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Posted on 10/16/2023 6:46:25 AM PDT by Red Badger
Kentucky Republican Rand Paul warned of a little-known federal law that allows the president of the United States to shut down the internet with a “kill switch.”
Paul warned that the government’s ” emergency powers ” can remove freedoms in the name of safety and security, including an internet “kill switch” to turn off the Internet.
“We’ve also looked at the emergency powers and emergency powers — you know the courts have said you don’t throw out the Constitution during emergencies — but a lot of our legislation acts as if you could throw things away,” Paul told Atlas on Thursday on the doctor’s “Independent Truths” podcast.
Paul highlighted what happened during the COVID-19 hysteria.
“So when the CDC — and this actually happened some under the Trump administration — they decided that there was a CDC law for the 1930s that said you should do this and this for certain diseases, quarantine, and then it had a clause in there ‘and whatever else is necessary,’ the Trump Administration used that to say we didn’t have to pay our mortgages, and then the Biden administration continued that on,” he said.
Watch
VIDEO AT LINK...............
However, Paul noted how the power was abused.
“But this is a power that in no way was ever given to the CDC. No one ever anticipated the CDC would say you don’t have to pay your mortgage anymore, pay your rent, or pay your car payment. That is crazy,” he exclaimed.
“We also have another series of emergency powers, some of them have been on there, we’ve had like some emergencies have been going on 50 years, they’re still on the books,” he said.
“There’s actually an emergency power that was given to the FCC in the 1930s that gives the president the power to shut down all communications and control all communications in the US.”
He continued:
“People call it the Internet kill switch. It’s never been used, but and it predates the Internet, but people now think in applying it to the Internet that a president has the power to shut down the Internet. Nobody should have this.”
According to TechCrunch, this power is delineated under the Communications Act’s Section 706
The republican Senator said no president should have this power.
“Look, I was a supporter of Trump, he shouldn’t have it. I’m not a supporter of Biden, he definitely shouldn’t,” he said.
“No president of either party should have this kind of power,” he continued.
“So, we should get rid of these emergency powers, and I’m a sponsor of a bill to get rid of them as well,” Paul advised.
Paul was working with Hawaiian Democrat Tulsi Gabbard to eliminate this kill switch rule.
“The one good thing that happen happened, like in our state of Kentucky our governor used emergency power to close churches, restaurants, and all, etc, hotels, gyms, the court shut him down, but when the legislature finally came back into power they said his emergency Powers don’t last longer than 30 days,” he said.
“So, if he would to shut down something like hotels — which I think you never should do — but if you do it it only lasts 30 days and it expires unless the state legislature reaffirms it,” he noted.
“We should do the same in Washington; it should be an automatic expiration, and most people thought emergency powers were like delivering blankets and water in a tornado. I’m fine with that kind of emergency power,” Paul concluded.
“But nobody ever thought you could close someone’s business down for years at a time, uh, during an emergency. And then, to make matters worse, most of the things they did didn’t work and weren’t good science.
“Most of the mandates involved things that didn’t slow the spread of the disease and really were uh in error even just based on the science, not based on the freedoms that was lost, but just based on the science, most things they did were ineffective and wrongheaded,” he added.
As TechCrunch reported, there are other moves to ameliorate this “kill switch” power, one seeking to put stronger limitations in place.
As The Western Journal reported:
The Preventing Unwarranted Communications Shutdowns Act, from Democratic Rep. Anna Eshoo of California and GOP Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia, would add more layers of accountability to use of the president’s power to black out communications in an emergency.
The two representatives want to limit use of the powers of Section 706 to “imminent and specific threat to human life or national security,” would limit the shutdown time frame to only 12 hours, would require a president to inform state government leaders — including opposing party leaders — and would cancel the use of the section for a single instance after 48 hours, unless renewed by a vote of three-fifths of Congress.
Paul and others looking to put a dent in the outsized power to totally shut down all communication are right.
This is a power that no president should have.
The damage it could do, leaving people completely bereft of information in a serious crisis, would be disastrous for the country if it were ever used.
It would be fairly straightforward to remove public access to parts of the internet and to specific services by manipulating the Domain Name System.
But shutting down the underlying Internet Protocol router network is shutting down critical infrastructure.
I have no doubt the federal tyrants will do this.
If the civil war starts, they will try to keep Americans from communicating with each other.
How will all the illegal freeloaders get all their free stuff?
Let’s Go, Brandon!
It's not the economy you should be worried about. It's shutting down all the social media that's gonna piss people off! Priorities dontcha know.
lol...the greatest TV series ever made :)
I doubt the Elders Of The Internet would agree with such authority ;p
And FREE too! Now you have to pay for them.
I’m not sure that this is even technically feasible. They might want to be able to do it but the internet is a network-of-networks. You might be able to shutdown parts of it but there’s so many subnets and technologies (e.g. Starlink) I’m not sure this is possible on a national scale.
Exchange phone numbers with your most important online friends, just in case.
I think terrorists taking out key substations is more likely, esp next November
Cell towers and Landlines will be dead...................
The status of the underground tanks, and how full they are, is monitored over the Internet.
Resupply is coordinated through the Internet to the supplier, whose trucks, incidentally, get their fuel, from distribution set up the same way as your local gas station.
Fuel trucks are routed via the Internet to those locations that, according to the Internet, sensors show they need filling.
Many years ago, I had a teenage job at a gas station pumping gas for customers. I had to open the tanks every night after closing and write down how full/empty they were, on a log that the owner would view the next morning and call the supplier to order a shipment of new gas. The stick I used was a specially made long "yardstick" that they don't even make any longer.
Yep. Good move. I have a complete set of topo maps of my state and surrounding Appalachian states. If I ever have to flee, it won’t be east to NJ. It won’t be to any city large or small.
You might have to go to California to get you some internet.
More like piss off all voting age person out there under the age of 80.
If anyone wants on or off the Ping Me When the Internet Goes Down pinglist, kindly FReepmail me. Thanks!
Wonder how many ham operators bringing out their old Henry 3 kilowatt amps for a tune up?
Hope they have electricity generation capability...........
Need to dust off the old Ham Radio.
One of their funniest episodes. Lotta truth.
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