Russian lawmakers authorize Putin to use military force outside the country

[Labster]

48 days into a 48 hour war:

-- People in Mariupol given option to evacuate into Russia
-- No other options are given
-- Technically still a choice: one that Russia made
-- Evacuation process in Russia basically goes like this:
---- Russian soldiers tell you that you are leaving, you walk to a bus
---- When you arrive, you get the full interrogation process
------ Take photos, fingerprints, and palm prints to identify people
------ Take off all your clothes
------ No gas chambers, we just want to check you for pro-Ukranian tattoos (theoretically Azov Battalion)
------ Unlock your cell phone, we need a copy of your contact list and social media friends.
---- Did you bring documentation?  If so, you can move more freely into Russia.  If not, you get sent East to camps.  Hope you bring documentation for your children, otherwise you're getting separated.
---- Do you have friends or family in Russia?  Cool!  Here's (roughly) a hundred bucks to get there.  Good luck!  (You can also buy train tickets to Finland and the Baltics.)
---- Otherwise you'll get bussed to a random destination.
-- One thing that strikes me about it is that once you get past the initial military screening, people seem to treat refugees pretty well.  Presumably, they buy into the propaganda that these are fellow Russians escaping a brutal regime.  We're not really sure how many people are being detained in that screening process.
-- The Russian military treats people atrociously
-- Lots of atrocities
-- Russia has abandoned the siege of Kiev; all forces seem to have left the area (except mines, of course)
-- Mines are every where.  Mines in cars, mines on doors, mines in bars, mines on floors, mines in fields, mines on roads, mines with yields, mines on toads.
-- Mass graves found in several villages and smaller cities surrounding Kiev: Buzova, Bucha, Irpin, Severodonetsk, Lysychansk and probably tons of other places I've never heard of
-- In Mariupol, 21000 civilians dead so far.  Lots more to go.
-- Were there chemical weapons in Mariupol?  Magic 8-ball: Reply hazy, but will dissipate soon.
-- Fighting intensifies in the Donbas, Mariupol, Kharkiv -- all in the East.  Russia can only manage one front.
-- Quick, Japan, take back the Kurils while they're distracted!
-- Russia names new top general, Alexander Dvornikov, six weeks in.  This guy has lots of experience killing civilians in Syria, and will presumably use it to kill civilians in Ukraine.
-- About 60 people killed in a train station bombing.  I mean, you could bomb the tracks and also achieve the objective, but why not kill a bunch of civilians why you're at it?
-- Losses of 20000 to the Russian Army, more than in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
-- Russian Army trying to recall people to service discharged up to a decade ago
-- Russia attempting to recruit Transnistrians to their army.
-- Anyone willing to die for the cause?  We already had a lot of people die for the cause, so we need more.
-- If you don't know anything about Transnistria, it's basically the Ukraine situation as of January, reproduced in miniature in Moldova.  There are Russian brigades inside of Moldova on Ukraine's west flank, probably trying not to draw attention to themselves so Ukraine doesn't have an excuse to wipe them out.
-- Heavy rain is in the forecast, will likely force Russians out of the mud.  Bayraktar looking forward to seeing you on the roads, Russians.
-- Russian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk captured attempting to escape from Ukraine in a Ukrainian army uniform, after weeks in hiding.  He is the head of Ukraine's largest opposition party, which was suspended a couple weeks back.  Putin is his daughter's godfather.
-- Dutch seize 20 yachts in drydock, 14 of which are still under construction.  Why so many yachts?  Are they how Russians measure dick size?
-- Biden makes analogy which indirectly calls this a genocide.
-- Government spokesmen immediately clarify he didn't mean it and it's not a change in US policy
-- Biden clarifies that yes, it does appear to be a genocide, but he'll let the lawyers decide for sure
-- Facepalming at the State Department
-- @ZelenskyyUa - "True words of a true leader @POTUS. Calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil." (P.S. send more weapons)
-- There are two types of genocide: the first is the kill 'em all form the Nazis used, and the second is the use of violence to compel people to join the your culture and renounce a previous culture.  It's obviously the second kind, just like the US and Canada's genocide of the natives.
-- Peace talks going nowhere fast, literally no one surprised
-- German President Steinmeier declared persona non grata by Ukraine
-- Europeans stop buying coal from Russia (really? this should have happened 20 years ago)
-- Europeans still filling their cars with Treblinker fluid
-- Russian gas still flowing to Europe faster than gas through an Auschwitz shower head
-- Basically Europeans are bankrolling atrocities because of the economy
-- A dozen cars drive down the M50 in Ireland with big Z's on the side, and Russian flags flying.  Sunday drivers!
-- Finland looks likely to join NATO in the next couple of months.  Welcome, friends!