Semi-historical expressions

[liesoverthesea.livejournal.com]

Hi everyone!  There are a couple of expressions I remember hearing in my Soviet history class, and I was wondering if anyone here could refresh my memory as to the context of these expressions and how they were originally said (in Russian).

1) "We wanted better, but we ended up with 'like always'"

2) "They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work"

Thanks!

(no subject)

[olydiagron.livejournal.com]

Hi!
It would b so great if anybody native speaker could comment my russian. I have a lj in russian, and it would be great to use it as away to make my russina better. I will post one of my entries as a comment to this psot.
amanda

(no subject)

[schlagen.livejournal.com]

Could somebody help me make sense of this sentence?

в конце концов появился кто-то из обшепитовского начальства, устало оценил обстановку и уборщицу увел. девушка в третий раз взяла ручку.

Thanks very much in advance.

EDIT: one more question.

Any ideas what 'псиxикой' means in this sentence? I understand the rest of the sentence, except that one word.

если бы ее не тянули назад люди с навсегда изуродованной псиxикой - наследием десятилетий тоталитаризма.