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Will 1968 Unrest Shockwaves Echo In 2018-Podcast 670

Every now and then it’s necessary to break it down. Why does a long time political observer and analyst find it more difficult to talk about politics these days? In Will 1968 Unrest Shockwaves Echo In 2018-Podcast 670.

Rhetorical Partisans

Some say the US hasn’t been this politically divided since 1968. At least in 1968 we were fighting about specific issues. It seems to me we’re fighting over a person in the present time frame.

Demanding Loyalty

Attack Trump. Defend Trump. At any cost. Ideas and principles aren’t important. Commentators are running for office, under the employ of some partisan organization, or supporting a person or point of view. Will 1968 Unrest Shockwaves Echo In 2018-Podcast 670.

Garbage In Garbage Out

Social media, the Internet and so called news sites spew a constant stream of invective, misinformation and outright lies. They are so busy predicting the future they put Tarot Card Readers and Astrologists to shame.

Read It and Weep

Denying our freedom to choose what we think about an issue based on facts, in the quest to demand loyalty is the height of folly. In Will 1968 Unrest Shockwaves Echo In 2018-Podcast 670. We end up shouting at each other; partisan mobs, not an informed electorate.

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Will 1968 Unrest Shockwaves Echo In 2018-Podcast 670

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Podcast 328

Net Neutrality. If you were called on to explain something called ‘Net Neutrality’ could you? Most people can’t, and many in the telecommunications business are challenged when it comes to explaining it in terms ‘regular’ people can understand. In spite of this, the FCC has issued new rules regarding Internet Service Providers based on something called Title II, of the Communications Act of 1934. Hey! Did you fall asleep? These new rules – now pay attention – reportedly begin government regulation of Internet Service Providers in a way similar to how telephone companies have been. With the passage of the new regulations, media coverage of this issue has exploded. Now, the earliest these rules can go into effect is this summer, and there will be court challenges, and public pressure brought to bear in the meantime. The FCC is supposed to be an independent agency within the executive branch, and FCC Chair Tom Wheeler was in favor of a lighter touch here, until President Obama issued a video purported to be directed to the public, but the audience was in fact Tom Wheeler, appointed by the President. So, Wheeler knuckled under and issued harder regulations. Reportedly, supporters of Net Neutrality (oddly enough mostly on the political left) issued as many as four million emails supporting the President’s version. If you are one of those people slapping the table and decrying another power grab by the President, how many emails did you send? The real issue here is the increasing power and proliferation of government agencies controlled by bureaucrats appointed by executives to issue rules with the force of law, controlling our lives. The last months of the Obama Administration will be one wild ride after another, triggered by executive order, executive memoranda, or prosecutorial discretion. This is the reason every little thing in life seems political, and its the reason people who want to cut the Gordian Knot of Government have to get involved and stay involved. Sponsored by Baklund R&D. 

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Podcast 305

Comcast Customer Service Sucks. Close out the week with a podcast down in the bunker by the wood stove. A consumer advocate blogger breaks another national story about how bad Comcast’s customer service is. When a woman tried to cancel her cable service, the company allegedly refused to allow to her do so, and sent a late bill notice in which the customer’s name was changed from ‘Ricardo Brown’ to ‘A**hole Brown’. The story was picked up by CNNMoney and the rest of the mainstream media, and now Comcast has once again apologized. “It might take more than a few years for us to get our customer service straightened out” says a company spokesperson, or something like that. How are business models that seemed so great five, ten or twenty years ago looking more and more tarnished? What is the future of television, and cable delivered television. If Comcast is any example of how the industry operates, hopefully there is no future. Former Reagan OMB director David Stockman is on the warpath again, this time saying the Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing program is exclusively responsible for making people in the top 5 percent income bracket in the US richer. How is this era different from other ‘income inequality’ periods in US History. Does the Cocaine boom in Miami in the early 80’s prove, when business generates money (as opposed to central banks) everyone benefits? Meanwhile, the fastest growing business in the United States isn’t an industrial company or even technology, it’s legal Marijuana sales. Legal weed sales grew 74 percent in one year. Breaking news! The Obama Administration is telling banks to keep quiet about regulations targeted against gun owners and gun stores. More breaking news! More Americans are putting their cash in the mattress. Does that surprise you? And, the Minneapolis Tribune finds yet another negative story about North Dakota. Sponsored by Depotstar. 

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