Podcast 230

Gone Girl. “Gone Girl” is the movie everyone is going to see these days. The new movie has an unexpected story line about The Media. Did the writer(s), director and producer(s) know they were making a movie about media’s effects on our society? Or did they think – as many contemporary commentators think – the movie is about rape and murder? In a movie about a crime, you never see the inside of a courtroom, a prosecutor or Grand Jury. Even the lawyer acts like a Public Relations man. The ‘case’ is tried in the court of the media, and the media can be manipulated if you are smart enough and have enough money. It doesn’t matter how you become famous, only that you are. Notoriety can make you enough money to pay smart expensive lawyers and PR people who can ‘manage’, ‘spin’, ‘lie’ and create a story line. What ‘Gone Girl’ really says is there are two realities in our society; two separate spheres. There is a fantasy world created by the media where there is no right or wrong, no up or down, right or left, and no absolutes. Everything can be adjusted, walked back, changed, realigned and consequences are dependent on how savvy the protagonist, or victim is when it comes to media. Then there is in fact, the real world. A world where real things happen to real people. A world where hostages heads are cut off, where people get diseases and die, where policy decisions result in catastrophe, where airstrikes alone don’t stop the enemy, where the economy doesn’t get much better, where real people are worried and afraid. In one world people react to things said on television, magazines, talk radio, newspapers, social media and blogs. In the other world, real people act, and there are real consequences. Which world are you living in? Right now media coverage of the 2014 election cycle clearly illustrates the existence of these two worlds. If you’re running for office you’re supposed to follow the majority party’s playbook. Questioning US Border Security, asking whether there should be some kind of quarantine in place for West African arrivals to the US, questioning whether the President is protected, questioning whether the economy is ‘recovering’ is ‘alarmism’, or spreading ‘fear’. On November 4th, 2014 a very real thing will take place. There will be an election, and real people will go to their polling place and vote. One side will win the right to govern and the other side will lose. As the opposition party in the current US Government, republican candidates have a duty to question the competence and leadership of the president and his party, in any language they choose. In one world questioning the competence of our leaders is not acceptable. In the other, it’s essential. Sponsored by X Government Cars and Depotstar. 

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The Bob Davis Podcast

Podcast 228

Predicting the Future. Are TV shows and movies predicting the future? How do humans predict the future? On Wall Street they use computers and physics to create algorithms to tell traders what is happening across a wide spectrum of the market, and help make trading decisions. Other traders and analysis use models and theories like the Elliot Wave Theory, The Dow Theory and other technical analysis disciplines. Some people prefer Astrology, Tarot and other forms of Divination. Some suggest humans don’t predict the future well at all. Aside from the idea we are writing history as it happens, not living it as it is fated, it’s fun to ask whether movies and TV shows have some ability to predict the future, whether the writers and producers of those movies know it or not. Why do we resonate – internationally – on certain movies. ‘Titanic’ was a hugely popular movie, right before 9/11. A whole slew of movies at the end of the 90’s – from American Beauty and Magnolia to Fight Club and The Matrix – seem to predict a much more chaotic and unpredictable world than what we were experiencing during the Clinton Era. Would anyone argue we seem to be living in a world that is increasingly chaotic and unpredictable? Did the movies ‘predict’ it, or ‘depict’ it subconsciously? Or are these movies a subtle form of propaganda, pushing us subconsciously toward this kind of world? Finally, there’s TV. The shows we love. The shows we binge watch. House of Cards, Homeland, Breaking Bad, MadMen, and The Walking Dead. Shows that seem to be depicting a world where people in authority have short term, selfish and cynical views on how to manage, are just managing a government seconds from catastrophe, are losing their grip on reality, or are literally running from crowds of zombies. With the Ebola and Enterovirus outbreaks, border security in question, presidential security in question, thousands of thugs loose in the desert beheading people and keeping western governments at bay, economies slowing down, and confusion about what comes next, it makes you wonder. Will a new era break through, creating chaos and washing away the old, or will be it brought through by people who are free to innovate and solve problems? It’s up to us. Sponsored by Baklund R & D. 

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Podcast 227

Eclipse Radio. The three main takeaways from the news so far this week, hours before the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse on October 8th, 2014. The Blood Moon. Speaking of…While the pencil necked bureaucrats at the CDC say, “Nothing to see here folks!”, other medical scientists and researchers are not so quick to be cowed. Experts are worried – that is the word they use – the Ebola virus may spread more easily than the government assumes. The word is, there isn’t enough data to conclusively rule out the possibility the virus is only transmitted through contact with secreted substances from an infected person. There is also not enough data to conclusively determine how fast the virus can mutate, or whether the mutations would result in a less dangerous, or much more dangerous virus. People should also take note of the Enterovirus D-68 ‘Paralysis’ story, because the reporting on this one is terrible. We would like to know where these people are from, whether they have been vaccinated for Polio, and if they have come to this country recently. Meanwhile coverage of the the vacuous shout-fest between Ben Affleck and Bill Maher has apparently occupied the attention of every major commentator, despite the fact that a US Ally and NATO member Turkey, has abandoned The Kurdish people. As a result a massacre – at the very least – is in the wind as ISIS is about to take, or has taken the Kurdish town of Kobani, full of refugees from the Syrian Conflict. Oh by the way, those air-strikes? Didn’t work. On the election 2014 front, suddenly the political ‘Money Ballers’ are hedging their bets. The American people are really mad, though. Don’t know if we’ll vote, or who we’ll vote for, but the media knows for sure we’re mad. Finally some thoughts about the eclipse, superstition, how to deal with the Orwellian media reality in America today, and the coming of a new era. (Editors Note: It can’t get here fast enough for me!) Sponsored by Sedation and Implant Dentistry of Saint Paul and by Depot Star. 

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