by Paul Craig Roberts

In his newly published book, Nuclear High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse, Steven Starr shows that all it takes is one nuclear explosion to shut down  the United States and throw the population back into the Dark Ages.  The electric power grid would be destroyed along with the communications system, the cooling systems at nuclear power plants and all electronic devices.  The reason is that civilian infrastructure is not protected from ElectroMagneticPulse (EMP). The military has taken steps to shield its weapon and communication systems, but nothing has been done to protect civilian infrastructure.  Bills mandating EMP protection have been defeated in Congress.

Starr reports that only 4 percent of the US military budget is required to shield the power grid and civilian infrastructure.  Instead, the Washington idiots waste trillions of dollars in pointless wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Serbia, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, and Ukraine.

American cities would suffer no effects from blast and fire, such as would be produced by ground level detonation, but the consequences would be just as dire.  Starr describes them in a summary on his website:  https://nuclearfamine.org/connect/

Effects of a single high-altitude nuclear detonation over the Eastern U.S.

“105 miles above Ohio, a single nuclear warhead explodes. Because it is far above the atmosphere, there will be no blast or fire effects felt on Earth, however, this high-altitude nuclear detonation will create a gigantic electromagnetic pulse or EMP.

“In one billionth of a second, the initial EMP E1 wave will cause massive voltages and currents to form within power lines, telecommunication lines, cables, wires, antennas, and any other electrically conductive material found beneath the nuclear detonation in a circular area covering hundreds of thousands of square miles.

“Within this region, under ideal conditions, the E1 wave will produce 2 million volts and a current of 5,000 to 10,000 amps within medium distribution power lines. Any unshielded modern electronic devices that contain solid-state circuitry, which are plugged into the grid, will be disabled, damaged, or destroyed. This includes the electronic devices required to operate all critical national infrastructure.

“Unshielded electronic devices within ground, air, and sea transportation systems, water and sanitation systems, fuel and food distribution systems, water and sanitation systems, telecommunication systems, and banking systems would all be simultaneously knocked out of service – and all these systems would be disabled until the solid-state electronics required to operate them could be repaired or replaced.

“The E1 wave will also instantly destroy millions of glass insulators found on 15 kilovolt-class electric power distribution lines. 78 percent of all electricity in the US is delivered to end users (residential, agricultural, commercial) through these 15 kV power lines. The loss of a single insulator on a line can knock out power distribution on the entire line.

“At the same instant, the massive voltage and current induced by the E1 wave will damage and destroy the relays, sensors, and control panels at 1783 High Voltage Substations, knocking out the entire electric power grid in the eastern half of the United States.

“One to ten seconds after the nuclear detonation, the following EMP E3 wave would induce powerful current flows in power lines including lines that are both above and below ground. E3 would damage or destroy many – if not most – of the Large Power Transformers and Extra High Voltage Circuit Breakers required for the long-distance transmission of about 90 percent of electrical power in the United States.

“The loss of Large Power Transformers and Extra High Voltage Circuit Breakers would mean that entire regions within the United States would be left without electric power for up to a year or longer. This is because Large Power Transformers are not stockpiled and the current wait time for their manufacture is 18 to 24 months; they must be custom designed and manufactured and about 80 percent are made overseas. They each weigh between 200 and 400 tons and must be shipped by sea and moving them to their final destination is quite difficult even under normal circumstances.

“Because nuclear power plants are not designed to withstand the effects of EMP, the solid-state electronics within their backup electrical and cooling systems would also be damaged and disabled. The failure of their Emergency Power Systems and active Emergency Core Cooling Systems will make it impossible to cool their reactor cores after emergency shutdown; this will quickly lead to reactor core meltdowns at dozens of nuclear power plants.

“To summarize, a single nuclear high-altitude electromagnetic pulse can instantly take out most or all of the US power grid while simultaneously destroying the solid-state electronic devices required to operate US critical national infrastructure – including the safety systems at nuclear power plants. Following a nuclear EMP, the people of the US would suddenly find themselves living in the conditions of the Middle Ages for a period possibly as long as a year – most Americans would not be able to survive such circumstances.

“For less than 4 percent of the US national defense budget, the US power grid and critical infrastructure can be shielded from EMP. However, the political will to implement this protection has not yet been found, so Americans remain very much at risk.”

The book is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kindle. If you read it, you will be amazed and disgusted at the negligence and stupidity of the US government.  Thanks to the fools who govern us, we have zero national security despite the massive expenditures year after year, decade after decade.

