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.
I’m sure they do and lots of it.
Could be why the Feds are holding up Musks permits for more Starlink satellites
You too. You’re aging yourself. I did that too when I was young. I lived right next door to a gas station and spent much of my misspent youth sitting around with the old guys listening to stories an 8–10-year-old kid should probably not have been listening to, but I digress. I learned to check oil, pump gas, wash windows, run a cash register and dip the tanks before I was in middle school. Some of the best times of my life.
And how to unhook a bra with one hand...
No porn. There’d be a shooting war.
Shut down businesses? How about shut down health care, prescription drugs, planes, transporation systems, electrical grid ....all that runs online ....
What nuts we have running this country.
The effect on the country would be disastrous. Amazon would cease to exist.
It would destroy commerce in the country. It would put millions out of work. Millions would lose access to their financial assets. Families would be disrupted. Communications would grind to a halt.
In other words, that’s exactly what biden’s puppet-string pullers want! With the government firmly in control, it would be able to tell us anything at all, and force us to do anything it wants us to.
Remember those CB sets? time to buy a couple?
Interwebs kill switch. With the vast majority of electronic medical records now being remote-hosted that would be a perfect way to get rid of some undesirables.
Not too mention the damage that would be done to commerce in general.
I expect the bastards are trying to come up with an excuse to pull the trigger sooner rather than later.
Thanks to the “internet of things” very little of anything not “primitive “ will work.
Sharp sticks and flints, stock up.
They’re gonna eventually MUZZLE us all, one way or another.
Do you have any idea how to get 15 gallons of gas out of my totaled PT Cruiser, by chance?
Jacking it up and draining the tank is not an option and I could really use the gas right now.
garden hose, suck.
The hole of the metal anti theft thing flap thing is too small for a garden hose.
I could go to Lowe’s and buy a length of plastic hose that’s much smaller maybe.
Thanks.
Been looking for ways to do it and found this:
Can you syphon gas from newer cars?
Siphoning gas from most modern cars is problematic since they have what is known as a ‘rollover valve’ which blocks the flow of gas coming from the tank if the car is upside down. This valve effectively blocks the insertion of a siphon hose into the tank.
Well crap.
:-/
Maybe that would finally get people to get off the couch, grab their guns and go to DC and take care of business.
I can fantasize…
Hello Feds!
There simply can not be a single “SWITCH” for the internet. It doesn’t work like that.
“Those that surrender their liberty for the sake of security deserve neither their liberty nor their security.”
-Ben Franklin.
I learned that a little later, but I could do it while driving.
You could always siphon with a hose. They used to sell a bellows like pumps for the same purpose.
Yeah but Russia Russia Russia...!! And Israel
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