[What'saCobra?]

Beck is a seriously sick freak, as he insists. Thanks.

We operated in the land of the Rus from 1987 to 1997. It was a wild and crazy time. Most of our late twenties or thirty-something Rus were very well educated, had a strong command of English and had been engineer/scientists, now wanting business Americanski experience.

We never missed being paid in hard currency and typically took a 2000 person company down to a real good 150 person company that was effective in whatever industry they had unique/original expertise. We would pay the rest for a few years to stay home and "study" and save heating and lighting empty plant spaces.

We frequently joked that we had enough specialist knowledge that we could develop special devices, should we have chosen to do so, rather than more mundane products and service of regular commercial utility. Several of us had that background, but kept the jokes to a minimum, as things have a way of getting out of control, y'know?

Dealing with the government was like dealing with the longshoremen's union. Made dealing with the FORD union at the Cleveland plant comparatively easy. The UAW was far better educated and more finely focused. But, the Soviet/nationalist "leaders" were easier with which to find accommodation. Output spoke louder than any other single accomplishment. Cleveland had way too many conflicting goals and objectives to find easier solutions.

Don't forget... if the lights go out in the machine shop, duck! So, when the New Russian political lights were flickering in 1997, i came on home to discover many American business mores were forever changed as a result of the Clintonian Rules of Public Disarray and Dis-order.

To think that i used to give my Christmas Party lecture describing the common US/Russian historical threads, particularly regarding John Paul Jones's Father of the US Navy and also of the first modern Russian Navy under Catherine the Great. As Melville wrote, perhaps America was the John Paul Jones of nations and the great Whore-Meistress Catherine knew that about both subjects.

Ford was trying previously to sell Russia a car factory, but could not match the cheap Italian FIAT/LADA combination. A great lost opportunity. They apparently didn't need my help.

It just seems a bloody shame that FORD today is in such awful straits; but many predicted that their fickle on/off approach to projects and programs would sooner or later spell too much wasted time, money and opportunity.