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.

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Podcast 477

Stuck With Trump. The last spate of primary results are in, ushering in the inevitable implosion of Marco Rubio’s campaign for the Republican Presidential Nomination. John Kasich wins Ohio but the delegate count continues to widen in favor of Donald Trump, thus republicans might just be Stuck With Trump. Kasich has already hired establishment operatives with experience in ‘brokered’ or ‘contested’ conventions, as the Republican Party Establishment Thugs desperately try to ignore the wishes of republican voters. The same voters the party encouraged to attend debate viewing parties, the same party that ballyhooed the ‘deep republican field of young candidates’, all of whom busted. What a surprise that a reality TV star saw a huge opportunity to take advantage of the RNC’s creation of the ‘Greatest Show On Earth’. Who’s to blame? It’s tough to say it, and tough to hear it, but not the Establishment, not the Paulites, not the Christian Evangelists. Nope. Who’s to blame? The rank and file republicans who wanted simple explanation and meme style politics. The Tea Partiers who handed out the ‘How to Argue with a Liberal’ pamphlets. The people who wanted easy explanations to complex problems. The people who only sometimes vote, who make excuses when it comes to doing any work, the republicans who talk a good freedom game but are nowhere to be seen when its time to organize, because ‘they’re working’. Ok. They should all be thrilled with Donald Trump, who is for most of the things they are against, who could be running on the same ticket as Hillary Clinton. Rubio talked about ‘conservative’ values and ‘Republicans’ in his campaign suspension announcement but didn’t define either. He never defined conservative values or republicans on the campaign trail either. None of the republican candidates have. Now they’re frantically meeting to discuss a third party candidacy, which will take an enormous amount of work on a short deadline. There’s also sudden talk of the return of Jeb Bush as the result of a brokered convention, something this podcast warned people about weeks ago. Anything to stop Trump. Yet, Trump is the candidate the republican voters deserve. Trump is the candidate they have been praying for. The guy who can win the argument. Republicans and Trump; They deserve each other. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and Pride of Homes real estate.

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Podcast 473

Super Tuesday. Final thoughts from Norman, Oklahoma as this Road Trip draws to a close, On the eve of Super Tuesday, 2016. A dozen or so states and territories have primaries or caucuses scheduled for democrat and republican parties. The media has covered — and will continue to cover — this primary season like a general election and now we have arrived at the second big day after Iowa’s Caucuses a month or so ago … Super Tuesday. For people wondering who to vote for. For people who think this is the actual election. For people who believe the charlatans on talk radio, and the talking heads on TV, and the blow hards at the local political meetings telling you what you should do; Some points to ground you. This is not a general election. These candidates are running to amass delegates to the party convention. Delegates who probably won’t even vote to nominate the candidate they may or may not be pledged to when the final vote for the nomination comes at the end of the mainline party conventions this summer. Candidates are coming to your state and your town to talk to the movers and shakers in the parties, and they’re making deals behind the scenes while the media covers the little shows they put on for the public called ‘retail political’ events. They’re all the same. Meanwhile our news media focuses on personalities, innuendo, open fights, name calling and other antics. Why? It’s the fire on the prairie, the war in the mountains. It’s what produces clicks and views and it’s what keeps the perfumed princes of media in their chairs, and in five thousand dollar suits and one thousand dollar shoes. The country needs new thinking, new ideas and new action to bring in the new economy that is out there, coming into the world, whether the czars in Washington and New York and Hollywood, and Silicon Valley want it. We need a government that protects our constitutional rights and secures our defense, and does little else. We need policies that free the individual, provide economic opportunity for everyone, and gets out of our way. Is this represented in the political mess that is the ‘primary election cycle 2016’? Sponsored by Pride of Homes and X Government Cars. 

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