It’s like when two crew members get into a disagreement that gets out of hand. I’ll call them into my office one at a time, with the chief as a witness, and give each a little warning / advice.
If one says, “yeah captain, I should have kept my cool”. and the other one leans across my desk to jab his finger closer to my face it’s a good bet the second one is the one that’s not going to straighten out.
Grrrrr, wouldn’t be much left to read then would there?
If I may contribute one of my standard Simpson’s Meme for consideration…
Some of us just are realists running low on patience. I think we are all born with a finite amount of patience. Others become cynical due to life experiences which may be perceived as grumpiness. There are a LOT of young grumpy mariners so it’s not an age thing. I used to walk into the control room during watch change and ask “How are my rays of sunshine doing today?” Personally, I consider myself a realistic cynic with a positive outlook. 
Ah John - you do great work. As one of the few public figures for the industry, you put yourself out there, naturally subjecting you to memes and trolling. It’s just how the world is these days.
It always will come back to the Jone’s Act, because in this country, it is both the bedrock and the crutch of the domestic industry. Nothing can be addressed without referencing it.
As with any commercial sector, there are a multitude of angles and datasets from which to approach problems and analyze. In this case, bias is amplified because the industry is political.
I don’t think referencing Matson’s stock price is a sound position, as it’s Price:Earning ratio is about 20… which is on the low end of average for the markets right now. Indeed, the price has skyrocketed recently, and that has it rated at the highest end of Overvalued… but I’d rather not act like we truly understand the current stock market, I’d write it off as euphoria.
CATO has clearly positioned itself on the opposite side of the table politically. Their tactics are brash and fail to reach our demographic with grace - but they have numbers. We can choose our opinions, but not our own facts.
We ALL know, that the US Merchant Marine is in a state of decay. It’s troubled me considerably, and I’ve sought to understand why. You cite that Kings Point should receive funding for technology R&D - I would love to see that. But our Academies are run as trade schools, not innovative institutes. Because these schools receive federal funding proportional to the numbers of students in the unlimited program, it would take an act of congress to re-aim the trajectory.
When it comes down to it, the industry is commercial & driven by the demands of an economy based on cost, supply and demand. Preserving the fleet in the name of national defense is incredibly important, but the way it’s been done for the past one hundred years has inadvertently caused the US Merchant Marine to lose sound footing when compared to the EU or other countries.
The reality is, that the Jones Act, which truly dictates the behavior of the industry was written in 1920… thats 39 years before the first Interstate Highway, long before global adoption of cheap distillate fuels for road vehicles, hydraulics, synthetic line, welding, cheap steel production… and not to mention automated technologies which now minimize manning requirements for Engineering and aboard the Bridge.
And now of course there’s autonomous technologies, which the US Navy has begun experimenting with to offset the deficit and costs of MSC.
The big problem I see, is that it comes down to one of two options… either the US Merchant Marine needs saving by a massive amount of funding from the Government… essentially “socialist” intervention. Or the laws that protect and incentive domestic stagnation need to be updated.
Not to sound cliché… but look at Puerto Rico… 39% of their energy comes from Natural Gas… despite the fact that the US is one of the worlds largest producers of it, the territory purchases its gas from Russia. … to me, that is insane - but they do that because its simply too expensive to ship it via the Jones Act. Why is that??
I am in no way in favor of the CATO “repeal the Jones Act” game, but you cannot deny that something is terribly wrong with our situation.
That said, I think our OP here, Meme.Lord, has a real point. We desperately need an update, and I think you agree - to modernize, to reexamine what we have and how we do it. Otherwise, things will just get worse without a massive amount of money from the government (which will probably just go to shareholders and CEO’s). At the most basic level… we need look no further than our northern neighbor, Canada.
Canada has a similar protectionist maritime law to ours… the big difference, is that they have updated it from time to time. Where the JA only allows foreign waivers for “National Defense”, Canada’s coasting trade law allows exceptions for economic needs… when there is a demand but there is no domestic solution. Essentially, licenses are granted to foreign vessels for just ONE year on an auction basis… as soon as a domestic operator is ready for the job, it’s theirs. See: coasting trade licence… but in the US we just can’t do it… so instead of allowing someone else to hash out a solution until we can do it, a trucking company shows up and dominates… or it gets outsourced entirely to international shipping from say… Russia.
Anyway - regardless of which side of the fence your on, this is a very real and costly problem. Costly in terms of bottom line dollars & costly in terms of the survival of our own Merchant Marine… I’m not even going to get into environmental issues. Ultimately… I believe the solution is somewhere in-between. Not to speak blasphemy, but I’ve read the arguments, and my interpretation is that CATO doesn’t necessarily want to “overturn” the Jones Act, they’re just playing the political chessboard. There is plenty they don’t understand… but the numbers are the same ones that business looks at. The same numbers that the US Navy looks at. & those are the same numbers that have been giving trucking and foreign flags the advantage.
At some point… and I hope soon, we all need to sit down and learn from each other. This is a battle of culture and numbers, that if not addressed correctly will eat away everything in-between… and technology will make or break the entire sector.
Keep at it John. Don’t let the trolls get you down. But this OP is hardly a run-of-the-mill troll. This guy is a thinker. I give him credit where credit is due.
I read your post twice. Interesting as it is CATO is bad news for JA trade, no matter how old it is. Very few in congress have a clue what JA represents.
OP and I have a bit of a history. We’ve had our disagreements over the years but… I’m a big fan of his work.
I don’t consider myself grumpy, but am older and have seen shit others have not. That is not a bad thing. Some posters on here are worth their weight in gold regarding the wide facets of our industry, Some are, well, grumpy fucks. We all have sailed with them, good at what they do perhaps, but miserable pricks for whatever reason.
Wow I’m going to have to re-read it I guess because I didn’t see anything that hasn’t been said a whole bunch of times before on this forum.
This version has a lot more words in it.
Interesting…According to the EIA in their profile, Puerto Rico gets mosts of its natural gas from Trinidad and Tobago. https://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.php?sid=RQ Geographically it make more sense than importing from Russia and the JA is a non-issue.
You mean we can still do that? Disagree and give respect, like at the same time…what planet have you been on lately?
To the original point, I’ve never fully understood why we have not adopted the Norwegian model for building commercial vessels. To reconcile their high wages, the hulls are constructed elsewhere before being towed to Norway.
Not only Norway, the Dutch do the same.
They get what they call the “casco” for their inland ships built even in China and stacked on HLV for transport:
Good find Seadog… I just checked the USDE quarterly report… you’re spot on. Trinidad is the dominant exporter to Puerto Rico. That doesn’t change the fact that the US Territory has been importing from Russia. Why not Texas?
The JA “being a non-issue” is exactly why it is an issue. On average, Puerto Rico imports $490 million of LNG per annum. They do this because it’s nearly impossible to get it from the US… not simply because of the higher JA shipping costs - but because the Jones Act fleet doesn’t have any LNG tankers (yes, Crowley moves a small amount with container-tanks). Construction of the large containment tanks is a highly specialized engineering skill, and we just can’t do it. There’s no incentive. For the United States of America… that’s pretty sad. It’s nearly half a billion US dollars each year that sails out from our boarders & away across the ocean.
The issue made it to the oval office:
Report: White House Considering Jones Act Waiver for LNG
and then because "“The American Maritime Partnership, which represents America’s domestic vessel operators, told Bloomberg that "we are confident President Trump, who has championed and supported our American shipyards, mariners and industrial base, would not start us down a path now that would cripple our national security.’’”
It ended with: Trump pledges not to waive Jones Act for LNG shipments
I’m not even going to talk about the North East’s use of imported fuels.
