Podcast 281

Live From The Living Room. There’s no plastic wrap on the furniture, but The Bob Davis Podcasts is live from the living room, updating you on the last few stories of 2014. No, there are no countdown lists, best of’s, worst of’s, rankings or other nonsense to tell you how ‘special’ 2014 was, in its final hours, as we head to the New Year’s this week. Remember all those sale price deals from Black Friday? With the Christmas season over, the returns begin. Retailers now take your return, put it in a box, and send it to an online liquidator, which sells it for pennies on the dollar. While retailers moan and groan about Internet sales, they continue to follow business and customer service models that seem like they’re from the 1980’s, let alone 21st century. Making customers traipse across town to find items they need now, offering discounts only after you send in the rebate, not having items in stock, and of course, not seeming to care when customers find the sweater they paid 150 dollars for on some online liquidator for 20 dollars. Did you watch Sony’s The Interview on You Tube? If you did, or tried to, you discovered the hoops you have to jump through to see it. Now iTunes will feature the ‘controversial’ and critically panned comedy about the assassination on North Korea’s ‘Leader’, Kim Jong Un, and you can rent it for 5.99. Wonder if Sony’s intention all along was to bypass the theaters to be able to release first run films to VOD? Jeb Bush as ‘surged’ to the ‘top’ of all potential Republicans candidates for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, and here come the articles extolling his so called conservative virtues. Do we really have to ask whether Bush is conservative? Are Republicans going to fall for this trick again? (Editor’s Note: Probably? Yes.) What’s needed is a radical reduction in the scope, size, cost and power of all government. The new technologies want Low Entropy systems, and Government is one of the highest entropy systems known to man. Jeb Bush will not ‘make government work’ any more than Barack Obama did. And speaking of the President; Despite the departing Congress’ effort to remove funding for Obama’s immigration ‘executive memorandum’ on immigration, the White House is spending at least 50 million dollar to hire a thousand federal employees and set them up in a building near Washington to process all the illegals effected by the order. Yep. Don’t use existing bureaus because that might actually make sense. But don’t worry, Bush III will fix that. Finally, MSNBC acknowledged it has a terrible year (because it blows), and the network will begin offering digitally delivered programming, mostly sports. Bob Davis has already predicted the network will go all sports soon. Not only is the retail model ‘so 1999’, so is the model for talk radio, and cable television news services. Sponsored by Depotstar

Podcast 279

Bush Profits From Obama Care? Updates for your weekend start with The Interview; the movie that portrays the assassination of North Korean ‘leader’ Kim Jong Un. With crowds flocking to see the mediocre mad cap comedy film in 331 independent theaters across the US, on demand on line, and on You Tube, and with evidence implicating the North Koreans in the Sony Hack at this point circumstantial, we have to ask whether this could be a publicity stunt? A stunt that results in the Hollywood Studios finally getting around Theater Chain opposition to VOD, and produces some negative propaganda for the North Koreans in the west? Sound outlandish? Remember Zero Dark Thirty and Red Dawn, to name two, produced with involvement by the US Government. There’s no question the North Koreans richly deserve some bad press. Any nation that locks hundreds of thousands up in death camps, deserves at least a slap in the face internationally, right? Meanwhile, lots of snark about how ‘bad’ the movie is. (Editors Note: I have not seen The Interview, but by the time you hear this podcast I will have watched it on You Tube, and will dutifully review it.) Moving on to New York City. Can Mayor Bill de Blasio continue without support from the Police? In the wake of the murder of two NYPD by a man with ties to the Black Guerrilla Gang (which has also threatened to attack at least two precinct HQ’s in NYC), Al Sharpton protests which featured chants of ‘What Do We Want? Dead Cops!”, and attacks by professors on NYPD officers, again we ask whether protesters have jumped the shark? How much are the post Ferguson, and post New York protests protecting and supporting criminals? Is it a good for Progressives to support elements of an emerging criminal political class? Then we get to Jeb Bush, who has cynically sold his stock and resigned his board of directorship at one company that profited from Affordable Care Act. What about the other companies he has interests in? Is he making money from big government? Are you going to let ‘Common Core’ and ‘We shouldn’t repeal Obama Care’ Jeb Bush get elected President in 2016? Please Sir! Sit Down! Finally, if you voted Republican to get rid of O-Care, the think tanks are already telling people pushing for repeal, that option is ‘too much to ask for’. Really? It took only about a month and a half for them all to forget who elected them, and why. Sponsored by Baklund R & D

Podcast 277

Christmas 2014! Live from the mall for the last few hours of Christmas shopping. Getting through the shortest days of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, celebrating the return of the light. This has been a weird holiday season, news wise. With the NYPD police/protester story, and the recent police involved shooting in the Saint Louis Metro, as well as the Sony Hack continuing story the News Watch Never Stops at the Bob Davis Podcasts. So, in a soft way, updating you for Christmas Day, 2014. As protests and police involved shootings continue to happen and people fire off uninformed and ignorant missives to each other on social media, this one may just have to run its course. On the Sony front, the FBI says North Korea did it. Does the FBI have enough evidence to say North Korea is responsible? There will be time to get back down in it, after Christmas. Aside from the lurid stories, the meatiest story this week has been the 3rd quarter economic numbers that have the media, and the President crowing ‘boom’. Is it? The new 5% GDP numbers are revisions, but the media doesn’t explain why US Economic numbers are revised at least three times, and then revised annually. Now the media is rolling every anecdotal experience into the numbers as ‘proof’ the ‘US is back!’. In this podcast, we’ll look a little deeper into those numbers to help you decide what they mean, and inform your decision on whether you think things are ‘booming’, economically speaking. Denver is experiencing an increase in its homeless population. The theory is, they are coming for legal pot. Watch out for the new advice on the ‘homeless’. When you see a street person you’re supposed to engage with them, in order to see them as human beings. This is a dangerous course of action, and really irresponsible, especially if you have small children with you. We all feel bad for those less fortunate, but some of them are dealing from a very challenged perspective, and you don’t know what they’ll do at any moment. Stay clear for your own safety. You’ve heard of the Obama Phone? Now they want to give people free broad band internet access. Yep. The Internet is a human right, which means the rest of us should pay for it, with additional charges on our phone bills, so people less fortunate can have free Internet. Finally, Miley Cyrus is banned from the Shriver/Kennedy Christmas Celebration in Massachusetts. Cyrus is dating Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s son Patrick, and momma doesn’t like her. (Editor’s Note: Aside from the fact that Cyrus probably has more money than the Kennedy’s, and if she doesn’t she will, at least she works, and doesn’t just lay about lending her name to every left wing cause that comes down the pike. Miley, you’re better off!) Sponsored by Autonomous Cad