Podcast 325

Middle America. While most of the middle part of the United States huddles in blankets hoping their pipes don’t freeze, the Washington DC media establishment obsesses over comments made by a guy at a dinner. The former Mayor of New York City questions whether the President “loves America as much as you do”. At question is why the President is unable to bring himself to refer to Islamic Extremists as well, Islamic! The whole controversy over the weekend of February 20th provoked Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker – who attended the dinner with the former Mayor – to take the media to task, inviting them to come to Wisconsin, where he doubts one in four people would even know what they’re talking about, or feel Giuliani’s comments were ‘inappropriate’. What is up with Middle America, and why does Hollywood and Washington DC hate it so much? In the last decade or so, people in this country have been through some hard times. It’s becoming more and more obvious they don’t pay any attention to the talking heads and so called experts and academics bloviating on TV, especially the President. And then there’s Hollywood, also apparently out of touch. The biggest movies of the last few weeks have been pilloried by the so called ‘experts’; American Sniper and Fifty Shades. Something is going on in flying over territory – that’s the space between the East and West coasts where you people flying out of Dulles or JFK, or LAX fall asleep. It’s called the Mid West. Yep. People live down there. It’s becoming more obvious, the people who are supposed to observe and report the actual news for so called ‘Middle America’ have no idea what is going on in ‘Middle America’. In fact, we’re on the cusp of a new era. When opinion makers, experts and so called leaders lose the pulse of this part of the world, they don’t find it again. New experts, leaders and ideas emerge, from the ranks of those who have learned a long time ago that Middle America does not come to you. You go to Middle America. And when you lose them, you’re done. So here’s a message for Washington DC and Hollywood; Fasten your seat belts. Sponsored by Victor Barke’s Complete Basement Systems. 

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Podcast 318

Your Dog Understands You. Updates just ahead of the weekend. The bloated and unresponsive Internal Revenue Service and its arrogant bureaucrat in chief have apologized to small businesses that have had their assets seized after running afoul of byzantine regulation. It seems if you deposit over ten thousand dollars in a bank account, the IRS thinks you’re a drug dealer. If you deposit less than ten thousand dollars, guess what? You’re a drug dealer too. Or something. Anyway, that means they can seize your assets and ruin your business. Especially if your business is selling guns, as one gun dealer and Iraq War Vet discovered last year. Today John Koskinen, IRS head apologized. Meanwhile, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson says his investigators have uncovered thousands of emails between Tea Party hater and former IRS manager Lois Lerner and the White House. Hmmm. Aside from the VA, this is the one agency that is the poster child for incompetence, bloat and poor management. The US needs a twenty first century tax system that doesn’t require thousands of government employees – earning twice what the average private citizen earns while they go to conferences in luxury hotels on the tax payer’s dime. Don’t try to pass it while President Obama is in office. Make it an election issue. Two Civil Rights leaders were recently invited to participate in a police training simulation of high pressure situations which might require deadly force. In both situations the civil rights leaders fired their weapons. One said he just kept pulling the trigger. Did the suspect have a gun? “I didn’t even look”. It was an eye opening moment for both of these gentlemen who discovered its easy to criticize what cops do, from the outside. This is a program which should be put in place across the country. In Minnesota, the Southwest Light Rail project is stalled amid fighting between the Minneapolis Park Board, an unelected Met Council and a governor who is worried the project will lose federal favor and funding. At issue is whether the LRT will pass over a bucolic foot and bike bridge by Cedar Lake, or pass through a tunnel. Rich people in Kenwood and around Cedar Lake are opposed. Everyone else who doesn’t live there, and the fat cats who’ve bought up the land along the corridor in Saint Louis Park and Hopkins are all for it. Its wonderful when the left beats itself up. The latest political story line? If the Republicans win the presidency in 2016 (far from a lock) the United States will be a  ‘one-party-state’. What about democrats now serving in legislatures, as governors and in the House and Senate? They don’t count? And yes, your dog can read your emotions and understands your words. Sponsored by Baklund R&D. 

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Podcast 312

The IRS Needs More Money? Another update podcast from the newsroom at the Bob Davis Podcasts. The head of the IRS was back on the hill recently crying for more money, saying the agency uses computer programs from the dark ages and can’t do what it is supposed to do, collect taxes, because it has too many things to do. Does the IRS have too much to do, and too little money to do it? Or, is it another VA; another poster child for the failure of big government. Meanwhile, you have a less than one percent chance of being audited, unless you make over a million dollars, or cause red flags (in those archaic computer programs) to be activated. Perhaps it is time to talk about a new head of the agency. Or maybe even a new method of taxation that does away with this agency. Should we pursue tax reform under President Obama or make it a campaign issue in 2016. What proof is there that anyone with an R in front of their on the ballot is going to actually ‘reform’ taxation policy? Colorado’s legalization of Marijuana has caused so many millions of dollars in taxes to be collected that a state law might require it be returned, much to the chagrin of republicans and democrats in the legislature. Guess what? They want to pass a law so they can keep it all … for education. Two shootings that involved police officers in Hennepin county this week provoked some to question how people who were either convicted felons, or known to be unstable (and thus afoul of the law) managed to get guns. While the gun control movement in the US thinks the solution is to pass a law that says people like that can’t have guns…yet they always seem to get them. Fifty Shades of Grey sex toys have hit the shelves … at Target. The company says the Fifty Shades marketing package which contains blindfolds – among other things – will be placed in an adult area of the store, but one pic surfaced of the Fifty Shades stuff next to children’s tooth brushes. Surprisingly, China will have the most robots in use in their manufacturing sector by 2017. Who will make the Robots? Swiss, German and Japanese companies. Expect thousands to be laid off in China’s automotive and technology sectors. Science may have figured out how to reverse the effects of aging and how to end the common cold. Sponsored by My Complete Basement Systems and by Depotstar. 

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