Podcast 459

Rolling The Dice In Iowa. This was a day in which Donald Trump pulled out of the ‘sanctioned’ Republican debate. Des Moines was beset with a plague of TV trucks, politicians and rallies. Drake hosted two of these events, and after The Bob Davis Podcasts were denied media credentials for the ‘sanctioned’ Republican debate, we took to waiting in line for our tickets like everyone else. Rand Paul’s event at Drake was smaller – no lines snaking around the block – but no less enthusiastic. Paul appeared, and spoke for about 25 minutes about liberty, freedom and The Bill of Rights, saying ideas bring people together, and the concept of freedom seems to be very effective in this effort. Aly Eichman, volunteering for Paul joins the podcasts to talk about Paul’s impressive precinct organizing effort, which has netted the Senator as many as one thousand precinct chairs statewide. Remember the Iowa PRECINCT Caucuses? Will that kind of organizing make a difference? Then there’s Donald Trump who made sure thousands of people had tickets to an event in an auditorium that accommodates somewhere around 750 to 800. Was it a brilliant move? Will it mean Trump will win Iowa? Standing in line for two hours with Iowans was an eye opener, as well as a hand and feet freezer. Many of the people waiting to see Trump don’t plan to caucus for him. It seems they just want to see Trump, like they might come to see Justin Bieber. Here again, we’ll see. The more time spent here, the more one concludes this really is rolling The Tumbling Dice. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and X Government Cars

Podcast 458

Not George Washington. With the Iowa Caucuses less than a week away, political prognosticators have finally gone off the rails. This week’s poster child for idiocy goes to the talk show host who claims Texas Senator Ted Cruz is ‘The New George Washington’. How is the ‘endorsement’ of candidates from personalities, talk show hosts and commentators different from endorsements that come from governors, senators and candidates who are exiting the race? How has the endorsing of candidates by talk show hosts hurt talk radio? Ted Cruz is Not George Washington, but that fact doesn’t stop charlatans from saying so. Why do they do it? It’s a desperate quest for something called ‘relevance’, which is yet another example of the talk radio cesspool. This podcast has been steadfast in not supporting any candidate for president in 2016. The penchant commentators have this year, to influence voters to support candidates based only on polling data, is shameful. Moreover, participation in primaries and caucuses is very low. The result of primaries and caucuses this spring and summer have more to do with the nominating conventions for both mainline parties than the general election. Despite this fact, talk radio and the media are already making predictions and issuing endorsements for the presidency? The victors in the first few primaries or caucuses, at least on the republican side, are usually not the nominee. The only reasonable conclusion is that commentators are manipulating their listeners and voters for their own gain; a sad feature of a presidential cycle already off the rails. You can imagine how the real election will be reported. This podcaster is not going to endorse anyone for president, since all of them are more like Nucky Thompson than anything approaching George Washington. Sponsored by Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate and Hydrus.

PODCAST 457

Donald J. Trump Authoritarian. If you are a Trump supporter you probably want to know, the left has decided you have ‘authoritarian tendencies’. What is an authoritarian? We can now name the New Yorker with confidence; Donald J Trump Authoritarian. What does it make you if you support Donald J. Trump Authoritarian? What does it mean to have Authoritarian ‘tendencies’. Is it a new fangled way to call you a fascist? Since it’s well known that the first person who brings up Hitler in an argument has lost the argument, and since the left has already tagged the New York business man as another Hitler, they have to come up with something new. While you’re guzzling white wine and picking at the brie at the local university cocktail party, and someone asks what you think of Trump you can simply say, “Well you know his supporters are a bit authoritarian, don’t you think?” Where is this coming from? A self described ‘Phd candidate’ and Massachusetts political consultant Matthew MacWilliams has done a study. His study and ‘simple’ statistical analysis shows Trump supporters to have these authoritarian tendencies. It’s not enough that Trump supporters supposedly have lower education levels (and therefore must be stupid), or hail from the Blue Collar side of the tracks (which used to be democrat territory, back in the day), now it appears the kind of government they like is a little more on the authoritarian side. Hey! There’s a study, so it must be true, right? The bottom line is, if Republicans vote the way the polls show, and it’s a big if, Donald J Trump is going to be the Republican nominee. It’s been pretty clear from the get go that Trump not only terrifies the republican establishment, apparently he also terrifies the socialist left, which if it isn’t busy trying to put you in the photo with Hitler and Eva, is busy coming up with clever new ways to say you’re a fascist. What are the origins of fascism? What are the conditions that have to be met before you can have fascism? Which part of the political spectrum is meeting those conditions? What kind of political system is susceptible to fascism? The answers might surprise you. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and X Government Trucks.