Podcast 358

Back In The Bunker. Another special announcement concerning more distribution of the The Bob Davis Podcasts. Plus, a discussion of what it’s like to be back in the studio after weeks on the road in the Mobile Podcast Command Unit. This weekend – in podcast time – is Earth Day, 2015. It is, essentially, a secular, if not pagan Easter; a celebration of mother earth and spring, with political overtones. In truth, environmentalism has become a religion for some. Some environmental policy is good, and some — most of it — has been not so good. We start with California’s water problem, which could be solved with desalinization, but the state is spending billions more on a bullet train to nowhere. Desalinization actually costs less than the bullet train. Meanwhile Californians are talking about billions of gallons of fresh water poured into San Francisco Bay to save the Smelt Fish. Federal and State Governments in the US offer thousands of dollars in subsidies and tax credits if consumers buy electric cars. When gas was more expensive some calculated it would take five years to make up the difference in costs for a gas versus electric car. Now that gas prices have plunged it will take even longer. What are consumers doing? They are trading their electric cars in on SUV’s at the highest rate in years. Despite the prediction of the President that there would be millions of electric cars on the road by the end of his presidency. Continuing along the lines of government engineering. We’ve been seeing a lot of policy devoted to subsidized growth in major cities to create ‘Hipster Havens’ where the ‘creative class’ will collaborate and create thousands of new jobs. Suddenly though, not only are millennials starting to move into first ring suburbs, but exurbs are starting to grow again as well. Pretty hard to raise your baby in Hipster Heaven. This podcast also includes a list of 13 predictions, on Earth Day, that sounded really ominous in 1970, but which ended up being hopelessly wrong, as a reminder that just because ‘scientists agree’ doesn’t always mean you can take it to the bank. Do you think buying food at the farmer’s market — another feature of every Hipster Heaven — helps the environment. A new study says maybe not. Find out why. Finally, the media has discovered that the economy just isn’t growing fast enough. Where is the consumer? If the media isn’t spreading disinformation in its quest to focus on personalities and not issues for the presidential cycle of 2016 (which hasn’t even started yet) it’s spreading disinformation about the ‘growing’, ‘booming’ and ‘recovering’ economy. It’s just that the rosy scenario story line isn’t materializing. What might people think about the economy as an issue, heading into 2016. Will there be an economic crisis, and how will that impact the presidential race? Sponsored by Baklund R&D.

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Podcast 351

Thanking Contributors. Podcasting from the driveway in Los Angeles, California. Finally, the list of contributors to the Mobile Podcast Command Unit 8! Thanking all those who have contributed to the mobile podcast project, or at least as many as we can find documentation for. If you sent a contribution, and your name is not mentioned, email The Bob Davis Podcasts and you will be thanked. From Los Angeles, the plan is to head north on the Pacific Coast Highway, to NAPA, and points East. We’ll keep you updated as we roll. In thanking the contributors and sponsors, a little radio history and podcasting history in this installment. The Bob Davis Podcasts also just hit another milestone in terms of feeds and audience, which is great news. This is the week Rand Paul announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President. A lot of reaction to out of context statements the Senator made in his speech. What’s the reaction to simply finding the text of the speech online and reading it? Pretty good. It looks more and more like the left will try to make ‘Global Warming’ one of the centers of their campaign to take back the US Senate and retain the White House in 2016. How? By personalizing it. Now it’s all about the President’s daughter’s asthma, even though there’s no scientific link to asthma and ‘Global Warming’. If they’re not demonizing anyone who doesn’t agree with the orthodoxy on the issue, look for them to be telling stories about how grandma was killed by Global Warming. In other words, you killed grandma because you didn’t agree with them on the ‘Climate Change Issue’, and by the way, let’s depopulate the planet and get rid of capitalism, because they cause ‘it’ too. Sigh. Meanwhile people continue to rank all other issues and problems has having a higher concern than ‘Climate Change’, especially when you ask them to allocate resources to solve those problems. Hey, isn’t Warren Buffett concerned about the environment? Isn’t that why he opposes the Keystone Pipeline and hauls oil, highly profitably hauls oil by the way, in rickety train cars that are prone to cause fires when they derail? While Tim Cook of Apple decries the injustice Indiana’s Religious Freedom law, and claims the state is ‘closed’ to gay people, Apple does business in countries that actually kill people for being gay. Imagine! And then there’s the drought in California, which continues despite recent rain. Plus some radio history and some new news regarding feeds for the Bob Davis Podcasts. (Editor’s Note: For some reason I referred to Warren Buffett and an ‘Interloper’. I don’t know if that word really describes the sage of Omaha. And, I referred to Fundamentalist Christians as ‘Iconoclasts’. Who knows where that came from, because Iconoclast really doesn’t describe the Christian Right either. Sigh. But I’m not editing those missives out.) Sponsored by X Government Cars!

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Podcast 350

A Cold Day In LA. It might be said that it would be a cold day in LA before The Rolling Stone would have to completely retract one of its biggest stories, but it has happened in the wake of a review of the magazine’s UVa Rape story last year. The magazine blames a ‘fabulist’ story teller — the source — for the mistake. In reality, editors had to know they were publishing a story that did not adhere to any journalistic standard. Sources weren’t identified, or buttressed with other sources. The story of rape-crazy frat brothers sounded good, so what the hell. Let’s publish. Is this indicative of how the rest of the media operates? In California, the big story is drought. What’s not being reported is how the environmentalist elite in control of the state have fought one modernizing water project after another, over the years. Now, while rich Hollywood movie producers and actors water their lawns, the plebes are being charged extra for their water use. People like to decry the ‘fact’ that Congress gets ‘nothing done’ and ‘can’t work together’. Forget, for a moment that none of us are safe from the output of congress when it is ‘productive’, and that the general idea of law making should be to ‘do no harm’. President Obama likes to say Congress won’t work with him, and can’t get anything done either. So how is it the Vice President, Chief of Stafof and other minions at the White House are calling members top tell them the President will veto anything they might ‘produce’ which qualifies the fine print on the ‘Iran Deal’? This is how the President ‘works with’ Congress? Another big story line recently has been the ‘booming’ economy. A new employment report says the economy isn’t booming, in fact. Are we due for another recession? Finally, scientists are about to turn on the largest machine in the world. The Light Hadron Collector has been off for a couple of years, and will soon be back up and running. Get ready for earthquakes, Big Foot sightings, UFO’s and other weirdness. Sponsored by Baklund R&D.

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