Tuesday, October 30, 2018

SEALIFT STILL LAGS

USA MARITIME TELLS CONGRESS:

AMERICA'S SECURITY AND TROOPS AT RISK

UNLESS THE MARITIME SECURITY IS FULLY FUNDED

American Admiralty Books Safety & Privacy Policies   EU VISITORS WARNING POSSIBLE COOKIES AHEAD

Editor's Note 2/28/2016 Sealift remains a congressional and White
House non priority as it was in November of last year.

Editor's Note 10/30/ 2018 Still no chaange despite the change in Administrations and 
Congressional balance. 
File:USNS Bob Hope (T-AKR 300) at anchorage in Souda harbor.jpg
A BOB HOPE CLASS SEA LIFT SHIP,OFFICIAL U.S. NAVY PHOTO

Information courtesy MM&P's WHEEL HOUSE

One of the most critical issues facing America’'s ability to provide assured 
support to our troops overseas is the looming funding shortfall for the Maritime 
Security Program (MSP) in Fiscal Year 2014 due to a $12 million carry-over 
funding anomaly. Unless the $12 million anomaly is fixed and MSP is fully 
funded, U.S.-flag ships will be forced out of MSP, which will weaken our 
nation'’s commercial sea lift capability, send American maritime jobs overseas and 
cost the taxpayer significantly more because the federal government will have to 
step in to support American troops by providing commercial sealift capability 
itself.

MSP, which is congressionally authorized at $186 million per year, provides the 
Defense Department (DOD) with access to commercial assets--U.S.-flag vessels, 
U.S. mariners and global logistics networks--to support U.S. government sealift 
requirements. During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the vessels enrolled in MSP 
carried 95 percent of DOD waterborne cargoes transported to the region. MSP 
participant carriers continue to provide essential direct support to American 
troops engaged in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Working with the 
U.S. Transportation Command within the Department of Defense, the MSP carriers 
have developed and implemented ocean and intermodal solutions via the Pakistan 
Ground Lines of Communication, the Northern Distribution Network and sea-air 
multimodal combination logistics. 

Without assured access to the vessels, crews and related intermodal assets that 
MSP provides, DOD would have had significant difficulty moving goods and 
supplies to our troops and would have incurred substantially more cost. The 
ability to access these commercial assets saves DOD a significant amount of 
money each year. If the U.S. government were to try to replicate this program 
through procuring and building such assets itself, it would cost $65 billion, 
plus an additional $9 billion annually in operating and maintenance costs. In 
other words, without access to the U.S.-flag vessels, American mariners and 
intermodal and logistics networks provided by the commercial maritime industry, 
DOD would have to acquire, operate, and maintain U.S. government assets and 
intermodal systems at a significantly higher cost to the American taxpayer.

To prevent this loss in commercial sealift capability, the FY’14 carry-over 
funding anomaly must be addressed. When Congress adopted its last Continuing 
Resolution, there was a $12 million surplus in the MSP account that gave 
Congress the opportunity to appropriate $174 million for FY’13 rather than the 
authorized $186 million, which artificially set the funding baseline at $174 
million rather than $186 million. With the $12 million in funds carried-over 
into FY’13 plus the newly appropriated $174 million, Congress reaffirmed its 
support for a fully funded MSP. 

There are not, however, any surplus funds remaining in the MSP account to be 
carried over and the funding baseline in the context of a continuing resolution 
for FY’14 is set too low to achieve the full funding as called for by the 
President and as intended by Congress. Consequently, to ensure that the 
Department of Defense continues to have the U.S.-flag sea lift capability it 
needs, Congress should correct this $12 million carry-over funding anomaly and 
appropriate the full Congressionally authorized amount of $186 million for 
FY’14. If it does not, and Congress fails to include the full $186 million for 
the MSP but simply appropriates the same $174 million as in FY’13, the Maritime 
Administration has indicated that an initial four U.S.-flag MSP vessels will be 
removed from the program, sending American jobs overseas and reducing the 
sealift capability available to the Department of Defense.

This potential funding shortfall is already raising readiness capability 
concerns within DOD. Commenting specifically on the potential FY’14 funding 
shortfall for the Maritime Security Program and the resultant loss of U.S.-flag 
vessels and American mariners, the current commander of the U.S. Transportation 
Command (USTRANSCOM), Gen. William Fraser, stated in a communication to members 
of the House Armed Services Seapower Subcommittee that “USTRANSCOM relies 
heavily on the significant capabilities the U.S.-flag commercial sealift 
industry contributes to our nation.”

Fraser warned that the loss of vessels in MSP coupled with “the loss of mariner 
jobs, access to the related intermodal logistics networks these companies 
provide and potential loss of competition in certain trade routes may degrade 
our current support to forces deployed overseas and likely increase 
transportation costs to the government.”

In the interests of our nation’s economic and military security, and to prevent 
the loss of militarily useful U.S.-flag commercial vessels and the outsourcing 
of American maritime jobs, we ask Congress to address this carry-over funding 
anomaly and to approve full funding for MSP at its congressionally authorized 
level of $186 million for FY ‘14. 

HELLO MONTGOMERY, AL ARE YOU STILL NAVIGABLE?

Open Letter 3nd posting

Merchant Marine Interest:  Reposted Oct.30, 2018 originally posted in 2013. Can anyone provide an update in the comments section? Are the locks still working. Any developments along these lines to report?

 Photo Courtesy Birmingham Public Library : Steamer at Montgomery

AN OPEN  LETTER TO MONTGOMERY ALABAMA


 Dear People of Montgomery:
    
  Thank you for being a place of shelter for my wife and I when we visited your city in order to avoid riding out Hurricane Isaac in a place below sea level. I thought of Montgomery because its' distance from the Gulf of Mexico's beach line was far enough inland that most tropical storms are seriously diminished in intensity before reaching your fair city. Your town is far from the reach of tidal surge and your elevation is such that drenching tropical rains generally don't cause wide spread flooding. This time, your town was also well east of the predicted points of initial land fall. So, logically Montgomery looked like a good place to weather a storm. 

  I also knew exactly how easy of a drive from New Orleans it was since I frequently paused over night there on frequent drives between New Orleans and Annapolis. But I have to admit that until this recent storm shelter generated trip I had thought of Montgomery as a sort of wide spot in the road on the way to Annapolis. Today I think of it as a destination.

File:Flag of Montgomery, Alabama.svg


 I certainly enjoyed the downtown bus tour out of the old train depot and I wrote about that experience in an earlier blog. I'm a military retiree from a combination of naval services and was able to visit Maxwell Air Force base, enjoyed the Maxwell club and was able to use my commissary and exchange privileges while in your fair city. I can certainly see why more than a few military retirees have chosen to spend their retirement in Montgomery. I can see why automobile manufacturers have chosen to locate there. But now I want to tell you about a heritage that you seem to have neglected a bit and show you how you may be in danger of losing an economic advantage that you once enjoyed and could well enjoy again. Unfortunately if you don't act as a city now, you may lose this latent asset forever.

 Montgomery has many advantages such as being a state capitol, certainly giving the city a stable employment base. The city's favorable business climate has attracted automotive manufacturing, and with more than one college located there, the city rests on a solid economic foundation from which it supports many culturally unique features giving the place an attractive quality of life. But not so long ago the city had another economic engine that has fallen into disuse. Montgomery was once a river port city. Classic steamboats called in numbers and frequently at the city front dock. The Alabama River which runs through the heart of the city connects the city to both a commercially viable cargo generating hinterland up river, and to the sea at Mobile about 100 river miles away. The commerce carried on the Alabama into and out of Montgomery was so important even well into the twentieth century that the U.S Army Corps of Engineers has constructed 3 sets of navigation locks and dams to assure favorable navigation conditions for towboats and barges to Montgomery and beyond. 



 Unfortunately in more recent years most of the cargo in the region suitable for towboat and barge carriage has moved to rail or truck. Rail and truck may be faster but they are not the most economic means of moving non- time sensitive cargoes. Along the Mississippi and Ohio grain moves south by barge more so than any other mode of transport. Heating oil and gasoline from New Orleans and Baton Rouge area refineries move north by tank barge to more than 18 interior states. The towns that serve as the river ports along these routes prosper. They are not in danger of losing their status as a port  by the coming federal budget cuts. What keeps them safe is that for so many especially on the Mississippi below St. Louis there are no expensive locks and dams for the Federal Government to maintain.

  It takes three locks and dams between Montgomery and Mobile to keep the Alabama navigable by modern tow boat and barge. These will be evaluated as potential targets for budget cuts in the near future. With so little commercial vessel traffic at present, their future does not look bright.
Navigability , even when mostly latent is a sad thing for a community to lose. There could be opportunities in the future coming again to Montgomery because of it's status as a potential river port that simply haven't been imagined in recent years. 

File:USACE Claiborne Lock and Dam.jpg

 First, the Alabama river system runs through the best agricultural area in the state. Many agricultural commodities including soybeans are most economically transported by water, not all such commodities are slated for export. But it makes sense that those products of the region slated for export should go to Mobile for transfer to ship.. The cheapest way to get there is by towboat and barge. The rising cost of fuel is driving more and more non-time sensitive cargoes to the river. What is lacking on the upper reaches of the Alabama River is the infrastructure. There are too few docks and river side grain elevators. Its a bit of a chicken and egg issue. You need not only a navigable river but also some infrastructure to generate river cargoes.
The increase in fuel costs will start some Alabama River valley bulk commodity producers to look towards the river but their first glance will not be promising because the of the lack of infrastructure.

 Besides future possibilities for bulk commodity movements Montgomery could miss out on future manufacturing opportunities, especially in the field of out size items. Have you ever noticed that you have never been stuck in traffic behind a Saturn Rocket, or seen one go past you at a rail crossing? This is because the fabrication facilities for such out sized items, and there are many more not connected with the space program, are located on navigable waterways and the items are shipped by deck barge and tow boat. Many such items simply can not fit on a highway or rail line. Auto manufacturers have found Montgomery attractive, manufacturers of out sized industrial items could find the city attractive for all of the same reasons as the car makers if the Alabama River that runs through the city remains navigable. The city is blessed with some undeveloped river front land. In the case of the manufacturers of the out sized items the lack of pre-existing on and off load infrastructure may not be an issue since many such items require special built from scratch facilities. What they have to have is a waterside location, on a reliably navigable waterway.

