Podcast 449

It’s Just The Presidency. Live from Minneapolis and Saint Paul International Airport, Lindberg Terminal, since this is where almost everyone will be at some point during the Holiday season. As family and friends get together for Christmas and The New Year’s, conversations about the Presidential Race and politics will inevitably come up. Some will be new discussions, others will be continuations of discussions began during Thanksgiving. As we walk and talk through the airport, we discuss the idea that there has been a predominant and early focus on the personalities for the presidential race, and with early primaries coming up starting February 1st, and running through next summer, that focus will only increase. With all this presidential coverage it seems like we have completely forgotten 435 house members will be chosen, a third of the US Senate and a host of local, state representatives will be elected, as well as governors in some states. How many of us will be talking about elections for congress, state houses, and governor’s this year, rather than the latest gaffe by some over-televised and exhausted candidate, somewhere in Iowa, or New Hampshire or South Carolina? We’re supposed to have a balanced government in the United States, with sovereignty resting with the people, but it seems more and more as though we rely on one person as the Imperial President to administer the largest and most expensive federal government in the world, with now huge responsibilities. What is the history of ‘mixed’ or ‘balanced’ government. How can a system of checks and balances work if all we talk about are the personalities running for just one part of our balanced government; the executive? What did the founders think of the presidency? Why are there a whole list of enumerated powers in the US Constitution for Congress, the states and a Bill of Rights for the people, and few for the President? What happened in our history to make our presidency so powerful, and is this a good thing? How do we undo it? This is the conversation and the question families and friends should be having this year, heading into 2016’s election. However, people just seem to want a personality to ‘fix’ things, they don’t want to be bothered with details. Maybe this is why the founders also checked the people with an electoral college and Senate appointed by state legislatures and governors. If we’re not going to do our duty as citizens, maybe we need to go back to the old ways. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and X Government Trucks. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, from the Bob Davis Podcasts. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:26 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Podcast 444

Trump’s Folly? Midweek news updates. It’s all about Donald J. Trump who has managed to gain complete command of the media battle space on the issue of Jihad in the United States, on the heels of the San Bernardino, California attacks. With polls showing Trump with a commanding overall lead, compared to all the other Republican Candidates, his announcement that ‘Muslim immigration should be put on hold until we know what is going on’ has put him to the right of even Ted Cruz, and forced all the other Republicans into defending the President. Not only is Trump being compared to Hitler, (Ridiculous in its own right, since the greatest progressive in history and democrat President Franklin Delano Roosevelt didn’t waste a second rounding up West Coast Japanese-Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan) his latest statement on Muslim Attacks in the US is being described as a ‘brilliant political move’. It all adds up to higher poll numbers for Trump and higher ratings on foreign policy and defense than the so called ‘adults’ in the room, like Lindsay Graham who called for a campaign this week to ‘Tell Trump to Go To Hell’. So much for adulthood. In this podcast, what you need to know, what this means, how to do your own homework and stop asking others to tell you what you’re supposed to think. Bottom line, the moderate leadership nominally referred to as ‘The Republican Establishment’ put George W Bush in office, backed him on the disastrous Iraq War (which did more damage to the Republican Party than Nixon), and continually expects the media to do their bidding for them. News Flash! If you’re a moderate establishment Republican, either serving in elected office or as a campaign consultant, people are sick of your crap and your unwillingness to join the fight. If you don’t understand why Trump is doing what he is doing, you’re dead. If people vote as the polls show, Trump is the nominee. If democrats insist on trying to take all the guns, stop people from saying what they think, and allowing ONLY the politically correct to speak, chances Trump will be President improve drastically. Americans might be stupid, but they see through all this political nonsense. They know, this President, this Congress and the Republican Establishment aren’t protecting them and aren’t fixing what’s wrong. Looks like what voters might be saying is, the time for the so called ‘establishment to get on the good foot, or get out, has come. Establishment Republican Moderates should be afraid. Very afraid. Sponsored by Hydrus Performance and Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:14 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Podcast 410

Forgotten Presidents. In the official ‘Back To School’ podcast for 2015, a look at US History in the period between 1836 and 1856, a series of hapless presidents who are today forgotten, as are the Congresses and Courts of the time, for the most part. What did Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore and James Buchanan do, or not do, to make them ‘those guys between Jackson and Lincoln’. This period of our history is noted for our government’s failure to address the most pressing problems of the time, leading to the greatest calamity in US History; the Civil War. Yet it was a time of great advancements by Americans in almost every area. It was just a twenty year period in our history, but decisions made, or not made at that time turned out to be very important to our history.   Horrible compromises on abolishing slavery, a war with Mexico, the acquisition of Texas, undoing previous compromises on the slavery issue that made the problem worse, with the White House and congress lurching back and forth between positions as parties and political interests pulled in different directions. Finally, a president too timid to do anything, couching inaction as the ‘rule of law’. At the end of that twenty year period, one party was dead, another created and the nation was about to go to war again, against itself. Not a very good showing. Are we living through such a period now? A period with weak legislators and presidents, who lack imagination and real creativity, and a vision for the future? A dangerous period to the future of the country, and a period future historians will characterize as a period of ‘forgotten’ presidents? Do you think about what the country would be, could be in twenty years? How do you rethink, reorient your politics to solving problems and manifesting building blocks for a new age that is coming whether we want it or not. Right now though, it seems like people are caught up in fat shaming, the primary politicking, and media covering the bouncing ball. What are we NOT seeing, hearing and thinking about that’s critical? Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and by Eric and Erum Lucero of Pride Of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate in the Minneapolis North Metro Corridor. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:28 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS