Podcast 326

Live From The Mall of America. In the wake of shadowy threats of terror attacks at the Mall of America, a ‘courageous’ podcast live from the mall on a Monday night. (Editor’s Note: Maybe someday I will be able to embellish this story to make it sound like I braved tribal fighters, and small arms fire to bring you this podcast, but not really.) As Congress debates defunding as a protest over President Obama’s executive orders on illegal immigrants, the Department of Homeland Security begins to plan for the imminent ‘shutdown’. Except the department doesn’t really shut down. Some fifteen thousand employees – mostly in the TSA – will be ‘furloughed’. The rest of its employees and managers show up for work, though they may miss a paycheck or two. Keep in mind, federal employee benefits and pay are much higher than the private sector. So, while Dave the TSA guy may have to stay home for a few days, he has a job when this whole thing is over. But when you get laid off from that major retailer, you’re out of a job. So, pardon me for not gnashing my teeth over the DHS ‘Shutdown’. This year’s Oscar telecast may as well have been a Sunday morning talk show on MSNBC for all the posturing and political speech, not to mention its ratings. What does Hollywood do when it has a bad year? Trot out stars to make political statements, so people talk! Apparently the word is, the producers of the Oscar telecast think that since the Academy is mostly old, white and rich, they needed to spice it up. The problem is, middle America has just about had it with billionaire screen stars telling them what they ought to believe about anything. It’s becoming obvious Hollywood and Washington are out of touch. In this podcast a little about the history of Hollywood’s involvement with Washington, and its shadowy ties to the Chicago Outfit. And if the scolds telling you what to think isn’t enough, now the Federal Government wants you to switch to a plant based diet. Yep, they want to make your dad a vegetarian, and monitor his television viewing. That’s all we need. The good news is the redemption of coffee. Researchers now say the Black Gold is one of the best things for you, and you can drink a lot more than you do. Sponsored by Depot Star. 

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Podcast 325

Middle America. While most of the middle part of the United States huddles in blankets hoping their pipes don’t freeze, the Washington DC media establishment obsesses over comments made by a guy at a dinner. The former Mayor of New York City questions whether the President “loves America as much as you do”. At question is why the President is unable to bring himself to refer to Islamic Extremists as well, Islamic! The whole controversy over the weekend of February 20th provoked Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker – who attended the dinner with the former Mayor – to take the media to task, inviting them to come to Wisconsin, where he doubts one in four people would even know what they’re talking about, or feel Giuliani’s comments were ‘inappropriate’. What is up with Middle America, and why does Hollywood and Washington DC hate it so much? In the last decade or so, people in this country have been through some hard times. It’s becoming more and more obvious they don’t pay any attention to the talking heads and so called experts and academics bloviating on TV, especially the President. And then there’s Hollywood, also apparently out of touch. The biggest movies of the last few weeks have been pilloried by the so called ‘experts’; American Sniper and Fifty Shades. Something is going on in flying over territory – that’s the space between the East and West coasts where you people flying out of Dulles or JFK, or LAX fall asleep. It’s called the Mid West. Yep. People live down there. It’s becoming more obvious, the people who are supposed to observe and report the actual news for so called ‘Middle America’ have no idea what is going on in ‘Middle America’. In fact, we’re on the cusp of a new era. When opinion makers, experts and so called leaders lose the pulse of this part of the world, they don’t find it again. New experts, leaders and ideas emerge, from the ranks of those who have learned a long time ago that Middle America does not come to you. You go to Middle America. And when you lose them, you’re done. So here’s a message for Washington DC and Hollywood; Fasten your seat belts. Sponsored by Victor Barke’s Complete Basement Systems. 

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Podcast 324

Winter and The Donner Party. Updates on the big stories for your weekend. Yeah, it’s cold people, but can we at least use the real temperature rather than wind chills? Was it really -41 in Bemidji, Minnesota the other day, or did just feel like -41? What does -41 feel like? Now of course comes the cavalcade of idiotic financial media stories about the ‘deep cold’ of 2015, and the ‘economic effects’ of people not being able to get to their jobs. In New England? Vermont? Massachusetts? Minnesota? These people, of course, have no experience with such economy killing cold, right? Another economic fairy tale that has died a horrible death is the idea that cheap gas ‘acts like a tax cut’. In reality it appears that the cheaper price of oil isn’t just due to increasing production, but to slackening demand, which ought to cause some concern. A new economic fairy tale is the idea that increasing minimum wages at Wal-Mart (announced as a Public Relations gimmick) will somehow create ‘wage inflation’ which will be good for the economy. Doesn’t seem to be any decrease of wages at federal agencies like the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS currently boasts over eighty thousand employees, and wants to add ten thousand more, ostensibly to do work related to Obama Care taxation enforcement, except only some 400 new employees will be doing that work. What will the others do? Order out for lunch. Buy new chairs. Go to expensive conferences during the winter in Las Vegas. Whatever. Everyone agrees that green and yellow smoke spewing smokestacks, and rivers that explode into flame are bad; We used to call things like that ‘pollution’. These days apparently there is so little pollution that amateur astronomers are complaining that there’s too much ‘light pollution’, they can’t see the little dipper, even with a telescope. Go ahead, tell me to turn off my front porch light. Demand the IDS turn out the lights at night. Hell, go ahead and turn out the street lights. Just don’t call it ‘Light Pollution’. Because when you do that, we call it ‘Mouth Pollution’ as in, SHUT IT! All the talk is that the new iWatch isn’t enough, Apple is going to build a car. The story has been all over the financial media that last few days. Finally someone has debunked it. Find out why in this podcast. So, it’s cold. We know it’s cold. Just imagine you are a pioneer taking the road less traveled in 1847. You come to a wonderful spot high in the Sierra Nevada’s. You say, “This is good. It’s late fall. It’s nice here. Let’s stay and rest up before we head down into the place that will someday be known as the Golden State”. 4 months later half your party is dead, you’re eating Dad for dinner and you realize … You’re the Donner Party! It’s one of the enduring stories of conquering the west, and it should make all of us happy we have hot coffee, steaks in the freezer and ‘Game of Thrones’ to watch. Sponsored by Baklund R&D. 

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