Season 4, Episode 8 First Anniversary Special February 19, 2023

Hello! Thank you for putting your ear to the Listening Tube! I’m you host, Bob Woodley. On this episode, we’ll hear about variations of the American flag (pilot), China (gong), the definition of news (E6), women (E7) and …...but first, (not the headlines)

More than 27 million people watched President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech last week. I must admit, I was one of the people who didn’t watch. Not because I wasn’t interested, but because my wife took me to see the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Colorado Avalanche in overtime, and they didn’t stop the hockey game so we could watch the President. Anyway, while more than 27 million people did watch, and that’s according to the Nielsen, as quoted in a story by Deadline.com, it’s a significant drop from the audience of the last one. Even though 16 networks broadcast the speech, same as last time, this year’s audience was 29 percent lower. More than 38 million people watched last year. There was another event happening at the same time, other than the hockey game where I was. It was another sporting event, during which LeBron James broke the NBA scoring record, and that game had an estimated 3 million viewers, but the game didn’t start until the President’s speech was more than half over. So, why the decline? Isn’t there enough going on in the world right now that people are beginning to become bored with politics? Is it because things are going so well that people are no longer interested in what the government is doing. I’m sure there are some people who see it that way. Joe Biden has finally righted the ship and now we can just float along until the next election. No reason to tune in, I’ll catch the highlights tomorrow. No reason to tune in, I’ll just ask my friends who think the same way I do to fill me in on what I missed. By contrast, the same information company that counts the number of people who watch the State of the Union Address also counts how many people watch the Super Bowl every year. This year’s tally: 113 million people. Compared to 27 million people. If it were a basketball score, 113 to 27, that would be considered a blowout. And rightly so. But that’s like comparing apples to oranges. Let’s compare apples to apples. The 27 million who watched President Biden is the lowest number for a State of the Union Speech in the last 30 years. That means you would have to go back the the last century, nee, the last millennia to find a less popular State of the Union Address. That would have been the last State of the Union Address by George H.W. Bush, closing out two terms of his Presidency. A lame duck, two term president 30 years ago was the lowest rating until this year’s first-term, second year president. To have 11-million people jump off the Biden band-wagon in a single year has to send a signal to the administration that the Union isn’t as strong as they say it is. Eleven-million people weren’t at that hockey game that kept me from watching. Eleven-million people weren’t tuning in to the pre-game show of an NBA game. Where did they go? That’s a hard question to answer. But maybe we can narrow it down by taking a closer look at the people who did watch President Biden’s State of the Union Address. The same Nielsen numbers cited in the article of Deadline says that about 73 percent of the viewers were 55 years old or older. Now, you might be thinking, “Yea, those baby-boomers always stick together.” Well, that may be true, but I’ll remind you that boomers are now 60 years old and older, so it would seem that the 55 to 60 year olds are cozying up to the boomers. Still, that leaves only 27 percent of the remaining viewers below the age of 55. More specifically, 19 percent of viewers were between 35 and 54, and only 5 percent were under ate 34. I find it interesting that the bulk of those interested in the state of our union are over age 55, while those making the most demands of our government, our social programs, and other amenities are younger people who can’t even be bothered to watch the State of the Union Address. 

Let’s go back liner..

This week in 2022, The Listening Tube Podcast began. I waited until the Super Bowl was over, so that I could devote a bulk of my extra time to writing and producing it. Football season is busy for me, as I also call High School football games on local radio. I prepared for the program months in advance, recording the sound effects you hear under the mysterious female voice who is featured in between segments. 

The reason I started the Listening Tube is because I was disappointed with the news coverage I was witnessing on television. When I was growing up, and as a young broadcast journalist, newscasters cared about their own credibility more than anything. Today’s newspeople seem more interested in becoming a part of the new cycle, rather than an objective describer of what happened. That’s why we’ve lost a lot of our trust in the larger media companies, who have more to lose from their sponsors than they have from losing their morals. I summed up my views on the subject early, so that you would know where I stood before you considered whether or not to devote some of your time to me. Here’s how I said it on Episode 6:

