“It Is Not a Matter of If, but When the Lights Go Out” by Dave Hodges The evidence is mounting by the day. The United States is on the verge of a power grid failure. It seems that everyone in the “club” knows this fact except for you and me. Who could forget when George Carlin once reminded us that, “we ain’t in the ____ club”. Maybe we should pay attention to what the members of the “club” are saying. My overwhelming fear for my fellow Americans is that the power grid will fail, as some important people are predicting, and millions of us will be unprepared. We could experience massive civil unrest and be forced into a perpetual state of martial law. A nation without power, food and normal police protection could literally be reduced to an environment with all of the societal safety protections of a Somalia where chaos and social disorder reigns supreme. Janet Napolitano Issues a Dire Warning A massive and “serious” cyber attack on the U.S. homeland is coming, and a natural disaster , the likes of which the nation has never seen is also likely and on its way. -- Outgoing DHS Director, Janet Napolitano, August 27, 2013 Departing Department of Homeland Security director, Janet Napolitano, stated during her farewell speech that it was a matter of “when” the power grid would collapse, not “if”, due to a cyber-based attack. The centralization of control over the rapidly emerging smart grid, centered around smart meters, certainly increases the odds that a centralized attack would take down the entire power grid. According to Napolitano, the grid has never been more vulnerable to an attack from hackers. Napolitano’s August warning of a power grid takedown was not her first. In the early part of this year, Napolitano stated that a cyber 9/11 attack is imminent. A believable justification for Napolitano’s unanticipated departure as DHS director has never been revealed. Given her very public and ominous warnings about an impending cyber grid takedown in the US, might be the main impetus for her departure from the position of DHS director. During her tenure as DHS director, she has done next to nothing to prevent such an attack upon our power grid and infrastructure. Perhaps this modern-day version of Nero is exiting Rome before it burns to the ground. What Do Safeway and Walmart Know That We Don’t? In a case of judging a man by what he does, not what he says, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently reported that several major corporations, including Walmart and Safeway, are unplugging from the grid. This recent development should be extremely troubling for all Americans who are closely paying attention to the upcoming Grid EX II drill this week. The WSJ article went on to state that these corporations are becoming energy independent because they do not want to be in a position to trust the reliability of the power grid. This is certainly a legitimate possibility raised by the WSJ. However, since this is a recent trend, and the unplugging of major corporations from the power grid is a trend which coincides with the announced Grid EX II drill which is commencing on November 13th, one has to wonder if these monolithic corporations don’t know something that the rest of us should know. Adding fuel to the fire, other notables such as Verizon Communications and Edison International are also unplugging from the grid. Although the WSJ went on to focus on the notion that the recent trend of self-power generation is hurtful to utility companies and cuts into their bottom line, there are other lingering concerns. This could certainly be true, but again, the timing is certainly suspect. Conclusion I agree with good “ole Big Sis”, Janet Napolitano, it is not a matter “if” the grid is going down, it is a matter of “when”. I would just encourage everyone to take a couple of extra precautions. Dave is an award winning psychology, statistics and research professor, a college basketball coach, a mental health counselor, a political activist and writer who has published dozens of editorials and articles in several publications such as Freedoms Phoenix, News With Views and The Arizona Republic.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 16:48:26 +0000
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