Season 11, Episode 1 March 2, 2025

On this episode, we’ll hear about defending the enemy, what Donald Trump would have to do to become a dictator, and CNN’s definition of DEI.

Transcript

Hello!  Thank you for putting your ear to the Listening Tube!  Not only is this the first episode of Season 11, it’s also the third anniversary of The Listening Tube!  Who knew 10 seasons would equal three years?  On this episode, we’ll hear about defending the enemy, what Donald Trump would have to do to become a dictator, and CNN’s definition of DEI….but first, (Not the Headlines!)

If you’re a long-time listener, you may have noticed subtle changes in the program already.  A new sound, so to speak, to keep the program fresh and continue to try to improve it.  As part of those subtle changes, I hope you don’t mind hearing the voice of my booth announcer a little more often.  I thought about it, and I realize that she’s often the only other voice you hear on the program, and sometimes I’ll bet you wished she’d interrupt me more often!  Now she will!  

Hang your hat liner

Another change you’ll notice is that I will no longer be using copyrighted music to close the show.  I had a good time with it, trying to find a song from my memory banks that would compliment or parody the final segment.  I haven’t got into any trouble for using those songs, but a few of them have restrictions on where they can be used.  For example, Dolly Parton’s song 9 to 5 prevented the episode in which I used it from being distributed in Russia.  Other songs limited availability in remote places like Guam.  Don Henley’s Dirty Laundry and I Don’t Know by Ozzy Osbourne were both prohibited worldwide, according to Google Podcasts, so I removed or replaced those selections.  So, in order to remove those complications, I’ll use original or sounds or loops to which I have rights for use.
If you’re in the United States where I am, you might be thinking, “But Bob, why do you care if people in other parts of the world can hear your podcast?”  Well, the fact is, listeners from places other than the United States make up a considerable part of the overall.  The Listening Tube has been downloaded in 53 countries, the latest of which was Afghanistan.  Welcome aboard, Kabul!  While the good ol’ USA has the most listeners, Japan, Canada, Singapore, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, Finland, Ireland and Sweden are the top ten.  Top five cities are Philadelphia, Ashburn, Virginia, my home base of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Tokyo and Singapore.  I’m honored that people around the world take the time to listen, and I’m fascinated by why.  Actually, I don’t know why, so I’m not sure if I can even be fascinated by it.  But I still think it’s cool.  I grew up being on the radio, and although you can reach out pretty far on the radio, it’s a wonderful time in human history when one person can produce a product and have it be available just about anywhere on the planet.  Not only that, but I can bring you conversations with people from around the world as well.  It’s a great time to be alive if you have a lot of stuff bouncing around in your head that you just have to get out.   

Speaking of which, it’s certainly been an interesting few weeks that the Listening Tube was on between-season break.  I honestly couldn’t think of a better time to take a break, either.  So much was happening that a weekly program like The Listening Tube just can’t keep up with the whiplash-inducing pace at which the new Trump administration was rolling out executive orders and swearing in new cabinet members who, would then immediately get to work on the president’s agenda.  Not surprisingly, many of Trump’s plans have been challenged with lawsuits by groups on the left.  Specifically the plans and actions of the Department of Government Efficiency, led by none other than the richest man in the world, Elon Musk.  But while the lawsuits play out, the new executive branch just rolls along, and each new cabinet member brings with it more surprises.  
In the last episode of the Listening Tube, I recommended to the Democrats that they sit back and watch the show for a bit.  That doesn’t seem to be what’s happening.  Democrat leaders like Maxine Waters, Chuck Schumer and Adam Schiff are screaming bloody murder at cuts to programs that many find outrageous wastes of taxpayer money.  Social programs in other countries that are meant of force a progressive ideology on people were wasting billions of dollars, and all the democrats seem to care about is who discovered the waste.  I haven’t heard any of those leaders on the left justify the spending or admit that the money is being wasted.  They also know they don’t have the strength in congress to do anything about it.  So the lawsuits are the only option.  Luckily, there are plenty of Obama and Biden-appointed judges to shop through in order to find those who might be sympathetic to the left’s claims.  But the law is still the law.  I’ve said on this program many times before:  Who ever controls the executive branch of the government decides which laws are enforced.  But this time, it’s the executive branch that has to defend itself and it’s actions.  And it’s guilty until proven innocent.  But don’t get your hopes up if you think these lawsuits will be any more than pennies on the track of the Trump train.  Donald Trump had four years to get his ducks in a row, and you can bet everything he’s signed so far has been examined by some of the best legal minds in the country.  Probably before he was sworn in or even elected.  I’m certain that many of his actions were taken primarily to test the limits of the law.  These actions are being taken to more thoroughly define the powers of the executive branch.  Win or lose, we’ll all know exactly what the president can and cannot do when all is said and done.  This will have a profound effect on government agencies that currently are responsible for making rules about our lives even though nobody voted to give them the responsibility.  The so-called “shadow government” that has been amassing power for decades, but was never really meant to have any at all.
Now, you might be thinking, “But Bob, isn’t that exactly what Elon Musk is right now?”  No.  Unlike the Director of the FCC, the leader of the DOGE doesn’t have any authority.  Elon Musk can’t fine a company for violating a regulation.  Elon Musk can only advise.  Surely, his advice carries a lot of weight, but Mr. Musk has little to no power compared to other government bureaucrats.
And while the minor party continues to ignore the results of the democracy they claim to champion, the leftist media that supports them continues to bury itself in its own waste.
This headline in The Independent from February 20th caught my eye:   https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-official-calls-social-security-192404146.html
It said, “Trump official calls Social Security ‘wrong’ as administration lays groundwork for massive cuts”.  I know the Independent isn’t independent.  It’s a publication that pushes progressive policies and the Democrats.  I try to pay attention to the news, and when I saw that headline, I couldn’t think of an occasion when I heard any one from the Trump administration say that cuts to social security cuts were in the works, so

