Summertime in Scottsdale. At least that it was feels like if you’re from the upper midwest, for Arizonans this is just the beginning of the heat, but it sure feels good to a boy from the Midwest, after winter. The second of two podcasts for your Wednesday from the Shore Powered Mobile Podcast Command Unit 8. From time to time its a good idea to just sit down in the studio and wing it. Sometimes a lot of effort goes into doing podcasts that are news, or topic oriented. March was a taxing month for The Bob Davis Podcasts, as we cold hardly wait to get our hot little hands on the brand new remote broadcast truck. Response has been great and as capabilities are brought up to speed, the podcasts are going to become more and more fun. In this podcast, a behind the scenes look at the struggle to get Unit 8 up and running through the month and get on the road, before having to return before April 25th, when Bob Davis is scheduled to speak to the SD48 Republicans at the Chanhassen Dinner Theater. We may roll up the night before, fresh from Cali, and camp out at the theater, preparing for the big speech. Actually a lot of good discussion in this podcast about work ethic, how we learn to work, and how we work. And a lesson in patience for Bob Davis. And, an opportunity for sponsorships of the Remote Podcast Command Unit 8. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing of Saint Paul.
Road Trip Part 1. The first leg of the do or die trip to California, USA. Don’t you hate it when you get twenty miles from home and you can’t remember whether you closed the garage door? The Mobile Podcast Command Unit rolls, from Minnesota, through Iowa, on its way to Kansas City. Observations on systems, donations from listeners, gratitude, and the ever present news media. (In a recent blog I suggested that in the wake of the missing airliner hysteria, now every time a plane crashes we will be on tenterhooks until we find out ‘what happened’. This time, ‘something’ indeed did happen!) In any case it’s nice to actually wait until the so called ‘black box’ is discovered before you speculate on ‘what happened’. We live in a time filled with a lot of promise, and then people do stuff like this. But back to the road, where the fun is. But really? continuous coverage of Bowe Bergdahl’s indictment for desertion. Apparently no one is surprised. And one more thing; This labeling people on the political right as ‘populist’ when you don’t like them has to stop. It seems like these days, all the media does is name, categorize and rank things. This trip, straight down the middle of the United States should be interesting. From Dallas, we turn left on I-40, and head for Phoenix, in search of sun and warm air. Meanwhile, it’s hard to believe this old ambulance can tool down the road at 75 miles an hour. Find out if the first crisis – mileage – is really a crisis. (Thank God for the strong dollar and the oil bust!) Plus truck stops in Iowa, and rest stops in Missouri. Oh, yeah, and Des Moines. Sponsored by Autonomous Cad.
Winter and The Donner Party. Updates on the big stories for your weekend. Yeah, it’s cold people, but can we at least use the real temperature rather than wind chills? Was it really -41 in Bemidji, Minnesota the other day, or did just feel like -41? What does -41 feel like? Now of course comes the cavalcade of idiotic financial media stories about the ‘deep cold’ of 2015, and the ‘economic effects’ of people not being able to get to their jobs. In New England? Vermont? Massachusetts? Minnesota? These people, of course, have no experience with such economy killing cold, right? Another economic fairy tale that has died a horrible death is the idea that cheap gas ‘acts like a tax cut’. In reality it appears that the cheaper price of oil isn’t just due to increasing production, but to slackening demand, which ought to cause some concern. A new economic fairy tale is the idea that increasing minimum wages at Wal-Mart (announced as a Public Relations gimmick) will somehow create ‘wage inflation’ which will be good for the economy. Doesn’t seem to be any decrease of wages at federal agencies like the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS currently boasts over eighty thousand employees, and wants to add ten thousand more, ostensibly to do work related to Obama Care taxation enforcement, except only some 400 new employees will be doing that work. What will the others do? Order out for lunch. Buy new chairs. Go to expensive conferences during the winter in Las Vegas. Whatever. Everyone agrees that green and yellow smoke spewing smokestacks, and rivers that explode into flame are bad; We used to call things like that ‘pollution’. These days apparently there is so little pollution that amateur astronomers are complaining that there’s too much ‘light pollution’, they can’t see the little dipper, even with a telescope. Go ahead, tell me to turn off my front porch light. Demand the IDS turn out the lights at night. Hell, go ahead and turn out the street lights. Just don’t call it ‘Light Pollution’. Because when you do that, we call it ‘Mouth Pollution’ as in, SHUT IT! All the talk is that the new iWatch isn’t enough, Apple is going to build a car. The story has been all over the financial media that last few days. Finally someone has debunked it. Find out why in this podcast. So, it’s cold. We know it’s cold. Just imagine you are a pioneer taking the road less traveled in 1847. You come to a wonderful spot high in the Sierra Nevada’s. You say, “This is good. It’s late fall. It’s nice here. Let’s stay and rest up before we head down into the place that will someday be known as the Golden State”. 4 months later half your party is dead, you’re eating Dad for dinner and you realize … You’re the Donner Party! It’s one of the enduring stories of conquering the west, and it should make all of us happy we have hot coffee, steaks in the freezer and ‘Game of Thrones’ to watch. Sponsored by Baklund R&D.