File:Saturn rocket component loading on Palaemon.jpg
 Saturn Moon Rocket Booster Being Loaded on a NASA Barge
 This will sound crazy if you don't know the market but Montgomery could be a "cruise ship destination". No, Carnival Lines Fun Ships won't be locking through to you but American Cruise Lines has small passenger ships already visiting similar places. Some of their ships definitely can make it to Montgomery and the river front dock park could probably accommodate these little ships with very little modification. Take a look at the line's web site: http://www.americancruiselines.com/?gclid=CMD3mMbMnLICFWVgTAodQEwADA

Boat - Miami Harbor 2

American Cruise Lines is already operating nearby in Florida. A Montgomery, Mobile, New Orleans itinerary is possible using the Gulf Intracoastal waterway and the Alabama River with no outside ocean passage. These small ships love to be able to advertise smooth water routes. They need some additional itineraries in order to continue to attract repeat patronage. Montgomery with its potential cruise ship landing right down town, and the down town being lively and historic is just the sort of place these small cruise lines thrive on. But if the locks are closed for too little activity any such future business must go elsewhere. Cruise lines are not in business to lobby for locks. Municipalities and states must do that job. Now a mini cruise ship dropping 40 passengers at the city front may not seem to have much more impact on down town than a tour bus load of passengers daily. But cruise ship passengers are different from the tour bus crowd. They arrived with their hotel. They disembark in the morning maybe catch breakfast , take the delightful trolley tour ( by the way Ray, the regular driver is a city asset and ambassador and you probably couldn't have a better one at the city front), then go back to the boat to freshen up and head back out for the Hank Williams museum. Many boat passengers will take lunch down town, and then reemerge to sample the night life. Small cruise boat passengers tend to have about three times the economic impact that tour bus passengers do.


Believe me I have so far only touched  on a few of the potential economic possibilities of Montgomery's  latent navigability. But today latent navigability is endangered navigability. Corps of Engineers budgets are going under the microscope and then the chopping block soon. Lose the locks, you lose your navigability.


When the budget axe falls those locks below Montgomery will be an attractive target. But there are some things the city and its citizens can do to protect Montgomery's navigation potential.

 First, you have a beautiful little river front park with a nice little paddle wheel excursion boat. That boat is a pint sized U.S. Coast Guard inspected "merchant marine vessel", piloted by a USCG licensed "Merchant Marine Officer". Give the little "ship" a Mayoral commission as "Montgomery's flag ship". Feature it more often in advertising the city .Use some city funds to promote the boat in Mobile and Birmingham. Most importantly turn the direction of its excursions around. Most of the published excursions go north. Attention needs to be focused on the south, specifically the locks. The Chamber of Commerce and others should help organize several trips per year to and through the locks. Yes that's "too far for a day boat with no overnight facilities". But other day boats such as the JULIA BELLE SWAIN have done this sort of thing.

 When these other "day boats" make such trips here is how they do it." The boat makes an 8 to 12 hour run then the passengers get off and spend the night at a bed and breakfast. These trips don't sell for $15 a ticket, they are usually a few hundred dollars but the folks who take the well planned over night excursions repeat the trips year after year. Surely Montgomery has  enough well heeled civic boosters to invest in a fun week end on the river. I'll bet dozens of Montgomery natives have paid thousands for other cruises including the lock transit through the Panama canal, "The path between the Seas Tour" as it is often advertised. Why not a weekend voyage to transit Montgomery's own Path between the River and the Sea, one or all of the lower locks. 

 Locks keep statistics. Cargo movements count, commercial vessel movements count, and passengers not only count but enjoy a priority passage. So each visit through a lock by your city's"flag ship" builds the record of the lock as an engine of commerce. The boat may need the installation of a swinging stage on the bow to facilitate passenger egress at relatively unimproved river landings where buses pick up passengers for transport to the prearranged bed and breakfast accommodations or small hotels. If need be the city may want to make the investment in the swinging stage to get the ball rolling. 


 Some locks that started as portals of commerce have survived after commerce faded because of heavy recreational boat usage. Encourage recreational boating on the river near the city and especially recreational boat passage through the locks start a cruising club to encourage through lock trips. Do whatever you have to, to get a marina and yacht club on the river above the dam and below the present river front park.



 Use the wonderful facilities and and personnel of the Alabama State Archives to build a photo exhibit of the waterfront's past history as an "intermodal" port featuring the rail road activity that still parallels the river and once interacted with commercial river transport. Put that exhibit up at the old train depot by the waterfront. In this way for a very modest investment you educate visitor and native alike to the navigational past of the city. Include in the exhibit some of the potential navigational future.
Adopt the attitude that inland navigation economic activity some times fluctuates but if your city had a navigational past, it is entitled to a navigational future, that the city is determined not to give up.

File:Alabama Capitol Building.jpg

Play the national security card. Montgomery is home to two major Air Force Installations with at least one flight line.  The major air bases in the Florida Pan Handle both Air Force and Navy get most of their aviation fuel from Houston refineries by tank barges traveling along the Gulf Intracoastal waterway. Find out if the local Air bases are similarly served. If not find out why not, enlist the help of local commanding officers in lobbying for delivery of aviation fuel by barge.
Thousands of barrels of it are passing west to east just one hundred miles south of town. A right turn at the Alabama river could bring the fuel efficiency and security of water borne transport to Maxwell, if they don't already have it. If they do its a major argument for keeping the locks operating. Such a secure and efficient fuel line could be an argument for the expansion of military air power in the area in the future. 


File:Maxwell Air Force Base.jpg
MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, NOTICE PROXIMITY TO THE RIVER 

 Nominate a "Commodore" to be the public face of the navigability preservation effort. Adopt a flag for the "Navigation District" maybe the flag of the city in the upper corner on a aquamarine field emblazoned with the words: 

"MONTGOMERY WILL NEVER GO DRY"

 Navigation is part of being a cross roads town. It can be part of becoming an even more major distribution center. Montgomery had it, don't lose it! Montgomery's navigability is a sleeping giant of an economic engine. It can awaken in the future only if Montgomery can successfully preserve it. I hate to tell you this but you have at best only until January 2, 2013 to get a head start on the defense of navigability. It will not be long before the next round of federal budget chopping begins. Do not let go of your municipal navigability status lightly, fight for it. All of Montgomery's future is worth fighting for!


                                              


                                                                               

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

DEATH OF A NATION, A BOOK REVIEW


Because we have been found by google to be politically incorrect we have no advertising. Due to the election of a capitalist hating Democratic governor in the state of our incorporation we are no longer an Amazon Portal. We do link you to Amazon in order to help interested readers find this book. But we receive no revenues from such links any more.
https://www.amazon.com/Death-Nation-Plantation-Politics-Democratic/dp/1250163773/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1539812036&sr=1-1&keywords=death+of+a+nation+d%27souza

DEATH OF A NATION

 Now also a video: https://www.amazon.com/Death-Nation-Victoria-Chilap/dp/B07GDRKPGX/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543354826&sr=8-1&keywords=video+death+of+a+nation+d%27souza


   While this book isn't maritime in Character it is historical and political and provides a unique insight into today's and yesterday's American Democratic Party. While the constitution provides no specific role for political parties our history has evolved into a largely two party system. Of late it has become more polarized and confrontational. As navalist we are concerned with the preservation and protection of the nation and one of those parties, the American Democratic party appears to us to be emerging as a determined enemy of the U.S. Constitution, a market economy, secure borders, and a decent national defense. We think it is important for all of us to learn the extent to which this true and how it came about. 

 Dinesh D'Sousa looks the history of the Democratic party squarely in the eye and comes to some unflinching but reasoned conclusions that Americans can not ignore. Our own fear is that if the Democratic party as presently led and financed comes to power again, America will cease to be a great power, or perhaps even a coherent nation. We have seen the party up close of late and understand that it long ago completed a "drift to the left" and is now , at best, a full blown socialists party. 

 Mr. D'Sousa examines the party's origins back to the years before the civil war and sees something far more sinister and longer evolving towards an end that most Americans do not want. He makes a highly believable case that the American Democratic Party is bent on turning the United States into a massive nanny state based on the U.S. pre Civil War plantation system. D'Sousa evolves his argument with a sweeping historical review of the history of the Democratic Party going back to its foundations in the antebellum South. 

 The Democrats have done such a through job of selling a revisionist view of history that we often forget that they were the party of slavery and it was the Republicans who fought to eliminate it. The Democrats have launched accusations at Republicans for so long attempting to hang the "Nazi"label on them that we have collectively forgotten that the Nazis were a national socialists party. As D'Sousa observes the slave holders of the Old South evolved a plantation system for organizing labor and political support that was in essence a mini welfare state on each plantation made legitimate through the state governments. In theory, in exchange for cradle to grave care, the slave provided labor for a life time. The system bred dependency and punished any inclinations towards independence. The plantation model had an impression on northern Democrats who were struggling with an influx of European immigrants. While the Northern Democrats didn't rely on chattel slavery they forged a plantation system designed for the evolving factory system of manufacture that relied on political machines and patronage to keep the workers in virtual peonage. These urban political machines dominated Democratic politics for decades and a few are still around. 

 According to D'sousa's analysis the Democrats have now morphed into a multi racial / ethnic plantation system. Their system embraces ghettos for blacks, barrios for Latinos, and reservations for Native Americans. Whites across all class and occupational lines are the last hold outs according to D'Sousa. The democrats now blame them for the bigotry and racial exploitation actually generated by the Democrats themselves. Following D'Sousa's observations and opinions down through history we do see that tyranny is more often a system used by the left, the socialists, than the right, especially not by pragmatists, or centrists. We don't trust political parties period. But we have come to so fear the ill intentions and lack of any ethical or discernible moral base in today's Democratic party that we fear the night mare D'Sousa describes and to a very particular extent has experienced in his own life. Every American Should Read "DEATH OF A NATION". hopefully before the November elections. If anything could convince Centrist Democrats to walk away from the plantation this book would do it. We hope they will vote Republican in droves to help save the nation from the harm already done and the residual agents still working to defeat America. However, we don't hope for a massive conversion of Centrist Democrats. We hope that they will form a new party left of the Republicans but recognizable as American. 




