Chinese Cyber Threats to U.S. Infrastructure and Colorado’s Gerrymandered Legislature

On January 13, 2025, Joshua Sharf (Senior Fellow in Fiscal Policy, Independence Institute), Maria Sumnicht (Former Urban Technology Architect, New York City Cyber Command), and John Spence (Colorado Director, Task Force on National and Homeland Security) joined the show. Sharf analyzed data showing Colorado’s independent reapportionment commission has produced extreme Democratic overperformance, with the party winning 11 more seats than aggregate votes would justify in 2022 Sumnicht revealed that Chinese backdoors exist in servers, motherboards, and grid equipment throughout American infrastructure, with military bases vulnerable due to their connection.

Colorado’s Gerrymandered Legislature

Start listening at 32:00 – Hour 1 Joshua Sharf, Senior Fellow in Fiscal Policy at the Independence Institute, analyzed his Complete Colorado piece exposing the failure of Colorado’s independent reapportionment commission. Despite being sold to voters as a nonpartisan solution, the commission has produced extreme Democratic overperformance in legislative seats.

“In each case, the aggregate vote would have entitled the Democrats to 35 of the House seats as opposed to 30 for the Republicans.” Joshua Sharf
Joshua Sharf, Senior Fellow in Fiscal Policy, Independence Institute

Sharf traced the history of redistricting in Colorado, from county-based at-large systems before 1962 through the partisan process that followed, to the current independent commission established by constitutional amendment in 2018. He noted that Republicans supported the measure hoping it would produce fairer outcomes, but the result has been even more lopsided than under openly partisan processes.

“For Republicans, your answer has to be to trust the people to run their own lives and to make their own decisions.” Joshua Sharf
Joshua Sharf, Senior Fellow in Fiscal Policy, Independence Institute

Chinese Cyber Threats to U.S. Infrastructure

Start listening at 71:14 – Hour 2 Maria Sumnicht, former New York City Cyber Command Urban Technology Architect, and John Spence, Colorado Director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, delivered a sobering assessment of America’s vulnerability to Chinese cyber attacks.

Sumnicht, who led penetration testing teams and conducted vulnerability assessments on New York City’s critical infrastructure, described the scope of Chinese infiltration into American technology systems.

“So this problem is absolutely infiltrated everything.” Maria Sumnicht
Maria Sumnicht, Former Urban Technology Architect, New York City Cyber Command

She detailed how Chinese company Supermicro embedded hidden chips in motherboards used in servers across government and private data centers. More recently, Cisco announced discovering hidden backdoors in servers using firmware from Chinese company Huawei.

Spence revealed that from 2006 to 2023, the U.S. imported nearly 450 large transformers from China, including 360 critical to grid operations. A National Security Council director confirmed that after one Chinese transformer was examined at a national laboratory, investigators found hardware enabling remote shutdown from China.

“And there was a in July 16, 2021, the former director of intelligence programs at the National Security Council confirmed that after the Chinese transformer was taken to the national lab, they found hardware that had the ability for someone in China to switch it off.” John Spence
John Spence, Colorado Director, Task Force on National and Homeland Security

“This is every military base on American soil is actually connected to our public grid.” Maria Sumnicht
Maria Sumnicht, Former Urban Technology Architect, New York City Cyber Command

Sumnicht emphasized that military bases remain connected to the public grid with only about 48 hours of backup power, and outlined specific actions citizens can urge their representatives to take, including examining imported grid equipment for malicious hardware and hardening electrical infrastructure near military installations.

California Wildfires and Government Accountability

Kim opened the show addressing the devastating Los Angeles fires, noting that Governor Gavin Newsom cut wildfire and forest resilience spending by $101 million just seven months before the fires began. She highlighted how the California Fire Department had prioritized DEI initiatives while critical infrastructure went neglected.

BlackRock Exits Climate Coalition

In a significant development, BlackRock announced its exit from the Net Zero Asset Managers Coalition, following departures by Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase. The move comes as legal inquiries and the incoming Trump administration prompt financial giants to reconsider ESG commitments.