Trump Derangement Syndrome is a disease

They first tried to keep Donald Trump from being president. That conspiracy reached the highest levels of the FBI, maybe the highest levels of our government. When that didn’t work they demanded a recount. Then they demanded the Electoral College not seat him. That failed and they moved to impeachment talk, impeachment over nothing remotely resembling an impeachable offense. Then they tried to shout down his policies. The tax cuts would be ‘Armageddon,’ remember? Again they were wrong and the economy is at the best place it’s been in decades.

They thought they had created a lethal issue in family separation at the border. The left-wing media have been exposed for lying to the American people about it. They didn’t tell them that Obama detained children in far worse conditions. They didn’t tell them that 80 percent of the children held in detention came with no parent at all. They didn’t tell them that the viral photo of a little boy in a cage was a fraud or that the little girl, looked down upon menacingly by the president on the cover of Time, was never separated from her mother. In fact, her mother had kidnapped her from her father in Honduras. They didn’t tell them, but word got out. Now a majority of Americans, according to a CBS poll, favor building the wall. This isn’t how this issue was supposed to end.

What’s more troublesome to the left is now, according to a CNBC survey, the majority of Americans favor the president’s handling of the economy. That’s a tipping point in American politics. Pocketbook issues usually hold the strongest sway over American voters. Pretty soon some of the staunchest opponents of Trump will say, “I still think Donald Trump is a vulgarian, but…” Once that ‘but’ creeps into the conversation, it’s all over.

So, there’s only one thing left for those with Trump Derangement Syndrome to do. Sow utter chaos in the country.

Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, is kicked out of a Virginia restaurant because the owner says she works for an ‘inhumane’ administration. DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is screamed at and harassed out of a Mexican restaurant in Washington, DC. Florida’s AG, Pam Bondi, can’t even attend a screening of a Mister Rogers movie without being accosted by deranged anti-Trump fanatics. Maxine ‘Mad Max’ Waters throws gasoline on the fire by encouraging everyone everywhere to harangue Trump administration officials. “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”

They’ve lost. Not just their minds, they’ve lost the cause. It’s no coincidence that the better the country does the more deranged they become. America’s prosperity through tax cuts and capitalism is the worst news these people could get. They felt they were so close to fundamentally transforming this country under eight years of Obama only to see most of what he built on sand washed away in a torrent of supply-side economics.

If you’ve been waiting for these Never-Trumpers to calm down it should be clear to you that they’re not going to. The more they see their precious socialist utopia slipping away the more hysterical they become. Many of these people are ashamed of what made this country great. They think capitalism is cruel and capitalists are evil. They despise the direction we’re going.

They see only one option left, and that is to burn society to the ground.

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

Trump can't win with the left-wing media

We should’ve seen this coming. It didn’t matter what President Trump did at the summit with Kim Jong-un, he was going to be dogged by the liberals and the left-wing media. But it truly was historic. We may very well be on a path to a nuke-free NoKo. Who woulda thunk it just a few months ago when Trump was calling Kim ‘Little Rocket Man.’

What the establishment types don’t understand is Trump diplomacy. Here’s how it works. You play ball with him or he’ll crush you. Basically, Trump went over to Singapore with one message: Give up your nukes and we’ll let you live. If you understand Kim you understand that he inherited a country. He’s simply trying to hang on to it. Trump let him know that if he gets rid of his nukes he gets to keep his country.

Then the libs decried Trump’s lack of pushback over human rights. Again, they don’t understand how you do deals. Are human rights important? Sure, but they’re not nearly as important to us as making sure Kim’s not threatening his neighbors and us with annihilation. Human rights can come later. And Trump’s much more likely to be successful along those lines once he’s gained the trust of Kim.

The left and the establishment Republicans continually underestimate Trump. They think he’s a buffoon. They don’t think he’s on their level intellectually, and he takes advantage of that weakness time and time again. The man is shrewd. He knows how to get deals done. He knows how to read people.

Remember how they were all decrying his lack of preparation? And the man shows up knowing exactly what he was doing. The naysayers are trying to actually claim that Trump gave up our defense of South Korea and got nothing in return. He didn’t give up defense of SoKo. Our military’s not going anywhere. They’re just not going to provoke North Korea by buzzing the North’s coastline. I thought it was a brilliant chip to play.

On the issue of human rights, I can imagine Kim visiting America. Trump takes him out for a game of golf and between holes they’re riding in the cart and Trump says, “You know, I’m not trying to get in your business, but I know a thing or two about PR. You’d be much more popular around the world, and your own country, frankly, if you wouldn’t kill so many people. And maybe let some of these political prisoners go. They make you look bad, and I think you’re a pretty honorable guy.” That’s how Trumplomacy works. And that’s what the establishment types can’t wrap their minds around.

Look, whatever these establishment types have been doing for 20 years ain’t working. Trumplomacy is first letting your opponent know who’s boss, gain their respect, then make them your friend. No one wants to be friends with a pushover weenie. Everybody wants to be friends with the cool guy. The guy you’re just a little afraid might kick your butt if he gets angry with you.

The Trump/Kim summit was just the beginning. We got a promise to denuclearize. We’re not stupid enough to lift the sanctions yet. Trump’s going to take it slow and see what happens. What’s for sure is he has absolutely confounded his critics. What else is for sure is if peace does come to the Korean peninsula Trump will never get the Nobel Peace Prize. Maybe it goes to Kim Jong-un or Moon Jae-in. Maybe Kim’s sister, Kim So Hot. My vote goes to Dennis Rodman.

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

A 'Universal Basic Income' will trap people in poverty

The town of Stockton, California is trying an experiment. They’re giving every low-income resident a “universal basic income” of $500 per month. There’s no catch, no obligation. Mayor Michael Tubbs believes it’s a way to end poverty. I’m betting right here and now that he’s wrong.

The Economic Security Project is contributing $1 million so they can gather data to see if this really works. What they’ll find is Stockton will become a magnet for people who don’t want to work. Bums are what we used to call them before the PC police drove that word from our lexicon. But bums are what they’ll see.

From the Los Angeles Times

The irony is some Silicon Valley tech moguls are pushing the UBI. This in the competitive world where meritocracy is how one gets ahead. Innovation and hard work drive the valley. Why would they think giving anyone a UBI would be the answer? Guilt. These people have gotten so rich so fast that they feel guilty about it. They believe that “giving back” means welfare. That’s exactly what people who are stuck in poverty don’t need.

How many times have you seen a guy standing at the off ramp with a sign claiming he’ll work for food? And how many times have you seen a motorist offer him work? Never. They give them money. The person rarely buys food with it. He or she uses the money to buy whatever substance that’s pushed them to the side of the road in the first place. They had it right with their sign. If they actually worked for food they wouldn’t be on the street. But most aren’t willing to work. That’s the problem. And offering someone a UBI will only exacerbate the problem.

Los Angeles’ homeless population has exploded in recent years. Why? Because they’ve made themselves a magnet for the homeless. The county of Los Angeles now spends over $1 billion a year managing homelessness. One of the brilliant ideas they’ve come up with is tiny homes for the homeless. I’m not kidding. There’s an organization called My Tiny House Project LA. They build cracker box houses for the homeless. Right now they’re mad at the city for not providing enough space to put these ridiculous little dog houses. They actually think that solves the problem.

I know this may sound counter-intuitive, but homeless people aren’t homeless because they don’t have homes. They’re homeless because they don’t have jobs. There are myriad reasons why they don’t have jobs. Until we get at that problem we’ll never solve homelessness. 

Many of these people are mentally ill. You can thank a judge back during the Carter era for turning them out on the streets. The rest mostly have substance abuse problems. Putting them in a tiny house is not going to solve either of those problems.

For the mentally ill we need to get them mental health care. And not just a diagnosis and a thirty-day supply of Xanax and put them back on the streets. Many of these people need to be institutionalized. Until we change the laws and overrule that court back in the ‘70s they will continue to roam the streets without proper mental health care.

As for the addicts, there’s only one solution and that is to get off the drugs or alcohol. That’s only going to happen when that person decides they’ve hit rock bottom and they want the help. Until then, giving them a UBI is only going to prolong their misery.

Stockton, unfortunately, will judge their success by how many people they suck into the government system.

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

The liberals ignore the truth about tax cuts

My wife called me at work not long after President Trump signed the Republican tax bill into law. She asked me if we would be getting a tax cut or a tax hike. It was an interesting question, and one for which I did not have an answer. There are myriad tax calculators that have popped up since the tax bill debate began. I hadn’t used any of them.

I’m not faulting you if you have. It’s only natural to be curious about how such a massive overhaul will affect you. The question is does that determine your support or opposition to the new law? It shouldn’t.

There’s a fundamental question that needs to be asked. Does our tax system maximize our economy, or is it a drag on economic prosperity? How it affects each of us personally is inconsequential. The answer to that question is this tax law goes a long way in stimulating an economy that has been, until Trump won the presidential election, sluggish. The stimulation since the election has been running on anticipation. That anticipation only takes an economy so far until hope turns to disappointment and the economy falters again.

Now the economy has something concrete to believe in. Companies like AT&T and Comcast immediately announced rank-and-file end-of-the-year bonuses. Other companies launched plans for massive expansion and infusion of cash into the economy.

Try as they may to pit all classes against the rich, marketwatch.com posted graphs that told the true story. The people who would be paying the largest percentage of tax hikes were those making more than $1 million per year. The vast majority of taxpayers, even the rich, would get a tax cut.

Of course, it’s the rich on whom the liberals always concentrate. What these same liberals don’t tell you is the rich pay most of the taxes. They lament the fact that those making $20,000 or less get the smallest tax cut. Most of those people don’t pay taxes at all anyway. Hard to give someone a tax break when they don’t pay taxes. 

What really grinds the gears of the leftists is the corporate tax reduction. That corporate tax is cut from 35 percent to 21 percent. They drone on about the “rich corporations” like they’re some individual fat cat who’s going to skate. Taxes are simply another business expense to a corporation. Cut taxes and you cut expenses. Cut expenses and chances are you’ll see prices go down. Liberals seem to understand this concept when it comes to gasoline costs. They talk about how higher prices at the pump will translate into higher prices at the grocery store. The same principle applies to the high cost of taxes.

But let’s assume the liberals are right and these evil corporations will simply take that tax break and give it to their rich CEOs. Those CEOs will pay taxes on that money at a rate of 37 percent in addition to the corporate rate of 21 percent. Liberals should be happy, but, as we know, they seldom are. And as we’ve seen, corporations are already passing along the windfall to their employees and reinvesting in the company. That should convert even the most ardent skeptic. Only those who are purely political can witness that and remain unswayed.

How does the new GOP tax law affect you personally? Whether you get a direct tax cut or not is inconsequential. What matters is a rising tide lifts all boats. No matter what floats your boat politically this tax cut will be good for us all.

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

The Halloween Nazis struck again

Cultural appropriation. That’s the big buzz phrase of the politically correct these days. You especially hear that around Halloween. This past Halloween many college campuses across the nation issued warnings against offensive costumes that appropriate culture.

According to CampusReform.org, the University of Michigan published a statement admonishing cultural appropriation “often adopted by those who hold power and privilege in society.” Does any college student hold power? This is typical leftists claptrap intended to make victims out of anyone who doesn’t happen to be white and male. They profess to fight racism when thinking that anyone who isn’t white needs their protection is the most condescending form of racism.

I was recently listening to a pitiful story on NPR of a woman whose mother is Chinese and whose father is Italian. She wore some native Chinese garb to school and got shamed by another Chinese girl for culture appropriation. She tried to explain that even though she didn’t look Chinese she really was. The girl told her that if she didn’t look Chinese she had no right to dress like one.

Now, you would think she’d get back up in this girl’s face. Instead she went home and hung the dress in the closet never to wear it again. She says to this day she’s embarrassed to express her Chinese heritage. In other words, she’s playing the victim.

Here’s the deal. If I want to dress up as an Indian or a Mexican or a German I will. You know why? Because this is America. I’m free to do whatever I want. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like it. It doesn’t matter if you’re offended. I’m free to express myself as I please and if I’m feeling a little bit Arab today then get over it.

But here’s the flip side. You don’t have to like it either. However, just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean I can’t do it.

I don’t think many of these PC people understand where they’re going with this cultural appropriation stuff. If that’s the way they want to play it then the Canadians called and they want their basketball back. Try telling LeBron that he’s appropriating somebody else’s culture. 

If we’re to follow their ludicrous edict then only Germans can drive cars since Karl Benz invented the automobile. And although the Germans lay claim to the printing press, it was actually invented in China about 600 years before Gutenberg was born. I guess only Chinese folks can read printed books. Only white Americans can fly since the Wright brothers invented the airplane. Writing was invented by ancient Sumerians in what is modern-day Iraq, so I guess if you write anything you’re stealing from the Iraqi culture.

What these crazy leftists don’t seem to comprehend is nobody owns a culture. We all use language that grew out of different races and ethnicities. Many of the pop culture expressions of today come from black Americans. That wasn’t always the case. To “butter someone up” came from ancient India. “Turn a blind eye” is a British expression. “White elephant” is a Siamese expression, which is modern-day Thailand. Get the picture?

There is no copyright on culture. Jawaharlal Nehru was the first prime minister of India. His garb sparked a fashion sensation in the ‘60s called the Nehru jacket. The Beatles sported Nehru jackets as did several Bond villains. They didn’t have to ask Nehru for permission.

Sure, there is a line of good taste regarding costumes. We don’t need the politically correct drawing that line because they obviously don’t know where it is.

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

Government shutdown? What government shutdown?

What if they threw a government shutdown and nobody noticed?  The wolf-crying Democrats had secretly desired a government shutdown so they could blame it on the House Republicans and thus score some political points.  The only problem is no one really noticed.

What we did notice is, like all the sequestration wolf-crying, the disaster never materialized.  And as with the sequestration, I must say I was surprised and impressed by Speaker John Boehner’s determination to stand his ground.

Whether or not you really care about a government shutdown really says something about where you are on the political spectrum.  Far-left liberals were freaking out over a government shutdown.  Far-right conservatives wanted to see it happen.  I must confess that I was in that latter group.  Not because I wanted to see anyone hurt or even inconvenienced.  I just wanted people to understand what a non-issue a government shutdown really is.

Do you realize that the government has shut down 17 times since 1970?  Sometimes for several weeks at a time.  The only one I really remember was the face-off between Newt and the boys and Bill Clinton in 1995.  I remember that one so vividly because I had a ringside seat, broadcasting from the basement of the U.S. Capitol for the duration.  What I remember were the lies coming from the Democrats.  They claimed the Republicans wanted to cut Medicare and give a tax cut to their rich constituents.  The truth of the matter was the Republicans weren’t cutting anything.  They simply wanted to slow the growth of Medicare.

The news media piled on the Republicans and blamed them for the shutdown but I have no recollection of any negative repercussions from the government closing its doors for a few days.  In fact, it was the government shutdown that lay the groundwork for slowing the growth of the entire budget and getting Bill Clinton to sign welfare reform after using his veto pen on it twice before.  The end result was we had a balanced budget by 1998 expressly because the Republicans pushed the issue of spending restraint.  Without even cutting a dime, just slowing the growth, revenue was allowed to catch up with spending and we balanced the budget, no thanks to the free-wheeling, spend-like-a-drunken-sailor Democrats.  (No offense to you drunken sailors.)

Had 9/11 not happened we likely would’ve seen balanced budgets all the way through the Bush administration.  Can you imagine that?  Can you imagine not having to raise the debt ceiling?  Of course, President Obama says that raising the debt ceiling doesn’t mean we’re raising the debt.  Yeah, he actually said that.  No, Mr. President, I’m sure it means we’re getting ready to instantly balance the budget.

So, again the president and the Democrats are wolf-crying about the debt ceiling.  They say if we don’t raise the ceiling we’ll default on our debt.  Think about that for a moment.  We’re nearly $17 trillion in debt and they’re trying to tell us if we don’t go into more debt we’ll default on everything?  Please.  It’s like saying you’re making payments on a house and two cars and when the bank won’t approve your loan for a third car you’re going to default on everything.  It makes no sense whatsoever.

We’re bringing in over $2.5 trillion a year.  We have more than enough money to pay the debt payments.  We may not have enough money for all these liberal welfare programs but that’s the point.  If we don’t raise the debt ceiling it means we’ll have to live off what we bring in.  Is that such a horrible thing?

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

Can Detroit be saved?

You wanna hear something hysterical?  Ed Schultz and the rest of the talking heads over at BSNBC are blaming Republicans for the bankruptcy of Detroit.  Here’s their rationale.  Republicans out-sourced jobs, cut public services and attacked the unions.  Actually, Ed, it was the unions that caused the out-sourcing with their unreasonable demands which led to Detroit’s population dropping in half since 1950 which led to fewer taxpayers thus less government services.

The problems plaguing Detroit are obvious.  They killed the proverbial goose that laid the golden egg.  Let’s face it.  Detroit automakers made some stupid mistakes over the years.  They scoffed at the Japanese and European imports in the ‘70s thinking they were invincible.  Bad design coupled with horribly-built cars led to a steep decline in American-made automobiles.  The unions convinced their membership that the car companies existed to provide them a job.  In fact, they came to believe that it was their job, not the company’s.

In the meantime, the Democrat machine took over Detroit politics.  The last Republican mayor was in the late ‘50s.  Since 1970 there’s been just one Republican on the city council.  For the last 50 years Detroit has been a one-party town.  Guess what?  The party’s over.

In typical fashion, the liberals who have run Detroit for the last half-century demonized the rich and exploited the poor.  Inflated wages and unreasonable pensions drove industry south or completely out of the country.  The city instituted a wage tax – on top of the state and federal income taxes – in 1962.  Detroit also tacks on an extra corporate tax.  You couldn’t ask for a less hospitable place for business.  Couple the high taxes with artificially-inflated union wages and it’s a wonder Detroit lasted this long without going broke.

I was reading a newspaper report that said nearly $6 billion of Detroit’s $20 billion debt is due to health insurance obligations to retired city employees.  The article lamented that Detroit may push those people off on the Obamacare exchanges.  Now, understand that these ex-employees are eligible for Medicare at age 65.  That means that $6 billion is for people who are retired but not yet at retirement age.  Here’s a thought.  Go back to work!

That’s symptomatic of the problem.  Too many sweetheart union deals were negotiated.  The companies that made that mistake either closed down or moved but the city was stuck.  At this point all bets should be off.  I hate it for those folks who thought they could retire at 45 and live off the taxpayers but the bulk of the taxpayers are gone.

Which leads to the next point.  It never occurred to these liberals when they were waging class warfare that once they ran the rich people off there would be no money left to pay for city services.  They may still have 700,000 residents but those who stayed behind are disproportionately poor and disproportionately unemployed.  If Detroit is ever going to come back they’re going to have to eliminate the city wage and corporate taxes.  They’re going to have to welcome rich folks back with open arms instead of demonizing them.

Now that Michigan is a right-to-work state there’s hope.  The unions that ran industry away in the first place need to be dissolved and good, old-fashioned capitalism needs to be reintroduced to Detroit.  The moochers and looters have run the city into the ground.  The producers are what built it and they can rebuild it but in order for that to happen those running the city have to stop listening to the likes of Ed Schultz.  Or all hope is lost.

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

Bill Maher is finally starting to get it

Notoriously liberal television host Bill Maher may actually be starting to get it.  He complained recently that he was paying too much in taxes.  He said, "It’s outrageous what we’re paying (in California) – over 50 percent. I’m willing to pay my share, but yeah, it’s ridiculous.”

The question is no longer about fair share.  It's about reasonable spending.  Maher's point - and I'm not even sure he knows he made it - is that none of us really minds paying taxes as long as our tax dollars are being wisely spent.  Maher obviously makes millions per year and having over half of his money confiscated is starting to trouble him.

California just raised taxes on people like Bill Maher.  The implication is they're not paying their fair share.  The assumption is the government is putting that money to good use.  That assumption is now starting to crumble, even in the eyes of die-hard liberals.

The question has historically been what kind of country do we want?  Because of the reckless spending the question now is how much country can we afford?  We have enticed and trapped literally millions on government dependency. 

I was at the ACC Basketball Tournament in Greensboro recently and one of the main sponsors was the North Carolina Lottery.  They had a booth set up at the entrance where they were urging people to come over and buy a lottery ticket.  I thought of how pathetic it was that the government outlaws gambling but spends untold millions trying to lure you into gambling with them.

Our government dollars have been spent on public nuisances like housing projects which not only trap their residents in a miserable existence, they terrorize the surrounding neighborhoods with crime.  According to the Chicago Housing Authority, when they demolished these petri dishes of societal decay they saw violent crime reduced by 60 percent, property crime down almost 50 percent and gun crime reduced an astonishing 70 percent.

Like the failed green energy companies our government has chosen to back, government bureaucrats are famously horrid stewards of our money.  The poor and Bill Maher's money are much better served by private sector solutions to our problems rather than government programs that simply exacerbate them.