Update your corporate IT systems, your computers and your laptops. Updating them will help protect them from the cyberwar that Russia is unleashing. (You don’t need to go to Windows 11. Just update Windows 10.)
Talk to your preferred cyberwar vendors.
Batten down your hatches. Tell your employees and associates this is serious.
Do not open attachments from anyone without calling them and checking.
Back up everything you can onto off-line systems. I back my laptop onto flash drives and then put them in my home safe.
Of note: I’ve personally been hit in recent days with cyberwar threats. I don’t know where they came from.
The world is changing, for the worse. Joel Ross of the Ross Rant newsletter just wrote words that are beyond frightening:
Clearly I was dead wrong, and Putin was not bluffing. I had thought this was such an insane thing to actually wage all out war in Europe and change 75 years of agreements and borders, that Putin would just try to scare everyone into conceding. I had said this was 1938 all over again, and unfortunately that statement was correct.
World War III has just begun. Multiple reports out of Russia, and from McCaul, our former ambassador to Russia, say Putin has made himself totally isolated and ignoring of his own advisors who have been telling him not to go ahead with the invasion. Top Russians, including one former top advisor to Putin, say the man has changed, and is not the same person they knew. He has become a complete delusional psychopath even beyond his murderous old self, and he is now no different than Hitler. He does not care how many people die. So now we have a new Hitler with nuclear weapons and a high tech army, invading Europe. Sudetenland-Czechoslovakia 1938- Ukraine- there is no difference. This is 1938 all over again.
Putin is truly insane. What we are about to witness is tens of thousands killed, and whole cities destroyed again. Syria was just practice for Putin. Crimea just proved to him that Germany and the US were going to let him do what he wanted, and sanctions were a joke. The Germans are so dependent on Russia for energy, they will never agree to real sanctions that make a difference. They stopped Biden from shutting SWIFT. Putin does not care at all about sanctions. It is hard for me to wrap my brain around this now because it is so terrible what is about to happen. The world is about to change forever, and in very bad ways.
This is real war in Europe that will spread if the west does not rapidly rearm and push forces to the borders of Poland, Romania and the Baltics which are Putin’s next target. When I was in the Baltics three years ago, we heard from locals how Russia was even back then waging an information and psychological war to try to persuade Russians living in the Baltics to try to get control of schools to teach Russian language and Russian history. Keep in mind there are Russians all across Eastern Europe from the old days of the Soviet Union, and some are still loyal to Russia. I cannot over emphasize the danger posed by this megalomaniac.
Trump was widely criticized by Germany and the US press when he said NATO needs to rearm and get ready. The Germans ignored him. He was going to move 25,000 troops to Poland which the Pentagon and the press said was wrong. I wonder how they all feel today. …
Some people say, why should we care about Ukraine. Most people can’t even find it on a map. Tucker Carlson has railed about this. He and those who don’t understand what is happening are ignorant. Putin wants to take back eastern Europe and recreate the Soviet Union. His speech on Monday was the most frightening speech by any world leader since Hitler in front of the Reichstag. Go reread your European history books. This area of the world has been at war for hundreds of years, and Russia was fully involved in much of it. Their history is filled with wars and occupations of the surrounding areas. In fact, that is the history and culture of Russia.
If you think Ukraine does not matter you really do not understand what is happening, and how the world is about to experience a true horror of huge proportions. This is the ultimate black swan. Ukraine is a major supplier of wheat and corn to Europe as well as Russia. They also supply some critical minerals. Food inflation is about to go way up as wheat and corn are basic ingredients on many other foods. Just think breakfast cereals for a starter. With the invasion these exports stop. Think cyberwar. Something with no norms. These are not rambling thoughts, but are about to become facts. So next time Carlson says we are being taught to hate Putin, or others say why care about Ukraine, maybe you will realize why Carlson and others are ignorant. …
The entire world is at real risk now of WWIII. People are dying now in Ukraine by the thousands.
Richard Engel (I believe) said Putin was increasingly looking like the villain in James Bond movies. I couldn’t find a picture of him onstage with those clunky 1950s phones he loves.
Google “James Bond villains” and touch images. There’s a frightening resemblance.
It breaks my heart to see Ukrainians sheltering in underground subway stops and racing for the border to get out of Putin’s grip. They are saying four million refugees. Maybe a lot more. This is horrible.
That’s it for this afternoon. I’ll post more over the weekend. — Harry Newton
