Podcast 413

Pre Debate Analysis. A Walk and Talk podcast in the late summer, the wind in the trees and a major distraction called ‘The Republican Debate’ going on. The last Republican debate was held the week of the great Motorcycle Rally known as Sturgis, which The Bob Davis Podcasts chose to cover, rather than the debates in Cleveland. Nothing has changed since then. A continuing theme on these podcasts is drawing attention to the problems and opportunities we’re missing while we argue about what Donald Trump said to Ben Carson, or about Carly Fiorina or whether Jeb Bush is going to become more ‘energetic’. Someone asked this week, “When do you think Trump will get out of the race”? Someone also wrote this week that the Republican Debates will be ‘the most important development of the summer’. Really? This serves as analysis in a week marked by the Federal Reserve Interest rate decision and Russian Troops landing in Syria? Surely these two stories are more significant than whether Donald Trump can ‘win’ the debates? With Trump the Republican frontrunner, the real question is how long will it take for the Republican Party itself to finally – and mercifully – self-destruct. What kind of an historical period are we living through? And how does ignoring the real opportunities of this period move the country forward? Who’s fault is it? Due to developments in technology and science, some good and some scary, change is coming. It can be managed, or it can come suddenly and violently; But it’s coming whether you want it to or not. What do you want? Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and Eric and Erum Lucero of Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate.

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Podcast 412

Dream It Do It. Thanks to all the beta testers of the Bob Davis Audiobook ‘The Chieftain 2021’ delivery systems. If you have not received an email download link yet, let us know. Advising beta testers of some of the issues related to the audiobook and how they’re solved provokes a discussion about creativity, what a dream is, and living the dream. We live in a society that increasingly seems as though its trying to tell us why we can’t do something rather than encouraging us to try. Some people who mean well, are really dream killers. What it would be like to make one tiny part of your dream come true? How would you feel? How would your life change? Technology makes it easier than ever to make our dreams come true. Now, all we have to do is create a structure that encourages people to make their dreams come true, rather than an aging structure that kills dreams. One way to make dreams come true would be to encourage economic growth. Republican candidate Jeb Bush says he has a plan for four percent economic growth, achieved through ‘cutting taxes’. ‘Cutting Taxes’; the holy grail of Republican politics. The thing is, growth won’t happen if you cut taxes on one group and raise taxes on the other if you don’t cut spending too. All you’re really doing is gathering water from the deep end of the pool and pouring it into the shallow end. Here’s a dream for you; A government that spends less every year and taxes less because of it. A government that doesn’t spy on its citizens because it needs to focus resources on existential threats. A government that doesn’t pick winners and losers, all the while adding to its own payrolls and growing larger and more dangerous every year. Guess what? None of the Republicans and certainly not the Democrats are talking about doing this. Meanwhile, the state of Illinois — the national financial basket case — is giving its lottery winners IOU’s; There isn’t enough cash in state coffers to pay them. Maybe its time to think differently about what government does, and what it costs us. Sponsored by X Government Trucks, Pride Of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate.

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Podcast 410

Forgotten Presidents. In the official ‘Back To School’ podcast for 2015, a look at US History in the period between 1836 and 1856, a series of hapless presidents who are today forgotten, as are the Congresses and Courts of the time, for the most part. What did Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore and James Buchanan do, or not do, to make them ‘those guys between Jackson and Lincoln’. This period of our history is noted for our government’s failure to address the most pressing problems of the time, leading to the greatest calamity in US History; the Civil War. Yet it was a time of great advancements by Americans in almost every area. It was just a twenty year period in our history, but decisions made, or not made at that time turned out to be very important to our history.   Horrible compromises on abolishing slavery, a war with Mexico, the acquisition of Texas, undoing previous compromises on the slavery issue that made the problem worse, with the White House and congress lurching back and forth between positions as parties and political interests pulled in different directions. Finally, a president too timid to do anything, couching inaction as the ‘rule of law’. At the end of that twenty year period, one party was dead, another created and the nation was about to go to war again, against itself. Not a very good showing. Are we living through such a period now? A period with weak legislators and presidents, who lack imagination and real creativity, and a vision for the future? A dangerous period to the future of the country, and a period future historians will characterize as a period of ‘forgotten’ presidents? Do you think about what the country would be, could be in twenty years? How do you rethink, reorient your politics to solving problems and manifesting building blocks for a new age that is coming whether we want it or not. Right now though, it seems like people are caught up in fat shaming, the primary politicking, and media covering the bouncing ball. What are we NOT seeing, hearing and thinking about that’s critical? Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and by Eric and Erum Lucero of Pride Of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate in the Minneapolis North Metro Corridor. 

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