maybe I have been blind, but I have come to see now what an utterly lame bunch Workboats columnists are and what ludicrous nonsense they blather about in the rag. What a pathetic clown circus they are
here’s another batch of their ugly mugs
can’t leave out the rest of the Bozos
I don’t think I’d hire a single one of this bunch of idiots!
Lol’z I emailed the editor, he got all huffy and basically said its important for them to publish contrasting views blahblah blah and that its good for us to discuss. What nonsense.
This isn’t about gay marriage and obamacare where you ought to here both sides of the story, but a goddamn industry being attacked from within its own trade publication!
[QUOTE=z-drive;166670]Lol’z I emailed the editor, he got all huffy and basically said its important for them to publish contrasting views blahblah blah and that its good for us to discuss. What nonsense.
This isn’t about gay marriage and obamacare where you ought to here both sides of the story, but a goddamn industry being attacked from within its own trade publication![/QUOTE]
Fraq did the same and got a similar answer…me? I didn’t waste a moment complaining to a man with Krapft as his last name and who has a bunch of bananas as his editorial staff. Amazing what an amateur operation that all really is once you peel off the covering
Hardberger referred to this commentary to support his position against the Jones Act in his workboat.com screed and I want to post it here for all to read and then will post the follow
[B]Senator McCain’s Jones Act Amendment: Good for America[/B]
Bryan Riley & Brian Slattery January 16, 2015
Senator John McCain (R–AZ) recently introduced an amendment to repeal harmful aspects of the Jones Act, a 1920 law that restricts the use of foreign-built or foreign-owned ships for transporting goods within the United States.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “The coastwise laws [like the Jones Act] are highly protectionist provisions that are intended to create a ‘coastwise monopoly’ in order to protect and develop the American merchant marine, shipbuilding, etc.”
But protecting U.S. industries from competition may actually have the opposite effect.
The Daily Signal is the multimedia news organization of The Heritage Foundation. We’ll respect your inbox and keep you informed.
Consider U.S. production of vessels designed to transport goods via water compared to U.S. production of semi-trailer trucks and trailers designed to transport goods via land. In 2013, U.S. manufacturers exported $4.1 billion in semi-trailer trucks and trailers, but they exported just $0.1 billion in commercial ships.
U.S. commercial shipbuilding accounts for just 21.7 percent of total shipbuilding. Most of the industry produces vessels for the military and will continue to do so with or without the Jones Act. The notion that U.S. defense needs require a ban on the use of foreign-built ships for commercial purposes (but not foreign-built aircraft or foreign-built cars and trucks) seems bizarre. In fact, by artificially inflating prices, protectionist measures such as the Jones Act may have given foreign competitors a competitive edge in international shipping.
The Persian Gulf conflict in the early 1990s proved that the Jones Act was not a necessary element in supplying and sustaining a military operation. For example, during the Persian Gulf War, Military Sealift Command shipped millions of tons of cargo to the operation. Of the 191 chartered dry cargo ships involved in this operation, 162 (or 85 percent) were foreign-flagged.
Additionally, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has frequently leased foreign vessels to execute missions that required additional sealift capacity. This further obviates the need for the Jones Act. One could argue that such long-term leasing agreements are not cost-effective, but if that is the case then the military should purchase such vessels outright. The Jones Act doesn’t solve this issue.
Americans in most states would benefit from the freedom to ship goods on the best-built, most affordable vessels, wherever they are made. The Alaska governor is actually required to “use best efforts and all appropriate means to persuade the United States Congress to repeal those provisions of the Jones Act formerly codified at 46 U.S.C. 861, et seq.”
The Jones Act drives up the price of gas, hinders U.S. infrastructure improvements, inflicts high costs on people in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, and makes it difficult to transship goods between U.S. ports. Senator McCain’s Jones Act amendment would promote competition, strengthen the economy, and benefit American consumers.
now the comments in response but I doubt Hardcarbuncle read any
federal12
The Merchant Marine is the nation’s fourth arm of defense. Good conservatives should be FOR a strong national defense. If you want all of our ship yards to close and let the Chinese build your navy ships, foreigners to supply our troops, foreigners to drive hundreds of thousands barrels of dangerous cargoes through our cities and inland waterway infrastructures, go ahead and repeal the Jones Act. Somebody please check John McCain for dementia. Who is paying him off to support destroying our Merchant Marine and why does the Heritage Foundation support his efforts?
Like · Reply · Feb 11, 2015 8:23pmDaegan Allen
This is the same kind of thinking that allowed corporations tax breaks to move their manufacturing out of the country, which increased corporate profits and hollowed out the country. The transportation industry supports middle class jobs, real jobs that will support a family. That is incredibly valuable. Not to politicians servicing their clients of course, but it is to America.
If you get rid of the Jones Act there will be Chinese tugboat sailors flown in for six or eight months at a time to push barges up and down the Mississippi and other western rivers because they will be willing to work for $15 a day. Does anyone other than the tug companies think that is good for America?Some times you have to do what is right even when someone offers you a lot of money to go the other way. John McCain should be ashamed of himself, I ashamed of him. What happened? I used to respect him deeply.
Like · Reply · Feb 1, 2015 1:01amBob Dahringer · Licensed Marine Engineer at McAllister Towing of NY
Um, I don’t think foreign flagged ships and crews have that great of a safety record where we need them to start operating in our waters and most certainly not on the inland waterways.
Like · Reply · Jan 24, 2015 11:58amDavid M. Yonks · SUNY Maritime College
How do you think most of those goods getting onto trucks get there? They get to the trucks by coming off of ships, many of which are operating under the Jones act. As a student and Cadet at New York Maritime, this would not only hinder my ability to get a job out of school but for thousands of other students. There are also thousands of jobs that would be lost in American Shipyards, ports and on ships. The few thousands of short term jobs that would be created with the addition of the keystone pipeline does not compare to the tens of thousands of jobs that would be lost to cheap, outsourced labor With the abolishment of the Jones act.
Like · Reply · Jan 22, 2015 8:54pmIsaac Levine · Marine Engineer at Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association - MEBA
I’m glad all the posts here are negative. This would hurt thousands of American sailors and yard workers so that a few people can make more money. Disgusting.
Like · Reply · Jan 22, 2015 8:00amCorrine McCrowell · Tucson, Arizona
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/.../stop-john.../XcXP9vNw
Sign this petition to stop this ridiculousness!
Like · Reply · 1 · Jan 22, 2015 7:52amB. Charles Reynolds
The majority of US exports (by tonnage) are now raw materials instead of finished, or even “value added,” goods. Look to history. Those nations who have had their resources stripped, sent to foreign ports, made into useful things, and sold back to them are what we, today, call third-world nations.
If anything, our cabotage (look it up) laws need to be STRENGTHENED, not weakened by the desires of Mr. McCain and his foreign cronies. The US was built on manufacturing and exporting FINISHED goods, not shipping our materials to foreign factories.
Like · Reply · Jan 21, 2015 8:54pmAndrew Chen · Mate. at Western Towboat Company
This article totally skews presented data. Somebody needs to go back to thier High School Statistics class and review Data Correlation. Apparently the Heritage Foundation “Think Tank” is just a silly mouth piece for a dangerous political agenda. The Jones Act is protectionist. Darn right it is. It protects hundreds of thousands of American blue collar jobs.
Like · Reply · Jan 21, 2015 12:22pmRand Attaway · University of Hawsepipe
Aside from job protection and security, it undermines America’s effectiveness in over seas diplomacy. Food is our biggest export, and our biggest source of leverage in effecting foreign policy-change. Sadly, we do very little of that transportation ourselves, but we don’t have to. By maintaining just the mere presence of a merchant fleet of US flags ships, we 1) ensure stable shipping rates from overseas shipping and 2) eliminate any risk that we may be the one who is brought to bear in the policy-change of others who would deny us shipping service. If you believe that other countries would no…See More
Like · Reply · Jan 19, 2015 12:43pmJonathan Hsieh · Naval War College
How does this article even make sense? The economies of scale are totally different. Ships are made for a specific purpose, trucks are made for another specific purpose. It’s like comparing apples and watermelons.
Like · Reply · Jan 20, 2015 6:52pmAndrew Chen · Mate. at Western Towboat Company
I wonder how those trucks got exported…
Like · Reply · Jan 21, 2015 12:21pmSteven Tarver · Works at Able Bodied Seaman/Tankerman
The details of the proposed changes are extremely vague. There is a lot of competition between American Shipping Companines. The United States Merchant Marine has come a very long way. We have buy far the best safety and enviormental record in the world. US seaman are treated far better by their employers. That is due largely to the Jones Act. American shipping companies are subject to far more regulations than their foreign counterparts. If it was possible for foreign companies to adhere to all these regulations, they wouldn’t be so cheap to do business with. Because of the antipollution laws…See More
Like · Reply · Jan 20, 2015 3:40pmAndrew Hook · Chief Mate at Crowley Petroleum Services- Gulf ATB Division
Speaking of the señor trucks, what do you think carries most of those exported goods overseas once the trucks reach the coast? Last I checked, trucks can’t cross the Atlantic or Pacific unless they’re on a ship
Like · Reply · Jan 20, 2015 11:20amMatt Thomas · Broker at Crowley Maritime Corporation
This article is basically trash and backed by McCain’s plan to push this agenda. Not only is this completely stupid, this way of politics is completely BS and should be illegal to push an amendment onto a bill that is completely unrelated just to get it into law without any discussions or votes from the majority. Makes me hate the way we have built our system although this is only a flaw and even the best things are flawed but needs improvement. This way of law making needs to be addressed before we dig our own graves
Like · Reply · 1 · Jan 20, 2015 9:38amJeff Berthelot
This nation was built and wars were won by steel forged in the US and ships and planes built by the hands of Americans. I am in the International Shipping business and
have been involved in the activation of the MARAD Ready Reserve Fleet during past US conflicts and it was a difficult task to find sufficient qualified and licensed US Merchant Marines to man these vessels which carry equipment, ammunitions, etc. to
our US Troops. We are also involved in the handling of US Flag vessels participating in coastwise Jones Act trade.Abolishing the Jones Act would eliminate our nations US Flag flee…See More
Like · Reply · 4 · Jan 19, 2015 10:37pmMark Hunter
The writer is an idiot. 85% of ships in foreign deployments aren’t acceptable. The bottom line isn’t just mobilizing the military. It’s providing jobs that keep US dollars in the US tax base and provide middle class incomes.
Like · Reply · Jan 18, 2015 9:41pmTyler Hathcote · Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Have you ever met a sailor? I would suggest talking to one… they can explain how the Jones act really works. Unfortunately for us, the us shipbuilding capabilities are negligible compared to the Korean or Chinese yards. However, having worked both us and foreign built ships, I can say that American ships are a much better product. Unless major changes are made, if the Jones act is repealed, it spells almost certain death for American shipping. Which is the most significant aspect of a functional economy in my opinion.
Like · Reply · Jan 17, 2015 9:53pmScotty Trosclair · Larose, Louisiana
The last thing we need is some foreign national not knowing the area pushing 50 regulation bunker oil barges for a forign company down the Upper Mississippi River to hit a bridge and split open and loose his oil. It then covers all the way down the river and shuts down everything. They fold up and don’t clean up and don’t care because it’s not their country and we have to deal with it. Then we have a shut down river, oil everywhere, tons of unemployed, and shortages of everything. Yes Mr Riley and Mr Slattery you guys have an awesome idea. I hope when it happens it hits you the hardest and it’s in your back yard!
