Podcast 254 – Andrew Richter and Jason Bradley

Local Political Organizing. People feel they have no influence in their government. While federal and state politics can be daunting for beginners, the city and town council, village, school board, and planning commissions can be fertile ground to fight city hall, and win. Crystal, Minnesota is a typical suburb of a major city. As recently as 2007, the Crystal City Council acted as a rubber stamp for nationally generated ‘master plans’ pushed on towns whether the people wanted them or not. Light Rail, Commuter Rail, Apartment Buildings, Increasing Densities, Walkable Cities, Bike Paths, and all kinds of so called ‘Green’ initiatives, created by unelected technocrats, and pushed by unelected governing boards, like Minneapolis and Saint Paul’s Metropolitan Council. Many of these towns see increasing costs year after year, higher property taxes, more debt, and unelected ‘professionals’ who pick police and fire chiefs, set priorities, expand staff and increase regulations, oblivious to opposition from the seemingly powerless citizens they are supposed to serve. In 2007, two ‘regular guys’ from Crystal, Minnesota; Andrew Richter and Jason Bradley became involved after asking some pretty innocent questions about projects the city council was considering. They organized their neighbors and laid siege to a City Council meeting. The city council listened to the citizens but passed the projects anyway. That night, Community Solutions Minnesota was born. Seven years later, in the 2014 election, Community Solutions completed a house cleaning of Crystal City Government, getting rid of all the city council members who had ignored the people years before. What did Andrew and Bradley do and how did they do it? In this podcast they tell anyone interested in taking back their city government, school board, planning commission and ultimately state and federal governments, how. Despite fierce resistance these two young men, and the community, in Crystal, Minnesota literally ‘threw the bums out’. If you’re involved in politics you know that at almost every meeting you attend these days, politicians talk and talk, but say nothing of substance. Especially in Minnesota. Especially in the Republican ranks. People are furious at local, state and federal governments that ignore them, but most don’t know what to do about it. Minnesota Republicans marvel at Wisconsin’s reforms while Minnesota’s taxes and regulations keep increasing and Republican leaders talk about ‘working with’ Governor Dayton. Minnesota Republicans wonder how they lost out in the historic 2014 election, again. Here’s how to start and build an organization that generates votes, money, and clout; The kind of political organization that terrifies rich inside consultants, wins elections, and forces politicians to do what the people want and puts the insiders … on the street. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and by Depotstar. 

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Podcast 253

Eyes On The Prize. Organize! Getting you ready for the week ahead, looking deeper than lazy TV hosts and producers, and talk radio. How much more can be said about Jonathon Gruber, the ‘architect’ of Obama Care, and his comments concerning the stupidity of the American voter? We’ve all seen the video. If not, you can watch this CNN package and all the videos fit to distribute, here. While people decry the mainstream media’s vacuous content, they sure do seem to talk about what the media wants everyone to talk about. Seems like Gruber was worth every penny, for supporters of Obama Care. If Republicans want change, they have to start ‘”no excuse” organizing at the precinct level. Another big surprise, apparently, is the fact that President Obama is not ‘cooperating’ with the ‘mandate’ congressional republicans ‘have been given by the voters’. The President has two more years to serve, and if politically active people in Minnesota want to influence politics after January of 2017, they’d better start working on the 2016 election now. Working on getting votes and money out of precincts. Democrats are doubling down on progressive ideas and populist tactics and if 2014 proved anything, it proved getting Republicans out to vote in larger numbers than Democrats, wins elections for Republicans. Now, the exception to that rule is Minnesota, where consultants, state party officials and other ‘Rasputins’ behind the scenes, do not want so called movement candidates. If Minnesota Republicans want victory, they will have to snatch it for themselves. Keep your eyes on the prize. Organize. The Bob Davis Podcasts continues to be ahead of the news headlines these days. Podcast 252 concentrated on the specter of Deflation, predictive of the G-20 conference this weekend where members pledged to dump another 2 Trillion dollars of cotton candy on the problem economies of the world, which now includes most of Europe (and thus the EU), Russia, China, Brazil and you never know, maybe even the US. With the price of oil and other key commodities dropping, watch Russia, not Ferguson, Missouri. A confrontation is brewing between Russia — now friends with China — the US and NATO over the Ukraine. Do we trust the President to be able to handle such a crisis? The Bob Davis Podcasts was the first to suggest boycotting Black Friday — not because we hate retail but because we think the National Retailers have pressed Black Friday numbers as an economic bellwether for too long. Now suddenly come the stories saying the best deals aren’t on Black Friday … they’re right now! And as Farmers are stuck with grain in elevators, electric companies can’t get coal, and Minneapolis-Saint Paul’s much vaunted Toy Train ‘The Northstar’ is sidelined, statists like Jessie Ventura and Tim Pawlenty can blame Grandpa Warren Buffett’s railroad, hauling ever cheapening oil rather than the farmer’s grain, or the power company’s coal. Building the Keystone XL pipeline would ease some of the pressure on Farmers, as well as lower costs for oil producers, but don’t count on it. Will there be enough votes to override a Presidential Veto of a Pipeline bill? And, ice on the Superior this week does not necessarily mean a cold winter, but with temperatures in the single digits in the Upper Midwest, our bodies are struggling to adjust. Sponsored by Baklund R & D. 

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Podcast 252

The Gathering Storm. Business and Economic News. The latest headlines include a Mayor who throws alleged gang signals to curry favor with unsavory characters, a video of an MIT Obama Care ‘architect’ who says the law was poorly written to fool ‘stupid’ voters (what a surprise!), and the mainstream media election 2014 chatter is increasingly vapid. Time to turn to an issue no one seems to be paying attention to, save for the financial and market watchers. As commodity and housing prices decline the mainstream media tells us deflation is bad, because falling prices mean people will ‘wait’ to make purchases. Never mind we have had deflation (dropping prices) for things like flat screen TV’s and tech for years, and people keep buying. The real problem with deflation is that governments need inflation to pay off their debts. Inflation is how governments have robbed Americans of purchasing power and hidden the ill effects of profligate spending for decades. Central Banks and governments all over the world are trying, and failing, to create inflation. Now they are terrified that slow, or no economic growth may finally be creating a deflation, which means debts will become more difficult to repay. What the mainstream media isn’t telling you about lower oil prices is, major economies all over the world are stalling, lowering demand for energy and everything else. The EU, Japan, China, Russia, India, Brazil, even the US have anemic economic growth, or they are contracting. Housing is not cooperating with efforts to stimulate. Half the people in this country make less than $28,000 a year, the average college graduate has at least 26,000 dollars in debt, making some wonder what the millennials will be buying houses with. Years of anemic economic growth is taking its toll in people out of the labor force, stagnant wages and substandard job creation. The statistics look good, but don’t tell the real economic story in the United States and the rest of the world; Things aren’t going so well. The gathering storm isn’t deflation, it’s the political reaction to it. Bill Gross said recently, stimulative efforts by governments and central banks aren’t ‘working as well as they used to’. The cure? More of the same! What about the idea that what they’re doing just isn’t working? Politicians aren’t addressing this issue at all, whether they be democrat or republican. Does this mean a disaster is brewing? Democrats want to double down on failed economic policy  (basically print and borrow more money) and Republicans don’t seem to have an agenda which will lead to the growth we need. Add to this, chaos in the world as the US withdraws … a confused foreign policy … and you have a recipe for disaster; A gathering storm. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and by Depotstar. 

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