March 20th, 2022

There’s a lot of talk these days about the mainstream media, the news it delivers, and weather or not we should trust it. When I was a young man learning about broadcasting, there was a simple definition of the news: Information about current events the public wants or needs to know. Information about current events the public wants or needs to know. It’s a simple definition that covers a lot of ground with the “wants or needs to know” part. Yet it keeps a narrow scope by restricting itself to information. So, perhaps it’s most notable for what’s not in it more than for what is. This definition of news does not include anybody’s opinion about said current events. News is different today. The 24-hour news networks have a lot of time to fill. Just doling out the facts doesn’t fill the bill. Hence, the void is filled with expert opinion and panels of talking heads with opinions and analysis of whatever “news”, and I use that term loosely here, topic is chosen as the focus of the day. Now, you might be thinking, “but Bob, you’re always expressing your opinion on this program.” And you’d be right. But I don’t claim to be a news organization. I’m just one guy. I try to find something that may be of interest to people and write about it and record what I wrote and make it available to the public for free. I don’t have a staff of writers, or an editor who tells me what to write about. I’m not representing somebody else, or telling you what I was told to tell you. Do I have a media bias? Probably. I do think I’m fortunate to have journalism training today, because it helps me recognize the bias in today’s newscasts. But there is certainly a bias in my reporting to you, as I choose which stories I will bring to you, and those decisions are the result of my personal viewpoints. My personal viewpoints are a result of my experiences, and my experiences are what make me who I am. But I don’t consider myself as a solidly conservative or solidly liberal. I have both liberal and conservative viewpoints, depending upon the subject matter. I’m not defined by the Democrats or the Republicans, which is why I’m a registered Independent. I’ll be honest with you about the stories I tell here. The stories I choose to tell and how I tell them will reveal enough about me for you to form your own opinion of me. I’m just glad you’re listening! But enough about me. There’s a serious problem with the news media today, and it doesn’t matter what political bend you are, or even if you vote or not. All, and when I say that, I mean ALL network and cable news is biased and agenda-driven. Internet-based news sites are even worse. There was a time when you could trust the news. All of the news. TV news, newspapers, radio news, newsreels in movie theaters. Well, maybe not so much movie theater newsreels. Those were before my time, but I believe they were filled with propaganda. When it comes to trustworthy sources of local news, small-town newspapers are still the best. The larger the paper gets, the more its editorial slant reveals itself. Most larger newspapers lean liberal, with notable exceptions. Geography plays a major role in a newspaper’s political stance, as appealing to the local population is vital for survival. Most radio stations don’t have local new-gatherers anymore, but rely on other sources of news like broadcasting stories from the local paper or using services like network feeds of national news. Those network feeds are also subject to political bias. The political bias and opinion-based news is the reason our country is so divided. Each side now has a megaphone to scream at people who already agree with the bias. The large media organizations have discovered that they can appeal to a large group of people who want validation of what they already believe, and there are enough of them that they can charge a lot of money for commercials to pitch products to the believers. It’s not about informing you. That’s just the candy that gets you in the door. Then the opinion people fill you with content that riles you, makes you mad, and evokes an emotional response just before they show you the product that will make your life better. It’s not news. It’s manipulation. There’s some news in there. That’s the cover. They claim to be news programs, but the actual news content is small compared to the opinion content, which is often disguised as “analysis” or “discussion.” The discussions have already been pre-planned and talking points highlighted before the conversation even begins. Editors and Producers lead the way with the stories the dole out to the reporters and with how the stories are ultimately edited to make the right point. Allow me to give you an example of media manipulation from the Washington Post, which once it’s pointed out to you, is easy to spot. It begins with a labored headline, “More than two dozen Senate Republicans demand Biden do more for Ukraine after voting against $13.6 billion for Ukraine.” First of all, that’s not a headline. “Dewey beats Truman!” That’s a headline. “Man bites Dog!” That’s a headline. “Too hot to fish!” That’s a headline. “More than two dozen Senate Republicans demand Biden do more for Ukraine after voting against $13.6 billion for Ukraine” is a summary. Then they follow it up with a sub-headline that states, “Thirty-one Senate Republicans voted last week against the $1.5 trillion spending bill to fund the government, increase U.S. defense spending and provide humanitarian and military assistance to Ukraine. In recent days, many of them have clamored for more weapons and aid.” When you combine that headline with the sub-headline, it’s as if you already know the whole story. There’s really no need to read any further, because you already don’t like Republicans and now you have another reason to assume you’re correct about your assumptions. You read the extra-long headline, and you thought that summed it up pretty well, but then the sub-headline got even more specific, defining “more than two dozen” more accurately as Thirty-one Republicans. The sub-headline also gets more specific about the cost of the bill, which is 1.5 trillion dollars, of which 13.6 billion will go to Ukraine. But that’s not why they voted against the bill, like the headline is designed to make you believe. If you go past the headline and the sub-headline and read the actual story, which many people don’t, you’ll find out a little more about why said Republicans voted against the bill. One said he voted against it because it wasn’t “really about Ukrainian aid,” but a “whole bunch of schlock.”

