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. 

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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. 

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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.)

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