The blind devotion to the Jone’s Act is a national security issue. If we cannot help ourselves in times of peace… how on God’s green earth will we do it in war? Simply put, we need to save our domestic industry. We need to allow waivers based on economic need. Allowing US companies to purchase, own and operate foreign made vessels would be great for US Mariner Jobs. If we adjust and update the law similar to Canada, and issue one year foreign waivers - it would help fill the gaps & force the US shipyards to step up their game, become more productive, efficient through competition. Ford and Boeing seem to do alright.
We don’t need to entirely scrap the JA’s… but it needs serious updating. Updating to secure a strong future for the US Merchant Marine, for robust domestic maritime commerce, and to help fill the empty gaps where the JA fleet has nothing.
I fully accept that I don’t know everything. So please, correct me if you think I’ve given you bad information… I generally question everything. I’ve long been concerned about the decline of the US Merchant Marine, and I never understood why until I began examining the Jones Act and how other countries handle their own industry.
Banning toxic content is exactly how the rest of the internet deals with bands of bullies. Even reddit banned its worst actors years before you did. Reddit doesn’t say the mods are the only ones who care about their users. That’s some manipulative ex girlfriend bullshit. For years you didn’t display the backbone to stand up to bullies and now you wonder why no one gets behind you. But really this is beside the point, the merchant marine does not run on our hurt feelings 
I agree, you never talk about the Jones Act. This is why you never make headway. I have a hunch you know I’m right, but if you came out and said, “hey maybe the Jones Act isn’t the best for America,” your own pack of bullies and boomers who don’t sail anymore would turn on you, and your livelihood would be at risk.
Matson and Crowley are doing great, but you misunderstood my point. Remember when Tote said they are looking at the Hawaiian market? They didn’t’'t even have to ship a single TEU to make Matson Stock fall by 25%. It’s a fragile market. These companies support the Jones Act because their success is built on it, if it goes away, they too will go belly up.
But why make memes about you instead of the ABS guy inspecting the ship? ABS guy and I have the same goal; go home with money and hang out with our families. I’m not really sure what you do.
That is other than delete the posts and articles that land flat. You inflame the rest for clicks. The pumps were still running when you wrote “Why the Fitzgerald is the Navy’s fault” within a week of the collision, but there was never a “Why the El Faro is Tote’s Fault.” The Navy Times never wrote the article “Why merchant ships sail into hurricanes.” You do dumb shit and think you’re cool and for a while, no one called you out. This is why you are a meme.
I’ve been posting on here for years and I have to stick up for John’s mostly hands off approach. You’ll get all types in here, just like the real working world. People get a few light jabs for asking redundant questions, especially when they’ve put zero effort into doing their own research before posting. Your characterization of “toxic content” on here is grossly exaggerated. When it does cross a certain line those posters are put on restriction. Even CC, who has a wealth of information and experience was outright banned for a good while, and deservedly so. This forum has been moderated to much the same standards as any other Internet forum. Ultimately free speech should be allowed, even if you don’t agree with the person.
Rude and not necessary . It distracts from your other considered points.
That’s a good description of a troll.
Reddit? Really?
Well it’s true, they have done more than me, they have invested tens of millions into the problem and still get thousands of toxic comments a day. Care to make a donation so we can hire professional moderators too?
And wasn’t most of the internet executives in Washington last month being grilled for not being able to ban toxic content?
True, I didn’t write anything about Tote being criminally liable, and ABS and Tote didn’t pull ads from this site in retaliation. We never spent months helping Rachel Slade and Robert Frump investigate their books. We didn’t spend any time down in Jacksonville with the victim’s families either.
You know that changes to the JA need to be approved by the Senate, right?
Ok, well good luck getting those changes passed by McConnell and Schumer.
Whoa. I never said to go after the ABS guy inspecting your ship dude. I said the CEO’s. BIG difference bud.
Thank you TE1. I’ve been called a lot of names but NEVER once has anyone used the word “cool” and my name in the same sentence. 
“no one called you out” Oh man I wish this was true. I really do.
