Podcast 419

Time Travel. This Walk and Talk Podcast starts out with some observations about the media reaction to Candidate for the Republican Nomination Donald Trump. The Bob Davis Podcasts will never endorse a specific candidate, tell you how to vote, or cover the presidential election process with an undisclosed point of view, with the intention of pointing listeners in the direction of a specific candidate. Comments here about Donald Trump are only observations, but one thing is clear; The establishment media’s reaction to the Trump candidacy prove he is the front runner. Punditry predictions about how Trump ‘will fade’ keep coming up, but the New York Times and The Atlantic are already treating the New Yorker like the nominee, doing their best to notch him down, starting with a hatchet job on his financial credentials and education history, a commentary written by republican moderates regarding ‘anarchy’ in the House with the resignation of the Speaker, and a ridiculous piece in the Atlantic that asserts American Prosperity until 1980 was the result of Unions and High Taxes, saying if Trump wants to return ‘White America’ to this halcyon time, he must be advocating for Union and High Taxes. What tripe! It was the Atlantic piece that began a flight of fancy on this Walk and Talk about Time Travel. If you could return to any era, would it be as history described it? Which era in history would you most like to return to? (Editor’s Note: My problem is I want to go back to all of them.) If you went back hundreds, or thousands of years, would you even be able to understand what was happening. Would you need time to physically absorb the context of the time, from language, immunity to germs and disease, smells, sounds, even a different blanket of stars in the sky. It is said history is written by the victors. How different is real history from the history we’re taught, the history we read, and the history we experience on a day to day basis in our time? Sponsored by Baklund R&D and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul.

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Podcast 391 – Walker’s Announcement

Walker’s Announcement. The Bob Davis Podcasts first official campaign 2016 coverage, and now from here it’s on to Davenport, Iowa, where the Walker campaign starts an RV trip through the state. Why Scott Walker? Because it is a neighboring state, and its close. Why Davenport? Same reason. This was the first time covering a presidential announcement for someone who is considered a ‘front runner’, in the Republican Party, if such a thing exists, given the score or so politicians running on the Republican side. This was a campaign announcement loaded with red meat for standard republicans, but the three thousand or so supporters in Waukesha — a strong Republican suburb of Milwaukee — loved every minute of it, from the Lieutenant Governor, to Congressman Sean Duffy’s wife, Rachel Campos Duffy, who threw barb after barb at Hillary Clinton. It’s way more fun to be inside the story than to watch it on TV. You’ll hear the whole gamut in this podcast, from the handful of protesters with bags over their head because they are ‘ashamed’ of Walker, the media trucks, local and national media segregation, and how hot it was in there, to the Mobile Podcast Command Unit 8’s Diesel idling for eight hours while its owner connived to get press passes. While the left loves to hate the Wisconsin Governor, both Republicans and Democrats would do well to take him seriously. As his campaign likes to point out, he has beaten what he calls ‘big government special interests’ three times in the last five years, after they have thrown everything they had at him. He might just be the wild card in this republican primary season. Then again … The most fun? Watching a major CBS reporter melt down with the guys in New York, while the First Lady of Wisconsin was introducing her husband. “I don’t care, I’ve got to have that cut!”, he shouted at one point, provoking laughter from the folks in the back row. Reporting live from these events is kick ass. More to come … from Davenport, Iowa. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul.

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Podcast 375

Where’s My ObamaNet? FCC Commissioner Tom Wheeler wants to expand a program that dates back to at least the Bush Administration, which became known as the ‘Obama Phone’. Originally the program was intended to make sure older people with no communication could get phone lines, then it was expanded to include cell phones, and was made famous during the 2012 election cycle. Now the FCC wants to expand the program to include free broadband Internet! Surprise! We all pay extra on our phone bills to fund this program, now we’re paying so people who don’t work, can get free or low-cost Internet. When is it time to draw the line? Warning! This podcast includes a freewheeling discussion of technology it all its many forms, economic growth, dystopia, Paul Krugman, Solar Power, Wind Power, the smell of cigarettes and Martinis on a warm summer night, the sound of planes landing, and more! Big argument in the tech world after The New York Times Astrologer in Chief, Paul Krugman claimed the technology revolution has produced no economic growth. Is that true? Then there is the bizarre reaction to Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Machines, Robotics and Additive Manufacturing (to name a few new technologies) threatening to eliminate jobs. Most of the time, it’s disbelief, followed by the darkest predictions about the future. And yet, technology revolutions throughout history while tumultuous, result in economic growth and more jobs. Why does the future have to be so bleak? What if the future is so bright, you’ll have to wear shades? Now, you might have to wear shades because you live next door to a giant solar farm — subsidized by the state and federal governments — while solar produces less than one percent of our power and pollutes the Earth. Why is it, news coverage of the spread of ‘friendly’ solar power doesn’t include stories about the pollution in creating, and eventually disposing of panels, and batteries? Sponsored by Baklund R&D. 

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