Sunny Lohmann

Podcast 409 – Sunny Lohmann

Sunny Lohmann. Sunny is back making videos and getting trolled. As always she is uncompromising and thought provoking, from the Blood Moon, to the Trump candidacy, to free speech, racism and the Paleo Diet. Back for a weekend chat on the heels of two new You Tube videos which generated surprising controversy and response. First up is her satire of the Trump candidacy, followed up by a discussion of reaction to another video lampooning the Hollywood videos complaining about the lack of make up choices for people of color. These days it seems like it doesn’t matter what side your on, the trolls come from all sides. If someone doesn’t like what you say, they want to destroy you. It doesn’t matter that every liberal democracy in history has guaranteed free speech, with the US going so far as to actually amend its constitution to guarantee said speech (it is, of course the first amendment). The cyber equivalent of street thugs are out there, ready to pounce if you say anything that might offend their sensitive psyche. Then there’s the question of racism; Sunny suggests that some black activists are racists themselves, or at least that’s the impression she was left with from comments on her videos recently. In the end its pretty clear people aren’t very interested in working together in this country to solve any problems. Has diversity and political correctness destroyed free speech? Everyone seems to want to start their own activist group, attack the Facebook posts of someone they don’t agree with, or protest somewhere. Against something. Hence, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, or any other candidate that ‘tells it like it is’, which is really just screaming, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore”. Now, if everyone says they’re mad as hell and they’re not gonna take it anymore, but no one really knows what they’re mad about, or they’re all mad about different things … well you can see what kind of problem that presents to actual governing. Sponsored by X Government Cars and Pride Of Homes. 

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Podcast 407

Killing The Golden Goose. We’ve all heard the parable; The greedy farmer and his wife with the goose that lays the golden egg. As ‘back to school’ looms, the beginning of reengaging in the political process begins with a look at what the real issue might be in our economy and by extension, our politics in the United States. The question is, which is the goose and greedy farmer? Think of the economy – the sum total of all we consume and produce —  as a force of nature, like a hurricane rather than as some kind of Rube Goldberg device with dials and switches and levers. Or, as a golden goose. If the government takes more and more to sustain its operations and debt, where does that money come from? It comes from the individual. Can the government spend too much, and so require too much from the proverbial golden goose? You don’t hear this question discussed too much in the political arena these days. What you hear is a lot of nonsense about individual tax plans for the middle class, or taxing the so called ‘rich’. The fact is, the government takes your income — your wealth if you will — and uses it for its own aims. We’re supposed to have a conversation with our politicians regarding what those aims are, but we usually don’t. If government spending now, without calculating perpetual obligations like social security and other entitlements including medicaid, medicare and the so called Affordable Care Act is almost 40 percent of the country’s total economy, maybe this is the reason why our economy isn’t growing fast enough. Is it possible the greedy farmer is in the process of killing the golden goose? And if so, what do the perfumed princes on the campaign trail intend to do about it? The grey area between what is a public good, and greedy government is the crossroads where we are stuck. If we don’t figure out how to talk about it and to solve the problem, our goose is cooked. Sponsored by X Government Cars and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. 

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Podcast 406

Full Moon Podcast. Here we are, another full moon in one month. Live from the front yard, well after midnight, with wires and lights strung outside the Mobile Podcast Command Unit. Every now and then I have to do these ‘consolidation’ podcasts. I ‘consolidate’ some of the points made in earlier podcasts. It still feels like ‘back to school’, hard to get back into the news after a news cleanse, especially when there are so many weird and horrifying things happening, and when the political battleground seems so silly. But, there it is. As we head into the first weekend of the Minnesota State Fair, and the month ahead in September, there’s a lot going on. First of all there are two eclipses in September, and one of them is the scary ‘Blood Moon’, which the evangelists have been warning about. Is it something you should be worried about? Some of us still feel like ‘something’ is about to happen that will spin things around in another direction. In this podcast more thoughts about how to recognize what it might be. Then again, nothing may happen and then we’ll be stuck with the political situation that seems manipulated — like one of Donald Trump’s TV Shows — with people running who are either retreads, plumb crazy, or boring as hell. I’m not sure which is better, but right now I am betting on the crazies. As I have been talking about this, people have corresponded that they feel the same way, and it’s weird. I invite people to send me emails or message me, or comment through the Bob Davis Podcasts regarding why you might feel that there’s ‘something’ out there that might be a pretty big event. You don’t have to detail what you think it is so much as I would love to hear why you feel the way you do. Is it intuition? Or are there some solid reasons for what your ‘gut’ may be telling you. Meanwhile there is the state fair, and these perfect final days of summer. (Editor’s Note: Hurricane Season has started, but at the time of this writing there’s not much going on. However, if a big enough storm blows up, I may make a quick run south, but I have to be back for AgoraFest, on September 25th or so. Stay tuned for some great podcasts from a great Minnesota get together.) Sponsored by Baklund Research and Development. 

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