“Ukrainian aid was a little bit of sugar on the larger medicine of a $1.5 trillion bill that nobody would actually want to go home and to defend to the voters, and to the taxpayers of America, as well thought out.” Something else you might not get out of the headline and the sub-headline is that the bill was signed into law a week earlier by President Biden, regardless of who voted for it or against it. This story was written for the sole purpose of advancing an agenda. It doesn’t fall into the definition of news, but was written entirely for the sole purpose of criticizing Senators for representing their constituents. There may have been a number of different reasons these Senators voted the way they did, and they voiced their support for aiding Ukraine, but voted against a bill they thought was full of pork. The Washington Post headline and sub-headlines were meant to keep you from reading the whole story, and the story itself was written in a way as to confirm your disdain for the subjects. It’s not an accident.

Liner

The Chinese Communist Party has been a frequent subject of The Listening Tube. I’m sure I’ve made myself very clear about my views when it comes to their tactics. It’s not all their fault, though. America made China a manufacturing powerhouse, and now the Chinese Communist Party is using the tools we bought for them to accomplish a set of goals that doesn’t mesh with western politics. But the tide is turning. Population rates in China are falling. They’re still dealing with the coronavirus and protests. People around the world are waking up to the threat that is China. Many are happy participants. Not everyone sees the world as the west sees it. Lately, China has become a focus of the news because of a giant balloon that flew over our country, and China admitted that it was theirs, we still let it float over the continent. China is obsessed with information and data. The more they have, the more damage they can do. And they have millions of us contributing to their cause. It’s called tictoc, and many of our government agencies now have bans of use on government devices. I talked about it on a special episode of The Listening Tube:

July 3rd, 2022 China edition gong

United States Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr has sent a letter to the CEO’s of Apple and Google alerting them that tic-toc is in violation of their own policies, and requested that both companies remove tic-toc from their app stores. Carr said in the letter that the app itself is the sheep’s clothing. It went on to state that, “at it’s core, tic-toc functions as a sophisticated surveillance tool that harvests extensive amounts of personal in sensitive data...everything from search and browsing histories to keystroke patterns and biometric identifiers, including faceprints, and voiceprints. It collects location data as well as draft messages and metadata, plus it has collected the texxt, images and videos that are stored on a device’s clipboard. The list of personal and sensitive data it collects goes on from there. Withing its own borders, the People’s Republic of China has developed some of the most invasive and omnipresent surveillance capabilities in the world to maintain authoritarian control. The commissioner then lists a half-dozen documented violations of privacy polices committed by tic-toc, including accessing users passwords, cryptocurrency wallet addresses and personal messages. Tic-toc has already paid nearly 100-million dollars in fines and settlements for privacy violations in the United States. Tic-toc’s parent company, bytedance, is a Chinese company. Any Chinese company falls under the jurisdiction of the Chinese Communist Party. Therefore, if you download the tic-toc app to your phone, you’re helping the Chinese Communist Party in their quest to take over the world. 

