April 7, 2020—Phase 4 Opportunities for the Wise and Crafty!

“So . . . the Republicans had a plan of about 750 [million] . . . The Democrats were a little less than a trillion and I’m suggesting two trillion dollars. We redo our roads, our highways, our bridges, we fix up our tunnels.” ~ President Donald J. Trump

Click here for the March 31, 2020 Fox Business article that was the source for this quotation. It also includes a video of that section of President Trump’s press conference in which he reportedly amplified a previous tweet and reiterated his call for a $2 trillion bill to renovate the nation’s critically important infrastructure as part of the next stimulus package Congress is now looking to pass to stem the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, also known as COVID-19.

This new stimulus package is referred to as “Phase 4” because it will be the fourth appropriation intended to stimulate the economy and help those who have lost — and are losing — their jobs and investments because of COVID-19.

The March 6, 2020 $8.3 billion “Phase 1” bill aimed at developing vaccines and diagnostic tests while also providing funds to federal agencies and state governments, was supplemented by the March 18, 2020 “Phase 2” $100 billion bill and the March 26, 2020 $2.2 trillion “Phase 3” bill — all sought to ease the fiscal pain caused by the pandemic by giving Americans direct payments and providing stimulus cash for struggling businesses. All three pieces of legislation passed overwhelmingly in both chambers of Congress.

Click here for a concurrent Forbes article reporting on the President’s March 31 press conference. It added that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) seems to want some of the same objectives (and also others), with votes intended to happen as early as April 20 when congress is slated to return to Washington.

Buried in the ensuing “battle of tweets” and other commentary, I believe there lies hope for advancing the agenda I have long advocated for protecting the critically important electric power grid, and its associated infrastructure that provides the electricity that is vital to our survival.

On the one hand, President Trump indicated in a tweet that same Tuesday morning, reacting to the Speaker’s appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,”, that he would not support Pelosi’s suggestions,

But, on the other hand, while he complained about Speaker Pelosi on some matters, President Trump then reportedly tweeted that “she wasn’t bad” . . . and emphasized that he would support infrastructure funding:

“With interest rates for the United States being at ZERO, this is the time to do our decades long awaited Infrastructure Bill. It should be VERY BIG & BOLD, Two Trillion Dollars, and be focused solely on jobs and rebuilding the once great infrastructure of our Country! Phase 4.” ~ President Donald J. Trump

Does this pseudo and perhaps imaginary exchange set the stage for a constructive negotiation that would serve interests for which I have long been an advocate? Hmmmmm . . .

Click here for an article from the April 4, 2020 in The Hill reporting that while the Speaker wants a bill by the end of April, the House “Freedom Caucus” signaled their resistance by writing to President Trump urging him to avoid rushing to another big spending initiative. An attempt to slow down both the President and the Speaker, you think?

Click here and here for April 5 articles in The Hill and Fox News discussing more Capitol Hill political dynamics that must be accommodated in considering a number of alternative outcomes. As illustrated, there is not a coherent congressional view of what “Phase 4” should include or how much should be invested in Phase 4 — within the House or the Senate.

Those congressional dynamics must also mutually account for President Trump’s “Art of the Deal” dynamics.

To illustrate a few possibilities, consider some public perspectives voiced by the President and the Speaker on a few pertinent issues, while keeping in mind my interest in finding a way to include protection of the electric power grid against both manmade and natural electromagnetic pulse (EMP) threats.

To be sure, President Trump has emphasized his support for highways, bridges, etc. — the kind of infrastructure with which he personally has considerable successful professional expertise. And Speaker Pelosi has at least some other things in mind.

The question is: “Is there some middle ground on which they can agree?” And with which her caucus and the Senate will agree?

The Speaker reportedly has said she hoped Phase 4 would “address the concerns of our state and local governments,” no doubt a position with which the President would — and certainly should — agree. Hopefully, a majority of the House and Senate will also support such a position that reflects the interests of their constituents.

With that possibility in mind, click here for an April 3, 2020 Politico article that quotes the Speaker as saying “We must take bold action to renew America’s infrastructure.” It then ticked off a list of her proposals including “clean water provisions, expansion of rural broadband and more funding for community health centers.” And click here for a March 30, 2020 Politico article that quotes her as signaling to her caucus what infrastructure would likely be part of the “phase 4” package, specifically ticking off priorities like “water systems, broadband and the energy grid.”

Such initiatives could help protect the electric power grid in the COVID-19 crisis by assuring key technical experts that man the key grid operations centers are kept safe. Click here, here and here for my March 17, 24 and 25 messages that discuss this important issue and how dealing with it could also address the vulnerabilities of the electric power grid to even more consequential electromagnetic pulse (EMP) threats.

Moreover, assuring the safety of our water-wastewater infrastructure is second only to assuring needed electricity in importance as a goal to protect our critical civil infrastructure. Without water, patients in hospitals begin dying within hours. And waste-water contaminated with COVID-19 can carry widely that threatening virus.

Of course, operations of water-wastewater infrastructure depend on electricity from the grid.

To repeat: while corrective measures in “modernizing and upgrading” the electric power grid and associated critical infrastructure” are made to deal with pandemic threats and provide employment opportunities, they easily could also be augmented to provide needed protection against other threats, including natural and manmade EMP threats.

“The Devil is in the details,” as I used to say when negotiating with the Soviets as President Ronald Reagan’s ambassador.

But with that in mind, click here for another April 3, 2020 article in The Hill reporting that Speaker Pelosi was “scaling back” some of her positions on these matters, perhaps deferring them to a later bill. I wonder why?

In my view, while quibbling on some details might make sense, there are substantive provisions that she and the president might like and that could support the modernization and upgrading of such critical civil infrastructure as the nation’s electric power grid.

If so, that possibility should interest the President as he pursues the “Art of the Deal.” After all, protecting the electric power grid deserves to be a top priority and is consistent with his already existing “year old” Executive Order requiring a “whole of government” response to do just that!!!

Indeed, top priority should be assigned to assuring the viability of our electric power grid in case of a deliberate manmade EMP attack — or a natural EMP event that for certain will one day occur when the location of the Earth in its orbit coincides with the passage one of the often occurring major solar emissions, called “Coronal Mass Ejections.”

The last time that happened was in 1859 — and there was no electric power grid then.

Today, the resulting “natural” EMP, called a Geomagnetic Disturbance (GMD), could shut down the currently unprotected electric power grid for an indefinite period, leading to the death of up to 90-percent of all Americans due to starvation, disease and societal collapse — as explained repeatedly by the Congressional EMP Commission, beginning many years ago.

Manmade EMP from a high altitude nuclear attack is an even more damaging threat, especially to the currently essential microelectronics in most of our civil and military infrastructure. And employing an attack strategy employing such an EMP capability is included in the military doctrine of Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.

Yet, I’m saddened to report that the “powers that be” in Washington continue to dither and delay in dealing with this existential threat, a point that I will elaborate shortly.

Meanwhile, the Speaker and some of her supporters have had in mind “the Green Agenda” when proposing responses to the COVID-19 threat; these initiatives will not be supported President Trump or Senate leaders. Click here for a CBS News report discussing more of the pending debate, including references to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) who made clear that any legislation crafted by House Democrats would run into resistance in the Senate.

He said in a concurrent radio interview with Hugh Hewitt that he would not “allow this to be an opportunity for the Democrats to achieve unrelated policy items they wouldn’t otherwise be able to pass.”

And President Trump was quick to warn in his March 31 press conference that he is only interested in traditional infrastructure. For example, he emphasized that just because he wanted an infrastructure deal, “That doesn’t mean we’re going to do the Green New Deal because I won’t do it. I won’t approve it.” And he added that he has no interest in such a plan where they “spend 40 percent of the money on things people just have fun with.”

Whatever, the above discussion reflects a current state of disharmony among key Washington “powers that be” in planning for “Phase 4,” and concurrently seeking to address the COVID-19 crisis.

Moreover, it is widely expected that things will get worse this week — and I believe that situation will last longer before it gets better. We should have a better understanding of this situation before Congress returns from its current recess — now scheduled for April 20^th.

But If the COVID-19 threat continues without much reduction, then there will be even more political pressure for Washington to be responsive to associated issues as they grow throughout our nation, especially including economic demands from a growing unemployed citizenry.

In any case, a likely “infrastructure” Phase 4 seems to me to be a likely congressional outcome to aid with the economic recovery.

This likely associated growing demand for help in planning for the future as the American people seek to recover could be used to expedite protection for the electric power grid, upon which the well being of individuals and essential supporting businesses depend. Our local, state and federal “powers that be” should be considering how to assure the viability of such critical infrastructure.

Moreover, President Trump should give priority to achieving that objective, which would fit with his March 26, 2019 Executive Order that directed the federal government to develop a whole of government response to rectify the electric grid’s vulnerabilities, especially to the existential threat posed by an EMP attack on the nation’s electric power grid.

Furthermore, his Executive Order was reinforced and strengthened when on December 10, 2019 he signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for 2020 — the NDAA(2020), because it included an important amendment advanced by Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), who chairs the Senate Committee that oversees the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and is an avid advocate for protecting our critical civil infrastructure.

So, President Trump and congress already agreed last year to improve the viability of the electric power grid against electromagnetic threats! Why not build on that agreement???

It is long past time to fully fund programs to expedite these already pronounced objectives, beginning by fully funding appropriate “pilot studies” like that begun in our Lake Wylie Pilot Study that has already demonstrated that hardening the Distribution Grid in Rock Hill, SC and the rest of York County, SC is quote affordable.

Click here for my most recent detailed discussion (March 3, 2020) about that initiative and a proposed effort to validate the results from that initiative and associated cost estimates — and to extend the associated lessons-learned to protect other counties in South and North Carolina and throughout the nation, including a prominent role for the National Guard.

We estimated that $35 million would enable achieving that objective for the York County Distribution Grid and developing an appropriate game plan to extend those lessons-learned to similar pilot studies in Anderson and Oconee Counties — and engaging via the National Guard linkage to other Pilot studies in Texas and Northern Command.

Compared to the trillions being appropriated to deal with COVID-19, this related investment to deal with the existential EMP threat would amount to a trivial investment — and extending those lessons-learned throughout South and North Carolina and beyond would also constitute a comparatively minor investment, but a very important and consequential one!

These costs are quite affordable, if the politicians will only deal with the obvious bureaucratic lethargy in Washington! But Washington seems interested only in studying the problem, at best to “reinvent the wheel.” ASAP, we should apply what we have long known how to do.

To emphasize this point, I’ll again end this message by quoting Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), who Chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee:

“We have known about the existential threat posed by electromagnetic pulses (EMP) and geomagnetic disturbances (GMD) for decades. Because most people are either unaware of the danger, or view these as very low probability events, there has not been sufficient public pressure to take effective action to mitigate these threats. Instead, we establish commissions and study panels, conduct research, and develop plans to develop strategies. It is way past time to stop admiring this problem, and actually begin to do something concrete to protect our vulnerable electrical grid, control systems, and the ever-increasing array of electronic devices our society has become dependent upon.”

Hopefully, Senator Johnson will press DHS to understand the broader implications of being unprepared for an EMP attack while COVID-19 spreads throughout the United States.

Everyone is concerned about COVID-19 — as indeed we all should be. But we also should be concerned about assuring that we can survive the even more consequential natural and manmade existential EMP threat.

And congress and President Trump already passed and signed into law legislation to enable that needed accomplishment. So, what are we waiting on?

Bottom Lines.

Remember Peggy Noonan’s comment that I highlighted in my two most recent messages, “Everything works — and will continue to work — as long as we have electricity. It’s what keeps the lights on, the oxygen flowing, the information going. Everything is the grid, the grid, the grid.” (Emphasis added) That thought should be given priority in Phase 4. And then there is also Senator Johnson’s memorable expression of his frustration with the slow pace of the Washington powers that be:

And we should not forget that our adversaries can exploit these global pandemic dangers, even while they themselves are under its threat. Some may even be prepared to accept the consequences to take advantage of our apparent, growing vulnerabilities.

COVID-19 coupled with an EMP attack could result in the death of most Americans.

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst!

What can you do?

Join us in praying for our nation, and for a rebirth of the freedom sought, achieved and passed to us by those who came before us.

Help us to spread our message to the grass roots and to encourage all “powers that be” to provide for the common defense as they are sworn to do.

Begin by passing this message to your friends and suggest they visit our webpage www.highfrontier.org, for more information. Also, please encourage your sphere of influence to sign up for our weekly e-newsletter.

Encourage them to review our past email messages, posted on www.highfrontier.org, to learn about many details related to the existential manmade and natural EMP threats and how we can protect America against them. I hope you will help us with our urgently needed efforts, which I will be discussing in future messages.

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