The day Russia pulled the plug on all of USA’s power

If you can’t envision it, you can’t prevent it

The day Donald Trump left office, after many years being a useful idiot of the Right and Russia, the latter brought down the grid all over North America. Carefully and randomly planted software bugs blacked out almost all US households in the blink of an eye. Some machines were still working on rechargeable and non-rechargeable batteries but they lived on borrowed time too. Back-up power units had switched on but for how long would they still have petrol, now that traffic lights had stopped working and GPS-systems had lost their footing? Because, at the same time, Russia had disabled several US satellites making navigation on the roads impossible.

Second sabotage was the isolation of the continent. With a few strategic cuts of undersea cables and the sabotage of a small number of satellites, all international phone and internet connections had fallen away. The US was largely in the dark and the rest of the world was also largely in the dark, figuratively: about what had happening there.

With security cameras en masse going off and alarm systems all at once starting to beep, policing became practically non-existing. Looting had started by the population, impoverished by a century of Capitalism and ages of slavery and Imperialism. It seemed as if the whole of South America went proletarian shopping in the North. Also electrical stuff was widely stolen although the power would not return in their lifetimes and banks plundered though US money became worthless literally.

In a matter of days, millions of people died in gun battles because it became impossible to tell apart the military, the police, security personnel, neighborhood watch groups, armed private citizens, the mafia, white supremacists, and armed robbers. How many people would die from the end of healthcare for all and proper distribution of food would be for always a mystery.

In the still lit security centers of the government and military, it was completely unknown who had done this. But anonymous demands to surrender came swiftly. Only two. Give up all control to nukes and hand over all gold reserve to unmarked planes arriving at all US international airports. If not, New York, Washington, Detroit and Los Angeles would be bombed back to the stone age. Everyone knew that Russia must be behind this but you can’t nuke a country on mere suspicions. The US had to give it all up. Multi-millionaires became as poor as everyone else.

The United Nations Security Council should convene. But with iPhones down and illumination out, a number of UN representatives convened in front of the UN Headquarters in daylight. Without the translators, it was tough to understand each other among the Babel-like confusion of tongues. But with most countries being dictatorships, most watched the downing of the US with amusement. And in any case, voting was blocked by Russia’s absence so all discussion was utterly useless.

Meanwhile, Russia and China warned Iran to contain any territorial lust.

Putin held a glowing speech on Russian TV explaining that democracy and freedom can go too far and weaken the whole of society. He pointed out that the only powerful countries were not democracies. He promised more restrictions on journalists, activists and homosexuals.

The Jordan military still killed the King and tried to attack Israel. Israel countered and in two days conquered the whole of Jordan after which it gave the mostly empty country in control of a select group of Zionist Palestinian Muslims to set up a State for their People in Transjordan.

It would not take generations but centuries before historians could safely begin to collect information on what had happened to the once so powerful US. Analysts and specialists differed widely on what had been the main cause. Had it taken electricity or the Internet for granted? Had it neglected space defense and infrastructure safety? More and more, a consensus grew that a core fault had been an arrogance of being modern. As if the most modern must be the most intelligent and invincible.

You can only be sure that this will never happen if measures have been taken against it. Above I mentioned many weak points. Time will tell.

About the Author

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. * This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2000 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe too, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. * Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. * Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight reality), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. * Chronologically, his most influential teachers are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. * He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. * He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. And so was his honesty. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. He hopes to bring new things and not just preach to the choir. * He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, powerful therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids. Previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. * His writing has been made possible by an allowance for second-generation Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. * To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. * His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1