James L. Paris's Blog, page 49

Bitcoin Breaks Record To Reach Another New High

On this episode, Jim discusses the news that Partridge Family star David Cassidy is near death. Next, Jim discusses the current explosion of interest in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, what he is buying now, and why it is possible to develop a portfolio for under $200. Jim's favorite coins discussed, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, DASH, and Zcash.

 

Nearly Half of Nation���s Top 50 Housing Markets Now Overvalued

Remember some years ago, in the wake of the Great Recession, when America was flush with houses available for a bargain price?

Not anymore.

The price of houses continues to rise in markets all across the country, and, so much so, that prospective buyers are finding themselves priced out.

According to an article at CNBC.com, nearly half of the nation���s top 50 housing markets are considered ���overvalued,��� even as prices continue to move steadily upward.

���A strengthening economy, healthy consumer balance sheets and low mortgage interest rates are supporting the continued strong demand for residential real estate,��� said Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic, in a statement quoted by CNBC.

���While demand and home price growth is in a sweet spot, a third of metropolitan markets are overvalued and this will become more of an issue if prices continue to rise next year as we anticipate,��� he added.

According to the piece, Las Vegas, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami and the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area are all examples of overvalued markets, while Boston, San Francisco, and Chicago, as expensive as they are, are regarded as being at value. The culprit this time around behind home prices blowing up is a combination of great demand and limited inventory.

The ���priced out��� problem is actually a new one, in comparison to when home prices were overheating in the years leading up to the real estate collapse that hit toward the end of the previous decade. The reason is that while prices were obviously skyrocketing then, all sorts of clever mortgage programs still existed that allowed people to ���afford��� homes even as they couldn���t genuinely afford them.

Now, though, it���s different. And while underwriting standards ��� which were drastically tightened after the 2008-2009 recession ��� have loosened a bit in the last couple of years, they remain much tighter, overall, in comparison to where they were a decade or so ago.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

More from Hollywood: Sandra Bullock to Star in Film About Pro-Abortion Hero Wendy Davis

Hollywood and ���regular America��� continue to march in opposite directions.

As if the seemingly-daily revelations of sexual misdeeds by powerful men in Tinseltown isn���t doing enough to drive a wedge between the entertainment elite and the folks on whom that same elite rely to buy tickets to their films, there is also the matter of just what message many actors endeavor to send by the role choices they make.

Take A-list actress Sandra Bullock. According to an article over at Variety, Bullock has agreed to star in Let Her Speak, a film that will pay homage to former Texas state senator Wendy Davis, who famously filibustered ��� for eleven hours ��� a bill that sought to restrict abortion in the Lone Star state.

Variety certainly seems ���all in��� on the prospect of Bullock playing Davis, saying that ���the role seems right up Bullock���s alley and could be another awards play for the star who won her first Oscar for playing Leigh Anne Tuohy in the real-life story ���The Blind Side.��� She just wrapped production on Warner Bros.��� ���Ocean���s Eleven��� spinoff, ���Ocean���s Eight,��� and is about start filming on the Netflix movie ���Bird Box.������

Davis wore pink sneakers and a urinary catheter when she embarked on her filibuster effort back in 2013, and became known as ���Abortion Barbie��� following her feat. The bill she found so objectionable, and which was eventually passed anyway by a special legislative session, banned abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, required abortion doctors to maintain admitting privileges at a local hospital, and mandated that abortion clinics meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Just Another Day in Pyongyang ��� North Korea Sentences President Trump to Death

It seems that some people really don���t like it when President Trump gets on Twitter.

On Wednesday, Rodong Sinmun, the state-run North Korean newspaper that serves as the official media organ of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, announced that the U.S. president had been ���sentenced to death by the Korean people��� following his most recent jab at Kim Jong-un on Twitter.

The editorial statement declaring the death sentence begins as follows:

���Trump betrayed his true colors as an old lunatic, mean trickster and human reject during his one night and two days stay in South Korea.���

OK, so there���s that.

The statement continues:

���The worst crime for which he can never be pardoned is that he dared malignantly hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK.

���Trump, who is no more than an old slave of money, dared point an accusing finger at the sun. He should know that he is just a hideous criminal sentenced to death by the Korean people.���

So, what, exactly, did Trump do to not just raise the ire of North Korea, but see to it that he was actually sentenced to death?

He fired off a tweet last week that mocked the North Korean dictator. You might have seen it:

���Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ���old,��� when I would NEVER call him ���short and fat?������

Actually, that���s pretty tame, by Trump standards.

But, in North Korea, it gets you the death penalty.

Just another day in Pyongyang.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

A-List Producer-Director Judd Apatow Says ���a Lot More��� Is Coming on Hollywood Sex Scandals

Judd Apatow says they���re just beginning.

The Hollywood sex scandals, that is.

Not the scandals themselves, actually, but the revelations about them.

Apatow, the man behind a variety of popular films, including Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Superbad, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, told the Hollywood news website Deadline in a recent interview that ���a lot more��� is going to emerge from the cesspool.

���This has been happening since the creation of the movie business���watch the documentary about Marilyn Monroe,��� Apatow said. ���The old studio heads expected all these women to sleep with them, and some version of that type of abuse continues to this day. It might not be with studio heads, but producers and other actors or actresses. The other day online, someone put up an article from 1945 with Maureen O���Hara complaining about this, in 1945. So, it���s a good thing that it���s being discussed, but there���s a lot more coming.���

���You can feel that it���s just the beginning, because there are a lot of people who���ve been afraid to talk for a long time, and they feel like things are changing, and they can finally come forward,��� he added. ���And I would assume this is going to happen through the summer.���

You mean these revelations are going to remain a steady stream through next summer? Apparently there IS ���a lot more��� coming.

How deep does this nasty hole really go? It seems we may finally find out.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr.

Judge: FEMA Has Three Weeks to Change Policy, Allow Churches to Receive Disaster Relief

Word comes from the Christian Post that a federal judge in Houston is ready to end FEMA���s long-standing policy of not permitting religious institutions to receive federal disaster aid grants. Three Houston, Texas-area churches ��� Harvest Family Church, Hi-Way Tabernacle, and Rockport First Assembly of God ��� sued FEMA in September over the prohibition. The churches were instrumental in providing badly-needed relief to local residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, and are still providing Harvey-related services to this day. Now, federal judge Keith Ellison has decided that FEMA has until December 1 to decide if it���s going to change the policy at issue. If it does not, Judge Ellison has said he will issue a ruling at that time.

Specifically, FEMA���s current rules stipulate that if more than 50 percent of a nonprofit���s physical space is devoted to religious purposes, it is not eligible to receive federal disaster relief. The justification for the exclusion centers on the notion that if churches were to receive federal funds, it would be tantamount to citizens��� tax money being used to support religion. Advocates of the current policy include the Freedom From Religion Foundation���s Annie Laurie Gaylor, who has previously said, ���The government can help many individuals and nonprofits rebuild, but not churches. It is a founding principal of our nation that citizens may not be taxed in support of religion and churches.���

However, Daniel Blomberg, an attorney representing the three churches suing FEMA, says, ���Discriminating against houses of worship ��� which are often on the front lines of disaster relief ��� is not just wrongheaded, it strikes at our nation's most fundamental values.���

In a friend-of-the-court brief filed on behalf of the litigating churches, the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston noted that part of what makes FEMA���s policy unfair is that houses of worship providing aid in these kinds of circumstances do so not only to people who are not necessarily parishioners, but to folks who may have no religious affiliation whatsoever.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Poll: 30 Percent in Alabama More Likely to Vote for Moore in Wake of Washington Post Article

 Clearly, Alabama voters aren���t buying what the Washington Post is selling.

A JMC Analytics poll of Alabama voters has revealed something rather interesting: 29 percent of the respondents said they are ���more likely��� to vote for U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore in the wake of the Post story that alleges he engaged in sexual relationships with four teenage girls when he was in his 30s.

More likely?

While some disingenuous folks ��� who surely know better ��� are actually trying to spin the survey results to suggest they imply such sexual misconduct is held in high regard by Alabamians, it���s clear the numbers instead represent a statement, a backlash, in response to what has been seen by many as a witch hunt against a dyed-in-the-wool conservative.

Here is John Couvillon of JMC Analytics discussing that very issue on Huntsville, Alabama���s News Talk 770 AM/92.5 FM WVNN���s ���Dale Jackson Show���:

���My interpretation of that 29 percent who said somehow their more likely to support him is given that you have a widespread distrust of the news media, if you are a Republican and/or somebody who supports President Trump, and you���re used to your candidate just getting routinely trashed on the media so to speak, an incident like this is likely to get your dander up and say, ���You know what, screw it. I���m going to vote for Roy Moore to make a statement.��� So, I don���t interpret the 29 percent as condoning what Roy Moore did. Rather, I���m interpreting that 29 percent as kind of a primal scream saying, ���I don���t care what the media says. I���m sticking by Moore.������

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

O.J. Simpson Banned from Vegas Hotel After Reported Outburst

O.J. Simpson���s parole seems to be off to a rather inauspicious start.

Evidently putting on hold, for now, the search for the real killers of ex-wife Nicole Brown and companion Ronald Goldman, Simpson was able to find some time to���allegedly���cause trouble at a Las Vegas bar last week.

As reported by the New York Post, ���The Juice��� was kicked out of the Cosmopolitan Hotel because he was liquored up and causing trouble. The hotel further issued a trespass notice to Simpson, which acts to permanently ban the former NFL star from the premises.

While details about precisely what happened remain a bit unclear, the word from hotel staff is that Simpson started breaking glasses at Clique bar, located inside the hotel. Security was called, and Simpson was removed from the property.

O.J. Simpson is presently a resident of Las Vegas, living in a gated community there. He was recently released on parole after serving nine years for armed robbery and assault in connection with an attempt to retrieve memorabilia

Simpson���s lawyer, Malcolm LaVergne, disputes reports that his client was drunk. According to LaVergne, Simpson typically orders one drink and nurses it through the evening, and that he was at Clique on the evening in question simply to eat chicken wings.

LaVergne told the New York Daily News that ���like most things I deal with related to Simpson, 99 percent of this is bulls���.���

Okie dokie.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Advertisers Dump ���Hannity��� over Perceived Roy Moore Defense

Sean Hannity interviewed now-embattled Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore last week on his nationally syndicated daily radio program. And this week, as reported by Business Insider, several advertisers have already said they���ll no longer air spots on the Fox News��� TV show Hannity in response.

So what happened?

Last week, Sean Hannity wanted to give Moore an opportunity to tell his side of the story and otherwise answer the charges that he had entered into sexual relationships with teenage girls when he was in his 30s. So he gave the candidate a platform, by way of his radio show.

Apparently, granting the judge said platform was too much for a number of Hannity advertisers, who buckled under (what else?) social media-based pressure regarding Moore���s appearance.

What was particularly unfortunate is that the companies chose to dump Hannity even as the radio host was, by all accounts, pretty tough on Moore in his questioning of the senate candidate.

The main culprit in this dust-up appears to be Media Matters for America, a leftist media watchdog group that has a long history of trying to make Sean Hannity disappear from the airwaves by pressuring his program���s advertisers. Media Matters accused Sean Hannity of declaring the allegations against Moore to be false, which is not something he actually did.

What follows is a show excerpt that Media Matters apparently thinks is tantamount to the host siding with Moore:

���Every single person in this country deserves the presumption of innocence. With the allegations against Judge Moore, none of us know the truth of what happened 38 years ago. The only people that would know are the people involved in this incident.���

One advertiser that originally announced it was pulling its ads, the popular coffee company Keurig, has since apologized for that decision, and now says it will continue to advertise on Hannity. Keurig CEO Bob Gamgort, in an email to company employees, said the initial move to cut ties with Hannity ���was done outside of company protocols.���

However, other advertisers have stood firm in their decisions to divorce themselves from Hannity, including automaker Volvo.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

RFID Chips, Bitcoin, And The Coming Mark Of The Beast

Privacy advocate and author Liz McIntyre joins Jim Paris Live to discuss her book Spychips. How are we being tracked through the use of RFID chips? What measures can you take to protect yourself from scams and thieves? Could RFID be a precursor to he Mark Of The Beast? Could blockchain technologies such as Bitcoin be integrated with RFID chips? Does it ever make sense to embed chips in animals or children? Have the new chipped credit cards raised the risk of RFID theft?