Bob didn’t believe it liner

As I’ve already pointed out on this program, the person who writes the story doesn’t usually write the headline.   That’s why it’s important to read the story,  because it often tells a different story than the headline.  This story is a perfect example.  The Trump official they quote in the story is commerce secretary Howard Lutnik.  Newly appointed, he’s supportive of the efforts to root out fraud, waste and abuse.  He’s quoted in the story as saying, “Think about it. We have almost 4 trillion dollars of entitlements and no one has looked at it before.  You know Social Security is wrong, you know Medicare and Medicaid is wrong, so he's going to cut one trillion.  Get rid of all these tax scams that hammer against Americans and we’re gonna raise a trillion dollars in revenue, and our objective, under Donald Trump, is to balance this budget.”
That’s a lot different than what the headline would lead a reader to believe.  He wasn’t saying the concept of social security is wrong, he was saying the math is wrong, and it should be okay to double-check the math.
The rest of the headline, “...as administration lays groundwork for massive cuts.”  is written in a way that would lead the reader to believe the cuts were to social security, because that’s what’s in the headline.  But if you read the story, you’ll discover a different meaning to the cuts.  The author of the story, Alex Woodward, did what I thought was a very good job of telling the story of what is expected to happen, according to President Trump.  Alex did the math, and wrote a good story about the myths and truths about Social Security and the fact that the Trump administration has no intention of cutting any of it, including Medicare and Medicaid.  They just want to root out the waste and fraud wherever possible.  But the editor at the Independent who wrote the headline to this story did it’s author a disservice with a deceptive and misleading headline.  Alex Woodward, I’m guessing, is a liberal journalist who wrote a story that may have leaned left from it’s perspective, but was honestly told, then perverted by the Independent.  Luckily, the perversion was only skin-deep.  While the headline was deceptive, the reward was the story.  Not only was the story informative, it was the opposite of the headline.

Similar but different liner

Meanwhile, NBC and CBS news organizations are undergoing monumental and unprecedented change.  Those changes are largely attributed to their cowtowing to the leftist agenda instead of reporting the news the American people need to stay informed about important issues.  NBC and its spinoff MSNBC are now at a crossroads in how they present themselves.  MSNBC canceled the Joy Reid show, letting go of perhaps the most racist, bigoted and ignorant host in cable history.  I’m not very familiar with her rhetoric, but her repetitive comparison of the Republican Party with the Taliban doesn’t lend itself to productive discourse.  But she’s not alone.  
Liberal journalists are having trouble keeping jobs.  It’s a combination of their high salaries coupled with lower viewership and revenue.  Don Lemon and Jim Acosta are now independent antagonists, as no network wants them.  Nora O’Donnel and now Lester Holt have relinquished their coveted anchor chairs of their respective evening network newscasts, and it’s just a matter of time before ABC gets tired of overpaying their anchor.  
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has settled lawsuits against ABC for George Stephanopoulos calling him a rapist.  That cost ABC a 15-million dollar donation to the future Trump Presidential Library, and a public apology from George.  Yet to be resolved is the lawsuit against CBS’s 60 Minutes for altering Kamala Harris’ response to a question in order to make her sound more coherent.   Renewed by an FCC investigation, the raw footage was released and the public is welcome to comment on if CBS broke our trust.  In order to maintain a broadcast license, you must do so in the public interest.  By the way, the FCC has the power revoke the broadcast license of CBS, thus ending the oldest television broadcast company in the nation.  It would end the careers of countless people, decimate an industry and put millions of people out of work.  Just like Elon Musk, the director of the FCC is unelected.  When people complain about how much power Elon Musk has, the director of the FCC rolls his eyes.  It’s almost like the dynamic between a state trooper and a forest ranger.  Most people think the state trooper has the most authority, but when it comes right down to it, the forest ranger has more power.  But I digress.
The parent company of facebook, Meta, has also agreed to a settlement with the new president.  Trump sued Meta for removing him from the platform after the incident of January 6th, 2021.  

Unfinished business liner

MSNBC had to settle a lawsuit brought by a gynecologist who worked at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement center when three of the cable channel’s hosts called him a “uterus collector.”  I spoke about this in Season 10, Episode 11 and wondered if the case would ever make it to trial.  It didn’t.  The final language of the settlement is still being worked on, but parent company NBC Universal and the doctor have signed a term sheet that will lead to a conclusion out of court. 
It’s no wonder the people have little confidence in the mainstream media.  Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan recently claimed that Nazi Germany weaponized free speech to launch the holocaust.  Luckily, she proposed that thought to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who promptly schooled her on the actual history.  But it’s mind-numbing to me to think that a professional journalist on a major network program about politics could be so uneducated.  Or so brainwashed by leftist ideology that she’s no longer able to think for herself.  Any news organization that cared about its credibility would send Margaret Brennan packing.  Joy Reid might be looking for a roommate.

Let’s Go Back liner

1770
Boston Massacre: Five Americans, including Crispus Attucks, and a boy, are killed by British troops in an event that would contribute to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War (also known as the American War of Independence) five years later. At a subsequent trial the soldiers are defended by John Adams.  That’s right, John Adams, who succeeded George Washington as the second President of the United States.  I don’t think such a thing could happen in today’s political climate.  Let’s say for example that an illegal immigrant killed a few Americans.  An attorney steps up to the plate to defend the illegal alien alleged murderer.  Could that lawyer ever run for President of the United States without the opposition claiming the lawyer is sympathetic to illegal aliens?  John Adams represented soldiers of the same army that would declare war on the colonies.

1872
George Westinghouse patents the air brake.  He had already built a factory to make them in Wilmerding, Pennsylvania.  The plant had nine acres of floor space and covered more than 30 acres altogether.  Three-thousand people worked there, and Westinghouse built homes for the employees.  The air brake revolutionized the railroad industry.  In a kind of equinox, the air brake made it possible for trains to go faster.  That make them more efficient.  George Westinghouse was producing a thousand sets a day.  Westinghouse continued to improve upon the air brake, and by 1905, according to the Library of Congress, more than two-million rail cars and nearly 90-thousand locomotives had what was referred to as the Westinghouse Quick-Action Automatic Brake.
Similar attempts to capitalize on the air guitar were less successful.

1873
Censorship in the United States!!!!  The U.S. Congress enacts the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” books through the mail.
That’s not really censorship though, is it?  You’re still allowed to own obscene, lewd, and lascivious publications.  You just can’t transport it through the mail.  You can’t transport illegal drugs through the mail, either.  I guess it should be up to the people who carry the mail.  The mailman probably wasn’t going to deliver a set of encyclopedias to you mailbox, either.  Ask any mail carrier, they tell you they’d rather deliver the pornography.  In any case, the Comstock Act of 1873, signed by Ulysses S. Grant, is still in effect today, being amended as recently as 1996.  The act has survived numerous Supreme Court challenges.  Which begs the question...how was my dad able to get Playboy magazine delivered to the house?
Today, pornography is delivered through the internet.  The internet providers are protected from liability for what users post.  Therefore, it’s important to be careful about how you phrase your internet searches.  For example, if you’re looking for a cake recipe that isn’t dry, and you haven’t decided if you want a spice cake or a chocolate cake, you might be surprised what you find if you search for “moist chocolate spice.”

1789
In New York City, the first Congress of the United States meets, putting the United States Constitution into effect.  And everything was working just fine until this week in ...

