Strange Brew

Strange brew -- kill what's inside of you.

She's a witch of trouble in electric blue,
in her own mad mind she's in love with you.
with you.
now what you gonna do?

strange brew -- kill what's inside of you.
She's some kind of demon messing in the glue.
if you don't watch out it'll stick to you.
to you.

what kind of fool are you?
strange brew -- kill what's inside of you.
On a boat in the middle of a raging sea,
she would make a scene for it all to be

ignored.
and wouldn't you be bored?
strange brew -- kill what's inside of you.
Strange brew, strange brew, strange brew, strange brew.
strange brew -- kill what's inside of you

It's interesting to see the frothing of media, microscopic scrutiny of the two candidates remaining in the Ukraine Presidential runoff. For one thing, I am terribly conflicted as to who I might vote for, if I was somehow eligible to do that. Poroshenko, I had grown accustomed to his Presidential style, and he seemed appropriate, it seemed like he had a good rapport with his base. What else, was Proroshenko supposed to do, other than what he did do as a statesman. Off shoring parts of his assets was a natural response to the unknowns of a Nation that is no stranger to War, a nation that was a victim of many decades of arbitrary,  and often illogical Communist policies that led to the death of millions. Tens of thousands of people sent to Gulags in the Soviet Far East.

I caught this quick read about Zelinsky's production company buying an Italian Villa  where the Russian Oligarchs bask in the glory of their stolen wealth. One needs to look at things with a specific lens, in that the territory of Ukrainian Crimea was being primed as a media hub, for the production of television and dramatic features (in 2013) Seeing as how the Crimea is now a "No-Go" zone for the people of Ukraine (due to multiplicity of issues, personal safety, security of personal and business property, and so forth, this becomes a non- issue.

Yet Mister Zelinsky will have an issue with his dodging of his mobilization papers. Let's use as an example any Western Nation, be it France, Germany, Canada, The United States, Slovakia and so forth, that their territory was invaded by a foreign power. Most people contact their close people, mother, father, brother sister, during an invasion of their nation. Misterr Zelinsky is going to say that he never talked to his mother and she never said that mobilization papers arrived for him at the family home. This is not to cast aspersion upon him, he will simply need an explanation when he enters the debate forum, if the subject arises.

I noticed that US Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker generated a rather amorphous explanation in this week's National Public Radio excerpt,  about why Ukraine was important for the USA, the aligned Western Interests, that it's a Hot war within Europe that could spread uncontrollably, and so forth. He did nuance and maneuver around the edge of the issue in his State Department chat, Q and A session.  Very well said yet,  why are  the media and the talking point people mostly  choosing to omit the historic and unparalleled  De-Nuclearization  process of Ukraine in the 1994/1995 era? Russian Propaganda also seems to heavily block all references to the dismantling of the then, World's 3rd largest Nuclear arsenal. Volker says in his chat that "Ukraine is not a poor country" yet why are so many people struggling to buy food and find a better life within their own means? Perhaps it sounds similar to many parts of USA deprived of access to advancing their own future? It's quite true that if one analyzes the net worth of an averaged citizen of USA, debts versus assets, we aren't so terribly well off.

looking at that issue of  taking apart that Nuclear War apparatus  in 1995/ 1994 ,  It is all really a way to draw external observers to Ukraine's conflict,  into their own mindset,  that the whole freaking event of hybrid war, forced occupation, brazen theft of their territory and extensive internal meddling as "Unbelievable". As one observer noted that when special forces from Russia nonchalantly moved into Luhansk , that such persons could have been dealt with , or countered, by the motivated services of one Police precinct's  personnel and firepower (and they didn't have much in the way of real guns and ammo )
Some  of their (Ukraine's) analytical thinkers journalists ,  had predicted that Russia could do a number on them, regarding the Crimea territory of Ukraine. Yet the potential Re-Nuclearization of Ukraine's Defense is something being discussed in many Nationalist circles, and the subject may well emerge within a Presidential election debate. Each candidate should have their own cleverly nuanced response at the ready, or they didn't prepare for the debate to go in every direction. As one Ukrainain Nuclear power specialist once said to me "It's just a big boiler" (about Nuclear power) so the same goes for "It's just a big Nuclear bomb" And they have Uranium in Ukraine, so it's more easy for them to sequester those resources and develop them in secrecy. Not that I think it's happening, I am just saying it as I see it, they have undergone waves of atrocity that would be totally unthinkable for any American. We should think that they will simply say "Well, this was really painful, I am sorry this transpired, let's figure out how to be friends again,  and get back to making money and improving our living standards in a mutualistic fashion."

Many people are predicting a disaster if Zelinsky wins, disasters on many levels. He has created a vast burden of expectation upon himself. With Poroshenko, we are told it will be a continuance of more of the same.  AN impossible and unpredictable set of goals versus more of the same. Yet the Nation is in a very precarious situation, it is anything but stable at the moment.

I predict,  that the Russian masters and margaritas can ill afford to intensify the war conflict, as their own internal situation is further destabilizing (as described in Steve Rosenberg's more recent reading of a print newspaper opinion by noted economist Valery Solovei  in Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, basically talking about major unrest some time soon . That luxury of the tiny .00001% in Russia is largely supported by a sycophantic sub-elite that is highly corrupt and feeds on the layers below itself (they simply can't justify their existence and positions of power much longer).

AN emerging sense of chaos emerging in Russia,  can be a very spooky thing to think about,  for the Western powers. If Russia was to atone for it's actions in Ukraine, they'd need a new set of actors, or the old actors would have to invent a new set of actions and behavioral traits that could slowly pull the reality back from the brink of chaos, the morass of massively bad outcomes it could face.

A Ukrainian friend of mine who'd been to the White House back in the 90's said to me, Well, we always had those faces in the school room, Lenin, Stalin. Then one day, Stalin Portrait was simply not there in the classroom.

People in Ukraine are highly networked together, and in the end, any election victory will depend on activity as it relates to the regional political strongholds.
this journalism piece by Yury Butusov is interesting, yet it only portrays a reality of one particular region of Odessa.
Can The Mafia give Results in Elections ? Experiment in Odessa

Polls may shift quickly or not, it's hard for me to tell. As I've mentioned before , Mister Kolomoisky chose me once as his coffee buddy(in Kiev I was ) , and I think I had met Mister Zelinsky previously, yet due to my preference for stability, I am still hopeful for President Poroshenko to win the day, as it's said that you don't want to change between the horses, in mid stream (of the river )
. Poroshenko has been intentionally thwarted in his initiatives by many unrelated factors.
The Minsk accords were negotiated under incredible duress.

Mister Zelinsky hasn't yet been forced under the spotlight of inquiry about  who his bad choices of friends were, and again its about nuance, narrative and the tide of public opinion that will decide the outcome in near days.  Perhaps Zelinsky has never made a bad choice of friends. Has the author of Ukraine Starting Over,  made a mistake in claiming Nadia Savchenko as his friend? Who ever can walk over the water, free of any sin? Perhaps, back in the day one could derive that sense,  to walk over the foot bridge to the little Island with the little church in Dnipro, with all the little padlocks locked to the railings of the bridge, he loves she, she loves he. One should keep in mind that the largest Synagogue within Eastern Europe is in Dnipro , it's  a definite architectural presence there.
There was even a little amusement park, with a carousel and such, all these forlorn places one can visit, winter or summer. WHen you know these places well enough, there was absolutely no official economy, it was stripped away by layers, and layers of corruption. The grey economy was probably 5 times bigger than the official economy. Most people had very limited options much past paying the utility bills to keep their lights and heat on, buying a few clothes as they could.

As to this whole RUsher thing, and the oranges of the conspiracy of the investigation, I think that the potential advent of "Iron Mike Pence" could really foretell the second collapse of the Russian Government, and I'm unsure who really wants to game that one all the way out. Clearly the ongoing International Space Station cooperation is a delicate wedge with the Russians to maintain cordial relations, yet with the alternate supply and transit options of Dragon X, could this be a subtle disinvestment within the continuum of shared scientific development? At least "Iron Mike" (PENCE)  is big on liking space stuff.
Now that the Mueller Report has "dropped" I can only add in my 2 cents about it (having actually  met and been given the opportunity to brief The Director (Former FBI Director) about my activity in Ukraine and here on the Left Coast, I can't really say much about the details of what I offered as perspective and the small bits of insider informations as to what was going on over there.
I will say one thing about the man that I garnered about him as a person, and an entity of our society, is that he has a quality of Thespianism that's been subsumed within his role as the special Prosecutor, and now returning to private life. When one views the report' the Russia Probe's nearly leakproof processing of massive data points, it's actually got a lot of elements of pure Theater about it. The most powerful theatrical performances have often transpired without words, dialog. Charlie Chaplain.

 Of course, a prosecutor has to put on a face, an act when they go to work every day. And they have to deal with actors, good and bad, and the scary types. Now I have 2 mutual acquaintances with The Director , and our meeting  while short was surprisingly revealing. His Thespianism seems like a shadow cast by a strong light into another room, not something one sees overtly.

I also recently had reflected on ex-president Yanukovych's departure from Ukraine, the taking of the presidential helicopters into Russia, this weird story of how he went to Kharkiv, then to Crimea, then from Crimea via a private Yacht alleged to be named "The Bandit" Bandido, or whatever, it's really stranger than fiction. Did the Helicopters ferry a lot of Gold Bullion ?
Most Western readers assume that Yanukovych stole money while he was President, yet few outsiders realize he was actually stealing huge money as the Governor of Donetsk Oblast for many, many years. The total of what he stole is the sum  of the amounts stolen before he was President, plus those amounts after he became President, if one calculates interest, tax avoidances and other factors, it could be hard to determine the larger total, Most people, that  I consider literate on the subject state that he and his clan stole 100 Billion USA $ in cash and material goods from his country.
One older Military officer,  that I shared a coupe on the train out of Crimea, years before all this, maybe 2011, 2012, he said "This President (Yanukovych) is not good for our /Ukraine military"

Perhaps it could even harken to an allegory of the old time "Laurel and Hardy" black and white movie comic routines about "WHo's on First Base ?  We are all confronted with the positive and negative aspects of weighted behavioral activity. And many systems interact across vast scales of business and governments that sort those outcomes in some way, however awkward that may be.

Well,  I hope that the many hostages, including Pavel Hryb, the son of a Ukraine Border Guard who was abducted from Belarus,  that  the many hostages of the conflict can all be exchanged and freed, quickly. What lays await at the next bend in the river of Ukraine starting over?

Pageviews by Countries  Entry Pageviews Germany 112 United States 77 Russia 43 Ukraine 29 Israel 10 Austria 6 United Kingdom 5 France 4 Unknown Region 3 United Arab Emirates 2

Pageviews by Browsers  Entry Pageviews Firefox 150 (48%) Chrome 134 (43%) Safari 23 (7%) Internet Explorer 2 (<1%) IceWeasel 1 (<1%) Maxthon 1 (<1%) Pageviews by Operating Systems  Entry Pageviews Windows 239 (76%) Macintosh 57 (18%) Linux 5 (1%) Unix 4 (1%) compatible 4 (1%) iPhone 2 (<1%)