Sturgis 2017 Shows How We Go With The Flow-Podcast 654

After three years at the motorcycle rally at Sturgis, South Dakota it gets harder to find the story. Lots of engine revving and people partying. Been there. Done That. This time I found a slightly more reserved part of the Sturgis Rally, in Sturgis 2017 Shows How We Go With The Flow-Podcast 654.

Travel Advice

I get a lot of requests for travel advice. Been all over and through the USA more than once in Mobile Podcast Command. Up and down both coasts. One thing I’ve learned. Planning is good. Throwing the plan out the window is better. As in life though, it is easier said than done. In Sturgis 2017 Shows How We Go With The Flow-Podcast 654.

Let It Go and Enjoy The Ride

We’ve all heard the stories about the job someone took on a lark and it worked out great. Or the unexpected and unplanned move. The mail order bride who turned out to be ‘the one’. Floating down the river instead of swimming against the current. This has always been a difficult concept for me. It’s the core of Sturgis 2017 Shows How We Go With The Flow-Podcast 654.

Goal Setting & Objectives

I believe in goal setting. Objectives. Working toward those objectives. I believe if you want to enjoy travel, each trip has to have a purpose. An objective. I set goals and objectives for travel, and life. In many ways they are similar concepts. We ‘travel’ through life. It seems to me that if we just float along anything may happen.

Throw The Plan Away

Achieving something means deciding what you want and working toward that goal. Right? Often, travel has no respect for goals and objectives the traveler holds dear. Life is very much like travel in this respect. On this trip, once again I learn frustration with myself, with goals. THE PLAN evaporates when I just go with it. That is a good thing. In Sturgis 2017 Shows How We Go With The Flow-Podcast 654.

Camping At Sturgis

Especially relevant were my visions of a fantastic campground at Sturgis, surrounded by the party. That would have been possible with more planning and a lot more money, come to think of it. Thinking about coming out to South Dakota for Sturgis 2018? Start saving now. Motorcycling these days means putting your bikes in the back of an RV,or trailer, trucking them to Sturgis, or Keystone, or the Badlands National Park, and cycling to the Rally from your campsite. In Sturgis 2017 Shows How We Go With The Flow-Podcast 654.

Bring Your Piggy Bank

You can also spend close to a thousand dollars for a campsite at the rally for a week, with your RV and trailer. It seems a far cry from the bad old days in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Then again, everyone is having a great time. Sturgis is still a place where people passionate about motorcycles can spend as much time as they want riding, and talking about their motorcycles. Getting work done. Buying accessories or even a new bike.

Freedom and Passion

Sturgis is still about freedom and passion. The riders are often a little older, wiser, and better off financially. Isn’t that what America is all about? We’ll talk about it in Sturgis 2017 Shows How We Go With The Flow-Podcast 654.

Sponsored by CIRO Motorcycle Products and Accessories

Sturgis 2017 Shows How We Go With The Flow-Podcast 654

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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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Podcast 302

Mass Markets and Politics. As the death rattle of the Mass Market echoes through the land, why do politicians, specifically those on one side of the spectrum continue to attempt to appeal to it? In discussing the rhetorical and organizational challenges of the politics recently, it was suggested that the reason some politicians make lurid comments is to ‘appeal to the mass markets’. If you were born at a certain time in the US, you became very familiar with something called ‘The Mass Market’. From Elvis, to the 1960 Nixon/Kennedy Debates, the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, favorite TV shows and songs and the radio stations people listened to, there was a collective experience. Millions had to wait a week for the next episode of their favorite show. You had to go to a big department store to examine consumer goods. It was an era of shared experience; one after another, from Johnny Carson to Star Trek, to All in the Family and Miami Vice. Radio multiplied from AM only to AM and FM, but all still served a mass market and provided a mass experience. First came cable television, which brought scores of nationwide channels into the home, then the VHS machine, the DVD, Netlfix and very recently, on-demand audio and video, You Tube, Google Hang Outs, Vimeo, Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Prime, HBO Go, and more to come. Now people can have the experience they want, when they want it, how they want it. They can research characters, content and what it said. Now, the experience is between the content provider, the retailer, politician, entertainer or writer and the individual. While we still have shared experiences, we may have it at different times, we may binge listen and view, we may not have the same experience as someone else. Why then, do politicians insist on lining up and yelling at each other, say ridiculous things to get publicity, why do political parties insist on mass promotional orgies called conventions be televised on the ‘networks’, when the era of Mass Specialization is upon us, and growing stronger every day? Are candidates that play to the mass markets making a mistake? What new tools are there and how can they be used to win. 1965 called, and left a message. It’s not coming back. Ever. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating.

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