Episode Details

Erick Erickson closes Open Line Friday with major Iran news, reporting from Axios and Barak Ravid that the United States has broken Iran's grip on the Strait of Hormuz, plus the full CENTCOM update from Admiral Brad Cooper on the minesweeping operation, the naval blockade, and the 750 million barrels of crude the Navy has escorted through. He breaks news live that Chevron and Halliburton are investing billions in Venezuela's oil fields and directing that flow to the United States, a huge win he credits to President Trump, then covers Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh at Jackson Hole warning that rates could go up in September. The hour ends with a long, moving tribute to Dolly Parton, the only American with 80 percent approval from both Republicans and Democrats, and a hard word for the Christians online claiming she is in hell.

Topics:

• Iran and the Strait of Hormuz: Alireza Tangsiri's mine order, the US and UAE reopening the shipping lanes, and only 11 real mines out of 200 objects swept
• Admiral Brad Cooper's CENTCOM update in full: 50,000 troops, 20 warships, 1,500 commercial vessels escorted, zero Iranian oil exported since the July blockade resumed
• Why Erick does not believe Xi Jinping or the Russians will cut Iran loose, and the theology of why secular communists and radical Islamists ally against America
• Breaking: Chevron, Halliburton, Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips circling Venezuela's oil fields, with all flows directed to the United States
• Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh at Jackson Hole, inflation still above target, and markets falling on the odds of a September rate increase
• The Dolly Parton tribute: Appalachia, the literacy programs, turning down the Presidential Medal of Freedom from both Trump and Biden, Tressie McMillan Cottom and Peggy Noonan on her legacy, and the Hitler exception
• Callers Al in Oklahoma on pulling data center water out of the air, and Jim in Orlando telling the president to stop acting like an idiot before November