Podcast 330

Kirk, Spock & Puppies. Updates to start the week on the big stories. First, Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played Mister Spock on the original “Star Trek” series, died this weekend. We could leave it at that, but apparently the actor who played Captain Kirk on the show, William Shatner is unable to attend Nimoy’s funeral because of other engagements. This has provoked outrage from chi-dults (Editor’s Note: Child-Adults, or Chi-Dults.) infuriated that Captain Kirk would not attend the funeral of his first officer. People! This was a TV show in the mid 1960’s! Captain Kirk and Mister Spock aren’t real. Frank Underwood is not the President of the United States. There really isn’t a beautiful woman, also known as ‘The Mother Of Dragons’ as seen in ‘Game of Thrones’. It’s shocking, but it’s time someone finally told you the truth. These are actually TV shows. Dramatic portrayals of stories, made for distribution over your television! Imagine! Meanwhile, in the real world Christians are being kidnapped by the hundreds for presumed execution by beheading or some other horrible fate, at the hands of terror armies in the Middle East. And the top story? A puppy that, regrettably, was lit on fire and left for dead in a dumpster on the Red Lake Reservation in Northern Minnesota. If it bleeds it leads, and the Puppy Dog’s fate leads! The dog is recovering and will require several skin grafts. A five thousand dollar reward is offered for the identity of his tormenter. Perhaps visiting Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu will be happy to take the back seat to Captain Kirk and Mister Spock, and the puppy dog. Netanyahu will speak to a joint US Congress presumably to urge President Obama not to make nuclear deal with Iran. President Obama is furious at Congress for inviting Netanyahu and the Prime Minister for accepting, and will not be watching. As far the Islamic State is concerned, remember that big Iraq army offensive to retake Mosul from the IS? Postponed again. We’ll tell you why in this podcast. And US Economic Growth in the 4th quarter of 2014 has been revised townward from 2.5 percent to 2.2 percent, suggesting the US economy has a long way to go before the boom the President and some cheerleading financial reporters seem to think is happening, actually happens. By the way, where’s the ‘cheap gas acting like a tax-cut’ effect? Experts say next quarter. Yeah. Sure. Foreign Policy and Economics are sure to be major issues in the 2016 Presidential race. Minnesota is projecting a budget surplus and some podcast subscribers want to know what will happen with the surplus. Let’s put it this way; Don’t expect a rebate. And, if you thought the job of an Air Marshall was boring, listen to this podcast. Sponsored by X Government Cars

Podcast 266

Rolling Stone’s Debacle. This weekend Rolling Stone Magazine admitted it did not properly fact-check a story about an alleged gang rape on the campus of the University of Virginia. So now we have a clear example of media bias in action and it goes way beyond fact checking. The editors liked the story, so they never pushed the reporter to interview the accused, or confirm the stories of the friends of the woman who claimed she was gang raped at a frat party. So, it took the Washington Post to go down to UVA and run down the particulars in the story. As this was going on, Rolling Stone defended its reporter, and anyone who questioned the woman’s story was pilloried. What did the Washington Post uncover? The discrepancies are so numerous, Rolling Stone had to issue an apology this weekend. ‘Narrative journalism’, combined with bias and shoddy editing is the order of the day in most of today’s news shops. Now the media, UVA, Fraternities, the alleged perpetrators, the victim, not to mention real cases of rape have all been thrown into question as the result of an editor and reporter, and magazine that did not do their job. And what can we say about the media? Charlatans, hustlers, think tank spokespersons, operatives are booked as guests on all the major news shows, round table shout fests, and empty suits abound. An informed populace/electorate is the one necessary ingredient for democracy, and we do not have it. America is being so poorly served by its so called media, its no wonder people cannot reason, don’t know the facts, scream and yell at each other, throw labels onto each other that are meaningless, and are deeply confused about how any process works, because they are uninformed. Who’s fault is it? What can be done about it? Have we reached the stage where the rule of the mob has become a reality? Unfortunately, it sure looks like it. Meanwhile, Mary Landrieu has lost her bid for a fourth term in the US Senate representing Louisiana, giving the GOP one more seat in the Senate, and an historic majority in the House. Wait until after January 7th for the fireworks to start when the 117th Congress is sworn in. The President has acid reflux, as does the rest of the country due to his policies. The media ballyhooed the latest unemployment numbers, but once you look under the hood, they don’t look so good. Surprise! We have yet to produce one month with over 375,000 new jobs, which is what the country needs to fully recover. It never ceases to amaze what the media thinks is ‘good’ versus what is factually needed. Sponsored by Baklund R&D. (Correction: I keep referring to the current congress as “the 116th Congress” in this podcast, and the next as the “117th Congress”. Getting a little ahead of myself; The current Congress is the 113th, and the incoming congress is the 114th.)

Podcast 248 – Jason Lewis

Jason Lewis. National Talk Radio Star Jason Lewis joins the Bob Davis Podcasts. My talk radio colleague and I talk about the recent 2014 midterm election results; What does the election mean for Republicans and Democrats, and what to expect. Jason has an unrivaled perspective on local Minnesota politics, so his insight on the election results in Minnesota is invaluable. How was the Minnesota Republican Party able to elect 11 state representatives, to win back the state-house, but fail to win a single state wide office? Is it the candidates, the voters, or something else less visible from the outside? What mistakes did the state party make in selecting candidates for statewide races, and running those campaigns. How are Minnesota politics different from neighboring rival Wisconsin, where Governor Scott Walker won by 6 points, and maintained Republican control of the state Assembly in Madison? How significant was money from liberal PACs in Minnesota and what about Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts, where republicans won in democrat dominated states? Minnesota party leaders and national media believe voters are sending a message they want politicians in Saint Paul and Washington DC ‘to work together’, does Jason Lewis agree? What should the strategy of Republicans in the Minnesota House and the US Congress be after they’re sworn in? Did Americans vote for the party of Graham, King and McConnell, or Cruz, Paul and McCarthy? What’s the response to the President’s post election press conference today? Meanwhile, what mischief will the lame duck congress get up to, between now and January of 2015. Jason also has some great stories from his KSTP days, what he refers to as the ‘halcyon days’ of talk radio in the 90’s and early 2000’s; A time when creativity and local talk radio flourished across America. With talk migrating to weaker AM signals, and sports replacing more and more talk stations, what is the future of broadcast talk radio? With the advent of the ‘digital dashboard’ and the capability for individual broadcasters to stream and podcast, broadcast radio is two steps behind newspapers on the disruption highway. As radio fades, Jason’s main focus these days, aside from Golf, is Galt.IO, which is fully explained for those who do not know what it is. Galt.IO will provide an online capability for the politically disenfranchised to crowdsource fundraising for candidates and causes, allowing individuals to amplify their causes, without having to go to the wealthy to fundraise, and will empower conservative causes in their effort to compete with left wing fundraising institutions like Alliance for A Better Minnesota, and “RINO” republican organizations; something that has never before been possible on this level. Stay tuned in this podcast for a never-before-heard announcement regarding Galt.IO. Sponsored by Xgovernment Cars, and by Depotstar