Protect Critical Infrastructure

President Biden should reallocate funds in his Infrastructure Bill from its lowest priority projects to hardening our nakedly vulnerable, most critical infrastructure (critical systems) against Cyber-attacks from the Public Internet. Some of the most critical systems: Electrical Grid, Water purification and distribution, and pipelines. Long ago, China had reportedly penetrated many electrical systems; and, “60 Minutes” showed the ••destruction•• via the Internet of a large generator in only a few minutes.

Private Wide Area Networks (Private WANs) can provide a fast, feasible, proven way to secure critical systems. If President Biden plans to spend two Trillion dollars on infrastructure, that should include helping all critical intrauterine utilities to quickly move those systems to private WANs—••NOT•• a single government network. That would quickly morph into the same mess we have today. Specifically:  

·       Move every critical system, including remote computers used to monitor and control the equipment, from the Public Internet to a Private WAN. This would a computer that cannot reach the Internet; not simply putting a second Network Interface Card in a computer attached to the Internet.

·       Copy every computer and server, prior to wiping the drive, “bit-buy-bit” for offline later penetration analysis.

·       Rebuild each computer and server from a blank drive to its proper configuration.

Recently, Admiral Charles Richard, Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, was reported as testifying that nuclear weapons could become “the least bad option” in a war with Russia, China, or both. As war clouds gather, over Taiwan, North Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Lebanon, and Israel, critical systems need hardening against cyber-attacks more than ever; doing less could tie the hands of the President in a crisis.

In 1982, the bank for which I worked, and virtually every other bank, used a Private WAN, whether owned or leased, to operate every terminal and printer in every branch and office. This included processing virtually every financial transaction. I believe Public Utilities also used private WANs before the Public Internet became available; although, I have no experience in that industry.

Considering the testimony of Admiral Richard, please consider the following very plausible scenarios:

·       China:

o   China invades Taiwan.

o   The President moves to the defense of Taiwan.

o   China ••destroys•• every electric generator near the Mississippi River from Cape Giraudoux, MO to Cairo, IL,

o   China threatens to destroy every generator in the United States unless the President gives up Taiwan.

·       Russia probably can attack critical systems almost as effectively as China. That could allow Putin to use similar threats against an American intervention in defense of Ukraine.

·       Perhaps worst of all, the Mullahs in Iran might get the same attack capability. If successful, they conceivably could:

o   Attack Israel and follow the “China scenario” above.

o   Try to ignite a war between the great powers by launching an attack on one and “pinning the attack on” one or both of the others.

I do not want any President to have to consider either jeopardizing the entire electrical grid or using nuclear weapons in the face of aggression by any nation. Moving critical utilities to Private WANs could reduce the danger of any nation miscalculating American Resolve. Some other advantages of hardening infrastructure include:

Addressing a critical vulnerability earlier Presidents have ignored or kicked down the road.

• ·       Republicans might support the project, rendering the entire Bill bipartisan.
• ·       Having utility rate payers pay for most of the project over time by making low interest
       or no-interest loans to the utilities for, say, ten years.
• ·       Upon completion, the Project will leave America, our allies, our adversaries, the world,
       much safer.

 As always, comments invited.

DJ

President "Double Mask" Biden--Ha!

Current Biden Administration Border policies will make Cuomo’s slaughter of nursing home patients seem like a game of touch football!

President “Double Mask” Biden tells us, “For God’s sake, wear a mask!” Then he turns loose an average of 8,000 COVID infected illegals each month to mix freely into the United States population—no COVID test; no quarantine; no masks; presumably not even a normal temperature test! The Biden Oddminstration gives many unscreened illegals a bus ticket to the city of their choice, a cash stipend, and effectively says, “Go into our country and mix with our people.” (Note 1)

President Biden has a lot of nerve telling us to wear masks while unleashing upon us a deadly plague of unknown intensity and breadth! When massive deaths ensue, the President can say, “Tut! Tut! President Biden told you to wear a Mask! It’s all the fault of mask-resisting Republications.”

Maybe the cronies running President Biden have decided to swap “eternal plague” for “eternal war” in their very own 1984 “Take Over” Scenario.

 

(See HR-1 for details.)

 

Note 1: The best average value I have seen.  About 100,000 border crossings have occurred in recent months. Here is a link to two or more sets of positive percentages; I will stick with eight percent:
https://www.westernjournal.com/stunning-percentage-illegal-immigrants-dropped-off-texas-city-tested-positive-covid/

 

Can President Trump Possibly Win in November?

If the President continues blithely and complacently running against the current crop of hopeless candidates much longer, Michele Obama will “mop the floor” with him in November. The time for unfocused speeches “preached to the choir” has ended. President Trump must tar President Obama with all his duplicity, failures, and excesses—without mentioning the name of Mrs. Obama. In essence, President Trump must win the election before 13 July 2020, when the Democrat Convention starts.

The democrats will likely nominate Michele Obama on ballot three through six. The move for an Obama Candidacy has become increasingly clear for a couple of months. The Obama Team really “amped up” its campaign during post-debate comments on January 14, 2020. Numerous commentators, as shown on Fox, all seemingly “independently” concluded in unison that, “None of these (Debate) candidates can beat President Trump.” Until the fourteenth, the Obama Team seemed focused on subtly making sure the convention deadlocked.

The early Obama effort took two forms. First, questions as to why numerous “can’t win” candidates entered the race in the first place. It seems clear that some, if not most, entered to dilute the delegate counts of the front runners. Second, many comments such as, “Why hasn’t President Obama endorsed Biden?”—comments designed to make sure that Joe Biden, at first, nor anyone else, later, could win the nomination on an early ballot. You see, for several ballots, many delegates must vote for the candidate who won their seat at the Convention.

The foregoing certainly gives a plausible answer to why Michael Bloomberg would suddenly jump into a race so late—too late to win even if he actually ever had a chance in the first place. Diluting support for the four front runners seems more plausible than a desire to ride in on a green dragon and rescue the Country. Even Bloomberg knows he could never win.

President Trump needs to hammer home that the American Economy took off when he yanked the Obama Boot off its neck. And, that any Democrat President will jam that Obama Boot right back onto “your back”, suffocate the Economy, and decimate jobs. In fact, if “you” got a job after March 2017, chances are good that you will lose that job shortly after any Democrat takes the White House in 2021. More than any other action, deregulation launched the amazing Trump Recovery—a recovery President Obama ridiculed as impossible. President Trump must make that clear; and he must do it now.

Before the Democrat Convention starts on 13 July 2020, President Trump would do well to make the “Obama Boot” a part of the American Political Lexicon. Each voter the President wants to win needs to know that their job hangs in the balance in 2020—ideally, by or before 6 July 2020. After someone puts the name Michele Obama before the Democrat convention, a gushing “media tsunami” will drown out President Trump. The opportunity to run against President Obama will have dried up.

In addition to the foregoing, President Trump obviously needs to hang the myriad other Obama failures on the shoulders of the former President: Obama Care, Israel, Benghazi, Iran Nuclear Deal, Ukraine, Defense Build Down, and on and on for another couple thousand words.

Sub themes on the Economy:

• Rolling back Obama era regulations gave businesses the confidence to expand, which in turn launched the Trump Recovery

• President Obama spewed out more job killing regulations than any President in history

•  “If you got a job after [the President’s] inauguration, you stand to lose it if any Democrat takes the White House—the Democrat way: ‘last hired; first fired’”

• After telling the American People many times that “the days of three percent growth [are] gone forever” President Obama:

• Ridiculed President Trump for saying the Economy would grow at or over three percent

• Suddenly wants to claim credit for the gone-forever-growth that blew through three percent after President Trump took office

Comments welcome

DJ