James L. Paris's Blog, page 85

$10,000 In Bitcoin In 2010 Now Worth $200 Million

Jim discusses his favorite digital currencies and predicts which may be the best one going forward. Discussed on this episode - Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC), Ripple (XRP), And Litecoin (LTC).  Trump finally getting presidential treatment now that he is on foreign soil? North Korea launches again. 10 people hospitalized for botulism, and new ID theft scam that uses a text.

 

Trumpcare vs. Obamacare - What Do These Changes Mean To Your Pocketbook

Dr. Elaina George joins Jim Paris Live to discuss a wide variety of strategies on ways to save money on healthcare, including - cash only surgical centers, concierge care, medical sharing plans, direct primary care, prescription savings, and more. Dr. Elaina George is the host of the program Medicine On Call on American Web Radio, and author of the book Big Medicine.

 

Trump: ���We Will Do Whatever Is Necessary��� to Fix Chaotic Venezuela

Donald Trump is planning to do his part to save Venezuelans from the horrendous burdens put upon them by their dysfunctional socialist government.

This past Thursday, in a joint press conference with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos held at the White House, Trump made it clear that he has seen enough.

���People don���t have enough to eat. People have no food. There���s great violence. And we will do whatever is necessary, and we���ll work together to do whatever is necessary to help with fixing that, and I���m really talking on a humanitarian level,��� Trump said.

Venezuela���s descent into madness is of particular relevance to Santos, given that western Venezuela shares a near-1400-mile border with next-door neighbor Colombia.

The amount, and exact nature, of the assistance that Trump plans to provide Venezuela remains unclear at this time, but the words he expressed on that nation���s behalf sent a clear signal to its citizens that they will have the U.S. at their backs. As economic conditions have significantly deteriorated in the country, the mayhem has worsened; just recently, a man buying diapers for his baby and a teenager buying some flour for his family were both fatally shot by government forces, as the social chaos continues to blur the lines between looter and law-abiding citizen.

���A stable and peaceful Venezuela is in the best interest of the entire hemisphere. And America stands with all of the people in our great hemisphere yearning to be free,��� said the president.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Poll: Just 25 Percent of Americans View Higher Education as Being ���Fine the Way It Is"

If you���ve been paying at least a little attention to the state of higher education in the country at this time, you know it continues to become a haven for those inclined to exhibit some of the most bizarre behavior, and reflect some of the most peculiar values. On that note, one of the concerns stemming from the progressive takeover of campuses everywhere is just what sort of actual education students are receiving at school.

Well, in a poll conducted by the think tank New America, it turns out that just 25 percent of Americans believe higher education in the country to be ���fine how it is.���

Additionally, a majority of those polled ��� 58 percent - think that colleges and universities prioritize their own interests above those of the students they supposedly serve.

A write-up at Inside Higher Ed on the survey results details that while there are differences among age groups as to just how unhappy each is with respect to what higher education has to offer, the bottom line is that none is overjoyed with what���s going on at college these days. For example, just 13 percent of millennials (defined by the study as ages 23 to 37) say that college is fine the way it is, and while the number of those aged 72 and older who say it���s fine is higher���39 percent���that���s still, obviously, not even close to a majority of that demographic.

Interestingly, the poll found broad affection for community colleges. Indeed, while a clear minority of respondents said that private colleges and universities are worth what they cost, a full 82 percent of those polled said that community colleges are worth the money they charge.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

South Korean President Says There���s a ���High Possibility��� of Conflict with North Korea

Although the Korean War is generally thought of as having lasted from 1950 to 1953, many are aware that North and South Korea are still, technically, at war; while an armistice was signed in July of ���53, there has never been a final peace treaty consummated by the two nations, and the decades since the end of what we generally think of when we say ���Korean War��� has been marked by a great deal of tension���tension that has not infrequently bubbled over into overt acts of aggression.

In other words, while the Korean War, as it is popularly known, may be history, the Korean conflict is alive and well. Among the more recent reminders of this came last Wednesday, when South Korean President Moon Jae-in was quoted by Reuters as saying that ���there is a high possibility of a military conflict��� with North Korea presently.

