Today, no one seems to be paying attention to another Globalist-Obama American Freedom shrinking program. In breech of America’s constitution, Obama is handing off America’s control of the Internet. The MSM is asleep at the switch on this capitulation. A capitulation no-one is imposing on him — so why the rush? And yet, serial capitulator Obama will make this his final major act. It’s your freedom. You should care. We should all care. Why?
ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Obama is about to hand over control over ICANN to an international body, likely to be the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU), just as he wants to hand over control on major international trading elements affecting every taxpayer through the TPP treaty fiasco.
The Domain Name System (SNS), is a complex system which enables all devices on the internet to communicate through the translation of human-friendly names into computer communications friendly numeric addresses. At the heart of this system are central computers called root servers which disperse the information to scattered computers enabling global confirmations of addresses, stability of communication, and the tracking of interaction protocols. What many of us don’t realize is how complex the system really is to be able to send us to correct Internet addresses rather than to imposters and fraudsters.
Having spent much of my business life in the high tech world, I have intimate familiarity with the more intricate challenges underlying the processes and that without diligent stewardship of this ‘heart of the Internet’, at the top level of the infrastructure (the front end), I would not be able to publish this article, and you would not have access to it.
Without the assurance that is provided by an America-controlled heart of the Internet insuring any degree of freedom, you can wave goodbye to your ability to access independent thought through your computer on the Internet. IP addresses and communication between them will become suspect. Their capacity to become compromised and otherwise exploited will increase exponentially.
ICANN is currently under contract to the Commerce Department — a contract which expires tomorrow.
Foreign powers, including China, India, Russia, and Iran, want to pull this control from the U.S. so that they can more effectively manipulate the Internet through an off-shore faceless entity ITU, a sub of the bungling UN. We already know these countries censor Internet access within their borders. China even bans use of words such as Freedom, Liberty, and Democracy. Control of the ICANN system will enable extension of censorship to American homes. This control would enable foreign dictatorships to disable web sites that displease them, sites well beyond their own borders.
Obviously companies like Google and Facebook want to see all borders eliminated and they have pushed for this “hand-off”. Keep in mind that some companies like Google and Facebook have already been caught censoring what you have access to. This Obama hand-off will make their censorship and politically motivated biases easier to implement.
Are we not already concerned with Internet security? Didn’t Yahoo recently get 500,000,000 accounts hacked? Apparently, these companies have learned to lie and obfuscate, telling us, “this will assure the continuing security, stability and resilience of this system. Furthermore, crucial safeguards are in place to protect human rights, including the freedom of speech.” Sounds like they learned lessons from listening to other speeches like those about “Keeping your Doctor”. They and members of Congress are telling us that the ‘transition,’ “Will not only be efficient, but will be also in the best interest of the freedom of the American people and the global community”.
Obama is responsible for the current international Power Vacuum and he is about to further abdicate American influence as he spreads that vacuum to the Internet. We are about to be subjugated to foreign control and censorship.
So much for freedom of speech, and so much for advancement and education which Internet interaction has spawned. ICANN will in future operate without antitrust oversight and zero recourse when your First Amendment rights get stomped on.
Americans were responsible for the Internet and its creation, much to the consternation of Al Gore, and other nations have enjoyed access to it and everything it offers. It is and should remain an environment for open, unconstrained, and free expression where learning and growth are possible.
All of Congress should stand against Obama’s UN-subserving move, and block this irreversible action. Senator Cruz seems like the only adult in the Congressional hall, hard-vocalizing against the hand-off. The MSM pretends the ICANN transfer of control is of little import and doesn’t deserve attention — as in, who cares who controls domain names?
How is this NOT of National interest? Why is the great Capitulator being given a free pass on this transfer by almost all media and most of Congress?
In a matter of hours, it will be too late. This hand-over should not stand.
A constituent of the vast baby boomer generation with a career which has been fortunate to know the ponderous corporate worlds, as well as the intimately pressurized, and invigorating entrepreneurial domains of high tech and venture capital, I have harvested my share of mistakes meandering through corridors of enterprise from Silicon Valley, to London and endless, colourful, sometimes praetorian points in between. The voyage has provided an abundance of fodder for a pen yielding to an inquisitive keyboard, a foraging mind, and a passionate spirit.
Whether political or business or social or economic or personal, is it not all political? It is a privilege to write, and an even greater privilege to be read by anyone, and sometimes with the wind at my back the writing may occasionally be legible. I do not write to invite scorn, nor to invite respect, but if I get really lucky the writing can stimulate thinking. I also write for the very selfish purpose of animating my own processes, and engaging the best of what life offers. Above all, whether biting fire or swatting shadows, I am grateful to be gifted the freedom to write and publish whatever flows down to the keyboard. To all those who enabled this freedom, and to all those standing guard to preserve it, I am indebted.