Repo Man Ukraine?
The as yet untold machinations of the Paul Manafort factor, perhaps such as some funneling of stolen cash, from Ukraine's state assets moved offshore by Clan Yanukovych into buying luxeTrump properties in Florida, Chicago or New York with egregious neglect of the requirements of due diligence, as set forth in anti money laundering legislation, Ukraine's Government could possibly wind up foreclosing on Condominiums that are part of the Trump portfolio. I had met these fat cat bankers at some variant social gatherings in the past, who barely could hide the vast resources of cash at their disposal-
While it Sucks to be the Poster Boy of Corruption, he does have an engaging, fun to party with kind of look, and nothings' really proven , it just looks bad at the moment
https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/5691-ukrainian-top-officials-involved-in-secret-offshore-deals
but these are still rather minor issues compared to the volume of theft in Russian Federation
https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/5634-russia-top-anti-corruption-official-arrested-for-223-million-in-found-bribe-money
Though there may be room for interpretation, (about offshore wealth/ cash transfers ) it is still rather glaring the differential between the rich and powerful of Ukraine, and the regular people in the cities, towns and farm regions, it used to be the people doing the farming had better living standard, now without capital, modernization, growth of holdings, they are basically scraping by. But a return to communism is the last thing they want, rather measured reforms under the principle that the Rising Tide Lifts all boats..... I think they want the Northern Europe style of economic system of a hybridized economy floating between a social Democrat style planning breakwater and anchored by a free market capitalism that encourages hard work and ingenuity.
The Verhovna Rada has considered some legislation about seizing assets, but even hard core Nationalists like Vova Parasyuk have expressed concern it would make the state too powerful and Ukraine would come across too scary for investors.
http://112.international/politics/mps-parasyuk-and-vilkul-scuffled-in-building-of-112-ukraine-tv-channel-9705.html
I am sorry to see that Paresiuk is as mad as all get out, it's unfortunate yet a reflection of the increasing sense of desperation in Ukraine, perhaps RUssia is winning, perhaps not. Time will tell . He is a wild card player, without patience for the diplomats and "high level" business people, yet he's a man who understands logic and reason, I believe it. As Nadia Savchenko said it, "The RUssian people have to rise up from their knees" yet it's all an extremely dangerous game to play, a Nuclear war theater, and she studied theater, that conversation is the basis of my introduction with her, she has theatrical instincts like no other.....
The Maidan demonstrations was some sort of intensely orchestrated event, unlike any event in these times. I had the chance to see other cities from the Kiev, Dnieper, Poltava and other places while it was happening, there was a broad spectrum of National support to question the situation, oust the bandits and reinvent their society, one would have to actually reference our American revolution, Paul Revere's ride did happen in some sense through that then, digital fog. And who knows, maybe in 150-200 years Ukraine and Russian Federation will be staunch allies, but it will likely take that long, as I sense it now. And really it's a great privilege to have been a first hand witness of all that, whatever the price I paid, however much great paying, honest work I missed out on at the time, and times thereafter. It is their children who will inherit the bounty of such great sacrifice, unheard of from any European Democracy in our times.
And for them, (Ukraine's elite) as the Maidan drew to a close, (hiding money ) it's an ingrained behavioral reaction to fear, that any sort of outcome could emerge, possibly Bolshevism, outright invasion with close air support, nationwide war from Kharkiv to Kovel in the West. A lot of us Westerner's don't get it, there's still a significant Bolshevist hard line faction in Russia, that's ready to suffer a lot more than they have been, if they can do some serious damage to the West.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution
Certainly, to impact our election outcome, an October Surprise by such individuals would be most significant to occur near the date of October 24. All of the security apparatus should be at the highest level during this time leading up to the election. Ukraine is understandably nervous about the outcome, as Mister Trump only appears only now, to vaguely backpedal about his feelings of admiration for Putin and his foreign policy, due to to the electoral considerations.
And a tandem, coordinated action between say, Russia and Iran is another potential election shifting event . Despite the highly effective RU propaganda about the Nazi, fascist Ukraine, which certainly isn't helped by components of battalions, some who are neo- Nazi style sympathizers fighting the Russian separatist/ Terrorists, Lots of folks also don't realize how deeply connected Israel is with Ukraine. They have extensive business interests there, the largest Jewish Temple in Eastern Europe is in Dnieper. Because of Israel's deep and extensive relationship with Russia, they can't be overt in revealing what they are actually doing in Ukraine. I liked the quote of SHimon Peres that a good Jew can never be satisfied, so telling.
I know that I shared the shock, of ordinary people on the streets of Kiev to see a couple of years ago, these tawdry parades of 15 or 20 right wing extremists marching about . Now, they've reigned back such extreme actions and learned to be more unobtrusive.
It is certainly a given reality that Russia has many entities at work on US soil, searching vulnerabilities , probing for sensitive data, inconsistencies in the Clinton campaign. Chechens who are the most disrespected minority population of the FSU and Russian Federation could be actively engaged in either disruptive incidents against the Democrats (The Ramzan Kadyrov hardliners ) or disruptive actions against the Trump operation due to their simmering animosity over the past heavy handedness of Mister Putin in putting down their uprisings. It was (Grozny) the worst bombing of a city since the second World War. I know from pretty good second hand information, that Mister Boris Nemtsov was probably killed for (among other things, like being a rival for leadership ) his low level, covert support of wounded and badly disabled Ukrainian soldiers. Pursuing a war in East Ukraine was, and is a highly unpopular policy, like a swamp gas, it will slowly bubble to the surface in Russian Society.
Relations with Russia have seen an enormous turn around from the Bush years, but it was clear that Obama never got the chance to give a good first impression in Russia, even before he became president, he was disliked before the election outcome was announced. And yes, while it may all fall inside the range of normal, the Clinton camp has had it's dealings in Ukraine, one ought to perhaps reference "ripening" within the lifelong employment and appointment process in the State Department, Bill Clinton's eight years were plenty of time to embed Clinton loyalists in the Foreign service, while the Bush years had their contravening effect as well. All these appointments are supposed to be neutral, but the reality is never the same, what is policy and what is the practice are never truly identical. The State department people always kept a distance to me in Kiev, I'm probably just too random, understandably. I made a point of avoiding their radar, I like the hip, cool , creative crowd. Edward Snowden, as much as I tend to like the guy, it's hard to imagine his talents aren't being exploited by the FSB and Russian Foreign services in their goals of defeating the CLinton camp. He's essentially in their custody, and it's hard to imagine how he can find a life outside the digital Iron Curtain anymore.
And in the latest category of "it sucks to be you" the Booz Allen guy is seriously an embarrassment
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/government-contractor-arrested-for-stealing-top-secret-data/2016/10/05/99eeb62a-8b19-11e6-875e-2c1bfe943b66_story.html
it may even be that the derailment in Hoboken was connected to the delivery of these hacking tools, although I'd suspect it was just an old analog capacitor that failed or something, much the same way our BART trains in the Bay Area are having capacitor failures, there just such old technology, running high voltage for decades through such things wears and stresses them, but we really could be safer with a nearly all analog transit system. I'm no expert, but my gut tells me the more secure they think our transit system technology is, the less secure it could be : the concept of highly tested digital security makes us lax, anything can be hacked.
Maybe my vanity car will be a restored early 70's Ford Falcon GT and my ride along an aging Kurt Cobain lookalike, that's my style !
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