TheFrontPageCover
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Hamas, Islamic Jihad:
"The Circle of Fire is Expanding"
by Khaled Abu Toameh
{ gatestoneinstitute.org } ~ As Egypt, the United Nations and other parties are pursuing their efforts to prevent an all-out military confrontation in the Gaza Strip... Hamas and its allies are forging ahead in their development of various types of weapons with which to attack Israel. The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad, the second largest armed group in the Gaza Strip after Hamas, recently revealed how it has managed to upgrade the rocket launchers that are being used to attack Israel. According to the Islamic Jihad's military wing, Al-Quds Brigades, it began developing its rocket launchers in 2007, when Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip after overthrowing the regime of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Twelve years seems like a good time to take stock. What are the achievements of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip? They boast about three: improving military capabilities, smuggling weapons and investing millions of dollars in constructing terror tunnels. Iran's money goes to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad war machine -- nothing else. Not hospitals, not schools, and not jobs for unemployed Palestinians. Take, for example, a report released this week by Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds Brigades, which presents the development of rocket launchers as one of the group's major achievements in the past 12 years. "The rocket launchers of the Al-Quds Brigades will remain one of the most important elements of the power we possess," the report boasts. "The rockets will continue to serve as a nightmare haunting the leaders of the Israeli enemy." The report says that since the inception of the Islamic Jihad, it "has used many weapons and missiles, including knives, bombs, submachine guns, explosive belts and homemade rockets."... https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14666/hamas-islamic-jihad-missiles .
Dow Jones sinks 767 points in worst day
of 2019 as China trade war heats up
by James Langford
{ washingtonexaminer.com } ~ Major U.S. stock indexes plummeted as China retaliated against President Trump's latest tariffs on its exports... duties that economists and businesses had long warned would take a bite out of consumer budgets. The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average sank 767 points, or 2.9% to 25,717, its largest drop since December,, at the close of New York trading on Monday. The broader S&P 500 dropped 3% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq sank 3.5%. The Chinese yuan plummeted to its lowest level against the dollar in 11 years, a move that made the country's products cheaper and prompted speculation that President Xi Jinping's government was manipulating the currency. Bloomberg News reported separately that Xi had asked state-owned companies to stop purchases of U.S. crops after Trump imposed 10% duties on $300 billion of Chinese imports not covered under earlier tariffs. The goods include a large swath of consumer items, hitting a sector of the U.S. economy that had been partially insulated by businesses seeking to retain customers. Driving up those costs will force some importers to stop buying and potentially drive others out of businesses, since they may well have to raise prices higher than shoppers are willing to pay. "The tariffs will slow the economy," said Seth Martin, an economist with the Swiss lender UBS. "Some of the hit will happen in the fourth quarter, but the bulk of it will happen in 2020." Barring a trade agreement with China that ends the duties and rejuvenates commerce between the world's two largest economies, that means the impact of the tariffs may play a growing role in the presidential election, in which Trump has partly built his reelection pitch on economic growth. "The Chinese do not want an agreement with Trump unless he wins re-election," said Tony Roth, chief investment officer for Wilmington Trust, which manages $84.9 billion in assets. "The Chinese are looking for a better partner from their perspective than Trump, someone with a more traditional approach to free trade than Trump has, and they would much rather wait it out and see whether Trump gets re-elected. My concern is this move that Trump has taken will really slow the economy down and play into Chinese hands."
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The Truth About Painkiller Addiction
by Sally Satel
{ theatlantic.com } ~ In the early days of the opioid crisis, public officials had reasons to blame it on all the pills. News stories featured people who, to the shock of their neighbors and loved ones, had died unexpectedly of a drug overdose... In an emergency, authorities do what they can with the tools at hand. In tightening controls on doctors who prescribed pain relievers, state and federal agencies were focusing on the aspect of the problem most subject to regulatory intervention. To some degree, that strategy worked. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, overdose deaths declined by about 5 percent in 2018—a dip attributable almost exclusively to fewer deaths from oxycodone, hydrocodone, and other prescription opioids. Fentanyl deaths are still climbing. Now that the fever of the opioid crisis may be breaking, Americans can revisit some of the stories we have told ourselves about the role of prescription medication in the crisis. Did policy makers and public-health experts correctly assess who was at risk of becoming addicted to opioid medications? Were their views on the addictive potential of such drugs realistic? Did they anticipate the consequences of policies devised to constrain doctors from overprescribing? In retrospect, policy makers seriously misjudged the answers to these questions, overestimating the risk that these drugs posed to the average patient while simultaneously doing too little to urge clinicians to identify those most vulnerable to addiction. The best time to correct course is now—while the opioid problem still commands public attention, and before the restrictions imposed at the height of the crisis harden into permanent practice. By now, the outlines of the story are familiar: Opioid prescribing began to rise in the early 1990s, powered by two forces. One was a campaign by oncologists and pain specialists to correct the undertreatment of pain. The other was the introduction in 1996 of the potent time-release oxycodone medication Oxycontin, which the drug company Purdue Pharma vigorously marketed to doctors. Packed with up to 80 milligrams of oxycodone a pill, Oxycontin became a magnet for opioid abusers. And with a street value of $1 a milligram, Oxycontin became valuable as local currency. By 1999, the diversion of pills into the black market was well under way in Maine and rural Appalachia. Medication was stolen from medicine chests, dealt on the street, and sold in cash-only pill mills....
Graham Announces Gun Confiscation ‘Red Flag’ Legislation Backed By Trump
by WHITNEY TIPTON
{ dailycaller.com } ~ GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said Monday he plans to introduce a bipartisan “red flag” gun confiscation bill that will have President Donald Trump’s support... Graham announced he had reached a deal with Democratic Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal to create a federal grant program to help states establish “red flag” laws, or laws that facilitate gun confiscation when a threat is detected, according to a statement. “I have reached an agreement with Senator Blumenthal to create a federal grant program to assist and encourage states to adopt ‘Red Flag’ Protection Order laws to timely intervene in situations where there is an imminent threat of violence,” the South Carolina senator said. Graham, the Senate Judiciary chairman, also indicated that his legislation has Trump’s support. “I spoke with the President this morning about this proposal and he seems very supportive,” he said. Graham’s announcement came shortly after Trump addressed the nation regarding the shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, this weekend that killed more than 30. “Red flag” laws, also known as gun confiscation orders, are designed to enable people to report to authorities when someone appears to be a threat, so that their firearms can be confiscated for a term... https://dailycaller.com/2019/08/05/graham-gun-confiscation-red-flag/?utm_medium=email .
UK to Join US-Led Maritime
Security Mission in Gulf
by jpost.com
Britain on Monday joined the United States in a maritime security mission in the Gulf to protect merchant vessels traveling through the Strait of Hormuz... after Iran seized a British-flagged vessel. British officials stressed that there was no change to London's policy on Iran but joining the United States is the most significant non-Brexit foreign policy move to date of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's 12-day-old government. Just two weeks ago, Britain was calling for a European-led naval mission. Now, it has joined what it said was a U.S.-led "international maritime security mission." No other nations are yet involved. "It is vital to secure the freedom for all international shipping to navigate the Strait of Hormuz without delay, given the increased threat," said British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace. "The deployment of Royal Navy assets is a sign of our commitment to our UK flagged vessels and we look forward to working alongside the US and others to find an international solution to the problems in the Strait of Hormuz.” Tanker traffic through the Strait - through which a fifth of the world's oil passes - has become the focus for a standoff between Iran and the United States, which has beefed up its military presence in the Gulf since May. Last month, Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized a British tanker, Stena Impero, near the Strait of Hormuz for alleged marine violations. That came two weeks after Britain seized an Iranian oil tanker near Gibraltar, accusing it of violating sanctions on Syria. Britain has repeatedly ruled out any exchange. The tanker dispute has tangled the United Kingdom in the diplomatic differences between the EU's big powers - which want to preserve the Iran nuclear deal - and the United States which has pushed for a tougher policy on Iran... https://www.jpost.com/International/UK-to-join-US-led-maritime-security-mission-in-Gulf-597737
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Why Hasn’t War on Poverty,
Welfare Cured Poverty?
By Genevieve Wood
{ cnsnews.com } ~ When President Lyndon Johnson launched his War on Poverty in the 1960s, he pledged to eliminate poverty in America... More than five decades, several welfare programs, and $25 trillion later, the welfare system has utterly failed the poor. About 40 million Americans are considered poor. If we divided that $1 trillion among those 40 million people, we could give each person approximately $25,000 a year, or $100,000 a year for a family of four. We’re clearly spending a lot of money, so why have we not ended poverty? Our welfare system discourages work. It discourages families from staying together. And it encourages dependence on government. In other words, welfare keeps the poor poor. In many cases, welfare has harmed the very people it was supposed to help, especially children. Why has this happened? As welfare benefits grew over the years, they increasingly served as a substitute for a working parent. As the taxpayer became the family breadwinner, that encouraged many men to stop upholding their responsibilities, leaving more and more women as heads of single-parent households. On the other side of the coin, single mothers were discouraged from marrying the fathers of their children because that reduced their benefits. Sadly, the cycle continues today as many children who grow up on welfare eventually follow in their parents’ footsteps when they have families of their own. The poverty rate remains mostly unchanged, and tens of millions of Americans are dependent on government assistance. Currently, the United States spends about a trillion dollars a year on 80 different federal, state, and local welfare programs. So, what do we do? First, we have to understand that the problem with the current system is that it discourages work. Work is the fastest and most effective way to get out of poverty and become prosperous...https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/genevieve-wood/why-hasnt-war-poverty-welfare-cured-poverty
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Texas Lt. Gov. Sends 'A Clear Message to Antifa:
Stay Out of El Paso; Stay Out of Texas'
By Craig Bannister
{ cnsnews.com } ~ Providing a live update on Saturday’s mass shooting at an El Paso, Texas Walmart, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) warned Antifa protesters to cancel their plans to come to the city... A 21 year-old male suspect has been taken into custody, an unknown number of victims are dead, and others have been take to local hospitals, Lt. Gov. Patrick said. Patrick, then, issued a stern warning to Antifa: “Stay out of Texas.” “I was looking at a story recently. I just saw, the last couple of days ago, where Antifa is posting, you know, they want to come to El Paso and do a ten-day siege. “A clear message to Antifa: Stay out of El Paso. Stay out of Texas, basically.” Antifa is not welcome at any time, but certainly not now, Lt. Gov. Patrick added, repeating his call for Antifa to “Stay out of Texas.’ “But, we don’t need them coming in on September 1st. We didn’t need them to begin with, before this happened. But, I would say to Antifa: Scratch Texas off your map and don’t come in. It is not the time and place for them to come at any time, but particularly in the aftermath of what just happened in El Paso. “So, Antifa, message from the lieutenant governor: Stay out of Texas.”
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Politicizing Murder with Lies
by Bruce Thornton
{ frontpagemag.com } ~ The bodies in Gilroy, El Paso, and Dayton were still in the morgue when the progressive “carrion-picking crows” started politicizing the murders... But everything they said about gun control, “white nationalism,” and Trump’s culpability was based on lies and stale clichés recycled for political gain. The argument that more gun control laws will lessen substantially such murders has been disproven with facts over and over. In the Nineties, gun homicides fell by half, even as the number of guns increased 56%. The reason has been obvious since Prohibition in the Twenties: if enough people want something, black markets and criminal gangs will exist to get it for them. We’ve spent about a trillion dollars on reducing the availability of drugs, yet any savvy teenager in America can get just about any drug in less than a day. Likewise, someone bent on mayhem can circumvent the most stringent gun control laws. Just look at the crime rate in Democrat-controlled cities like Chicago, D.C., or Baltimore. They have some of the most restrictions on guns, and some of the highest murder rates. Yet after the El Paso massacre, Democrat primary candidate Amy Klobuchar, a “moderate” only by comparison to her hard-left rivals, wrote, “The U.S. House has passed common sense gun safety legislation. It is long past time to pass it in the Senate. The question to ask: Whose side are you on? The NRA’s or the people’s?” “socialist-Beto” O’Rourke decried “lax gun laws,” commie-Bernie Sanders called for “common-sense gun safety legislation,” and lowlife-Kamala Harris vowed during her first 100 days as president to block the import of “assault rifles”. These empty statements have become anti-gun-nut mantras designed to exploit the suffering of the victims and the ghoulish spectacle of the crimes. The next lie is the sinister power of “white nationalism.” According to a “manifesto” published online 19 minutes before the El Paso attack, probably by the shooter, his motives were focused on racial and national identity degeneration of the sort that troubled the Boston Brahmins like Henry Cabot Lodge. They, too, promoted racial purity, as well as “scientific racism,” eugenics, and the 1924 immigration law that restricted emigrants from Eastern Europe, Southern Italy, and other “inferior” countries filled with “beaten men from beaten races,” as MIT President Francis Amasa Walker put it. Based on those sentiments, the shooter can fairly be called a white nationalist, but there is no evidence in his manifesto that he is part of a larger, organized group with any national following or influence. In fact, it appears that the shooter, like the vast majority of other mass-shooters other than jihadists, is a deranged loner. Like most such killers, he masks his personal demons, neuroses, and failures with the claim that he wants to shock awake Americans who aren’t taking seriously the degeneration of the country, one he blames on Republicans as well as Democrats...
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The Charlottesville Lie
by Steve Cortes
{prageru.com} ~ Did President Trump call neo-Nazis “very fine people” during a famous press conference following the Charlottesville riots of August 2017? The major media reported that he did... But what if their reporting is wrong? Worse, what if their reporting is wrong and they know it’s wrong? A straight exploration of the facts should reveal the truth. That’s what CNN political analyst Steve Cortes does in this critically important video.
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Senior Iranian Commander, The Islamic
Republic is on Israel's Borders
by ANNA AHRONHEIM
{ jpost.com } ~ Iran’s front has extended to the Mediterranean Sea and the borders of Israel, a senior Iranian commander said on Monday... “Today, Hezbollah and Hamas have gained great power and do not need our help anymore, and all of their Israelis’ locations are within reach of the Lebanese Hezbollah,” Rabbani added. According to a recent report in Haaretz, Iran and Hamas have agreed to open a second front in the south from the Gaza Strip should a war break out in Israel’s North. Israeli officials have warned that any war that breaks out in the North will not be confined to one border – Lebanon, or Syria – but will be fought on both. Rabbani, who was speaking on Monday at an event in Shahriar, a town near the capital Tehran, claimed that Iran’s military capabilities are growing day by day in such a way that no country in the region could win a ground war against the Islamic republic. “For at least the next 10 years, no regional or trans-regional country is able to counter or fight against the Islamic Republic of Iran in ground warfare,” he claimed, adding that “our missile power also deters any regional and extra-regional acts of aggression, and the range of the missiles is also increasing constantly.” Israel has warned repeatedly that it will not allow an Iranian presence in Syria, and has admitted to carrying out hundreds of air strikes, preventing the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah that included surface-to-air missile kits...
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