The inevitable end result of our last 56 years

[Matthew Koch]

3 minutes ago, Douglas Caddy said:

I would be interested in finding out whether Peterson has ever visited Russia. One's perspective changes with a visit. I spent two weeks Russia in 1974 and visited Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev and Odessa. Our small group of lawyers and their wives attended a trial in Kiev where three fearsome looking female judges presided. It was scary. We were invited inside the Kremlin and also went through Lenin's tomb. Three of us were on Russian television although we did not know that we were being filmed at the time. This was intermission at a symphony. All the Russians rushed out to the foyer because there was food. We did not know that and stayed in our seats. When we got back to the hotel, we found that we were on TV because the intermission was filmed.  The symphony show was played over and over again as there were no commercials and nothing else to watch. Our wonderful KGB guide's face turned pale the next morning when we told her that we had been on TV. Once she understood she relaxed. She was afraid for a moment that we had done something that reflected badly on her. That was the Soviet Union at the heart of the cold war. Now Russia in returning back to those terrible days, leaving the modern world and returning to a total dictatorship. If Peterson has not visited Russia, it is too late. Visiting there now would lead to arrest and a show trial and a long prison sentence. The West has its problems but it sure beats living in Russia by a million light years.

He did a detox/rehab in Russia around two years ago..

 

[Douglas Caddy]

1 minute ago, Matthew Koch said:

He did a detox/rehab in Russia around two years ago..

 

I'm glad to learn that. He must realize that now such a visit is impossible. No need to add a Canadian to the two Americans being held there against their will. Imagine being in Russia if or when Putin is overthrown, or the Russian people revolt in mass. 

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, Douglas Caddy said:

I would be interested in finding out whether Peterson has ever visited Russia. One's perspective changes with a visit. I spent two weeks Russia in 1974 and visited Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev and Odessa. Our small group of lawyers and their wives attended a trial in Kiev where three fearsome looking female judges presided. It was scary. We were invited inside the Kremlin and also went through Lenin's tomb. Three of us were on Russian television although we did not know that we were being filmed at the time. This was intermission at a symphony. All the Russians rushed out to the foyer because there was food. We did not know that and stayed in our seats. When we got back to the hotel, we found that we were on TV because the intermission was filmed.  The symphony show was played over and over again as there were no commercials and nothing else to watch. Our wonderful KGB guide's face turned pale the next morning when we told her that we had been on TV. Once she understood she relaxed. She was afraid for a moment that we had done something that reflected badly on her. That was the Soviet Union at the heart of the cold war. Now Russia in returning back to those terrible days, leaving the modern world and returning to a total dictatorship. If Peterson has not visited Russia, it is too late. Visiting there now would lead to arrest and a show trial and a long prison sentence. The West has its problems but it sure beats living in Russia by a million light years.

I think he has been multiple times. He has talked about their culture and history in depth during lectures, mostly the bad. Peterson narrated Aleksander Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago a few years ago and has repeatedly warned the world not to follow the collectivist ideology that walked the Soviet Union and other communist states into the 50-100m dead in the 20th century. In contrast he also talks about Russian culture and Dostoevsky perhaps being the greatest writer who ever lived. He was there most recently last year having life saving treatment to get him off prescription meds (for depression which runs in his family). 
 

Whilst he has a lot of conviction, his views are nearly always very considered, though anyone who has done the amount of TV he has since 2018 is bound to make the odd mistake. I find him well meaning, he cares a lot but, is often miscast for his stoic, traditional views. His views are mostly Nietzsche and Jung with a bit of Kirkegard. He is very well read.

I agree with you, Doug, I’d rather have lived in the west. How far we’ll fall in the future remains to be seen. My country of birth is coming apart at the seams. 

Edited October 26, 2022 by Chris Barnard

[Matt Allison]

53 minutes ago, Douglas Caddy said:

The West has its problems but it sure beats living in Russia by a million light years.

100%

[Matt Allison]

 

[Benjamin Cole]

Update(1318ET): That didn't take long... the 30 House Progressive Democrats led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, early Tuesday afternoon issued a complete retraction of their letter sent on Monday to the Biden White House urging diplomacy on Ukraine, per an official statement [emphasis ours]: 

"The Congressional Progressive Caucus hereby withdraws its recent letter to the White House regarding Ukraine."

"The letter was drafted several months ago, but unfortunately was released by staff without vetting. As Chair of the Caucus, I accept responsibility for this. Because of the timing, our message is being conflated by some as being equivalent to the recent statement by Republican Leader McCarthy threatening an end to aid to Ukraine if Republicans take over. The proximity of these statements created the unfortunate appearance that Democrats, who have strongly and unanimously supported and voted for every package of military, strategic, and economic assistance to the Ukrainian people, are somehow aligned with Republicans who seek to pull the plug on American support for President Zelensky and the Ukrainian forces."