1909, when President William Taft used what became known as a Saxbe fix, a mechanism to avoid the restriction of the U.S. Constitution’s Ineligibility Clause, to appoint Philander C. Knox as Secretary of State.  It wasn’t that big of a deal, though.  It’s more about how much a government person gets paid for moving from one position to another.  Both parties have used the fix as recently as the transition to the Obama administration.  Nixon and Carter used it as well.  The Ineligibility Clause was meant to keep political appointees from making a profit from a position they helped create.  
In today’s Trump administration, practically all of the appointees have taken pay cuts to become a part of the government.  Pete Hegseth was making more at fox news than he is as Secretary of Defense.  Sean Duffy, too.  Probably.  Elon Musk is literally a volunteer.  And the President himself doesn’t need the paycheck that comes with the job.  Yet, there are many people who insist that these people are only in it for themselves.  Maybe they are.  Maybe they’re in it for their place in history.  Because they sure ain’t in it for the money.

1918
The first case of Spanish flu occurs, the start of a devastating worldwide pandemic.  It lasted about two years and estimates are that up to 100-million people died.  The most recent pandemic, the Covid-19 pandemic took up to 36 and a half million lives.  So, one pandemic every one-hundred years or so might just be a way for the earth to keep the population in check.  But there have been other pandemics as well.  The HIV/Aids pandemic is still ongoing, having started in 1981, taking as many as 44 million from us.  But perhaps the most destructive plague in world history is the Bubonic Plague.  The bubonic plague didn’t just strike once, but multiple times over the course of human history.  It was first called the plague of Justinian in the year 541, but it was kept isolated to Europe, North Africa and Western Asia.  People couldn’t travel as easily then, so the disease didn’t have as many opportunities to spread.  The same regions were struck again by the bubonic plague in 1346.  By the time it was under control in 1353, between 30 and 60 percent of the European population was wiped out.  But Bubonic plague reared it’s ugly head again for two years in Italy beginning in 1629, then in Persia in 1772.  The bubonic plague was able to spread worldwide for the first time beginning in 1855, and wasn’t eradicated until 1960, killing up to 15 million people during those 105 years.
The fact is, many of these plagues are still with us.  Covid, AIDs, Influenza, measles and typhus are still active.  

1933
Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party receives 43.9% at the Reichstag elections. This later allows the Nazis to pass the Enabling Act and establish a dictatorship.  For those of you who like to compare Donald Trump to Adolph Hitler, here’s what to watch out for if you think President Trump wants to become a dictator.  What Hitler did was to create a law that allowed the Chancellor (himself) to make and enforce laws without having to go through the Reichstag, or the President of Germany, who at the time was Paul von Hindenburg.  Basically, the Chancellor had the power to do whatever he wanted without any of the checks or balances included in the government under the Weimar Republic, thus turning it into a totalitarian dictatorship.
The was the U.S. Constitution is written, it would be practically impossible for Donald Trump to pull off such a feat.  I doubt he wants to, but there are many who think he does.  To those people I say, “Don’t set the Capitol building on fire.”  Because a fire in Berlin’s Reichstag building was what set Hitler’s plans in motion. 

1998
Gay rights: Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.  Well, I should hope so!  Why should homosexuals not have to follow the same anti-harassment laws the rest of us have to follow?  
I always find it interesting when people describe harassment by using the term “unwanted sexual advances.”  Insisting that those who extend these unwanted sexual advances should be prosecuted.  Granted, there is a limit to which a person should have to endure the overtures of someone with which they have no desire to accommodate, but the fact is, most sexual advances are unwanted.  At least that’s my experience!

2005
Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly an airplane non-stop around the world solo without refueling.  That was 20 years ago, and I haven’t seen any follow-up on this technology.  I thought that by now everyone would have their own plane that flew on a few drops of fuel.  Maybe the Biden administration should have worked on that instead of mandating electric cars.

Email liner

It seem like lately, every time a person of color or a woman or anyone who doesn’t fit the definition of average gets hired or fired from a job, the subject of DEI comes up.  Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.  Three words, two of which sound like good ideas on the surface.  But the Trump administration has gone on a war against all three words when they’re used together.  Critics of DEI initiatives claim it’s just another form of racism; that it’s only purpose is to move white men to the side to make room for anybody but a white man.  That’s what diversity means, right?
Equity is also criticized as a code word for rewarding the unqualified or the lazy among us.  While Inclusion is just another way to say diversity, but only having two words in your platform seems a but bare.  Kind of like when you start out thinking you were going to make a list, but then you only had two things on it.  It’s not much of a list.  The critics of DEI make some good points, but the supporters of DEI don’t see the definitions in the same way as the critics.  This difference of opinion was demonstrated by a survey conducted by CNN.  Although it’s a very small sample of seven industry leaders and so-called DEI experts, CNN summarized what they called a “shared vision for what constitutes the concept (of DEI).”  https://www.yahoo.com/news/dei-why-dividing-america-155019709.html 
CNN says Diversity “is embracing the differences everyone brings to the table, whether those are someone’s race, age, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability or other aspects of social identity.”  I, too, am in favor of embracing the differences everyone brings to the table...when it comes to knowledge of the subject matter, education, experience, wisdom, critical thinking abilities.  Things that actually matter.  Just because you have a social identity of a smart person doesn’t mean anything.  I’m living proof of that.  But if I were running a company and had to choose between the characteristics CNN calls diversity or my list of characteristics, I would choose mine every time unless there’s a distinct advantage that I’m not seeing in the first group.  What I mean is, does diversity for diversity’s sake guarantee any improvement?  Or it it just an exercise?
CNN says equity “is treating everyone fairly and providing equal opportunities.”  I think I see the disconnect here.  But just to be sure…

