Venezuela - Three Total Blackouts In Three Days - Government Presumes U.S. Cyberattack
Venezuela currently experiences multiple total outages of its electricity network. It is quite possible or even likely that the U.S. is causing these incidents. But it is not certain.
Shit happens and so do long blackouts:
The Northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage throughout parts of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and the Canadian province of Ontario on August 14, 2003, beginning just after 4:10 p.m. EDT.Some power was restored by 11 p.m. Most did not get their power back until two days later. In other areas, it took nearly a week or two for power to be restored. [...] The outage, which was much more widespread than the Northeast Blackout of 1965, affected an estimated 10 million people in Ontario and 45 million people in eight U.S. states.
The blackout's primary cause was a software bug in the alarm system at the control room of FirstEnergy, an Akron, Ohio–based company, causing operators to remain unaware of the need to re-distribute load after overloaded transmission lines drooped into foliage. What should have been a manageable local blackout cascaded into collapse of the entire electric grid.
When the northeast blackout happened no one blamed President Bush or socialism for the outage.
Bringing an electricity grid back into full and balanced operation is quite difficult because power generation and consumption must always be balanced. Restoration can only be done gradually. It is a complicate process and takes time.
The Guri Dam hydro electric power station produces up to 10,235 megawatt. It provides 70-80% of all electricity used in Venezuela.
bigger
On Thursday afternoon local time the Guri Dam system failed:
NetBlocks.org @netblocks - 22:04 utc - 7 Mar 2019
Urgent: Network measurements show extraordinary nationwide impact as #Venezuela is knocked offline amid power outages from 8:55 PM UTC (4:55 PM VET); incident ongoing #7Mar #SinLuz
netblocks.org/reports/ven ...
The blackout affected 18 out of 23 states in Venezuela with some 25 million people. It took 24 hours for some power to come back. It would have taken another day or two for the network to again reach full capacity.
But today another total outage happened:
NetBlocks.org @netblocks - 16:10 utc - 9 Mar 2019
Urgent: Second national power outage detected across #Venezuela; real-time data shows 96% of country now offline #SinLuz #ApagonNacional #9Mar
netblocks.org/reports/second ..
The internet connectivity of a country if often an excellent indicator for power outages. Mobile towers, routers and switches need electricity.
bigger
The graph shows a total of three outages over now three days. The last incident might have been caused as a side effect of a previous outage, by recovery attempts or by a separate sabotage act:
Reports and videos of an explosion at the SIDOR steel company hydroelectric sub-station in Puerto Ordaz, Guayana started to circulate on social media shortly after the latest disruption was detected, indicating a cause for the new outage.
Unverified videos show a burning transformer at a larger substation.
When the first outage happened U.S. Senator Marco Rubio eagerly mocked the government of Venezuela. He also mentioned that some backup generators failed:
Marco Rubio @marcorubio - 22:18 utc - 7 Mar 2019
ALERT: Reports of a complete power outage all across #Venezuela at this moment.
18 of 23 states & the capital district are currently facing complete blackouts.
Main airport also without power & backup generators have failed.
#MaduroRegime is a complete disaster.
After the first outage the government of Venezuela said that it was caused by a cyberattack on the automated control system but gave no further details:
Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said Maduro's government planned to bring "proof" of US involvement in the blackout to a UN Human Rights envoy who is set to visit the country in the coming days.
Rodriguez pointed to the Rubio tweet:
'How did Marco Rubio know that backup generators had failed? At that time, no one knew that,' the Bolivarian government official asked.
The Venezuelan government should contact the Russian cybersecurity specialists at Kaspersky Lab who are well known for detecting U.S. produced malware like the one used for the Stuxnet attack on Iran's uranium enrichment plant. Kaspersky is highly respected in the international cybersecurity scene. Should it confirm that a U.S. attack malware caused the problem the U.S. will find it difficult to deny.
Elliot Abrams, convicted for lying to Congress in two cases and Trump's current henchmen for 'regime change' in Venezuela, denied U.S. responsibility:
“This is a multiyear decline in Venezuela,” Mr. Abrams said. “The situation there, due to the mismanagement, the economic policies and the sheer corruption of this regime, are the cause of those problems.”
In 2003, during the northeast blackout, Mr. Abrams was a special assistant to President G.W. Bush. He did not blame "the mismanagement, the economic policies and the sheer corruption" the Bush regime when that much larger outage happened.
It is quite possible that the U.S. is causing the outages in Venezuela's network. The second total outage yesterday and the third today could be explained by a malware hidden within the control system of the whole network or in some important side components. It took the Iranian government months to find the malware that again and again crashed its uranium centrifuges. Simply restarting the control systems did not help.
The U.S. is well know for cyberattacks as well as for attacks on electricity networks. In 2012 it knocked Syria off the internet when it 'bricked' the central router in Syria while attempting to install malware. In 2015 it systematically bombed Syria's power plants.
The CIA and other U.S. agencies have been quite active in Venezuela for a long time. In 2017 then CIA director Mike Pompeo admitted that he was tying to get others on board for 'regime change':
In one of the clearest clues yet about Washington’s latest meddling in the politics of Latin America, CIA director Mike Pompeo said he was “hopeful that there can be a transition in Venezuela and we the CIA is doing its best to understand the dynamic there”.He added: “I was just down in Mexico City and in Bogota a week before last talking about this very issue, trying to help them understand the things they might do so that they can get a better outcome for their part of the world and our part of the world.”
In preparation for the 1973 coup against Allende in Chile the U.S. also caused blackouts. Back then the New York Times reported:
SANTIAGO, Chile, Aug. 13 — A power cut brought a total blackout here as President Salvador Allende Gossens was in the middle of a nationwide address on the country's political crisis.
...
The electricity went off at 10:15 P.M., 35 minutes after President Allende had begun to speak, citing long list of recent acts of terrorism and sabotage that he attributed to “fascist opposition.”He went back on the air, The Associated Press reported, as power was beginning to be restored in some areas, and said that the blackout could have been either “a technically explicable failure or a fascist attack.” The news agency said that unidentified saboteurs blew up an electric‐power transmission line outside the city, attributing the information to Fernando Figueroa, general manager of the state power system.
It wasn't just the "fascist opposition" but the CIA behind it that caused the chaos:
As described in the Church Committee report, the CIA was involved in multiple plots designed to remove Allende .. [...] [T]he CIA, with the approval of the 40 Committee, attempted to bribe the Chilean legislature, tried to influence public opinion against Allende, and provided funding to strikes designed to coerce him into resigning. [...] In addition, the CIA gave extensive support for black propaganda against Allende, channeled mostly through El Mercurio. Financial assistance was also given to Allende's political opponents, and for organizing strikes and unrest to destabilize the government.
On February 24, after the 'humanitarian aid' stunt at the Colombian border failed, we foresaw that such incidents would happen:
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will arrive in Colombia tomorrow to tell Guaido how to proceed. The focus will most likely be on how to start a sabotage campaign and a low level guerrilla war within Venezuela. Both will certainly hurt the country and its people but they are unlikely to achieve the larger "regime change" aim.
A U.S. cyberattack on Venezuela's power grid will have taken some time to implement. One first has to understand a system before one can sabotage it without leaving obvious fingerprints. If the U.S. is involved in these incidents, it is likely that it prepared for this months if not years ago.
Attacks on electricity networks affect the civilian population. Hospitals are hard to run without electricity. Lives are endangered. Both , the Obama and the Trump administration, rejected international attempts to ban cyberattacks that "indiscriminate or systemic harm to individuals and critical infrastructure":
All members of the European Union signed the agreement. Australia and Turkey joined the United States in declining.
