Podcast 421

Ignore The Polls. We are awash in polling data early in the 2016 election cycle, enabling politics to be covered like sports. In sports though, teams actually play the games, generating the scores and statistics. Champions emerge during and at the end of the season based on real results. The media, political pollsters and charlatans are deciding what candidates we’ll listen to, and perhaps vote for based on political opinion surveys called ‘polls’, not to be confused with voting. When people actually vote, or caucus, then it will generate actual data. In the meantime, why don’t they consult astrologers and tarot card readers, because it would be just as reliable and accurate as political opinion surveys. Conversations over the weekend convinced me to do another polling podcast, to explain what it is, what its limitations are, and why you are better off reading a book or raking leaves, than watching the soothsayers on Fox News. No, the poll that shows Trump in the lead does not mean a ‘plurality’ of ‘voters’ want Trump. Yes he could win a general election, so could Hillary Clinton, or any other potential candidate if conditions are right. One thing is for sure; Once people actually vote and caucus there will be surprises. There will be surprises through the primary season, conventions, until the actual election on November 8th, 2016. Or not. The travesty is that we allow television networks, pollsters, and the cartoonery of pundits and loud mouths to decide for us who debates, who wins, and who polls. The result is someone — maybe the exact wrong person — ends up in charge of the most expensive and dangerous government in the world. Are you alright with Fox, CNN, and MSNBC in concert with three or four pollsters, deciding the candidates for that job? Sponsored by Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul

Podcast 420

Bob Davis Unplugged. I’ve always admired talk show hosts who can do a good show without notes, preparation or a plan. Certainly walk and talk podcasts fit that bill, but it helps to walk while you talk. In studio is a different story. There have been some interesting developments in the news this week. Commentators are back to following the proverbial bouncing ball and missing some points that I think need to be made. Regarding the Oregon shooting; When I asked people what was going on in the news they said, “There’s the Trump thing, the Pope thing and oh yeah, another mass shooting.” Of course the President didn’t skip a second rushing out to demand Americans surrender their guns. Why do we have a second amendment? Is there a final check on the dangerous power of government? While we don’t generally think of a government that seems to exist to extract money from our paychecks and mail checks to others, including billionaires like Warren Buffett, there’s immense power in spying and militarized police departments. Then there’s the Communist Pope. The left loves Francis, or at least they did until it was reported that the Pope – who would rather talk about the scourge of Capitalism rather than the scourge of pedophilia in the Catholic Church – met with Kim Davis, the Kentucky County Clerk who refused to marry gay couples. Suddenly the ‘amazing’ Pope Francis was tarred and feathered on social media, to the extent that the Vatican this week back pedaled ‘explaining’ the Pope’s meeting with Davis. Then there are the economic pundits and employment numbers. Almost all of them predicted a ‘great’ employment report this week, especially since low gas prices ‘act like a tax cut by stimulating the economy’, until they don’t. Now, if you have been listening to the Bob Davis Podcasts you have been warned about this shibboleth long ago. Lower gas prices don’t ‘act like a tax cut’. Our economy would have to create over 375,000 jobs a month for a long time in order to bring the millions of people who are out of the work force back in. Sadly 375,000 is a number this country’s economy has not been able to attain since the recession back in 2008, despite all the efforts to ‘stimulate’ and ‘prime the pump’ from a trillion dollar stimulus to ‘cars for clunkers’ and every other cockamamie scheme cooked up by President Obama. Moreover, none of the presidential candidates, on both sides of the political spectrum seem to have a clue about how to grow the US Economy other than more stimulus, or tax cuts but no spending cuts. Have we — as in everyone in the world — forgotten how to be capitalists? Could we feed ourselves without a job or government handout if we had to? Maybe this could be one of the positive effects of a future ‘gig economy’ … with everyone freelancing, we might actually learn to create, not take. Sponsored by Pride of Homes and X Government Trucks.

Podcast 417 – Nik Ludwig

Nik Ludwig. Live from Agorafest on Eclipse night, 2015. In Podcast 416 Agorists themselves talked about what Agorism is all about, how it works, and what they believe. Nik Ludwig has been at the center of this group in Minnesota for a long time and is at least the ‘spiritual father’ of the Minnesota Agorists. Talking to Nik is engaging, challenging and fun. Ludwig is either sitting in seminars and music shows multi tasking on his smart phone, sitting around the campfire or on his golf cart fully engaging in philosophical discussions or brainstorming future Agorafests. Since attendees were able to explain the movement in the previous podcast, Nik and I are able to get into a deeper discussion of his ideas, and philosophy in general about governments, and what Ludwig and other Agorists believe governments do … to us. These are the kinds of questions you won’t hear asked on the mainstream media, and you won’t hear these concepts discussed in mainstream politics. After these kinds of interviews people sometimes ask me, “Why didn’t you challenge” the interviewee on a particular position. One of the things I think podcasting does well is allow people to express to others what they are up to, and the listener can draw his or her own conclusions. There’s too much debate and arguing going on these days and not enough listening. Take some time and listen to Nik Ludwig and the other Agorists in an extended length Bob Davis Podcast, especially if you’re involved in mainstream politics. Is the desire to be an individual wrong? Is the desire to be an individual and to trade in truly free markets such a radical concept in America these days? Apparently for some it is … whether they have a D or an R next to their name. From personal nuclear power plants, to spaceports, and personal mesh networks to post World War I Eastern Europe, to individual freedom and the danger of too powerful government, one thing is for sure … you won’t be bored. Sponsored by Weight Free Wellness and Pride of Homes.