Podcast 325

Middle America. While most of the middle part of the United States huddles in blankets hoping their pipes don’t freeze, the Washington DC media establishment obsesses over comments made by a guy at a dinner. The former Mayor of New York City questions whether the President “loves America as much as you do”. At question is why the President is unable to bring himself to refer to Islamic Extremists as well, Islamic! The whole controversy over the weekend of February 20th provoked Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker – who attended the dinner with the former Mayor – to take the media to task, inviting them to come to Wisconsin, where he doubts one in four people would even know what they’re talking about, or feel Giuliani’s comments were ‘inappropriate’. What is up with Middle America, and why does Hollywood and Washington DC hate it so much? In the last decade or so, people in this country have been through some hard times. It’s becoming more and more obvious they don’t pay any attention to the talking heads and so called experts and academics bloviating on TV, especially the President. And then there’s Hollywood, also apparently out of touch. The biggest movies of the last few weeks have been pilloried by the so called ‘experts’; American Sniper and Fifty Shades. Something is going on in flying over territory – that’s the space between the East and West coasts where you people flying out of Dulles or JFK, or LAX fall asleep. It’s called the Mid West. Yep. People live down there. It’s becoming more obvious, the people who are supposed to observe and report the actual news for so called ‘Middle America’ have no idea what is going on in ‘Middle America’. In fact, we’re on the cusp of a new era. When opinion makers, experts and so called leaders lose the pulse of this part of the world, they don’t find it again. New experts, leaders and ideas emerge, from the ranks of those who have learned a long time ago that Middle America does not come to you. You go to Middle America. And when you lose them, you’re done. So here’s a message for Washington DC and Hollywood; Fasten your seat belts. Sponsored by Victor Barke’s Complete Basement Systems. 

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Podcast 305

Comcast Customer Service Sucks. Close out the week with a podcast down in the bunker by the wood stove. A consumer advocate blogger breaks another national story about how bad Comcast’s customer service is. When a woman tried to cancel her cable service, the company allegedly refused to allow to her do so, and sent a late bill notice in which the customer’s name was changed from ‘Ricardo Brown’ to ‘A**hole Brown’. The story was picked up by CNNMoney and the rest of the mainstream media, and now Comcast has once again apologized. “It might take more than a few years for us to get our customer service straightened out” says a company spokesperson, or something like that. How are business models that seemed so great five, ten or twenty years ago looking more and more tarnished? What is the future of television, and cable delivered television. If Comcast is any example of how the industry operates, hopefully there is no future. Former Reagan OMB director David Stockman is on the warpath again, this time saying the Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing program is exclusively responsible for making people in the top 5 percent income bracket in the US richer. How is this era different from other ‘income inequality’ periods in US History. Does the Cocaine boom in Miami in the early 80’s prove, when business generates money (as opposed to central banks) everyone benefits? Meanwhile, the fastest growing business in the United States isn’t an industrial company or even technology, it’s legal Marijuana sales. Legal weed sales grew 74 percent in one year. Breaking news! The Obama Administration is telling banks to keep quiet about regulations targeted against gun owners and gun stores. More breaking news! More Americans are putting their cash in the mattress. Does that surprise you? And, the Minneapolis Tribune finds yet another negative story about North Dakota. Sponsored by Depotstar. 

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Podcast 303

Podcast Consciousness. Live from the Kitchen! After a string of podcasts discussing intense topics, from economics through to participation in politics translating to political power, it’s time for a podcast consciousness podcast. How I do what I do, and how it drives me crazy sometimes. Well, maybe all the time. In searching for podcast topics, I spent some time tonight cleaning out my ‘stacks’ of news stories on foreign affairs, business, politics, local and all kinds of other topics, and found a lot of stories that never made it to ‘air’. Part of the reason for that is the effort to winnow all this day to day news writing down to some key points people can use to understand what I think is going on in the world, but the podcaster can miss the opportunity to just talk about stories that are interesting (to him). Maybe it’s winter. Maybe its cabin fever. Something’s going on below the surface though … perhaps a quest for adventure … maybe a road trip coming up … There is a restlessness rising up from the depths right now. Good time to talk about it. Plus the latest economic fairytales from the financial media, and what to look for down the road on that front. Sponsored by Baklund R &D. 

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