Podcast 209

Obama Makes A Move. ‘On The Road’ Podcasting continues on the second leg of the Chicago to Phoenix trip. Iowa, Nebraska and half of Colorado in one day? The travel reverie is interrupted with a speech from the President, and instant analysis. Apparently the US now has a strategy to “degrade and destroy” the ‘Islamic State’. The strategy – we are told most emphatically – does not include ‘troops on the ground fighting on foreign soil’, but features aid, training and a coalition of Arab states in the region. What is your reaction to the President’s speech? To what degree are the current problems in Iraq the result of his policies. Did he play fast and loose with the ‘facts’ in the speech? Did it feel like a campaign speech? Or, might all of this be a reaction to being stung by the media for actually saying he did not have a strategy just two short weeks ago? Will the speech help the President’s sinking popularity ratings, and democrat prospects for 2014? Most importantly, will the Administration’s plan actually work? The President’s speech sounded erie on scratchy AM radio, from a distant town, while traveling all alone on a deserted rural freeway, passing through Western Nebraska and Eastern Colorado. While it is right and proper for a politician to ballyhoo his successes and downplay his failures, one wonders whether the attempt to ‘degrade and destroy’ ISIS – if it fails – could be the beginning of a substantially more dangerous crisis. Have we seen this pattern before? It sure feels like it. Talking about the same things day after day, outrage over celebrity news, or how sportsmen conduct their personal affairs, while international affairs contain the specter of spinning out of control. Only time will tell. Plus, observations on small towns in Nebraska, Sod Houses, giant tunnels, mountains, and plans for the rest of the trip, where you would live if you could live anywhere…Vail, Colorado would do, in a pinch! Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul.

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Podcast 207

If nothing changes. If nothing changes…nothing changes. Does it feel, sometimes, as if things seem like they are about the change, but they don’t? Sometimes there are long periods of ‘stasis’. Some interpret this as a positive, but it can be negative. While the media thrives on making viewers and listeners think huge changes are right around the corner; Prosperity is just ahead, War is about to break out, Disease threatens us all, then…nothing. With the jobs numbers last week, the the ongoing situation with slow or no economic growth, the slow down in the foreign affairs situation, the political pundits talking about a wave election for republicans one week, and no wave the next, Mitt Romney making noises again, and Hillary Clinton talking about running, it sure feels like 2008, or 1999? The world is on the verge of great era. Advances in manufacturing, communications, robotics, autonomous agents, software, medical science, even physics may be forming the building blocks of a world those of us born in the 20th century will not recognize. But getting there means huge changes, and getting through those changes will not be easy. We are living through a low ‘stasis’ point. Our leaders, republican and democrat, do not know what to do. We don’t know what to do. Everyone seems to be looking to someone else to solve problems, and yet problems never seem to get solved. The language remains the same; systemic problems in the labor force, a collapse – or boom – on wall street, republicans are against democrats and so on. A change agent is coming. Call it a black swan event, singularity, or whatever you want. We can’t know what and when it will be, but a catalyst that begins a period of upheaval and change is inevitable. Take what you hear on the day to day news with a grain of salt, and look for that catalyst. Sponsored by Baklund R&D.

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Podcast 205

Another beheading? Our midweek is jarred with another heinous murder of a US Journalist by The Islamic State; A video which is reported to show the beheading of Steven Sotloff surfaced Tuesday. At the same time, ‘vacationing’ Russian troops appear to be making headway against Ukrainian defenders in Eastern Ukraine as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine. What’s to be done? Warnings, more economic sanctions, presidential trips, conferences, discussions and the ‘creation’ of a ‘rotating’ NATO ‘Quick Reaction Force’ of 4400 European ‘Special Forces’ troops. Putin has more than 20,000 troops on the Ukraine’s Eastern Border with Russia. Watching Obama’s press conference last Thursday shows clearly how analytical this President is, and how that can get the United States into a lot of trouble. On another note, Reporters and analysts have suddenly discovered that polling data does not indicate the ‘Wave Election’ for Republicans which the same analysts and reporters confidently predicted a few months ago. Suddenly, as The Bob Davis Podcasts predicted last winter, the story line has become, “What’s wrong with the Republicans?”. Well, for starters, where’s the ‘get out the vote’ organization that all wave elections are built on? Where are the street troops to take senior citizens to the polls? Where are the door knockers, lit droppers, phone bank callers, absentee ballot hander outers and easily used vote tally software? Not to mention election judges, precinct captains and well, you know, organization. Republicans were convinced of an easy victory in 2012, and shocked when it didn’t happen. Is this old song playing again? As the saying goes, “You make your own luck.” Republicans are almost giddy over polls that show Minnesota Republican Senate Candidate Mike McFadden at between 41 and 45 percent, and Senator Al Franken at 51 to 57 percent. This predicts a victory for Republicans? Not so fast. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating.

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