Thursday, March 30, 2017

THE JONES ACT FLEET AND PEOPLE OF THE US MERCHANT MARINE

JOHNAS PRESBYTER

Profile photo  GET TO KNOW THE PEOPLE , THE MERCHANT SEAMEN OF AMERICA'S JONES ACT FLEETS

 The "Jones Act Fleets" refers to the commercial vessels of the American Merchant Marine that carry cargo or passengers, or provide services  between American ports and destinations. These ships which typically operate within our territorial sea, or on our internal waters must, by Federal statute popularly known as the "Jones Act", be built in America, by American workers to exacting Coast Guard regulations and usually American Bureau of Shipping Classification Society standards. Once launched, tested and accepted these vessels such as Great Lakes ore and grain freighters, Mississippi  and Ohio River towboats and barges, Gulf and West Coast offshore oil industry service vessels, harbor tugs, dredges, ferries, water taxis, excursion boats, inland and coastal overnight passenger cruise vessels are required by law to be crewed and officered by American citizen sailors vetted, examined, sworn to duty, and licensed or certified by the U.S. Coast Guard.

 Virtually every nation on earth with a seacoast, navigable rivers, and a modicum of soverignity and independence requires that their "trade between their own capes" ("Cabotage Trades" in Admiralty Law") be conducted exclusively by their own vessels and citizens. There are 33 American states that are serviced in one way or another by the Jones Act fleets and their mariners. The waterborne trade between and among American ports actually exceeds in value and tonnage our seaborne foreign trade which is considerable, but largely carried by foreign registered shipping. If you want to see what a nation looks like after it abandons the protection of its cabotage trades examine China at the time of the Boxer Rebellion. British and American ships carried not only China's foreign trade but also the coastal trade between Chinese ports, and trade far up the navigable rivers of China. 
File:TowboatAngelina-NOLA.jpg
 The towboat Angelina pushes a barge on the Mississippi River in New Orleans, Louisiana. Taken on January 3, 2005 by J. Glover (AUTiger).  licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
One great way to visualize and conceptualize China on the eve of the Boxer Rebellion, the most studied example of warfare over cabotage is to simply watch the old Steve McQueen movie THE SAND PEBBLES 

Foreign interests want to eliminate the requirements that vessels carrying commerce between American ports and destinations be built in America and manned by American crews. At stake is the environmental integrity of our waters and the security of our ports and waterways. Also at risk and of no concern to these interests are hundreds of thousands of well paying skilled crew jobs and tens of thousands of "second tier" and inland ship yard production work jobs, cargo terminal and grain elevator jobs, and management jobs. These interests approach congress men and senators from states state which have  no coast, no navigation, no such jobs and thus no constituency to complain or even watch what their representative are  up to in this regard. In short, no matter how much we "follow the money", there is little interest among the electorate of arid states in the matter. Most Americans, even in the 33 states served by Jones Act navigation know very little about the industries or their work force. We thought maybe a good place to change all that would be by introducing Americans to the people and vessels of the industry through songs , stories and images. Click below on any of the links to interesting musical videos, video documentaries, and images of the Jones Act fleet in life and death, at work, and at play. Watch for more from time to time and develop a gut felt protective attitude of this basic American transportation and manufacturing industry and naval auxiliary, its hard working American work force and its place in overall national security. And don't forget to watch  THE SAND PEBBLES 


THE WRECK OF THE EDMUND FITZGERALD  Music by Gordon Lightfoot with news footage and photos.

TIDEWATER MARINE YOUR BOATS RIDE LOW

Rescue at Water's Edge: The U.S. Merchant Marine Response to 9/11

When you've at least watched these video's ask yourself, if this fleet was made in Mexico and manned by foreign labor, would they come through for you? 

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

NAMAZU'S FAVORITE TEXAS PHILOSOPHER ON WINNING

CHAD PRATHER ON WINNING:




THE GREAT  NAMAZU, RETIRED JAPANESE GIANT CATFISH DEMIGOD< TURNED ANALYST AND COMMENTATOR

Greetings Bi Peds!
 If you haven't found him on YOUTUBE yet let me introduce you to my favorite Texas Philosopher Chad Prather. The Aristotle of Texas frequently holds forth on a variety of current topics via his YOUTUBE appearances. There is wisdom in "them thar hills' (Hill Country of Central Texas). I've previously linked you to some his mini lectures, I came across this one today and thought it especially poignant in light of the current occupant of the White House . Really you have just got to read CHAD PRATHER ON WINNING to get this whole Trump "winning thing" into proper perspective!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzsUQ2R5SUM

Sunday, March 12, 2017

THE GREAT NAMAZU'S FAVORITE TEXAN ON THE MUSLIM "TRAVEL BAN"

TRAVEL BAN? AMERICA IS SO MEAN?  

  

Chad Prather takes on the idea of a Muslim "travel ban" from the front seat of his car and under a ten gallon hat. This is the wisest and wittiest philosopher to speak from Texas since Judge Roy Bean.
Click here to get the wit and wisdom of Chad Prather on the so called Muslim Travel Ban:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNHqr2Yv-FA

Friday, March 10, 2017

THE GREAT CATFISH'S FAVORITE TEXAS PHILOSOPHER ON:  Gender Inequality
   
 Gender Inequality
 by CHAD PRATHER, TEXAN BY CHOICE

 Greetings Bipeds! 

    I've recently discovered a great modern philosopher living in Texas by the name of Chad Prather. Prather was born in Georgia but "got to Texas as soon as" he could. He is what the denisons of Texas call a "Texan by choice" and he articulates the particular wisdom of the mainstream of that great state. I'm going to be linking you to his philosophy from time to time. I think you'll enjoy it's beyond wise and witty soliloquies; you'd have to call it "infotainment". Prather dispenses more accurate information and stupendous insight from the front seat of his car usually in under five minutes than Sun Tzu or Confucius did in an entire book. What's more he'll make you smile and laugh as you take in the wisdom.  He talks about many of the national issues of the day and also the human everyday condition. We'll get to the big issues soon enough, but we were all born with a specific gender, so I thought "Uncle Chad's" views on Gender Inequality would be a good place to start your introduction, click on the this link to hear "DA MAN" on  Gender Inequality

Namazu

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

THE MAY SNOWFLAKE INVASION OF DC

THE GREAT NAMAZU EXPLAINS THE COMING SNOWFLAKE INVASION OF WASHINGTON

THE GREAT NAMAZU, RETIRED JAPANESE DEMIGOD GIANT CATFISH , NOW STAR OF STAGE, SCREEN, INTERNET , AND OUTER SPACE

Editor's Note ; May 31st, 2017 : It still a bit early to tell, the Great Catfish did predict the "massive demonstration" to occur sometime between May and early June. There were of course demonstrations in DC during May, ther always are but nothing like the deluge promised by the lefties. Leftards love street theater they will probably continue to organize political street theater events for the next eight years. But we think the counter action advice offered by Namazu in the posting below is valid for many years to come. Leftard street theater with its maximum leftard media coverage can be combated from your computer. As his Catfishness notes his defensive ideas are way cheaper and less time consuming than street theater. Let the Leftards burn themselves out as the Soviet Union did. In the words of the Great Catfish: 

"This is so much cheaper than street theater. We won the Cold War (though we squandered the opportunity afterward) by forcing the Soviets to go broke trying to match our defense spending. Lets whip the snowflakes by making them go broke trying to match our frugality and economy of effort! Make 'em do more street theater, it's expensive. "

Greetings Bipeds! 

 Remember that you probably heard this here first. It helps when my detractors claim that a giant catfish can't be a political prophet. My loyal readers and viewers know how often my astute analysis proves prophetic. Really, do my detractors believe that observing the world for 3,000 years leaves one with no insight? Remember that I published this prediction on March 8, 2017. These events will transpire sometime between early May to early June 2017 unless alerted pragmatic and politically astute bipeds take notice and stop it. Ready, (drum roll please!)

THERE WILL BE A MASSIVE DEMONSTRATION IN WASHINGTON BY THE SNOWFLAKES DEMANDING THE IMPEACHMENT OF DONALD TRUMP. THEY WILL HAVE NO LEGAL CASE. THE PURPOSE IS NOT TO GET AN IMPEACHMENT BUT TO SO DISHEARTEN THE PRESIDENT AS TO CAUSE HIM TO RESIGN. 

Who says a snowflake can't be mean spirited? The Democrats are the fellow travelers of the Globalists who seek the ruin of ordinary working Americans ( and frankly Europeans too) . Obama and cohorts are plotting this as we write. They really think that they can muster up over 3 million protesters to converge on Washington once the weather really warms up. They are not planning on a peaceful demonstration. They want their lapdog media to report the capital as out of control, because of unrest over the policies of Donald Trump. How successful will they be? That depends on the 61 million people who voted for President Trump and the millions more who have awakened to the cabal of elitists who want him out of office before he can complete any more of his campaign promises. 

 Let's look at a little recent history. The Lefties planned a "Million Man March" on DC a few years ago and mustered only less than 10,000 men. It didn't matter, the mainstream media spent weeks hyping up the "million man march" then covered the TV screens with tight shots of the 10,000 who actually showed up. They didn't claim that "the million man march" had a million participants but they didn't spend much air time on the actual turnout either. More recently, the Democrats sponsored what they at first called a "Million Woman March" on Washington shortly after Mr. Trump's inauguration. That Friday they actually fielded about 147,000 marchers, quite a bit short of the million women they advertised;but you would have never known it by watching television. To this day the American media still refers to that pro abortion event as the "largest demonstration in US history". Really? The following monday 400,000+ women showed in DC for the Pro Life Rally. That in fact, nearly 4 times the size of the pro abortion rally, was then the largest demonstration ever held in Washington DC. The television coverage? About 15 seconds. 

 Interestingly President Trump accurately predicted the sizes of both the Friday and Monday Demonstrations and the ratio of air time they each would receive. The snowflakes believe that because they control a few traitors in the intelligence services that the President doesn't know what's going on. Well, he must have his own accurate sources of info on what is happening in America since he is so dead right so often  and the media is so dead wrong and noticeably so even with their best efforts at spin doctoring their errors. The odds are that if the Democrats pull out all the stops and spare no expense they will field between 10,000 and 150,000 snowflake demonstrators wrecking the town and loudly demanding Trump's impeachment, most probably in May.  You can also bet that the media will use some term similar to "3 Million Person March" when describing it. The media won't give much in the way of crowd estimates, because there will be official park and DC police estimates that conflict big time with the image they will attempt to display of overwhelming public demand for the President's head on a platter. All crowd scenes will be relatively tight shots that appear to fill the street or park. Places with no demonstrators will not be filmed. 

The Democratic managers of this street theater will insure that such demonstrators as do show up will block the most effective streets clogging traffic at the most strategic times to give the impression that the "3 Million" have overwhelmed the city. Expect the city government of the District to cooperate completely with the Democrats. 

So what can the ordinary pragmatic people of the "Great Fly Over States" do to counteract this attempted hijacking of their election? Sadly, there will be no counter demonstration. You see the people who voted for Donald Trump work for a living. Dropping the job and spending five days or so getting ready for and participating in political street theater is not in the realm of possibility. They have to make enough money to support their families and the Democrats on entitlements that the Democrats awarded to their supporters who can be in the streets when the Democratic Plantation overseer cracks the whip. But people at work can:

(1) Send supportive E-mails (president@whitehouse.gov.to the White House as soon as news of this demonstration is published in the mainstream media and keep it up throughout the demonstration. It is not unreasonable to expect that if everyone who voted for Trump were to insure the effectiveness of their vote with an E-mail that the President would receive 61 million affirmative indicators of America's desire that he hang in there. So much for the snowflake attempt at demoralizing the President into resignation. 

(2) Donate at least $5 to the various Trump Defense Funds (Committee To Defend The President)  that are already soliciting funds due to the active "lawfare" aimed at the President. A sudden rise in these funds about the same time as the Democratic street theater should send a message to everyone. 

(3) If your local TV station doesn't feature prominently the news of the supportive messages and increase in Trump defense donations complain to the FCC. (https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us)

Really, street theater, it's so 60s.  You, the pragmatic and bread winning bipeds are not college students anymore. You can't out street theater these old Bolsheviks. But while sitting at your desk at work, you can deliver a crippling blow to the snowflakes in just a few minutes using your computer or smartphone. This is so much cheaper than street theater. We won the Cold War (though we squandered the opportunity afterward) by forcing the Soviets to go broke trying to match our defense spending. Lets whip the snowflakes by making them go broke trying to match our frugality and economy of effort! Make 'em do more street theater, it's expensive. Eventually they will pull this stunt in an unfriendly venue and experience anything from a refusal of parade permit, to fire hoses and rubber bullets. Really, pragmatic and adult bipeds,you can render the snowflakes irrelevant sitting at your computer.

Namazu. 

Monday, March 6, 2017

ANALYSIS TRUE OR FALSE, THE "WIRETAP" CHARGES AGAINST OBAMA

THE GREAT NAMAZU ANALYZES THE "WIRE TAP" RUSSIAN CONTACT DUST UP

THE GREAT NAMAZU 3,000 YEAR OLD FORMER DEMIGOD TURNED ANALYST

GREETINGS BIPEDS:
 By now I'm sure all of you have heard the charges in the Mainstream Media (MSM) concerning the Democrat's charges that the Russians had contact with Trump Campaign officials during the presidential campaign of a nefarious nature. No doubt you've seen the Trump denials and the MSM spin doctoring on the Russian issue. By now you've also heard President Trump's allegations that the Obama administration "wiretapped" himself and / or members of his campaign. No doubt you've also heard the MSM spin doctored response. Given the shortage of real neutral news reporting I've decided to examine the entire record as reported by both the left and right side of the media spectrum and what few neutral sources there may be. Here is my summary of the facts as I understand them and my analysis:

SUMMARY OF FACTS AS UNDERSTOOD:

1. At the request of the Obama Administration elements of the FBI and a number of agencies within the US Intelligence Community did look into the alleged Russian / Trump Campaign connections and communications as early as prior to the emergence of Donald Trump as the clear Republican nominee.   

2. Congressional committees continue to look into the the Trump / Russian connection up to the time of this writing. The MSM has made much out of certain campaign personnel being in the same public room at Washington social gatherings with certain Russian officials such as the Russian ambassador, within the time frame of the presidential campaign. Certain former campaign officials have responded to official questioning about "meeting" with Russian officials during the time frame of the Campaign in the negative. Then when these coincidental gatherings which included the presence of Russian officials were brought up, amended their testimony to reflect being present in the same room as included in the term "meeting". The MSM has spun these "testimony clarifications" into something ominous sounding but after months of investigating Trump Campaign / Russian contacts nothing illegal, unethical, or even suspect absent bias has turned up. 

3. At the height of the MSM feeding frenzy on the Russian / Trump alleged connections Liberal News sources including the New York Times and Washington Post carried stories about the FBI and / or Intelligence agencies going to the Federal Intelligence Surveillance "court" (FISA) to obtain warrants to place Mr. Trump and members of his campaign under "surveillance". 

4. The MSM reports of this alleged FISA warrant application were presented as "proof" of Trump or cohort malfeasance until it became known somehow to the MSM that the court had actually turned down this first request and told the "applicants" (no one admits to being the applicant so far) to "narrow their request". 

5. According to both MSM and Conservative accounts such as the British publication THE GUARDIAN, a FISA Warrant was issued for limited surveillance of four persons associated with the Trump campaign.

6. Recently President Trump became aware of the supposed FISA warrants and notified the public through his TWITTER account of their possible existence and expressed a strong opinion that the warrants were the tip of an iceberg of inappropriate if not illegal behavior by the Obama Administration. The MSM has reported this communication as if it were improper, illegal, or immoral behavior on the part of President Trump and has challenged his charge that the warrants that the MSM reported on for months even exist.  

