Russian lawmakers authorize Putin to use military force outside the country, Part II

[Labster]

Like, there's safe and then there's safe.  I mean, I'm safe here in America even though there's a mass shooting every other day.  And our bridges seem to fall down randomly too, so we have some infrastructure problems.

Anyway back to Ukraine...

-- The Kerch Bridge to Crimea did another oopsie tonight.  All we know for sure is that it's closed both ways.
-- Was it bombed, or did it just break where the cracks were?  Was it just a shitty Russian repair job?
-- Kerch bridge fucked itself
-- This is a real, honest to God, Ukrainian postage stamp
-- Ukrainian lines have advanced enough to collect some lost Bradley tanks.
-- Don't worry, Russian propagandists have taken plenty of angles so they can keep claiming that they're destroying lots of tanks.
-- Ukraine has lost a lot of tanks in the offensive, with estimates around 25%.  What it has not lost is a lot of soldiers in those tanks, because they don't explode like Russian tanks (and Russian bridges)
-- Taiwan is sending HAWK SAMs to Ukraine, bought back but Uncle Sam.  50 year old missiles against 60 year old planes sounds about right (but really they're mostly 1980s upgrade)
-- Guy who carved name in the Roman Colosseum may be from England, but he's named Ivan Dimitrov.  Just saying.
-- Ukraine building 150km pipeline to restore water after dam destroyed
-- Ukraine finally fielding a few of its native-built NATO-compatible (155mm) artillery
-- The Black Sea grain deal is deader than disco.
-- Turkey suggests it might send warships to guard grain, but this seems likely to be bluster.  Meanwhile, new trade routes have been developed over the past year.
-- Russia withdraws nearly all of its troops from Belarus, while a small contingent of Wagners starts training Belarusians.
-- It's starting to look like the compromise between Putin and Prigozhin is that Wagner would keep its forces in Africa, but keep out of the Ukraine war.  Honestly this makes more sense if you start thinking in feudal terms.
-- Actually as usual Russia thinking in feudal terms is exactly why they don't understand the status-quo coalition and why war after the 19th century is a sucker's game.
-- Honestly in retrospect the NATO summit was a fucking triumph.  Zelensky and Erdogan were both stirring shit up, and by the end of it we're all one big happy family