Podcast 521

Stormy Weather. In a surprise only to ‘conservatives’ who listen only to ‘conservative’ talk show hosts, watch ‘conservative’ TV shows and go to conservative websites, the FBI decided not to recommend criminal prosecution of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over her use of a personal email server while she was in the Obama Administration. Why? The short answer is, intent is a key consideration in cases like these. The long answer is, Mrs. Clinton played her ‘Benghazi Card’ better known as ‘If I go down, you go down’ and she got action from the administration. At least that’s one possible explanation. In the past few days President Obama suddenly closed ranks with the Clintons (despite all the rumors of the rancor between the Obamas and the Clintons). Attorney General Loretta Lynch had a now famous ‘tarmac meeting’ with former president Bill Clinton and President Obama allowed Hillary Clinton to ride Air Force One with him to a campaign event, where they walked, hand in hand, down the steps. “If I go down, YOU go down”. Now it’s a matter of politics. He said, she said. He said she’s a crook. She said he’s an anti semite. Congress releases a damning report on the administration’s conduct regarding ‘Benghazi’…Democrats say it is a partisan document. Republicans say it’s the ‘truth’ about Mrs Clinton and her boss, President Obama. “If I go down, YOU go down.” More fodder for the campaign trail. They were asleep and the switch, says one side. They’re partisan dividers, says the other side. Meanwhile the world’s leading economies are drowning in a sea of paper money and deficit spending, and economies are faltering. Do you really think this election is going to fix anything? We live in interesting times, with the great potential of a new technical industrial revolution and all that portends, and a personal challenge to change the way we think and how we work, and what we demand of our political institutions. Too bad our sclerotic politics delivers a statist who wants to spend and tax more, and a statist who wants to wall the country off from the rest of the world. We could have this technology revolution now, or we can languish for another thirty years while these idiots we call presidential candidates stumble around in economic darkness. Yeah sure, go ahead and talk until you’re blue in the face about Hillary’s email server, or about the Star of David on Trump’s twitter account, while the printing presses debase the currency, governments spend themselves into the poor house, the media puts on cartoons and calls them news, and we hurtle toward our destiny, whatever that may be. The US is now a country that’s happy about revised economic growth from .5 percent to 1.1 percent, with 95 million people out of the work force, a media that writes gossip and calls it news, and a population that believes Russian Propaganda and You Tube conspiracy theories because…what’s the difference? The Earth is hollow, you know and there’s a whole civilization down there, right? And you wonder about moral hazard? Sponsored by Karow Contracting and Brush Studio in the West End, Saint Louis Park. (Editor’s Note: In this podcast I refer to former CIA Director David Petraeus’ offenses regarding passing classified information with intent, and engaging in a coverup after as occurring while Petraeus was on active military duty. I wondered whether he would be under the Military Code of Justice in this case. This is incorrect. Petraeus was director of the CIA when the offenses occurred and not on active duty. For comparison to the Clinton question, one should refer to the FBI director’s congressional testimony regarding the differences between the Clinton question and the Petraeus case.)

Podcast 497

Midnight Deck Radio. It’s that time of year again. Just before the bugs, when the trees are full and the nights are cool. But, the coffee’s on and the Tiki Torches are lit, time for some Midnight Deck Radio. As we wait for the planet Mercury to transit between the Earth and the Sun in the 6:00 hour Central Daylight Savings Time on Monday, May 9th, it’s time to update Bob Davis Podcast Listeners for the week ahead. You wouldn’t know it if you listened to talk radio or to the 24 hour cable television channels, but there isn’t much to talk about in politics until the next spate of primary elections. Even then, there won’t be any real fireworks until just before both mainline party conventions late this summer. That doesn’t stop the media machine though, rehashing and churning away with more opinion and commentary on the same issues again and again, and again. How many times can we talk about whether or not Hillary Clinton will be indicted (um, no she won’t) or how Donald Trump is the ‘presumptive’ nominee of the Republican party? One of the things I’ve learned doing the weekly ‘Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show’ is how prescient the Bob Davis Podcasts can be when it comes to forecasting political events and issues ahead of the curve. The podcasts have been talking for weeks about the potential for an establishment fight over the ‘presumptive’ Trump nomination. Just before the weekend all the stories broke about republican establishment types concerned about the down ticket, former presidents who say they won’t attend the convention, establishment donors and potential candidates refusing to endorse the ‘presumptive’ nominee. Which brings us to the media itself. A New York Times article last week about White House Media advisor and Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes has lots of people talking about how the White House ‘controls’ or thinks it controls the media. The main point of the story was Rhodes’ comments about how reporters sometimes copy and reprint whole press releases word for word, because no one actually does any real reporting work anymore when it comes to news. This is was an ongoing topic of conversation when The Bob Davis Podcasts was on the road in Mobile Podcast Command covering the primary election season in Iowa, South Carolina, Florida and Texas this spring. Yes there are a few actual reporters in Washington and New York who work sources and check out stories, but for the most part these days if you’re watching the 24 hour cable channels or listening to the radio you’re getting nothing more than a rehash of someone else’s writing and very often, it’s a press release written up as a new story without any fact checking or source confirmation. What missing is the kind of information people need to be able to discern what are facts and whether those facts are important or not. This is one of the reasons why American Politics isn’t a process for problems solving but a national representation of an increasingly tribal population. How do we build a future when all we’re really concerned about is what tribe each other belongs to and whether we can talk to each other? Digital media can help with that, or it can exacerbate the problem. How do podcasts make a difference? What’s the mission of this podcast these days? Sponsored by X Government Cars and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul.