Podcast 527

RNC Dies At Cleveland? Day One of the Republican National Convention. While the mainstream media covers the convention from inside, The Bob Davis Podcasts is on the streets outside Quicken Arena. Some insiders would agree with the headline; RNC Dies At Cleveland. Some are actually saying that a rules fight that resulted in a few walkouts signals the end of the grassroots movement in republican politics, and certainly the end of something once known as a ‘principled’ conservative. While pundits point to a platform they say is the most conservative in history they ignore rule changes that give the RNC complete control over future conventions. The takeaway? No more Ron Paul insurgencies and no more Ted Cruz and evangelist grassroots movements. While the chance always existed for the Republican Establishment to join forces with the grassroots movements to ‘Dump Trump’, instead the establishment joined forces with the Trump campaign. In the end, the grassroots are out. Permanently. As some republicans – including various state party officials – cracked under the pressure of hard ball politics, it’s the same old story with republicans. Why rock the boat? Why make a spectacle of yourself and your state for the media? While there’s talk of a walkout, with each passing moment, the majority of the GOP, passive to the core, will go along to get along. Some see this outcome as necessary to unify the party for victory. Others see it as the death of the grassroots movement in republican politics, and the republican party. Outside the exclusion zone around the convention venue, delegates and politicos taking a break mixed with Cleveland’s downtown workers, and street people milling around bars and restaurants. It was a street fair featuring network TV studios and bloviating rather than kielbasa. Hit the streets with the Bob Davis Podcasts, starting with a woman who lives on the streets giving her analysis of the political situation, moving onto a protest, plus Blaze Correspondent Mike Opelka and more. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating and Hydrus Performance.

Podcast 479

Midnight Moonlight Talk. Spring is here. A lunar eclipse is hours away, so the time has come for a midnight walk and talk in the full moon light. The rules of the walk and talk are, no prep, no notes, just walk and talk. That’s the agenda for Midnight Moonlight Talk. The origins of the ‘walk and talk’ are probably the walks with my grandfather and grandmother back in Ohio on hot summer nights when I was a little kid. We talked about everything on those walks. I learned a lot, and became a night-owl. After the mega-cast about media in Podcast 478, I promised some discussion about coping. Given that there is no prep for this podcast, listeners get a glimpse in how we prepped for shows back at KSTP around 2000, how that has changed, and how the media has changed. How do you cope with the onslaught of highly partisan, snark-media these days? You start by cutting the cable, keeping your WIFI so you can watch what you want, when you want it, and you don’t have a constant, twenty-four-seven audio track of people telling you what to think. Every now and then a news cleanse is necessary. If you’re reading books, or newspapers you’ll find that your analysis will actually get better, because your powers of discernment will improve. Why? Because you’re actually reading the news rather than skimming, and you’ll start to recognize how much of today’s news is gleaned from other websites and rewritten. Getting out and doing whatever it is that you do outside, and perhaps some kind of exercise that teaches you how to breathe — martial arts, CrossFit or Yoga — or even just walking whenever you can, clears your head and deglazes all that nonsense. It doesn’t hurt to stand outside, drink a cup of coffee (or whatever it is you drink) and take in the night air and the moon on an early spring night. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul, Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate and X Government Cars.

Podcast 197

News Cleanse Day 2. The News Cycle Is Not Your Friend. What IS a ‘News Cleanse’. Why do a ‘News Cleanse’. No news reading or watching. No political discussions. No peeking. Continue podcasting through the cleanse. Great emails and comments already from listeners to The Bob Davis Podcasts. Does this mean no politics or social commentary during the cleanse? Does this mean Bob Davis is losing interest in what is happening politically and socially in the world and in the United States? The answer is emphatically no. Political and social commentary through the week is a go! But, does the news cycle serve anyone? The big outlets, CNN, and Fox and of course all the networks, and web sites like Drudge, Huffington, Buzz Feed, Infowars, The Blaze, the heritage mainstream media like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the political websites like Politico, World Net Daily, Newsmax, and many more are designed to elicit an emotional response, and drive people into camps. It’s not news anymore. It’s sports. And what are people talking about out there around their bonfires in places like Maple Grove, Des Moines, and the suburbs of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit? Not the daily news cycle and the screaming, yelling, pounding, pontificating, punditating and general gas bagging. One man’s journey through news addiction treatment. Sponsored by Baklund R&D.