Podcast 527

RNC Dies At Cleveland? Day One of the Republican National Convention. While the mainstream media covers the convention from inside, The Bob Davis Podcasts is on the streets outside Quicken Arena. Some insiders would agree with the headline; RNC Dies At Cleveland. Some are actually saying that a rules fight that resulted in a few walkouts signals the end of the grassroots movement in republican politics, and certainly the end of something once known as a ‘principled’ conservative. While pundits point to a platform they say is the most conservative in history they ignore rule changes that give the RNC complete control over future conventions. The takeaway? No more Ron Paul insurgencies and no more Ted Cruz and evangelist grassroots movements. While the chance always existed for the Republican Establishment to join forces with the grassroots movements to ‘Dump Trump’, instead the establishment joined forces with the Trump campaign. In the end, the grassroots are out. Permanently. As some republicans – including various state party officials – cracked under the pressure of hard ball politics, it’s the same old story with republicans. Why rock the boat? Why make a spectacle of yourself and your state for the media? While there’s talk of a walkout, with each passing moment, the majority of the GOP, passive to the core, will go along to get along. Some see this outcome as necessary to unify the party for victory. Others see it as the death of the grassroots movement in republican politics, and the republican party. Outside the exclusion zone around the convention venue, delegates and politicos taking a break mixed with Cleveland’s downtown workers, and street people milling around bars and restaurants. It was a street fair featuring network TV studios and bloviating rather than kielbasa. Hit the streets with the Bob Davis Podcasts, starting with a woman who lives on the streets giving her analysis of the political situation, moving onto a protest, plus Blaze Correspondent Mike Opelka and more. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating and Hydrus Performance.

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Podcast 442

God Isn’t Fixing This. In the wake of the San Bernardino shootings we’re left as confused as ever, and the media treats every single shooting as a one-off single story, rather than a series of shootings in an ongoing struggle. It makes talking about it difficult, yet this is what people are asking about, as 24 hour coverage drives home the media favorite story-line of the moment. Everyone followed the President as he climbed aboard the ‘workplace violence and guns kill people’ train, but surprise! That train derailed just outside the station when facts surfaced suggesting something more sinister and dangerous. We’re still being told, “avoid the rush to judgement”, and “it may still be a workplace violence issue”. Trouble is, like the Fort Hood shootings a few years ago, evidence shows the San Bernardino attack was premeditated, with detailed preparations including, legally obtained weapons, even with California’s ‘assault weapons ban’, stockpiles of ammunition, pipe bombs, communication with people on terror watch lists, destruction and cauterization of communication and social media links before the act with similarities to attacks in Paris and Boston. While the ‘thoughts and prayers of the nation’ are with the victims, guess what? God Helps Those Who Help Themselves. There is a war being waged for our minds and the minds of our attackers. It is waged though propaganda and media. The weak succumb to its charms, and the fears it generates. Only the strong will protect, persevere and prevail. Are you strong enough? Are we strong enough? Clearly our leaders aren’t that strong, because if they aren’t mealy mouthing thoughts and prayers, they’re trying to pass gun control legislation or spend more money on mental health research. What’s that you say? Strategy? Foreign Policy? Addressing the problem? Expecting real leadership is apparently too much to ask of the denizens of Washington. We depend too much on our leaders to show us how to be strong, but it seems as though we’re going to have to show them how to be strong, because apparently they can’t do it. These kinds of terror attacks are a cancer that is spreading, and it will get worse. Its causes took decades to develop. It can’t be solved with a campaign slogan or some rant on a talk show. Sponsored by Pride of Home and Luke Team Real Estate and Hydrus Performance. 

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Podcast 361

Baltimore. Riots in Baltimore overtake the national consciousness. Despite not wanting to talk about a story with facts that may change minute by minute, sometimes the ‘elephant in the room’ is the best conversation. What are the facts about the 25 year old Baltimore citizen who died in police custody? Did outrage cause the riot or was it outside agitators. While many blame Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, was she cautious because she did not want to make the same mistake the mayor and police chief of Ferguson, Missouri made when they deployed ‘militarized’ police? Meanwhile, the President can’t resist ‘weighing in’, suggesting that the whole nation has to do some soul searching. Maybe President Obama is the one who should do some soul searching. With so much government to be upset about in this country, disrespect for government and law is becoming a feature of life today. In some places, under extreme circumstances, it reaches a breaking point. Besides, there is little President Obama can do about Baltimore, even though he is just an hour away. It’s a city, and state problem. As nearly two thousand national guard deploy to the city streets (and not for the first time in history, either) calm appears to have been restored, for now. Will free college, minimum wage laws and more programs solve this problem? How much is race a problem in a city with a majority black population, mayor, police commissioner, and police force? And specifically, how much is race a factor in the death of Freddie Gray, the young man who died? Or, is it a problem of criminals pushing for and maybe winning a double standard for law enforcement. These questions remain to be answered. One thing is clear; As Baltimore burned, the President and the Washington Press corps, sipped champagne and fiddled at the Correspondent’s dinner, where both politico and news reporter feed each other’s ego. Politicians are out of touch, either running for high office to enrich themselves, and the media doesn’t report fact as much as it pursues the lurid, and tragic. The wake of the weak politician and selfish media is despair, frustration and anger. The dark side of America is the only America it sees. Who’s fault is it? Think about it. We’re at a low point in politics and leadership in this country. It seems more and more that we are on the verge of a seminal and unpleasant event, after which nothing is ever the same. And our leaders don’t seem to be interested in doing anything about it. Sponsored by Baklund R&D. (Editor’s Note: In this podcast I refer to Jon Baklund’s Webinar and have the date wrong. It is June 2nd, 2015).

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