ANALYSIS:

1. FACTUAL AND LEGAL STATUS SO FAR: The proceedings of the FISA court are protected by both classification and privacy laws. In fact there is no evidence publicly available as yet that either of the two warrant applications as reported in the MSM citing "confidential sources" were ever filed. For the MSM to have actual knowledge of such warrants as they claimed would indicate that persons within the government violated classified material handling laws and Privacy Act provisions in collusion with a person or persons as yet unknown in the MSM organization(s) . In short, the original MSM reports of such warrant applications and later of the granting of an actual warrant are either a felony criminal violation of law; or in the alternative, some person or persons unknown within the MSM fabricated the entire story. In the days of Jefferson and Adams the fabrication of such a story would simply be called "Yellow journalism". However, today broadcasting such a story over the airwaves would be a potential violation of FCC regulations. Unlike print media the "airwaves" (electromagnetic spectrum) are in the public domain and licensed by the Federal government to stations that are to broadcast "in the public interest." Practicing classic "yellow journalism" is "not in the public interest" so the MSM has a lot at stake. They can only hold the medium (broadcast rights) by adhering to accepted journalistic ethics. If they received illegally classified information the MSM had a duty to protect it from dissemination and clearly did not, particular MSM persons if ever identified could face criminal charges. If some element of the MSM fabricated the entire Russian Collusion / "Wire Tap" controversy FCC broadcast licenses could be in jeopardy.

2. PROBABILITY OF PROSECUTIONS: 

 The probability that anyone within the Trump administration might face any type of prosecution or civil procedure related to either the alleged Russian collusion or complaint about the "wiretaps"  appears virtually nil at this time as no prosecutable facts having emerged after months of media and official scrutiny. 

The probability of any senior MSM executive or well known personality ever facing criminal prosecution or civil suit for either illegal handling of classified material, violation of privacy statutes, or "yellow journalism" are also close to nil as responsibility is institutionally diffused within the MSM organizations. The possibility that any part of the MSM networks facing FCC action are slim but not beyond the realm of possibility. If the President started a prosecution over this dust up he would be loudly denounced in the MSM as engaging in propaganda and censorship. If the FCC initiated action without public complaint the President would be attacked in the MSM for "losing" the FCC on the media and misuse of executive power. However, the FCC would be forced by law to react to sufficient public complaint that parts of the MSM electronic networks were not broadcasting in the public interest"  If a major portion of the 61 million or so voters who voted for Donald Trump made formal written complaint to the FCC, the MSM could actually be in trouble over "yellow journalism". To learn more about the FCC complaint process see: http://americanadmiraltybooks.blogspot.com/2017/01/what-you-can-do-to-bring-back.html

POOR SEMANTICS DRIVE THE ARGUMENT / DENIAL CYCLE:

 So far everyone interviewed in an official capacity who would have to have acted in order to obtain a FISA warrant has denied asking for a "wiretapping" order. True enough even if they applied for a FISA warrant, "Wiretapping" is a colloquial term from the era of analog technology. I seriously doubt that anyone was actually "wiretapped". The actual warrant request would have used more inclusive technological language that would have allowed operatives in possession of such a warrant to listen in and record telephone conversations, texts, etc.. Eavesdropping also isn't a very distinct term of legal art in communications law. The media coverage both from the left and the right has not been expressed in terms of legal language. This has allowed  those responding to inquiry as well as the interviewers a lot of room to maneuver. In non technological terms observe how "meeting" was manipulated. The Trump people took it in the typical vernacular usage of an actual agreed to and arranged face to face or telephonic contact to discuss a specific agenda. When that elicited an honest negative response to questions like "did you meet with Russian officials",  the MSM interviewers quickly expanded the meaning to include being in the same room at any time during the Presidential campaign.   The sloppy use of semantics and avoidance by both sides of the controversy not only cloud the public debate but also cloud the future of any legal prosecutions or settlements of this "controversy".

WILL THE TRUTH ABOUT THE FISA WARRANTS EVER COME OUT?

 Considering that it would now better suit the Left's agenda and narrative for the warrants to never have happened, and considering that most of the Court's work is conducted ex parte as required by statute, and considering that every single judge on the FISA Court is an Obama Appointee and most will remain in office throughout the first Trump Administration; I judge it highly unlikely that the public will ever know the truth. 

ANALYTIC CONCLUSION:

 The Russian Collusion / Wiretapping Controversy is basically, and I hate to use this term, but it seems best suited, "Fake News". It seems rather clear by now that there were no unethical contacts between anyone in the Trump campaign with anyone connected to the Russian government. It appears more probable than not that once that fact was obvious, the MSM turned to innuendo based on "leaked" information concerning the issuance of FISA warrants as that would appear to lend credence to their charges of malfeasance within the Trump organization. Once the Trump organization raised the issue of illegality and unethical abuse of executive power related to any such FISA warrants the MSM, formerly so intense on publishing about the alleged existence of  FISA warrants,attempted to convince the public that the supposed warrants were figments of President Trump's imagination.  This entire controversy is an invention of elements of the MSM and not worth the public attention, and taxpayer dollars being associated with it. I see no further need for either Congressional hearings or a special prosecutor. The trail is too muddied and the chain of responsibility too diffused for legal procedures to ever sort it out.  The people need the POTUS to get on about the agenda he was elected to execute. The people have the authority to punish yellow Journalism in formal and informal ways. journalism http://americanadmiraltybooks.blogspot.com/2017/01/what-you-can-do-to-bring-back.html

Some video sources Left and Right

CNNhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXvTMoJG7G8

Mark Levin PROVES Obama Wiretapping on President Donald Trump | Fox & Friends 3/5/17 https://youtu.be/91fNfGjZdM0

CNN Trump asks Congress to investigate Wiretapping Fmr intel chief Clapper says it didn't happen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2wrhTFJCmU

Obama Administration CONFIRMS Wiretapping on Donald Trump | Watters World 3/4/17 | Fox News   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSdODs7XWSY

Obama Knew About Wiretapping Trump - Newt Gingrich | Fox News  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwqKuu3d3EM


He DOES have evidence." ex-CIA agent, on Obama wiretapping Trump  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9M5HlzCulc Trump Nation


FBI ASKS JUSTICE DEPT TO REFUTE TRUMP'S WIRETAPPING CLAIMS (1) | CNN NEWSROOM

Thursday, March 2, 2017

WHY RUSSIA & CHINA FEAR US FORD-CLASS AIRCRAFT CARRIERS


File:USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) on the James River in 2013.JPG
Photo : US Navy:  The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) transits the James River during the ship's launch and transit to Newport News Shipyard pier three for the final stages of construction and testing.

The USS GERALD R. FORD ( CVN-78) is the first ship of her class of new generation United States Navy supercarriers.  She will be in commission and operating this year (2017) . The ship is named for the 38th President of the United States, former WWII naval aviator Gerald R. Ford. The FORD will replace the inactive USS ENTERPRISE (CVN-65).  THE FORD is intended to be the lead ship in a new class of carriers that offer significant technological improvements over the aging NIMITZ class of carriers .  Notable among the improvements is the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) which replaces the steam catapults providing greater flexibility in the design of future aircraft for use aboard (previous carriers typically had service lives of 40 to 50 years and underwent several changes of aircraft carried in that time frame). The EMALS saves below deck space and eliminates several requirements in the design of carrier launched aircraft. The EMALS innovation is expected to allow 25% more aircraft launches per day than the Nimitz class with 25% fewer crew members.  The Navy also expects that each ship in the class in terms of 2017 dollars will save the Navy $4 billion in operating costs over the expected 50 year life expectancy of the ship. 

 Of course to lose one of these super carriers would be a devastating blow to the United States and any naval campaign that the US Navy might be involved in at the time. China has been attempting to demoralize the Navy and the Congress with a major propaganda campaign about their supposed "carrier killer" shore based missile technologies. Below is a link to a video that addresses these concerns and largely put them to rest. The truth is the new FORD Class of supercarriers are light years ahead of China's emerging Aircraft Carrier technology, anti carrier technology, and are greatly feared by the People's Liberation Army's Navy (PLAN)

 Now if we may be so bold as to make a suggestion; we feel what the nation needs as the FORD Class emerges is to convert some of our aging flat top amphibious warfare ships into "Jeep Carriers" or some version of "Harrier Carriers" to allow us to have ready air cover near third world hot spots when the need comes to converge multiple Supercarriers. If we can't afford more than 11 or so supercarriers we need some efficient but much cheaper "Jeep Carriers" ( Escort Carrier name from WWII) so that we don't have to abandon American potential air cover over trouble spots when having to converge super carriers to deal with "near peer powers", or numerically superior in terms of combattant hulls forces. China with its aggressive Navy and Coast Guard expansion and over reaching territorial claims in the South and East China Seas has good reason to fear the Ford Class and most of their bombast about any ability to take US Carriers out is mostly that or smoke and mirrors. Below is a link to a video on the new Carrier class well worth reviewing. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3T5NH04mUc

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

THE GREAT NAMAZU ON THE LESSONS OF MARDI GRAS

Great Namazu LESSONS FROM THE NEW ORLEANS MARDI GRAS AND MARDI GRAS PAST




THE GREAT NAMAZU FORMER JAPANESE DEMIGOD, NOW AAB ANALYST

Editors note: 12/28, 2019 RE: Mardi Grais 2019-2020 starts the 12th night after Christmas. It is almost upon us. We asked the Great Catfish to share some insight into the custom. HE says that this 2017 post is as far as he has ever gotten, He reports no change in his basic mystification.

Greetings Bipeds! 

 As you know New Orleans just completed another Mardi Gras season culminating at midnight on Tuesday February 28, 2017. This was my fourth New Orleans Mardi Gras though I don't physically attend. The festivities are well lubricated with alcohol and go on day and night. I simply can't hold my human form of apparition that long so I stay in the office , listen to the commotion outside and watch everything on local television.  Johnas and the rest of the crew take to the streets and make fools of themselves. Actually, this year Johnas skipped the festivities and went to the beach. But the rest of the motly crew limped in today and are mostly under their desks nursing massive hangovers. Every year I wonder about this hundred and fifty year old New Orleans biped tradition. I know the origin is religious, the last "Fat Tuesday " the last day of feasting before the lenten season of fasting and abstinence from meat in the Christian calendar. But really the Protestant Christians gave up trying to eat or not eat their way into heaven two centuries ago. The Catholics are down to Fridays meat abstinence, hardly a sacrifice in New Orleans where tasty seafood abounds, and only two fast days in the four weeks of lent. "Fast" by the new Catholic definition means that you may eat only three times a day but the total calorie intake should be no more than the typical of two meals. Children and the elderly are exempt from this rule. So I can sort of understand the tradition of over eating. Many Christians give up something for lent as a discipline and abstinence from alcohol is a popular "sacrifice"'. So maybe the excessive drinking is understandable. But my bottom line is that even with my 3,000 years of experience in observing and analyzing biped behavior I'm at a loss to understand Mardi Gras. The New Orleans Mardi Gras is still the most bizarre massive group biped behavior I've ever seen.. Try as I might I'm unable to decipher any real reason for it or behind it that might be of cosmic consequence.  I'm only able to report the two most articulated reasons heard from the native participants:

1. BECAUSE EVERYWHERE ELSE IT'S JUST TUESDAY !

2. IF WE'D ALL GET NAKED AND STAY DRUNK THERE WOULD BE NO WARS.

Since in 3,000 years of observations I've never seen a war of the naked drunk people , I have to assume there must be some truth to articulated reason number 2. Then there is the reason stated by the King of Mardi Gras "Rex":

3. FOR THE GOOD OF THE PUBLIC

 I have to admit that on Mardi Gras day the real crime rate drops off the scale while criminals and their usual prey are in the streets dancing, "second lining", and drinking. So maybe "for the good of the public" the entire nation on one Tuesday every year  ought to "get drunk and naked and dance in the streets. ". Seems to work for New Orleans. Looks like more fun than McGruff the Crime Dog's "Nights out Against Crime".  Otherwise, your normally all wise catfish  is totally stumped on this unique local aspect of biped behavior. At least it's finally Wednesday everywhere.

Namazu