Podcast 434

Coffee by The Fire. It’s finally starting to feel like October in the upper midwest with temperatures dropping, leaves falling and scudding grey clouds. The days are shorter, the nights longer, and that means its time for a podcast, with coffee, by the fire in the Broadcast Bunker. In podcast time, this is being posted on a Friday. The last week or so has been a rush of technical issues, crazy political stories, parties, lunches, client calls, late night discussions about everything under the sun, and reading a lot of news. Sometimes it’s good to just sit down in front of the microphone and do a podcast. All the ‘podcast manuals’ say you’re supposed to ‘know what you’re going to talk about’. Years of experience in talk radio taught me that sometimes the best thing to do is walk into the studio with no notes, no paper, and nothing in mind. In this podcast I talk a little about my current love-hate relationship with politics and media, media coverage of politics, review the technology issues I have been having lately, present a on-the-spot theory about social disruptions caused by operating system updates pushed out to your computer (Editor’s note: Say no, unless you know all the implications of updating your computer’s operating system.) Anyone ever say to you, “People are acting weird today”? Maybe its because there’s a rolling effect from all the updates blowing out people’s phone apps, peripherals and generally messing with us. What will happen when someday driverless cars, autonomous machines, androids, robot manufacturing and remote controlled bulldozers update and just stop? Hiring people to monitor all that stuff and keep systems operating might – gasp – actually create jobs! Finally, a discussion of the joys of being in business for yourself and how weird it is for a ‘creative’ type to be enthralled with the business side of his business. Welcoming Hydrus as a sponsor to the Bob Davis Podcasts and sponsored by X Government Trucks

Podcast 432 – Jason Lewis Interview Pt 2

Jason Lewis Interview Pt 2. A continuation of Podcast 431, live from Mobile Podcast Command in Lakeville, Minnesota, joined by Minnesota State Senator Dave Thompson, who represents the Lakeville area. Lewis, a candidate for Congress in Minnesota’s 2nd District talks about the issues and policy. Podcast 432 kicks off by continuing the discussion about a recent interview by the Bob Davis Podcasts with former 6th District Congressman Michele Bachmann. Bachmann’s views on foreign policy and those of the establishment republican membership , are at odds with Lewis’. Lewis does not support intervention by the United States in Syria and Iraq at this time. What is the republican foreign policy is these days anyway. What should it be? This leads us to touch on defense spending and the budget, as well as the value versus expense of defense programs like the Abrams Tank and the F-35. From our vantage point in current time it looks like the next Speaker of The House of Representatives will be Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan. What are the views of Jason Lewis on Ryan as speaker? If Ryan becomes speaker chances are his plan to reform Medicare and Social Security – a plan supported by republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush – which calls for vouchers and raising the retirement age, will be on the table in the next congress. What is the Jason Lewis position on this issue? One of the major issues in the next congress, if Republicans maintain a majority in both houses and win the presidency, will be the repeal of Obama Care, or the ACA. Problem is, repealing it means we’re right back where we started, and health care ‘reform’ again becomes an issue. How does this get done? Finally, running for Congress is expensive Are voters in Minnesota’s 2nd District, and the rest of the country, ready for change? Sponsored by X Government Trucks

Podcast 429

Politics as Sport. Millions of people watched the most recent Republican debate on CNBC this week, and everyone is talking about how the candidates ‘really gave it to the moderators’. The moderators had it coming, but was this a surprise? Do you mean say the media is biased? Really? How shocking if true, right? Meanwhile this week a US Destroyer sailed past man-made islands claimed by China provoking quite a response. While the US should challenge Chinese ‘ownership’ of these islands this is just the kind of incident that creates foreign policy crises seemingly ‘out of nowhere’. To add insult to injury House Republicans this week voted to increase federal spending by 50 billion dollars in 2016 and something like 30 billion in 2017. (Editor’s Note: Republicans were shocked and dismayed in the 1970’s when President Carter’s budget deficit hit 45 billion.) Talk about the GOP betrayal of their voters? No, let’s talk about media bias, again. Republican and Democrat candidates running for their party’s nomination to run for president – technically not running for president yet – continue to play to the biases and fears of their most vociferous supporters, as part of a sick and dangerous symbiosis between media, pollsters, and politicians. People watch to see who will be ‘thrown off the island last’. Indeed, politics is being covered not as sports as covered, but is in fact a sport in itself. Why not talk about video games and fantasy football at the debates? The election is already a fantasy football league or video game, or reality TV show, anyway. With most people getting their news in shards from social media, google searches, You Tube and other sources like this, the story about three deep space objects hiding behind the moon is perceived with the same credibility as the story of US Special Forces and Navy Helicopters being deployed to Syria, where they may be as likely to get into combat with Russians and Chinese troops as they are to fight ISIS. We’re ‘Cruisin For A Bruisin’ in the United States if this is how we expect to elect the next President, and subsequently run the country. Don’t forget to join The Bob Davis Podcasts and Jason Lewis for a live podcast Saturday, Halloween at 11:00 AM in Lakeville, Minnesota at the Main Street Cafe. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. (Editor’s Note: I refer to Russia Today, which is a propaganda outlet for the Russian Government as Russia Times. It’s RT or Russia Today.)