Tuesday, October 16, 2018

ELIZABETH WARREN THE CHEROKEE NATION REJECTS HER. THE MSM CANNONIZES HER

WE ARE BASICALLY A MARITIME BLOG BUT WHEN SOMEONE LIKE THIS OFFERS HER SELF UP AS A CANDIDATE FOR COMMANDER IN CHIEF, AS MARITIME / NAVAL PROFESSIONALS WE FEEL OBLIGATED TO INVESTIGATE. WE DON'T LIKE WHAT WE FOUND

File:Elizabeth Warren, official portrait, 114th Congress.jpg

Official Senate Photograph (PD) 

The truth is this. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) who is pale skinned, blue eyed, claimed that her Mother and Father had to run away to get married because of the prejudice against her mom who she claimed "was a Cherokee". She has complained that President Trump's pointed barbs aimed at her attempt to pawn herself off as a Cherokee were insulting to her mother. And on Elizabeth goes constantly about her suffering mom....we are supposed to believe what.... raised on a Reservation amid great prejudice?  Warren was born on June 22,1949 in Oklahoma City , Oklahoma . She was the fourth child of middle class parents Donald Jones Herring and Pauline (nee Reed) Herring. Her earliest paternal American ancestor of record was her great grandfather John Hayes Herring an English immigrant who arrived in America in 1866. The senator owns a 5,4 million dollar mansion and delivers lectures on how the system in the US favors the rich. She of course is a prime example, especially of how the rich often get richer by devouring the poor. She claimed "Native American Heritage" to land a Harvard faculty job paying $350.000 annually to teach one class. She claimed to be of Cherokee ancestry and stated that her mother and father (both now dead and unable to be questioned) had to run away to get married because of the prejudice against her mother , a Cherokee. In her desire to embarrass Donald Trump for calling her out on these claims she hired a geneticist to "prove" her "Indian Heritage". Here are the results of her own test.

 She was found to possibly have one native American ancestor 6 to 10 generations ago (obviously not in the line of her great grandfather who only arrived in 1866). Definitely her mother was no citizen of the Cherokee nation, had a "white" birth certificate, and and certainly photographed as "white":

SEEDS OF DOUBT: Elizabeth Warren — seen with her mother in a campaign ad, above — claims her maternal grandparents had Native American lineage, but a genealogist at the New England Historic and Genealogical Society couldn’t find any p
Elizabeth Warren and her mom from a campaign poster


Warren's own researcher placed her one possible native American ancestor at 6 to 10 generations back making her claim about her mother's persecution because of her Cherokee background highly unlikely. Warren has claimed a mix of Cherokee and Delaware blood lines. But her geneticist could find only one unadmixed possible native American ancestor, and made no tribal identity. Depending on which analysis you believe of these findings she has between 1/32 part Native American genetic make up if that ancestor was in the 6th generation ( probably maternal line) and 1/512 part Native American genetic make up if that possible ancestor was in the 10th generation. Other analysts place her Native American ancestry , if any, at "1/64 to 1/ 1024 part genetic make up based on her own geneticist findings . 

Some geneticist point out that Native American blood lines are very difficult to trace because in fact Native Americans are not uniform in their racial make up. It appears that Europeans and Asians entered prehistoric America many times before 1492 and not all native peoples come exclusively from Asian human stock that crossed a land bridge now submerged in the Bering Sea. If we accept the 1/64th blood line Warren is about average for 1 in 10 "white Americans. This level of Native American genetic material in "whites" isn't even uncommon in England. For centuries after James Town there was two way traffic across the Atlantic. Pocahontas herself was received in the Court of St. James. When we look for this level of Native American genetic background among white Americans with ancestors from North America going back beyond 1850 these trace elements become even more common. The Cherokee Nation is not anxious to claim her having released a report after the publication of her self commissioned genetic tests to the effect ; "  that "using a DNA test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong."

 Rejection by the Cherokee Nation of her claims to native American status is only the start of the can of worms that "Fauxahontas" has stirred up by trying to embarrass Donald Trump with some genetic hocus pocus. The DAILY MAIL  reports :
"The great-great-great grandfather of Elizabeth Warren - who has long claimed to be part Native American - was not married to a Cherokee but actually rounded them up for the Trail of Tears, it has been claimed." The DAILY MAIL article claimed that ; "Warren's ancestor Jonathan Crawford was a member of the Tennessee Militia who rounded up Cherokees from their family homes." 


