Podcast 353 – Sunny Lohmann

Live From Napa California. The road trip continues through California, stopping in Napa to do a podcast with Sunny Lohmann. A breathless romp through pop culture and current events. A road rage incident in the sun drenched wine drinking paradise, provokes a question about rage. What is the difference between Meme and Mime? As the tax deadline approaches, both Bob and Sunny struggle with their tax issues. Is it better to rush to file on the deadline, or file an extension? Some stories about the trip up to San Francisco and Napa using the Pacific Coast Highway, and the story of the Nepenthe in Big Sur, California. This was the weekend Secretary of State John Kerry tried to defend the so called Iran ‘deal’ that the Supreme Leader in Iran says isn’t a deal. The President defended the Secretary by citing his status as a Vietnam Veteran. What is the reality in Iran, and the reality of the Iranian political system? With the negative comments about the US from Iran, is this the new model for US Foreign Relations? If the Iran ‘deal’ collapses, the President can now say he tried. As Sunny says, it’s amazing that the President will talk to the Iranian leadership, and Raul Castro, but not Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. What is the effect of environmentalism is California? According to Sunny, environmentalism and recycling is a religion in the Golden State. Two Midwesterners talk about the difference between services in the Midwest and California. Sunny reacts to the White House picture of President Obama waving at the bottom of the arc of a rainbow as he boarded Air Force 1. Is this good for the President, or not? As we come to the end of an era in America, will the right be able to actually present an agenda? What will the real issues of 2016’s election be? Is the country asleep right now? And, if we are at the end of an era, what’s next? One additional bit of advice from a woman who moved from Minnesota to California with her husband and new baby. Sponsored by X Government Cars. 

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Randal O’Toole – Podcast 188

Randal O’Toole shares his knowledge about Light Rail, Street Cars, the Driverless Car, state and city planning, subsidies and the Highway Trust Fund, with The Bob Davis Podcasts. Cities all over the United States are spending billions, sometimes tens of billions to research, and billions more to build, light rail, streetcar and so called ‘high speed’ rail lines. These projects are designed to serve centrally planned cities with subsidized high density housing. Studies say this is what people want, but are the studies right? What is the history of this kind of thinking? O’Toole knows. Moreover, O’Toole is willing to debate, discuss, and write about the issue. Most of the time he doesn’t get enough time on talk radio, but he is a wealth of information. If you want to learn how to argue these issues, Randal O’Toole is the man to learn from. Do we continue to tax people, no matter where they live, to subsidize and maintain expensive transit systems for the elite, and to promote a vision of the future which may be dangerously wrong. Hear him as you have never heard him before, because The Bob Davis Podcasts will give him plenty of time in this podcast, and the companion podcast 189, to share those arguments with you. Sponsored by Baklund R & D.

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Podcast 185

Gentrification. A walk through Uptown Minneapolis on a Saturday night. What used to be a bohemian hipster paradise is lousy with 1 percenters. How Uptown was, when it changed, how it changed and what it is like now. Share memories of the Uptown Punks, the run down houses, the Port Arthur, Vonns, The Uptown Bar, Uptown diner, the Rainbow, and the beginnings of the changes in Uptown; Calhoun Square. Sure the people in the neighborhoods wanted a little more vibrant business district, but did they get more than they bargained for? Do government tax breaks, zoning laws, ‘affordable housing’ initiatives, light rail help, or hurt a neighborhood? Sure there are a lot of twenty somethings coming to the bars, and packing in roommates in the expensive new apartments, but what happens when millennials start families? Will they be able to afford houses in Uptown? Minneapolis leads the nation in gentrification; when wealthier residents and businesses pushing out middle and lower middle class businesses and residents. Moreover, tax increases to provide the tax breaks and special deals to get those expensive condos and rental apartments built means residents of the city of Minneapolis pay more, whether it is a carrot cake and coffee at a trendy cafe, or groceries. It’s no secret Minneapolis has one of the most progressive governments in the United States. Are the goals of progressives being met when the 99 percent has to move to cheaper suburbs, and the one percent moves into their old neighborhoods? And yes, I keep calling it ‘regentrification’ but it is in fact, gentrification. Sponsored by X Government Cars. Cover photo art courtesy of Mitch Rossow.

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