Season 8, Episode Five April 21, 2024

On this episode, we’ll hear about lending money to fight a war, dividing up the middle east, and my relationship with nuclear disasters...and I’ll chat with a man about tribalism.   Not the Headlines will follow up on credit card fees, and examine a statement by the Senate Majority Leader.

Chapters

• 0:45 Not the Headlines
• 7:50 Let's Go Back
• 15:52 Michael Anderson

Transcript

Hello!  Thank you for putting your ear to the Listening Tube!  I’m your host, Bob Woodley.  As a registered Independent living in Pennsylvania, I don’t get to vote in the primaries, which means I don’t have to pay attention to politics until other people decide for me who gets on the ballot!  On this episode, we’ll hear about lending money to fight a war, dividing up the middle east, and my relationship with nuclear disasters...and I’ll chat with a man about tribalism.  But first (Not the Headlines!)

You may recall an epilogue I did about credit card fees.  https://www.buzzsprout.com/1940478/14035638-season-7-episode-2-november-26-2023.mp3?download=true In it, we heard about who pays them and who gets to keep what we pay.  It seems like everywhere you turn, you’re being charged extra money to use the credit card instead of using cash.  It’s not the fault of the local butcher shop, it’s the fault of the credit card companies and the banks that support them.  
A recent story for Convenience Store News by Amanda Koprowski brings us the results of a survey done by WalletHub about that very subject.  As it turns out, since I did my piece back in November, other people have taken notice, too.  In fact, 85 percent of us believe we’re being nickeled and dimed by point of purchase credit card fees.  Mom and Pop stores don’t have a choice but to pass the fee along to the customer.  Visa and Mastercard control 80 percent of the market.  Sure, they make it easy to get on the system and give customers another way to pay.  That’s the service the credit card companies provide to the retailer.  But instead of a flat fee, it’s per transaction, and the cost keeps rising.  Yet nearly 60 percent of us blame the merchant.  Ninety percent of us believe the fees have gone too far.  Still, only half of us say we won’t use a credit card when we have to pay a fee.  
It’s the perks and the cash-back offers that cause the need for the fees in the first place.  That’s where about a third of those fees go.  So if you don’t have any of those perks on your card, every time you use it, you’re paying for somebody else to go on a cruise.  So, how much did Visa and Mastercard bring in last year on processing fees?   More than 100 billion dollars, or enough to build more than a hundred cruise ships.  Nickled and dimed, indeed. 

While some policies are put in place in such a way so that they may go unnoticed or disregarded, other policies have a much greater and more obvious impact.  Such had been the case with the southern border of the United States, and the federal government’s inaction to ebb the tide of illegal immigration.  The devastation it’s wrought in cities around the country is still in its infancy, but only three years of unpresidented border crossings of people from all over the world has brought hardship to not just the people who came here and now find themselves living in shelters by the thousands, or on the streets of America’s big cities, but also to the people who were already there.  Just this week, the city of Denver cut 8 million dollars from public service budgets, including the police force, to pay for illegal immigrants that have overwhelmed the city.  Chicago is begging the federal government for financial aid, and New York City has put out the word that there’s no more room, but you’re still free to come, because that’s what sanctuary cities are for.
The situation has become so dire that for the first time in 150 years, a member of the President’s cabinet was impeached by the House of Representatives.  The Secretary of Homeland Security, a position created after the terror attacks of September, 2001, has been impeached for two reasons:  Not enforcing immigration laws, allowing nearly 10 million people to enter the country illegally, and lying to the American people by telling a House sub-committee that the border was secure.
The articles of impeachment were sent to the Senate, where a hearing was expected to take place, as is customary.  But then Chuck Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader, said this…

Soundbite
With a statement so monumental, historical, and important to well-being of our country, you can bet it was well thought out and carefully crafted by the best team of communicators the United States Senate can muster.  Knowing how much of an impact his statement would have, you can bet the words used weren’t used by accident.  The Senate Majority Leader just told the American public that the current state of our southern border is the policy of the Democrats.  The Republicans are arguing that it’s wrong for our borders to be as porous as they are, and want to hold the man in charge of the border responsible for doing a poor job and lying about it.  Ten million people who aren’t supposed to be here are the proof.  But the Senate can’t dispute the proof in a trial, so they instead call it a policy dispute.  Sure, that’s a good argument against a trial, but it’s also an acknowledgment of the Democrats support for an open border policy.  To the Democrats, the Secretary of Homeland Security was doing his job just fine.  There’s no one better at it!  He follows instructions, takes the heat for it, and will even lie about how good a job he’s doing while asking for more money to continue to do it (or not do it).  So, while the President claims he needs more powers to close the border and blames Congress for not giving it to him, and congress can’t agree on any immigration laws because each side wants something completely different, it seems that moving forward, the people in charge of the executive branch of the U.S. government will decide how the border will be handled.  Chuck Schumer made it clear that the Democrat policy is to keep the border open.  What Chuck needs to realize is that this impeachment isn’t about a policy disagreement, it’s about the security of our nation.  The man who was impeached isn’t the Secretary of Immigration, he’s the Secretary of Homeland Security.

Let’s Go Back liner


1917
The United States agrees to lend Britain 200-million dollars to fight in World War I.  Today, there’s a lot of debate about how to continue sending aid to Ukraine to help them in their fight with Russia.  We’ve already given them billions of dollars in equipment and ammunition without asking for anything in return.  There seems to be a stalemate when we give them the aid they need, and Ukraine is losing ground since the U.S. aid was put on hold by Republicans in the House of Representatives.  In addition to linking better security on the Southern border with further Ukraine aid, there’s a growing number of those who want to make further aid a loan instead of a hand out.
Personally, I think we should help Ukraine in any way we can, but unfortunately, the Biden administration has been pussy-footing around.  Ukraine needs air power, and we’ve been reluctant to help in that regard.  Backdoor deals had to be made to insure the chain of custody of any aircraft given to Ukraine didn’t attract attention to the U.S., even though that’s where it was made.  Pilots were supposed to be trained, but I don’t know if that ever happened.  The United States won’t approve the transfer of the planes until the pilots are trained.
Perhaps a loan is a good idea.  The F-16’s are coming from other countries, and a loan might lead to more responsible use of the resources.  Clearly, it’s been done that way before, all the way back in 1917.

1920
At the conclusion of World War I, the San Remo Conference divided up the middle east.  France was given control of Syria, and Great Britain was given control of Mesopotamia, which is now know as Iraq, and Palestine.  Part of the deal concerning Palestine was that an earlier agreement approved by the Allied Powers be implemented, and that meant establishing in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people.  It also said that nothing may prejudice the civil and religious right of existing non-Jewish people already living there.  The day after the terms were finalized, Arabs attack the British, fearing an influx of Jews.  The British would control Palestine until 1948.

1938
U.S. Supreme Court delivers its opinion in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, establishing something called Diversity Jurisdiction, and overturns a century of federal common law.  Sound familiar?  That bell you hear ringing might not be because you’re at a railroad crossing.  Erie Railroad v. Tompkins established when a federal court can hear a case between parties in two different states.  And it’s all about the money.  Seventy-five thousand dollars, to be exact.  Unless there’s a federal question involved, of course.  So, what was Erie v. Tompkins?

Look that up liner

Turns out Mr. Tompkins was walking along the railroad tracks in Hughestown, Pennsylvania almost four years before the Supreme Court heard the case.  Something protruding from the train, perhaps an unlatched door, struck Mr. Tomkins and knocked him down.  His arm landed on the track was was crushed by the train wheels, leading to it being amputated.  He sued the train company, which was headquartered in New York.  The trains lawyers argued the case should be heard in Pennsylvania, where the accident happened, and where the laws were in favor of the train company.  Tompkins side argued the case is a federal case because the different sides were in different states.  
The federal court had already awarded Mr. Tompkins a 30,000 dollar judgement, but the Supreme Court decision meant Mr. Tompkins lawsuit was under Pennsylvania jurisdiction.  According to Pennsylvania law, Mr. Tompkins was trespassing on Erie Railroad property when he was struck, and was not awarded any compensation.  Erie didn’t press charges for trespassing, as far as I could tell.  
There are lessons to be learned here.  Sometimes federal and state governments see things very differently.  Sometimes it’s a question of jurisdiction, and where your complaint is heard.  Sometimes, no, wait, Never! Walk along the train tracks when there’s a train passing by!  Especially in Pennsylvania.  


1986
A nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in what was the Soviet Union and is now Ukraine, creating the world’s worst nuclear disaster.  I was living in West Germany at the time, and as you might expect, there was suddenly a lot of attention being paid to which way the wind was blowing.  The meltdown and subsequent fire, which lasted until early May, released a cloud of radioactive gas that was being dispersed throughout the atmosphere.  Over a hundred thousand people had to be evacuated from a 19-mile or 30 kilometer radius around ground zero.  The reactor was buried in cement after it was safe to go in and do the job.  The containment was improved in the early 2000’s, according to wikipedia, and again in 2017.  It is to this day the worst nuclear accident in history.  The hope is to have the site cleaned up by 2065, or about 80 years after it happened.  But then again, there’s a war going on there now.  Maybe you heard about it.
As an American living in Germany, I felt fairly close to the Chernobyl disaster, but I wasn’t as close to Chernobyl as I was to a similar occasion in Pennsylvania in 1979.  I was living just tens of miles away from Three Mile Island when the worst nuclear disaster in the United States happened.  Now that I think about it, I’ve been in the relative vicinity of two of the three worst nuclear disasters in history (the other being Fukushima in 2011).  And it was right about the time of Chernobyl that my hair stopped growing.  And I developed my glowing personality…


You may have noticed that during the Let’s Go Back portion of the program, I like to talk about historical events that have a direct connection to our lives today, or some type of parallel that brings then and now into perspective.  Well, my guest this week is way better at it than I am.  He’s Michael Anderson, and he’s written multiple books on American politics.  His research into tribalism and how the past is still in charge of the present sheds some light on why we separate ourselves.  We’ll talk about all that, but first I wanted to know what inspired him to begin his journalistic quest…

You can learn more about Michael Anderson and his books at mike andersons books dot com.  He’s got a blog, too!  

The Listening Tube is written and produced by yours truly.  Copyright 2024.  Thank you for putting your ear to the Listening Tube.  Subscribe today.  I’m your host, Bob Woodley for thou ad infinitum.