Friday, February 25, 2022
In a Tragic Twist of Historical Irony, Russian President Boris Yeltsin's Incredible & Unsurpassed Act of Courage Helped Bring Soviet Tyranny and the Soviet Empire Itself to an End...Whilst His Unfortunate Naivete and Gullibility As Per His Successor Has Helped to Inadvertently Resurrect & Reinvigorate - & Ultimately, By Force, Re-Unite - It
Two Images That Will Ever Remain a Study in Contrasts: Boris Yeltsin Standing Alone Before a Russian Tank Singlehandedly Opposing the Might of the Soviet Empire (In the Midst of the Infamous 1990/1991 Colonels' Coup); 3 Decades Later Those Selfsame Tanks Surrounding the Brave 'Wee' Nation-State of Ukraine As It Singlehandedly Seeks to Resist That Selfsame Russian Might - Russian Tanks & Might, Ironically (and Tragically) Enough, Ultimately Authorized and Commandeered by THE VERY MAN Whom Then President Yeltsin 'Inadvertently' - 'Ignorantly' - 'Unknowingly' Helped Install In That Very Role!
Make no mistake: If it were possible, Yeltsin today would be turning cartwheels in his grave and forever ruing his ghastly mistake...
But sadly one cannot undo history.
Yes, Boris Yeltsin's ONE Mistake - And It Was a Whopper - His (Inadvertent) Gift to Russia and the World-at-Large that Keeps on Giving...Was His Anointing of His Successor, An All Too Successful KGB Agent
A failing which gregarious folk with a sanguine nature like Yeltsin have an unfortunate tendency towards...a tendency all too ably assisted by the demon drink...in Russian parlance good 'ole vodka!
The Redoubtable Boris Yeltsin, One of Russia's Great(est) Leaders of All Time - Disparaging 'Trendy Leftie' Western Pundits and Commentators Notwithstanding - Bequeathed to Our Present World a Frankenstein(ian) Monster of a 'Gift' in His Anointing of Vladimir Putin as His Successor (to Subsequently Reign Over the Russian People)...
But this great defender of freedom and liberty, whose courage knew no bounds and saw him face down the barrel of a Soviet tank in a show of 'blinkmanship' that saw him lionized throughout the world (and doubtless Russia and the USSR's then 15 component republics prior to their wholesale splintering off), was evidently also naive to a fault (or more likely taken in a by an all too adept and cunning, subtle and sophisticated master of intrigue and dissimulation)...
...and the rest is history, as they say...
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Putin Playing the World For a Bunch of Suckers...& It Appears He'll Get Away Handily With His Little Strategem...Though America Comes Away with No Glory
Where the people of the Ukraine - and all the (15) former Soviet Republic nation-states - are mere pawns in his sordid, tawdry game of baltic chess...
He has y'all checkmated before he even begins...so better to give up folks while you're ahead - and at least save your lives...
Or, 'Be wise, and let him who can(,) be clever'.
See 'the Hungry Lion and the Wise Fox' (in Aesop's Fables, 1965).
Wednesday, February 2, 2022
Boris, I'd Blithely, Ignorantly Supposed You'd 'Transgressed' Once or At Most Twice: Potentially *14 Times Is Not Only Bad Luck - With An Extra One Thrown In For Good Measure - But Would Appear To Prove That You've Now Truly Channeled That Trans-Atlantic 'Lookalike' (Not Only 'Hairwise'), But Are Now Trying to Emulate Him (the Donald, That Is) In Defending the Utterly Indefensible...If That Works For You - And My Confidence In Your Esteemed Political Party Convinces Me IT ULTIMATELY WON'T - Then (Assuming Trump Can Do the Selfsame & Return, Triumphantly, in 2024, As I Well Suspect & Have Long Since Maintained On Numerous Occasions Since Election 2020), What Can Any Reasonable Person Say? That Pigs Can Fly, Yes, Even Peppa Herself!
*The number of such occasions that the authorities are apparently investigating to establish whether anyone, and specifically who, might have breached the Government's well-signposted covid rules. (According to the New Statesman's online report of the other day, though this morning BBC world radio mentioned the number at 12.) Accordingly, since '13' is halfway between the two, perhaps it is bitter irony that that number has ever been seen as signifying bad luck...
And how's the following to put the icing on Boris' birthday cake: I realized yesterday that that day (here in New Zealand-time) - the 2nd day of the 2nd month in the year 2022...
could well be seen as signifying the following: since 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 +2 = 10...
May I respectfully suggest - to both Prime Minister Johnson and his venerable colleagues (both new and old) - that all roads now seem to lead to 10 Downing Street...
Or should I rather put it this way: all fingers of accusation (and 'leads' the police are following up) point unerringly in that particular direction...
No kidding!
Tuesday, February 1, 2022
For All Those Dumbfounded/Flummoxed/Flabbergasted/Bamboozled & Otherwise Mystified & Plain Perplexed By the Ongoing Rise & Fall & Rise (Like Reginald Perrin) - As a Phoenix from the Ashes of Defeat & Dishonour & Inglorious Ignominy - of Donald J Trump...Witnessed Again Yesterday (New Zealand Time) on Newshub's 6 p.m. Bulletin (As He Addressed A Stadiumful of Diehard Supporters), DON'T BE, Folks: Sadly But Perfectly Predictably - As In The Republicans Polled (In This Instance) Who Supported Him With 49% As Against Potential Rivals Rick De Santis (On 14%) and Mike Pence (On 13%): People Want 'The Real Deal' Not Some Sham Imitation...It's Really THAT SIMPLE. And As For That 'Margin of Error' 1% (45% to 44%) Lead of President Joe Biden Upon Him Among the Electorate-at-Large? Unfortunately, Folks, That Means That Election 2024 Is Already Too Close to Call, Or, As Aotearoa New Zealand's New Opposition (National Party) Leader Christopher Luxon Might Have Expressed Matters: "It's Game On!"
Equally sadly, however, it's the rest of us on Planet Earth who stand to be the collateral damage fallout...