At war with socialism

This is almost like a war. We’re fighting socialism on so many fronts. One wave of the dreaded enemy is approaching from the west as California seeks to tax soft drinks, tires, guns, car batteries, even lawyers. Anything the socialists don’t like they tax. Another big battle front is in the southwest. The one at the southern border. They’ve penetrated our defenses with thousands of illegal aliens with an invasion wave designed to destabilize the country. And then there’s the east in Washington, DC. The socialist enemy has infiltrated the Democrat Party to the extent that they’re on the verge of taking it over, and with that they take control of the House of Representatives.

Their inroads into the Democrat Party are almost complete. Although Joe Biden still leads in the polls, he’s been badly wounded by the socialists’ planned attack on his character as some sort of sexual predator. Bernie Sanders, an unapologetically avowed socialist, is leading the pack of socialists who are gaining on him. He’s followed by other socialists like Beto O’Rourke, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Cory Booker. There’s hardly a declared candidate for the Democratic nomination who isn’t a socialist.

This should come as no surprise. For the first time since Gallup has been asking the question, more Democrats approve of socialism than capitalism. It’s no longer on the fringes. At least not in the Democrat Party. In fact, with Democrats socialism is now mainstream. What exactly does this new breed of socialists want?

They want greater control of corporations by labor unions. In fact, they want workers to control some of the seats on corporate boards. That particular idea is big with Elizabeth Warren. That assumes several things. It assumes that just by working for a corporation that you’re somehow entitled to help run it. It also assumes that you know what you’re doing. Putting a worker on a corporate board just because they happen to work for a company will lead to that board member most likely voting for things that will help the workers even if it hurts the company. Which misses the point of the company altogether.

Socialists believe companies exist to provide them jobs. They don’t. Nobody ever started a company with dreams of employing people. At least nobody who’s ever run a successful company. Let’s go back to the infant stages of one of our largest corporations. Take Amazon, for example. Jeff Bezos started Amazon in 1994 to sell books online. He saw an opportunity. People were driving to bookstores to browse a limited inventory. Bezos allowed you to browse the bookstore in your bathrobe with a virtually unlimited inventory that would be delivered to your doorstep. I doubt Bezos started Amazon with a socialist dream of employing hundreds of thousands of people. It just so happens that Amazon needs about a half-million people to do what it does. However, if Amazon can find a way to do some of the things it does without people it will. Its distribution centers are already using robotic technology to stock and distribute product. That’s because the goal of a company is not to employ people. It’s to make money for its shareholders. Think of it this way. If you were to start a business today what would be your goal? Exactly.

Workers are the beneficial side effect of business. If they ever become the primary focus then the company stops being profitable and fails. And guess what. Everybody loses their job.

Socialism is a failure and will always be simply because it does not understand that basic principle of business.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show. He's also co-host of The PodGOATs podcast.

Understanding Antifa

I have long been warning you that Antifa is marxist. For the longest time they denied this. They claimed to be just like the boys who stormed the beaches at Normandy to fight the Nazis. They are not. They’re more like the thugs who stormed the streets of Petrograd in 1917 and went on a nearly 110 million-person killing spree until the Soviet Union was finally put to sleep some 70 years later. Now they finally admit to who they are.

A “menacing” group of Antifas recently pulled down their cowardly black bandanas from their faces and showed themselves to the world on Twitter. Their now-familiar logo of the two waving flags, one red and one black, is the exact same logo as the Communist Party of 1930s Germany. This particular chapter in Denver has now dropped any pretense that it’s not marxist. Their logo uses the 1930s nomenclature, “Antifaschistische Aktion,” which means “Antifascist Action.” Only this chapter has added a nice little logo to their flag: The hammer and sickle of the former Soviet Union.

I’ve done a lot of studying on these modern Antifa types. Basically they hate capitalism because they think the capitalist system is broken. The truth is it’s not capitalism that’s broken, it’s them. And I mean this in all sincerity. They believe capitalism is a failure and they are the failures. That’s why socialism and communism have, for so long, attracted the misfits of society.

It’s easy for us to ridicule them. I’ve certainly done my share of that. For this moment I would like to try a different approach. To fully understand disgruntlement one must first understand the disgruntled. These people aren’t losers in the conventional sense. Many a communist has come out esteemed institutions like Columbia University, which was a hotbed of communists during the Cold War. What attracts these people to marxism? To be blunt, many just don’t fit in. Many are socially awkward. They lash out at society in general for their inability to function normally within it. Marxism or Antifa give them a sense of purpose, like they’re changing the world.

I don’t want to sound patronizing, nor do I want to excuse their conduct, but many of these Antifa types are very smart. They’re that nerdy smart we all remember from high school. I’m sure many of these people were made fun of, or at least thought everyone was making fun of them. They also obsess over things including the state of society. It’s easy to look around at the have-nots and assume it’s not their fault. It’s even easier to look at the haves and hate them for what they have. That’s how marxism is bred and spread. It is quintessential class warfare.

Notice you don’t see many Antifas outside of their twenties. Once people grow up and take on some responsibility, perspective starts to change. At 25, my emphasis was solely on me. By 45 my emphasis was primarily on my family and their well-being and their future. Growing up necessarily changes your perspective.

Capitalism provides a competitive atmosphere that continually makes us all better. Is it fair? Not always, but I can’t think of anything more unfair than taking from those who produce and giving it to those who don’t. Capitalism and the United States are inseparable. Capitalism is what made America great, despite what New York Governor Cuomo may tell you. If you are anti-capitalist you are, by definition, anti-American.

The nanny state is for those who need a nanny. For the rest of us, capitalism equals prosperity.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.

The latest liberal fear? Robots

You want to know how out of touch the Democrat Party is? Let me first give you some background. In a recent Rasmussen poll 72 percent believe parents should be required to prove they are legal residents when registering their kids for school. Eighty-one percent oppose granting in-state tuition to illegal aliens. Sixty-six percent believe gaining control of the border is more important than amnesty for illegals. Yet there he was. Keith Ellison, the deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, on May Day in Minnesota sporting an ‘I don’t believe in borders’ t-shirt.

By the way, May Day is an anti-capitalist socialist/communist celebration. It was a very important holiday in the old Soviet Union. It’s also a mandatory holiday in communist China, and prior to 2008 lasted for three days. The socialists love to try and mask it as “pro-labor” but its celebration by communists all over the world tells the true story.

The socialists/communists have always plowed in the fertile field of labor. This is where it’s easiest to sow discontent. And that’s not to say that much of that discontent hasn’t been legitimate. However, socialism/communism was never the answer. The Democrats have a long history of peddling in fear. Fear of Big Business. Fear of global warming. Fear that the mean ole Republicans are going to take away your Social Security. Fear that Trump is going to pull the safety net out from under you.

Do you remember what Nancy Pelosi said was going to happen if Congress passed Trump’s tax cuts? Armageddon. It was going to be the end of the world as we know it. Just a few months after its passage we see unemployment at an 18-year low. Black and Hispanic unemployment are at historic lows. Confidence in the housing market is at an all-time high. Companies are moving back to the United States and pouring billions into the economy. Workers are getting raises and bonuses.

So, what’s the next big fear from the left? Robots.

I’m not kidding. The left is trying to sell this story to the millennials that they won’t have any jobs because of robots. Therefore they have to support the universal basic income. A piece from futurism.com provides a list of at-risk jobs because of robots. For instance, they claim 99 percent of insurance underwriter jobs are at risk. They say 88 percent of construction jobs and 79 percent of truck driver jobs could be replaced by robots. The solution, of course, is a universal basic income. 

They admit it will cost upwards of $3.2 trillion annually, but they have a plan to pay for it all. Carbon taxes, higher income taxes, a VAT (value-added tax or national sales tax), more taxing on earnings from investments, and decreased military spending.

They also highlight the story of Harper Lee being given an envelope in 1956 with a year’s salary in it. She was told she had a year to write anything she wanted. She, of course, wrote To Kill a Mockingbird which went on to sell 30 million copies worldwide. They act as though the only way to write a bestseller is through socialism. Harper Lee is the exception, not the rule. Most successful novelists succeed through hard work and not hand-outs. The same for successful people in general.

We have had robots for decades and they’ve always made our lives better. The Democrats are counting on mind-numbed robots to follow them over the socialist cliff. Hopefully the recent prosperity has opened their eyes.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.