Podcast 491

Raising The Stakes. Screenwriters have a tool they employ to make movies thrilling. It’s called Raising The Stakes. This is where the hero seems to be winning. The detective is close to solving the case, but suddenly he’ll find his office has been broken into and all the evidence stolen. Or, the guy is about the get the girl, but he sees her with another guy. Raising The Stakes is how viewers are kept engaged up to the last moment when the plot comes to a climax. This is exactly how political junkies should view the latest results from Tuesday Night April 26th’s presidential primary preference polls. Donald Trump’s sweep of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island, the Hillary Clinton’s commanding victories in four of those states over Bernie Sanders raise the stakes. They haven’t won their respective party’s nominations for president yet, but they’re about to. Or are they? Get ready because the mainstream media is about the raise the stakes on you again with the next group of primaries all the way up to the final primaries in June. In this podcast, along with results from all the states for both republicans and democrats, a restatement of my bias in this election cycle; I really can’t stand any of the candidates on either side of the political spectrum, and I am not campaigning for any of them overtly or covertly. I am also not part of the so called ‘objective’ #nevertrump crowd. In fact, I wouldn’t cross the street to meet with any of them. Watch the delegate selection process very closely because the final delegate count is going to be different – maybe very different – from what is advertised on all the 24 hour cable news shows. Watch the Senate races where incumbent republicans are vulnerable (I’ll provide a list in this podcast), because for republicans this is going to have a lot more to do with who the nominee will ultimately be than delegates. If the RNC sees the possibility of losing the senate, there may be some plays called in from the sidelines. Hint; A Trump or Cruz candidacy do nothing for vulnerable republican senators, one of whom happens to be Florida’s Marco Rubio. Remember him? Watch the story lines for the next couple of weeks, because suddenly it’s all about how Trump is inevitable. Again, Raising The Stakes. Chances are this race will go down to the conventions, and there’s still a very good possibility it will be a contested convention on the republican side. On the democrat side, all is not well either. Hillary Clinton may have the lion’s share of delegates and super delegates, but many progressives view Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as sell-outs. There is tepid support for Mrs. Clinton, which might cause her some problems at her convention and in a subsequent general election if she is the nominee. Stay tuned. It’s just getting interesting. Sponsored by X Government Cars and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul.

Podcast 480

Brussels Attack & Foreign Policy. After putting off a Foreign Policy podcast two or three times this week, news coverage of the Brussels attack was so bad, it was time. Thus, the Brussels Attack & Foreign Policy Podcast. While this isn’t a discussion about media, one can’t resist complaining about the terrible coverage of this terror attack in the heart of Europe this week. If it wasn’t news anchors and talking heads trying to explain away defense and foreign policy issues with fairy tales and quips, it was the obligatory ‘False Flag Attack’ video on YouTube, within twenty four hours. Meanwhile, a talk show host who rails about “The Sheeple” being stupid and uninformed, endorsed Donald Trump’s presidential campaign with the statement, “He’s dumbing down his language so people will understand it”. The ‘truth’? It’s the international bankers (and other usual suspects) trying to bring in a one-world-government. According to the latest talk radio sell-out, Trump understands this because he understands banking. Hogwash. The main cable news channels are filled with hogwash. The Internet is filled with Hogwash from talk show and political charlatans to You Tube videos detailing ‘proof’ the illuminati is trying to take over the world. How do we know? Because a mind controlled sex slave says she heard Reagan and Clinton talking about it one time at the White House. Meanwhile voters in the United States are in the process of picking the delegates who will choose each party’s nominees for president, and we will choose a president, congress and one third of the senate in the fall. When it comes to foreign affairs, there are no easy choices and no simple solutions. People are deeply uninformed about foreign policy, poorly educated on history, and unprepared to analyze the consequences of rhetorical flourishes on the subject from political candidates. Watching more Fox News and CNN, or more videos on the illuminati take over and satanic sex rituals of the reptilian aliens on You Tube, no matter how slick, or the latest unrelated facts strung together with ominous black and white photos ‘proving’ the latest terror attack was ‘people in our government who want to make you think…(fill in the blank)’ isn’t going to help you make an informed decision. What happens when our presidents and congress make mistakes? Hint: What killed the Republican party wasn’t Donald Trump or Ron Paul. It was the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath. So yeah. Your vote for president is pretty important. Sponsored by Brush Studio, X Government Cars and Hydrus.

Podcast 472

Texas. That’s all you need to say. Texas. We start on the Texas Gulf Coast at Galveston and work our way up to Beaumont, Houston, on through central Texas with an eye toward La Grange, Austin, Waco and finally to Dallas. If you woke up in one of these places, even any of the smaller towns along the way, you would know, you could only be in Texas. Along the way, lots of stories from this Road Trip so far, including the drive up the Gulf Coast through Mississippi and Alabama, and Louisiana, ending in New Orleans on Saturday night, where Mobile Podcast Command was forced to break the law, in service of a cup of chicory coffee and a pastry from Cafe Dumonde. Sadly, New Orleans seems like it is still struggling to overcome the effects of Katrina, which is probably why there are suddenly so many parking restrictions, and the parking authorities so vigilant. So out of character for this ‘anything goes’ town. In Mississippi, you pass the beautiful home of the president of the confederacy Jefferson Davis, and one can only wonder what it must have been like to leave this gorgeous home on the beach, move to a place like Richmond, to ‘run the confederacy’; a really bad decision in the long run. Did he ever make it back? Then the gulf coast, with its brand new ‘towns on stilts’…literally the houses, the stores, the cafes are all built on pylons, to withstand floods and perhaps the intense winds of hurricanes, which come every year. The Bolivar Peninsula, and Galveston where I finally found the deserted coast line I have been looking for. Finally central Texas including Houston and finally Dallas. Both of these cities are juggernauts on their own. When you combine Houston and Dallas with San Antonio, Austin and the western Texas cities, you begin to understand why this state is so important, and why it is unlike any other. Sponsored by Hydrus and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul