September 29, 2024 • 36 mins
On this episode - LA Lawyer embezzles $15 million from clients, the devastation from Helene, the war in Israel and how it could be a major event in Bible prophecy, a new way to watch TV for free, Aurora Colorado puts $10 million into fighting Venezuelan gang that has taken over its town, and Tuesday is the vice presidential debate.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Gentlemen, start your engines, all right, mister garbokof teared down.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
This one the only thing we have to fire fare
by not crock.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
If you like your healthcare plan, you will.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Be on to keep your health care plan. Ye sick
by are three fine fire.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
You're listening to Jim Paris Live, your source for the
latest news on money, politics, prophecy, and preparedness, and now
your host, the editor in chief of Christian Money dot
com and the author of more than thirty books. Jim Paris.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
All right, hello everybody, and welcome to the broadcast. Man,
it is unbelievable, right what is happening from this hurricane.
Literally parts of Interstate forty are gone. From what I
just read today, there is a closure of all of
(01:23):
western North Carolina that we're talking about, this huge area
that essentially every road is closed in western North Carolina.
And I don't know in my lifetime if I have
ever seen anything like this. And what makes it worse
(01:47):
is that a lot of people were honestly not expecting
very much from this hurricane. In fact, we had a
guy here in one of our local groups. They have
these groups on Facebook like Friends of Palm Coast Flagler
Beach friends those kinds of groups. There was a guy
in there and he was bragging about how he survived
(02:10):
Hurricane Andrew as a teenager and how this storm will
be nothing and people need to just basically nothing to
see here, go about your business. And I thought that
was just totally irresponsible. And this is exhibit a that
you never know, you never know, and it is also
just a reminder of how powerful, how powerful nature is.
(02:36):
And you know, we as human beings, we're thinking like, oh,
we're gonna build this highway, we're gonna have this big
real estate development, we're gonna build a house on the
side of this mountain. We're gonna do all these things,
and then you just look at what the power of
nature is. And there are entire towns that were completely
(02:58):
swept away. It is devastation beyond what anybody could ever
have imagined. And it just goes to show you that
when you look at these storms, you have no idea
what they're going to do, and how we're all just
we're all here on this earth just on a thread.
(03:20):
We never know how much time we have left. We
have no idea what natural disaster could be around the
next corner when you think about it, and you think, okay,
people in the mountains, just think about this. A week ago,
you're living in the mountains of North Carolina and there's
(03:42):
this hurricane out in the Gulf of Mexico. How could
you possibly imagine anything like this. You're just going about
your business thinking this is nothing. This is a problem
for people in Florida. But look at what happened. It's
it's onreal and these storms are so unpredictable what they
(04:05):
can do, and a lot of times it's not the wind.
You think about the wind doing all this damage when
you think about a hurricane, but this was really an
event about rain and about water, and there is probably
no greater power in nature than the power of rushing water.
(04:28):
And to see entire towns just boom, they're gone. Just
two hours from where I'm sitting right now in my studio,
there is complete and utter devastation. Also here in Florida,
in the so called Big Bend area of Florida. This
is where you have the kind of that that corner,
(04:50):
that that turn that happens in the state of Florida
where you have sort of the Peninsula part of Florida.
Then you have the Panhandle, as they call it, where
those two connect. They call that the Big Bend of Florida.
So just about two hours west of where I'm sitting
right now, little towns like cedar Key and Crystal River
(05:15):
complete in utter devastation. People don't know what to do.
I'm looking at pictures online and people are looking at
their houses. In some cases water up to the rooftops.
People were in attics, they were on rooftops trying to
survive this. Some people are looking at their houses today
(05:38):
and it is literally to the rooftops mud, and they
don't know where to start. They have there is no
blueprint for this. There is no well, let's send in
a crew and remove trillions and trillions of square feet
of mud. I mean, what happens now? And then when
(06:01):
you look at it from a catastrophic loss standpoint, you know,
most people have insurance on their homes, but then there's
a separate issue of flood insurance. And so this looks
like it was a flood event, and they're very well
could be tens of thousands, maybe over one hundred thousand people.
(06:24):
Maybe maybe we're talking hundreds of thousands of people that
may have lost their homes, and there may be no
insurance company that's technically on the hook to save these people.
And can you imagine having a mortgage on a home.
(06:45):
You lose your home and there's no insurance company then
to turn around and go to to get that house
rebuilt or replaced or repaired. I don't know. It's going
to make you take government money. They're talking about it's
gonna take years to restore everything. There are still I
(07:11):
believe over a million people without power right now, maybe
even two million people. And here we are, you know,
two or three days away from this storm. I took
the day off on Wednesday, just stayed in my condo binge,
watched a show I really like called prison Break, just
(07:34):
kind of you know, say, hey, today's a day to
take off. So I took off Wednesday, did a little
bit of work on the computer, and then the same
thing Friday. I did work, but just here from my apartment.
I figured why be out on the roads, why take
any chances? And then like right where I live, there
was almost nothing that happened. We had some people without
(07:56):
power over on the Flagler Beach side, but I drove
around and a tree down maybe here or there, but
otherwise we were fine. And yet not too far from
here is complete devastation. And then just harder to wrap
your brain around is the incredible flooding that is taking
(08:21):
place in the Carolinas. In Tennessee, apparently even much of
Georgia had significant problems. From this guy that I know,
he's like kind of halfway between the Florida line and Atlanta,
kind of in that, you know, South Georgia, Central Georgia area.
(08:43):
He lost most of his roof and the trees. There
are so many trees down that people can't get out
of their neighborhoods to get to the gas station, to
get to work, to get to the grocery store. And
it's going to take weeks just to get people out
of these areas in North Carolina, the western portion of
(09:03):
North Carolina, people are trapped. There is no way in
or out except by helicopter. It's it's on believable what
has happened. Just so sad. Well, today I had a
great day, honestly, even with all this happening. You know,
(09:24):
you've got to still take care of yourself and move forward,
and you know, pray for these folks. I went down
to the beach today, and I love doing this. If
I can do it at least once a week, I'll
never get tired of watching the sunrise at the at
the ocean here. I did that, then I came back home,
I got the bike out, did a nice bike ride,
(09:46):
so you know, I had a good relaxing day. Was
excited about doing the podcast here this evening, and also
just wanted to mention that I know I put this
out on my Facebook and a lot of you that
listen our Facebook friends. I really love my new BJAS membership.
And I mentioned that on the show that in our
(10:07):
town we now have a BJ's Discount club or warehouse,
whatever it's called. And I've never really gotten into these warehouses.
I think there was a time when our kids were little,
back when I was married, and my ex wife, you know,
at the time, she would go to a Sam's Club,
(10:27):
I think it was, but I don't know that I
ever went to a Sam's club. I might have gone
once to a Sam's Club. So I was thinking, this
isn't for me, this whole big thing, this BJ's whatever,
But I really like the place. The people are so nice.
I have to tell you that I've just never been
to like a grocery store kind of a place where
the workers were so friendly and where they have me.
(10:50):
I have to tell you, I'm gonna be honest with
you right now. Where they got me is the dollar
sixty five. You get a quarter pound hot dog an
a soda for a dollars six. Don't don't email me
and tell me I'm eating wrong. I know that I
don't go there every day, but a couple of times
a week. Now I'm going in there getting that hot
dog and then whatever that I need. So for me,
(11:13):
the question was is this going to work out for
me as a single guy? And so there are certain
things I buy in there. I buy, like I love
chicken thighs, So they have like this, you know, big
giant tray of boneless chicken thighs that I buy, which
they have prices are like half of what the regular
(11:35):
grocery stores charge. Also, salad, you know, buy prepackaged salad.
That's something I'll buy. I buy the five dollars grab
and go rotisserie chicken. So there's a lot of good
stuff there, and they've got clothing and electronics and a
lot of other things. I haven't really looked into yet
not everything there is necessarily a good deal, but that
(11:56):
there are some things you know, that are great prices
and work for me in my situation. So yeah, I'm
loving it. I'm loving my Bjay's membership. All right. So
there is a guy by the name of Tom Girardi,
and that name may not ring a bell with you,
but if you don't know who this guy is, you've
(12:16):
got to google it, and you've got to read this story.
I was just listening to a podcast about this and
I think it was forty eight hours. I'm gonna type
it in here just so I can give this to you,
because if you love podcasts like true crime, you're gonna
love listening to this. Yeah. So there is there's this guy,
(12:39):
all right. So yeah, So you can go to you
can go online to the different podcast sites and you
can find the episodes. There's several different places you can go.
You can just go to like pocket cast or any
of the podcast platforms and you can listen to this
(13:02):
or there's even some actual documentary he's done about this guy. Anyway.
He is an attorney who is a disbarred attorney in California.
And what is fascinating about this is that apparently for years,
for like fifteen or twenty years, he was representing clients
(13:26):
where you know, you would go to this guy for
representation if you were injured, et cetera, et cetera personal
injury lawyer and you would win your case, but you
wouldn't get your money. And he was convicted of embezzling
fifteen million dollars from his clients. Now, what makes this
(13:52):
so really fascinating to me is that over all these
years where he wasn't paying people, there was something like
one hundred or two hundred complaints made to the California
Bar about this guy. Now, most lawyers will tell you
get one or two bar complaints, if they're actually true,
(14:14):
you would possibly most probably lose your license if you
have done something unethical. And the number one thing you
can do as a lawyer to absolutely guarantee that you
will lose your license is to play around with clients' money.
And that's exactly what this guy did. And he would
(14:35):
string people along and string people along for years not
giving them their lawsuit proceeds. I mean, remember, as an attorney,
you already get a big chunk. I think in most
states it's like a third of the money goes to
the lawyer in Florida. If it goes to trial, the
lawyer gets forty percent. So as it is, you're getting
(14:57):
forty percent, you're getting forty cents on the dollar in
a lot of cases, but the clients get the other portion.
And that wasn't good enough for this guy. And so
it's just fascinating how he got away with this. If
you listen to these podcasts and watch these documentaries about him,
he was buying sports tickets for people at the California Bar,
(15:21):
the investigators, he was inviting them to parties, he was
giving them all kinds of gifts and money, and basically
bought off the California Bar. It is stunning, stunning to
read this that not only that a lawyer would steal
from his sick and injured clients fifteen million dollars, but
(15:45):
that the very people that are charged for overseeing lawyers,
the members of the California Bar, the investigators, that they
could be basically bought off or bribed to look the
other way. It is. It's an unbelievable story and the
reason why it's gotten so much so much press. Let me,
(16:08):
I want to check one thing here, because I want
to say something about this. So, if you remember the
movie Aaron Brockovich, Tom Girardi was the lawyer that was
depicted in that case, This is a big guy. And
(16:30):
then also his younger wife, much younger than him, was
in that I forget what it was called, like the
Real Housewives show where kind of these rich and spoiled
housewives get together and talk and have a show like
a reality show. His wife was in that. But there's
(16:52):
like this huge age difference. He's eighty five, and let
me let me see what her age is because a
lot of this money went went to her. Okay, so yeah,
her name is Erica Jane, and she's much younger than him.
(17:15):
I think she's let me see what Erica Jane's age is. Here,
I just find that she's fifty three. Okay, he's eighty
something years old. So if you listen to the podcast,
a lot of the money, a lot of the money
went to this wife, this younger wife, so she could
(17:40):
appear you know, rich and Lifestyles of the rich and famous.
You know, she's on this Housewife's of Orange County or
whatever it was called show, and Real Housewives is what
it was called. And so that's where a lot of
his money went to. Was sort of kind of supporting
that age, different of that marriage. But this is an incredible,
(18:04):
incredible story. I still can't believe that this guy got
away with this for so long. Certainly the amount of
money is nowhere near what Mattoff got away with, you know,
as a money manager the embezzled. But it's still shocking
how much money he embezzled from his clients and how
(18:24):
he was able to get away with it for so long,
And was I guess shrewd enough to spread that money
around to his contacts inside the California bar to keep
himself from losing his law license. All right, if you
haven't been watching the news, there is a major war
(18:45):
taking place right now in Israel. So just a couple
of days ago, they actually killed the leader of Hezbollah
and so now Iran is upset about this. Iran is
ready to jump in again and make a direct strike
on Israel. Israel is also striking not just into Lebanon
(19:08):
and not just into Gaza, but they're now striking into
Yemen because Yemen there's a group in Yemen that is
firing missiles at Israel. And if you're a student of
Bible prophecy, and when we get to this point where
like everybody has surrounded Israel and we're looking at that
(19:29):
scenario Eazeq Thirty eight, I mean, we are right at
the doors of the very end times in Bible prophecy,
and we could very well be there right now. With
what is happening in Israel, it has, unfortunately, regarding the
news coverage, I think people have become tired of hearing
about it because it's been such a big story really
(19:52):
for so many months now, this major battle that's going
on in the Middle East, that it's almost not getting
coverage anymore, which is really unfortunate. But man, Israel is
fighting for its you know, literal for its literal survival,
all right. So I have been talking about reelpicks dot us.
(20:13):
This is that training that I put together which is
just exploded and people are so excited about it. But
now what we're getting into with this recent hurricane and
all of this damage is we're getting into taking disaster pictures.
So I'll tell you what happened yesterday Saturday. I was
(20:35):
hired to go out here in Palm Coast and to
take about twenty five pictures of a house that is vacant,
and it was for an out of state owner that
simply wanted to confirm that there was no damage to
this home. And there wasn't any damage, but yet they
were paying me to do it, which is fine, I will,
(20:55):
I will accept their money. So I was hired to
go out and take several pictures and go into the home.
I was given the pass code to get in the
home and take pictures throughout and then take pictures on
the outside, and then I got paid to do that.
So what is probably about to happen here in the
next few days is all of these companies that were
(21:17):
working for taking pictures in reelpicks dot us. These companies
are about to unleash a boatload of these kinds of
picture assignments. Now, it very well could have been that
I went out and took a picture of that home
(21:37):
and it may have actually been damaged, in which case
the pictures would have shown the damage and then the
property manager would have sent out people to take care
of that. They were asking me questions about, you know,
or any windows broken, is there any debris that needs
to be removed, is there any damage to the roof,
all of those kind of things in addition to the
(21:58):
pictures that I was taking. Simply pointing out to you
again just another aspect to reelpicks dot us. We are
getting paid by banks, property managers, and mortgage companies to
go out and take pictures of real estate. And some
of these pay as little as ten bucks, some of
them pay fifty dollars, some of them pay even more
(22:19):
than that. And these are really short little assignments, like yesterday,
I was on property for about fifteen minutes. And people
love this as a side gig. So if you're interested
in finding out more, I've got a special offer for
those listening to the podcast. If you go to reelpicks
dot us, there are twelve videos there for you. These
(22:42):
are free videos that you can watch that will explain
to you in more detail what this opportunity is. If
you're somebody that's looking to make in extra hundred dollars
a week, or two hundred dollars a week, or three
hundred dollars a week, just trying to make some extra
side gig money, this is a great opportunity. Now I'm
offering something special to the podcast listeners if you send
(23:04):
me an email this week to James Elparis at gmail
dot com and just put in the subject line fifty
dollars coupon. I will give you a fifty dollars coupon
that will reduce the price of reelpicks dot Us for
you by fifty dollars if you're interested in that opportunity,
(23:25):
and again, just to find out more about it, go
to reelpicks dot us and watch the twelve free videos.
Also a quick note, we are doing a webinar on
Tuesday night a Zoom to talk about the upcoming trip
to Ireland. We will be traveling to Ireland next year
(23:48):
in June, from June tenth to the seventeenth, and it
is a group trip and we'd love to have you
join us and we'll be discussing all of those details
in the Zoom webinar on Tuesday night. If you'd like
to find out more and be invited to that zoom,
send me an email to James Elparis at gmail dot
(24:09):
com and put in the subject line Ireland trip Ireland trip.
All right, So are you a cord cutter meeting one
of those people that got rid of cable or would
like to get rid of cable. So there's so many
little tricks and shortcuts and apps that people are using
to be able to get away from traditional television and
(24:30):
cable TV, which is so expensive. I mean people are
telling me, oh, yeah, I've got a cable package. It's
one hundred and fifty a month, two hundred dollars a month.
It's insanity. So people are getting rid of cable. And
so there is a newer app that is actually being
promoted by the actor John Stamos, and it is called
(24:53):
zeeme z like and Zebra ea m like and mary
zea m zeem and it's a free app that you
can you can put it on your phone or your
computer and then if you've got a way to stream
that to your TV, which there's so many different apps
that do that now, whether it's Roku or the the
Chrome cast, whatever technology you use. Supposedly, I haven't checked
(25:17):
it out yet, but this zeem z e a m
will allow you to stream news and programming from all
the major cities in the United States. So it's it's
just a different way of being able to get content
for free, completely free content through zem all right, So
(25:41):
the town in Colorado, Aurora, Colorado, that had this or
still does have this problem with this Venezuelan gang. You
remember that the major media said, oh, that that's made up.
Trump made that up. That's not real, even though we
see the videos of these gang members walking around with
machine guns. So Aurora, Colorado just announced that they're allocating
(26:07):
ten million dollars more to combat the Venezuelan gangs. So
this non problem that doesn't exist that Trump just made up,
they're allocating ten million dollars more to dealing with it.
So obviously there is a there there all right. So
nobody's really been talking about this yet, and it doesn't
(26:30):
usually make much of a difference. I think this time
around it might. The vice presidential debate is coming up
on Tuesday night. Now there's only going to be one
debate between the vice presidential candidates jd. Vance and Tim Waltz,
but a lot of people are saying this is going
to make a big difference for a couple of reasons.
Number one, Trump is a little bit older. So the
(26:53):
idea of like making putting jd Vance out there in
front of a big audience and if he does great,
people thinking, wow, you know, he's a great backup for Trump.
If we have Trump and something happens, we've got Vance,
and we like Vance. So that's one of the reasons.
The other reason is that even more so between Trump
(27:16):
and Kamala Harris, I think there is going to be
a distinct difference that you're going to be able to
see between these two men. Not only do you have
a younger man in JD. Vance, but you have an
incredible debater. This guy, he is on his feet. I mean,
(27:36):
he is like a black belt in debating. He is
very very good, and he is very very conservative. Some
might argue he's even more conservative than Trump on a
lot of issues. And then you've got Tim Waltz, who
some would argue is even more liberal than Kamala Harris.
