Plausibly Live! - The Official Podcast Of The Dave Bowman Show

Eric and Dave are back to talk about the war, Halfway nights, the USS Scorpion, and the news of the Submarine World

To be absolutely 100% crystal clear, the Rabbi and the Friar hate each other. Deeply. In the meanwhile, World War III is getting scarier by the moment, although its not without it's entertaining moments, such as the Chechnyan Special Attack Squad that managed to get itself trapped in an elevator. Or the Babushka with a jar of pickles and a Russian drone that she didn't want buzzing her. On the down side, the Russians have arrested a major US Basketball "star," and for the last three weeks have kept her in jail as a "high profile hostage." Down in Texas, where the Formal ISIS Unitarians gather each Sunday to have affairs and make threats, things are a bit confused about just exactly who is the "victim" in all of this? Two very good looking Americans are locked in an isolation chamber for a NASA experiment and know nothing of what is going on in the world right now. The problem? Where is the chamber...?

A friend and long time listener texted me this morning to ask a question: what did I think was going to happen with regards to the Ukraine War? I have to be honest here, I am not very optimistic about it. History and human nature tell me that we both misunderstand and misapply the lessons of the past in such a way that cloud our judgment. In my view, we are being inexorably dragged into a world wide war that is going to make things very, very bad…

My son, Ben, who has a tendency to express himself through sadness, came home yesterday deeply concerned about the war. The matter had been discussed in one of his classes and I am of the opinion that is fine. That said, I spent more than three hours last evening (I missed my class) to talk with him about his concerns and to answer - as best I could - his questions, most of which revolve around "Why is this happening?"

On the early morning of August 2, 1990, I was headed to Williamsburg, VA. Riding north on I-64, crossing the Hampton Roads Bridge/Tunnel, just past Newport News, came the newsflash on the radio – Iraq has invaded Kuwait. That moment would go on to have a large impact on my own life. For our culture and society, there was an even bigger paradigm shift in the days ahead. Today, that shift continues, in directions never imagined in 1990-91. What was once sensible and easy to follow if overwhelming at times, has become a jumbled mess of information overload.

Rabbi Dave has been banned from Facebook because of the Ukraine situation? Well… not exactly, but maybe? The Russians have gone full Putin, and now the world is sitting on the edge of a nuclear madman’s stability. Dave lives just a few miles from a major target, but in the era of Mutal Assured Destruction (MAD), is anybody really safe from one mans insanity? John Kerry, who served in Vietnam, has made it clear that he is unhappy about the way the Ruskies are throwing up a bunch of CO2 which is bad. Especially if you’re trying to seduce your young wife with a romantic evening of love… Gal Gadot once sang the John Lenin hit, “Imagine” to try and achieve world peace. Oddly enough it did not work. But not AnnaLynn McCort, who apparently was once on TV, is bemoaning that she did not get the chance to be Vlads mommy. And all of this is because of the Ukraine Situation…

TRIGGER WARNING – The Crazy Haired One is gonna tell you some things that you don’t want to hear this morning. If you don’t like it, fine. But trust me, you DO NOT want to hear this… – Producer Henri Look, I hope that I am 100% wrong. I’m not, but it wouldn’t bother me at all if I were to be wrong about this. That said, I have some thought about this USSR-Ukraine war, and I’m pessimistic about it. If you think that the Ukes are going to stand up against the NeoSoviets and thrill the world with their stunning victory over the communists, you’re delusional. They may slow it down, but that only increases the chances of really bad things happening. That doesn’t make me “pro-Putin,” it makes me a pragmatist. In any case, trust me on here, the Democrat Party is beating the drums and waving the flag because this war is the BEST thing that they could possibly have hoped would happen…

And so the war that everybody said that they did not want has come. The parallels to 1914 and 1939 should be obvious to anyone with even a general knowledge of those conflicts. Right down to the assigning of blame on the world stage. Like the evening of July 28, 1914, we went to bed last night with no idea to what we would wake up in the morning. will this conflict be contained? Will it expand? Will NATO decide to go to war against Russia over Ukraine? The drumbeats and sloganeering have already begun, but two things are clear in my mind this morning: (1) Vladimir Putin is insane (2) There is no universal call to go to war The latter of those two things may change depending on how the first one impacts each of the next days. But there is one thing that will forever be true…

Yesterday on my personal page, I posted an article about the anniversary of the 1943 execution of Sophie Scholl. The story is inspiring for the simple reason that we tend to assume that everybody in Germany just went along with the crimes of the Nazis. But that was not the case. She had been a member of the White Rose, a group of students from the University of Munich who openly opposed the Nazi regime and it’s crimes. For her opposition to the regime, Sophie was executed on February 22, 1943. It’s a story that I post every February 22nd, because her actions should not be forgotten and her memory should live on. A comment was made on the post, which I found both fascinating and terrifying at the same time…

Dave joins Bill Mick on WMMB to talk about the way borders throughout history have effected the national psychology and have led to expectations and disappointments, and even the occasional conflict...

