Threats to U.S. Security

Ep 168  |  Dan O’Connor

Dan O’Connor –  Threats to U.S. Security: Aging Infrastructure, Fragile Systems, and Information Warfare

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Dan O'Connor The Great Simplification

Summary

The threats facing the United States’ stability seem to be escalating daily – from aging electric grids and deteriorating infrastructure to rising information warfare from domestic and international sources. How are some of the leaders within our institutions approaching these risks to respond with resilience and strengthen our national security?

Today, Nate is joined by national and homeland security authority Dan O’Connor to discuss what he sees as the most pressing risks for the stability and resilience of the United States. Dan emphasizes the critical role of energy in shaping our societal structures and the need for adaptive resilience and personal responsibility in the face of systemic risks. 

How is the interference from adversarial information warfare eroding public trust and national resilience? In what ways are cultural fragmentation and worsening health crises accelerating our economic and environmental challenges? And, perhaps most importantly, could the most effective solution to these large-scale systemic challenges lie in embracing personal responsibility and authentic leadership?

About Dan O’Connor

Dan O’Connor is a recognized national and homeland security authority with extensive experience in national and homeland security, law enforcement, exigent leadership, crisis management, emergency management, continuity of operations, and security/anti-terrorism.

He has consulted and produced operations for security and emergency management at various Olympic Games, and has been a consultant and key leader/facilitator for four of the largest marathons in the United States and a Super Bowl. 

His contributions extend to Operation Allies Welcome, refugee resettlement efforts, and leading responses to over 1,200 federally declared disasters, showcasing his proficiency in operational excellence and crisis management. Recently, he was the only American selected to facilitate a NATO/Eastern European energy and crisis security exercise in Latvia and Lithuania, where his political acumen, vision, conception, and crisis leadership earned special recognition.

In French, we have a motto that says that a simple drawing is often better than a long explanation. Jean-Marc Jancovici Carbone 4 President

That’s very understandable because with left atmosphere thinking, one of the problems is that you see everything as a series of problems that must have solutions. Iain McGilchrist Neuroscientist and Philosopher

We can’t have hundreds and hundreds of real relationships that are healthy because that requires time and effort and full attention and awareness of being in real relationship and conversation with the other human. Nate Hagens Director of ISEOF

This is the crux of the whole problem. Individual parts of nature are more valuable than the biocomplexity of nature. Thomas Crowther Founder Restor

Show Notes & Links to Learn More

00:00 – Dan O’Connor

04:42 – Everything is based on and driven by energy

05:47 – Second law of thermodynamics

07:01 – Energy Returned on Investment

07:59 – Tanks drove WWI, Petroleum’s role in WWII

08:29 – Bretton Woods

08:40 – Fortune 500s in the 20th century that were hydrocarbon adjacent

08:53 – Engine knocking, lead, and effects on IQ

09:21 – Domino theory

09:49 – US Global Hegemony

10:11 – 158 trillion dollars in deferred maintenance costs, aging infrastructure

10:41 – Infrastructure report card for the U.S.

12:20 – Haber Bosh, Green Revolution, Paul Ehrlich

12:35 – U.S. use of food exports as an economic tool against Soviet Union during the Cold War

13:12 – Self-Organized Criticality

13:15 – DJ White, TGS Episode

14:46 – Carrington Event, Polar Vortex, Dresden Bombs

15:59 – Ed Conway, Material World, TGS Episode

16:13 – North Carolina Silicon production, Hurricane Helene disruption

16:46 – Saline production in Puerto Rico and disruptions from Hurricane Maria

17:56 – VUCA and BANI

20:58 – Nassim Taleb, Antifragile

22:22 – Cobalt Mines, Artisanal mining in the Congo

23:17 – Stoicism

24:44 – Von Clausewitz Politics

25:14 – Optimal Foraging Theory

27:02 – Multi-trillion dollar food system, health declines

27:08 – Multi-trillion U.S. dollar health system that is inadequate

27:26 – Jonathan Haidt, TGS Episode

28:33 – DHS origins, 9/11

29:57 – Gold Standard, effect of the US leaving it

32:03 – Huxley, Orwell, Tower of Babel

34:20 – Extent of data monitoring and digital footprint in the US

38:20 – Misinformation during hurricane Helene

45:11 – Cultural differences across the regions of the United State + American cultural regions mapped through the lexical analysis of social media

46:15 – Bioregionalism, TGS episode

46:32 – Thomas Barnett, America’s New Map | Book by Thomas P.M. Barnett

47:51 – Greenland is 70% minerals, US gave away mineral rights to China

48:02 – Simon Michaux, TGS Episodes Part 1 & 2

52:06 – 1 trillion dollars added every day to US debt

53:16 – OODA Loop, John Boyd

53:55 – Daniel Schmachtenberger, TGS Episodes

54:52 – Will Harris at White Oak Pastures, Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm, regenerative agriculture

57:18 – Robert F. Kennedy

58:01 – Farm Bill, SNAP

58:37 – Calorie consumption is down, trends in obesity continue to rise

1:00:55 – Allostatic Load

1:01:24 – Endocrine Disruptors

1:05:38 – Viktor Frankl

1:06:18 – Exposure to sugar rationing in the first 1000 days of life protected against chronic disease

1:07:40 – Dopamine, Serotonin

1:08:21 – Dan’s references on obesity and nutrition

1:10:53 – 16% of the DOD is 18-24 year olds

1:13:20 – Red Scare

1:15:37 – Machiavellianism

1:19:05 – Irish Potato Famine

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The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future (ISEOF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, founded in 2008, that conducts research and educates the public about energy issues and their impact on society.

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