Podcast 438

Post Paris Reset. In an odd way there isn’t much to add to the observations in Podcast 437. Almost everything predicted regarding coverage of and reaction to the Paris Attacks has come true. In the aftermath of ‘Paris’, an hour or two spent with cable news yields little new information, but provokes an emotional response with viewers. This emotional response is intensified hour after hour as the same footage is replayed, the crawl at the bottom of the screen details the statements of politicians, while ‘experts’ argue on screen. Conversely, in ten minutes spent on line, one gets an idea of the contours of new developments with the story. Yet, people sit staring at Cable TV News for hours expecting some new development, getting more and more frustrated and angry, or afraid and concerned. This doesn’t advance the story, and doesn’t make it any easier to understand what has happened and what can be done about it. The media is complicit in creating an all-or-nothing, right-left, up or down orientation to every story, especially big stories that get covered and discussed hour after hour. The results are predictable; Politicians are already urging we send hundreds of thousands of troops into Iraq, or to ‘declare war on ISIS’. The only reasonable conclusion that has been drawn is that the Syrian refugee program in the US should be suspended until Congress can determine whether the vetting process is effective or not and even that has become a contentious issue to be argued ad infinitum. Meanwhile we’re no closer to developing a foreign policy that addresses Russia, the Rise of China and Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and terrorism. Politically, we don’t seem to have any idea where we want to be as a country in fifteen or twenty years. Given this philosophical vacuum, the same voices that got us into Iraq twice in the last 20 years are already advocating a continuation of the same failed policies, with predictably negative results. Is this what you want? Best be sure, because you’re about to vote for it. Again. Sponsored by Hydrus, Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate. 

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Podcast 369

Night Train. An Amtrak train going over 100 miles an hour derails and the reason for the crash? Infrastructure. Really? It will be weeks before the real cause of the crash, which killed at least 7 people is known. Yet the ghouls in Congress are already making the most out of a crisis and tragedy by demanding, you guessed it, more spending for ‘infrastructure’. Is that what we really need? Speaking of train wrecks, Jeb Bush, a sort of candidate for the republican presidential nomination, answered a question last week he shouldn’t have, and now he is ‘evolving’ his comments. Bush said he would have supported the Iraq invasion in 2003, if he had been in Congress. No wait, now he says he wouldn’t have, if he knew then what he knows now. Well of course Governor! Bush should have instructed his interviewer to ask someone who actually voted for the resolution, or ordered the invasion. In the process Jeb Bush – the so called ‘smart Bush’ – missed the point; Republicans do not have a foreign policy. Democrats do not have a foreign policy. The President does not have a foreign policy. We’re in a new era with new rules. For one thing, with the US as the world’s largest oil producer, and largest swing producer state, it changes the picture considerably. Second, unfortunately we now know that invading countries, fixing them, and then leaving precipitously is probably not a workable policy. Other than that, no candidate whether democrat or republican has been able to articulate a foreign policy position that makes any sense. A protest in Minneapolis this week resulted in the police using pepper spray, and apparently inadvertently pepper spraying a ten year old. Now the mom wants answers. We want answers to, like why on earth would you take a ten year old kid to a potentially violent protest? Apparently no one has any common sense anymore. The Pope continues to wave the red flag, and when he’s not doing that, he’s genuflecting to communists, or pushing his version of global warming. Joining the world’s biggest useful idiot (the Pope) is the world’s second most celebrated useful idiot Francois Hollande, President of France, giving Raul Castro a rock star welcome to the fourth republic. A former bodyguard to Fidel Castro is telling his story, after years of torture and incarceration at the hands of the communist dictator. While the Cuban people starved, Fidel Castro enjoyed luxury in several estates, drank wine, cavorted with mistresses, and offered rich American movie stars (did I mention useful idiots) holidays at his Bay of Pigs ‘ranche’. We are now being warned of the impending disasters which will be brought by El Nino. Do you know what the effects of an El Nino event are? Do you know how accurate the predictions are? Find out in this podcast. Sponsored by X Government Cars.

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Podcast 331

DHS Funding and Netanyahu. Minnesota’s 6th District Congressman Tom Emmer voted for the ‘clean’ DHS funding bill, as congress capitulates to the President. Emmer says he is disappointed in his colleagues who fought to refuse funding the President’s effort to ‘amnestitize’ illegal aliens through executive memoranda. Emmer says the courts will handle it. The question really is where supporters in the 6th district – one of America’s most conservative – will come down on the issue. Congress seems to be loathe to actually have a fight with the President, in order to put some limits on what he thinks he can do with executive action. The fact is, capitulating to President Obama will only further embolden him to issue yet more executive orders, and cause further disputes Congressional Republicans can run away from. According to the White House, Obama is considering executive action on corporate taxation, and second amendment issues as his staff works day in and day out to find ways for him to run the country more like a Boris Yeltsin or Vladimir Putin, than a constitutional US Chief Executive. For those who suggest Republicans need to ‘keep their powder dry’, or pick the big issue they can win to fight on … If not now, when? Be prepared; the new argument is you’re a ‘child’ if you advocate cutting the Government Gordian Knot. What we need, they’ll say, is trustworthy conservatives to make it run, right. Which is exactly what Obama said in 2008. The fact is, ‘radical’ ideas of lesser government aren’t childish, they date back to the birth of the republic. Moreover, there are structured proposals to audit the Fed, as well as eliminating agencies that are inefficient, or don’t work. They’re hardly rash, or childish. The idea that ‘conservatives’ need to nominate ‘responsible’ candidates ‘who can win’ is back. Times have changed, though, and the last thing this country and the Republicans need is another retread from the 1980’s, or timid go-along-get-along ‘problem solvers’ who believe NASA and the Interstate Highway system represent our future. As the so called radicals get organized, and raise money and votes, the message from Minnesota’s 6th voters, may soon be akin to Wyatt Earp’s … “Commence to fighting or get out of the way!” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress, upsetting White House aides who tweeted insults, and apparently nearly bringing minority leader Pelosi to tears. Contrary to critics, Netanyahu’s speech does provide alternatives to the agreement now being negotiated with Iran which the Israeli leader says constitutes an existential threat to Israel, and the US. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. 

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