Podcast 486

Republicans Need To Grow Up. As Ted Cruz ‘steals’ Colorado’s delegates to the RNC, Trump supporters throw a fit. If the Republicans lose the 2016 presidential election it won’t be the so called establishment’s fault. If the Republicans lose the 2016 presidential election it won’t even be the candidate’s fault. If the Republicans lose the 2016 presidential election, and its Senate majority it will be the Republican Rank and File voter’s fault. If this week’s tantrums are any example, Republicans Need To Grow Up. And soon. These podcasts have stated again and again that people voting in so called presidential primaries are not selecting a candidate. Candidate selection is done at the convention, by convention delegates. As Donald Trump and his supporters rage about the system being rigged its time for some truth telling. Yes, children, the system is rigged. If you want to change it you are going to have to take over the system. Unfortunately the GOP rank and file is filled with people who have a shocking lack of depth on issues, a breathtaking ignorance on context and the emotional maturity of an eighth grader (and that’s being kind), and no stomach for the hard work political change requires. Voting in elections is not enough. Change requires people be wiling to serve, not stand up at meetings and talk about ‘messaging’. The Republican party is populated with a majority of people who think an argument is an insult, a meme, a video someone else posted five years ago, a discussion on FaceBook that lasts all of two exchanges, the last one something along the lines of, “You love Obama”, or “You’re voting for Hillary, aren’t you?”. These people — and there are a lot of them — do not have the emotional maturity or political knowledge to win a presidential election. Period. They aren’t able to argue, or reason. They aren’t ‘conservatives’, they can’t even define what a ‘conservative’ is. Republicans are Tories, concerned about the future but still loyal to the crown. In this podcast someone actually defines the political spectrum in terms that make sense, and explains why republicans and democrats don’t seem to have a problem with government solutions and socialism. If you really want to change things, its going to take more than being angry. Sponsored by Hydrus and Brush Studio in the West End, Saint Louis Park, Mn.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:30 — 90.4MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Podcast 480

Brussels Attack & Foreign Policy. After putting off a Foreign Policy podcast two or three times this week, news coverage of the Brussels attack was so bad, it was time. Thus, the Brussels Attack & Foreign Policy Podcast. While this isn’t a discussion about media, one can’t resist complaining about the terrible coverage of this terror attack in the heart of Europe this week. If it wasn’t news anchors and talking heads trying to explain away defense and foreign policy issues with fairy tales and quips, it was the obligatory ‘False Flag Attack’ video on YouTube, within twenty four hours. Meanwhile, a talk show host who rails about “The Sheeple” being stupid and uninformed, endorsed Donald Trump’s presidential campaign with the statement, “He’s dumbing down his language so people will understand it”. The ‘truth’? It’s the international bankers (and other usual suspects) trying to bring in a one-world-government. According to the latest talk radio sell-out, Trump understands this because he understands banking. Hogwash. The main cable news channels are filled with hogwash. The Internet is filled with Hogwash from talk show and political charlatans to You Tube videos detailing ‘proof’ the illuminati is trying to take over the world. How do we know? Because a mind controlled sex slave says she heard Reagan and Clinton talking about it one time at the White House. Meanwhile voters in the United States are in the process of picking the delegates who will choose each party’s nominees for president, and we will choose a president, congress and one third of the senate in the fall. When it comes to foreign affairs, there are no easy choices and no simple solutions. People are deeply uninformed about foreign policy, poorly educated on history, and unprepared to analyze the consequences of rhetorical flourishes on the subject from political candidates. Watching more Fox News and CNN, or more videos on the illuminati take over and satanic sex rituals of the reptilian aliens on You Tube, no matter how slick, or the latest unrelated facts strung together with ominous black and white photos ‘proving’ the latest terror attack was ‘people in our government who want to make you think…(fill in the blank)’ isn’t going to help you make an informed decision. What happens when our presidents and congress make mistakes? Hint: What killed the Republican party wasn’t Donald Trump or Ron Paul. It was the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath. So yeah. Your vote for president is pretty important. Sponsored by Brush Studio, X Government Cars and Hydrus.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:43 — 113.8MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Podcast 478

On Media. It started out as an idea for a podcast on Friday. A departure from the increasingly tedious, even terrifying and depressing world of politics. As the weekend progressed and opportunities for socializing were offered, ‘On Media’ moldered, then morphed into something more complex. After several attempts to assess what the podcast would be about, one attempt to write it and three attempts to record it, I finally just said the hell with it and decided to talk it out. Thus ‘On Media’. Some of it is a repackaging of ideas behind the podcasts I’ve done about the fact that the mass marketing most of us have gown up in is gone, replaced with a new world of mass specialization. People ask me all the time what is going on in the world. What’s wrong with the media. Or, they tell me the media is at fault. The media is bad. What is the definition of media? What is it’s role in society? What’s really going on? These days we have millions of sources of information available at any time. Any one of those sources can be the most viewed in any single day. It is not unusual for You Tube channels to have more views in a few hours than the cable news channels have all week. In the middle of this is politics. All news coverage is emotional and symbolic. There used to be a tactic called political theater. Now it’s all theater. Politics is media. We are submerged in images of persuasion everywhere we go. From the logos on the clothing we wear, to the TV’s in bars pouring their images into our minds while we eat our burgers. All these images are emotional, and emotional because emotion persuades. You think people seem angry, frustrated, confused? Wonder why? We can’t seem to get a handle on what’s wrong. Our government is the product of something called The Enlightenment. Are we enlightened? Or enslaved? Sponsored by Brush Studio in the West End, Saint Louis Park, and by Hydrus Performance.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:37 — 99.8MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS