Butler on Business, May 7, 2014, EPA and other topics

My 2 radio segments with Alan Butler on the rogue EPA and other topics, May 7, 2014. I come on at the 1 h 22' mark.

http://host1.cyberears.com//26123.mp3

The Cabin Branch Pyrite Mine

Old Mine Road

Green foliage and flowering trees have exploded virtually overnight in a symphony of pink and white. The temperatures are mild and a gentle breeze dries the morning dew. The old pyrite mine road is quiet, peaceful, and sunny. We walk slowly, taking in the natural beauty and the fresh air. Our spirits match those of the chirping birds – we are so happy to be alive, relishing in the moment, enjoying the spring that finally arrived. It has been a long winter. We shoveled a lot of global warming snow from our driveway. It is finally a pleasant day of May with a cloudless blue sky.

It would be hard to tell the location of the mine shafts if it was not for the concrete blocks covered in moss. In 1995 the National Park Service and the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy began a project to reclaim the site because the land had not healed itself after all this time. The shaft entrances had been filled and walled with concrete and 5,000 trees were planted. Virginia pines grow on the hillside where the Cabin Branch Pyrite Mine had been. Quantico Creek meanders and flows with clean gurgling waters, no longer orange or smelling like sulfur. Before reclamation, the hillside was devoid of vegetation, resembling a lunar landscape.

Reclaimed hillside of the mine

Miners from the nearby communities dynamited shafts 1,000 feet below the surface to extract pyrite from 1889-1919. For 30 years, pyrite ore was extracted for its sulfur which was used to make soap, fertilizer, paper, medicines, and explosives. Cracked teal colored pyrite ore is still scattered around the concrete entombed shafts. A rusty piece of metal which looked like decaying wood turned out to be an old rail road track. The pyrite ore was transported on small rail.

Mine shaft ruins

Pyrite Ore

Mining was hard and dangerous work. In 1919 miners were paid $3.50 to $4.25 per day. Some of the pay was made in coupons which could then be spent only at the company store. When the miners asked for a 50 cent raise, the Superintendent told them, “Before I will give you another penny, I will let the shafts fill with water and the frogs jump in.” The miners did not know at the time that a cheaper, higher grade of pyrite had been discovered in Spain and the Superintendent was going to shut down the Cabin Branch Pyrite Mine along Quantico Creek and everybody would lose their jobs.

Railroad track

What is left of the former cabins, buildings, and stores are ruins covered by vegetation and moss. Walking through so much history is a privilege that we do not take lightly. We step carefully – we do not want to disturb any remnants of the former mine and the life that surrounded it.

Unintended Consequences of Renewable Energy?

The D.C. metro was plastered last month with ads by GoWithCanada.ca, promoting the proposed 1,179-mile Keystone XL Pipeline, a 36-inch-diameter crude oil pipeline originating in Hardisty, Alberta, and extending south to Steele City, Nebraska.  Described as “America’s best energy partner,” Canada provides United States refineries every day with 2.4 million barrels of crude oil, more than Saudi Arabia and Venezuela combined. The ads explained that “80% of Canada’s oil sands production capacity is owned by North American companies.”

The $5.4 billion project would allow oil producers more access to the large refining markets in the American Midwest and along the U.S. Gulf Coast, as well as energy independence from unstable Middle Eastern regimes.  There is one little problem, the current administration delayed the decision beyond the November 2014 election despite angry protests. “Senator Mark Warner cosponsored legislation supporting the Keystone XL Pipeline that would override President Obama’s continued delay.” info@energycitizens.org

Democrat Begich of Alaska said, “I am frankly appalled at the continued foot-dragging by this administration on the Keystone project.” The delay “means we’ll miss another construction season, and another opportunity to create thousands of jobs across the country.” Who needs jobs when we have generous welfare and unemployment, and the economy is rolling at a 0.1% growth and the Fed says the recovery is back on track?

