoke for more than an hour, so you don’t have to worry about me reciting it here, but an article about the incident by the Smithsonian said he talked about taking care of the weakest among us, lest their jealousy of the successful lead to the same fate that had just befallen him. The 38-caliber bullet in his chest didn’t puncture any vital organs thanks to the 50-page script folded into his breast pocket. The script suffered holes, as did Roosevelt’s chest. But unlike the script, president’s chest is where the bullet stayed for the rest of his life. The shooter died in an insane asylum. 

1936

Generators at Boulder Dam (later renamed to Hoover Dam) begin to generate electricity from the Colorado River and transmit it 266 miles to Los Angeles, California. California continues to rely on the power it gets from the dam. How much longer the Colorado River will supply the power to the dam remains to be seen. The people of the west have been encouraged to change their habits in order to reduce water use. The problem is that water use by the citizens accounts for a small fraction of where the water goes. Most of the water used in the western states goes to agriculture. Because people insist on growing things in the desert. Most of what’s grown in the desert is used to feed livestock, which is then fed to the people. If we want to reduce water usage in the western states, we have to start with agriculture, not dishwashers. 

This week in 1947, just after the U.S. Air Force becomes a separate service from the Army, 

Captain Chuck Yeager flies a Bell X-1 rocket-powered experimental aircraft, the Glamorous Glennis, to a speed faster than that of sound - over the high desert of Southern California - and becomes the first pilot and the first airplane to do so in level flight. Did he hear the future? More on speed records in a bit...

In 1971, the London Bridge reopens in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. I remember reading about this in school. I was in fourth grade, so it was probably in one of those Weekly Reader publications we used to get. Of course, I don’t remember all the details, but History dot com has a nice story about how it ended up in Arizona. It was a gimmick for a place in the desert where nobody lived, but the man who bought the bridge had also bought a lot of land, and needed something to attract people to the area. When he heard the London Bridge was for sale, he was certain it was just the ticket. It was for sale because it was sinking into the Thames river, and needed to be replaced. Negotiations began, and when the buyer, Robert P. McCulloch, found out what it would cost the city of London to tear it down, he offered double. A tidy sum of nearly 2 and a half million dollars. Each block was identified and labeled as to it’s position. Each block was crated and shipped, via the Panama Canal, to Long Beach, California, from where it was trucked to the desert for reassembly. The whole project took three years and 7-million dollars to complete. Today, Lake Havasu City is a thriving desert community with nearly 60-thousand residents and a tourist attraction that weighs more than 10-thousand tons and has been in use for more than 190 years on two continents.

1973

Vice President of the United States Spiro Agnew resigns after being charged with federal income tax evasion. Gerald Ford would be appointed Vice-President. When President Nixon resigned, Ford became the first president to not be elected as either President or Vice-President. If our vice-president today were to resign, it’s likely that the speaker of the house, the same position Gerald Ford held, would be appointed vice-president.

Speaking of Gerald Ford, it was this week in 1976 that he approved the promotion of a great General in the American Army. Public Law 94-479, a congressional joint resolution granted the rank of General of the Armies, to General George Washington! You might remember him from the Revolutionary War, the Crossing of the Delaware on Christmas Day, and, oh, yea, the first President of the United States of America! It only took about 200 years, and George wasn’t around to see it for himself, or enjoy the huge boost in pay. When he was in the Army, the highest rank he achieved was Major General, or two stars. After he left the office of President of the United States, he was promoted to Lieutenant

+456 General89 by his successor, John Adams, that’s three stars. But the congressional resolution states that no General will have a higher rank than George Washington, so news reports from our bicentennial year called it a promotion to six-star general, which technically doesn’t exist. In any case, no matter how good of a General you might be, you’ll never out rank General Washington. 

1979

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the first of five books in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction series by Douglas Adams is published. I mention this for two reasons: One, I was surprised to see it listed as an historic event, and two, I’ve read all five several times and I don’t think I’ve ever read anything more fun.