Like · Reply · 3 · Jan 17, 2015 8:04amVictor Rodeia · Works at Iron Order MC
The Jones act keeps the American citizens in the maritime industry employed as well as paid well to survive the economic struggles in today’s economy. By eliminating the jones act you sell out your fellow Americans who have worked years in your shipping trade and sell to the highest bidder. John McCain is only looking to fill his own pockets and blow hole in his fellow American faces. These are not facts. They are twisted around. By removing this act you are not benefiting anyone but large corporation employers. So no if you want to steal Americans jobs for your own profit gain then please give up your American citizenship and go somewhere else. People like you are the reason this economy is the way it is.
Like · Reply · 4 · Jan 17, 2015 7:49amkel.ct18
Ug. This moron assumes that the money saved by sacrificing 400,000 jobs will be passed on to consumers. Um, no. It will be shown to shareholders and pocketed as additional profit. This serves no one but corporate interests.
Like · Reply · 4 · Jan 16, 2015 10:20pmBobby Casey
Please Read the Jones act fully it is the foundation of mariners protection for proper staffing , and the requirement of well trained , credentialed mariners , this is another attack on the American working man , ATB units can carry as much. As some ships but because they push the limits on regulating they do it with 1/3 of crew , adding workload to eager Mariners who want to earn an honest living ! There Are genuine fears that if repealed the standard of qualified personnel would be lower so they can flood the work force and drive the wage down ! If this happens and there is an increase in Damages , injuries , and God forbid Fatalities , who is responsible ? The Captains who you chopped off at the knees with the very tools he needs to be effective ? Let’s not even talk about collisions and spills ! We need the Jones Act to protect our safety
Like · Reply · Jan 16, 2015 9:28pmGreg Marsh · Engineer at Crowley Maritime
So let’s look at this in another context. You do away with the Jones act you will have entire ship building communities, ship repair, tugs companies, license training school’s, along with the other businesses that help support them dry up. You want trickle down economics here is trickle down unemployment.
Like · Reply · 3 · Jan 16, 2015 9:07pmDaniel Van Sciver
Only a few will profit from this and many americans will become unemployed. This will lead to mass chaos in our country and many upset American families. If you ever repeal the Jones act you will only destroy the lives of the Americans who need jobs. Do all americans a favor and outsource yourself. Step down and let a real man do the job for our American people. Stop outsourcing american jobs.
Like · Reply · 9 · Jan 16, 2015 5:59pmElling Steinsvik · Deck/Engineer at Manson Construction Co
This is a useless article from a useless author who supports a useless politician… poor American…
Like · Reply · 5 · Jan 16, 2015 5:48pmBrad Coleman · Project Manager/ Sales Consultant at Georgia Construction
These are not facts. Your moral compass is so far out of wack on what’s good for America, how do you even hold a job?!?!?
Like · Reply · 4 · Jan 16, 2015 5:23pmScott Tomlinson · Detroit, Michigan
If you think doing away with the Jones Act would be good for competition you have no clue of the reality of the situation.
Like · Reply · 8 · Jan 16, 2015 4:55pmDean Walker · Captain at Higman Marine
Where is this guy getting his “facts”? What an idiot!
Like · Reply · Jan 16, 2015 4:46pmRand Attaway · University of Hawsepipe
Who are these American consumers of which you speak? We’ve been steadily outsourcing american jobs in the name economic viability over the past 3 decades, with no end in site. By supporting Senator McCain’s proposal to eliminate the Jones act, you are readily dismissing the livelihood of countless shoreside and seagoing jobs, along with all of the businesses that support these indistries. Protectionist? Damn straight it is, if for no other reason than to keep jobs in this country. How secure in our jobs are any us in the global market? When the Tech industry fled overseas, many of looked at ou…See More
Like · Reply · 15 · Jan 16, 2015 4:15pm
I would like to invite each and every one of these fine people to join gCaptain…good Americans, all of em!
