If you’re feeling a little nervous, like there’s been an awful lot of coincidences happening all at once, you’re not alone.
First, there was the massive Microsoft outage that began on Thursday, which affected users, governments, and businesses around the world. One might be tempted to think that the software giant is mostly just the company behind Windows, but it has evolved into so much more, and its cloud computing and internet infrastructure powers an incredibly large sector of the digital age (as does Amazon’s).
Then, of course, the already-infamous nationwide airplane “ground stop” brought the aviation industry to its knees as the skies overhead became totally quiet for only the second time since 9/11. Although the stop was lifted Friday evening, the delays, congestion, and travel nightmares will persist for days as authorities and companies try to stabilize the system after thousands of flight cancellations, delays, and stranded passengers.
Oh, and did I mention the widespread rumors that erupted Friday that the National Weather Service also experienced a nationwide shutdown? The agency clarified that the problems were only regional and there was no sustained “radar outage,” but nerves were rattled nonetheless.
It was just another weird moment in an already concerning day. But wait, there was more: a tanker crashed into a cruise ship in New Orleans, capsizing the vessel and sending its roughly 197 occupants scrambling for safety. There are reports that the vessel had a steering problem or "lost control," but the exact cause is under investigation.
What a weird day — Friday the 13th, as it were — as RedState’s Susie Moore noted:
Sorry... 😬 https://t.co/pDWi81j5s1
— Susie Moore ⚾️🌻🐶 (@SmoosieQ) November 13, 2026
The human mind is built to find connections and make conclusions, so it’s hardly surprising that many wondered whether some of these recent weird events could be connected. However, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin put the kibosh on the Microsoft-ground stop rumors at a Friday evening press conference with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
The two remarkably similar events are not connected, he said:
🚨 Markwayne Mullin: Was the FAA ground stop connected to Microsoft? No
— Mr Producer (@RichSementa) November 14, 2026
"There is actually NO cyber attack."
"I want to make sure everybody understands that there is no connection between this and Microsoft."
"I know a lot of people are making that jump." pic.twitter.com/kfXUEfGXWv
However, despite repeated questions by the press, neither Mullin nor Duffy was willing to completely rule out the possibility of a cyber attack being behind the FAA’s software glitches that led to the ground stop.
As a rule, I used to stay clear of conspiracy theories, because they were often pushed by nutters whose facts didn’t add up. Then, however, I lived through the Biden administration, where many here at RedState and elsewhere alleged that there was a top-down media/Democrat conspiracy to hide Biden’s deteriorating mental condition — and we were right. We also called out the false information being peddled by Fauci and Co. during the COVID crisis, and again, we were right.
I’m not arguing that there’s some weird conspiracy going on here, because so far I have not seen any evidence of that. But as Fox News host Bret Baier noted on Will Cain’s show, it’s not a surprise that people are asking questions;
FIRST SINCE JANUARY 2023: "Everyone does wants to take the temperature down, and clearly Secretary Markwayne Mullin did and your last guest. But we have to do it in context. This is the second time there has been a national ground stop since January 2023, and before that, 9/11.… pic.twitter.com/c4WPtVHw2O
— Special Report (@SpecialReport) November 13, 2026
FIRST SINCE JANUARY 2023: "Everyone does wants to take the temperature down, and clearly Secretary Markwayne Mullin did and your last guest. But we have to do it in context. This is the second time there has been a national ground stop since January 2023, and before that, 9/11. It comes a day after the Microsoft outage. Also today, the National Weather Service put out that its radar is not working fully... So we have to keep it in context here. We don’t know the cause of this. They say there is nothing to worry about, big picture, and they can get these planes down."
As of this writing, I see no reason to believe that there’s one of Hillary’s “vast right-wing conspiracies” going down. But whoa, that’s a lot of major cyber events happening all at once — and we haven’t even mentioned that the CEO of Nvidia — the leading chip maker powering the AI boom — resigned Thursday after revelations of numerous affairs.
All of this would be enough for a good week’s news cycle, but it’s happened in just the last 72 hours. Hold on to your hats, folks; we’re living in wild times. I’d say, sit back and watch football, but a whole bunch of college teams were stranded due to the ground stop, so we’ll just have to see what happens there.
As Corporal Hicks said in one of my all-time favorite movies, Aliens, “Stay frosty!”
Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
