From: Randall Parker 

In <38dfafc7{at}w3.nls.net>, esteemable usadream{at}bestweb.net Patrick
Pearce encoded his thoughts thusly:
> So they gave Vlad "The Butcher" Putin a 51 to 54% margin
> depending upon which horseshit poll you believe...the interesting
> thing is that the Communists garnered over 30%...

You can't have a democracy it the people don't believe in electing people
dedicated to the idea...

> Expect things to get worse over there...real bad, IMO...
> since their credit lines are dried up in the West, their harvest
> is the lowest in 10 years thus grain imports (AGAIN!) and
> the gubmint will have to tap its reserves to pay for it.  Their
> reserves btw, amount to a staggering $15Billion in cash and
> gold.  Thats the reserves for the ENTIRE Russian financial system...
> Christ the budget of NYC is more than that.

Stratfor.com did a good article on the food shortage situation. Sounds seriously bad.

What I don't get is that they commented that part of the problem is the
inefficiency of the collective farms. Well, if they still have collective
farms then not much has changed.

> Since I've been schtooping this nice girl from Moscow the
> last few years and am "heading over" again on 4/16 for a couple
> of weeks to celebrate my birthday with her, I will try to
> keep the group abreast of the feelings of the folk on the street.

> My feeling tho is they had no qualms in Chechnya so why not
> elect the mass murderer President?  Kinda makes a blowjob
> in the Oval Orifice seem insignificant, doesn't it?

No kidding.

Oh, or is that the Oral Office?

>
> Patrick
>
>
>

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