New Horizons?

New Horizons for my buddy, Andriy Bohdan ?  That is a loosely issued statement. It sounds like there was some rivalry with some part of the President's Staff,  (Also involving The Pope ) and there was no way forward. The Question remains, Which Devil , Got What Pair of Shoes ? That is Akin to an older joke going back many years,  about the Deputies in the Crimean Assembly wearing 350$ Italian shoes. (when that was really equal to some big part of their official annual salary)

Maybe he is out on a friend's super luxe car, t having fun today, it's anybody's guess really, I wish him well, health and fun, good luck wherever he is going. He sees the world as the big stage, not the small side show. This is not to simply imply, that in any way , I have studied his history, in any relevant detail, I am simply a fan of his enthusiasm for Ukraine, and it's potential for social and economic development.

Well you have to be sure,  he's probably going to make more money,  personally , by  being ousted,  as the Presidential Administration of Ukraine's,  Chief of Staff (spoiler alert, he wasn't doing that job to supervise the secretarial staff, he is a strategic thinker) . It could actually be a relief for him. It was a good run, a selfie festival! I wish him well, no sarcasm intended.
I do not have the luxury of responding in great and massive detail about events in Ukraine, it is simply intriguing and often quite darkly entertaining for me. I have seen a lot of everything there, and most people would not want to walk that road , or do that hard work that got me there, suffer being targeted , embarrassed compromised and left to hang in the wind , yet some could, maybe envy me , just a bit,  that I was there , in those times. Yet now I am blockaded by fairly complicated circumstances.

 I hope that I can find my way,  to that conceptual space,   once more. I miss that experience of bumping into a really good friend , at a bus stop somewhere  in Ukraine,  and getting a warm hug,  in the Public Space. In the Western , so called progressive Nations, while it is not disallowed,  it is generally extremely rare, as an event. People in Ukraine have an expert , ultra expert understanding of psychology, it is a sport like fishing,  for them, if you have a big head, a big internal legend of how great you are as a person, they will reel you in, give you room to run,  once you bite on the bait, and they will slowly. slowly reel you in, more or less decide what they want to do with you, will they gut and skin, or scale you? Or be nice and play "catch and release" For in USA we have this notorious "Catch and Kill " scenario (within the media ). With Ukraine it is not restricted within the media, it is within the reality,  something more like a differential process, they like you, or they do not. It is not a legal, contextual scenario, it is real and unequivocal .


Again today, somehow within all of my other stuff, I confronted myself with the memory of seeing a "squad" of Neo-Nazi guys marching through the center street of Kyiv  (in early or mid summer 2014). And I shared entirely.,

 that exactly same sense, of shock,  that this was actually happening Post #EuroMaidan,  in Ukraine. yet evidence has surfaced that high profile Neo Nazi sympathizers, persons  were swapped, quietly sent to Russia  in POW exchanges with Russia , that the men swapped , were well known known , as public Neo- Nazi persons active within Ukraine. Russia ostensibly traded 1 or 2 of Ukraine's patriots,  for their 1 or 2 Neo_Nazi organizers  (stealth agents of social disruption ) Within a most recent prisoner exchange. I have not dug through the weeds lately, looked at the entire Prisoner exchange lists, and nobody seems to have published the detailed POW swap lists in an available English language version (that I know about)
Some of those persons exchanged , taken to Russian Federation , that were active  persons promoting and  adding to their (Russia's  ) anti Ukraine narrative, and a few years ago the USA's media ate this ____ up! GOOD STUFF/ BAD STUFF IF YOU WERE actually THERE. Ah the Democratic Race, Bernie Sanders is too compromised, Joe Biden has been mostly compromised (yet not entirely) We are actually sitting upon an incredible Geo-Political fulcrum point with the Primary elections cycle.

I cannot decide,  who to like, and I don't have an agenda that I know of. It's a FUster cluck, and the chickens have mostly found their way to the roost. It's not that time will tell, it's hours, days apparently. People are mesmerized by the Corona virus scare. Is there a chance, that the Russians will try to throw VP Mike Pence under the bus ? Certainly it seems buried in the media stream about the September 2019 BioWeapons Laboratory Breach in Koltsovo, Novosibirsk. Most people would acknowledg, that the world is a cold place, and unknown persons could , have in the past been ascribed to gaming the financial  markets for personal gain. To do any deductive analysis of the huge stock market losses, one would need vast analytical toolkits, due to the fact, that highly distributed financial transactions can blend into the digital fabric, even more so now, with bitcoin's transactional opaqueness.
Don't (in my opinion, Underestimate their ability to do that, within an allegorical scenario) It's like another,  "you don't want to know"  scenario.  Things like this , they used to involve petty Ukraine Mafia hooligans, but then that transfigured into Crimea's Aksyonov "The Goblin" taking power. I was there when he was doing it, starting to feel the reins of power, he may have even stared me in the eye.

The bar tenders were nervous, that is one telling situation,  when the bar tender is noticeably nervous at a New Years, Pre New Years Party at the end of 2013 in Simferpol Ukraine. There was a lot of Soviet Propaganda posters and artwork and things printed up on the walls. That Russian historical narrative is so enticing, it has industrial scale, psychological hooks,  that even some of the best educated analytical observers  can be effectively seduced,  by it's highly romanticized narrative. Unfortunately,  for the common man, woman, family in Russian Federation today, it's certainly a distorted reality, affected by many discordant facets of fact.

I was shocked, along with my fellow people,  on the street in central Kyiv . early 2014 , were absolutely shocked  about it, they held their emotions in check as best they could., That is the history of 2014, what is today ?  I cannot say. Yet those same extreme right wing persons were later , in the summer of 2014, rescuing Ukraine's paratroopers who landed outside of Mariupol  , behind the enemy lines (within their own Nation) It is the weirdest war story you have ever in your life tried to comprehend >
Certainly the Dnipro,  and other battalions that were funded by Igor Kolomoisky,  (not that I am some automatic fan of him, yet he did operate in that weird space between East and West, sure he Oligarched a lot, a really big lot of cash within that vacuum of judicial and regulatory supervision )

yet Igor Kolomoiskiy , he  made a real difference in the defense situation f Ukraine, when it mattered the most. And well he's my coffee buddy, when the rules of sharing coffee are observed , then it's simply normal that feeling he and I are acquaintances in the flesh.

This was stuff KOLOMOISKIY , that he'd did he did mostly totally devoid ,  of any official USA military or government support (in 2014, 2015) , it was really pretty much  a home grown National defense,  and vastly way to weird of a scenario for any average American person to generally comprehend , yet it  (this same weird scenario) could be coming lopsidedly at us, time will tell. It was truly the David and Goliath narrative back then. Audacious, super risky and unprecedented to defend an unprepared Ukraine against a vast Russian Federation aggression on their territory .

 With some interesting remembrances, and possibly he (Igor K )knows a few things,  about the infamous phone call, between POTUS,  and Zelinskiy
 that ultimately led,  to the impeachment hearings, things  that could well  prove useful (for him) and my casual lunch buddy,  Andriy Bogdan. I am a prevaricator , casual interlocutor, I don't actually have any real agenda that I can concretely identify, generally I am a centrist, but what that is , right now, I could not even vaguely define it.

 I will have to hope,  that I can find him at our mutual favorite lunch spot in Kyiv (whereabouts undisclosed ) , maybe we can orchestrate some kind of crazy car pool karaoke with a Japanese or Korean diplomat, after we disembark ? Isn't it about saving money while you are making some money these days ?

