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Fuagf, I do not care about parties it is nonsensical they are all the same and play us all for fools thinking they actually hate one another. They take their turns playing for the cameras all the while fooling you all the way to their bank accounts. Parties has zero place in the survival of this species. Believe me it has nothing to do with it. It is us only that matters not them. So I really do not wish constant wasted time on earth about one party or another, take you’re pick they are all the same people. Not you and not me. They do not speak for me at all.
Yes those will melt all the satellites and make zero electronics work at all on earth.
You all do know what global warming does right?
Creates more water on the planet and what does more water on the planet give you? Another Ice Age is what it gives you.
Good luck to all here with your futures. Living is a risky business.
By the way all this electric vehicle nonsense going on will be made totally useless by either EMP nuclear or the sun. As well as the fact to power these chargers now adds load to all the electrical grids in the US and elsewhere loads which were never accounted for in their design and sizing snd their loads are continuous operating at three or more hours most of them six to eight hours. I will be perfectly content in my cheap gasoline powered Chevy going down the road looking at all those dumb millennials in their fancy non operational Tesla junk heaps. Good luck with that hey!!!!
True but the Tridents will be simply giving their positions away by firing and they would be by then protecting most of what will be destroyed. Kind of moot point at that point in time. But your comment is correct for if it would matter at all except to the folks on the sub only.
https://www.energy.gov/articles/president-trump-signs-executive-order-resilience-against-electromagnetic-pulses
Your favorite human.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - On March 26, 2019, President Trump signed an Executive Order (E.O.) establishing the first ever comprehensive whole-of-government policy to build resilience and protect against electromagnetic pulses, or EMPs – temporary electromagnetic signals that can disrupt, degrade, and damage technology and critical infrastructure systems across large areas.
This E.O. directs action to protect key systems, networks, and assets that are most at risk from an EMP in a dynamic threat environment, and will aid in preparedness against EMP events through increased public and private coordination and planning.
“EMPs are a threat to our national security and energy security. The Executive Order sends a clear message to adversaries that the United States takes this threat seriously,” said Energy Secretary Rick Perry. “As the Sector-Specific Agency for the energy sector, the Department of Energy will work with our Federal and private sector partners to reduce the threats EMP events pose to the Nation.”
The E.O. is aligned with the Administration’s broad efforts to secure our Nation’s critical infrastructure from all threats and hazards, including the National Cyber Strategy; directs Federal agencies to clearly define roles and responsibilities; and increases coordination and information sharing between Federal and non-Federal stakeholders.
The E.O. directs action in five areas to reduce the risk that EMPs pose to U.S. critical technology and infrastructure systems: (1) identify national critical functions and associated priority critical infrastructure at greatest risk from EMPs; (2) improve understanding of EMP effects; (3) evaluate approaches to mitigate the effects of EMPs; (4) strengthen critical infrastructure to withstand the effects of EMPs; and (5) improve national response to EMP events. It also promotes government and private sector innovation, directing the Federal agencies to further the research and development necessary to build the Nation’s resilience to EMP events.
“Reducing the risk of EMPs requires not only increased coordination across government and industry, but also increased innovation,” said Under Secretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes. “DOE’s unique assessment and modeling capabilities and the world-class capabilities and expertise at our National Laboratories has played, and will continue to play, an important role in securing our Nation against this formidable threat.”
That too is a reality one sunburst will ruin our day as well as nuclear weapons super blast above the ground which is the danger, not hitting the earth but bursting above it. The sun also plays a major role in electronic disruptions on our planet, we are very small comparatively the rest of this universe. VERY SMALL
https://www.livescience.com/air-force-emp-attacks-protection.html
US Air Force is guarding against electromagnetic pulse attacks. Should we worry?
By Edd Gent published March 11, 2021
A U.S. Air Force base in Texas has taken the first steps to guard against an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack. But what, exactly, is an EMP, and how big is the threat?
Officials at the Joint Base San Antonio in Lackland, Texas, issued a request for bids to carry out a survey of a facility called the Petroleum, Oil and Lubrication Complex. The survey will identify any equipment that could be vulnerable to an EMP ahead of more detailed vulnerability testing, according to the request. After that, officials would figure out ways to keep that equipment safe in the event of an EMP attack.
What is an EMP?
An EMP is a massive burst of electromagnetic energy that can occur naturally or be generated deliberately using nuclear weapons. While many experts don't think EMPs pose a big threat, some people argue that these types of weapons could be used to cause widespread disruption to electricity-dependent societies.
"You can use a single weapon to collapse the entire North American power grid," said defense analyst Peter Pry, who served on the Congressional EMP Commission, which was set up to assess the threat of EMP attacks but shut down in 2017.
"Once the electric grid goes down, everything would collapse," Pry told Live Science. "Everything depends on electricity: telecommunications, transportation, even water."
According to the request, the testing at Lackland comes in response to a 2019 executive order issued by then-President Donald Trump for the federal government to strengthen its infrastructure against EMPs. Pry, who has consulted on the project, said the survey and resulting upgrades are part of a broader initiative by the U.S. Air Force to beef up its defenses against this type of threat.
Why EMPs are so dangerous
An EMP releases huge waves of electromagnetic energy, which can act like a giant moving magnet. Such a changing magnetic field can cause electrons in a nearby wire to move, thereby inducing a current. With such a huge burst of energy, an EMP can cause damaging power surges in any electronics within range.
These pulses can occur deliberately or naturally. Natural EMPs occur when the sun occasionally spits out massive streams of plasma, and if they come our way, Earth's natural magnetic field can deflect them. But when the sun spits out enough plasma at once, the impact can cause the magnetic field to wobble and generate a powerful EMP. The last time this happened was in 1859 in the so-called Carrington Event, and while electronics were still rare then, it knocked out much of the recently built telegraph network.
Then, there's the possibility of deliberate EMPs. If a nuclear weapon were to be detonated high in the atmosphere, Pry said, the gamma radiation it would release could strip electrons from air molecules and accelerate them at close to the speed of light. These charge-carrying electrons would be corralled by Earth's magnetic field, and as they zipped around, they would generate a powerful, fluctuating electric current, which, in turn, would generate a massive EMP. The explosion could also distort Earth's magnetic field, causing a slower pulse similar to a naturally occuring EMP.
Setting off a nuclear weapon about 200 miles (300 kilometers) above the U.S. could create an EMP that would cover most of North America, Pry said. The explosion and radiation from the bomb would dissipate before reaching ground level, but the resulting EMP would be powerful enough to destroy electronics across the region, Pry said. "If you were standing on the ground directly beneath the detonation, you wouldn't even hear it go off," Pry said. "The EMP would pass harmlessly through your body."
A small EMP with a radius of under a kilometer can also be generated by combining high-voltage power sources with antennas that release this energy as electromagnetic waves. The U.S. military has a cruise missile carrying an EMP generator. Called the Counter-Electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP), it can be used to target specific enemy facilities, and Pry said it would be within the capabilities of many militaries, or even terrorist groups, to build an EMP generator.
"We've arrived at a place where a single individual can topple the technological pillars of civilization for a major metropolitan area all by himself armed with some device like this," he said.
The technology required to protect against EMPs is similar to what is already used to prevent damage from power surges caused by lightning, Pry said. These technologies would have to be adapted to deal with higher voltages, but devices such as surge protectors, which divert excess voltage into the Earth, or Faraday cages, which shield devices from electromagnetic radiation, could do the job.
Pry said the EMP Commission estimated it would cost $2 billion to $4 billion to protect the most important pieces of equipment in the national grid, but ideally, he would like to see standards changed so that EMP protection is built into devices.
EMP: Should you worry?
The threat posed by EMPs is far from settled, though. A 2019 report by the Electric Power Research Institute, which is funded by utility companies, found that such an attack would probably cause regional blackouts but not a nationwide grid failure and that recovery times would be similar to those of other large-scale outages.
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Frank Cilluffo, director of Auburn University's McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security, said that, while an EMP attack would certainly be devastating, it's unlikely that the United States' enemies would carry out such a brazen assault.
"There are other ways that adversaries can achieve some of the same outcomes, some of which would be cheaper and some of which would be less discernible," Cilluffo told Live Science.
Such alternatives might include cyberattacks to take out critical infrastructure, including the electric grid, or even efforts to disrupt space-based communications or the GPS system that modern society is so reliant on. Work to protect against EMPs makes sense, particularly given the possibility of another Carrington-like event, but these upgrades shouldn't distract from efforts to shore up defenses against more probable lines of attack, Cilluffo said.
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/427633-us-would-be-crippled-by-an-emp-attack-which-we-pioneered-nearly-60-years/
US would be crippled by an EMP attack, which we pioneered nearly 60 years ago
by Morgan Wright, opinion contributor - 01/30/19 11:30 AM ET
The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill
In 1983, a young Matthew Broderick played a young hacker named David Lightman who accidentally discovers a military supercomputer and gets it to play “Global Thermonuclear War” with him in the movie ‘War Games.’ The computer stages a first strike involving hundreds of missiles, bombers and submarines, and the U.S. military, believing the Soviets are attacking us, prepare to respond with real nukes.
Fortunately, global thermonuclear war is averted by the end of the movie. But the perpetuation of the belief that complete and total destruction will be the result of massive nuclear strikes continues to this day. And it’s wrong.
A little more than 21 years before the movie, a more real and worrisome event was taking place. The Air Force Special Weapons Center delivered a preliminary plan in November of 1961 under the entirely unassuming name of Operation FISHBOWL. This operation was a “proposed series of high altitude nuclear effects tests.”{mosads}
According to the plan, which was only declassified on April 6, 2007, the primary objective of the series of tests was to “…obtain data regarding the interference to radar and communication systems produced by a high altitude nuclear burst.” At the time, the scientists and defense specialists suspected that a such a blast could cause a blackout with “serious implications for critical defense systems such as BMEWS, Nike-Zeus, ICBM penetration and many communication systems, and conversely that its employment may be an effective ICBM offensive tactic.”
On July 9, 1962, a single nuclear weapon was detonated 900 miles southwest of Hawaii from a height of over 240 miles. The International Space Station orbits at that height. To put it in perspective, the average passenger jet only flies around 35,000 feet or a little over 7 miles up.
Code-named ‘Starfish Prime,’ the 1.4 megaton nuclear bomb was around one-hundred times more powerful than Hiroshima.
It delivered more than test results.
Thirteen minutes after launch, an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) “…knocked out electrical service in Hawaii, nearly 1,000 miles away. Telephone service was disrupted, streetlights were down and burglar alarms were set off by a pulse that was much larger than scientists expected.”
The EMP weapon was born.
It wasn’t until October 2000 that the ‘Commission To Assess The Threat To The United States From Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack’ was established. From 2001 to 2008, the EMP Commission looked at four major areas, including the “vulnerability of the United States military and especially civilian systems to an EMP attack, giving special attention to vulnerability of the civilian infrastructure as a matter of emergency preparedness.”
For many years, the United States knew the protection of the civilian infrastructure was extremely lacking.
In the 1960s, telephone systems were copper wire and circuit-based. This made our primary means of communication vulnerable to a single missile strike by the USSR. What was needed was a “galactic network” of computers that would continue to function even if the Soviets devastated our telephone system. Thus, the internet was born.
Our telephone systems are no longer copper wire and circuit-based. They are computer networks moving voice, video and data on fiber strands at the speed of light. However, just like in 1960, they are vulnerable to a single strike. This time a single EMP weapon could fry the electronics and devices carrying our network and internet traffic — among other, more destructive, things.
An EMP attack sends an electromagnetic shock. According to The Heritage Foundation, this shock “…disrupts electronics, such as sensors, communications systems, protective systems, computers, and other similar devices.” The insidious scheme of an EMP attack is that it doesn’t destroy buildings or kill people directly — It doesn’t have to. And the effects are both immediate and long-term.{mossecondads}
The very first victim of an EMP attack — or its lingering effects, at least — was the United States. It was self-inflicted. One day after the detonation of Starfish Prime, AT&T launched the communications satellite Telstar, which relayed the very first transatlantic television signal between the United States and France. During its brief life, Telstar transmitted telephone calls and faxes in addition to television signals. But the transistors aboard Telstar were irreparably damaged by the lingering radiation from the blast and began to quit working. A subsequent high-altitude test by the Soviet Union in October of 1962 finished off the satellite. The persistent radiation from the tests conducted by the United States and the Soviet Union continued to do extensive damage long after the detonations.
So an EMP attack could immediately fry all electronics in a large radius and then continue to degrade systems in orbit.
Imagine a city, county or state without power. No communications of any kind whether it’s a landline, mobile or internet. Hospitals would have no power of any kind — main or emergency. The safety of the water supply would rapidly deteriorate. There would be little to no access to money. ATM’s wouldn’t function, and banks would close out of security concerns.
How long could a city or region go without power, food or water?
Surely a threat of this magnitude would be a key focus in protecting our critical infrastructure. From 2001 to 2008, the EMP Commission undertook its duties and delivered its final report that detailed over 100 recommendations to protect our critical infrastructure, including communications, transportation, energy, business, finance, food and water.
As of 2015, not a single recommendation had been implemented.
Even when the Commission was reconstituted for 2015-2017, it seemed to fall on deaf ears.
The number of adversaries capable of conducting and EMP attack is growing, not diminishing. EMP attacks are included in the military doctrines of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
Failure to harden our infrastructure against EMP attacks only lowers the threshold of capability needed by an adversary to inflict catastrophic damage. Our single point of failure in the 1960s was our reliance on the telephone system. Our biggest single point of failure today isn’t our reliance on all of our marvelous technology. It’s our failure to harden them from the very kind of attack the United States demonstrated nearly fifty-seven years ago.
Former Israeli Defense Force Major General Isaac Ben-Israel, cyber security advisor to Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, summed it up in a single sentence: “If you want to hit a country severely, you hit its power and water supplies.” He also noted, “Cyber technology can do this without firing a single bullet.”
The combination of an EMP and cyber attack might be something movies get made about, like a modern War Games. In real life, there’s not a happy ending.
Morgan Wright is an expert on cybersecurity strategy, cyberterrorism, identity theft and privacy. He previously worked as a senior adviser in the U.S. State Department Antiterrorism Assistance
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2020/06/25/china-develops-first-strike-capability-with-electromagnetic-pulse/?sh=4e063589e190
Energy
China Has ‘First-Strike’ Capability To Melt U.S. Power Grid With Electromagnetic Pulse Weapon
James ConcaFormer Contributor
I write about nuclear, energy and the environment
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Jun 25, 2020,11:00am EDT
Last week, the EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security issued a scary report on China’s ability to conduct an Electromagnetic Pulse attack on the United States. The key takeaway, according to Dr. Peter Pry,? executive director of the task force, is that China now has super-EMP weapons, knows how to protect itself against an EMP attack, and has developed protocols to conduct a first-strike attack, even as they deny they would ever do so.
According to the Center for Strategic International Studies, China has the most active ballistic missile development program in the world, so this is doubly troubling. China used stolen U.S. technology to develop at least three types of high-tech weapons to attack the electric grid and key technologies that could cause a surprise “Pearl Harbor” attack that could produce a deadly blackout to the entire country.
Dr. Pry outlines how China has built a network of satellites, high-speed missiles, and super-electromagnetic pulse weapons that could melt down our electric grid, fry critical communications, and even takeout the ability of our aircraft carrier groups to respond.
EMPs are one of those things that many people think is fake, or over-blown, or a conspiracy theorist’s dream. But they are real. EMPs can be either natural, from things like extreme solar geomagnetic disturbances, or man-made like a large thermonuclear detonation or a cyberattack. If they are coordinated with physical attacks then things can get real dicey real fast.
As the U.S. Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from EMP Attack points out, “the physical and social fabric of the United States is sustained by a system of systems - a complex and dynamic network of interlocking and interdependent infrastructures whose harmonious functioning enables the myriad actions, transactions, and information flow that undergird the orderly conduct of civil society.”
According to the Commission, EMP effects represent arguably the largest-scale common-cause failure events that could affect our electric power grid and undermine our society, leaving it vulnerable on many fronts. About the only safe systems are nuclear reactors, both new and old.
Pantelion And 3Pas Set U.S. Release Of Spanish-Language Film Starring Verónica Castro
High-voltage control cables and large transformers that control the grid are particularly vulnerable. Transformers weigh 400 tons, take two years to build, and cost $7 million apiece. We are already way behind in having backup transformers ready, so if many go out at once, we have a big problem just powering our country.
EMP_mechanism
The mechanism for a 400-kilometre-high (250 mi) burst EMP: gamma rays hit the atmosphere, ejecting ... [+] US Army
The phenomenon of a large electromagnetic pulse is not new. The first human-caused EMP occurred in 1962 when the 1.4 megaton Starfish Prime thermonuclear weapon detonated 400 km above the Pacific Ocean.
One hundred times bigger than what we dropped on Hiroshima, Starfish Prime resulted in an EMP which caused electrical damage nearly 900 miles away in Hawaii. It knocked out about 300 streetlights, set off numerous burglar alarms, and damaged a telephone company microwave link that shut down telephone calls from Kauai to the other Hawaiian islands.
And that was from 900 miles away.
On the natural side, in 1989, an unexpected geomagnetic storm triggered an event on the Hydro-Québec power system that resulted in its complete collapse within 92 seconds, leaving six million customers without power. The storm resulted from the Sun ejecting a trillion-cubic-mile plume of superheated plasma, or ionized gas.
Such storms occur every 60 years or so, and in 1989, we weren't anywhere near as electrified and electronically interconnected as we are today, or as we will be in 30 years.
Solar events were considered the most likely EMP to occur. Until now.
According to Dr. Pry, a longtime expert on EMP warfare, China developed the weapons as part of its Total Information Warfare that includes hacking raids on computers, as is expected during the next presidential election.
Even more troubling, Dr. Pry found that China is eager to shoot first with “high-altitude electromagnetic pulse,” or HEMP, weapons launched from satellites, ships, and land.
“China’s military doctrine — including numerous examples presented here of using HEMP attack to win on the battlefield, defeat U.S. aircraft carriers, and achieve against the U.S. homeland a surprise ‘Pearl Harbor’ writ large — is replete with technical and operational planning consistent with a nuclear first-strike,” said Pry in his report.
Needless to say, we are not prepared for this.
Chinese Missiles small
China has the most active ballistic missile development program in the world. CSIS
Dr. Pry is trying to raise awareness of the possible threat posed by an EMP attack, either from a military foe or from a solar event. China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran are moving to build and deploy systems which can launch a nuclear weapon into the atmosphere to explode and disable electronics below, including flying aircraft.
A report done while Dr. Pry was a key member of a congressional EMP commission found that an EMP attack on the East Coast electric grid could lead to a huge number of deaths.
You might think that EMP is too farfetched to worry about. But you would be wrong. We have been learning in the information age that if it can be done, someone will do it.
The speed with which our information age is changing is paralleled by the speed with which our national digital organism can test and block the ever-changing gaps and vulnerabilities in our electronic shield.
Like a host adapting to new parasites, this is just a normal incident for an evolving society in a rapidly-changing digital environment that selects for a digital organism that viscerally understands the whole system and can use it to its advantage.
Societies with older systems will be at a dangerous disadvantage. The Universe does this all the time.
Sociologically, China seems to be moving into a more aggressive position globally, evidenced by their recent conflict with India and their aggression in the South China Sea with their east Pacific neighbors.
This may have been aggravated by China’s 1-child policy. Although the policy did reign in population growth (fertility rates dropped below two by 1990 and the present population is 1.3 billion), it gave rise to another problem – too few women.
Almost all cultures prefer a male as the first child and in China, the eldest male is expected to take care of his elderly parents. Therefore, the magnitude of female infanticide in China became astonishing in the decades between 1990 and 2010, when well over ten million female infants were killed. Only a relatively few found adopted homes in other countries.
China then changed to a 2-child policy, but the damage to an entire generation will not be so easily erased. The result was a skewed sex ratio in the generation born since 1980. Today, there are about 50 million more males than females. Just think of the states of Texas, New York and Ohio filled with just men.
The consequences of having too many uncoupled males in a society are worse than just making it difficult to find a mate. Soon there will be a substantial deficit of younger workers to provide support to an aging population. By 2030, China will have over 400 million people over the age of 60. Maintaining sufficient economic growth under these conditions will be difficult.
Some research indicates that excess males to this degree tends to make a society more aggressive and nationalistic, both of which have risen dramatically in China.
Not coincidentally, China has rolled out a number of other new military capabilities, designed to protect their new expansionist future. Included in their burgeoning array is a new generation of nuclear submarines, a carrier-killing missile named DF-21D, intended specifically to destroy aircraft carriers, and new rocket launch vehicles, like the Long March 6 rocket capable of carrying 20 warheads, that just went into space last month to deploy 20 satellites in orbit.
While everyone points out that the United States spends more on its military than the next ten countries combined, it turns out that China is far and away number 2, spending a third of what we spend in dollars, but almost the same percentage of its GDP as we do.
So as the United States slips into chaos and ignores the global threats that still face us, China moves steadily forward with its plan to become the greatest nation on Earth.
Easy for you as no one is beating back your diatribes.
Headed up the Task Force for the protection of America from EMP by our enemies. That's all.
It probably has become more of a threat as when an item such as this is researched by our Country or by others it becomes something our enemy becomes desirable for. It seems Obama did something just prior to his leaving office and some legislation started in 2016/2017 time frame end of article below.
https://www.congress.gov/event/115th-congress/senate-event/LC57685/text?s=1&r=73
https://emptaskforce.us/index.php/historical-facts/
Overview of Historical Facts and Data
Arguing over Funding – The U.S. Government’s Past Time: Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, among other countries, all look at EMP differently than many officials in the U.S. government. There is much debate in Washington regarding whether EMP is or is not an imminent threat. There is also debate about whether man-made or natural threat is more probable and/or more catastrophic and therefore requires more funding. Meanwhile, what are enemies such as Iran and North Korea doing? They continue to plan attacks including a “portfolio” of methods, including EMP attacks, physical attacks, cyber-attacks, and/or advantageous timing with severe weather or natural disasters. They do not “isolate” any single method of attack; they do not look at waging war in such simplistic terms. They are creative. The U.S. government has evidence that Russia, China, Iran and North Korea all include the use of EMP in coordination with other methods of attack in their war plans; they openly discuss, write about, and practice coordinated attacks utilitizing multiple methods. They are united in their planning while our officials are universally arguing over funding.
And the Rankings are…: Regardless of where one ranks individual threats on the probability list, the projected results of a successful EMP in a coordinated attack or a massive solar storm are inarguably catastrophic. The U.S. government knows this and has taken steps to harden key military and governmental installations; the government would not have done that without firm research and data. The U.S. and other nations of the world have conducted numerous research studies. While impact estimates cannot specify exact locations and numbers of systems affected, research and data foretells catastrophic damage if the grid remains unhardened.
When scientists first designed the atomic bomb, the research and data predicted devastating effects even though no one had yet actually tested the A-bomb. The first “test” of the A-bomb used in Hiroshima was on the day the U.S. dropped it in August 1945. The data bore out the truth.
Today, scientists have super computers to run data and modeling scenarios which have brought great advances in the ability to predict outcomes. Even though the U.S. has not yet experienced a large regional or national grid down, the research, data, and computer modeling all indicate that the U.S. grid is perilously vulnerable and as little as NINE destroyed substations could bring down the entire U.S. grid (and large areas of Canada) for 12-18 months, possibly longer. Do not be misled by misinformation in the news.
In addition to computer modeling, there are also hard facts from history, and testing and events on actual systems to reference.
1962 Starfish Prime: Starfish Prime was a high altitude nuclear test conducted by the U.S. and remains the largest nuclear test conducted in space in history. The rocket carrying the nuclear bomb was launched from Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 900 miles west-southwest of Hawaii. The nuclear bomb was detonated at 250 miles in the atmosphere, and its effects were noted as far as Hawaii. Readings on instrumentation used to record the test went off the scales and seven low orbit satellites were crippled. In Hawaii, burglar alarms were triggered, telephone microwave links were damaged, and 300 street lights were blown. The phenomenon called electromagnetic pulse (EMP) was just experienced and discovered.
Many non-EMP experts misstate in the media that the massive yield (i.e. power) of the 1962 nuclear bomb combined with the lack of extensive damage to electronics and electrical systems in Hawaii indicate that the yield of a nuclear bomb would have to be massive to cause extensive damage. This is not true.
The reason more extensive effects were not noted in Hawaii include:
1. Hawaii was at the very edge of the radius (i.e. on the horizon) of the bomb’s coverage where effects decrease in intensity;
2. The detonation of a nuclear bomb over an ocean lessens the intensity of effects (i.e. the ocean “absorbs” the energy of the bomb);
3. Hawaii did not yet have extensive use of electricity at the time; and
4. the 1962-era electronics used large, solid-state vacuum tube technology (i.e. “robustly” built and highly EMP resistant).
If detonated over the continental U.S., it would not take a large nuclear bomb to have devastating consequences with today’s highly interconnected electric grid having delicate electronics and unhardened transformers. Many reports in the media by non-EMP experts are factually inaccurate.
1962 U.S.S. R. Test over Kazakhstan (Test 184): The former U.S.S.R. performed a series of high altitude nuclear tests in 1962. The Russian government has only recently provided limited data, with the most being from Test 184. EMP experts estimated the bomb of Test 184 to be of much lower yield efficiency in comparison to Starfish Prime. The nuclear bomb of Test 184 was launched from Kapustin Yar and detonated at 180 miles in the atmosphere. Its effects were noted across all of Kazakhstan (roughly the size of the U.S. east of the Mississippi) with the most intense effects occurring near the south central region. The impacts of Test 184 included burned out generating power stations (one even burned down), fused underground power lines, burned out insulators on above ground power lines, shut down long distance telephone lines, and destroyed 1962-era electronics having large, solid-state vacuum tube technology (i.e. “robustly” built and highly EMP resistant). Source: http://www.eiscouncil.com/App_Data/Upload/a4ce4b06-1a77-44d8-83eb-842bb2a56fc6.pdf
Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL): ONRL is operated by the University of Tennessee at Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy. Their facilities are conducting some of the leading research into the effects of electromagnetic pulse on components of the electric grid. Their website is here: https://www.ornl.gov/ .
Yemen and Mexico: Terrorist organizations continue to improve in their scope and sophistication of their attacks by attacking electric grids at the on-set of an assault.
In October of 2013, the Knights of Templar, a Mexican drug cartel with known ties to terrorist organizations in the Middle East, blew up power stations with Molotov cocktails and left 11 Mexican cities without power. Why? So, they could enter key towns in the chaos and execute officials who opposed their rule. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/28/mexico-drug-cartel-attack-electricity_n_4168761.html
In June of 2014, for the first time in history, an entire nation’s electric grid was collapsed by a hostile force by blowing up the transmission towers. Yemen’s population of 23 million was without power for one day. What saved Yemen’s transformers and control systems from burning up? Their electric grid system still has many manual switches and old vacuum tube fuses (i.e. it’s not a smart grid with highly interconnected systems). Consequently, after that 24 hour period, Yemen was so destabilized that the U.S. has since lost the country as an ally in that region. https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterdetwiler/2014/06/19/terrorist-attack-left-all-of-yemen-in-darkness-last-week-another-wake-up-call/#4766ce267e36
There continue to be more instances of collapse of electric grids by terrorist organizations. In some instances, the attackers have clear motives; in other instances, their motives are unclear. Terrorists across the world and close to U.S. soil have begun to learn the power of “no power”.
Overview of History of Legislation
After many years of research and reports from multiple government and private sector agencies, heated political debate, and strong bi-partisan support (even one unanimously supported bill in the U.S. House), legislation in both the U.S. Congress and several states has failed primarily due to the well-funded efforts of special interest groups. On October 13, 2016, President Obama signed in his last days of office the Executive Order, “Coordinating Efforts to Prepare the Nation for Space Weather Events.” On December 23, 2016, the “2017 National Defense Authorization Act” was passed and included the complete language of the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act (CIPA) that had struggled for years to be approved.
The passage of this Executive Order and CIPA marks a milestone in legislation and proves that these are real problems facing America today and not just the rantings by “extremists” as some media sources portray. The American people are being misled. However, passing of legislation doesn’t mean any laws are being enforced.
New bills addressing grid security continue to be introduced in 2017 and are working their way through Washington to hopefully be passed by Fall. However, none of these bills require the utilities industry to install specific hardware to protect critical components of the electric grid. As of July 2017, Maine, Virginia, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, Colorado, Maryland, Kentucky, and now (May 2017) Texas have chosen to move ahead of Washington and have either proposed or passed legislation to begin the process of securing their grids at the state level. Make no mistake; our civilian grid is currently not hardened despite all current state and federal legislation. After almost 10 years, Washington has left the U.S. civilian grid unprotected and the states are taking control in the face of Washington’s failure.
Dr. Peter Vincent Pry passed away recently I believe last Friday. This will be a huge loss for the largest threat to American Society as we know it. Little has been done to protect against such an attack like this. Bill recently passed by both Houses does nothing to protect America from this danger. But it appears no concern is with those in charge of the purse strings here, as is usual real threats go without support when zero threats get fully funded. Par for the course in D.C. Bubble.
China: EMP Threat – A New Report by Dr. Peter Pry | Secure the Grid
https://securethegrid.com/2020/06/22/china-emp-threat-a-new-report-by-dr-peter-pry/
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD1124730.pdf
https://emptaskforce.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/REPORTempthreatNK21A.pdf
REPORTempthreatNK21A.pdf (emptaskforce.us)
STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD DR. WILLIAM R. GRAHAM, CHAIRMAN DR. PETER VINCENT PRY, CHIEF OF STAFF COMMISSION TO ASSESS THE THREAT TO THE UNITED STATES FROM ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE (EMP) ATTACK TO U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND MANAGEMENT EFFICIENCY HEARING “EMPTY THREAT OR SERIOUS DANGER: ASSESSING NORTH KOREA’S RISK TO THE HOMELAND
” October 12, 2017 North Korea Nuclear EMP Attack:
An Existential Threat During the Cold War, major efforts were undertaken by the Department of Defense to assure that the U.S. national command authority and U.S. strategic forces could survive and operate after an EMP attack. However, no major efforts were then thought necessary to protect critical national infrastructures, relying on nuclear deterrence to protect them. With the development of small nuclear arsenals and long-range missiles by new, radical U.S. adversaries, beginning with North Korea, the threat of a nuclear EMP attack against the U.S. becomes one of the few ways that such a country could inflict devastating damage to the United States. It is critical, therefore, that the U.S. national leadership address the EMP threat as a critical and existential issue, and give a high priority to assuring the leadership is engaged and the necessary steps are taken to protect the country from EMP. By way of background, the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack was established by Congress in 2001 to advise the Congress, the President, Department of Defense and other departments and agencies of the U.S. Government on the nuclear EMP threat to military systems and civilian critical infrastructures. The EMP Commission was re-established in 2015 with its charter broadened to include natural EMP from solar storms, all manmade EMP threats, cyber-attack, sabotage and Combined-Arms Cyber Warfare.
The EMP Commission charter gives it access to all relevant classified and unclassified data and the power to levy analysis upon the Department of Defense. On September 30, 2017, the Department of Defense, after withholding a significant part of the monies allocated by Congress to support the work of the EMP Commission for the entirety of 2016, terminated funding the EMP Commission. In the same month, North Korea detonated an H-Bomb that it plausibly describes as capable of “super-powerful EMP” attack and released a technical report “The EMP Might of Nuclear Weapons” accurately describing what Russia and China call a “Super-EMP” weapon. 2 Neither the Department of Defense nor the Department of Homeland Security has asked Congress to continue the EMP Commission. The House version of the National Defense Authorization Act includes a provision that would replace the existing EMP Commission with new Commissioners.
Yet the existing EMP Commission comprises the nation’s foremost experts who have been officially or unofficially continuously engaged trying to advance national EMP preparedness for 17 years. And today, as the EMP Commission has long warned, the nation faces a potentially imminent and existential threat of nuclear EMP attack from North Korea. Recent events have proven the EMP Commission’s critics wrong about other highly important aspects of the nuclear missile threat from North Korea: --Just six months ago, most experts thought North Korea’s nuclear arsenal was primitive, some academics claiming it had as few as 6 A-Bombs. Now the intelligence community reportedly estimates North Korea has 60 nuclear weapons. --Just six months ago, most experts thought North Korea’s ICBMs were fake, or if real could not strike the U.S. mainland. Now the intelligence community reportedly estimates North Korea’s ICBMs can strike Denver and Chicago, and perhaps the entire United States. --Just six months ago, most experts thought North Korea was many years away from an H Bomb. Now it appears North Korea has H-Bombs comparable to sophisticated U.S. two-stage thermonuclear weapons. --Just six months ago, most experts claimed North Korean ICBMs could not miniaturize an A Bomb or design a reentry vehicle for missile delivery. Now the intelligence community reportedly assesses North Korea has miniaturized nuclear weapons, and has developed reentry vehicles for missile delivery, including by ICBMs that can strike the U.S.1 After massive intelligence failures grossly underestimating North Korea’s long-range missile capabilities, number of nuclear weapons, warhead miniaturization, and proximity to an H-Bomb, the biggest North Korean threat to the U.S. remains unacknowledged—nuclear EMP attack.
North Korea confirmed the EMP Commission’s assessment by testing an H-Bomb that could make a devastating EMP attack, and in its official public statement: “The H-Bomb, the explosive power of which is adjustable from tens of kilotons to hundreds of kilotons, is a multi-functional thermonuclear weapon with great destructive power which can be detonated even at high altitudes for super-powerful EMP attack according to strategic goals.”2 1 Joby Warwick, Ellen Nakashima, Anna Fifield, “North Korea Is No Making Missile-Ready Nuclear Weapons, U.S. Analysts Say” Washington Post, August 18, 2017; Michelle Ye Hee Lee, “North Korean Nuclear Test May Have Been Twice As Strong As First Thought” Washington Post, September 13, 2017; Jack Kim, Soyoung Kim, “North Korea Says It Has Developed A More Advanced Hydrogen Bomb That Can Be Loaded Onto An ICBM” Business Insider, September 2, 2017; NBC News, “’A Big Hoax’: Experts Say North Korea Showing Off Missiles That Can’t Fly” August 15, 2013. 2 Bill Gertz, “Korea Nuclear Test Furthers EMP Bomb” Washington Free Beacon, September 6, 2017. 3 As noted earlier, Pyongyang also released a technical report accurately describing a “Super EMP” weapon.3 Just six months ago, some academics dismissed EMP Commission warnings and even, literally, laughed on National Public Radio at the idea North Korea could make an EMP attack. Primitive and “Super-EMP” Nuclear Weapons are Both EMP Threats The EMP Commission finds that even primitive, low-yield nuclear weapons are such a significant EMP threat that rogue states, like North Korea, or terrorists may well prefer using a nuclear weapon for EMP attack, instead of destroying a city: “Therefore, terrorists or state actors that possess relatively unsophisticated missiles armed with nuclear weapons may well calculate that, instead of destroying a city or military base, they may obtain the greatest political-military utility from one or a few such weapons by using them—or threatening their use—in an EMP attack.”4
The EMP Commission 2004 Report warns: “Certain types of relatively low-yield nuclear weapons can be employed to generate potentially catastrophic EMP effects over wide geographic areas, and designs for variants of such weapons may have been illicitly trafficked for a quarter century.”5 In 2004, two Russian generals, both EMP experts, warned the EMP Commission that the design for Russia’s Super-EMP warhead, capable of generating high intensity EMP fields over 100,000 volts per meter, was “accidentally” transferred to North Korea. They also said that due to “brain drain,” Russian scientists were in North Korea, as were Chinese and Pakistani scientists according to the Russians, helping with the North’s missile and nuclear weapon programs. In 2009, South Korean military intelligence told their press that Russian scientists are in North Korea helping develop an EMP nuclear weapon. In 2013, a Chinese military commentator stated North Korea has Super-EMP nuclear weapons.6 Super-EMP weapons are low-yield and designed to produce not a big kinetic explosion, but rather a high level of gamma rays, which generates the high-frequency E1 EMP that is most damaging to the broadest range of electronics. North Korean nuclear tests, including the first in 2006, whose occurrence was predicted to the EMP Commission two years in advance by the two 3 Ibid. Kim Song-won, Dean of Kim Chaek University of Technology “The EMP Might of Nuclear Weapons” Rodong Sinmun, Pyongyang, September 4, 2017. 4 Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, Executive Report, 2004, p. 2. 5 Ibid. 6 U.S. Senate, Hearing, Statement for the Record, Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, “Foreign Views of Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack” testimony on behalf of EMP Commission before the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security, Senate Committee on the Judiciary (Washington, D.C.: March 9, 2005); Kim Min-sek and Yoo Jee-ho, “Military Source Warns of North’s EMP Bomb” JoonAng Daily (September 2, 2009); Li Daguang, “North Korean Electromagnetic Attack
Threatens South Korea’s Information Warfare Capabilities” Tzu Chin, No. 260 (June 1, 2012) pp. 44-45. 4 Russian EMP experts, mostly have yields consistent with the size of a Super-EMP weapon. The Russian generals’ accurate prediction about when North Korea would perform its first nuclear test, and of a yield consistent with a Super-EMP weapon, indicates their warning about a North Korean Super-EMP weapon should be taken very seriously. EMP Threat From Satellites While most analysts are fixated on when in the future North Korea will develop highly reliable intercontinental missiles, guidance systems, and reentry vehicles capable of striking a U.S. city, the threat here and now from EMP is largely ignored. EMP attack does not require an accurate guidance system because the area of effect, having a radius of hundreds or thousands of kilometers, is so large. No reentry vehicle is needed because the warhead is detonated at high altitude, above the atmosphere. Missile reliability matters little because only one missile has to work to make an EMP attack against an entire nation. North Korea could make an EMP attack against the United States by launching a short-range missile off a freighter or submarine or by lofting a warhead to 30 kilometers burst height by balloon.
While such lower-altitude EMP attacks would not cover the whole U.S. mainland, as would an attack at higher-altitude (300 kilometers), even a balloon-lofted warhead detonated at 30 kilometers altitude could blackout the Eastern Electric Power Grid that supports most of the population and generates 75 percent of U.S. electricity. Or an EMP attack might be made by a North Korean satellite, right now. A Super-EMP weapon could be relatively small and lightweight, and could fit inside North Korea’s Kwangmyongsong-3 (KMS-3) and Kwangmyongsong-4 (KMS-4) satellites. These two satellites presently orbit over the United States, and over every other nation on Earth-- demonstrating, or posing, a potential EMP threat against the entire world. North Korea’s KMS-3 and KMS-4 satellites were launched to the south on polar trajectories and passed over the United States on their first orbit. Pyongyang launched KMS-4 on February 7, 2017, shortly after its fourth illegal nuclear test on January 6, that began the present protracted nuclear crisis with North Korea. The south polar trajectory of KMS-3 and KMS-4 evades U.S. Ballistic Missile Early Warning Radars and National Missile Defenses, resembling a Russian secret weapon developed during the Cold War, called the Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS) that would have used a nuclear-armed satellite to make a surprise EMP attack on the United States.7 Ambassador Henry Cooper, former Director of the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative, and a preeminent expert on missile defenses and space weapons, has written numerous articles warning 7 Miroslav Gyurosi,
The Soviet Fractional Orbital Bombardment System Program, (January 2010) Technical Report APA-TR-2010-010. 5 about the potential North Korean EMP threat from their satellites. For example, on September 20, 2016 Ambassador Cooper wrote: U.S. ballistic missile defense (BMD) interceptors are designed to intercept a few North Korean ICBMs that approach the United States over the North Polar region. But current U.S. BMD systems are not arranged to defend against even a single ICBM that approaches the United States from over the South Polar region, which is the direction toward which North Korea launches its satellites…This is not a new idea. The Soviets pioneered and tested just such a specific capability decades ago—we call it a Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS)…So, North Korea doesn’t need an ICBM to create this existential threat. It could use its demonstrated satellite launcher to carry a nuclear weapon over the South Polar region and detonate it…over the United States to create a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP)…The result could be to shut down the U.S. electric power grid for an indefinite period, leading to the death within a year of up to 90 percent of all Americans—as the EMP Commission testified over eight years ago.8 Former NASA rocket scientist James Oberg visited North Korea’s Sohae space launch base, witnessed elaborate measures undertaken to conceal space launch payloads, and concludes in a 2017 article that the EMP threat from North Korea’s satellites should be taken seriously: …there have been fears expressed that North Korea might use a satellite to carry a small nuclear warhead into orbit and then detonate it over the United States for an EMP strike.
These concerns seem extreme and require an astronomical scale of irrationality on the part of the regime. The most frightening aspect, I’ve come to realize, is that exactly such a scale of insanity is now evident in the rest of their ‘space program.” That doomsday scenario, it now seems, has been plausible enough to compel the United States to take active measures to insure that no North Korean satellite, unless thoroughly inspected before launch, be allowed to reach orbit and ever overfly the United States.9 Kim Jong-Un has threatened to reduce the United States to “ashes” with “nuclear thunderbolts” and threatened to retaliate for U.S. diplomatic and military pressure by “ordering officials and scientists to complete preparations for a satellite launch as soon as possible” amid “the enemies’ 8 Ambassador Henry F. Cooper, “Whistling Past The Graveyard…” High Frontier (September 20, 2016) highfrontier.org/sept-20-2016-whistling-past-the-graveyard/ See also: highfrontier.org/category/fobs. On up to 90% U.S. fatalities from an EMP attack, during a congressional hearing, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett asked me if such high fatalities could result, and I responded: “We don’t have experience with losing the infrastructure in a country with 300 million people, most of whom don’t live in a way that provides for their own food and other needs.
We can go back to an era when people did live like that. That would be—10 percent would be 30 million people, and that is probably the range where we could survive as a basically rural economy.” U.S. House of Representatives, Hearing, “Threat Posed By Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack” Committee on Armed Services (Washington, D.C.: July 10, 2008), p. 9. 9 Jim Oberg, Space Review (February 6, 2017) www.thespacereview.com/article/3164/1in a 2017 aricle 6 harsh sanctions and moves to stifle” the North.10 North Korean press (for example in Rodong Sinmun; March 7, 2016) asserts readiness for “any form of war” and includes their satellite with “strengthening of the nuclear deterrent and legitimate artificial satellite launch, which are our fair and square self-defensive choice.” Moreover: “The nuclear [weapons] we possess are, precisely, the country’s sovereignty, right to live, and dignity.
Our satellite that cleaves through space is the proud sign that unfolds the future of the most powerful state in the world.” The same article, like many others, warns North Korea makes “constant preparations so that we can fire the nuclear warheads, which have been deployed for actual warfare for the sake of national defense, at any moment!” An earlier generation immediately understood the alarming strategic significance of Sputnik in 1957, yet few today understand or even care about the strategic significance of North Korea’s satellites, perhaps because of widespread ignorance about EMP. Addressing Misinformation Misinformation about EMP abounds in the media, and even in many allegedly serious studies, from uninformed persons posturing as experts, who have no competency in EMP. False claims are often made that the EMP threat is “not real” but merely theoretical and greatly overblown.11 For example, one academic often quoted by the press claims that during the 1962 STARFISH PRIME high-altitude nuclear test, “just one string of street lights failed in Honolulu” and that this proved EMP is no threat.12 In fact, the EMP knocked-out 36 strings of street lights, caused a telecommunications microwave relay station to fail, burned out HF (High-Frequency) radio links (used for long-distance communications), set off burglar alarms, and caused other damage.
13 The Hawaiian Islands did not experience a catastrophic protracted blackout because they were on the far edge of the EMP field contour, where effects are weakest; are surrounded by an ocean, which mitigates EMP effects; and were still in an age dominated by vacuum tube electronics. STARFISH PRIME was not the only test of this kind. Russia in 1961-62 also conducted a series of high-altitude nuclear bursts to test EMP effects over Kazakhstan, an industrialized area nearly 10 Alex Lockie, “North Korea Threatens ‘Nuclear Thunderbolts’ As U.S. And China Finally Work Together” American Military News (April 14, 2017); Fox News, “U.S. General: North Korea ‘Will’ Develop Nuclear Capabilities To Hit America” (September 20, 2016)
www.foxnews.com/world/2016/09/20/north-korea-says-successfully-ground tests-new-rocket-engine.html 11 See for example: Jeffrey Lewis, “Would A North Korean Space Nuke Really Lay Waste to the U.S.?” New Scientist
www.newscientist.com/article/2129618; Lewis quoted in Cheyenne MacDonald, “A North Korean ‘Space Nuke’ Wouldn’t Lay Waste To America” Daily Mail, May 3, 2017; Lewis interviewed by National Public Radio, “The North Korean Electromagnetic Pulse Threat, Or Lack Thereof” www.npr.org/2017/04/27/525833275;www.naturalnews.com/2017-05-01-npr-laughs-hysterically-north-korean-emp-nuclear-attack.html 12 Ibid. 13 Dr. William R. Graham, “North Korean Nuclear EMP Attack: An Existential Threat” 38 North, June 2, 2017. 7 as large as Western Europe.14 That test destroyed the Kazakh electric grid.15 Moreover, modern electronics, in part because they are designed to operate at much lower voltages, are much more vulnerable to EMP than the electronics of 1962 exposed to STARFISH PRIME and the Kazakh nuclear tests.
A similar EMP event over the U.S. today would be an existential threat.16 Another academic wrongly asserts that because EMP from atmospheric nuclear tests in Nevada did not blackout Las Vegas, therefore EMP is no threat. The nuclear tests he describes were all endo-atmospheric tests that do not generate appreciable EMP fields beyond a range of about 5 miles. The high-altitude EMP (HEMP) threat of interest requires exo-atmospheric detonation, at 30 kilometers altitude or above, and produces EMP out to ranges of hundreds to thousands of miles.
Las Vegas was not affected by the Nevada tests because they were endo-atmospheric nuclear tests that generated no HEMP.17 The same academic also miscalculates that “a 20-kiloton bomb detonated at optimum height would have a maximum EMP damage distance of 20 kilometers” in part, because he assumes “15,000 volts/meter or higher” in the E1 EMP component is necessary for damage. This figure is an extreme overestimate of system damage field thresholds. Damage and upset to electronic systems will happen from E1 EMP field strengths far below the academic’s “15,000 volts/meter or higher.” A one meter wire connected to a semiconductor device, such as a mouse cord or interconnection cable, would place hundreds to thousands of volts on microelectronic devices out to ranges of hundreds of miles for low-yield nuclear devices.
Based on omission and other experience with many EMP tests, semiconductor junctions, operating at a few volts, will experience breakdown at a few volts over their operating point, allowing their power supply to destroy the junctions experiencing breakdown. 18 The same academic and many other non-experts also ignore system upset as a vulnerability. Digital electronics can be upset by extraneous pulses of a few volts. For unmanned control systems present within the electric power grids, long-haul communication repeater stations, and gas pipelines, an electronic upset is tantamount to permanent damage.
Temporary upset of electronics can also have catastrophic consequences for military operations. No electronics should be considered invulnerable to EMP unless hardened and tested to certify survivability. 14 High-altitude EMP (HEMP), the phenomenon under discussion, results from the detonation of a nuclear weapon at high-altitude, 30 kilometers or higher. All nuclear weapons, even a primitive Hiroshima-type A-bomb, can produce levels of HEMP damaging to modern electronics over large geographic regions. 15 According to Electric Infrastructure Security Council, Report: USSR Nuclear EMP Upper Atmosphere Kazakhstan Test 184, (www.eiscouncil.org/APP_Data/upload/a4ce4b06-1a77-44d-83eb-842bb2a56fc6.pdf), citing research by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a comparable EMP event over the U.S. today “would likely damage about 365 large transformers in the U.S. power grid, leaving about 40 percent of the U.S. population without electrical power for 4 to 10 years.” 16 EMP Commission Executive Report, op. cit., pp. 4-8. 17 Jack Liu, “A North Korean EMP Attack?...Unlikely” 38 North, May 5, 2017. 18 Ibid. 8
Some highly critical unprotected electronics have been upset or damaged in simulated EMP tests, not at “15,000 volts/meter or higher,” but at threat levels far below 1,000 volts/meter.19 The North Korean missile test on April 29, 2017, which apparently detonated at an altitude of 72 kilometers, the optimum height-of-burst for EMP attack by a 10 KT warhead, would create a potentially damaging EMP field spanning, not the academic’s miscalculated 20 kilometers radius, but to about 930 kilometers radius [Kilometers Radius = 110 (Kilometers Burst Height to the 0.5 Power)].20 Therefore, even for a low-yield 10-20 kiloton weapon, the EMP field should be considered dangerous for unprotected U.S. systems. The EMP Commission 2004 Report warned against the U.S. military’s increasing use of commercial-off-the-shelf-technology that is not protected against EMP: “Our increasing dependence on advanced electronics systems results in the potential for an increased EMP vulnerability of our technologically advanced forces, and if unaddressed makes EMP employment by an adversary an attractive asymmetric option.”21 Empirical Basis for EMP Threat Better Established than Cyber Threat The empirical basis for the threat of an EMP attack to electric grids and other critical infrastructures is far deeper and broader than the data for cyber-attacks or sabotage.
The notion that a cyber-attack or sabotage can plunge the U.S. into a protracted blackout--while very real threats that warrant deep concern--are far more theoretical constructs than EMP attack. We know for certain that EMP will cause widespread damage of electronics and protracted blackout of unprotected electric grids and other critical infrastructures from such hard data as: --The U.S. STARFISH PRIME high-altitude nuclear test in 1962 over Johnston Island that generated an EMP field over the Hawaiian Islands, over 1,300 kilometers away, causing widespread damage to electronic systems.22 --Six Russian EMP tests 1961-1962 over Kazakhstan that with a single weapon destroyed electric grids over an area larger than Western Europe, proving this capability six times.23 --30 years (1962-1992) of U.S. underground nuclear testing that included collecting data on EMP effects. --Over 50 years of testing by EMP simulators, still ongoing, including by the Congressional EMP Commission (2001-2008) that proved modern electronics are over 1 million times more vulnerable to EMP than the electronics of 1962.24 19 Ibid. 20 Ibid. 21EMP Commission,
Executive Report, op. cit., p. 47. 22 Phil Plait, "The 50th Anniversary of Starfish Prime: The Nuke That Shook The World" Discover, July 9, 2012. 23 Jerry Emanuelson, "Soviet Test 184: The 1962 Soviet Nuclear EMP Tests Over Kazakhstan" Future Science, Undated; Vladimir M. Loborev, "Up to Date State of the NEMP Problems and Topical Research Directions" Electromagnetic Environments and Consequences: Proceedings of the European International Symposium on Electromagnetic Environments, EUROEM Conference, Bordeaux, France, 1994; V. N. Mikhailov, The Nuclear Tests of the USSR, Vol. 2, Institute of Strategic Stability, Rosatom. 9 Moreover, hard data proving the threat from nuclear EMP is available from natural EMP generated by geomagnetic storms, accidental damage caused by electromagnetic transients, and non-nuclear radiofrequency weapons (RF weapons).
All of these produce field strengths much less powerful than nuclear EMP, and in the case of accidental electromagnetic transients and radiofrequency weapons, much more localized. There are many thousands of such cases. Many documented examples of successful attacks using RF weapons, and accidents involving electromagnetic transients, are described in the Department of Defense Pocket Guide for Security Procedures and Protocols for Mitigating Radio Frequency Threats (Technical Support Working Group, Directed Energy Technical Office, Dahlgren Naval Surface Warfare Center). A few examples: --"Radio Frequency Weapons were used in separate incidents against the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to falsely set off alarms and to induce a fire in a sensitive area." --"In Kzlyar, Dagestan, Russia, Chechen rebel commander Salman Raduyev disabled police radio communications using RF transmitters during a raid." --"In June 1999 in Bellingham, Washington, RF energy from a radar induced a SCADA malfunction that caused a gas pipeline to rupture and explode." --"In 1999, a Robinson R-44 news helicopter nearly crashed when it flew by a high-frequency broadcast antenna." –
North Korea used a Radio Frequency Weapon, purchased from Russia, to attack airliners and impose an "electromagnetic blockade" on air traffic to Seoul, South Korea's capital. The repeated attacks by RFW also disrupted communications and the operation of automobiles in several South Korean cities in December 2010; March 9, 2011; and April-May 2012.25 Vulnerabilities to EMP When assessing the potential vulnerability of U.S. military forces and civilian critical infrastructures to EMP, it is necessary to be mindful of the complex interdependencies of these highly-networked systems, because EMP upset and damage of a very small fraction of the total system can cause total system failure.26 Real world failures of electric grids from various causes indicate that a nuclear EMP attack would have catastrophic consequences.
Significant and highly disruptive blackouts have been caused by single-point failures cascading into system-wide failures, originating from damage comprising far less than 1 percent of the total system. For example: --The Great Northeast Blackout of 2003--that put 50 million people in the dark for a day, contributed to at least 11 deaths, and cost an estimated $6 billion—originated from a single 24 "Electromagnetic Pulse: Threat to Critical Infrastructures" Hearing before the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies, House Committee on Homeland Security, Washington, D.C.: May 8, 2014. 25 "Massive GPS Jamming Attack By North Korea" GPSWORLD.COM, May 8, 2012. 26 Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, Critical National Infrastructures, 2008, passim. 10 failure point when a powerline contacted a tree branch, damaging less than 0.0000001 (0.00001%) of the system. --The New York City Blackout of 1977, that resulted in the arrest of 4,500 looters and injury of 550 police officers, was caused by a lightning strike on a substation that tripped two circuit breakers. --The Great Northeast Blackout of 1965, that effected 30 million people, happened because a protective relay on a transmission line was improperly set. --India’s nationwide blackout of July 30-31, 2012—the largest blackout in history, effecting 670 million people, 9% of the world population—was caused by overload of a single high-voltage powerline. --India’s blackout of January 2, 2001—effecting 226 million people—was caused by equipment failure at the Uttar Pradesh substation. --Indonesia’s blackout of August 18, 2005—effecting 100 million people—was caused by overload of a high-voltage powerline. --Brazil’s blackout of March 11, 1999—effecting 97 million people—was caused by a lightning strike on an EHV transformer substation. --Italy’s blackout of September 28, 2003—effecting 55 million people—was caused by overload of two high-voltage powerlines. --Germany, France, Italy, and Spain experienced partial blackouts on November 4, 2006— effecting 10-15 million people—from accidental shutdown of a high-voltage powerline. –
The San Francisco blackout in April 2017 was caused by the failure of a single high voltage breaker. In contrast to the above blackouts caused by single-point or small-scale failures, a nuclear EMP attack would inflict massive widespread damage to the electric grid causing millions of failure points. With few exceptions, the U.S. national electric grid is unhardened and untested against nuclear EMP attack. In the event of a nuclear EMP attack on the United States, a widespread protracted blackout is inevitable. This commonsense assessment is also supported by the nation’s best computer modeling: --
Modeling by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) reportedly assesses that a terrorist attack that destroys just 9 of 2,000 EHV transformers--merely 0.0045 (0.45%) of all EHV transformers in the U.S. national electric grid--would be catastrophic damage, causing a protracted nationwide blackout. --Modeling by the Congressional EMP Commission assesses that a terrorist nuclear EMP attack, using a primitive 10-kiloton nuclear weapon, could destroy dozens of EHV transformers, thousands of SCADAS and electronic systems, causing catastrophic collapse and protracted blackout of the U.S. Eastern Grid, putting at risk the lives of millions.27 27For the best unclassified modeling assessment of likely damage to the U.S. national electric grid from nuclear EMP attack see: U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
Interagency Report, coordinated with the Department of Defense and Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Electromagnetic Pulse: Effects on the U.S. Power Grid, 11 Thus, even if North Korea has only primitive, low-yield nuclear weapons, and likewise if other states or terrorists acquire one or a few such weapons, and the capability to detonate them at 30 kilometers or higher-altitude over the United States, as the EMP Commission warned over a decade ago in its 2004 Report: “The damage level could be sufficient to be catastrophic to the Nation, and our current vulnerability invites attack.”28 What Is To Be Done? We recommend establishing an Executive Agent – a Cabinet Secretary designated by the President – with the authority, accountability, and resources, to manage U.S. national infrastructure protection and defense against EMP and the other existential threats described above. Current institutional authorities and responsibilities–government, industry, regulatory agencies—are fragmented, incomplete, and unable to protect and defend against foreign hostile EMP threats or solar super-storms.
We encourage the President to work with Congressional leaders to stand-up an ad hoc Joint Presidential-Congressional Commission, with its members charged with supporting the Nation’s leadership and providing expertise, experience, and oversight to achieve, on an accelerated basis, the protection of critical national infrastructures. The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) have for nearly a decade been unable or unwilling to implement the EMP Commission’s recommendations. A Presidential-Congressional Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection could engage the Free World’s preeminent experts on EMP and Combined-Arms Cyber Warfare to serve the entire Government in a manner akin to the Atomic Energy Commission of the 1947-74 period, advising the Administration’s actions to attain most quickly and most cost-effectively the protection essential to long-term national survival and wellbeing. The United States should not remain in our current state of fatal vulnerability to well-known natural and man-made threats.
We highly commend President Trump’s new Executive Order “Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure” signed on May 11, 2017.
We strongly recommend that implementation of cybersecurity for the electric grid and other critical infrastructures include EMP protection, since all-out cyber warfare as planned by Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran includes nuclear EMP attack. However, current institutional arrangements for protecting and improving the reliability of the electric grids and other critical infrastructures through the U.S. FERC and the NERC are not designed to Executive Summary (2010); FERC Interagency Report by Edward Savage, James Gilbert and William Radasky, The Early-Time (E1) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid (Meta-R-320) Metatech Corporation (January 2010); FERC Interagency Report by James Gilbert, John Kappenman, William Radasky, and Edward Savage, The Late-Time (E3) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid (Meta-R-321) Metatech Corporation (January 2010). 28 EMP Commission Executive Report, op. cit., p. 1. 12 address major national security threats to the electric power grids and other national critical infrastructures.
Using FERC and NERC to achieve this level of national security is beyond the purpose for which those organizations were created and has proven to be fundamentally unworkable. New institutional arrangements are needed to advance preparedness to survive EMP and related threats to our critical national infrastructures. We recommend that U.S. military forces and critical national infrastructures be protected from EMP as outlined in the EMP Commission’s classified reports and unclassified reports provided in 2004 and 2008. EMP protection of military systems and civilian/military critical national infrastructures can be achieved cost-effectively by a combination of operational procedures and physical hardening. It is not necessary to harden everything. Selective hardening of key critical nodes and equipment will suffice. Threat parameters are 200 kilovolts/meter for E1 EMP and 85 volts/kilometer for E3 EMP.
Critical national infrastructures are already adequately protected from E2 EMP, equivalent to lightning. We recommend, given the proximity and enormity of the threat from EMP and Combined Arms Cyber Warfare, the President exercise leadership to implement immediate, mid term, and long-term steps to deter and defeat this existential threat: Immediately: We recommend that the President declare that EMP or cyber-attacks that blackout or threaten to blackout the national electric grid constitute the use of weapons of mass destruction that justify preemptive and retaliatory responses by the United States using all possible means, including nuclear weapons. Some potential adversaries have the capability to produce a protracted nationwide blackout induced by EMP or Combined-Arms Cyber Warfare by the use of nuclear or non-nuclear means.
A Defense Science Board study Resilient Military Systems and the Advanced Cyber Threat (January 2013) equates an all-out cyber-attack on the United States with the consequences of a nuclear attack, and concludes that a nuclear response is justified to deter or retaliate for cyber warfare that threatens the life of the nation: “While the manifestation of a nuclear and cyber-attack are very different, in the end, the existential impact to the United States is the same.” We recommend that the President issue an Executive Order, provided to the previous White House, titled “Protecting the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP)”.
Among many other provisions to protect the nation from EMP on an emergency basis, the Executive Order would instantly mobilize a much needed “whole of government solution” to the EMP and combined-arms cyber threat: “All U.S. Government Departments, Agencies, Offices, Councils, Boards, Commissions and other U.S. Government entities…shall take full and complete account of the EMP threat in forming policies and plans to protect United States critical infrastructures…” Protecting the electric grids and other critical infrastructures from the worst threat—nuclear EMP attack—can, if carried out in a system-wide, integrated approach, help mitigate all lesser threats, including natural EMP, man-made non-nuclear EMP, cyber attack, physical sabotage, and severe terrestrial weather. 13
We recommend that the President direct the Secretary of Defense to include a Limited Nuclear Option for EMP attack among the U.S. nuclear strike plans, and immediately make targeting and fusing adjustments to some of the nuclear forces needed to implement a nuclear EMP attack capability. We recommend that the President direct the Secretary of Defense to use national technical means to ascertain if there is a nuclear weapon aboard North Korea’s KMS-3 or KMS-4 satellites that orbit over the United States. If either or both of these satellites are nuclear armed, they should be intercepted and destroyed over a broad ocean area where an EMP resulting from salvage-fusing will do the least damage to humanity.
We recommend that the President direct the Secretary of Defense to post Aegis ships in the Gulf of Mexico and near the east and west coasts, to search for and be prepared to intercept missiles launched from freighters, submarines, or other platforms that might make a nuclear EMP attack on the United States. U.S. National Missile Defenses (NMD) are primarily located in Alaska and California and oriented for a missile attack coming at the U.S. from the north, and are not deployed to intercept a short-warning missile attack launched near the U.S. coasts. We recommend that the President direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to harden the FirstNet emergency communications system against EMP. We recommend that the President initiate training, evaluating, and “Red Teaming” efforts to protect the U.S. and in the event of an EMP attack to respond, and periodically report the results of these efforts to the Congress. Mid-Term: We recommend that the President direct the Secretary of Defense to deploy Aegis-ashore missile interceptors along the Gulf of Mexico coast to plug the hole in U.S. missile defenses. The U.S. has no Ballistic Missile Early Warning System radars or missile interceptors facing south, and is largely blind and defenseless from that direction, including to missiles launched from submarines or off ships, or from a nuclear-armed satellite orbiting on a south polar trajectory.
We recommend that the President direct the Secretary of Defense to develop a space surveillance program to detect if any satellites orbited over the United States are nuclear armed, and develop space-interception capabilities to defend against nuclear-armed satellites that might make an EMP attack.
We recommend that the President direct the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to launch a crash program to harden the over 100 nuclear power reactors and their spent fuel storage facilities against nuclear EMP attack. Nuclear power reactors typically only have enough emergency power to cool reactor cores and spent fuel rods for a few days, after which they would “go Fukushima” spreading radioactivity over much of the United States. Long-Term: 14
We recommend that the President through his Executive Agent protect elements of the national electric grids, the keystone critical infrastructure upon which all other critical infrastructures depend. Priority should be given to elements that are difficult and time consuming to replace. Such elements can be protected from EMP at very low cost relative to the costs of an EMP catastrophe, and paid for without federal dollars by a slight increase in user electric rates. We recommend that a similar approach be taken to key elements of the national telecommunications infrastructure and other national critical infrastructures. We recommend the development and deployment of enhanced-EMP nuclear weapons and other means to deter adversary attack on the United States. Enhanced-EMP nuclear weapons, called by the Russians Super-EMP weapons, can be developed without nuclear testing.
We recommend strengthening U.S. ballistic missile defenses—including deployment of space-based defenses considered by the Strategic Defense Initiative— and that these be designed and postured to also protect the U.S. from EMP attack.
Some responses below to you're tirade about Republicans and their Party.
Your party is so fucked up that it even makes Darth Cheney look good. Liz is a conservative, but she is doing something that the rest of you fools can't even recognize.... which is doing the morally right thing.
I will not use your kind of language here it is unbecoming of any human to demean others by swearing in public.
Liz is simply out for her own self-interest the great smart folks from her own home State realizes this, that is called responsible voting in a Constitutional Republic. Even wanted Dem.'s in her State to cross over to vote for her in Wyoming can you say the word manipulative person?
You asked for it. Here's why the rest of us know you and your GOP ilk are fascist tyrants...
* You have no qualms about forcing any woman to remain pregnant and have a child, much less a 10 year old rape victim.
The 10 year old in question could have received proper emergency treatment in her home State but they made it a National Story about having to travel outside her State due to its abortion ban publicity stunt by Dem.'s. Needs to make the evening news is what Lib's do all the time true or not they put it out there. Could have been handled and should have privately.
* You're happy to see women's rights taken away, and would condemn young men to 18 years of child support for a one night stand.
The Constitution never covered abortion as a right for anyone to be entitled to it is not there. Life is a part of the Constitution though in case you missed it. Women like men need to be more responsible as human beings before they attempt to pro-create another human being.
* You, and the party you support, would curtail all of our reproductive rights by eliminating contraceptives. Not really a factual or a true statement, some do some do not agree with your comments in this current R. Party.
* You encourage neighbors to spy on, and rat on, neighbors who assist someone to get an abortion.
And you're party encourages death to the most vulnerable amongst us in the womb where you once were and myself. Tell me something Mr. Know-it-All, which baby if born of all the millions destroyed by these abortions was the one human if born that would have saved our planet? or Created the next great medical miracle? Do you know which one that was that had no chance to be born due to the support you tend to lean on for murdering these innocents?
* You're party has been waging a war on, and whipping up hate against, trans gender people to court their fundamentalist base.
I know many transgender folks that are a part of the current R. Party and dislike the hate they see from the other side on a daily basis and who they believe does not speak for them or their cause. R. Party is about Smaller Government control over your lives and freedom for all true American's and those who came here to this Country legally and followed the Law.
* You're OK with your party's appeals to racists by suppressing minority voters.
Seems the Dem. Party cries racism at every corner and every subject matter, it simply is not true as the Dem's the Party of Slavery from years past and the Republican Abraham Lincoln who ended it all. Seems you all love to change history of our Country and force it down folks throats. When you have to keep explaining yourself you're losing. R. Party does not need to convince American's where they stand on issues, they know where they stand, you guys have to keep explaining how the other Party keeps performing racist acts and racial overtones, it is you're Party that promotes that and keeps it in the fore front, that is not a policy to live with here as most Minorities understand the game you all play with their lives. They like most American's just want a good paying job with benefits.
* You support a man who used white nationalist storm troopers to try to overthrow our government and keep him in power, and would reward him for doing so by voting for, and supporting him and his supporters again.
Had it been a real uprising as you all claim it was there would have been over 100 million folks there my guesstimate, but really I heard 600 folks actually entered the building out of approx. 5,000 folks whom attended.
* Multiple xenophobic and antisemitic policies and statements under Trump have inspired a record number of hate crimes in the past several years.
True on both sides of the aisle Obama hated Israel. Most politicians are afraid of Israel and the army soldiers they have but no one will come out and say that publicly. The rest of the World feels that way as well, they learned their lesson in WWII and no one will pick on their Country now, they will not allow it.
* Your party blindly follows a leader who has committed multiple crimes, cheated dozens of people he's done business with or taken loans from,and has spouted over 30,500 lies during the 4 years he was president. I do not need to tell you that all politicians lie and are dishonest, which is why I favor term limits be implemented every four years. By the way Trump was not a politician is why folks in power hated him so much and attempted before he even took office to dethrone him of the election with the help of the FBI the one you wish folks to believe today even though nothing has changed inside its operations.
* You trust him and your party for medical and scientific advice over medical and science professionals. Most folks trusted the CDC and growing up here in America we always did as they asked of us to safeguard our children, you know the one's you do not want born nowadays, but the flip flopping of directions from them and Fauci and Birks (who has written a book now stating all the lies they told the public and was fake data or no data followed). I only trust my local physician and their advice as following some Nationalist on what to do locally is not a good look and for example John Hopkins University set up the Covid tracking map which ended up being used all over the World, where was YOUR CDC then it was theirs to create but all the money and they could not even put a map together for our public.
* You ban words and books and prosecute teachers for saying things, or teaching things, on your forbidden subjects list in classrooms. Wow banning historic statues and writings in really in your Party's wheelhouse, if one eliminates history then we can say that Slavery never happened then right? KKK never existed right? Hey that is History but you like that History to remain to put down the rest of the Nation to maintain your constant racist drumbeat in America. If thise were true then zero minorities in America would be working with any benefits at all if this Nation were a racist Nation. CRT learning yes lets leave History as it was the children should we all ow them to be born will figure out what happened they have a brain and can figure it out you do not need to force feed them lies. When's the last time BLM with all their millions of payoff money gone to Chicago to stop the shooting violence in that Liberal City? Never, why not? Well minority on minority crime we are not interested in taht kind of crime just White men/women against Minorities.
* You promote suspicion of news media and government institutions.
Yes when they covered and pushed the Russian hoax against Trump for four years and won Pulitzer prizes in doing so about a out and out proven lie. Cannot believe you bring this up. Where is your hero Michael Avenatti these days? Adam Schiff still has all that proof no one ever seen? Hmmmm....promoted on CNN multiple times as the next President of the U.S. Yeah R. Party is off the deep end all right.
* You incite hate against the FBI and CIA and all federal law enforcement agencies that you don't control. See above attempting to help the Dem.'s overthrow a duly elected President of the U.S. before he even took office, leaves a nice warm and fuzzy feeling for these FBI Chiefs, but their rank and file with exception of a few bad apples bad mouthing the President the rest are fine outstanding men and women who serve properly and follow the Law.
* You have a propaganda channel devoted to electing your candidates and shaping your policies which invents issues such as Critical Race Theory and Antifa to promote divisions. School is for Reading, Writing and Arithmetic not whose partner is woman or a man or something else, they simply need to do the job of teaching not force feeding ill ideas into children's minds. And the Lib;'s have the majority of the Non News stations in America, I have some relatives that watch only those stations CNN, MSNBC, and the other followers of Soros bought and paid for, and she had no clue about anything she is like you and think that former President is a scutch has no clue she was hearing lies every day since he was elected by those sources, if you hear it enough you believe nothing else. I for one try not to watch any of that garbage no matter what station it is as they do not promote my party which is neither of the main parties being discussed presently.
* It has no problem with touting complete lies like election fraud, and the recent claim that the out of state abortion for a 10 year old rape victim was an invention of the left.
So pray tell me here, if you live in a Town with only 1,000 Registered Voters and you were running against me in Town and the results come in and all Registered Voters voted either in person or by Mail In Absentee Ballots (10) or some folks are new to Town and wanted to Vote in this election (10) more here. And you received 501 Vote's and I received 750 Votes what would you do would you ask for a check or recount at all? Possible votes to count should be 1,010, seems we got 1,251 votes. Don't laugh this occurred in Wisconsin and in Michigan to a larger extent but it happened.
* You follow a man whose been sewing distrust of free elections since he first started running for President and made numerous phony claims of election fraud. Again what do you do with all those witnesses American's mind you that came forward to describe their involvement with the elections and what they saw happening or that they were kicked out of the precincts? I guess you only pay attention to the shiny object not reality of these folks occurrences at the polls on the day. A women in AZ asked a guy outside why are you here. He said I am here to get all the votes for Biden that I can. She asked where are you from, he told here CA. I am here to make sure no matter what everyone votes here. Guess due to the Lib population in CA. he was not too worried about that outcome.
* You make believing Trump's lie, that he won the 2020 election in a landslide, a condition for someone in your party to run for office, and placed scores of these people on the ballot to become state and local election officials. I make no such claims but it should all be fully investigated by independents not Rudy G. but others in charge of the State Elections to get to the real bottom of it without influence by any side, problem is behind the scenes others among American's have a force you cannot witness or see.
* You're OK that Trump issued Executive Order 13957 just before he left office to gut the civil service and remove anyone (up to 30,000 people) opposed to him and replace them with political appointees. No I am not OK with such actions maybe others are but I am not. How about the forcing of 60,000 soldiers to leave the military because they refused to get the shot due to religious reasons.??
* You handle all criticism by calling it fake news and accusing your opponents of everything your guilty of. No I do not I just find 20% of what is reported to be 1/2 accurate and links and news stories on the web I can make them up all day long if I spent my time doing so.
* Your appointees to the Supreme Court no longer base their rulings on the Constitution or court precedent but invent new principles, the latest one (Dobbs) backed by a medieval English jurist who prosecuted witches. Supreme Court Justices follow the Constitution sometimes I agree with them sometimes I do not they are the impartial system of justice this Country cannot survive without.
Are we feeling the Nazi vibe yet?? No maybe you should look in the proverbial mirror at yourself.
Fascist, Paramilitary Groups Seen Aligning With Republican Political Targeting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpeXmRyKjSM
h/t lesgetrich
Yes they do, thanks for the advice. Taken and done.
The formerly popular and well known Chaney's and their buddies the Bush's are no longer involved in U.S. politics, they are through. The horse has left that barn so to speak. Means you cannot get it back in the barn for those who do not know this.
But Liz can continue to obsess of that one person and their lives, but at some point even she has to give up her hatred. It is not becoming.
Poor Liz Chaney got hammered last night in more ways than one. But she does not even know what kind of Government we have here in America. Some History lessons for Mrs. Chaney below. Hint, "We are not a Democracy Liz".
________________________________________________________________
Is The U.S. a Democracy or a Republic?
by Civics Nation Admin | Feb 13, 2018
Protest is a key democratic freedom. Photo credit: Shutterstock
The United States is a democracy, right? Yes. Absolutely. But if that’s the case, why are we seeing arguments to the contrary?
It’s not in headlines, but below the surface within right-leaning online political publications—the kinds of places some might go to find alternatives to what’s being dubbed “fake news” by our president—people are trying to argue that the U.S. is a constitutional republic, and not a democracy at all. But of course the U.S. is a democracy! Why would anyone want to confuse the issue?
Before we try to answer that question, let’s talk about how the American democratic system actually works. The folks perpetuating these stories say that republics and democracies are incompatible things, and that the U.S. is a republic. Any civics expert will tell you that these two systems are not mutually exclusive.
The United States is a democratic republic—both a democracy and a republic. Case closed. The conversation should end there, right? Wrong. Proponents of the idea that the U.S. is not meant to be democratic like to talk a lot about the founders, so let’s talk a bit about the founders.
It’s true that the founding fathers didn’t support a pure, direct, Rousseauian-style democracy, but they clearly did believe in a democratically elected government. To reconcile two ideas, they devised a system where representatives are democratically elected by the populace to serve at the pleasure of the citizenry.
Where you have voting representatives, you have a republic. The Senate was created to balance power between more and less powerful states based on region, and the House of Representatives served to represent the citizenry based on population.
The beauty of the American system can be found in its effort to combine democratic ideals with a classical republic to develop a practical democratic system. In fact, it’s this republicanism that makes democracy work in America.
Now that we’ve tackled this issue, let’s get back to the question at hand: is the U.S. a democracy or a republic? Why would any interest group seek to perpetuate a story that says the American system is a Constitutional republic and not a democracy? The answer is all about messaging.
On its most basic level, this kind of argument gives ammo to folks who want to engage in debate surrounding political structures. It may make someone feel as if they know something others don’t, or that they can redirect a conversation toward a topic they feel informed about. It’s empowering, and that’s how the narrative spreads.
This doesn’t seem so bad on the surface, but it’s the implied arguments that are frightening. For instance, it suggests that democracy itself is bad, that it represents big government, and so it should be squashed in favor of republicanism. Democracy, then, is seen as invalid and associated with Democrats, and republics are seen as constitutional and associated with Republicans.
If this seems like too big of a logical jump for you, keep in mind that these kinds of arguments do in fact exist, and often follow reductive and incomplete reasoning. One popular YouTube video paints the “left vs. right” divide as a spectrum with big government on one end, anarchy on the other, and republicanism sitting safely to the right of direct democracy. It’s really a perversion of the political compass, a common tool for understanding political ideologies.
The most frightening element of the argument, though, is that people who subscribe to the idea that democracy is bad can use the idea to justify horrible abuses. For instance, if democracy is associated with mob rule or is seen as somehow unconstitutional, then arguments against it could potentially be used to justify voter suppression efforts in the name of constitutionality, or worse.
The GOP is shrinking and becoming an increasingly white party with all demographic trends working against it. Whites will be less than 50 percent of the U.S. population by 2050. So, this push to crush out the term “democracy” as an enemy of the Constitution probably has to do with asserting the right of the minority to rule over the majority. It is a dangerous mindset that ignores the notions of self-governance and self-rule that are core concepts being expressed whenever someone says, “the U.S. is a democracy.”
____________________________________________________________________
Democracy vs Constitutional Republic
• 13 August 2019
I believe the principal imperative of every American citizen, regardless of age, is to understand and know that the United States of America is a Constitutional Republic NOT a Democracy! It is a fact that the Founding Fathers gave We the People a Constitutional Republic. This fact is recorded in Article IV Section 4 of our Constitution which reads:
“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic Violence.” [Emphasis added.]
It is of note that the Founding Fathers did not use the word “democracy” in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States of America. Nor does the word “democracy” appear in the constitutions of any of the fifty States.
For 130 years We the People knew and our posterity were taught that we lived in a Constitutional Republic. Then in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson began the slow and deliberate process of changing the thought and mind of We the People. It was then that the transition from knowing that our nation was a Constitutional Republic began to morph into being a Democracy. He did this when he raised the battle cry, “The world must be made safe for democracy.” He and the other Fabians did this to begin the slow and deliberate march of the Republic toward a Welfare Socialist State.
Their lie has now been repeated over and over again for more than 100 years until now it is embraced as truth. The real truth that we were given a Constitutional Republic is known by few and is lost in obscurity to the majority of We the People.
The Founding Fathers would have said, “The world must be made safe from democracy” because they understood the excesses of a democracy. They took great pains to avoid Democracy for our nation. As stated by Alexander Hamilton, “We are a Republican Government. Real liberty is never found in despotism or in the extremes of Democracy.”
The Founding Fathers gave us a Constitutional Republic. A Republic differs from a Democracy. A Republic exists only when the system [framework] of government holds both the people and their rulers subject to law. It is a government of laws and not of men. Man becomes free when he recognizes that he is subject to law.
A Republic is government of the people, by the people, for the people. A Democracy is bludgeoning of the people, by the politicians, for their selfish interests.
John Adams, our second President, said, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.” (Emphasis added)
Thomas Jefferson, our third President, said, “It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights… Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence. It is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power… Our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no further, our confidence may go… In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” (Emphasis added)
The lesson is clear for all who can hear. God is our Ruler. He set up our nation in His own way and time. He appointed for its rulers the humble men of the street; the artisans, the farmers and the builders. Under the influence of His Holy Spirit, as long as they would listen, they worked together and built a mighty nation. The people were sovereign and We the People ruled well and with a mighty hand from March 4, 1789 as a Constitutional Republic. Their elected representatives recognized that the Federal Government only had power as We the People granted it to them within the framework of our 1787 Constitution, with its checks and balances, and Bill of Rights.
Our U. S. Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787 and became the law of the land on June 21, 1788 when New Hampshire was the ninth state to ratify it. It went into operation March 4, 1789. This Divinely inspired document is the best form of government ever entrusted by God to man.
Because of its Divine birthright, the Constitution has written into it both a spirit and a letter. The spirit of the Constitution gives to our republican form of government its life and meaning based on the intent of the Founding Fathers. The letter of the Constitution gives to our government its framework or structure. This structure, as seen by the Founding Fathers, is both vertical and horizontal. Vertically our government is divided between the Federal, the State, and the Local governments always with We the People as the ultimate voice of government. Horizontally, it is divided between the legislative, the executive, and the judicial branches each providing “checks and balances” against the others.
It is well known that, “Power corrupts and that absolute power corrupts absolutely.” For this reason our Founding Fathers placed within our Divinely inspired Constitution a “separation of powers” which is founded in our Judeo-Christian heritage. “For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our King; he will save us.” (KJV: Isaiah 33:22) It is this “separation of powers” that prevents despotism and tyranny by those elected and appointed to govern. By this form of government, if we and the guardians of our Divinely inspired Constitution, the Justices of the Supreme Court, are vigilant, we should be able to remain a free people until He rules who has a right to rule – the Lord.
If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, can a nation rise or survive without His divine approval and assistance? Is it possible for an individual or a nation to get ahead by leaving God behind?
In 1787 at the close of the Constitutional Convention, a lady asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well Doctor Franklin, what have we got – a Republic or a Monarchy?” He is quoted as saying, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
May God Bless and Save the United States of America —
Our Constitutional Republic !
Seems to me to be one party's idea of less Big Government and more freedom I am sort of in favor of those things too, thanks for posting the other party's goals. Hope they make it happen. Thanks.
ChannelTrader, thank you for the overall support here thinking of taking a small position in this one. Also my Mother used to listen to the Bishop all the time back in MA. Loved the you tube you put out, thanks brought back many memories. GLTA here.
Hap I take exception to your posting factual information on the fantasy island board.
Did he have the DOJ go through Michelle Obama’s closets? Don’t think so yet Obama took over 30,000 documents for his so-called library. Did he go after any Democrats while in office snd have them arrested and put into prison? Adam Sciff, Eric Swawell, Maxine Watters telling folks to go after all of Trumps supporters in public. I could go on and on here for mistakes in judgement I will call them to be polite for these left wing nut jobs who do not deserve to operate I side our Government. Who did Trump have arrested from the opposition side? Pray tell me? Sorry links if I post all of them you will find some reason to dispute them all as all of your minds are made up. Not worth my time. You can continue to live in that fantasy world you live in while Chinese Joey and Little Hunter just boarded a plane to some other billionaire donor on another vacation. Whatever if it’s in D.C. it stinks. Can smell it from here, both sides of the aisles by the way. I am not here once again to support Trump, not my gut sorry to disappoint you all. Out. Again yes.
I have developed a soft spot for real businessman/people for being able to run our Government better than any long term politician can. Not that Trump was stellar at either you could tell he wanted to get things done for America snd folks liked that about him. Next election I will be voting for those who run businesses not politicians. Too much baggage. Thanks.
I must be slipping a tad then. Thanks for bringing me back to Terra.
Very funny…. LOL.
I really disagree equally with both sides of this spectrum there are too many crimes or poor judgement to go around for both parties. Just did not want you to think your team is squeaky clean here.
Please feel free to remove thank you. My apologies to this board. You all are in good hands without me here.
DesertDrifter, this one is for your bud. Enjoy, you wanted some links to my jibberish so here are just a sampling of items out there in the public eye that may bring back some of the short-term memory losses occurring on this board. Good luck to you all here.
Again,all these violations without any charges or prosecutions, only the Trump family is attacked, seems odd again, but again I have not dog in this battle you all do and you all know 2024 is right around the corner.
Biden's trip to China with son Hunter in 2013 comes under new scrutiny (nbcnews.com)
Oh nothing to see here boys how about china owning the Biden Family, not Trump but Biden folks.
Inside Hunter Biden’s multimillion-dollar deals with a Chinese energy company - The Washington Post
Not Don Jr. or Eric, but rather Little Hunter Biden Chinese Joe’s boy. Again not a Trump.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-116hres631ih/html/BILLS-116hres631ih.htm
Federal investigation of Hunter Biden reaches critical juncture, sources say - CNNPolitics
Uh Oh once again not a Trump here but rather why it’s a Biden boy tell me it ain’t true folks.
CNN's Brian Stelter admits Hunter Biden laptop 'not just a right-wing media story' | WCIV (abcnews4.com)
Finally Brian Seltzer, he needs some after this is coming around to finding what truth looks like in real life, its tough not to tell lies isn’t it Brian.
All the Adam Schiff Transcripts - WSJ
After all the below BS here is the real Adam Schiff 2020.
Schiff claims there’s already ‘direct evidence’ of collusion by Trump campaign | The Hill
Before the real truth came out in WSJ above 2019
Schiff: There's "damning" evidence of Trump-Russia collusion (axios.com)
Before the truth came out in WSJ above 2017
What really happened when Biden forced out Ukraine's top prosecutor (usatoday.com)
Geez not a Trump here either what the heck is going on with this Biden Family I will tell you too many years in D.C. drinking his own Kool-Aid.
Ukraine Report_FINAL.pdf (senate.gov)
Oh my goodness John Kerry did not know of Hunters business dealings sounds kind of like Chinese Joey talking here don’t it.
Fact check: Joe Biden leveraged Ukraine aid to oust corrupt prosecutor (usatoday.com)
Not to help his son little Hunter boy who at this time was being pursued by this same Prosecutor heck of a coincidence hey folks, I have a bridge you can buy for sale too.
Tony Bobulinski Statement on Hunter Biden | C-SPAN.org
Tony Bobulinksi the good guy meets Biden Family crooks.
What 'Big Guy' Joe Biden said to Hunter's business partner Tony Bobulinski at discreet hotel meeting | Daily Mail Online
Hey Chinese Joey no telling who you will meet at a dinner arrange by your little boy Hunter now you know buddy.
'Plausible deniability': Tony Bobulinski claims Biden family shrugged off concerns about risk to 2020 bid | Fox News
OK enough about the truth telling of Mr. Bobulinski the poor Biden’s would not know truth if it hit them in the face.
Secret Service is renting $30,000-a-month Malibu mansion to protect Hunter Biden, ABC News reports (theweek.com)
Protect him from what or whom? Chinese FBI, Russian FBI, Ukraine FBI or maybe those dastardly Trumps yeah that’s it.
Campaign Press Release - FACT CHECK: Joe Biden Undermined the Peaceful Transition of Power in 2017 | The American Presidency Project (ucsb.edu)
Oosey Daisy Chinese Joey you are involved once again, geez why don’t you retire to some distant Chinese island in your older years, but no the money is too good here in D.C. to leave. Corruption at its finest.
Biden confirms Obama, VP were briefed on unsubstantiated claims against Trump | CNN Politics
Yes as always unsubstantiated claims against Trump but hey Adam Schiff has all of the information you need here, or maybe let’s talk to Tony B. about it? Oopsey Daisy again.
Trump accuses Barr of double standard for not prosecuting Obama, Biden (cnbc.com)
Of course Barr has his legacy to think of does not wish to rock the boat of folks he knows but hey at least he tried.
The Steele dossier: A reckoning - CNNPolitics
Oopsey Daisy another one bites the dust, Steele Dossier I wrote that from a seat in the Bathroom at a MacDonalds in Great Britain and mailed it to Mr. Steele Superman himself.
FBI agent Peter Strzok fired over anti-Trump texts - The Washington Post
Cannot be why he’s an FBI Agent but hey NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW right Adam Schiff and Hillary, no one.
Why Hillary Clinton Deleted 33,000 Emails on Her Private Email Server - ABC News (go.com)
Hey who cares about Subpoena’s anyway that don’t apply to a great elitist like me I am Hillary. Not a Trump either here?? Hmmmm he’s got to be doing something wrong because all the Democrats are right?
The FBI Files on Clinton's Emails - FactCheck.org
Maybe should have connected her up to a lie detector machine so we would find out the real truth, maybe have someone with scruples to actually interview her as well.
Voicemail shows Joe Biden knew of Hunter's China dealings: report (nypost.com)
Joey I have no clue about my little boy’s business dealings, Hunter can do no wrong in the world, he’s a great stealer, errrr. Partner, errrr. Son I think he’s mine?
Joe Biden met with at least 14 of Hunter’s business associates while vice president | Fox News
No it cannot be Chinese Joey said he knew nothing of Hunter’s Business dealings, only the cocaine he had with the hookers. Oh well we are rich so it does not matter what we say or do. So true. Not a Trump here either, but rather the Big Happy Wealthy Chinese Biden Family Album with Communist Chinese Leader at the head of their Thanksgiving Table cutting the dang turkey up. Nice.
So in closing here all of these folks and this is just a few of them by the way none of these folks are Charged with anything or any wrong doing, no one has had to answer in any Court of Law or had their houses raided at all. Hillary had a private server with Classified government Documents on it for crying out loud, she is still getting her nails done in NY State free as a bird as they say.
So how many Democrats have been taken down with all of their wrong doings. I will tell you, NONE of them. Not even a hint at an arrest or charge against any of them.
How many folks during Trumps tenure that were his opponents were impeached? NONE, How many did Trump have arrested and sent to jail, NONE.
Democrats get away with crimes that they blame Republicans for committing. Too funny.
The raid crime? You mean? Or the one who attempted to oust that person before he took office of the President in 2016? I cannot keep up with all the Democratic crimes that go unpunished do not sure which you are referencing? Clinton’s destroyed documents perhaps? FBI texts about taking down Trump which ones do you want to speak of? Is it any wonder folks do not trust these folks to run a doghouse. One good thing is they all get caught but no one goes to jail only the other party does. Seems a tad fishy to half the Country. But hey I am just a simple minded person. Remains to be seen what further documents get added to this confiscation but with the collection agencies past track record where anything goes then it’s open season to end one’s career. Good luck with all that thinking process. I for one will await to see what the real facts tell us not the.hyperbole going on now.
Yes multiple jobs do they can eat and buy fuel to get to their three job. You are correct for once.
Simply face facts you all stepped in it again. Election is lost face facts. So sad you folks don’t even get it yet. Cannot grow more brains, so sad.
Sorry no guilt here folks, feeling good about life once again. Again not my candidate but make stuff up as you can to suit your agenda’s. So predictable. Now that is the real tripe here. To each their own I say. FBI had their orders just like the phony documents from the proven phony Russian Collusion documents. But hey let’s just simply forget that happened at all snd Today we can now trust the FBI right? All that past history of facts does not matter because this person is not yours. Oh well not mine either but I will stand up if I smell something is wrong even if it were any of you. Today bring another day off to work to pay my taxes for more in non- Americans who illegally crossed our borders last night. Got to pay to support them all. See ya.
14th Amendment I believe.
So they apparently have taken fifteen or more boxes of some sort of documents now under their control. After the truth csme out about the phony documents from the Russian Collusion operation against him know who trusts this organization not to slip in a few documents into these boxes that incriminate certain folks. Hey they are in control so I am sure as from recent past certain political parties are always ten steps ahead of the others we hen it comes to the creation of evidence. But hey we only have our factual history to recognize and think these things can occur. Especially with the overall trust level at it’s all time low here for them.
To me this information is evidence which you process through the proper representing Attorney of the person who supposedly has said documents. You go together there with FBI folks and the Attorneys and review what needs to be returned to meet the intent of that records Act. Not a raid at the home of a former President. Sorry but there are much more comical ways to have handled this. Just my take here follow a legal process civilly not abruptly due to some axe to grind. Wrong way to go about it. Again just my opinion.
If that were to occur he more than likely would win a landslide election in 2024. But just guessing that this was the dumbest move the other side could have done, they just solidified his base supporters and MORE who believe in following the actual laws of our Country.
No American should have to endure this treatment. Again I support American’s I am not a Trump supporter nor the other side, I vote for the smartest folks in the ballot. There are no candidates of my party on any ballot I remain unaffiliated. But you all really have to think about what you agree and disagree with here. I would support any of you should someone raid your house snd took things from your home. But somehow I get the feeling that is not mutual here from your real hateful statements. Oh well to each their own and all of your opinions as I have said prior. I simply believe they just handed over the next election to this person without knowing it, that makes them very dumb. But hey your right I am just a hater right. Good luck with your politics and the weaponization of same.
Real great American. Good luck for our Country is all I can say now. Hate runs really rampant here, that is also sad.
Yes Indiana voted for life which is in our Constitution. Thanks for reminding me. Those voters in America everyone speaks about, they were all born too. Ahhh Life, Liberty snd the Pursuit of Happiness. Love America just not some of their all powerful controlling entities that are allowed to run tough shod on whomever they do not like.
Remember, Jesus and his teachings and His life was not about how much we will love Jesus, but rather how much we will love Judas.
Nice language there are you still in fifth grade. Maybe like Biden you take folks out behind your wood shed still. Too funny. No one American should be happy tonight about this news against another American, let alone a former President.