...
Israel, which along with the United States conducted the most sophisticated cyberattack in history, the Stuxnet attack on Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, also declined to sign.
The U.S. also rejected an agreement that would ban cyber manipulation of elections. The given reasons are of interest:
[T]he United States has interfered in foreign elections before, including Italy in the 1940s and Iran and Latin America in the 1950s and 1960s, and some officials say that no American president should be forced to give up that tool if it could prevent a war.Similarly, the Pentagon worries about commitments to avoid using cyberattacks as a prelude to military action. The United States had a secret program, code-named “Nitro Zeus,” which called for turning off the power grid in much of Iran if the two countries had found themselves in a conflict over Iran’s nuclear program. Such a use of cyberweapons is now a key element in war planning by all of the major world powers.
It will take a cyberattack on vital U.S. systems with long lasting effects to change its malicious standpoint and behavior.
Posted by b on March 9, 2019 at 18:01 UTC | Permalink
next page »My reading just now at comments on the article about the blackouts on nakedcapitalism.com said that a UN inspection team would be arriving in Venezuela to assess the situation at the plants. I don't believe this was found necessary when blackouts occurred in the US. The timing is most suspicious, and indeed, b's statement that for this to be sabotage it must have been prepared for well in advance.
It is time for 'deep nation Venezuela' to be supported and honored in their critical moment by the rest of the civilized world. Sadly that does not seem to include the US, home of such persons as the above mentioned Rubio.
Posted by: juliania | Mar 9 2019 18:30 utc | 2
Sorry, should have said "B's statement (etc) makes sense.
Posted by: juliania | Mar 9 2019 18:31 utc | 3
thanks b.. this is important and i doubt it is a coincidence, especially as i read down your post and see how the usa-israel team refuse to sign onto any agreement to ban cyber attacks.. i really agree with your last sentence - it has to happen on the usa-israel tag team for them to change their mind..
it is without a doubt that abrams, rubio, pence and other freaks in the usa system are working hard to overthrow maduro and make life living hell for ordinary venezualans.. of that they have nothing to be proud of... what a group of cockroaches they are... no doubt they practice religion on sundays or saturdays too as the case may be.. wash their hands once a week, to go about their dirty deeds all the rest of the week..
Posted by: james | Mar 9 2019 18:47 utc | 4
One wonders how many similiarly widespread electrical blackouts Venezuela experienced during the past 2-3 years to warrant the inference of US causation this time?
Posted by: El Samuel | Mar 9 2019 18:48 utc | 5
here is abrams from yesterday, talking bullshit at the usa state dept press briefing..
https://youtu.be/ExAE7Bsi2Q4?t=131
Posted by: james | Mar 9 2019 18:58 utc | 6
It is my understanding that due to the concentration of Venezuelan power production at just one hydro-electric plant and periodically occuring droughts, these power-grid blackouts are not such a rare thing. Does anyone know if there’s drought right now in Venezuela?
Posted by: S | Mar 9 2019 19:11 utc | 7
It's not that hard put the power back running.
Brazil has the biggest electric grid in planet earth.
A system 7.000 from north to south.
Is very rare the system fail.
I'd do live in the outer layer of this system, Rio de Janeiro. Its o e of the weakest spot in the grid because this state only produces 1.5GW/h from nukes.
Problems are local and keep isolated.
During the PT government time, more than 15 years, the grid went down one time for about an hour.
Everyone blames LULA. Lol
It was just a BOMB in a transmission tower.
Anyway, it took less than an hour to find another route for the power.
This grid was made an idealized by the military dictatorship i the 70s.
It was made possible by the Itaipu, biggest Hidro in the world, construction.
And it was finished(the big ones) with the Belo Monte construction. Another huge hidro.
Posted by: Zico, The Musketeer | Mar 9 2019 19:16 utc | 8
Marco Rubio really put his foot in his mouth bt tweeting so soon after the first blackout. The more he blusters and gloats over Venezuela's current crisis, the more he reveals his own role in it. It's surely a matter of time before people suspect him to be intimately involved in plotting against the Bolivarian government. Way to go, Rubio.
Posted by: Jen | Mar 9 2019 19:17 utc | 9
I was just thinking that b's final suggestion may be the 'soft landing' the rest of the world will present to a very vulnerable US, if indeed it should result. Definitely preferable to a nuclear confrontation, even here in the US. As b also points out, it is a nasty thing to happen for many whose lives depend on modern technology, and for that reason is to be strongly decried. It did happen once, though, in California during the Enron era, that the power grid there was deliberately sabotaged - minds better than mine could zero in on that. Hospitals and other handicapped individuals suffered as a consequence.
God be with Venezuela at this critical time.
Posted by: juliania | Mar 9 2019 19:20 utc | 10
I'm posting this just to make the point that if something similar had happened to a Maduro opponent in Venezuela, the US aircraft carriers would already be steaming towards Venezuela's Caribbean Sea coast:
A deputy of the Choco province assembly was found murdered in western Colombia on Wednesday, raising the alarm for security around October’s elections. (...) Over the last three months, 107 political and social leaders have reported violence against them: 34 have been murdered nationwide, according to the MOE, Colombia’s election observers.
Posted by: Maracatu | Mar 9 2019 19:23 utc | 11
@ James "here is abrams from yesterday"
Is that a Ferengi?
Posted by: Trond | Mar 9 2019 19:35 utc | 12
US courts are another front in this hybrid war. Long prison sentences for "sanctions violations" seem to be the next tool coming out of the coercion toolkit. Two Americans face decades in prison for allowing their air charter company to be hired by the Venezuelan Industry minister. The minister faces the same charges and penalty.
Retributive justice is baked into the American way, and perhaps the gunslingers at the US Justice Dept see themselves as cleaning up a lawless frontier town, but in doing so they are effectively putting on notice, for example, German business executives involved with Nord Stream, that the US has unilaterally criminalized international business transactions and routine activity could lead to three decades in a US prison cell. Ask Huawei.
Posted by: jayc | Mar 9 2019 19:37 utc | 13
Marco Rubio chaired a U.S. Senate hearing starting at 10am EST Thursday on U.S. policy toward Venezuela. In it he called for the U.S. to cause "widespread unrest" in Venezuela. He said that “The suffering people of Venezuela are about to experience the most dramatic shortages they have ever faced, the implications of which we cannot fully predict. ...Venezuela is just a handful of days away from running out of basic staples, wheat and corn meal and cooking oil, again, because of complete and utter mismanagement." Within five hours Venezuela is struck by a series of crippling power outages. What is the probability that this is just a coincidence?
Posted by: larens imanyuel | Mar 9 2019 20:02 utc | 14
#11
Over the last three months, 107 political and social leaders have reported violence against them: 34 have been murdered nationwide, according to the MOE, Colombia’s election observers.
So that works out to 136 murders per year of politicians in Colombia. Meanwhile, the last political murder in Russia (that of Boris Nemtsov) happened 4 years ago, which works out to 0.25 murders per year of politicians in Russia. Yet somehow Colombia is a dynamic young democracy, while Russia is a horrible autocratic regime murdering its opponents. Makes you wonder. (Note: I’m not saying Nemtsov was killed by the Russian government, or that his murder was politically motivated; I’m just comparing the total numbers of murdered politicians.)
Posted by: S | Mar 9 2019 20:21 utc | 15
Correction: instead of "political murder" read "murder of a politician".
