Podcast 441

Shopping, Trump, Lies & Liquor. Welcome back from the big Thanksgiving weekend. The weeks starts with the National Retail Federation, AKA The Propaganda Ministry for the Big Box Retailers. If they’re not making up stories about how many people will shop the day after Thanksgiving, they’re blaming lackluster retail numbers on … wait for it … The Internet and specifically Amazon.com. This is the latest nonsense cooked up to convince lawmakers ‘something has to be done’, and that something is regulation of the Internet, so people will continue to shop at obsolete brick and mortar retailers located inside something called ‘The Mall’. Do we have data that shows the Internet is killing the Mall? Not really. Meanwhile ‘Black Friday’ is more and more an example of all that is wrong in America, and provides a great ‘look at the fat Americans fighting over flat screen TV’s’ story often seen in the foreign media. Maybe people aren’t shopping because they don’t believe the fairy tail about our growing economy, or because the new job only pays half what the old job pays, or because there’s a double digit health insurance premium. Yeah, right. We’re going to ‘spend the savings on two dollar gasoline’ at the mall. You know, like a tax cut. Meanwhile, Political Information Lag produced a lot of surprises at the Thanksgiving table as relatives discovered each other were rooting for Trump, or Bernie Sanders. Both candidates are outside the ‘establishment’ Republican and Democrat story line. Everyone HATES Washington and they HATE mainstream media charlatans who lie to them, while they work for candidates like Hillary Clinton. Once real people actually start voting, we’ll see whether anti-establishmentarianism is a ‘thing’, or not. Jeb! shouldn’t hold his breath tho. Meanwhile the City of Edina’s liquor store apparently can’t complete with ‘cut throat’ discount liquor stores (that actually have a responsibility to their stock holders to make money; how quaint.) Thus, the Mayor of Edina wants a liquor store tax, to make up the loss. “It’s a good business, and we’re going to stay in it”. Why are municipalities in the business of selling liquor? Bottom line, if government can’t even make money selling liquor apparently its incompetence knows no bounds. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and X Government Trucks.

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Podcast 436

Death and Tyranny. How’s that for click bait? Another protest, more glimpses of the French Revolution as an assistant professor throws ‘the media’ out of a protest on public property at a University in Missouri. Meanwhile a new study says white americans 30 to 64 are dying from alcoholism, drug addiction and suicide at alarmingly higher rates than in the past. Frustration. Anger. Despair. Name calling. Blaming. The first few years of the 21st century seem to be calling out for a new defense of ‘Freedom’. What is Freedom? Are we free? Are we free when we can’t express feelings without checking first to see if they will ‘offend’ some group with ‘special’ protections? Are we free when we have to make sure what we express is in line with paradigms determined by social acceptance? Not according to most definitions. So, are we free? What holds the United States together? A common enemy? An idea? A leader? A culture? A religion? A government? How can we hold together as a country if we aren’t allowed to express ourselves, to be ourselves? Over 60 percent of working age people are out of the work force. People are getting tired of being nudged, pushed, shoved, forced, shamed and cudgeled into behaviors the government wants, or behaviors deemed ‘acceptable’ by unelected culture czars, crowned by their exposure in media. We don’t trust our government. We don’t trust our leaders. We don’t trust the media. We don’t trust each other. If studies that show people descending into alcoholism and drugs and depression are true, one could conclude, we don’t trust ourselves either. When you travel the country, it doesn’t look like its falling apart, but any examination of the day’s news suggests something different. Political candidates slinging mud, name calling, finger pointing and the ever present blaming and subsequent atonement. Our entertainment is blood and gore, and sex. In short, our entertainment is coarse to say the least. What future is our art seeing? What kind of frontier are we pioneering today? Where is our toughness and virtue, and grit? Sponsored by X Government Trucks and Hydrus. 

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Podcast 417 – Nik Ludwig

Nik Ludwig. Live from Agorafest on Eclipse night, 2015. In Podcast 416 Agorists themselves talked about what Agorism is all about, how it works, and what they believe. Nik Ludwig has been at the center of this group in Minnesota for a long time and is at least the ‘spiritual father’ of the Minnesota Agorists. Talking to Nik is engaging, challenging and fun. Ludwig is either sitting in seminars and music shows multi tasking on his smart phone, sitting around the campfire or on his golf cart fully engaging in philosophical discussions or brainstorming future Agorafests. Since attendees were able to explain the movement in the previous podcast, Nik and I are able to get into a deeper discussion of his ideas, and philosophy in general about governments, and what Ludwig and other Agorists believe governments do … to us. These are the kinds of questions you won’t hear asked on the mainstream media, and you won’t hear these concepts discussed in mainstream politics. After these kinds of interviews people sometimes ask me, “Why didn’t you challenge” the interviewee on a particular position. One of the things I think podcasting does well is allow people to express to others what they are up to, and the listener can draw his or her own conclusions. There’s too much debate and arguing going on these days and not enough listening. Take some time and listen to Nik Ludwig and the other Agorists in an extended length Bob Davis Podcast, especially if you’re involved in mainstream politics. Is the desire to be an individual wrong? Is the desire to be an individual and to trade in truly free markets such a radical concept in America these days? Apparently for some it is … whether they have a D or an R next to their name. From personal nuclear power plants, to spaceports, and personal mesh networks to post World War I Eastern Europe, to individual freedom and the danger of too powerful government, one thing is for sure … you won’t be bored. Sponsored by Weight Free Wellness and Pride of Homes.

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