Explaining the Barr investigation

Ever wondered why the Democrats were so quick to move to impeach the president over a telephone call? I mean with all the things they’ve threatened impeachment over it ends up being a simple phone call to the Ukrainian president? It was completely out of the blue over the course of one weekend and boom! Suddenly we were in the middle of an impeachment inquiry. Don’t worry. By the end of this column everything will make perfect sense.

President Trump’s phone call to the Ukrainian president sent shivers down the spines of certain Democrats. It should have indicated to the rest of us that Trump and his people were over the target. 

This whole thing begins and ends with a man named Joseph Mifsud. Professor Mifsud split his teaching time between London and Rome. He was the one who allegedly told George Papadopoulos, a Trump advisor, that the Russians had Hillary’s e-mails and had found dirt on her. Papadopoulos ended up telling that to Alexander Downer, an Australian diplomat. Downer, in turn, told the FBI and thus began the whole Trump/Russia collusion investigation.

As we’re now finding out, both Mifsud and Downer may very well have been U.S. intelligence assets. Papadopoulos contends he was set up. He says he was fed information from one U.S. intelligence asset and then coaxed into giving the same information to another U.S. intelligence asset thus creating probable cause. The truth of the matter, as it now appears, is the Papdopoulos affair was an isolated incident. Papadopoulos was in a closed loop and the FBI knew it from the start. The question that remains is whether it was the FBI who desperately tried to conflate the Papadopoulos angle or if it was the Mueller team

Ever since Bill Barr became attorney general he’s been trying to untangle the complicated web that was weaved in the Trump/Russia collusion scandal. As Mueller’s report found, there was no collusion. Then how does such a conspiracy take root and consume the front pages for better than two years?

Professor Mifsud has maintained that he was not an intelligence asset and that he never discussed dirt on Hillary with Papadopoulos. Whatever his story, he went missing from the university at which he teaches in Rome and sometime later turned up at the doorstep of Italian intelligence claiming his life was in danger and requested police protection. He gave a taped deposition explaining why he thought his life was in danger. The Department of Justice was alerted and Bill Barr was on his way to Rome within two days along with U.S. Attorney John Durham.

Once at the American embassy in Rome, Barr insisted on a secure room where he could meet with high-level Italian intelligence agents and listen to Mifsud’s tape. Soon after returning from Rome, the inquiry into the origins of the Trump/Russia collusion story was upped to a criminal investigation. 

What’s interesting—and telling—is how the mainstream media continually refer to the Mifsud angle and the possibility that Trump was set up as an ‘unfounded conspiracy theory’ yet they treat the Mueller investigation as totally legit. If there ever was an unfounded conspiracy theory it was that Donald Trump was a Russian spy.

Once the Democrats had impeachment lodged in the American psyche they immediately moved to destroy Barr’s reputation by claiming he’d “gone rogue.” And now that Barr has kicked his investigation into high gear the Democrats suddenly call for an impeachment inquiry vote? You tell me which one is the conspiracy and which one’s the theory.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show, on SuperTalk 99.7WTN in Nashville. He's also co-host of The PodGOATs podcast.

The China question is not hard

I’ve heard a lot of commentary lately on what to do if you’re an executive of a company doing business with China. Surely you’ve been following some of the flap in the NBA over a tweet by Rockets GM Daryl Morey. Morey tweeted, “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.” Innocent enough, right? Who could be against fighting for freedom? Well, the NBA threw a hissy fit. They made Morey delete the tweet then began their tightrope act trying to balance between pleasing their Chinese market and not looking like the stooges for communism and oppression that they are.

LeBron James weighed in saying Morey needed to educate himself on the subject and sided with the Chinese communists. Apparently it’s James who needs to educate himself. The Chinese have murdered far more people than the Nazis ever thought about killing. Yet James Harden, who plays for the Rockets, felt compelled to apologize for his boss’s tweet.

Since the controversy began I’ve heard political pundits and business experts chime in on the dichotomy of running a corporation and supporting freedom at the same time. I’m going to make it real easy for everybody.

There are alarm bells that go off in the heads of most people when they’re doing something wrong. It’s called your conscience. This is your inner sense that guides you. When you get too close to doing something wrong you start to feel something in your stomach. Some people condition themselves to ignore this inner sense and plow forward anyway. These people are what’s known as psychopaths. They are the kings of rationalization. They will convince themselves, then in turn try convince others, that what they’re doing is actually right when they and everybody else knows it’s wrong.

If you made $200,000 last year but only claimed $50,000 on your tax returns because the other $150,000 was made through the sale of cocaine then an alarm bell should be going off in your head. You can rationalize it by saying your employer doesn’t pay you what you’re worth or you’re just providing a service for people who are going to get their coke from somewhere, but you’re a psychopath. You know it’s wrong, but you continue to ignore your conscience and do it anyway. Eventually your conscience is pushed so far away that you no longer even hear it.

