Category Archives: Energy

Energy, Security

Egypt Government Tells Citizens to Stop Using Energy so It Can Sell to Germany Instead

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Something seems very wrong about a story of taking energy away from domestic use in order to sell it abroad, almost like it’s a moral story for children about what not to do.

Egypt has introduced new austerity measures…. The government wants to take the natural gas locals don’t use and sell it at higher prices. It’s a simple solution but experts doubt it can work.

There’s a little problem with that phrase “gas locals don’t use” if you dig into what really is going on.

A whole set of new austerity measures leaves streets, squares, shops and malls without lighting after 11 p.m. The maximum temperature for air conditioning in shopping malls and stores has also been limited to 25 degrees Celsius… customers will have to walk home in the dark, long after the street lights have been turned off.

People in Egypt typically are very active late at night when it’s cooler, so such an austerity plan cuts energy use during a peak economic period.

It sounds kind of like Egypt sells its fine watch to make enough money to buy a hair brush for its citizens who cut their hair to buy a chain for Egypt’s watch… or something like that.

And how is this story not also about someone in Egypt realizing if they cover the pyramids with solar panels they don’t need any gas or diesel?

Gas they don’t use should be more like gas they don’t need; as opposed to taking away gas they really need while they haven’t really started (unlike Norway, which runs clean and exports its gas) to switch to clean sources to power their actual economy.

Energy, History, Security

Cyber Yankee: U.S. Cyber Marines in Cyber Team Cyber War

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Cyber War. It’s long been used to scare Americans into spending money. The military is again talking about protecting the country from disasters by training on cyber (information technology).

Who can forget, for example, the 2022 NYT opinion piece alarmingly titled:

I’ve Dealt With Foreign Cyberattacks. America Isn’t Ready for What’s Coming.

It’s been crickets since then, and rightfully so. In fact, Cyberattacks have been the exact opposite of such predictions with Russia losing badly and nobody really talking about it — a blog post for another day.

So let’s take a look one again at allocation of risk resources versus reality of disaster in America.

First, to properly set context, we should review a non-military operation meant to prevent fireworks on Independence Day.

Bay Area firefighters this year partnered with law enforcement to run a huge “zero-tolerance” policy.

Last year, authorities promised to crack down on the use of illegal fireworks by issuing a “zero-tolerance policy” in counties where fireworks were already illegal, The Chronicle reported. This year, authorities were expected to do the same. [Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jon] Heggie said Cal Fire departments were coordinating with local, state and federal agencies to create task forces intended to prevent the use of illegal fireworks. Anyone caught with illegal fireworks could be fined up to $50,000 and sent to jail for up to one year, according to Cal Fire.

Boom.

It seems to have been a great success as I’ve found exactly zero fires reported due to fireworks.

In fact, I’ve seen and heard almost zero fireworks.

Independence Day fireworks are a widespread tradition and zero evidence of them is actually quite peculiar. The only other time I imagine it’s been this quiet was in southern American states that lost their Civil War when they tried to spread vicious propaganda that the 4th of July is only a holiday for Black Americans.

Second, such success in suppressing personal fireworks lies in stark contrast to basically constant news about commercial fires running out of control.

I mean everyone surely knows how a privately-run power utility Pacific Gas and Electric (PGE) in California has been very weakly regulated, and continues to flaunt safety with massive repeated disasters.

Starting fires all over the place for decades, seemingly all the time killing Americans, hasn’t been stopped by local authorities and the military certainly hasn’t been called in.

The Wall Street Journal (subscription) reported that investigators attributed more than 1,500 fires to PG&E power lines and hardware between June 2014 and December 2017. CAL FIRE attributed 12 fires that started in Northern California on October 8 and 9, 2017 to PG&E power equipment.

It’s unbelievably just how constant disaster has become, literally synonymous with critical infrastructure in the U.S.

Is there an oil rig or tanker around somewhere?

Then you might as well expect a devastating breach of safety.

Did a power line run through some remote wilderness?

Then you might as well expect a devastating fire.

And no military response.

The biting analysis could go on for years, there’s so much evidence of critical infrastructure being a giant dumpster fire with little to no real safety.

Over 1,500 California fires in the past 6 years — including the deadliest ever — were caused by one company: PG&E. Here’s what it could have done but didn’t.

It has a real and present danger (including but not limited to wrongful death, personal injuries, property loss, and business losses), which is so very much worse than anything cyber.

Here’s a headline you WON’T see…

U.S. Marines Deployed to defend California from companies there running critical infrastructure — threat to national security is from the “business” of ignoring risk.

Third, in other words, it seems like on the 4th of July in the Bay Area you would need only to drive a big truck with PGE logos full of fireworks and you could launch all you want wherever you want. Just make sure you don’t put the word “cyber” on anything. It will be seen as business as usual for critical infrastructure.

In fact under the logos you could write “Go ahead and fine us again, we don’t care” as the motto of the privately-run power utility; nobody is going to call the Marines in to defend America from obvious and present disaster… unless of course (again) you put that word “cyber” on anything because that could get some attention.

Did I mention PGE is privately-run?

The wealthy owners faced upwards of $30 billion in fines from its disasters over just three years (2015–2018) and all they did was declare bankruptcy for ONE YEAR.

This is like Cyber War destroying PG&E ability to distribute power (even killing people and destroying homes and businesses) and the company announcing it will simply pay some fines and declare bankruptcy for a year then declare everything back to normal.

Does the US military have a training program for responding to that? Army of lawyers perhaps?

How bad can any Cyber War really be compared to ongoing existing disasters, seriously?

Is it any wonder we hear about “22 mayors, including San Jose’s, pushing to make PG&E customer owned” so it can be less of a threat to security.

And so (fourth), now let’s dig in a bit more to a National Interest story at hand about the U.S. Marines gearing up to defend America from “disaster”.

During a conflict with the United States, an opponent could try to disrupt power and water supplies by knocking regional power supplies off-line or cutting off access to running water. In response to this challenge, the Marine Corps is working with National Guard units to prepare for this challenge. […] “They vary in levels of sophistication from a cyber-criminal or hacktivist that is doing nothing more than low risk access attempts that can be mitigated by very simple security controls and elevate all the way up to the most advanced threat act or using sophisticated means of initiating access with stealthy movement throughout the IT enclave and into the operational technology enclave where the critical infrastructure is located,” [cyberspace operations chief of the Marine Innovation Unit, M Sgt. Mike] McAllister continued.

Oh no, a hacktivist! Wonder if that includes a mayor who would be trying a hack to protect his city from PG&E-led dangers.

Can you image the U.S. Marines being called in on behalf of a morally and literally bankrupt privately-run utility, to stop citizens and their leaders from defending against national security risks posed by those utilities?

Sounds like Guatemala, or Hawaii for that matter.

This is a topic I’ve worked on for ages, even inside the world’s leading response teams, and I have seen the worst of it. There’s even a post I wrote in 2019 about real cases of insider threats taking out water and emergency services. Nobody ever suggested a military response.

That’s probably why I see cyber much like Eisenhower described things in the 1950s: a funding sinkhole (congressional-military-industrial complex) begging for massive cash and time allocations when other areas of safety and security are in far greater need.

When the president’s brother asked about the dropped reference to Congress, the president replied: “It was more than enough to take on the military and private industry. I couldn’t take on the Congress as well.”

If firefighters and police can completely shut down fireworks to protect the country from disaster, let them go after the utilities too. The military probably wouldn’t even have to be involved in Cyber (just like they aren’t involved in fires) if American civic action to stop harms from giant private companies like bulk energy was in any way effective.

Related: “Was Stuxnet the First?”

Energy, History, Poetry, Security

Cryptocurrencies are digital blood diamonds, driverless cars are loitering munitions

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For many years now I’ve been telling people cryptocurrency is a modern form of blood diamonds.

One of the important lessons from Nazi Germany and its derivative regimes like the South African apartheid government (e.g. two countries where Peter Thiel is from) is that money laundering can be a powerful means of evading global sanctions against rights violations (e.g. how Peter Thiel made his fortunes at PayPal).

It therefore should be obvious from history lessons that cryptocurrency serves a well-known anti-humanitarian pattern. Or maybe it’s easier to see the problem as popularized in “fascist pig” movies and books.

He has vices. He doesn’t have any real virtues. If you think James Bond is a fascist pig then Fleming seems largely on your side.

A very long time ago a bank that ran a large regional power company (common in America) called me to consult on security as ethics. Their risk team asked me if they should approve a plan for excess power generation during idle production to be poured into an on-site Bitcoin mining operation.

My answer was a simple question: “Do you really want to fund ICBM development in North Korea?” I guess I could have asked if they wanted to generate more fascist pigs.

The bank seemed genuinely surprised, which reminded me of the Sierra Leone lyric…

I thought my Jesus piece was so harmless
’til I seen a picture of a shorty armless

They asked a few questions, thanked me for explaining international history, and said they had to reject the plan.

Fast forward to today and more and more proof of the problem finally is reaching the news.

North Korea Used Crypto to Hack Its Way Through the Pandemic. The isolated country continues to find ways to evade sanctions and generate income while operating on the fringes of the global financial system.

To be fair blood diamonds for money laundering are just the start of the problem… the laundered money is used for laundered technology sold by Americans.

That’s why I often remind people the American NRA played an essential role in South Africa by importing guns to prop up the illegal white police state in direct violation of international sanctions.

Now who is the digital NRA?

So maybe think of crypto even more as digital blood diamonds to buy digital arms, such as access to algorithms in a Tesla to kill people by weaponizing cars.

As I’ve said in my presentations for at least a decade, it’s far easier these days to direct 40,000 loitering “driverless” vehicles (really munitions) to destroy a city than to launch missiles from far away.

Energy, Security

American Business Desperate for Trains as Air Travel Falls Apart

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The WSJ reports air travel reliability has deteriorated so much that business communities are scratching their head about why they can’t get on a modern high-speed train instead.

This summer’s air-travel disruptions are leading some business travelers to change plans and hit the road.

But is “hitting” deteriorating infrastructure of roads to just sit in long traffic jams any kind of real upgrade from air travel?

It says a lot that people believe stepping into the infamous security theater of a Chertoff checkpoint feels worse than driving — something incredibly stressful, dangerous and expensive. Even pilots try to warn potential customers that being in hell for up to six hours is better than American air travel.

“Drive when you can,” Tom Kubik, a retired pilot with 42 years of experience, told budgeting website Humble Dollar. “We draw a six-hour drive circle around our house. If we’re within six hours, we’re in the car. The airport experience and the hassles associated with flying these days make driving a much less stressful trip. That’s true even with gas prices where they are today.”

Rental car companies like Avis are of course ready to get behind dumping on air travel with tone-deaf logic such as this.

Opt for driving if: You dislike the crowds, lines…

Do we know what is absolutely full of awful crowds and lines?

Driving.

Based on the overall findings, the U.S. ranked as the most traffic-congested developed nation in the world, with American drivers spending an average of 41 hours a year battling traffic…

Worse, driving in America means you become far LESS safe because of crowds and lines. At least crowds and lines in airports are designed to make you safer.

The American driving model is basically a racist death trap that gets exponentially worse when things go wrong.

Aside from their weaknesses as evacuation conduits, highways are dangerous in their own right. Road accidents are a persistently high cause of fatalities in the United States. And, as the traffic jam in Virginia shows, highways are not only bottlenecks but traps. With the right circumstances—an accident, a stopped tractor trailer, the wrong kind of weather—motor vehicles can move neither forward nor back, leaving people stuck unless they abandon the limited shelter their cars offer. Worse, most emergency response is also based on motor vehicles. Stretches of highway may become largely inaccessible to ambulances or buses for evacuation, making assistance that much more difficult.

Yes, I said racist. America’s interstate highway system was a race-based design by VP Nixon (under President Eisenhower) for segregationist planners to destroy and block non-white prosperity — today experts in transit design literally call it a network of “death corridors“.

This only gets worse with racist companies like the unsafe-by-design Tesla, which pretend they are doing something innovative while obviously repeating the worst engineering mistakes in history and killing far more people.

All that sets up any intelligent business traveler to look hard at America and ask where’s the train?!

  • Economist: How trains could replace planes in Europe
  • NYT: “rail is the way to go”
  • EuroNews: “The majority of the European population would be in favour of banning short-distance flights at an EU level and taking the train instead”
  • Bloomberg: Europe Asks Travelers to Ditch Planes for Night Trains
  • BBC: How to travel by train – and ditch the plane