[continued from previous message]   
      
   > Virtually the entire Warsaw Pact is now part of the EU and (since WW   
   > II) reliably neutral Sweden and Finland are now aching to get into   
   > NATO because they're worried that Russia might eventually target   
   > *them*.   
   >   
   > His economy is disintegrating, his soldiers and population   
   > disheartened, he's losing credibility at home, the war is going badly   
   > (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   
      
   As an American I ask how does this effect the price of Russian vodka?   
      
   Or Chinese take out?   
      
   Find a better way, a way so that all may prosper in this life we all   
   have been given.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)