Look that up liner

I wanted to look this up because the word equity is sometimes used where the word equality is better suited.  There was a time, not long ago, that minorities were striving for equality.  But, as far as when I noticed, during the summer riots of 2020, minorities were no longer seeking equality, but equity.  At least that when I noticed the shift from one word to the other.  I think it went over a lot of people’s heads because the words sound so similar.  In fact, these two words were featured in the very first edition of Similar But Different, back in July of 2022.  At that time, I used the words to a song called The Trees, which concludes with the trees all being kept equal by “hatchet, ax, and saw.”
While CNN calls equity treating everyone fairly and providing equal opportunities, according to Merriam-Webster, treating everyone fairly and providing equal opportunities are not the same thing.  https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/equality-vs-equity-difference  Just like equity and equality are not the same thing.  The dictionary uses a different analogy.  It says:

The idea that sometimes sameness of treatment (equality) does not result in proportional fairness (equity) is one way that these words are distinguished from each other, even in similar contexts. Sometimes this distinction is explained with an illustration showing people of different heights using boxes to stand on in order to see over a fence; equality is if all the boxes are identical, but equity is if the boxes are different sizes to permit the people, regardless of their height, the ability to see over the fence.
So, even if everyone is treated equally, the results may not be equal.  Therefore, you need equity to bring those with less talent, skill, education, experience or, some would argue, opportunity in order for everyone to be able to see over the metaphorical fence.  In other words, to have equal success.  CNN could have just told us what equity means, but that wouldn’t look good because equity is not treating everyone fairly, nor is it providing equal opportunities.
And finally, CNN tells us that Inclusion is respecting everyone’s voice and creating a culture in which people from all backgrounds feel encouraged to express their ideas and perspectives.  That sounds like it should be true.  But I can’t help but wonder how many ideas and perspectives CNN censored during the Covid pandemic.  I can’t help but wonder how many perspectives about the mental acuity of President Biden were excluded from “respecting everyone’s voice.”
It’s not just CNN, though, is it?  Every liberal cable news channel, every liberal network, every liberal newspaper and radio station, every liberal, every progressive has demonstrated time and time again how intolerant the left can be, and is.  Violently intolerant.  Anyone who disagrees or even challenges the liberal stance on social issues in particular, are condemned and slandered.  The left preaches inclusion, but then excludes anyone who doesn’t fall in line with the approved talking points.  Detractors are called racist, fascists, phobes of all types like transphobe or homophobe, Hitler, Nazi, cult follower, the list goes on.  The left claiming to be in support of inclusion is a smokescreen for their rabid reactions to dissent.  The do exactly what they claim to abhor.  But the left has been claiming ownership of inclusion so loudly that nobody notices when they’re the worst offenders.
So is DEI a good thing or a bad thing?  Maybe neither.  Many of the large companies and corporations that tried it have abandoned it.  I’m sure they all hoped that there would have been some sort of benefit to it all, but it just cost a lot of money with very little to show for the investment.  In many ways, it was probably just an insurance policy against the threat of a boycott by progressive activists turning into bad publicity.  I’m guessing they believe the threat is over now.  The Trump administration has come down firmly against it, removing DEI programs from all federal agencies, so that also takes off some of the pressure.
But there was a lot of pressure during the Biden administration.  When the left was in charge, DEI programs were flush with cash and opportunity.  They had to make DEI work at all costs, because after all,  Vice President Kamala Harris was a DEI hire.

The Listening Tube is written and produced by yours truly.  Copyright 2025.  Thank you for putting your ear to the Listening Tube.  Tune in next week for my conversation with Pan Zeitgiest.  Until then, Suppor the show or text me from the homepage.  I’m your host, Bob Woodley for thou ad infinitum.