Strat58 cat

Alaska Airlines v. United Airlines, 948 F.2d 536 (9th Cir. 1991).

[Strat58 cat @Strat58Cat2]

@PeteHegseth @CNN Then the US military should get in front of the story with facts while maintaining security. There's no reason to give false confidence to Red China.

[Visegrád 24 @visegrad24]

🇸🇾🇮🇶 Syria has declared full mobilization along the Iraqi border

All soldiers on leave have been called back.

Syrian officials did not provide details, but media outlets reported that the reason is a sharp increase in Iranian militia mobilization near the Iraq-Syria border.

Damascus officially warned the Iraqi government that any drone or rocket strikes launched from Iraqi soil targeting Syria will face direct military retaliation.

Syrian authorities recently intercepted a massive covert weapons shipment hidden inside an oil tanker crossing from Iraq. The shipment contained long-range missiles and advanced drones.

[Iran International English @IranIntl_En]

Iran's president was driven to a secret location in Tehran, seated in the back of a tinted-window car, and granted a few minutes in the dark beside a man he could not see. Afterwards, Masoud Pezeshkian asked whether the voice had really been the supreme leader's.

Iran International has learned the meeting, which Pezeshkian publicly described as two and a half cordial hours, lasted minutes. It was granted only after he threatened to resign, and held away from the leader's residence. Guards refused a handshake. He was then asked to leave. A second meeting has been denied.

In five months as the Islamic Republic's supreme leader, Khamenei has released no audio or video. Trump puts the odds he is dead at 90 percent; Israel says he is alive. His own foreign minister says almost no one has met him.

A family insider says the leader has warned that Pezeshkian's next resignation, after 28 threats, will be accepted. A president who cannot resign serves a leader he cannot see, and cannot be certain he has met.
https://t.co/axt7ZFckzc

[Echoes of War @EchoesofWarYT]

August 3, 1923. In a tiny farmhouse in Vermont with no electricity, a man was woken in the middle of the night to learn he had just become president, and his own father swore him in by lamplight.

Vice President Calvin Coolidge was visiting his childhood home, a simple farm so remote it had no telephone or electric power. Meanwhile, across the country, President Warren Harding had suddenly died. A messenger had to physically travel to the farmhouse to deliver the shocking news in the dead of night.

Coolidge needed to take the oath of office immediately. And it just so happened that his father was a notary public, legally allowed to administer oaths. So in the small hours of the morning, in the family sitting room, by the flickering glow of a kerosene lamp, John Coolidge swore in his own son as President of the United States.

It is one of the most quietly remarkable moments in the history of the office. No grand ceremony, no crowds, just a father and son in a rural farmhouse and an old oil lamp. Then, the story goes, the new president simply went back to bed. American power changed hands in the humblest way imaginable on this day.

[Fascinating @fasc1nate]

Steve McQueen was known for insisting that film studios supply him with large quantities of free items, such as electric razors, jeans, and other goods, as part of his contracts.

It later emerged that he quietly donated these supplies to the Boys Republic reformatory school, where he had spent part of his youth.

Photos that will restore your faith in humanity: https://t.co/60XnAFPt3Y

[OSINTtechnical @Osinttechnical]

Iran is proposing a peace deal to reopen Hormuz that would give it control over inbound traffic and create a Singapore-like voluntary fee system to cover services -The Telegraph

Oman is reportedly on board and believes that states and shipowners will willingly contribute.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

KASPAROV: Everything went contrary to Putin's expectations. Kyiv was not captured in 3 days, nor even in 3 years.

Moreover, Ukraine demonstrated ability to act as a free state, to very dynamically develop its defense industry.

Many pro-war Russian bloggers now admit that Ukraine is more dynamic in innovation because its society is dynamic.

Russian system is very clumsy, sluggish, and corrupt. You have to wait a long time for anyone to approve anything.

Ukraine, in this drone war, reacts to everything very quickly. That's advantage of the free world, a very important aspect.

Ukraine held out and has now taken initiative because different mechanisms work there: the market, democracy, freedom.

While in Russia, everything is still subordinated to bureaucracy. Everything is centralized, and they simply cannot keep up.

Ukraine is inflicting serious losses. Yes, there are pockets of dissatisfaction in Russia, but that doesn't mean Putin will end the war.

It seems to me there was a period about two months ago, in May and June, when there was hesitation in the Kremlin, but that's over.

Now it's become clear. You can see it in Putin's response to Tokayev and shift in propaganda that things have hardened.

But I don't think Putin has infinite resources. Looking at the dynamics, the economy, and finances, I believe it will be at most a year.

I think Putin is also aware of this, but it means that an unprecedented attempt at escalation will now be made.

First of all, Putin is counting on the political map of Europe changing in 2027. Elections all over Europe, especially in France.

If we imagine that France will have a president friendly to Putin, which is not at all unlikely, it will sharply change the balance.

In Germany, there will be elections in many federal states, and pro-Putin Alternative for Germany party is growing in strength there.

That's why it seems to me that Putin may now decide on an escalation involving crossing a NATO border.

Not to occupy Latvia or Estonia, that's impossible, but to show that NATO doesn't work.

As long as Trump is in America, it's hard to imagine that America will fight.

That means that even short cross-border clashes will give Putin the opportunity to declare that NATO no longer exists.

Putin cannot win the war in Ukraine. I think even he understands that. But he needs some kind of political victory.

Unfortunately, I believe the risk of such an attack involving drones, missiles, or small groups is growing.

That incident with the missile in Poland was a test. Drones fly in regularly, missiles and ships have crossed maritime border.

In my opinion, crossing NATO land border is essentially a matter of time. Putin will certainly decide to do it.

[Investment Wisdom @InvestingCanons]

Warren Buffett:

“A stock is a piece of a business. And if you buy a piece of a good business & somebody’s running it for you [who’s] honest & able, and you pay a reasonable price, you’re going to make a lot of money.”

[U.S. Central Command @CENTCOM]

The southern route through the Strait of Hormuz remains free and open for all commercial vessels seeking to transit the international waterway. Over the past three months, U.S. forces have assisted more than 1,000 vessels in successfully transiting the strait despite unwarranted Iranian aggression, and these transits continue today.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

KASPAROV: How much will China gain from the collapse of Russian Empire?

China has the largest territorial claims against Russia in the world. That's 1.5 million square kilometers.

Russian Empire took these lands from China in 1860. China's goal is to recover these lands.

This is not tiny Taiwan. This is vast territory with natural resources. There are already many Chinese people there.

China truly dominates economically today in the Far East, in Eastern Siberia, and most likely across all of Russia.

That's why it's important to understand what Russian configuration will look like after the fall of Putin's regime and defeat in the war.

[Rapid Response 47 @RapidResponse47]

NEC Director Kevin Hassett: Venezuela became Socialist, their energy production got cut down to almost zero. Countries that adopt Socialism, within a few years, have skyrocketing death rates. Socialism is really something that should be gone, and the fact that so many in the Democrat Party that support it—they don't know what they're supporting.

[OSINTdefender @sentdefender]

Several Iranian one-way attack drones targeted and struck a military base earlier tonight in Northern Kuwait, officials tell Israel’s i24NEWS.

[Mossad Commentary @MOSSADil]

Reports of multiple explosions at Al Doha Military Base in northern Kuwait. The cause and extent of any damage remain unclear.

@Osint613

[Jason Brodsky @JasonMBrodsky]

Initial, unconfirmed reports of an #Iran regime drone attack on #Kuwait. Every time there is a last minute plea to the U.S. from mediators to deescalate and call off strikes, they can’t deliver diplomatically and the Islamic Republic keeps attacking.

[Open Source Intel @Osint613]

Trump: "This is their last chance to make a deal before decapitation."

[Institute for the Study of War @TheStudyofWar]

MORE: IRGC-affiliated Fars News denied on August 2 that Iran agreed to a plan to reopen the strait. An informed Iranian military source told Fars News that the strait will remain closed as long as the United States continues to conduct “hostile actions.” The source added that vessels can only transit through Iran’s traffic separation scheme and with permission from the IRGC Navy. This report highlights how some IRGC factions, likely including Vahidi’s faction, seek to retain full control over all traffic in the strait and likely oppose an arrangement in which Iran would only control inbound traffic in the strait. The IRGC controls the forces that have repeatedly attacked shipping in the strait in recent months, and it could therefore try to undermine an arrangement in the Strait of Hormuz that it deems contrary to the regime’s interests.

Iranian negotiators’ reported openness to the US- and Qatari-formulated proposal is consistent with Iranian “pragmatist” actors’ support for negotiating a diplomatic settlement to advance Iranian objectives. “Pragmatist” officials such as Araghchi, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and President Masoud Pezeshkian have consistently advocated for using diplomacy to secure Iranian interests, such as securing Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz and obtaining economic relief. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has repeatedly voiced concerns about the economic costs of war, and he convinced Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei to accept the memorandum of understanding (MoU) in June by highlighting the MoU’s economic benefits.

[Institute for the Study of War @TheStudyofWar]

NEW: Iranian negotiators such as Foreign Affairs Minister Abbas Araghchi may be willing to make limited compromises with the United States over the extent of Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) faction led by IRGC Commander Major General Ahmad Vahidi, which appears to be currently dominating regime decision-making, will likely reject any arrangement that meaningfully reduces Iranian control over the waterway, however.

Other Key Takeaways:

US President Donald Trump stated on August 1 that he canceled planned strikes on Iran after Iran — presumably referring to Iranian negotiators — and regional states informed him that they had agreed on the parameters of a deal that reportedly includes the “immediate, complete, and total opening” of the strait and “an end to Iran’s nuclear threat.”

Israeli media also reported on August 2 that Araghchi agreed to a US- and Qatari-formulated proposal in which vessels would enter the Persian Gulf through Iranian waters and exit through Omani waters.

An arrangement in which Iran controls inbound traffic in the Strait of Hormuz would still enable Iran to control which vessels can enter the Persian Gulf and thus continue to undermine the United States’ interests as well as global commerce. Iranian officials have repeatedly emphasized that they seek to prevent “hostile” vessels, including US Navy vessels, from entering the Persian Gulf.

Some Iranian regime officials may be seeking to appease ultra-hardliners by emphasizing that the regime is exploiting pauses in US military operations and periods of diplomacy to reconstitute military capabilities and import new equipment. Iranian Artesh Spokesperson Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia explicitly stated on August 2 that Iran “fully exploited” the MoU and ceasefire to import new equipment, repair and reconstruct damaged systems, and produce new systems.

[Rapid Response 47 @RapidResponse47]

.@POTUS on Iran: "Now what we're doing is we're talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon — and we'll see."

[Mossad Commentary @MOSSADil]

IRAN SIGNALS PUSH TO REVIVE ISLAMABAD MOU WITH U.S.

Iranian MP Hassan Ghashghavi says mediators are working to revive the 14-point Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding that briefly halted the June Iran-U.S. war.

“There is an effort underway to revive the 14-point Islamabad agreement, particularly by the mediators.”

“They know that the main issue and, in fact, the key to the matter right now is the issue of the Strait of Hormuz, so yes, there is an exchange of views.”

[Rapid Response 47 @RapidResponse47]

.@POTUS: "They have a weakening yen and they wanted a little bit of help, and we're always there for Japan. Japan has been very good to us — with the exception, of course, of Pearl Harbor."