TruckStop-Washday-Four-States-24hours-Bob Davis Podcast 905

Seven States

First of all after hitting seven states in less than three weeks, it’s time for a break. Learn more about my latest mega trip in TruckStop-Washday-Four-States-24hours-Bob Davis Podcast 905.

Questions About Travel

These days I am asked a lot of questions about my travels.

Food and Laundry

Certainly the best questions are about simple stuff. What do you eat? Where do you do your laundry? Is Mobile Podcast Command an RV?

Truck Stops

Let’s start with two friends of the traveler. WalMart and Truck Stops.

Pilot!

When it comes to Truck Stops I have my favorites. Flying J, Pilots, Loves and T/A’s. Even more, some of the truck stops with names I can’t remember are great. Pilot is my favorite.

Wash Day At The Truck Stop

In TruckStop-Washday-Four-States-24hours-Bob Davis Podcast 905 we spend wash day at the Pilot south of San Antonio, Texas. The music’s classic rock, the People’s Court is on TV and there’s a full range of stuff to look at.

Travel In An America You Don’t See On TV

In addition in this podcast I make some observations about travel in an America saturated with political ‘news’ coverage.

Stressed Drivers and Travelers Need Calm

In contrast at most of the truck stops there’s no CNN, or Fox News or talk radio. There’s country, and classic rock, and a generally calm atmosphere for stressed truckers and travelers.

Back On The Road

Fill up. Get Something to eat. Take a shower. Do some laundry. Back on the road.

24 Hours of Driving and Back To Minnesota

Four states in one day in this podcast. From San Antonio to Dover, Oklahoma, and then onto Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, to finally end in Minnesota on an unusual sunny and warm day in February.

Unsung Heroes

Here’s to the unsung heroes on the road. The drivers, the people at the Pilot, the WalMart, the guy in Oklahoma who stopped to talk to me about my T-shirt.

No Academy Awards Here

Especially relevant is the fact that none of these people will probably ever win an academy award, run for congress, or even make a speech beyond funerals or their kids’ birthday parties.

On The Job

Above all though, they’re back on the job every day. All across this vast country.

Real America

Finally it was a great relief to see real America after two weeks of speechifying and media coverage of politics in Iowa.

Sponsored by the Strategists at Virtus Law

TruckStop-Washday-Four-States-24hours-Bob Davis Podcast 905

War-Rumors-Iran-Trump-Bob Davis Podcast 832

Presidential Election Ahead…Cue The War Drums

War and rumors of war. This time between the United States and Iran. These days you don’t know what’s real. We’ll talk about it in War-Rumors-Iran-Trump-Bob Davis Podcast 832.

The Devil’s In The Details

In addition I’ll provide details and perspective you don’t get from breathless cable news channels, talk radio and advocate commentators. Once a crisis develops advocacy media will try to convince viewers for or against.

Complicated Issues

Iran is a much more complicated issue.

First of all, at issue is the so called JCPOA. The Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action.

The JCPOA was signed by all five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Iran during the Obama administration.

Moreover in exchange for Iranians giving up weapons grade uranium some US and European sanctions dating back forty years were temporarily waived.

The Worst Deal Ever…Might Have Been Working

In 2016 republican presidential candidate Donald Trump campaigned on getting rid of the JCPOA calling it ‘the worst deal I’ve ever seen’. In contrast some  sources say Iran was actually abiding by that agreement. By the way, the deal Trump signed with North Korea recently pledging to de-nuclearize the Korean Peninsula was in fact a communique like the JCPOA, with fewer conditions.

Trump Imposes Sanctions

No matter. President Trump has taken the US out of the deal and imposed sanctions last year. Just recently the US has reimposed sanctions on Iran’s oil exports as well as copper, aluminum and steel most recently. The economic effects have not been good for Iran.

Iran Uses Proxies To Retaliate and Threatens To Start Enriching Uranium

Reportedly Iran has retaliated using Houthi rebels in Saudi Arabia to attack oil pipelines and shipping in the Persian Gulf.

Trump Sends The USS Abraham Lincoln

Trump ordered a US carrier battle group into the gulf. The Saudis want Iran ‘defanged‘ and have called for ‘surgical’ US Airstrikes.

24 Hour Cable News Channels and Talk Radio Love War

Here come endless loops of jets leaving carrier decks. Pundits talking over shock and awe. Headlines across the bottom of screens showing US troops in Iraq.

Deja Vu All Over Again

Finally we have been through all this before. It did not end well. In fact it has not ended. The Iranians are not paragons of virtue but they are no Iraq or Afghanistan either.

In conclusion we ought to think about that before we’re snookered into another war.

(Editor’s Note: I refer to PPP when giving Iran’s per capita income at about 22,000 a year. In US Dollars it’s probably about 8,000 a year. In addition I gave Iran’s oil export total as 1.2 barrels a year. Even more it is roughly 1.2 million barrels a day.)

Sponsored by Whitetail Builders of Andover Minnesota and Reliafund Payment Processors

War-Rumors-Iran-Trump-Bob Davis Podcast 832

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Podcast 573-Fake News

Podcast 573-Fake News. Suddenly everyone is upset about ‘Fake News’. In Podcast 573-Fake News, Fake news and propaganda sites are the latest demon to have spawned the election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States. Well. President-elect. After years of the right blaming ‘the media’ for everything wrong in society, the poles have shifted. Now democrats are blaming their beloved media for electing the antichrist. If it weren’t for all those propaganda sites from Eastern Europe and Russia spewing anti Clinton poison our country would not now be plunged into a cesspool of populism, racism, woman-hating, republicanism. Sigh. Fake News? It’s all fake. It’s all fantasy and it has been for some time. Broadcasters in radio and television, cable news channels and big money backed ‘news’ websites are obsessed with social media and user driven sites like You Tube. Every waking hour for a broadcast executive is spent quaking in fear over the question of relevance. Content is driven by FaceBook and You Tube, Twitter and SnapChat. Historic election? Not bloody likely. No one knows yet because we still have to sift through the voting data. Women putting Trump in office? Isn’t your vote supposed to be anonymous? How do they know? A review of the outcome in a few of the battleground states reveals the one fact we know. In key states the republican vote turn out was better than the democrat vote turn out. If democrats had voted to the margins for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, Hillary Clinton would be the president-elect right now and we’d be listening to the right whine about the media and demand something be done. What is News? Far from a recitation of the events of the day or new information on a particular subject, ‘News’ has become a roundtable discussion with people who don’t have a clue what’s going on because they sit in air conditioned studios in New York, or a gossip fest between washed up TV stars and entertainment figures, or shouting back and forth at each other through cameras on both coasts. News? People don’t want news. They want to be reassured. They’re pretty. They’re strong. Their guy is gonna win. All is well with the world. News? Here’s something you already know, packaged differently and stated firmly. Passing a law to regulate news outlets? Check the first Amendment. No. What’s the antidote. Turn. It. Off. Read. Be a good citizen, Become the warrior you are. Protect your own media battle space: Your mind. Refuse to accept the storyline they want to upload to your hard drive and create your own story line. There’s a reason for the Trump victory in this election, and it’s not fake news websites. It’s a simple fact that more people voted for Trump in key states than Clinton. They had their reasons. Personally, I am sick and tired of being told what to do, and what to think by thieves in Washington DC who will increase their power and the size of the government whether there is an R or a D in front of their name. Sponsored by X Government Cars.