[continued from previous message]   
      
   (Kiev has driven him out of all but extreme eastern Ukraine), his oil   
   and gas revenues are down by 10% or more, he's been shut out of the   
   western financial system (again), Kiev has sworn it won't give up an   
   acre of land and Putin has few options for an outgait.   
      
   Did Vladimir not consider that making nice might eventually lead to   
   blissful peace with all his neighbors and eventual membership in the   
   EU?   
      
   Russia saw it's post communism economy and culture grow as capitalism,   
   free speech and free enterprise expanded.  They didn't send tanks into   
   every Warsaw Pact nation that traded with and requested to join the EU   
   (so why Ukraine?).  And nobody cared.  Everybody got rich.  Western   
   capital (hard currency) flooded into Russia, Russian energy profits   
   flowed out to investments abroad (Investments he's now denied access   
   to), International Space Station, International security projects and   
   all the other bennies of peace and cooperation apparently weren't good   
   enough for this wannabe emperor.   
      
   Putin, that paranoiac, would rather kill than party and his people are   
   going to suffer because of it.   
      
   Swill   
   --   
   As journalists descend on Uvalde, as they did on Columbine,   
   Newtown, and Parkland,some are questioning whether a more   
   graphic approach is required to capture the reality of America’s   
   gun violence epidemic. "It’s time," suggests one industry leader,   
   "to show what a slaughtered 7-year-old looks like."   
    - Charlotte Klein in Vanity Fare 05/15/2022   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)