Bob Dylan meets Pope and causes internet meltdown as legend 'dressed like a Jedi'

Bob Dylan has thrown the internet into chaos with his hooded attire as he met the Pope at the Vatican with memes galore and social media users questioning if he was now a Jedi or a Sith Lord

Simon Hamalienko Publishing Lead

20:18, 04 Nov 2026

Updated 23:01, 04 Nov 2026

American singer Bob Dylan met the Pope during a private audience

(Image: Getty Images)

Music legend Bob Dylan meeting with The Pope has caused a major stir on the internet. The American singer-songwriter rocked up to meet Pope Leo at the Vatican not quite dressed up the occasion, deciding on a black hoodie for today's (November 4) meeting .

Dylan was meeting the pontiff during his current tour in Italy, ahead of the 85-year-old's performance at the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome. However, the meeting has now become historic for a more bizarre reason after the icon did not appear to remove his hood during the encounter with Pope Leo.

This led to a number of photographs that have now taken the internet by storm with joking Dylan has become a "jedi" or a "Sith Lord", while others said he may have gone "emo".



The series of photos has caused a meltdown on the internet 

(Image: Getty Images)


Users on social media have been quick to jump on the photos with many popular memes being used, including the Star Wars themed darkside Sith Kermit from Frog, as the images continue to go viral.

One user said: "Why is Bob Dylan dressed like a Jedi". Another added: "Bob Dylan dressed up like Darth Sidious (Star Wars villain) to meet the Pope."

A third commented: "Is Bob Dylan emo?"

A fourth wrote: "Bob Dylan really had to bring the hoodie out for Pope Leo."

Pope Leo XIV welcomes Bob Dylan to the Vatican in a brief visit

Pope Leo meets Bob Dylan at the Vatican, Nov. 4, 2026. 

Vatican Media/­Handout via Reuters

By — Nicole Winfield, Associated Press
Arts 

Nov 4, 2026 6:06 PM EST

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Bob Dylan came knockin' on Pope Leo XIV' s door Wednesday, as the American singer-songwriter and poet visited with the American pope at the Vatican during a break between concert dates in Italy.

The Vatican said the encounter was brief, with Leo giving Dylan a rosary and Dylan presenting the pope with a copy of his autobiography, "Chronicles: Volume One."

Leo had quoted from an unpublished protest song Dylan penned in 1963, "Go Away You Bomb," in his 2026 book "Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift."

Leo was warning against the race to rearm and the recourse to nuclear weapons and quoted the lyric, addressed to a hypothetical atomic bomb: "I hate you cause yer man-made and man-owned, an' man-handled."

Two Vatican officials accompanied Dylan: the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican culture ministry official who also accompanied Patti Smith to a July audience with Leo; and Andrea Monda, the editor of the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

Spadaro said Dylan had wanted to speak with Leo, and the two met in private for a few minutes. In an essay in L'Osservatore Romano, he recalled that the former Robert Prevost, who was born in Chicago in 1955, grew up familiar with Dylan's music.

He also noted that Dylan was very familiar with St. Augustine of Hippo, the inspiration of Leo's spirituality and Augustinian religious order, penning "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" for the 1967 album John Wesley Harding.

Dylan, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, wore a black hoodie and a loose tie. Vatican photos of the encounter showed him with the hood over his head.

It wasn't Dylan's first papal encounter: He played for Pope John Paul II, and thousands of other people, in 1997 during a concert capping a religious congress in Bologna, Italy.

Dylan, who changed his name from Robert Zimmerman, was born to a Jewish family in Minnesota. He famously became a born-again Christian in 1979 and alienated some of his longtime fans with songs like "Gotta Serve Somebody" and "Saved."

In more recent years, Dylan has been more circumspect about his religious beliefs. In a 2022 interview with the Wall Street Journal, Dylan said that he was a "religious person" who reads the scriptures, meditates and prays.

Dylan met with Leo in between concert dates in Italy. He played in Milan on Monday and is playing Rome on Thursday. In his most recent concert before the meeting with the pope, Dylan sang his 1997 song "Tryin' to Get to Heaven" that contains the lyric, "I've been all around the world, boys/Now I'm trying to get to heaven before they close the door."

AP reporter Scott Bauer contributed from Madison, Wisconsin. Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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They Told Us to Prepare… Then This Happened

reallygraceful

Nov 4, 2026 

For the last several weeks, governments around the world are suddenly telling their citizens to prepare. Meanwhile, reported cyberattacks, false emergency alerts, and infrastructure disruptions are raising questions about how prepared our institutions actually are. (Spoiler: results not good)

Following last week’s look at the Pentagon’s FORTRESS America initiative, I'm examining reports of supermarket refrigeration attacks across Europe, which followed freezer hacks at U.S. military commissaries, an incident involving French blood-service cold storage, a French banking "hack," and a strange Washington, D.C., power outage.

But don't worry, we're also taking a look at the European Commission’s 72-hour preparedness guidelines released this week, as well as EU Integrated Resolve 2026, and ending with Cyber Polygon’s earlier exercises involving a "cyber pandemic".

But again, the larger question remains: does a disaster even need to happen for everything to change? Does hell have to be unleashed in order for citizens to create their own through anxiety and worry? The nervousness alone can move money, shape policy, and influence what people are willing to accept...

Independent reporting, analysis, and commentary by reallygraceful. Developing reports and unresolved claims are identified as such. 

Former Congressman Roscoe G Bartlett's 100th birthday celebration in the Speaker's office.

Perfect As He Is - This Day With God - November 5

Experience This Day With God: Perfect—As He Is, November 5

AI

Clash Of Minds  

Nov 4, 2026

Perfect—As He Is, November 5 

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48. 

As becomes beings to whom the Lord God has given the faculties of reason and of action, we should use our powers in accordance with the divine purpose. God desires to be honored and glorified in the work of His hands. Every human being will have to give an account to God for the way in which he has used his entrusted talents. We are under obligation to use our powers aright that we may be qualified for eternal life in the kingdom of God. God demands perfection from every human being. We are to be perfect in this life of humanity, even as God is perfect in His divine character. 

God made every provision in man’s behalf, creating him only a little lower than the angels. Adam disobeyed, and entailed sin upon his posterity. But God gave His only begotten Son for the redemption of the race. Christ took on Him the nature of man, and passed over the ground where Adam fell, to be tested and tried as all human beings are tested and tried. Satan came to Him as an angel of light to induce him, if possible, to commit sin, and thus place the human race entirely under the dominion of evil. But Christ was victorious. Satan was defeated, and the race was placed on vantage ground with God. 

When the Father gave His Son to live and die for man, He placed all the treasures of heaven at our disposal. There is no excuse for sin. God has given us all the advantages He possibly could give, that we may have strength to withstand the temptations of the enemy. Had man, when tested and tried, followed the example of Christ, he would have given his children and his children’s children an example of steadfast purity and righteousness, and the race would not have deteriorated, but improved.... 

Many act in this our day as though this were a matter of small importance. But had the human family, even after the fall of Adam, worked according to the example of Christ, every father and every mother would leave their children an example of how to conduct themselves so as to fulfill their obligations to God, then the world would have been as Eden. The earth, now a desert of sin, would have rejoiced and blossomed as the rose.

—Letter 143, November 5, 1900, to Elder McClure, a minister in California

Remember, Remember: The Religious Story behind Bonfire Night

Remember, Remember: The Religious Story behind Bonfire Night

 

By Annabelle Coates 

Bonfire Night is, in my opinion, a criminally underrated occasion. I personally love standing in a muddy field in the freezing cold with my friends; all wrapped up in scarves, gloves and hats with a cup of hot chocolate keeping me from freezing over entirely. But when I’m gazing up at a gorgeous firework display on 5th November, it’s hard to think that this annual event actually came from a Catholic conspiracy to overthrow a Protestant monarch back in 1605. Many of you might have heard the rhyme: ‘Remember, remember the 5th November; Gunpowder, treason and plot…’ (nobody really says the rest). Many of you might have also heard a different name for the holiday: Guy Fawkes Night, after the man deemed to be the face of the conspiracy. So who is Guy Fawkes, and how did gunpowder, treason and plot lead to rockets, wheels and sparklers being shot into the air every year?

To very briefly summarise centuries of British history, there had been a lingering tension between Protestantism and Catholicism (two different branches of Christianity) both nationally and globally. The Reformation swept Britain by storm throughout the 16th Century, with Protestant leaders like Martin Luther and John Calvin criticising the Catholic Church’s immense wealth and corruption of the clergy (like with the selling of indulgences to ‘speed up’ a person’s journey through purgatory after death). Eventually, Henry VIII’s break with Rome in 1534 established the king as the supreme head of the Church of England. Over time, said Church moved away from Catholic tradition and practices (apart from a slight blip during Catholic Queen Mary I’s reign in 1553-58) and England became Protestant.

This leads us to the reign of James I of England (also James VI of Scotland). Britain was now a massive Protestant power, and although many Catholics were hoping for a bit of change and acceptance politically (possibly due to James being the son of the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots – confusingly different from the Catholic Mary I), unfortunately this never occurred. Anti-Catholicism was deeply embedded in most members of the House of Commons, although Catholics didn’t help themselves either, with small plots against James I such as the Bye Plot and the Main Plot (1603) limiting the amount of sympathy for Catholics in the UK.

But some Catholics just couldn’t help themselves, and the Gunpowder Plot was born. Although Guy Fawkes is the most famous (or potentially the only) name usually associated with the plot, he wasn’t actually the leader or instigator of it. That role goes to Robert Catesby (from Warwickshire – where I went to college!!), who proposed the plan in May 1604 to blow up James I, the House of Lords and the House of Commons during the State Opening of Parliament. He recruited the other 4 main conspirators: Thomas Wintour, John Wright, Thomas Percy and Guy Fawkes, and the plan started to form.

Communist, Islamist, and Globalist Coalition on Full Display After Midterms: Newman on Newsmax

Communist, Islamist, and Globalist Coalition on Full Display After Midterms: Newman on Newsmax

Liberty Sentinel by Alex Newman

Nov 4, 2026

Last night's blistering defeat for the GOP revealed key issues within the party, but it also illustrated what journalist Alex Newman has been warning about for years: the red-green-blue axis of Communists, Islamists, and globalists.

Will Americans wake up?

Newman joins Newsmax to break it down.

On Election night, the religious left is back

On Election night, the religious left is back

From Texas to Kansas, Democratic candidates drew on their religious values, securing wins and signaling a shift in the relationship between faith and politics.

Democratic Senate candidate Texas state Rep. James Talarico speaks at an election night event in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. 

(AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Jack Jenkins

November 4, 2026 at 2:56 a.m. ET

(RNS) — Asked Tuesday night (Nov 3) about the state Rep. James Talarcio’s victory in Texas U.S. Senate race, the Rev. Jim Rigby, who has long pastored the Presbyterian church Talarico grew up in, said he was still grappling with the moment.

“It’s just too surreal,” Rigby said, who was watching the returns from home. “It’s going to take a while to completely take that in.”

But Rigby, a staunch liberal who has long advocated for immigrants and LGBTQ people, also reflected on what he sees as the broader dynamic of Election Night, which saw Democrats such as Talarico — himself a Presbyterian seminarian — win sweeping victories across the country.

“There’s an awakening taking place,” he said. “It’s not even so much one religion as opposed to another religion, but an idea that everybody counts.”

The victories marked a striking moment for the religious left, which has long struggled to match the influence and visibility of conservative Christians. Across the country, candidates and faith leaders embraced a message that put values such as compassion and inclusion at the center of their campaigns.

“Two thousand years ago, when the people at the top hurt his neighbors, that barefoot rabbi didn’t stay in his room and pray,” Talarico said in his victory speech, as he stood in front of a placard that read “Love thy Neighbor.”

Jesus “walked into the seat of power and flipped over the tables of injustice,” he said.

In addition to Talarico in Texas, who made his religious beliefs a centerpiece of his campaign, Democrats saw a faith leader trigger an upset in the Kansas U.S. Senate race: There, the Rev. Adam Hamilton, who pastors a United Methodist megachurch, sailed to a resounding win in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1932.

Trump Loses BIG: What It Means for Europe EU Made Simple

Trump Loses BIG: What It Means for Europe

EU Made Simple  

Nov 4, 2026

A BLUE TSUNAMI hit America — Trump's Republicans lost the House AND the Senate, with even Kansas, Texas and South Carolina turning blue. But a weakened Trump at home could be a MORE dangerous Trump abroad: a cornered, "feral" lame duck who still controls the military, foreign policy, tariffs, and could escalate the war with Iran or cut off Ukraine, with Congress far less able to stop him than you'd think. So should Europe celebrate… or finally use these two years to break its dependence on America?

Democratic socialist Janeese Lewis George elected DC’s first new mayor in 12 years

WTOP News  

Nov 4, 2026

D.C. has officially joined the wave of U.S. cities who have elected Democratic Socialists to top positions as part of a seismic political shake-up in the nation’s capital.

The District has elected a new mayor, Janeese Lewis George, for the first time in 12 years.

5 DSA candidates are elected to the House in a historic night for their movement

Congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier speaks at a rally at King's Theater on June 18, 2026 in New York City. She is among a slate of DSA-backed candidates heading to Congress after midterm election victories.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

November 3, 2026 10:44 PM ET

Elena Moore

In a historic night for the Democratic Socialists of America, a record number of candidates endorsed by the organization and its local chapters were elected to the House of Representatives.

The results grow the organization's presence on Capitol Hill, bringing to Congress a bloc of lawmakers who will now look to translate their electoral success into policy wins that push the Democratic Party further to the left.

At least five DSA candidates in reliably blue congressional districts have won their races, according to race calls by the Associated Press. They are Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez in New York; Melat Kiros in Colorado; Donavan McKinney in Michigan; and Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania.

Their victories follow a fiercely competitive primary cycle, where DSA candidates rode to victory by championing economic populist policies like universal healthcare and childcare, as well as more polarizing stances, such as abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Throughout the primaries, candidates endorsed by the group were unafraid to criticize or break with Democratic leadership, challenging sitting incumbents or competing against establishment picks.

That included Kiros, who defeated Rep. Diana DeGette — a 15-term incumbent and member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus — in Colorado's 1st Congressional District in July. Just days earlier, Chevalier delivered a major upset in New York's 13th Congressional District, narrowly defeating Adriano Espaillat, the influential chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

On top of emphasizing a core value set aimed at bettering the working class, many DSA candidates tapped into voter frustrations with the larger political system. Candidates swore off campaign donations from corporations and pro-Israel lobbying groups. They fiercely condemned the war in Gaza and called for the U.S. to stop supplying Israel with military aid.

While the DSA's platform energized some voters on the left, it also became a prominent attack line for Republicans, who sought to paint the broader Democratic Party as too extreme and link more moderate candidates to democratic socialist figures like New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

The DSA is not a registered political party, but with Tuesday's victories, the number of DSA members in the House is on track to more than triple when the new Congress is seated in January. Currently just two sitting lawmakers — Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ocasio-Cortez — are members of the organization.

It's a small, albeit growing coalition, but one that could complicate the legislative agenda of Democrats if they succeed in winning back the House. In a new Congress where Democrats have only a thin majority, the bloc could wield outsize influence. If Democrats can win a broader majority, their influence could prove more limited.

The upcoming vote for House speaker may serve as an early test. If Democrats win the House, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is poised to be elected the nation's first Black speaker. Currently, none of the incoming members with DSA endorsements has committed to supporting Jeffries.

Source 

The Health Reform Message - A Purifying Message Part1 - Ivan Plummer

Steps to Life

Nov 3, 2026  Campmeeting 2026

Of all the wonderful messages or doctrines that the Lord has given to his church, there are few that are not appreciated by Seventh-day Adventist's. And among these few doctrines is the health reform message. And this message is fought against probably most by many Seventh-day Adventist Christians. And so the logical question that anyone would ask why is it that Seventh-day Adventist who ought to be beneficiaries of this wonderful message, why is it that there is that level of resistance against the health message? Why is it that people literally hate the help (health) message? 

SUBSCRIBE    / @stepstolifeministry  

Contact us on our webpage at: https://www.stepstolife.org/contact/ or call us at 1-800-THE-TRUTH (800-843-8788) or email us at historic@stepstolife.org.

Token of the Everlasting Covenant | Our High Calling - November 4

 

WATCH: Steve Kornacki Analyze 2026 Midterm Election Results | Kornacki Cam | NBC News

Every Country is in Debt and Broke

Every Country is in Debt and Broke

BANANOMICS  

Sep 26, 2026  

Everyone treats government debt as a bill that is going to come due one day.

It is not a bill. It is a circle. Money gets printed, spent on roads and bridges, saved in banks, lent straight back to the government, and spent again. It ran for fifty years and nobody ever needed it to stop, because the debt was never meant to be repaid. It was meant to keep moving.

It stopped moving. The savings that used to sit in banks went into the stock market instead, the banks ran short of what they lend, and that is why the road works stalled, why the tax bill only moves one way, and why central banks are quietly buying gold again.

This is the global debt crisis, explained with gorillas, monkeys, and a mountain of paper that nobody is ever going to pay.

Chapters in this video:

0:00 Who the world owes it to 0:14 The year the dollar left the gold 0:30 The circle nobody had to stop 0:57 Three hundred against one hundred 1:20 Three ways out, all of them bad 1:37 The money went somewhere else 1:50 Unrest, wars, and a quiet run on gold 2:14 The whole thing is the bubble

Mainline Protestants Are Having a Political Moment. Can They Move From Protest to Power?

November 2, 2026
author: Jack Jenkins, RNS

(RNS) — Many have puzzled over the unusual number of pastors, former pastors, and seminarians running for Congress as Democrats this year, but not the Rev. Adam Hamilton. Asked in August about the trend, Hamilton, a United Methodist megachurch pastor running an unexpectedly competitive race for U.S. Senate in Kansas as a Democrat, answered immediately.

The Rev. Adam Hamilton, center, speaks to congregants after a service at Resurrection United Methodist Church, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026, in Leawood, Kan. (RNS photo/Kit Doyle)

“Since the beginning of 2025, things are so abnormal in Washington, D.C.,” he told Religion News Service, explaining he believes actions by the Trump administration have spurred people to wrestle with what, exactly, constitutes American values.

“I think there’s a lot of religious people — especially, I think, mainline Protestant pastors — who are saying: Somebody’s got to do something,” he said, adding that pastors-turned-candidates like himself are “feeling the sense of call, and I’m going to attribute it to the Holy Spirit.”

It’s a sentiment shared by a surprising number of Democratic candidates this election cycle. Of the nine pastors, former pastors and seminarians running for Congress as Democrats this year, six — including four locked in tight, widely watched races — belong to mainline Protestant denominations, such as the UMC, Presbyterian Church (USA), and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The candidacies have put a spotlight on the theology of primarily white mainline Protestants, a politically moderate group whose clergy skew liberal and whose members make up around 13% of the U.S. population, according to the Public Religion Research Institute. The slate of mainline candidates with religious training follows a nearly decade-long spike in political engagement largely in response to the rise of President Donald Trump and his evangelical supporters. From Texas to Iowa to Kansas, mainline Protestant candidates, while careful to voice support for the separation of church and state, are giving voice to forms of public theology that could reclaim a position their tradition lost decades ago: a recognized Christian power in U.S. politics.

Runner, 24, Dies During Her First Marathon

Rachel Apa, who died while running the New York City Marathon on Sunday.

Credit...Hollis Kolmansburger

Rachel Apa collapsed in Central Park. The cause was rhabdomyolysis, a rare muscle condition that can be brought on by exertion, her father said.



By Andy Newman

Published Nov. 2, 2026

Updated Nov. 3, 2026, 12:43 a.m. ET


Rachel Apa’s mother was waiting for her at Mile 25.

It was Rachel’s first marathon. She was 24, an athlete, a former Division I field hockey player at Bucknell University. She had trained for this race, the New York City Marathon, for months.

At Mile 14 on Sunday, in Queens, Rachel’s mother, Michelle Apa, had taken a video of her daughter, all smiles, flying by in her light green top and shorts, high-fiving toward the camera. Then Ms. Apa headed to Central Park, toward the finish line.

Back home in Lewisberry, Pa., Rachel’s father, Steve Apa, was tracking her on the marathon app, texting her encouragement at every mile. At Mile 18, Rachel texted back “Ow.” At 19, she texted back “Ow ow.”

At Miles 20 and 21 and 22, Rachel did not write back, but she kept running. “Final stretch,” Mr. Apa texted at Mile 23.

He never heard back.



Rachel Apa at Mile 14 of the New York City Marathon on Sunday.

Iran Issues Nuclear Attack Emergency Guidelines For Citizens

 Iran Issues Nuclear Attack Emergency Guidelines For Citizens | NewsX World

NewsX World

Nov 3, 2026 

Iranian media has published emergency instructions preparing citizens for a possible nuclear attack. The guidelines explain blast protection, radiation safety, indoor shelter procedures, decontamination measures and emergency supplies, urging people to follow official instructions.

Federal judge orders Iowa to allow Satanic Temple to hold one-day holiday event in the state Capitol

By JOSH KELETY and HANNAH FINGERHUT, Associated Press

Updated Nov 2, 2026 5:52 p.m.

FILE - The Iowa Capitol building is seen on Jan. 7, 2020, in Des Moines, Iowa.

Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall


DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge on Monday ordered Iowa state officials to allow a local Satanic Temple organization to hold a holiday event in the rotunda of the state Capitol after years of rejecting their application.

The court order is the latest in a back-and-forth between the religious organization and Republican state officials, who intend to appeal the judge’s decision, according to Attorney General Brenna Bird’s office.

Iowa’s Republican leaders have barred the Satanic Temple Iowa's holiday observances in recent years, citing the state Capitol building’s policies that prohibit gratuitous violence and obscene displays.

The Satanic Temple and the leader of its Iowa organization in August sued the state in federal court, arguing that current and former Iowa officials discriminated against their religion by repeatedly refusing to permit their holiday event and violated their constitutional rights and state law.

Chief District Judge Stephanie M. Rose said in her order that the Satanic Temple was likely to succeed on its free speech claim and ordered the current director of the Iowa Department of Administrative Services to approve the group’s application for a holiday event within seven days.

Can You Survive 30 Days Without Power? Step-by-Step Survival Guide + Q&A

 

Florida Learjet crash victims identified; Private jet may have broken apart midair, NTSB says

Plane from Austin crashes in Florida: New details released | FOX 7 Austin

FOX 7 

Nov 2, 2026 

New details in the deadly private jet crash that killed nine people in Florida have been released. The flight departed from Austin, and now we are learning the identities of those on board, including a family and their two young children.

FOX7Austin brings you breaking news, weather, and local stories out of Central #Texas as well as fun segments from Good Day Austin, the best from our video vault archives, and exclusive shows like the Good Day Austin Round-Up and CrimeWatch

Ryan's Bird Buffet "Ground View" at Brownville's Food Pantry

Brownville's Food Pantry For Deer

Ryan's Bird Buffet "Ground View".   Feeding times vary.

The deer feeding will resume Dec 16th. Thank you all for a great 20 …

Joy Through Suffering with Christ | Our High Calling - November 3

Power Struggles

Volume 45 Issue Eleven November 2026

Last Trumpet Ministries ∙ PO Box 806 ∙ Beaver Dam, WI 53916

Phone: 920-887-2626 Internet: http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org

“For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” I Cor. 14:8

Power Struggles

“Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.” - Mark 13:33

On April 16, 2013, a dangerous act of sabotage that most folks have never heard about took place in Metcalf, California. Under the cover of darkness, at least two snipers took a position about thirty or forty yards away from its target - a power substation for Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). After receiving a signal by flashlight, the shooters began firing their high-powered rifles in a coordinated attack that would damage seventeen large power transformers. Remarkably, the shooters knew exactly where to aim, targeting the units’ oil-filled cooling systems, which would slowly drain out due to the damage and cause a power failure. Moments before the police arrived to investigate, there was another signal by flashlight; the shooting stopped, and the perpetrators were never caught. It took PG&E twenty-seven days to repair the damage. (1)

When the damage was discovered, PG&E called the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to investigate. Jon Wellinghoff, who was then the chairman of the commission, was immediately alarmed by what he learned. He and his investigators walked the grounds where the attack transpired. He asked his men, “What do you think happened?” They replied, “Somebody put together a very carefully planned and very precisely executed attack on the substation. We don’t know who they are, but they were very highly trained.” (2)

Just months before the attack, Wellinghoff had ordered an analysis of the American power grid to find potential vulnerabilities. What the study found was quite alarming. “We came up with some very astounding numbers,” Wellinghoff recounted. The analysis found that if someone knocked out just nine critical substations in the Western, Eastern, and Texas Interconnections, they could potentially black out the entire United States. He estimates that such a blackout could last eighteen months or longer. (3)

Is Poland Having a COUP Right Now? What the Media Isn't Telling You!!!