Podcast 424

Retail Politics. The 2016 presidential election cycle isn’t yet in the primaries, but campaigns have locked in their rhetoric. Speakers are throwing out red meat at small gatherings of potential voters and political actives across the country, especially in the early caucus and primary states. This podcast takes you inside a political event in Minnesota where a surrogate for the Ted Cruz For President Campaign — The Senator’s Father — makes a speech. Sorry? Did you think these events would include substance, discussion of the issues, details on how to achieve goals, and detailed analysis of opponents? Media focus, polling, ‘cattle call’ debates, a desperate need for money to fuel bare bones campaigns, and propel candidates to the top of the heap before a single vote has been cast, has all but destroyed ‘discussion’ and ‘substance’. It may be early, but it’s already all about firing up the hopeful, the political active, getting the contribution, getting people on the email list, jumping on the plane or bus, and heading to the next event. Even local supporters and state legislators at the event are ‘on message’. The problem with retail politics and red meat is, do people have any better idea of what the candidates actually will do? What is a conservative? What is the plan for the country and why? What do Republicans stand for? Listen and find out. Sponsored by X Government Trucks and Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate. 

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Podcast 299

Weekend Update! What starts as a weekend update ends up as a romp through the mind of Bob Davis. Oh yeah, this podcast looks at the latest numbers for Clint Eastwood’s winning ‘American Sniper’, and suggests petty Hollywood Envy is perhaps behind much of the snark. The fact that people are getting sub-prime and insanely long auto loans, goosing new car sales and endangering the financial system is a concern of Honda, which says it will not offer 84 month loans, concerned its customers might end up so upside down they won’t be able to buy another car for like, a while. And an Asteroid Fly-By has NASA atwitter since 2004 BL86 (that’s its name) is huge and is coming very close to earth this weekend. Don’t worry, it’s path takes it almost a million miles away from the Earth — well outside the orbit of the moon — but it would be crazy if an asteroid like this one hit the earth, wouldn’t it? Thus begins the listener’s off the rail journey, discussing bad documentaries on Netflix, Nazis and the Final Solution, stories and movies which might include asteroids hitting the earth and turning Minneapolis and Saint Paul into an equatorial (and wonderfully tropical) paradise, aliens living on the moon, or maybe its human beings on the moon ’cause they have a time machine, alien women in spacecraft and more. So. Much. More. Closing it all out, another ice age is on the way since there have been no sun spots and according to scientists, the last time this happened was the 17th century, when people wore ermine collars, and we can’t forget the rich environmentally conscious Davos attendees this weekend, shelling out forty thousand dollars a head to attend this ridiculously useless conference to complain about inequality, and global warming, and rub elbows with Pharrell Williams and Al Gore. Sigh. Get your weekend started right, with the Bob Davis Podcasts. Don’t forget to join Bob Davis this weekend at the SD-61 Chili Dinner AND CONTEST in South Minneapolis, Sunday January 25th. Sponsored by Baklund R&D.

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Podcast 294

Dry Cycle. The update turns into a discussion of the fallibility of media, even your favorite cable news channel. This weekend, Fox News had to correct itself and apologize profusely for reporting there are ‘no go’ zones in Europe, where non muslims fear to tread, and the police won’t enter. Everyone was talking about it all weekend after Fox anchors and guests apparently got it wrong. These are neighborhoods in England and suburbs in France that are about as forbidding as LA’s Compton, or Chicago’s South Side. While Europe has been more lenient allowing Sharia Law, it does not mean muslim ‘enclaves’ have sprouted, even though allowing a separate law for Muslims in a modern, western democracy is not a good idea. That said, the President and the Pope continue to support limits on free speech. President Obama even went so far as to say he doesn’t consider terrorism a existential threat, which it most certainly is, then said Europe has to do a better job ‘integrating’ its Muslims. Maybe he fell for the No Go story too. This provokes a whole conversation about how to wean yourself from cable news and talk radio, develop multiple sources of information, deal in facts, avoid the emotion spewing out of talk radio and fox news, and use your tools to find and develop deeper knowledge on key subjects. The need to fill the airwaves, pushes under financed and poorly managed outlets to spew out incorrect information, relying on ping ponging viewers back and forth between the latest outrage and the latest breaking news. The good news? That kind of media’s glory days are behind it, as it gives way to on demand audio (podcasts), You Tube, NetFlix and future on demand video services. A recent survey reports that most millennials don’t ever watch broadcast television, seldom watch cable news channels, and download virtually all their entertainment and information. In an on demand world, the daily outrage may not work as well, as people seek out information, rather than people screaming at each other. The latest example? NASA says 2014 was the hottest year on record? Do you know by how much? Do you know what the margin of error is in that estimate? The answer might surprise you. Finally, Arizona and other states are passing laws which require high school seniors to pass citizenship exams in order to graduate. Good idea? Sponsored by Baklund R&D. 

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