Plausibly Live - The Dave Bowman Show

On October 31, 1864, Nevada became the 36th State to join the Union (I just got that BB-36 was USS Nevada!). While most States that joined the Union did so with certain conditions that varied with the era in which they were admitted, most of them had similar conditions,  vis-à-vis  republican governments and the banning of slavery and so forth. Nevada on the other hand, was unusual in that its fir...

There’s an old saw that says: If you’re not a liberal when you’re young, you have no heart. And if you’re not a conservative when you’re old, you have no brain. As strange as it may seem, given the media coverage, in recent days, there are a lot – and I mean a lot – of folks who have been startled awake from their wokeness. For some it has come as a shock, for others, maybe it’s the realization th...

On December 7, 1941, the bombs rained down on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Of the eight Battleships present that day, seven were put out of action. Two of those, Oklahoma, and Arizona, permanently. The other six Battleships were essentially obsolete. In fact, the very reason that the Battleships were in Pearl Harbor that day was because they were useless to accomplish the task the Navy ne...

I love ancient history, particularly that of the Roman Republic. You knew that. But what if one of my most cherished beliefs about the past is… well… incorrect? Yesterday, Jim Jordan cancelled a third vote on his campaign for Speaker of the House. It all seems surreal and at the same time, has generated arguments galore as to who is right, who is doing the people’s business, who is protecting the...

On the night of October 14/15, 1781, a combined force of American and French forces stormed two British forts, known as redoubts, that held the right side of the British lines at Yorktown. Behind those forts waited seven thousand or so British troops and their German mercenaries. Leading the assault on Redoubt 10 was Colonel Alexander Hamilton, personally selected by George Washington to lead what...

The Rabbi and the good Friar get together to talk about the last week and the outrage we’ve seen. At the end of the day, hate is hate, and it never ends well. The national political scene isn’t much better. There is no Speaker of the House, while there are at least two wars that directly involves the United States in one way or another. But… there is growing noise to get a speaker. The question is...

The winter of 1775-76 was not a good one for the Americans. Defeat after defeat had followed the early success, and many were rethinking their own involvement in the revolution against the British. Congress was desperate, money was gone, troops were leaving as short enlistments expired. And everywhere, Washington’s tiny and shrinking army was on the retreat. The flame of liberty, seemingly, was ex...

“What is the vice presidency? The Constitution dictates only two duties: casting the deciding vote if the Senate is deadlocked and replacing the president if he dies or is impeached. Apart from waiting for those two things to happen, you made the rest up and were duly forgotten by history. The exception being Aaron Burr, who shot someone, decisively lowering the bar for the rest of us.”  ― Austin...

It’s been a very tough week. Between some health issues and the loss of a fellow SubVet, it’s been long and stressful. The Congress this week voted to remove the Speaker. It was an unusual event, one that hasn’t happened – at least in this manner – before. It has caused a great deal of brouhaha, and a great deal of “discussion” between conservatives as to whether or not it was a “smart” moves. I t...

In the early days of the Pacific War, the Japanese empire seized Wake Island from the United States. It was an epic battle, despite the inevitable outcome. An outnumbered and unsupported Marine garrison held out far longer than anyone imagined that they would. Upon seizing the island, the Japanese removed the Marines, but kept ninety-eight civilian workers, who were forced into slave labor to buil...

Before I could get to the show I had planned for today, we received the word that Senator Diane Feinstein has passed away at the age of ninety. Certainly the loss of a family member is painful, so my condolences are with the Feinstein family. I ended up getting distracted by a couple of errands that had to be done this morning, so I had time to read more than a few articles about the passing of th...

Over the past few days, the whole world watched as the Canadian Parliament gave a standing ovation to a known Nazi soldier. Or… at least they should have known that he was a Nazi. You know… and actual real-life Nazi. Not one of their political opponents that was labeled as a Nazi because they want to be insulting and yet seem suave and politically bourgeoisie. Nope…. an actual Nazi. And an actual...

