Day: June 27, 2024

Putin: The Next Peter The Great?

I know while we await the big event of the evening to begin let’s talk about Putin…..every armchair expert’s favorite subject.

Some think that Putin is trying to regain the lost territory from the USSR days….while others think he is trying to become yet another Peter the Great…..

Even Vlad the Invader is thinking of myself as another Peter the Great…..

Russian energy giant Gazprom is reported to have been hit particularly hard by sanctions imposed as a result of the war with Ukraine. An internal report – obtained and published by the Financial Times – has forecast that the company is unlikely to recover gas sales lost as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for at least a decade.

But Gazprom chairman Alexey Miller is apparently pressing ahead with his plan to build an 82-metre triumphal column in front of his company’s landmark St Petersburg Lachta Centre skyscraper. The column will celebrate the defeat of Sweden in the great northern war, after which Russia declared itself to be an empire for the first time.

The conflict was fought by Russia at the head of a coalition including much of what would become Poland and Germany as well as Britain, by virtue of its king, George I, also being the ruler of Hanover. It pitted one of the dominant historical figures of the age, Charles XII of Sweden, against Peter I of Russia – also known by the epithet “the Great”.

On September 10 1721, Russia and Sweden signed the Treaty of Nystad, which awarded Estonia and large parts of what is now Finland to Russia and enabled Peter to declare Russia to be an empire. St Petersburg, which the tsar had founded in 1703 at the mouth of the River Neva on the Baltic Sea, was the seat of the empire and would remain so until February 1917 and the abdication of then tsar Nicholas II.

So Vladimir Putin’s enthusiasm for the project could be said to reflect his own aspirations and ambitions for 21st-century Russia under his leadership. There are a number of parallels the Russian president is keen to stress as part of his projection of himself as a modern-day Peter the Great.

https://theconversation.com/how-vladimir-putin-projects-his-image-as-a-modern-day-peter-the-great-232612

I know a lot has been said about Putin’s ambition and this article takes a good look at those ambitions.

Is he the next Peter the Great?

My thought is no he is not…..in his mind he may be but in action he will fall way short.

Does anyone have a thought they would like to share?

I Read, I Write, you Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Tonight’s The Big Night

The ‘most anticipated moment’ of the 2024 election will be held tonight and hosted by CNN….the Biden/Trump debate.

My thinking is that since most people have already made up their minds that this would be a bust for viewership…..I may have been mistaken…..at least according to the news reports that is….

Most US adults plan to watch some element of Thursday’s presidential debate, and many think the event will be important for the campaigns of both President Biden and former President Trump, according to a new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Both men remain broadly unpopular as they prepare to face off for the first time since 2020, although Trump maintains a modest enthusiasm advantage with his base compared to Biden. Stats:

  • About 6 in 10 US adults say they’re “extremely” or “very” likely to watch the debate live or in clips, or read about or listen to commentary about the performance of the candidates in the news or social media, per the AP. The poll suggests tens of millions of Americans are likely to see or hear about at least part of Thursday’s debate despite how unusually early it comes in the campaign season.
  • USA Today reports Americans have tuned in to a Biden-Trump debate in great numbers before: The candidates’ September 2020 debate was one of the most-watched ever, with more than 73 million viewers, per Nielsen Media.
  • Both sides see the debate as important: About half, 47%, of Americans say the debate is “extremely” or “very” important for the success of Biden’s campaign, and about 4 in 10 say it’s highly important for Trump’s campaign.
  • Biden and Trump are each entering the debate with low favorability ratings, with about 6 in 10 US adults indicating they have a very or somewhat unfavorable view of Biden; a similar number have a negative view of Trump.

If someone has already made up their mind then why watch this clown show?

We all know that this could be a disastrous night for either one or maybe even both candidates…..and what if is is disastrous?

Here is an opinion on that issue….

When Joe Biden and Donald Trump met on a debate stage in October 2020, the result was…something.

The Washington Post called it “the worst presidential debate in living memory.” For media analyst Tom Jones at Poynter, it was a “dumpster fire” full of “constant interruptions. Constant talking over one another. Name-calling. Juvenile bickering.” A transcript of the debate reads like gibberish. Some commentators suggested that the planned rematch a few weeks later should be scrapped (it happened, but the moderators came armed with a mute button).

One of the few positive reviews came from Reason‘s Jacob Sullum, who argued that the debate was “good for the republic” because it shattered the “unfounded respect for the people who rule us.” Fair enough.

Welp, we’re doing it again. Except this time the candidates are four years even older, the country is $7.8 trillion further in debt, and the number of swing voters to influence is (probably) even smaller. And rather than taking place in the final weeks of the campaign, as debates typically do, this absurd spectacle is unfolding before the two old men on stage have been officially named the nominees of their respective major parties.

In that last detail, however, shines a faint silver lining.

What if Thursday night’s debate is a complete train wreck? And not in the same way as before. What if the debate doesn’t merely descend into uncivil nonsense—which is the bare minimum of what should be expected—and doesn’t simply confirm what the Biden-Trump debates in 2020 showed: that these men deserve neither our respect nor our affection?

Why a Disastrous Biden-Trump Debate Could Be the Best Outcome for America

Does anyone think that no matter what happens tonight that minds will be changed on voting?

Personally, I do not think it will change many minds no matter how good or disastrous the night maybe for one or the other candidate.

But no to worry the Old Professor will return tomorrow with a detailed post on the night’s festivities.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”