PODCAST 430

You’re Not That Hot Anymore. Are the institutions of our society failing us, or just failing to live up to their over the top narratives? A bad customer service experience leads into a discussion – presented as sort of a rant but meant as a question  – about whether the business models and technology that seemed so forward five to ten years ago don’t seem that way at all now. Technology companies, Internet Service Providers, consumer products, office supplies, services, health care, travel, utilities and all kinds of services in the western world seem to have stopped progressing in terms of service to the customer a few years ago. No longer is it good enough to deliver a great product or service, you have to have an ‘amazing’ story, be saving the whales, or making your product in some aboriginal prefecture where you pay fair wages and post the obligatory pictures of building schools, or handing out water at the local marathon or breast cancer walk. What happened to buying a toaster that works, and when it doesn’t being able to rely on a customer service approach that says, “Yep, here’s a new one”? Instead you get protocols, upsells, long waits at the help desk (with the same three songs that play over and over) bored, surly or overwhelmed ticket agents, or admissions ‘techs’. The gauntlet of nose-ring festooned ‘greeters’ sporting ‘man-buns’ or just plain mean city, county, state and federal workers is actually the new normal. We need to talk about it, and we need to fix it. Is the problem that companies are spending too much time saving the whales, and not enough time saving the customer? Or is it excessive government regulation, poor economic growth, or we’re just not as competent as our ‘amazing’ history and resume says we are? No institution in our society is more dangerously corrupt and incompetent than the government, despite what the politicians say about Wall Street. What can be done? Meanwhile…still on hold with customer service. Sponsored by X Government Trucks and Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate. (Editor’s Note: Podcast 429 isn’t done yet, and will be on the way…so here’s podcast 430. Don’t worry you didn’t miss one.) 

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Podcast 393

Live From EAA. Road trip to Osh Kosh, for the Experimental Aircraft Association Air Show and Convention. Sunday night is set up night, providing an opportunity to review recent trips to Waukesha and Davenport to cover political events, and to talk a little about the difference between political events and shows like this one. Maybe it’s as simple as the differences between tribes; People who are in the political tribe after certain characteristics, and people in the aviation tribe have certain different characteristics. What started as an experimental and individual builder get together has turned into a technology, history, and aviation show with exhibitors big and small. In some ways it compares favorably to the big state fairs across the country this summer. Somehow talking about politics doesn’t feel as good as talking about planes, and technology, here in Eastern Wisconsin, at the peak of summer. Still, some points need to be made before we head off into the wild blue yonder. Again the point is made that television news in particular magnifies and amplifies events that used to be state by state almost private affairs; self selected delegates and caucus attendees ‘interviewing’ potential candidates, and figuring out who they might support when a state’s primary election or caucus is held. Now these affairs are conflated with news events on a national or international scale. Are they news? Is it news when Donald Trump says something silly in a meeting of a few hundred (at most), a third of which are national media? Is it news if Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley are forced off a stage somewhere at a meeting of rag tag leftists? Maybe its statewide news, maybe its political news, but ‘go-to-live-coverage’ and ‘breaking news’. Not yet. The ideas that will drive 2016’s presidential election are still forming, so commenting on them, trying to define them, is almost pointless when you can hear the corn growing if you stand real still in a field in Wisconsin, or Iowa. Whether or not any of the score of declared candidates can rise to the level of being able to connect with people who aren’t political groupies remains to be seen. Meanwhile, there is a B-52 and a Ford Trimotor warming up on the runway, and that seems more interesting. Sponsored by X Government Cars. 

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Podcast 331

DHS Funding and Netanyahu. Minnesota’s 6th District Congressman Tom Emmer voted for the ‘clean’ DHS funding bill, as congress capitulates to the President. Emmer says he is disappointed in his colleagues who fought to refuse funding the President’s effort to ‘amnestitize’ illegal aliens through executive memoranda. Emmer says the courts will handle it. The question really is where supporters in the 6th district – one of America’s most conservative – will come down on the issue. Congress seems to be loathe to actually have a fight with the President, in order to put some limits on what he thinks he can do with executive action. The fact is, capitulating to President Obama will only further embolden him to issue yet more executive orders, and cause further disputes Congressional Republicans can run away from. According to the White House, Obama is considering executive action on corporate taxation, and second amendment issues as his staff works day in and day out to find ways for him to run the country more like a Boris Yeltsin or Vladimir Putin, than a constitutional US Chief Executive. For those who suggest Republicans need to ‘keep their powder dry’, or pick the big issue they can win to fight on … If not now, when? Be prepared; the new argument is you’re a ‘child’ if you advocate cutting the Government Gordian Knot. What we need, they’ll say, is trustworthy conservatives to make it run, right. Which is exactly what Obama said in 2008. The fact is, ‘radical’ ideas of lesser government aren’t childish, they date back to the birth of the republic. Moreover, there are structured proposals to audit the Fed, as well as eliminating agencies that are inefficient, or don’t work. They’re hardly rash, or childish. The idea that ‘conservatives’ need to nominate ‘responsible’ candidates ‘who can win’ is back. Times have changed, though, and the last thing this country and the Republicans need is another retread from the 1980’s, or timid go-along-get-along ‘problem solvers’ who believe NASA and the Interstate Highway system represent our future. As the so called radicals get organized, and raise money and votes, the message from Minnesota’s 6th voters, may soon be akin to Wyatt Earp’s … “Commence to fighting or get out of the way!” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress, upsetting White House aides who tweeted insults, and apparently nearly bringing minority leader Pelosi to tears. Contrary to critics, Netanyahu’s speech does provide alternatives to the agreement now being negotiated with Iran which the Israeli leader says constitutes an existential threat to Israel, and the US. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. 

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