It was a couple of years ago, it was virtual cards (I think one was a card given as reward by one of those legit review sites - edit: Gartner or one like those - which will reward you for providing reviews, and the other was money I had elsewhere that I converted to an Amazon card).
I remember I went through some automated process which asked me for some account details, and after a few hours (fewer than one day, I remember as much) my account was unlocked. It was scary!
What I remember puzzled me is that it was only two low-value cards. I would have understood the system being triggered by a lot of low value transactions, or a few large ones... but these were few and low value! Go figure.
Sorry I don't remember more details. All I know is it made me scared of gift cards.
Didn't Lavabit shutdown because of exactly that [1]?
So pretty sure the US secret courts can very much force companies to do just that and worse (even require them to be silent about it, which clearly is not the case in Germany).
Most european countries are rearming no? And Ukraine is just the start. EU/NATO expansionism & Russia pushing back is going to lead to wars in Belarus/Armenia/Georgia as well.
I'm sorry, what? How can anyone write such absolute nonsense?
Russia attacked Ukraine. Ukraine wasn't going to join NATO, it was explicitly stated and agreed upon years ago. Finland and Norway weren't going to join NATO, because they had zero interest in doing so. But Russia attacked Ukraine, so they applied into NATO, it's a direct consequence of Russia's actions. That's not Russia "pushing back".
Nonsense? Ukraine applied for NATO membership in 2008. NATO didn't turn them down. It was pretty evident back then that this was going to lead to a conflict.
Do I understand why Ukraine wants to join the EU and NATO? Yes, of course! Money&security!
This war was obviously a huge mistake. He's turned Ukrainians who were sympathetic towards Russia against him because they too don't want war on their doorstep.
Ukraine is a sovereign state and can apply and join whichever club it wants to join. More ex-Soviet states joining NATO was based on political decisions of sovereign states and not "the puppetmaster USA pushing to the east", which is Kreml propaganda.
IIRC in the 90s/00s they were talking about Russia joining NATO, too. After 9/11 Putin offered their well-meant help. NATO and Russia were meeting regularly in the past three decades and guess what, Russia left this meeting. Plus, NATO was always very careful arming NATO states near Russia in order to not provoke them. You cannot put this on NATO's card.
Edit: Even after annexation of Crimea, the EU (esp. Germany) tried to calm down Putin by negotiating a piece treaty between Ukraine and Russia and buying even more (cheap) Russian gas.
I expect more people will vote far right or far left as a consequence. I'm a moderate, but the centre parties that created this mess won't get my vote again.
Consider yourself lucky you're not across the sea in the Netherlands. Inflation is 14%+ and household purchasing power is below the level it was 20 years ago.
