James L. Paris's Blog, page 141

Hillary Clinton 9/11 Health Episode: When Does a ���Conspiracy Theory��� Cease to Be Either?

Have you seen this thing?

I���m referring, of course, to the video of Hillary Clinton having to be basically poured into her ���getaway��� van as she left a 9/11 memorial ceremony early. The footage is featured here courtesy of The Federalist.

The Hillary apologists are, once again, dismissing the obvious, apparently happy to embarrass themselves in the process. I do, however, have a question: At what point does a so-called ���conspiracy theory��� cease to be either? Those on the so-called ���alt-right��� are flogged for any mention of Hillary health issues, on the basis that concern about Clinton���s health is contrived���that it is, indeed, a conspiracy theory.

However, even if you dismiss every other health episode up to this point, of which there have been many, how can you see what���s going on here, in this particular instance, and not think, ���This does NOT look good at ALL?���

Watching Hillary���s movements, as well as the nature of the assistance provided by her detail, as she was deposited into her van���was frighteningly reminiscent of the 1989 black comedy Weekend at Bernie���s, in which two young insurance executives tote around their just-deceased boss in a manner that gives the impression he is still alive. There���s more to the story, but the story is not the point here. What is the point is how eerily similar the movie Bernie is to the way the real Hillary Clinton looked this past weekend.

Do I think Hillary Clinton is, in actuality, no longer with us? Umm���no. For how much longer, though, will those Democrats who are clearly driven by politics, first and foremost, be capable of looking at her level of physical distress and remain unwilling to see the obvious problems she is having, without starting to look insane themselves?

Not much. In fact, that ship has already sailed. Like the saying goes���you���re entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts. Anyone who sees the clear evidence of Hillary���s frailty and is dismissive of it���is clearly privileging themselves to take unwarranted liberties in interpreting what is plainly going on right before our eyes.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

 

At the University of Iowa, You Can Now Earn a Bachelor���s Degree in Social Justice

���Get a degree in social justice���.because there���s no such thing as a truly useless college degree.���

Is that going to be the promotional tagline of the University of Iowa���s latest bachelor���s program offering?

According to reporting by Jessica Chasmar over at The Washington Times, the Iowa Board of Regents voted this past Thursday to add ���Social Justice��� to the least of bachelor���s degree programs available at the university.

You read that right ��� Social Justice.

The approved proposal for the new degree contains, of course, a description of the program. That description reads, in part:

���The proposed program is an interdisciplinary program that will help students explore, discover, and create practical solutions to real issues related to economics, health care, human rights, civil rights, and the environment. It will be located in the Department of Gender, Women���s and Sexuality Studies (GWSS) because it is one of the leaders on campus for creating opportunities for real-world experience tied to classroom experience.���

The description goes on to explain things further:

���Students will explore the intersections of race, class, gender, culture, economics, history, nationality, and human rights. They will approach social justice through the arts, history, literature, comparative religious studies, political science, philosophy, health education, and gender, women���s, and sexuality studies.���

In the Times reporting, the Provost of the University of Iowa, Barry Butler, says that he expects interest in the new program to be substantial, and bases that expectation on the popularity of both a recent seminar on social justice made available at the school, as well as its ���Justice for All��� living-learning community, where those possessed of a social justice warrior mindset can live together on campus.

���The University of Iowa is now going to offer a bachelor���s degree in Social Justice.��� I probably could have just said that, and then stopped writing���because, once you get that out, is there really anything else to say?

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Hillary To Drop Out Of Race?

After Hillary faints at the 9/11 Memorial in New York questions are raised again about her health and medical situation. If Hillary drops out, who would replace her? Could Bernie be back in the running? Several NFL players take and knee and refuse to stand for the National Anthem on opening day, Jim shares his solution on how to deal with these unpatriotic players. Wells Fargo is fined $185 million dollars and Congress has issued more subpoenas regarding Hillary's e mail server.

 

Christian Health Insurance Alternative - Christian Medical Sharing

Medical doctor and author, Dr. Elaina George, joins Jim Paris Live to discuss Christian Medical sharing plans that are growing in popularity and represent a savings of 50 percent and more from Obamacare plans. Dr. George shares her views on why Obamacare is on the verge of collapse and what we can expect next. Who is really making the big profits in healthcare, and why doctors make just pennies on each healthcare dollar.