Sir I’m a published author and I’ve been interviewed on TV many times I think I know more about the Jones Act than you do. If you knew all the facts like I do you would know repealing is the right thing. If the companies hire foreign seamen then we would require them to obtain a TWIC. Now if you don’t refrain from speaking about me in such a rude manner you may force my hand…
Time to load up on the popcorn!
Max Harberger has a M.A. In FICTION writing from a respected state university (and a law degree from a disrespected correspondence school). Max is a published author of a couple of swashbuckling self-promoting FICTION books inspired by his brief adventures as the instant captain of a little foreign flag tramper in the Caribbean.
He is reportedly a ship and aircraft repo-man.
Max claims to own and operate the “Hardberger Law Firm”, yet there is no listing for the Hardberger Law Firm in the Martindale-Hubble legal directory. Only a listing for an apparent sole practioner named Florian Max Hardberger for whom there is no peer review rating. The Hardbeger Law Firm has a listed address of 5519 Rainbow Circle, Santa Rosa, California which appears to be a small apartment house in a residential neighborhood.
Whatever Max’s qualifications to comment on the economic impact of the Jones Act, or its repeal, might be, they are not overly apparent.
No wonder, that’s all from the Heritage foundation! Doesn’t anyone realize that some people in this nation, in the effort to privatize and deregulate anything they can, are basically trying to kill off the American Mariner.
[QUOTE=LI_Domer;166706]No wonder, that’s all from the Heritage foundation! Doesn’t anyone realize that some people in this nation, in the effort to privatize and deregulate anything they can, are basically trying to kill off the American Mariner.[/QUOTE]
for these Libertarians, it’s far more than just killing off American mariners…it’s to kill America by sucking the lifeblood from its body and funnel that blood into the veins of the very wealthy and powerful.
Joel the tugboat guy has a good column, its normally something about safety. Dont pick on him.
yes, like don’t wear sunglasses when steering at night or eat raw chicken.
I like the fluff Workboat articles about boats, gear and shipyards. Some of the regulatory articles are superficial, but basically ok. I had not given much thought to the quality of Workboat one way or the other.
I suppose we should do some research into the other Workboat writers. I know (or knew) two of them (not going to say which two). One is a bullshit artist, but his column is ok. The other guy is for real, but I have not noticed his work in a while. I do not know, or have any opinion on, Joel, but I’ve met a couple guys who know him and don’t like him at all, not that that means much.
I have a lot less respect for Workboat now. I cannot believe how dumb their management is.
[QUOTE=tugsailor;166713]I like the fluff Workboat articles about boats, gear and shipyards. Some of the regulatory articles are superficial, but basically ok. I had not given much thought to the quality of Workboat one way or the other.
I suppose we should do some research into the other Workboat writers. I know (or knew) two of them (not going to say which two). One is a bullshit artist, but his column is ok. The other guy is for real, but I have not noticed his work in a while. I do not know, or have any opinion on, Joel, but I’ve met a couple guys who know him and don’t like him at all, not that that means much.
I have a lot less respect for Workboat now. I cannot believe how dumb their management is.[/QUOTE]
Joel doesn’t suffer fools gladly but he’s a stand-up guy and he knows his shit. He has done a lot for working mariners.
[QUOTE=tugsailor;166713]I have a lot less respect for Workboat now. I cannot believe how dumb their management is.[/QUOTE]
I never quite realized what an absolutely PATHETIC bunch write for them!
[QUOTE=lm1883;166726]The Heritage Foundation is nothing close to Libertarian.[/QUOTE]
sorry, which is the big Libertarian bunch we hear nonsense from often?
[QUOTE=c.captain;166727]sorry, which is the big Libertarian bunch we hear nonsense from often?[/QUOTE]
nevermind, looking it up and found Cato Institute. You are correct that Heritage is one of the big mouthpieces for trickle down and deregulation. Obviously Max Hardcarbuncle is a sycophant disciple of this bunch.