Sunny Lohmann – Podcast 454

Sunny Lohmann. Political Humorist Sunny joins the Bob Davis Podcasts with an announcement about a new You Tube effort, plus  the top stories catching her attention. Sunny announces a new You Tube channel, details at House of Sunny TV. From the mass attack on women in Germany, by ‘Middle Eastern’ and ‘East African’ men which appears to have been coordinated, to the rancher dispute in Oregon and the occupation of a federal government wildlife facility in the middle of nowhere, Sunny’s got game. From there it’s onto Guns! Guns! Guns! The President’s executive orders on gun control and what they mean, and discussion of crime and firearm statistics. Almost all of these numbers are fertile ground for political activists and point of view journalists, as well as presidents, as witnessed by President Obama’s recent CNN ‘Town Hall’ meeting on gun control. According to Sunny, one of the things point of view researchers do is lump firearm suicides and incidents where law abiding citizens have defended themselves and property with firearms, with mass shootings. Moreover, the question of whether to include a terror incident which includes a mass shooting such as San Bernardino, with other types of mass shooting events is usually never addressed by commentators … but it is here. Do ‘conservatives’ in the United States need another enemy? Sunny and Bob react to a nationally syndicated columnist and talk show hosts call for ‘statism’ to become the ‘new philosophical enemy’ of ‘conservatives’. Sounds like another opportunity for a talk show host to sell books and to gin up more outrage. Bob and Sunny also talk about life, raising children and visits to the Golden State; California, where Sunny lives. Surprisingly enough both agree, “It’s beautiful there.” Sponsored by Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate and Hydrus Performance.

Podcast 452

Jeb’s Baack! With less than a month to go before people actually start voting for candidates to lead their party’s presidential bids in 2016, get ready for the story lines to change. In this first of the year podcast, we get back on the political horse to both warn and speculate on the potential changes in media story lines, which have come to constitute ‘political’ coverage in our time. Our media may think of itself as an informal ‘fourth estate’; an additional fourth branch of government. Fortunately the founders vested sovereign power in the people as represented in three estates of our republic; The legislative, executive and judicial branches. Our media is more like The Borg, or a mob. A faceless, brainless maw that seizes on reactionary story lines, based only on the personality of various politicians, the things they say and outrage generated from it. These form story lines that run until they wear out, or some new outrage is manufactured, or some actual event called ‘news’ happens. The lack of actual journalism and reporting on issues is palpable. The dominant story line that started this political season was that flash in the pan known as Donald Trump. Now that Trump is the dominant candidate on the Republican side, a new story line is being manufactured that says, ‘Hang on, Jeb Bush is going to reemerge’. Given the power and money behind the Republican establishment, don’t be so quick to discount that one. When people start voting, look for candidates to get out. Those who stay in will reap the benefits. On the democrat side, the story line was Hillary Clinton was the inevitable candidate, then Bernie Sanders was going to upset the apple cart, now the story line is what kind of presidency Mrs Clinton will have. Fasten your seat belts; the one constant in politics is change. Sponsored by Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate, and Hydrus Performance

Podcast 450

Beware The Soothsayers. So much of our media these days is caught up in predicting the future. Weather, economics, sports and especially politics, isn’t so much about fact as it is about predictions based on opinion and poorly supported ‘fatcs’. Without a real basis in science or proven facts, we’re constantly told what the ‘future will bring’. It’s a wonder news anchors and ‘commentators’ don’t wear brightly colored head dresses and look into a crystal ball. One of the reasons we are ill served by a modern media possessed of the greatest technology for informing known to man, is its executives exhort their on screen ‘actors’ and so called ‘journalists’ to use opinion and hearsay to ‘predict’ what ‘will’ happen, rather than just report the facts around an event, or ‘the news’. For instance, lower prices for gasoline was going to ‘act like a tax cut’ and we would have economic growth. The Christmas retail shopping season might be a little down, but it would still be good. Donald Trump would be a flash in the pan, and would ‘collapse’ as soon as voters ‘came to their senses’. This is the time of year astrologers make their predictions for 2016, which are about as accurate as the wild ‘predictions’ made by the cable news services, round table discussions, commentary pieces distributed on line, and most of the rest of the media conglomeration complex, especially talk radio and the cable news channels. What do you think would happen if they stopped making predictions? There’d be a lot of dead air. In fact most of what is being broadcast and written these days is little more than fortune telling, and not very good fortune telling at that. In a late night podcast by the fire, as we labor under a winter storm watch in the upper midwest (at least a foot of snow ‘predicted’ with the ‘storm’ starting Monday night), time to air some concerns about what we are being told, and talk about the antidote to it. Sponsored by Hydrus Performance, and by the Mobile Podcast Command Unit of The Bob Davis Podcasts.