We know what’s coming and we are prepared.
Is it possible that NATO forces could become directly involved in the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine?
Until recently, such a question seemed very hypothetical given the high risks of escalation of the military confrontation between the US-led bloc and Russia into a large-scale armed conflict. But this scenario should be taken seriously now, writes Ivan Timofeev, programme director of the Valdai Club
“A significant escalation factor that would amplify the risk of a direct clash between Russia and NATO, could be the appearance of military contingents form bloc members on the territory of Ukraine. The prospect of such a scenario has already been mentioned by some Western politicians, although their view has not been supported by the US and isn’t an official NATO position.”
“Each of these scenarios involves a direct clash between Russian and NATO forces. Such a situation would inevitably raise the question of deeper bloc involvement and, in the longer term, the transfer of military conflict to other areas of contact with Russia, including the Baltic region. At this stage, it will be even more difficult to stop the escalation. The more losses both sides suffer, the more the maelstrom of hostilities will grow and the closer they will come to the threshold of using nuclear weapons. And there will be no winners.”
https://www.rt.com/russia/599286-russia-nato-ukraine-conflict/
All:
I had this long email about recent observations and what I think it means for America's future, but this anecdote captures it all.
As most of you know, I work in cyber security. One of my tasks is to manage my organization's anti-phishing tools.
Recently, I got a request to block a domain by user because we flagged the email as spam. The domain is related to a big box store's marketing emails and services. One key service is order management and delivery. All these emails were being appropriately placed in this user's Junk folder. After telling him that's how email marked as spam is handled, he insisted I block all emails from this domain because their unsubscribe feature asked for too much information (email, name, last purchase, etc.). While it would annoy me, I'd just leave it going to my Junk folder, or create a local rule to delete all mail from said domain. Instead, the user continues to insist I apply a solution to the whole organization to take care of his annoyance.
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🇺🇸 the Guardian: We ran high-level US civil war simulations. Minnesota is exactly how they start
⬛️ Developments in Minnesota closely mirror a scenario explored in a 2024 exercise conducted at the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law at the University of Pennsylvania, which I direct
🔶️ Governor Walz has placed the Minnesota national guard on standby to support local law enforcement, while Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act – an extraordinary move that would grant him sweeping domestic military powers and potentially sidestep recent supreme court limits on the use of federal troops in law enforcement. One thousand additional ICE agents have been sent to Minnesota, suggesting that Trump is essentially using ICE as a specialized paramilitary force to target protesters and suppress dissent. And the Pentagon has readied the army’s 11th Airborne Division – roughly 1,500 active-duty soldiers – to back up the president’s threat.
🔶️ This scenario closely...
