TheFrontPageCover
~ Featuring ~
As Trade War Escalates, China Calls for Calm
Thomas Gallatin
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In New Poll, loose lips liar-Biden Sees Big
Drop Among Democrats As dinky-Warren,
commie-Sanders Rise
By Tristan Justice
{ thefederalist.com } ~ A Monmouth University poll released Monday shows former Vice President loose lips liar-Joe Biden’s frontrunner status in the race for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination diminishing... while Sens. Elizabeth dinky-Warren (D-Mass.) and commie-Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) compete for the race’s top spot in the crowded primary. The poll shows loose lips liar-Biden dropping to third place in the race, with 19 percent support from voters, down a whopping 13 percent from the university’s previous polling, conducted in June. dinky-Warren and commie-Sanders tied for first and second place in the poll with 20 percent support each, opening the race up to a three-way matchup between the candidates with a 5.7 percent margin of error. U.S. Sen. lowlife-Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) registered with 8 percent support in the poll, followed by Sen. scumbag-Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg each with 4 percent, tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang at 3 percent, and former secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, former U.S. Rep. socialist-Beto O’Rourke (D-TX.) and self-help author Marianne Williamson all at 2 percent. The rest of the candidates still running in the race all polled at 1 percent or less, if registering at all. If the polling is accurate and similar results show in other polls, it suggests Democratic voters are trending towards backing the farther-left candidates in the race with little appetite for moderation, even as a close examination of loose lips liar-Biden’s track record reveals no moderate in the former vice president and senator from Delaware. “The main takeaway from this poll is that the Democratic race has become volatile,” said pollster Patrick Murray in a statement unveiling the results....
scumbag/liar-Hillary is Lurking
By Richard K. Davis
{ americanthinker.com } ~ scumbag/liar-Hillary Clinton, the Ma Barker of American politics, is still out hustling, still staying one step ahead of the law as she tries to weasel her way into the presidential sweepstakes... She says she isn’t running in 2020, but, as we know too well, truth is a fungible commodity to a scumbag/liar-Clinton. The signs don’t look good. She just announced a fundraiser for the DNC at her Washington D.C. mansion with tickets as high as $50,000 scraps for the homeless in the dumpster out back. A couple of weekends ago she was at de Rothschild’s estate on Martha’s Vineyard -- go socialism! -- to celebrate Bill’s birthday, which included “quite an A-list cast of characters, including many Democratic party stalwarts.” Recently she and Chelsea announced they were publishing a book in October about “gutsy women,” no doubt the tale of some courageous women in Arkansas who stood up to privilege and power even before the #MeToo movement. At least that’s my guess. In any case, the subject is irrelevant. It’s the timing that matters. A book tour in the middle of the primary race? Just a not-so-subtle reminder from Madam Secretary: The air in the room belongs to me, bitches. Hearing scumbag/liar-Hillary announce a third presidential bid would be like hearing your dentist say he has to go ahead with that third root canal, and he just ran out of Novocaine. No sane person wants her in the race, which doesn’t stop her from getting the party’s full support, of course. However, a former aide said she would “ankle dive at the door” to stop her from running a possible fatal act of heroism, depending on how things fall...
Europe: "Mediterranean Taxis"
for People-Smugglers
by Soeren Kern
{ gatestoneinstitute.org } ~ Italian authorities have seized a Spanish migrant rescue ship after a three-week standoff between the Italian government and the Spanish charity operating the vessel... Interior Minister Matteo Salvini had refused to allow the Open Arms rescue ship, carrying more than 80 mostly African migrants, to dock in Italy. The refusal was in line with his crackdown on migrant smuggling that has effectively closed Italian ports to migrant rescue boats since June 2018. Salvini has accused European non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of coordinating with people-smuggling mafias to pick up migrants off the coast of Libya and transport them to Italian ports. Italian officials have referred to the charity rescue boats as "Mediterranean taxis" for people-smugglers. Sicilian prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio on August 20 ordered the Open Arms, anchored one kilometer off Italy's southernmost island of Lampedusa, to dock in Sicily so that its passengers could disembark. He made the decision, in opposition to Salvini, after more than a dozen migrants jumped overboard and tried to swim to shore. Subsequent video footage showed that Open Arms staged the jumps to manipulate public opinion. The Open Arms, operated by a Spanish NGO of the same name, had picked up 147 migrants off the coast of Libya on August 1. The Italian government allowed those in need of medical attention and all unaccompanied children to disembark on August 17. Five EU countries — Spain, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Portugal — agreed to take in the rest, although details of the understanding have yet to be finalized. On August 18, the Spanish government announced that the Open Arms would be allowed to dock at the Spanish port of Algeciras in Cádiz, and at Mahón in Menorca in the Balearic Islands. The captain of the Open Arms, however, rejected the offer. He argued that it was "impossible" to attempt the four- to six-day journey given the conditions on board: "We cannot endanger the security and physical integrity of the migrants and crew. We need to dock now."....
Silicon Valley is building a
Chinese-style social credit system
By MIKE ELGAN
{ fastcompany.com } ~ Have you heard about China’s social credit system? It’s a technology-enabled, surveillance-based nationwide program designed to nudge citizens toward better behavior... The ultimate goal is to “allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step,” according to the Chinese government. In place since 2014, the social credit system is a work in progress that could evolve by next year into a single, nationwide point system for all Chinese citizens, akin to a financial credit score. It aims to punish for transgressions that can include membership in or support for the Falun Gong or Tibetan Buddhism, failure to pay debts, excessive video gaming, criticizing the government, late payments, failing to sweep the sidewalk in front of your store or house, smoking or playing loud music on trains, jaywalking, and other actions deemed illegal or unacceptable by the Chinese government. It can also award points for charitable donations or even taking one’s own parents to the doctor. Punishments can be harsh, including bans on leaving the country, using public transportation, checking into hotels, hiring for high-visibility jobs, or acceptance of children to private schools. It can also result in slower internet connections and social stigmatization in the form of registration on a public blacklist. China’s social credit system has been characterized in one pithy tweet as “authoritarianism, gamified.” At present, some parts of the social credit system are in force nationwide and others are local and limited there are 40 or so pilot projects operated by local governments and at least six run by tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent. Beijing maintains two nationwide lists, called the blacklist and the red list—the former consisting of people who have transgressed, and the latter people who have stayed out of trouble a “red list” is the Communist version of a white list. These lists are publicly searchable on a government website called China Credit... https://www.fastcompany.com/90394048/uh-oh-silicon-valley-is-building-a-chinese-style-social-credit-system .
DoD Tests New Missile in Bid
to Counter Chinese Advantage
by Bradley Bowman and Andrew Gabel
{ fdd.org } ~ The Department of Defense successfully tested a new ground-launched intermediate-range cruise missile on August 18... which hit its target after more than 500 kilometers (km) of flight. The test marks an important milestone for the U.S. military as it scrambles to develop missiles of the kind Beijing has deployed in massive numbers to threaten U.S. vessels and bases in Asia. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed by Washington and the Soviet Union in 1987, prohibited the production, possession, or flight testing of ground-launched intermediate-range cruise or ballistic missile systems with a range between 500 and 5,500 km. Russia assumed the Soviet commitment to the INF Treaty after the latter’s dissolution, yet Moscow has deployed multiple battalions armed with the SSC-8 also known as the 9M729 intermediate-range ground-launched cruise missile. Indeed, Russia’s violations began in the mid-2000s. After imploring Moscow for years to return to compliance with the INF Treaty, the U.S. announced on February 2 this year its intent to withdraw from the treaty. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned, “If Russia does not return to full and verifiable compliance with the Treaty by eliminating all 9M729 missiles, their launchers, and associated equipment in this six-month period, the Treaty will terminate.” Moscow did not comply, and the U.S. formally left the treaty on August 2. Never constrained by the INF Treaty, China has deployed hundreds of such missiles. Indeed, as Admiral Philip Davidson, commander of all U.S. forces in the Indo-Pacific, noted in testimony earlier this year, over 95 percent of China’s ballistic missiles would have been prohibited by the INF Treaty. China’s ground-launched missiles enable it to threaten U.S. partners and allies, as well as U.S. vessels and bases in the region, thereby jeopardizing America’s overall strategic position. Nevertheless, the U.S. abided by its INF Treaty commitment until Russian violations became intolerable. Now, the U.S. and its allies can and should build a missile network in the Indo-Pacific region to counter China’s Anti-Access/Area Denial strategy. America’s adversaries have not stood still, and U.S. national security interests require that Washington respond accordingly. The 2018 U.S. National Defense Strategy called for building a “more lethal Joint Force.” This will almost certainly require the deployment of significant numbers of intermediate-range ground-launched missiles to the Indo-Pacific theater. Such a deployment could help deter aggression by Beijing by increasing the perceived risk, cost, complexity, and uncertainty associated with belligerent action... https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2019/08/26/dod-tests-new-missile-in-bid-to-counter-chinese-advantage/?p=97578 .
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As Trade War Escalates, China Calls for Calm
Thomas Gallatin: Over the weekend President Donald Trump was in Biarritz, France, for the G7 summit. However, the world’s attention was on Asia following the latest dust-up between China and the U.S. in the ongoing trade war. Following Beijing’s announcement of new tariffs on $75 billion in U.S. goods, Trump blasted China with tariffs on another $550 billion in Chinese products. A clearly agitated Trump had earlier issued a statement that brought a wave of condemnation — he “ordered” American companies “to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA.”
Obviously, the president cannot compel U.S. companies to do as he says; America is not communist China. But that’s the point — it appears that Trump’s message was primarily intended for Beijing. He rightly blames China for this trade war and has no intention of backing down. Indeed, Trump’s comments in context demonstrate his thinking: “Our Country has lost, stupidly, Trillions of Dollars with China over many years. They have stolen our Intellectual Property at a rate of Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year, & they want to continue. I won’t let that happen! We don’t need China and, frankly, would be far better off without them. The vast amounts of money made and stolen by China from the United States, year after year, for decades, will and must STOP. Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China…”
News of the latest round of tariffs sent markets plunging, especially the Asian markets. In an effort to mitigate some of the effects of Trump’s tariffs by making Chinese goods cheaper, Beijing let its currency, the yuan, drop to an 11-year low. However, by early Monday Beijing was signaling to Washington that it wants to “calm” things down to seek an end to this trade war. Trump’s announcement on Sunday that Japan and the U.S. had agreed “in principle” to a new bilateral trade deal may have also played a significant factor in China’s sudden call for calm.
Again, this ongoing trade war is one Trump did not start, but he has willingly taken up the fight. It’s no secret that China has been playing dirty on trade for a long time. And it’s not as if Beijing has suddenly decided to change its ways. Earlier this year, Vietnam accused China of mislabeling its products as “Made in Vietnam” in an effort to avoid U.S. tariffs. While there is no way to avoid the impact of fighting this trade war, and there’s plenty to criticize Trump over, one thing for which he should rightly be commended is his willingness to stand and fight for the American people. ~The Patriot Post
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