Russian lawmakers authorize Putin to use military force outside the country

[Labster]

Earlier this week, Canada approved the export of six gas turbines to Germany in order to have them installed in a Russian pipeline.

Today, Conservative and NDP members of the Commons standing foreign affairs committee have already called Cabinet ministers to appear before the committee to explain why Canada is breaching the sanctions against Russia.

For our American readers, this is the equivalent of Mitch McConnell and Bernie Sanders agreeing on something political in public.

This is how politics is supposed to work, folks - set aside partisan differences to serve the public interest.

Because Canada shipped it back, Germany had to be the one to not return The Turbine to Russia.  Which means Russia said "oh no, we can't send more gas without The Turbine" and cut deliveries over the Nord Stream 1 pipeline from 40% down to 20% of normal.  Living in California, I'm quite familiar with how these "maintenance issues" always seem to occur when prices are rising so the oil company adds a supply squeeze to their profits.  There were EU proposals to conserve gas, but for some reason, all of the countries in the south were wondering why they had to pay for bad economic decisions by northern countries.  It's almost as if people are mad about 2009 still.  Eventually they passed a more toothless version of the bill to conserve gas.  And all because Trudeau couldn't hold onto The Turbine for a couple more months.

Which all might make you wonder, why doesn't Russia make its own turbine?  Well, let's take a look at Russian engineering.  Here's a barrel from a Russian APC, somewhat less than centered.  Or what artillery barrels look like after firing a few hundred rounds.  Things seem to have gotten worse since the communists left, or at least differently worse, as corruption meant that military hardware never has quality.  The other point here is that sanctions work: Russia has not been able to buy high grade steel from the West since they invaded Crimea.

-- Ukrainian women fighting for their country, with flowers in their uniform
-- Inside Ukraine’s covert operation to take out elite Wagner Group mercenaries in Donbas  These "orchestra musicians" set up shop in a stadium, while a local spy living in occupied Luhansk oblast for eight years was more than happy to share their location.
-- US Congresscritters Rand Paul and Tulsi Gabbard placed on Ukrainian government's list of Russian propagandists, joining Glenn Greenwald.  Note that I identified her as a Russian asset in a forum post two and a half years ago so it's no surprise.
-- Speaking of bipartisanship, an op-ed by Sens. Graham and Blumenthal: US must designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism
-- Russia to withdraw from International Space Station in 2024, says it will build its own much better space station, presumably with turbines from Canada.
-- Ukraine to file war crimes case against executives of Citi, Chase, HSBC
-- Antonovsky Bridge crossing the Dnipro river outside of Kherson gets a bunch of small holes put in it by Ukranian rockets.  Not enough to close the bridge, but enough to prevent heavy armored vehicles from using it.
-- Please leave your armor and stolen household appliances behind as you exit the country
-- Russians repair the bridge, and start shipping the tanks across the river over night (a couple hours ago).  This ends predictably badly as the missiles rain down and people start dying.  We're not yet sure if the bridge is destroyed, or just the stuff on top of the bridge.
-- To be fair, the Russian military did intercept the missiles, just with tanks instead of rockets
-- Midnight train to Kaliningrad arrives, after EU caves to Russia on export rules
-- Gerhard Schroeder is in Moscow, just taking in the vibes and shit

EDIT: Because this happens so rarely in politics, I need to take my victory lap. I was right, and Rajvik was wrong, and the war proved it. Tulsi is a Russian agent who spreads Russian propaganda enough to get a country at war with Russia to notice her antics, while Bernie votes to give weapons to the Ukrainians.