Guests - Chris Hoar, Dave Smith, Mark Burrell, Joel Strabala

Cloudflare Outage Exposes America's Dangerous Dependence on Big Tech — and What We Can Do About It

On the Friday before Thanksgiving, Kathleen Winn opened her Winn Tucson show with a stark warning: a major Cloudflare outage earlier that week knocked out roughly 20% of the world's websites, including many of the large language models millions now rely on daily. Winn brought back Chris Hoar, disaster response and telecom national security spokesperson for SAT123, to explain why these recurring incidents are more than inconveniences — they are flashing red warnings about single points of failure in America's critical infrastructure.

The Cloudflare Incident and the Bigger Picture

Hoar didn't mince words. "This is just another example of how dependent we are as a society on very few companies," he told Winn. He pointed to Amazon's US East-1 data center failure a month earlier that crippled half the internet, then noted Cloudflare's outage affected a still-massive 20%. "We're putting all our eggs in very few baskets."

The deeper issue, Hoar argued, is centralization of power. Amazon now provides nearly 40% of global cloud compute and storage. "If I'm an enemy of this country, I'm paying attention," he said. "Take them down, and you take down 20% or 40% of the planet."

Winn pressed on the national-security angle: "We've all seen what can happen with drone attacks... Cyber warfare is a war we're already in." Hoar agreed, calling it "World War III being fought over networks, not on the ground." He warned that supply chains — from grocery stores to gas stations — run entirely on cloud services. A sustained outage of just days could empty shelves and pumps.

The Solution: Decentralization and Personal Preparedness

Hoar, speaking for SAT123, pushed hard for redundancy. Businesses and individuals alike need multiple providers so "if one goes down, you flip to the redundant one." For consumers, he recommended satellite-based backups that operate independently of terrestrial internet and cell towers.

SAT123 offers satellite phones (free with activation at sat123.com), Starlink units, and a full line of solar-powered portable generators — from pocket-sized units under $100 to whole-home systems that can run air conditioning indefinitely. "Generate your own power, have independent internet via Starlink, and a satellite phone for voice and text," Hoar said. "In a blackout you don't know if it's just a power outage or something nefarious — unless you have independent comms."

Contact: sat123.com or 941-841-0844.

Power Grid Vulnerabilities and Foreign Influence

The conversation turned darker when Winn raised California's decision to grant Chinese-state-linked entities access to its grid. Hoar called America's power grid "antiquated" and "the biggest domino." He noted there is still no federal mandate requiring physical protection for most substations — "We've seen crazed guys with shotguns take out power to 300,000 homes."

Even more alarming: critical grid equipment purchased from China often contains backdoors for remote access. "They can interrupt it or bring it down with the flick of a switch," Hoar warned.

Pima County Election Chaos: Observers Banned, Ballots on the Ground, and a Recorder Who Calls It "Success"

Winn shifted to local election integrity with guests Dave Smith and later Joel Strabala, both furious about Pima County Recorder Gabriela Cáceres Kelly's handling of the November city election.

"They Do Not Care About Transparency" — Dave Smith

Former law-enforcement officer and Republican activist Dave Smith pulled no punches. "Our election people, our recorder, do not care about transparency. They do not care about the public's opinion... They have locked in what they're going to do."

Smith and others had sent letters to the Governor and Attorney General citing five specific laws being broken by refusing observers inside early voting/ballot replacement sites — a policy unique to Pima County among Arizona's fifteen counties. At Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting, Cázares-Kelly remained defiant, insisting she was within her rights.

Video of an overflowing Eastside ballot drop box — ballots visibly spilling onto the ground — became the flashpoint. When Supervisor Steve Christy asked if they had surveillance footage, the recorder dismissed concerns about "camera angles." Smith called the response pure arrogance: "Any good con artist presents a lie with absolute confidence."

Voter turnout in Pima County has plummeted to the low 20s — the lowest ever. "Democrats don't even vote. Nobody votes," Smith said. "Maybe that's what she meant by success."

Election Integrity Commission Update with Joel Strabala

LD-17 Republican Chair Joel Strabala joined later, fresh from the county's Election Integrity Commission meeting. He confirmed the Eastside box (capacity ~1,600 ballots) overflowed by noon on Election Day despite being serviced three times. Hundreds of voters dropped ballots while workers struggled for 15–30 minutes to clear the chute.

Strabala stressed the recorder's office had received over 100 complaints about the new requirement to put phone numbers on ballot affidavit envelopes — a major reason voters chose drop-off over mail. Yet no additional capacity was planned.

Most disturbing: Pima County remains the only Arizona county banning observers from what the law calls "voting centers" on Election Day. The recorder rebranded them "ballot replacement centers" in the Elections Procedures Manual — a distinction without legal force, critics say.

Strabala reported serious threats against recorder staff following social media backlash, including death threats. "These have to be taken seriously," he acknowledged, while still insisting the underlying conduct fueled public anger.

Newly Elected Mason, Ohio Councilman Mark Burrell on Local Service and America's Identity Crisis

Winn welcomed Mark Burrell, freshly elected to the Mason, Ohio city council after a 41-year career at Procter & Gamble. An engineer by training and author of two books on America's founding, Burrell squeaked into fourth place in a non-partisan race for four seats.

From Corporate Retirement to City Council

Mason (pop. ~35,000) sits 20 miles north of Cincinnati and has boomed with major corporate relocations. Burrell stressed long-term fiscal discipline as the city approaches build-out: "How do we maintain that without raising taxes?"

He praised Mason's professional city-manager model and its term limits (two four-year terms). The council itself selects the mayor and vice mayor from among its seven members.

Rediscovering the American Covenant

Burrell tied local service to national identity, echoing Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign theme that America is suffering an "identity crisis." He argued the Declaration of Independence — not the Constitution — is our true founding covenant.

"Our identity is found solely in the Declaration," Burrell said. "Policies and even the Constitution are reflections of that identity." His books — *Rediscovering the American Covenant: Roadmap to Restore America* and the shorter *The Duty Is Ours* — call pastors and citizens back to those founding principles ahead of the nation's 250th anniversary in 2026.

Both titles remain available on Amazon.

As Winn closed the show, the message was clear: from Cloudflare outages to overflowing ballot boxes, Americans are waking up to systemic vulnerabilities — in infrastructure, elections, and national identity itself. The question now is whether leaders will act before the next crisis hits.