 Despite the facts and the controversies the main stream media generally has reported the findings as vindication of Senator Warrens claims, despite the obvious lie about her mother. Our findings is that the Senator is caught in the worst of all lies, a half truth. Yes she has a minuscule amount of native American genetic material, no more than many "whites" on both sides of the Atlantic have. She spin doctored that fact into a nice job at a big Eastern College that probably should have gone to a real native American, and actual registered tribal member. She is a globalist, socialists , anti capitalist rabble rouser who is trying to identify as non white so as to appeal to what she believes is a non white Democratic base. News flash Fauxcohontas! Republicans don't just come in one color. Most American Whites are hardly "Lilly white pure breds"and most Americans black, white, red, and yellow actually don't hate each other. We've had it with the politics of division and urge  the people of Massachusetts to dump this embarrassment to your state, and every one to ignore her if she runs for president. 
This woman is the absolute epitome of the radical addle brained "snow flake". 




Friday, October 12, 2018

A VERY SIMPLE INVENTION, WITH FEW MOVING PARTS SOMETIMES CHANGES HISTORY

SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION...THE AIR FOIL AND THE ASCENT OF MAN




File:Airfoil.svg                          Sailboat Clip Art It is a bit unusual for a ship's master, but I once  taught  in a high school. I taught nautical arts and sciences so it wasn't that much of a stretch, and the high school system owned a 65 foot training vessel that I also served as Captain on. So even if my presence in the high school didn't seem that mysterious to me, the maritime world was a near complete mystery for my "merchant marine cadets" in the first weeks of class. The early weeks of class were a lot like the early weeks at the Harry Lundburg School of Seamanship, which is to say these weeks were a lot like a sort of civilian version of boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Training Center but done on the installment plan.  My goal was to instill paramilitary discipline while inspiring and motivating the all volunteer vocational / technical career path students to really want to become mariners.  So after the basic introduction I began with a question.


 I asked the class, called "the ship's company", "what single invention has had the most significant impact on man kind?"  I received some of the usual answers like the wheel, fire (hardly an "invention"), the printing press, while a few figured that the answer, given the nature of the course had to be maritime in character so I also was offered the steam ship, the steam engine, and the screw propeller. "No", I answered," none of those" then I went to the chalk board and drew two triangular shapes . "What's this" I asked? "A pair of triangles?"," A sail!', "A wing!'. No I'd say "think generic there is one name for both shapes, indeed you are simply looking at the same shape displayed vertically and horizontally, what is it?" Silence. "It's an airfoil", I'd say.  "Deployed vertically this shape is used as a sail and horizontally as a wing. "  
 More so than any other single invention this simple shape changed and shaped the world. In its' earliest manifestation, the square sail, it gave rowers in the ancient galleys a break when the wind was astern. But once the wing like lanteen sail was invented by the Arabs, rowers were no longer needed. Hard to carry food calories could now be used to support a smaller crew and not to provide direct propulsive power for the ship through a virtual army of rowers. The range of ships and their cargo capacity increased continually and dramatically. Long before the zenith of the age of sail Columbus was crossing the ocean sea on basically a mix of square and lanteen sails.  As navigational arts developed in the wake of the physical capacity to sail out of sight of land, long ocean voyages could be repeated at will and  trade began to expand into a global enterprise.


File:1893 Nina Pinta Santa Maria replicas.jpg
Replica of Columbus Fleet constructed in 1893 note that the yards are both horizontal ( for square sails) and slanted for lanteen sails. These vessels were still most efficient sailing with the wind but could tack and thus could return from the far corners of the globe even if the inbound winds were not as favorable as those that bore them out . As more of the world was discovered  the demand for more speed efficiency and carrying capacity evolved.

 As global commerce began to take shape and Europe began to plant colonies the demand for higher speed, more efficient sailing, and more cargo capacity began to drive the technological development of sail. The zenith of the age of sail would culminate in the development of the famous "clipper ships" with their global reach and complex rigs. 


An American "Clipper" as advanced compared to the ships of Columbus as a modern jumbo jet is compared to a Wright Flyer

Commercial sailing technology would reach its zenith in the late nineteenth century  about the same time that steam engines would mature driving railroads and river boats to a point where commercial ship operators were prepared to use them at sea. Man had taken the air foil in vertical deployment about as far as it would go for commercial transport , and the air foil or sail had taken man around the world and back again many times over. 
 As mariners, ship wrights, naval architects and sail makers studied the function of sail , or the air foil in vertical deployment, it was very early on realized that the sail functions by channeling wind  towards the "Luff" which is a fairly narrow area near the mast. High pressure forms on the windward side of the sail and low pressure on the leeward or opposite side. Air moves from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure. But the sail prevents the high pressure from infilling the low pressure area and a force known as "drive" is created. The mast is set in the hull which is set afloat in the low resistance medium of water. The "drive" exerted near the mast propels the boat forward. Notice that even the square sails on the clipper ship above can be rotated around the mast almost 180 degrees producing  at least some drive on all points of sail. In between the square sails are numerous triangular sails which are more efficient sailing closer to the wind. The sail plan was based on a law of averages but consistently produced excellent speeds on all points of sale.

