Might as well face it, Trump's the nominee

I hate to break it to everyone else in the race for the GOP nomination but this thing is done. Donald J. Trump is going to be the nominee for the Republican Party. As much as that may gall the GOP establishment, it’s a foregone conclusion. There’s only one ‘if’ and it’s a long shot.

The only way Trump does not clinch the nomination is if all the other candidates but one get out and leave a single person to go toe-to-toe with Trump. Who should that be? Well, that’s the problem. Each remaining candidate would make a case for why he’s the best bet in beating Trump.

Understand, this is not my conspiracy to try and thwart a Trump nomination. I’ll admit I’m not big on Trump, but I’m not repulsed by a Trump presidency, either. I believe Trump could do some terrific things, to use his language. I really believe he’ll do what he says he’ll do. He’ll get the wall or fence or some sort of structure built on the Mexican border. Whether or not he’ll get the Mexicans to pay for it remains to be seen, but he’ll get that done.

He’ll deal more harshly with the Chinese on trade. Right now they’re having their way with us and Trump will probably change that. It will inevitably mean higher prices for Americans, but I’m good with that. I’ve never thought we should be trading with those commie SOBs to start with.

What remains to be seen is what Trump will do that he hasn’t mentioned. Personally, I’m frightened that eminent domain will go nuts in this country under a Trump administration. Trump truly believes it’s fine to take one citizen’s private property if another private citizen can create more jobs with it. That was never what eminent domain was intended to do, but the courts have pretty much sided with the developers like Trump. I see an expansion of that policy in the name of revitalizing the economy if Trump’s elected.

And there’s really no one on the Republican side to stop him. The reason being is ego. Most presidential candidates stay too long. I hate to be a downer but neither Ben Carson nor John Kasich has a chance. Only Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz have any shot in taking Trump down, but not both. If they both stay in through Super Tuesday, Trump’s a shoo-in. At least Jeb Bush did the honorable thing and bow out after South Carolina. Everyone else should’ve done the same thing, save one remaining candidate to face Trump. The only person who can stop Trump is Trump.

I also hate to break it to Bernie Sanders but the jig’s up. He was never going to get the nomination. The scary part is he came closer than anyone ever imagined.

But let’s get back to the courts for a second. I don’t want to claim divine intervention or anything so drastic, but it is curious that Antonin Scalia up and dies in the middle of an election year. Most people don’t give a second thought to the Supreme Court, but it’s probably the most important part of being president. It’s certainly the most lasting aspect of a presidential legacy. Scalia was appointed by Ronald Reagan. His influence on the court outlived the Reagan presidency by nearly 30 years.

America’s attention has been jolted back to the importance of Supreme Court nominations. With an equally divided court, it’s paramount that the next president appoint constitutionalists to the Supreme Court and not judicial activists. 

Judicial activists are appointed by liberals. Let’s hope and pray Trump is not one.

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

Internet addiction, my iPhone

We are becoming a society of weaklings and confabulators. I recently read a piece in the Daily Mail in which a psychotherapist claimed social media are as addictive as Class A drugs. Yeah, he really said that. He was trying to explain why so many people can’t stay away from Facebook. It’s not hard to explain, and it has nothing to do with addiction.

First, we must understand the difference between habit and addiction. Cigarette smoking is often referred to as a bad habit, but there’s a very real addictive quality to nicotine. The body suffers from withdrawals when it becomes used to nicotine and suddenly doesn’t get it. That’s not to make an excuse for continuing to smoke. The addiction can be broken, but it takes willpower.

Such it is with the habit of social media. Look around any restaurant these days. Anyone who’s left alone at a table for more than a couple of seconds immediately reaches for the smart phone. I’m not going to claim that I haven’t done it, but I make a concerted effort not to use my phone as a crutch.

It’s as if we can’t deal with down time. What happened to just staring out the window, lost in our thoughts? Now we have to be constantly entertained. That’s not addiction. That’s just pitiful.

UKTV hooked up a British radio host to an MRI to see what happens to the brain when one sees pictures of friends on social media. They found that there’s a distinct reaction in the brain when we see friends on Facebook. They then took the huge leap of determining that such brain stimulation leads to social media addiction.

This is the very same argument made for gambling and pornography addiction. News flash: Anything that brings us pleasure is going to stimulate the brain. That doesn’t make it addictive. I’m sure my heart races when I look at boats on the Internet. It used to distress my wife so that I had to keep a page of naked women at the ready just in case my wife walked in and I was looking at boats.

Each time I discuss this on the radio I get the predictable response from the excuse-makers out there, but there is no such thing as porn and gambling addiction. There is, however, such a thing as people with absolutely no willpower or self-control.

That may sound crass, but we do these people no good by coddling. Heroine addicts have to get iced down in the bathtub. Alcoholics suffer from delirium tremens which affect the central nervous system. These are very real very physical withdrawals from a very real substance. To allow some guy who won’t cut off his computer to glom on to the addiction train is a slap in the face to people with real addictions and real problems.

I’ve heard of parents who claim their kids are suffering from gaming addiction because they can’t stop playing the X-box. Makes me want to shake these people. Go take the X-box away! I suspect this belief in some mythical gaming addiction is to mask the fact that these parents have lost complete control of their kid.

The Internet has opened up a whole new world to us that, a generation ago, we could only dream of. That world has a dark side. We all know it’s there. Most of us have the self-discipline to stay away from it. At least most of the time. Those who can’t and then claim addiction need to have their Internet privileges taken away.

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

Cam Newton, the victim

Have you noticed a theme? Carolina Panthers QB Cam Newton says criticism of him is basically because he’s black. Beyonce gave an alleged nod to the Black Panthers and the Black Lives Matter movement at halftime of the Super Bowl. These are two of the most accomplished people in the country acting as though they’re facing oppression in 1962.

When Cam was asked by CBS to explain his race comments he said people were scared because a black man had never reached his level before. Hello. A black man named Russell Wilson made it to the Super Bowl two years in a row, Cam. And guess what? He actually won one of them. Not to mention Steve McNair in 2000.

Newton acts like he’s broken some color barrier by making it to the Super Bowl and that people are afraid of a powerful black man. It’s comical, really. He seems to be the only one obsessed with it. The people who were criticizing him in the run-up to the Super Bowl were doing so because he’s cocky. Sure, there are probably some racists out there who don’t like Cam or any other black folks, but they are such a small percentage. Some people just don’t like Cam Newton just like some people don’t like Tom Brady or Johnny Football. They all have their reasons, but race isn’t one of them.

But you know where all this is coming from, right? Directly from the White House. President Obama was supposed to put a dagger in the race issue. Instead, he evoked race every chance he got. He had a golden opportunity to bury the race issue and he chose instead to exploit it for his own political gain. So no wonder impressionable people like Beyonce and Cam Newton turn to race as an excuse.

I think Newton’s fixation on race lost him the Super Bowl, to be quite honest. He came into that game acting like he was Jackie Robinson or somebody and nobody took him seriously. I think that frustrated him. He was too focused on being a victim and not focused enough on winning. And look, Cam Newton has been the poster boy for what it takes to be a winner in America, no matter what color you are. His life has been about focus and overcoming his mistakes and getting back into the game. He’s an inspiration to so many, but he’s got to learn how to lose gracefully.

He said of his post-game walk-out, “Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.” That’s just another excuse. Instead of owning up to the fact that he acted like a jerk, he wants to put forth this notion that only losers are graceful in defeat.

I get it. It’s not fun to lose, especially the Super Bowl, but maturity requires more of an NFL quarterback. Nobody’s dissing you, Cam, because you’re black. We’re disappointed because you haven’t learned how to lose with grace. What a great message that would send to the youth of America. That’s why so many people without a dog in the fight were pulling for Peyton Manning. Not only was this the last hurrah for Peyton, he’s a guy who commands respect. He’s a player who hates to lose but loses, for the most part, with dignity.

I’m wondering, with this attitude, if Cam Newton will be back next year. People talked about how much he had matured over the last three years, but it’s awfully easy to be mature when you’re winning. It’s losing that tests your mettle.

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

Why Trump couldn't 'close the deal' in Iowa

One of the things people appreciate about Donald Trump — whether you support him or not — is his blunt talk. He says what’s on his mind, regardless of who it offends or how it helps or harms him politically. Or does he?

In the waning hours of the Iowa caucuses, when it was starting to look like Ted Cruz might pull off the upset, Trump did something he rarely does. He pandered. He told an audience in Waterloo (ironically) that Ted Cruz will “destroy your ethanol business 100%” He said if Ted Cruz wins, the ethanol industry “will be wiped out within six months to a year.”

Despite the scare tactics, Ted Cruz went on to win not only Iowa but Iowa’s heaviest corn-producing counties. How did he do it? He told the truth.

Trump tried to portray him as some Texas oil man who was trying to destroy the competition. In a 7-minute long discussion with an angry corn farmer, Cruz laid out his plan and, in the end, won the man over. The Cruz plan is the conservative plan. It eliminates any subsidy for any energy source, whether that be oil or solar or wind or ethanol. It also eliminates the EPA’s limit on ethanol blends so any gas station in America can stock whatever blend their customers want.

Trump backer Ann Coulter was on my show the day of the Iowa caucuses. I pointed out the conservative heresy in supporting government subsidies. She justified the ethanol subsidies by saying Trump was creating jobs. “I’d rather pay another ten cents to fill up my car if my fellow Americans can have jobs.” Sounds like liberal logic to me.

That seems to be the Achilles heel of the Trump supporters. They’re too able to look past his not-so-conservative positions thinking the end justifies the means. I don’t know that it does. They believe Donald Trump will make America strong again and I don’t doubt that he can. What I doubt is that he’s the only one who can.

Supporters point to his plan to build a wall as if it’s a brand new idea. It’s not. In fact, Congress appropriated money for a barrier a decade ago in the Secure Fence Act of 2006. They never finished it. Studies showed that border crossings where the fence was constructed were down significantly, but they stressed that illegal invaders (also known as undocumented Democrats) just went around the fence. Of course, we could solve the problem if there is no “around” to go.

Point being, most Republicans support securing the border, even Marco Rubio. The problem with Rubio is he has supported securing the border “first,” meaning “second” would be amnesty. People act as if Trump invented the issue of illegal immigration. What’s he’s done — and quite successfully — is tap into the public’s frustration over it. I’ve certainly cheered him on for doing so, but there are other things about Trump that trouble me.

I have to admit that his interpretation of eminent domain scares me. In the famous Kelo decision, the Supreme Court decided it was fine to take the land of private homeowners and give it to another private entity for the purpose of a hotel-retail-condo “urban village.” The irony is the developer went belly-up and the development was never built. Now the property sits vacant. On the Kelo decision, Trump told Neil Cavuto of Fox Business “I happen to agree with it 100 percent.”

Do we sacrifice liberty for security with Trump? As Ben Franklin famously said, if so, we deserve neither.

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

Minimum wage hike set to devastate healthcare industry in New York

The unintended consequences of government meddling are nowhere more apparent than the minimum wage. Minimum wage increases have historically led to unemployment and even helped trigger recessions. It’s basic economics, really. When the government makes an employer pay its employees more without any new income something has to give.

Fast food restaurants are already introducing pay stations where customers place their orders and wait for their food, thus eliminating cashiers. Assembling burgers costs an estimated $9 billion a year in labor costs according to Momentum Machines. They have a solution to the rising cost of burger-flippers. It’s a burger-making machine that can churn out 400 burgers per hour. Not only does it almost totally eliminate the labor involved in burger cooking and assembly, it takes up far less space. So imagine the burger joint of the future where you place your order electronically and only two people are needed in the restaurant. One to continually feed the machine and one to bring your order to the counter.

I bet this ain’t what those malcontents with the signs demanding $15 per hour had in mind.

Now the hospital industry in New York is raising a red flag to a proposed mandatory $15-per-hour minimum wage. They say it will have a devastating effect on their industry, adding an estimated $570 million to their costs. At the very least, businesses will either have to increase prices, hire fewer workers, or even fire some existing workers. Some businesses could close their doors altogether.

This is something proponents of mandatory minimum wages fail to take into consideration. You think healthcare costs are high now, wait until the minimum wage is doubled. These proponents of government meddling say that no one can live on the minimum wage. No one was ever intended to. The minimum wage was designed to be just that, a bare minimum wage for the least-skilled labor. Think teenagers in their first jobs. They have little or no skills to offer. It’s how most of us started in the work world.

They also claim the minimum wage hasn’t kept up with inflation. The truth is it’s the other way around. The minimum wage started out in 1938 at 25 cents per hour. Adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage today should be $4.20 per hour. Instead, it’s $7.25. There is no argument whatsoever for raising the minimum wage. In fact, what companies pay their employees is none of the government’s business.

Eliminating the minimum wage horrifies many. They believe people would be destitute without it, yet only a relative few actually earn it. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 4 percent of hourly employees are paid the minimum wage. Furthermore, 58.7 of all workers are paid by the hour, so that 4 percent is 4 percent of less than 60 percent of the workers. In other words, hardly anyone makes the minimum wage.

What happens when the government mandates employers double it? Not only do you have to raise the minimum wage but every other hourly wage to boot. If you’re making $15 an hour now, you’re going to be hopping mad if you’re paid the same as entry-level employees so your pay will have to increase. You’ll bump up against the guy or gal making $20 per hour and on up the chain it goes.

Now you see why force-feeding a minimum wage increase on American companies is a bad idea, especially one that doubles the minimum wage. Instead, we need to encourage workers to develop the skills where they’ll never make minimum wage.

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

13 Hours, but will people care?

I went to see 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi on opening weekend. Doing what I do for a living, I knew the story. Or, at least, I thought I knew. The media reports have not come close to capturing the true story and that’s the biggest revelation from this movie. Normally, I let politics roll off my back, but I left this movie literally shaking mad.

This is the true story of what happened on September 11, 2012 as told by the guys who were there. The movie never mentions Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. It doesn’t have to. These people were abandoned by their own country and it’s crystal clear who abandoned them.

What’s even more infuriating is Obama and Clinton were sitting in their cushy chairs watching the whole thing unfold via a drone circling overhead. Despite seeing everything they were seeing, no one lifted a finger to help them.

Why?

That becomes the central question in the viewer’s mind of 13 Hours. Why were jets not scrambled? Why were assault teams not sent in? Why? We’re left to fill in the blanks because this administration has never been forthcoming as to why.

One can only imagine that it was close to the president’s re-election bid and a full-scale, planned out attack on an American installation would mean failure on so many levels. Ambassador Chris Stevens knew there were threats and had asked for additional security from Hillary Clinton. She didn’t send it. When the attack began, the CIA annex was in contact with Stevens and an aid. They were hold up in a safe room but the attackers were closing in. They pleaded for help, but the CIA station chief refused to get involved.

Enter Tyrone Woods and his CIA contractors. They stood by until they could take it no longer, and set out the mile across Benghazi to the consulate to rescue the Ambassador and others trapped inside. The hesitation from the CIA chief, on orders ostensibly from Washington, meant the rescue was too late. Stevens and information management officer Sean Smith were already dead.

The team returned to the CIA annex where their compound came under at least two heavy attacks. During the night Tyrone Woods and another CIA contractor, Glen Doherty, were killed. This despite repeated pleas to Washington from CIA personnel for help. Again, as those back in Washington watched it all unfold in real time.

There was a cover-up for sure, but it was so much worse than that. Americans could have been saved and they were literally left to die by the Obama administration. There were so many resources that could’ve been sent to their aid. U.S. Special Ops soldiers were not allowed to come to the rescue. Even a flyover by F-16s to at least scare the attackers was nixed. Gen. Martin Dempsey later said it would take F-16s in Italy 20 hours to reach Benghazi, yet they were less than an hour’s flight away.

It was 13 hours of brutal attacks, of undying bravery, of unspeakable betrayal. To add insult to injury, Hillary and Obama conspired to spread a lie that the attack was a spontaneous escalation of a protest over an anti-Muslim video that sparked protests in Cairo. We now know that to be a complete fabrication, one that was repeated by administration officials for weeks although they knew from the beginning it was never true.

One overriding question gnawed at me as I left that theater. How on earth are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton not in jail?

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

Is Ted Cruz eligible?

Is Ted Cruz eligible to be president? Ted Cruz and many pundits in the media scoff at such a question but it’s one that needs to be settled and it needs to be settled quickly. Long before Ted Cruz ever announced his candidacy for president, I said if the courts clear him for takeoff I just might be on that plane.

As far as I’m concerned, we’re still waiting for instructions from the tower.

Now it’s the eleventh hour and Trump has masterfully weaved the issue into the campaign under the guise of helping Cruz solve his “problem.” That’s apparently spooked enough people in Iowa to where Trump has retaken the lead. I certainly don’t blame Trump for talking and tweeting about it. Despite what some have called an issue “for the kooks,” it’s a question of monumental importance. The American people want to know if someone they’re voting for is actually legally eligible to be president.

Let’s review Cruz’s “problem.”

He was born in Canada to an American mother and a Cuban father. It’s also possible that his father, at the time of his birth, was actually Canadian. Some claim his dad became a Canadian citizen around 1970. Dad would later renounce his Canadian citizenship and become an American citizen in 2005.

Cruz came to America with his parents in 1974 at the age of 3. There’s no evidence that his parents filed a CRBA. That’s a Consular Report of Birth Abroad. It’s customarily filed by American parents who have children in foreign countries but intend for those children to be regarded as American citizens. In other words, if I were on some radio assignment in France and my wife had a child while we were there, we would file a CRBA to make certain everyone understood our child was an American citizen. We don’t know that wasn’t filed because Cruz has denied requests to unseal official documents regarding the issue. Suspicious, to say the least.

Some like to compare the Cruz issue to Obama. Without opening that whole can of worms, there was never any question in my mind that Obama was born in Hawaii. That birth certificate he finally released was obviously bogus, but I believe it was bogus for reasons other than his place of birth. It may have the race of the child listed as caucasian since his mother was white. Who knows? If Obama was actually born in Kenya, as some have argued, isn’t he just as much a citizen as Ted Cruz?

That’s a good question and one that should have been decided by a court long before now. What if Cruz gets the nomination? You think the Clintons aren’t going to go after him on the eligibility question? Remember, the Clintons are the original birthers.

Each candidate Cruz faces has this issue in their back pocket. It’s just a matter of when they want to pull it out and cast doubt in the minds of the voters. You can argue that it was the Washington Post that brought the question up to Trump, but you know Trump’s no idiot. He could’ve deflected the question by simply saying he’s not a lawyer and can’t answer it. In fact, he told ABC News in September, “I hear it was checked out by every attorney and every which way and I understand Ted is in fine shape.” Now it’s a “big problem.” This time, when asked about it by the Post, Trump took to Twitter to offer “advice” to Cruz on how to settle the issue once and for all. And settle it he must.

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