State Dept. Layoffs Hit Russia and Ukraine Analysts

State Dept. Layoffs Hit Russia and Ukraine Analysts

foolishness

Silent Service YouTube video by James Osyf

please watch this
it will give you hope
we can fight back
and we will win

my great friend James Osyf launched his Congressional campaign today and what a great story he has. Watch the video at jamesosyf.com

Are We Serious About Chinese Spying? - SMERCONISH While the U.S. fixates on TikTok's potential security risks, it neglects the urgent threat posed by Chinese cyber-penetration of critical infrastructure, including telecom networks.

www.smerconish.com/exclusive-co...

Then let us pray that come it may,
   (As come it will for a’ that,)
That Sense and Worth, o’er a’ the earth,
   Shall bear the gree, an’ a’ that.
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
   It’s coming yet for a’ that,
That Man to Man, the world o’er,
   Shall brothers be for a’ that.

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer;
A-chasing the wild-deer, and followingthe roe,
My heart's in the Highlands wherever I go.

O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
An’ foolish notion:
What airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us,
And ev’n Devotion

Its Robbie Burns Night

Hypocritical for Congress to go after Tik Tok | CNN Richard Clarke, the nation’s first Cyber Czar and a former White House Counterterrorism Coordinator, explains the irony from Capitol Hill on banning Tik Tok when lawmakers allow Chinese entities to ac...

I recently spoke with Michael Smerconish on CNN about the national security considerations of a TikTok ban. I discussed the hypocrisy of Congress targeting TikTok while neglecting regulations to secure phone companies, and raised concerns about data collection and covert manipulation of news.

It’s alarming that Speaker Johnson is letting the GOP’s isolationist wing cashier one of his best committee chairs.

regjeringen.no For the first time, Norwegian F-35s fly with sustainable fuel News Date: 10.01.20251 Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Climate and Environment Minister of Defense Bjørn Arild Gram (Sp) and Minister of Climate and Environment Andreas Bjelland Eriksen (Ap) invite the press to a celebration and technical day about sustainable fuel in Norwegian F-35 fighter jets at Ørland Air Station on Wednesday, January 15. Photo: Onar Dignernes Aase/The Armed Forces

how lovely

Royally Zucked What Zuckerberg's capitulation means for the truth and our democracy

Meta's Mark Zuckerberg has joined Elon Musk in allowing disinformation to flourish on his platforms in order to gain Donald Trump's favor. It’s about to get very ugly on Facebook.

Hegseth’s snarly dismissal of JAGs as people who place their promotions above our warfighters is really disgusting.

What the Post investigation of facial recognition shows is bad police work, not that the technology should not be used. It is one tool, not dispositive.

Arrested by AI: Police ignore standards after facial recognition matches Confident in unproven facial recognition technology, sometimes investigators skip steps; at least eight Americans have been wrongfully arrested.

www.washingtonpost.com/business/int...

Ideal gift for anyone in nukes, the defense biz or any sort of consultant: my novel A CAPITAL CALAMITY, which has been likened to Dr Strangelove, Catch-22, Veep, Thank You for Smoking. “A joyful romp…brilliant and irresistible,”’says Joe Weisberg, creator of The Americans.
#NukeSky
fredkaplan.info

Can confirm.

Lawfare Daily: The Return of the Syrian Civil War YouTube video by Lawfare

Dan Byman sat down with Charles Lister to explain what is going on in Syria, who the major players are, and more on today's @lawfare.bsky.social Daily. Watch their conversation here:

Armagnac: the secret bargain of the spirit world Armagnac, cognac’s less-celebrated cousin, boasts big, irresistible, fruity flavours, and gives you much more bang for your buck The seemingly staid world of armagnac was well and truly disrupted earlier this year by the arrival of a brand called…

Armagnac: the secret bargain of the spirit world

@MiddleEastEye: Charles Lister, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, says the explosion of hundreds of pagers commonly used by Hezbollah was an attack that “would seem to suggest that Israel was either baiting Hezbollah into forcing the issue, or into starting it itself”. https://t.co/bwYMKJ9

America’s Strategic Drift in the Middle East: An Assessment of the Biden Administration’s Policy One Year Into the Israel-Hamas War The United States is trapped in a reactive Middle East policy approach of its own making one year into a regional war that continues to expand.

What sort of grades does the Biden administration deserve for the way it’s dealt with the Middle East? Brian Katulis at the Middle East Institute gives a less than rosy assessment, to say the least. www.mei.edu/publications...

How Donald Trump might tackle the Middle East in 2025 Former President Donald J. Trump won the 2024 US presidential election and will return to the White House on Jan. 20. Upon taking power, his administration will likely face a Middle East in turmoil, with wars in Gaza and potentially...

How Donald Trump might tackle the Middle East in 2025
->Middle East Institute | #Fascist #ConvictedFelon | More info from EcoSearch

Listening to Ian Moss(former State CT), Shiraz Maher (ICSR) @icsr.bsky.social and Charles Lister at an Middle East Institute event in San Francisco on ISIS repatriation

Den of Spies The explosive inside story of the October Surprise conspiracy, a stunning act of treason that changed American history. New York Times bestselling author Craig Unger reveals his thirty-year investigat...

Apple Books:
"What if the scariest political thriller you ever read were a true story? ...Unger brings a stunning amount of research to the table, but he constructs his narrative like an expert thriller." www.harpercollins.com/products/den...

A Capital Calamity: A Novel: Kaplan, Fred: 9781939282545: Amazon.com: Books A Capital Calamity: A Novel [Kaplan, Fred] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A Capital Calamity: A Novel

Jeffrey Lewis (@armscontrolwonk.bsky.social) calls my new novel A CAPITAL CALAMITY "a Jane-Austen-meets-Dr-Strangelove comedy of DC manners... It's very very funny--and serious." www.amazon.com/Capital-Cala...

Gabbard's sympathetic views toward Russia cause alarm as Trump's pick to lead intelligence services Donald Trump's pick for director of national intelligence is facing scrutiny over her past remarks that supported Kremlin propaganda about Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Democrats said Gabbard's visit with Assad, the Syrian dictator, helped legitimize a leader accused of war crimes who has served as a proxy and host for Russia and Iran..."
apnews.com/article/gabb...

No vetting at all, no background checks, and then blanket security clearances for all.

Agencies holding national security sensitive material are presumably thinking very hard right now about what material they're going to leave behind in the files on Jan 20...
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Alabuga Drone Plant: A Case Study of Key Relationships Enabling The Alabuga Special Economic Zone (SEZ), an entity overseeing an industrial campus in Russia’s Tatarstan region, operates a drone plant under contract with the Russian military to manufacture

The Alabuga Drone Plant: A Case Study of Key Relationships Enabling Iranian Support for Russian Military Production
On 8 November, Iran Watch published this case study about the Alabuga Special Economic Zone (SEZ), an industrial campus in Russia’s Tatarstan region
www.iranwatch.org/our-publicat...

Google is releasing huge new Android update early – to fix a major problem Google is speeding up the release of its Android operating system – in the hope of fixing one of the biggest problems with the phones running it.

www.independent.co.uk/tech/google-...

Palo Alto tops revenue and profit estimates on steady cybersecurity demand Palo Alto Networks beat Wall Street expectations for first-quarter revenue and profit on Wednesday, owing to healthy spending for its cybersecurity services amid a rise in digital threats.However, shares of the Santa Clara, California-based company fell over 5 per cent in extended trading. Palo Alto forec

Palo Alto tops revenue and profit estimates on steady cybersecurity demand - www.channelnewsasia.com/business/palo-alto-tops-...