Podcast 251

Boycott Black Friday. Updates for your midweek from The Bob Davis Podcasts. Observations from the most recent speaking engagement at the Liberty Tea Party Patriots meeting in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, caps final discussion of Election 2014. If CNN and MSNBC ratings (getting beat by the Weather Channel) are any indication, most people have moved on, or are ready to move on. We’ll save discussion of what could, should, might happen until after the new congress is sworn in, after January 7th, 2015. Meanwhile it has started again. ‘It’, is the incessant need of the media to dissect and predict the ‘outcome’ of Black Friday sales numbers, and what they mean for the greater ‘economy’, or the indication of the ‘mood of the consumer’. Can we please give it a rest? Every time a retail chain announces it will be open on Thanksgiving day, more coverage ensues. Thanksgiving is not a religious holiday. Yes, the Pilgrims prayed, but these days it’s more about Turkey, Football, three bean salad and the cheese ball than anything else. If people want to go shopping, let them, but we should boycott Black Friday, and Black Thursday Night, and Black Saturday and Black Sunday just to stymie the National Retailers Propaganda wing and the news channels crowing. Meanwhile, women no longer want to be thin. They want booty. Big Booty. According to French Sociologists its about economic security. In tough times men are drawn to the hips and buttox of women, and psychologically they want to comply, to the extent that sales of padded panties, botox buttox injections and implants are skyrocketing. Sir Mix A Lot is a prophet! The President has a new executive order initiative; In a deal with China, the US pledges to cut carbon emissions (again) 25 to 30 percent lower than 2005 levels, and China pledges to (wait for it), work on the problem. Question: Does President Obama ever actually get anything in a negotiation? You’ve seen the movie ‘Birds’, right? The Alfred Hitchcock Thriller Classic? Double Crested Cormorants – 800 of them – are holding up demolition of the old Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge. Authorities have decided to spend 33 million dollars (forty thousand dollars per bird) to move them. Just blow the bridge. They’ll move. Does news like this make you want to go underground? A developer has turned an old SAC Missile Silo into a luxury ‘doomsday bunker’. Several 1800 square foot apartments, swimming pool, recreation space, and special forces trained armed guards make your ‘Walking Dead Scenario’ sweet! A new lost gospel says Jesus was married, had two kids and was connected to Elite Romans. And finally, the Mormons are finally saying Joseph Smith had as many as forty wives. His first wife only knew about four of them and she was not pleased. Sponsored by Xgovernment Cars and by Depotstar.

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Podcast 250

Election Aftermath. How did the mainstream media do in covering election 2014? What are the primary issues for voters. What happens now? It was announced recently that the Weather Channel Morning Show beat Cable News Networks CNN and MSNBC, hands down, during an election year. Fox News regularly ‘crushes’ rival CNN, and the lesser MSNBC. Broadcast networks covered the midyear elections in 2014, in an effort to compete with cable news services. Based on the reviews from viewers and ‘observers’ of the business and coverage on election night, none of them did a very good job. There was more coverage than ever, but the networks now place political operatives and ‘ideologues’ next to journalists, blurring the lines between opinion and fact. Add to this the increasing need for news networks to employ whatever means necessary to ‘predict’ the outcome of political races. Statistics and polls are never accurate; The only question is whether sample sizes and calculations are reliable. Ideologues may try, but they cannot ‘predict’ the future with a percentage, like a weatherman predicting the chance of rain at 12 noon. The media now blames the polls. One political science professor wants an ‘investigation’ of the ‘the polls’. The polls showed tight races, and while there were a few surprises, results were generally within the margin of error, which for some polls was a perfectly respectable plus or minus 4 points. You could certainly predict the Republican Party would have an historic election, but you couldn’t make that prediction based on polling data. Now, we’re told the polls were biased in favor of Republicans. In 2012, it was the other way around. The problem isn’t the polls, it’s the media’s incessant and unreasonable need to predict, cajole, call races and set the tone. People are getting sick of it, especially when social media, and the Internet provide real time election results without commentary. Who needs CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, and talk radio — all of which will take half an hour to tell you what you can determine in 5 minutes looking at a website that runs all the results as the polls close? What happened in 2014? What emerges from exit polls is a blurry black and white; You can sense shades but not color. You can see form, but you can’t make out anything specific. People are concerned about the Economy, the roll out of ACA and leadership questions concerning the handling of ISIS and Syria, and lastly, Ebola. Is it partisan to suggest the Democratic agenda and campaign tactics focused on issues at the bottom of the list for most voters? Minnesotans wonder why the Minnesota GOP and virtually all the statewide candidates lost a once in a lifetime opportunity to turn out the votes and unseat a democrat governor, and Senator Al Franken, while neighboring Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker seemed to be able to turn out his supporters to win. Is the President still relevant? Will the Republicans come up with an agenda that shows what they’re for, rather than what they’re against? All this in Podcast 250, while shoveling snow! (Editors Note: And maybe a train too!) Sponsored by Baklund R&D.

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Podcast 249

Snowstorm! As tropical storm Nuri hits the Aleutian Islands and Northwest Alaska (Nuri is the same size as Super Storm Sandy, we are told), its hurricane force winds are sucking the jet stream down to the lower 48 from Canada. That means the return of Old Man Winter to the Upper Midwest, in spades. Minneapolis-Saint Paul is forecasted to get as much as a foot of snow before it is all over sometime Tuesday, November 11th. It’s been a long time since Minnesota had a winter storm in November. The smell of the air and snow predictions brings back memories of snowstorms in childhood. Which storm do you remember the best? The 1960’s? 1980’s? The great Halloween Storm in Minnesota of 1991? Sitting by the fire, enjoying potato soup and watching the snow fall, and being elated, because it meant the best thing in childhood; No School. These times in late fall also bring back memories of late fall and winter camping, in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, with best friends in the boy scouts. (Editor’s Note: Of my two best friends, Steve’s dad was the quirky scoutmaster of the troop. The men wanted older boys to take care of the ‘little kids’ as they were called, so the men could have sumptuous dinners and enjoy themselves. While they never abdicated their responsibilities, Steve, Andy and myself were ‘inducted’ into the scouts at a much older and wiser 13, 14 and 15 to fill this role). We had some adventures — far too many for one podcast — but we formed a bond that has lasted a lifetime, and learned some pretty good lessons that have also lasted a lifetime. While visiting Andy down in Arizona this fall, we learned our scoutmaster, and one of our friends had died recently. We were both a little shocked since we’d lost contact over the years. Between snowstorms, memories of campouts and mischief in those days, those perfect days when you’re in between childhood and adolescence, it serves as a break from the constant blaring about politics over the last few days in the wake of election 2014. Yeah, we talked about politics in those days, around the campfire but mostly it was about girls, the right camping equipment, what we were going to do on the next campout, our favorite songs, our shared friends and enemies. Take a break in this podcast from politics, sit by the fire, and remember your own stories from the best snow storms and campouts when you were a kid, where ever you grew up. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating, and by Depotstar.

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