Podcast 580-Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show-56

Podcast 580-Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show-56. Four mini podcast for your weekend. It’s time to move beyond talk about fake news and false narratives. Time to work on becoming better citizens. We have to get beyond reactions to get what is needed to create better political structures for the future. People have very high expectations about a Trump presidency. Whether you fear the future or can’t wait for it, the President-Elect’s cabinet nominations are moderate and establishment republicans. Trump’s ideas are philosophically all over the road. The new republican administration may end up being just as statist as a Hillary Clinton presidency. One example is Trump’s penchant for roads and bridges and airports. Given the establishment congress of republican moderates expecting a reduction in the cost and power of the federal government is too much to ask for. Fake News is still ‘in the news’. There were suggestions from the CIA at the end of last week that the Russians ‘could have’ been responsible for the Wikileaks hack. Still no proof though. That doesn’t stop the media from feeding into the Clinton camp narrative that Russia put Trump in the White House. It’s impossible to say what influenced voters in Ohio, Pennsyvania, North Carolina and Florida where Trump won by tight margins. None of these facts stop demands to ‘do something’ about ‘fake news’. FaceBook is caving and censorship is suddenly now a big topic. There have also been reports that Electors (members of the electoral college for 2016) have received death threats. What happens if Trump doesn’t have a majority of electors? What is the goal of people supporting the effort to influence the Electoral College? Have you driven around the country lately? If you had, you would know the United States does not have an ‘infrastructure’ problem. Building new airports, roads and bridges will not create enough new jobs to influence a 16 trillion dollar economy. Moreover, trade protection, cutting taxes on the middle class, increasing spending and government power including military spending is fraught with problems and probably won’t result in economic growth. Where does the money come from for these shiny objects? It has to be taxed or borrowed, sooner or later. For those who supported Trump because he ‘isn’t Hillary’, there are no guarantees he’ll be materially different from Clinton, when it comes to results. Sponsored by Brush Studio in the West End and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul.[Powerpress]

Podcast 576-Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show-54

Podcast 576-Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show-54. Hillary’s recount demands and Fidel Castro’s death prove real news stories are out there. Podcast 576-Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show-54 features a look at the opportunities and challenges confronting the people. I have no endorsement of any major candidate to defend. I have no wish to add to the media reactive political noise. What I can do is help people break out of the political box, by asking some important questions. If Donald J Trump is chosen by the Electoral College and inaugurated in January of 2017, the Republicans will be in the best position to control the Federal and State Governments in decades. However, celebrating republicans should keep in mind, most elected republicans leaders are still ‘establishment’ types. Despite his promises suddenly Trump is backpedaling on repealing the Affordable Care Act, and prosecuting Hillary Clinton. His top advisors are discussing a trillion dollar stimulus package for infrastructure. He’s pulling back on the ‘big beautiful wall’. ‘Moderate’ republicans are also pulling back on  trade policy and managing expectations on foreign policy. It is doubtful republicans will address tough economic challenges with policy fostering dynamic economic growth. While we’re lost in debates about tweets from Trump Tower, The US economy is hampered by too much regulation, excessive debt and spending. Many of the so called social problems in this country can be attributed at least in part to low employment and slow or no economic growth since 2008. This is why it feels like we’re living in the Matrix. With a technology revolution as significant as the industrial revolution we need new ideas about society, politics and government. Instead, we have institutions designed for an agricultural or industrial age that don’t serve us anymore. On top of all that are demographic changes. The Baby Boom population is aging rapidly. Younger people have different ideas about politics, government and society. The future belongs to these younger demographics, and with different ideas about society, ‘Conservative’ and ‘Liberal’ mean different things. To address the challenges of the future will require more of us than reacting to tweets, the latest outrage, or someone’s personality. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul, Hydrus Performance, and X Government Cars.[powepress]

Podcast 529

First Night at EAA. Sunday nights are load in nights for exhibitors, fly-ins, and media at the EAA AirVenture Air Show at Osh Kosh, Wisconsin. I always celebrate with a regular podcast, live from just under the control tower as we start a new week, on the First Night at EAA. It’s late. Everyone is asleep, but I am getting in the last few thoughts on the coming show, and new developments in the political world this weekend. Having just come from the RNC at Cleveland and witnessing the divisions in the Republican party firsthand, it’s a little weird to see the same kinds of fissures developing with the democrats at Philadelphia with the specter of the democrat establishment killing the grassroots too. Throughout this hot and stormy Sunday I’ve been thinking about a recent email exchange with a Trump supporter that says so much about American politics today. A gentleman who normally sends me great jokes via email suddenly swerved into politics exhorting me and a few score others on his email list to ‘vote Trump’. Why? Because Trump is going to get rid of NAFTA and the TPP and bring all the jobs back to the United States. I decided to press him to find out exactly why he thinks what he thinks and why he would take the unusual step of pushing his friends to vote Trump. It took several emails to learn he just ‘feels’ Trump is the best guy, Trump is like Lincoln, Trump knows what to do and he’ll do it, and don’t make me explain this stuff, google it. Then he asks me what I think of the questions I asked him! That serves as a debate in the land of Trump. A place where everyone gets what he wants, when he wants it, because Trump said so. A place where one bright morning a box will arrive from China and everyone will open it up and find a note that reads, “Sorry about taking your job at the bucket factory way back in 1997 but we needed it. Here it is back, slightly used but we hope you’ll forgive us”. There it is people. Donald J. Trump is going to get Uncle Joe his job back at Bethlehem Steel so he and Martha can buy back the 1993 Buick Regal, which the GM plant in Flint will be making again thanks to old ‘I’ll make the trains run on time’ Trump. I realized, while ordering coffee at the concessions stand next to the beautiful B-25 out here on the airfield, that there are a lot of 50+ children out there. Thinking is just too hard. Researching facts takes too much time. Actually learning the contours of an issue is a job no one wants. Lots of final thoughts — for the time being — on the convention, the resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz as the DNC chair, and the impending Trump presidency. Or not. Thank God I can talk about airplanes for the next few days! Sponsored by Hydrus Performance.