Month: October 2021

The United Kingdom is short 100,000 qualified truck drivers after tens of thousands of them returned to the European Union during Brexit, and 40,000 heavy goods vehicle (HGV) driver tests were suspended because of the virus pandemic in 2020. The lack of drivers has roiled supply chains, resulting in higher logistical costs that could make the price of food and anything else hauled by trucks more expensive ahead of the holiday season. 

The “Winter of Discontent” is starting to become a reality for millions across the world’s fifth-largest economy as a deficit of truckers triggered widespread fuel shortages this week. There’s also been a shortage of natural gas from Russia that has pushed UK wholesale natgas prices to record highs has transformed the country’s power industry into a chaotic mess. Soaring prices and shortages are reminiscent of the late 1970s and may worsen in the months ahead.

The government announced Sunday temporary visas for 5,000 foreign truck drivers to alleviate extremely stressed supply chains, but that may be a hard task to fulfill considering the deficit is so wide. Truckers who spoke with Reuters said their wages are going up because they’re in high demand, and in return, the cost of everything will rise as well. 

“Wages will have to go up, so prices for everything we deliver, everything you buy on the shelves, will have to go up too,” Craig Holness,51, British trucker with 27 years of experience, told Reuters. 

Hauler and recruitment companies are struggling to fill the deficit. One online job posting offered 75,000 pounds ($102,500) per annum salary for HGV Class 1 drivers. 

“With HGV drivers, we’re now paying them 40% more than we were four months ago,” said Jordan Francis, the commercial director of recruitment agency ProDrive. 

Holness doesn’t believe the trucker shortage will abate anytime soon because the deficit is so large. He said no young person wants to do this job because the conditions are poor. 

“Who wants to be a lorry driver – you’d be better tapping away on a keyboard wouldn’t you? Kids these days don’t want to know,” said Holness. “I want to get out.”

Miguel Brunel,41, a truck driver from Bethune in northern France, said, “this is chaos,” while referring to the deficit of drivers in the UK.

The British Retail Consortium, the retail industry’s lobby group, told the government last week that new HGV drivers need to be found in the next ten days to avoid significant disruption in the run-up to Christmas. 

“HGV drivers are the glue that hold our supply chains together,” the retail group said. “Without them, we are unable to move goods from farms to warehouses to shops.”

From turkeys, toys, and trees this upcoming holiday season, millions of Brits could be in for a price shock or at least some kind of disappointment as supplies could be exhausted. 

This could be problematic for Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey who said this week that he’s laser-focused on the inflationary effects from supply shortages including labor. 

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

The Vatican is set to punish employees who refuse to comply with COVID-19 certification by not paying them.

Yes, really.

Vatican staffers who are unable to prove they’d been jabbed or who refuse to pay for expensive negative COVID tests will be considered “unjustly absent” and paid no salary.

The new rules will go into force from October 1st onwards.

As we highlighted last week, the Italian government has also passed a decree applying to both the private and public sector ordering companies to withhold pay from workers who refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

Those found working without the pass face fines of up to €1,500 euros after it was extended as a condition of entry for museums, stadiums, pubs, restaurants, and schools.

The unvaccinated were also banned from using long distance public transport, meaning that holidays, travel for work and visiting relatives has become impossible for many.

A sliver of good news is that Italians continue to hit the streets to protest the measures, with one video showing police officers removing their helmets in solidarity with the demonstrators.

REPORT: Italian Police Officers remove their helmets in solidarity with the anti-tyranny pro-freedom demonstrators. pic.twitter.com/ZbUKVGpkfO

— New Granada (@NewGranada1979) September 27, 2021

Despite many Christians asserting a religious exemption to the vaccination, the Vatican itself is offering no such workaround.

Pope Francis has been a vehement supporter of the mass vaccination program, asserting that humanity “has a history of friendship with vaccines.”

“The Vatican has said that it considers it acceptable for Catholics to use vaccines, even those that use stem cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research,” reports the Mail.

Wow, so Christian!

As we highlight in the video below, by promoting vaccines and by proxy vaccine passports, the Pope is literally helping to grease the skids for what many fear could eventually turn into a ‘Mark of the Beast’ system that will demand total compliance in order to buy or sell.

And that’s far from his only anti-Christian position.

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Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Saker blog,

Perth in Australia will be a forward base for nuclear-powered and nuclear weapon-carrying American subs.

Pax Americana was always a minor character in a zombie apocalypse flick.

Pax Americana is actually The Eternal Return of the Living Dead. “Pax” was never in order; War Inc. rules. The end of WWII led directly to the Cold War. The unipolar moment was an arc from the First Gulf War to the bombing of Yugoslavia. 9/11 launched the Global War on Terror (GWOT), renamed Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) by Team Obama. We are now entering Cold War 2.0 against China.

What former CIA analyst Ray McGovern memorably describes as the MICIMATT (military-industrial-congressional-intelligence-media-academia-think tank complex) never did “Pax”. They do War, in unison, like The Knights Who Say “Ni!” – minus the comic flair.

Take this Knight for the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the heart of the establishment matrix. CFR specializes in Kissingerian Divide and Rule. Now that applies, in spades, to the Russia-China strategic partnership.

Knights overwhelmingly state the obvious: “Chinese power must be contained”. They sell the current, serial imperial debacle as “grand strategic moves”, in a quirky, lost in translation mixed salad of Gramsci and Lampedusa: a “new order” (engineered by the Empire) is being born via “everything must change so everything may remain the same” – privileging the Empire.

Other Knights even propose the ludicrous notion that the current POTUS, an actual zombie remote-controlled by a teleprompter, is capable of conceiving a “foreign policy for the middle class” , as if the MICIMATT would ever approve a scheme to “advance prosperity in the free world as a whole”. The “free world” has just been stunned by the “prosperity” offered to Afghanistan during 20 “bombing to democracy” years.

And then there are British Knights, who at least should have known their Monty Python by heart, carping about illiberalism and the “regimes created by Xi and Putin” , which will “crumble” and be succeeded by “anarchy and new despotisms.” Same old Anglo haughtiness mixed with piercing ignorance. Oh, those Asiatic “tyrannies” threatening the White Man’s civilizational drive.

We all live in an Aussie submarine

Now it’s all about AUKUS – actually U SUK A. Until recently, only the P5 – the five permanent UNSC members – possessed nuclear-powered submarines. India joined the club, and later rather than sooner, Australia.

Every major player knows the next American war will not be about remote Pacific islands. Taiwan, though, is a completely different ball game. U SUK A is mostly about Taiwan.

U SUK A was finalized at the G7 summit in Carbis Bay last June. That was an Anglo Boys Club affair, discussed exclusively by the Biden-BoJo-Morrison troika – and duly excluding Japan, even as Tokyo all but drew a samurai sword yelling its intent of supporting Taiwan.

The problem is there have been no leaks of the fine print contained in U SUK A. Only spin. Yet it’s already clear that U SUK A goes way beyond building Aussie nuclear subs. Canberra will also have access to Tomahawks, Hornets and even become part of American hypersonic missile research.

But then, in a slip, Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton gave away the game: U SUK A will allow the upgrading of “the infrastructure in Perth, that will be necessary for the operation of these submarines. I expect we will see…lease arrangements or greater joint operations between our navies in the future.”

Translation: Perth will be a forward base for nuclear-powered and nuclear weapon-carrying American subs.

Why U SUK A now? Let’s go back to WWII – and the same old cartoonish geopolitics of benign Anglo maritime island powers pitted against the “evil” Eurasian heartland.

WWII was the solution to simultaneously prevent Germany from dominating the Atlantic and Japan from dominating the Asia-Pacific (by the way, that’s the correct terminology: “Indo-Pacific” is Empire-speak).

Germany-Japan was all about an alliance that would be predominant across the Eurasian heartland. Now, the Empire of Chaos is being slowly but surely expelled from the Eurasian heartland – this time by the Russia-China strategic partnership.

Those with technical knowledge across the Beltway – not, not the Knights – are aware the US is not a match for hypersonic Russia. Yet the Americans believe they can make life unbearable for Beijing. The US establishment will allow China to control the Western Pacific over their dead bodies. Enter the instrumentalization of Australia.

A big question is what will be the new role of the Five Eyes. With U SUK A, the Anglo Club has already stepped beyond mere intel sharing and spying on communications. This is a military pact between Three Eyes.

Depending on the composition of its new government, Germany could become a Sixth Eye – yet in a subordinate role. With U SUK A, NATO as a whole, fresh from its spectacular Afghan debacle, becomes little else than a semi-relevant vassal. This is all about maritime power.

U SUK A in effect is a Quad Plus, with India and Japan, the Fifth Columnist Asians, only allowed to play the role of, once again, mere vassals.

War before 2040

Not surprisingly, the first, concise technical and strategic assessment of U SUK A is Russian, written by Alexander Timokhin and published in Vzglyad, closely linked to GRU intelligence. Here, provided by John Helmer, is an essential English translation.

The key points:

• the extra subs will create a serious, additional threat; “the problem of combating enemy submarine forces will become quite acute for China.”

• Geographically, “Australia can completely block the connection between China and the Indian Ocean.”

• Australia will meet the deadlines only if it lays “more submarines a year than the Americans.”

• It is “possible to quickly make Australia a country with a submarine fleet.” These “gigantic investments and sharp political turns are not carried out just like that. The hegemony of the Anglo-Saxons in the world is seriously shaken.”

And that brings us to the inevitable conclusion: “It is worth recognizing that the world is on the verge of war.”

Even before the Vzglyad strategic assessment, I had submitted the ravings of yet another Beltway Knight – widely praised as a sage – to an old school, dissident Deep State intel analyst. His assessment was merciless.

He wrote me, “the geopolitical logic is that the China-Russia alliance was determined to be against US interests, much as the Mao-Stalin alliance. SEATO and NATO are being replicated. The treaty between England, Australia and the US is part of the Pacific rebalancing, or a new SEATO. NATO is part of the offset against Russia-China in Europe.”

On what might lie ahead, he noted that “the coup against the US, Australia, England and NATO would be a French-Russian alliance to break up NATO and isolate Germany. Russia has unsuccessfully approached Germany, and now may approach France. The loss of France would effectively end NATO.”

He sees U SUK A all dressed up with nowhere to go: “As it stands now, China is in command of the Pacific and Australia and Britain mean nothing. Russia can overrun NATO in two weeks, our adversaries’ hypersonic missiles can destroy all NATO airfields within five to ten minutes and the battle for Europe would be over.”

He’s adamant that “the US cannot project power into the Pacific. Chinese submarine missiles would finish off the US fleet in short order. The Australian submarine issue is really irrelevant; if the CIA had an organization that was worth anything they would know that our adversaries already can spot and destroy our nuclear submarines without the slightest difficulty. The entire US Navy is obsolete and defenseless against Russian missiles.”

And it gets worse – at least for the cheerleading Knights: “The F-35 is obsolete. The Air Force is largely worthless, as Russian and Chinese missiles can finish off their airfields or aircraft carriers in short order. The woke US Army is more worthless than the French Army with their Maginot Line. The Joint Chiefs of Staff are paid less than 200k a year, and are second or third rate talent. The US is a sinking ship.”

Assuming that’s really the case, the – nuclear – war against China in the Western Pacific, projected in the Beltway to happen in the second half of the 2030s, would be over even before it started. Taiwan may even be part of China by then – an offshoot of Beijing always proposing economic exchanges to all, while Washington always “proposes” war.

One thing though will never change: The Knights Who Say “Ni!” singin’ the praise of Pax Americana to the utter indifference of the unruly plebs.

Out of 18 countries surveyed in two separate surveys by Pew Research and the Levada Center, the residents of only two hold more favorable views of China than of the United States.

In some of the remaining countries, the race is closer than expected as our chart indicates.

You will find more infographics at Statista

However, as Statista’s Florian Zandt notes, the good standing of the People’s Republic in Russia and Singapore can easily be explained.

China is Russia’s premier trading partner both regarding imports and exports with a trade volume of 104 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 next to Germany with 42 billion U.S. dollars and the Netherlands with 29 billion U.S. dollars.

Singapore’s population, on the other hand, is made up of roughly three-quarters ethnic Chinese, and official diplomatic relations between the two states have been thriving since the early 1990s. Still, 51 percent of respondents in the sovereign island state held a favorable view of the United States. This could be seen as a nod towards its role as a mediator in the APAC region that managed to bring together former U.S. president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2019.

On the other end of the spectrum, Japanese residents hold the People’s Republic in contempt, possibly due to the rift widened by the Second Sino-Japanese War starting with the Marco Polo bridge incident in July 1937 or Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in September 1931 depending on the perspective. Only 10 percent of respondents saw China in a favorable light, while 71 percent held the United States in high esteem.

Even though China has reclaimed its role as the U.S.’ leading trade partner in 2020 after President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods hampered imports from the People’s Republic, relations between the two superpowers are still fraught.

In the latest clash for geopolitical dominance, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian called the establishment of the naval Aukus defence pact between Australia, the UK and the U.S. a reinstatement of a “Cold War […] mentality” and an accelerator of the global arms race.

Op-Ed via The Machine Gun Nest (TMGN).

I don’t have Twitter. If I did have Twitter, I’d only be following Bitcoin and meme stocks. I feel sorry for those constantly exposed to the political opinions of 14-year-old children amplified by their usefulness to “the narrative.”

The Argentinian Philosopher Carlos Bernardo González Pecotche surmised that the world is in turmoil because people don’t know where their thoughts originate. The opinions of others enter their heads, and those people feel like the thoughts are their own. Not realizing that they’ve been programmed. 

David Hogg is one of those people on Twitter who I’m glad is slowly fading into irrelevancy. He’s a professional anti-gun activist (with armed bodyguards, of course.) He’s one of the founding members of the March for Our Lives organization, a non-profit almost entirely propped up by donations from the top 1% of the country and billionaires like Michael Bloomberg.

Recently, Hogg has been on a tweetstorm, and it’s caught headlines in the firearms media world. Here’s what he had to say:

Ask yourselves in the history books we will write about you how do you want to be remembered?

Weak and corrupt people that worked to protect people like the 19 year old that killed my classmates and teachers OR as people that protect our kids and teachers right to not be shot?

— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) September 24, 2021

You can practically see the mental pat on the back that he’s giving himself while writing the tweet. But immaturity isn’t necessarily the point here. Although Hogg himself is insufferable, this is also how he makes his living. Saying ridiculous things on the internet as bait for others to react keeps him from fading into irrelevancy.

I want to take a second to address David Hogg and respond to this tweet. I’m assuming that he thinks that he’s speaking for young people in general, or maybe young liberals. Either way, I believe that he’s first wrong (read: “The Trend Has Flipped: Millennials Are Actually Buying Guns”) to assume he’s in the majority and second, naive to think that people don’t have differing political views from himself—especially young people.

I’m 28 years old. I grew up with Liberal baby-boomer parents and am a product of the early 2000s. I had school shooter drills in high school, bomb threats, and more. I am staunchly pro-gun. Many more people my age are as well. Interestingly, younger people are increasingly opposed to gun control, with the percentage of people under 30 that support stricter gun laws dropping from 65% to 45% since 2018.

Gun owners are incredibly diverse. Young and old, people of all cultures, races, and political opinions own firearms. I’m not sure if there’s anything that supersedes cultural and political divides, like the right to own a gun.

And if the recent surge in gun buying (read: here & here) has shown us anything, when the chips are down, and it’s time to take self-defense seriously- people who were once opposed to guns buy guns. We experienced a ton of that firsthand here at TMGN. Nationwide more than 9 million people became first-time gun owners in 2020 and 2021, which continues to rise.

Now, you probably already know this but March for Our Lives is not a grassroots organization. Major million-dollar donations almost entirely fund it. Only 0.5% of their entire revenue is from donations totaling less than $5,000. Some real journalists looked at the group’s 990 tax form showing that out of the $18.6M that March for Our Lives collected in donations during 2018, $17.8M came from about 74 people donating between $5000.00 and $3,504,717.00.

So, David Hogg would like us to believe that there’s some army of young progressive anti-gun voters out there looking to wipe away these evil old boomers (who are some of the most prominent supporters of gun control, ironically). Yet, his entire organization is mainly supported by 78 wealthy donors. (If you dive into the data, 36 donors made donations between $100,000 and $3.5M, so maybe it’s just 36 people who support Hogg). 

Here’s the thing, since the Heller decision in 2008, gun rights have been rapidly expanding. The landscape isn’t what it was in the 1990s. AR15s are no longer weird, quirky firearms that a few hobbyists own; they’re recognized as modern-day muskets. The right to carry a concealed firearm has been significantly expanded since the 1980s, and every day more and more young people get into the sport of shooting and exercise their 2nd Amendment right. David Hogg should come to try firearms for himself; he might just change his mind.

The recent gun-buying craze sparked by the pandemic and social unrest has begun to truly express younger Americans and minorities and women’s Second Amendment rights like never before. These new gun owners are also across all political spectrums and suggest Hogg’s movement is fading into the darkness. 

* * * 

One thing that David Hogg and liberal media don’t want you to see is the massive surge in Second Amendment sanctuaries at the state, county, and local levels. 

More than 61% of American Counties are Now Second Amendment Sanctuaries https://t.co/vm5gkNmBqg

— Sanctuary Counties (@SanctuaryCounty) June 21, 2021

Raytheon Missiles & Defense and Northrop Grumman completed the first test flight of an air-breathing hypersonic weapon last week for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Air Force (USAF), according to a press release from Raytheon. 

The prototype weapon system is called the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept, or HAWC, which performed an air launch from an aircraft wing. There was no mention of the type of aircraft used in the test, but it’s likely a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. 

“This brings us one step closer to transitioning HAWC to a program of record that offers the next-generation capability to the U.S. military,” said Andrew Knoedler, HAWC program manager in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office. 

“The missile, built by Raytheon Technologies, was released from an aircraft seconds before its Northrop Grumman scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) engine kicked on,” DARPA said. 

“The DoD (Department of Defense) has identified hypersonic weapons and counter-hypersonic capabilities as the highest technical priorities for our nation’s security,” said Wes Kremer, president of Raytheon’s Missiles & Defense business unit. 

The test comes after the USAF’s AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, or ARRW, failed an air-launch test on July 28 and days after USAF Secretary Frank Kendall told reporters he wasn’t satisfied with the service’s hypersonic program. 

The successful launch of the HAWC is good news for the U.S. who has fallen behind Russia and China in fielding hypersonic weapons. 

So whenever the next big conflict breaks out, hypersonic weapons and fifth-generation fighter jets will be key at rendering enemy defense systems useless. 

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

Authorities in New South Wales are threatening to jail Australians who don’t show a COVID-19 vaccination pass when they enter businesses.

Yes, really.

NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello threatened people who he described as “fraudsters” with arrest if they try to enter premises with “fake vaccine passports”

“If people want to do the wrong thing, if they get found out, as I said, it could be jail time there,” said Dominello.

According to the report, people who also try to enter without showing anything will also be subject to arrest.

“Mr Dominello reiterated that those who refuse to show their vaccine status when entering shops, restaurants and other venues should be reported to the police,” reports News.com.au.

Enforcing such a system may be problematic however, as the Police Commissioner of New South Wales recently asserted that his officers wouldn’t be checking medical papers.

“The role of police in terms of vaccine passports, we will not be walking through restaurants, cafes and pubs checking if people are double vaccinated,” said Mick Fuller.

We now face a two tier society where the unvaccinated are not only brazenly discriminated against, but actually thrown in prison if they try to engage in basic commerce or lifestyle activities.

As we previously highlighted, Australians who police merely suspect may be planning to attend an anti-COVID tyranny protest are being intimidated with home visits.

*  *  *

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There were some unexpected, surprising agreed-upon initiatives to come out of Wednesday’s Sochi summit between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan which will be sure to catch the attention of the West, given Turkey comprises NATO’s second largest army – also given the prior S-400 and F-35 standoff with Washington. 

As we detailed earlier, it was the two leaders’ first face-to-face summit in a year-and-a-half, also as tensions soar between the two countries on Syria policy. Their meeting in Sochi was lengthy, lasting about three hours. A subsequent statement from the Turkish side indicated Russia agreed to jointly produce jet engines, warships and submarines – a huge development revealed in state-run Anadolu Agency.

While initial Russia press release summaries of the meeting were vague, President Erdogan divulged some of the key details discussed with Putin to Turkish journalists accompanying him. “For example, we discussed steps to build a second and third nuclear reactor,” he said, a reference to the Russian-built Akkuyu nuclear reactor in southern Turkey.

And then Erdogan said this, crucially at a moment the Lockheed F-35 program is still blocked due to the S-400 issue: “We even comprehensively talked about the steps we can take on [building] jet engines.”

“Another topic, we can take joint steps in the construction of [war]ships. We will, inshallah, even take joint steps on submarines,” Erdogan described, even bringing up the prospect of space exploration cooperation. 

“Putin would like to work with Turkey in space. Our teams will study this issue and we will create a roadmap,” he told reporters. “There is even a further offer; by creating one platform on the sea and another on land, we can jointly work on rocket firing tests to space.”

Has #Russia joined NATO? https://t.co/gCxn2wXqS6

— EHSANI22 (@EHSANI221) September 30, 2021

Erdogan further doubled down on prior statements saying US sanctions wouldn’t deter Turkey from acquiring a second round of S-400 anti-air defense systems from Russia. He said in a Sunday CBS News interview that “Nobody can interfere” with issues of Turkey’s sovereign defense. “We are the only ones to make such decisions.”

When pressed specifically on whether Turkey plans to move forward on the next round of S-400 delivery, Erdogan responded with a blunt, “of course”. 

Authored by Aden Tate via The Organic Prepper blog,

What do you suppose would happen if the President of the United States deemed it necessary, for “national security,” to flip the Internet Kill Switch? In these digital times, there should be great concern over something like this. However, normalcy bias seems to have a firm hold on a majority of the citizens of the US, and many are clinging to the “it can’t happen here” theory. 

The United States has yet to employ this particular tool. However, according to data gathered to examine the financial impact of internet shutdowns, since 2019, there have been 237 major internet shutdowns in 45 countries. [source]

What is an internet kill switch?

An internet kill switch is a device/software/configuration that allows one to shut down all internet access within a region or country indefinitely. If activated, the kill switch would prevent everyone from checking social media, shopping online, using online messenger services, sending emails, or anything else involving an internet connection.

In many cases, this may also include any form of phone contact (it varies). 

Which countries have already used the internet kill switch?

Hackers have the ability to down the entire internet system, as we have seen with op article and op article. However, governments around the globe have also resorted to shutdowns, claiming it to be necessary for public safety. For example, India (a democratic nation) was the global leader in shutdowns in 2019, with over 150 in 3 years. [source]

See if you spot the recurring theme among the following shutdowns:

Cuba

On July 11, Cuban citizens rallied in the streets to protest food and medicine shortages and electricity outages. Within two days, the Cuban government began restricting internet access. 

China

Back in 2009, riots broke out in Xinjiang. The communists responded by shutting down the internet to the region for an entire year. [source]

Egypt

Amid protests, Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak cut off nearly all internet access and shut down all cell phone services. The shutdown lasted for five days. [source]

Iran

November 16, 2019, Iran authorities flipped the switch, plunging citizens into digital darkness for nearly 11 days. According to an Amnesty International press release, the deliberate shutdown was an attempt to hide the horrendous killings across the country.

Zimbabwe

In 2019, President Mnangagwa announced a fuel price increase. Protests against the increase caused Mnangagwa to shut down the internet. Critics called the shutdown “an attempt to hide growing reports of a violent crackdown on protests.” [source]

South Sudan

Protests? We can fix that with an internet shutdown. [source]

Zambia

Election day, 2021, warranted shutting down many social media platforms and some messaging apps. Although the Zambian government denied the reports Secretary, Amos Malupenga mentioned there would be no hesitation to take appropriate measures. [source]

Colombia

Colombia’s government used this innovative means of stopping protests here in May 2021 – an internet shut down. [source]

The Republic of the Congo

Another election day shutdown in 2021. This time in The Republic of the Congo. [source]

Armenia

Political unrest led to an internet shutdown here. [source] 

Russia

I think mentioning the word ‘elections’ regarding Russia is enough to make anybody laugh. Have a pesky election-tracking app you need shut down? A partial internet shutdown can do the trick. [source]

Myanmar

Coup underway? Better shut off the internet. [source]

Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s government shut down the internet 12 times before blacking out the country for nearly 16 days in 2020. Reports said this was an attempt to muzzle activists demanding justice for the killing of a beloved musician. [source]

Does the United States have an internet kill switch?

Technically, yes.

Under an entirely unconstitutional 1930s law on the books: 47 USC 606: War Powers of President; Chapter 5, Subchapter VI, the President has the authority to wield that mighty weapon.

The 1930s law reads: 

(c) Suspension or amendment of rules and regulations applicable to certain emission stations or devices

Upon proclamation by the President that there exists war or a threat of war, or a state of public peril or disaster or other national emergency, or in order to preserve the neutrality of the United States, the President, if he deems it necessary in the interest of national security or defense, may suspend or amend, for such time as he may see fit, the rules and regulations applicable to any or all stations or devices capable of emitting electromagnetic radiations within the jurisdiction of the United States as prescribed by the Commission, and may cause the closing of any station for radio communication, or any device capable of emitting electromagnetic radiations between 10 kilocycles and 100,000 megacycles, which is suitable for use as a navigational aid beyond five miles, and the removal therefrom of its apparatus and equipment, or he may authorize the use or control of any such station or device and/or its apparatus and equipment, by any department of the Government under such regulations as he may prescribe upon just compensation to the owners.

Perhaps you think this only applies to radios. It couldn’t possibly apply to your laptop or phone, right?

Don’t forget your devices use radio waves to receive their internet access. In addition, your devices can access Google Maps, which would qualify your computer as a navigational aid. 

What’s stopping the US Government from labeling EVERYTHING a national emergency?

“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.” – Thomas Jefferson

If you consider that America now believes racism is a “public health emergency,” government authorities could very likely deem a public health crisis as “public peril, disaster or other national emergency.” Oh no! The government must shut down the internet! [source]

Emergencies’ have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded — and once they are suspended it is not difficult for anyone who has assumed such emergency powers to see to it that the emergency persists.” – FA Hayek [source]

This bill also gives armed men the notion they can take your equipment. And should you say no? Well, you can read the penalties section HERE. And also, before deciding you’re going down in a blaze of glory, check out Selco’s prediction of how that will work out for you.

Unplug the Internet Kill Switch Act of 2020

Last year in 2020, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard introduced the Unplug the Internet Kill Switch Act of 2020 to Congress. H.R.8336 would have directly attacked 47 USC 606, making it not pertain to internet usage. While Congress did not refuse the bill, they left it to sit with no further actions. [source] 

In 2016, we experienced something similar when the Supreme Court denied hearing a petition to release information on the ‘secret’ DHS internet kill switch protocol. [source] Because we need an internet kill switch, of course. THAT is an issue of national security.

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” – William Pitt

Yes, internet kill switches exist – prepare accordingly

This website published an article about the possibility of a comms blackout and how to prepare for it back in January. Check it out for some useful and viable communications options. Also, don’t forget the importance of ham radio, although you should know that it’s not completely immune to governmental interference.

A major pipe rupture on the American side of the US-Mexico border is sending millions of gallons per day of raw sewage into the Rio Grande, International Boundary & Water Commission (IBWC) is warning this week. 

The agency formally notified Mexico authorities late this week, saying in a statement to the monitoring organization Border Report that “The water that is going into the Rio Grande is downstream of the location where Mexico gets the water under the (U.S.-Mexico) treaty. But, yes, sewage flows into the Rio Grande are entering the international reach of the river.” 

The IBWC estimated that between 3 million and 6 million gallons per day are flowing into the river which forms the natural boundary along the length of the southern Texas border. Broken pipes located in West El Paso have been leaking since Aug.15 – for a believed total of 150 million gallons of potentially toxic sewage polluting the Rio Grande. 

Crucially, some major downstream population centers in Mexico could be impacted by toxic water from the spillage. According to a local El Paso CBS affiliate: 

Sewage flows into rivers and other bodies of water can expose humans who wade or swim in them to dangerous pathogens and cause intestinal infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health organizations.

The Rio Grande cuts across El Paso and Juarez, Mexico, a city of 1.5 million people; many migrants who approach the border wall to enter the United States surreptitiously first must cross the river.

El Paso water authorities have cited a ‘cascade of failures’ that ultimately contributed to the major leakage and spill. City Water President and CEO John E. Balliew said in a statement it’s “corrosion driven” and described what led up the ongoing disaster as “not just one break” but “a series of breaks”. 

Officials from El Paso Water say while they can’t stop putting sewage into the Rio Grande, they have a plan to treat it, @ProkopDani reports. https://t.co/ueBcf12dd7

— Bob Moore (@BobMooreNews) September 27, 2021

“The pipe is so badly corroded that we can’t fix it. When we go to fix it, we cause more damage than exists at present. So, we’re concentrating on replacement,” he added. 

The city said this week it’s only completed up to 60% of pipe replacement, so millions of gallons of sewage are expected to continue flowing into the Rio Grande. Meanwhile on the US side of the border there’s concern that the polluted water may negatively impact vegetation, wetlands, and irrigation. It’s just one more border disaster among many currently creating tensions for political leaders on each side of the border, also amid the recent Haitian immigrant camp crisis. US Border Patrol is also said to be monitoring the sewage leak situation in coordination with the IBWC.