Podcast 471

Trump’s Sudden Inevitability. The shouting match between Senator Rubio, Senator Ted Cruz and Donald Trump in the Texas Debate recently, doesn’t change the almost daily lame reporting from the campaign trail and the utter emptiness of what they call ‘analysis’ these days. Now suddenly Donald Trump is the ‘inevitable’ candidate. Now suddenly there will be a contested Republican National Convention. Now suddenly the world quakes at the prospect of Donald J. Trump, President. Now suddenly Trump can beat Hillary Clinton, forget what was said earlier. Reporters, TV Stars, ‘consultants’ and ‘analysts’, Talk Radio Clowns and even the Pope can’t resist inserting themselves into ‘the process’ whatever that is. What a process it is. Thanks to the idiots at the RNC we have an almost weekly political wrestling match, with the winner declared before the show is over, because of the barbs thrown and the jabs and thrusts and innuendo. Why not do away with voting entirely and just have people call a number for their candidate at the end of these cage matches, and declare the winner with a mix of votes and judgements by the perfumed princes of media, chosen to look really serious and ask the candidates questions. Ted Cruz is George Washington. No Wait! Ted Cruz is the New Reagan. Trump is Mussolini. Clinton is Jimmy Carter. Bernie Sanders is uh…Larry David. The predictions from the ‘experts’. Trump has a lock on the nomination, even though we’ve only had two caucuses and two primaries, but there it is people. Step right up! See the bearded lady and the midget perform! The voters? The voters you say? Oddly enough The Bob Davis Podcasts is traveling, speaking with and listening to actual regular people and here in the South there are a lot of Trump signs and bumperstickers on brand new cars. People seem angry, and frustrated and ready to stick it to the man, and don’t seem to be taking it any more seriously than the half time show at the Super Bowl. Why should they? Meanwhile, once again the country is not falling apart. The infrastructure is not crumbling. People seem to be miraculously going about their business despite all the magpies telling them how to live and what to think. Have they already made a decision to stick it to the man? Only time will tell. Sponsored by X Government Cars and Brush Studio.

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Podcast 466

South Carolina BBQ and Kasich. In Greenville, South Carolina on the night of the Republican Debate at Clemson. Hear what a Governor John Kasich event at Mutt’s BBQ in Mauldin, South Carolina sounds like. Hear John Kasiche’s stump speech. Which is why this podcast is entitled, South Carolina BBQ and Kasich. In the wake of Justice Scalia’s death, constitutionalists republicans forget the constitution and bemoan the possibility that sitting President Obama may appoint a liberal justice, swaying the court to the left. Some suggest the President avoid an appointment ‘in an election year’ (which the constitution makes no provisions for), or that the Senate refuse to hold hearings or confirm this president’s appointment, waiting for the ‘new’ president, which they assume will be republican, a distinct contravention of the Senate’s duties outlined in the constitution. Meanwhile, it may be painful to quote Hillary Clinton but ‘elections have consequences’. Had republicans been able to elect Mitt Romney, a republican would be filling the vacancy created by the untimely death of the Justice. Perhaps this is a good lesson to remember for the GOP heading into 2016, as ‘establishment’ republicans throw a tantrum because showmen like Trump and Cruz are crushing establishment candidates like Bush, Rubio, and Katich, at least according to polls. We’ll see what happens when South Carolina Republicans vote on February 20th. Meanwhile, the media does its best to sell all of America on the idea that South Carolina and South Carolinians are ‘quirky’, ‘conservative’, ‘moderate’, ‘different’ or fill in the blank with your own superlative. Myths that continue to dominate the political narrative, all the way through the debates. This is a ‘gut punch’ kind of state, they say. So, the candidates did their best to gut punch each other at the debates. After this weekend’s debate performance, one wonders when state party leaders across this country will take a look at a primary system that puts candidates in a cage, and forces them to answer questions from TV Stars. First, it elevates the media to a position it doesn’t deserve. Second, it seems to force the candidates to not just act craven, and rude, but to be so. This is the process that brings the cream to the top in US politics? I don’t think so. The cool thing about this event was the music. All the campaigns use music to stage their events, but whoever did this one, did a great job. This podcast includes a lot of the music they chose to stage the event. Sponsored by Brush Studio and X Government Cars. 

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Podcast 384

Final Thoughts From The Road. With a tragedy in South Carolina, and more nonsense coming out of Washington DC, the chattering class will be busy chattering this weekend. They’ll be telling us the country is falling apart, sowing the seeds of discontent, depression, confusion, envy, and anxiety. The thing is, if you travel the country state by state, you don’t see discontent, depression, confusion, envy and anxiety. You see people coping; in fact thriving. In the middle one of the most dense population centers in the world — the US eastern seaboard — you’ll find Maryland’s Eastern Shore, a rural paradise. Then there’s Ocean City Maryland, which actually is hot and sweaty, but everyone seems to be having a good time. Fifty states, with fifty different histories, cultures, many of them thriving. Yes, thriving. How can this be? The America you see and hear about on Fox News and MSNBC, or you hear about on scratchy dying AM Talk Radio stations is burning; falling apart, splitting at the seams. The pounders and the screamers polarize us into right and left, and tell us our country is a place where people hate each other, members of different ‘castes’ seethe, where the rich get super rich and everyone else gets nothing. The only thing is, that’s not what is going on in the real America. If you travel it, you’ll see what I mean. Are there injustices? Is there crime? Poverty? Yes. But, somehow in this place, painted as the seventh level of Dante’s Inferno, people raise families, go to work, do what they can for each other, start businesses and vacation together. I saw people of all colors, cultures and languages working together, eating together, living together. Meanwhile, the truck stops are chock full of trucks, RV’s and travelers twenty four hours a day. The restaurants are busy, as are the Targets and Home Depots and Food Lions, even small town grocery stores. It used to be said that the media in America is a mirror, to show society what it is. Well, I am here to tell you, Houston we have a problem. The media isn’t showing us what we are, or what is going on, because the images just don’t match. The Media and the politicians in Washington are lying to us, and using the outrage machine to their political advantage. I’ve seen about three quarters of this country in the last 4 months, at the most basic level; Interstates, two lanes, and dirt roads. I’ve driven through the big towns, and the small towns, meeting and talking to regular people. I just don’t see the strife and struggle we’re being told ‘we’ are experiencing. There are challenges in every time. Our challenge is turning off these idiots on television, and in Washington DC. America not only has a future, it has a great future and it’s time we had leadership that recognizes and encourages our innovation and energy, rather than scares, and divides us, lies to us and tells us what we have to do. Let’s start making it happen, regardless of what the chattering chatterers have to say this weekend. Sponsored by X Government Cars. 

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