Now every sailor who ever had to furl sail knew that an air foil if it got into a horizontal plane could exert a force  known as "Lift".  A wing is simply an airfoil deployed in the horizontal mode. Both lift and drive were very well understood by 1903. In 1903 the steamship was  dominant in maritime  commerce but there were still plenty of square riggers working when the Wright Brothers turned their airfoils into the horizontal position , attached power for a constant source of air flow for the creation of "lift". The Wright Brothers soon learned that control after lift off was the most difficult. At first they tried "wing warping" or changing the shape of the wing to control direction and altitude which was pretty much what sailors did with sails by use of the running rigging such as sheet lines.  Soon they opted to change only a portion of the wing's basic shape through the use of ailerons, stabilizers,  and the ship's rudder's cousin, the tail rudder. The world began to shrink at a much faster pace. Only 66 years after man's first heavier than air flight we landed on the moon. Truly sometimes a great notion is as simple as a mere shape and may come from someone as simple as an ancient sailor. 

I would tell my students after leading them through this exercise that mariners are part of an ancient and learned profession. Our profession's discoveries gave the world, the world; sewed it together and then gave it flight. Then I'd give them this little known fact. When the Wright Brothers made their first  flight at Kitty Hawk the hands that gave their flyer its initial push off were those of sailors of the nearby U.S. Life Saving Service Station, one of the ancestral organizations  of the U.S. Coast Guard. Once the ''Wright Flyers" became controllable in flight one of the first purchasers was the United States Navy. If you visit Dalghren Hall on the grounds of the Naval Academy you can see the Navy's original Wright Flyer: suspended from the ceiling.

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Its Tough To Be A Christian, A Conservative, Or Even A Pragmatists These Days:

A REPLY TO AN ISLAMIC APOLOGIST
low-light photography of open book
Photo by Luke Palmer (PD)

"Quran (9:123) - "O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness." 
Quran (17:16) - "And when We wish to destroy a town, We send Our commandment to the people of it who lead easy lives, but they transgress therein; thus the word proves true against it, so We destroy it with utter destruction.
"Hi Johnas Presbyter,
Your account, @JohnasPresbyter has been locked for violating the Twitter Rules."
"Specifically for:
Violating our rules against hateful conduct.
You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease."

Our observation of this Twitter rule in practice, simply add the words "unless your target is Christian, Conservative, Pragmatic, or a Realist"

Our First observation" We were threatened with loss of important access to the Internet for warning people about the violent tendencies of Islam in response to a Tweet. Is anything that is based on truth and designed to warn intended victims of sectarian launched violence a "Threat" or "Harrassment". We think we published a simple and needed warning and here we once again back it up from Islamic scripture. Islam intends exactly what we warned our readers about. 

 Consider: "Quran (8:12) "(Remember) when your Lord inspired the angels... "I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them" . Could any reasonable person interpret this as an admonition against violence? Indeed could it be anything other than an incitement to violence against non Muslims? 
Or ConsiderQuran (8:67) - "It is not for a Prophet that he should have prisoners of war until he had made a great slaughter in the land..And:

 Quran (9:38-39) - "O ye who believe! what is the matter with you, that, when ye are asked to go forth in the cause of Allah, ye cling heavily to the earth? Do ye prefer the life of this world to the Hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, as compared with the Hereafter. Unless ye go forth, He will punish you with a grievous penalty, and put others in your place.This passage is widely interpreted in the Islamic world as threatening those Muslim who will not bear arms against non Muslims with eternal punishment in hell. Click on the Quran scriptural citation above to find more admonitions to constant violence against non Muslims or check out any of the very partial list below. 


What the Google PC Police Found Offensive: 
avatar
Johnas Presbyter
@JohnasPresbyter
MUZZIES BEING MUZZIES. The "Religion of Peace" is all about imposing peace on you by forcing your conversion and conformance or imposing the ultimate peace.....death. [...]
Twitter's threat: 
"Please note that repeated violations may lead to a permanent suspension of your account. Proceed to Twitter now to fix the issue with your account."

OUR CHALLENGE: TWITTER:  WHAT ISLAMIC MESSAGES URGING NON MUSLIMS TO SURRENDER TO "THE WAY OF ALLAH" OR URGING MUSLIMS AMONG US TO VIOLENCE AGAINST US  HAVE YOU REMOVED OR BLOCKED?

WHY IS ANYTHING THAT IS NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT PER THE LATEST FAR LEFT VIEW POINT "HATE SPEECH" BUT OUTRIGHT THREATENING CHRISTIANS IS NO PROBLEM FOR YOUR PC POLICE? WHY? WHY? What will you do if the 79% of us who are Christians were to boycott your services and petition the FCC to regulate you. News flash, would be Masters of the Universe; Cyber space, like the broadcast air waves is in the public domain. Operate in the public interest or see more regulation. 

