Podcast 279

Bush Profits From Obama Care? Updates for your weekend start with The Interview; the movie that portrays the assassination of North Korean ‘leader’ Kim Jong Un. With crowds flocking to see the mediocre mad cap comedy film in 331 independent theaters across the US, on demand on line, and on You Tube, and with evidence implicating the North Koreans in the Sony Hack at this point circumstantial, we have to ask whether this could be a publicity stunt? A stunt that results in the Hollywood Studios finally getting around Theater Chain opposition to VOD, and produces some negative propaganda for the North Koreans in the west? Sound outlandish? Remember Zero Dark Thirty and Red Dawn, to name two, produced with involvement by the US Government. There’s no question the North Koreans richly deserve some bad press. Any nation that locks hundreds of thousands up in death camps, deserves at least a slap in the face internationally, right? Meanwhile, lots of snark about how ‘bad’ the movie is. (Editors Note: I have not seen The Interview, but by the time you hear this podcast I will have watched it on You Tube, and will dutifully review it.) Moving on to New York City. Can Mayor Bill de Blasio continue without support from the Police? In the wake of the murder of two NYPD by a man with ties to the Black Guerrilla Gang (which has also threatened to attack at least two precinct HQ’s in NYC), Al Sharpton protests which featured chants of ‘What Do We Want? Dead Cops!”, and attacks by professors on NYPD officers, again we ask whether protesters have jumped the shark? How much are the post Ferguson, and post New York protests protecting and supporting criminals? Is it a good for Progressives to support elements of an emerging criminal political class? Then we get to Jeb Bush, who has cynically sold his stock and resigned his board of directorship at one company that profited from Affordable Care Act. What about the other companies he has interests in? Is he making money from big government? Are you going to let ‘Common Core’ and ‘We shouldn’t repeal Obama Care’ Jeb Bush get elected President in 2016? Please Sir! Sit Down! Finally, if you voted Republican to get rid of O-Care, the think tanks are already telling people pushing for repeal, that option is ‘too much to ask for’. Really? It took only about a month and a half for them all to forget who elected them, and why. Sponsored by Baklund R & D. 

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Podcast 264

Jeb Bush? Really? What started as a midweek update, back in the studio after the road trip, turned into a discussion of whether the ‘conservative movement’ has completely lost its way, even whether it exists at all. As Congress seems to struggle with how to handle President Obama’s executive orders on immigration, in an effort to avoid a government shutdown which moderates feel is bad publicity for Republicans, the Speaker’s plan is apparently to pass a continuing resolution for the overall budget while offering a separate budget for Homeland Security (Which is where the funding for the President’s controversial executive order on Immigration is funded). This leaves room for the complete Republican 117th Congress to address these issues after January. This strategy isn’t sitting well with some Republicans who believe they were sent there to stop the President’s power grab. While political junkies should probably stop worrying about Congress and start concentrating on building organizations for 2016, there is a big fight brewing on both sides of the political spectrum. Progressive and Moderate Democrats on one side, and a mixed bag of Republican constituencies on the other. Libertarians, Moderates, Religious Conservatives all vying for control of the GOP … again. This leaves space for yet another Bush to ride in on the White Horse they keep down there on the ranch and be ‘the adult in the room’ and stop all those crazy ‘Paul-Bots’, and ‘Tea Baggers’; i.e.; The Conservative Movement. Or what’s left of it. The challenge in this podcast is, once again, to define what exactly a conservative is? While the Republicans won a huge midyear victory, that victory does not mean the ‘movement’ is healthy … or even alive. A conservative is a former Florida Governor who believes in Common Core and doesn’t want to repeal Obama Care? Republicans might have won a legislative majority in 2014, but that doesn’t mean they know what they’re doing. All it shows — and they certainly deserve credit for it — is that they were able to get their people out to vote, while the other side stayed home. But what is the GOP for? What do the conservatives want to do about economic policy, spending and debt, foreign policy? The so called grassroots are talking about 1776, the constitution and a constitutional convention (Editor’s Note: The dumbest idea ever.) This is a conservative ‘movement’? Next? Someone finally has taken the pundits who keep saying cheaper gas is like a huge tax cut. Except it’s not. In this podcast find out why. Plus, don’t forget there is an ominous demand side to the cheaper gas we’re currently enjoying; Slow downs in Europe, Japan, China and Latin America do not bode well for the global economy, and the US isn’t growing dynamically to pull everyone else’s fat out of the fire this time. Black Friday turned out to be a bust. So don’t expect that just because gas is 2.49 a gallon it means unicorns and rainbows, economically speaking that is. Sponsored by X Government Cars and by Depotstar. 

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Podcast 246

Final Polls Before Election. Election 2014 Coverage. As this podcast is posted, it is the early hours of Election Day 2014 in the United States. One third of the US Senate, all of the House of Representatives, scores of Governors and State Representatives and Senators across the country, are waiting to see what an unpredictable electorate will decide. These races are very important to the lives of the people in these individual states, and to the people of the country as a whole. Politics is not Sports, but it is being covered as though it is. Politicians are presented as players. Speech writers, campaign managers, party officials and insiders as coaches, former politicians and pundits become willing participants in what is being described as the ‘pageant’ of American politics. Viewers and listeners become invested in which ‘team’ wins or loses, and so emotionally identify with a ‘side’, as though that reflects the true nature of politics. The relationship between voters and their representatives is complex and runs deep. Since cable television news channels decided to give up reporting the news, and copied talk radio’s format, television now pushes people to the right or left paradigm in order to keep them watching. Although political polling was a factor in election coverage before 2010, controversy over Obama Care spurred the Tea Party Movement, and carried Republicans to a majority in the House of Representatives. In 2012 the polls indicated a slight advantage for Republican candidate Mitt Romney, and the Republican establishment felt it was entitled to the presidency. Only a few people said the polls were too close (Editor’s Note: I was one of them), but they were ignored in the headlong confirmation between Republicans that they would ‘win’. Moral of the story? Polls can be wrong. Really wrong. And here we are again, in November of 2014, with the election ‘moneyballers’ applying sports statistical analysis to something as widely variable and unreliable as political polling, and not just political polling but, polling in individual states. Added to this, media executives, producers, program directors and editors pushing their writers, broadcasters and guests to conclude, predict and provoke the audience, just as long as they watch another twenty four hours. And then there is the relentless onrush of negative mailers, attack ads, flaps and gaffes that go viral through social media and become ‘news stories. In this podcast, we’ll run down the polls one more time and make no predictions. At the end of this special edition election update from The Bob Davis Podcasts you’ll know how the polls stand in the so called ‘battleground’ states, and you’ll be able to come to your own conclusions about whether the predictions are outlandish or not. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul, and by Depotstar. 

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