Podcast 510

Final Primary Vote in Deadwood. We began coverage of the 2016 presidential preference primary season way back in summer of 2015, picking up the campaign trail in late January in Iowa, onto South Carolina, south to Florida, Texas and the south. It seems fitting to end primary 2016 coverage in a place no mainstream media will be on June 7th, 2016. South Dakota. Specifically, Deadwood, South Dakota; from Gold Rush to Wild Bill, to today’s gambling and tourism, Deadwood is representative of South Dakota west of the Missouri river, dominated by hills, mining and ranching. East of the Missouri, it’s all about farming and some great small cities, like Sioux Falls. South Dakota is the 17th largest state in size, but only boasts roughly 860,000 residents. As one of the people interviewed in Deadwood said on this podcast, “We’re not going to decide anything, but that’s ok”. My friend Brad Butturff retired to Deadwood recently. Over the years he has become quite the authority on this small city in the hills and is a font of knowledge about it. Brad joins me on this podcast, from the sidewalk in front of his home in the presidential section of Deadwood. We spent the day talking about the area’s rich history, took a tour of the historic Adams House in Deadwood, and visited a polling place. All in all, a great way to spend the final day of an uproarious, unpredictable and thoroughly depressing election, so far. But, after all, tomorrow is another day. Sponsored by X Government Cars and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. (Editor’s Note: I refer to the Homestake mine as Homestead mine. This is a throwback from my time in Pittsburgh where there is a Homestead neighborhood.)

Podcast 509

Final Primary In South Dakota. A gonzo talk podcast from the driveway aboard Mobile Podcast Command as we load in and run through the checklists before final departure to the Mount Rushmore State. Why South Dakota? First it’s been awhile since a road trip. Second, coverage of the Presidential Preference Primaries and Caucuses began with Wisconsin Governor Walker’s candidacy announcement last summer, continued into Iowa in February, onto South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, on through to Texas and back home in the first couple of weeks of March. So it is a fitting end that one of the states with the latest primaries, as opposed to the earliest, is South Dakota. While all eyes are focused on the June 7th primary in California, because Bernie Sanders is giving Hillary Clinton fits there, do you think anyone is going to cover voting in South Dakota? That’s why I am going. Aside from the fact that South Dakota is awesome, from the Sturgis celebration to Deadwood, Mount Rushmore, Rapid City and more. Even with the contest between Sanders and Clinton in the Golden State, the media still seems to be focused on finding some negative way to define ‘presumptive’ republican nominee Donald Trump and by extension, the Republican Party. First it was Trump the authoritarian. Then it was Trump the fascist with his incitements to violence – which as an aside seems to be on the other side, with ‘anti-trump protesters’ spitting at passive Trump supporters and my sense is this gets the New York Developer more votes and may just put him in the White House but I digress. Suddenly Trump is Zachary Taylor, 12th president of the United States, and the Republican Party is the Whig Party. Is this an apt comparison? Maybe, even with the scare quotes to describe Taylor and Whigs, but then again, kind of not really. Politics feels like heavy metal, the energy is so low and the results so negative. It’s gonna be good to get out on the road. Sponsored by Brush Studio and Hydrus.

Podcast 508 – Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show-29

Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show-29. A departure for this week’s Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show-29. Usually for the radio show, I excerpt content from all the podcasts I’ve done during the week. But for Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show-29, I received so much interest in the podcast I did this week on technology, I decided to use just that podcast. Of course there is original content in this show, as there is every week, just for the radio show. If you weren’t able to listen to Podcast 506, then a condensed version of it might be useful. There’s been a lot of talk lately about planning. Most cities across the country have some kind of planning system, or council, often with legal authority – by state statute – over cities and towns when it comes to this ‘uber’ planning. It’s a subject I have returned to again and again with different wrinkles on the podcasts for a long time. Whether it is light rail systems, bike trails, freeways or state budgeting this issue is evergreen. Meanwhile technology is changing the building blocks of the future in significant ways that will make a lot of the plans obsolete, very quickly. Why do our planners seemingly yearn for a 1920’s urban landscape when we’re on the verge of mind bending new technologies like the driverless car, robotic factories, human-robot hybrids, even more powerful smart-devices, better and faster communications capabilities, options for civilian flight that make it accessible to non-pilot operators, a revolution in materials for building almost everything, all kinds of manufacturing changes, like 3D printing and and we haven’t even mentioned bio-tech, and more. So much more. These new technologies thrive on the individual, decentralized authority and voluntary collaboration. Why are our politicians pushing for more centralization of authority, more regulation and taxation, and less collaboration especially when it concerns planning? Are they leading us in exactly the wrong direction for the future? Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and X Government Cars.