James L. Paris's Blog, page 136

Wells Fargo Accused of Illegally Repossessing Cars of Service Members

One thing about Wells Fargo; when they decide to play dirty in pursuit of the almighty dollar, they certainly don���t discriminate when it comes to selecting victims.

Manchester, New Hampshire���s WMUR is reporting that Wells Fargo is going to be forking over a total of $24 million to settle allegations that the company targeted service members for abusive practices, to include illegally repossessing their cars.

The illegal repossessions in question occurred between 2008 and 2015, according to the Department of Justice. Specifically, the DOJ has alleged that Wells seized 413 vehicles from military personnel without court orders, which is against federal law.

In recompense, Wells will: pay $10,000 to each victim; additionally pay to each victim the equity lost in the vehicles, with interest; and pay, as well, to repair the credit of each affected service member.

Wells Fargo issued a statement of apology, admitting that the company did a poor job providing for members of the military to ���receive the appropriate benefits and protections.���

The company also said it expects that all of the compensatory measures will be completed within 60 days.

 By Robert G. Yetman, Jr.Editor At Large

My Experience Buying A Car Online From Carvana

Our daughter, Faith, is now a senior in college and has been driving one of our family vehicles that has over 200,000 miles on it. The air conditioning went out this summer (and was too expensive to fix) and it has begun to have chronic repair issues. So, we have been kicking around the idea of helping her purchase a newer car. As you may know, I am an advocate of buying cars that are two to three years old with less than 50,000 miles on them. I have found over the years that this is the 'sweet spot' in used car pricing.

Finding a used car at a decent price within these parameters is not always easy. I recently learned about an online used car dealer by the name of Carvana. I know people that have bought used cars online through auction sites, but I just never had confidence in the idea. I had all the objections that most people do. How would I be able to really check the car out? What if it turned out to be a lemon when I got it? More than anything, out of curiosity, I decided to take a look at Carvana. Spoiler alert - it all worked out, as this past week we received delivery of my daughter's 'new' car - a 2014 Ford Fiesta (see picture below). Now, the rest of the story...

First, the website is just amazing, and the ease of moving around looking at cars and price ranges was something I had never seen before. Secondly, the website does a superb job of providing a 360 view of each car, and even lets you open the doors and take a look inside (and pop the hood). I kid you not, it is almost like being able to physically have the car in front of you. You might think that these are 'stock' pictures, but they are actual pictures of each car. You will also see a nice punch list of 'imperfections' that are fully disclosed (scratches and dings, etc...). Perhaps the most exciting aspect of shopping for a car through Carvana is the ability to do so from your living room couch. I just love the enormous inventory that can be sorted by everything from price to color to make and model (with cars starting as low as $6,000). There is no bidding or negotiating, as the each car has a 'no haggle' price.

A nice feature as well is the promise that Carvana does not sell any car that has been in an accident.

 What If I Don't Like The Car After It Is Delivered?

The people behind Carvana have really thought through and developed solutions to overcome every concern associated with the process. When the vehicle was delivered to our driveway, we were given ample time to check it out, and even go on a test drive. Carvana then provides a one week trial period that includes the option of returning the car if we are not satisfied. Yep, they come back to our driveway and pick it up and cancel the deal. Even after the one week trial, there are other substantial ways you are protected for the first 100 days (see details here).

What About Trade-Ins, Financing, Registration, And All The Red Tape?

Carvana takes care of all of the standard issues associated with buying a car, just like buying from a local dealer. We decided to sell our old car on our own, but Carvana would have taken it as a trade and picked it up when delivering the car we bought. Our car was delivered with a 45 day temporary tag and the registration process was completely taken care of.  If you are not paying cash, you can even get your financing through Carvana (but you will likely get a better interest rate if you go through a local credit union).

It seems like the Internet has changed everything, and I believe that Carvana will change forever how people buy cars. I am sure you still have more questions - see their FAQ page here.  Full and fair disclosure, some people did not have the wonderful Carvana experience we did, and have posted negative reviews online (to their credit, Carvana has these available on their website Click Here).

Carvana also gave Faith ten $500 off coupons she can share with friends that want to buy a car through Carvana! 

Helping you make the most of God���s money!

James L. Paris
Editor-In-Chief ChristianMoney.com 
Follow Me on Twitter Twitter.com/jameslparis
Christian Financial Advice
Jim Paris 24 Hour Radio

 

No, Gary Johnson Should Not Be in the Debates

According to The Atlanta Journal Constitution (ajc.com), on the day of last week���s debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the Libertarian Party, on behalf of their nominee, Gary Johnson, went to social media to convey just how unhappy they were that he was not going to be on the stage with the two major party candidates. One of the entries, a Twitter post, consisted of a meme that was captioned with this statement: ���If they are on the ballot in all fifty states���shouldn���t they be automatically in the debates?���

For their parts, Johnson and his running mate, William Weld, were at Twitter headquarters in New York City on Monday evening, live tweeting the debate. At one point, Johnson sent out the following, rather snarky message about the proceedings:

���This is really inspiring, isn't it #America #debates���

Johnson and his Libertarian Party honchos think, of course, that he should be in the debates���and they all would be wrong.

In order to get a ticket to the big dance, the Commission on Presidential Debates mandates that a candidate garners at least 15 percent support in five national surveys leading up to the three debates; they also have to have earned places on enough state ballots so that they could actually be elected.

The state ballot requirement isn���t the problem for Johnson, obviously; it���s the matter of attaining the 15 percent poll support.

Let me start by saying that, when it comes to this election, I would LOVE to see another viable option available to consider���.with the emphasis on ���viable.��� Enter the 15 percent polling requirement.

I actually like that rule. The figure itself may be a little arbitrary, but it seems high enough to require that a prospective debater has achieved some tiny level of critical mass in terms of support, and yet still low enough that a candidate need achieve really nothing more THAN that little bit of meaningful support to get a spot on the dais.

If the only requirement to becoming debate eligible is that that a candidate simply appear on enough ballots to theoretically be electable, then the debates could become accessible to several candidates each presidential election year who are, for all practical purposes, completely unviable in terms of genuine electability.

Moreover, there is the now-obvious fact that Johnson is clearly unprepared to deal in the realm of current global political dynamics. The sense you get from Johnson, in light of his recent gaffe on Aleppo, his inability to name another world leader in an awkward public moment the other day, as well as his suggestion that global warming can be addressed by colonizing other planets, is that, his historical political experience as a state governor notwithstanding, he just isn���t terribly astute about current events in the political context.

Oh, he has lots of ideas, plenty of beliefs, in the per se sense���but that���s just not enough. Anyone who might be theoretically only a handful of months away from overseeing the most powerful nation in the world has to have a better awareness of what���s currently going on around the globe than that which he has demonstrated up to this point.

The fact is that, based on how Johnson has acquitted himself thus far, challenged with nothing more onerous than answering off-handed questions from reporters, he would be positively savaged on the formal debate stage.

In fact, the grand irony at play here is that the more distant from a debate stage Johnson remains, the more appealing he will look; as we have seen, it is when serious, sober, ���mainstream��� lights are actually shining on him that his flaws become glaringly apparent.

No, Johnson should not be on the debate stage, and that is for his benefit as much as ours.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

 

Christian National Security Experts: Christians Should NOT Be Pacifists

According to reporting by the Christian Post, a small crowd of people recently assembled at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. to hear a number of national security experts of a Christian orientation share their thoughts on a recent, high-profile declaration that deals with how world affairs should be negotiated from a Christian perspective.

The declaration itself was published in Providence: A Journal of Christianity & American Foreign Policy, and signed by dozens of Christian scholars and theologians.

The speakers present at the Mayflower Hotel included Paul Miller and Mary Habeck, both former staff members of the National Security Council, as well as John Owen, a political scientist at the University of Virginia.

Mark Tooley, who hosted the discussion at the Mayflower and is president of The Institute on Religion and Democracy, remarked, ���Young evangelicals are prone to a neo-Libertarian isolationism, pessimistic that America has any major constructive role in sustaining global order.���

���The young and the comfortable in today's America too often assume their security and ease are the human historical norm. They don't know that war, genocide, tyranny, extreme poverty, and oppression are far more common to the human experience. Today's evangelical pacifists and isolationists are partly a reaction against past evangelical and Protestant failure effectively, if at all, to articulate historic Christian ethical teaching about God's purpose for nations and governments.���

The Providence editors write in the declaration itself that they ���believe much more than American security is at stake. Free nations are more secure in a world of ordered liberty. All nations can and should join in the collective effort to accountable governance, free entrepreneurship, and mutual security. The United States and its allies have, for much of the last century, helped foster these ideals around the world ��� and we believe they should continue to do so for the foreseeable future.���

Marc LiVecche, Managing Editor at Providence who served to moderate the discussion, said, in part, ���If you take a comprehensive picture of Scripture, what you're going to end up with is a portrait of Jesus that is an example of not pacifism.���

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

 

Gold Star Mom Asks Obama Why He Won���t Say ���Islamic Terrorist���; Here is His Answer

There has been a good deal of controversy over the Obama administration���s historical unwillingness to use specific terms like ���radical Islam��� and ���Islamic terrorist��� to identify what has been, for many years now, the Western world���s most significant safety and security threat. Well, appearing at a Fort Lee, Virginia town hall Wednesday night hosted by CNN���s Jake Tapper, President Obama was asked directly by a Gold Star mother, Tina Houchins, why he is so disinclined to using the term ���Islamic terrorist��� to identify what is, presently, America���s most obvious and overt enemy.

The president responded, in part, this way:

���The truth of the matter is that this is an issue that has been sort of manufactured, because there is no doubt, and I���ve said repeatedly that where we see terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda or ISIL, they have perverted and distorted and tried to claim the mantle of Islam for an excuse, for basically barbarism and death. These are people who kill children, kill Muslims, take sex slaves ��� there���s no religious rationale that would justify in any way any of the things that they do.

���But what I have been careful about when I describe these issues is to make sure that we do not lump these murderers into the billion Muslims that exist around the world, including in this country, who are peaceful, who are responsible, who in this country, are our fellow troops and police officers and firefighters and teachers and neighbors and friends.

���And what I learned from listening to some of these Muslim families both in the United States and overseas is that when you start calling these organizations Islamic terrorists, the way it���s heard, the way it���s received by our friends and allies around the world is that somehow Islam is terroristic. And that then makes them feel as if they���re under attack. In some cases, it makes it harder for us to get their cooperation in fighting terrorism. So do I think that if somebody uses the phrase Islamic terrorism that it���s a huge deal?

���No. There���s no doubt that these folks think that ��� and claim that they���re speaking for Islam.

���But I don���t want to validate what they do. I don���t want to ��� if ��� if you had a ��� an organization that was going around killing and blowing people up and said we���re on the vanguard of Christianity, well, I���m not ��� as a Christian, I���m not going to let them claim my religion and say you���re killing for Christ. I would ��� I would say that���s ridiculous. That���s not what my religion stands for. Call these folks what they are, which is killers and terrorists. And ��� and that���s what we���ve been trying to do, is to make sure that A, we don���t validate their claims that somehow they speak for Islam, because they don���t. And, B, making sure that we do not, uh, make Muslims who are well-meaning and our natural allies on this fight, because these groups are killing more Muslims than they���re killing anybody else, make sure that they don���t feel as if somehow the ��� this is some contest between the West and Islam.���

As the president continued in his answer, he also saw an opportunity, apparently, to take a swipe at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (although he later denied to host Tapper that such was what he was doing here):

���And, you know, I think that ��� I���ll just be honest with you, the dangers where we get loose in this language, particularly when a president or people aspiring to get pres ��� become president get loose with this language, you can ��� you can see in some of the language that we use ��� in talking about Muslim-Americans here and the notion that somehow we���d start having religious tests in ��� in who can come in the country and who���s investigated and ��� and ��� and whether ���The Bill of Rights��� applies to them in the same way.

���And that���s a slippery slope. And ��� and ��� and the way we���re going to win this battle is not by betraying our ideals, it���s by making sure that we hold true to our ideals and one of our core ideals is ��� is that, you know, if you���re an American and you are, you know, subscribing to the ideals and the creed and the values that we believe in as a country, you know, then we don���t have a religious test in this country.���

While it���s not terribly difficult for many to find elements of the president���s answer to Ms. Houchins objectionable, it is, admittedly, one of the more thorough public explanations he���s given to the long-standing question of why he refuses to call radical Islamist terrorists by that very name.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Congress Overrides Obama Veto of Bill Allowing 9/11 Victims��� Families to Sue Saudi Arabia

On Wednesday, Barack Obama was handed the first override of any of his presidential vetoes when his rejection of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which would enable 9/11 families to sue Saudi Arabia over the horrible events of that day, was soundly thwarted by Congress.

After the House and Senate each voted against the president���s veto by votes of 348-77 and 97-1, respectively, the pathway was finally cleared for JASTA to become law.

Suspicions have always lingered that Saudi Arabia provided support to the 9/11 hijackers. While many convinced of a Saudi connection do not necessarily believe that the government or members of the royal family provided any direct support to the hijackers, they do embrace the circumstantial evidence pointing to Saudi financial assistance to al-Qaeda in the years leading up to September 11, 2001 as proof of that nation���s complicity in the attacks.

Moreover, in February 2012, former U.S. senators Bob Kerrey and Bob Graham did make sworn statements to the effect that each had been privy to top secret information, while they served in the Senate, that does, in fact, provide evidence of a direct connection between the Saudi government and some of the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

All of that said, it now appears, for better or worse, that both sides will have an opportunity to definitively make their respective cases. As 9/11 widow Terry Strada said in a statement following the veto override, ���We rejoice in this triumph and look forward to our day in court and a time when we may finally get more answers regarding who was truly behind the attacks.���

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

 

Trump Debate Mic Rigged?

WASHINGTON ��� The Commission on Presidential Debates revealed in a one-sentence statement Friday that Donald Trump���s audio was impacted earlier in the week.

���Regarding the first debate, there were issues regarding Donald Trump���s audio that affected the sound level in the debate hall,��� the commission said in a statement. No other details were immediately made available.

Trump complained earlier in the week that his microphone wasn���t functioning properly at Monday���s debate.

via fox6now.com

Well, there you have it. I guess the conspiracy theorists were right after all about Trump's microphone being rigged.

James L. Paris
Editor-In-Chief ChristianMoney.com
Follow Me on Twitter Twitter.com/jameslparis
Christian Financial Advice
Jim Paris 24 Hour Radio

United Nations Says U.S. Owes Reparations to Blacks

Our pals at the United Nations are back at it, telling us once again how horrible we are here in America.

According to The Daily Caller, a report generated by the United Nations��� Working Group of Experts on African Descent has issued a scathing review of America���s ���racist��� legacy, declaring that the United States owes reparations to African-Americans for both slavery and the recent spate of high-profile shootings involving the police and citizens of color.

Leaving no doubt as to its opinion on the matter, the report reads, in part, ���In particular, the legacy of colonial history, enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the United States remains a serious challenge, as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent.���

As to the matter of recent shooting deaths of blacks involving the police, the report said, ���Contemporary police killings and the trauma that they create are reminiscent of the past racial terror of lynching.���

The ���experts��� did not go so far as to detail, precisely, just how reparations should be made, but, according to The Washington Post, their suggestions included ���a formal apology, health initiatives, educational opportunities��� psychological rehabilitation, technology transfer and financial support, and debt cancellation.���

The same group that issued this report offered an opinion back in January that the U.S. is presently informed by a culture of white supremacy, saying at that time, ���[I]deology ensuring the domination of one group over another, continues to negatively impact the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of African Americans today. The dangerous ideology of white supremacy inhibits social cohesion amongst the US population.���

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

 

Trump Keeps Pressure on Clinton the Day After Debate

For all of the mixed reviews Donald Trump���s Monday night debate performance received, none of them seemed to diminish any of the enthusiasm of his supporters when he showed up in Florida on Tuesday for what turned out to be a rousing campaign rally.

The day after the showdown with Hillary Clinton, while she was largely ���missing in action,��� Trump was right back on the campaign trail, moving full steam ahead in his effort to win the White House. His first major appearance after the debate was at an event in Central Florida, where many thousands filled an aircraft hangar in the ���Space Coast��� city of Melbourne to capacity to hear him speak; thousands more were turned away when the fire marshal cut off any further entrance out of deference to safety concerns.

One of Trump���s central themes at Tuesday���s rally was jobs. East Central Florida as seen a lot of companies oriented on the defense and technology industries gravitate to the area through the decades, but the uncertain future of America���s space program has generated a fair number of layoffs over the last several years. Although there remains a strong presence of companies throughout that part of Florida, employment will remain a distinct concern for the foreseeable future. Taking his cue, Trump called out Hillary on jobs during his speech, saying, ���She pledged 200,000 jobs for upstate New York. It's so sad when you see what has happened to upstate New York. It's a disaster. She said she was going to do something about it... This is exactly what would happen if she ever won.���

Trump also used the opportunity to revisit the previous night���s debate performances, declaring, ���For 90 minutes, Secretary Clinton was stuck in the past. For 90 minutes, on issue after issue, Secretary Clinton defended the terrible status quo ��� while I laid out our plan to bring jobs, security and prosperity back to the American people.���

Many observers noted that Trump���s rhetoric at this rally was back to being rather feisty, compared to the tone he adopted just the night before at the debate. It is believed that, going forward, he will have to be more like the ���rally��� Donald at subsequent debates in order to prompt any undecided voters to think twice about casting their votes for Clinton in November.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

New York High School Teacher Disciplined for Calling Pro-Trump Students ���Racist���

A high school teacher from Long Island, Veronica Welsh, landed in some hot water recently when, through her personal Facebook page, she referred to some students at her school as ���racist��� for donning pro-Trump garb during ���Spirit Week��� at Smithtown High School West (Smithtown, New York).

Here is the exact wording of her entry, which has since been taken down:

���This week is spirit week at Smithtown H.S. West. It's easy to spot which students are racist, by the Trump gear they're sporting for USA day.���

According to reporting by Gateway Pundit, the superintendent of the Smithtown Central School District called the teacher���s post ���extremely unfortunate��� and ���highly inappropriate.��� The teacher has, reportedly, been disciplined, although the precise nature of her punishment is unknown.

The teacher���s post, as well as the incident, more broadly, reminds us that teachers are in the kind of unique and sensitive profession that demands they be held to a different standard of behavior than that which may be applied to the rest of us; to claim otherwise is blindingly ignorant and foolish.

If I work in a generic office environment populated only by adults, and make a Facebook post that says any of my co-workers who wear Trump shirts are racist, or those who wear Clinton t-shirts are communists, that���s bad enough���but whatever we deem the potential fallout of that statement to be in that environment, it pales in comparison to the damage that may be wrought if a high school teacher says those things about his or her young charges.

In the current climate, wherein so many think rules are outdated and social anarchy should reign, the idea that primary and secondary school teachers should keep political thoughts to themselves is seen as laughable. That���s too bad, because, laughter aside, it���s precisely the way it SHOULD be, for reasons so apparent that having to detail them would, itself, be a joke.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large