Dear Readers:
This post is just for fun. Because it’s more fun (well, at least for me) to gossip about possibly dead Ukrainian leaders who came back from the grave, than to bear the thought of thousands of actual dead bodies littering the battlefield.
So, yesterday we talked about Russia’s Immortal Regiment. But Ukraine has its own version, as we learn in this piece by reporter Mikhail Rodionov. Who specifies in his headline that
Budanov Has Placed Himself In The Same Group With Bandera, Petlyura And Mazepa
Those familiar with Russian/Ukrainian history know that this group of men all share one thing in common: They were all traitors, from the Russian point of view (but heroes from their own, it goes without saying); but, more importantly, they all LOST. Hence, the score goes something like 3 / zero in Russia’s favor, with the 4th inning being played out right now.
To this list, we have to add, of course, Ukrainian General Valery Zaluzhny. Despite rumors of his death, he is clearly alive, as evidenced by videos, including one embedded in the Rodionov piece. Never mind that, as conspiracy theorists have pointed out, the new improved Zaluzhny has brown eyes; whereas the old Zaluzhny had baby-blues. And not just any blues (I double-checked in old videos and photos), but, of such a sweet hue, that even an evil stepmother would dote on the urchin. And now his peepers are brown. Medical experts say it is possible for people’s eyes to change color sometimes, but usually goes the other way, from brown to hazel or blue, as pigment is lost. It’s harder to add MORE pigment to the iris, but I suppose anything is possible with today’s technology. Maybe Zaluzhny got tired of being teased about his charming eyeballs. Or maybe he is wearing contact lenses, and they only produce them in the one color?
Anyway, who cares about Zaluzhny, Budanov is way more interesting. Recently I saw a “proof of life” video of him with a very shaved head. Which might add credence to the theory that he got a concussion and had to have brain surgery in Germany. But that’s only a rumor.
Even more importantly, the resurrected Budanov gave an interview to the Kiev Post in which he declared that “a regiment of Immortal Commanders is being created”, which includes himself and Zaluzhny, along with these other important losers figures from Ukrainian history: “Valery Zaluzhny, myself, Stepan Bandera, Simon Petlyura, Ivan Mazepa. Thanks to the work of this regiment, the Russian propagandists are forced to outdo themselves in this nervous, hysterical situation. Our Immortal Regiment infects with nightmares the sleep of Russian citizens.”
Zelensky, for his part, asserts that he held an important meeting on June 16, in which the participants included Generals Syrsky, Tarnavsky, Zaluzhny, Shaptala, and also Budanov.
Representing his boss in the Main Directorate of Intelligence, Andrei Yusov also appeared on Ukrainian TV around the same time; and vouched for the health of his boss, Budanov: “He is in perfect health and has a marvelous appetite.” Which I don’t doubt. Hopefully German hospital food is just as tasty as their regular fare. There is nothing in the world better than a fine old German sausage. Or liverwurst.
Some people beg to disagree, however. For example, Ilya Kiva, who represents the Nazi Right Sektor Party in the Ukrainian parliament, asserts bluntly that Budanov is dead. “But they will try to conceal this fact for as long as physically possible…”
Doing its “due diligence”, the Russian press service RIA Novosti called the German Bundeswehr Hospital, located in the center of Berlin (the Germans call it a Krankenhaus), and asked to be put through to Budanov’s room. But the hospital staff, rightfully so, had to fall back on their privacy rules and refuse to confirm or deny that such a patient was in-house; let alone give away his room number. For their sake, I hope that Budanov and Zaluzhny are in separate rooms; because there were rumors that those two never could get along. I also hope that their insurance covers all those expensive procedures… oh wait! That would be American taxpayers footing the bill. Those same American taxpayers who can’t get good medical care for themselves.
Awful Avalanche 
Or liverwurst…nay, Leberwurst to be correct.
Yeah, Lebewurst (all nouns are capitalized of course), the glory and bane of German sausage making.
Depending who makes it and of course the quality of the ingredients, it can be a gustatory revelation, a taste of things to come in an afterlife filled with car…ah harping angles and a multitude of virgins, waiting for whatever you can do in heaven with virgins…or was that raisins?, but those are not part of Leberwurst.
And then there is this: “Schorch, feg den Hof, wir machen heut Leberwurscht”, the nightmare of those buying it at the wrong place. It means: George, sweep the yard, today we make liver sausage…your mental picture of the situation may vary, depending which butcher’s backyards you encountered.
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Schorsch? Makes me feel your homeground is Frankfurt? But then Schorch?
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Yes, born and raised there, Schorsch or better Schosch, the”r” is usually not pronounced. The Frankfurter’s form of George. SCH like in Shampoo.
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Germans call it a Krankenhaus
I ain’t necessarily so. The term Hospital is also commonly used for this institution. In Frankfurt, i.e., we have the Hospital zum Heiligen Geist.
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Hmm. Ok, familiar with Frankfurt.
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I like Krankenhaus better, because it sounds funny!
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For a small group of Ukrainian extremists to shout cheers to the crimes of their Nazi ancestors would be out of ignorance or stupidity; but that the entire West do it as a whole is political.
Nazism is political racism and Ukrainians would be stupid for not being white; Let all the West do it together, as in 1941 it indicates that once again it rebels against racial equality.
And it’s not that racists are such an important part of humanity, no, it’s economic exploitation that’s important in having a superior race.
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As far as I know, Ilya Kiva is not Pravyi sektor anymore, switched to Russia and asked political asylum there.
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Really, do say! I did not know that. Well, we can probably discount his theories then, if he is not in the inner circle any more.
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Those same American taxpayers who can’t get good medical care for themselves.
A very ‘Trumpian’ complaint. Poor Americans paying for almost everything anywhere in the world. Look, you have all my sympathy. But do you feel it is realistic that Germany would pass such bills on to the US of A?
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This passage I found highly lovable in Karaganov’s recent article:
This weakening infuriates not only the imperial-cosmopolitan elites (Biden and Co.), but also the imperial-national ones (Trump)
Larger passage:
To stop this snowballing downward slide, the West has temporarily consolidated itself. The United States has turned Ukraine into a striking fist intended to create a crisis and thus tie the hands of Russia―the military-political core of the non-Western world, which is freeing itself from the shackles of neo-colonialism―but better still blow it up, thus radically weakening the rising alternative superpower―China. For our part, we delayed our preemptive strike either because we misunderstood the inevitability of a clash, or because we were gathering strength. Moreover, following modern, mainly Western, military-political thought, we thoughtlessly set too high a threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, inaccurately assessed the situation in Ukraine, and did not start the military operation there successfully enough.
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Well, I don’t think Trump supports government-run health insurance programs (aka “Medicare for all”), but I suppose I could be wrong.
So, okay, maybe the German government is footing the bill for Budanov’s trepanation surgery.
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Trump supports government-run health insurance programs
Our system is a multi-payer system not a government-run system like the British NHS. Thus it is unlikely you Americans pay our German health care bills as Trump seemed to indicate indirectly. Because we never paid enough for the American forces on our ground the state can afford such nonsense, like a health system based on a solidarity principle? Yes, the state contributes to keep the system stable. But the system itself is not state run. Of the rate (about 15%) of the income the employee contributes half and half is contributed by the employer.
https://www.managedhealthcareexecutive.com/view/opinion-best-lesson-we-can-learn-german-healthcare-system
Trump is mentioned by this lady:
Social solidarity
The German system rests on the concept of social solidarity. Bismarck realized that anyone at any time, regardless of current needs, could become part of a family with a profound need for healthcare. Thus, the system both mandates insurance coverage for all and sets the statutory premiums based on income, capped at the higher end of the income spectrum. The German system of solidarity ensures that the young pay for the old, the healthy for the ill, small families for larger families and those with higher incomes pay for those with lower incomes. The repeal of the individual mandate in the U.S. undermines this fundamental insurance concept that non-users today subsidize users. Over time non-users become users who are, in turn, subsidized themselves.
President Trump and his advisors would be well-served to learn from and follow in Bismarck’s footsteps to shore up the individual insurance market, which may be headed for a meltdown in the next few years thanks to the demise of the individual mandate and the resurrection of short-term, limited-duration plans that could bifurcate the market between the sick and healthy. Like Bismarck in 1883, the U.S. needs to create a stable insurance market to ensure the stability of its workforce and families.
If you don’t like solidarity, you can opt out and choose a private insurance, which is cheep while you are young. … but don’t wait too long to slip back into the statuatory one. After 55 with the private insurance rates increasing dramatically it is not that easy to get back in.
Gesetzliche Krankenkasse = Statutory Health Insurance. Is not the same as a state run and financed health system.
Statuatory Health Insurance
Wondering why the TinyUrl links never show as links Does this work?
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no, does not work:
https://tinyurl.com/Statuatory-Health-Insurance
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Thank you for all this interesting information, leo.
In the U.S., with exceptions for the old (Medicare) and the very poor (Medicaid), whether or not one has health insurance depends on one’s employment status. And even then, most jobs don’t provide this “benefit”. For example, a clerk working 6 hours a day at a convenience store, is not going to receive employer-paid or subsidized health insurance. They would have to purchase it privately, if they could afford it. Only the “good jobs”, like white-collar jobs or union jobs, provide a subsidized health insurance plan to their employees. If you quit your job or get fired, then you lose your health insurance too.
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yalensis. I got tiny glimpses of the US dilemma. Bits and pieces only. E.g. a female policeofficer complained about matters attending George Zimmerman waiting for his upcoming polygraph test. Even a policeofficer? Pretty unbelievable from a German perspective.
But please pay attention. It’s statutory, isn’t it. Nothing that can ever work in the land of The Free? Free to suffer too.
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True, since a law passed under Obama’s presidency, having health insurance is mandatory in the U.S.. (Is that what you mean by statutory?) In fact, when you file your taxes with the IRS, you actually have to show that you have health insurance of some sort.
I honestly don’t know how this works for the vast majority of people. I am in a rather privileged situation with my white-collar job, I get all the benefits and all the trimmings, so I am never exposed to anything really bad. But I know for a fact that millions of people out there eke out their lives without health insurance or ever getting to see a doctor. So, how they pass the muster and manage to file their taxes, that bit I have no idea, it’s beyond my comprehension.
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Is it still mandatory to have private health insurance in the U.S.? I haven’t followed the situation to the nuts-and-bolts level since I escaped the country in 2005, so I dunno the specifics. The Republicans repealed the penalty for NOT paying an “insurance” corpo for something that provided minimal benefits to people, right? But they left the “you must have ripoff insurance!” bit intact? So there’s still a requirement, just without any punishment for violating it? IOW, a meaningless law.
Unless someone steps out of line, gets politically popular with a movement the .gov does not approve of, like the people who organised Occupy Wall Street. And that movement leader hasn’t been paying for insurance — the lousy law-breaker! So when the cops throw that person in jail for the 3 years it takes to get their trial onto the court docket (cash bail is set at $1 million, so you have to stay locked up until then. It’s NOT because they were taking political action, which is OF COURSE protected by the Sacred Constitution Of The Land Of The Free. No, it’s because they violated the insurance law.
I read “Atlas Shrugged” long ago when I was in uni. It was supposedly an Important Book that every thinking person should know. I didn’t despise it as much then as I do now. These days, I see it as the paean to anti-social selfishness that it is. There is ONE worthwhile bit from the book that I retain in my viewpoint, though. One of the eeeeeeeeeevil gooberment officials is explaining to the Lone Genius Superman why the gov has so many laws. (paraphrasing here:) “We don’t expect you to follow all the laws, Mr. Shrugger. That would be impossible! But if we want to punish you for something, we always CAN, because you’ve violated SOMETHING at some time.” Just like the U.S. government has used the dystopian novel “1984” as a guidebook instead of a warning, it has taken a “selfishtopian” book like “Asshole Shrugged” as a great example of how The System oughta work.
Pardon me for junking up your comments section with something irrelevant to the topic of your post. Sometimes I learn things from blogs that are tangential, and I feel the urge to sputter. I’m glad I have lived for the last 18 years in countries that purport to want to keep their citizens alive. (Although they’re whittling away at that in Canada; still trying to do right by the citizenry in Australia, and at least neither of them are hollowing out the way the NHS is in Jollye Olde Brexitannia.)
One of the reasons I like the viewpoint of that Naked Capitalism website is because they’re always banging on about “The Two Rules of Neoliberalism:” 1.) Because Markets and 2.) Go Die. Why does the U.S. not have socialist government healthcare? Because Markets don’t want it! You’re an average person who doesn’t have a white-collar job that provides health “insurance” and you can’t pay $20,000+ a year for a private policy? Go Die!
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Please don’t apologize, Bukko. I love to read your comments. And this particular one is one of your best, filled with many good talking points and even some funny puns, like “Asshole Shrugged!” I got a good chuckle from that and, god knows, I need a chuckle right now, with everything that is going on.
Also those are very excellent points about how the government passes silly laws and rarely enforces them, EXCEPT when they really want to nail somebody! Then, it’s like, “You’re under arrest, Mr. Unauthorized Political Agitator.”
“What for?”
“You clipped the tag off that mattress you purchased, even though it says in the instructions you must not.”
As for the Obama mandate, I suspect it’s like that too. That whole Obamacare thing was just a big boondoggle for the insurance companies and their lobbyists.
I don’t follow American politics either, very much, but I think the mandate must still be in place, because the last time I filed my taxes (which was just 3 months ago), the accountant specifically asked me if I could prove I had health insurance. Also, my employer had sent me a tax form in the mail, precisely for that purpose. So, whew! I passed that test. If the government ever nails me, it would have to be for something else. Like maybe that mattress thing…. I can’t abide tags, so I always clip them off.
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My older brother had blue eyes until he was about 8. Then they turned brown. This is quite evident from the few colour photos we have from then, early 1960s. I’d have thought changes to eye colour would happen more often in childhood, but maybe trauma brought it on for Zaluzhny?
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I should have added that there’s a great bit of dialogue in “Shock Wave” – one of John Sandford’s Virgil Flowers novels, along these approximate lines:
VF: “so tell me, are your eyes brown or green?”
Love interest female: “it depends, the hotter I get, the greener they become…”
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Hm… maybe it’s along the same lines as hair. In early childhood I had very light blonde hair, but then it turned brown as I got into my teenage years. So, the pigment cells just develop and come later (?)
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In common with my male siblings, I was blond until 6 or 7, then migrated to very dark verging on black hair. Our sister stayed blonde…
Twilight Zone music…
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I read somewhere that every hair follicle has a tiny little pigment-pump cell adjacent to it. That pumps shoots out the pigment to coat the growing hair. So, maybe with some Caucasian children the pigment isn’t pumping until a certain age, as the cells develop (?)
Also as people get older and their cells start dying, the pigment cells also die off and stop working, the body just decides not to waste any more resources on these expendable cells, and that’s why old people have white hair, regardless of which race/ethnic group they belong to.
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I just did something new on my own blog, broadly to do with the Ukraine situation. People here seem to be interested in my global conflict stuff. I developed it from some conversations I had on this discussion box, to do with the ‘crying games’ used by psychopathic elites to get people to fight each other.
Enjoy, because I will not be doing much more on the Ukraine war for awhile, until there is a new break in the situation. I am going to focus more on Canadian politics, specifically the need to disallow the honkies, the extreme right. Unless that interests you people. https://adultsincharge.blog/2023/06/21/about-crying-games/
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Thanks for the link, raccoon. I will be reading your posts with interest.
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I am political, in that I closely follow goings on but, my team left the stage almost 50 years ago. That said, I offer for your consideration this view:
People who vote for perfection/their-man/woman-hero/party/religion/race/ethnic/ideology…et al sadden me in the way you might look at a man/woman who will never grow up.
RFK Jr ? While I respect his uncle, I did not like his father much, however after his brother was shot on the Dulles-Bros/3LA orders RFK became the man he should have been to begin with. I think it fair to say, everybody wants a shot at redemption. And like his two older brothers, RFK died with his boots on doing his duty as God gave him the light to see it by.
I offer this with some reservations, so please, save me the hate, it’s just for consideration.
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Thanks, S, I don’t see the need for hate, he’s just a politician, and everybody has the right to pick the politician of their choice.
Me, though, I have to say (without hate) that I wouldn’t trust any Kennedy further than I could throw him. Maybe, if he was running in a third party, he might be more trustworthy. But let’s face it, the Democratic Party IS the junta. If RFK were to get the nomination, that would only prove that he is the next shiny tool of the real powers behind the scene. QED.
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Not a fan Y,
I think JFK deserves some of your respect, he was murdered because he wouldn’t play by the Dulles-Bros* rules in the same way Trotsky wouldn’t play by Stalin’s except, JFK stood his ground.
As for RFK Jr, nothing he says about vaccines is “anti-science” au contraire mon ami, his reasoning is far more scientific than anything on mainstream media…admittedly that’s a pretty low bar. On these senseless wars, his anti-war stance is far..far..far more coherent than Trumps…again, a pretty low bar.
Now when it comes to nuclear power or, despoiling thousands upon thousands of square miles of rural land to solar and wind his views are some of the least educated on the subject I have ever heard…hopeless really. Still my priority is finding somebody who will end this war madness.
But in fairness to your criticism of RFK Jr, he wouldn’t get your support until the 3LAs murder him as they did his uncle JFK. Then and only then would you know he was genuine. And if he is genuine, his assassination is inevitable, the corruption in DC is ubiquitous, every bit as bad as Rome in the time of Emperor Majorian. Indeed, if the 3LAs-media-minion can’t take him out with their standard toolkit of innuendo, slander and cancellation; if the security-state’s dossier on RFK Jr doesn’t contain actionable blackmail material; he’ll be murdered just like they did his uncle.
*[shorthand for the sociopaths of DC]
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Hi, S. I have to admit that you are right about my “drown the witch” attitude about RFK Jr. In my view, if he does get assassinated, that means he was sincere about bucking the establishment. Like, if the accused “witch” drowns, that means she wasn’t really a witch!
In the same way, RFK Jr. has to die in order to prove his sincerity to me. A sacrifice I am sure he is willing to make, because my opinion of him is SO important, LOL!
🙂
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Y,
I was chuckling before I got to the last sentence and then…I chuckled some more.
Again, I think RFK’s views on nuclear power vs solar & wind are…hopelessly naive and I’m sure RFK has other views, on a range of subjects, that I’d find unappealing. And while my comment supporting Gilbert Doctorow’s view that the madness of war must be given 1st priority was taken down at his site*, I still concur with him on his overarching point. Now, will I vote for RFK-Jr…I dunno but, he’ll get my consideration…desperate times and all.
*it’s his party and he can cry if he wants to…
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Perfect musical accompaniment!
“Judy’s wearing his ring… boo hoo!”
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Well, Prigozhin just went a step too far. Apparently he wasn’t fooling with his constant carping, just nuts, now claiming the Russian Army sent missiles to destroy his troops. March on Moscow to depose Shoigu and Gerasimov? Will the FSB be able to arrest him as per their warrant, or will his Wagner people “protect” him?
Crazy. If Putin was the one “protecting” him, what does that mean for his political career?
Right now, only questions, and no answers.
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Yeah, it’s looking pretty bad now. At first I thought they were all just playing a game of maskirovka for the sake of the Ukrainians.
But apparently not. I saw in the Russian news this morning, Putin has addressed the nation, the Russian establishment are treating this like a serious threat, Putin also has Surovikin on his side; so it seems like Prigozin is toast.
The Russian army will probably have to dissolve Wagner and integrate its remnants into the regular army.
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To get serious yet concise news coverage about the SMO without the Telegram BS, I go to this Russian site:
https://avia-pro.net/
It’s a bit more serious than a mere kerfuffle. There’s footage of helicopters and an AN26 transport plane shot down by Wagnrites, and they control the military airfielf near Rostov. Plus reports that the M4 highway to Moscow has been self-sabotaged by Russia to prevent Wagnerites travelling to Moscow. Moscow city itself is completely locked down.
This is a disaster.
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Oh, it’s fairly typical, if you know Russian history.
The good news is that Kadyrov has stayed loyal to Russia, so he will help to suppress his former friend, Prigozhin.
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I’ve seen spittle from the peanut gallery saying that Big Zal’s eye colour changed because he’s filled with shit right up to the eyeball level. That’s a cheap shot at such a Man Of Fortitude, plus it’s an old jape. Zero points for originality! I say it’s further evidence of Zlushy’s innate Potatoness. Even his eyes are the shade of an Idaho now.
OMG, I just had a disconcerting thought. What if Zaluzhny’s eyes turn out like REAL potato eyes?!? You know how they get when you forget a spud under your kitchen sink and the eyes start growing those protruberant white stalks, with the little green bits on the end? I’m envisioning a photo of Zlushfund with those poking out from beneath his non-existent eyebrows, like maggoty tentacles. I would run from the room screaming if I came face-to-face with that.
As for Buttynov, so obviously a photofake. Every recent alleged image of “him” I’ve seen has an overtly ovoid head shape. Totally an egg, not a rat. Some crap AI art you’ve got going there, khoks! It’s so artificial that you can practically see the wavery lines wiggling at the edges of “his” alleged skin where it’s been stitched onto a green-screened background. I thought the Ukes were supposed to be GOOD at disinformation warfare. Nuh-uh…
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In the recent Butt-anov videos I too noticed the faint squiggly lines around his outline. As a cubicle barnacle myself I immediately recognize the “Zoom background” effect. Which means that Budd is not actually sitting in his own office, that’s a zoom background. Could still be him though, just not in his office.
As to the other bit, the spud-eyes, now you’ve really scared me too, and I am sure I will have nightmares tonight; on the other hand, it could make a good Hollywood B movie: “The Attack of the Screaming Potato Eyes!” [with these horrid things on stalks coming right at you on 3-D!]
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