If you’re a businessman and you do business with the mafia you know it’s wrong. You may not even rationalize it. You just know it’s wrong, but it’s too lucrative to turn down. You also know that if you ever criticize anything the mafia holds near and dear you’ll be swimming with the fishes. So you keep your trap shut.

Here’s the bottom line. Making money and freedom of speech are not mutually exclusive. If you’re making money but you can’t stand up for freedom and liberty because of it, then alarm bells should be blaring in your ears. You’re doing something wrong.

Think about how you’re making money right now, whatever your job. Would you get in trouble if you tweeted support for Hong Kong? Would you get in trouble if you tweeted support for freedom and liberty anywhere? Then you’re not selling your soul for your livelihood. You’re doing the right thing.

This ain’t hard, folks. It’s something I’ve been preaching for over 20 years. We should not be dealing with a brutal, murderous, communist regime. If that’s the way you’re making your money then you’re doing something wrong. And if alarm bells are blaring in your head right now then there’s something seriously wrong with you.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show, on SuperTalk 99.7WTN in Nashville. He's also co-host of The PodGOATs podcast.

I don't care about diversity

When it comes to dealing with a business, I couldn’t care less about diversity. That may sound like heresy in this day and age of political correctness, but diversity is the enemy of excellence. There was a story recently where Air Canada is going to stop announcing ‘ladies and gentlemen’ on their flights in recognition of ‘gender fluidity.’ News flash: Gender is not fluid. You’re either a man or a woman. Sure there are some men who want to be women and vice versa, but wishing doesn’t make it so. Nor does my identifying as the King of England make it so.

While Air Canada brags on their website that they’ve been named one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers, they’ve also been named the worst airline in North America for flight delays. You see, referring to people as ze, zir, or zem ain’t getting them to their destinations on time. Diversity is killing customer service.

Does that mean I want everybody I deal with to be white? No, just the opposite. I don’t care who I’m dealing with as long as they’re great at what they do. Diversity for diversity’s sake forsakes everything else. What these companies who put diversity first end up doing is attracting people with chips on their shoulders because society won’t accept them for this or that or the other. When I’m trying to book a flight I don’t give a rat’s rump about your personal problems. Sorry. All I care about is getting to where I’m going to on time and in reasonable comfort.

To show you how ridiculous this diversity thing has gotten, Asians apparently aren’t diverse enough anymore. Harvard has been blocking the number of Asians it accepts because, well, they’re too darn qualified. They’re taking up spaces black or Hispanic people could occupy. The Asians took Harvard to court for discrimination and they lost! Yes, they lost. The judge wrote in her ruling, “Ensuring diversity at Harvard relies, in part, on race conscious admissions.”

See there. It’s all about ensuring diversity at Harvard. It’s not in the least about excellence or who’s most qualified, or any of the things that used to matter in a great country. All that matters is a school or business ‘looks like America.’

Let me ask you something. Does the NBA ‘look like America?’ Of course not. You know what the NBA, the NFL, NHL and MLB are all about? Excellence. You think a sports fan cares about anything else aside from winning? Sports are the last frontier of excellence in America. It’s all about being the best, regardless of race or gender or perceived gender.

Ever wondered why customer service stinks? Wonder no more. When a company is more interested in accommodating the employee rather than the customer then customer service will always stink. 

Georgetown University, riddled with guilt over the Jesuit priests who sold 272 slaves in 1838 to keep the school afloat, announced affirmative action for descendants of those slaves. The interesting part is they don’t get automatic admission. They get the same advantage as ‘legacy students.’ These are students whose family members went to Georgetown. Yeah, universities across the country do this, and it hasn’t occurred to even one liberal diversity do-gooder how patently unfair that is.

So legacy leg-ups stay and they’re adding an advantage if you’re a dude who wants to be a woman. Where is excellence in all of this? It’s not there, and it will be the downfall of this country if we’re not careful. It’s time we got back to being better rather than being different.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show, on SuperTalk 99.7WTN in Nashville. He's also co-host of The PodGOATs podcast.

Syria's complicated, which is why we're pulling back

You know you’ve fallen down the rabbit hole when a president of the United States announces total military withdrawal from a foreign country and the folks at MSNBC go nuts. They weren’t the only ones. Neocons and the military industrial complex lost their minds, too. Then President Trump let the world know that we only had about fifty soldiers left in Syria.

It was as if the country had collective amnesia. President Trump announced last December that we were pulling out of Syria and it was met with the same outrage and condemnation from the same quarters. What’s head-scratching is that these same folks were stunned by Trump’s most recent announcement. It’s just the final stage of a troop draw-down that’s been going on for about eight months.

So, why is the president leaving Syria? Well, if the mainstream media in America actually chose to tell the truth for once you’d learn that the 50 to 100 U.S. special forces soldiers would be redeployed to more secure positions inside Syria. Why are they pulling back from the 30km safe zone on the border with Turkey? Because the job is done. We routed ISIS. They are operationally gelded. And should they rear their ugly heads again we stand prepared to lop them off. Again.

But what about the Kurds? This is where the pro-war forces join with the anti-Trump leftists. Somehow we’re leaving the Kurds high and dry to be slaughtered by the Turks. How can we abandon such a strong ally? First, let’s get the terms straight. Turkey, as a member of NATO, is technically our ally. We have a sworn treaty to protect them and our other NATO allies. Second, a large part of the Kurdish separatist movement is fomented by the PKK. This is the Kurdistan Workers Party. Yep, just like they sound, they’re a bunch of Marxist commies. They claim an area at the convergence of Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey as Kurdistan. It’s not a real place. They want parts of Southern Turkey as their own. The Turks will fight to keep that territory in Turkey, and rightfully so.

Imagine if we had a bunch of Hispanics who helped fight the war on drugs down at the border then decided they’re going to claim the Southern part of Texas as their own. Think that’s gonna happen? Not under this president.

To the Kurds we say, “Thanks for your help with ISIS, but we’re done here and we’re going home.” The Kurds only want us there long enough to help them carve out their own digs, then they’ll be blowing us up if we don’t go home. A smart leader knows when it’s time to get out. Trump is that smart leader.

Still the calls to reverse his policy by Congress have already begun. Look, here’s the long and short of it. The president is the commander-in-chief. If he doesn’t want to fight a war then Congress sure ain’t gonna make him.

As for Turkey and the Kurds, President Trump has warned Turkey not to try any shenanigans or he will “obliterate” their economy. We’ll see who blinks first on that.

In the meantime, the Syrian Kurds just might have to make up with Assad. The Turkish Kurds might just have to make up with Erdogan. Syria and Turkey go back to their own corners and play nice. And we just might have peace in that part of the Middle East. Sounds like something worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize. Oh, yeah. That one’s already been earmarked for Greta Thunberg.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show, on SuperTalk 99.7WTN in Nashville. He's also co-host of The PodGOATs podcast.

Connecting the dots on Ukraine

Has it struck you as odd that the Democrats moved so quickly on impeachment over an insignificant telephone call by the president of the United States to the leader of a relatively insignificant country? Buckle up. I’m about to connect the dots for you.

This may have taken the country by surprise, but it had obviously been in the works for some time. How long? It’s hard to say.

Nancy Pelosi knew what was in the transcript before the Trump administration actually released it. Pelosi let this little fact slip in an interview with 60 Minutes. She told Scott Pelley that Trump called her about his phone call with President Zelensky. “He told me it was perfect,” she said. “There was nothing in the call, but I knew what was in the call.” Then she caught herself. “I mean, uh, it was in the public domain.” No it wasn’t, Nancy. When President Trump called you the transcript had not yet been released. That means Nancy Pelosi has a spy on the inside of the Trump administration. As Congressman Liz Cheney asked on Twitter in response to the slip-up, “What did Speaker Pelosi know and when did she know it?”

Why is the call to Ukraine so important to the Democrats? As it turns out, there were news reports in 2017 that triggered a letter from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to Rod Rosenstein at the Justice Department. It was in regard to a Financial Times story quoting various Ukrainian officials who admitted that they coordinated with the Clinton campaign and various Obama officials to connect Trump, Manafort, and the Russians. In other words, this was the true collusion conspiracy of 2016: the framing of Donald Trump. That’s one of the reasons President Trump made the call to the new president of Ukraine. President Zelensky ran on a no-corruption platform. Trump thought he might be able to get to the bottom of the collusion.

But apparently Trump wasn’t the only one interested in Ukraine. We now know that Attorney General Barr asked the president to call other world leaders, including Australia, in an effort to open doors to his investigation into who exactly was behind the framing of the president with the false ‘Russian collusion’ story. Someone who’s been at the forefront of that investigation is Rudy Giuliani. In his capacity as the president’s attorney, he’s been following up leads that his client was framed. One of his sources has been Viktor Shokin. This is the prosecutor who Joe Biden got fired after threatening to withhold a billion dollars in loan guarantees to Ukraine. This is also the same prosecutor who was investigating, in his words, “all members of the executive board [Burisma Holdings], including Hunter Biden.”

The Biden story is simply a sideshow of the real story. Giuliani says he’s uncovered mountains of evidence that Donald Trump was framed. In fact, his investigation has been going forward with the blessing of the Justice Department. The Democrats knew he was getting too close to the truth. That’s why they had to rush out an impeachment narrative to the media. Biden knows he’s getting too close. That’s why he’s pressuring the news media to ignore Giuliani. In what even CNN described as a “highly unusual letter,” Joe Biden’s campaign has asked all the networks to not allow Rudy Giuliani on their air.

The real scandal of the 2016 election is how the Democrats conspired with foreign agents to try and frame Donald Trump with Russian collusion. Rudy knows it. Apparently so does Bill Barr. And the Democrats are running scared.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show, on SuperTalk 99.7WTN in Nashville. He's also co-host of The PodGOATs podcast.