1982

United States President Ronald Reagan proclaims a War on Drugs. This was at a time when cocaine was running rampant throughout our country, and had been for a few years. And while a lot of smugglers were caught and arrested, the user, be they an addict or casual user, was more often the victim of not only the drug dealer but also the justice system. It wasn’t just cocaine users. All substances the federal government considered Schedule 1 drugs were now in the cross hairs. There’s a lot of debate about whether or not the war on drugs is worth it, or if the focus should be on specific types of drugs that are proven harmful and addictive, such as the current flow of fentanyl. This week, President Biden announced a new approach the federal government proposes to take with regards to marijuana, and those who have already been convicted of marijuana possession. Many conservative are crying foul, parroting the same old “gateway drug” scare tactics they’ve always used to defend marijuana laws. I’ve always had a problem with that. I can think of two drugs are more likely to lead to other drugs than marijuana might: Nicotine and alcohol. Both legal drugs once a person reaches a certain age. Both more addictive than marijuana, which hasn’t even been proven to be addictive. The war on drugs was a failure because telling kids to just say no is not as effective as explaining to them what drugs do and letting them make informed decisions about what to put into their bodies. 

This week in 1997, the first supersonic land speed record is set by Andy Green, exactly 50 years and 1 day after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in the Earth’s atmosphere. Speaking of fast, it was this week in 1999 that the SR-71 Blackbird made it’s last flight. The SR-71 was so fast that you had to navigate it using the stars. It was so fast that you couldn’t put weapons on it, as the plane would eventually outrun anything it fired. It was never shot down by anything. It was so fast that foreign countries could only assume it flew over their territory. There’s one on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum near the airport in Washington, D.C. For some reason, it’s difficult to photograph.

Unfinished business…

Brittany Griner is still in a Russian jail, and Elon Musk still doesn’t own Twitter.

Phone liner

There’s something about the spoken word as a form of communication that’s special. We see things and read things, but when we hear it, we connect with it in a different way. It might be because we can hear the emotion with which something is said. No matter the talent of a writer, you hear something in a person’s voice that can’t be translated into writing. Even if what was said has to be translated into another language, by hearing the passion with which something is said can convey feelings that the words themselves can’t. It’s what attracts us to personal conversations, listening to the radio, and telephone calls. Hearing another human voice can be comforting. We tend to trust what we hear, especially when it’s said by someone we know. It’s also why some of us refuse to delete old voicemails from friends and relatives who have passed away. That’s why it’s so comforting to hear the voice of somebody who we thought might be in danger from a natural disaster or some other threat. There’s just something about a text that we can’t completely trust, because we don’t know for sure who’s typing those words. But when we hear their voice, we breathe a sigh of relieve. Because we know, at least for now, that the person I’m hearing is o.k. 

That’s why, despite being ordered to not do so, Russian soldiers continue to call home from the front lines in Ukraine. Most of these soldiers are, or were, young men who never imagined they would wind up in a war. Army’s are, after all, built to be a deterrent. But the tyrant Putin has put the youth of his country on a collision course with a sad chapter in Russian history, and the soldiers there aren’t happy about it. We know that because they keep calling home and complaining. Several intelligence agencies have intercepted phone calls from Russian soldiers using cell phones that may or may not be theirs. They call their parents, or their girlfriends or wives, and complain about the conditions on the battlefield. Granted, battlefield conditions are difficult to begin with. It is war, after all. But the intercepted phone calls from Russian soldiers reveal a deeper level of despair. Their concerns range from the lack of support to the weapons they’re issued to the decision to invade Ukraine in the first place. Often calling out the tyrant Putin by name, at great risk to themselves. Not only do they complain, they may also be providing evidence of war crimes. The Ukrainian and Polish evesdroppers of Russian phone calls have regularly released recordings of these calls, and western media has provided translations. I’m going to read some of the translations to you. There’s no shortage of profanity. Just so you know what’s coming. The profane recording are, I hope, a soldier talking to his wife or girlfriend, as I certainly wouldn’t use such language with my parents. The New York Times published a story about the phone calls when Russian soldiers were still trying to take Kiev. They’ve since retreated. But even back then, in the early months of the war, one Russian soldier told his mom, “This war is the stupidest decision our government ever made.” Another Russian soldier called the tyrant Putin a fool. One described to his mother how only 38 or 400 paratroopers survived. Meanwhile, those back home tell the soldiers in the field that coffins keep arriving back home, calling it a nightmare, as one man is buried after another. One soldier told his girlfriend that they were given orders to kill everyone they see, even if they’re civilians. Another Russian soldier is quoted on a phone call describing a scene in the town of Bucha, saying there are “body’s lying on the road, limbs scattered around. They’re not ours,” he continued. “They’re fucking civilians.” Pardon my Russian. One caller described a mountain of corpses in a forest, and how he was ordered to execute three men who walked by, just to make sure they don’t reveal the location. On another call, a soldier is heard saying, “Mom, we haven’t seen a single fascist here … The war is based on a false pretence. “No one needed it. We got here and people were living normal lives. Very well, like in Russia. And now they have to live in basements.” The pretense of which he speaks is that of Russia needing to rid the eastern part of Ukraine from Nazis. The initial lie Putin told his citizens to justify his “special military operation.” At first, many Russian soldiers relished the role of conqueror. One intercepted phone call was from a man who described how they clear the basements of houses. “We don’t ask who’s there,” he said. “We just throw a grenade down there.” He went on to brag about how he takes pleasure in cutting off the ears of his victims. The person on the Russian end of the call yells out his name, Max, in a verbal disapproval of his actions. But as the war progresses, the calls aren’t to brag but to blame. To blame the commanders, to blame the politicians, to blame Putin. And to pity themselves. One soldier named Andrey (probably not his real name) told his father on a phone call, that his unit is on strike after transferring from a shit hole to another shit hole. That’s a quote. "Everyone is already tired of it all and everyone is on strike," the soldier continued. "They threw us off the highway into the fields, and nothing was equipped there. Everyone is already tired of it all and everyone is starting to rebel," adding that his work is "pointless." according to a story in from Business Insider. Here are a few more quotes from Russian soldiers from intercepted phone calls: “Our position is shit, so to speak. We’ve moved to defense. Our offense has stalled.” 

“Tanks and armored carriers were burning. They blew up a bridge and a dam. The roads are flooded. Now we can’t move.”

No one told us we were going to war. They warned us one day before we left.”

“We were fucking fooled like little kids.”

“I didn’t know this was going to happen. They said we going for training. Those bastards didn’t tell us anything.”

“Some guys took armor off of Ukrainians’ corpses and took it for themselves. Their NATO armor is better than ours.”

“Everything here is ancient. IT’s not modern like they show on TV.”

As to why they executed the three men walking by their position, one of the soldiers confessed it was because if they took them prisoner, they would have had to feed them, and there wasn’t enough food to go around. 

One can’t help but sympathize with these unsuspecting soldiers, as well as the many conscripts the Russian government is now rounding up to serve as cannon fodder in Putin’s pointless war. While many of the men in Russia who are within the ever-widening prerequisites for serving flee to other countries, those that are already on the front lines are giving the world a first-person account of the conditions and equipment the Russian army is dealing with. The Russian army has been sent to slaughter, the Russian people have been lied to, and the Russian government is slow to recognize what the rest of the world seems to already know. The Russian military isn’t what we thought, and Russian allies aren’t in a big hurry to come to their aid. The tyrant Putin has put his entire country and system of government in a precarious position. We wouldn’t know any of this if it weren’t for our need to hear the voices of our family and friends. If you ever wonder about the power of the spoken word, remember that our need to hear the voices of those close to us was enough of a force to get Russian troops to tell the world what is really happening in the war in Ukraine.

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.