James L. Paris's Blog, page 90

Underground Bunker Company Making Millions from People Afraid of Trump

 
Apparently, if you���re in the business of building survival shelters, the only thing better than an Obama presidency is a Trump presidency.

Say what?

An article over at CNBC.com details the curious case of Clyde Scott, a guy who started building underground bunkers during President Obama���s tenure for those who believed his presidency represented the kind of threat to liberty that practically demanded one own a shelter.

While that surely made sense to Scott, a funny thing happened as soon as Trump replaced his predecessor in the White House: His business positively skyrocketed.

It turns out that the best person to have in office to help spur sales of underground shelters was not Obama nearly as much as it is Trump.

That���s right; for Scott, the underground bunker market is now driven not by tinfoil hat-wearing right-wingers���but by liberals in California and New York so afraid of the likelihood of nuclear war under Trump that they���re cracking open their piggy banks to buy their own shelter protection.

���We've had liberals coming out of the woodwork to protect themselves,��� said Scott.

According to the entrepreneur, ���business went out the roof��� immediately following the 2016 election; he estimates that his business has increased over 500 percent since Trump���s November victory.

While Scott���s personal politics tend to lean to the conservative side just a bit, when it comes to business, he���s a political agnostic.

���The more politicians talk, the busier I get,��� he says.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Donald Trump Vows ���the Wall is Going to Get Built���

Despite growing speculation that the future of the much-ballyhooed proposed border wall is in doubt, President Donald Trump recently took the opportunity to assure those voters responsible for putting him in the Oval Office - many of whom were energized to support him precisely on the promise of such a wall being built ��� that the project is still very much a ���go.���

Some began doing double-takes when reports surfaced in the last several days that Trump was amenable to the idea of eliminating funding for the wall from the FY2017 budget.

However, speaking to reporters Tuesday from the White House, he was sharply dismissive of any notions that the border wall project was now at risk, according to Fox News.

���I don���t know what people are talking. I watch these shows, and the pundits in the morning. They don���t know what they���re talking about. The wall gets built, 100 percent,��� said the president.

���We���re already preparing,��� Trump went on to say. ���We���re doing plans, we���re doing specifications, we���re doing a lot of work on the wall, and the wall is going to get built.���

That said, Trump did not overtly commit that wall funding was going to be a part of this year���s budget. Additionally, press secretary Sean Spicer seemed to be purposely vague in his response when asked if there was any willingness on the part of the president to accept a delay in the funding of the project.

���No one said ���delayed,������ responded Spicer.

Stay tuned.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte Vows He Will Eat ISIS Jihadists If They���re Captured by His Forces

Well, that���s one way to be sure your enemy is entirely eliminated.

As reported by The Sun, Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte, never one to shy away from a microphone, said during an appearance at a sports tournament in Laos this past Sunday that he will literally ���eat��� members of Abu Sayyaf (ASG), the Jihadist terror group based in the southwest Philippines, should any manage to be captured by government forces.

Abu Sayyaf has been engaged in a nearly-30-year campaign to establish an independent Islamic province in the country. Duterte���s recent comments come on the heels of an engagement Saturday in Bohol, a resort island, between the group and government troops, one that saw four members of ASG killed in the firefight.

���Just drive me to extreme anger, and I can eat a person. Give me salt and vinegar and I���ll eat his liver,��� Duterte told the assembled.

���You know, I am capable of eating a person. If you anger me, in truth, I will eat you alive. Raw,��� he added.

Duterte is well-known for his outlandish comments, frequently peppered with profanity. In 2016, prior to a scheduled meeting with Barack Obama, Duterte referred to the U.S. president as a ���son of a wh-re��� when he learned Obama planned to raise the issue of the brutal manner in which Duterte had been prosecuting the war on drugs in his country.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Harvard: Gender ���Can Change from Day to Day���

Well, if Harvard decrees it, it must be true, yes?

Well, maybe not.

According to the Office of BGLTQ Student Life at Harvard College, not only is it the case that ���gender is fluid and changing,��� but gender is something that can actually ���change from day to day.���

Huh?

As reported by the website Campus Reform, these curious ideas are among the many that can be found in a new school guide on the topic of sex, gender, and all of that ���stuff.���

The guide is filled with all sorts of notions about gender identity being what it is on the basis of self-perception. Apparently, the only conclusion at which one can arrive is that it is not only possible, but perfectly reasonable, for a person to essentially ���be��� male one day, female the next, and even a third, undefined option the day after that.

The guide also charges students with the responsibility of getting ���the facts about gender diversity.���

So it���s a fact that ���gender is fluid and changing?��� That���s a fact?

The guide also declares that ���transphobic misinformation is a form of systemic violence.��� In other words, if someone refers to another using a female pronoun because that person clearly looks to be female���but the subject in question has decided that she is really a man that day, then the user of the female pronoun has committed an act of violence.

On a not entirely unrelated note, the annual cost to attend Harvard as a student is a little over $63,000 (tuition, room, board, and fees). Just something to keep in mind as you���re digesting all of this.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay Says He Won���t Be Leaving His Dough to His Kids

Depending on how you look at it, it���s either great���or terrible���to be one of Gordon Ramsay���s children.

It turns out that the celebrity chef, who is about as ubiquitous as anyone on television these days, is definitely ���old school��� when it comes to the matter of raising kids in a climate of great wealth.

It is not so unusual to find highly-successful parents assuming either of two, oppositional postures with respect to how they handle their kids and their money. Many will see to it that their children want for nothing, taking the position that they wish their kids to have everything they did not when they were youngsters.

Other parents, however, go in the diametrically opposite direction, deciding that it is for junior���s own good that he receives a very limited allowance, and goes out to work for the things he wants as soon as he���s old enough to do so. In doing so, say those parents, the kids will be more likely to appreciate the value of both hard work and a dollar.

Gordon Ramsay? He���s firmly in the camp of the second group of parents.

As reported by The Penny Hoarder, Ramsay recently told The Telegraph that when he finally heads to that great kitchen in the sky, his children will not be the beneficiaries of the wealth he will have accumulated���and this is from a guy who made, just last year, an estimated $54 million.

���It���s definitely not going to them, and that���s not in a mean way; it���s to not spoil them,��� he told The Telegraph.

What���s more, Ramsay and his wife Tana are committed to doing what they can to help keep their kids on an even keel while the folks are still alive and kicking. Although the pair have agreed to make 25 percent down payments on homes for each child, they insist that���s it, and they won���t be doing anything more as far as that goes.

Presently, Ramsay says that his oldest daughter, who���s in college, receives an allowance of about $125 a week, while the younger kids each get about $63 a week.

���And they have to pay for their own phones, their bus fare,��� says Ramsay. ���The earlier you give them that responsibility to save for their own trainers and jeans, the better.���

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

KY Gov. Signs Bill Allowing Bible Courses to Be Taught in Public Schools

Bucking a broader trend throughout the culture of the American public school system, the governor of Kentucky, Matt Bevin, recently signed into law a bill that permits schools in his state to offer Bible study courses as curriculum electives.

As outlined in the legislation, the courses at issue ���teach students knowledge of biblical content, characters, poetry, and narratives that are prerequisites to understanding contemporary society and culture.���

Writing that the law ���is not a mandate,��� the author of the bill, Rep. D.J. Johnson, previously declared in a Facebook post that the law is intended to ���provide guidance at the state level for local school boards to offer elective social studies courses on the Old Testament, New Testament, or both.���

The Christian Post reports that although the bill received strong support in the Kentucky legislature, and passed through the state senate by a substantial margin of 34 to 4, it clearly has its detractors, including the Kentucky Council of Churches.

���If this were a world religions class or something that gave students the opportunity to learn the historical significance of all religious traditions or sacred text, then we would not be opposed to it,��� said Peggy Hinds, Interim Executive Director of the KCC.

Although local school boards in Kentucky already had the freedom to make such courses available, the legislation is designed to give additional weight and backing to those boards that wish to proceed in offering them.

���The purpose of the bill is to provide [guidance,] uniformity, and constitutional support for the local school boards that may be wanting to offer such courses, but are unsure of the way to proceed,��� says Johnson. ���A stronger understanding of the Bible will result in a stronger understanding of our society, culture, literature, and laws.���

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large 

Bernie Sanders: ���The Model of the Democratic Party is Failing���

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the old ���sort-of��� socialist who gave Hillary quite a run for her money last year���particularly considering the ends to which we now know party establishment types went to hijacking any legitimate chance he had of defeating her���has a message for those same establishment types: Change your ways, or else.

Appearing this past Sunday on CBS News��� Face the Nation, Sanders said, in part, ���I think what is clear to anyone who looks at where the Democratic Party today is, that the model of the Democratic Party is failing. We have a Republican president who ran as a candidate as the most unpopular candidate in modern history of this country. Republicans control the House, the Senate, two-thirds of governor���s chairs and in the last eight years they have picked up 900 legislative seats. Clearly, the Democratic Party has to change.���

While many would surely disagree with Sanders��� assessment of Trump that his 2016 candidacy was the least popular in modern history, there is no denying that Democrats did themselves no favors in their effort to keep the White House by running a deeply-flawed candidate of their own, as well as eschewing any real embrace of the populist streak within their own party that resonated so well for Trump.

On that note, Sanders declared the Democratic Party ���has to become���a grassroots party, a party which makes decisions from the bottom on up, a party which is more dependent on small donations than large donations, a party���that speaks to the pain of the working class in this country. The middle class is shrinking. 43 million people living in poverty. Almost all new income and wealth is going to the top 1%. People can���t afford to send their kids to college. They can���t afford childcare. They can���t afford health care.���

Sanders has been known to at least broadly espouse the same ideas as President Trump and other, select Republicans on the matter of economic populism, particularly in the areas of free trade and globalism, and many blue-collar whites who gravitated toward Trump and his message last year saw themselves as being entirely invisible to Hillary Clinton during her campaign.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Talent is Great, but Mental Toughness is Better

In the neverending quest to unlock the true formula for success, many will weigh the strengths of talent vs. grit, in much the same way behaviorists constantly go back and forth on the ���nature vs. nurture��� debate.

Obviously, talent can be a magnificent asset, but even those with loads of it cannot be successful without putting in the work, as well.

On that note, there���s a nice piece over at Entrepreneur.com, entitled ���Talent is Overrated: Top 10 Habits of Mentally Tough People,��� that details a variety of habits and characteristics those with minds and wills of steel seem to have in common. It���s a good read, and we���ll not go over all of the ten in this space, but there are a few that are particularly near and dear to the heart of this author.

One habit mentioned in the article is consistency. Those who are not so mentally tough often have a real problem with maintaining consistency, but, without it, success usually remains elusive. Those who can establish a highly-productive regimen and maintain it, even as life may prove wildly unpredictable from one day to the next, will tend to prevail, even if they aren���t bathing in natural talent.

Another important characteristic of the mentally tough detailed in the article is that ���they don���t whine, complain or criticize.��� You know the types ��� the people who are (nowadays) constantly griping about this or that on Facebook or another social media site. While the mentally tough are not spared the raw deals, mishaps, and misfortunes that befall others, they tend not to allow themselves to become self-destructively sidetracked by those events. Chronic negativity is absolutely one of the worst diseases the goal-oriented can contract.

Along the same lines is that the mentally tough refuse to dwell on the past. This doesn���t mean they are not affected by what has come before, obviously, or that they are incapable or unwilling to learn the lessons past events and experiences can provide to them. However, in order to forge ahead on the path to both achieving and maintaining real success, the past, regardless of what it represents, must remain firmly there. As with the unfortunate inclination to endlessly complain, living in the past will prove to be an insurmountable obstacle to one desirous of real success.

As noted, these are just three of the ten habits of the mentally tough outlined in the great article over at Entrepreneur. Check it out for yourself to see if you are presently ���ready-made��� as a mentally tough person, or if there are some elements of your makeup that need a little tweaking so that you may successfully become one of them.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr.

Video of Latest Airline Passenger Incident Demonstrates Flying Fast Becoming a Free-for-All

Do you still fly?

Even if you are one to regularly go about as a passenger aboard commercial flights, you���re likely hearing more frequently from those around you that they are now making it a point to fly less.

With increasing frequency, flying is becoming a literal free-for-all���and who wants to be part of that?

The very latest dustup (that we know about, anyway) took place this past Friday when a confrontation ensued as passengers were boarding an American Airlines flight in San Francisco, bound for Dallas. As reported by a wide variety of news outlets, including CBS DFW, witnesses claim a woman traveling with two 15-month-old twins had her stroller grabbed away from her by a flight attendant, who, according to these same witnesses, hit her and almost struck one of her children in the process of snatching away the stroller.

Video evidence of the altercation shows another passenger, disturbed by what he had seen going on with the woman and her children, becoming confrontational with the same flight attendant, and saying to him directly, ���Hey bud, you do that to me and I���ll knock you flat.���

At which point, the flight attendant responds with ���C���mon, hit me. C���mon.���

The same passenger again says, ���I���ll knock you flat,��� and there is more jawing back and forth after that.

Although no real violence was perpetrated during the incident, the video depicts an unfortunate situation, with all involved clearly under great stress. It���s rather uncomfortable to watch.

Flying was never the most calming of experiences to begin with���but now, with the fundamental, deleterious changes in the social dynamic that have resulted in a net increase in the stress level for all of us, both individually and collectively, you can expect it to be downright unnerving. Everyone - pilots, air crew, airport staff, and passengers - are each, and all, encountering one another in states of higher-than-ever personal distress - inside of what is already an inherently higher-stress environment to begin with - and the results are simultaneously what you���d expect, and absolutely frightening.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Happy Days Star Erin Moran Dead At Age 56

Jim discusses the tragic death of child star Erin Moran, were the power outages in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles a cyber attack?, American Airlines flight attendant accused of hitting mother holding baby, new home delivery scam, and grandmother pays for Disney vacation with points earned from taking online surveys.