Meanwhile most environmental groups are giddy that renewable energy will protect precious Mother Earth and are busy designing a Sustainable Future based on wind and solar energy. There are few universities left that do not offer either a bachelor’s or master of science degree in Sustainable Design, engineering, architecture, or Sustainability everything.

Not all environmentalists are happy. The “smarter fuel future” turned out not so wise after all – “the renewable fuel standard is broken.” The ethanol mandates, the hope and glory for “a cleaner, greener, smarter fuel future,” devolved into a nightmare of 5 million acres of “pristine lands” set aside for conservation (“more than Everglades, Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks combined”) becoming “super-sized cornfields, making hunger and poverty worse, and putting your engine at risk.” The corn produced into biofuels in 2011 could have fed 570 million people. The proposed 15% ethanol mixture would definitely damage most engines. http://smarterfuelfuture.org/BrokenPromises#.U2Q-YkPGI6c.facebook

The much touted renewables of wind and solar have turned out to be money pits of bankrupt solar companies, expensive and much dirtier energy, millions of chopped and fried birds, including our country’s national symbol, the bald eagle. For the sake of environmentalist pipe dreams on a large scale, the government has now given permits to kill bald eagles in the industrial process of providing solar and wind energy.

Nothing is stopping the installation of smart meters that harm human health. It is more important for utilities to make a handsome profit at the expense of our health, privacy, and discomfort. Cycling our energy during peak consumption from a remote location will assure that we will have electricity, heat, clean water, and A/C only when Big Brother allows us to have it. Rolling brown-outs and black-outs are no longer a distant possibility. Keep in mind the blackness of satellite photos indicating North Korea at night.

Pepco Holdings, the 100 years old Washington-based utility, sold to the nuclear energy giant Exelon from Chicago for $6.8 billion, is advertising on radio how “power cycling” (read, turning your electricity off for hours in hottest days of summer and coldest days of winter) will make our energy more efficient. Does anyone believe that?

Another environmentalist dream, social engineering - population resettlements and relocation to high density mixed use areas into micro-apartments, a-podments, alley-pods, and stack-able apartments - continues unabated. The most recent development in New York City is sold as post-disaster housing/stackable container homes on a 40’X 100’ parking lot.

http://www.myfoxny.com/story/25350250/nyc-unveils-urban-post-disaster-housing#.U18fe1AMoos.facebook

To discourage driving and encourage bus and rail use, tolls for all interstate highways are now possible. “The Obama administration just lifted a long standing regulation that previously prohibited the creation of new toll plazas on the federal interstate highway system. While pre-existing tolls in states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia were grandfathered in, this change now opens the door for toll collection on the remainder of the 46,876 miles of interstate highway!” https://www.advocacytoaction.com/Campaign.aspx?ID=945

How will this affect Americans? You will likely be unable to operate a car because it will be too expensive to travel on roads that you are already subsidizing with tax dollars. Your mobility will be strongly curtailed in the name of reducing your carbon footprint while the hypocritical elites who shame you into driving tin cans, jet around the globe in personal planes, limousines, huge yachts, and live in huge mansions. The taxpayers will have to fork more money for gasoline, groceries, and other goods that are transported on all toll roads because 67 percent of our domestic goods are transported by eighteen wheelers.

In case you still doubt that UN Agenda 21 is real and consider it a conspiracy theory, my bestselling book, “U.N. Agenda 21: Environmental Piracy,” has plenty of links to help you elucidate the “mystery” hidden in plain sight and connect the dots. http://www.amazon.com/U-N-Agenda-21-Environmental-Piracy-ebook/dp/B009WC6JXO/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin/175-9774868-3929929?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399129925&sr=1-1&keywords=UN+Agenda+21%3A+Environmental+Piracy

 

 

 

Identity Theft and Data Breaches

Identity thieves have victimized 12.6 million Americans in 2012 to the tune of nearly $21 billion. Eighteen percent of all Federal Trade Commission complaints received that year involved identity theft. More complaints were lodged in 2012 when compared to 11.6 million in 2011 and 10.2 million in 2010. (Javelin Strategy and Research, 2013 Identity Fraud Report: Data Breaches Becoming a Treasure Trove for Fraudsters, February 2013)

Globalization and the world wide use of the Internet have allowed thieves with actual, stolen, or cyber identities to engage in highly sophisticated crimes involving credit card fraud, bank fraud, immigration fraud, medical use fraud, and employment fraud.

Identity theft was not a federal crime prior to 1998. Congress passed the Identity Theft Assumption Deterrence Act (P.L. 105-318) which made identity theft a crime, established penalties for those engaging in such fraud or planning to defraud, and confiscation of property used in the pursuit of identity theft. The FTC established a Theft Data Clearinghouse in 2000 which recorded all consumer complaints data. (Kristin Finklea, Identity Theft: Trends and Issues, CRS R40599, January 16, 2014, p. 4)

The Congressional Research Service makes a distinction between identity theft and identity fraud even though people use the terms interchangeably. Identity fraud is described as an umbrella term referring to crimes “involving the use of false identification – though not necessarily a means of identification belonging to another person.” Identity theft is the “specific form of identity fraud that involves using the personally identifiable information of someone else.”

Flores-Figueroa v. United States brought clarification to the issue of identity theft vs. aggravated identity theft in the Supreme Court decision. It was important that “in order to be found guilty of aggravated identity theft, a defendant must have knowledge that the means of identification he used belonged to another individual. It is not sufficient to only have knowledge that the means of identification used was not his own,” the crime had to be executed “knowingly.” (Congressional Research Service report, R40599, January 16, 2014, p. 3)

The Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act (P.L. 108-275) established penalties for aggravated identity theft with additional penalties of two to five years’ imprisonment when the fraud was connected to other federal crimes.

Additionally, Congress passed the Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act of 2008 (Title II of P.L. 110-326) for restitution to theft victims for time and effort spent recovering their good name.

To coordinate 17 federal agencies fighting against identity theft, President Bush signed Executive Order 13402, “Strengthening Federal Efforts to Protect Against Identity Theft,” establishing the President’s Identity Theft Task Force. (71 Federal Register 93, May 15, 2006)

Even though the use of Social Security numbers in government documents and the private sector has been curtailed, 50 million Medicare cards still use SSN as identification. Changing to a different Medicare identifier has been estimated to cost between $255 million and $317 million. (U.S. Government Accountability Office, Medicare Information Technology: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Needs to Pursue a Solution for removing Social Security Numbers from Cards, GAO-13-761, September 2013, p. 2)

The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-458) “prohibited states from displaying or electronically including SSNs on driver’s licenses, motor vehicle registration, or personal identification cards.” (CRS Report R40599, p. 24)

Several agencies are tasked with fighting identity theft:

-          FBI through its Financial Crimes Section with 20 theft task forces

 

      -          United States Secret Service which protects financial infrastructure and payment systems

      -      United States Postal Inspection Service which identifies thieves who use the postal service    for their criminal activities and educates consumer groups

-          Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General (stolen or misused SSNs are put under fraud alert in credit files, earning records are checked and fraud, waste, and abuse identified)

-          Immigration and Customs Enforcement (searches for identity theft that involves documents and benefits fraud via the 2006 ICE created Document and Benefit Fraud Task Forces located in 19 cities in the U.S.)

-          Department of Justice (prosecutes identity theft cases found during investigations by various agencies)

Once a person’s identity is stolen, criminals use it to commit credit card fraud by changing the billing address of the victim, opening new accounts in the victim’s name, eventually destroying their credit rating and emptying their bank accounts. Skimming devices installed at cash registers steal customers’ account information when they make purchases. I became such a victim when I used my debit card to pay for food in Portland, Oregon and in Alexandria, Virginia.

Using a person’s information, thieves can create fake birth certificates, licenses, and Social Security cards in order to apply for and receive government benefits in a victim’s name. Fake identities and passports are created for illegal aliens traveling to and living in the United States.

Furthermore, using identity theft, criminals can obtain jobs or medical services for which they are not entitled. The victim’s credit rating is adversely affected, cannot file taxes, or cannot find future employment. One method used to empty bank accounts or find personal information is by email phishing.

Last but not least are the frequent data breaches by hackers around the world who steal large stores and companies customers’ credit card and personal information, often including medical records. Financial services industries are better at guarding their customer information database, however, information resellers are not bound by stringent restrictions. Limited research suggests that 12-27 percent of identity theft results from data breaches.

Butler on Business, April 30, 2014 Identity Theft

My ten minutes with Alan Butler on Identity Theft. I come on at the 43 min. mark.
http://host1.cyberears.com//26001.mp3

Amnesty, American Values, and Economic Dependency

Ellis Island Immigrants

In the ongoing battle about amnesty for illegal aliens, one recurring theme has been “these are not American values,” meaning that we have to bestow citizenship on these people who broke our laws because they are already here, we can’t send them back, it’s un-American. This question should be asked, what are the American values the proponents of amnesty on both sides of the isle in Congress are referring to?

Being a law abiding American who lives by American values is clearly spelled out in the Declaration of Independence and in the U.S. Constitution. George Washington warned us that we must defend our values and laws from “the impostures of pretended patriotism.”

“Let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor; let every man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the character of his own, and his children’s liberty. Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap – let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs; - let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.”

What are these American values? Americans believe that all men are created equal and God endowed us with the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These values are self-sufficiency, not dependence on government, personal responsibility, respect for the law, hard work, family, Judeo-Christian values, and equal opportunity for excellence, not forced quotas, nor forced equality by government redistribution of wealth under the guise of the communist mantra of “social justice.”

Preying on our sympathy, kindness, and generosity to foreign nations, we are being guilted and forced to be generous with lawbreakers by awarding them citizenship because they jumped a fence, swam across a river, or walked through the hot desert, putting their lives in peril, defying and disrespecting our borders and our laws.

This amnesty is forced on the American people at a time when we can ill-afford to be generous, with millions of Americans unemployed, underemployed, and on welfare, facing the fundamental destruction of our healthcare.

Legal immigration laws should be written to augment the interests of the American people and to defend the vital interests of the United States, not the interests of the illegal immigrant who broke our laws.

Are the new American values having 50 percent of our population dependent on welfare while expecting a financial entitlement from the labor of the other 50 % of the population who works hard to support them through burdensome taxation?

What are the children of the entitlement state, including illegal aliens, going to do when there are no more taxpayers to steal from? Having escaped third world impoverished socialist countries, illegals come here not to assimilate into our culture but to demand “full communism because they value a fair society and social justice.”

What was wrong with the old immigration system when we enforced the borders and enforced the law? What was wrong with immigrants coming here to obtain a green card and work legally? What was wrong with them going back home after they finished school or work? What was wrong with upholding the law, the sovereignty of our country?

Why is the system broken? Is cheap labor for crony capitalists so important that we no longer enforce the law, we are allowing illegal aliens to flood the country and surround us via the southern border with Mexico, while people who are not so lucky and live across oceans are waiting patiently for visas, going through proper channels, doing the legal paperwork?

Jeh Johnson, Homeland Security Secretary, said on ABC’s “This Week” that “Immigration laws or any other law needs to comport with American values. One of those American values is respect for human dignity. I also believe one of those American values is respect for the sanctity of the family unit.” http://cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/dhs-secretary-immigration-law-should-respect-sanctity-family-unit

Perhaps we should point out that the family reunification program which accounts for approximately two-thirds of permanent immigration to the United States each year was designed for legal immigration by the Immigration Act of 1990. In 2001, the former INS had an application backlog of 3.9 million people awaiting family reunification visas.  Top countries in this category were Mexico, Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Colombia, Jamaica, and El Salvador. http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/family-reunification

Secretary Johnson is contemplating a modification to the “priority list” by giving amnesty to illegal aliens who have not committed “serious crimes,” to include those who have re-entered the U.S. after being deported previously and those who fled immigration court proceedings. It is interesting to note that one third of inmates in U.S. jails are illegal aliens.  Why should these illegals have priority over the 4 million legal immigrants awaiting the resolution of their backlogged visas? http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ian-smith/obamas-backdoor-amnesty-plan/

In the meantime, illegal aliens have received $4.2 billion in earned income tax credit in the previous year for children who did not necessarily reside in the U.S., using Individual Tax Identification Numbers (ITIN). ITIN was designed by the IRS to encourage illegals to pay taxes but created instead a Pandora’s box of entitlements for illegal aliens, including allowing them to mix easier into our society and to vote illegally. http://cis.org/IRSTaxID-ImmigrationLaw

Brooks County, Texas, with a land mass twice the size of Manhattan Island, has four deputies to protect the American residents under “assaults every day and every night” by illegal immigrants that liberals call euphemistically “paperless/undocumented Americans.” Rescuing illegal immigrants and picking up the bodies of those who don’t make it across has brought the county to the brink of bankruptcy.  According to ALIPAC, “129 undocumented immigrants were found dead just in Brooks County in 2012, which is more than triple the number who were found dead in the county just six years ago.” The more discussion of ‘amnesty’ in Washington, the more immigrants risk their lives to come to the U.S. now, especially from Central America. http://www.alipac.us/content/texas-county-facing-bankruptcy-due-illegal-immigration-2850/

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush described instances of illegal immigration as “acts of love.” Perhaps he was referring to those who enter illegally or those who overstay legal visas in order to earn money to provide for their families back home. Brandon Darby describes “35 Acts of Love” in his recent column in Breitbart.com. They include targeted assassinations, human trafficking, drug smuggling, border patrol killings, assaults with rocks and bullets, rapes, and other heinous crimes. http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/04/10/Thirty-Five-Acts-of-Love-from-the-Mexican-Border

Dr. Rich Swier wrote, “In a report released by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) the impact of providing College Tuition subsidy for Illegal Aliens (HB851/SB1400 a.k.a. in-state tuition) will be that approximately 5,000 legal students will be displaced in Florida higher education institutions by illegal alien students.” Among these are the newly amnestied “Dreamers” who voted in the November 2012 election. http://teapartyorg.ning.com/forum/topics/5000-legal-students-in-florida-to-lose-their-tuition-to-illegals

American citizens have a right to decide who becomes a citizen. But, according to Ann Coulter, “liberal judicial activist” Justice Brennan wrote a footnote in his 1982, 5-4 opinion on Plyler v. Doe which gave us anchor babies. That act alone nullified our right to decide who becomes a citizen. “Combine Justice Brennan’s footnote with America’s ludicrously generous welfare policies, and you end up with a bankrupt country.” http://www.humanevents.com/2010/08/04/justice-brennans-footnote-gave-us-anchor-babies/

With 16 major chains closing or planning on closing stores across America, Staples, Office Depot, Radio Shack, Albertsons, Safeway (Dominick’s in Chicago), Abercrombie and Fitch, Barnes and Noble, J.C. Penney, Toys R Us, Sweetbay Supermarket, Loehmann’s, Quiznos, Sears and Kmart, Ruby Tuesday, Red Lobster, and Ralph’s, more Americans will be unemployed, having to compete for jobs with 12 million potential amnestied illegal aliens and their extended families, while tax revenues that support welfare dependency will decrease. http://endtimeheadlines.org/economy/these-16-major-retail-chains-closing-stores-across-america/

Why must we dilute the composition of our society so much that our votes no longer count and America is changed fundamentally into a hodge-podge of unassimilated ethnic groups who do not care about our country’s future, traditions and history? Does anyone remember Rome’s history?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Butler on Business, April 23, 2014

My 10 minute commentary on EPA biggest land grab of our land via waterways. I come on at the 43 minute mark.

http://host1.cyberears.com//25884.mp3