Yet you have to wonder about the challenges of the President of Ukraine to keep his Oligarch class in line,  and attempt to assuage their prevarications,  to offshore their significant wealth, going forward from today, tomorrow, yesterdays>
One has to really poison the well,  in order to become a persona non grata in Ukraine today. If you still have money to play around with, you behave, say you are sorry about your stupid or venal thing, s that you said or did, you can still be in the club! You can  drive or be driven in a nice car,  and maybe get some glancing respect. Or that is my take, perhaps I'm not too qualified anymore. I am just saying ... I have been inn a nice car in Ukraine once or twice, and it's nice to experience a good car and a keyed up driver.

So what could come out of the Corona Virus scare , something unusual, a secret emergence of a totally unrelated element?   Ukraine continues to be free of the infection. Some recent disruptive misbehaviors which hint at the Far Right's Russian backed influence within the social media sphere, Yes there still are some people who burrow into the Russian Social media influence stream in Ukraine.
There are still some Soviet era legacy trained Doctors who were well trained in infectious disease control in Ukraine, and quite a few post Soviet era trained Doctors too. I am sure there is a real time clash of cultures within the Ukraine medical system at the moment . Iran reporting the virus is another mystery, fueling the flames of hysteria, yet what is the scientific proofs in the media reports? I had been hit with some low level bioweapon stuff in my third big post Euro Maidan visit to Ukraine, and it was pretty serious for me, I had to visit a doctor and get basic advice about what to do for my health and it took some days, a week or so to recover from it. Yet today I sensed I was being cruised by some element, with that signature of Russian sub state mafia, like the White Shark cruising the seal rookery, hoping to easily spook the young into the waters for some easy meal. Yet I am not that sophisticated actually, I could become that easily digestible meal. I like Russian people, they are great persons who have survived enormous difficulty, and yes,  their social narrative (along with Ukraine's historical and present day narrative is hard to dissuade) I never thought that this photo of myself in CHersoneseus Crimea would be my last. I wanted to return there some day and study the marine algal populations on this small promontory and embayment. Hey I have got somewhat official algal range extensions to my credit , its not like I am nobody, yet I don't have rich parents or the luxury of doing things on my nickel or dime, dollar. Crimea remains a lost Geopolitical enigma with unknowable archaeological and of course defense, resource advantages. Yes, Obama could have amped up the USA's defense apparatus,  and potentially forced a highly questionable status of a Nuclear warfare  brinksmanship, yet he didn't do that,  and this is the situation today for Crimea, it is essentially an island with some marshes separating it from mainland Ukraine .

Upon an unrelated subject, Those if us that watch the matter to this day, like me, continue to look at the progress in prosecution of the MH17 tragedy. I am generally inclined to aseptically ascribe it to sheer ineptitude, yet common logic and understanding of the composition of the BUK missile launcher units would  refute the supposition of ineptitude. The simple fact remains, that the plane had a transponder identifying itself as a civilian aircraft, and if the BUK missile launcher unit was cohesive, they would have identified that feature of the target. What relationship could the MH370 disappearance have with MH17?
Certainly MH370 represented both a useful distraction and a potential intelligence target (given certain public knowledge of the semi conductor company's employees)  . I simply do not think it's possible that all MH 370 passengers were put to sleep through lack of oxygen after the dramatic recorded maneuverings of the flight. I think it was Air Piracy, pure and simple, and it wouldn't surprise me gif the same entities involved in disappearing MH370 were behind the Corona virus disaster we're facing. Who they are, I wouldn't want to know.
 Would it be a totally fictional scenario if Ju Kun, Jet Li's Stunt double and action choreographer would have somehow survived the incident ? It seems more likely that the vast search in the South Indian Ocean was largely for the purpose of ascertaining  deep sea mineral resources,  rather than an analytically determined searching for the plane, it probably wouldn't have gotten funded otherwise. When you dig around in the weeds, there can be a number of potential subterranean truths there, things obvious and things non linear.

Now that Ukraine is beset by it's own MH17 type investigation in Iran, they actually have some vague benefits of hindsight in their potential determinations, approach to matters relevant  to  the investigation. MH17 is obviously different, in that a foreign military was on their (Ukraine's) territory supplying massive military armaments and gear, technology, logistics. In Iran, it was Iran, or was it ?

And that is the essential question, in a nutshell. Something happened that again defied the logic of the technology, the Ukraine Airlines flight over Iran, (with my friend serving as First Officer)  had it's own civilian flight tracking identification beacon, exactly as Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 did, as it flew over Central, South Eastern Ukraine. Was the technology defective or compromised ? Without detailed forensic information , from the BUK launching and command platforms , we may never know.
Yet I still continue to think,  that the Devil,  lives in the details,  of the employees of the furniture company based in Odessa (for flight MH370). Very few people have such minimalistic social media profiles. Well this is just me, saying stuff that will likely only make trouble for myself, yet these are fascinating "Who done it ?" Scenarios. And I actually know a man,  who worked in this high end furniture business between Ukraine and Russian Federation. If one followed the furniture, one could perhaps learn a lot?
It seems like MH 370 was the master work, I think it highly possible the plane was landed wholly intact,  and dismantled forthwith somewhere, the passengers offloaded,  and processed,  according to their value. MH17 and the Ukraine International flight's downing could be a much more crude variant of OPAQUELY exigent actions, based upon highly tangential circumstances and assertions within the theater of war. Or in other words, those Russian idiots running the hybrid war in Ukraine simply got totally manipulated, by much more complex and sophisticated mercenary elements,  inserted into the theater of war.

At the end of the day, all the war in Donbas Ukraine , it is only about Crimea, or mostly about that, all the people hurt , death and destruction have been wrought to make Ukraine suffer sufficiently, inn order  to force them to relinquish the claim to Crimea. It is a totally unnecessary war. You have right wing Christian and some Catholic Ukrainians, Agnostics and everybody else in the bucket  fighting mostly Right Wing Christian Russian  (and possibly some Russian Catholic observers too, this hasn't been explored in the media coverage ) forces who basically want the same thing for their towns, villages, cities, states and country (better paying jobs, better security, and more International Respect) . It's just weird,   and so horribly brutal. Not that there are not, sizably notable components of German style Social Democrat influenced persons fighting for Ukraine, and perhaps quite possibly the same for Russian Federation too? Isn't it all one big cluster stuck job that a bunch of people are caught within, a dark web of manipulations.....
 There are certainly  some Western style progressives in the mix, who are deftly holding their tongues, just not saying anything, doing their time in the conflict, then going home.  SO what is the word on the street, in Occupied Simferopol Ukraine this Saturday ???
The lady doing this interview was the daughter of a math or  secondary school biology teacher in Simferopol as I understand from a direct contact. These are the small details relevant to the idea that Russia simply didn't know Crimea all that well, sure a few of the beautiful and differentiated circulated into night clubs in Moscow and so forth, as the Moscow crowd, circulated down, into there in the summer of  2013. All eager, to lay claim to having been there, met a lot of nice people, had a really great time. There were often social media posts,  about politicians in Simferopol wearing very expensive shoes in public, that equalled roughly half,   or a quarter of their official annual salary in public, back then. I haven't seen such  commentary since. Now days that could be a pair of high end Nike's or something, back then it was high end, German or Italian shoes.
So whatever, my off handed impression is that Ze has to balance on the precipice between Ukraine being an ascendant Nato State, or some Finlandization of Ukraine, or going back to a Nuclear Weapons armed , totally One country, only for itself  kind of place. I still think some of Ukraine's fissionable material went to DPRK in some fashion.
And don't forget that Russia has Edward Snowden, do not disabuse yourself of the thought, that Russian intelligence won't interfere in our upcoming elections, just be clear that an
"October Surprise " type of event within their relatively justifiable foreign policy toolkit  is an entirely greater possibility
Have a nice weekend, those 5 or 6 entities that follow my crazy thinking.