Podcast 418

Live From The Kitchen. The last few days in podcasting have been busy. Back in the bunker, and pleasantly exhausted from the weekend at Agorafest 2015, time for a podcast live from the kitchen. After a great dinner, sipping back coffee going over the day’s and the week’s news in the wake of a weekend discussing political and social concepts. It seems the news is more and more a rehash rather than focused on what really matters. It was said this weekend that the GOP has probably created more anarchists than anything else. That might be amended to suggest both mainline political parties are creating frustrated and angry people, and apparently not listening to them. It isn’t that congress can’t get anything done, it’s what congress, and the president actually does that’s creating the frustration, anger, discord and angst. We’re back to calling anyone who can’t be categorized a ‘populist’, including Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump the UK’s labor leader Jeremy Corbin and oddly enough, Pope Francis. The populist movement in the United States was primarily a movement that served the interests of midwestern farmers against the Republican and Democrat parties, and bears little resemblance to rhetoricians, marxists, and socialists. Yet the media continues to throw out the term, as though people actually understand what it means. As the Republican Speaker of the House resigns amid the ‘planned parenthood shut down fight’, people naively wonder whether the next speaker will be more ‘conservative’. Emphatically yes, they are all conservative in the sense that they serve the interests of big government against all the people. That makes them conservative statists (in my view conservative socialists) regardless of whether they have a D or an R after their name. This is the problem in American politics, not whether the Federal Government funds Planned Parenthood. Shut it down! Yes! Shut it down. Pull the fuel lines and plugs and batteries and let it rot in the wheat field! Don’t waste your breath on distractions, shut the government down because it is out of control, and all our so called representatives are part of the problem, they are certainly not the solution. We need new ideas, new concepts and these are not the people who will find them, develop them, and support them. Two stories to watch right now. One is economic, and the other is Russia in Syria. As debt levels increase to dangerous levels, the world’s central banks don’t know what to do. The danger of a meltdown is increasing. Putin has Obama checkmated in Syria. First the administration denied the Russians were going into Syria, then they minimized it. Now they’re actually negotiating with Putin. Russia is now fighting against ISIS, allied with Assad and Iran and Iraq. Where’s the US? Testing the idea of ‘non-interventionist’ foreign policy while Putin practices Realpolitik and Realist Foreign Policy brilliantly. Clearly it is necessary to point out yet again that we have exceeded all the political, social and economic constructs of the last thirty years and something new is coming. Are we ready for it? Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and X Government Trucks

Podcast 413

Pre Debate Analysis. A Walk and Talk podcast in the late summer, the wind in the trees and a major distraction called ‘The Republican Debate’ going on. The last Republican debate was held the week of the great Motorcycle Rally known as Sturgis, which The Bob Davis Podcasts chose to cover, rather than the debates in Cleveland. Nothing has changed since then. A continuing theme on these podcasts is drawing attention to the problems and opportunities we’re missing while we argue about what Donald Trump said to Ben Carson, or about Carly Fiorina or whether Jeb Bush is going to become more ‘energetic’. Someone asked this week, “When do you think Trump will get out of the race”? Someone also wrote this week that the Republican Debates will be ‘the most important development of the summer’. Really? This serves as analysis in a week marked by the Federal Reserve Interest rate decision and Russian Troops landing in Syria? Surely these two stories are more significant than whether Donald Trump can ‘win’ the debates? With Trump the Republican frontrunner, the real question is how long will it take for the Republican Party itself to finally – and mercifully – self-destruct. What kind of an historical period are we living through? And how does ignoring the real opportunities of this period move the country forward? Who’s fault is it? Due to developments in technology and science, some good and some scary, change is coming. It can be managed, or it can come suddenly and violently; But it’s coming whether you want it to or not. What do you want? Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and Eric and Erum Lucero of Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate.