S15 EP140: Hour 1 - Competition at War

Erick Erickson opens on the fight to let Ukraine build its own Patriot missiles and the Lockheed and Raytheon protectionism blocking it (this, while Ukraine out-produces all of NATO with five million drones this year while America makes fewer than 100,000). He ties a sclerotic defense industry and a stumbling Boeing to why the United States cannot reopen the Strait of Hormuz or finish the job in Iran, where Tehran keeps raising its price and the promised Bessent/Rubio deal never comes. Then a Milton Friedman defense of the free market against tariffs, the imaginary $20 burrito, populism as covetousness, and a surprising rethink on the Flock camera backlash.

Topics:

• Patriot missile production, Ukraine's five million drones versus America's under 100,000, and the Lockheed and Raytheon IP fight reported by The Atlantic.
• Iran on edge: Trey Yingst on Fox, the questioned Mostafa Khamenei "proof of life" video, unpaid IRGC soldiers, and why Tehran will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz despite the collapsed deal.
• Boeing versus Airbus, bean counters over engineers, and how government protectionism kills innovation.
• Milton Friedman, tariffs as a tax on working families, the phony $20 burrito, and populism as "covetousness organized as a governing principle" (JD Vance, Patrick Deneen, American Compass).
• The Flock camera backlash: license plate readers that solve murders and find missing kids, weighed against police abuse and left and right fears of a surveillance state.