US port fees on China built vessels would hit grain exporters
Maritime historian, professor, and YouTuber, Sal Mercogliano, who rose to mainstream fame with appearances on the CNN network a year ago on the Dali incident provided comments with a deep historical context.
He pointed to decisions in the time following World War 2 (late 1940s through the late 1970s), where: “…the United States allowed its merchant marine to remain stable, while global ocean trade grew exponentially.”
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by John Konrad (gCaptain) The Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest and most strategically vital waterways, has become so hazardous that even the German Navy is steering clear. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius’s decision to redirect the frigate Baden-Württemberg and support vessel Frankfurt am Main around the Cape of Good Hope on their return from an Indo-Pacific deployment speaks volumes. The Red Sea is now deemed too perilous, underscoring just how ineffective current U.S. and EU naval protections are in this region.
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The broader question is even more stark: If NATO cannot send warships to face the Houthis, how will it possibly survive in a war against a larger adversary like China?
Red Sea Is Now So Dangerous Even NATO Warships Are Avoiding It
Hypocrisy thrives where double standards prevail.
Earlier, I stupidly tweeted out an article about the Jones Act and shipbuilding and Colin Grabow, from the Cato Institute, liked it (he was quoted in the article). I looked him up and decided to listen to this video on the shipbuilding competition between China and the US, where he and a lawyer for United Steelworkers were on the panel. China is eating their lunch, and it’s the ruling elites’ own fault, yet they scapegoat China for it. The double standards over China’s “unfair economic practices” AKA the subsidizing of their shipbuilding industry irritates me (liars irritate me even more). States give subsidies, grants, and tax breaks to corporations, all the time. Fincantieri Marinette Marine is just one example, but Wisconsin had done the same for Foxconn. Foxconn received tax breaks and $3B in subsidies, which was “the largest ever subsidy provided by a state to a foreign company”, despite not living up to their promises.
Colin Grabow wants to end the Jones Act. I’ve made at least three video clips regarding the Jones Act, two with Sal Mercogliano from What’s Going On With Shipping and one from the government-funded CSIS (I’ve posted them, below). Spoiler alert: Sal says that the problem isn’t the Jones Act. Meanwhile, both CSIS and the Cato Institute (part of the Atlas Network) blame the Jones Act. Deregulation is a wet dream of big corporations (which fund both the Cato Institute and CSIS).
Read More »The blocked entrance to the Port of Baltimore has stranded a total of four cargo ships that are on call to support U.S. military operations.
Two Of The Fastest U.S. Sealift Ships Trapped By Baltimore Bridge Collapse
Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI), the Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, is sounding the alarm on the United States’ “woefully inadequate” sealift fleet capacity to counter China in the event of an Indo-Pacific conflict.
Congressman Makes Urgent Call for U.S. Sealift Capacity Expansion to Counter China
MOSCOW – Strikes by the US and the UK on Yemen are another example of the distortion of UN Security Council resolutions and complete disregard for international law in the name of escalation in the region, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.
More Disregard for International Law: Moscow Hits Out at US-UK Attack on Yemen
It’s also disregard for US law.
The House of Representatives is discussing a move that would effectively amount to an act of war if carried out: a naval blockade on China.
House Republicans Propose The Study Of An Oil Naval Blockade Of China
The following is outdated, especially considering the problems with the US Navy’s LCS ships, but I thought that the bold quote was interesting. I highly doubt that Russia would ever submit to the US!
Related:
[2013] Stranglehold: The Context, Conduct and Consequences of an American Naval Blockade of China
In short, Russia would not only be China’s best hope of overcoming an American blockade, but it would also be the United States’ key to closing China’s transit route through Central Asia and preventing China’s two neighboring oil producers from supplying it with petroleum. In an American blockade of China, Russia’s importance as a swing state cannot be overstated, as is borne out by the observation that “no blockade of China in history has succeeded without Russian acquiescence.”
Posted on May 29, 2022 by ELCOMUNISTA.NET from TELESUR
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that this Saturday the first merchant ship arrived at the Ukrainian port of Mariupol since the beginning of the Russian military operation in the east of the country.
First Merchant ship arrives in Mariupol since the beginning of the conflict – Eng/Esp
The reality is that the only way we’re going to get to a place where we work through this transition is if everyone in America and everyone around the world gets vaccinated.
By Alan Macleod GULF OF OMAN — Earlier this summer, the Israeli-operated oil tanker Mercer Street was attacked by drones, allegedly emanating from Iran, disabling the ship and killing two people on board. The incident, portrayed as an unprovoked attack on a civilian vessel, caused worldwide outrage, and marked a new low in Iranian relations with Israel and its Western allies. But a MintPress investigation can now reveal that Zodiac Maritime, the Mercer Street’s operator, has a long history of working closely with both the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and Israeli intelligence unit Mossad, using its ships to ferry arms and operatives around the region for covert operations, including assassinations.
Revealed: Mercer Street’s Parent Shipping Company a Front for Israeli Intelligence
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 