Although Moon has been eager to seek a productive channel of dialogue with Pyongyang, the insistence of North Korea to maintain a heavily-militarized stance, highlighted most recently by last Sunday���s launch of a ballistic missile designed to test the weapon���s ability to carry a large nuclear warhead, has made Moon���s effort at improved relations difficult, to say the least.

���The reality is that there is a high possibility of a military conflict at the NLL (Northern Limit Line) and military demarcation line,��� Moon said three days after the North Korea missile test.

Moon, a liberal who made seeking better communication with the North a principal component of his campaign platform, has said that it is incumbent upon North Korea to change its posture on arms development before he would be willing to sit at the table with that country���s leadership.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

People Don���t Seem to Like You Very Much? You May Not Be Getting Enough Sleep

There are a lot of consequences to being plain, old tired, that���s no secret, and it turns out, according to the results of a recent study published in the Royal Society Open Science Journal, that being less well-liked may be one of them.

Huh?

As detailed in a piece over at Entreprenuer.com, researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden took photographs of 25 male and female students after they had slept for eight hours each on two consecutive nights, and then took photos again after having the same students sleep just four hours a night for two consecutive nights. The images were then shown to 122 strangers who were asked to rate the people depicted on the basis of perceived attractiveness, healthfulness, sleepiness, and trustworthiness.

The results were likely what you���d expect, with some interesting twists.

Unsurprising is that the photos showing the subjects in a sleep-deprived state earned lower scores, overall, from the strangers reviewing them. Particularly interesting, however, is that those rating the pictures indicated they would be less likely to socialize with people who looked tired. The study says that the average person would avoid socializing with someone who looks to be badly in need of sleep as a way to keep from getting sick.

���Having an unhealthy-looking face, whether due to sleep deprivation or otherwise, might thus activate disease-avoidance mechanisms in others and render one���s surroundings less socially inclined,��� the study concludes.

 By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Evangelist Franklin Graham: ���All Churches Should Pull Out of the Boy Scouts���

According to evangelist Franklin Graham, the time has come for ���all churches��� to ���pull out��� of any involvement with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). While the BSA remains one of the largest youth organizations in the country, policy shifts made by the group in recent years with respect to the issues of gay membership and gender identity have put them on the wrong side of the values discussion, in the eyes of traditional America.

 

Historically, the BSA has been strongly rooted, by virtue of official policy stands, in Christianity and what many now see as old-fashioned values. Even today, it is the official position of the BSA that neither atheists nor agnostics can be Scouts or serve as Scout Leaders.

However, the organization, in recent years, has greatly modified its positions on homosexuality and gender identity. In 2013, the Scout���s governing body voted to lift the prohibition on gay youth becoming members, and voted again in 2015 to end the ban on gay adults serving in leadership roles. Additionally, in January, the Scouts announced that transgender boys would be allowed to join, as well.

Last Friday, Graham issued a statement, via a post on Facebook, that readily agreed with a decision by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) on May 11 to officially end its involvement with the BSA���s Varsity and Venture programs, which are oriented on boys in the 14-18 age range. However, Graham said that the Mormons did not go quite far enough, and called on the church���and all other churches���to take steps that would entirely disengage them from any involvement with the Scouts, at any level.

���I think the Mormon Church���and all churches���should pull out of the Boy Scouts organization completely,��� Graham wrote. ���They need to get their younger boys out as well. I would not want my child or grandchild to be influenced by the lifestyle of a gay Scout Leader that goes against God���s design for creation.���

As for why the LDS Church is presently keeping its involvement with other components of the BSA, including the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, they say that ���these programs currently meet the development program needs of boys from ages 8 through 13.���

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Polish Official Says His Country Accepting Migrants Would ���Be Worse��� than EU Sanctions

Not mincing words, Poland���s Minister of the Interior, Mariusz B��aszczak, said pointedly on radio recently that giving in to European Union quotas in accepting more migrants would ���certainly be worse��� than whatever sanctions or other punishments the EU might administer against his country.

Back in 2015, EU leaders had agreed that member states would accept asylum-seekers over the course of the subsequent two years in order to help bring relief to Greece and Italy ��� the governing body is seeking to relocate throughout the rest of the EU up to 160,000 refugees from those two nations.

According to Express, if Poland elects not to play ball with the European Union, the country could face not only sanctions, but ultimately find itself stripped of voting rights.

Poland���s leadership, however, seems much more concerned about what could happen if it does accept migrants than it is about what might occur if it doesn���t.

���Let u keep in mind what happened in Western Europe,��� said Blaszczak. ���Let us remember the terrorist attacks, which are a fact in the larger states of the European Union, unfortunately.���

Blaszczak���s comments keep him in lockstep with the current position of his country���s prime minister, Beata Szydlo, on the subject of refugees and the EU. Szydlo has flatly refused to accept any refugees, and said back in March, in the wake of the deadly London terror attack that saw a radical Islamist drive a car into a group of pedestrians, that it was the EU���s very policy on migration that was to blame for the incident.

Speaking to reporters in Warsaw, Szydlo declared that ���there is no chance that refugees could be received in Poland at the moment and we certainly will not accept the imposition on Poland or other member states of any kind of mandatory quotas.���

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Marvel Comics��� Social Justice Hero Experiment Goes Badly

Being published under the iconic Marvel Comics brand is, apparently, not enough to realize success for a new comic book series that had topical, social justice themes as an ideological center of gravity.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ta-Nehisi Coates, co-writer of Black Panther and Friends, revealed recently to the website The Verge that the series was being dropped by Marvel because of low sales. Marvel has yet to confirm Coates��� announcement.

In recent years, high-profile comics have started to evidence storylines and central character changes reflective of the overtly progressive narrative that has come to dominate much of the American media, at large, and the Black Panther and Friends series is one of the latest efforts in that regard.

In the ongoing storyline, the Black Panther character is teamed with other, black Marvel superheroes ��� Misty Knight, Luke Cage, and Storm of the X-Men ��� as well as the white Iron Fist���to investigate what happened to a black civil rights activist who died while in the custody of the New York City police.

News of the cancellation comes after the publication of only the series��� second issue, although Coates says that the storyline will continue and be concluded by the sixth issue, after which the series will be put to bed.

News of the cancellation comes on the heels of comments made recently by Marvel���s vice president of sales, David Gabriel, that diverse characters were poorly received by customers.
���I don���t know that that���s really true, but that���s what we saw in sales,��� Gabriel said. ���Any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up.���

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Private Investigator: Evidence Exists Connecting Slain DNC Staffer Seth Rich with Wikileaks

During the morning hours of July 8, D.C. resident Seth Rich was shot and killed - after being beaten - while he was walking back to his home and chatting on the phone with his girlfriend. Police have no leads to speak of, and are unsure as to a motive for the killing. Rich���s wallet, watch, and phone were still on his person when he was found.

While Rich���s killing may ultimately prove to be a robbery gone wrong, many have speculated that his job as a Democratic National Committee (DNC) staff member may have played a part in his demise; some particularly conspiracy-minded folks even think that Rich might even be the person responsible for giving 30,000 ���private��� emails from inside the DNC to Wikileaks last year.

Now, according to news reported by Fox 5 DC, high-profile private investigator Rod Wheeler says that there is, indeed, evidence on Rich���s laptop that he had some kind of relationship with the renegade organization. Wheeler was hired by Rich���s family to conduct his own investigation into the murder.

Although D.C. police have been investigating Rich���s murder as a botched robbery attempt, there���s little compelling evidence that suggests robbery was the motive.

Per Fox 5, when they asked Wheeler if his contacts have established with him that there is information linking Rich to Wikileaks, he responded, ���Absolutely. Yeah. That���s confirmed.���

Wheeler also told Fox 5 that he has ���a source inside the police department that has looked at me straight in the eye and said, ���Rod, we were told to stand down on this case and I can���t share any information with you.��� Now, that is highly unusual for a murder investigation, especially from a police department.���

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large