Podcast 349

Blood Moon. Live from Los Angeles, California, from Mobile Podcast Command Unit 8, on the eve of a lunar eclipse some say has prophetic implications, updating the top stories for the weekend. Have the ‘prophetic’ implications of the blood moon lunar eclipse been debunked? And why do they call it a ‘blood moon’, anyway? The top international story is the ‘deal’ with Iran, which really is no deal at all. Really, it is a framework for negotiations which will resume in 3 months. Meanwhile the President himself said this week Iran is 2 months from the bomb. Does that mean they will produce a nuclear weapon one month before the negotiations begin? In truth this is a big gamble on the part of a president who badly needs an agreement with Iran to cement some kind of foreign policy legacy. Is this a good agreement? And in Indiana, hysteria reigns supreme as the left goes crazy over a law similar to scores of other laws passed in states all over the country and backed by democrats including Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, as Senator. Finally, the is the economy getting better? It depends on what outlet you get your economic news from, on any given day. Unemployment numbers are either bad, or good. People are soon to spend the ‘tax cut’ they have received from lower energy prices, or not. Characterizing the US economy as in a ‘boom’ is a stretch when the 4th quarter’s growth was revised down to 2.2 percent and at least one Fed regional office is projecting zero percent growth for the 1st quarter of 2015. What key points to look for in all these stories, and more. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:20 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Podcast 344

Foreign Policy In New Mexico. The negotiations with Iran are back at the top of the news. Taking a break from the road in The Mobile Podcast Command Unit 8, drinking coffee from the Flying J in Walter White’s Hometown. A quiet conversation about The President’s policy and negotiations with Iran, and what this president might leave the next. As the Iranians get just about everything they wanted, the Saudis, Jordanians, and Egypt talk about forming a joint command to address the Islamic State Threat. Again we find ourselves asking what the US Foreign Policy should be. Do any of the candidates on either side of the political spectrum have any ideas? Its seems as though they don’t. Meanwhile, while the media talks about domestic issues as the primary concerns of 2016, it’s very possible foreign issues could be the main focus, especially if things blow up before this President leaves office in January of 2017. And oh, a couple of side comments about road food, truck stops and travel. (Editor’s Note: This is the kind of stuff I sometimes like to talk about as soon as I wake up in the morning. I’m sitting in the RV Section at the Flying J in ABQ, drinking coffee and getting ready to roll on through New Mexico, onto Phoenix.Definitely having a blast!) And by the way, it’s spelled Albuquerque. And I did not see Walter White, Jessie Pinkman, or even Saul. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:24 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Podcast 323

Obama Checks Out. After the President’s White House summit on ‘extremist violence’, a firestorm of controversy erupted when he refused to characterize the ‘extremists’ – the subject of the summit – in language that would actually describe them. Our current problem is, after all, referred to as THE ISLAMIC STATE! The President reminds us lowly peasants we are not to refer to the Islamic State as Islamic Terrorists, or even ‘Islamic’. This is apparently so that the President will still be invited to cocktail parties with the nuanced and beautiful. Obama also took care this week to describe the ‘root’ of the problem in the Middle East as a ‘lack of jobs and democracy’. This is a statement which is patently false, since almost all top Islamists hail from upper middle class families, and are well educated. Critics say the President is never going to be able to defeat the Islamist Threat if he can’t name it. The bottom line? Whether President Obama knows it or not, he has telegraphed to the American people and the world he has checked out. Its clear he just wants to make it to January 2017 with his ‘legacy’ intact. For this, we are grateful. We do not want this president conducting a major war, as long as we can get through the next 22 months or so without being blown to smithereens, burned in a cage or beheaded by ‘extremely violent people’. If you’re upset about the possible threat, channel the angst into the 2016 presidential race, because the next guy in is going to have a lot of work to do. It will fall on the next President and Congress to figure out how to clean up this mess, because the current President isn’t going to do a damn thing about ISIS, Putin, or anything else. Do we really want him to? It seems all the world’s leaders are at a loss to figure out what to do about anything. The EU is on the verge of a financial crisis and is probably in a recession, while its leaders burn the midnight oil feverishly negotiating cease fires that are apparently meaningless to people like Putin. As fighting between Ukrainian government troops and ‘separatists’ in eastern Ukraine intensified, ending in a rout for the Ukrainian troops, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said of the short lived cease fire negotiated just last weekend in Minsk, “It’s not Munich’. Is there anyone in charge these days? Or are they all waiting for their people to tell them what to do? Do they know what to do? (Wait! Don’t answer that.) The real question is what the US role in the world should be, and how this country should handle itself. This is a question that is clearly being left up to the people. Some final updates and conclusions on the foreign policy front to end the week. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:19 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS