Welcome to the Bob Davis Podcasts. All my podcasts are right here. Listen by clicking on the podcast and then clicking ‘play’ on the media player. Subscribe to the RSS feed right off the page, or use the The Bob Davis Podcasts streaming audio. Subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify or listen on Blog Talk Radio, Spreaker.com, Stitcher.com or TunedIn.com and more. Just follow the links.
Listen to streaming live now! (opens a new window)
They call them ‘Trump Zombies‘. These days, to them, whatever he does is golden. The president’s fanboys are now claiming he will easily win the 2020 election by a landslide. What are the chances? In Landslide-Trump-Zombie-Dreams-Bob Davis Podcast 848.
It’s more than a year from the 2020 election. The commentators and pundits are already telling us what will happen. Moreover their predictions are nothing more than wishful thinking.
I’ll start with actual vote totals rather than early polls. Moreover I’ll talk about what a ‘landslide victory‘ is. Finally, what even an electoral landslide victory for the president would be built on.
Certainly these pundits and commentators are on a rich political operator’s payroll. They’re voices are not their own.
It’s most noteworthy that the things the people on TV and Talk Radio say often end up in the discourse. Especially when they’re telling you what you want to hear, which is when their lips are moving. Especially relevant is, people don’t know how to fact check the steady flow of nonsense that passes for ‘news’ in America. Even the fact checkers.
As a result it is left to independent voices like me to go through the so called ‘battleground states‘ and examine vote totals from 2016, and review vote totals and turn out for 2018 to get closer to an answer to the question, could Trump achieve a landslide victory in 2020? That’s what I do in Landslide-Trump-Zombie-Dreams-Bob Davis Podcast 848.
In conclusion it depends on votes. Not passion. Not polls. Pundits don’t decide who wins. It’s easy to call a winner when the president is one of the known factors and the other team hasn’t picked a standard bearer.
Trump’s Zombie Army ought to plan on a lot of door knocking and hard political work if they want to win by a landslide.
Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and Reliafund Payment Processors
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:00 — 87.0MB) | Embed
We’re living through a pretty intense time these days. Moreover I noticed something I call ‘peak summer‘ recently. It’s a pristine moment when time seems to stop and you can’t get enough. Learn more in Peak-Summer-Triggers-Transformation-Bob Davis Podcast 847.
In addition I think summer has a transformational quality. You can transcend all the BS. Especially in that moment when evening turns to dusk, the moon rises, and night starts to come on.
I am fascinated with the power of sound. You can’t really film peak summer. Oh sure, some movies capture it. Pictures sometimes get it. On the other hand recording peak summer bottles the experience.
As a result I have been out recording blocks of sound. In Peak-Summer-Triggers-Transformation-Bob Davis Podcast 847 listen to evening become night. You’ll have to put up with my explanation of why summer is transformative and some summer memories.
I first experienced peak summer when I was a kid. Seems like around twelve, thirteen or fourteen. When you hit that age there is a natural separation from the family and a yearning for freedom.
Maybe due to age, maybe by my insistence, my parents relaxed the rules a little during those times. I got to stay out later. Spent the night on the front porch, or in my fort in the backyard.
I’ve always been a night owl. Consequently I spent a lot of time on the front stoop on those summer nights, listening to the radio and dreaming the way a kid dreams about the future.
It’s most noteworthy that these days I seem to have returned to those halcyon days. The glow of the street lights. Wind in the trees. The sound of trains in the big switching yard in my home down.
We’re at the moment of peak summer right now. Enjoy It.
I don’t have to tell people who live in the Upper Midwest, it’s a fleeting and magical moment. But I can share it with you…
Sponsored by Reliafund Payment Processors
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:03 — 82.5MB) | Embed
These days you never know when you’re going to be in a media storm. That’s what happened when a suburban city council decided to stop saying the Pledge of Allegiance at some of their meetings. We’re going inside a meeting Saint Louis Park held to discuss the decision. Learn more in Suburban-Pledge-Fight-Goes-Viral-Bob Davis Podcast 846.
Saint Louis Park is a first ring western suburb of Minneapolis. The City Council voted 5-0 on June 17th, 2019 to stop saying the pledge at some meetings. The city’s mayor wasn’t in attendance at the June 17th meeting.
Even more, after news accounts of the ‘ban’ on the Pledge, the story went viral. Public outcry overwhelmed city staff and the council offices.
As a result Saint Louis Park held another meeting to discuss the vote. This was a ‘study group’ meeting. It’s most noteworthy that it wasn’t supposed to include public comments or conclude with a vote.
It’s especially relevant for Suburban-Pledge-Fight-Goes-Viral-Bob Davis Podcast 846 that mostly non residents showed up at the July 8th meeting to loudly express their dismay and anger.