 

 

Wells Fargo Ex-Employee: ���Sales Pressure from Management was Unbearable���

You may have heard by now of the astonishing allegations made against Wells Fargo by federal regulators, allegations that center on the creation of millions���that���s millions���of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts by employees for the purpose of generating bank fees and reaching sales goals.

Now, an article over at CNNMoney is shedding light on the work culture at Wells Fargo that appears to have served as the foundation of the madness.

One former employee, Sabrina Bertrand, told CNNMoney, ���I had managers in my face yelling at me. They wanted you to open up dual checking accounts for people that couldn't even manage their original checking account.���

Now entirely out of the business, Bertrand added, ���The sales pressure from management was unbearable.���

The article details a Wells Fargo internal sales goal of ���at least eight financial products per customer,��� and says that employees ���engaged in all kinds of sordid practices��� to hit those numbers, to include doing something called ���pinning,��� where ATM cards and PIN numbers were issued to customers without their authorization.

Another former Wells Fargo personal banker and sales representative, Anthony Try, says that ���management was fully aware of��� the practice, but that they ���turned a blind eye��� to it. Try, also now out of the business, says that the illegal activity at Wells ���was ingrained in the culture for a long time.���

According to the CNNMoney article, while Try says he never opened unauthorized accounts himself, he did open accounts for personal friends and family members in an effort to keep sales managers happy.

���There would be days where we would open five checking accounts for friends and family just to go home early.���

A spokeswoman for Wells Fargo, responding to CNNMoney���s reporting, said that the ���majority of our team members do work hard to do what's in customers' best interest.���

If that���s true, then, from what the rest of us can see, they must be doing so in violation of what appears to be long-standing company policy.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

 

The Self-Made Mega-Wealthy: What Do THEY Do Before Breakfast?

Waking up extra-early in the morning is something many avoid, but there is no denying that getting an early start adds to one���s productivity in more ways than one. Not only does it help in simply adding hours to your functional day, but we tend to be at our most energetic, our most alert, earliest in the morning; even many night owls, while finding they can still be useful to themselves (and others) late at night, will admit that they are at their very sharpest earlier, rather than later, in the day. Additionally, early starts give us the greatest chance to get things done before the inevitable daily distractions and interruptions intervene.

Not only do you likely experience your own higher level of productivity on days when you rise earlier, but you���ve surely read articles about people who find they are much more useful to themselves and those around them when they get up very early. While they may spend those hours engaged in job-related activities, many realize a beneficial dividend utilizing them in other ways, like cooking a breakfast for which they might not otherwise have time, or getting in a workout that would be unavailable to them if they rose from bed later. Activities such as these, while not directly related to professional work endeavors, can still serve to position one to have a better, more productive work day.

There is a great piece over at CNBC.com, entitled ���What 9 Self-Made Millionaires Do Before Breakfast,��� that details how people like Warren Buffett, Mark Cuban, and Richard Branson find great benefit in getting an early start to the day.

For example, Buffett spends his a.m. time dividend reading The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Forbes. Mark Cuban begins work immediately, even doing so right from bed. For his part, Richard Branson, who says he rises at 5 a.m. each morning, reviews the news, answers emails, gets his day organized, and works out���all before breakfast.

Like I said, it���s a great little piece over at CNBC.com. It won���t take you much time to read, and you just might find a little extra inspiration to start setting your own alarm clock for an earlier wake-up time, going forward.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

 

Gary Johnson, Candidate for President: What is Aleppo?

Gary Johnson is running for president as the nominee of the Libertarian Party. You likely already knew that. The fact is that in such a contentious presidential election cycle, where each major party���s nominees have face a great deal of opposition from their respective rank-and-file members, we���ve all been hearing a lot about third-party candidates, particularly Johnson and Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein.

Of all the third-party candidates out there, however, Johnson is the most prominent. He is a former state governor (of New Mexico, from 1995 to 2003, while a member of the Republican Party), who is running with another well-known former state governor���William Weld, who oversaw Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997. The point is that, unlike the typical U.S. third-party presidential candidacies, the Johnson-Weld ticket is comprised of people who have genuine mainstream political substance���and in a year with so many disaffected voters, it���s a ticket that might have had a chance to really connect with a lot of them.

Not anymore.

Last week, while appearing on MSNBC���s Morning Joe program, hosted by Joe Scarborough, the following exchange took place between Johnson and newsman Mike Barnicle:

Barnicle: ���What would you do, if you were elected, about Aleppo?���

Johnson: ���About?���

Barnicle: ���Aleppo.���

Johnson: ���And what is Aleppo?���

Barnicle: ���You're kidding.���

Johnson: ���No!���

Aleppo, in addition to being one of the oldest cities of record on the entire planet, has emerged as the geographical and moral center of gravity in the Syrian conflict. As the largest city in Syria, it has been at the center of an ongoing military tug-of-war between government and opposition forces. While Russian and Syrian jets take turns bombing opposition neighborhoods, rebel forces do their part in spreading death to civilians who reside in areas ostensibly controlled by the government. In sum total, Aleppo has become a gigantic ���festival of misery.���

And Gary Johnson, presidential aspirant, did not know what it was; did not appear to have a clue.

Johnson is taking a lot of heat for his Aleppo gaffe, and he should. If you are running for President of the United States, and have a genuine expectation of being taken seriously by the electorate, you need to be considerably more ���on the ball��� than Johnson appears to be when it comes to foreign policy.

Johnson���s stumble again highlights one of the problems of so many third-party candidates. For all of their whining that they���re not taken seriously by the mainstream media, not given a chance to get on the debate stage with major party representatives, etc., when an opportunity to speak before a large audience on an established news program does materialize, they typically end up looking out of their depth, just plain goofy, or both.

Alas, Gary, we hardly knew ye.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

 

Bill Clinton Says Trump���s ���Make America Great Again��� Slogan���One Clinton Himself Used���is Racist

I wonder if Bill Clinton is going senile.

Seriously.

The former president was in Orlando, Florida last Wednesday, stumping for his wife, when he said the following about Donald Trump���s ���Make America Great Again��� campaign slogan:

���I���m actually old enough to remember the good old days, and they weren���t all that good in many ways. That message where ���I���ll give you America great again��� is if you���re a white Southerner, you know exactly what it means, don���t you?���

���What it means is ���I���ll give you an economy you had 50 years ago, and I���ll move you back up on the social totem pole and other people down.������

So, in other words, Bill Clinton thinks the slogan ���Make America Great Again��� is���racist.

Of course it is; I mean, what else could recapturing American exceptionalism be but racist? 

There���s a bit of a problem with Clinton���s analysis of the slogan, though; you see, as it turns out, the former president has used that same slogan a lot in his own political history. A Fox News article on the subject informs us that he used it ���repeatedly��� while running for president in 1992, and even used it as recently as 2008 when, in a campaign ad for his wife, he said, ���It's time for another comeback, time to make America great again.���

So���is Bill Clinton saying the slogan connotes racism only when spoken by Trump? Or by any Republican? Or is he, in fact, saying that anyone who uses the slogan���to include himself and his wife���is a racist?

I mean, surely if the slogan is racist today, it must have been racist as recently as eight measly years ago, when Mr. Clinton used it in the aforementioned campaign ad for his wife.

To be honest, from what I���ve seen of the Clintons���and elitist Dems, more generally��� I could be just as easily convinced that Bill was making a public admission of his own racism, and that of his wife, as I could that he is simply a disingenuous panderer desperate to grab votes for his wife by ascribing racist ���dog whistle��� status to a simple expression of American pride and nationalism.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

 

 

Team USA Hockey Coach Says He���ll Bench Any Player Who Sits Out National Anthem

Hockey is getting ready for its World Cup, and Team USA Coach John Tortorella has made it clear that he���s having none of the anthem-sitting trend that has caught on with several high-profile athletes of late.

In a declaration that has put leftist shorts in a twist, Tortorella flatly said the following to ESPN earlier this week: ���If any of my players sit on the bench for the national anthem, they will sit there the rest of the game.���

While Tortorella���s comment was generally well-received, there was also, unsurprisingly, a vocal backlash, as well. Still, the coach has stood his ground, and in remarks made subsequent to his initial pronouncement, Tortorella said this to ESPN:

���I���m not backing off. I���ll tell you right now. Try to understand me. I���m not criticizing anybody for stepping up and putting their thoughts out there about things. I���m the furthest thing away from being anything political. No chance I���m involved in that stuff.

���Listen, we���re in a great country because we can express ourselves. And I am not against expressing yourselves. That���s what���s great about our country. We can do that.

���But when there are men and women that give their lives for their flag, for their anthem, have given their lives, continue to put themselves on the line with our services for our flag, for our anthem, families that have been disrupted, traumatic physical injuries, traumatic mental injuries for these people that give us the opportunity to do the things we want to do, there���s no chance an anthem and a flag should come into any type of situation where you���re trying to make a point. It is probably the most disrespectful thing you can do as a U.S. citizen is to bring that in. Because that���s our symbol.���

Not at all unrelated to Tortorella���s stance is the fact that his son is now in his third deployment to Afghanistan as a member of U.S. Army special operations.

For my part���while there���s a fair bit I don���t like about what goes on in this country, I could not imagine forsaking it, or even doing anything that symbolizes forsaking it. It particularly doesn���t help the case of those engaging in the defiant acts when the justification for the behavior, such as in the case of 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, is tethered to a narrative that, while not entirely false, nevertheless has significant holes in it.

In the end, you can complain about that which needs repair, you can protest, you can do all of that sort of thing���without engaging in overt expressions of disloyalty. The old phrase, ���My country, right or wrong,��� is the embodiment of that idea; that you can have problems with what goes on in your own country, but that it is an unacceptable leap to declare that it no longer IS your country. Flag burning and failure to acknowledge the national anthem in the way Kaepernick and others have done are two prime examples of symbolically-expressed disloyalty, and those who witness them are free to conclude that your disloyalty is not just symbolic, but very real.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Goldman Sachs Bans Partner Donations to Trump Campaign

Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs is taking some heat after issuing an internal memo earlier in the week that banned firm partners from contributing to the presidential campaign of Donald Trump. There is, however, no ban on partner contributions to the campaign of Hillary Clinton.

As excerpted in a Washington Times article written by Jessica Chasmar, ���Goldman Sachs reportedly bans top employees from donating to Trump,��� the new rule, which became effective Sept. 1, declares that ���any federal candidate who is a sitting state or local official (e.g., governor running for president or vice president, such as the Trump/Pence ticket, or mayor running for Congress), including their Political Action Committees (PACs)" may not be the beneficial recipient of donations made by any of Goldman���s 467 partners.

The memo additionally says, ���The policy change is also meant to minimize potential reputational damage caused by any false perception that the firm is attempting to circumvent pay-to-play rules, particularly given partners' seniority and visibility. All failures to pre-clear political activities as outlined below are taken seriously and violations may result in disciplinary action.���
What strikes many as more than a little suspicious is the timing of the policy change, as well as the specific naming of the ���Trump/Pence ticket��� as the example of what sort of candidates are now off-limits to partner contributions. Per the new rule, that ticket is now out of bounds to receive partner donation money because Mike Pence is the current Indiana governor. As for the Democratic ticket, however, there are no impediments to Goldman partners donating to it, because neither Clinton nor running mate Tim Kaine is presently a state or local official in the way Goldman defines those positions (Kaine is a U.S. Senator from Virginia).

Contributing to the bad optics at play here is the fact that Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein has been a long-time financial supporter, in a variety of ways, of the Clinton family. In addition to contributing to her presidential campaigns, a May 27 article over at The Intercept, ���Hillary Clinton Won���t Say How Much Goldman Sachs CEO Invested with Her Son-in-Law,��� reported that Blankfein personally invested in the hedge fund started by her son-in-law, Marc Mezvinsky, back in 2011. The same article also detailed that Goldman Sachs has ���paid Hillary Clinton $675,000 in personal speaking fees, paid Bill Clinton $1,550,000 in personal speaking fees, and donated between $250,000 and $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation.���
No, not a good look at all.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large