White House Wants Chinese-Style ID System For Internet Users

(InfoWars) – Testing is set to begin next month on a pilot program that could lead to the introduction of a Chinese-style ID system for Internet users, an “identity ecosystem” that critics fear would create a backdoor to government regulation of the world wide web.

The White House’s “National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace” would replace the current system of using passwords to access sensitive online accounts with something akin to a biometric ID card that would link one individual to all their government services, such as food stamps, welfare as well as a myriad of other things like mortgage applications and applications for licenses.

“The original proposal was quick to point out that this isn’t a federally mandated national ID. But if successful, it could pave the way for an interoperable authentication protocol that works for any website, from your Facebook account to your health insurance company,” writes Meghan Neal, warning that the proposal is “a scary can of worms to open”.

The scope of the program could eventually be expanded into an ID card to access the Internet itself, greasing the skids for every citizen to require government permission to use the world wide web, a privilege that could be denied to criminals, accused terrorists and other undesirables, which according to federal government literature includes people who hold certain anti-establishment political beliefs.

The program bears more than a passing resemblance to a 2007 proposal by China that threatened to force bloggers to register their real identities and personal details via a single centralized ID system as a means for the Communist government to control information and punish dissenters.

That idea was scrapped for being too draconian, but the Obama administration is pushing ahead with its own Internet ID system in pursuit of a wider cybersecurity agenda that Senator Joe Lieberman publicly stated back in 2010 is aimed at mimicking Chinese-style censorship of the world wide web.

Back when the NSTIC plan was first introduced, CNet’s Declan McCullagh noted that it represented “the virtual equivalent of a national ID card” because it would eventually be mandatory for filing IRS tax returns, applying for benefits or renewing licenses.

The notion of the US government being able to provide a secure “identity ecosystem” immune from hacking and data theft is also naive given previous instances of information being stolen. The train wreck that was the launch of the Obamacare website is also a very strong argument for the government to stay out of such programs.

[H/T InfoWars: Paul Joseph Watson]

The Real Unemployment Rate: In 20% Of American Families, EVERYONE Is Unemployed

(InfoWars) – According to shocking new numbers that were just released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20 percent of American families do not have a single person that is working.

So when someone tries to tell you that the unemployment rate in the United States is about 7 percent, you should just laugh.  One-fifth of the families in the entire country do not have a single member with a job.  That is absolutely astonishing.  How can a family survive if nobody is making any money?  Well, the answer to that question is actually quite easy.  There is a reason why government dependence has reached epidemic levels in the United States.  Without enough jobs, tens of millions of additional Americans have been forced to reach out to the government for help.  At this point, if you can believe it, the number of Americans getting money or benefits from the federal government each month exceeds the number of full-time workers in the private sector by more than 60 million.

When I was growing up, it seemed like anyone that was willing to work hard could find a good paying job.  But now that has all changed.  At this point, 20 percent of all the families in the entire country do not have a single member that has a job.  That includes fathers, mothers and children.  The following is how CNSNews.com broke down the numbers…

A family, as defined by the BLS, is a group of two or more people who live together and who are related by birth, adoption or marriage. In 2013, there were 80,445,000 families in the United States and in 16,127,000—or 20 percent–no one had a job.

To be honest, these really are Great Depression-type numbers.  But over the years “unemployment” has been redefined so many times that it doesn’t mean the same thing that it once did.  The government tells us that the official unemployment rate is about 7 percent, but that number is almost meaningless at this point.

A number that I find much more useful is the employment-population ratio.  According to the employment-population ratio, the percentage of working age Americans that actually have a job has been below 59 percent for more than four years in a row…

That means that more than 41 percent of all working age Americans do not have a job.

When people can’t take care of themselves, it becomes necessary for the government to take care of them.  And what we have seen in recent years is government dependence soar to unprecedented levels.  In fact, welfare spending and entitlement payments now make up 69 percent of the entire federal budget.  For much more on this, please see my previous article entitled “18 Stats That Prove That Government Dependence Has Reached Epidemic Levels“.

And what is even more frightening is that more families are falling out of the middle class every single day.  As a recent CNN article explained, approximately one-third of all U.S. households are living “hand-to-mouth”.  In other words, they are constantly living on the edge of financial disaster…

About one-third of American households live “hand-to-mouth,” meaning that they spend all their paychecks. But what surprised the study authors is that 66% of these families are middle class, with a median income of $41,000. While they don’t have liquid assets, such as savings accounts or mutual fund holdings, they do have homes and retirement accounts, with a median net worth of $41,000.

“We don’t expect them to be living paycheck to paycheck,” said Greg Kaplan, study co-author and assistant professor of economics at Princeton University.

The American Dream is rapidly becoming an American nightmare.

When I was growing up, I lived in a pretty typical middle class neighborhood.  Everyone had a nice home, a couple of cars and could go on vacation during the summer.  I don’t remember ever hearing of anyone using food stamps or going to a food bank.  In fact, I can’t even remember anyone having a parent that was unemployed.  If someone did leave a job, it was usually quite easy to find another one.

But today, the middle class is being ripped to shreds and according to one new report there are 49 million Americans that are dealing with food insecurity in 2014.

How can anyone not see what is happening to us?  America is in the midst of a long-term economic decline, but the mainstream media and most of our politicians seem to think that things are better than ever.  They continue to try to convince us that “business as usual” is the right path to take.

But one-fifth of the families in the entire nation are already totally unemployed.

At what point will we finally admit that what we are doing right now is simply not working?

30 percent of all families unemployed?

40 percent?

50 percent?

If we stay on the road that we are on now, things are going to continue to get worse.  Millions more jobs will be shipped overseas, millions more jobs will be replaced by technology and crippling government regulations will kill millions more jobs.  The middle class will continue to shrink and government dependence will continue to rise.

Most people just want to work hard, put food on the table, pay their mortgages and provide a nice life for their families.

But the percentage of Americans that are successfully able to do that just keeps getting smaller.

Wake up America.

Your middle class is dying.

[H/T Infowars: Michael Snyder]

The NBA Drops the Hammer on Donald Sterling

(New York Post) – Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has been banned for life from the NBA and fined the maximum $2.5 million for his infamous racist rant, league Commissioner Adam Silver announced Tuesday.

Silver also said he would try to make Sterling sell the team, which has been abandoned by more than a dozen sponsors.

“I will urge the Board of Governors to exercise its authority to force a sale of the team, and I will do everything in my power to ensure that that happens,” Silver told a packed Manhattan news conference. He said he was confident he had the support of the league’s owners.

Under terms of his lifetime ban, Sterling can never again attend any NBA games or practices, can’t visit any Clippers team facilies and cannot take part in meetings of the league’s owners.

It was unclear if Sterling, 80, would challenge the punishment, which Silver said the league was authorized to impose. Before Silver’s press conference, veteran broadcaster Jim Gray told Fox News that he had just spoken to Sterling, who said the team was “not for sale.”

Silver said he was “personally distraught” and “personally outraged” by Sterling’s incendiary remarks.

He also apologized to the “pioneers of the game” and others insulted by Sterling, including “the great Bill Russell and particularly the great Magic Johnson.”

Sterling’s recorded rant, made public Friday, was prompted when he learned that then-girlfriend V. Stiviano has posted an online photo of herself and a friend posing with Johnson.

Sterling told her to stop posting pictures of herself with black people and not to bring any black people to “my games.”

Silver said an internal investigation, including an interview of Sterling, proved that it was him on the recording.

“The hateful opinions voiced by that man are those of Mr. Sterling,” Silver said.“The views expressed by Mr. Sterling are deeply offensive and harmful.”

Knicks owner James Dolan released a statement supporting Silver.

“I have been in touch with the NBA and fully support Commissioner Silver’s decision. I applaud Adam for acting quickly and decisively in appropriately addressing these disgusting and offensive comments. This kind of behavior has no place in basketball, or anywhere else, and we as a league must stand together in condemning this ignorance.”

Silver said he had spoken to team coach Doc Rivers and several Clippers players, adding: “I believe the players will be satifised by the decision.”

Silver said Sterling’s ban doesn’t extend to his family members.

The Clippers are scheduled to face the Golden State Warriors Tuesday night for Game 5 of their first-round playoff series.

Warriors coach Mark Jackson had earlier urged fans to boycott the game at LA’s Staples Center to protest Sterling’s remarks.

[H/T NewYorkPost: Bruce Golding]

An all black basketball league?

(American Thinker) – Larry Johnson was a junior college transfer who became the top star of the 1989-1991 Running Rebels of UNLV, leading them to two final four appearances and one championship. He later had a successful ten year NBA career with the Charlotte Hornets and the New York Knicks.  In 1993, Johnson signed what was at the time the most lucrative NBA contract in history — $84 million over 12 years. Nevertheless Johnson apparently believes that  NBA players, despite their compensation levels,  are still slaves to their white masters, and wants a new all black league.  The idea for an all black league was Johnson’s initial angry reaction to the story that sports networks and sportswriters are now obsessing over, the racist comments of 80 year old Los Angeles Clippers’ team owner Donald Sterling.

What would the diversity counselors say about Johnson’s approach?  Black Americans make up about 13% of the US population, but 76% of NBA players, a percentage that has hardly fluctuated in recent years, even with the surge in European players joining the league.  Black American make up 68% of NFL players, and 9% of major league baseball players, a percentage that has been dropping for many years as Hispanic and Asian players have come into the league, and young blacks show less interest in the sport.  A surprisingly large number of NHL players are black, almost 5%, 3/4 of whom are Canadian.  

