Friday AM ~ thefrontpagecover

TheFrontPageCover
~ Featuring ~  
Cronyism Threatens Capitalism
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Business Review Board  
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SOUTHCOM CO: China’s Influence
 Growing in Western Hemisphere  
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By John Grady
news.usni.org } ~ China’s soft power moves in the Western Hemisphere – from building ports to sharing information on space and offering wireless 5G technologies... “have hard aims” with military implications that are drawing increased attention in Washington, the admiral in charge of U.S. Southern Command told a Senate panel on Tuesday. Referring to a military-run facility Beijing has built in Argentina, Adm. Craig Faller said, “China has global aims” and “is working on space across the globe.” The long-range goal is to give Beijing “a more global view of all space capabilities” from nations like the United States. Because the hearing before the Senate Armed Services emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee was open, Faller did not go into detail beyond saying the station’s operation was very concerning to American national security interests. The Chinese have said their intentions are peaceful in building and operating the station with a 16-story antenna. As an example of its use, China has said the station was an important element in its successful landing on the dark side of the moon earlier this year and added that visitors are welcomed. Another area of mounting interest to the United States has been China’s work with Nicolas Maduro’s Venezuelan government in building up its cyber capabilities. Like Moscow, Beijing “is blurring the lines” between military assistance, investment in infrastructure, sponsoring disinformation campaigns that color political events, and using propaganda to support their aims in winning business and influence. Across the hemisphere, Faller said Beijing has been marketing Huawei’s “safe city/smart city” technology as a means to improve both security and IT architecture in Central and South America. “We’ve explained the risks” of how that technology can be abused to control political opponents, as Maduro is doing to monitor citizens’ innocent activities, and the long-term dangers of doing business with Huawei because of its close ties to the Chinese government. “They turn to us and ask what’s the alternative,” Faller said. The ministries and military say “we need IT infrastructure,” he said...
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Iranian IRGC boats tried, failed to seize British 
oil tanker in Persian Gulf, senior US 
defense official says
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By Lucas Tomlinson and Louis Casiano  
foxnews.com } ~ Five Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps gunboats tried to seize a British oil tanker in the Persian Gulf Wednesday but backed off after a British warship approached... a senior U.S. defense official told Fox News. The British warship was said to have been less than 5 miles behind the tanker but soon intercepted the Iranian boats and threatened to open fire. A manned U.S. reconnaissance aircraft was above as well, the official said, adding that Iranian forces left without opening fire. Navy Captain Bill Urban, spokesman for the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), said the military was aware of the reported actions. He added, “Threats to international freedom of navigation require an international solution. The world economy depends on the free flow of commerce, and it is incumbent on all nations to protect and preserve this lynchpin of global prosperity.” The British frigate was identified as the HMS Montrose, according to The Sun. The vessel reportedly trained its 30mm deck guns on the enemy fleet and warned them off. The incident was the latest in a series of provocations between the Islamic Republic and the West. British forces last week seized an Iranian supertanker that officials believed was operating in violation of European Union  sanctions. The British Royal Marines captured the vessel in Gibraltar after believing it was trying to provide crude oil to Syria, an ally of Iran. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned that Britain would face repercussions over the seizure...  https://www.foxnews.com/world/iranian-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps-boats-tried-failed-to-seize-british-oil-tanker-in-persian-gulf-senior-us-defense-official-says  
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Iran Threatens to Strike 
U.S. Bases and Aircraft Carriers
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by Warren Mass
thenewamerican.com } ~ Iranian Minister of Cultural and Social Affairs Hossein Nejat issued a warning on July 9 that Iran can strike American bases in the Middle East and destroy U.S. aircraft carriers if the United States attacks Iran. “American bases are within the range of our missiles.... Our missiles will destroy their aircraft carriers if they make a mistake,” Nejat warned. “Americans are very well aware of the consequences of a military confrontation with Iran.” On May 12, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of Aerospace Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard, said in response to the U.S. decision to deploy the USS Abraham Lincoln with Carrier Strike Group 12 and a bomber task force to the Middle East that the action has transformed the U.S. presence from a “serious threat” to “a target.” “An aircraft carrier that has at least 40 to 50 planes on it and 6,000 forces gathered within it was a serious threat for us in the past but now it is a target and the threats have switched to opportunities,” Hajizadeh said. A June 3 AP report said that the Abraham Lincoln remained outside the Persian Gulf. Officers aboard the carrier repeatedly told AP that they could respond rapidly to any regional threat from their position, at the time some 320 kilometers (200 miles) off the eastern coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea. "You don’t want to inadvertently escalate something,” Captain Putnam Browne, the commanding officer of the Lincoln, told the AP. When asked about why the Abraham Lincoln hadn’t gone through the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf, Rear Admiral John F.G. Wade, the commander of the carrier’s strike group, told journalists from the AP and otherVoc media outlets that his forces could “conduct my mission wherever and whenever needed.” There are greater advantages to stationing the Abraham Lincoln outside the Persian Gulf than not wanting to “escalate” the situation with Iran, however. The Gulf is a relatively small body of water immediately south of Iran, and a carrier group stationed there is not only a “target,” as Hajizadeh said, but a sitting duck. Kyle Mizokami, a defense and national security writer, explored whether Iran had the capability to sink a U.S. aircraft carrier in a May 8 article for The National Interest. Mizokami noted...
AJC Lauches Inter-Parliamentary 
US-Israel-EU Friendship Group
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By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL 
jpost.com } ~ The Brussels-based American Jewish Committee (AJC) Transatlantic Institute announced on Tuesday an inter-parliamentary Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI) group in the European Union’s parliament... The Transatlantic Institute said the goal of the group is to strengthen “the trilateral partnership between the US, Israel and Europe.” A packed audience of some 60 people, including 25 MEPs from 13 countries, representing four of the five major political groups, were present at the opening of the group. “The impressive turn-out at this morning’s launch of the ‘Transatlantic Friends of Israel’ is a powerful message to the EU to strengthen and deepen this vital trilateral partnership,” said Daniel Schwammenthal, director of the AJC Transatlantic Institute. He added that “Israel ought to be understood as an integral part of the West which is less a geographical concept than a community of shared values and interests. With its first-class security services, cutting-edge high-tech sector, and thriving knowledge-based economy, Europe and the US couldn’t ask for a better partner to tackle today’s challenges, from rising extremism and terrorism to radical regimes and nuclear proliferation.” The organization is chaired by Austrian MEP Lukas Mandl.  “I consider the transatlantic alliance with Israel – a global leader in technology, defense and innovation – one of the most important issues of our time,” he said. “This trilateral partnership, based on shared Western values, interests, and history, is crucial for our collective security and prosperity. That’s why we have created the ‘Transatlantic Friends of Israel’ as a key inter-parliamentary group to help advance this critical work.”  A TFI vice chair – Lithuanian lawmaker Petras Auštrevičius – said that “It’s astonishing that the EU has in recent months held association councils with Egypt, Morocco and other Arab countries, but not with Israel, the Middle East’s only liberal democracy. This unfair treatment hurts not just Israeli but also European interests.”...
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California Officially Becomes First State
To Provide Health Benefits to
Some Illegal Immigrants
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By Jack Davis  
westernjournal.com } ~ Thousands of illegal immigrants in California will be able to receive state-funded health insurance under a law signed Tuesday by Democratic Gov. scumbag-Gavin Newsom... The law, SB-104, extends health care benefits to everyone 19 to 25 years of age who is income eligible, regardless of their immigration status,  CNN reported. Officials have estimated about 90,000 people will be covered by the law, with a cost of about $98 million per year. Coverage will take effect in 2020. California will be restoring the individual mandate to have health insurance in order to collect revenue that can pay for the new law. The scumbag/liar-nObamacare mandate was removed nationally by the GOP-controlled Congress in 2017. California already covers health care for illegal immigrants under 19. Although scumbag-Newsom balked at a $3.4 billion-per-year proposal to expand health care coverage for illegal immigrants regardless of age, he has also said that he will increase coverage. President Donald Trump has condemned the law. California doesn’t “treat their people as well as they treat illegal immigrants,” he told reporters on Monday, the Associated Press reported. “At what point does it stop? It’s crazy what they are doing. And it’s mean. And it’s very unfair to our citizens, and we’re going to stop it. But we may need an election to stop it, and we may need to get back the House,” Trump said. But scumbag-Newsom said California is right where he wants it to be. “If you believe in universal health care, you believe in universal health care. We are the most un-Trump state in America when it comes to health policy,” scumbag-Newsom said, according to NPR. At least one Republican state legislator foretold troubles from the law. “We are going to be a magnet that is going to further attract people to a state of California that’s willing to write a blank check to anyone that wants to come here,” state Sen. Jeff Stone said... Are you happen you elected scumbag-Newson for your governor.  https://www.westernjournal.com/california-officially-becomes-first-state-provide-health-benefits-illegal-immigrants/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=newsletter-WJ&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=western-journal  
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Cronyism Threatens Capitalism
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Business Review Board:  Crony “capitalists,” not pure socialists, pose a greater danger to capitalism. So concludes Reason’s Matthew Mitchell following his survey of 500 American business leaders. Mitchell contends, “[Cronyists] who benefit from government favoritism are more likely to accept interventions into markets.” Unsurprisingly, he adds, “Being a favorite is correlated with approving of favoritism.”

While Mitchell found that 61% of surveyed business leaders claimed to have benefitted from at least one government-granted privilege, the vast majority held the view that government shouldn’t be picking favorites. The percentage of business leaders who had not received any benefit from the government and were opposed to such favoritism was 84%.

The problem is the more instances of government favoritism that exist, the more likely the public will sour on capitalism, and for a couple of reasons. First, fairness. The more government is as seen as picking winners and losers, the more the public will believe that government and not the free market is responsible for a business’s success. Second, eroded trust. The public will stop believing in the fairness of a free market system, if the market is not free from companies cozying up to government to squelch competition.

Finally, Mitchell observes, “Were they alive today, I suspect that free marketeers like [Adam] Smith, [Joseph] Schumpeter, and [Milton] Friedman would say that our findings are consistent with their conclusion that capitalists are their own worst enemies. At the same time, I can’t help but note that the study is consistent with Marxist notions of class interest and false consciousness. According to Marxist theory, different classes — capitalists, workers — have different and often opposing interests. The idea of false consciousness is that many of us are deluded into thinking and acting in ways that do not serve our class interests.”  

~The Patriot Post

https://patriotpost.us/articles/64144?mailing_id=4407&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4407&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body  

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