So you've got almost this like wider set of differences
(27:58):
between the two, and I think it's going to just
give another opportunity for that to be highlighted. You know,
here's the unfortunate thing about the debate that Trump had
with Harris and even with Biden, is there are so
many people that just don't like Trump. It almost doesn't
matter what he would say to those people, what he
(28:22):
would say in a debate. He could have the perfect
textbook debate, and people could still walk away and say, ah,
I don't know if he won or it was a tie,
or because they just don't like Trump. Trump has very
high negatives. JD. Vance is kind of like a you know,
people just don't know much about him, and so I
(28:42):
think it's going to be an opportunity for the Trump
ticket to really make without the filter of I hate Trump. Okay,
that Vance is going to have an opportunity to really
connect with the American people. We'll see what happens, but
I tell you, I think Vance will do great, and
I think it will really highlight the stark difference between
(29:05):
you know, our rock solid traditional conservative values and the
off the deep end stuff that Tim Waltz has supported
over the years, even more liberal than Kamala Harris, which
is really saying a lot. So many people are emailing
me they know him in the mortgage industry, they want
to know, you know, when is it time to start
(29:27):
really taking a look at refinancing. So I can give
you a couple of answers on that if you got
your mortgage in the last two years, maybe it's time
for you. But here's some kind of more specific numbers.
If your current interest rate is in the high sixes
or higher, you need to talk with me. We need
(29:49):
to like sit down and start looking at your situation.
It may or may not be the time right now
for you, but it would be good for me to
get you in my computer and at least start tracking
like when the time is going to be right for you,
because you know, if you can get if you can
drop your rate by like one one and a half percent,
(30:11):
it's time to start looking at it. And so it's
kind of a general rule of thumb, and it's going
to depend on some other factors like how long you
plan to be in the house and those kinds of things.
But there's no cost to talk to me, and I'd
love to just kind of give you a little analysis
of your circumstances. We can set up a quick phone
call to do that. And if you're interested in talking
(30:33):
about your mortgage, just send me an email to James
Elpeis at gmail dot com, just putting the mortgage, putting
the subject line mortgage or mortgage refinance, and then I'll
be able to get back to you on that all right.
According to a recent survey, seventy three percent of Amazon
remote workers are considering quitting after a new mandate has
(30:59):
been even that they must spend five days in the office.
And this is going to be interesting to see because
I think Amazon is the first one to really lay
down a marker and say this is it. You either
come back for a five day work week in the
office or you're gone. It'll be interesting to see who
(31:22):
wins the workforce or Amazon. People don't want to go
back into the office, and I get that. I mean
I don't. I work remote. I love the freedom. I
love not being in an office and having to dress
up and all the things that are expected of You've
got to be there at a certain time, you have
to be in boring meetings, all these things that you
don't like about being in an office. You know, you're
(31:45):
you're in the office all day. You know, you can't
do a little running around, like maybe you want to
go get a you know, a haircut, or run to
a dentists appointment, those kinds of things. Maybe you've got
pets at home that you'd have to pay somebody to
take care of, or maybe you have children that you're
home schooling, and you can kind of pull that off
and still be remote and kind of make your own hours.
There's a lot of things you can do when you're
(32:06):
remote that you can't do when you're in the office,
and not to mention the least of which is not
you know, the whole issue of commuting. Maybe you're in
a big city, you got to gas up the car
and drive an outreach way that's kind of another part
of it, or ride a train in to the city.
So this is going to be interesting to see what happens.
I certainly understand the corporate side of it, because what
(32:29):
I see and what I'm hearing from people that own
businesses is that remote kind of isn't working out too
well for the corporate side of it. They're not having
the synergy, they're not getting the productivity, and it just
kind of is what it is. So what came with COVID,
Maybe it's time to go back to the office for everybody.
(32:51):
We'll have to see how this plays out. In any case,
if you're looking for a job, maybe your opportunity is
with Amazon when they fire every bud. You can get
a job with Amazon if you're willing to go into
an office. And we'll close it out with this. This
is a crazy story, So, uh, California is now passing
legislation that will allow electric vehicles to be wired to
(33:17):
actually power your house. Now this is bizarre, so let
me tell you how this is gonna work. So when
you plug your car in at your house, your you know,
your electricity from the house would normally charge up your car, right,
(33:38):
but let's say there's a power outage, or let's say
that there is like a high demand on the power grid,
which has happened in California, you know, in the summers,
and that sort of thing. This new law would allow
like the car to stop being charged and all of
a sudden, the car is now powering the house. So
the car would be like a home generator. I think
(34:02):
it's an interesting idea, but then I'm thinking about it, like,
how is that really I guess in an emergency, that
would be really cool that you know, hey, go plug
the car and now the house comes back on if
you've lost power. I think that would be really cool.
But the idea that this would in any way like
save power, I mean, the car still has to get
(34:23):
charged up, So maybe like you drive the car to
your workplace and then you plug it in there and
charge it up all day and then you come home
and plug it in and now it's charging your house.
So you're basically taking electricity from one place and putting
it in another. So I don't really see a savings there.
But that's kind of how this is being sold, which
(34:46):
is that it's not only sort of an emergency back
up for the home, but maybe it's going to somehow
save you on home electricity. I'm not sure on the
second part of that how that would really happen, but
I guess if there's a lot of places you can
go and plug in for free, plug your car and
you know, go to the mall for two hours, plug
(35:08):
the car in, get it charged up, and then when
you come home, you know, crank up the air and
plug the car into the house and let the car
run the house. I mean, I guess it can be
done that way, but I mean, you're not really actually
saving on the demand of electricity. You're simply storing electricity
(35:28):
from one place and then using it in another. And
maybe I'm misunderstanding it, but that was a story I
just read a few minutes ago, and I thought, h
Allly in California. I mean, I do like the idea
of the car being like your emergency generator. I think
that's pretty cool. It's kind of very George Jetson ish.
(35:49):
But the other part of it, huh, doesn't really sound
It sounds like we're like moving something from one pocket
to the other. But that's what the government does. Is
kind of funny, funny accounting one way or the other.
All right, thanks so much for joining us. So if
you want to get in touch, the email is James
Olparis at gmail dot com. Tell your friends about the podcast,
take a minute run over to iTunes, leave us a
(36:09):
five star review. All those things help the program grow.
Thanks so much for joining us. We'll talk to you
next time. So long, everybody,
Gentlemen, start your engines, all right, mister garbokof teared down.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
This one the only thing we have to fire fare
by not crock.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
If you like your healthcare plan, you will.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Be on to keep your health care plan. Ye sick
by are three fine fire.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
You're listening to Jim Paris Live, your source for the
latest news on money, politics, prophecy, and preparedness, and now
your host, the editor in chief of Christian Money dot
com and the author of more than thirty books. Jim Paris.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
All right, hello everybody, and welcome to the broadcast. Man,
it is unbelievable, right what is happening from this hurricane.
Literally parts of Interstate forty are gone. From what I
just read today, there is a closure of all of
(01:23):
western North Carolina that we're talking about, this huge area
that essentially every road is closed in western North Carolina.
And I don't know in my lifetime if I have
ever seen anything like this. And what makes it worse
(01:47):
is that a lot of people were honestly not expecting
very much from this hurricane. In fact, we had a
guy here in one of our local groups. They have
these groups on Facebook like Friends of Palm Coast Flagler
Beach friends those kinds of groups. There was a guy
in there and he was bragging about how he survived
(02:10):
Hurricane Andrew as a teenager and how this storm will
be nothing and people need to just basically nothing to
see here, go about your business. And I thought that
was just totally irresponsible. And this is exhibit a that
you never know, you never know, and it is also
just a reminder of how powerful, how powerful nature is.
(02:36):
And you know, we as human beings, we're thinking like, oh,
we're gonna build this highway, we're gonna have this big
real estate development, we're gonna build a house on the
side of this mountain. We're gonna do all these things,
and then you just look at what the power of
nature is. And there are entire towns that were completely
(02:58):
swept away. It is devastation beyond what anybody could ever
have imagined. And it just goes to show you that
when you look at these storms, you have no idea
what they're going to do, and how we're all just
we're all here on this earth just on a thread.
(03:20):
We never know how much time we have left. We
have no idea what natural disaster could be around the
next corner when you think about it, and you think, okay,
people in the mountains, just think about this. A week ago,
you're living in the mountains of North Carolina and there's
(03:42):
this hurricane out in the Gulf of Mexico. How could
you possibly imagine anything like this. You're just going about
your business thinking this is nothing. This is a problem
for people in Florida. But look at what happened. It's
it's onreal and these storms are so unpredictable what they
(04:05):
can do, and a lot of times it's not the wind.
You think about the wind doing all this damage when
you think about a hurricane, but this was really an
event about rain and about water, and there is probably
no greater power in nature than the power of rushing water.
(04:28):
And to see entire towns just boom, they're gone. Just
two hours from where I'm sitting right now in my studio,
there is complete and utter devastation. Also here in Florida,
in the so called Big Bend area of Florida. This
is where you have the kind of that that corner,
(04:50):
that that turn that happens in the state of Florida
where you have sort of the Peninsula part of Florida.
Then you have the Panhandle, as they call it, where
those two connect. They call that the Big Bend of Florida.
So just about two hours west of where I'm sitting
right now, little towns like cedar Key and Crystal River
(05:15):
complete in utter devastation. People don't know what to do.
I'm looking at pictures online and people are looking at
their houses. In some cases water up to the rooftops.
People were in attics, they were on rooftops trying to
survive this. Some people are looking at their houses today
(05:38):
and it is literally to the rooftops mud, and they
don't know where to start. They have there is no
blueprint for this. There is no well, let's send in
a crew and remove trillions and trillions of square feet
of mud. I mean, what happens now? And then when
(06:01):
you look at it from a catastrophic loss standpoint, you know,
most people have insurance on their homes, but then there's
a separate issue of flood insurance. And so this looks
like it was a flood event, and they're very well
could be tens of thousands, maybe over one hundred thousand people.
(06:24):
Maybe maybe we're talking hundreds of thousands of people that
may have lost their homes, and there may be no
insurance company that's technically on the hook to save these people.
And can you imagine having a mortgage on a home.
(06:45):
You lose your home and there's no insurance company then
to turn around and go to to get that house
rebuilt or replaced or repaired. I don't know. It's going
to make you take government money. They're talking about it's
gonna take years to restore everything. There are still I
(07:11):
believe over a million people without power right now, maybe
even two million people. And here we are, you know,
two or three days away from this storm. I took
the day off on Wednesday, just stayed in my condo binge,
watched a show I really like called prison Break, just
(07:34):
kind of you know, say, hey, today's a day to
take off. So I took off Wednesday, did a little
bit of work on the computer, and then the same
thing Friday. I did work, but just here from my apartment.
I figured why be out on the roads, why take
any chances? And then like right where I live, there
was almost nothing that happened. We had some people without
(07:56):
power over on the Flagler Beach side, but I drove
around and a tree down maybe here or there, but
otherwise we were fine. And yet not too far from
here is complete devastation. And then just harder to wrap
your brain around is the incredible flooding that is taking
(08:21):
place in the Carolinas. In Tennessee, apparently even much of
Georgia had significant problems. From this guy that I know,
he's like kind of halfway between the Florida line and Atlanta,
kind of in that, you know, South Georgia, Central Georgia area.
(08:43):
He lost most of his roof and the trees. There
are so many trees down that people can't get out
of their neighborhoods to get to the gas station, to
get to work, to get to the grocery store. And
it's going to take weeks just to get people out
of these areas in North Carolina, the western portion of
(09:03):
North Carolina, people are trapped. There is no way in
or out except by helicopter. It's it's on believable what
has happened. Just so sad. Well, today I had a
great day, honestly, even with all this happening. You know,
(09:24):
you've got to still take care of yourself and move forward,
and you know, pray for these folks. I went down
to the beach today, and I love doing this. If
I can do it at least once a week, I'll
never get tired of watching the sunrise at the at
the ocean here. I did that, then I came back home,
I got the bike out, did a nice bike ride,
(09:46):
so you know, I had a good relaxing day. Was
excited about doing the podcast here this evening, and also
just wanted to mention that I know I put this
out on my Facebook and a lot of you that
listen our Facebook friends. I really love my new BJAS membership.
And I mentioned that on the show that in our
(10:07):
town we now have a BJ's Discount club or warehouse,
whatever it's called. And I've never really gotten into these warehouses.
I think there was a time when our kids were little,
back when I was married, and my ex wife, you know,
at the time, she would go to a Sam's Club,
(10:27):
I think it was, but I don't know that I
ever went to a Sam's club. I might have gone
once to a Sam's Club. So I was thinking, this
isn't for me, this whole big thing, this BJ's whatever,
But I really like the place. The people are so nice.
I have to tell you that I've just never been
to like a grocery store kind of a place where
the workers were so friendly and where they have me.
(10:50):
I have to tell you, I'm gonna be honest with
you right now. Where they got me is the dollar
sixty five. You get a quarter pound hot dog an
a soda for a dollars six. Don't don't email me
and tell me I'm eating wrong. I know that I
don't go there every day, but a couple of times
a week. Now I'm going in there getting that hot
dog and then whatever that I need. So for me,
(11:13):
the question was is this going to work out for
me as a single guy? And so there are certain
things I buy in there. I buy, like I love
chicken thighs, So they have like this, you know, big
giant tray of boneless chicken thighs that I buy, which
they have prices are like half of what the regular
(11:35):
grocery stores charge. Also, salad, you know, buy prepackaged salad.
That's something I'll buy. I buy the five dollars grab
and go rotisserie chicken. So there's a lot of good
stuff there, and they've got clothing and electronics and a
lot of other things. I haven't really looked into yet
not everything there is necessarily a good deal, but that
(11:56):
there are some things you know, that are great prices
and work for me in my situation. So yeah, I'm
loving it. I'm loving my Bjay's membership. All right. So
there is a guy by the name of Tom Girardi,
and that name may not ring a bell with you,
but if you don't know who this guy is, you've
(12:16):
got to google it, and you've got to read this story.
I was just listening to a podcast about this and
I think it was forty eight hours. I'm gonna type
it in here just so I can give this to you,
because if you love podcasts like true crime, you're gonna
love listening to this. Yeah. So there is there's this guy,
(12:39):
all right. So yeah, So you can go to you
can go online to the different podcast sites and you
can find the episodes. There's several different places you can go.
You can just go to like pocket cast or any
of the podcast platforms and you can listen to this
(13:02):
or there's even some actual documentary he's done about this guy. Anyway.
He is an attorney who is a disbarred attorney in California.
And what is fascinating about this is that apparently for years,
for like fifteen or twenty years, he was representing clients
(13:26):
where you know, you would go to this guy for
representation if you were injured, et cetera, et cetera personal
injury lawyer and you would win your case, but you
wouldn't get your money. And he was convicted of embezzling
fifteen million dollars from his clients. Now, what makes this
(13:52):
so really fascinating to me is that over all these
years where he wasn't paying people, there was something like
one hundred or two hundred complaints made to the California
Bar about this guy. Now, most lawyers will tell you
get one or two bar complaints, if they're actually true,
(14:14):
you would possibly most probably lose your license if you
have done something unethical. And the number one thing you
can do as a lawyer to absolutely guarantee that you
will lose your license is to play around with clients' money.
And that's exactly what this guy did. And he would
(14:35):
string people along and string people along for years not
giving them their lawsuit proceeds. I mean, remember, as an attorney,
you already get a big chunk. I think in most
states it's like a third of the money goes to
the lawyer in Florida. If it goes to trial, the
lawyer gets forty percent. So as it is, you're getting
(14:57):
forty percent, you're getting forty cents on the dollar in
a lot of cases, but the clients get the other portion.
And that wasn't good enough for this guy. And so
it's just fascinating how he got away with this. If
you listen to these podcasts and watch these documentaries about him,
he was buying sports tickets for people at the California Bar,
(15:21):
the investigators, he was inviting them to parties, he was
giving them all kinds of gifts and money, and basically
bought off the California Bar. It is stunning, stunning to
read this that not only that a lawyer would steal
from his sick and injured clients fifteen million dollars, but
(15:45):
that the very people that are charged for overseeing lawyers,
the members of the California Bar, the investigators, that they
could be basically bought off or bribed to look the
other way. It is. It's an unbelievable story and the
reason why it's gotten so much so much press. Let me,
(16:08):
I want to check one thing here, because I want
to say something about this. So, if you remember the
movie Aaron Brockovich, Tom Girardi was the lawyer that was
depicted in that case, This is a big guy. And
(16:30):
then also his younger wife, much younger than him, was
in that I forget what it was called, like the
Real Housewives show where kind of these rich and spoiled
housewives get together and talk and have a show like
a reality show. His wife was in that. But there's
(16:52):
like this huge age difference. He's eighty five, and let
me let me see what her age is because a
lot of this money went went to her. Okay, so yeah,
her name is Erica Jane, and she's much younger than him.
(17:15):
I think she's let me see what Erica Jane's age is. Here,
I just find that she's fifty three. Okay, he's eighty
something years old. So if you listen to the podcast,
a lot of the money, a lot of the money
went to this wife, this younger wife, so she could
(17:40):
appear you know, rich and Lifestyles of the rich and famous.
You know, she's on this Housewife's of Orange County or
whatever it was called show, and Real Housewives is what
it was called. And so that's where a lot of
his money went to. Was sort of kind of supporting
that age, different of that marriage. But this is an incredible,
(18:04):
incredible story. I still can't believe that this guy got
away with this for so long. Certainly the amount of
money is nowhere near what Mattoff got away with, you know,
as a money manager the embezzled. But it's still shocking
how much money he embezzled from his clients and how
(18:24):
he was able to get away with it for so long,
And was I guess shrewd enough to spread that money
around to his contacts inside the California bar to keep
himself from losing his law license. All right, if you
haven't been watching the news, there is a major war
(18:45):
taking place right now in Israel. So just a couple
of days ago, they actually killed the leader of Hezbollah
and so now Iran is upset about this. Iran is
ready to jump in again and make a direct strike
on Israel. Israel is also striking not just into Lebanon
(19:08):
and not just into Gaza, but they're now striking into
Yemen because Yemen there's a group in Yemen that is
firing missiles at Israel. And if you're a student of
Bible prophecy, and when we get to this point where
like everybody has surrounded Israel and we're looking at that
(19:29):
scenario Eazeq Thirty eight, I mean, we are right at
the doors of the very end times in Bible prophecy,
and we could very well be there right now. With
what is happening in Israel, it has, unfortunately, regarding the
news coverage, I think people have become tired of hearing
about it because it's been such a big story really
(19:52):
for so many months now, this major battle that's going
on in the Middle East, that it's almost not getting
coverage anymore, which is really unfortunate. But man, Israel is
fighting for its you know, literal for its literal survival,
all right. So I have been talking about reelpicks dot us.
(20:13):
This is that training that I put together which is
just exploded and people are so excited about it. But
now what we're getting into with this recent hurricane and
all of this damage is we're getting into taking disaster pictures.
So I'll tell you what happened yesterday Saturday. I was
(20:35):
hired to go out here in Palm Coast and to
take about twenty five pictures of a house that is vacant,
and it was for an out of state owner that
simply wanted to confirm that there was no damage to
this home. And there wasn't any damage, but yet they
were paying me to do it, which is fine, I will,
(20:55):
I will accept their money. So I was hired to
go out and take several pictures and go into the home.
I was given the pass code to get in the
home and take pictures throughout and then take pictures on
the outside, and then I got paid to do that.
So what is probably about to happen here in the
next few days is all of these companies that were
(21:17):
working for taking pictures in reelpicks dot us. These companies
are about to unleash a boatload of these kinds of
picture assignments. Now, it very well could have been that
I went out and took a picture of that home
(21:37):
and it may have actually been damaged, in which case
the pictures would have shown the damage and then the
property manager would have sent out people to take care
of that. They were asking me questions about, you know,
or any windows broken, is there any debris that needs
to be removed, is there any damage to the roof,
all of those kind of things in addition to the
(21:58):
pictures that I was taking. Simply pointing out to you
again just another aspect to reelpicks dot us. We are
getting paid by banks, property managers, and mortgage companies to
go out and take pictures of real estate. And some
of these pay as little as ten bucks, some of
them pay fifty dollars, some of them pay even more
(22:19):
than that. And these are really short little assignments, like yesterday,
I was on property for about fifteen minutes. And people
love this as a side gig. So if you're interested
in finding out more, I've got a special offer for
those listening to the podcast. If you go to reelpicks
dot us, there are twelve videos there for you. These
(22:42):
are free videos that you can watch that will explain
to you in more detail what this opportunity is. If
you're somebody that's looking to make in extra hundred dollars
a week, or two hundred dollars a week, or three
hundred dollars a week, just trying to make some extra
side gig money, this is a great opportunity. Now I'm
offering something special to the podcast listeners if you send
(23:04):
me an email this week to James Elparis at gmail
dot com and just put in the subject line fifty
dollars coupon. I will give you a fifty dollars coupon
that will reduce the price of reelpicks dot Us for
you by fifty dollars if you're interested in that opportunity,
(23:25):
and again, just to find out more about it, go
to reelpicks dot us and watch the twelve free videos.
Also a quick note, we are doing a webinar on
Tuesday night a Zoom to talk about the upcoming trip
to Ireland. We will be traveling to Ireland next year
(23:48):
in June, from June tenth to the seventeenth, and it
is a group trip and we'd love to have you
join us and we'll be discussing all of those details
in the Zoom webinar on Tuesday night. If you'd like
to find out more and be invited to that zoom,
send me an email to James Elparis at gmail dot
(24:09):
com and put in the subject line Ireland trip Ireland trip.
All right, So are you a cord cutter meeting one
of those people that got rid of cable or would
like to get rid of cable. So there's so many
little tricks and shortcuts and apps that people are using
to be able to get away from traditional television and
(24:30):
cable TV, which is so expensive. I mean people are
telling me, oh, yeah, I've got a cable package. It's
one hundred and fifty a month, two hundred dollars a month.
It's insanity. So people are getting rid of cable. And
so there is a newer app that is actually being
promoted by the actor John Stamos, and it is called
(24:53):
zeeme z like and Zebra ea m like and mary
zea m zeem and it's a free app that you
can you can put it on your phone or your
computer and then if you've got a way to stream
that to your TV, which there's so many different apps
that do that now, whether it's Roku or the the
Chrome cast, whatever technology you use. Supposedly, I haven't checked
(25:17):
it out yet, but this zeem z e a m
will allow you to stream news and programming from all
the major cities in the United States. So it's it's
just a different way of being able to get content
for free, completely free content through zem all right, So
(25:41):
the town in Colorado, Aurora, Colorado, that had this or
still does have this problem with this Venezuelan gang. You
remember that the major media said, oh, that that's made up.
Trump made that up. That's not real, even though we
see the videos of these gang members walking around with
machine guns. So Aurora, Colorado just announced that they're allocating
(26:07):
ten million dollars more to combat the Venezuelan gangs. So
this non problem that doesn't exist that Trump just made up,
they're allocating ten million dollars more to dealing with it.
So obviously there is a there there all right. So
nobody's really been talking about this yet, and it doesn't
(26:30):
usually make much of a difference. I think this time
around it might. The vice presidential debate is coming up
on Tuesday night. Now there's only going to be one
debate between the vice presidential candidates jd. Vance and Tim Waltz,
but a lot of people are saying this is going
to make a big difference for a couple of reasons.
Number one, Trump is a little bit older. So the
(26:53):
idea of like making putting jd Vance out there in
front of a big audience and if he does great,
people thinking, wow, you know, he's a great backup for Trump.
If we have Trump and something happens, we've got Vance,
and we like Vance. So that's one of the reasons.
The other reason is that even more so between Trump
(27:16):
and Kamala Harris, I think there is going to be
a distinct difference that you're going to be able to
see between these two men. Not only do you have
a younger man in JD. Vance, but you have an
incredible debater. This guy, he is on his feet. I mean,
(27:36):
he is like a black belt in debating. He is
very very good, and he is very very conservative. Some
might argue he's even more conservative than Trump on a
lot of issues. And then you've got Tim Waltz, who
some would argue is even more liberal than Kamala Harris.
So you've got almost this like wider set of differences
(27:58):
between the two, and I think it's going to just
give another opportunity for that to be highlighted. You know,
here's the unfortunate thing about the debate that Trump had
with Harris and even with Biden, is there are so
many people that just don't like Trump. It almost doesn't
matter what he would say to those people, what he
(28:22):
would say in a debate. He could have the perfect
textbook debate, and people could still walk away and say, ah,
I don't know if he won or it was a tie,
or because they just don't like Trump. Trump has very
high negatives. JD. Vance is kind of like a you know,
people just don't know much about him, and so I
(28:42):
think it's going to be an opportunity for the Trump
ticket to really make without the filter of I hate Trump. Okay,
that Vance is going to have an opportunity to really
connect with the American people. We'll see what happens, but
I tell you, I think Vance will do great, and
I think it will really highlight the stark difference between
(29:05):
you know, our rock solid traditional conservative values and the
off the deep end stuff that Tim Waltz has supported
over the years, even more liberal than Kamala Harris, which
is really saying a lot. So many people are emailing
me they know him in the mortgage industry, they want
to know, you know, when is it time to start
(29:27):
really taking a look at refinancing. So I can give
you a couple of answers on that if you got
your mortgage in the last two years, maybe it's time
for you. But here's some kind of more specific numbers.
If your current interest rate is in the high sixes
or higher, you need to talk with me. We need
(29:49):
to like sit down and start looking at your situation.
It may or may not be the time right now
for you, but it would be good for me to
get you in my computer and at least start tracking
like when the time is going to be right for you,
because you know, if you can get if you can
drop your rate by like one one and a half percent,
(30:11):
it's time to start looking at it. And so it's
kind of a general rule of thumb, and it's going
to depend on some other factors like how long you
plan to be in the house and those kinds of things.
But there's no cost to talk to me, and I'd
love to just kind of give you a little analysis
of your circumstances. We can set up a quick phone
call to do that. And if you're interested in talking
(30:33):
about your mortgage, just send me an email to James
Elpeis at gmail dot com, just putting the mortgage, putting
the subject line mortgage or mortgage refinance, and then I'll
be able to get back to you on that all right.
According to a recent survey, seventy three percent of Amazon
remote workers are considering quitting after a new mandate has
(30:59):
been even that they must spend five days in the office.
And this is going to be interesting to see because
I think Amazon is the first one to really lay
down a marker and say this is it. You either
come back for a five day work week in the
office or you're gone. It'll be interesting to see who
(31:22):
wins the workforce or Amazon. People don't want to go
back into the office, and I get that. I mean
I don't. I work remote. I love the freedom. I
love not being in an office and having to dress
up and all the things that are expected of You've
got to be there at a certain time, you have
to be in boring meetings, all these things that you
don't like about being in an office. You know, you're
(31:45):
you're in the office all day. You know, you can't
do a little running around, like maybe you want to
go get a you know, a haircut, or run to
a dentists appointment, those kinds of things. Maybe you've got
pets at home that you'd have to pay somebody to
take care of, or maybe you have children that you're
home schooling, and you can kind of pull that off
and still be remote and kind of make your own hours.
There's a lot of things you can do when you're
(32:06):
remote that you can't do when you're in the office,
and not to mention the least of which is not
you know, the whole issue of commuting. Maybe you're in
a big city, you got to gas up the car
and drive an outreach way that's kind of another part
of it, or ride a train in to the city.
So this is going to be interesting to see what happens.
I certainly understand the corporate side of it, because what
(32:29):
I see and what I'm hearing from people that own
businesses is that remote kind of isn't working out too
well for the corporate side of it. They're not having
the synergy, they're not getting the productivity, and it just
kind of is what it is. So what came with COVID,
Maybe it's time to go back to the office for everybody.
(32:51):
We'll have to see how this plays out. In any case,
if you're looking for a job, maybe your opportunity is
with Amazon when they fire every bud. You can get
a job with Amazon if you're willing to go into
an office. And we'll close it out with this. This
is a crazy story, So, uh, California is now passing
legislation that will allow electric vehicles to be wired to
(33:17):
actually power your house. Now this is bizarre, so let
me tell you how this is gonna work. So when
you plug your car in at your house, your you know,
your electricity from the house would normally charge up your car, right,
(33:38):
but let's say there's a power outage, or let's say
that there is like a high demand on the power grid,
which has happened in California, you know, in the summers,
and that sort of thing. This new law would allow
like the car to stop being charged and all of
a sudden, the car is now powering the house. So
the car would be like a home generator. I think
(34:02):
it's an interesting idea, but then I'm thinking about it, like,
how is that really I guess in an emergency, that
would be really cool that you know, hey, go plug
the car and now the house comes back on if
you've lost power. I think that would be really cool.
But the idea that this would in any way like
save power, I mean, the car still has to get
(34:23):
charged up, So maybe like you drive the car to
your workplace and then you plug it in there and
charge it up all day and then you come home
and plug it in and now it's charging your house.
So you're basically taking electricity from one place and putting
it in another. So I don't really see a savings there.
But that's kind of how this is being sold, which
(34:46):
is that it's not only sort of an emergency back
up for the home, but maybe it's going to somehow
save you on home electricity. I'm not sure on the
second part of that how that would really happen, but
I guess if there's a lot of places you can
go and plug in for free, plug your car and
you know, go to the mall for two hours, plug
(35:08):
the car in, get it charged up, and then when
you come home, you know, crank up the air and
plug the car into the house and let the car
run the house. I mean, I guess it can be
done that way, but I mean, you're not really actually
saving on the demand of electricity. You're simply storing electricity
(35:28):
from one place and then using it in another. And
maybe I'm misunderstanding it, but that was a story I
just read a few minutes ago, and I thought, h
Allly in California. I mean, I do like the idea
of the car being like your emergency generator. I think
that's pretty cool. It's kind of very George Jetson ish.
(35:49):
But the other part of it, huh, doesn't really sound
It sounds like we're like moving something from one pocket
to the other. But that's what the government does. Is
kind of funny, funny accounting one way or the other.
All right, thanks so much for joining us. So if
you want to get in touch, the email is James
Olparis at gmail dot com. Tell your friends about the podcast,
take a minute run over to iTunes, leave us a
(36:09):
five star review. All those things help the program grow.
Thanks so much for joining us. We'll talk to you
next time. So long, everybody,
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