Look, nothing happens in a vacuum.

Whether it’s a Papal Bull that results in the eradication of cats that seems to lead to millions of human deaths, or a grain shortage in the middle of a violent revolution that leads to a Economist and Reverend watching what is going on and coming up with what will become one of the most impactful theories in human history…

The first American Civil War was every bit as vicious and hate-filled as the second. And… like the second, it eventually resulted in amending the US Constitutional to try and make things better.

It all started when the state of Georgia decided that it wasn’t going to pay the guy who sold their militia supplies during the war.

It led to an intense debate during ratification over the concept of State Sovereignty, then went before the US Supreme Court, where the court… got it “wrong.”

On February 7, 1794, We the People of the United States made that absolutely clear.

Or… did we?

In January of  1944, the Allies thought that they had found a way to crack the Gustav Line south of Rome. The bloody battles in Italy had the Allies stalled and desperate to move around the entrenched Nazi forces. From December of 1943 to June of 1944, almost 100,000 allied soldiers were casualties. Most of them, from two assaults intended to break the Gustav Line.

On January 22nd, the Allies launched “Operation Shingle” as a part of the attempt to break out from the beachheads at Anzio. US Ranger Battalions headed to Cisterna as a a part of the overall assault force. What they did not know was that Army Intelligence had misread things, and the lightly held outposts that they expected were already abandoned. Instead, standing in the way was the German 715th Parachute Infantry and the powerful Herman Göring  Division.

Under strength and undertrained with numerous replacement troops, the Rangers soon found themselves surrounded and in full on combat with the best troops the Nazi’s had to send….

I Survived the Battle of Cisterna: The Story of PFC James Palmer

Some months back a caller asked me what I thought was the “worst” Constitutional Amendment. He postulated that it was the 17th, which moved the election of US Senators from the State Legislature to the popular vote of a given State.

Look, from a purely strict constructionist viewpoint – which by the by – NOBODY holds – every amendment from the progressive era has been “devastating.” Some more than others, but all of them destructive to the original ideas of a strictly separated Federal and State system.

That said, I have always believed that the 16th Amendment was the really destructive amendment. NOT because it established an income tax. What most people do not understand is that an income tax was always on the table. What the 16th Amendment did was remove the most effective deterrent to the income tax…. apportionment… and with the tearing down of that barrier, the door was opened for the Federal Government to subsume the States with, you guessed it, money…

Before the middle of the 19th century, the most famous American in the world was Benjamin Franklin. He was – as most people know – a scientist, an inventor, a printer, a writer, a socialite, a diplomat, a fashion icon and a humorist.

Today we celebrate his birthday, with some of the things that you might not know about the man who some call “the First American…”

In many ways, the United States always resembled republican Rome. By the last half of the first century bce, the republic was teetering on the edge. Corrupt politics,  mounting debt to fund foreign wars, societal breakdowns that left long held traditional values in disrespect and disregard left the every day Roman wondering if the world had gone completely mad?

As we look around our nation today, the parallels must be striking. The question is what happens next? Do we recover our republican form of government and manage to solve the innumerable problems that mushroom into full blown crises? If so… given how chaotic things seem today,

Or… is there some leader out there who is determined to cross the Rubicon?

George Santos is the most infamous man in America today. In case you’ve been under a rock, he was just elected to Congress, but… it turns out that HE LIED ON HIS CV! In more than two centuries of congressional candidates running to serve the nation out of a sense of duty and honor, this has NEVER EVER, happened before!

Right?

It’s a cold snowy day up here in the Pacific Northwest. Grab a cup of coffee and let’s spend it talking history!

Some months ago we had a caller to BML complaining that “only three or four guys actually did anything” with regard to the Revolution and the Constitution. It’s a common misconception, but why we think that way is a bigger question. Is it simply ignorance, or is it something… else?

There is almost a Biblical tendency to ignore the history that we either weren’t taught or just don’t care about. There is also the issue of whether or not it is actually being suppressed on purpose?

Consider this… in 1778 The United states were desperate to gain an alliance with France. For most people, it was Ben Franklin and his amazing wit and wily negotiating, along with the victory at Saratoga, that finally secured that alliance. As usual, there is much more tot he story, and even a spat – between Americans – that almost derailed the whole thing.

At the end of the day, history is about people who make choices (free will?) that cause effects and outcomes.

Just like the future…

NOTE: iHeart had computer issues this morning, forcing the show to be done via telephone with the attendant reduced audio quality.

One week after the assassination of President Kennedy, now President Lyndon Johnson issued an Executive Order which announced the formation of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. It would carry the nickname “the Warren Commission,” and it would become the national focal point for national distrust of government reports.

Given that the entire purpose of the commission was to prevent speculation of a conspiracy in the killing of President Kennedy, history would seem to have judged it a complete and utter failure.

But… was it…?

November 22nd, 1963, was a seminal day in American history. Every American alive that day can tell you about their own experience of it, and even those born long after can – and do – discuss and debate it.

For myself, November 22nd represented a trajectory change in my own future and passions. The day led directly to my own career behind a microphone, which continues to this day. for others it represents a moment of beginning to form opinions about how and why things work the way that they do behind the monolithic walls of a bureaucratic government that seems more interested in our acquiescence than our scrutiny of this event.

What we might not understand, however, is that what we are doing is debating and discussing history as it was meant to be done…

Constitution Thursday - West "By Gawd" Virginia