WAKE UP AMERICA ! ISLAM IS EXACTLY AS WE PERCEIVE IT. THE PROOF IS IN THEIR OWN "SCARED SCRIPTURE" AND MUSLIMS PROVE IT DAY AFTER DAY AROUND THE WORLD IN COUNTLESS TERRORISTS INCIDENTS AND IN THE VIOLENCE THEY ADMINISTER WITHIN THE ISLAMIC STATES. CONTINUE TO ALLOW THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA AND NOW THE SELF APPOINTED LORDS OF THE INTERNET TO SUPPRESS ALL WARNINGS AND YOU WILL MEET THE FATE SPELLED OUT IN THE QURAN. BELOW IS A VERY PARTIAL LISTING OF QUOTES FROM THE QURAN URGING "GOOD" MUSLIMS TO VIOLENCE AGAINST "UNBELIVERS". Click on any of the Quran citations to find more. The list is seemingly endless:


Quran (21:44) - "...See they not that We gradually reduce the land (in their control) from its outlying borders? Is it then they who will win?"  Is this not why Muslims come here in such numbers? Is this not the instruction they follow in imposing their law in those small communities in the US where they have become the majority? 

Quran (2:216) - "Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not." 
Quran (3:56) - "As to those who reject faith, I will punish them with terrible agony in this world and in the Hereafter, nor will they have anyone to help.
Quran (3:151) - "Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for which He had sent no authority".
Quran (4:74) - "Let those fight in the way of Allah who sell the life of this world for the other. Whoso fighteth in the way of Allah, be he slain or be he victorious, on him We shall bestow a vast reward."
Quran (4:76) - "Those who believe fight in the cause of Allah…"
Quran (4:89) - "They but wish that ye should reject Faith, as they do, and thus be on the same footing (as they): But take not friends from their ranks until they flee in the way of Allah (From what is forbidden). But if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them; and (in any case) take no friends or helpers from their ranks."
Quran (4:95) - "Not equal are those of the believers who sit (at home), except those who are disabled (by injury or are blind or lame, etc.), and those who strive hard and fight in the Cause of Allah with their wealth and their lives. Allah has preferred in grades those who strive hard and fight with their wealth and their lives above those who sit (at home).Unto each, Allah has promised good (Paradise), but Allah has preferred those who strive hard and fight, above those who sit (at home) by a huge reward " This passage criticizes "peaceful" Muslims who do not join in the violence, letting them know that they are less worthy in Allah's eyes. It also demolishes the modern myth that "Jihad" doesn't mean holy war in the Quran, but rather a spiritual struggle. Not only is this Arabic word (mujahiduna) used in this passage, but it is clearly not referring to anything spiritual, since the physically disabled are given exemption. (The Hadith reveals the context of the passage to be in response to a blind man's protest that he is unable to engage in Jihad, which would not make sense if it meant an internal struggle).
Quran (4:101) - "And when you (Muslims) travel in the land, there is no sin on you if you shorten your Salat (prayer) if you fear that the disbelievers may attack you, verily, the disbelievers are ever unto you open enemies." 
Quran (4:104) - "And be not weak hearted in pursuit of the enemy; if you suffer pain, then surely they (too) suffer pain as you suffer pain..." Is pursuing an injured and retreating enemy really an act of self-defense?
Quran (5:33) - "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement" 
Quran (8:39) - "And fight with them until there is no more fitna (disorder, unbelief) and religion is all for Allah
Quran (8:57) - "If thou comest on them in the war, deal with them so as to strike fear in those who are behind them, that haply they may remember." 
Quran (8:67) - "It is not for a Prophet that he should have prisoners of war until he had made a great slaughter in the land..."
Quran (8:59-60) - "And let not those who disbelieve suppose that they can outstrip (Allah's Purpose). Lo! they cannot escape. Make ready for them all thou canst of (armed) force and of horses tethered, that thereby ye may dismay the enemy of Allah and your enemy.
Quran (9:5) - "So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captive and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them." 
Quran (9:14) - "Fight against them so that Allah will punish them by your hands and disgrace them and give you victory over them and heal the breasts of a believing people."
Quran (9:29) - "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."
Quran (9:30) - "And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away!" 
Quran (9:111) - "Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain: a promise binding on Him in truth, through the Law, the Gospel, and the Quran: and who is more faithful to his covenant than Allah? then rejoice in the bargain which ye have concluded: that is the achievement supreme." 

Twitter, Google, Facebook in our humble opinion and based on our own bitter experience these companies are not operating "in the public interest". We only ask for the same freedom of expression they give to the Muslims, Communists, and Globalists Socialist. Did you ever wonder why our status as an Amazon Portal ended? Do you ever wonder why no advertisers appear in our posts? Have you , like us ever wondered just how far these "masters of Cyber Space" will go to silence even a rare occasional voice of common sense?  Have you ever noticed that we are primarily an encyclopedic site that deals in maritime matters of all sorts? Why do we occasionally post on Islamic History or current Islamic events? We explained that years ago. Activities in the Islamic World account for much our USN aircraft carrier task force deployments. Islam fails upon the any serious scrutiny by any critical thinker as a "religion of peace". Unless you find the thought of death at the hands of enforcers of a religious orthodoxy "peaceful". To speak that truth will ultimately get the speaker bounced from the public forum.  0ver 600,000 of you have visited our site. How many will stand up for us when the PC police come to run us out of cyber space?