Andra Mount

[Andra Mount @amount1963]

If you're interested in learning more about economics and political thought, listen to Words & Numbers podcast on your favorite app, and join us on Words & Numbers Backstage. https://t.co/ICNjC8mCoV
#WordsandNumbers @antonydavies @JamesRHarrigan

[James R. Harrigan @JamesRHarrigan]

Apparently said with no self-awareness whatsoever.

[Maia Sandu @sandumaiamd]

Hours before Moldova marks 35 years of independence, our airspace was repeatedly violated by Russian drones. I strongly condemn this intimidation.

Moldova stands tall, independent and free, firmly on its path to join the EU.

[Latvia 🇱🇻 in Canada @LV_Canada]

On 26 August 1991, Canada became the first G7 country to restore diplomatic relations with Latvia. We are grateful to our friend and ally for its unwavering support over the years and today, making an invaluable contribution to our security! 🇱🇻🤝🇨🇦

[Aaron Parnas @AaronParnas]

I totally envision Trump renaming the San Andreas Fault to Joe Biden’s Fault, and I am just putting this out there so I can say I predicted it one day.

[Billy Binion @billybinion]

The president of the United States should be above trolling our allies.

[Phil Magness @PhilWMagness]

I'm just gonna go ahead and post this preemptively to save him the inevitable "you haven't read Marx!" gaffe.

[Andra Mount @amount1963]

@JamesRHarrigan Don't stop believing. I'm certain we can find new lows!

[James R. Harrigan @JamesRHarrigan]

Just when you thought it couldn't get any dumber.

[Luke Coffey @LukeDCoffey]

It is easier to defend the Baltic states and deter Russian aggression than it will be to liberate them.

[Thorstrike @rospigge60559]

Europe is quietly building a nuclear Plan B.
This would have sounded extraordinary only a few years ago.
Germany is reportedly discussing helping finance Britain's nuclear deterrent — while also considering deploying German conventional forces, potentially Patriot batteries, to protect Faslane, home of Britain's ballistic-missile submarines.
https://t.co/HN7f8rKCl3
At the same time, Germany and France have established a Nuclear Steering Group.
German forces will participate in a French nuclear exercise this year, while Berlin and Paris are examining how conventional forces, deep-strike weapons and missile defence should interact with nuclear deterrence.
https://t.co/K5t66ayGZI
Britain and Germany are also developing a new family of deep-strike weapons with ranges beyond 2,000 km.
https://t.co/lN3Jx1XMSE
None of this means Europe is abandoning NATO.
And it certainly doesn't mean Germany is building the bomb.
It means Europe is beginning to hedge.
For 80 years, European security rested on one fundamental assumption:
🇺🇸 If the worst happens, America will be there.
European governments increasingly appear unwilling to leave the answer to that question entirely in Washington.
🇬🇧 British nuclear forces
🇫🇷 French nuclear forces
🇩🇪 German money, industry and conventional protection
🇪🇺 European deep strike and missile defence
The pieces are beginning to fit together.
Europe isn't building a replacement for NATO.
It's building insurance against uncertainty.

[Tom Wright @thomaswright08]

My new piece in @TheAtlantic on the CIA director's trip to Russia and where we are in the Ukraine war.

Gift link:
https://t.co/9LPKgYWsVY

[Thorstrike @rospigge60559]

Something has changed in the Baltic security picture.

Last week, the US led an unusually sophisticated air operation around Kaliningrad.

Fighters.
Tankers.
AWACS.
ARTEMIS II intelligence collection.
EA-37B Compass Call electronic warfare.

Officially: planned training and deterrence.

Then something unusual happened.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe flew to Moscow.

We now know why.

According to the Wall Street Journal, CBS and ABC, Ratcliffe was sent to warn Russia not to attack NATO following new US intelligence assessments that Moscow could attempt a limited action to test the Alliance's resolve.

Reporting indicates that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were specifically discussed.

That makes the timing difficult to ignore.

There is no evidence that last week's NATO air operation and Ratcliffe's mission were parts of the same operation.

But they make considerably more sense when viewed against the same intelligence picture.

Capability was demonstrated in the Baltic.

The warning was delivered in Moscow.

And there is an uncomfortable historical echo.

In November 2021, CIA Director William Burns travelled to Moscow to warn Russia against invading Ukraine.

Three months later, Russian forces crossed the border.

History doesn't have to repeat itself.

But when intelligence chiefs start personally delivering warnings, it is worth paying attention.

[Prof. Bonk 🇺🇦 Perverse & Unintended Consequences @actfast]

🧵America is running out of critical munitions in two separate wars. So, CIA Director John Ratcliffe secretly landed in Moscow, bypassed Putin entirely, and locked himself in a room with Russian spies to deliver a stark warning: do not touch NATO. 1/🧵

[John Cleese @JohnCleese]

When the USSR collapsed, all the countries that had been behind the 'iron curtain' - the Warsaw pact countries - became democratic and elected their leaders, replacing the leaders that the USSR had imposed on them since 1948

These newly elected governments, aware of how ruthless their USSR puppet governments had been, decided to join NATO, to defend themselves against the return of Russian domination

This spread of democracy panicked the Russians,
who feared that democracy might dismantle the
authoritarian tradition that has been in place there
since the Communists set out to impose Communism on the rest of the world

Or, later, in the case of Putin, his aim to create the USSR once again

[Phil Magness @PhilWMagness]

"Viewpoint diversity" in academia be like:

[Michael Weiss @michaeldweiss]

And now we know:

[Rep. Don Bacon 🇺🇸✈️🏍️⭐️🎖️ @RepDonBacon]

One of the most important actions we can take for deterrence is for the Pentagon to follow President Trump’s orders to return the 5,000 troops back to Poland and the Baltics. This is deterrence. The Pentagon has dragged its feet for 3 months on this.

[Phil Magness @PhilWMagness]

We have "diverse perspectives" in the Ivy League English Department. You can study Orthodox Marxism, Marxist Critical Theory, Postcolonial Marxism, Feminist Marxism, Marxism-Leninism, Trotskyite Marxism, Gramscian Marxism, Ecosocialism, and Anticapitalism!

[OSINTdefender @sentdefender]

According to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Russia to warn against attacking a NATO country, which out of all the speculative scenarios in the information-space since the meet, was the most likely. It’s yet unclear if any specific consequences, outside of the already in place NATO Article 5 commitment framework, was communicated to Russian decision-makers.

[laurence norman @laurnorman]

Latvia’s PM just now, without disclosing details, called Ratcliffe visit to Moscow “a very good signal and I think it’s very good news.”