This week in 1789, the 1st US Congress approved the first twelve amendments to the Constitution. These twelve amendments were the response to Anti-Federalist position that the Constitution MUST have a Bill of rights, and to that end, these twelve amendments listed the specific rights which were to be placed outside of government interference. further, they would serve to limit the ability of the G...

In the debates over the ratification of the US Constitution, the Anti-Federalists often resorted to predictions of the worst case of the future. The understood human nature better than the Federalists did, but they lacked the ability to hope that the American people would rise above that nature. George Washington had strongly supported ratification, but by this day in 1796, he was exhausted. Not j...

Yesterday, the Mexican Government showed video that it says proves that aliens from UFO crashes are real. In Pennsylvania, elements of the US Government captured an escaped murdered and illegal immigrant. Mitt Romney announced that he was not ruining for re-election, and in an effort to ingratiate himself further, said that we need “younger leadership.” In the Ukraine, President Zelinsky informed...

There are two burrs under my saddle this morning. First.. I’ve had it with YouTube. I’m sorry if you get your version of this show there, but something is going to have to change – as soon as I have the time to figure out how best to do it. Second, the State of Washington has spent more than $143,000,000 in one year to clear out homeless encampments along right of way locations. Sounds like quite...

It’s one of those “myths” of history, that on September 12, 1962, then President John F. Kennedy stood in Rice Stadium in Houston and announced to a stunned and surprised nation and world that the United States was committing itself to putting a man on the moon – and returning him safely – before the end of the decade. The speech is stirring and it was certainly one of Kennedy’s most noted. What i...

I had a bunch of dental work yesterday, so sorry I wasn’t here to comment on the whole Bremerton JV football Coach situation. On the other hand, for the first time in my adult life, I made it through the entire procedure (three fillings) with (1) ZERO pain and (2) no panic attack. I was able to eat within a couple of hours, and now I am wondering what I was so worried about? One of the greatest pl...

I am a Cold Warrior. I grew up in the heat of it, and for the final decade of it, I was directly involved. It was intense. It was personal, and it left me with a profound sense of accomplishment. But unlike the shelling of Ft. Sumter (1861), or the invasion of Serbia (1914) or the Poland (1939), the actual beginning of the Cold War is a bit more… nebulous. One could argue that the roots of the Col...

In the summer of 1787, the idea of term limits for Congress wasn’t seen as a necessity. So what changed between 1787 and 2023? were politicians in the early part of the American Republic somehow more virtuous or “better” than than those of today? Would introducing Term Limits on Congress today make any difference in the way we are governed by people who increasingly are “more experienced?” In poin...

It's a well known "Dave Diamond Fact" that I love Humphrey Bogart movies. I own about 30 of them on DVD and/or streaming, and on days when things seem... meh... a Bogey flick is a good way to get my attitude back into the green. So it's not often that I catch a Bogart flick that I haven't seen before. But... now and again it happens. Over the weekend I caught "The Return...

The 14th amendments Section 3 prohibition against permanently holding office has NEVER been invoked successfully. Even when it was tried the first time, it ended when Congress took action to change it. Then, in 1918, with World War I raging, a man from Wisconsin found himself charged under the 1917 Espionage Act of saying things that the government said were sedition. He was arrested, tried and co...

No… I did not watch the “debate.” That doesn’t mean that I don’t have an opinion about the results of the debate. On the one hand, I came to a realization that these debates aren’t even meant to be substantive. These are intended to be performance art pieces, where the entirety of the event is intended to impress, entertain and get you to like a candidate based on nothing more than than their tele...

A few days ago, rod texted me and asked for my 'assessment" of an article found in The Atlantic (paywall), " The Constitution Prohibits Trump From Ever Being President Again ." The idea is not new. The article is a rehash of an argument that was made by a couple of experts from the Federalist Society that says that the 14th Amendment Section 3 makes Trump ineligible for office....

It seems like both a lifetime ago and at the same time, it seems like just yesterday. strange as it may seem, it was only four months ago that the final Mask Mandate in Washington State actually ended. Now here we are, a few months later and the talk of the town is whether or not to bring the mask mandates back… again… Now… there is a great deal of outrage at and resistance to the idea. Those of u...