The Canadian government has gone full Putin, but don't worry yourself, because Friar Rod and Rabbi Dave have the absolute highest ESG score ever achieved by any podcast!

In late 1985, the Cold War was simultaneously the hottest it had ever been AND it was at the same time obviously thawing. One of the most popular pop music acts of the era released an album that to this day still has a special place to me and has one of my Top Ten Of All Time songs. I was twenty-two years old, and the previous winter (1984) I had fallen head over heels in love with a girl that would never know that I was alive. Representing East Germany at the 1984/88 Winter Games, she danced across the ice on fire. I know - without any doubt - that I am not the only man who holds her in a special place in the heart of our youth. She became a symbol of the idea that the world could get along and could find a way to end the conflict. Her final Olympic skate, in Lillehammer in 1984, was one of - if not the - definition of grace and beauty and the Olympic ideal. when she retired, there was no more loved skater than Katarina Witt, now of just Germany. So when she speaks out on something, even all these years la

I don't have a lot to say about the so-called "Durham Report." Mainly because I do not think that anybody - even you - really cares about it. Before you send me your flame eMail or text or leave me a rambling voicemail about how tragic it is and how outraged you are about it, just answer one simple question... And if your answer to that question is "Yes," then you really do not care about the report, you care about power.

Bill Mick and Dave Does History as they discuss some of the lesser known participants at the 1787 constitutional convention, including a delegate from Pennsylvania. It is his special skill on which the Convention will call to leave a lasting legacy...

It’s a weird thing. The most celebrated holiday in the entire world is Independence day. Since 1914, sixty-two countries have declared their independence from England. We – the United States – get the biggest bang for the buck for it. For the some twenty percent of the world, it’s a shared experience to throw off the yoke of the British Crown and decide for ourselves the destiny of the people. Most of the world sought their freedom, which is what sets our own rebellion apart. Still, it’s a weird thing that the uttering of the word “freedom” has become the defining character of the domestic terrorist… Most of the world sought their freedom, which is what sets our own rebellion apart. Still, it’s a weird thing that uttering the word “freedom” has become the definition of the domestic terrorist…

Friar Cook and Rabbi Dave take a look at the Winter Olympic Games, which nobody seems to be watching (except for Mrs. Friar). The weird thing is that 75% of the West Taiwanese Ice Hockey team, which is only in the games because of a rule that says the host country get an automatic bid, is in fact, not actually, technically, per se, West Taiwanese... Meanwhile, the cancelling crazies continue, this time their target is the singer Adele, who is proud to be a woman. NASA has released some rather remarkable pictures from the surface of Mars. The Germans seem to have a problem with this...

In my mind there is an empty place where a memory should be. I know that it happened because all of my family tells me that it did. In fact, in many ways it was the defining moment of my destiny a moment to which I attribute my deepest passion. But of the actual moment, I have no actual memory. Years later there would come a moment that I recall with the greatest clarity. Yet no one – not one – of the people that I know were there – can recall the incident. Is out memory less a factual record of things than a general tome of the past? Is it true that “memory is a complicated thing, a relative of the truth, but not it’s twin?” In a decade, two, a generation and more, what will be the memory of the last two years? People tell me that they will never forget what has been done. History tells me differently…

A rather remarkable thing happened last week at a local book store. That remarkable thing led Dave down a path that leads to Joe Rogan, Mark Lye, and to O’Brien’s simple question: “How many fingers do you see?

Bill Mick and Dave Bowman get together to do some history on WMMB. Last week there was a WOW caller who brought up the idea of calling for an Article V Convention. Would that work? what would it look like? Has it ever been done before? This week we take a look at the myth that everything in our Constitution is "easy..."

One of the foundational ideas of Judaism – and to a lesser expressed extent, other faiths – is the concept of charity. The Rebbe used to hand people dollar bills with instructions to give charity. The minimum amount is the the famed “10%,” While the sages made sure that common sense prevailed and limited the maximum to 20%. In recent days, we have seen the world of charitable giving upended by the actions of GoFundMe and the Canadian trucker fiasco. Look, I have my own feelings about giving and especially giving to and through organizations that purport to be conduits of funding. I spent a good part of my life begging those people for money and more – begging the public to give money to them. I would not and will not ever tell you what to do with your money or what to give it to, should you choose to do so. But I can assure you that I personally will NEVER give a dime through a conduit organization. Why not? Consider the reason that GoFundMe has given for this deal with the Canadian truckers and understand