Podcast 232

Obama and Ebola. As another health worker is reported to have contracted the Ebola virus, the President cancels a fundraiser to hold an emergency meeting with his ‘Ebola Team’ to make sure ‘it doesn’t happen again’. The meeting raises yet more questions, even as it raises the stakes for an embattled President. As predicted weeks ago by The Bob Davis Podcasts, Ebola now dominates news coverage, in the fantasy 24/7 news cycle. And, in the Magic Kingdom of the News Media, whatever steps taken to combat problems like Ebola, the feeble economic recovery, or a threat like ISIS just have to work…unless they don’t. Still, questions not answered continue to multiply. Why did Amber Vinson – the third person with Ebola in the US and second health worker to contract the disease at the hospital in Dallas – get on a plane and fly to Cleveland, from Dallas, and back … with all the stops in between. That seems like a lot of ‘contact tracking’ for the ‘experts’ at the CDC to do. Are charges about containment procedures being ignored at the Dallas hospital true, and if so, does that mean we should be monitoring more than a little over a hundred people from there? What does ‘self monitoring’ mean? And, why was a person who was supposedly being monitored flying around the country? Moreover, experts keep saying we don’t have enough data to know if the Ebola Virus can be spread more easily than what ‘experts’ say, or whether it could mutate into a form more easily transmitted. Finally, if this is what happens when one terminal Ebola patient shows up at a hospital, what happens when 3 show up? What about 10? What about 100. How many ‘SWAT Teams’ of ‘pros from Dovwer’ does the CDC have? To add insult to injury, if you’re concerned about the response to Ebola infection in the US (such as refusing a travel ban for people coming from West Africa, which Columbia and the tiny Caribbean Island of Saint Lucia’s have done) you’re panicking? Then there are the markets, dropping because of concern about economic slow downs in Europe and China. Oh yeah, let’s not forget ISIS which is not cooperating with Obama’s strategy to ‘degrade and destroy’ them. If this really is the Democrats ‘October Surprise’ its not working well. As polls show more momentum with Republicans on the issues those surveyed care most about, it suggests voters that decide who to vote for at the last minute could pick Republican candidates. The only bright spot is cheaper gasoline, as Saudi Arabia pumps like crazy, hoping to force American oil companies to slow or stop production, which is reportedly not profitable below about 90 dollars a barrel. Just a word of caution; A drop in the price of commodities is really not a good sign when every major central bank in the world is pumping cash into the banking systems. Will these problems go away? Or cascade into catastrophe? Only time will tell. Sponsored by Baklund Research and Development

Podcast 186

4 Percent Economic Growth? Ebola. Hamas. Aliens. Updates on all the big stories for your weekend, from the Bob Davis Podcasts. The Podcasting world welcomes Jason Lewis and Jessie Ventura to its ranks. Both broadcasters can’t find a home with traditional ‘over-the-air’ radio stations, so are moving to podcasts. This means more and more talk listeners will be using their home computers, portables, iPads, iPhones and other devices to get good talk radio, not the radio. Good for us Podcasters, bad for the rapidly imploding world of broadcast, especially what passes for talk radio in broadcast radio. The economic news is good, and while it is celebrated, there are some caveats everyone should know about. And, inflation is back, despite people like Professor Paul Krugman denying it. Ebola continues to spread, and while authorities caution that the disease has to be in an advanced stage and you have to have very close contact with the infected to get it, they’re restricting flights in and out of the areas of Africa infected. On the US Southwestern border, Scabies, TB and Chicken Pox are emerging among the illegal aliens being held, and moved all over the United States. In the Middle East, the Israeli left is furious with John Kerry, and now President Obama, who is doubling down on what many on the left in Israel and the US believe was a terrible mistake by the US Secretary of State; A cease fire agreement which seemed to grant all the advantages to HAMAS in Gaza, and not Israel. Is this another foreign policy debacle brewing, as the Israeli left – big supporters of Obama – now consider the US President to have switched sides. While unions fight for higher minimum wages for Retail and Fast Food Workers, look out … robots and machines are taking their places at the biggest companies. And, over 3500 days without  a major hurricane in Florida, and the great lakes are inverting — with very low water temperatures for this time of year. What happened to Global Warming? Sponsored by Baklund R & D

Podcast 63

Watching neighbors bring their kids to a soccer game provoked a question: Where is the dynamic recovery we need to generate jobs and opportunity? These days it seems like all the opportunity is either in Washington D.C. or Wall Street. Could the meanness and partisanship in today’s politics be the result of concern about the economy? Concern that’s turning to fear? What’s wrong? How do we fix it? Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating.