U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) for 27 August - 23 September 2020

U.S. Navy Office of Naval I... by lawofsea

Saturday Is Old Radio Day: From Canada - Nightfall "Sometimes They Bite"

On Midrats 27 September 2020 - Episode 560: Pre-Fall Free For All

Please join us at 5pm on 27 September 2020 for Midrats Episode 560: Pre-Fall Free For All

Some may call it the silly season, some may call it a quickening, some may just get eye cramps from rolling them all the time ... but here we are under 6-weeks from a national election and from swarms of unmanned ideas seeping out of the easy-button to solve all our worries, to doom and gloom from Taiwan to the arctic - all getting in the way of solid navalist conversation.

EagleOne and I offer you a tonic for all this gibberish this Sunday as we cover the major issues from Dhahran to Washington, DC ... or at least try to boil them down to basics.

It will be an open topic, open phones free for all ... so if you think our topics are bogus, bring your own!

If you use Apple Podcasts, and miss the show live, you can pick up this episode and others and add Midrats to your podcast list simply by going here. Or on Spreaker. The show also is reportedly on Spotify.

U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) for 20 August - 16 September 2020

U.S. Navy Office of Naval I... by lawofsea

On Midrats 20 September 2020 - Episode 559: Saving the US Merchant Industry with Captain John Konrad

Please join us a 5pm on 20 September 2020 for Midrats Episode 559: Saving the US Merchant Industry with Captain John Konrad

The neglected American merchant fleet and industry is a problem long standing. The realization of the growing challenge on the other side of the Pacific, and the knowledge of what is needed to support it, has brought the problem in sharp relief.

Like most long neglected problems, the causes are many and deep. Ships, personnel, legal, regulatory, and the latest punch from COVID-19 have all intensified an already gathering storm.

Returning to Midrats this Sunday to discuss this critical foundation of maritime power will be Captain John Konrad.

John is the founder and CEO of the maritime news site gCaptain.com and author of the book Fire On The Horizon. He is licensed to captain the world's largest ships and has sailed from ports around the world. John is an adviser at MassChallenge, SeaAhead, and the MIT startup blkSAIL. He is a distinguished alumnus of New York Maritime College.

If you use Apple Podcasts, and miss the show live, you can pick up this episode and others and add Midrats to your podcast list simply by going here. Or on Spreaker. The show also is reportedly on Spotify.

Saturday Is Old Radio Day: Duffy's Tavern - "Archie Goes to the Opera" (1951)

No, the image has nothing to do with the radio show, but it is from one of my favorite opera movies.

Friday Film: "Finland Fights!" - 1939 Soviet Invasion of Finland

Constitution Day - September 17, 2020

So, how will you celebrate Constitution Day?

On September 17, 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention met for the last time to sign the document they had created. We encourage all Americans to observe this important day in our nation's history by attending local events in your area. Celebrate Constitution Day through activities, learning, parades and demonstrations of our Love for the United State of America and the Blessings of Freedom Our Founding Fathers secured for us.

Yep, 4 pages. The Bill of Rights were passed by Congress in 1789.but not ratified until December 15, 1791.

On this day in U.S. Navy history

U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) for 13 August - 9 September 2020

From ONI

ONI Weekly Piracy Update (WPU)

Effective 28 August 2020, the Weekly Piracy Update has been discontinued and a section of our former WPU has been incorporated into our (expanded) Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report. The new WTS section (Appendix A) provides Piracy and Armed Robbery at Sea statistics and trends for the last six months and the last five years.

ONI Monthly Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Reports

The Worlwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) message provides information on threats to merchant vessels, the shipping industry, and other maritime stakeholders worldwide in the last 30 days.

U.S. Navy Office of Naval I... by lawofsea

On Midrats 13 September 2020 - Episode 558: Shipyards & the Maritime Industrial Base, with Maiya Clark

Please join us at 5pm EDT on 13 September 2020 for Midrats Episode 558: Shipyards & the Maritime Industrial Base, with Maiya Clark

Concerned with the ability of our maritime industrial base to not just build the navy the nation needs, but to help maintain it? Well, do we have the episode for you! Join us this Sunday at 5pm with out guest for the full hour, Maiya Clark, as we discuss the issues she raises in her recent work, U.S. Navy Shipyards Desperately Need Revitalization and a Rethink. Maiya 

Clark is a research assistant in The Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense, focusing on defense industrial base issues. Before joining the Center for National Defense team, she worked at Heritage as assistant to Dr. James Jay Carafano, Vice President of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy. She originally joined The Heritage Foundation in 2018 as a research and administrative assistant in the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom. Maiya holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations with a minor in economics from the University of Southern California.

If you use Apple Podcasts, and miss the show live, you can pick up this episode and others and add Midrats to your podcast list simply by going here. Or on Spreaker. The show also is reportedly on Spotify.

9/11

I remember.

Fun with Iran: Revolutionary Guards to Take Control?

Interesting piece in Foreign Affairs, The Revolutionary Guards Are Poised to Take Over Iran:

That Iran will soon have a military-run government is not a foregone conclusion,

but it seems increasingly to be the most likely. Iranians are frustrated with partisan tensions and compounding crises. U.S. sanctions have drained the country’s economic lifeblood: purchasing power parity has decreased to two-thirds of what it was a decade ago, even as the public’s obsession with wealth has grown exponentially. Wounded pride and resentment that Iranians cannot enjoy the international prestige they deserve is giving rise to a novel form of nationalism.

President Hassan Rouhani, unable to deliver on either his domestic or foreign policy promises, has apparently thrown in the towel, as his recent management of the pandemic indicates. He was reluctant to recognize the novel coronavirus as a national threat until it was too late, and his contradictory messages on the subject confused the public and even garnered criticism from the supreme leader. By comparison, the IRGC holds a strong hand that is growing only stronger. But the very nature of its advantages may militate against its becoming the custodian of the state.

***

The IRGC presents itself as the cure for Iran’s national malaise, but it is in fact a big contributor to the problem. Its regional exploits dim the country’s prospects for sustained and steady development. Under U.S. sanctions, the IRGC expanded an underground economy, complete with a new corrupt elite of “smuggling entrepreneurs.” The IRGC prevents the government from recruiting experts whom it deems politically unfit, and it derails government policies and projects at will. All the while, it issues propaganda insisting that politicians and bureaucrats are to blame.

Sounds like more good times for Iran. I feel for the people, caught up in this nightmare.

Saturday Is Old Radio Day: Fibber McGee and Molly -"Welcoming LaTrivia Home from War" (1945)

Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII!

U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) for 6 August - 2 September 2020

U.S. Navy Office of Naval I... by lawofsea

Friday Film: "Replenishment at Sea" (1965)

U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) for 30 July - 26 August 2020 and HORN OF AFRICA/GULF OF GUINEA/SOUTHEAST ASIA Weekly Piracy Update for 13 -19 August 2020

U.S. Navy Office of Naval I... by lawofsea

U.S. Navy Office of Naval I... by lawofsea