Podcast 369

Night Train. An Amtrak train going over 100 miles an hour derails and the reason for the crash? Infrastructure. Really? It will be weeks before the real cause of the crash, which killed at least 7 people is known. Yet the ghouls in Congress are already making the most out of a crisis and tragedy by demanding, you guessed it, more spending for ‘infrastructure’. Is that what we really need? Speaking of train wrecks, Jeb Bush, a sort of candidate for the republican presidential nomination, answered a question last week he shouldn’t have, and now he is ‘evolving’ his comments. Bush said he would have supported the Iraq invasion in 2003, if he had been in Congress. No wait, now he says he wouldn’t have, if he knew then what he knows now. Well of course Governor! Bush should have instructed his interviewer to ask someone who actually voted for the resolution, or ordered the invasion. In the process Jeb Bush – the so called ‘smart Bush’ – missed the point; Republicans do not have a foreign policy. Democrats do not have a foreign policy. The President does not have a foreign policy. We’re in a new era with new rules. For one thing, with the US as the world’s largest oil producer, and largest swing producer state, it changes the picture considerably. Second, unfortunately we now know that invading countries, fixing them, and then leaving precipitously is probably not a workable policy. Other than that, no candidate whether democrat or republican has been able to articulate a foreign policy position that makes any sense. A protest in Minneapolis this week resulted in the police using pepper spray, and apparently inadvertently pepper spraying a ten year old. Now the mom wants answers. We want answers to, like why on earth would you take a ten year old kid to a potentially violent protest? Apparently no one has any common sense anymore. The Pope continues to wave the red flag, and when he’s not doing that, he’s genuflecting to communists, or pushing his version of global warming. Joining the world’s biggest useful idiot (the Pope) is the world’s second most celebrated useful idiot Francois Hollande, President of France, giving Raul Castro a rock star welcome to the fourth republic. A former bodyguard to Fidel Castro is telling his story, after years of torture and incarceration at the hands of the communist dictator. While the Cuban people starved, Fidel Castro enjoyed luxury in several estates, drank wine, cavorted with mistresses, and offered rich American movie stars (did I mention useful idiots) holidays at his Bay of Pigs ‘ranche’. We are now being warned of the impending disasters which will be brought by El Nino. Do you know what the effects of an El Nino event are? Do you know how accurate the predictions are? Find out in this podcast. Sponsored by X Government Cars.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:57 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Podcast 368

Asteroid. As a huge asteroid comes within striking distance of the Earth – relatively speaking – one wonders whether the now controversial Jade Helm exercise in the American West, and the mood of people in the last few weeks is connected somehow. While the object in question (1999 FN53) will come only within about four million miles of earth it’s the one they don’t see that will hit us. Begging the question, if they knew an object that was over a mile wide and could do catastrophic damage to the planet, would they tell us? This is a great story that provokes all kinds of questions. So much of our lives these days depends on supposedly making precise predictions about the future that are expected to be correct, even about outlier events. Yet life is rarely predictable and very messy. A person’s life can be changed in a blink of an eye, as can the life of a nation. This podcast shares one friend’s story of instant change. Probably everyone has a story about something that happened, and after that, their lives were different. There’s plenty of books, TV shows and movies about these kinds of situations, from The Walking Dead to Jericho and of course the Mad Max movies. What happened? Sometimes the show’s story line tells us and sometimes they don’t. Not knowing is half the fun, and maybe that’s what keeps us watching. Oddly enough, at the same time a new survey from Pew says that fewer and fewer Americans identify with the Christian Faith, provoking an honest personal observation about religion, religious people and the movie ‘Left Behind’, with Nicholas Cage. What role does religion play in our lives? After 9/11, people were more likely to go to church and identify with a faith. As the old saying goes, there’s no atheists in Fox Holes. Or are there? One of the topics of the Bob Davis Podcasts is often technology, disruption because of technology, and the impact it has on the way we work. This has been a topic of discussion on these podcasts since almost the start. Suddenly a lot is being written about autonomous machines, robotics, 3D printing, and automation in industries that have never been automated before. Now, we’re starting to see the first impact of truly autonomous machines in retail, fast food and semi skilled labor and a lot is being written about the impact. Sometimes the writer tries to persuade the reader that it must be stopped, other times writers appear to be trying to predict a jobless future because of these machines. What will happen and how do we get ready for it. A lot of things to think about in this unusual, candid and off beat midweek update. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:36 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Podcast 367

UK Election Crushes Pundits. Most important story going into the new week is the British Election, and the chief casualties appear to be political pundits. The ‘experts’ predicted a victory for the left, and in fact the left in British Politics was handed its hat and shown the door. Political scientists and pollsters are becoming too famous, and becoming part of the story, rather than doing their job. Its one of the reasons we love it so much when they’re wrong. Next, the same bunch in the US will be telling us what’s going to happen in 2016, based on the experience of the British election. What they won’t tell you is how the two systems are different, and why. That’s where this podcast comes in. Dissimilarities aside, UK conservatives will move quickly to cut government costs and size and adjust the UK’s relationship in the EU. The most significant thing to come out of the British election is the fact that people told pollsters one thing, and voted an entirely different way. It’s become socially unacceptable to disagree with an overbearing and arrogant left, so people just keep their opinions to themselves and take their revenge at the polls. Could that happen in the US? As people bear up under a no growth economy, disorder at the breaking points, and constant denial from the left that their policies just aren’t working, the pundits ignore the fact that there is political rage just below the surface. Woe to the politician that ignores this, or doesn’t understand it. Will the polls pick it up? Not if the pollsters and political scientists keep thinking about politics in the old right/left paradigm. Things are changing. Fast. Meanwhile, candidates in the US keep doing the same things and expecting different results. At a cattle call for republicans in the Carolinas, Jeb Bush talks about Christianity (just to make you think he’s a conservative) and Scott Walker wants to send troops to Iraq to fight ISIS. A recent podcast included a discussion of the nature of work in Los Angeles, with freelancers working on projects ad hoc, as the model for work in the future for all of us. Some subscribers didn’t like it, suggesting ‘Hollywood’ is responsible for the decline of social morals in this country. In this podcast, a new article suggests an Uber style company that connects professionals and semi professionals with small businesses and individuals is already taking off, and will change the nature of work in this country. Finally, for people interested in political organization, or just being good neighbors and citizens, there are a plethora of local issues, from Common Core, the Tyranny of the Met Council, and out-of-control spending by city councils. While these are local Minnesota issues, every town  in every state and territory of the United States has similar issues. They allow people to work together to solve problems without having R’s or D’s carved into their foreheads. When people work together and solve problems together, they’re more likely to listen to each other, as opposed to sitting in their chair watching Fox News or MSNBC and railing against those (fill in the blank). Sponsored by X Government Cars. (Image from telegraph.co.uk) 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:54 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS