Podcast 318

Your Dog Understands You. Updates just ahead of the weekend. The bloated and unresponsive Internal Revenue Service and its arrogant bureaucrat in chief have apologized to small businesses that have had their assets seized after running afoul of byzantine regulation. It seems if you deposit over ten thousand dollars in a bank account, the IRS thinks you’re a drug dealer. If you deposit less than ten thousand dollars, guess what? You’re a drug dealer too. Or something. Anyway, that means they can seize your assets and ruin your business. Especially if your business is selling guns, as one gun dealer and Iraq War Vet discovered last year. Today John Koskinen, IRS head apologized. Meanwhile, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson says his investigators have uncovered thousands of emails between Tea Party hater and former IRS manager Lois Lerner and the White House. Hmmm. Aside from the VA, this is the one agency that is the poster child for incompetence, bloat and poor management. The US needs a twenty first century tax system that doesn’t require thousands of government employees – earning twice what the average private citizen earns while they go to conferences in luxury hotels on the tax payer’s dime. Don’t try to pass it while President Obama is in office. Make it an election issue. Two Civil Rights leaders were recently invited to participate in a police training simulation of high pressure situations which might require deadly force. In both situations the civil rights leaders fired their weapons. One said he just kept pulling the trigger. Did the suspect have a gun? “I didn’t even look”. It was an eye opening moment for both of these gentlemen who discovered its easy to criticize what cops do, from the outside. This is a program which should be put in place across the country. In Minnesota, the Southwest Light Rail project is stalled amid fighting between the Minneapolis Park Board, an unelected Met Council and a governor who is worried the project will lose federal favor and funding. At issue is whether the LRT will pass over a bucolic foot and bike bridge by Cedar Lake, or pass through a tunnel. Rich people in Kenwood and around Cedar Lake are opposed. Everyone else who doesn’t live there, and the fat cats who’ve bought up the land along the corridor in Saint Louis Park and Hopkins are all for it. Its wonderful when the left beats itself up. The latest political story line? If the Republicans win the presidency in 2016 (far from a lock) the United States will be a  ‘one-party-state’. What about democrats now serving in legislatures, as governors and in the House and Senate? They don’t count? And yes, your dog can read your emotions and understands your words. Sponsored by Baklund R&D

Podcast 317

Scary Scott Walker. A year away from the first 2016 presidential primary and more than a year from the start of the 2016 presidential campaign, the so called mainstream media – which really doesn’t reflect mainstream America – is terrified of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. This week, the Washington Post conducted an ‘investigation’ of Walker’s college years. The paper discovered the future governor didn’t like French class, campaigned for class president, wore a suit on campus and was kinda geeky. The big mystery? Why did Scott Walker leave college in his senior year? Was it because he did not have enough credits to graduate anyway? Did something happen? Funny, do you remember any big investigation of why Apple’s founder and muse Steve Jobs dropped out of Stanford? What about Bill Gates. What deep dark secret drove these men? Will we ever know? How can any man or woman without a college degree become president of the United States of America? Let’s see, William McKinley withdrew, William Henry Harrison withdrew, Harry Truman withdrew, and gosh so did Scott Walker! Should the president have a college degree? While the smartest man ever to hold the office – Barack Obama – has a degree and spent a fair amount of his formative years enfolded in the warm embrace of academia, some might submit he has not been helped by those smarts on the policy front, since his presidency is pretty much a disaster, even with all those degrees on the wall. Oddly enough, Governor Walker is in good company. Abe Lincoln dropped out after a year and taught himself well enough to get a law degree, Andrew Jackson was homeschooled and became an attorney with no formal education, Coco Chanel never went to college, advertising maestro David Olgilvy was kicked out of Oxford, Henry Ford did not attend college, nor did John D. Rockefeller. Michael Dell, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were all drop outs. Is college a good thing? Absolutely. It refines, teaches people to write well, exposes them to other cultures and ideas they might not have experienced otherwise, and gives them training to become officers, teachers, managers, scientists. That these are good things is not argued. That such an experience is necessary to be the President of the US is. Scott Walker terrifies the democrat AND moderate republican because he has won 2 elections, one recall election, and a bruising fight with the most potent force in American politics; Unions. Specifically, unions representing public workers. The mighty left wing Wurlitzer is just getting warmed up as it ‘investigates’ Walker, asks whether someone who does not have a college degree can actually be president, and lionizes the ‘legendary’ capabilities of union sponsored political pressure groups that opposed Walker (and lost … 3 times.) Will the Governor surprise everyone in 2016? We Shall See. Sponsored by Complete Basement Systems

Podcast 316

Midweek Updates. Live from the newsroom at the Bob Davis Podcasts. Bruce Jenner allegedly kills someone and everyone is talking about Brian Williams. Go figure. NBC News still doesn’t know what to do with the news anchor who embellished stories about Iraq, and now apparently Katrina, and whether he saved puppies or not when he ‘was a fireman’. If Williams is forced to leave, NBC will have to write him a check for fifty million dollars. Williams just signed a five year contract with the network for ten million dollars a year, so he might NOT be singing ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’. Alas, the news media IS crying for Williams. The New York Times says Williams is a victim of ‘false memory’, which apparently a lot of us have. The Minneapolis Star Tribune suggests this is a time for forgiveness. Why are they apologizing for Williams when real reporters – not to mention American servicemen and women – are actually dying when they cover the news, or being beheaded, or something like that. Even more sad news than the fall of a ‘hero’ television presenter is the sad story of Whitney Houston’s daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown. The Brown family says they’ll remove Bobby from life support today, February 11th, the same day her mother passed. Bobby always said when Whitney died, she lost more than her mom, she lost her best friend. Yet more sad? IRS head John Koskinen says ILLEGAL aliens will be able to receive back earned income tax credit payments for as long as they have been in the US. Millions of illegals could receive millions of dollars in payouts, financed by American Taxpayers. It seems President Obama executive memoranda which amnestied these people neglected to exempt them from such payments, so Koskinen wants to be on the ‘safe side’. Enough to make us want to remove ourselves from life support. A town in Pennsylvania is placing signs at the edge of town that say, “This is NOT a Gun free Zone”, which is driving the gun control zealots into a frenzy. One of them says the signs will mean criminals will shoot first, and that Conoy Township ‘will be like the wild west’. The town says they’ll take that bet. Minnesota Governor Dayton’s struggle with the House over huge pay raises for his commissioners has descended into a battle over whether the Governor will testify. He says he’ll meet with legislators but won’t testify. He also offered to do what he can to increase the pay of legislators! Meanwhile it appears the Republican House has a little  ‘splainin’ to do as well, since GOP operative and House employee Ben Golnick was also given a huge raise and makes over six figures. Sigh. In Michigan legislators are considering a bill which would outlaw subsidies to businesses. It seems Michigan is on the hook for 6 billion dollars in subsidies to auto companies. And you wonder why Detroit is a wasteland. Great idea, by the way. And eggs are good for you! Sponsored by Depotstar