Am I only one to instantly remember this novel?

Oh, you do underestimate the fragility of position of any Russian leader, do you? Look up in Wikipedia how fast did some Czar, Prince or General Secretary encountered "health problems" when they showed any sign of weakness. It's all much more sinister than "I-do-what-I-want-because-fuck-you" typical dictator situation.

Hah! That's the funny one. I'll go tell my friends who visited both cities.

Some of us are even more sorry right now. Not that it matters - several lonely voices of reason wouldn't stop this juggernaut of madness that our media had become. And people here still mostly do believe our media.

Matter of perspective. If Russia manages to scare them strongly enough they would shut down 1/4th of their GDP to prevent worse things from happening. Not every world leader has a mindset of a typical American CEO.

That's even more true in Russia. How Putin could pull out of Ukraine without some serious reason and not "lose his face" now? His 85%+ ratings are hanging on the very thin line now. Imagine - he declares that he stops all support of the separatists in the morning and resigns due to the "health problems" by the lunch.

That's not a typo, they are just some long-lost cousins of Illuminati. More green-oriented, I presume.

So true. Sorry for not engaging in conflict, but I really have nothing to add here )

Ah, that's just made my monday! Pity I've ran out of modpoints yesterday. If we'd had more people with similar views within our society, it wouldn't be so fucked up.

Hmm... and how you'll be able to grow your own food when all patents on it would belong to Monsanto and other corporations? And patent infringement would become a capital crime?

Masses of armed drones will, though.

I wish I had some mod points - there are so many misconceptions about Marx and communism that it is sometimes painful to watch. Although, if we'll take anarchism or libertarian capitalism in their extreme (and unattainable) forms, they'll result in a really nice societies as well. We'll just need a different types of people for each of these systems to work properly. Right now it seems that we have the system that we deserve, no more, no less.

Hmm... you wouldn't buy some cheap knockoff, would you? If your phone costs less than $800, it's not "premium" or "VIP" or how do they call these things nowadays. So no, prices would remain the same because people are already buying phones at current prices, and even if it will go up they'll gladly pay for the magical "status item". Lawyers and marketologists could ask for a raised salary, though.

Well, according to Dilbert it's not too hard to imagine.

That's the difference in the mentality - when we say "government corruption" or "lack of freedoms" we don't mean the same things as citizens of Canada or US do. They just don't get it why are we laughing so hard when they tell us about their "outrageous" problems at DMV or somesuch.