Podcast 306

Political Polarization. This Podcast is live from the backyard, on a warm summer night. This is made possible by the magic of on demand audio. How did politics get so personal? How did Political Polarization become something written and talked about all the time. These days it seems like the media tries to divide Americans by slicing and dicing poll data. What’s the real divider in America today? The Government. What’s the solution? Maybe getting the government out of the people’s lives. Is the solution a third political party? Former Minnesota Governor Jessie Ventura is saddened by the news that the Independence Party has lost major party status in his home state. What about Ventura’s one term as Minnesota’s Governor? How did that work out? Meanwhile, how does one explain the fact that ‘divided’ Americans keep putting up moderate candidates like Mitt Romney, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton and Jim Webb? If American Politics is so polarized, why do moderate candidates consistently end up as favorites? Mitt Romney continues toying with a presidential run, trash talking Clinton and Obama, but offering no solutions or plans of his own. (Editor’s Note: And you wonder why I say Republican arguments so far are nothing by rhetoric.) Is it possible we Americans run a little deeper on the issues than polling data can show? Is it possible people are divided on different issues, yet not necessarily ‘polarized’ when it comes to the leaders they choose? Has the growth of government in our personal lives made everything political? Is it possible the divisions, and frustration and anger might be mitigated if Washington and Saint Paul would just get out of the way? Sponsored by Depotstar. 

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Podcast 304

Snow Storms and Drones. Midweek update on the top stories, starting with the New York Blizzard of the century that fizzled. Now the Governor of New York, Governor of New Jersey and Mayor of New York City look like Chicken Little. A National Weather Service Meteorologist has apologized – profusely – for going so far as to suggest the city be evacuated. This is the same meteorologist who perfectly predicted Hurricane Sandy. Maybe he got lucky, or Pride Goeth Before The Fall. The Justice Department has investigated the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri last summer, and has decided – drum roll please – not to press charged against Police Officer Darren Wilson. Will there be apologies from the ‘Hands Up Don’t Shoot’ crowd for lying? Don’t count on it. Remember the fanfare that greeted the release of Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl last summer? Almost immediately his brothers in arms said he was a deserter. Now Bergdahl will have to go through a Court Martial to determine whether its true. Bergdahl stands to lose rank and at least three hundred thousand dollars in back pay and benefits. Finally a man described as a drunk ‘federal employee’ lost control of a drone Monday night while he was flying it ‘at an apartment building a few blocks from the White House’. He went to bed, woke up the next morning, heard it had crashed onto the lawn of the White House, and called the Secret Service himself to tell them that, yeah he was the guy. The employee works for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which provides the NSA and the Department Of Defense with … you know, stuff. This shows what off the shelf disruptive technology can do to centrally controlled structures, like give the secret service another black eye. Just what they need. The President was traveling Monday, and wasn’t at the White House, although his kids were. Sponsored by Depotstar. 

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Podcast 264

Jeb Bush? Really? What started as a midweek update, back in the studio after the road trip, turned into a discussion of whether the ‘conservative movement’ has completely lost its way, even whether it exists at all. As Congress seems to struggle with how to handle President Obama’s executive orders on immigration, in an effort to avoid a government shutdown which moderates feel is bad publicity for Republicans, the Speaker’s plan is apparently to pass a continuing resolution for the overall budget while offering a separate budget for Homeland Security (Which is where the funding for the President’s controversial executive order on Immigration is funded). This leaves room for the complete Republican 117th Congress to address these issues after January. This strategy isn’t sitting well with some Republicans who believe they were sent there to stop the President’s power grab. While political junkies should probably stop worrying about Congress and start concentrating on building organizations for 2016, there is a big fight brewing on both sides of the political spectrum. Progressive and Moderate Democrats on one side, and a mixed bag of Republican constituencies on the other. Libertarians, Moderates, Religious Conservatives all vying for control of the GOP … again. This leaves space for yet another Bush to ride in on the White Horse they keep down there on the ranch and be ‘the adult in the room’ and stop all those crazy ‘Paul-Bots’, and ‘Tea Baggers’; i.e.; The Conservative Movement. Or what’s left of it. The challenge in this podcast is, once again, to define what exactly a conservative is? While the Republicans won a huge midyear victory, that victory does not mean the ‘movement’ is healthy … or even alive. A conservative is a former Florida Governor who believes in Common Core and doesn’t want to repeal Obama Care? Republicans might have won a legislative majority in 2014, but that doesn’t mean they know what they’re doing. All it shows — and they certainly deserve credit for it — is that they were able to get their people out to vote, while the other side stayed home. But what is the GOP for? What do the conservatives want to do about economic policy, spending and debt, foreign policy? The so called grassroots are talking about 1776, the constitution and a constitutional convention (Editor’s Note: The dumbest idea ever.) This is a conservative ‘movement’? Next? Someone finally has taken the pundits who keep saying cheaper gas is like a huge tax cut. Except it’s not. In this podcast find out why. Plus, don’t forget there is an ominous demand side to the cheaper gas we’re currently enjoying; Slow downs in Europe, Japan, China and Latin America do not bode well for the global economy, and the US isn’t growing dynamically to pull everyone else’s fat out of the fire this time. Black Friday turned out to be a bust. So don’t expect that just because gas is 2.49 a gallon it means unicorns and rainbows, economically speaking that is. Sponsored by X Government Cars and by Depotstar. 

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