Podcast 315

The Gathering Storm. Updating the big stories, starting with foreign affairs. While people in the Upper Midwest and Boston are slipping and sliding through their commute, so apparently is the foreign policy of the Obama Administration. A president who said in September ‘there will be no boots on the ground’ when he announced a bombing campaign that would ‘degrade and destroy’ the Islamic State, now wants a new authorization from congress to use force in western Iraq. Is this an admission that the policy of airstrikes has not been successful? While the White House version of the force authorization only calls for special forces, and troops for specific purposes and not a general invasion, wait’ll we see what Congress ends up adding. In the Eastern Ukraine, a president who claimed economic sanctions would eventually force the Russians to end their misadventure there, now is reportedly considering arming Ukrainians. Putin has played the economic sanctions, which have hurt the Russian people, to gain public support for his effort in the Donetsk region. Moreover, whether right or wrong, Russians regard Ukraine as Russia. Kiev was the origin of Russia going back to the 10th century. When Ted Cruz, John McCain and Robert Menendez agree, its very possible so called ‘lethal aid’ will be shipped to Ukraine. Is this wise? What was the start of the current stand off. When did the US lose its way in Europe? Now what? Seems like the President may just decide to pull back and run out the clock, leaving all of this to the next President. Meanwhile, the Europeans are in conference with Ukrainian leadership, and Russian diplomats and they don’t want any arms shipments messing up their deal with Putin, in which Putin pretty much gets what he wants; The federalization of Eastern Ukraine, giving him the ability to destabilize a Ukrainian rump state whenever he chooses. Let’s not forget the province in question also has some pretty valuable natural resources and a land bridge to Crimea. Is this a good recipe for world economic growth? What if foreign policy turns out to be the big issue of 2016? Do you know what the Republican and Democrat foreign policy will be? It’s really important people start talking to each other about their values, working to knit those values together into some kind of political idea that can then be worked into concepts that are more than just rhetorical flourish. Don’t expect others to do your work for you. And if people do vote for someone with simply emotionally appealing ideas; they will get the so called leader they deserve. Sponsored by X Government Cars.

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Podcast 309

Vaccination Politics. As predicted by The Bob Davis Podcasts, whether to vaccinate or not has become a big political issue in the United States. Senator Rand Paul and potential candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 2016 got into a spat about whether people should be required to vaccinate their children against Measles and Rubella. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, another potential candidate for the Republican nomination for President stepped on a political land mine when he suggested people ought to have a choice whether to vaccinate their children. Ben Carson, yet another presumptive presidential candidate split hairs in his ‘statement’, and you can be sure several others on all sides of the political spectrum will issue ‘statements’ in the next few days on the subject, as an outbreak of Measles in California captures the media’s attention. Berkeley, California wants a 21 day quarantine for all kids who’s parents refuse to vaccinate (the kids are ecstatic … no school for most of the month! Please don’t vaccinate me mom!) and nothing seems to horrify the left in this country more these days than a refusal to vaccinate. Is it possible people have about had it with government interventions? Federal and State Government intrusions into the personal lives of Americans is starting to become almost comic. They want to make you vaccinate your child so he or she can be healthy enough to what? Eat school lunches that wouldn’t have been fit for the Soviet Gulag? That’s healthy, huh! The perfumed princes and princesses walking through the marble hallways of our Federal Government cathedrals in Washington D.C. and the State Capitols might just be out of step with Americans who have a lot of questions about the long term effects of vaccines. You can call them stupid and try to bamboozle them into certain kinds of behavior, and you can even require certain kinds of behavior, but at some point they’re going to push back. One thing people seem to know, ‘Scientists’ are wrong a lot of the time. Doctors and hospitals will kill you if you’re not careful, and there’s nothing wrong with asking questions and taking control of your own health care, or the health care of your children. If the scolds would leave people alone once in a while, they might just make the right decision. What is it about liberty that so frightens the statist? Plus, stories about the General Manager of the Bob Davis Podcasts, getting the flu, Mexican Coke, Coffee (the cure for all that is wrong), and more in a longer podcast. (Editor’s Note: People keep saying things to me like, ‘My run on the treadmill in the morning takes exactly 45 minutes. I would like a 45 minute Podcast’. Ok. Here it is.). And an appearance from MPR Bob at the close. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and Depotstar.

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Podcast 307

Mitt Quits. Updates for the first week of February. While neighbors enjoy the Superbowl – enjoy their muffled screams through the wall – The Bob Davis Podcasts goes to work. Mitt Romney has decided not to run for President in 2016, provoking the Washington Post to name Jeb Bush as the front runner. Meanwhile a new poll of voters in Iowa, where the nation’s first presidential primary will be held, have picked Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker as the front runner, closely followed by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. If you are an observer of politics, and you have a decidedly anti-government bent, it sure seems like the mainstream moderate wing of the Republican Party is selling policy and tactics from the 1990’s, while voters seem to engage with politicians with newer ideas. While the actual political season for the 2016 cycle is a long way off in political terms, the media seems to want to pick a moderate as the front runner, and the people might have different ideas. Stay Tuned. The new Economic numbers are out, and they aren’t as good as expected. Surprise! After 5 percent GDP ‘growth’ in the third quarter just about everyone ‘figured’ and predicted that we would have at least 3.6 percent ‘growth’ in the fourth quarter, what with gas being cheap and acting ‘like a tax cut’. Even President Obama declared victory over stagnation for weeks, culminating in his over the top State Of The Union Speech which would make the initiated think he was presiding over the most dynamic economy in US History. In reality, President Obama’s recovery doesn’t just lag Bush and Clinton and Reagan, the Obama ‘recovery’ is the worst economic performance of all Presidents in US History. The new growth number? 2.6 percent. What does the media blame it on? Those evil frackers who created all those jobs, and now they’re laying people off ’cause oil is so cheap. In fact the media that couldn’t bring itself to write a positive story about energy growth in the US in the last six years now can’t find enough down-on-their-luck in Williston, North Dakota, stories. Fact is, most of the manufacturing jobs the President likes to tout are energy related. Yeah, cheap gas is great. It acts like a tax cut. Just keep that in mind as the European Zone disaster starts to take hold, and China’s economic slow down begins to bite, realities which the US economy won’t escape. And what are US policies? Not clear away the gordian knot of taxes and regulation that chokes business formation, and the supply side, but continued efforts to stimulate consumption and ballyhooing ‘consumer confidence’. In Silicon Valley they are mixing morning shake cocktails of supplements and additives that are supposedly able to increase your IQ. Body hacks are all the rage, so Podcast 307 ends with an effort to play catch up, with the Broadcast Bunker Juicer. Sponsored by Xgovernment Cars and Depotstar.

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