---30---

Released by staff, without vetting! Maybe the interns did it. 

I guess the Donk progressives have been sent back to the kid's table. No more eating with the adults. 

They are allowed to talk about George Floyd and intersectionality. 

 

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by Benjamin Cole

[Matt Allison]

Jayapal is a nice lady, with many good ideas, but she really screwed up here.

[John Cotter]

5 hours ago, Matthew Koch said:

Jordan Peterson explains how Putin can't lose 

 

Peterson seems to be right about one point at least. Unless Russia itself crumbles, it will have won the war.

Ukraine has already lost in the sense that it has incurred immense damage. The EU has also been seriously damaged (largely self-inflicted).

And if Russia doesn’t crumble, arguably the US will have lost the war because it will have failed in its objective to destroy Russia.

In that case, there is likely to be a major shift in the geopolitical order from a unipolar US-dominated world to a multipolar world.

[Benjamin Cole]

4 minutes ago, John Cotter said:

Peterson seems to be right about one point at least. Unless Russia itself crumbles, it will have won the war.

Ukraine has already lost in the sense that it has incurred immense damage. The EU has also been seriously damaged (largely self-inflicted).

And if Russia doesn’t crumble, arguably the US will have lost the war because it will have failed in its objective to destroy Russia.

In that case, there is likely to be a major shift in the geopolitical order from a unipolar US-dominated world to a multipolar world.

JC--

There are other sad outcomes as well. 

Russia, after years and years of occupation, withdraws (ala Afcrapistan). Hundreds of thousands dead, destroyed infrastructure and housing everywhere, and Russia a pariah state.  

Decades of rebuilding for Ukraine, lower standards of living for all. 

This has a familiar ring to it....

 

[Benjamin Cole]

22 minutes ago, Matt Allison said:

Jayapal is a nice lady, with many good ideas, but she really screwed up here.

In retracting the letter...or releasing it? 

 

 

[Matt Allison]

She didn't release it. At least that's what she's claiming.

[Benjamin Cole]

2 minutes ago, Matt Allison said:

She didn't release it. At least that's what she's claiming.

A source familiar with the situation told POLITICO that Jayapal personally approved the letter’s release on Monday.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/25/house-progressives-russia-diplomacy-00063338

Who knows? 

Does someone have the long knives out for Jayapal? 

[Matt Allison]

19 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Who knows? 

Does someone have the long knives out for Jayapal? 

 

It all seems rather confusing

 

 

[W. Niederhut]

I went out to play golf for a few hours this afternoon and all hell broke loose here on our monster 56 Years thread!

So many things to think and talk about...

First of all, Mark Knight does sort of resemble his ancestor Robert the Bruce.

I can vouch for this because my wife and I saw the famous Robert the Bruce statue when we visited Stirling Castle in Scotland about 30 years ago.

Meanwhile, Matt Allison and Kirk have acknowledged that their inherent pugnacity, thirst for justice, and admiration of the Kennedy family are most likely rooted in their Irish ancestry.

Perhaps I also have some Celtic genes, because I share those traits.  (FWIW, I used to have a red beard and freckles when I was a younger man, and I have a strange affection for Irish music and literature.)

Then there is the subject of whiskey, poteen, and beer!   

Personally, I prefer Scotch whiskey (Macallan, Glenfiddich, whatever is on sale) in the winter and beer in the summer.  Scottish Tennents lager is one of my favorites.  Guinness stout always gives me a headache.

I travelled Scotland's "Whiskey Trail" around Pitlochry in the Highlands in 1990.  Visited the Glenfiddich and Macallan distilleries, but the Macallan people weren't giving tours!

As for poteen, the second most difficult Irish song that I ever sang is the Humors of Whiskey.  Terrific song, but it requires the Irish gift of the gab to sing correctly.  (I won't post my own recording because I don't have an authentic Irish accent.)  

As for beer, our American sage, Benjamin Franklin, once said that, "Beer is the proof that God loves us," which is a great quote, especially considering that Franklin was an agnostic.

 

 

 

[Matthew Koch]

Hey guys, I'm not Irish but I have a Michael Collins tattoo, lols, does that count for anything? 
I love his story about starting his own IRA Counter Intelligence and Assassination Squad against the MI6 and I love how he dressed like a banker and rode a bicycle around to throw off the authorities looking for an IRA hooligan. Growing up loved stories about the American Revolutionaries fighting back against the British with guerrilla warfare and Michael Collins and the Squad did it in an urban environment pretty cool story. 





..anyways back to the culture war.. Looks like we're going to start calling him Senator Oz, I love how the corrupt moderator pretends like that was a sufficient answer. OMG, anyone who's honest can't justify voting for this guy without some serious mental gymnastics, I don't really like Oz but he's better than this guy.