In the NBA, the new immigrant NBA players have basically replaced white American NBA players, rather than Black Americans..  Black Americans today fill almost half the head coaching and assistant coaching positions in the NBA and also a high percentage of front office positions with both teams and the NBA league office. A 2013 racial and gender report ranked the NBA far above other professional sports leagues on racial and gender inclusiveness in hiring :

“Orlando, FL June 25, 2013 – The 2013 NBA Racial and Gender Report Card (RGRC) was released today and showed that the NBA continued its leading position in the sports industry with its commitment to and record for racial and gender hiring practices during the 2012-2013 NBA season.

The NBA received an A+ for racial hiring practices, a B+ for gender hiring practices with scores of 96.5 percent and 85 percent, respectively. The overall grade was an A with 90.7 points. While the NBA is the still best for all three categories among the men’s professional sports, it did slip significantly in gender hiring practices as the NBA went from an A- with 89 points in 2012 to a B+ with 85 points in 2013. “

Apparently, A+ is not good enough for Johnson, now an executive with the New York Knicks. His tweet on l’affaire Sterling included these comments:

“Black people your (sic) Focusing on the wrong thing. We should be focusing on having our own, Own team own League! To For Self!!’’

Johnson has a history of referring to the NBA’s very well paid players as slaves.  He stated that there “were a lot of rebellious slaves” on his 1999 NBA title contending Knicks team. He was criticized for this by Bill Walton, a former NBA star and then broadcaster  who called Johnson and his play “a disgrace.” Johnson’s response from the pre-tweet age was this:

“When Johnson was asked about the play of San Antonio Spurs point guard Avery Johnson in Game 4, Johnson again shifted the topic to slavery: “Ave, man, we’re from the same plantation. You tell Bill Walton that. We from Massa Johnson’s plantation.”

Would an all black league be better for the black players, and open up ownership opportunities?  The answer I think is the same as to a question of whether black players did better financially in baseball before the game was integrated. 

The great majority of fans attending NBA games are white (a study done 20 years ago showed that about 15% of NBA fans were Black American, about double the percentage  for football and baseball .

Given what has happened to ticket prices (and salaries) the last 20 years, it might well be the case that the black percentage attending NBA games has dropped.  Could an all black league attract enough high paying fans of any color for a league that was deliberately racist in the selection of players?  The answer seems obvious. What would happen to advertising contracts? Would players in all back league get $20 million a year from the shoe companies, if many fewer whites watched the games or attended them?  Would a competing white/Asian league develop with better attendance and commercial opportunities?

Major League Baseball dealt with Reds owner Marge Schott pretty quickly after problematic comments on blacks and Jews. I suspect the NBA and its new Commissioner Adam Silver will do the same with Sterling.  Maybe Sterling will be suspended, or forced into a sale, which, given the quality of the Clippers team (probably the best it has ever been), might be at a fire sale price given the circumstances. Maybe Magic Johnson or another wealthy African American will buy the team. Sterling may have enhanced the gain potential for a new owner with his remarks.  In any case, the Sterling story is manna from heaven for race baiters who want to claim that America is still in the Jim Crow era, or in Larry Johnson’s case, in pre-Civil War days.

[H/T AmericanThinker: Richard Baehr]

Judge OKs decision to sell widow’s home over $6.30 debt

(Fox News) – A widow was given ample notice before her $280,000 house was sold at a tax auction three years ago over $6.30 in unpaid interest, a Pennsylvania judge has ruled.

The decision last week turned down Eileen Battisti’s request to reverse the September 2011 sale of her home outside Aliquippa in western Pennsylvania.

“I paid everything, and didn’t know about the $6.30,” Battisti said. “For the house to be sold just because of $6.30 is crazy.”

Battisti, who still lives in the house, said Monday that she plans to appeal to Commonwealth Court. That court earlier ordered an evidentiary hearing, which led to last week’s ruling.

Beaver County Common Pleas Judge Gus Kwidis wrote that the county tax claim bureau complied with notification requirements in state law before the auction. She had previously owed other taxes, but at the time of the sale she owed just $235, including other interest and fees.

“There is no doubt that (she) had actual receipt of the notification of the tax upset sale on July 7, 2011, and Aug. 16, 2011,” the judge wrote. “Moreover, on Aug. 12, 2011, a notice of sale was sent by first class mail and was not returned.”

The property sold for about $116,000, and most of that money will be paid to Battisti if further appeals are unsuccessful. An attorney for the purchaser did not return a phone message on Monday.

Joe Askar, Beaver County’s chief solicitor, said the judge got the decision right, based on the law.

“The county never wants to see anybody lose their home, but at the same time the tax sale law, the tax real estate law, doesn’t give a whole lot of room for error, either,” Askar said.

Battisti said her husband handled the paperwork for the property’s taxes before he passed away in 2004.

“It’s bad — she had some hard times, I guess her husband kind of took care of a lot of that stuff,” Askar said. “It seemed that she was having a hard time coping with the loss of her husband — that just made it set in a little more.”

[H/T FoxNews]