This podcast takes you through the meeting without very much comment from me.
First of all I think the story is best told by the voices of the council and the people who were there.
In addition if you wear headphones or turn it up you’ll be in the seats and you’ll hear the meeting as it went down. That includes hard to hear public officials and screaming protesters.
Finally I conclude the podcast with some historical facts and one short observation. In conclusion I wonder whether this protest flatters Tea Party and other ‘activists’ that showed up. You will hear them shout and scream, forcing council members to plead for a chance to finish statements often in support of restoring the pledge.
Many of the protesters will celebrate President Trump’s vow to ‘restore the pledge in Saint Louis Park’. Emotional and understandable attachments to a pledge rewritten and made famous by an avowed socialist and anti capitalist notwithstanding, they may have done more damage to their movement in this suburb and in the fifth congressional district, than they know.
(Editor’s Note: It has been asserted that a requirement to say the pledge of allegiance is in the Saint Louis Park City Charter. Upon reading it I can find no such requirement. Click here and read for yourself. Maybe I missed it. In addition, it has been asserted again and again that naturalized citizens have to say the Pledge of Allegiance at their citizenship ceremony. On the contrary, they swear an oath to uphold and defend the US Constitution, and to disavow loyalty to any other sovereign. Read for yourself here. That is not the pledge of allegiance!)
Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating Of Saint Paul
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:55 — 84.5MB) | Embed
Join me while I cook dinner and talk about the mega trip I just took. These days no one does anything alone, and I have a lot of people to thank in Parting Shots-Backroads-Roadtrip-Bob Davis Podcast 845.
First of all I have to thank the sponsors. Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and Reliafund Payment Processors.
In addition many people donated cash to the Bob Davis Podcasts through the donate button, over there to your right under the pic of Mobile Podcast Command.
These contributions are most noteworthy because they meant a fill up at critical times. Especially relevant is how those contributions became critical, when I lost an alternator and had to pay for service calls. Learn more in Parting Shots-Backroads-Roadtrip-Bob Davis Podcast 845.
Moreover lessons learned from travel do not live on the surface of our minds. Perceptions of reality change because of overall experience. I do these travel podcasts, and travel this way, because we’re drowning in a sea of partisan persuasion. Someone needs to take the time to travel and experience America without judgement. I don’t think too many analysts or commentators are following this path. It’s time consuming, expensive and it is not a vacation. But so worth it.
I have learned getting out there on the back roads goes a long way to break down motivated reasoning processes about what is actually happening out there.
It’s been awhile since my mega trips of 2016 and 2017. Mobile Podcast Command needed another shakedown. All this in preparation for the mega trip of all time which will be to run the border between Brownsville, Texas and San Diego, California.
To a certain extent this podcast is a shameless pitch for businesses to sponsor that trip. For the record, the travel podcasts I do have great demographics and interest. A great platform for advertisers. Direct Message me through this website if you’re interested.
Truth is it’s nice to be home pan frying a steak in an iron skillet on my own stove.
Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating Of Saint Paul and Reliafund Payment Processors
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:00 — 75.5MB) | Embed
One most noteworthy thing about back roads travel is what you do when you break down. These days the more travel on the back roads in a twenty year old truck means more chances to break down. Join me real time in Travel-Setbacks-Breakdowns-Backroads-Bob Davis Podcast 844.
Especially relevant? You just can’t predict when something you didn’t think about will put you on the side of the road. Then what?
Moreover I always wonder why breakdowns happen close to home. On this 8 state tour of the Mid Southern and Midwestern states I have traveled more than three thousand miles. Almost all back roads.
Now, less than two hundred miles from home, it’s an alternator.
Even more Mobile Podcast Command has two alternators and three batteries. For more than a hundred miles it ran until it sucked power from all its batteries.
I cover a lot of ground when I travel. Driving 12 hours a day. Hence my drive to make it home.
When it all goes down, I am left with barely enough for flashers.
First of all while I am on the side of the road I remember to give thanks I am still alive. One time I came close to not being alive because of a breakdown by the side of the road.
What’s the lesson here? Above all it’s important to know when a problem is serious enough to stop in a town and wait for service.
On the other hand I got to meet some great people from HABHAB towing in Ames, Iowa and State Farm Insurance. In addition I got to stop and smell the roses. Or, in this case prairie grass and weeds.
Finally I follow a lot of people doing with van life thing. Living on the road in a converted school bus or whatever. Most of the time Instagram and Facebook posts make it look like a blast.
Truth is, almost all of us out here encounter set backs and breakdowns, usually unpredictable and without warning. Doesn’t matter if you checked everything out before you left, you’re still going to have unpredictable problems.
Even if you’re by the side of the road in the middle of the night.
Sponsored by Reliafund Payment Processors and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:12 — ) | Embed