But there’s more! A Chinese company has just bought 300 acres of land near Grand Forks, North Dakota. The plan is to build a milling plant there that will employ more than 200 people and cost 700-million dollars to build. But according to CNBC, the project is raising serious security concerns in Washington, D.C. You see, the new milling plant will be about a 20 minute drive from Grand Forks Air Force Base, home of some our country’s most secret drone technology, as well as a space networking center, described by a North Dakota Senator as, “the backbone of all U.S. military communications across the globe.” The guy who sold the land to the Chinese company got 2.6 million dollars for it, and since then he’s become a target for people opposed to the operation. He’s been threatened, had other people put signs in his yard, and he says he’s been called every name in the book for selling the property. The Air Force hasn’t made any comment about the proposed milling operation, but an Air Force Major has circulated a memo that says the project is located where passive receiving equipment could intercept dron and space-based communications both to and from the base. He said any such data collection would present a costly national security risk causing grave damage to the United States’ strategic advantages. One North Dakota Senator agrees. Senator Kevin Cramer says “I think we grossly underappreciate how effective they are at collecting information, collecting data, using it in nefarious ways,” he said of the Chinese Communist Party. “And so I’d just as soon not have the Chinese Communist Party doing business in my backyard.” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, of Virginia said, “We should be seriously concerned about Chinese investment in locations close to sensitive sites, such as military bases around the U.S.” Sen. Marco Rubio, of Florida, agrees. “It is dangerous, foolish, and shortsighted to allow the Chinese Communist Party and its proxies to purchase land near U.S. military installations.” He’s co-sponsoring legislation that would give the Biden administration the power to stop the purchase of the land. The CNBC article says, “Debate over the project has roiled the small community, with emotional city council hearings, local politicians at odds with one another, and neighborhood groups gearing up to block the project.” I agree with those neighborhood groups. As I’ve said before, any Chinese company is at the beck and call of the Chinese Communist Party, and they’ll stop at nothing to gain superiority over the west. If you doubt that, just consider all of the Americans that have been poisoned by Chinese-supplied fentanyl. About 250 people die every day in America because of fentanyl. These aren’t all drug addicts. Most of these people didn’t even know they were taking fentanyl. A man who lost his son to one fentanyl-laced pill in 2015 told Fox News that the number of daily deaths in America from fentanyl is like a jet airliner crashing every day. If that were the case, what would we do about it? Well, we’d probably ground every jet airliner until we figured out what the problem is. In this case, we know what the problem is, but it still isn’t getting fixed. Now the news media likes to call these “overdose” deaths, but these people aren’t overdosing, they’re being poisoned. They’re being poisoned by the Chinese Communist Party with the help of Mexican drug cartels. 

Since this story, the corn mill has been put to a halt. Fentanyl and the open border policies of the Biden administration are still a concern. More on fentanyl later. 

Liner

If nothing else, I like to bring to you a little bit of common sense. Not that you didn’t have any to begin with, because I’m sure you do, but maybe pull something out of the crevasas that makes you wonder a bit. Maybe that’s why crime podcasts are the most popular. Murder mysteries. Well, I tried to combine the land of the dead with common sense when I brought a story about dead people voting in Michigan: 

September 4th 2022

If you live in Michigan, and you’re not allowed to vote for whatever reason; maybe you’re not old enough, or you’re a convicted felon, or you just forgot to register, here’s a tip you can use to get your voice heard on election day: Pretend you’re a dead person. It’s not as hard as it sounds. You don’t need any makeup. You don’t need to arrange a funeral. Just show up at your local polling location and claim to be somebody who used to vote, but died. You’ll have to do a little research. Look in the obituaries, find out where a recently deceases person lived and in what ward they lived, then show up and claim to be them. Since there’s no voter identification laws, because that would be racist, you don’t even have to prove your the now-deceased person. Just sign there name so it looks like they signed it, and go vote! Now, you might be thinking, “But Bob, how can you do that? Isn’t it against the law?” Well, probably. If anybody asks, I didn’t tell you to do it. But here’s why it’s possible. The Michigan Secretary of State refuses to do her job. Not only that, but she went to court to argue against doing her job. What job is that? Getting dead people off the voter rolls. As it turns out, 26-thousand dead people are still eligible to vote in Michigan. How do we know that? Because two years ago, before the 2020 election, the Public Interest Legal Foundation did the research to find out. The foundation, according to Hans von Spakovski, a board member of the organization, as well as a former commissioner on the Federal Election Commission, compared the names of registered voters in Michigan with the Social Security Administration’s death index and matched full names, full dates of birth, credit address history information and Social Security numbers to find almost 26-thousand dead registered voters. More than 3-thousand of them had been dead for over 20 years. They gave this valuable research information to the Secretary of State to aid in her obligation to remove the names from the voter rolls. But she didn’t remove the names, as required of her by section 8 of the national voter registration act. When asked to provide updated voter registration rolls, or let the public inspect them, she said that no public inspection would be allowed and no copies would be provided because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The foundation that did all the research filed a lawsuit, claiming that Secretary Benson refused to remove dead people from the voter rolls. Instead of agreeing to do her job, she filed a motion to dismiss the case! This woman literally went to court to keep dead people registered to vote! Twenty-six thousand of them! Secretary Benson’s spokesperson called the Foundation’s lawsuit an attempt to undermine democracy! That’s right! Getting dead people off of the voter registration list is a threat to democracy! This lady would rather go to court and claim that removing dead people from the voter rolls is an attempt to undermine democracy than do her job and remove the names. What could possibly be the reason for that? Is she just lazy? Twenty-six thousand is a lot of dead people. But the Foundation has already done all the research, provided the names, explained the methodology employed to insure its accuracy, and sent all of it to her in a nice, neat package to make it easy as pie for her to do her job. She would rather go to court. Well, the judge didn’t dismiss the lawsuit. Plus, the foundation has precedent on its side. They did the same thing in Pennsylvania, and the commonwealth (yes, Pennsylvania is a commonwealth) agreed to settle the case and remove the dead voters from the list. But not Michigan! Not Secretary of State Benson! She’ll have to defend her lack of action, her refusal to do her job, her denial to follow federal law, in court. One might assume this isn’t a partisan issue. It seem like common sense to remove dead people from voter rolls. That way, someone else can’t claim to be them and vote in their stead, and perhaps vote as themselves as well. That smell isn’t rotting flesh, it’s the rat in the office of Secretary of State in Michigan. There can be only two reasons she will fight to keep dead people voting: Either those votes are being sold, or they’re being given away to people willing to use them in the way they’re instructed. Look, I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I’m not claiming the 2020 election was stolen. But when a Secretary of State will go to court to defend keeping dead people on the list of eligible voters, something fishy is going on. The other night, President Biden told the country that people who want to make America great again are a threat to democracy. I’m not sure he believes that, but he felt the need to say it. However, the bigger threat to democracy might be 26-thousand dead people voting in Michigan, or government officials who fight to keep it that way. When individuals take it upon themselves to install their own rules under the color of authority of the government, regardless of the law, regardless of their duty, regardless of the negative effect it has on the public, then democracy is threatened. When District Attorneys decide for themselves what laws they will enforce, and what laws they will let slide, democracy is threatened. We are a nation of laws. Our representative in congress are called lawmakers! If our laws are not followed, if our laws are not followed by our own government officials, if our laws are not enforced by the people we entrust to put the power of laws to work to keep us safe, to keep us healthy, to keep us living in peace, that’s when our democracy is threatened. Without laws and the proper enforcement of them, we descend into anarchy. That’s what some people want. That’s why people like George Soros, who might also be dead but we can’t tell, bankrolls elected District Attorney’s who will aid and assist the goal of anarchy by not enforcing the laws established by the people’s representatives. Perhaps one of the ways these D.A.’s get elected is by having dead people vote for them. How ironic would it be if a dead person voted for a District Attorney who dropped the charges against the person who killed him? Well, that can happen in Detroit. And the Michigan Secretary of State is willing to go to court to make sure it stays that way.

Liner

While many sources of information are designed to separate us in some way, such as political points of view, race or culture, sexuality or income levels, I like to think there are still more things that unite us than divide us. I could be wrong. But one of the things that has always united most Americans is the American flag. Perhaps the most recognizable symbol on the planet, the American flag stands for many things to many people. Recently, it’s been the subject of news stories that are not so much about the American flag, but the variations of the American flag, such as the thin blue line flag. The thin blue line flag, as well as the thin red line flag, meant to represent firefighters and emergency responders in the same way the thin blue line flag represents police officers. There are also other variations of the American flag, and I don’t like any of them, as I described in the pilot episode of the Listening Tube.

February 15th, 2022

No transcription available…

Phone and email liner

If there’s one thing that I’ve tried to make the Listening Tube, it would have to be an objective view of history, current events and the way they effect our lives. Sometimes I try to demonstrate how we’re manipulated into thinking certain ways and how the information we’re given is only half of the story. I hope you’ve been able to take we’ve talked about and applied it to your everyday life and maybe saw things from a different perspective that gave you a new understanding of a situation or experience. I’ve tried to show racism and prejudice and bigotry where it exists, whomever the victims. I’ve tried to keep an open mind, and I hope I’ve encouraged you to keep an open mind as well. On the other hand, I hope I’ve been able to lay blame where it belongs,, without making excuses for poor behavior. I’m not a Democrat. I’m not a Republican. I’m a registered Independent, and in the state of Pennsylvania, means I only get to choose from the lesser of two evils the major parties put in front of me. I’ve been very critical of the Biden administration, and for good reason. As I pointed out at the beginning of the program, President Biden is already being treated as a has-been. A lame-duck president with high hopes and no wind in his sails. Sure, he’ll keep spouting the same lines about his idea of a great economy and how the rich will pay their fair share while inflation is outpacing wages and shows no signs of leveling off, and the people will continue to ignore him in ever-higher numbers. This is the one-year anniversary of the Listening Tube. Joe Biden is the only President this program has known. There’s been plenty of content I could have used but didn’t, because this program isn’t just about national politics. 

You’ve heard me talk about fentanyl on this program before, and how it’s been coming across the southern border, and how it’s killing hundreds of people a day. Well, just the other day, I was given fentanyl by an emergency room attendant. I expressed some hesitation when she told me what was going to be introduced to me through the needle she just inserted into the back of my hand. “Do you have a problem with fentanyl?” she asked. “Hundreds of people die every day from fentanyl poisoning” I said, “but tell me what you think of it.” She told me that it’s a very valuable painkiller and although it can be addicting, it’s a great tool to have when you’re trying to relieve pain. I agreed to let her inject me with the drug that’s been killing hundreds of people a day in the United States, because I trusted her opinion. I was in a lot of pain, but still couldn’t help but wonder if morphine would have worked just as well. The good news is, I’m not addicted to any painkiller, and my pain is being managed. Sort of. I had another new experience recently, and it’s directly connected to why I had fentanyl injected into my body. After I had been neutralized by the fentanyl, an MRI discovered what was causing all the pain. Earlier x-rays had led to a misdiagnosis. This time, the problem was narrowed down to specific nerves that could be relieved by a process called an epidural. An epidural is often associated with pregnancy, but is also used to reduce pain from sciatica or other nerve pain. I was more than willing to go through whatever procedure would release me from the constant pain I had been experiencing. Put me on the rack! Twist me until I pop! I didn’t care, as long as it worked. Well, I got all of that and more. If you’re not familiar with an epidural, it’s basically a way to have medicine applied directly onto nerves in your spine. Before we began, the doctor told me I might feel pressure in my back as he injects the fluids. He followed that up with other boiler-plate stuff. I asked him if by pressure he meant pain. “Some people interpret it that way.” he said. “Do they ever cry out?” I asked. “Some.” he said. 

That group now includes me. I cried out several times, albeit into my pillow. They even asked me if they wanted me to stop at one point. After reasoning with myself aloud, I begged them to get it over with. The pressure the doctor described prior to the procedure would more accurately be described as electrodes being attached to your spine and loaded with as many amps as possible without killing you. At least that’s what if felt like to me. It was the most painful and traumatic experience of my life. And it all began the night I went to a hockey match while the President of the United States was giving a State of the Union Address. I wasn’t thinking about fentanyl that night, and neither was he. Most of us were engaged somewhere else, leading to the smallest audience of a State of the Union Address in three decades. I guess the moral of the story is that sometimes the scary things are the things you need to experience in order to get a better look at what’s going on around you. Sometimes the scary things aren’t that scary once you take a more open-minded look at them. Sometimes you have to go through pain to realize what it feels like to be pain-free. Without crying, laughter might not be as rewarding. Without insecurity, security would have less meaning. Silence wouldn’t be as satisfying if it were not for the screams. 

Year one of the Listening Tube has been a great journey for me, and I hope you enjoyed the parts where you hopped on. I’ll continue this labor of love and I hope you’ll hop on more often in the next year. Tell your friends. Thanks.

The Listening Tube is written and produced by yours truly. Copyright 2023. Thank you for putting your ear to the Listening Tube. I’m your host, Bob Woodley for thou ad infinitum.