Podcast 239

State Governors Revolt. As New York City gets its first Ebola patient, State Governors now want their own protocols for those coming into their states from West Africa. New York, New Jersey, Florida, Illinois and other states may soon put in place screening protocols that are more stringent than what the Federal Government has put in place. Are Governors ahead of the President on this issue? Governors have to be decisive in a crisis rather than contemplative. The White House keeps saying stricter state protocols will mean aid workers won’t be able to go TO West Africa, but the problem is those coming back FROM Ebola stricken areas in West Africa. Could the CDC charter US carriers to take aid workers to Africa and bring them back, with a mandatory 21 day quarantine whether the returnee had Ebola or not? Call it ‘hysteria’ but the fact is, people are concerned. Telling them not to panic isn’t going to stop panic. The President has to act decisively to address this, not with political theater and not by telling people what he’s GOING to do. Would Airlines cease flights from these regions eventually, since they are responsible for their passengers safety? If Obama had been Governor of Illinois, is it possible he would be better equipped to handle this kind of situation? Meanwhile, there are irresponsible ‘journalists’ out there telling stories of Ebola ‘victims’ being ‘disappeared’, with no named sources, no confirmation of stories, or sourced to some other blog or article. On the political front, yet more polls, less than two weeks from Election 2014 announcing Republicans will win control of the US Senate. Polls in key states are tightening. Some states the GOP thought were wins a few weeks ago, are now in play. The same is happening with some democrat races. A new study shows, in statewide races decided within a point, Democrats win two thirds of the time, and for races within 2 to 4 points Democrats win half the time. Not good odds for Republicans in close races. Another concern is that early voting will increase the number of non citizens voting this year. Non citizens usually vote for Democrats. Now, these are wild cards, but take them into considering when everyone in the media is jumping on the Republican ‘wave’ bandwagon. Perhaps the best bellwether is Democrats who are already developing excuse stories. Republicans will win because they are capitalizing on unreasonable hatred of the President. Yet, Obama’s strongest supporters in 2008 and 2012 are suffering the most under his economic and social policies. Americans are not ‘divided’. There’s no ‘all blue’ or ‘all red’, we are divided politically by issue, not party. Republicans could win the Senate. Or not. We won’t know until after people vote on November 4th. Sharyl Atkinsson’s new book is out and it is said she proves bias at the top networks. Or, does she prove management at the big broadcasting companies are cowards? Sponsored by X Government Cars

Podcast 232

Obama and Ebola. As another health worker is reported to have contracted the Ebola virus, the President cancels a fundraiser to hold an emergency meeting with his ‘Ebola Team’ to make sure ‘it doesn’t happen again’. The meeting raises yet more questions, even as it raises the stakes for an embattled President. As predicted weeks ago by The Bob Davis Podcasts, Ebola now dominates news coverage, in the fantasy 24/7 news cycle. And, in the Magic Kingdom of the News Media, whatever steps taken to combat problems like Ebola, the feeble economic recovery, or a threat like ISIS just have to work…unless they don’t. Still, questions not answered continue to multiply. Why did Amber Vinson – the third person with Ebola in the US and second health worker to contract the disease at the hospital in Dallas – get on a plane and fly to Cleveland, from Dallas, and back … with all the stops in between. That seems like a lot of ‘contact tracking’ for the ‘experts’ at the CDC to do. Are charges about containment procedures being ignored at the Dallas hospital true, and if so, does that mean we should be monitoring more than a little over a hundred people from there? What does ‘self monitoring’ mean? And, why was a person who was supposedly being monitored flying around the country? Moreover, experts keep saying we don’t have enough data to know if the Ebola Virus can be spread more easily than what ‘experts’ say, or whether it could mutate into a form more easily transmitted. Finally, if this is what happens when one terminal Ebola patient shows up at a hospital, what happens when 3 show up? What about 10? What about 100. How many ‘SWAT Teams’ of ‘pros from Dovwer’ does the CDC have? To add insult to injury, if you’re concerned about the response to Ebola infection in the US (such as refusing a travel ban for people coming from West Africa, which Columbia and the tiny Caribbean Island of Saint Lucia’s have done) you’re panicking? Then there are the markets, dropping because of concern about economic slow downs in Europe and China. Oh yeah, let’s not forget ISIS which is not cooperating with Obama’s strategy to ‘degrade and destroy’ them. If this really is the Democrats ‘October Surprise’ its not working well. As polls show more momentum with Republicans on the issues those surveyed care most about, it suggests voters that decide who to vote for at the last minute could pick Republican candidates. The only bright spot is cheaper gasoline, as Saudi Arabia pumps like crazy, hoping to force American oil companies to slow or stop production, which is reportedly not profitable below about 90 dollars a barrel. Just a word of caution; A drop in the price of commodities is really not a good sign when every major central bank in the world is pumping cash into the banking systems. Will these problems go away? Or cascade into catastrophe? Only time will tell. Sponsored by Baklund Research and Development