TruckStop-Washday-Four-States-24hours-Bob Davis Podcast 905

Seven States

First of all after hitting seven states in less than three weeks, it’s time for a break. Learn more about my latest mega trip in TruckStop-Washday-Four-States-24hours-Bob Davis Podcast 905.

Questions About Travel

These days I am asked a lot of questions about my travels.

Food and Laundry

Certainly the best questions are about simple stuff. What do you eat? Where do you do your laundry? Is Mobile Podcast Command an RV?

Truck Stops

Let’s start with two friends of the traveler. WalMart and Truck Stops.

Pilot!

When it comes to Truck Stops I have my favorites. Flying J, Pilots, Loves and T/A’s. Even more, some of the truck stops with names I can’t remember are great. Pilot is my favorite.

Wash Day At The Truck Stop

In TruckStop-Washday-Four-States-24hours-Bob Davis Podcast 905 we spend wash day at the Pilot south of San Antonio, Texas. The music’s classic rock, the People’s Court is on TV and there’s a full range of stuff to look at.

Travel In An America You Don’t See On TV

In addition in this podcast I make some observations about travel in an America saturated with political ‘news’ coverage.

Stressed Drivers and Travelers Need Calm

In contrast at most of the truck stops there’s no CNN, or Fox News or talk radio. There’s country, and classic rock, and a generally calm atmosphere for stressed truckers and travelers.

Back On The Road

Fill up. Get Something to eat. Take a shower. Do some laundry. Back on the road.

24 Hours of Driving and Back To Minnesota

Four states in one day in this podcast. From San Antonio to Dover, Oklahoma, and then onto Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, to finally end in Minnesota on an unusual sunny and warm day in February.

Unsung Heroes

Here’s to the unsung heroes on the road. The drivers, the people at the Pilot, the WalMart, the guy in Oklahoma who stopped to talk to me about my T-shirt.

No Academy Awards Here

Especially relevant is the fact that none of these people will probably ever win an academy award, run for congress, or even make a speech beyond funerals or their kids’ birthday parties.

On The Job

Above all though, they’re back on the job every day. All across this vast country.

Real America

Finally it was a great relief to see real America after two weeks of speechifying and media coverage of politics in Iowa.

Sponsored by the Strategists at Virtus Law

TruckStop-Washday-Four-States-24hours-Bob Davis Podcast 905

Podcast 332 – Congressman Tom Emmer

Congressman Tom Emmer. Tom Emmer joins the Bob Davis Podcast to talk about his recent vote for the DHS funding bill, which has generated so much controversy with some constituents in Minnesota’s 6th District. Tom talks about the original budget bill known as ‘CROMNIBUS’, and the bill defunding DHS the House was asked to vote on recently. Also discussed is the need for an overall strategy to address presidential executive orders and memoranda, by President Obama. Problem is, since it is President Obama issuing the orders, he picks the time and ‘place’ of battle, forcing Congress to react, rather than act. Emmer also talks about the controversy on his vote for the Speaker, and disagreements with some leaders and members of the North Metro Tea Party recently. It was recently suggested that Minnesota’s 6th District is one of the most republican in the United States (Editor’s note: I made the suggestion.) In reality, while Minnesota’s 6th district is one of the most republican in Minnesota, with a +6 generic republican vote, there are districts in some states in the range of +20 for the generic republican vote. So no, Minnesota’s 6th district is not ‘like Texas’. Emmer says he understands people are angry and frustrated. Those who are angry and frustrated don’t want to talk about the complexities surrounding votes like the recent DHS vote, they’re just angry. The Congressman suggests conservatives need to lead with logic and not emotion on these issues, and the right needs a strategy for the next 18 or so months, and 2016. He says it will be different when the Senate has a 60+ majority of republicans, a wider republican majority in the House and a republican President. Tom says he has been talking with constituents pretty much non-stop since the vote. This podcast did not represent an opportunity to argue with Congressman Emmer, but an opportunity for him to respond, and to give listeners an idea what it might be like to have a conversation with the Congressman on the phone. Emmer and Davis also talk about the Authorization for Military Action the President is asking for, and whether he thinks arming the Ukraine is a good idea, given the fact that a group of Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate are asking the President to do so. Also discussed is trade policy, and the recent ‘Snowmageddon’ that has hit the Capitol. Sponsored by Baklund R&D

Podcast 331

DHS Funding and Netanyahu. Minnesota’s 6th District Congressman Tom Emmer voted for the ‘clean’ DHS funding bill, as congress capitulates to the President. Emmer says he is disappointed in his colleagues who fought to refuse funding the President’s effort to ‘amnestitize’ illegal aliens through executive memoranda. Emmer says the courts will handle it. The question really is where supporters in the 6th district – one of America’s most conservative – will come down on the issue. Congress seems to be loathe to actually have a fight with the President, in order to put some limits on what he thinks he can do with executive action. The fact is, capitulating to President Obama will only further embolden him to issue yet more executive orders, and cause further disputes Congressional Republicans can run away from. According to the White House, Obama is considering executive action on corporate taxation, and second amendment issues as his staff works day in and day out to find ways for him to run the country more like a Boris Yeltsin or Vladimir Putin, than a constitutional US Chief Executive. For those who suggest Republicans need to ‘keep their powder dry’, or pick the big issue they can win to fight on … If not now, when? Be prepared; the new argument is you’re a ‘child’ if you advocate cutting the Government Gordian Knot. What we need, they’ll say, is trustworthy conservatives to make it run, right. Which is exactly what Obama said in 2008. The fact is, ‘radical’ ideas of lesser government aren’t childish, they date back to the birth of the republic. Moreover, there are structured proposals to audit the Fed, as well as eliminating agencies that are inefficient, or don’t work. They’re hardly rash, or childish. The idea that ‘conservatives’ need to nominate ‘responsible’ candidates ‘who can win’ is back. Times have changed, though, and the last thing this country and the Republicans need is another retread from the 1980’s, or timid go-along-get-along ‘problem solvers’ who believe NASA and the Interstate Highway system represent our future. As the so called radicals get organized, and raise money and votes, the message from Minnesota’s 6th voters, may soon be akin to Wyatt Earp’s … “Commence to fighting or get out of the way!” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress, upsetting White House aides who tweeted insults, and apparently nearly bringing minority leader Pelosi to tears. Contrary to critics, Netanyahu’s speech does provide alternatives to the agreement now being negotiated with Iran which the Israeli leader says constitutes an existential threat to Israel, and the US. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul.