James L. Paris's Blog, page 75

Home Depot Founder: ���Media Ought to Be Ashamed of Itself��� in Treatment of Trump

During an appearance last Thursday on CNBC���s popular ���Squawk Box��� program, the founder of the iconic Home Depot brand, Ken Langone, came out swinging at the media over its treatment of President Trump.

Langone, attacking the media over what he sees as a pronounced lack of objectivity in its reporting on the president, pointedly said that ���the media ought to be ashamed of itself.���

���The whole idea of a newspaper to me is ���give me the facts,������ said Langone. ���The New York Times��� front page is the equivalent of the editorial page now.���

Langone was particularly critical of the effort by the so-called mainstream media to propagate what he and so many others see as a fictitious narrative about collusion between Trump and Russia.

It should be noted that Trump was not Langone���s candidate during the bulk of the 2016 election cycle. Langone was a supporter of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, first and foremost, and his second choice was actually Ohio Governor John Kasich.

Still, Trump has made a believer of the billionaire entrepreneur, particularly with regard to the matter of rolling back regulations on business that so many have seen as constraining for far too long.

���Somebody told me in November, ���Don���t listen to what he says, watch what he does.��� What he has done so far in lifting these onerous and burdensome, needless regulations is absolutely incredible,��� Langone said.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Ron Paul: ���Not a Total Shock��� If Stocks Drop 25% and Gold Jumps 50% by October

In a recent appearance on CNBC, former Republican congressman and outspoken libertarian Ron Paul suggested that those euphoric stock market investors who���ve seen monstrous gains in their portfolios for years now���might want to re-think their positions just a bit before too much more time passes.

Paul, speaking on ���Futures Now,��� echoed the sentiments of a growing number of learned voices who believe not only the market activity of recent years is unsustainable, but that the underpinnings of the nation���s economy are not nearly as strong as many think. As a matter of fact, Paul thinks that the market is in for a major correction, and that precious metals will benefit from the significant backslide in equities.

���If our markets are down 25 percent and gold is up 50 percent it wouldn���t be a total shock to me,��� said the congressman.

���I think it���s a very precarious market, and the Fed better be very careful. Since they are incapable of knowing what to do, I don���t expect much good to come out of anything they do,��� Paul continued.

���There are so many mistakes made out there that the correction is almost unlimited.���

Paul conveyed the thinking of many right now when he added:

���People have been convinced that everything is wonderful right now and that stocks are going to go up forever. I don���t happen to buy this. The old rules always exist, and there���s too much debt and too much mal-investment. The adjustment will have to come.���

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Stunning: Over 100 People Shot During July 4th Weekend in Gun-Controlled Chicago

Chicago is one of the most heavily gun-controlled municipalities in the entire country, but it seems that lots of residents haven���t been getting the message.

Or maybe the real truth is that some there have been getting it, loud and clear.

You see, it appears that those living in the Windy City who aren���t inclined to follow laws of any kind, including statutes that prohibit things like, well, murder, have positively no issue with breaking laws that disallow convenient, accessible gun ownership.

And those who would like to lawfully own a gun for self-protection, but cannot functionally navigate Chicago���s and/or Illinois��� arduous licensing systems in order to do so?

Well, they get to play victims���for real.

The stats are in from the July 4th weekend, and the Chicago Sun-Times reports that a positively mind-blowing 101 city residents were shot during that period, with 14 of the victims dying from their wounds. Indeed, as the paper reported, ���36 people [were] shot across the city in an 8-hour span of violence between 8 p.m. Tuesday and 4 a.m. Wednesday,��� and six of those shot during that span of time died.

In 2016, Chicago saw almost 4,400 gunshot victims and nearly 800 homicides, and the city is in the midst of another rip-roaring year of murderous gun violence.

But gun control.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

U-Haul Hiring Work From Home Customer Service Reps

More and more people are working from home, and not just as freelancers. Many large and well known names are building their workforce with home based remote employees. ChristianMoney.com saw another news article this week about U-Haul hiring home based customer service reps nationwide.

Here are some of the details -

Benefits include a 401(K) and a stock ownership plan (no medical insurance provided)

Schedule is for up to 25 hours per week

Summer seasonal work available

Minimum age 16

A number of fairly standard Internet and computer requirements are expected View The Full Job Listing Here

A couple of things that caught our attention. First, that this is a job available for someone as young as age 16, and secondly that it can be a summer job. As such, this would be a great experience and opportunity for a young person. Additionally, the training itself is online and is paid.

How much does the position pay? Well, the job listing does not say, but similar positions in the past have paid about $10 per hour. Another article we published last year on seasonal work from home jobs provides a list of companies that are capitalizing on this growing trend.

A word of warning - many work from home job offers are scams. That is why it is important to stick with well known companies, and go directly to their website to apply. 

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

Oregon Adds a Third Gender Option to Driver���s Licenses

Hey, more good news! If you want to obtain a driver���s license in Oregon, you are no longer constrained by having to self-identify your gender on the basis of just male or female.
There is now a third option ��� you can be the gender ���X.���

That���s right; ���X.���

In Oregon, you can now be male, female, or X. Although other states are in various stages of moving in this general direction, Oregon is now the first one in U.S. history to offer a third gender option on official, government-issued identity documents.

As reported by KGW.com, one person, Jamie Shupe, is particularly pleased to see this. They (that���s apparently the correct pronoun to use when identifying ���non-binary,��� ���intersex,��� or ���agender��� persons) were actually the first individual in the nation to legally change their gender to ���non-binary,��� and had been waiting with great anticipation to see this change with respect to driver���s licenses come to pass.

���I���ve trembled with the fear of failure and cried tears until I had no more tears to cry, because of the magnitude of what's been at stake ��� and now won,��� Shupe said. ���But in the end, the huge legal and non-binary civil rights battle that I expected to unfold going into this never came to pass; simply because this was always the right thing to do all along.���

As mentioned, other states are weighing the same sorts of changes, and it appears California might be next. Senate Bill 179, which would create a new gender category for licenses, made it through the Senate just fine, and is next up for a vote in the House.

KGW.com notes that ���soon, most of the West Coast could boast non-binary IDs.���

There���s a shocker.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Facebook Mogul Mark Zuckerberg and Wife Help Illegal Immigrants with College Tuition

Apparently, ���illegal��� just doesn���t mean what it used to.

According to The Mercury News, 33-year-old Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have decided that one of the best uses of their fortune is to help San Francisco-area illegal immigrants by handing them college scholarships for use at American colleges and universities.

Oh, why not, right?

The money passes from the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative to TheDream.US, a program benefitting illegal immigrants that has, among its various objectives, the goal of seeing 400 illegals from the region in college by 2020.

Young illegals, often referred to as ���dreamers,��� generally find that more typical ways of financing college, like federal student aid, are off-limits to them.

You know, because they���re illegal.

But that fact isn���t stopping TheDream.US from working hard on their behalf, or Mr. and Mrs. Zuckerberg from doing what they can to help make the goal of a college education a reality for undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

Mary Papazian, president of San Jose State University, is ���all in��� on the effort to hand out college scholarships to illegals. Her school is expected to receive over 40 of the scholarship recipients this coming fall.

���They have a real sense of drive and purpose,��� said Papazian. ���With just a little support, it���s really incredible what they can do.���

There are probably a lot of bright, young, earnest U.S. citizens, with no realistic way to pay for college themselves, about whom the very same thing could be said.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Welcome to Progressive Hipster-Doofus Self-Defense Training

If you���ve ever thought about taking self-defense lessons, and you live in the Chicago area, you might want to look in on what a group called the ���Haymaker Collective��� has to offer.

Before you proceed, however, you should know that the Haymaker Collective does not teach self-defense to just anyone. No, this is a special sort of self-defense training, reserved only for those persons who are ���anti-fascist,��� ���anti-sexist,��� and ���anti-racist��� in orientation.

You see, the Haymaker Collective is a so-called ���antifa,��� or ���anti-fascist��� group, and the real purpose of their training is to teach other lovable leftists like themselves how to effectively engage in hand-to-hand battle in the streets with fascists; in other words, with people who have regular jobs, stand for the National Anthem, go to church on Sundays���you know, real scum like that.

The nature of this self-defense training is that it is specifically designed to be different from the ���hetero-normative, masculine gym culture��� that is supposedly dominant in this kind of training, more generally.

As one member puts it, ���A lot of people think that when you learn how to fight it���s all about being aggressive and learning about how to go start fights with people. That���s not what we���re about at all.���

Well, one thing���s for sure ��� after looking at the group���s ���promotional��� video currently circulating on the Internet, there���s no disputing that their training has nothing to do with being aggressive.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Good News, Fellow Americans: Your Credit Scores Are Improving

Well, this IS good news.

According to CNN Money, FICO (formerly Fair, Isaac and Company), the data analytics firm centered on the matter of credit scoring, says that the average credit score of Americans is now at a robust 700. As a matter of fact, that���s the highest level the folks at FICO have seen since they began tracking the figure 12 years ago.

The credit score scale runs from 300 (the worst) to 850 (the best), although scores much above 700 are generally considered unnecessary for the purpose of realizing the best consumer credit terms.

Ethan Dornhelm, vice president for scores and analytics at FICO, attributes the trend upward to a variety of factors.

���The relative strength of the economy, with low unemployment and rising home prices are helping those consumers who were struggling during the great recession to recover financially,��� he said.

Dornhelm notes, as well, that much greater access to information about credit scores and how they can be affected by any of a variety of consumer behaviors is having a positive impact on those scores.

���As consumers become more educated about the actions they can take to improve their score, we're seeing the average score rise,��� he said, adding that ���we believe that consumers are more aware of their credit reports and FICO scores than they used to be.���

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

British Doctors Now Throw Support Behind Womb Transplants for Transgenders

Nope���still no sign yet of any bottom to this pit down which we���re all falling very rapidly.

The latest evidence to that effect is the declaration by British physicians of note that they support womb transplants for biological males who identify as female and wish to give birth.

According to the Daily Mail, the groundswell of interest in such a procedure has gained momentum since it has been learned that revolutionary medical procedures performed at Sweden���s University of Gothenburg have enabled previously womb-less women to successfully give birth.

According to experts, installing functional wombs inside of biological males should be possible within the next ten years.

Here is a sampling of the logic that backs support of the procedure, in the words of a couple of physicians themselves:

���We already have fertility preservation for transgender people, to give them the possibility to have their own genetic child. So I don���t see much of a difference between that and actually delivering their own child.��� ��� Dr. Arianna D���Angelo, gynecologist, National Health Service���s Wales Fertility Institute.

���If we are saying we should have equality and we have legislation [defending the rights of transgender people], I do not see why not.��� ��� Dr. Francoise Shelfield, obstetrics and gynecology, University College London.

Stunning. Simply stunning.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Poland: We Refuse to Allow EU to ���Impose a Social Catastrophe��� on Our Country

Jaros��aw Kaczy��ski, chairman of Poland���s ruling Law and Justice Party, is clearly not buying any of what the European Union is selling when it comes to the matter of national immigration quotas.

As reported by LifeZette, Kaczy��ski , speaking recently at the party���s national conference, flatly said, ���No one will impose a social catastrophe on us just because we are receiving EU funds.���

���All of you know that I mean the immigrants that are flooding into Europe and [the EU���s] compulsory relocation [scheme].���

Kaczy��ski, like other select, conservative-populist politicians in Europe today, is of the opinion that migrants should be going only to those countries that have opened their doors to the refugees, and that nations like Poland, which has steadfastly opposed a policy of liberal migrant admission all along, should not have to participate in taking any in.

���We didn���t exploit the countries where the refugees are arriving from, we didn���t use their labor force and finally, we aren���t calling them to Europe,��� he tersely noted.

���As I said in 2015 on refugees, we are ready to take part in the EU program for refugees; we just don���t want to have problems to which we didn���t contribute. We have a full moral right to say ���No.������

Kaczy��ski further ���bottom-lined��� his thoughts on the matter, pointedly saying what so many others in Europe are unwilling to say out loud, when he added that ���there is no reason for us to radically lower our living standards and the quality of life in Poland��� in order to accommodate the EU���s immigration demands of his country.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large