People do not realize that the convenience and entertainment provided by their cell phones comes at great cost when measured by risk.  Nothing is secure in the digital age, not your identity, your privacy, your bank account, or your independence. The expansion of the digital revolution into money will mean that you can be denied access to your money for any reason including the exercise of free speech.  All accumulated knowledge in digital form can be erased by one EMP. Try to imagine the consequences of such a loss.  These are new risks never before experienced on Earth.

by Mexico Institute/Wilson Center

No pun intended, election predictions make horse racing betting look stable.

“Secretariat,” the legendary “Triple Crown” winner, became known for saving energy with a slow start, then overtaking his equine rivals in the final stretch with formidable speed by a long shot. Something similar has happened with the two main presidential candidates in Mexico.

Claudia Sheinbaum was all shades of gray when she started her career. Although intellectually gifted, she has the charisma of a reserved director. Thus, like Secretariat, she seemed like a slow runner until, with the whip of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), she is now far ahead of her adversaries.

In a sense, Claudia has been competing against Sheinbaum, until the appearance of Xóchitl Gálvez in the race in the summer of 2023. Claudia is the model for AMLO, the politician, the woman who has unconditionally followed in her footsteps and has covered the traces of her. Sheinbaum is the scientist, the woman who can discern facts from discourse; However deep in her mind, there is an awareness that the energy sector requires a richer, more diverse and modern range of actors for a just transition.

In this sense, Claudia and Sheinbaum can clash. The poster girl owes her mentor what she is now, that she is no longer a scruffy radical student shouting slogans over a soap box. The stylized woman we see now has promised to expand the energetic legacy of her creator. If so, Sheinbaum is in trouble and may have to step back to allow Claudia to plead the case for a gigantic refinery in Tabasco that is still under construction and does not guarantee cheaper, less polluting fuels.

Xóchitl Gálvez’s performance on the track is exactly the opposite. She unexpectedly walked onto the lawn and the crowd woke up. However, what began as a boom soon turned into a crisis. In the recent survey conducted by El Universal, one of Mexico’s leading newspapers, Gálvez was 30 points behind Claudia. The equestrian analogy is apt. Like Secretary, the one who starts slowly is the one most likely to win.

Gálvez’s decline may have begun with his remarks suggesting that Pemex be privatized, a comment no Mexican politician ever made publicly. The rest of his energy platform is within the establishment consensus of the market-oriented “transition,” although some parts are unrealistic, namely that Pemex must be a leading producer of hydrogen. The revival of energy auctions, greater private investment in clean energy and unprecedented efforts in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, although heretical for the moment in Mexico, are fairly standard objectives in global energy policies.

The unusual thing about Gálvez is that he lacks filters. It is not what he says but his way of expression that makes him an outlier in the political system. Energy is a piece of junk and it is a bull that tramples on the crudest sensibilities. She is a foul-mouthed iconoclast when she talks about Mexico’s most sacred issue: “energy sovereignty” which, from a political perspective, clashes even with a partial privatization of Pemex.

Claudia has tried to make peace with Sheinbaum, but Xóchitl’s presence still looms, particularly as a recent poll by Alejandro Moreno in El Financiero shows that Xóchitl only trails Claudia by 16 points. In early November, she announced a 30-year plan for the energy sector that includes private investment, to modernize the industry and achieve the public good. The question remains whether this scheme will truly decarbonize Mexico, improve market dynamics and, most importantly, secure the path to a just energy transition.

This article was originally published by the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute.

Miriam Grunstein (PhD) is currently an independent attorney whose experience in the energy sector began 21 years ago as a personal advisor to a Commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) of Mexico. She is currently a non-resident scholar at the Mexico United States Center of the James Baker Institute of Rice University.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

In a tour of the networks, we found statements by Gálvez that refute what the article above says, ‘that she advocates the privatization of Pemex’.

According to Animal Político, Xóchitl Gálvez did not say that her dream is to privatize Pemex. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was, during his press conference on September 8, the one who said that it “helps that Xóchitl wants to privatize Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex).” From there a video emerged that was manipulated, which Xóchitl Gálvez said about privatizing Pemex because in her original statement she said that he ‘wants to modernize the parastatal company.’

Xóchitl responded:

“President, I already know that he has his eye on me (…) what I demand is that he measures his words. He now says that I am going to privatize Pemex. Another lie. And since I already know that you only promise the replicas, but do not fulfill them, here I will explain quickly. My dream as a senator is to modernize Pemex and CFE, companies that understand the world, that are at the forefront, that take care of the planet and are useful to all Mexicans.” https://youtu.be/t5pwY-Uf8Bc

Despite previous statements, this video by Xóchitl Gálvez was manipulated. She said that she wants to modernize Pemex and CFE, not privatize the state oil company as the video on social networks says.