Podcast 376

Republicans Sound Like Democrats. And democrats sound like republicans. Updates to start the first week of June, 2015. Self described Democratic Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders was in Minneapolis this weekend telling a group of aging hippies that America isn’t a democracy and is becoming an oligarchy. Is this true? Meanwhile, in Delaware, republican candidate Carly Fiorina told a group of republicans big business and big government are crushing Americans. Are these candidates really from different ends of the political spectrum? Do any of them know how to fix the ailing US Economy and by extension, foreign policy and domestic policy problems created by the Obama, and yes Bush administrations? US economic performance in the first quarter of 2015 has been revised down to a .7 percent contraction, all blamed on winter, the weak dollar, the sun didn’t shine this weekend, and it rained, or the dog ate my homework, again. Meanwhile pollyanna’s tout labor department numbers as proof we’re on our way to ‘full employment’; So if we’re on our way to ‘full employment’ mister smartypants, how do we get a nearly one point contraction? For the record, the second quarter isn’t looking too rosy either, with the contraction in profits and manufacturing apparently continuing. Think it’s all those low-grade minimum wage part time jobs we’re ‘creating’? Oddly enough if you don’t read too much between the lines, crazy old Socialist Bernie Sanders, and some Republican candidates seem to be saying the same thing. The question is whether they know the policies currently in place — the kinds of policies Bernie Sanders wants to triple down on — have created inequality and poor economic growth? The republicans talk the talk but do they realize what a political ordeal it is to actually fix the economy and by extension, the country? Meanwhile, the Oligarch’s just keep on comin’. The LA Times published an expose this weekend on everyone’s favorite ‘Tony Stark’ (Elon Musk) who is actually a corporate welfare queen; The ‘electric car maker’, ‘rocket company’ owner and solar power ‘entrepreneur’ has taken nearly 5 billion dollars in subsidies from the Federal and various state governments. Yep, your smug hipster neighbor just bought a ‘Tesla’ because it’s great for the environment and got help from you, through your taxes while you hope the oil burning 96 Saturn you’re driving gets you to your part time job today. Finally, illegal immigrants get special help at Minneapolis and other Minnesota schools, while the children of citizens are pretty much on their own, despite the fact that two federal courts now have told the President his executive amnesty program is out of bounds. Yet it continues. This is a time for people to ask themselves what they expect the government to do, and whether the people running for office really understand what needs to be done, and if the answer is no, finding the path to the political revolution necessary to change it. Sponsored by X Government Cars

Podcast 170

Top stories updates. Get your July4th week started off right with updates on the top stories. Chaos on the Rio Grand, as illegal immigrants storm across our unprotected border, and a new study shows almost all the new jobs since 2000 have gone to immigrants legal and illegal. The inequality story line being advanced by Joseph Stiglitz now dissing his hometown of Gary, Indiana. By the way, what policies encourage inequality? Where was Minnesota Senator Al Franken while President Obama visited the liberal bastion of Lake Harriet, in Minneapolis last week? You’d think a Senator who voted with the president 100 percent of the time would want to be seen with his hero, but no. Franken wasn’t with the president at the town meeting, or at his speech at the ‘castle shaped’ Lake Harriet Band Shell. How about that! Plus what’s this election about? Economic Growth!

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Podcast 148

Memorial Day Weekend Update. It is memorial day weekend, which usually means a long drive back from the lake. Since The Bob Davis Podcasts normally updates listeners on the key stories of the coming week on Sunday night/Monday morning, this podcast is all ready for the drive home. On the US Economy, the story line has been ‘winter’ since the northern tier of the US went into a deep freeze last December. Now ‘suddenly’ and ‘unexpectedly’ retailers aren’t meeting goals and consumers aren’t very confident. The expected ‘rebound’ from winter’s woes hasn’t materialized. What’s happening. Is inflation taking its toll, or is it deflation? Why is the price of fuel and food going up? The darling of the left, Thomas Piketty is on the hot seat for … some pretty serious mistakes in his modeling. Turns out ‘inequality’ may not be as bad as he thought it might be. The President went to Afghanistan as a prelude to a week of trying to defend and take back the high ground on his foreign policy, while democrats call him detached, flat footed and incompetent. Sponsored by Baklund R&D