Posted by: S | Mar 9 2019 20:25 utc | 16
Here is the Enron connection, from the Guardian article "Tapes Reveal Enron's Secret Role" in February 2005:
"Newly discovered tapes have revealed how the energy corporation Enron shut down at least one power plant on false pretences, deliberately aggravating California's crippling 2001 blackouts with the aim of raising prices.
The tapes also show that Enron, whose bankruptcy three years ago was the biggest corporate scandal of recent times, manipulated energy markets in Canada and was planning to rig the Californian market even before deregulation in 1998, for which the Texan corporation actively campaigned..."
That last piece of info is particularly important - part of the US march to corruption.
Posted by: juliania | Mar 9 2019 20:31 utc | 17
Zico, The Musketeer 8
"It's not that hard put the power back running."
You probably do not understand the problem involved in the very probable case of the outage being caused by a malware attack. Rerouting will not solve it.
Posted by: Pnyx | Mar 9 2019 20:34 utc | 18
The rolling blackouts on California were masterminded by Enron with help from such paragons as Duke Energy. It was about the benjamins. The then governor of California, Grey (don't remember his first name) was blamed for all of the problems and replaced by the muscle guy. Some of the Enron management types did go to prison but the investigation faded from view because the records for same were stored in the fabled Building Seven. Hmmmm. It is rumored that Kennyboy is alive and well and living in paraguay. Cheers.
Posted by: Miss Lacy | Mar 9 2019 20:36 utc | 19
@11maracatu - usa style democracy in action.. i am sorry to hear that..they are a favourite of the usa's for all the usual reasons..
@12 trond... i think so! i wish someone would beam him up and out, lol..
14 larens.. rubio was the same mindless freak making gaddafi analogies here too.. the fact people in the usa voted for him makes them look sick as well..
@15 s... yes, but who is part of the team or not? columbia with it's little usa puppet is.. russia is no puppet and isn't...
Posted by: james | Mar 9 2019 20:52 utc | 20
Venezuela has experienced power disruptions in recent years due to drought conditions that seem worse around this time of year before the spring rains.
Might be a cyber attack but it may be they just had to shut down the Guri Dam due to low water levels. Its been an ongoing problem and should the people discover its not a cyber attack they might turn on the government.
I dont know the real reason, but maybe a cyber attack to give Guidaro an opportunity to exploit this by saying its the Maduro governments fault for not expanding power generation in the face of a decade long drought blamed on Climate Change
Of course, maybe the drought is due to US military weather manipulation. Owning the weather is a useful weapon and much effort has been made in this area, how much progress they have made is unknown.
Posted by: Pft | Mar 9 2019 21:18 utc | 21
A Venezuelan gov official indicates the prevalence of back-up generators, which lends credence to the hydro-electric dam being down due to drought.
https://twitter.com/telesurenglish/status/1104225927658196992
Posted by: Fec | Mar 9 2019 21:47 utc | 22
Never ascribe to hapless neocons that which has occurred naturally.
Posted by: Fec | Mar 9 2019 21:49 utc | 23
Thanks Miss Lacy @ 19 - you filled it all in for me. Sordid tale!
Posted by: juliania | Mar 9 2019 21:55 utc | 24
...
Of course, maybe the drought is due to US military weather manipulation. Owning the weather is a useful weapon and much effort has been made in this area, how much progress they have made is unknown.
Posted by: Pft | Mar 9, 2019 4:18:47 PM | 21
Zero, same as it always was and always will be.
The quantity of solar energy and the size of moving air masses responsible for changes in weather are too large to be influenced by man-made heat or wind input. In Oz for example the Weather Bureau is routinely analysing and tracking 4, 5, or 6 interacting air masses of known moisture content, ground speed and internal wind speed simultaneously. Each mass is between 1/4 and 1/3 the size of Oz. And their reports are accurate and reliable - same as almost everywhere else on the planet.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 9 2019 21:59 utc | 25
Hoarsewhisperer @25
dot sure you are correct about weather modification. HAARP is very impressive.
Posted by: lgfocus | Mar 9 2019 22:02 utc | 26
Oh, America's shame in being governed by a gang of pimply-faced schoolboys who enjoy pulling the wings off butterflies.
Posted by: JOHN CHUCKMAN | Mar 9 2019 22:11 utc | 27
@ 22
During a drought the reduction in generating capacity is gradual; it is not something that suddenly happens. Politicians and Venezuela media I trust are adamant that the system has been sabotaged and the speed of Rubio’s reaction would indicate he had prior knowledge.
Posted by: Lochearn | Mar 9 2019 22:14 utc | 28
Miss Lacy @19 You will be happy to learn that one of the successor corporations of the Enron scam-Kinder Morgan- recently sold its trans mountain pipeline to Justin Trudeau's Canadian government. It cost $4.5 billion.
Posted by: bevin | Mar 9 2019 22:19 utc | 29
Weather is more than wind and temperature. The most effective use of weather modification is increasing or decreasing rain over a targeted area. Operation Popeye showed the effectiveness of cloud seeding. I imagine there are ways to prevent rain as well. Perhaps seeding of weather fronts well in advance of it reaching the target, thus being rained out on arrival. I dont know. Recently farmers in an area of Mexico were irate at Volkswagon for using sonar hail canons to prevent hail that damaged their newly finished cars. This not only prevented hail but any rain at all from falling during the rainy season. I imagine the military has more sophisticated weapons. China is going all out in their weather modification programs for domestic use. Its real.
Posted by: Pft | Mar 9 2019 22:26 utc | 30
Sorry, but it's no coincidence the the US foreign policy clown car came to Caracas just as they were waiting on the Spring rains, a time when most of the well-heeled opposition happens to be abroad.
Posted by: Fec | Mar 9 2019 22:33 utc | 31
It would seem that Might-Makes-Right is a required part of capitalism if Venezuela is any example.
How come capitalism is unwilling to compete on the basis of merit?
And what does that tell us about how bad these other potential forms of social organization might be?
Capitalism is a fig leaf of myth over elite control of global private finance. It is anti-humanistic by design but has been very effective in brainwashing folks to not understand that.....its feeds on the monotheistic religion faith BS
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 9 2019 22:41 utc | 32
The former Archdruid, now blogging at Ecosophia, has predicted, via mundane astrological methods, the US decisively losing a war in the first half of 2019. I wonder if that has to do with Venezuela.
@32 psychohistorian,
Platonism and the fanciful notion of nobility can't die off soon enough for my taste either.
Posted by: Jonathan | Mar 9 2019 23:16 utc | 33
Maduro moved the Lisbon PDVSA office to Moscow because the Venezuelan ex-pats were enjoying perfect weather.
Posted by: Fec | Mar 9 2019 23:20 utc | 34
The Venezuelan opposition manufactures the appearance of food shortages with processed corn flour, over which one family controls the market, from Miami.
https://monthlyreview.org/2018/06/01/the-politics-of-food-in-venezuela/
Posted by: Fec | Mar 9 2019 23:30 utc | 35
...
This not only prevented hail but any rain at all from falling during the rainy season. I imagine the military has more sophisticated weapons. China is going all out in their weather modification programs for domestic use. Its real.
Posted by: Pft | Mar 9, 2019 5:26:45 PM | 30
That's hard to believe too. I've heard of cloud seeding but not rain prevention. However it's the first time I've heard anything positive about so-called Weather-Control so I'll ask the Weather Bureau for their opinion on W-C's current status. I might learn something :-)
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 9 2019 23:33 utc | 36
from what I am reading;
Guri is a 10-12+ gigawatt hydroelectric dam. There are no nuclear reactors that generate significantly more than a gigawatt in the United States. There are very few facilities in the United States that generate much more than two gigawatts total. 10-12 gigawatts is a MONSTER facility of epic global significance. Guri was the third largest generating station in the entire world. So what happened? Again, from what I am reading, Stuxnet is most likely.
Someone(s) got into the PLC controllers. Whatever they installed attacked the systems that regulated water flow through the valves on the dam that send the water to the turbines(this is precisely the type of attack Stuxnet is supposed to be made for) and opened the valves all the way. They via whatever virus they planted, (probably Stuxnet) then told the engineers, via the readouts, that the water flows and turbine speeds were normal. With an enormous amount of pressure from the dam, the turbines managed to push ahead of phase on the rest of Venezuela's grid, got into an enormous tug-of-war with power stations elsewhere (after viruses also turned the protection off) and blew everything up, tripping a nationwide blackout with long term severe damage.
Guri went online in the late 80's, and got all new generators and hardware in 2010, under a socialist system. Far from being a disheveled piece of junk like the MSM claims, Guri was a STATE OF THE ART BUGATTI of a dam.
The U.S. has ZERO generating facilities that are that modern, and none that are significantly over 20 percent of its size, even if they are nuclear or coal powered. This is the third largest power station in the world and state of the art.
The ongoing blackouts support this theory as it took Iran months to clean Stuxnet out of their systems.
My guess is they will now go after the water and waste treatment plants as was done in Syria, Iraq, Libya..My heart is in my throat for these poor people.
Posted by: frances | Mar 9 2019 23:43 utc | 37
@ Frances
Yeah, but the US has 23 GE Mark I boiling water reactors just waiting to go Fukushima when the power grid fails.
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/ge-reactors-japan-unitedstates/2011/03/14/id/389407/
Posted by: Fec | Mar 9 2019 23:47 utc | 38
Venezuela is small bananas. They want to put 40 nuclear reactors in Saudi Arabia.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/giving-the-bomb-to-saudi-arabias-dr-strangelove/
Posted by: Fec | Mar 9 2019 23:55 utc | 39
@ frances, fec and others.. thanks for the informative posts on this topic... fec - in your last link @39.. most all of them are east coast of usa area..
i tend to see it like @28 lochearn, based on the fact rubio had this info in what looks like advance of anyone else... leaning strongly usa sabotage is behind this...
Posted by: james | Mar 9 2019 23:56 utc | 40
Hoarsewhisperer @37
Dr. Nick Begich has a lot of vids on Youtube about HAARP which has many uses besides weather manipulation. Watch this one to get an idea of how it works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FRrX6EWb0g
Posted by: lgfocus | Mar 10 2019 0:02 utc | 41
frances @38
The use of the Stuxnet virus is well documented in the film Zero Days which has US whistleblowers talking about how it was done and more importantly, talking about the much more devistating viruses we have and have deployed. The movie is interesting in that it shows how these viruses are deployed without having a direct connection to the internet.
Also interesting is that after the US/Israel created Stuxnet virus was found as the destroyer of the Iranian centrifuges, the Russians found one of their nuclear power plants infected with the Stuxnet virus.
And in 2018, Iran found it again
The infamous malware is back, and it's "more violent, more advanced and more sophisticated" than ever
A new version of the infamous Stuxnet worm has been used to attack Iranian government networks, according to reports.
The famous malware has apparently re-emerged, with Israeli news programme Hadashot stating that Iran "has admitted in the past few days that it is again facing a similar attack, from a more violent, more advanced and more sophisticated virus than before, that has hit infrastructure and strategic networks".
My conclusion - a USA cyberattack on the Veneauelan electic grid is, how do they say it. "highly likely".
Posted by: lgfocus | Mar 10 2019 0:22 utc | 42
It will take a cyberattack on vital U.S. systems with long lasting effects to change its malicious standpoint and behavior.
More than malicious, I would describe it as deeply criminal.
Since this is a war tool, which besides was clearly coordinated with Marco Rubio´s first minutes Twit, along with the publishing yesterady of the resolution on the case by ConocoPhilips suing the Bolivarian Government for "seizing gas and oil assets in 2007" ( one wonders in what questionable way ConocoPhilips managed to be in posesion of Venezuelan assets based on natural reources placed in Venezuelan subsoil ), I do not hold any doubt this was done by the US.
As happened in Iraq, all its communications and electric infrastructure were destroyed, this was made to scare and cause additional stress to an already harshly punished and harassed population over the time by the continuous carpet bombing, so that they end surrendering or unable to react by shock, as a prisoner submited to sensorial deprivation in a dark place of the CIA....
Posted by: Sasha | Mar 10 2019 0:40 utc | 43
@ trumped
The Land of 10,000 Princes can barely manage a brothel.
The Iron Bridge Marshall Plan is beyond absurd: it's insane.
"giving a nuclear capability to Saudi Arabia under the leadership of the ruthless and amoral Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman would see it embark on a nuclear weapons program and eventually share weaponized technology with Saudi allies and proxies that include an array of radical jihadists and mortal enemies of America."
Posted by: Fec | Mar 10 2019 0:52 utc | 44
@Posted by: frances | Mar 9, 2019 6:43:13 PM | 38
Guri went online in the late 80's, and got all new generators and hardware in 2010, under a socialist system. Far from being a disheveled piece of junk like the MSM claims, Guri was a STATE OF THE ART BUGATTI of a dam.
Thanks, this contradicts that scoundrel of Abrams, who, in press conference, organized so clearly knowing this would happen, stated that "the quite sophisticated Venezuelan electric system had been laid to waste by the lack of maintenance and corruption by the Bolivarian Governments", all this said with a smile in his ugly face.
Posted by: Sasha | Mar 10 2019 0:55 utc | 45
I want to hammer home the point that this is the face of capitalism
All you defenders of capitalism need to now explain how such a system cannot stand up to comparison let alone competition with alternative forms of social organization.
This is all about maintaining the global private finance led Western form of social organization (it is not government because it is dictatorial and not a social construct) The Western elite control the economic lifeblood of most of the world and have for centuries .......and their control is facing existential challenge by China/Russia so they are pulling out all the stops.
One can hope that the rest of the world nations are watching and taking measure of the depths of depravity that fuel the Western form of social organization. The West keeps arguing that anything other than the current Western way is unthinkable.
I think what is unthinkable is to allow the inherited elite that own global private finance and everything else to continue to run our world in such an anti-humanistic manner.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 10 2019 1:08 utc | 46
If the sabotage must have been prepared long time before in advance, there you have the continuous power outages in Venezuela.
Posted by: Sasha | Mar 10 2019 1:13 utc | 47
The US most always goes for the infrastructure such as gas, water and sewer, and electric. As b linked they did it in Syria. They bombed it in Yugoslavia, Libya, and Iraq. One doesn't need a virus but some C4 and a convenient location and the lights go out. After the failed "humanitarian aid" and the embarassment of the opposition caught burning their own trucks the US is desperate and will do anything to topple Venezuela so they can shift resources to Nicaragua and Cuba to full fill the bragging recently by Trump and Bolton. The US can easily smuggle in weapons without the cover of "humanitarian aid." After the first of the year the US did put sanctions on Nicaragua citing the go to "human rights abuses" and after Trump entered office undid Obama's loosening of the Cuban embargo and squeezed them even more.
Posted by: snedly arkus | Mar 10 2019 1:18 utc | 48
Venezuelans March Against Attack on Electric Grid System in Anti-imperialist Day
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuelans-March-Against-Attack-on-Electric-Grid-System-in-Anti-imperialist-Day-20190309-0017.html
'Stay True to Chavismo,' Maduro Says as Blackout Continues
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Stay-True-to-Chavismo-Maduro-Says-as-Blackout-Continues-20190309-0021.html
"We will liberate the electrical company of infiltrators and saboteurs...We have overcome so many challenges, we'll overcome this one. We'll do it with love, resistance and revolutionary courage," Maduro said.
Posted by: John Doe | Mar 10 2019 1:28 utc | 49
@ frances #38
Your post reminded me of a thought I had earlier - Venezuela needs to send a few of the electrical system computers overseas for some trustworthy analysis. If the results show a manufactured virus, this might actually influence the US election next year.
Another person spoke of emergency generators. Given the extremely low gasoline prices in Venezuela, these could be what the rich people down that way are using. Whether they are have imported electricity or their own generation systems, I doubt if they are being inconvenienced by the blackouts.
I made a determined effort to find out details about the electrical situation in Venezuela and came up empty. So about all I can do at this stage is to make a mini-sermon about the importance of acquiring backup things in case the US has a similar crisis. The EMP Blog has been inactive for four years, but there is still some information there worth considering. Emergency generators are usually expensive, mostly noisy, and always require a supply of some sort of fuel. People with extensive food stocks stored in freezers probably ought to buy one to allow them to 1) eat the frozen food or 2) pressure can the frozen food.
Nighttime home lighting can be done several ways, and almost all of them are expensive, dangerous, or both. Modern folks seldom understand what a problem this was in times past. I've described making candle lanterns several times, and the link is the first one which popped up on a search. These things is safe enough, but are dim and require a source of inexpensive candles. Ceiling bounce battery flashlights are the best solution I've found. My old Maglites each have a custom-made length of 2" PVC pipe so they're stable as they point at the white ceiling. By tinkering with different LED flashlight bulbs I've made some which use so little current they can left on as night-lights. IMO every young kid ought to have his own small flashlight during a power outage. Donn't forget the batteries. Lots of them, but never stored in the flashlights! Chinese alkalines invariably destroy whatever they were in while sitting in a drawer.
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Mar 10 2019 1:36 utc | 50
In a grid down situation the grid has to be brought up gradually like the article says. One plant is brought up and the rest of the plants have to synchronize to that plant. AC power is a waveform and if each plant does synchronize then their power will be out of sync with the 50 or 60 hertz waveform of another plant.
As much as I hate Abrams he knows that a great deal of that type of expertise has left the country for greener pastures. Look at what happened to Puerto Rico after the hurricane. How many high tension linemen and power plant electricians do you think there are in the world? I can tell you for sure not that many and far less would want to go to Puerto Rico after a hurricane when they already make big money in cushier circumstances.
All this stuff is in the playbook. Sanctions make it hard to get the parts needed and Marxism drive out people who have the ability to sell there skills elsewhere.
If you cannot out right bomb something the sabotage is on the table. An expert would know right where to strike to make something like this happen. I am sure the recent modernization lent the ability to control and watch the plant from far away. Most modern plants have that built in.
Here is an article from 07/2107 that explains the situation better. The plant has been modernized recently and the country is overdependent on that plant. It is massive in its ability to generate power. The water levels on the river have been falling and that has been a concern.
https://www.power-technology.com/projects/gurihydroelectric/
Venezuela is up against a the world's leading experts in how to bring down a society. They will be smoking cigars, sipping brandy, and talking about their great exploits after this is all over. All a bit richer to boot. They feel the pain dished out will be rewarded by a free society ruled by something other than Marxism. Booting out Russia, China and Cuba is a big plus for them. In other words, they feel no remorse because they think they are doing the right thing.
Posted by: dltravers | Mar 10 2019 1:43 utc | 51
Off topic
Re: Trump Asks Germany, Japan To Pay For Being Occupied
Will the New Treaty of Aachen make the EU Dream Come True?
https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/will-new-treaty-aachen-make-eu-dream-come-trueThe Aachen Treaty: Germany and France become all but a single state
https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/aachen-treaty-germany-and-france-become-all-single-stateGermany won't classify Iran ally Hezbollah as terrorist: Spiegel
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-lebanon-hezbollah/germany-wont-classify-iran-ally-hezbollah-as-terrorist-spiegel-idUSKCN1QP1YT
Posted by: John Doe | Mar 10 2019 1:45 utc | 52
From twitter:
I lived through the Great Blackout of 2003, when 45 million US citizens & 10 million Canadians were left without power for up to TWO DAYS.
I don’t remember people blaming the Bush administration or calling for regime-change then. You’re cynically capitalizing on VZ’s suffering.
Here are some photos from the Great Blackout of 03. Important to recall at a time when @marcorubio, @SecPompeo & others are capitalizing on a mysteriously timed power outage in Venezuela to campaign for the Maduro government’s removal.
I was in Gaza as it experienced an unprecedented shortage in medical supplies, fuel & electricity, thanks to the Israeli imposed land/naval blockade & salary cuts by the Palestinian Authority.
A humanitarian crisis enabled by @marcorubio & the US gov. Worse than hypocrisy.
As @marcorubio runs a deranged campaign to oust the Maduro gov over a crisis in VZ brought about by US economic war, he's leading an anti-democratic fight to chill speech critical of the Israeli gov, which is responsible for Gaza's humanitarian catastrophe
@marcorubio & US gov feign heartbreak for Venezuelans dying of preventable diseases (due to US imposed sanctions on VZ). Meanwhile the US-backed Israeli gov blocks necessary medical supplies from entering Gaza & prevents dying Palestinians treatment regularly. Crocodile tears.
Posted by: John Doe | Mar 10 2019 2:07 utc | 53
As usual US press lies, hospitals in #Venezuela were prepared for terrorist shutdown of electrical power, generators kept hospitals humming. I personally went to José María Vargas hospital, giant generator, all systems running. Thanks to Pres. @NicolasMaduro @CubaVenezCte @pslweb
I found a pharmacy 2day that was bigger than my local pharma back home in London
It was in #LasMercedes a wealthy opposition area in #Caracas n despite the electricity being out, it had full lights.
Some in VZ are really struggling but weirdly not so much in opposition areas 🤔
Posted by: John Doe | Mar 10 2019 2:17 utc | 54
Rubio is after the Venezuela emigre vote and money in Florida. A lot of jew billionaires have fled there.
Posted by: Anon | Mar 10 2019 2:21 utc | 55
Frances @38
The stuxnet virus targeted Siemens plc's - specifically the S7 family via the Step 7 programming software package.
With the upgrade at the Guri dam the original control system was replaced with ABB ac800m controllers.
The big question is - has the ABB programming software (Control Builder) got the same sort of vulnerabilities as the Step7 software? And has the evil empire developed a stuxnet equivalent?
ABB ac800's are used in large scale projects - oil & gas, LNG processing plants & marine etc - so it certainly makes sense for the septics to develop a virus so they can continue their death & destruction around the world.
As part of the upgrade the higher level control pc's were upgraded to Windows XP (scheduled first delivery 2007) - god help us!
I suspect that there are a lot of puckering arseholes at ABB.
I wonder if we will ever hear of an attack on Rockwell Automation & Allen Bradley ControlLogic\CompactLogix plc's?
Protected species?
Posted by: ted01 | Mar 10 2019 2:27 utc | 56
Venezuela’s Right Wing Confesses to 17 years of Political Delinquency: The Amnesty Bill
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-francisco-dominguez/venezuelas-right-wing-con_b_9401644.html
Posted by: John Doe | Mar 10 2019 2:33 utc | 57
Colombia’s War of Neoliberal Economics
https://nacla.org/news/2019/03/07/colombia%E2%80%99s-war-neoliberal-economics
"Colombia today has the highest number of recorded assassinations of human rights defenders in the world. In the first 15 days of January 2019 alone, nine social leaders were murdered."<—our free press bravely ignoring Colombia's human rights horrors
Posted by: John Doe | Mar 10 2019 2:44 utc | 58
Britain’s Secret War in Colombia
https://jacobinmag.com/2018/11/uk-colombia-political-violence-bp-drug-war-counterinsurgency
Posted by: John Doe | Mar 10 2019 2:47 utc | 59
“The socialism doesn’t work narrative is wildly distorted and simplistic”
Interview with Alan MacLeod on Venezuela
Dr Alan MacLeod is a member of the Glasgow University Media Group. His is the author of “Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting”, published by Routledge in 2018.
Posted by: John Doe | Mar 10 2019 2:54 utc | 60
Former UN expert slams the media for ‘manufacturing consent’ for regime change in Venezuela
Posted by: John Doe | Mar 10 2019 2:56 utc | 61
Trump's Venezuela regime-change plan hasn't even bothered updating this old 1963 CIA plan for Cuba regime-change, which calls for using harsh economic sanctions + electricity sabotage + fomenting military rebellion. US Empire as stagnant as it is cruel
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v11/d346
Posted by: John Doe | Mar 10 2019 3:04 utc | 62
...
Guri was a STATE OF THE ART BUGATTI of a dam.
...
Posted by: frances | Mar 9, 2019 6:43:13 PM | 38
Thanks, bigly, for not calling it a Rolls-Royce, or a Cadillac :-)
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 10 2019 3:31 utc | 63
I'm having a really hard time with all of this. There must be a way to stop the U.S. and Israel from exercising this kind of tyranny and forcing their will on people and manipulating the political and ideological choices of people through deprivation of essentials. All this is criminal and constitutes an act of war. Minus the Trump adulation I hope is a thing of the past, this blog is a refuge from the insanity happening on this planet because of the outlaw Empire. Just remember, however, who is enforcing this policy -- Trump. This must stop! China and Russia need to stop enabling sanctions at the U.N. from now on and come up with a strategy to neutralize U.S. sanctions. I agree that Russia must investigate this power outage and if the U.S. is responsible, Venezuela must file a criminal complaint against the U.S. and also exact billions in damages.
Posted by: Circe | Mar 10 2019 3:50 utc | 64
Rubio's callousness and cynicism reveal the depth of his concern for the suffering of Venezuelans, regardless of what caused the blackouts:
My apologies to people of Venezuela. I must have pressed the wrong thing on the “electronic attack” app I downloaded from Apple. My bad https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1103851660743507968
Posted by: farm ecologist | Mar 10 2019 4:03 utc | 65
Venezuela will survive this. It, and the world, are thinking, is this all you got, you rapacious vampire to the north? Really?
Sabotage? Spoilage? Knocking over the chess board?
Secretly the world rejoices as this word travels around the globe: This is all the chickenshit empire has left to wield as weaponry.
Ha!
Posted by: Grieved | Mar 10 2019 4:35 utc | 66
@ Jonathan #34
The former Archdruid, now blogging at Ecosophia, has predicted, via mundane astrological methods, the US decisively losing a war in the first half of 2019.
So the fellow is also an astrologer. Years ago a link took me to his blog - to an article about "tarpaper shacks". It was so foolish that I jumped through the hoops to post, and described precisely why that was so. It's a record for me to be tossed from a blog before the my first post sees the light of day. Some site owners cannot tolerate anything except groveling at their supreme wisdom. John Aravosis and "TBogg" were others I've encountered like that.
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Mar 10 2019 4:38 utc | 67
Sen. Rubio Makes Fun of the Suffering of the Venezuelan People
http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2019/march/09/sen-rubio-makes-fun-of-the-suffering-of-the-venezuelan-people/
Why a Wall Street banker joined Venezuela's revolution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0eOaRsWG5Q
Posted by: John Doe | Mar 10 2019 4:41 utc | 68
Max Blumenthal investigates Venezuela's "humanitarian crisis"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trT51Ykqe8k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlX3yfXNX_g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbXqGiNlWWw
Posted by: John Doe | Mar 10 2019 4:46 utc | 69
The real world sees the Venezuela attack and evaluates its merit in terms of action on the ground. The populace of Venezuela is not discouraged but quickened by this attack, which it sees for what it is. And so it fails.
Once is happenstance, they say. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. Except that in these circumstances, no one here believes in coincidence. And actually, not many even believe in happenstance. And so the formal government outlets of the country call this an attack by the US. What more need be debated?
So.
The disgusting and pathetic empire is dying, and pulling out all its weapons, depleting its armory, and gaining nothing more than a few days of tactical highs, while failing to accomplish any strategic highs, merely sinking to more lows.
I wish I had some tanks or submarines to throw into the mix to make a forceful analysis. But then again, it would only be merited if the US had something more than a temporary advantage in "malware" which will beyond all doubt be neutralized soon by Russia and China.
Thanks for showing your hole card, US, the ace in the hole, your last weapon. We'll get back to you after we've deconstructed it and re-strategized it and played it back into the world mix as next generation warfare that you don't even dream of, let alone have material measures to deal with.
As Venezuela takes the hit for the team, the world somberly rejoices in the empire's dying.
Posted by: Grieved | Mar 10 2019 4:48 utc | 70
@ Grieved who wrote
"
As Venezuela takes the hit for the team, the world somberly rejoices in the empire's dying.
"
Nicely stated. Adversity makes some stronger.
I don't think is that last perfidy of empire on the way down but the curtain has been ripped off the face of global capitalism as a form of social organization. That means the direction is set but the time frame is open ended.
Whatever it takes. One step at a time.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 10 2019 5:45 utc | 71
...
As Venezuela takes the hit for the team, the world somberly rejoices in the empire's dying.
Posted by: Grieved | Mar 9, 2019 11:48:16 PM | 73
That would be simply loverly if it were true. But it's not.
There's a doco about Gene Sharp on the www and there are also lists of his 197 How To Start A Revolution tactics. One of the items is - never give up.
The Empire will probably have to be ambushed, killed and erased. It's facile to imagine that they can be induced to surrender their power.
The Brits, Yanks and other "Christian" colonial powers have been cold-blooded, heartless, unapologetic murdering arseholes since the Opium Wars, if not before.
When the crunch comes, there are AT LEAST 30,000 individuals in the West who will have to be rounded up and summarily executed within 30 days. Watch the first few minutes of The Shadow World up to Smedley Butler's cite about 20k+ NEW (war profiteer) millionaires at the end of WWI to get a handle on the magnitude of the West's problem.
To describe the people responsible for all the carefully-crafted misery imposed, on the world for the past 100+ years as Satanic, is NOT in any sense, an understatement.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 10 2019 5:56 utc | 72
I just read on Reuters where Random Guidoguy has call for massive protests because of the power outages.
I read somewhere else that there have been protests against empire in Venezuela.
I hope the protests in Venezuela make clear who they support so the MSM has problems lying about it and using it to push the tin pot dictator in waiting.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 10 2019 5:57 utc | 73
@34 jonathan and @70 zac.. i went to the site and didn't see any astro on it..i did pick up the guy is a doom and gloom type, from what little i read... i'm into astrology and have been focused on 2020 for some time.. i think he is off, and the fact he is not sharing his methods makes me think he is picking up the info from others.. help correct me, if i am wrong..
@69 grieved.. that's pretty much it.. see the links on rubio here for more insight into the types of fanatics driving this regime change in venezuala..
Posted by: james | Mar 10 2019 6:03 utc | 74
The Facts of Life...
The People: "The Meek shall inherit the Earth!"
The Swamp: "Over my dead body!"
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 10 2019 6:22 utc | 75
@ Hoarsewhisperer who thinks that empire will continue on
I agree with you that their actions have been Satanic. Their power centers on control of finance and that control is not going to be passed to China as the next host. So they will only hold off the inevitable for a little while or end the grand human experiment because of their small minds.
China will not be the next host of empire like it exists now with a small cadre of elite owning global finance. There is no where else for them to go now and so the only option is just playing out the existing game until it ends.
I do think it is possible, since the US has already used a nuke, that another will be used by the West as a final bully attempt that will make whoever uses it into a pariah nation and any associated nations will be shunned completely. When the pariah nations are shunned by the rest is when the small mined extinction route becomes a possibility.....sigh
Plan for the best and love your family and friends
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 10 2019 6:37 utc | 76
Response from Venezuelan government:
The automatized control system of the Simon Bolivar Hydroelectric Plant, which is popularly known as El Guri, was attacked. Inside this high-tech power plant, three of five backup generators were electronically sabotaged, Jorge Rodriguez, Sector Vice President of Communication, Tourism and Culture, revealed in a statement explained teh[sic] details of the reasons behind the attack....
The power plant automatized control system was “attacked cybernetically”, Rodriguez said and explained that the security protocols made machines stop as the power plant was under attack.
The Guri facility’s electronic brain regulates 20 hydroelectric machines by taking into account voltage variations, which are used to increase or decrease the working of the whole system
Posted by: jsb | Mar 10 2019 6:48 utc | 77
@75 Hoarsewhisperer - "It's facile to imagine that they can be induced to surrender their power."
What power? It just showed all the power it has left. The world sees this, and takes its measure. That's all we're saying here. The world will fight in its own time and on its own terms, regardless of if we see it or not.
~~
As for Satan, he's the greatest loser in the universe. He threw himself down from the firmament out of pride, out of sheer hubris. It is said by the wise that he exists in constant torment because his ears ring with the last true sound he ever heard, which was the voice of God saying "GO!"
And all those who follow his error are doomed to fail, even though they wreak havoc in their striving to succeed. And if they will never give up it is only because they are driven by torment. But this does not mean that their energy is inexhaustible. This does not mean that they cannot be stopped. The havoc will continue only for so long as people say that it cannot be stopped.
So we must all choose.
Posted by: Grieved | Mar 10 2019 6:52 utc | 78
@ Grieved who ended his latest comment with
"
So we must all choose.
"
I see that choice being one of faith.
Humanity will continue to support the hidden control of global finance on the basis of the God of Mammon type monotheistic religion faith
or
Humanity will puts its faith in itself to govern and rule in a humanistic way through (reason/logic/secular) government
I see China as having chosen the latter
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 10 2019 7:23 utc | 79
"Venezuela currently experiences multiple total outages of its electricity network. It is quite possible or even likely that the U.S. is causing these incidents. But it is not certain."
When something like the Northeast blackout of 2003 happens, we know in fairly short order what happened.
Posted by: JOHN CHUCKMAN | Mar 10 2019 7:52 utc | 80
Where were the 200 Israeli soldiers that entered Brazil when the dam generators were attacked?
Posted by: Krollchem | Mar 10 2019 8:42 utc | 81
To Grieved and others writing on this thread about the decay of empire and its last feeble thrashing attempts to destroy, I have a deep quote that has caused me to reflect on that passage in Scripture about the sheep and the goats in the final judgment that all Christians read entering Lent as we now do - that awesome question both sheep and goats ask of Christ - 'When did we see Thee...?' and his most consequential answer.
I came across a classic Orthodox understanding of this passage at an Orthodox blog site, and I post it here because Putin is Orthodox and also I feel the understanding of this passage is part of Xi's mentality also, who is not. These leaders will be the ultimate deciders as the empire goes down.
"...Not in hatred or revenge for a wicked life, to my thinking, does God bring upon sinners these painful dispensations...But while He, for a noble end, is attracting the soul to Himself...it is the occasion necessarily to the being so attracted of a state of torture. Just as those who refine gold from the dross which it contains not only get this base alloy to melt in the fire, but are obliged to melt the pure gold along with the alloy, and then while this last is being consumed...the soul that is welded to this evil must inevitably be in the fire too, until the spurious material alloy is consumed and annihilated by this fire..." [Saint Gregory of Nyssa]
It is the complex nature of this separation process which occurs not only within mankind as individual persons, but also within nations and even within the very planet we call our home. (I'll give next the conclusion of this quote, which is really the part I find most compelling.)
Posted by: juliania | Mar 10 2019 11:01 utc | 82
Here is part two to the quotation I gave above:
"...In any and every case, evil must be removed out of existence, so that, as we said above, the absolutely non-existent should cease to be at all. Since it is not in its nature that evil should exist outside the will, does it not follow that when it shall be that every will rests in God [substitute 'the Good' if you are not religious], evil will be reduced to complete annihilation, owing to no receptacle being left for it?..." [Saint Gregory of Nyssa]
This is to me an extremely positive statement coming at this critical time when nations, persons, the entire world are beginning to center on the ultimate question of survival. The weakest among us are not the poor, who don't contribute nearly as much to the death of the planet; not the meek who similarly have no violent thoughts or capacity; not the hungry or thirsty or imprisoned or sick. The weakest are those who let evil occupy their minds and their thoughts and their actions. The goats. And the strongest are the ones who help or want to help the planet live. The sheep.
The thing is, we are all, more or less, both animals. And we are all, as the first part of the quote said, being a mixture, in or about to be in the same fire. It is going to be a painful experience. Both Russia and China have in their recent history, living memory, experienced the fire, for which we ought to be extremely grateful.
They will lead us through it.
The process is beginning to happen. And as the saying goes, it always feels the darkest before the dawn comes.
Posted by: juliania | Mar 10 2019 11:22 utc | 83
Posted by: Krollchem | Mar 10, 2019 4:42:12 AM | 84
Where were the 200 Israeli soldiers that entered Brazil when the dam generators were attacked?
---------------------------
These?
Your question is very interesting.
Posted by: John Smith | Mar 10 2019 12:36 utc | 84
An electrical grid requires constant maintenance.
If the grid is owned by the State there is always the temptation to cut back to save money. Capitalists OTOH tend to give more weight to capital loss.
ALL Empires collapse. Their inherent nature is to get too complicated for the available resources.
The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter - pdf The good stuff starts in Chapter 4.
https://wtf.tw/ref/tainter.pdf
https://youtu.be/GzuviYRse3E - about 3 minutes
Assuming the dam came under cyber attack - who made it vulnerable to that in the first place? The expense is some higher to operate without the Internet. IMO the security is worth it.
thanks b for listing those who refused to sign declarations against cyber-attacks. plus going back to Allende.
It is hard to judge what happened without expert knowledge and solid news from the ground. (I’m v. suspicious of it being ‘accidental’ .. ) This MSM article details power restrictions, rationing, failure, in March 2018, due to drought:
Guri is huge in scope / production (see frances 38), this is not a ‘diversified’ energy system, which makes it very vulnerable to any glitch, malfunction, or surreptitious attack which can take many forms.
Posted by: Noirette | Mar 10 2019 13:51 utc | 88
My understanding is that "everybody" went from S7 controllers to ABB controllers.
How easy were they trying to make it? BTW software of any complexity ALWAYS has bugs and vulnerabilities to be exploited.
The Coming Software Apocalypse
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/09/saving-the-world-from-code/540393/
BTW for those who think China is the way forward - they have immense expenses recently incurred to keep an eye on all their businesses. The main cost is not the people doing the watching. It is that decisions take longer to make because all decisions have been made political.
China Begins An Economic Collapse
http://classicalvalues.com/2019/02/china-is-shaking/
BTW, are "False Flags" an exclusive tool of the Evil Empire?
Serious question, as "false flag" is the go-to explanation for seemingly so many events, chemical weapons, novichok poisonings, etc.
I'm inclined to believe this was a disruptive event caused by the opposition which is fed by the CIA but the possibilities are several as already mentioned by b and others in the thread.
Posted by: donkeytale | Mar 10 2019 14:14 utc | 91
Capitalism is a fig leaf of myth over elite control of global private finance. It is anti-humanistic by design but has been very effective in brainwashing folks to not understand that.....its feeds on the monotheistic religion faith BS.. psychohistorian @ 32.
Yes. One of the main illusions of today (aka the pits one falls in) is that ‘socialism’ or ‘democratic socialism’ or whatever US pundits are going on about now essentially represents an attempt at re-distribution of wealth via fiat (higher taxes, medicare for all, etc. - I support, that should all be done - more redistribution pronto, for all the disadvantaged and employees who toil to provide shareholders with dividends..) Yet all that discourse does absolutely nothing to change the ‘capitalistic,’ I would prefer ‘extractionistic,’ paragdim, which will lead to collapse.
Venezuela *was* a champion of re-distribution of oil wealth (good for them, lifting ppl out of poverty, see also Iraq, Lybia, Cuba on diff. register..) but then what? The dying Empire is the whole world, we have trashed it.
Posted by: Noirette | Mar 10 2019 15:04 utc | 92
CIA has had the tools for a long time. Anything connected to the internet can be owned.
b4real
Posted by: b4real | Mar 10 2019 15:25 utc | 93
Wherever there is massive installed hydropower aluminum production by bauxite reduction is nearby.
Such facilities serve as a convenient buffer or sink for generation capacity.
Posted by: jCandlish | Mar 10 2019 15:29 utc | 94
@75 Hoarsewhisperer - "It's facile to imagine that they can be induced to surrender their power."
What power? It just showed all the power it has left. The world sees this, and takes its measure. That's all we're saying here. The world will fight in its own time and on its own terms, regardless of if we see it or not.~~
As for Satan, he's the greatest loser in the universe. He threw himself down from the firmament out of pride, out of sheer hubris. It is said by the wise that he exists in constant torment because his ears ring with the last true sound he ever heard, which was the voice of God saying "GO!"
And all those who follow his error are doomed to fail, even though they wreak havoc in their striving to succeed. And if they will never give up it is only because they are driven by torment. But this does not mean that their energy is inexhaustible. This does not mean that they cannot be stopped. The havoc will continue only for so long as people say that it cannot be stopped.
So we must all choose.
Posted by: Grieved | Mar 10, 2019 1:52:44 AM | 79
Yes we must. Here is Lucifer's resentful come-back, as he spitefully declares his future plan of action:
"...Whereto with speedy words th' Arch-fiend reply'd:
Fall'n Cherube, to be weak is miserable
Doing or Suffering: but of this be sure,
To do ought good never will be our task,
But ever to do ill our sole delight, [ 160 ]
As being the contrary to his high will
Whom we resist. If then his Providence
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,
Our labour must be to pervert that end,
And out of good still to find means of evil; [ 165 ]
Which oft times may succeed, so as perhaps
Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb
His inmost counsels from their destined aim."
b4real,
Who hasn't known for 20 years at least that no connection to the Internet is secure?
Who connected the dam to the 'net? Who authorized it?
The nyts says the protesting gaudis set the trucks on fire.
Posted by: dahoit | Mar 10 2019 16:12 utc | 97
"It will take a cyberattack on vital U.S. systems with long lasting effects to change its malicious standpoint and behavior."
I think that is unlikely at best. If anything, it will only provoke the manic authorities in the US of A to even more vicious and overt military assaults on sovereign nations. And that is why it won't happen.
Posted by: Ant. | Mar 10 2019 16:37 utc | 98
@97
From the article:
"Longhorn, as Symantec dubs the group, has infected governments and companies in the financial, telecommunications, energy, and aerospace industries since at least 2011 and possibly as early as 2007. The group has compromised 40 targets in at least 16 countries across the Middle East, Europe, Asia, Africa, and on one occasion, in the US, although that was probably a mistake."
---
"Who hasn't known for 20 years at least that no connection to the Internet is secure?"
Maybe those millions who still have facebook accounts?
b4real
Posted by: b4real | Mar 10 2019 16:41 utc | 99
The Venezuelan people need to understand that they mean nothing to the Empire, proof is that the sanctions and all other forms of collective punishment via cyberspace are intended as cudgels to beat them into submission until they can no longer resist, to break them into betraying their economic preference, socialism, and betray their leaders who have been trying to keep the Empire's corrupting influence at bay. Venezuelans need to look at the collective punishment inflicted on Gaza after they chose their government to understand the inhumanity that drives the Empire criminals now pretending to be benefactors with Trojan Horse humanitarian relief after decades of sanction deprivation. My message to Venezuelans is this:
The Empire set you up, programmed a path to certain failure, not the choices you made! The Empire's collective punishment for your choices is the tyranny that created economic misery. Expose the cruel machinations of the Empire through media, print and web, march against the takeover, storm their CIA, IDF (Mossad) interlopers posing as delegate missions and run them out of town, shame their treacherous puppets and run them out of government on a rail. Ask yourselves what Chavez would do to stop this foreign invasion of a sovereign Venezuela. Only as a people empowered with resolute, wilful resistance can you successfully condemn the tyranny and overthrow the cunning coup through sympathy now being unleashed on you. Don't allow yourselves to be fooled into civil war either. If violence erupts, be alert, because false flag-created chaos is the Empire's favorite propaganda tool, i.e. manipulation through fear and outrage, next to economic deprivation is their trademark. Look what they did in Ukraine using neofascists to spark violence. Look what they did to Syria. Same M.O. except there they had terrorists to do a lot of their dirty work.You are either on the brink of becoming a vassal state permanently milked for your resources by your imperial master who will vet, corrupt, groom and make uniform and unDemocratic your choices, or you will break free now, before it's too late, pushing back as a sovereign nation, decrying sanctions as the illegal, collective punishment they really are, and declare ownership of all your resources. Don't let the Empire dictate the type of economic/social system you want. People everywhere are watching and will back you. Resist in every way!
The message goes for Iranians as well when the Empire's Neocon, Zionist vultures move on to another people whose morale and lives have been demolished by the Empire's economic tyranny. The cowards only swoop in when the target has been weakened enough to ensnare, destabilize, gut and plunder under submission to the Empire's dictates.
Posted by: Circe | Mar 10 2019 17:03 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
Thanks for the posting b. My country is a tool of empire that is criminal in its behavior
I have no doubt the the power outages are part of the empire plan to oust Maduro.
So this is where it gets tricky. The US electrical power grid and infrastructure are as vulnerable as anywhere else.. You want a false flag to start a war......this is a serious potential.
These humans that think they are better than the rest of us represent a cancer in our species. I think we are about to see if that cancer can be removed and the patient still live.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 9 2019 18:29 utc | 1